Why The Phantom Thieves Did Nothing Wrong
Warning: Late-game spoilers for Persona 5 follow.
Persona 5 is one of my favorite games of all time, being a deep RPG with many strong points, among them its fascinating story. I could go into more detail about all the things it gets right, but I will dedicate this essay to one part of the story that has always bothered me.
The game is all about the abuse of power, with the Phantom Thieves targeting corrupt adults who are causing problems for others by stealing their desires and forcing them to confess their crimes. As such, it would seem like a natural step to question whether the Phantom Thieves could potentially go down the wrong path, especially given their morally questionable methods.
That question ends up being brought up in-story after the Thieves' fifth major heist. Their target is Kunikazu Okumura, the CEO of Big Bang Burger, who is responsible for abusing his employees and forcing his daughter into an arranged marriage for his personal gain. Despite being respected by many in the business world, Okumura has many critics, and eventually ends up being voted to the top of the Phantom Thieves' official website's poll.
Unfortunately, when the Phantom Thieves steal his heart, Okumura undergoes a fatal "mental shutdown" caused by some of his associates, who intend to frame the Phantom Thieves for his murder. It is later revealed that the Phantom Thieves' rise in popularity had been the result of a conspiracy's machinations, since they had, among other things, hacked into the website and forced Okumura to the top ranking. The Phantom Thieves are then forced to acknowledge that they lost their way, and became more concerned about their fame than about doing the right thing.
This is all well and good, but it hinges on a false assumption- that the Phantom Thieves would not have targeted Okumura if not for the Conspiracy rigging the poll. There are three myths associated with this, which I will address in turn.
Myth: The demand for changing Okumura's heart was entirely artificial
Fact: Throughout the months of September and October, you can find various news stories and gossip about people who hated Okumura and wanted to see the Phantom Thieves target him. There are those who sing his praises, like with Kamoshida and Madarame, but many others who oppose him, like the protesters mentioned on the news in the middle of September. Several Shujin students are also rather excited about taking down Okumura, so many people did want to change Okumura's heart.
Obviously, this is not sufficient justification for the Phantom Thieves. After all, in order to change someone's heart, they must have proof of the wrongdoing, and said wrongdoing must be serious enough for them to make the change. As for whether the popular demand motivated the Phantom Thieves this time, this leads us to the next point.
Myth: The Phantom Thieves were overly concerned with fame
Fact: When the Phantom Thieves had their first discussion of whether to change Okumura's heart on September 13, they failed to reach anywhere near the unanimous approval required for a change of heart. While the main character remained silent for much of the conversation, most of the Phantom Thieves had strong reservations about it, with Yusuke in particular expressing concern about the Phantom Thieves "fad," and only Ryuji and Morgana were in favor. Even Ryuji, who later admitted that he had lost sight of his original goal, quickly backed down after realizing that the majority was against him, leading to his feud with Morgana, and Morgana's temporarily leaving the group (which is another story entirely).
At this point, the Phantom Thieves mostly dropped the subject of Okumura, and mainly focused on bringing Morgana back. Their initial foray into Okumura's Palace was solely motivated by the desire to bring the wayward Morgana back into the fold, and they only committed to stealing his heart after learning that Haru would soon be forced to move in with her fiance, a Diet member's son, in what would be a loveless and abusive marriage. The Phantom Thieves also sought to investigate whether Okumura was connected to several mental shutdown incidents, and while they did not find the proof that they wanted, he was guilty of several crimes that warranted taking his heart (see the next section). In the end, Makoto concludes that while she has her doubts, Haru's life will be ruined unless the Phantom Thieves steal Okumura's heart.
It is also worth noting that even though the Phantom Thieves sought to change the hearts of high-profile targets, this had a justifiable motivation. One of their goals was to give people courage to act against those in power, since the founding members were painfully aware of how most of Shujin Academy simply stood by and let Kamoshida do as he pleased. One could argue that they lost sight of their original purposes and compromised their principles, but that leads us to the question of whether Okumura deserved a change of heart.
Myth: Okumura would not have been targeted if not for his ranking on the Phan-Site.
Fact: Okumura was responsible for a great deal of suffering and even death. While one can argue that the Phantom Thieves should not steal anyone's hearts, Okumura's crimes were comparable to those of the other major targets, if not even worse than some of them. I shall review each of Okumura's three major misdeeds one by one.
Okumura's first offense is unethical business practices- ignoring safety, forcing his employees to work unpaid overtime and generally viewing them as disposable tools. The cognitive versions of his employees that appear in his palace, which are representative of how he views them in reality, appear as robot workers who are fanatically loyal to him, willing to fight and sacrifice their lives for him, and ultimately being burned as fuel. Haru is able to confirm that some of the abuses take place in real life, as she likens the factory section of the space station to a bun factory she once visited.
One could hypothetically argue that all this is for the good of the company, but Okumura sees even the company as a stepping stone. The "Escape to Utopia" plan referenced in his Palace, which will end with his escape and the self-destruction of his Palace, represents his desire to become a politician and attain even greater power, as well as discard Okumura Foods once it is no longer useful.
