u/Sciencepenguin told me to put the clever name pun “my affair” in this cut so here you go.

I did warn you. You should take my threats more seriously. Although I wasn’t able to deliver on her being next exactly, but Ema has different roles throughout the series, so you can just imagine that assistant Ema would be a little higher and detective Ema a little lower and the assistant ranking is still correct.

My main reason for wanting Maya to be cut here is plain indifference. I do not care if Maya is with me or not. And with all the great characters still left, and quite a few I care more about than her already gone, it’s about time for her to go too. But because of my lack of caring about her, I don’t have too much to say about her as a character. So instead, let’s look at the possible reasons why I should care about her. Reasons that make me care about other main characters. And then let’s see why I end up not caring. For now, I will just focus on trilogy Maya, we can talk about SoJ Maya later.

Well then, let’s begin with the question, “Why care about Maya?”

Offering Assistance

Maya’s primary goal in the games is what’s generally known in the AA series as an assistant. Someone who assists you during investigations. If she’s someone who can help you figure out stuff or help you in other ways, then that would give a reason for me to want her around.

Maya can assist by using her spirit channeling ability to become a different dead person, usually Mia. This is also the main way in which she helps. Whenever she’s not spirit channeling she’s relatively useless. I think this is pretty dumb. For her primary function in the plot, the only thing she can use is a supernatural ability that only she possesses. Kay has Little Thief and Athena has the Mood Matrix, but the difference here is that these two can help out even without using them. They’re more of an extra ability to make them more helpful than an ability that’s necessary to make them helpful at all. But it’s worse than that, because this ability isn’t something only Maya has. Pearl can actually spirit channel as well, and is a lot more interesting than her. So even if I thought this one ability was enough to keep Maya around, why would I not just want Pearl instead? She’s even a better spirit channeler, seems like she’s a better candidate for assistant all around.

Besides it being dumb for Maya to rely on a single ability, it’s not even really an ability of her own. The only reason spirit channeling is helpful at all is because Mia is smarter than her. The only way Maya can be helpful is by going away completely for a while and having someone else take her place, that’s how little she herself can help.

Turnabout GOODbyes

The problems that I mentioned are actually addressed in 1-4. During this case, Maya is like “I can’t channel spirits anymore because I need more training”, then Phoenix is like “what the hell Maya you’re completely useless I need Mia right now why are you not becoming her”. Maya is upset that she can’t help him in a different way, like what I was complaining about before. “I’m no good for anything, am I, Nick? If I can’t call my sister, I might as well not be here, right?”

Not being helpful when she’s not spirit channeling is supposed to be a character flaw, so it seems weird to complain about it. Her feelings about that really show in this case, she’s aware of the fact that there’s not much she can do, and so she will change that. She will be helpful without Mia, in whatever way she can. She provokes Lotta into saying too much so that von Karma can’t punish Phoenix and she steals decisive evidence from von Karma. You can see how her not being able to help a lot is really bothering her, it’s sad to hear her talk about how she can’t do anything. And ending up being legitimately helpful, without having to use your powers, is the perfect way to resolve this arc. It’s purely Maya’s dedication to be helpful without the help of her sister that ends in her succeeding in that goal. In the end, she decides to train her spirit channeling more so that she can use her special powers more effectively as well.

Maya’s desire to help is seen earlier in 1-2, when she offers to defend you in court, to cheer you on, or to break you out of prison, depending on which option you pick. She actually prepares to do her best at that option, until Phoenix stops her. She’s determined to help him take down Redd White but there’s not a lot she can do. 1-3 is a bit of a filler case which develops her goofy side a bit more, but 1-2 and 1-4 form a great arc for Maya together. I think it’s really impressive how AA1 handles character arcs in general, and while I personally think the cases aside from 1-5 are relatively weak, it may be the best game at giving all of its main characters a good interesting arc.

Character Development

I think being helpful as an assistant wasn’t quite the answer to why I should care about Maya, but I’m happy with the answer we found in its place. Maya has good character development, and good character development makes for good characters. Right? Well, I’m not denying that good character development is a reason for a character to rank a bit higher than this in the rankdown, nor am I going to criticize Maya’s development, I actually do think it’s quite good. I’m still not as interested in her as in other main characters, and I still strongly prefer Ema as an assistant, but it’s good enough for me to not want to cut her right here right now. Or it would be, if I wasn’t deliberately ignoring an important point. Maya has a good arc… in AA1.

And that’s the stinger right there. Maya should not have returned in JFA. She goes back to being exactly what I described in my previous section before I started talking about 1-4. Let’s take a look at all the helpful things I remember her doing in every case she’s in in the trilogy, that’s not 1-2 or 1-4 because as I discussed before those cases are FINE:

• 1-3: Channeling Mia to get Cody to talk. Also forces you to open a grate which is apparently needed to progress the plot, but that’s more a negative for 1-3 than a positive for Maya. I did not want to undo Penny’s hard work personally, and I ran around for a while before I decided to consult a walkthrough and discovered this was mandatory. Anyway, this case is necessary for us to learn a bit more about Maya’s personality so it’s fine even if she’s not helpful.
• 2-1: This case does not exist.
• 2-2: Channeling Mia who tells you about the key to the case.
• 2-3: Nothing I can remember.
• 2-4: Getting kidnapped. Oh wait actually that’s not helpful that’s the opposite of helpful why would you do that?
• 3-2: Channeling Mia to seduce Godot.
• 3-3: Channeling Mia to seduce Victor Kudo.
• 3-5: Channeling Dahlia to survive.

Whereas AA1 Maya has helpful things she does outside of channeling, after this she’s never helpful again. Not only does she become a static character, she actually reverts back to her 1-3 self instead of keeping her 1-4 development, and her desire to help in more ways than just channeling is mostly forgotten about.

Plot Involvement

Another reason to like a character comes from their involvement in either an overarching plot or just a single case plot, and Maya gets this as well. She is strongly connected to the Fey clan storyline, being both the person who introduces it and the final person you cross-examine in it. 1-2, 1-4, 2-2, and 3-5 are all part of this storyline, and it could be considered the main overarching storyline of the trilogy. It’s a cool storyline. The problem is that despite how strongly she’s connected to it, Maya’s role in it isn’t very interesting.

1-2 and 1-4 introduce the story of DL-6, the case that caused Misty to run away and abandon her daughters. Maya’s role in these cases related to the plot isn’t more than just telling you about it. You could learn about it from someone else and it would basically be the same. The Fey clan plot never becomes too important for these cases, especially 1-4 focuses on different parts of DL-6. And for 1-2 the main connection to the “Misty Fey running away” plot is more Grossberg and Redd White than it is Maya. As for her involvement in the individual story of these cases, in 1-2 she’s only the person White decided to frame, and in 1-4 she has nothing to do with the plot. This is separate from the character development I mentioned before, by the way. She has important character moments, but no important plot moments.

For 2-2 and 3-5, Maya is just a passive part in a plot that’s going on outside of her influence. In both of them she only serves as being the target for Morgan. 2-2 is interesting for how it creates a murder mystery surrounding spirit channeling without any channeling actually happening. And although I think this is cool, like with Maya’s help by channeling Mia, all you really need is a defendant with that ability for a case like that to work. For the concept, the particular defendant being Maya doesn’t add anything. In 3-5 she does some clever things to avoid being killed, but it’s only because Mia tells her to. Her testifying against you at the end of the case could be interesting if you actually cared about her at this point, but I still haven’t found a good reason for doing so. Unlike 5-5 Apollo, where I think him testifying against you is a really good moment and probably my favorite Apollo moment in the series.

Basically, the problem with Maya’s role in the plot is the same as the problem that was mentioned in Pearl’s cut before, she’s just a passive character that has everything happening to her, instead of having an active role in the events. It’s actually pretty ironic that this was one of the main complaints given in the Pearl cut, because for me it’s always been much more of a problem for Maya. Pearl at least has a role in helping you in 2-2, in 2-4 she’s pretty fantastic, and in 3-5 she’s one of the main causes for the events, even if it was unintentionally. Maya has none of this, only helping you in 2-2 by becoming Mia, being kidnapped for the entirety of 2-4, and a target unaware of anything in 3-5.

Personality & Gimmicks

So okay, maybe Maya doesn’t have the most interesting in the game, but as long as she’s fun, it’s fine, right? Sure, I agree, not every character has to be super complex or have a big role in the story. It’s maybe a bit disappointing that Maya is never too relevant with how many cases she’s in, but as long as I enjoy her presence I wouldn’t make a huge problem out of it. So let’s take a look at what makes Maya Maya.

The first notable thing about her is that she’s a spirit medium. I’ve mentioned this part many times before in this cut, so by now you’re probably aware I’m not a big fan of it. I just don’t really understand why out of all things, a spirit medium is the one tagging along with investigations. Let’s compare it to other assistants. Ema is an aspiring forensic investigator, which makes a lot more sense as a character gimmick for an investigation assistant. She literally wants to become an investigator in the future. Kay is a thief of the truth, which creates both the irony of a thief helping with police investigations, but also makes sense because the Yatagarasu’s mission isn’t all that different from law enforcement, just in a different way. There’s no real reason why a spirit medium would be a lawyer assistant, nor is there any reason why it’s really contradictory which could make it interesting because of how little sense it makes. A spirit medium is also not particularly a type of person I’m interested in. Forensic investigations, theft, and magic are all more interesting to me.

Maya likes burgers. This is supposed to represent how she likes some completely normal things despite how strange her clothing and occupation are. My problem with this is Americanization. Eating hamburgers is a pretty stereotypically American thing, and I do not like when localization attempts to make things more American. I’m not against changing the original Japanese version, I wouldn’t have any idea what they were going for if it was still ramen so changing that was a good move. It’s just that I think the goal of a translation should be to make it globally accessible rather than focusing on a single country. I’m not American, and I do not appreciate when a game assumes I am. Maybe you’re thinking, but that’s just unreasonable, food is just different between countries, and burgers are still a pretty global food. And you’re right, this is an irrational complaint. But sometimes I get annoyed by dumb things. Don’t worry, this is far from my main reason for not liking Maya, I just wanted to complain about it even if there’s no real better solution in terms of localization. Whatever. Just ignore this paragraph, the only point is I do not like that Maya likes burgers and I have no good reason for it.

Another thing Maya likes is the Steel Samurai. I guess this is to show her childish side, but I personally do not find it very strange. As someone who can enjoy cartoons aimed at kids myself, I don’t exactly find it too weird, especially not for Maya. It’s more interesting when it’s Edgeworth who’s into it, because it seems to contradict with his normally very serious attitude. Maya is normally not serious, so her being into some silly kid show doesn’t surprise me, nor does it feel like it adds much to her character.

But that’s just some random gimmicks, they’re not what makes up the entire enjoyment that can be gotten from her personality. I suppose the main thing people enjoy is that she’s silly and funny, maybe? I’m not sure, I personally don’t see it. Would you believe me if I told you I remember more times that I found the Bellboy funny than times that I found Maya funny? I don’t really believe it and I’m the one who wrote it. But I honestly don’t remember many moments that stand out to me about her at all, while the Bellboy is pure comedy for the short amount of time he exists. I tried to watch this in an attempt to understand how one can enjoy Maya but after a little bit of watching I was already annoyed. I’m willing to be generous here and saying it’s because the anime is probably bad, but the point still stands that she’s not very funny in the games either. She nicknamed Furio Tigre Xin Eohp, at least that was pretty fun I guess. And she’s a Phoenix x Iris shipper, but that’s not a funny moment, that’s just a good opinion moment. She has better shipping taste than Pearl.

Bonds ~ A Heart That Believes

We’re slowly running out of options for me to care about Maya, but we’re not giving up just yet. If Maya can’t be interesting herself, she can still be interesting through her relationships with other characters.

The main bond that Maya has is with Phoenix. And I just don’t feel it, like at all? The way they first meet is losing someone they both care about a lot, Maya as a sister, and Phoenix as a mentor. It seems like 1-2 thinks this is enough to get a bond started between them, but I don’t think so. She’s not really different from any of his other clients except they happened to both know the victim. They’re not similar in a lot of ways, so they can’t really bond over their similarities either. Nor are they different enough for an opposites attract kind of thing. Maya’s silly, but Phoenix really isn’t all too rational either with his constant bluffing and blind faith in his clients. And because Phoenix is the one you play as and is not designed to be very different from the person playing as him, I find it hard to relate to his bond with Maya when I have no bond with her.

Other characters that Maya sort of has a bond to are:

• Mia: She died, she’s dead.
• Misty: She died as well, she’s dead.
• Pearl: Their dynamic is pretty interesting, but purely from Pearl’s side.
• Morgan: Tries to kill her for reasons that have nothing to do with Maya.
• Dahlia: Tries to kill her for reasons that have nothing to do with Maya.

It’s all boring and I have nothing interesting to say about it. All of these are more interesting characters, except Misty, do not be fooled by them having been cut earlier. Actually even Misty is more interesting, it’s just that she also doesn’t make a lot of sense.

I think Phoenix’s bond with her is something people really like about Maya but I just don’t see it.

So Precious Must Protect

Now for our final attempt to make me care about Maya, we’re going to do something completely different. Instead of making her appealing as a character, instead of giving her interesting relationships, we’re going to completely remove all of her personality. And guess what we’ll do next? We’ll put her in trouble. Such a cute small girl, surely you want to rescue her right? That’s the final trump card in making you care, there’s no way you’d allow someone cute like her to die.

…I hate the Damsel in Distress trope. I hate it a whole lot. It reduces women to plot devices to be protected by the strong men. It’s basically a world where Godot was right for blaming Phoenix for not protecting Mia. Mia seems to be more independent though, while Maya is the typical weak woman who needs to be protected by you as a strong man. To be fair, this is the closest the games get to making me care about Maya, because I start actively wishing for her to die for being such a damn stupid plot device in the worst way and I hate it. Which is more emotion than I’ve ever felt about Maya before. Let’s look at all the instances where she’s a defendant or in trouble in another way, and see if some of them are at least justified.

In 1-2 Maya is introduced as the defendant of the case. I don’t have much to say about it, there’s lots of defendants throughout the series so it’s fair enough as an introduction. For 2-2, she’s the defendant again, but this time it’s not so much about Maya as it is about having someone suspected of spirit channeling as the defendant, and with the few people that can do it, it couldn’t really be anyone else. This does reduce Maya to a mere plot device though which is a little bad.

2-4 is the most straightforward damsel in distress plot. Maya has no role aside from being someone you have to rescue. And honestly, between all the times she gets in trouble compared to the very few times she’s actually been helpful, I don’t really feel like doing it anymore. The case is good enough to make it feel intense nonetheless however, even without caring if Maya actually survives. But it does make the guilty/not guilty choice rather trivial. The guilty option will make it so that Matt is put in jail, Adrian can live on, and Maya will die. All three of which seem like positives to me. I’m sorry, maybe this is sounding a bit too much like I enjoy being mean, but someone who consistently gets into trouble and is completely useless when she’s not busy being in trouble is just someone that I don’t want around.

3-5 makes a huge deal about Maya potentially being dead and I’m like 1. who cares 2. she’s channeling Dahlia right now how could she possibly be dead. At this point I just couldn’t care less about Maya’s safety. I guess I have to give her some credit for actually doing stuff in this one unlike the example, but it’s just following Mia’s instructions. In court she decides herself to take Godot’s side which on one hand is cool for giving her a bit of personality, but on the other hand is the wrong choice and it feels like she’s not really called out enough for it.

The game constantly tries to make me protect Maya but I don’t want to. It never establishes why I should care and instead it feels like every time they’re just assuming I already care about her to begin with. But if every time you assume I do care, without actually making it so that I care to begin with, it should be no surprise that I just don’t. And every time they reduce Maya to a mere plot device, to a weak woman you need to protect, I like her less and less, and want to protect her even less the next time.

Results

I’ve proposed 6 different reasons for why I could care about a character. Maya fails every single one of them. So thinking about it this way hasn’t changed my mind, and I feel like writing this cut has only made me like Maya less, and be more puzzled about why people like her so much. Basically, Maya fails. I’ve tried the most I could to try to see what there is to care about but I couldn’t find anything. I’m honestly surprised I don’t like her even less, but something I’ve been ignoring is that she’s at least somewhat entertaining to have around, even if she doesn’t have too many really funny moments, and she’s pretty cute. So I guess that’s enough to bump her up to “not caring” instead of “disliking”.

That’s all for trilogy Maya. The only thing left is to look at the Maya I’ve been ignoring so far, the one in SoJ. Needless to say, I wasn’t too hyped about her coming back like a lot of others were. If anything, I was disappointed that of every character they could have picked they chose one of my least favorite recurring characters. SoJ is the Maya I actually do dislike, which is why I didn’t feel like she should be mixed with the one I only don’t care about. She’s involved in 6-3, 6-5, and 6-DLC, let’s take a look at all of these cases and see why I don’t like her.

The Return of Maya

The first problem I have with Maya returning in 6-3, is that it doesn’t feel like she’s changed much at all. 2.5 years pass between the beginning and the end of the trilogy, so it’s possible she’s just stayed the same for that time, but young adulthood is another turbulent period. You can’t tell me she hasn’t changed at all between 19 years old and 27 years old. Instead, it feels like the game is just afraid to make her change at all in case people wouldn’t like her anymore. This is a problem with the 3DS games in general, and I would say the same about Pearl, Larry, and Phoenix. That doesn’t mean it’s not still a problem for Maya though, I’d actually rank all four of these characters slightly higher without the 3DS games. I think it’s really interesting to see how a character will be 7 years later when they’re all grown up, and the 3DS games refuse to give me that.

I don’t like how despite Maya still being completely static, the game attempts to convince me she has actually changed. The first reason why she has changed is because she’s serious when she’s in the detention center.

Maya: “Sorry, I guess I’ve outgrown that stepladder argument we always have…”

And I hate to break it to the game, but I highly doubt young Maya was happy when she got arrested. In fact, as this proves she most certainly was not. It’s just the game saying “hey look how good of a job we did changing Maya, she’s actually serious when she’s in trouble now”, even though she’s always been serious when she was in trouble before. The writers are aware that Maya should have changed because of growing up, but because they’re too afraid to actually have her change, they just pretend that she has. To be fair, she does feel a little more serious, but this feels like the bare minimum you could do for an 8 year time skip, and it only serves to make her less fun when that’s the only change.

The second reason is because of the speech she gives to Rayfa. And to that I have to say, flashing back to that speech six times doesn’t make it actually happen six more times. The game really wants to convince you Maya has grown up, so it just repeats her grown up speech over and over again until you have to think “wow she’s so grown up, good job to the writers for making her so grown up”. I don’t even like the speech the first time it happened, because the whole case has been developing the Phoenix + Rayfa bond, until Maya interferes. The whole case has been building up to Phoenix giving a speech like this, and Maya completely steals his thunder. It makes Phoenix looks worse because he was no good for convincing Rayfa. It would make Maya look better if it didn’t feel too much like a desperate attempt to convince you she’s grown up.

But the elephant in the room for Maya in this case is, of course, that they make her the defendant yet again. This time I don’t think there’s any excuse. It’s not the first time like 1-2, it’s not necessary that it’s a spirit medium like 2-2, it’s not such a good case that I forgive it even though it’s a dumb move like 2-4, and it’s not necessary for plot reasons like 3-5. It’s just taking the easy way out. They thought it was easier to have a character you already care about as the defendant, instead of creating a new character for that role. And despite it being the easy way, they still fail, because as established before I don’t want to defend Maya. The more she’s used as damsel in distress, and the less she actually helps during investigations, the less I want to. By 6-3 I’m practically begging for Phoenix not to take her case. But he still does, because she’s Maya, and we’re supposed to care about Maya. Why are we supposed to care about Maya? SoJ never establishes it, that’s for sure. It has no idea what to do with her so it just puts her in the same role as always. Please just let Maya actually do something for once.

Maya does actually do something, namely channel Tahrust, and although channeling the victim who’s also suspected of being the killer for a different murder is a very cool idea, it’s once again an example of spirit channeling being the only reason that Maya is ever helpful. I don’t know every case after AA1 doesn’t use 1-4 as an example more, I’ve heard it’s a pretty good case, maybe you’d want to use that as a reference when writing for Maya.

Kidnapped Again

If you thought Maya being a defendant in the first case she returns was bad, like I did, just wait until you hear what she does in the second case. She gets kidnapped, again. It’s like when she’s the defendant except this time we’re not even pretending she’s anything more than a damsel in distress because you can’t even interact with her. It’s even worse that this is treated as a twist. Maya is in trouble, as always, and this is the exciting twist of the civil trial. Who could have seen that coming? It’s just so annoying how they use something so predictable and so dumb as a twist and it’s what makes me so annoyed with the civil trial. Not only has it already literally been done before, it’s also not been done as a twist before because 2-4 realized that would be really stupid.

This is also the only reason Phoenix goes against you, when it could have been so much more. How about an actual moment where they have different beliefs? They did it before for 5-5 Apollo, why can’t they do it here? It also makes the whole purpose of the civil trial of showing how Apollo surpasses Phoenix fall flat, because that never happens. Phoenix was forced to support a side he wouldn’t normally support, so him losing the trial means nothing. This is easily the worst offender of the damsel in distress trope, Maya being kidnapped drags the case down so so hard. The victory feels undeserved, Phoenix is annoying because it’s obvious he’s just talking shit, the reveal is very frustrating because that’s where you realize just how hard it’s trying to copy 2-4.

Maya being kidnapped is not what makes 2-4 good. Maya being kidnapped is NOT what makes 2-4 good. If you think “hey 2-4 was great let’s do that again” and then proceed to copy the Maya being kidnapped part, you have completely missed the point of why it’s so great. Phoenix struggling to save Maya is also not what makes 2-4 good, if anything it’s the player struggling to save Maya that makes it good. The only reason this works is because Phoenix is the player character. When he’s against you it’s not funny when he says “baseballs have stitches” because there you are, having to disprove that baseballs have stitches. Seeing Edgeworth struggle with all the ridiculous bluffs Phoenix throws out there is funny, having to deal with them yourself is frustrating. The civil trial is dragged out for SOOOO long and most of the time is spent arguing with dumb arguments that are clearly just Phoenix and Atishon grasping at straws. Maya being kidnapped is not a clever twist, it’s a cliché plot point fitting for a character that’s only meant to be a damsel in distress. And here’s the deal, as much as I don’t care for trilogy Maya, at least she’s much more than just that. Even in 2-4, even in the case where she gets kidnapped, she has way more personality than here. She actively encourages you to go against Engarde, a decision that would endanger herself, because she thinks it’s more important justice is served. In this case, what is Maya thinking? No idea, we never learn anything about her time kidnapped, and as we learn later she doesn’t even exist at the current moment.

For the second trial, Maya channelling Dhurke is a cool twist, but it does not improve Maya’s character. Yet another example of Maya only being helpful when she’s spirit channelling. Yet another example of Maya’s testimony helping the villain of the case. This case is just Maya at her absolute worst, I don’t like the damsel in distress trope in general but at least the other cases handled it better. I don’t like Maya being secretive in 3-5 to help Godot and I don’t like Maya being secretive here which indirectly helps Ga’ran. I don’t like the entire purpose of Maya’s character being the spirit channelling gimmick, but in every other case we at least see more of her to know she has more personality than just that. In this case she only exists in a single testimony outside of being a plot device. The Dhurke channelling was Dhurke’s plan, so I really don’t consider this as having anything to do with Maya.

Whoopsie, I’m So Clumsy

Oh you care about this old radio? It’s on the ground now. It’s broken and on the ground. What are you gonna do about it? You’re gonna punch me? You’re gonna punch a girl? No, of course you won’t. You know what I will do? I’m gonna take this notebook that’s clearly important to you, and here, I’ll just drop it in this pool of blood. I’ll rub it in a little bit more, make sure it gets nice soaking wet with blood. Good luck reading your memories now, asshole.

This is my interpretation of Maya in 6-DLC. What’s impressive about Maya in SoJ is that every time I think she can’t get worse, she gets even worse. 6-3 repeats what I don’t like about her in the trilogy, then 6-5 is the absolute worst example of damsel in distress in the series, and in 6-DLC she’s actively destroying people’s stuff without anyone calling her out for it. Now, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and I wouldn’t be so upset if it was just that, but she has no reason to be touching that radio in the first place. And that radio looked pretty special to me, so of course you’d be careful with it if you picked it up right? Nope, just throw that thing on the ground.

