Hallo, alle miteinander. Welcome to Wright Wednesday, the weekly blog series where we recap, analyze, and review the various cases of the Ace Attorney series. Last week we started the first part of the first game's finale, Turnabout Goodbyes, and today we're covering the first day of trial. I'm Roy, blog owner and sleepy boi.
And I'm Sam, the Game Professor and friend of the blog. The day at court jumps right in, with Phoenix finding out that Manfred von Karma will be prosecuting this case; he’s apparently the best there is, and has never lost a case in his 40-year career. Edgeworth says he’ll do anything to get a verdict, which Phoenix points out sounds a little familiar. But Edgeworth assures Phoenix this is different: von Karma is a man to be feared.
He keeps escalating his descriptions for how fierce and brutal von Karma is, and it's interesting to see the normally stoic man so shaken and terrified.
It's definitely a new look for Edgeworth, that's for sure. Karma’s first act in the game is to chastise the Judge for asking if the prosecution was ready; he wouldn’t be standing there were he not completely prepared. Which, of course, scares the Judge into line, because he’s always got to be under the control of one or another hostile court presence.
I'd argue the dynamic here is very different. So far, Payne never tried to rule the court, and Edgeworth always played the polite and reasonable attorney. Manfred von Karma does not ask questions, he does not ask permission: he speaks, and the Judge listens.
That's fair. One way or another, the Judge has tended to be easily swayed by someone, be it a forceful prosecutor of seductive witness. But it's true that von Karma is the first prosecutor to so blatantly usurp the Judge's authority.
Gumshoe is up first, explaining the facts of the case as we know them. A man called the police, and when they arrived, Edgeworth was there. They didn’t arrest him immediately, but the next morning the victim’s body was found with a bullet in his heart, and a gun was left in the boat with Edgeworth’s fingerprints on it. The Judge says this evidence is decisive enough to make a legitimate verdict, but von Karma guesses he’d still like to see the witness, and orders the Judge to call a 10-minute recess. Which he does, of course.
During the testimony, if Gumshoe is Pressed on how quickly the police arrived at the scene he will reveal it only took five minutes, and that the police's motto for the month is "Get there quick!" von Karma immediately chastises him for "revealing Police Department secrets", which I find hilariously disproportionate.
During this recess, Edgeworth assures Phoenix that though he was on the boat, and was holding the gun, he did not shoot the victim. He heard a shot nearby, but didn’t know where it came from. Maya is also feeling insecure because she is unable to call Mia; she asks Phoenix if she may as well not even be here if she can’t call Mia, and the player can choose whether to tell her to stay or that she’s useless. The last option is, obviously, exclusively for assholes.
The amount of effort Phoenix needs to give to even get the cross-examination is kind of crazy, and a great way to sell von Karma's authority.
And even once he does, von Karma makes it difficult for Phoenix to actually talk to Lotta, and despite her story being kind of fishy there are no contradictions he can directly point to. The Judge is once again ready to declare a verdict, saying there’s no point in questioning her further and any more outbursts will land Phoenix in contempt of court. So naturally, Maya has an outburst, loudly declaring that Lotta’s testimony stinks and that this is a matter of life and death.
Quick note: Phoenix is warned before the cross-examination even starts that if he can't find a contradiction, any outbursts after that will lead to contempt of court.
Lotta responds to one of Maya’s points by getting defensive and saying that she did indeed see Edgeworth clearly, so before Phoenix can be held in contempt of court he notes that this admission changes her testimony, and he has a right to cross-examine her again. Karma tries to object to this, but for once the Judge finally stands up for himself and lets Phoenix cross-examine her again. But Maya is held in contempt, and has to leave the courtroom.
Specifically, since she's the one who made the outburst, she's the one who must face the punishment. With her gone, it's just Phoenix v. Karma
They did almost hold "the defense" in contempt, which would have included Phoenix, but she convinced them to just take her.
It's a stand-out moment from Maya, one I'm sure we'll come back to when we get to our analysis portion for today. Since Lotta only said one new remark, that she saw Edgeworth clearly, that one statement is all her new testimony is. The objection to that is pretty clear: the photo shows no details of the people, there's no way she could have seen that kind of detail.
Yep, once we start working down to the meat of her testimony there's really nothing there.
