Magnificent Bastard/Video Games/Ace Attorney: Difference between revisions

Got rid of plagiarism, deleted an entry for a high-functioning Smug Snake/non-qualifier as well as another who shoots himself in the foot WAY too many times to count as this
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(Got rid of plagiarism, deleted an entry for a high-functioning Smug Snake/non-qualifier as well as another who shoots himself in the foot WAY too many times to count as this)
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The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' franchise is full of these in addition to the many [[Smug Snake]]s around. Sure, all the villains in this series get their comeuppance, but some of them were just better at getting their evil ways before their eventual [[Villainous Breakdown]].
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* Manfred von Karma is one of the most ruthless and skilled prosecutors in the series, and you'd best believe that he earned his 40 year win streak. Thanks to being a hardcore perfectionist the man will use every dirty trick in the book to win a case, whether it's as mundane as coaching witnesses and forging evidence, or as shown in Case 1-4, pulling off batshit insane stunts like {{spoiler|RETRAINING A PARROT on the off-chance the defense decides to let it take the stand}} or {{spoiler|outright tazing the defense so he can steal damning evidence from them and get away with it for sounding too farfetched to be believable}}. And when his otherwise perfect record was blemished with a penalty, {{spoiler|he killed the attorney responsible for it, and spent years grooming his son to become a prosecutor instead of a defense attorney while coaching him to take the blame years later}}. Is he a petty son of a bitch? Absolutely, but the man takes it to such crazy lengths that he makes an art form of it.
* {{spoiler|Manfred von Karma}} and {{spoiler|Kristoph Gavin}} in particular are quite worthy of this status for playing long-term [[Gambit Index|gambits]] to ruin other people's lives. {{spoiler|von Karma raised Miles Edgeworth to be a ruthless prosecutor like him, partially to have a worthy heir and partially for revenge against Miles' deceased father, who he himself had murdered in secret. And when Miles was falling short of expectations, von Karma set up a murder by manipulating Yanni Yogi's desire to take revenge and pinned the blame on Edgeworth, and just in case the Frame Up didn't pan out, he'd already long had Miles convinced that he himself was the one who had killed his own father so that the guilt over this would eventually get him to confess to it and ask he be charged with that murder in court. Kristoph, meanwhile, did not take kindly to one of his clients summarily dismissing him after a game of poker, so when that client went on trial, he got the lawyer defending him disbarred by using some evidence that he had ordered forged for his own trial, then tipping off the prosecution that it was a forgery. The cherry on top? The defense attorney he got disbarred was Phoenix Wright himself.}}
* Is {{spoiler|Damon Gant}} a lovable goofball? You bet he is. Is he an excellent boss who'd happily give people money if they ask for it? Absolutely! [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|Is he a devious and power hungry murderer who knows how to play people like a fiddle?]] Yes, oh yes indeed. {{spoiler|Thanks to his manipulations, he's able to land the lofty position as chief of police while blackmailing his chief prosecutor Lana Skye into doing his bidding on threat of having her sister arrested for a murder he committed, and is savvy enough about how the law works to get legitimate evidence against him tossed out of court, with Phoenix only being able to beat him by the skin of his teeth}}.
* {{spoiler|Damon Gant, the police chief himself}} in the post-game "Rise From The Ashes" episode in the original game's second edition. {{spoiler|Once a legendary police officer, Gant murdered a prosecutor and pinned the crime on a convicted [[Serial Killer]] to ensure his rise up the ranks of the police. Gant also has his old partner, Lana Skye, installed as the head of the prosecutor's office, having clandestinely framed her sister as the true murderer years ago so that he could control both the police and the prosecution office, using blackmail to keep Lana in line with his demands. When Detective Goodman reopens the old case, Gant murders him and has Lana stab the corpse, resulting in her being framed and Gant knowing she'll plead guilty to protect her sister.}} Despite his crimes, {{spoiler|Gant}} operates with [[Affably Evil|nothing short of whimsical good nature]] and [[Graceful Loser|accepts his own defeat with good humor]], claiming that at the end, he can leave the defense of the law to his rivals and one day they will understand the need to rise higher by any means to protect the law as a whole.
