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The first rule of Ace Attorney is that you can't be an Ace Attorney character without a serious Trauma Conga Line.


Original Ace Attorney Series:
  • Miles Edgeworth who thought he killed his father when he was nine and has had nightmares about it nearly every single night for 15 years. The incident also caused a paralyzing and debilitating fear of earthquakes. At best, he curls into a trembling ball on the floor. At worst, he faints from sheer terror. His phobia is so severe that airplane turbulence can trigger it. He will likely have this phobia for the rest of his life. To top it all off, he's a prickly, borderline-Jerkass Woobie who has trouble opening up to people, even the ones he knows have his back no matter what, and he won't ask for help even when he desperately needs it.
  • Detective Gumshoe, a lovable kind-hearted character who is constantly getting his salary cut and often whipped by Franziska for simple mistakes, some of which are not even his fault. Gumshoe was even accused of murder by a corrupt prosecutor, and at the point of the flashback case, he didn't even have enough money for a snack, but pooled in his money with a little girl and they shared a snack together, showing just how kind-hearted Gumshoe can be. This is BEFORE his salary got cut. If it lessens the blow a bit, he DID eventually get a salary raise at the end of Investigations 2. A minor piece of optional dialogue in Spirit of Justice implies that he is still working as a detective, though the same dialogue also implies that Edgeworth is back to cutting his salary.
  • Maya Fey is currently the Ace Attorney reigning champion of woobiness, along with being accused of murder.
    • We're introduced to the poor girl sobbing over the dead body of her beloved sister, before being immediately hauled off to jail on flimsy evidence and perjured testimony. She tries to put on a brave face to help Phoenix, but suffers from self-esteem issues as she believes her only skill is channeling Mia (because Mia's a lawyer and Maya isn't) and she can't do it consistently because she's Incompletely Trained. She also gets tazed and charged with contempt of court helping Phoenix save Edgeworth... who was the guy trying to convict her of murder just months previously.
    • In the second game, she's not only framed for murder by her own aunt, but she's gaslit into thinking she was indirectly responsible (since the story was that a spirit she channeled did the deed), and then she's kidnapped by Shelley de Killer to force Phoenix to get a murderer declared innocent, and held in a dark room without food for days.
    • In the third game, the poor girl is once again targeted by her aunt Morgan, in a plot that saw her see her estranged mother get killed, and eventually have to testify against the person who killed her mom to save her. And she's locked in a freezing cave.
    • Maya doesn't get traumatized in Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies by virtue of not showing up, but Spirit of Justice makes up for lost time as she's framed for two murders in a row and then kidnapped. And she had to see her rescuer die and then channel him. Truly not a good time to be Maya.
  • Pearl. Oh, you poor kid. Her role as The Woobie is most significant in Justice for All, where in case 2-4, she lays out all the bad stuff that's happened to her when you talk to her in your office after Maya's kidnapping, particularly when she says Maya is the only family she has left. And then there's her role in case 3-5, where she's used once again by her mother to try to kill the girl who is her remaining closest family. Adding to that, she couldn't even channel Dahlia when she had the chance, so she feared her powers were weakening. While her time with Larry in the "Loser's Shack" is mostly played for laughs (Larry's involved after all), it's hard to see her so down. Heck, even Dahlia Hawthorne, the psychotic killer she was supposed to channel, feels sorry for her.
  • Players may feel particularly sorry for Adrian Andrews because they have to personally pin the crime on her to prolong a trial, and later make a Sadistic Choice between her life or Maya's. That's not all though. Not only is she completely innocent, but she has tried to kill herself because of her dependency, and begs you for help throughout the trial. Her dependency is the real issue here, her pillar of strength killed herself and she lost the will to live. Thankfully when you meet her again, she's a lot calmer, though still no less clumsy and Adorkable.
