Character Background and Appearance--Warning for AAI spoilers.
Background:
Tyrell Badd was born to a lower-class family in an unknown city. He became a detective in his early 20s and quickly established himself as a competent officer, willing to throw himself into dangerous situations and skilled enough to come out alive. He was eventually partnered with rookie prosecutor Byrne Faraday, and after some initial friction the two formed a close friendship and Badd’s skill helped him ascend to the office of High Prosecutor. Badd even became a godfather figure to Faraday’s daughter Kay when she was born about five years later, and Kay often referred to him as “Uncle Badd”.
In 2001 Badd was assigned to protect Cece Yew, a whistleblower ready to inform on the activities of a smuggling ring working from inside the Cohdopian Embassy. He failed, and Cece was stabbed to death by Manny Coachen.
The evidence against Manny Coachen was overwhelming and Faraday felt confident that he would at least get Cece some justice. However, an agent of the smuggling ring stole the evidence right before the trial and Coachen was exonerated. This infuriated Badd and Faraday, as well as Cece’s defense attorney sister Calisto Yew, who blamed them for the fiasco (later known as the KG-8 Incident, after the case number). All three felt that the justice system had failed and was simply not competent enough to capture those who put themselves above the law…so they decided they’d have to take up the slack. Thus was formed the Great Thief Yatagarasu.
Taking their name from the image of a three-legged-bird used on the smuggling ring’s message cards and using a pallet-swapped card as their insignia, the trio stole evidence of corrupt dealings from businesses and sent it to the media to be exposed. Badd’s role in the plan was to be the head of the Yatagarasu investigation and use his position to hide and destroy any evidence that might get them caught. He continued to wear the bullet-hole-riddled trenchcoat he wore during Cece’s murder, letting it be a reminder of his own failure and motivation to continue fighting.
Unbeknowst to her partners, Calisto Yew was not Cece’s sister. She was actually an agent of the smuggling ring itself, there to keep an eye on the Yatagarasu and make sure it didn’t get too close to the truth.
The group functioned for three years, culminating in Faraday breaking into the Cohdopian Embassy and stealing a key-shaped artifact late referred to as the ‘Yatagarasu’s Key’. Unfortunately for the Yatagarasu the smuggling ring decided they had gone too far and ordered Yew to put an end to the matter.
On the night of the heist a thug named Mack Rell, under orders from Yew, murdered another potential whistleblower with the very unfortunate name of Deid Mann. Again there was obvious evidence to the thug’s guilt, and due to the similarities it was known in the courts as the second KG-8 Incident. Faraday sent the Key to the police rather than the media (since they were on the investigation team, he was basically sending it from his illegal self to his legal self). Yew became his attorney and Rell claimed that he was the Yatagarasu, although he didn’t recognize the key when it was shown to him. In a shocking twist, after entering the court Rell claimed that the Yatagarasu was the one who had ordered the hit on Mann-and that Faraday was the Yatagarasu!
The trial was suspended pending appointment of a new prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth. Faraday pulled Rell and Yew into Defendant Lobby #2 and began yelling at the both of them. Yew feared that Rell would be intimidated and tell Faraday that she had told him to make the accusation. She stabbed Faraday and then shot Rell, arranging their bodies to make it seem they had killed each other. She then went into Defendant Lobby #1 to talk to Badd, having arranged the scene so that Badd would hear the sound of a recorded gunshot through the open windows and think the murder was happening at that moment rather than half an hour previously.
Playing into Yew’s hands, Badd burst into Lobby #2 right before court was set to reconvene to find his partner and best friend stabbed to death, with the gun used to kill Rell clutched in his hand. As upset as Badd was, he restrained his emotion for the sake of solving the crime and for the sake of ten-year-old Kay, who was roaming the courthouse waiting for her father to come out. At the pair’s request, Prosecutor Manfred von Karma forced Badd to let Edgeworth and von Karma’s young daughter Franziska head up the investigation into the murder.
While Edgeworth investigated the incident, Badd did the same and only grudgingly gave them any useful information at all. He also kept Kay busy, distracting her with a Swiss Roll and asking her to look for the Yatagarasu’s Key, which had gone missing during the investigation. The only time Badd even showed a hint of rage or grief was when someone insulted the late Faraday or was arrested as the murderer.
Eventually Edgeworth found evidence that indicated Yew’s part in the murder and cornered her to force her to confess. Badd was shocked to find out that she was a complete fraud and a killer, but before he could arrest her she pulled a gun and escaped out into the lobby. Badd chased her down, getting another hole in his trenchcoat for his troubles, but she disappeared.
Badd spent the next seven years searching for her and found nothing.
In March of 2019 Badd broke into Faraday’s old office, now belonging to current High Prosecutor Edgeworth, to retrieve the old Yatagarasu investigation files. He discovered the office had already been ransacked and the corpse of Detective Buddy Faith on the floor, but forced himself to simply move the corpse away from the bookcase and leave it to be found by others. Unfortunately Edgeworth returned to his office before Badd could leave and Badd held him at gunpoint. He made his escape into the hallway, leaving behind a Yatagarasu card, then took the papers he needed and left the rest of the files wedged underneath one of the hallway benches.
The next day the former Cohdopian Embassy (now the Allebahst and Bahbahl Embassies, Cohdopia having suffered a civil war in the intervening seven years) received one of the Yatagarasu cards. There was later a fire, an apparent Yatagarasu appearance, and two murderers (one of Manny Coachen, the other of a hired thief of little note) in the embassies and Badd was called in to investigate. He wandered in and out of the investigations of other parties, and since the plot revolved around Edgeworth it wasn’t clear exactly what he was doing during this period.
