History Fridge / Persona2

* In ''EP'' when the gang get trapped in the Kimon Tonku formation, there's a TV producer who’s justifiably afraid of being trapped. We don't see her again after the spell is broken and everything returns to normal, which raises the question: Was she still under the effect of the spell?

* Yukino's fate if her Shadow jumps off the bridge becomes much more disturbing in light of ''VideoGame/Persona5''. Assuming ''[=P5=]''’s logic applies to the ''Persona 2'' duology, Yukino’s Shadow dying would imply that her real self underwent a “mental shutdown”, rendering her a nonfunctional, mindless shell without a will to live.

* Yukino's fate if her Shadow jumps off the bridge becomes much more disturbing in light of ''VideoGame/Persona5''. Assuming ''[=P5=]''’s logic applies to the ''Persona 2'' duology, Yukino’s Shadow dying would imply that her real self underwent a “mental shutdown”, rendering her a nonfunctional, mindless shell without a will to live. In other words, she suffers the same fate as people like Wakaba, Okumura, and Kayo.

* If Nyarlathotep is the embodiment of humanity's weakness, if he destroys humanity, won't he die to?

* Compared to the protagonists personalized Personas, the Masked Circle Personas (except Joker) are all recolors of the gang's 'natural' Personas or demons acting as Personas akin to how the party would recruit them. While it can be explained in part for Sudou, Ginji and Sugimoto who are meant to be the darker paths the party could have fallen down (akin to Yu and the Killer of P4 and their Izanagi's), there's no such reasoning for Anna, Yasuo and Ixquic who all wield Reverse demons as regular Personas. That is until you remember that their Personas were granted to them by Nyarlathotep who's focused on creating ruin instead of actually helping to better one's inner self. Add together he was on the fast track to victory, by this point he was likely only concerned about giving humanity the tools to further its destruction faster. Thus, what their given is something that's pretty the bottom denominator of what a Persona is, enough for them to wreak havoc, but reflects nothing personal of the user's actual heart.

!!FridgeLogic

* At the very end of ''Innocent Sin'', [[spoiler:Maya's death]] feels like ''such'' a DiabolusExMachina--the team just won! They’ve beat the final boss, and they’ve proven Philemon right. But their enemy is still Nyarlathotep, the embodiment of humankind’s self-destructive urge, so of course it makes sense for him to fire the ChekhovsGun he set up as a contingency when there’s no reason for him not to. Sure it’s not ''fair'', but who keeps score in [[CosmicChessGame cosmic chess games]]?

* The Masked Circle’s decision to target Kasugayama High as the first large-scale Ideal Energy harvesting ground seems arbitrary; why there, and not Seven Sisters, another high school that's just as big and with a better rep? More importantly, why not Seven Sisters even though it’s shown to be connected to the Masked Circle through Anna Yoshizaka fairly early on, while no such connection to Kasugayama exists? Cuss High appears to be the weaker target of the two until you learn that [[spoiler: the Joker is a student there.]]

** Maya's starting Persona, Maia, is the mother of Hermes. [[spoiler: Maya is important to the original Masked Circle as their maternal figure, especially Jun, whose Persona is Hermes.]]

** In ''Innocent Sin'', Tatsuya's signature move, Nova Kaiser/Cyther, deals Light and Almighty damage. In ''Eternal Punishment'', it deals Nuclear damage. This could be symbolic of how Tatsuya in ''EP'' is powerful, but also [[spoiler: tearing the world apart just by existing.]]

* Every other ''Persona'' game has at least one instance where making a bad decision leads to a unique DownerEnding. Although neither ''Innocent Sin'' nor ''Eternal Punishment'' has such a case in gameplay, it turns out that [[spoiler:''Innocent Sin'' was always doomed to end in tragedy due to choices that its protagonists made years ago. Effectively, ''all of Innocent Sin'' is the DownerEnding path]]. Also could be Fridge Horror, as it's a much darker take on the series convention than usual: because of something you did when you were a kid, before you could have possibly known about the consequences, [[spoiler:Nyarlathotep wins and all is lost]].[[note]]Of course, it's also possible that [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the series conventions just weren't set yet]], but even so, it makes sense thematically with the games, and it's more fun to think about this way.[[/note]]

* Yukino's fate if [[spoiler:her Shadow jumps off the bridge]] becomes much more disturbing in light of ''VideoGame/Persona5''. Assuming ''[=P5=]''’s logic applies to the ''Persona 2'' duology, [[spoiler: Yukino’s Shadow dying would imply that her real self underwent a “mental shutdown”, rendering her a nonfunctional, mindless shell without a will to live. In other words, she suffers the same fate as people like Wakaba, Okumura, and Kayo.]]

