OOC INFORMATION Player: Simme Age: 22 Personal Journal:simme Contact Info:ESimme
IC INFORMATION Character's Name: Minako Arisato Age: 17 Canon:Persona 3 Canon Point: July 31, 2009: post-trip to Yakushima Island, just before the trip to Inaba Species: Human Gender: Female Orientation: For the purpose of the question, I'd say bi. Although she's straighter than not, she would have no objection on principle to being placed with a husband or a wife. She can be pretty much as intimate with girls as with guys (Mitsuru, run away with me!). In-game, she has options to have a few straight romances, one girl-robot basically-romance, some suggestive social links, and then whatever being a creepy shotacon counts as.
History:Megami Tensei wiki entry, and, for history, male protagonist, as their histories are the same. Appearance:see here. Personality: Minako's personality falls pretty neatly in two overall parts, which you might frame as the trivial and the serious: her outward sociability and her internal determination. Her outward personality is likable, level-headed, and gregarious, and it’s also "big," so to speak. She's so active, so externally focused, that the majority of her time is spent on things that are less about her than about spending time with and helping others. In comparison, we get only a few glimpses of how she feels or what she thinks, and they tend to be almost standard protagonist boilerplate. They generally demonstrate that she has a fierce drive that pushes her to succeed at the important task in front of her, and to do so as completely as possible, making sacrifices if necessary. But this isn’t quite enough of an explanation—what is it that makes her so determined? As the protagonist, Minako’s actions represent the main theme of Persona 3, that the world is worth appreciating; and in doing so (like many characters in this series) her 'truest personality' reflects her (final) Persona, Messiah.
On the outside, then, she's an archetypal popular high school girl, good-natured, good-looking, and cheery, without being grating or intimidating (for most people, anyway). People tend to feel comfortable around her, and vice versa, so she makes friends easily, among many different kinds of people--not only peers of all kinds, but also more outre figures like drunken monks, slightly crazed businessmen, and dying writers. Along with that, she's highly social, inquisitive, and empathetic, asking after others' problems and helping them out. She participates in many activities, from sports to student council, and she seems equally enthusiastic about them all. Most of all, she's effective at being a leader: at making suggestions, corralling opinions, working in teams, reaching out to people, and taking the initiative.
That side of her is simple enough. Some parts of it, though, demonstrate her pragmatism, too. She couldn’t be socially successful if she weren’t an adaptable creature. Indeed, her flexibility is one of her main assets (I imagine it would be one in multiple ways ). She can appear to be many things to many people, from that simple base of a friendly high school girl, and that’s how she gets them to open up and become close with her: by molding herself, to some extent, to what a person demands or needs. This flexibility is mirrored in her Persona powers by her Wild Card ability, which allows her to use multiple Personas, just as she uses multiple personas in real life. In some sense, it’s a weakness, too: it leaves her closer to others than they can be to her, if you will. It makes it seem that she has no single “her” Persona, unlike the others. She'll say what she thinks she should to keep or gain a friend, rather than being as honest as she can be--perhaps a normal trait, but one which she applies to a lot of people. She wants to have it all as much as possible, and sometimes that does tip over into situations that might hurt people: for example, she also doesn't think that there's a problem with having multiple relationships that are at least somewhat intimate or romantic in nature. In order to have achieved as much as she has--high test scores, all the friends, the world-saving thing--she has to think of her time as tightly rationed, and she "manages" her friendships accordingly.
All this is not to say she doesn’t care about them genuinely, but rather that there are practical reasons that she goes out of her way to make (genuine) friends. For Minako, close relationships are directly linked to her Persona power. Power, and the Persona power in particular, is not something she takes lightly. It’s just as Igor tells her: “you are destined to hone your unique ability.” Social links are a part of her overall power, and, partly because the power she possesses is important to the world, she feels obligated to develop and strengthen it. She would undoubtedly be friendly without this burden—but maybe she wouldn’t go quite as far as out of her way to meet different people as she does.