    • As far as victims go, Celeste Inpax is probably one of the sadder cases. She was originally Matt Engarde's manager and as Adrian describes it, was the happiest woman ever. Then she was used by Engarde and tossed away. Then she became Juan Corrida's manager and just as she was about to get married to Juan, he called off the wedding because he found out from Engarde that she was "used goods" causing Celeste in her despair to kill herself. It's implied they were using Celeste in their own petty war just to profit from it, and treated her more like an object than a love interest. This would be the catalyst in Adrian's attempted suicide and the reason for why she framed Matt.
  • Franziska, who - it is implied - has become this sealed-off whip-wielding Ice Queen due entirely to her father and his (likely rather soul-killing, given his personality) demand for perfection, as well as some kind of complex and a fear that she'll never be as worthy in her father's eyes as her adopted brother Edgeworth, plus that Edgeworth might not actually care about her the way she cares about him given how many times in their lives that he's appeared to walk out on her.
  • Will Powers, a lovable, gentle children's entertainer who just happens to have a very intimidating look about him and has to wear a mask in all of his roles because of it. Framed for murder of a guy who had intended to frame him for a different murder. The circumstances of said murder cause the show he stars in to be cancelled. He's also apparently out of a job after the second show he stars in finishes. He does seem to nab a role as Moozilla in Investigations 2, so at least it lasted that long, but still...
  • Ini actually Mimi Miney in case 2-2. The poor girl is overworked and stressed out to the point where she has a nervous breakdown and accidentally kills 14 people by giving them the wrong medication. As if this easily life-ruining event wasn't bad enough, two weeks afterwards she gets into a horrible car crash, killing her younger sister Ini and getting her face burnt beyond recognition. She takes advantage of it by having her face reconstructed as Ini's to make everyone else think it was Mimi who perished in the crash, allowing her to escape her miserable life once and for all. Except even that doesn't last, because not even a year later her old boss comes knocking to our good friend Maya Fey to have her channel the believed-to-be-deceased Mimi so that said boss can prove once and for all that the aforementioned mass manslaughter wasn't his fault, forcing Mimi to kill him to avoid it getting out that she's not actually dead whilst also unwittingly becoming a pawn in one of the series's resident villains' far more sinister plot. Trauma Conga Line doesn't even begin to describe it. It helps that her boss was an Asshole Victim.
  • Acro in the much-hated Case 2-3: a former acrobat and Friend to All Living Things orphaned at a young age and adopted by the circus owner, now confined to a wheelchair and unable to leave his room by himself after a stupid prank by the girl his brother was in love with went wrong, leaving him crippled and his brother in a permanent coma, and the girl blissfully unaware that she could possibly have done anything wrong. And to make things worse, when he tried to get revenge on her for effectively killing his brother, he accidentally murdered his beloved adoptive father instead.
    • Acro's woobie-ness is cranked up in the anime where we actually see him crying at several times, and we see just how deep his resentment of Regina went in making him practically living in a nightmare.
  • Max Galactica from the same case. Yes, he's extremely arrogant, but that's only skin deep. In reality, all he wants is for his fellow performers to shoot for the stars. Acro, despite framing him, describes him as having a diamond shining in his soul. With that said, Acro is the only one besides Regina who has anything nice to say about him throughout the case. Aside from Russell Berry, Regina, and Acro everyone hates his guts and only see the Jerk part of his Jerk with a Heart of Gold self and accuse him of murder. Even Acro tries to frame him. Early on in the case, it's revealed he lived on a poor farm and joined the circus to pay off his Dad's farm debt. His real name? Billy Bob Johns. Let's just say Maya is very shocked by this. If you can see past the facade of arrogance, he's actually a very sympathetic character.
  • Regina. Just...Regina. Everytime she appears, someone betrays her and/or tries to kill her. And let's just say she can cause quite some accidents...
    • That's not even the half of it. Regina first lost her mother when she was very young, her big brother figure tried to kill her and ended up killing her dad instead, her first boyfriend got into a coma from an accident she unknowingly started, one of her boyfriends is a total jackass who's only real redeeming quality is his love for her, and then her next two boyfriends are accused of murder. That's not even going into the fact that a friend of hers made later is a murderer himself, and ends up being one of the series' most clever villains.
