the promised Ryulock/Homumiko essay
So a few days ago, I made this post as a joke about the fact that there's just as much evidence for Ryulock as there is for Homumiko and left it on "In this essay, I will" because I thought it would be funny. I have decided to follow up on that joking comment because I feel like it (but also I'm with everyone who questions how/why Ryulock isn't more popular, you have two games' worth of content. I also mentioned at some point that I wanted to analyze the similarities between Sholmes's dynamic with Ryunosuke and his dynamic with Mikotoba). So, here's a Ryulock and Homumiko essay. Spoilers for both The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve will be present here, you have been warned.
Part 1: Ryunosuke's Role in Sholmes's Life
From their first meeting in The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band, Ryunosuke has fulfilled a specific role in Sholmes's life. The role of John H. Watson. This isn't as obvious as Mikotoba's dynamic with Sholmes (in fact, I never really acknowledged that Ryunosuke was fulfilling the role of Waston until after I finished the duology, and posted about Sholmes and Mikotoba's dynamic reminding me of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson), but it's still notable enough that The Watson is a trope under Ryunosuke's tropes on the TVTropes page for The Great Ace Attorney's main cast.
We can go even further and compare the third Dance of Deduction in The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band to the last Dance of Deduction in the duology (the former involving Ryu and Sholmes and the latter involving Sholmes and Mikotoba). In both, Sholmes is taking the situation seriously; he just found out that Kazuma was Ryunosuke's best friend in Speckled Band and so wanted to find the truth about what happened so Ryunosuke couldn't be incriminated anymore, and he was on a time crunch to find Jigoku in The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo because Jigoku was on his way out of Europe. Both have Sholmes taking the deduction incredibly seriously compared to his other deductions, and they involve Ryunosuke and Mikotoba essentially filling in the blanks for Sholmes, instead of correcting him like the other deductions in the duology.
Ryunouke keeps this role throughout the rest of the duology. Sholmes shows up at the scene of a crime Ryu's client is accused of, they investigate the crime together and do a dance of deduction, and they figure out what happened; this usually (always) seems unrelated to the case, before it gets revealed that it is related to the case. The primary difference between Sholmes's dynamic with Miktoba and his dynamic with Ryunosuke here is that Sholmes's dances of deduction always benefit Ryunosuke in more ways than one, and they're usually important to his case. Basically, Ryunosuke being a lawyer slightly changes his dynamic with Sholmes, because one of the purposes of Ryu and Sholmes's dances of deduction is for Ryu to develop his abductive reasoning skills, which helps him in court.
Ryunosuke and Mikotoba effectively serve the same role in Sholmes's life (that being, they're both his investigative partners at different points in time) but they have different benefits from doing so.
Part 2: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson Dynamics Are Always Gay
This is one of the most iconic parts of Sherlock Holmes. To be clear, I haven't read the original Sherlock Holmes stories. However, I am 100% comfortable saying that, based on the excerpts I have read, Watson and Sholmes have one of the most homoerotic dynamics in fiction. This always carries over into adaptations, and The Great Ace Attorney is no exception with Mikotoba or Ryunosuke (although I would argue that the dynamics are still a little different).
On Mikotoba's end, it's both confirmed in official art and implied in dialogue that between Mikotoba helping deliver Iris and him going back to Japan, Mikotoba and Sholmes were raising Iris together, and he says that he left Iris with Sholmes because he couldn't take her back to Japan. This can be read a few ways, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.
Outside of what's mentioned/referenced, we also have what is seen in real time in the last two cases of Resolve. Sholmes and Mikotoba have kept in contact via telegram for a decade, Sholmes tells Mikotoba that the sight of him is "making his mouth water" (which I'm convinced is a reference to Ryunosuke saying "So you'd eat your friends. I'll remember that." but it also definitely comes off as very gay). Mikotoba also refers to 221B as "our home", referring to himself and Sholmes. I also think it's notable that Mikotoba regains consciousness and is immediately dragged off by Sholmes to do an investigation.