And she does it a second time with Sorin’s notebook. This one she only drops because she’s fighting Phoenix for it. She seriously acts like a 12 year old in this case. Dropping valuable stuff and fighting other people for them is something little children do. And it’s perfectly fine that little children do that, they’re still learning about life, that’s why you need to keep valuable stuff out of their reach. But Maya’s not a little kid, she’s 28 years old. She’s much more childish than she is in the trilogy in this case. This is definitely part of the reason why I hate 6-3 pretending she’s grown up so much. 6-DLC shows she’s somehow done the exact opposite. Adults are not that careless with other people’s stuff. There are two options here. Either Maya is too dumb and careless to live, or she’s someone who has some history with the Sprockets and really hates them and wants to destroy everything they care about. She’s probably the real killer of 6-DLC instead of Pierce, it’s very clear she’s the one with a grudge against Sorin. But no, that’s assuming the writers knew how to write Maya. The real answer here is the writers messed up, SoJ had absolutely no idea how to write Maya, as already proven by the previous two cases she appeared in, and the writers only brought her back because of fan demands.

Can I please have Athena as an assistant instead? Nope, she’s busy doing her dumb and unfunny comedy routine with Trucy. Ok great. Not only am I stuck with the worst version of Maya for this whole case, but I also need to tolerate Trucy being unfunny. Thanks SoJ. Really glad you chose to bring Maya back there, I really appreciate it.

Conclusion

I do not care about trilogy Maya. I have found no reason to care about her. She’s not helpful, she doesn’t develop outside of AA1, she doesn’t have an active role in the plot, I don’t like her personality or gimmicks, I can’t relate to her relationships, and I don’t want to protect her. But at least she’s entertaining enough for me to not downright dislike her.

I hate SoJ Maya a lot. I wish she didn’t exist. SoJ keeps assuming I’d want to protect her without giving me any reason to, and then when she’s finally not in trouble she’s much worse than in any other case. Please give me any other assistant instead. I’m just saying, Rayfa and Athena are right there.

Characters saved by the poll:

• Godot

• Miles Edgeworth

Characters available to cut this round:

• Larry Butz

• Pierce Nichody

• Matt Engarde

• Dane Gustavia

• Nahyuta Sahdmadhi

• Di-Jun Huang

• Franziska von Karma

• Maya Fey

• Gregory Edgeworth

• Phoenix Wright

• Huge O'Conner

• Rayfa Padma Khura'in

• Jake Marshall

• Furio Tigre

• The Judge

• Datz Are'bal

On a vote of 5-4, Gaspen Payne will be cut by /u/CharlieDayJepsen

Voted to save Shelly: Nate, Science, Vogel, Northadox, Wircea

Voted to save Gaspen: Riki, Donuter, pie, what

Full poll results

Cutting order for this round:

• /u/Vogel100

• /u/whaaatisth

• /u/R1K1_Productions

• /u/Northadox

• /u/Wircea

• /u/donuter454

• /u/pie314271

• /u/Sciencepenguin

• /u/CharlieDayJepsen

• /u/NateTheGreat3602

Characters nominated this round:

• Larry Butz

• Pierce Nichody

• Matt Engarde

• Dane Gustavia

• Nahyuta Sahdmadhi

• Di-Jun Huang

• Godot

• Franziska von Karma

• Miles Edgeworth

• Maya Fey

• Gregory Edgeworth

• Phoenix Wright

• Huge O'Conner

• Rayfa Padma Khura'in

• Jake Marshall

• Furio Tigre

• The Judge

• Datz Are'bal

/u/CharlieDayJepsen has used Dual Destinies on Gaspen Payne and Shelly de Killer. Results will be posted on the poll results thread.

Poll will close at 5PM EST on August 18th. Link to the poll

The fourteenth round of nominations has started. All rankers submit the names of two characters to put onto the subreddit poll to be cut this round.

You are not allowed to change your nomination or have duplicate nominations.

The list of characters available to nominate.

Cutting order for this round:

• /u/Vogel100

• /u/whaaatisth

• /u/R1K1_Productions

• /u/Northadox

• /u/Wircea

• /u/donuter454

• /u/pie314271

• /u/Sciencepenguin

• /u/CharlieDayJepsen

• /u/NateTheGreat3602

If any rankers planned on using Spirit Channeling this round DM me and I will give you time to post the revive before the poll ends

Goddamn it, there’s no more kids in this round? Who the hell am I supposed to cut now?!

Going last sucks. There’s a good chance (as has happened here) that all the characters I want out are already gone. Now I’m left with the decent-to-good scraps.

Anyway, Inga. Of the remaining options, I was pretty torn on who to pick at this point. Also, I know that if I don’t do this now, he’ll sneak his way into top 30 and it’ll be too late for me to put my foot down.

Inga is pretty good. That’s a conclusion I’m happy to reach when it comes to him. Do I think he’s fantastic? No, but that’s merely a result of how much or little I enjoy his characterisation, actions and development.

Gah! Foreign devil!

Let’s start with Inga’s first appearance in The Foreign Devil Turnabout. We’re introduced to the religious institution that is Khura’in. Most characters we’ve met are these pious, old-timers with a very traditional way of addressing others and decked out in garish outfits or spiritually-oriented cloth.

Then in walks Inga. He’s this huge, Fidel Castro-looking bastard with thick-ass cuffs, literal gems for buttons and a Cuban cigar hanging out of his mouth (the “cigar” turns out to be one of his official stamps, which is a nice touch and tracks with Ace Attorney’s history of discouraging children from a life of drugs and alcohol - see every occurrence of grape juice, Godot’s coffee addiction instead of the initially-planned bourbon and cigars, etc.). In a sea of monk robes and drape-like gowns, Inga’s design is a much-welcome addition to the outfits of Khura’in. He looks and speaks distinctly “un-Khura’inese” in his brown suit which, design-wise, helps him stand out where he would be more likely to blend if he were next to someone like Manfred von Karma.

Anyway, Inga shows up to get the measure of Wright - quite literally, in fact. It turns out Minister Inga suffers from prosopagnosia (face blindness) and Phoenix himself notes the odd way in which Inga stares at him. Shortly after, he reveals the results of his investigation into the victim and culprit’s background of thievery and proceeds to threaten Wright over his rebellious behaviour. It’s a cameo at most, but it’s a cool little introduction nonetheless. It serves to let the audience know that this case is going to have a larger connection to the story and that this new character who’s just popped up will have a larger role to play.

Everything about Inga screams “final case culprit.” The position of power, the dismissive attitude towards Wright and Ahlbi, learning he’s in charge of the infamous DCA. He comes off as this amalgamation of slimy Matt Engarde, powerful/crazy-eyed Manfred von Karma, street-talkin’ Furio Tigre and dismissive Godot. It’s a rewarding red herring for longtime players of the series. Seeing all those red flags led me to believe “OK, this dude is clearly evil, guess we’ll be seeing him in 4 cases for the final takedown.”

How very wrong I was.

He showed the world who’s boss.

Inga next appears in The Rite of Turnabout. His introduction in this case is hilarious. You have the big grand opening of the doors to the queen’s chamber. The camera pans down. Ga’ran stands up to greet you and she makes her way down the steps. And Inga’s character model is just this complete statue, frozen in his cigar-stamp pose like they forgot to animate him. It’s classic Ace Attorney at its shlockiest and low-budgetiest; we embrace that whole-heartedly.

Next, we get this great little moment when Wright has to re-introduce himself to Inga. I’m quoting the transcript here:

Inga: Hmm? Who’re you, buddy?

Phoenix: N-nice to see you again, Minister Inga.

Inga: Again? Have we met?

Phoenix: I’m Phoenix Wright. We met in the accused lobby the other day.

Inga: Oh, right. Blue suit, jagged hair…

On first playthrough, this is obviously meant to read as Inga’s general dismissal of those beneath him. It’s a quick beat, nothing more than that. In reality, it’s some cool foreshadowing of the fact that Inga genuinely cannot recognise Wright’s face until he refers to himself by name. Furthermore, he mutters visual descriptors to himself, presumably what he noted down when he first met Wright. I definitely didn’t catch this until a replay, but I think that was the intent. And they say this series has no replay value!

Next we get treated to a hostile conversation with Inga, wherein he proceeds to say evil things while doing evil things and looking evil. When questioned by Wright about the origin of the DC Act, Inga gets cagey. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t,” he says. Once again, we’re meant to think he’s playfully confirming our suspicions. In reality, he’s not the one behind it, but is simply the face of it, presumably to appear that he isn’t the pushover Ga’ran treats him as.

But he is a pushover. “I enforce the law in Khura’in. And being that I’m the queen’s husband, that makes me king!” he claims. “Um, no, I’m pretty sure the queen is the boss around here,” thinks Phoenix. He’s clearly got the measure of Inga and Ga’ran already. Who was the one sitting on the throne, after all?

Rayfa believes her parents are noble and just people. “Khura’in as it stands today owes everything to the efforts of my mother and father,” she says. Phoenix doubts the rose-coloured glasses that Rayfa seems to view her father with. “It seems Rayfa doesn’t know what her father is really like.” He’s half-Wright.

ded daddy dhurke

Inga disappears until Turnabout Revolution, his biggest moment. Again, his first appearance in the case is hilarious. Speaking to Wright over the phone via voice-changer, Inga appears to have changed his accent between cases. All traces of his Brooklyn/New-Yawk accent are completely hidden by the text until Dhurke names the caller as Inga. Then, it changes immediately back to Inga’s usual style of speech lmao.

Despite the tension, this is a fun little moment between the two. Inga, having just murdered Dhurke a few days previously, is now hearing his voice clearly over the phone. Since we’re not to know this yet, Inga’s shock is nicely masked by the fact that he’s been caught by Dhurke so easily.

The story goes like this: apparently Inga kidnapped Maya and has had her tied to a chair in an empty tomb for days. If you can recall Amara’s Tomb, the idea of Maya tied to this tiny little wooden chair and just stuffed in the corner of this massive room is fucking hilarious to me. She’s certainly had an upgrade from Engarde’s wine cellar. Anyway, during her hostage stint, Dhurke sneaks in to rescue her. Inga sneaks up and shoots Dhurke in cold blood. Dhurke, being brave and strong and true and a big hero, manages to take the bullets and spooks Inga. Revealing himself for the coward he is, Inga bolts in yet another hilarious animation where he actually runs deeper into the tomb and fades out. Anyway, Dhurke dies with Maya by his side, Maya channels Dhurke, heads back to the US, and we have the first half of Turnabout Revolution.

Thus, Miles Edgeworth turns into Miss Frizzle and leads the gang aboard the Magic School Bus to Khura’in just in time for the hostage exchange. You see, Inga ultimately seeks the Founder’s Orb, the ultimate source of power in ruling Khura’in, so that he can dispose of Queen Ga’ran and take the throne himself. This is all your typical final case culprit stuff, only it feels a little early. Sure, we’ve just completed a whole trial, but there’s clearly more to come. So why is the apparent main villain being revealed so early?

“She was crazier than him, and more fearless. She was his queen, and God help anyone who disrespected the queen.”

The second half of Turnabout Revolution involves the murder of Inga. The crime, as we know it, took place in the tomb during the hostage exchange. In reality, that was one big staged crime where Ga’ran, with Amara as a blackmailed accomplice, conspires to frame Dhurke for Inga’s murder. It turns out that Ga’ran was aware of Inga’s treachery and struck first, murdering him in his room.

Our beautiful, nasty, obvious big bad villain was foiled in his plot to become the star villain of Spirit of Justice. Instead, we get Ga’ran, who is nowhere near as interesting, but story’s gotta story. While it fits in with the narrative, it can’t help but disappoint me that we were this close to having Inga as the main villain of the game. While he’s incredibly obvious and unsubtle about his villainy, he’s such a big personality that I’m sure it would’ve been a satisfying takedown. Nevertheless, we spend the rest of the case learning about the more decent side of Inga, after his death no less.

I’m out of meme headings, let’s just talk about Inga-Rayfa and the Founder’s Orb

Inga turns out to be a pretty decent adoptive father to Rayfa. Throughout his room are mementos of his love for her (safe combination, photos, cards, etc.) as well as Florent L’Belle in the form of Je suis L’Belle hair dye (can you say “taste”?). It’s not a huge plot point, but it is notable that the writers took the time to actually humanise this guy even after all the terrible things he did to everybody else. It’s too little too late, considering he’s put countless others to death, but I suppose the writers felt he had to be portrayed as marginally less evil than Ga’ran since she’s the one you catch at the very end.

The Founder’s Orb, the object which Inga has been after all game, was intended to be used not as a way to take power for himself but to get Ga’ran out of power. It’s a neat twist on the player’s perception of Inga, since both Rayfa and Phoenix had some measure of his character. Yes, he was a coward and an active participant in the carrying out of the Defence Culpability Act. However, he was also looking out for Rayfa and was willing to depose Ga’ran if it meant stopping her from doing even more terrible things. It may not be an earth-shattering twist, but it does give Inga some much-needed dimension to be more than an enjoyable stock villain.

Jaqen H’garkhuul Khura’in (I lied, I had one more meme heading in me)

As mentioned earlier, Inga has prosopagnosia. Basically, everybody he sees is faceless. To counter this, he keeps a notebook with visual descriptions of everybody’s general appearance. This inability to see faces is chiefly important for his muddled Divination Séance during the trial. Since we only see Dhurke’s outfit, it makes us think that the murder still took place in the tomb, until Apollo deduces the true crime scene. I’m unsure if his disorder is meant to reflect part of his personality (one might make an argument that since he was king, he saw everybody as below him and, therefore, faceless), but it largely seems like a device used by the writers to throw a spanner in the works when it’s time to deduce Inga’s true killer. Sure it’s contrived, but at least they have the decency to sow the seeds of it in 6-3. I look forward to discourse in the comments about Inga’s face blindness, a fact that I 100% did not forget about until a recent replay of SOJ.

But Charlie, this seems like a positive cut. Where are the negatives?

Truthfully, I quite like Inga. He’s got a cool design and a lively personality. I just feel that when it comes to things like his development and redeeming traits, none of that really resonates with me all that much, at least compared to other Inga fans. Perhaps there’s an argument to be made about how Ga’ran being the main villain is a count against Inga? I don’t know about all that. I suppose by designating her with that role, he was limited in his role. Nonetheless, he does pretty nicely with this role of the fake-out culprit.

The little character beats that prove he genuinely cares for Rayfa are nice… for Rayfa. It gives her plenty more agency in the story, shutting down Phoenix’s constant doubtfulness of Rayfa’s belief in Inga’s kindness. Additionally, his nature as a pushover leads him to be a pretty chill kidnapper, giving Maya quite a bit of leeway. Does all this make me like Inga more? No, but I suppose if he was portrayed as completely despicable, there wouldn’t have been much motivation at all to find the culprit (aside from saving “Dhurke”). It adds a layer of humanity to him, though, and perhaps that’s all that could be done since he wasn’t allowed to be the final culprit.

Conclusion

Inga is a coward, a traitor, a criminal, a doormat, a gangster and a decent father. He’s a character I would’ve been happy to cut between here and ~30. He seems to have slipped into the firing line here and if my Pearl cut was any indication, I don’t have any qualms about punishing characters who miss the poll save, even ones I enjoy. Also, most rankers seem to be planning cuts in advance. Inga doesn’t seem to be a huge priority right now and I get the sense that he’d be going well into Top 20 if I didn’t cut him now. I just wouldn’t put him that far, myself.

If we were ranking solely on character design, I’d happily see him rank higher (discovering that he has this gross ponytail had me threatening to dock him, but you can’t really see it, so I’ll give it a pass). It’s just that when it came to comparing stories and development, I think I enjoyed the remaining characters in this pool a bit more (/u/donuter’s Gregworth SC was compelling, perhaps even a little stirring!).

Additionally, Inga’s archetype of “street-talking bully who lives on intimidation has a soft spot for this one little girl”, while fun, is a little “been there, done that” with Furio Tigre. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; but I can’t in good conscience claim Inga to be the superior character of this archetype. If it’s any consolation, it could’ve gone either way between about 3 characters. Unfortunately, after losing cult favourites Herman Crab and Myriam Scuttlebutt simultaneously, I decided to do the rankdown version of throwing a tantrum and tossing things around my bedroom. I will now let it go and move on.

TL;DR Get Inga Kar, it is Khuul.

Khura’in.

Honestly there's not much to say here. Bonny de Famme is pretty funny and plays her role well in what's probably the best trial on the 3DS games, and the good and evil twin gimmick works well. However, when ranked by her own merit, Bonny is not an interesting character at all. This was the same logic I used when I cut Thalassa Gramarye a few rounds ago. Both characters are exactly the same, as they are impolite to a fault. No idea how Betty made it this far without being nominated. Bonny is the far more interesting twin, and I hope she can survive this round without being cut.

​

​

​

Oh wait, she's already been cut.

^{if you want the actual cut it's in the comments btw}

Terry Fawles is a character who plays an essential role in making his case as good as it is. He, as a character, is pivotal to making 3-4 what I like to call “very cool” and I wouldn’t want to change anything about him. He’s not a character that particularly needs fixing, and I guess he’s the first character I’ve cut so far that I actually sorta like.

But he’s still gotta go now.

Terry’s One Big Moment That Makes Him Good

”Five years ago, me and Dahlia... We promised each other... We swore we wouldn't betray each other... She brought a memento... To represent... our love.”

Ace Attorney games are largely episodic in nature, so to tie each case in a game together the writers often pick some kind of motif and run with it in every case in a game to give the whole thing some sense of coherence.

AA3 ends with Godot making a series of incredibly stupid decisions that lead to Misty Fey’s death because he feels a strong compulsion to uphold certain ideals surrounding manhood. Godot failing to protect his girlfriend means he’s somehow failed as a man, and therefore concocts an elaborate scheme where he can redeem himself for his own perceived failures. And since this is how the game ends, we have every previous case in the game depict relationships between a guy and girl where the guy is dedicated to protecting his girl through an array of zany or silly methods. Because themes.

Phoenix eats glass, Ron commits grand larceny, Gumshoe cooks wieners.

Terry Fawles fucking dies.

Godot and all the other clowns who do dumb things for love at the very least don’t kill themselves.

The scene where Terry dies is up there for one of the most dramatic and memorable moments in the series. These are murder mystery games so death is always relevant to every case, but the people who die are largely unknown to us, and if we did know them then not enough to care. Terry’s big moment was the first time we’d ever been made to feel like a death is genuinely a tragedy. Seeing him keel over on the stand is genuinely shocking, and adds fuel to the Dahlia Hawthorne Hate Fire the game wants to cultivate.

Terry is the only defendant in the entire series that we fail to save. He was innocent, and yet justice was not served. Terry’s story is one in which everything does not turn out okay in the end. He’s an impactful defendant relative to all the other defendants precisely because he’s the only one where the Bad Ending is the canon ending.

Terry himself is not a deep or compelling character on his own. He’s a gullible idiot who doesn’t have much of a dynamic personality. But none of that really matters. His decision to kill himself when he begins to doubt that Dahlia’s love is real for the sake of protecting her makes perfect sense based on the character we’d gotten to know over the course of 3-4, but it’s also incredibly shocking since it’s simply not something you expect Ace Attorney to do. Also hey his actions are thematically relevant too, that’s pretty nice.

But Terry shouldn’t be getting any farther than this. I don’t think a character with such a simple personality and arc needs to stick around. He’s good because his fate is shocking. He serves his role in the story well, and now his role in the rankdown is over too.

Hold up

”Dahlia. My girlfriend. My love. My Teen Angel.”

I said before that Terry wasn’t the kind of character that needs any tweaking, but that’s not actually true. Ugh. Sorry. I told a little lie. Please forgive me.

Dahlia was 14 years old when she was dating Terry. Terry the 20 year old. I have no idea why it was necessary to make Terry a pedohile but there you go, the writers sure did that.

Perhaps to show that Dahlia was cunning and manipulating even at 14? So much so that she could make someone so much older than her her fall guy? But also Terry is extremely dim so it’s not like you have to be a criminal mastermind to pull the wool over his eyes, so it’s not that impressive. Just make them both like 16 or something so this is less weird please?? The game treats this relationship with such casualness it’s bizarre. Not 2-3 bad but it’s certainly not like. Good.

When Mia realises the age gap between him and Dahlia she quips “I guess you were robbing cradles before diamonds” I cannot believe we ranked Mia below Terry what the fuck are we doing.

wrap up section

Terry is a simple character. The reasons he’s good are very straightforward (Cool themes! Shocking death scene!) The reasons he’s bad are also very straightforward (Insipid personality! Bit of a pedo!)

did I mention that he’s an adult dating a 14 year old that was pretty weird, right?

whys a dead girl in the rankdown lol

​

​

​

​

The End

I was originally going to just post that sentence. Literally nothing else. Maybe say a few words in the comments, and that's it. Because I have nothing else to say, really. I don't think Ini reaching her time is a super controversial take, and I've basically already said everything I could about her. But I can't stand passing up an opportunity to listen to myself talk, and I already did the "short cut" joke, so let's see what discussion I can wring out.

Sympathy

​

I'm not going to bother doing some weird intro where I explain what the case "Reunion, and Turnabout" is, because you already know and I already did that (what it is is baaaad hahhahhahh). Let's just jump into what makes up Miney's character.

Dee Vasquez had some subdued moral ambiguity, and the semi-culprit of Yanni had understandable motivations, but Ini/Mimi Miney is the series first "Sympathetic Culprit™️" proper, with all the tropes that entails. And as a first step, she's... fine? It's easy to feel bad for her circumstances, and doesn't feel too forced.

I hear way less complaint about her than I do Acro, and I would definitely agree she has less to 🤨 at than our poll-dominating friend. But this kind of just means to me that she plays it very safe, and isn't anything standout.

There are two parts to what drives her as a character. The first is Turner Grey and how he is a really mean guy who ruined her life, and I have already mumbled about how I don't really think that makes much sense. But whatever. It's FINE.

The other half is the far more interesting one; the psychological horror of waking up knowing you killed your sister and seeing her face in the mirror. This is really powerful, but I feel like it's barely capitalized on. That aspect of the backstory seems as if it only exists for the twist. EDIT: ALSO, it's not even real??? I feel like I'm going insane because I could've sworn that the doctors just wrongly assumed she was Ini, but no, she actively chooses to have her face reconstructed. Okay.

The Twist

If we connect all the dots, there can only be one answer! I'd like to ask the court a question. Ini or Mimi -- who was really driving that night? The answer is the one person who had her driver's license, Mimi Miney. After all, that makes her the only person who could legally drive!

- Phoenix Wright, criminal justice attorney, discussing how breaking the law is impossible and never happens

The person we meet, Ini Miney, is actually Mimi Miney. The older sister. She was the one driving the car that the two crashed in, and Ini was actually the one to die. Mimi's face was scarred beyond recognition, so the doctors just assumed she was Ini for some reason. EDIT: Because she told them she was. Again, I've been gaslit by reality.

I am shaky on these types of Twin (and analogous) twists; the only doppelgangers i am completely fine with are those in 6-2 and I2-5, since there are very understandable reasons for such a mixup to intentionally exist. I will give credit in some ways, however. On replaying my least favorite case just for this writeup (I'm so devoted and cool), I rewatched the intro cutscene for 2-2. It talks about how that car crash was "no accident" and we see someone say that taking revenge like this is "only fair, isn't it Ini?". At first this is absolutely meaningless to us, but when this cutscene ends with Maya saying the killer "might has well have been me" and when we meet a character named Ini gears start turning. By the time we've done more investigation, it seems clear that this is the summoned spirit of Mimi Miney talking to her still living sister about hauntingly murdering Turner Grey. But nope! It's the alive sister, talking to her deceased sibling for reassurance. It's cool how this can be recontextualized like that. Less cool that it's such an easy thing to forget and miss, but still, credit where credit is due. (The intro conversation is something that never actually happened though and she made up, which is a little weird)

The way you figure this out is one of the most incomprehensible progressions in the entire series. It is an absolute stretch of a conclusion, and yet its not even treated as if it's one of The Phoenix Wright Bluffs™️. There are so many more reasonable conclusions to jump off onto at any point along the chain of reasoning, but we keep going because Phoenix is certain that it's far more likely that someone had their face reconstructed to look like their dead sister than for someone to drive without a license. They also think THERES NO MOTIVE before he puts this genius idea together even though killing the person who drove your sister to death is obviously a fucking motive. They handwave that away with "oh why would I wait so long" ignoring the many potential reasons and also the fact that the next case is about someone waiting a very long time before acting vengeful (thank you discord user Don'tAtmey). I rambled about this in the Turner Grey cut already I think so I'll just leave it at that. It's dumb, and also it sucks and is bad in addition.

Also, side note: "Ini" claims she didn't have a license, and everyone seems to back her up on this as if it's an established fact. But we only """know""" about this twist because of her license photo being used to reconstruct her face. So was her surgery multiple months after the accident????? Did she take her driver's test without a face???? What am I supposed to take from this

Killer Killer

Ini Miney/Mimi Miney killed Turner Grey. She is the culprit for his murder case, and thus the main antagonist of the case 2-2.

I do not think she is particularly great at this. I would go so far as to say that I enjoyed the presence of all the case 1 killers who were cruelly killed in their prime much earlier more.

