"Ain't no point in tryin' to play dumb anymore, Santa. Actually, guess I should call you 'Aoi Kurashiki', huh?" — Seven
Santa is an excellent liar who most certainly lies for most of the game, and so it's not quite clear which parts are the truth and which parts are, again, merely lies.
At a first glance, it seems clear as to what kind of person Santa is. Between his appearance and foul mouth, he gives off the impression of being little more than your typical street punk. He's loud, for starters. He doesn't make himself easy to miss in a conversation unless he chooses to remain quiet, as you can bet that if he has an opinion, he'll make it clear regardless of who disagrees with him. He's direct and straightforward, as he doesn't believe in sugarcoating his words. He'll be mindful on occasion, but in general, he's not the first person you'd expect to be nice. In fact, it's rather noticeable when he does go out of his way to be kind, as he's hardly the patron of goodness. He doesn't especially go out of his way to be mean either—as despite his poor attitude, he's still fairly cooperative and outwardly a decent person—but he can certainly still be a jerk often. In particular, he loves to make sarcastic remarks. You can always count on him to have a dry and/or deprecating comment to make about the situation.
"Fuck! I've had enough of this crap! How long are we gonna pussyfoot around like this?!" — Santa
One thing that can definitely be said about Santa is that he's someone who moves forward. He dislikes standing around and wasting time when there are things to be done. Even if he's not exactly sure of the situation, he'd rather still be moving, getting something done. On top of an overall temper, he has little patience for inaction and indecisiveness. 'Idle' is not a word you would use to describe him.
It's because of this that, as moody as Santa can be, it's hard to keep him down. Sure, he can cover a wide variety of emotions, but aside from 'productive' ones, he doesn't seem to feel anything especially strongly. If he's shocked, he'll put it aside quickly enough. If he's sad—well, that in itself is unusual. Santa's the sort of person who can immediately switch between grieving and acting normally without another word, if that's what it takes to get things done. He's not above sadness, by any means (and is, in fact, a much sadder person that he seems to be on the surface), but naturally, instead of moping, he'd prefer putting his time to better use. Overall, when he isn't being noisy, he's actually fairly aloof.
"At first, he'd assumed [Santa] wasn't terribly clever, but Junpei was beginning to think he would need to re-evaluate that assessment."
Altogether, Santa doesn't seem particularly smart at first. It's not unreasonable to make such a judgment, given that he isn't above acting silly once in a while, such as supposedly mistaking a showerhead for a mushroom growing out of the wall. He also appears to have difficulty grasping some concepts, as seen when Lotus tries to explain a scientific idea to the group. Add to the fact that, again, he looks and acts like some punk kid, and there isn't much of a reason to expect much of him in the intelligence department. He does seem to have flashes of insight and moments of wisdom, however, suggesting that he's smarter than he looks.
And by 'smarter than he looks', that's to say that any stupidity on his part is essentially a lie. He is Zero's right-hand man, after all, and though he writes himself off as just an assistant, he likely had a hand in orchestrating everything. His occasional cluelessness, especially when it comes to more academic and factual talk, is merely a fabricated act to throw off suspicion. For the Nonary Game to work, he and Akane have to be underestimated, and so Santa plays the part of the fool. Some of the aforementioned silliness may be genuine, but otherwise, Santa's not half as average as he might come across as. The discrepancy in the act he puts up and his true self becomes clearer when he explains the purpose of the game, with Junpei even noting how it's as if Santa's fallen into a trance. Gone is the loud, brash punk, and in his place is someone with serious, measured words and who is more than aware of what he's doing. Again, Santa's quite the actor.
"I dunno who the hell this Zero asshole is, but I know for sure he's gotta be pretty fucked up in the head to do all this." — Santa
In light of his true identity, a few of the remarks he makes during the game may have a different meaning. Namely, he makes a number of insulting comments about Zero—keeping in mind that his own sister is Zero, and he's helping her. Ergo, he is, for all intents and purposes, insulting his sister and, by virtue of assisting her, himself. Of course, it's possible that he says what he does only to seem normal, but either way, in one of his more truthful moments, Santa does express guilt. Not necessarily for the Nonary Game, but for what he perceives to be failing Akane. He's her brother, after all—her protector, but one who couldn't do his job. Furthermore, after telling a morbid story of the two Santa Clauses, he then wonders which one he is—the 'bad' Santa, or the 'good' Santa who became 'bad'—implying that he doesn't see himself as a good guy either.
All things considered, the latter Santa Claus would probably be the more apt comparison. Given how devoted Santa was to his sister, it's hard to deny that Santa at least was once a decent person at heart. However, because of that, he discards whatever morals he might have. In the end, being a brother means more to him than being a good person. For his sister's sake, he's willing to become a criminal— a kidnapper, a murderer, etc. That's not to say that he has no sense of morality, seeing as how he and Akane did take precautions to make the game as safe as they could, but the fact of the matter is that they still committed highly questionable acts for their own sakes. For Santa, Akane is his world. Everything he does, he does to save her.