On Ryunosuke's end, dear god there's a lot (to be clear, there's more on Ryunosuke's end because he spends more time with Sholmes on-screen than Mikotoba does, not because one is inherently more canon than the other or anything). Let's go through a non-comprehensive list (because I'm thinking of most of these off the top of my head), in no particular order:
Sholmes claims Ryunosuke not being in handcuffs throws the balance off, because he'll always imagine Ryunosuke with handcuffs (The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band)
Susato teases Ryunosuke about being excited to dance around with Sholmes during the first dance of deduction, and Ryunosuke looks happy with himself from the beginning of the first dance of deduction (The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band)
Ryunosuke seems only slightly less excited to be seeing Sholmes again than Susato (The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro)
This entire conversation that is implied to have happened right after Ryunosuke got out of bed and downstairs (The Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro)
Sholmes putting all his weight on Ryunosuke in that commemorative photograph that was taken before Susato left England (first shows up in The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story, shows up on Ryunosuke's shelf later)
Sholmes putting his hands on Ryunosuke's neck because "Blood loss has made my hands cold, Mr. Naruhodo! Have a feel!" (The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story)
Ryunosuke calling Sholmes in drag "stunning" (The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story)
Sholmes referring to Ryunosuke as "something of a manservant around here" because he hasn't been doing much other than helping around the flat since being disbarred (The Return of the Great Departed Soul)
Ryunosuke referring to Sholmes being knocked out during a dance of deduction as Sholmes "leaving him alone on the ballroom floor" (Twisted Karma and his Last Bow)
And that's not even all of it, I can guarantee it. Those are just the ones I remember best because they stand out to me. Sholmes's dynamic with both Mikotoba and Ryunosuke are incredibly gay.
Part 3: Sholmes's Relationship to Dances of Deduction
This is an interesting topic to cover, and this topic is going to be more an analysis of Sholmes than statement of canon fact. We know Sholmes is perfectly adept at accurate deductions, and it's indicated as early as The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band that he's purposely making bad deductions. We see how his deductions usually work when he's not goofing off in The Unbreakable Speckled Band, in fact. So that then begs the question, why is he so adamant about pretending to be bad at deduction, even when Ryu proves his own ability to make accurate deductions? Sure, helping Sholmes allows him to practice those abilities, but the more serious dances of deduction where Sholmes's "dance" partner is filling in the blanks would serve the same purpose, and it's something literally anyone could do.
I'd also like to clarify something here: Susato doesn't get directly involved in a dance of deduction until Sholmes is unavailable, and even then Ryunosuke treats it like a solo act (specifically stating "He's left me alone on the ballroom floor, so I'm going to have to do this next part solo"). Susato assists Ryunosuke during dances of deduction, sure, but her involvement doesn't go beyond that with the exception of when Sholmes gets knocked unconscious.
So back to the question at hand, why does Sholmes do dances of deduction seemingly exclusively with Ryu and Mikotoba? I don't think it's a coincidence. I do think it's because dances of deduction aren't platonic for him. Sholmes and Ryunosuke's especially come off as a couple's dance to me, although part of it does come from Ryunosuke indirectly comparing it to a ballroom dance, the most popular of which for pairs in the Victorian era was the waltz (which is traditionally a couple's dance). So I do think that, for Sholmes and very probably Ryu at the very least, dances of deduction are either romantic, erotic, or both.
This leads back around to the original question. I've already established that Sholmes's dynamics with Ryunosuke and Mikotoba are both incredibly gay. I also just established that Ryunosuke indirectly compares dances of deduction to a ballroom dance, in this case a waltz. Dances of deduction are always a partnered thing, and Sholmes is only ever seen doing them with Mikotoba and Ryunosuke. I don't think it'd be a stretch to claim that Sholmes makes them gay on purpose. For what purpose you ask? Male companionship, obviously.
I'm kidding about that but I do think Sholmes does it to have another companion that isn't Iris, at least in Ryunosuke's case. In Mikotoba's case, it likely came from wanting companionship at all. We know Sholmes is an attention whore, and I feel like being as important a part of someone's life as he was to Mikotoba while Mikotoba was studying in England strooked that a bit. I also wouldn't be surprised if Ryu reminded Sholmes of Mikotoba on some level (both are Japanese students studying in Britain for the time Sholmes lives with them).
Part 4: Conclusion (AKA I'm tired so I'm stopping myself before I pass out on my keyboard)
In conclusion, there are so many similarities between the Ryulock and Homumiko dynamics that I feel go unacknowledged. It is not a coincidence that Sholmes's dynamics with these two specifically is so fucking gay. Like I don't know if it's just me but playing as Mikotoba in the last dance of deduction didn't feel much different than playing as Ryunosuke, besides slight differences in dynamics because Mikotoba's known Sholmes longer than Ryunosuke has. Aside from that detail, if Mikotoba hadn't been clearly who Sholmes was with, I would've absolutely thought he was with Ryunosuke. Sholmes has a type and that type is quirky guys who are fun to tease.
