felix-krain

𝓦𝓮𝓵𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮

||•• Felix Krain | 21 | They/Them | Artist ••|| Mᴀɪɴ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴇsᴛ (ᴀᴛᴍ) : Elden Ring || Asks are open!

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Thoughts On Bobby Fulbright?

Thoughts on Bobby Fulbright?

SO MANY! SO MANY THOUGHTS! YOU CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO IMAGINE THESE THOUGHTS I HAVE!

Spoilers for Ace Attorney, Dual Destinies!

I mean... Okay, those who've been following my Tumbles for a few years already will know that I was caught in the Blackquill-Fulbright-Phantom-focused side of the fandom for a long while. Like... 500k fanfic series kind of while. So yeah, I had a lot of time to think about both Bobby Fulbright and the Phantom, because I consider them two different characters. (It's for that same reason that whenever I say I ship Blackbright, I absolutely don't mean I ship Blackquill with the Phantom.)

I think if 'Bobby Fulbright' had been introduced without Blackquill as his partner, his character would have fallen flat very fast. He's very similar to Gumshoe in a lot of ways. It's not a 100% similarity; he has a few unique quirks and approaches to crime scene investigations, but.. It's his dynamic with Blackquill which makes him stand out. If he hadn't had that, he wouldn't have made much of an impact at all. Hearing him talk about how he has Blackquill writing a self-reflective essay, or finding out he went for a stroll with Blackquill in the middle of a trial... That sort of stuff is comedy gold. Don't even get me started on their hilarious back-and-forths in court- OH, and how Blackquill starts off despising him, but by case 4 they're so in tune that Blackquill only needs to whistle or jerk his head for Fulbright to catch on to what he should testify about next. You can see their relationship evolve throughout the cases, you can see their bond grow stronger, which makes the reveal all the more impactful.

Because then we get the Phantom. If the player didn't like Bobby Fulbright very much anyway (because let's be real, that will always be subjective), it won't matter too much to them. 'An obnoxious character turned out to be a villain, oh well! That's Ace Attorney for ya!' But if you're like me and you grew attached to Fulbright, this reveal gets you. I think what hurts most isn't the notion that 'Fulbright was evil all along', because that's not quite what this twist is. The twist is that you, the player, never interacted with the real Fulbright. You never got to know him. He died a year before the last case- presumably killed (though they never confirm the Phantom killed him, but it's certainly implied)- and all we're left with is this mockery of a person.

The Phantom is the opposite of Fulbright in a very clever way. See, Fulbright is overly emotional and perhaps a bit invasive (by which I mean loud), but ultimately a non-threatening figure you can easily interact with as the player. He's like a big, whimsical teddybear and a bit of a doormat. Even our protagonists kind of take advantage of him and manipulate him into helping them out. The Phantom, on the other hand, is impossible to read, very withdrawn and extremely intimidating. It isn't until you're facing the Phantom in court that you begin to notice just how big this person is. You're told they can jump incredible distances over an abyss because they feel no fear, they have these curious little spy gadgets and their face- the face we thought we were familiar with- is just a constant, eerie deadpan. The twinkle in their eyes even goes out at one point. This emotionally detached, uncaring void is the character we've been talking to this whole time, and it turns out they've been manipulating us all along.

Whether it's a waste that we never find out who the Phantom really was is debatable. I'm sure we were all very curious to see just what lay beneath all the masks, but on the other hand... Isn't it more fun to imagine for yourself? The Phantom's real identity is ~free real estate~! Plus, there's a bit of poetic justice to be found in the fact that nobody, not even the Phantom themselves, will ever find out. This game wasn't about that, after all. It was about cornering the real killer of Metis Cykes (and Clay I guess) so that Blackquill could finally go free again. Whether the real killer can come to terms with their own identity or not is inconsequential.

So yes! Those are my thoughts!