Arcana Priestess

The Arcana Priestess is the first boss fight in Persona 3.

Appearances

 * Persona 3: Shadow Arcana
 * Persona 3 FES: Shadow Arcana (The Journey)
 * Persona 3 Portable: Shadow Arcana

Biography
During the Second Full moon after the arrival of the Protagonist, Mitsuru Kirijo detects a powerfull shadow outside of Tartarus and quickly dispatches the Protagonist's Team to the monorail in Iwatodai Station.

After reaching the monorail's end they find a huge Shadow that has taken over the monorail, after defeating it the monorail won't stop and leaving the Protagonist to use the brakes manually, saving both Yukari Takeba and Junpei Iori.

Interpretation
As all Shadows appearing on Full Moon nights, it's appearance and behavior are based on Tarot cards from the Major Arcana in the reverse position. It has the appearance of a young woman wearing only the bottom half of a dress, her whole body is covered in either white or black, with the letters B and J on her breasts. Her hair looks like scrolls with text written on it, which are stuck to the wall not allowing anyone to pass. She wears a red, butterfly-like eyemask on her face, indicating her Priestess arcana. She herself sits inside the train on the floor with her legs spread out.

As this is the Reversed version of the Priestess Arcana, it represents the dark side of the Arcana. The Priestess means someone with knowledge and wisdom, yet the reversed version of it means someone unable to use that knowledge or someone not able to take decisions. Thus instead of confidently standing like the priestess does in the upright position, it instead lays on the ground.

The B and J on her breasts are taken directly from the Tarot card, they represent Boaz and Jachin, two copper pillars, which stood in the porch of Solomon's Temple. Notice how the Arcana Priestess summons two Muttering Tiaras during battle to aid her.

The Arcana Priestess takes over the train and attempts to cause a collision with an other train. This is based around the conflict of intellect and instinct the card represents, which is shown with the Black and White coloration of the Shadow.

Also worthy to note, even after The Arcana Priestess is defeated, the train still has to be stopped, upon completing this, the Protagonist is asked by the rest of the team how he knew which lever to use. To which he can either reply that he used his instinct or he took a lucky guess. Replying that it was instinct gives a much more positive respond from the rest of the team, trusting instinct is also one of the teachings of the Priestess card.

Trivia

 * The Arcana Priestess position and curly pony tails look strikingly similiar to the pose of Catherine, a character from Catherine.