* Owing to Adolf Hitler’s appearance as an antagonist in ''Innocent Sin'', it’s common to see Western fans volleying accusations of mitigating Japan’s involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII at {{Creator/Atlus}}, but what these fans ignore is that Hitler is the only historical figure of his kind whose inclusion would have made sense. The other leaders of the Axis powers, Benito Mussolini and Hideki Tojo, were both publicly executed, but in the chaos following the Fall of Berlin, no one was able to confirm that Hitler really had committed suicide. His body fell into the hands of the Russians, and for years following the war, [[PropagandaMachine Russia propagated dozens of conspiracy theories]] about Hitler’s (un)death and whereabouts, including one particularly interesting variation which suggested that he escaped Germany and went into hiding in the Antarctic. Sound familiar?
* At the very end of ''Innocent Sin'', [[spoiler:Maya's death by the Spear of Longinus and the end of the world]] feels like ''such'' a DiabolusExMachina--the team just won! They’ve beat the final boss, and they’ve proven Philemon right. But their enemy is still Nyarlathotep, the embodiment of humankind’s self-destructive urge, so of course it makes sense for him to fire the ChekhovsGun he set up as a contingency when there’s no reason for him not to. Sure it’s not ''fair'', but who keeps score in [[CosmicChessGame cosmic chess games]]?

* The Masked Circle’s decision to target Kasugayama High as the first large-scale Ideal Energy harvesting ground seems arbitrary; why there, and not Seven Sisters, another high school of equal size and better standing? More pointedly, why not Seven Sisters even though it’s shown to be connected to the Masked Circle through Anna Yoshizaka fairly early on, while no such connection to Kasugayama exists? Cuss High appears to be the weaker target of the two until you learn that [[spoiler: the Joker is a student there.]]

** Maya's starting Persona, Maia, is the mother of Hermes. [[spoiler: Maya is important to the original Masked Circle as their motherlike figure, especially to Jun, whose Persona is Hermes.]]

** Hyperion’s signature move, Justice Shot, is unusual among the Ultimate Personas in that, unlike the standard “deals a lot of damage” signature move, it has the effect of bringing enemy HP down to 1. Why? Because Katsuya’s a cop, of course; he wants to bring people in alive.
** In ''Innocent Sin'', Tatsuya's signature move, Nova Kaiser/Cyther, does Light and Almighty damage. In ''Eternal Punishment'', it deals Nuclear damage. This could be symbolic of how Tatsuya in ''EP'' is powerful, but also [[spoiler: tearing the world apart just by existing.]]

* If Nyarlathotep is the embodiment of humanity's weakness, if destroys humanity, won't he die to?
** Perhaps he doesn't care. Humanity's weaknesses include self-harm, which Nyarlathotep would presumably exhibit was well.

* The rumor system, [[FridgeBrilliance ingenious though it may be]], still operates on this breed of NightmareFuel. Imagine that, just by spreading the right rumors to the right number of people, you could rewrite just about anything or anyone, ''even history itself'', with nobody any the wiser. Imagine that, just by spreading a rumor, someone else could be rewriting ''your'' entire existence and sense of self on the fly, with you none the wiser. Who knows how many people in Sumaru City have had their entire lives retconned just because a few people wished them ill…
** ...Which brings us to Ginji Sasaki. He’s depicted as a creepy {{Ephebophile}} who uses his position as an idol band producer to take advantage of adolescent girls, but there’s a distinct possibility that he didn’t start out that way. Men who work directly with teenage girls--like producers or teachers--[[AllMenArePerverts are often considered suspect by others]], whether or not they really should be. Sasaki may have been perfectly respectable before the rumor curse was put in place, but once it was, those idle whisperings would have transformed him into the sexual predator he is in the game, much like the escalating rumors turned the Masked Circle into TheConspiracy in the first place.

** Jun and Tatsuya’s Personas, being representative of their exchanged [[NumberOneDime #1 Dimes]], get the most benefit from their basis in ClassicalMythology. Aside from representing the items superficially (Chronos, the Greek deification of time, for the watch; Vulcanus, Roman god of fire, for the lighter), the exchange itself is symbolized through Apollo and Hermes, who most famously appeared together in the myth of Apollo’s stolen cattle, which ended in the two exchanging what would become their most sacred icons: the lyre and the caduceus, respectively.

* If Nyarlahotep is the embodiment of humanity's weakness, if destroys humanity, won't he die to?

** Which also explains why ''Eternal Punishment'' takes place at all. Why would Nyarlathotep respect having lost the game, especially when the groundwork from ''Innocent Sin'' is still laid out, when all he has to do to get what he wants is nudge a few memories back into place and repurpose his grand scheme around a different conspiracy theory?

* Owing to Adolf Hitler’s appearance as an antagonist in ''Innocent Sin'', it’s common to see Western fans volleying accusations of mitigating Japan’s involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII at {{Creator/Atlus}}, but what these fans ignore is that Hitler is the only historical figure of his kind whose inclusion would have made sense. The other leaders of the Axis powers, Benito Mussolini and Hideki Tojo, were both publicly executed, but in the chaos following the Fall of Berlin, no one was able to confirm that Hitler really had committed suicide. For years following the war, Russia propagated dozens of conspiracy theories about Hitler’s (un)death and whereabouts, including one particularly interesting variation which suggested that he escaped Germany and went into hiding in the Antarctic. Sound familiar?

