if you haven't played ace attorney: spirit of justice, i would highly recommend doing so before reading this, because the game is a really good game that should be experienced blind, and this will contain several spoilers for it.
so. a lot of people feel like datz is just an inconsequential side character who solely exists for comic relief and exposition about dhurke and the defiant dragons. and uh. allow me to summarize 6-5 from datz's perspective.
you manage to obtain a fake passport and travel overseas to the united states, leaving your best friend behind. while there you facilitate an agreement to get the founder's orb, however the guy really thinks you're going to kill him if he doesn't hand it over, perhaps because you missed some social cues, perhaps because of xenophobia, perhaps because he has consumed propaganda about the defiant dragons, or perhaps a mixture of the 3. either way, he is... supposedly, under duress. but then, we see what happens next. he says "no, i'm not giving the founder's orb to you. i'm hiding it somewhere and telling somebody else where it is." you could argue this doesn't happen in canon, however if archie were to have rejected datz's proposal completely, and said "no, i'm not giving the founder's orb to you or the defiant dragons," and then wrote the note later before paul murdered him, then we ask: why would paul have killed him? the only way he could have known would be if he heard him tell datz the above. and so, what does this mean? well, this is a direct fuck you to datz, what he is attempting to say is that he doesn't like datz through the veil of anti-terrorism. so you leave. except you are an absolute doofus so you forget your suitcase in the house and then you do everything that happens, you get arrested by the police because they think you're an illegal immigrant, and your passport is in your suitcase which you forgot and then shit hits the fan from there. and i'm not going to just sit here and talk about turnabout revolution for 4 hours (even though i very much could and would), but rather, i think this discussion of what happens to him will help me remove the most common thought about his character:
i see this sentiment come up a lot in fan-discussions of datz are'bal, and while i can understand the comparison... they are not very alike.
this is. the only real gross oversimplification i could find about datz's character. so now then. it is time for:
ueheeeheheeehehee!! aughgh now i get to talk at length about datz are'bal and dhurke and apollo and nahyuta and rayfa!!!
sorry uh basically. datz saw everything. he witnessed dhurke's rise and fall. he witnessed the rebellion from its infancy to completion. not even dhurke was alive to see the revolution come to fruition. technically queen amara would have been alive as well, however she would have had a limited lens to view things from, being confined to the role of nayna. so. just after queen amara's fake assassination, datz is likely the only person to believe in dhurke's innocence (his children would've as well, but that's only natural). it speaks to the bond dhurke and datz have, where when he has the choice between "live a normal life without dhurke and his children" or "stay on the run forever but with your friend," he instantly opts for the latter, helping him raise his children and removing the opportunity to live a normal life. this is the first thing datz lost: he lost his life in civilization. well, it's all going to be fine, right? he traded that for dhurke and his family, he knew what he was getting himself into.
the second thing datz lost: apollo justice. this family is like 4 people, none of whom had jobs and all had to scavenge for food and resources while evading capture from the police. so then, that begs the question, what's with the photo? cameras are expensive, and smart phones would not be invented until 3 years after dhurke ran from khura'in (and even then, having one would be stupid). digital cameras would require somewhere to print the photos, so the photo was likely taken on a film camera. which also begs the question: cameras cost money. a lot of it. how did they even get a camera? well, dhurke returning to society is certainly not a possibility, but datz... datz would have likely simply been a "missing person," if dhurke did his job well enough. so datz goes into khura'in from the mountains, sure. how does he then get the camera? dhurke's possessions likely would have been seized the first time he was arrested, and it would likely take quite a bit of bureaucracy to get those possessions back, especially since the government was about to accuse him of forging evidence anyways, so it leaves us with one option: datz stole the camera. before this, it would've technically been possible to reintegrate back into khura'inese society, if he could pay back all the taxes he evaded, but no. he stole the camera, and if he was detected in any way doing so, he would've become a fugitive for the police to track down. he took this risk... for what?
