Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney/Headscratchers

General (within the first three games)

 * How come a lot of characters bring dangerous objects to court. In the second game, Von Karma has a whip, in the first one, Marshall even brings a KNIFE, and is seen with it at the stand, yet no one says a word!
 * Well, in Franziska's case, she's a prosecutor. Ace Attorney court favors prosecutors to such a ridiculous extent that nobody probably cares if they bring dangerous things in. As for Marshall and anyone else... Well, consider how a lot of other dangerous things have happened in the courthouse and it's quite likely that the courthouse has crappy security anyway.
 * The very first thing I want to point out is how Phoenix is presented in the series by those who do anything near him, especially in the Courtroom. Phoenix apparently has no skills of his own except to bluff when he never needs to. All the others-especially the female supporting characters-do nearly everything for him in the first three games. Am I the only one here who doesn't quite understand what and how Phoenix is so very important or useful in getting the person off scot-free?
 * Well, we, the players, know that Phoenix relies on his bluffing skills... But in-universe, people are probably impressed by his win record and may or may not actually know about the fact that he relies on Courtroom Antics to get those wins. In case 3-3, I think Phoenix even made a comment towards the beginning about how people are starting to know who he is more often now, or something to that effect. But then again, we also have people like Maggey in-game who claim to love his bluffing (in 2-1, at least), so who really knows.
 * Ok, I'm seriously confused. The whole DL-6 thing gives me a headache. Can someone explain to me exactly how Phoenix's success in solving the DL-6 murder shows Misty Fey is NOT a fraud? (To the public that is. Obviously I, the player, know it's totally legit.) Because the suspect Gregory Edgeworth's spirit accused was in fact innocent... so how is the Fey Clan making a recovery, as Sister Bikini states?
 * I always kind of assumed that, because the guy arrested for DL-6 turned out to be innocent, that people assumed that Misty was just making stuff up as opposed to actually channeling Gregory. When Phoenix proved that Manfred was the killer, I thought that would prove that Gregory had reason to be confused and give false info. Thus, people would have realized that Misty herself wasn't a fraud, and just because Gregory was the one who made the mistake doesn't mean that Misty is faking her skills.
 * Though I know the real reason is due to recycling sprites, do you think there's an in-game reason why the defendants are never given jail uniforms while incarcerated (You'll notice that when you come to the detention center, they'll be in their street clothes)? It seems that many of them are forced to stay in jail for more than 24 hours, so that would mean they'd have to be moved into the general prison population until trial and hence they'd need the proper uniforms. Do they just wear the clothes on their backs when incarcerated?
 * Eh, they probably figured that it's not enough of a big deal to justify adding new character sprites, and there's not really a need for an explanation anyway.
 * But  was in jail for over a month and still in her waitress outfit, which was a new sprite specifically designed for her appearance in the game rather than a reuse.
 * Forcing defendants to appear in court in a jail uniform might prejudice the court against them. This doesn't explain what they wear at the detention center, but it applies to what they wear in court or right before they go to court.
 * Someone should have mentioned that during the trial of Terry Fawles.
 * Perhaps Fawles was within his rights to request a change of clothes (he remained in the same outfit in which he was arrested, which he hadn't changed out of since escaping), but being mentally ill, never thought to. It seems quite "in-character" for the Ace Attorney court system to place the burden of that kind of choice on the defendant.
 * While I can understand why it couldn't be used in court, why doesn't Phoenix start every case by going Pushing Daisies and having Maya or Pearl channel the victim and ask them what happened? The victim might lie or be wrong but it would be a start.
 * Because channeling the dead  was exactly how Misty Fey fell from grace and caused the Fall Of Kurain. Phoenix or Maya wouldn't want to repeat this catastrophe?
 * They wouldn't have to use it in court, they could just use it to get a hint as to the real killer's identity. Still, I'll admit there are a lot of times when the victim didn't see the killer, it would allow Phoenix to have a more believable reason for his wild accusations such as
 * See Fridge Brilliance. To sum it up, they might very well not be able to -- Pearl is young, as is Maya, and for all of their power, neither of them have mastered that power by the end of the Phoenix arc. They never summon anyone that isn't related to them through the Fey bloodline -- it's possible that doing so is extremely difficult, and they might not be able to control the spirit they summon regardless.
 * I don't think it's all that "difficult", It's probably just extremely dangerous for an inexperienced medium to channel a recently deceased murder victim, especially those who fit the Asshole Victim trope (which is... uh, most of the victims in the series). Their spirit would be likely be very angry, distraught, and confused, and would be near impossible to control (and not at all co-operative). Do Nick and Maya need any more danger in their lives?! It does make a whole lotta sense that summoning relatives would be easier (and safer, unless of course that relative happened to be one ), though. This explains the need for a super-secure "channeling chamber" in the Fey manor, despite the fact that Maya and Pearl seem to just go off into the next room to channel Mia.


 * First of all- How does Phoenix make a living? He only takes one case every three to six months or so, and has at least once spoke of working for free. Still, he seems to not be starving, and he never says anything about working another job. On top of this, apparently he's taking care of Maya, who can theoretically eat her weight in food.
 * Perhaps he's living off some vast inheritance, courtesy of Mia? There's also the fact that he did defend two very famous celebrities (Will Powers and Max Galactica). I imagine the two of them were quite generous after their acquittals.
 * In the second and third games it's hinted that he does take cases quite frequently -- he's become quite famous as an attorney, in fact -- but we only see (and play) the more important of them.
 * Assuming that the only cases Phoenix takes are the ones we play in-game is the same as assuming that Link can cross the country in only a few minutes in LOZ or that people all look the same in RPG's.
 * Note, however, that Maya makes fun of him in-game for only taking one case at a time.
 * Right before Phoenix becomes the attorney in case 1-4, the accused says that Phoenix has only been in three trials up to that point.
 * There are official mangas showing him taking other cases.
 * Also, an attorney can make money without dealing with cases. All sorts of things require legal advice or opinions, and Phoenix can probably make enough money to stay alive off of that (keeping in mind that the game does frequently imply that his finances aren't so healthy, of course.)
 * It seems Lawyers get paid very large flat fees in Phoenix Wright. Max, Edgeworth, and a few other Phoenix Clients are quite wealthy. While Larry didn't pay Phoenix, it's likely Phoenix might have gotten paid very large fees (10,000 or more) from them for their successful acquittals.
 * Speaking of salaries, how is it that no matter how many times Gumshoe's pay is cut, he somehow manages to get by with minimal food and lack of other necessities?
 * Gumshoe is currently paid so little that it's likely that his landlord takes pity on him and lets him 'forget' the rent. He is also mentioned to be buying cheaper and cheaper noodles, and he's always wearing the same clothes (he likely sold his dryer and lets his clothing air-dry, his fridge because noodles don't need to be refrigerated, etc.). Which is sad, really. Poor Gumshoe!
 * Yeah, Ramen Noodles are like, what, 16 cents a pack?
 * Alternatively, Edgeworth may help him a bit, but he keeps it in secret.
 * I think that ever since the fourth case of game 1, Phoenix has been living off Manfred Von Karma's money, which he was able to steal because Von Karma gave out his ATM number in the middle of court.
 * I think I love your theory. It can even spare Franny; she's a good prosecutor on her own, so she doesn't need daddy's inheritance! (though she may get a little bit p*** ed)
 * What, no one in the gallery jumped at the chance first?
 * You guys forgot the card.
 * Even if the only cases Phoenix takes are the ones we play (which is unlikely), he's still defended some pretty rich people- Edgeworth, Lana, Max, Engarde and DeLite. He could have just gotten a lot of money from them!
 * Not from Engarde, of course.
 * Maybe from Engarde. Phoenix might have sued him.
 * Getting a guilty verdict doesn't mean you don´t have to pay your lawyer.
 * Suddenly, the ending of JFA has become even sweeter. Burn, Matt, burn.
 * Adding fuel to that fire, consider all of the massive purchases that are made at the end of that cases, and where the money had to come from to pay for it all. Burn indeed.
 * Has nobody even considered that even though we might never see them, there might be other lawyers working at the Wright and Co. Law offices, and that as manager and owner, Phoenix gets a portion of the profits from their cases?
 * Rather unlikely. Because, well, we never hear or see anything from them. Or from Phoenix hiring anyone. Wright & co. could just be him and Maya (and Pearl) after all.
 * Iirc, at the beginning of the second game or maybe the third, Phoenix said himself that he had no cases at all since the end of the last game and the time that passes between games is roughly 6-12 months I think.
 * In game 1, there are a few offhand remarks about Phoenix only having done a few cases, but, well, those are his first few cases and he's still a rookie. Presumably he started taking cases more often after that.
 * If you want a theory that has no direct evidence for it in the games and seems sort of unlikely but is fully consistent with the games: Maya could have sued . The plaintiff's attorney usually gets about 30% of the settlement, while the referring attorney who directs the plaintiff to the lawyer who represents her gets about 5%. Given that Maya could have conceivably gotten millions from , either percentage would be a tidy sum.
 * Sure, was a special case where it didn't work. But why doesn't Phoenix in the second and third game just whip out his magatama at every suspect and ask them if they committed the crime? If psyche-locks showed up when they said no, he'd know to look harder at that person and find all the evidence that they did it.
 * Well, Wright almost always makes a big deal out of implicitly trusting his client. That doesn't explain, however, why he doesn't use the magatama during the trials. Sure, he'd look kind of weird waving around a piece of weird jewelry, but that's positively normal compared to some of the other lunacy going on.
 * Or maybe the Magatama isn't perfect and doesn't detect every lie.
 * At one point, I think it's explained that the Magatama only works against people that have secrets in their hearts. Not all secrets are held in the heart, perhaps. Plus, there's the implication that Phoenix is the only one that can see the results of the Psyche-Lock, since Maya and Pearl never comment on it. Finally, it seems as though using the Magatama is dangerous, since if Phoenix runs out of energy while using it, he's told he has to stop, or his spirit will shatter. Waving it indiscriminately probably wouldn't help that.
 * Oh, and Phoenix isn't exactly practiced in the use of the Magatama. He's genuinely surprised when a Psyche-Lock appears, at which point he then has to wave the Magatama to break them. Probably not how it's supposed to be used...
 * What bothers me about the Magatama is why Phoenix, all the way up to the last case of game three,
 * Because a) he believes in his clients, b) he's naive enough to assume people are telling the truth, or c) he's so confident in the times that the Magatama works that the times it doesn't slip his mind. Pick one.
 * Phoenix never acknowledges realizing that  basically tricked the Magatama in the third game.
 * Perhaps the Magatama only detects the lies that are addressed to its holder. In court, the witnesses lies are addressed to the judge, not Phoenix Wright specifically, and so the Magatama doesn't pick up on them.
 * This troper believes there is a proximity limit to it. That, and it can be also be cheated like your average lie detector.
 * Has no one even brought up what Pearls says: "The Magatama only works in consignment." Using it in a packed courtroom would mean that the secret wouldn't be able to be detected.
 * Why does Larry call Phoenix "Nick" unless its his middle name it has nothing to do with his name or personality.
 * Are you sure it has "nothing" to do with his name? He's just saying the "-nix" part but in a more sensible name thing. It's not like it isn't a common way to nickname the name "Phoenix".
 * Thank you very much. It's strange how things as simple as that can bother me so much and be so obvious.
 * In the "Turnabout Big Top" episode of Justice For All, both Phoenix and Franziska say that . However, how is that possible when the credits that roll directly after Turnabout Goodbyes show  ? Something just doesn't add up here.
 * You've got me there. And why didn't they bother rewriting the DS remake of Justice For All a little to compensate for "Rise from the Ashes", the bonus fifth chapter of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney?
 * Okay, I checked the exact line. The picture shown makes you think of Turnabout Goodbyes but I do not believe the dialogue ever stated it was that case. Back in the GBA version, they were referring to the case with Manfred, but in the DS version, with "Rise from the Ashes", it's clear they were referring to "Rise from the Ashes". Bottom line: The picture shown is a bit incorrect, but the dialogue never contradicts "Rise from the Ashes".
 * It doesn't seem like what Phoenix thinks about Edgeworth in Justice For All makes sense either way. Phoenix finds out in the first game that It makes even less sense if you take the Rise From The Ashes case as canon, since it reveals
 * First of all, Phoenix is undoubtedly upset with Edgeworth for . Second, Phoenix misinterpreted the reason for Edgeworth's depression (thinking that it was because his perfect win record was tarnished). Third, even if he never , Edgeworth hid things from the court and was practically helping the culprit in case 1-2. In Trials and Tribulations, you learn that.