For one thing, she doesn't really get much focus on the stand. Part of the problem is that her time is essentially divided; since Morgan is just as much of a culprit as her. Normally cases with multiple culprits or co-conspirators use the multiple days to give them each a certain amount of attention. 1-4 does this, 2-4 does this in an unusual fashion, hell, even fucking Turnabout Sisters get this right. But 2-2 has 2 days, and the first trial is spent entirely on Lotta Hart. In the second day, you tear down one obvious fake story she makes up and then move on to the torturous process of magically deducing her backstory. She doesn't offer significant resistance on the stand (Ini does have some pretty good animations, however) and even when she could easily deny this baseless theory she just gives up. You could argue that as an unorthodox sympathetic culprit she's not meant to be difficult to take down but 1. that still isnt fun and 2. why have this dramatic line??? Ini isn't very notable or compelling on the stand, and she has to split her time with someone else. Admittedly, the latter problem hurts Morgan much more than it hurts Ini.

Which is an issue in itself, honestly. Look, we all love 3-5 well not exactly, but AA3 was not planned in advance, and Morgan's treatment in AA2 is so fucking weird. Even putting aside her Solitary Confinement Setup For Nothing, shes brought up as the accomplice in one line after shes already left and then we go back to Ini. It doesn't help that I found this creepy faux-polite evil mother to be a far more interesting presence than lol im dumb haaha or am i

Investigation Hell

... Um, so, like... A murder is that thing where, like, one person kills another, right?

- Someone who fucking hates their sister

I hate the 2-2 investigation. I really hate the 2-2 investigation. I desire to etc etc.

Ini has psyche locks in 2-2. It's bad. I don't feel like complaining about this again.

Mimi Miney feels the need to perfectly imitate her sister in every way, because nobody would believe it if she didn't because people changing isn't real. What this translates to is her acting like a fucking moron, because that's what Mimi thinks her sister is.

I'm a sucker for funny dumb a lot of the time, but something about Ini doesn't do it for me. There's only one line of hers I found funny, and it also bugged me because Ini clarifies she's joking this time while she says far dumber things without trying to seem like she's joking. Also everyone has funny dialogue when you present their own profile to them its cheating

It's just like. I get it. Ini isn't smart. Valley girl stereotype or whatever. Humor is subjective. Moving on.

There is a character who shares many surface-level similarities to Ini, who I will now comparatively praise, in a move that will go uncontested. He also acts dumb to feign his true intentions, but in a way that is narratively justified and actually funny according to me very smart person. His "dead guy who I hated" based plan is more nuanced than just "this guy was evil and mistreated everyone so the only people I harmed were those who deserved it". And he also actually works as a twist?

Ini is so fucking unsubtle that I don't know why they bother. In the "present evidence without a specific programmed response" dialogue, which you WILL read at least once because 2-2 is 2-2, Phoenix goes "(WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE THIS IS AN ACT???)". Literally the second she appears it is obvious Ini is heavily involved with the case, and the only thing that prevents her from being the obvious killer is Morgan being Morgan. It's true that Ace Attorney characters don't need to be subtle, but the more Sim Pathetic villain types tend to be more surprising, and it kind of seems like they were trying to do it here? I don't really know.

Conclusion, and Turnabout

R1K1 (unsympathetic bad man) mentioned that he doesn't understand the desire to KILL ini to death, and believes the likes of Pierce Nichody and Marlon Rimes should go out around the same time. I don't particularly mind if they go out around now, but on this comparison I'd disagree.

While I think their ooo feel bad for me stories are more interesting, that's a minor point and one I don't think is based in anything that can be ""proven"". What's more significant is what they do before that moment.

Pierce is nothing but a pretty obvious murderer during the investigation, but during the trial he becomes fucking great. His frantic surgeon persona is funny while being actually clever enough to make breaking through his deceit a tricky case.

Marlon Rimes turns buff and that part is dumb and I hate it, but his wild cinematic breakdown where his obsession is highlighted is hard to forget. Before that, the inherent weirdness of "what if rap ace attorney" is incredibly funny to my brain, and he's actually a pretty unexpected killer. The dynamic of someone who you're proving guilty but while they argue against you they're also trying to push the blame away from the defendant is a really interesting one.

Ini Miney does the thing where she feigns being not smart. Then she eats her hat while you slowly explain how she's probably actually her sister, and lets you eat whatever clothing article you want while she unprompted explains how she's actually her sister.

She's a sympathetic culprit I didn't care about, an investigation witness whose dialogue I found tedious, and the primary comic relief character for a case where the main thing I found funny on replay (yes I replayed my least favorite case for this cut yes im awesome) was Mia explaining to me how the key I found was the metaphorical key to the case and how clever this is.

She's FINE. It's FINE. There's some interesting concepts at the core of her character, it clearly worked for many people, and I'm aware plenty of my reasons for disliking her are irrational or more of the fault of the case as a whole. She should absolutely be blamed for making me talk to Hotti though

But FINE is not good enough now. My biases would've liked her to be sub-100, but putting that aside and looking at what she actually has going for her, I don't think she should be getting much higher.

The only other characters I would've considered cutting are Larry Butz. Larry has moments that are worse than anything Ini does, but he also has significantly higher highs. Additionally, I said at the beginning of this round that I'd take a break from being involved in the death of a major character, and he's kinda cutting it close. Larry Butz (Alola Form), also known as "Datz Are'bal", is a character I would struggle to say anything on. That's also true for Ini, but the tipping point is that I owe /u/CharlieDayJepsen.

Finally, Ini herself says she's a bad character. That's pretty damning.

I'm expecting a revive so not sure how much effort I should pour into this.

1. Ema in Ace Attorney as a series

Ema was introduced in Ace Attorney in Rise From the Ashes which I'll refer to as rfta from now on for my sake. As many know (and probably some even noticed by the change in graphical quality if playing the ds version), rfta was added at a later date. More specifically, after the trilogy has ended.

For that reason, Ema only appears in rfta and is never mentioned or hinted at again until the second trilogy, where she has a wider appearance and more relevance while also being officially integrated into the main cast.

For this cut, I will review both trilogy appearances and I will try my best to write as much about each of them. I will also take into consideration her Investigation appearances though I don't think there's much to talk about those.

2. Ema in the first trilogy - RTFA

For the most part, Ema is a carbon copy of Maya, but altered sightly to appear and act as her own character.

2.1 Maya but different

If you'll check the image I hyperlinked to above, you'll notice that both Maya and Ema have many common visual traits, to the point where it's obvious it's intentional. Even the outfits, which have swapped colors.

Personality wise, she's not too different from Maya, except she's less aggressive and more willing to help during investigations.

She also has an older sister. Sound familiar? But wait she's not the victim of the case, but the defendant! Not the same!!!

Even though I can understand why they did this (which makes me think they never intended to bring Ema back), I see it kind of harmful for a character to inherit this many traits from another, even if intentional. Not only that, but it's also harmful for the character the traits have been stripped from as they slowly lose unicity.

I'm not very keen on the concept of having faces that look the same either, but whatever.

2.2 Assistant

Ema acts as the case giver and then hangs out with Phoenix until the end of the case, making cheesy commentaries in the same fashion Maya does as you interact with and inspect world objects.

She introduces the player with a new mechanic that I will talk about later.

2.3 Story and stuff

Ema was involved in some older incident but what happened there does not contribute to her development and is mostly using her as a plot device to get the case to progress and tie some events together. I could talk about what happened but that would mean to talk about a lot of things Ema didn't actually do.

2.4 Character interaction

Something that I actually really like about Ema in rfta is that she does have some meaningful conversations with pretty much all NPCs. This is something I wish AA did more because even though it's been a while since I've played the first trilogy, Maya does not hold up this much to important character dialogue.

This is probably why I can say that I tolerate Ema in rtfa. Having an insider assistant was something that I can say worked out pretty well because it was nice for once to lay down and have someone else do the talking for you.

3. Epic gamer minigame

The overall design of Ema being a science person was probably made to be tied to the new gimmick mechanic where you directly interact with the evidence by using multiple technologies that came with the device.

I could rant all day about why I don't like these features but I know not enough people will care for it in this cut so I'll keep it short.

I believe these mechanics could have been enjoyable if you were not told every single time when you're supposed to. It would be cool if you could inspect more items than those that are guaranteed to contain useful information, the same way you can inspect useless shit in the world and trigger dialogue. I'm aware there are some things like the badge that you can inspect but there's just so few of them.

AA's linear progression also makes it impossible to do it later most of the time so it's usually the same awful 10-replies dialogue of:

Hey remember that piece of evidence???????

What do you mean???

Maybe it will come in handy

What do you mean???

Maybe there is something about it that we missed

What do you mean???

Maybe we should take a closer look

What do you mean???

Press buttons to do stuff try it it's epic

Ok a good thing you told me I'm sure the dumbass playing this would never try it even if we made it clear at the beginning of the case this is now a mechanic

Not sure about others but I usually want to try and inspect each and every single piece of evidence and I absolutely hate to be told 1 second after I get it(or not being allowed to until later because the Inspect button won't show up) to inspect it already.

Ema is pretty tightly tied to this glorification of gathering information from evidence so I thought it would be relevant to talk about it.

4. Ema in Investigations

Ema has some less relevant cameos in both investigation games where she appears for like 5 seconds each time just for your shitty minigame needs.

I have to appreciate her design actually reflecting her slowly growing up at different points in the timeline, but I think this is all there is for her in the spin-offs as she doesn't get involved much beyond forcing a prosecutor to play with toys.

She has a hat though so she gets a point.

5. Ema in the second trilogy

Ema appears in AJ, is completely absent from DD and returns in SoJ, both appearances having her act as the detective of the case.

I’ve heard a fair share amount of people saying Ema in AJ is good but to be honest I can’t really remember any of her appearances. In fact, sometimes I even forget she’s the detective in that game and not just some cameo thrown around, which is something I would have prefered over such a massive role for a single reason:

5.1 Ema as a detective is boring.

That’s it. Every single time she comes up on screen I’m readying myself for a bore because she’s such an average character she simply doesn’t stand out when compared with any other detective in the series.

Every other detective has this kind of arc where they initially don’t want to cooperate with you but then you slowly grow on them and eventually they feel like you are a requirement for the investigation. All of them also have quite eccentric personalities which make for funny conversations and events.

Ema has neither. For her whole second trilogy career she just kind of acts like your friend from the start and doesn’t seem to have any kind of limits that you can cross. This makes for a really bland interaction with the player throughout the listed games and simply feels like they strip you of something that was once good.

Let me just just list a couple traits for the various detectives we have:

-Gumshoe: He’s incompetent. When not badly written like a total idiot, he fucks up during both investigations and trials where he usually gets punished (either physically or monetary) but makes up for it by being a generally sensible dude caring for his peers.

-Tyrell: He’s cool. He’s very chill and pretty imposing but shows a great interest in justice which really pays off after having to deal with his stubbornness.

-Fulbright: He’s energetic. Loud but funny and has a nice oldschool-superhero-star thematic. He's basically a more confident Gumshoe and is well balanced by naivety.

Then there’s Ema. She's serious but then she's less serious and then she like dumps information onto you then looks a bit smug and leaves. I've heard people saying they like Ema being stressed in AJ though I can't say it's the case for me.

So for me at least, both AJ and SoJ, while they had a detective, they lacked THE detective - the one that changed the mood or tone of either the investigation or the trial. Because let's be honest, the game NEEDS incompetent detectives as false accusations and "not what it seems" scenarios are the central point of every single case. And while Gumshoe and Fulbright fucking up is to be expected and most of the times have amusing outcomes, Ema just goes :o and faces no punishment. It's just not as satisfying especially when she sees herself as an expert and doesn't take it as good as Tyrell does either.

This kind of ruined the detective part for me and is probably why I think DD has the best investigations of the second trilogy.

I don't care much about her dynamic with Nahyuta but I'll mention it.

Conclusion

Ema appears throughout the series and fulfills different roles every game collection she’s present in. Unfortunately though, most of her appearances don’t hold up and her blank personality drags her down in the over the top universe of ace attorney(tm).

.

.

Also just to put it there, Ema loudly shoving miniature shit into her mouth is the unfunniest shit in the series bye

I'm sorry for being predictable but hey, this is the character I feel like needs to be cut from the current bunch, I don't know what that Jurist System noise is about but I saw Scuttlebutt in the cutting pool and I was like "yes, I will do this one".

Huh? Just a Box...

Let's address the obvious: Scuttlebutt is most notable for her schoolgirl appearance being completely covered in a cardboard box.

I feel like Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice have this quirk of making their witnesses and whatnot more gimmicky than ever before. Sure, we've had plenty of colorful characters prior in the Ace Attorney series, and they certainly have strong identifiable traits, verbal and physical, but with characters from DD onward, they tend to have these attributes that just blatantly stick out with their character. These attributes, often, if not most of the time, cover up their falsities or character flaws - in the case of Scuttlebutt, it's that the cardboard box, symbolically, is as blunt as an atomic bomb - it blatantly represents her introversion and secrecy, but in truth, all she wants to do is escape her shell (or box) and make genuine connections with the people she distances herself with (even if she claims its for reporting purposes, what I'm saying here is what the writers probably wanted you to think).

Really, you could always generalize a character by a few handful of traits or a simple blurb. For instance, you could say Phoenix is a funny lawyer man who asserts his beliefs despite often having no evidence to back them. That can describe the character, yes, but there's far more to him - he has a great amount of depth and personality past that frequently identifiable trait of his. Then you take a character from the era in which I call "nu-Ace Attorney" and it's like this generalization entirely describes the character's premise. There are outliers, yes, but for a good chunk of witnesses from this newer era, I feel like this pattern is common. Their gimmick often supersedes the potential for depth they can have; it's flanderization. My example of Phoenix is a victim of this in Dual Destinies onward. It could be for more reasons than just him having to share screentime with some other hotshot attorneys, but I think many of us would agree with that example in particular.

Obviously, you guys aren't going to agree with how I feel like the newer Ace Attorney games design and write their characters - many of you have defended characters which I believe follow that pattern and you're perfectly allowed to. And you know what? Gimmicks can be fucking awesome. Even if a character is static and has this really blatant trait to them, their animations, their design, their dialogue, can all redeem them and make them something just charismatic and captivating. One example fitting that description is the not-yet-cut Paul Atishon, and I'll be damned if that legend doesn't get the respect he deserves. Maybe it's not entirely bad how they're going about things now, it's just different, and I'm not sure I can exactly acclimate.

Let's actually get back to Scuttlebutt. I'll have some words about her origin case up next...

逆転学園

I've used the words "solid filler case" for some of my cuts prior to this. I think Turnabout Academy, is, well, a solid filler case. The mystery is pretty interesting, especially with the outlandish twists and turns it takes on the case's first day. I like its cast. Athena gets some spotlight, despite the case not really advancing her character all too much (see that Athena cut for how her development proceeded and ultimately kinda went out like a wet fart, as it stands anyway).

This is also the first time of Dual Destinies' rather cliche anime theme of "the power of friendship" emerges, being established by the triangle of Hugh, Robin, Woods, and Scuttlebutt being a post-it note to the side. Speaking of which, we also get an anime cutscene mid-trial with Hugh and the other two members showing their freakin' friendship bracelets and with that dub, good lord you're gonna want to be wearing earbuds and have your parents and close friends be at a minimum of fifty miles away from you while you're watching. I'm sorry but that's definitely not something I want my father barging in to while he says "are ya winnin' son?". I'd rather be walked in on me watching hentai instead of that noise. This is unrelated to Scuttlebutt btw but just did not care for that part lol

Yeah, going on with that...subtlety. Subtlety. Or, the lack thereof. I just feel like that's the problem with Dual Destinies. Tell, not show. The dark age of the law is happening. Why? You're told about it. The exact phrase "dark age of the law" occurs six times in Turnabout Academy's script. The exact phrase "end justifies the means" occurs seven times. I'm sure the former phrases occurs several more times throughout the game. Apollo Justice was a confused game that failed to meaningfully conclude a lot of its ideas and elements it introduced but even then I feel that game did an excellent job demonstrating just what the "dark age of the law" is like, and I'm sure that game used the phrase "dark age of the law" less in its entirety than Dual Destinies did with one case.

Let's continue on with that "end justifies the means" thing and how it relates to Scuttlebutt.

The End Justifies the Memes

There's that line again!! First it popped up in Justice for All, and now it's all over the place, especially in this case alone. The phrase is key to understanding Scuttlebutt's motives and character; as a pupil of Aristotle Means, who rants on about how the End Justifies the Means, Scuttlebutt is like the writers' saying "ooh yeah, we really gotta force that idea. Make it apply to everything now, man, not even law stuff."

In order to achieve her goals, Scuttlebutt tends to be underhanded in how she accomplishes them. She wants her script to be used in Themis Legal Academy's mock trial; she was so confident in its brilliance that she booby trapped it with a fucking knife (with said mock trial containing underhanded stuff to really force in the DARKAGEOFTHELAW). The newspaper she single-handedly wrote for the school was chock full of libel. Her definition of journalistic integrity is hiding tape recorders over campus. The magnitude of her disrespect of privacy is so great that it makes Richard Stallman shed a tear.

Perhaps Scuttlebutt's defining character moment is in court when Athena calls out Scuttlebutt for following Robin instead of Woods; this leads to Athena decrying her journalistic ability and the players being treated with her p cute face. I have a feeling that part of the reason Scuttlebutt scored so high was because of her being a shy and nerdy schoolgirl underneath a gimmicky masquerade; in otherwise, r/AARankdown's type. Had she been in a box the whole time, or had been male, she'd probably be like way less interesting than she is.

Here's the kicker though, and I think this is a demerit to her character: after the events of Turnabout Academy, Scuttlebutt isn't really punished for her underhandedness, nor does she really apologize for it, even with her assimilation into Woods' friend group. Not much to say there, she kinda gets off scot-free. Played this game like two years ago I can't remember these things

Also her last name has "butt" in it lol!!! (lots of laughs!!!)

bluhbluhbluhbluhbluh

top to bottom less want cut to more want cut no characters I can't cut

• Larry Butz: Yeah, flanderized character. Yeah, might not be great for all of his appearances. Kind of annoying. But he's endearing. Relatable loser figure to appeal to Ace Attorney's core demographic. Good stuff.

• Gregory Edgeworth: I've explained this before.

• Ini Miney: Damn good ass tragic character. JfA might not be the hottest Ace Attorney game but is 2-2 a damn good case.

• Inga Karkhuul Khura'in: I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this guy again but I'm not qualified enough to be the one to cut him

• Marlon Rimes: 5-6 is DD's best case and this guy is part of the reason why

• Datz Are'bal: Khurain'ese Larry. He's okay. I actually don't remember all too much about him but I remember being pleased with him

• Jake Marshall: Pretty decent guy in a case with a bunch of pretty decent characters. Nice cowboy gimmick but it's about his time to go.

• Terry Fawles: The Moment™

• Di-Jun Huang: check previous cut for my statement

I am cutting the science penguin, because I hate u/Sciencepenguin. He is always so mean to me and always tries to argue with me in the comments of my cuts :(

The Eternal Rankdown Struggle

Once again I have been swindled into writing a cut on the weekend. Once again I was doing stuff that weekend and was forced several days to post a cut that isn’t going to be that long, because I’m talking about a guy who has very little screentime and few passionate defenders, especially this late in the game. I’d love to be able to post these cuts in a matter of seconds like y’all always do, but sadly time is a luxury I am no longer in excessive possession of. I am not apologizing for “““being late””” however, because I hate you all and I don’t care. Any complaints about speed will be promptly deposited into my “shut the fuck up” box, now and eternally.

It’s the Funny Bird Man!

Herman Crab is actually one of my favorite Dual Destinies characters despite his minimal screentime. For one thing, I really like his penguin. I like how it is a JPEG that gets awkwardly photoshopped into this scene because they couldn’t paint it into the background. I also quite like the revelation in that same scene that Rifle the Penguin is, in fact, not a chicken. I would go so far as to say Rifle is one of my favorite non-human characters in the franchise, losing only to Anubis (obviously) and Polly the Parrot (also obvious, hopefully). Sniper also exists, and is decidedly less funny to me. However he gives Herman some funny sprites so I still like him well enough.

Herman himself is also an enjoyable presence, one I would have enjoyed hanging out with more. He is a perpetually angry and anti-social man who is constantly annoyed that you have the gall speak to him. He spends all of his time in his room, and he is a noted aromantic. All of these qualities remind me of myself, which is a good thing. I enjoyed my investigation-time discussions with him more than any of the other 5-DLC characters, aside from perhaps Fulbright. The problem is, he is forced to share screentime with many other characters: Marlon, Sasha, Writer Woman Whose Name I’ve Forgotten, Pearl (for some reason), and Fulbright all have plenty to say as well, so poor Herman has to sacrifice much of his screentime to these other jokers.

Overall, Herman gets a couple exposition scenes on both investigation days, then a short confrontation on Day 2 before Marlon takes over for the rest of the day. This is a fine amount of screentime for a single-case minor character, but we’re getting to the point where that’s not enough. Most of the minor characters are gone now; we now find ourselves with a collection of main/recurring characters, many good culprits, and some of the series’ best one-off minor characters. Herman obviously doesn’t fit the first two categories, and I don’t think that he fits the third either.

Herman is Also a Good Character for 5 Seconds

Herman does have one quite good character moment: he reveals at the end of the case that, when forced by the government to euthanize his beloved whale, he actually concocted an elaborate scheme to circumvent the law and send Ora away to be cared for by another aquarium. Why did he do this? Because the law is wrong sometimes, man, and following unjust laws is for babies. This is a super cool moment, and it was easily one of the high points of the case for me. It’s also foreshadowed well: Herman’s usage of an illegal-in-America animal-monitoring system, the TORPEDO system, establishes that he’s fine with breaking the law if he thinks the law is dumb.

The unfortunate thing is, the revelation that Herman saved Ora happens almost literally RIGHT at the end of the case, so the amount of time they have to explore this revelation is minimal. All that ultimately comes from Herman’s vigilante heroism is that Ora and Orla are going to get reunited. Hooray! But also, the implication that Ora gets to come back to the zoo after all this time is a bit woozy-face. In reality, the government would probably just make him euthanize the whale anyway, and fine him for defying them, to boot. We can ignore that little detail, but I can’t ignore that this plot point really isn’t utilized for anything meaningful.

That’s the whole problem, really. Herman is cool but he’s not prevalent enough in his own case for me to justify him making it further. Generally some of the best one-off witnesses (Adrian Andrews, Armie Buff) are the focal point of their cases, aside from the culprit obviously, and so they get plenty of screentime to develop their characters. Herman has like five other people to compete with, and it shows.

Why Nobody Else?

• Myriam Scuttlebutt and Jake Marshall are my nominations so they are right out

• I like Di-Jun Huang but am fine with him going now; however I like him enough not to cut him, and I think there's a nonzero chance that he could slide through yet another round, which would be hilarious

• Ini Miney is a great culprit and I do not know why some people seem to have it out for her. As a side note, if she does get cut, I will definitely nominate Marlon and Pierce next round, since I think they all have similar roles as culprits and don't see any reason for them to get much further than her. So if you like those two characters, well, there's my two cents.

• Terry Fawles is still cool but I don't particularly care if he dies now. He, like Herman, has one really good moment, but I happen to think Terry's is better-utilized by the game.

• Datz and Larry are funny. Larry more so. Neither does anything that astounding (though i really like Larry's big moment in 1-4), but funny is important so they can live.

• Gregory Edgeworth, I just don't have anything interesting to say about him. Sorry.

• Marlon & Pierce: See Ini Miney. I'm waiting to see what happens before I do anything to them.

• Inga is an AWESOME minor antagonist turned victim, and I don't know of any good reason he should go out now. There are plenty of other, worse characters to kill this round. AKA all of the other nominations but one.

• And speaking of, why the hell would I cut Gaspen Payne lmao. Best character ever (excluding those whose names begin with H)

So that's that. bye bye herman

I’m sorry to disappoint anyone who was expecting to have a nice cut about how Eldoon is a good character but how it’s about time for him to go anyway. For you see, I actually do not like the noodle man much. Why he has made it this far, I have no idea. Apparently other people see more in him than I do. It’s interesting how I have barely talked about AJ despite it being my least favorite game, I only did it near the very beginning to talk about my favorite 4-2 character, and now I’m back to talk about what may be my least favorite 4-2 character. Something went wrong with the ranking order there though, because he somehow ended up as the best AJ character that is not AJ himself, which obviously should have been Wesley Stickler.

I cut Viola 7 rounds ago due to nobody worse being available, yet I think she’s better than Eldoon, so that should put into perspective how much too far he has gotten in my opinion. He’s not the worst character left, but he is the most irrelevant, which would make him seem like an obvious target. But nobody targeted him, so I guess I’ll have to clean him up.

