Fixing The Record - Teddie's True Origin || P4G Analysis

"oh my god, a white guy!" Junpei when witnessing Teddie's human form, Persona 4 Arena

Teddie is like a little brother : he can be insufferable but at the end of the day you still love him.

An interesting tidbit from the Japanese version of P4, Teddie didn't really have a name before the IT found him. In Japanese, he has a verbal tick where he inserts 'kuma' into most of his sentences, so when Yosuke asks Teddie his name he just says "Kuma?" and so that's what they call him, for lack of anything better. Also, in the Japanese version, it's pretty clear Teddie has no idea what he's talking about when he says something he shouldn't. For example, the 'scoring a hot stud' line is is "逆ナン," or "reverse nanpa," which literally means "reverse picking up girls," which is not correct. So every time he says it to 'sound mature' or whatever, it's just showing how much he doesn't know about the world. On top of that I've heard he uses Katakana a lot when talking about 'adult' stuff, showing he's just quoting something he heard from somewhere else (I haven't gotten that far into JP P4 yet, so I haven't seen it myself). Just a bit of extra depth that couldn't really be transferred over to the English version. There's actually a lot of stuff like that. My favorite is during Naoto's rank 10R, instead of asking about the pitch of her voice she asks "僕が「僕」っていうの、おかしいですか？" or "Do you find the fact that I use 'boku' strange?", to which you can answer (don't quote me on this) "直斗の好きでいい" or "「私」がいい.” I feel like the translators did a pretty good job with translating the first part, since obviously there's no 'boku' equivalent, but I think "whichever you prefer" isn't a great substitute for "直斗の好きでいい."

I'm really proud of this one for some of the stuff involving his mythology that I feel I've never seen talked about on the English side of the internet. Hope you get as mind-blowing as I did multiple times making this!!! (Also I know this is the wrong account but oh well)

Honestly, I don't hate Teddie...I just hate how much the cast lets him get away with and their refusal to correct his behavior, even when he's clearly hurting his friends. The girls are especially bad about enabling him with only Rise handling the situation appropriately on a regular basis. The groping scene with Rise is actually worse than you described. There's two times when Rise hugs Teddie: 1) When Teddie returns to the group after disappearing. This is what you were referring to, but not the time when Teddie gropes her. 2) The group learns that Nanako has a full recovery. This is after Nanako nearly died and Rise is so overcome with joy that that she starts crying and hugs Teddie. It's this scene where Teddie takes advantage of Rise's emotional vulnerability and gropes her. Now that is seriously messed up. I don't normally approve of the "violent anime women" trope, but Teddie totally deserved that punch.

Ah yes, the most underrated persona character. Allow me to very quickly share some of my thoughts and observations on Teddie: 1. you can actually pinpoint the exact moment where Teddie’s flirty personality forms. After the Shadow Yukiko fight, the team starts to leave to get Yukiko out of the TV. Teddie begins to despair, as he doesn’t want to be left alone again. Then, Yukiko walks over to him, pats his head and promises him she’ll come back. Correct me if i’m wrong, but i think that’s the first genuine act of kindness and affection Teddie has ever experienced. The very next line Teddie has is a direct quote from Shadow Yukiko. To me, this means that Teddie, touched by Yukiko being kind to him, decided to model himself after her to become more likable, and since his only exposure to Yukiko had been her Shadow, that’s what he ended up copying. Also, living with Yosuke probably only served to reinforce that behavior. 2. Teddie doesn’t actually know what “scoring“ means. Teddie repeatedly asks the gang what it means when Shadow Yukiko uses the term, but he never gets an answer. Then the fight happens and all is forgotten, but Teddie still never got his explanation. Fast forward to after Golden: Teddie’s victory quote against Yukiko in Arena reads as follows: “Hey, Yuki-chan! How’d you like my scoring with you, huh? Hrm? That isn’t what “scoring“ means?“ I know that Arena isn’t relevant to the Golden analysis, but the fact that Teddie never got his answer to what “scoring“ is does come from Golden. 3. people often discuss who’s Shadow Teddie is. I personally believe that he was nobody’s Shadow Self, and was instead just a regular Shadow born from the collective subconscious, but there is a pretty reasonable candidate that no one has mentioned yet: Sho Minazuki. Now, i am specifically talking about the Sho personality; we know that Minazuki already has Tsukiyomi. Sho wants to feel bonds, and the only reason he tries to destroy the world is because he doesn’t know how to form a bond. A Shadow Self is someone’s hidden feelings twisted and amplified, so this desire to feel bonds would result in a Shadow that wants to be friends with everyone, that’d go so far as to change it’s physical appearance to be more appealing to humans… If that sounds familiar to you, that’s because i just described Teddie. 4. during summer, you can help Nanako with her homework. During these sessions, other members of the team will drop by to help out. When Teddie shows up, Nanako’s currently working on a task that requires her to write down some proverbs. Teddie, instantly, without even needing to think about it, suggests “cogito ergo sum“. I think therefore i am. That’s literally the perfect proverb for someone like him. Teddie can’t remember his past. A person is formed by their past. Therefore, if you don’t have a past, do you even exist? It’s an existential question that i don’t doubt Teddie has asked himself, and this proverb would be the ideal counter to that argument. If you can think, you exist, because nothing cannot think. I like to imagine that whenever Teddie had doubts about what he is, he reminded himself of this proverb.

