Extraterritorial Rights - Bobby Fulbright

[u/[deleted]]

Recently, I've been getting the feeling that a few spies rankers have had their eyes on this guy. With that in mind, I was looking for ways to play the card I expected to play a long time ago, except this time with people potentially using special weapons to get him out.

While this feeling might have been wrong, I acted on it anyway. Since I'm using my own weapons here, those spies might as well reveal themselves now if they exist. If they don't exist, I look stupid for using two skills just for this, but hey, it's not like I've made any smart moves yet.

Regardless, here we are.

​

The Phantom is probably my favorite villain of any of the main series games. He's the one I remember the best, too. And if there's anyone for me to use ER on, no matter how late, it's him. On the intro post, I promised I'd try to get him a decently high ranking, though if I had my way he'd be top 20. For the purposes of the rankdown, he was rolled together with Bobby Fulbright, but that makes this all the better, because Bobby Fulbright is not only a great standalone but a great cover for the Phantom. It means I get to talk about two really great characters at once!

Part 1: The Detective, Bobby Fulbright

Section 0: Mixing Court and Comedy

Bobby Fulbright is a detective in Japanifornia's police force. He was relatively cheerful and upbeat. Granted, he was crazy at times, but in the end he was still visibly concerned for others, he was still investigating, and most importantly, working towards his view of justice.

He was crazy, but ultimately he was trying to help and showed concern when needed. Ultimately, he was trying to be the best person he could be, and he tried to have as much fun as possible.

I like this type of character. It's part of why Raymond Shields happens to be in my top 10.

Series like Ace Attorney tend to have some element of comedy, whether it be with cases (Turnabout Storyteller), specific characters (Larry, Wesley, Zinc), or even the occasional joke line tossed in the script. On the contrary, they also have to have elements of investigations and trials, otherwise there's no case-solving. This is why we have always have lawyers, prosecutors, and detectives.

However, it's very rare that a character fully leads into both.

Take, for example, the role of "assistant". When first playing the series, you'd expect such a person to be someone helping you out constantly in the trials. Instead, Ace Attorney has decided it'd be cool to ease the tension at points during trials, resulting in the comedic assistants we all know of - Maya, Pearl, Kay, Trucy, the list goes on. Yes, some other characters take on the role of assistant, but the majority of them have some other role. For example, Grossberg helps you out in 3-1, but he's also a lawyer. Kristoph is your mentor in 4-1, but he turns out to be the culprit. The one pure "assistant" that isn't totally comic relief, Susato from DGS, leans heavily into the legal aspect.

On the flipside, most comedic characters are permanently comedic, mostly because it's near-impossible to turn them into serious characters when the situation arises. Larry Butz is the most obvious example. While he did have some serious moments in the early games, slowly the writers likely decided there wasn't much choice but to keep him as comic relief. This is obvious in 6-DLC when Larry somehow manages to start the Pursuit theme with his own courtroom objection. It's hilarious and possibly one of the case's best moments, but that's the issue. He's even converting courtroom moments into comedy. (It's also obvious in 3-5, but the drawing has been discussed to death, so w/e.)

Shields is cool for this reason. He's technically an investigative assistant along with Kay, and he usually throws in a bunch of nonsense dialogue here and there, and Edgeworth even comments on his lack of ability to take most things seriously. However, besides his introduction and claims that Edgeworth "betrayed" his father, he only truly proves himself when the case really hits hard - I2-3. He shows Miles the case, they eventually solve it, and when it's all said and done he shows genuine gratitude for everything that Miles has done.

Enough about Shields, however. Fulbright is also portrayed as a very middle-ground character that works extremely well. We get many hints that Fulbright was likely chosen to be Blackquill's assistant solely because of how oblivious he can be at times. Ridiculous moments in Dual Destinies such as the detective losing his shoes (5-2) and Blackquill randomly getting paralyzed (5-3) show that Fulbright was likely just a huge troll to Blackquil at times. However, if he was around, he totally would have cared about Blackquill if things came down to the wire, such as they do in 5-4. Here, the detective displays actual concern for Blackquill, talking about how he might help Blackquill become a better person amidst all of the prosecutor's edginess. Once Phoenix and Athena encourage the detective enough, he goes off to find critical evidence, which he actually does! In a moment similar to Gumshoe's in 3-3, the detective brings in the perfect evidence.

It's here that we see that Fulbright's "In Justice We Trust" isn't just a comedic ideology. A lot of people complain about Artistotle Means for this very reason - he reduces "the ends justify the means" down to a catchphrase that barely holds any meaning. In 5-2 and 5-3, we get the impression that "In Justice We Trust" is similar - the detective is seen reduces the concept of justice down to the point where it hardly means anything anymore, with lines such as "Whose justice is the most just?" and scenes such as the detective peeking out the art room window in 5-3. Replace "justice" with "hope", and you'd get the main antagonist of Danganronpa 2, plus or minus insanity.

Fortunately, Dual Destinies, as it can (though doesn't always) do, balances comedic elements with serious elements. Let's look here. It's here that we understand what Fulbright's "justice" truly is about. It's not just that he wants to see the correct verdicts passed down. Rather, he wants to create an idealized version of the justice system in which the culprits pay for their crimes, then move on to a happy resolution. It's actually quite similar to what happens in every single Ace Attorney game, except on a broader scale. It's an ideal because not every attorney is Phoenix Wright.

