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logicbuttonOkay! So, I promised ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seanachai that I'd tell her what happened at the end of the first Phoenix Wright game, because a hardware glitch kept her from ever seeing it. I started out just making a couple notes to remind myself of the storyline, but it was so much fun and the game went on so much longer than I thought it would that eventually it turned into a genuine recap, and then...well...
Gant takes the stand and says that Lana wants to make a statement. Lana tries to plead guilty, but Phoenix won't let her, so she tries to fire him, but Edgeworth won't let her allocute because he hasn't proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt. (Because that's totally always an issue with Edgeworth.) Edgeworth calls Ema as a witness.
Ema testifies about the night Neil Marshall was killed. The picture she drew on the back of the evidence list is presented to the court and joined up with the half that Edgeworth had. Ema testifies about the picture. Phoenix points out that the knife tip in the picture is broken, and he and Edgeworth object at each other for awhile about what that could mean. Finally, Phoenix suggests that the real murder weapon was the sword from the original King of Prosecutors award. They start to think that what Ema saw was actually Neil about to stab Darke, but are then distracted by the half of the evidence list that Edgeworth had had, which has what looks like a picture of the Blue Badger drawn on it, but turns out to be the airborne Unstable Jar at just the right angle. Incidentally, the Blue Badger kind of hurts my soul. Anyway, Phoenix then suggests that what happened was that Ema intervened and threw Neil Marshall, who she thought was Darke, into the sword held by Gant's suit of armor. It turns out that in his final moments, Neil wrote his killer's name on the piece of the jar in blood, but the blood has come off in places and left only dots, so you have to connect the dots to form the word "EMA". The court is so aghast that the judge orders a recess.
Gumshoe interrupts Phoenix and Edgeworth to bring Phoenix a book on evidence law from Lana. When court is back in session, Phoenix calls Gant to the stand. Gant testifies that he had nothing to do with the evidence cover-up, which Phoenix refutes by presenting the evidence found in his office. Gant accuses Phoenix of planting it there, saying that he would have no reason to cover anything up, but Phoenix responds that Gant must have been helping Lana by keeping her sister above suspicion and transferring her to the Prosecutor's office in exchange for using her as his puppet, which the judge takes to mean that Gant plays with puppets. (e.e) But Phoenix still has to prove that Gant is connected to the murder of Bruce Goodman. Good thing he has that evidence room entry record with Gant's ID number. Gant tries to say that he didn't see Goodman on the day of the murder, but because the lost item report would have had to go to Gant, and Goodman needed to get in the evidence room that day, he would have had to have seen him. Phoenix further says that Gant would have accompanied him to the evidence room, and Gant says that he just lent Goodman his card, but he can't have, because then the card would have been found on his body.
The focus shifts to how Goodman's body managed to get to the parking garage. It turns out that the body was inside Edgeworth's trunk all along, and Gant just put it there while Edgeworth was at the police station and then Edgeworth drove it unknowingly to the garage. Gasp! We couldn't be suggesting--surely not!--that Gant is the murderer! Oh, but we could. But unfortunately, we can't prove it. So Gant goes off to lunch, and they decide to call Lana to testify. But first, the judge orders a final rece--WAIT BUT GANT IS BACK and he's threatening Lana with prosecution of her sister for Neil Marshall's murder if Lana testifies against him. Okay, now it's time for the recess.
Outside the courtroom, Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Gumshoe chat about the trial, and it turns out that the "risk" incurred when the chief refuses to testify is that it also works "the other way around," which I really don't understand, but whatever. Also, Ema comes back! She says she's been watching the trial and is planning to come sit in the courtroom after the recess to watch her sister tell the truth.
