Jade Defends: Phoenix Wright

[JadePharaoh]

Not the games, as they're still highly regarded, but rather the character himself (yes; defending the defender!), after the character assassination doled out by MatPat in his latest Game Theory video:



Oh, MatPat, MatPat, MatPat... And here I thought your "Ness = Sans" video was your weakest Game Theory to date. I know you like to over-dramatize, as your "Dr. Light is the true villain of the Megaman series" and "Mario is a psychopath" videos can attest. Yes, it is true that Phoenix does things that no lawyer would get away with in real life. But you're only focusing on a small piece of the picture. First of all, as you yourself point out, the series takes place in an ALTERNATE universe, so trying to apply laws from our world to those in an alternate universe just falls flat IMO.

But even if we disregard that, I do not think I can overstate just how HORRENDOUSLY corrupt this alternate legal system is. In this system, the accused is presumed GUILTY until proven innocent beyond a SHADOW of a doubt!! As MatPat himself points out, there is no jury; a single judge decides the fate of the defendant. Not only that, but we are told it's commonplace for prosecutors to forge evidence because they care more about getting convictions than discovering the truth. This seems to be an informed ability with Miles Edgeworth, as he seems to be a decent guy once we get to know him; his mentor, Manfried vonKarma, on the other hand... Speaking of the vonKarmas, the prosecutors clearly hold a disproportionally high amount of power in the courts, if daddy's little girl Francesca can WHIP attorneys, witnesses, even the JUDGE and is never ONCE punished. Godot has thrown hot coffee in Phoenix's face on at least one occasion as well. Hell, even Police Chief Gant is dirty.

The system looks disgustingly corrupt, and as a lawyer himself in that world, Phoenix likely knew that all too well. It only makes SENSE that he would decide he cannot fight this system by following the rules. He would have to bend them; he would have to withhold and/or tamper with evidence to give himself any kind of edge in the courtroom. Because if he didn't, scores of innocent people would have been wrongfully convicted of murder. We never actually see how severely people are sentenced for murder in this world (except in the Prof. Layton crossover *shudder* But that is another world separate from this one), but we can presume it's either the death penalty or rot in prison for the rest of your life. And while a couple of the killers in the series are indeed sympathetic, a majority of them are quite rotten individuals that would otherwise have walked free. To call Phoenix the most corrupt individual in this series is simply ridiculous. Sorry, MatPat, 'Legality =/= Morality', and Phoenix is far, FAR from the villain of this series.

[Ragnatz]

Yeah, I disagree with MatPat on this one. Nothing he accuses Phoenix of are things that the Prosecutors don't also do. Additionally, he accuses Phoenix of tampering with evidence, but you don't actually hide the receipt from the police. And honestly, him scoping out the scene is not that surprising given that he's panicking because his mentor just got killed. This video is totally a sham.

[JadePharaoh]

Here's another defense from YouTuber MangaKamen. He does into more detail on a lot of things than I do, since admittingly, I've only played through the Ace Attorney games once now, and some were done quite awhile ago (sadly, the games, while great, have that problem of, once you know what to do, and the story, there's not a whole lot of point to play them again, at least not for a good while...). Still, I'd say that's better than MatPat, who sounds as though he's only played the first game.

Some of Game Theory is very interesting, especially when MatPat brings out actual scientific research into things. But others, as MangaKamen points out, seem to be there as clickbait and rake in that sweet YouTube $$$. Such as his "Mario is the real villain of SMB", "Dr. Light is the real villain of Megaman", "Handsome Jack is the real hero of Borderlands", and once again, "Sans is Ness". Those ones, while still kinda interesting, are more "alternate character interpretation" and fan-wank than it is scientifically-based.

[Ragnatz]

Some of those arguments sounded awfully familiar...