All pronouns. Musician who likes owls, music, video games, baking, writing fanfic, and things set in space. Current obsessesions: Persona 5 Royal and Dragon age
I'll always find it funny how Edgeworth waits and beats around the bush, extremely conflicted when he admits he has "unnecessary feelings" regarding Wright, his childhood friend who he hasnt seen in years, in such a layered way that it scares him. Then fucking Klavier Gavin shoves him out the way and says "This is the first time I've felt this way about a man before" upon laying eyes on a random 5,4 man dressed in red with a big ass forehead.
The transition from the end of turnabout samurai to turnabout goodbyes is genuinely the funniest fucking thing that’s happened so far in this game because we go from Edgeworth saying some really gay shit to Wright and we cut to him shooting someone dead at point blank range
We finally step into the shoes of Phoenix Wright, rookie attorney, in his first court appearance as a lawyer, defending his childhood friend. Despite his behaviour in the previous case, he’s working under Mia Fey who gives Phoenix the push he needs to prove his friend innocent and catch the real killer. There’s a hint of something else on the horizon, however, as Phoenix implies that his reasons for becoming a lawyer are more complicated than you might think…
By our metrics, this should really be the Fifth Turnabout, am I right? It only took four cases (three of which are unresolved) and 15 ½ years to get here, but here we are. Phoenix Wright standing in court, ready to bluff his way through things until he can find some evidence and turn things around. There’s not much bluffing in this first case but he does get the only witness indicted which is kind of a turnabout. Considering this is the very first case of the very first game in the series, it’s pretty good. I’d rank this tutorial case solidly in the middle of the pack. There are definitely better ones and there are also ones that are waaaay worse.
You did it too, Mia! And then after that case traumatized you, you took on a different murder case. I really like that Phoenix ends up working for Mia after she saved him two years earlier but I do have to wonder what that interview was like. Did she make him promise not to eat evidence? Honestly though, the fact that Phoenix seemingly didn’t go to law school and passed the bar by studying on his own is wild. Mia was right to hire him, that level of dedication and commitment is worth it. Like I said with the last case, Phoenix Wright will go to some extraordinary lengths to help the people he cares about which is part of why I love him.
Let’s get back to the technology of this world. The fact that the victim’s cordless phone (which is apparently a novelty, at least to the judge) doesn’t work in a blackout is nonsense. It is 2016. Everybody has a phone. The localized blackout should not have mattered. This isn’t the funniest instance of tech weirdness, but it’s pretty good.
This is coming at the end of a very brief discussion of what the role of a lawyer is. Mia says that a lawyer can never truly know if their client is innocent or guilty, so all they can do is believe in them. This is a great sentiment that ends up important later and continues on with the “what is lawyer?” theme. More importantly, it speaks to an important part of both Mia and Phoenix’s characters, which is that they will follow their beliefs to the end. For Phoenix, that is frequently his belief not only in his clients but in his friends and family. Again, Dahlia was wrong when she said you can’t rely on him, but that’s not surprising.
I’m going to be straight with you here, Phoenix, it is absolutely for the best that you never get to tell Mia about this. The first part is okay, that you became interested in lawyers because someone stood up for you in a class trial, but the rest of it is just so much. Mia already knows that you would eat a glass bottle for someone you care about, she is not going to think highly of you becoming a lawyer to talk to your childhood crush. She is going to (rightly) question your judgement, because the truth of it is crazy. But we’ll get there when Phoenix’s full reasons come out in a few cases.
