What if Nobody Likes The "Real You" || P4G Analysis - Daisuke Nagase

[Music] hello this is just one segment in a multi-part series analyzing all of Persona 4 Golden don't worry you weren't missing anything if this is the first part or video that you're seeing but if you end up enjoying this I do ask that you please support the channel any way you can and of course subscribe to see all the other videos as they come out as for the basketball link as well as some of the information revolving around the optional book cut scenes I ask that you please defer to the Cole video as I already covered the information there and I don't want to really retread it here Dae nagas is one of the two people that you can get when you choose a sports team in Persona 4 Golden he is the soccer option the first impression of the soccer team in general is a sort of projected group think that since you're from the city you must look down on them and be full of yourself they do practice and don't even bother to introduce themselves but one person on the team is an exception to that rule one person does it's dcee who shows compassion to you telling you to just play and have fun and eventually they'll be over themselves Cole who is now established to be a friend of dice Gay's also comes in after practice with a bit of typical biting sarcasm and you find out that the soccer team just like the basketball team is pretty pathetic in Inaba despite that though dise is the star player someone who naturally does really well without even needing to apply themselves a ton but he does apply himself he enjoys doing it all the same dcee even defends you a bit from Cole's off-handed sarcastic bullying calling you a transfer student on a meta level the game is trying to show you dce's acute ability to read people despite being a bit of the Braun over brains archetype rank two shows the soccer team saddling you with all of the work for cleanup which honestly is kind of odd and here's the reason why people's general impression is that yukami is a huge Chad who everyone loves and likely that is due to the largely mimic non-canon anime adaptations hey let's make out that intentionally lean in on fan service moments from the games the sister complex king of Steel and expound upon them hor but here in the actual game you're just some City Outsider and other than D and by virtue of that Cole Nobody in the soccer team could care an ounce about you you're not special and in fact the idea that you could think that you were special is derided by them while dice gate initially just suggests bailing without cleaning since it's not your responsibility anyway you all end up cleaning together as a way to impress the team suggested by Cole but this is the first hint I think toward dae's character that while he's well-intended and good at reading people he doesn't like to do things he feels unfairly saddled with and more has a principle-based rougher approach to answering dilemmas although here the game may be hinting at the aversion to do things that hurt take time or are unwanted in other words his tendency to run away if they don't seem needed or deserved something that becomes a major part of his conflict later in his Arc after practice you visit the ramen where the central conflict is first introduced Cole mentions this firste girl enamored with dke who was watching him from the crowd but Dae claims that he didn't even notice her and changes the topic saying enough of that crap it's strangely aversive especially for a talented popular athlete like him why he feels uncomfortable being the object of positive attention by girls well I can't shake the idea that the meta narrative reason partially has to do with the fact that Cole and dke fit a lot of the shjo fujo tropes involving implied homosexual and homoerotic relationships it's fui shipping bait in other words something that anime does a lot marking characters with gay undertones and then never confirming or deconfirm the subtexts in the cannon in the case of both Cole and Dae neither of them are gay or implied to be interested in both as we find out and as is important to both of their links explicitly instead the answer within the regular old narrative is actually a mild guilt and trauma in dice Gay's past causing him to avoid women after perceived unresolved mistakes but we'll get into that more as it becomes more relevant in the story the next link is mainly a repeat the team picking on you but dice gay takes the opportunity to practice more he's clearly devoted but then when some girls come up to confront him likely the same girl mentioned by Cole before he blows them off somewhat rudely and says he's busy with practice still now we get a clearer message of using dedication toward a hobby to block time that should be used confronting an issue D is running from the truth by using otherwise positive activities which is something you don't actually see covered a lot where something good is used as escapism rather than something neutral or bad being used for that rank four introduces I eada this scene is virtually the same as Cole's and so in the same way that I covered it in Cole's part I'll keep eye to her own segment this introduction does prompt the soccer team to discuss looks though giving another opportunity to reinforce D's own disinterest in women something new that we become privy to though is that the team's reaction is to write off D's feelings as being caused by his popularity making him picky and stuck up this is good information because it helps give us a reason for why Dae is not willing to open up with others about his strange feelings being presented with topics surrounding girls that never truly ask dise why but rather Pres oppose his place and feelings in things feelings of disappointment and regret especially involving women and at his age with who he is is causing him to be closed off and stubborn from the offset already dce G is rough around the edges and inarticulate with his feelings but with the soccer team we sort of see this reinforcement in dce G's Mind Over the odd nature of his feelings giving him all the justification he needs to assume that he won't be understood and to push his feelings farther down in fact this assumption