* Introduced in ''Justice For All'', Shelly de Killer is (as his names suggests) a [[Professional Killer]] who's the third heir to a long line of assassins for hire. Always performing his jobs calmly and with precision, and always leaving behind a [[Calling Card]] so that the authorities know of his involvement and suspicion is not shed on his clients, de Killer was hired to murder actor Juan Corrida by {{spoiler|his rival, Matt Engarde, who wanted Phoenix Wright to defend him in trial when he inevitably fell under suspicion.}} Under the guise of a bellboy, de Killer lured Maya Fey away by alerting her of a phone call at the front desk so that he could abduct her, and gave Phoenix a transceiver for two-way communication, through which he demanded Phoenix get Engarde acquitted, holding Fey as ransom to ensure Phoenix complied. {{spoiler|Shortly before the trial, de Killer shot the case's prosecutor, Franziska von Karma, in the shoulder as a "present" to Wright and a warning to those seeking to convict Engarde. Keeping ahead of the law so that Maya would not be rescued all while posing as Engarde's personal manservant, de Killer contacted Miles Edgeworth to testify truthfully about his client, but when the radio transceiver was brought to the witness stand, de Killer betrayed Edgeworth and instead named Adrian Andrews as his client, failing only due to his ignorance of Andrews' gender exposing the truth that he never met her face to face as a client. When told about how Engarde was planning on blackmailing him with video evidence of his killing, de Killer furiously broke contract with Engarde and informed the court that he swears bloody vengeance upon any client who betrays him, a threat that drove Engarde into a panic and got him to willingly confess his own guilty. After the trial, de Killer allowed Maya's safe release and fled the country, being sure to add a recommendation to his website should Phoenix ever be in need of his services before the transceiver self-destructed, leaving nothing to trace back to him.}} Despite his nasty line of work and the terrible things he'll do to get a job done, de Killer is [[Affably Evil|a calm, civil and polite individual]] with [[Even Evil Has Standards|his own professional moral code]], valuing the bond of trust between him and his clients above all else [[Not So Different|just as much as any good defense attorney.]]
** A year later in ''Investigations 2'', fellow [[Magnificent Bastard]] {{spoiler|Simon Keyes}} hired de Killer to {{spoiler|assassinate President Di-Jun Huang of Zheng Fa, which only ended up getting the assassin's left arm injured by bodyguard Ethan Rooke. Learning of the President's planned speech at Gourd Lake, as well as a planned staged assassination attempt, de Killer bandaged his wounded arm and hid a knife inside the dressing before infiltrating the site posed as ice cream vendor "John Doe," waiting to turn the staged assassination into a real one. When caught in the act by Edgeworth, de Killer agrees to help Edgeworth' investigation just to find the ''real'' President Di-Jun Huang. Once satisfied with the investigation's progress, de Killer made his escape by turning out the lights on the President's plane and knocking out all those present, and before Edgeworth passed out, de Killer informed him that he had not killed Ethan Rooke, as he respected him far too much, and left his trademark calling card before fleeing to the other side of Gourd Lake, which was devoid of any police presence to stop him. He makes a return by the end of the game, intent on taking Simon Keyes' life for revenge but ultimately being able to see reason when Edgeworth talks him down from carrying out the deed.}}
* In ''Trials & Tribulations'', {{spoiler|Luke Atmey}} manages to {{spoiler|set himself up as an Ace Detective while at the same keeping afloat and benefiting from the thief he's hunting.}} He then {{spoiler|falsely gets himself indicted for ''being'' the thief to keep from being convicted for his ''real'' crime of murdering a CEO.}} Then the only reason he's even caught is {{spoiler|a slip of the tongue}} and this is after {{spoiler|successfully having four of the five crimes he was on trial for has been proven to have not been his doing.}}
* {{spoiler|Kristoph Gavin}} deserves credit for {{spoiler|being the man who got ''Phoenix Wright himself'' disbarred for seven years}}, and he's so good at {{spoiler|covering his tracks both times he killed someone, that Phoenix had to play dirty by falsifying evidence and ''changing the justice system itself'' in order to make him face justice for his crimes}}, all while tricking everyone with a ridiculously convincing [[Nice Guy]] schtick. You know you're a brilliant schemer when you force a moral paragon to toss the rules out the window in order to defeat you.
