Fanon / Persona

General

• While the idea of there being a canon Love Interest to the games' respective main characters is a heavily debated topic (to the point that even arguing in favor of the games having Implied Love Interests is controversial), a common belief among many fans is that whoever represents the Lovers Arcana is the canon love interest. That said, this line of thought is more prevalent with Rise Kujikawa than the likes of Lisa Silverman, Yukari Takeba, and Ann Takamaki.
• Many fans like to portray the idea that the game's soundtrack exists in-universe. This has some in-game support in Persona 3 and Persona 5, with the opening cutscene of FES for the former having "Burn My Dread -Last Battle-" play though Makoto's headphones and the opening movie of Persona 3 Reload seeing him scroll through previous tracks on his MP3 player ("Burn My Dread" and "Want To Be Close" from the original P3) before settling on "Full Moon Full Life" (the new OP for Reload proper). For the latter, The Stinger of the original game's ending had "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There" play over the radio, and Royal features "No More What Ifs" being performed by an actual singer in the Royal-exclusive jazz club at Kichijoji. In Persona 3's case specifically, this is usually accompanied with the belief that the music is being played through the protagonist's headphones throughout the game.

Persona 3

• Persona 3 fan works tend to portray Makoto Yuki and Kotone Shiomi as fraternal twins, usually in Third-Option Adaptations that portray them both as the leader of S.E.E.S. Works that don't involve the two still tend to portray them like this, with the usual explanation being that one of them died in the car accident that killed their parents or that both survived the car accident but were separated for years due to complications from Japanese social and child services. Even with Kotone's surprise appearance in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth heavily implying that Makoto and her are actually the same person, this idea still has a lot of staying power within the fanbase. Worth noting is that the stage musical, The Weird Masquerade, uses a very similar setup, the only difference being that the two MCs are noted to be brother and sister (with the absent sibling being the one who perished in the accident alongside their parents) but without any further clarification as to whether they're twins.
  • On occasion, works that run with the twin/sibling angle will rename the male MC from Makoto Yuki to Sakuya Shiomi, following the lead of the aforementioned stage musical (which is also where Kotone's Canon Name stems from). Other fan works which feature them as twins/siblings but use the manga adaptation's name for Makoto (Minato Arisato) instead give Kotone the name Minako, a popular Fan Nickname for the female MC before her Canon Name was revealed, in order to establish Family/Theme Twin Naming between them. Works that depict them as being separated from the time of the accident up until the present day, however, are more likely to split the difference (i.e. the male MC is Makoto Yuki while the female MC is Kotone Shiomi), often explained away as a result of one sibling being placed in the foster care system and/or put up for adoption.
• In a similar vein to the Lovers Arcana representatives being interpreted as the canon Love Interests, many fans go by the belief that Akihiko is Kotone's canon love interest. This largely has to do with the fact that Akihiko is the one who takes Yukari's place during the love hotel sequence when playing as Kotone, as well as just due to general process of elimination regarding the romanceable characters in Kotone's route (Ken is too young, Shinjiro dies or ends up in a coma, and Ryoji becomes the Nyx Avatar).
• Thanks to Persona Q2, many fans of Kotone sometimes prefer to separate her from S.E.E.S. entirely and instead portray her as a member of the Phantom Thieves, feeling that her dynamic with that group works a lot better than her dynamic with S.E.E.S. This, of course, ignores the fact that her Heroic Sacrifice at the end of P3 makes it impossible for them to interact under normal circumstances, never mind that Kotone's initial inability to bond with the S.E.E.S. members in Q2 is very much Played for Drama because they're not the people she knows and connected with.
• One popular headcanon states that one of the kids who makes a few appearances in Yuko's Social Link is actually a younger Ryuji Sakamoto. The timing would line up (being an elementary schooler in 2009 means he would be in high school by 2016/17), he displays a great interest in track and field, and it's stated that Ryuji's hair (which he bleaches yellow) used to be black, just like the boy in question. There's also unused dialogue pertaining to Persona 3 costumes in the Persona 5 DLC that indicates that Ryuji is at the very least aware of Gekkoukan High, but this isn't saying much, as other cut dialogue from other party members also shows them sharing this knowledge. Persona 3 Reload, however, would debunk the theory by giving the kid the name Ken.
• Some fans believe that Andre "Bebe" Roland Jean Gerard, the Temperance Arcana Social Link for Makoto, and Mitsuru have some sort of relationship, mainly due to Mitsuru's Gratuitous French and Bebe being, well, French. Granted, Mitsuru's knowledge of French is a result of the English localization and Translation Convention, as Mitsuru was using Gratuitous English in the Japanese track, but the headcanon still works considering it wouldn't be too out of place for Mitsuru to know additional languages due to her upbringing. A lot of fan works that depict the reactions of the Social Links to the protagonist's death after March 5 usually have Bebe or Mitsuru contacting one or the other in order to be informed about it, as they share a mutual language.
• Due to their similar surnames, some fans headcanon that Zenkichi is related to Saori Hasegawa, Kotone's Hermit Arcana Social Link, with some fans thinking he might be the uncle that Saori confides in Kotone to have been her First Love at the end of Saori's Rank 10 event. This, however, ignores how, as revealed by Saori herself via letter at the end of the game, Saori's uncle is heavily implied to have commited suicide over it, which caused Saori's parents to blame her for the incident and send her overseas. Fans who don't ignore this fact instead depict Zenkichi as a different uncle from the one that Saori used to crush on. It helps that Akane's grandparents in Kyoto are said to be from his wife's side of the family, leading to these fans filling in that Saori is Akane's paternal cousin.
• The cameo by Noriko Kashiwagi in Portable's version of Operation Babe Hunt (male route only) is generally accepted as having happened in canon, as Kashiwagi's appearance at Yakushima Beach, in addition to being very much in-character for her, helps to further strengthen continuity between titles. The second part of the film series, A Midsummer Knight's Dream, even went as far as to retain Portable's addition of Kashiwagi to that scene, making some players lament its "omission" in Reload.

