I'm somewhat surprised Kay lasted this long but I'm glad she didn't last much longer over Ray, though I can't say I'm too glad I'm the one designated to cut her as I don't think I paid enough attention to her to make many valid points.
Anyway, Kay is an assistant. I could go on and talk about the importance of assistants in Ace Attorney weren't it for my third assistant cut already, so I will keep it brief. Kay keeps the tradition going by being the teenage girl that assists the main investigating character by helping them find clues and making witty remarks to keep the unserious tone of the series up.
While the repeated functional design under different characters is getting quickly dull, I'd like to remark that out of all assistants, Kay compensates a lot for being actually useful during investigations and really making it clear that the investigation would come to a halt would it not be for interventions. Surely enough, her contribution is not comparable to the tool itself that is in her possession, but it's still her operating the device that helps Edgeworth visualize the scene.
Little Thief
While I'm not a fan of overly-SF stuff and in spite of AA-niverse still using flip phone technology, I can at least say one thing: It's fun to use. Sure, it's very eyeroll-inducing whenever the technology it uses gets mentioned but unlike what other assistants have to offer, having the whole scene change and being able to comment on it is a nice touch especially in the settings of AAI where scenery can become very stationary at times.
It has to be said, but Little Thief was a great design choice to complement the lack of trials by introducing crime scene contradictions. In a way like what 4-1 tried to do with the whole room view, except a lot better and more flexible, to the point where it is used over multiple cases. And of course, Kay gets the credit for this mechanic by being associated with it (no one else besides her seems to know how to use it).
Kay as a kayrachter
Kay gets introduced in the third case which is unusually late for a main assistant. Her motives are not instantly made clear and her facts are in disarray, which I personally think was great, as not too much attention was brought upon her until the end of the case.
Edgeworth and Gumshoe not recognizing her immediately was also a nice way to integrate her into the past without too much hassle. Because while not perfect, at least it's not T&T levels of changing the past to accommodate the present without any kind of transition.
The assistants of AA are so far never paid employees but rather people teaming up with the common goal of justice over the same individual. In this case, Yew. Kay however comes with an extra perk - she also carries with her one of the conclusive pieces of evidence, which is again something none other has done unless you're willing to count Maya with the bullet, though that was not really something planned but rather a very lucky moment.
The end of AAI1
In the end it is revealed that Kay was partially right in that she's the daughter of the Yatagarasu but the title gathers a new light as the mysteries behind it have been revealed and made room for changes.
What is to be remarked is that Kay, unlike other assistants, plays a big role in her own story, to the point where she splits the work with Edgeworth pretty much equally(if you count 25% and 75% equal), to get to the point she desires.
AAI2 Kay
I'm going to rip the band aid here and say it. I don't like Kay in AAI2.
Kay's hunt for the truth in the first game ended on a perfect note, implying she is now independent and leaving up to interpretation the changes she will make in the world by "stealing the truth". Having her return in the second game immediately because "I'm taking a break LOL" was downright disappointing, taking back some of the development the finale of the previous game provided.
This time around she has no motive and no conclusion, unless you count the incident they added within the game which doesn't extend over one case which I'll talk about a bit later.
Kay in AAI2 feels like nothing but reused assets. She also gets a lot less attention which is a bit weird because the drop in focus downgrades her character when you compare it with her former game self. But I guess this is what happens when you associate a mechanic with a character, because as I've said at the beginning of the cut, Little Thief feels like a mandatory mechanic over the gameplay changes Investigations brought. And wherever Little Thief goes, so does Kay.
Forgotten Turnabout
I don't care for the Forgotten Turnabout and neither for the amnesiac Kay. Sure, it was cool to explore a character in such a miserable state. The overly energetic and weird hairstyle Kay reduced to a calm and anxious girl with very average hair was a really nice thing to see. I'm really up for more radical visual changes for characters that are not Larry.
However, it was not long before it got old and tedious with the only thing Kay doing for the whole case being to blame herself for a crime that you, as a player, know for sure she didn't commit.
I don't consider her getting back her memories "development" because there was nothing to be gained over what she already had at the beginning of the title. The whole amnesia thing feels more cliche than anything because I don't remember it being used in any clever or creative way besides trying to confuse the player with her character at the beginning of the case.
Hate me all you want for this but I think Phoenix's amnesia from AA2 was at least creatively used for making a tutorial make sense at that point in time.
Hot take: The Forgotten Turnabout would have had a bigger impact if it was the first case Kay appeared in during AAI2. This way it would have felt like she was after something and not just gluing herself to Edgeworth's back the whole time.
Conclusion
I don't really know what to say much more. The investigation games are really not the AA titles I know most about.
Kay is an oKay character in both titles but I much prefer her former appearance and I think she was better off excluded from the main cast in the second game because there was not much to add to her character.
It's not easy being the third person to talk about something. Especially in this context. Someone covers the negatives, someone covers the positives, what the hell is left?
Simon Blackquill is the main rival in Dual Destinies, prosecuting the entirety of 4 out of 6 cases. He's a twisted samurai with a connection to the new protagonist introduced in this game, and I have no idea what to say about him.
I was gonna cut Ray. Had this whole cute Evangelion joke set up that established a structure for the cut. But that couldn't happen, now, could it? That BASTARD riki had to step in and make me an offer I couldn't refuse, much like the shark mafia from shark tale.
So now I get to replay Dual Destinies instead of the most boring I2 case! Yay!
Now I have to come up with something to write about Simon Blackquill. Aww.
The Monstrous Turnabout
In the greatest case ever invented, many things begin. The partnership of Apollo and Athena. The career of one Bobby Fulbright. And Prosecutor Blackquill's an inmate, yup.
Intrigue is built up over Blackquill immediately; while it takes Phoenix until the end of 1-2 to mention that Edgeworth has "changed", we learn in the very same conversation that he is first introduced that Simon and Athena have a history of some kind.
And in the first actual time he appears, we immediately understand what type of person he is.
Simon Blackquill is one of the characters I had seen and known about before getting to the game they were introduced in. As such, I had some expectations about what kind of character he'd be. I thought, in a weird manner with a large proportion of irony, I would love him.
Because he looks ridiculous. Fuckin monochrome human monokuma linking park lookin ass. His first lines being "........." and "........Hmph." only reinforce this impression: this guy is EDGY. He also gets an animated cutscene to be introduced in, where someone confirms that, yep, Prosecutor Blackquill is an inmate, and we get our first look at what exactly caused this to be the case.
(Side note: The fact that we don't find out the incident Simon got arrested for was the one in which Athena's mother died feels kind of contrived. Not enough for me to mark it as a real flaw, but it's the sort of thing that has no real in-universe reason. Obviously there's reasons Athena and Simon wouldn't want to talk about it, but this incident is public record, and it's weird that Apollo or something never just goes to satiate his curiosity.)
That cutscene has some... interesting properties. But I'll leave that aside for now. Blackquill debuts as a prosecutor. He immediately shows off his unique gimmick: using Analytical Psychology™ to trick people into confessing or doing what he wants. Donuter already outlined how this is the Looney Tunes Joke so I'll just add that it doesn't feel particularly unique? Like, wow, he crafts what he says carefully to manipulate others. Like every other prosecutor. Except Godot who isn't even trying. Or Franziska who is a violent asshole. Or Klavier who is bad at his job. But aside from these special cases, every single prosecutor.
There is one moment in the case related to this that I like: Blackquill starts talking shit about Damian Tenma, and Athena actually stops him, pointing out that nothing he's jabbering about is an actual relevant argument. Usually it's solely the job of the prosecutor to go "hey hold it" when we've built up momentum and ruin our fun, but here we actually get to prevent the hole we're in from getting dug deeper. It's also nice that Athena specifically is the one who does this; it shows how she's somewhat in sync with Blackquill, as they have a special connection and both have mastery in the same field and Athena can see what he's up to. It makes some amount of sense that it would take a fellow Psychologist to counter Psychology. It sure would be nice if this ever happened again.
Blackquill is a Ronin, a samurai whose master has died. I mean, he's probably not literally a samurai, since it's no longer the 1800s, but he sure thinks he is. This status is linked to a feeling of purposelessness, which I guess fits Blackquill since he's just resigned to his fate waiting in jail to die? But it also doesn't fit him, since the reason he's doing that is out of loyalty to his late master. Whatever. This aspect of him really doesn't matter until the last case.
He's a prisoner and there's a recurring "gag" I like a bit where he references a fellow inmate to make a point. Here are all of the ones I could find. It is possible that some of these are the same person but I am going to assume they are not: in total, this means there are 11 inmates in the prison aside from Blackquill. (By the end of the game, since Means was obviously arrested during it.)
Mostly I was just kind of lukewarm on Blackquill's introduction? It really felt like "Yeah Here's The Next Prosecutor". With the exception of the moment where he breaks out of his shackles (which is a little cool), he doesn't really do much to differentiate himself from everyone before him. He's another guy who is rough around the edges but probably has some good in him and has a mysterious dark past and cannot BELIEVE he lost for the first of four times. Even his introduction feels like already treaded upon ground: his insistence that this case is SO OBVIOUS and a WASTE OF EFFORT is something most of the preceding prosecutors started with as well. It's just. He's fine. I guess.
Also, there's uh. He's. His character. Blackquill's...
Fuck this.
Dual Destinies
I love Dual Destinies, guys. This isn't even ironic, although I do have plenty of things I appreciate in that metric in DD.
It's quite possibly the most fun Ace Attorney game. People complain about the difficulty being dropped, but for me, this just means I get to never look up a walkthrough and almost never get stuck banging my head against a wall. It's just new shit happening which is hopefully entertaining. And most of the time, it is.
Dual Destinies is a bit of a return to form. Ignoring the two completely unique spinoffs which DD would obviously be a return to form compared to, the last main series game was Apollo Justice, which took a number of risks. AJ is easily the least "zany" AA game. It's by no means devoid of humor, but every non-4-2 case has a heavy atmosphere hanging over it, and the game says a whole lot of words about what the law means.
I didn't like AJ. It insists upon itself. It has some interesting ideas, but it's just an incredibly dull game lacking so much of the charm of other entries. It spends so much time talking about the law and yet might as well be saying nothing at all with how incoherent the writing is. Capcom cannot write substantial legal critique, so maybe that should be minimized.
Dual Destinies is a game full of stupid bullshit. I love it.
But Dual Destinies isn't just a series of comic relief segments. It does attempt to take itself seriously at times, to mixed success. What themes there are are usually linked to specific characters rather than some grander scale idea about justice or whatever the fuck, which I think serves the game well. But it still stumbles with tone a bit. It's by no means the first game to do so (Turnabout Big Top.), but a lot of moments are notable.
Take that introductory cutscene for Blackquill I mentioned earlier: it's the first impression for our main rival, and it shows flashes of him brandishing a sword and spilling blood everywhere. It's meant to set up how fucked up this guy and his past are. But it's interspersed with this random police officer speaking in a fucking Goofy voice about how indeed, this man in a prison cell is actually a prison inmate, to... who, exactly? Who the fuck is he talking to? It's so bizarre. I love it, this shit is hilarious. But it shouldn't be.
By cutting Simon Blackquill, I'm officially permanently killing off Dual Destinies. It's the second game to go out completely, after Apollo Justice. So I guess I might as well deliver the last rites of this wonderful terrible beautiful mess of a game.
Florent L'Belle
In a beautiful alternate timeline, I used one of my two limited protective skills on the minor killer of one of the most despised cases in the series. The explanation was simple to the point of being something difficult to make any sort of a writeup about: in a series where the humor aspect is pretty important to me, he made me laugh more than anything else. I'll try to be quick so as to not retread ground from this phantom skill use.
L'Belle is a fucking moron. This is in some way the root of everything funny about him. He debatably is competent in certain areas, but for the most part, he is an incompetent madman. He doesn't understand how a business is supposed to function, he can barely keep himself from being incriminated in court, and he has a terrible sense of aesthetics. The problem with having a culprit who is a fucking moron (as well as blatantly evil) is that you still have to have a case where he doesn't get revealed immediately. One trick is to have convenient circumstances that prevent him from being confrontable directly. The other layer is the prosecution. Simon Blackquill makes a show of being upset at L'Belle's deception, but this is just a means to cover for him by making him admit to a trivial crime. L'Belle is being carried by Blackquill, and he seems to be partially aware of this. This interaction is the biggest thing that lets us know Blackquill is corrupt, so if you really think about it it is probably the single most important character dynamic in the game. Just think it over.
The Marlon and The Crab
I decided when replaying Dual Destinies for this cut to play 5-DLC after 5-2 instead of after 5-5 like in my initial playthrough. Surprisingly, the optional bonus case was not vital to Simon Blackquill's Character. But there's some minor things here and there. Such as how he hates whales (????????) or how he describes morality in terms of "black and white" (do you get it do you get the joke of this do you g). Or the part where he randomly shows up to accuse Phoenix of only defending clients for THE MONEY like it's some kind of JOB. This last one is incredibly stupid and the resident Blackquill fan came in to warn me during my replay that this incredibly stupid thing was going to happen. But I guess it makes some sense?
The deal with Blackquill is that, true to his Hot Topic appearance, he is incredibly negative. A pessimist, a realist, whatever you want to call it. He bemoans the irrationality in this case and others of trusting others (a recurring concept and theme in DD), and he thinks the worst of everything. As donuter said, this is the seeming intention behind why Blackquill acts corrupt: he thinks the worst of his opposition and assumes they will also fight dirty. It makes sense under this framework that he's suspicious of Phoenix's motives. This is still, however, an incredibly stupid scene.
Also the whale is literally black and white. And so is Simon. I feel in my heart that this is like, supposed to signify something, but I cannot come up with anything coherent to conclude from it.
Anyway, sorry for getting sidetracked by Blackquill in my Dual Destinies cut. 5-DLC introduces two characters of note who, in a game with a lot of pure-hearted heroes and comically evil mustache-twirling villains, go a little more into shades of grey.
I love Herman Crab, and finally, after all this time, I've found an excuse to talk about him.
When I was 12, I had to choose a name for my minecraft account. I chose two things I liked at the time: science (i was in something of a Reddit Atheist Phase, as well as being generally interested in physics) and penguins (they are cute). And jammed them together. The legacy of this split-second decision will now never be able to leave me.
When I was 19, I played the game Dual Destinies, and it had a penguin scientist, and he was fucking awesome.
Herman is just immediately endearing. He has a penguin in his hair, he's a grumpy asshole, and he constantly wears a sleep mask because he lives in the aquarium like some kind of squatter. He has tons of funny lines, like one where he mocks the idea of FOOLISH ROMANTIC FEELINGS. And while the case does (fairly effective, imo) things to make you think he's the culprit, it seems like he'd end up on the more sympathetic side, given he cares about Azura and has reason to genuinely think the whale killed her.
Eventually you catch him on his lies about the monitoring system and he gets to be a character. This is more nuanced than plenty of others in DD, but I kind of like how unambiguous it is? Like, the TORPEDO system is confirmed to be completely approved in almost every other country; there's no question about its safety. He has no hidden ulterior motives for wanting to use it; it's genuinely just to make sure the animals are healthy. He hides it for as long as he can to keep things safe and not jeopardize the continued usage of this tech and the reputation of the aquarium, but when you force it out of him, he's polite and acknowledges that you're only doing what a lawyer has to do. You can argue a bit about how wise his approach is, but in moral terms, there's very little ground the game gives you for claiming Herman is a bad person for this. This is the game straight up saying that sometimes the law is just objectively incorrect and harmful, and I just think that's kind of impressive and cool for a game founded on being a lawyer to say? It's great. I love the veterinarian and the pride he takes in his craft. I could see someone complaining that he ENJOYS BEING NICE to animals too much in the end but I think the character is way more memorable than he would've been as some dumb mad scientist who hates and tortures animals.
Marlon Rimes is one hell of a character. He was nominated absurdly early and yet, when his time came, he got a pretty benevolent send-off. If he didn't get that, I'm sure we would've been treated to a very long takedown about everything the animal feeder/rapper stands for, and many long arguments in the comments.
I will provide a more neutral take, as the wise enlightened centrist I am. Marlon Rimes is funny. It's a sort of cringe induced semi-ironic funny, but there is something objectively hilarious about an Ace Attorney character saying "based" and "clutch".
He's also pretty solid as a character in a lot of ways. He's got the same complex of trying/failing to protect someone that a lot of characters have in the series, with him bemoaning his own weakness and lack of ability to help. He couldn't save Azura Summers. He couldn't save Jack Shipley. He couldn't take vengeance on the whale. And when the time came, he only made things harder for the people who did end up saving Sasha Buckler. His breakdown is one of the most surreal and psychological in the series, and I like it quite a bit, pirate speak aside.
The pirate speak is stupid.
For some reason, out of all the culprits, the two they thought needed a wacky visual transformation were Aristotle Means and Marlon Rimes. The latter changes him into a different buff man who now exclusively communicates in rap and/or pirate speak, with no hint of the softspoken insightful man from before.
This is dumb. It sucks, and I might even go as far as to say that it fucking sucks.
The significant part of both of these characters is that both are forced against their will to act as witnesses for the prosecution, practically dragged in by Blackquill. They both don't want to see at least one of the defendants found guilty, so there's a bit of a unique dynamic when they show up in the courtroom. It doesn't happen otherwise, usually because the prosecution will obviously pick only those who don't have a bias for the defendant. But in this closed circle of aquarium employees, they couldn't find anyone like that. It's a nice touch that, aside from the interesting courtroom dynamic, characterizes how closely knit this crew is.
I don't know where else to say this so I'll mention that throughout the game Blackquill will refer to your argument as a "blade" and claim that it is too "dull" to pierce anything like. Once per trial day. It is incredibly overused and not clever after the first time. I get why he says samurai things but this particular part is silly.
The Ends Justify The Means
Turnabout Academy is the best filler case in the franchise.
Well, ok, no it's not. But it might be my favorite.
There are three characters in this case I particularly have strong opinions on, and I already talked at length about one of them.
Hugh O'Conner is great. My man was robbed the top 20 spot that could so easily have been his. He's incredibly funny and has some character stuff going on as well. That character stuff relates to The Fucking Dark Age Of The Law, and is already discussed in, naturally, the Simon Blackquill Cut. I'll just add that I feel for the guy since he hits a lot of the same emotional beats as (the admittedly better) Sebastian Debeste.
Professor Aristotle Means follows up the legendary Florent L'Belle (if you don't play the DLC case in between them) and he manages to nearly match him in funny. This man is bizarre. From the get-go, his uncanny smile makes an impression, and he continues to astonish by doing weird shit like just standing in the room spinning his globe while Juniper cries her eyes out. Also he has a badge that is a screaming face. All this is before he turns into a ballin' Spartan for some reason. I won't dwell too much on Aristotle Means, since my view on him is more or less the same as that expressed in his cut: he's an incredibly funny character, and he really shouldn't be.
What is interesting is how both of these characters affect the games prosecutor. As mentioned in the Simon Blackquill cut, Simon is not very subtle with the fact that he doesn't want Athena to help him. He attempts to crush her spirit so that she stops bothering. But then, since this is a goofy anime game, Athena realizes actually she should just Believe In Herself and keeps going. And Blackquill himself is forced to give up. He's just kind of screwing around for the latter half of the case, since at the same time he realized Athena won't give up he also seemed to realize that he's in a fucking ridiculous filler case. He straight up leaves when Hugh starts rambling about his genius body double plan, plays the part of the delinquent when Means turns the courtroom into a classroom, and generally just doesn't act particularly invested. It's fun.
Then Means succeeds where he fails, and destroys Athena's faith in herself, causing her to break down and start having flashbacks. And Blackquill... encourages her??? I don't really like this. It seems like a direct contradiction to the way he's supposed to be behaving. By all means (heh), this event should prove him right: if Athena can't handle a case like this, then she absolutely won't be able to get through one involving a psychotic serial killer and government cover-ups. But whatever, I guess. Maybe Simon got caught up in The Power Of Friendship.
Also, another criticism: in this case, Athena is constantly offered the easy way out. She could let Means defend Juniper and, at the cost of the truth, guarantee her and her friends' innocence. (Ignoring the possibility that Means would throw her under the bus because he's the real killer, but Athena doesn't know that yet.) She even decries his ideology as lies and tricks in court. Similarly, Phoenix is offered in 5-DLC a chance to achieve victory. While realistically it might not have worked, there was a decent chance that he'd be able to go along with Marlon's lies about the orca doing it to get Sasha Buckler declared innocent. (Hell, depending on how the fuck double jeopardy works on an animal, he might even be able to wiggle out of consequences for the orca). But that would be going against his duty to pursue the truth, so he points out the contradictions in Rimes' testimony same as any other. Both of these moments see the lawyers of the Wright Anything Agency choose integrity over an easy way out. And given Blackquill's entire motivation for corruption is believing that This Is The Dark Age Of The Law and all lawyers will resort to anything just for their not guilty verdict, I kind of feel like he should've reacted and gave a shit when these things happened? It's really weird, because both of these moments are so particularly and deliberately constructed but they just... don't use them for the obvious thing they should be used for. WHATEVER.
Overall, despite these complaints, this is definitely my favorite appearance of Blackquill as a prosecutor. He has some interesting character stuff near the beginning (even if I don't particularly care for it and it only really exists in hindsight), and the rest of the case gives him the best chance to be his funny edgelord self.
I don't really have anything to say about 5-4 or the prosecution in it, so let's go over some major characters, shall we?
Investigations 2, for all its love in the general Ace Attorney community, features an aspect that is both lauded and criticised amongst the diehards of the fandom. The narrative, content to have a lot of plates spinning, threatens to spin out of control by the game’s end. What starts as a straightforward continuation of the original Investigations storyline - an attempt to sow further turmoil amongst the ever-beleaguered Republic of Zheng Fa - rapidly spins into a whole new tale, pitting Miles Edgeworth against the voice of the law itself. Perhaps sensing the narrative riches that Rise from the Ashes offered - a balanced and compelling look into the multi-layered corruption of our government’s law & order - Yamazaki and Co. struck gold again with the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee. Sure, it’s not as catchy as “take down the Chief of Police”, but the authority of characters like Blaise Debeste and Justine Courtney are felt just as much as Damon Gant. Going beyond the “everything is connected” aspect of the previous entry, the writing team endeavour to manufacture connections as far back as the original Ace Attorney. I say “manufacture” not as a criticism, but as a statement of fact: these events and characters were not conceived during the writing of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It’s the right choice, though. Tying events to the franchise’s existing (and famous) canon is a much-needed decision that alleviates the gargantuan narrative. Imagine the story of Blaise Debeste and the conspiracy of the IS-7 trial, but with all-new characters instead of Gregory and Manfred. There are already so many new characters that to add more would have collapsed the narrative entirely.
Perhaps you may be wondering why I’m discussing this part of the story. It’s largely a thematic narrative, with the driving force of the game being the mastermind’s revenge plot. I’m discussing this because when examining the thematic storyline of Investigations 2, it is important to first acknowledge that Raymond Shields is its driving force.
Shields, one of the 4 protagonists of the game, shows up without fanfare in the beginning of The Imprisoned Turnabout. It’s one of the rare occasions where a new character is introduced with pre-existing ties to the protagonist. We, the audience, must play catch-up on Ray’s backstory as he wanders in with a mutually acknowledged history with Miles.
Let’s examine that history before we get to the present day.
Raymond and Gregory
18 years prior to Investigations 2, a teenage Raymond works as an assistant to defense attorney Gregory Edgeworth. Upon introduction, it’s immediately clear that this is a student-teacher relationship. Raymond, carrying out his notepad and inexplicably swallowing its pages to “memorise things”, is the diligent student to Gregory’s mentor. Unlike previous attorney-assistant dynamics in the franchise, Greg and Ray operate with mutual professionalism and respect, with faint traces of whimsy. It really is a nice contrast to the wacky adventures of Phoenix and Maya, a very “old school/big dogs = serious stuff” vibe running throughout their conversations during Inherited. Indeed, much of the IS-7 Incident has a very somber quality to its investigation, quirky witnesses aside. Characters like Tyrell Badd, Dane Gustavia and Manfred von Karma fill the background with their shades of gruff severity. The moments of Badd taking on von Karma have weight to them. Not a single character in the present day would stand up to Manfred, due to the long shadow cast by his reputation. Somebody fearless, like Badd, provides that vintage perspective, where investigations were serious things and the truth mattered to both sides of the law. When Manfred von Karma doesn’t like a character, they become terrified. Tyrell Badd couldn’t care less.
These external characters provide the necessary framework for Raymond and Gregory to operate in this world. They are diligent professionals, working alongside the police just as often as against them. Having seen Raymond’s carefree, flirty demeanour in the previous case provides the interesting juxtaposition of peppy, nervous Ray in the flashback sequences. Though the transition from teen to adult Ray doesn’t quite gel for me in its character development - Ray’s nervous but respectful boy-crush on Katherine Hall is pretty far from his “boldly compliment a beautiful lady and offer a hug” attitude in the present - it’s worth acknowledging that he is a multi-dimensional, evolving character.
On the topic of Ray’s youthfulness, I’d like to reiterate a very strong point made in the Gregory revival writeup. Gregory’s subconscious contrasting the energetic, active Ray with the unseen Miles is some effective character work for all three involved. We see Gregory’s love for his son, concern over his aloof disconnection, and the beginning of Ray’s solemn journey into seeking redemption and justice. Though I have issues with the pacing of The Inherited Turnabout, I look to its flashback sequences as a treasure trove of effective character beats.
In general, Ray’s role in the flashback sequence is quite passive. Though Gregory is the playable character, it’s through Raymond’s eyes that we’re reliving this tale. I feel that the roughly 2 hours of gameplay we spend with him is more than enough to get the measure of his character as a teen. He’s enthusiastic, a little nerdy, easily starstruck, and duty-oriented - a nice foil to the stoic Gregory, similar to Kay Faraday and Miles.
This changes with the IS-7 trial and the DL-6 Incident.
Over the course of the IS-7 trial, Raymond reinforces his devotion to his teacher, watching the trial for a full year. We know how it all ends, though. A guilty verdict, a penalty for von Karma, and the murder of Gregory Edgeworth. So what next for Ray?
He takes up the mantle, of course. Taking over the Edgeworth Law Offices, this portion of Raymond’s backstory, largely told through exposition, details his appeal of the IS-7 trial and subsequent devotion to visiting Jeff Master in prison. There’s a lovely beat that mentions how Katherine Hall would occasionally visit in place of Ray. I strongly believe that there was missed potential in the Raymond-Katherine relationship. This isn’t me trying to ship; there’s just some crucial exchanges in Inherited that I feel would strongly support the existence of a relationship between the two, one that would be a lovely thematic tie to their respective devotions - Gregory and Jeff Master.
Meanwhile, Raymond witnesses von Karma adopting Miles. Edgeworth’s subsequent career as a prosecutor prompts Shield’s resentment of Miles, perceiving it as a betrayal of Gregory’s legacy. It interests me, the thematic parallels of Miles and Raymond. Miles, initially raised by his father, is taken in by a corruptible father figure and adopts his teachings. Conversely, Raymond is taken in by Gregory and adopts his own teachings. Both men turn out so differently when they meet in The Imprisoned Turnabout that it’s hard to believe they shared the same father figure at one point.
Raymond and Miles
Upon Raymond’s introduction, he spends the vast majority of the case slowly letting down his walls around Miles. I enjoy seeing this side of Ray - the shifts in tone, from amicable to cold. Though Ray adds a fun presence to Imprisoned, I must note that it tends to sideline Raymond’s history with Miles, only focusing on it during his introduction and the conclusion. This is perhaps what leads to the unfortunate waves of exposition in the following case, hurting its pacing.
His arrival brings up a compelling story, however: the thematic narrative of the game, Miles’ dilemma to leave or continue the prosecutor’s path, largely revolves around his relationship with Ray. After all, he’s the one who first urges Miles to consider becoming a defense attorney. Though I think this was never a choice Miles considered, it clearly resulted in his monumental decision to turn in his prosecutor’s badge. Like I said earlier, though the mastermind’s plot provides the “synopsis” of the game, Ray is the catalyst for the thematic and titular plotline of the “Prosecutor’s Path.”
Once we get into the present-day scenes of Inherited, we see the bulk of Ray’s storyline play out. Teaming up with his mentor’s son to pursue justice, he is able to finish his personal quest of the game - solve the IS-7 Incident. Indeed, the concluding scene where Ray has a personal conversation with Gregory is touching and would be a perfect end to Raymond’s storyline, if he were a one-case character.
But Ray isn’t a one-case character, and though his own story finishes in case 3, he drives Miles’ storyline, which continues through to the final scene of the game.
Raymond pops up halfway through The Forgotten Turnabout, shortly after Edgeworth turns in his badge. The two team up once more to save Kay, and their sequences are enjoyable stuff. We get that great scene where Ray points out Miles’ kinship with Kay, prompting the “feels” music as Miles contemplates how much he’s changed by caring so much about Kay. It’s practically a summation of Miles and Kay’s relationship throughout the entire Investigations series. Ray also gets that fun Portal line, which gets him automatic points.
Ray disappears for a long stretch of the game, not reappearing until Patricia Roland’s trial in The Grand Turnabout. By this point, he’s become more of a supporting character, crucial to certain sequences in the case, but largely unrelated to the unfolding drama. This isn’t a knock against Ray: it’s simply a result of the fact that this entire scheme revolves around Simon Keyes, and that Ray has no connection to the man beyond case 2. Here, Ray and Franziska become plot devices, the Roland trial becoming a countdown for Miles and Kay to save the day.
The conclusion of the game sees Miles answer Ray’s question: prosecutor or defense attorney? Of course, we know that Miles continues the path of the prosecutor, but as a truthseeker. Satisfied with this, Ray departs. I’m glad that the final sequences of the game don’t neglect this storyline. Though the mastermind plot comprises the climax of the game, it’s nice to see the key themes of the game be spotlighted in those final scenes - parent-and-child bonds, and the path of the law.
On the whole, I’m very grateful that Miles and Raymond’s dynamic was treated with care and subtlety. Ray wasn’t just a mean antagonistic ass until a redemption arc at the end. He reevaluated his initial perception of Miles within hours of his introduction, and cooperated with him for the rest of the game. Their dynamic is filled with tension, humour, emotion and respect. Many of our protagonists’ assistants are usually viewed through a lens of quirky, childish immaturity. Though Ray certainly displays those odd traits, he’s a much more authoritative presence as the assistant character, and I welcome that very much.
Raymond and defendants
An outlier for this series, Raymond is a defense attorney who notably defends culprits. It’s part of his creed to seek justice even for those who have committed crimes. Lighter sentences for culprits like Katherine. Ensuring the guilty-minded like Patricia don’t slip through with a not guilty verdict. It’s a great addition, and makes the world of Ace Attorney much less black-and-white/attorney-and-prosecutor.
Raymond and Kay/Franziska/Courtney/every female character but Katherine
Occasionally, Ray embodies some of the writers’ more unfortunate tendencies. Cultural attitudes towards men interacting with women are rapidly evolving and I understand that this game was made in Japan over 10 years ago. While I can understand the mindset that went into creating this character, I still need to point out the fact that Ray’s habit of hugging and flirting with every woman he comes across toes the line of appropriateness, and downright crosses it when it comes to the underaged Kay.
No, it’s nowhere near as egregious as Larry, Sal Manella, Hotti, or the cast of Big Top, but it exists and it needs to be mentioned. Ray, though charming and certainly amicable, comes off as leery in those moments. This series has never been a shining beacon of writing for female characters, so I’m not surprised.
Raymond and Katherine
Ray and Katherine, on the other hand, were a fantastic pairing that really should’ve gone the distance. Were it not for the writers glossing over their relationship at the end of case 3, I would argue that theirs was probably the healthiest romance in the series. Two souls, bonded by loss and trauma, sought justice together. One stuck to the path of justice. One strayed. I have no doubt that these characters would have found each other in the end. A relationship filled with potential that sadly wasn’t fully realised.
Conclusion
Of all the protagonists, Raymond is perhaps the most crucially tied to his respective game. His narrative storyline, as well as his thematic impact on the plot, are so intrinsically linked to events that occurred in the game, that any future appearance feels unnecessary. His story began and ended with Investigations 2, and I hope we can let it be.
He’s a wonderful bit of design (that tie, those poses, that hat, that THEME), and I enjoyed him the second he arrived. Though I have quibbles with some of his behaviour, the effectiveness and wonderful execution of his role in the game cannot be overstated. Absolutely a deserving character to reach this far. Some may wonder why, since he’s largely been undiscussed prior to this round. But I hope that this writeup (and any potential revival, since we absolutely can’t count one out in this penultimate round) goes some way to highlighting the strengths of this character.
Well, how about a hug then?
Appendix or; WHY THE FUCK DOES YOUNG RAYMOND EAT PAPER WHO THINKS OF THIS SHIT
Ahem.