Okumura's second offense is his poor treatment of his daughter Haru, mainly marrying her off to Sugimura, the lecherous and abusive son of a Diet member, in exchange for his personal gain. Haru personally admits that getting out of this marriage is her main reason for wanting to change her father's heart (if she changed her fiance's heart, her father would merely try again).
The worst part about the arranged marriage is that Okumura knows full well what kind of person his would-be son-in-law is. The cognitive version of Sugimura that appears in the Palace is almost indistinguishable from his actual self, at least until he turns into a robot (symbolic of how Okumura sees Sugimura as yet another pawn to use for his own benefit. Even more damning, when Cognitive Sugimura complains that Haru has been compromised, Shadow Okumura(Okumura's repressed true self) offers to let Sugimura take Haru as a mistress as long as he holds up his end of the deal. This causes Haru to realize that her father is a selfish man who sees his daughter as a tool, and she later says that she "saw no remorse" in his heart.
As if this were not bad enough, The Royal version adds a phase to Shadow Okumura's boss fight in which he summons a cognitive version of Haru who is a willing slave who sacrifices herself for him. In the original game, Morgana had warned Haru that she would be better off not knowing why she had not encountered her cognitive self in the Palace, and with this, you can see that Morgana was right.
Okumura's third offense is being responsible for many mental shutdowns, which resulted in innocent people dying and his competitors losing business. At the time they were considering stealing his heart in the middle of November, the Phantom Thieves ultimately realize that he benefited from many of the mental shutdowns that showed up on the news, and Makoto's sister Sae was able to make the connection between Okumura and the mental shutdowns. While Okumura was not the perpetrator, he did request that his enemies be given mental shutdowns to hinder his competition, making him responsible for more than a few deaths, thereby resulting in Okumura having greater number of victims than the previous targets.
Each of these crimes is, by itself, enough reason for the Phantom Thieves to target Okumura, so the Phantom Thieves had ample justification for stealing his heart.
In conclusion, the decision to steal Okumura's heart had disastrous consequences for the Phantom Thieves, but that did not mean that it was fundamentally the wrong decision, or that it was made for the wrong reasons. Perhaps a more accurate lesson for the Phantom Thieves to learn is that actions made for good intentions do not always have good consequences, and that their changes of heart do not always change people's lives for the better. Support for that idea can be found in that Yusuke becomes even more ostracized at school after his mentor Madarame's crimes are exposed, Hifumi is forced to realize that she did not truly earn her success at shogi, and stealing Shido's heart ultimately failed to change the outcome of the election. Perhaps that could have been a better way of showing that the Phantom Thieves are not always right, one that would have fit with the game's themes.
Persona 5 is one of my favorite games of all time, being a deep RPG with many strong points, among them its fascinating story. I could go into more detail about all the things it gets right, but I will dedicate this essay to one part of the story that has always bothered me.
The game is all about the abuse of power, with the Phantom Thieves targeting corrupt adults who are causing problems for others by stealing their desires and forcing them to confess their crimes. As such, it would seem like a natural step to question whether the Phantom Thieves could potentially go down the wrong path, especially given their morally questionable methods.
That question ends up being brought up in-story after the Thieves' fifth major heist. Their target is Kunikazu Okumura, the CEO of Big Bang Burger, who is responsible for abusing his employees and forcing his daughter into an arranged marriage for his personal gain. Despite being respected by many in the business world, Okumura has many critics, and eventually ends up being voted to the top of the Phantom Thieves' official website's poll.
Unfortunately, when the Phantom Thieves steal his heart, Okumura undergoes a fatal "mental shutdown" caused by some of his associates, who intend to frame the Phantom Thieves for his murder. It is later revealed that the Phantom Thieves' rise in popularity had been the result of a conspiracy's machinations, since they had, among other things, hacked into the website and forced Okumura to the top ranking. The Phantom Thieves are then forced to acknowledge that they lost their way, and became more concerned about their fame than about doing the right thing.
This is all well and good, but it hinges on a false assumption- that the Phantom Thieves would not have targeted Okumura if not for the Conspiracy rigging the poll. There are three myths associated with this, which I will address in turn.
Myth: The demand for changing Okumura's heart was entirely artificial
Fact: Throughout the months of September and October, you can find various news stories and gossip about people who hated Okumura and wanted to see the Phantom Thieves target him. There are those who sing his praises, like with Kamoshida and Madarame, but many others who oppose him, like the protesters mentioned on the news in the middle of September. Several Shujin students are also rather excited about taking down Okumura, so many people did want to change Okumura's heart.
Obviously, this is not sufficient justification for the Phantom Thieves. After all, in order to change someone's heart, they must have proof of the wrongdoing, and said wrongdoing must be serious enough for them to make the change. As for whether the popular demand motivated the Phantom Thieves this time, this leads us to the next point.
Myth: The Phantom Thieves were overly concerned with fame
Fact: When the Phantom Thieves had their first discussion of whether to change Okumura's heart on September 13, they failed to reach anywhere near the unanimous approval required for a change of heart. While the main character remained silent for much of the conversation, most of the Phantom Thieves had strong reservations about it, with Yusuke in particular expressing concern about the Phantom Thieves "fad," and only Ryuji and Morgana were in favor. Even Ryuji, who later admitted that he had lost sight of his original goal, quickly backed down after realizing that the majority was against him, leading to his feud with Morgana, and Morgana's temporarily leaving the group (which is another story entirely).