Persona 4

• The "canon" personality of Yu Narukami was generally up for debate by the Persona 4 fandom, with many of these perceived traits being logical extensions of the game's possible dialogue options, with the most common being that he's a Badass Bookworm, a Deadpan Snarker, a Nice Guy, and the Only Sane Man. Ultimately, future works, such as the anime adaptation, would end up confirming many of these traits as part of Yu's canon personality.
• It is common for Yosuke, due to the large amount of Homoerotic Subtext he has with Yu (particularly in their Social Link), several inflammatory remarks he makes towards Kanji, and multiple instances of denying he's into other guys (even when the subject is completely unprompted), to be depicted as a self-hating homosexual, thus adding a new layer to the aforementioned potshots at Kanji. This sentiment received more support when unused content from the original game, including Dummied Out but fully voice-acted lines, suggested Yosuke's Social Link could be pursued romantically at one point in development, though it's just as debated for a variety of reasons (such as Yosuke having genuine affection for Saki despite only knowing an idealized version of her, enough to tearfully mourn her death and be motivated to catch her killer even after learning what Saki really thought of him), and there are fans who interpret Yosuke as simply having mild-to-moderate homophobia (that he slowly grows out of) without any additional baggage. Those who think that Yosuke is indeed in denial about his sexuality but also believe that his various moments of clear attraction to women are meant to be taken at face value simply depict him as a closeted bisexual instead.
• There are exactly two moments when Naoto's bust is brought into question: one vague hospital scene where she's embarrassed to have her measurements read, and again during the Hot Springs Episode. Fanon decided to take this ball and run with it straight outta the stadium, as the grand bulk of her fan art depicts her with downright tremendous assets, easily surpassing D-cups. Meanwhile in Canon, the hot springs character cut-out and the anime of the game show only a slight elevation, nothing more than a modest B-cup. However, the animated cutscene of the hot springs scene added in Golden would end up giving her a more concrete size, portraying her as having large C-cups.

