| Di-Jun Wang (body double) |
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| Di-Jun Wang (body double) |
| You know how many times I've nearly been killed? Not once. Not twice. A bunch of times! Why do I have to take all the risks? Why am I the one they always put in danger? When I'm out there being him, people treat me like I WAS him. They worship me. So what's the difference? Who's to say I couldn't be just as good as him? |
An unnamed body double of President Di-Jun Wang of Zheng Fa was hired due to the hazards of the real president's job. However, having to put up with the dangerous nature of being the president with none of the perks caused the body double to develop a growing resentment towards his employer.
Assassination and identity theft[]
The real Wang's final minutes.
Resentful of having to put his life on the line every day without having the real Di-Jun Wang's power and respect, the body double resolved to have his employer assassinated and then assume his identity. With the help of the corrupt Chief Prosecutor Excelsius Winner and the Happy Family Home orphanage owner Fifi Laguarde, the body double began to put his plot into motion. Knowing that Wang would be visiting the Happy Family Home orphanage in order to visit his secret lover Amelie Fenn, the conspirators hired the deadly blind assassin Bodhidharma Kanis and sent him to murder the president. While Wang was at the orphanage, the body double had a meeting with Wang's head bodyguard, Da-Long Lang, at the Zheng Fa embassy.
After Wang's successful assassination, Winner and Laguarde planned to betray and kill Kanis later, but a boy at the orphanage named Simeon Saint (who had been saved by the assassin when he was younger) overheard and warned Kanis so that he could escape. Meanwhile, after the meeting with Lang, the body double headed to the orphanage to meet up with his co-conspirators. As he approached, he saw the photojournalist Alf Aldown at the orphanage entrance, watching the body double's co-conspirators moving the president's body. The body double promptly killed Aldown via a blow to the skull with a nearby brick.
To cover their tracks, the three conspirators removed Wang's body and replaced it with that of Aldown in order to obfuscate where the photographer had been killed and to disguise Wang's bloodstains on the surrounding snow, with Winner going on to use his influence to tamper with any blood tests. As the president's shoes had left footprints in the snow, the body double stepped over them and then planted his own, identical shoes onto Aldown's feet. It also turned out that Aldown had sent a voicemail message claiming to be witnessing a kidnapping, so the conspirators staged a kidnapping, using Aldown's camera to forge a photo of "Wang" being threatened just outside the orphanage by a mysterious assailant (actually Laguarde in disguise). Zheng Fa's government paid the supposed kidnappers a hefty ransom, and the body double returned and began his new life as the president of Zheng Fa. However, the body double, along with his co-conspirators Excelsius and Laguarde, had become the subject of a strong resentment within Saint.
The body double's greatest fear was being found out, and he became increasingly paranoid about those around him, even the Zheng Fa police. Because of this, he cut off the real president's closest friends, the Lang family, and used private bodyguards for protection. At some point, he hired a private security firm for protection, with Bastian Rook leading the team and Bronco Knight acting as second-in-command.
While the imposter was able to ride on the real president's legacy and popularity for the next 12 years, he was actually nowhere near as adept a leader as the real Di-Jun Wang had been. By 2019, his approval ratings had declined significantly, which had not been helped by the appearance of an international smuggling ring that smuggled counterfeit money into the country and crippled its economy. Fortunately, that particular problem would eventually be solved by the intervention of prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, who brought down the ring by having its leader arrested.
A fake assassination[]
The speech[]
Eager to capitalize on the smuggling ring's downfall, "Wang" thought to boost his ratings with a fake assassination attempt. He approached Rook about the idea, only to be rejected. As a result, he turned to Knight, who agreed to it, though "Wang" became slightly uncomfortable with the scheme upon seeing hatred toward Rook in Knight's eyes. Knight later came up with a plan that the president agreed to. As part of the plan, "Wang" would go to Gourd Lake to hold a speech, only for an assassin to shoot at him. However, as Rook had been against the idea from the very beginning, "Wang" and Knight had to pretend that the plan had been called off.
