[Persona Social Links, Major Arcana & Symbolism] Arcana II: The Priestess
Welcome to the third #ArcanaInPersona article~
#2: The Priestess
The game series Persona is overflowing with symbolism. Even the term Persona is derived from Jungian psychology which strives on symbolism. The most interesting parallel I found in Persona is its usage of Tarot cards & the Major Arcana.
In this article series I'm writing about each Arcana and its corresponding Social Links/Confidants in Persona games. Today's article is about the Arcana that's usually represented by a female party member: The Priestess.
The Priestess in Tarot Cards
The High Priestess (or just The Priestess) is the second Trump Card in a tarot deck. The Priestess represents mystery and secrets. It represents wisdom, knowledge and science.
The Priestess in Persona
In every main Persona game starting 3, The Priestess characters are female party members and friends of the main character. In all three games the girl with The Priestess Social Link can be a Romantic Partner to the main character of the game.
They're usually quiet and reserved girls, often shy and have inferiority complex due to growing up in strict or prestigious families which is the case for all the three Priestess (from Persona 3 through 5.)
The Personas of The Priestess Arcana are associated with Healing and Support abilities. Mythical figures and monsters of this Arcana can be holy figures like godesses and priestesses or female mages and witches. One recurring Priestess Persona is Izanami.
Persona 3's Fuuka Yamagishi
Fuuka's backstory...
Fuuka is the main Navigator in Persona 3. She's a kindhearted but shy girl who rarely speaks up for herself. That made her an easy target for bullies and shortly after her introduction in the game, her bullies locked her in the school gym which resulted in her getting trapped in Tartarus. She managed to survive by herself for 10 hours there, which is impressive because the player's party barely manages to stay for 1 hour at the time by then.
Once she joined SEES, she helps the party by acting as the Navigator (and she does a better job than Mitsuru at it,) and analyzing enemy weakness.
Fuuka is polite, never calling anyone without using honorfics. She's also very forgiving and doesn't hold grudge over her bully once she realized that the latter is trying to repent. She became a friend with the girl and was sad once her new friend had to depart from town. By the end of Persona 3's story, Fuuka became more outgoing and less shy as the other members of SEES have noticed.
Her Social Link doesn't open unless the player character maxes out his Courage Stats. Her Social Link story revolves around her trying and failing to learn how to cook. She does that to become more feminine and have hobbies fitting for her gender. She finally learns to accept herself as she is, and focus on what she actually like and is good at which is technology stuff.
Fuuka Yamagishi fully represent The Priestess Arcana in that she's smart wise, and forgiving. She learns to become a better person while her core personality stay the same.
Persona 4's Yukiko Amagi
Yukiko in her Inn Kimono
Yukiko is a classmate of the protagonist and a party member. She's also the first kidnapping victim that the party manage to save from the TV World. She joins the team to help find the murderer/kidnapper.
She's an elegant rich, and pretty girl. She's the opposite of her best friend Chie and is jealous of her friend's ongoing nature as she is introverted. Yukiko doesn't have common sense regarding romance as she rejected many of guys without knowing they were confessing their feelings to her.
Her family own the Amagi Inn which is the No.1 tourist spot in Inaba. She was trained to succeed her mother in managing the Inn and that caused her infrierty complex, as she doesn't want to live the life other people planned for her.
Yukiko's conviction
Despite her elegant personality Yukiko has a habit of breaking in "laghing fits" when she thinks something is funny (which is usually a bad joke,) another trait contrasting with her personality is her fearlessness and enjoyment of Horror movies.
After confronting her shadow and awakening her Persona early in the story, Yukiko became livelier, and her character development continues through the game as she helps the party in their investigation. She decides to live her own life and move out of Inaba after graduation.
Her Social Link story revolves around her preparation for her future to leave town. She starts by learning how to cook with the protagonsit help. She eventually learns that she loves the Inn and decides to stay in town and inherit it.
Persona 5's Makoto Nijima
Makoto's vow to learn about society
The Priestess Confidant in Persona 5 is Makoto Nijima. She's the student council president of Shujin Academy. A honor student who has a good grades but unpopular between the students.
Her only family is her sister Sae, a public prosecuter who holds a high standard and her and requires her to be perfect in every regard to be able to survive as a woman in this world driven by males. Makoto has she has inferiority complex and doesn't feel she works hard enough no matter how what she accomplished and she wants her sister to be happy and lessen the burden on her.
Makoto was first introduced in the game when she was tasked by the principle to investigate the Phantom Theives. She succeeds in her investigation and found out their identiites but made a deal with them. If they proved their Justice to her, she won't reveal that information to the public. She asks them to deal with the mafia boss that's extorting money from students.
After the Kaneshiro incident she joins the Phantom Theives, and she became the sound of reason in the group, often using her intellegence to aid them and her own justice to ensure the Theives don't target someone who doesn't deserve a heart change.
Makoto's Maxed (Romance Route) Information Tab
Her Confidant story revolves around her learning about the world outside school and her friendship with Eiko. The latter has an bad/unfaithful guy as a boyfriend and Makoto with Joker try to save her from him.
So, that's all for The Priestess Arcana
I noticed that characters with the Priestess Arcana don't have a good cooking skill. In both Persona 3 and 4. Social Link girls who represent The Priestess ask the player to help them in a quest to learn cooking, while Makoto of Persona 5 asks Joker to help her learn the things that can't be learned in school.
The Priestesses also tend to be good at studying, which is fitting as their Arcana represents wisdom and knowledge! Yukiko and Makoto are the top of their grades in school. Fuuka is very good at technology stuff. They also have a mixture of highly feminine traits and ones that unfminine, like Makoto's tomboy traits and Fuuka's hobbies.
So, What are your thoughts?
While I enjoyed researching The Magician Arcana more when I was writing the previous article. I learned more from my Research about The Priestess Arcana. I hope to increase my pace writing these articles as there are another 20 Major Arcana left after this. For today though, that's all and I hope to see you in the next #ArcanaInPersona article.
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