#The curse of the Auchi clan

[characteroulette]

A study on prosecutors -- (previous) (next)

A short detour into the many appearances of Payne.

So. What can be said about Payne? He's what we all think of as the Tutorial prosecutor. In all his forms, he only shows up to be a joke, to be the first opponent we face as we get familiar with the mechanics of the game. He's designed to be unlikable, in an intriguing twist compared to most other prosecutors.

And yet there's some part of me that likes him anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I hate this guy. I think he and his like should be retired, give another prosecutor the tutorial reins. But there is something so quintessentially Ace Attorney about a Payne. He's appeared in one form or another in every single Ace Attorney game in the series. Even the Layton crossover has a Payne! He's as much a staple by this point as Phoenix himself.

So, of course there's a part of me that likes him anyway. He's a little rat bastard whom I don't mind trouncing, but it's not unpleasant to see him like it can be some other characters. (Hey the Judge should absolutely retire am I right?)

It all stems from such a nothing part, too! If you look at him in his very first appearance, he has such a nothing part. He's meant to be overshadowed, to be forgotten. Your main opponent in that case is more Sawhit than it is Payne. He gets a joke scene in the credits, which is probably the funniest thing Payne's ever had, but he was such a nothing bit and a nothing character at the start! And then they turn around and give him some actual presence in 2-1. The joke of him being forgettable is still there, but Payne puts up a much better fight here. He actually puts Phoenix on the ropes at least once! …an amnesiac Phoenix, sure, but still!

All this leading up to his appearance in 3-1 along with the reveal that he used to be a hotshot. He went undefeated for seven years, was known as the Rookie Killer. It's so hilarious and unbelievable that it elevates this case to a fun absurdity. Every other factor in this case is great, too, but Rookie Killer Payne? The cherry on top. As well as the end in which he loses all his hair. This man is meant to be a joke and I am living for it.

It's interesting to think of Payne as someone who used to be a big shot and fell to a curse he had no hopes of recalling. It adds a lot to his inability to stand out, that he was shamed so hard that he simply lost all presence. They really did a good job in adding a fun little drop into a character we're meant to hate.

He also gets some fun moments in other cases! He shows up as the prosecutor in Atmey's trial, where we steal yet another win from him. Then again in the phony trial of the third case, a win we overturn on him that never really belonged to him. It hammers home this curse and is so delightful, it really gives a sense of continuity to how much he cannot win against us.

Of course, Payne shows up in 4-1 as well, in all his greasy glory. (Aside, I realised just recently that they reused this character design in a later Payne! That's so rad!) Phoenix calls him the same old, and I have to agree. He's still lacking in presence, still pretty easy to hate, but he's also regained some of that pompousness he had from his Rookie Killer days. He's got a swagger to him, as flimsy as it is, and we get to see it all crashing down once again. (But really, he takes a backseat to the true players in this case and I'm okay with that. He's some nice set dressing to the actual darkness swirling around just below the surface here.)

Payne's small cameos in the Investigations games are so good, too. Even Edgeworth can't remember who this man is. It makes sense, of course, because of Edgeworth's closeness with Phoenix. There's an undeniable curse hanging over Payne's head and of course Edgeworth isn't immune to it.

But it also shows that Payne has some level of seniority and that's interesting. The Chief Prosecutor chose Payne to go with him to see the president's speech, after all. Payne may be pretty largely terrible, but he's got some level of authority in the prosecution's office to have done that much at least.

His British expy in the Layton crossover is definitely a piece of work. Points for the unique angle of anime eyes and some level of corruption going on, considering he was told it was going to be an easy win for him. (If we learn anything more about him through the game I don't know I haven't beaten it yet.)

And then the biggest change up in 5-1: we get to meet the younger Payne brother and fight him instead.

Right away, Gaspen is much more despicable than Winston. He's a snivelling and corrupt little cretin who bullies Athena into a near panic attack. That's a really great way of getting us on board to hating him immediately. The fact that he's implied in the end to have been a part of the corruption plaguing the prosecution's office (but not his brother?) (Maybe??) makes everything about our victory over him all the sweeter. It gets a bit overshadowed by the whole thing going on with Apollo in that case, but hey. I for one relished in our defeating this bastard. Seeing him run out of the country, too, was real satisfying.

Unfortunately, I can't spare any sort of kindness to Gaspen's reappearance in 6-1. Admittedly, I was really tired of the whole Payne thing by this point, so making it Gaspen in particular just got me in a worse mood. The fact that he found the one place where prosecutors are worshipped and allowed to be as corrupt as they desire definitely doesn't help, either. It's a fascinating look into an absolute worst case scenario world that Ace Attorney in general could have ended up in, but I think it's just not compelling enough to carry it through the beginning of this game. It certainly didn't make me want to keep playing, that's for sure.

At the very least, we get to oust him from his position of power here by the end. Good riddance to this guy, I really hope we get a completely different tutorial prosecutor for the next game in the series.

That being said, I think Auchi is perfectly punchable and great for our tutorial prosecutor for the Great Ace Attorney games. I actually really like his whole samurai affect, his slamming his forehead against his desk, and his devolving into haiku at the end. It's also great to see that this is the origin to his curse. Giving a reason to why he will always lose against Phoenix is clever actually and I am all for it.

The Auchi clan will never triumph over the Naruhodou clan. To that, I say hell yeah.

Anyway I never realised I'd have so much to say about Payne, of all people. Whoever thought I could do a deep dive into Payne as a character? Not me!

[peepooworld]

auchi clan eternally cursed by phoenix wright’s grandpa’s gay-ass boyfriend and his real goddamn sword

[ask-post-dgs2-crew]

kazuma-sama i want you to know that the curse you cast upon the auchi clan will in fact persist for centuries to come, members of the auchi clan will be consistently humiliated by naruhodou-sans kin generations from now

Of course it will. I do not curse family bloodlines lightly.

[demon-snqw]

“The Auchi clan will never measure up to the Narudodo clan!” Kazuma just successfully placed a curse on Auchi’s whole bloodline.

[demon-snqw]

Okay, but adding onto the Auchi/Payne curse, Kazuma specifically said something along the lines of "no one of the Auchi Clan will ever be able to defeat those of the Naruhodo clan". That means the curse thinks of every defense attorney Phoenix adopts as members of the Naruhodo clan. Auichi/Payne Curse says Found Family (W)Rights.

Oh absolutely. It's not a coincidence that Auchi was next beaten by Susato, who's basically Ryunosuke's adoptive sister and pretending to be a cousin of his to boot. I would say it extends to people who are *about* to be part of his found family like Mia and Apollo.