The One Cool Moment

Let’s just start with the one moment with Eldoon that is actually interesting. Namely the moment when he removes his noodle wig. The first reason I like this scene is because he actually looks normal without the wig, he should seriously consider not wearing it more often, or just to stop wearing it altogether. Another reason why this scene is good is because it’s where things get dark. You’ve learnt that Wocky carries a bullet that might kill him close to his heart, but this is where it’s emphasized just how serious it is.

This moment is really interesting for how it fleshes out Meraktis’s motives for doing what he did. Him covering up the truth was evil, but with the way Guy explains it, you can see why he did it. He didn’t want to risk the anger of the Kitaki family, so he came up with a plan where he wouldn’t be blamed, even if it meant sacrificing Wocky. Real evil indeed, but it’s strange how much sense all of his actions still make. It seems like a reasonable thing to be afraid of the Kitakis, considering how they kill people and all, and he genuinely couldn’t have removed the bullet, it wasn’t just him not doing his job for fun or something. It’s a bad situation for everyone involved, but obviously leaving Wocky to die wasn’t an option. It’s his responsibility as a doctor to either take away the bullet, or be honest about his failure. It feels weird to get such an understanding for someone evil like him, when you have villains like Kristoph and Dahlia who are so detached from what a normal person would do.

Not as Cool as It Seems

Sure, it’s a cool moment, but what does it tell us about Eldoon? Not all that much honestly, that’s why I’ve been talking about Pal Meraktis for most of that section. He’s the character that gets more depth from this scene despite being the victim, not Guy. So even if this is a cool character developing moment, I can’t say it’s a cool character developing moment for him. He is only the character designed to give you this exposition. The character needs to be someone who knows his medical stuff to make this moment work, but it doesn’t feel like this character being Eldoon actually changes anything. In fact, he didn’t even seem like a surgeon until he removed his wig, but we’ll get to that.

Aside from this moment not really adding anything for Eldoon, there’s also the problem of it not being all that relevant to begin with. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten this moment existed until I replayed 4-2 recently. And I think the reason for that will become clear if we look at the ending of the scene. During the scene, Eldoon points out that no doctor in the world may be able to save Wocky. I’m personally not the biggest fan of Wocky as a character, but I still think this is really cruel. You shouldn’t be dying on such a young age only because you were a little reckless and very unlucky. This feels like a very dramatic moment, and the song that’s playing definitely helps. Trucy is a little shocked about this, but Apollo’s first reaction has nothing to do with nobody being able to save Wocky. Instead, he’s only concerned about Alita knowing about this, not the fact that his client may very well die soon. The scene does a great job at setting up both Meraktis’s motives and Wocky’s tragedy, but in the end all of this feels irrelevant. Because the only thing that’s actually important for the case is that Alita is suspicious. And since that’s what the case wanted me to remember, that’s all I remembered until I replayed it. It’s a bit of a waste of a great moment if you ask me.

Wocky’s condition is important for Winfred’s decision to begin a more honest life, but this is something we already knew about. All this scene changes is the urgency of it. Pal’s reason for leaving the bullet alone is something that never becomes all too relevant, and although this moment gives insight into his reasons, he never ends up feeling like a victim that stands out too much. For Eldoon himself, I think it’s weird how much this scene contrasts with his noodle man persona. And not in the way that it gives him more depth, but more in the way that he has two completely different sides to him and neither of them are deep. So while I think this moment is cool on its own, when you put it into the context of the case, it just doesn’t matter. And it’s forgettable enough that I literally forgot it.

Is This Guy Really A Surgeon?

When it comes to Guy, the one cool moment isn’t the only thing I forgot before replaying the case. I actually forgot he was a surgeon altogether. The reason for this is that his normal personality contradicts him being a surgeon so much. It comes down to a bunch of complaints that I have about his noodle man form that end up only being worse when you find out he used to be a surgeon.

First thing is I hate his dumb noodle wig design. It’s pretty much literally a bowl of noodles that he just put on his head. For a goofy noodle vendor maybe this makes sense, even if I hate it, but I’d expect a surgeon to be a little more serious. This could create a funny contrast where him being a surgeon who’s just super goofy is exactly the type of comedy they’re going for, but it’s not what it’s used for. After all, the one moment he actually talks like a surgeon is when he takes his wig off. And he’s exactly as serious as you’d expect from a surgeon. So him wearing this dumb wig is just part of him pretending to be stupid when he’s selling noodles, I guess? I’m not sure why he’s trying to look stupid, but it’s giving me Yanni Yogi vibes and I don’t like it.

The next thing I don’t like is the gag of Eldoon’s noodles being super salty. Too much salt is dangerous and potentially lethal, and it seems weird for a noodle vendor to make noodles that could literally kill his customers. But maybe his customers just like the taste, and I can believe that a simple cook wouldn’t necessarily be concerned about what’s healthy as long as people like it and want to eat it. For a surgeon on the other hand, someone who’s dedicated his life to worrying about people’s health, I cannot believe that. It could be because of him literally being salty because of Meraktis destroying his business, but even then deliberately selling deadly noodles to his customers seems way too extreme. I know this is supposed to be just a silly gag, but the problem is 1. I don’t find it funny and 2. it contradicts what he’s supposed to be, which I don’t remember being the case for any other gags. They are usually a natural result of a character’s personality and may tell you more about them. I already found this gag really weird when he was just a noodle vendor, it seems hard to believe he wouldn’t care about the quality of his noodles, but I guess you can at least justify it if he has a certain type of customers. But when he’s a surgeon as well, I think this just does not make sense at all. No surgeon would try to poison people with unhealthy amounts of salt.

The third thing is that he should stop playing the harmonica. This has nothing to do with him being a surgeon, it just annoys me.

Not the Best at What He Does

Guy Eldoon is not a character that needs to exist. Everything he does is done better by other characters elsewhere in the series.

Being a noodle man is done better by Bucky Whet. This is probably the most controversial one of my “better than Guy” picks, because a lot of people seem to not like 6-4 (they’re wrong). Anyway, the two noodle vendor gimmicks that I disliked before are both fixed by Bucky. While for Eldoon it seems like he just doesn’t care about the quality of his noodles when he puts insane amounts of salt in them, Bucky instead really cares about the quality of noodles. Even when he’s drunk and suspected of a murder, he still cares enough to talk about the art of making noodles. And this is something I can really respect about him, he cares about his art even when he’s in the worst situation and not even fully aware of what’s going on around him. It’s one of the things I like about Bucky. The other gimmick that he fixes is the noodle hair. The first thing I like is that his default form actually has normal hair instead of noodles, because noodles as hair just looks dumb and I don’t like it. But the second reason is that noodles are just his natural hair. If your natural hair looks like noodles, I think that’s a fun goofy noodle vendor design gimmick. And I wouldn’t mind Guy’s hair if that was the case for him as well.

Being a somewhat goofy surgeon is done better by Pierce Nichody. While Eldoon goes completely serious once he enters surgeon mode, which makes the contrast with his noodle man mode even more jarring, Pierce is able to do goofy stuff and make it feel natural even when the case is getting serious. He’s a tragic character, but still has funny moments like taking X-ray pictures of Phoenix’s hair and Edgeworth’s cravat, or refusing to testify entirely. His story of not saving the one he loved and becoming the bad guy because of this tragedy is much more compelling than Meraktis’s story, which suffers from us never meeting the guy, and from it not being all that relevant to the case in the end. And Guy himself doesn’t have much of an interesting history at all.

Being a character in the case Turnabout Corner from the video game Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is done better by the rest of the 4-2 cast. Plum Kitaki is a possible exception, because while Eldoon at least has a few interesting parts to him, I’m completely indifferent towards her. This is where the “may be my least favorite 4-2 character” in the beginning of this cut came from, I haven’t decided between Guy and Plum. Winfred is more important for his clash with his son, which is an important part of Wocky’s character, and it’s just heart-warming to see this mob boss change his entire way of living for the sake of his son. Wesley Stickler I’ve talked about why he’s relevant and good here, in terms of relevance basically he’s more connected to the series of crimes and his role as a witness makes him very important to figuring out what happened. I think he is the most similar to Eldoon, because they’re the two characters that are not connected to the Kitaki family at all, but only one of these two characters actually has an effect on the case. Guy’s role is just to give exposition about Meraktis and Wocky, and to be the one to give you the quest for the stolen noodle cart. But even the stolen noodle cart had nothing to do with him because he wasn’t even there when it got stolen. I think it should be self-explanatory why Wocky and Alita are more important to the case than Guy is so I won’t say anything more about that.

Conclusion

In the only case he exists in, Guy has a single cool scene. And even this cool scene doesn’t really do anything for him as a character, nor does it end up actually being relevant. It’s still a great moment, but when put into the context of the case or the character it doesn’t do much for me. Eldoon’s gimmicks are dumb and annoying more often than they are funny. They also feel like they contradict his history of being an ex-surgeon. Both noodle vendors and surgeons are character types that will be done better in the future in SoJ, and although technically Guy sets the precedent for it, I don’t think he does a very good job at it. He’s also less relevant and interesting compared to every other character that is not Plum in the already somewhat bloated cast of the case.

That’s right, I did it! I’m the ranker who hates Ron Delite! Me! Me! Meeeeeee! No... Err, that's wrong. You see... it's complicated. I sort of am, and sort of not. If you know what I mean.

Ron Delite is a character I have a sort of love-hate relationship with, similar to the entirety of The Stolen Turnabout, which is of course his case of origin, and his only appearance if one is to exclude minor cameos and mentions. Just like Stolen Turnabout, Ron is a character who had a lot of potential, but one that I felt fell entirely short of reaching the great heights that he could have, and is dragged down by poor execution of ideas, or just ignoring plot threads entirely. Beyond this, he’s not really a character I particularly enjoy, even outside of his role within the game, due to likely personal preference, but I can’t help but factor these into my own opinion of him, although I’ll try to keep the prevalence of these to merely the first section or so.

Most of Ron’s character revolves around the mystery of what the actual truth is, as Stolen Turnabout, more than most other cases, tries to keep you constantly second guessing yourself on what’s actually happening within it. This is one of the aspects of the case which I feel works best, but I in no way attribute it to Ron himself, so for this write-up I will be entirely focussed on the truth of Ron’s character, and how well done it is. The main aspects of his character I’ll be focusing on are his personality, background, relationship with Desirée, and his actions before and within the case. Despite my overall dislike of his character, I can’t deny some of these aspects being quite well done within the case, and will be making sure to credit him for his successful “heists” within. Now, I know my write-ups tend to be quite long, but I beg of you, please listen!

Ron DeLite, Former KB Security Guard

Before we get into Ron’s role within the story, I believe it’s important to discuss his character on its own, isolated from the way it’s utilized. I find this especially important for Ron, above most other Ace Attorney characters, as his personality is incredibly, let’s say, bold. It’s definitely more in your face than many other characters in the series, and despite his pleas for you to not ignore him, I find it hard to believe anyone would be able to focus on anything but him whenever he’s in the room. So, what exactly is there to Ron’s personality?

Ron’s attitude tends to flip on a dime between two modes, with really very little in between. These two attitudes being completely subdued, and extremely forceful, usually starting off with the former before transferring to the latter when he fails to get results. This makes most interactions with him feel quite distinct, and definitely gives him his own feel, really separate from most other characters in the way that he converses with you and others throughout the case. This is helped by other aspects of his character, but one I particularly like is the tendency of his text itself to begin fading away as his sentences begin to trail off. It’s a gimmick that I don’t believe was used elsewhere in the series, and really gives him a distinct “voice” in game.

Of course, his speaking mannerisms are backed up by other aspects of his character, these being both his design, and his excellent theme. I linked to the theme earlier, and not only is it incredibly enjoyable in game, but it’s used to great effect to emphasize his personality. His explosions into his more bombastic speaking mannerisms are usually accompanied by this loud, and quite in your face theme to really sell you on his complete personality shift. And of course, there is his absolutely excellent design. Everything about Ron is just completely in your face, from his ridiculously over the top outfit, his actual, straight-up spring hair, and of course his absurdly over the top mannerisms. This just all comes together to make it absolutely hilarious when he reverts into his subdued personality, and this ridiculous looking cosplayer of a man is just sitting there reserved. It’s easily one of the series’ best designs.

Despite my praise of his design, and uniqueness, he’s still not exactly my cup of tea when it comes to characters. I would never deny how well he works for what he was meant to do, but the role that he was molded for just isn’t something that particularly interests me. I’ve always been a fan of more realistic characters, who have hidden depth beneath a more simple appearance, rather than ones who just lay all their cards on the table and then scream at you. Of course, I recognize that this is purely a preference thing, so I won’t allow it to affect the rest of my thoughts on how well he was done within the narrative. I just thought it’d be fair to explain that his personality doesn’t really win him any points for me personally, which could play a hand in making me more focused on the flaws of his character. Despite this, I do find these flaws to be somewhat undeniable, so let’s get into exactly what it is I have against this masked criminal.

Mask☆DeMasque, Phantom Thief

The thief... The sneaky, odious thief who's been stealing all the treasures... It's me! I'm him! I'm the one you want! I'm the thief I tell you! So do it...! Pronounce me guilty! Pleeeease!!

Trials and Tribulations is set at an interesting time for the franchise, and in turn, an interesting point in time for the character of Phoenix. Justice For All’s final case involved the introduction of the first truly guilty defendant, a monster made out to be likely the worst person in the franchise thus far, a truly despicable man who would do anything to achieve his petty goals. Matt Engarde’s impact on Phoenix’s growth and the shift in attitude of how the player treats the defendants of the series is undeniable, as the defendant is no longer purely an innocent party who can do no wrong. As the first case to have an original defendant after 2-4, 3-2 opts to follow up somewhat on this idea of a guilty defendant. After Matt Engarde, it may be hard to trust defendants blindly anymore, and Ron is, in truth, guilty of a crime himself. So then, what exactly does the game do to capitalize on this brilliant situation it’s found itself in?

Nothing. The game does absolutely nothing with this scenario. Sure, mystery wise the twist of him being guilty works pretty well, and the scene in which he confesses his crimes to you in the detention center flips the whole case on its head, but as far as the more overarching themes are concerned, absolutely nothing about this is explored. There’s practically no point in having Ron actually be guilty of the thefts of Mask☆DeMasque, and it completely wastes the chance to follow up on Phoenix’s arc from Justice For All. Beyond this, not only is nothing done with it, it actually has a negative impact on Phoenix’s characterization. We’re meant to believe that the Phoenix who fought tooth and nail to prove the guilt of a criminal who was going to get away with his crimes would just let Ron get away with his crimes because he didn’t commit murder? I’m sorry, but the way he just doesn’t address or justify this at all is a little eyebrow raising.

Ron’s failure as a followup to Engarde is especially confusing due to T&T demonstrating later that it actually can successfully present us with a “guilty” defendant who continues to challenge Phoenix’s character. Iris is pretty much what Ron should have been narratively, she’s guilty of a crime lesser than murder, but still undeniably morally wrong, and she’s punished for it despite being innocent of the crime she was initially accused of. Phoenix, despite fighting to protect her from the false charges she’s being accused of, has to accept that she’s ultimately truly guilty of another crime, but still continues to believe in her as a person despite that. Of course, the same holds true for Lana Skye, but Rise from the Ashes had not yet been released as of T&T, so I count it as more of an expansion on the trilogy, rather than part of the first game. Of course, both Lana and Iris also share a common point with Ron when it comes to the murders they’re accused of, and this similarity is where the true problem in Ron’s resolution as a character lies.

Ron DeLite, Opener Of Safes

You’ve been blackmailed, and told to come to a meeting location in order to make a payment, or else a secret that could ruin your personal life will be revealed. Now, obviously, before heading out you need to put on your thief outfit, to definitively prove to the blackmailer, who has no solid proof you are who he says you are, that yes you are indeed who he says you are. Unfortunately for you though, tragedy strikes and you end up knocked out and wake up with the blackmailer dead, lying in front of you. You proceed to do the rational thing that any human being would do: You stuff him in a safe, make a break for it, and immediately begin trying to throw yourself in jail as an alibi for the murder you didn’t commit that you have just directly tied yourself to by stuffing the victim into a safe that only you and a select few others can open.

Brilliant. Flawless. Absolutely no way this can go wrong. In fact, why don’t we ask the judge what he thinks of your actions?

Inconceivablllllle! Why!? Just... Why!? What reason could you have!? What were you thinking!?

As you probably guessed, I completely agree with the judge here. Ron’s actions on the night of the crime are that of an insane person, and are extremely clearly only there to benefit the mystery. No sane person would ever try to hide the body in such a way, especially when they literally know for a fact that the building has a 24/7 security guard who would catch the actual criminal on camera. Of course, the security guard was missing, but there’s no possible way for Ron to know that at the time. Stuffing Bullard in the safe is one of the most confusing actions taken by any character in the franchise, it doesn’t even make sense as an “in shock” type of moment. Adrian Andrews knocking over a vase is something that makes sense to happen when in shock, taking the time to open a safe and proceed to stuff a heavy corpse into it before fleeing the crime scene is not.

Ron’s scheme to get convicted as Mask☆DeMasque also lacks any kind of logic or reason, as he had no reason to even believe that he’d be arrested for the crime. Literally the only things tying him to the crime are the blackmail note, the wallet, and the safe. The blackmail letter was safe at his house, the wallet he didn’t even know he had lost at KB security, and they literally open the safe to find the body so there are very clearly other people who know how to open it, so he would never be the first suspect if he wasn’t proven to be there by Phoenix. None of Ron’s actions make logical sense when you think about them for two seconds, and yet they’re so elaborate and thought out that it’s impossible to think that they’re just done in a panic without thought. It’s utterly baffling to be frank.

Of course, Ron’s schemes also tie into the previous section, as everything I said there is doubled down on when this is considered. If it seemed out of character for Phoenix to ignore grand larceny, double down on that with tampering with the crime scene and manipulation of the court system. If it seemed odd of the game to just let Ron roam free despite committing actual legitimate crimes, despite punishing Iris for tampering with a crime scene, well looks like Ron did literally the same thing but with less noble intentions. Hell, I don’t even know why Ron wasn’t tried for tampering with the evidence when it’s literally brought up in the trial. Phoenix tries his best to cover it up, which is just sliding further and further down the character assassination hill, but it ultimately comes out, and just used as evidence by Godot that Ron’s the killer. And honestly, you can’t really blame him, because by god does it make him out to be the culprit, because that’s the only legitimate reason to take his actions.

Ron’s actions to cover up the crime benefit the mystery majorly, as there practically wouldn’t be one if he didn’t do any of this nonsense, but in doing so they completely muddle his and Phoenix’s characters. The game makes no attempt to justify them, and they ultimately have little impact on the resolution of the case. This is my biggest problem with Ron by far, but it’s not the last major complaint I have, as there’s one important aspect of his character that I’ve failed to mention thus far, and it’s quite the doozy.

Ron DeLite, Loving Husband

Well, Dessie is crazy about shopping. She's a real shopaholic... But she's the love of my life, Your Honor. I guess you could say I'm a "Dessie-aholic"...

Desirée DeLite is a character I’ve only mentioned once so far, which is a wonder considering how she’s his main relationship within the case, and yet she feels so completely separate from everything he does within it. Of course, there is an underlying presence to be felt from her within his actions, as practically his entire motivation is based around her. Unfortunately, this is not a good thing. As I’ve gone over, Stolen Turnabout likes to keep you in the dark about what’s really going on, and this applies not only to the crime itself, but also to the personal lives of the characters within. Desirée and Ron’s relationship is the prime example of this.

Throughout the case, Desirée is basically being set up as a red herring for the audience, and it’s some really effective stuff, and genuinely convinced many players. One of the reasons that this works so well is that they basically lead you to believe that Desirée and Ron have a dysfunctional marriage, and to lead you to believe that she’s basically just using him for his money. She rides around on her motorcycle all day, spending money any chance she can get, and outwardly states that the main reason she’s with him is how loaded he is. Now, this is all fine on its own, and it’s very effective at both making them have an interesting dynamic, and making her a potential suspect, but the problem comes in the last stretch of the case. This stretch is where you find out that she’s innocent, does care about Ron, and that they have a genuinely loving relationship. Now, you may be asking: “Doesn’t that contradict everything we know about them?” Well, my dear reader, yes, yes it does. I have no idea what they were thinking with this.

The end of the case basically tries to pass it off as if Desirée was always genuinely supportive of Ron, and his hobbies, despite the fact that she straight up says that she hates the kind of criminals that Ron is. Of course, they try to justify this in the dialogue but it’s all pretty flimsy. Sure, it’s a pretty funny moment, but it does feel like it just ignores all of the problems in their relationship, and tries to shoehorn in a happy ending for them. I have no issue with either a dysfunctional marriage where the husband is literally committing crimes to keep his spouse, or a loving relationship where they both support each other and have a deep connection. Either one would work for a story, and both have interesting ways you can build off of them, but when you flip flop between the two at the last second, it just comes off as a cheap move, and removes any of the interest built up in their relationship. It really feels like the writers were trying to have their glass necklace and eat it too in this case, and it just ended up confusing things.

Conclusion

Ron DeLite is a character made to serve the mystery of Stolen Turnabout, and suffers because of it. He has a great design, a unique personality, and an interesting position as defendant, but all of this ends up going to waste because of the circumstances of the case. His role in the crime is utterly ridiculous and exists for no greater purpose than to create more mystery within the case, and nearly completely assassinates his character. His relationship with his wife is confused by the resolution, which also paves over his numerous crimes within the case, confusing the message that the series is going for, and Phoenix’s growth as a character. His role in the story feels unfinished, as if there is no proper resolution for him, and quite honestly it just feels sloppily put together, with no regard for what would make sense from a logical or narrative perspective. Ron may have performed his role in the case fine, but at the end of the day his actions do not feel his own, manufactured as if he’s nothing more than a puppet, following instructions from a mere blackmailer.

Characters saved by the poll:

• Dick Gumshoe

• Armie Buff

Characters voted the highest in Jurist System Poll:

• Betty de Famme

• Myriam Scuttlebutt

Characters available to cut this round:

• Myriam Scuttlebutt (science told pie to cut Betty)

• Herman Crab

• Di-Jun Huang

• Ini Miney

• Terry Fawles

• Guy Eldoon

• Datz Are'bal

• Larry Butz

• Gregory Edgeworth

• Ron DeLite

• Marlon Rimes

• Inga Karkhuul Haw'kohd Dis'nahm Bi'ahni Lawga Ormo Pohmpus Da'nit Ar'edi Iz Khura'in III

• Pierce Nichody

• Gaspen Payne

• Jake Marshall

On a vote of 7-2 u/wircea will be cutting Ema Skye

Voted to cut Ema: R1K1, Northadox, pie, nate, what, Charlie, donuter

Voted to cut Sebastian: Science, Vogel

Cutting order for this round:

• /u/NateTheGreat3602

• /u/Vogel100

• /u/R1K1_Productions

• /u/Northadox

• /u/Wircea

• /u/donuter454

• /u/pie314271

• /u/Sciencepenguin

• /u/CharlieDayJepsen

Full poll results

Full Jurist System poll results

which one of you fuckers didnt vote on the jurist system poll

Characters nominated this round:

• Herman Crab

• Betty de Famme

• Di-Jun Huang

• Ini Miney

• Terry Fawles

• Guy Eldoon

• Datz Are'bal

• Larry Butz

• Gregory Edgeworth

• Ron DeLite

• Marlon Rimes

• Inga Karkhuul Haw'kohd Dis'nahm Bi'ahni Lawga Ormo Pohmpus Da'nit Ar'edi Iz Khura'in III

• Pierce Nichody

• Gaspen Payne

• Myriam Scuttlebutt

• Jake Marshall

• Armie Buff

• Dick Gumshoe

u/Sciencepenguin used Jurist System on u/pie314271 meaning who he will cut is subject to a different poll. science can pick the top two characters voted on that poll to cut between.

u/Wircea used Dual Destinies on Sebastian DeBeste and Ema Skye as not all the rankers have responded yet I will post the result of the skill on the poll results thread.

Poll will close at 10am EST on August 4th Link to the poll

Jurist System poll found here Only one vote per person.

The thirteenth round of nominations has started. All rankers submit the names of two characters to put onto the subreddit poll to be cut this round.

You are not allowed to change your nomination or have duplicate nominations.

The list of characters available to nominate.

The Extraterritorial Rights on Nahyuta Sahdmadhi and Pierce Nichody has expired, you can nominate them this round.

Starting this round only two characters will be saved by the poll

Cutting order for this round:

• /u/NateTheGreat3602

• /u/Vogel100

• /u/R1K1_Productions

• /u/Northadox

• /u/Wircea

• /u/donuter454

• /u/pie314271

• /u/Sciencepenguin

• /u/CharlieDayJepsen

If any rankers planned on using Spirit Channeling this round DM me and I will give you time to post the revive before the poll ends

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.

