Hi, people, welcome to another installment of Psyche-Locks! Last time we did a case study on Phoenix, examining his childhood and adulthood to create a psychological profile of who he is and why. This time it’s going to be Apollo under the microscope. True to form, we’ll begin with his childhood and dig into his psyche to get a sense of where he’s coming from. My next post will be an analysis of him as an adult to see how these childhood experiences lead to the Polly we get to know in the games.
I’ll say it right now. If you haven’t played the games, particularly Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies, don’t read this if you don’t want the games spoiled. This is going to feature major spoilers right from the start, and trust me, it’s not as fun when you already know what happens. Pretty much takes the mystery out of the mystery game. Do you want a mystery game about lawyers, or just a regular old game about lawyers? We all know the answer. Anyways, you’ve been warned. On to the psychological analysis!
Okay, I lied. First, a little history about the game because it’s fun. And useful if you’re one of those people that ignores spoiler warnings.
Apollo Justice is the protagonist of the fourth game in the Ace Attorney series, named after said protagonist. The creator of the series, Shu Takumi, decided that the fourth game would need to star a different character because he decided that Phoenix’s story had been told and there was nothing else to say. He believed it was important to know when a story has to end, lest it become a ghost of its former self. Originally, Phoenix wasn’t even supposed to be in the game. However, his colleagues insisted that he should be added in some way, which lead to Hobo Nick. The game received an overall positive rating worldwide, a solid B, if not better. Sure, it was a bit of a shock to see Phoenix in a sweatshirt with stubble, but the game carried on the atmosphere of justice and mystery that the old games had, with that zaniness to spice it up. Plus the new mechanics like Perceiving and 3-D evidence were both simple to learn and engaging. People who were used to playing as Phoenix may not have cared for the new protagonist, as someone who can be a little set in her ways I was certainly hesitant about liking Apollo at first. But like I said in my very first post, once I gave him a chance I started liking him just as much, if not more, than Phoenix. I think a lot of fans had a similar reaction. In my opinion, Takumi made the right choice in making Apollo the main character. No one likes to see a beloved series end, but it’s better to be remembered as a great trilogy than a series that didn’t know when to quit. Apollo breathed new life into the franchise and started something new.
Alright, now on to the psychological analysis! There’s a lot to explore with Apollo. In every game he’s been in (you know, all two of them) we learn more about his past and his character. That’s exactly what we’re going to focus today. Starting at the very beginning, his birth.
His Mother
Or rather, lack thereof. For those who may have forgotten, Apollo’s father is an unnamed performer who fell for his mother, a young Thalassa Gramarye, but sadly died in an accident soon after his son was born. 18 year old Thalassa finds herself stuck as a single mother with little ways of providing for both herself and her son. She reaches out to her father, who says he’ll take her back in, but only if she gives up the kid. Not seeing a better option, she parts with her son doesn’t see him again for 22 years. What does this mean for Apollo? Despite having the best intentions for doing so, Thalassa left him parentless, something that can affect a kid dramatically. Mothers and fathers play very different, though as research is starting to reflect, equally important roles in a child’s development. This means the absence of a parental figure can have just as big an impact. Let’s tackle these roles one at a time, starting with the mother.
There’s nothing quite like the bond between mother and child; a sentiment shared by millions. Newborns instinctively attach themselves to their mothers, a statement that’s true for many species. Think of the old cartoon plot where the main characters find an egg, a duckling hatches, then proceeds to follow around the first person it sees and address them as ‘Mommy’, regardless of gender or species. This plotline is actually based on a real duckling’s “imprinting” instinct. When a duckling hatches, it forms a bond with the first moving object it sees and follows it wherever it goes. In the best case scenario, that object is the mother duck. Sometimes it’s a person or a stick, neither of which having any interest in taking care of the newborn.
Psychoanalyst John Bowlby, a big fan of Freud’s work, states that a similar trait is found in humans as well. Babies form an attachment to their primary caregiver, in many cases the mother, and respond to anything they perceive as a threat to that relationship. For example, separation. Many parents are probably familiar with this situation. You put your baby to bed, and he starts crying as you start to leave. You figure he’ll stop in about ten minutes or so and go to bed. Except he doesn’t stop. So you go back to his crib, and in less than a minute he’s totally fine again. Until you try to leave. And so the cycle continues. According to Bowlby, this is a baby’s natural response to loss of proximity to the caregiver. If Mommy leaves, their main source of food and love is gone. So they have to make Mom want to come back and take care of them, like by crying.
