Simon Blackquill


 * "Blackquill" redirects here. You may be looking for Aura Blackquill, this character's older sister who is a robotics engineer at the Cosmos Space Center, or for the family itself.

"Simon Blackquill"

- ...............Hmph. ......Enough jabbering. Get on with it, already.

Simon Blackquill is a prosecutor who was convicted in the aftermath of the UR-1 Incident. Seven years later, he was called to serve as a prosecutor despite serving his murder sentence. He is known for his use of psychological manipulation in court, as well as his pet hawk Taka, to intimidate others and bend them to his will. His conviction and tactics in court earned him the nickname of the Twisted Samurai.

Early career
To gain an edge in court, Simon learned analytical psychology from Metis Cykes, who worked at the Cosmos Space Center alongside his older sister Aura. During his early career as a prosecutor, Simon pursued an international spy only known as the phantom. One day, he finally obtained a lead: a faint voice recording of his prey. He sent this to Cykes for analysis, in order to build a psychological profile on the spy.

False conviction

 * Main article: UR-1 Incident

On October 7, 2020, during one of Simon's visits to the Space Center, he stumbled upon a horrific scene in the robotics lab. Metis was lying on the robot repair bench, dead from a stab wound in her chest. Athena was standing next to the body and explained that she intended to use the repair bench to take Metis apart and fix her. Blackquill thought that there must be some kind of mistake, but he feared the worst for Athena and decided to cover for her while protecting the psychological profile that Metis had generated.

Simon dismantled the nearby robot Ponco with the katana that had been used as the murder weapon. As he was doing this, a visiting journalist caught a photo of him with the blood-stained katana. Simon then put Ponco into a rolling case, picked up the blood-covered Athena in his arms, and took both robot and little girl out of the lab, being caught on security camera as he left. He dropped Athena off at the Cykes family residence and disposed of Ponco in the garbage chute at Boarding Lounge 1. Eventually, a Space Center staff member and two police officers discovered Metis's body, and Simon was arrested hours after the crime.

Simon plead guilty to murdering Metis, knowing that going to prison was the best way to protect both Athena and the psychological profile. Athena tried to explain that he was innocent, but her cries fell on deaf ears and the prosecutor was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was later also convicted for sabotaging the launch of the Space Center's HAT-1 rocket. In prison, Simon kept the psychological profile hidden with the help of his pet hawk Taka, and spread rumors among his fellow inmates to keep the phantom guessing. He would later tell stories about the various inmates that he met in jail.

Metis's murder was designated as the UR-1 Incident. This incident, along with the disbarment of veteran defense attorney Phoenix Wright, heralded a so-called dark age of the law, in which corruption on both sides of the bench became the norm. Aura tried repeatedly to have a retrial done for her brother, but without new evidence, her pleas were ignored. Simon also refused her efforts, knowing that he had to stay in prison until the right moment, even if it meant that he would be executed.

Permission to prosecute

 * Main article: The Monstrous Turnabout

Seven years after the UR-1 Incident, Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth gave Simon his law license back, and had him take the prosecutor's bench in hopes of luring out the phantom. Detective Bobby Fulbright was assigned to assist and keep an eye on him. His first trial pit him against Apollo Justice, who was defending Damian Tenma, mayor of Tenma Town, for the murder of Rex Kyubi, alderman of Nine-Tails Vale. Assisting him was Athena Cykes, who had become an attorney to try to save him. Although Simon put the full force of his psychological tactics on display, Justice managed to pull off a spirited defense of his client, defeating Simon.

Suspicions challenged

 * Main article: Turnabout Reclaimed

Simon would continue to encounter the members of the Wright Anything Agency as his opponents. When Phoenix Wright regained his badge, he arranged a trial for an orca named Ora "Orla" Shipley, who had allegedly killed her owner, Jack Shipley. He convinced Simon to take the case by finding evidence of a human killer, though Simon was still reluctant to participate in such a bizarre trial. Although he was successful in acquitting Orla, his arguments led Simon to indict her trainer, Sasha Buckler.

When Wright took Buckler's case, Simon was confused as to why he would go so far to try to get both Orla and Buckler acquitted. He suggested to him that he was simply offering his services as an act to benefit from the publicity that the trial brought. To his surprise, Wright not only succeeded in his defense, but also fought for the true culprit, revealing that the murder had been an accident. This showed to Simon that Wright was not just in it to win like the other attorneys were.

