I'm a therapist & learned the hard way that you can't give other people their reasons for living, you can only inspire/cultivate their futures thru time, care, & curiosity

I started to view Reload as almost a sequel, taking place after Makoto has already sacrificed himself. A "rewind" of events where he's replaying the memories he had of his time spent over that year. He's still conscious and remembers his friends and reliving his time in an ideal way. thats why we're able to "rewind" and why a player of the previous p3 games would be familiar with everything, but with a different perspective that a remake presents. I think it plays really well into the music aspect of the game too, as you can rewind a song that you love and experience it over and over again.

As someone who lives with a chronic illness that could end things with a simple mistake, death being around the corner is just a fact of life.
I could die tomorrow, i could die in 50+ years. Its all about balance of living for the now and hoping for the future.

re: clues about Ikutsuki being evil
A streamer I follow clocked Ikutsuki as being evil fairly early on—or at least clocked him as having ulterior motives that don't have the kids' best interest in mind. The way he matter-of-factly explains certain concepts without going into more detail, like how "everyone died in the explosion ten years ago and we just don't know much more than that", or how he "figured out that killing all 12 shadows ends the dark hour". It just seemed too convenient. There was also the callous way he treats the kids possibly being in danger, like preventing Akihiko and Mitsuru from helping Makoto and Yukari during that first night just so he could see what happens to Makoto, or him going "don't worry about them, they'll be fine" during the full moons where Junpei, Ken, and Shinji were missing. The design parallels between Ikutsuki and Takaya were also something this streamer noticed. They also didn't really understand why Ikutsuki was part of the operation, given that he didn't seem to do anything other than make puns and that Mitsuru seemed perfectly capable of running SEES on her own. Everything together didn't pass the sniff test and this streamer spent the whole game suspicious of Ikutsuki

Something I think is important to mention about social link points is that they aren't morality points. You don't get them for making the morally right choice because they aren't a measure of morality. You get them for saying what will endear people to Makoto the most since it's a measure of how much your social links like you. This is evidenced by the fact that some social links like Kenji and Kazushi, will have a firm stance on their issues that you get points for affirming, however they change their minds later on and you get points for urging them to change their thinking which they're learning is right. This reaffirms the idea that you can't force people to change before they're ready.

Played this as a kid and didn’t think it was deep at all. Played reloaded recently and love the themes as an adult

It really is a shame they moved further away from protagonists as fully developed characters ever since p2 because I think it would really make these stories even better

I think an interesting way to read Ikutsuki is reading him as the new moon. Nearly invisible in the sky but still there none the less. He wants to create a new world through death of the current world, a new death, a new moon.

Finally someone can do great macro analysis of stories of games holy shit

There's a philosophical coin that is actively being discussed in this game that you don't touch on; Active.v. Passive Nihilism.

You get close to it a few times, but it's tied directly to everything you've touched on. Nothing has any inherent meaning, so either you give things meaning or you lean into the lack of meaning. Strega is the embodiment of Passive while the teens of SEES are that of Active.

13:10 no hate, heres just my interpretation :) On the contrary, i believe hes still very much the same. Makoto barely knows those two enough at that point to consider them friends. Would you shoot yourself for someone you met a day or two ago? If he truly found a reason to live in this moment, it would undermine the entire rest of the game, ending (where he actually realizes what it means to live)  and the time and effort we're shown it takes to build meaningful relationships.  The reason he puts himself out there and is able to use the evoker is not mainly to protect yukari, but because he dosent care for his life- unlike yukari.  he can use the evoker, not mainly because he cares abt her, but because he dosent care what happens and can embrace death. Like you said, hes able to accept his own death, yukari cant. Theres a difference between someone who actively wants to k*** themselves and someone who is just floating by, just because their not actively seeking death dosent mean they wouldnt mind it, the latter being makoto.  Also he didnt know what the evoker even was or what a persona is, The only cue he got that it would help them is yukaris failed attempt. If he truly valued his life i dont think he would have used it with such little context and would have found another way to protect her. Thus protecting yukari is a reason but his lack of care for life is what truly to pushed him to use it.

A great detail too is that one would think Messiah is representing life, or love for life, BUT he has thanatos's coffins.
Thanatos of course is in every shape and form, death.
 Come to think of it, Orpheus is, or used to be, life. He is the one who inspired and enchanted everyone so much, he is the one who descended into hell to try and bring back his wife, but he looked back and failed, and after that he fell into a deep depression. We meet Orpheus as a mere head, but i like to think seeing death again, Makoto had an immediate reaction to save Yukari because of his past with death and lack of meaning. There, he chose to live, unknowingly, and orpheus answered, to descend into tartarus, this time not to look back.
 Orpheus, who is life, emerged from facing death, vowing to bring life. Then he is shredded into pieces by death itself, before re-emerging.
 Messiah is not life as in the contrary of death, but life knowingly including death. He is the cycle and as such, salvation.

Great analysis of the how P3 links the themes of “life” & “death”. I especially like your final take-away of “find your own reason to live”.
While this notion is stated by Aigis in the final cutscene in Reload, I especially resonated with the phrase “All you need is something simple, like someone to take care of” from FES.
Really hits home that we don’t need any sort of grand statements or gestures to make life worth living. That just being there for even one person can be enough.

I think you can make this case for all of P3/4/5, the MCs have all clearly defined personalities and the characters around them treat them as such.

I’d go as far as to say the games would be greatly improved by dropping the self insert quasi fantasy. The P4 anime with a fully voiced Yu is such an upgrade that it’s hard to put into words, absolutely nothing is gained narratively from the silent protags in these games.

10:00 hair long to cover his eyes because he wants people to think he can’t see them. Headphones in all the time cus he wants people to think he can’t hear them. Being trapped in your own little bubble is something a lot of us struggle with. People like this want to avoid eye contact, they want to avoid life because it’s scary. But like the opening says: trepidation doesn’t stop death but it stops life. A powerful main character who teaches us : dying is easy: it’s as easy as closing your eyes when your eyelids feel heavy. Living is hard. But when you live life without worrying so much, and with the understanding you’ve been given a chance, you can never go back to being that shell of a human you once were.

I'm so very thankful to see someone have legitimate appreciation for how good Suemitsu's link is, thematically. Sometimes I feel crazy seeing the way people generally talk about it online. There's a lot of very surface level interpretations of what P3 presents to the player out there.

I just have to say, this is probably the most complete and thoughtfull analysis of the game i've ever seen

fantastic video. i will say, i have to disagree with your reasoning on why makoto didnt struggle to summon his persona. i would argue his apathy towards life, and therefore, death, allowed him to use the evoker without fear or hesitation. it doesn't make sense to me that he'd have this need to protect his friends when they had only met that night, and was welcomed by yukari pulling a gun on him.

This video is really good, and put all my thoughts about the game into words.
The analysis of the core audience was insane and has literally opened my eyes, to why I liked the game so much and why I was so touched. Even considering all the flaws it has that I'm aware of.

This is really a brilliant video. Persona 3 is not only is my favourite game ever but a massive contributor to my personal life philosophy. Even so, this was super insightful. Great job