FGC #699 Persona 5 Royal

Today’s article spoils Persona 5, DC’s The Sandman, and also includes an examination of sexual abuse with real-life examples. Please consider this a spoiler and trigger warning for the entirety of the essay. Additionally, a handful of images may be considered Not Safe for Work. All sorts of warnings today!

Be careful what you allow in your mind palace.

Persona 5 released worldwide in 2017. Persona 5 Royal landed in the Spring of 2020 (an era without any global events in particular). Persona 5 Royal for Modern Systems As We Know Them™ dropped in 2022. Considering someone may have sold their Playstation 3 to buy a brand-new Nintendo Switch the same year P5 first released, it is reasonable to assume that at least a few people may have experienced Persona 5 in 2017, and then played it again for the first time five years later. Half a decade! This is relevant because Persona 5 is not a short game. My original save file for Persona 5 tops out at 86 hours, and I did not complete that game at a leisurely pace. There is more I could have done! More days for that clock! And you can while away a few more hours on Persona 5 Royal, as it expands the content of OG Persona 5. Get ready to waste your life inhabiting someone else’s life!

Whatever the version, Persona 5 is a game that encourages replays. Despite its main campaign being longer than some entire franchises (I can confidently state I could finish Mega Man 1–11 in less than 90 hours), Persona 5 is built so you can pursue different confidants, paths, and outcomes across your Joker’s schoolyear. You have choices aplenty, and, while there are “optimized routes” to see as much of the game as possible in one playthrough, it is still outright impossible to experience literally everything in the game before New Game+.

But Persona 5 Royal is not simply Persona 5 + Extra Endgame Stuff. Persona 5 includes all new content that runs from start to finish. In fact, right there from the intro…

We learn something is amiss. Here is an entirely new character! And she is important enough to be showcased in the intro before we get anything more than a silhouette of the usual cast. Why, even veteran players will have to pay attention to this mysterious redhead…

Because here is where Persona 5 Royal really tears its mask off. Not only is this an all-new, all-mysterious character, but there is an enigmatic promise on the line, too! If you played Persona 5 once already, you know this prologue is actually a solid 50 hours of gameplay in your future. And there is going to be a promise somewhere in there! That wasn’t in the original game! Oh boy!

But Persona 5 is mostly the same. It is still the same cast, and much of the same plot. You are still going to spend a half hour wandering around a restaurant and listening to “rumors” to advance the plot to the next day. And Persona 5 (in all of its forms) is clever: the writers know the whole arc is 40 times the length of your average movie, and you can participate in a variety of tasks and “side events” when your character has spare time. So, to encourage the player to mentally stay on track, there are “reminders” through txt messages and recurring meetups to reinforce what exactly is going on in the main story. And the only downside is that this thus accounts for 90% of everything said by your main party. You will wonder if it is assumed you have teenage-onset Alzheimer’s before you complete your first dungeon. It was skippable the first time! It is extra skippable on any additional playthroughs! You could turbo advance through months of this dialogue…

Except Persona 5 Royal underpins the new items afoot, so pay attention. Sure, you could skip these repetitive meetups where everyone is forced to use the words “palace” and “distortion” about as often as normal RPG protagonists examine barrels, but then you might miss some valuable intel on that student with a ribbon in hair from the intro. What’s her deal? Who is this new character? Who is that other new character that is introduced shortly thereafter? All of these questions must be answered! And you don’t want to miss a bit of it, because you know this is a franchise where you can overlook activating an S-Link 20 hours in, and only realize something is wrong another 40 hours later. Auto advance is not your friend! In short, with the tiniest amount of additional content sprinkled into the right places, Persona 5 Royal can trick a player into reabsorbing hours of content that was probably best ignored the first time…

And, let’s be real here: Persona 5, Royal or not, has some issues…

Gee, teach, let’s hear it again how you feel sorry for the guy that was revealed to be a murderous sex pest! I sure need that “sympathy for the abuser” drivel to be reinforced!

Speaking of repetition, this is the third time I have written about (some version of) Persona 5. The first was a basic look at villainy over the course of the story. The second was a discussion regarding how the plotting (and protagonist) treat the women of the game. Now, this article is once again going to look at villains and women.

Let’s talk about Neil Gaiman.

Much like Joss Whedon, there had been whispers and contentions regarding Neil Gaiman for a long, long time. Unfortunately, Gaiman was an extremely popular writer, and one of the “rock star” pillars of the comics and literary world. Your father might not know Gaiman’s name (well, my dad didn’t, going by his confusion at my Christmas requests twenty years ago), but check in with anyone remotely “counterculture” from the last thirty years (!), and they likely have a couple of his books in their library. For a long time, Gaiman was not only an aspirational figure in the world of fantasy fiction, but also generally lauded for his balanced beliefs and feminism. Regrettably, that is all well and truly resigned to the past now, as it has been revealed that Gaiman has decades of sexual harassment accusations to his name, and an alleged distinct pattern of abusing women for erotic gratification.

