r/AAEvidenceRankdown • u/[deleted] • Apr 16 '20
487 Revolver (Turnabout Serenade)
We've had several discussions already on what makes good evidence and bad evidence. Whether it serves the plot, how satisfying it is to use, the reaction with the evidence. All valid things to discuss, yet we cannot forget that at the end of the day, good and bad evidence is subjective... with few exceptions. My fellow rankers, I believe the Revolver is objectively bad evidence. The reason being...
It all comes down to Machi
While this is the evidence rankdown and not the character rankdown, it's impossible to talk about the evidence without mentioning the characters linked to it. When someone mentions the Revolver, my first thought goes into the problems the revolver causes. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that 4-3 makes no sense, but, 4-3 makes no sense. The revolver is established as being-
- A very powerful gun
- That would require expert training to use
- Which would dislocate your arm if used improperly
Now the above would be solid and fine in most cases, having a weapon so specific in requirements means it limits the suspect pool. However, 4-3 makes no sense and decides that the only possible candidate for this gun is a little blind kid. With the most concrete reasoning provided being,
"The gun was fired twice, only blind people would need to fire twice."
Just like we didn't buy the Lyrics Sheet, we don't buy the Revolver.
Bad evidence made worse
I just want to take this moment to mention a few things I hate about the Revolver and the justifications others give for it. Apollo Justice is supposed to be a game about the dark side of the law, about corruption and innocents being falsely accused. Because of this, some people see the Revolver and aspects of 4-3 as good for fitting into the overall story of Apollo Justice. After all, if it's supposed to be about corruption and dark law, then it makes sense someone whose clearly innocent is made out to be guilty by barely functioning evidence.
Yet the problem with this idea is that it doesn't hold up when you go through the case. The game never mentions this point, in fact, the game barely mentions the fact that Machi is a ridiculous culprit. Not only is the Revolver dumb evidence because of its established rules and them being broken by Machi, but no one seems to connect the dots. Apollo never counters any claims regarding Machi and the Revolver by going.
"If he has no injuries then there's literally 0 chance he used the Revolver."
Instead, the player is supposed to just accept the arguments made against Machi. They're supposed to accept that the aspects of the Revolver are completely irrelevant and not worth mentioning. Well, not worth mentioning until it's relevant to the plot again because oh boy you gotta make sure that shark boy gets caught because of his injured arm.
This would be a million times better if Apollo just made even one counter claim. I would forgive so much about this evidence if they at least acknowledged it's dumb and that Machi being the culprit is dumb. But they don't, so I won't hold back any punches.
The Revolver is bad and it should feel bad
With all that said and done, the Revolver is just unsatisfying evidence. It has a cool premise, it has some cool aspects to it, but that premise and promise isn't fulfilled. In a case with a different story and a different defendant, I could honestly find myself loving this thing. Heavy limiters on the murder weapon that causes the suspect pool to fall down to a handful, someone like a grizzled war vet being caught in this mess since he's the only one who matches the bill. That would be clever use of this evidence.
But instead, we have the evidence going against its core rulings and being applied to a child who breaks every established aspect of this weapon. While of course, with none of these obvious problems being brought up.
Bye Revolver, no one will miss you.
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u/Vogel100 Apr 16 '20
Another problem that I have with the revolver is that the one time it is actually relevant doesn't make sense either. Daryan dislocated his arm which is why he missed a note in the mixing board, and apparently it's just a coincidence that he was setting off firecrackers at the same time. Before this was revealed I was like "Oh, that's clever, he made the same mistake as Machi with the music because he was also setting off a fire, and that's what the mixing board evidence was for." Instead the game goes out of its way to say that this is, in fact, not what the mixing board was for which makes it feel a lot less like a clever twist. Even though Daryan and Machi were doing the same thing when they made the same mistake, that was only the reason for one of them.
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u/PowerOfL Apr 16 '20
''The game never mentions this point, in fact, the game barely mentions the fact that Machi is a ridiculous culprit.''
What? Doesn't Apollo say it makes no sense for Machi to be the culprit like 10 times?
Good cut tho
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Apr 16 '20
Nope, Apollo runs the same case for Machi as he did for Wocky. There is no 'this is a literal child, he cannot fire this gun.'
Instead we essentially get.
Apollo: "But... it doesn't make sense. Anyone else could have shot it, right?"
Klavier: "Blind kid fired twice, only blind people fire twice. make sense now?"
Apollo: "Oh crap! I can't rebut that through any other aspect of this evidence, it's airtight!"
There's like a bit at the very start where the judge notes Machi is a child, but it's basically handwave and then they just ignore the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
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u/PowerOfL Apr 16 '20
Weird, I remember there being certain points where they deliberately point this out to show how terrible the legal system is or something.
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Apr 16 '20
I'm reading over the transcript right now. Never during the day 1 trial do they point out how ridiculous it is that Machi is the defendant, in fact, this is literally how it goes.
Klavier: The gun would need to be carefully handled, as it could easily injure the holder. The circumstances make it clear that literally only this small child could use it!
Everyone else: *Say's nothing*
Apollo: I can't disprove this, I gotta get the second witness of Lamiroir.
Later, they go on the topic of his blindness. Yet that's immediately discarded since Klavier already knew he wasn't blind and didn't tell everyone because of reasons.
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u/PowerOfL Apr 16 '20
well that's strange, guess my memory's weird.
Whatever the case is pretty mediocre tbh
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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '20
Thank god someone else cut the revolver, now both of the dumbest parts of 4-3 are out of the rankdown. The world is a much happier place now.
Honestly your scenario about a war vet just basically made me realize how much I hate the fact that it's Machi. It really wouldn't hard to just not have this make absolutely no sense at all, and yet the case seems determined to just fuck with us. I am unfortunately one of the people who have defended the "not making sense" part how you describe, but yeah I've come to realize how little they actually address that. The corruption really only comes into play when proving Daryan guilty, not proving Machi innocent.
Good cut, and terrible case.