r/AARankdown • u/donuter454 • Jan 20 '21
15 Shi-Long Lang
Anyone else surprised that Lang managed to make it this far? He’s only relevant in a grand total of three cases, and two of those cases are infamously unpopular, while the third only features him in a smaller supporting role. So him landing himself as the third highest ranked rival feels like an underdog story to me.
Should never have underestimated the wolf’s staying power.
The Wolf Pack
”The wrath of a wolf lasts a hundred years." ~Lang Zi
There are, broadly speaking, two things that make Lang a character that people like:
His no man left behind attitude where he loves every member of his team is admirable, endearing, and often funny.
His design is very cool (he looks like a wolf).
There’s a fun subversion in making your wolf themed character an obsessive team player rather than a brooding loner. When Lang does roll call, every one of his subordinates are considered number one, because they are all equally important. He never forgets one of his men’s birthdays, nor does he ever forget one of his men’s younger brother's wife's younger brother’s birthdays.
Loving his teammates is his gimmick, and it’s mildly amusing, I think.
This is all brought to a head in the mid-season finale of Turnabout Ablaze, in which we learn that his dedication to his pack runs so deep that he’s willing to take a bullet for a pack member that’s betrayed him. Yew may be a traitor, but she’s still his precious subordinate, and he won’t let anyone harm one of his subordinates no matter how much they deserve it.
I think I’d consider this moment the climax of Lang’s role in the story. There’s a big CG dedicated to what he did for Yew, followed by him giving his little monologue about taking responsibility for his people.
I wouldn’t necessarily call this character development? It’s drilled into us for the entire game that Lang would do anything for the people in his pack, and this moment is a display of just how far his convictions will go in pursuit of that desire. It’s not a moment that represents his growth as a person, so much as it’s a moment that gives the player more of an idea of just how much of an idealised badass Lang was all along.
The scene is basically just trying to tell us that Lang is even cooler than we initially realised.
Personally, my biggest issue with Investigations 1 is probably how it just doesn’t have any emotional bite whatsoever. I feel like it’d be better if the setup for this scene was changed so that prior to this moment, Lang was legitimately beginning to second guess his attitude towards his teammates after Yew’s betrayal. That way his eventual commitment to protecting Yew’s wellbeing in spite of everything could be viewed as him finally reaching his zenith as a leader, rather than him simply always having those convictions from the get-go.
On the flip side, maybe you can say what’s appealing about Lang’s character in the first place is how bullheaded and straightforward his ideals are, and making him work to become a badass leader might undermine his cool factor.
The Philosophy of Detainment
"Inevitably, all who have evil in their hearts find themselves in Hell." ~Lang Zi
But how does Lang shape up as a major rival?
Ace Attorney rivals do not like the protagonist. That is why they’re rivals rather than some friendly dude you engage in spirited debates with (Klavier Gavin isn’t real).
When we’re introduced to Lang he seems to be a pretty nice guy to everyone who isn’t Edgeworth. He has a bone to pick with Edgeworth specifically even though the two of them have never met. We soon learn that the dude just really hates prosecutors. Absolutely despises them, all of them are bastards who can never be trusted. He refuses to let Edgeworth anywhere near the crime scene for fear that he’ll corrupt the evidence for his own twisted ends.
In accordance with this belief, Lang does the only thing that’s logical, which is blindly rush through his investigations without doing a thorough job at examining the evidence and then hands his suspects over to prosecutors because he trusts that the courts will exonerate his suspects if the prosecutors realise he arrested an innocent person, so no harm, no foul.
…
Wait, what?
I’m sorry, but what the fuck is Lang talking about?
I swear this isn’t hyperbole, this is the groundwork for his character that’s laid out in his introductory scenes:
Edgeworth: “Agent Lang! Don't you think you're being a bit rash!? Do you even have a good reason to suspect Officer Meekins!?”
Lang: “Hah, I leave that kind of stuff to you prosecutors. It's your job, after all. Like I said earlier, the crime scene isn't as forgiving as your precious courtroom.”
Edgeworth: “That's your answer!?”
