Lets Play / Ace Attorney with an Actual Lawyer!

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Ace Attorney with an Actual Lawyer! is a series of Let's Play videos by SaveDataTeam on Twitch and YouTube. One of many Let’s Plays, playthroughs, or reactions videos of the Ace Attorney franchise where the main selling point is the presence of a real lawyer to offer feedback on the (lack of) legal realism in the series, this series aims to cover as many games in the series as possible, and as such it has run for long enough to develop its fair share of Running Gags and in-jokes among its dedicated community to distinguish itself. There is an additional segment prefacing some videos in which the lawyer reads a question from a state bar examination^note initially limited to the state of Ohio before branching out to include questions from other states’ bar exams and the rest of the team tries to answer it, crafting a sort of lore for the fictional Cloudcuckooland of Anytown that most of the questions’ hypothetical scenarios are set in.

The members of SaveDataTeam that star in the series are Zak (the host and founder of the team, editor for the YouTube uploads, and character voice for Phoenix, Apollo, Furio Tigre, Terry Fawles, the Judge’s Canadian brother, Ryunosuke, Rei Membami, and Raiten Menimemo), Wes (voice actor, provides most of the other character voices) and Prij (the titular actual lawyer, character voice for Bruce Goodman, Pearl Fey, Trucy Wright, Athena Cykes, and Iris Wilson), all playing off of each other and discussing various—often nerdy—topics between them while playing the games, from Yu-Gi-Oh! to Kingdom Hearts to Metal Gear.

The playthrough for the first game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney can be found here.

The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All videos can be found here.

The videos for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations can be found here.

The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney playthrough can be found here.

For Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies installments, see here.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles can be viewed here.

The bar exam questions can be found here.

Spoilers for the games are unmarked!

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The series provides examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming:
  • Juan Corrida’s name is pronounced incorrectly by Gumshoe every time. Zak briefly pronounces it correctly as Phoenix (complete with rolling the r) before rolling back and deciding that it would be more in-character for Phoenix to say it wrong as well.
  • The Judge consistently addresses Furio Tigre as Mister Furry-O Tigger.
• Accidental Marriage: When Maya talks about Pearl’s Disappeared Daddy Issues to Phoenix to explain why she’s a Shipper on Deck for them, she starts by talking about a Kurain village custom. Prij assumes that she’s going to reveal that Maya and Phoenix somehow got into an Arranged Marriage-type deal and Kurain is a cult.
• Accidental Murder: In the “Diamonds Are Forever” bar exam question from New Jersey, Zak and Wes are horrified when Henry accidentally kills his daughter, Veronica, while trying to kill his wife.
  Zak: Veronica, she wasn't even made until this point!
• Actually Pretty Funny: Although Prij clearly fumbles to think of a name for the boyfriend the Judge thinks gave Mimi Miney her car when she says it’s from the U.K., Zak is amused enough by the result being Ulysses Klippenstein that he refrains from giving him any Fs in the chat.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In general, any character who they joke is an Eldritch Abomination is treated as this and subsequently tends to get ranked in the “I died :[“ tier during the “If We Would Win in a Fight” stream. Luke Atmey’s status as being everyone at once lands him in the “Stalemate” tier due to every fight he's in being a Mirror Match by default. Winston Payne downplays this, as while his vampire powers prevent him from dying and elevate him from the “I Kill This Fool :]” tier, he still doesn’t get into any of the winning tiers because he’s too much of an incel to be an effective fighter (and the likelihood of Prij having garlic breath to use against him due to his diet of Italian food).
  • Mike Meekins, while still the incompetent loser he is in canon, somehow got turned into an almighty Humanoid Abomination who is an Ultra Instinct assassin, and a part-time theoretical physicist whose “Warp Theory” allows him to open portals to the blood dimension, giving him the means to bring people Back from the Dead and an inexhaustible source of ammunition to bloodbend with. But he still can’t get laid.
• Adapted Out: Prij decides to omit the student^note named Brandy in the original question who got suspended for wearing a protest armband when explaining the question about students getting suspended from school and asserting freedom of speech defenses, under the reasoning that her portion of the question simply isn’t funny enough to spend time on compared to Peter who made a fake social media profile calling the principal Big Butt and Clay & Daryl who put up Pot Smokers for Peter posters.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: This is presumably the reason why Clay makes “Pot Smokers for Peter” posters, since nowhere else in the question shows any students to be guilty of drug use. For the sake of alliterative appeal, Wes also wants “Kush Smokers for Clay” posters to exist.
• The Alcoholic: The Judge is constantly eager to end trials early so he can make it to Happy Hour at whatever restaurant will allow him, and his inebriation is sometimes responsible for his many moments of senility.
• Alliterative Name: Some of the bar exam question characters have such names, like Adam Arsonist and Curt Cook.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: During an Apollo Justice stream, Chris announces the breaking news of Henry Kissinger’s death, which just about everyone on the team is ecstatic to hear, as are the people in the chat that know who Kissinger is. Of note, Zak & Chris join in the celebration when Prij reveals that Kissinger was on his "Take a shot when he dies" list, Wes refers to his bathroom break as "pouring one out for the homie by taking a leak" in lieu of a shot, and the chat makes multiple large donations for Zak to use Kissinger’s profile on the YouTube thumbnail in place of the game character sprite usually put there (at least for the first few days of the initial upload until Zak gives it an Orwellian Retcon to replace him with Ema).
• Arch-Enemy: Once Meekins shows up in Turnabout Succession, the team quickly establishes Mr. Hat as his rival Eldritch Abomination who has done battle with him that shook the cosmos. As Nezumi notes, Mr. Hat has no blood and is therefore immune to being bloodbent by Meekins.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Many bar exam questions ask about what torts and charges could be brought to a defendant and what defenses they can assert in response, and some of the lists compiled include a hefty crime alongside something comparatively minor. For example, Homeowner in “Making a Backyard Pond with Explosives” is liable for every charge his neighbors sue him for, from the fist-sized rock that lacerated Nathan’s head to Esther tripping over the box he hid in her bushes.
• Art Evolution: Partway through Turnabout Serenade, the team switches from an emulated copy of Apollo Justice to the newly released Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy compilation, sharpening the graphics significantly.
• Attack Its Weak Point: For the “Ace Attorney characters Tier List Based on If We Would Win in a Fight” video, Prij points out whenever a character has a video game weak point he can target for massive damage, such as Godot’s visor, Victor Kudo’s nose, and the bullet wound in Manfred’s shoulder. That last one is not enough of a weakness to keep von Karma out of the “I died :[” tier because the team deems his stun gun and capacity for homicide are dangerous enough for them to not survive getting close enough to hit the weak point.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Shortly before it’s fully confirmed that Matt Engarde purchased the bear with the hidden camera that recorded Juan’s murder, the team expresses that Matt owning an expensive toothbrush with elephant hair bristles is reason enough to consider him a terrible person.
• Beach Episode: Episode 31 of the first playthrough has the team start the stream in their respective bathtubs, after promising a pool stream in honor of Damon Gant if they hit a $1,000 stream donation goal.
• Been There, Shaped History: Pangea was separated as a result of one of the battles between Mike Meekins and the Amazing Mr. Hat.
• Berserk Button: While he can tolerate some of the Artistic License – Law in the series, especially egregious examples of unprofessional conduct (e.g. the Judge being a gullible fool, Manfred von Karma controlling the trial, Franziska blatantly flaunting illegal evidence and whipping people) provoke an irate reaction from Prij, such as Flipping the Bird.
  Von Karma: I will have you held in contempt of court.
  Prij: YOU’RE in contempt of court, you fucknugget!
  • On a lighter note, Edgeworth claiming no one is perfect provokes the rage of von Karma.
  Prij!von Karma: DID SOMEONE SAY PERFECTIOOOON?!?! EDGEWOOOORTH!!!
