Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-24534644-20170608180817/@comment-25936766-20170608192010

....Alright, I was reading the explanations you gave about Personas and Shadows and, I have 2 things to say:



And that's what I'm going to do.

Now, the Persona games are based heavily on Jungian Psychology, and certain elements are borrowed from it. Including Personas and Shadows.

In Jungian Psychology, there are 3 basic concepts: Id, Ego and Superego.

-Id is our primal instincts and emotions. Our Drives. It remains unconscious, but it's omnipresent.

-Super-ego is our internalization of our consciousness in response to the social values, morality and rules we have been subjected to over time.

-Ego is our conscious personality, formed from the integration of the Id's Drives with the Super-ego's Prohibitions, making us who we are.

.....Then, there's the Shadows and Personas.

-The Persona is a mask, a social masquerade that you wear for public interactions, both to hide your true self, and give a specific impression to the world.

-The Shadow, is the unconscious side of your Ego, the side you reject or do not identify with, but is still a part of yourself, even if you don't acknowledge it, accept it, or even like it.

And in the Persona games, Shadows are exactly that. Shadows often seem malevolent, sure, but that's because generally they embody something negative about the character that they don't want to admit or face.

Plus, if the user rejects their Shadow too strongly, the Shadow can go berzerk and even kill their user. However, Shadows are not necesarily "evil", and just like they can embody something negative, they can embody something positive.

To avoid spoilers, one good Shadow appears in Persona 5. The character has big problems of survivor guilt and self-hatred, and the Shadow embodies the positive feelings that said character suppresses, and even helps the protagonists once they make clear they want to help said person.

Now, Shadows are more or less like Ray said, a twisted parody of the user......except they're not.

The Shadows in Person 4 are definitely like Ray said, at times acting nothing like the character is in any way whatsoever, and only being at least remotely-accurate 2 or 3 times in the whole game.

Meanwhile, in Persona 3: The Answer we see a Shadow who is most definitely nothing like that. In fact, one at first would likely not realize it is a Shadow. In Persona 4 Arena, there's also another Shadow who is simply insane and bloodthirsty, but not twisted like the ones in P4. And the ones in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax are fake Shadows, so they don't count.

Now, in a general sense, starting from Persona 4, when one accepts their own Shadow, the Shadow becomes their Persona. Defeating the Shadow is technically not necesary, but in P4 it must be done because everyone always says "You're not me!", causing them to go berserk.

Once they become a Persona, the user can actually use said Persona. Each Persona is associated with a certain arcana of the Major Arcana (Magician, Strength, and so on), generally depending on the character's own association with said Arcana, though said associations are not portrayed too faithfully all the time in the games. And after more character development, it can become their Ultimate Persona.

Now, there are other ways for one to get a Persona, and the original Shadows in Persona 2 were nothing like the ones in Persona 4 beyond "we know all your dirty little secrets". But those are beyond the point of this thread.

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Summary:

-Shadows are the side of your personality that you do not acknowledge, or even downright reject. It can be positive, or negative.

-They can be twisted parodies of the person in personality and appearance, but they also can be not.

-They go berserk if rejected too strongly, and turn into a Persona once they are accepted.

-Shadows in the Persona games are accurate to the Jungian definition. The Personas, not so much.