The video game boy; the one who wins
Gender: Male
Location: Sweden
Rank: Ace Attorney
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:22 pm
Posts: 7747
I'm not done with Klavier.
Having replayed AJ not too long ago, I got to revise my impression of him slightly and wanted to put down some of it into words. Mainly, his courtroom sprites in cases 4-2, 4-3 and 4-4 and how they relate to the level of personal investment he has in the respective cases.
First of all, as we know the prosecutors/rivals in AA tend to have some kind of "basic" damagesprite, not too shocked but flinching, drawing back etc. for when the player character surprises them with blowing a hole in their argument. This is Klavi's:
Klavier:
...
That's it. When Apollo manages to shut him up, he simply... shuts up. Not very interesting, but in character. From the very start he's explicitly more interested in finding the truth and pursuing Justice (I swear that capital J was by mistake) than winning, so there would be no point in getting upset or try to deny the defense's argument when he knows it makes sense. Still, he doesn't exactly acknowledge anything, or agree with the defense's claim, he just goes silent. Maybe due to some hurt pride, maybe because he just has nothing to say.
What is more interesting is that this exact thing, that is, that sprite and the "..." comes up in other situations as well. That is, when, respectively, his friend and his brother, both people close to him that ended up being killers, says something that gets to him, for instance:
Daryan:
What I don't understand...
is how you let this happen,
"partner".
Klavier:
......
(And, just a few seconds later:)
Daryan:
Feh. So much for old friends.
Klavier:
......
---
Kristoph:
...Well, Klavier?
Klavier:
...!
(...)
Klavier:
You're being accused again.
...By him. Again.
Kristoph:
Ahh. And? You agree with his
accusation, do you?
Klavier:
......
---
Kristoph:
...Really, Klavier.
Kristoph:
You should be seeing through
these weak-spined bluffs
by now.
Klavier:
......
Yes, Klavier is all for justice, and when push comes to shove, even if the guilty party happens to be someone close to him, if the facts point to them he becomes pretty ruthless. But initially, as we can see, he's not like that. He doesn't unconditionally believe people he knows just because he likes them, but he can't really say to their faces that he suspects them either, or even that we'll see whether or not he'll suspect them when the facts have been laid out in court. He just withdraws and says nothing, with that calm expression that he has probably practiced so well he can zone out or have all sorts of thoughts with it still plastered on.
Aceattorneywiki calls these "annoyed" and "angry sweating". There is also an annoyed sweating and an angry without the sweating. If I recall correctly, neither of these appear in case 4-2, so the first time we see any of them is in case 4-3, a case Klavier is personally connected to. His facial expression is kind of funny - he almost looks disgusted. He usually has great posture, but here he's leaning forward in some half-angled way that looks pretty uncomfortable and tense. You can really tell he's on edge. They are both expressive, maybe not in the comically exaggerated way that a lot of courtroom sprites are, and in that sense it might come across as underwhelming, especially as this is basically on the same level as how Edgeworth behaves if Phoenix so much as says "I think you're wrong", but I think it's very believable, and I especially find the second one interesting. Rather than "angry", I would call it "frustrated", and you can basically see the turmoil going on inside. He's usually stoic and has a calm exterior, a controlled way of expressing himself, and here he seems so frustrated and beside himself he hardly knows what to do with his body, his face is scrunched together and the tenseness goes straight into his clenched fists to the point where they're shaking (if he'd have a coffee mug in his hand at that moment, it'd definitely break Diego-style). And, as Apollo points out at one point where he does this sprite (the second) in 4-4, he almost looks like he's physically in pain.
Another thing to note is that the annoyed version appears quite a few times in the relatively short flashback segment. It shows he was way more rash and emotionally invested in the trial back then, as a seventeen year old. He probably felt more was at stake for him personally, too, since that was his first time prosecuting in court and his chance to really make a mark.