However, despite the surface openness and extroversion, Minako keeps her personal thoughts, decisions, and issues very much to herself. For example, when Ryoji offers the team a choice over whether to kill him or not (and thereby avert a seemingly hopeless fight), everyone else can voice their thoughts, but she keeps hers to herself. She's rarely seenbeing consoled by anyone else; she simply doesn't talk much about her own problems, not even to someone like Yukari, who's perhaps her best friend, nor to any of the love interests. (Yukari notices it, too: she feels embarrassed after complaining to Minako about her late father, since Minako's parents are dead, too--and Minako barely ever says a word about it, let alone a complaint.) This insularity is a bit of a clue that that gregarious outward personality finds its source partly in her internal determination—that is, the responsibility she accepted to cultivate her power and use it wisely also means she has to take burdens onto herself if necessary. Notably, it’s her responsibility, and she takes it on, albeit supported by her social links and other resources, in the end, by herself. It's a balancing act: on the one hand, the support that she needs to make it there, and on the other, the burden she ultimately bears herself.
Her other primary attributes stem from this determination, too: her willpower and courage in immediately accepting the job of fighting Shadows and joining SEES; her confidence in dealing with people of all types; her stubbornness (out-stubborning even the notoriously stubborn Shinjiro is no mean feat); her lack of embarrassment where other girls blush and stammer; and her ability to see things through to the end. This is not a girl who drops her diet after one week, and that can be both a strength and a weakness. Her being a fierce competitor can tip over into being a perfectionist. Her stubbornness can tip over into her taking on excessively difficult challenges, like not dissuading Yukari from going to a rough part of town for an investigation. She likes to win in life--not necessarily in a begrudging way, as she isn't jealous of someone like Mitsuru, who has a better position and is perhaps even more intelligent, but rather, in that she doesn't like to have to quit when an obstacle comes up.
Why, then, does she care so much and have so much determination? There are multiple reasons on the surface. Part of it is that she signed a contract which starkly outlines her responsibility and desire—“you, who wish to safeguard the future,”—but that's not all of it: it still holds through when she’s promised by Ryoji, who should know, that there is no future to protect. Part of it is the value she places on, and the support she gets from, the friendships (and more) that she makes over the time she spends at Gekkoukan, but that's not all of it either. After all, those friendships haven't been around all that long, and it's hard to imagine that it's the first time that someone like her had close friends; and even a Minako who doesn't maximize her social links can technically make it through the game. Part of it is that there seems like there's no other choice, but the game constantly emphasizes that (in-world, at least) she does have a choice. In fact, the game’s plot is all about humans who, despite or through their free will, are so apathetic and depressed that they secretly hope for the end of the world, and thereby bring it upon themselves.
That, I think, is the crucial point; the game makes an implicit comparison between these hopeless masses and Minako’s character, and a further, more explicit comparison with the Christian mythology. From the Messiah persona to the crucified imagery of her as the Great Seal, there’s a reason why people joke about “Persona Jesus”; those kinds of parallels between the protagonist and a Christ figure are no accident, so the comparison is, while unusual, appropriate. The Biblical quote goes that God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that others could have eternal life, and that’s the key: she loves the world, and she represents the exact opposite of the Apathy Syndrome. (They say strong love is sometimes close to strong hate, after all—but both are equally opposed to apathy.)
The game depicts this whole process as a difficult one, and not one that she undergoes without hesitating: there's a whole month dedicated to her deciding whether to give up the seemingly hopeless fight or struggle on. Of course consigning herself to the equivalent of death and struggle wouldn't be an easy thing to do, but, being who she is, she would never have taken another course. Her primary internal character trait, then, is that she loves the world, both externally (embracing all those people, sampling all those activities) and internally (through this sacrifice). Through her action, the Apathy Syndrome is lifted—people regain their hope, people can return to loving the world, too—and that's something which she finds worth the price. Let’s not get too crazy, though: from her canon point, this hasn't happened yet. It's only in extremity that this part of her really appears, even though it lies under the surface of her actions. The vast majority of the time, Minako is just your ordinary happy-go-lucky, energetic, Persona-wielding badass high schooler.
Abilities: From her canon point, she's a pretty proficient fighter already (about level 28, to be precise), with a moderately powerful array of Personas and the like, and a fair hand with a naginata. She serves as the field leader of SEES, and thus has a good grasp of tactics, is quick on her feet, and is good at motivating people. She's also a good tennis player, cook, arcade game player, compulsive film-watcher, and eater. Other: Nothing comes to mind.