• Big "NO!": Prij lets out one in Bridge to the Turnabout when Laurice Deauxnim turns out to be Larry. His microphone only picks up the first part of it.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Zak sarcastically asks if being one is one of Godot’s many so-called rules after he cites asking for name and profession as one of his rules.
  Godot: How'd you know rule number 476: "Be a stupid poo poo butt head."
• Bond One-Liner: Prij chose to do the “Diamonds Are Forever” bar exam question primarily because of the final line where Henry explains why he wanted to kill his wife.
  Prij: “I just wanted to get my wife a ring. But I guess she didn’t like it, so I decided to shoot her instead. After all, wives come and go—but diamonds are forever.”
• Bullying a Dragon: The Carjacker’s response to Mom’s threatening him with a gun is to walk towards her while laughing evilly. He stops laughing once she makes good on her threat and shoots him in the knee.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Whenever Zak makes a joke that doesn't quite land (e.g. Dick Jumshoe), Wes is quick to rally the viewers into giving him Fs in the chat. This happens often enough that he is nicknamed Fak on occasion. Dick Jumshoe in particular is a Once Done, Never Forgotten joke that they refuse to let him live down. Rather tellingly, he commends Nezumi on how quickly she acclimates to making “dunk on Zak at all times” jokes when she joins the cast and says she’s going to fit right in.
  • Lucky from “Lucky’s Unlucky Week”, who has an especially unlucky week being injured and subjected to horrible pain by the actions of Buster and the hospital.
• Calling Your Attacks:
  • The real life legal ramifications of this trope are examined in “Lucky’s Unlucky Week”. Lucky didn’t see the Buster Special snowball coming at him on the first day so assault (the apprehension of harmful contact) is not applicable to Buster, but he can still be charged with battery (the harmful contact itself) in that incident. By contrast, Buster announcing that he was going to throw another Buster Special on the third day makes him guilty of assault, but not battery since he didn’t actually throw it that time, though he is still liable for the injury Lucky sustained when reacting to the assault.
  • Reunion, and Turnabout has the team imagining that Phoenix goes, “Chains of Justice!” whenever he uses the magatama to view Psyche-Locks. Prij also figures that Manfred von Karma screams, “Objection!” in his signature Evil Sounds Deep voice whenever he zaps someone with his stun guns during his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Phoenix after busting out of prison.
• Catchphrase: The team would say "Got him!" whenever they successfully contradict a statement with evidence.
• City of Adventure: Anytown OH is the setting of most of the bar exam questions, and host to the many bizarre, exciting events detailed in the hypotheticals presented by the questions.
• Cloudcuckooland: Anytown OH is home to residents who are prone to some truly cartoonish behavior when committing crimes or responding to criminal activity. Its tagline is "It's better than prison! (But you still might end up there)"
• Combat Pragmatist: In the “If We Would Win in a Fight” tierlist, the team puts Adrian Andrews in the “I Kill This Fool :]” tier, after Wes pointed out they can just exploit Adrian's traumas to win (as well as the fact Adrian is just very clumsy). They also joke about pushing Edgeworth’s DL-6 Trauma Button by stomping to simulate earthquakes or to get him in an elevator for an advantage.
• Composite Character:
  • Occasionally, characters from the bar exam questions will be jokingly treated as existing Ace Attorney characters, and vice versa. For example, the homicidal Nurse from "Flying School Inc." is Mimi Miney (or possibly Agent 47 on a mission), Miles Edgeworth is the Attorney pressing charges in the Spousal Privilege question, and the Stranger that Wife hired in “Marital Disputes” is Joe Darke. Also, the Judge’s grandson (who is mentioned in the games but never appears) is Wes himself.
  • After seeing how Taketsuchi Auchi is both a simp for Jezaille Brett and a misogynist against Susato, and therefore too much of an incel to possibly conceive children for Winston Payne to be his descendant in the present, the team decides that Auchi is an immortal incel vampire and Winston Payne is just him going by a new name.
• Crack Pairing: Invoked with the Galottica MaxHart ship (pairing of Lotta Hart with Maximillion Galactica from Turnabout Big Top), which comes about as a joke based on the both of them using made up Southern phrases, but the community’s fanart of the pairing is adorable enough to make the team begin shipping them unironically. They also hate that the pairing gives them positive feelings about two characters that they otherwise loathe entirely.
• Cruel Mercy: In addition to lacking the Killing Intent that lands the canonical murderers in the “I died :[“ tier of the fight tierlist, Franziska is strong enough to kill the team but remains in the “I lose :(” tier because leaving an opponent alive to wallow in their shame is something she’d consider a worse fate than simply killing them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The “If We Would Win in a Fight” Tier List has opposite tiers for whether the team is on the giving or receiving end of a curbstomp when fighting a character. “I Kill This Fool :]” is for people they can easily defeat, and “I died :[” is for characters who most certainly destroy them.
• Disappeared Dad: Once Trucy’s missing father is brought to light, Prij realizes that he’s basically been typecast to voice little girl characters who are dealing with some kind of Parental Abandonment. He also makes a joke about how this typecasting should belong to Chris, a joke he feels comfortably certain Chris would have made himself.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Some of the answers to the bar exam questions have criminal plaintiffs asserting that the defendant exercised disproportionate enough force in protecting themselves from the plaintiffs’ crimes that they could arguably be charged with torts like intentional infliction of emotional distress.
  • The tenth question involves Defendant and his friends having Bully retaliate against a sports fan he got into a fight with, specifically by stabbing him “just to hurt.”
• A Dog Named "Dog": Many characters from bar exam questions are only identified by their role in the incidents or relation to others, e.g. Robber, Daughter, Attorney, Nurse, Resident, etc. and are not given a name besides that.
• Drives Like Crazy: Mom is mentioned to have struck several roadside mailboxes and subsequently damaged Bystander’s car while trying to rescue her baby in “The Carjacker” question.
• Dull Surprise: Wes is asked to play the bailiff in Farewell, My Turnabout as the most generic guy ever, which results in him delivering the bailiff’s lines with no emotive tone whatsoever. It makes for a major Mood Whiplash since the bailiff’s supposed to be giving a Wham Line in reporting that Franziska has been shot.
• Dysfunctional Family: The family from “Marital Disputes” qualifies. Husband is cheating on Wife with a Mistress, but even without knowing this Wife is plotting to murder him, and their children hate him enough that they almost get involved in the assassination.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The earliest episodes end with Zak saying, “I plead the Fifth!” to close off. Later episodes would have him say, “Court is adjourned,” instead as a closing catchphrase.
  • At the beginning of the series, Prij makes the effort to dress professionally and look the part of an actual lawyer. As the series goes on, the rising temperatures and increasing length of the streams lead to him dressing more and more casually. For that matter, his commentary is initially more focused on pointing out the legal inaccuracies in the story, but since there’s such an abundance of artistic liberties taken throughout the franchise that pointing them out each time they appear would be redundant, he doesn’t call it out as frequently later on, mostly saving the complaints for especially funny and/or egregious moments.
  • The first episode to have a bar exam question omits the answer in the YouTube upload. Subsequent uploads would include Zak and Wes attempting to answer the question and Prij giving the answer afterwards.
• Edutainment Show: While the Let’s Play commentary is primarily focused on entertainment, sometimes there are moments where Prij is able to share his knowledge as an actual lawyer to educate the viewers and the rest of the team on certain legal concepts beyond the Captain Obvious lambasting of the Ace Attorney court system’s usual inaccuracies, such as when he explains voir dire (the preliminary examination process of a jury pool) and the difference between assault and battery. He also gives an Our Lawyers Advised This Trope disclaimer early on establishing that his legal advice is purely educational and cannot be taken as an example of attorney-client relationship should anyone try to sue him for bad counsel. To a certain extent, the answers to the bar exam questions do give some insight into real life legal rulings when explained, though the stream’s focus is usually on how outlandish the scenarios presented by the questions are.
