History Characters / Persona3Protagonists

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: In ''Reload'', one hangout interaction he can have with Aigis at the rooftop of the Iwatodai dorm has him react uncomfortably with bugs when she points out there's a baby Ladybug on one of the plants leaves.

* AdaptationalWimp: For some reason, ''Portable'' changes [[CombinationAttack Fusion Spells]] which originally use HP or SP in the original game and in ''FES'' into ''items'' which must be bought by exchanging certain numbers of specific materials in a specific shop; and the material can only be obtained via random drops in Tartarus. This means while Fusion Spells now don't cost anything, the more powerful ones require enormous count of materials (and thus grinding) to obtain even 1 copy of.

* TheBerserker: In contrast to how Greek myth Thanatos is often understood as a bringer of peaceful death, the Persona Thanatos fights like this. It destroys Arcana Magician by essentially ripping and slashing it apart limb to limb before crushing a still twitching limb with its bare hand. [[spoiler:In the fourth anime movie, it doesn't give Nyx Avatar any quarters: it begins by constantly pressing it with sword attacks, then knocks Nyx Avatar's sword off its hand with FrickinLaserBeams from its head, then rips one of Nyx Avatar's wings. It is knocked away with a punch and then has its sword broken, but this only prompts Thanatos to brawl with Nyx Avatar with its bare hands and is ready to spam its laser again before finally being impaled through the head.]]

* DoomedProgtagonist: [[spoiler:As the contract they sign when arriving to the dorms subtly implies, they will die within a year of starting the game. No matter what they try, that fate can't be changed. When they learn of the reason for this, their goal shifts to ensuring that the rest world, or at least the people they care for, will not have to die with them.]]

* SupportingProtagonist: In contrast to their successors, the P3 protagonist is neither the true leader of S.E.E.S. (Mitsuru and Akihiko both outrank them), the driver of their actions, or the one most connected to the plot. [[spoiler:While they were involved in the events that lead to the plot beginning, they were only a bystander who jhappened to be the only survivor in the area when Aigis needed to seal the fractured Arcana Death Shadow away.]] Most of the game's story focuses on the emotional journeys of the other members of S.E.E.S., with very little direct involvement of the Protagonist. It isn't until the tail end of the game where they became more central to both the group and story.

* SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan: [[spoiler:After defeating the ego fragment of Death ten years before the plot, Aigis sealed it into a nearby child as the only way to prevent it from restoring itself (as it is otherwise a PerpetualMotionMonster). That child grew up to become the Protagonist ten years later.]]

* CompositeCharacter: In a sense, he's this with the Female Protagonist in the P3 movies. In the games he never really interacts with Ryoji, while the Female Protagonist does in her social links with him. Since the movies lack the Female Protagonist, he gets scenes where he interacts with Ryoji.

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: All of her possible love interests are genuinely nice guys [[GayOption and gals]]--even [[SugarAndIcePersonality Shinjiro]].

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: All of her possible love interests are genuinely nice guys--even [[SugarAndIcePersonality Shinjiro]].

* AdaptedOut: Per [[https://www.ign.com/articles/persona-3-reload-wont-include-content-from-fes-or-portable-including-the-female-protagonist developer interviews]], her story route will not be present in ''[[VideoGameRemake Reload]]''.

* DiedInYourArmsTonight: In the game and film ending, [[spoiler:they pass away in the arms of Aigis. In the NewGamePlus of ''Portable'', it can be any SEES member that the protagonist has established a romantic relationship with. The original ending with Aigis is still canon, however.]]

* AsleepInClass: In the game, they have the option to sleep in class. Doing this cures their Tired/Cold status and can change it to Great (or boosts their Courage in Reload)

* FirstLove: Both of the protagonists are the first people Aigis shows romantic interest in.

* ImpliedLoveInterest: Whilst the choice is ultimately up to the player, the main narrative of ''Persona 3'' still leans towards a specific LoveInterest and this is carried forward to subsequent games. Additionally, unlike the adaptations of ''VideoGame/Persona4''[[note]]Or at least, the ''original'' anime adaptation[[/note]] and ''VideoGame/Persona5'', the adaptations of ''Persona 3'' also lean towards a specific love interest.
%%** The implied love interest in the games is being discussed on the Discussion Page.

** In the [[Anime/Persona3TheMovie animated movie tetralogy]], Makoto's strongest bond is with Aigis, and a lot of the early ShipTease subtext with Yukari in the original game is left out of the adaptation. They even attend the summer festival together, which is not an option in any iteration of ''Persona 3''.[[note]]In early iterations of the game, the Protagonist can run into Aigis and Mitsuru as they attend the festival together, but they remain oblivious to the Protagonist's presence. In ''Reload'', the Protagonist attend the festival with them, but the scene plays the Protagonist and Mitsuru as parents to Aigis, who takes the role of an inquisitive child.[[/note]]

* TheLostLenore: To Aigis and Yukari in ''The Answer'' as well as future entries in the series, as neither seems to have entered a romantic relationship afterwards.

** From a mechanical and technical story standpoint, the male protagonist isn't as close with the male members of S.E.E.S. as he is with the female members, who all have Social Links with him. While this remains the case in ''Reload'', Link Events gives the male protagonist the option to become closer with the male members.
** In prior versions of the game, the protagonist and Takaya have little to no interaction with one another beyond animosity at the latter for [[spoiler:having killed Shinjiro]]. In ''Reload'', the male protagonist can "befriend" Takaya via Link Events, with said events involving Takaya trying to have the protagonist understand his line of thinking.

** His friendship with Ryoji in the manga, the third film, and potentially in ''Reload'' if you do his Link Events. By contrast, he didn't have that many personal interactions with Ryoji in the original game.

->''[[spoiler:I'm getting sleepier... My eyes feel heavy...]]''

-->''"[[SugarAndIcePersonality Whatever.]]"''

* MessianicArchetype: Their ultimate Persona is called Messiah, and at the end of their journey, [[spoiler:they sacrifice themselves after leading the group forward, to stop the end of the world. In addition, the Male Protagonist's appearance on the Great Seal resembles Jesus Christ when He was crucified]]. To further relate the Protagonist with Jesus Christ, most of Messiah's skills that it learned naturally are a reference to Christ Himself (Salvation, Absorb Pierce, Enduring Soul, and God's Hand). Absorb Pierce could be a reference in which Christ was pierced with the Spear of Destiny while Enduring Soul likely references Christ being resurrected three days after He died.

** ''Reload'' also introduces the Characteristic mechanic for all the party members. In the protagonist's case, he gets Weakness Boost and then Weakness Amp after achieving 30% and 60% completion of the Compendium respectively, which increases the damage he deals whenever he hits a weakness.