 * Regarding the original question, that scene with Phoenix vs Edgeworth in the end credits could be from the Nickel Samurai case. I think it was just a symbolic We Will Meet Again thing.
 * Why is being a kid's TV actor such Serious Business? Apparently, Matt has somehow become a millionaire from playing a character who is, essentially, a Power Ranger.
 * It's mentioned that Matt and Juan's rivalry's been going on for a long time, and that their kids' shows are just the latest part of it, so presumably Matt's been in show business for a while.
 * But apparently a sign of Hammer's failing career was that he had to play the villain of 'The Steel Samurai' rather than the hero. It's as though somehow playing the Red Ranger is a sign of a healthy career, whereas playing Lord Zedd will get you completely ignored. It's just a little odd.
 * Correction: It was a sign of his failing career that he was in The Steel Samurai at all. The fact that he had to do it opposite a relatively inexperienced actor who was beloved by children all over the country was just salt in the wound.
 * What about all the movies he appeared in before then? Each one featuring a Samurai? Are they all supposed to be more serious samurai flicks?
 * Super Sentai (Power Rangers in Japan) and other shows of this format like Kamen Rider, while essentially being a kid's show (even though the plots are often far more serious and complex as our Power Rangers) is very successful. It's been going on for what, 60 years now? So yeah, being the star of the newest season is probably a pretty big thing.
 * Manfred mentions he has a granddaughter (bringing up her dog) at one point, I haven't heard any mention of Franciska (or Edgeworth for that matter) being a parent. Her given age means she is still a minor, the only thing that comes to mind to explain her on non-existences is law school (very plausable) but where does she fit in?
 * Word of God says that Franziska has an elder sister, who has a daughter of her own.
 * I always thought he just made that up in order to give an example and make some fun of Phoenix in the meantime.
 * Prior to Apollo Justice, Phoenix really must have been the luckiest attorney around. Isn't it a bit distressing that his clients would have been found guilty if not for the fact that the contradictions were clearly visible? For example, in the second game's first case, Phoenix initially proves that the victim didn't write the killer's name with his right hand by showing evidence that he was left-handed. So, if the victim actually had been right-handed, the defendant would have been found guilty? Or if he hadn't received a glove? (It gets worse in the fourth case. )
 * It would not have still stood. But that's only one example. My point is, the only reason why Phoenix kept winning in this heavily prosecutor-biased world was that he managed to get all the cases where the contradictory evidence was right in front of him and easily pointed out. And Apollo Justice is devoted to the notion that this simply doesn't work.
 * In 2-4 and especially in 3-5, Phoenix and other characters spend a lot of time worrying about, and in the Bad Ending of 2-4 Phoenix seems to be slightly uncertain  . Surely there would be a really, really easy way to tell if this was the case?
 * In case 3-5, Pearl thought that  Phoenix could test that by
 * How is it that all the photos we get in the first three games are black and white? I believe we are in the future, surely we have excellent quality cameras to take excellent quality crime scene photos. And then we wouldn't waste time speculating whether something is a splotch of paint or blood...
 * I've heard this somewhere before a long time ago, so I might not be exactly correct: A Black-and-white photo can sometimes be better than a color one because you can see things better. Especially in the dark.
 * Black and white photographs have sharper images and are prone not to fade. Though if they are better in the dark I'm not sure about.
 * Where do all the chains go after all a person's Psyche-Locks break? Do they get re-used again in other sessions?
 * Em...those chains aren't real you know, they just disappear after they are done for.
 * They're just mental imagery. If they were real chains, the person being examined would see them. Which they don't. Since they don't exist, it doesn't really matter what happens to them.
 * Why is Will Powers playing the Pink Princess? That's just creepy.
 * I dunno, but the weird thing is that apparently the Steel Samurai is a major player in Pink Princess. So unless they got another guy to play the Samurai, it would be assumed that Powers would have continued to play as the Steel Samurai. My personal theory is that Global Studios just went with Oldbag to play the Pink Princess on the show, because that would be hilarious.
 * While it's stated that Pink Princess was a sequel to the Steel Samurai, was it ever stated that the Steel Samurai was actually a main character in the Pink Princess? I always kind of assumed that, because it's also stated that Will is the Pink Princess, the Steel Samurai was a minor character at most who they could have a stunt double play.
 * Real life toku heroines have often been played by male stunt actors under their suits, though this has become less common recently due to more women getting into stunt work.
 * Why do people not believe in spirit mediums when the channeller obviously, physically changes into the channel-ee? In particular, Misty Fey in DL-6; why was she considered a fraud because the guy she testified against was found not guilty (on an insanity plea, at that), when anyone in the courtroom could have seen her turn into a man?
 * I'm pretty sure she did it privately, not in court so while the cops who asked her may believe her, the public doesn't and they probably can't say so without losing their jobs. The real question is why it took a psychic to tell them that the one person in the room who was armed and not a ten-year old did it..., or why his being 'crazy' at the time caused her to be seen as wrong. They didn't ask why he got shot, just who shot him.  I think it's mainly just so Phoenix can't just have Maya/Pearl summon the victim and have them tell what happened.
 * Also, Edgeworth refuses to believe in it despite the number of times he's been in court when Maya magically morphs into her dead older sister right in front of him. Even weirder since Franziska does know it's real.
 * It's somewhat implied that Edgeworth's disbelief isn't so much actual skepticism as it is the fact that he doesn't want to think it's real, because of the horrible connections the Kurain technique holds for him.
 * It's also heavy implied that when a spirit is channeled not everyone can see that spirit, only those either that believe in spirit channeling or those that have a strong bond to the spirit. This is implied heavy seeing as how when Penny Nichols she's Mia she exclaims "is that girl the same person as before?" not "That girl IS a different person from before." She also very quickly and easily drops the issue even though anyone with working eyes can clearly see that they were not the same. I could be that Penny was actually seeing Maya (Phoenix only being able to see Mia her because he had a strong bond to her)however the way Mia's spirit made Maya's body stand/look in terms of posture was what made her ask. Also, when Godot see's Pearl turn into Mia in the middle of the trial he doesn't react in the way you would expect him to react if he saw his departed girlfriend standing before her (shouting out "OH MY FUCKING GOD!" etc). he is a only little shocked which could implying that Godot in fact saw Maya standing in a Mia like way making him think of Mia or something like that. That would explain why Maya could transform into the victim of the current trial right in front of anyone with out them so much as questioning it or bringing it up. Also when Phoenix first see's Maya transformed into Mia he sees her in Mia's old chief cloths, implying that what people see is not what is visibly there. About the photo in "Reunion and Turnabout" showing Mia being channeled, it is possible that, seeing as how Fransiska apparently has no trouble in believing the channeling the photo was taken from her minds point of view.
 * But what about Victor Kudo? He doesn't know Mia (or Maya), and has no reason whatsoever to believe in spirit channeling, yet his reaction to Maya channeling Mia is pretty obvious. All he knows is that there is a much more adult stranger standing where a younger stranger was standing before.
 * And what about  in 3-5? Presumably not EVERYONE had a connection to the one being channeled…
 * IIRC, Godot does react to Pearl and Maya summoning Mia. He just doesn't freak out about it, and staying cool seems in-character for him. He does seem surprised when Mia is first channeled in 3-2. So it's probable that other people notice even if they don't directly comment on it. And while I can buy Franziska being able to see Maya channeling Mia because she supposedly studied up on the Kurain technique for 2-2... Why would that make the photo itself different? Unless camera magically gets altered...
 * If Larry, Phoenix, and Edgeworth were all not only childhood friends, but also in the same class, why is Larry an year younger than them? For a long time, I had assumed that Phoenix was 23 during the first case because I also assumed he would be the same age as Larry. Maybe Larry was just a few months younger than Phoenix, but it seems that game developers don't really pay that much attention to age save for flashbacks and aging everyone up for sequels. The only other explanation I could think of was that Larry somehow managed to skip a grade... but that seems unlikely.
 * ...maybe that's why he's so slow? Since he skipped a grade and was thus at the bottom?
 * He probably has a late birthday. Its not unheard of.
 * Or, Phoenix and Edgey could have earlier birthdays, like the OP stated. In my school, I'm at the average age for my grade, but I have friends who are older than me because they were born months earlier in the same year as me. This is always what I've assumed.
 * Where on earth do Phoenix/Maya live? They obviously don't live in the law firm (since Phoenix actually comes in to visit Mia in 1-2) and I don't see Maya renting out an apartment or something so...
 * O ::pointing:: Think back to the phone conversation that opens 1-2... ::slams desk, Theme Music Power Up:: where Maya mentions that she is getting used to living in her own place! ::speed lines:: She does indeed have an apartment (or similar)!
 * You win. Anything and everything, forever.
 * So Edgeworth leaves the prosecutors office for a year, making people think he'd died, and in Investigations it's revealed he'd been gone for at least a month to study law overseas. Here's what I want to know: What about his frigging dog?! It's a known fact that he HAS one, so who's been looking after it while he's been gone? Surely if they thought it's owner was dead, poor Pess would have been sent to the pound or something. It's not like he brought Pess with him, so what happened to the dog? The only thing I can think of is Gumshoe, really, but I doubt he has the funds to look after himself, let alone a pet.
 * The only person who thought Edgeworth had died was Phoenix, along with anyone who got the information from Phoenix. Even then, this was an exaggeration on Phoenix's part; he simply thought Edgeworth to be dead because he'd rather think that than believe Edgeworth just gave up. Furthermore, it wouldn't have been too unlikely for a guy like Edgeworth to just pay Gumshoe to watch over his dog. Or someone else, for that matter. There ARE dog sitters in the world.
 * Since when does a defense attorney have to find the real guilty party to clear his defendant's name? I mean, in several of the cases, you make it clear that your client couldn't have done it, but even so, your client is found guilty unless you find who the real killer is. Law does not work like that.
 * It has been pretty much established that Phoenix Wright works in the worst legal system in all of history. In fact, the only real legal right the accused still has is the right to a speedy trial, generally three day or less trial one or two days after the crime. Even if the victim has not been identified.
 * Why do the killers happen to involve themselves with the case when the prime suspect is someone else? For example, in game 2 case 2,  could have just not said anything at all. Her testimony was used to throw even more suspicion on Maya, but if she had kept her mouth shut, no one would have ever suspected that she was involved in any way. But for some reason, she just had to be a witness and provide testimony, and that's what made her plans fall apart. A similar thing happens in game 2 case 1. The real murderer was, as far as everyone was concerned, just a random passerby. He could've just recovered the phone and skedaddled, with nothing linking him to crime at all. Idiot Ball indeed.
 * O In 2-1, it's revealed that, thanks to his involvement in a ring of con artists,  had pretty much lost his ability to make rational judgements due to paranoia. The fact that Dustin Prince was still in his police uniform when he arrived did not ease matters much for him. And he couldn't have grabbed his phone after the accident because he didn't know where it was, and since his glasses were currently underneath Dustin Prince's body, he couldn't see well enough to look for it.
 * And as for, because she didn't want anyone to discover that , she actually had decent reason to stick around and give testimony.
 * Two words: reasonable doubt. What is up with that? I get seriously bugged whenever a case drags on well after I have poked notable holes in the crucial witnesses and evidences of the prosecution but still have to do their job for them. I understand that it is supposed to be about how the Japanese court system favors convictions massively but it feels insane how far you are made to go. I wish they would just let you play the prosecutor ( not the detective cough Miles Edgeworth Investigations cough).
 * Yeah, that's right. Reasonable Doubt and the judge given the ability to dismiss the defense for any reason makes no sense. The defense has to be able to protect its clients to their fullest ability and that the Judge is SUPPOSED to take ALL information-prosecutor and defendant-with the same weight. What the hell?
 * Why does Gumshoe call everyone 'sir', even when the person is a girl? This is really noticeable, especially when talking to Franziska.
 * Verbal Tic? Gumshoe's not very high up on the food chain, so it could just be that he constantly addresses people as "sir" in an attempt to be respectful.
 * What is up with the Feys being able to read Phoenix's mind? Is it a mistake with the writers (not distinguishing whether Phoenix is talking in his mind or not) or is it something that comes with spirit medium powers?
 * I always assumed that when Phoenix's dialogue is in brackets, he's not necessarily thinking, just not talking to anyone in particular. Mia and Maya can pick up on his thoughts in court because he was just saying them under his breath.
 * My thought is that it's a bit of a joke. Phoenix is so bad at keeping a secret that you can practically read his mind just by looking at his body language.
 * Also, during case 1-2, wasn't it mentioned towards the end of the second investigation,, that Mia has ESP? That explains her, and it's probable that the rest of the Feys have ESP too as part of their spirit powers.
 * Why is it that whenever you point out a contradiction in the witnesses testimony that makes them look guilty, they (or the prosecutor) looks like they just took a hit?
