#barok van zieks >>〝grim reaper of the bailey.〞 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

renegadewangs · 3 years ago

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Van Zieks - the Examination, part 2

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: (see Part 1 for the more detailed disclaimer.) - These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I'm outlining stems from my own views and experiences. If you believe that I've missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. -The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. - I'm using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what's said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent. -It doesn't matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people.

It’s time to take a close look at Episode 3, The Runaway Room!

Episode 3: The Runaway Room.

We're skipping the first two cases, as they have no relevance to Barok van Zieks, and starting off here.

So Ryu is tossed into the deep. The Lord Chief Justice tells him that he’s basically the defendant’s only hope; if he doesn’t at least try to fight in court, McGilded will lose the trial and die for sure. (HAH… Good one, Stronghart.) So Ryu falls for this would-be motivational speech and heads for the courthouse where he finds out why McGilded doesn’t have a defense attorney to begin with; it’s because of the prosecution. No one dares to go up against Lord Barok van Zieks, also known as the Reaper of the Old Bailey, because all who he prosecutes are damned. This should sound familiar to anyone who’s played an Ace Attorney game before. ‘The prosecution has never been defeated before’ is the implication, which would initially lead us to believe Van Zieks is another one of those prodigies. Sure enough, Susato points out he must be very talented, to which McGilded replies that Van Zieks is not talented, rather, he’s cursed. This sets the mood even further. With words like “Reaper” and “curse�� being tossed around, we’re sooner reminded of a prosecutor like Simon Blackquill, who was a convicted murderer wielding psychological manipulation techniques. Either way, with the grim atmosphere set, Ryu is ushered into the courtroom before he can ask any more questions.

As a sidenote, McGilded really scored some negative points with this remark:

Feels a bit softened compared to how fan translations tackled that line, but a nasty jab all the same.

So anyway, entering the courtroom we get our first look at Van Zieks and if the foreshadowing in the Defendant Antechamber wasn’t already bad enough, he honors his eerie reputation.

So far, he’s meeting the requirements then. He’s intimidating and as a wealthy white man, he’s perfectly juxtaposed to Ryu, the rookie from another country. Meanwhile, the first micro-aggression of this trial is actually uttered by the judge:

Which also makes narrative sense. Ryu’s more practical goal isn’t to win the prosecution’s trust. Heck, he could get through any trial just fine with Van Zieks’s dislike. No, what he needs is to win over the judge and the members of the jury. For them to also hold prejudice but put that aside in order to side with the truth is another important end-game here. So let’s continue. Van Zieks also has something to say here:

Initially, the remark about Ryu’s eyes might read as a typical racist jab towards someone from the East, but he is in fact referring to the way Ryu’s eyes are ‘swimming’ when he’s nervous, as evidenced by the next lines. “They shroud your fear, your doubt, your trepidation… They run wild, clinging to some phantom notion of courage.” Van Zieks is saying that while Ryu puts up a brave front, his swimming eyes betray just how nervous and unsure of his cause he really is. So really, he’s targeting the fact that Ryu is new to the courts. He did, however, make a point of tossing the word “Nipponese” in there when he didn’t need to, drawing attention to Ryu’s race in a derogatory fashion.

After the jurors are introduced, something else of interest happens. The judge points out that Van Zieks hasn’t been seen in the courtroom in a number of years. The judge had assumed that Van Zieks had renounced his fame, to which he replies with the following:

This is a very telling line. We learn several things. Firstly, Van Zieks had retired, and secondly, he doesn’t seem to think too highly of his title of Reaper. If he did, he would have gloated. To describe his reputation as infamy implies negative associations with this ‘curse’ that McGilded spoke of. Putting these two things together, one might conclude he retired because of this curse. When asked why he’s returned to the courts, he says that he’ll leave that to the judge’s imagination. So there’s hints of a backstory already being tossed in before the trial’s even properly kicked off.

Which it does now. So the opening statement happens as always and witnesses are brought in, but once it’s done Ryu interjects to say that he doesn’t understand the circumstances. ‘How could the witnesses have seen the inside of a moving carriage’? It shocks the entire courtroom and Van Zieks is the one to speak:

“-But you’re here in London yourself. Are you really so ignorant about our omnibuses? Tell me, my Nipponese friend… Have you even travelled in an omnibus?”

I have to be honest, I struggled to pinpoint just how I felt about these remarks. Sure, I can overanalyze this, looking at how the words “I’d read-” imply he doesn’t know the following sentiment to be true and therefore doesn’t feel confident enough to say something like “I knew-”... But it doesn’t change that he’s being scummy here. In a roundabout way, he’s still saying Japan is far less civilised than Britain and that Ryu is extra ignorant for not knowing about omnibuses when he’s in London. So basically, he gets scumbag points for this. But then there’s…:

Which is just a basic jab at Ryu’s intelligence. It’s the sort of remark we’d get from every single prosecutor. I think even Klavier would say this sort of line with a smile on his face.

But definitely more scumbag points here, because this was a direct attack in more ways than one. Particularly the word “stray” was uncalled for. CEO of Racism, indeed. Something very interesting happens when the knife gets pulled into the story halfway into the first cross-examination, though. When Ryu asks about it, Van Zieks replies with this:

He’s… actually being civil? (I doublechecked with Scarlet Study, and they are in agreement on the timid nature of this line, translating “yes, Counsel” as “Quite so”.) Instead, Van Zieks turns his attention to the fact that there’s an M on the sheath, directing all his offensive attitude towards McGilded. It gets even more curious when the last juror refuses to cast a guilty verdict, instead talking about what a good man she believes McGilded to be. Van Zieks says:

So he’s not only frustrated with McGilded now, he’s frustrated with the people of London for not knowing what sort of person McGilded really is. Van Zieks reveals he’s a dirty money lender who gained his fortune through corrupt means. He even takes the time to inform Ryu of this with the words “Your client is a shylock, sir!” Edit: I feel a need to address this: shylock is a word with antisemitic roots. It originally came from a Shakespeare play involving a very bad stereotype. It later evolved to have a more broad meaning basically synonymous to loan shark and I think that’s the context the localization means to use it in. There’s absolutely no indication of McGilded’s religious beliefs and even if there were, I highly doubt the localization would use that sort of slur. Still, it’s a very unfortunate choice of words and is sure to accidentally sour Van Zieks even more with some players.