it was for him and dhurke. he knew somebody was going to have to go... so he wanted to take a photo of them at their happiest before they left. and after the fishing trip is naturally the happiest apollo, nahyuta, and dhurke would be. so that's when datz takes the photo. and he has to develop it too somehow (WHICH HE DOES SOMEHOW BECAUSE HE'S JUST BUILT DIFFERENT IG) and one is left to wonder of the pain in his mind, knowing that one of his children are leaving for an indefinite amount of time... because they are his children just as much as they are amara's, dhurke's, jove's and thalassa's.
now then. sometime after this dhurke is able to free queen amara and they live on the run together, and then there is yet again ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPH with the same camera likely using the same makeshift darkroom to develop the photos in. now, the game constantly emphasizes that this was dhurke and amara on the run together, but that asks: where is datz? he'd likely have to be with them. datz knew rayfa and amara. he could've been the one to take the photo of queen amara with rayfa as well. he was fucking there when they had another child, and when they both were taken away from them. and this is the third thing datz lost: queen amara and rayfa.
datz has lost a lot. but he still has dhurke and nahyuta. and the shack. and the photographs. and most importantly, datz has his smile, he is able to smile and laugh and crack jokes and CAN YOU NOT SEE IT? THE TRAGEDY OF IT ALL? augh it oisdjfoa sorry. i must move on. so, you have your child, and i'm not going to just summarize plot here so yadda yadda, nahyuta goes into law but then gets blackmailed, you know the story. and while this is likely very painful for dhurke... nahyuta is datz's child too. he definitely felt some semblence of pain over knowing that your son is being blackmailed, but he is unwilling to talk to you, and seemingly hates you. i don't have a lot to say here other than: you probably envisioned a lot of pain from dhurke's pov right? yeah well datz also experienced that pain.
and now we have the third and final thing datz lost: dhurke. obviously dhurke meant a lot to datz, so i don't really need to tell you how devastating of a loss this is, not only would datz have realized that "oh shit the dhurke i thought was alive was actually just a dead corpse this entire time????" but also "WAIT WHAT THE FUCK DHURKE IS DEAD??" and. i don't think i need to tell you how difficult of a loss this would have been for him. he gave up his life for him, only for him to be useless
except that's not true.
not in any way.
datz may have been powerless to stop dhurke's death, but without him, things would have been a lot harder for dhurke, and revolution likely would not have happened. datz wasn't useless: he alone was the factor that stirred rebellion in khura'in. ironic, isn't it: to have your legacy plain to see in your name, yet this would likely fly over a lot of people's heads. without datz there would be no camera to take those photos; without datz there would have been no help in raising apollo and nahyuta; without datz there would have been no person to smile through the calamities and laugh while armed guards chased them. without datz, there would be no defiant dragons.
ok that was a little self-indulgent. maybe just a little bit. and also exaggerated, possibly. the defiant dragons definitely would still exist without datz, but their reach and aims would be severely undercut.
and then we get to his multiple arrests in the usa. like. ok i know datz are'bal was breaking the law by travelling on that fake passport (at least... i hope it's fake. otherwise he would've been boarding a plane with a big red arrow pointing at him saying "look at me i'm one of the most wanted criminals in khura'in!") but none of this would've happened to him if he wasn't visibly not american. and like. imagine the scenario:
(datz are'bal is pulled over by police) we heard some noise complaints from the neighbours in kurain village. and we could just tell you to leave... but do you have your passport on you? no? well we're arresting you for being an illegal immigrant actually <3
like. does nobody else see how fucking insane this is????? bitch has to deal with the most blatant "police can't do their job for shit" and nobody discusses it. nobody talks about how datz are'bal went to jail over american police being asses to him. and of course since he is datz he finds a silver lining, he says that the food in the prison is so much better than the food in khura'inese prisons. god i love him so much.
and then there's the second arrest. and i don't really have much to analyze here other than datz just smiling and making a pun as his immediate response to being arrested, which... you'd think he'd have a more emotional reaction to it but also he likely has faith in apollo to defend him and also he has been through this shit so many times (he literally escapes from prison in 6-3, he could do it again) that he is just desensitized to it and it has become mundane to him.