 * OBJECTION! Rule of Cool.
 * OOF!
 * And because trials are such Serious Business.
 * I know it's like their religion or whatever, but... how much of what the Feys believe is actually true? Clearly, spirit channeling is real in the AA universe, but some of the other things they believe in don't seem to hold up. A blatant example would be how in the final case of the third game, they go on and on about the importance of the . Those don't seem to work at all, considering that they're supposed to , but in fact  ! The charms written on the walls of the Main Hall didn't seem to help much in preventing tragedy either. Phoenix's opinion that the "special training course" in that case is a scam doesn't exactly seem to be disproven either. "A block of 'spirit ice?'" Chanting the same "spell" 30,000 times? No one ever casts a spell in the games (aside from Pearl enchanting the magatama) and all the magicians in the series are illusionists. Another example relates to the urn that was first introduced in the second game and also makes its appearance in the third game. This urn is supposed to contain the spirit of Ami Fey. Pearl suggests that   would cause the spirit to leave the urn, something that I'm assuming represents an actual Fey clan belief. Yet no one seems to notice the difference, even when Pearl   in the third game.
 * As you said, they believe it is true. Every religion has its beliefs, some are supported by facts and some aren't. Chanting the same spell over and over under ice does what it does in real life by enhancing focus and I think that hood is more a symbolic thing, like the symbols. And for breaking the urn with Ami Fey's spirit, it's practically a Fey tradition at this point. The urn was probably just a symbol of power, and her spirit probably was long gone.
 * I don't think this is wildly known, but Word of God said that Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective took place at Ace Attorney's universe. Good so far. But I must wonder: Do the Fey know about the Ghost World ? I mean, those ghosts are so powerfully they can alter reality to their will. They can switch things out of place. Heck they can change history itself. The Fey are supposed to be the best mediums in the world... it's strange to think that they wouldn't care about ghosts altering the course of history to save someone. Also brings up the question: Why not simply revive   or Mia with Ghost Tricks? I can understand if the   is the only way to get ghost powers, but there must be someone else with these around the globe, and the Ace Mediums are bound to notice it at some point.
 * If Ghost Trick takes place in the future, then such powerful spirits probably don't exist in the AA timeline until Apollo Justice, where there are no mediums.
 * What exactly are spirits capable of seeing when they aren't being channeled? Mia, even when she's not being channeled, seems to have the ability to see what Maya sees in case 1-2. Sure, there are plenty of reasons for Mia to know a lot about that case, but how did she know without being told that Redd White had said that he saw the lamp stand? Unless she heard Maya tell Phoenix about Fey spirit mediums, why did Mia act like Phoenix should already know about her family's spirit powers when Phoenix said Mia never told him? Lotta even takes a photo in that game showing Mia's ghost, implying that a spirit can have a location in the physical world when not being channeled. If that's the case, why does Mia have to wait for Maya to channel her in the second game ? Furthermore, in the third game, why can't
 * And as evidence to prove that the writers didn't change the rules of channeling in later games, Mia's first line in 3-2 continues a report card running gag that was used repeatedly during the cross-examination before she was channeled.
 * Spirits probably just exist in a spirit realm until they are needed. But since Mia died right in front of Phoenix, it makes sense that they share a bond even without blood. That's why she could talk in his head earlier and why she appeared in the photo. Later on, since she's just being dead, she doesn't know what's going on until she's channeled and presumably filled in mentally. Dahlia died alone in a prison, so the only ones she has any connection to are her sister and possibly her mother.
 * If Ghost Trick takes place in the future, then such powerful spirits probably don't exist in the AA timeline until Apollo Justice, where there are no mediums.
 * What exactly are spirits capable of seeing when they aren't being channeled? Mia, even when she's not being channeled, seems to have the ability to see what Maya sees in case 1-2. Sure, there are plenty of reasons for Mia to know a lot about that case, but how did she know without being told that Redd White had said that he saw the lamp stand? Unless she heard Maya tell Phoenix about Fey spirit mediums, why did Mia act like Phoenix should already know about her family's spirit powers when Phoenix said Mia never told him? Lotta even takes a photo in that game showing Mia's ghost, implying that a spirit can have a location in the physical world when not being channeled. If that's the case, why does Mia have to wait for Maya to channel her in the second game ? Furthermore, in the third game, why can't
 * And as evidence to prove that the writers didn't change the rules of channeling in later games, Mia's first line in 3-2 continues a report card running gag that was used repeatedly during the cross-examination before she was channeled.
 * Spirits probably just exist in a spirit realm until they are needed. But since Mia died right in front of Phoenix, it makes sense that they share a bond even without blood. That's why she could talk in his head earlier and why she appeared in the photo. Later on, since she's just being dead, she doesn't know what's going on until she's channeled and presumably filled in mentally. Dahlia died alone in a prison, so the only ones she has any connection to are her sister and possibly her mother.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

 * I don't expect her to murder him or anything, but you think Maya would still have a much more noticeable and violent hatred toward Redd White. He murdered the only member of her nuclear family that she knew, so it would only make sense she lets something slip in the later games about it, right?
 * On a related note, she should also be really, Really, REALLY freaking depressed. She's too happy for someone who's in her position.
 * Bear in mind that as a spirit medium, she knows for a fact that Mia's spirit is still out there. She even gets to see Mia again in the second game. I imagine that would take the edge of the death of a loved one somewhat.
 * If you present Maya's profile to Mia in 2-2, she says she can tell Maya is often "sad and lonely". It's thus possible that she's something of a Stepford Smiler, like she is after 3-5.
 * Why was Misty Fey disgraced by the events of DL-6? She said Yanni Yogi did it, and the investigation and trial showed that he did (although he didn't) but he ended up getting off on an insanity plea. This should mean that to the general public Misty Fey was right.
 * My impression is that the insanity plea was that Yanni could not have been the murderer because he became too insane to even hold the gun.
 * Why the hell did they need to go to her in the first place is what I want to know. The case seemed pretty freaking clear to me!
 * The case was probably hard to crack because there was a period of time where the scene was left "undiscovered". Remember, von Karma was shot, meaning that the elevator had arrived at its floor and was open. Since von Karma obviously did not alert the authorities (to distance himself from the crime), it means that as far as the police knew, anyone could have greeted Edgeworth Sr. with a gun between the time of the elevator opening its doors and the police discovering it. There was no proof that the murder occurred INSIDE the elevator after all.
 * I'm not positive that
 * Remember that it was totally dark in the elevator, and that Gregory, so it's possible he had no idea,
 * I'm pretty sure Gregory was unconscious by the time  showed up, so he just remembered he was fighting with a crazy armed guy, heard a gunshot, was unconscious and then was dead.
 * I got the impression that the very idea of the police hiring a spirit medium to crack a case was so controversial that it made Misty a laughingstock in the court of public opinion, and she left Kurain Village so that the media wouldn't drag the rest of the place down by its association with her. Sort of like if the LAPD had asked John Edward to solve the O.J. Simpson case for them.
 * Based on the second game, it is likely that there was a certain person who was trying to make sure that DL-6 did as much damage to Misty's reputation as possible. This is just a guess, though. DL-6 damaged the technique's reputation, which hurt everyone at the village including the person who would have wanted to trash Misty. Still, the third game says that after DL-6, there was a rumor even among channelers that Misty's powers were a sham. A certain person could have been encouraging this. *nudge* *nudge*  *hint* *hint*
 * In game 1 case 2, Mr White says he entered the office a week before the murder, at the beginning of September, however the murder took place on September 5th, meaning there is a maximum of 4 days he could have entered, someone who speaks with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness would not use "week" to refer to a period of time that is at most 4 days!
 * Maybe he meant a work week? 5 days.
 * Or maybe he meant during the week before the murder.
 * Plus, he kinda butchers the language.
 * This. Unlike the other verbose characters in the series (in cases 2-1, 3-2, and 4-2), who seem to actually know what they're talking about, Redd White just makes up words in an attempt to seem smart and impress women. (Granted, the verbose character in 2-1 is less educated than he claims and is constantly using Insane Troll Logic and suffering from You Fail Logic Forever, but he still seems genuinely knowledgeable more so than Redd White.)
 * Game 1, case 4:
 * How was anyone supposed to know the elevator was dark? There were only three people that knew that:  So no one would really know that it was dark.
 * Uh, power outage?
 * I would think there would be the possibility of emergency lights.
 * The flash from the gun.
 * I believe lighting isn't relevant; he just didn't know the other possibilities. Yogi went rather violent on him, probably slamming him against the elevator wall hard enough to make him faint (remember his dead pose? And that air was already rather scarce?). Then, Gregory could have believed he was killed immediately after with the gun by Yogi. He didn't testify to hearing a shot nor hearing . The reason he said "Yanni Yogi shot me" would be, then, that he fainted while struggling with the man. ALSO, Mmm... TL;OMG!
 * I don't think  ever actually testified in court in that case.
 * Why were Hammer and Powers doing their rehearsals with real lethal implements? You'd think
 * Just because a prop is not a real lethal spear it doesn't mean it's not sharp. The spear was probably made of metal yet had a blunt end so it wasn't OVERLY lethal. However even a blunt weapon can kill someone in a strong hand.
 * Since apparently the Kurain style of channeling involves body transformation...does that mean that when Misty channeled Greggory...she turned into a man?
 * Maybe there's a difference between 'communing with' and 'channeling'.
 * There's a text-only flashback to the channeling where Gregory blames it on Yanni Yogi - admittedly the beeps are the high-pitched "female voice" ones, but I do like to think that Misty's appearance changed. There was some fanart I found once of Maya channeling Gregory to help Miles on a case... it was hilarious. Wholesome Crossdresser, anyone?
 * Hold It! Do you mean... This fanart, by any chance?
 * If this is the case, we can safely conclude that Miles wasn't present at Yanni's trial. After all, he admits in the third game that he doesn't know about or believe in channeling.
 * The reason he doesn't believe in channeling is because the testimony Gregory gave while being channeled by Misty was false, not because of Edgeworth's (lack of) exposure. Also, in 3-5 Edgeworth mentions in passing that he met Misty Fey in person in the aftermath of DL-6.
 * Not to mention that if Misty had become Gregory in court, no one would have called her a fraud, regardless of inaccurate testimony.
 * The real craziness is when Pearl channels Mia and approximately doubles in body mass. Hello, conservation of matter?
 * I'd put it closer to quadrupling.
 * I'm more confused about the fact that an adult woman is able to wear a 9-year old's clothes and the only skin shown is a pleasant amount of cleavage...
 * Presumably, being aware of the bodily transformation bit, their clothes are designed to accommodate various body sizes without undue embarrassment.
 * Note also that Maya wears knee-length clothing and Pearl wears ankle-length clothing.
 * Actually, I'm pretty sure Pearl's clothes are knee-length too.
 * It's also worth noting that Pearl's clothes have the same loose, flowing look as Maya's on Pearl herself, but are positively tiny on Mia--she ends up with short sleeves, for instance.
 * Well, if you look closely at their clothes, you can see how exactly they work: The robe wraps around the wearer's body and the belt holds it around the wearer's waist, while simultaneously being able to loosen up to let the body become larger. I have only one complaint: There is no way Pearl's robe is long enough to cover Mia's lower naughty bits!
 * Good thing this game is always shot from the waist-up!
 * One part that this Troper spent a while on was one part in case 1-5, when is trying to describe what she saw the night Neil Marshall was murdered. The biggest reason is because the game throws a huge Red Herring in the way, as she claims to have witnessed Marshall getting stabbed in the chest, whereas the autopsy report clearly states he was stabbed in the back. Most of the time was spent figuring out how to object to it, including pressing every statement many, many times.
 * Why does making a defense that your actions were irrational behavior caused by oxygen deprivation require you to act insane when you are no longer deprived of oxygen?
 * Because the defense was that he was got brain damage by said oxygen deprivation. It would be a mite suspicious if he made a miraculous recovery.
 * Double Jeopardy is used elsewhere in the series as a reason someone can't be prosecuted twice for the same crime. Also, I find it a mite suspicious that Edgeworth's brain is fine.
 * Well, of course, he didn't actually have brain damage. Robert Hammond was a lot like von Karma in that he didn't care about his clients, all he cared about was winning. Whilst Yanni Yogi did panic because of oxygen deprivation, he didn't get any lasting brain damage from it. He was just made to pretend like he had so he would be found Not Guilty. What puzzles me, however, is how Miles was able to throw the gun at all. We find that they all passed out at about the same moment, when the elevator doors opened, but Miles was only a child then, with a much lower body mass than the other two. Being so small, he should have fallen unconscious/died from a lack of oxygen way before the two adults did.
