i will try to be brief. most of my more like rambling critiques about akihiko's linked episode can be found here but now that i have that here's how i would ideally restructure it

first, to start off, akihiko's character arc hinges on his initial iteration being an immature, narrow-minded, idealist who's obsessed with gaining strength and protecting others. this is a mentality he espoused as a way for atoning for the weakness he saw within himself after the death of his sister, as he blames himself for being unable to save her (despite being literally like 8 at the time). akihiko was very much so struck by the feeling of powerlessness watching the orphanage burn and the painful grief of losing his only living family member, and thus conceived for himself an "ideal" of atonement: a life of service protecting others and trying to live as a role model (especially for and to those younger than him, as we don't see him be as protective of the other two seniors).

akihiko's idealist nature is partly why he's so frustrated by shinjiro's abandonment of SEES - he thinks the way that shinjiro can atone for what happened with ken's mother is to similarly use his power to protect others and ensure that never happens again. while i'm sure he'd also just like to have his friend back, he wants shinjiro back in SEES as a way for him to make up for the past rather than letting it chain him down in isolation. it's how akihiko sees "moving on". akihiko's idealism is also why he lashes out when he's told that the risky plan to rescue fuuka might be too dangerous - the idea of not being able to save others, of not even being allowed to try, reminds him of the powerlessness he felt about his sister's death. as a result, he lashes out.

akihiko believes that the only way he can rightfully live is to dedicate himself to getting stronger and being a role model that others can depend on and gain inspiration from - that it's the only just way to atone and make up for his sister's death. he refuses to weigh down others (literally one of his original battle lines is "i don't want to be a burden") and instead is so overly ambitious and disciplined so he can be the one to help others instead. in P3 official design works, it's stated that akihiko's been carefully constructing "an admirable front" for others, that he's "obsessed with how others see him". he's overly logical as a way of brute-forcing past emotional responses and kick himself into action instead, and presents to others a confident, composed, reliable upperclassman figure.

i say all this to put a foundation for what akihiko's mentality is before shinjiro's death. he's constantly pushing himself and is obsessed with gaining strength in an eternal pursuit "to make up for the weakness he sees within himself" and to atone for a death that "he perpetually blames himself for". he's someone who is awkward and distant because he has constructed for himself an idea of what he must be and what his role in the lives of others is (that being a protector and mentor); and his obsessive, overly-practical, narrow-minded, and goal-oriented mentality is something that bars him from being able to really connect with people. in his P3P link after october 4th, he outright says that he was afraid of letting people in.

so onto the actual question, i would ideally want akihiko's growth to be restructured in a way that emphasizes a broadened outlook on the value of bonds, showing him learning from his past approach and experiences and trying to change for the sake of himself and others. his linked episode in reload repeatedly has him hammer in the point that he's going to protect others, but this didn't need any repetition. maybe once or twice would be serviceable? but it's something they hinge so heavily on as if the fact that he was going to continue protecting people wasn't already self-evident. and it really doesn't show any growth - akihiko was already doing this, has been doing so all his life, and there was nothing to indicate that he'd stop. even with him acknowledging that he'd been blinded by his obsession with strength during his resolution, the ending to that scene showed that he's committed to continuing to fight in sees, and continuing to protect others with the power he has. having him circle back to his promise to protect others as much as they do genuinely doesn't make any sense to me and doesn't do anything for his character. it doesn't communicate anything new about his mentality other than "i was doing this because of a selfish obsession, now i am doing it for the sake of others" but that is a pretty poor way to go about an arc that could've had a much more meaningful and applicable message.

while akihiko mentions it as part of a promise he and shinjiro made to protect others in his 3rd linked episode, they should've expanded on akihiko's change of mentality in how he sees connection. the 3rd linked episode, for the first half of it at least, made me feel like they were capitalizing on this idea. akihiko he tells the group that he was "just hungry and ended up making too much" while we know he actually threw the pancake party because it was something that his sister used to love and he wanted to help everybody cheer up. it shows him, though he might be awkward in how he goes about it, actively putting in an effort to show he friends he cares and to try and cheer them up.

that episode is ruined by how they shift it in the post-party conversation to again reinforce akihiko's "now, i'm going to protect everyone" stuff, but that's the crux of what i wish akihiko's character arc showed: a man who has lived a life consumed by an obsessive and idealist complex - who has never allowed himself to truly connect with others (even having distance with the other two seniors) and who has come to see his purpose as a protector and a mentor figure to others - unravelling that complex and learning how to care and connect with people, not just serve them.