Persona 5

• Persona 5 taking place in the year 2016. Originally, this was meant to be the case, in line with how P3 and P4 respectively released in 2006 and 2008 but are set in 2009 and 2011, only for P5 to be beset by multiple delays and not hit shelves until 2016 — two years after its intended release date. As such, with the game's calendar reading "20XX" despite being identical to the 2016 calendar and every other game in the series so far being attributed a specific calendar year, many fans take this as confirmation that the game is indeed set in 2016, especially for the sake of better establishing continuity during crossovers with earlier titles (or Q2, as Hikari is revealed to be from the same general time period as the Phantom Thieves, unlike the casts of the third and fourth games). Other fans do adhere to the nonspecific year given in-game, however.
• As with other Persona protagonists, a lot of backstory details surrounding Joker are deliberately left blank, leading fans to come up with their own theories:
  • Because Joker is stated to be from the countryside, a lot of fan works specifically portray him as being from Inaba.
  • A theory originating from after the game's release but before its localization into English was that Joker was from Sumaru City.
  • Joker's parents tend to get characterized as neglectful Hate Sink characters similar to the minor Mementos targets, considering they seemingly believed the very flimsy accusation laid against him, dumped him off on a guy whose cafe is mildly frequented by a friend of theirs, and apparently never so much as called or wrote him. People who subscribe to this belief also tend to believe in the idea that Joker will decide to permanently move to Tokyo after the events of the game (despite the fact that he seems to have no problem going back home after his probation is lifted). Others tend to write them to be much more sympathetic, in that they obviously didn't believe the accusations against the protagonist, but were powerless to stop his probation from happening, and were forced to send him away. Alongside this, many portray them as a Struggling Single Mother and a Disappeared Dad or as going through a divorce in order to explain why Joker's home life is seemingly rocky. Those who write them as the latter tend to point out that we don't exactly see every single aspect of Joker's life.
    • Relatedly, albeit to a lesser extent, the people in Joker's hometown such as his friends and neighbors — who aren't even alluded to — are also depicted as a group of Hate Sinks in some fan works that explore Joker's hometown and the people in it due to the perception that they easily turned on Joker after the false accusation, with the beginning of the game mentioning that Joker was expelled from his previous high school and then struggled to find schools that would take him due to his probation and bad reputation supporting this. Just like the case with Joker's parents, however, there are also fan works that portray them to be sympathetic because of the complexity of Joker's case, with a handful of people believing in Joker but being otherwise powerless against the vocal majority who were quick to condemn Joker and didn't personally know him due to how fast word gets around in a countryside town than it would in a city like Tokyo.
  • Alternatively to the above, many more comedic fan works portray Bayonetta as Joker's mother, due to their similar appearances and darkness-based powers. As this stems from both characters being present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the idea is rarely taken seriously in the fandom save for the odd work that tries to weld together Persona, Super Smash Bros., and the greater Shin Megami Tensei multiverse. Considering both Bayo's own games and Fire Emblem are legitimately connected to SSB as of its fourth installment whereas SMT and Fire Emblem had a different crossover that would later be acknowledged by Fire Emblem Heroes, the idea that Persona and Bayonetta could actually share continuity really isn't that farfetched.
  • An alternate option for Joker's parents is that he is the son of Reiji Kido and his unnamed partner mentioned in Persona 2 as a Continuity Nod to the first two Persona games. Joker is usually given the name Takashi Kido for his civilian life in these stories, a name that is popularized by the fanfiction Jester, Meet Your Son, The Moon and had its own tag in AO3.
  • Several fan works that depict Joker having a sibling and/or relative who looks like him (whether a Strong Family Resemblance or an uncanny one) tend to give them the name Akira or Ren, depending on the name that is used by Joker's civilian self used for that fan work if the author didn't come up with a different name of their own (i.e. Akira if Joker is named Ren Amamiya, Ren if Joker is named Akira Kurusu à la the manga). The relative in question is depicted as either Joker's twin, a younger and/or older sibling to Joker, or a cousin.
• Largely because of a lack of elaboration, many fans believe Joker suffers from PTSD from his brutal interrogation by the police. However, others seem to believe that because Joker's capture was All According to Plan, he was mentally prepared to face this. Similarly, because the physical injuries Joker received from the interrogation are never elaborated on, many fan works tend to portray them as realistically severe. It's also often believed that Joker would be taken to Takemi to be treated for them, as she would be the only medical professional in the loop of Joker's secret, as well as being one of the few people aware that Joker is alive.
• Joker's future career:
  • It is popular to theorize that Joker gets into politics, after his time with the Phantom Thieves as well as Shido's corruption made him want to change society in a more active/visible manner, with many believing he would be mentored by Toranosuke. This is especially popular among Joker/Makoto fans, due to Makoto's Confidant ending with her resolving to become a police commissioner.
  • Alternatively, many also believe that Joker would take over Leblanc after Sojiro retires, or at least get involved in the restaurant business, largely due to Sojiro teaching him how to cook and create coffee blends during the events of the game (It helps that Persona 5 Strikers, set one year later, has Joker serving as the Team Chef and picking up culinary recipes as the group travels across Japan, with Futaba commenting that the Master Curry devised and cooked by Joker during their trip is outright superior to Sojiro's original recipe). This sometimes is further expanded to mesh with the Joker/Haru ship, as Haru's Confidant sees her getting interested in coffee production, growing her own beans, and eventually making plans to open a chain of family-friendly cafés much like her grandfather did. Akechi/Joker ships also often depict Joker taking over Leblanc if he isn't studying psychology.