Bonus: An update to one of our counters:
Phoenix Wright Injury/Assault Count: 2 (had a toupée thrown at him)
by the way. it never is too late to decide you want to be happy. the woman who helped me get hormones didnt start hers until she was 70, and i met her at 73, beautiful and smiling - and told me that the last three years of her life had been her favorite. your favorites might be ahead of you too. why not hang around and find out?
hi, veilguard peeps, can we take a moment to talk about rook mercar? because rook mercar is possibly one of the most batshit rooks in the game and they deserve to be recognized as such.
but not only that, mercar's backstory shades the shadow dragons and venatori conflicts in very interesting ways so let's talk about them.
so first, the nessus job.
i don't blame you for forgetting (or not knowing, i know the shadow dragons aren't everyone's cup of tea) so here's your quick refresher from the shadow dragon background blurb found in the character creator:
Breaker of Bonds
“Rook risked everything to liberate the enslaved people of Tevinter, even knowing it would anger the ruling elite.
The foundling Rook was adopted into a military family and joined the Shadow Dragons to fight from the shadows for change in Minrathous. While guarding a visiting dignitary who was investigating a slavery ring in the nearby city of Nessus, Rook concluded that the mission would fail without throwing caution to the wind. Alone, s/he(/they) sneaked the dignitary deep into Venatori-controlled zones and brought him back, along with the rescued slaves. These actions brought Rook to the Venatori's attention, and the Shadow Dragons decided to keep Rook out of sight.”
that is the nessus job.
except this doesn't quite square with what the game has to say about it.
the background:
first, here's the viper's letter about the job:
so right away, note how weird it is that the viper's writing mercar's letter. i say this is weird because, with the other factions, the person writing rook's letter is someone they're familiar with, usually in a position of leadership. antoine and evka are the notable leadership exceptions here, having actually been involved in thorne's backstory actions.
here's the rub: mercar doesn't know the viper. they've heard of him, certainly, but when that little popup telling you that you've worked with these faction agents before appears, mercar doesn't have the option to act like they know the viper.
the lines mercar gets are:
it's an honor to stand beside a legend
i know he likes to make an entrance
i know he gets things done
now, i will grant you that some of the responses to mercar's comment indicate tarquin is familiar with both rook and ashur (his response to the honor line is 'well, that'll go straight to his head' while the entrance line earns the viper's comment 'no one watches the rooftops' and tarquin's exasperated 'sure, that's what he says') but the point is, for a character mercar is "supposed" to be very familiar with, neve still tells them about the name ashur. like, seriously, it's the same dialogue tag every rook gets.
which is weird because veilguard is actually pretty good at keeping track of rook's faction and seamlessly changing up the conversation while still getting across the relevant information.
but it doesn't stop there, oh no.
during mercar's unpacking scene, we get these default shadow dragon lines:
now, these right here ping for the following reasons:
varric isn't the "visiting dignitary" that rook was guarding, given that rook had to get to nessus before meeting varric
the fact that rook's backstory happens dao style, where all events are true but only one has duncan varric available to pluck rook out of the immediate consequences
minrathous slaves, specifically, are mentioned as being freed here, even though we're supposed to be in nessus. now i'm not saying that minrathous citizens can't be enslaved and sent elsewhere, i'm just pointing out the phrasing here
the magisters who were financially benefiting from the nessus ring (aka venatori and their backers) knew enough about rook to put a name and a face on them. the structure of the sentence here is that everyone knows who is "too much trouble" to keep around and that is fucking wild kids. no, seriously, that is wild. there is so much wild here, put a pin in it.
no, seriously, this matters and matches the backstory blurb that the job "brought Rook to the Venatori's attention." put a fucking pin in it.
whatever rook's feelings, they always take pride in freeing those slaves- impulsive rook just dislikes that it comes at the cost of putting the shadow dragons in danger (put a pin in it), righteous rook thinks that the shadows should have used the crackdown to start a full out war with the venatori and their magister backers mind you while finally stoic rook just hopes that the shadow dragons weathered the storm safely.
okay, so ready for more batshit mercar?
the next solas conversation is the one where rook tells solas why they're going to stop the gods and here's what mercar has to say about that operation:
i just want y'all to marinate in that little gem of a line for a sec.
done screaming yet? it's cool, take another minute. no one's doing it like mercar.