She starts a new testimony, basically saying that she got our binoculars to look at the boat, and that's how she saw Edgeworth's face. There's a great moment here if you Press it where Lotta calls Phoenix too hasty, and that he'd have a hard time finding women in the South, only for the Judge to jump in and say that defense attorneys in general have that problem.
Lotta's well past the point where she's getting tangled in the web of her own lies at this point.
Lotta, in fact, doubles down on her whole star-watching claim, but Phoenix objects pointing out the camera was set to take pictures of loud noises. Why exactly would something set to take pictures of comets be set on that trigger? In fact, Phoenix puts together that she was there to take a picture of Gourdy, as the newspaper that broke the story had a quote mentioning a loud noise just before the picture with it in it was taken.
Strange thing to lie about, really; she could have said she was there looking for Gourdy to begin with and it wouldn't have harmed her testimony at all. Instead she made up another excuse entirely, which led Phoenix to tear apart her whole story.
Well, she started that lie before even realizing she was a witness, implying she was just embarrassed. However, as we're about to see, the truth hurts her testimony more than would be expected. After Phoenix throws the theory out there, Lotta confirms it. As her new testimony reveals, she's not a college student at all, but an investigative photographer, hoping to make it big by taking a picture of Gourdy. Pressing here leads to the amusing revelation that she chose this profession because she taking pictures for her sister's graduation, but there was a "yoofoh" in the background of a shot.
I'd be interested to know how she spoke in Japanese, since her character seems to lean heavily on stereotypes related to the American southern accent.
I just looked it up and it's as I expected, in Japanese she's from Osaka. For those of you who don't know, Osaka is a southern prefecture of Japan with a thick dialect and a reputation for being a little...slow. Due to this, localization tends to turn Osaka characters Southern, since the stereotypes match up really well.
Okay yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
The same thing was done for Osaka, a main character and human-shaped meme generator from Azumanga Daioh. I don't think you've seen that...Sam, you need to see this anime, it's so good.
I've seen enough of it to be more confused than engaged, but I have been meaning to give it another shot.
Truly, thou art a foolish fool who only know the foolishness of a foolhardy fool. Now that it's been revealed what Lotta was really interested in, namely a fictional monster, Phoenix points out the new contradiction this brings up: why would she look at a boat on the lake? After all, boats are on there all the time and she thought the gunshot was the sound of Gourdy emerging. It's here where Lotta...admits that she didn't witness anything, or at least she doesn't remember seeing anything. She faked being a witness because it sounded like fun.
Like I said; everyone's favorite.
It's unclear at first where the trial can go now, but the Judge is leaning on just ruling with a guilty verdict...until Lotta mentions that she enlarged the photo, but von Karma doesn't want it presented. Phoenix forces the issue, but while there's definitely more detail, the faces are still completely obscured. Phoenix sees a critical contradiction, however: the gun is being held in a left hand, but Edgeworth's right hand is the one that left fingerprints on the gun!
Finally, both decisive evidence against the prosecution's case, and the prosecution itself. That von Karma would so blatantly withhold important evidence is suspicious, to say the least.
The Judge is flummoxed: all the evidence aside from the gun points to Edgeworth as the murderer. Who else could possibly be the killer? Phoenix has three options to select: Lotta, Larry, and the victim himself. The correct option is to claim the last option, but choosing Lotta leads to this immortal line after being asked for proof of the claim "Proof-schmoof! Always with the proof! Oh...wait, I do need proof, don't I.”
Oh, yeah that's... wow.
So yeah, Phoenix puts forward the theory that Hammond shot himself, but von Karma says that forensic evidence shows that the shot was fired from at least a meter away, so it couldn't have been suicide. I...just...look at that boat! Edgeworth cannot be a meter away! He's like a foot away, if that!
Yeah, I can't help but wonder if something got lost in translation there. A meter does seem excessive in that situation.
Ignoring how stupid that was, the Judge is left with no idea how to go forward, and so ends the trial for the day, asking Phoenix and von Karma to investigate further. In the defendant lobby, Edgeworth tries playing it cool at first, but it's clear her's aware of how close he came to a Guilty verdict. Just before the scene ends, he asks Phoenix to tell Maya...that she should watch what she says in court.
It's almost like he's trying to be friendly!
That ends our recap for today, which means it's time to analyze! Professor, where do you want to start?
