| This article is about mystical infection appearing in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. For other uses, see Joker (disambiguation). |
"A Joker is the heart's shadow... The heart exists only when there is light and dark. You can't just make it disappear. It retreats to the sea of unconsciousness for now, but it will rise whenever it can. That is up to Miss Serizawa."
The Joker infection is a mystical infection in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. It is caused by rumors engineered by Nyarlathotep and spread by the New World Order.
Appearances[]
Profile[]
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment[]
Nyarlathotep, in its bid to force another nonsensical apocalyptic event after Philemon undoes his victory in Innocent Sin, arranged for his servant Tatsuya Sudou to "become" a second iteration of Joker, JOKER, with a similar modus operandi: having a person call themselves on their cell phone to summon JOKER to their side, though rather than granting wishes, JOKER asked his caller who they desired to die.
Many people were seduced by the promise of power and called. However, the New World Order invaded the airwaves to broadcast a message through fortune-teller Chizuru Ishigami to spread an insidious rumor: anyone who had ever used the services of JOKER will become a Joker themselves. Within hours, dozens of Sumaru City residents were transformed into Jokers. People who had called the JOKER began losing their minds, and when confronted, they became giggling lunatics, and their faces lost all definition except for a warped smile reminiscent of Joker's. In this state, they became dangerous powerhouses, and gained the ability to summon a Persona-like beast calling back to the original Joker, which gradually degraded to a vicious monster only partially resembling its original shape. The afflictants all share his Old Maid ailment skill, which will temporarily turn a random opponent's Persona into Joker, making them lose control of themselves and attack their allies unless the affected ally guards and skips his or her turn.
The entire concept of extracting Kegare through Joker victims involves the viewing of the Joker as a symbol of sin (due to the contract killing). Once most, if not all people were infected, the New World Order will lure them to their seminars to absorb their Kegare, send them all to the earth's core to enrage the earth dragons and cause total world destruction while the New World Order boards the Ameno Torifune to paradise. The events themselves are nonsense and are only given flesh through Nyarlathotep's curse so he can prove to Philemon that humanity will destroy themselves.
During Eriko's route to Sumaru TV, the party witnesses Ishigami's further extension of the Joker curse to anyone who had ever called the JOKER.
After the party banishes Nyarlathotep, the power of Rumors perish alongside his banishment, and it is likely no longer possible for anyone to become a Joker.
List of Known Victims[]
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Trivia[]
- "Old Maid" refers to the classic poker card game of namesake. In most Asian regions, one Joker card is usually selected to be the "old maid", in other words, the unmatched card.
- When attempting to escape from the Jokers, they refer to Maya explicitly instead of anyone else (excluding Sudou, Ulala, Junko, and Shiori for various reasons). It can be assumed from this that Nyarlathotep can gain control of people through their transformation into a Joker similar to how it gained control of Jun and Kandori as their persona, evident when Joker Ginji says her first name despite having no form of interaction with her prior to their encounter in the Smile Mall during that timeline nor did anyone mention her name around him (except Baofu, who referred to her by last name). This is corroborated by the fact many Joker victims mention "voices" in their battle quotes, much like Sudou.