Two days before he was due to give his speech, the infamous assassin Shelly de Killer made an attempt on the life of "Wang" by infiltrating his bodyguards, but was foiled by the quick actions of Rook, who managed to seriously injure the assassin's arm. Unfortunately, this was not before de Killer was able to grasp Knight by the throat so tightly that the latter was forced to wear a neck brace afterward. This injury meant a slight adjustment to the security plan for the upcoming speech due to Knight being unable to turn his head to the right. Moreover, the other bodyguards were removed, leaving only Rook and Knight, so that de Killer would not be able to use the same tactic again.
Waving to the crowd.
Upon arriving at Gourd Lake, "Wang" exited his private plane onto an already set-up podium and proceeded to give his speech to the awaiting crowd, wherein he thanked those who had helped bring down the smuggling ring and promised to bring the remnants of the organization to justice. At the climax of the speech, Knight put the staged assassination attempt into action by surreptitiously firing into a nearby balloon. His bodyguards quickly escorted him back into the plane and into a special panic room. Although he was well aware that it was not a real assassination attempt, "Wang" was still frightened at the sound of gunshots, so he immediately proceeded to hide under the bed and cover his ears, forgetting to switch on the security video feed for the central room of the plane. He was still there when Rook was found dead inside his plane, and thus had no idea what had happened to his subordinate.
The plan falls apart[]
The body double's "strategic retreat" under his bed was soon interrupted by the arrival of Miles Edgeworth, who was investigating the "assassination". Accompanying him was Kay Faraday, Tabby Lloyd, and Shelly de Killer with a knife to Bronco Knight's throat. The assassin had taken the bodyguard hostage not only to board the plane, but also to force Edgeworth to continue his investigation after Knight had told them of Rook's death. Once inside the plane, de Killer knew that the security cameras around him would be linked to the panic room, and so announced to "Wang" that if he did not come out, Knight would die. Valuing his own life above his bodyguard's, "Wang" did not respond. De Killer eventually gave up, cut the power, and escaped in the ensuing confusion.
After making sure the coast was clear, "Wang" finally emerged. He introduced himself to Edgeworth, but immediately had him surrender his investigative authority and evidence by invoking extraterritorial rights. "Wang" did all this in an attempt to prevent the truth of the "assassination" being revealed. However, after a quick battle of wits, Edgeworth proved that he still had the right to investigate since the "assassination" had taken place outside, thus rendering the extraterritoriality rights of the presidential plane irrelevant.
True appearance.
"Wang" reluctantly agreed to testify about the speech. He told Edgeworth about the round red balloon that had burst from the gunshot he heard, and that when his two bodyguards attempted to escort him to the plane, a second gunshot had hit Rook. However, it turned out that the red balloon that had burst was a modified Steel Samurai balloon, which should have been obvious to anyone who saw it. "Wang" then said that a flag flapping in the wind had blocked his field of vision, but this ended up proving instead that Knight had been the one who had shot the balloon, due to a bullet hole in said flag. Upon having his fake assassination plot revealed, the body double was shocked into dropping his proud, commanding, and muscular persona to reveal his true self: a cowardly and pitiful man. Edgeworth would go on to discern that it had been Knight who had murdered Rook out of jealousy of his fellow bodyguard's superior abilities. "Wang" permitted Edgeworth to conduct a search of the plane, wondering whether he could truly trust Knight, which resulted in more evidence of his guilt.
After Knight's arrest, "Wang" reverted back to his presidential persona and thanked Edgeworth for solving the case and exposing one of his most trusted bodyguards as a murderer. He went on to state that he believed that his own anxiousness about the plan had given Knight the impetus for Rook's murder. "Wang" assured Edgeworth he would take responsibility for his role in the fake assassination and his subordinate's crime. However, with Excelsius Winner's assistance, "Wang" later arranged to have the incident covered up and Knight indicted for what "Wang" claimed was a real assassination attempt.
Death[]
Meeting with Verity Gavèlle.
Almost two weeks after the Gourd Lake incident, as part of his stay in the country, "Wang" visited the film set of the Taurusaurus vs. Gourdy film to play a cameo role, as the real president had been a fan of Taurusaurus. During his visit to the set, he encountered Shaun Fenn, who was unaware that the real president had fathered him with Amelie.
