"I'm the razor-sharp fangs of the Defiant Dragons!"

... Datz Are'bal!
NAME; Datz Are'bal, Ahnon Ihmus (TBD)
AGE; 46 :3 dont he look good for it
HEIGHT; 6'1 bro stop going to jail the lakers need you 😭
datz is the sole right-hand man of the defiant dragons, a revolutionary group in the fictional country of khura'in!
he is ex-military (a former paratrooper) and certified UTTER FREAK!!

"Not all Khura'inese people are like him... I swear."

-quote from dhurke who is being rude as hell for no reason (but like, it's not wrong)

when thinking about the datz, there is a few things to note, but most important is that he is an utter freak. i cannot express this enough. you might think "well everyone in ace attorney is a little bit of a freak" and that's true but datz is UP THERE...! it probably doesn't translate well over text, but i'll try.
you meet him inexplicably at the foot of a mountain, and he is not exactly datz. in fact he is amnesia'd. he does not know A Damn thing. he's a shaggy freak who wanders off after making it very clear that he does not know A Damn thing.
then he shows up at the trial (because there's a trial) the very next day as the key witness or whatever despite being amnesia'd and lies the whole time.
this gives the main character a death sentence btw ☝️ but regardless, at his base instincts, when he does not know who he is or what is happening, he shows up to Lie and Fuck everything up and then he Leaves. OKAY

_{mind you he was in prison for like, a week, so no one knows why he's so fucking shaggy and bearded. he gets clean shaven immediately after this}

but that's not the weirdest, at all, it's just your introduction to him. as this amnesiac nuisance who laughs in your face and gets you and your friend a death penalty and then "regains his memory" and runs off. Ok
which btw, he was at the mountain for like, a good reason (escaping prison because he is a rebel and a criminal) but for the longest time he will just insist that he was parachuting around for fun and sport. "oh i wanted to pray away from everyone 'cause i'm... afraid of crowds!" DUDE

non-exhaustive list of shit he does, for no reason;

attacks phoenix wright (the main character of ace attorney) (if you didn't know) in the middle of the sewers (which leads to the entrance of the defiant dragons' headquarters)
threatens him with a knife as soon as phoenix wakes up in said headquarters (this is a trick. he is peeling apples. hey, want an apple?)
threatens him with a knife again, after lying to him Several More Times (this is a trick. he is testing phoenix's loyalty. BUT STILL?)
tricks phoenix into wearing a moldy old jacket for no damn reason. laughs in his face afterwards
i'm like pretty sure he tries to do this to apollo too (second main character of spirit of justice)
gets caught in a doghouse and arrested, overseas, for tresspassing, while fleeing the cops, and hiding in a doghouse, from the cops, in a doghouse,
throws a firecracker at a child, calls his dog a cop, and tries to conscript him into the revolution. this is important evidence for a trial
"Knowing Datz, he probably packed his dumbbells in there." ('there' being a suitcase, which he brought overseas. Girl what do you MEAN?)

well, just think of him as a very xD random character with no impulse control

"And would you risk your life for your beliefs?"

oh, silly datz, joke datz, comedy relief datz. trust, it's what he is, but it's not all he is...
that's right we got a certified "goofball with a serious heart" on our hands. oh joyous days. i love it so MUCH. he's rarely serious in this game, trust, but it shines through every so often...
and it makes me think that he must really be a capable, mature guy, when it REALLY counts. one can only hope anyway.
there's few things datz locks in for, but of course... he's a good right hand man, so if the topic is revolution, trust that datz isn't messing around.
he takes his job seriously!!!

_{h-hey where did the jokes go}
datz threatening to 'take phoenix out' if he didn't pass the vibe check?! the defiant dragons are stated to be leading a bloodless revolution, but datz knocked phoenix out once already..
and that part about feeling responsible for the high priest's death lives in my mind rent free. what do you MEAN? for the record, datz really had nothing to do with it... this is a fellow rebel who was murdered. datz is found mourning the high priest in private. it's such a sad little moment. how many of his allies has he lost already?
up until this point, datz has only been a weird little freak dipshit. he continues being this, don't get me wrong, i will never take this man's goofiness away from him, but he hits you with these moments of deadly seriousness..
you really get the impression he lives for this revolution... it's what he's spent half of his life fighting for, after all! (literally!)

_{IT'S NOT METAPHORICAL HE HAS A CHEST TATTOO AND I CANPROVE IT}

"But as Dhurke said, and I quote..."

at his core, to me, datz is a deeply loyal character. i've mentioned it before, that he's the right hand man of a revolutionary group in khura'in... and oftentimes, there's the trope of the sneaky second-in-command who betrays and belies his group for whatever reason. well there isn't a crumb of that here!!
datz is the most unflinchingly loyal and devoted character i ever did see! his dedication not only to the defiant dragons, but to dhurke sahdmadhi himself, is just remarkable. it's insane. the majority of datz's dialogue is about dhurke, his beliefs, and their dreams of revolution..

_{don't worry about the assassination thing ok?}
that "will of the dragon" thing, i swear, it's branded on datz's soul... dhurke is his leader, of course, the leader of this revolution that datz follows so dutifully. it makes sense when dhurke talks about the will of the dragon so strongly- it's something he came up with.
but datz learned it from dhurke, and believes in it just as much. because he is LOYAL !!! no one can disagree... and yeah, okay, the assassination thing. that's the core of spirit of justice's conflict, this false accusation.
i'm convinced there wasn't a second of datz's life where he thought dhurke might be guilty. i'm not going to explain the whole timeline here, but it's implied that datz was by dhurke's side when that accusation came down- he was helping try to find apollo's mother as soon as It All happened.
you'd have to be pretty close to a guy to help him find a baby's mom while he's being accused of treason. at least, i think so. but loyalty is one way to put it...

"He's become a hero! The pride and joy of Khura'in!"

another way to put it is love.
i am TELLING you that beyond everything, the goofiness and sillies and serious and devotion, datz is a character based on love!!!!
one can say that any revolution story is one of love, for your country and your compatriots and the people you're fighting for. which, yes, true!! so i've already demonstrated that love,
but there's also a more personal love. by which i mean, it's that serial uncle shit he's doing. i cannot express to you how much this man talks about dhurke's family.
dhurke sahdmadhi has two sons, apollo justice (adopted) and nahyuta sahdmadhi (dhurke gave birth to him, or so i'm told) and for most of the game, dhurke isn't really there to exposition about them...
which means it's datz's job to do this. and oh my god Does He Do This.

_{"dhurke's been beside himself" IM SURE YOU KNOW THAT DATZ}
THE ONLY EXPLANATION IS THAT HE LOVES THESE KIDS LIKE HIS OWN. I AM TELLINGGG YOUUU!!!
not to mention how much datz geeks out about dhurke in particular. pay no attention to the tab on the left side of the screen labeled "dhurkedatz" don't worry about that
so much of what datz says about nahyuta has this undertone of "i saw this kid grow up, promising to do great things, and now he's troubled and i don't know how to help." like, there's a gentle caringness to it, i think. he wants to help yuty, not just for the sake of the revolution... but because he likes this kid and wants him to be happy!
not to mention, the "the day we all went fishing" line. datz being close enough to get invited on family fishing trips? yuppp BECAUSE HE'S FAMILY! BECAUSE HE LOVES THAT FAMILY! CAN ANYONHEAR ME IM LOSING IT

this isn't the kind of thing that a casual family friend says. this is someone who KNOWS that family... who loves that family just as much. that much i'm sure of.

datz is just. such a good character. he's so bright and strong and silly and loving. he's the ultimate supporter the ultimate hype-guy... datz world forever.........