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Random Thoughts With PK: Metacognition and Palaces
Hello everyone! Every now and then I get some thoughts which aren't exactly the best, as it's just speculation. Regardless, I wanna throw them around and see how everyone else feels! With that said I'll start throwing them around! Please forgive errors as of the time I am extremely exhausted and starving!
Metacognition! What is it? I believe it is defined in P5 loosely, but for our sakes we will focus on how palaces are affected.
The basic explanation for palaces is that when a person is corrupt, they will form a palace based on how they see the world. Kamoshida sees himself as the king of Shujin and so on and so forth.
My question with this however is questioning how the metaverse worls. We see that in the first palace, models guns and weapons work surprisingly well as they seem real. This brings questions with it.
Who has to believe the weapons are real for them to work? The Rulers, shadows, or something else entirely?
We can infer that Rulers have some power over shadows as they patrol around and listen to their demands. But do they share the same mindset? Let's say Kamoshida saw our protagonist with a model gun and learned it was fake. When our protagonist enters the palace would the gun still work? The shadows believe that the gun should work but the ruler has knowledge it isnt real.
This also brings up another question, can the Phantom Thieves hurt each other? If Ryujii shot Morgana would Morgana suffer injuries?
Speaking of Morgana, his slingshot is special as well. Could his pellets ricochet off walls? Could "bullets" deflect off?
While on the topic of guns, evokers. For those unaware in Persona 3 the main way to summon a persona is to shoot yourself with an evoker. Which is a false gun that emulates firing. This begs the question. Could somebody kill themselves with an evoker in the Metaverse? Or would nothing happen as they know it isn't real. Could they even summon their persona?
While on the topic of personas. Do we have any proof they are actually dangerous? They don't have any proof that shadows or personas are inherently dangerous. We could just believe them to do damage.
All in all these are just points that I've thought up randomly. I don't wanna present them as facts, but questions! Regardless it's just a theory! A persona theory! Thanks for reading!
As long as the user of the gun thinks it is real, it should be usuable despite the Palace owner. The shadows themselves don't distinguish between fantasy and reality, and the palace owner will never see the gun. Probably. Otherwise Kaneshiro, who has probably actually shot someone before may recognise it.
Phantom Thieves do hurt eachother in confusion, but they seem to be able to take a few hits. They seem capable of killing eachother like anyone else. Granted that's in combat too; we all know how Persona is with scripted deaths.
As for Mona's slingshot, I assume it's powerful because he thinks it is, in the same manner as guns. Unsure of their exact properties as we don't see it out of battle. Animation may show something interesting.
I assume an evoker wouldn't kill someone in the Metaverse because in the users cognition, it's not a gun, and therefore wouldn't have bullets. If Ren picked it up, perhaps its properties would change?
Personas are dangerous in the same way that anything can be, really, it just depends on the user. We've seen them used for good, ill, and a case where they can go berserk and kill the user or someone else in peculiar circumstances. Persona's don't kill people, people kill people, basically. Though, a sentient Persona would be... interesting. They could turn out any number of ways. I imagine they'd be pretty much the same as demons.
Wait a minute, PK is thinking? Just kidding.
Joking aside though, this might sound like some crazy talk, but probably the reason why the Phantom Thieves can't physically hurt each other and why their "weapons" work so well in the Metaverse is because they stopped using logic and instead used faith. Tbf, If they tried to use logic in the Metaverse, then those weapons would just be what they really are, fake replicas. This would include their near god like endurance and damage they can deal. This would also explain why none of them "can't hurt each other" in the Metaverse. They all used faith and trusted one another, and that manifest into the reason why none of them can't hurt each other, because their faith in one another can't hurt each other.
Also, the closest thing that what I think that the Metaverse could be is it could be another Earth, but in a parallel universe. This would make sense as to why there is a Kamoshida in the real world but there is another Kamoshida in the Metaverse, and the same thing goes for almost everyone in Persona 5. This is related to the whole Multiverse theory of how there are two Earths that are exactly the same, but except something happened in Earth's history (the Metaverse) where there are Shadows, Palaces, Personas, and other supernatural things that occurs in it.