Testing Athena

 * Main article: Turnabout Academy

Months later, Simon faced off against Athena in a murder trial of her friend Juniper Woods. He used this case to challenge her, to make sure she was worthy of her badge, and see how hard she would work if she truly wished to save him from his fate. He withheld a crucial piece of evidence in order for her to give her best effort, before presenting the evidence, nullifying her case entirely. However, she pushed through and, during her investigation of the alleged crime scene, was able to discredit Simon's key piece of evidence.

Eventually, Athena brought Aristotle Means to the stand as a suspect for the murder. At this time, Simon acted like a misbehaving student, falling asleep and not waking up during a recording of Means's speech, not saying "here" when Means did his "roll call", and walking out of the court without permission. Means proved a formidable adversary for Athena, and eventually got into her head and caused her to fall into a mental breakdown. Simon helped pull Athena out of her despair by telling her to remember why she had become a lawyer, and that she would not want to disappoint "you-know-who", referring to himself. With the help of Simon, Justice, Woods and her friends, Athena pulled herself together and brought the last pieces of her defense together, bringing Means to justice.

Return to the Cosmos Space Center

 * Main article: The Cosmic Turnabout

A few months later, as Simon's execution date approached, the launch of the HAT-2 rocket from the Cosmos Space Center was interrupted by a bombing, which left Clay Terran, one of the passengers, murdered. Simon was running out of time, and he saw his chance to capture the phantom. He indicted the other passenger, Solomon Starbuck, and was relentless in his attempts to convict him. Justice, his opponent, was equally relentless in his defense. However, a bomb was activated in the courtroom, interrupting the trial.

Although Justice recovered, he abandoned the trial, leaving Wright to take his place. Wright managed to build an alternative to the prosecution's argument, but Simon refused to accept it without evidence. To Simon's surprise, Fulbright presented evidence in Wright's favor, claiming that he was worried that Simon was losing his objectivity. The evidence that he had was a blood-stained lighter that several witnesses had seen the killer using, and the fingerprints on it did not belong to Starbuck. To everyone's shock, however, the fingerprints belonged to Athena, who was arrested on the spot.

Retribution

 * Main article: Turnabout for Tomorrow

With only one day left before his execution, Simon was determined to protect Athena to the end, despite one last effort by Aura to convince him to fight for a retrial. In a last-ditch effort to save her brother, Aura used the Space Center robots to hold several visitors hostage in exchange for a retrial of the UR-1 Incident. She indicted Athena rather than Simon, and had Edgeworth take the prosecutor's bench against Wright. Edgeworth initially maintained an advantage, but Simon once again attested that he was the true criminal, and gave counterarguments to Edgeworth's assertions.

Simon testified on the occurrences of that day, claiming that Metis was a cruel person who used Athena in experiments. He testified that he had killed Metis in order to protect Athena from her. Using Athena's Mood Matrix, Wright found contradictions between his emotions and his claims, causing him to continue to lie to make his testimony more believable. Eventually, Wright caught him on a logical contradiction and identified Athena as the source of his raging emotions, forcing him to admit to what he had really seen. Simon bitterly told Wright off for forcing him to reveal the truth, but Wright went on to prove that neither he nor Athena were responsible for the murder, and that they were both innocent. Even when Justice entered the courtroom to indict Athena for Terran's murder, Wright managed to prove the influence of the phantom in both cases, and identified Fulbright as the one whom Simon had sought all along.

In the aftermath, Edgeworth declared Simon a free man and unlocked his shackles for good. Simon thanked Aura and apologized for the trouble he had caused, properly expressing his gratitude for the first time in years. Edgeworth then granted him special permission to take over as prosecutor against Fulbright. Simon also entrusted Wright with the phantom's psychological profile. Although Fulbright managed to steal and destroy the profile, Wright was still able to prove his guilt as the phantom responsible for both murders, the sabotage of both the HAT-1 and the HAT-2, and the courtroom bombing. A sniper shot the phantom, but he survived and Simon had him placed under the custody and protection of the prosecutor's office.

After the case was resolved, Simon visited the Wright Anything Agency to ask them to represent Aura in court. Although none of the legal team were present, he did meet an individual who was looking to have Athena defend their father. With a grin, Simon told the visitor that they could very well meet again in court.

