Sudou is an insane man who has no qualms committing any crime just to get back at people who spited him, and is likely so delusional that he is completely detached from reality and lacks agency over his actions. He views Maya as a "witch" and burns down her shrine over his own delusions, has no compunctions in turning against his subordinates or associates such as his father Tatsuzou Sudou, and at one point in the Innocent Sin timeline tries to order his subordinate Akari Hoshi to sacrifice herself and take the party down alongside her. He also claims to see visions his voices had him see, making him an ideal candidate to spread destructive rumors. In both realities, Nyarlathotep used him as a pawn to fulfill his bogus prophecies.
Profile[]
Persona 2[]
Tatsuya Sudou is the son of Tatsuzou Sudou, Japan's Foreign Minister.
Innocent Sin[]
Tatsuya Sudou was a senior at Seven Sisters High School when Akinari Kashihara was teaching history there. He was a nervous, timid boy who was terrified of his cruel father. He developed a deep affection towards Kashihara, who acted as a substitute father in the place of Tatsuzou Sudou because the latter only regarded him as a disgrace. At an unknown point, he began to hear "voices" supposedly from Maian aliens in his head, which made him even more nervous. In actuality, the voices were from Nyarlathotep, who was looking for some people he could freely toy with. Kashihara thought that Sudou's voices were direct messages from the Maian aliens and teamed up with Kashihara and Mrs. Ideal to write them all down into the book In Lak'ech. His descent into outright madness was compounded partly because of the vicious rumors other students would spread after him, making him even more unstable and volatile than before.
Shortly afterwards, Sudou set fire to the Alaya Shrine only for Maya Amano to break out of the shrine using her Persona, Maia. Dubbing her a "witch", Sudou attempted to kill her, only to flee after Tatsuya Suou burned out his eye using his Persona. Despite this, the incident heavily traumatized Maya, leaving her with severe pyrophobia. The incident was taken advantage of by Nyarlathotep to trick Jun Kurosu into thinking that Tatsuya Suou, his similarly-named childhood friend burnt the shrine and killed Maya, turning him into Joker, a pawn who would delusionally try to exact revenge against Tatsuya and bring forth the end for the evil entity's sick game.
He eventually joined the Masked Circle as King Leo and served as the right hand man to Joker, and Nyarlathotep also made Joker believe that Tatsuya Suou was the arsonist who killed Maya instead of Sudou (who actually just traumatized her). Alongside Joker, he was responsible for spreading the In' Lakech into the public, making the events depicted in the book come to life. Akari Hoshi, a girl who went by the name "Ixquic," acts as his subordinate, although he has no qualms of trying to sacrifice her when she questions him. Because Joker is in fact Kashihara's son, his loyalty towards Joker possibly stems from the physical resemblance between the two.
At one point, he sets up an arson incident at the Aerospace Museum and tries to sacrifice Ixquic by seating her atop a model plane while he burns down the building, intent on using her as bait to burn the entire party with her. This fails, and the party manages to save Ixquic and leave the museum, only for King Leo to show up and use her as hostage when they run to the ceiling. However, he falls off a crater as a blimp activates, causing him to lose grip on Ixquic as Maya manages to save her and take control of the blimp to escape. However, King Leo smuggled himself onto the board and attacks the party. He uses the Persona Reverse Vulcanus and died in combat.
The events of the Aerospace Museum were implied to be attempts to fulfill a line in the Oracle of Maia. Unbeknown to the party, Sudou's part of the prophecy was complete the moment he set the Aerospace Museum on fire.
Eternal Punishment[]
Tatsuya Sudou in Eternal Punishment is liberated by Nyarlathotep after being confined to the Morimoto Sanitarium by his father, Tatsuzou Sudou, for committing serial arson-murder 10 years ago, which was investigated by the father of both Tatsuya and Katsuya Suou, but the investigation was abruptly halted by Tatsuzou. Nyarlathotep informs him of the existence of the Other Side and gives him the opportunity to escape by manipulating rumors and becoming the JOKER. (As explained by Tatsuya Suou, Sudou has not "restored" any memory of the Other Side.) He becomes a contract killer, whom the caller summons by dialing their own cellphone number. He wears a paper bag resembling the Other Side's Joker mask.
