Hallo, alle miteinander. This is Wright Wednesday, the weekly blog series where we recap, analyze, and review the cases of the Ace Attorney series of games. Today we're passing the halfway mark on the third case of the second game, Turnabout Big Top. My name is Roy and I just remembered this case takes place right after Christmas.
My name is Sam and this case can take place whenever it wants as long as it's a single point in time that, as points in time do, eventually ends.
Last time, the trial segment ended on the dramatic revelation from Moe the clown that the killer flew from the scene of the crime. Back at the Wright and Co Law Offices, Maya confesses that she's awful at figuring out magic tricks, so she has no clue what could be going on in this case. This becomes very clear as she reveals Pearl, of all people, fooled her with the pretending to remove the finger trick, which Phoenix then pulls on Maya as well.
I'd blame that on how sheltered Maya is, but Pearl is significantly more so, so I guess she really is just bad at figuring things out.
Clearly, the best possible trait for an attorney's assistant. You can walk around and talk to Max in the Detention Center or Ben and Trilo at the circus, but neither has much of import to say. But heading to the crime scene leads to Phoenix and Maya running into Gumshoe. He just got done listening to Moe's life story and is quite tired. It's clear von Karma is running him ragged, and he tells them she's also on the third floor of the building, talking to Acro the acrobat about what he saw, since his window would let him see if the killer flew through the air or not.
Gumshoe gets weirdly defensive about her though, which I find interesting. Hopefully the game digs deeper into that later.
Going to the kitchen shows that Moe's there now, making burgers. But one of the seemingly inconsequential things Max talked about was him winning the Grand Prix for magicians. For that, he was awarded a bust that looked like him, holding shiny cards. He claimed it was in the kitchen, but it clearly isn't. Bringing it up to Moe has the clown say that it went missing recently. It also leads him to mentioning a small, tiny, seemingly nothing thing that also changed in that room: the morning of the murder, a letter appeared on the bulletin board that began, "To the murderer". How this was not brought up earlier, I have no freaking clue.
And could you believe that's not the only shockingly relevant thing that somehow wasn't mentioned on the first day? Because hoo boy, are we in for a time with this one.
Talking to Max about the note has him regale us with his version of events, including the new snippet about the victim seeing the full note, getting angry, and ripping off most of it and putting it in his pocket. Since the man's tailcoat is still available to be examined, they head to the Ringmaster's Office and take a look. The full note is there, sure, but it's pretty vague, just saying that they have "conclusive evidence of what took place" and requesting to meet at 10pm in front of the Lodging House, where the crime took place.
The fact that it happened before the murder took place hints at some other past event that could be of great importance, so let's hope this segment doesn't dance around that concept the entire time!
That sure would be annoying! Heading back to outside the Lodging House, Gumshoe tells them they're done with the acrobat, but then a weird beeping is heard. Apparently, Franziska shows up every time he hears that sound, so he tries booking it. Unfortunately, he's not fast enough and gets whipped for his trouble. This is the first time they've met outside court in this game. She's confident in her victory, especially with her new decisive witness. After that, she brings up her revenge again, leading to Maya once again saying something about Manfred, specifically how winning won't bring him back. Franziska finally points out that she's never brought up her dad, he has nothing to do with her desire for revenge. No, there's someone else causing that: Miles Edgeworth.
I'd forgotten this element of the story, and I really like it.
Same here, but we can talk about that later on. She's so bent on defeating Phoenix because she thinks if she does, Miles will come back. He was adopted by her father at a young age, and because of that she's always seen him as her younger brother, despite the fact that he's a few years older than she is. She thinks of him that way because she's Franziska von Karma. She blames Phoenix for Edgeworth being gone, and when Maya asks for like the fourth time now what happened to him, it's explained that after falling into a bad mental state, he just disappeared one day, leaving behind a note saying that "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death." Phoenix is taking this literally, while Franziska believes he's still alive. Phoenix tells Maya that he really does not want to talk about Edgeworth ever again, and makes it clear he sees Franziska and Edgeworth, and all prosecutors for that matter, as morally bankrupt people that he's had enough of.
Can't blame him for reacting so strongly, I guess, but I still think it was cruel not to give Maya the full picture from the get-go. Phoenix and Maya go up to the acrobat’s room; his name is Ken Dingling, but everyone calls him Acro. He has birds on his shoulders, some kind of face paint and a weird crowny thing on his head, and most surprisingly, he sits in a wheelchair. Acro’s parents left him as a child, and he was taken in by the ringmaster after that, and Acro says he was very well taken care of. So much so that he dedicated his life to finding a way to adequately repay him. He expresses sorrow at Berry’s death, lamenting that the ringmaster was perhaps too kind to everyone. He specifically mentions Regina, and Phoenix wonders if he bears a grudge of some kind.
