MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR PERSONA 3
For the last two months, I've really only been playing/thinking about Persona series, specifically Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable. Both of these games have quickly soared through the ranks to become two of my favorites of all time (with 4 Golden actually BEING my new favorite game ever, alongside Virtue's Last Reward), mainly because they combine addicting combat with fantastic characters and interesting stories. One of the characters from Persona 3 in particular, Aigis, has been phenomenal. I haven't gotten all the way through Persona 3 (I'm very close), but I've seen how much Aigis changes over the course of the story, and I wanted to share today just how much her changes have surprised me.
I kinda wish I had dated you instead of Fuuka...
Even though I assume there will be few people who read this who haven't played Persona 3, I am going to be going more step-by-step with how she develops, and thus this will follow the story. Hopefully by doing this, my argument will at least be more cohesive than simply jumping as to why Aigis has great growth.
Ten years before the events of Persona 3, a company headed by the Kirijo family (dubbed the Kirijo Group) was looking into harnessing the power of Shadows, which are malevolent beings that prey on human minds. While the Kirijo Group did end up moving toward trying to bring about The Fall (the end of the world at the coming of Nyx...I'll get into this later), they did construct machines to combat Shadows, and Aigis was the last of them. After an accident occurred that released all the Shadows, Aigis ended up being damaged and shut down for ten years. In the present, she awoke to the party's arrival at Yakushima, a getaway spot with a Kirijo Group lab she happened to be in. Acting of her own accord, she reactivated herself and went to find the protagonist, for reasons she herself could not explain.
The party members in Persona 3 belong to a high school club called S.E.E.S., or the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, which works to fight Shadows threatening humanity in their town, Iwatodai. They do so using Persona, which are manifestations of their inner psyche, and allow them to resist the influence of the Shadows and Nyx, unlike normal people. Aigis was specially built to resemble a human, so that her mind would recognize herself as human, and thus allow her to use a Persona. After her reactivation and explanation of her origins by a former Kirijo Group scientist, she fights with S.E.E.S. in order to eliminate all of the Shadows threatening Iwatodai (as well as to explore the mysterious tower they originate from, Tartarus).
S.E.E.S. operates during the Dark Hour, an hour hidden between one day and the next, which is when Tartarus appears. In the first few months of her involvement with S.E.E.S., Aigis operates very robotically, as it would be expected. She questions simple truths that humans are accustomed to, and speaks in a disjointed way, with irregular pauses between syllables. She also always refers to herself as a machine, made to fight Shadows. When I first started playing Persona 3, I was pretty sure I was going to date Aigis, but then when I actually got to meeting her and such, I was a bit disappointed, to be honest. I thought that she was supposed to be a great character, and not actually this robotic. So, instead, I ended up dating Fuuka (her secret tickle scene is adorable), but now I'm regretting that decision, because Aigis has really opened up.
When the protagonist arrives in Iwatodai and joins S.E.E.S. following his awakening, monstrous Shadows begin to appear every full moon. At each full moon, S.E.E.S. moves to defeat the Shadow, and is always successful in doing so: they believe that defeating each of the twelve Shadows that escaped from the accident ten years prior will erase the Dark Hour and Tartarus (both of which resulted from the accident). After defeating all twelve, however, it is revealed that instead they have only expedited the coming of The Fall, as the twelve Shadows were all a part of Death, the being that will call forward The Fall. While trying to figure out how to erase the Dark Hour after this revelation, a new transfer student arrives at the group's school, named Ryoji. Aigis is shown to immediately dislike him, calling him dangerous, and warning the protagonist to keep his/her distance from him. Eventually, both Ryoji and Aigis regain their memories, and realize the truth of both who they are and their actions.
An android and a guy looking cool. Yep.
Ryoji remembers that he is actually Death, the 13th Arcana, and that his very existence confirms that The Fall is going to happen, as he is the one who will call to the being Nyx (the mother of all Shadows) to initiate it. Aigis recalls that ten years prior to the game, she fought Ryoji after the accident, and sealed him inside of the protagonist, as he was the only vessel nearby that could contain Death. Defeating each of the twelve Shadows allowed Ryoji to reform (the protagonists' presence in Iwatodai also brought them forward), fulfilling The Fall. Aigis and Ryoji meet during the Dark Hour after they both have their revelations, and Aigis attempts to defeat Ryoji, because, as she says, she is a machine designed to defeat Shadows. Ryoji has regained much of his power, however, and easily stops Aigis from harming him, and this heavily wounds Aigis. After the arrival of the party and the revelations further take place, the group is given an ultimatum: kill Ryoji on New Year's Eve to destroy their memories of everything that has taken place, and thus let them experience The Fall in peace, or let him fade away into the Dark Hour and keep their memories until the end. Canonically, the latter is chosen, but this is done a month after Ryoji first gives the group the choice. In that month of deciding, Aigis is under repairs, and it's after she gets back that you truly see her growth.
I knew that this was probably going to be where Aigis seemed more like how I originally thought she would, but it was more than that. The first time she spoke upon her return, her voice sounded the same, yet different. She still spoke a little oddly, but her sentences were compact with less pauses, and above all...she had feeling in her voice. I know that sounds a bit odd, but after hearing her speak so robotically for hours, and over several months (in game), the change was so noticeable, even if minute in some aspects. Her main reason for the change is the regret she has begun to experience from sealing Death inside of the protagonist. She is forgiven by the protagonist, though, and she begins to become attracted to him/her (well, you can't have a lesbian relationship in Persona...I've just read she becomes really close to you, or something). I've only gone down that road a little bit (I'm not going to cheat on Fuuka...just the first couple of parts of the Social Link), and her change is very noticeable. She speaks better and better every day, and it's even noticeable in battle.
For the first few months she's a party member, Aigis summons her Persona in a very robotic way. She either says "Proceeding!", like a robot would say upon a command, or "Persona!" without any true emotion. After the Ryoji incident, though, there's almost an overabundance of inflection in her voice. She calls out "Persona!" almost like she's getting used to having the feeling of emotion...which, well, she is. Hearing her voice in both the first non-battle instance, and then in battle, really sold me on her character. P-Studio took this robot, who existed only as a weapon, and made her feel immense regret. That made her grow, develop a true conscience, and put her on the path towards becoming a true human. That, to me, is why Aigis demonstrates true growth. It may have been a bit contrived, to be honest, and not as-over-time as some people would have liked, but personally, I think that this switch was awesome, and other developers should take note of it (take note of a game that was released half a decade ago. Great thinking!)
I know that this blog was more of a "here's what happens in Persona 3 blog", but writing that all out helped me consolidate my thoughts more, and hopefully show you all why I think this way about Aigis. If you're a Persona fan and you agree/disagree with my sentiments, by all means, leave your angry comments below!
Peace.