These behaviors lead Bowlby to create his theory of Maternal Deprivation. I’ll give you a brief summary. Basically, babies especially need their mothers for their first two years of life. It’s a critical point in their development that requires constant nurture and attention. In addition, the relationship between mother and child is the prototype the child uses for all future relationships. To put it simply, if the mother is attentive and loving, then the child will take those feelings of security and warmth and transfer them to future relationships. If the mother is negligent, the child will be avoidant of intimacy. If the mother is aggressive, the child will resist anyone that tries to get close to them. Children who grew up with absence of maternal love due to the mother not being present, like in Apollo’s case, will have serious developmental issues later in life. The most common effects being:
- Delinquence
- Reduced Intelligence
- Increased Aggression
- Depression
- And Affectionless Psychopathy…..
Alright, so something isn’t quite right. Either Bowlby or Capcom was seriously mistaken. Apollo is incredibly intelligent, well behaved, and definitely isn’t a psychopath. So what’s the deal here?
Well, you see, according to critics, Bowlby’s Attachment Theory oversimplifies the importance of the relationship between mother and child. Researchers later found that in a baby’s first year of life they will form strong attachments to not just one primary caregiver, but to multiple family members and friends, even inanimate objects like toys or blankets. Child psychiatrist Michael Rutter went on to deduce that Bowlby failed to distinguish deprivation and privation, the loss of an attachment versus the complete lack of it respectively. The children Bowlby used as test subjects for his maternal deprivation theory were more than simply, you know, maternally deprived. Chances are they were ‘prived’ of any real attachment, and that included a maternal one. Such circumstances could very well lead to the characteristics Bowlby described. They would have no way of learning how to form connections with others. Not because their mother didn’t teach them, but because no one taught them. Actual maternal deprivation, or maternal privation, won’t necessarily have such drastic effects, especially if someone else takes the mother’s place as the child’s caregiver. Another relative, an adopted parent, a foster parent, a nanny, you get the idea. Sure, your lineage is part of who you are, but not the only part.
(This isn’t to say that Bowlby was completely wrong, theoretically maternal deprivation could result in some of those problems. Losing a parent is depressing after all. However, Bowlby’s experiments to test this particular theory were flawed, which may have influenced his results, and it’s possible he could’ve made assumptions when he shouldn’t have. It really depends on the individual and their specific circumstances, just like anything in psychology really. Being an orphan doesn’t mean you’ll be a psychopath, it’s much more complicated than that.)
So, back to Apollo. What was his living situation as a kid? The games never really specifies on what happened to him after Thalassa disowned him. Was he adopted? Placed in foster care? Raised in an orphanage? If Capcom has ever released any statements about this, I’d love to know because I couldn’t find anything. We just don’t know for sure. However, we do get a glimpse of Apollo as a child in Dual Destinies. And it told me everything I needed to know.
You’ll recall that in junior high, Clay Terran’s mother died. One night, his classmate Apollo found him all alone, crying on a school bench. In an effort to comfort him, Apollo shares that he doesn’t have a mother either, and that sometimes it really bothers him. So he starts shouting “I’m fine” until he feels better. He gets Clay to try it, and soon the two start laughing. (Man, that laughing part hits me hard every time…. I’m not crying, you’re crying!)
When you take a moment to put the feels aside and really examine what’s being said between Apollo and Clay in middle school, you get some key information about Apollo’s childhood. He doesn’t consider anyone to be his mother. This suggests that he wasn’t adopted, or that if he was he’s not particularly close to his adoptive mother. Or that there wasn’t a woman involved in his adoption. He could’ve been taken in by a single man, or two gay men. There are many ways to interpret that statement. Personally, I think Apollo grew up in either an orphanage or a big foster home. Why’s that? Because there’s evidence that strongly suggests that Apollo didn’t have a father growing up either.
His Father
As I said before, Apollo’s birthfather was a stage performer who died in an accident. Apollo doesn’t have any memories of him because he was only a newborn when it happened. What does this mean for the kid? Well, surprisingly, the role of a father has been largely ignored by psychologists for quite some time. When the field was just becoming a more popularized science, the role of a father in a child’s development was becoming increasingly insignificant to the public eye. Before modern times, fathers were seen as the head of house, and they were a present figure. But then the Industrial Revolution happened, meaning working class men were away from their homes much longer, so the stay at home moms had a little more power at home. Eventually, fathers were seen as nothing more than breadwinners and disciplinarians. So when psychologists began researching parenthood, fathers weren’t given nearly as much thought as the mothers. When technology got even more advanced, and working fathers could be home a little more often, their role was still rarely studied because they were still perceived as nothing more than providers and there was more existing research to go on for mothers already. People have started noticing the true impact of fatherhood as of late, however.