• Eldritch Abomination: Plenty of jokes are made claiming that various characters are horrific creatures of the apocalypse. The list includes Polly the Parrot, Mr. Monkee, the Blue Badger, Mystic Ami’s soul, and Mike Meekins. They later decide that all birds in the series are such eldritch entities, with Acro’s birds being servants of Polly who compelled him to commit murder. By the time Luke Atmey is given time traveling powers to invoke Hijacked by Ganon in the most ridiculous ways, the team has realized that they tend to make the most foolish Joke Characters into all-powerful monstrosities, with the exception of Larry Butz.
• Eldritch Location:
  • The blood dimension, which Mike Meekins can open portals to via his warp theory. It’s been suggested that not only can he splatter blood on people from the portals, but that he can emerge from puddles of blood and even bring Joe Darke Back from the Dead. Wendy Oldbag is added to the blood dimension lore after she uses a creepy blood rain metaphor to describe herself as a Walking Disaster Area. Prij’s closet door apparently also leads to the blood dimension.
  • The Judge is capable of banishing people to the Shadow Realm from Yu-Gi-Oh! with his Millennium Gavel.
• Epic Fail: Prij makes sure to hang a massive lampshade on how quickly Godot’s plan in the final case fell apart due to sheer incompetence in keeping an eye on Pearl.
  Prij!Godot: But we’re terribly fucking bad at keeping track of a single 8-year-old. The core of our plan is keeping track of this 8-year-old, and we immediately failed at that part. Like, I wanna emphasize, step one of the plan, we had already fucked up, and it was an incredibly easy part of the plan. We are trash at this.
  Zak!Phoenix: Wait, you’re also terrible at keeping track of Pearls? Me too! I lost her for, like, three days!
  Prij!Godot: Like, we had a step list of our entire plan, and we didn’t even make it to bullet point two. We already had to throw things off, really, really mucked this up. Big oof-a-doof-a.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Wife in “Marital Disputes” is willing to rope anyone into her Zany Schemes to murder her Husband, but considers it a breach of contract and refuses to pay Stranger when he also kills the husband’s Mistress while carrying out the hit.
• Everytown, America: The setting of many bar exam questions is Anytown OH, which can function as wherever in Ohio the question could be. On a slightly wider scale but in the same principle, Prij notes that the fifth bar exam question is an example set in the fictional state of Franklin, which is used for hypotheticals about federal law.
• Evil Lawyer Joke: Prij is subject to several of these after he reveals that he looked back at his bar exam test results and found that he scored poorly on his ethics essay question.
• A Fool for a Client: Alex from the “Herbal Concoction” bar exam question is mentioned to have represented himself in a number of lawsuits. Unfortunately for his acquaintance Carol, she mistakenly believed this equated to him having familiarity with the law, and so she paid him $200 for legal consultation despite knowing that this is the full extent of his legal experience and that he is not actually licensed to practice law anywhere.
• Frothy Mugs of Water:
  • Rather than being alcohol censored into something nonalcoholic, the team decides that the bottles Jake Marshall drinks out of and decorates his office with are actually alcohol bottles that have been emptied of their alcoholic contents and refilled with apple juice, or “appy juice” as he calls it.
  • Subverted in the “Herbal Concoction” question, where Bob borrows money from his sister to invest in the titular herbal concoction to sell to his classmates. It doesn’t take long for the question to confirm that Bob was knowingly trying to sell an illegal drug and withheld that information from Carol.
• Groin Attack: After referencing the Cheech & Chong skit “Trippin’ in Court”, bailiffs like Yanni Yogi are known for smacking people in their peepee (and explicitly only the peepee, not the nuts, because they would enjoy that). The Judge orders the current bailiff in Turnabout Goodbyes to hit Phoenix especially hard when Manfred accuses him of being in a relationship with his seven-year-old granddaughter. The caretaker’s reaction to Phoenix sustaining this attack is part of Phoenix’s gambit to expose him as professional peepee-wrangling former bailiff Yanni Yogi.
• Happy Dance: Phoenix does one at the end of Bridge to the Turnabout when Iris confirms to the court that he does not have a Teeny Weenie as Dahlia would have everyone believe. The usual confetti is used up on the Judge declaring an “Above Average” verdict for Phoenix, as the explanation for why it doesn’t get thrown when the Judge actually gives Iris his “Not Guilty” verdict.
• Harmful to Minors:
  • Some of the bar exam questions delve into this, with a child being endangered by a criminal. The horrors of this realistic scenario are usually overshadowed by the absurdity of the actions their parents take to protect them.
  • It does not go unmentioned that Phoenix is being wildly irresponsible whenever he brings 8-year-old Pearl along with him into investigations involving potentially traumatic sights like dead bodies, or dangerous endeavors like the police raid on Matt Engarde’s mansion to hunt down an assassin. Prij in-character as Pearl makes sure to call out all the adults in that last example.
  Prij!Pearl: I know you’re not my legal guardians, but I’m calling CPS on all you’ asses!
• Has a Type: Prij’s type is reportedly Hiding Behind Your Bangs, which is why he simps for Angel Starr. This is brought up again when Farewell, My Turnabout introduces Matt Engarde and Adrian Andrews, though in regards to the former, Prij admits he’s "a boring straight dude" and can only muster platonic appreciation for Matt’s design rather than outright attraction. He changes his mind upon seeing Rule 63 fanart of Matt, however. Madame Tusspells also immediately gets his attention.
• #HashtagForLaughs: After Prij jokes that Zak had a thirty minute monologue cut from the end of Carol, they try to come up with a hashtag to demand the restoration of the scene in the same vein as #ReleaseTheSynderCut. Before they identify Todd Haynes as the director, Wes proposes #ReleaseTheSchneiderCut, as Zak’s full name happens to be Zak Schneider.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": The team picks up on the numerous double entendres in the games, such as the “enlargement” of the photograph Lotta took and the jaw-droppingly large strawberries Morgan offers.
• Hidden Depths: Outside the court, the Judge is apparently Wes’s grandpa and the one from whom he inherits his voice acting skills.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Parodied with Luke Atmey, who is actually responsible for many things beyond the crime in The Stolen Turnabout. Besides being behind QAnon, he is the Zodiac Killer, Ted Cruz, Franziska von Karma, the second shooter on the grassy knoll, and he was the elementary school teacher who accused Phoenix of stealing Edgeworth’s lunch money. He’s compared to Professor Zoom traveling through time and jerking off the Flash at super speed as in the Zoomposting memes.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": On rare occasions, the bar exam question characters will have their job in their actual name rather than simply being referred to by their job, like Adam Arsonist and home economics teacher Curt Cook.
• Hostility on the Set: invoked After Will Powers describes the heated rivalry between Juan Corrida and Matt Engarde, the team jokingly claims that Zak had a similar animosity with Cate Blanchett during the filming of Carol, to the point that she pulled underhanded tricks to get Zak’s promised thirty minute monologue scene excised from the final cut^note In real life, Zak played an extra in Carol as the waiter who delivered a lobster to the table next to Carol in the final scene.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Wes tries to claim that Edgeworth is not as Unskilled, but Strong as Prij believes because he watches so much Steel Samurai, but they quickly point out that watching action shows is a terrible way to learn how to fight and that the Steel Samurai’s superhero show moveset is probably poorly suited for an actual street fight to the death.
  Zak: If watching anime makes you a good fighter, Prij is fucking Bruce Lee!
• I'll Kill You!: After hyperbolically accusing Phoenix of being in a relationship with his granddaughter, Manfred von Karma threatens to kill him just like he killed Gregory Edgeworth, in the middle of court before Miles has even confessed to DL-6.
  Manfred: Bah! A mere coincidence, that’s all! My granddaughter has a dog she calls “Phoenix.”