With that, the last juror votes, the scale tips towards Guilty and Van Zieks assumes the trial to be over. He thanks the jurors for their work. Unfortunately, once Susato brings up the Summation Examination, Van Zieks gets very frustrated again. This happens:

IIII don’t know what to do with this line. On first glance, I didn’t think much of it and was even willing to consider it was a compliment. Then I thought it must’ve been passive aggressive somehow; that it’s the sort of thing he wouldn’t believe until he’d seen it with his own eyes. A friend directed me to the notion that it might be referencing a stereotype that ‘Eastern women are fierce’ because they were associated with, well, certain ‘paid services’. I don’t think I need to explain, I’m sure you understand what I mean. And if indeed that’s what Barok is insinuating, that’s a new low I never thought he’d reach. However, when you’ve finished the games and know that Barok was friends with a married Japanese man, it’s entirely possible that he’s remembering a story once told to him by Genshin Asogi. So this is either a bittersweet reminiscence or the most scumbag association he ever could’ve made, but I’m not sure we can ever prove which it is. Edit: As another option, it’s possible he’s referring to the Yamato Nadeshiko stereotype, if indeed it already held the ‘touch of iron’ aspect to it back in 1900. He proceeds to toast his hallowed chalice to “the enigmatic East” and to be honest, I’ve once again got nothing. All I know is that he once again drew attention to the defense’s race when he didn’t need to, so… Scumbag point. As a sidenote, in regards to the wine… I don’t count this as a humanizing trait. The same applies to the leg slam. These are animations meant to add some more lighthearted air and breathe more life into Van Zieks, so he doesn’t just stand there like a statue. They’re just quirks meant to have him stand out from other characters. So yeah, fun as the wine and leg slam animations are, they don’t count in the redemption requirements. Anyway, Van Zieks mocks the age of Susato’s book, saying that judging by its bindings it must be fifty years old. Considering the context of the conversation, this isn’t out of bounds. The defense is using ‘outdated’ information on the law, so he points that out. Any prosecutor would’ve done it like this. Simon Blackquill likely would’ve offered to shred that outdated tome to bits for Susato. Van Zieks does toss in a “Hmph, typical Nipponese” later though, which earns him one more scumbag point. Van Zieks continues to dismiss the Summation Examination, but the judge overrules him and allows it. Law is law, after all! And this is what I meant in my previous post when I said it’s satisfying to see Ryu use actual British law against Van Zieks. Ryu is using a perfectly legitimate technique to win the jurors over, and as Susato tells him, he can only do it by turning the jurors against one another with facts. He can’t appeal to them, he can only have them see sense. Which is difficult, because some jurors are more prejudiced than others:

… Yeah. Uh. Calling Ryu a “Dark Jinx” is pretty awful. Scumbag points for Juror No. 1! Meanwhile, Juror No. 4 keeps us updated on Barok’s actions throughout this trial:

Wow. Typical prosecutor behavior, though. Regardless, Ryu manages to win them all over in the end. With enough of the scales set back to not-guilty, the trial is allowed to continue, which leads to this:

Bye, hallowed chalice. A fun animation to keep things fresh and show us that the trial is about to take a turn. Once again, nothing new. We’ve seen prosecutors lose their patience before. What does interest me, though, is that Barok doesn’t direct physical frustration towards the defense. Remember: Franziska snaps a whip at Phoenix, Godot throws coffee at his head, Blackquill sends a hawk to attack the defense or uses that aijutsu slicing move, Nahyuta throws restricting beads… These were all direct physical attacks. Van Zieks, much like Edgeworth and Klavier, directs his frustration more inward and as a result he destroys his own property.

He succeeds in intimidating Ryu, though. Van Zieks explains that he kept silent, as is the norm during Examination Summation, but makes it clear that he considers it a charade all the same.

Van Zieks has been a pretty good gentleman towards the jury up until now, speaking to them politely despite that one remark about having their head in the clouds. Now that he’s seeing them ‘buy into Ryu’s stories’, as one might describe it, he’s getting frustrated with them. Maybe he’s even frustrated they’re choosing the defense’s side over his own.

He removes his cloak, entering what he says to be the next round of their ‘battle’. More typical prosecutor behavior, this. I’m not sure there’s an underlying thought to this, other than to indicate to the audience that ‘things have gotten serious’. When the next bit of testimony is going on, I noticed something odd. Both Fairplay and Furst testify to having seen blood on McGilded’s hands, to which Van Zieks says:

“... Reported that there was no trace of blood on Mr. McGilded’s gloved hands.” So in a way, by establishing this fact, he’s helping the defense and going against what the witnesses are saying. It doesn’t help the prosecution in any way at all.

The trial continues on, with Van Zieks uttering things like “My Nipponese friend” and “my learned friend from the East” and lord knows what else… I suppose to soften the harshness of the original wording a bit and make Van Zieks just a bit less dislikable? Edit: Tumblr user @beevean has pointed out that “my learned friend” is an actual term used in courts of law. There’s a tradition (also employed in British courts of law) that when addressing either the court or the judge, a barrister refers to the opposing counsel using the respectful term, "my learned friend". Of course, it can be said with an air of passive aggression and pretending to be respectful to the court while shamelessly disrespecting it is something Barok has always done, so the addition of “my learned friend” to the localization text is amazingly in-character. Then of course we have:

This is both a scumbag remark and foreshadowing. Naturally, those playing the game for the first time won’t recognize it as the latter and therefore take it as nothing more than a harsh blow. Things spiral even further out of control when he starts talking about how people who claim the island nations of the Far East have a learning and culture of their own use those terms ill-advisedly. He also uses the words “artless backwater” and really, this is the low point of the trial right here when it comes to prejudice. Van Zieks is just plain lashing out with these sort of jabs.