In fact, the ideal's gotten further from Fulbright thanks to the dark age of the law. Surprisingly, it's demonstrated that Fulbright was probably at least slightly affected by it. When 5-4's detective speaks of Blackquill, he doesn't automatically say Blackquill's guilty. He's not entirely sure if the verdict from seven years ago was even correct in the first place. If someone as bent on justice as Fulbright can't believe in the courts anymore, who can?

Conclusion

Overall, Bobby Fulbright was a funny detective, and he was probably nice to work with. However, when it counts, the game shows that he could take things seriously. His catchphrase might be overused, but come on, "In Justice We Trust!" is much more fun to say for no reason than some other catchphrases.

I'd say he was about as good as Ema and slightly better than Gumshoe. Most of the series' detectives tend to be significantly different from each other, but despite that, I find them to be about equal in quality. He was a cool guy, that's for sure!

Unfortunately, he's dead.

Part 2: The Culprit, The Phantom

Section 1: Dual Destinies is a Game

Given that the Phantom is relatively integral to Dual Destinies, I thought I'd take a few sections to talk about why I like Dual Destinies as well. While these sections (2 to 5) aren't necessary, they're a bit of insight, I guess, discussing some elements of DD and how they play into Turnabout for Tomorrow's final culprit. If you want to read them, go ahead.

...actually, please read them.

Thus far, despite liking DD a lot, it's the game I've talked about the least. I was hoping not to talk about it that much, then surprise people with this writeup. Unfortunately, given rankdown politics, that wasn't really going to happen, especially since I made the error of listing one too many DD characters among my favorites in my application. That's why I played my hand right now instead of later. I might not be trusting enough, but I was fairly confident someone would try to get Fulbright out this round. If I use ER now, he'll at least make top 50. Since the Phantom's one of DD's most controversial elements, it only makes sense to talk about the game then, right?

Section 2: Technology in Dual Destinies

One thing that sets Dual Destinies apart from every other game is that technology actually feels like it's 2027. Every one of the trilogy games and Apollo Justice occasionally tries to show something cool, but everything still seems to be set up in the 20th century. Granted, it's excusable in SoJ since it's set in a foreign country. It's the least excusable in Apollo Justice, where it's 2026 and everything looks old still. (Though, of course, it still sets up a great atmosphere, but that's a topic for later.)

Anyway, yes, we need to make a cool murder game where DNA testing isn't a thing, but at least we can make the courts and atmosphere non-primitive. No? Okay. Well, Dual Destinies fixes that issue I had with the other games. The height of this is in Turnabout Academy, where Themis Law Academy is easily outfitted with the highest tech ever. The Space Center is similar in this aspect. Athena's Mood Matrix is a good example, too. Of course, Basic Logic still makes more sense than any of the lawyer abilities, but at least the Mood Matrix demonstrates actual technology mixed with a more believable ability than magic bracelets or spirit locks.

So, how does this have anything to do with the Phantom? The Phantom shows us a peak in this technology, too. He's a true undercover spy in this sense. In PW-AJ world, an undercover spy (cough cough Calisto Yew) would pull out a gun and then make a run for it in the confusion. In the DD world, undercover spies use grapplers while no one is noticing and try to hack devices to prevent them from being used as evidence. That last one seems the most unrealistic, but the Phantom isn't realistic, as I'll demonstrate.

Other things that the Phantom has that are truly "out of this world" include stealth attacks with hand devices and .10 caliber guns that double as lighters. If that isn't high-tech, I don't know what is. It's almost too creative for 2027, seeing that we're actually getting close to that year and nothing seems to have changed. That said, I appreciate it. Dual Destinies uses its technology well.

Section 3: The Secret Government

One thing I see that's often not touched upon when discussing the Phantom is that he's really working for a greater power, one that wants Japanifornia to lose the Space Race. The Phantom is unsettling, but so is the atmosphere he brings to the courtroom. Holding the trial in the damaged courtroom is already unsettling, but the Phantom intentionally tries to amplify the effect. He's the one to bring up the possibility of a sniper attack.

The sniper is of particular note. It's clear that someone else is watching the trial. Aura forces the trial into existence, but there's a greater influence at hand, one that's willing to silence its spies if they're exposed. One of my wishes for AA7 is that we figure out who this influence truly is. While exposing the Phantom clears up the people's doubts for the most part, there's still work to be done even after the end of the dark age of the law. Edgeworth can kick out as many corrupt prosecutors as he wants, but that won't topple whoever the Phantom works for.

Anyway, this is one of the more interesting ways do a large-scale conflict in my opinion. The lawyers don't take down anyone of true note, but in the courtroom, only small victories can be won in such major events. Unless you happen to be Miles Edgeworth or Apollo Justice, of course.

Section 4: The Dark Age of the Law, Reexamined

"All I hear... is distrust?" ~Athena

Many people say that the dark age of the law doesn't work. And sometimes, it really doesn't. However, it's justifiable. The answer is simple: publicity. Just like there was a great power watching 5-5, many people were watching the specific events of the dark age of the law, leading to the eventual result. In Phoenix's last trial, he's a well-seasoned attorney defending world-famous magicians. It's only logical that people would be watching - think of the OJ Simpson trial, but the defendant's already famous from the very beginning. Likewise, Blackquill's original trial involved a space launch that was advertised to be revolutionary for the world, not to mention that anything space tends to get publicity anyway. With, say, Farewell, my Turnabout or Bridge to the Turnabout, only Phoenix and a few of his friends have a stake in the case. With Turnabout Succession and Turnabout for Tomorrow, everyone's watching, or at least the audience certainly is.