 * OBJECTION!!! ::Slams hands on the table:: There were reasons to think Miles was the only one that passed out by oxygen deprivation. ::Holds out a paper sheet:: According to the testimony, Gregory Edgeworth and Yanni Yogi had a fight, that ended with Yogi beating up Edgeworth, 'while having a panic attack' ::speed lines:: So only Miles passed out by oxygen deprivation!
 * OBJECTION!!! ::Holds out a paper sheet::  states that Gregory passed out as well due to oxygen deprivation and had no idea who killed him in the end. ::Slams hands on table:: Thus, the point still stands!
 * So apparently manslaughter and murder are charged similarly in the world of Ace Attorney. Edgeworth was nearly convicted of his father's murder when he (at the time a terrified child) threw a gun in his father's vague direction. If this is the case why wasn't he tried for assault with a deadly weapon for  That was an accident too.
 * Because if
 * Case 1-5. One- Two-   I'm not complaining, I just want to know if anyone has any answers.
 * One: Two:
 * The "bad ending" of 1-5  irritates me because the contradictions still stand. Even if it proved
 * That's the point of it.
 * I second the original question.  Also,
 * Why is it that during DL-6's earthquake, no one thought to even try and shatter the I understand not intentionally shooting it out, just in case it was bullet proof, but they just sat there
 * What Glass? They were in an elevator, there was nothing to shoot at but a steel door. Also it was probably stuck middle of the floors, so they had nothing to do but wait until the electricity came back.
 * Uh, there's obviously glass in the photo. Besides, it's a central point that.
 * On that note, how did nobody SEE
 * ? ...or, they're all too oxygen-deprived to be able to see that clearly.
 * He says "I saw three people inside, all lying unconscious from oxygen deprivation." As for during the struggle, Yanni Yogi most likely was facing the wall to the right of the door, Gregory was facing the opposite wall (judging from his body's position), and Miles was most likely distracted by the two.
 * That's not glass, just a regular metal elevator door. You'd be surprised at just how much a bullet can penetrate.
 * Look here. You can see through to the other pane of glass in that picture.
 * IIRC the elevator was caught between floors before the power came back on (otherwise they would have just been able to force the doors open), so breaking the glass before they all went batty from oxygen depletion wouldn't have done anything.
 * It would still need to be close enough to a floor in order for, not to mention mentions the elevator doors opened just after the power came on. Probably, the elevator was below the floor just enough that there wouldn't be enough of a gap were the doors forced open for anyone to be able to climb out (not above, as that would make it impossible for ; considering , as the elevator rose this would become impossible long before it became impossible for someone to escape the elevator by prying the doors open). ...Actually, if you consider just where the bullet hole in the glass is, the elevator would need to be well below the outside floor level in order for a shot at that sharp of an angle to.
 * Going the whole hog - who in their right mind designs an elevator to be AIRTIGHT? Were you not expecting people to be in it?
 * Debris, the elevator wasn't the only thing that was damaged by the earthquake.
 * It's possible that they didn't think the power would be out that long and that they'd have to sit there for just a few minutes before someone on the courthouse staff thought to check if the elevators were safe. And they probably weren't expecting for the air to get blocked, either. Or for something a bit more logical, maybe they tried to shove the doors open, thinking that shattering the glass and getting shards all over the place wasn't a safe idea, but the doors were stuck shut for whatever reason.
 * Case 1-5:
 * I believe he
 * 1-3. The main argument that Dee Vasqez couldn't have been in the site of the murder (which wasn't actually the murder location at all as it turns all) was that the road was blocked by a tree and there's a photo to prove it. Looking at the photo I have to say, are you kidding me? You mean you couldn't just go to one side of the tree and I don't know step over the branches or even better considering there's no wall at either side of the road, step off the road and walk around the tree? (Which by the way is exactly what Cody did). Two,
 * It's not the fallen tree that blocked the path, it was the Mr. Monkey head that had to be moved out of the way by a crane. Still doesn't explain why nobody could go around, but it is at least more of an obstacle than the tree (which we know is no obstacle at all, since the tree is down for the whole case and you can freely pass it anyway).
 * In case 1-5, How do Lana Skye and Jake Marshall switch seats in the witness stand so quickly? There's hardly time for Phoenix to speak and they've swapped places in that chair, just to say one line...
 * This troper could be wrong, but it's to his understanding that the witness and defendant stand are two separate things in the AA courtrooms and Capcom just never bothered to show them as such in the room graphic for some reason or another.
 * This troper seems to recall that you actually see a defendant stand below the judge's spot when you're investigating the courtroom in AAI.
 * Apparently, elevators are sealed air-tight.
 * In case 1-3, in the initial case, it never states how Jack Hammer got to the studio. The only other photograph is one of a small child. Even though no one makes a big deal about it.
 * O ::slams desk:: Oldbag points out on several occasions that... ::points::... he left for the studio before she arrived!
 * When we first meet Ema in 1-5, she mentions that her parents died in a car accident. She later mentions when demonstrating the use of Luminol for the first time that she "saved up [her] allowance to buy it". Presumably, she has adoptive parents who are paying this allowance - who are they?
 * Maybe she meant allowance from Lana? Lana has undergone Promotion to Parent, after all.
 * H Ema says the aforementioned accident happened while she was quite young. Are you claiming that Lana would have been mature enough at the time to take care of Ema?
 * O ::slams desk:: You get to see Lana's profile in game 1 case 5. While Ema was 16 at the time, Lana was 29. That's a difference of 13 years. That makes it very likely for Lana to be plenty mature enough at the time to take care of Ema.
 * I... er... uh... ::Pursuit ~ Cornered starts up:: Nooooooooooooooo!! But wait... H This still means that Lana could have been as young as 14 or 15 at the time the accident took place! ::slams desk:: Despite any perceived maturity, that's still not old enough to be independent for most legal purposes! ::pointing:: It also doesn't explain where any source of income would have been coming from at the time!
 * H We're never told how old "quite young" means! If Ema was say, five (still 'quite young') Lana would have been 18, and legally independant, meaning it could have been possible for her to take care of Ema!
 * O Why would Lana have needed to save up her allowance from years ago to buy blood testing fluid? Most likely it was a fairly recent allowance given to her by Lana. They also most likely got some inheritance or life insurance from their parents.
 * Again from 1-5: When you first speak to Meekins, he claims (at least twice at various points) that . Yet this is patently false, seeing as we see him between those two times when he shows up at Edgeworth's office - and, in fact, in continued discussions with him, he later indicates that . For that matter, he was only - given that , why wasn't he ? It seems like there are two inherently contradictory timelines here!
 * Meekins was probably just being dramatic when he says . It wouldn't exactly be out of character for him to be exaggerating. And as for why ... Well, the police department was extremely confused/panicked due to the fact that . They probably thought it was utterly impossible and were reluctant to arrest anyone else until the whole ID Card thing came up.
 * Case 1-2: Why was so concerned with Mia ? Wasn't he going to jail anyway by confessing?
 * This is probably because Mia was going to release it to the press. This basically put Redd White in a corner: either he confessed and went to jail, or he didn't and he went to jail anyway however on top of the the names list would have destroyed his repetition even more then the arrest for the current case would. In other worlds, he choose to get his life ruined over one death rather then the hundreds of deaths that would have been released.
 * Case 1-3: At the end of the trial, there was a flashback about the incident five years ago, and when the actor dies, Ms Vasquez seems really sad about it. I really wonder if the actor (Manuel) is her brother/fiance/husband. Also, if it's the case, can we argue that we should felt sorry for her?
 * Perhaps this could be considered a Pet the Dog moment for her.
 * In case 1-5, one thing that always bugged me. Lana comes into the room, see's, and her sister and a known serial killer are on the floor unconscious. So, with a known killer in the room, why did she jump to the conclusion that was responsible like she said. You'd think that if you gonna jump to a conclusion it would involve a suspected serial killer over.
 * In the DL-6 incident, when
 * At that point,
 * How were they already ?
 * Maybe they were
 * In case 1-5, I don't understand why
 * Maybe he thought that ... And this may sound picky, but it's also not like he could have predicted.
 * From the killer's perspective in 1-4, it makes perfect sense to want to kill Hammond and frame Miles since  But from   perspective, there was no , so why not just  ? I guess
 * is exactly the reason why. It's stated in-game that, and also that . Him trying to ruin 's life is really pretty similar to if you think about it long enough: he.
 * Case 1-3: Was  even charged for murder? Unlikely. But was   charged for her other crimes (mainly  )? They never clarify this, and it really confuses me.
 * That's a bit of an odd part about the series, since we almost never hear from the murderers or people who, like April May, get imprisoned for other crimes after the trials. Similarly, there's also the question of 's fate, since the last time he was mentioned, Phoenix notes that he was an accomplice in moving the body; he isn't seen or spoken about again, either.
 * Doesn't get a cameo in AAI? He obviously didn't get much (if any) of a punishment, then.  probably got little, if any, time for the murder, since it was acknowledged to be self-defense, but personally I find it likely that she did get charged for the blackmail and such. But yeah, it also bothers me that the criminals' fates are barely discussed...
 * The early setup of 1-5 seems to imply that the killer wanted to frame Edgeworth (the body is found in his car and Lana stabs it with his knife) It bugs me that unlike most frame-ups, this one never seems to go anywhere. Could it be that Angel Starr, by getting Lana arrested, is a Spanner in The Works for by forcing him to sacrifice his control of the prosecutor's office?
 * I might remember wrong, since it has been a while since I played this game, but in second case does anyone mention what kind of motive Maya might have for murdering Mia? Maya is after all Mia's sister so she has no motive to kill her. I don't think Edgeworth or Gumshoe mentioned any kind of motive for murder. Of course Maya is not the murderer, but shouldn't Edgeworth at least mention some kind of motive, because otherwise Phoenix could've used the no motive fact as an advantage.
 * Hardly any cases in the game discuss motive, actually. Also in the first game, Will Powers had no real reason to supposedly murder Jack Hammer. Then in the second game, Maggey had no motive for killing her boyfriend, Maya had no motive for killing Dr. Grey, and so on. The court system in Ace Attorney doesn't really seem to care whether or not the defendant has a motive or not, as long as the defended gets declared guilty.
 * Case 1-3: Was  even charged for murder? Unlikely. But was   charged for her other crimes (mainly  )? They never clarify this, and it really confuses me.
 * That's a bit of an odd part about the series, since we almost never hear from the murderers or people who, like April May, get imprisoned for other crimes after the trials. Similarly, there's also the question of 's fate, since the last time he was mentioned, Phoenix notes that he was an accomplice in moving the body; he isn't seen or spoken about again, either.
 * Doesn't get a cameo in AAI? He obviously didn't get much (if any) of a punishment, then.  probably got little, if any, time for the murder, since it was acknowledged to be self-defense, but personally I find it likely that she did get charged for the blackmail and such. But yeah, it also bothers me that the criminals' fates are barely discussed...
 * The early setup of 1-5 seems to imply that the killer wanted to frame Edgeworth (the body is found in his car and Lana stabs it with his knife) It bugs me that unlike most frame-ups, this one never seems to go anywhere. Could it be that Angel Starr, by getting Lana arrested, is a Spanner in The Works for by forcing him to sacrifice his control of the prosecutor's office?
 * I might remember wrong, since it has been a while since I played this game, but in second case does anyone mention what kind of motive Maya might have for murdering Mia? Maya is after all Mia's sister so she has no motive to kill her. I don't think Edgeworth or Gumshoe mentioned any kind of motive for murder. Of course Maya is not the murderer, but shouldn't Edgeworth at least mention some kind of motive, because otherwise Phoenix could've used the no motive fact as an advantage.
 * Hardly any cases in the game discuss motive, actually. Also in the first game, Will Powers had no real reason to supposedly murder Jack Hammer. Then in the second game, Maggey had no motive for killing her boyfriend, Maya had no motive for killing Dr. Grey, and so on. The court system in Ace Attorney doesn't really seem to care whether or not the defendant has a motive or not, as long as the defended gets declared guilty.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All

 * In case 2-4, what was with Adrian wanting to burn the suicide note from Celeste? She thought the note was real, so why would Adrian think she was bringing justice to her mentor by getting rid of the one thing Celeste tried to leave behind?
 * The note was a forgery created by Juan that he would use to ruin Matt for good. Adrian wanted to destroy it to stop Celeste's good person from being used anymore in their ugly rivalry (especially considering that their feud was what led Celeste to kill herself). Whether it was a real or fake didn't matter to her.
 * That doesn't hold up. Remember that I might be wrong though, I really have to replay 2-4.
 * I haven't played it in a while either, but I think that's wrong..
