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boltgsr · 7 years

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Who the Hell is Apollo Justice? - an AA5/AA6 critique

A twitter thread reminded me that during NaNoWriMo last year, I wrote 1,600 words on why Apollo in AA5/AA6 frustrates me so much. Be warned, this is only very lightly edited, so it’s more of a ramble than a full essay.

So, Apollo! Lemme start off by saying that character-wise, e.g. personality and dialogue and whatever, I don’t really have any objections to how Apollo’s portrayed in AA6 or AA5 (give or take some of his DarkMode angst in AA5-5.) People go on and on about how AA5 and AA6 “totally redeemed” him but he honestly doesn’t feel that different from AA4.

The trouble with Apollo is basically everything surrounding him, and how it was handled.

I’ll be really direct: AA5 and AA6 should have been Apollo-only or Apollo-main games. I recognize that Phoenix’s return was not entirely a creative decision, and I’m guessing that for AA6 in particular there was probably a time when going full Apollo was on the table before they settled on splitting screen time with Phoenix.

The thing is that for all people grumble about Phoenix stealing the spotlight from Apollo in AA4 (which he does), Phoenix at least felt like he had a purpose in the story in AA4. He might have been awkwardly handled and inexplicably missing his entire supporting cast, but he had personal stakes and ties to what was going on. So while it was strange for him to get so much focus in what was ostensibly a game with a new protagonist, it didn’t feel like he was taking away from the game’s overall story, just Apollo’s. And while Apollo kind of got sidelined in the last case of AA4, it at least laid the groundwork/put in the time to create a network of people and histories around Apollo.

Apollo’s handling in AA5 is kind of ridiculous. Let’s be real: Clay Terran is not a character. He’s a plot device for Apollo to leave the agency and have a crisis of faith. Giving character to victims is easier said than done, but taking the POV and moving it to Phoenix really makes it clear how little the writers actually cared about Apollo and Clay’s past. If the entire game was played from Apollo and Athena’s perspective, there would have been more opportunities for Clay to be introduced and examined, which would have given his death more meaning, and which would have made Apollo’s development in the final cases feel more natural. Instead, Phoenix Fixes Everything, Hooray.

It’s also extremely noticeable how AA5 pretty much jettisons all of AA4. Trucy is pretty much background noise, and Klavier is a cameo (not even in a case Apollo handles!) which adds to the sense that Apollo is kind of just a character floating detached from any actual history or motivation beyond what the current game’s plot requires.

It’s that particular trend of defining Apollo in terms of the current game’s overarching plot that really gets me about AA6. Again, let’s be real: Apollo’s backstory in AA6 is completely ridiculous. So he’s not only secretly a member of Troupe Gramarye and working with his half-sister by chance, but he’s also… the adoptive son of the exiled king of the country of Khura’in, which is also where Maya’s channeling technique has its roots? ???? One of the issues I have with Yamazaki’s writing is that he favors big stakes where they’re not really necessary, and AA6 pretty much twists that dial as far as it can go by actually having the plot involve a country-wide revolution. Not even the AAI series, which aimed for “bigger” cases, went that far.

But in AA6, The Stakes Are High, and that means Apollo gets jammed into yet another new backstory. It’s true AA6 doesn’t explicitly contradict anything in AA4, but it’s harder to swallow Apollo’s “I was raised by a revolutionary leader in a foreign country, sorry I never mentioned it” than something like Phoenix never mentioning he met Mia when she got him off the hook for murder. At this point Apollo isn’t a character with his own history - he’s a character whose history is explicitly defined by whatever game he’s in at the time.

In other words, each game feels like you’re playing a different Apollo, even if his characterization and backstory remains the same. I think part of the reason this sticks out is that the game has to push him aside to make room for Phoenix (and Athena to a lesser extent.) If Apollo was given a majority of the cases in AA5/AA6, it would have been easier for the games to work in connections for his arc between each game. I’m not looking for AAI-style cameo parades, but bringing back at least one non-main character from his arcs would go a long way to making it feel like there was a consistent world around him.

Instead, AA6 gives Apollo exactly as much screentime as the plot demands. To give credit where it’s due: I liked 6-2 a lot, and I’m really glad they gave Trucy some spotlight and revisited the Gramarye plotline. But even there, it feels disconnected. Reus’ presence as part of Troupe Gramarye is a retcon unto itself, and nothing from the Gramarye plot of AA4 actually has any relevance in the case. Valant, Thalassa, and Zak aren’t even mentioned by name. “This is Apollo’s history,” the game wants to say, but never backs it up.

6-5 takes the problem and really twists the dial up to 11. The thesis of 6-5 is basically: “the characters of AA6 are the truly important ones in Apollo’s story”. Trucy gets left behind in Japanifornia. Athena sits out the final trial (and doesn’t do much of anything in the investigation.) Klavier just straight-up isn’t in the game. The lone exceptions are Phoenix, who’s maintained in order to give Apollo a “you’ve finally surpassed me” moment, and Ema, who’s mostly been running her AAI personality for the entire game. (To be clear, Phoenix and Ema being around is certainly better than nothing.)

But all the emotional stakes of 6-5 for Apollo come from characters we’ve never met before AA6, and in the most direct example, not even before 6-5 itself. For what it’s worth, I think they did as good a job with Dhurke as they could. Having him be the investigation partner for the first day was the right move for the story they wanted to tell, and letting him act on his own and interact with Apollo so much meant he was a real character, not just a plot device like Clay.