  Phoenix: What?
  Manfred: Well, Mr. Phoenix Wright? Does this make you my granddaughter’s fiancee!? Huh!? Answer me, dammit! Do you have a romantic relationship with my granddaughter, you son of a bitch!? I’ll kill you, just like I killed Gregory Edgeworth! Aw, dammit. Curses, foiled me again. I’ll tase you, just like I tased you! She’s only seven years old!!!
  Phoenix: God…
  Manfred: You bastard!
  Judge: Phoenix Wright! Are you really in a relationship with a seven-year-old girl? I find you in contempt of court! Bailiff! Hit his peepee especially hard!
• In-Character Let's Play: The series briefly dabbles into this territory when Prij cosplays as Phoenix, and even further when Wes cosplays as the Judge, with the explanation that the Judge is Wes’s grandfather.
• In Spite of a Nail: Zak & Wes briefly joke about the possibility of Lamiroir voting Not Guilty not actually making a difference for Vera’s fate from the Bad Ending because of some other asshole in the Jurist System voting Guilty.
• Insult Backfire: Franziska assumes that “dumbess” is a word of great esteem and gladly accepts her crown as the Dumbess Queen when Phoenix calls her one in court.
• Ironic Name: Lucky from “Lucky’s Unlucky Week” goes through a series of injuries and misfortunes over the course of a week.
• It's the Same, So It Sucks: invokedPrij’s biggest gripe with Apollo Justice as a game is how many beats of the Gramarye plotline with Trucy are retreads of the Fey plotline and Maya from the original trilogy, in particular the fact that the ripping off happened in the immediate next game after its most prominent use in Trials and Tribulations.
• Joke of the Butt: The entire FNASS Running Gag revolves around jokes about an AU where the FNaF characters have thicc posteriors.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Some of the bar exam questions have people getting away scot-free with their crimes. Examples include Bully fatally stabbing Victim and fleeing while his friends get charged with conspiracy/complicity for his murder, Alex and Dealer scamming Carol and Bob out of money, and the Shoplifter who injured Patron and stole his car. Cook is also implied to get away with ruining Barber’s life because he legitimately believed Barber was selling illegal drugs and any libel charges that Barber pursues against Cook demand he bear the burden of proving that Cook knew it was a lie and spread it maliciously anyway.
  • Zig-Zagged in “Flying School Inc.” While FSI and AMI will be liable for their negligence causing the injuries of Instructor and Student, they are relieved of liability for the injuries sustained by Resident whose house was crashed into because Resident’s death was the result of a homicidal Nurse deciding to euthanize him even though he would have lived, which is considered an unforeseen crime and thus a superseding action that overrides whatever the two companies did. By contrast, Student died because the ambulance crashed while rushing to the hospital, which is foreseeable and considered an intervening cause that wouldn’t have happened if FSI and AMI hadn’t been negligent.
• Knight of Cerebus: Miles Edgeworth becomes this in the Farewell, My Turnabout playthrough when he tries to pressure Adrian Andrews into testifying by revealing her codependency issues and Bungled Suicide to the court. The team takes it seriously when the chat warns them that Edgeworth is about to do something that necessitates a content warning, and from the moment it happens until the end of that day of trial they noticeably crack jokes much less frequently (and the YouTube upload containing it has fewer silly edits) in order to treat the subject matter with due gravitas.
• Lethal Chef: Wife in “Marital Disputes” first tries to murder her Husband by preparing him a steak dinner with a lethal quantity of rat poison in the marinade, but he refused to eat it because she overcooked it, making her a lethal chef in both senses of the word.
• Long List: Upon Phoenix receiving a file naming those involved in the SL-9 Incident, the team begins adding more names to the list of involved persons. Larry Butz, Lotta Hart, Blanco Niño (Redd White), Manfred von Karma, Mr. Monkee, Gourdy, Phoenix himself, Gregory Edgeworth Back from the Dead, the shitty elementary school teacher who kicked off Phoenix’s origin story by accusing him of stealing Edgeworth’s lunch money, Wendy Oldbag, Missile the police dog, Charley the Plant, Metal Gear, Polly the Parrot, Flame and Adam Arsonist from the fourth bar exam question, Cactaser the original Pokémon, Coby the Cobra from “Cobras in Ohio”, Phoenix’s Disappeared Dad who went out for cigarettes, the entire Super Smash Bros. roster, Goofy, Ultra Instinct Shaggy, Organization XIII from the Kingdom Hearts series, and Nagito Komaeda are all supposedly involved in the SL-9 Incident.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Wes tends to make lots of sex jokes and gets told to go to horny jail as a result.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Pharm from “Cobras in Ohio” is represented by a stereotypical image of a mad scientist. Dr. Pharm himself may or may not be an example, as his research on cobra venom as an Alzheimer’s treatment is legitimate, but the sneaking around he did to feed Coby the Cobra is a bit less than reasonable.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Wife in “Marital Disputes” plans to have Husband’s car sabotaged for her second murder plan. Son refuses to be involved in the ridiculous plan, while Daughter purchases wire cutters for the task and promises to teach Wife how to cut the brake line, but changes her mind the day before. She later hires Stranger to make his assassination look like a robbery gone wrong.
• Make the Dog Testify: Upon getting to Phoenix’s infamous parrot cross-examination, Prij—after a brief This Is Gonna Suck & Screw This, I'm Outta Here reaction—reveals that he did in fact look up real life examples of this trope beforehand once Polly appeared, and while he could not find reputable sources, his research allows him to explain the real life implications of this trope. Namely, parrots cannot be made to testify per se, but the sounds they make can still be used as evidence if you argue that what they say can be an exception to rules against hearsay. He also explains that the technical reason why pets cannot testify—besides the obvious fact that they are animals—is that they have no concept of distinguishing between truth and falsehood and therefore are incapable of swearing an oath to tell the truth (no matter how much Polly the Parrot claims, “Squawk! I have free will! Become as gods! Become as gods!”)
• Malaproper: Marvin Grossberg’s tendency to reminisce about his youth "like the scent of fresh lemons" is turned into "the sench of fench lemons."
• Malicious Misnaming: Based on a terrible mispronunciation of his name by IGN, the team has taken to addressing Ryunosuke Naruhodo by the name Ryan whenever he does or says something they don’t like. Susato is similarly referred to as Susan on occasion.
• Mama Bear: Two bar exam questions involve a Mom character protecting her child from a dangerous criminal by threatening said criminal with a gun.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: Wes has a wide range of voices and handles voicing majority of the characters, except for Phoenix, Ryunosuke, Furio Tigre, & Apollo (voiced by Zak) and Pearl, Iris Wilson, Trucy, and Athena (voiced by Prij). For Apollo Justice, fellow SaveData teammate Chris is brought in to voice Wocky Kitaki, and guest voice actress NezumiVA joins in to play Valant Gramarye, Magnifi Gramarye, & Drew Misham.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Wes likes to imagine that souls channeled by a spirit medium temporarily adopt some personality traits from the body of the person channeling them. Thus, Mia is compelled to play with a ball and becomes a Shipper on Deck for Phoenix × Maya when Pearl channels her.
• Mirror Match: Due to SaveData lore declaring that everyone is secretly Luke Atmey in disguise, Luke is placed in the Stalemate tier for the “If We Would Win in a Fight” Tier List as Atmey fighting anyone is Atmey fighting himself.
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • The Bully in question 10 was supposed to stab Fan who got into a fight with Defendant, but he misidentified Victim as Fan and ended up killing an innocent man.
  • Nezumi headcanons that part of Klavier’s aggressive attitude to Phoenix in the Gramarye trial comes from some pent up issues with Kristoph that he was expecting to be able to express in the trial before Zak replaced Kristoph with Phoenix as his defense attorney.