Eventually, McGilded is dragged onto the witness stand to testify about whether or not there was another passenger aboard the omnibus. McGilded admits that there was, and Van Zieks snaps at him some more for using convenient excuses. Ryu is forgotten here for a moment. The whole smoke bomb thing happens, Van Zieks confers with McGilded and Gina in his own chambers, then the trial resumes. McGilded testifies, then Gina testifies… The jury votes not-guilty, buying into McGilded’s story about protecting a poor young pickpocket and Van Zieks loses it. He slams his heel down on the bench, pointing out that this is why he doesn’t like the jury system; because emotions are ruling where evidence and facts ought to be paramount. He points out while the cubbyhole Gina had been hiding in was empty now, it had been full of the coachman’s belongings during the police investigation. Someone tampered with the omnibus. This is where things get interesting, because Van Zieks addresses Ryu:

He’s giving Ryu the benefit of the doubt here. He’s offering an option for Ryu to be truthful about this matter. And that’s curious, because any defense attorney would naturally say what’s best for his client- or so it’s assumed. It puts Ryu in a difficult position for sure, but for some reason Van Zieks put the question forward anyway. The game responds as follows:

For the sake of argument, I attempted all three options. So when Ryu says he didn’t look, Van Zieks says: “Hm… Perhaps I credited you with too much intelligence.”

So when feigning ignorance, Van Zieks is kind of a scumbag about it. He is correct in his expectation that any attorney worth his badge would thoroughly examine the details of the evidence, but he didn’t need to be such a jerk about it. Now, when outright lying and saying it was empty, Van Zieks instead says:

The lines are very similar, which is an interesting note. It adds a feel of these responses being 'rehearsed', in a way. Just a default for him to fall back to. But the real kicker comes when Ryu tells the truth and says it wasn’t empty. Van Zieks is actually speechless at first with no more than a “...!” Clearly, he wasn’t expecting Ryu to respond like this. Everyone in court is baffled, McGilded gets angry… Van Zieks is a bit rattled now.

“Your task is to defend the man in the stand. Why would you say something to compromise his position?”

So really, it seems as if Van Zieks had only ever offered the question to Ryu with pessimistic intentions. He too had assumed there was only one answer the defense could give and was prepared for just that with his silly little wine analogies, only to be shocked when Ryu defies his expectations. Ryu confesses that he’s not entirely sure on where he stands in the matter, to which Van Zieks replies with “... Interesting.”

So now the jury members are doubting themselves again, with some offering guilty verdicts. Van Zieks decides to honor the ‘Scales of Justice’ once more now that they’re back in his favor, like the hypocrite he is. Gina testifies, Ryu points out an inconsistency, Van Zieks takes that opportunity to turn the tables back in his favor by implying Gina is a liar… He passive aggressively thanks Ryu for saving him considerable trouble and whatnot with some more “my learned Nipponese friend” remarks in there… Ryu turns the tables once more by insisting the victim came into the omnibus through the skylight, Van Zieks demands evidence and points out that furthermore, if indeed such a thing had happened, the witnesses on the roof would’ve seen it. McGilded hops into the conversation to imply that the witnesses themselves were the killers, which sends the court into a frenzy. Both Van Zieks and the judge shift the responsibility of the accusation towards Ryu, even though he never said a word to directly accuse the witnesses. Kind of a douchey move. Barok even states that Ryu’s ‘command of the English tongue must be wanting’, since

Yeahhh, that's pretty unfair. McGilded was the one who dropped that implication. However, since the judge basically accuses Ryu of the same thing, it’s a narrative choice to warn Ryu he needs to anticipate where his reasoning will lead him. Fairplay and Furst testify, pandemonium ensues. McGilded eventually gets what he wants when it’s revealed the skylight can open and there’s blood in there. Van Zieks once again turns his attention to McGilded:

He knows McGilded is at the root of all this tomfoolery and evidence manipulation. McGilded is the real enemy here, in Van Zieks’s eyes. The conversation shows this by having Van Zieks point out that he’s well aware of McGilded’s involvement in dubious matters and that evidence is often ‘adapted’ to suit this guy’s stories. And now, once again, he turns his attention to Ryu. Once again, he’s giving the defense the benefit of the doubt:

The game gives you the illusion of choice here. If you choose to say it’s ‘out of the question’ that the evidence was tampered with, Ryu will refuse to say it out loud. If you say it’s entirely possible, Ryu will admit to that.

This is probably baffling to Van Zieks. It would’ve been so easy for Ryu to insist the tampering couldn’t have happened, but he doesn’t. The game won’t even let him. No matter what you choose, Van Zieks is clued in on the fact that Ryu doesn’t condone the deceit that McGilded is resorting to. But it gets even better, because a short time later, we get:

Another option to either draw attention to forgery, or to feign ignorance. Once again, I chose both options for argument’s sake, but having Ryu say he has no idea doesn’t get us anywhere. Susato will instead object to say it for him. With “I have an inkling”, Ryu says it himself. Van Zieks once again confesses, in his own words, that he’s caught off guard.

Ryu clarifies that he thinks the blood stain inside the omnibus is decisive evidence, but he can’t say for certain whether it’s genuine. McGilded loses it and by this point, is outright branding Van Zieks an enemy. Since the player at this point doesn't know whether McGilded is guilty or not, it leaves Van Zieks in a bit of narrative limbo. One might think: 'if the prosecutor is so intent on taking down a murderer, shouldn't we be on his side? Is he perhaps not as bad as he seems?' Unfortunately, McGilded points out that recollection and memories don’t matter, only evidence does. And… Well.