At this point, the Phantom Thieves mostly dropped the subject of Okumura, and mainly focused on bringing Morgana back. Their initial foray into Okumura's Palace was solely motivated by the desire to bring the wayward Morgana back into the fold, and they only committed to stealing his heart after learning that Haru would soon be forced to move in with her fiance, a Diet member's son, in what would be a loveless and abusive marriage. The Phantom Thieves also sought to investigate whether Okumura was connected to several mental shutdown incidents, and while they did not find the proof that they wanted, he was guilty of several crimes that warranted taking his heart (see the next section). In the end, Makoto concludes that while she has her doubts, Haru's life will be ruined unless the Phantom Thieves steal Okumura's heart.
It is also worth noting that even though the Phantom Thieves sought to change the hearts of high-profile targets, this had a justifiable motivation. One of their goals was to give people courage to act against those in power, since the founding members were painfully aware of how most of Shujin Academy simply stood by and let Kamoshida do as he pleased. One could argue that they lost sight of their original purposes and compromised their principles, but that leads us to the question of whether Okumura deserved a change of heart.
Myth: Okumura would not have been targeted if not for his ranking on the Phan-Site.
Fact: Okumura was responsible for a great deal of suffering and even death. While one can argue that the Phantom Thieves should not steal anyone's hearts, Okumura's crimes were comparable to those of the other major targets, if not even worse than some of them. I shall review each of Okumura's three major misdeeds one by one.
Okumura's first offense is unethical business practices- ignoring safety, forcing his employees to work unpaid overtime and generally viewing them as disposable tools. The cognitive versions of his employees that appear in his palace, which are representative of how he views them in reality, appear as robot workers who are fanatically loyal to him, willing to fight and sacrifice their lives for him, and ultimately being burned as fuel. Haru is able to confirm that some of the abuses take place in real life, as she likens the factory section of the space station to a bun factory she once visited.
One could hypothetically argue that all this is for the good of the company, but Okumura sees even the company as a stepping stone. The "Escape to Utopia" plan referenced in his Palace, which will end with his escape and the self-destruction of his Palace, represents his desire to become a politician and attain even greater power, as well as discard Okumura Foods once it is no longer useful.
Okumura's second offense is his poor treatment of his daughter Haru, mainly marrying her off to Sugimura, the lecherous and abusive son of a Diet member, in exchange for his personal gain. Haru personally admits that getting out of this marriage is her main reason for wanting to change her father's heart (if she changed her fiance's heart, her father would merely try again).
The worst part about the arranged marriage is that Okumura knows full well what kind of person his would-be son-in-law is. The cognitive version of Sugimura that appears in the Palace is almost indistinguishable from his actual self, at least until he turns into a robot (symbolic of how Okumura sees Sugimura as yet another pawn to use for his own benefit. Even more damning, when Cognitive Sugimura complains that Haru has been compromised, Shadow Okumura(Okumura's repressed true self) offers to let Sugimura take Haru as a mistress as long as he holds up his end of the deal. This causes Haru to realize that her father is a selfish man who sees his daughter as a tool, and she later says that she "saw no remorse" in his heart.
As if this were not bad enough, The Royal version adds a phase to Shadow Okumura's boss fight in which he summons a cognitive version of Haru who is a willing slave who sacrifices herself for him. In the original game, Morgana had warned Haru that she would be better off not knowing why she had not encountered her cognitive self in the Palace, and with this, you can see that Morgana was right.
Okumura's third offense is being responsible for many mental shutdowns, which resulted in innocent people dying and his competitors losing business. At the time they were considering stealing his heart in the middle of November, the Phantom Thieves ultimately realize that he benefited from many of the mental shutdowns that showed up on the news, and Makoto's sister Sae was able to make the connection between Okumura and the mental shutdowns. While Okumura was not the perpetrator, he did request that his enemies be given mental shutdowns to hinder his competition, making him responsible for more than a few deaths, thereby resulting in Okumura having greater number of victims than the previous targets.
Each of these crimes is, by itself, enough reason for the Phantom Thieves to target Okumura, so the Phantom Thieves had ample justification for stealing his heart.
In conclusion, the decision to steal Okumura's heart had disastrous consequences for the Phantom Thieves, but that did not mean that it was fundamentally the wrong decision, or that it was made for the wrong reasons. Perhaps a more accurate lesson for the Phantom Thieves to learn is that actions made for good intentions do not always have good consequences, and that their changes of heart do not always change people's lives for the better. Support for that idea can be found in that Yusuke becomes even more ostracized at school after his mentor Madarame's crimes are exposed, Hifumi is forced to realize that she did not truly earn her success at shogi, and stealing Shido's heart ultimately failed to change the outcome of the election. Perhaps that could have been a better way of showing that the Phantom Thieves are not always right, one that would have fit with the game's themes.
Comments
Post a Comment