Sexual harassment can have many definitions and take many forms, so we are not going to mince words here. We are going to look at an example from the Vulture article on Neil Gaiman by Lila Shapiro. Featured in its opening is Scarett Pavolvich who filed a lawsuit against Gaiman on February 3, 2025. Pavolich had befriended Amanda Palmer, the mother of a Neil Gaiman child, and sporadically did favors and errands for Palmer. On an occasion when Palmer had asked Pavolich to babysit alone with Neil Gaiman, the “babysitting” somehow led to a naked Gaiman approaching Pavolich in the bath. From there, we are just going to quote the article directly:

(This is extremely graphic and triggering. This is a significant source of the warning at the start of article.)

He said, ‘It’s okay — it’s only me. Just relax. Just have a chat.’” She didn’t move. He looked at her again and said, “Don’t ruin the moment.” She did as instructed, and he began to stroke her feet. At that point, she recalls, she felt “a subtle terror.”

Gaiman asked her to sit on his lap. Pavlovich stammered out a few sentences: She was gay, she’d never had sex, she had been sexually abused by a 45-year-old man when she was 15. Gaiman continued to press. “The next part is really amorphous,” Pavlovich tells me. “But I can tell you that he put his fingers straight into my ass and tried to put his penis in my ass. And I said, ‘No, no.’ Then he tried to rub his penis between my breasts, and I said ‘no’ as well. Then he asked if he could come on my face, and I said ‘no’ but he did anyway. He said, ‘Call me ‘master,’ and I’ll come.’ He said, ‘Be a good girl. You’re a good little girl.’”

Afterward, Pavlovich crouched down in the water and tried to clean herself off. Gaiman looked at her and smiled. “‘Amanda told me I couldn’t have you,’” Pavlovich recalls him saying. As soon as he’d heard this, he “knew he had to have” her. “‘God,’” he continued, “‘I wish it were the good old days where we could both fuck you.’”

Remember that interaction (as if you would be able to forget) as we now look at one of Gaiman’s most influential works.

The Sandman could easily be seen as the genesis of Gaiman’s fame. It was here, in a comic book meant to revitalize a forgotten DC Comics superhero concept (The Sandman! Who fights crime by night with a gas mask and dust! Or… something! Nobody cared!) that Gaiman was first catapulted to stardom for transforming a random “horror” comic to what would one day be an entire imprint for one of the largest comics publishers in the world. And, as someone who was once so into Sandman that I have a tattoo of a random The Sandman character, I will state that The Sandman is good stuff. It is 75 (or so) issues of fantasy storytelling that transcends genres and introduces a host of memorable characters.

One of these characters is Nuala. Nuala is introduced in Issue #26, and persists through the story to nearly the final issue five years of monthly(ish) comics later. Here is her finale.

click on any of these pages to see a larger, potentially more readable version

She loves Dream of the Endless! And that’s the main dude in this story! “As deeply and as well as any man was loved by a woman.” Why, she must have been central to everything! This was a love between two immortal beings, and, in a story where ol’ Dream is continually doing things like venturing to the very depths of Hell for his paramours. Their relationship must have been…

Oh, okay. It was more of a crush thing. Alright. That can be fun, though, right? Unrequited love and all that riot? We are still dealing with immortal beings, so there can be a lot of meat on their fictional bones. It may not have been a strictly romantic relationship, but they must have had some kind of relationship. How did they meet?

Oh… Oh. She was a slave that was presented to Dream as a bribe. When the negotiations that necessitated this fairy trafficking were completed, Nuala was “kept” as a servant by Dream so as not to offend the queen that had tossed Nuala into Dream’s court. Nuala was not happy about this. Oh, and speaking of the rules of the fair folk. If you have noticed some variation in her appearance…

In both her introduction and finale in the series, much is made of Nuala’s beauty. She is a fairy, so she is used to wearing a glamour, a magical spell that makes her appear as a buxom blonde. But remove said glamour, and she is “only” a spritely fairy with a body that looks practically prepubescent. And to be absolutely clear, in case boobs ‘n blondes are not your thing, it is distinctly noted within her premiere appearance that you are supposed to know that Nuala is alluring from her start…

But that’s why this is love! Nuala comes from a capricious, superficial society. Parading around without a glamour is seen as an afront to Fairy Society as a whole…

However, Dream lets her be who she truly is. She does not need her glamour while toiling in the halls of Dream’s castle. She is a free woman (slave) who is free to fall in love with anyone she chooses (who happens to be her literal master). And how does the titular Sandman react to the love of his retainer?

He blames her for his fall. Yes, he is instantly chastised for it, and he rescinds his statement. But when the chips are down, and he is literally staring Death in the face, his immediate response is to blame that elf girl that only ever showed him kindness.

