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im shifting into meta mode .. in aa4 you are so completely surrounded by people obsessed with appearances who do nothing but act and pretend and lie (hence the whooole thing about magicians) and i think it was a genius move to make the protag a transparent empathetic crybaby
imagine if phoenix had been the protag of a game like this. hed be whisked along from case to the next, all fucked up but none related to him directly. the way the trilogy created tension was by leveraging people phoenix cares deeply about, bc thats what it takes to shake him
but as for aa4, apollo finds himself in the middle of a story that seemingly has nothing to do with him. yet every step of the way he complains, cries, questions, stresses, and ultimately cares about people hes only recently met. it would mean nothing to us if it had been like
the trilogy cases, full of wacky but ultimately forgettable characters who mostly annoy phoenix! apollos caring and anxious way of thinking better compliments a darker and more subtly suspenseful game where everyone is trying to dial the nonchalantness of the trilogy up to 100
the trilogy main cast are without a doubt a family with deep ties to each other. aa4 created a very strange family by spinning a web tying people together in very acute ways. phoenix is ultimately at the center of this web, and well call kristoph the spider
thats a really weird metaphor actually i take that back. the point is that the weird lingering influence both kristoph and phoenix hold over the other characters even in the cases theyre not in connects them even before their pasts do
this thread ran away from me idk where im going w this. phoenix with his influence on trucy and kristoph with his influence on klavier.. despite the key differences they all act a certain way and apollo was simply never molded into a performer like that.
phoenix said it in 4-1, for his plans to work he required a man who would tolerate no injustice. apollo is the key to unraveling this plot because he cares and despite being strung along by kristoph, phoenix, AND klavier, at the end of the day hes not so easily manipulated
