Blue Badger

"Phoenix Wright"

- The Blue Badger! Mascot of the police force! Defender of truth, guardian of proof!

The Blue Badger is the mascot of the Los Angeles police department, created by the chief detective of the Criminal Affairs Department.

Beginnings

 * Main article: Turnabout Goodbyes

The chief detective first conceived of the Blue Badger and made a Blue Badger doll some time before Miles Edgeworth's murder trial. An early design later became the Proto Badger. The Blue Badger doll was displayed inside the Criminal Affairs Department for visitors such as Phoenix Wright to see, hoping that the Police Department would adopt it as its mascot. Despite the doubts of such visitors, including Wright, about the idea, it gained approval among the police force.

Dancing panel

 * Main article: Rise from the Ashes

"Dick Gumshoe"

- It's battery-powered, so it can go anywhere! There's no switch, so it just dance dance dances until the batteries die!

"Ema Skye"

- Poor Blue Badger...fated to dance until he drops.



Enthusiastic about the Blue Badger, Detective Dick Gumshoe collaborated with the chief detective to design a large panel version of the Blue Badger that would dance. Gumshoe made this panel; during construction, he left it in the Police Department's evidence room. Its presence both obscured and created vital clues in a video recording of the apparent murder of Bruce Goodman, which turned out to be a scuffle between a bewildered Mike Meekins and Jake Marshall. The completed Blue Badger was later placed at the front of Police Headquarters. After the resolution of the aforementioned murder case, the dancing Blue Badger was seen to stop dancing and collapse; the panel's ultimate fate is unknown.

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth had this reaction to the panel: "What the hell is that wriggling piece of plywood!?"

In Gatewater Land, a replica of the original dancing panel can be seen at the entrance, though it doesn't appear to dance.

The Pink Badger

 * Main article: Recipe for Turnabout

By the beginning of 2019, the Blue Badger had been fully adopted as the Police Department's mascot, and the chief detective had created a female version called the Pink Badger. The two were handcuffed together, in what the detective said was an allegory for marriage.

Gatewater Land

 * Main article: The Kidnapped Turnabout

The Gatewater Group adopted the Blue Badger and his friends as a main attraction of their theme park, Gatewater Land, as a show of gratitude for the police department's role in solving various cases related to their properties. In the park are employees wearing costumes of the Blue Badger and the Pink Badger, as well as their antagonist the Bad Badger and the "original" Proto Badger. An ongoing contest in the park has people trying to find all four Badgers. A show occurs regularly in which the Blue, Pink and Proto Badgers try to stop the Bad Badger from fulfilling his evil plans; this is the only time in which the Bad Badger actually appears, making it difficult for people to win the Badger-hunting contest.

Popularity
Maya Fey thinks that the Blue Badger is cute, as do Trucy Wright, and Pearl Fey. Kay Faraday has said to think it's evil even though she knows of the Bad Badger. Most other people regard it as slightly creepy. Despite this, the Blue Badger has become somewhat of a franchise, with Badger T-shirts being seen in people's possession from time to time. For example, Wocky Kitaki wears a Bad Badger T-shirt and Maggey Byrde is seen wearing a Blue Badger hoodie while off duty. The Blue Badger is the mascot for the Gavinners as well; it is often used in promotional items and events for them, as well as some of their guitars. There is also a sticker of the Blue Badger on one of their instrument cases.

Name

 * The name "Blue Badger" may be a reference to the "The Blue Bomber", a nickname of the titular character from the Mega Man video game series. This theory is supported by Proto Badger having a similar name to Proto Man, another character in the Mega Man series. While the Blue Badger seems not to resemble a badger at all, it is likely that "Badger" was chosen for the alliteration and the presence of the word "badge" inside it.


 * The name may also be a reference to The Pink Panther.


 * The Japanese name "Taiho" translates to "arrest".

Development

 * The Blue Badger was probably inspired by "Pipo-kun", the Tokyo Police mascot.