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People have certainly noticed it before me, but it feels rare that I see someone else talk about the significance of both Genshin and Prosecutor Kazuma being introduced wearing masks to conceal their identities. They're both made to be shadowy, mysterious figures with an air of intimidation, but this was imposed on both of them by the British government. Both "died" and both were stripped of their identity and nationality afterwards.

The imposed anonymity of the Asougi men in The Great Ace Attorney is a very potent parallel between them. Both of their masks purposely concealed from the British public that they were Japanese because their race would have been bad optics for international relations or would hinder Stronghart's control of his pawns. But this isn't accomplished by making them blend in: they're both entirely deprived of their identities and reduced to their role in Stronghart's machinations.

Genshin is made the Professor, a boogeyman representing the "old ways" Stronghart has successfully stomped out. Kazuma is made the "masked disciple" and forbidden from even speaking to most people. It's possible that Stronghart would have had him play that role indefinitely, or until he died in a mysterious accident just to be safe.

And they are both people who suspected or even discovered large cover-ups by Stronghart. The Asougis represent, to the British government, a number of inconvenient truths so large that the only solution is to take everything from them both, including their names and faces.

I find them a very fascinating and tragic pair of characters. That Kazuma's story echoes Genshin's isn't much of a shock, but I do still find myself surprised at just how much of his father's legacy Kazuma truly inherited, including being denied a legacy at all.

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Something that makes Genshin and Klint difficult for me to feel confident writing is their very particular intensity. They're both described by loved ones as deeply principled and honorable men, and well liked among their peers. But they're also both described as being incredibly passionate in their pursuits of the truth, and occasionally frighteningly focused on their goals.

Both were also extremely good at their jobs. Klint was a very powerful member of the British judiciary, and Genshin was important enough to be sent overseas and competent enough to be, as far as we know, the only person to ever crack the Professor case while it was ongoing. You don't get where those men got without being incredibly dedicated to your work, likely to a worrying degree as time went on.

And having been investigative partners, I can easily imagine them bringing out this quality in each other even more. It's something I'm interested in exploring, but that specific type of dynamic isn't something I've written much of in the past. Maybe I'll start off with something on the less serious side, just to flesh it out with a simpler, lower-stakes plot.

In general, I want to spend some more time getting a feel for their voices in writing. Genshin, at least, has a few lines of canon dialogue to work from, but Klint is a bit more difficult. I don't consider his will to be exactly a good source for how he spoke in conversation, since the context is so different, but I may still be able to gain some interesting insights by reading it over and taking some notes on it. I might set aside some time this weekend to look through the extent of their canon dialogue and do some analysis of their speech styles.

It may not be a bad idea to flip through some of the text in which other characters describe them. It has to be taken with a grain of salt, of course. We hear a great deal about both of them from van Zieks, who isn't exactly able to give an unbiased perspective of either of them, but it's still probably worth taking into consideration with regard to how they came across to other people.

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Hi, welcome to my blog.

I'm a fanfiction writer currently interested in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. I've decided to set this blog up as a space for myself to ramble, analyze, and pick apart random dialogue lines, both for my own use as a writer and for my general interest in analyzing texts.

Posts will probably be both sporadic and lengthy, though I'll try to keep anything overly long under a cut.

Note: Assume that any post on this blog has spoilers for The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. I don't currently plan to tag for it.

Thank you for visiting.