History Characters / Persona5MajorTargets

* [[Characters/Persona5EndgameAntagonists Endgame Antagonists]] (Leviathan, Black Mask, Samael, The Prisoners, The Holy Grail, The Dreamer, The Creator of Wisdom)

[[Characters/Persona5ThePhantomThievesOfHearts The Phantom Thieves of Hearts]] - [[Characters/Persona5ThePhantomThievesOfHeartsFirstHalf Founding Members]] ([[Characters/Persona5Joker Joker]]) / [[Characters/Persona5ThePhantomThievesOfHeartsSecondHalf Later Members]] ([[Characters/Persona5GoroAkechi Goro Akechi]]) | [[Characters/Persona5Confidants Confidants]] | [[Characters/Persona5Targets Targets]] - '''Major''' / [[Characters/Persona5MinorTargets Minor]] | [[Characters/Persona5OtherCharacters Other Characters]]]]-]]]

The major antagonists of ''VideoGame/Persona5''.

'''Be aware that there will be spoilers for the game, marked and unmarked.'''

!Palace Rulers

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:'''Asmodeus''' (Suguru Kamoshida)]]
!!Suguru Kamoshida
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kamoshida.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Bastard King of Lust]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Shadow Kamoshida]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kamoshida_s.png[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"Drop the attitude, you mediocre peasant! There is no wrong in using my gifts for my gain! I'm a cut above all other humans!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Luxuria (Lust)\\
'''Shadow:''' Asmodeus\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YujiMitsuya (JP), Creator/DCDouglas (EN)

The first major target, Kamoshida is the gym teacher at Shujin Academy who is also a former Olympic volleyball gold medalist. He has been using his position to sabotage other sports teams at Shujin to make the volleyball team he coaches appear to be the school's sole pride and joy. His warped sexual lust for the volleyball team's female members - and, more so, Ann Takamaki, as well as his lust for total domination towards his male athletes creates a Palace in the collective unconscious where he takes the form of Asmodeus, the demon of Lust.

His Palace resembles a Medieval castle, and it is based in Shujin Academy in the real world. In his Palace his Treasure resembles a massive bejeweled crown, while in the real world, it is a gold medal he won in the Olympics.
----
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: In the manga, he's a bit more FauxAffablyEvil than in the game. He offers to give Akira and Ryuji "the same tough love (he) give(s his) team," (i.e. physical abuse) instead of merely threatening them with expulsion when they ask around about him. The manga also adds a scene when he talks with Shiho about her declining performance, and gives her a way to keep her starting spot, before sexually assaulting her.
* AdaptationalJerkass: Believe it or not, ''Royal'' makes him, or at least his Shadow, even worse than in the original game. During his boss fight, he summons cognitive versions of Mishima and Shiho as his slaves. If cognitive Shiho gets destroyed or even if he's struck himself when it's on the field, Shadow Kamoshida dismisses her as useless and even plans on having "special lessons" with her. It reinforces that he shows absolutely no remorse for what the real Kamoshida did to Shiho.
* AndYourLittleDogToo: His response when Ann refuses to sleep with him is to threaten to drop Shiho from her starter position.
* AnimalMotifs: Rams. He has statues of ram's heads all across his Palace which act as switches, and his boss form has curved ram horns on his head. This represents Kamoshida's desire for power and sex (as rams are symbols of power and virility), as well as how Kamoshida likes to "butt heads" with people.
* AssholeVictim: Discussed. After sexually assaulting Shiho in a way that made her attempt suicide, Ryuji decides that Kamoshida has to have his heart changed, even if it means that Kamoshida might die.
* ArchEnemy: He is mutually longtime archenemies with Ryuji, with every confrontation between them hinging on erupting into violence. He also becomes a sworn archenemy to Ann after he sexually assaulted and (heavily implied to have) raped Shiho, her best friend.
* BeyondRedemption: Played with. When they find out stealing Kamoshida's heart may kill him if done incorrectly, Ryuji and Joker are reluctant to go through with it, despite everything Kamoshida did to the students of Shujin Academy. When Shiho [[BungledSuicide tries to kill herself]] in a desperate attempt to get away from Kamoshida, Ryuji and Joker no longer care whether or not Kamoshida dies; they just want him ''gone''.
-->'''Ryuji:''' We gotta go to that other world and beat the shit out of that asshole! [...] Someone almost died because of him! ''I don't give a rat's ass what happens to him anymore!''
* BishieSparkle: He is seen in this light during the volleyball rally right before one of his spikes meets Mishima's face. It emphasizes how he's seen as the star of the school in spite of his true nature.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Combined with FauxAffablyEvil. In front of authority figures like Principal Kobayakawa and one of the counselors, he tries to be polite and easygoing while still sounding arrogant. Once he's alone with the protagonists, he shows his more threatening nature.
* BreakingSpeech: Does this to Ryuji, accusing him of being responsible for the track team's downfall, and saying that the protagonist and Morgana will die because they sided with "trash" like him. Ryuji briefly goes into a HeroicBSOD, but fortunately, snaps out in time to awaken his Persona and save the rest of the party. He later does the same thing to Ann, claiming that what he did to Shiho, and thus Shiho's suicide attempt were all because of Ann refusing his advances (which also ends in Ann awakening her Persona although it's saving herself).
* BrokenAce: He was once a beloved Olympic athlete who brought home a gold medal for Japan in volleyball, but he's since become a selfish bastard obsessed with keeping his status and reputation. His Treasure takes the real-life form of his Olympic gold medal as the source of all his twisted desires.
* TheBully: All in all, he's nothing but one, albeit one that's far worse than any of the other bullies in Shujin. He physically abuses his students through brutal training regiments, while frequently extorting sexual favours from his female ones via Mishima.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: His Shadow never refers to Shiho, the girl who attempted suicide because of him, by name, and doesn't remember her as anything more than another victim. Disturbingly subverted in ''Royal;'' his Palace now has a cognitive Shiho in a revealing bunny outfit with high vulnerability to physical attacks, indicating he remembers her and exactly what he did very well.
* CallBack:
** Kamoshida is one to ''Persona 2's'' Ginji Sazaki. Both were once talented celebrities who end up in less prestigious jobs, and were desperate to reclaim their former glory. Both Sazaki and Kamoshida also gained notoriety for their sexual advances on their female students, particularly on one who is of mixed heritage.
** His Palace is this to [[VideoGame/Persona4 Yukiko's Castle]]. Not counting the Shopping District, both games have a castle with the Lust theme prevalent.
* CoolCrown: His Shadow has a simple gold crown, and his Treasure takes the form of a much larger and more ornate crown, which he wears after transforming into Asmodeus.
* CruelMercy: Ann spares his shadow not out of the kindness of her heart, but that it would be a more befitting punishment for him to face the consequences of his actions. With his crimes outed to the public, the glory and fame that he had long sought for will vanish.
* DevilInPlainSight: {{Justified}}; the students are intimidated into silence while the authorities either [[ApatheticCitizens don't care]] or are willing to go along with his misdeeds for the sake of profit. It's also heavily implied that when Kamoshida abuses students in the PE office, everyone near the PE faculty office can hear them make weird noises, such as screaming.
* DirtyCoward: For all his high and mighty talk, his Shadow is pretty cowardly, leaving all the fighting to his Guards. When Joker and Ann first awaken their Personas, he quickly gets cold feet and scurries away with his tail between his legs. The only reason why he still acts smug when Ryuji awakens his Persona is because Shadow Kamoshida still has plenty of Guards by his side. Once he's defeated, he's left pathetically begging for his life.
* DirtyOldMan: PlayedForDrama. He's a middle-aged ex-athlete with an unhealthy fixation with female high school-aged students, particularly the girls who are on the volleyball team he coaches, and the visibly "exotic"-looking Ann Takamaki. The students who aren't in the loop about his true nature are repulsed by him, and the only reason he was able to get Ann into his clutches in the first place was because he promised that Ann's friend Shiho a spot on the team for a national tournament if Ann accepted his advances. This fixation manifests in his Palace in several ways: his sexed-up, pink-skinned cognitions of the volleyball team, the gigantic female torso pillars that serve as decor, and his bikini-clad cognition of Ann, who, unlike the real Ann, is completely subservient to him on top of being [[ValleyGirl shallow and ditzy]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: His Shadow has the Protagonist and Ryuji captured and plans to execute them both just because they ''walked into his Palace.'' Later on, he threatens to have the Protagonist, Ryuji, and Mishima all expelled for confronting him about Shiho's attempted suicide. What makes this worse is that the Protagonist actually stops Ryuji from attacking him, yet all it does is earn him the risk of being expelled. Even Mishima, who went to stop Ryuji, is lumped into it, even though he had taken Kamoshida's abuse and not said anything to worsen the situation. Joker and Mishima were just collateral to him.
* DontExplainTheJoke: When he uses his LastDitchMove, Gold Medal Spike:
-->'''Kamoshida:''' Time for my killshot from when I was active and rockin' it! Killshot...as in I'll make the kill!
* DrivenToSuicide: Subverted. During his confession at the school assembly, Kamoshida feels so guilty that he says that he will kill himself to atone. He is talked down into turning himself in by Ann, who insists that suicide would be running away from his guilt.
* EntitledBastard: Because of his past success as an Olympic-level athlete, Kamoshida believes that the school ought to reward him for that, regardless of what he does.
* {{Ephebophile}}: A truly disturbing one at that as Ann would happily attest, given he is a ''high school teacher'' and never shows or indicates this sort of interest in any women his actual age in game.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Even before we find out the full extent of his abuses, Kamoshida's first appearance has him casually gloating that [[ItsAllAboutMe his volleyball team is the only thing putting the school on the map]], which the other teachers agree with. His Shadow's first impression is even worse: when we first see him, he immediately orders the Protagonist and Ryuji executed [[DisproportionateRetribution just for intruding in his castle]]. The fact that the protagonist interacts with his shadow first in-person before his real one doesn't help either.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Kamoshida sometimes likes to crack jokes or make light humor in instances where [[FauxAffablyEvil he isn't]] being a sociopathic {{Jerkass}}. It only serves to ''upset'' people when it isn't simply ignored.
* EvilIsPetty: He encourages students to spread rumors about Joker simply because he's a "delinquent" with no business ruining the school's reputation. The rumors start ''the day'' that Joker gets to school, indicating that Mishima spread them early, or that Kamoshida told him to do it even before Joker reached Shujin Academy. Kamoshida also broke [[CareerEndingInjury Ryuji's leg]] to ensure that his volleyball club would be the only one to win the school awards.
* EvilGloating: If Joker talks to him in Shujin's halls before stealing his Treasure, Kamoshida will taunt him about his inevitable expulsion. Interestingly, however, if Joker constantly tries to converse with Kamoshida, he [[VillainousBreakdown grows more and more paranoid and irritable,]] genuinely ''fearful'' of what Joker could be plotting to be so nonchalant over his impending fate.
* EvilSoundsDeep: He's a slimy, repugnant {{Jerkass}} with a fairly deep voice. Averted in the Japanese version, since Creator/YujiMitsuya's voice is more naturally high-pitched.
* EvilTeacher: He beats the volleyball team and sexually harasses the female students, and believes he's entitled to do so as the "king" of Shujin.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Ann considers sparing him to be this, as he will have to admit to his crimes and atone for the rest of his life for what he has done to his students.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He can act nice when it suits his purposes, but it does nothing to mask how rotten he is.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: His first appearance in the game involves him chatting with Kawakami about the troublesome new transfer student. This otherwise innocuous scene hints at the root of Kamoshida's own deep-seated personal issues through a seemingly-offhand comment of his.
-->'''Kamoshida:''' Having such high expectations placed on you by others is quite a problem in itself.
* FreudianExcuse:
** His Shadow implies after its defeat that he suffered some sort of stress-induced mental breakdown following his Olympic victory due to people's increasing expectations for him. It's further implied that this is the root of his twisted obsession with being seen as TheAce. Before then, he also claims that people came for his fame and glory, implying that the Volleyball Club is optional but it is the only sports club because Kamoshida sabotaged the rest, and if you went there expected to be abused a ''lot''.
** Unused content in ''Royal'' only glimpsed at in Will Seeds in the game proper indicate Kamoshida was always a pervert and his fiancee, a TV anchor, dumped him over it. There was a time he felt horrible about himself but his sponsors groomed and encouraged his sexual perversions if he continued performing well as an athlete. It's easy to see from here why he turned out the way he did.
* AGlassOfChianti: In his boss battle, one of Kamoshida's hands is holding a large glass of red wine with the Ann copy floating in the drink like a tooth pick. Kamoshida can drink from the glass and slobber over the Ann copy before spitting her back into the glass to get a boost to his offenses.
* GloryDays: From Olympic medalist to high school PE teacher. This perhaps explains, without excusing, the worst aspects of his personality.
* GymClassHell: A sadistic gym teacher who physically abuses his students. In his castle, this is shown as forcing the students to run on endless treadmills and shooting volleyballs at them out of a cannon.
* HairTriggerTemper: Kamoshida might act chummy when it suits him, but it barely takes much to set him off when he drops the flimsy act. Best demonstrated in the optional conversations Joker can have with him in Shujin's halls during his Palace heist, where he voices being an inch away from beating Joker should the player choose dialogue taunting Kamoshida.
* HateSink: For a StarterVillain, he's one of the most vile and cruel targets that Thieves face. Committing everything from physical abuse to SexualExtortion, getting the entire track team disbanded because Ryuji hit him after egging him on to do it, and his LackOfEmpathy towards Shiho's BungledSuicide, all serve to make Kamoshida as unsympathetic as possible. This is most likely so the protagonists' HeelFaceBrainwashing methods feel more justified, even if it came at the risk of Kamoshida dying. That said, the Phantom Thieves do wonder if they went too far with him, even after all the terrible things he did, though they quickly take that back.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: After the Phantom Thieves defeat his Shadow and steal his treasure, his shadow is so distraught that it tries to commit suicide by jumping from a ledge, much like how he [[DrivenToSuicide drove Shiho to attempt suicide]] by jumping off the school roof. The Thieves stop him from doing it and refused to kill him themselves, preferring him to suffer CruelMercy. Later, his real-world self also threatens to commit suicide to atone for his actions, and Ann again talks him down from it.
* HotForStudent: He has a rather lustful attraction towards Ann, and is also very fixated on the girls' volleyball team that he coaches. Unlike with Kashiwagi in the previous game, this time it's very much PlayedForDrama.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: He acts like a big shot and that he's the true leader of the campus, but the minute anyone shows up the Volleyball Club or stands up to him, he will retaliate to salvage that pride. His Shadow inadvertently admits that he doesn't think he's worth anything if he doesn't win, and keep winning. To this end, his treasure is the Olympic gold medal he won.
* ItsPersonal: He manages to earn the personal ire of all three of the founding Thieves: he lusts after Ann and drove her friend to attempt suicide, broke Ryuji's leg back when he was a track star, told everyone to spread rumors about the Protagonist both because he stood up to him and because he wanted to.
* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Blackmails Ann into accepting his advances under threat of removing Shiho from the volleyball team, and then assaults her out of spite when Ann refuses to sleep with him.
* JadedWashout: He was once a beloved Olympic medalist, but is now a simple volleyball coach who's trying to cling onto whatever glory he has left. This consequently moulded the EntitledBastard mentality that drives the terrible things that he had done.
* {{Jerkass}}: Kamoshida is so repulsive that even when putting on the [[FauxAffablyEvil charm]], he comes off as a smug and repugnant egomaniac.
* JerkassHasAPoint: As repulsive and slimy as he is, he makes several unfortunately accurate points about certain subjects.
** He points out that a lot Ryuji's problems comes from his HotBlooded nature, an issue that comes up frequently throughout the story. Ryuji even cops to his HairTriggerTemper getting him into trouble at times. But Kamoshida deliberately exploits this problem to make Ryuji's life more miserable all out of pettiness.
** The party doesn't argue when his Shadow points out that he wouldn't have been able to get away with nearly as much abuse at school if students, parents and school staff hadn't been willing to overlook it for the sake of their personal interest. It's the first of many ties into the game's [[AnAesop overarching themes]] of rebelling against corrupt authority [[spoiler:and of the apathy of Tokyo's citizens towards individual plights]].
** His reformed shadow in the [[spoiler:Prison of Regression]] may still have [[spoiler:the audacity to pretend to hit on Ann in front of the other Thieves]], but there's no way he would actually do it anymore after everything that already happened to him, and likely agrees that the joke was in bad taste.
* KickTheDog: Comes with the territory of being a villain in this game, but Kamoshida's Shadow actually manages to do this ''[[UpToEleven even after being reformed]]''. When the Thieves meet him [[spoiler:down in the Prison of Regression, he halfheartedly hits on Ann]] before saying it was a joke. In all likelihood it ''was'' a joke, but Kamoshida's Shadow would have to be absolutely delusional to think they would find it even remotely funny as opposed to, you know, reacting with disgusted fury. Though with his current state, [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor even he might have thought it wasn't that funny]].
* KubrickStare: His Shadow's portrait is posed this way.
* LackOfEmpathy: When [[spoiler:Shiho attempts suicide]], Kamoshida barely has enough empathy to muster an insincere "shit, that sucks" to the heroes.
* LargeAndInCharge: While his official height isn't given, Kamoshida towers over everyone in the game. He has also twisted Shujin to cater to him at the expense of everyone else.
* LargeHam: His Shadow uses "Ore-sama" as a first-person pronoun in Japanese, which is ''extremely'' impolite and egotistical. It also speaks in a loud, flamboyant tone.
* LaserGuidedKarma: After the boss fight against his Shadow, it ends up cornered near a balcony by a very angry Ann, possibly contemplating jumping off in order to avoid incineration by her Persona. Ann takes a moment to point out this is exactly how Shiho felt.
* LecherousLicking: Shadow Kamoshida uses this as an attack with his OverlyLongTongue. For extra doses of squick, it only targets Ann and deals high physical damage to her. That said, it can be used to your benefit if Ann isn't sent to take his crown. The Shadow will waste two turns staring at Ann to telegraph the attack and it can be prepared for via healing and having her guard, which won't work if she isn't in the active party.
* {{Lust}}: His sin and motif. Not only is he obsessed with the female volleyball team he coaches, but he also has a HotForStudent complex towards Ann. Further, his out of control Shadow form is none other than Asmodeus, the demon of lust. His treasure in the real world turns out to be an Olympic medal, thus his lust was not only for his students but his glory days when he was somebody other than a High School PE teacher.
* MaliciousSlander: His main tool in dealing with students who refuse to obey him. To do this, he browbeats a few students, such as Yuuki Mishima, to spread rumors of his own creation. After enough students believe those rumors, there would be few complaints at the school towards the expulsion of the targeted students.
* ManipulativeBastard: The only thing separating the real Kamoshida from his Shadow is that in the real world, Kamoshida is smart enough to put on a thin veneer of sincerity and feign an understanding attitude in public, which he uses to spread rumors about and lob veiled threats at anyone he doesn't like. However, it is strongly implied that even the authorities at school know what a rotten man he is underneath, and yet they do nothing about it because he contributes a great deal to the school's reputation as the trainer of their athletic teams.
* MedalOfDishonor: Morgana notes that the Olympic medal which was the basis of his Treasure will now likely be this to him post-change of heart.
* MidlifeCrisisCar: Kamoshida drives a 2008 Toyota [[StealthPun Crown]] S200 luxury sedan. It doubles as [[ViewersAreGeniuses Viewers Are Motorheads]] piece of {{Foreshadowing}} of the form his Treasure will take.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Asmodeus has four arms and four legs.
* MusclesAreMeaningful: Given he is an Olympic gold medalist, Kamoshida is the most blatantly muscular of all the Mementos targets on top of being [[LargeAndInCharge the tallest.]] With his tendency to use his build to torment others, it serves to make him the most outwardly menacing antagonist in the game.
* NeverMyFault: Shadow Kamoshida claims as such during his boss fight, saying that his students came on to him. The party member tasked with taking his crown [[ShutUpHannibal calls bullshit]] immediately. He also blames Mishima for spreading rumors about the protagonist, acting as though it was Mishima's own idea, and treats Ryuji punching him when he rightfully deserved it as Ryuji simply being petty.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: He shrinks the massive crown Treasure to a realistic size, making stealing it easier. Otherwise, the Phantom Thieves would've likely died trying to lug a huge crown out of a crumbling castle.
* NightmareFace: He outwardly appears much more twisted in the anime, and is prone to these when he gets upset.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Has a fair bit in common with the Olympic gold medalist Masato Uchishiba, although Kamoshida won his medal in volleyball rather than judo and coaches a high school team instead of a college one. Still, both are Japanese gold medal-winning Olympic athletes turned coaches who engaged in sexual harassment and (most likely) rape.
* NoCureForEvil: Subverted at first. Asmodeus can perform Libido Boost during the fight to eat one of the bodies in his trophy for an instant Diarahan. He will keep doing it as long as that trophy remains, so breaking the trophy to stop this should be top priority.
* NotSoDifferent: After being defeated, his Shadow claims that his obsession with being seen as the best stems from the expectations people placed upon him after his Olympic victory -- much like how the protagonists are driven by the expectations of society. Ann quickly puts him in his place for even comparing himself to them.
* NotWorthKilling: Following his defeat, Shadow Kamoshida attempts to commit suicide and later demands Ann to kill him for his atrocities. Ann, however, denies him this as he will not atone for his sins if he dies.
* OhCrap: His Shadow shows demonstrable fear in three instances.
** During the Protagonist's awakening, he is clearly freaked out in the animated sequence, but he quickly regains his composure and orders his guards to kill the protag and Arsène. He remains more composed [[SmugSnake when Ryuji awakens later]].
** When Ann awakens, he is ''clearly'' afraid, and remains so after the fight with Belphegor, his only line of dialogue being a panicked "Oh shit..."
** When he loses in direct combat, he grabs the crown and runs, only to find he's running towards the balcony with the Thieves bearing down on him.
** In ''The Animation'', Kamoshida hits Ren's face with a volleyball, prompting Ren to give him a DeathGlare that startles Kamoshida briefly.
** In the manga, he privately loses his composure over Shiho's suicide attempt, at least before he gets the idea to falsely accuse Akira and Ryuji of bullying Shiho and making them into scapegoats. It's the most upset he gets before his change of heart.
--->'''Kamoshida''': ''[pounds his fist on his desk]'' That bitch actually jumped?! Ugh, this is going to be such a pain to smooth over.
* OverlyLongTongue: His form during the boss battle has a saliva-coated tongue as long as his entire body, adding to his sleazy image and capable of attacking with it.
* PetTheDog: About the only halfway decent thing he does before getting his heart stolen is offer the protagonist a ride to school. [[DownplayedTrope And we say "halfway" decent]] because he's going after Ann at the same time he does this.
* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: His Shadow begs this of Ann after his defeat. She instead gives a RestrainedRevenge, saying he needs to pay for his crimes rather than run from them.
* PsychopathicManchild: Kamoshida, from his petulant attitude and immature sexual cravings, can best be summarized as a twisted SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp no longer having long-term goals or ambitions than lording over a high school like a popular jock. The way he kisses up to the teaching staff of Shujin for praise even resembles a snobby child craving attention for good work. Ryuji even calls him a "bitter, immature manchild" in the localization of the manga, and Ann later uses the same term on him.
* PoseOfSupplication: During a school assembly, he assumes this pose while apologizing for his misdeeds in front of the principal and student body.
* PuzzleBoss: In two phases. Firstly you need to destroy his trophy to stop him from healing, then you need to send one party member to sneak up on him and knock off his crown. During the second, you need to keep him distracted with your main party until this member is able to get into position. It takes time, but once his crown is off his defense is reduced so drastically he won't last much longer.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Despite Kamoshida physically abusing members of the sports teams for years, including Shiho, Yuki and Ryuji, it's the strongly implied rape of Ann's friend Shiho that makes Shiho attempt suicide, causes Yuki to side with the protagonists against Kamoshida, and drives the protagonists to decide they'll brainwash Kamoshida into admitting his crimes, even though he could potentially ''die'' in the process.
* ReformedButNotTamed: Yes, his heart gets changed, but he's still enough of a jerk afterward to [[spoiler:make a sex joke towards Ann]] when the party encounters his Shadow within [[spoiler:the depths of Mementos]].
* {{Sadist}}: The way his "training" is presented in the palace shows that he gets a kick out of hurting students. His Shadow also orders the guards to take the time to beat up the protagonists rather than simply killing them immediately.
* SexForServices: He tries to justify his actions by claiming that his victims came to him in order to curry his favor. No one buys it for a second.
* SexualExtortion: He makes Ann act friendly and polite to him because he likes how she looks, threatening to remove her friend, Shiho, from the team if Ann doesn't comply. Kamoshida eventually tells Ann to come to his place after school, which Ann correctly guesses to be Kamoshida wanting to have sex with her. When Ann refuses, it's heavily implied that Kamoshida rapes Shiho in Ann's stead, resulting in Shiho being DrivenToSuicide.
* SinisterSchnoz: Compared to most other characters his nose appears rather large, particular the character portrait used when he drops his facade and menaces people, and his shadow's portrait. It's the only hint to his true nature among his otherwise plain appearance. His nose is even more pronounced in the StylisticSuck drawings that pop up when Morgana is explaining how stealing a treasure works.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: His treatment of his male students manifests as slaves in his palace; he has their information in a "Slave Book", and he has four lackeys in his boss fight adorned with balls and chains.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Played With. His Olympic gold medalist status means that he is highly valuable to Shujin Academy and students who received his college recommendations could get instant admission to the college of their choice. However, as an athlete he is largely forgotten by Japan and when his crimes were made public, most people felt that he was some no-name has been who should have just kept his head down.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: He's the first target of the Phantom Thieves and one of the few targets to have no connection to the Conspiracy. That said his change of heart is what sets the game's plot in motion. It turns out that the principal did not report him to the police since it would draw too much media attention towards Shujin and harm [[spoiler:Shido's chances at being elected]]. In fact because of his change of heart, the principal is one of the first people who catches on to the existence of the Phantom Thieves thanks to his ties to the Conspiracy leading him to manipulate Makoto into getting dirt on them which eventually leads to some of the plot points later on.
* TheSociopath: A sadistic, entitled narcissist that shows absolutely no remorse for his actions and revels in tormenting teenagers. Based on his subconscious, even if his cognitions of others look human, they are all just his obedient slaves and his obsession with Ann is also only based on her appearance; he doesn't actually see her anything other than a sex slave for him to play with. What really cements Kamoshida as a true sociopath, however, is when after he brutally violates Shiho, he [[KickTheDog mockingly expresses to Ryuji that since Shiho is unlikely to awaken from her coma, she will be unable to say anything about him.]]
* StarterVillain: He's the first antagonist the Thieves take on. He also fills many of the tropes in this regard, being of low personal status (a gym teacher) and having a personal connection to the first two friends the protagonist makes. He is also the ''only'' target [[spoiler:bar Futaba to have absolutely no direct connection to Masayoshi Shido or the conspiracy.]] [[labelnote:note]]Bear in mind that Kamoshida himself is enabled by the principal who is a member of the conspiracy, Sae was being bought under the Conspiracy's thumb against her will, and she manages to break free during the Good Ending route, Madarame and Kaneshiro's connections to the conspiracy are flimsy at most, and their targeting were completely unrelated to the conspiracy at that point.[[/labelnote]] His manipulation of the school could also be seen as a smaller-scale version of what [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth was doing to the entire city in that the students were doing nothing to change their lives, despite being "prisoners", for the sake of social harmony, just like the people of Tokyo.]]
* StreisandEffect: InUniverse: When Shadow Kamosida's trophy gets damaged, he tells the Thieves to stop attacking it. Morgana lampshades this.
-->'''Morgana''': When someone tells us not to do something, it makes us want to do it even more!
* {{Stripperific}}:
** Shadow Kamoshida only wears four articles of clothing; his crown, a pair of shoes, his cape, and a speedo.
** Disturbingly, this also applies to the cognitions of his female students in his palace.
* TrainingFromHell: Kamoshida's training methods are... extreme, to say the least. And by "extreme", we mean "borderline criminal", and even worse than that if you count what happened to Ryuji. It's {{Flanderized}} in Kamoshida's Palace, where the cognitive entities emulating the track and volleyball teams are subjected to actual torture. Based on the type(s) of torture those cognitions are suffering, it's heavily implied that his "training regimen" consists of denying his athletes water even when they need it, beating them up if he felt that they are incompetent as well as randomly and deliberately spiking volleyballs right onto them. As if Ryuji didn't have enough reasons to be angry with him already...
* UngratefulBastard: Various confrontations with Kamoshida and Ryuji can have the protagonist taking the reasonable approach and talking Ryuji out of being goaded into doing something impulsive. Kamoshida only continues to antagonize him despite this.
* VillainousBreakdown: Asmodeus has one over the course of his boss fight as the party takes away his trophies, being shocked into dropping his guard after his trophy cup is destroyed, and having a DespairEventHorizon after his crown is taken. By the end of it, he doesn't even care if he lives or not.
* VillainousLegacy: His actions echo throughout the story; Makoto [[AccompliceByInaction feels guilty about not being able to stop him]], and TheConspiracy decides to off Kobayakawa when the tabloids find out about his role in covering up Kamoshida's abuses, just to give two examples.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Subverted. Despite at first he looks really popular (Even Ryuji doesn't know that he's ''this'' despicable by first impression), over the times everyone in school knows how deranged and depraved Kamoshida is; they are just too scared to speak it out in fears of retaliation by Kobayakawa.
* VilerNewVillain: While the antagonists of ''Persona 4'' are either tragic figures or have redeeming qualities, Kamoshida has none of those traits. Him being the StarterVillain sets the standards of how horrible the antagonists of this game could be.
* VocalDissonance: His voice is high-pitched in the Japanese version, despite his masculine looks.
* WarmUpBoss: As the first major target, his Shadow serves to teach the player about how boss battles work. Namely, that brute force alone isn't enough to win, and you may have to send one of your party members away to get an advantage, forcing you to think about party lineups. At the same time, Kamoshida can't hit any of the four party members' weaknesses, even factoring in that Joker can switch Personas. And once the game is confident that you've got the hang of it, he goes down pretty easily.
* WouldHitAGirl: He physically abuses and sexually assaults several of the female players. Just ask poor Shiho. In ''The Animation'', we actually get to see him assault her.
* WouldHurtAChild: He has no problem beating his teenage athletes bloody out of sheer sadism. He even went as far as to permanently maim Ryuji in order to ensure he couldn't upstage him.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''Azazel''' (Ichiryuusai Madarame)]]
!!Ichiryuusai Madarame
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madarame.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:False Curator of Vanity]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to Shadow Madarame]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images//madarame_s.png[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I make the rules of the art scene! I am the supreme being! I AM THE GOD OF THE ART WORLD!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Irritum (Vanity)\\
'''Shadow:''' Azazel\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YukitoshiHori (JP), Creator/KyleHebert (EN)

The second major target. He is a famous Japanese painter who adopted Yusuke Kitagawa when Yusuke's parents died. While he used to be a brilliant artist, an artist's block makes him run a scam where he would adopt disciples, before taking their work as his own, propping up his own fame at the cost of his students' welfare and self esteem, even driving a few to suicide. In one case, he even let one of his died in order to get her work as his, and that's actually Yusuke's mother, something that is completely unbeknown to him prior to Shadow Madarame gloating about it. His unwillingness to create his own work and his desire for fame create a Palace inside the collective unconscious where he takes the form of Azazel, the demon of Vanity.