Fathers and sons share a special bond. It’s no secret that fathers serve as role models for their children. For boys, fathers are basically “how to be a man” teachers. Your definition of manhood is heavily based on your father’s behavior, whether you were close or not. After all, he’s your first impression of the very concept. For example, if your father worked a lot, you might respect what he did to provide for the family so that’s your definition of “being a man”. Or you may not like that your father wasn’t around much, so as an adult you want to make sure you’re there for your family, and so that’s what being a man is to you. Another way it could go is that providing for your family is your definition of manhood because of your father, but you’re not happy about it.
This is interesting stuff and all, but has nothing to do with Apollo. What are the ramifications of having no father at all? As research is starting to reflect, significant. As I just said, fathers are role models for children. When that role model is absent, say, due to premature death, the child can be left with a void to fill. Statistics suggest that fatherless boys are more like to exhibit traits very similar to the traits of Bowlby’s “Maternally Deprived” children. Increased aggression, decreased academic performance, low self-esteem, and various behavioral problems. However, as we already discussed in the mother portion, Apollo doesn’t really match this description. Super smart lawyer with a big smile, remember? Yeah he’s sarcastic, but not mean or aggressive.
There are a few ways to explain this contradiction. First off, it’s worth mentioning that having an absent father is linked to those traits I listed. That isn’t a cause and effect statement, it’s a connection. All those statistics are based on correlational research. Fun fact, it’s never been scientifically proven that smoking cigarettes leads to health complications. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest as much, you can look at medical records and see how many patients are smokers, but there’s no ethical way to perform a scientific experiment on it. You can’t force people to smoke and see if they get cancer. Even if they agree to it. What if they want to quit later? And say they do die of lung cancer, or heart disease, who’s responsible? It’s better to say smoking will probably lead to health problems than to get caught up in all the legal and moral controversy. Same goes for studying fatherless children. You can’t get a group of guys and say “Alright, you seven, stay with your wife and kids. Everyone else, pack your bags.” You also can’t get a group of guys with some who already planned to leave and some who already planned to stay. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. So instead, researchers are trying to draw conclusions from existing evidence, rather than performing experiments. So that’s something to keep in mind. However, these connections aren’t without merit, which is why I’ve got an alternative explanation, one that I think is a little more satisfying.
All these studies have been about fatherless children. Apollo is an adult, one whom we only get a single glimpse of as a child. Who here is the same person they were 10 years ago? Or even 5 years ago? Can’t imagine many people are raising their hands. It’s very possible that Polly wasn’t all smiles as a kid. He says so himself that he felt out of place because he didn’t have a mother. It’s very possible that other kids made fun of him for not having a family, or not having friends. Who knows? Maybe in the beginning he didn’t do so well in school. Or maybe he happened to be really good and got labelled a nerd. Losing your parents at a young age can make kids feel alone or abandoned. When your peers only reinforce that, poor Polly must’ve been pretty darn insecure. A common trend for boys experiencing feelings like anxiety and insecurity is to mask them by acting tough. In part, it’s a cultural thing. Society often dictates that men are supposed to be strong and don’t feel certain emotions; they definitely don’t show them. It can at least look that way, at any rate. When a boy doesn’t have someone to talk to about his problems or someone to show him a healthier way to handle his emotions, he was pretty much left to his own devices. It’s possible that Apollo reached out to whoever was taking care of him, or an older kid he lived with, or a teacher, or maybe pride kept him from saying anything at all. It’s open to interpretation. In the end though, he’s still a kid who feels he got gypped out of having a family. So he most likely put up a wall to keep other people from finding out about his insecurities. You know, because he was insecure about them.
“But, AnaLyst,” you say. “You say that, but you have no in-game evidence! You’re basing all of this on one statement! Not to mention it was a statement he openly admitted to another classmate, Clay Terran. If he’s so against showing his emotions, why would he be so vulnerable in front of a kid he didn’t know very well at the time?”
You have a valid point, one worth addressing. I actually wanted to, I just needed you to help me Segway into it. So thanks for that. Anyways, about Clay and Apollo.
You’re right, Apollo was very open and honest with him. There was, of course, a reason. Clay had just lost his mother, and Apollo had found him crying alone on a bench. Apollo may have been insecure, potentially a little rough around the edges, but he was still a nice kid. He knew what Clay was going through, and that even if he didn’t want to admit it at first, he didn’t want to be alone. So what better to help them both out than to make a friend who understood what being motherless was like? Apollo didn’t want to be alone, he just felt like he was. Seeing Clay so distraught showed him that he wasn’t the only one that felt the way he did.