okay, so finally a fuller picture of mercar's backstory comes into focus, if you ignore the weird bits. like the fact that the shadows made a plan with varric to rescue a friend, which does not appear to be the original nessus job, mind you.
mercar met varric, something went screwy, and mercar and varric decided the only way they had a chance was to start an armed rebellion in the city of nessus. the slavery ring is busted, said rebellion is (apparently) put down, the venatori and the magisters know who to blame for it all, and mercar hightails it out of the country with varric. simple and straightforward, right?
wrong, we have so much to work through.
the fallout:
like why the fuck are ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in dock town, exactly? tarquin lives there but those three surely have a high town shadow dragon cell they can go bug, right? and why is ashur the only one of the three making any cell decisions? i mean, points to mae for being a decent house guest, i guess, but what exactly is going on here? why are the venatori breathing down the shop's neck, to the point that they knew its location well enough to deliberately target it in the save treviso route?
remember those pins? it's time to pull them.
i repeat: this is real fucking bad for the shadow dragons. unlike the rest of the origins, the shadows are a covert operation. they don't want anyone knowing who their members are, who their backers are, any of it. the people in power being able to identify shadow dragons is how you lose shadow dragons: to arrests, targeted killings, beatings, destruction of their livelihoods, etc. ya know, like the viper mentions in his letter.
the fact that the first warden can not only link rook's face and name to the shadow dragons but to very specific crimes, crimes for which rook can absolutely be arrested, should set off all the alarm bells. as dorian says, the man is more politician than warden and as charter's letter from marnas pell states, "Assume every noble Tevinter family not with Shadow Dragons has Venatori pulling strings." this is extremely bad.
after nessus, the venatori had rook's identity as mercar and what did they do? they started looking into every single person mercar had known contact with, every path they took, their home, their family, the bar they stopped in for breakfast that one time. that's how resistance cells die, by the way. including, potentially, mercar's. this is why the shadows were more than happy to see mercar out of the way for a while where they couldn't cause any more trouble; so long as they're not around, they can't compromise more of the various cells' activities and members. it's the safest move for literally everyone involved.
because the damage has been done:
mae's related to varric via marriage, by the way, if the full picture hasn't come into focus yet.
mercar and varric were id'ed in that rebellion, the venatori were pissed at the lost revenue streams and suddenly mae's knocked out of the magisterium?
yeah.
my guess is that there is no high town cell anymore because of the nessus job. for all that mae worked to ensure that dorian was out of the line of fire and squeaky clean, the shadows and their backers couldn't stop the venatori crackdown after nessus, as mentioned by ashur's letter. ashur and mae are here specifically because there is no other cell to go to.
this is why tarquin is snippy, by the by. mercar and the highbloods are drawing attention to him and endangering all of his people just by being there.
hang on, it gets worse.
because the venatori are obsessed with the viper and proving that he's the divine (he is the divine, for the record, there are too many ambient dialogues, codices, and missions pointing in that direction). and to that obsession, i say, what the fuck? how did they come to that conclusion, exactly? what trail did the divine leave behind that first got the venatori on his tail?
well, he's related to and has close ties with mae's family. secondly, the divine is known for being quietly supportive of slave liberation. but the real reason, i think, is the original nessus job.
because again, why were the shadows in nessus originally? why was mercar in nessus to meet varric in the first place? who was the "visiting dignitary" that mercar was guarding?
yeah, i think the dignitary was the divine. and i think he was there in his official capacity. it would handily explain the discrepancy that ashur knows mercar but mercar doesn't know ashur. while the divine might not have a lot of actual power, the power of the press and drawing attention to issues and plights should never be discounted. especially when it's a plausible excuse to get several minrathous shadows in place to shut down the nessus slaver ring.
the divine being guarded by a now known shadow dragon (the viper likely made an appearance, ashur is known to pop up when slave rebellions start) combined with his anti-slavery views and ties to anti-slavery politicians turned the venatori's eye on ashur's night job.
remember, the shadow dragons are officially labeled as insurgents; if the venatori can tie the divine and all his people to them? that would be a death knell for any political support for liberation. the checkmate for the anti-slavery cause for the next age.
tldr: mercar exposed their ties to the shadows (and possibly the divine's) by starting an armed rebellion with varric to free slaves and shut down a slaver hub. in response, the venatori sniped several cells using mercar and varric's likely contacts, which led to ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in the dock town shadow dragon cell instead of some high town cell.
