The Fool is an Arcana in the Persona series. It is numbered 0 and as such is the first card in the Major Arcana; though some Persona games leave it unnumbered. It is also the 22nd (XXII) and final card. It precedes the Magician.
A Tarot de Marseille Fool cardA Rider-Waite-Smith Fool card
In tarot, the Fool is a card whose exact role varies depending on the variant; it is either a special unnumbered card that can be played to excuse oneself from following suit or trump, or it is grouped with the trump cards and assigned the number 0 or 22. The latter is the case in esoteric usage of tarot cards, where the trumps are termed "Major Arcana".
The card's imagery originates from Italian tarocchi decks, where it was called il Matto ("the madman" or "the beggar"). In French, it was called le Mat or le Fou ("the madman"). The Fool card typically features a jester carrying a bindle; he is often accompanied by a dog who bites at either the jester's clothes or his exposed rear. Early Fool cards incorporated imagery reminiscent to allegorical depictions of foolishness by artists such as Giotto di Bondone.
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck's Fool card abandons the jester imagery and instead portrays the Fool as a young man pausing at the edge of a precipice to fearlessly look out at the horizon; while he has stopped, his dog is still in motion.[1]
Arthur Edward Waite lists the following divinatory meanings in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot: "Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity."[2]
Rather than seeing the Fool as a literal fool, Eden Gray interpreted the Fool as a person beginning a journey toward Divine Wisdom,[3] and she introduced the idea that each of the Major Arcana can be seen as representations of different stages of the Fool's journey.[4]
In the Persona series, the Fool arcana is usually unique in some way. For instance, in Megami Ibunroku Persona, Fool-arcana Personas can only be obtained via Fusion Accident, Fool tarot cards are obtained differently from other cards in the Persona 2 duology, and since Persona 3, the protagonist has been associated with the Fool.
According to official books, the Fool arcana in Megami Ibunroku Persona is equivalent to a "Spirit of the People" race (Japanese: 民霊, romanized Minrei); all Personas of the Fool Arcana are of Japanese origin. This race has not appeared on its own in any games, however. All Fool-arcana Personas being of Japanese origin continued into the Persona 2 duology.
Igor is the Fool Confidant. This Confidant progresses automatically. It unlocks abilities for Joker and improves the Confidant EXP bonus during Fusion.
↑The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1922), Arthur Edward Waite. Published by William Rider & Son Limited. (2nd ed.) pp. 152-155.
↑"The Greater Arcana and Their Divinatory Meanings", The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1922), Arthur Edward Waite. Published by William Rider & Son Limited. (2nd ed.) pp. 286-287.
↑The Tarot Revealed (1969), Eden Gray. Published by Signet. p. 150. Originally published 1960 by Inspiration House.
↑A Complete Guide to the Tarot (1970), Eden Gray. Published by Crown Publishers.
Aigis
Persona 3 FES (The Answer)
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