• Mistaken for Misogynist: A weird meta-example. When Madame Tusspells is introduced, one of the viewers types, "I don't like girls but she's cool" in the live chat. The commenter meant that he is gay, but the Twitch AutoMod flagged this under Misogyny, much to the team’s amusement.
• Moral Pragmatist: Son from “Marital Disputes” has no moral objections to his mother trying to kill Husband, he just refuses to partake in it because he thinks the murder plot she came up with is stupid.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Prij considers de Killer shooting Franziska to be this since it results in her being replaced by Edgeworth, who he considers a much more competent prosecutor and therefore de Killer’s present just made Phoenix’s job harder.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
  • Over the course of Rise from the Ashes, Mike Meekins goes from an incompetent cop with an inexplicable Non-Standard Character Design to a godlike assassin whose power could destroy the universe at 5%, the arbiter of the blood dimension, and a theoretical physicist who devised Meekins’s Warp Theory that causes the frequent flashbacks the players experience. He tries to get laid, but the court has it on record that he fails at this.
  • Taketsuchi Auchi is not just a prosecuting attorney from the Meiji era, he is a timeless incel vampire with a talk show for his rightwing political views who either cannot get laid even with his mind control powers, or is like Ben Shapiro in that he has kids but is bad at sex and exposes himself to be in public.
• No. Just... No: The team's, especially Prij's, reaction to the Judge musing that his old age wouldn't necessarily mean he couldn't propose to Regina.
• Nominal Importance: Subverted in “Herbal Concoction”. Bob’s three girlfriends—Mary, Sarah, and Jane—are all named, unlike in many bar exam questions where characters are not given real names. Mary is the only one to have any relevance to the question, and the other two girlfriends make no other appearance, much to Prij’s bafflement.
• Noodle Incident: Some bar exam questions allude to a bizarre background that gets little to no elaboration, such as the lawsuits Alex had A Fool for a Client to represent before Carol consults him in “Herbal Concoction”, why Husband’s family despises him (since Wife doesn’t seem to be aware of his Mistress until after Stranger kills her) in “Everybody Hates Husband”, the nature of the high school rivalry that led to “Escalating Bar Fight”, and why Cook in “A Bad Hair Day” hates Barber.
• Not So Above It All: Despite his best efforts to remain stoic, Zak cannot help but join in the laughter when Acro introduces himself as Ken Dingling.
• Obviously Evil: Morgan Fey so clearly has motive, means, and opportunity to frame Maya for killing Dr. Grey that she insists Phoenix address her as Murderer Morgan in the same way she tells him to address Maya and Pearl as Mystic Maya and Mystic Pearl.
• One-Hit Kill: Maggey Byrde’s Maggey Kick is treated as one. It’s also what elevates her to the “Tough Fight (but I win)” tier in the “If We Would Win in a Fight” video, as her clumsiness and bad luck reduce the hit rate of the Maggey Kick to about 20%.
• One-Man Army: After pointing out that Edgeworth would realistically have very little to contribute to rescuing Maya from de Killer since he’s a prosecutor, the team imagines him donning full riot gear and body armor (with his signature cravat on the outside) to barge in and save Maya as a one-man Seal Team DL-6.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Literally, due to Prij being the titular actual lawyer. At one point, he gives a disclaimer that any of the legal knowledge he shares on the streams does not constitute any sort of attorney-client relationship between him and the viewers, so no one can sue him for bad counsel. He also sometimes breaks out of Sarcasm Mode after jokingly claiming something about the law that is obviously incorrect, just in case.
• Out with a Bang: Wes has Susato state that the state Kazuma’s body was found in included a shattered pelvis.
• Pædo Hunt: The Judge takes von Karma at his word when he accuses Phoenix of being in a relationship with his seven-year-old granddaughter whose pet dog happens to share Phoenix’s name, and orders the bailiff to hit him especially hard in his peepee.
• Parody Episode: The Yu-Gi-Oh! cosplay stream (episodes 17 and 18 of the Justice For All YouTube uploads) begin with a parody of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 4Kids opening, followed by Zak, Wes, and Prij cosplaying as Dark Magician Girl^note with his dog Magnus having briefly worn a Millennium Puzzle collar for Yugi, Maximillion Pegasus (with a Millennium Contact Lens), and Seto Freaking Kaiba (in his Season 2 outfit) respectively, with Wes and Prij playing Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links in-character against each other. Then they open booster packs until Prij gets the Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon card before returning to Justice For All. The title is also changed to Ace-At-Torney! with an Actual Lawyer.
• Persona Non Grata:
  • As of Justice For All, Prij’s headcanon is that the Judge got banned from Chile’s because he got too hammered on margheritas, which is why he switched to Applebee’s for happy hour.
  • When Maya says she’s going to resume her training at the end of Bridge to the Turnabout, Sister Bikini informs the Wright & Co. team that they’re all permanently banned from Hazakura Temple because she lost out on a lot of business due to the murder case and subsequent police investigation that their arrival brought about.
• Pet the Dog: Despite his transgressions against Lucky in “Lucky’s Unlucky Week” causing immense suffering, Buster did have it in his heart to get a gift and get-well-soon card for Lucky. Unfortunately for both of them, Buster could not help but try to fake out Lucky by misleading him to think that the gift was another Buster Special, leading to Lucky understandably anticipating another rock snowball and punching his face in self-defense.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: invoked Discussed by the team after learning the full context of Phoenix’s primary motivation for becoming a defense attorney being the class trial from childhood where Edgeworth stood up for him. Prij is surprised that the first game does not canonically ship Phoenix and Edgeworth and incredulous that no one on the staff apparently noticed at the time how homoerotic it comes off. While the later games make the subtext intentional Ship Tease because the developers became aware of the fan perception of Phoenix and Edgeworth as a couple, Prij still finds it hard to believe that it was not the original intent from the beginning and started as accidental gay subtext in the first game.
  Prij: No, no, it’s tremendous, I love it. It’s just hilarious that, like, it's hilarious that this was not just the intention from the start, because it totally feels like it.
• Porn Names: The team lampshades whenever the games’ infamous Punny Names sound like porn aliases. As such, Angel Starr has an OnlyFans account that the Judge subscribes to and Wendy Oldbag reminisces fondly on Jack Hammer’s starring role in Backyard Sluts 7.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: The team improvises several of these for most of the characters upon ranking them in the “Ace Attorney characters Tier List Based on If We Would Win in a Fight” video. Some are legitimately threatening, others less so.
• Pretentious Pronunciation: When discussing how Adrian tampered with the crime scene, Wes has Edgeworth use the British pronunciation of the word “vase” (vɑːz), something Zak finds to be irritatingly in-character for Edgeworth. Wes then takes it a step further by pronouncing the word case (both the criminal case and Juan’s guitar case) such that it rhymes with the British pronunciation of vase.
  Zak: Edgeworth, you would pronounce it vahz, you fuck.
• Product Placement:
  • The team attempts to exploit this by reaching out to restaurant brands like Chili’s and offering to talk them up on stream for an advertisement deal, even if they personally do not enjoy the food. They also mention other products like car brands and juices.
  • Adrian’s testimony about pouring herself a glass of juice in Juan’s room is treated as a V8 commercial where she turns to the camera and tells the audience that Juan should have had a V8 if he wanted to survive. Phoenix similarly tries to advertise the Coldkiller X medicine he’s taking in Turnabout Memories.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Prij’s assessment of Edgeworth’s Kick the Dog moment against Adrian is that being a Jerkass and attacking the witness (even his own witness) on sensitive matters to impeach their credibility is sadly a realistic example of the actions criminal prosecutors have to take as part of their job, and the main reason it would be inadmissible in court is not because of bad ethical or moral standards on his part, but because the specific attacks Edgeworth made on her were more in service of introducing undue prejudice against her to pressure her into giving the testimony he wants than in proving her character as an Unreliable Expositor^note Though his case could hypothetically be strengthened if he was able to tie her codependency to Franziska’s witness coaching.