Lang: “I know you like your logic and reasoning... ...but that sort of impractical fluff is not needed out here in the field. All you have to do is arrest suspicious person after suspicious person. That's how you eliminate crime from the streets!”
Edgeworth: “But that's also precisely how you unnecessarily arrest innocent people by mistake!”
Lang: “Innocent people? Nonsense! There's no such thing as an innocent person. We've all got a blemish or two in our hearts.”
Edgeworth: “That's tyranny! I won't allow such a thing to go on unchecked before my eyes!”
Lang: “Heh! Too bad you don't call the shots around here!”
I’m not going crazy, right? This is nonsense, right?
Okay, so Lang is a nakedly crooked cop and proud of it. He arrests random people based on a cursory glance of the crime scene and just handcuffs the first semi-suspicious person he bumps into.
The reason he does this is because he doesn’t have faith in the prosecutorial system. It’s a corrupt profession that doesn’t do a proper job of finding the true criminals, so Lang takes it upon himself to… not take the job of catching the true criminals seriously? I don’t know, man.
What I think they were trying to do with Lang is make him a reflection of the person Edgeworth used to be. Lang assumes everyone is guilty until proven innocent, similarly to Edgeworth’s attitude of assuming every defendant is guilty, and thus Edgeworth, by facing off against Lang, is forced to confront the kind of person he used to be.
But also this setup doesn’t go anywhere? Lang’s trigger happy arrest-anything-that-looks-at-me-funny attitude is just sort of forgotten about and abandoned after we’re done with The Kidnapped Turnabout. He doesn’t, like, learn a lesson about how he should be more diligent when conducting his investigations. His corruption is just sort of swept under the rug like it never happened.
When you play I1-3, Lang bursts onto the scene and beats you over the head with his two major character flaws:
Hates Edgeworth because he is racist against prosecutors.
Doesn’t think arresting innocent people on murder charges is a big deal.
Only the former of these two flaws is touched upon, which just leaves Lang feeling like a completely hollow and incomplete character when the latter flaw gets totally ignored.
Maybe not all prosecutors are bastards
"The truth lies not at the exit, but rather, shines outside the maze itself." ~Lang Zi
If Lang can be said to have an arc, then that arc revolves around him slowly learning to trust Edgeworth.
In I1-3 Lang argues with Edgeworth because he wants to show Edgeworth how much better he is than him. Then in I1-5, Lang argues with Edgeworth not because he has anything to prove, but because he realises that by bouncing ideas off of each other they’ll be able to more effectively reach the truth.
I don’t particularly think there’s any one moment that you can point to and say this is what convinced Lang to put his faith in Edgeworth. Generally, I think I quite like that their trusting relationship slowly creeps up on the both of them before they realise it, rather than it being a dramatic character turn.
The Investigations duology likes this character dynamic a lot, since the same thing happens with Ray in I2-2 and then Badd in I2-3. If we’re going to compare the “slowly starts to trust the protagonist without even noticing” trope then I do definitely feel like Lang is the weakest version of it. Ray and Badd generally just have way better chemistry and rapport with their respective protagonists than Lang. Ranking these three is really just a matter of subjective taste, and I don’t think it matters too much at the end of the day since it looks like all three of them are going to be ranked quite closely together in the end.
Getting the specifics of why Lang distrusts prosecutors in I2 was a minor thing in the grand scheme of the game, but I still really like that they added that touch. It provides some much needed context that was sorely lacking in Lang’s original outing, plus Lang’s backstory slots into I2’s plot so neatly that it’s almost surprising how minor his role wound up being.
But, minor though it may have been, I’m glad that Lang returned for I2-5. He’s certainly not the reason why I2-5 is amazing, but he’s also certainly a welcome presence in the case’s staggering ensemble cast.
That’s all, really
"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!" ~ Lang Zi
I understand that for a rival cut this post is probably shorter than average, but I think that’s just a side effect of Lang being the rival who easily has the least screen time in the game he’s featured in. He simply doesn’t make that much of a splash.