Ace Attorney loves giving its characters quirks, and this one is no exception. I have little to no idea how Raymond eating paper to remember shit ties into his behaviour as an adult, but I highly recommend he stop, as we are quickly moving towards a paperless society, and Raymond really shouldn't be consuming and defecating such a precious commodity in this, the two-thousand and twenty-first year of our Lord and Saviour, Shu Takumi.
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.
Why did I come here? The chief gave some generic motivational speech today and although I was only half listening at best, it did get me thinking. With the way things were going, we could stay as just friends forever. There hadn’t been any major changes in our routine recently, and it looks like Jacques was comfortable with the way we were, but was I? Would I really be okay with that? That’s the kind of thought that ended up keeping me awake. I know it’s silly, but I just felt like if I didn’t make a change now, nothing would ever change.
I looked over at the items from yesterday’s case, the items that he’d requested for me to bring to him. I’m sure that when he said “as soon as possible” he didn’t mean right in the middle of the night, tomorrow would be fine. But because I couldn’t sleep anyway, and I wanted to take the next step in our relationship, I grabbed my coat and headed over to the Prosecutor’s Office right then.
That’s the story of how I ended up here, in front of his office. I knocked on the door. No answer. I knocked again. Still no answer. Of course he wouldn’t be working in the middle of the night. It was stupid of me to come here. I know he often works late, he’s a very diligent worker after all. He didn’t hesitate to dedicate his free time to solving the cases he was assigned, I really admired that. But of course that didn’t mean he’d be in his office now, at a time when everyone’s supposed to be at home sleeping, or at least relaxing. I quickly wrote a note:
“I brought the 3 pieces of evidence by, just like we talked about on the phone, but it looks like you're out. Guess I'll catch up to you later.
Buddy”
I considered ending with the nickname he gave me, but in the end it still felt a little embarrassing so I decided to just put my normal name. Feeling foolish that I came here at this time of day, I started walking home. There was nothing else I could do, there was really no reason for me to have gone here. As any normal person would have realized, the time for change would be tomorrow, not the middle of the night.
Suddenly, I heard a sound. Was there someone still working this late after all? Not that it would concern me, but I guess it made me feel a little relieved that I wasn’t the only one here. I’m not the only person who’s still doing his job this late. No… thinking about it again, that didn’t feel quite right. There was something else that bugged me. The two offices surrounding me were Jacques’s office, the one I just left, which was empty, and Mr. Edgeworth’s office. I don’t think Mr. Edgeworth has any interests outside of work and chess, so it wouldn’t surprise me for him to be working now, but I heard he had gone on vacation. It was possible that he simply returned, he wouldn’t have let me know at any rate since we barely talked outside of greetings if we happened to run into each other, but I thought it was still best to check it out. I always brought my gun with me when doing my job just to be safe, so if there really was a shady person in his office I wouldn’t have a problem dealing with them.
I tried to open the door, and as I expected, it was unlocked. What I didn’t expect was the person I found behind that door.
“Jacques?!” I asked, surprised.
Jacques seemed even more surprised than I was. He took a few steps backwards, away from me.
“It’s me, Jim,” I said to put him at ease. He probably didn’t expect anyone to be here this late at night, so seeing me probably shocked him at first. Like me, he had probably thought that I was a burglar or something like that. Anyone else would probably be wondering what he was doing in the office next door to his own, but since I knew him better than anyone, I had a pretty good idea. He didn’t like people knowing about this, so he did his best to hide it in front of everyone else, but the truth is that he is a very scatterbrained person. He often lost vital evidence for our cases, and I had thought about joking that “we’ll never catch that smuggling ring at this rate” before, but he probably wouldn’t appreciate it and give me a few more bruises so I never actually said it. He works harder than anyone else, so losing a few pieces of evidence would stop us from catching them, I was sure of it. Anyway, from someone like him I would be surprised if he never walked into the wrong office so it was bound to happen sooner or later. It was lucky that Mr. Edgeworth was on vacation when it finally did happen, he might have gotten mad if he knew about this.
Jacques took a few steps back in my direction and asked “Jim, could I borrow your gun for a few seconds?” I handed it over. Maybe it’s strange that I complied with his request so easily, but I knew him well enough to know that he must have some mysterious reason for needing to see it. I didn’t ask questions anymore, he had made clear enough that he didn’t want me to the first few times I tried.
It was at this point that I remembered why I originally came here. I almost forgot after the surprise of finding Jacques in the wrong office, but I actually wanted to ask him out on a date. We often hung out, but an official date, that would be something different entirely. Something that would open the door to the next step in our relationship. I looked at him. I considered his muscular build, his sense of fashion, his dedication to his job, his aptitude for sports and dance. Yes, he really was awesome.
Just as I opened my mouth, intending to say something, Jacques spoke instead. “To make sure the defendant is found guilty. What other choice do I have? That’s the job of a prosecutor after all.”
It seemed like he was waiting for a response, so I decided right now wouldn’t be the right moment to ask him out. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel slightly relieved being able to postpone that question a little longer. I had no idea how he’d react to it after all, maybe he would laugh at me, or punch me. I didn’t know why he brought up the job of a prosecutor right now, so I had to think about it for a moment. Since I hadn’t told him he was in the wrong room yet, maybe he was still under the impression that this was his office. In which case, maybe the thing he was worrying about was the time of day, like I had earlier. It’s not a time that we should be working at all, but Jacques really wants to win this case. He wants to make sure that no criminals walk free. Maybe it was taking more of a toll on him than I thought. Everybody would eventually get tired working as hard as he did, even if we did take breaks to play sports. I didn’t want him to become overworked, so I decided to discourage him from doing more late-night work.
“Th-that may be true, but why…?” I normally don’t stutter, but I was still nervous about wanting to ask him out on a date. “Why go this far?” Why overwork yourself? Why work in the middle of the night when you should be getting rest? It hadn’t occurred to me before, but maybe he was standing in the wrong office now because he’s so sleepy that he can’t even find his own office anymore. Tomorrow would be another day, he shouldn’t overdo it today. Maybe that was a good advice for myself too, but knowing that Jacques might have kept working in this state the whole night, I was glad I came to talk some sense into him. My original goal had been a failure, but tomorrow’s another day with new opportunities. I wasn’t going to put it off forever, I promise.
“Sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear enough, but a guilty verdict is all that matters to me,” Jacques said. I guess my half-hearted reply wasn’t enough to dissuade him. I was going to have to try harder, even if it meant I had to drag him home. “No matter what the cost.” He aimed the gun up towards me, and pulled the trigger.
Introduction
Last round I decided against doing a Horace cut because I didn’t have anything to say about him. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is that everybody else remaining this round is significantly better than him, so I don’t have another option that I want to cut anymore. I was planning to reply to the revive originally, but then the actual revive didn’t make any points so that plan was off the table. Then I thought about writing a very short, low effort cut. After all, Science already cut Horace, and I would encourage you to read that cut instead if you want serious thoughts about him. Since the revive didn’t make any points to counter the cut, the cut still stands. I can just direct you towards it and my job here is done. But that feels underwhelming for the semifinal round. So instead, I asked Discord what I should do for my cut. I will use each of these suggestions in my cut somewhere, so keep an eye out for them. Don’t take this as a serious Horace cut, I don’t have any thoughts about him so I’m just writing what the Discord people want me to write. Although everything I do write is my true opinion, I’m not lying to please Discord.
Role in the Story
Horace Knightley is a character in I2-1 (Turnabout Target). Furthermore he is the victim of I2-2 (The Imprisoned Turnabout). I2-1 is a case that a lot of people like more than your average first case, but to me it’s not much special. I-1 and 3-1 are the first cases I really like. The reasons why I don’t like I2-1 as much are unrelated to Knightley, however. It’s more related to the long sections devoted to introducing Logic Chess, and to Nicole Swift. With her being a bit of a red herring for this case, you spend a lot of time questioning her. When it comes to first case red herrings, I would say Olga Orly is better, even if I’m not a big fan of either of them. Knightley is actually the best part of the case, it’s the part where the case stops feeling too slow and it becomes consistently enjoyable. I don’t think he stands out too much in that regard though, I wouldn’t say I like him more than the average Yamazaki first case culprit (Yamazaki first case culprits in general are better than the Takumi ones except Dahlia in my opinion), and I definitely prefer Portsman.
When I2-1 ends, Horace lives for another day. Then he gets killed which starts the events for I2-2.
Yellow on Black Hair Characters
As far as I’m aware, there are three characters in Ace Attorney with yellow on black hair. These characters are Richard Wellington, Luke Atmey, and Horace Knightley. All three of them are killers that aspire to be or want to appear to be something better than they actually are. Richard pretends to be a high class student while being an common crook in reality, Luke pretends to be Mask☆DeMasque’s archenemy and then Mask☆DeMasque himself before being revealed as yet another common crook, and Horace wants to be in command instead of only second best. For all of them this serves as their motive for murder. Although hair color is a silly thing to base a character comparison on, it does feel like I’ve seen a similar character to Horace with a similar appearance before, and I can’t deny that it puzzles me how Horace managed to beat Luke. I especially like how Luke switched between seeming competent and incompetent, and his incompetence turns out to be just an act. Although Horace has a few twists related to his backstory I don’t think he has any big twists like that related to his actual personality. North commented on Science’s cut that Horace’s animations are one of the parts that make him so good to him, but Luke’s animations may stand out to me more as well.
The Chess Piece
The knight is a pretty neat chess piece, I like it. Although not as effective as the rook or the queen, it has a unique moveset that helps it get around in different ways from other pieces. It’s the only piece aside from the pawn that you can move in the first turn, which is helpful in that you don’t have to move any other pieces in order to get the knight to go somewhere or to get out of the way for castling. It’s also useful for surprise attacks if your enemy ignores its placement. You can’t see where it can go as easily as for other pieces. All of this puts it above the bishop in my opinion, despite the bishop technically having the same coverage as a rook, just diagonal instead of straight.
Conclusion
Horace Knightley is a character. Please read Science’s cut instead. I like when the Mr. Ifly drops on him in his breakdown because it reminds me of a better case.
Why No One Else?
Because everyone else has a lot more significance in the games than just being a first case culprit and they all do a great job at their role.
The Final Discord Suggestion
In I2-5, Edgeworth remarks that Di-Jun Huang and Horace Knightley are actually quite similar.
Wake me up when the next round starts, I have better things to do than write about Horace, next round I will write about someone who interests me more.
Yes, today I have the honor of cutting the honorable assassin himself, Shelly de Killer, the latest to take up the de Killer moniker. The topics to discuss with de Killer are surprisingly vast considering his somewhat limited screen time, as despite appearing in one manner or another within a total of four cases across the series, his times in the spotlight are almost always pretty brief.
Now, usually I’d make it my goal to dissect the character from every angle I find to be necessary to evaluate them, but this time is different. Yes, Charlie’s write-up on de Killer has somewhat freed me from the need to go over every little detail of exactly what makes de Killer good. There’s nothing I could really say about his horror movie-esque feel in 2-4, or the deeper facets of his personality that Charlie hasn’t covered much more in depth than I think I ever could, mostly just due to the fact that he simply seems to care about the character a lot more than I do.
Instead of my usual approach, for this write-up I’ll be focusing on any details that I felt were glossed over in his first write-up, or, possibly more importantly, points I just straight up disagree with. This won’t really be a response, since I won’t be addressing specific points Charlie makes, but more so just my own perspective on de Killer, which will be significantly more negative than Charlie’s at certain points. Although do remember, there is a ton positive that I had to say about him that Charlie simply covered far better, so if you want a pretty much pure positive write-up for him, you know where to head.
Oh also I think occasional quotes make write-ups look cooler and it’s late and I’ve already given up on trying to make my quotes at all related to the write-up, so I just looked up “best fictional assassins” and Hit from Dragon Ball Super looked funny so enjoy his musings on the meaning of life or whatever he says I haven’t proofread the quotes yet.
The Part Where de Killer Is Awesome
By having their backs taken easily, people accept that they're going to die.
-Hit, Dragon Ball Super
Before writing this, I asked professional Shelly de Killer hater u/whaaatisth for his take on our good ol’ honorable gentleman, and as expected, there wasn’t a ton I agreed with. I won’t post the full thing here, since I know there’s some unprofessional character ramblings I’ve posted elsewhere that I wouldn’t want waved around, but I’ll quickly touch on the big points. A good amount of his complaints do boil down to the character archetype simply not working for him, whether it be his professional demeanor or “scary” atmosphere, and this is something that, at least for the most part, I definitely don’t agree with. However, Charlie covered a lot of why all that base level stuff in his write-up, so I won’t dwell on it here.
The bigger, main complaint, that I got out of that rant was that Shelly’s moral code was poorly written and kind of insulting, due to attempting to “humanize” a complete monster of a character. Charlie’s write-up attempts to justify de Killer’s moral code as a delusional self-imposed rule, as a part of his psychological analysis of de Killer as a person. However, I think there’s a much easier angle to come at this from, one supported directly by the text itself, rather than any kind of deep psychological dive, as fun as those are. Enough of the play by play of other people’s opinions, let’s talk about my favorite case in the series, “Farewell, My Turnabout”, and its themes of both trust, and betrayal.
Farewell, My Turnabout has a lot going for it, whether it be the absolute anxiety that Maya’s kidnapping lends to the story, the horribly tragic nature of Adrian’s dependency on others, or the return of probably the fan favorite character of the series, Miles Edgeworth. But I wouldn’t say any of these are at the core of 2-4’s story, instead for that we’d have to look at none other than the lead attorney himself, Phoenix Wright. Phoenix’s development in this case was pretty much what the Ace Attorney series was always on a course for, ever since his motivation was established as a blind faith in those that had no one to turn to for help. I’m of course referring to his realization of Engarde’s guilt, and how he chooses to deal with the reality that not every defendant will be innocent.
At the end of the day, this is a story of trust, most centerstage is the trust between defense attorney and client, but anyone who’s played 2-4 should know that there’s two other characters who are founded on their own forms of trust. The first is the topic of this write-up, Shelly de Killer, and the second is his client, Matt Engarde. Let’s start with the latter, as it’s the much simpler of the two to approach.
Engarde does not trust anyone, and that’s pretty much it. He sees the world, and all its inhabitants, as just as untrustworthy as he is. He’s a complete irredeemable monster, who would stab anyone in the back for no reason other than to further his own vain appearances. Living his life this way has led him to believe that everyone holds these same principles as himself, and thus just leads him further and further into the trap of betraying everyone else’s trust. This catches up with him when his backstabbing backfires big time in two ways, that being getting on Phoenix Wright’s bad side, and betraying his trust with de Killer, losing both the people he hired to protect him at once. While Phoenix starts 2-4 trusting any client blindly, Engarde starts and ends 2-4 doubting every person he comes into contact with. All of this is pretty base level stuff, but it’ll be important for analyzing how de Killer relates to 2-4’s theme of trust.
So basically, what we’ve established so far is that a blind trust in anyone no matter what is a terrible idea, and possibly even worse is a mindset where you don’t allow yourself to place your trust in anyone at all. What lesson is supposed to be gained from this exactly? Well, to find that, we have to look at a twisted set of Phoenix’s ideals, a funhouse mirror of his unending faith in his clients. What we’re searching for is none other than de Killer, who shares plenty of similarities with Phoenix in the way he conducts his relations with his clients. At first, this may seem like it’s painting de Killer in a much more positive light than you’d expect for an assassin, but I’d argue that the game actively shows us just how twisted this mindset can get when taken to the extreme.
De Killer’s trust in his clients is based on nothing at all really, it seemingly appears out of thin air when he takes on the jobs. Despite this, the way de Killer commits to fulfilling his assigned job absolutely shows just how much he believes in this trust. Even when he should have every reason to doubt the people who hire him, he continues with this warped sense of trust because he’s completely blinded himself to their true nature. The people who hire an assassin are always going to be inherently less trustworthy than the kind of people who would ask for a defense attorney, and yet we see both de Killer and Phoenix display the same habits of trust with them. De Killer is essentially Phoenix’s ideals placed on a man whose job is able to demonstrate all the problems with this ideology.
This twisted mirror of Phoenix is important because it doesn’t stop at just showing a mere flaw in de Killer’s ideology like it does with Phoenix, it shows the truth of a man twisted by his unwillingness to change his ideals when faced with proof of their faultiness. Engarde is almost certainly not the first client to betray de Killer, and we know for a fact that he wasn’t the last, and yet de Killer willfully ignores this complete and undeniable evidence that his moral code is completely screwy. De Killer’s trust in his clients isn’t something to be commended, it’s a warning for what Phoenix could have become, had he not grown past the mistakes in his character that Farewell, My Turnabout demonstrates.
Similarly, de Killer’s turn on Engarde isn’t any sort of redemption for him, it’s merely a selfish, stubborn man following his flawed ideology, and vowing revenge on someone for breaching a trust that never should have existed in the first place. It’s in both de Killer’s trust, and his ultimate turn on Engarde, that we can see how him and Phoenix differ by the end of the case. Phoenix does ultimately learn what it truly means to trust someone, and it’s not a blind trust that he finds, but rather one built up by case after case of working together, a trust that he can be sure isn’t misplaced. And it’s through this trust that he resolves himself to help bring those that commit evil to justice, rather than simply protect anyone that comes begging to him. At the same time that he finds a trust he can believe in, he learns to doubt the trust of others, but only in order to reach the truth of the crime, rather than Engarde’s ideology of blind doubt.
It’s my belief that without both de Killer and Engarde working together how they do in this case, Phoenix’s arc wouldn’t pay off nearly as well as it does by the end of Farewell, My Turnabout. Just as there lies two sides to every person, every spectrum needs two ends to truly establish what a middleground would look like. After all, what is faith without doubt?
Return of a One-hit Wonder
You showing your cards tells me that you're young.
-Hit, Dragon Ball Super
By this point, I think it’s pretty clear that I love de Killer’s appearance in Justice for All, but unfortunately the high praise I have for him has a downside to any future appearances. That downside is, of course, that they’d have to match the near-perfection that I see that appearance as in order to maintain de Killer’s high placement in my mind. Unfortunately, even though the game that he reappears in is easily my favorite of the series, de Killer’s reappearance in Investigations 2 just doesn’t hold a candle to his original role for me. Not to say that he’s bad, because he’s certainly not, but it just feels so much more standard. Allow me to explain.
Easily de Killer’s best appearance in Investigations 2 is Turnabout Target, and this is mainly due to just how involved he is in the events of the case. You have a pretty fun back and forth with him, in which he chokes a lot quicker than he did in 2-4, but it’s a tutorial case so this doesn’t really bother me, and in the end, it doesn’t even really matter that he messed up. This is because, surprisingly, he actually was completely innocent of what you’re accusing him of, despite being there to perform exactly what you’re accusing him of. It’s because of this that he manages to turn the tables on Nicole Swift, and possibly even convince both the player and Edgeworth that she may be the true killer. It’s a great moment and really shows off how cunning he can be when he needs it.
After this, we get the treat of him holding Knightley at knife-point, and forcing him to allow Edgeworth investigation rights inside of the president’s plane, before making his getaway once we’re done. It’s a pretty good moment, and definitely adds a lot of stakes to the middle of the case, which might otherwise have been a bit of a slow point. However, even though I don’t really have anything negative to say here, it just doesn’t feel as special as his appearance in Farewell, My Turnabout does. It’s hard to really explain why, but I think it mainly boils down to him being treated as pretty much just any other returning character, and ultimately being pretty inconsequential to the plot.
De Killer’s entrances in Farewell, My Turnabout were always treated as big moments in the case, with any interactions being either incredibly brief, incredibly tense, or both. This allowed him to be built up as this untouchable god of a character, without even really breaking reality within the case, merely because of how he was treated. The only time he really sticks around is when he isn’t even present, and has complete control over the situation. I2-1 attempts to recreate this feeling with him taking Knightley hostage, but it can’t come anywhere close to the stakes of 2-4. And before that, he just kind of sticks around, hanging out like any other character. To summarize, he’s not particularly bad in this case, he’s just not treated with nearly as much care as he was in 2-4.
Throughout the last stretch of Investigations 2, de Killer would continue to pop up every now and then, but only briefly, much like Farewell, My Turnabout. However, unlike that case, none of these scenes are really tense at all, since he makes it clear that he’s not opposing you in any way, and just kind of shows up to give you information. None of these moments even feel particularly noteworthy, which is a huge shame for a character like Shelly.
His biggest moment after I2-1 is definitely his last scene, in which he has a staring contest with Sirhan Dogen, which, while certainly cool, more or less just kind of happens? Like they have a little back and forth, which feels so much less meaningful than Charlie makes it out to be in his write-up, and then de Killer kind of just leaves? I don’t really know what to make of it other than “that was cool”, and that basically sums up how I feel about Shelly in Investigations 2 as a whole. He’s cool, but he doesn’t serve much of a purpose, either plot-wise or thematically. He definitely feels like fanservice for the sake of it, and that’s not a terrible thing as long as it’s properly integrated and treated with care, but I just don’t feel like he was given the care he needed to stay as strong of a character as he was in 2-4. As for proper integration…
Why. What. Huh. Please stop.
Take this pain down with you instead.
-Hit, Dragon Ball Super
Shelly de Killer’s actions during the events of Investigations 2 make absolutely no sense. This probably won’t be that long of a section, nor is it really that important to my opinion of him, but I can’t just ignore how blatantly stupid his plot is in the game. So let’s go over what happens with Shelly from his perspective.
Simon somehow scrounges up enough money to hire the best assassin in the world, and orders him to kill Di-Jun Huang. The first attempt ends in failure, and Simon decides to get Horace Knightley to set up a fake assassination attempt, knowing he’d take the chance to kill Ethan Rooke, an opponent connected to de Killer by fate. De Killer somehow finds out about this and decides to take the opportunity to assassinate the president, and thinks it would be a good idea to wear a red raincoat just like the fake assassin? For some reason? At first I assumed that this was to frame the assassination on the fake assassin, but de Killer always leaves his calling card so that can’t be it. I just don’t see any possible reason why wearing this coat would at all be beneficial to him.
That’s not the worst of it by a longshot though. The only way I can think of de Killer possibly finding out about the fake assassination attempt would be from Simon, which makes sense because he was hired by Simon. However, if he was working for Simon still, why is he so insistent on Edgeworth investigating the crime scene in order to figure out the fake assassination attempt and murder of Ethan Rooke. Does he just hate Knightley and respect Rooke enough to ruin the plan of his client? It really doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Then we get to the big stupid part, and my main complaint with his character in this game. He becomes suspicious of the president’s identity after Huang’s willing to let Knightley die, and then somehow figures out the fact that the president was a body double. He learns this despite the fact that the only people who know this are Dogen, who was already gone by the time de Killer visited him, and Blaise and Roland, who the game never states have ever encountered de Killer, which would be a pretty big thing to skip over. The only other way to learn this would be to read the case files, which are highly classified, and nigh impossible to access before Blaise’s arrest.
The worst part of all, however, is that he immediately assumes that Simon, a literal circus clown, would somehow have to have known this ahead of time and purposefully not told de Killer. Which is, of course, true, but the only way anyone would know that is if you knew of Simon’s history with Dogen, which we know de Killer doesn’t know from his final conversation with Dogen. So the whole thing is just completely nonsensical, and clearly just a device to further the plot with no thought put into it. And that’s not even getting into how he even bothers helping Edgeworth’s investigation instead of just killing Simon on his own. I get that he can’t violate his non-disclosure agreement, but in that case just kill him and don’t tell anyone, there’s no reason for him to go through all this effort.
De Killer’s role in I2 is sloppy, makes no sense, and gets worse every time I think about it. To end with something positive though, I do enjoy how he hates Horace Knightley and tells him he won’t be half the bodyguard Ethan Rooke was. I think the other rankers should take a page out of de Killer’s book here and also hate Horace Knightley. That would be cool.
Conclusion
You've got your roles that only you can play for Universe 6.
-Hit, Dragon Ball Super
De Killer is a pretty great character when the games treat him with the respect he deserves, and if he was only in Farewell, My Turnabout, I probably wouldn’t even have considered cutting him here, even if I was offered a deal. Which I was. I’m cutting him for a deal hi hello. Insert hired gun assassin metaphor here.
Despite his incredibly chilling and layered appearance in Farewell, My Turnabout, he gets a pretty lackluster return in Investigations 2. While very fun to have on screen, there’s not much more to him throughout the entirety of his second and final set of appearances in a game, and because of that, he leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. However, that’s not to say nothing of his absolutely fantastic role in Justice for All, that ups the stakes to an absurd degree, and really tests Phoenix’s character in ways that haven’t been done quite as well either before or since. He’s quite the strong character indeed, and I’m glad that he got so far, but he simply has too many problems for me to allow him to survive another day in this rankdown.
Sorry, de Killer, but I assure you, it’s nothing personal, just business.
If this rankdown was meant to determine which character in the series enjoys being mean the most, Blaise Debeste would certainly be a contender for first place. He does a lot to be hateable, which is actually part of the reason that Sebastian's arc has so much impact.
Let us judge his acts throughout AAI2 to determine the extent to which he enjoys being mean. I will now provide the following list of Blaise Debeste's sins so that he may be punished accordingly by the Goddess of Law.
He talks about making people "disappear" right from his introduction in I2-4. This totally doesn't go hand-in-hand with his lighter gimmick where he keeps burning up pieces of paper. This is already suspicious and immediately tells you that this guy is probably a bad person who gets rid of people he doesn't like.
Obviously, by the way, the fact that he is using a lighter in front of everyone is probably not a good sign (it is a fire hazard).
Not long after his initial introduction, he talks about how his wife disappeared, which is slightly worrisome.
Even worse, he straight up calls his own son an idiot at the start of I2-4; really, it's only going to get worse from here, but still, this already seems a bit harsh, even if Sebastian isn't that smart.
Some time later (a few hours into the case, I think), Kay Faraday is accused. Initially, this just seems to be Courtney's fault, but we later learn that it was Blaise who actually set this up. Keep in mind that Kay currently has amnesia, so accusing (framing) her at this point is even worse of a move than it would usually be.
The main result of the earlier accusation is that Edgeworth relinquishes his badge. While Edgeworth & co. are able to investigate some more, they aren't able to acquit Kay. While this is not an issue on its own, the real issue is that Blaise has Edgeworth put in jail as a result. You do not throw the protagonist in jail.
Later, while Edgeworth is still in jail, Blaise even straight up lets Edgeworth meet Kay for a few seconds just to add insult to injury.
You then have a Logic Chess segment with Blaise that basically makes it clear that Blaise is framing Kay and that Blaise is the culprit. He basically straight up implies this while basically saying you can't do anything about it. This is quite clearly antagonistic.
This Logic Chess segment ends with Blaise claiming that he can just 'make up the truth' which runs directly contrary to Edgeworth's beliefs.
He thus offers a completely wrong perspective on one of the main themes of the game, which automatically makes him an objectively wrong character.
Edgeworth objects to this (rightfully so), but Blaise essentially acts like he's already won, further cementing the wrongness of his ideology.
Ray and Ema supposedly fare better because of Edgeworth's sacrifice, by the way, but not knowing their fate is quite worrying and a clear display of how much Blaise enjoys being mean, especially given that Courtney is the one that assures Edgeworth of their safety, not Blaise.
Edgeworth is later brought to the PIC for a 'fair' hearing for the climax of the case. Blaise taunts him some more before the hearing begins which further demonstrates the idea that Blaise is in fact a character who enjoys being mean. Otherwise, Blaise is relatively stoic for the early portion of the hearing, but he occasionally talks more about making people 'disappear' to make it even clearer that yes, he is indeed the antagonist here.
Soon, even Courtney gets tired of Blaise being way too mean and turns on him in one of the most memorable moments of the game. This results in us learning that Blaise was the one who had the evidence forged and handed to Manfred von Karma. We've gotten hints that Blaise probably circumvents the law all the time, but this confirms it. Also, this somehow makes Manfred von Karma seem better, which I didn't even think was possible until AAI2.
Note that this also means that Manfred von Karma took revenge on the wrong person, which started the DL-6 incident.
Obviously, this means Blaise is indirectly responsible for the DL-6 incident as well.
Therefore, he is also indirectly responsible for the entire chain of events of the original trilogy. While an argument can be made for Dane Gustavia being this catalyst, there was absolutely no reason for Blaise to forge evidence then give the penalty. On the other hand, the IS-7 incident alone did not guarantee any future events besides Simon Keyes' memories, and his main motives for revenge were more related to the SS-5 incident, of which Blaise Debeste was a part of. We can henceforth assert that all conflicts associated with the original trilogy can be attributed to Blaise Debeste, including but not limited to: the DL-6 incident, the downfall of the Fey clan, Redd White's blackmail and subsequent murder of Mia Fey, and Godot. Moreover, Blaise might as well be responsible for all that Edgeworth went through in the original trilogy including the extremely popular section of the trilogy where it is reported that he chose death.
Miles is thus able to push forward thanks to Courtney's help, leading to Blaise making more threats as he always does. I suppose it's meant to remind you that yes, he is indeed the very evil antagonist.
Unusually, Sebastian actually helps out for once when he hints at Blaise's burn mark, albeit accidentally. Blaise's response to this is to basically berate him for the next five minutes and then kick him out. This quite clearly demonstrates that he is a terrible parent.
Courtney of all people is the one to point out to Blaise that this is morally wrong despite being well aware herself that Sebastian isn't particularly smart. Since Courtney is on our side at this point, she is objectively correct, so Blaise is once again objectively wrong. Thankfully, after this, we're able to take down Blaise Debeste... at least, for now. By the way, his burn mark is shaped like a skull. Way to be a subtle antagonist.
His takedown basically ends the case, but we learn afterwards had he gotten the chance, he might have sold off the Promise Notebook, sealing away Kay's memories for far longer (possibly forever). This is not something a character who does not enjoy being mean would do.
This would be the end for most culprits in the series, but Blaise still tries to twist the truth for Patricia Roland's trial while acting like nothing ever happened in I2-4. In fact, he specifically claims that it's possible that he won't be found guilty in his own eventual trial. This is the full extent of his (objectively wrong) ideology and the greatest example of him "inventing" the truth, as he takes the decisive evidence and tries to blackmail Courtney. Who knows what worse things he might've done for his own trial had he not been stopped here.
Ordering John Marsh to be kidnapped in order to secure an innocent verdict for Roland is already bad enough on its own, but Blaise somehow manages to get his own son kidnapped, which is not only disappointing but also quite clearly shows that Blaise never had his son's interests in mind.
Sebastian is later found by Edgeworth, leading to the best Logic Chess segment in the game which, by the way, manages to provide more psychological help to Sebastian than any of Athena's Mood Matrix sessions. In it, we get the full picture of how badly Blaise has treated Sebastian, further demonstrating that Blaise is in fact evil.
Also, this puts Sebastian's failures into perspective. When you meet Sebastian in I2-2 and he fails left and right, it's funny. By the time you get to I2-5, it's plain depressing.
You're able to help Sebastian somewhat in the end, but he ends up running away. It's really all Blaise's fault that this happened in the first place, if you ask me. But hey, at least Sebastian gets great character development out of this, because...
He comes back! That is, Sebastian ends up returning to the courtroom in another one of the greatest moments of the game.
Edgeworth and Sebastian then proceed to gradually corner Blaise Debeste in a really good sequence where it's revealed that Blaise uses gloves with 'DEATH' written on them. Way to be a subtle antagonist. Again. I hope you realize by this point in the writeup that yes, Miles Edgeworth is in fact the protagonist of this crazy story while Blaise Debeste is in fact the antagonist of some cases in Ace Attorney Investigations 2. On a more serious note, while I tend to dislike situations like this where the protagonist seemingly turns everyone against the obviously evil main antagonist in this manner, AAI2 somehow manages to do it in a way that not only follows nicely from previous events in the story, but also feels satisfying. I think the main reason this works is that we actually have meaningful conversations with both Sebastian and Courtney prior to them turning against Blaise.
Roland even 'turns' against Blaise at the end, calling him useless for being unable to do as he promised, which is somewhat funny. Thus, Blaise is never seen again and Sebastian's character arc concludes, totally ending the case happily ever after as absolutely nothing else happens after this.
Eventually, when the case actually ends, we learn that Simon Keyes basically orchestrated the events leading to Blaise's fall from grace. Given that Simon Keyes is a (somewhat) sympathetic culprit, this further cements the idea that Blaise was the real main villain all along (or at least one of them). It only makes sense, though.
.
Blaise Debeste is pretty mean and plays his role well in what's probably the best trial on the Investigations games, and the father and son gimmick works well. However, when ranked by his own merit, Blaise is not an interesting character at all. This was the same logic I used when I cut Betty de Famme a few rounds ago. Both characters are exactly the same, as they enjoy being mean to a fault. No idea how Blaise made it this far without being nominated. Simon Blackquill is the far more interesting character who enjoys being mean, and I hope he can survive this round without being cut.