Which means they can’t rule on a guilty verdict and will have to let McGilded go. Van Zieks admits that he has no more witnesses or evidence to present. He’s out of options. As a formality, the judge asks the defense’s closing statement and we get one last option. Do we believe him to be guilty or not-guilty? When claiming he’s innocent, Van Zieks says:

It seems he means “abject” in the sense of “without pride/respect/dignity for oneself”, which… You know, is fair. By this point it’s very clear that McGilded is guilty, and since Ryu has already admitted that the evidence may be forged, insisting otherwise is indeed pretty spineless. Scumbag points to Van Zieks for continuing to draw attention to the fact that Ryu is from Japan, though.

Let’s instead just admit that we can’t say for certain McGilded is innocent. Unfortunately, we don’t see Van Zieks react to this, which is a bummer because this could’ve been very telling. The judge questions Ryu’s sanity (no joke) and McGilded laughs because it doesn’t matter; it was just a formality anyway. The judge scolds Van Zieks, saying that his case was flawed and it was his job to keep the evidence secure. Instead of objecting, Van Zieks just outright takes the blame for this and apologizes. Very interesting reaction, here. He stops pointing the finger to McGilded, he doesn’t attempt to accuse anyone else… He just admits his performance was flawed. Ryu tries to interject here:

(A badly-timed screenshot if I’ve ever seen one.) Ryu is making an attempt here to defend Van Zieks, the guy who has built up like 20 scumbag points by now. Ryu sincerely doesn’t hold a grudge against him. That’s very interesting. It doesn’t matter, though. The judge won’t hear of it, Ryu thinks it’s unfair, Van Zieks warns McGilded that this isn’t over and then we get the not-guilty verdict.

Hurray??? Profit??? It’s a victory that’s bound to leave the player feeling conflicted and jarred.

But after all’s said and done, we get one last cutscene to establish just how ominous Van Zieks really is. The omnibus is on fire, someone is inside and we know McGilded went into the courtroom earlier to investigate the omnibus in question. So really, by putting two and two together we can already guess what’s going on here. Van Zieks approaches the scene and watches silently.

It’s a good reminder to us that every defendant he prosecutes is ‘damned’ and he’s called the Reaper for a reason. Really puts the finishing touch on the eerie undertones of his character.

All in all, a pretty typical first time against a new prosecutor. Now I just want to draw attention to the fact that the first time we face Van Zieks in court… he’s actually on the right side of the courtroom and Ryu is not. Van Zieks presumably specifically returned to the court after those five years to target McGilded, as he knows about this guy’s shady reputation when it comes to ‘adapting’ evidence. Barok is 'cursed' in such a way that every defendant he faces is damned. So long as he stands as the prosecutor, McGilded can’t get away with his crimes. No matter how much forgery is done, the Reaper will go after McGilded and it seems Van Zieks was banking on this happening.

He likely also expected Ryu to have been bought off by McGilded; to say whatever’s convenient for his case. Turns out, Ryu is actually a man of integrity who’s invested in the truth and near the end of the trial, Barok has seen evidence of this. So what will happen next? We’ll have to play The Clouded Kokoro and find out! Stay tuned!

#dgs #dgs spoilers #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #barok van zieks

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bailey-reaper · 3 years ago

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The Lord of the Manor (3)

Summary: It seems the best laid plans will go awry when the local nosy aristocrat comes calling. Rather than visiting his brother, Barok finds himself having to play host to Lady Darlington. It’s his worst nightmare as far as social affairs go and he’s keen to have the woman leave, all the more so when she brings up a particularly sore topic...

Content Warnings: angst + me taking artistic liberties re: the van Zieks family

Other parts: (1) | (2)

Lady Darlington was anything but a darling, with her viperous tongue, predator-like gaze and unscrupulous sense of decorum... in fact she was more demonling than anything else, in Barok’s opinion. Yet, he knew better than to waste time ventilating such a view – Lady Darlington was greatly skilled in twisting narratives to suit her agenda along with turning on the waterworks seemingly at will. She was formidable in her ability to be vexatious.

“Forgive my delay, madam,” he said as he entered the parlour, “I was not expecting you...” a veiled way of hinting that her uninvited attendance at his home was unwelcome.

She smiled coyly, “No need to apologise my lord, it is I who am sorry for dropping in quite unexpectedly. I was simply too excited to hear that the Master of the van Zieks family was back home. And–” she turned her head to the side, looking away with a demure expression, “Forgive me if I seem somewhat paranoid, but I find whenever I do announce my presence it would seem you are otherwise engaged...”

“A mere coincidence, I assure you,” he replied, with no semblance of sincerity, “Well then, what brings you here?”

“My my... it seems you’ve been a prosecutor far too long, what ever happened to social niceties?”

“In truth, I’ve never been one for such things. Perhaps the life of a prosecutor suits me well for that reason,” his gaze drifted out the window to the pleasant afternoon, which he could have been spending atop Black Gale on his way to his brother’s grave. (And I certainly have no inclination to practice them with you, madam) he thought to himself.

“Hmmmm,” Lady Darlington hummed in an almost sing-song manner, “And yet here you are, back in the family estate after... what? Five years? Have you grown wearing of the ... abrasive mores of Court?” she took a small lace fan from her handbag and lightly fanned herself.

(Ever the odious viper...) it took all his composure to resist scowling at that question, “Not at all, madam, I simply wanted to return home for a little while. That’s not a crime, is it?”

“Oh no, of course not, dear sir!” her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but that did not escape his notice. He knew something unsightly was about to be said, “But I have heard of the rather... disturbing tales that follow you wherever you go.”

“Oh have you now? And what might those be?”

