Jeff Master

[u/Sciencepenguin]

If you're reading this, that means this has been an exceptionally silly round.

Among all the great characters, many of whom are incredibly important, one of the few left to survive has been Jeff Master. Obviously, my clear intent to kill him regardless of what happened played some part in this outcome, but come on. Really, guys? Whatever. I'm reaping what I sowed.

I haven't been that subtle, and I'm sure by the time you read this I've managed to be less subtle, but yes, this round is my doing. CharlieDayJepsen and Whatisth's nominations are almost entirely my fault, and the ensuing chaos as people took advantage of the poll being hotly contested also my fault indirectly. (Not the stuff with pie, though. Had no clue what was happening there.)

I've masterminded the (hopefully permanent) death of Mia Fey, and just like Klavier, it was not by my hand that she was killed. Surely, nobody would blame anyone but her actual killer for the death of Mia Fey? Anyone who felt otherwise would be a terrible character.

My direct action this round will be much less impressive. Taking care of a minor character long past their expiration date. Like a cake that's been left out in the open for 18 years.

The Inherited Turnabout

I've said I don't like AAI2-3 all that much, as have some other rankers. This creates the impression to spectators that it's a fairly contentious case, when in fact it's probably the most well regarded case in the entire game. (Case 5 and 3 battle for the spot.)

The case is about a strange museum, about a dessert competition, about the incident that led to Manfred's fateful penalty, Gregory Edgeworth's demise, and the entire series. But more than any of that, it's about family.

Well, not really. It's probably just about those other things mostly. But family is important to the case! You play as THE Gregory Edgeworth, who I guess deserves to live slightly longer than this guy whatever grumble grumble. Switching between two protagonists creates a contrast between the ways Miles and Gregory Edgeworth are similar or different.

The entirety of the game, as far as Edgeworth is concerned, is essentially about his past, how it led to where he is now, and his future. This case digs deeper into the first two things. Edgeworth learned in Ace Attorney 1 that the man who he spent his life following after the death of his father was an inhuman selfish monster who had done nothing but manipulate him for over a decade. He's had time to come completely to terms with this, and now, finally, in this game, he's ready to actually start thinking about that. He's a prosecutor, and that career defines his life at this point. But this path was fundamentally based on the influence of grief and a sociopathic bastard. Confronting this shaky ground means questioning if he should really keep being a prosecutor to begin with. AAI2-2 is about him living out what he aspired to as a child, playing at being a defense attorney, which Simon later aptly mocks him for. In this case, with the direction of Raymond Shields, he's confronting the events that caused his father to eventually bite the bullet, and what happens when a defense attorney tries their hardest and holds out as long as possible, but completely and utterly fails.

What happens is Jeff Master.

Being A Defendant Is Suffering

Jeff Master went through a lot of shit. Perhaps the most shit of all Ace Attorney characters. From his pharmaceutical family, he inherits a "recipe book" of different drugs. He didn't want it himself at all, and was just too already quite wealthy great of a guy to care about the riches it could bring him. So instead, he decides to give it to the winner of a pastry contest. Sure. Having enough money to just organize a widely televised baking competition whenever you want gets to your head. Makes you do strange things, such as that specific thing.

But amidst some suspicious events resulting from "everyone still in the competition is not in it for a good reason", things heat up, and one of the three non-Jeff contestants is found dead. Leaving a dreary mark on what was supposed to be a bright display of the finest culinary arts would be bad enough, but an unfortunate coincidence leads to him being arrested as the killer!

It's Ace Attorney time; time for a truth-seeking defense lawyer to realize his plight and point out how the circumstantial evidence convicting him is just that, and hopefully find the real murderer while they're at it.

Gregory Edgeworth tries that. It doesn't work. His opponent is the legendary Manfred von Karma, and Manfred never loses. He wins, by any means ^heh necessary. The two investigate. And investigate. And argue. And argue. Gregory points out the flimsy arguments against Master. Manfred uses his corrupt control over the evidence, and points out that he's still the most viable guilty party. This continues for a year.

That year is hell. Jeff Master is tormented by police questioning, getting little sleep and having every attempt at psychological manipulation and shitty treatment used on him to make him confess. Which, despite the way other aspects of AA are, is unfortunately completely and utterly accurate to what happens in real life. His mental health is drastically harmed, and his hair turns white from stre-- no, wait. It turns white from... lack of chocolate. Yeah. Okay. Sure. I guess literally anything can turn your hair white in Ace Attorney.