    • The anime even has her attempt to save Acro when all that's revealed by trying a Take Me Instead. It fails, but it's implied thanks to Edgeworth, Acro wasn't given a life sentence or death, given that the death was accidental.
  • And to round out the case 2-3 characters, we have Moe. He's a Bumbling Dad figure to the rest of the circus, especially Regina after the Ringmaster is killed, he has a divorced wife and child who presumably hate him and has to pay alimony to with what little money he gets, and his best friend the Ringmaster was killed by Acro, who was like a son to him. That's not even going into the fact that no one laughs at his jokes no matter how hard he tries, he's a bit of a klutz, and until the anime adaptation was one of the most hated characters in the entire franchise.
  • Where do we begin with Recipe for Turnabout's Viola Cadaverini? First, she got into a traffic accident like Mimi above, only instead of her face being destroyed, she suffers a severe blow to the head which probably gave her nasty brain damage. The guy who caused the accident: Furio Tigre only paid her medical bills because her grandfather was the boss of the most dangerous criminals in the entire country. He feels no remorse for what he's done, and forces Viola to help him frame an innocent waitress and kill an unlucky guy, just so he can get the money to pay Viola's medical bills, again not because he cared. It's also revealed that she's not really a bad person (just a tad homicidal probably from her head injury) and thanks Phoenix after he brings Tigre to justice.
  • Diego Armando/Godot, the final killer, is a good example of Jerkass Woobie. He's a real jerk to Phoenix and his plan of dealing with Morgan Fey's plan to kill Maya was stupid and self-centered, a fact he himself admits despite protecting Maya, and he personally killed Misty. But come on! He got poisoned by a murderous bitch, the woman he loves was murdered while he was in a six-year coma, and he has to constantly go through agonizing medical treatments just to stay alive. Deep down, he's hiding so much despair, guilt, and self-loathing that it's amazing he can even show up to court.
  • Maggey Byrde. As she states in each appearance, she's been experiencing a string of bad luck since she was six months old, when she fell off the balcony of her ninth-story apartment. In-series, she's been (wrongfully) accused of (at least) three murders, been on trial for said murders twice (three times if you count one retrial), and even convicted of one (though that one eventually was overturned). In addition, she's lost her job three times, each time as a direct or indirect result of a murder accusation. And that's just part of the bad luck we get to see for ourselves. Is it any wonder why Gumshoe sympathizes with her?
  • Ema Skye. First, her sister Lana (who is the only family she has) gets wrongfully accused of murder. Then her big brother figure, Jake Marshall acts cold and aloof towards her. Another one of her sister's friends accuses her sister of murder having witnessed her stabbing the victim. But the real kicker is the SL-9 incident where Ema is nearly killed by accomplished serial killer Joe Darke, accidentally shoves Neil Marshall who was trying to save her, and is later accused of killing him with the decisive evidence being the jar with her name written on it in Marshall's blood and the cloth cut from his coat with her handprint on it. All set up by Chief Damon Gant who watches as this innocent 16 year old girl is nearly convicted of murder that she didn't commit at all. Did I mention she was willing to accept that she accidentally killed Neil if it could get Lana acquitted? Is it any wonder why she's so bitter and cynical by Apollo Justice?
    • Lana counts as well. She spent two years convinced that Ema had accidentally killed Neil. To cover it up, she cooperated with (read: was blackmailed by) Gant to give him complete authority over the legal system. In order to cope with this, she had to recede behind an ice cold persona, knowing full well that she'd be shutting out mostly everyone, even her own sister.
  • Phoenix Wright himself counts. Everyone, literally EVERYONE, takes advantage of him at the end of each game by making him pay for expensive meals, cameras, and the like, which is even brought up again in Dual Destinies. Not to mention he loses his job in Apollo Justice and mentions that Trucy is his "light". Someone give this man a hug.