Fun fact: The voice actor for Teddie, Sam Riegel, and the voice actress for Marie, Eden Riegel, are siblings

I am whole heartedly convinced that teddie is/was nanakos shadow. Nanako doesnt have a bad bone in her body that izanamis corruption can exploit so he breaks free. He is a teddie bear cause kids tend to cling to things like that in times of loneliness. He gains his human form after his ego forms and gains peak admiration for the main character thus imitating his appearance a little. We don't see nanakos shadow in her dungeon. He parallels nanako while he in in the hospital and is the last one to be by her side before she gets better and wakes up.

I think the fact that Teddie awakened to his second persona automatically, aka without the help of the protagonist, or more specifically, the effort of you the player, adds to his character. The fact that he came to such a conclusion almost entirely by his own thinking and reflecting really adds a lot for me. Same could be said for Morgana and the entirety of the P3 cast.

It kills me that he got the story of Cu Chulainn right but the pronunciation had my ancestors weeping in their graves Great video other than that

As someone who got into P5 before P4, Teddie always seemed like a too much on-the-nose mascot, so I never really thought much of him, but this is a very well formed analysis on his design inspirations and motives! As per usual, fantastic video; can't wait for the next☆

Teddie’s arc has always been one of the most fascinating parts of the main story to me. Someone actively forming their own self, despite what their origins says they SHOULD and NEED to be is something that I’m always a sucker for in media. Teddie is one of the best examples in my opinion. He’s still a bit of a dingus at times. The harassment stuff is super weird. I don’t know how much of that is the time it was written or the writers’ weird sense of humor.

I wish they had gone with some of the freakier Teddie designs we've seen in concept art. I think it would have given his design even more resonance - that he tried to gain shallow acceptance from others through a cute mascot look, only to fail and look a bit "off" instead. Plus, I think that would've helped alleviate some of the problems identified here, by more so pushing the idea that Teddie wants to know more about humanity, but doesn't really have a solid grasp and needs to learn as the game progresses.

I've always been ashamed to say this, but I think Teddie might just be one of my favorite characters from Persona 4. Sure, he's annoying, perverted, and sometimes just down right insufferable, but his story and character arc when looking back on it in retrospect helped me to understand who I am, coping with the beliefs I've had back then and moving on from them in a new perspective. I love Teddie, and I'm no longer afraid to say it. He's genuinely kind and works hard, even sacrificing himself on many occasions to help his friends. I do have a personal theory on why Teddie acts as perverted as he does. I haven't quite finished persona 4, but taking the logic that Persona 5 has for shadows (That being they are created and manifestations of desire), I would believe that Teddie doesn't fall too far from that tree. If Teddie desires to be loved, they will create a body and appearance to be loved. If Teddie desires to do some perverted things, he's going to do it. If Teddie desires to risk his own well being to save his friend, he's going to give it his all. This doesn't excuse his actions, especially since he's well aware of what he's doing and has shown restraint before, having an ego and all, but I believe it puts things into perspective on why Teddie is the way that he is. It's not a pure "innocent curiosity" thing, I believe it's a lack of being able to control that desire at times. I wouldn't blame anyone for hating Teddie, I hate what he does when it comes to the whole "pervert" thing all the god damn time. But as a character and as a person, I love Teddie with all my heart.

It is sad that people think Teddie is just a archetypal mascot character. Teddie's arch is such a beautiful metaphor for how a shadow develops an ego to form a persona. His flirty personality comes from his orgin being a shadow, which is dark side of people that they try to hide. We know how people in Japan tries to hide their flirtatious feelings and childish behavior due to the fear of being an outcast. So it is only natural Teddie behaves in such ways. Hell, I'd say Teddie is quite a modest character all things considered.

Teddie's on that long list of post Persona 2 characters most don't understand or take too seriously, i want more talk of Morgana because he gets so overlooked that people don't understand his character or only focuses on his crush on Ann, telling people to go to sleep or the fighting in the Okumra arc

One thing I want to mention in this video (which I did enjoy btw) The extra content the third semester added made me appreciate teddie more. Not only do we see him look after the player when they fall sick, but he can also sympathize with marie's situation on a personal level having been in a similar situation and that makes him the more determined to help marie out.

The discussion of pursuing truth reminds me of a Lombardi quote "We will chase perfection, but we will not obtain it, but in the pursuit of perfection we will attain excellence."

Honestly, this might seem like a sort of surface level observation but I've always considered Teddie's more sexual behaviors are based off of behaviors that can be seen on television. If one can interpret his bear and human forms as being based off what everybody would like on television, ie a mascot and a pretty boy, I don't think it would be a stretch to say he's unfortunately adopting the persona of a harem protagonist. Which, from a sort of alien/outsider perspective one can interpret as universally likable because they "get a ton of women". Honestly what redeems him for me is his very wholesome and kind interactions with Nanako, showing he's not just a deranged pervert.

absolutely great! even though a lot of people don't like Teddie and personally i also think he's annoying sometimes i still love him like how can you not, great analysis on everything about him and his honestly really good character arc good job :-)