JOKER is introduced in the game when he kills Principal Hanya and later confronts Maya Amano himself, claiming to have been "ordered" to kill her. Instead, he attempts to get Maya to remember the Other Side, but fails and summons demons to kill her and her party. They later catch up to him at the clock tower, where he is attempting to get Anna Yoshizaka to remember her role as Lady Scorpio, one of the executives of the Masked Circle on the Other Side. He puts Maya's party to sleep and attempts to finish them off, but is stopped by Tatsuya Suou.
With the aid of Baofu, Maya's party heads to the Morimoto Sanitarium where Sudou is being held, only to find that he has broken free and has killed the assassins sent by his father to kill him. Maya later confronts Tatsuya Sudou in the Director's Office, where he reveals that he got his power by spreading rumors and that the "voices" told him everything. Sudou then picks up the phone of one of the dead assassins and tells the person on the other line to tell his father that he is coming. He then summons a Hellhound and leaves, instructing them to go to the Sky Museum if they survive.
Once Maya's party reaches the Sky Museum, they learn that Sudou had lured Jun Kashihara to the museum. Sudou then reveals over the intercom that he has set bombs to go off in 30 minutes, "just like the Other Side." Maya manages to save the children there and reach the top of the Museum. Once there, she finds that Jun has been taken hostage by Sudou, who attempts in vain to get Jun to remember his role as the Joker. Tatsuya Suou attempts to save Jun and the remaining bombs go off, creating a hole in the roof which Jun pushes Sudou through. Maya and the others attempt to escape via blimp, but Sudou, clearly enraged at having lost his eye again, manages to sneak on board and attacks them, but is killed by Tatsuya Suou.
Later on, rumors spread by Chizuru Ishigami turned anyone who contacted JOKER-Sudou prior into Joker-monsters. She then spreads the rumor further to even random people. The goal for this is to lure all of the affected personnel into having their Kegare extracted, which would awaken the Ameno-Torifune to ensure the New World Order escapes to paradise while everyone else in the world dies out. Unlike the similar scheme from Innocent Sin, this was unsuccessful as the party takes out all of the executives of the New World Order and throws the ship to the Monado Mandala.
Renders an enemy Confused. (52% chance) [Mind-element]
Gallery[]
Artwork[]
Sudou as King Leo
Sudou as he appears in flashbacks
Sudou as JOKER
Sudou after having his eye burned out in Eternal Punishment
Sudou as JOKER and Reiji Kido in the Persona 2 comic anthology
Portraits[]
Tatsuya Sudou's portrait from Innocent Sin
Teen Sudou's portrait
JOKER's portrait from Eternal Punishment
Tatsuya Sudou's portrait from Eternal Punishment
Tatsuya Sudou after getting his eye burned out in Eternal Punishment
Etymology[]
Tatsuya Sudou's name is similar to Tatsuya Suou in pronunciation, although the kanji on their names are completely different characters. This might be a deliberate wordplay intended for Nyarlathotep to easily trick Jun into believing Tatsuya Suou was the arsonist who "killed" (actually traumatized) Maya.
The name Tatsuya means "dragon" (竜) (tatsu) and "to be, also" (也) (ya).
Tatsuya's surname Sudou means "ought, by all means, necessarily" (須) (su) and "wisteria" (藤) (tou/dou).
Trivia[]
Tatsuya Sudou's clothes bear some resemblance to The Reaper's garments, from Persona 3 and onwards. The Reaper is also missing the same eye that Sudou is missing, lending to the resemblance.
Scenario writer Tadashi Satomi expressed his grievance at Japan's law which remits convicted murderers who are diagnosed with a mental disorder like Tatsuya Sudou in the additional scenario. This is reflected by how despite Sudou is one of the very few villains who are so insane to the point of being completely detached from reality in the Persona series, the main cast gives no sympathy towards his circumstances.