Third Person: Minako usually woke up with a clear sense of purpose, and this was no different. She rose out of the sea of sleep all in one piece, with a clear sense of purpose--only there was nothing but an unbroken piece of blue infinity to meet the eye.
And so, unusually, a moment's hesitation seized her. Then, she calmly stood. She hadn't realized she was sitting. Without thinking, she already knew her own consciousness was too clear to be a dream. Everything was present: texture, taste, crispness of the air blowing around her, a cool and beautiful breeze. But something was different, subtly different, about every part of it. Something a little airier, more pleasant, sweeter in the smell of the environment. Different sounds of different birds chirping. It was like going to the Velvet Room, somehow: something supernatural, something a little eerie, or, more precisely, something that was from a different field of existence than her own, even though she was the same Minako, some kind of elliptical confluence of realities.
As she stood, sensations started flooding in: grass, something rough and metallic in her hand that wasn't an Evoker. She had been sleeping, hadn't she? But not in this chair. Nothing nearly close enough. She quietly took first one step, then another, as delicately as possible, not wanting to disturb anything. How could this have happened? She took an experimental deep breath. Fresh air flooded into her lungs. There was nothing realer than that feeling.
In a way, she was almost used to these bizarre displaced awakenings by now--it was just the sheer physical reality of it that was unusual. She'd had another visit from Pharos in a dream just last night, but he'd said nothing that would've led her to expect something like this to happen. Visitations of wandering spirits wasn't a surprise; that she was the wandering spirit was the surprise.
She looked around, unsure of whether a second or an hour had passed. There was a car and a house. She was holding a set of keys. If it were a challenge, or an adventure game, the right course of action was clear enough: walk up, be prepared for anything, and put aside doubt for the moment. After all, the moment was all she had to go on right now, and doubt wouldn't do nearly as much good as a bright smile.
OTHER Housing Request?: Nope. Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yes! Would you like your application to be unscreened?: Yes
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minako arisato | persona 3 portable | reserved
Player: Simme
Age: 22
Personal Journal:
Contact Info:
IC INFORMATION
Character's Name: Minako Arisato
Age: 17
Canon: Persona 3
Canon Point: July 31, 2009: post-trip to Yakushima Island, just before the trip to Inaba
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Orientation: For the purpose of the question, I'd say bi. Although she's straighter than not, she would have no objection on principle to being placed with a husband or a wife. She can be pretty much as intimate with girls as with guys (Mitsuru, run away with me!). In-game, she has options to have a few straight romances, one girl-robot basically-romance, some suggestive social links, and then whatever being a creepy shotacon counts as.
History: Megami Tensei wiki entry, and, for history, male protagonist, as their histories are the same.
Appearance: see here.
Personality: Minako's personality falls pretty neatly in two overall parts, which you might frame as the trivial and the serious: her outward sociability and her internal determination. Her outward personality is likable, level-headed, and gregarious, and it’s also "big," so to speak. She's so active, so externally focused, that the majority of her time is spent on things that are less about her than about spending time with and helping others. In comparison, we get only a few glimpses of how she feels or what she thinks, and they tend to be almost standard protagonist boilerplate. They generally demonstrate that she has a fierce drive that pushes her to succeed at the important task in front of her, and to do so as completely as possible, making sacrifices if necessary. But this isn’t quite enough of an explanation—what is it that makes her so determined? As the protagonist, Minako’s actions represent the main theme of Persona 3, that the world is worth appreciating; and in doing so (like many characters in this series) her 'truest personality' reflects her (final) Persona, Messiah.
On the outside, then, she's an archetypal popular high school girl, good-natured, good-looking, and cheery, without being grating or intimidating (for most people, anyway). People tend to feel comfortable around her, and vice versa, so she makes friends easily, among many different kinds of people--not only peers of all kinds, but also more outre figures like drunken monks, slightly crazed businessmen, and dying writers. Along with that, she's highly social, inquisitive, and empathetic, asking after others' problems and helping them out. She participates in many activities, from sports to student council, and she seems equally enthusiastic about them all. Most of all, she's effective at being a leader: at making suggestions, corralling opinions, working in teams, reaching out to people, and taking the initiative.