Badd didn’t majorly come back into play until Edgeworth’s final interview with Shih-na, the assistant to Interpol Agent Shi-Long Lang. After many grueling arguments Edgeworth had discovered that Shih-na was actually a disguised Calisto Yew, still working for the smuggling ring with a new name and face. Shih-na abruptly grabbed Kay and put a gun to her head, intent on taking her hostage and laughingly revealed that the ring had three members. She named herself and Faraday, but was interrupted by the click of another gun being cocked at her back-Badd had snuck up behind her. He would have killed her if Lang had not jumped in front of him, taking the bullet to his leg and wrestling Shih-na away from Kay.
As Lang took Shih-na away Badd revealed the true story of the Yatagarasu and admitted his own part in the plan. He handed over two pieces of evidence to Edgeworth, a security tape obtained from an arrested ring member and a bloodstained smuggling ring card he’d stolen from Edgeworth’s office-the evidence that would have convicted Manny Coachen. While it couldn’t be admitted in court, Badd hoped that Edgeworth might find some way to put them to use and said that he considered the work of the Yatagarasu to finally be finished. He then told Gumshoe to place him under arrest and, very unwillingly, Gumshoe put his detective idol in handcuffs.
Badd was later called to testify to the Yatagarasu’s activities and to provide information on the smuggling ring, but presumably was still convicted and sentenced to jail time.
Canon Period:
Badd is from right after testifying at Calisto Yew’s trial.
Profile:
Badd is your basic noir detective archtype. He’s a distrustful, guilt-ridden, badass loner who carries a gun and a dark past. While many admire his expertise he has no real interest in forming close relationships or being people’s friends, and when he shows softer emotions it’s only in the most restrained of ways. He’s good at getting into a criminal’s head (of course he is, he’s one himself) and hunting down his target with tenacity, but he doesn’t seem to derive a lot of personal satisfaction from the hunt itself.
The ex-detective has exactly one soft spot and her name is Kay Faraday. She’s the closest thing he has to a daughter and he cares about her more than anyone else in the world. The attachment is tempered with the guilt of how he let her father die. Canonically he’s willing to kill for her and he’d probably die for her if given the chance.
Badd has two trademark items that are indicative of his personality. The first is a lollipop, usually pink flavored. Since Landel’s doesn’t have a candy store he’ll probably find other ways of exercising his sweet tooth or find something like a toothpick to chew on instead. The lollipop’s an indicator of his mood, as he usually takes it out when he’s excited or needs to talk quickly, while most of the time he speaks slowly and deliberately as if plotting every word. He is a very thoughtful man and doesn’t give up information easily.
The other is a small handmirror kept in his coat pocket. Badd keeps it near his gun (sometimes fooling bystanders into thinking he’s about to shoot them when he reaches for it) and frequently takes it out to eye his reflection. Under the illusion of vanity he uses the mirror to look where he can’t directly see and make sure he knows what’s going around him. It doubles as a way to completely ignore any annoying young people who are trying to bother him, which to him tends to be most non-Kay individuals below the agent of twenty. Again, he won’t have one at Landel’s but the paranoia that led to him having it will remain.
While Badd could not be called a bad cop by anything other than an incredibly horrific pun, he’s willing to bend the law to achieve more noble ends. Despite his prowess as a detective (he’s passed up numerous opportunities for promotion so he can stick to detective work) Badd isn’t especially fond of his job by the end of the game. Yew is captured almost exactly on the stroke of midnight on the day he would have been forced to retire and it’s implied that he could have retired sooner if he hadn’t been obsessed with hunting down Yew. After his arrest he asks to be called Mr. Badd rather than Detective Badd and says he will leave chasing the rest of the smuggling ring to younger folks. He’s very weary of his work and now only wants to relax and move on with what little is left of his life.
Since the hunt for Calisto Yew and the head of the smuggling ring has ended, the shadow haunting Badd has lifted and he feels a little more at ease. However, he still doesn’t allow himself to forget the people he has failed.
Mugshot:
Bad is 189 cm tall with strong, broad shoulders and weathered skin that is almost grey. His receding hair is black fading to grey, along with his mustache and goatee. The default expression on his features tends to be somewhere between annoyance and suspicion, which doesn’t make him come across as friendly. Even when he gets angry or upset he doesn’t show much violent emotion and his ‘startled’ animation is one of the least dramatic in the game. His face is large and sharp with narrowed brown eyes, reminding one of a hawk intent on prey. When he gets angry, his eyes bulge slightly and his hand darts inside his coat to touch his mirror (or his gun).There’s also manly hair on his arms and the back of his hands.
Canonically the holes in his jacket are all from gunshots and many are near his torso, so I’d also say he has a few bullet/stab scars from his decades of dangerous work.
Badd speaks slowly by default, his voice a sort of gravely noir gravel. He usually sucks on his lollipop when calm and takes it out when he needs to speak quickly or passionately. His movements are also rather slow and deliberate, although he can move very quickly when he needs to.
Superstitious Garbage Skills:
None.
Badass Normal Skills:
Badd has police detective training. Given his history I think it’s safe to say his combat (hand-to-hand and firearms) abilities are slightly beyond normal police levels due to the many dangerous situations he’s been through and not died from. His work as the Yatagarasu also left him with a few breaking and entering skills such as lockpicking.