 * In the "Reunion, and Turnabout" case, if everyone seems to acknowledges that channeling using the Kurain Channeling Technique is real, and that the channeler physically changes to reflect the person being channeled, why does no one even suggest that ? That seems a lot easier to explain than
 * Even if
 * I can't help you with the suggest part, but that suggestion would still be problematic. . So that would only be a lesser evil. In fact, Phoenix specifically STATES this as a reason to go for 'not guilty'.
 * This is acknowledged on the first day of the trial. Franziska asks Phoenix (for some reason, not the defendant herself) whether he should go for a complete acquittal, or if she should be charged with a lesser crime than murder itself. Since Phoenix chooses not guilty, from there on out, nobody can say that Maya was simply being controlled by Mimi, because the defense has asserted that it simply wasn't the case.
 * In Reunion, and Turnabout, how was
 * In Turnabout Big Top, why does the killer
 * Xanatos Roulette anyone?
 * The implication here is that
 * One thing I do not get is at the end of Justice For All, when you give Edgeworth Franziska's whip and you get the extra scene for it,
 * Franzy is a very proud girl, just like her father. She repeatedly states that "a Von Karma is perfect", so becoming emotional about a failure, any failure, seems appropriate. Plus, it may have been the writers just wanting to humanize her character.
 * Franziska also seems to realize that what Edgeworth says, that being a prosecutor isn't about a perfect record but about justice for all (no pun intended), and that's something she needs to learn. It isn't about personal records or anything like that, it's about doing what's right. When she realizes that he was only able to "beat" Phoenix in court by employing those human characteristics that she has shunned, and that her entire philosophy of perfection is wrong, well...it's enough to make anyone break down.
 * And there's also the fact that Phoenix had just willingly accepted his first defeat in court because it is the just outcome he wants, and can have now that Maya's safe.
 * Justice for All, Case 3: It's established early on in the chapter that Max Galactica's flying act is well known. Even the public knows about it. Yet when
 * If he had brought it up, it was possible that the Judge would have focused on that as his means of identification. But Phoenix could very easily have pointed out that
 * If Engarde really didn't, why did he think that  ?
 * Engarde learned that  always places trust in his clients and he will do what his clients wants without question because that is the basis of trust. Engarde knew he could.
 * But the reason Matt did that in the first place was because, in his own words . And if they're not above , why would they be above
 * Let's be fair here; Engarde really didn't HAVE A CHOICE. If the tape had been found, the trial would've ended much faster;   tends to do that, or at least makes you look ridiculously incompetent for  ! The best he could do was   because nobody else had access to it; literally, either he had to trust that   or else.
 * Engarde would have been boned either way; even if he'd managed to, the instant he tried to  . There is no plausible way this could have gone well for him.
 * You have to understand though that Engarde was hoping that
 * He still would have.
 * Game 2, case 2:
 * I'm not sure that description is correct.
 * And don't get me started on 2-3, and how contrived all that was...
 * The sheer impossibility of the entire thing is lampshaded repeatedly, but, you know, that's what happened. It may be a one in a million chance, but that's the chance that happened.
 * Case 2-4:
 * Considering the fact that
 * There's also the fact that he knows about the status of the trial. Probably from local news. He may just be aware that  came up, and used that name to stay consistent.
 * I always assumed that Matt happened to mention "my manager, Adrian Andrews" in conversation or something. (Preferably the way it happened in this fanfiction, for Rule of Funny.)
 * Case 2-1: How does everyone know how Phoenix is
 * Psmith Psyndrome. Alternatively, he actually is saying 'with a y' but the game doesn't show it like that because the makers know we can tell the difference.
 * The prosecutors seem to be aware of the "health" meter and can manipulate it, so who's to say they can't see the text boxes?
 * Rule of Perception and Law of Conservation of Detail. Because the player can see how Phoenix is spelling the names, there's no need to add extra dialogue explaining the difference. Also, it's kinda funny this way.
 * Also, in the original Japanese Version of the game, Naruhodo/Phoenix says something to the effect of "I am not talking about the Katakana-spelling, Prosecutor Auchi(Payne), I'm talking about the Kanji", directly refering to the spelling issues that arouse with Maggey's name (Suzuki Mako) in the japanese version. Apparently, the "Suzu" in her name is spelt with an rather unusual Kanji there.
 * Okay, so in case 2_2, one major piece of evidence as to the identity of the killer is that however,
 * I think that
 * Well...
 * It was a really impressive crash.
 * Just to clear up matters, in the Japanese version, the car is indeed an American sportscar, with the driver's side on the left.
 * In that Wacky Ol' Circus case in the second game,
 * Most likely.
 * It was most likely intentional.
 * In Case 2-2, Maya's fingerprints are found at the scene and on evidence. Wouldn't this be impossible, as the Kurain Channeling would change the fingerprints? I kept on presenting evidence to point out that out, and it kept EATING AWAY at me!
 * Hmmm... maybe Franziska would have pointed out that she probably killed Dr. Grey first and THEN channeled in an attempt to prove her innocence.
 * Only "Mimi" claimed to have killed Dr. Grey herself, so that wouldn't stand up. I'm more inclined to agree with the comment below; channeling changes the shape of your body, and possibly your voice as well, but not things like hair and fingerprints.
 * Hair is not living (I wonder if nails are kept? Ouch.) I think finger tips are.
 * Mia ends up with black hair when channeled by Maya, so maybe channeling doesn't induce a total physical change.
 * Mia's distinctive beauty mark also fails to appear when channeled, so it seems like the outer skin of the channeler remains unaltered. Though it's a bit of a stretch, I know. Sorry, bad pun.
 * Don't forget that the Kurain Spirit Channeling Technique is a sacred art that only the people in Kurain village practice. It's unlikely that Phoenix himself knows much about it, and thus he couldn't very easily substantiate the claim that "Her fingerprints were not her own", because he doesn't really KNOW if that would change during channeling. Franziska, on the other hand, has studied up on it, and could call his knowledge of it into question pretty easily. And considering how easily the Judge is swayed, Phoenix probably wouldn't get very far on conjecture alone.
 * O Is everyone forgetting that Maya was innocent, and therefore her fingerprints shouldn't be on the weapons AT ALL?
 * The knife belonged to the Feys.
 * Not to mention, even if channeling does change fingerprints,.
 * Something that bugged me about case 2-4 is that de Killer said, and the way you prove that But, if I remember right,  Why does this never get pointed out?
 * I noticed that one myself. The gameplay answer is "There's no convenient way to provide evidence for an error in timing", unless Phoenix goes with a testimony counter or a "Show us on the map" attempt, but it's still something that should've come up.
 * This is probably reaching a bit, but maybe Phoenix intentionally doesn't point it out because ?
 * Figuring out that was particularly hard for this Troper. She kept thinking it was the fact that.
 * This Troper feels that the Scrappy Case 2-3 was one big drawn out Guide Dang It moment.
 * How exactly did  come to work together in "Reunion, and Turnabout?" Every other "collaboration" comes from a pre-existing relationship , or is explained   This comes out of nowhere.
 * Maybe but Mimi was desperate so she might have known about Morgan having lost to her older sister for the position of master and was desperate for revenge. I mean if Lotta could get the information so easily maybe Mimi could've too. Or even if she hadn't she might have been so desperate she consulted Morgan and Morgan saw it as the perfect opportunity to exact the revenge she had been waiting to take out.
 * Those are both logical, but the problem is that either one consitutes an enormous risk on Mimi's part. How did she know that Morgan would be sufficiently vengeful for the task? Even if Morgan had been up to it, there was no guarantee that Morgan wouldn't reveal the plan, thereby gaining a sturdy alibi (of sorts) to hide behind when she did launch her inevitable plot. Morgan was in no hurry; Maya had four years to go before her installation as the Master, and even Pearl would remain next in line until Maya had a daughter. If Mimi had been able to dig up all that information on Morgan, she should have figured out the rest as well. I can buy that she was desperate, but it would have been nice for it to have been spelled out because that is a decent-sized plot hole.
 * Morgan probably came up with the whole plan herself while Mimi was just a convenient pawn. Considering that Mimi was desperate enough to risk her cover by staying that close to the doctor and planning on killing him just because he could discover her secret, she probably wasn't thinking that far ahead. It was a stupid risk, but she wasn't thinking clearly enough to turn the plan down.
 * It's also entirely possible that Morgan did NOT know about, and only found out about it when it was revealed in court.
 * Case 2-2:
 * It's also important to keep in mind that
 * And, not to mention,
 * -> But  in order to plot everything. In fact, claiming that Maya was too incompetent to channel the spirit would have.
 * This troper figured there might have been a risk of Maya accidentally channeling the real Ini Miney, who could have blown Mimi's cover.
 * 2-2. One argument raises against the prosecution is the blood stain on 'Maya's clothes which Ini apparantly didn't notice. Ini and Von Karma dodges this by stating that the room was dark and she couldn't see it. Ok, so how about later on when they are now talking about the locations where she is OUTSIDE of the room in BROAD DAYLIGHT?! Why doesn't Phoenix bring up the blood stained clothes again considering now she has no excuse for not noticing it?
 * By that time Ini was supposedly already told of the murder. The problem with her testimony is she stated not be surprised with her sister appearance at the time they met.
 * Two (tangentially related) points from 2-4:
 * The first clue to is courtesy of . However, how in the world is that connection made? It's not as though, after all.
 * We see twice before knowing  - once, and later . Given , how does Phoenix not make the connection? For that matter, since , wouldn't Phoenix be able to figure out that ?
 * ...and a bit of possible Fridge Brilliance connecting the two: . It still sounds horribly flimsy, though. (Though something that flimsy would be very Wright indeed...)
 * Well, they've just confirmed that is the killer, the butler looks a lot like, there is a cat at his house, and there is a cat at the place where  is hiding. All together, the logic is a lot less flimsy.
 * The dang translators. "The miracle never happen" I mean REALLY, Capcom, really?
 * They did it on purpose.
 * Hey, you can't catch em all. Typos, I mean.
 * In 2-2, Lotta's testimony is repeatedly referred to, specifically the part about the folding screen. The problem? That testimony doesn't necessarily exist. If, when pressing her, you don't actually ask about the folding screen, that testimony is never made - yet the case continues, and the imaginary testimony is referenced later.
 * The problem is that the plot assumes you press almost every statement of almost every witness. Simple solution? Just press every statement that doesn't lead to health damage or a game over.
 * Shelly de Killer is a Karma Houdini. This has been noted time and time again and should be a surprise to no one at this time. But it's disconcerting that he seems to be specifically written as if he was a Karma Houdini. For one thing, his ethical code, in which he takes every precaution necessary to ensure that his clients are never implicated for his actions. Then there's the part where . And then there's the little bit where . Simply put, none of his actions would be rational in the slightest, unless he was somehow certain that he was never going to be caught.
 * It gets worse. After so many cases devoted to the belief that no one is above the law and the truth will be revealed in the end, isn't the end of 2-4 a bit backwards? Basically, you get the culprit to plead guilty by....
 * In the first case (2-1) the victim broke his neck in the fall. Why doesn't anyone tell the court that breaking your neck like that, falling a few meters either kills or paralyses you? Then it would be obvious that the accused was Not Guilty!
 * I always hear this and I always respond with the same thing: Breaking your neck does not mean your automatically paralyzed. The windpipe in your neck is what must break for this to happen and it IS possible to snap your neck without snapping the windpipe. In fact I a doctor, and I have had a patients with snapped necks who have not only lived but also been able to talk, write and breath perfectly. Once again I AM A DOCTOR. I would not suggest trying to argue a medical issue with a doctor...
 * Whoa now, slow down. That would be a perfectly legitimate thing to teach us, except that it's stated that it's the fall that killed Dustin. While, yes, it is a bit of a stretch to say he would have been paralyzed, if the neck snap was strong enough to kill him, it's easy to see why people would make that mistake. He still supposedly died instantly either way, so the fact that everyone complains about the broken neck actually has less to do with him having a broken neck and still writing, but more to do with the fact that he broke his neck and still wrote despite this contradicting other things stated in the case.
 * There are a couple things that bother me about the last case (2-4). I know I'm nitpicking here and playing devil's advocate (in more than one way). But first of all, when the judge says that, it has just been revealed that . So why doesn't Matt object to this? Maybe he doesn't really care because it doesn't affect him that much, but the judge has no solid proof that.
 * Another thing that bugs me is the whole There's no way he could see what is playing in the tape, and there's no reason . Why doesn't he just  I mean I guess he could hear it...I just thought it was odd to "show" someone something when they have no way of physically seeing it.