    • One of his formative memories as a child was being falsely accused of stealing another student's lunch money. Miles Edgeworth and Larry Butz came to his defense, but in the moment before they did he was all alone, with an entire classroom — and even the teacher — yelling at him and accusing him. It left such a strong impression on him that he had to become a defense attorney, just to help other people who are backed into a corner with no one to help them.
    • And then there's his early career. First, Phoenix believed for many years that he fell madly in love with a manipulative serial killer who, after tricking him into helping her escape being convicted for killing the boyfriend of his beloved mentor and the woman who saved his life, tried to kill him and ended up killing someone else trying to warn him about her. Then, shortly after he becomes a lawyer, his friend and mentor is murdered, and the actual murderer tries to frame HIM for it. Then comes a series of trials where he is continually bullied and disrespected by EVERYONE, and not to mention put in severe danger and huge dilemmas numerous times, because he is pretty much the only one who can help his clients. He constantly puts his career, reputation, and sometimes his own life on the line for the sake of those who have nobody on their side, and doesn't get shit in return. His second-to-last trial reveals that the girl he fell in love with was the twin sister, yet completely different person, of the aforementioned monster. Though he still clearly cares for her, it seems he can't be with her, at least partially because she is put in jail for being an after-the-fact accomplice to murder. THEN, after winning that case and surpassing his mentor (and thus her spirit leaving him), he loses his job, reputation, and (maybe) friends because he fell into a trap set by another monster who decided to destroy his life just because the client hired Phoenix over the asshole, and because said client was also a jackass who wouldn't give Phoenix the damn evidence that would have cleared him immediately. Phoenix spends the next seven years as a hobo, playing poker and caring for the abandoned daughter of that jackass client, before he FINALLY makes everything right.
    • And it doesn't stop there either. In Dual Destinies, things seemed to be looking up. After being reinstated as an attorney courtesy of Apollo and Edgeworth's efforts, he brought on a new protégé in Athena Cykes alongside of Apollo, restoring his law office to its former positive reputation. Then Apollo's best friend is murdered and Athena's inadvertent connection to the case leads him to take a leave of absence due to being unable to fully trust her (on top of his existing unresolved issues with Phoenix still lingering from AA4). On top of that, after defending another friend of Apollo's in the case, he inadvertently gets Athena accused, which puts her at risk of prison instead. Following this, his daughter Trucy is taken hostage by a woman determined to accelerate Athena's conviction. Having returned to the Agency a sorrowful and beaten man by this point, Phoenix was saved from his despair only by a message from Maya Fey that was enough to lift his spirits back up. If not for her, Phoenix would've lost everything all over again in the span of one day.
    • Then there's Spirit of Justice where Phoenix travels to the distant Kingdom of Khura'in to meet Maya and bring her home after a long time away, but gets caught up in a trial in a country where being a defense attorney is heavily stigmatized and can lead to execution in the event of a court loss. Phoenix goes through hell and back to save his clients in this mysterious foreign land, Maya included, putting his life on the line (literally this time thanks to the Defense Culpability Act) and ends up nearly falling apart when Maya is kidnapped by the nation's corrupt Justice Minister, forcing him to once again represent a client he knows is guilty and turn against his own friends and disciples Apollo and Athena in the process. If not for Apollo stepping up and putting his own life on the line to finally fix everything, Phoenix would once again have lost everything he cared about.

Ace Attorney Investigations Arc:

  • Lauren Paups, desperately in love with a rich boy who didn't care about her at all and tried to not only pin her father's murder on her, but to actually make her believe herself to be the killer. And speaking of her father, she had no idea who he was before he was already dead.
