Name: Ken Amada (天田 乾 Amada Ken) Age: 10 – 11 years old
Fandom: Persona 3
Date of Birth: June 24, 1998
Height: 140 cm
Blood Type: AB
Weapon: Long Spear
Arcana: Justice
Persona: Nemesis, Kala-Nemi
Reasons for being hated: Only purpose in the entire game is to have a popular character Shinjiro to died, has a terrible voice actor, horrible combat character, for being a kid, for trying to be mature. Character not related to the plot a week after October 4
(Author’s Notes: really “to died”? before you go on hating a character, wouldn’t checking your hateful grammar be the most “likable” thing to do?)
Now that I established the personal facts of Ken, I will now defend this character with all my might. This character is hated waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much, can’t this kid get a break?
A few more facts about Ken
-Lost his mother during the dark hour (the hidden hour between 12:00:00 MN and 12:00:01)
-Lost his mother at a tender age of 8
-Lost his mother to a horse monster being “controlled” by a teen, which was then covered up by a truck running over their house
-He then swore revenge on his mother’s supposed killer, which was the reason he joined S.E.E.S or the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad
-The teen who supposedly killed his mother turned out to be Shinjiro Aragaki, he swore to kill Aragaki-san on the death anniversary of his mother and kill himself after getting his revenge.
Now let us begin… and in the words of Phoenix Wright
the defense is ready, your honor
-Phoenix Wright
Shinjiro Aragaki’s Death
Ken Amada, as we all know, swore revenge on his mother’s killer, who was revealed to be Shinjiro Aragaki (who is the only Persona 3 character being worshiped, fans could even overlook all of his flaws and everything annoying about Aragaki-san). In truth, Shinjiro’s persona went berserk and went uncontrollable, though at that time Ken did not know, as what was revealed in the answer, Ken only knew what Shinjiro’s persona looked like.
He was then introduced to S.E.E.S a few years later, by Shuji Ikutsuki, who was then a “good guy” with hidden agendas and as time went by as a member of S.E.E.S, he then knew the identity of the killer, by accidentally eavesdropping on the Shinjiro’s and Akihiko’s conversation.
The killer, well in Ken’s point of view, rejoined the group and by the time October 4 came, he went and try to execute his plan.
Now you see, Aragaki-senpai was already remorseful for accidentally killing someone, regardless of it was someone else’s relative or not, but he knew the identity of the relative he accidentally killed.
October 4 came, Ken wanted Shinjiro to put some sort of resistance, like not going down without a fight kind of belief, but the remorseful teen refused, and because of this, Ken can’t continue his plan, then a shirtless macho wannabe appeared, with a revolver in hand. He revealed that either way, if Ken were to decide spare Shinjiro’s life, he would still die or kill him right on the spot, the remorseful teen would just die, because of his persona.
This puts the avenging Ken into BSOD mode, then Takaya, decides to kill Ken, but as circumstances would have it. Shinjiro took a bullet in Ken’s place.
Now see here, if people actually believed that Ken killed the god with another god as a persona, then you are worse than Justin Bieber fangirls. (now thats degrading!) c’mon people the bastard “religious figure wannabe” killed your character on a pedestal! Yes the kid did want revenge, but for a very good reason!
Now I am not saying that revenge is good, but would you rather have your parents’ killer roam free?
Shinjiro died because he wants to atone for the sin he did to Ken, while he did not intended to kill the boy’s mother, so his way of atoning for his sin, he took the bullets meant for Ken and died in the boy’s place.
In the end, it was Shinjiro’s choice to die in place of Ken. Ken could have died if Shinji decided not to save the avenging little boy.
Terrible Voice Actor
I actually like Ken’s English voice actress and his Japanese seiyuu, the boy’s emotion were really shown, if Pharos, who was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, did a pretty good job, why can’t other male VA do a good job of voicing Ken? but nonetheless the Voice acting was good.
Horrible Combat Character
wait… wait… wait… WHAT! I have you know, gameplay wise, Ken is the most useful character! Well since I’ve played only P3P, but as far as I know, you can change tactics for every character, you simply didn’t know how to strategize with the given game commands. He may not have multiple target skills, he sure as hell make it up to his other skills. My main healer, he learns Mediarahan earlier than Yukari does. My main was Aigis, Koro and Ken, I sometimes switch it up a little to be diverse, but Ken was the mainstay. I admit I kinda mained Shinji before he died. (His God’s Hand skill is pretty dope!) but he needs to die for plot convenience :p
For Being a Kid and For Being trying to be Mature
People hate teenaged kids for acting like a kid, they should act their age!
They hate Kid characters for trying to be mature.
They hate kid characters because he is acting like his age
People hate characters who are very serious or acting like their age.
Come on people, these reasons are pretty absurd if you ask me!
Character not related to the plot a week after October 4
hmm, Junpei, he has no relation to the plot before he meets Chidori.
Fuuka has no relation to the plot after Natsuki leaves Iwatodai
Akihiko has no relation to the plot once Shinji dies…
need I go on?
Conclusion
I do realize that not all people can be pleased, but please try to look things at Ken’s perspective, you need to understand what Ken went through as a child.
The fun thing about writing Nathaniel for Mindhive is that he will say one thing in the dialogue and then look directly into the camera for his internal narration and say “I am lying right now, I am lying so well, nobody around me can tell that I’m lying” like this is a normal way to approach human interaction.
To be fair, he is doing espionage, but also this is just how the man is; a nervous wreck who would rather suffer in silence than let anyone know he’s actually a nervous wreck.