* In the first ''Investigations'' game, {{spoiler|Calisto Yew}} is able to slide off most accusations with either a bored stare or a fit of laughter, and even though she eventually breaks down, she doesn't really ''break''. In fact, rather then surrender after her confession, as every other villain does, she {{spoiler|pulls a gun out to escape}}. ''Twice''. She was the one who {{spoiler|infiltrated the Yatagarasu and destroyed the group from the inside out. "Calisto Yew" even turns out to be a false identity. She sets up prosecutor Byrne Faraday to be accused of being the Yatagarasu by criminal, Mack Rell, before murdering them both, quickly placing suspicion on Detective Gumshoe when deduced that the two couldn’t have killed each other. Even when Edgeworth reveals that she’s the true murderer, she manages to trick Edgeworth into giving her the Yatagarasu’s key, her true objective, before escaping arrest.}} She goes on to create ''another'' persona - {{spoiler|Shih-na, an enigmatic right hand woman to Shi-Long Lang}} - while acting as a mole within Interpol and leaking information to the smuggling ring. When Quercus Alba murders the traitorous Manny Coachen, the spy creates a fire in order for the two to move the corpse between embassies to create confusion of where the crime scene occured. After Shi-Long Lang saves her life from Tyrell Badd, the spy gracefully accepts defeat and out of gratitude, gives information to Edgeworth to help him discover the truth about the case.
* One of the most brilliant bad guys in the series isn't a rogue prosecutor or otherwise corrupt lawman, but a completely normal {{spoiler|circus worker}}. {{spoiler|Simon Keyes}} from the second ''Investigations'' game runs a ridiculous gauntlet of schemes and murders in order to take down all the people who have ruined his life while tricking Miles Edgeworth into dancing to his tune, and by the time he's defeated his enemies are either in chains or dead. Not bad for a guy who is, again, {{spoiler|''a goddamn circus worker''}}.
* The second ''Investigations'' game gives us the nefarious yet affable {{spoiler|Simon Keyes, a circus animal trainer who poses as an innocent defendant while truly manipulating the entire game's events from the shadows.}} In the first case, {{spoiler|he orchestrates a staged assassination attempt on President Huang's body double to tempt someone into committing murder, even getting Shelly de Killer involved.}} In the second case, {{spoiler|intercepting the correspondence between a blind assassin and a friend who had betrayed him, Keyes tricks a woman into killing his former friend, and after unwittingly being arrested for the murder, convinces Miles Edgeworth to go against the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee (PIC) and defend him in court.}} In the fourth case {{spoiler|he sets up the Chairman of the PIC to kill an attorney, then has Edgeworth — who has been stripped of his Prosecutor Badge — defend the amnesiac Kay Faraday for the murder to get the chairman proven guilty. Even when defeated by Edgeworth in the end, Keyes congratulates his [[Worthy Opponent]] and ultimately succeeds in "taking care of" all of his own and Dogen's enemies.}}
* ''Spirit of Justice'' gives us {{spoiler|Pierce Nichody, seemingly the helpful butler of the Sprocket Household}} who at first appears to only be executing the wishes of Sorin Sprocket's parents, but it later turns out he's a surgeon and had a hidden agenda. {{spoiler|Wanting revenge on Sorin and his fiancée Ellen, for the loss of his fiancée, Nichody kicks up a framing plot that involved the usage of false time travel, Pierce organized a near perfect operation, to get both Sorin and Ellen confessing to the crime of murdering Dumas Gloomsbury, Pierce's co-conspirator. Despite insulting the judge and attorneys when cornered as well as bribing them with the company's wealth, Pierce still has a distinct kinder side to him in that he realizes albeit too late that Selena would not have wanted him to take revenge and is a surprisingly helpful witness despite being the killer. After admitting his guilt, Pierce's pocketwatch begins to function once more, thus giving him a rather tragic arrest. He even refuses to talk unless directly questioned knowing very well of Phoenix's tactics.}}
 
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