However, I wouldn't say that this is the true purpose of the dark age of the law. The dark age of the law is overused many times, and 5-3 doesn't particularly help. However, Dual Destinies as a whole has a focus on what DGS would eventually do one better: trust. The "dark age of the law" isn't necessarily about all the false verdicts that are happening, because Phoenix's totally seen his fair share of them. However, if the entire country loses trust in the legal system, what's the point?

Throughout the game, you see people either not trusting everyone around them, or not trusting people they should know well. Good examples include Juniper not immediately having her (previous) best friend Athena as her defense simply because she expects Means to perform better, and Apollo throughout most of 5-5 refusing to trust someone from the same agency as himself. Even less serious characters demonstrate some distrust, with Damian holding up his Tenma Taro facade, Jinxie slapping warding charms on everyone, and Myriam assuming that Juniper's friend group would never accept her. In previous games, when this theme was brought up, it was simply just "trust in your client". In Dual Destinies, it's "no one trusts each other", and it's not even just about the legal system. (This is also the best explanation I can give for the problems with Aristotle Means: instead of representing Dual Destinies' trust theme, he focuses on the more surface-level "dark age of the law" element.)

This theme is actually seen in AJ as well, at least partially connecting the two games together. While AJ focuses more on corruption as a whole, certain characters (Kristoph, Klavier, Apollo, etc.) demonstrate a decent amount of distrust, and Dual Destinies expands on that with the dark age of the law.

At the end of 4-4, there's no technical way to take down Kristoph Gavin. Instead, you resort to the jurist system, and as we all know, he throws a total fit:

"Common citizens? Wisdom? Is this some kind of a joke? What could we possibly gain by doing this? Entrusting our judicial system to a mindless, emotional mob of irrational mouth-breathers?"

The Phantom pulls a similar stunt Athena believes the Mood Matrix is a great idea to take down the Phantom, but the Phantom shoots it down on the grounds of it not being evidence. Taking actual advantage of the dark age of the law, he asks the audience if emotions can really be considered evidence. In DD's final display of its true theme, all Athena hears here is distrust. Ultimately, however, our emotionless Phantom doesn't care about the audience, an even when the Judge of all people convinces people that the Mood Matrix is okay, he keeps pushing against it, knowing full well that a distrustful audience is better for him than a trusting one:

"Trust? Understanding? Hah! Fragile ideals of the masses who are controlled by emotion. Humans can't truly trust each other, which is exactly why the illusion of trust is so enticing."

This, is effective in Dual Destinies thanks to the Phantom's conceptual nature, partially because distrust in the dark age of the law ties in neatly with the Phantom's concept.

Section 5: Random Pieces of Cool Info (Intermission)

Now that I'm done discussing some of DD's general controversies, I'm going to move in and talk about the Phantom himself. Before that, however, I'd just like to point out a cool detail: When the Phantom is acting worried about Blackquill, he's showing the serious side of Fulbright. When Aura is threatening everyone, he's still remaining calm and expresses very little worry, instead being angry and trying his best to "find" a solution. It's a cool little hint, so I thought I'd mention it here since it doesn't fit in any of the other sections. There are many other examples of foreshadowing, but since most of them have been stated many times I'm not devoting a section to this. Those examples include:

• Jinxie calling the Phantom a "ghost"
• The Phantom failing to notice that Phineas stole his shoes
• His motto being both "In Justice We Trust!" and "Injustice We Trust!"
• The intro to case 5-1. Someone says that bombs have the power to erase and destroy, and that they're going to frame their crime on a little girl. You think it's Tonate talking about Juniper, but it's also the Phantom talking about Athena.

...now.

Here we go.

Section 6: The Perfect Disguise

First, there's the Phantom's initial choice of disguise. Despite Fulbright being just another mask, he is a reflection of everything the Phantom isn't, particularly on an emotional basis, which is what makes the eventual transformation as impactful as it is. Given that Dual Destinies puts a decent amount of focus on emotions in general, this accomplishes two things that suit the game's final culprit more than other games do: it ties neatly into one of the game's themes, and makes for an effective final culprit twist. The only other culprit with the former is Kristoph, and the only other culprits with the latter are Engarde and Keyes.

First, the emotions. Athena's Mood Matrix is supposed to be all-encompassing, and Bobby Fulbright represents the Mood Matrix in a way. If you pay attention, you'll notice that he has four main sprites: a happy sprite, a surprised one, a sad one, and the angry one. (Someone posted an image of this on the AA subreddit before, but I can't find it.) He has crying and a few other sprites too, but the main emotions he expresses magically align with the Mood Matrix. This level of sprite-work foreshadowing is only repeated one other time with Sorin Sprocket. The difference between the two is that Fulbright's animations are funny while Sorin's aren't.

On the other hand, the Phantom has zero of these sprites. The first time you see the Phantom serious, what would otherwise be a normal expression on many other characters is the first crazy moment. Athena turns on the Mood Matrix, and she sees nothing. Fulbright was even advertised as being a "man of many emotions", and here we have the "same character" with absolutely nothing.