“Why, your title of ‘the Reaper of the Old Bailey’ of course! It was such a shock to hear that the sweet young lord with the face of a cherub had grown up to become such a... menacing figure amidst the streets of the capital! Do you think it’s true? That the soul of your dearly departed brother follows you like a grim cowl and claims victims in your stead?”

There it was, the topic he had expected the moment she brought up his return. Of course she’d come here to satisfy herself about the ‘Reaper’. He sighed heavily, “How should I know, Lady Darlington? I do not presume to see ghosts, nor do I think that I am any such ‘reaper’. Still, if the vulgar classes want to paint me in such a light then I won’t waste my time arguing with them,” he made a point of peering at her as he said ‘vulgar classes’.

“Hm, I see,” she seemed suitably disappointed by his reply, which made him feel ever so slightly better, “I suppose you’re right. It’s just a fanciful tale to delight the peasantry.”

“Indeed...”

“Well then, what of you? How have you been, My Lord? It seems like ever such a long time since I’ve seen you at a function or a party. It’s almost possible to think that your esteemed bloodline is no longer with us!”

“I am fine, thank you,” Barok studiously decided to ignore her bait, “My responsibilities as a prosecutor keep me busy, but I do still find time to attend some gatherings. Perhaps you’re just not in the right place at the right time.”

“Perhaps, perhaps,” Lady Darlington mused, “And what of your love life, dear man? Have you found a wife yet? Klint was already long married by the time he turned your age! As far as I’ve heard, you’ve not courted a single eligible member of the aristocracy. It’s worrying, you know, people will talk!”

(As they do about Oscar Wilde, you mean?) he thought bitterly, “Madam, I fear that is a rather personal matter and quite the veiled accusation you’re making... May I suggest that you trouble yourself with the love lives of others, who I am sure would be most grateful for your concern.“

Once more she appeared disappointed by his clipped response, “Very well, my lord, but should you ever decide to emerge from your self-imposed celibacy, two of my lovely daughters are of courtship age and I’m sure you would find one of them most suitable.”

So that was it. She had come to the manor in order to flog her daughters like cattle at some farmer’s market. He scoffed, “I shall make a mental note,” and he would - a mental note not to attend any local gatherings, lest he be set upon by Lady Darlington and her daughters.

“Very good,” she smiled, clearly unaware of his intentions, “I must say... it’s most nostalgic to sit in this parlour once again. I believe the last time I was here, Klint was regaling me with his recent exploits while his darling lady wife took tea with me.”

“I’m afraid my exploits are far too gruesome for polite company, unless you’d like to hear of the awful things men do to one another in order to keep hold of their power and increase their wealth?” he leveled her with a cold glare; the comparisons to Klint were unnecessary.

He knew he did not, indeed could not, measure up to his brother.

“Ah... no, as you say, not something for polite company...” she appeared to have turned a shade paler, no doubt thinking of the grisly things that were reported in the papers from time to time, such as the unsightly murder of Lord William Russell.

“Though, I suppose if you are keen to know what I’ve been getting up to, I could tell you about the recent case of a cannibal I prosecuted. That one was a little less gory than the others.”

“A... A cannibal?!” Lady Darlington’s voice had somehow managed to hit a pitch that would no doubt pain any animal with the misfortune to hear it.

“Yes,” Barok nodded, his expression solemn, “A member of a Lord’s staff, in fact. The cook. You know, she was--”

“M-My is that the time!” the lady announced, looking at the grandfather clock and shooting out of her chair abruptly, “Forgive me, My Lord, truly I would love to stay and hear this... fascinating little story, but I fear I must be off.”

“So soon?” he tilted his head and smiled, “Very well, I shall save it for next time we meet.”

“Um. Yes. Quite. Until next time, then!”

“Harvey,” the butler appeared mere moments later upon the master of the house calling his name, “Would you mind showing Lady Darlington out?”

“Not at all, My Lord.”

“Take care, Lady Darlington,” he called after her as she disappeared out of the parlour. Finally, he was alone in the peace and quiet with nothing but the crackling fire and grandfather clock to disturb the hush.

Barok laced his fingers together and rested his chin against the lattice. He found himself thinking about a conversation he’d had with Klint about the ‘art of socialising’ when he was a child and his brother had recently become the master of the house.

“Come now, little wolf, you mustn’t shy away from social affairs!”

“But they’re terribly boring, brother...”

Klint smiled gently, “Yes, I know, truth be told I’d much rather be playing in the mud with you, or taking Balmung for a walk. But, for the good of the family, these things must be done.”

“Why must they?”

His older brother looked thoughtful for a few moments, before fondly ruffling his little brother’s fluffy curls, “Think of it as a game of war... a bit like chess, I suppose: where you want to keep as many allies as possible, while avoiding making enemies. It’s a silly little thing that the nobility do to keep themselves occupied when they have precious little else occupying their lives.”

“I think I much prefer chess.”

“As do I,” Klint agreed, “Shall we play a game once this party is over?”

Barok nodded enthusiastically, “This time I shall get a checkmate!”

“Oh will you now? That’s quite a bold statement!”

He had not gone on to get the checkmate he said he would, but he’d still enjoyed playing chess with his brother all the same. The little moments like that, after Klint had become the incumbent lord of the family, were precious indeed. He knew his brother had many things grabbing at his time, yet he still made sure to give what he could to his little brother.

Lady Darlington’s surprise visit had scuppered his plans for that day, so he decided to make do with a visit to the master bedroom. He’d been very clear in his instructions to the staff upon becoming the incumbent Lord – Klint’s room was to stay as he’d left it. The only things he’d permitted were for the bed to be stripped down and the wastebins to be emptied.