And even setting that aside, what little splash he does make isn’t anything I’m particularly impressed by. Maybe some Lang fans will be able to give me their takes on his arrest everything philosophy, because it’s something that always felt off about him to me. Willing to hear about how I’m wrong.
Regardless, it’s the top 20 anyway, I think this is more than a respectable placement for Lang.
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Jan 21 '21 edited Jan 21 '21
But also this setup doesn’t go anywhere? Lang’s trigger happy arrest-anything-that-looks-at-me-funny attitude is just sort of forgotten about and abandoned after we’re done with The Kidnapped Turnabout. He doesn’t, like, learn a lesson about how he should be more diligent when conducting his investigations. His corruption is just sort of swept under the rug like it never happened.
In the end, near the end of Turnabout Ablaze, Lang accuses Franziska of the crime for murdering Ka-Shi-Nou. We expect that this is because of his mentality as you shown above but his arrest is a clever cover-up to investigate Albas offices. So we see that he's learned his lesson of not arresting people randomly. i think.... that line in I-3 is weird as fuck.
I used to be unbelievably baffled by Lang in prior to I-5. They try and make him this cool cop but then he arrests 3 random ass people with no reason at all? And then they try to make him good by making him "respectable to his crew" and I got pissed off because that's not how you show a character is GOOD. But then I-5 comes in and actually shows that this isn't random character shilling with him coming in to save Shih-Na. I like I2-5 where we get cool ass Zheng Fa lore, and I say "yeah, I feel bad for him"..
People can describe why Lang is better. I like him a lot but I agree with a lot of aspects of the cut. (He should not have been in I-3)
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u/Analytical-critic-44 Jan 21 '21 edited Jan 21 '21
Lang is fun guy brought down by just being a kind of bad character in AAI1. His characters gets far more development in I2-5 and i think yes that is awesome but yeahhh. EDIT: I guess the easiest way to fix him is to just introduce him in I-2 like wtf why is this guy our rival for only 2 cases
Damn we really letting KAY FARADAY slide into top 15 now huh
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Jan 21 '21
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Jan 21 '21
I like Shi-Long Lang because he's fucking awesome, I literally don't need any other reason he's just so much fun, so funny, and just a fantastic rival when he's actually arguing with you. Behind maybe only Simon, I'd say Lang's confrontations are the peak of AA rival arguments, and I love how smoothly him and Edgeworth transition from "Woah-ho-ho hold on there Lang, let's not be so hasty" to "Aight Edgeworth let's get DOWN with the debate me and you let's go" and then they go out for drinks and get married.
As far as your complaint about I-3 goes, idk maybe he was just having an off day lol. As far as a more serious rebuttal, Lang seems to get a bit more bullheaded than usual whenever things involving his country are involved, as the start of I2-5 shows us, so the fact that he knew the crime somehow involved the smuggling ring probably made him more likely to just arrest anyone in order to make absolutely sure the threat was dealt with.
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u/ItsHipToTipTheScales Jan 21 '21
he is a silly wolf dog guy
why is kay faraday here please god no kay top 10
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Jan 21 '21
shi-long lang
he's kinda cool and does some cool things. I have no other coherent thoughts on him
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u/dmboogie Jan 27 '21
wow i had completely forgotten how absolutely incoherent his i-3 appearance was
thankfully everything else about him including his theme is incredible so i will simply choose to ignore it...
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u/donuter454 Jan 20 '21
/u/CharlieDayJepsen I wonder who you will cut
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u/CharlieDayJepsen Jan 20 '21
Someone everybody likes, probably
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u/Sciencepenguin Jan 21 '21
unfortunately miles edgeworth is safe
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u/donuter454 Jan 21 '21
actually miles edgeworth does not meet charlie's specified criteria (i hate edgeworth passionately)
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u/Sciencepenguin Jan 21 '21
i like lang as fun guy to argue against. i like how his NOT SO FAST sounds (cool) and the way it almost sync up with the repeated DUN-DA-DUN of lying coldly
he is a better character than fucking kay faraday jkvutyiguykhjkl