That side of her is simple enough. Some parts of it, though, demonstrate her pragmatism, too. She couldn’t be socially successful if she weren’t an adaptable creature. Indeed, her flexibility is one of her main assets (I imagine it would be one in multiple ways ). She can appear to be many things to many people, from that simple base of a friendly high school girl, and that’s how she gets them to open up and become close with her: by molding herself, to some extent, to what a person demands or needs. This flexibility is mirrored in her Persona powers by her Wild Card ability, which allows her to use multiple Personas, just as she uses multiple personas in real life. In some sense, it’s a weakness, too: it leaves her closer to others than they can be to her, if you will. It makes it seem that she has no single “her” Persona, unlike the others. She'll say what she thinks she should to keep or gain a friend, rather than being as honest as she can be--perhaps a normal trait, but one which she applies to a lot of people. She wants to have it all as much as possible, and sometimes that does tip over into situations that might hurt people: for example, she also doesn't think that there's a problem with having multiple relationships that are at least somewhat intimate or romantic in nature. In order to have achieved as much as she has--high test scores, all the friends, the world-saving thing--she has to think of her time as tightly rationed, and she "manages" her friendships accordingly.
All this is not to say she doesn’t care about them genuinely, but rather that there are practical reasons that she goes out of her way to make (genuine) friends. For Minako, close relationships are directly linked to her Persona power. Power, and the Persona power in particular, is not something she takes lightly. It’s just as Igor tells her: “you are destined to hone your unique ability.” Social links are a part of her overall power, and, partly because the power she possesses is important to the world, she feels obligated to develop and strengthen it. She would undoubtedly be friendly without this burden—but maybe she wouldn’t go quite as far as out of her way to meet different people as she does.
However, despite the surface openness and extroversion, Minako keeps her personal thoughts, decisions, and issues very much to herself. For example, when Ryoji offers the team a choice over whether to kill him or not (and thereby avert a seemingly hopeless fight), everyone else can voice their thoughts, but she keeps hers to herself. She's rarely seenbeing consoled by anyone else; she simply doesn't talk much about her own problems, not even to someone like Yukari, who's perhaps her best friend, nor to any of the love interests. (Yukari notices it, too: she feels embarrassed after complaining to Minako about her late father, since Minako's parents are dead, too--and Minako barely ever says a word about it, let alone a complaint.) This insularity is a bit of a clue that that gregarious outward personality finds its source partly in her internal determination—that is, the responsibility she accepted to cultivate her power and use it wisely also means she has to take burdens onto herself if necessary. Notably, it’s her responsibility, and she takes it on, albeit supported by her social links and other resources, in the end, by herself. It's a balancing act: on the one hand, the support that she needs to make it there, and on the other, the burden she ultimately bears herself.
Her other primary attributes stem from this determination, too: her willpower and courage in immediately accepting the job of fighting Shadows and joining SEES; her confidence in dealing with people of all types; her stubbornness (out-stubborning even the notoriously stubborn Shinjiro is no mean feat); her lack of embarrassment where other girls blush and stammer; and her ability to see things through to the end. This is not a girl who drops her diet after one week, and that can be both a strength and a weakness. Her being a fierce competitor can tip over into being a perfectionist. Her stubbornness can tip over into her taking on excessively difficult challenges, like not dissuading Yukari from going to a rough part of town for an investigation. She likes to win in life--not necessarily in a begrudging way, as she isn't jealous of someone like Mitsuru, who has a better position and is perhaps even more intelligent, but rather, in that she doesn't like to have to quit when an obstacle comes up.
Why, then, does she care so much and have so much determination? There are multiple reasons on the surface. Part of it is that she signed a contract which starkly outlines her responsibility and desire—“you, who wish to safeguard the future,”—but that's not all of it: it still holds through when she’s promised by Ryoji, who should know, that there is no future to protect. Part of it is the value she places on, and the support she gets from, the friendships (and more) that she makes over the time she spends at Gekkoukan, but that's not all of it either. After all, those friendships haven't been around all that long, and it's hard to imagine that it's the first time that someone like her had close friends; and even a Minako who doesn't maximize her social links can technically make it through the game. Part of it is that there seems like there's no other choice, but the game constantly emphasizes that (in-world, at least) she does have a choice. In fact, the game’s plot is all about humans who, despite or through their free will, are so apathetic and depressed that they secretly hope for the end of the world, and thereby bring it upon themselves.