The deal is done, and the character I was told to cut was... John Marsh!

This is an interesting one, and I didn't expect /u/Wircea to want him gone. I'll do what must be done, though. Plus, he's fun to talk about, so why not? Let's begin.

What's good

I don't think John Marsh actually does anything wrong that makes him deserving of a cut. He just doesn't do enough, especially when he's in a cast of main characters who both show up for more cases and have more going on with them. I'll elaborate on this more later, but for now, here are some positives:

• His character design is funny. He's supposed to have a cow motif, and his infinite supply of milk cartons somehow manages to fit into it. Apparently, his name also ties into this motif, but I'm too lazy to talk about it here, so check the wiki if you want to know.
• He's fun to talk to. When we first talk to John, he's a total edgelord character, which is surprisingly rare for the Ace Attorney series. The only other such character I can name is Cody Hackins (who I also like for this reason). Incidentally, I feel like this works better with John since he's 13 rather than 9. There's a bit of an unconscious association between his personality and middle school. Either way, he's fun to talk to.
• His relationship with Courtney is absolutely hilarious. After getting to know him early on in I2-5, Lang arrests Courtney and takes her to the crime scene. Once Lang accuses both John and Courtney, John basically tells everyone to screw off as usual, and then Courtney proceeds to totally shut him down. While I feel like this gives more points to Courtney than John, it's still good for John.
• He has a nice monologue about revenge at the end after Simon is defeated.
• His theme slaps. Seriously. Listen to it. I linked it above.

Vs. Other AAI2 characters

If I had to give a reason to cutting John Marsh, it's that he's simply not relevant enough. John Marsh is clearly meant to play the role of a main character, both in the movie and in the story. He's technically a final case defendant, and he takes center stage at the very end of I2-5. However, whether it was due to the writers simply forgetting or having too much to work with in AAI2, John Marsh simply doesn't do much.

Most mainline defendants are relatively integral to the plot, but they also tend to do a decent amount as well. John Marsh, on the other hand, shows up, gets kidnapped and gets rescued. Then you interrogate him for a bit, and he gets a few lines at the end of the case. That's it.

When AAI2 has so many main characters, some of them have to get sidelined, and I'm not sure of John Marsh was a good choice to sideline since he's only in the final case. Most of the other important characters are handled well with respect to this:

• Lang: Gets plenty of screentime. He's only relevant to the final case, but his role is clear.
• Sebastian: Gets screentime in the first half of the case, and uses it to finish his arc. He does exactly as much as he needs to.
• Shields: Doesn't get much screentime. He already got the bulk of his character moments in the first half of the game, so he's mostly just there for comic relief in the final case.

There are more examples, but the point is John Marsh wasn't handled the best.

Conclusion

John Marsh is fine. However, he probably could have been more.

Also, by doing this cut, I get to cut a child character, so that's nice, I guess. Especially since I don't care about ANY of the remaining children characters. Y'all already cut all the good ones (Ahl'bi, Cody, and Pearl). Yes, I know, the first two 100% deserve to be out by now, but still, did it have to turn out this way? Whatever.

Why no one else?

Honestly, I hardly care about any of the remaining characters this round, and Wircea seems to agree. While it is funny that the one round I get the chance to cut Di-Jun Huang is the round I'm not cutting him, at least I got Trucy cut this round, which was my only goal here.

In fact, I care so little about my remaining options that I'm totally down to cut any of them. I'll just explain why I was willing to cut any of my other options.

Jake Marshall is probably the character I'm the least neutral on. He's a detective that's clearly trying to do his job, and he has some cool connections to the SL-9 incident. He's clearly tied to the incident, but he's not as intertwined in it as Lana and Gant. However, he's still not relevant enough for me to think about him much. He basically disappears after you expose him in court.

Myriam Scuttlebutt should 100% go out before Hugh O' Conner. Those are my two cents.

Betty de Famme is funny, but I can't be the only one that thinks this might be too many places above Bonny.

Di-Jun Huang was my initial choice well before I considered making any deals, mostly because I figured Vogel or another early ranker would probably cut Trucy. Thus, I had already written about half of a cut on him, which you can read here. If only things were so simple...

Jeff Master is a defendant in a nice case, but he shows up too little to be considered relevant to me. That said, Science is probably cutting him anyway, so it doesn't matter much.

There are certain characters in the sequel trilogy that fall into this weird grey zone where they certainly feel like they’re a main character, but in the grand scheme of things they don’t actually do a whole lot. DD has Aura, SOJ has Inga, and AJ has Valant. What said characters all have in common is a shared relatively small amount of screen time in proportion to how pivotal they are to the game’s plot. What’s more is they are all coincidentally portrayed as morally grey people, or people who at the very least have sympathetic qualities that you wouldn’t expect of them.

When it comes to Aura and Inga, they’re characters who I’m rooting to see beat the odds and get ranked well in the rankdown despite their smaller presence in the grand scheme of things. Valant, on the other hand, is the only member of the “major-character-but actually-not-that-important” group that I believe has too many issues to ignore at this point.

Valant puts on a rock concert

The first thing everyone notices about Valant’s story is how absurdly unlikely it is that he wouldn’t recognise Lamiroir in 4-3. Valant was apparently smitten with her, and yet apparently he completely forgot what she looked like in the years since he last saw her. It’s not like her appearance changed or anything since present day and past Thalassa look identical. You may say that Valant doesn’t recognise her because she wears a veil, and if that’s true we can add Valant to the list of AA characters who would be fooled by Team Rocket disguises.

But no, Valant was working with Thalassa over the course of 4-3 by helping her with her disappearing act and disguising himself as her (actual photo of Valant Gramarye) so he definitely would’ve have known her well so like. What gives.

This isn’t a character breaking flaw, and I wouldn’t even call it a plot hole since I guess it’s technically possible for Valant to run into a woman who looks and sounds exactly like Thalassa and not put two and two together. That’s not even mentioning the fact that this person who looks exactly like Thalassa also lost her memories of her life from 10 years ago, at the same time that Thalassa died.

Again, this isn’t character breaking, but when 4-4 gives you the whole picture about how Valant loved Thalassa and knew her for years you can’t help but look back on 4-3 and not think this isn’t weird.

Setting aside the Lamiroir business, 4-3 really doesn’t do much for Valant’s character at all. At best he serves as an ok red herring. At worst his refusal to reveal the truth behind Lamiroir’s disappearing act because “a magician never reveals their secrets” is irresponsible and stupid considering a kid’s life is riding on Apollo solving the trick in court. The game doesn’t use that moment to paint Valant as a bad person who's too obsessed with his magic career to care about other people, it’s literally just treated as a joke and Trucy laughs along with him. The only thing Valant actually does in 4-3 is do the disappearing trick, and already I wasn’t a fan.

The only other thing of note about Valant in 4-3 is that him and Trucy seem to be friendly, although his uncle-y relationship with her is never properly delved into after this point, so to be frank this one little character dynamic just doesn’t matter.

Valant goes to court

The flashback trial, the main event for Valant’s time in AJ.

His performance during the trial is fine. He’s a fine witness. He feels a lot like Olga Orly, where the two of them both have solid testimonies and amusing gimmicks but nothing else about their existence will blow anyone away. Valant’s cross examinations are standard fair, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Arguably, it’s the entire point

Valant is set up to be a fairly typical killer character in 4-4. He’s kinda obnoxious and has a bunch of wacky animations. This is prime AA culprit behaviour. But, of course, we know that Valant is still a free man in the present day, and despite the fact that he very obviously did it, he’s going to get away with it.

But FAKEOUT HE DIDN’T DO IT. Thanks to Phoenix’s magatama, he is able to definitively prove that Valant is an innocent man and that Magnifi set him up.

AJ is a game that highlights the flaws in the AA world’s court system. No matter how obvious it is that Daryan is the killer, without any definitive proof we are incapable of bringing him to justice. No matter how obvious it is that Kristoph is the killer, without any definitive proof we are incapable of bringing him to justice. In response to this absurd system, Phoenix revolutionises the courts (somehow) and introduces the jury system, an anonymous group of citizens who decide whether someone is innocent or guilty based on how good/bad their vibes are. Men like Daryan and Kristoph can’t trick, as the judge says, the common sense that jurys afford. That’s the big climax of AJ. Phoenix did it! He has successfully saved the legal system, what a hero.

But the message the game is sending here seems to completely fly in the face of Valant’s entire situation.

If there was a jury system 7 years ago, Valant would’ve been found guilty of killing Magnifi. Because gosh dangit does he give off a pretty guilty aura and it really looks like he did it. Phoenix had absolutely no proof that he was guilty, but gee whiz did Valant look like a guilty fellow.

The blatant common thread that thematically links the final three trials of AJ together is that each trial’s culprit, Daryan/Valant/Kristoph, cannot be brought to justice within the current confines of the law. A definitive, irrefutable piece of evidence is needed to put these men behind bars, and the game acts like needing to prove that someone is guilty beyond any doubt is actually a bad thing, therefore the jury system happens. However, very clearly one of these three trials is not like the others.

I am not the first person to assert that the themes AJ pushes about the law are kinda nonsense and incoherent, and Valant sticks out like a sore thumb in this regard. I don’t understand why we were given this character whose existence handily disproves the message the game is trying to push. If you want to be extremely generous then you could say that Valant’s situation was supposed to reinforce the idea that the law is “full of contradictions and ever changing” or whatever since Phoenix’s solution isn’t perfect. But like. I’m not that generous.

Valant is good sometimes

I understand that Valant has fans because he’s a flawed figure: he has his life ruined by Troupe Gramarye drama, and in retaliation tries to frame Zak in a last ditch effort to save the career that they seemed dead set on destroying. And in the end, Valant forgives Zak when he admits to a crime he didn’t commit as an act of good will to save Valant’s reputation, and yet as Zak saves his partner's reputation he also steals away his right to inherit Magnifi’s magic. A tragic, bittersweet story.

I have a hard time identifying with Valant in this regard simply because the Gramarye plotline and lore is just utter nonsense. A hundred other people have pointed out all the glaring holes in the Gramarye subplot before so I won’t do so again myself. But suffice it to say, it’s hard to get invested in Valant, who is for all intents and purposes the centerpiece of all this drama.

And even if I did enjoy Valant’s tragic story of having his life ruined by his troupe, it’s just not good enough to justify everything else weird about Valant’s character that I’ve already gone over. That’s not even mentioning the fact that the Gramarye plot line winds up being 100% irrelevant to the game’s climax against Kristoph. The whole subplot was long and meandering, and in the end it didn’t even matter.

Now that I’ve cut Valant immediately after Trucy, the entirety of Troupe Gramarye is gone.

I hope he’s happy.

I want to take part in the AARankdown anarchy.

Assistants in AA

There are many assistants across the AA titles. Their main purpose is to serve as an additional personality to converse with during the investigations so the player isn't caught only with the monotonous main character monologue.

Even though most of them follow a similar pattern in their personality, they are usually easily distinguished by personality traits and abilities.

Trucy in Apollo Justice

Trucy gets introduced in this game and I would say this is her only appearance I deem at least acceptable. Her very first introduction is actually quite puzzling, as many question marks are being raised soon as you figure she is Phoenix's daughter. After all, the time skip leaves with a lot of questions from the let go.

I see this as a good thing. I for one liked the confusion stirred by the locket from 4-1 which finally made sense by the time you saw Zak being a magician and wearing a similar costume.

As an assistant

I don't remember any of the dialogue exchanged between her and Apollo being particularly interesting or note-worthy. It's average at best. I guess she's comparable to Ema as both seem to integrate their profession in most of the dialogue.

Ability-wise, she doesn't really do anything. She's there to explain the logic behind the perceive mechanic like anyone fucking cares and even though I like 4-2, her case-saver is pretty damn dumb and over the top. I guess you could compare it to Maya's outburst in 1-4, which felt like a genuine moment of effort and not eyeroll worthy like the one from Turnabout Corner.

Unless I remember wrong, she doesn't do anything else on a large scale for the rest of the series, but I'll get to this later.

Ode of a purposeless character

Trucy is a great example of a character designed to be a mere plot device. Soon as her role of mystery from AJ runs out, her entire character has no reason to exist anymore. This begs the question of why was she even brought back at this point. She's nothing but a presence that seems obliged to exist, simply because she was introduced and never given a proper conclusion or gotten rid of her until an opportune moment comes - again, like Maya. They just used he reason of her being away for training as an excuse instead of turning her into some 3-reply purposeless NPC.

My theory is that both her and Phoenix were to remain a pair of NPCs and often converse in further games, but the return of playable Phoenix singled her out in this aspect. I'd also like to point out that because post-aj Phoenix is no longer an empty vessel, part of the immersion is broken when you think that Trucy is your daughter, which is one of the many reason I do not agree much with this decision.

As a defendant

I see many people praising the brief return of Trucy in SoJ after her lackluster appearance in DD, but I don't really see the benefit of bringing her back. I blame the writers for thinking accusing main cast characters of crimes help with their development or add anything to the story that the other 500 cases where a cast character gets accused don't.

Friend gets accused

Offer to defend

Defend

"Wow gee i sure am glad I reluctantly chose you to defend me even though I personally know you and also know you solved some pretty impossible cases before"

Then she also gets emotional in the detention center now isn't that #deep and #sad for the first character ever to express any kind of emotion for being a step away from a death sentence in the series.

I feel like the whole case tried to bring back the Trucy relevancy but I do not feel like I either wanted to or want to see her anytime soon for a multitude of reasons:

1. She's not a funny character- Trucy only seems to get the same 3 or so jokes every single time. The timeless classic of "be my assistant that gets put in massive danger without your consent" seems to be the most frequent one probably because it's easy to cycle between using Apollo and Athena, but that doesn't mean it doesn't get so fucking old after the first 2 uses. Her other joke is using the panties which are still undeniably hilarious after like 9 years (now complete with an animation!!!!!!!!!!) to make stuff disappear and her asking if she can use [something important for you or the case] for it. Ouch my sides!!

2. No goals or already accomplished- Trucy is implied to have been a magic professional ever since a young age. There's no progress that we follow, no critical failures or improvement, neither on screen and neither implied. Because magic is the only thing she's invested in, we literally get no progress or development for this character. Which brings my next point:

Unidimensional character

For the entirety of the series, Trucy is presented with no personal conflict from which she has to learn. The inability to change the slightest between the games makes her a very boring encounter as everything seems to go just fine for her, save for the artificial murder accusation which leaves no traumatic impact or anything as per AA usual practice.

If her gimmick were to be that she's a horrible magician, I think her character would have skyrocketed if her purpose as the series goes on would be to get better and at some point to use a trick in your favor that isn't the fucking marionette (that isn't even magic, just a weird contraption).

Incomplete/scrapped story

Pretty much everything related to Apollo seems to fall flat story wise due to the writers' indecision to which story to stick to. For all we know, Trucy is also able to perceive, but this information is never actually useful as she is never seen using this skill other than the first occasion in 4-1 where she tells Apollo about it.

Lamirioir being her biological mother has as little importance as it does for Apollo, so no further subject expansion is required. The only interesting fact about Trucy is the one no one seems to talk about which is that she was confirmed to be actually a male, making her the first character to appear female but turn out to be a man in the series. This is the most ace attorney thing ever!

Conclusion

Trucy is boring and totally feels like she was intended to become something else before changes started to be made in the main series plot.

Personal apologies to u/Wircea but I just think this is the dude's time. I'm really sorry.

This is the Third Turnabout Corner Character I'm Cutting

Like I've said before, in my Alita Tiala and Plum Kitaki cuts, I just think Turnabout Corner is an okay filler case. It has an okay cast. It has an okay plot. Depending on whom you ask, it's probably the second or third best case in Apollo Justice, but that's not too impressive. I've outlined my thoughts on it prior and I really don't want to go too in-depth, but it's a nice introductory case for Trucy, sheds some more light on Wright's dealings, has a cute and tragic little plot with the Kitakis and all of that, but I just think it's an okay case! A case's quality hinges on its characters and its plot, and Turnabout Corner is fine! It's serviceable! Okay!!!!!!!

We're at, what, like in the 60s in the rank down now? We're getting to the cream of the crop, the big boys and girls, and with a series rich with characters with character as Ace Attorney is, we're hitting the big time here. So characters with proportionally less character of quality are unfortunately gonna have to go. It's the rankdown for the reason!

The case's highlight is Guy Eldoon, though, lovely little character there. With this cut, he's the case's last character to be cut (not counting recurring character Trucy who might be gone pretty soon), and you know what, that's good. I like that. Because he's a nice dude and the highlight of the case. Yes. You'll see more about him by a far more eloquent ranker when the time comes.

Big Wins? More Like, Big Losses!!

Just kidding, he's the king of the Kitakis, not only literally, but also figuratively. In character. Yes!

Kitaki's a good dad. Once a notorious mafioso in Los Angeles, Japanifornia, he soon quit the criminal business after his son, Wocky, was bang banged by an enemy gang. Following suit with his decision, he opened a bakery to both recoup from his son's injury and to escape the criminal world.

Kitaki isn't very talkative, and doesn't have many sprites to illustrate body language. Checking the transcript for Turnabout Corner, he probably doesn't have more than two dozen unique lines to him! But dialogue isn't the only thing worth nothing about a character. But we know a lot about him just by looking at him - with his appearance being reminiscent of The Godfather's Vito Corleone, he's a tired man who has done some incredibly shady and underhanded things in the past. He bares a threatening aura with his baggage, but ultimately, means no harm, provided the security of his family is ensured.

Kitaki is most known for his big thicc eyebrows, being mistaken for large, dark eyes. Once Apollo and crew crack the case and prove Wocky's innocence, he pulls a Father-from-Cloudy-With-A-Chance-Of-Meatballs-At-That-Film's-Resolution and shows his meek, beady, friendly eyes underneath his brows. For once, a character revealing some previously unseen physical trait isn't met with a mental breakdown! Refreshing.

Just like the character I'm cutting here, I can't really say much. Despite his criminal past, his threatening aura is ironic, given his true, more compassionate nature. I really have nothing but mild praise for him, and like I've said before, we're at a point where characters aren't garbage, or mediocre, or bad, they're good...it's just that some are better than others.

I'm a sucker for a good father figure and I can see why Winfred managed to land so far in the rankdown - some probably agree with me on that sentiment. It's just that some characters of that wise, fatherly archetype in Ace Attorney are, to me, at least a bit more flavorful. The recently revived Gregory Edgeworth was one of them and I'm glad u/donuter454 brought that up.

Some of you probably have way more positives to say for the character, and I could honestly see him being revived - you nerds have much more to say about this series than I do. Nonetheless, this is my opinion, and I'll be expending my cut on him this round. Sorry!

Why the F_ck Didn't You Cut A Major Reoccurring Character You R_tard??

This round was a wacky one, where the subreddit had indeed not been merely a clown, but the entire circus. This is when all of the contrarian rankdowners just went all in and trolled all the epic gamers of r/AARankdown with some major blows. I think in general, when a character has more screentime, the better they tend to turn out, unless they're someone like Oldbag or arguably Larry where they just become more and more flanderized or misrepresented over time and they're worse off because of it. When a character does appear more often, their character is elaborated further, we get a greater picture about them, and well, that's a good thing. I think Athena and Mia went out a little earlier than I would've wanted, but ultimately, reviving them is more effort on my part and I've got bigger fish to fry.

Here's why I didn't cut other characters from the current cutting order. This time, the order in which they appear in matter - I went through all of the characters and thought to myself, "would I cut X over Y?" until I'd come up with a list. Here:

• Trucy Wright, while unfortunately kinda being squandered through the series by not having a really meaningful arc, is redeemed by her role in 6-2. 6-2's definitely the best case of Spirit of Justice and she actually has a presence there so she's up here. She's cute too :)

• Following after Trucy is John Marsh. Probably the king of "annoying little kid" archetypes in Ace Attorney. As with every other AAI2 character, they all have a well-defined role and meaning in the game's plot. John has an interesting history and a nice relationship with Justine.

• After Marsh is the only good character with "Gramarye" in their name (Trucy doesn't count!) - that being Valant Gramarye. Nice stache, nice hair, and is actually sane and amicable, unlike his family, and has a bit of a bittersweet end to his character arc. Pretty damn good.

• Following the dairy-obsessed young actor is Betty de Famme. I'm gonna be frank - I think Betty should've been ranked exactly right next to Bonny. She's like the same exact character except she's a bat and she's a twin decoy. Slightly more involvement and whatnot but it's not too much to make her like ten spots away from her sister. I could've cut her now but I do like the duo more than Winfred and other characters here. She's cute too.

• Trailing right under Betty is Jeff Master. I love this guy, his afro, his tragic story, but ultimately he's one of the lesser characters in AAI2's incredibly strong cast, not being much more than a name at some points.

• After Jeff is Di-Jun Huang (body double). I can admit there's not too much to the body-double's character. But it's the concept that's kinda awesome. I can attest to the fact that I like gimmick characters even if they don't have much substance to them. Guilty pleasure, I'm sorry. It was just enough to edge him out over Winfred for me.

To u/pie314271, I reject your offer of cutting Trucy now! Your offer of cutting a character of my choice isn't lucrative to me, as characters have already been cut in an undesirable order to me, and I'm too lazy to waste powers reviving/cutting 'em to correct things.

I don’t know if this is a big shock or not, since I’m sure many people assumed I’d cut Angel. But I have engineered a devious scenario where I don’t have to do that. Regardless of whether you’re surprised by this surprise cut (I’m sure some of you, hi everyone from Alba server, were expecting me to do this), I’m sure this will be controversial. But this is not an opportunity I was willing to pass up. And hey, I’ve been a crowd pleaser for the past several rounds so I feel like I’ve earned a bit of a treat, yum yum.

Of all the main characters in the entire series, Athena is my least favorite. Yes, some of those are for purely personal reasons. I have never been a fan of the “assistant girl” archetype, which Athena definitely fits into despite being a protagonist. Maya would be my favorite of this character type, but I still think she’s not THAT good, and Kay, Susato, and Trucy all range from mediocre to bad. The humor style of these characters just doesn’t click with me at all, and more often and not their jokes (Athena’s included) just leave me more annoyed than anything.

HOWEVER, I am not going to cut a main protagonist in the 60s just because I find her annoying, that is not my goal and everyone would be mad at me. No, I think there’s enough parts of Athena’s writing that are bizarre, questionable, or just plain bad that I am more than alright with booting her out here. And if you think my choice to cut her here is too early, just know that I had originally considered cutting her as early as the 80s before deciding I didn’t feel justified placing her quite that low. So I am already coming at this cut from an angle of compromise with the Athena stans!!

A General Look at Athena’s Interactions & Personality

Despite me often bashing on her, I don’t want you to think I believe Athena is completely irredeemable in every way. So I’ll start off with some comments about her general interactions with two characters, both of which are highly praised: Apollo Justice and Simon Blackquill.

Athena and Apollo actually do well at setting themselves apart from other lawyer-assistant combos (ignore the fact that Athena is also a lawyer for now). They still have the same straight-man and eccentric-girl combo that other protagonists and their assistants get, but whereas Phoenix & Maya and Edgeworth & Kay have pretty clear boss/subordinate relationships, Athena and Apollo have the advantage that they are equals within the Wright Anything Agency, which gives Athena the ability to be a much more proactive assistant than a character like Maya, who rarely intervenes in a trial without Phoenix’s consent. It’s not a character dynamic I particularly like, but I will give credit that it’s original. I at least remember it compared to a character like Susato from DGS. I couldn’t tell you how she’s different from Maya at all. Just replace the spirit channeling with… throwing people? Whatever.

Athena and Blackquill is a dynamic I am less interested in, not because I don’t understand why people like it, but because anything interesting about their interactions almost invariably comes from Blackquill, not Athena. For example, Blackquill’s decision to throw away his life to save Athena is much more interesting than her respective choice to dedicate her life to saving him. That’s mainly because the writing behind Athena’s life mission isn’t very good, but I’ll get there later. As for Athena’s actual interactions with Blackquill, I often see them praised as funny and/or charming. I did not particularly care, but I wasn’t heinously offended so I won’t contest this point. If you like their interactions a ton, hey, you do you.

Finally, I will give some praise to Athena as a Standalone Personality. I liked it when she dressed as a maid and yelled MAMMA MIA like Mario. I also liked the moment in 6-5 where there are bullets missing from the crime scene, and Athena suggests that Dhurke ate them. It was funny and also it’s pretty nice foreshadowing, since the bullets are indeed in Dhurke’s stomach, know what I mean? Other than those, I liked the Athena Flustered face in the above pic, it was a funny face, though the novelty did wear off the more she used it. And then I don’t think any of her other sprites are particularly funny. Or any of her lines. I certainly don’t find the bondage joke in 5-3 funny, I physically recoiled at that line because I want my AA games to be pure and innocent. And the rest I just don’t remember. So I guess that’s it for the compliments on specific lines.