even beyond seeing his way of showing he cares as protecting people, akihiko is not someone who is good at showing his friends that he cares for them. in fact, his mentality directly counters the idea of ever showing vulnerability and detaching himself from his own emotions (with only impulsive, intense emotions coming through). this is something made abundantly apparent in his dynamic with shinjiro, where essentially all of their interactions depict akihiko trying to impose his ideals on his friend: trying to get shinjiro to live and atone in a way that akihiko sees as correct. as aforementioned, while akihiko probably simultaneously simply wanted his friend back and you can certainly glean that in his dialogues, akihiko never expressly communicates to shinjiro anything about what akihiko wants - rather, it's what he perceives as what should be. that shinjiro has a duty to be in sees using his power to protect, that he should sign the papers and go back to school (akihiko never says anything about his own feelings on it to shinjiro, instead he jokes about it and only ever says "you know how much this means to mitsuru), and that he should stop using the drugs. the fact that akihiko does all this to try to get shinjiro back on his feet and live a normal is certainly itself an expression of akihiko's care for his friend, but the way he goes about that doesn't communicate that personal element. this is, yes, reading way too much into it, but my point here is to say that akihiko doesn't like showing anyone vulnerability, even a friend that he's had in his back corner for most of his life, and who notably was his main support after miki's death (as stated in P3ODW). the human element is pretty heavily removed from akihiko's interactions with others. this isn't exclusive to shinjiro at all, it's everybody. yukari even points out akihiko's emotional distance prior to the yakushima trip, feeling that the only thing akihiko cares about is whether or not he gets to fight.

back to the main topic here. again it's not like there was any doubt that akihiko would continue serving in SEES and fighting by his friends' sides after shinjiro's death. you don't need to repeatedly place emphasis on him continuing to protect others, and it instead comes to take away from what could've been. if his growth is just "it was a selfish thing, now it's not as much of a selfish thing", that is such an undercapitalization on what could've been an excellent arc that ties into the themes of the game.

persona 3 is a very meaningful story about life and the value of connections. the entire force that allows the end of the world to be prevented is literally in-game called "the power of friendship". the story of persona 3 acknowledges that death will happen, that it could happen at any time, that in life you will be hurt and that loving others can hurt, but also crucially that it's better to use the time you have to experience life and to love others than to never do so at all.

akihiko's arc to me would've been much more potent if he realized from his best friend's death that he was going about it the wrong way; that merely protecting others isn't enough to communicate that he cares for them; that he can't control fate (this tying into his arcana); that distancing himself, not letting people in, and committing himself to solely getting stronger so that he can save them (and himself) from the devastation of loss can't stop (and didn't stop) it from happening. it would've been much more satisfying and on-theme to show akihiko trying to learn how to actually care for others, even though he might it difficult to. trying to cheer up the rest of the dorm in the third linked episode is a great example of this, and you could further take this storyline and have it connect to shinjiro if you wanted, learning from the ways that shinjiro showed akihiko and others that he cared (though hardly anything like that is really apparent in reload necessarily, so it'd be difficult to execute; point is shinjiro has a lot of media where he shows others he cares in subtle ways and it would've been cool to see akihiko realize and try and replicate it along his healing journey). just showing akihiko reflecting on the past, learning from his faults, and striving to become better for the sake of people he loves is a much more of a healthier conclusion to his story than having him double down on protecting others to the point of saying "yes, i'll continue to protect my friends, and i'll start travelling the world to get even stronger so i can do so better!" (which to me, shows the exact opposite of growth if he's continuing to let his compulsion to protect others further obfuscate and distance him from the people he loves, and shows that he isn't actually moving on at all). he should learn how to be there for people, and how to connect with them beyond the fight.

anyways i've ranted enough, i hope that kind of communicates my overarching problem with how his growth was handled in P3R and how i wish it was instead ^_^

i do think so. and to be fair you can actually see people in the game talking about the deaths and their suspicions about them. especially after shinjiro dies, there are housewives in paulownia mall and people just kind of Around that will talk about it being shocking, reconsidering if they should send their kids there, etc.