• Pungeon Master: The backstory for the Punky nickname Zak made up for himself is that his parents conned a witch out of a deal they made with her to conceive him, so now he’s cursed to make at least five puns per day or he’ll die.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Dee Vazquez and Viola Cadaverini get ranked into the Stalemate tier in the “If We Would Win in a Fight” Tier List video because their mafia connections would likely get the team assassinated if they defeat any Mafia Princess.
• Really 700 Years Old: After Prij points out that Taketsuchi Auchi simping for Jezaille Brett while also telling Susato to Stay in the Kitchen makes him seem like an incel, it’s suggested that he is actually an incel vampire and that Winston Payne is not his descendant but actually the same person as him, since he couldn’t possibly have conceived a child to have descendants. Or he made a pact with Mike Meekins to extend his bloodline forever.
• Recursive Canon: The court procedure videos that Mia watched all night before the trial in Turnabout Beginnings included episodes of LegalEagle and Ace Attorney with an Actual Lawyer!, of course.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • For a given definition of adaptation, Wes decides that the Pot Smokers for Peter in one question are perhaps cousins of Adam Arsonist and Flame from another question.
  • In Farewell, My Turnabout, they suggest that Wendy Oldbag is a descendant of Barok Van Zieks (and inherited his racism) and Adrian Andrews is a descendant of Herlock Sholmes.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Before Gumshoe explains that the Prosecutor von Karma taking the case against Maya is Manfred von Karma’s successor, the team jokes that Manfred von Karma has actually broken out of jail and is going on a murderous rampage to find Phoenix, yelling, “Objection!” as he shocks bystanders in his way while Dual Wielding tasers.
• Running Gag: Plenty.
  • Saying, “Metal Gear” at any given point.
  • Singing Nickelback whenever someone says, “Look at this photograph!” It turns into “Look at this photographic print!” in The Great Ace Attorney since photography is so new in the Meiji era.
  • Someone (usually Wes) being sentenced to horny jail for making a sex joke or laughing at innuendo from the localization script. Wes is also prone to making references to jokes and lines from the first three seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • “Going out for milk and cigarettes” as a shorthand for Parental Abandonment, a recurring phenomenon in Ace Attorney.
  • The painting in Marvin Grossberg’s office is one of Chun-Li’s ass as it appears in Fortnite.
  • Zak getting booed by the viewers and/or receiving Fs in the chat whenever he makes a joke that is deemed to be more lame than funny, often at the encouragement of Wes.
  • People immediately confessing to being guilty of whatever crime is relevant in Phoenix’s presence, prompting them to say some variant of “Damn it, got me again, Phoenix Wright!” This happens even if the person in question didn’t actually commit the crime (Miles admitting to killing Robert Hammond), hasn’t been accused of it yet (Manfred von Karma threatening to kill Phoenix just like he killed Gregory Edgeworth), or is only tangentially involved as a witness (Angel Starr in the murder of Bruce Goodman). It takes a weird turn when they get to Rise from the Ashes and confessing to something she hasn’t done is exactly what Lana Skye is doing canonically. It also continues with Ryunosuke Naruhodo, who does this to himself since he’s the defendant of the first two chapters, and with Phoenix himself in Turnabout Memories. Takes a hilarious turn when this is essentially how they get Furio Tigre to admit he knows what the potassium cyanide bottle looks like.
  • Talking about chain restaurants like Chili’s in an unflattering manner, until deciding to see if they can hype up that restaurant for an advertisement deal. The Judge in particular is eager to end trials early so he can make it to Chili’s happy hour for a Margherita. In The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, they take to referring to the dining establishment that the first murder took place in as a Longhorn Steakhouse.
  • Lotta Hart being compared to a fish, based on the spacing of her eyes in her forward-facing sprite.
  • Bailiffs smacking peepees.
  • Phoenix never remembering the name of the Channeling Chamber.
  • Mike Meekins being a Humanoid Abomination with access to the blood dimension. Prij’s closet is apparently a portal to the blood dimension.
  • Ema Skye being treated as a Terrible Artist and forcefeeding luminol to Phoenix.
  • Boneless Panties, which Zak thought referred to panties without wires like wireless brassieres, after mishearing the words Bulma’s panties.
  • Prij (not) stealing the Crown Jewels, Prij being owed a pizza by Zak, and Prij being an isekai protagonist.
  • After Wes mistakenly swaps the words “eat” and “dig” in the “Dig It” rap, “eating holes” becomes a new running gag.
  • Jesus Christ is the culprit of Turnabout Big Top.
  • Will Powers tagging along with Phoenix and Pearl the entire time starting with their investigation in Farewell, My Turnabout as The Team Wannabe getting ignored.
  • Freddy Fatassbear, which spirals into an entire FNASS series that takes the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise and applies jokes about all the characters having massive butts.
  • Luke Atmey being responsible for everything that happens, à la Zoomposting. Once “Zvarri!” becomes a frequent Borrowed Catchphrase, it takes off and practically everyone is secretly Luke Atmey in disguise.
  • Bringing up how often the JPEG of Yanni Yogi choking in the elevator is shown whenever a current plot point ends up tying back to the DL-6 Incident, especially when characters feel the need to give an explanation about DL-6 to Phoenix, the guy who solved DL-6.
  • Phoenix insisting that Dahlia supposedly lacks any sense of scale for measuring length, entirely because he doesn’t want her making people think he has a Teeny Weenie. At the end of Iris’s trial, her confession that she was the one who dated Phoenix for months in college is accompanied with her declaring that she is an excellent judge of length and giving him her seal of approval.
  • Dialogue from unknown speakers are spoken by Wes with an exaggerated Sweedish accent, before being corrected upon their identification.
  • When a two jurors are pitted against one another during a Summation Examination in the Great Ace Attorney games, starting from 1-4's second Summation Examination, Wes will have the person Ryunoske is pointing to exclaim "Holy shit!" when their damage reaction is used in the process (jurors who don't react, such as Quinby Altamont, are exempt).
  • Whether intentional or not, Wes opts to make both of the actors in the Samurai franchise (Will Powers and Matt Engarde) New Zealanders.
  • Whenever the script prominently uses certain words like darkness, light, heart, lock, door, and key, expect there to be a good chance the team starts quoting and referencing Kingdom Hearts, frequently culminating in Wes doing an impression of Sora showing up and thinking there’s a Heartless he has to slay only to get shooed away by Zak. This especially ramps up once Lamiroir comes into the picture and starts using darkness as a frequent metaphor to describe her blindness and Mysterious Past.
  Zak: Stop, we can’t— we can’t devolve into Kingdom Hearts quotes! Again!
• Sarcasm Mode: Besides the numerous Deadpan Snarker and First-Person Smartass moments Phoenix has in the localization script, Zak also adds a sarcastic bent to lines he says in Turnabout Big Top that were not intended to be sarcastic, specifically because he refuses to give sincerity to any complimentary statements Phoenix makes about Regina Berry.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Prij’s reaction to Phoenix deciding to cross-examine a parrot.
  Prij: Please no… Alright, check please. I’ll see you guys later.
• Self-Made Orphan: Subverted in “Marital Disputes”. Wife attempts to recruit Son and Daughter to help her murder their father by sabotaging his car to Make It Look Like an Accident. Son refuses to help because he thinks the plan sucks, while Daughter initially agrees to help but reneges at the last minute.
• Serial Escalation: If a bar exam question doesn’t start out completely bonkers, it will usually begin with a fairly realistic scenario that quickly escalates into cartoon shenanigans. Upon learning of Joe Darke’s Start of Darkness, the team immediately compares him to an Anytown resident because his Crime After Crime backstory escalated so similarly.
• Serpent of Immortality: A variation, Dr. Pharm in the “Cobras in Ohio” question is researching the use of snake venom in developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Coby the Cobra is said to be the smartest and fastest of Dr. Pharm’s test subjects.