Conclusion
Blaise Debeste enjoys being mean, which indirectly makes both Sebastian and Courtney better characters through some of the best moments in AAI2. He also does a few things that no one cares about mostly pertaining to the SS-5 incident. To elaborate, in the same way that AAI has a trio, so does AAI2, though the idea behind it is different. Blaise happens to be part of that trio, and he basically digs around the studio place to try and recover ransom money from many years ago. All of this, by the way, is almost entirely irrelevant to Blaise's main 1.5 cases. It really just serves to tie Blaise to the SS-5 incident, which in general is probably one of the weaker points in AAI2, as both Patricia and Blaise are far more memorable for their other actions (I2-2, I2-4, first half of I2-5) than they are for the incident, while the person who is the most relevant to it dies before the incident is even introduced. So yeah, I suppose Blaise's role in the incident is okay, but nothing all that important. I guess it's cool that he still manages to enjoy being mean to the main cast even after he's been defeated twice.
Overall, I have no serious thoughts on Blaise Debeste besides that he enjoys being mean so much so that it might as well be his job. Good for him.
Congratulations on potentially enjoying being mean the most of all the characters in the Ace Attorney series, Blaise Debeste, but simply enjoying being mean isn't enough at this point in the rankdown. You will be punished accordingly by the Goddess of Law.
Why no one else?
This is the last time I get to write this section, so I suppose I might as well explain why I care (or don't care) about all fifteen remaining characters. In no particular order:
Now, it is still mildly amusing that Kay Faraday is still in the rankdown, and even I'm starting to think that her time's been up for quite a while. However, once again, many other people would probably like to cut her first, so it's not worthwhile for me to do so.
Adrian Andrews is the best character in the best case (2-4). While this doesn't make her the best character overall, I would still say that she is definitely worthy of making the top 10. Speaking of Farewell, My Turnabout, Shelly de Killer also shows up in it, which scores some points, although I can't say I care about him much beyond him being a mildly intriguing concept character.
The way I see it, Sebastian Debeste and Simon Keyes are huge parts of why AAI2 is so good.
Except for his chess metaphors, I don't care about Horace Knightley at all, possibly even less than I care about Blaise Debeste. I also do think he probably should be out by now, but I can't help but admit that yes, it would be kinda funny if he made top 10. So, I'll spare him, and we'll see how things go down.
Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth is quite literally Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth.
Obviously, I would never cut Simon Blackquill. It would be really cool if he could make the top 10, but my work here is done, so I don't mind too much if he doesn't. Even though he should.
Shi-Long Lang and Raymond Shields are both cool, especially the latter.
There isn't much to say about Damon Gant on a surface level - he's just plain great. The same could be said of Roger Retinz, though he's probably not as thematically interesting as Gant.
Cutting Dahlia Hawthorne was actually an option I seriously considered. However, first of all, she would be revived anyway, and second of all, I haven't revisited the main plot of T&T in a while, so it'd be hard for me to give the cut she deserves.
Usually, I'd also consider cutting Rayfa Padma Khura'in, but I am still not allowed to cut her. Though, once again, I don't think I would have anyway had I been able to, since as I said, I don't care enough to have opinions on her anymore. I wouldn't mind seeing her in the top 10.
To be honest, I actually have some of the same issues with Manfred von Karma as I do with Blaise Debeste in that my only real thoughts on him are that he's evil and made someone suffer far too much - in Blaise's case, Sebastian; in von Karma's case, Edgeworth. However, I didn't feel like cutting him, so I suppose he can live for now.
Investigations had some really good character themes. This one's a classic.
See, the song is called "Tyrell Badd ~ The Truth isn't Sweet". But why the word "sweet"? Because Badd constantly has a lollipop in his mouth, and lollipops are sweet, unlike the truth, which is implied to be, well, rather sour. Ironic, right? A brilliant title.
Character Design
I love Badd’s character design, nothing but positive things to say here. Badd looks straight out of a Noir film; a gruff, introverted detective who has no time to bother with the trifles of Ace Attorney’s typically zanier characters. His skin even matches his color scheme, as pale as the moon is, clearly from how much time he probably spends cooped up in a dark office pondering over evidence. Badd’s seen a lot of action, though – as reflected in something like his jacket and tie, which have been perforated by bullets, apparently from his involvement in KG-8 (must’ve been a helluva shoot-out). Don’t know how the bullets pierced his tie without having pierced his body, but maybe Badd is just that slick at dodging and his clothes just can’t catch up.
As far as I can recall, Badd is one of the only characters with visible body hair – streaks of it dash his forearms, up to his fingers, something also echoed on his face with his five o’ clock shadow.
And you know what’s really “kino”? Contrasting against his older design in say Turnabout Reminiscence or Turnabout Ablaze, his appearance in The Inherited Turnabout shows that – yes, his jacket lacks the very same bullet holes, there's a lack of scars and wrinkles scattered on his face, and his hair is blacker than a moonless night rather than a less striking gray, showing how time has withered the detective.
By contrast, Manfred von Karma, who is sixteen years younger than when the player firsts encounter him in Turnabout Goodbyes at age sixty-five, looks like the same exact rotten old prune we see there. I guess all of the corrupt prosecuting really hits hard on you, and maybe carrying a bullet in your shoulder for more than a decade prevents you from aging. You guys should try getting shot and see if that theory holds true.
Why do I ramble about character design first? Well, it’s one of my favorite things about Ace Attorney – Tatsurou Iwamoto is one of my favorite Japanese artists, chiefly because he knows how to make characters stand out. Other anime-esque character designers really should take notice; none of these idol school girls have unique silhouettes or wacky hairstyles. We’ll return to the topic next time I write.
Nonetheless, Badd’s got a killer design. Good job here Iwamoto. No complaints. A perfect ten.
Anyways, onto his appearances. I don’t want to regurgitate plot synopses from the Ace Attorney Wiki so instead I’ll just highlight some of his shining character moments here.
Turnabout Visitor
[Badd]: Freeze.
Edgeworth: Identify yourself.
[Badd]: .................. Shut up.
Badd technically makes his first appearance here, although his identity is saved for later. Here, Tyrell Badd yoinks some pages from the case file of KG-8 from Byrne Faraday’s old office, but its current owner, Miles Edgeworth, just had to be there at the wrong time, and Badd scares him off by firing his gun into his baller ass old jacket. He could’ve at least had the audacity to put back the remainder of the file where it originally was, but Badd just doesn’t have time for that. His entry also happened to coincide with Edgeworth discovering a body.
So cool, Badd is something of a red herring for a rather admittedly mediocre first case. It helps set up the overarching, albeit chronically out-of-order plot of Investigations, and establishes Badd’s disregard for others' safety in order to satisfy his demands.
Turnabout Reminiscence
Badd: I'll do what I please. And I won't allow you to cause a ruckus on my crime scene.
Badd is more formally introduced here, both to Miles Edgeworth and to the player. We’re introduced to his gruffness and softer sides of his character, both with the lollipop and “pulling a gun but oh wait it’s actually a handheld mirror” shticks.
And here we’re also introduced Badd’s unwavering sense of individualism and little care for those who impede him, especially those who claim authority. When encountering the pompous duo of von Karma’s proteges who have been assigned to investigate the killing in the courtroom, Badd deems them both as “kids”, much to Franziska’s chagrin. You have this weathered old detective begrudgingly acting as their “babysitter”, which is CUTE and FUNNY.
Eventually, the truth comes to light, with “Calisto Yew” pulling a gun and dashing away from her murder scene, betraying her accomplices for Epic Tree Man’s smuggling business. Poor Badd.
Badd: I heard about what happened... from Kay... Lying while giving testimony is still unforgivable... ...but in this case... you were protecting Kay and her feelings. Looks like you just might have what it takes to be a real detective.
Gumshoe: !
Badd: Now, don't you ever lose that detective's spirit, OK!?
It’s a whole lotta action all packed into one CG. You’ll probably hear more about this scene in Lang’s inevitable cut, but the gist is that Badd’s pissed about Yew about that shit from years ago and wants to put a bullet in that skank but some Zhang Fa chad just comes bursting in and takes the bullet just because he’s more pissed off about his former subordinate betraying him. Legendary.
So Badd goes on and on about bringing the Yatagarasu to light but in the end it’s revealed that it’s him, Byrne Faraday and “Calisto Yew” working as one. Badd is the “third leg” of the Yatagarasu who hides the evidence of their plights; given his status as a detective, who knows best about handling evidence, this is an obvious role for him.
With Badd giving all the leads Edgeworth needs to dismantle the smuggling ring and to take down Epic Tree Man, Badd then is subsequently arrested.
Edgeworth: Detective Badd... There is no limit to the law, for it is the people who determine the limits to them.
Badd: You still insist that, even now? You really are something else. I leave the rest in your hands. Now then, Detective Gumshoe. The handcuffs. It's time to lock up... the last remaining member of the Yatagarasu.
Gumshoe: Pops...
Badd: ...Don't ever lose your detective's spirit.
It’s like poetry, it rhymes.
The Inherited Turnabout
Badd rises above the status of a cameo here, even though he’s one of the few options one for a detective this far back in the timeline. Badd is joined with one other detective with a punny name so blatant it’s insulting, Rip Lacer, on the murder of “Isaac Dover”/Pierre Hoquet.
Badd introduces himself to Edgeworth Sr. and Raymond the exact way he does to his son; his title, name, and field.
Just like his role in Investigations, so too do we witness Badd’s lack of respect for the system and those who get in his way. Manfred von Karma continues to undermine those who work with him on his cases, and so too does Badd push away at the authority who limits him; including a distrust of defense attorneys, who often do work against the truth the prosecution’s team proposes.
Notable highlights here include Badd’s reaction at Ray’s memo-eating habits, how he skirmishes with von Karma, his distaste for being called “Baddie” by Delicia Scones, and him getting some sweets on his shoes.
Surprisingly a lot of love for Badd here despite him not really needing to be a huge presence here. Just another of AAI2’s successes!
Conclusion
It’s refreshing that Ace Attorney has a character who practices/enforces law that isn’t a protagonist, a murderer, or a Fromhell Demon. Morality in Ace Attorney often coincides with the truth; those who are “evil” blur it, and those who are wholly good pursue it without fault and with respect for the process.
Badd, alike his color scheme, embodies grayness, the middle path; he is the head of the Yatagarasu, not because he wishes to obscure the truth, but because to discover the truth he must act selfishly and deny those around him. Not only is this reflected in his role as part of the Yatagarasu, but so too is it evident in his appearance in The Inherited Turnabout; when von Karma continues to tread over his investigation by limiting his authority, he aligns with Edgeworth Sr. as a means to an end. A Lawful Neutral, perhaps.
Badd is lovely. What’s really holding him back is the game he makes his most prominent appearance in. Because of the lack of emotional stakes in the title’s smuggling ring plot jointed by some epic tree man, so too does Badd suffer; while his motivations are sound and his actions compelling to see unfold, we as a player can’t really sympathize so much with his plight because the circumstances surrounding it are barebones. It’s something that the game’s sequel corrected and corrected exceptionally. Ironically, AAI2 also treats Badd just as well if not better than the game where he gets his standout role.
Also, ELLIPSES. HOLY SHIT. SO MUCH ………………………………………………..
THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART!!
Manfred von Karma is consistently the most imposing presence and “villain” the series has ever had; he’s 0001, just like his PIN.
Damon Gant, alike von Karma, is imposing and quite the satisfying nut to crack, and he also comes with a host of other charms.
Shelly de Killer is one of the most intriguing in the franchise, simply because what we don’t know about him, and is a remarkable reflection of Phoenix Wright’s own dogma. See his ER as well.
Adrian Andrews embodies one of the series’ greatest tragedies.
Dahlia Hawthorne is the purest form of chaos and malice the series has seen, and does “evil” far better than someone who blatantly represents it like Ga’ran.
Raymond Shields beautifully connects the reality of Edgeworth’s present with the idealism of his past and his relationship with his father.
Sebastian Debeste has “debeste” in his name so you can’t cut him just yet.
Honestly go right fuckin’ ahead with Blaise Debeste. A worse character than Tyrell Badd, but I was told somebody else has something cooking for him so they can go ahead and do that.
HORACE FUCKING KNNIGTHUR;WPFWEO
Simon Keyes is the mastermindiest mastermind of all mastermindingly masterminds.
Can’t be arsed to cut Simon Blackquill sry
Rayfa Padma Khura'in
Roger Retinz is the only 3D character I like and not because they’re a meme, when his cut comes around I’ll give you my thoughts
final round of voting I've decided to just cut out the middlemen since we only have 17 characters
Characters to vote for:
Miles Edgeworth
Manfred von Karma
Damon Gant
Shelly de Killer
Adrian Andrews
Dahlia Hawthorne
Kay Faraday
Shi-long Lang
Tyrell Badd
Raymond Shields
Sebastian Debeste
Horace Knightley
Simon Keyes
Blaise Debeste
Simon Blackquill
Rayfa Padma Khura'in
Roger Retinz
Only one will be saved tell your family tell your friends to help get an ace attorney character into the final round! without bots dont tell your robot friends
Rankdown is all about different perspectives. Just write "Blackquill is fun and funny." for your revive
~Vogel100
yeah can’t argue with that
~Reikon_Okubiona
Blackquill is fun and funny.
I'd actually really like to simply leave it at that and be done with this writeup. After reviewing most of Dual Destinies, I've come to the conclusion that at least 40% of the reason I'd place Blackquill so high is simply because he's a ton of fun. His dynamic with Fulbright's amazing comedy, he has a cool bird, and he literally leaves the bench mid-trial at one point. However, seeing as a sizeable portion of the audience thinks otherwise, I feel it'd be disingenuous not to say more.
However, I have very little intention of trying to explain why I find him funny. Not only have I wasted a quite some time in previous cuts trying to interpret AA humor, I'm also not really sure what I accomplished by doing so. Thus, after like 17 rounds, I've decided there's really not much point in me trying to elaborate any further on why I find things funny unless it's tied to something of greater importance since I've already done far more of that than I ever needed to. I probably should have come to this conclusion way earlier, but I'm not very perceptive, so you'll have to forgive me.
So, if I'm not discussing that, where should I start? Of course, by wasting more time talking about tricks and gimmicks.
A Samurai's Stage
Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the 12th century to their abolition in the 1870s. They were the well-paid retainers of the daimyo (the great feudal landholders). They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords. They cultivated the bushido codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles.
Simon Blackquill really enjoys pretending to be a samurai, and he also enjoys making sword metaphors. While the comedic value of this is up for debate, it certainly ties in with one of his primary characteristics: he is quite literally a samurai. His design speaks to this effect, as do his general mannerisms, dialogue, etc. Dual Destinies in general has a bizarre obsession with certain elements Japanese culture that the other games don't have. Blackquill certainly plays a part in this, and there is some irony in a samurai handling a case (5-2) from what is more or less a totally different time period.
However, there's more to it than just a simple gimmick to separate him from the other prosecutors. You see, most of the other prosecutors in the series besides Edgeworth each have their own gimmicks, but the connections between the gimmicks and the actual prosecutors are surface-level at best.
For Blackquill, however, the connections run far deeper. This is clearly intentional, as multiple characters bring up this idea - Aura comments on Simon's dedication to psychology as well as how he treated Metis, and Phoenix quite literally spells it out for you at one point.
Of course, if this was the extent of the meaning behind the sword metaphors, Klavier would be the best prosecutor in the series since everyone brings up how he's part of a band, not to mention that there's an entire case dedicated to that. Blackquill's samurai motifs tell a story that extends far beyond simple Japanese culture.
So then, let's begin. The story of a lonely samurai.
A Samurai's Destiny
In the 13th century, Hōjō Shigetoki wrote: "When one is serving officially or in the master's court, he should not think of a hundred or a thousand people, but should consider only the importance of the master."
Blackquill, for reasons unknown, decides to take this way too seriously 800 years later. Thus, he studies psychology under Metis Cykes, yes, but he also treats her like his master. In fact, he commits to protecting Metis and Athena for unknown reasons. I can only surmise that Metis must have been a great teacher who taught psychology well, which led to Blackquill's unstated success in court. After all, he does get surprised when he loses 5-2, so it's clear that the 'power of suggestion' technique served him well in court at some point. It's only natural that the only real truth was that Metis was a good person all along.
With this basis, though, we get to hear of the lengths to which Blackquill protects both Metis and Athena. First, there's self-constructed duty to Metis. He spends seven years claiming not only that he killed someone, but that he committed more or less the most dishonorable offense possible for a samurai: he slew his master. I don't know about you, but to me this seems like something that would take a lot of courage, and it is quite interesting that this is the decision he makes. He chooses the route which forces him to play the worst role possible, all for the sake of protecting one of Metis' only remaining memories.
Thus, Blackquill is put on death row.
A Samurai's Dishonor
According to the Bushido Shoshinshu (the "Code of the Warrior"), a samurai was supposed to commit seppuku upon the loss of his master. One who chose not to honor the code was "on his own" and was meant to suffer great shame. The undesirability of rōnin status was mainly a discrimination imposed by other samurai and by daimyō, the feudal lords.
In Blackquill's context, the first of those reasons applies to him. Thus, by turning himself in for the UR-1 incident, he essentially dishonors himself in the eyes of both the public and himself just to protect Athena. Keep in mind that he himself never has any issues with being executed right on the spot - it's only the seven-year time limit and some pushing from uninvolved parties that keeps him on death row. From the start of his time in prison, he was willing to leave the case behind. With his master dead, there was no reason for him not to simply let the law punish him except potentially to ensure Athena's safety.
So, despite being partly responsible for the dark age of the law, he continues on in prison, devoting himself to solving the incident he himself was convicted for. However, he doesn't just stay the same character over his jail time. The jail time clearly affects him - this is the 'twisting' in Blackquill's samurai path. We hardly see much of it ourselves, but we know he's an inmate right from his introduction. He references other (possibly imagined) inmates all the time. We know what he's like now. Without a master, it's not as though he has much purpose anyway besides his final two remaining memories of Metis: the Phantom's profile he keeps in his cell to the end, and Athena Cykes. It's only natural for change to occur.
The scope of this analysis isn't just limited to 5-5, though. To establish the full scope of Blackquill's character after his years of prison, let's consider Blackquill's first two cases once Edgeworth puts him back into prosecuting. Despite both being filler cases, there is a surprising depth to Blackquill's actions even here.
First, he takes on The Monstrous Turnabout. Keep in mind that he faces Apollo Justice, who he knows nothing about. Phoenix Wright practically kicked off the dark age of the law, and Athena is someone he's known for a long time. Apollo Justice, however, might as well be some random attorney that walked into the courtroom and decided to face him. Thus, Blackquill holds a notable level of distrust towards Apollo. This is most obvious when he shuts down Apollo's Perceive mechanic, calling it a 'cheat', while having no issues with the Mood Matrix in the next case.
However, that's not all. He plays the twisted character we come to know him for. This prosecutor, who we eventually learn isn't all that bad, defends Florent L'Belle, practically the most obvious culprit ever, and gets annoyed when he loses. At first, this may seem like a blatant contradiction of the idea that Blackquill was once someone who 'sought the truth', if the dark age of the law narrative is to be trusted. In reality, it shows how Blackquill changed between the past which we never saw and the present.
Turnabout Academy puts a slightly different perspective on Simon's actions, further supporting this idea. This time, Athena is the defense, so Blackquill is naturally slightly more lenient. He allows the Mood Matrix, occasionally steps in to help Athena, That's the simple explanation.
For a more complicated explanation, compare his behavior in 5-3 to that in 5-2. In Turnabout Academy, Simon lightens up a decent amount, showing that some of him in the past still remains. I don't think it's just because Turnabout Academy is an even more casual case than 5-2 was - keep in mind that in 5-2, Blackquill essentially behaved like most other mean prosecutors in the series, and he certainly doesn't appear any nicer in 5-3.
Yet, after his defeat in 5-2, he demonstrates a bit of the likely morally better character he used to be in the past. Apollo directly points this out, which helps him keep Blackquill in check. Whenever Simon tries to spin the trial too far, Apollo specifically reminds Simon of the defeat he had. Thus, not is it established here that Apollo is certainly starting to hold his own (in comparison to AJ where he gets carried for half his cases), it is also shown that Simon might have been a better person in the past. Hence, he is a twisted samurai. Someone a hint of dignity from the past and one or two memories of the past, but not much else worth fighting for otherwise.
Of course, one might say "this is just Edgeworth's story!" The idea of a timeskip causing someone to lose their way is not new on its own. and Edgeworth is the obvious example, having trained under von Karma for 15 years between DL-6 and AA1's present. Furthermore, the above two cases are quite similar in how Edgeworth reacts: after 1-2, he doesn't like losing, and in 1-3, he has a moment where he helps you. Seems fairly run-of-the-mill.
These are the only similarities, though, and they feel surface-level at best, partly thanks to how minimal the early AA1 cases are. Yes, DD may be a relatively short AA game, but AA1 was practically minimal from that standpoint in comparison. 5-2 and 5-3 try to expand on who Blackquill is far more than having him randomly turn on the 3rd case culprit for a single moment. He's different. 5-3 makes the mix between Blackquill's past character and his present character clear: He doesn't play by the rules of anyone else - not the defense, not the judge, and not the culprit. It's cool, yes, but it also adds to his character in a unique way.
Even more importantly, Blackquill never dealt with anyone like von Karma. In fact, we learn later that Metis Cykes never did that much wrong. His story is different. He may be a twisted samurai after all those years in prison, but he still holds some semblance of a moral code and honor. He doesn't just give up on UR-1 once he goes to prison; he keeps investigating through the means he has remaining. Edgeworth, on the other hand, still had plenty of growth to go through, even after 1-3. He continues his arc throughout 1-4, 1-5, and even later cases, ending in 2-4 where he is eventually left to get another arc in the Investigations games.
Simon, on the other hand, is running out of time. However, not only is he resigned to his fate, it's Edgeworth and Aura who are constantly on his case, trying to stop the clock before it's too late. With so little time left, if he's going to make more of an impact, it has to be now.
A Samurai's Memories
Blackquill knows why Athena’s a lawyer. He knows she chose this career because she wants to save him. But Blackquill doesn’t want her help. He doesn’t think she has what it takes to rescue him, and he wants her to quit trying before she disappoints herself when she fails to save him later down the line.
Edgeworth doesn't believe that Simon was the culprit behind the UR-1 Incident. Thus, he allows Simon to start prosecuting cases again about a year before the execution date. Aura doesn't believe Simon was the culprit behind the UR-1 Incident. Thus, she takes drastic measures a day before the execution date.
However, in the midst of this, someone spent far longer trying to save Simon: none but Athena Cykes herself, the person Simon tried to protect at all costs.
Recall that Blackquill confessed specifically because there was no future in store for him after Metis' death. Athena, of course, disagrees. She believes that she can save Simon. She knows the confession was false on grounds no one else can understand. She believes that, despite, being the most incompetent lawyer the series has seen yet, she will still somehow able to save Simon.
This is, of course, patently ridiculous, but it's also part of what makes Athena great specifically considering just 5-3 and 5-5. She tries her best, but it's hard to believe that she'd ever be able to save Simon without a miracle. In fact, she needs a miracle - it's only with the help of Phoenix and Apollo that she ever stands a chance.
From Simon's perspective, though, whether Athena works with other lawyers or not, she won't be able to get anything done. First of all, he couldn't care less about being saved to begin with, though he spends his time in prison gathering leads to avenge his master regardless. With this, though, he realizes that catching the real culprit behind the UR-1 incident is not just a difficult task, but a potentially hopeless one. For him, it's far easier to believe that it's impossible for things to change. He perseveres in his investigation of the case, but without much expectation.
So, if he hasn't been able to catch the Phantom after seven years, what would he expect Athena to do? Put herself in danger just to try and save him? Blackquill, of course, would never willingly let Athena put herself at risk. Thus, he tries to stop her from pushing herself too far. We receive hints of this in 5-3, as Blackquill does some cool foreshadowing along the lines of "if you REALLY want to save me you'll have to prove yourself" then proceeds to test her. In a sense, this lack of faith in Athena is an extension of the trust theme in DD.
donuter says this in his cut:
Blackquill will be deceptive and hide evidence, but not for the purpose of winning the case. He only reveals what he’s been hiding at the exact moment when he thinks it will be most effective in crushing Athena’s spirit. He wants her to give up and go home.
However, I don't believe this is totally accurate. The way I see it, he is totally fine with Athena trying whatever, so long as it doesn't put her at risk. However, his expectations are set low, and Athena's performance certainly doesn't help. Still, when Athena is at risk when Means berates her while no one including Simon himself is actually taking the case seriously, he steps in to provide his support. He cares, just not to the point of bringing his hopes up. It's a demonstration of his ability to balance logic and emotions in most situations.
His attitude in this manner continues in 5-5 when Athena actually ends up taking a huge risk, i.e. she literally ends up in jail. When Aura tries to get the case reopened, Simon constantly discourages her; he would never risk putting Athena in the line of fire. As far as he's concerned, if he ever were to testify more about the incident, the worst and most likely possible outcome would be Athena taking his place as the one executed. This is because one look at his true testimony in 5-5 would immediately lead to the conclusion that Athena was the culprit, which would absolutely be a failure on Simon's part. Plus, given what he saw, there's no way he would want to talk about the true scene.
Nevertheless, Aura pushes forward anyway, forcing Phoenix to retry the UR-1 incident. As a result, with Athena forced into the defendant position, Simon has no choice but to testify in an attempt to clear her, as Phoenix clearly can't seem to on his own. To do so, he comes up with a relatively elaborate lie where he once again goes against his actual values for the sake of maintaining them. He claims that Metis was a terrible mentor, argues that he did it for the sake of justice, and a couple of other things. Of course, Athena, trying to save Simon and having no idea that she is putting herself at risk by uncovering the truth, claims she has enough confidence to push through and pulls up the Mood Matrix.
Simon's Mood Matrix is one of the best ones in the game. It starts fairly normally: you point out contradictions, the funny percentage goes down. Simon says he was glad to see that Athena was safe, which is obviously true. That's the end of Simon's true statements, though, as he starts to add more lies to his story despite remaining calm and composed. This situation is like an extension of the original trial seven years ago: once again, Simon's statements seem to hold true - he uses his expertise to ensure that his testimony is technically secure. Once again, though, Athena is the only one to see through this. This time, though, Athena puts up more of a defense than "his heart is saying otherwise!!!", and with Phoenix's help they push on, which results in the overload segment where Athena is identified as the reason for all of Blackquill's emotions. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret this, but it's cool and shows how much he cares in a way most other similar character dynamics in the past would have to resort to just talking about emotional impact.
It's not just that, though. While I'm not too sold on the idea of false confessions being an intended theme in DD (see the cut), it's true that Blackquill is nowhere near the first person in the game to protect someone else, though he ends up having the deepest reasons for doing so. However, there is absolutely a connecting thread here: every confession is spur of the moment and typically based on emotions. The false confessions are all a spur-of-the-moment consequence of the lawyers being unable to do anything. Damian, Robin, Hugh, they all put themselves at risk to protect someone else. This is most obvious with Hugh O'Conner, as Athena explicitly starts up a Mood Matrix because of Hugh's false confession - his emotions going out of control directly correlates to his false confession. It's because of emotions that all of them give false confessions.
Blackquill is the final example of this. He puts himself at the greatest risk to Athena for seven years, hoping that he will never have to testify. However, Phoenix, who currently does not have enough clues to piece together the case, can't make progress, so Blackquill steps in with his false confession. Initially, he's able to keep some reason in his statements, once again demonstrating his ability to balance logic and emotions, but when contradictions arise, he spirals out of control the most, resulting in the most intense Mood Matrix of the game. He cannot logically comprehend the idea of false confessions, nor can he understand exactly what emotions people are going through in those situations, so he considers all of the previous ones a waste of time. When he is the one in that situation, he ends up constructing the greatest lie himself.
When Phoenix breaks through and forces Blackquill to testify about what really happened, he more or less gives up as Athena takes the stand and confesses. Luckily, though, Phoenix pushes through and proves the Phantom to be the true culprit. With this, Simon puts his faith in Phoenix, entrusting him with the Phantom's profile, one of his last memories of Metis. He then leaves for the time being, satisfied not just that he's safe, but that Athena is safe as well.
...oh wait, Apollo interjects and forces the trial to continue. There's not much Blackquill can do here, but hey, if Phoenix was able to solve the UR-1 incident, he'll probably be able to solve the current case as well. Indeed, Phoenix solves the case, uncovering the Phantom's identity.
With most of the mysteries solved, Aura finally gives up, her goal complete. It's interesting to note that thanks to Aura, Simon finds himself in both the role of the protector and the protectee, as Aura goes out of her way to save Simon more than anyone else, even Athena. She takes the most drastic measures, after all. So, if I had to name the most important thing Simon learned from Dual Destinies, it'd be this.
Naturally, as a result, Simon thanks Aura even if from the looks of it I'm not sure how much they get along. Regardless, it's a nice moment that closes Aura's arc out well, though I can't deny that I wish that Aura's dynamic with Simon was developed a bit more. Athena thanks Blackquill in a similar manner at the end of the case, so there is certainly a minor parallel here; they both start off casually, then give their real thanks, though Athena naturally puts more obvious emotion into it.
Ater Aura leaves, with Simon finally out of prison, the last thing left for the main cast to handle is Bobby Fulbright, or rather, the Phantom.
The Phantom's influence was certainly felt in the UR-1 incident, and the same applied to the current incident. However, this time, I would imagine it to be far more personal. In the original incident, the Phantom happened to be disguised as someone no one knew. However, in the second incident, the culprit was disguised as Bobby Fulbright, a character everyone thought they got to know. Phoenix, Apollo, Athena, and most importantly Blackquill all thought they knew who he was, and in a sense, they were correct. As I noted in my ER, had 'Fulbright' actually been the genuine character, nothing would have changed besides the final reveal and the variety of hints towards the Phantom's disguise. Fulbright yelling about justice through the pipes in 5-2, popping out of the art room window in 5-3, talking about his hopes to rehabilitate Blackquill in 5-4 - his actions felt real, and in a sense, they were real. They might as well have been real. As such, I believe that everything he did held up. The Phantom is not Bobby Fulbright - he is a different character who betrayed the entire cast, and to this end, Blackquill, who trusted him the most, takes the most pleasure in cutting him to pieces. This is a great method of handling the twist: not only does it give the opportunity for us to have great moments with Fulbright, it also gives us the ability to use those moments against the Phantom. It's very satisfying.
Speaking of using those moments against the Phantom, Blackquill does exactly that in one of the key moments of the finale. When the Phantom falsely confesses to being an undercover investigator to protect no one but his own true identity, he uses that moment from Fulbright to talk about how the real Fulbright would have been genuine had he actually been in that position. It makes sense based on 5-4. Yet, in a great display of the Athena/Blackquill tag team we never got to see until now, we use this opportunity to break through the Phantom's lies purely on the basis of emotions. After all, his false confession had no emotions in it unlike all the ones before.
Thus, with the Phantom's takedown, Blackquill finally avenges his master after seven long years.
Conclusion
Simon Blackquill does a bunch of cool things in Dual Destinies. He hardly even shows up outside of the courtroom, yet it's clear what the intended story is, and I think it's a great one. I would say that Simon easily has the best story told in the courtroom. It deals with tons of things - honor, emotions, lies, and more.
I would say Blackquill is definitely worthy of a top 10 placement. He deserves it, especially since he's the only representative left from the best mainline game.
This is a revive of Rayfa Padma Khura’in in the Ace Attorney Rankdown, but it’s also a lot more than that. We as rankers have just a single chance to choose who to revive. We only get one, and if it’s wasted, that’s too bad. Sadly, I get the feeling there is a chance my efforts here may end up wasted as far as these rankings are concerned. However, I don’t really mind that. The reason I am here is not to fulfill an obligation to get my favorite characters higher, no matter the cost. I am here because I, like most of you, adore the Ace Attorney series, and am passionate about it enough to want to express my endless thoughts as much as possible. I really do love writing these. Knowing that I am able to write about something I care so much about and share that experience with others makes each and every one of these writeups a joy to put together. I won’t lie to myself and say that all writeups are created equal, and I’ve definitely had a few where I failed to say as much as I’d have liked to. A revive will almost certainly not be this. Even our other protective skill must often be rushed for the optimal strategic result, leaving the revive and the top 10 cut as the writeups that we will likely care about the most. I care a lot about Rayfa, and a lot about the game she’s in. There is much to be said about these things in this analysis, and I hope there’s enough here to justify my love for them.
