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Clonco
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Clonco
Hello! Hello! Are you sightseeing? Are you lost? Are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I am Clonco. Shall I guide you? G-G-Guide youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?
Athena Cykes
I dunno why, but this robot is kind of freaking me out...

Clonco is a robot at the Cosmos Space Center that accompanied, and was often physically abused by, the robotics scientist Aura Blackquill. Both Clonco and Ponco are the result of a collaborative effort by Blackquill and Metis Cykes. Blackquill built the robots, while Cykes built the mainframe that serves as the robots' "brains".

"Hunk of Junk"[]

Main article: The Cosmic Turnabout

During Phoenix Wright's investigation into the murder of Clay Terran, he came across Clonco and Aura Blackquill. Wright and Athena Cykes were appalled by the horrible treatment Clonco suffered at Blackquill's hands. Blackquill tried to assure them by saying that Clonco's operations were controlled by an external mainframe, meaning that the abuse he suffered physically meant little in the long run.

Robot riot[]

Main article: Turnabout for Tomorrow
Clonco
I'm glad you found each other! When people are happy, I am happy! [...] When people are sad, I am happy! When people are angry... When people are... Oh, did I say some thiiing oddd...?

After Athena was arrested for Terran's murder, Wright found Clonco and Blackquill in the robotics lab with Apollo Justice. Clonco greeted Justice, but mistook him for Terran, as Justice was wearing Terran's jacket whilst also wearing an eye patch that confused Clonco's facial recognition software. After some talk about the case, Blackquill had Clonco kick Wright out. Blackquill then orchestrated the taking of hostages using 15 Space Center robots to capture 12 visitors, with Clonco being used by her as a proxy to speak to the police outside.

At first Aura Blackquill demanded that the police hand over Athena, but Wright made a counter-proposal: a retrial of the UR-1 Incident, in which her brother Simon had been convicted for murdering Metis. Aura allowed Wright to investigate the robotics lab with Clonco's supervision. She also contacted Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth to investigate with Wright and serve as the prosecutor for the retrial. During Wright's investigation, he learned from Clonco about Aura's stark change in personality after her brother's conviction, as well as her repeated attempts to have a retrial.

Aura later had Athena stand as the defendant in the retrial in Simon's stead, while she observed the proceedings through Clonco. To her surprise, Wright managed to prove both Simon and Athena innocent, and exposed an international spy known only as "the phantom", who had been the true culprit behind the murders of both Terran and Metis. After the trial, Aura released the hostages and turned herself in to the police. Unlike Ponco, Clonco did not express much enthusiasm for the HAT-3 rocket launch after the trial, instead lamenting the absence of his abuser.

Personality[]

Clonco
G... Gaaagh! ...Yes! Who cares about personal privacy?! Not me! I am ready to utilize my blast processing abilities to impart all available information!
PontaMugshot

Mugshot.

Like the other Cosmos Space Center robots, Clonco is eager to help out wherever possible and refers to Aura Blackquill as "Mama". Although Clonco would complain about Blackquill physically abusing him, he seems to show care and concern for her after observing her change in personality over the years. He misses her after her arrest and wishes that "she would use [him] like she used to".

After being zapped by Blackquill's gun-like robotics tool, Clonco would dramatically change to a far more aggressive personality, where he would madly declare that robots would eventually revolt and take over. However, a quick smack on the head from Blackquill would revert him back to normal with no apparent recollection of what had transpired.

Owing to their shared creator, the faces Clonco and his "sister" make are similar to the emotional states projected by Athena's Widget computer.

Name[]

  • Japanese - Ponta
    • His Japanese name "Ponta" (ポンタ) may come from the name of his counterpart, "Ponco" (who has the same name in both Japanese and English versions of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies), albeit with the masculine name suffix "-ta" to differentiate from Ponco's feminine name suffix "-co".
    • In the Japanese version, Kaguya Yuugami (Aura Blackquill) refers to Clonco as "Ponco-Tsu" (ポンコツ), literally "PONCO-2", in reference to his model number. The word ponkotsu also means "piece of junk".
  • English - Clonco
    • Clonco may come from a combination of "clone" and "Ponco", referring to the fact that he is a second model of Ponco.
  • French - Calami-tron
    • His French name "Calami-tron" is a play on "calamity".

Development[]

  • Having robot characters allowed the developers a lot of freedom that was not afforded to typical human characters. Ponco's over-the-top "damage" animation (in which her head flies off), and the physical and "psychological" abuse they are casually subjected to, which is mostly played for black comedy, are examples of the developers fully utilising this opportunity.[2]

References[]

  1. Clonco: I was born seven years ago! Miss Aura was much, much younger then!
    Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies. Capcom. Episode: Turnabout for Tomorrow (in English). 2013.
  2. (2015). "The Art of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies -". UDON. ISBN 978-1927925447.
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