  • Before her, there was the flight attendant, Rhoda Teneiro. Similar to Maggey Byrde, this poor young woman just wants to accomplish something, but she's The Unfavorite to the Captain, she designs a suitcase she poured her heart and soul into. Naturally everyone hates it, and she feels bad about it not selling that she buys one for each flight herself just to give the illusion they were selling. What's more, her design was going to be scrapped after that flight. After Miles clears his name, she gets fingered as the suspect and the poor thing suffers a Heroic BSoD. This woman just wants to be loved and for just one person to buy her suitcases. Which Edgeworth does. She even has an unrequited crush on Miles.
  • Sebastian Debeste, thanks to his dad Blaise. Said father actually changed his kid's grades so he could give his child the illusion he was a genius, while withholding the truth from him. Then he proceeds to berate him in court later. Sure, Sebastian snaps out of it thanks to Edgeworth, but you feel a serious satisfaction knowing Blaise won't be bullying his son again. Also, at one point in the final case, Blaise actually leaves the witness stand and suggests "going home" with his son to "play". At those words, Sebastian starts trembling.
  • Katherine Hall and Jeff Master. To start off with, Katherine (or Kate) was a Doorstep Baby for Master back 16 years prior to 2000 (when the IS-7 and DLC incidents happened) leading to them doing a nice show Piece of Cake which ended with tragedy as Kate discovered the body of Isaac Dover aka: Pierre Hoquet in Master's room, causing the police to suspect Master, Kate's own father figure. What's more, the interrogation was so horrid, it turned Master's hair white when he wasn't even 43 yet. The prosecutor Von Karma scared a confession out of Master to protect Kate from being indicted as an accomplice. Then some 18 years later, Kate decides to set up a trap to catch the culprit of the case to save her father only to wind up getting caught herself. In the end, the culprit, Dane Gustavia, was brought to justice, and Master was sent free, but these two had a very rough life.
  • Simon Keyes (known in the original Japanese version as Sota Sarushiro) was abused by his biological father, who used him as a taste-tester for sweets because he had lost his own sense of taste. One day, he was tied up and locked in a car by one of the kids be befriended, Manosuke Naito (aka Horace Knightley), whose father also happened to be a Jerkass. Knightley and Keyes nearly froze to death there, but were saved by the assassin Sirhan Dogen. They were then adopted by an abusive orhanpage. Upon meeting Dogen again during an incident at that orphanage, and having learned the assassin was in danger, Keyes started a fire to buy him an opportunity to escape. This became the first step in Keyes' dedication of his life to paying back the only man who ever treated him with any measure of kindness by destroying the lives of Dogen's enemies. With time and through increasingly violent and manipulative methods, Keyes managed to get all of them arrested, including Knightley, who he viewed as having betrayed him, but could only accomplish this by manipulating others into betrayal and murder. In summary, a miserable, friendless childhood drove him into misanthropy, and his efforts to pay back the only man who treated him with kindness took a hard turn into He Who Fights Monsters as he repeatedly brought down those who had wronged Dogen or himself by manipulating them into paranoia and murder, leading to the deaths and endangerment of multiple people totally unrelated to his problems in the first place.

Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice Arc:

  • Apollo Justice is the main protagonist of both the game sharing his name as well as Spirit of Justice, sharing the title with his boss Phoenix Wright. While Apollo’s childhood was implied to never have been very peaceful, Spirit of Justice shows the full extent of it, and boy, it’s not pretty. When Apollo was an infant, his father Jove Justice took him to Khura'in for a show but was killed by then-Minister of Justice Ga'ran. Dhurke Sahdmadhi rescued him, but was branded a criminal due to the arson on Amara's residence being blamed on him. After living on the lam with Dhurke and his adopted brother Nahyuta until he was 8 or 9 years old, Dhurke left Apollo in his birth country of America for his own safety. Growing up an orphan there, Apollo met Clay Terran and the two became best friends. Later on in life, Apollo was mentored by Kristoph Gavin before proving him guilty of Shadi Smith’s murder and gaining a disbarred Phoenix Wright as a mentor. In the fifth game, his best friend Clay is murdered by the Phantom, causing Apollo to take a leave of absence as he comes to suspect his friend and colleague Athena of the murder. By the time his suspicions are eventually proven wrong, Apollo no longer feels worthy of considering himself Athena's friend at all. In Spirit of Justice, he finds out in court that Dhurke is dead and that Maya has been channeling him, but still has no option but to soldier on with his case anyway.