He's also kind of coded as Native American which...I don't want to touch?
Acro injured his legs during practice six months before this point, but when Phoenix asks for more information he gets three Psyche-Locks. Acro says he was at the hospital the day before, which is why he wasn’t at the circus for questioning, but talked to the police that morning. The murder took place right underneath his third floor window, and he was woken up by the sound in time to see the silhouette of Max float up past his window.
When Phoenix shows him the note from the bulletin board, he gets all serious and suggests we talk to Regina about it. We find Regina in the Big Top, and she calmly and airily explains that she found the note in her pocket and posted it in case someone had lost it. If you present the pepper found in the box under the dead ringmaster, she remarks that it’s from the cafeteria, and going there brings us back to my favorite clown again.
Hey, he's making food though, and apparently they're really delicious burgers.
Yes, which Maya appreciates greatly. When she asks him what he’s going to do after this, he says he’s considered stepping into the ringmaster’s shoes (which yeah, he’d definitely be better at that than being a clown). But he’s unsure everyone will be able to get over some tragic event, and instead of assuming that’s the death of the ringmaster since that's a tragedy that just happened the other day, Phoenix reacts weirdly and Moe backtracks. His response implies this is actually something else. He says it happened six months ago, but refuses to elaborate, and two Psyche-Locks appear.
This part...makes no sense at all.
Considering Acro has already said that he lost the use of his legs six months ago, so it's obvious that must be it, but why that would be a bigger concern than the fact that the ringmaster was murdered just the other day...I have no idea.
Phoenix and Maya go back to Moe’s room and find Money the Monkey, who has Regina’s shiny outfit. The player can pick a number of options that I’m sure Roy will go over in detail later, but whatever the choice Phoenix manages to swipe the outfit. Maya tries it on, but it doesn’t fit her in the slightest. Turns out this is because the outfit isn’t for Regina, but for Léon, the lion the ringmaster killed. Léon bit someone during practice, and since this case is determined to drag out a small number of important revelations she doesn’t specify who, how, or why, and no one asks.
Earlier, when asked about going to get the outfit, those three options are actually all the same, just different variations of "Yes, I'll help." It's a joke based on how cute Phoenix and Maya find her, and it's also the page image for the TVTropes.org page of "But Thou Must" for when you're given no real choice in a game. The choices while getting the outfit are less interesting.
This information about Léon gives us what we need to get some more, though, so Phoenix and Maya go back to Moe to break his Psyche-Locks. Phoenix suggests that the tragedy is related to Leon’s mistake, then that Acro was also involved, prompting Moe to break an apparent promise he’d made to Acro not to tell people about this. No idea why something like this isn’t common knowledge, but alright.
I mean, it's kind of explained. Basically, they didn't want to risk any criminal charges coming against the circus, so they kept everything about the accident a secret. How exactly they hid the cause of Acro's paralyzation and a certain other thing we'll talk about soon I have no clue.
Apparently Léon bit someone’s head, and that person is still in a coma at the hospital due to massive brain damage. This person is Acro’s brother, Sean Dingling, known as Bat. He had also fallen in love with Regina, and put his head into Léon’s mouth to impress her. Léon had a strange expression on his face, like he was smiling, then bit down on Bat’s head. The next day the ringmaster shot Léon with a rifle.
Which kind of removes the last doubt that the victim was anything but a saint. Like, putting an animal down sucks, but in that circumstance it's kind of required.
Then, as if the game knew it had gotten too dark, there’s a long sequence about how cute Maya’s sneezes are and how Regina always sneezes around pepper. I’m sure this won’t come back to matter in any asinine ways!
Of course not, that would be ridiculous!
In any case, we know more about Acro’s situation now, so time to break his Psyche-Locks! Phoenix suggests that Léon was involved in Acro’s injury, noting that Moe said Acro and Bat were “cut down together in their prime,” and theorizing that Acro was injured by fighting Léon to try and help Bat. But there’s one more Psyche-Lock, and Phoenix works at it by suggesting that Acro harbors resentment for Regina.
Acro says that Regina and Bat were good friends, and Regina wouldn’t be capable of trying to hurt another person anyway. But his dialogue so far has indicated that he holds her in contempt to some degree, saying she can be naive and cruel. So Phoenix makes one final stretch, showing proof that Acro hates her: the note addressed to the murderer. Regina noticed it in her pocket after taking Acro to breakfast, and Phoenix suspects he wrote and delivered it. This breaks the final Psyche-Lock, and he explains.