The first thing that struck him as he opened the door was the scent of his brother. It had faded over time, of course, but there were still wisps of it in the air: the mix of leather, beeswax, cedar wood and amber from his cologne. It was a scent he’d had specially made; his signature. The fact it was slowly fading was yet more proof that his brother’s existence was starting to recede from the minds of others. He had no doubt Lady Darlington’s barbed references were to rile him up and make him say something in outrage, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Barok agreed with her on that point, amazingly: he was no replacement for his brother, and he never felt it more keenly than in the company of other members of the aristocracy. His brother had been able to put on the most charming and suave of personas when he needed to ‘for the good of the family’, as he ‘d put it. Such a talent did not come easily to Barok. He just didn’t care what the wider world thought of him. While he would keep up appearances and carry himself as one of noble blood, he had no family to protect or lineage to fret about. There was nothing left -- only him.

Slowly he sunk to his knees and looked around the silent space, devoid of signs of being lived in. Klint was gone, and he was all that remained of the bloodline. What a sorry state of affairs this was shaping up to be...

#drabble #barok van zieks #klint van zieks #angst

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rivalsforlife · 5 years ago

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rank the prosecutor themes!!!

Okay!! I’ll do you one better and do all the main rival themes (meaning: I’m including Shi-Long Lang and Justine Courtney in here too. despite Lang probably being very displeased at being grouped in with prosecutors. sorry.) uuunfortunately I am going to get into spoilery territory with this one, but I’ll do this in reverse order, so you can skip the spoiler parts because they’re my favourite ones haha, and I will warn for them.

First, a disclaimer: All the prosecutor themes are fantastic. that is all.

12 - Great Revival - Franziska von Karma: I adore Franziska, but she needs her own leitmotif. This one is basically the same as Miles’ Great Revival, except higher and with a different intro, from what I could tell. and I’m not even sure if the sound gets revamped for the Investigation games…? I can’t quite remember. ANYWAYS, what really made this the lowest of the prosecutor themes for me is that they also use this theme for MANFRED VON KARMA in AAI2, because I guess they didn’t want to create a whole new theme for him when he only shows up for part of a flashback case. So they borrowed his daughter’s. This is a DISGRACE, because Miles Franziska and Manfred are all very different characters and deserve to have distinct leitmotifs. Especially since the whole idea of the Great Revival is that it’s them coming out from underneath Manfred’s shadow/unlearning his techniques, since this plays when Franziska comes in with the evidence to save everyone in Farewell, my Turnabout, I think. So having Manfred have the anti-MVK song is not good.

11- Zacharias Barnham - The Sword of Labyrinthia: things get difficult now because all the songs are good. I’m putting this one here for a couple of reasons, namely because I first listened to this song while going through PLvsAA on 2x speed on youtube because otherwise it would take too long, so I heard this song at 2x speed and now it just feels too slow to me. I said these rankings were going to be very subjective, right…? also it would have been great if they actually finished Barnham’s character arc, you know. Darklaw doesn’t really have a leitmotif so she’ll be missing from this list, by the way, I didn’t just forget that she existed.

10 - Nahyuta Sahdmadhi - The Last Rites Prosecutor: it’s a pretty song. I like how it actually uses what sounds like a human chorus in there, which is distinct from pretty much all AA music? I especially like the part near the end of the loop where it gets all kind of suspended in a sort of “floating in the void”-like feeling, at least to me. It’s down here though because I… don’t really get an “opponent” vibe from him. I don’t listen to this and think to myself “oh, this is the guy I’m going to fight”, you know what I mean?

9 - Barok van Zieks - Grim Reaper of the Old Bailey: I like how ominous and haunting this song is, pretty fitting for a “Grim Reaper”. It’s nice to listen to, too. It just didn’t really stand out for me above all the rest, so it’s here.

8 - Simon Blackquill - Distorted Swordsmanship: similarly to van Zieks’ theme, this has a very ominous vibe to it. It’s pretty subtle for a lot of it, and it’s way less “in-your-face” than a lot of the other prosecutor themes. It suggests an opponent that isn’t going to face you head on but kind of work in the shadows and take you down without you even realizing it… which is fitting, considering Blackquill’s whole “twisted samurai” motif and the idea of psychological manipulation being his main thing. I like this one, like all of the prosecutor themes, and it’s only here because I… liked others more.

7- Miles Edgeworth - Great Revival: “Grace why did you say both Great Revivals are practically the same thing but put Miles five places above Franziska” OKAY LISTEN. There is only one “Franziska von Karma- Great Revival”. There are multiple “Miles Edgeworth - Great Revival”s, and this is about where I’d average them out. Great Revival 2002 would be ranked about the same as Franziska’s because, yeah, they’re practically the same thing. Great Revival 2013, however, has an even prettier intro, is more orchestral and therefore sounds even more regal and fitting for DD-era Miles. I am seriously considering making this my alarm to wake up to in the mornings because… it’s so pretty?

BUT I have to mention the actual orchestral versions of Great Revival, because they are phenomenal. There’s one for every Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra. The 2016 one is the first one I listened to, but it was tragically taken down… so listen to the 2019 one. All the orchestral editions are pretty much the same… but the orchestral Great Revivals have a new part around 1:30 that is just GOREGOUS. I ADORE it. That would probably shoot this one up a few rankings if they were in the games. I gasped out loud in a dead silent library upon first hearing it, it was very embarrassing. Great Revival imo sounds much prettier the more genuinely an orchestra it is. I love this song? … moving on.

6 - Shi Long Lang- Speak up, Pup: I said that Blackquill’s theme was very subtle – this is the opposite, this is about as “in-your-face” as it gets. It also sounds very cool. It has a sort of… I’m hesitant to use this term, because of how people abused it when I was in junior high, but it definitely has a sort of swagger to it. It pretty well encapsulates Lang’s character and him just… barging onto the crime scene with all his people and making hasty arrests and taking bullets, like, all that stuff I can see coming from a person with this as their leitmotif. But I just like listening to it, it’s one of those songs that has a similar effect to caffeine on my brain. It’s just very loud and cool and I enjoy it.