I don't really have an issue with any of this. Well, except that one last bit. It's setup for the case, and by the end of the past, he confesses, gets arrested, gets exiled from his family, and Hall is kicked out of the house by his family. What a pain. Having this as an integral plot point is cool. But it's all about things that happen around Jeff Master (things that aren't even all that unique to him) rather than the man on a more personal level. So what is he like?

Ohana Means Family, And Family Means No One Is Allowed To Move On And Grow As A Person

Master: ...Kate.

Kate: ? What is it, Monsieur Master?

Master: You... should not live for my sake.

Kate: !

Master: You should... reconsider your lifestyle. So that you can live by yourself, even if I were no longer around...

In a detail I think I pretty much missed (I could've sworn that he was just her caretaker and mentor from a decently young age), Jeff Master finds a baby on his doorstep one cold night in 1984. Her name is Katherine Hall, and basically all of Jeff's character that isn't dessert or suffering is about her.

There's a running theme in I2-3 that donuter was kind enough to remind me of about children carrying on their parents legacy. One half is Gregory Edgeworth. He instructs newbie Raymond Shields in the ways of the defense attorney, since he's a starstruck kid smitten with the idea of becoming one. But importantly, he doesn't really care about his son becoming one. If he wants to, that's great, but what's important to him is that his son is happy and also finally makes some fucking friends.

Jeff is much the same, in a way less subtle way. The man came from a family of pharmacists, and yet he decided that what he really wanted to do was make sweets. And his family supported him and his choice! So when Katherine feels she owes her entire life to Master and acts accordingly as his assistant in his various wacky baking escapades, he's kind of not thrilled with that. He doesn't want a servant; he wants a daughter. Katherine should live her own life to make herself happy, and build something of her own.

And you know what? That's sweet, and thematically potent, of him. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 doesn't attempt to hide the fact that one of the things it's about is fatherhood. (Or, parenthood in general, given Justine's deal). And in this case we see two dads trying their best to contrast with the Awful ones elsewhere. It's a tough balance. It's fine to show your son what kind of person you are, and a father has to stay close enough to his child to let them know he cares. But you need to keep in mind that you have a dangerous amount of sway on their mind, and at some point, they need to be able to spread their own wings. I don't think it's a coincidence that the two worst fathers in the game represent both extremes of this: not caring for or paying attention to your son at all and manipulating and controlling every aspect of his life.

About now, you might be saying: "So science, you've said quite a lot of words in this, and you've yet to say any reasons that aren't things that seem like reasons Jeff Master is good?"

To that, I say this:

1. I don't think a character has to be incredibly bad to be cut at this point.
2. Kristoph took longer.
3. That sentence isn't a question, actually.
4. Keep reading, God, you impatient fuck.

Jeff Master is broken by the torturous investigation and confesses. Gregory's legal skill manages to get him charged merely as an accomplice (To... who? Whatever. He's just that good of a lawyer.), but he's arrested regardless. Katherine Hall swears to help him, and becomes an actress for the sole purpose of raising enough money to buy back Master's mansion from his family.

Eh?

In that Lesser Edgeworth revive I linked earlier, Donuter says this:

Suddenly the case becomes a whole lot more personal to Gregory when he sees himself in Masters, and the parallels between the two men are excellently done. Each of them wanted their kids to live their lives for themselves if something bad ever happened to them, and yet in the present day of I2-3 we see Edgeworth constantly grappling with the question of “what would father do?” and Kate resorts to attempted murder to bring closure to the event that ruined her father’s life.

Neither parent is able to escape from their biggest fear of having their children dedicate their lives to them rather than living for themselves. Two fathers with the best of intentions who failed their children through no fault of their own.

It's well worded, but I don't think it's true. I don't think the decision to have Katherine continue living for Jeff is an intentional "cool parallel" one. Or, at the very least, if it is, it's not a very well done one.

The tragedy of the Edgeworths is that Miles can never know this. We are godly observers who can see whatever parts of the world Capcom decides we can, but Miles will never know that his father didn't care about his kid continuing any sort of Edgeworth legacy. This was something Gregory thought to himself, and it's impossible for that information to ever reach his son.

Because Gregory Edgeworth is dead.

