I Am 100% Normal What Are You Talking About

i am 100% normal what are you talking about

Sumi in the subway

Omg all of this is so good!! Making the canon 2nd tier into the 3rd tier is a really cool idea! In my case of making her new Persona Odile, I was considering that it would maybe be named after one of the ballerinas that performed in Swan Lake as both characters, Pierina Legnani. Especially since Legnani apparently previously performed in Cinderella so it would be a nice bit of irony. Though that's mostly due to Ann's 3rd tier being named after someone who performed in "Carmen." But honestly, your ideas work just as well!! That reminds me, I should rewrite "A New Pair of Shoes..." someday.

IN THE CASE OF CENDRILLON.

I think I won't be the first to say that Cendrillon is not the ideal primal Persona for Sumire. And I mean exactly Sumire after her true awakening post-rank 5.

Yet, Cendrillon is perfect for the Kasumi. The awakening was painless without blood, shot by shot, copying the magical girl's transformation. And she had no problems accepting her Persona, proudly shouting her name to the unknown danger. You couldn't find the more ideal folktale heroine for a character like that.

In addition, Cinderella is known for her hard work something that Kasumi has been putting on in her gymnastics, keeping her positivity and smile. And we have Maruki as the fairy godmother that can make Cinderella's wishes come true. Besides that, Kasumi is the type of girl that easily appease a crowd, or in her case, The Prince.

Now, for Sumire. The game's explanation for Cendrillon is that the true reality for Sumire is essentially living in the cinders; when she was nothing but a servant at her own house. And... That's it? While I am sorry, I haven't played Royal yet by myself, I tried to find as much about Sumire and I saw a lot of people having problems with Cendrillon not changing to a different Persona.

The idea of her sister becoming a Persona (a thing that you could witness in the Megami Ibunroku Persona - and honestly, the whole third semester is the plot of P1) - just, doesn't add a lot to Sumire.

I like Vanadis for her design and idea that fits to demons and mythological figures.

Ella doesn't add anything special as well. People interpret it as a new and happy beginning, but having Persona be basically a bride? It feels very surface level. No offence to Shigenori Soejima (artist and designer for P5) you made a cool design. I just have several questions to a person that is very keen on creating waifus for the sake of waifus.

THAT'S WHERE I END I PRELUDE AND MOVE TO THE IDEA OF THIS POST:

I found an interesting comment on YouTube about "a Tumblr post that talks about Odette being the better Persona for Sumire" <- Which I reblogged just earlier. It wasn't the size I was expecting. … But still, upon hearing that idea, I went:

HELL YES THAT'S COOL!!!

But, instead of Odette, I think Odile is our ideal TRICKSTER Persona.

Okay, so, hear me out:

Odette and Odile in the original ballet were played by the same ballerina because Odile was the daughter of the bad guy, and he turned her to look like Odette to fool the prince and yada-yada.

BUT!!! Odile is like a dark side of the same character that wants to be her perfect self - Odette - but fails, which could only be fixed by "the magic" or in our case, Maruki's actualization (aka Von Rothbart's magic in original).

YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE IS GREAT? Here is Rothbart description from the wiki:

While Maruki is not so vicious, having the Messiah complex. His ideal reality is based on how HE sees fits. So, people had questions. If someone wants to be famous, but another person's desire contradicts that wish, what will happen?

Maruki can: 1) Erase that desire, 2) Change it, 3) Let that come true if all contradiction are eliminated.

Let's forget for a minute about Odile being Rothbart's daughter. In the scenario of P5R, Maruki would do whatever in his power to make that girl wish come true.

WHICH WHAT HAPPENS. MARUKI MAKES SUMIRE'S WISH COME TRUE BY TURNING HER INTO ODETTE. LIKE IN THE ORIGINAL.

Now. Imagine, as her fake awakening, Kasumi has Odette. Her perfect, kind, courages self, who is not afraid to speak her mind, has the swan princess. And you know what swans symbolize? The meaning of a swan is grace, beauty, love, trust, and loyalty. Swan symbolism is also linked to inner beauty and self-love.

(Smth that Sumire thinks she lacks)

The swan curse can be interpreted as Maruki's powers over Sumire's memory and conscious. She is a swan while living under Maruki's thumb. But when she remembers - she realizes she is not a white swan, not even a swan, not Princess Odette.