Well, as with a lot of the "firsts"--in this case, the first court session of the case--there's not too incredibly much going on here thematically. But we are introduced to two new things in particular; von Karma and his even-more-extreme-than-Edgeworth willingness to fabricate and manipulate evidence to get his verdict, and the idea of people (Lotta, specifically) negatively affecting justice out of selfishness, rather than guilt or radicalized ideology.
You make an excellent point: if Edgeworth represents blind idealism damning the innocent, than von Karma is the physical avatar of that ideal, a man so obsessed with his perfect record that he seems inhuman. Lotta's actions make it seem as though she doesn't care at all that someone's life is in her hands, and it colors her character.
It's really two extremes, in a way; caring too much vs. caring too little. It's not exactly a strong point in the game's meaning, since it's somewhat periphery to the primary struggle of idealizing victory over truth in the pursuit of justice, but it's an interesting side note for the game to make.
In our analysis of Turnabout Sisters, I talked about how every game needs to "sell" the audience on the prosecutor in their first trial. What I mean by that is that they not only need to get across their personality and quirks, but they need to make the player think they're a new, different kind of threat to the protagonist who will show them a real challenge. I'll still say that Edgeworth got the best selling of all time, but von Karma's debut here is definitely in the Top 3.
Yeah, it's hard to beat Edgeworth in that regard, but von Karma is certainly an intimidating presence. He has the same basic kind of threat, really--forceful and happy to play dirty--but the way he commands the courtroom makes him feel like he's not just a good prosecutor, or even just a corrupt one, but that he may as well be the judge, jury, and executioner all himself.
The clear way his mentorship to Edgeworth's is shown through visual storytelling is something I found myself noticing a lot this time around: his outfit is incredibly similar to Phoenix's main rival, and his animations line up as well, both with the cross arms and the wagging finger. It's a nice touch.
And man, his wagging finger animation somehow looks even more douchey than Edgeworth's.
It's so good. I mentioned earlier a light-hearted moment relating to von Karma, and I think it's important that, for all his grim and serious demeanor, they're able to still pull jokes out of it and make him feel like an Ace Attorney character.
True, it wouldn't work too well if the game suddenly went completely dark and humorless.
What about Lotta? It think this is a good time to actually discuss her character.
Well... she's... shallow. Like not as a character, but as a person. Her motivation for literally everything she does so far is fame, even without fully thinking through the consequences (like, say, a man being wrongfully accused of murder). She's just rather vain and thoughtless.
You're not wrong. What makes those traits odder is how she seems to think of herself as a friend of Phoenix and Maya, and yet this is far from the last time her involvement in a case threatens their defendant. She often claims to feel bad afterwards, but as we'll soon see her selfishness pretty much completely overrides any amount of shame she feels.
I'm definitely all for a character that's basically lying so she seems more important to the trial than she actually is. Phoenix Wright is, both in story and gameplay, all about finding unique reasons to build tension between Phoenix and the person he's trying to get information out of, and that's a pretty good angle for such a confrontation (even if it does produce a rather unlikable character). I'm just not sure the characterization of Lotta overall really works too well; but we're getting ahead of ourselves. There'll be more where that came from later.
That's very true, but I would personally like to clarify another reason I don't care for the character. All her quirks and flaws would have been fine for a one-off witness. However, Lotta Hart is tied for being the second-most used witness character in the series, and she is just so much less interesting than either of her contemporaries. The fact that she never really grows or changes makes her difficult to like personality even more abrasive, in my opinion.
That makes sense too. It's been long enough since I played these that I'll withhold comment until we get there.
This trial segment unlocks a huge element of what makes Edgeworth who he is. We've been able to see a tension in him: between his self-professed morals and his actions, between his past as the son of a defense attorney and his present as the Demon Prosecutor. By seeing von Karma, his mentor, his larger arc is becoming more and more clear.
Indeed. This whole case is presenting us with an idea of how, essentially, Edgeworth was radicalized. Always with the intent to dispense justice and protect the innocent, but moving from his original goal of defending the wrongly accused to aggressively pursuing the accused at all costs. Manfred von Karma represents an important step in that process.
We've talked a little about Maya and her arc, though it's had the least amount of focus so far. This day in court provides perhaps the most development towards it so far. Maya's relationship with her powers is the driving force of her character in this game, and we see her here struggle as they fail to manifest.
