Does Not Obey the Laws of Physics

Ugh, I'm getting really annoyed with the way everyone in fandom assumes Edgeworth pre-redemption was an evidence falsifying lying liar. We've only had all of two cases of Edgeworth pre-redemption (three if you count brat!Worth's first trial against Mia, in which Edgeworth did nothing and the defendant died on the fucking stand).

So, the two cases pre-redemption: Turnabout Sisters and Turnabout Samurai.

Let's tackle Turnabout Samurai first.

In this case, Edgeworth is already feeling uncertain about how he's been doing things and he straight up helped the defense with their argument when Phoenix Wright missed an obvious contradiction in the witness' testimony. Edgeworth knew he was going to lose the case, but instead of doing everything he can to win and let Wright suffer the consequences of his mistake, Edgeworth helpfully points out the oversight. This was already an Edgeworth that couldn't stand to watch a killer walk away just because his investigation team pinned the crime on someone else.

So that leaves Turnabout Sisters.

I've mentioned before that Edgeworth was clearly discomfited by how the Chief Prosecutor was meddling with his case and that there was pressure from up above to get a guilty verdict at all costs. That already shows that even Evil!Edgeworth still had a sense of right vs. wrong.

But then there's the specific acts of bad faith, of which I count only two: not sharing the updated autopsy report and prepping his witness to omit details until asked directly by the defense.

In the former, Edgeworth is clearly trying to walk the tightrope of bending the law without outright breaking it. He's not sharing false autopsy reports, he's simply sitting on the report once things changed. And he'll try to make mountains out of molehills if that can help his case. But that's not the same as falsifying evidence. He doesn't make things up out of nowhere. He orders a new autopsy report in the hopes of getting something more useful, much like how patients get second opinions in case there's something slightly different that will change their decision. Compare that to the damning issue of game 4, Apollo Justice, where Wright straight up does fabricate evidence to win against evil Kristoph and is unapologetic about it. (He excuses himself by citing he's already been disbarred for it, but it doesn't fly at all with the audience. And while Apollo punches Wright for it, it's not like Apollo goes and demand a retrial due to forged evidence.) There were only rumors about false evidence with Edgeworth, never canon proof that Edgeworth forged anything.

In the latter, witness prepping is a perfectly legal practice. Asking a witness to omit parts of a testimony until directly asked is a common practice and is not considered witness tampering. What's more, actual witness tampering (keeping key witnesses out of court) is something the defense attorneys (supposed good guys) actually use in the same game. For example, Wright tried to tell Lotta to not go to the police with the testimony against Edgeworth in Turnabout Goodbyes because it wouldn't be good for his case (at least according to the anime canon; in the game you can also encourage, albeit reluctantly, Lotta to go to the police, then get yelled at for doing so). Or a more egregious example: Wright and Mia discuss how to keep Hackins from testifying in Turnabout Samurai because they realized his testimony was bad for their case, but they were foiled by Gumshoe who overheard and drag the witness away. If the audience is OK with the good guys manipulating witnesses, then they can't hold it against Edgeworth for doing something similar but more ethically sound.

So the only thing we've got to hold against Edgeworth are some baseless rumors heavily implied to be driven by professional jealousy from his fellow prosecutors. To condemn Edgeworth as "evil", even pre-redemption, and assume he must have fabricated evidence is jumping the gun. Therefore, I don't think Edgeworth ever stepped over the line.

(Also, I hold it against Wright for believing those rumors in the first place. So much for trusting Edgeworth.)

So, I'm trying to fill some pw_kink_meme prompts, but the thought that won't go away is this: Is Edgeworth a tsundere or a kuudere?

WTF self?

Also, have been pondering an AU where Miles Edgeworth gets sucked into an Otome game where he's the protagonist and has to clear ALL THE PATHS to escape the hellhole and get back to his own gay lawyer visual novel. (When writer/director Takumi Shuu admits that he was aware of and trying to please the Narumitsu crowd starting from the second game onward...yeah, as far as I'm concerned, the gay love is canon.)

Some possible paths and corresponding characters in this Otome-AU:

The childhood friend - Larry Butz (Yeah, yeah, but Phoenix Wright is too obvious)
The genki boy - Apollo Justice
The brat - Sebastian DeBeste
The playboy - Klavier Gavin
The tsundere - Shi-Long Lang
The kuudere - Simon Blackquill
The deredere - Detective Dick Gumshoe
The yandere - Kristoph Gavin
The EXTREMELY NORMAL GUY WHO IS JUST OVERPROTECTIVE - Phoenix Wright
The joke path - Missile the police dog who is a very good boy

You can't tell me Wright wouldn't wrap Edgeworth in bubble wrap and shove him in a safe if he could get away with it.