Too bad Lana doesn't want to tell the truth. Well, she does tell part of the truth as she knows it: the jar was already broken when she got there, with blood on it, and she wiped the blood off all the pieces. But Phoenix notices that the piece that had been in Gant's safe was the only one that still had all the blood on it, meaning that Lana couldn't have gotten to it, and therefore she couldn't have been the first on the scene. So then she testifies that Gant helped her move everything around. Edgeworth is all, "oh isn't it unfortunate that nobody took a picture of the crime scene as it really was," but Lana is all, "yeah, actually, I gave you a picture, Wright," and Phoenix is all, "whut?! Oh, inside the book. I get it." It's a photo of Neil Marshall, covered in blood, impaled on the armor's sword. (I can see why this game is rated T...) So the picture is added to the court record, and Phoenix cross-exam--OH LOOK IT'S GANT. He's barging in to tell his side of the story, but Edgeworth explains that he can't do that, already having refused to testify earlier. Oh, so that's what that means. Well, Gant says he doesn't have to testify; he'll just let Phoenix's evidence do the talking! But Phoenix refuses to show the evidence (alternatively, he shows the evidence and gets a non-standard game over :D), so Gant tells them all about it, and I swear to God I can actually hear the Evil Overlord list calling his name, but anyway, then it's time for Phoenix to present the evidence for real. So he shows the piece of leather to the court, and it comes out that the handprint on it is Ema's. Everybody is completely appalled. Gant launches into a hubris-laden gloat about how he's going to press charges against Phoenix for concealing evidence. And so on. Until...Phoenix unveils the critical contradiction in the evidence: in the picture of the crime scene, the blood pouring out of Neil's mouth is all over his clothes, but the piece of his vest with the handprint is completely clean. What happened, you say? Well, Ema had only managed to throw Neil and Darke apart, and Neil hit his head and passed out. When Gant happened upon the scene, he tore the piece of Neil's vest with Ema's handprint off as insurance for later, then impaled Neil on the armor's sword, then ran away before Lana came in, I guess.
Gant's not finished yet, though! See, it seems that the piece of cloth is illegal evidence, presumably because it hasn't been approved by the police department (as defined in Rule 1 of Evidence Law). Of course, if this were Law & Order, I would be saying, "Well, DUH, presumably Gant had an expectation of privacy in a locked safe in his own office, which nobody ever even had a warrant to search." But this is Phoenix Wright, so I think he's full of crap. And look, it's Rule 2 of Evidence Law, here to back me up! The law is conveniently written so that it would have been wrong for Phoenix to present the cloth earlier, because the photo it related to had not yet been shown, but once it was shown, the cloth was fair game. So the cloth is in, and Gant is exposed as the true killer. "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for his meddling brother!" he more-or-less says.
It turns out that Jake Marshall has been trying for years to reopen the case, trying to find out the truth about what happened to his brother. (Aww.) He recruited Angel Starr to help, then tried to recruit Goodman, but Goodman said no. So in order to keep the evidence from the case from being transferred (thereby closing the case for good), he stole Goodman's ID to take the evidence himself. That's when Goodman filed the lost item report and took Gant down to the evidence room to empty his locker. But when they got there, Goodman told Gant that he wanted to reopen the case. Gant wasn't sure what to do at first, but then he saw it..."that accursed knife." He stabbed Goodman with it, and Goodman bled to death in the evidence room. Gant cleaned up all the blood he could on the floor, but forgot about the handprint he left on Gumshoe's locker. He called Lana to help him move the body, and they put it in Edgeworth's trunk, breaking it in the process, which Gant justifies by explaining that Edgeworth makes more money than detectives do. (More than the Chief of Police? Really?) Phoenix feels it's horrible that he would get Lana involved, and Gant replies that she had as much to lose by having the truth come out as he did. (So of course she would be the one to stage Goodman's murder later...this makes no sense at all.) He says he tried to take all the evidence from the locker, and he just kind of forgot about the glove and jar fragments. Oh my goodness, then he almost actually says that he would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids! His words are "I have to hand it to them. They do their jobs well."
Well, things are wrapping up nicely. The judge is disappointed that Gant is no longer the person he used to be, and Gant predicts that "Wrighto" and "Worthy" are the wave of the future. Phoenix tells Lana that since Ema never did anything wrong, and Gant is the real bad guy, she can go ahead and come out with everything she's been up to for the past two years. Lana thanks Phoenix, and actually smiles! (Aww!) She thanks Edgeworth, too, saying that she knows what he must have been going through as well over the past couple days. Edgeworth acts all aloof, but we know what's going on in his woobie little heart, don't we? Well, Phoenix does, anyway. And so does Lana. And so does the judge, in fact, who nevertheless tells Lana that she will still have to go on trial for acting as Gant's accomplice. Lana's cool with that; at the moment she's too busy smiling. She is pronounced Not Guilty.
