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How I play Minako
Sep. 12th, 2013 12:19 amMy personal read of her character, why, and how that influences how I write:
Minako is a point of view player character. Unlike the other important characters in persona 3 portable, her voice actor has almost no lines to speak. We hear her call for her Persona in the first full moon battle sequence, and in her short lines in battle. Other than that, all of her interactions are text-based and depend on the player's decisions. She is, in many ways, a form for us to step into as we play the game.
I see much more than that. Minako isn't an empty shell to be filled, to me, at all. She is the embodiment of what her special potential is. She is adaptability. She can pull from the ocean of her soul any psyche that will compliment that of the person she's interacting with. It's part messiah complex, part defense mechanism, and part true life's calling. She is at her absolute happiest and best when she knows that she is complimenting her friend's personality and making them happy and comfortable. She takes steps back as a person and in her destiny when she fails to meet that standard, when she says or does the wrong thing. And maybe that's all it comes down to: destiny. She never had a say in the fact that she would be dionysian in her most fundamental nature, but that is the destiny she was given. Like she was told by Pharos, there isn't a way that her future and the fate of everything can be changed, even if her power makes it seem like it's possible.
Considering that, who Minako is, at her best, is exactly who the person she cares most about nearest to her needs her and wants her to be. She is as gentle, as funny, as charming, as enthusiastic as their personality dictates. Whenever she gets the chance she will tease and not take shit and get excited and sunny about everything. Only in the most extreme of cases will she ever lose her sense of responsibility and leadership.
However when she doesn't live up to that, and can't manage to be Right for someone, she falters. If she shows too much of the wrong emotion her relationship will stagnate, and so will she. It's unclear which of these causes the other but they are always correlated. She will play it safe when she doesn't know someone well enough to fully gauge what they want from her, who they most want her to be, but she's pretty good at figuring it out. It's her calling, after all.
Practically, this means Minako will almost never speak unless spoken to first, preferring to communicate with her facial expressions and posture. She doesn't say more than she needs to to get her message across, and almost never displays extreme emotion. Because she would hate to overstep herself with anyone and ruin the relationship, it's only with people she knows extremely well that she will display dramatic emotion around, unless she is absolutely 100% convinced it will be received well.
She is a born leader and a gentle heart. Strong and determined, emotional in every way within. She's everything you want her to be, if you'll let her. She thrives on praise.
Minako is a point of view player character. Unlike the other important characters in persona 3 portable, her voice actor has almost no lines to speak. We hear her call for her Persona in the first full moon battle sequence, and in her short lines in battle. Other than that, all of her interactions are text-based and depend on the player's decisions. She is, in many ways, a form for us to step into as we play the game.
I see much more than that. Minako isn't an empty shell to be filled, to me, at all. She is the embodiment of what her special potential is. She is adaptability. She can pull from the ocean of her soul any psyche that will compliment that of the person she's interacting with. It's part messiah complex, part defense mechanism, and part true life's calling. She is at her absolute happiest and best when she knows that she is complimenting her friend's personality and making them happy and comfortable. She takes steps back as a person and in her destiny when she fails to meet that standard, when she says or does the wrong thing. And maybe that's all it comes down to: destiny. She never had a say in the fact that she would be dionysian in her most fundamental nature, but that is the destiny she was given. Like she was told by Pharos, there isn't a way that her future and the fate of everything can be changed, even if her power makes it seem like it's possible.
Considering that, who Minako is, at her best, is exactly who the person she cares most about nearest to her needs her and wants her to be. She is as gentle, as funny, as charming, as enthusiastic as their personality dictates. Whenever she gets the chance she will tease and not take shit and get excited and sunny about everything. Only in the most extreme of cases will she ever lose her sense of responsibility and leadership.
However when she doesn't live up to that, and can't manage to be Right for someone, she falters. If she shows too much of the wrong emotion her relationship will stagnate, and so will she. It's unclear which of these causes the other but they are always correlated. She will play it safe when she doesn't know someone well enough to fully gauge what they want from her, who they most want her to be, but she's pretty good at figuring it out. It's her calling, after all.
Practically, this means Minako will almost never speak unless spoken to first, preferring to communicate with her facial expressions and posture. She doesn't say more than she needs to to get her message across, and almost never displays extreme emotion. Because she would hate to overstep herself with anyone and ruin the relationship, it's only with people she knows extremely well that she will display dramatic emotion around, unless she is absolutely 100% convinced it will be received well.
She is a born leader and a gentle heart. Strong and determined, emotional in every way within. She's everything you want her to be, if you'll let her. She thrives on praise.