ryoji isn't really confirmed to have "died" he just kind of goes missing and was only around for a few weeks. and to be honest how ryoji even gets to gekkoukan is itself a mystery because he kind of just spawns in. nobody knows him. it's not like he has government ID because where would he have gotten that. so i don't think his sudden disappearance would make anything of a fuss outside of gekkoukan. i could see him becoming like a folk story at gekkoukan because he kinda just feels like an apparition who was there then disappeared and nobody ever said anything about it

as for the MC, that. it's not really a suspicious death so to speak? in that i think it'd just be passed off as him dying from unknown health problems? it's not like he died in a suspicious or gruesome manner like how ikutsuki/takeharu die on the observation tower or how shinjiro dies to gun violence. i mean, at my highschool like five kids died but three were from health complications, it didn't really affect the reputation of the school as a whole. but yeah certainly shinjiro and ikutsuki and takeharu's death would probably lead to the school having a bad reputation ^_^ especially in conjunction with the accident 10 years ago, of which (while obscured by the KG) did impact its reputation

p2 cast
tatsuya: jun
lisa: tatsuya
eikichi: nobody
jun: tatsuya
maya: ulala
ulala: maya
katsuya: baofu but i can i clarify i do really like him with maya. i actually like most ships between the EP cast
baofu: katsuya but ulala/baofu is really strong for me also
elly: idk
nanjo: i didn't play his route but i trust in lala when she writes katsunanjo

p3 cast
makoto (y): mm. aigis or fuuka
kotone: ryoji
yukari: probably mitsuru
junpei: i'll say chidori but i love a lot of junpei ships
akihiko: shinjiro :heart:
mitsuru: yukari <3
fuuka: makoto or aigis
aigis: fuuka or makoto
shinjiro: akihiko

i'm actually not that passionate about the ships for the p4 cast. i'm very basic also
yu: i like souyo i suppose
yosuke: see above
chie: yukiko
yukiko: chie
kanji: naoto but i do really like kanyu
naoto: kanji

p5 cast i'm umm
ren: i guess akechi?
ryuji: i like him with ann and yusuke but probably yusuke more
ann: oh this is really hard. ren and shiho are both really good pairings. both above ryuji and ann but i like that a lot too
makoto (n): iiii don't really have a ship i really adore for nijima. i'll say haru
futaba: i'll be honest i don't ship her with anyone
haru: ren or makoto
goro: ren but my opinions on akeshu are complicated
sumi: the thing is i actually don't think sumi should date until she gets therapy and has some time to think on herself and what she wants. but after all that? probably ren

generally because the protagonist calls on the strength of their bonds in order to accomplish their tasks. apologies if i made it sound like something that was confirmed -- this is just my own interpretation, since you use the "strength of bonds" to well. do everything in persona. makoto/kotone needs it to seal nyx. yu needs it to defeat izanami. ren needs it to defeat yaldabaoth. you hear their voices as you do that, or see them physically in p4

stuff related to the rank 10s shows up in the adaptations too ^_^ the p3 movies, manga, p4 manga and anime, and p5 anime (the manga's not done) all depict the protagonist calling on their bonds. often you can see them experiencing story beats in links across the adaptations as well. though their featuring in adaptations not as strong as an argument of "well it's how you beat the game so that's why i think this"

as for the p4/p5 cast's spinoff personas, really i just think it's a matter of the original personas being more marketable and recognizable. and atlus being able to get away with it because they're evolved through social links (which not the majority of players are not going to 100% --) unlike persona 3 where finishing the game necessitates you to have the persona evolutions. sort of like a "well the player probably won't finish all of the links, and the original personas are way more recognizable anyway, so why shouldn't we just use the ogs"

i forget if it was ever mentioned in an interview before, but i feel like i remember an interview with some project manager at atlus explaining the decision. don't quote me on that (not that i remember what was said anyway), i just i have talked about it a few times before in reply chains and feel like it came up at some point. personally though i just have always viewed the rank 10s as canonical because it doesn't make sense to me to be arbitrary in choosing which ones are and are not maxed. my view personally is that they're all maxed throughout the story, and the cultivation of these links is what gives the protag the power to accomplish their end feats

plus if you want a narrative reason then like idk. the 4 and 5 gangs splitting up at the end of their arc decayed their bond enough to put them back to their original personas, or it was only through the objectives of the narrative that they were able to access this secondary evolution. i feel like you can make a narrative reason for it if you tried hard enough idk. personally i just view it as mostly a marketing decision LMAO

yeah i do ^_^ as an alternate version of events more though (which is what it is but. y'know. to clarify), because there are some changes to the narrative (in part the natural consequence of its medium and runtime) that i just don't really fw

characterization-wise though, i think the movies are really good. i mean, they kinda give akihiko a bit of a temper problem, in that idk how i feel about him just socking the shit out of junpei during the december interaction but that's like the only place where i was like woah what the hell is your problem akihiko (he doesn't punch shinjiro in the drug interaction in the movies [something he does in all other iterations], for instance, so i was very surprised by the junpei punch). other than him though it fleshes out makoto a lot and is my favourite version of him as a result.