At the end of it all, Santa's become a rather cynical and bitter person, no doubt thanks to his history. He doesn't trust anyone, save for likely Akane, and is more than happy to share that advice with everyone else. He's saying it as an untrustworthy person himself, even, so he should know. He looks down on the ideas of hope, faith, love, and luck, citing that they can all betray a person. And though he gave that a reason for wanting to give Junpei a bookmark related to those concepts, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he honestly did hate them. After all, it's not like any of them have done him much good in life. On top of that, Snake was the one who talked about such things in the first place, to create a bond of friendship between the children of the First Nonary Game—a bond that Santa and Akane later tore apart.
no subject
Santa is an excellent liar who most certainly lies for most of the game, and so it's not quite clear which parts are the truth and which parts are, again, merely lies.
At a first glance, it seems clear as to what kind of person Santa is. Between his appearance and foul mouth, he gives off the impression of being little more than your typical street punk. He's loud, for starters. He doesn't make himself easy to miss in a conversation unless he chooses to remain quiet, as you can bet that if he has an opinion, he'll make it clear regardless of who disagrees with him. He's direct and straightforward, as he doesn't believe in sugarcoating his words. He'll be mindful on occasion, but in general, he's not the first person you'd expect to be nice. In fact, it's rather noticeable when he does go out of his way to be kind, as he's hardly the patron of goodness. He doesn't especially go out of his way to be mean either—as despite his poor attitude, he's still fairly cooperative and outwardly a decent person—but he can certainly still be a jerk often. In particular, he loves to make sarcastic remarks. You can always count on him to have a dry and/or deprecating comment to make about the situation.
One thing that can definitely be said about Santa is that he's someone who moves forward. He dislikes standing around and wasting time when there are things to be done. Even if he's not exactly sure of the situation, he'd rather still be moving, getting something done. On top of an overall temper, he has little patience for inaction and indecisiveness. 'Idle' is not a word you would use to describe him.
It's because of this that, as moody as Santa can be, it's hard to keep him down. Sure, he can cover a wide variety of emotions, but aside from 'productive' ones, he doesn't seem to feel anything especially strongly. If he's shocked, he'll put it aside quickly enough. If he's sad—well, that in itself is unusual. Santa's the sort of person who can immediately switch between grieving and acting normally without another word, if that's what it takes to get things done. He's not above sadness, by any means (and is, in fact, a much sadder person that he seems to be on the surface), but naturally, instead of moping, he'd prefer putting his time to better use. Overall, when he isn't being noisy, he's actually fairly aloof.
Altogether, Santa doesn't seem particularly smart at first. It's not unreasonable to make such a judgment, given that he isn't above acting silly once in a while, such as supposedly mistaking a showerhead for a mushroom growing out of the wall. He also appears to have difficulty grasping some concepts, as seen when Lotus tries to explain a scientific idea to the group. Add to the fact that, again, he looks and acts like some punk kid, and there isn't much of a reason to expect much of him in the intelligence department. He does seem to have flashes of insight and moments of wisdom, however, suggesting that he's smarter than he looks.
And by 'smarter than he looks', that's to say that any stupidity on his part is essentially a lie. He is Zero's right-hand man, after all, and though he writes himself off as just an assistant, he likely had a hand in orchestrating everything. His occasional cluelessness, especially when it comes to more academic and factual talk, is merely a fabricated act to throw off suspicion. For the Nonary Game to work, he and Akane have to be underestimated, and so Santa plays the part of the fool. Some of the aforementioned silliness may be genuine, but otherwise, Santa's not half as average as he might come across as. The discrepancy in the act he puts up and his true self becomes clearer when he explains the purpose of the game, with Junpei even noting how it's as if Santa's fallen into a trance. Gone is the loud, brash punk, and in his place is someone with serious, measured words and who is more than aware of what he's doing. Again, Santa's quite the actor.
In light of his true identity, a few of the remarks he makes during the game may have a different meaning. Namely, he makes a number of insulting comments about Zero—keeping in mind that his own sister is Zero, and he's helping her. Ergo, he is, for all intents and purposes, insulting his sister and, by virtue of assisting her, himself. Of course, it's possible that he says what he does only to seem normal, but either way, in one of his more truthful moments, Santa does express guilt. Not necessarily for the Nonary Game, but for what he perceives to be failing Akane. He's her brother, after all—her protector, but one who couldn't do his job. Furthermore, after telling a morbid story of the two Santa Clauses, he then wonders which one he is—the 'bad' Santa, or the 'good' Santa who became 'bad'—implying that he doesn't see himself as a good guy either.
All things considered, the latter Santa Claus would probably be the more apt comparison. Given how devoted Santa was to his sister, it's hard to deny that Santa at least was once a decent person at heart. However, because of that, he discards whatever morals he might have. In the end, being a brother means more to him than being a good person. For his sister's sake, he's willing to become a criminal— a kidnapper, a murderer, etc. That's not to say that he has no sense of morality, seeing as how he and Akane did take precautions to make the game as safe as they could, but the fact of the matter is that they still committed highly questionable acts for their own sakes. For Santa, Akane is his world. Everything he does, he does to save her.
At the end of it all, Santa's become a rather cynical and bitter person, no doubt thanks to his history. He doesn't trust anyone, save for likely Akane, and is more than happy to share that advice with everyone else. He's saying it as an untrustworthy person himself, even, so he should know. He looks down on the ideas of hope, faith, love, and luck, citing that they can all betray a person. And though he gave that a reason for wanting to give Junpei a bookmark related to those concepts, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he honestly did hate them. After all, it's not like any of them have done him much good in life. On top of that, Snake was the one who talked about such things in the first place, to create a bond of friendship between the children of the First Nonary Game—a bond that Santa and Akane later tore apart.