 * In case 2, didn't Maya or someone else at Kurain think it was a bad idea to channel a spirit that might have a grudge against the person requesting the channeling? It seems risky that they planned on having only the channeler and the client in the room at the time! It might be offensive to a spirit to be called back to take the blame for something whether she was at fault or not and even if it was to help her old boss. They even let the Doctor take a  into the room. Did Maya just trust   to set everything up for her?
 * If Kurain was still recovering from Misty's public disgrace, maybe Maya felt she didn't have the luxury of turning away clients who might pose a risk. As for the gun, he didn't necessarily tell them about it.
 * In case 4, when Phoenix says to Edgeworth that, why doesn't he mention the   name? He remembered the name long enough to tell it to Matt a few minutes after he first heard it. Did he really forget the only info he had about the   by the next night? Given that   it makes sense that Phoenix would mention that the   said his name was
 * Why the heck does Phoenix take Pearl with him to Engarde's mansion when ? She could easily have been asked to stay at the Criminal Affairs Dept., which had people in it despite the late hour.
 * In case 4, how was the door between  and the video room locked from both sides? You approach it from one side as Maya and it's locked. Later, you approach it from the other side as Phoenix and it's locked. I guess someone who was hiding illegal activity behind that door would come up with fancy ways of locking it, but there's no reason it should have been originally designed to lock in a way that would prevent people on Maya's side from opening it.
 * Maybe  had that lock installed so he could lock himself in that room with the only key to "focus on the script". It just happened to be a convenient place to   during that case.
 * A bit redundant to use it, considering the plan was to keep Maya in the wine cellar. Also, that would require de Killer to obtain the key, which requires us to speculate once again about how much knew about the plan.
 * Why did de Killer leave a calling card with Maya? It doesn't help to use such an object to inform your victim who they're dealing with when you're already there in person, especially if they're unlikely to recognize the symbol. It shouldn't be there for the police to find when they recover her, because finding her there would throw a lot of suspicion on the place's owner, which he is deliberately trying to avoid. And, of course, it's counterproductive to give your hostage a Skeleton Key Card.
 * Given how he originally threatened to kill Maya if Nick didn't end the trial in one day, it's possible that deKiller just left the card there in case Nick didn't do what he wanted him to do.
 * Case 2-3, it turns out that the one who orders the surprise search on Acro's room was Edgeworth, not Franziska. But if that's the case, why did Franziska acted like she was the one who did when Acro brought it up, blaming herself for doing something that ended up costing her victory?
 * It seemed to me that Edgeworth just suggested it, and Franziska was actually the one who ended up ordering it to be carried out. She could have just been mad at herself for taking that suggestion instead of thinking up an alternative.
 * In case 2-4, I'm kind of confused about something. During the second trial day, De Killer was going to reveal the name of his client. Phoenix had thought that he was going to reveal it to be, and was super worried about Maya at that point. But if De Killer was about to name as the client, why should Phoenix be so worried? Why didn't he just think that De Killer would release Maya now that he "broke his contract with the client."
 * In 2-4, after it's revealed that de Killer committed the actual murder, the trial doesn't end. No, the rest of the trial is devoted to determining who hired him because that person is therefore guilty of murder by hiring him. With this in mind,
 * Since Engarde seems to know that, it's likely that he could have tried to implicate as deKiller's client.
 * Case 2-3 (Turnabout Big Top). Why does no one seem to notice that the supposed "killer" didn't leave footprints by standing next to the victim? That detail would have shown that the "killer" there couldn't have been a human.
 * Why did de Killer leave a calling card with Maya? It doesn't help to use such an object to inform your victim who they're dealing with when you're already there in person, especially if they're unlikely to recognize the symbol. It shouldn't be there for the police to find when they recover her, because finding her there would throw a lot of suspicion on the place's owner, which he is deliberately trying to avoid. And, of course, it's counterproductive to give your hostage a Skeleton Key Card.
 * Given how he originally threatened to kill Maya if Nick didn't end the trial in one day, it's possible that deKiller just left the card there in case Nick didn't do what he wanted him to do.
 * Case 2-3, it turns out that the one who orders the surprise search on Acro's room was Edgeworth, not Franziska. But if that's the case, why did Franziska acted like she was the one who did when Acro brought it up, blaming herself for doing something that ended up costing her victory?
 * It seemed to me that Edgeworth just suggested it, and Franziska was actually the one who ended up ordering it to be carried out. She could have just been mad at herself for taking that suggestion instead of thinking up an alternative.
 * In case 2-4, I'm kind of confused about something. During the second trial day, De Killer was going to reveal the name of his client. Phoenix had thought that he was going to reveal it to be, and was super worried about Maya at that point. But if De Killer was about to name as the client, why should Phoenix be so worried? Why didn't he just think that De Killer would release Maya now that he "broke his contract with the client."
 * In 2-4, after it's revealed that de Killer committed the actual murder, the trial doesn't end. No, the rest of the trial is devoted to determining who hired him because that person is therefore guilty of murder by hiring him. With this in mind,
 * Since Engarde seems to know that, it's likely that he could have tried to implicate as deKiller's client.
 * Case 2-3 (Turnabout Big Top). Why does no one seem to notice that the supposed "killer" didn't leave footprints by standing next to the victim? That detail would have shown that the "killer" there couldn't have been a human.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations

 * In 3-4, while Phoenix is in the hospital, how does he know that Dahlia has come back if he hasn't gotten out yet?
 * Two possibilities. 1: He heard about it on the news or through a correspondent. 2: He doesn't, and he is only saying as much because he can feel it in his gut.
 * In 3-4, why is the obvious contradiction that  not able to be pointed out?
 * Because people can move. It's not difficult to assume that the victim had turned around at some point.
 * In 3-2, what was the murder weapon
 * Same troper here. In that same case,
 * Me again :(.
 * He was knocked out without a specific weapon, Luke didn't knew Kane but Kane found out somehow that he was behind De Masque's heists, and the numbers were maybe what Luke paid Ron for each of them, or just what he could get in the black market.
 * Thank you. And if I remember correctly, presenting Kane's List to Ron merely has him confused and saying "those numbers seem too low to be the values", so I'm guessing it's not what Ron paid, but the black market thing.
 * I'm not sure where this is mentioned, but I was under the impression that, while it's never put into evidence, the murder weapon was a statuette from Bullard's desk.
 * It just bugs me, who exactly throws or gives, the coffee to Godot during court? I mean, it slides to his hand. And also, does Godot prepare the coffee before the trial or during the trial?
 * I'm going to say that he has coffee-based telekinesis.
 * Maybe his coffee machine (hidden to the right of the screen), launches the cup forward when it's done filling it?
 * Well, that answers that.
 * He could just summon it from hammerspace. Calling it is optional.
 * Alternatively, Brewster is his assistant but as he is a giant pidgeon he understandably doesn't want to be seen and just slides coffee to him.
 * Obviously, it arrives from the same place as.
 * The person who handles his Court Record for him...? (because he's too cool to handle it himself?)
 * I swear that somewhere in the manga it was shown that his visor also included a coffee machine. And since the desks are slanted, maybe he just slides it up and then back down for emphasis.
 * Perhaps someone behind him in the audience goes on runs for him and using some sort of large stick puts it on the bench and slides it over.
 * In Trials and Tribulations it's revealed that part of the reason Mia went off to law school and left Kurain Village behind was because she didn't want her and her sister to end up fighting over who was the head of the Main Family and who was the head of the Branch Family Given that this meant that someone could step down from leading the family, why is that Morgan Fey
 * It would never occur to Morgan that Maya would comply.
 * She couldn't just ask Maya. Maya and Mia were siblings of the main family and in that case it's just a matter of who have the most spiritual powers. Pearl is from the branch family and the only time the village would pick someone from a branch family is when there was no one left in the main one.
 * You seem to be forgetting the little detail that Morgan is
 * Question about the last case of Trials and Tribulations:
 * Well, he didn't really
 * There's also the popular fan theory that
 * Note that this depends on what Godot tells Phoenix to explain the former's absence until that point -- but Godot is  So he could be in much better shape than he claims, aside from his vision. For that matter, he survived
 * Despite his actions,
 * He was a man desperate for
 * That would make sense if
 * This may not be an actual law, but I think it's likely that
 * In AAI 2,  Also,
 * Case 3-5:
 * Because
 * But
 * Also,
 * Not to mention
 * How did Dahlia
 * With regards to the hair dye stuff, I always assumed that Iris was the one who dyed her hair, because of the whole deal with the spirit.
 * Given that almost everyone else in the family has black or dark brown hair, Dahlia's has to be the one that's dyed. Her spirit's eyes are red too, aren't they? Can't be literal.
 * And a minor thing: Not an IJBM; just an excuse for fanart.
 * I think
 * My only conclusion is that Dahlia and Iris actually do have black hair and the visual difference is just for the sake of the player. Which still doesn't explain the non-black haired people that were chanelling her and ARGH ARGH JUST A GAME BRAIN HURT
 * . Maya has black hair. . I honestly don't see a problem here.
 * It may just be an optical illusion, but Iris's hair looks gray to me. Also, the host keeps her hairstyle, and I don't know if Maya's hair braids up that well in the front.
 * Dahlia testified that
 * One thing though,
 * It seemed more like she never suspected that Maya could have come up with the idea to channel Dahlia's spirit on her own (which she didn't). As for the hair, unless Morgan specifically told Dahlia "My daughter will summon you. She has pretzel hair, remember that", there wouldn't be any reason for Dahlia to not believe that the medium who summoned her was anyone other than Pearl Fey.
 * Dahlia simply never knew Pearl's hair color, as in the original plan she was supposed to wear a hood while she was channeled anyway - Morgan would have had no reason to warn her that Pearl's hair wasn't black. Since Morgan's hair is black and Dahlia might have seen herself in a mirror after Misty channeled her, it was perfectly natural for her to assume that Pearl's hair was black when she unexpectedly woke up in the cavern and went on to impersonate Iris without a hood.
 * There's also one more possibility.
 * There's a possibility that Iris and Dahlia have the same color hair, but it is colored differently as a convienience to the audience. The same thing comes up all the time in Ranma One Half, where anime-Ranma's black hair changes to red when in female form but other characters can't always tell the difference right away.
 * Godot
 * Yes, but it ended up Not exactly the first place you'd look for a  If that doesn't do it for you, well, Godot's vision is messed up.
 * Now that I think about it, how did it get stuck ?
 * I firmly believe the reason that is so, it's because they didn't want you to find it and have the blood examined, and have
 * Or it's possible that.
 * 3-5 is full of it, in my opinion:
 * There are certain knots that can be tied that, when pressure is released, they come undone. When
 * He swung it with precision so that it would come up next to the outcropping on the Hazakura Temple side, the move sideways a little and drop on the outcropping. As for why friction had seemingly no effect, he threw it down.
 * The Judge and Winston Payne in 3-1 and 3-4, the reactions they show to the witnesses, with no comment whatso ever on Ms. Fanservice ?
 * Maybe they prefer the Yamato Nadeshiko type. Or redheads. Or a combination of the two.
 * I think it's more the fact that Dahlia looks and acts so sweet and innocent and angelic that she pretty much has the Judge and Payne under her spell for that reason rather than her looks. There's a difference between looking hot (like Mia does) and looking like you'd never hurt a fly (like Dahlia does).
 * Indeed. Dahlia looks completely harmless, vulnerable, needing and worthy of protection. Mia is confident and aggressive (when she's not being rookie-nervous), exactly what many men find threatening... indeed, this is underlined when the force of her point blows Payne's hair away. There's probably a trope or three in there.
 * For what it's worth, Gumshoe does make a comment in which he flat-out tells Mia, "You're really gorgeous!"
 * In the first case of Trials and Tribulations, Winston Payne says that perhaps the victim could have grabbed the bottle of medicine to "identify the killer" or something to that effect.  It doesn't bother me that Payne said it, but that Mia didn't pick up on it.
 * She probably did, but that argument wouldn't have held water. She couldn't possibly know when he grabbed the bottle OR known how long he lived after being electrocuted.
 * Case 3-3 involves an unplanned murder - So what exactly would the murderer have done had  Seems like a pretty flimsy plan to me . . ..
 * It's probable that can be called in as witness, since  was at the scene when the killing happened, and . For, well, if I remember correctly, . It would still be an flimsy plan, though.
 * On a related note, can anyone genuinely picture
 * Considering, it's not entirely likely that the victim would have been looking him in the eye... or even at his body.
 * Why, in case 3-5, does
 * It's been shown before that the host acquires some of the more iconic features of the person they are channeling: Mia and Pearl both acquire Mia's facial features, her rather impressive bust, and a mole, which would imply rather extensive physical change (in Pearl's case, at least two feet). It's possible that the specific feature you mentioned is merely such a part of the character's self-image that it transformed the channeler.
 * You make no sense,.
