I just got to the part of Persona 5 where Haru’s Persona awakens, and I honestly find it fascinating that her persona is Milady and that the link between them, the reason her persona takes that form, is explicitly “betrayal.”
Like, yes, it’s the Edgy Outsider Persona Game and everyone has Edgy Outlaw Personas, but up to this point they haven’t really come off like the game was making a bold statement by linking these fictional/historical personages to their protagonists. Arsene Lupin was always the protagonist of his stories, pirates have been romanticized for ages, blah blah blah. But Milady is very much one of the villains of Three Musketeers; there are absolutely people (like me!) who like her, but you’re clearly not supposed to. She’s cold and ruthless, she’s out for herself, she’s an inveterate backstabber. This being the case, you’d expect the comparison of Haru’s betrayal of her father to Milady’s betrayals to come off as criticism of Haru, but… it really doesn’t. Haru’s decision to join the Phantom Thieves in taking down her father is portrayed as unquestionably the morally correct decision. So by portraying it in this way while also referring to it as a betrayal and comparing it to the actions of Milady, the game makes the argument that betrayal isn’t inherently a negative thing–some people just don’t deserve your loyalty. Which I just think is a fascinating way to frame that.
Hearing P3-5′s director say he never successfully formed a friendship with a woman in his whole life was definitely an “I understand everything now” moment for me, regarding his body of work.
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