Erased memories = Romance ending: Junpei x FeMC

They forget their memories after battling final boss:

I love that he thought that girl was me. We can see from him saying, "not you?" as a question, he thought it was her until she corrected him. I LOVE that because I can imagine that my character said "who's the girl?" or "you have a girl?"

And not, "I'm not your girl" or something that's fully denying it. My headcanon is that my character wants to date him and he wants to date her but also likes Chidori but with Chidori out of the picture, he would date my FeMC. 

My other headcanon is that Junpei does accept FeMC's confession later with his memory of Chidori dying and runs to FeMC to tell her he wants to be with her. Because it was going to happen. They just ended up cutting it out. But since Junpei's Japanese voice actor says the lines and the scene is animated, it's fully done, I count it as my headcanon. It brings me joy knowing that he was planned to be a romantic option and they actually finished his route! ...before deleting it. But still, it was made!

And FeMC can still choose to say she has a crush on him, early in the finished game. And when Junpei "rejects" her, he doesn't give a straight answer of "no, I don't feel the same way" to her. He just says that he's not ready to date at the moment but that she is great and a cute girl. He even says that he hates that he has to leave something like that hanging. So, he gives her hope that he will be ready to date her in the future. They left that in!
It just makes my headcanon stronger with FeMC and Junpei liking each other.

I like the ending where you choose to erase everyone's memories because they actually forget and never remember like they do with the longer ending. 

I like the bittersweet ending of Junpei, FeMC and Yukari living their high school life to the fullest and having so much fun before the world ends. FeMC dies either way so I feel like being selfish and I want everyone to die with her instead of her dying alone!

 

Plus, the main reason my FeMC would choose to erase everyone's memories is because she wants to forget the pain of Junpei falling for Chidori and her death having a hold on him. But if he doesn't remember Chidori at all, he will only know FeMC as the only girl in his life that likes him back. I love yanderes so this is the closest FeMC can get to doing something Yandere. 

In that ending, my headcanon is FeMC and Junpei are dating because they never have that conversation in that first video clip of him talking about being your best friend. So, in this shorter ending, it fits that they are more than friends since he never says what they are but he's still hanging out with you.

 
I like thinking about Yukari is her best friend and Junpei is her boyfriend.

Either ending, FeMC becomes close friends with Junpei and Yukari only. Junpei never branches out looking for an artist. He never talks about liking art so that's proof that Chidori was forced on him. And the writers know that. While the banter between Yukari, Junpei and FeMC feels right. There's a connection and it makes sense that they all would be friends with or without their memories. 

I looked up if others thought that Chidori and Junpei's love story was forced too and they do. But seeing the replies in Reddit are fans that refuse to be critical of the media they love. 

"Forced is not the right word. I'd say it's rushed." 

That's the same thing! I really hate it when people will say the same shit you said but in a different way and act like the way they said it is better. If it was forced then it's rushed! If it's rushed, it's forced. I don't see the difference in the point we are trying to make. 

It seems they just are thinking, "I agree but hate to admit it because I accept it now so I wont admit it! I'll just change the word around so they don't win at criticizing the story of the game I love!" Ugh...

Anyway, I talk about my feelings in more detail in this video:

(Before listening, I want to let everyone know, that I have finished the game. But at the time of recording this episode, I thought I had dropped the game. I left a pinned comment on this video explaining why I changed my mind and finished the game after uploading.)

Like I mentioned in that podcast episode, the writers failed to make it seem like Chidori is a girl Junpei would notice and obsess over when my FeMC was already a cute girl in his life that was giving him so much attention that the other female characters weren't giving him. Junpei finding Chidori interesting only makes sense if the main character isn't giving him attention or is a male character. 
They should have left his romance in the game if Chidori dies or they should have left it in and deleted Chidori from befriending him. She should have just been a character that hung out with the other Strega members and it could've been a cool exclusive story change for the female route. It could've given players more of a reason to check out playing as her. Instead the writers were very lazy with the her route. 

More changes NEEDED to happen for the FeMC. The romance options are already slim even with Junpei added into the mix. So, deleting his romance route was just cruel and disappointing.  

And if no one likes the idea of Chidori's story changing at all then as I mentioned in the podcast, the game's story is already so fucking dark and sad! Giving Junpei two romantic interests that end up dying would fit right in with the tone of Persona 3. It would be so tragic and beautiful for him to have two people who love him!

(Plus the beach event and the hot springs event.)

If any of these girls were constantly hanging out with him, Junpei would focus only on them and never get the time to be alone and bored walking around to get the chance to meet Chidori. He's so into all of them. Junpei would be hanging out with any of them if they were always wanting to be around him. And my female character was! She was hanging out with him every chance she got from the moment she met him. 

Chidori and Junpei's connection doesn't make sense in my playthrough. The writing needed to give a better reason for Junpei to care about a stranger minding her own business and drawing a picture.