Vex Vulper is a recurring antagonist in the Ace Attorney fan game The Contempt of Court. He is an evil prosecutor who murdered three people to get his hands on a rare and valuable metal. Despite this, after his incarceration, he ends up gaining sympathetic and redeeming qualities as the game progresses.
What Makes Him Sympathetic?[]
- He started out as a normal prosecutor, but soon became corrupted by his step-brother, Jack Crane, turning him into the arrogant, greedy, and selfish villain we see in Case 1.
- His downfall began when he noticed Jack acting strangely and followed him. At a unspecified location, he witnessed criminal activity by the secret organization Aculeus. Jack was a member of this group and forced Vex to join after realizing he had seen too much.
- Jack hooked him up with a forger who provided him with false evidence to use for his trials and maintain a perfect win record. Despite being against against the idea, Vex didn't have a choice and soon became corrupted over the years.
- In order to keep Vex in line, Jack leaked this secret to a blackmailer named Redd White.
- When Vex and Jack were tasked with transporting a rare and valuable metal known as enigmium, Jack decided to steal it and forced Vex to go along with it by revealing that if he backed out, he would have Redd White expose him for the forged evidence.
- They stole the enigmium and planned to split the profits after selling it, but Jack betrayed him by disguising it as a playing card and planning to split the profits with a law school buddy named Erol Brisbane.
- Feeling betrayed and like he deserved the enigmium after everything Jack put him through, he killed Jack.
- Though, it's somewhat understandable, given how bad of a step-brother he was.
- While his actions of injuring Brisbane, killing Titus Krump and Marvin Grossberg, and framing Vincenzo Cicatrice are pretty inexcusable, he does seem to express remorse for them in the third and final case.
- Due to the theft of the enigmium, he ended up becoming a target of the Aculeus leader, Hemlock. After being incarcerated, he became paranoid that Hemlock was coming to get him and faked being insane in order to throw everyone off. Though, it's possible that some of his sanity slippage was real as in the credits for the final case, we see him still taking on the personality of Titus Krump even though Hemlock was arrested.
- Later, it's revealed that Hemlock definitely wanted Vex dead, but not by his own hand. Instead, he decided to frame Vex for two murders and get his sentence upgraded to the death penalty.
- At the end of the third case, after maintaining his innocence throughout the whole thing, he suddenly decided to confess to both murders, due to fear of Hemlock. He even pushed the judge off his bench and sentenced himself to death over and over again.
- During the final case, Vex helps Phoenix Wright by giving him a finger puppet that Hemlock gave to him as a parting gift. This ends up being a vital piece of evidence in court.
- After Phoenix breaks his psyche locks, he yells "I didn't want this, Jack!" and looks either defeated or like he's sobbing. He then tells Phoenix everything, seems to express remorse for all the evil he's done in life, and tells him to take down Hemlock, not for him, but for everyone that Hemlock has hurt. If that wasn't enough, if Phoenix presents him with a gold star before breaking his psyche locks, he'll tell him to keep it as: "I don't deserve it."