Max Galactica

"Max Galactica"

- Ab-so-lute-ly... FABULOUS!!

"Valant Gramarye"

- YES! NOW COME HERE AND LET'S HAVE MAGICAL SEX!

Billy Bob Johns, known more commonly by his stage name Maximillion "Max" Galactica, is a magician and the most well-known performer at the Berry Big Circus. He was the defendant in the murder of Russell Berry, the circus's ringmaster. He is also married to Valant Gramarye.

Humble beginnings
A "country bumpkin", Johns became a magician to try and repay the debts that his father had amassed at the family farm. He was never quite sure what he wanted to be when he grew up, although he had narrowed it down to either Magician or President and struggled to choose between them. He earned quite the reputation for himself as "Maximillion Galactica", and went on to sign an exclusive contract with the Berry Big Circus on March 2017. The ringmaster, Russell Berry, signed him on in an attempt to save their ailing circus.

Tensions rise at the circus
Berry's plan succeeded and Galactica became the biggest attraction of his circus, much to the chagrin of the other circus employees. Ever since he had joined, Galactica had been trying to get his fellow performers to be more ambitious. Unfortunately, his attempts just came off as bragging and arrogance to them. This was intensified when he won the Magician's Grand Prix, held by the Association of International Magicians, and was given a trophy along with a bust of himself. He put this bust in the circus cafeteria to show what his co-workers could accomplish with a little ambition, but they thought he just was showing off and rubbing their noses in his success. Six months after the initial contract signing, Galactica negotiated an "incredible" pay raise due to his success.

Galactica also fell in love with his "sweetie pie" Regina Berry, the ringmaster's daughter. However, he was not the only one, as the ventriloquist Benjamin Woodman had also fallen for the naïve animal tamer. Therefore the tension between the two of them was particularly strong and eventually reached a head.

Murder of the ringmaster

 * Main article: Turnabout Big Top

On 27th December 2017, a week after the pay raise, Russell Berry and Galactica met in the Ringmaster's room to talk about an incident that had happened that morning. During breakfast, Galactica and Woodman got into an argument over Regina, the two men having both professed their love to her on the same day. The argument ended in violence when Galactica, goaded by Woodman via his puppet Trilo (who called him a "no-good talentless hack of a fast food magician"), grabbed a glass juice bottle and brought it down on the ventriloquist's head.

This was the reason that Russell had called Galactica to his office after practice, but the magician took the opportunity to discuss his desire to wed Regina with the girl's father. Although Russell apparently wasn't adverse to the idea, he left during the meeting to deal with something important and never returned. The ringmaster's corpse was later found sprawled over a large trunk, having been killed from a blow to the back of the head.

Since Galactica was the only one of the circus performers without a solid alibi, he was arrested for the murder. Although he initially thought he was helping the police with their inquiries, he eventually realized the seriousness of the situation, with a little prompting from Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey. A distraught Galactica temporarily reverted to his true "country bumpkin" self and begged for Wright to help him, which the defense attorney agreed to do.

During his investigation, Wright discovered the resentment held against Galactica by the other performers, along with the fight for Regina's affection between Benjamin Woodman and Galactica. Wright eventually managed to prove Galactica's innocence and implicate the real killer: an acrobat named Acro. It turned out that Acro had intended to murder Regina, as punishment for not taking his brother's coma seriously. The coma was the result of an incident that occurred before Galactica had joined the circus.

Aftermath

 * Main article: The Kidnapped Turnabout

Moe took on Russell's position as ringmaster. With Bat, Russell and Acro gone from the circus, the remaining members revived the circus and decided to go global. Max Galactica performed at Gatewater Land in 2019.

Personality
"Phoenix Wright"

- (Fabulous! Why does he have to keep saying fabulous!?)



Galactica's obsession with own beauty and fame borders on narcissism, even constantly looking at the detention center cameras as if they were TV cameras. However, during certain times - such as when he found out he was being arrested for the murder and not just being questioned - he reverts to his true self, a "country bumpkin" with no trace of his former narcissistic demeanor.

It should be noted that he is also very territorial, fighting hard for the heart of Regina Berry with Benjamin Woodman. Despite his seemingly egotistical personality, he is actually just a very ambitious man who wishes to strive for excellence in his profession and tries to instill this in his colleagues. Unfortunately for him, his attempts to do so just come across as bragging to the others.

The centrepiece of Galactica's act is a stunt in which where he appears to fly above the audience, then suddenly disappear. He uses a cloak, silk hat and white roses as his signature symbols. Galactica had the hat custom-made from a sketch by Regina Berry, making it one-of-a-kind. He particularly likes the feather in its brim. Apparently, he originally thought you could never have too many symbols (amongst the other ideas considered were: a pair of sunglasses, a beauty mark, "soft pillows for lips", a beard and buck teeth), but eventually cut the number down to three since he worried if he forgot one then the audience would not know who he was. He always has to have a glass of milk before going on stage otherwise he finds it difficult to function. This was true even for his appearance in court.

He has a habit of over-using the word "fabulous" to describe just about everything.

Name

 * "Maximillion" is probably meant to sound like a rich, refined name.


 * "Galactica" is likely meant to make him sound glamorous and important, or possibly just as a reference to his galaxy-sized ego.


 * "Billy Bob Johns", his real name in the English version, is meant to make him sound like an unsophisticated country boy. A polar opposite to his "fabulous" stage personality. "Billy", "Bob" and "John" are also rather generic everyman names.


 * Galactica's real name in the French localization, "Pierre Paul Jacques", is likely meant to have the same meaning as "Billy Bob Johns", in that "Pierre", "Paul" and "Jacques" are rather generic French names. In fact, a French term for an unknown person or a nobody is "Pierre Paul Jacques".


 * The Japanese name "Kouhei Yamada" (山田耕平) also has the same connotations as "Billy Bob Johns".

Development

 * Of all the characters to appear in the Ace Attorney series so far, Galactica shows off the most skin.