Madarame's Palace resembles a massive, gaudy art museum, and it is based in the run-down atelier where he raised Yusuke and many of his other pupils in the real world. In his Palace his Treasure resembles a painting, which is revealed to be the original, unedited ''Sayuri'' portrait. The painting in question is what the Treasure manifests as in the real world.
----
* AbusiveParent: Despite having adopted Yusuke, he exploits the hell out of him, barely furnishing him while leeching off his talent. However, he treats Yusuke with enough kindness to earn his deep respect until the full extent of his corruption is revealed, and Sojiro wonders whether Madarame actually cared for Yusuke to some extent. Yusuke's confidant reveals that he did in fact ''genuinely'' care for Yusuke deep down in his greed blackened heart, at least before he openly turns against him, although what happens is heavily implied to be stockholm syndrome on Yusuke's part, and it's also implied that the man does genuinely care for his pupils enough to prevent them from speaking against him so he can fleece them whatever way he wanted to without their knowledge. Furthermore, in ''Scramble'', Yusuke also implies that he doesn't even bother giving all of his pupils a proper bed and some pupils have to sleep on the ground.
* AgentPeacock: His Shadow wears garish robes and makeup that are meant to look revolting.
* AnimalMotifs: Peacocks, fitting with him representing Vanity. Peacock feathers feature in a lot of his artwork and his Palace, along with a heavy blue and gold color scheme.
* ArchnemesisDad: He adopted Yusuke after the boy's parents died, and serves as the boss of the dungeon where Yusuke gains his Persona.
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Azazel isn't typically associated with any particular one of the SevenDeadlySins, though myths describe him as having taught women how to use makeup, which makes him a decent enough fit for a villain representing vanity.
* BadLiar: Ann points out several contradictions when he tries to cover up his multiple copies of ''Sayuri''. When Madarame claims the original was stolen and he had to sell copies to make a living, Ann points out that he couldn't have made copies if the original was stolen. Madarame then claims he got a high-quality photograph from an art book, but Ann shoots that down too when she points out Madarame himself said his clients have a keen eye for fine art; they'd know if he was selling them a copy of a copy. Then, when Ann and Yusuke uncover the real Sayuri moments later, Madarame claims it was a counterfeit that he bought. Ann points out that this excuse is "pushing it," since an artist wouldn't knowingly buy a fake of his own work.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Unlike the other targets, who are openly hostile to the protagonist and friends right away, since they trust their influence to protect them, Madarame at least pretends to be nice and personable on the outside. He has several "logical" excuses prepared to cover his tracks if exposed and it's only when the party keeps pressing the issue and forcing their way past his facade that he finally drops it. It's his Shadow that blatantly flaunts his arrogance and exposes his humble demeanor for the lie it truly is. This is part of why Yusuke has such a hard time understanding the truth and takes it so badly.
* BrilliantButLazy: His own talents as an artist weren't terrible, meaning that if he hadn't decided to run a scam by exploiting his pupils to cover for a slump, he could've had a successful legitimate career.
* BrokenAce: He indeed used to be a famous artist and his work is not terrible at all, but he decided abusing his pupils and stealing credit from them was a simpler way to maintain his artistic success instead of, well, actually making art.
* BrokenPedestal: Yusuke initially deeply respects him and finds it hard to believe that he'd do any wrong. By the end of the arc, Yusuke's faith in him is completely shattered.
* CaptainErsatz: Invoked. In ''Royal'', he summons fake elemental copies of himself that are explicitly called '''Ersatz''' (Anger/Joy/Sorrow/Mirth) as offense.
* ChildHater: According to his old acquaintance, Madarame hated children, which made it odd for him to even adopt Yusuke in the first place. Turns out the reason was to leech off of their talents. However, it's implied with Yusuke that [[HiddenDepths guilt over what Madarame did prior to taking him in played a part of it]].
* CognizantLimbs: In order to get at the real Azazel, you have to destroy four portraits - two eyes, a nose and a mouth - each of which attacks separately, and each of which has its own unique resistances.
* ConsummateLiar: He's capable of deceiving anyone who had never met his Shadow or personally lived with him as a disciple long enough to witness his true nature.
* DrivenToSuicide: Nakanohara (one of Madarame's former pupils) informs the Thieves that another of Madarame's pupils found Madarame's conditions untenable and left, later finding out that Madarame had been using pupil's art for master's own gain; said ex-pupil subsequently ended his own life.
* ElementalPowers: Madarame's portraits form can use renamed versions of [[AnIcePerson Bufula]] and [[BlowYouAway Garula]]. His human form uses [[NonElemental Madara-Megido]].[[note]]a sharply watered-down Megidola.[[/note]]
* EvilCounterpart: To Sojiro. Both are older men who have taken in youths and looked after them, but while Sojiro is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who genuinely cares for his charges, Madarame is a BitchInSheepsClothing who abuses the students he takes under his wing. The similarities run deeper when you take the child they've adopted and their relationship with that child's mother into account. Sojiro laments not being able to prevent Wakaba Isshiki's death and adopted Futaba as a way of atoning for it, while Madarame let Yusuke's mother die so he could profit off of her ''Sayuri'' painting, and exploits Yusuke's artistic talent in the present day.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite his disdain for children, it's revealed that Madarame did genuinely care about Yusuke, even though he exploited the hell out of him and his talents and had no issues throwing him under the bus when he was in danger of being exposed.
* EvilOldFolks: He's the oldest of the targets.
* FakeSpecialAttack: "Madara-Megido", Shadow Madarame's signature move in his human form. Most people who have played the ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' series games would be worried to see a Megido attack that hits everyone, especially this early in the game... except that it does ''pitiful'' damage when it hits.
* FallenHero: According to Kawanabe, Madarame was at one point a legitimately passionate artist before his spirit was crushed by the politics of the art world.
* FreudianExcuse: Downplayed. While it is terrible to hit an artist's block when your livelihood depends on it, unused content in ''Royal'' and other implications indicate Madarame still had friends and a shot at life. When his Shadow feebly lays out his flimsy excuse to Uusuke, he has nothing but contempt for his former master.
* ForgivenButNotForgotten: At the end of his Confidant, Yusuke no longer calls Madarame master but seems to come to peace with what Madarame sincerely did good for him. [[StockholmSyndrome Even if this is quite twisted considering the circumstances.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: After his Shadow is defeated he mentions a Metaverse user with a "black mask" that he believes the Phantom Thieves are affiliated with. While small this is one of the first hints that a [[spoiler:Conspiracy]] is targeting the Phantom Thieves, and there is another [[spoiler:character with the ability to use the Metaverse.]]
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** During his boss battle, all of his "unique" attacks are the game's basic elemental spells with different names and less impact. Perhaps the most blatant and pathetic is Madara-Megido, one of the most powerful attacks in the series which he renamed ''after himself'', and yet does very light damage. Even in his own palace, the man can't come up with anything original.
** In ''Royal'', he is somehow made even more pathetic, as after the painting is removed, he will start summoning clones of himself that cast the same "unique" attacks in his painting form that somehow do even less damage. Your area-of-effect spells are more of a threat than the clones are. In fact, when he summons too much clones, somehow they will be summoned with status conditions on them and very low HP that they can be killed in 1 hit.
* {{Foil}}: To Kamoshida. Both are individuals who abuse and exploit their pupils, but while Kamoshida seeks to recapture his glory days, Madarame owes the start of his artistic career to this practice. Kamoshida's primary victims knew he was rotten for a lon time, but Yusuke was in denial about Madarame's true nature, and remains conflicted about his former mentor for some time.
* AGodAmI: As shown by his quote and fitting with his sin of Vanity, Madarame considers himself to have godlike authority over the world of art.
* GoldMakesEverythingShiny: His Palace and a lot of the things inside are gold or painted gold. Shadow Madarame wears robes like his real self entirely of gold. All of the gold is considered a gaudy eyesore by the phantom thieves.
* HeelFaceTurn: In the new bad ending of ''Royal'' where the player [[spoiler:cuts a deal with Maruki, Madarame is seen working with Yusuke on a new painting.]]
* {{Henohenomoheji}}: He plants a fake treasure as bait for the thieves. It's a painting of this with a cover on it. Shadow Madarame brings the real treasure to the boss fight.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: While it's in its four portraits form, Azazel can cover a party member in ink, which gives them a weakness to every attack. If you don't take him down when he returns to his portrait form for the third time, a special operation unlocks where you can send a party member to cover him in the ink, allowing you to make short work of him. For an extra layer of irony, this also mirrors his MO in the real world; he's serial thief of other artists' ideas, but is defeated by someone stealing his powers.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Practically everything about his initial characterization is a facade. He acts like a humble, self-deprecating artist and in fact explicitly claims that the key to his success is his detachment from worldly desires such as fame and fortune. His Palace ends up revealing that fame and fortune have been all he's cared about for a while, and only convinces his students not to profit from their art, so he can instead.
* IronicName: His surname "Ichiryusai" means "Top artist." While he might once be, he now is simply reduced to scamming his pupils and plagiarizing their work.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: He exhibits this during his boss battle. At first he laughs maniacally then seemingly melts into his demon form, which speaks in a high and mighty LargeHam tone. Once the portraits are destroyed and the real Madarame appears, he looks extremely terrified and seems to be talking big just to deny that he can hold his fort no longer, and it's revealed that he's not transforming into the portraits, he's just hiding behind them.
* InelegantBlubbering: When confessing his crimes at a press conference, his character portrait shows him openly weeping with streams of tears and snot running down his face. Several pedestrians later mock him for it, with a comical drawing of his wailing showing up on the class blackboard.
* ItsAllAboutMe: His sin and motif, an older sin (Vainglory) that would be folded along with {{Pride}}. For years he has not made a single piece of art on his own, taking credit for his disciples'. The resulting fame has given way to self-idolatry on his part, using his status for money and to stroke his ego (his Palace, a grandiose art museum, is based in his own run-down house in the real world, is proof that his humble behavior is little more than an act, as his Shadow claims he has a grander house under a mistress's name). His refusal to make any work of his own also gives him elements of [[LazyBum Sloth]].
* ItsPersonal: Yusuke feels deeply betrayed after discovering Madarame's true nature in his Palace. And then he reveals he essentially murdered Yusuke's mother in order to steal the painting she made for Yusuke as a baby.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: A microscopic example. He is nothing but a hideously evil JerkWithAHeartOfJerk in the story, but toward the end of Yusuke's confidant, the sympathetic and tragic sides of Madarame's personality are discussed. Joker and Yusuke conclude that deep, deep down, Madarame still had some good in his heart through sincere concern for Yusuke.
* KickTheDog: To a sociopathic degree. Although only audible in the game through Will Seeds, an unused scene in ''Royal'' fully depicts Madarame's last moments with Yusuke's mother. It's revealed an unhinged, envious Madarame stood over her dying and ranted over what he planned to do with her gone. After she dies, [[EvilGrin he smirks.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: The whole reason why the Phantom Thieves found out for sure that he was taking advantage of his pupils is because one of them, [[SmallRoleBigImpact Natsuhiko Nakanohara]], started to stalk his ex-girlfriend after having his dreams crushed and she posted about the harassment on the Phansite.
* MasterOfAll: His reputation is partly due to mastering all forms of Japanese art, although [[SubvertedTrope this is a lie]]- he's simply stealing the credit from his apprentices, who bring a variety of styles to the table.
* MoneyDearBoy:[[invoked]] His shadow claims that there's no purpose for art except as a brand or as a way to make money. After he's beaten, he confesses that he's scared of being a StarvingArtist again. Yusuke has little sympathy for his plight, given what he did for the sake of it.
* MurderByInaction: Yusuke's mother had a seizure in front of him. While Madarame didn't cause the seizure, he did let her die when he could've saved her in order to exploit the ''Sayuri'' for profit.
* OffStageVillainy: The player doesn't actually see him commit his more atrocious acts on screen, bar the Sayuri copies when investigating his shack. All of his real atrocities are only talked about by his shadow or from other [=NPCs=], and when he threatens a lawsuit against the party, it just seems like that he's protecting his own property.
* OneWingedAngel:
** Downplayed in Vanilla. While he has a painting form that you must kill, he's just hiding in these paintings; it's him in human form that you have to kill.
** Inverted in ''Royal''. The painting does not regenerate; instead, he can actually fight on foot by summoning Ersatz copies of himself.
* PetTheDog: While Yusuke resolves to change Madarame's heart as soon as he encounters his Shadow, he does note that Madarame at least had the heart to adopt and care for him for most of his life. It's subverted when Madarame's Shadow reveals that he let Yusuke's mother die to steal her work, and in fact adopted Yusuke for the express purpose of covering this up. Yusuke pointedly tells the Shadow that he has no reason left to forgive him. A potentially straight example, though, is when an old acquaintance of Madarame recalls how Madarame once called him, desperately trying to find someone to treat Yusuke when he fell ill with a fever as a young boy.
* PlagiarismInFiction: He steals the credit for his students' work. The most prominent among them is a painting titled ''Sayuri,'' which is seen in-universe as his [[MagnumOpus greatest work]]. In reality, the painting was a self-portrait of Yusuke's mother holding him when he was a baby, and knowing that she would likely die young due to her [[IllGirl illness]], she intended it to be a parting gift for her son. When she did die, Madarame gave the painting a name and painted over the baby in order to make it a shallow sensationalist piece. The untouched painting is what his Treasure manifests as in the real world, likely because he either saw it as a stepping stone to his rise to fame or was unable to kill his admiration for the original's artistic merit.
* PragmaticVillainy:
** He waits until after the art exhibit ends to press charges against the party, knowing that doing so during the exhibit would only damage his reputation. Ironically, this restraint gives the Thieves time to steal his heart, and ends up being his undoing.
** While it is treated as a potential PetTheDog moment, him trying to save Yusuke as a child could easily be seen as him not letting his potential golden goose die. Ultimately, the intent of this action depends on when Madarame realized Yusuke's talent.
** While Kamoshida and Shido are also [[BitchInSheepsClothing Bitches in Sheeps' Clothing]], Madarame is more consistent in maintaining his friendly facade and never drops it until he actually feels threatened, allowing him to create fewer enemies and to make it harder for his apprentices to realize they're being exploited. He's also more subdued in ruining those who stand up to him; rather than openly flaunting his power, he directs the art scene to blacklist the pupils who'd had enough of him, resulting in their careers being ruined without leaving a clear trail back to him.
* ProperlyParanoid: In spite of his apparently friendly demeanor toward the protagonists, and that he has no real reason to consider them a threat, his Palace's security already considers them enemies the first time they enter, resulting in them immediately changing into their thief costumes. His suspicions are correct, since they did come with the intention of stealing his heart.
* TheSociopath: Other than the implications he felt guilt over his role in Yusuke's mother's death and has a sliver of genuine affection for the boy, Madarame is an egotistical and manipulative hedonist that cultivates a lifestyle abusing and exploiting children. The fact one of his victims committed suicide from this [[LackOfEmpathy never even registers on his radar,]] hence why the Phantom Thieves fail to mention it in the calling card- the target has to be ''aware of'' the crimes.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: He has a great deal of influence in the art world, and uses it to retaliate against anyone who speaks out against him by having them blacklisted. He all but names the trope at one point.
* SelfDeprecation: He's willing to pretend to do this in order to further his facade. When Yusuke gets angry as the party reveals their suspicions to him, Madarame tries to get him to calm down, saying that it's natural that not everyone would like him. When Ann breaks into his private room, causing Yusuke to discover Madarame's counterfeiting racket, he makes up another lie on the spot about how having his painting stolen, as well as his own financial irresponsibility, landed him in a tough position and pushed him into doing this kind of shady work.
* SternTeacher: Despite his artist's block, Madarame was respectable enough to still judge and teach younger artists according to an unused scene in ''Royal.'' He was noted by Yusuke's mother to be very harsh, so it naturally came as a surprise to her when he was in complete awe of her Sayuri painting.
* TheSvengali: A manipulative, exploitative figure who is using Yusuke for his own gain while claiming Yusuke "owes" him for taking him in. And he killed his student's mother too.
* TimeLimitBoss: Madarame's boss fight is an interesting inverted example, as dragging his fight out long enough for him to regenerate his painting form twice makes it a near guaranteed victory for the player. At this point the player can steal his SignatureMove that makes the target weak to all forms of damage, including basic physical attacks. While not a guaranteed victory for the player, it makes the fight much easier as you can pretty much knock out all of his paintings in one turn.
* TookALevelInBadass: As the ''Royal'' trailer shows, rather then being defenseless when taken out of his Azazel form, he summons 4 elemental copies of himself to keep fighting.
-->'''Madarame:''' [[BadassBoast I am master Madarame. Let me show you how its done!]]
** Eventually subverted, as the clones don't do anything other than spamming his portrait form's elemental attacks that hit for pitiful damage because they have very low stats, and they can be easily defeated and abused for 1 mores. Just don't group target them however since they repel attacks of the same typing as them. They can also sometimes be summoned ''with aliments'' if he does it too much.
* TwoFaced: The real Madarame acts quite calm and collected for such a twisted person. It is impossible to know what he's actually like before you end up crossing him.... or you meet his Shadow, who blatantly spills everything about him without remorse, and he even looks proud of it.
* VillainBall: Shadow Madarame was able to dupe the Phantom Thieves by letting them steal a decoy of his Treasure. Rather than let them escape and waste their one chance (not that he would know ItOnlyWorksOnce), Shadow Madarame confronts the Phantom Thieves and brings his actual Treasure with him to gloat. [[JustifiedTrope But naturally, gloating and showing off are a key part of his sin, Vanity]].
* WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: Madarame feels entitled to profit from the works of his pupils and that they should feel grateful towards him for providing something as basic as a roof over their heads despite the abuse he puts them through.
* WasItAllALie: Discussed during Yusuke's Confidant. Yusuke acknowledges that Madarame took care of him from infancy despite there being no evidence that he would have any artistic skills and Kawanabe recalled a time where he was desperately looking for a doctor after hours when a baby Yusuke caught a fever. This suggests that he wasn't always as awful as he's seen in-game.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: He was once friends with Kawanabe from Yusuke's Confidant, but they stopped speaking years ago. One of the last times Kawanabe heard from Madarame was when Yusuke fell ill.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Nakanohara and eventually Yusuke realize that Madarame's modus operandi involves disposing of his apprentices once he no longer needs their talents. He's even willing to go as far as to let Yusuke's mother die in order to steal her masterpiece and exploit her son.
* YouKilledMyMother: To Yusuke's mother, via MurderByInaction.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''Bael''' (Junya Kaneshiro)]]
!!Junya Kaneshiro
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/junya.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Money-Devouring Banker of Gluttony]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Shadow Kaneshiro]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/junya_s.png[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I'm gonna swarm all over you, and squeeze out every last penny!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Gula (Gluttony)\\
'''Shadow:''' Bael\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KazunariTanaka (JP, original game), Takahiro Fujimoto (JP, anime and ''Royal''), Jalen K. Cassell (EN)

The third major target. He is a mafia boss who has been blackmailing and extorting high school students for money. His indifference toward his victims and overindulgent lifestyle creates a Palace inside the collective unconscious, where he takes the form of Bael, the demon of Gluttony.

His Palace is a massive floating bank, and in the real world it is imposed across the entirety of Shibuya, as he runs many of his operations out of it. His Treasure, which resembles a massive stack of gold bars in the Palace, is a gold plated suitcase filled with stacks of fake currency in the real world.
----
* AdaptationalJerkass: As bad as he is in the original game, his ''Animation'' counterpart is even worse. When blackmailing Makoto, he orders his men to forcefully strip her naked before having her pictures taken. Fortunately, they were stopped by the timely intervention of the Phantom Thieves.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Kaneshiro's shadow has purple skin.
* AndYourLittleDogToo: Declares his intent to make Sae his "personal slave" to Makoto's face. [[UnstoppableRage It ends badly for him]].
* AnimalMotifs: Pigs and flies, both animals often associated with gluttony. Piggy banks appear all over his Palace, and both are visible during his boss fight, with him assuming a fly-like OneWingedAngel form in combat and piloting a giant mechanical piggy bank for his second phase in Vanilla and first in ''Royal''. Pigs also fit with his [[FatBastard general appearance]], and in ''Royal'', his bodyguards are giant flies.
-->'''Kaneshiro:''' Yeh called my Piggytron a pig earlier, right? [[BerserkButton Were yeh talkin' about me too when you said that?!]]
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Played with; even though his design is based on Beelzebub, Kaneshiro's Shadow uses the name Bael, the name of the original ancient god that was demonized in Judeo-Christian traditions into Beelzebub.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Shadow Kaneshiro wears a gray three-piece suit, and is the only Shadow aside from [[spoiler:Shido]] to directly engage the Phantom Thieves on foot ([[HumongousMecha though not for long...]])
* BadBoss: After receiving the calling card, he orders his goons to hand over their earnings or he will kill them. His Shadow threatens the guards he sends at Makoto after her Awakening in a similar manner.
* BaitAndSwitch: His treasure in the real world is a golden suitcase full of money...except that the money itself is completely fake. The ''case'' that the money came in, however, is made of actual gold. The Thieves sell that off in order to fund an expensive dinner at a high-end sushi restaurant.
* BaitAndSwitchBoss: In the vanilla game, he starts off on foot and the track "Keeper of Lust" plays, usually reserved for mini bosses, before the second phase begins proper with Piggytron, which plays "Blooming Villain" like it does for the other bosses. In ''Royal'', the fight will start with "Keeper of Lust" like in the vanilla game, making you think that the fight would start the same way... until it suddenly changes to "Blooming Villain" and the Piggytron phase starts right away.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Bael is based on Beelzebub (The lord of the flies)/Baal, so of course Kaneshiro's Shadow turns into a bugman.
* {{Blackmail}}: Takes photos of the protagonists inside his club, with alcohol and cigarettes in the shot when they try to confront him, and threatens to release the pictures in three weeks they don't pay him 3 million yen.[[labelnote:*]]At the time of the game's release, that would be about $26,500 US dollars.[[/labelnote]] The party has to clear his dungeon before he makes good on this threat.
* BlatantLies: He says that his '''Pig'''gytron is definitely not a pig, even though it looks like a cross between a bank vault and a giant mechanical pig. And he referred to it as "swine-model".
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: In contrast to Kamoshida's volleyball team slaves and Madarame's painting cognitions of his pupils, Kaneshiro's walking [=ATMs=] are all virtually identical to each other.
* BreakTheCutie: His Shadow threatens Makoto with this, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain which leads directly into her Awakening]].
-->'''Kaneshiro:''' Then [[SexSlave you better start taking customers tomorrow]]. All you gotta do is endure it and do as you're told. You'll earn three million yen in no time. Although, your life and everything along with it will be a complete wreck by then! [[EvilLaugh Gwahahahahaha]]!
* CardCarryingVillain: Kaneshiro is an extremely wealthy and powerful gang leader and proudly makes no effort to pretend he is anything but that. [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Much unlike the other targets.]]
* ConspicuousConsumption: Gives 3 million yen to his mistress basically for the hell of it. It's why he's Gluttony and not Greed - he wants money solely to show off that he has it, rather than harboring greater ambitions like Okumura.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He orders the party to hand him 3 million yen after he gives the same amount to his mistress. And he only wants the party to pay that money because they interrupted him from sexually exploiting Makoto.
* TheDon: He's evidently the head of his own Yakuza family, although it is mentioned that he has his own superiors.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[DownplayedTrope Slightly.]] When hinting at the Conspiracy to the Phantom Thieves, the tone in which his shadow describes how [[TheUnfettered there is no low they won't sink to]] implies even Kaneshiro thinks they're in a different league of depravity. He finishes his speech expressing the Thieves (and himself) are nothing to them in scope and can't stop them.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He's genuinely befuddled that the Phantom Thieves aren't exploiting the hell out of the Metaverse to enrich themselves [[spoiler:like Shido]].
* EvilSoundsDeep: A [[VillainousGlutton gluttonous]], blackmailing, sex-slaving ''oyabun'' with a deep voice.
* {{Fartillery}}: Piggytron's Fear Gas attack comes out of its exhaust port.
* FatBastard: Take a good look. Also, he's extremely touchy about it.
* FatalFlaw: Not him, but his Bodyguards-for-Hire. While they are incredibly tough, resist everything and prevent your attacks from hitting Kaneshiro, a simple Dormina or Makajam, something that you will ''not'' think about using in a boss fight will disable them and let you go directly for him, in addition to letting you hit the guards freely. Furthermore, they are only in there for the money, so once he showers his entire bank's money to damage you if he's weak enough, the Guards flee and never come back.
* FauxAffablyEvil: In the Japanese version, both Kaneshiro and his Shadow have a very polite and "proper" manner of speaking until the boss fight. This aspect didn't really carry over to the English dub.
* FillerVillain: Downplayed. The only major events that happen during his arc are Makoto becoming your ally, and learning more about Black Mask. He has no personal connection to anyone in or out of your party, his boss fight is fairly straightforward, and his confession happens entirely off-screen, with Sae and Akechi recounting it. It's pretty likely he's just here to demonstrate the Phantom Thieves' powers. On the other hand, he's tied to the Conspiracy (he's one of their financial backers), and because he had been notorious for evading the police for so long, his change of heart is what truly puts the Phantom Thieves on the map. Furthermore his actions actually have a severe effect on Shujin Academy by spreading drugs and criminal behavior to the students, making him one of the more important Targets the heroes go after.
* FlawExploitation:
** Late into the fight against Piggytron, the Thieves distract him by giving him valuable items, allowing them to wail on Piggytron while Kaneshiro is obsessing over his new possession and not paying attention to the fight.
** In ''Royal'', the Piggytron is actually his phase 1, and during his phase 2, he fights on foot and summons a pair of incredibly tough fly guards for hire. Once the bodyguards block an attack directed to him, Morgana will tell you to put them to sleep so they can't block attacks and can be hit extra hard for technical damage.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: After his Shadow is defeated, he comments how the Phantom Thieves are wasting away their extraordinary powers to uphold a "naive sense of justice" and could instead exploit them to take control of the world. This is [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn what the the protagonist sinks into doing in the ending should he side with Yaldabaoth]] after concluding society cares nill for their justice and isn't worth saving.]]
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Kaneshiro thinks that he can extort the poor and gain money from them because he himself grew up in poverty. This does nothing to gain any sympathy from the Phantom Thieves.
* {{Gonk}}: He's distinctly uglier than the other targets, who go more by TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse.
* HateSink: Less so than Kamoshida and [[spoiler:Shido]], but still utterly loathsome. Even after his shadow is defeated, he still acts smug, unrepentant, and condescending towards the Phantom Thieves, something that not even [[spoiler:Shido's shadow]] did.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Wants to make Sae his "personal slave", and intends on forcing Makoto into prostitution to recoup the 3 million yen. The latter occurs if [[NonStandardGameOver the player misses his Palace's deadline]], though (thankfully) not actually as [[MushroomSamba it's a product of Joker's drug induced stupor]].
* TheHedonist: As the representation of ''Gluttony'', Kaneshiro indulges in spending frivolously without a regard for the consequences. He doesn't spend money because he wants something, but rather he spends money ''for the sake'' of spending money.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** Played for the laughs for Piggytron; do enough damage to him when he starts up Piggytron's "Super VIP Form" RollingAttack, and he'll fall off and be squashed himself. It has no effect on gameplay, however.
** Played straight during his on foot phase in ''Royal''; if you drop his HP low enough there, he will start raining all the cash in his vault to severely damage you with around the same power as a Hassou Tobi from your Yoshitsune. Unfortunately, this results in his money vault being ''empty'' and since he uses vault money to hire his bodyguards and they are only in it for the money in his bank, both his guards for hire will flee if they are still around and they don't return, leaving him open for assault.
* HumongousMecha: Pilots a giant mechanical PiggyBank named Piggytron in the second phase of his fight.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: For all his smugness and confidence, his Shadow is shown to be extremely insecure especially when concerning his weight and wealth. This is what drives his obsession with money, due to being mocked for his weight and poor background.
* KickTheDog: Saddling Makoto and the Phantom Thieves (when he thought the latter were still ordinary high-schoolers) with a 3 million yen debt basically out of spite, and then threatening to make Sae and Makoto {{Sex Slave}}s if they can't pay. That last one [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ends up triggering Makoto's Awakening]].
* {{Irony}}: In ''Royal'', he summons an ''incredibly tough'' Hitman-for-Hire and Bodyguard-for-Hire and claims that he can do anything with money while boasting about their toughness. It just takes one Dormina or Makajam to disable them and hit them for extra huge damage.
* LaughablyEvil: He may be a heinous criminal, but seeing his Shadow's goofy little mustache and use of TotallyRadical slang, as well as him piloting a ''giant mechanical piggy bank'' makes him come across as one of the sillier villains.
* LoanShark: His Shadow alludes to it, cheerfully offering the party a loan at an interest rate of 10% per day.
* MeaningfulName: Kaneshiro literally means "Money Castle". Nothing could be more appropriate for a target whose Palace is a bank.
* MoneyMauling: In ''Royal'', his "Make it Rain" attack deals a lot of Physical damage by dropping mountains of coins on the Phantom Thieves. However, ItOnlyWorksOnce, since he exhausts his vault to do it. When Kaneshiro tries the attack a second time, only a single coin falls. [[EpicFail This not only does absolutely nothing to the Phantom Thieves, but it makes his guards run if they're still there]] since they're both OnlyInItForTheMoney.
* MorallyBankruptBanker: Kaneshiro isn't actually a banker, but he sees his scam as the equivalent of running a bank. For this reason, his Palace is a bank of which his Shadow is the President.
* NeverMyFault: Claims he's just a victim of society after losing to the party since as a poor, ugly man he ''had'' to do evil deeds to get to the top! [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse The party doesn't show him any sympathy after what he's done]].
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: ''Twice''. Blackmailing Makoto and the team lets them enter his Palace, and his Shadow's [[AndYourLittleDogToo threats towards Sae]] help trigger Makoto's Awakening.
* NouveauRiche: He exemplifies the obnoxious mannerisms and greed typical of the Nouveau Riche, on top of being a criminal.
* ObviouslyEvil: While other Targets at least have a good reputation to cover themselves (though Kunikazu Okumura's reputation takes a nosedive even before his heart is stolen), Kaneshiro is the only Target whose job is criminal by nature and also a target of police, and the other reason why the Phantom Thieves targeted him (aside from Makoto's request and getting blackmailed) was to show the world that the Phantom Thieves will also target corrupt people who are also on the police's radar, to show they're not 100% against law enforcement.
* OffStageVillainy: The player only meets one actual victim of his, an extremely minor {{NPC}} who drops out of the plot thereafter. He does try to blackmail the Phantom Thieves, but the worst consequences of that only occur [[NonStandardGameOver if his Palace isn't completed on time.]]
* OhCrap: Makoto's awakening and direct assault on his Shadow's guards leave this impression on his face. He regains his composure quick, though.
* OneWingedAngel: Transforms into a more fly-like version of himself as Bael. [[ClippedWingAngel This form isn't much of a threat on its own though...]]
* OrcusOnHisThrone: The Thieves only meet his real person once, and the only other time his real person appears is after the Thieves sent him the calling card. He's never even seen appearing out of his nightclub.
* PersonalMook: In ''Royal'', the Piggytron goes ''first'' and he will fight on foot once it's destroyed. Instead, he will summon two flies that are known as Hitman-for-Hire and Bodyguard-for-Hire, which he claims to be hired with money to protect him. True to the word, they are ''incredibly tough'' due to resisting everything; but it just takes a simple Dormina or Makajam to neutralize them and hit them hard.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: When the party first encounters his Shadow, he states that young women are the easiest to target because they lack strength and brainpower and that they only exist to be 'devoured'. Makoto's awakening is largely triggered by the glee he expresses over the prospect of making her and Sae DefiledForever by having them work as prostitutes.
* PsychopathicManchild: Kaneshiro cultivates a mysterious image as a dreaded ShadowDictator of one of the most untouchable and terrifying gangs in Japan. When the Thieves meet him, however, he proves to be nothing like what's expected of such an individual. Kaneshiro introduces himself throwing a ridiculous temper tantrum over his guards letting kids into his den, then anxiously claims he must spend a lot of money now to relieve the "stress" of such a situation. The Palace of his subconscious is also second to Okumura in being the most childish compared to the deeply twisted nature of the other Palaces, illustrating Kaneshiro as a deeply insecure manchild under all the bluster.
* PurpleIsPowerful: Kaneshiro’s suit jacket and his Shadow counterpart’s skin are purple, fitting someone of Mafia “Royalty”.
* RagsToRiches: He was once poor, and [[SelfMadeMan "worked" his way up to the top]].
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: He is not as lustful as Kamoshida, but Kaneshiro is still considered one of the most deplorable targets of Phantoms Thieves due to his desire of wanting to force both Niijima sisters to a life of sex slavery. He even stated that he was planning on making Sae his "personal slave", something that greatly angered Makoto. The Yakuza is known for their sex trades, after all, so it makes sense.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Does this to Makoto, calling her useless in comparison to her sister, whom he also wants under his thumb. Like Kamoshida, he ends up triggering Makoto awakening her Persona.
* RetailTherapy: He claims that he spends money to relieve stress and that the 3 million yen he demands from the protagonists is to pay for a present he gave to one of his mistresses in anger over his subordinates allowing someone to find him.
* RobbingTheMobBank: He's a mob boss and his Palace takes the form of a bank.
* RollingAttack: Piggytron's most dangerous move, though you can make it backfire on him.
* {{Sadist}}: His Shadow ''laughs maniacally'' at the thought of destroying Makoto's life by forcing her into sex trafficking.
* {{Slimeball}}: A greedy, greasy, ugly {{Jerkass}} who tries to blackmail Makoto into prostitution and isn't even that tough on top of it all - yep, Kaneshiro checks all the boxes.
* SmugSnake: For all his bravado, he's really a blustering coward who's completely helpless without his money; see him essentially having to jump inside a giant mechanical piggy bank to actually pose a threat, and hide behind bodyguards who are OnlyInItForTheMoney in ''Royal''.
* TheSocialDarwinist: Believes those at the top of society should oppress the weak. Ironic, seeing as he used to be poor himself.
* TheSociopath: Much like Madarame, Kaneshiro cultivates profit from exploiting children and has absolutely no qualms over it. And say whatever you will against Kamoshida and [[spoiler:Shido]], at least their cognitions of other people indicate they ''recognize'' them as human beings [[FauxAffablyEvil if only for their own gain.]] Kaneshiro [[CardCarryingVillain not only puts up no facade,]] his cognitions of the people of Shibuya are ''walking, talking'' '''''Automatic Teller Machines''''', indicating he sees every living person around him as things to exploit for money.
* SquashedFlat: This will happen to him if you mess up his RollingAttack.
* StrawMisogynist: His Shadow derides women as weak, stupid and powerless and all-but-says they're only worth anything as {{Sex Slave}}s. Makoto soon makes him eat his words.
* TermsOfEndangerment: Refers to Makoto with terms like "pretty little student council president" and "Miss Beautiful President".
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Combines this with TranquilFury after realizing his men got followed by the Phantom Thieves. When Ryuji asks him why he's giving money to his mistress seemingly out of the blue, Kaneshiro responds with a [[TheUnsmile ghastly smile]] and this line:
-->'''Kaneshiro:''' ''I'm royally pissed right now.'' Can you tell? You know how spending money relieves stress? [...] See this empty space? I'm so ''pissed'' that now there's a three million yen gap here.
* TranquilFury: When he receives a calling card from the Phantom Thieves, he nonchalantly dismisses it. But you could clearly tell that he's seething with anger given the terrified expression of the goon who passed the calling card to him.
* TrickBoss: When you fight him in Vanilla, at first he is pretty weak and only fights on foot. The standard boss music also does not play and the mid-boss theme plays instead. But after you beat him, he instantly hops onto his Piggytron and fights you at full force, with the music becoming the actual boss theme. In ''Royal'', this is the reverse, as he fights on foot with a pair of bodyguards after you beat the Piggytron and the music is the actual boss theme on default.
* VillainousBreakdown: When the calling card arrives, he threatens his men to hand over everything they've earned at once lest he kill them while he and his mistress intend to skip town. Like this helped him in the end.
* VillainousGlutton: His sin and motif. He's a Yakuza boss who flaunts his power with money and objects and isn't afraid to trample over others to gain even more of it. In fact, he becomes incredibly distressed when his bank runs out of money after using all of them to finish the Phantom Thieves in ''Royal''. His Palace being a massive bank ties to {{Greed}} as well, but the main difference between him and Okumura (who better embodies the latter sin) is that Kaneshiro is satisfied overindulging as an ''oyabun,'' whereas Okumura has ambitions beyond being president of his company. His need for overindulgence can be tied to having grown up poor.
* VillainsDyingGrace: Not exactly dying for real, but once his Shadow is defeated, he decides to throw the Thieves a major bone on the mysterious Conspiracy without dropping any names.
* VisualPun: Both of his battle forms are based on a pun relating to their name. Piggytron is a mechanical piggy bank, it is piloted by Bael and it can convert into a ball. Also, during his boss fight, he sprouts bug eyes and wings, while speaking more casually and with slang. In other words, he's literally acting fly.
* WhatAnIdiot: InUniverse. Kaneshiro has this reaction at his subordinates when the Phantom Thieves barge into his hideout in the real world.[[note]]He was aware that Makoto called "her boyfriend" at some point, thus suspecting that she had leaked his whereabouts to them; Makoto had in reality kept her phone on so they could hear where Kaneshiro's goons were taking her.[[/note]]
-->'''Kaneshiro:''' Oh, I get it. ''You got followed, you dumb shits!''
* WickedPretentious: His Shadow affects the mannerisms of an upper-class bank president, though he abandons it for his boss battle.
* WouldHurtAChild: His criminal organization makes drug mules out of high school students by promising easy money, making them easier to extort for all they're worth; the students would be too afraid of getting arrested by the police for the drug-dealing to tattle on the gang. His Shadow takes it a step further, gloating to Makoto that he's going to pimp her out as a sex slave if she fails to pay back her debt. The bad ending of his Palace proves he's not kidding.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Despicable as he is, it takes a special kind of criminal to go from having his hideout discovered by a bunch of kids to fabricating blackmail material on the five of them by simply pulling out his cell phone and taking a photo. Furthermore, his Shadow revealed that extorting money out of them wasn't his real objective; Kaneshiro was hoping that Makoto would fail to pay him and then use her as leverage against her sister the prosecutor, who he knew was trying to send him to prison, a chance he spotted the moment his men brought Makoto to him.
* {{Yakuza}}: An ''[[TheDon oyabun]]'', to be precise.
* YouFool: Right before his boss battle, he stops trying to justify himself and breaks out a long string of childish insults.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''Shadow Futaba''' (Futaba Sakura)]]
!!Futaba Sakura
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/futuba_s.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Self-Loathing Pharaoh of Death]]
->''"You were used! They trampled all over your young heart! Get mad! Don't forgive those rotten adults!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Ira (Wrath)\\
'''Boss:''' The Sphinx\\
'''Shadow voiced by:''' Creator/AoiYuuki (JP), Creator/EricaLindbeck (EN)\\
'''Sphinx voiced by:''' Minako Arakawa (JP), Creator/ErinFitzgerald (EN)

