Goro Akechi: Difference between revisions

It transpires that Akechi's ability to hear Morgana marked him as suspicious right away on 6/9, the first time he and the Thieves met, when he remarked on Morgana's mention of ''"delicious pancakes"''. Since only Persona users who've heard Morgana speak in the Metaverse can understand him in the real world as a cat, this tells the Thieves that Akechi has not only been into the Metaverse, but has seen them there. He underscores this during his blackmail attempt on 10/26, when he claims to hear Morgana speak for the first time, and to have awoken only on 9/15, during the Thieves' first entry to [[Okumura's Palace]].

During his boss fight, Akechi reveals that he's Shido's illegitimate son (隠し子 ''kakushigo'', literally "hidden child"—the sometimes-unacknowledged child of a prominent person who is concealed from public view). His mother was Shido's mistress<ref>{{Cite Game | quote='''明智吾郎'''「俺の母親は、悪い男の愛人だったって。」| translquote='''Akechi:''' ''"I told you my mother was the mistress of a good-for-nothing man."'' (愛人 ''aijin'' refers to a mistress, often of a powerful man, and often paid or compensated in other ways.) | title=[[Persona 5 Royal]] | developer=[[Atlus]] | publisher=[[Atlus]] | platform=PC | version=| lang=Japanese | transl=[[User:Vashti|Vashti]]}}</ref>, discarded when she became pregnant, and subsequently driven into poverty and survival sex work. She died when Akechi was still young; he blames Shido for this, as well as his own birth. He confirms that he is the "true culprit" responsible for the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns, including the murders of [[Wakaba Isshiki]] and [[Kunikazu Okumura]], as well as the devastating subway train crash on 4/10 and many other events that have terrorised Tokyo for the whole of the game.

In an effort to conclude his fight with Joker and clear the way to his revenge, he turns on the Phantom Thieves, intending to kill them all—yet when he fails, he's met with grace and understanding, and an offer of a second chance, to fight Shido alongside them. But because Shido is aware of Akechi's intentions, he has one last line of defence against him—a [[Cognitive Akechi|cognition of Akechi himself]], that appears at the moment Akechi appears to change sides. The cognition implies that Shido knew Akechi was his son, revealing that Shido knew Akechi wanted his attention and even his love. It seemingly offers Akechi one last chance to gain those things, by killing Joker and the Thieves after all. Instead, Akechi shoots the cognition, bringing down a bulkhead door between the Thieves and the cognition—with himself on the wrong side. His fate is unclear; he asks Joker to ''"end Shido's crimes in [his] stead"'', before two gunshots are heard and his life signs vanish from [[Futaba Sakura|Futaba's]] awareness.

Akechi intends to take revenge on Shido, casting him into a ''"living hell"'', controlling him, and becoming greater than him, a plan [[Yusuke Kitagawa]] describes as ''"distorted"''. To that end, he approached Shido two years before canon, saying he had ''"special powers"'' and offering his services; his first assignment was to stop several of Shido's political opponents who were conspiring against him within the Diet, by giving them psychotic breakdowns—caused by [[Call of Chaos]], Akechi's unique ability, ''"the ability to control and drive others mad ... born from within his heart"''.