It's become a topic of quite a bit of discussion in some prominent Ace Attorney fan communities since Chronicles came out. The biggest sticking point is how sanitized and unhealthy an idea it is to suggest that racism just happens because a character was personally wronged by someone from another country, and that with the way van Zieks is written, his arc comes across like all he needed was to meet "one of the good ones" and he'd magically stop being a virulently racist ass.
Edited by MATT_SUNSTON I'm what you call a "scope out the site for 5-6 years, THEN make an account" type.
I disagree. I think it does make perfect sense for some people to be racist due to a wrong that someone from that race committed to them. It's not portraying it as "sanitized" because there are still people who are racist because they believe genuine superiority. He stopped being racist because he was shown that everything he believed was a lie, Genshin wasn't actually the killer and it was his brother in actual fact, as well as meeting Ryunosuke who he says reminds him of both men and seeing how willing he is to find the truth.
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I have never seen anyone call Van Zieks racism poorly written. It having a definitive source, rather than just being a trait based on the time period, I'd argue actually makes it better.
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