The fourth major target. Futaba Sakura's feelings of SurvivorGuilt and self-hatred creates a Palace inside the collective unconscious, where her emotions manifest as the Sphinx, avatar of Wrath. Unlike the other Shadows, Shadow Futaba isn't the Sphinx. Rather, Futaba's Shadow represents her suppressed ''positive'' feelings about herself. Meanwhile, the Sphinx is Futuba's misguided projection of her dead mother, whose passing has been driving Futaba deeper and deeper into self-loathing. After realizing the Thieves are trying to help Futuba, she willingly aids them, and eventually becomes the Persona Necronomicon to protect her other self.

Futaba's Palace resembles an Egyptian pyramid meant to serve as a tomb, and it is based in her and Sojiro Sakura's house in the real world. Due to the unique circumstances surrounding her and her Palace, her treasure turns out to be herself. While Morgana suspects that a "traditional" Treasure lied in a massive sarcophagus at the top of the Pyramid, Futaba enters her Palace herself, and subsequently becomes the Treasure instead.

-->For tropes pertaining to the real world Futaba, see [[Characters/Persona5ThePhantomThievesOfHeartsSecondHalf here]].
----
* AlreadyDoneForYou: Futaba accepts her Shadow on her own, without the party's help.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** The dungeon is based on Futaba's thoughts and controlled by her Shadow, so things are expected to occur like they did in ''VideoGame/Persona4'', right? Nope, Futaba's Shadow is ''not'' the boss of the dungeon, and Futaba accepts and converts into a Persona without a fight, using it to pull a BigDamnHeroes on the real boss: a false version of Futaba's mother created by her mind, a manifestation of her belief that her mother blames her for her death. To top off the switch, ''Futaba herself'' is the treasure of her palace: by "stealing" her own heart, she is able to reform from a suicidal shut-in to a happier and more confident young woman who overcomes her fear of her mother. It also prevent her from suffering the usual fates of those who have their treasure stolen as she was able to maintain her free will instead of ending up being in the prison of regression as a docile and eerily tranquil girl and oh, getting arrested as Literature/{{Ali Baba|andTheFortyThieves}}.
** Futaba's acting as a shut-in will lead players to assume her sin motif is Sloth. Except her true sin is actually Wrath, representing her self hatred in the form of blaming herself for her mother's death, as well as unintentionally enabling a group of government hacks to impersonate her group Medjed to resort to a nationwide hacking spree that endangers not just her, but the identities of people like Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves.
* BareYourMidriff: Her stomach is completely bare in her pharaoh outfit.
* BuildLikeAnEgyptian: Her palace takes the form of a desert and massive Egyptian pyramids and temples.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: Shadow Futaba's security level icon takes the form of white eyes, which [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glow]] upon the Thieves being spotted.
* EnemyWithout: She's a Shadow Self, what did you expect? [[SubvertedTrope Well, joke's on you]]. Shadow Futaba and the Sphinx are two different people, with Shadow Futaba embodying [[InvertedTrope Futaba's remaining hope and desire to come out of her depression]].
* FourIsDeath: She's the fourth Palace ruler, born from SurvivorsGuilt and suicidal depression.
* {{Foil}}: Shadow Futaba is the TokenGoodTeammate among the palace rulers, being a Stoic HeroAntagonist whose is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, whose only trying to protect Futaba. The actual boss of the palace, [[UnstoppableRage The Sphinx]] is a creature with the face of her mother, [[NoIndoorVoice screams every line at the top of her lungs]], and is a manifestation of Futaba's self-loathing. They also represent opposite sins, Shadow Futaba being Sloth (in it's [[DespairEventHorizon despair]] and [[HopeIsScary fear]] aspects) and the Sphinx being Wrath (as in self-hatred), as well as the upright and reverse hermit, respectively.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: The Shadows in the palace call her "Queen Futaba" during negotiations, but it's played with in that while she's antagonistic to the party at first, Futaba herself is a significantly better person than the other targets, and her Shadow reflects that.
* GoodCounterpart: Unlike the Shadows in ''VideoGame/Persona4'', who was born of the repressed negative feelings of their hosts, Futaba's Shadow is her hidden ''positive'' feelings, since Futaba outwardly is filled with self-loathing.
* TheHeartless: Shadow Futaba is the first Shadow in the series to actually invert this trope as she was born from Futaba's positive feelings instead of her negative ones.
* HeroAntagonist: Shadow Futaba, born as she is of the real one's ''survival instinct'' and attempts to talk herself out of suicide, is actually a JerkWithAHeartOfGold - Futaba's own (understandable) anxiety at having outside forces meddling with her heart is the reason she's hostile to the Phantom Thieves, instinctually trying to protect her. The enmity disappears once it's demonstrated that the Thieves mean no harm.
* IneffectualLoner: Shadow Futaba doesn't initially realize she needs the Thieves' help to save Futaba from herself.
* MetaTwist: As explained above, the fact that she is a Shadow borne of Futaba's ''positive'' emotions was a rather unexpected plot twist at the time, to the point where the ''entire'' folder used to be spoiler-marked because of this.
* NephariousPharaoh: Futaba's antagonistic Shadow dresses like an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. Actually, she's not nearly as antagonistic as most Shadow Selves are.
* SevenDeadlySins: The palace overall has two of them. One is the [[UnstoppableRage Sphinx]], which to summarize is Futaba's perception of her mother's hatred against her, representing the dungeon's main sin, Wrath. The other is Shadow Futaba, or moreso her IRL counterpart, as she was looking for an easy way to recover from her trauma and being a {{Hikikomori}}, her shadow never actually fights you (in fact her overall resistance is comparatively token to the other palace rulers), let alone take a monstrous form which only shared with one other boss shadow, and the persona she turns to doesn't fight much either, being a SupportPartyMember, overall representing Sloth (and would be the dungeons dedicated sin if not for the Sphinx and Mementos.) As you can tell, they directly oppose each other.
* ThePowerOfHate: She encourages Futaba to vent her anger at the adults responsible for not only killing her mother, but also faking a suicide note which mentally wrecked her for years under the pretence that she was responsible.
* PyramidPower: The dungeon's BossBattle hides at the top of a massive pyramid.
* TheStoic: Shadow Futaba is completely controlled and measured at all times, even as the Phantom Thieves grow more and more frustrated with her riddles and games. The Sphinx, on the other hand, [[NoIndoorVoice screams every line at the top of her lungs]] and attacks savagely and constantly unless stunned by a catapult shot.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: One moment she asks the party for help, only to immediately let them fall into a death trap afterwards. This is a representation of the real Futaba's desire to be saved and her instinct to push people away as a defence mechanism.
* SurvivorGuilt: Her isolation is due to her mother dying due to mental shutdown followed by a car accident, which people falsely said was suicide due to the stress of raising Futaba. And she's so depressed she thinks her mother blames ''her'' for it.
* TarotMotifs: The Reversed Hermit, representing unhealthy and excessive isolation, symbolized by Futaba's Palace being on the other side of a massive desert, even when the gang enters the Metaverse right outside her room. The actual Sphinx, not Shadow Futaba, represents this. Shadow Futaba represents the upright Hermit, the ability to grow emotionally from introspection and finding inner balance and stability.
* UnstoppableRage: Her sin and motif is Wrath - The Sphinx, that is, as she appears to Futaba as a massive beast fueled with anger and a need for vengeance stemming from Futaba being born. The Wrath also manifests herself in the real Futaba - in an ironic twist, her anger and hatred is directed towards ''herself''. Shadow Futaba herself does not embody Wrath at all, but is instead accused of Sloth (in it's [[DespairEventHorizon despair]] and [[HopeIsScary fear]] aspects) by the CallingCard-and even that's a bit downplayed, as Shadow Futaba's initial antagonism is born of Futaba's social anxiety, and she actually wants Futaba to break out of her isolation and shell. However, the organization that she led and is impersonated by Shido's cronies, Medjed represents this as the Cleanse is utterly indiscriminate in whom it targets and that includes her and everyone she knows.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''Mammon''' (Kunikazu Okumura)]]
!!Kunikazu Okumura
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/okumura.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Star-Reaching Dictator of Greed]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Shadow Okumura]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/okamura_s.png[[/labelnote]]]]

->''"The cold reality of kicking people down is a part of business! Virtue and sentiment are for losers."''

-->'''Sin:''' Avaritia (Greed)\\
'''Shadow:''' Mammon\\
'''Voiced by:''' Hirohiko Kakegawa (JP), Creator/ChristopherCoreySmith (EN)

The fifth major target. He is the president of Okumura Foods, a fast food company most famous for the Big Bang Burger chain you can find in various places in the game, and he is Haru Okumura's father. His selfish ambitions to enter the political world at the cost of both his company and employees' livelihoods creates a Palace inside the Metaverse, where he takes the form of Mammon, the demon of Greed.

Okumura's Palace is a SpaceStation, and it is based in the Okumura Foods World HQ in the real world. His treasure resembles a mysterious orb with a metallic shell, while in the real world it manifests as a model toy kit of a spaceship he wanted as a child but was too poor to buy it.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Okumura is infamous among the public for the treatment of his employees, which is why he topped the polls on the Phansite as the Phantom Thieves' next target. [[spoiler:Even when it's later revealed that The Conspiracy rigged the polls, it ultimately mattered little considering the public's initial opinion towards his death.]] This is likely one of the reasons why The Conspiracy had him pegged for death, as [[spoiler:his infamy would bring bad publicity to the other members by association.]] Since his entire motive is to run a presidential campaign against [[spoiler:Shido]], it's also very likely a move for The Conspiracy to make sure that [[spoiler:Shido goes into presidency uncontested.]]
* AbusiveParents: Forces his daughter into an ArrangedMarriage with a man he knows is sexually predatory (judging by his cognition), solely for political gain.
* ActionBomb: He will order his robot minions to self-destruct during his boss battle.
* AdaptationalJerkass: He's arguably even worse in ''Royal'', having a cognitive copy of Haru as an android completely loyal to her father. Once the Execurobo is defeated, he orders her to step in and turns her into a robot that self destructs after two turns. This means that if there is nothing left for him, he's not above sacrificing his own daughter as a last-ditch suicide bomber! In addition to this, when he is referring to the real Haru during the whole fight with him, he even calls her an imitation that looks like his daughter, indicating that if she didn't go by the arranged marriage at that point, she is no longer his daughter, or even human for him.
* AlasPoorVillain: His business practices are hard on his employees, and he puts Haru in an arranged marriage with an abusive spouse who happens to be the son of a member of the Diet to give himself a political boost, but Haru still legitimately cares for him and believes he can be the good man he once was... and so ''none'' of the Thieves think he remotely deserved his fate, never mind the effect it has on poor Haru.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: His shadow has blue skin.
* AmbitionIsEvil: His wishes to expand his wealth and his influence - the latter by becoming a politician - is why he represents Greed. Despite the fact that Kaneshiro had a palace that took the form of a bank, he is content hoarding luxuries and lacks Okumura's ambitions.
* ArchnemesisDad: He is Haru's father while also serving as the boss of her dungeon, since she wants to change his heart so that she won't have to get married. Played with, in that he would be an example of GoodParents were it not for his willingness to sacrifice Haru's happiness for his political ambitions. His Shadow is horrified upon realizing Haru has turned on him, but quickly declares her worthless and leaves her to Cognitive Sugimura.
* AssholeVictim: Deconstructed. While Okumura is shown to be a terrible person who has done horrible things to many people, including his own daughter, it does not mean he deserved to die a horrible death. This is even brought up in-universe when his death was broadcasted live. Initially, many people on the Phansite disturbingly rejoice at his death for all the crimes he had done, but once the euphoria dies down their mood shifts to that of horror.
* BackFromTheDead: In ''Royal'''s third semester, he is inexplicably alive and back in Haru's life. [[spoiler:It turns out Maruki resurrected him as part of his LotusEaterMachine.]]
* BadBoss: Orders his robot minions to self-destruct to damage the party. To a lesser extent, the real Okumura is highly exploitative of his employees, which is why they're represented as robots in the space station.
* BigBadWannabe: Okumura tries to climb his way up to the political ladder, and its even implied that he plans on running against [[spoiler:Shido]] in the elections. Unfortunately, he's nothing more than another loose end for [[spoiler:the Conspiracy to tie up.]]
* ClosetGeek: Heavily implied. His shadow seems to relish in [[LargeHam theatrical villainy]] and wears an obvious Darth Vader knockoff suit, and his Palace has an outlandish sci-fi theme that turns out to be directly based on his treasure, a model spaceship kit that his father refused to buy him when he was a kid.
* CoDragons: Shadow Okumura has Cognitive Sugimura the [[KingMook Corporobo MDL-ED]] who was the cognitive version of the real-life second-in-command of his company and in ''Royal'', a cognitive copy of Haru, in this role.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: He is the head of a fast food empire who overworks his employees to dangerous levels, puts profit over the quality of his products, and is [[spoiler:a member of TheConspiracy.]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Upon his Shadow Self being killed, in the real world he oozes out sludge from his mouth and eyes on live television in a way that looks extremely painful.
* DarthVaderClone: As befitting a sci-fi geek with a space station Palace, his Shadow's costume is basically Darth Vader's with a spaceman helmet instead of the iconic mask. Also, he used to be a decent man before succumbing to his worse nature, tries to get his child to follow him in being immoral and self-serving, and is ultimately subservient to someone with more power and even less scruples. His child also wants to redeem him and return him to the good man he once was, and ultimately suceeds in doing that. Finally, he ultimately dies while trying to bring down [[spoiler:his former leader]], but tragically, he gets assassinated before he can expose the Conspiracy instead of going out in a HeroicSacrifice.
* EvenEvilCanBeLoved: Despite being an overall horrible person, his daughter Haru truly loves him, and is horrified when he has a mental shutdown on live TV.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In contrast to Madarame [[HiddenDepths (mostly)]] and a true monster like [[spoiler:[[TheSociopath Shido]]]], Okumura genuinely cares for Haru despite his willingness to put his ambitions first, and genuinely begs for her forgiveness once he's defeated. It makes her reaction to his death considerably more tragic.
* FatalFlaw: {{Greed}}, obviously. Literally in this case, as it's implied his political ambitions put him into conflict with [[spoiler:Shido and partly fueled the decision to knock him off.]]
* FlunkyBoss: The flunkies he summons form the main part of the fight (the last of which is essentially a KingMook), with Okumura himself hanging out of reach, supporting them with buffs and debuffing your party. Once his flunkies are all gone, Okumura himself turns into a ZeroEffortBoss, since he'll never attack, and he'll go down with just a few regular hits.
* FoodFight: His KingMook has an attack which involves a cartoony tray of a Big Bang Burger meal which explodes.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: During the interrogation room segment, Sae warns Joker about how his testimony towards what happened with Okumura will be taken very seriously. This is a hint towards him getting killed during the course of the story.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: Wears glasses and happens to be a villain targeted by the Phantom Thieves. Played with, in that he's one of the more sympathetic ones.
* FreudianExcuse: Haru notes that when he was a child, his father/her grandfather was a kind businessman, but was often in debt due to his lack of financial skills. Kunikazu had to watch his father undergo this and thus shaped himself to become the opposite; a shrewd and ruthless businessman with little kindness. His Treasure manifested in real life is actually a spaceship model kit he desperately wanted, but could not afford, which also explains the theme of his palace.
* GratuitousEnglish: In the Japanese version, he gives Morgana ten seconds to choose between him and the Thieves, saying "Time is money!" in English.
* {{Greed}}: His sin and motif. His business practices (overworked employees and unsanitary working conditions among them) are unethical and driven by profit, and he put his daughter in an ArrangedMarriage with the son of a member of the Diet so that he can enter the political world, not only knowing that the younger man would likely take mistresses but consenting to let Haru be one of them should she become unsuitable for marriage. His space station palace embodies both his ambitions and his tacit ignorance of his sacrificing Haru's happiness.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: As he's about to reveal the ones behind [[spoiler:the conspiracy]], his Shadow is shot and destroyed, causing his real self to die during a press conference soon after.
* HisNameIs: [[spoiler:Akechi]] kills him before he can reveal [[spoiler:Shido]] is the leader of the conspiracy.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: One of his attacks, Big Bang Challenge, deals a ton of Almighty damage. While it may seem bad, it actually helps out any party members affected with Hunger; instead of being hurt, the attack ''fully heals them and removes Hunger.''
* IllMan: He's apparently not in the best of health. Haru points this out when he's bedridden after his heart is stolen, and when he's killed, it's brought up again, which is why people are initially unclear on the cause of death.
* IronicEcho: Early on in his dungeon, he says that he believes that the Okumura way involves avoiding failure at any cost, even if it means betraying others. At the start of the final confrontation, he traps the party except for Haru and Morgana in a force field, and then repeats those lines when giving the two of them an ultimatum- betray their allies or share their fate.
* InformedKindness: Okumura supposedly loves Haru deep down, but other than a gesture of apologizing once his Shadow is [[ISurrenderSuckers truly]] beaten, this is never remotely made apparent or implied even in Haru's Confidant. Even Madarame is revealed to have cared more for Yusuke than Okumura with Haru. In the third semester in ''Royal'', while he is a compassionate man who spends a lot of time with Haru, [[spoiler: this is an illusionary construct of Maruki's.]]
* {{Irony}}:
** One of his moves during his boss fight is "Sacrifice Order", which forces one of his mooks to self-destruct the next turn. [[spoiler:The Conspiracy he is financially backing does away with him the exact same way to prevent him from revealing the conspiracy and harming Shido's chances at winning the election.]]
** His philosophy is to sacrifice others to get ahead in life and he was noted to treat his workers pretty badly. During the boss fight with him, he eventually runs out of Shadows to use for his "Sacrifice Order" ability because of said beliefs and actions.
* ISurrenderSuckers: At the start of the fight, he tricks the Phantom Thieves into thinking he's surrendered by apologizing to Haru, then when Haru approaches him, traps the others besides her and Morgana (who manages to get out in time) in a force field.
* ItsAllAboutMe: His normal self tells Haru that her marriage with Sugimura will be an important connection for his company, "and more importantly, for me."
* ItsPersonal: With Haru, who he planned to force into an abusive arranged marriage for his own profit. In fact, when Sae asks you why he was singled out when there are multiple {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s guilty of similar sins, you can explicitly say that it was because Haru was in trouble.
* KarmicDeath: He requests the services of the Black Mask to eliminate competitors and disgruntled employees. [[spoiler:The Black Mask does the same thing to him at the behest of Okumura's co-conspirators.]]
* KickTheDog: When the cognitive version of Haru's fiance complains that Haru has been DefiledForever because of her association with other men and says his own father may not approve of her, Kunikazu's Shadow says that he can simply take her as a lover. Haru's horrified to hear that her father knows her fiance is this kind of person and still would go through with the deal, and thus awakens her Persona.
* KingMook: The last robot he summons is a large and black robot that resembles some of the robots fought as minibosses, as well as in earlier waves in the Mammon battle.
* LargeHam: Shadow Kunikazu is prone to making grandiose soliloquies about his ambitions and motives.
* ManipulativeBastard: His Shadow, by insincerely apologizing and recounting memories of the past, is able to lure Haru away from the other thieves, allowing him to spring a trap on them.
* MookDepletion: After his KingMook is defeated, he'll try to summon more robots... and none arrive. Having thought he had an infinite number of disposable lackeys at his beck and call, Okumura is faced with the logical conclusion of his treatment of his minions: All who blindly followed his orders are dead, and any who could possibly be left refuse to help him.
* TheNeidermeyer: While he is a businessman and nothing in the game gives any indication of military service, his shadow hits all the points for this trope's application. He sends wave after wave of minions to attack the P-Thieves, and from an armchair no less in his boss fight; cares nothing for their well-being, is utterly useless in combat himself, and consistently talks about using his company as a stepping stone to greater glory, namely the political sphere.
* NonActionArcVillain: Prefers to support from afar while his minions do his work for him.
* ObliviouslyEvil: His major problem is that he refuses to see how much his shady business practices are hurting Haru. Then {{subverted|Trope}} when his Cognitive Sugimura turns out to be just as vile as the real thing, leading to Haru's Awakening.
* ObviouslyEvil: Played with. His corrupt business practices are very well-known among the general public by the time the thieves target him, making him the only target other than Kaneshiro who isn't a VillainWithGoodPublicity. Additionally, nearly everyone is begging the thieves to take him down. This hints at something suspicious going on, as no previous target had their secrets revealed until after the Thieves exposed them. [[spoiler:The Conspiracy]] wants the Thieves to [[spoiler:rush into taking him down, for good reason.]]
* OhCrap: After his most powerful robot is defeated, he tries to summon another, but is unable to do so, and is shocked to realize that it's now him against the Thieves. In ''Royal'', he still has his cognitive Haru as a last ditch attempt, but after he suicide bombs it up in front of the Thieves and Joker still survives the attack, he makes the same reaction.
* OneWingedAngel: The fact he Averts this is notable: whereas all of the other Targets transform into grotesque monsters for their battles against the Phantom Thieves, Mammon goes through no such metamorphoses.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Aside from his treatment of his daughter, his boss fight in ''Royal'' has him derogatorily call Ann a slut. Ann aside, he also throws other ''incredibly derogatory'' insults against anyone whom he wants to target with his robots.
* PoseOfSupplication: His Shadow does this immediately before and after his fight- the former is a trap and the latter is genuine.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While in the events of ''Persona 5'' he ''very obviously'' isn't, both him and Haru had stated that he used to be one a long time ago. By the events of ''Scramble'', his trade partner Mariko Hyodo even confirms that Okumura used to genuinely care for Haru instead of treating her as a political pawn.
** If one takes the time to eavesdrop him [[spoiler:near the Shibuya Big Bang Burger during the brief week where he's revived by Maruki, he will be seen personally inspecting that branch for his employees' well being and the quality of his products. Based on how well Haru knows Okumura, this might very probably be how he used to act a long time ago.]]
* TheScapegoat: He was deliberately chosen by [[spoiler:the conspiracy to be targeted by the Phantom Thieves, only because Shido believed Okumura wasn't good enough for politics.]] They had to get him out of the picture since [[spoiler:he still knew too much.]]
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:Is revived by Maruki in ''Royal''.]]
* StandardStatusEffects: He and his robot minions inflict Hunger, which lowers damage output.
* StartOfDarkness: There are proof in the game that implies that Okumura was never as shrewd, ambitious or corrupt as he is before his burger chain became famous and he tried to politically compete with Shido. In fact, during the third semester, [[spoiler:the Okumura revived by Maruki's spell]] was actually a clumsy unambitious businessman who genuinely cared for Haru, further proving that he wasn't always the CorruptCorporateExecutive seen in-game.
* TheStarscream: It's implied that he was planning on running against [[spoiler:Shido for Prime Minister, and this was the original reason Shido wanted him dead -- framing the Thieves for his murder was a convenient second bird to kill with that stone.]]
* TheSociopath: Seemingly of the [[LackOfEmpathy utterly unfeeling]] and [[ItsAllAboutMe greedy]] kind like Kaneshiro up to even sharing inhuman cognitions of other people, but possibly subverted with his love for Haru deep down. It should be noted he only realizes he wronged Haru after his reformation; before that, he was knowingly going to sell her into sexual slavery for his gain and refused to hear her pleas.
* TimeLimitBoss: He must be defeated within thirty minutes after his battle starts. In addition, there's a time limit of ten minutes to reach him once his ship starts to take off.
* VirtueIsWeakness: Has this mentality, expressed in his quote. He's willing to trample over others in order to increase and expand his wealth.
* WalkingSpoiler: He's the only Palace ruler to ''die'' after having his treasure stolen, although it's a FalseFlagOperation set up by TheConspiracy to get rid of [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness someone who was no longer useful]] and frame the Phantom Thieves for it.
* WhamEpisode: His unexpected death marks when things start to go to shit for the Thieves, and the point at which they seriously stake their lives to fight [[spoiler:the Conspiracy.]]
* WealthyYachtOwner: While it didn't come up in the game, in ''VideoGame/Persona5DancingInStarlight'' Haru comments that her father owned a yacht and that she's not sure what to do with it after his passing.
* WeHaveReserves: During his boss fight he continually throws employee robots of increasing rank at you, culminating in the cognitive version of the company's second-in-command, and demands they give up their lives for him if necessary. Unfortunately for him, there's only so many troops in his arsenal, and once the Phantom Thieves destroy them all he's left defenseless. ''Royal'' shows that not even his cognitive version of his own daughter is exempt from this, as he uses her as a suicide bomber once he runs out of robots.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:The conspiracy]] has him killed when he's a liability, hacking the Phan-Site so that they set him up to have his heart stolen, leading the Thieves into [[spoiler:their trap and being framed for his murder.]]
* ZeroEffortBoss: Without his minions to fight for him, he stops attacking and goes down in no more than a couple of hits. The only way to lose once Shadow Okumura can be targeted is to intentionally let the timer run out.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''Leviathan''' (Sae Niijima)]]
!!Sae Niijima
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sae_s.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Unjust Dealer of Envy]]
->''"Let's do this fair and square, shall we?"''

->''"Justice cannot yield to evil! I must win, no matter what!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Invidia (Envy)\\
'''Shadow:''' Leviathan\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YukoKaida (JP), Creator/ElizabethMaxwell (EN)

During the latter half of the Protagonist's interrogation, we learn that Sae Niijima herself is the Phantom Thieves' sixth major target. Leviathan, the demon of Envy, is Sae Niijima's Shadow, and she is in control of the casino Palace infiltrated at the start of the game. The palace and Leviathan are manifestations of both the extreme pressure put on her from her job and her feelings of inadequacy in comparison to her co-workers and younger sister.