  • Vera Misham seems to be the biggest Woobie of all of them. A life indoors, completely cut-off from society, unknowingly forged paintings, nearly killed from one of her habits, extremely shy, etc.
  • Another one of Apollo's clients, Wocky Kitaki could qualify as well, but given his personality, he's probably more of a Jerkass Woobie. Let's see. He has a bullet almost right next to his heart which both the doctor and nurse covered up. Had he really been the murderer, he'd probably be one of the most justified murderers in the series if he found out about his botched surgery. But he's completely innocent and got framed by his finacee, who didn't marry him for love, rather she married him because she knew he was going to die and she'd have the family fortune all to herself. Despite all this, Wocky still continues to defend Alita, and blames Apollo for getting his finacee convicted even after she spells it out that she never married him for love.
  • Klavier probably qualifies, despite his unflappable demeanor. The poor guy just wants to find the truth and is the only prosecutor in the games to be a genuinely heroic figure from start to finish. And for that, he winds up being used as an Unwitting Pawn for petty revenge and drug smuggling by people he genuinely trusts, and then has to prosecute them in court when their misdeeds come out. In Apollo Justice, his brother Kristoph uses him to disbar Phoenix (and it's implied Kristoph was a Big Brother Bully in their childhood), and his bandmate Daryan Crescend kills an interpol agent who was about to bust him for smuggling. Klavier then had to disband the band he'd put 7 years into and clearly loved, and in 4-4 he learns that Kristoph played him and tried to kill a teenage girl, along with killing her father. Dual Destinies doesn't let up on him, as the murder victim Constance Courte was his mentor (and the only one of Klavier's known associates to not turn out to be secretly evil) and he works with Apollo and Athena to solve her murder.
  • Trucy doesn't get off much better, despite being adopted by Phoenix. First, her mother supposedly dies while rehearsing a trick with her dad and her uncle, then a few years later her grandfather dies under mysterious circumstances and the only viable suspects are her dad (who gets arrested for it) and her uncle. She gets roped into helping her dad run away from court when she's eight years old and he doesn't return for her, leaving her with the guy who just got disbarred because her uncle ends up in jail in lieu of her dad. When her dad finally appears again, when she's 15, he goes to see Phoenix and then gets murdered. Phoenix ends up getting arrested for his murder. THEN her panties get stolen. Then next year she gets taken hostage. And then, in Spirit of Justice she gets accused of murder and almost loses her beloved talent agency due to Roger Retinz being sore about her grandfather firing him decades ago. Let's just say she's starting to rival Maya in woobieness.
  • Dual Destinies, in addition to Apollo, has quite a few other characters who qualify.
    • Let's start with Athena. First at the tender age of 11, she witnesses her mother being murdered, and her big brother figure being convicted for her mother. She also has the misfortune of having her best friend accused for murder twice. Athena also didn't have a father to look after her so she lived with her relatives in Europe. Later on, she gets accused of murder again when her prints are found on conclusive evidence of the murder of Apollo's best friend. This poor girl has gone through a Trauma Conga Line and yet still manages to keep smiling.
    • Though he might not seem like it at first, Prosecutor Simon Blackquill deserves a hug and a long vacation. He thought Athena had murdered her mother and pled guilty to the crime himself to protect her, sacrificing his career, reputation, freedom, and nearly his life. On the very day before his execution, he is dragged into court and forced to give testimony that will damn Athena, making his seven years in prison all for nothing and suffering a near-Heroic BSoD in the process. His parallels to Godot make him a very sympathetic antagonist, Taking the Heat for the daughter of his mentor so she could live a happy life. But things get a lot better for him (and Athena) after that.