that he isn't understood or that people won't want to get to know him and that he just exists to others to fulfill their relationship with stock popular guy is reinforced on the only weak complaint he actually levies at women that is that despite never talking to him or knowing anything about them that they ask him out on dates repeatedly so he feels objectified by his male teammates and the women who pursue him and take that while he doesn't understand his regret he feels no one else will either and no one else even wants to know or understand it instead they want dise to play a role and to do it well so his toxic escapism is actually being reinforced by the people around him in his life pushing him to be this popular archetypal role model while he himself is burning deep down rank five essentially fulfills your own personal Arc finally proving yourself and being accepted by the team as an apt athlete both dcee and Cole are happy to see it happened but this Services D's link more in the ranks onward starting rank six dce G seems to have lost a lot of vigor and passion for playing the game it even spawns a minor argument with Cole and diuk about always putting 100% in I think a shallow view of this and one that is also sorely missing the point would be that since you're doing well he now feels inferior but I think instead it is a combin mination of the events of rank five with his own builtup mental Arc intersecting first your win and skill does in fact take the Sole Sports champ stigma off of him at least on the team lightening their pressure and the load on his shoulders but with their lightened pressure gives way to more time for him to Stew over his regrets and wonder why he's doing what he is unable to push them down successfully especially with how he has seen himself and Cole ban together to get to know you for real and help the real you he sees on some level now that he does have a tight-knit group who maybe would be there for him if he ever chose to open up but he's not ready to confront that or even to know what exactly the that he would be confronting is you see this willingness to maybe stop using this Escape as when he earns extra laps for one of the girls coming up to him again and talking asking if it was her fault he says no this doesn't seem like the gentleness that he would have afforded a few links earlier when deep in his denialist attitude the link finally ends with Cole saying that he needs to talk to you but that it needs to wait until next time around due to family stuff now this seems innocuous enough but as a bit of a side tangent it's actually a really smooth charming bit of consistent writing as this actually mirrors Cole's apparent business in his own rank six which as the rest of Cole's social connects to his family in higher detail it's also cool to point out here that just like in the rank six of CO's link where di actually tells you of plans that he has to help Cole in his rank six you see the exact thing mirrored in this link of D's so in a way they both end up plot-wise mirroring each other's pacing in some of their story beats the difference is that the personalities and problems of the characters are sending them through very different Journeys even if they're along the same path rank seven involved Cole conving in you about his observation about D's Sudden Change in Attitude lacking passion for soccer and this new Sullen attitude toward girls questioning if they could be related Cole's plan then is to set up a 3X3 triple blind date a very Cole idea and as I mentioned in the other segment is something his own social link calls back to as a joke just another bit of character consistency across arcs and I appreciate that Bunch with Persona 4 Golden here just like dke does early in CO's link Cole conides in you with the existence of a girlfriend that dke once had she apparently broke up with him after she claimed that he didn't actually love her mainly because they never even made a move to hold hands while in the relationship according to Cole ever since then dise has claimed that he doesn't understand what it means to like another person link 8 goes about as well as you would think Dae learns what is going on on then fleas the situation he didn't want the date didn't sign up didn't ask for it back at Ena Cole and dise get into it Cole asserts that dise is scared that a girl will reject him if he opens up for who he is and that he's scared to play soccer and Plateau or fail to improve something that's much easier to see now that you've joined the team dke tries to shut Cole and you out by saying that they don't have a say in his life but when Cole challenges and asks what you and Cole are to dise Dae finally feels comfortable to give into the trust that he's developed in you both that he was repressing with his fear he talks about how a girl asks him out they claim that they don't understand him and then they leave as we know this misunderstanding has to do with his physicality in a relationship it reinforces the things I talked about earlier of the stereotypes and false self projected onto the object of dke rather than the person he is is they don't expect dise to be complex or have his own mind about things to have thoughts and actions that don't align with the LIE of his stereotype it comes out that not only does diuk still feel regret over his girlfriend Cole mentioned before but that he still actually likes her he felt he disappointed her and that of course he liked her she was the first girlfriend he ever had and that matters to him this gives a window into the sensitive and gentle person that d g really is something foreshadowed in his gentle kindness to come up to you when the rest of the soccer team wouldn't bother but to think that it really does run this deep is heartwarming for me really makes me want to see the real him Blossom and be accepted by others not as a stereotype or to fill some objectified role so he vows to you his friends to make it up to her daid goes to share share his feelings and clear things up with his ex just to find out that she had moved on and was with another guy one of the seniors on the soccer team but even so it was never about getting back together with her it was about sorting