 * My theory is that the harder it is to control a spirit, the less he or she would look like the channeler.
 * It's a spirit. When the spirit inhabits a host, the spirit has to borrow the host's body and share physical features. When it's outside the body, it can look like whatever it wants to be. Recall 1-5, where Mia's spirit appears twice looking like she did in life. As for why it only has her red hair, remember that the spirit is being exorcised, and most likely 'fading away' just before she disappears completely. The red hair probably is important enough to the spirit that it stays on even after her other features have turned into shadows. A possible explanation may be that she actually dyed it, and her hair is actually black all along. The act of it may be important to her, perhaps symbolic of her taking charge of her own life, and thus why she values it enough to place such importance on it.
 * I'm very confused by the map of the Hazakura Temple area you receive in case 3-5. It appears to be a scale map of the area, including both temples, the hall and the bridge. The thing is, we know that bridge from the previous case, and both that case's map of the bridge and put it at twenty meters in length. The path from Hazakura to the bridge appears to be about three to four times that distance, counting meandering. So eighty meters tops. It takes fifteen minutes to walk that far, or five minutes by snowmobile? That's basically... eighty steps. Even in the cold, you should be able to take more than five steps a minute!
 * Not to scale?
 * Steep, switchbacks, tons of branches and rocks hiding under the dirt to grab at careless ankles...?
 * How is it that Jean Armstrong (The pink-loving chef from 3-3) is able to confuses people about his gender, with even the judge asking if he's male or female, yet nobody is confused by Ron DeLite? Jean is very clearly a guy. His body and face (And facial hair) are very obviously male, he just dresses weird. Ron was far more effeminate-looking than Jean was.
 * Ron doesn't do anything that calls his gender into question.
 * They might not be sure whether or not Armstrong is transgendered and identifies as female.
 * When Armstrong talks about himself, he jumps around between masculine and feminine descriptives (at one point, he refers to himself as a "pert and perky gentleman" and another time calls himself a "coquette," a term reserved for women). It supports the transgender theory, but even if he wasn't, his inconsistent descriptives certainly wouldn't help anything.
 * There are bearded ladies and really buff ladies that can sometimes confuse a person.
 * Case 3-5: Once realises that, why doesn't ? After all, we hear over and over again that . Admittedly, it appears that  and , but we already know that  and.
 * Also, wouldn't killing herself be against her nature?
 * Also Case 3-5: If Godot, why didn't he just ?
 * Because Godot's desires were not as altruistic as he made himself believe.
 * There is such a thing as Hero Syndrome.
 * A timing issue from 3-5:
 * The lightning woke him up, and he watched the fire for a while before he saw.
 * O ::pointing:: That directly contradicts the witness' testimony that ! Further... ::slams desk:: ! This means... ::speed lines, Theme Music Power Up:: !!
 * H Why wouldn't he ? If he had just woken up, and he was ? Especially if he was ? In addition, wouldn't take much time to complete at all, even if he didn't need time to take it all in! What we have here is simple; he did . That moment was while he gazed in awe, and  - while he was laying on his back! Then he grabbed his sketching tools, and completed the sketch, long after that moment had passed!
 * H Have you tried ? It's a pain in the neck... quite literally! There's no way he would have stayed that way!
 * H Who says that he sketched it in that position? It would be perfectly reasonable if he sat up, sketched, then to look again!
 * H Larry is an idiot. Logic does not apply to him. He might very well have stayed in that position.
 * In "Recipe For Turnabout", how exactly did Viola manage to ?
 * My assumption is the big bow. There's a big pink bow that goes on the back of Maggey's head when she wears her uniform, and if Viola was correctly impersonating her, maybe the bow would obscure the bandages? Besides, Kudo wasn't looking above her hips, anyway. Phoenix' cross-examination reveals as much.
 * Okay, so, by the end of "The Stolen Tournabout", we learn that Ron is, in fact Mask* DeMasque after Phoenix proved that he wasn't the thief on the night of the urn theft (and he wasn't. Not that night, at least). And Ron says that, because of the double jeopardy law, he can't ever be tried for the crime of being Mask* Demasque again. Fair enough, but the thing is, he was initially tried for the theft of the Sacred Urn, not the crime of being Mask* DeMasque . Even if he can't be tried for the theft of the Urn again (which makes sense), why doesn't anyone bring up the idea of trying him for, say, the theft of the Tear of Emanon? Or the Crown of Bongora, or the Left Hand of Hades, or the Portrait of Majeena? That's four different cases of grand larceny for which, I can assume, Ron has never been tried. They are all completely seperate from the theft of the Kurain Sacred Urn, so they shouldn't be covered by double jeopardy because of that case. But Ron admites to have been Mask* DeMasque for all those other thefts, and he gets off scot free because he was framed for the fifth robbery? Huh?
 * The laws in AA universe are very different from what we have, with changes mostly directed towards "streamlining" processes, so a suspect is tried for a group of linked crimes whenever possible? Other than that, rule of cool/funny at its finest?
 * My best guess is that he was more-or-less charged with five counts of grand larceny at once, with the Urn taking priority since evidence was actually left there. So then the double jeopardy would then attach to all five counts instead of just the Urn theft.
 * Ron DeLite was being tried for grand larceny. In America (which I'm going with), larceny turns into grand larceny when you've stolen a "significant value of property". In most states, you qualify for this at the $250 mark. The urn was valued as priceless, and I mean that in the worst possible way, meaning it had no "value". The odds of them lumping all of the theft crimes into one increases.
 * In the AA 'verse, theft is not a crime. Being a thief is a crime. Thus, since Ron was proven to not be a thief, Double Jeopardy applies. Maybe.
 * Ron DeLite was being tried for grand larceny. In America (which I'm going with), larceny turns into grand larceny when you've stolen a "significant value of property". In most states, you qualify for this at the $250 mark. The urn was valued as priceless, and I mean that in the worst possible way. The odds of them lumping all of the theft crimes into one increases.
 * I think there is a legal need to prosecute all related crimes the state wants to charge somebody for at the same time. Not sure if this extendeds to serial theft though, but "charging him for all of it in one trial" is a valid, logical explantion.
 * On a note related to the question above: why was Ron never charged with the ? They never even asked him for information that would allow them to warn the   that their security had been compromised.
 * For that matter, we don't see any proof that they even asked him for information that could help them track down the stolen items after the trial was over. It is possible that this could have happened offscreen.
 * 3-5. Godot makes absolutely no reaction to Mia showing up in Pearl's body. Whut.
 * Presumably the same reason Franziska needed a photograph of Mia being channeled in 2-2, despite the fact that Mia was currently being channeled on the other side of the room. It seems that the rest of the court don't notice your partner unless she speaks to them first... Note that your partner often makes incredibly incriminating remarks, but nobody ever hears them.
 * Except that Mia does immediately and directly address the court at that point. She and Godot even exchange words. Godot obviously acknowledges her presence, and yet he doesn't completely freak out there (unlike later, when he kind of does).
 * He and Mia acknowledge each other, yes -- and then the very next thing he does, as that clip shows, is tell Phoenix that from here out Phoenix has to do it all himself, no beautiful women jumping in to save the day. This is likely as much a message to Mia to let her protege prove himself as it is to Phoenix. And indeed, she does -- and he freaks out because he sees her in him, or parallel to him, in the form she had when he knew her (her rookie lawyer outfit and hairstyle), not just giving him counsel from the side while being channeled. At that point he sees the literal metaphor that she does live on in him, or at least her brand of wholehearted belief in the clients does. When he shows that he can do it on his own, without prompting, Godot realizes how wrong he's been and this shakes him to the core... and damn, this troper just teared up for the first time thinking about it.
 * Considering that there is both documented evidence of a medium changing appearance while channeling and precedence for people thinking that channeling is a hoax, it's likely that by now Kurain mediums have something of a reputation for somehow creating believable illusions of the deceased. Godot may have believed that he was seeing a very good impersonation of Mia rather than Mia herself.
 * Except, the last case kind of revolves around him believing the Kurain Channeling Technique's power.
 * At the end of Trials and Tribulations, Ron and Desiree DeLite apparently started a business counseling thieves to help them start honest lives and selling them plans on how to do their crimes on the side. There are two major contradictions here. The first is that Ron DeLite was given most of his plans by Luke Atmey, and the one plan he did make didn't work out so well. Where are these plans coming from? Also, Desiree hates sneaky thieves. Do all of their plans tell the thieves to announce their plans ahead of time? No smart thief would have the confidence to do that and if so many thieves started using calling cards, wouldn't there be an epidemic?
 * Nobody said those plans they sold on the side were any good...
 * Ron may be mediocre, but no one said Desiree is...
 * One thing that bugs me is Luke Atmey lied after you break his Psyche-Lock and it doesn't register. According to the characters he shouldn't have been able to do that. (He claims he was knocked out by the Shichishito. It's not true.)
 * The thing is, the Magatama isn't exactly a straight-out lie detector. It reacts specifically to concealment and the withholding of secrets, which is precisely what Atmey was doing; what made his situation unique was that he was hiding another secret behind the first one. By concealing his lie about getting hit over the head by the Shichishito, it was treated just the same as any other secret, and "unlocked" accordingly. Had Phoenix used the Magatama a second time immediately afterward, it probably would have picked up on the presence of a second secret (i.e. what actually happened), but as he's never had to do that in the past he simply didn't think of it.
 * Related to the above point: The Magatama shows a person's heart kept secrets, not lies. Someone could be lying about something that they themselves don't consider a "secret" yet the locks would not show. It's quite plainly stated that the psyche-locks are "locks on a person's heart" so they probably would not respond to something that is not a strong emotional lie to a person. Not only that, but the locks would not appear anyway unless Phoenix directly questioned whether him getting hit was true or not. Like the above comment stated, the Magatama does not instantly detect lies. It detects someone locking up their heart from the holder.
 * At the end of Case 4 of Trials and Tribulations, . Who in their right mind would let a convicted murderer on Death Row keep without first checking ? Also, how could everyone in the courtroom miss seeing him ?
 * He didn't keep the necklace for all of those years. Terry states that he went to retrieve it from the 'special place' where he and  promised never to betray one another, on the day of the crime. It's clearly been there for the past five years.
 * In "The Stolen Tournabout", you pick up "Bullard's Notes" (That binder full of prices that are "too low" for each of the stolen items)... and you never use it in court. What was it for, and what are those numbers, anyway?
 * This is brought up towards the top of the page. I think the consensus reached there was that those were the prices  received for selling the treasures on the black market. Or something.
 * I thought that those were the prices that . It was stated twice that the prices were too low to be the black market values of the stolen items.
 * I think the emphasis was more on "why can I pick this up if I'm never given the opportunity to use it"?
 * You do use it. You show it to Ron to get information in the investigation.
 * 3-4: Valerie Hawthorne's age is given as 23. Much attention is given to a then five-year-old incident in which Valerie, as a detective, played a significant role... but she would have been 18 at the time!? For that matter, 23 is pretty young to be a detective!
 * This bugged me too. I kind of figured that age is but a number in PW and doesn't affect anyone's profession or skill level. For example, Franziska became a prosecutor at age 13, Pearl is an incredible channeler at only age 8, etc.
 * Ron may be mediocre, but no one said Desiree is...
 * One thing that bugs me is Luke Atmey lied after you break his Psyche-Lock and it doesn't register. According to the characters he shouldn't have been able to do that. (He claims he was knocked out by the Shichishito. It's not true.)
 * The thing is, the Magatama isn't exactly a straight-out lie detector. It reacts specifically to concealment and the withholding of secrets, which is precisely what Atmey was doing; what made his situation unique was that he was hiding another secret behind the first one. By concealing his lie about getting hit over the head by the Shichishito, it was treated just the same as any other secret, and "unlocked" accordingly. Had Phoenix used the Magatama a second time immediately afterward, it probably would have picked up on the presence of a second secret (i.e. what actually happened), but as he's never had to do that in the past he simply didn't think of it.
 * Related to the above point: The Magatama shows a person's heart kept secrets, not lies. Someone could be lying about something that they themselves don't consider a "secret" yet the locks would not show. It's quite plainly stated that the psyche-locks are "locks on a person's heart" so they probably would not respond to something that is not a strong emotional lie to a person. Not only that, but the locks would not appear anyway unless Phoenix directly questioned whether him getting hit was true or not. Like the above comment stated, the Magatama does not instantly detect lies. It detects someone locking up their heart from the holder.
 * At the end of Case 4 of Trials and Tribulations, . Who in their right mind would let a convicted murderer on Death Row keep without first checking ? Also, how could everyone in the courtroom miss seeing him ?