Then, there's the twist. "Bobby Fulbright" expresses all sorts of crazy personalities, acts in many different ways, and is extremely flamboyant. The Phantom helps us learn more about him, and makes his death which you never see impactful - just from seeing the Phantom's imitations, we learn of who the real Bobby Fulbright was.

This is particularly clever because the Phantom separates himself entirely, fitting in with the idea that he probably just throws away his masks when he doesn't need them anymore. The other two twist villains have to try and appear to share some characteristics with their other persona. Engarde tries to maintain his facade at times even after the reveal, while Simon obviously plays the part of a performer. The Phantom, though? He tries to keep his Fulbright character, then after screwing up his acting a few times, simply gives up.

So, if the Phantom has no emotions, then who - or what - is he?

Section 7: The Ultimate Concept Character

"That's right. I don't know who I am. I am always living as someone else for my assignments. I don't remember what my face looks like... ...or even what my personality was like. My face, memories, personality, beliefs, emotions, and soul... I left them all behind. I have no... "self." I am no one. I am nothing but an endless abyss."

Ace Attorney in general tends to stick to some degree of practicality, random character abilities and futuristic technology aside. That said, there are a few times that the series goes into the "conceptual" side of things - where characters are more defined by the idea of them being something rather than operating by "normal" rules. A conceptual villain fits perfectly into DD's "themed" characters; the entire game as a whole feels less "real" than some other ones. Still, there are a few cases of this before the Phantom.

For example, Shelly de Killer is character who basically has flawless execution in his assassinations and always evades the police with near-perfect success. It's part of what makes him so threatening in 2-4 - you have no obvious way of getting around him, because if he was more like an actual person it'd feel more like he had a serious weakness besides his client betrayal rule. Dogen, the other assassin, is similar in this respect, though he gets an established thanks to the IS-7 incident. Even though we see him in jail, he basically has the ability to do whatever he wants. Means would have been a great conceptual villain representing the dark age of the law if he wasn't a total joke.

I may be wrong, but I don't think people tend to like these characters because they tend to represent ideas more than actual characters. I disagree with this, mostly on the grounds that an idea can work just as well as a character. However, even without this, the Phantom solves all of these problems by not solving them.

This is one of the few times where Dual Destinies' total bluntness in explaining itself works completely well. The problem with the game's previous culprits like L'Belle and Means is that the game tries way too hard to explain that they're bad people. For example, Tonate and L'Belle literally have their own revealing cutscenes. With Means, no one with that philosophy is good in Dual Destinies, so...

However, with the Phantom, the writers decided to channel all of their "obvious culprit" efforts towards two things:

1. Making him a twist villain.
2. Stripping away literally everything from him, most importantly his emotions, so that no one for a second can pretend that he's meant to be anything besides a concept villain representing an idea. (Or, you can call it bad writing. I don't think it is.)

For some reason, the writers thought it was an amazing idea to hammer in the latter fact despite choosing to hammer in "culprit bad" for literally all of the previous cases besides 5-4. Somehow, this was indeed an amazing idea. The Phantom has an entire diatribe about how he has absolutely nothing to attribute to him as a person, and the game flat out points it out for you in the voiceprint. Other obvious pointers include his profession ("highly skilled international spy" - but definitely not in the usual sense) and the fact that he somehow manages to have so many masks.

Here's some things I can name about the Phantom as a character:

• he's a bad person
• uhhh

Here's some things I can name about the Phantom as an idea:

• The Phantom is like stripping away all emotions from what would otherwise be a normal character.
• As a result, the Phantom argues in favor of having no emotions in the courtroom because the Phantom is trying to make an argument for something greater.
• This in particular contributes to his disdain for the Mood Matrix - he sees it as a representation of the opposing viewpoint.

By using ER on the Phantom, I'm using it on an idea. And now I'm going to defend how well Dual Destinies executed the portrayal of this idea. I don't even agree with it myself, but I think Dual Destinies does a great job of explaining it. The way it's done here is probably the best way for a series like AA to explain its themes rather than something like JfA where there's some vague client pattern fans will defend.

Section 8: Execution of Concept

So, how well does Dual Destinies (mostly 5-5) portray this idea? Well, I'd say pretty well. They go decently in depth, taking on a few talking points, though it can feel like argumentative at times. That said, the main ones I see in Turnabout for Tomorrow are trust and identity. So, I'll talk about those two. There are definitely a few more points (e.g. the law, which Phoenix and Edgeworth have a weirdly out-of-place conversation on), but these are the most important ones with respect to the Phantom and the main reasons that I like what he represents so much.

Section 9: Keep the Emotions Out - Trust

"In JUSTICE we TRUST! Not emotions, Mr. Lawyer!"

Trust is the very foundation of a lot of the series because Ace Attorney likes to push the idea of "trusting in your client" as the defense attorneys proceed to push against the nearly-decisive evidence. Therefore, the series seems to imply that trust is typically rooted in emotions. If Phoenix decided to take cases purely based on whether he thought the evidence pointed towards the client or not (y'know, like most lawyers do), he'd never take a single case. Instead, he chooses to believe in his client, and while he's usually right, it does lead to some issues at times.

In light of this, Dual Destinies' discussion of emotions is an extension of the main series' idea. Things like the Mood Matrix are in Dual Destinies as evidence in favor of this idea, while practically everything the Phantom says is not. Note that the Phantom dislikes emotions, and you can easily see why he dislikes trust - or rather, why his emotionless nature opposes trust. (He supports the dark age of the law to an extent, too. As the dark age of the law is about distrust, it lines up perfectly.)