Aceattorneywiki labels this one as "disbelief". This is probably the most damage-spritey sprite with Klavier. Some sort of tipping point has been reached, it's moving, it's dynamic, something is happening (and he still looks like he's in pain). He covers his ears and shakes his entire torso back and forth as if he doesn't want to hear, doesn't want to believe, what he's hearing and what's happening ("lalala I can't hear yooou", as Catmuto put it in a post years ago). It appears a few times in 4-3 at the point where everything really starts to point towards Daryan, and he has to accept there's a high possibility he did it, but he doesn't
want to accept that possible truth. Now here's something interesting. This is, as I said, perhaps the most dramatic damage-sprite he has, yet it never appears in 4-4, which arguably took the biggest toll on him emotionally. And the reason, I assume, is that it's, as the wiki put it, his "disbelief"-sprite. Daryan being a killer took him off guard, it came completely out of the blue, while Kristoph being a suspect in the Drew Misham-case didn't shock him. Shook him, yes, shocked him, no. Of course, at that point, Kristoph was already in jail for another murder, but still, that one was knocking someone out with a bottle, not a premediated poisoning, not attempting to kill a 12-year-old because of a forgery, a forgery that Klavier himself proved had taken place in court, stripping Phoenix of his badge. My point is, even though Klavier already knew Kristoph had killed, he would have had all the reason to be shocked by
this. But he wasn't - he had felt for seven years that something was off regarding the forgery, and he probably knew some of Kristoph's darkness already.
Another thing I've thought about regarding this sprite is the wonky guitar soundeffect that accompanies it in the game. It could be metaphorical, but I've also thought of the possibility of Klavier having tinnitus that gets worse when he's under a lot of stress.
And this, by far my favourite. One thing with Klavier is that he has a certain gaze, and he hardly ever breaks eye contact (and I'll come back to that topic in a bit). But here he doesn't just avert his gaze from the player/Apollo, his eyes doesn't show at all. He looks sad, a bit defeated, but a bit relieved, too. A calm kind of sadness. It's worth noting his body language is completely relaxed, if anything his jaw might be slightly tensed, his posture is as it usually is. He looks upwards, as if musing over something, a little in his own head, but also as if trying to keep tears from falling (his possibly tense jaw suggests that, too). It's vulnerable, but calm and somehow in control with how he chooses to hide his eyes, and that, all things considered, feels very Klavier. This sprite is keeping its distance but it also feels very honest, especially in combination with what he says when he's doing it, and how he says it. Because we know Klavier - he's flashy and showy, he's a glimmerous fop: I think I used the word "personas" in regards to this:
Klavier:
So, who have you come to see?
Trucy:
Huh?
Klavier:
Klavier, lead vocalist for the
Gavinners?
Klavier:
Or Prosecutor Gavin, scourge
of the courtroom?
But I kind of want to take that back and say that rather than personas, it's he, used to be on stage and a celebrity, has learnt to control what he consciously puts out there of himself than the average person. The thing being, I think he's always being himself, and being true to himself. He doesn't
act flashy and showy, he
is flashy and showy. But right here is probably the most
unguarded we see him, which might come across as more genuine (although I wouldn't completely put "guarded" and "not genuine" as equals - Klavier has a certain self awareness but also some sense of genuineness in his straightfowardness). Not Klavier, lead vocalist of the Gavinners, not Prosecutor Gavin, scourge of the courtroom, but Klavier Gavin, pure and simple.
Klavier:
Kristoph... It's over.
Kristoph:
K-Klavier!!!
Klavier:
The law is "absolute"...?
You can't be serious.
Kristoph:
Wh-What...?
Klavier:
Odd. I thought you spent your
life looking for loopholes?
Klavier:
The law isn't absolute. It's
filled with contradictions.
(...)
To end with something less serious, and pretty irrelevant since it's not a courtroom sprite, I think this is pretty interesting, because I've always thought of it as looking cocky and arrogant, then I read some blogpost saying the person writing thought of it as nervous-looking, and since then I do, too, with (as the blogger pointed out) he looks away, and fiddles with his hair. And that smile... it looks rather forced and unnatural. Re-playing AJ with this in mind, I noticed that yes, the instances in which this sprite is used are situations where it would make sense for him to be nervous/unsure, but trying to hide it with an arrogant grin.
(......Ack! I've run out of snide comments!)