* Owing to Adolf Hitler’s appearance as an antagonist in ''Innocent Sin'', it’s common to see Western fans volleying accusations of mitigating Japan’s involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII at {{Creator/Atlus}}, but what these fans ignore is that Hitler is the only historical figure of his kind whose inclusion would have made sense. The other leaders of the Axis powers, Benito Mussolini and Hideki Tojo, were both publicly executed and dead beyond doubt, but in the chaos following the Fall of Berlin, no one was able to verify that Hitler really had committed suicide. For years following the war, Russia propagated dozens of conspiracy theories about Hitler’s (un)death and whereabouts, including one particularly interesting variation which suggested that he escaped Germany and went into hiding in the Antarctic. Sound familiar?

** Because of how much time he spends tinkering with his motorcycle, a rumor spread around Seven Sisters that made Tatsuya a borderline GadgeteerGenius. His starting Persona is Vulcanus, the Roman equivalent of Hephaestus, the blacksmith god of the Greek pantheon.

** ...Which brings us to Ginji Sasaki. He’s depicted as a creepy {{Ephebophile}} who uses his position as an idol band producer to take advantage of adolescent girls, but there’s a distinct possibility that he didn’t start out that way. Men who work directly with teenage girls--like producers or teachers--[[AllMenArePerverts are often considered suspect by others]], whether or not they really should be. Sasaki may have been perfectly respectable before the rumor system was put in place, but once it was, those idle rumors would have transformed him into the sexual predator he is in the game, much like the escalating rumors turned the Masked Circle into TheConspiracy in the first place.

** Which also explains why ''Eternal Punishment'' takes place at all. Why would Nyarlathotep respect having lost the game, especially when the groundwork from ''Innocent Sin'' is still laid out, and all he has to do to get what he wants is nudge a few memories back into place and repurpose his grand scheme around a different conspiracy theory?

** The contrast between the movesets of the ''Innocent Sin'' and the ''Eternal Punishment'' casts brilliantly showcases each team’s interpersonal dynamic. In ''Innocent Sin'', all of the five endgame characters have complementary Ultimate Personas with holistic movesets, and each Ultimate Persona clearly represents an element (fire, water, wind, earth, and ice), meant to showcase the team’s synergy as a group of ChildhoodFriends. That closeness just isn’t present in the ''Eternal Punishment'' party, who’ve all known each other for a few weeks at most (minus long-time friends Maya and Ulala, and brothers Katsuya and Tatsuya), and remain fundamentally independent of each other. This is, as you might expect, reflected in their movesets; they move away from their starter elements, and their Ultimate Personas don’t sync quite as well as those of ''Innocent Sin''’s party (for example, Katsuya and Tatsuya’s overlap--they both deal Nuclear damage and have sun deities for Personas).

* Owing to Adolf Hitler’s appearance as an antagonist in ''Innocent Sin'', it’s common to see Western fans volleying accusations of mitigating Japan’s involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII at {{Creator/Atlus}}, but what these fans ignore is that Hitler is the only historical figure of his kind whose inclusion would have made sense. The other leaders of the Axis powers, Benito Mussolini and Hideki Tojo, were both publicly executed and dead beyond doubt, but in the chaos following the Fall of Berlin, no one was able to verify that Hitler really had committed suicide. In the years following the war, Russia propagated dozens of conspiracy theories about Hitler’s (un)death and whereabouts, including one particularly interesting variation which suggested that he escaped Germany and went into hiding in the Antarctic. Sound familiar?

** Perhaps he doesn't care. Humanity's weaknesses includes self-harm, which Nyarlathotep would presumably exhibit was well.

** Because of how much time he spends tinkering with his motorcycle, a rumor spread around Seven Sisters that made Tatsuya a borderline GadgeteerGenius with machines. His starting Persona is Vulcanus, the Roman equivalent of Hephaestus, the blacksmith god of the Greek pantheon.

* Awfully convenient for Eikichi to have those two pink handguns on hand to give to Maya, while poor Lisa is stuck punching things. Seems unfair, right? Only if that's not Lisa wanted. The owner of Shiraishi Ramen gives out the party’s first weapon set without asking about their individual preferences; Lisa, kung-fu nut that she is, simply passed up the handguns in favor of being the team’s BareFistedMonk.

* Awfully convenient for Eikichi to have those two pink handguns on hand to give to Maya, while poor Lisa is stuck punching things. Seems unfair, right? But that’s what Lisa wanted. The owner of Shiraishi Ramen gives out the party’s first weapon set without asking about their individual preferences; Lisa simply passed up the handguns in favor of being the team’s BareFistedMonk
* The exchange of the lighter and watch, and Tatsuya and Jun’s