#he literally dropped everything to come save bobby and athena AND HE LIED TO THE LAFD CHIEF TO DO IT | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

attorneys-against-court-violence · 8 months

Text

The phantom fills my brain with questions DD never seems interested in answering.

Why was he so devoted to his work that he abandoned his entire identity? How much of that leaked out over the course of the game? How much of the real phantom lines up with Bobby so well that he never tripped any of the 3 living lie-detectors at any point (besides when he was trying to hide his concern about the police and Simon's actions, which is very much NOT in-line with the phantom's motives)?

He can fake emotions just fine so Athena's not an issue, at least until he feels comfortable enough to drop the act. Apollo's is a bit trickier since it picks up on subconscious ticks when someone's trying to hide something. Does the phantom telling him his name is Bobby Fulbright count as a lie if even he doesn't know what his actual name is? Does his waxing lyrical about JUSTICE! not count because enforcing the law is literally his job as a detective (or even because it really is a driving force behind his actions, not just for "Bobby")?

Phoenix on the other hand... I don't think the Magatama has been presented as a flawed method for weeding out someone's lies before. It can even pick up on lies the person in question isn't even aware of (Black Psyche Locks). When the phantom says he's concerned for Simon's moral compass faltering and wants to do something about his execution... nothing. This is one of the greatest threats to his identity - his core motive for most of everything he does - so wanting him to be saved and being concerned for his welfare runs counter to his primary goal. But that contradiction isn't picked up. Having two contradictory thoughts isn't impossible... maybe there's a cognative dissonance involved somewhere. Maybe the phantom really DOES care about justice, that Simon's situation is thoroughly unjust, that the man he's charged with keeping an eye on is starting to give in to his biases. The latter can't be explained away by "oh no, he's just concerned about Starbuck going free and leading people to question who actually killed Clay, eventually leading to discovering his involvement"; if that's true and his schpeal about Simon was a lie to cover that up, the Magatama would have picked up on that. But again, two things can be true at once...

It sounds to me that the phantom - whoever he was before he was the phantom - was a man who cared deeply about JUSTICE! and allows it to drive his every action. That sense of right could be overriden by his desire to protect his identity, however; between being physically threatened by his employers/political enemies that would rather him dead & the existential threat of realising who he's become, that often takes precident over doing right by others. Note that his major murders - Metis Cykes and Clay Terran - were committed in response to a potential threat to revealing his identity. Metis had his psyche profile and Clay had the Hope Capsule with the moon rock he had hidden inside. The courtroom bombing was intended to destroy that rock... human casualties be damned. Even Starbuck nearly perished as a result of the phantoms plans to have the rock destroyed and abandoned in space.

Think about the other characters he impersonates in the retrial. Starbuck was likely a means to have greater access to the Space Centre, to allow more involved control over its missions and ease of maneuverability through it. Means' ideology is what the phantom runs on when it comes to his identity; murder, bomb attacks, fragrantly destroying evidence mid-trial... all unjust means justified by the ends of protecting his long-lost face. Phoenix is a little trickier, but being the master of on-the-spot improvisation and straight-up bluffing is very handy for his line of work.

So what about Bobby? Functionally, he's a means to stay close to Simon and ensure he's on-track to be executed. He stands in opposition to the defense - one of which having the tools to out his identity and the motivation to save Simon - and seemingly has Simon's trust to handle the majority of investigative duties (even if he fudges it like with the bloodstains in the art room). That last point is a big deal by the way, considering that he openly says that he can't trust Starbuck's case to anyone but him, yet doesn't openly question Bobby's endeavours and conclusions. The only problem he had with the lighter was that Bobby didn't reveal who's fingerprints were actually on there, not that it was someone seemingly unrelated to the murder in question (Athena). Symbolically, I think Bobby is a reflection of an idea so paramount to the phantom that not even a mystical soul reader questions it; his sense of justice. There's not much of an explaination as to why his grand statements about it despite being very much unjust himself didn't register as lies - it's a core part of his person that lines up so seamlessly with this goofy cop that no one is any the wiser to it. It's a part of himself that he has to actively go against when his identity is in jeopardy. A part of the old self he has to discard in order to carry out his orders in safety.

The phantom has likely done many a dreadful thing from under all the masks. Forgetting who he is and discarding a part of him so intrinsic that it shines brightly when he's allowed to show it through Bobby is likely the only way he can reconcile doing what he's done at all.

He has no self because that self would be HORRIFIED by what he has done.

Though at this point I'm just saying what I've always said about ol' Phanty; the fact the game goes out of its way to detach him from Bobby in many ways while going against the very logic it and the series at large established to do so renders him much worse than he could have been, because what Bobby could say about the phantom is very interesting to me. ...which might explain why I've made three long text posts about my thoughts on the matter. Whoops!

#long post #ace attorney spoilers #dual destinies spoilers #dual destinies analysis #moon's haunted #look out the AAP is having another ''the phantom could be so good if the game wasn't so bad'' moment #hit the bomb shelters and protect your kids lest they hear my insane ramblings

20 notes · View notes