Board 8 > Favorite Ace Attorney Character (Day 43): Simon Blackquill vs. Maya Fey

(+) Yeah! (+)

This one kinda hurts.

It shouldn't even be this close

Another match with Maya, another vote for her opponent

don't do this to me. i can't vote against either.

pjbasis posted...

It shouldn't even be this close

Silence

Kenri posted...

Another match with Maya, another vote for her

FTFY

Sorry, Blackquill.

As with the rest of DD, I never felt the Blackquill love. Easy Maya vote!

Blackquill suffers the same problem all prosecutors deal with: once they lose once, the intensity and aura they have is gone. There's no real way to combat this, because the player is expected to win every time. If they had showcases of the prosecutors winning their cases in their off hours (like mini cases or whatever), it's go a long way. I think the reason Edgeworth avoided that is because they quickly pivoted him into a anti-hero/chief prosecutor role after the first game.

Besides, he's facing off against Maya. He's not winning this.

Edgeworth is helped by being the one guy who's been allowed to beat Phoenix (fairly, 4-0 doesn't help Klavier because everyone realizes it's crap), plus the two games where you control him and realize just how amazing he is at what he does.

Blackquill's issue to me wouldn't be the loss of intimidation because they do a good job of conveying that Apollo and Athena are terrified of him. It's that he's the prosecutor for four cases, which can be too much and cause player fatigue.

The other main issue is prosecutors tend rely on their "gimmicks" mostly as character crutches.

Edgeworth is "pompous rich boy"
Franziska is "pompous rich girl, but with a whip"
Godot is "coffee dude with mask"
Klavier is "pop star guy"
Blackquill is "almost painful caricature of old school samurai"
Nahyuta is "praying dude."

You can kinda see where I'm going. A blend of them losing their aura and kinda falling into "they are the one note guys" ends up leading most post-Edgeworth people to just feel lackluster. I understand why Godot and (to an extent) Blackquill have fans. Godot sure gets way more plot intrigue so he somewhat escapes the trope. Blackquill doesn't have that same sense. Maybe if they focus on Athena and him in later games, he might get more. I like Athena and Blackquill's relationship, but it doesn't seem enough sometimes to balance out and make him stand out. It just does more for Athena.

After all, his only non-prosecutor case is one of the worse cases ever with that rakugo, clown, and noodle junk. It's not really his fault. But yeah. He needs more fleshing out.

That said, Blackquill being better than Klavier and Nahyuta (Franziska has some connection to Edgeworth, so she gets some points) isn't that high a bar to clear.

Blackquill is a pretty pivotal character to DD's plot. He's a fanservice cameo in SoJ, but a darn good one, even if you don't care for 6-4.

I think Godot escapes it because he just wasn't a very good prosecutor to begin with. Like, all he has going for him plot-wise was Atmey's lie about him being better than Edgeworth. Then you find out he has no experience and it all makes sense.

Yeah, nobody loves Godot because of his prosecutorial skill.

Yes, but his "cool guy liking coffee" schtick is more overdone than Franziska's whip. If he wasn't so integral to 3-4, 3-5, I would loathe anything he does.

At least Edgeworth's sly dickishness comes off as charming in spots.

Nah, nothing is more overdone than the whip, not even "Let it go and move on."

Basically Godot is the perfect character that works on multiple levels.

The only thing annoying about traits like Franziska's whip is that it involves other characters reacting to getting whipped and takes too much time.

Edgeworth > Godot > Blackquill > Franziska > Klavier > Nahyuta

Honestly on a replay Godot's casual sexism is way worse than the coffee addiction. Give me Blackquill any day.

I never felt like Edgeworth being a pompous rich boy was a gimmick, just legitimate characterization. That's more than I can say for most characters in the series.

AA1's more grounded approach gave it by far the best villains overall. Edgeworth, von Karma, Gant, and of course, Mr. Did It. Dahlia and Matt Engarde are the only other ones to measure up, and to no surprise, they're also grounded.

Yeah, Edgeworth is one of the few characters in the series I'd say doesn't have a defining gimmick.

(Other than his inability to remember the name of anything not human, but that rarely comes up)

Last bump

Godot is the best but I also allow AA1 supremacy.