Outside the courtroom, Ema confides to Phoenix that she wishes Lana had said something to her, too. It's the perfect time, of course, for Gumshoe to interrupt. But this time, he's here to escort Lana to Ema. Lana apologizes to Ema for turning her back on her for the past two years, saying that she was a fool for deceiving Ema and being so distant. Ema says that it's no big deal; she always knew that Lana would come back to her. Lana is overcome, and they hug, and it is SO DAMN CUTE. Phoenix tells us the moral of the story. "We must always strive to make up for our mistakes," he says. "Why should we make up for our mistakes? Because in so doing...we can find the way back to our path. And once we've found our path, we can move on from our past mistakes toward a brighter future." Lana says another thank-you to Phoenix and Gumshoe. Then she tells Edgeworth to "stop hiding and come over here." (Hee!) Edgeworth grumpily congratulates Phoenix and Lana, does the eyebrow thing, and tries to leave, but Lana stops him, telling him that she hopes he doesn't blame himself for things that wouldn't have happened if she and Gant hadn't been corrupt. "It's too late for me," says Edgeworth as the emo music plays. "I realized today that I can't change my own mistakes!" Everybody is extremely confused, except me, because I'm too busy crying with laughter. "Not only that, but I don't even trust myself anymore. Chief Gant was right..." and he says that because he is like Gant in his hatred of crime, he is destined to follow in Gant's footsteps of corruptness! or something. And that he can no longer be a prosecutor. Lana smacks him down by telling him that, hello, he might have to go corrupt working alone, but he wasn't alone in that trial today--he had Phoenix! In fact, it's not even just a metaphorical partnership; one piece of evidence would never have come out if they hadn't worked together to provide it. It's the evidence list with the drawing on the back, one half of which Phoenix had, the other of which Edgeworth had. Edgeworth mumbles that he has to go now. Phoenix calls him back, telling him that that day's trial could make or break him as a prosecutor, and that he'll be waiting for him in court. Edgeworth grins, thanks Phoenix, and leaves. (:D) Lana and Ema say their goodbyes. Phoenix waxes philosophical on the next chapter of his life, specifically, that he feels it's time for a journey of rediscovery. Gumshoe interrupts yet again to tell him not to go trekking off just yet, pal! Apparently Phoenix is the one who is going to be paying the guard Gumshoe bribed to keep Lana out of jail for half an hour. Ema suggests they all go to the jail together to see her off, but Phoenix objects for some reason.
Roll credits! Fingerprint powder is spread across the touchscreen and blown away to reveal names, while the other screen shows everybody talking about what happened to them afterwards.
Lana is in prison and no longer Chief Prosecutor, obviously. But Ema's going to be taken care of by a coroner friend of hers in Europe. Gumshoe is still on the force, because apparently penalizing him any further would be harder on the department than firing him. I don't pretend to understand this. Meekins's new job is watering Billy the cactus. The Blue Badger falls apart. Jake Marshall is in prison too, having steak lunches smuggled in for him by Angel Starr, who has a prison guard boyfriend. Angel is still a lunch lady, with a new Turnabout Special, a lunch with a bitter top and sweet bottom. The judge has misplaced his gavel. Maya is still training, but misses Phoenix and his objections. Edgeworth still has his ridiculous flamboyant office with the bellboy from the second case. Ema goes off to Europe, thanking Phoenix one last time. Inside the book Lana gave her is a really adorable old picture of the two of them saluting the camera. THE END.