things out for him and getting closure I think dice G really resonates with a specific kind of guy that I think feels alone or uncomfortable in themselves in a sexual scenario I know for years in high school girlfriend after girlfriend I would be uncomfortable and feel weird getting intimate with them in my head I liked them I found them attractive but there was always a sense of awkwardness a strange uncomfortability when girls came on to me I felt that I needed to escape the situation I was hit with waves of anxiety I wondered at one point if I was asexual or demisexual or gay I wondered what was wrong with me but I felt uncomfortable sharing that when the people around me didn't seem to share this py psychological wall that I was having troubles with after I lost my virginity I felt extreme anxiety anytime a girlfriend would get intimate with me this is despite me still looking at porn having fantasies but when the fantasy reached its moment of realization where it could actually happen my body would shut down and I would have panic attacks now I know my circumstances are pretty unique and partially due to my trauma but even prior to that the uncomfortability I felt and sometimes feel with Partners still to this day is nothing wrong and it took me a long time to understand this this is part of what Di's Arc is all about The Stereotype of the popular athletic guy is a guy who will be physical with the girl he's in a relationship with the girls that come up to dice K expect that from him and they feel unloved and don't understand his actions when he doesn't do it judging him and lashing out because part of the stereotype types the objectification in our culture is that women should be koi and shy and that men should be sexual and aggressive two be a woman and provocative is looked down upon to be a man and not obsessed with sex or sexually forward is deemed less than a man and so this aspect of dce's struggle is dealt with so casually and with such tact that I would say I've literally never seen it ever anywhere before in media the way that the the game links this overall message of accepting the person you are even when the self that you aren't is projected on to you as an object by society and those around you is also a general message that can be taken in a lot of different ways for a lot of people who don't relate to this very specific way that it's relevant to his character dce G learns in his Rank 10 to have confidence in his true self if people don't accept if people don't understand that's on them he's going to give his 10% no matter what toward what he cares about and continue being honest with himself eventually doing this he'll find people who understand that part of him too he's already found two who do that after all Dae nagas the strength another Super solid branch of the split Arcana of Persona 4 almost feels like a shame that you were tied to one or the other but both stories we got are highly different yet highly unique and compelling stories now for what the name means D nagas and how the strength Arana applies to them da is likely referring to big or great here and nagas likely refers to leader a superior or a torrent of water so then dis nagas follows with the strong leadership his towering position of strength and diligence his commanding leadership and compassion something always sought in a superior his name fits well with the rough but well-meaning person that he is who works hard to do his best especially after his Arc having gained the confidence to believe in his true self and those Ambitions for his own cause and end as mentioned in the other segment strength is depicted by a woman taming a lion not with Force but with coexistence the lion is the animal instinct or nature within someone and it has great to offer when wielded properly the issue with Dae was that he was forcing the lion down not working alongside it he was controlling with force and therefore suppressing those feelings rather than letting them breathe healthily a very different sort of relationship problem than that of Cole but one that matches the Arcana just the same in alchemy The Taming of the Red Lion is equivalent to self realization D gay suppresses the aspects of himself to fit and fall under the watchful speculation of his peers but he was able to truly act at his best once he realized and accepted those things in himself this card sometimes refers to a change in health for someone for dcee I think it's mental dcee is suffering from mental struggles that plague his ability to work properly on the field but is able to increase his mental health after resolving pieces of his trauma becoming a more self-affirmed self sometimes lower polarity strength can refer to a poor work ethic either from a toxic overworking or a lack of drive to get things done in the case of dise we actually see both of these at different points in the story at one point he does work to give into others expectations and to help repress his true feelings it's striving to a level that is actively toxic toward him and later in his social link we see him doing things half-hearted before eventually reaffirming not only working hard and well but also for the right and healthy reasons the strength Dae nagas I hope you enjoyed that part if so I post tons of Persona 4 Golden content right now as this is one in a huge series of videos as I mentioned before if you haven't already and you enjoyed the video please like comment share with anyone you think might enjoy this or take something from it it's the only way I can hope to grow this Channel and properly keep um paying for my life and if you would also like to fund this project and future large projects once the Persona 4 Golden series is over please donate to my patreon which comes with a number of behind the-scenes tier perks videos and a monthly patreon chat until that next call or the next video see you [Music] soon [Music] n

Channel: Hiding in Private

Views: 53,021

Keywords: Persona 4, Persona 4 golden, p4, p4g, persona analysis, persona 4 analysis, p4g analysis, daisuke nagase, p4 strength, kou and daisuke, p4 social link, P4 review

Id: m8B3aXIIqXY

Length: 20min 10sec (1210 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 02 2022