The casino Palace is imposed on a Tokyo municipal courthouse, with the police station not far away. Sae's Treasure is the only one that is never explicitly shown, either in the Palace or out of it. Prior to its materialization, however, Makoto theorizes that Sae's real world Treasure is their father's notebook on investigations he's done, as his death in the line of duty is the major catalyst of her cynicism. Because leaving her Treasure alone is a major component of the thieves' plan to trick the conspiracy, Sae's Palace is the only one that is not destroyed in the game.
----
* AmoralAttorney: Since Sae's Shadow is born from her growing cynicism about the prosecutor's office and desperate desire to prove herself, Leviathan views court cases as nothing more than games to be won, not caring what happens to the defendant. Makoto's horrified to hear that a part of her sister feels this way, and hopes to change Sae's heart.
* AnimalMotifs: Dogs. She has a tattoo of a dog's head on her back, and wears a spiked collar around her neck. Dogs in Japanese culture are often associated with envy, but at the same time also represent guardianship and loyalty. This reflects her status as an AntiVillain and shows that she can still be redeemed without needing to change her heart.
* AntiVillain: She isn't as much a bad person as a good one who's lost sight of her values, and can be convinced to remember them.
* AttackAttackAttack: Her most powerful attack, Berserker Dance, has her violently firing and slashing wildly at her enemies and ends with an explosion. When combined with Desperation, it packs a very nasty punch.
* BarrierChangeBoss: Her new strategy in ''Royal'' has her initiate a roulette that changes her elemental resistances and attacks.
* BigWhat: She lets one off when defeated in the roulette.
* BlackKnight: Her monstrous form is one, representing her loss of faith in the law she upholds.
* BlatantLies: "Let's do this fair and square".
* CasinoPark: Her Palace is a giant over the top casino filled with amusement park-esque attractions.
* CatchPhrase: Proclaiming that she will do things [[BlatantLies "fair and square".]] The one time she actually means it is after she goes OneWingedAngel and fights the party head-on.
** Also, "I will win."
* ChekhovsGun: Her Palace, or rather, the area it was based on. In an attempt to dupe ''everyone'' and [[spoiler:especially Akechi that Joker was dead,]] the Phantom Thieves used the Metaverse version of [[spoiler:the Police Station which was located next to the Palace/Courthouse and looked identical to its real-life counterpart]] since [[spoiler:Sae didn't associate it with herself due to not being there a lot.]] She also didn't distort those around her like Kaneshiro's ATM people, which meant that [[spoiler:all the cognitions behaved exactly like normal people. Akechi unknowingly went to the Metaverse Police Station and killed Sae's Cognition Joker.]]
* TheCynic: Shadow Sae is her real self's pessimism and bitterness devoid of any of her KnightInSourArmor traits, leading to her repeatedly proclaiming the uselessness of anything except winning and selfish goals.
* DamageSpongeBoss: Played With. Shadow Sae's first form has a whopping 65,535 HP. For perspective, the Final boss has 15,000 HP. However, you're not actually expected to defeat her first form. After performing a special action, she transforms into her second form, which has a far more reasonable 8,000 HP
* DecapitatedArmy: Averted. After she's defeated, the Shadows in her Palace start massing and preparing to capture the Thieves.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: She's the last boss that is faced before the game catches up with the present timeline. She even has the potential to be the final boss if the player [[spoiler:sells out the other Phantom Thieves to the real Sae after she is defeated.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: Envy is her sin and motif. Her feelings of jealousy towards her younger sister and inadequacy towards her male co-workers, combined with the increasing corruption by her superiors, has embittered Sae greatly, giving her a deeply rooted [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers drive to get ahead in her career]] at the cost of her personal happiness. Even then she is [[spoiler:nowhere near as corrupt as the other Palace-dwellers, and her Shadow reforms of her own accord in the end.]]
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Shadow Sae's appearance is the most monstrous of the shadows without any traces of being comical and goofy. It's a sign of how distorted her values have become due to her envy. Makoto is shocked upon seeing it.
-->'''Makoto''': This... is my sister's true nature!? No...
* ExcessiveEvilEyeshadow: As you can see in her picture, and fitting her status as a {{Goth}}. It pretty much resembles Joker's mask.
* FauxAffablyEvil: In an expression of Japan's infamous justice system, she pretends to want nothing more than a fair game against the protagonists, when ''everyone'' knows she's cheating and rigging the odds in her favor.
* FixingTheGame: Her boss fight gimmick involves a roulette wheel that messes with the stats of whoever rolls the wrong number - with glass coverings over the numbers you picked. Un-fixing the game is required to clear the first phase of the fight by having a partner shoot out the glass.
* FlowerMotifs: The yellow rose on her hat and in the tattoo on her back represents jealousy in Hanakotoba, the Japanese language of flowers.
* TheGambler: Attacks by forcing the protagonist to bet on a gambling roulette, but will skew the odds in her favor, like the ''Arcana Fortune'' from Videogame/Persona3.
* GlamourFailure: Before her battle begins she taunts the Thieves in her human form, but as she does so the screen flickers and for a split second her true monstrous form is revealed, seriously unsettling Makoto.
* {{Goth}}: She wears over the top goth punk makeup and clothing, with a massive amount of black shadow around her eyes, a spike covered choker, and so on.
* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: How her dungeon and boss fight is structured, with her changing the rules and outright cheating to assure she always wins. To beat her, you have to cheat back.
* HeelFaceTurn: Unlike the other Shadow Bosses, the Phantom Thieves actually don't steal Sae's heart; [[spoiler:they instead retrieve a fake Treasure to deceive Akechi, leaving the real one alone to leave intact both Sae's Palace and her ability to influence it as part of the Thieves' plan to trick him]]. Instead, Joker and Makoto help her work through her issues on her own without needing brainwashing, causing Sae to realize how harsh she was and repairing her relationship with Makoto, which saves her from becoming corrupt and abusive like the other targets.
* HelpfulMook: The Shadows in her Palace that don't wear masks are otherwise normal employees.
* HighHeelFaceTurn: Sae is the only target who actively chooses to change herself, as well as the only female target besides Futaba, who's a special case in a few regards.
* HpToOne: If anyone attacks her while her roulette is spinning, she will retaliate with this.
* {{Hypocrite}}: For all her talk about playing fair and square, she doesn't. In a special dialogue exchange that plays if Joker goes into the fight alone, Futaba calls her out on this.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: As the embodiment of Sae's insecurities and growing lack of faith in herself, society, or even the concept of good, Leviathan's confident declaration of her being the eternal winner is quickly shown to be this, with her Shadows rigging the games and her constant changing of the rules in her favor. Eventually she starts having a full VillainousBreakdown where she starts screaming at the Phantom Thieves about how they won't take her one bit of real power away from her.
* ItsPersonal: Makoto is very personally invested in saving her big sister from her own dark side.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Ironically, despite her gambling motif, despite her constantly changing the rules and moving the goalposts on the Thieves throughout the dungeon, she finally gives up and accepts that it will come down to a boss battle when they kept thwarting her attempts to lock them out by keeping them from having enough coins to get to her.
* LackOfEmpathy: Haru and Akechi lament how she sees people as nothing more than tools in her game. That said, since the cognitive versions of people are relatively free of distortion, it's implied that Sae isn't nearly as bad about this as most of the other targets.
* MeaningfulName: Contrasting with Makoto more or less living her given name (as detailed in her entry), Sae's given name (冴) translates variously as "clarity" or "skillfulness" - all things she's convinced she ''lacks'' in comparison to Makoto and her colleagues.
* MsFanservice: Her revealing attire really shows off a lot of skin, and its clear she isn't wearing anything underneath. ''The Animation'' in particular tries to squeeze out as many MaleGaze moments as it can get, including a close-up of her barely concealed rear.
* TheMusketeer: A large, grey, bloodstained sword in her left hand, and some sort of tommy gun/minigun combination in her right hand. She uses the sword for ''Severing Slash'' and the gun for ''Gatling Gun''. She uses both in tandem for her DesperationAttack, ''Berserker Dance''.
* NiceHat: A wide-brimmed hat that even comes with cards and a yellow rose attached.
* OneWingedAngel: After the party turns the tables on her in the first phase of her boss fight, she transforms into an armor-clad Shadow wielding a sword and a gun.
* ScreamingWarrior: After she goes OneWingedAngel, Leviathan spends the entire fight screaming in rage and, as she starts losing, despair.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: She takes full advantage of her status as master of the Palace to ensure that even though the Thieves have a way to reach her, it's all but impossible for them to actually do so.
* SexyBacklessOutfit: Her dress is backless all the way down to her extreme lower back, showing a number of yellow rose tattoos.
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: She hasn't jumped off the slippery slope yet, but with the increasingly more extreme measures she's willing to take to win, her growing bitterness towards her sister, and the fact that her distorted desires have formed a Palace at all show Sae is getting dangerously close to it.
* SoleSurvivor: Her Palace is the only one that [[spoiler:wasn't destroyed due to her Treasure never leaving the Metaverse.]] Since by the end of the game, [[spoiler:Mementos is destroyed and more than a day had passed since Sae read her calling card implies that the Palace is still up, which doesn't bite the Phantom Thieves back later since Sae reforms by herself.]]
* SoreLoser: She never takes it well when she loses, and her loss at the roulette causes her to go OneWingedAngel.
-->'''Leviathan:''' Cheating?! Unfair?! ''Silence! This is MY world!''
* SpikesOfVillainy: Her Leviathan form's shoulders are adorned with spikes that are vaguely reminiscent of her sister's Phantom Thief outfit.
* SwordAndGun: Her Shadow's second form wields these [[DualWielding simultaneously]].
* TarotMotifs: Reversed Judgement - self-doubt and refusal to self-examine.
* TattooedCrook: She has a large tattoo on her back of a growling Dobermann's head surrounded by yellow flowers due to RuleOfSymbolism. Lean, hungry dogs were common medieval pictorial representation of the Deadly Sin of Envy, and yellow roses translate as "Jealousy" in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanakotoba the Japanese language of flowers]].
* VaporWear: Her outfit doesn't really leave much to the imagination. Worth noting that the outfit actually had to be [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerised]] as the original version, as shown in the art book, left ''almost nothing'' to the imagination.[[note]]It was ''transparent'' and very clear she was GoingCommando.[[/note]]
* VillainousBreakdown: She flies into a rage after her loss at the roulette, and, desperate to not lose her power, goes OneWingedAngel and attacks the party.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's known that her Palace was [[spoiler:preserved by the Phantom Thieves since they needed the police station next to it in order to trick Akechi and Shido.]] What happened to it after [[spoiler:their plan worked]] is never brought up again.
----
[[/folder]]

!Late-Game Antagonists
Due to the nature of these [[WalkingSpoiler characters]], '''All spoilers for ''Persona 5'' and ''Royal'', as well as ''Persona 4'' and ''Persona Q2'' will be unmarked'''. (Currently, ''Scramble'' spoilers are still marked.) [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Read at your own risk]].

[[folder:'''Black Mask''']]
!!Black Mask
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_mask.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The True Culprit of the Mental Shutdown Incidents]]
->''"Justice? Righteous!? Keep that shit to yourselves!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Cavum (Emptiness)\\

A mysterious Metaverse user who is responsible for causing mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns, first mentioned by Shadow Madarame as "the one with the black mask". He made his first full appearance by killing Shadow Okumura after the Phantom Thieves succeeded in stealing his treasure.\\\

It is later revealed that the masked man is none other than Goro Akechi, who sold out the Protagonist at the end of the casino heist, and it is only due to some creative thinking on the Thieves' part that they discover his true colors. When he is encountered in Masayoshi Shido's palace, he reveals that he is Shido's bastard son, driven entirely by his desire to demolish Shido completely. He informed the police of the Phantom's location in an attempt to pin the accidents and deaths he caused on the Phantom Thieves as a part of his plan to set Shido up for unopposed inauguration, in which he would take the oppurtunity to discredit him and ferment social unrest.\\\

The Endgame reveals that Akechi and the Protagonist were chosen to partake in a thought experiment by Yaldabaoth to determine what course humanity's future would take. Akechi was chosen to represent "rebirth" - that is, wiping society's slate clean and building it up from scratch. While Akechi himself wants to teach society a lesson by causing his father's downfall in this fashion, Yaldabaoth's true plans are far more sinister.\\\

Like the Protagonist, Akechi possesses the power of the Wild Card, allowing him to wield multiple Personas. However, as the Wild Card is only effective when the wielder forms many bonds with others, his misanthropic nature leaves him with only Robin Hood and his true persona -- Loki, the god of mischief and lies in Myth/NorseMythology.

-->For tropes pertaining to him, see his Character page [[Characters/Persona5GoroAkechi here]].
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''Samael''']]
!!Masayoshi Shido
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shindou.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Godsent Minister of Pride]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Shadow Shido]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shindou_s.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Samael]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shindou_s2.png[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"There is no need for thieves in my mighty country! Only myself and the ones who revere me are needed!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Superbia (Pride)\\
'''Shadow:''' Samael\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ShuichiIkeda (JP), Creator/KeithSilverstein (EN)

The seventh and final major target, Shido is the head of TheConspiracy, a powerful politician, and Akechi's father. His belief that it is his god-given right to lead society and destroy any who dare cross him creates a Palace inside the Collective Unconscious, where he takes the form of Samael, the demon of Pride.