Wait a minute. I just remembered. When Phoenix examines Edgeworth's office, he keeps imagining Gumshoe getting Edgeworth case files from his bookcase and doing something in conjunction with Edgeworth's desk. They never followed up on that! Are we supposed to assume that Edgeworth and Gumshoe were, in fact, bending each other over the desk and pinning each other to the bookcase?! Oh my god! This game is filthy! I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
I am starting the second game right this second! It is pretty awesome!
seanachai that I'd tell her what happened at the end of the first Phoenix Wright game, because a hardware glitch kept her from ever seeing it. I started out just making a couple notes to remind myself of the storyline, but it was so much fun and the game went on so much longer than I thought it would that eventually it turned into a genuine recap, and then...well...Gant takes the stand and says that Lana wants to make a statement. Lana tries to plead guilty, but Phoenix won't let her, so she tries to fire him, but Edgeworth won't let her allocute because he hasn't proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt. (Because that's totally always an issue with Edgeworth.) Edgeworth calls Ema as a witness.
Ema testifies about the night Neil Marshall was killed. The picture she drew on the back of the evidence list is presented to the court and joined up with the half that Edgeworth had. Ema testifies about the picture. Phoenix points out that the knife tip in the picture is broken, and he and Edgeworth object at each other for awhile about what that could mean. Finally, Phoenix suggests that the real murder weapon was the sword from the original King of Prosecutors award. They start to think that what Ema saw was actually Neil about to stab Darke, but are then distracted by the half of the evidence list that Edgeworth had had, which has what looks like a picture of the Blue Badger drawn on it, but turns out to be the airborne Unstable Jar at just the right angle. Incidentally, the Blue Badger kind of hurts my soul. Anyway, Phoenix then suggests that what happened was that Ema intervened and threw Neil Marshall, who she thought was Darke, into the sword held by Gant's suit of armor. It turns out that in his final moments, Neil wrote his killer's name on the piece of the jar in blood, but the blood has come off in places and left only dots, so you have to connect the dots to form the word "EMA". The court is so aghast that the judge orders a recess.
Gumshoe interrupts Phoenix and Edgeworth to bring Phoenix a book on evidence law from Lana. When court is back in session, Phoenix calls Gant to the stand. Gant testifies that he had nothing to do with the evidence cover-up, which Phoenix refutes by presenting the evidence found in his office. Gant accuses Phoenix of planting it there, saying that he would have no reason to cover anything up, but Phoenix responds that Gant must have been helping Lana by keeping her sister above suspicion and transferring her to the Prosecutor's office in exchange for using her as his puppet, which the judge takes to mean that Gant plays with puppets. (e.e) But Phoenix still has to prove that Gant is connected to the murder of Bruce Goodman. Good thing he has that evidence room entry record with Gant's ID number. Gant tries to say that he didn't see Goodman on the day of the murder, but because the lost item report would have had to go to Gant, and Goodman needed to get in the evidence room that day, he would have had to have seen him. Phoenix further says that Gant would have accompanied him to the evidence room, and Gant says that he just lent Goodman his card, but he can't have, because then the card would have been found on his body.
The focus shifts to how Goodman's body managed to get to the parking garage. It turns out that the body was inside Edgeworth's trunk all along, and Gant just put it there while Edgeworth was at the police station and then Edgeworth drove it unknowingly to the garage. Gasp! We couldn't be suggesting--surely not!--that Gant is the murderer! Oh, but we could. But unfortunately, we can't prove it. So Gant goes off to lunch, and they decide to call Lana to testify. But first, the judge orders a final rece--WAIT BUT GANT IS BACK and he's threatening Lana with prosecution of her sister for Neil Marshall's murder if Lana testifies against him. Okay, now it's time for the recess.
Outside the courtroom, Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Gumshoe chat about the trial, and it turns out that the "risk" incurred when the chief refuses to testify is that it also works "the other way around," which I really don't understand, but whatever. Also, Ema comes back! She says she's been watching the trial and is planning to come sit in the courtroom after the recess to watch her sister tell the truth.