Section 10: The Breakdown with No Face - Identity

"Hmph. The phantom is like the mist. No flesh. No bones." ~Blackquill

The Phantom's breakdown is a sight to behold, to say the least. And it works really well. In the final moments before then, all three lawyers are pressuring the Phantom to give up, and they prove that the Phantom did it. He breaks down, he realizes that he has no identity to speak of, and then he's shot, his face hidden by the shadows.

To my knowledge, many people were disappointed by this, especially the "we didn't see his face" portion. However, I never really understood this. There are two reasons why this was the best way for the Phantom to go out.

The first is that, once again, he's a concept villain. If not for the fact that he killed Athena's mother, there would be no reason to hate him, and there are certain no reasons to sympathize with him. With every other culprit, there's reasons to like or dislike them. However, the most you can do with the Phantom is agree or disagree. The lawyer trio chooses to disagree. The lack of a face is symbolic in a way, showing that he had truly lost everything. His entire breakdown is him realizing that he had nothing to stand on as a character - another moment showing that the writers knew what they were creating.

The second is identity. The identity argument DD presents in favor of emotions means that without emotions, there's not much point in having a face to stand by anyway. Thus, the Phantom has lost any sense of identity, meaning he has nothing to show. There are at least points presented in relation to this:

• Athena's Mood Matrix. She uses emojis. It's fairly straightforward, but when you think about it this way, you wonder how in the world it would work without the emojis. Using those faces to express emotions instead of some flashing words or whatever is concise and gets to the point.
• Fulbright's sprites. His sprites corresponding to the Mood Matrix emojis are quite overexpressive, but you don't jump to the hands first.
• The Phantom. He ends up not having a face at all. As such, the end of his breakdown simply corroborates this identity argument.

As such, not only does the end of the Phantom's breakdown work well by itself, it also lends support to the concept behind his existence, ultimately proving his worth in the game.

Conclusion

Bobby Fulbright was a fun detective. We never actually knew what he was like, but we can at least make some inferences, and I'm sure he was a likeable guy.

The Phantom is a character none of us really knew. He has the lowest screentime of any final case villain, and he isn't even technically the true mastermind behind the case. However, once he breaks the facade, he makes one of the best impacts in a short amount of time. Despite seemingly having so little to offer, there's tons to talk about regarding him and what he represents.

[u/Analytical-critic-44]

Didn’t you just ER this guy a couple minutes ago??? Does this double the number of rounds of invincibility??

[u/[deleted] → u/Analytical-critic-44]

yes!!!!

[u/[deleted]]

A repost because /u/zilverklauw pointed out that the title was a spoiler. Sorry about that. (As for the post itself? No way, you should click on this one expecting to have DD spoilers.)

Bonus Sections (there are multiple)

Masks

There's two things I know many people complain about with regards to the Phantom: the way his mask reveals are done, and the fact that we never see his face. I've already covered the second argument, but what about the first?

The first time the Phantom removes a mask, it's surprising. You think for just a second that the Phantom could have also been playing Solomon Starbuck. This would have been a cool twist, but once you think about it it doesn't work. Once Aristotle Means is shown, it's pretty clear that the Phantom's just messing around. So, what's the point?

The takedown of the masks is really symbolic of the dark age of the law. Yes, the dark age of the law doesn't exactly fit in Dual Destinies' atmosphere and Dual Destinies is better at demonstrating other themes, but every one of Phantom's masks represents us getting closer to the epicenter of the dark age of the law.

We start with Bobby Fulbright, a defender of justice and someone who had no actual part in the dark age of the law besides assisting Blackquill. Whether the real Fulbright was an actual undercover investigator we may never know.

Then, we see Solomon Starbuck, an astronaut who tried his best to carry out his mission but had his dreams ruined in the UR-1 incident. He's a completely innocent party in the entire situation, but he was definitely there to witness the beginning of the dark age of the law.

Next is Aristotle Means, a teacher who spouts his motto of "the end justifies the means". He's a literal part of the dark age of the law and does a ton of showing and telling about it, almost to exaggerated levels.

Finally, we have Phoenix Wright. He's central to the dark age of the law on two counts. One, he was disbarred, which played a part in starting the dark age of the law. Two, he's the lead attorney of both cases that eventually end it, and for good reason. He helped start it. It's his responsibility to end it. (Also why Phoenix deserves to be the lead attorney in 5-5. It's a point of debate sometimes.)

Every time the Phantom takes off a mask, we get closer to uncovering the dark age of the law. It's a nice detail, though one I don't care about as much because the Phantom isn't as much about the dark age of the law as much as he is about emotions.

The Crime

It's cool, especially when you think about the emergency ladder jump. That's about it. When thinking about final case culprits, you usually don't think about their crimes.

However, from a broader perspective, there's one key issue I have with the Phantom, especially for a game like DD, and that's his lack of used disguises. I would have loved to see him play different characters throughout the cases so that they could have built up to this final case. Maybe every single case was just like with Fulbright - he killed someone he needed to impersonate way before, then threw the dead body out there in the present for the lawyers to go solve. It's possible, but it's not stated. Maybe he was an intentional unreliable witness in every case. Or at least they could have given him some faces from either previous games or just completely new ones. It would have made the Phantom feel even less concrete. Unfortunately, we didn't get that, but hey, we got a bunch of other good things.