But was Dream kind? Well, the first thing he did upon “owning” Nuala was tear off her glamour. And, as we’ve established, a fairy without a glamour is treated like they are essentially naked. Nuala’s brother Cluracan is never seen without his glamour despite appearing multiple times and starring in one issue (and guesting for the rest of that arc). In fact, no other fairy in The Sandman is ever seen without their glamour in 75 issues. It’s just Nuala, who Dream stripped (magically) naked, and then asked to parade around the castle. Because he said so.

And he occasionally forgets who she even is.

And, for this, Nuala is complimented twice in years’ worth of issues. Other than that…

It doesn’t look like a great relationship. And to add an additional level of fun here, Dream absolutely does not see anything wrong with Nuala’s forced servitude. Other characters refer to her vassalage, but Dream…

Dream, who stood and watched Nuala’s shocked expression when her brother traded her into captivity, asks Nuala “have you ever been imprisoned?” Yes, Dream, she was. You were there. You started it.

Every last Nuala appearance across all of The Sandman was catalogued in preparation for this article (she does eventually have some fun times in spinoffs by different authors, but we are looking at Gaiman today), so this can be said with conclusive support:

Nuala’s is Dream’s property. He is her lord. She does his bidding. Nuala loves him, he does not reciprocate, or even so much as notice. But this relationship is presented as romantic and “magical”. It is a tragedy, but it is a clear situation where we are supposed to sympathize with Nuala’s immature, girlish love for Dream. A slave’s love for her lord and master.

“Call me ‘master,’ and I’ll come.” He said, ‘Be a good girl. You’re a good little girl.”

Nuala is only one side character in The Sandman. But rest assured, there are many, many more examples within The Sandman that could have been featured here. We also have Nada who Dream claims to still love after 10,000 years, but condemned to be caged in Hell for nearly that entire epoch. We have a literal convention of serial killers that all wind up with their victims in submissive, hogtied situations. We have the muse Calliope, who is bound and passed from one dirty old man to a new generation. In fact, you need to see how Calliope’s initial jailer is depicted…

And how then her new master confines her, rapes her for profit, and is then publicly lauded.

He’s a feminist writer! And he gets his ideas from raping a woman he imprisons in his attic! Get it!? It’s funny! It’s not like a writer ever accused of rape would deliberately write “feminist” dialogue to showcase how he is not (like) all men.

Gentle reader, be assured that this swerve into the perverse has not been an accident. The author of this piece does recall that this essay is technically titled after the featured game of the week, Persona 5 Royal. And, while Persona 5 Royal does prominently feature multiple sex pests, this is not why a comic book from decades ago is dominating this article. This is not about sexual predators. We already know there are sexual predators abound.

No, this is about what you are being sold, and how authors normalize their own vices through entertainment.

The Sandman and the Persona franchise use the same trick: they derive authority from the whole of human history. The Sandman is a story the contains biblical characters like Cain, Abel, Eve, Lucifer, and even a plot hanging on the actions of the Christian God. Additionally, Sandman himself is the father of Greek Mythology’s Orpheus, and Dream is presented as the “real” version of various dream deities throughout different mythologies. Death, Dream’s sister, is every depiction of the Grim Reaper going back to antiquity, and it is implied she only recently “lightened up” to be this cheery incarnation. Similarly, Persona coopts the divination archetypes of the tarot to apply to every major character. And since we need to mix some other concepts in there, we also have the main villains of Persona 5 all mapping to the Seven Deadly Sins (of Catholicism, not Netflix), which leads to some lovely monster designs…

And for both The Sandman and Persona, we have gods randomly distributed about. Persona harvests entire pantheons to suss out who would have the most powerful ice spell, and The Sandman often has committees and councils where you just might recognize a certain mischief god or two. In fact, a moral of both Persona 5 and The Sandman is that Loki is not to be trusted. Maybe they can go out for Shawarma after he’s defeated! And additional intersection can be found with the Temperance Arcana of Persona 5…

She was already briefly featured in this article, but let’s examine Sadayo Kawakami for a moment. Kawakami is a language teacher at Joker’s school, and also his homeroom teacher. There are multiple teachers and administrators floating around the plot of Persona 5, but thanks to her early introduction and presentation, Kawakami is the one that could most easily be described as “your teacher”. She initially is wary of Joker, but comes around to him after the revelations following the outing of a separate, malevolent teacher/coach. From that point on, she is generally supportive.

And also, ya know, a door-to-door maid with special services.

Kawakami’s tale is one of a teacher that wanted to be the best, gradually lost her idealism over years, and is now indifferent and making ends meet as a “delivery health” maid with twintails. Across her story, she is stirred by the main character to leave her night job and become a more dedicated instructor. It is inspirational! And, in exchange for his help, Joker receives benefits like:

• The ability to slack off in Kawakami’s class
• The ability to slack off in all teachers’ classes
• Kawakami will appear in her maid uniform and do your laundry
• Kawakami will appear in her maid uniform and make dinner and crafts
• Kawakami will appear in her maid uniform and provide a “special massage”

Kawakami becomes a better teacher, and you become her master.

(And, while it is 100% consensual, we would be remiss if we did not note that Joker can initiate a romantic relationship with his instructor. She becomes a better teacher, and he presumably gets more interesting special massages.)

“She offers help if you keep quiet about her job as a maid.” and “you two form a bond as trustworthy comrades…” are incompatible statements on the same screen

It is power fantasies from top to bottom. Joker is a misunderstood student that eventually is so well respected, teachers literally become his slaves. Dream of the Endless is such a great guy (anthropomorphized personification of a concept, whatever), that women fall in love with him without him even noticing. In both of these worlds, everything is reinforced by what came before. Kawakami is assigned Temperance, the arcana often depicted with an angel balancing scales, as she is a woman that needs to limit her excess and find her path forward in moderation. She’s not just a woman in a videogame, what she is traces back to the tarot readings of 1800s, which themselves draw on religious iconography available for centuries. The Sandman’s Nuala is of the Fair Folk, a subject of Titania, and contemporary of Puck of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is not just a woman in a comic book, what she is traces back to the 1600s, and further draws on local mythology that had circulated for centuries. These are women reinforced by a span of time humans literally cannot fathom. And they fall all over themselves for men that do… whatever.

Persona 5 Royal knows how to hold the attention of an audience that is recycled from years ago. Neil Gaiman knows how to captivate an audience for a comic that took years to release. But what else are these works normalizing? What other lessons are being learned right alongside these tales of heroes triumphing over evil and/or idealism. How are you letting these entertaining productions control your life?

Or just let them be your master. Be a good, submissive audience. You’re a good little audience.

FGC #699 Persona 5 Royal

• System: The Playstation 3 is gone now, but you can pick up Royal for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox X|S, and PC.
• Number of players: Just the one. Miraculously, they did not add a MMORPG mode. I guess you can see other player’s choices easily, which is sort of crowd-sourcing gameplay.
• So, what’s new: The new characters are… fine? I guess? Everybody reminds me of Marie of Persona 4 Golden: a new addition that slots into the story pretty easily, but somehow has to have big important origins that will eventually inspire a conflict or dungeon or similar. One of those weird “it has only happened twice, but it is definitely a formula” situations that makes the newbies less straight up characters, and more focus-group created additions. Or, to put it simply, Yoshizawa is Poochy. Meanwhile, Maruki is a cool idea for a “villain”/palace, and working backwards from there to get to that Winter destination.
• What about Jose? I respect a child that will not hesitate to hit you with a car.
• Further Changes: The dungeons are all-new! Mostly! There are secret skulls and grappling points and all sorts of nonsense that necessitated a facelift for Persona 5’s palaces. Unfortunately, the only layouts I really remember from the first Persona 5 version were the boat and a little bit of the space station. Whatever! New is good! I think!
• Unanswered Questions: Who on the Atlus staff determined that what Persona 5 needed was a jazz club? And do they want to be friends?
• Further Crimes against Goggles: What is with this game?
  
  Why does it hate on people that wear goggles? What did we ever do to you!?
• Favorite New Persona: Agnes the Living Pope-er-cycle now gains some manner of snowplow attachment. That has to be useful in the winter months!
• Special Ed: As was mentioned last week, I got Persona 5 Royal at launch, and was unable to play it due to a complete inability to focus on anything during the early days of COVID. But I do not regret my five-years-early purchase, as I reserved the special edition, which came with a cool little Phantom Thief mask statue. And some other stuff! I guess! …. Alright, yeah, I should have just waited until it was twenty bucks.
• Did you know? The description for the new Ella Persona claims that “Cinder Ella” was always a derogatory nickname for the princess (because she would be covered by soot as the maid of the house), and she graduated to “Princess Ella” at the end of the story. This is… vaguely accurate? Kinda? The tale is centuries old, but the first time it entered the “Cinderella” phase, it was in Basile’s Cenerentola in 1634. We don’t have another name for her in that one, but Cenerentola is a pun on the word “cenere”, which means “ash and cinder”. It was a deliberate joke name, but it wasn’t an interchangeable mate to “Ella”, guys.
• Would I play again: Man, I am not looking forward to reexamining this plot again after finishing Persona 5 Remake in 2032.

What’s next? We have a big, round number coming up, and Random ROB has chosen… Final Fantasy 3! But not that Final Fantasy 3! The bad one! Kinda! Anyway, please look forward to it!

Can we just skip… all of this? Every last bit?