It honestly is a fairly simple treatment of the character, to have her whole arc post-Turnabout Sisters be centered on whether she can use her powers to bring in a completely different character, but yes, we are seeing the beginnings of it here.
She feels completely useless in court without her ability to summon her sister, and it's clear this is hitting her self-esteem hard. Maya has no legal experience, no real investigative skills, and she is feeling inadequate as a person because of it.
Yeah, she's definitely the sidekick, and never really grows past that designation throughout the series. I don't remember if we ever get an arc that seriously illustrates that her power isn't the only thing that makes her useful, but I hope so.
Well, even in this segment, Maya fights through her self-doubt and takes contempt in court in order to save the case. It's a brave act, and it shows the player, at least, that Maya isn't to be underestimated.
An act of bravery, but also of desperation. And it almost gets their entire case thrown out. It's true that she ultimately helped, but I feel like it doesn't do much for actually making her a more capable character yet; it more illustrates how frustrated she it at her helplessness, and through a lucky response from Lotta and a close brush with a contempt ruling manages to help rather than hurt. Like yeah, it's an important moment for her, but I'm not sure it actually does much for what I'm hoping to see from her character.
I actually disagree with you here quite a bit. Yes, the scene is very illustrative of her feelings of uselessness, but her desperate action was the right thing to do. Without her, it was a guaranteed guilty verdict. It wasn't a move that ensured their survival, but it increased it from 0%. This shows one of Maya's greatest strengths. She's not the best when it comes to law or puzzle solving, but she can stir up noise and create chaos like no one else.
That much is true. I guess I'd just like to see her do something a little more controlled, as well, since it seems thus far that her only uses are summoning Mia (which makes Mia the useful one anyway) and lashing out in hopes it changes something. She's worth more than that.
I mean...she is? I guess? Like, I think Maya's a great character, but she has very few real life skills, and even less mystery solving skills. She's a wonderful person, but this unskilled move is, at least at this point in her life, the best she's got. Is she worth more than that? I suppose, yeah, but I think this fits her character perfectly.
I won't disagree with that. All I'm saying is that I'd love to see her arc lead toward something more affirming than "you yelled and almost got us kicked out but thankfully the witness slipped."
Well, it is going... somewhere...Lastly, let's cover Phoenix's character arc. This day in court is perhaps the most emblematic of his growth here: he's facing the best prosecutor in the city, the case seems unwinnable, and halfway through he's left completely alone once Maya is gone.
It's definitely another step in the progression of his competence and experience as a lawyer, yes.
Not only that, there's a definite mirroring going on here. Just like the first day of trial in Turnabout Sisters, Phoenix faces an undefeated opponent by himself, and gets through the day after much trial and tribulation. But this time the foe is far more dangerous, yet Phoenix is more experienced than he was before.
That's true! Though again, he succeeds kinda' mostly by flailing around until he manages to hit on a hidden contradiction, so does this really demonstrate growth on his part?
I think he's generally shown to be more prepared and practiced by this point, however the case he's up against is insanely difficult.
That is very true. There are indeed a lot of parallels between this and his first case against Edgeworth, up to and including Phoenix's personal investment in the case.
This is also easily the most difficult mystery so far. The First Turnabout not only gives away the culprit, it's also the simplest case in the series. Turnabout Sisters also gives away the culprit, and the prosecution's case is entirely reliant on suspicious testimony. Turnabout Samurai had more meat to it, but the prosecution's case there was always very weak, without even a motive.
Turnabout Goodbyes presents a far more daunting challenge: according to all available evidence, Miles Edgeworth was alone on a boat with the victim when he died, and the murder weapon carries his prints. This is the first case in the series that seems unwinnable not because of how badass the prosecutor is or because of how little info there is, but because all the facts point to a Guilty verdict.
The game's stakes and obstacles certainly do scale well over the course of the story. And this final case really does take that whole "believe your client" thing to an extreme, since all available evidence really does point to Edgeworth's guilt; Phoenix and the player really are operating off their belief that Edgeworth wouldn't do something like that.
That'll go even farther by the end of this case, but that's a story for another day. Next week we'll be back to investigating, hoping to find some key to save this case. Auf wiedersehen.
See you all later!
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