I do usually like the thematic idea that innocence and cruelty go hand in hand, but it's kind of...barely here?
Bat had a dare with Regina: if he can put his head inside Léon’s mouth like Regina did, she would have to go on a movie date with him. Everyone was concerned, but Léon was old and very experienced with this trick so they let it happen. But for some reason Léon bit down, and when Acro jumped in to try and save Bat, Léon attacked him too, paralyzing him from the waist down. Bat remains in a coma even now, six months later.
It's worth remembering that Regina would have been about 15 to 16 at the time, and Bat was 21 to 22.
He shows them the scarf Bat had been wearing when Léon attacked him. It’s covered in blood. It was a present from Regina on the day of the accident. Acro shares the same sentiment as Moe, that it looked like Léon was smiling when he did it. But in the middle of the conversation, von Karma barges in and declares that she’ll be taking the scarf, and it’s for her to decide whether it’s legitimate evidence. I’m unsure what any of them think the scarf could prove about the murder of the ringmaster, but…okay. She’s also served a summons for Acro to appear in court as her witness, which surprises everyone despite already being known (or at least very easily inferred) from an earlier conversation.
And, if I'm not entirely wrong, that's the recap. Where do you want to start the analysis, Sam?
Well this is...a weird one. It has some degree of cohesion, but...well let's just talk about what interests us first and go from there. How about Max?
So, I feel really mixed on that first scene with him. On the one hand, we get a little more development for him. The reason he acts like such a jerk to the other circus performers is rooted in his victory in the Magician Grand Prix. He loved the feeling of performing on the world stage, so he sees any entertainers who aren't that ambitious as wasting their potential. That's an interesting idea, it adds a little dimension to him. Only problem...he still assaulted a coworker, stole his property, and was in a love triangle over a teenager girl. This is not enough to make me like this hillbilly magician.
It's an interesting idea for the character and makes his behavior a little more...well it makes it make sense. He's passionate and wishes everyone else was too, because he gets so much out of it. Moe even corroborates this at one point, saying Max inspires everyone to greater ambitions. But it's hard to really take this seriously when everyone in this case is so unlikable.
Speaking of things that kind of work, we need to discuss that scene with von Karma. Want to start the honors there, Sam?
Well, long story short, 1) everything makes a lot more sense now, 2) I find von Karma significantly more interesting now, and 3) I still think Phoenix was a dick for returning to tell Maya what happened.
Could you flesh out point 1 a little more?
Well all the Edgeworth stuff so far felt like a very forced mystery, and killing him offscreen would have been an extremely strange thing to do. So this brings some clarity to that situation in addition to making von Karma way more interesting.
I think this scene, on its own, is part of why I love her character so much. There's a lot more to come with her, but the revelation that they didn't take the obvious route, having her here to get vengeance for her dad, means a lot to me. Instead, we don't actually learn, here or ever, what her feelings are regarding what was revealed in that trial. But she doesn't defend her father, not at all. No, the more important bonds is between her and her adopted brother, and that's such a cool thing to pull out that, once revealed, makes so much sense.
It's certainly a more original way to approach this, and has the benefit of continuing the series connection to Edgeworth rather than to Manfred von Karma. That pays off in the long run, and also is just a better decision.
And you're definitely right that Phoenix is being a dick about all of this. Here's an interesting thing most people miss: when talking to Acro, if you present Franziska's profile to him, he'll comment that he finds her and Phoenix quite alike. Phoenix resents that, but Acro sticks with it, saying it's something that he can see from an outsider perspective. This is actually a huge thematic and character thing, and it isn't the last time that idea comes up. I don't know how much I want to get into it right now, but Acro is correct, Phoenix and Franziska have quite a bit in common.
Oh, I didn't do that, but that's a really interesting aside! Kind of wish it wasn't hidden.
Well, it's brought up more directly later on, which is good because it is legit a big part of the game's theme. I also really like what that scene we were talking about before was doing with Edgeworth. I know the people who dislike Rise from the Ashes hold this plot point against it, thinking it doesn't match what's said here, but I think it still fits well. He ended that case clearly in emotional disarray, you can believe he'd write something as melodramatic as "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death."
For sure. At worst it creates a very minor inconsistency since it sounds like he did this after Turnabout Goodbyes, but that's more than easy enough to dance around.
Oh, another thing: I think we touched on it in the first game, but Phoenix/Miles is not only the biggest ship in the Ace Attorney fandom, it's one of the most popular slash ship fandoms online. I'm not personally a fan of it, but I can see why others do. I actually think this part here is part of where that vibe comes from: Phoenix is reacting more like a bitter ex than someone whose friend disappeared.