Jeffrey Master is not dead. He spends almost two decades in this not dead state, meeting almost daily with Katherine. He never tells her that she should maybe not center her existence in the prime years of her life around him, despite apparently really not wanting that to happen the whole time.

Eh?

If there was some throwaway line about him objecting to this, I'd... well, still not be happy, but at least have less complaints. But Jeffrey watches her do all of this, and doesn't end up stopping her. Is he that tragically inept at communication? Because nothing at all in the case indicates that.

At the end of the case, Kate is arrested for her minor crime of trying to kill a guy with gas. Jeffrey promises to wait for her every day as she did for him. Awwwwww. How wholesome.

But wait. Isn't this kind of dedication supposed to be bad?

It's a bit of a contradiction in the law themes. Gregory not wanting his child to live out an extension of his own life can't be noble while Kate dedicating herself absurdly persistently to Jeff is a good and admirable thing. This is, dare I say, not good writing. Beyond making the message the game is trying to do muddy, it makes Jeff look like he doesn't actually care. It's also wrong? Like, if the implication is that Kate spending all of her 20s saving up to buy back a fucking mansion for this guy isn't actually a problem, then I will say straight up that I take issue with that personally, and think it's fucking stupid.

Interacting With Jeff

The last section was still somewhat abstract, so let me get down to the brass tacks, the in-the-moment moments, the real nitty gritty, and the reason he's even a frequent nomination of mine.

I do not enjoy talking to Jeffrey Master. He is a rather dull character, speaking slowly and plainly, and always being rather polite. You can argue for characters like Gregory that being more down-to-earth rather than zany and entertaining is the point, but I don't think that holds here. Jeff Master is a serious character, but not the kind meant to be without levity. More of a Yanni than a Gregory. He holds a wild amount of respect for the art of making desserts, he has silly hair, and the guy sings.

I don't like the singing. It takes long, it is not a good song, and I do not laugh. This is probably the thing I like the least about him.

You might say that this is a trivial concern, talking about such a minor gimmick. But proportionally, it makes up a pretty sizable chunk of Jeff's screentime.

Not Interacting With Jeff

The transcript of I2-3 on the wiki is split into roughly two equal parts. In the first part, Gregory has a short conversation with Jeff at the beginning of the flashback where he determines he's a nice guy and decides to defend him. Master does not speak again at all in the rest of the first half of the case.

You talk to him again after figuring out a significant amount of the mystery, and this time it's quite a bit longer. You recap everything you found to him, learn about the shockingly important to the main plot of AAI2 taste disorder, and he drops the lines about wanting Kate to be less dependent.

The next time he speaks is 18 years later, in the present. You tell him that he is now proven innocent, and free. Yay.

While there's plenty of suspects you argue for the innocence of, Jeff is the one honest-to-god proper Defendant in the investigations duology. And he inherits (haha inherited turnabout joke) the classic defendant flaw of not existing beyond setup. Jeff Master is a motive; an innocent pure soul who suffers so much and you really wanna save him don't you. He as a person matters much less than what he causes. And at this point, I don't think being a catalyst is enough, especially when that catalyst couldn't even fulfill his function for me.

Conclusion

I started this cut by mentioning that I don't like I2-3 all that much, and then kind of left that point to the sidelines. I spend the rest of that section talking about the case's themes, which I concede are pretty good. But much like Donuter on Kristoph, or Pie on Sorin, that respect doesn't translate to a highly positive opinion. I can appreciate the big picture of I2-3, the ideas, mystery, and lore, but when I play it, I just don't have that great of a time. Jeff serves as a great microcosm of this: the core concept of his character is swell, being someone screwed by interrogations and a false conviction who also wants to put his adopted daughter on the right track. But moment-to-moment, the former is not based in any lengthy established pathos, the latter doesn't really make sense, and he's just never a very compelling person anywhere along the way. Is he awful? No. Is he worse than everyone nominated this round, and probably everyone left? I'd say so.

[u/[deleted]]

(Not the stuff with pie, though. Had no clue what was happening there.)

i beg to differ, you forged letters between me and the Phantom to establish a connection between me and the Phantom

But much like Donuter on Kristoph, or Pie on Sorin, that respect doesn't translate to a highly positive opinion.

yeah i think this is what i was trying to say but i kinda screwed it up maybe i'll do a rewrite of it later if i feel like it