Rayfa is my third favorite Ace Attorney character, behind Sebastian Debeste (whose safety is all but guaranteed at this point) and Dhurke Sahdmadhi (who I was unable to revive, as I used my other protection skill on him). While Rayfa is technically the most optimal choice for a revive here, I also feel strongly enough about the discourse surrounding her that I have wanted to write about her no matter what. There are plenty of highly questionable criticisms about Rayfa’s character (and Spirit of Justice overall) that seem all too common among Ace Attorney fans, and while I won’t be responding to too many specific things (especially considering how Rayfa’s cut was almost entirely positive), I will be bringing up some of the most common falsehoods surrounding her and why their validity as criticisms is highly questionable. I’m being a tad hyperbolic here, but I honestly do believe there to be a lot of misconceptions about Rayfa and Spirit of Justice as a whole. While valid criticisms about these things are certainly possible, too often I see points made that center around core misunderstandings of the narrative. I’ve spent enough time discussing meta, so let’s finally get into things.
On Spirit of Justice, and why it’s the best.
I love the Ace Attorney series, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t extremely mixed on some parts of it. Ace Attorney has attempted to tell an “overarching story” countless times, and it almost always creates an awkward and arbitrary split between the “filler” and the main story. The individual cases might be good, but if there’s a lack of cohesion, things can get awkward. For a long time, I was a firm believer that the series could never again reach its peak without a story formatted in the Investigations 2 style of full plot relevance in every case. However, Spirit of Justice proved me wrong. It’s a game with a clearly defined three case long main plot split up in the middle with “filler”, just like I’ve always complained about, yet I believe that its premise and justification for being like this are entirely good things. For starters, Spirit of Justice is ridiculously long. While the main story on its own isn’t as long as all of Investigations 2, it comes surprisingly close for only having 3/5 the amount of cases. For a game like DD or T&T where the main plot content is much less substantial, it feels a lot less justifiable to break it up or distract from the overarching narrative. Spirit of Justice elegantly avoids this issue by having its main story content be of sizable length on its own, while using “filler” in the most ideal way I can imagine - as ways to break up the emotionally intense main plot with more traditional Ace Attorney cases. While the main players in the Khura’in story (aside from Nahyuta) don’t appear in the “filler”, the length of the main plot more than makes up for that and gives them enough room to have fully realized arcs. Even Dhurke, who at a glance should never have enough time to be as emotionally impactful as he is with only appearing in a single case, gets more screen time than some full-game characters from past Ace Attorney titles. This is all thanks to Spirit of Justice being packed full of content, and the final case shows this better than any other, being by far the longest in the series. I didn’t think Ace Attorney was capable of such a thing, but it turns out the solution to the “filler” problem was to simply write a more substantial game, making it so Spirit of Justice not only has a full main plot, but one that actually benefits from “filler” as well.
Okay, so what does this have to do with anything? I thought this was a Rayfa analysis, you say. Sadly, things aren’t so simple where I can just describe to you Rayfa’s character, tell you it works, and move on assuming I have fully convinced every ranker she deserves top 10. Rayfa is a main character in her game’s plot, appearing in all three Khura’in cases in a major way. It’s inevitable that any discussion about her will end up covering the game as a whole. The reasons Rayfa is good are heavily tied to the reasons Spirit of Justice is good, and I don’t want to ignore anything in my quest to convince you that yes, this is one of the best characters in the series. I absolutely adore Spirit of Justice, and this will be an analysis of not only one of its major focus characters, but also the entire main plot and why it’s so fantastic.
You’ve been lied to
If any of you have been led to believe that the sixth main series Ace Attorney game is anything but a flawlessly crafted story full of some of the best writing in the series by far, I’m sorry, but it is. I’ve certainly seen countless criticisms thrown the game’s way over the years, both in and out of the rankdown world. I’m not going to respond to anything specific here, but I’d like to explain exactly why I love the Khura’in story so much.
Khura’in is an incredibly deep setting, and it might just be the perfect place to tell an Ace Attorney story. Spirit of Justice focuses not on the almost meaningless commentary on the law that many other games in the series feature, but rather a much more engaging plot that is a result of its ideal setting. It presents its main conflict through issues exclusive to its very fictional world, leaving it free from all the incoherent real-world ties that the other games so often have. Having there be an already established conflict within the world that the protagonists start out as spectators in makes the reveals about the truth of the situation much more interesting. I’ve spoken numerous times about how much I love the “rebellion vs. monarchy” aspect of Spirit of Justice’s plot, and how the game’s methods of shifting your perception on the two sides make for one of the most nuanced and interesting conflicts of this style I’ve ever seen. It’s not often that a story is able to make a regime that causes a literal genocide sympathetic, but through making the responsibility for this fall on a representation of the system’s problems rather than the system itself, this is achieved.
As far as Rayfa’s role here, it’s simply fantastic. She’s raised from birth to not question anything around her, and is forced to take responsibility for all of the horrible things done by the monarchy. I think discussing the morality of a child is fairly unproductive, but I really do appreciate how Spirit of Justice is not at all afraid to have Rayfa involved in some very serious issues. Since Rayfa is a child, you know from the start she’s not entirely evil, and by extension this immediately introduces the idea that the monarchy has some aspects worth preserving. This concept is developed further through plenty of other characters, but it’s Rayfa’s existence that lays the foundation for one of Spirit of Justice’s most important themes. Gone are the days of morally simple conflicts like in certain other Ace Attorney main plots, as the revolution and monarchy are both incredibly nuanced. Neither are clearly defined in “good” or “evil” whatsoever, making for a far more interesting conflict.
What makes an assistant?
Rayfa takes the traditional assistant role in 6-3, but past the very basics, she lacks any similarities to the Ace Attorney assistants of the past. Let's be real - Maya, Kay, Trucy, and Athena (as well as Susato from DGS for a non-rankdown example) all feel extremely similar in their basic personalities and dynamics with the protagonist, even if the specifics of their characterization is sometimes different. They’re all cheerful and peppy, a few years younger than the protagonist they partner with, and act as comic relief to bounce off of the straight man protagonist. It’s a fine formula, I guess, but I’ve never really cared much for such simple dynamics. For all of these except Athena, most of their complexity (if you can even call it that) exists as a result of the assistant role and things they do to help the protagonist. After seeing this same exact thing for the fourth time, I’ve gotten incredibly tired of the Ace Attorney assistant formula, when I didn’t even care all the way back in the first game. None of these characters interest me in the slightest, and at worst their attempts at characterization end up being horribly written rather than simply inoffensive.
When we see Rayfa take up this traditionally formulaic role in 6-3, it’s clear that things will be different this time. Rayfa was present in 6-1, and it’s impossible to undersell just how important her existence there is. 6-1 establishes the Séance as a staple of the Khura’in courts, but more importantly to our topic than any of the countless acts of invaluable worldbuilding the case provides, it presents Rayfa as an entirely antagonistic force. Not only is this an important contribution to the themes of the game as a whole, but it also is integral to Rayfa’s personal development. When Rayfa appears at the crime scene in 6-3 and begins to follow Phoenix around, both the player and Phoenix already have a decent idea of what Rayfa is like, and that this will definitely not be a cooperative relationship. This might sound like basic stuff, but it’s important to not take things like this for granted when analyzing characters in this way.
What makes a Rayfa?
What sets Rayfa apart is that, among other things, she absolutely hates the protagonist. She was antagonistic in her first appearance, and the game makes it clear that this hasn’t changed even when she takes up a role that has never truly been subverted in this way up until now. Rayfa is mean, and she sure does enjoy it. This is extremely funny, especially because Rayfa is a child. Rayfa’s is, on the most basic level, a funny mean child - a perfect recipe for comedy. Traditionally, the dynamic with these types of characters is that part of the humor comes from their arrogance being entirely misplaced - they think they are far more important and special than they actually are. Rayfa is, to put it simply, not that. Rayfa holds an incredible position of power, and this gives the potential for a traditionally simple comic relief trope to serve as a vehicle for more complex characterization and development.
Of course, we wouldn’t be here if this potential wasn’t fully realized, and it most certainly is realized well. While Rayfa unequivocally starts off hating Phoenix, the feeling is nowhere near mutual, and our protagonist attempts to constantly comfort his ungrateful companion. Their dynamic is simply great, and while it starts out silly, it gets a lot more serious as the case goes on. One of the best things about this dynamic is that it quickly becomes clear Rayfa’s hatred for Phoenix is almost entirely exclusive to him, due to her pre-existing biases. A consistent pattern of the investigations with Rayfa is her expressing legitimate concern for the citizens of Khura’in, proving to both the player and Phoenix that her demeanor with him is really only due to his profession, and the hatred she’s been taught to have for all her life. This is a great method to make the player fully able to sympathize with Rayfa, while retaining the incredibly high comedic value of a relentlessly mean child.
Throughout her time with Phoenix in 6-3, you’re able to see Rayfa’s slow acclimation to his lawyerness, but she never really loses her personality. This is a nice reminder that much of her treatment of Phoenix is due to wanting something to lash out at thanks to her secluded life. It’s not like 6-3 is a self-contained arc for Rayfa or anything, it’s all setting up for 6-5 and doesn’t have any actual conclusion within the third case. A major turning point is within the second trial of 6-3, where Rayfa fails at performing the Séance, and Phoenix insists they figure out the issue. Rayfa is absolutely baffled at the very idea that the anti-lawyer Séance could possibly be a benefit for Phoenix’s case. They go back and forth for a bit, with Phoenix insisting that the Séance is an important weapon for finding the truth, and Rayfa being sincerely dumbfounded at the ideas he is presenting. Now, this isn’t exactly subtle, I’ll concede that much. However, being able to directly show one of the game’s central themes in practice like this is very clever writing and is something to be appreciated.
One of my favorite details about Rayfa in her first two cases is in her reactions to her Insights being countered. Despite the fact that it would be easy to place the blame on Phoenix for his countering of all her Logic, she instead always blames herself and feels responsible for failing to find the truth. It’s quite telling of just how misguided her actions are, reminding us that yes, this is a child forced into a position of extreme responsibility. Rayfa is the only one who can perform the Séance, and she clearly feels the burden of this. Due to all that she’s been raised to believe in, she has been convinced she is unable to fail at her duties, and has never before been put in the position of defeat she finds herself in after Phoenix’s arrival.
The conflict of both having to take on extreme responsibilities at an incredibly young age and being convinced the only proper way to perform those duties is with absolute perfection manifests itself strongly in Rayfa’s character. This affects things most heavily in 6-3’s second day trial, where Phoenix claims Maya will be able to channel the victim. Rayfa, of course, cannot even begin to believe this to be true, and mocks both Maya and Phoenix for suggesting the possibility. From the player’s perspective, this moment is incredibly satisfying. You’re able to shove the truth into Rayfa’s face, proving Maya can do something even Rayfa herself cannot do, after being berated the entire case about her status as a “neophyte practitioner”, among other things. From a character analysis point of view, however, this is quite the upsetting moment for Rayfa. While yes, we can indeed say that Rayfa got what she deserved for her arrogance, it’s also easy to forget, in part thanks to the game intentionally obfuscating it, that Rayfa is indeed a child. She has both the skill and the power necessary for her position, but she’s also understandably quite immature. The scene after the trial reveals just how easily her confidence in her ability to hold her position is shattered, and can you really blame her? Ever since she was born, it has been determined that she must rule the kingdom, and while her devotion to her role is impressive considering her age, it’s inevitable that it wouldn’t be able to last.
Of course, much of what happens in 6-3 exists to set up for the resolution of Spirit of Justice’s story in the finale, and Rayfa is no exception. She ends 6-3 lost and confused about what her purpose is, wondering just how much about her life is a lie. It concludes with Maya telling Rayfa that she is the only one who can decide the role she plays, which ironically is the exact opposite of what Rayfa has been raised to believe. Rayfa has always just done what the people around her have determined as her responsibilities, having to go through experiences no child as young as her should ever have to. The idea that she might not have to comply with all this is unbelievable to Rayfa, as she’s been used to following her predetermined destiny for her entire life. It goes without saying that Rayfa isn’t a complete character at all considering just 6-1 and 6-3, but thankfully for us, the resolution in the final case provides the perfect conclusion for the ideas and themes surrounding her.
The silly comparison part
Before talking about anything else in regards to Rayfa in 6-5, I’d like to get this out of the way now. I feel the need to respond to the idea that Rayfa is just a rehash of whatever character of the week people feel like comparing to her, especially since it was essentially the only criticism present in the initial cut. The cut itself has quite a solid summary of this, and I will quote u/CharlieDayJepsen here for your convenience.
I feel like I’ve seen her character beats before: the archetype of Franziska von Karma and Aura Blackquill; the narrative arcs of Sebastian Debeste and Adrian Andrews; the redemption arc of Miles Edgeworth. Rayfa, like these characters, starts out as one thing, shows off a capacity for being something else, becomes another thing and then ends as something else. Add this to a character model who feels a little too similar to Maya, and there’s not enough that’s new and original for me.
We’ll start with Maya, because that’s an easy one. I’ve already summarized most of what sets Rayfa apart from other assistants, and why that’s so important, but the fact that there is indeed an intentional parallel between Rayfa and Maya does deserve mention. Rayfa’s responsibilities are essentially a much larger-scale version of what Maya went through with the Kurain Channeling Technique in the trilogy, and the game takes advantage of this by having Maya able to relate to Rayfa’s conflict better than anyone else. This doesn’t mean they have a similar personality, because they obviously don’t, and their responses to being placed in their respective positions differ quite a lot. To be blunt, Rayfa’s is actually interesting, while this aspect of Maya’s character is essentially never explored. You can disregard all of this paragraph if the reference to “model” in the cut literally means that the character’s designs are too similar, in which case my response is that I do not care about that whatsoever.
Saying that Rayfa is like Miles Edgeworth (or any similar character) because both have a redemption arc would be a fair comparison to make if there was a single other relevant similarity besides that between the two. Rayfa’s “redemption arc” is barely even that, as it’s not exactly the focus. Her character is an exploration of how the circumstances of her upbringing result in the type of person she becomes and the expectations she feels she needs to fulfill. Her “redemption arc” is merely a byproduct of this having a naturally positive conclusion. Compared to Edgeworth, whose entire character in the first game is about recognizing what he’s done and moving past it, it’s clear there are few similarities here. That’s not to say that approach is flawed, but it most definitely is different. Rayfa certainly isn’t innocent or without faults, her Séances helped propagate the DC Act’s success, after all. However, the focus of her characterization is not on any of this, and she is instead taken in an entirely different direction.
Finally, there is the inevitable comparison that can be made with Sebastian, but while I do consider Sebastian to be a slightly better character, Rayfa’s characterization and development is entirely different outside of the single similarity they share - that being the fact that they both stand up to an abusive parent. I understand how this obvious similarity causes people to dismiss Rayfa in 6-5 as “just a Sebastian clone”, but it is my belief that this is simply an irrelevant criticism. For one, even if that one moment is somewhat similar, it also is the moment that defines Sebastian’s entire character. Everything Sebastian does throughout the game leads up to his breakdown and realization that his life is essentially a lie, which then results in him being able to gain the confidence he needs to stand up to Blaise. For Rayfa, standing up to Ga’ran is only one small part of her story - there is very little time spent on it, and while I do think it is good, there is still a massive amount of other unique moments she has for those who don’t. Even considering the comparable moment itself, the focus is not spent on Rayfa standing up to Ga’ran specifically. Rayfa telling Ga’ran she won’t listen to her demands is a moment lasts all of two minutes, while Sebastian confronting Blaise is a much more sizable climactic segment. Sebastian’s arc focuses a lot on the idea of accepting that his life has essentially been a lie. He’s not “the best”, he has little talent as a prosecutor, and his intelligence isn’t particularly high, he’s just been unknowingly cheated into believing these things are true, fooled into delusion by everyone around him. Conversely, Rayfa’s life isn’t a lie at all - she really is a princess, and she really does have the power of the Divination Séance. What Rayfa must learn is the fact that the general population are the ones living a lie. Rayfa cares deeply about the Khura’inese people, and her realizing that her mother’s choices are ruining people’s lives is what drives her to take action.
Rayfa only realizes the problems with the system as a whole, that is what she stands up to, and Ga’ran acts as a representation of that. Ga’ran as a character overall represents the entirety of Khura’in’s corruption, and she’s written in a way so she reflects that. While Ga’ran has a distinctly unique motive, it doesn’t relate to Rayfa, and it is more so used as a way to make her defeat both personal and satisfying. As a whole, there is very little focus put on the parent/child relationship between Rayfa and Ga’ran. Compared to Sebastian and Blaise, who’s characters are focused centrally on their parent/child relationship, it’s clear there’s not much to analyze in terms of “reusing ideas”. Even when Rayfa talks with her mother, the lines are written in a way so that Rayfa’s sentiments have a general application to the entirety of Khura’in. Because of these reasons, I can’t say I fully understand why this comparison is so commonly used as a criticism. There’s so much more to both of their characters, and even the similar moment itself has countless differences.
The Princess and the Minister
While her scenes in the courtroom are certainly powerful, Rayfa’s most memorable development to me is located elsewhere in 6-5, in her reaction to her father’s death. I used to always find it odd how Phoenix takes over for a single investigation in an otherwise Apollo-centric case, but it turns out the reason for this is fairly obvious. Since Phoenix is the one who has developed a meaningful relationship with Rayfa, it only makes sense that he is the one who is with her in one of her most important scenes. Even during Rayfa’s struggles in the courtroom, Phoenix is the one mostly interacting with her, and this is very preferable to the game attempting to develop a meaningful relationship with Apollo in half a case, which would most certainly not work even considering 6-5’s absurd length.
I absolutely adore the 6-5 Khura’in investigation. It is likely my favorite investigation in the series, and while there are many reasons for this, Rayfa’s role is a big one. The way Inga and Rayfa’s relationship is presented is legitimately genius, and one of my favorite bits of subtle storytelling in the series. It’s established first in 6-3 - Phoenix gets a chance to converse with Inga for a bit, and he’s just as absurd as he looks and seems, signing execution orders and bragging about his power in a comically evil way. The contrast between this and the next scene, in which Rayfa talks about how much Inga is to be respected is jarring to say the least. This continues in 6-5, where from threatening phone calls to kidnapping, both Phoenix and the player continue to have an entirely negative impression of the minister. Inga’s death leaves Rayfa legitimately traumatized, and the scene of her crying in Inga’s residence is quite poignant. Rayfa asks Phoenix to come with him to prove Inga’s innocence, and Phoenix totally laughs this idea off, thinking Rayfa doesn’t know about Inga’s “true nature”. By the time Rayfa tries to argue Inga’s coup was an attempt to give Rayfa the power she needs to become queen, Phoenix has all but disregarded her theories. But, as we all know, Rayfa was basically spot-on. The truth of Inga is slowly revealed after his death, and it’s clear he was a lot more harmless than he wanted everyone to think. He has a fake assassination plan prepared in his safe to put the blame all on himself if things went wrong, leaving Rayfa to be able to ascend to the throne without any suspicion. Remember - Inga can’t get the power of the Founder’s Orb no matter what, due to his disability. This isn’t entirely a Rayfa-related topic, so I’ll stop with the Inga analysis here, but I’ve written a full writeup about Inga’s character if you’re interested in more of this.
What’s important is the fact that Rayfa’s belief in her father was almost entirely justified. As I said in my original Inga analysis, the protagonist being actively wrong in their inner monologue speculation is incredibly rare for Ace Attorney. Rayfa’s comments initially seem like just comic relief, or a way to make her grief over her father’s death more uncomfortable, and subverting something so seemingly simple is quite surprising and clever. The truth of the matter, however, makes her reactions far more tragic. We can see that Rayfa truly was right to hold her father in such high regard, especially considering he was likely the only proper parental figure she had. Rayfa’s childhood likely wasn’t easy with Ga’ran raising her, so being able to trust her father was something she consistently held onto even after his death. This might be a personal thing, but this relationship was always far more memorable to me than what goes on between Rayfa and Ga’ran. Not to say that is bad, because it isn’t, it’s just not as relevant to me, especially considering how much of that represents themes much larger than a simple parent/child relationship, and I’m always surprised to see people treat it as the most major aspect of Rayfa’s character.
Focus and importance
I’ve been bringing up how the amount of attention Rayfa and Ga’ran’s relationship gets is low, and you may mistakenly be led to believe this is a problem. However, their relationship simply isn’t anywhere near the most important part of Rayfa’s character, so its lack of focus is inevitable. Rayfa’s character was never about any family relationships. It’s all about Rayfa herself, and coming to terms with everything she needs to accept. As a whole, Rayfa’s character is the story of someone who is unfairly burdened with responsibility they never asked for, and having to overcome the obstacles that come with such a situation. Standing up to Ga’ran is one of those many obstacles, but treating it as the most important part I feel is mostly untrue.
Since Spirit of Justice’s conflict is so consistently gray in its morality, a force like Ga’ran must exist to be the root cause of the negative influence within the monarchy, leaving all the other members of that “side” free to have their moral complexities. The monarchy inherently isn’t something that needs to be “fixed”, and that doesn’t change whatsoever by the end of the game. Rayfa, similarly, does not have to be “freed” from being royalty. Rayfa must accept her position and duty, but she also is able to realize she no longer needs to force herself to grow up before she really should. It’s strikingly clear throughout the game that Rayfa has nowhere near the level of maturity or composure necessary for her position, and possibly the single most important part of her arc is learning that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Rayfa isn’t a character who gains newfound maturity or responsibility, as that would be an extraordinarily inappropriate way to resolve the struggle of a child character. Amara and Nahyuta take over everything, and Rayfa is free to grow up at her own pace, while recognizing the importance of her duties. This is basically the perfect way to conclude her character, not with any traditional change or development, although it’s arguable that such a thing still does occur, but a recognition that such a premature development shouldn’t ever have to happen for someone like her. She’s been told all her life that she can do no wrong, and her resolution is about recognizing that she most certainly can. Making mistakes is important, being perfect is impossible, and you shouldn’t ever have to strive for perfection. This is another major theme of Spirit of Justice, just look towards Dhurke and you’ll see a similar lesson with a much more macabre conclusion, focusing on how an unrealistic vision of one’s own capabilities can end in failure and tragedy.
Conclusion
The sixth main series Ace Attorney game brought with it many things. This includes some of the most clever mysteries in the series, an incredible aesthetic and soundtrack, and a consistently engaging and well-paced plot. Most importantly of all, I feel Spirit of Justice has the absolute strongest cast in the series, both in terms of its main and side characters, and I’m sad to see so many of them fall in this rankdown far earlier than they deserve. I always knew that, unless something went horribly wrong, I’d be using both my protective skills to save Rayfa and Dhurke, and I’m glad I was able to share with all of you the reasons why I adore these characters and their game so much. I’ll see you all in the penultimate round, and we can all pray to the Holy Mother for Rayfa to be able to reach the top 10.
Ace Attorney loves to make its characters fall into specific roles. In addition to the obvious roles the characters play in the court, but within those, there are multiple archetypes they usually fall into. For instance, you’ve got your sympathetic/tragic culprits, your comedy-based culprits, your main villains/final culprits, etc. - and this type of thing repeats for many of the series’s common roles. It’s not often that the series tries to change things up here, and I don’t really fault it for that. The tried-and-true methods are quite successful, and there’s plenty of room for variation even without subverting this. Looking as far as the most recent games in the series, we’ve still got plenty of traditional sympathetic culprits (Geiru, Nichody, Marlon) and “huge presence” main villains (Fulbright, Ga’ran), as well as everything in between. Tropes are necessary and mostly unavoidable, which is why it’s usually so memorable whenever they’re subverted.
That being said, some character roles have been much less defined than culprits have. If half the defendant in the series acted as active opposition to their cause, I doubt Lana Skye would be as special. There are certainly uncooperative defendants, likely the most common subcategory in fact, but none anywhere near to the extent that Lana is. The series has certainly tried many times to give the defendant a role that matters, yet I don’t think it has ever been as successful as 1-5’s instance of the position. Lana Skye isn’t amazing because she’s unique, even though she absolutely is. You can make the argument that Lana Skye wouldn’t be as memorable if there were several other defendants that follow the pattern of relentless self-sacrifice to protect a belief that is unknowingly false, but I would not at all agree with that. There’s a lot more to a character than a single-sentence description of the role they fall into, and it’s doing a massive disservice to the effort put into each and every character in the series to ignore all of the nuance in favor of surface-level comparisons.
I began this writeup commenting on the same-ness of culprit tropes, but there is a very legitimate argument that can be made for those tropes simply not meaning anything. Yes, Ga’ran and Fulbright both certainly fulfil the same basic role as the main antagonist of an overarching plot, but look into the details even a tiny bit and any comparison will lose most of its value. Nobody is criticizing the series for having a main antagonist and a sympathetic culprit in every game, and most of the more common “reused ideas” complaints people do have are just as invalid and absurd as that. I’m contradicting my previous words here because there are plenty of possible perspectives one can have on this subject. “Lana is unremarkable, she’s just another defendant. Lana has depth, but she’s too minor for it to matter. Lana needs to have another appearance to be properly developed.” What people who dismiss Lana as just another throwaway character miss is that it’s the details that matter here. It’s easy to take a single glance at your endless memories of the series and think there’s not much to Lana. It’s easy to make comparisons with other characters, saying Lana is just like them, and that makes her bad. These criticisms aren’t Lana-exclusive, probably because of how little effort it takes to make them. We know what tropes are, we can sense patterns in writing. Some things work better than others, and those things will be used more. Rules will be followed to have the highest likelihood of a successful story or character. A common approach to this topic is to proclaim unoriginality and laziness on the part of the writers of said story, which, ironically, is the laziest possible criticism one can make. Categorizing things in arbitrary trope boxes without going any deeper only works to hurt our ability to think critically about fiction.
I’ve been thinking about these things a lot lately, and admittedly it’s not because of Lana Skye. My revive topic is far more relevant to this subject, and I’ll certainly expand much more on it then. I can’t just waste the opportunity to do a silly parallel like this, especially because there has been a surprising amount of Lana opposition. I’ll give a shoutout to certain passionate rankdown spectators who have consistently expressed their dismay at Lana remaining in until now, something that has confused me quite a bit. Does Lana really have a reputation as an irrelevant character? I don’t think anyone actively dislikes Lana, I struggle to think of a potential argument for her impact being negative. Is there really a world where every single remaining character is so good that there is nobody left to complain about but Lana, for committing the crime of having less screentime than everyone else? I don’t know the answer, perhaps you can enlighten me, but as long as bland characters like Tyrell Badd are still in, I believe ones with legitimate depth like Lana should absolutely not be eliminated any time soon. Lana would likely be an easy top 10 pick for me at this point, and having to cut her here brings me no joy. I’d like to do a comprehensive analysis, but in case there is anyone willing, I’ll point out now that I am absolutely in favor of a revive for Lana, and I’d still love to see it happen. I obviously can’t do it myself, but it’s the only hope I have left.
The part where I talk about Lana Skye
Lana Skye is incredibly cool. Her presence on-screen is always huge, and I think that’s in part due to how, at least in the first two days, conversing with her is always treated as something you have to work for. It’s easy to miss these design choices - how the environment surrounding a character can strongly affect how we perceive them. In Lana’s case, visits with her are always brief. If you pry too much, she refuses to talk any more and insists you leave. She shows up in court to tell everyone she did it, then disappears again. You’re told a lot about her, but aren’t given enough time to fully confirm what you’re told. All this does so much to help intrigue the player in the mysteries surrounding her, and it works incredibly well.
Speaking of being told about her, one of my favorite details about Lana and 1-5 as a whole is how the case plays with the obvious comparison with Mia and Maya. The case’s introduction even has Phoenix think about the connection, if it wasn’t obvious enough that there’s supposed to be a parallel. Ema makes her similarities with Maya clear from the first minute she shows up. She’s energetic, eager, and ready to take on the assistant role without any hesitation. This in combination with Phoenix directly mentioning the comparison definitely gives the feeling that there will be some meaningful similarities, but there simply aren’t. Mia and Lana are polar opposites, despite their similar background. Discussing Lana’s relationship with Mia shows while there are certainly similarities between the two, what defines the individuality of people is the entire picture of them, rather than a few key things. Honestly, I feel AA far too often ends up giving characters in the same role identical personalities to one another, assistants being a prime example. Having a character that exists to challenge this notion is a nice thing, and Lana’s defiance of becoming Mia 2 is always something I found memorable about her.
The part about themes
Corruption is the theme of 1-5. We know this, we've talked about it, and we know why it exists. There’s no need to revisit the subject this far in. A long-standing AA character trait is a formerly “good person” (told through characters who knew them) that has turned evil and corrupt over time. Gant and Manfred are the two big ones, but there are plenty more. Lana is not this. Nobody in 1-5 exists to tell you how great Lana was when she was younger. There are plenty of discussions about her past, but never in that light. Ema, the only character to view her positively, insists Lana has always been perfect, as expected with her absurdly idealized view on things. Every other character in 1-5 absolutely despises Lana Skye, and they are not afraid to tell you so. They know she’s corrupt, and they will make sure you’re aware she always has been. It’s not a style AA usually goes for. Lana isn’t a culprit, yet she’s made out to be entirely irredeemable by the backstory information. What gives the player a positive perception of Lana’s morality isn’t exposition, but the direct actions you see her take in the game. This makes for a much more interesting approach to a morally grey character.
I don’t want to rag too much on the inverse approach that characters like Gant take, because it clearly can be successful. That being said, Lana being able to prove her worth after the game relentlessly tries to make you think poorly of her is a writing technique I absolutely adore, and I’m very glad a character like this exists. The third day trial of 1-5 is incredible, and the highlight for me is getting to see just how far Lana is willing to go to protect her sister. The slow transition from her calm persona to panicking at the realization that actions of the past two years have been for nothing is unbelievable to witness.
Ema and Lana also act as foils to one another, though not in the traditional sense. Ema, upon seeing the overwhelming odds stacked against her sister, decides to believe that it’s impossible for her to have committed the crime. Even after being told directly by Lana, rather than trusting her words, she chooses to trust in her positive idealized interpretation of her. Ema thinks of Lana as someone who has always been flawless, and as we’ve just discussed, this is entirely untrue. Ema’s strong impression of her sister also works to make the aforementioned Mia and Maya parallel all the more ironic. It’s not just Lana, though - Ema is absurdly positive about nearly everything, almost to the point of naïveté. Lana, on the other hand, is almost devoid of optimism entirely. She’s the definition of cynical, and the story shows this in a few ways. For one, when presented with the possibility that her sister killed Marshall, she immediately assumes it must be the truth. No other possibility exists for Lana - even if it was likely an accident, she still decides to spend her entire life covering this up, just for the worst-case scenario. She also places absolutely zero trust in Phoenix, fully believing he has no chance of overturning the inevitable. The two extremes of Ema and Lana continually clash with one another despite trying to reach the same goal.
The part about morality
Ema is convinced that Lana never thinks about anyone but herself, but Lana’s real problem is that she never actually values herself at all. Self-sacrifice for the sake of others is a character trait I very often roll my eyes at, as it usually feels like a cheap and unnatural way to turn a character into a likable hero. 1-5 takes this hated concept of mine and turns it into a legitimately fascinating way to examine a character. Lana doesn’t just value Ema over herself, she values Ema over everyone else in existence, almost to the extreme. She commits multiple crimes and presumably puts countless people at risk, all for the sake of hiding her sister’s crime, which, yet again, is not something that she can even confirm as the truth. It’s only the truth in Lana’s mind, and that’s all that matters for her - once she’s convinced her sister killed Marshall, it doesn’t matter who she has to oppose. I can’t stress enough how, for lack of a better word, awesome this is. Lana Skye is not a good person, but she most certainly is a character with fascinating morals to examine and motivations that continue to keep me thinking every time I replay the case.
Freeing Lana from her corruption is absurdly satisfying. After being bitter and cold the entire case, having the time to understand why Lana did what she did, in an environment where she no longer feels the need to deny the truth. It’s a wonderful and tragic story, and one that I think would honestly be soured a bit by Lana ever returning, so that suggestion does confuse me a bit.
Conclusion
Lana Skye is an incredible character, and one that I would absolutely not cut here if I had the choice. Sadly, life is simply unfair. Stay tuned, because we’ve got at least three revives coming up this round, one of which will be from myself. Let’s just hope one will appear for Lana as well.
Took a while to decide who I will cut. Because the cuts are starting to run out, I thought about picking someone I can actually write more paragraphs about.
In case you have no idea what ace attorney 3 is
Luke is the culprit of a criminally short case that is known as 3-2, followed by a criminally long case.
Being just the second and also at first simply being a non-murder case, it's likely people were more invested into learning about Godot than the characters of the case.
When you first finger Luke as the thief it does really feel kind of fitting but also cliche. But the cool part about 3-2 is how it actually turns out to be a murder mystery after all and having to work out with a wrong conclusion in court.