It's hitting him really hard. I can see the ship too, but I guess I've seen enough of this trope, of rivals who share some kind of connection and care deeply about each other, that it reads just fine me as that too. If Naruto can spend two series not giving up on Sasuke, Phoenix can be this bitter about Edgey.
The reason I don't really see it myself is that I can't see Edgey as anything other than ace and aro.
Fair, but I could also see him as a sub. Commanding in the courtroom, commanded in the bedroom.
I think most Phoenix/Edgeworth shippers see him as the top in the relationship. Anyway, getting back to the case at hand, why don't we talk about those new, last-minute revelations. I know that, as part of second day investigations, you always need to find important new evidence that critically changes your understanding of the case, that's basically how it works to evolve as a mystery story, but oh boy does it feel out of nowhere here. Like...we just had Moe on the stand. Did no one, him included, think to mention that note? Did none of the police notice what was left of it on the bulletin board?
This segment basically gives us a bunch of information we absolutely should have had from the get-go, while somehow managing to answer very few of the questions we actually had coming out of the first court segment. I especially love that we came into this wondering how the killer could have flown away, and at the end of the investigation that question hasn't even begun to be answered. It was just a bunch of other random stuff.
I mean, I will give it some credit in that all the pieces to solve that mystery have been given to us at this time, but it's up to the next trial segment to actually put that together. This case also took this time to introduce a new character to us, something that always instantly puts a sign on that character's back that reads "Probably the Killer". It doesn't help that we got his backstory, which feels so plot relevant it's impossible to read it as anything but a motive.
Thing is, I will not give it that credit because it just highlights how pointless the entire case has been up to this point. This second exploration segment pretty much ignores everything about the first half and introduces a ton of new elements that should have been relevant from the word go. It feels like it rebooted with a new mystery halfway through.
You're not wrong there. This doesn't feel like it's building on the existing framework established in the first day, it feels like it's actually starting the real case. Did you have any thoughts regarding to backstory about Acro and Bat?
Well I see where the pepper and lion smile is going and I hate it, but aside from that not a lot? Bat might be closer in age to Regina than the other two creeps, so that's something. Mostly it feels kind of contrived, but that might mostly be because it's a whole lot of crucially important information that just got dumped on us at the last second.
I mean, he might be closer in age, but it's still weird how everyone is thirsty for this minor, including in this investigation period Phoenix and Maya.
I guess I'm still considering her age to be a localization failure, since they should have upped her to the local age of consent since she would be of age in Japan. Like there are still some problematic dynamics there but I don't think straight-up pedophilia was supposed to be one of them. But I guess that doesn't matter, since they didn't, so yeah it's creepy regardless.
One last thing: Ben and Trilo are in this segment, but have nothing important to say and just...hang out at the entrance for the entire time. For no reason. It's really weird.
It's so weird! Honestly, even Penny Nichols had more to do in late-game Turnabout Samurai than they do!
I found it odd.
Now, onto the Wright and Co Examinables! Looking at Charley has Maya ask Phoenix if he's been watering him every day, and then adding that she wants to water him too, on top of what Phoenix is doing. Phoenix points out that would drown the plant, but Maya counters that it would make him larger.
I appreciate that Maya's naivete sometimes translates into that kind of childish logic. Though it might have made more sense for Pearl to say that, and I think it's weird that she's just not in this case at all.
We will get more into Pearl's absence next time. Looking out the window has Phoenix comment on how many big events the Gatewater Hotel has been hosting lately, and wondering if the Bellboy remembers him. Examining the poster leads to quite a few things. It's still of the latest addition to the Steel Samurai franchise, but Maya reveals they're releasing a feature film of the original, with an all-star new cast, and critics are loving it. Then, she wonders if whoever stars in the film could win the upcoming Hero of Heroes Grand Prix, then makes it clear they need to see the film in theaters, after the case is done. Some of that information for foreshadowing.
Oh, interesting. I've forgotten what it's foreshadowing, so this should be fun.
Finally, examining the legal books has Maya reveals she's actually been reading them, taking a stab at studying law. When Phoenix points out that she's on page 2 of over a 1000, she brings up maybe just selling all of them.
I was going to say, probably not a likely career path for her.
Well, unless there's anything else you can think of Sam, we are done for the day.
I think I got it all out. I'm mostly just still frustrated at this case's strange lack of purpose, specifically for the entire first half and most of the actual characters, evidence, and events. But I guess we'll see how it wraps up next time, then we can finally move on to one of my favorite cases.
Let's focus on the rainbow, Sam. Auf wiedersehen!
See all for you next time everyone!
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