Kristoph is often seen as a heartless, cold-blooded killer and an abusive jerk, however it’s not the whole truth behind his character.
While it’s true the former attorney was a manipulative jerk towards most of the characters, there’s still this one character with which he had a genuine relationship and this person was Apollo. We don’t have a single evidence pointing at him being abusive towards Apollo. Instead, we got evidence for Kristoph and Apollo having a bond built on trust what is showed early in the game:
You can’t forget that Apollo has an ability that allows him to perceive when someone may be not honest with him what already is a proof itself about the bond between them. Apollo could even to not go to Kristoph in the first place if he had a suspicious aura. It lets us assume that Kristoph’s intentions to guide Apollo were genuine and it could be the only pure bond he built with anyone.
There’s also this scene. I do understand you may read it (and you probably do) as Kristoph potentially trying to manipulate Apollo, but it doesn’t need to be the case. It was later revealed that Klavier was bringing Kristoph information – probably about how Apollo was doing in the court (Kristoph wasn’t aware of the jurist system being implemented, so him being interested only in Apollo totally can be the case). Klavier’s sudden appearance in the country could be all Kristoph’s doing, so he knows if Apollo can stand on his own behind the defense’s bench. Remember that Apollo didn’t turn against him himself, but it was Phoenix manipulating him into it, so Kristoph had no motive to be unpleasant to his former mentee.
But, Nagito, Kristoph was mad!
“Ace Attorney 4” explicitly depicts Kristoph when he’s the most stressed. He’s living his worst days in his life. Do you really believe that someone who breaks after being hardly pressed is “showing their real self”? Don’t make me laugh.
And, again, no: I’m not telling you that Kristoph was an “uwu pure cinnamon roll”. He absolutely did commit those crimes, however talking just about him being the killer is barely scratching the surface of a very complicated, morally grey character – he’s not purely evil. His relationship with Apollo is changing his position on the scale from black to dark grey.
You got the evidence from me that he wasn’t entirely bad. If you choose to believe that he was, I have nothing more to tell you. I wrote this post with people who would like to understand Kristoph’s character better on my mind, but also to put the pieces of information together.
Hey anon, this is absolutely a fair question, and thanks for asking! <3
I considered discussing Kisegawa Uendo’s treatment in the post you’re referring to, however, for a couple of reasons, I decided against it.
talking about Uendo involves spoiling the twist of a case in the last game in the series, which many people haven’t played.
Kisegawa’s gender being (presumed) different from her body’s sex is accepted with the same stride as Owen’s age being different from the body’s age. The characters simply accept and do not contradict the presented identities of DID alters.
As a DID alter, Kisegawa’s existence is treated as a mental health issue, rather than a queer identity.
I want to stress that as someone who’s plural, I actually really like the way the Uendo system was treated and I like that the identities of their system members weren’t questioned.
But due to the circumstances surrounding it, and Kisegawa’s plurality being the identity question in focus, I don’t think its fair to treat the narrative’s acceptance of Kisegawa as female as an example of the narrative accepting a queer character.
Added to that of course, the question I was answering was are any of the characters “gay”– which of course Kisegawa’s existence doens’t answer.
You’re very right that it’s a unique case, and I actually don’t dislike the way it was handled. But until I see the narrative handle a singlet trans person with the same dignity and respect as it does as female system member in a (presumed) amab system body, I’m not going to give AA series credit for it.
Speaking as Kristoph Gavin I am not currently in the headspace to receive criticism of my actions. XD
Seriously though, we do very genuinely tend to avoid video essays analyzing our kin sources because they tend to speak and present themselves as if they were authoritative, unlike engaging with meta posts where we can present our view where it differs in return.
I have a tough time listening to a documentary about why I’m a horrible person for an hour and then I can’t even respond to the criticism XD
@aufredpratt thank you for thinking of us and bringing it to our attention though, that was very thoughtful of you and I appreciate it 💓
Speaking as Kristoph Gavin I am not currently in the headspace to receive criticism of my actions. XD
Seriously though, we do very genuinely tend to avoid video essays analyzing our kin sources because they tend to speak and present themselves as if they were authoritative, unlike engaging with meta posts where we can present our view where it differs in return.
I have a tough time listening to a documentary about why I’m a horrible person for an hour and then I can’t even respond to the criticism XD
