meta: Nahyuta's Motivations

[bonnefois]

AA6 spoilers.



Game mechanics aside, the only reasoning you can take behind Nahyuta taking Ema into a potentially dangerous situation, where she could very well become ensnared in the web Ga'ran has the royal family in is that a part of him was he was too enthralled with her that he became reckless.

Nahyuta is forced to be cold and even hostile to defendants, to Apollo and even Dhurke to keep Rayfa and Queen Amara safe, but Ema is the one who talks of how kind he is, who has seen the true Nahyuta when he was forced to hide away from everyone else.

This is Nahyuta, the resignation prosecutor who is so stuck in his fate that all he can do is keep repeating the mantra of "let it go and move on" even as he can't, even as he's forced to do the unthinkable and hunt down his father and former allies and prosecute them to save his mother and sister. Even as Ga'ran wields that control over him like a noose that goes tighter and tighter. And yet Ema can only talk about how beautiful his smile, even as Apollo says his smile is gone.

Which means she made him smile again, she made him drop that harsh prosecutor's mask if even for a moment, and she made him believe again. Ema talks of a gentle Nahyuta, who is even playful at times. Even when she says he tricked her with how he spoke of Khura'in, yet is eager to go off to work with him in other cities and countries. Around Ema he honestly seems to even believe of a new fate and possibilities, instead of feeling chained and hopeless due to Ga'ran's manipulations.

And even the constant notes of he's grown fond of her and he's taken a liking to her are interesting because Ema, Dhurke and Apollo note that Nahyuta follows his mother's side in being very hard to read. Nahyuta is someone who keeps his feelings so hidden that you can't even use Perceive on him without him stopping you. And yet Phoenix, Athena, and even Edgeworth who literally can never tell if a woman is hitting on him even if they held up a giant neon sign, keep noting how fond he is of Ema.

In summary?

Nahyuta was forced into a harsh prosecutor's mask he doesn't drop except at the very end of 6-5 except around Ema.
Due to Ga'ran's manipulation, blackmailing his family, gaslighting and abuse, Nahyuta had lost all hope and was completely resigned to fate and the inevitable sacrificing himself or being forced to prosecute his own family and had stopped smiling or showing his true gentle side except around Ema.
He always keeps his true feelings and is completely unreadable, confirmed by every close family member and Ema, except literally everyone he runs into can see how fond he is of Ema to the point where even friggin' Edgeworth notices.
He is completely resigned about fate and had completely isolated himself from all his family, except he can't keep bringing Ema along, even if it's dangerous to reveal her to Ga'ran.

She's always the exception, even when he's on the verge of giving up.

Seriously, listing side by side, the cons of bringing Ema to Khura'in:
-literally exposing a possible weakness for Ga'ran to blackmail and control him further when she already had a vendetta against the rest of the royal family
-If Ga'ran had turned on him and executed him, Ema could be stranded in a hostile country
-Seriously Ga'ran could randomly put forward a "Prosecutor Culpability act" which sent losing Prosecutors and their detectives to the gallows if she wanted.
-It's a volatile country in the middle of a revolution, a revolution he used to be a part of, and revolutionaries who in fact he is being forced to track down and prosecute
-Ga'ran could try and frame her to hurt him, or not let her leave to keep another form of control
-Bringing Ema to a country with a ruler who personally wants to hurt him and his family could end up hurting both of them


Pros of bringing Ema to Khura'in:
-He gets to spend more time with her and share his culture with her.
-Again, he gets to spend a lot more time with her one on one. I mean have you SEEN AA6 Ema?
-He has a lot of peerage in Khura'in now.

Ignoring things like game meta which are obviously there, but not connected with Nahyuta's characterization--weigh the pros and cons here and Nahyuta's own personality and the only motive for him dragging Ema along everywhere starts and ends with "he has feelings for her and is so touch starved and isolated and miserable that he can't bring himself to step away even if he's putting everyone in danger."

Remember, He's too resigned at that point to want Ema to come along to improve Khura'in's infrastructure, and if he just wanted to be friends he could've just gotten her number and added her to the AA equivalent of Facebook (Lawyerbook?) and called her without taking her along with him to a potentially dangerous place. At this point it's a mix of desperation, and the fact he's bottled up his feelings and felt dead for so long he can't let go at the first feeling of warmth inside him again.

In fact, Nahyuta's life has been spent on the run/as a revolutionary/blackmailed, gaslit, controlled and abused by Ga'ran this could very well be the first time he really had feelings for someone. He's spent his entire life living for other people and the country of Khura'in, even to the point of being willing to lay down his life for his family and country. His reactions to Ema, and reactions to the world outside of Khura'in from love of food to absorbing knowledge of things like Rakugo could be the first taste of something other than duty and sacrificing his own feelings--and even life--for everyone around him.

The first time he let his defenses down like this, and even if he could ruin everything the feeling of being alive and grasping a bit of happiness is so addictive he can't let go. Conclusion? Nahyuta has spent the past couple of years so utterly isolated and controlled by Ga'ran that he was so touch-starved and reckless that he was willing to endanger them both to stay near the one person who made him feel alive again. And despite keeping his emotions so hidden, he somehow can't keep them quiet when it comes to her.


Edit: OblivionIsAtHand suggested also that being around Ema helped spark his rebel side and bring him back his revolutionary roots, by opening up his world to more evidence and proof. I think it's an interesting headcanon, so I'll just put that there.