Why he became a lawyer
Why did Apollo want to be a lawyer? It’s a question that Capcom has both answered and skipped over. Who knows, maybe we’ll get more info next game. In the meantime, let’s see if we can work with what we’ve got. We learn pretty early into Apollo’s game that he was inspired to become a lawyer by a famous attorney with the ability to turn cases around and save innocent lives from the death penalty, Phoenix Wright. When Phoenix was a lawyer, it’s likely he caught the attention of the press. Murder trials are big news stories, and Phoenix has taken those cases almost exclusively. Even proved the police wrong, another good way to get media attention. So it makes perfect sense that Phoenix would be a public figure. Apollo probably saw him on the news as a kid and it made him want to be a lawyer. But…. Why? Why Phoenix? If my math is correct, Apollo has wanted to be a lawyer since he was 11, maybe 12. And he stuck with it. Those are practically Edgeworth levels of dedication to practicing law, and Apollo didn’t have a von Karma riding him. Clearly, Phoenix made quite an impact on a kid he wouldn’t meet for another eleven years. So what’s so great about Phoenix that he would continue to be an inspiration eve after getting disbarred? Let’s break it down.
First, let’s appreciate that pre-AJ Phoenix is a pretty good person. He’s a guy who literally made it his job to protect others from false accusations. He stands up for what he believes in, and makes his voice heard. He’s as good a role model as any. Especially for a kid like Apollo. Remember, he didn’t have a father growing up. There was no one he could say “I want to be just like you when I grow up” to. He was insecure, and didn’t know how to deal with it. That is, until one faithful day when a spiky haired lawyer appeared on the news. Apollo became fascinated by the trials, and came to idolize Phoenix. It makes perfect sense that he’d love the ace attorney, when you really think about. For one thing, recall that he felt “out of place” because he was an orphan. You could say he felt unfairly judged. So he could relate to those trials. He didn’t want to be the defendant though, he wanted to be the defense attorney. The hero who saves the innocent person and doesn’t stand for injustice.
Behold: The Phoenix
No criminals or locked doors are safe from him.
I have more reasoning than just a metaphor though. Also consider his Chords of Steel training.
Apollo follows that Chords of Steel program religiously. He gets up at the time of day people jokingly refer to as morning and practices until his vocal cords are raw. Then the first chance he gets to shout “Objection!” in a court room, he shouts so hard it’s a wonder his lungs didn’t pop. Clearly, volume is important to him. Now why would a guy with such a booming voice do vocal exercises? Same reason a fit person goes to the gym. He wasn’t always so loud and doesn’t want to go back. Chances are he was a lot meeker than he is now, and he still gets very shy and nervous. Chords of Steel help him compensate for his lack of confidence. Anyone who knows him can probably see through it though. Even his clothes are a giveaway. A bold red suit, sleeves rolled up and ready for action, hair styled with distinct, upward spikes to make him just a little bit taller, he’s peacocking. He shouts and pounds his fists and does all the alpha male moves in the book. Ask him a question he’s not prepared for though and he pops like a balloon.
Now, why would someone so insecure go into a career centered around public speaking? To put it plainly, he hates being meek. As a kid, he wanted to stand up to people and have his voice be heard. He didn’t know how to go about it though. If he were a lawyer though, like Phoenix Wright, he could definitely do it. And so, with his hero as inspiration and his best friend cheering him on, he did it.
While that was going on, Phoenix was being duped into disbarment. When that went public, it couldn’t have been easy for Polly to hear. His idol was being called a liar and a cheat. That didn’t make him want to give up though. If anything, it would have strengthened his resolve. Being a lawyer was his dream because of the ideals Phoenix preached. Truth and justice. If lawyers were going to disregard those things, he was going to teach them a lesson by becoming the kind of defense attorney he thought Phoenix was.
Alright, that’s enough for this post. Let’s save the rest for Part 2, when we look into the things that happen to Apollo as an adult and explain why they happened the way they did. Until then, tell me what you thought of Part 1! So far so good, or did I miss the mark somewhere? Let me know!
Work Cited:
http://www.scienceofpeople.com/2014/05/look-feel-confident-using-body-language/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201412/the-mysterious-power-red
http://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/lee.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Justice:_Ace_Attorney
http://www.fathers.com/statistics-and-research/the-consequences-of-fatherlessness/
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