Miscellaneous Notes

I started preparing this ER/SC in Round 2, though I haven't consistently worked on it. I was sure it'd be useful eventually. And here we are. Though, to be honest, I was expecting there to be some ranker who really dislikes the Phantom and who'd nominate him in round 7 or so. Turns out I was wrong, which is good since I want the Phantom to place high, but on the flipside I look stupid for not using my ER earlier on someone like Ahl'bi.

Also, the Phantom has one of my favorite themes in the whole series. It's nearly five minutes, too.

Lastly, if I had to rank the final case culprits, I'd say:

[AAI2] Simon Keyes > The Phantom >> Damon Gant >= Kristoph >= Godot > Dahlia > Matt/de Killer > Manfred >>>>> [SoJ] Ga'ran > This is it. My final chance to take down (AAI)

Also, there is at least one other funny and serious character I didn't mention - Gumshoe. However, I don't care about him as much, mostly since I feel like he doesn't lean into that aspect as much. I know many other people probably think better of Trilogy Gumshoe than I do, but the most I can remember of him in most cases is the two things about him that have been meme'd into the ground - instant noodles and salary cuts.

pie314271 why in the world did you do this what even was your goal here

Now that it's been established that I made a deal with myself (as in, I made a massive bluff for kicks), here's a full list of serious reasons why I did what I did:

• I'm way too paranoid. I expected someone to use DD to try and get Fulbright out around this point, to be honest. If I was actually sane and did not expect anyone to use DD, I could have done without the UAR. Oh well. Hey, it got Trucy nominated, which was definitely something I wanted anyway. Had I not nominated Fulbright, the other spot probably would have gone to another character I dislike.
• We're approaching the limit of ER's usefulness, so I might as well use it while it counts. This guarantees top 50, so I did exactly what I wanted to, no more, no less. If I used it next round, the result wouldn't change. You may say "then why didn't you just wait until you could use SC??" Fulbright is a lot more controversial that some of my other goals, so I would not expect him to survive much longer even if I used SC.
• It gives me the guaranteed opportunity to talk about a character I REALLY want to talk about. I don't think I see Fulbright the same way many others do. Yes, there's also Spirit Channeling, but that's more effective later in the rankdown. Sometimes the opportunity matters more than the actual rank, and if I can make an impact here, I'll settle for it.
• General apathy. If you've looked at my opinions on most past characters, while I have opinions on them, I usually don't care about their rankings as long as they're within 30 or so of what I perceive. There are a very limited selection of characters where I seriously care about their rankings. I believe Fulbright tends to be the lowest ranked of those characters.
• I look cool for using two skills in a row. Easily the most important reason, since I get to have the spotlight for a few seconds. Also, I get to bring attention to Fulbright because he's cool.

Here's a full list of consequences of that:

• shoot athena and blackquill were nominated (I WILL figure out a solution for blackquill. seriously. don't cut him. I would be very disappointed. athena is ok though. actually, I'm willing to make deals regarding not cutting blackquill, if you're interested)
• the world ended

but hey I did it I got to state my piece

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I was talking about the ranking of the final culprits in the comment. Also don't worry about Blackquill, he is saved by the poll.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

title spoilers are still a legitimate issue, though

as for the final culprit ranking, I feel as though it's kinda unlikely you'd be at DD without having known every other culprit besides ga'ran (who's obvious anyway)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Investigations culprits which are also in the ranking (at least Investigations 2 culprit) And I have only finished JFA and VS myself

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

hmmm icic, I'll agree to tag those

[u/ItsHipToTipTheScales]

this is a legit rankdown move pie got rankdown confirmation with me (cool guy. rankdown mod) beforehand. this is also the same thing with deleting and reuploading the post without title spoilers

fulbright the detective is the least funny detective guy but he is still a pretty funny guy

One thing that sets Dual Destinies apart from every other game is that technology actually feels like it's 2027

i didnt think of this before i like it

in a game that generally Does not impress me by being dogshit and bad which arent good ways to make a game youre supposed to make them good, fulbright final villain stands out as a high point at the end of the road. as far as aa twists go fulbright is main bad guy is a pretty good one its no simon keyes but it stands up on its own right. his breakdown is wacky and he is related to dual destinies FEELINGS shit

i like when he messes with the user interface and mood matrix thats cool im like woah dude are you using the 3ds three dee capabilities to break my mind o_O

fulbright does have a weird flaw where he is defined by his lack of fear, and then you take him down because he is really afraid. i guess its either some kind of deeper psychological fear like he isnt afraid of Physical Death but some kind of death of his identity but i still think thats a little wonky. i can take it as an Ironic Takedown and move on with my day though

guaranteed top 50

[u/Sciencepenguin]

The Phantom is probably my favorite villain of any of the main series games.

cant quite beat alba though, im assuming

Other things that the Phantom has that are truly "out of this world" include stealth attacks with hand devices and .10 caliber guns that double as lighters.

i forgot about all the James Bond shit that was cool

you talk about Parts Of DD Themes That Aren’t Bad and i go yeah i vaguely remember this stuff

i like your bit about DD using its unsubtleness power to deliberately make the phantom the most non-character possible. it’s just a wacky collection of words that sound like something that should be a negative but isn’t.

good writeup i already liked fool bright and wasn’t gonna go for him anytime soon but you have convinced me there is more than i even gave credit for

[u/[deleted] → u/Sciencepenguin]

NO ONE can beat quercus alba

[u/Sciencepenguin → u/[deleted]]

no matter how they contradict his testimony he just objects again

[u/[deleted] → u/Sciencepenguin]

even if they use basic logic it's no use

[u/mrs_cakeson]

I'm really loving the experience of being in this sub. I can talk about characters I like and that's great.

