- 19 - Sun -

historical - The Sun card is mostly based on old-school ressurection sun-god types.  These boys usually had an emphasis on *cough* "masculine energy raining down from the heavens" - especially ones like Osirus, who got all chopped up and reborn in Egyptian myth.  It's not really the same sort of parternity gods linked to emperor, though... more a plain gender thing.  I shall call it "Mr. Phallus"!

card - Like I said - the manly manly men card.  The sun is also associated with being shiny and happy ... erm.. what with the sun being shiny and happy and all. A card of the tangible - no invisible forces or occultness at work here.

sun meaning - Masculinity.  The yang of taoism.  Energy, happiness, gain.  Sensation and thought. The real, tangible, and here-and-now.

sun reversed meaning - Arrogance, vanity, or fantasy as a replacement for actual sucess.  A lessening of the qualities described above. 

persona wielder - Tatsuya "Angst-Boy" Suou, from IS and EP.  (with yet more spoilers )

Ah, yet another near-perfect match.  You really have to hand it to ol' Atlus (well, with the rather inexplicable choices for Allana and Brad excepted). At least in EP... I can't honestly comment that much on his IS characterization. 

Right then.  Moving on.  Sun reversed.  This is obviously Tatsuya for the majority of the game (in my opinion, right up until the events of Mandala, where he gets what I like to call a "clue".)  Why?  'Cause Tatsuya, Hero Of The Day or not, is about as delusional and arrogant as they come.  No, he's not happy.. and he's not even being realistic.  Sure, he has some bizzare plan to save the world all by himself in his head - but it's reeeeealy not feasible for him to take down Nyarlanhotep all by himself.  Hence the arrogance "I can do it all without you so nyah!" and general being a bitch to his brother.  He seems almost depressed by choice.. acting the martyr to fully savour exactly how much he fucked up at the end of IS. 

And crippled... crippled Tatsuya definitely is. In attitude, at least. 

In mandala, though, Tatsuya actually seems to start taking Baofu's advice to stop being a whiny brat to heart.  Suou starts being realistic, starts taking action, and most importantly starts taking responsability for what he did in a constructive manner.  The guy's abadoned his delusions and accepted the reality of the situation - taking the fall himself once they succeed against Nyarly and making a realistic descision in terms of leaving Maya behind.  Now he's actually a man beyond having a giant freudian sword.  Good for him. 

It's also probably good to note that that Tatsuya left behind is a much happier kinda guy, and also starts being a non-jerkoff by following in his older brother's footsteps.