This whole "Makoto is the undisputed deuteragonist" argument reeks of character exaggeration to me, similar to how shippers constantly exaggerate her "closeness" with Haru despite them hardly ever interacting at all in the actual game. If anything, it's Morgana who's the closest the game has to an actual deuteragonist, given how much story relevance he has from beginning to end, not to mention the fact that his character development slowly unravels concurrently to the overall narrative (and Joker's own, for that matter). Makoto only ever really plays a significant role in the Kaneshiro and Sae arcs... and even then, only in the first does she experience any meaningful development as a character. Sae's arc is strictly about her own story, with Makoto playing a supporting role due to their familial ties. Shido's arc was, by and large, a group effort with every Phantom Thief (even Haru) getting their own moment in the spotlight. Not to mention, the last stretch of the game is without a doubt Morgana-centric, with him being responsible for planning/suggesting the thieves' final heist. People tend to equate Makoto as Joker's "mouthpiece" solely due to her role as Phantom Thief strategist. Franky, I think that's a very flawed analysis. For one, she doesn't speak for Joker, she speaks for the Thieves in general once they've all come to an agreement; neither does she "fill in" for his thoughts in any way — that would be (again) Morgana's role, who accompanies Joker throughout the game and essentially serves as his second voice in whatever decision he makes, be it major story developments or mundane activities. Makoto is basically the Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss) and Ignis Scientia (FFXV) of P5: she's the group planner and is therefore involved in a lot of lecturing and instruction work. That doesn't automatically qualify her as "deuteragonist" material.
SergeantDoctor from the Reddit subforums also had this to say:
"Makoto gets a lot of lines, but in terms of moving the plot forward or doing things that affect the plot, I don't think she's overly important. I think in terms of sheer utility and plot effectiveness Futaba steals the spotlight because she either just searches or hacks her way into anything the team needs...not to mention Futaba just seems to show up more since she lives with Sojiro.
As it's been said, Makoto is the team's straight man, so her lines are largely relegated to stating the obvious in a plain way that everyone else can get behind. I think because she summarizes and gets the last word at a lot of the meetings, it seems like she's making a lot of the decisions and being very important, but it's really because she's just there in that organizational, summary-giving role."
Edited by 9thOutworldsMan
Exactly and In terms of strategy it's usually morgana the veteran thief who has the better plans. Honestly while Makoto may serve as a mouthpiece at points so does every other characters at points. Morgana still probably leads though thanks to voicing basically everthing you do though.
Edited by Outlaw95
Yeah, thats a shoehorn.
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Yeah. Looking back on that last edit, all attempts at justifying the entry ranged from hyperbole to just plain silly. I mean, how does a game "seemingly encouraging you to use a certain character because of their high-tier equipment" have anything to do with their importance to the story, anyway? It's just added natter.
Edited by 9thOutworldsMan
On the case of Makoto being the dueteragonist, while she has her moments so do all characters in different arcs. Furthermore her being second in command is something of a informed attribute, as all the other characters put in ther two cents. If you where to take Makoto she lines and add she would probably have as much importance as Haru compared to the others. She also no wher near has the second most important role or even subplot, honestly even her character arc is less important. So you would have to skewer your view pretty hard to fill the role.
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