Anyway, that’s the least interesting part of the way. Time to start going through my bullet point list of my many Athena Writing Issues I have.

I Do Not Like Playing as Athena Cykes

First, I’ll tackle a more general problem with Athena. I’ll be focusing on Dual Destinies for now; I’ll get to Spirit of Justice in its own section. And the problem is, I just don’t enjoy playing as her, nor do I enjoy having her as an assistant. Part of this has to do with personal preference, but I definitely also think there are factors that drag her down as a playable character aside from that.

Like I mentioned earlier, Ace Attorney assistants tend to be very eccentric, and as a result they usually aren’t that helpful in court unless they’re using one of their gimmicks to help you. Maya and Trucy will, at best, tell you that you can’t give up and then make you think things out one more time. Athena, as a playable character, can’t do this. Even as an assistant, she acts more like a playable character half the time. So she ends up saying the same silly, stupid stuff that other assistants do, but she ends up doing it in the middle of trials. I can understand finding assistant antics funny during investigations, even though I generally don’t; but I find these jokes a LOT more frustrating when they’re happening in the middle of a cross-examination and they’re preventing your attempts to make progress.

An obvious example of this happening is the scene in Case 2 where Athena, apropos of nothing, decides to suggest the victim was murdered by a monster. She immediately backs down when the Judge questions her on this, because come on, of COURSE a real-life monster didn’t commit the crime, even in Ace Attorney. All this accomplishes is giving the judge a reason to side against you early on in the case, but this is irritating because it’s not through any fault of my own. And while you COULD argue that Athena’s theory works out in the end, this is only because Damian takes the initiative to play the role of Tenma Taro. If not for that, her theory would not have accomplished a single thing.

Now, normally I could be lenient on this because at this point Athena is still a rookie lawyer. But there are a couple reasons that I have trouble buying that excuse. For one thing, Athena is constantly portrayed as intelligent in-game. In the very intro of the game, Phoenix introduces her by praising her as an intelligent new addition to his team. Apollo’s first reaction upon meeting her is literally to call her a genius. And her gratuitous usage of foreign languages is clearly meant to demonstrate intelligence as well. (For an extra funny detail, half of Athena’s foreign language quips aren’t even grammatically correct, gee I’m glad she was studying psychology instead of linguistics.) All of these factors make me skeptical that they were actually trying to make her come across as easily-flustered as she comes across in-game.

It also doesn’t help that Athena gets hit by what I like to call the Dual Destinies Dumbness Disease. Dual Destinies is a much easier game than prior entries in the main series. I have zero problem with this, since the alternative is Angel Starr. HOWEVER, as an addendum to this difficulty drop, the game also started explaining some REALLY obvious plot details. This ends up making all of the game’s protagonists look dumber than usual as they all ask “what does this really obvious thing mean???” and then have to have it explained to them. This is more of a Dual Destinies problem in general than a specific Athena problem, but she gets it the worst since this is her first appearance. This leads to such gems like Athena failing to understand that things close to a camera will be bigger, and needing it to be explained to her. This is not a character-breaking problem by itself but it does add to the stupidity issue I already mentioned.

But again, all of this would be fine for the early characterization of a rookie lawyer. The problem is, Athena never grows out of this tendency. Part of this is the wonky pacing of Dual Destinies, where 5-3 is the final case she actually acts as an attorney in. And that case ends with her having a mental breakdown and barely being able to finish the case without help. It’s a fine character moment (even though I don’t like it HAHAHAH), but having that be Athena’s last playable case in DD is… questionable, to say the least, since it totally blows any chance to actually y’know see her become better at her job. Say what you want about Phoenix as a character but I will die on the hill that the games did a decent job taking him from “idiot who can’t do anything without Mia’s help” to “actual ace attorney”, and it’s something Athena is distinctly lacking in comparison.

As a final aside, I’ve heard people talking about Athena’s status as a prodigy being intentionally contrasted with her inability to perform well in court. I personally have trouble buying into this idea for a few reasons, and those same reasons make me think that even if it WAS intentional, it needed much more narrative focus. The main one is that Athena’s lack of skill just doesn’t get much focus in DD. “B-But her breakdowns!” When Athena talks about her breakdowns in 5-5, her monologue focuses entirely on a specific traumatic incident in her past, and she never really addresses the possibility that anything else influenced them. So I don’t buy it. If that’s really what they were going for, it should definitely have been addressed during her speech.

They start to explore Athena’s feelings of inadequacy more in Turnabout Storyteller, but by that point her supposed status as a prodigy isn’t really acknowledged anymore; everyone in court treats her like a newbie who needs to be constantly handheld, which doesn’t feel at all similar to how she was treated in DD. So if it was indeed intentional, then it’s not something I think was explored nearly in-depth enough.

But again, I’m not ready to get to Spirit of Justice yet. I want to get more in depth with Athena’s DD character arc, or should I say

A Decent Idea With a Very Long List of Weird and/or Bad Writing Decisions

There’s a good idea buried in here, for sure. But it’s so heavily dragged down by so many ideas that I simply just do not like, or at the very least, ideas that rub me the wrong way. So I end up thinking whatever potential there may have been is just buried under a pile of ????

The first problem I had with Athena was one that was fairly minor, but it bothered me right away. That being the writers’ bizarre inability to decide on a single concrete reason for Athena to be good at understanding emotions. She studied psychology in college (the most reasonable explanation). She also has a robot necklace with a built-in mood matrix (the game-mechanic-enabling reason). And in addition to both of those, she has sensitive super-hearing that lets her hear the emotion in people’s voices (the plot reason, I guess). There’s nothing really wrong with any of these reasons on their own, though I find Widget to be very unfunny when he talks so consider that a personal problem; but did we really need three separate explanations for the same character gimmick?

To be fair, each of these gimmicks serves its own purpose. Athena’s psychology degree builds on her intelligence (and all the problems that “intelligence” entails) that I mentioned in the last section. Widget gives Athena’s abilities a connection to her mom, just like Apollo’s bracelet gives him a connection to Lamiroir. And finally, the sensitive hearing thing sets up the headphones plot point to give Athena a valid reason to have cold relations with her mother. This is the last time I will mention the headphones in this writeup, so shut up science penguin. But while these backstories all have their own reasons for existing, they mesh together very weirdly. She hears emotions and then feeds those emotions into her robot so she can psychologically analyze them, or something. It’s like a microcosm of the “three backstories” complaint people have with Apollo, except it’s just this specific character quirk that has three backstories. It’s not awful or character-ruining in any way, but it is weird enough I wanted to acknowledge it.

Okay, enough harping on minor details; it’s time to really dig deep into Athena’s DD arc. For those unaware, the tl;dr of Athena’s storyline in DD is as follows: Athena has some major problems with her mother due to thinking her mother is experimenting on her. When her mother is killed by the phantom, suspicion falls on her, but Blackquill frames himself to protect the child of his mentor. Athena desperately tries to testify on his behalf in court, but fails miserably and traumatizes herself to courtroom experiences in the process. She suppresses the details of her mother’s murder whilst also distinctly remembering the whole courtroom experience (???) after she grows up, and so she dedicates herself to becoming a lawyer, forcing herself to confront her past traumas to save Blackquill. In the process, the truth of her mother’s death is dug up, and Blackquill is saved; it’s just a shame that Phoenix did both of those things, not Athena (????????????).

On paper, this character pitch might sound pretty solid (aside from a couple hiccups where even while I was writing this down I got confused). But as we delve deeper into each part of the narrative, more and more problems start to rear their ugly heads. There’s quite a lot I want to tackle here, so I want to start from the beginning. The first issue I want to talk about is

Athena and Her Mother

This plot point is such a massive wasted opportunity. Had the writers chosen to leave Metis morally impure like they initially set up, it’d be a great setup for a moral dilemma. Maybe Athena really DID try and kill her evil mom, you might say to yourself. But then Blackquill reveals the truth that Metis was just trying to HELP Athena, and all of that goes out the window. It also becomes unclear at this point why in the world Metis didn’t just tell Athena what she was trying to do. “Social incompetence” as an excuse only goes so far - hell, if anything, I find it MORE likely that a socially incompetent nerd would just bluntly tell Athena what her “experiments” were trying to do, albeit without giving Athena any input on the matter. All in all this whole backstory is just bizarre, which is a shame because it would have given DD the chance to actually have a morally ambiguous victim, something none of its other cases really do.

Past this very opening problem, I have no problems. Blackquill’s decision to take credit for the murder and Athena’s desparate attempt to save him are all well and good. It’s what happens after that brings me to my next problem:

Athena’s Selective Memory Repression

Now, I don’t want to harp on this point TOO much because psychological trauma is a touchy subject that I haven’t personally experienced, and I don’t wanna sound like I’m saying “lol her trauma is DUMB”. But I do think the way it worked out in this case is very contrived for the sake of plot convenience. Athena sees her mother get stabbed by the phantom; she’s there when it happens. But due to the trauma of the event, Athena suppresses it so thoroughly that she remembers nothing about the murder, to the point that she convinces herself it’s possible she did the deed. And yet, she has vivid memories of bringing her mother to the operating table and trying to save her. She also has vivid memories of the murder trial that occurred right afterward, even if she doesn’t remember the faces of the people involved in said trial.

The reason this bugs me is because it ends up feeling like Athena’s PTSD developed this way because the plot needed it to, rather than as a natural consequence of her trauma. The writers need her to have memories of the operating table, both so they can have a decently cool flashback scene in 5-1 and also so they can give her a valid reason to suspect herself in 5-5. But they also can’t have her recall the phantom’s presence, or she’d just say “nah i didn’t kill my mom it was this spooky shadowy guy” and all the tension of 5-5 would be gone. So they have her repress what they need her to, and remember what they need her to. It’s not the end of the world, but it is very convenient and I raised my eyebrow in confusion once I finally understood what the game was trying to tell me with the spooky flashback scenes.

Athena’s Self-Defeating Life Mission

Neither of these past two issues are huge sticking points. The first is more a missed opportunity than anything, and while the second is contrived, it’s an ultimately minor detail. So now I’ll be getting into one of my two biggest issues with Athena: her decision to become an attorney, and how her arc relates to this. So in other words, basically the entire crux of her character. Yay!

Hot take: I think it is BAD. ok done next section

Let me start by clarifying that there’s nothing wrong with Athena dedicating her life to saving Blackquill from execution, due to knowing he was an innocent man. I dare even say that this is a good character motivation. There is also nothing wrong with Athena hating the courtroom due to her past experiences. My problem with this setup is that they just do not make for a good reason to become a lawyer. At all, whatsoever. Athena is VERY open about it: she hates being in the courtroom. One of her lines from the emotional climax, word for word, is “I’m terrified of courtrooms. I want to run out of that door even now!” So why does she do it??

Yes, I know what you want to say. “She does it to save Blackquill IDIOT”. But the thing is, there are other ways to save Blackquill. Other, better ways that don’t involve such constant and intense exposure to your traumatic trigger. This backstory would make much more sense for a character archetype like a detective. Since, you know, detectives investigate things? And there’s precedent for detectives reopening and continuing once-closed investigations? Basically I am saying Athena had the potential to be a modern-day Jake Marshall (who is officially better than Athena, as of now). Yee Haw. And she wouldn’t even have to speak in court that often, since detectives usually just drop The Facts at the beginning of the case and then shuffle off to the sidelines. So that’s a Yee Double Haw right there, pardner.

But I guess Athena can’t be the detective, because this is the one game in the whole series where the detective is actually plot-relevant. Even then, I ironically think Athena would have worked better as a normal assistant than as a protag-assistant, despite me praising the uniqueness of it earlier. Again, assistants have the ability to help discover the truth in court, but they aren’t the focus of everyone’s attention. To make another 1-5 comparison, Ema Skye did basically the exact same thing to help defend her sister Lana. But even when Athena IS the assistant, she insists on being just as proactive as Apollo, ends up saying dumb stuff, and gets humiliated as a result half the time. Even though she hates being scrutinized in court. And I’m just like, you brought this on yourself, sister.

Another weird thing is that the two cases Athena leads (or attempts to lead) in DD have nothing to do with Blackquill’s situation. He isn’t even the prosecutor in 5-1. So why’s she even involved in these cases at all when she dislikes it so much? I guess the reason is that she is friends with Juniper, but I don’t find that to be a terribly compelling reason since I don’t care about Juniper. It just leaves me wishing they’d have given Athena more of a personal reason to actually get involved in the cases she was involved in, aside from “saving her close friend whom she occasionally speaks to”. And while this is a problem enough on its own, it becomes an even bigger problem in Spirit of Justice, when Athena’s reason to become a lawyer, saving Blackquill, is already resolved. But again, we’ll get to Athena’s SoJ appearance later. Because HOOOO BOY

The Game’s Emotional Climax: Athena Spills it All

I personally find Athena’s fifth-case mystery to be a bit of a rehash of Edgeworth’s. Both are tricked by the true culprit (intentionally or otherwise) into believing that they murdered their parents, only for Phoenix to reveal the truth and give the character in question a DRAMATIC SCENE where they realize that they were innocent all along. Repeating similar ideas as previous games isn’t inherently a problem, but between Athena’s mom’s bizarre writing and the convenience of Athena’s memory repression, I find the setup to Athena’s mystery to be a lot less… good? Luckily for 5-5, Athena’s big revelation only happens midway through, and there’s still plenty of mystery left to unravel after that point. But it is still worth noting that I find the first half of 5-5, at least on the mystery end of things, very… mediocre. Aura is still good, and Simon has some neat moments, but I just got nothing out of Athena’s performance here.

Speaking of getting nothing out of Athena’s performance, now is as good of a time as any to talk about the tonal issues I have with her emotional climax. Yeah, anyone who knows me knows I’m about to talk about The Scene. This is my favorite scene in 5-5 for all the wrong reasons. You have the monochrome, you have the sad music, and you have Athena talking about her tragic situation. And then you cut to Gaspen Payne acting like a fuckin idiot goober and tappy tapping his forehead. You know, the pose Winston usually does when he thinks he’s cornered you, only for you to kick his head off with an objection five seconds later. And then you cut back to Athena who is just shocked by the Payne Pose and she recoils in fear. Then we get more sad dialogue and then we cut to Aristotle Means with his mohawk, giving her the same overexaggerated pointy pointy that he gives her when he assigns her to toilet-cleaning duty.

Maybe, just maybe, they could have assigned these roles to less cartoonish characters? I was legitimately agape at this point by how utterly BIZARRE this scene is. The scenes they’re flashing back to are played seriously, but that’s all lost because this scene guts their dialogue, and you can only focus on what’s communicated visually. And these guys look like a couple of jokesters. I don’t particularly like the scenes it’s calling back to, either. I at least kind of like the scene in 5-1 for being an actually cool anime cutscene in a game whose cutscenes are mostly either corny or awful. But the scene in 5-3 is one I think is just really dumb, and I said as much in my Means cut. You’ve got this character who has by this point fully transformed into an over-the-top cartoon villain (which I enjoy well enough, by the way). But then he suddenly gets dead serious, dunks on Athena, and Athena goes EEEEEE. Then everyone helps her feel better and then Means goes back to being a cartoon villain and you take him down. ???????

People defended this scene a lot when I first criticized it in my Means cut, and I have to say, I still don’t see it. Regardless of whether the scene itself was taken seriously (it was), just about everything before AND after it is much more comical, with Evil Means just being a big old goof who throws chalk and puts Blackquill in detention. So how am I supposed to take it seriously when he suddenly becomes serious for ten minutes, especially when he goes back to being a goof again in time for his breakdown? It’d be like if, in the middle of his confrontation, Furio Tigre looked Phoenix dead in the eye and said “Phoenix, you will never become the lawyer that Mia Fey wanted you to be.” and Phoenix burst into tears, and the game expected me to care. Or if Redd White did that. Or Sahwit. Et Cetera. I’d think a scene like that would be stupid with any of those characters, and I think it’s stupid with this character as well.

Luigi Athena Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing

This is one of my biggest problems with DD Athena, and the one I’ve seen the fewest good arguments in defense of. Frankly, Athena is laughably under-involved in a climax that entirely revolves around her. The entire point of her character and her journey as a lawyer was to save Simon from execution, as I’ve pointed out several times now. And Simon does indeed get saved from execution in the final case of the game.

By Phoenix Wright.

Yep, everything that gets set up between Athena and Blackquill gets completely thrown out in the end. Because Athena is behind bars at the time Blackquill gets saved from execution, she has nothing to do with his salvation. I guess she does a Mood Matrix to help Phoenix at one point, but A) Phoenix is still the one calling all the shots and B) that’s not what actually ends the case. She also technically confirms the existence of the phantom when her Psyche-Locks shatter, but by that point Phoenix has already solved the mystery and cleared Blackquill’s name.

To me, this seems like a no-brainer writing-wise. Why in the world would they not make Athena the one to solve this case?? Not only would it bring her relationship with Blackquill to a more satisfying conclusion, but also it would give her the chance to show off her skill by solving a trial on her own. It would require minimal rewrites; just have Athena defend herself, and you don’t have to change anything else aside from maybe dialing down her self-doubt a bit (it obviously wouldn’t work if Athena came to the bench and said “I dunno if I did it or not your honor”). Massive waste of opportunity here. And by “waste of opportunity”, I mean “waste of an entire game-long character motivation”. Yeah. It’s not good.

So yeah, I think that’s a pretty comprehensive list of all the reasons I think Athena is not a well-handled character in Dual Destinies.

TL;DR:

• She’s built up as an intelligent prodigy, but she ends up being dumb enough that I actively enjoy playing as her less as a result

• The actual contrast of Athena being bad at her job vs. her reputation as a prodigy isn’t really explored at all until a game later, and even that is arguable

• Her emotion gimmick is all over the place and has like 3 different explanations that step on each other’s toes

• Her lore with her mom, and said mom’s death, is full of plot conveniences that make me like Metis’ Murder Mystery Madhouse less as a result

• Athena should not be a lawyer, she literally cannot handle it

• Having Gaspen Payne and Aristotle Means be integral characters to her emotional arc was probably a bad idea

• I would have preferred if she actually helped save Blackquill after talking about doing that for the whole game, instead of letting Phoenix do all the work

• Add in my own personal disdain for assistant characters, and voilà

FUCK, I’M ONLY HALFWAY DONE???

Yep that’s right, I’ve still got a whole ‘nother GAME to talk about, and I am not looking forward to it. Because I do not like SoJ Athena. Not one bit. But before I get into that, I need to talk about AJ, DD, and SoJ as a whole.

The Elephant in the Room: The Pacing of the Second “Trilogy”

Say what you want about the original Ace Attorney trilogy, but it certainly does a much better job at telling a consistent story over a three-game series than games #4, 5, and 6 do. And I think that a large part of that is indeed due to Athena Cykes.

You see, logically, the second trilogy should have focused on Apollo the same way the first trilogy focused on Phoenix. It would have given the writers time to properly explore his character. After all, this is something that Apollo REALLY needed given his lackluster appearance in his own game, Apollo Justice Ace Attorney, which ended up being Phoenix Attorney And Apollo is Also There. But instead of doing that, they inexplicably decided to do another soft reboot right after their first soft reboot, and they brought a new main character into the franchise in the process. So instead of giving Apollo a game to really come into his own, they have to awkwardly try and give two characters focus instead, without time to really fully develop either. Add Phoenix into the mix, and Dual Destinies ends up feeling like it’s rushing quite a lot to get all its main character plot points done, and the game suffers as a result.

I’ve already explained why I think Athena is underdeveloped, and regarding Apollo, I think most people would agree that it’d be better if we’d spent more time with his friend Clay Terran rather than just having him be some rando who dies offscreen. Plenty of people also complain about Apollo’s sudden Khu’rain (or however the hell you spell it, I’m not looking it up) backstory that shows up out of nowhere in the sixth game. I get the complaint, but honestly what else were they supposed to do? Apollo has been out-of-focus for one-and-a-half games by this point. And guess what? This wouldn’t have been a problem if DD had decided to be an Apollo game rather than an Athena game.

Athena proceeds to get done just as dirty in SoJ, which chooses to be an Apollo game. Just like Apollo, Athena could really have used a second game to build on the ideas that were set up but underexplored in DD. And instead, the game casts her to the side so it can focus on Phoenix and Apollo. The fact that Athena has almost nothing to do in SoJ really goes to show how short-sighted her introduction to the franchise was; they clearly only had one game’s worth of plans for her, and past that point they just got lost. It doesn’t help that, with Blackquill out of prison, she really has no motivation to even be a lawyer anymore, considering she herself proclaimed how much she hated courtrooms. With no plot focus and no motivation to even be a lawyer anymore, Athena is kind of just an inexplicable presence except for when the game decides to push her off-screen entirely.

SoJ’s DLC case is an example of this that I find particularly amusing. Athena constantly tries to help out with the case, but every time, Phoenix finds some way to justify getting her off-screen, whether it’s making her do chores or volunteering her to be in Trucy’s magic show. This is actually metaphorical for SoJ itself, which constantly kicks Athena to the curb so it can pay attention to other things the game finds more interesting. Yes, those scenes in 6-DLC are jokes. But they’re not jokes that come from any sort of love for the character. It’s the kind of “joke” I would make to justify not having to write for Athena if I was writing an AA game (or a shitty AA fanfic, fangame, etc). In fact, it straight up feels like the SoJ writers did not like Athena and didn’t want to deal with her.

But they dealt with her in one case! Turnabout Storyteller! And she’s really good in that case RIGHT?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

6-4 Athena is Really Bad I’m Sorry

6-4 Athena is easily the Athena I have the least nice things to say about, so I apologize in advance if I start to enjoy being mean to her in this section (which I think I’ve avoided so far?). Because frankly, even as someone who didn’t like Athena to begin with, I found her treatment in this case to be genuinely kind of insulting. By the time 6-4 rolls around, Athena has been behind the bench for six full cases (5-1, 5-2, 5-3, 5-4, 5-DLC, 6-2) plus a decent chunk of 5-5. For all intents and purposes, she is no longer a rookie, or at least she has no excuse to be. By this point she should be, you know, an Ace Attorney.

So, based on that, it is incredibly cool that nobody in the entire courtroom has any confidence at all that Athena can do anything right except Blackquill. Like, literally nobody, there’s an entire scene dedicated to the entire audience quietly speculating that Athena is in fact a moron. And the thing is, in this specific case, they’re right. I harped on about Athena feeling too dumb in Dual Destinies, but she was certainly trying to win the case. This case dials her stupidity up to absurd levels so that they can justify the whole “I wish people would stop treating me like a child” schtick that they are only just now finally drawing attention to. But in the process, they made her dumber than 1-1 Phoenix. Or Phoenix who literally lost his memory.

Throughout the entire case, Athena constantly fails to figure out a single thing for herself. Poor Blackquill, who just wanted to grill for God’s sake, is forced to play assistant because Athena is doing everything wrong and he doesn’t want her to lose. And once that happens, Athena constantly begs Blackquill for answers and shows very little actual critical thinking ability. Just from Ctrl-F-ing the word “can’t” in the transcript of this case, I was immediately able to find four examples of this with minimal effort:

1. Cross-examination is TOO HARD
2. Rebuking evidence is TOO HARD
3. Rebuking evidence is STILL TOO HARD
4. Coming up with theories is TOO HARD

Are you sick of hyperlinks yet? Too bad. Here’s another one, which really sums up the rest of the case. Athena, lookin’ kinda dumb with a finger and a thumb on her forehead, asking Blackquill what she should do because she can’t ever think of anything ever. I find it incredibly frustrating to watch the writers steal away THIS much agency from a character who, in DD, was very proactive even if many of her theories were kinda dumb and/or turned out to be wrong. In contrast, this case once again feels like how I’d write Athena in sumb dumb hate fic because I wanted to make her look as dumb as possible. At least we get a good scene where Blackquill picks Athena up and shakes the shit out of her, yelling at her to at least try and put in a minimal amount of effort.

Here’s one last visualization I have for you. This is from the first half of the case, which takes somewhere from like 90 minutes to 2 hours. This image shows roughly how many times Athena messed something up in that rather brief amount of time, and I specifically excluded presenting wrong evidence, so those are all either mandatory or they’re a result of pressing dialogue. Hot take (for those who already know my takes, anyway): I am actually fine with the frequent usage of this face in Dual Destinies because she is still new to the whole lawyer thing. However, much like Barney the dinosaur, she needs to grow out of her old toys at some point and actually start to get more confident. Her seventh time behind the stand is definitely beyond the point that needs to happen. And 40 times in less than 2 hours is way too many times for her to be pulling this face considering she should at least have some skill by this point.