5 - Justine Courtney - Goddess of Law: I also really love listening to this song. It’s very regal. This song is very good in contrast with Sebastian’s First Class Farewell… like, Sebastian spends most of the time as a bit of a joke, with his light and airy theme… and then Justine comes in with this theme and you kind of feel like “oh, crap, now things are serious.” I like the use of the organ, obviously, giving it kind of a churchy feel which makes sense as she is referring to and worshipping the Goddess of Law, but I also love the faster parts of it too. It shows off her quick wit and intelligence that makes her a pretty formidable opponent for Miles in AAI2. It’s the song of someone you definitely would not want to cross… and is very pretty.

4 - Godot - The Fragrance of Dark Coffee: my feelings about Godot are… complicated and not entirely positive… but I adore his theme. He’s the first prosecutor to really have a proper leitmotif that’s all his own… and even though it’s not a “I’m so ready to fight this person” leitmotif or even a “this person’s particularly intimidating” leitmotif, it’s very laidback and relaxed. Honestly what gets this one so many points is, guess what, once again, the orchestral songs! Part of this is a lot of bias, because they replace the piano parts with the flute in the orchestral editions of this song and I played the flute for six years so I am partial towards it. But also it just… sounds extremely pretty? It’s very relaxing and… it just sounds gorgeous in the orchestra editions. I haven’t listened to the jazz version yet but I bet that would be gorgeous as well. Here’s the most recent 2019 orchestra version of this song, but the 2008 and 2016 ones are good too (my favourite being the 2016 one, which again got taken down bc copyright :( rip)

3 - Klavier Gavin - Guilty Love: out of the mainline games, AA4 has the best soundtrack imo, which is justifiable considering who the prosecutor is. Okay, this one is a huge contrast from Godot’s theme… it’s actually a huge contrast from all the prosecutor themes. The only one who comes close to this level of Rock is Lang’s theme. It’s fun, it’s upbeat, it’s soooo much fun to listen to. It really does set Klavier apart from all the other prosecutors - this isn’t the song of your enemy, this is a song of a person who’s here to find the truth and have a good time doing it. You go into the courtroom getting ready to face off against the dreaded Second Case Prosecutor, the most insufferable version of every prosecutor until now, and you get ROCK MUSIC. … literally, he apparently actually plays it in the game. which, pun intended, rocks.

This gets bonus points, of course, for being made into an actual song with lyrics that you could hypothetically sing, made by Shu Takumi. If you haven’t listened to this one yet you totally should, it’s a good time. listen to Klavier Gavin ditch his date to go to court. PARTICULARLY for the parts where Apollo’s theme gets in there. like, uh, Klavier. pining much?

– OKAY NOW SPOILER WARNING. I’m going to go into a bit of AAI2 spoilers here, nothing too major like the mastermind or anything, but if you don’t know what the deal is with Sebastian then I’d just recommend avoiding this for now. And then after that are major DGS2 spoilers, so if you haven’t played either of those games and don’t even want to look at anything remotely spoilery you can probably just skip out on the rest of this post.

2 - Sebastian Debeste’s Themes: okay, so. First Class Reasoning is just such a… light, airy, bouncy song. It sounds kind of absent, like it’s running off chasing butterflies instead of investigating a crime scene. It’s not the song of a formidable opponent (which makes the contrast with Justine Courtney’s leitmotif much better). This plays pretty notably in the one argument you have with him that’s so nonsensical it doesn’t even justify the traditional confrontation music, you have this instead.

And then in the final case you get First Class Farewell.

This sounds infinitely more mature than First Class Reasoning. The two instruments kind of do a… back and forth with each other. I think I read somewhere it’s like a tango? Whatever it is, it is something where you need to keep up with the argument and the logic, something Sebastian hasn’t been able to do… until now. It has him standing up to his father, standing on his own, and showing that he truly has the potential to be a great prosecutor. If we ever somehow see Sebastian as a prosecutor in future games, I want this to be his leitmotif. Individually these two songs wouldn’t take this spot, but put together and showcasing Sebastian’s character growth – and that First Class Farewell plays in one of the most emotional AAI2 scenes – is what brings it up here. It’s a really good use of leitmotifs.

Speaking of great use of leitmotifs…

1 - The Masked Disciple’s Leitmotif. I… cannot say anymore than this without spoiling the entirety of DGS2, so I’m actually going to put the rest under a “keep reading” if you’ve finished DGS2. So, uh, if you haven’t, just… when DGS2 is translated, play it, it’s really good. And this leitmotif might actually be my favourite song in the entire series, for reasons that are under the cut. I… really hope this works, if it doesn’t, scroll as fast as you can and don’t look back.

…

…….. so. Asougi, huh.

The Revived Prosecutor is! INCREDIBLE. At the time I’m writing this, the only way to really experience DGS2 as someone who does not know Japanese and only knows English is by watching these twitch streams, and you might notice that when this first starts playing the streamer actually pauses so we can listen to it. it’s that good.

It starts off as such an intimidating, imposing song. It’s a song of your enemy. It’s so strange, so different from the Asougi we’re used to, and you’ve really got to wonder if he’s the same person.

AND THEN SAMURAI WITH A MISSION KICKS IN. It felt like an actual, physical gut punch.

It has lacks that familiar, Japanese-y kind of feel to it, though. It’s Asougi, but it’s different. Asougi is the Samurai With A Mission, and he’s fulfilling his very murdery prosecute-y destructive mission, which is so different from the Asougi that Ryuunosuke idolized in DGS… and even though this person is so different from the Asougi we knew, it still is Asougi. It also has a few hints of the Professor’s Theme in there, which is also incredibly good considering… well.

