It’s clear that both Adrian Andrews and Matt Engarde still have their secrets: Secrets which will be vital to the final day of trial.

We’ll need to uncover those secrets if we want uncover the full story.

At last, we come to the crux of what makes Farewell, My Turnabout such a great case in the Ace Attorney canon. Our client, Matt Engarde, is, without a shadow of a doubt, the person who hired Shelby De Killer to assassinate Juan Corrida. For the first time, Phoenix Wright is in a position where he must defend a guilty man.

Up until now, all of our clients have been innocent of the charges laid against them. Whatever their crimes were, murder was never one of them. Though circumstances are complicated by Maya’s abduction, the question is posed as to whether or not it is morally correct to mount a legal defense for someone who is guilty.

Many words can describe me, but “lawyer” is not one of them. This question is probably better off answered by someone who can call himself a “lawyer”. However, as a layman, I do wish to point out a few factors that should be considered when answering. (I look forward to being crucified by lawyers for completely butchering basic legal concepts.)

• The US legal system specifically runs on the presumption of innocence. By the laws of my country, an accused person is presumed innocent until there is sufficient evidence to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. As Ben Franklin once said, “it is better that ten guilty men go free rather than one innocent man be imprisoned.”
  
• To the end, our law grants that all accused persons are entitled to a fair trial and a legal defense. By that system, imperfect as it is, we still recognize that prosecution is a power that, without checks, can be wielded by the state against even the innocent, especially when those in power have ulterior motives for those prosecutions. For that reason, these rights are afforded to the accused such that this power is wielded judiciously.

To that end, I almost wish that Maya wasn’t kidnapped, and that Phoenix had to tackle this issue on a deeper, more philosophical level. However, that would be an entirely different script and I can’t fault the game developers for having their own vision and sticking to that vision. My curiosity is, frankly, not their problem.

But Matt Engarde’s guilt certainly is. And soon, we’ll finally get to the trial.

I convinced myself that by the end of this week’s batch of episodes, we would be finished with Phoenix Wright: Justice for All.

And I was a fool for believing that was the case.

I know that our client, Matt Engarde, didn’t actually kill Juan Corrida. If he had, our magatama would’ve detected his Psyche-Locks.

But a lot of the evidence still points to the possibility that he is the culprit, and it’s compelling. Could there be something we’re missing? Perhaps further investigation will yield fruit next time.

The revelations from the trial have called every assumption we had about the murder of Juan Corrida into question. While we aren’t starting from square one, we definitely need to rethink our approach.

And that starts with looking for new evidence.

And with that, we’re likely to wrap up Justice For All by the end of the next stream. Good timing too, since I will need to skip a week of recording to attend Anthrocon. If you happen to be attending, by all means let me know so we can meet up and say hi.

We knew going into this trial that Adrian Andrews had her own problems to deal with. But when it inevitably comes to light, will the poor girl be able to handle it.

And so we finally arrive at the meat of Farewell, My Turnabout.

While all the evidence pointed to Adrian Andrews, that’s simply because she’s the one who planted most of it to frame Matt Engarde. As misguided as her actions were, they were not the moves of a murderer. We should have figured it out from the very beginning: Juan Corrida was murdered by a professional assassin, the same one who kidnapped Maya.

And if we take that as a fact, then what does that mean for our client, Matt Engarde. We know he didn’t kill Corrida, but does that mean we can trust him.

In the real world, that doesn’t matter. Most lawyers would tell you (but specifically LegalEagle even though I can’t find the video) that believing in your client can actually make one worse at the job, because then they might miss avenues of attack the prosecution is likely to use against their client. A lawyer’s job is to provide legal counsel and representation so that a defendant can be granted a fair trial as they are entitled to under the law. For this reason, abdicating their duty, even when they know the client is guilty, is unethical practice.

However, here in the realm of fiction, this raises its own set of moral and ethical quandaries, one that parallels the different stances that Edgeworth and Franziska have regarding prosecution. As we continue the investigation, and the final trial, we’ll begin to explore what Justice For All has to say about both these questions.

Please look forward to it.

As we continue to expose inconsistencies and contradictions in Adrian Andrews’s testimony, it’s becoming clear that all the evidence points to her guilt. There’s simply no one else it could be. Wright?

Wright!?

Edgeworth has always been an intense man, but now he’s at a whole new level. As we’re about to find out, he’s done a lot of growing as a person and as a prosecutor while everyone thought he committed suicide. (Don’t think I forgot about that.)

And next time, he’ll get to demonstrate just how far he’ll go in service to his new philosophy.

We know for a fact that Matt Engarde was not the one who killed Juan Corrida. If he was, our magical lawyer superpowers would have told us.

But that leaves us with a penny dreadfully short list of suspects, including our next witness.

Obviously, this would be a poor finale if the case was cracked and the trial was over after a single day, so it’s no surprise that we’ll have more to unravel after this trial. What may be a surprise is that all of this is a prelude to what makes Farewell, My Turnabout such an interesting case in the canon of Ace Attorney.

And I can’t wait to discuss it in more detail.

As a prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth has the tools to handle all sorts of unruly witnesses on the stand… except for Wendy Oldbag. I don’t think anyone could get her in line.

But this was only the prelude. The real battle starts next week, when Adrian Andrews takes the stand.

We’re finally ready for trial. And you can bet Franziska von Karma won’t let us go that easily. Not after losing to us twice already.

Or not. Surprise plot twist, Edgeworth is our prosecutor for this final case. I can’t remember if I said this already, but it was apparently the original plan to have Edgeworth reprise his role as prosecutor for the entire game. However, the developers noticed that if they did that, he would be a great prosecutor in name only, losing every case he prosecuted on screen. Franziska was invented to solve that problem, creating a new adversary for Phoenix Wright so that they could save Edgeworth for his triumphant return here, in the final case.

And what a return it is, though we’ll go into why at a later date. For now, we have to focus on the trial.

As light-hearted as the Ace Attorney games are, there are times where they delve into darker, more serious topics. This is one of those times.

Content Warning: Depictions and descriptions of suicide and suicidal tendencies.

Despite how our actions seem on paper, and how glib I am about them, I do appreciate how empathetic the writing here is regarding Adrian Andrews attempted suicide and her desire to set her life back in order afterwards. It’s clear that she doesn’t think very highly of herself, but it’s also clear that the game doesn’t share in her opinion. Even Phoenix is very gentle with her feelings and does promise to respect her wishes and keep it a secret. And he’s also careful not to condemn her for her actions.

There are still areas on improvement of course, but given the times this was surprisingly forward thinking.

Our most important investigation yet is underway, with Maya Fey’s life hanging in the balance. If Matt Engarde truly didn’t kill the victim, then we need to find another suspect quickly. The trial is fast approaching.

I preface this by saying that I personally love Miles Edgeworth. He is one of my favorite characters in the Ace Attorney games and I am far from alone in that.

However, as much as Phoenix himself is (rightfully) angry at him for leaving a suicide note and going away for a full year, the game itself doesn’t do enough to call attention to how fucked up it is to do that to people who love and care about you. One might argue that part of that is the urgency of the case we’re working on, but that’s never stopped this series from having a moment before.

After all, we’re already about to tackle some dark subjects very soon.