The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Sometimes I have my moments where I realize “Holy shit, I really am the sort of person who has a degree in English.” Mostly, these come in the form of inspiration for English Major-y papers, where I look at something and realize I could analyze it in a way where I could add in research, over-explain it, and then get myself some A’s or whatever. I realize that I could write a paper about a text that would fit right in with all of the scholarly articles I have had to look at in my college career. It’s kind of weird when I do it, as I’ve always thought I wasn’t the sort to WANT to do that, but at the same time, I suppose I have developed some skill in it.

Most recently, I was watching Endurance Run: Persona 4 and I realized there was an extremely good paper in there.
Of course, I’m not going to write the paper. So I’ll just sort of summarize my thesis here, I suppose.

Basically, there is something to be said, culturally, about the main character in Persona 4. The protagonist is your classic jRPG silent protagonist, but he also has a special power that other characters in your party don’t. His guiding Tarot card is the Fool, 0, and as such he can make multiple Persona and switch between them at will.
Personas are “facades that help you overcome life’s hardships.” They are your personality, and how you deal with things. All the characters in your party have them, and they reflect the person that the character is. However, with each Persona comes certain strengths and weaknesses, represented by the normal elemental Rock/Paper/Scissors that you see in such games. Because each other main party member is stuck with their one persona, which is their personality, they will always have weaknesses. The Protagonist does not have these weaknesses, as he can switch away to Persona who are strong against certain attacks to protect himself, not to mention have access to a much wider variety of attacks. He is a much more powerful character because of his lack of one distinct personality.
However, this ability comes at a cost. Like I said, the protagonist is your standard jRPG silent protagonist. You are given choices to make, but for the most part, they are empty choices. There is nothing the Protagonist can do to affect the world, or to make choices or changes in his life. Because he is not a distinct character of his own, his life is not guided by his choices, but rather guided by those around him, as well as a mysterious voice that tells him he’s tired and so on.

Hopefully you see where I’m going with this. There is something to say, culturally, about Japan, or at least the creators of Persona 4, considering the ability to be a non-entity, and move between personalities at will, to be a good thing, and to mean you have greater power. The game seems to promote losing your self-identity. That is… not something I really agree with. But damn, it could make a good paper. Surely there are Japanese cultural studies that I could pull in as well, to give additional real-life analysis. It would be one hell of an English Major paper.

Man, I’m kind of lost, though, aren’t I? When I’m thinking about these things in my free time? I am pretty clearly going to be an English major forever. Heh. Oh well.