And yet… that doesn’t change the fact that all of Apollo’s arc is suddenly focused on these characters we’ve never seen before. Nahyuta is a friend even closer than Clay (fun fact, by the way: Clay is never mentioned in AA6), Dhurke is the reason Apollo became a lawyer, Datz is an old buddy, Ga’ran is the architect for Apollo’s life. Even Rayfa winds up having her final development spurred on by Apollo in the trial, which is particularly odd given up until that point it was Phoenix and Maya helping her. At this point, there’s little reason for us to be playing as Apollo Justice - we could just as easily be playing as any Khura’inese attorney.

To really drive the point home, consider the ending of AA6-5. Here more than ever, the game tries to bring Apollo’s arc full circle. The moment the photo of Jove was added to the court record, it was clear the final step of the case would be investigating Apollo’s father’s death. But who is Jove? We never hear a word from the man himself; we never get any real sense of his life with Thalassa. The game acknowledges this by having Apollo reiterate that Dhurke is just as much (if not more) his father, but it leaves Jove as another character-as-plot-device.

So Apollo solves his father’s murder (carried out by Ga’ran), supported by Rayfa, and in order to help Nahyuta and Dhurke. It’s a plot point from AA4, but once again, it’s effectively absorbed as part of AA6’s plot. Thalassa, the other character who would have been a vital part of this story, is absent until a credits cameo (and there reduced to an anonymous voice.) Trucy, who was before AA6 Apollo’s sole family member, is absent entirely. While the plot and setting of AA6 means it would have been nonsensical for Trucy to take part in the trial, it would have been thematic mirroring for her to help Apollo solve his father’s death, as he did hers.

But that’s just it - Trucy, and the rest of Apollo’s entourage, doesn’t belong in the world of AA6. In the world of AA6, Apollo is defined by his childhood in Khura’in, by the Defense Culpability Act and his promises to Nahyuta, by the struggle between Dhurke and Ga’ran, and by Phoenix throwing up a giant sign saying “WOW APOLLO YOU’VE REALLY SURPASSED ME” every few minutes for the players.

And to be honest? It sort of works, especially given AA6’s overarching themes of legacy and inheritance. But the Apollo Justice of AA6 is not the Apollo Justice of AA4. He’s probably not even the Apollo Justice of AA5. He’s a character defined by the plot around him, and even if that works within AA6, it makes it hard to feel like he’s truly a part of the Ace Attorney series as a whole.

#ace attorney #apollo justice #dual destinies #spirit of justice

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sage-nebula · 7 years

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Hmmm, Ace Attorney!

my beautiful cinnamon roll too good for this world fave:

Mmm, Apollo! I never would have guessed it when AA4 was first released, but Apollo has officially become my favorite Ace Attorney character, and he’s definitely a pure boy. What a good, I love him.

my trash-shit fave:

Hm, I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. Any characters that I could think of for this aren’t necessarily “trash-shit” tier, and those who are aren’t exactly faves, so . . . hm. I don’t know.

my I love to hate them fave:

KRISTOPH GAVIN. Ohhh my god, he’s my favorite Ace Attorney Big Bad thus far. I WANT HIM BACK SO BADLY. I want to know what his black psyche-locks were for! I want to see him continuing to pursue revenge against Phoenix! I want him to target Apollo, Trucy, and Athena! I want to put Klavier through more emotional torment! LIKE!! WHERE IS HE?! I mean, I know he’s in solitary on death row, but still! WHERE! IS! HE?!

my I hate to love them fave:

I won’t go into specifics, but sometimes . . . sometimes being a fan of Klavier Gavin is suffering.

my I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire non-fave:

Fulbright. Whether we’re talking about Phantombright or actual Fulbright, I don’t care, he’s obnoxious and grating and I can’t believe I had to suffer through an entire game with him instead of Ema or Gumshoe. It was the most suffering part of AA5, I kid you not.

my I didn’t care about them either way at first but the fandom makes such a big deal about them now I can’t stand them non-fave:

I hate to say it, but . . . Maya. The diehard Maya stans can be really obnoxious, especially with the way some of them treat any other female character that isn’t Maya (with Ema and Athena getting the worst of it, from what I’ve seen), as well as the way some of the Phoenix/Maya shippers that I’ve seen have barely contained homophobia (and biphobia) as a reason why they ship what they ship. (Granted, there are some definite yaoi fetishists on the Phoenix/Edgeworth side, but that doesn’t excuse some of the homophobia, biphobia, and aphobia I’ve seen from some Phoenix/Maya shippers.) I still like Maya (or at least I like her in every appearance before AA6, because good lord), but sometimes her diehard stans make it really difficult.

my I could take them or leave them kinda non-fave:

Nahyuta. Also Blackquill to a lesser extent.

my I will go down with this ship and I won’t put my hands up and surrender, there will be no white flag above my door. I’m in love and always will be fave ship:

Phoenix/Edgeworth. It was my first Ace Attorney ship and I maintain to this day that it’s the best written one in the series.

my dirtybadwrong fave ship:

Matt Engarde/Juan Corrida. It’s more of a foetp than anything, but still.

my they’re cute together and I dig them but I’m not all that terribly invested kinda fave ship:

Lana Skye/Jake Marshall. I called in my most recent replay of AA1 that they were a couple before SL-9 went down, and then later found out that this was confirmed by one of the localizers, so score for me. Even so, I’m not super-duper invested, but I do ship it and hope they get their happy ending eventually.

I also like Franziska/Adrien.

my I didn’t care about this ship either way at first but the fandom makes such a big deal about it now I can’t stand it non-fave ship:

Phoenix/Maya, but also Apollo/Klavier.

my MAKE IT STOP non-fave ship:

Athena/Blackquill, but also Apollo/Nahyuta, full stop.

#ship meme #tofukitten

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