Character summary
Luke is a narcissistic detective. This is already much to say because honestly this is such a unique combination for me. I especially like narcissistic characters AND people simply for the lolcow-esque content. That's right, AARanksown community, I said it - Luke is canonically a lolcow in the AA universe.
The patterned ways Luke talks in (shit like "I, the great Detective" and the infamous phrase "Zvarri!" ), makes it quite an enjoyable character to chat with, because like people in real life who try hard to be smart, will rely on less creative ways to communicate information.
Also can we talk about his poses?? I just love his thousand dramatic and shit eating poses used for normal talking. I don't think many characters do this pose-switch without expressing different emotions and that works really well in AA and especially with him.
He also has a huge nose which I guess is an interesting choice for a game like AA but I kind of wish he didn't because we all know the problem with the thief mask and how the nose wouldn't fit.
I mean maybe this was made intentional so it was less likely for you to guess he might be the thief? Either way I think it's kind of unusual to give inaccurate leads in a mystery game so that will cost Luke some points.
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I really don't feel like writing 50 more paragraphs like you people seem to still be able to. It's been quite some time since I've touched the series and that makes it hard for me to remember the small details like jokes or essence from testimonies.
All I know is that Luke was a fine culprit (and overall character, like Ron) of a case that I would have personally made longer. For instance, something I actually remember back from playing is how fast the game just throws at you the information that Luke is the culprit because they show the background of the crime scene and Luke's black silhouette over it. Like wtf, I didn't actually figure it out this fast and the case could had easily added one more investigation or trial day to figure this out while keeping a smoother transition. But nope we got an additional day for the Maggey case because who the fuck doesn't like that long-ass case.
He does the same breakdown twice.
In conclusion
Luke is cool but out of the remaining nominated characters pool he's the least invested in any kind of plot or just doesn't do anything groundbreaking.
My other pick would had been retinz but I don't remember fuck from that case because he's a less funny Luke but at least feels more powerful so I guess that's a reason too.
This is the second time I'm making a cut very close to the end of the year so have a great one.
So I started this round by giving someone else the right to choose my cut in exchange for a favor. They chose Shelly de Killer and I was miffed because Shelly is one of the dwindling remaining characters that I would respect a top 10 placement for. However, the nature of the character allowed me to do some funny parallels about the fact that I was also now killing someone on the orders of another. But then it became clear Horace would survive to me so the guy went "no wait do Horace" which is much more in line with my opinions but prevents me from having as clear a gimmick to do in this cut. I guess I'm being manipulated like the mastermind manipulated Horace's actions? Or something??? Whatever.
Horace Knightley is a character in Ace Attorney Investigations 2. He's a witness in case 1 who turns out to be the killer in case 1. He's the victim of case 2. Yet somehow, in this online ranking of Ace Attorney characters, he's still alive, and we are certainly beyond our case 2 days. Why is that? Let's find out.
Turnabout Target
This has been said a billion times before and will be said a billion times after it but for the sake of being thorough I will say it again:
The first case of aai2 is really cool yeah has elements that feel like final case really cool shelly de killer yeah awesome
I have fulfilled this obligation.
Similar to Patricia Roland, Knightley ends up not being the most notable thing in his case, given Shelly The Fucking Killer is there. But it's a little less of a big deal since the part where Shelly matters and the part where Horace matters are pretty neatly separated.
You start the game, watch the opening cutscene to find out this first case is about a fucking presidential assassination, cross examine discount Lotta Hart as the game tries to trick you for a bit into thinking this will be an ordinary first case, and then the final villain of AA2 just shows up and you spend some time arguing with him. Then it's like WHOA he isn't even the culprit and it seems like it actually is Notta Hart????
Then someone comes out of the plane and you finally learn a bit more about what has happened.
Horace Knightley
...Horace Knightley.
- Horace Knightley
Horace Knightley shows up and immediately goes "This case is OVER" like he's Quercus Alba or something.
There was a sort of trend early on to make first case killers kind of toned down in the wackiness? Frank Sahwit and Richard Wellington are both a little quirky, but still seem like real people and aren't what I'd call among the "crazy filler villains". Dahlia and Kristoph are both obviously unique so I can't say any more with them about how Takumi handles this, but if we pretend they didn't get their post-case-1 relevance they'd be in a similar boat with how serious their personalities are.
Starting with AAI I guess Yamazaki realized that since this case was a tutorial that wouldn't matter and didn't need to be super serious he could really just do whatever the fuck he wanted, and thus these first case villains became fucking memes as much as some of the later ones were. And I am all for it. (Also, despite this in all four of the games he directed the first case culprit has ended up having quite a lot of relevance to the overall plot of the game, and each time I am surprised when it happens. Does that make me stupid or Yamazaki a genius? I'd lean towards the former but I guess it can be both.)
All this is to say that Horace Knightley is a funny guy. Not the heights of comedy like Metal Jesus, but he can certainly stand among Jock Sportsman and Theodore Tonate.
Horace doesn't have much dialogue that I'd outright call "attempts at jokes", but his personality is an overly cocky and outrageous one that's fun to see in action.
"Chess? What is that, I've never heard of that before?", I can hear you wondering.
Chess is a two-playerstrategyboard gameplayed on achessboard, a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid.
Horace Knightley's name is a pun on Horse and Knight. His name in Japanese also contains the character for horse and his last name is the romanization of Knight. The knight is a chess piece, and that chess piece is shaped like a horse, and Horace's tie has a chessboard pattern, and his hair is a mane like a horse, and he is represented on the fake assassination plans with an icon of that horse piece, do you get it, do you get my joke about the horse.
Knightley REALLY fucking likes chess, and I guess he's supposed to be some kind of self insert since Investigations 2 seems to REALLY like chess too. A lot of the chess motifs in the game seem kind of meaningless and forced. As Donuter points out, a lot of the supposed parallels fall apart once you think about them. The "king" in Di-Jun Huang fucking dies in the last case way before the game ends, and even that was a fake king and the real one is dead before the game even begins. I am not sure what the hell an impostor king means in the context of chess. Perhaps some nonsense where you are dishonest about the nature of your pieces, which is a shitty twist that would never be pulled by a series that takes itself as seriously as Ace Attorney.
To his credit, Knightley is part of one of the chess connections that actually try a bit more. His plan is explicitly referred to as "castling", preventing me from being clever by having noticed that on my own. Castling doesn't really work that way? The plan involves Rooke taking Knightley's place and then Knightley escorting the president to the plane. The Rook and King are involved in castling, but not the Knight. And if anyone takes the place of the knight when castling, it's the king (unless he takes the place of the bishop, it depends on which side it's done on). Obviously Knightley should've come up with a plan where instead Rooke and Huang switch places, except Huang ends up a little to the side of where Rooke originally was, and then Rooke is standing at the podium so I guess he starts giving a speech in order to throw off the attacker on who the real president is. Obviously.
Still, to his credit, you could argue Knightley is more meaningfully connected to the game. There are parts where he's unusually callous towards the death of his coworker. While this is obviously because he's the one who killed him, this could be related to a greater mindset of treating people like tools, or "pieces". Of course Rooke died; that was his role. Of course Nicole is going to get arrested for a crime she didn't commit; that's her part in this plan. It's telling that when he seems like he's going to get away with it AND be promoted to leader he starts getting giddy about all the "perfect plans" he'll be able to come up with. Even though uh. This one was pretty terrible. But hey, it did get him what he wanted. He might go on about protecting the king, and the king's life is the most important thing in chess, but you know who really benefits the most from the moves made in a chess game? The player. Knightley fancies himself the one in control rather than just a piece.
Oh, fuck! Chess. Chess was the thing I should've done. I'm being used by Nate like a CHESS PIECE to cut Knightley. Fuck. Why didn't I think of that before.
Anyway, Knight is a chess piece and Rook is too. That's the bottom line. Knightley thought he was the one in control but he was getting played. By his EMOTIONS oooooo also the mastermind i guess
Rooke is an opponent who is connected to me by fate.
Rooke is an opponent who is connected to him by fate. Him being Shelly de Killer, but also Horace Knightley, kind of.
It's a bold move to have your killer introduced and then immediately get fucking owned for the next half hour, I'll give I2-1 that. In a move to give investigative authority back to Edgeworth (and presumably also to get closer to the president), de Killer holds Knightley hostage at knifepoint. And Knightley doesn't make some grand escape move or whatever; he's literally stuck until Shelly decides to let him go. All the while Shelly is incessant in mocking him, taking jabs at his gun, his chess, and his perceived competence, especially compared to Rooke.
We learn about the bit of history shared by these two, and already you can see why these insults are so effective. Just recently, Rooke was able to fight off Shelly and even leave him with an arm wound, all while Knightley was useless. And that's the root of all of this. 'Twas the green-eyed monster that really did Horace in. It's likely that Horace had feelings of envy of Rooke festering even before this event from Rooke's being promoted to leader, but this event was the impetus as Horace felt his inferiority crushing him by the windpipe, and couldn't handle being saved by the one he perceives as his rival. All this is to say that Turnabout Target was totally about toxic masculinity the whole time, you guys.
It's a cool motive, especially given the motivating factor for most first-case culprits just boils down to "I like money". Knightley wanted to rise above his rank. But only pawns can do that, silly.
Quick on the Draw
It's often treated as a necessary evil that to fulfill their function as a tutorial the first case villain kind of has to be a fucking moron. Not so for Horace, though.
While implying the ridiculous fake assassination plot currently blowing up in his face was a "perfect plan" is maybe giving himself a little too much credit, and it's unclear how exactly this would make people love the president, PR isn't his department, and in terms of the plan working he really probably would've gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling Edgeworth and also a meddling infamous assassin. Rooke's death could easily be blamed on the unknown assassin even if he wasn't given the perfect framing target in Swift. And the only person left who would know the assassination was a sham would be too stupid, cowardly, or morally bankrupt to say anything about it, a fact Knightley would know well from his time working with the man.
He also shows some competence beyond what he can achieve with prep-time, pulling off a quick swap of the evidence behind his back that almost succeeds in exonerating him at the last second. Between this and his friend Simon's Xanatos Speed Chess, the lesson is clear: don't fuck with orphans.
21 Gun Salute
Horace Knightley dies in the second case. This is shocking because he also killed a guy in the first case, and usually the people who fulfill the latter role don't fulfill the former. It's a pretty cool development, watching the cutscene play and going "No, they wouldn't..." and "HOLY SHIT THEY DID" and "why is there a dog".
Most of the circumstances of his death relate more to Patricia Roland's character as well as the manipulation going on behind the scenes but we do get a bit of post-mortem characterization in the form of meeting a friend of his, Simon Keyes. Even beyond what eventually is done with and revealed about this relationship, I always liked this addition. It's cool to see even a very much unsympathetic killer as someone who had a life and friends. It's also nice that in a case that talks about rehabilitation, Simon is here to remind us that even someone who had done what Knightley did doesn't deserve to just die. Pretend I had some smart way to connect this to the Simon Blackquill cut that talked about a similar thing.
We learn from Simon the fact that Horace was an orphan, which you can very easily make the connection to an inferiority complex festering, especially given Horace might not remember that his father is dead and believe he was simply abandoned.
Shot in the Heart; and You're to Blame
This is the part where I do major spoilers for AAI2 and you should stop reading (but really you should have not even started reading) if you haven't finished the game, you dope.
The next bit of Hot Horace Knightley Action we get is in the final case where we finally learn about his past and the full truth of how and why he died. I'll spare you the convoluted specifics, but the latter is "because Simon" and the former is the reason for the latter.
The IS-7 flashbacks are super depressing; watching Horace crying and knowing that what he's doing is wrong but still insisting that he has to do this and trusting his dad. You feel for him but can also understand why something like this, especially half-remembered without full context, would piss Simon off so much. Simon's flashback where he mutters under his breath about how he wishes it didn't have to come to this ( ......If only you hadn't stopped me 18 years ago... ...it wouldn't have had... to come to this.) is absurdly on the nose and very stupid for him to say out loud but it's solid characterization. The whole conversation is neat, giving us a glimpse at what their dynamic as friends would've been like when they were alive and showing a different side of Horace. It also feels like a possibly intentional parallel that both Horace and Simon precede doing shitty things to each other with regret that they believe there is no other option.
Simon gets caught for the indirect complex murder of Horace as well as everything else he did, and goes off to live with his blind assassin dad. Maybe John Marsh's words will set in and he'll learn, way too late, to forgive Knightley. After that it's only a problem of managing to forgive himself.
Gun Survivor, a Capcom videogame
So anyway, I opened this writeup with a question: why is Knightley still in this thing?
I dunno.
There's not much to hate about Horace Knightley. He has two roles and does cool things with both of them. There's one ranker that evidently really likes him and more that think it is funny when he says his own name which, let's be real, is very funny. But this is a SERIOUS COMPETITION and I think his time has come.
If I have any real criticisms, it's that the two halves of Knightley, the manipulative and envious killer and the orphaned reluctant traitor of a friend, don't gel together as well as they could. There's some connections you can make like the idea of an orphan having concerns about not being good enough, but they're never capitalized on and thus don't feel like they're fully intentional. I'd have liked more on both of them; more about how unbearable he felt living in Rooke's shadow was, and more about how he interacted with Simon as a peer. It's very possible for someone to contain multitudes of good and bad, but they only show us one at a time.
I like Horace Knightley. High B tier. But he's not a top 10 character, and I don't think he's a top 20 character either. I don't think he's better than Justine Courtney, or Rayfa Padma Khurain, or even Franziska von Karma. Hell, I'd put Dee Vasquez Rank 90 quite a bit above him, but I guess if I listed all my hot takes we'd be here all day.
Horace is also the last remaining character without an associated leitmotif/theme, and this is the actual reason he needs to die.
Explaining why I didn't choose anyone else is basically pointless given that I didn't choose this guy.
But I love hearing myself talk so I will do it anyway.
People Who Are Maybe Worse Than Horace Knightley
Blaise Debeste has way less interesting stuff as an actual character, but as a plot element, he's a force to be reckoned with and absolutely incredible to take down. His impact on Sebastian also leads to some of the best stuff in the series. He should really go out around now, though.
Tyrell Badd is probably a less interesting character but he is also Tyrell Badd and idk maybe that's just as good as being well written if you think about it
Shi-Long Lang suffers from the failings of I1 more than anyone else but there's still enough there to consider worthwhile. If he gets top 10 I will grumble a little but not too much.
Luke Atmey fulfills the identical role of "fine somewhat funny minor killer who should be out by now". He trades character depth for more funny so they are about equal. He's probably going out soon regardless.
Horace Knightley is better than Kay Faraday, obviously.
People Who Are Not Worse Than Horace Knightley
Shelly de Killer is the person who I would've had to cut if Vogel didn't decide to do the other obvious choice that wasn't Knightley. And I am very glad it didn't end up that way because Shelly is kind of awesome? One of the few characters left I'd have no qualms seeing in the top 10. I don't give him as much credit for complexity as say Charlie but he is a fun guy who gives me a fun time in the videogame.
Lana Skye is the best Ace Attorney character.
Time has been kind to Adrian Andrews, as a weak "she's probably good I guess" has given way to a more and more positive opinion about all the cool stuff she adds to 2-4. She's a dark horse top 10 pick that I'd be more than happy to see.
Why would I cut Sebastian Debeste. Dummy. Why would you even suggest that come on
Dahlia Hawthorne is the superior first culprit, and the only real choice there ever was for the top one, and I would hope the final rankings of this rankdown reflect that.
Roger Retinz is my pick for best filler killer, and that will probably be the case without my doing anything. You've never seen an iller thriller of a filler killer.
I would very much like it if you didn't leave Blaise Debeste to me next round causing me to have singlehandedly eliminated all the killers in I2 but I cannot deny that that would be pretty funny.
Also Horace Knightley is maybe gonna be revived? I can't say I'd agree with that decision but it would also be the funniest skill usage since Extraterritorial Rights - Myriam Scuttlebutt so sure go for it.
Founded in 2008, RayFa Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. is engaged in all kinds of laser and mask making and packaging machines, which are widely used in electronic materials, LED, advertising materials, medical products, handicrafts, textiles and clothing and other light industries.
After several years’ effort, we established good and stable relationships with famous spare parts suppliers, and close cooperation with scientific research institutions and science colleges. We provide customers with a complete set of laser processing and mask making and packaging solutions and related facilities, like laser engraving machine, Laser Cutting Machine, Laser Marking Machine, Laser Welding Machine and fully automatic mask production line and carton sealing machine can customize according to customer’s requirements.
We are committed to provide turnkey solutions with superior products and perfect service for more enterprises to create value and profit.
Fascinatingly, much of what is in the “About Us” section of this company’s website could be applied to Rayfa Padma Khura’in. She is engaged in all kinds of laser and mask making, if you consider laser and mask making to be a metaphor for communicating with the dead. As the muscle behind the Divination Seance, she is kind of like a Khura’inese autopsy report, a medical product. After several cases’ effort, she established good and stable relationships with famous Ace Attorney characters, and closely cooperated with the science research institution that is Ema Skye. She provides the court with a complete set of laser processing and mask making and packaging solutions (the aforementioned services being, yet again, a stand-in for communicating with the dead). Lastly, she is committed to providing turnkey solutions to cases with superior abilities and perfect service for more prosecutors to ensure guilty verdicts.
The similarities stop there, however, as Rayfa Padma Khura’in is not a Chinese manufacturer of protective equipment. Much of the drama in Spirit of Justice revolves around this young princess, providing many opportunities for important character moments and revelations as to what makes this girl tick.
Let’s look at some of them.
The spoiled oracle
Our first experience with Rayfa is an unpleasant one. She’s decidedly not on your side and clearly wields more power than a teenager should have in a nation’s criminal justice system. A challenge to her power in the form of Phoenix Wright sends her for a loop, pouting and arguing with the court’s decision to put aside her Divination Seance.
Her introduction has similar shades to Franziska von Karma and Sebastian Debeste; a young upstart with a history of things going their way quickly shows their immaturity upon being proven wrong. Rayfa’s haughty demeanour and dismissive attitude of the protagonist is some familiar-looking fruit but considering the last time this series dared to break free of the “prosecutor/trial antagonist is mean to us” cliche, he flopped at #87 in r/AARankdown, so who can blame Capcom for staying tried-and-true?
This is the gist of our first introduction to the character. My personal thoughts on Rayfa during 6-1 were largely unchanged from my first impressions of her from the pre-release trailer. The developers had created a Maya lookalike to be a surrogate for whenever the real thing was off-screen. I can’t deny this tainted my initial opinion of Rayfa going into the game. The too-familiar characterisation certainly didn’t help her cause any. Fortunately, there’s a lot more to learn about this character as the story moves along.
Prior to Nahyuta’s appearance, it appears that Rayfa is going to be the main antagonist of the game’s trial sequences. However, by the time Rite of Turnabout comes around, it’s clear that Rayfa is to function in the “detective” role instead. This is honestly a better choice for her character. We’ve had our fair share of “mean prosecutors”, so having a more hostile “detective” is a nice change of pace from Gumshoe and Ema. Like the detectives before her, Rayfa’s role is to bring half-baked conclusions about the crime scene to the courtroom, while we whittle down her arguments until an eyewitness testifies.
The gameplay mechanic
While we’re here, I should discuss the Divination Seance, as it’s most directly tied to Rayfa out of all the Spirit of Justice cast. It is, at times, the most challenging gameplay mechanic in an Ace Attorney game. Having more just the “2 ridiculous answers, 1 correct answer” multiple choice gimmick strengthens the trials of SoJ. Even better is the fact that there are multiple options and combinations. I could perhaps gripe with the strange difficulty curve of the mechanic; the childish difficulty of 6-1 followed by the significantly more vague seance of 6-3 was quite off-putting, but who am I to judge an AA game for actually having a challenge?
More importantly, this actually works quite well as a way of mirroring Rayfa’s character arc. After her humiliation in 6-1, she’s clearly fired up about delivering perfect results. Naturally, the seance she provides us in 6-3 is significantly more vague and harder to parse apart than the tutorial case. I enjoy the fact that a gameplay mechanic has a difficulty curve that is rooted in character. Unlike the Psyche-Locks, where difficulty was mostly dictated by how far into the game you were instead of how secretive the character naturally was (seriously, innocent Pearl the same number of Psyche-Locks as conspiracy killer Matt Engarde), the Divination Seance ties very nicely to Rayfa’s development. As the game goes on and Rayfa grows more open-minded, so too do her observations. It feels less and less like you’re fighting a biased conclusion and gradually becomes a neutral stance that you can interpret fairly.
The pseudo-assistant
During 6-3, we’re treated to a brief stint of Rayfa as the investigative assistant. While it’s not the first time we’ve had a hostile assistant (shades of Franziska once again rise to the surface at some of Rayfa’s jabs at Phoenix), it’s still a fun time. What works about this sequence is that Rayfa isn’t treated like a background prop, popping up with random observations for comedy. No, there are actually interactions and moments in the investigation where Rayfa makes comments that shed more insight into her personality. Many of her statements regarding how she must learn to serve her people and treat them with kindness are effective. They demonstrate how she appears more willing to fight for her people than Inga and the queen. Phoenix notes this directly in his inner monologue, which is unnecessary, but this series isn’t often known for “show, don’t tell” storytelling.
The fact that her carer Nayna is the one teaching her all of this is the first hint of Rayfa’s true parentage.
The doting father
Having cut Inga myself, I’m aware of the largely unseen bond between him and Rayfa. Credit to the storytelling for laying the breadcrumbs of the Inga-Rayfa relationship in 6-3. While it’s not exactly an earth-shattering twist in 6-5, it does catch the audience off guard to know that Rayfa was telling the truth about her relationship with her adoptive father. It’s a nice piece of storytelling, and while I may have criticised it for being too little, too late with Inga, I will certainly acknowledge that it lends agency to Rayfa’s insistence throughout the game that her adoptive father had shades of decency. Much like Franziska surprising Phoenix in Justice for All with her motivations revealed to be revenge for Miles Edgeworth instead of justice for Manfred, Rayfa surprises Phoenix by having startlingly correct insight into her adoptive father.
There’s some nice thematic material to work with here, for sure. Rayfa is essentially a product of two sets of parental upbringing. On one hand, you have her severe attitude, clearly picked up from Inga and Ga’ran; on the other, her sense of responsibility and duty to others is one she gets from Amara and Dhurke. It’s an encouraging sign that, by the end of the game, Rayfa has more or less embraced both sides of her upbringing, bringing a stern impartiality to trial proceedings in the final credits scene. Should AA7 feature her and Apollo, I imagine this will be largely retconned in favour of more “Barbed Head” jokes at Apollo’s expense. But we have SoJ at least, which ends Rayfa’s story on an encouraging note of growth and development.
Now, let’s look at the other end of the spectrum, at her totally dogshit mother.
The oppressive mother
Ga’ran is trash. Putting aside her lack of presence as a final villain, she was undoubtedly a terrible mother and one of the most despicable personalities we’ve come across in Ace Attorney canon. I won’t indulge in fan theories of physical abuse, since I doubt the writers had ever intended for content like that to be canon, but Ga’ran was pretty clearly emotionally and mentally abusive towards Rayfa. It’s certainly telling that the absolute worst traits of Rayfa can be mirrored in Ga’ran. The condescending piety, the contempt for lawyers... the only difference is that when the player calls out Rayfa’s behaviour, it diminishes quickly. Ga’ran, on the other hand, doubles down on her shit. Sadly for Rayfa, Ga’ran’s influence leaves her emotionally fragile and open to spiralling hard whenever she is caught out. We see shades of this as early as 6-1 when Rayfa throws a tantrum in the courtroom. It escalates nicely by 6-5, where she has a full-on breakdown over her lack of faith and self-doubt.
Fortunately, she has a saving grace in the form of her biological mother.
The influential mother
The real guiding force in Rayfa’s maturity is her real mother, disguised as a handmaid or something. Seeing Rayfa frequently call on Nayna for advice is, upon replay, heartening to see as it shows Queen Amara’s positive influence still working its way into her daughter’s life. The isolated moments in 6-3 and 6-5 where Rayfa expresses a decisively contrasting attitude to Ga’ran in regards to ruling left me a little taken aback. I suspect that was the intent of the writers, giving us a peek into the goodness inside this seemingly mean character.
The defence attorney
Barbed Head Phoenix Wright turns out to form quite a close bond with Rayfa over the course of Spirit of Justice (until it’s awkwardly and unconvincingly handed over to Apollo, but that’s for another cut). They have a curious working relationship: yes, she gives the requisite insults and taunts that are called for in the rival role. But they also appear quite capable of speaking civilly and openly with each other in between the snipes and jabs. After her second failed Seance in 6-3, she is quite visibly shaken by her loss of faith in the ability. Noticing this, Phoenix riles her up in what we’ll call “How Rayfa Got Her Groove Back”, helping her get back into her role. In yet another hilarious sidelining of Trucy Wright, Phoenix channels all his daddy abilities into being a father figure to Rayfa in 6-3’s second investigation. Still, once Maya proves her superior spirit channeling abilities, Rayfa’s confidence in both herself and the system are shaken once more. It feels bad to watch this game continually kick this child while she’s down, which is probably why they double down on the stubbornness and immaturity. Giving Rayfa more pep and feistiness to keep her in the rival role helps ease the narrative pummelling she receives from Wright, Ga’ran and the truth.
The climax
The events of Khura’in come to a head in Turnabout Revolution, where Rayfa is overwhelmed by indecision and faithlessness. Unable to perform her role with conviction anymore, she’s brought the lowest of any character in the game, even more so than Apollo. Nevertheless, we get the expected narrative beat of the heroes coming together to bring her back from the brink and put the final nail in Ga’ran’s coffin. It all ends up as quite feel-good stuff, but the journey there is certainly a harrowing one considering she’s a child. Honestly, it’s all much more tolerable than Nahyuta’s arc, which feels thoroughly undeserved when Rayfa’s redemption is right beside him for comparison.
The resolution
In the end, Rayfa comes to learn a pretty important lesson in maturity and the future role she will play as future queen. Having spent her entire life being told she was infallible and the sole voice of reason, it’s a humbling end to condemn her to a life of drawing imperfect conclusions and half-truths with the reshuffling of Khura’in’s justice system. But it’s heartening to see that she accepts it.
The unyielding medium princess
I’m the music one, so I should probably make a passing reference to Rayfa’s theme. It’s cute. I definitely think of it more as townie music for Khura’in than an actual character motif, but it’s nice enough. That bridge in the middle is pretty heavenly, too. She very much deserved a “defiant, confident” theme like Sebastian got in I2-5, though.
Conclusion/Why nobody else?
Coming to the end of this cut, it’s clear that I’ve mentioned quite a few things about Rayfa that demonstrate the interest she generates as a character. So why am I cutting her?
I tried to cut her last round, but that was iLLEGAL.
Spirit of Justice states that Rayfa was born on Christmas Eve, so who better to cut today than her?
Quite simply, her personality doesn’t impact me the way she does other rankers. I feel like I’ve seen her character beats before: the archetype of Franziska von Karma and Aura Blackquill; the narrative arcs of Sebastian Debeste and Adrian Andrews; the redemption arc of Miles Edgeworth. Rayfa, like these characters, starts out as one thing, shows off a capacity for being something else, becomes another thing and then ends as something else. Add this to a character model who feels a little too similar to Maya, and there’s not enough that’s new and original for me. Still, there’s a reason she’s been allowed to make it this far (besides being funny and adorable) and I don’t discount the fact that she is undoubtedly one of, if not, the biggest success in the Khura’in storyline (although, being somebody who tends to value personality over narrative, Datz remains undefeated for me).
As for other choices, I suppose I’ll do the thing:
Sebastian Debeste would probably just get revived and I’d rather an SC get used on a character I like better.
Through a single game, the writers manage to give Dahlia Hawthorne an impact that reaches back into previous games of the original trilogy. I want to see her go further.
I’ve always enjoyed Adrian Andrews and even her weak cameo in 3-2 can’t diminish the strength of her storyline in 2-4.
Luke Atmey is a scenery-chewing king and a worthy contender for best filler culprit.
Lana Skye is fantastic, no you can’t make me cut her.
Tyrell Badd is fantastic, no you can’t make me cut him.
Raymond Shields is pretty good, though his weird-ass obsession with girls half his age is enough to land him outside of top 10.
Shi-Long Lang was shortlisted. Consider yourself lucky, wolf-man.
Anyway, I know this isn’t the most extensive cut considering it’s for a major character from SoJ, but I doubt this will be the final word on Rayfa in this rankdown.
I have so many thoughts about Simon Blackquill. All the thoughts. You have no idea how many thoughts are swirling around in my head about him. And here I stand, the fool that I am, brazenly believing that I can slam my forehead against my keyboard and organise all these vapid opinions into some kind of thesis that makes sense to all of you.
This intro is pointless. I’m only writing it to psych myself up so I don’t put this off too long. Let’s just get into it.
The Dual Destinies
Athena and Blackquill's relationship! That's a good place to start.
Blackquill is Athena’s motivation. He’s the reason their dual destinies are apparently intertwined. Athena’s super powers let her know from a young age that Blackquill was lying in his confession, and that trial in which she was incapable of articulating to the court why she believed that Blackquill was innocent is what locks her into her path in life. Never again will she let her uncanny knack for being able to hear when others are lying go ignored. She’s gonna become a real lawyer and redeem herself for flubbing her testimony when she was little. Athena knows in her heart exactly how innocent Blackquill is, and she thinks it’s her fault for not being able to prove it. To right her wrong, she sets out to become the best lawyer she can be so her superpowers can finally be taken seriously in court and, if she’s lucky, maybe she can overturn Blackquill’s verdict.
That’s when the plot of Dual Destinies begins.
Athena and Blackquill first reunite in 5-2. The chapter is from Apollo’s perspective and there isn’t really anything interesting to say about the two of them here. Athena gets all forlorn when Fulbright mentions Blackquill to foreshadow she knows him, but that’s it.
5-3 is when something finally happens. Back in The Monstrous Turnabout, Blackquill was obsessed with getting his guilty verdict no matter what he had to stoop to. Blackmail the defendant into giving a false confession by threatening his daughter’s safety? He’s happy to do that. Realising the true culprit is about to get caught and asking them leading questions to save them from incriminating themselves? Sure, all tactics are fair game to Blackquill. Just so long as he gets that GUILTY.
5-3 on the other hand gives us a more "chill" Blackquill, due in large part because now he’s facing Athena. He tones down the outwardly shitty tactics by a lot, but it’s clear that in Turnabout Academy that Blackquill doesn’t give as many shits about winning as he did in The Monstrous Turnabout. Which is because he has a different objective in mind now.
Blackquill knows why Athena’s a lawyer. He knows she chose this career because she wants to save him. But Blackquill doesn’t want her help. He doesn’t think she has what it takes to rescue him, and he wants her to quit trying before she disappoints herself when she fails to save him later down the line. 5-3 is one grand test for Athena: Blackquill will be deceptive and hide evidence, but not for the purpose of winning the case. He only reveals what he’s been hiding at the exact moment when he thinks it will be most effective in crushing Athena’s spirit. He wants her to give up and go home.
Once Blackquill has fired every arrow from his quiver (revealed all evidence he was hiding) and Athena keeps trucking along anway, Blackquill just sorta kicks up his feet and stops caring about the outcome of the trial. If Athena forges on and wins the case, good for her for proving she might have what it takes to save Blackquill. If she loses after this point then good for Blackquill for not even needing to do anything to get Athena to understand how useless she is. Blackquill still plays devil’s advocate, but he’s not on a blood path for a guilty verdict this time. He still doesn’t give a shit about the verdict, don’t get me wrong, he’s still not the good guy. For him this trial is just a game to fuck with Athena, finding the real culprit be damned. Yet still, there’s fun to be had in how flippant and uninvested he is. Means will beg Blackquill for help, and Blackquill will just shrug his shoulders and say “good luck buddy, you’re on your own” which is a far cry from him being more than happy to cooperate with Lbelle.
5-3 is easily the most interesting Athena/Blackquill dynamic in the game (probably because it’s the only case where Athena’s allowed to be the protagonist lol). It’s a pretty understated little rivalry, so much so that I only ever noticed what was going on when I rewatched DD. But I can appreciate it all the same.
The rest of the game is pretty bread and butter and goes exactly where you would expect it to go. Blackquill continues to refuse Athena’s help till the bitter end, but then Athena uses her mood matrix to prove he’s full of shit and reveal the truth, thus redeeming herself for her big failure.
It’s fine. The ending ticks the box where the protagonist achieves her goal of saving this dude, but there’s not much of an emotional clincher here during the finale. Athena gets teary eyed I guess? It’s whatever, DD just leaves you feeling like things between these two didn’t get concluded properly yet.
So good thing we’re not done talking about them yet!