That, I think, is the crucial point; the game makes an implicit comparison between these hopeless masses and Minako’s character, and a further, more explicit comparison with the Christian mythology. From the Messiah persona to the crucified imagery of her as the Great Seal, there’s a reason why people joke about “Persona Jesus”; those kinds of parallels between the protagonist and a Christ figure are no accident, so the comparison is, while unusual, appropriate. The Biblical quote goes that God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that others could have eternal life, and that’s the key: she loves the world, and she represents the exact opposite of the Apathy Syndrome. (They say strong love is sometimes close to strong hate, after all—but both are equally opposed to apathy.)
The game depicts this whole process as a difficult one, and not one that she undergoes without hesitating: there's a whole month dedicated to her deciding whether to give up the seemingly hopeless fight or struggle on. Of course consigning herself to the equivalent of death and struggle wouldn't be an easy thing to do, but, being who she is, she would never have taken another course. Her primary internal character trait, then, is that she loves the world, both externally (embracing all those people, sampling all those activities) and internally (through this sacrifice). Through her action, the Apathy Syndrome is lifted—people regain their hope, people can return to loving the world, too—and that's something which she finds worth the price.
Let’s not get too crazy, though: from her canon point, this hasn't happened yet. It's only in extremity that this part of her really appears, even though it lies under the surface of her actions. The vast majority of the time, Minako is just your ordinary happy-go-lucky, energetic, Persona-wielding badass high schooler.
Abilities: From her canon point, she's a pretty proficient fighter already (about level 28, to be precise), with a moderately powerful array of Personas and the like, and a fair hand with a naginata. She serves as the field leader of SEES, and thus has a good grasp of tactics, is quick on her feet, and is good at motivating people. She's also a good tennis player, cook, arcade game player, compulsive film-watcher, and eater.
Other: Nothing comes to mind.
SAMPLES
First Person: link
Third Person: Minako usually woke up with a clear sense of purpose, and this was no different. She rose out of the sea of sleep all in one piece, with a clear sense of purpose--only there was nothing but an unbroken piece of blue infinity to meet the eye.
And so, unusually, a moment's hesitation seized her. Then, she calmly stood. She hadn't realized she was sitting. Without thinking, she already knew her own consciousness was too clear to be a dream. Everything was present: texture, taste, crispness of the air blowing around her, a cool and beautiful breeze. But something was different, subtly different, about every part of it. Something a little airier, more pleasant, sweeter in the smell of the environment. Different sounds of different birds chirping. It was like going to the Velvet Room, somehow: something supernatural, something a little eerie, or, more precisely, something that was from a different field of existence than her own, even though she was the same Minako, some kind of elliptical confluence of realities.
As she stood, sensations started flooding in: grass, something rough and metallic in her hand that wasn't an Evoker. She had been sleeping, hadn't she? But not in this chair. Nothing nearly close enough. She quietly took first one step, then another, as delicately as possible, not wanting to disturb anything. How could this have happened? She took an experimental deep breath. Fresh air flooded into her lungs. There was nothing realer than that feeling.
In a way, she was almost used to these bizarre displaced awakenings by now--it was just the sheer physical reality of it that was unusual. She'd had another visit from Pharos in a dream just last night, but he'd said nothing that would've led her to expect something like this to happen. Visitations of wandering spirits wasn't a surprise; that she was the wandering spirit was the surprise.
She looked around, unsure of whether a second or an hour had passed. There was a car and a house. She was holding a set of keys. If it were a challenge, or an adventure game, the right course of action was clear enough: walk up, be prepared for anything, and put aside doubt for the moment. After all, the moment was all she had to go on right now, and doubt wouldn't do nearly as much good as a bright smile.
OTHER
Housing Request?: Nope.
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yes!
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: Yes