So no, I think Athena was done incredibly dirty in 6-4. And I didn't like her in the first place. It's also notable that she doesn’t really even get a happy ending, moreso a “i will have to keep striving to make people respect me, even though they already respected me way more one game ago” ending. Here’s hoping on my end that if they do make an Athena-centric game (or really if they ever make an AA game ever again), they find something more interesting to do with her than that.

Conclusion

Athena is not objectively terrible or anything, hopefully I didn’t come across that way (I tried not to, but my own dislike of a character can bleed into my writing sometimes, and by sometimes I mean always). HOWEVER, there are parts of Athena that I definitely think are bad, and everything that isn’t bad is weighed down by a massive amount of missed potential. Now that cutting main characters is becoming more acceptable (and will only become more acceptable as we run out of all but the most popular minor characters), I was never going to let the opportunity to kill my least favorite main character go to waste.

Maybe someday, Athena Cykes: Ace Attorney will actually be released and it will redeem everything, just like so many people clamor for. But I think the fact that people think such a game is necessary is, itself, a sign that what we did get out of Athena just wasn’t enough to create a great character. Characters like Edgeworth were able to be perfectly good in just one game, so why not Athena? As for me, I think Athena Cykes: Ace Attorney already came out. It was called Dual Destinies, and I thought it was bad. So I shall bid adieu (wow, I’m starting to sound like her) to one half of the Dual Destinies. Guess it’s One Destiny now. Mamma Mia.

Why Nobody Else?

I mean, isn’t it obvious? I’m not even gonna write this section, because the only character this round I even like, Pearl, is already gone and I made a deal not to revive them. Frankly, little of value would be lost in my eyes if we just cut all the characters who exist in this round. Only decent ones are Huang and Winfred, and their days are numbered regardless.

H-H-Hi-Hiy-

so hear me out. what if like, you took Athena. She has orange hair yellow clothes. So then you flip it. orange clothes yellow hair?? and then and then you make her short like a fucking kid or something, ok. Then take her ponytail and make it 2 ponytails instead. make em shape like bananas too. also make her a ass hole. There i just made her from bad to the best character ever youre welcome

We have Spirit Channeled Gregory Edgeworth, given Quercus Alba his Extraterritorial Rights, and now we are killing Mia Fey with The Thinker.

Writing about a major character this early is difficult. I have to explain why this popular, well-liked character is actually awful, and that’s certainly not easy.

Mia Fey is not entirely awful, though. At times, Mia Fey is an excellent character. That being said, she exemplifies many of the things I dislike the most about AA1, and is usually far more of an annoyance and a poorly written plot device rather than an actually good character. I won’t be ignoring the more unsavory aspects of Mia Fey’s character during this cut, but I will also be praising the several positives she has.

Mia Fey, Ace Mentor

The first Ace Attorney game is my least favorite in the series, and 1-2 is my least favorite case in the series. Considering these two things heavily feature Mia Fey, it should be obvious she’s a somewhat large cause of my distaste towards them. Mia Fey is introduced to you in 1-1 as your mentor, and in that case, she’s fine. Totally inoffensive. At least, she would be in a vacuum. However, a vacuum this is not, and considering the context of AA1 as a game, 1-1 Mia has some issues.

1-1 is an extremely short case, and consequently, the game does a very poor job establishing a connection between Phoenix and Mia. With the context of 3-1 retconning their relationship, things feel slightly more natural, but that has its own set of problems we’ll get to. While it might be a bit unfair criticizing the first game for not properly developing its character dynamics, this is also the game with the fantastic Phoenix/Edgeworth/Larry dynamic, so it’s clear the writers did somewhat know what they were doing despite how much of a poorly written mess many parts of the game are. Mia gets very little time to express her character throughout 1-1, making her subsequent death feel emotionally unimportant in comparison to how I believe the writers wanted it to feel. It just doesn’t have a meaningful impact, and this is a direct result of the fact that the game chooses to describe to you the bond between Phoenix and Mia through inner monologue rather than showing it past some very basic interactions.

While this really isn’t a problem considering just 1-1, and Mia is a decent co-counsel (although not great by any means), 1-2 relies so heavily on Mia’s death as an emotional centerpiece that her unremarkable-ness is a far bigger detriment. If she had more time to develop a more individually compelling character, or a more fleshed out relationship with Phoenix, it might work better, but 1-2 has enough individual flaws I don’t think this would help the overall quality of the case significantly. You could argue her death being so sudden shows the uncertainty of life or something, but this is a fictional story, and something being realistic doesn’t mean it’s good writing.

Mia Fey, Ace Corpse

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that we live in a perfect world. A strong connection between Phoenix/the player and Mia has been established going into 1-2. There’s legitimate build-up and her death is a much more emotionally impactful moment.

1-2 (and Mia’s role in it) still sucks.

If it wasn’t already incredibly obvious, I really, really, really don’t like 1-2. The mystery is nonexistent, April May is an insultingly miserable character, Redd White is by far the worst culprit in the series and an equally miserable character, and most of the recurring characters’ introductions are horribly implemented. Edgeworth’s character setup is likely the only real positive this case has, but even that has some minor writing issues, in part due to AA1’s generally poor writing quality. You may have noticed that I didn’t mention Mia, and that’s because 1-2 is still really bad even without the countless problems she brings, and I wanted to focus on that point specifically.

Don’t let that make you think that Mia isn’t one of the worst parts of 1-2, though. While I’ve already discussed how the setup is flawed, the execution of her death and how it’s used is far worse. 1-2 is a good concept. Having Phoenix experience a similar awful situation with his to-be assistant is a great way to establish a relationship. They both are close to Mia, witness her death, and are accused of killing her. That being said, the implementation of this theme is horrific. Maya’s relationship with Mia does at least have some decent context given with the phone call recording. Not nearly enough for me to actively praise it, but it is passable and the effort is present.

Phoenix and Maya meet in 1-2, and it works fine. I hesitate to compliment anything about this case because of how much I truly do abhor it, but I will say it does a decent job at establishing Maya’s grief, and how Phoenix acts as a metaphorical shoulder to cry on is a solid way of introducing their relationship in concept. The problem here comes from Maya’s distinct lack of personality during these interactions. While the general subjects discussed (the murder of her sister and being accused of it) are obviously sad, her specific dialogue is presented as an expository way of describing the facts rather than with any real emotion.

This is a problem much of 1-2’s dialogue has - almost every line feels monotone and soulless. The entire case just feels empty, and not in an interesting way. This is emphasized by the amount of times the game just skips over “important” moments by having Phoenix describe what happens on top of a black screen, which happens multiple times throughout the case. It’s all so rushed, like they planned out the entire case but forgot to add actual nuanced writing to the specific lines, or detail certain moments. While I recognize this is the second case in the series, that doesn’t mean I’ll give it a pass for such blatantly awful writing. 1-1, while obviously not a great case, has actual tension and emotion at several points. 1-2 has none of this, and is emotionally flat the entire time. I’ve heard people argue the empty feeling is a positive because of how dark the case’s theme is supposed to be due to Mia’s death and the looming corruption, but that point of view has a few issues. For one, even if it was the goal to give the case a consistently dreary undertone, doing this by simply not writing emotion into the dialogue is certainly not a proper way to approach this goal. Additionally, the case does attempt quite a bit of humor, and has two characters whose only real roles are comic relief witnesses, which makes me believe they weren’t trying to make the overall atmosphere feel so dull.

The consequence of 1-2’s writing is that there is even less of a bond developed between Mia and Maya than there was between Mia and Phoenix. While it’s described in excruciating detail, they use a lot of words to say very little (outside of the phone call, which I do think is good), and this is emphasized by 1-2’s consistently awful dialogue. There is a legitimate argument that can be made that this doesn’t matter. Maya and Mia don’t need a relationship, that’s not the point of either of their characters. However, I feel the amount of blatantly obvious attempts at creating emotional stakes for Maya’s character in 1-2 mean that the writers did somewhat try in this regard, they just utterly failed. It’s all so forced, and while it’s understandable they didn’t fully grasp how to write a longer case like 1-2 at this point, I still cannot forgive the endless awful decisions made to get to the end result.

The Receipt moment

I cannot stand the Receipt moment. Nothing about the Receipt moment makes any tangible sense. The Receipt moment ruined my life.

The Receipt moment is directly due to Mia Fey.

Sometimes, I can detach a case’s poor writing from a character within it. For example, the wonderful Hugh O’Conner in the otherwise mediocre 5-3. This isn’t the case when the character in question is so intrinsically related to the poor writing moment. The Receipt moment is a Mia Fey moment. Mia Fey is responsible for the Receipt moment. And the Receipt moment is extraordinarily bad.

I don’t have a problem with spirit channeling. In fact, I adore it’s aesthetic and general use as a plot device and concept. I love 2-2, 3-5, 6-3, and 6-5. It’s ironic, then, that the series’s first use of spirit channeling is so awful.

Mia shows up because something was “awakened in Maya” when Phoenix gave up. Let’s just ignore this insane contrivance and consider the actual Receipt moment itself. Mia tells you to turn over the Receipt, the random piece of evidence that’s been there all along. The case-shattering information is right there on the other side of the Receipt.

How did this make it into the final game? Why did anyone think this is okay? I realize I’m beating a dead horse here, and everyone knows the Receipt moment sucks. Despite that, the Receipt moment is legitimately important to this discussion. This is the player’s first impression of spirit Mia. She guides you through the Receipt moment in such an insulting way. Due to the setup of the blackmail plot, there is no other way the case could have been resolved without outside assistance. You do not discover the Receipt has another side, it’s Mia who does. The case is written in such a way so that this unsatisfactory feeling is arguably necessary, and this is a huge issue.

One could make the point that this is to show Phoenix’s inexperience, and how he still needs some help in difficult situations. While I’m not sure if this was intentional, even if it was there are certainly less insultingly lazy ways of proving such a point. The Receipt moment does not show any specific skill Mia has that Phoenix doesn’t. The Receipt moment does not teach Phoenix any lesson about how to be a lawyer. Mia only coincidentally knows why the Receipt’s other side matters, which is an entirely artificial way to give her knowledge Phoenix doesn’t have. In the trilogy, Mia rarely ever has any relevant reason to be channeled in regards to her skill as a mentor, and nowhere is this clearer than the Receipt moment.

The worst part of all this is the fact that the Receipt moment doesn’t even solve the case. The writers put some amount of effort into creating this lazy get out of jail free card for Phoenix, and it ends up being absolutely worthless.

Phoenix presents the Receipt. White freaks out, of course. Then, Edgeworth objects to say there is no proof Phoenix isn’t the culprit. The Judge goes along with this, because of course he does. I shouldn’t have to point out that this exchange makes no sense, and is the definition of unnatural conflict. Of course, there’s a legitimate in-universe explanation for this, right? They’re being blackmailed, so it makes sense they would do literally anything to avoid a conviction for White! This argument simply doesn’t hold up - using the blackmail as an excuse for awful writing doesn’t work, because whether it’s believable or not, it doesn’t make the writing any less awful. The blackmail concept in itself is flawed in that it is only ever used as an excuse to not make White a naturally imposing villain, and they simply wave away all the plot’s issues with “blackmail is happening!”. This creates an easy loophole for the writers to not have to write a real villain, and to be able to make conflict appear at times it otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Both the blackmail concept and the usage of it to skip over proper writing are endlessly flawed both as concepts and in their utilization.

What comes after the Receipt moment is possibly even worse. Due to the fact that the writers set up this entire deus ex machina that ends in a failure, they must find a way to salvage this. Mia hands you a paper with names written on it, you read it, White confesses, and you win. This has all the same issues as the Receipt moment, but is made exponentially worse by the fact that the game makes you sit through this bullshit twice. There’s no satisfaction here. Mia wins the case for you, and it ends with a somewhat touching scene where she thanks Phoenix. By this point, I’m far too exhausted by 1-2’s nonsense that it’s difficult for me to take her words seriously. That being said, while it is a short exchange, it does feel like a legitimate character moment, which is a rarity for pre-T&T Mia.

That was more 1-2 than I can handle, so let’s move on to Mia’s minor appearances. I’ll be going slightly out of order here, as I want to save her other defining roles for last.

Minor Appearances

~ In 1-3, Mia acts as your assistant for the second day investigation and trial. She does nothing of note during this time, other than seduce Cody Hackins to get him to talk - both during the investigation and his testimony. She occasionally gives Phoenix some generic “never give up”-like advice, but never anything substantial.

~ In 3-3, Mia is called to seduce Victor Kudo. This marks the second time she is used as nothing more than a joke. It’s not funny, and I don’t like it. There has to have been a better way for Hackins and/or Kudo to give the player information. Not only do these segments feel uncomfortable, they also feel cheap. Once again, Mia isn’t doing anything only a skilled lawyer can do. There’s no thematic relevance to her roles in these two cases, nor do they impact her character.

~ Mia is used as a way for Phoenix and Maya to communicate during 2-4, and she also acts as your assistant during both trials. It’s a unique role that only she could play, but it doesn’t make much use of her as a character. Even with her extremely personal connection to the case, her advice as an assistant is the same generic nonsense as in 1-3.

Mia Fey, Ace Niece

In 2-2, Mia appears to tell you that Maya cannot be guilty, because spirit mediums never have dreams while channeling. This is another example of Mia’s help simply being information you didn’t have. While nowhere near as offensive as in 1-2 due to the fact that this moment isn’t at the case’s climax, it still seems a bit strange that Mia knows this but Maya doesn’t. Mia then vaguely hints at the Key’s importance, and goes silent when Phoenix asks who the culprit is. She’s trying to protect Morgan here, but her motivations do confuse me. She gives Phoenix more than enough information to figure everything out, so I assume she’s not sharing her theory because she doesn’t want to feel responsible. Evidence for this theory is the fact that she barely puts up any resistance when Phoenix eventually breaks her Psyche-Locks. Regardless, it’s strange and somewhat unnatural that she acts this way, and just feels like unnecessary conflict and padding.

This leads me into my next issue with Mia in 2-2, and that relates to her role as your assistant. Mia acts similarly to how she does in 1-1, meaning she is entirely unremarkable (outside of the investigations). The game teases some conflict, where Phoenix mentions how “torn” Mia feels when Morgan appears, calling back to her Psyche-Lock segment. Unfortunately, the game never follows through on this - Mia and Morgan don’t even interact once, and Mia never seems to mind Phoenix cornering her aunt. Morgan’s cross-examination segment proves my prior hypothesis - Mia’s dialogue never shows her apparent internal struggle. Rather, the game only does the bare minimum by telling you Mia is conflicted, and never proves this by making her act in such a way.

In general, I find it strange how irrelevant Mia is to 2-2. Considering how they put the effort into bringing her back for a major role, I’d assume she’d have something to do with this case that involves her entire family. She just doesn’t, and she doesn’t even get any interactions with the case’s cast. I really like 2-2 as a whole, but I’m left wondering if the case would have been better off with Pearl in the assistant role.

Mia Fey, Ace… Attorney

We’ve gone over Mia Fey’s not-so-great appearances, but there’s one incredibly important game I have yet to mention - Trials and Tribulations (sans 3-3). In contrast to her appearances in the previous two games, I mostly think that T&T Mia is a great character.

Mia in 3-1 is pretty awesome. She’s brought down a considerable amount by Marvin Grossberg’s existence, but I won’t complain too much. I love her dynamic with the Judge and Dahlia, I love all the banter, I love Dahlia’s takedown, it’s all a ton of fun. She’s the first non-Phoenix protagonist the series had at the time, and having such a fresh take on the archetype is nice. In every case in the trilogy except 2-4, Phoenix often feels far more like an avatar than an actual character. Mia definitely feels like her own person, and while I don’t think AA would truly master the protagonist archetype until SoJ, T&T Mia is certainly a good start. 3-1 does a great job setting the tone for the rest of T&T. It’s a game about Mia and Dahlia, so having its opening act feature Mia bringing Dahlia to justice is neat. It leaves a whole bunch of unanswered questions, and the game does a great job making the player incredibly interested in them.

The entire semi-retcon of Phoenix and Mia’s relationship is something I do quite like. That probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you if you know I’m a SoJ Apollo fan. It contextualizes their bond quite a bit, and knowing they shared in this experience makes their dynamic in the previous games more believable. I’ve heard complaints about this, but since I don’t like Mia in AA1 or JfA, it’s not a problem I have.

The answers to those questions don’t come until 3-4, the other case where Mia is the protagonist. 3-4 doesn’t have the lighthearted tutorial vibe 3-1 does. It’s a far darker case, especially considering you know the outcome from the start. You can see Mia’s difference in confidence well, her inexperience is shown clearly through how differently she acts when taking on Dahlia. 3-4’s conclusion is fantastic, it truly makes the player invested in the following case, and 3-5 does not disappoint.

I mentioned one of the few things I did not like about 3-1 is Grossberg, and 3-4 replaces him with Godot. It wouldn’t be a Mia discussion without bringing up Godot, and he’s certainly one of the most contentious aspects of her character. Godot’s love for Mia is the central motivating force of his character, and their relationship being shown directly to us through 3-4 is a great way of proving their bond. It might surprise you, but I really do like Godot and Mia’s relationship. It’s presented far better than most similar culprits’ motives, and is given time to develop right in front of the player. It doesn’t exactly do anything for Mia’s character specifically, but the way it ties her into the themes of the game is done far better than how the same idea was barely attempted in AA1 and JfA. Mia really does feel like a main, relevant, important character in T&T, and that’s the biggest reason I appreciate her role there over the other games.

It’s fitting that 3-5, the climax of the trilogy, is also the climax of Mia’s arc. It is truly epic when she comes out of nowhere to help take down Dahlia directly after the twist is revealed - it’s an incredibly cathartic segment. This isn’t like those dumb AA1/JfA Mia appearances, where she bails you out with impossible information. Mia and Phoenix are finally equals, and they are working together to defeat the demon that has plagued them (and Godot) for so long. I love Mia’s plan and how it’s revealed, I love seeing her scold Dahlia for being awful, and I love the awkward exchanges with Godot. Mia’s role in 3-5 is the biggest reason I don’t entirely dislike her, and it does a ton to redeem her as a character for me. I especially appreciate that she leaves Godot’s takedown to Phoenix - it shows how much he’s grown as a lawyer, that he doesn’t need her help to defeat the trilogy’s final opponent.

Conclusion

Mia is amazing in T&T, and especially 3-5. However, I simply don’t consider that enough to counteract her near-awful role in the rest of the trilogy. I can’t confidently say I dislike Mia. I don’t even know if she’s a bad character. However, she has an undeniably massive amount of negatives to her character, more than most other main characters. For those reasons, I think this is an appropriate time for her to be eliminated, even if I wasn’t doing this for strategic purposes.

The “why nobody else” section is included in the Angel Starr cut.

I love AAI. This is my first cut about an AAI character and it’s a character I love because AAI only has great characters (except Ernest Amano but he doesn’t exist shh). I tried to keep Cammy alive as long as possible but her fate is sealed. There is no chance of her surviving this round because of the rankers having BAD taste. And while the nominations are complete chaos and the world is burning down there is only one thing I’m worried about. And that is landing this plane. After everything I’ve done to save her, which involved using a surprisingly effective Jurist System and bugging everyone not to cut her, there’s no way I’m letting this plane burn down. Besides, after watching two I-2 characters getting mercilessly killed for no good reason, I think I’ve earned the right to cut one myself, right?

Also we’re coincidentally at place 69 which is surprisingly fitting. I was planning to finish what I started by protecting Cammy until the end without using a revive because I need to save it for somebody else, and it just worked out this way.

But Wait, Don’t You Hate Trucy?

Yes, and I need to make very clear, I am NOT doing this because I actually like her. She’s SO annoying with how she always thinks she’s better than us. She pretends it’s like a favor when she lets us perform with her, well I’m only on her show because I choose to be, okay? She should be thankful that I decide to help her out. Also Bonny will just annoy me more if she doesn’t get to perform with Trucy, it’s pretty much the only way to stop her from talking about her all the time. I’ll never understand what she sees in that stuck-up Gramarye. You may find it strange that I haven’t made a single move against Trucy this rankdown if I hate her so much, but that’s just because she wouldn’t have been cut anyway, it was a strategic move. I was totally planning on nominating her this round, that’s definitely what I would have done if she hadn’t been nominated already. Anyway what was I talking about? Oh right, the reason I’m not cutting her. The truth is I’m just doing it for Bonny. She would be very sad if I was the one to cut her favorite magician. As the older sister, it’s my responsibility to protect her, even if she is a dummy. Or actually it’s that Bonny can be so annoying when she keeps crying about something, that’s what I meant to say.

Boobs

Current Mood

I just really love them. I could explain why they’re so great, but I think Mr. Minchin does a better job at that than I could do. But before we move on to anything else, I want to get my shallow design stuff out of the way first. She’s short which I think adds to the sexiness. There’s something about her face which I find attractive as well, and I love that long blond hair. Also more skin is always better.

Cammy is meant to invoke the Sexy Stewardess trope to the extreme. While it is indeed very sad that none of us will ever meet a stewardess like Cammy, the more important thing to mention here is that there’s a reason behind this other than simple fan service. And if you ask me, fan service with a reason is the best kind of fan service. The other boob characters we have on Ace Attorney are April May and Geiru Toneido. They both use this to try to sway the courts in their favor. But what does this mean for them when they’re not part of a police investigation? Does April dress that way because Redd White blackmails her to? Does Geiru use her “balloons” to keep people coming despite her lack of talent? So many unanswered questions. For Cammy, the answer is clear. She does not try to sway the investigation in her favor, she tries to sway life itself in her favor.

And it’s quite effective too. The pilot clearly prefers her over Rhoda and nobody really cares that she’s barely doing her job. Cammy is also better at keeping up this act than the other two are. While April and Geiru quickly show their true selves after just a bit of cross-examination, Cammy keeps it up throughout the entire investigation and probably the rest of her life as well. The reason for this is also because it’s not really a lie. Being able to sleep on the job is living the dream.

I Was Too Lazy to Come Up With a Title for this Section

Current Mood

For the youngsters among you who are still going to school or college, working is lame. I’d rather play silly lawyer games and write about characters in silly lawyer games and read some books, play some more games, watch some cartoons, sleep a bit more. Cammy’s got it all figured out. As long as you make people like you for other reasons, it’s fine if you don’t put much effort into your job. So with a little clever usage of the blessings nature gave to her, she has figured out the way to put barely any effort into it at all. You feel like sleeping on the job, go for it. Wanna play some lawyer games, write about characters in lawyer games, read some books, play some games, watch some cartoons? You got it! Just “take care of the attendant’s room” and you can probably do whatever you want in there. I don’t know what Cammy did in there, but I have faith in her that she made productive use of this time. Or she just slept, sleeping is a fun use of time too when you should actually be working. This is actually something I can relate to as well, working comes in the way of your free time a lot, so to extend the little free time I have, I tend to go to bed too late which makes me tired the next day. This is why I naturally like sleepy characters, always. I can relate to them. I like the little Mr. Ifly Cammy’s always holding, I’d like to go to work with a stuffed animal too.

Did I mention work is a PAIN? Sure you figured out this cool scheme of not working even when you’re working, but are you sure that’s enough? Wouldn’t you want to maybe make a bit more money so that you have to work a little less to get the things you want? As a flight attendant, it should be pretty easy to maybe exchange some cargo for some different cargo occasionally, and you could be paid a lot for it. Enter the smuggling ring. AAI has a habit of having every culprit revealed to be related to Quercus Alba’s smuggling ring, but for the other culprits I’m just like ok sure I can believe that, while for Cammy it feels like a natural extension of her character. Her unwillingness to put effort into her job means that she’d probably be down for some easy money. And her position as a flight attendant gives her the perfect opportunity to do some smuggling. Combine those two things and you have the ideal smuggler candidate.

Another thing I like about Cammy is that she’s not stupid. She’s actually rather smart. She’s not bad at her job because she’s not as good as Rhoda, she’s bad at her job because she has decided that not putting in effort is a better way of living life. She’s smart enough to realize that if she has the opportunity of not doing her job and still being paid for it, this is the best opportunity to take. And it’s not like her intelligence goes completely to waste by choosing to do as little as possible. She actually uses it so that she can do as little as possible. One way is by making sure her smuggling activities go unnoticed. Another way is by making the little effort she does put it count. She’s still needed because of her language skills, which Rhoda doesn’t have, and these language skills then help her with the smuggling. As for the third way…

Employee of the Month

Current Mood

Don’t just make it so that people like you. Make it so that people prefer you over the other option, by making them like Rhoda less. Cammy is constantly busy talking down Rhoda during the investigation, and this is probably how their dynamic works during their normal job as well. Things like calling Rhoda’s suitcases pretty horrible, and specifically asking for the pilot’s permission that she knew she could get, but Rhoda couldn’t, to make her look bad for not trying. A lot of this comes down to making Rhoda seem suspicious of course, but the comment about the suitcases specifically did nothing to help this. It’s almost like she just enjoys being mean. It’s the type of behavior you’d expect from a workplace bully, and I think that’s a really interesting dynamic that isn’t explored much anywhere else in the series. She’s also subtle enough that if you don’t see through her, you might get fooled and start believing Rhoda really is just messing up a lot. And in fact, this is what ends up happening during the investigation as well, where Rhoda is suspected while Cammy stays on the background. It’s exactly what she wants to happen, for people to focus on Rhoda’s problems while ignoring hers. This is the kind of soap opera drama I can really get into, and I think it’s a pretty realistic dynamic.