Shido's Palace is an enormous, multi-tiered cruise ship, which is imposed over the National Diet Building in the real world. His treasure in the Palace resembles a ship's steering wheel; in the real world it manifests as a legislator's label pin. Unlike most other itemized treasures, it has no monetary value, especially after he destroyed his own political career by confessing.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: While otherwise a VillainWithGoodPublicity, he has this in regards to anyone who knows his true nature. At best, some of his fellow conspirators either fear him or consider him useful to their own ends.
* AbusiveParent: To Akechi, whom he abandoned, uses as a pawn and plans to discard once his child is no longer useful. Justified, since Akechi was just a throwaway that he never expected to begin with; he just conceived him by having impulsive sex and forgot about it afterwards.
* AdaptationalWimp: Shido's Shadow is a ''beast'' of an enemy in the game, with some arguing he is the most difficult foe other than the optional super bosses. In the anime, he is effortlessly curb stomped in his OneWingedAngel forms single-handedly by Joker without landing a ''scratch'' on him.
* AdaptationalUgliness: Shido in the anime closer resembles a man nearing his 60s than the remarkably fresh-faced man in the game, with more pronounced wrinkles and lines across his face.
* AmbitionIsEvil: He seeks to become Prime Minister of Japan, and rule Japan with an iron fist. His Shadow also highlights this aspect of this trope.
* AnimalMotifs: Lions. The first stage of his boss battle involves him riding a huge, golden lion. Lions are often seen as the guardians of heaven and hell, befitting Shido's self-delusion as Japan's savior. Additionally, lions are often associated with power, rulership, and pridefulness, all of which suit Shido very well.
* ArchEnemy: While he is this to many of the Phantom Thieves on a personal level, he is explicitly this to Joker as a classic literary example of the villainous archenemy to the heroic protagonist. Sae amusedly lampshades on this at the end of the journey, expressing Shido's destiny is intertwined with the protagonist's. As if to further cement this, Shido will incapacitate the party to fight Joker alone in ''Royal'' when he has reached critical health.
* ArchnemesisDad: Ultimately, to Akechi. Shido always had a feeling that Akechi was his son, but he didn't care. Akechi, meanwhile, wanted to get back at Shido for all of his abusive actions and abandonment.
* ArtificialStupidity: To an absolutely ridiculous degree on ''Royal''. If his HP goes under a quarter he starts challengeing Joker one on one. There is a crippling flaw in his behavior in this mode, however; he only uses severe tier Magic attacks and doesn't even use Physical attacks, the Almighty Tyrant's Wave or any other backdoor. He also uses the attacks in a ''very'' predictable pattern. This allows Joker to actually outmaneuver him by swapping to a persona with the appropriate immunities as soon as he sees fit, or even worse, if one has been stockpiling Magic Oinments before, spamming them on Joker will force him to kill himself.
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Samael is not associated with any of the Seven Deadly Sins; the standard demon for Pride is Lucifer. Downplayed, however, in that Samael fills a similar role to Satan in Judaism. This actually makes him an even better fit, since in Samael's case it's the job he's supposed to have rather than being a FallenAngel - and "I am supposed to fulfill this role" is exactly what Shido thinks of himself. Furthermore, in Gnosticism, Samael is often presented as being the right hand of the Demiurge, or even an aspect of him. Given the GreaterScopeVillain's true identity, it's quite fitting.
* AttemptedRape: He is the person in the Protagonist's flashback who attempted to molest a woman while in a drunken state.
* BadassCape: His Shadow starts with one (patterned with the naval ensign of UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan) before ditching it after losing the Beast of Human Sacrifice.
* BadBoss: He has no issue with having his fellow conspirators killed when they're no longer useful to him, and not even his illegitimate son is exempt.
* BaldOfEvil: A horribly evil man with absolutely no hair on his head.
* BattleStrip: When you defeat its first form, his shadow strips down to its trousers and starts fighting you hand-to-hand. He does it again on his third form by smashing the large body braces he was wearing.
* BiblicalMotifs: Shido's Palace is likely a reference to the biblical story of Noah's Ark, a tale where said ark was built on God's instructions to save a select few from The Great Flood and restart the world anew once the flood ends. Shido's Palace is a cruise ship where the rest of Tokyo is engulfed in a flood, and only those chosen by Shido could be on his ship. This fits into Shido's god complex, where he believes himself to be God's chosen one to "steer" Tokyo from ruin and towards greatness like Noah did with the world. Furthermore, his palace theme is appropriately titled "Ark".
* BigBadWannabe: Despite the fact that he's the head of The Conspiracy and the last target the Phantom Thieves face related to it, in the grand scheme of things he's little more than an unknowing puppet to Yaldabaoth. Similarly, most of his plans fail ''miserably'' over the game. The attempt to coerce the Phantom Thieves through the fake Medjed threats fails spectacularly thanks to Futaba. The Thieves only end up unanimously agreeing to target Okumura thanks to meeting Haru, with the Conspiracy's manipulation of the Phansite only convincing a few of them. And his Black Mask assassin ''immediately'' blows their cover when they attempt to contact the Phantom Thieves. To say nothing of the fact that said assassin also planned on disposing of Shido and destroying his entire legacy if Shido's ambitions did come to pass.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: He acts charismatic and sympathetic to the plight of the citizens on-camera or when he's on the campaign trail. Off-camera, he's incredibly irritable and condescending to random strangers, knowing full well that no one will believe any testimony about his true personality.
* BodyOfBodies: The lion and its alternate forms are made up of numerous human bodies.
* BullyingADragon: Despite knowing full well of what Akechi is capable of, he seems to have no qualms in trying to strong-arm a guy who could easily enter his palace and kill him. Subverted, however, as Shido had a contingency plan in the form of a cognitive Akechi to deal with such a situation.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday:
** Zig-zagged. The real Shido never acknowledges Joker beyond vaguely recognizing his name on a death certificate, even when they encounter each other at the buffet and during the campaign. Despite this blase attitude towards Joker and all of the other people he's killed and tormented, when the Protagonist reveals himself to his Shadow, the Shadow clearly remembers him, even though the event was nearly a year ago, although the party has to give him a few hints first. This makes sense to those aware of Jungian psychology; forgotten memories fade away into the collective unconscious, from which all shadows in the ''Persona'' series are born. Shadow Shido retains the memories that his original self had long since forgotten. Not that this makes him any less heinous, as he so casually declares:
--->'''Shadow Shido:''' How would you ever reach your destination if you stopped to count every ant you crushed on the road?
** His Shadow also only ever refers to Akechi's mother as "that woman", but he still seems to remember enough about her to figure out [[LukeYouAreMyFather who Akechi really is]] [[ProperlyParanoid and what he probably plans to do to him]].
* CallBack:
** His character and role in the story is one to Tatsuzou Sudou from ''Persona 2: Eternal Punishment''. Both are corrupt politicians who head a massive Conspiracy, have complete disregard for their sons and tend to callously get rid of any allies once they are no longer useful. They're also both confronted on a cruise ship right before taking down the supernatural mastermind.
** Just as his son has a call back to [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf Ideo Hazama]] with one of his DLC outfits, Shido gets one too with the design of his shadow which [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/0/01/Smtif2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110223235143 calls back to Zurvan, a.k.a. the Deity Emperor]], the being behind Hazama.
* CardCarryingVillain: Zigzagged. Despite his incredible off-camera dickery, he never refers to himself as a villain and instead seems to think of himself as Japan's savior. However, he differs from other most other targets in that he's aware of his own Palace, meaning he knows he has distorted desires. Worse yet, Shido embraces his distorted mentality to the point of putting himself in a temporary coma once he realizes his heart is about to be changed. It takes a special kind of hypocrisy to be as self-righteous as Shido while still being aware of one's own insanity. Considering that every other Palace-ruler's Shadow has physically warped to match their internal perception of themselves, it's rather telling that Shido's Shadow looks exactly the same as his real-world self until he [[LetsGetDangerous prepares for battle]]. As if to emphasize this, his sunglasses' lenses are yellow, making his eyes look the same color as a Shadow's even in the real world.
* CharClone: Very ''Char's Counterattack'' in terms of motivation and personality (an elitist prick looking to change the world to his own desires, even if it means devastating the planet), however his shadow has visual aspects that reference both 0079 (a white, helmeted mask of a very similar style) and Zeta (a mount of pure gold). He's also voiced by Char's actor in ''both'' Japanese (Creator/ShuichiIkeda) and English (Creator/KeithSilverstein).
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: His Shadow's final form is just a version of Shido who's gotten so strong from constant physical training he can ''punch the air so hard it'' '''''explodes'''''.
* ChildHater: Judging by his complains when he met the Phantom Thieves at the buffet, Shido apparently hates teenagers and that's not the extent of his actions towards children. He also had the Protagonist arrested over a minor injury, sent Futaba into despair by making her believe that she was the cause of her mother's death, and plans to kill his own son.
* ControlFreak: One of Shido's defining characteristics is his need to assert his authority over others, taking offense to anyone that so much as slightly objects to him.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: To ''VideoGame/Persona4'''s BigBad Tohru Adachi.
** Both of these characters exploit the weaknesses of the public in their plans but Adachi takes advantage of the public's interest in popular media topics to make his "game" more interesting, whereas Shido takes advantage of the public's disinterest in doing anything to reform society to get elected.
** The way both go about their plans though is much different. Adachi [[BeneathSuspicion has to keep a low profile]] to ensure that he isn't arrested with the {{Irony}} of working for the police. Shido however, has no problem staying in the public eye in spite of committing several political crimes but unlike Adachi, has the police on his side because he is manipulating them.
** Both also have the ultimate goal of using the shadow world to take control of the world, but while Adachi [[AssimilationPlot wants the shadow world and the real world to merge]] so that people no longer have to live in fear of their repressed feelings, Shido's plans require him to keep the Metaverse and real world separate so that he can use the Metaverse to eliminate anyone who he sees as threats to his position.
** Though they are both {{Hypocrite}}s (Adachi constantly uses NeverMyFault and Shido is a StrawHypocrite), Adachi [[HypocrisyNod is willing to admit he is one]] while Shido is so self-deluded that he remains blind to his own hypocrisy.
** Both are also {{Unwitting Pawn}}s to the GreaterScopeVillain only Adachi had a sense that he is this and once defeated [[GracefulLoser can give the Investigation Team]] [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture a push]] for finding the mastermind. Shido despite all his power and control had no clue he is just a piece in Yaldabaoth's board.
** Adachi is a persona user who has the power to access the Midnight Channel to commit his crimes. Shido, while aware of the existence of the Metaverse, could not utilise its power on his own. Instead, he has to rely on his son Goro Akechi to do his dirty work.
** Despite his ItsAllAboutMe mentality, Adachi still cares for the Dojimas (and possibly the protagonist considering his aforementioned push) and has a few PetTheDog moments with them. Shido, on the other hand, truly cares for no one but himself.
* CoolMask: His Shadow wears a giant futuristic mask with a pointed Statue of Liberty-esque crown sticking out of it.
* CoolShades: Square, orange-tinted ones. Given how much it makes Shido stand out coupled with how evil he is, doubles as SinisterShades.
* CorruptPolitician: He's an evil politician who wishes to control the masses and regularly uses his position to avoid getting in trouble.
* CreateYourOwnHero: Aside from getting the Protagonist on probation, thus getting the Protagonist involved in the plot in the first place, his shoving Ryuji aside to get on the elevator is what inspires Ryuji to come up with the idea of becoming the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
* DeadManSwitch: In the event he felt someone was feeling around in his subconcious, he prepared a "temporary suicide pill" that stopped his heart and brain to destroy his Palace and anyone in it. He uses it the moment the Phantom Thieves take his Treasure, but they escape by the skin of their teeth.
* DecapitatedArmy: Averted. While he's the head of the Conspiracy, he is not the real head of the entire thing, so even after his heart is successfully stolen, the real conductor can still manipulate his accomplices to undo the Phantom Thieves' efforts, thus leading to the final heist in Mementos in order to deal with them.
* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: For all of his speeches and rhetoric of leading Japan to a new age of prosperity, the only thing he cares about is power for the sake of power. The only people who would benefit are his immediate inner circle and any lackeys he doesn't plan on immediately disposing of.
* {{Determinator}}: Say what you want about Shido, but his Shadow is incredibly resilient. Whatever the Phantom Thieves throw at him, he always comes back for more. Even after defeating his final phase, he ''still'' tries to stand up ready for more, only to collapse from his injuries. This also applies to his real self, where he still tries to pull a TakingYouWithMe to ensure that the Phantom Thieves would go down with him by destroying his Palace. This reflects on his sin of Pride.
* DiabolusExNihilo: Unlike most of the targets in-game, there is ''no'' explanation about how Shido came into the political scene, his motivations or even a FreudianExcuse while the other major ones have clear explanations to their motives.
* DevilInPlainSight: Nobody but the Phantom Thieves or anyone that they made a confidant with knows he is evil; In fact, even Akechi knows about it and is secretly working against him. However, a few scenes after the prologue, the game already tells you that Shido is obviously up to no good.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: His boss battle was certainly [[SequentialBoss built up like one]], but Shido is not the FinalBoss despite being the BigBad for most of the game. Granted, anyone familiar with this franchise would have likely saw this coming. {{Subverted|Trope}} (disregarding the HopelessBossFight against the Holy Grail) if the player accepts Yaldabaoth's deal.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Taken UpToEleven with Shido, who takes to personally completely ruining or ending lives for even the [[PsychopathicManchild smallest slights against him.]]
* TheDragon: Yaldabaoth uses him to emphasize the sheer ignorance and incompetence of humanity so he's the only one fit for rule over the ignorant masses.
* DrivenToSuicide: Downplayed. After his Shadow is defeated, he temporarily kills himself with some medicine in a last-ditch effort to kill the Phantom Thieves by collapsing his Palace with them in it. It doesn't work; the Thieves survive, and so does he, causing Shido to have a proper change of heart.
* DuelBoss: In ''Royal'', when his HP goes less than a quarter, he isolates the protagonist and forces him to fight him one-on-one.
* ElementalPowers: Uses all of them, in various phases of the fight.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: One of his first scenes is him and his subordinates shoving Ryuji and the Protagonist out of the way to get onto the elevator while everyone else backs away apprehensively. When Ryuji objects, he condescendingly remarks that he's in a daycare. And this is coupled with flashbacks that confirm that he's the guy responsible for the Protagonist's probation. All this lets you know instantly that this guy is bad news.
* EvilCounterpart:
** To Joker. Both have a desire to reform society; but Joker chooses to reform it out of a desire to help people who suffer under society's cruel expectations, whereas Shido simply wants to reform it to suit his own power-hungry needs. Joker doesn't sell out his team, leads from the front, inspires others and wins their loyalty through genuine kindness. Shido stabs everybody in the back who gives him the chance, doesn't lift a finger himself until he has no other choice, threatens even those who work for him and only cares about himself. To highlight Shido as Joker's EvilCounterpart, the second "Bad Ending" has Joker accept Yaldabaoth's offer, disillusioned by how people refuse to act for themselves, and becomes a borderline KnightTemplar. This is eerily similar to how Shido had planned to enforce his own authority over the will-less masses once he wins the election.
** He is also one to Sojiro Sakura. While Sojiro has a gruff and cynical exterior, he acts supportive and understanding to those around him who manage to breach past his HiddenHeartOfGold-hiding facade. This is the opposite of Shido, who acts sympathetic and charismatic in the eyes of the public, but in reality is a smug and condescending elitist who sees himself better than others. While Shido treats his lovers as disposable, Sojiro remained loyal to [[TheLostLenore Wakaba]] to the point that he never considered having another relationship. As parental figures, Sojiro [[GoodParents treats his adoptive daughter Futaba with loving care and devotion]], while Shido refuses to have anything to do with Akechi beyond using him for his own ends, and even plans to [[OffingTheOffspring have him killed]].
** Another is the Sun Confidant Toranosuke Yoshida. Yoshida admits he originally entered politics for his own self-benefit not unlike Shido and both were alternative politicians, but they deviate greatly from there. After having been framed for a scandal and dealing with that reputation for 20 years, Yoshida is a NiceGuy genuine about his desires to help society but no one is willing to believe his words or forgive his past. Shido meanwhile is beloved by the public to abnormal degrees but is a deplorable human being outside public eye that utterly lacks care for the future of the country or the people he's harmed with his actions. Also, Yoshida is able to be elected back into the Diet because of his own efforts and the moral support of Joker on the way with Shido only getting as far as he did because of having orchestrated the mental shutdowns and ridding his competitors with Akechi's help.
* EvilIsPetty: He would ruin the lives of others for no other reason than a single insult or [[MinorInjuryOverreaction minor injury]].
** Shido got the protagonist put on probation all because he got a minor scratch when the protagonist pulled him off the woman he was assaulting, that wasn't even the protagonist's fault in the first place, then forced the same woman to lie about what happened otherwise he would expose her secrets. To rub it in even further, he goes out of his way to have a falsified record forged for the kid by his [[CorruptCop connections]] that ensures he's stigmatized no matter where he goes.
** The first time the protagonist encounters Shido again, alongside Ryuji, and Morgana, Shido doesn't recognize the protagonist, but sarcastically remarks about being in a daycare when they protest being shoved out of the way by him and his subordinates as they're waiting for an elevator at a restaurant.
** Making Futaba believe that her mother never loved her by having her mother's suicide note forged after having her murdered.
* EvilSoundsDeep: He has a deep, dismissive-sounding voice. He noticeably pitches it up when speaking in public.
* FalseFlagOperation: He bases much of his campaign on the incumbent government's ineptitude at handling the mental shutdown crisis, when in fact ''he's'' the one causing it for just this purpose.
* FatalFlaw: What else but Pride? He ruins people's lives, sometimes for highly petty reasons, assuming that he's untouchable and they're of no consequence; but some of those very same people end up being instrumental in taking him down.
** Also, surprisingly, [[DirtyOldMan his libido.]] Shido's two most potent threats, Akechi and The Protagonist, were both set on the path against him as a result of Shido trying to satisfy his libido. Akechi was the son of a prostitute he had sex with and The Protagonist was framed for Assault when he came across Shido trying to force a woman into his car.
* FateWorseThanDeath: While most of the villains prior to having their hearts stolen would see their lives of atonement as this, a completely self-serving monster like Shido would doubtlessly have it worst due to the scale of his atrocities and deception. Shido's final act before his reformation is to even temporarily kill himself, indicating he would prefer death than to lose his power and wealth.
* FlatCharacter: Other than the fact [[{{Understatement}} he is evil]] and [[{{Jerkass}} cruel]], there is little exploration to Shido as a character. No backstory or reasoning behind his ultimate goal than power [[ItsAllAboutMe for the sake of power.]] Furthermore, Shido's Shadow acts and looks exactly the way he does rather than shed light on any HiddenDepths in his soul.
* FreudianExcuse: Averted. Even when compared to an evil bastard like Kaneshiro, there is no given backstory or reason as to why Shido acts the way he does; Sojiro offhandedly remarks even back in the day, he was always a suspicious individual. Even his Treasure only indicates he values himself and his political status with no hints of a freudian slip. Shido is just naturally ''that'' evil.
* FictionalPoliticalParty: He's a part of the fictional Liberal Co-Prosperity Party (Which is an {{Expy}} of the LDP or Liberal Democratic Party, Shido's views being reminiscent of its ultranationalist wing, which is referenced with his Shadow Self's Rising Sun motif) for most of the game, but when his plans advance, he breaks off to form the United Future Party, causing the Diet to dissolve until new elections can be held.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** He constantly compares the state of Japan to a ship, which is a hint of what he sees his Palace as.
** The flashback the beginning of the game of the incident that had the protagonist arrested for assault has him angrily state he is the one that will steer the country. Joker remembers this comment, leading to him finding the keyword needed to enter his Palace.
** When you first arrive at Yongen-Jaya there are posters of his face on the district's walls, which is the earliest indicator of his political campaign.
** Before the Phantom Thieves fight him, he falsely offers them a chance to join him. This is genuinely attempted by Yaldabaoth later on so Joker could become a force of corruption assisting him in terrorizing Tokyo.
** Before the Protagonists can actually fight him they must first defeat The Beast of Human Sacrifice, a massive monster seemingly made of countless human figures holding aloft and worshiping Shido. This foreshadows how the ignorant and distorted masses who were willing to put Shido in power in the first place will continue to be a problem even after the man himself is gone.
** The Beast of Human Sacrifice resembles a lion. Yaldabaoth is often depicted as a serpent with a lion's head. Furthermore, Samael in ''Shin Megami Tensei'' often takes the form of a serpent.
** In the final phase of his boss fight, Shido proclaims that he shall "win this game". Igor similarly refers to the conflict between the Phantom Thieves and the Conspiracy as a "game", foreshadowing Igor, or rather his imposter's, connection with Akechi and the Conspiracy.
* ForTheEvulz:
** His framing of Futaba for the death of her mother could be seen as a case of this, as he seemed to have no reason to drive this young teen to near suicide... [[KickTheDog and he doesn't]] beyond for the fact he thought she'd make for an easy target. The reason given for making Wakaba's suicide appear to be caused by the pressures of raising her bastard daughter alone was just to create an obvious and believable reason for her death that couldn't be linked back to Wakaba's cognitive disruption research (as that would reveal what ''actually'' caused her sudden suicide fairly quickly), so there were many other ways he could have gotten Wakaba out of the way but he chose to pin the blame on her closest family who'd already be hit hardest by her death anyway just because he could.
** Another instance happens when he's trying to protect his associate [[spoiler:Jun Owada]] from being framed by the police for the [[spoiler:murder of Zenkichi's wife. While he can simply just bribe the police and media to keep their mouths shut, he chose to blame the incident on a patsy, then have him commit suicide. Finally when Zenkichi tried to avenge his wife and daughter Akane (A child ''even younger'' than Futaba!) for the murder, his response is to send a death threat against him and his daughter. While Akane didn't go into suicidal depression unlike Futaba, it doesn't stop her from having a fall-out with her father, considering the two didn't had a good father-daughter relationship before this.]]
* FourEyesZeroSoul: He's a villain with a pair of square glasses and easily the game's most heartless antagonist.
* TheGeneralissimo: His Shadow dresses like this, complete with BlingOfWar.
* GloriousLeader: This is how he is portrayed when he addresses the public. He claims to sympathize with people who live a hard life, makes promises about a golden age that will come when he is elected Prime Minister and publicly blames the Phantom Thieves for all of society's woes, including the recent mental breakdowns. In reality, he does nothing other than to bring misery upon all of Japan's people and does nothing he claims to do. He seems to be very popular in Tokyo due to a combination of personal charisma and a case of SocialMediaBeforeReason among the people, and his popularity even seems to inversely increase to absurd levels a week after his exposure even if that did unleash doubt among the public before. In reality, it appears as if Yaldabaoth draws the people of Tokyo into Shido subconsciously instead of him really being ''that'' popular and charismatic, and what actually happens here seems to be Yaldabaoth wants people to think that he is humanity's example of a glorious leader so he is the only one fit for rule.
* AGodAmI: With the power he has, Shido views himself as God's chosen one.
* GracefulLoser: His Shadow, surprisingly, concedes defeat and calmly acknowledges that what he did to the protagonist was wrong and unfair. It's right at this point that the ''real'' Shido realizes the Phantom Thieves are about to win, and defies the trope by [[TakingYouWithMe taking a suicide pill to eliminate them]].
* HairTriggerTemper: As expected of a man like Shido, it doesn't take much to piss him off. Unlike Kamoshida, however, Shido [[TranquilFury keeps a relatively cool head even when visibly enraged.]]
* HateSink: Made out to be as thoroughly unlikable as possible. His entire existence is based around an ungodly combination of arrogance, corruption, and self-centered pursuits. Getting the protagonist arrested for a crime he didn't commit is only the first thing we see Shido do. And furthermore, he actually manages to top Kamoshida in this term in a way that he has no PetTheDog moments (as Kamoshida at least offered to give the protagonist a ride to school); any time he's on screen is spent on being a complete jerk or spewing hypocritical words; and he absolutely has no FreudianExcuse, he does all those things because he's just a power-hungry and overly prideful man from start to finish (until he got his heart stolen). Be noted that this is by the view of the player or any of the Phantom Thieves' confidants or members; other people in-universe worship him like some sort of god.
* TheHeavy: In the latter half of the game, it's heavily implied that Yaldabaoth used Shido as the main instrument to his "salvation" on the world simply because of how hateful and atrocious he is (and in a way that Yaldabaoth can prove that humans are hopelessly ignorant for worshipping Shido as god), starting from the Protagonist's probation, to the deaths and insanity caused by the Metaverse and the political conspiracy responsible for it, from the death of Futaba's mother and Futaba's subsequent trauma to the deaths of Haru's father and the principal of Shujin Academy in order to frame the Phantom Thieves, to Akechi's entire life, and finally to [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Ryuji's elevator getting stolen]]. Even after he's defeated, the Thieves' actions, and sometimes, even the authorities themselves are heavily motivated afterwards by making sure that Shido and his cronies trying to take his place can be properly punished by society.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Shido's perpetual YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness gambit to cover his tracks is what ultimately allows Joker to fake his death and slip under his and Akechi's nose. He's so quick to cut off any loose ends that there is no one in his circle to actually [[MakeSureHesDead verify that Joker is actually dead]]. The Government officials sign off on Joker's death certificate without actually seeing the body, no questions ask.
* HolyHalo: The handle treasure floats high above him during the battle. It shrinks once he's defeated.
* HumanSacrifice: Sacrifices people for his goals. The Beast/Wings/Tomb of Human Sacrifice is based upon the masses that willingly sacrifice themselves to him so that he might rule Japan.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Of the highest degree. He talks like he's a selfless man concerned for the chaotic situation of Japan and willing to put his life on the line to ensure its bright future. However, he's completely dismissive and rude to anyone who even looks at him the wrong way, makes no pretense of being friendly outside of his political posturing, is actually the mastermind of the chaotic situation in Japan that enabled him to get good publicity and his Palace shows that [[StrawHypocrite deep down he actually doesn't care about how Japan is sinking, just as long as he and those he sees useful survive]]. Ann's also quick to deride his "children are the future" slogan since the entire plot kicks off because he pettily ruined a teenager's life just for standing up to him.
* IronicName: "Masayoshi" as a given name most commonly means "govern righteously, shining goodness" or "justice". He does work in government, but he's ''anything'' but righteous or good. However, he does cultivate this kind of an image in order to ensnare the masses, and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity it works to his favor]].
* {{Irony}}:
** Combined with ForWantOfANail. In his own words, "a small leak will sink a great ship". He doesn't seem to realize that with his pettiness, he is in fact creating these very same "leaks". Had he never pressed charges and just let the thing with the protagonist go, then chances are the Phantom Thieves would have never been formed. Had he not killed Wakaba (petty) and then blamed it all on Futaba (even more petty), chances are she would have never become a member of the Phantom Thieves and the team would have been in the dark about Shido.
** Shido's habit of [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness getting rid of people who he no longer considers useful]] is what ultimately allows Joker to fake his death. His constant need to keep everything under wraps to prevent anything from being traced back to him, ultimately led to much of the police department being in the dark and not asking questions. Joker even gets his death certificate certified without anyone ever checking if there was even a body.
** Despite going all out to catch the Phantom Thieves, Shido never discovers the identities of any of them even at the very end of it all. Since Shido's Shadow doesn't share the same memories as the real deal, he would never find out who his greatest ArchEnemy leading them is until his [[HeelFaceBrainwashing personality was killed off.]]
** Technically, [[RightForTheWrongReasons he's right about]] being chosen by god. However, this is because the Conspiracy is actually meant for said god to use him as bait to get him removed and proceed to take over itself once he's done for. It was even using people he had wronged in order to determine how he would be defeated while keeping him in the dark as much as possible.
** In ''Royal'', he seized Maruki's research in an unnecessary dick move, and then cut off the fundraising for his research lab. For whatever reason however, unlike Wakaba, he just seemingly let Maruki go free as a canary while he usually just outright murders any of his opposition instantly, and anyone who he considers as a roadblock should die. Judging from Shido's nature of forgetting any atrocities he did after a very short time and how long it's been since the incident has passed, it isn't likely he remembered it right now, if at all.
* ItsAllAboutMe: After entering his Palace for the first time, the party realizes that his Palace is a cruise ship standing afloat while the rest of society is sinking underwater. Morgana warns the party that he's never seen such a display of desire for it to distort ''the entire city, if not the entire country.''
* ItsPersonal: He's the guy who the Protagonist picks a fight with in the prologue, in addition to being the one responsible for him going on probation in the first place. He's also the one responsible for ordering a hit on Futaba's mother and forging her suicide note, mentally breaking Futaba, as well as orchestrating the murder of Haru's father. Oh, and he's also Akechi's father, who abandoned him and his mother.
* {{Jerkass}}: Even discounting his megalomania and grand conspiracy, he's a giant asshole. The literal second thing he does on screen is cut in front of Joker and Ryuji in line for the elevator. If he ever shows up in a scene, condescension and insults are never far behind.
* KarmaHoudini: {{Downplayed|Trope}}: [[RealityEnsues Due to the inability to prove the existence of the Metaverse even with Wakaba's research and the fact that it's now destroyed]], Shido can't be charged with the orchestration of the mental shutdowns, but he's still charged with the realistic crimes he committed such as framing Joker for assault.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: He's still done plenty of horrible things without using the Metaverse, so he can still be exposed for the man he really is through what he can be definitively found guilty of.
* KickTheDog:
** To give only one of ''many'' examples: when Futaba's mother became a hindrance to him, not only did he have her killed, he also forged a suicide note to make it look like she wished Futaba was never born and then ''had it read out loud in front of her and her relatives'', which completely destroyed Futaba mentally to the point she became a {{Hikikomori}}.
** One more example: When the Phantom Thieves confront him in his dungeon about him being Akechi's father, he reveals that he's suspected it all along, due to Akechi's UncannyFamilyResemblance to his mother. He just didn't care. Ouch.
** Another example occurs during ''Scramble'': [[spoiler:One of his associates Jun Owada ran over the wife of inspector Zenkichi Hasegawa when she was alongside her daughter Akane, then the incident's responsibility was pushed onto a patsy that quickly committed suicide. Zenkichi tried to dig in only to be sent a death threat by Shido, or at least one of his connections. Obviously, this led to Zenkichi and Akane having a fall-out. Remember Akane was just a ''mere kid'' younger than Futaba, even after that time.]]
* KickTheSonOfABitch: While Shido is a BadBoss with a absurd tendency to dispose of any [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness ally who has served their purpose]], some of his victims aren't saints themselves. Thus, its hard to feel bad seeing them all get offed on Shido's orders.
* KnightTemplar: Utterly convinced of his righteousness and divine destiny to dictate the future of Japan. He smugly dismisses all the lives he's ruined and ended as necessary sacrifices.
* LackOfEmpathy: In Shido's world, people are mere instruments for him to use and discard as he pleases. No one, not even his son, is exempt from being subjected to his selfish cruelty.
* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: His new strategy in ''Royal'' has him knock out all party members but Joker near the end of the battle, forcing a fair fight where both only attack once per turn compared to the number of moves they could make solo/as a team before it.
* LightIsNotGood: The first part of the battle against him consists of fighting a golden shapeshifting lion he rides.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: While Shido is aware of the Metaverse and Cognitive Existence and how they work, he lacks the means to enter the other world, hence needing Akechi to do his dirty work. He is also seemingly unaware of the concept of Personas and Shadows unlike the other human antagonists of previous Persona games.
* LukeIAmYourFather: He's Akechi's father. Not that he knew this. He did ''suspect'' it, though. And explains that he didn't care, either way.
* MagicKnight: Adept at both physical and magical attacks. His on-foot form practically qualifies as a KungFuWizard: a huge muscular brawler who still has no problem using Ma-Dyne spells.
* TheManBehindTheMan: He used every other major villain except for Kamoshida in his plans.[[note]]Though even then, Kamoshida was being protected by a member of TheConspiracy.[[/note]] Even Madarame and Sae were being used by him unwittingly.
* MarathonBoss: Has three forms (Beast of human sacrifice, Samael and True Samael), the first of which has three phases of its own. He also has a fairly large HP pool in each phase. After taking out his True Shadow form, he staggers to his feet with a cocky smile, takes a fighting stance...and immediately collapses, thankfully.
* MinorInjuryOverreaction: When the protagonist protects a woman from him, Shido gets a small cut on his forehead. This enough to enrage him and [[MiscarriageOfJustice place the protagonist under arrest for assault]] while forcing the woman (the only other witness) to give false testimony to ensure the arrest. Were it not for this overreaction, Shido would probably never have had to face the Phantom Thieves in the first place.
* MusclesAreMeaningful: His Shadow and True Shadow form are highly muscular, and powerful combatants. [[LampshadeHanging Futaba points out that they're not for show]].
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He gets hit the hardest out of any of the Phantom Thieves' targets by his Change of Heart due to the vast number of atrocities he committed in the name of his ambition and is reduced to a sobbing wreck.
* {{Narcissist}}: As the embodiment of {{Pride}}, Shido has the traits of a textbook narcissist. He demands loyalty and unconditional worship from anyone (including his own son), while [[LackOfEmpathy giving no loyalty or acceptance in return]]. He also has [[AGodAmI a god complex]], believing that only he and him alone to be Japan's saviour, yet at the same time avoids responsibility and accountability for his wrongdoings. Lastly, like any other narcissist, he has a overly paranoid tendency to attack those whom he perceives as a threat to his image, no matter how small. Its no surprise where [[InTheBlood Akechi gets his own narcissistic traits from]].
* NeverMyFault: He sues Joker for assaulting him when he tripped on his own feet while drunk. [[JustifiedTrope The way he probably sees it]], [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections his own actions don't matter as long as he still has the power, authority, and publicity in the palm of his hand]].
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: He does this repeatedly. First, getting Joker arrested is what kicks off the plot. Second, cutting in line at the elevator then threatening Ryuji and Joker during the celebrations for taking down Kamashida is what gives them the idea to keep going as the Phantom Thieves and fight corrupt adults that the law can't or won't touch. And third, Medjed's attack on the Phantom Thieves was orchestrated by the conspiracy he was leading, inadvertently resulting in the Phantom Thieves saving and recruiting Futaba Sakura. The very same Futaba Sakura whose life he had almost succeeded in destroying and who was, after Joker, the second most necessary member of the team for the plan to take him down.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: It's been noted by many commentators that Shido bears a distinct resemblance to contemporary Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, one of the most controversial leaders in the country's history. Like Shido, Abe ran for office on a right-wing populist and nationalist platform, and gained the support of the older generation but the disdain of the younger, but he is most infamous for his frequent defenses of UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan's actions during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Given that Shido is a murderous, sociopathic fascist who deliberately creates disasters to make himself more popular, it's likely that the writers do not have a high opinion of Abe.
* NotSoDifferent: His Shadow tries to pull this on the Phantom Thieves, saying that their willingness to reform people's hearts makes them no different from him. [[ShutUpHannibal The Thieves don't believe it for a moment, though]], and say that there's no comparison between their methods and his using people for an ultimately selfish goal. The MetaphoricallyTrue point is that, he too is trying to reform the corrupt government and put an end to Japan's poverty and collapsing economy, although he does it by destroying all opposition, unleashing radical nationalistic policies and putting the entire nation into virtual slavery.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: He repeatedly claims that he wants to lead Japan into a new age of prosperity, but it's made clear that he just [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans power for the sake of having power]], and he goes out of his way to ruin other people's lives over minor insults and injuries. To drive it home, his Palace is a cruise ship sailing over a sinking country, showing how his deepest desire is to stay afloat even if the entire nation around him is collapsing.
* ObviouslyEvil: [[https://imgur.com/a/DStPBVw The propaganda posters in his Palace]] really hammer in what kind of person Shido is if his everyday {{Jerkass}} attitude isn't enough. In-universe, Shido comes off as this to ''anyone'' that isn't on his side or [[VillainWithGoodPublicity only familiar with him through the media]].
* OffingTheOffspring: Shido intended to do away with Akechi after achieving his goals, as Akechi knew too much about him. While a unique example in that Shido doesn't directly kill off Akechi, his intent to eventually kill him leads to Akechi's death: a Cognitive version of Akechi manifests in his palace, an embodiment of how he saw Akechi as nothing but an expendable pawn, and it is this Cognitive being which allegedly ends up killing the real Akechi.
* OlderThanHeLooks: He could easily pass for a man in his thirties, but Shido is actually 53 years old.
* OneWingedAngel: Downplayed. His Samael form just grows a lot more muscular than his human Shadow form, then outright TurnsRed once he's beaten once as Samael.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: After the Phantom Thieves take down the IT Company President in his Palace, Shido contacts Akechi and tells him to kill anyone involved with them that he thinks might be suspicious. Akechi is caught off-guard by this as the election is right around the corner so they can't afford to create any incidents that might link back to Shido. This, plus his unease regarding Sae showing him Joker's phone, is what tips Akechi off that Joker is still alive and invading Shido's Palace.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: For such a dangerous, merciless and manipulative person, he never directly acts on his own in real life. Most, if not all of his atrocities are commited via the hands of his associates. Unlike most other Palace rulers, Shadow Shido also never directly confronts the Thieves before his boss fight.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: In the ending, Shido lives while his son is [[AmbiguousSituation presumably]] [[BolivianArmyEnding dead]].
* PatrioticFervor: His TestosteronePoisoning fueled Shadow Self filled with rage towards the state of Japan, complete with a Rising Sun background behind him, makes him more or less [[VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance a Japanese version of Senator Armstrong]].
* PowerLimiter: Wears a movement-limiting bodybuilding harness in the first phase of his Shadow form. He only gets stronger after [[BreakingTheBonds snapping it off]].
* PresidentEvil: His end goal is to rule Japan as Prime Minister, giving him ultimate power over the nation and it's populace.
* {{Pride}}: His sin and motif, fittingly for the BigBad and a corrupt politician ''par excellence.'' He even [[BlasphemousBoast compares himself to God]] when the party confronts him, and when they try to reform his heart, he actively resists by trying to put himself into suspended animation.
* ProperlyParanoid: One of the many reasons he never trusted Goro Akechi from the moment he met him was due to a strong suspicion that Akechi only came to him with plans to betray him. He was completely right in his assessment.
* PsychopathicManchild: For being a busy political player in his 50s, Shido is frighteningly petty and insecure in so many ways that he could be compared to the pettiest of schoolyard bullies. This is best illustrated in numerous scenes where he threatens others (often children) with his status [[EvilIsPetty for no real reason]] and expressively looks like a nervous child needing to be in control.
* PuttingOnTheReich: Upon preparing for battle his Shadow wears a military uniform that looks disturbingly like something worn by the Nazi regime and Imperial Japan. If one looks closely, the underside of his cloak has a design that resembles the UsefulNotes/{{Imperial Japan}}ese naval banner, a symbol that has very similar connotations to the Nazi swastika in East and Southeast Asia.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: In ''Royal'', it was revealed that he conceived Akechi by molesting a prostitute; small wonder why he doesn't care about him.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: His Shadow's security meter icon, combined with a SlasherSmile.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: His government and police connections allow him to do whatever he wants, namely getting away from attempted rape at the beginning of the game and having the Protagonist arrested over a minor injury.
* SequentialBoss: His boss fight has five phases. The first three are Shido riding on a BodyOfBodies that changes shape and resistances, the fourth is just Shido after a BattleStrip, and the final phase is Shido after he TurnsRed (literally and figuratively).
* SharpDressedMan: Shido is an evil bastard, but he dresses well. One of his epithets is even "Distinguished Man".
* SmartBall: For all his StupidEvil decisions, he at least remembered enough about Akechi's mother to correctly guess his true identity and motives, leading to him deciding to prepare a contingency for him the whole time.
* SmugSnake: As fitting his being a representative of {{Pride}}, he's convinced that his rise to power is proof of his own superiority and divine providence. Ann rightfully points out that had his son Akechi not entered his life and presented him knowledge of the Metaverse, Shido's aspirations to become Prime Minister would have gone ''absolutely nowhere'' fast. Plus he was an UnwittingPawn of Yaldabaoth the whole time.
* TheSocialDarwinist: Shido believes it's natural for the weak to be sacrificed for grand ideals. Even if the "weak" consists of innocents, scientists and their children, and even his own co-conspirators.
* TheSociopath: Going through his personality traits is like reading a sociopath's diagnostic checklist: [[ItsAllAboutMe Incredibly self-centered]] [[SmugSnake and arrogant]], complete LackOfEmpathy for everything around him, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating]] and [[MurderIsTheBestSolution casually murdering anyone]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness suitable for his gain]], and driven by a [[{{Greed}} relentless lust for power]] and [[ControlFreak control]] as well as [[AGodAmI delusions of grandeur and godhood.]] While most of the game's antagonists are sociopathic [[{{Jerkass}} jerks]] one way or another, Masayoshi Shido doubtlessly [[UpToEleven puts them all to shame combined.]]
* SoreLoser: After his Shadow is defeated, he hastily takes a suicide pill against his cohort's warnings in a last-ditch effort to kill the Phantom Thieves. Shido seems less concerned with the fact he is very likely going to ''die'' than he [[PsychopathicManchild is overjoyed in taking the Phantom Thieves with him]].
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The Japanese version of the game uses the JAS romanization and writes his name as "Shidou" in English. The English version uses the Hepburn romanization and writes it as "Shido" instead.
* StatusEffects: Shadow Shido's latter forms favor Fear, with Tyrant's Fist having a random chance to cause it and his only Ailment ability being Evil Touch. Appropriate for a saboteur who sows chaos so he can use the promise of stability to get what he wants.
* StupidEvil: To an almost ridiculous degree. If it wasn't for his charisma, likely Yaldabaoth influencing the people, and Akechi eliminating anybody that got close to the truth, then his political campaign would have started to fall apart very quickly. In order:
** First, all of the Mental Shutdowns benefit him or his co-conspirators directly, the identities of these co-conspirators was not secret, and Sae, who was at the time more focused on the Phantom Thieves, was able to quickly identify a pattern that all led to Shido.
** Second, the sheer level of ''unnecessary dickery'' that Shido is involved in would quickly be discovered if it wasn't for his powerful contacts. Even then, it ultimately leads to the fall of his plans when his BadBoss tendencies inevitably causes several of his goons to conspire against him, forcing Shido to murder them and giving the Thieves more of a lead to follow.
** Shido, through his callousness, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday couldn't even be bothered to remember]] any of his victims names to have any lead to follow on in profiling the Phantom Thieves. If it weren't for Akechi, he would have gotten nowhere near as far as he did. Best seen in much of the early game, where he can be seen pathetically chewing out [[VileVillainLaughableLackey Kobayakawa]] for his utter incompetence in finding any leads. Speaking of this, there is one time where the protagonist stands right in front of him after he escapes his interrogation...and Shido doesn't seem to recognize him at all. You might think that he would even keep track of of the appearance a Tokyo-wide criminal targeting him like that, but he doesn't.
** For all reasons, he seems to just find the most stupid and incompetent {{unwitting pawn}}s that have absolutely no idea what he is trying to do in order to seize and/or encrypt Wakaba and Maruki's cognitive research. One might think that he might find someone competent enough to do such an important task instead. Combined with the ButForMeItWasTuesday point above, while he absolutely went for Wakaba, he just outright left Maruki free and alive.
* TakingYouWithMe: After his Shadow is defeated, Shido temporarily kills himself to collapse his Palace in one final attempt to kill the Phantom Thieves.
* TurnsRed: His Shadow does this both literally and figuratively. When under half health, he'll sometimes get ''four turns in a row'', which he'll use to buff himself, debuff the party, then unleash a massive attack. When under a quarter, he'll start using ''Heat Riser'' on himself.
* UnwittingPawn: Little does he know that everything he and the Conspiracy were doing was part of Yaldabaoth's game.
* VillainHasAPoint: Despite his extremely repulsive manners, Shido raises a good point in his sincere belief that the current society of Japan is really corrupt, and that he has the power to drive it towards a better future. [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist However, he's more or less planning to use that point and power for his own selfish desires first and foremost, putting the nation's state in second place, as seen in the background of his Palace being a cruise ship within a drowning Japan]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity:
** Invoked to a downright insane degree: because of Yaldabaoth manipulating the cognition of the masses to prove his point that HumansAreFlawed, almost no one other than the Phantom Thieves and their close associates ever express any negative opinion about him. It gets to the point where even after the Phantom Thieves call Shido out in public, and ''Shido himself'' confesses to his crimes after his heart is stolen, his popularity inversely reaches outright cultish levels. It's only after the Phantom Thieves destroy Yaldabaoth that they begin talking about how corrupt Shido is, since his popularity is nothing short of Yaldabaoth exerting extreme degrees of mind control upon the public.
** Although less subtle than Madarame, Shido is extremely calm and reserved in a public situation, and in the few times he actually bumps into the Thieves, he just ignores them or briefly and verbally insults them. Even when he receives his calling card, he still appears talking to the public formally instead of in a brazen fashion.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: His Shadow's battle form is shirtless.
* WeCanRuleTogether: He tells the Thieves that if they help him, he'll give them anything they want. The Thieves refuse, though, and if you decide to ask him whether he's being sincere instead of outright refusing, Shido admits he wasn't.
* WouldHurtAChild: Getting Joker arrested for a petty argument should prove this trope applies to him already, but he doesn't stop there. Shido actively threatens Ryuji, a high school student, just for [[EvilIsPetty pestering him at a rally]]. What is actually the most glaring, however, is that he's not above killing the parent of an innocent adolescent, then ruining that innocent's life by deliberately blaming death on them. His Shadow reveals that he planned to dispose of Akechi, his bastard teenage son, once the boy had outlived his usefulness as an assassin.
-->'''Shido:''' Hey kid. You don't want to know what happens when you cross me...
* TheWormThatWalks: The Beast/Wings/Tomb of Human Sacrifice that he rides upon in his first form are actually hundreds of naked, golden humans clinging to each other to form a lion, a winged lion, and a pyramid, respectively. It represents Shido's views of the masses, ignorant plebs who exist solely to to be used and sacrificed.
-->'''Shido:''' ''Useless, ignorant masses!''
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: He plans on disposing of his son, Akechi after becoming Prime Minister, since as an illegitimate child and Shido's personal supernatural hitman, Akechi would be too much of a liability if left alive. Shido also ordered the murders of Principal Kobayakawa and the SIU Director once he felt they were no longer useful.
* YouKilledMyFather: Though Akechi was the one who killed Wakaba Isshiki and Kunikazu Okumura, Shido was the one who gave the order, and Futaba and Haru direct most of their enmity toward him. Akechi himself also seems to have this as part of his true motives, as his mother committed suicide when he discarded her.
* YourSonAllAlong: When you confront him in his Palace, he reveals that he's suspected that Akechi is his son all along because [[UncannyFamilyResemblance he looks like "that woman"]].
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''The Prisoners''']]
!!The People of Tokyo
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mementos_icon.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Apathetic Legion of Regression]]
->''"What are you doing to our Grail?!"''

-->'''Sin:''' Acedia (Sloth)