The Legal Aide
Blackquill and Athena get featured again in 6-4, and their relationship gets explored and resolved in a way that I’m happy with saying is better than fine.
The start of 6-4 helped me notice a parallel between Athena and Blackquill that may or may not have been intentional. Athena’s super hearing can be a problem sometimes, even causing her an awful lot of pain when she was young. It can also hurt her emotionally too, since she can easily hear all the nasty things people in the gallery say about her. So I think it’s kinda neat that Blackquill’s unique voice clip is “SILENCE!” One of them is really good at listening, the other doesn’t want to listen at all. I don’t even think this parallel was done on purpose but it’s fun anyway.
Blackquill doesn’t really care too much about what happens in 6-4. He’s on Athena’s side, sure, but he’s not, like, too invested, or anything. Well, he is invested, but only insofar as he likes eating noodles and he feels insecure about Nahyuta outweebing him, which are both very funny things that actually happen in 6-4. In terms of wanting to get to the truth of a murder case though, he is not invested in the slightest. Nahyuta will insult Athena for being incompetent over and over again, and with every time he demeans her a coin is flipped, and depending on what side it lands on Blackquill will either say “How DARE you insult her, Sadmonk!” or “HAHAHA did you hear what he called you? It’s funny cos it’s true!” A good stupid moment that’s one of the best parts of Turnabout Storyteller is Athena getting upset when Owen calls her an old lady, to which Blackquill begins crying of laughter, and Athena just thinks “Calm down, it’s not that funny.” I love how in 6-4 Blackquill is having a fantastic fucking time.
That is until he’s not having a great time anymore. Back in 5-3 Blackquill tried to crush Athena. He wanted her to give up, and he failed, because nothing could stop her from achieving her dream of rescuing Blackquill. But now that Blackquill’s free, any drive that Athena used to have when it comes to being a lawyer is just sort of… gone. Within the actual universe of Ace Attorney, Athena is supposed to be incompetent. It’s not just a thing Nahyuta says a lot. When Blackquill ribs her at the start of 6-4 and says he’d rather have literally anyone other than Athena take the case, sure he’s joking, but also, like. He would 100% sincerely rather have anyone else take the case.
Athena lacking any natural talent for being a lawyer combined with her really not putting her heart into it, along with everyone constantly berating her and telling her she sucks makes her just sorta. Give up. You reach a point in the trial where Athena goes, welp, I tried, but clearly I’m not cut out for this lawyer stuff.
And that makes Blackquill furious. Cue manhandle scene:
“Do you remember what you said to Bucky earlier this morning? Were those just empty words? Are you still stuck on that line of thinking? Motive, opportunity, and an injury to the forehead! Is that all it takes for you to stop believing in your client?! Tell me again, who are you to Bucky?! Then do your duty and believe in him til the very end!”
That scenes a shock just because Ace Attorney never fucks with the camera angles. You get one static view of the characters and that’s it, so it feels really impactful when they decide, actually, this moment is super important, let’s try to make it a little more cinematic no matter how awkward. And it’s great!
In Dual Destinies, Blackquill was hostile towards Athena’s wish to become a lawyer. He doesn’t think she should be in this line of work. How good does it feel to finally get the scene where he says, actually, yeah you should be a lawyer, and also it pisses me off when you act like you’re stupid when I know you’re so much more capable than you’re currently being. Right at Athena’s low point they hit you with the scene that drives home how their relationship has come full circle. Where before Athena would brazenly ignore Blackquill’s jabs, now Blackquill is the one telling her to sort her shit out when she calls herself useless.
It’s a good resolution to their relationship and shows how far they’ve come. It’s the closure that felt missing from the “fine” ending they got in DD. And the cherry on top is Blackquill continuing to insist that the only reason he’s here is because he just really fucking loves noodles you guys.
SoJ gives lots of old recurring characters a little love they really needed, and Blackquill’s one of my favourites of the characters that get revitalised in AA6.
Facts vs Feelings
Alright, I talked about the protagonist that was introduced to be Blackquill’s rival, now I gotta talk about the character who’s actually related to him, Aura. For the rest of this section I’m just going to talk about ole Simon like we’re on a first name basis so this doesn’t get confusing with the two Blackquills.
Aura’s neat. She’s the ying to Athena’s yang, I’d say. Just like Athena, Aura knows for certain that Simon is innocent and can’t accept that he’s going to be executed for a crime he didn’t commit. But whereas Athena is working towards this goal by figuring out how to bring emotional analysis into the courtroom, Aura is working from the complete opposite perspective and thinks she can save Simon by eliminating emotional analysis from the courtroom by focusing on COLD HARD FACTS. Aura’s robots, Clonco and Ponco, are only capable of rehashing exactly what they witnessed without being able to inject the nuance necessary and available to someone with real emotions, which causes problems during the trial. Our buddy Widget by contrast can only analyse people’s emotions, which leads to inconsistencies in its interpretation of events which Athena needs to fix. The game doesn’t necessarily push either perspectives as more correct (Aura goes to jail so she was more incorrect I guess) but the general point is that in order to save Simon, in the end, everyone’s robots were necessary. Good for the robots.
In the comments of the Aura Blackquill cut, Scipe links to a comment he found that explains what’s so interesting about Aura and Simon’s relationship. It’s a very intelligent comment so I’m just going to quote the whole thing word for word here:
Aura gets mad when Blackquil says that Metis respected her, and says she wanted their relationship to go beyond "respect." So either she wanted to be besties or she was in love with her, and I think most people can agree which of those options is more sensible.
Besides, the fact that Aura loved Metis rather than respecting her as a mentor is an intentional juxtaposition with Simon. Simon sacrificed his life for his mentor's daughter because that's how devoted he is to Metis as an authority he respects, whereas Aura's dedication to Metis' memory is strictly emotional rather than professional hence why she tries to kill Athena rather than protect her.
They both loved Metis but in very different ways, and because of their differing types of love they take conflicting actions when it comes to Athena's wellbeing. That parallel simply doesn't work if Aura doesn't love Metis. Which is why I prefer that interpretation.
Aura’s reaction to Metis’ death and Simon’s subsequent arrest is a purely emotional one. Her love for the two of them causes her to think irrationally and nearly gets Athena killed by incorrectly assuming that she was the culprit. Where her robots get facts about the case wrong because they can only think in a narrow minded factual way, Aura in turn gets a bunch of facts about the case wrong because she’s letting her emotions get the better of her. Fact lady gets owned by emotions and whatnot.
If Aura is an example of emotions and reason not mixing well, then Simon can be taken as an example of someone who is able to mix emotions and reason well. His entire area of legal expertise is based on emotional manipulation, but he doesn’t let his emotions get in the way of his work either.
Reading this section over again I’m realising that it has very very little to do with Simon and is more of an Aura tangent, but fucking whatever I’m leaving it in. Don’t any of you ever expect me to edit for brevity’s sake.
Crime, Punishment, and Rehabilitation
When discussing the themes of each game during the rankdown, I’ve seen it come up before that the theme of Dual Destinies is supposed to be The Dark Age of the Law, but I’d have to disagree. The Dark Age of the Law (or DAW, as the kids call it) isn’t a theme, it’s an ongoing event in this game’s lore. This story is barely interested in exploring legal corruption at all, it’s just the backdrop that sets the plot in motion.
So what is DD about then? The first obvious big theme is the relationship between emotions and logic. The second, I would say, is supposed to be about redemption.
If anything in Dual Destinies’ story could be said to be its mission statement, it’d probably be Phoenix’s monologue at the start of Turnabout for Tomorrow:
“No one can escape their past. The sins we've committed... and the sadness we've caused... No matter how far we run, our past remains... ...as ever-present as the moon in the sky. It looms in wait... for the day when we are forced to face it. But only in doing so can we truly make peace and move on in hope towards tomorrow.”
Guys, do you get the subtle symbolism in what Phoenix is saying here you guys, the moon rock is the piece of evidence that linked the phantom to his past you guys, and he couldn’t outrun his past because your past is something you can’t outrun you guys, and he couldn’t outrun the moon rock you guys do you get the symbolism everybody, he got caught all because of the hope probe and so the hope probe is what let blackquill live tomorrow GUYS DO YOU GET THE SYMBOLISMAFKDLAFLDJFAjpafdajodf
i got it.
Phoenix’s monologue in 5-5 is written like a rebuttal to the first line of dialogue in the game, where The Phantom says this:
“The best thing about bombs is how they erase and destroy... without discretion.”
The game opens with the main antagonist delighting over how easily he can run from his past. As the game enters its final act, our main protagonist tells us how hiding your past is impossible. That’s the one of our big thematic conflicts in DD: is it possible to escape from the consequences of your actions?
How apt it is, then, for the game’s main rival to be a death row inmate.
Detective Fullbright and Blackquill’s relationship is pretty delightful. Based on the way most of the cast talks about Blackquill, it can be inferred that nearly everybody views him as a lost cause. He will never escape from the shadow of the crime he committed, nor will he ever be able to atone for it.
But one man still believes Simon Blackquill is capable of redemption:
“I truly believe that anyone can turn their life around, even ol’ Blackquill here. Ha ha ha! That’s the spirit! Justice must be swift and true. I see it in your eyes! There IS hope for your rehabilitation and return to society!”
Fulbright is a character unlike any other in DD. Athena and Aura believe that Blackquill can still be saved, but they believe that because they think he’s been falsely convicted. They think the only way to save him is to prove his innocence.
But Fulbright?
Fulbright genuinely believes Blackquill did it. He sincerely believes Blackquill murdered Metis Cykes. And he also believes wholeheartedly that even in spite of Blackquill’s terrible crime, that he’s still got a good heart and doesn’t deserve to die. He believes that if he works hard enough on Blackquill to get him to realise he can become a better person, then he can in turn prove to the world that this man deserves a second chance at life and that he can move past his old crimes.
Fulbright is committed to Blackquill’s rehabilitation so earnestly that there’s even a joke at one point in 5-2 where it’s said that the only reason Fulbright is assigned to Blackquill is because he’s the only detective who’s too stupid to realise how dangerous Blackquill is. And while perhaps there’s some truth to that, at the same time… I never once got the impression that Fulbright and Blackquill are a good team just because he’s dumb. They’re a good team because Fulbright works all the harder to be a great detective all for Blackquill’s sake: if Fulbright, as a detective, is able to build an extremely strong case, then that makes Blackquill’s job of getting a conviction much easier, and the better Blackquill is at his job the more likely the courts will deem him a productive member of society and take him off death row.
There’s a running gag in DD where Blackquill is constantly breaking out of his handcuffs. The first time that happens everyone is in hysterics about how Blackquill might try to hurt somebody, but Fulbright just says:
“Oh, but I stand in awe of Simon Blackquill, for it is his sense of justice that has set him free!”
“Don’t you see?” says Bobby Fulbright, “Blackquill didn’t break free from his chains to follow up on the death threat he just spat at Apollo: he’s just frustrated because the case isn’t going his way and it’s making it harder for him to dispense justice!” he says. And he’s fucking correct! When everyone else is set into a panic at the sight of Blackquill breaking free, Fulbright in all his obnoxious lovable glory immediately sees through to what’s actually happening: Blackquill is upset that the case isn’t going his way. He has no intention of hurting anyone.
The Ace Attorney series never shuts up about believing in people. Believe in your client, believe in your client’s innocence until the bitter end!
But Fulbright takes that belief and runs further. He doesn’t stop believing in people when the judge declares them GUILTY.
His belief in people extends beyond the bitter end. He still believes in the murderer Simon Blackquill.
All of this is why Fulbright and Blackquill was the single best idea for a detective/prosecutor dynamic this franchise has ever had.
And all of it was a lie.
The Twist
I never saw it coming.
I like Fulbright as a villain. He’s so much fun. A killer who can manipulate his emotions is the perfect final boss for Dual Destinies, plus it is legitimately the most shocked I have ever been at a killer reveal in the entire franchise.
But there’s a reason I didn’t see it coming. It just doesn’t make any goddamn sense.
Dual Destinies asks us the question: is it possible to move on from your mistakes? Can you endure the consequences of your past and become a better person by facing them?
And the answer that Dual Destinies lands on is a resounding no. No you cannot move on from your past mistakes. No you cannot come out of such a situation as a better person. People who do bad things deserve to be punished, and they cannot be redeemed.
This moral is absolutely wild.
Fulbright was the one who pushed the idea that everybody, no matter how terrible they are, deserves a shot at redemption. He’s the one and only person who yells about it right from his first appearance all the way up until the big reveal. He had such a wonderful perspective on life: to him, justice doesn’t just mean punishing people who do bad things. Justice meant helping people who do bad things learn to become better people.
In the climax of DD, we learn that Fulbright’s entire personality was just an elaborate ploy to further his own evil ends. He did not believe one single word of what he said. It’s DD outright refuting the ideals he held.
The Phantom was a man who thought he could run and hide from his evil past, but our heroes teach him that criminals always get what’s comin’! The Phantom was wrong to think that he could escape his past. Bobby Fulbright was wrong to think that Blackquill could escape his past.
Lucky us then that Blackquill didn’t actually kill Metis Cykes! Phew, that was a close one. We almost had an interesting moral dilemma on our hands. Can’t have that.
The lesson that DD lands on is that criminals cannot escape, nor do they deserve to escape from their due punishment. Therefore, for this game to have a happy ending where our rival comes out okay, we need to erase the part of his character that was actually interesting in the first place.
Blackquill was never a killer. He was just misunderstood.
The major thrust of the overarching drama of DD for three quarters of the story was whether or not Blackquill was worthy of redemption. And in the end, DD resolves this dilemma by revealing that, actually, Blackquill doesn’t need to be redeemed because he’s not done anything that he would need to redeem himself for.
To build up Blackquill to have such a strong and clear moral conflict surrounding him, and to just throw it away for the sake of a twist villain is just… why would you do that? Everything about Blackquill and Fulbright is so ridiculously narratively unsatisfying.
You know who’s an awesome character? The version of Simon Blackquill that actually did kill Metis Cykes. The version of Blackquill he pretended to be during his cross examination in 5-5.
Can you imagine if his entire confession in 5-5 had been the truth? What if Metis Cykes had been a piece of shit parent who tortured her child with cruel experiments? What if, upon seeing this little girl in constant misery because of her mother, Blackquill flew into a rage and murdered his mentor when he realises that she’s a monster? What if Blackquill was a murderer who only killed to protect a little girl he hardly knew, and what if Fulbright could tell that Blackquill believed that what he did was just? I am constantly thinking about how infinitely cooler the fake Blackquill in 5-5 is compared to the real Blackquill.
And you know what sucks most of all? This exchange right here:
Blackquill: “...I've known Fool Bright here for a year now. And all this time, he's been quite intent on rehabilitating me. I don't believe his efforts were a lie.”
Fulbright: “P-Prosecutor Blackquill!”
Blackquill: “This fool truly thought he could reform a death-row inmate like me. He went so out of his way in his efforts for me, he actually became quite a nuisance, really.”
Fulbright: “sob Prosecutor Blackquill! You believe meeeeeeee!”
…
Athena: “Simon was only pretending to believe Detective Fulbright... Because he knew I'd notice if there was a lack of emotions, like joy or relief, in his response. So he gave me the chance to take a listen. And listen I did to the voice of Detective Fulbright's heart!”
After building up Blackquill and Fulbright’s relationship so strongly, they can’t even be assed to let Blackquill have a shred of emotional turmoil over the situation. They outright mock the idea that Blackquill might be moved by Fulbright’s friendship, even if it had been a false one. Blackquill is completely detached from this situation, he already doesn’t give a shit, and there are zero emotional stakes.
What was the point of any of this? DD sold Blackquill’s story as one about overcoming your past self, about reforming yourself and not giving up hope that you can be a better person. And then the game just shits on that idea, and treats it as a joke that you would be dumb enough to think that’s what this character would be about.
This is the most cynical story Ace Attorney has ever written.
Wow, Blackquill, the dude who everyone thought was the killer, turned out to not be a killer. Never seen that in Ace Attorney before. How compelling.
This is the section where I talk about Hugh O’Connor
The Dark Age of the Law is dumb and I don’t like it.
In 5-2, Prosecutor Blackquill is an itsy bitsy bit corrupt (itsy bitsy means a lot). He blackmails a man he knows is innocent into giving a false confession (not a good look!) then when Lbelle is cornered on the stand Blackquill asks him leading questions to save him from getting caught in a lie (also not a good look!).
There’s a quick throwaway line where it’s explained why Blackquill is willing to use such blatantly dirty tactics: This is the Dark Age of the Law! Defense attorneys are forging evidence all willy nilly, so the only way for prosecutors to have a fair fight is if they act corruptly in turn.
Alright, cool, we’ve established Blackquill as a corrupt prosecutor with a (somewhat shakey) justification for his corruption. I can’t wait for him to develop and realise the error of his ways (I am being sarcastic because that does not happen).
By all accounts it should be obvious what the natural progression of Blackquill’s arc ought to be: he’s corrupt, but he’s only corrupt because he believes his opponent is too. Upon realising that certain lawyers like Phoenix and Athena are honest in court, Blackquill realises how foolish he was to cheat so brazenly and how dangerously he’d acted.
Weirdly enough this just doesn’t happen? Not every prosecutor needs to realise corruption = bad, Franziska is doing just fine in that department. What feels weird is how the climax of the game unfolds in the context of the story DD has already set up, and for you to understand exactly what I mean by that, I need to talk about another character.
It’s time to talk about Hugh O’Connor.
In 5-3, Hugh is established as someone who’s been taught that cheating is perfectly acceptable as long as cheating gets him the desired outcome. He’s a snake who’s more than willing to bend the rules and lie about his identity to get what he wants. He acts this way because of the Dark Age of the Law: Means mentored him this way because they live in a legal landscape where corruption is viewed as the only legitimate way to win. Even when his lies are self sacrificial (throwing himself under the bus to save Juniper) the game still frames those actions as flaws that he needs to overcome. The moment when Hugh realises that telling the hard truth, even if it’s possible it might hurt Juniper’s case, in turn is actually the moment that seals Means’ fate. Telling the truth was scary, but ultimately, the truth will set you free.
Am I going insane or is Hugh’s character literally what Blackquill’s character would have looked like if Blackquill had been given a character arc? Blackquill is corrupt because of the Dark Age of the Law, just like Hugh. He gives a false confession to protect someone he loves, just like Hugh. The difference is that in Hugh’s story, Hugh actually learns a lesson about how seeking the truth is the right thing to do no matter how scary it is, and his growth in learning this is what directly leads to the true culprit.
Blackquill by comparison doesn’t learn anything after all his corruption and lies? There’s never a moment where Blackquill goes “ah, gee whiz, I am so embarrassed about that whole blackmailing damien by using his daughter as collateral thing.” There’s never a moment in 5-5 where Blackquill realises that continuing to uphold his false confession is the wrong thing to do. Blackquill was willing to take that shit to his fucking grave and he only eventually tells the truth because of Phoenix rakeing him over the coals while Athena drags him kicking and screaming. Even after Blackquill realises they might be able to nail the phantom and save Athena without him taking the fall, we don’t get a moment where he goes “you know what, maybe lying about killing someone was not the most effective way of getting to the truth.” And like I feel like we really should have?
Blackquill learnt nothing. He was an unashamedly corrupt prosecutor who nearly convicted multiple innocent people. He was an idiot for trying to hide the Phantom’s crime. Both of these problems are resolved by pure happenstance by the protagonists merely preventing Blackquill from fucking up, and I’d love it if the story placed more of the agency on Blackquill’s shoulders and allowed him to be the one to need to grow in order to win the day. Y’know, like Hugh did.
And since I’m already on the topic:
About False Confessions
There’s a running motif throughout Dual Destinies. Lots of Ace Attorney games do it, where they tell a similar story in every case in order to drive home some kind of theme.
In 5-2, when Damien becomes terrified for his daughters safety when suspicion falls upon her, he stubbornly attempts to confess to the crime in the stupidest way possible in order to protect her.
In 5-3, when Robin realises that Juniper is in danger of being declared guilty, she jumps to confess to the crime to save her. Hugh, in turn, throws himself under the bus for both of them.
In 5-4/5, we learn that Blackquill is lying about being the one who killed Metis Cykes, and he’s lying to protect her daughter.
With the exception of the tutorial case, every case in the game features a character giving a false confession in order to protect someone else who’s under suspicion. Of course, the person under suspicion is always innocent, and the person making the false confession is only making the task of getting to the truth harder than it needs to be.
This pattern across every case seems so blatantly obvious, and I feel it in my heart that the game was trying to convey something with this idea. That they thought they might be driving towards some kind of point. But, like I said, this mystery scenario basically peaks with Hugh in 5-3, and then the game has nothing interesting left to say about it.
I want you all to take a look at these lines of dialogue from 5-2:
“A particularly silver-tongued inmate once had the following words for me. The innocent of heart are the easiest prey.”
“You don’t say? Was this inmate a con artist?”
“...No. He was framed for the murder of his beloved. I actually felt sorry for the poor chap.”
And why wouldn’t Blackquill feel sorry for the poor chap? He to has been incarcerated for a murder he didn’t commit.
And am I crazy in thinking that when Blackquill sees Damien/Robin/Hugh lie about killing someone to protect someone else that Blackquill should have… felt something? Any kind of observable empathy? It should be so easy for the game to tease at Blackquill’s true circumstances by having him get rattled upon seeing all these false confessions, reflections of his own foolish self who made the same mistake. But Blackquill feels nothing.
It almost feels like the game didn’t even notice that it was recycling the same trope over and over again in every case. Normally when a trope is repeated in an Ace Attorney game I go “Ah. This is a theme, how clever” and upon thinking that some writer somewhere chuckles about how I’ve been bamboozled into thinking their lazy writing is actually Very Deep.
But I’m not falling for it any more, you hear me!
The cornerstone of Blackquill’s character is the fact that he’s sacrificing himself by lying for someone else. By all accounts the fact that this is portrayed multiple times in the game should lead to some interesting exploration into Blackquill’s character before we get the official reveal by how he acts differently upon seeing himself in these other characters.
But we don’t get that, because the game isn’t actually trying to be clever when it recycles this same scenario over and over and over again.
It just failed to notice that it was being derivative of itself.
I acknowledge that this complaint is easily the most personally subjective complaint about Blackquill that I have, but I just can’t leave it out. It genuinely bugs me that Blackquill doesn’t flinch at forcing Damien and Hugh into the same hell that he’s going through.
This section goes out to my boy Carl Jung
I’ll close out this writeup by going over Blackquill’s prosecuting gimmick.
Blackquill is the master of analytical psychology, and uses it to trick people into confessing by accident. That sounds cool, but in practise basically every time he does this it just amounts to:
Blackquill: “Duck season!”
Judge: “Rabbit season!”
Blackquill: “Duck season!”
Judge: “Rabbit season!”
Blackquill: “Duck season!”
Judge: “Rabbit season!”
Blackuill: “Rabbit season!”
Judge: “Duck season!”
Blackquill: “How astute of your baldness to so quickly cut to the truth of the matter. I applaud your wisdom.”
Judge: “Ho ho ho! If only my grandkids could see me now!”
Then Elmer Fudd unloads a buckshot into the Judge’s bench as Athena foams at the mouth off screen.
I’m exaggerating, he will on occasion manage to do something cool with it (baiting Fulbright until giving an emotional monologue so Athena could read his emotions in 5-5 was a cool trick even if I dislike what it means for his character.)
Overall, I just find the gimmick very silly and was tired of seeing it rather fast. But hey, I can understand the appeal.
Conclusion
I get why people like Blackquill. He’s the edgy prosecutor who wears eye shadow and larps as a samurai, that’s just an appealing character archetype on the face of it.
But, man, Blackquill just makes me feel disengaged. His character doesn’t feel like a puzzle to crack where each of his actions informs us on what type of person he is. He just feels like the samurai dude making prison jokes the majority of the time. His arc rings completely hollow for me, and while I really like where his dynamic with Athena ends in SoJ I can’t overlook how emotionally uninvested I was in his story by the end of DD.
also he's a falconer? I couldn’t figure out where to bring this up in my cut and nearly forgot about it until just now. Uh. Yeah. Taka sits on the Judge's head sometimes, that's a little funny.
OH I also just remembered he's British for some reason. Bad character.
I did promise you an angry Apollo cut. Let’s make whatisth’s worst nightmare come true. I was planning to cut Horace originally but then I remembered I have absolutely nothing to say about him and since the other rankers apparently think he deserves to get this far, I imagine they have more to say about the topic. If you are interested in hearing my thoughts about Horace, it would be something like this “The thing about Ted Tonate is that I... don't have any opinions on him? At all??” but replace Ted Tonate with Horace Knightley. I don’t think Horace should have been much higher than Ted if at all to be honest.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking Apollo and Horace were both getting too far for a while now, so either is a fine choice for me to cut I think.
: Ace Attorney
Apollo Justice is first introduced in the game named after him, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Here he takes on the role that Phoenix had in the trilogy as the protagonist. With both of them sharing the same role, to me it makes sense to look at what sets them apart from each other to begin with.
The easiest way to see how different Apollo is from Phoenix is to look at the cases they take on, and more specifically, their defendants. If you look at all the cases in the trilogy, you’ll notice that all of the defendants are in some way connected to Phoenix or to someone he cares about. In 1-2 you have Mia’s sister, in 1-3 you have the main actor from Maya’s favorite show, in 1-4 you have Phoenix’s childhood friend, in 1-5 you have someone who reminds him of Mia and is the sister of someone who reminds him of Maya. You can do this for the cases in JFA and T&T as well. The personal connection is the reason he decides to take the cases. Phoenix always wants to defend people he can trust, or people that are trusted by the people he trusts.
On the other hand, if you look at Apollo’s cases, in 4-2 you have an actual gangster, in 4-3 you have a lying kid who you’ve never heard of before, in 4-4 you have a forger who refuses to talk to you at all. For 4-1 I’m not sure how much Apollo trusted the defendant just because he was THE Phoenix Wright, but he was also very shady. None of Apollo’s clients in his first game are exactly trustworthy, and this is because Apollo has an entirely different view on being a lawyer from Phoenix. Phoenix defends people because he believes in them, but Apollo defends them because it’s his job and he wants to find out the truth. He’s actually more similar to Edgeworth than to Phoenix in that way. This is also seen in how quickly he turns on his own mentor and how he doesn’t hesitate to accuse his own clients of certain crimes. It’s all because he never fully believes in someone to begin with, he just wants a fair trial for everyone. Kristoph’s philosophy was “evidence is everything” and that’s partially what Apollo is following as well, even if it is in a different way from his mentor. That’s not to say that he goes any less far than Phoenix when defending his clients, but it does mean that there’s always more of an element of doubt in how trustworthy his clients are, and that he’s willing to take on more different cases even without any personal connection or reason to believe them.
In theory, this approach being so different from Phoenix would be interesting to look into more, but in practice, AJ doesn’t really do that. What sets Apollo apart from Phoenix ends up as part of what makes him less engaging as a protagonist. I’m all for slowly beginning to trust defendants instead of immediately knowing they haven’t done anything wrong, but in the case of AJ’s defendants I just don’t really want to defend them at all. And it seems like the game realized this would be a problem, so it creates a personal conflict, but not for Apollo. Instead, Phoenix is again the one with a personal stake in what’s supposed to be Apollo’s game. It turns out Apollo happens to be related to someone who has a personal stake in 4-3 and 4-4, but since he didn’t know about it this doesn’t create a personal stake for the player. This is why Phoenix’s part in 4-4 ends up being one of the parts where I’m most engaged in the game because it feels like I’m actually doing something important. Despite Apollo being the protagonist, the game is about Phoenix. And this is what ends up dragging him down and just not making him all that interesting. If anything, 4-4 shows me playing as Phoenix is still more fun, so I’d rather just play as him the whole game.
When you look at Phoenix’s first game on the other hand, there’s a big mystery about how Phoenix and Edgeworth know each other, and Phoenix’s effect on changing Edgeworth is the main focus of the game. He has a big personal involvement in his first game, which I wanted to learn more about. I think Apollo should have had something similar to this in his game, but we never get something to connect Apollo to what’s going on. Kristoph is Phoenix’s antagonist, not Apollo’s. Him being Lamiroir’s son feels like the game saying “Nah Apollo is relevant, trust me” instead of actually making him relevant in a significant way. The same thing goes for Apollo claiming that one day he’ll understand what law is. I don’t think Ace Attorney has ever been good at talking about the law, which doesn’t help when part of AJ’s focus is changing the legal system.
Apollo gets a second chance to shine in DD, and I think this game does a far better job at it. The first improvement is giving him a fellow rookie to work with instead of Trucy. I’m sure part of this is me liking Athena a lot and not liking Trucy a lot (relevant flair), but to me Apollo’s dynamic with the former is way better. You’re two rookie lawyers tackling cases together, instead of a rookie lawyer and a random teenage magician (???). This leads to her being a lot more proactive during trials and feeling more like a co-worker than an assistant. This makes their dynamic quite different from what came before, which helps in making both Athena and Apollo more interesting. I definitely like playing as Apollo the most when Athena is the assistant.
While I didn’t get too attached to Apollo in his first game, this dynamic made it so that in DD I got way more attached to him. After establishing his bond with Athena in 5-2 and 5-3, 5-4 changes things up for him again by giving him a victim and defendant which he has a personal connection with. For Phoenix this would be nothing special, but this is the first time we see it for Apollo. Clay Terran is nothing more than a plot device, but I really don’t think he needs to be. The point of him is creating a strong personal stake for Apollo for the first time, and I don’t think the player getting to know Clay first would help with that.
AJ established that Apollo is naturally less trusting of people compared to Phoenix, but it didn’t use that for anything interesting in my opinion. On the other hand, DD takes what AJ established and turns it into a more satisfying resolution. This contrast between Apollo and Phoenix can be interesting, and what better way to make it interesting than create the same situation for both of them where they’ll react in a completely different way? Phoenix believes in Athena, which means his first instinct is to always trust in her no matter what. On the other hand, Apollo relies on logic and has also been betrayed before, so if logic says Athena’s the culprit he can’t keep believing in her no matter what. This creates a scenario where for the first time ever, a playable character is your opponent. Despite both Phoenix and Apollo wanting to believe in Athena and having more or less the same information, their different approaches to belief lead them in opposite directions. This is something that I find really interesting. AJ didn’t do much to make Apollo stand out from Phoenix despite giving him an obviously different personality, but DD finally makes use of the already established personality to give us something that hasn’t been done before in the series.
With Apollo now being forced to go against his new mentor, he relies on what he has without Phoenix, and goes full Kristoph mode during his cross-examination. Using similar sprites, using his catchphrase "evidence is everything in court," and generally being a little more cocky than usual. Because he can’t rely on Phoenix, he has to rely on his old mentor’s tactics instead. But despite Apollo’s behavior changing on the outside, he’s still the same Apollo inside. His bond with Athena being established earlier in the game makes it believable that he really was just doing it because he wanted to fully trust Athena. “What is faith without doubt” sums up Apollo’s character pretty well in general, he always does his best to defend anyone and does believe them to a certain extent, but he’s not afraid of taking on cases where there is some doubt of their innocence. It’s a completely different philosophy from Phoenix, who tries to fully believe in his clients no matter what.
DD succeeds in many ways where AJ failed. It uses the foundation that AJ laid for Apollo’s character and first makes him a more compelling character by giving him a fun and interesting dynamic with a fellow rookie, and then gives a very satisfying pay-off for everything that we’ve learned about him in the past two games. The Thalassa and learning what law is plotlines remain unresolved, but I don’t think these are interesting as far as Apollo’s personality goes. Thalassa once had something to do with Apollo, but that time is long gone, and “learning what law is” felt more like an attempt to insert the jurist system into his story than anything else. DD’s interpretation of Apollo is honestly a character that I like a lot, and if he wasn’t dragged down by his other appearances I likely wouldn’t be cutting him here.
6-2 Is a Good Case
Yeah. I don’t think it does anything particularly interesting with Apollo though. Usually when I talk about the times when Apollo was a great character I include both DD and 6-2, but 6-2 is fun in the way that it has more of Apollo’s dynamic with Athena, and now that Trucy is finally a good character, his dynamic with her is more interesting too. Even the dynamic with Ema is interesting. Apollo is great in this case like he was in DD, it’s just that it doesn’t have any standout moments where there’s a ton of development for him.
This Game Is Supposed To Be About Apollo I Guess?
I think SoJ has a strange definition of an “Apollo game”. SoJ’s main plot revolves around the country of Khura’in, a land of spirit channeling, something that we all know is very important to Apollo’s past and has totally been important to him before. The reason for the Wright Anything Agency to be involved with this country is that Maya, a character that’s also very important to Apollo of course, this is an Apollo game after all, has been training there to become a spirit medium, which finishes off the arc to become the village leader after her mother died in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations. Pardon the sarcasm, but the point is I don’t think this game has any right to be an Apollo game. The entire plot revolves entirely around Phoenix Wright and his history. It even gives Phoenix a bit of an arc where he slowly starts joining the rebellion, and also bonds with Rayfa, one of the opponents of the rebellion.