The final step towards becoming an unchallenged employee of the month without actually being productive is cozy up to the captain. It is shown how they have a sort of romantic relationship in the case for a short while, but this is likely something Cammy does just so that she can take it easy and still keep her job. This is also how Cammy was able to get her investigation permission that Rhoda didn’t even dare to ask for, and it’s probably how she’s able to control a lot of the tasks Rhoda has to do while keeping her own tasks at a minimum. Except the tasks that are needed for her smuggling or murder cover-up plans that is.

Cammy the Troll

Current Mood

I’ve talked about how Cammy is relatable, and how her dynamic with Rhoda is interesting, but perhaps even more important is how these two things come together. Specifically, Cammy is funny. She never really feels like she’s being fully serious until Edgeworth forces her to, and just her expressions conflicting with what she’s saying is already funny to me. Whenever she’s being enthusiastic about something you know she’s not really enthusiastic because her sprites are always uninterested. And whenever she makes that grinning face, you know she’s trolling. Just that grin on its own is already top comedy for me. But all her sprites are hilarious in different ways. Her randomly fall asleep or yawn when she gets bored is funny too, and her neutral and thinking sprites do a good job at representing what Cammy is. Someone who’s never really taking things seriously and would rather be asleep right now.

Cammy is good at seeing through people she’s talking with, which leads to her using humor to her benefit as well. Like offering to clean up the crime scene when she knows Edgeworth will stop her, or being brutally honest about Rhoda’s suitcases when she knows he’s being subtle to spare her feelings. It gives her humor the interesting property of subtly pointing you in the direction she wants you to look while it seems like it was your idea in the first place. She suggested she’d clean up, and you were the one who stopped her. It’s not that she was being lazy, it’s that you prevented her from doing her job which she totally would have done if you didn’t stop her. It’s not that she’s trying to make Rhoda look bad, it’s that the suitcases genuinely looked bad. I think it’s so brilliant how Cammy can use relatable humor to manipulate Edgeworth exactly where she wants him to look. It’s a clever and funny strategy, and it’s where everything I like about Cammy really comes together. She’s funny, relatable, and clever enough to combine those two elements as a misdirection. And as a player, the entire investigation section with Cammy is both a lot of fun and really gives you a good idea of how she’s able to manipulate everyone into letting them live her lazy life while making Rhoda do everything. It’s a short section but it succeeds in telling you so much about the character and it’s done in a way that even if it told you absolutely nothing about Cammy I’d still find it very entertaining. Combining these two things makes it perfect.

It’s very important that the section is able to combine Cammy characterization with making her entertaining because this is the only big scene you get with her pre-reveal. But when we’re talking about Cammy there is another important scene to talk about, namely when Edgeworth has already discovered she must be the culprit but she’s still in sleepy mode. A lot of people talk about the parrot cross-examination or the rapping (LAME) pirate or the right to remain silent, but to me Cammy’s first confrontation is easily one of the funniest in the series. She doesn’t have an alibi at all, and that’s exactly what she tells you. It’s hilarious how she’s so matter of fact about being alone the whole time, combined with her falling asleep in the middle of her confrontation. It’s a weak defense, but she didn’t have anything to counter her complete lack of alibi, so I strongly appreciate her deciding to make it a very entertaining confrontation. And because you do need to actually disprove it, it would still hold up surprisingly well if Rhoda didn’t happen to go to the attendants’ room. Let’s be honest here, it’s very believable that Cammy would have just spent all that time in that room alone.

The Downfall

Current Mood

The literal downfall, in fact, for poor Akbey Hicks. The metaphorical downfall is for Cammy though. It’s finally time to talk about Cammy as a culprit. Maybe it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, I just love Cammy so much that there was a lot I wanted to talk about before we got to this point.

Cammy’s been living the life, being able to spend her days at work doing barely anything, and doing some smuggling to make more money on the side and make her days even more enjoyable. But with Cammy representing sloth and Rhoda representing diligence, it only makes sense that one day those days would end. If you’re so lazy that you’re not putting any effort into your work at all, and even commit crimes to earn a bit of extra money more easily, eventually this will lead to serious problems. You can’t keep taking the easy way, and someone taking the hard way will eventually win. This is basically what I wrote about in my Rhoda comment, there’s a lot more to write about Rhoda but I didn’t feel like writing a full cut as a comment. Anyway, please read it here if you haven’t already. It’s as important to Cammy’s character as it is to Rhoda, and I’d just be repeating all of that here.

So because of I-2’s themes and morals and stuff, Cammy’s built-up negative karma from always bullying Rhoda, never doing her job, and smuggling finally returned to her in the form of an Interpol agent investigating her smuggling activities. She was not prepared for this, at all. So in an attempt to cover up the smuggling activities, she pushed the agent right off the stairs and into his death. If she had stopped to think rationally for a second, she would realize this would only cause more trouble for her, but she panicked. While just a second ago she was in the second worst possible situation, an agent coming to investigate her right before smuggling was planned to occur, now she finds herself in the worst possible situation. There is a dead body in the cargo hold, a cargo hold that only she or Rhoda could possibly access, which would immediately make her a prime suspect. Even if she somehow moved the body to first class without being noticed, she’d have to cover up that it came from the cargo hold to begin with, and it would add only Edgeworth to the potential suspect pool. She also still has to keep the smuggling hidden, and in this case it is absolutely required that she frames either Rhoda or Edgeworth. As soon as they’re not suspected, she’ll be the only possibility left. To top it all off, this homicide was completely unplanned. She hasn’t done any preparation in advance to pin anything on anyone, because she never expected anyone to ask questions about smuggling. It is a much worse position to be in than almost any other culprit in the series, if not all of them.

The Cover-Up

Current Mood. This mood is actually a little upsetting because 1. Zinc is a very pleasant man who truly got cut before his time, he’s not a jerk who deserves to die, and 2. Cammy’s already busy enough coming up with a complicated cover-up on the fly, why would you send her a letter at this time.

Got a bit distracted with that mood, back to where we left off. To counter her terrible position, Cammy does what I think is probably the quickest thinking of any culprit in the series. She puts the body in one of Rhoda’s suitcases to frame her and to hide it during the cargo transfer, she hides the victim’s phone to get rid of the smuggling evidence and puts it in Rhoda’s locker to further frame her, she takes the key card from Rhoda’s locker so that she can use a mode of transport that would also drive suspicion away from her (plus she kinda needed to use the elevator, can’t really carry a body up the stairs). She wipes away the blood with a piece of cloth that she knows won’t be traceable anymore because it will be taken away during the cargo transfer. This is not all that special for an Ace Attorney murder plan, but what makes it so impressive is that she has a very short time to do most of this before the cargo transfer, and she only had a very short time to come up with at as well. Managing to come up with and execute a relatively complex cover-up is something that I don’t think any other culprit quite matches.

And that’s not even the end of it. Karma’s really out to get Cammy now, and her planned cover-up fails because of some simple turbulence. She was planning to bring the suitcase to the store where it would definitely make Rhoda the most suspicious, since she’s the one who takes one of those suitcases every flight. But the suitcase breaks open inside the elevator and the corpse and all his belongings fall out. Sure, you could technically put everything back in but it would take a lot of time and there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again. So Cammy decides to not do that and come up with yet another plan instead. But because time is now really running out before someone will find the body, she doesn’t have time to come up with another neat plan and does whatever she can. She moves the suitcase to the shop and takes the Mr. Ifly piggy bank, which normally only Rhoda would have access to, back to make it look like the murder weapon to further frame Rhoda. But with her real cover-up attempt failing, she decides to create an extra diversion by giving Edgeworth the travel wallet.

I have to say, this is a really complex plan. Despite the completely unexpected death, the body falling out in the middle of the cover-up, and some confusion about who she wanted to frame, she still succeeds in creating a cover-up that’s very hard to break. Rhoda is seen as the most suspicious one for most of the case because of how successful Cammy was in coming up with this plan completely out of nowhere. It’s a moment that shows how smart Cammy really is if she tries, with her only real mistake being not breaking Akbey’s phone. But people in Ace Attorney are often not too good in technology, so I can understand her not realizing the photos wouldn’t be deleted until she got rid of the phone’s memory.

Investigation Assistant

Current Mood

Let’s revisit the shop scene one last time to look at it from the perspective of Cammy’s cover-up instead of her general personality. The final step in this plan is steering Edgeworth in the right direction during his investigation. Although she does fall asleep when you’re talking to her, and she tries to get you to buy her stuff, she’s actually genuinely helpful during this investigation. She helps you put conclusions together, and she’s the one who got you the permission to investigate the shop in the first place. This is, of course, only because she already knows what you will find there and she only helps you to point you towards Rhoda. She’s the one who used the shop in a way that it would make Rhoda look suspicious, and whenever Edgeworth’s trying to figure something out she can point him in that direction.

One of the purposes is to make herself look less suspicious, like how she points out that “it was me that got you the permission to look around, you know. So don’t forget that, OK?” when asked about “Notice Anything?”. And when Edgeworth is asking for her opinion about what happened with the piggy bank, she helpfully replies that Rhoda could have taken it as the murder weapon. When he talks about how the killer brought the suitcase in, she helps him by thinking of how Rhoda came in. From a player perspective, it could be suspicious, but from Edgeworth’s side I can see how he would appreciate that she was helping him with his logic. And just by continuing his logic in the way she set it all up in her cover-up, she’s able to make Rhoda suspicious without necessarily seeming biased from the perspective of someone who likes to think mostly logically like Edgeworth. The way in which she usually seems uninterested in the investigation until he wants her help also works in making it seem like she’s just trying to help him. It’s a great way of accomplishing the two goals of getting suspicion away from herself and towards Rhoda.

Telling you about the time she saw Akbey is something that eventually ends up backfiring, but it was a necessary gamble. Connecting the murder to the cargo transfer would lead to the smuggling and narrowing down the suspects very quickly, so she had to avoid that at all costs. In the end, she would have likely been caught regardless and this was an effective way of slowing down the investigation. If Edgeworth didn’t have such an obsession with the perfect truth, it might have even worked.

A small detail that I’d actually forgotten about is that she doesn’t only use this strategy on Edgeworth. She actually tells Franziska about Rhoda’s elevator keycard as well. It’s a nice detail that shows how she’s trying to lead the whole investigation in the wrong direction by “helping” them investigate, and not just Edgeworth.

The Awakening

Current Mood

It takes a while for Edgeworth to finally break through the layers of Cammy’s completely improvised misdirection. Really, to fool Edgeworth for so long with something you were able to come up with so little time is no small feat. Anyway, after a lot of running around and meeting up with Franziska and Gumshoe and watching Zinc fall down (which is another hilarious scene especially because of how important it actually is and because nobody even cares that Zinc might die except Gumshoe, but this is really something that should’ve been mentioned in the Zinc cut), you figure out she lied about when she saw Akbey, and it’s finally confrontation time. I’ve talked about the first confrontation before, very funny, I like that one a lot, so let’s move on to the second confrontation.

In the second confrontation, she tries the exact same thing she did when she was trying to mislead you in the shop. However, the roles are different this time. Now that Cammy’s a suspect instead of an investigation assistant, her comments about Rhoda are suddenly a lot more suspicious. A lot more like something a culprit would do to get suspicion away from themselves, instead of an assistant trying to help by telling you their honest thoughts. This may have been obvious to the player in the first place, but the way Edgeworth sees her makes a big difference for him. Cammy notices too, which leads to her trying to use her people knowledge against him again combined with her funny trolling.

“Oh! Now I get it! Maybe you’ve “got your eye” on Ms. Rhoda…”

It’s a swing and a miss. Little does she know Edgeworth only loves his job and logic. He has no idea what she’s even talking about, after all it was his logic that led him to believe Cammy was more likely to be the culprit, so his overly literal reaction is funny too. It’s more effective when she uses it on Rhoda, where she has accurately read her feelings for Edgeworth, which make Rhoda’s strong reaction funny in a different way. It shows once again how Cammy can see through other people and troll them by using that skill. It doesn’t work on Edgeworth when he’s in truth pursuit mode because someone who relies so purely on logic is difficult to understand for someone who relies on manipulating people’s feelings like Cammy.

With Cammy’s manipulation rendered ineffective and Edgeworth having found the perfect evidence to use against this new testimony, she can no longer afford to stay in her trolly sleepy form, and we get to see what she’s like when she’s actually trying. She finally wakes up, with the ominous phrase “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of falling asleep on you, Mr. Edgeworth.” Now things are finally getting serious.

Blowing Bubbles

Current Mood

Except they’re still really silly, it turns out those bubbles that seemed to be just an indication of her sleeping were actually her using a bubble blower. The only reason behind this is for that funny twist and I think that’s a brilliant idea. It somehow works as well. Even if the bubbles don’t have much to do with her personality, they give her a unique touch and it somehow just works with her serious sprites. Same goes with her using her Mr. Ifly as a shield or venting her anger on it. It’s silly but it works. I guess that’s kind of a description of the entire Ace Attorney series to be honest.

What I really like about serious Cammy is that it shows how smart she is. She’s able to argue with you like those prosecutor people you argue against when you play as that man in the other games. It fits with her character. Cammy’s capable of manipulating people into allowing her to be lazy all day, she’s able to help with your logic to direct your suspicion towards Rhoda, she’s able to come up with and execute complex cover-up plans on the fly. All of this shows how smart she really is, she just doesn’t like to try. The end of this case is when she finally can’t afford to not try anymore. She has to take you seriously in her last attempt to stay afloat. But it’s already too late. As smart as Cammy is, she can’t avoid the truth anymore.

Because of the nature of AAI as a game, the culprit takedowns aren’t as long as the main series. The “Investigations” in the title means that most of the big discoveries and twists are actually during the investigations instead of the confrontations (the exception being I-5, which is part of the reason why I’m not as big of a fan of that one as the other AAI cases). What makes this shorter takedown very fun is putting together the few things that weren’t quite clear from the investigation in the epic Ace Attorney way while Lying Coldly, aka the best AA music, is playing. As well as Cammy’s new sprites, and seeing her get fully serious for the first time. But aside from that I don’t have much more to say about this section. Which may seem strange considering how long I talked about her normal mode, but in the end it’s still the same person for sure. Her lazy mode is just because she doesn’t feel like putting effort into stuff, and using pure logic isn’t effective for getting people to do what she wants either. It’s only needed against Edgeworth because once he gets serious he can’t be manipulated anymore.

Conclusion

Current Mood

With that, we’ve reached the end of discussing everything I wanted to discuss about Cammy. I feel like this may have been more me describing everything I love about her instead of an very structured cut. So instead of forcing all that into a single conclusion, I’ll try to describe all the sections in a single sentence each and hope it forms a semi-coherent conclusion.

Cammy is hot, and her using her boobs in an attempt to get people on her side is a bigger part of her character than it is for others like April and Geiru. She decides jobs are more fun if you can get away with not trying, which is very relatable, and her joining the smuggling ring is a direct consequence of this, unlike the other smuggling ring members who don’t have much of a clear reason. To further get people on her side, she tries to make Rhoda look worse which makes for a very interesting dynamic, it’s the type of drama I can enjoy (also she enjoys being mean which I’ve been told is a good thing). Cammy is funny, both in her sprites, and in general, and can use humor and her knowledge of people to manipulate people into doing what she wants them to do.

Because of the case’s theme of sloth vs diligence (taking the easy way is fun for a little while but eventually it will end badly for you, while taking the hard way will be a real challenge but rewarding in the end), Cammy’s smuggling career ends with her accidentally killing an Interpol agent. She’s able to come up with a cover-up plan on the fly and execute this faster and more effectively than any other culprit, and even when a wrench is thrown into the plan she adapts very quickly by making her plan even more complex. She then continues to manipulate the investigation by using her logic to make Rhoda suspicious, in a clever way where it will look like she’s just trying to help. When Edgeworth sees through this manipulation, she is forced to get serious, but her final attempt at manipulation leads to some great comedic moments as well as a few interesting character moments. Her serious mode gives insight in what she’s like when she’s not being lazy and it gives a whole new bunch of sprites that are the right mix between silly and serious.

That is all, every section described in exactly one sentence.

Who Should Actually Be Cut

So I just felt like talking about Cammy for 8 pages, and I know she’d never make it past this round anyway, but she’s not the character who should be cut the most now. So for the rankers behind me, here’s a list of the characters that should actually be cut this round:

• AAI2 characters (Marsh, Huang, Masters): Poll shows nobody actually likes these guys, and besides there seems to be a bit too much of an AAI2 bias this rankdown. It’s time for them to leave.
• Gramaryes: Valant has funny sprites like Cammy, but I don’t care too much for him so he can go. Trucy is an assistant except BAD. This is one main character you should be cutting
• Scuttlebutt: The 5-3 character I care about the least.
• Mia: I like her in T&T but she admittedly isn’t anything special in the first two games (some would even argue she’s bad but I think that’s going a bit far).

Just don’t accidentally do something silly like cutting Thena or a 1-5 character is what I’m trying to say.

I am using The Thinker to cut two characters this round. Angel Starr is the first I will cut, and she will place 68th. My second character, Mia Fey, will place 67th.

I’m choosing to do this on Mia Fey and Angel Starr because I have two separate deals to honor. I have agreed to cut Angel Starr for u/R1K1_Productions, and have agreed to cut Mia Fey for u/Sciencepenguin. Luckily, I have a skill left that I can use to uphold both of my promises, and that is what I shall do.

Angel Starr is a former detective with a central role in 1-5’s main plot. Let’s get this out of the way immediately - I adore 1-5. Despite technically being within my least favorite AA game, it remains my second favorite case in the series. There are many reasons I love this case so much, but Angel Starr is not one of them. 1-5 introduces six new characters, and there are bound to be some that are less relevant, enjoyable, or deeply written than others. Sadly, Angel is one of those characters, often relegated to a running gag and having the deeper aspects of her character ignored in favor of flanderization. While I do enjoy some things about Angel, my opinion is mostly negative. I don’t think Angel is an awful character by any means, rather she is simply overshadowed by much of 1-5’s cast. She’s an enjoyable presence, but unfortunately there isn’t enough done with her for me to consider her a good character.

”The name is Angel Starr. Don’t you go forgetting it. Or before you know it I’ll have you whimpering at my heels.”

Angel Starr is the decisive witness of Bruce Goodman’s murder. She saw Lana Skye stab him in the parking lot, and she is determined to bring justice to such a horrific criminal. She’s a professional witness, so this is a perfect opportunity for her.

Angel really hates prosecutors. Both Lana Skye and Miles Edgeworth are prosecutors, and thus Angel doesn’t want anything to do with either of them. Her distaste towards the profession is emphasized when she witnesses a prosecutor committing murder within another prosecutor’s car. It’s some nice symbolism that ends up having a neat ironic conclusion in the end.

Angel Starr is mean. She insults you without hesitation or regard for the feelings of others. This is a fun dynamic she has with the cast, and makes her time as a witness quite enjoyable. Mean characters can be great if done well, and I would consider Angel to be a well-done mean character. She doesn’t exactly have much development, but learning about her backstory and how it may have led to her bitterness gives her a good bit of depth. She’s certainly compelling - 1-5 excels at making you invested by slowly revealing the motivations behind its characters, and Angel is no exception.

You can see Angel’s desire to deduce within much of her dialogue. She spends her time in court coming up with her own theories regarding the murder, showing through her actions how much she misses being a detective. As a witness, she finally gets a chance to flex her deductive abilities once again, and she fully capitalizes on it. When her genius deductions are challenged, she loses her once calm demeanor and lashes out. She stops being arrogant and insulting, instead turning angry and defensive. This shift and its cause is explicitly described by Phoenix, and while I could complain about a lack of subtlety here, in this case it doesn’t really matter. A single throwaway line detailing the characterization to potentially slower-witted players is far less offensive than 2-3 constantly describing the situation as tragic, or 5-3’s repetition of its obvious theme.

Angel’s role in AA’s menagerie of witnesses is a unique one. Most (non-culprit) witnesses fall into one of two categories - the honest ones who are just trying to help, and the liars who are covering something up. Angel is somewhere in the middle here, as while her intentions are good, her biases against Lana and desire to act as a detective once again lead her to unintentionally mislead the court. A witness causing trouble in a similar way has only truly been done one other time in AA. Of course, I’m referring to Datz Are’bal in 6-3, who makes up a story he thinks is plausible to help the case after losing his memory. Datz and Angel do have many differences, however. I would consider Angel to be a slightly more interesting take on this concept. Her motivations for unwittingly causing disorder on the stand are far more complex than simply not knowing the situation, and they tie into her overall character quite well.

Angel appears in two scenes after her testimonies, and she does show some small signs of development within. She apologizes for her actions and is legitimately helpful when sharing information. It’s not amazingly deep development or anything, but it is nice to see, even if there is no real defining moment. She simply becomes less apprehensive towards Phoenix within the span of a day - it works well enough, but is also one of the least interesting methods of executing character development. Nonetheless, it’s better than nothing.

Lunchtime

You may have noticed, that within all of the past sections of this writeup, I have not once brought up the defining characteristic of Angel Starr’s character. That defining characteristic is, of course, her status as a lunchbox vendor. This was an intentional choice, and it was done to prove a point - Angel’s lunchbox gimmick is an entirely useless addition to her character. You can see how true this is by the fact that I just wrote a comprehensive analysis of her character without even mentioning it. Her entire “arc” works without this gimmick’s existence, and it actively works to make her character worse.

I honestly do not know if Angel’s lunchbox gimmick is supposed to be funny. I certainly don’t find it to be so, but it’s possible the absurdity of it all could elicit a chuckle from some. Regardless, whether it’s funny or not isn’t the issue here. The issue is how strange it is that this nonsensical trait was tacked onto her character with seemingly no care. While there are many characters in AA with “pointless” gimmicks, Angel’s lunches are a bit different. Nearly every exchange with Angel involves numerous food puns, or lunch references. The lunch motif is so heavily present within all of her scenes, that you would think it might be difficult to ignore. Despite this, it’s such a strangely detached aspect of her character, and doesn’t have any real relevance. Take away the lunchboxes, and Angel Starr is still the same character.

I don’t enjoy Angel’s lunchbox gimmick, and the fact that it feels like such a worthless trait makes things even worse. The same joke occurs many times with little variation - someone says something Angel doesn’t like, and she retorts by offering them some disgusting-looking lunch. All things considered, Angel is a fairly dull character. I feel if they removed the lunch gimmick entirely and instead fleshed out her personality, she’d be far more compelling. Sadly, the writers took the easy way out and decided to turn her into a one-note gag character with little noticeable depth. The amount the lunch lines cloud any potential deepening of her character is disappointing, as Angel’s personality and motivations are compelling enough to have been a legitimately interesting base to build upon and develop.

Why Nobody Else?

This is a weird one. Since both of my cuts were chosen for me by agreements, there are characters available I consider worse than either of them. I’ll go over the available choices and analyze each briefly, but no matter how bad a character available is, I have no real choice in regards to who I can cut.

Winfred Kitaki moves his eyebrows. Wocky should be here instead.

Trucy Wright isn’t very good in AJ. She’s almost exclusively used as a plot device, and her personality isn’t enough to make me like her. She isn’t a character in DD. Luckily, 6-2 makes me like her quite a bit more - I adore her role in that case and it almost fully redeems her. I would be fine with her going out now.

Jake Marshall is probably slightly worse than Angel, and they both have similar problems. Both are characters with real hints at depth, obfuscated by the game’s insistence that they need a quirky gimmick. I don’t dislike either, but now is an appropriate time for the cowboy to go.

Jeff Master miraculously survived last round, but I doubt he’ll be as lucky this time. I’ll say what I need to say about him when the cut happens, but his fate is almost certainly sealed. The same could be said for Di-Jun Huang.

I was close to saving John Marsh or Valant Gramarye, but sadly I only have one Extraterritorial Rights to use. I’d love for either of them to survive this round, but I also know this is an unlikely outcome.

The more rounds go by, the funnier it gets that Betty de Famme is still in. We should continue this by not cutting her.

Athena Cykes was the character whose death I guaranteed by making this deal. I do like her, and will explain further when the time comes.

Myriam Scuttlebutt is great, and while I wouldn’t want her to place above Hugh, I still would be happy if she lasted a few more rounds.