The general populace of the city of Tokyo, whose hearts have collectively created the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon massive]] [[MentalWorld Palace]], Mementos. This Palace is a manifestation of the people's Sloth, due to their unwillingness to challenge authority in general or take responsibility for selfish decisions. As a result, the Phantom Thieves often come here to change the hearts of people who have yet to establish a personal Palace. Their treasure is the Holy Grail, a.k.a. Yaldabaoth.
----
* AccompliceByInaction: By turning a blind eye to the evils of society and allowing corrupt people to guide their lives, the people of Tokyo are partially responsible for the success of the [[TheConspiracy Conspiracy]].
* AdultFear: A reason why the people of Tokyo desperately seek order at any cost. Fears such as fear of loss (losing one's family, status or livelihood) and fear of chaos (disruptions that endanger societal harmony) have kept people from personally changing their lives for the better.
* ApatheticCitizens: Concerned only with their personal goals and problems, the people of Tokyo feel that overall society is too big of a problem for them to handle and are happy to let others deal with it, be it the Phantom Thieves, the Conspiracy, or an evil god.
* BystanderSyndrome: Most of the people in Tokyo are prone to this. Despite having the ability to change or be free, most ''choose'' not to for a variety of reasons, usually involving some kind of disruption to their orderly lives.
* ChaosIsEvil: The people of Tokyo have this oversimplified belief about chaos in general. Because of this, [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer anything that does not follow social norms is ignored, frowned upon or ''strongly'' discouraged]]. ''Any'' subversion of civil order is considered a serious crime, no matter what the cause or end result is. For example, Ryuji was punished for hitting a teacher even though said teacher cruelly insulted his family at the time. Despite having just cause, Ryuji was labeled a pariah for the ''act'' of violence. This is also one reason why it is easy for the Conspiracy to label the Phantom Thieves as evil villains, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary. Their actions were against the law and this was enough for most people.
** When Shido publicly confessed his crimes on national television, the people of Japan were terrified of the societal chaos that would result from his dismissal and arrest, rather than angry that such a vile man nearly became Prime Minister. While Shido's allies and Yaldabaoth controlled the public opinion to a degree, they played on the Japanese public's fear of chaos. After this, the Phantom Thieves eventually find and defeat Yaldabaoth, thus robbing the people of their distorted desire for [[OrderIsNotGood social order at any cost]].
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The people of Tokyo inadvertently aid Yaldabaoth in his battle with the Phantom Thieves because he [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly uses their belief in absolute societal order]] to make himself nigh-invincible. Later, the Confidants manage to persuade the people of Tokyo to believe in the Phantom Thieves' justice rather than the corrupt societal order of an evil god. As a result of this [[HeelFaceTurn change of heart]], the Phantom Thieves gain enough power to summon the Ultimate Persona, [[SatanIsGood Satanael]], which enables them to defeat Yaldabaoth for good.
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Many people in Tokyo have accepted the flaws of their society as a fact of life, no matter how much it truly harms them. If anyone ends up dead because of societal pressure or some other mishap, most people accept it with a shrug and carry on with their lives as if nothing happened. This is taken [[UpToEleven to obvious extremes]] within Mementos. Despite being prisoners in a gloomy prison, the peoples' Shadows [[FalseUtopia believe that they are in utopia]] because they have been "freed" from ''all'' desire.
* ExtremeDoormat: Because of injustices and incompetence within the city's government due to corruption or inability, most of the people of Tokyo have learned to keep their heads down in order to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention. In suppressing their own desires, whether good or evil, they hope to find a place to belong to within society. By the time the story begins, things have gotten so bad that simply standing out in any way attracts the attention of those who would use the city's societal harmony for selfish gain. Yaldabaoth also [[MoreThanMindControl subtly encourages]] this mentality to [[IndividualityIsIllegal kill the chaos of individualism]] to strengthen his selfish idea of social harmony.
* FacelessMasses: This is how the game portrays the people of the city except for those who play a role in the game's story (i.e. the Phantom Thieves, the members of the Conspiracy, the Confidants).
* FreedomFromChoice: Rather than make their own fallible, imperfect choices, the people of Tokyo give themselves over to the Holy Grail so that it could make choices for them instead.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: The shadows of previous targets were originally imprisoned within Mementos Depths, before they managed to escape on their own and later become the rulers of their respective palace.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The opinions of the general public, belief in an orderly society and apathy have influenced the selfish decisions of [[SlaveToPR individual citizens]] to various degrees, even though these individuals are ultimately responsible for said decisions.
** Toshio and Hiromi Takase spend excessive amounts of money on expensive brand-name products and services because society looks down on those who don't.
** Youji Isshiki was treated as a nobody by everyone around him, including his family, for many years until the day he won a jackpot at gambling. For a while, he received the attention and praise that eluded him, resulting in him later becoming a gambling addict.
** Ichiryuusai Madarame, Junya Kaneshiro, and Kunikazu Okumura have all sacrificed moral decency in exchange for wealth and influence because of the public's scorn for the poor.
** Suguru Kamoshida and Sae Niijima both believe that society will only remember and respect winners while losers will be ostracized and forgotten, leading them to resort to questionable means to maintain their "victorious" stances in their respective fields. Kamoshida's stress over maintaining his public image as an Olympic athlete have resulted in him trying to satisfy his base desires at any cost.
** Goro Akechi's miserable upbringing was largely due to the social stigma of having been born out of wedlock and being an orphan since his mother committed suicide out of shame. As a result of being bullied, ignored and ostracized ''since birth'' by Japanese society, he became driven not only to become respected at any cost, but also to get back at society by causing its collapse in an insane scheme. Japanese society, including his ''mother'', was just as responsible for Akechi's childhood misery as his father Masayoshi Shido.
** The collective unconscious desires of the public for [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans utopia at any cost]] resulted in the creation of Yaldabaoth, the [[GoneHorriblyRight ultimate conclusion of said desires]]. Even when he is defeated, in ''Royal'', Yaldabaoth's [[MergedReality Qliphoth World]] somehow effects a distraught Takuto Maruki and his Persona, Adam Kadmon/Azathoth, and the people's public opinion of the Phantom Thieves unknowingly turned them into the new masters of Mementos, but their wishes and control of the Metaverse went to Takuto, who'd go on to cause the Third Semester Arc, and grant ''[[HistoryRepeats another]]'' [[HistoryRepeats variation of humanity's utopia]], one not ruled by absolute control [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill to remove free will]], but where [[YourHeartsDesire everyone's desires and dreams are granted]], so that [[AmbitionIsEvil all ambitions, yearnings, wants, and wishes are erased]], which while not as bad as Yaldabaoth, still has the side effect of causing humanity to enter [[FateWorseThanDeath oblivious]] [[ModernStasis stagnation]], effectivly.
** It should also be noted that the game itself only refers to the public of Tokyo; All of the gods acting as the major antagonists of ''Persona'' are summoned by ''humanity'' which they are a part of. Nyarlathotep and Hi-no-Kagutsuchi are summoned by humanity's negativity and desire to inflict harm, Nyx and Chronos are summoned by humanity's wish for death in the form of Erebus, Izanami and Mikuratana-no-Kami were summoned by humanity's wish for happiness and refusal to accept the truth, and Enlil was summoned in order to grant humanity's desire to escape the harshness of life through toxic escapism. In other words, they aren't just the Greater Scope Villains here; They are the Greater Scope Villains of ''Persona'' history, and their creations are the ones that the Persona users must fend Japan and the world from. Even if Yaldabaoth is defeated, they will still summon another god to terrorize us in no time.
* GullibleLemmings: Yaldabaoth believes humans to be little more than lemmings due to how easily they fall for lies because it's easier. Even the people he considers to actually be good would rather die because of a lie than take action.
* HumansAreMorons: Because of this belief, the Shadows found in Mementos ''willingly'' allowed themselves to be imprisoned. They allowed an [[GodIsEvil evil god]] to guide their lives because they have [[DespairEventHorizon lost their faith in humanity being capable of making its own decisions]].
* IAmLegion: In Japanese culture, societal harmony is considered a virtue in and of itself. As a result, the people of Tokyo are often encouraged, at various levels, to fit in with the crowd [[LossOfIdentity even at the cost of their individual needs or opinions]]. [[LonersAreFreaks People who refuse to fit in]] are usually forced to somehow participate or are ignored/rejected by society altogether (the common idiom is "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down"; it's often considered the inverse of the American idiom "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"). In Mementos, the people's Shadows have the tendency to think of themselves as one entity through fear and order, both of which are enforced by Yaldabaoth. Shadow Shido once commented that the true power of the city is the general public, which implies the idea of the people as a single entity.
* ItCantBeHelped: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. This trope is a core value of Japanese society and it is normally seen as a quality to be admired and emulated. However, the story of ''Persona 5'' shows how this trait can lead to the perpetuation of corruption and evil with reprehensible authority figures, while encouraging [[TheStoic the average Japanese citizen]] to do nothing for the sake of TheNeedsOfTheMany. Corruption and extreme selfishness become tolerated as long as the societal status quo isn't disrupted. In fact, such evil is pertuated and ''encouraged'' when it brings outward prosperity to society as a whole. The plights of individuals are outright ignored and rendered meaningless, as demonstrated by how [[SlaveToPR Principal Kobayakawa]] tries to downplay and ultimately ignore Shiho Suzui's attempted suicide, Kamoshida's crimes and Kaneshiro's blackmail of students for the sake of outward appearances.
* LazyBum: Their sin and motif is Sloth, encompassing laziness (the desire to perform evil deeds or let them exist unopposed because it is easier than doing good), [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] (evil born of fear), and [[DespairEventHorizon despair]] (disaffection from life motivating selfishness and abandonment of moral and ethical duty).
* NeverMyFault: The people of Tokyo usually claim they are not personally responsible for any troubles that occur and tend to blame other factors for their selfish actions or inaction (i.e. [[SlaveToPR societal pressure]], lack of direct involvement, [[TheScapegoat the selfishness of others]], [[JustFollowingOrders inability to defy superiors]]). Yaldabaoth claims [[ItsAllAboutMe it's just too much of a burden for them to handle themselves,]] [[FreedomFromChoice which is why they're subconsciously turning to him to carry it for them]].
* ObliviouslyEvil: They had no idea that their actions only further the BigBad's goal.
* OrderIsNotGood: In the story of ''Persona 5'', the Japanese core value of social harmony has been unconsciously twisted into a distorted desire for order at any cost by the people of Tokyo. They see the ethic of order as the ''only'' moral worth following, upholding it at the cost of everything else. These people care nothing for the suffering of individuals as long as overall social order is maintained and they [[SelectiveObliviousness willfully ignore]] or [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer frown upon]] ''anything'' that openly disrupts the established social status quo, whether it is for [[TheNeedsOfTheMany the greater good]] or not.
** While this might not be relevant in ''Persona 5'' lore by itself, in ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'' it has degraded to the level where people who cannot fit in and get abused for it became withdrawn and were consumed by catatonic depression, having their souls trapped in theaters governed by a ''third party'' godly being who heaps them with more depression by having their souls watch movies that are formed from pure negativity and portray these hapless people as failures in a misguided attempt to relieve their pain.
* OrderVersusChaos: The people of Tokyo have developed a dependence on strict societal harmony, allowing that to guide their lives rather than by their own will. The Phantom Thieves spend most of the story exposing and correcting the flaws of this societal harmony, one person at a time.
* SanitySlippage: Just like their incarnations in previous games, as you reach further and further into the endgame, they become more insane and hectic. In this case it's especially obvious as after the Futaba heist they begin to worship you in fervor, then after the Okumura arc they instantly treat you as some sort of vile creature. Finally after the Shido arc, they simply think that you don't exist at all...and after Yaldabaoth unleashes his RealityBleed plan, they don't even notice something is ''horribly'' wrong!
* SelectiveObliviousness: Caring only about their own selfish needs and the need for societal harmony, most of the people of Tokyo prefer to ignore anything that could disrupt their comfortable, mundane lives. They also use [[NeverMyFault rationalizations]], fall back on willful ignorance or omit inconvenient truths to avoid responsibility for selfish decisions or to maintain personal innocence. For example, after giving praise to the Phantom Thieves for some time, the people of Tokyo immediately turn on them once the media condemns them and they later try to forget the Thieves ever existed in a selfish effort to maintain their own innocence.
* SelfInflictedHell: Many people in Tokyo feel trapped by strict societal culture of the city, but most of these people have either learned to accept it or feel that nothing can be done about it, resulting in their apathy. Others have even learned to take advantage of this societal harmony for their own selfish ends, such as the members of the Conspiracy. This mentality is why Mementos resembles a prison.
* SlaveToPR: People only care about what they see or what they believe in and are unwilling to make a change. This is evident after Shido has been defeated but people still see him as a fair and just man worthy to lead Japan and worry what will happen without him. In addition, the people of Tokyo try not to get involved too much in other people's affairs in order to avoid trouble, such as ignoring a crime in progress or even calling an ambulance following a suicide. This reflects most of the antagonist's beliefs that the masses "wanted" to be enslaved.
* SocialMediaBeforeReason: The people of Tokyo are usually willing to just believe whatever the media tells them rather than take the time and effort to question the events. This made it easy for the Conspiracy to frame the Phantom Thieves for Kunikazu Okumura's death. After Shido's confession on live TV, his allies tell BlatantLies on social media to blame the entire debacle on the Phantom Thieves and most of the people eat it up, no questions asked. This forces the Phantom Thieves to deal with the city's collective BystanderSyndrome by destroying its source within Mementos.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[RousseauWasRight As far as they know in the real world, all these people were doing were minding their own business and going on with their lives]]. [[CosmicHorrorStory There was no way for them to know that their desire for order]] [[AnthropomorphicPersonification would actually manifest itself as a godlike entity]] that plans on influencing them to give into said desire and let it rule over them.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Most of the people in Tokyo inwardly believe that utopia can be achieved only when ''perfect'' social order is achieved. Due to this belief, these people endure needless suffering and make pointless sacrifices to achieve their personal goals. They also turn a blind eye to corruption because exposing it would be too disruptive to their own lives. The people of Tokyo always [[NeverMyFault find excuses]] for this selfish behavior or use popular opinion to [[ShutUpKirk silence any dissidence]]. In fact, Yaldabaoth is the embodiment of this belief taken to its logical conclusion.
** Despite being known as a physical abuser and a sexual predator, Kamoshida was able to get away with his crimes for a long time because his status as a former Olympic medalist brought good publicity to Shujin Academy. [[SlaveToPR Students, teachers and parents]] were willing to endure/ignore his abuses because his recommendation alone can get a student into a top-tier university. When Kamoshida publicly confessed his crimes, the parents and teachers were more concerned about the bad publicity that would result from this, rather than be happy with finally catching a known criminal.
* VillainDecay: Previous targets such as Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro and Shido end up as mere faces in the crowd after they are robbed of their distorted desires. As result of losing their desires, their reputations and being surrounded by the ruthless societal harmony of Tokyo, these villains have [[DespairEventHorizon lost the will to live and prosper]], leaving their fates in the hands of Yaldabaoth just like most of the people of Tokyo. Their Shadows can be found again as prisoners in Mementos among countless others.
* WeirdnessCensor: The people of Tokyo prefer to forget or ignore anything they cannot immediately comprehend because they are too concerned with their own everyday lives. This includes ignoring the existence of the Metaverse and the possibilities it offers until it affects them personally. Shido, Akechi and the other members of the Conspiracy take full advantage of this to abuse the Metaverse for their own gain. When Yaldabaoth begins to superimpose Mementos over Tokyo as the first step of [[RealityWarper imposing his own version of reality]] upon the world, most of the people in the city [[PerceptionFilter do not even notice the frightening change]] due to [[MoreThanMindControl a combination of Yaldabaoth's influence and their own belief that it did not concern them personally]]. In addition, they don't even remember that Shido all but resigned from the election on national TV due to their inner desire to believe a pleasant lie rather than an inconvenient, ugly truth. Only the Phantom Thieves and the Confidants have the willpower to [[AvertedTrope comprehend the strangeness]] as soon as it begins, along with the consequences involved. The people of Tokyo gradually notice the changes to their city as Yaldabaoth is weakened by the Phantom Thieves, by which time the evil god was almost too powerful to be stopped. This is also an example of how societal problems could run rampant in the face of apathy. Most people would ignore such problems until they are personally affected by them, by which time the problem would be too rampant to be quickly solved.
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''The Holy Grail''']]
!!Yaldabaoth
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/p5_demiurge.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The God of Control]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see the Holy Grail]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/p5_holygrail_concept.png\\
Treasure of Mementos[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see his True Form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yaldabaoth_persona_5.png\\
The Demiurge[[/labelnote]]]]

->''"The game isn't over yet. Whether the human world is left as is, or destroyed and rebuilt, it is all sport to me."''

-->'''Sin:''' [[SevenDeadlySins All]]\\
'''Arcana:''' 0. Le Mat (The Fool)\\
'''Voiced by:''' Masane Tsukayama (JP), [[Creator/DavidLodgeActor David Lodge]] (EN)

The EldritchAbomination behind the creation of the Palaces, representing the collective desire for order regardless of cost. Prior to the game's start, he invaded the Velvet Room and imprisoned [[BigGood Igor]] before splitting the current ruler of power, Lavenza, in half to erase her memories. He then deliberately sets up the most despicable of men possible into power, rigs the public into worshiping them and manipulates Joker and Goro Akechi throughout the game, pitting them against each other to help him discern the desires of humanity. The one remaining would dismantle the conspiracy he set up and "win" his game. In reality, it does not matter if the protagonist or Akechi "won" his game, he will simply remove the winner out of existence and use it to justify his totalitarian rule because humans are too stupid to think for themselves.
\\\
In UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}, Yaldabaoth, a variant of the Demiurge, is an entity unable to perceive other expressions of the divine, leading him to believe ''he'' is the [[{{God}} supreme deity of the universe]]. In an attempt to create order from the perceived chaos of the cosmos, Yaldabaoth chained the soul and heart in mortal forms, and punishes those who refuse to adhere to his rule. In some traditions, Yaldabaoth is eventually cast into the Gnostic equivalent of {{Hell}}, where he becomes the judge and torturer of wicked souls. This is different from the Platonic Demiurge seen in ''Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner'', ''Strange Journey/Redux'', ''Shin Megami Tensei IV'', ''Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse'' and ''Persona 5 Scramble: the Phantom Strikers'', as the Gnostic Demiurge/Yaldabaoth is exclusively considered as malevolent, much like the Yaldabaoth from ''Shin Megami Tensei: NINE'' or the classic [=YHVH=] which are also based on the same Gnostic Yaldabaoth as this one. It should also be noted that the aforementioned games with the Platonic Demiurge explicitly names the entity as the "Demiurge".
----
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: He took over the Velvet Room, usually your base of power in the collective unconscious, before the game even started.
* AngelicAbomination: A towering angelic robot with multiple limbs, four of which are equipped with a sword, a book, a bell, and a gun instead of hands. His halo is a ring of smaller golden angelic wings which covers his head when disguised as the Holy Grail.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: He represents humanity's collective desire to maintain social order regardless of cost as well as their ability to believe in any sort of lie regardless of how blatant they are.
* ArtifactOfDoom: As the Treasure of Mementos, Yaldabaoth represents humanity's desire for a savior who would guide them to utopia. After he is defeated, all that remains of him is a gleaming golden goblet, which is what most people imagine when they think of the Holy Grail.
* AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance: In his true form, Yaldabaoth is a giant angelic robot. Fitting for a pretender trying to play God.
* TheBadGuyWins: If Joker accepts his deal, Yaldabaoth achieves his goals and enacts his new social order unopposed.
* BastardlySpeech: After Shido is defeated, he stops playing the supportive mentor. When the general public deny the Phantom Thieves instead of punishing Shido for his crimes, "Igor" just shrugs his shoulders and says that there's no way to change the will of such a rotten people, therefore ruin is inevitable. After the Phantom Thieves are eradicated by the Holy Grail in Mementos, "Igor" brings Joker back to the Velvet Room, repeats his declaration, and orders Caroline and Justine to execute him as punishment for failing the game. This attempt to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness dispose of loose ends]] tips off Caroline and Justine to the truth.
* BigBad: He is the true mastermind behind the events of the game. Akechi and the Conspiracy are mere pawns on his chessboard.
* BigBadFriend: He's the Confidant representing the Fool Arcana, providing Joker assistance at critical points under the guise of Igor. However, he only values Joker to the extent of being a useful test subject, and he completely turns against you unless you accept his deal.
* BlingOfWar: His true form is covered in crystal and gold armor. His shadow {{Mooks}} are gold angels.
* BoomHeadshot: Joker's ultimate persona, Satanael, defeats him by shooting a hole straight through Yaldabaoth's head with its giant ornate lever-action rifle.
* CallingYourAttacks:
-->'''Yaldabaoth:''' I release upon you the deadly sin of [name][[note]]Lust, Vanity, Gluttony, Wrath, Greed, Envy, Pride[[/note]]. You have no means of escape, humans. The [vice][[note]]insanity, fraudulence, selfishness, passion, fixation, resentment, ingratitude[[/note]] of mankind shall bring forth ruin...
-->'''Yaldabaoth:''' The abyss of the unconscious yearns for ultimate ruin... You have no means of escape, humans. Punishment shall strike you all... as you pass through the gates of destruction...
* ChaosIsEvil: As the embodiment of absolute order, Yaldabaoth is a firm believer in this trope. In his eyes, no amount of evil he commits compares to the destructive potential of chaos. And as a result he deliberately sets up Shido; the very epitome of a stupid and corrupt oaf into power and sets it up so either the Thieves or Akechi will 'execute' him to prove his point.
* CognizantLimbs: In his second form, he summons over four extra arms over the course of the fight, each with different special attacks, status effects and elemental resistances. They gain additional attacks over time, and downed arms can be revived at half HP. You can simply ignore the arms and just focus on the main body, but that means having to deal with five attacks per round. And near the end of the fight, he revives all his arms to full HP and charges a super powerful attack that can only be weakened by destroying all the arms again.
* ConsummateLiar: While he doesn't actually lie verbally most of the time, he has cognition warping powers that are so powerful that he can deceive basically anyone in extremely blatant ways, with one of the few examples being Shido's massive popularity, Mementos [[RealityBleed Reality Bled]] into reality with absolutely nobody noticing and Joker unwittingly serving him because he has never met the real Igor before.
* CompositeCharacter: He combines the personality of YHVH from the main series with the actions and methodology of Nyarlathotep from ''Persona 2''.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: He is this to the GreaterScopeVillain of ''Persona 4'', Izanami. While both bestowed power to different individuals as part of their experiments to decide mankind's fate, their motivations and methods differ:
** Izanami operates on BlueAndOrangeMorality and only acts to fulfill what she believes humanity truly desires. Yaldabaoth is a ControlFreak who seeks to subjugate mankind under his "guidance", and is willing to brainwash the populace of Tokyo by exploiting their subconscious desire for order.
** Izanami stays behind the scenes during the cat-and-mouse chase between the Investigation Team and the Killer. Her disguise [[BeneathNotice as a generic NPC that lacks a character portrait]] highlights this aspect. Yaldabaoth directly interferes in his own 'game' to [[FixingTheGame rig it in his favour]] by impersonating the BigGood Igor so as to oversee Joker's "rehabilitation".
** Izanami's experiment is centered in the rural town of Inaba, where she exploits the [[SmallTownBoredom people's discontent with the mundane and quiet lifestyle of the town]] to ascertain humanity's desire. Yaldabaoth's 'game' takes place in Tokyo, whose populace is [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror too apathetic due to their societal struggles to resist his control]].
** Izanami is based on traditional Japanese mythology, whereas Yaldabaoth is conceptualised after Gnosticism.
** Lastly, Izanami's true form is a ClippedWingAngel with a decrepit appearance that reflects her status as a FallenHero as per the myths she's based on, due to her misguided opinion on what humanity truly desires. Yaldabaoth's true form is a glorified angelic robot, which befits his desire to become a god to the masses.
* ControlFreak: What's his motive? He gets a kick out of dictating the lives of others. He is given the title of "God of Control" for a reason. For him, everything should stay the same.
* DarkIsEvil: His first appearance as the Holy Grail is a [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver black cup with red liquid]] connecting him to those who wish to be slaves to social order. He loses this over the first fight as he is nourished by the people's desires; the Grail slowly turns lighter until it's shining gold.
* DarkMessiah: As the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification embodiment]] of the desire for social order, Yaldabaoth represents the people's [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans desire for utopia at any cost]], which is reflected in his insidious methods to influence and control the world. Yaldabaoth also takes on a divine, angelic image and uses [[MookLieutenant Shadows shaped into archangels]] to enforce his will, which shows that he sees himself as a hero in spite of his evil methods.
* DeathByIrony: After harnessing the sins that embody chaos against the Phantom Thieves as proof of man's destructive nature, Satanael's Sinful Shell turns the power of those same sins against him. This reflects both his origin and resultant demise; mankind's subconscious desire for safety brought the Holy Grail to life, only for the same mankind to then wish him gone. Yaldabaoth seems to notice, and he's [[GracefulLoser okay with it]].
* DiabolusExMachina: He ''really'' likes to throw this around a lot. While the most glaring case occurs during December 23 where he deliberately manipulates the public's support for Shido to near ridiculous levels, making them think that Shido's Change of Heart did not happen and his Change of Heart was merely shrugged off as mental instability and somehow he has any chances of making a big comeback even though he shouldn't, in fact, it's implied that December 23 isn't the first time he's been manipulating the public's cognition, it just happens to be him stepping into action himself, and way before then there's very glaring signs that he also engineered the Phantom Thief bandwagon that resulted in Okumura's murder, followed by collapsing the Thieves' popularity and elevating Shido to a godly figure within the last two heists.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: In ''Royal'', provided the player is able reach the highest possible ranks for the Councilor Confidant before the start of the third term.
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The BigBad who created the Palace and gave Akechi and yourself access, kicking off the entire plot, was none other than Igor, the narrator and guy in charge of the room where you can fuse Persona... or at least an impostor who's been posing as the Igor from previous games since the opening narration of ''Persona 5''.
* DyingDeclarationOfHate: Downplayed due to being a GracefulLoser. His last thoughts before his death are to damn his enemy Igor, having been forced to admit that he was right about humanity's potential.
* EldritchAbomination: He is a representation of a negative aspect in all humanity, with the power to shape the collective unconscious to its whim, and warp or outright control the minds of people.
* EliteFour: His [[MookLieutenant heralds]] are the four archangels.
* EvilFormerFriend: This is the "Igor" that you had formed a confidant with throughout the game, and ironically, he's the guy keeping you alive until he himself takes action -- Because he's actually doing an experiment to prove that people want him to control them. He's why the government can't do things such as track your SNS records down and it took them so long to catch you red-handed.
* EvilIsNotAToy: He's on the giving end of this for TheConspiracy, as he was what lurked within the Metaverse that they thought they could use to create their own ideal version of the country. All their efforts were really something that he was counting on them be unable to do. (So he can use it as an excuse to prove that humanity is ignorant and blatantly take over the world)
* EvilLaugh: Lets out quite the chuckle when TheReveal happens.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: He truly believes that his way of maintaining order at all costs is what's best for humanity, since [[HumansAreFlawed humanity is too weak to guide itself]]. Of course, that comes with the knowledge that no matter who "won" the game between Akechi and Joker, Yaldabaoth was just going to do whatever he wanted.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Speaks with a deep, commanding voice, that turns out to be far deeper than the real Igor's.
* FamousLastWords: "What power... It surpasses mine own... a god born from the wish of the masses... So this... is the true Trickster... Damn that Igor... It seems he wasn't spouting nonsense..."
* FauxAffablyEvil: One of the main indicators, other than his deeper voice, that distinguishes him from the real Igor is his condescending tone when he addresses Joker. The real Igor always speaks politely.
* FixingTheGame:
** His "game" between Joker and Goro Akechi is displayed as the Trickster's rallying of the masses versus Akechi's sowing of chaos. If Joker wins and rallies everyone to his cause, Yaldabaoth will leave the world alone, but if Akechi wins, he writes the world off as a lost cause and remakes it. In truth, however, this is an elaborate farce facilitating him to TakeAThirdOption and enslave humanity. As [[MadeOfEvil humanity's sins incarnate]], he ''knows'' [[ApatheticCitizens humanity won't just change its tune for the Trickster so readily]] even after either Akechi or the Phantom Thieves and the Conspiracy fall, and is proven right until multiple [[SpannerInTheWorks spanners in the works]] force the populace to reject him.
** It's also implied that awakening Akechi's persona abilities years before Joker's was also a deliberate attempt to fix the game, as it meant the two Wild Cards would be unlikely to TakeAThirdOption themselves by teaming up, and if Yaldabaoth's own third option failed, the Wild Card representing the outcome he preferred (remaking the world) had a head start.
** Another implication is that he did attempt to rig the public's perception of the Phantom Thieves into a bandwagon after defeating Medjed, although it would seem as if the IT Company President behind the Medjed threat was doing it. This is the same for how the Phantom Thieves were considered dangerous murderers after Akechi killed both the principal and Okumura, in which Yaldabaoth was implied to rig the public's cognition into thinking the Thieves are murderers, then making everyone but the protagonist's Confidants think that Shido is god after Joker survives the interrogation. After the public began to even remotely awaken to Shido's pure evil, he brings out his final payload where starts making the public worship Shido contrary to what is supposed to happen. In all of these cases, he passes it off as collective public stupidity. It's anything ''but''.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: There's a number of hints to him not being the Igor from previous games.
** He sits in his chair resting his head in one hand with his legs crossed at the knee while Igor sits with his legs uncrossed and [[FingerTenting his fingers laced together]].
** His voice is considerably deeper and comes off as more commanding than your previous encounters with Igor. Granted many could assume this would be because of a new actor, but even so, the fact that the new actor doesn't even ''try'' to sound like the old one surely sets off some alarm bells. Indeed, when the real Igor does return, he sounds much more like the original voice actor. In the Japanese version, the real Igor is even [[FakeShemp voiced entirely by archived dialogue by Isamu Tanonaka]] due to his passing.
** [[FauxAffablyEvil He speaks in a clearly more possessive and controlling manner]] than the real Igor does, emphasizing his position as being above Joker and de-emphasizing the importance of the Velvet Room as the Guest's subconscious. This is carried across differently depending on the spoken version:
*** In the original Japanese his UsefulNotes/{{Japanese Pronoun|s}} is ''Watakushi'' instead of ''Watashi''. He also refers to you as ''Omae'' instead of ''Anata''.
*** In the English version his greeting is "Welcome to MY Velvet Room," not "Welcome to THE Velvet Room."
** He never actually fuses a single Persona for you, as Justine and Caroline do it all.
** He regularly refers to events taking place as "a game".
** He's extremely vague about what Joker's "rehabilitation" actually entails, and dodges the question every time you try to ask him to clarify.
** When asked a question that has to do with the real world and the hero's journey, he often gives a straight answer even when being deceitful. The real Igor meanwhile always dodges such questions and encourages characters to find the answer on their own.
** The TarotMotifs using the Marseilles deck rather than the series' traditional Rider-Waite deck -inspired imagery and the [[RelationshipValues friendship system]] being referred to as "confidants" instead of the usual "social links" is a subtle InterfaceSpoiler in addition to a stylistic choice.
*** He also has a confidant while Igor has none in ''Persona 3'' and ''Persona 4''. This means that you are contracted by him to do his bidding, something that the real Igor never does.
** Once the Thieves learn of the existence of someone else traversing the Metaverse, Igor tells Joker that he doesn't know who this is. However, he also outright stated earlier in the game that he was the one who gave Joker and the thieves the Metaverse App. At first, it could be chalked up to Igor's usual decision to withhold information from you so that you can decide freely for yourself what to do, but it comes across as an outright lie this time around. And as mentioned elsewhere, Igor never deceives you.
** During the arc where the Conspiracy starts leading the Phantom Thieves' arrest using the Medjed cleanse threat, the real effects ''only'' show up after Igor finishes talking.
*** Pay attention to the scene right after you clear the Futaba heist. He tells you not to let off your guard or you may swept off your feet and at the next day, the Phantom Thieves' approval rate increases from 30% by twofold ''right after he finishes talking!!'' This is an obvious sign that he's manipulating the bandwagon for the sake of advancing his plan. Surely, everyone gets caught off guard and he's capable of advancing the "game" to its climax because of Okumura's murder.
*** On a similar tangent, after the successful Okumura heist, he outright warns you that things are not going to be good for you and your popularity will crash and it really does afterwards as Okumura got a mental shutdown and died. Surely after, if you pay attention, the Phantom Thieves poll drops from 93% to 70% approval rate and it just goes all the way down from there, again, ''right after'' he finishes talking. This is another sign that he's clearly rigging stuff in your face.
** During the first bad ending you can get, Igor imprisons you in the Velvet Room for the rest of your life after Akechi shoots you dead in the interrogation room. Triggering ''any other'' bad ending in ''Persona'', including the one where you cut a deal with Yaldabaoth and Maruki results in the Velvet Room forsaking humanity (It's simply never to be heard of again). This indicates that the real Igor is not in charge of this Velvet Room, since it isn't supposed to exist anymore when its guest makes a doomed decision.
** When you meet him in the interrogation room after getting past Sae's interrogation without triggering the bad ending, his dialogue will imply that he taught you how to outsmart Akechi. The real Igor ''never'' teaches you how to outsmart the culprits.
** Also crossing over with InterfaceSpoiler, but every major character, Confidant or Target, has special eye cut-ins that'll pop up depending on the emotion that the developers want to convey. While Igor does have them, they never once show up during the time Yaldabaoth impersonates Igor. This should be a subtle clue that Yaldabaoth has been hiding his intentions from the start, even to the player.
** Pay attention to the Holy Grail's voice, especially his Japanese voice when you first meet him in Mementos Depths. That's the ''exact'' same voice as the "Igor" you met throughout the game, just with extra echo effects.
* GlamourFailure: His disguise as Igor, for all it's effectiveness or lack-therefore, has an unrelated but serious flaw. It's made abundantly clear when Joker awakens his metaverse outfit ''inside the Velvet Room'', something that only happens when the ruler of a Metaverse location sees you as a threat. Igor would ''never'' see his guests as a threat.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: After you challenge him, the eyes of his Igor form start glowing bright yellow.
* GodIsEvil: In Gnostic belief, Yaldabaoth the Demiurge is the entity worshiped as {{God}} in UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}, UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} and UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}, along with any other religion that has a "supreme" deity. Though in some versions he is seen as a pretender of sorts who are unaware of other divine entities, acting as the "God" of the material world and trying to keep humanity trapped in it (which goes well with his scheme in the game). And sometimes it is said that the true "Good God" banishes him to Hell where he essentialy becomes the Devil or something similar to that. Overall though, this game's depiction of Yaldabaoth is a subversion of this trope because he isn't anywhere near powerful enough to be considered God, being merely a deity born from the wishes of the masses, though the theme of his character (a god who believes in TheEvilsOfFreeWill and places absolute order as priority) certainly plays with ths trope considering it is very much how YHVH is depicted in the main ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games.
* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Yaldabaoth nearly overpowers the Phantom Thieves by [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve using the Tokyo citizens' faith in absolute societal order]] to make himself nigh-invincible. Once their faith heals and protects the Phantom Thieves from his Rays of Control, Joker summons his ultimate Persona, [[SatanIsGood Satanael]], by breaking Arsène's chain, which enables him to defeat Yaldabaoth.
* GoneHorriblyRight: However accidental, Yaldabaoth is the physical culmination of the masses' collective unconscious desire for [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans utopia by any means necessary]].
* GracefulLoser: After he is finally defeated, Yaldabaoth acknowledges [[HeroicSpirit the power of hope within humanity]] before fading away to nothing, leaving only a golden goblet.
-->'''Yaldabaoth:''' What power... it surpasses mine own... a god born from the wish of the masses. So this... is the true Trickster. Damn that Igor... it seems he wasn't spouting nonsense...
* GreaterScopeVillain: He is the one who granted Goro Akechi and Joker their ability to use Personas and access the Metaverse, making him the power behind both the Phantom Thieves and the Conspiracy. This makes Yaldabaoth indirectly responsible for the Conspiracy's crimes and the suffering caused by the conflict between the Thieves and the Conspiracy. In addition, Yaldabaoth [[MoreThanMindControl subtly influences]] the people of Tokyo towards the extremes of social conformity, causing many people in the city to suffer while also encouraging them to [[ApatheticCitizens do nothing]] for the sake of societal harmony. ''Royal'' also has his machinations play a part in the additional events long after being destroyed.
* HaveANiceDeath: Prior to TheReveal, he often has some choice words for you should you screw up and get a GameOver. This is the most apparent in the interrogation room bad ending, where he coolly points out how screwed you are since Akechi successfully assassinated you.
-->'''Yaldabaoth:''' Our game has ended. Ruin shall be coming momentarily. [[FateWorseThanDeath Enjoy spending the rest of your life in the prison repenting for your actions.]]
* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose:
** Much like with Izanami from ''Persona 4'', after you empty his second form's HP, he pulls an IAmNotLeftHanded and crushes the Thieves with sheer power. Also, the first fight with him before his true identity is revealed also plays out this way, as the prayers of the people simply heal him from all the damage you do.
** This is how his "game" is ultimately set up. On paper, it's supposed to determine humanity's fate; whether Akechi's distortions would lead to ruin and the world's destruction, or if Joker would lead the world to salvation. Since Yaldabaoth was created by humanity's distorted desires, however, he had an interest in remaking the world in his image, and to that end, tried to rig the game in his own favor. Namely, by giving Joker a taste of his power of removing them from existence, and after seeing him survive, offering him control of the world at the expense of free will.
* HiddenDepths: Yaldabaoth's mindset is easy to misunderstand. In reality, starting from your probation for "assaulting" Shido, to the interrogation, and to your fight against Akechi, you are expected to win by him while Akechi is set up as the loser. He's basically setting up everything to prove that humanity wants him to control them, so if you won it doesn't matter anything to him. That's why he doesn't try to dispose of you quickly and is stalling things, since disposing of you before he has an excuse to or truly has to simply spoils the entire point of his motives.
* HobbesWasRight: The literal embodiment of humanity's desire for a strong leader who will dispense with TheEvilsOfFreeWill to maintain law and order.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: After using the SevenDeadlySins against the party during his boss battle, Joker has Satanael shoot him in the head with a bullet powered by those very sins.
* HolyGrail: His true form is a dark version of it, representing the desire for a great king like Arthur to take away TheEvilsOfFreeWill.
* HolyHalo: A gold ring lined with gold angel wings rotates above his head. The halo was originally folded around his head as the cup of the Holy Grail.
* HopeCrusher: He wants to destroy all hope of anything better than what ''he'' offers to society. Yaldabaoth uses despair as a tool to keep people obedient and he is quick to talk down any hope that he could be defeated. By the time the Phantom Thieves encounter the Holy Grail within Mementos, Yaldabaoth has already smothered much of the city's hope, resulting in the peoples' Shadows submitting to him out of a mixture of despair, fear and reverence.
* HumanityOnTrial: Like Nyarlathotep before him, Yaldabaoth sets up the events of the game with the Phantom Thieves and the Conspiracy as his pawns playing against each other. The game is to decide whether humanity would embrace its inner "sloth" and submit to the Conspiracy's rule, or join the Phantom Thieves' rebellion against said inner "sloth". And like Nyarlathotep, he's more than willing to rig that trial in his own favour that would see him as the absolute ruler over humanity.
* HumansAreMorons: He believes in this wholeheartedly and this is his biggest reason for why ''he'' should rule humanity instead of letting it make its own decisions. He deliberately chooses the most despicable people to ascend into abnormal popularities only to set them up as bait for the Phantom Thieves or Goro Akechi to remove, then projects this mentality onto his unwitting followers (the people of Tokyo) so they would accept his [[FalseUtopia false paradise]] and [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve give him their faith to strengthen himself]] and remove anyone who removed his made-up conspiracy as well. Nonetheless, Yaldabaoth has a low opinion of humans in general, considering them to be GullibleLemmings. Only a few exceptional humans, like the protagonist and Goro Akechi, pique its interest, but even then he treats them as little more than disposable, transient entertainment. Overall, he's merely using everyone for the sole reason to prove a point that sums up as "If you don't want dumb and corrupt conspiracies like this to rule you, let me rule over you." Once, Haru even asked Yaldabaoth outright if being defeated by such humans would change his worldview, and his paraphrased response is a blunt "no".
* IAmNotLeftHanded: You know Rays of Control, that super powerful attack that comes from his extra arms that requires you to destroy them? He doesn't need the arms to cast it, removing them only reduces the damage dealt. After his HP goes to 0, he just gets back up and fires the attack with no warning to stomp the party. Even in the final battle, he enjoys being a HopeCrusher a bit too much.
* IHaveManyNames: The Holy Grail, Yaldabaoth, and Igor.
* IdentityImpersonator: How he kick-started his plans. First, he invaded the Velvet Room, sucker-punched and then imprisoned the ''real'' Igor, then split Igor's latest assistant into two amnesiac forms he could order around without arousing suspicion. Finally, he shapeshifted himself to look just like Igor, taking over the BigGood role while doing the exact opposite in secret.
* KarmicDeath: In his HolyGrail form, the prayers of humanity for him to impose order heal him too fast for the Thieves to damage until they cut him off from their prayers. In his second form, the people choose the Thieves over him and their faith protects the Thieves, who then use the SevenDeadlySins imbued into a bullet to kill him in one hit.
* LackOfEmpathy: For all his concern about human behavior and his interactions with others, Yaldabaoth has no concern at all about human emotions. His only concern was to rule over humanity through his KnightTemplar ideals, no matter how much suffering he must cause to enable this to happen. Yaldabaoth only acknowledges and respects power, particularly his own. Even after he is defeated, he only acknowledges the ''power'' of [[HeroicSpirit hope]] demonstrated by the Phantom Thieves, not once considering the feelings of the humans he oppressed (he does ruefully admit that Igor was right).
* LastVillainStand: He represents the last stand of the Conspiracy. After Shido is arrested, his remaining allies commence an all-or-nothing plan to wipe out the Phantom Thieves and maintain their corrupt chokehold over Japan. For this plan to work, Yaldabaoth directly [[MoreThanMindControl influences]] the people of Tokyo to forget Shido's crimes and blame the entire debacle on the Thieves. After Yaldabaoth is defeated, public opinion promptly turns against Shido and his allies, eventually bringing an end to the Conspiracy and its schemes. In the bad ending where the protagonist [[TheBadGuyWins sides with him]], the outcome is superficially similar as Yaldabaoth himself [[GoneHorriblyRight deems the Phantom Thieves more trustworthy than the corrupt Conspiracy opposing them]], ending the latter's significance entirely.
* LightIsNotGood: The black covering of his HolyGrail form flakes away to reveal his gold composition, and his berserk form is a giant robotic god covered in white and gold armor, and one of his main attacks is "Arrow of Light."
* TheManBehindTheMan: The true villain behind the creation of the Palaces, TheConspiracy, and the Phantom Thieves.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulated most of the events in the story by usurping Igor and splitting his attendant to serve him, then giving power to Akechi and later the Protagonist to take control of the collective unconscious. Akechi ends up using his power to set in motion TheConspiracy for his father Shido, while the Protagonist ends up forming the Phantom Thieves.
* MoreThanMindControl: Starts exerting this on Tokyo shortly after Shido's defeat. While he couldn't imprison the general public's Shadow Selves without their permission, after that point his inmates turn the WeirdnessCensor up to ''[[ImplausibleDeniability ridiculous]]'' levels. It's actually what causes the Phantom Thieves to realize that Mementos itself is a threat, and he begins to lose control of them as the Archangels are defeated.
* MortonsFork: His "game" was set up to determine whether humanity should receive "salvation" or "destruction and rebirth". "Destruction and rebirth" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. "Salvation" is Yaldabaoth enslaving humanity.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: His boss fight form has 4 spindly robotic arms sticking out of his back, each holding an item from the ''Literature/BookOfRevelation'' - and a pistol.
* MythologyGag: He's the closest equivalent to [[Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei YHVH]] in the Persona universe.
** Both think themselves Gods with a capital G, and both are the embodiment of Law and control. Both also desire to take away the free will of humanity and rule over them.
** Both will keep existing so long as humans desire to be controlled or believe in a higher power dictating their lives.
** Both control the Four Archangels. (real ones in service of YHVH, Shadows that take the forms of them in the case of Yaldabaoth)
* {{Narcissist}}: Yaldabaoth reeks of this, considering that he embodies both the sins of {{Vanity}} and {{Pride}}. He desires for the masses to worship him to satiate his sense of self-worth, and will eliminate those who challenge him. His appearance as a robotic angel adorned in gold and silver reflects this.
* NeverMyFault:
** Blames the Phantom Thieves' temporary RetGone when Mementos and the real world merge solely on the public, even though he was the one responsible for the merger that made it possible in the first place. On one hand, he ''is'' the AnthropomorphicPersonification of their desires, [[MetaphoricallyTrue so he could also mean that]] [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve their general opinion became strong enough for him to gain the power to do so]]. On the other hand, he's still practically admitting [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly that he couldn't have done it without them]].
** Before he {{Ret Gone}}s the Phantom Thieves, he also deliberately rigs the Phantom Thieves abnormally high popularity, crash-lands it after Okumura's assassination and transfers the abnormal popularity to Shido, then blames Shido and the masses for it; he even warns the protagonist about the popularity crash land after Okumura's death. [[ZigZaggingTrope Again, while it is true]] [[MadeOfEvil that the masses and their desires were part of his creation and rise to power]], [[HopeCrusher he still took advantage of their general opinions and feelings in order to make them submit]]; He warned the protagonist because he knew what would happen and there was nothing he (Joker) could apparently do about it.
* NoCureForEvil: Subverted. He is outright healed by the prayers of humanity who seek to be slaves in his Holy Grail form. Disconnecting their prayers from him is required in order to defeat him.
* NotAsYouKnowThem: Before his true identity gets exposed, longtime fans may notice how "Igor" seems considerably more dismissive of the protagonist and humans in general, doesn't actually fuse any Persona himself, and has a menacingly deeper voice.
* OhCrap: After striking the entire party down with his powers, everyone in Shibuya starts to give the Thieves their support, giving them strength. When he unleashes another of his attacks, it has ''zero effect'' on them.
* OmnicidalManiac: Concludes humanity is beyond saving and destined for ruin after Shido's change of heart fails to affect significant change among the public.
* OrderIsNotGood: He is the god of control and order and he wants to impose order into the world by removing chaos through any means necessary. Yaldabaoth's societal order is evil because his methods are corrupt and immoral, causing unspeakable suffering to humanity.
* OrderVersusChaos: He seeks to impose order upon the world and remove the chaos that blights it by imprisoning everyone who has chaos in them in the depths of Mementos forever. Fittingly the four Archangels that serve YHVH appear as his heralds in the final dungeon.
* OutOfCharacterAlert: Though there are many small signs beforehand, the first concrete piece of evidence that all is not what it seems with "Igor" is him claiming to be disappointed in Humanity.
* PerceptionFilter: He creates one shortly after Shido is defeated, causing the citizenry of Tokyo to ignore several things, like his conquest of the world or Shido's confession. It is also apparently linked to the Four Archangels, as more and more people notice the mutated world and him banishing people from reality as they're defeated.
* PlayingBothSides: He more or less plays Akechi, TheConspiracy, and the Thieves against one another for his own purposes.
* PragmaticVillainy: Despite his arrogance, the ending where the Protagonist sides with him makes it clear he ''does'' value the work done by the Phantom Thieves, if only because it would help keep societal order stronger and united. He is very much sincere about his intention to "re-evaluate" the Protagonist should he make the deal, as he suspends his plan of fusing Mementos with reality and allows the Phantom Thieves to do his bidding.
* PsychopathicManchild: Out of his high and mighty voice, when the Thieves channel the masses' power to reverse the tides on him, his dialogue there seams of this to an outright ridiculous degree that it seems like that he's a primary school bully being outmatched instead of a god or high-ranking Shadow like Izanami or Enlil.
* RealityWarper: He physically superimposes Mementos onto the entirety of reality, filling the land with the bones of giant creatures and red water. He also tampers with the cognition of the populace so that they don't even perceive the obvious changes. Also, by [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve using the people's faith in absolute societal order]], Yaldabaoth is able to project ''his own idea of reality'' onto the real world, whether or not that reality is a truth or a lie. This is how he is nearly able to [[CessationOfExistence wipe the Phantom Thieves out of existence]] at the height of his power.
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Attempts to pull one with his RetGone of the Phantom Thieves in Mementos Depths, but is OutGambitted by Joker and Lavenza.
* SevenDeadlySins: He represents all seven, with each of his skills being named "Distorted Lust / Wrath / Pride / etc." in your final battle with him.
* SlouchOfVillainy: One of the differences between him and Igor is the disinterested posture Yaldabaoth takes when sitting at the desk in the Velvet Room. The real Igor sits up straight.
* SmugSuper: When he drops the Igor act, he shows himself to be the embodiment of divine hubris and self-righteousness, assuming he's better than anyone just by being a god and ''never shutting up'' about it.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: His name is spelled with a Y in the game, but his boss theme is called "'''J'''aldabaoth".
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute:
** Is quite similar to YHVH from the mainline SMT series, even using the four Archangels as his heralds for the Phantom Thieves to fight.
** His view on humanity as well as his conflict with Igor greatly resembles [[VideoGame/Persona2 Nyarlathotep]]. And like him, Yaldabaoth had also disguised himself as service provider to manipulate the main characters. The Time Count for Nyarlathotep while Yaldabaoth took the form of Igor. It should also be noted that in some Lovecraftian circles, the Demiurge, or Yaldabaoth is considered Nyarlathotep in disguise, and it is also often identified as Yahweh in Gnosticism.
* TautologicalTemplar: His bringing of salvation-through-order is something he views as an inherent good, largely because he's the one doing so.
* ThisCannotBe: Fully believing himself to be the true embodiment of humanity's desires, Yaldabaoth expresses disbelief when he witnesses the Phantom Thieves' ability to stand up to him and ultimately defeat him.
* TreacherousAdvisor: He's you and Akechi's boss after all, aside that he wants to sink both of you to the pits of despair.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: It turns out that by mistakenly separating the torch from Adam Kadmon (Who was the source of Maruki's cognition-warping powers) Yaldabaoth removed all of his light and wisdom, making him the blind and braindead Azathoth who proceeds to go rogue and insane after his fall alongside Maruki.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: While Yaldabaoth [[ControlFreak enjoys controlling humanity for its own sake]], he does feel that he is helping humanity on some level. By eliminating TheEvilsOfFreeWill through absolute societal order, Yaldabaoth truly believes that he is bringing paradise to humanity and that he should be worshipped for this.
* VillainousBreakdown: During the last moments of the battle, he starts to display anger when everyone starts to place their hope to the Thieves, especially becoming shocked at his powers becoming ineffective at them. When Joker unleashes Satanael's last attack, Yaldaboath quickly shows his rage.
-->"Preposterous! You dare rob the people's wishes?!"
* VillainRespect: He seems to truly respect Joker's cunning, ingenuity, and character as a Trickster. Coming up with the plan to trick Akechi, for instance, was "truly ingenious", in Yaldabaoth's words. He also offers Joker [[WeCanRuleTogether the chance to join up with him]] before the final battle, and is sincere about keeping his word if Joker accepts.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Gains one after being exposed as the fake Igor.
* WeCanRuleTogether: He actually offers to cut a deal with Joker, in thanks for being such a help to him and for actually figuring him out. So long as he leaves the Holy Grail alone and doesn't interfere with it, he'll restore him and the Thieves and stop the worlds merging, let him keep his ability to enter the Palace and use it for whatever he desires, and continue watching how he uses his power on society. If accepted, he does keep his word and you get another Bad Ending, where the Thieves are basically in control of the city, and all of the police and government officials who were opposing them are forced to keep their distance from them lest they get their hearts stolen. However, since none of the other Thieves know Joker cut a deal with Yaldabaoth, the implication is the Thieves have given in to the temptation of abusing their power like Akechi did, and they'll never truly be free from Yaldabaoth watching everyone from behind the scenes.
* XanatosGambit: His game involving the Phantom Thieves and the Conspiracy revolves around this, and he goes various steps to ensure that he would emerge as the victor regardless of who wins his game. If Akechi and the Conspiracy win, Yaldabaoth's control over the populace is cemented. If the Phantom Thieves manage succeed in changing the hearts of the corrupt, those corrupted individuals would lose their distorted desires and reduced back to faceless masses under Yaldabaoth's control. It's only when the Phantom Thieves expose Yaldabaoth true identity ''and'' Joker refuses to cut a deal with him, that this trope gets subverted.
----
[[/folder]]

