"I'll get you..."
Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You have been warned!- EVERYTHING about Lyle Hemlock!
- For starters, this guy is a Master of Disguise that can LITERALLY be ANYONE and EVERYONE! He can even impersonate their voices better than two other Big Bads of the main/canon series! The fact someone like this can literally live among you is downright terrifying especially considering this guy is a complete psychopath! The fact that the likes of Vex Vulper, Schaden Freude, and Renwick Smith pissed their pants whenever they heard Hemlock's name shows that even the most evil and corrupt people can fear someone. It doesn't help that Hemlock has them all at the tips of his fingers.
- Another thing to point out is his terrifying temper. Whenever this dude gets pissed, as both Vulper and Smith said, you're pretty much screwed unless you do whatever he says. His angry expression (ESPECIALLY the one when he was still masquerading as Robert Snow) is a very frightening Jump Scare indeed. It doesn't help that this guy is REAL easy to piss off especially when one presses his Berserk Button.
- His reveal was frightening enough to make Matt Engarde proud! It's very jarring because 80% of the game, you were used to seeing the sarcastic Robert Snow and his usual expressions. To find out he isn't even real and to see Hemlock's face underneath was just terrifying. And then he blackmails Phoenix into playing along during the trial, or else he'll go to Kurain Village, where Maya is staying, burn it to the ground, and make it look like Phoenix did it! And just before the part ends, he calls Phoenix imitating Edgeworth and Maya herself, while discussing every morbid detail of this!
- His appearance. Goodness, this dude definitely looks like he could be a prisoner on death row (ironically, he attempted to off Vex Vulper this way). The tattoo on top of his head could easily be mistaken for veins from a distance especially considering how easy it is for this guy to get upset.
- His theme song is even more intimidating than Brisbane's, which is actually called "Intimidation Personified"!
- His VERY CREEPY puppet obession! He has puppets of literally EVERYONE in the game! Even the Judge!
- EVERYTHING that happens with him during the last moments of the game. For starters, after Edgeworth finally revealed Snow as Hemlock, Hemlock's first action is to take to the judge's chair and HAVE HITMEN AROUND THE COURT POINT LOADED GUNS TOWARD EVERYONE THREATENING TO KILL THEM IF THEY SHOULD TRY TO RUN!!! It doesn't stop there: when he is backed into a corner, he plants a self-destruct program into EVERYONE'S PHONES THREATENING TO BLOW THEM ALL UP IF THEY SHOULD SPEAK OUT OF TERM!!! The fact you're stuck in a courtroom with a madman threatening to either have you shot at or blown to kingdom come is just unnerving. Thought it was pretty badass that Phoenix, Edgeworth, and The Judge kept their composure for most of this (thought they are sort of used to this by now).
- The worst part of all is his actual personality and motivations. Hemlock's defining emotion is happiness of all things. He's someone who takes the expression "follow your dreams and you can do anything" to its most disturbing extreme. The whole reason he took over a criminal empire and planted surveillance on everyone? So he can be happy and positive all the time. And he genuinely feels he's justified in everything he does, from murder to blackmail to international smuggling, because it's all to make him happy, and we're all told as kids that being happy is a good thing, right? This guy somehow manages to make a huge, beaming grin look worse than a Slasher Smile!
- Erol Brisbane is a rather terrifying man when you first meet him. His appearance, especially that red eye of his and the constant shouting, is enough to have Phoenix and The Judge cower in fear. However, this becomes subverted later once Brisbane allows his anger to take control to the point he isn't even a threat anymore. Hell, Phoenix even gives Brisbane an effective Reason You Suck Speech and The Judge shuts up Brisbane whenever the latter tries to cut him off or complains.
- Vex Vulper, oh yes, Vex Vulper! The Red Devil of the Court deserves his own bullet section.
- For starters, his appearance. There is a reason he is known as the Red Devil. Spiky red hair where part of it resembles a devil's tail and an overall hotheaded personality? Check! A very toothy smile that can even frighten a hardass like Renwick Smith? A theme song that not only fits with him personally but is even CALLED 'Red Devil?' Check!
- After Vincenzo reveals him as the murderer of Jack Crane, Vulper's breakdown shakes the entire courtroom, and after coming to, he looks up with an archetypal Kubrick Stare, threatening to 'get' him! It doesn't provide the image for this page for nothing!
- The fact he killed Titus Krump and impersonated him for a whole week is pretty freaky. Just imagine talking to who you think is your best friend, when it's actually a psychopathic escaped convict that killed him a week earlier! ESPECIALLY at one point when he tried to give Phoenix and Maya poisoned tea.
- His Sanity Slippage by the third case was pretty terrifying to see as well as the once cocky and jerk of a prosecutor is now a broken down man who relies on his alter-ego Titus Krump to keep him busy. HOWEVER, it is hinted that Vulper is just playing around.
- However, Vulper's personality is a bit of a Nightmare Retardant mainly because, well, he's so damn funny! His Sanity Slippage coupled with his EXTREMELY trollish behavior actually made him one of the most popular characters in the game despite the creator clearly wanting to make him one of the most hated. It also helps that he sorta turns out to be a Tragic Villain.
- Schaden Freude's Rage Breaking Point. This guy LITERALLY bursts on fire and suddenly dons a Slasher Smile that makes even Vulper's look tame! It makes you think who really is the true Red Devil in this game! Granted, unlike Vulper, Freude isn't really evil and is only behaving that way when he is backed into a corner.
- Also, Freude has BY FAR the SCARIEST breakdown in the entire game! You thought he was on fire before, this guy practically ERUPTS when he loses it! Just LOOK at the eyes! They're complete soulless!
- However, if Phoenix presents the wrong evidence during ANY of Freude's Rage Breaking Point statements, he BREAKS Phoenix's badge, resulting in a Bad Ending. This fanon game does take place before Apollo Justice where Phoenix has his badge revoked, but to have it literally break in his face? Wow...
- The whole ghost mess at the Maplethorpe Hotel is pretty frightening especially from the story that is told. Not to mention hearing a gunshot and a loud scream at 1 in the morning is pretty jarring as well. Later subverted as there isn't really a ghost as it was just a hat and a coat on a coatrack.
- Cedric Maplethorpe's Villainous Breakdown, (though he isn't really much of a villain). This guy is screaming out of the top of his lungs until his face turns blue! He passes out shortly after that but regains himself to confess to the crime. It was a shame since, as stated about, he wasn't that bad of a person as he shot Nyph by accident and truly cared for Maris and didn't mean her any harm.
- The Vulper interrogation situation during the third case. There was a blackout and two men were trapped in a room with a homicidal killer. If that doesn't invoke paranoia, then nothing does. Later subverted that Vulper was knocked out and there was an even BIGGER maniac in the room just waiting to plan his next move! Poor Warren...
- You have to admit, when you first heard and thought Brisbane had been murdered, it's pure fear that there is someone out there that can actually take down Brisbane. Seeing him in the hospital in a coma just beaten up is not only frightening, but damn tearjerking as well. Even if Brisbane has been nothing but an asshole during the majority of the game, not even he deserves that.
- You're out 5am in the morning ready to go to work, when you see a tall man wearing a white mask just turn to greet you and turn the other way. Even a strict person like Weever couldn't help but be frightened at this person.