A year after her first trial ended in tragedy, Mia Fey steps back into the courtroom to defend Phoenix Wright in his first chronological appearance, an immature college student accused of murdering his girlfriend’s ex. A few twists lead us back to Dahlia Hawthorne, who Mia has to prove has killed two more people since their last meeting, despite resistance from the Judge, prosecution, and her own client. We finally get a case with a proper resolution and a verdict, albeit with a warning from Dahlia that things between her and Mia aren’t over yet…
This is the first time that playing things chronologically really becomes interesting, as we get an immediate follow-up to the previous case. Despite it only being her second trial, Mia is much more confident. We already know that Dahlia has killed one person and drove another to suicide, so we join Mia with her immediate suspicion and desire to hurt someone. We also get Phoenix Wright’s first appearance and boy oh boy is it a lot.
Feenie, my poor boy, she is not. This is a great set-up for Phoenix’s fairly straightforward way of thinking (at least in the first trilogy) and his willingness to believe the best of people. Him showing the bottle necklace to everyone is also a fun nod to him doing that with his attorney’s badge all the time. Feenie is obviously very immature and annoying, but I definitely knew a guy like this in university.
This is a very interesting statement in light of an accusation levelled against Phoenix in the future, by someone related to this case no less. We’ll come back to this at some point.
For now, something I like about seeing these two cases back-to-back is how Dahlia is more fully able to manipulate the court. In the previous case, Edgeworth was clearly taking advantage of her demeanour but was not taken in the way Payne is here (Edgeworth would never have said he trusts his life to her). Here it’s fully on display, with Payne, the judge, and Feenie all under her spell. In Feenie’s defense, he does say that she’s a different person on the witness stand than the person he knew…
Phoenix Wright does a lot of ridiculous things in this series, but this is absolutely the funniest. What do you mean you chewed up and ate a metal and glass necklace????? It is also very funny that Mia asks for medical attention but is dismissed because Phoenix doesn’t get poisoned. HE ATE GLASS!!!!! He needs medical attention!!!!
It’s worth saying that Phoenix is my second favourite series character after Edgeworth. They do a really good job making him a character and not just a blank slate. His character arcs are interesting (even if some of the more interesting stuff ends up getting glossed over later in the series) and I really love his relationships with the people important to him. Dahlia is wrong when she said women can’t rely on him. If you’re important to Phoenix Wright, you can rely on him for a hell of a lot.
Speaking of people important to Phoenix Wright… It is absolutely for the best that Feenie doesn’t encounter him now. Can you imagine that meeting? It is also extremely funny that Feenie is claiming that Dahlia is the love of his life while studying law on the side just so that he can meet Edgeworth. Okay bro, whatever you say.
Back to the theme of “what is a lawyer,” we get Phoenix’s early view and Mia’s agreement. So far, a lawyer is a friend to the friendless, someone who smiles no matter how bad it gets, and someone who can help people when they’re in trouble, while a prosecutor is someone who finds all criminals guilty. It’s not surprising that this is Phoenix’s current view, given his experience as a child and now with Mia.
With this case we finally get our first verdict handed down, and it’s Not Guilty! In my opinion, this is the second-best tutorial case of the series. It has an interesting twist and is involved with the rest of the game it belongs to in important ways. Thankfully we’re going to get a lot more resolutions from here on. Before we get to our next case, let’s add a couple of counters:
Phoenix Wright Indictment Count: 1
Phoenix Wright Injury/Assault Count: 1 (eating a poisoned glass bottle)
Bonus: Definitely something you want your lawyer to be thinking.