She is Odile. A trickster with changed appearance and behaviour to make her dream come true without grief on her mind. Does it remind you of someone? Someone who has TWO persona and TWO personalities that goes with the outfit? What a great way to help us understand Sumire more by associating with another character! They are not identical, but they both were kinda manipulated into their positions. Why have a boring love triangle when we could have a strong friendship bond between characters that share some unique experience? Like with the Thieves!

[And I just love how it feels like the types of movies that show us the events from the point of view of a "villain". Someone, give me a play where Rothbart is the manipulative parent who uses Odile for his wishes to become a king or smth, like this guy:

Now back to Cendrillon. Leaving her as Sumire's Persona, we still think that Maruki is her fairy godmother, when in actuality Maruki is someone who made her someone completely different to become her perfect self. Like a father that would do anything for his kids' wishes, no matter the cost.

Second and Third Awakenings:

Vanadis fits quite nicely with the Swan Lake theme with her black feathers. Freyja is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, etc.

And for our third awakening, we could have someone like Nina Sayers (?) because I love this description.

"…and put herself through emotional torment to become perfect."

But honestly, idk who could be Sumire's third awakening in this context. Too many ballerinas. Too little knowledge :c

BUT!!! BALLERINA. WHICH IS PERFECT FOR A GYMNAST. IT JUST FITS ON SO MANY LEVELS, ISTG.

tl;dr Basically, I propose for Sumire to have:

Odile (Swan Lake) > Vanadis > A ballerina.

Kasumi as Odette Persona and Sumire with actual Odile Persona. Cendrillon feels surface levelled.

Sidenote: For AkeShuSumi/ShuShumi/AkeSumi shippers. You can have a SWAN, a CROW and a demon with WINGS lolololo

Official birb trio. :p

Sumi

I was suddenly thinking about this and I can't help but want to put in inspiration from Revolutionary Girl Utena (namely Utena's "Adolescence of Utena" design). Kinda as a double reference to that anime and the prince from the ballet combined with Odile.

Namely the shorts and top style and turning Sumi's shoes into tall boots. The coat is gonna have the tails but maybe altered a bit.

...God I really need to watch this anime. But yeah, what do you all think??

So I have been struggling with my own Odile Sumi redesign and this is what I came up with so far using her concept art as a chart of some sort. Like parts of her canon design is fine actually (the coat is to die for!) and it can actually still fit the theme I'm going for but idk. I'm still thinking about it.

Full notes to help:

-White in lining and underside of coat (inspired by the P5 Manga Vol. 11 cover)

-White ruffles and either black or white gloves (the latter because, I still like the potential symbolism) [fixed errors]

-Shoes either stay black or changed to red.

-End of coat tails inspired by Ella

-Replace with tights.

-Black feathery skirt

-Definitely a haircut like my own edit/HC. New ribbon? Unsure.

-White border on the mask (also inspired by P5 Manga cover)

Further notes not pictured:

-The possible red shoes idea was recycled from an idea I had for a redesign I did a while back. It would have been a reference to the film, "The Red Shoes."

-The symbolism thing I think about with the gloves: So... I very briefly mused about it a long while back but I can't help but feel like her having red gloves can not only be her whole thing with Joker but also symbolic of her subconsciously thinking she still has "Kasumi's blood" on her hands since during her boss fight, she outright feels like she "killed" her sister and would rather run away from the truth of it all. Her gloves changing could be symbolic of her acceptance of it, that it wasn't really her fault. White or black is what I'm still deciding on since both could coordinate well but I'm also tired of the small amount of gatekeeping with the idea of, "gloves = elemental affinity" thing. Overanalyzing? Yes, but still would have been neat!

-I'm not SUPER confident in it but I want to attempt it too so... I just want to make her look different, but I worry about it still feeling like a Joker knock-off. I had more majorly different design ideas, but they didn't click oddly. Also small confession: Her, Joker, and Zenkichi (and my PT Maruki to an extent) being coat tail besties is becoming my lifeblood! Still feedback would be nice if you so desire!

Bigger version of the manga cover (I know it's probably the lighting but I love how there's a border on her mask and how there appears to be white on the inside and lining her jacket a bit):

And yes, the coat tail idea was loosely inspired by Valjean's design but probably different. Sumi and Zenkichi bonding make my brain go brrrr!

Decided to challenge myself after the Makoto edit, struggles, then decided "fuck it, close enough" and ended it there. Guh....