  • Another popular idea for Joker's future occupation is to have him go into psychology, following in the footsteps of Maruki but managing to succeed where he failed, and eventually becoming a therapist or counselor. This idea is particularly popular among Joker/Akechi and Joker/Kasumi fans.
• Due to their Power Trio dynamic, many fans portray Kasumi as a Shipper on Deck for Joker/Akechi, and then there are many who portray them as a One True Threesome. Maruki is also often portrayed as a wanting to see the two together, given that he had resurrected Akechi due to Joker's wish, and states that he wants the two to be able to spend more time together.
• Theories about Akechi and Futaba possibly being paternal half-siblings popped up quickly, as absolutely nothing is known about the latter's biological father, and Shido is shown to have been highly fixated on Wakaba's cognitive psience research. The release of the Maniax book spurred the theory further, as it reveals that Akechi has type AB Negative blood, the same blood type as Futaba's (which was revealed in the official art book beforehand); this becomes more significant knowing that 99% of the Japanese population is RH+. Tying into this theory many believe that Akechi's mother was involved in Wakaba's cognitive psience research, though Royal would Joss that theory with the reveal that Akechi's mother was a prostitute who got knocked up by Shido.
  • Due to Shido being a Dirty Old Man himself outside his public image, fans often depict Akechi himself potentially having half-siblings that he isn't aware of the existence of due to Shido's perversion, with some fan works depicting that Akechi's half-siblings can potentially be the Black Mask if Akechi is portrayed as heroic. Some who believe Futaba and Akechi to be half-siblings also use this to connect how they could be related to each other.
  • Similarly, many fan works portray Akechi as being in some way related to Ken, due to their similar appearances and having some notably similar traits. It helps that Ken's father is completely unknown, allowing works that portray them as brothers to have Shido fill the role.
• Because Akechi is the only Phantom Thief whose school life isn't elaborated on, many fan works like to depict him as going to Yusuke's school, Kosei High. Of course, this is when they don't just create an entirely new school to depict him in and expand on Akechi's school life, as Akechi wears a blazer that isn't from the aforementioned Kosei High or Shujin Academy for his school uniform.
• Some fan works depict Akechi as having freckles that are hidden with makeup.
• Several fan works that portray Akechi having his own Social Links and/or Confidants, even if he doesn't get the full benefits of them due to being the chosen Wild Card opposing Joker as a result of Yaldabaoth's meddling, more often than not depict Joker as the Confidant representing the Fool Arcana for Akechi.
• Many people believe that Wakaba may have been involved with SEBEC or the Kirijo Group, due to the two companies having dabbled in cognitive psience as well.
• A part of the fandom believes that Ann's quarter-white ancestry is specifically Irish-American, due to the four-leaf clover imagery on her outfit. Another part believes she's instead of Finnish descent, due to Ann mentioning living in Finland for a time in her Rank 2 Confidant as well as Takamaki being an actual Finnish surname.
• Haru is shown in-game to take enjoyment in killing Shadows, which led the fandom to collectively portray her as a Soft-Spoken Sadist. This is something that would end up becoming Ascended Fanon as per future works like Dancing in Starlight and Strikers. Also of note, even fans who don't ship her with Joker tend to portray her as having a crush on him, in part because of how her Confidant progresses.
• Because Sae takes the reveal that Makoto is a member of the Phantom Thieves rather badly, fans have taken to portraying her as a Knight Templar Big Sister, especially when it involves the popular Joker/Makoto ship. This became even more popular when the fan databook revealed that Sae practices kickboxing as a hobby. Persona 5 Tactica gives this one a nod with a Talk Event at the hideout titled "The Ideal Marriage" — when the topic of marriage comes up, Joker has the option to daydream about picking most of the other Phantom Thieves present (Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, and Haru) to be his significant other and what the start of their wedded life would be like. In his Imagine Spot for Makoto, Makoto notes that Sae outright told Joker she'd never forgive him if he ever made Makoto cry, with Makoto likening the scene to an interrogation.
• While Hifumi is shown to be overall reserved in personality, she has some Chuunibyou tendencies when it comes to Shōgi. Fans like to exaggerate this trait and portray her as a full-blown Otaku.
• In spite of being Ann's best friend and playing a major role in her backstory and Character Development, Shiho receives very little actual characterization in canon outside of just being a general Nice Girl. As a result, many fan works featuring her tend to characterize her more, a notable example being the tendency to portray her as The Gadfly, in part due to Ann's mention of how their first conversation went down.
• Due to Kaneshiro's status as a Filler Villain with no real connection to any of the Phantom Thieves, many fan works like to portray him as being responsible to the death of Makoto's father, making the conflict against him seem more personal.
• Regarding Persona 5 Tactica, the relationship between Toshiro and Eri is commonly viewed as romantic in nature, or at least a platonic friendship that eventually turned into something more. In accordance with this view, it is often assumed that Eri's unexpected appearance in The Stinger is the beginning of her and Toshiro starting over after the Nakabachi incident tore them apart. Though the game itself is ambiguous over the whole thing, there is enough subtext between them to raise some eyebrows and the latter's VA revealed in a Reddit AMA after Tactica's release that she played Eri as if she indeed had feelings for Toshiro.