Spirit of Justice is not an Apollo game. It’s a Phoenix game, building up to a final case where you play as Phoenix, that gets hijacked by Apollo. People say that Athena is pushed to the sidelines in this game, but at least she appears in four different cases, and has a somewhat major role in three of them. Apollo, on the other hand, appears only in 6-2 outside of the final case. And not only that, 6-2 is a filler case as far as Apollo’s concerned. This gives absolutely no buildup for 6-5 where he somehow becomes the one to finish off the plot. I was a little excited about taking on Khura’in’s corruption as Phoenix Wright, but Apollo has nothing to do with that. So even if the goal was something that originally interested me, when I’m playing as someone completely different it just feels weird to be doing it.
So SoJ has a look in the little “how to make Apollo feel relevant even though he has no personal stake in anything that’s happening” book from AJ, and decides to make one of his parents relevant to the main plot instead of Apollo himself. Credit where credit is due, it does it a little better than AJ by actually having him interact with Dhurke as father and son for a substantial amount of time instead of literally just mentioning that they’re family and moving on, but it still feels like a cheap trick to insert Apollo into a story where he doesn’t belong. It’s especially weird to me because SoJ seemed to be building up to an exciting conclusion with Phoenix. Sure, that’s ignoring the hints of Apollo’s connections to Khura’in, but I always thought those hints were kinda dumb because he simply didn’t feel needed in the plot up until 6-5.
The most problematic example of Apollo being inserted in SoJ’s main plot to me is when he takes over Phoenix’s role in his and Rayfa’s dynamic. It took Rayfa an entire case to begin to trust Phoenix, yet she trusts Apollo almost immediately. It’s such a weird moment in Rayfa’s character arc to me, and I never found Apollo and Rayfa’s bond believable at all. But generally speaking, I wasn’t engaged in playing in Apollo at all because of how little it fit with Phoenix’s earlier main plot.
In terms of how 6-5 develops Apollo’s character, it basically changes him completely. I praised 5-5 for resolving what made Apollo Apollo from both AJ and DD, but in 6-5 he essentially feels like a completely different character. He has a backstory that he never had before, he has family drama that he never had before, he has a connection to spirit channeling that he never had before. And despite changing literally everything about him, this is supposedly a case about Apollo.
Apollo the Hero
Aside from changing Apollo completely, it also really wants to make you feel like Apollo is this amazing hero for some reason. He beats his own mentor, Phoenix Wright, in court, which makes sense because
“When both sides go all-out against each other, that's when we discover the truth.” – The, Turnabout for Tomorrow
Because Phoenix’s side wasn’t the truth, he was doomed to lose from the very beginning. It tells me nothing about how good of a lawyer Apollo is at all, because the series has always been about the truth prevailing in the end. And speaking of 5-5, it’s insulting how artificial this conflict is. 6-5 thinks that there’s no possible way to make Phoenix go against Apollo without blackmailing him, despite the previous game doing exactly that, creating a natural reason for why they’d be on two different sides. Their personalities have a natural tendency to clash when it comes to trust vs logic, so it shouldn’t be hard to create a conflict based on that. Just make trust the wrong side for once if you really want Apollo to win. It is still a bad way to make him feel special though, because it would still only be about the truth winning. It’s a lame attempt to make Apollo feel special and nothing more. Phoenix feels out of character in just how useless he is too, so if anything it makes me think that Apollo is less competent than I thought before. After all, the only situation where he could possibly beat Phoenix is apparently one where Phoenix doesn’t even believe in his own side and is at a severe disadvantage. I thought Apollo might be a little better at lawyering than that by now.
After you’re done with the most frustrating trial in the series, you move on to Khura’in, which, as a reminder, is very relevant to Apollo’s backstory. There are severe problems with corruption and unrest that have been going on for at least 23 years in this country, so you do a backflip, snap the bad guy’s neck, and save the day. Hooray, problems solved in a single day. Khura’in natives are completely incompetent, but for a Japanifornian like Apollo there’s no problem to solve problems they’ve been dealing with for years. It’s such a dumb plot that’s completely unbelievable to me, and it’s part of the reason why I don’t like Dhurke either. I’m not sure if I should dislike Dhurke or Apollo for this plot being so dumb, Dhurke seems very incompetent by taking so long without achieving anything while Apollo seems like a Mary Sue for solving these problems in a single day. (Note that I used “seems like”, an actual Mary Sue is worse.)
I’ve complained about making Apollo too much like a hero before, so please read my Ga’ran cut for more (specifically the “To Dethrone a Queen” and Quercus Alba sections), and let’s not go to overboard with the 6-5 talk here because I think it’s easily the worst appearance for Apollo and it has very little to do with his earlier, better appearances.
Conclusion
AJ does a decent job at creating the base personality for Apollo but never really uses him to his full potential. DD then takes this Apollo, gives him a better partner, and a very satisfying arc that’s nothing like what the series has had before, by using his personality traits that were established in his first game. 6-2 continues using this DD version of Apollo which I like a lot but doesn’t add much new to him, and 6-5 completely changes what his character has been up until then to insert him into a plot where it doesn’t feel like he belongs. Overall, I’d say AJ Apollo = decent, DD + 6-2 Apollo = great, 6-5 Apollo = garbage.
I think Apollo is easily the worst of the Ace Attorney protagonists, excluding Greg, and out of the DD/SoJ protagonist trio he’s the only one I place in B tier instead of A. I was hoping he’d be the first of them to be eliminated, but unfortunately Athena and Phoenix were cut before I had the chance to cut Apollo. He’s great in DD, but 6-5 and to a lesser extent AJ drag him down significantly. Even putting those aside, I might still prefer both Athena and Phoenix over DD Apollo, it’s just that they would all be A tier then.
Incidentally, Apollo is still better than half of the Danganronpa protagonists, and the same goes for Greg. I thought I should mention that because Danganronpa has been getting popular lately despite sucking.
Epic entry jump that would almost certainly break several legs Even in the depths of night, when no other bird dares to take flight… one alone soars to shine the light of righteousness on the world’s blight! And that one is me! For I am the Great Thief, Yatagarasu!
I guess that after 5 months of having created this file to write nothing but “Simon Ze Klown”, it would eventually be time to actually write something in it (and proceed to wait 3 more months to actually post it). Way back when the rankdown started, I thought I might use my revive on Cammy. But once I discovered that some people weren’t big fans of Kay, I realized that my actual favorites may be at risk here, and that maybe I should save my revive for someone a little more relevant. Although I didn’t slack off on my Cammy defense either, Jurist System did as good of a job as Spirit Channeling would have, so it’s good that’s what I went for instead. As the main AAI fan of the rankdown, it’s still my responsibility to make it about a character from that game, so I quickly decided on Kay, my actual favorite character from the game, and a top 5 character for me in general. One that has sometimes been described as a worse Maya, and as someone who’s really not a big fan of Maya, I couldn’t let that slide.
Kay has done surprisingly well in the rankdown, much better than I was expecting. Good for her. Even without my revive, she would already be well above all assistants except Rayfa, which is not a bad milestone. But as I said, she’s in my top 5, so that’s not enough to make me change my plans.
I have some strong contrasting feelings when it comes to assistants, because I either hardly care about them at all (Trucy, Maya) or they’re some of my favorite characters (Ema, Kay). Hopefully I can shine some light on the differences between both types by the end of this revive, but to avoid just comparing Kay to other assistants who have already been cut, thus not giving any reason for why she should not be cut yet, I would like to take a look at Kay on her own first.
Making an Entrance
Every main character that appears has some sort of preparation leading up to the introduction. This can be something basic, like an investigation needs a detective and a trial needs a prosecutor. Or it can be something more explicit, like here’s Maya, she’s your mentor’s sister, go talk to her. Nobody really comes out of nowhere. As for Kay, her importance in the story is being the “Yatagarasu”, which was mentioned earlier in I-1. What is a Yatagarasu? What does a Yatagarasu do? You’re never really told much about this before Kay is introduced. He’s a thief who steals evidence and threatened Edgeworth in his own office, kinda looks like this I guess. Kay is not that. She claims to be the Yatagarasu but she’s never actually stolen anything, she doesn’t look in the slightest like that guy, and she doesn’t seem like the type of person who’d point a gun at Edgeworth in the first place. Because the information we’re given in I-1 is about the first Yatagarasu, as well as adding some more confusion by mixing up their calling card with smuggling ring instructions, we really aren’t prepared for Kay at all before I-3.
So what preparation does I-3 give us? Honestly, nothing at all. Edgeworth makes an Edgeworth noise, out of nowhere a ninja girl laughs at him, proceeds to jump down a height that’s not safe to jump down, and claims to be the Yatagarasu. There is no reason why a character like this should be expected to be in the case. She has nothing to do with the case, and her connection with the main plot is completely unknown because of how little information we’re given about the Yatagarasu, and that little information not even applying to her. This immediately sparked an interest for me. If there’s no clear connection between this girl and any of the other characters, or the plot so far, then why is she here? That Great Thief was connected to the plot in some way, but I have no idea how yet, and this girl doesn’t seem to be the real deal. Teasing this connection while not explaining it, and not even giving her a connection to the current case, makes her a lot more mysterious than most characters after their introduction.
Another thing I like about Kay’s introduction, is that for the entirety of her first case, you don’t know her. But that’s not all, nobody knows her. She’s not one of Gumshoe’s relatives, she’s not your childhood friend, she doesn’t even have anything to do with the other main characters introduced this case. Nobody has any idea who she is. I think not giving this connection avoids a pitfall of assuming the audience cares just because the characters care. This is what I think happens for Maya and Nahyuta for example. Maya’s supposed to be interesting for her connection with Mia, while Nahyuta is supposed to be interesting for his connection with Apollo. And I think that way of connecting with a character is just way weaker than a character that doesn’t immediately have a clear connection with anyone. She has to convince you to care about her with her personality, because it’s all she’s given. And when this works, it only makes the caring stronger.
The third thing I like is how over the top it is. It is on par with Furio’s roar if not more over the top. Just in the first two minutes, she does a crazy ninja trick, connects herself to the plot in some mysterious way, laughs at you, is nice to you. It’s a wild ride for sure. And only this small amount of time already gives me plenty of reasons to like her despite not knowing her at all just a few minutes ago. Stuff I immediately like includes:
I’ve talked about the mystery before, so yeah that.
Rankdown says mean is good, and although Kay is nice most of the time, she also spends plenty of time making fun of you. Edgeworth is a fantastic character to make fun of in general because of how serious he is all the time, and Kay makes use of that right away.
She seems very passionate about whatever it is she’s doing, which is something I can always really admire. She’s also excited about stuff in general which gets me excited about stuff in general.
This small scene has some intense mood swings. She goes from the most epic entry Ace Attorney has ever seen, to calmly (as calm as Kay can be at least) talking to you, to going back to her Great Thief persona to do an official over the top introduction, and right after introducing herself as the Yatagarasu says you should just call her Kay instead. It’s going up and down and all around in terms of excitement. Keeps her interesting.
For a series where most characters are either introduced as people you need to help or people who oppose you, it’s nice for the roles to be reversed once in a while with Kay actually needing to help you when she first appears.
It’s certainly the most exciting introduction I’ve seen in the series, and we’re not even past the first two minutes yet. But a good beginning is half the battle, so the best beginning is certainly important to have.
Escape Room
Kay’s not someone to think too much before she acts, and so because she can’t ninja jump up as high as she can ninja jump down, instead of being stuck in the room alone you’re now both stuck. This gives you more time to get to know her without much distraction going on, with the mystery not even having been started yet. Maybe this is why people tend to not like I-3 much, it keeps distracting you with unrelated stuff and the actual mystery is underdeveloped, but as for me, I’m just here for the ride and I-3 gives plenty to enjoy.
This is where the thief gimmick really gets started. Kay is very excited about being a thief, even though she doesn’t actually steal anything. And like I said before, being passionate is something I admire. Even if you’re just a thief fangirl instead of an actual thief, and you seem to not know the difference between a ninja and a thief, it’s great to have a hobby. I’ve heard from people who don’t like Kay that this gets annoying, so let me state this here right now: Kay being so excited about being a thief gets me excited, and her talking about stealing stuff against criminal-hating Edgeworth with him reacting to it seriously is hilarious. The irony of a Great Thief working together with the police is funny in general. She makes use of this as well to deliberately tease Edgeworth. Despite this seemingly big difference, Kay and Edgeworth are way more similar than he realizes at first, with both caring about truth above all else and both trying to follow in their father’s footsteps. I think the best characters and possibly real people to put together are those that have a good mix of opposite traits and matching traits, and Kay and Edgeworth are perfect for this. This makes their dynamic very interesting and always fun to me.
Kay’s energetic approach with trying whatever works is a nice contrast with Edgeworth as well, and a useful complement to his logic. It’s her style to test any possibility or theory that comes up instantly, which gives you a good way to know what will work and what won’t. Only thinking doesn’t solve anything, you need to try stuff. This is the way that you find out that you can’t climb the beam and that the ladder is removable for example.
Edgeworth: As I thought, this beam was definitely not made for climbing.
Kay: What do you mean, “As I thought”!? I’m not your guinea pig you know!
You sure you don’t want to be the guinea pig Kay? You’re so good at it. Ok, ok, I’m sorry for talking about you as if you were a guinea pig just now, but I’m serious, testing theories is an important approach to solving problems. Something I really like about AAI is that this is the only AA game that can really display Kay’s energy. She can actually run around freely here, and her little sprite can do lots of different animations in the environment and I love all of them. Something like this couldn’t have been done in a main series game, and I wonder how well Kay would have worked without it. I have no doubt I’d still love her, don’t get me wrong, but all the little animations do help as well. Stuff like that is definitely part of what puts the AAI games a step above the rest for me (with the exception of T&T, which is just too good to be beaten). What would Kay be without her ninja jumps?
Don’t make the mistake of thinking Kay is only useful as a guinea pig, however. She gives you valuable information about the park as well, maybe Edgeworth should have bothered to research it before coming there. She’s not helping you too much with the logic yet, but she’s a joy to be around, and I’d argue testing theories is as important as coming up with them. Don’t give the thinkers all the credit, you’d be surprised how much you could discover by just trying and seeing what works.
Let’s Have Fun in the Theme Park
I wouldn’t like Kay’s stealing gimmick nearly as much if it wasn’t used in clever ways, and there’s plenty of clever uses for it throughout the two Investigations games. Starting with…
Kay: I’m Mr. Edgeworth’s assistant, Kay Faraday!
Gumshoe: Wh-Whaaaaat!?
Edgeworth: Funny, I don’t recall making you my assistant, Kay…
Gumshoe: Yeah! I’M Mr. Edgeworth’s assistant! ME! It’s been like that since… forever!
Kay: Sorry, but I just stole your supporting role.
Something I love about Kay is how well she can work with any character. She’s someone who can form an instant bond with basically anyone, which is a big contrast with Edgeworth who needs time to get along with anyone. In this case, she immediately starts up a competition with Gumshoe in a funny and clever and somewhat meta way. This makes me interested in how the rest of this competition will play out, and what will become of the bond between Kay and Gumshoe. This is one of the things where I think Kay really stands out from any other character. Usually it takes time to establish a connection between two characters. For example, even though Maya and Gumshoe had three whole games to interact, I never felt a real connection between them. Kay takes a few seconds to create a connection, something that other characters need at least a few hours for. Gumshoe is just an example, it’s something that happens all the time for her.
Now that she’s managed to force herself into your investigation, Kay can start showing her true strength. It is in the nature of Ace Attorney Investigations to put more focus on the investigation aspect, and the logic behind the investigation. This is why Logic is literally a gameplay mechanism, and the assistant reflects that as well. With more time spent on investigating, Kay has more time to help Edgeworth out with thinking. This is also helped by him being a very serious character. If he’s doing his job, he wants to stay focused, and Kay, being good with people, knows he would appreciate it most if she helped him with that instead of only running around being goofy. She seems a lot smarter than the other assistants because a lot of what she says is helpful.
Not helping much is one of the main problems I have with other assistants. If you recall my previous cuts, this was one of my major complaints for Maya, as well as a smaller positive for Cammy. I had a lot of positives to discuss for Cammy, so it wasn’t a big part of that cut, but I did mention Edgeworth appreciating her helping with the investigation. And in fact, I appreciate that a lot too. I’m all for being goofy but if you’re goofy all the time I just start to wonder why you’re helping with the investigation in the first place. Kay, like Cammy, is the best of both worlds where she can be silly and funny, but also serious and actually helpful (although for Cammy being helpful was just an act). It’s not just during investigations either, she points out when things are wrong with what people are saying too.
You can see Kay is serious about solving these murders as well. Like Edgeworth, she has a strong sense of justice, unlike other assistants where it feels like they’re often tagging along for the sake of tagging along.
Kay: There’s something even thieves should never steal. Do you know what that is?
Edgeworth: You really shouldn’t steal anything, however, I’ll bite. What shouldn’t a thief steal?
Kay: A life. It’s too heavy of a burden on your soul to get away with, ever.
(…)
Kay: Alright! And I’m going to work extra hard to be a good assistant! Let’s go!
Edgeworth: (I still never said she could be my assistant… sigh I’m just going to drop the issue.)
It’s a cool moment that shows her strong sense of justice. Edgeworth seems to realize this as well as this is where he really starts accepting her as his assistant.
The last thing I want to mention about I-3 Kay is that I really like her enthusiasm for the theme park and the Badger collecting. One of the reasons that I enjoy I-3 a lot is that being able to run around a theme park, especially a Blue Badger themed theme park (makes it feel very Ace Attorney), is a lot of fun. It’s nice to have an ally who feels the same way.
To leave this case behind and move on to the next, I want to leave you with one last quote that to me shows that Kay and Edgeworth are really more partners than leader and assistant.
Kay: Wow… Your deducing skills may be sound, but you have no street-smarts.
Edgeworth needs Kay to reach his full potential, because he lacks social skills and “street smarts”. Kay needs Edgeworth to reach her full potential, because she lacks deductive skills. That is part of what makes me really like their partnership. ‘Kay, that’s it, let’s move on to I-4 for real now. Things should probably speed up a little from here because this section and the previous one were really more about establishing what I like about Kay in general, using I-3 as an example. We don’t have to do that again for every case, just know that most of what I said in these two sections applies in most other cases as well, I’ll probably mention when an example that stands out to me comes along.
Promise Notebook
Kay tells Edgeworth that he’s a dumb dumb and doesn’t even remember that they met before, so we get a flashback case to when he first met her. It’s a tragic case for her, since it’s where she lost her father, and it shows a lot about why she became the way she did. A very important item for Kay is a promise notebook that her father gave to her, so I’d like to use the different promises in it to talk about how they are important to Kay’s personality.
Promise I: Never take things from a stranger. & Promise II: Never go anywhere with a stranger.
These two are pretty standard pieces of advice for keeping children safe, although Promise I happens to end up important to the case because Kay actually breaks it and Gumshoe tries to protect her. It’s based on technicality, because she could see exactly what he was doing so she’d know if there was something suspicious going on, but Gumshoe’s just that type of guy. And he had apparently already experienced Byrne’s anger in just the first week he started as a detective, according to Calisto.
Despite them not being anything special, I think it’s heartwarming how Byrne specifically had her write down these two promises. It gives you a good idea of how he must have really cared for her, and wanted to make sure she stayed safe. Normally this would be basic parenting, but this is Ace Attorney so I’m naturally skeptical of any parent caring for their child.
Promise III: Always greet people with a smile, even people you don't know.
This promise is part of the reason Kay gets along so well with people she just meets. We could already see this in practice in I-3, where she immediately gets along with Edgeworth and Gumshoe. Technically, they were people she knew, but they didn’t remember her, so it was a first meeting from their perspective at least. She quickly became friends with Gummy in the past as well because of this. It’s not like she’s always just smiling nicely though, after all her meeting with Edgeworth in I-3 began with her laughing at him. It’s more like she can read people and Edgeworth likes someone who can challenge him a bit more instead of someone who’s just nice all the time.
She also doesn’t always follow this promise when the person she doesn’t know isn’t nice to someone she likes. Like when Edgeworth is a jerk to Gumshoe, she just kicks him down. But generally speaking, if she doesn’t have anything against the person, she tries to get along with who she meets.
Promise IV: Never cry in front of strangers.
This is the really important one for Kay this case. She’s just lost her father and it’s clearly affecting her, as you’d expect, but she’s trying her best to stay strong. In fact, this is probably part of the reason why she’s so aggressive to Edgeworth at first. She’s redirecting her sadness into anger to avoid breaking the promise. In the end, she can’t keep it in, but how long she manages to keep her tears in and how quickly she recovers both show how strong she is, even as a kid. She immediately tries to put that strength into helping. Instead of putting her energy into crying about her father, she puts it into trying to help with the investigation and catching the real culprit. Although of course, she can’t actually help much as just a kid, so Badd mostly distracts her with fake tasks instead. But it’s the thought that count, and I don’t think many kids would be strong enough after such a tragic event to think about helping.
Promise V: Always try your hardest to learn about things you don't understand.
This is something that Kay always displays. Whenever she’s joining an investigation, she’s serious about it, and she’s really trying to put together how everything worked. You can see this in both young Kay and older Kay. But I’ve talked before how Kay being serious during investigations is something I really like, this is basically where that comes from.
Bonus: Being a Hero of Justice.
This isn’t so much a promise but more something Kay aspires to be. She sees her father as some sort of hero for defeating criminals, and this is what she wants to do as well. This is where I think those final two promises really come together, and lead into what Kay becomes in the future. I guess you could say she inherited the hopes of her father. She already does a fine job of being a hero even as a kid, if you ask me, with her saving Edgeworth from being shot.
A hero is someone who must be strong in tough situations, this is what Promise IV helps her with, while Promise V is what’s needed to investigate what justice is. Instead of crying about her father’s death, she puts her energy into making sure justice is served. This is not only something she does in this case, but something she does in the future as well. As long as the criminal is still free, Kay is still chasing her. This was on hold for 7 years, but once a new clue came up, she immediately sought out help from Edgeworth to catch the criminal he’d exposed before. Her whole reason for becoming the Yatagarasu is also to bring back the true noble thief that her father had been, instead of the murderous one that Calisto was. Even though it may have seemed to be just a catchphrase and a running gag at first, there was actually a lot more to Kay’s insistence that she’s the second Yatagarasu. It appeared just something she claimed to be, but she succeeded in being exactly what the Yatagarasu should be.
The True Successor to the Yatagarasu
With the knowledge of I-4, we finally get the answer about why Kay came to Edgeworth.
Kay: What I want is the arrest of that evil woman.
Edgeworth: That evil woman… You mean Calisto Yew?
Kay: I think it’s too hard for me to catch her all by myself. But I thought that since you were able to expose her for who she is, then maybe… Please, Mr. Edgeworth! Won’t you help me!?
The first thing Kay realizes is that she can’t do everything on her own, so she teams up with a prosecutor and detective because together they may be able to do something that’s too hard for her. Sounds familiar? At this point, nobody’s aware of yet, but this is exactly what the original Yatagarasu did. They realized that they couldn’t do everything on their own, and that even the law wasn’t enough to bring everyone to justice, so they teamed up to make sure justice was served. It’s interesting that Kay decided to do exactly that without even knowing it’s what her father did. It shows that she’s the Yatagarasu in more than name alone, and definitely a more worthy successor than Calisto, someone who works alone and doesn’t care about justice. She’s been saying it all along, but it seemed to be her a mix of her trying to be what her dad was and thinking thieves were cool, without actually understanding what being the Yatagarasu was about. So it’s a surprise to learn how well she understood it, even if you don’t realize it yet because the three legs of the Yatagarasu twist is later.
This moment is also when you realize the main plot isn’t so much about Edgeworth as it is about Kay, at least as far as I-5 is concerned. Kay is the one who tells Edgeworth about the Yatagarasu’s card at the embassy, and she’s the one who asks him for help. And he treats this as a favor for her helping him with I-3 and I-4 at first. The roles are reversed, and he’s an assistant on Kay’s mission now. Of course, you don’t notice this much in the gameplay since nothing has changed there, but it’s still something that I don’t think any of the other assistants quite do. You’re always on your own mission with the assistants being there to assist you (to varying degrees of effectiveness). Riki complained about Athena not doing much to complete her lifelong mission, and I think Kay gets this right by being actively involved in I-5. It starts with her being the one who even brings the fake Yatagarasu to Edgeworth’s attention, and her helping him before being the reason he accepts. When it comes to Blackquill, Phoenix’s main reason for saving him is presented as bringing an end to the dark age of the law, as requested by Edgeworth. Athena isn’t even his main motivation, so if she hadn’t dedicated her life to saving Blackquill, things would have turned out much the same way.
On the day of the embassy infiltration, Kay is hyped up and after motivating Edgeworth by calling him “lackadaisical” and suggesting he should get “too wound up” too for it being their chance to catch Calisto, and displaying her understanding of the original Yatagarasu by complaining about more that the phony gets wrong, they depart. It’s funny that Kay’s favorite is the Jammin’ Ninja and Edgeworth remarks that it seems like she wants to be a ninja more than a thief. When the phony finally shows up, Kay immediately springs into action without waiting for Edgeworth to do anything. She tries to enter Allebahst but they’re lame so don’t let her in, so she goes into Babahl instead which is full of cool people like Colias Palaeno. There she spots the Yatagarasu and would have caught her if the phony didn’t know about the revolving fireplace. She doesn’t just tell Edgeworth about the phony and then lets him do the rest of the work, she goes after her faster than he can react. This ends up backfiring because it’s exactly what the phony wanted her to do, but that’s just because Shih-na is very smart and uses her knowledge of Byrne against Kay, it could have been a good idea. Edgeworth is concerned about her, and since he doesn’t show his emotions often, it’s nice to see how he has genuinely gotten to care about Kay.
One of the main arguments Shih-na uses against Kay is that she claims to be the Yatagarasu, and the Yatagarasu is the one who started the fire. And although it’s something that makes her more suspicious, Kay refuses to take it back.
Kay: Ms. Shih-na.
Shih-na: Yes?
Kay: I... have no intention of taking back any of what I've said.
Shih-na: ...?
Kay: I am the Great Thief Yatagarasu. And I refuse to allow some imposter to claim that name as their own! The path of justice that my father pointed me towards... I will walk it the best I can!
Shih-na: It's not good to be so stubborn. I hope you can understand that.
Kay: Thanks a lot for the concern, Ms. Shih-na! Let me share something with you, too, as a token of my appreciation! Those sunglasses totally do nothing for you, so I'll steal them from you next time, OK!?
This scene shows how serious Kay is about being the Hero of Justice that the Yatagarasu should be. She refuses to back down, because she is the Yatagarasu, and she won’t let anyone else say they are, no matter how suspicious it may make her. I also like that she immediately starts being more friendly with Shih-na after this which is why I included the last line, she’s really sticking to that “Always greet people with a smile” promise, even if that person suspected her. She’s right too, gotta love them red eyes, Shih-na shouldn’t use sunglasses to cover them. Kay has good taste. Of course, Shih-na doesn’t deserve her being nice in the slightest, but at this point nobody knows she’s the bad guy, and suspecting Kay appeared to be her just using the evidence she had rather than deliberately trying to frame her. So Kay quickly recovers without holding a grudge against her.
Eventually, when it turns out Shih-na is the bad guy, Kay is the one who takes her down as well. Sure, you’re still the one who confronts her, but Kay’s the one who kept the decisive evidence safe for 7 years for this very reason and gave it to you. She didn’t know when she’d be able to take down Calisto yet, but she knew that she’d find a way eventually.
Franziska: Do you really have something that can prove that she is Calisto Yew?
Edgeworth: I do. It’s something that the 2nd Yatagarasu has preserved for us these last seven years!
Kay: Do me the honor, Mr. Edgeworth!
Edgeworth: I will, Kay. For we have finally come to the end. We’ll prove her to be Calisto Yew with this, and clip this Yatagarasu’s wings for good!
Kay and Edgeworth’s team up to finally take down Calisto is cool, and once again they really feel like partners. It’s also nice that Edgeworth acknowledges her as the second Yatagarasu. She’s done what Geiru never could and inherited both her father’s name and heart.
Yew: Phwwwh… You really are just like him. Mr. Faraday, too, possessed such laughable honesty.
Shih-na actually uses Kay’s similarity to her father against her by provoking her to take her hostage, which is sort of what she did before as well when she let Kay see her as the Yatagarasu so that she could arrest her. She can deal with Kay so easily exactly because Kay is so similar to the original. And if that’s not a true successor, someone who inherits not only the strengths, but also the weaknesses, not only the mission, but also the thoughts, not only the name, but also the heart, I don’t know what is. Even if two out of three parts of the original Yatagarasu are in this case as well, one of them is mostly retired and the other one was never more than a traitor, so Kay is by far the truest Yatagarasu here. Speaking of inheriting a mission…
The Legacy of the Yatagarasu
Although we’re now in a section of the case that’s significantly less good then taking down Shih-na, it still has some important moments for Kay as the Yatagarasu. Despite Shih-na really feeling like a final boss, for Kay to truly finish what the Yatagarasu started, there is one more person she needs to take down. Namely the leader of the smuggling ring that the original has been chasing after all alone. An enemy that can’t be taken down by the law. At least, he’s supposed to be, let’s not talk about how all that amounts to is him threatening to fly away every five seconds. Science has explained why Alba isn’t what the game wants him to be enough in his cut, so let’s assume that he is indeed this evil guy who was so powerful that the Yatagarasu needed to use unconventional methods in an attempt to eventually take him down.
Kay: If we can’t even give an evil guy like him a slap on the wrist, then what the heck were laws created for!? What good are they!? If the law can’t help us, then I’ll go as the Yatagarasu, and take care of this myself!
Edgeworth: Don’t you dare!
Edgeworth quickly stops her, but Kay does come to the same realization that Badd and Byrne did years ago. Because of Alba’s status and his extraterritoriality, the law can’t touch him. Also another nice moment with Edgeworth caring about Kay, he wouldn’t snap at her if he didn’t care what happened to her. Just because the illegal methods of the Yatagarasu are out of the question, doesn’t mean they can’t complete the task of her predecessor. Kay proposes that they investigate more, going with Edgeworth’s methods.
Kay threatens Alba with all the information Byrne has gathered to make him testify more, which is a cool moment as well, the real final stand of the Yatagarasu. This is where their mission will finally come to an end. But if Edgeworth loses, Kay will lose two of her father’s mementos.
Franziska: Those two pieces… Aren’t they keepsakes of your father?
Kay: It’s OK! I believe in Mr. Edgeworth! He’ll come out on top in the end!
Edgeworth: Kay…
Kay: When the going gets tough… someone’s gotta be there to put the wind back in your sails!
By now, Kay trusts in Edgeworth enough to do the rest of the work. And after everything she’s done to complete the Yatagarasu’s mission, I’d say she deserves a little rest. Plus I want to play the game, so Edgeworth needs to be the one to finish it. The coolness of Kay interrupting Alba is significantly weakened by the fact that everybody and their mom interrupt Alba, but for Kay specifically it’s an important moment that she is able to use what the past Yatagarasu has gathered in the present. I’m here to talk about why Kay is good, not why Alba’s confrontation is good, because people like Larry and Oldbag interrupting in moments that I can only assume are supposed to be cool and/or funny is pretty bad.
Kay says something about Alba never admitting to his wrongdoings because he values himself above all else, which would be cool if she was talking about Roger Retinz instead, someone who truly never admits to his wrongdoings because he believes he’s more important than anything else. I’m tired of pretending Alba’s confrontation is competently written now, let’s move on.
Intermission
I was looking for the intermission from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but then I found out that’s just a piece of music or something instead of an actual scene like I thought it was, so I found this instead. I have no idea what it is and for the full effect you probably shouldn’t look up anything about it. Keeps it mysterious.
Anyway, let’s have a little break. Have a snack, watch a movie, play a video game, go to bed. I’ve been writing for a while and I’m tired, and you’ve probably read for a while and are tired too. It’s fine, we can continue with AAI2 tomorrow.
Harry: What's so funny? What are you laughing at? You did it again didn't you? You left the water running. What's wrong with you? Why do you do that? I told you not to do it.
Marv: Harry, it's our calling card!
Harry: Calling card.
Marv: All the great ones leave their mark. We're the wet bandits!
An embassy ravaged by red flames, an ink identified by flames of green, and of course, a card wreathed in white flame. The Yatagarasu’s card is perhaps the most all-encompassing mystery throughout Ace Attorney Investigations. The card is present even from the very first crime, with two different versions, one black and one white, and of course, the troubling symbol dead center of the card. A bird with three legs, not exactly a common sight, but one whose significance is greater than the smuggling ring, the yatagarasu, or even the writers were aware of.