Too bad Lana doesn't want to tell the truth. Well, she does tell part of the truth as she knows it: the jar was already broken when she got there, with blood on it, and she wiped the blood off all the pieces. But Phoenix notices that the piece that had been in Gant's safe was the only one that still had all the blood on it, meaning that Lana couldn't have gotten to it, and therefore she couldn't have been the first on the scene. So then she testifies that Gant helped her move everything around. Edgeworth is all, "oh isn't it unfortunate that nobody took a picture of the crime scene as it really was," but Lana is all, "yeah, actually, I gave you a picture, Wright," and Phoenix is all, "whut?! Oh, inside the book. I get it." It's a photo of Neil Marshall, covered in blood, impaled on the armor's sword. (I can see why this game is rated T...) So the picture is added to the court record, and Phoenix cross-exam--OH LOOK IT'S GANT. He's barging in to tell his side of the story, but Edgeworth explains that he can't do that, already having refused to testify earlier. Oh, so that's what that means. Well, Gant says he doesn't have to testify; he'll just let Phoenix's evidence do the talking! But Phoenix refuses to show the evidence (alternatively, he shows the evidence and gets a non-standard game over :D), so Gant tells them all about it, and I swear to God I can actually hear the Evil Overlord list calling his name, but anyway, then it's time for Phoenix to present the evidence for real. So he shows the piece of leather to the court, and it comes out that the handprint on it is Ema's. Everybody is completely appalled. Gant launches into a hubris-laden gloat about how he's going to press charges against Phoenix for concealing evidence. And so on. Until...Phoenix unveils the critical contradiction in the evidence: in the picture of the crime scene, the blood pouring out of Neil's mouth is all over his clothes, but the piece of his vest with the handprint is completely clean. What happened, you say? Well, Ema had only managed to throw Neil and Darke apart, and Neil hit his head and passed out. When Gant happened upon the scene, he tore the piece of Neil's vest with Ema's handprint off as insurance for later, then impaled Neil on the armor's sword, then ran away before Lana came in, I guess.
Gant's not finished yet, though! See, it seems that the piece of cloth is illegal evidence, presumably because it hasn't been approved by the police department (as defined in Rule 1 of Evidence Law). Of course, if this were Law & Order, I would be saying, "Well, DUH, presumably Gant had an expectation of privacy in a locked safe in his own office, which nobody ever even had a warrant to search." But this is Phoenix Wright, so I think he's full of crap. And look, it's Rule 2 of Evidence Law, here to back me up! The law is conveniently written so that it would have been wrong for Phoenix to present the cloth earlier, because the photo it related to had not yet been shown, but once it was shown, the cloth was fair game. So the cloth is in, and Gant is exposed as the true killer. "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for his meddling brother!" he more-or-less says.
It turns out that Jake Marshall has been trying for years to reopen the case, trying to find out the truth about what happened to his brother. (Aww.) He recruited Angel Starr to help, then tried to recruit Goodman, but Goodman said no. So in order to keep the evidence from the case from being transferred (thereby closing the case for good), he stole Goodman's ID to take the evidence himself. That's when Goodman filed the lost item report and took Gant down to the evidence room to empty his locker. But when they got there, Goodman told Gant that he wanted to reopen the case. Gant wasn't sure what to do at first, but then he saw it..."that accursed knife." He stabbed Goodman with it, and Goodman bled to death in the evidence room. Gant cleaned up all the blood he could on the floor, but forgot about the handprint he left on Gumshoe's locker. He called Lana to help him move the body, and they put it in Edgeworth's trunk, breaking it in the process, which Gant justifies by explaining that Edgeworth makes more money than detectives do. (More than the Chief of Police? Really?) Phoenix feels it's horrible that he would get Lana involved, and Gant replies that she had as much to lose by having the truth come out as he did. (So of course she would be the one to stage Goodman's murder later...this makes no sense at all.) He says he tried to take all the evidence from the locker, and he just kind of forgot about the glove and jar fragments. Oh my goodness, then he almost actually says that he would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids! His words are "I have to hand it to them. They do their jobs well."
Well, things are wrapping up nicely. The judge is disappointed that Gant is no longer the person he used to be, and Gant predicts that "Wrighto" and "Worthy" are the wave of the future. Phoenix tells Lana that since Ema never did anything wrong, and Gant is the real bad guy, she can go ahead and come out with everything she's been up to for the past two years. Lana thanks Phoenix, and actually smiles! (Aww!) She thanks Edgeworth, too, saying that she knows what he must have been going through as well over the past couple days. Edgeworth acts all aloof, but we know what's going on in his woobie little heart, don't we? Well, Phoenix does, anyway. And so does Lana. And so does the judge, in fact, who nevertheless tells Lana that she will still have to go on trial for acting as Gant's accomplice. Lana's cool with that; at the moment she's too busy smiling. She is pronounced Not Guilty.
