[Spoilers] Unsolved story mystery?

[Outpost Omega 5]

SPOILER WARNING! I'm about to ask a question regarding a seemingly unanswered question in the plot. I'm assuming anyone who reads past this point has beat both the main game and the DLC involving Kasumi and Akechi! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

I'm wondering if I missed something in the story. It was never explained why the Phantom Thieves ended up in the various kingdom's in the first place. There was no defined reason for them to be there to begin with.

If Salmael's goal is to break Toshiro's mind, the last thing he would want is the Phantom Thieves present. Even if Salmael also had the Phantom Thieves on his hit list, it made no tactical sense to bring them into the Toshiro's Kingdoms at that time, as the Kingdoms where based on Toshiro's cognition, and would have had no particular significance to the phantom Thieves.

It does not appear Igor or Lavenza had anything to do with it either, as Lavenza was baffled by what had happened to the velvet room.

So just why did the Phantom Thieves get drawn in?

[RVRZERO]

Yeah I was excited to know why in the last kingdom but they didn't tell us and that's stupid..

[Laur]

Only thing I can think of is that LeBlanc was Toshiro's place of refuge in the real world where he would go to unwind, which is why Erina and the rebels always used it as the base of operations. So that in itself could have linked the two worlds together and pulled them in.

[Hanzo]

Originally posted by Laur:

Only thing I can think of is that LeBlanc was Toshiro's place of refuge in the real world where he would go to unwind, which is why Erina and the rebels always used it as the base of operations. So that in itself could have linked the two worlds together and pulled them in.

Yes, he says that at some point. But this point is reeeeeeally weak. Like, why now? Toshiro has been in the prison for a long time before PT came there. But story here is pretty weak by itself and there are things that doesn't make sense. So I wouldn't worry about the story

[Belgerum]

I'm not certain anything can be said for certain. Like Lavenza states, we can only speculate about many things, and it seems the developers intentionally left a lot up to interpretation.

I have a few personal theories besides what is mentioned above:

Firstly, perhaps the velvet room itself brought them to the Kingdoms. The existence of the impostor Igor (Yaldabaoth) in base Persona 5 implies that cognitive forces that are powerful enough to take form as "deities" have some sort of relationship with the Velvet room in the space beyond reality, and it is canonical that the Velvet room itself supports the trickster in opposing them. Igor is absent in Tactica, leaving Lavenza alone and without much direction. Perhaps Igor has been acting behind the scenes, sensing the presence of Salmael and sending the trickster to oppose another force that is invading reality? Perhaps the velvet room itself has some innate directive/code of conduct that made it move to oppose Salmael? Is the Velvet Room's change of form during the events of the story somehow more meaningful/significant than we initially realize?

Secondly, perhaps their calling is related to Toshiro's seed of rebellion (eventually Erina) being formed as a result of witnessing the Phantom Thieves and their actions in base Persona 5? Toshiro admits during the game that seeing the Phantom thieves was a turning point that started him on the path to becoming resolute. Perhaps, while resisting the influences of Salmael, his subconscious seed of rebellion called the Phantom Thieves for aid? After recognizing and being inspired by their rebellious hearts, it would make sense for Toshiro's cognitive manifestation to recognize and seek out those who first awakened it. Maybe the Phantom Thieves' own history and familiarity with the metaverse helped it along? They opened the doorway in Leblanc to enter the Kingdoms without being forced to do it, so perhaps that was some sign that they (willingly or not) answered the call for help and entered the Kingdoms partly using their own power.

Either of the above might be a reasonable explanation, or it could just be some combination of factors. I dunno, and I'm probably just overthinking it and making up excuses for the developers. Regardless, I am also somewhat disappointed that this was not elaborated on in the story, and wish it was better explained.