• Shipper on Deck: Godot was rooting for Marvin Grossberg & Blanco Niño’s relationship, and learning that it didn’t work out upon awakening from his five-year coma is just as crushing to him as Mia’s death.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Compared to how lenient he is with Edgeworth & Franziska’s antics, the Judge is much less tolerant of Godot’s attitude and Metaphorgotten tendencies, and the team takes note that Godot is probably the first prosecutor the Judge has straight up disliked so far.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Phoenix and Edgeworth derail Lana’s trial to have a wedding ceremony, which Ema is uninvited to. Their only concern about Lana is that her plea bargain means she won’t be executed, so she doesn’t have to ruin the mood by dying on their wedding day.
  Wes!Edgeworth: Shut up, Lana, this is important business we’re dealing with. This is the rest of OUR LIVES we’re talking about here, Lana.
  • When Kristoph approaches Klavier the night before the Gramarye trial, he’s so put off by the gaudy rockstar outfit Klavier will be wearing to court that he spends more time than necessary warning him not to wear it compared to his initial intent to warn of the change of defense attorneys and forged evidence.
• Special Edition Title:
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! cosplay stream during Justice For All opens with a parody version of the intro for season 1 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters English dub with Phoenix as Yugi. Regrettably, the YouTube upload was unable to get around the site’s music copyright detection, but it can be found here.
  • The YouTube uploads for the Grand Finale stream of the original trilogy don’t use the standard opening for the rest of the Trials and Tribulations episodes. Instead, a special opening is used that combines the visuals for the openings of three games’ respective uploads. Additionally, rather than using the Pursuit - Catch the Culprit theme from Trials and Tribulations as the opening music, Zak reuses the Pursuit - Corner the Culprit theme from the first game, in reference to how Bridge to the Turnabout remixed the first game’s “Pursuit” music as Pursuit - Corner the Culprit 2004 for its climax^note Coincidentally, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy HD remaster of the game also reuses the original Pursuit music in place of the remix.
• Special Guest: Fellow Save Data Team member Chris was the first special guest introduced in the "Apollo Justice" playthrough, voicing Wocky, followed by NezumiVA who voiced Valant Gramarye, Machi, and later, Drew Misham.
• Spousal Privilege: One bar exam question concerns the defense of spousal privilege to have certain testimonies forbidden, with a couple who planned to rob a store deciding to have a Shotgun Wedding so they can exploit it when one of them gets arrested.
• Stalker Shrine: After the team points out the implications of the narrative convenience in Spark Brushel just happening to have a picture of Thalassa Gramarye, they jokingly exaggerate it into an obsession that goes as far as Brushel having turned his house into the equivalent of the infamous Church of Maizono but dedicated to massive cardboard cutouts of Thalassa.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The subject of “Making a Backyard Pond with Explosives” is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, with predictably disastrous results.
• Stuffed into a Locker: Gaspen Payne was subjected to this so much that he turned it into his fetish so bullies can’t hurt him.
• Take That!: After learning of Henry Kissinger’s death, Zak & Wes modify Ema’s dialogue about her distate for Klavier to instead describe Kissinger.
  Ema: Those murderous types always rub me the wrong way. A politician should be cool of wit and furrowed of brow. Less "murderous" and more "generous"... you know?
• The Team Wannabe: Will Powers is said to be following Phoenix and Pearl around throughout the investigation of Farewell, My Turnabout, frequently interjecting with his thoughts to make his presence known, only for none of them to acknowledge him or claim Glad I Thought of It. Apparently, he stuck around as far as the last case of the trilogy, even jumping into Eagle River after Phoenix fell off Dusky Bridge in Bridge to the Turnabout.
• Teeny Weenie: Phoenix is insistent that any reports of him being of below average length are nothing but slander by Dahlia Hawthorne. Godot claims Dahlia said the same to him. At the end of Iris’s trial, she confirms that Phoenix at the very least has something to be proud of.
  Prij!Phoenix: VINDICATION!! (does a Happy Dance to Guile’s theme in the middle of court)
• Terrible Artist:
  • One of the repeated gags is that Ema is considered one in-universe, and everyone exaggeratedly dumps on how awful a drawing she made of the SL-9 Incident. Her art is so bad that exposing it and ruining Ema’s reputation is one of the things Damon Gant blackmails Lana with to get her to help him frame Joe Darke.
  • The team makes similar jokes roasting Maya over her poorly-made wooden box for containing Ami Fey’s urn in The Stolen Turnabout, which Phoenix does actually call pathetic in the script.
• That Came Out Wrong:
  • Zak tries to make a joke at the end of Turnabout Goodbyes about Phoenix getting indigestion from their celebration party at Chili’s, but the wording makes Wes and Prij misinterpret it as an anal sex joke and they send him to horny jail.
  • After Prij names Organization XIII on the Long List of people involved in SL-9, they joke that Bruce Goodman is actually the Nobody of Lana Skye. They try to make up a Significant Anagram name for Lana’s Nobody, coming up with Lanax and Xanal, only to immediately realize that the latter is X-Anal.
• Theme Naming: The neighbors suing Homeowner in “Making a Backyard Pond with Explosives” all have names starting with the same letter as the cardinal direction their houses are relative to Homeowner’s house; Esther to the East, William to the West, and Nathan to the North.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Invoked with regards to the team’s reaction to the “Alligator Tony!” question, where they express disappointment that the alligators did not play as much of a role in the scenario beyond Vera tripping over one. They refer to it as a horrible underutilization of “Chekhov’s Gator.”
  “If you introduce an alligator, it has to bite someone’s leg.”
• This Is Gonna Suck: Prij reacts this way when Phoenix is about to propose his infamous cross-examination of a parrot. He subsequently goes Screw This, I'm Outta Here when Phoenix declares his intent to do so.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After the week of suffering he undergoes in “Lucky’s Unlucky Week”, Lucky is indicated to be able to successfully sue Buster and the hospital for their transgressions against him, and has a strong self-defense case for punching Buster on the last day.
• Time Master: Mael Strongheart is the Time Wizard, according to Wes after seeing the gears and clockwork in his office.
• Title Sequence: For each game, Zak edits together an opening sequence using the game’s individual "Pursuit" theme for the YouTube uploads (e.g. the Justice For All videos have Pursuit - Confront the Culprit as its opening, The Great Ace Attorney videos have Pursuit - A Great Turnabout as the opening, etc.).
• Toilet Humour:
  • Zak tries to make a potty humor joke at the end of Turnabout Goodbyes that implies Phoenix had trouble digesting the Chili’s food they ate to celebrate Edgeworth’s acquittal, but realizes That Came Out Wrong and he gets sent to Horny Jail for what Wes and Prij assumed was a joke about anal sex.
  • After Damon Gant makes a remark insisting that his presence in the evidence room is as innocuous as going to the bathroom, a string of jokes follow that claim Damon Gant has a habit of shitting in the evidence room and hiding his feces in the lockers. The comments Gant subsequently makes only further add credence to this headcanon. Gant also murdered Bruce Goodman in the evidence room because Goodman saw him shitting.
  Prij: This episode, we’ve established that Chief Gant eats so many Doritos he stains his coat orange. Also, he shits in the evidence room. Chief Gant has gone from, like, stone-cold silver fox to creepy, Dorito shit troll.
  • Zak elicits a WTF? reaction from Prij and Wes when he jokes that souls enter spirit mediums through their buttholes.
  • By The Stolen Turnabout, Phoenix’s near-obsessive compulsion to clean the office toilet is apparently justified by the fact that Maya’s Big Eater appetite means she leaves massive dumps and she never cleans up after herself. Zak hates that Wes’s wording of her bad habits implies she does not even flush the toilet after she uses it.
• Too Kinky to Torture:
  • Bailiffs like Yanni Yogi have to make sure they smack people ONLY in the peepee, because if they smack them in the nuts they will enjoy it.
