This idea of Phoenix completely believing in his clients is the main conflict of Farewell, My Turnabout, and is what makes Engarde's reveal as the killer so memorable. Larry and Miles are both his childhood friends, Maya is Mia's younger sister, Will Powers may look intimidating but has a very kind, quiet demeanor and has no motive, and so on for the rest of the defendants. In the first two games I do think Phoenix takes on the defendants' cases because he genuinely believes they're innocent. I love Phoenix a lot but I'm not huge on the way a lot of the fandom portrays him and I think a big part of that is because a lot of people mistake his belief in his clients for naivety. That complete display of trust is so different from Edgeworth earlier and I'm just headinmyhands his growth in just this game!!!! Ahhh!! He has no safety net when he drags SL-9 into court (the exchange where the Judge is like "does this matter" and Edgeworth is "Yes and I will not explain" ohhh my goood) and he does this with no evidence - the only thing he has is Phoenix's word and he's like aight good enough for me. And he does this knowing that if this fails, it's probably the end of the line for him. He does this openly in court, in front of Gant and basically tells him and Lana to go to hell - it's not Phoenix that initiates this aggressive confrontation with Gant, it's Edgeworth.
There are multiple times in the trial he steps in to help Phoenix and he's the one who stops Lana from taking the guilty verdict when Phoenix can't do anything. He realizes that this whole case isn't about him and instead of just giving up, he helps Phoenix drag the truth to light. He's clearly uncertain about himself and his own competency (to the point where he drafts a letter of resignation) and he is humiliated in court and at work for his own hand in the SL-9 incident.Īnd his reaction to all of this is to put his absolute faith in Phoenix and toss all caution to the wind. He's in trouble with a lot of very powerful people and the case gives him confirmation that everything that had been hinted at in AA was true - the prosecutor's office is wildly corrupted and he's had a hand in this all along. Like the pressure Edgeworth is under during that case is immense. It's the big case we get with Edgeworth post resolution of DL-6 and his characterization in rfta makes me want to bite someone it's so good. The complete change in Edgeworth during this case and how much trust he has in Phoenix at this point is so much and I love it. I'm reviewing rfta for a fic and ngl it drives me insane.