as for shinjiro, i really do enjoy shinjiro's characterization in the movies. it's probably my favourite version of him ^^ it offers a good gamut of his personality and the conflict he faces. it also shows that castor's outbursts are a recurrent issue for him -- something that is kept vague in the game itself, where you can interpret the 2007/10/04 incident as a sole occurrence -- which i really like. i think his character is leagues more compelling and grounded in that reading, where he's pinched into a really terrible situation of either take inhibitors that will slowly kill him or risk castor hurting someone again (or himself, as we see castor attack shinjiro once and attempt another time in the movies). given reload's "i'm getting by on pills for now" line, i assume that's the interpretation that reload goes with as well? since the only pills he takes are the suppressants, indicating castor as his continued problem, but that's irrelevant for this discussion.

point is, i love movie shinjiro. i love how he snaps in the drug confrontation. i think it's the most raw and best executed iteration of who he is.

the whole thing with ken's stuff is. difficult to explain my thoughts on. i quite find the storyline presented there compelling, but i ultimately don't see it as "superior" to what the game offers. just an alternative way of stuff happening. it's an interesting and again compelling plotline for ken to get attached to shinjiro before realizing that it's he -- a man he looks up to, even cares about -- who killed his mother, but i generally like how the game goes about it.

to explain more thoroughly: i think the movie works well in communicating the extent of ken's anguish (resolving to go through with it even after seeing the human side of shinjiro, because he is just that compelled by the pain of his mother's death and his hatred of the person who took her from him) and it certainly functions good in the shorter cinematic medium of the movie, but the game goes about it in a more... logical way for ken's character? him being spurred into sees because he knows his mother's killer is there and he's seeking an opportunity for revenge is a more logical plotline than how he joins sees in the movies in my opinion. ken asks to join sees specifically after what he learns on 8/24, where the fact that his mother's killer was a persona user is essentially confirmed, and where he finds out that akihiko knows his mother's killer (as well as his name). ken living for a month with a festering demonized view of shinjiro, refusing to interact with people much because he's earnestly under the impression he's going to kill himself after killing shinjiro, feels more sensible than having ken be quite eager to interact with him per the movies.

this is to say! i do really love the movies' version of events. brings a lot of interesting ideas up that i love to ponder and rub my chin over. and the characterizations are great. so <3 also it has the best version of the drug confrontation scene bar none

i've spoken a bit on it before but in summary. it took me a while to see any appeal in it, but a lot of its appeal for me is why i like shinjiro's revival route. generally i always share a lot of the same critiques that the revival felt lazy (which i feel about shinjiro's, and while i will concede happily that p3r improved upon it, it still feels like it's not really the most competent execution of the idea that deals with the ramifications it itself introduces?) but that with the tragedy that is chidori yoshino's existence i've come to quite enjoy the idea that she gets another -- this time actual -- shot at life again. junpei or no junpei.

i think if it had a better execution it would be easier for me to defend it. personally i would like to see junpei rectifying with the loss of the girl he knew as chidori's memories are wiped, the bittersweetness there and the recognition of/grief over loss; even though zeno's voicework for that scene is really good, it would've been nice if it was not just a single scene that chidori is around for after being quite literally revived from the dead. i also don't really like the chidori revival existing in the same game as a theurgy wherein chidori's spirit (and yeah you can very well argue that it is the spirit of her original self, the powers of medea that remain embedded in trismegistus, and i think that's an entirely fair argument) fights alongside junpei.

this is also getting into one of my other dislikes about the chidori revival which is the canon ambiguity. i just. idk! i think it's kinda lame that regardless of circumstance atlus does not commit to either her being dead or her being alive. in the movies she remains dead. she's implied alive for p4au. stated as alive in p3d (set in january). and i think that having it be an option for the protag whether or not you have her live leaves chidori in a really weird spot where they cannot commit to her being alive and actually put effort into that (because there are players that do not like it and thinks she should remain dead) nor can they remove the option to revive her. with shinjiro's it's like -- him living is canon to femc route. the second bullet does not pierce him. he does not die. this is simply a product of getting him to rank 10 and rank 10s are what are canon to the story.

as someone who really likes having canon timelines the ambiguity with chidori's life is awfully strange and i don't like it. Personally. frankly some part of me thinks that her revival should be a NG+ exclusive but don't tell anyone i said that. i love you chidori and i do think you should have a chance at life after having your own life stolen from you by a terrible corporation who embedded essentially a lethal parasite in you as a child forcing you to rectify with the reality that you will never put trust in a future as you will die prematurely

umm so tl;dr i'm mixed. i could've ranted a lot more about this but generally i can neither ride on the chidori route for its execution nor really deny that it has meaningful potential and that i can understand why people really like it