Honestly, one of the reasons I’d want a remake of the original trilogy – like a full-on remake – is so that they’d do something like this with Miles’ themes. His “Great Revival” is good… but it doesn’t suit AA1 Miles. If we had an actual “Demon Prosecutor” theme, which was mostly replaced by DL-6 when talking about Miles’ trauma, and then get to something like Great Revival for his… well, Great Revival, that would be fantastic. That’s the one regret, that Miles came too early for ace attorney to get around to making proper leitmotifs like this.

Also again this song is just really fun to listen to. And that’s probably what’s most important here, right?

#asks #soundtrack rankings #prosecutor leitmotifs #(a separate tag so I can advertise it without adding the spoiler)#ace attorney

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dailyassougi · 8 years ago

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I like all these theories but serious talk here, is that really Asougi? Maybe the emblem and poses are just red herrings. I say this because I heavily doubt that Barok would allow a Japanese to stand by his side with his intense hatred of them and Asougi would most likely stand for that kind of prejudice. It could be that Asougi has amnesia and thus cannot remember who he is but I'm pretty sure his looks indicates his race.

Alright, do I have a lot to say about this, prepare for along post. Reminder, I only have my memory, so I hope I get the details right, but feel free to correct me. I’mnot trying to come to a conclusion here, but just pointing out facts and writing my trainsof thoughts

1. It would make no sense for Asougi to be dead

I’m only assuming this if Takumi didn’t want to repeat thedead mentorTM trope. Comparing Asougi’s and Mia’s deaths, yes theyboth kinda get the ball rolling in their respective games, but Mia’s death wasan actual murder; she was killed for a reason while Asougi’s, as far as weknow, was simply an accident. I know accidents happen, but it seems weird toput so much effort into developing a character and then killing them off in asenseless manner. If Asougi is truly dead, well, then I’m expecting for everyone of Shu Takumi’s games for a dead mentor to appear, which will thereforemake future stories pretty predictable don’t yah think?

Also, looking back on AA1 and DGS1, yes, Mia’s death wastragic while I was playing AA1, but I wondered why I didn’t miss her as much asI missed Asougi (enough to make a sideblog dedicated to him mind you) and thenI realized Mia did come back in AA1 in the form of Maya channeling her and herstory still continued. There’s still a lot we don’t know about Asougi, so Ithink in one way or another, his story at least has to be continued in DGS2.

2. Maybe it’s not Asougi

Okay, this is assuming that Takumi just likes to rip our hearts outand crush them, maybe it is someone related to Asougi then? The seal on the mask andon Asougi’s family seal are slightly different, but I still say it’s probablyclose enough to point to a family member. And you’re right, the skin tone too is a deadgiveaway that this man is Japanese. I don’t recall if the game explicitlystated if Asougi had a brother/father (I remember there was speculation on the Morsecode message since it only gave a first initial) but hey, it would definitelybe more of a twist that the masked man being Asougi.

(Credit to whitecow602 at C-R Forums for the images)

3. What if the masked man and van Zieks know each other?

I know van Zieks has a hatred towards Japanese people, so alot of counter arguments is why he would let a Japanese man stand with him at thebench? Well, way back when DGS1 was coming out, tbh, I though Asougi and vanZieks were related (but then when I learned their ages, it’s kind of hard tocome up with a valid connection that would make sense) but nonetheless, what if van Zieks and Asougi already knew each other? Van Zieks does mention that he “needed to meetsomeone” or something like that, so what if that someone was Asougi? Maybe vanZieks would make his hatred the exception for someone he knows (even though Iknow it was some Japanese man who he trusted that “betrayed” him supposedly.)

Also as a side note, I personally head canon Asougi asJapanese+White (and this is totally bias since I am myself an Asian+White kid)so maybe van Zieks wouldn’t necessarily consider him Japanese? I also rememberAsougi mentioning how he didn’t like the Japanese language when talking abouttongue twisters, which I found really odd, ‘cuz why shit on your own languageif you know English (I’m assuming he knows English) ‘cuz English is a clusterfuck of a language. The only reasonI could think of that is if English was your first language, so maybe Asougilived in England/London for a good amount before moving to Japan. It would alsoexplain how it may be possible for him to go undercover in London if he alreadyknows the area.

As for why Asougi would just stay silent with van Zieksdoing his hatred towards Japanese people thing… it’s probably just for the sakeof the mission? Kind of like when you bite your tongue when your parents saysomething racist/sexist/homophobic ‘cuz there’s no point in correcting thembecause they won’t change their ways. Either that or it’s all a façade…?

4. It’s too obvious!

Yes, maybe the seal on the mask and the poses are a redherring… but several months before DGS1 came out, I pointed out Asougi wasprobably going to die after looking at his and Ryuunosuke’s official art… so,they’ve revealed major plot points before through promotional material, just gotta have a sharp eye to connect the dots. (Alsorandom theory: given Iris’ new aviator-looking hat and the fact the DGS1’sApril fool’s showed her controlling a toy plane, I think she’s going to fly amothafucking plane in DGS2.)

Maybe they released the shots of the masked man sothat we can all start theorizing about Asougi’s return to build up hype for thegame? Regardless of whether it’s Asougi or not, it’s still goingto be an emotional moment when the masked man reveals his true identity. Havingthe thought beforehand that this man will be Asougi will either make us cry andthrow confetti or just crush all of our hopes and dreams.

The only thing I don’t agree with is that Asougi has amnesia…‘cuz how do you end up an assistant to the Grim Reaper of the Old Baileyif you have amnesia??? Maybe Asougi still remembers his law knowledge, but howdid he even end up with van Zieks in the first place? I guess we can only waitfor DGS2 (and very kind people who understand Japanese who can translate it :3) tocome out.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading all of my ramblings! Feel free to continue the conversation, point out some stuff I missed, or add your own inputs!

#dai gyakuten saiban #dgs2 #dgs2 spoilers #aa spoilers #kazuma asougi #iris watson #ask #anon

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