!Antagonists exclusive to ''Royal''
[[folder:'''The Dreamer''']]
!!Takuto Maruki
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/takuto_enemy_1.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Sorrowful Dreamer]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see his Battle Form]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/takuto_azathoth_1.png[[/labelnote]]]]



->''"Think about it: you both have dreams, no? I have the power to make them come true. My reality can become just the way you like."''

-->'''Sin:''' Tristitia (Sorrow)\\
'''Arcana:''' 1. Le Consultant (Councillor)\\
'''Persona:''' [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Azathoth]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Kabbalah}} Adam Kadmon]]\\
'''Weapons:''' [[StaffOfAuthority Holy Staff]]\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/SatoshiHino (JP), Creator/BillyKametz (EN)\\\

The creator of the "dream world" the protagonists suddenly find themselves in during winter term. After his girlfriend Rumi fell into catatonia following a break-in that resulted in the deaths of her parents, Maruki awakened to a Persona with the power to alter cognition, which he used to save Rumi by rewriting her memories. It worked, but at the cost of her forgetting their relationship. While devastated, this only emboldened Maruki's desire to better understand the cognitive world, and he later opened a clinic where he used his powers to help alleviate his patients of their suffering. Among these patients was Sumire Yoshizawa, who he brainwashed into believing was her recently deceased sister Kasumi.\\\

During the Day of Reckoning, Yaldabaoth's merging of Mementos with reality causes Maruki to manifest a corrupted version of his Persona which twists his desire to help people into the deluded belief that he must "save" all of humanity from suffering of any kind. To this end, he takes advantage of the Phantom Thieves' personal wishes to create a new, idealized reality in which all of their dreams can come true.\\\

His Palace is a massive, towering laboratory made out of glass and gold, filled with cognitive patients in white who are slowly being brainwashed into believing they're experiencing true happiness, before experiencing true bliss in a model of the biblical Garden of Eden. It first appears on top the Odaiba construction site at the start of October, and is based on the real laboratory Maruki had planned to open before his funds were embargoed and his research stolen by Shido. His treasure is a golden torch with chains on it, and its true form is the newsletter about the murder of Rumi's family.\\\