  • Gaspen Payne got Stuffed into a Locker by bullies so much that he developed a fetish and is now sexually aroused by getting shoved in lockers.
• Transparent Closet: Thanks to Widget constantly blurting out Athena’s thoughts, her crush on Juniper is incredibly obvious.
  Athena: Don’t worry, Junie! We’re here for you!
  Widget: I’m gay!
• Trauma Button: Phoenix spends most of Justice For All getting triggered into manic episodes whenever someone (usually Maya) brings up Edgeworth, who is believed to have been Driven to Suicide at that point. He even gets set off when Pearl declares that Phoenix would walk over miles of hot coals for Maya’s sake, because Miles is Edgeworth’s given name. The team decides that his freak outs are comparable to those of Denzel Crocker raving about Fairy Godparents.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • Pearl is depicted as displaying these whenever it’s suggested that she’s the culprit behind a murder. The trope is also discussed, with Prij bringing up that courts presume a child under a certain age is mentally incapable of the requisite thought to be truly held accountable for murder, but if the same child does it enough times then there’s a solid case to be made that said child does understand what murder is and should be held responsible for it.
  • Regina Berry acting so blasé about the murder of her father disturbs Zak to no end, and he considers her a “weird, shitty daughter” who he hopes is the killer in Turnabout Big Top.
• Underestimating Badassery: Franziska immediately challenges Pearl Fey (who can inexplicably outrun a train) to a footrace when they meet in Bridge to the Turnabout.
• Unnecessary Roughness: The first misfortune Lucky suffers in “Lucky’s Unlucky Week” is getting hit by a Buster Special—a snowball in which Buster had concealed a rock—during a snowball fight. Prij explains while answering the question that Lucky can sue Buster for this because while participating in the snowball fight means giving consent to getting hit with a snowball, said snowball having a rock in it goes beyond the normal accepted conduct for the activity. The comparison he makes is tackling someone while playing football vs. punching someone in the face while playing football. Wes points out that getting punched in the face does not count as unnecessary roughness if one is playing “Punch-Face Football” however.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Prij figures Edgeworth is probably physically fit, but doesn’t think he seems like a particularly seasoned or natural fighter, landing him in the “Tough Fight (but I win)” tier.
• Unwanted Assistance: The protections of Good Samaritan statutes are discussed in "Alligator Tony!" where Vera's leg is permanently disabled because the instructions Tony was following when trying to treat her injury were communicated unclearly. It’s explained that you don’t have any legal obligation to help someone in danger (barring a relationship that makes you responsible for them like a parent to their child), but if you do decide to be a Heroic Bystander, you accept the responsibility of not leaving them worse off than before you got involved, lest your incompetent aid make things worse. The common scenarios the statute was implemented in mind with are more akin to breaking a rib while performing the Heimlich maneuver rather than the question’s example of impromptu surgery after tripping over an alligator.
• Villainous Friendship: Godot is apparently friends with Mario, whom Wes has transformed into an unabashed misogynist, with the two apparently bonding over making misogynistic remarks.
  Mario: Step aside, stupid women! It's-a Mario time!
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • From The Great Ace Attorney onwards, Wes has taken to giving an unusually deep voice to someone in the court audience who is indicated to be a child brought there by his mother. Near the end of Turnabout Big Top, the community has decided that this child is Michael Pencil, a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of former United States Vice President Mike Pence.
  • Starting from Farewell, My Turnabout, if a line of dialogue has an unnamed speaker, Wes uses a Swedish accent… even if he knows perfectly well who the speaker is.
• Vocal Evolution: The voice that Wes uses for the Judge is a bit different in earlier videos, being deeper and more serious, but starts to resemble the one he uses for Wendy Oldbag later on, becoming higher pitched and sillier. The shift kicks in around Turnabout Goodbyes, when von Karma’s intimidation causes the Judge to raise his pitch, and it stays there even after von Karma is gone.
• Voice of the Legion: During the “If We Would Win in a Fight” Tier List, Wes reuses a vocal filter from SaveData’s Deltarune playthrough to give a demonic echo to Polly the Parrot and Mike Meekins when they do their battle intro quotes.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Wes laments the death of Mistress in the “Marital Disputes” question, even though she only first appeared at the end of one sentence and died in the next. Veronica from the “Diamonds Are Forever” question similarly dies in the very sentence she’s introduced.
• Wham Line: The Carjacking turns from a simple jacking of a mother’s car to a dark conspiracy when the Carjacker reveals that he stole the car with the intention of kidnapping and selling her baby. Wes also adds another wham line that wasn’t in the original question, in which Mom hears a gun cock from behind her and Baby says, “Let him go, Mama.”
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Prij is incredulous that the “Herbal Concoction” bar exam question makes a point of bringing up that Bob is dating three women and giving names to all of them, only for two of them to never be mentioned again and only one girlfriend going on to be relevant to the question.
  • Sometimes bar exam questions will introduce a particularly bizarre plot element that is only briefly mentioned and then falls by the wayside. For example, we never find out what happened to the dangerous patient missing from the hospital’s psychiatric unit that Lucky is misidentified as in “Lucky’s Unlucky Week”, nor do we learn if the alligators in “Aligator Tony!” are ever recaptured.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: In order to best serve its purpose as an Everytown, America, Anytown has no specified geographical features beyond being located somewhere in Ohio. One question does mention the presence of a hotel near a fishing spot, and Prij does retcon another question to take place in Anytown even though it was specified to take place in Akron, however.
• Wholesome Crossdresser:
  • In the fifth bar exam question, Peter’s fake Facebook profile for his teacher Curt Cook makes a bunch of embarrassing claims about him. While the team laughs at most of the "getting to know me" answers that are intended to be humiliating at Curt Cook’s expense, they express the opinion that the part about his ideal evening being to put on a dress & high heels and whip up a gourmet meal is a perfectly acceptable hobby and call Peter out on kinkshaming.
  • The team themselves don Cat Meido outfits at the beginning of Justice For All after meeting a stream donation goal. Another donation goal being met results in them donning Yu-Gi-Oh! cosplay, with Zak as the Dark Magician Girl.
• Womanchild: Mia briefly becomes one when she’s possessing Pearl’s body and becomes compelled to play with her ball.
• Worf Had the Flu: For the “If We Would Win in a Fight” Tier List:
  • Downplayed with Acro, whose paraplegia is deemed not enough of a drawback to keep his immense upper body strength from winning him the fight. He’s ultimately placed in the “Tough Fight (but I lose)” category.
  • Prij notes that Diego Armando would kill them handily, but as Godot his muscles have atrophied from being in a coma for years and his visor is essentially a video game weak point, moving him from the “I died :[” tier to the “Tough Fight (but I win)” tier.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Thief who holds Daughter at gunpoint in the first bar exam question and the Carjacker who tries to kidnap a baby in the sixth question.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Valant Gramarye and Drew Misham get significantly fewer speaking appearance as the final case of Apollo Justice comes to a close, giving Nezumi much less to voice act than before. On multiple occasions, the finale seems to set up one last hurrah for her characters, only to pull the rug out from under her.
• You Keep Using That Word:
  • One episode has Zak frequently misusing the word “canonically” to describe things, prompting him to keep a counter of it.
  • Due to Zak being a bartender and Prij coming from a family of wine-drinking Italians, they both take offense to how Farewell, My Turnabout consistently refers to a piece of evidence as a wine glass, when they know from experience that the evidence in question would more accurately be described as a flute.
  • Subverted in Bridge to the Turnabout when the team thinks the localization is wrongly referring to the tree Godot claimed to have found a bloodstained knife lodged into as a pine tree when it’s clearly not as part of the Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change. What they didn’t realize at the time of the recording is that the tree is actually a Pinus thunbergii, also known as a Japanese black pine.

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