And because I'm me, I'm now pondering a bonus-path that unlocks after clearing the other romance paths that involves a murder mystery that ultimately leads to the final exit that allows Edgeworth to get his normal life back. (¬_¬ ) Someone stop me.

Long story short, recently I've become obsessed with Ace Attorney, again, and am once again lamenting the localization butchering of the series. One of my biggest peeves is due to the localization effort, the majority of the English-language fandom uses the American legal framework to interpret the events of the game rather than the Japanese legal framework.

One of the biggest misunderstandings is the significance of the attorney's badge. While English-language fic acknowledges the importance of the badge, it's treated as a valuable trinket rather than a legal document. What the English-language fandom seems to fail to understand is that the lapel badge is legally required to practice law. You are straight up barred from the courthouse if you don't wear the badge. You simply cannot practice law without it.

More than once, I've seen people write about how Phoenix Wright sticks his badge in his pocket and my brain just goes had;lhg;alsdhfl;dasjl;fdsjaf!!!! because NO! A defense lawyer would put that badge on their lapel and take very good care of it because it is the identification needed to access all the legal institutions and their place of work. No fucking way Phoenix Wright would just shove that badge in his pocket and call it a day. Hell, his attorney ID number is on that badge. This isn't some trinket, it's a piece of legal documentation.

And on the subject of badges, it absolutely kills me to see how almost no one in the English-language fandom understands the symbolic significance of the defense lawyer's badge. The motif is a sunflower precisely because it is not associated with the state. Of all the legal badges, the defense lawyer's badge is the only one that is not linked the the state. This is intentional. Where the judge, prosecution, Diet members, etc. all wear badges that calls to the state's power (chrysanthemum, sakura, yata no kagami, etc.), the defense lawyer's badge is a sunflower, a flower with no connection to the state. Where other members in the legal community serve the state, the defense lawyer serves the people.

So please, for the love of all things Wright, stop making up stupid meanings for the sunflower. There is already an established symbolism. And no, it's not because Phoenix Wright is a "sunny" guy. Gyah.

Another misunderstanding is the constant confusion as to why Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth is "moonlighting" as a detective. Uh...because it's literally the Japanese prosecutor's job to be investigating the crime. They are literally the criminal investigation's oversight officers and yes, they can bully the police officers around when it comes to the investigation because it is their fucking job description. So, no, Miles Edgeworth isn't "moonlighting" as a detective. He IS a detective. On top of being a prosecutor. It's his job to figure out whether someone is guilty and whether to go ahead with the prosecution. It's his job to put together a water tight case. It's his job to extract a confession. It's his job to interrogate the fuck out of the witnesses. This is all normal parts of the job and Edgeworth isn't overstepping. At all.

And to all the people protesting how this system is ripe for abuse...uh, yeah, in case you haven't noticed, that's literally the recurring theme of the game.

Finally, it boggles my mind how the entire fandom seems to fail to understand the predominant theme of the second game is "finding oneself". Literally the tutorial trial consists of the criminal taunting Phoenix Wright, telling him that only by figuring out who he is will he be able to present the evidence necessary to convict the criminal. And then the final trial is literally Phoenix Wright torn between trying to save his friend vs. letting a criminal go free and Miles Edgeworth has to tell him that they are lawyers, not heroes, so they are not capable of delivering justice.

The whole fucking point of the second game is to beat home the idea that it's not up to an individual to decide what is or isn't just. The best that people in the legal system can do is hope to expose the truth. As to whether the result is just, that's beyond what lawyers can control. And that's absolutely huge in a game that's literally all about the justice system. Phoenix Wright literally faces the moral quandary of wanting justice but not being equipped to deliver it, so the only thing he can do is put his trust in TRUTH and hope that its enough.

So watching people rag on the second game and complain about "morally grey" criminals being uninteresting just...completely missed the fucking point of the story. The story is intentionally withholding moral satisfaction from convicting the criminals because Phoenix Wright is supposed to be losing his faith. The whole point is to push Wright to breaking point and make him have to confront the question: What does it mean to be a defense lawyer? Does he trust the system?

I personally find the third game to be excessively convoluted. Not every fucking thing in Phoenix Wright's life has to be tied up in a neat bow. It actually detracts from the real world messiness of the first two games and pushes the game into a shounen "JUSTICE always triumphs" path that I didn't like. For me, the third game lacks the emotional maturity of the first two games, precisely because everything was too clean. Bad guys are always bad, good guys are always good...and so shounen it hurts.

Anyway...back to other stuff.