| Ron DeLite |
Image Gallery | Sprite Gallery |
Ron DeLite was a defendant in the Mask☆DeMasque trials.
Origin of Mask☆DeMasque
A poster of Mask☆DeMasque.
Ron met his wife Desirée while he was a security guard at KB Security. After saving her from two knife-wielding robbers, the pair married. Ron's pay, however, was not nearly enough to cover his wife's excessive spending. Worried that she would leave him, he attempted to steal confidential information from his employer in order to support her, but was quickly caught and fired by the company's CEO, Kane Bullard.
Newspaper article about the theft of the Tear of Emanon.
Desperate, Ron decided to become a thief, as he could think of no other job in the world that would allow his wife to continue her spending sprees, although he was all too aware of her strong dislike of criminals. He created a disguise and took on the pseudonym of "Mask☆DeMasque". For his first heist, he stole the Tear of Emanon. Immediately after successfully stealing the gem, Ron removed his costume and dumped it in a nearby trash can, then changed into his security guard uniform and pretended to investigate the scene, so as to allay suspicion. However, a passing Luke Atmey spotted the costume and soon figured out Mask☆DeMasque's identity. He then began to blackmail Ron into stealing three other precious items for him: the Crown of Bongora, the Left Hand of Hades, and the Portrait of Mejeena.
Final heist
- Main article: The Stolen Turnabout
Ron DeLite's mugshot.
Mask☆DeMasque's mugshot.
Atmey's final blackmail letter instructed Ron to go to Bullard's office at KB Security. Ron dressed himself in his Mask☆DeMasque costume and did as he was told, but then Atmey, who was already in the office, knocked him unconscious. After regaining consciousness, Ron found himself alone in the room with Bullard's corpse. He decided to hide Kane Bullard's body in a safe, fearing that he would be accused of murdering the CEO. He then turned himself in as Mask☆DeMasque for the theft of the Kurain Sacred Urn, which Atmey had stolen disguised as Mask☆DeMasque.
Phoenix Wright took Ron's case, despite the latter's insistence that he was Mask☆DeMasque. Wright soon got his client a not guilty verdict by implicating Luke Atmey as the real Mask☆DeMasque. However, Ron was then accused of Bullard's murder. Only people who worked at KB Security knew how to unlock the safe containing Bullard's body, which cast suspicion on Ron. Eventually, Wright would prove Ron's innocence by correcting his own implication of Atmey as Mask☆DeMasque and re-implicating him as Bullard's killer. Ron, in turn, could not be charged for the Mask☆DeMasque heists by the double jeopardy law, which meant that he was allowed to walk free.
After their ordeal, the DeLites started an organization aiming to help thieves start honest lives, their slogan being: "Cut it out, PLEEEEEEEEASE!" Ironically, they also help thieves by giving them detailed plans for their heists. Months later, the couple visited the Zodiac Art Gallery to admire the works of the late French sculptor Paul Holic, although judging from their conversation, they may have been contemplating some thievery as well. Meanwhile, the Mask☆DeMasque persona lived on through costumes and at least one copycat.
Personality
Mask☆DeMasque.
Ron is usually a quiet and nervous young man, but can become easily agitated, and in those instances will often beg or whine loudly and dramatically, usually in the form "PLEEEEEEAASSSE!" When making a statement, he will sometimes second-guess himself or disagree with what he has just said. He also has a tendency to trail off in the middle of a sentence. When he was a child, he was always interested in mysterious masked men.
Name
- The Japanese surname "Amasugi" (天杉) comes from the word "amasugiru", which means "too sweet".
- "Ron" was originally a Hebrew name meaning "joy".
- His name may also come from "rondelli", a spiral-shaped pasta similar to Ron's hair.
- "DeLite" is a play on the word "delight".
- The word "plaisir" in the French version's surname "Duplaisir" means "pleasure". When directly translated it means "of pleasure".
Development
- Ron DeLite is notably the only character for whom font colors other than red, blue, green, and yellow are used (excluding one instance in which Wright accidentally starts copying Ron's habit). In addition to this, the usage of a star (☆) in his alter ego's name is nearly unique in that only foreign, fictional languages are depicted by meaningless symbols (such as Borginian). The manner in which his trailing off at the end of a sentence is depicted, with the words getting smaller and fading to a more grayish color, is also unique in the Ace Attorney series to date.
- The character may be a reference to Kaito Kuroba, the protagonist of the manga series Magic Kaito. The two characters are uncannily similar, both being known for leaving calling cards and appearing to fly into the sky only to disappear into the moon.