Phoenix Wright: For Great Justice!

Welcome to Pixellated Culture. This week we'll be looking at Phoenix Wright and his pursuit for justice.

This is going to be a bit of an odd post. Since this is on my calendar as a history week, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney seems like an obvious choice- legal systems and history go together very well. However, getting into Phoenix Wright isn't very historical, just very legal. Legality and judiciary matters are still important and I'm going to discuss them anyway. I'm going to call it a "still counts" just a very loose "still counts."

I'm going to discuss a couple cases from the first game only, so beware spoilers, but not too many spoilers. I'm going to analyze Phoenix Wright's tireless pursuit for justice from a western perspective. Phoenix Wright's pursuit for Justice means a very different thing in Japan and has a completely different context. If you are interested in this, I recommend you read this article. This article is part of what got me thinking about Phoenix Wright.

In-universe, Phoenix Wright is part detective, part lawyer and has a grand total of four days to figure out an entire case. Obviously, this would never happen in real life and this allows for some interesting scenarios. In case 1-4 Turnabout Goodbyes, you have to cross examine a parrot. I am not making this us. You have to cross examine a parrot. Her name is Polly.

Image from the Ace Attorney Wiki page for Polly.

The reason for the cross examination is Phoenix is trying to prove the nameless crazy boat guy is neither crazy nor nameless. Polly is trained to repeat certain things. Those familiar with Phoenix Wright are aware case 1-4 deals with two cases- the murder of Hammond and a case from 15 years ago known as the DL-6 Incident. As the case for Hammond continues on, 1-4 and DL-6 become more and more intertwined. Eventually this leads to Phoenix proving Edgeworth is innocent in both and finding the real killer for both, right before the statute of limitations runs out on DL-6. Phoenix went out of his way to solve two cases, one of which he didn't have to solve. He is the embodiment of justice in this game. Going back to look at old cases is something relatively new in our world. We don't see Phoenix use any forensics besides basic ballistics on a bullet (and that's off-screen) in 1-4, yet he manages to solve two cases through simple logic. Phoenix basically becomes an embodiment of justice, finding the real criminals at a super-human pace.

Throughout this case we see Phoenix jump through hoops to get evidence. His tireless pursuit for the truth is what makes Phoenix special in Western eyes. Phoenix doesn't just want a not guilty verdict, he wants to find the real reason for the crime. We get a direct contrast with Hammond, who was the defense in DL-6. He encouraged his defendant to pretend to be insane as he couldn't find evidence that he was innocent. This ruined the defendant's life, as he could no longer keep his job, he had to maintain this ruse, and due to the stress of everything his fiance committed suicide. Phoenix Wright would never do that. In case 1-2, in his pursuit for the real killer Phoenix gets thrown in jail and now has to defend himself. And he does so spectacularly. Phoenix Wright is willing to put everything on the line to find the truth. Isn't that what we want our judicial system to be about? We want the verdict to reflect the truth.