----
* AffablyEvil: Maruki's personality isn't an act; he really is an {{Adorkable}} NiceGuy, and his core motive is to create a world where everyone can have what they want. Even his actions during the Third Semester were simply the result of his persona going berserk and nothing else.
* AintTooProudToBeg: As a part of his Reverse Councilor Tarot motif, he's shown to constantly try and "reach an understanding" and keeps asking you not to destroy his [[LotusEaterMachine dream world]] for the sake of everyone's happiness, to the point he's ''begging'' during the first phase of his fight not to do it. He does it once more when Joker saves him from his suicide, begging him to let him go.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Whereas Yaldabaoth believed that [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill free will is the source of all suffering]], Maruki believes that ''all'' desire -- ambitions, yearnings, wants, wishes -- is the source of all suffering. To solve this, he creates a world where [[YourHeartsDesire everyone's desires are achieved]], no questions asked and no strings attached. Unfortunately, humanity has absolutely nothing to strive for in this kind of world, effectively bringing [[FateWorseThanDeath oblivious]] [[ModernStasis stagnation]] to everyone if Maruki consolidates himself as Yaldabaoth's successor as the God of Control.
* AntiVillain: Maruki isn't a part of the Conspiracy, someone with a grudge against the heroes, or even ''evil'' at all. His grand scheme is to ultimately save everyone by [[LotusEaterMachine trapping them in the dream world for a sort of eternal peace]]. And while he resents the fact that the Phantom Thieves opt for the painful reality instead, he doesn't necessarily hate them for it. He shows a great deal of concern with saving lives and making sure the Thieves are okay even as they rail against his illusion, and doesn't betray any kind of hypocrisy as his plan falls apart. In fact, most of his mannerisms in the third semester are heavily implied to be a side effect of Yaldabaoth's plan, who managed to trigger his Persona to go berserk, further fueled by losing his fiancé to said Persona and his research to Shido before. His Persona was originally only intended for him to help people cope with extreme mental conditions. Even his grand scheme used to be nothing other than validating his own brand of cognitive psience so he can use it to save lives and cure mental illnesses, and it's literally ''not'' anything he did in the Third Semester events. Combines elements of the "Well Intentioned" and "In Name Only" Anti-Villain.
* ArcSymbol: A bizarre sun shape is frequently seen throughout his palace, from appearing on the lenses of the building's security cameras, inside the apples in the Garden of Eden, and even being incorporated into both his Personas' designs.
* ArcVillain: Of the Third Semester arc. He's the one who trapped the Phantom Thieves in a world of their hearts' desires, and a major reason why Kasumi/Sumire is the way she is.
* BadassBoast: Lets out two just before the phases of his fight.
-->'''Azathoth phase:''' I regret not pointing this out to you... You shouldn't mistake our powers as being equal.\\
'''Adam Kadmon phase:''' If it is for everyone's happiness, ''I don't care what happens to me!'' Don't resist...Accept it. With my power- No... with mine and Adam Kadmon's together, ''our reality is nigh!''
* TheBadGuyWins: Much like Yaldabaoth, the player can side with him and get a new ending where Maruki's dream world continues unopposed and Maruki himself [[DeityOfHumanOrigin ascends and becomes a god]]. The biggest difference is the dream ending being portrayed positively with everyone happy, compared to the sinister fall of Joker and the Phantom Thieves into Yaldabaoth's allies. Especially if you miss the deadline, where Maruki still wins, but decides to make Joker to sleep forever as to not worry about anything. [[AndIMustScream It's rather unpleasant.]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Maruki is arguably the nicest adult apart from Sojiro and a post-HeelFaceTurn Sae that the Phantom Thieves have met and truly does mean well despite his intentions. He's also bar none one of the strongest opponents that they've faced if his status as a TrueFinalBoss is any indication.
* BigBadEnsemble: Takes over the main villain role after Yaldabaoth and TheConspiracy are dealt with, becoming the final obstacle that the Phantom Thieves face.
* BigBadSlippage: Offscreen. While his Palace was in place since early October, he's not malevolent at all and it's implied that his Palace is actually a part of Mementos based on the circumstances when Joker, Morgana and Kasumi first enter it, instead of actually "his." However, his friendship with Joker gives him the tools he needs to create a LotusEaterMachine for everyone and the final battle with Yaldabaoth drives his Persona berserk, turning him into the TrueFinalBoss of the game.
* BlingOfWar: He's clad entirely in gold armor, along with a white cape that kept in place with a golden medal that has the Metaverse app insignia on it when he faces the Thieves in the finale.
* BornLucky: His backstory reveals that his research was stolen by Masayoshi Shido. Given how Shido usually deals with people who inconvenience him or could potentially threaten him, the fact that he never suffered a mental shutdown or an unfortunate "accident" at any point is utterly astounding (though given he has his own Persona, he has no Shadow to be killed and he'd likely be able to neutralize Akechi). Then there's the fact that thanks to both the Thieves and Yaldabaoth, he becomes the next God of Control, enabling him to enact his LotusEaterMachine in order to save humanity. In the Thieves' Den, Lavenza even states the irony of his predicament, as despite having a major TraumaCongaLine, [[SuperpowerLottery it's also what gave him the powers of God to save the world]].
* CallBack: His plan is basically to do exactly what Philemon did to undo Nyarlathotep's victory in ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'' by creating a new reality, only for his plan to similarly [[AGlitchInTheMatrix run into issues]] when Joker remembers the original world like Tatsuya did in ''Eternal Punishment''. The only difference is the latter is good, but the former is ''very'' bad.
* CallForward: The mechanics of his Palace, his [[RealityWarper Reality-Warping]] powers to grant his clients happiness in illusionary overlays and his motive of granting humanity an eternal golden age are later largely replicated in ''Scramble'' by [[spoiler:the [=EMMA=] application and the Jails it manifests. When the ascended form of [=EMMA=] begins to step into action on her own, her Jail also takes on similar [=Eden/Sephirot=] motifs.]]
* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: For all his posturing about wanting to make everyone else happy through his LotusEaterMachine, it's pretty obvious that his own happiness is far beyond his reach. And despite encouraging others to confide in him if they ever needed help, he's continued to soldier on alone no matter what it took to accomplish his goals.
* CombatBreakdown: Thanks to his Palace breaking down and Adam Kadmon being destroyed, Joker is incapable of using his Persona, thus forcing him to [[PostFinalBoss fight Maruki in a fist fight that ends in Joker's victory]].
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist:
** Unlike previous human antagonists, who are already conspiring against the heroes when you meet them and only care about benefiting themselves, Maruki undergoes offscreen BigBadSlippage as the game progresses and seeks to create a utopia with his powers for everyone to enjoy.
** Like [[TheHeavy Shido]] and [[EvilCounterpart Akechi]] before him, he's one to [[VideoGame/Persona4 Tohru Adachi]]:
*** Adachi only [[BitchInSheepsClothing pretends]] to be a NiceGuy before his true colors are revealed. Maruki is a genuine NiceGuy and remains one even after becoming an antagonist.
*** Adachi throws the girls he likes but [[IfICantHaveYou can't have]] into the Midnight Channel to die. Maruki erased his girlfriend's memories of him to save her life, and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy accepts the fact]] that he can't be with her anymore.
*** Adachi traps random people in a dangerous other reality purely [[ForTheEvulz for his own amusement.]] Maruki traps the Phantom Thieves in a reality based on their heart's desire because he genuinely wants them to be happy.
*** Adachi is a DiscOneFinalBoss. Maruki is the TrueFinalBoss.
*** Adachi goes to jail after his defeat, while Maruki remains a free man after his defeat.
** He's also one to Nyx Avatar[[spoiler:/Ryoji]] from ''VideoGame/Persona3'':
*** Both of them are [[AntiVillain Anti-Villains]] who are not ''evil'' in any sort and are actually close friends to the protagonist, but are forced to carry out their plans opposed to their will. However, Ryoji is naturally a harbringer of death while Maruki is an unintended consequence of Yaldabaoth's plan and was subsequently controlled by Azathoth, who was also a bycatch of Yaldabaoth itself as well.
*** Both of them carry out their plans by a swift, end-it-all method that nobody can see it coming when it comes. While Nyx Avatar kills everything without a trace of life, Maruki lets life remain without being harmed, but takes out all of their growth by incomplete perfection. If the protagonist accepts their "salvation," the ending is also a still frame picture of the cast enjoying life, before Nyx's aftermath is presented by fading into black while Maruki's is represented by the picture burning.
*** An UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom summons them to action. While Nyx is a Shadow or God accidentally brought back to life from the hands of man before the events of the game, Maruki is a persona user who was accidentally corrupted by the hands of Yaldabaoth, a false god during the climax of the game.
* DarkMessiah: Thanks to accidentally becoming the new master of Mementos, he becomes the successor to Yaldabaoth, and wishes to give everyone a HappilyEverAfter, even if it'll cause ModernStasis. He even claims that he's been chosen by the world itself to grant that wish.
* DeityOfHumanOrigin: He's essentially become the new God of Control, his Palace and Persona taking control of Mementos, and has effectively become a RealityWarper within his LotusEaterMachine, able to warp the cognition of the masses and of reality itself. He's not a ''true'' god yet, but accepting his deal or missing the deadline allows him to truly ascend and ensnare humanity in his dream world permanently by the Metaverse and reality remerging and becoming one.
* DePower: After taking a shot to the head by Joker's gun during the final battle and losing his Treasure and Palace, his Persona Adam/Azathoth is removed as well.
* DespairEventHorizon: Maruki's sin and motif is sorrow or despair (''Tristitia''), and is often connected to the sin of [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]. [[TraumaCongaLine The loss of his girlfriend to catatonic depression under very unfortunate circumstances has resulted in him awakening to Adam Kadmon's powers, and Shido's sabotage of his research lab fundings only broke him further]]. Yaldabaoth was also able to affect Maruki's Persona for unexplained reasons, twisting him into a partial madman and a StrawNihilist who only wants people to be HappilyEverAfter forever. As a result, he -- or more accurately, Azathoth -- using him as a meat puppet rewrites history so the Phantom Thieves' wishes came true and their cruel truth either never happened (as seen in Ryuji, Futaba and the like) or are replaced with the cognitive overlays they desire (as seen in Sumire or Morgana). In other words, Maruki has devolved into a compassionate nihilist of the most twisted form, and amounts to an inversion of the Nyx Avatar[[spoiler:/Ryoji]] from ''VideoGame/Persona3''. His final defeat also shows signs of flat out DrivenToSuicide as he begs Joker to let him fall to his death to end it all after losing to the Phantom Thieves.
* {{Determinator}}: One of the biggest in the entire franchise. He so adamantly believes in his cause and is so unwilling to accept a loss to the Phantom Thieves that he stops the collapse of his Palace ''twice'' on sheer willpower alone, prompting additional boss phases. He even steals back his own Treasure to restore his Persona to its true form.
* DeusExMachina: {{Subverted|Trope}}, although he himself believes that he's playing this straight. Maruki seeks to erase the tragedies that negatively impacted people, effectively rewriting an entire person’s history. While reviving someone's most beloved aquaintances to their most pristine state or restoring lost fame or overwriting somebody with a cognitive overlay that they yearned for might seem noble, it also erases the lessons and growth a person gained from accepting the tragedies. This process can also damage the connections someone made with others while experiencing the tragedy, as nobody among the first seven Phantom Thieves can actually remember why they became intimate friends with Joker because their traumas led them to bond with him. What Maruki is doing is actually disrupting natural order and human progress, eventually resulting in total ModernStasis with everyone in this world being metaphorically murdered.
* DrivenToSuicide: After losing to Joker in a [[PostFinalBoss fist fight above his crumbling Palace]], he lets himself fall to his death due to just being ''done'' with everything. He even begs Joker, who is trying to pull him back up, to let his hand go.
-->'''Maruki:''' Come on... I said I'm done. Please... let go of my hand.
* DuelingMessiahs: A fact he's actually afraid of, and why he spent so much time trying to get Joker to accept the dream world he created for everyone. He never wanted to fight the Thieves; they were among his first patients and people he cares about so very much among those he was trying to save. This is especially the case with Joker. However, deep down he knew that he would be forced to face them to see whether Joker's "face the true world, fraught with pain and sorrow" compared to his "take solace in a perfect yet illusory world" would be the "true" reality.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Originally he only ever used his powers as a last resort when the normal methods would not work on a patient, as the actions they'd likely undertake themselves would be far worse. Both Rumi and Sumire were such cases. Sumire even admits near the end of her Confidant she would have likely killed herself for wanting to turn into Kasumi due to her own breakdown, [[VillainHasAPoint and what Maruki did for her allowed her to live long enough for]] the Phantom Thieves to help her the rest of the way. Yaldabaoth's master plan causes Adam Kadmon to go berserk and devolving into Azathoth, that goes out the window along with Maruki's sense.
* EvilCostumeSwitch: After his FaceHeelTurn, he trades in his casual labcoat, trousers and flip-flops for a stern-looking white suit and slicks back his hair.
* EvilPowerVacuum: After Yaldabaoth's defeat, he installs himself as the new ruler of Mementos in order to create his dream reality.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: For most of the game, his messy hair provided the similar sort of symbolism as Joker's, a reflection of Maruki's playfulness, healthy positivity and desire for good. Seeing him in the Metaverse of the third arc, it's slicked back to give him a professional and no-nonsense sort of appearance. While part of it is based on his desire for what would've been his institution to help people, it also shows his seriousness and how he's in charge now, his goal being making every person alive happy, and he's not above coercion, manipulation, and sometimes blatant MindRape to force the issue.
* FairPlayVillain: Lavenza notes that as a RealityWarper, he could easily [[RetGone erase the Thieves from existence]] like Yaldabaoth tried to do. Instead, he tries to talk the Thieves into accepting his way of thinking without fighting. He even allows them to use the Meta-Nav and their Personas, knowing they would likely try to infiltrate his Palace. [[JustifiedTrope Justified given his desire for creating a world of happiness and the Thieves were some of the first he counseled, so he cares about their well-being.]] He doesn't want to fight them, but try to come to a compromise and not disturb them.
* FightingYourFriend: Even after his BigBadSlippage, he's still a very pleasant individual who Joker and co. see as a friend, and all parties involved are reluctant to engage in a violent clash of ideals.
* FisticuffsBoss: The last conflict in ''Royal'' is an ordinary fist fight between Joker and Maruki.
* ForbiddenFruit: The Psientfic Model Eden of his Palace has this and tree of knowledge, all with apples with bite marks that have the ArcSymbol inside as eyes that twitches and blinks.
* ForHappiness: The main reason he gives for just about everything he does. No matter how twisted his methods are, he firmly believes what he's doing is worth it if it makes people's lives even a little better.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: There are just about a few hints where he's about to become the ArcVillain of the third term. Be noted that most of these ''do not'' show until you reach the later stages of his confidant, since maxing his confidant is required to trigger it.
** His {{Leitmotif}} is "Ideal and the Real". This should be self explanatory that he's the instigator.
** He always seems to be covering for Kasumi, as shown when he tries to not let her get her scholarship revoked due to the Vice Principal realizing that she was a fake. It shows that he's trying to keep the spell he cast on Sumire a secret if he can.
** During his Rank 6 hangout in [=LeBlanc=], he asks Joker a way to change the cognition of ''billions'' so they can all be freed from suffering. Joker points him to Mementos... and he seems to be so happy that he exhausted himself rushing back to home.
** His confidant is one of the few that doesn't require you to take out a Mementos target/personal villain. That's because Maruki ''himself'' becomes the target by the mid-winter term, and he's taken control of the ''entirety'' of Mementos.
** During the speech that he does before he leaves Shujin, he tells his students to stay strong, don't obsess about any negativity and spend their days in happiness. In the Japanese version, he even uses a type of wording straight out from ''Enlil'' from ''Persona Q2''.
** During his rank 10 Confidant hangout, which occurs on the same day where he holds the parting speech, his final dialogue asks if Joker is going to change his heart if he doesn't believe what he says, and he proceeds to say that he will make society a better place using methods different from the Phantom Thieves with his research. After the confidant maxes out, he even says that this will not be the last time they meet, and he even knew that Joker might go for him for meddling his affairs. He obviously knew that Joker might very probably will resist what he tried to do and that is in the wrong, but he had "no choice".
** Despite you maxing his confidant, after you defeat Yaldabaoth manually, you won't see him cheering for you unlike other maxed Confidants. [[note]]Kasumi aside because her confidant isn't ''truly'' maxed, and Akechi for obvious reasons[[/note]] He's likely beginning to assert himself over Mementos or just about to when the Phantom Thieves unknowingly give him domain over it.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: Wears glasses and is the final Target the Phantom Thieves have to go up against. However, he doesn't qualify out of sheer malice, but mostly his dire methods of making everybody happy, which he chose to pursue after suffering some severe emotional trauma and likely empathizing with said trauma of others.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: A high-school counselor who ends up becoming the next God of Control.
* FusionDance: A twofold example. His Persona Azathoth fuses with his treasure, restoring it into its original self as Adam Kadmon. Maruki then proceeds to fuse with Adam Kadmon partway into the battle, causing Adam to literally [[TurnsRed turn red]] and start spamming "[[HPToOne Full Force]]".
* GardenOfEden: The biblical one. At the end of his Palace, a massive model garden where his "patients" are in nothing but their underwear, forming circles around the trees and drinking from chalices [[IgnoranceIsBliss while wearing wreaths that cover their faces]], a symbolic representation of the end result of the "salvation" his dream world will bring. It even includes his version of the infamous ForbiddenFruit, where the biggest tree he resides in is filled with apples that have strange "bite marks" that look like eyes, twitching and blinking as well.
* GoldColoredSuperiority: His cognitive outfit is gold. Additionally, both forms of his Persona are gold in color.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: In a twisted sense of "[[GoodIsNotNice good]]", he doesn't understand why Joker would prefer the painful reality over the perfect dream world he created for him and his friends, even when the rest of Tokyo is happy themselves. Even after explaining that they want to live in a real world with all of the pain that comes with it, Maruki can't agree with them.
-->'''Maruki:''' [[StrawNihilist Suffering and pain bring nothing to people except their ruin! Why would you force yourself into that?]] Just... let me save you all, just this once!
* GoodHairEvilHair: When he appears as the dream's mastermind, his hair is slicked back. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in that he's an AntiVillain and not strictly "evil", just overzealous and misguided.
* GoodIsNotNice: He never fights by himself unless during the day he has to, instead relying on warning shots for defense. Those warning shots however, are respectively exposing Kasumi as Sumire so she falls into despair, then controlling Sumire, followed by her persona Cendrillon to attack you as he fuels Cendrillon's denial by summoning Biyarky for her to absorb.
* GracefulLoser: After completely losing to Joker in a fist fight at the end of his battle, he calmly states that he's over his obsession with his desire to rewrite reality, and lets the floor under him crumble apart. Fortunately, Joker saves him at the last moment, and they return to reality.
* HealThyself: In his Azathoth form, he can infinitely heal himself to full health using one of Azathoth's tentacles. Additionally, when on foot, he can order Adam Kadmon to leech health from the Phantom Thieves to heal him fully when his HP gets low once.
* HeelFaceTurn: After his defeat, he reforms and is last seen as a taxi driver helping Joker evade the government agents in the ending.
* HeroicFatigue: He alludes to it during his talk with Joker. He notes that while in an ideal world, people would grow stronger from enduring and overcoming their problems, he also observes the brutal reality of life's way of wearing one down as shown when talking about Sumire's recovery and freedom from his spell during the day before his heist.
-->'''Maruki:''' ...You know, I'd love for that to be the truth. But, people can't maintain their strength forever, Joker-kun.
* HiddenDepths: As it turns out, his interest in the mind is on the same level as Wakaba Isshiki, as he's also interested in the cognitive world, though his interest mainly lies in understanding the desires of others. He's actually ''much'' better at understanding the cognitive world than Wakaba was, on account of his Persona and his own ability to manipulate cognition to the point where he can make someone believe they're someone else.
* HiddenVillain: The first time you visit his Palace in early October, he and his distortion go unidentified by Joker, Morgana, and Kasumi, and he quickly fizzles off their radar in the face of the upcoming WhamEpisode. It's only in the third semester where he becomes a significant threat, and your first order of business is finding out who he is and what he wants.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In a minor sense. In his second phase phase, Maruki frequently uses Evil Smile to inflict Fear and Eternal Radicance to inflict Dizzy on you and your allies. [[MagicAntidote Detox]], which is unlocked early into Maruki's own confidant, can cleanse Joker of status conditions as soon as they're applied.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Despite claiming that he's making a reality where everyone can be happy, according to Akechi, only Shido is in jail for the psychotic breakdown cases, going against what he said. Justified, since it's Joker's desire to see Shido imprisoned and spend time together with his friends from Tokyo. Moreover, Shido's own desires would end up hurting people in the long run and Shido also nearly ruined Maruki's career, so it makes sense why Maruki wouldn't see Shido as fit to partake in his utopia.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Despite losing his Persona, and being explained to that his wish to rewrite reality just won't work, Maruki still holds on to his crumbling Palace, going so far as to attack the Thieves in their escape. However, he only does so so that Joker can kill his regrets through a fist fight, and finally gives up after losing said fight, [[GracefulLoser now over it all]] and lets himself fall to the ground hundreds of feet into the air, only to be saved by Joker.
* IronicFear: While Joker tries to save him, Maruki tearfully admits that he was always secretly afraid [[DuelingMessiahs they wouldn't wish for the same world]].
* {{Irony}}: Despite telling people not to fear anything and live on with a strong heart, his most dangerous tactic is to spam dizzy and fear; And he does this ''a lot'' for Azathoth's second phase.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Downplayed. While he obviously doesn't have a LackOfEmpathy, Maruki ultimately gives people what ''he'' thinks is best, and he is very unwilling to question himself or go back on his past decisions. This is evidenced by his treatment of Akechi and Sumire in the third semester, especially the latter, considering he could have simply resurrected Kasumi, but insisted on sticking with his original solution, even after Sumire ''explicitly'' says she wants to start living as herself again instead of regaining her "Kasumi" filter. This behavior is justified due to Azathoth manipulating him and goading him into achieving his goals no matter what.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: In a conversation with Joker on February 2nd, Maruki says he doesn't mind that his powers caused Rumi to forget all about him, because she's still happy without him. Though it's clear from the statues from her in his Palace and during his VillainousBreakdown that he still misses her deeply and a massive crux of his plan was all for her. His treasure's true form is the newsletter about the murder of Rumi's family, which what started the poor man's problems.
* KarmaHoudini: Perhaps in due part to his AntiVillain nature and not intending to actually endanger anyone, Maruki ultimately does not face any real repercussions for his actions in the True Ending besides permanently losing his Persona and changing his job from a school guidance councilor to a taxi driver, though it's debatable if any of his actions even really occurred at that point given the dream world's "reset" of most people's memories involved.
* LightIsNotGood: In spite of his [[EldritchAbomination Reverse Persona]], Maruki mostly appears as a Man in White and later his true Persona is the light-based Adam Kadmon. His cognitive self wears a white lab suit, similar to the one he usually wears in the real world. In battle, he wears a long white shawl over his armor.
* LotusEaterMachine: He intends to trap all of humanity in an idealized world by merging reality with Mementos (the latter of which he is cementing total control over.) Notably, for a NonStandardGameOver bad ending if you choose to align with his decision, it doesn't have a cynical edge to it either, implying it to be totally genuine.
* MadScientist: Was actually better at Wakaba at cognitive pscience, and has learned how to use it to become a RealityWarper. Downplayed, as his original intent wasn't making the LotusEaterMachine to begin with.
* ManipulativeBastard: It's ambiguous as whether he planned it or not, but it's suspected by both Lavenza and Akechi that he took advantage of the counseling sessions learn of Phantom Thieves' wishes. Then, when they defeat Yaldabaoth and unintentionally become the new masters of Mementos, he takes control because they told him how to manipulate cognition and their wishes allowed him to do just that.
* MindRape: That's how he manages to get Sumire to attack Joker for rejecting his deal, via making her Persona go berserk. His Palace also does this to a bunch of his cognitive patients so they can become happy.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: Maruki would have been outed ''much'' earlier had Kasumi's phone not have died just as she, Joker, and Morgana were about to learn the Palace's Ruler, assuming he really is, based on the weird circumstances of the Palace violating typical Metaverse logic. They ultimately write him off, as they weren't after him at the time, and the following WhamEpisode leads them to completely forget about him until the Third Semester Arc, where his plans begin to come to fruition.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: His receiving of the Phantom Thieves' calling card. Unlike every other Major Target except for Futaba, Maruki receives his in broad daylight while visiting [=LeBlanc=], after a discussion with Joker, Akechi, and Morgana. It's to the point that it appears he was fully expecting it and the calling card doesn't actually matter to him.
-->Ah, that's right. I've heard your calling.
* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: It's established during the Madarame Arc by Morgana that Persona-users '''cannot''' manifest a Palace, as Palaces are created when a person's heart becomes distorted. In spite of this fact, Maruki not only has a Persona of his own, but he also develops a Palace. That being said, the nature of Maruki's Persona is incredibly unique since it can not only tamper with someone's cognition, but also appear in the real world - something none of the Phantom Thieves can do. Furthermore, despite Maruki ''not harboring any hostilities'' during October 3rd like Futaba or Sae, Joker is in his Phantom Thief clothing instantly once he enters the Palace with Morgana and Yoshizawa during that date. His Palace itself is also rather strange, considering the fact it connected itself to the Depths of Mementos like a parasite, physically manifested in the real world like Mementos and seems to be connected with the biblical Garden of Eden as opposed to Yaldabaoth's purgatory. Perhaps most bizarre, when the Path of Da'at opens, from Mementos Depths, an opening appears and the path literally comes out of it, before wiring resembling the tentacles of Azathoth covers all of Mementos from his Palace, [[https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Maruki%27s_Palace?file=Mementos_Dungeon_Art_P5R_2.png as shown here]]. Said path is also completely different from everything else as well, being sliver and lifeless compared to the rest of it, organic and dark. All of which seems to indicate that its his ''Persona'' who rules with Maruki, given that it acts separately from it.
* {{Necromancer}}: When he revives Wakaba, Okumura and Makoto's father, he doesn't actually create illusions of them. Instead, he outright overwrites reality so they never even died in the first place and they appear as their past selves that their children once knew and loved before they died or became corrupt.
* PostFinalBoss: After defeating Adam Kadmon, who's a CutsceneBoss, there's a one-on-one fist fight between him and Joker, without their Personas. All Joker can do here is attack, and after punching Maruki three times, the battle automatically ends.
* PrefersTheIllusion: A bit of a variant, but he has great difficulty understanding why the Thieves chose the painful reality over the possibility of his dream world. During his and the Thieves confrontation after his defeat, he admits to this as part of his VillainousBreakdown.
-->I'm... running from... ...Heheh. You nailed it. It's true that I turned my back on the original reality... ''But where's the harm in that!? [[StrawNihilist When it grows to be too much, too painful... Every person deserves to escape that!]]'' In all honesty, it's best for a person's growth when they tackle their own hardships... ''But reality doesn't always make that so feasible!'' [[VillainHasAPoint No matter how much you try, or work for so long]], [[RealityEnsues the smallest injustice can wipe it all out]], [[AllForNothing leave you with nothing...]] ''Don't you, of all people, understand that!?''
* PsychoPsychologist: Downplayed, in that he doesn't use his psychiatry as a tool of harm. In fact, he's actually trying to create a world where nobody feels grief or sorrow.
* ThePsychoRangers: His battle form is essentially a {{Foil}} to the Phantom Thieves' outfits. While both of their outfits represent their desire to rebel against society and stealing distorted hearts, but while the Phantom Thieves outfits represent Chaotic Good rebels to counter the corruption of the world, his is True Neutral and represents his despair-driven [[DarkMessiah messiah complex]] to grant the wishes of the people and the world itself.
* RealityWarper: The dream world and his Persona's power effectively brings various dead parents of the Thieves BackFromTheDead, and thanks to the Phantom Thieves making him the master of the Metaverse, will work on a global scale, allowing him to quite literally craft the perfect dream world that will become the new reality. On a smaller scale, he used to only use this ability as a therapist, where he grants his patients with the worse mental issues whatever they needed so they wouldn't feel pain. This is exactly how he has overwritten Sumire Yoshizawa with her dead sister Kasumi Yoshizawa, as requested by Sumire, when his normal attempts to help failed and she was becoming increasingly suicidal in her own delusional belief where she literally wanted to become Kasumi.
* RedHerring: Its first assumed that his Palace is actually Kasumi's, as noted by Akechi, due to the strangeness of her (false) awakening and the nature of said Palace.
* ReluctantWarrior: As a medical professional, he has no interest in harming the Phantom Thieves, and offers them multiple outs in their conflict with him. He only does battle with the Thieves to defend his dream world to the end.
* ShadowArchetype: To the Phantom Thieves as a whole, but most of all, Joker himself. Like them, he seeks to use his powers to change the cognition of the masses to make the world a better place, even if it involves brainwashing to do so, as a reflection to the Thieves' initial struggles with the morality of their actions. However, the Phantom Thieves use their powers to bring the truth to light and enact societal change by removing corruption and selfish desires from seats of power; Maruki's method of erasing pain discourages people from growing (or even causes them to backslide) and removes their will to rebel against their present circumstances, instead making them complacent in a lie (albeit one that improves their life from what it was previously), not unlike a benign yet [[CondescendingCompassion equally condescending]] mirror of Yaldabaoth. The Thieves try to only target bad people, compelling them to feel the guilt they ''should'' have so they willingly confess their sins; Maruki targets ''everybody'' -- especially victims with trauma -- purging their regrets and forcing them to be happy, even trying to "cure" them should they not live up to his ideals, such as evading life's hardships so they can't hurt you.
-->[[WellIntentionedExtremist No matter what happens to me in the end, I will fix this torturous world!]] That... ''[[NotSoDifferent is my own rebellion!]]''
* SoftSpokenSadist: In befitting of his AffablyEvil personality, he maintains the same gentle, friendly tone he had before creating the dream reality.
* StartOfDarkness: His obsession with making a better world began when his girlfriend Rumi, who was left in a broken mental state after surviving the accident in that killed her mother and father, suffered a worse breakdown in-hospital. His Persona began to act, granting his wish of ending her pain, erasing her memories of the tragedy, but also the rest of her life including the memories of him. This convinced him to make a better world where those in pain don't have to suffer the way Rumi did. It wasn't anything other than using the abilities for therapy so he could prove to his professor that his essay was true; Only by Yaldabaoth's unintentional meddling does it get twisted to a grand LotusEaterMachine scheme.
* StrawNihilist: A variant of. Instead of blatantly nihilistic, he's being compassionate in a ridiculously warped way, to the point that the only solution he accepts is granting everyone whatever they wanted but cannot achieve via any normal means. In other words, he is neutral to a very extremist degree, unlike Akechi which is radically Chaotic and Yaldabaoth who is radically Lawful.
* SuperEmpowering: Despite his reality shaping powers, Maruki could only affect people on the small scale. All the increased power of his abilities as an antagonist [[NiceJobBreakingItHero are directly the product of the Phantom Thieves subconsciously wanting him to grant their wishes]] as well as Yaldabaoth's mistake in the Day of Reckoning, making him the new master of Mementos and taking his power to untold heights.
* SuperpowerLottery: Wins this big thanks to Adam Kadmon. His powers gives him the ability to rewrite a person's cognition to give them exactly what they want. When becoming the new God of Control, he then gets taken UpToEleven.
* TarotMotifs:
** As fitting his AffablyEvil AntiVillain personality, he's actually the upright Consultant; diplomatic skill, persuasiveness, and the ability to treat mental illness. His PoisonousFriend Azathoth pushes him into the reverse of indecision, lack of original thought, and delusion, but even in the ending where he wins he creates a utopia. The Consultant is also a variant on the Magician Arcana. Beyond being a literal magician when you fight him, Maruki follows certain traits with Magician Arcanas established in the series, such as a close bond with the protagonist and a painful love life (in his case, his girlfriend being rendered emotionally comatose by the loss of her parents and in trying to save her, he succeeds... with the side effect of undoing their relationship).
** His dream world fills in traits with the Reversed Death Arcana, which represents complete stagnation, nihilism and an end to everything.
* TranquilFury: While he isn't at all mad at the Phantom Thieves for getting in his way, his [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/9/9a/Maruki_Cut-In.png/revision/latest?cb=20200415171203 cut-in]] ''reeks'' of this.
* TraumaCongaLine: A large part of creating his dream world is motivated by a ''terrible'' string of personal tragedies: His girlfriend went into catatonic depression after an accident killed her parents, where he awoken his Persona of Adam Kadmon and his subsequent powers of affecting cognition. In trying to cure her of her depression, he did so by erasing her memories of the tragedy... along with many others, such as their relationship. Then his research was stamped out by Shido and the Conspiracy and thus seemingly ruining his life's work and then he's sent off the deep end when Yaldabaoth damages Adam Kadmon and turns him to Azathoth. This causes his Persona to go berserk and motivated by his tragedies, desire to help people and now abundance of power from God of Control's void, proceeds to take over Maruki.
* TrueFinalBoss: Of ''Royal'', if all the conditions for the third semester event are met. Also counts as a PostFinalBoss due to being the Thieves' next (and last) target following the Yaldabaoth incident.
* UnexpectedSuccessor: Actually, Yaldabaoth was likely not expecting to be succeeded at all in his role as the God of Control, but Maruki still manages to do so.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: A far more sympathetic example than Yaldabaoth, since instead of [[HobbesWasRight forcing everyone to knuckle down under an oppressive system for order's sake]], Maruki wants to use Mementos to make dreams become reality [[ForHappiness so people can be happy]].
* VillainousBreakdown: As his palace begins to collapse on Joker's final victory over him, he begins undergoing this as everything he set in stone to try and help people is seemingly AllForNothing. He finally begins venting out the sadness and venting that's been motivating him:
-->'''Maruki:''' ''I gave up everything! '''Everything!!!''' So, why!? Why... Why Rumi!?'' A reality where... no one suffers...
* VillainousBSOD: After the aforementioned VillainousBreakdown, he despondently says that he's done, not even caring when he starts falling to his death. When Joker halts his fall, Maruki reiterates that he's done, and begs him to let him go.
* VillainHasAPoint:
** Very painfully so. Before the heist, he notes on how ideally, people would grow stronger from their hardship before noting how that's not the truth. The truth is that often [[RealityEnsues reality will make often overwhelm people and wear down to nothing.]] That all of your attempts to rebuild and grow can easily be made AllForNothing by further misfortune or calamity. After all, he's seen it first hand with Rumi. However, what makes this even more poignant is how this point not only relates to the game itself, but also the ''entire '''Persona''' franchise'' (or at the very least, starting with Persona 3.) After all, beyond the Phantom Thieves, SEES and the Investigation Team were able to grow and overcome their hardships thanks to the bond made with your player character, the one blessed with the Wild Card and through that, able to utilize their Personas as proof and tool for that. From facing your Shadow in Persona 4 being the most direct example to other indirect examples such as Persona evolution through bonds with the protagonists symbolizing their growth, growth they only had the opportunity to undergo because of the supernatural events going on and ties to a certain special individual.
** While the Thieves don't really agree with [[LotusEaterMachine how he went about it]], they acknowledge that Maruki's reality gave them exactly what they desired, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark even if they themselves didn't realize that they wanted it]]. This ends up motivating them to make some life-changing decisions after they beat him so that they can fulfill said desires, such as Ryuji moving closer to a physical rehabilitation center so he can fix up his leg and rejoin Shujin's Track Team. And even if some of the changes Maruki made to reality aren't possible without his powers, such as the revival of Makoto, Futaba and Haru's parents, it gives those three an extra push in making steps to achieve their own goals, such as Makoto moving out of her sister's apartment to be more independent, Futaba finally deciding to go back to school and Haru going to college overseas so she can learn better ways to run Okumura foods when she finally takes over.
* VillainOfAnotherStory: All of his actions have nothing to do with the main story (Yaldabaoth still kickstarted the whole event, although only implied) and his arc is basically a separate story from the main campaign.
* VillainSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbw6hF7tHns Throw Away Your Mask]] is sung from his perspective as he tries for the final time to get the Phantom Thieves to accept his perfect reality.
* WalkingSpoiler: It's near impossible to talk about the ruler of the third semester Palace without revealing that he's your old friend Takuto Maruki and that he wants to trap all of humanity in a LotusEaterMachine.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Maruki is the one responsible for the LotusEaterMachine that entrances the Phantom Thieves (sans Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi), and starts to create a new Mementos based on peoples' desires. He had seen so many people in pain that he wanted to merge reality with cognition to help end other's suffering, but will oppose anyone who gets in his way if he can't reach a compromise with them. The Phantom Thieves even admit after defeating Maruki that there would no doubt be people who would be better off in his dream world, but being entirely beholden to Maruki's own version of morality, and in turn being forced to run from their problems rather than be able to grow and change from them, is unacceptable to them.
* WorldHealingWave: {{Deconstructed}}, as Maruki's methods undo not only a person's negative experiences, but any personal growth they might have experienced as a byproduct.
* YourHeartsDesire: What Maruki offers to the world and it's also a case of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor because accepting this would doom the world to eternal [[ModernStasis stagnation]] since there would be ''nothing'' to strive for.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:'''The Creator of Wisdom''']]
!!Azathoth / Adam Kadmon
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/azathoth_27.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Blind God of Dreams]]\\
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:True Form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adam_kadmon_22.png\\
Ain Soph Ohr[[/labelnote]]]]

->''"This power is the source...and the destination. I will be the light that guides mankind."''
\\
The creator of wisdom who acts as Maruki's persona. Its initial form is Azathoth, the mindless, formless, blind idiot god of ultimate chaos who rules over the [[DreamLand dreamlands]] in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. However this is eventually revealed to be a degenerated form caused when Yaldabaoth's MergedReality accidentally separated Maruki's treasure from it, leaving it [[EmptyShell brain dead]]. Its true form is in fact Adam Kadmon, the UsefulNotes/{{Kabbalah}}istic concept of the pure, unbound potential of the human soul, often associated with the crown of the [[WorldTree Sephirot]].\\\

It is also possible that Azathoth might be a corruption of the "Azoth," the ultimate universal life force and the cure to all in Alchemy, which Azathoth envisions itself as, and in some sense of word, it is truly a "cure for all suffering." Azoth also motivates people towards physical and spiritual perfection, which Azathoth violates by giving them perfection and causing them to ironically become imperfect.\\\

Another interesting point is that Azathoth and Adam Kadmon can be considered Lovecraftian and Kabbalahistic versions of the Demiurge. Further, Azathoth and Maruki's plans mirror the initial conception of the Gnostic Demiurge, who imprisoned Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden so they could be happy, but in the process left them equally deluded and ignorant to the fact he is not the one true god. This is in opposition to the previous BigBad, Yaldabaoth, who mirrors the modern Gnostic interpretation of the Demiurge, where he simply wished to oppress humanity.
----
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Azathoth has nothing to do with the Garden of Eden or even the infinite wisdom of man known as Adam Kadmon to begin with, and he's actually the ''reverse'' of wisdom. In-Universe, he even seemingly has literally nothing to do with Nyarlathotep unlike the Lovecraftian Gods from ''Persona 2'', who are said to be connected with each other. The most accurate explanation seems to be Azathoth is merely Adam Kadmon's husk and a metaphor for the Azoth, as in the ultimate essence of Gnosticism being put into misuse.
* AmbiguousSituation: There is some evidence that Adam Kadmon ''might'' be a separate entity similar to other gods born from the Collective Unconscious, given how it acts as if it were a separate entity from Maruki, as that it always seemed to be against the real world even before it went berserk and its ties to the Garden of Eden and turning a Palace into a parasite that keeps Mementos and the Metaverse in place and manifests them into the real world, [[spoiler: which is shared with EMMA/Demiurge's Tree of Wisdom]]. In addition, every other character's [[CoolMask masks]] are the form their Persona takes while not in use, and disappears when their Persona is summoned. Maruki's mask remains on his face even after Azathoth/Adam Kadmon has manifested.
* AntiVillain: Just like Maruki himself, all of its actions in the Third Semester is actually an unintended aftermath on Yaldabaoth's plan. It's actually implied to be one of the more benevolent deities in ''Persona''.
* BodyHorror: Azathoth's tentacles are actually Adam Kadmon's entrails or veins and they are spilled all over the floor as Azathoth.
* ClippedWingAngel: Its Adam Kadmon phase is significantly easier than its Azathoth phase, as during the Adam Kadmon phase, it only has a single-target Almighty attack that does around as much damage as an unbuffed Megidolaon (Around 300 damage) as well as only Maruki being targetable, which has only around 3000 HP. It also drains your HP with a party-wide almighty attack that does around the same damage as his single-target, but does nothing more than that.
* CognizantLimbs: Azathoth is consisted of Azathoth itself, Maruki and three tentacles. One of the tentacles protect Azathoth from taking anything but 1 or 2 damage, other constantly heals Maruki for ridiculous amounts, while the last one casts buffs on him. The game does not give any tips on how to deal with it, but either the tentacle protecting Azathoth or the tentacle healing Maruki must be destroyed and only then anything can be legitimately damaged, with the final goal being defeating either Azathoth or Maruki. To make things worse, these tentacles shuffle weaknesses after it enters phase 2, indicating they have to be taken down one at a time; Using crowd control may trigger repel which can kill anyone mistakenly hitting the wrong tentacles.
* ControllableHelplessness: Adam Kadmon's final phase is [[TrickBoss not beatable by fighting]], but is still presented as a proper boss fight, having multiple targets and even taking more than ScratchDamage while it's winding up for an attack (though eagle-eyed players will notice that its health bar doesn't go down).
* EldritchAbomination: Evoked with Azathoth, who can summon legions of undulating tentacles, take control of other Persona users, rewrite people's minds, and even warp reality itself. Subverted with Adam Kadmon, however, who takes on the form of a giant human and uses much more conventional attacks.
* {{Expy}}: Adam Kadmon bears more than a passing resemblance to (ironically enough) Yaldabaoth from ''Shin Megami Tensei NINE''. Interestingly, Adam Kadmon himself DOES appear in ''NINE'' in its first (and till ''Persona 5 Royal'', only) appearance in the franchise, but he's a random encounter in the final dungeon rather than a boss fight.
* FinishHim: At the end of the boss fight, the protagonist's teammates distract him by blocking his fist and Joker uses this chance to fling himself right on top of his head with his grappling hook, before shouting "Checkmate!" and shooting it in the head, knocking off Maruki's mask and killing it immediately.
* HPToOne: Adam Kadmon's "Full Force", which he spends a turn charging, where it also leaves him vulnerable. Futaba's scans reveals that it's only when it charges that attack that its weakpoint, its head, can be hit.
* HumongousMecha: Adam Kadmon is a gigantic, near-invincible robot. According to Morgana in the Thieves Den, it shouldn't actually be as big as it was in reality, and only because of the dream world did Maruki's Persona become a big as it did, similar to how Satanael's appearance during the final battle against Yaldabaoth.
* {{Irony}}: Despite the mighty appearance of Adam Kadmon after beating Azathoth, he's a ZeroEffortBoss and can be spammed with little effort, even with the Almighty attacks it throws. Then as Berserk Adam Kadmon, it's a straight up CutsceneBoss, with absolutely zero effort required.
* KilledOffForReal: Because Maruki lost his Treasure and Palace, Adam Kadmon is destroyed after the final battle.
* LightIsNotGood: Adam Kadmon is the ultimate representation of humanity's light and wisdom, and seeks to trap all of humanity in a dream world, which will cause ModernStasis.
* NoSell: Sort of. During his Azathoth form, if you do not destroy at least 1 tentacle, because of his persona trait it will take only ScratchDamage from anything...'''including [[NonElemental Almighty Attacks]]'''. When it is Adam Kadmon fused with Maruki, it naturally does this. (Adam Kadmon will still allow the party to dish out decent damage on it every turn after it uses Attack Stance, although its HP bar is still un-depleteable.)
* PostFinalBoss: Azathoth is a proper boss that can knock you on your ass if you aren't careful. Maruki with Adam Kadmon is powerful but pretty fast to defeat. The final fight against Adam Kadmon can't actually be lost.
* RealityWarper: It has the ability to alter the very fabric of cognition itself and can do nearly anything. If it's destroyed, everything goes back to normal, however.
* RedHerring: The appearance of Biyarky and Hastur in Maruki's Palace should ring any red alarms that Nyarlathotep or his associates would be behind it. It becomes even more obvious when Azathoth is involved... except it has literally nothing to do with him. Azathoth is just a metaphor for a braindead Adam Kadmon.
* SignatureMove: As Azathoth, Tyrant Chaos. As Adam Kadmon, Full Force.
* SuperpowerLottery: And he's the prize. Thanks to Maruki's disgust at a reality where good people suffer, he gets a Persona that can deny reality. When Yaldabaoth causes Adam to degrade into Azathoth, it just allows him to control the Metaverse, creating a reality where no one suffers.
* TechnicallyLivingZombie: The torch acting as Maruki's treasure is actually Adam Kadmon's essence; Removing it is the equivalent of removing a torch from someone in a dark cave; That person becomes blind and cannot find a way out. Without it, it's just Azathoth because it's using its powers with no moderation of it whatsoever.
* TrickBoss: Adam Kadmon cannot be defeated as nothing even scratches it. The party must stall him until Futaba discovers its weakness.
* UndyingLoyalty: Adam Kadmon is unyieldingly loyal to Maruki and wishes to grant his other self's wish, from the moment he purged Rumi of her trauma, up until his full manifestation when Yaldabaoth begins distorting reality. It dabbles into [[YesMan a toxic relationship as Azathoth urges him to push forward with his ideals no matter what]]. Even with all the power Maruki obtains that Azathoth could steal to usurp him, it remains loyal to him as everything falls apart and his plans end. Though it is clear when it fuses that ''it'' wants to guide humanity to salvation, not Maruki.
-->'''Adam Kadmon:''' I can't lose! I'm fighting for your sakes as well!
* VictimizedBystander: Adam Kadmon's degeneration and the Third Semester events are merely unintended consequences for Yaldabaoth's domination plan.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Just like Maruki, it too seeks to trap humanity in a dream world to bring happiness to all, seeking to defy the cruel reality that lead into his being. It's clear that ''its'' using him in wanting that wish into a reality, as it uses ''I'' instead of ''we'' or ''him''.
* ZeroEffortBoss: While Azathoth is ''definitely'' not of this trope, Adam Kadmon's second phase will make sure that no side can actually kill one or the other; Even if he unleashes a would-be lethal attack, your party members will always endure it at 1 HP.
[[/folder]]
----

** Despite you maxing his confidant, after you defeat Yaldabaoth manually, you won't see him cheering for you unlike other maxed Confidants. [[note]]Kasumi aside because her confidant isn't ''truly'' maxed, and Akechi for obvious reasons[[/note]] [[spoiler: He's likely beginning to assert himself over Mementos or just about to when the Phantom Thieves unknowingly give him domain over it.]]