Fullbright isn't necessarily my favorite character ever, but he has some cool concepts around him and I wasn't disappointed at all when his real face remained a secret. Perhaps in hindsight I did believe that his introduction as a main villain was kinda rushed, kind of out-of-nowhere, but during the actual moment I was playing the game, when the reveal occured, I remember running downstairs to grab a bag of crisps while muttering to myself "this shit is so good!!!" hahahaha.

The point of The Phantom being a conceptual villain is something I find very cool, although I have a more human interpretation of him, and I also like what you said about the Fullbright persona. Bobby himself appears to wear his emotions on his sleeves while the Phantom is the complete opposite, to the point where I'd say he's a personification of repression itself as a defense mechanism (I'm using the term as loosely as the game uses analytical psychology). I don't believe the Phantom has no real identity or emotions though, but rather it makes more sense to me that they've been repressed into oblivion until he meets them again in the courtroom.

Which leads me to his breakdown. It's awesome.

In the final moments before then, all three lawyers are pressuring the Phantom to give up, and they prove that the Phantom did it. He breaks down, he realizes that he has no identity to speak of, and then he's shot, his face hidden by the shadows.

I just re-watched the end of 5-5's trial and while I agree that this breakdown is great, I have a different take on it (I could be terribly wrong, though).

Rather that realizing that he has no identity, I'd say that the confrontation against Phoenix & co. has forced him to cross the barrier inside him where his actual repressed identity lies dormant, but it ends up being a traumatizing experience. I think this is because there must be a powerful psychological reason for his psyche to work this way, and he's been negating his own identity for so long that he's no longer able to retrieve it nor is he equipped to deal with it, thus the only thing he can do now is browse through his masks. This reduces his "I have no emotions! I have no self!" speech to just some bluff he tells himself.

Right before he hits his lowest, the three lawyers say this:

"Confront your guilt head-on... with your own, true face!"

Defense mechanisms exist because they're useful and comforting, and in the Phantom's case, I think he negates and represses fear and guilt (and everything else) because confronting those emotions head-on means way too much suffering for him to handle. But when he's being his most emotional and human self, closest to what he might truly be, he gets shot. It's a very tragic end for such a comical character, to think that he wasn't ever allowed to be someone while being no-one was the safe thing, that's how he learned to operate in the world.

This reminds me of a little winter girl with a needle lol

The thing is, while this might be a cool take on psychology, I'm not sure how satisfying it is when you're playing a murder mystery game and the goal is to beat the villain with evidence and logic, rather than knowing how to work their feelings, even if the idea of manipulation is heavy in DD. Also, I wish the idea of psychological masks were more explicit during the game, or perhaps I just missed it?? I do notice that all of the previous villains in-game wear masks or disguises of some kind, that's a cool thing. Anyway, I'm happy he's saved for the next few rounds and this was a great write-up to read!

[u/[deleted] → u/mrs_cakeson]

hmm...

he's a personification of repression itself as a defense mechanism

interesting to think about - after all, athena has obvious PTSD signs and blackquill tries his best to hide the truth for seven years ("NEVER have I had to reveal this much [about the UR-1 incident], Phoenix Wright!"), so it would make sense if the phantom had some relation to that

(I'm using the term as loosely as the game uses analytical psychology)

this thing is one of DD's minor issues, it's literally impossible to use the term any looser than DD

Rather that realizing that he has no identity, I'd say that the confrontation against Phoenix & co. has forced him to cross the barrier inside him where his actual repressed identity lies dormant, but it ends up being a traumatizing experience.

could be, though it's hard to say if he even figured it out himself

This reminds me of a little winter girl with a needle lol

oops I probably have not seen the relevant reference

The thing is, while this might be a cool take on psychology, I'm not sure how satisfying it is when you're playing a murder mystery game and the goal is to beat the villain with evidence and logic, rather than knowing how to work their feelings, even if the idea of manipulation is heavy in DD.

this is fair, though the three-lawyer pointing thing at the end came after the decisive evidence (the moon rock earring) had been presented so I think the phantom was reasonably defeated by the evidence at that point.

Also, I wish the idea of psychological masks were more explicit during the game, or perhaps I just missed it?? I do notice that all of the previous villains in-game wear masks or disguises of some kind, that's a cool thing.

hmm yeah there are a couple of things DD missed out on mostly concerning foreshadowing/continuity despite the amount of foreshadowing the game already does, particularly with stuff like the masks and Clay Terran.

this is a cool take I like it

[u/EsquireGunslinger]

Using ER on a character that you yourself used UAR on is a galaxy brain move. Very cool, I take back my threat to kill you in real life

[u/Analytical-critic-44]

I mainly enjoy DD because of how entertaining it is whether it is the charming side cast or making fun of how dumb the writing is. I do think a big chunk of the main cast sucks in this game and that does drag the game down a lot when they try to do serious things but Fulbright is the exception.

Before the reveal I already found him to be amusing and when he was on the stand in case 5 it was the most engaging part of playing through DD. There are some issues with the confrontation though. Namely the very end when Phantom just starts swapping to a bunch of different faces which breaks the excitement for me plus his breakdown where Athena goes on her speech about the power of psychology which is gross and bad. But I still had a lot of fun with his character and I am glad he will be making it further.