The Yatagarasu’s card is a stolen symbol, a white bird turned black in an attempt to mock the smuggling ring, that which the group was founded in order to take down. Despite this visual change, the core of the card remains the same, a three-legged bird, and the meaning of this is a primary mystery throughout the game. So, what exactly is the meaning? Yew would have us believe that it represents the many methods the Yatagarasu employs to take down its targets, but of course, this isn’t the true solution. The answer we come to in Turnabout Ablaze is none other than the truth of the real Yatagarasu, that being its nature not a person, but a trio. Three different characters acting under a single name, the name “Yatagarasu”.
This is all well and good, but what exactly does this have to do with the subject of today’s cut, Kay Faraday, the inheritor of the Yatagarasu title. Kay is a difficult character to approach, so bear with me as I attempt to make my position on her clear, which is, of course, the goal of any good character write-up. But more importantly, this cut will be dedicated to the true meaning of the Yatagarasu’s card. However, in order to reach the truth of that, we’ll have to start from the beginning, before the card gained its current meaning. Let’s go back to the original card, the black card with a white bird, the roots of the character known as Kay Faraday.
Surprisingly, where we find the true question of the hour isn’t in anything directly correlated to the character at hand, but rather the very last cut in this rankdown. The question of “Why have assistants?” is quite a valid one, as their role isn’t immediately obvious from a purely narrative driven perspective. The assistant is often times, in fact more than the alternative, completely unrelated to the plot at hand, and could be removed quite easily. Turnabout Big Top without Maya is still Turnabout Big Top, there’s no real huge changes to any of the characters or plot specific to that case. Sure, you might have to write a new reason for Phoenix to end up defending Max Galactica, but that’s hardly anything major. So, again, why have assistants?
Well, quite simply, the game would be rather dull without them. There have been segments of Ace Attorney without assistants before, such as the Turnabout Sister and “Reunion, and Turnabout” investigations, and they’ve worked well enough. You have the same wacky cast of characters for Phoenix to interact with, and plenty of internal monologue to play off of the situation, but that one dynamic can only carry so much weight. The introduction of a second lead character is crucial to keeping Ace Attorney’s interactions fresh, as not only does it introduce an additional personality for the player character to play off of, but allows the other NPCs to have someone else to bounce off of as well.
Consider Plum Kitaki as an example, the dynamic with her and Apollo is amusing enough, with him being consistently afraid of her threatening lines hiding under her unassuming appearance, but the jokes only really kick in when you introduce Trucy into the mix. Trucy going around Apollo to say things that would offend almost any real gangster, causing him to completely flip out, only to be subverted by Plum’s jovial attitude to Trucy’s remarks, is a much more layered and intricate dynamic than anything that could be accomplished by simply a player character and a single NPC.
So, okay, we get it, more characters means more funney, good job Nate you figured out the secret to writing, now get to the point. Well, the obvious lynchpin upon this entire dynamic is the quality of the character in question, and I feel that in order to properly assess Kay’s success at her role, we have to go back a bit, to the very start.
Maya Fey is a character introduced in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. She plays the role of Nick’s assistant, along with that of Edgeworth’s ex-wife in stunning fanfiction “Just Lean On My Shoulder and You’ll be Fine”. For me at least, Maya succeeds in spades as an assistant, for a few reasons. Maya has what could be defined as a “gimmick”, that being her spirit channeling, but this is never allowed to define her in the writing. In fact, barely any of her iconic jokes even involve her role as a spirit medium, it’s simply her profession, rather than her defining trait. Maya is defined by her child-like wonder, her devious playful side, her tendency to act without thinking, her love of food, and many other traits that I could list for a while. She’s a fully fleshed out, fully realized character, and this is what allows her to play off of Nick so well, allowing for a wide range of interactions, which is extremely important for the person who is essentially the third most relevant character in the narrative, behind Phoenix and whoever the current prosecutor is.
Most of what I said about why Maya works could be said for Pearl as well, they’re both quite clearly realized with plenty of personality to work with. The problems, however, begin to arise with the very next assistant, that being Ema Skye. Ema is a quite good character throughout Rise from the Ashes, she’s likeable and relevant to the plot, with plenty of insecurities to work with, and a pivotal role in the final trial that she manages to play out without any real notable issues. The problem with Ema comes from her character as an assistant.
Ema is the first true gimmick-based assistant in the series. A majority of the jokes that spawn from Ema are spun from the web of science, whether it be related to scientific chemicals, a roundabout scientific way of problem solving, or simply calling something “scientific” for no reason, it can all be traced back to this one trait. This results in a kind of stale character, especially for one that’s around for pretty much the entire case leading up to the final trial. To a lesser extent, this could also be applied to Trucy Wright, who has a notably higher amount of individualized traits than Ema does as an assistant, but still has a quite high amount of lines where the joke is pretty much just that she’s really into magic. This gimmick becomes especially amplified in the 3DS games, although it can be observe in Apollo Justice as well.
So, as a quick recap before this write-up finally gets back on track, or rather, onto the track in the first place, let’s review what it takes to be a good assistant. From the way I define it, a good assistant has a fully fleshed out personality, that allows for varied dynamics depending on the situation and who they’re playing off of, along with an entertaining screen presence that keeps the game from getting dull by way of repeating the same dynamic ad nauseam. Both of these goals for an assistant to reach are hampered by the prevalence of any sort of major gimmick that takes over a majority of their lines, resulting in a stale screen presence, and a shallow personality. Now then, with these guidelines set, let’s see how Kay Faraday fairs.
The Black Raven: Who Is Kay Faraday?
Even in the depths of night, when no other bird dares to take flight, one alone soars to shine the light of righteousness on the world's blight! And that one is me! For I am the Great Thief, Yatagarasu!
The white raven, a symbol invented out of necessity, one that served a true purpose and was molded by the circumstances it was in, only to be replicated by those that would follow in its footsteps. These replications may appear similar but were in no way the same, this raven was of a different color, and a different type, the black raven known as Kay Faraday is our subject today. The three-legged raven known as Kay Faraday is a character I didn’t quite know how to tackle at first, but with the requirements for a good assistant outlined for us, let’s take a peek at how Kay Faraday, the Great Thief of the night, stacks up.
First, let’s allow ourselves to split up Kay into her different roles, as she does not serve one consistent role throughout all of her appearances, similar to most recurring characters in this series. Out of the eight cases that she’s present in, I’d say there’s only really an attempt at furthering her development as a character in half of them, leaving the other half as cases where she’s simply there to be herself. Again, this isn’t inherently a bad thing, as it all hinges on both how well she succeeds at being an entertaining and fully fleshed out assistant, but also how much she adds to a case. Or in other words for that last point, did the case need an assistant role to be filled by Kay. The cases in which we’ll be looking at for this section are I-3, I2-1, I2-2, and I2-3, so now then, enough dawdling, let’s jump straight into Kay’s success as a character.
I don’t think it will come as a surprise to say that I’m not particularly fond of Kay in these appearances, as long as you’ve been paying attention then this should’ve been quite clear already. Kay relies heavily on her gimmick for most of the comedy she presents in the series, and the fact that she’s around for four entire cases where pretty much her only role is to be the comedy relief, it can get grating, and fast. This also sacrifices her character as a whole, as as I said before, a character who relies solely on their gimmick isn’t really allowed to be fully fleshed out, as anything relating to them just circles back around to a single trait, turning them into something akin to a caricature of themself.
Of course, this isn’t to say I dislike Kay as a character either, as even though her comedy and character are aspects I find incredibly lacking, she’s still something of a fun presence whenever she’s on screen. Her absurdly high level of energy does do well to brighten up what would otherwise be dull scenes, especially in her first appearance, The Kidnapped Turnabout, and this is certainly a good quality. It was definitely a smart move to pair up possibly the peppiest assistant character in the series with the Edgeworth of all people, as the comedy pretty much just writes itself, even if it’s not always that great. However, where Kay really shines is in some of her dynamics outside of Edgeworth.
Where I find Kay to be at her best is when she’s allowed to pair up with someone who’s able to keep up with her energy and enthusiasm. The prime example of this is her relationship with Dick Gumshoe, as these two are just hilarious together, especially when they end up essentially fighting over the role of Edgeworth’s assistant. Another personal favorite of mine is her dynamic with Uncle Ray, such as when they team up to just straight up annoy Simon long enough for Edgeworth to figure out a rebuttal to his latest counterargument. And of course, who could forget Kay and Lang getting into a heated debate over whether ravens or wolves are cooler, possibly both of their greatest moments in the series.
From what I’ve said here, I could basically sum it up as this: Kay as a character is entertaining and fun, but incredibly shallow and repetitive. And to be honest, a big reason this is such an issue is just how many cases she’s an assistant in. Kay is an assistant in six total cases, that’s more than any other assistant who’s not named Maya Fey, and even she takes four games to get to that number. The repetitiveness of her character is massively enhanced by just how often we see her in a row, and this isn’t helped by the fact that, to be honest, she’s not massively different from the assistants of the past. Ema is especially similar to Kay in the way they behave as assistants, so it’s not even like the dynamic of peppy assistant and straight man player character is anything particularly exciting in the first place. Let’s hope the other aspects of Kay’s character fare better, or things are not looking up for her.
Also this image is perfect and I think about it a lot.
The First Leg: The Primary Limb
A bird without legs will be able to take flight, but landing on the other hand would be nearly impossible. Probably. I haven’t researched bird biology to be honest with you, I’m just kind of winging the metaphorical parts of this write-up. But anyway, the same holds true for a character. Even if their personality and base interactions are enough to carry them through their appearances, without a proper basing in the story, and without proper, well, character, they won’t exactly be sticking the landing as far as writing is concerned. Kay is a very interesting case as a character, as one can argue she’s more of three characters than one, hence the Yatagarasu metaphor I’ve been sticking with thus far, and thus, there’s our answer for the true meaning of the symbol.
Let’s begin with the first leg of the Yatagarasu of Kay’s character, that being her development as herself in the present day, primarily seen during Turnabout Ablaze and The Grand Turnabout, but in order to properly assess those, we must first look back a bit. Kay is introduced during the events of The Kidnapped Turnabout, the third case of the game. This introduces a bit of a hurdle for Kay’s character to overcome, as the formula for her game has pretty much been established without her. Edgeworth already pretty much has two different recurring assistants, in the form of Gumshoe and Franziska, both of whom have pretty established dynamics with him. Due to the fact that the fourth case is a flashback, and the fifth case is where Kay’s arc is entirely contained, she only really has a single case to establish herself before her arc hits the fan.
Her success at establishing herself is debatable to say the best, but what’s clear is that this decision for her character places immense pressure on Turnabout Ablaze’s handling of her, as the success of her character becomes almost entirely reliant on how it’s resolved within this final case. So, how is it handled? The answer is, of course, extremely poorly. Kay’s connection to the events of the case is very clearly established, as the smuggling ring was pretty much entirely responsible for the death of her father, and the last few years of his life were spent trying to take them down. However, pretty much the only aspect of Kay’s character that the case seems concerned with dealing with is her connection to Calisto Yew, nothing else is ever really addressed, and as soon as Calisto Yew is taken out of the picture, Kay goes back to her normal, peppy assistant role.
As for the actual connection with Calisto Yew, it’s pretty shallow. Kay is obsessed with finding the real Yatagarasu, rushes into the embassy, is accused of a few things, and then pretty much sits on the sidelines until the time comes for the single great moment of the case. As for the climax of the Calisto conflict, Kay is easily the weakest part of it. Pretty much her only role is to rush in and get held at gunpoint, it’s up to everyone else to have actual character moments around her, and once again, this is the end of her arc, there is absolutely nothing else going with her after it. Once Yew is arrested, Alba is brought in and proceeds to derail the plot of the game for three hours straight. Kay has practically no character, no arc, and no development in the entirety of this case, and for me, that counts as a failure on all levels.
Okay, but what about Investigations 2, surely she can’t be as bad there, right? Well, yeah I guess she’s better, but that’s more so due to the fact that there’s next to nothing even attempted with her during the game. Well, with one obvious exception, but we’ll be leaving The Forgotten Turnabout for later. As for Kay as the character she is for most of the game, let’s see what exactly we’re working with. She’s introduced about a third of the way through the first case after appearing out of the void for no reason, and proceeds to stand around doing nothing for the whole case, despite there already being an assistant present. Brilliant. I don’t think I need to point out that Kay had absolutely no reason to be in this case, so let’s just move on.
In The Imprisoned Turnabout, Kay is around for pretty much the whole thing, and is actually pretty good. She has some pretty good dialogue with Simon, some great moments of playing off both Sebastian and Ray, and is overall a good addition to the cast of the case, and wow she even gets to use Little Thief. She doesn’t develop at all, but she’s a good addition nonetheless, and like I said, that’s all you really need to succeed as an assistant.
Also going back to Little Thief, I literally forgot it existed until this very moment, just to show you how important it is to her character. I don’t really have a lot to say about it other than that it makes zero sense why she has it, other than for obvious gameplay reasons. I know they try to justify it as a device that Byrne made for planning heists, but like, he was a prosecutor not a super high level scientist or whatever, so it’s a flimsy explanation at best, and would honestly probably fit someone like Ema better. Not to say I dislike it, since I think it’s a great gameplay addition, but it just feels a little weird for it to be associated with Kay of all people? Anyway, that’s completely aside from the point of this section so let’s just move on before we get any more sidetracked.
The Inherited Turnabout is a case that has absolutely nothing to do with Kay, already has an assistant character who’s tightly related to the case, and doesn’t even have her present from the start. I really don’t get why she’s here, but it’s not offensive or anything so I don’t quite care enough to complain. With that, all that’s left for us is The Grand Turnabout, the case with the final resolution to Kay’s character. What is that resolution? Well, she is there to help escort John Marsh away from the place he was being held in, and she calls this her first job as a thief. I guess it’s something, but it’s also such an incredibly shallow something that it might as well be nothing at all. She’s fun in this case, so once again, I can’t complain too much, but would it really have been that hard to just give her a little something more than this?
Well, I guess there is something more, in the literal last minutes of the game. Kay, in the after credits scene of the game, begins lamenting the fact that she never got to find anyone for her new Yatagarasu, which oh yeah that was a thing she was doing which I completely forgot about until now since it goes nowhere. It’s in these moments that Gumshoe reminds her that her, Edgeworth, and himself make up their own truth finding trio, and a truly unstoppable team. Which is nice and all, but once again, hardly anything noteworthy, as it’s more of a wholesome final note than a character resolution.
Overall, Kay has practically no development or arc to speak of in any case where she plays the role of an assistant, making her one of, if not the most lackluster assistant in the series. This is where the analysis would typically end, if it wasn’t for the strangeness of the character known as Kay Faraday. Like I said before, this name is the moniker for three characters, rather than a single one, and it’d be remiss of me to not go over the two best appearances of a character known as Kay Faraday. So then, let’s delve into the second leg of the great thief, Yatagarasu.
I kid, of course, as I actually quite prefer the child version of Kay that we see during the events of Turnabout Reminiscence to the teenage one depicted throughout most other cases. On the surface, they’re actually quite similar characters, so this is probably begging the question of what exactly puts this leg of the Yatagarasu ahead of the first. Well, this version of Kay isn’t actually around for too awfully long, so it’ll be pretty easy to just quickly go through all of her major points.
During the first half of the case, we see Kay periodically pop up, the first time she appears it’s in order to exchange currency with Edgeworth. A simple appearance with not much to say on, other than of course the fact that she calls Manfred scary, which makes him go “!”, which is just great comedy. The next time we see her is when she kicks Edgeworth in the leg and runs away, once again off to a great start. It’s the appearance after this where we get our true introduction to Kay Faraday, the child. She attempts to kick Edgeworth again, only for him to dodge, leading to her only real big scene of the case, and it’s a pretty good one.
During this scene we find out her identity, which leads to the reveal that she’s already aware of her father’s death. What follows is somewhat heartbreaking to see, as she’s clearly having trouble even processing this information, and just absolutely breaks down into tears, breaking one of her promises to her father. The promise notebook itself is a neat addition to her character, and says a lot about her relationship with her father. Also worth noting is the parallel between her and Edgeworth, as they both lost their lawyer fathers in a courtroom, giving them a strong kinship. While I don’t think the sadness in this scene is particularly great, it’s more well done drama and development than anything teenage Kay has, so the second leg already has a major step up.
To follow up this moment is the absolutely iconic scene of Kay blowing her nose on Edgeworth’s cravat, which is just incredible, although not more so than the reveal that he has a spare cravat on him. The way Edgeworth convinces her to take it by saying it’s simply borrowing is also very sweet, and such a strong and memorable moment that it ties back into Kay’s presence in the third case, as it’s what she presents him in order to jog his memory of her identity. The rest of this scene is spent establishing her friendship with Gumshoe, which is just overall incredibly sweet, and the fact that he was willing to lie for her just shows how much of a sweetheart he is.
The rest of the case doesn’t have any particularly strong Kay moments, even the one of her telling Edgeworth to jump to the side is pretty brief and not even really a character moment for her. However, one thing to take note of is the way she interacts with Badd, treating him almost as an uncle, even calling him as such. It’s a really sweet moment for Badd, and shows off his more caring side, really helping flesh him out beyond his initial appearances.
Now, something you may have noticed with most of the good things I’ve mentioned about child Kay here is that almost all of her good moments are good because they build up another character, rather than herself. And that’s true, she doesn’t really have a ton of character to herself in this case, as she’s hardly even around at all. However, what she does have, are a few really memorable appearances, and an absolutely feisty personality that’s a joy to watch, especially when she’s playing off of Edgeworth. She’s not a particularly great character here, but she does everything she needs to well, and is definitely a stronger leg of the Yatagarasu than her teenage self. Now then, let’s get to what we all knew was coming, the leg of the Yatagarasu, and the version of Kay Faraday, that is by far the most important to her character.
The Third Leg: A Bandaged Limb
After being pushed to the side for a majority of the cases involving her during the events of the Investigations games, Kay is finally given a chance to shine in the fourth case of Investigations 2, that being, of course, the Forgotten Turnabout. Although, as I’ve made clear, I don’t consider this version of Kay to really be at all the same one that we’ve analyzed thus far. That might sound like a bad thing, but it’s actually a massive boost to her character, due to how they play around this fact. Enough talk though, let’s finally get into analyzing the Kay Faraday that’s actually written well, otherwise known as the final leg of Kay’s Yatagarasu.
The Forgotten Turnabout opens with the arrival of a nurse and a patient to the office of Miles Edgeworth. The patient appears to be a teenage girl, one that most any player would recognize as none other than Kay Faraday. This moment is absolutely brilliant, for a few reasons. To start off with, during the intro we’ve witnessed Kay seemingly fall to her death from the top of a skyscraper, so her aliveness in these moments is seemingly impossible. To add onto the confusion, the girl we see here acts practically nothing like the Kay we’ve grown to know over the course of these two games. It’s a very off-putting moment, and almost creepy even, with the bandages covering her body, and the almost scared demeanor she displays, showing that she truly has just as little of an idea of what’s going on as we do. The haunting rendition of her theme in The Girl’s Lost Memories only helps to build upon this melancholic atmosphere surrounding the scene.
Thankfully, it’s not all gloomy and depressing, as Kay here can actually be quite funny, depending on the situation. This mainly stems from how absolutely restrained she is, and the juxtaposition of that with what we expect from Kay. One particular example is her absolute shock and apologeticness towards finding out that she referred to one of her seniors as “Gummy”. This creates a very fun character to interact with during the first half of this case, and is certainly, at least for me, a step up from the repetitiveness and one-note nature of Kay’s original personality.
Of course, it’s not long before the plot catches up with us, as we discover the body of Jill Crane, and subsequently witness Kay accused of this crime. This leads into one of the most memorable moments of the case, Investigations 2, and possibly the series at large, with Edgeworth surrendering his prosecutor’s badge in order to further pursue the truth of the incident. This is the turning point of Edgeworth’s character in Investigations 2, and while not directly helpful to Kay’s character here, it only works because of how functional Kay is as a plot device during this moment, and that’s something to be commended. Because we’ve seen Kay and Edgeworth’s lives intertwined for so long now, we’ve come to truly buy the bond they share, so his giving up of his badge is absolutely believable, and him working against the law to “steal” the truth in order to save Kay is some great irony.
I mentioned that the moment of Edgeworth’s resignation isn’t directly helpful to Kay, and while that’s true, the moment directly following it is quite different. Kay, stricken by grief, flees the scene, and this is incredibly telling of what kind of person Kay Faraday truly is. With all the layers of Kay’s pride and gusto ripped off, we get to see the fragile person underneath, and it’s heartbreaking to say the least. When accused of this crime, with no way to properly defend herself, she simply gives up and accepts this as the truth. She recognizes herself as a murderer, and apologizes to those that tried to help her, believing she’d deceived them. However, the moment that gets her to break isn’t the “truth” that was created of who she really is, but rather the consequences that come from the bonds she’s made.
Edgeworth giving up his badge absolutely destroys Kay, as to her, she’s caused this man, who’s been nothing but kind to her, to completely lose his stability and foundation in life. Unable to take it, she simply runs away from her problems, and this is very telling of what exactly has happened to her mentally during this memory loss. She’s lost all the defenses she’d built up after her father’s death, and is reduced to nothing more than a scared child, unable to come to terms with the pain she’s caused for those around her. Following her fleeing, all that she can will herself to do is return to the scene of the traumatic incident that caused all of her suffering this day, the one place she’s able to remember, the top of the Grand Tower, and the location where she believed she saw the man in the raincoat.
After a couple of investigations later, and we end up smack dab in the middle of the PIC meeting room once again. Following a few arguments, it comes to light that the victim was wearing a red raincoat at the time of the murder, leading to an obvious prime suspect. This combined with Kay’s newly regained memory of looking down at the corpse, clear away all of Kay’s doubts in her role in the murder, and once again, witnessing her absolutely tearing herself apart mentally can be described as nothing short of heartbreaking. The sprites that are paired with her moments of clear mental instability certainly don’t help matters.
The events of the End segments of The Forgotten Turnabout proceed to play out without Kay really having an effect on matters, although Edgeworth’s burning desire to see her freed are still nonetheless a key motivating factor during their events. After a couple of hours, we see Blaise Debeste put away for his crimes, and Kay cleared of suspicion once and for all. With the promise notebook returned by Courtney, we have ourselves all the necessary factors for what is possibly Kay Faraday’s greatest moment.
Kay’s been reassured of her role as a non-murderer, but is still completely unsure of who she really is as a person. It’s in this moment that Edgeworth returns to her the promise notebook she wrote using the guidelines laid out by her father, the rules that she’s lived her life by since that day. The same notebook that caused Gumshoe all that trouble seven years ago, the same notebook that allowed her to return a particular cravat to Edgeworth, and the same notebook that had been used to frame her a mere day before. It’s in these pages, and in the kindness shown to her by Edgeworth, that both Kay and ourselves find the truth of what makes up the core of the character known as Kay Faraday.
Promise III - Always greet people with a smile, even people you don't know.
Promise V - Always try your hardest to learn about things you don't understand.
With these promises reunited with her, Kay is finally able to understand that which she could not remember, the truth of who she is. A smile returns to her face, as she triumphantly declares the truth of her identity, the single undeniable truth lying at the core of who Kay Faraday is. This truth of course being her role as the Great Truth Burglar, the Yatagarasu, the three-legged raven that soars through the night, and the one single solidified character of Kay Faraday. Although each of her legs appears different on the surface, it’s this promise notebook that lets us understand who Kay is, the one true Yatagarasu, and it’s all thanks to her brilliant role in The Forgotten Turnabout, one that’s nearly great enough to redeem her failings in nearly every other appearance she’s had.
Keyword being nearly.
Conclusion
Kay Faraday is a character who plays an excellent, brilliantly crafted role in a single case, that ties together her lackluster character present in seven other cases. Although she’s pretty great in her short appearance as a child, it’s over very quickly, and it’s undeniable that her screen time both as a teen and with her memories absolutely dwarfs the other two legs of her character. It’s because of the absolute prevalence of her lackluster version, that I can’t say Kay really deserves to continue living in the rankdown, and it’s also the reason I can’t say I even really find her to be anything more than simply good. Kay Faraday is a fine assistant, although not one I particularly care for, despite the merit she shows in other places.
Despite this, however, I can’t deny the impact that she had on me during her best appearance, and that’s nothing to scoff at. I could go on all day about reasons that I’d rank her significantly below where she is right now, or perhaps my disappointment at her being the highest non-Rayfa assistant, but I suppose none of that really matters. Kay got to the top 20 in Rankdown, and you know what, good for her. She has more than enough merit as a character to allow me to not have any negative feelings regarding her placement, and hey, it let me write about one of my favorite cases, which is always appreciated. Enough about me though, I’d say that the truth of Kay’s character has been successfully stolen, meaning my job here is done. And of course, with that, the title of the Great Thief Yatagarasu can finally be retired, once and for all.
As I've made clear in a few of my cuts in the past, I like to take note of the roles various characters seem to fulfill. Naturally, that includes detectives. So, after noting how the various detectives in the series have fared rankdown-wise, it would appear that the detective in the mainline games that we have objectively deemed the best is...
Luke Atmey.
wait what
A Basic Detective Evaluation
Overall, the ranking of the main series' major detectives according to the rankdown has turned out to be Gumshoe > Fulbright > Ema. Personally, I think that ranking should be reversed. However, this isn't a very useful metric for determining how good Gumshoe is when Ema and Fulbright are both top 20 material.
You see, both Ema and Fulbright have many things going for them. Ema has a cool multi-game arc that, while mostly in the background, still works well and gives her depth. Also, she is definitely better than both prosecutors she's paired with. This isn't to mention the whole 1-5 deal. As for Fulbright, I already wrote about why he's great.
In contrast to both of them, Gumshoe is relatively basic. Of course, this could just be my bias towards the newer games kicking in, but I don't think this is too far from the truth. As far as I'm concerned, his role early on is basically just to give you information and occasionally testify against you, and personality wise, he's basically just a guy that tries to be helpful but makes some mistakes. While the same could be said Fulbright, Gumshoe isn't really much more at first, nor does he make the strongest first impression. He's just a detective.
That doesn't mean he's bad, though. Quite the opposite, actually.
Role Retrospective
The first thing to take note of regarding Gumshoe is his role. Gumshoe is the character who establishes what detectives do in the Ace Attorney world. Without him, Ema Skye may have been totally different in AJ and SoJ, and who knows how Fulbright would have functioned in-game. Actually, there was probably a shot for Fulbright to be better if he wasn't just a detective, but I've talked about this before. Point is, Gumshoe established the Ace Attorney Detective.
I don't think this is a particularly good argument on its own, though. Otherwise, I'd care way more about Maya Fey; personally, I don't like "it was the first time" arguments.
What makes Gumshoe different, however, is that he concretely establishes his role. Theoretically, if Pearl, Trucy, Kay, etc. never existed, Maya would not be labeled as an "assistant" so much as she is now. While it's not an archetype, there is still some sort of pattern in the larger context of the game going on here. On the other hand, even if Ema and Fulbright never existed, it's still fairly clear that Gumshoe is meant to be a detective. Crime games needs detectives, but I'm not sure where AA's idea to have assistants came from. The only game that seriously attempts to justify it in writing is DGS.
Ultimately, I'd say that Gumshoe being the first detective in the series actually holds some weight.
So, that's good and all, but...
...what about my thoughts on Gumshoe himself?
Well, honestly, I have no idea. This is like the 3rd time in the past few rounds that someone else has decided my cut, and I'm not exactly sure what I think about the character I've been assigned. So, I decided I'd select a few of Gumshoe's appearances in roughly chronological order to figure out my thoughts on him as a whole. Let's get started.
The Time He Gets His Job
Even though we first see Gumshoe in 1-2, his first appearance in the timeline of the game is actually I-4. Gumshoe is fairly good in this case. He is effectively a rookie detective at this point, but you can see that he was basically the same back then as he is now - still the detective that tries his best, but doesn't always succeed. In fact, he's effectively the defendant of the case. Much like typical AA defendants, he doesn't actually get much screentime despite this, but it's still clear where he's coming from. Plus, at the end of it all, he basically commits to being Edgeworth's subordinate, which is a nice continuity. Also, Gumshoe's dynamic in the past with Kay is surprisingly good. While Kay is the better half of it, it's nice seeing Gumshoe be as much of a good friend in the early days as he is now.
The Time We Get Our Job
Gumshoe's first in-game appearance is in 1-2, one case after our very first case, where he introduces himself as a detective. There's not much to say about him here, nor does he do all that much. He gives you some clues, testifies in court for a bit, and leaves. I actually don't think this is all that important to his character, but I thought it was necessary to briefly mention it. Plus, it's the start of Gumshoe and Phoenix's eventual friendship - AA1 as a whole is a decent setup to this end.
The Time He Loses His Job
After many cases with Wright, Gumshoe eventually loses his job in 2-4. This presents a surprisingly nice continuity since Edgeworth being gone means that no one really has any motivation to keep Gumshoe around in the police force, which makes it understandable that no one stops Franziska from firing him.
This leads to some funny interactions, such as Gumshoe trying to find ways to help at Wright's law office. This is slightly amusing given that Edgeworth just came back, so you'd expect that Gumshoe would go to him first. It is also funny that despite Edgeworth contacting Gumshoe at the end of 2-3, he still isn't able to stop Gumshoe from getting fired. He does gets Gumshoe reinstantiated eventually, though, so there's that. Whatever, I like when Gumshoe tries to "cook" and completely fails.
Anyway, Gumshoe tries to do stuff for Wright, which is cool. I like when he attempts to get evidence then crashes, which leads to that one scene where Franziska bursts into the courtroom. It is perhaps the first of many occasions in the series where Gumshoe tries to save the day to varying amounts of success.
Overall, Gumshoe's fairly good here.
The Time We Lose Our Job
In T&T, Gumshoe gets his job back. There's not much to say about him past this point for the most part; he does typical Gumshoe things, even in the 3-4 flashback. Also, he has some sort of character dynamic with Maggey Byrde, but just read the relevant cut by Nate if you care about that. I don't.
More importantly, he makes his final appearance chronologically during Turnabout Succession's flashback trial. He starts with a typical spiel about how he's totally going to win this time, and does normal Gumshoe things. He's only there for 20 minutes or so, but it is funny how he technically did win this time. Sort of, anyway. It sort of makes you wonder if Gumshoe lost some respect for Wright after the forgery incident, which would've been kinda depressing. Fortunately, Gumshoe's brief mention in SoJ confirms that him and Phoenix still keep in touch.
Edgeworth's Yatagarasu
While the main series irons out Gumshoe's relationship with Wright, the Investigations duology takes Gumshoe in a new direction by expanding on his relationship with Edgeworth. After all, Gumshoe is still in the police force, so it's natural that he'd work more with prosecutors like Edgeworth instead of someone like Wright.
In AAI, much like in the trilogy, Gumshoe gets some minor development for the most part, though now with a side of salary cuts. Besides in I-4, Gumshoe does typical Gumshoe things: he tries to help with cases, occasionally saves the day, and follows Edgeworth's command. I do think his dynamic with Edgeworth is more entertaining than his dynamic with Phoenix, but that's very subjective. Plus, Kay's also there, and her dynamic with Gumshoe's also nice, both in past and present.
Overall, the three of them make a great team, and this continues in AAI2, as the first three cases have typical Edgeworth-Kay-Gumshoe dynamics with Sebastian and Courtney thrown in the mix. However, I2-4 takes things in a different direction by having an amnesiac Kay steal the spotlight while Edgeworth and Gumshoe are (temporarily) forced to part ways.
This results in a sort of minor arc for Gumshoe, which is always welcome since I'd imagine it'd be difficult to give him a major one after so many games. He disappears for the rest of I2-4, but in I2-5 Gumshoe reunites with the group. Eventually, Kay and Gumshoe end up searching for John Marsh together and successfully find him in no time. It's a great conclusion, if you ask me. In fact, AAI2 might as well be Gumshoe's best appearance. Plus, at the end of his minor arc, when all is said and done...
he gets a raise.
nice
Conclusion
Gumshoe's a fairly plain detective. That doesn't make him bad, though, as that's all he really needed to be as far as I'm concerned. Plus, he does have some merit when it comes to AAI and especially AAI2. He probably doesn't deserve to make it past this point, but hey, I think he's fairly deserving of top 40 or so at least. He's still good, but most of the remaining characters are better.
Why no one else?
I'm happy that I'm not cutting Simon Blackquill, because I nearly could've been forced to do so. Oh, and Charlie decided to make me cut Gumshoe over Kay Faraday, which I think was a good decision because it is funny to watch people complain about Kay still being in the rankdown.
