!!!!!! BIG DUAL DESTINIES AA5 SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!!!! SCROLL QUICKLY TO AVOID SPOILING YOURSELF IF NEEDED!!!!!!!!
UGHHGGGGGGHHH im watching someone play through the cosmic turnabout and like. during the first investigation they make a point to be like 'wooowww detective fulbright is being super cooporative its weirdddd like hes almost a different person. lmao.' and im SO MAD. its such a good setup for him being replaced but then theyre like. 'noooo hes been dead for like ten years or somwthign woahhhh what!!!!!!!!' LIKE. CHOOSING SHOCK VALUE OVER GOOD WRITING. If we've just been talking to the phantom the whole time what the fuck was that bit with the shoes during the monsterous turnabout???????? its either like. a. the phantom was worried about playing fulbright's character. like. for whom????? none of us knew what he was really like??? and it couldve easily gone unnoticed??????? or b. they really just fucking didnt notice. terrifying international superspy murderer. okay
"its to make sure that we know that this is definitely someone else!!" okay? edgeworth shows up and is like we found bobby fulbright in an abandoned warehouse or some shit and all dna and everything matches. woah that guy on the stand is definitely not detective fulbright. "its to show just how horrifying the phantom really is!!" okay???? so maybe they found him like tortured and ab/used and shit. and then its still really horrifying because we actually!!! know!!!!!!!!! fulbright!!!!!!!!!!! and how goofy and kind he is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow this guy is a really actively serious threat and a fucked up evil person. and now the player wants them dead for hurting this golden retriever of a man so badly. "but isnt it so fucked up that this great and super kind guy you've been talking to this entire game is actually dead??!?!?" yeah sure but once again we. dont. know. the real goddamn fulbright!!!!!!!! we dont know what he was actually like and the phantom couldve been portraying him completely differently!!!! sure a few lines of dialog tell us hes a good man. but other than that all we have to go off of is the phantom's act!!! people dont think about it that deeply and take the phantom's portrayal at face value but like?????? come on dude
and if you still want that sweet angst over him being dead, what if when they find him hes almost dead. like the phantom meant to actually kill him (because of how horrible they are!!!! its the same effect!!!!!!!) and it adds a new layer of tension during the trial after that because hes on death's door! is he gonna pull through??? will the phantom win in the sick twisted way of taking yet another life, but this time it's worse because we ACTUALLY. KNEW. HIM. and how good of a person he is??????? and its way more angst in the way of characters cause like Simon has someone actually close to him to potentially mourn! again! because of the phantom!
and if you still want the betrayal factor, i got that too! maybe the real fulbright was being threatened into being an informant for the phantom!!! or was even accidentally giving away information somehow, which still gives him consequences for the 'betrayal' while also being a 'fulbright being stupid' moment at the same time. just this time it's a whole lot worse because it put actual lives at stake and Clay got killed. boom! angst!!