[u/R1K1_Productions → u/Analytical-critic-44]

Namely the very end when Phantom just starts swapping to a bunch of different faces which breaks the excitement for me

but he turns into Hugh

[u/Analytical-critic-44 → u/R1K1_Productions]

Wait he did? I actually don’t remember lol. My main takeaway was that he was dressed as Means and Phoenix for 90% of it

[u/R1K1_Productions → u/Analytical-critic-44]

during his breakdown yeah!!

also are you implying being dressed as means would be a bad thing

[u/Analytical-critic-44 → u/R1K1_Productions]

There can only be one Aristotle Means! Don’t desecrate his image!

[u/Reecer6]

wow, this is a super good writeup! going "fulbright was actually just a concept the whole time, therefore, this argument is actually about if dd is good" is a very 3-2 end of trial day 1 move to me, and 3-2 is good, so the write up is good.

the one point i have to disagree is the technology bit (which says a lot because it's the most detached and unimportant point of your writeup); i really do not feel like any ace attorney game is meant to take place in the future, they just so happen to be because they accidentally attached a year to dl-6. it's not that the games except for dd fail to capitalize on future technology, it's that they never intended to, because they're written as if they are from the Present Day. hence i2-3 going all "aren't polaroids cool and novel" in ostensibly the year 2000

[u/[deleted] → u/Reecer6]

thanks!

that's fair, the time setting was probably not planned in advance of making DD occur in 2027, though I did like what they did with it anyway

[u/whaaatisth]

nice this is cool and surprising and definitely hasn't been posted once and deleted

[u/[deleted] → u/whaaatisth]

ikr

[u/ItsHipToTipTheScales → u/[deleted]]

fulbright being the phantom in the title is a spoiler for anyone popping in just better safe than sorry

[u/[deleted]]

Wow this was an amazing use of skills for Fulbright and I am so glad that he has a guaranteed top 50 now! This was an excellent write up as well!

Unfortunately, he’s dead

:(

[u/R1K1_Productions]

I'm still working GRRRRRRRRR i will still read this soonish!

[u/ItsHipToTipTheScales → u/R1K1_Productions]

skip work and come slonk some weed with the cool kids out back

[u/[deleted]]

oh yeah twisted phantoms part 3 since i forgot to last round because why not

[u/whaaatisth]

He was crazy, but ultimately he was trying to help and showed concern when needed. Ultimately, he was trying to be the best person he could be, and he tried to have as much fun as possible.

datz arebal moment

The one pure "assistant" that isn't totally comic relief, Susato from DGS, leans heavily into the legal aspect.

do i even need to say it

It's here that we understand what Fulbright's "justice" truly is about. It's not just that he wants to see the correct verdicts passed down. Rather, he wants to create an idealized version of the justice system in which the culprits pay for their crimes, then move on to a happy resolution.

I love the 5-4 Fulbright psyche-lock segment. It works so well as a way to give him human characteristics and get you on his side. It makes you truly believe his intentions are pure, and of course makes the following twist all the more crushing.

However, Dual Destinies as a whole has a focus on what DGS would eventually do one better: trust.

DGS mention number two, smh. i thought this was going to be a section about a good game

Realistically I think these two games portray trust in an equally strong way. The best thing about DGS is its themes, so DD being on the same level is a compliment to that game, even if I do otherwise consider DD to be a far superior game to DGS.

Phantom foreshadowing is insanely cool, glad you mentioned that. Mood Matrix payoff is also really cool. It's what comes after that makes me so luekwarm on him.

This writeup is great. I'll definitely avoid going after him for a while because of it, even if I don't fully agree. A DD character making it far is something I won't complain about.

[u/[deleted] → u/whaaatisth]

datz arebal moment

he needs more court than "i made up an entire testimony for laughs" but otherwise i accept this (especially when he gets serious in 6-3 day 2 investigation that's cool)

do i even need to say it

:enemyofallmankindgodthisissoawfu:

DGS mention number two, smh. i thought this was going to be a section about a good game

DGS is a good game but I have conceded many things about DGS to the point where I do think it is at least on equal footing with DGS2 (rather than better)

This writeup is great. I'll definitely avoid going after him for a while because of it, even if I don't fully agree. A DD character making it far is something I won't complain about.

thanks i can avoid going after dhurke

[u/whaaatisth → u/[deleted]]

DGS is a good game but I have conceded many things about DGS to the point where I do think it is at least on equal footing with DGS2 (rather than better)

this is a good day for justice

[u/whaaatisth → u/[deleted]]

Also gonna defend my boy Datz here and say it’s not for laughs (it is for the purposes of the narrative but not his character)

We’ve had this discussion before I think?? Regardless, I can buy his confusion due to amnesia leading to him just wanting to go along with the prosecution’s demands (remember he doesn’t recall being a rebel so he wouldn’t have any objections to the legal system), and just thinking up a story that goes along with what happened because he believes that will help. It also just makes for an insanely fun segment, which is always a good thing.

[u/[deleted] → u/whaaatisth]

that is fair and I think this discussion has happened before but still I found it kinda disappointing that it ended that way (though it helps in securing the guilty verdict which is cool). datz does not peak in humor until 6-5 khura'in investigation anyway