Personality
Simon is known for his use of psychological manipulation in court. Among his tricks are flattery, suggestive persuasion, and implicit death threats. The latter especially comes in various forms, but one of his favorites is his use of bladeless iaijutsu, causing a "slicing" effect that has been seen to slice a feather in half, and was even able to cut off a piece of Wright's hair. Although these threats are usually idle, they are part of a larger persona that he has built for himself, based off of his reputation as a ruthless convict on death row. This allows him to instill fear and uneasiness in others, including his primary target, the phantom.

Simon is a highly disciplined and focused man, capable of maintaining his false persona for seven years. His false testimony of killing Metis withstood several attacks by Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth without skipping a beat. Underneath this act is a kind, lawful man who, despite his somewhat intimidating appearance, deeply cares about Athena, to the point of maintaining his guilt to the bitter end to protect her and keep the phantom guessing. When forced to testify about what he had really seen, he exhibited a raging whirlpool of emotions with Athena as the source. After the final resolution of the UR-1 Incident, he maintained many of his behavioral habits but finally showed his caring self again, thanking Aura for her efforts and apologizing for the suffering that he had caused her.

Simon has a morbid and somewhat mischievous sense of humor that he mixes in with his intimidation tactics. He often tells larger-than-life stories of prisoners he has met, such as a surgeon or a captured ninja, usually to make a point. He also gives nicknames to just about everyone other than his rival attorneys, whom he addresses using the Japanese honorific "-dono". However, he has little patience for ridiculous situations from others, largely dismissing the many supernatural claims in the trial of Damian Tenma, and being very reluctant to allow Wright to cross-examine the orca Orla.

Simon's pet hawk Taka plays many roles for him. As part of Simon's intimidation game, he sics Taka on attorneys and witnesses alike whom he perceives to be lying, cheating (such as with Apollo Justice's bracelet), annoying him, or otherwise obstructing the proceedings. Taka is also used to deliver evidence to other parties and keep the phantom's psychological profile safe. Simon appears to like birds in general, stating that he believes that penguins are the top attraction at aquariums, and becoming angry when Dr. Herman Crab "belittled" Rifle the penguin.

Simon seemed to have a low initial opinion of Wright, suggesting that he had only taken both Orla's and Sasha Buckler's cases for the publicity. He likely saw Wright as being no different from the other crooked attorneys who were plaguing the legal system, despite Wright's forged evidence debacle being cleared up. It seems that Simon has changed his views, as he would go on to approach the Wright Anything Agency for help in defending his sister.

Name

 * His Japanese surname is a homonym of the word "yugami" (歪み) meaning "a warp/distortion", while his given name "Jin" (迅) means "swiftness".


 * His English given name "Simon" comes from the Classical Hebrew "שִׁמְעוֹן" (shim'ón), meaning "hearkening" or "he has heard". It is a reference to his psychological manipulation, which other characters have compared to the children's game "Simon Says". Another possibility is a reference to the bestselling psychology author George K. Simon, who published a book about manipulation titled "In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People".


 * "Blackquill" is a combination of "black" and "quill", both references to the black-and-white colors and feather motif in his character design. It could also be read as "black will" - a possible reference to his impending death sentence.

Development

 * Blackquill has the unique interjection "Silence!", which he uses in court. In the Japanese version, this is "Dama ri nā!" (黙りなァ!). Additionally, Blackquill is the only "rival" character in the main series to have multiple voiced interjections whilst fulfilling the rival role. Miles Edgeworth has had multiple voiced interjections, but only while acting as the playable character.


 * The concept for his character was that of a contradiction: someone who worked as a prosecutor, but was also a criminal. His initial designs focused on the criminal element, but for the final design this was switched more towards the prosecutor side, with only some small bearings of his criminal background (his shackles, color scheme, and ragged hair). His use of a hawk was to reflect a samurai vibe, since falconry was a sport conducted by samurai.


 * As shown in his concept art, he used to wield a sword that interacted with the shackles. However, this was dropped as "too unrealistic", as swords are illegal for the general public to own in Japan, let alone a criminal. The idea behind it has survived in his finger-based iai strike.


 * During his initial concept, he was the one who had Athena's ability to read emotions, as shown by his wearing headphones in an early draft. This trait was eventually given to Athena, while Simon was instead given the ability to manipulate people.


 * His speech style in the original Japanese version uses an old dialect of Japanese that sounds rough and slightly rude. In the English version, this is represented with a combination of British English and the Japanese honorific suffix "-dono".


 * Although Blackquill has voice clips for "Objection!" and "Silence!", he is the only voiced character with no speaking lines during the anime cutscenes in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies.