( empatheias application )

[earphoned]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Mad
Contact: koohii
Age: 26
Current Characters: n/a


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Minato Arisato
Age: 17
Canon: Persona 3
Canon Point: Post The Journey (good end)

Background: Minato @ SMT wiki
*Note: In his characterization, I will be also using the information given in Persona 3 manga and the spin-off games.

Personality:

While ultimately Minato's personality depends on player's decisions as he's a silent protagonist in the game, there are a few core traits that seem to be included in various iterations of Persona 3 like the manga or the spin-offs.

Being reserved and calm are one of these traits—he's described as a quiet person more often than not, and he indeed speaks up rather rarely unless he's asked to. For some reason, this leads to some people thinking that he's mature and has a cool demeanor (especially when he's walking around with his hand in his pockets all the time, which seems to be the signature pose of his). Moreover, one of his friends and a fellow member of SEES, Yukari, calls him "Mr. Perfect" on one occasion. Actually, he's pretty laid back and accepts whatever comes his way (be it good or bad), which might be the very reason why she said that. One of the examples is shown right at the beginning of the game itself: Minato seems unfazed when he pulls the trigger of the evoker for the first time to summon his persona.

Still, despite being quiet and reserved, Minato connects with people rather easily when he actually decides to branch out and manages to maintain many relationships (known as social links in-game). The variety of people he approaches ranges from an old couple who lost their beloved son through school sports team to an elementary school girl who's feeling lonely because her parents are getting a divorce and aren't paying attention to her. While Minato might be perceived as aloof, he's quite observant and tries to engage with other people from time to time, no matter who they are. On top of that, his bonds with the members of SEES is something he values the most, even if it might not be obvious from an outside observer.

The reason why he's aloof lies in Minato's past, actually. When he was seven years old (ten years prior to the game), his parents died in a car accident which was a result of a battle between Aigis and Death on a Moonlight Bridge. Because of that, Death was sealed inside Minato's body, even though he wasn't aware of it. Losing his parents was a huge shock to him, obviously, and forced him to move around quite a lot and transfer school often. That might be the very reason why he's perceived as an apathetic loner—in the span of ten years, Minato never had an opportunity to stay in one place for too long.

In the game, Minato's character can be seen mostly through his dialogue options and while the player is free to choose which answer to go with, some of these show how straight to the point he can get. Apparently, he seems to enjoy dark humor and can be snarky (especially in Persona Q spin-off game). However, as the game progresses, he becomes less distant and more compassionate, showing openly that he cares about his teammates whose Minato considers to be his friends as well later on.

Often shown as apathetic and drowsy, he has a good reason to be like this, actually. The excursions to Tartarus during the Dark Hour are pretty much exhausting, leaving Minato with little energy. In the manga, he's tired most of the time and has a rather impressive appetite. In the game, it's actually reflected in the meta-text whenever he wants to study and so on after exploring Tartarus.

At the first glance, Minato looks like the passive type, and in fact, that is true at the beginning. However, as the game progresses, he starts taking his role as a field leader in SEES seriously, even though he agreed only because he was asked to do it when Akihiko was injured. This leads to a conflict between him and one of his friends, Junpei, but he doesn't take offense whenever Junpei is blatantly jealous of his position and eventually they make up.

Minato's self-sacrifice in order to seal Nyx and save humanity is the best example of his transition from passive to active. He doesn't do it because he doesn't fear death, as one may think, but rather for the sake of his friends and other people. Minato doesn't want to lose the bonds he's made along the way, but he understands that there's only one way to save everyone and doesn't hesitate to give up on his life in order to seal Nyx away.

To sum up, even though Minato's catchphrase is just a single word—whatever—it's actually just a part of his character. On the outside, he seems to be apathetic and quiet, but in fact, he deeply cares about people around him, even if he's not expressing his emotions or feelings in a conventional way.

Abilities:

The wild card ability allows Minato to summon multiple personas. Persona is considered to be a manifestation of one's personality taking the form of various deities, demons, heroes and so on. To summon a persona, he needs an evoker which resembles a gun.

Due to the limits applied in-game, Minato will be able to summon following five personas:

Orpheus
Arcana: Fool
Weakness: Electricity, Dark
Skills: Bash, Agi, Tarunda

Thanatos
Arcana: Death
Repel: Dark
Resist: Slash, Strike
Weakness: Light
Skills:Ghastly Wail, Tempest Slash, Megidola, Mahamaon, 1hSwd Master, Brave Blade

Metatron
Arcana: Aeon
Repel: Light
Resist: Strike
Weak: Dark
Skills: Mahamaon, Auto-Mataru, God's Hand, Megidolaon

Byakko
Arcana: Temperance
Absorb: Electricity
Resist: Slash
Weak: Fire, Dark
Skills: Elec Boost, Deathbound, Ziodyne, Endure, Maziodyne

Kohryu
Arcana: Hierophant
Block: Light
Skills: Samarecarm, Mediarahan, Weary Thrust, Invigorate 3, Makarakarn

*Samarecarm may be used to heal major wounds and help bring someone out of unconsciousness, but it will not be able to revive someone with immediately fatal wounds.

Moreover, Minato can use various weapons in battle (just as two-handed swords, spears, bows, axes), but his main weapon of choice is a one-handed sword.

Alignment: Sosyne; Minato's personality makes him be on the calm side of the scale most of the time.

Other: He'll be bringing a one-handed sword, his evoker, his MP3 and headphones with him, if that's okay!


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
General Sample: TDM top-level
Emotion Sample: First meeting with Dia and teaming up with Shinji


Questions: n/a!