Morgana: Persona 5's Mona's Powers And Lore

The Persona games are fond of using unconventional party members, with the SEES team in Persona 3 having both an android and a dog, while the Investigation Team from Persona 4 had an anthropomorphic teddy bear as an ally. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts from Persona 5 had a talking cat named Morgana, code named Mona, who can shapeshift into a more combat-appropriate form in the Metaverse and is also able to transform into a bus that can ferry the group around.

Morgana might be the most mysterious member of the Phantom Thieves, as he isn't a native of the real world and his lack of knowledge about his origins causes him to lose faith with the team on several occasions. The story of Morgana's true identity is one of the main plotlines in Persona 5 and his fate is tied directly to the actions of the Phantom Thieves. It's up to the player to determine whether they can live up to Morgana's lofty standards.

Morgana's Powers

Morgana uses a mixture of powerful wind magic and healing spells. The latter is extremely useful, so players might want to keep Morgana in the party throughout the entire game, especially if they are struggling to find decent healing-based Personas for Joker.

Morgana's initial Persona is Zorro, which will later evolve into Mercurius over the course of the story. Zorro resists Wind and is weak to Electric, while Mercurius blocks Wind, resists Bless, and remains weak to Electric.

The Zorro Persona starts out with Dia and Garu for free and learns Patra at level 5, Media at level 11, and Lucky Punch at level 13. It then discovers Magaru at level 16, Me Patra at level 21, Diarama at level 24, Garula at level 26, and Recarm at level 28. After that, it learns Wind Break at level 32, Mediarama at level 34, Magarula at level 37, Miracle Punch at level 40, Wind Boost at level 43, and. Then, it learns Samarecarm at level 45, Diarahan at level 49, Garudyne at level 52, Masukunda at level 55, Mediarahan at level 58, Magarudyne at level 62, Wind Amp at level 69, and, finally, Salvation at level 75.

Once Zorro evolves into Mercurius, it will learn Evade Elec, which triples his evasion chance against electric attacks.

Morgana's Confidant Quest

The Persona series will often include at least one Arcana that automatically increases as the game progresses. For example, the Judgement Arcana near the end of Persona 3 when the party decides to challenge Nyx or the Star Arcana that is linked to Teddie in Persona 4, which becomes stronger as he comes into a greater awareness of his true nature.

Morgana is linked to the Magician Arcana and this will similarly upgrade itself automatically over the course of the story, as Morgana comes into an understanding of his true nature and relationship with the other Phantom Thieves. Morgana is the only Phantom Thief (besides Joker) who will always unlock his second Persona in Persona 5, as the other characters require the player to max out their Confidant Rank.

The Original Design For Morgana

The Phantom Thieves went through minor changes at the design stage, with characters like Ann and Joker featuring different clothing and hairstyles.

The Persona 5 character who underwent the most changes during development was Morgana, though, as he originally looked more like a western cartoon character than an anime one. The original version of Morgana wouldn't look amiss in a Tim Burton movie, as he had more human-like proportions, wore an outfit that resembled a leather catsuit, and had a strange hypnotic pattern in his eyes that resembled the general design of Mementos, which may have been a hint towards Morgana's true nature.

The character designer of Persona 5 was Shigenori Soejima, who stated in Persona 5 Official Guide Works that he preferred the original design for Morgana. However, the rest of the development staff preferred the one that appeared in the final version of the game.

The most interesting thing about Morgana's original design was that it suggested that Morgana was intended to be female since his body had feminine curves. This was unlike the final design, which just looked like a cat or a teddy bear and lacked anything that identified gender. The fact that Persona 5 was almost more blatant about Morgana's physical gender is interesting, as the final version of the game turned Morgana's gender into a question...

Is Morgana A Male Or Female (Or Neither?)

One of the unsolved mysteries of Persona 5 regards Morgana's gender. Morgana is an artificial lifeform and can only maintain the form of a talking cat in the real world. However, Morgana believes that he was once a human man before he was transformed into a cat.

Though Morgana identifies as a male throughout Persona 5 and shows romantic interest towards Ann Takamaki, Morgana is a female name and his DLC costumes in Persona 5 mostly consist of outfits originally worn by female characters, such as Trish, Burroughs from Shin Megami Tensei IV, Aigis from Persona 3, and a female maid uniform. The two Personas used by Morgana (Zorro and Mercurius) are also based on male characters, which further obfuscates the matter.

It's up to the fans to make their own mind up about Morgana's gender. The fact that the game ends without a definite answer is probably for the best, as Atlus doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to dealing with LGBTQ characters, as fans of the Catherine games will know. Morgana identifies as male throughout the game, though, which is something that most fans respect.

Can You Date Morgana?

No... no, you can't date Morgana. That would be weird since he's a cat.

Overall, Morgana is one of Persona 5's most interesting characters since his healing spells make him incredibly useful in battle, he is the only Phantom Thief who will continuously unlock his second Persona in Persona 5, besides Joker, and his gender is still an unsolved mystery.