Outside the courtroom, Ema confides to Phoenix that she wishes Lana had said something to her, too. It's the perfect time, of course, for Gumshoe to interrupt. But this time, he's here to escort Lana to Ema. Lana apologizes to Ema for turning her back on her for the past two years, saying that she was a fool for deceiving Ema and being so distant. Ema says that it's no big deal; she always knew that Lana would come back to her. Lana is overcome, and they hug, and it is SO DAMN CUTE. Phoenix tells us the moral of the story. "We must always strive to make up for our mistakes," he says. "Why should we make up for our mistakes? Because in so doing...we can find the way back to our path. And once we've found our path, we can move on from our past mistakes toward a brighter future." Lana says another thank-you to Phoenix and Gumshoe. Then she tells Edgeworth to "stop hiding and come over here." (Hee!) Edgeworth grumpily congratulates Phoenix and Lana, does the eyebrow thing, and tries to leave, but Lana stops him, telling him that she hopes he doesn't blame himself for things that wouldn't have happened if she and Gant hadn't been corrupt. "It's too late for me," says Edgeworth as the emo music plays. "I realized today that I can't change my own mistakes!" Everybody is extremely confused, except me, because I'm too busy crying with laughter. "Not only that, but I don't even trust myself anymore. Chief Gant was right..." and he says that because he is like Gant in his hatred of crime, he is destined to follow in Gant's footsteps of corruptness! or something. And that he can no longer be a prosecutor. Lana smacks him down by telling him that, hello, he might have to go corrupt working alone, but he wasn't alone in that trial today--he had Phoenix! In fact, it's not even just a metaphorical partnership; one piece of evidence would never have come out if they hadn't worked together to provide it. It's the evidence list with the drawing on the back, one half of which Phoenix had, the other of which Edgeworth had. Edgeworth mumbles that he has to go now. Phoenix calls him back, telling him that that day's trial could make or break him as a prosecutor, and that he'll be waiting for him in court. Edgeworth grins, thanks Phoenix, and leaves. (:D) Lana and Ema say their goodbyes. Phoenix waxes philosophical on the next chapter of his life, specifically, that he feels it's time for a journey of rediscovery. Gumshoe interrupts yet again to tell him not to go trekking off just yet, pal! Apparently Phoenix is the one who is going to be paying the guard Gumshoe bribed to keep Lana out of jail for half an hour. Ema suggests they all go to the jail together to see her off, but Phoenix objects for some reason.
Roll credits! Fingerprint powder is spread across the touchscreen and blown away to reveal names, while the other screen shows everybody talking about what happened to them afterwards.
Lana is in prison and no longer Chief Prosecutor, obviously. But Ema's going to be taken care of by a coroner friend of hers in Europe. Gumshoe is still on the force, because apparently penalizing him any further would be harder on the department than firing him. I don't pretend to understand this. Meekins's new job is watering Billy the cactus. The Blue Badger falls apart. Jake Marshall is in prison too, having steak lunches smuggled in for him by Angel Starr, who has a prison guard boyfriend. Angel is still a lunch lady, with a new Turnabout Special, a lunch with a bitter top and sweet bottom. The judge has misplaced his gavel. Maya is still training, but misses Phoenix and his objections. Edgeworth still has his ridiculous flamboyant office with the bellboy from the second case. Ema goes off to Europe, thanking Phoenix one last time. Inside the book Lana gave her is a really adorable old picture of the two of them saluting the camera. THE END.
Wait a minute. I just remembered. When Phoenix examines Edgeworth's office, he keeps imagining Gumshoe getting Edgeworth case files from his bookcase and doing something in conjunction with Edgeworth's desk. They never followed up on that! Are we supposed to assume that Edgeworth and Gumshoe were, in fact, bending each other over the desk and pinning each other to the bookcase?! Oh my god! This game is filthy! I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
I am starting the second game right this second! It is pretty awesome!