 * He didn't keep the necklace for all of those years. Terry states that he went to retrieve it from the 'special place' where he and  promised never to betray one another, on the day of the crime. It's clearly been there for the past five years.
 * In "The Stolen Tournabout", you pick up "Bullard's Notes" (That binder full of prices that are "too low" for each of the stolen items)... and you never use it in court. What was it for, and what are those numbers, anyway?
 * This is brought up towards the top of the page. I think the consensus reached there was that those were the prices  received for selling the treasures on the black market. Or something.
 * I thought that those were the prices that . It was stated twice that the prices were too low to be the black market values of the stolen items.
 * I think the emphasis was more on "why can I pick this up if I'm never given the opportunity to use it"?
 * You do use it. You show it to Ron to get information in the investigation.
 * 3-4: Valerie Hawthorne's age is given as 23. Much attention is given to a then five-year-old incident in which Valerie, as a detective, played a significant role... but she would have been 18 at the time!? For that matter, 23 is pretty young to be a detective!
 * This bugged me too. I kind of figured that age is but a number in PW and doesn't affect anyone's profession or skill level. For example, Franziska became a prosecutor at age 13, Pearl is an incredible channeler at only age 8, etc.


 * In game three, case five,
 * The second case of game 2
 * But Bikini mentions that the Kurain Technique was viewed with suspicion after Misty's failure, and that Kurain is failing financially as a result, or something.
 * It is possible that everyone in that trial was simply SO amazed by what they saw that they were stunned speechless.
 * I'll go with the last one. If I were to see that in person in a trial that's already holding so much unusual facts, I'd just go O_O for a while.
 * I know Phoenix isn't the nicest guy in the game, and I know Gumshoe can annoy him somewhat, but what was his problem during Gumshoe's introduction? In 2-4, . How does Phoenix introduce him in 3-2? "Oh no! Not him again!" What the hell?
 * I can really understand Phoenix in this regard. Gumshoe, while adorable and a rather nice person, is usually trying to gather evidence against your client, witholds information and isn't all that bright. It got better over the games, as Gumshoe warmed up to Phoenix, but Nick would probably have prefered a more competent detective on the case.
 * In 3-2, this troper can't see why Godot didn't squeeze another day of trial by simply proclaiming that, though the defense had proved that Atmey was at the crime scene, so was Ron DeLite, both of them having opportunity and motive (the blackmail), there being no evidence pointing at either of them being the murderer (Ron's testifying that someone hit him in the forehead was not supported by any evidence).
 * It probably had to do with Phoenix's insistence on finishing the trial that day before Luke could be found guilty of theft in the other trial.
 * Nevertheless, considering how the other trial was at its first day, having proved that Atmey was at the crime scene and that the Sacred Urn was stolen before the day of the murder would be sufficient to convict him in both counts of larceny and murder.
 * Actually, there was evidence that Ron's story was true; as Phoenix pointed out, if he had been conscious at the time that emergency buzzer was pressed, there's no way he would've stayed in the room.
 * And why does Phoenix care about catching Atmey so much? He says near the end 'Even if I get Ron saved the real killer will go free.'. Getting the killer isn't the point, stop your client from getting the death penalty!
 * Well, it's always about finding the truth in the 'verse. As for why there was no extension? Phoenix was quite adamant on it, and rightly so, since Atmey will be found guilty for theft really quickly, given it's exactly what he wants. If that happens, Double Jeopardy, people.
 * In 3-3, how the hell did manage to trick the entire court room into believing that ? I mean, I can understand how Maggey might have been fooled, since she, and it's possible that Payne noticed it but decided not to say anything about it because he couldn't pass up a chance to stroke his ego with an easy victory. But the judge had  on multiple occasions over the past three years! Are you going to sit there and tell me that he sat through the whole trial without noticing that ?
 * What's important about the series of events preceding 3-3 is that they serve to communicate that, to the other characters, . Beyond that, I'd say that the Judge was so cowed by that he wasn't really willing to question him. Also take into account that the Judge is pretty old and the relative distance involved -- it's possible that, be it from his poor eyesight or from that distance, he couldn't tell that . It's actually more unsettling that Maggey didn't notice, given the physical proximity that she would have had. Remember that in her first appearance, and it's not too hard to imagine that she would be rather familiar with  through her correspondence with Gumshoe. She's the one who would have been the least likely to be fooled, and with her gung-ho attitude and police experience it's hard to believe that she was simply too scared of  to call him out.
 * It's specifically mentioned by Maggey on at least one dialog path that everyone in the trial had question marks in their eyes(or similar), but nobody quite dared speak up. That was so intimidating may have contributed to this - it's a harsher edge than Phoenix's usual bluster, but honestly, it's not like Phoenix himself is above pressuring witnesses to get his way. In fact, it's a core mechanic. He just usually doesn't do it to the other courtroom figures(the judge and prosecutor).
 * It's entirely possible that Maggey is a bit of an idiot (remember, she's like a female Gumshoe, not too bright) and took  at his word. Besides,   may be a better actor than we give him credit for.
 * According to case 3-5, the in game court system has no problem letting the defendant in the case testify that somebody else committed the crime in another location which was, at the time, not accessible from the location the body was found at.
 * Most of Phoenix's rebuttal to that testimony is proving that it wasn't accessible. After all, the defendant claimed to witness the murder itself.
 * Here's another one for 3-2: The last thing you have to trick  into mentioning is the fact that , since it hadn't been mentioned in the time he was there, which, the game would have us believe, meant that he couldn't have known  . Why is this a major plot point when   obviously would have visited   (if for no other reason than to preserve  )? He could have just looked at   and found that out! I apologize if I'm missing something obvious, but it's just bugging me.
 * Just because . So even if in jail, there was no way he could have known what was worn at the time of the crime.
 * Ah, you know what I was forgetting? The fact that  It makes more sense that he might've   when nobody was sure that was the truth. I suppose it only would have been a problem if he hadn't had time and incentive to change...
 * Ron went home after the murder, you can change clothes easily in your home.
 * Glen Elg is Gle Nelg backwards. I know this is means something but I don't *what*!
 * Lisa Basil, too
 * Move the N in Gle Nelg and you get... Glen Elg. Same with Lisa Basil.
 * The Ace Attorney series is very, very big on Theme Naming. The theme for the Blue Screens, Inc. employees just happens to be palindromes; there's no greater or lesser meaning to it.
 * During the credits Lisa Basil lampshades this by saying they'd just hired Adam Mada, who she was certain would work out as soon as she heard his name.
 * In the final case of T&T, why did Phoenix decide to defend Iris? At the time,
 * It is implied heavily from Phoenix at many points that he is still in love with her. Also she constantly states that she has sins she wants to banish from herself so it's likely that Phoenix just remembered his love for her and decided to believe in her.
 * You two need to refresh your memory. EDGEWORTH decided to defend Iris on the condition that she tell Phoenix the truth.
 * While that is true, Phoenix would not have given Miles his badge unless he wanted him to use it.
 * The last Phoenix saw of Iris was five Psyche-Locks, he wanted to protect her til he got the truth out of her. And he had reason
 * When I played the game, I was angry with Maggey for not telling Phoenix about the lottery ticket before the trial started. But in retrospect, Phoenix is the one who should be apologizing to Maggey for not reading the court record from the first time she was tried! I know he had a limited amount of time, but why didn't he read that over?
 * For that matter, why did the judge act like it was his first time seeing the apron even though he had already given a ruling on the case? Was the first defense attorney so bad that Payne won without one of the most important pieces of physical evidence?
 * It's actually possible and a lot more plausible that the evidence never came up.
 * Why did Godot try to  in the fifth case?
 * Why didn't Elise or Iris
 * They probably thought that they could stop it on their own and it wasn't very clever to worry anyone for nothing.
 * Plus, the plan on the whole is being masterminded by
 * At the end of case 3-1, Phoenix says that he wants to become a lawyer in order to save his friend (or something to that effect). If he's talking about Larry, how did he predict three years in advance that Larry would be accused of murder? Or had Larry already been accused and somehow put off his trial for three years so that Phoenix could defend him?
 * He's talking about Edgeworth. The first game details his efforts to change him.
 * So he became an attorney in order to save Edgeworth from being like Manfred von Karma?
 * In a nutshell, Phoenix mentions in the first game that what pushed him to become an attorney was hearing all of the media coverage of Edgeworth's success as a prosecutor. Facing him in the courtroom was the only chance he felt he had to confront Edgeworth about becoming a ruthless prosecutor instead of a defence attorney like his father.
 * But he also says to Mia in the very first case of the first game, before even entering the courtroom, that Larry is one of the reasons he became a lawyer. Edgeworth's reputation and refusal to communicate with Phoenix was probably what pushed him into making the final decision to study law on the side, but he says it's because of both of them that he decides to become a defense attorney. So probably he'd been at least considering it since that classroom "trial", perhaps also because of Edgeworth's shining image of his own father.
 * In case 4, how did Valerie and "Melissa" get to the Dusky Bridge area on the day Valerie was murdered? If they drove, where were their cars? For that matter, did the culprit really carry around a knife, a, a  , a  , and possibly a phone and watch and   and   all over the wet mountain that day?
 * Dahlia is Crazy Prepared. After all, five years ago she had convinced Terry to agree to take  they left at the temple, right before she , just in case they happened to meet up again in circumstances that would threaten her. Also, she must've taken Valerie's  , and may have already had a coat that would look the same in the black-and-white photo her camera took even without the obscuring drizzle. As for getting there... got me. I'm more surprised that Dahlia was able to get   back after the trial.
 * The Shichishito was bent in case 2, so why wasn't it bent later? Did some kind of metal smith fix it?
 * Getting a single kink out of a (relatively) straight metal rod is easier than you might think, especially if they took it to an expert. Considering that about four months pass between Cases 3-2 and 3-5, it doesn't really seem all that surprising that they managed to repair the damage completely.
 * IIRC, if you present the bent Shichishito to Adrian in 3-2 she offers to fix it, in considerable distress.
 * How did Terry Fawles get those marks on his face? It looks like he had an encounter with three layers of barbed wire. However, the game states that he escaped when a police wagon crashed. There shouldn't have been barbed wire involved, right? Was there a previous failed escape attempt?
 * Same way Matt Engarde got his. They're just there. Call it character design.
 * Iris repeatedly states that she's lived at Hazakura temple for as long as she remembers. However,  How could Iris not remember anything prior to age 8?
 * The most probable explanation? She's lying. After all, given everything we can guess about her father and all we know about her mother, it's likely that Iris simply doesn't want to remember.
 * Iris says that she's always been at Hazakura during conversations in which it is logical to think that the other conversant is using the Magatama. The Magatama must be in  mode every time she says that... or else she doesn't consider that statement to be concealing a secret.
 * That's what I would argue, both in this situation and in . The Magatama doesn't detect falsehoods so much as it detects the deliberate act of concealment; if a person doesn't consider themselves to be lying (either because they interpret Phoenix's wording differently then he does, i.e. , they are concealing a second falsehood behind the first as if it was the truth, i.e.  , or they are applying something akin to Doublethink and may to some degree believe their own story, i.e. Iris), then the Magatama won't pick up on it.
 * In case 3-1 why is Mia so surprised when she learns Doug couldn't have been hit by lightning? Did she forget who was at the witness stand?
 * Mia appears to have taken the case based solely on hearing that Dahlia was involved. She doesn't appear to have figured very many things out before entering the courtroom. When she first went into the courtroom, she didn't know exactly what had happened and had no way of being sure of who or what did it. She's basically like Phoenix himself when he first started out, i.e. greenhorn.
 * Also, IIRC, the way the whole hit-by-lightning thing happened, it seemed (to me, at least) that Mia was just saying it to buy herself some time. Besides, although that turned out to be wrong, she still figured that Dahlia was up to something, so it's possible that she was going to say something like Dahlia pushed Doug towards the lightning (although that would have made for a flimsy argument).
 * What exactly was Iris's role in the  supposed to be? Supposedly she  . What exactly was she expected to do?
 * Most likely, to provide some sort of escape route. If she had done her part, presumably
 * How was Terry Fawles able to afford to hire Grossberg's law firm?
 * Grossberg and the rest of the firm had nothing to do with it; it was just Mia, a greenhorn who happened to take a personal interest in the case. Presumably she took it pro-bono or at least at a reduced rate, and Diego tagged along as co-council for, well, obvious reasons. Grossberg himself may not even have heard about the case in particular detail until after the fact.
 * Grossberg and the rest of the firm had nothing to do with it; it was just Mia, a greenhorn who happened to take a personal interest in the case. Presumably she took it pro-bono or at least at a reduced rate, and Diego tagged along as co-council for, well, obvious reasons. Grossberg himself may not even have heard about the case in particular detail until after the fact.