Persona has a large cast of characters, some of whom are usually remembered for one specific moment(generally a less than admirable one) even if it doesn't define who they are.
Persona 2
- Philemon. He's doing his best as the antithesis of Nyarlathotep, guiding the heroes to unlock their potential. However, fans will not forget that he dared make the bet with Nyarlathotep about humanity's prevailing feature, which causes all the horrible things that happened in Innocent Sin, thus they forget all his 'deeds' to genuinely help the humanity to fall into Nyarlathotep's designs, and is always going to be a Jerkass God that deserves to be punched in the face by Tatsuya. In fact, had Philemon not made that bet, then Nyarly probably would've turned the entire world into his bitch, given that he's free to do as he pleases whereas Philemon can only observe.
Persona 3:
- Akihiko Sanada's unhealthy obsession with training and protein-based products, the latter having only been referenced once in the game. Even with the demeaning nicknames given to him and the rest of the Persona 4: Arena cast, his portrayal as an incredibly battle hungry protein junkie in that game is so in-your-face that it's the most memorable parts about him now. Never mind the circumstances that lead to such an obsession which he had supposedly curbed after witnessing his best friend get shot in front of him, and never mind that he was actually rather keen and intelligent either; both fan perception and his P4A portrayal make it seem it's as if he never had that resolve in the first place, and he's only marginally smarter than Kanji. Then Persona Q Flanderized him even more, and it wouldn't be until Dancing In Moonlight and Reload for him to finally undergo Character Rerailment, with his mentions of protein being reduced to match.
- Because Yukari Takeba is rather divisive, she has a few such moments.
- She will always be seen by fans as the girl who Took a Level in Jerkass and tried to risk dooming the world just to see the protagonist again after her actions in The Answer, despite the fact she develops out of this mentality.
- From her Social Link with the male protagonist in the original game and FES(the female protagonist has no such choice and Reload changes the option), she's also somewhat infamous for her Social Link reversing due to the protagonist trying to hug her, a trap many players fall into due to not realizing the Values Dissonance involved- hugging is an intimate act and the player character isn't close enough to Yukari to do that. It doesn't help that hugging Rise and Ann starts a romantic relationship with them, or that the other dialogue options that immediately lead to reversals- choosing the harshest possible response to Ai turning down a guy, refusing to help Ai win over Kou or Daisuke, refusing to help Naoto find the Phantom Thief, or claiming you stepped in because Yukari was a girl- are much more obviously wrong.
- There is a massive amount of the the fanbase that will never forgive Ken Amada's actions during October 4th, when he confronts Shinjiro alone on the anniversary of the day Shinjiro accidentally killed Ken's mom (which happens to be the battle with the Strength and Fortune Shadows), and during the confrontation, Takaya attacks and wounds Shinjiro, before moving to kill Ken, only for Shinjiro to take the bullet and die from his wounds minutes later. Despite later scenes showing him mourning Shinjiro's death, Ultimax showing him move on with his life and Persona Q and Reload even solving his gameplay-related issues.
- The female main character will always be forever known as a pedophile simply because of Ken's Social Link having a romance route. This naturally makes perfect ammo for her Fan Haters considering her Memetic Loser status in the fandom. Being confined to only Portable and being left out of Reload means this perception will not go away any time soon.
- For many fans, Kazushi "Kaz" Miyamoto, the male protagonist's Chariot Social Link, will never live down actually approving of the protagonist telling him to tough out his ankle injury and practice through the pain despite the risk of it getting worse. This also applies to the game itself, as the Social Link is frequently brought up as an example in which players are expected to disregard common sense and tell people what they want to hear instead of actually being a good friend and giving them good advice, actively encouraging self-destructive behavior in order to get ahead with Social Links.
Persona 4
- Ryotaro Dojima is a competent detective who just happens to have the bad luck of being stuck with a case where absolutely nothing makes sense if you don't have a Persona, which he doesn't. He generally trusts the protagonist, but understandably is freaked out that his nephew is getting threatening letters for apparently no reason, especially since said nephew (from his point of view) has no real means of self-defense if the killer decides to target him for poking around. All of this ends in tragedy on November 5 when he acts on his incomplete information by dragging the protagonist to the police station for questioning, leaving Nanako alone (something he does relatively often as Nanako's smart enough not to open the door for anyone she doesn't know; the problem is that she did know Namatame) and allowing Namatame to kidnap her. This leads some people in the fandom to believe he's The Millstone with Adachi-tier competence who just gets in the way of the Investigation Team... apparently forgetting just how stupid "The killer tosses people into the TV World of Psychological Torture, and we can jump in and save them because our character development gives us superpowers" would sound to people who don't know about Personas.
- Teddie takes any opportunity he can to ask Yukiko if she wants to "score with him" after hearing her shadow say she wants to "score herself a hot stud".
- The boys of the Investigation Team understandably freak out any time Chie, Yukiko, or Rise cooks something, fearing a return of Mystery Food X. On their own, their food is just kinda bad (or hellishly spicy in Rise's case), and if they have proper supervision (i.e. Naoto) they actually can cook well; it's when they cook together that Mystery Food X happens.
Persona 5:
- Haru Okumura is one of the nicest characters in the entire game, if not the nicest character. However, her comments for when Joker cheats on her (aka her stating she will crush her Valentine's Day chocolate for him) and having some... interesting
dialogues in Mementos caused her to be treated as a Memetic Psychopath among the fans. - Ryuji Sakamoto has a few cases.
- He tends to use a No Indoor Voice in which nearly got the Phantom Thieves into trouble by being caught twice (once in Kaneshiro's arc where Makoto overheard him, and another in a sushi bar where the Phantom Thieves had to make a quick excuse). However, fans tend to treat like he does that on a regular basis. It is also noteworthy that there were other times where the Phantom Thieves had their identities unintentionally be known to other people that had nothing to deal with Ryuji's big mouth.
- "For real?!" is often associated with Ryuji. While he does say it quite a lot, he is not the only character that does this. Ann and Futaba also say it quite a lot.
- There's also Morgana, whose apparent sole purpose is to force you to go to bed early when you don't want to- on days you've been to the Metaverse or on certain story days (the former of which can be bypassed by getting a massage from Kawakami if you max out her confidant link). Oddly enough, Sojiro, who refuses to let you leave Yongen-Jayanote until early May, or even go outside Leblanc for the first couple weeks, doesn't get blamed nearly as much. Neither does Dojima, who refuses to let you leave the house in the evening while he's home unless you have a part-time job (which doesn't become available until May), not to mention that the player can't do evening activities if there's a test or other school event the next day, or they have to watch the Midnight Channel.
- Goro Akechi only mentions pancakes once over the course of the original game, which, admittedly, becomes a plot pointnote . The fandom took it and ran with it, treating pancakes as his Trademark Favorite Food. A Mementos conversation added in Persona 5 Royal reveals Akechi actually developed a dislike for pancakes since his encounter with the Thieves, given how much that one pancakes comment screwed him over.
- Yusuke Kitagawa gets some hate over trying to get Ann, a victim of sexual harassment, to pose nude for him, threatening to call the police on Ryuji and Joker unless she goes along with it. While his behavior isn't appropriate, not only was there no way he could've known about what happened to Ann (since he doesn't go to Shujin), but he wasn't trying to sexually harass her at all; he's just a Cloud Cuckoolander who simply never thought having a beautiful girl pose nude for him was at all sexual (painting nude models is quite common in art courses and isn't sexual in that context; they're just trying to learn how to accurately paint the human body). In fact, if the player proposes having Ann pose nude for him during Yusuke's Confidant, Yusuke says he's moved past that.