Later, Verity Gavèlle requested a meeting with "Wang", revealing that she wished to talk about Shaun. Fearing the implications of Shaun's existence for him, the body double arranged for the meeting to occur on the viewing platform at the top of the Bigg Building. He ordered that no one else be allowed to access the viewing platform during the meeting, not even his bodyguards, secretly bringing a gun with him. Once there, Gavèlle gave the body double a bouquet of lion lilies, a present that the real president had given to Amelie on their first meeting, to prove that she knew about Amelie.
During the meeting, the body double secretly spotted a hot air balloon rapidly heading towards him. In a panic, he told Gavèlle to leave before him. He then drew his handgun and fired at this oncoming threat. Unfortunately for him, he failed to stop it; the balloon flew into him, with its basket crushing him to death. The bouquet was also crushed and left a stain on the body double's clothes, as well as traces of pollen on the balloon basket. The pilot of the balloon was none other than Simeon Saint, who had not intended to meet the imposter there. He later speculated that the body double had intended to kill Gavèlle to prevent the existence of the president's son from exposing him as a fraud.
The body double's corpse.
Because Saint had set a different murder in motion at the Bigg Building, he transported the body double's corpse to the walk-in freezer of a warehouse near Sunshine Coliseum. The following night, Saint, flying the balloon once more, looked for a place to dump the body and found the filming lot at the base of the Bigg Building. Seeing that Shaun had accidentally caused a large prop Taurusaurus head to fall to the ground, Saint saw an opportunity to frame Shaun for the crime. After Shaun left the lot to answer a call from Gavèlle, Saint lowered the body from the balloon at one of the "footprints" dug in the ground, hoping that it would seem that the head had crushed "Wang". After Shaun returned, he spotted the body. Remembering that his mother, Verity Gavèlle, was supposed to meet "Wang", he panicked and quickly disposed of the crushed-up bouquet in a nearby trash can to protect her, put the fallen Taurusaurus head back on in its original place, and then fled. The next morning, the filming assistant Penny Nichols discovered the body and called for help, beginning the investigation on the incident.
Unfortunately for Saint, his attempt to frame Shaun failed, as Miles Edgeworth became involved in the case and not only figured out the true identity of the "Di-Jun Wang" he had met earlier, but also that Saint was the one who had murdered him. The decisive evidence was the bouquet of lion lilies, which had left traces on both the body and the balloon basket, connecting Saint to the incident.
Personality[]
Mugshot.
Despite his initially fearsome appearance being identical to that of the real president, the body double was only a shadow of the man he impersonated. In contrast to the real president, who had been a respectable and honorable man, the body double was a bully who would raise his voice and flaunt his status, all the while spouting an endless cascade of insipid, hollow rhetoric in order to cover for his actual lack of leadership skills. As a result, his bravado could be easily stripped away by careful negotiation.
The body double was a deceitful man who had no regard for others' lives. He had no qualms with sacrificing his own employer, his own men, and even innocent bystanders like Aldown, Gavèlle, and potentially Shaun for his own protection, though he seemed to respect Rook enough to chide Knight when he spoke ill of him. The body double was extremely paranoid about being assassinated, to the point that he prepared himself against several different possible assassination methods. Moreover, the sounds of gunshots terrified him greatly, and he was always the first to flee in dangerous situations. The body double was also quick to go back on his word, as seen in his conveniently framing Knight, despite stating to Edgeworth his willingness to suffer the consequences of his crime. This sheer cowardice and callousness are likely what caused de Killer to question whether he was the real president.
Development[]
- There are deliberate design and personality parallels between the body double and his subordinates and chess pieces. The body double himself is the king (due to his authority and seemingly commanding presence; however, Excelsius Winner could alternatively be seen as the king due to his own authority as chief prosecutor and chair of the Committee for Prosecutorial Excellence), Fifi Laguarde could be considered the queen (due to her gender and the seemingly extravagant furs she wears), Bastian Rook is the rook (due to his hairstyle, head shape, name pun, and his desire to protect his "king"), Bodhidharma Kanis is the bishop (due to his prayer beads, Buddhist-like leitmotif, his "fallen priest" nickname, and even the shape of his head), Bronco Knight is the knight (due to his mane-like hair, name pun, and his desire to protect his "king" by "leaping" over others, such as Rook), while everyone else could be considered mere pawns to him.