don paolo deserved a better backstory that didn’t revolve around a dead female love interest who probably never once spoke to him
I got the distinct feeling that when Don Paolo was in Curious Village and Pandora’s Box, the writers hadn’t come up with a backstory for him yet, so they just had him hint darkly about it. Then, by the time they had to reveal it, they had three other villains with their own linked back stories running around, and just sort of made a rushed one so Don Paolo could be involved in the time machine business too.
Knowing that he’d been ejected from various scientific groups and organisations because his inventions and experiments were scaring people made me come up with all sorts of theories in my head as to how Layton might have crossed him.
Finding out he hated Layton, considered him his nemesis, took a personal interest in his cases and tried to kill him and his apprentice, all because Layon got the girl back in uni was the ultimate anticlimax, and it remains the thing I like the least about the entire series to this day.
I honestly found it hilarious that the only reason Don Paolo hated Layton was that Layton got the girl back in uni.
Don Paolo is very much a comic relief character, not to be taken seriously. The only character that really considers him a threat is Luke. He also just comes out of nowhere (Diabolical box was my first game and when DP appeared I was so confused) most of his appearances are just convenient ways to move the plot along.
So throughout the first trilogy you start wondering “what is this guys beef?” And when he gives some hints your mind starts thinking up all these badass backstories.
Then comes the revalation that his beef with Layton was because DP couldn’t get the girl.
The fact that DP tried to: murder layton with a ferris wheel, blow Layton up, steal from his former mentor, kidnap Layton’s adopted daughter and just be a general thorn in Layton side over something so minor is hilarious to me.
TLDR: Don Paolo is a comedy relief character and doesn’t have to be taken seriously.
To me, he had a lot of potential. But at the same time, even when he was the scary villain of Curious Village (not so much with Diabolical Box, because Anton had a lot more buildup as a villain), he was never really that threatening and definitely brought comic relief to otherwise more serious moments.
I read Don Paolo as someone who claims he’s the Evil Villain of the story but he’s actually really bad at being evil. I’m not even convinced he thought far enough ahead in his plans to go “wait, I could legitimately kill someone here.” (Hence his heel-face turn in UF, which works just fine even though there’s no real buildup.)
So… he’s visibly a little strange, his inventions are cool but weird and sometimes scary and have probably never been properly appreciated, and he fixates on the most obvious outlet: the handsome, gentlemanly, and widely admired professor who (in his mind) stole his crush.
(Honestly, I’m amazed that Descole never thought to hire the guy.)
So… yeah, his canon motivations are pretty weak and were probably thrown in at the last minute. And yeah, he deserved a more developed backstory. But I agree that he’s more of a comic relief villain, so I’m not horribly bothered by it.
apotheoseity
