Aigis



"It's important to keep someone in your thoughts, and to know that you are in theirs... And... to touch them............ Just kidding."

- Aigis, Persona 3 Portable

"I'm on a mission!"

- Aigis, Persona 4 Arena

Aigis is one of the main protagonists and party members from Persona 3. Despite being the last of the party members to be revealed, she is arguably the deuteragonist of the game, due to her role in the protagonist's origins combined with the fact that she takes over as the player character and party leader in 'The Answer'.

She is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto in the Japanese version and Karen Strassman in the English version, the latter of whom also voices Kallen Kōzuki.

Appearance
Aigis appears as an android with short, blond hair and dark blue eyes. As she is an android created to fight shadows, her body is mostly mechanical, although she retains a human-esque figure with a face (presumably to facilitate better interaction with SEES and other humans).

After she transfers to Gekkuoukan High, she wears the school's uniform. She is never seen without her red ribbon except during the beach excursion in Yakushima, a brief school field trip in Kyoto (in which she wears a bathrobe) and the post-New Years day when she wears a kimono at the nearby shrine.

During The Answer, her design changes: she is shown with a new metal headband and an armored army vest. She retains this design throughout The Answer.

After 2 years, during Persona 4: Arena, she returns, donning a new red tie in place of her red ribbon. She is now equipped with new advanced features on her metal headband, legs, and three weapons are behind her back. In battle before fighting awhile entering she starts off with wears like black detective coat dress with short sleeves, underneath black jacket (almost similar to school uniform with she used to wears).

Design Development
It is explained by Shigenori Soejima that her colors, blue, yellow, and red are used to evoke the image of classic anime heroes while her "headphones" resemble the Antikythera mechanism. The gun barrel on her arm is modeled after the Luger P08.

Personality
Her initial personality is simply to obey orders, although she is drawn to the Protagonist and begins breaking into his room at night to be with him. In November, she developed emotions, becoming compassionate and loyal to her friends, though she struggles to fully understand her new emotions. After awakening to the Wild Card, Aigis' personality further develops into her current personality of a sweet, gentle, empathetic and strong hearted young woman with a talent for leadership.

Trivia

 * The spelling "Aegis" as appears in the original Japanese region titles is technically a misspelling of アイギス in English. The correct spelling, "Aigis" is the acceptable rendering of the original Greek. In fact, Aigis is the preferred spelling of the proper noun by contemporary academic standards.
 * In Persona 3 and Persona 3: FES, Aigis' upper lip twitches when she blinks.
 * In Greek mythology, Aigis is a shield worn by Pallas Athena. Pallas is an epithet taken by Athena once accidentally killing Pallas, daughter of Triton. In Pallas' memory, Athena erects Palladium, a statue in dedication of Pallas. More corporeal accounts of the Aigis describe a grotesquely ornamented mantle worn over the shoulders and breast, less common a buckler bearing a gorgon's head - or even simultaneously fulfilling both roles. One theory places the Aigis as the remains of Pallas protecting Athena after death. However an Aigis is recorded to have been worn by Zeus and various Greek heroes on occasion, even Mt. Olympus itself is said to be shrouded by the Aigis. In reality there is no central narrative or tradition, but the Aigis, whatever it specifically was, represents the protection of the gods.
 * While perfectly able to understand Koromaru's thoughts at first, Aigis loses this ability little by little when she awakens to the powers of the Wild Card in The Answer. As the Wild Card makes her become more "human", she starts losing some of her mechanical traits: humans can't speak with dogs, so now that Aigis is more like a human, she can't understand dogs anymore.
 * This is also reflected once she welcomes back Metis into the "sea of her soul": as she regains all her human emotions, she also regains the ability to cry and her need to sleep when tired (which is why she collapses as soon as they "combine" again).
 * In the ending anime scene of Persona 3 where the protagonist sleeps on Aigis' lap, there is skin where Aigis' white suit used to be on her neck, and she has ears instead of the robotic headphone-like pieces she normally has. This could be symbolic to her having become more human.
 * Palladion, Aigis' initial Persona, has a highly robotic appearance, representing Aigis' initial robotic emotions, but as she becomes more human, she eventually gains Pallas Athena in place of Palladion, who has a more human appearance than her predecessor.
 * There are some audio files hidden in the DVD disc of Persona 3 FES that contains voices of the protagonist and Aigis shouting the names of the other S.E.E.S. members' Personas.
 * Aigis' theme in Persona 4 Arena is a remix of Heartful Cry, first heard in The Answer when fighting the S.E.E.S. members for the keys.
 * In Persona 4 Arena, Aigis, like Yu, is listed to be of the Fool Arcana, but despite this, Pallas Athena is still listed to be of the Chariot Arcana. That is because Pallas Athena is truly a Chariot Arcana Persona.
 * ​Aigis being listed as the Fool Arcana instead of the Chariot Arcana may imply that Aigis regained Pallas Athena after the events of The Answer as one of her many Personas, rather than completely losing the Wild Card ability. Yu and Elizabeth confirm this in the game, as they frequently state that they sense the Wild Card within her. Another fact that evidences this is that similar to Yu, Aigis will also change Personas during her own Instant Kill, a feat that is exclusive only to them in Persona 4 Arena.
 * One of Aigis' portraits in Persona 4 Arena is an updated version of her All Out Attack portrait from Persona 3 Portable.
 * Aigis' victory pose in Persona 4 Arena is a callback to her Persona 3 victory pose.
 * In Persona 3's Drama CD, Aigis is revealed to be capable of understanding French.
 * In Persona 3 FES's The Answer, the sprite of Aigis with a blank expression has an extra left forearm.