    • Jinxie and Mayor Damian Tenma. Jinxie is extremely superstitious seeing Apollo as a demon, thinking she saw an ancient demon when really it was the mansion's caretaker Phineas Filch in disguise saw the Amazing Ninetails mask over the killer who she thought was her own father Florent L'Belle in disguise having just killed the alderman. Her father is a nice innocent guy similar to Will Powers who cares for his daughter enough to attempt a prison break to stop her tormentors and is very shy with people and is really a badass wrestler. Both of them lost Jinxie's mom who was from Nine tails vale and Jinxie carries a flower to remind herself of her deceased mother.
    • Juniper Woods is a more obvious example especially after being subjected to constant verbal abuse from Gaspen Payne, who drove the poor girl to tears. She's easily frightened and has fits of coughing as well as an inhaler implying she has asthma. In the third case, she acts all collected but as soon as she starts doubting her two best friends, she breaks down. In the first case, she also nearly got crushed by rubble, but was protected by Apollo, who she owes a debt of gratitude to.
    • Myriam Scuttlebutt. She's a girl who's jealous of Juniper's popularity, is a social outcast from what we've seen of her, and just wants friends. Unfortunately, she attempts to get friends by getting "dirt" on Juniper and her two friends. She even breaks her computer (which, while played for laughs) causes even Athena to feel bad for her and offer her to use the computer at the Law Offices. After the case, Juniper invites Myriam to join her circle of friends.
    • Clay Terran, the victim of Case 5-4 was very close to Apollo and an extremely happy young man. His father died early on in his life and his mother died during his junior high days in a car crash. Apollo cheered him up and the fact that he was such a Nice Guy and Apollo's inspiration is just heart-wrenching when you realize how close Apollo was with Terran.
    • As of the DLC case, the upbeat Sasha Buckler and even the culprit though he didn't kill the victim, Marlon Rimes qualify. To begin, Sasha has a heart condition (one that could possible be fatal), and despite all this, is put on trial for the murder of her Benevolent Boss and father figure, Jack Shipley. Rimes lost his girlfriend to an unfortunate accident and isn't very social with people despite his Nice Guy attitude. Wanting to take revenge for his girlfriend's accidental death due to a heart condition, he tried to drain the water from the orca pool and kill Orla, the orca inside the pool and, in doing so, accidentally caused the murder of Jack Shipley, who is one of the few characters in the series who nobody has anything bad to say about and is apparently an extremely kind and benevolent man. He even feels bad about all of this, and regrets having to testify against Sasha, who looks surprisingly like his girlfriend, making him one of the most sympathetic antagonists since Acro. He's also really good with animals, especially the penguins and generally prefers the company of animals to people. These two had it rough.
  • From Spirit of Justice:
    • From case 6-4, we have yet another killer: Geiru Toneido for the fact she was snubbed by her master, by him giving the title of Uendo to her junior fellow disciple, and genuinely regrets what she's done in a rare subversion for killers. She wanted to live up to her late father and make him proud, but Teifu didn't know this and put her doing something she doesn't like because he wanted her to find her own calling away from rakugo storytelling. He had even prepared udon noodles (which Geiru used to kill Teifu) out of concern for her allergy and wanted to tell her the truth gently over something she liked. Upon learning this, Geiru breaks down and immediately regrets what she's done. She even got sympathy from the defense who ask Bucky to deliver some udon noodles to Geiru even after she tried to frame a 5 year old boy. The poor woman doesn't even have the big breasts she was flaunting, as it turns out they were just balloons she inflated and placed under her suspenders. She even has a soft spot for her dog who, let's admit it, is absolutely adorable.
    • The wheelchair-bound Armie "Sarge" Buff is a pretty sad case. She's only 12 and her mother died in a fire similar to Apollo's dad. She's bound by a wheelchair, due to the trauma of losing her mother in her father, and only puts on a Drill Sergeant Nasty facade because that was what her mother was like, and her father was killed when trying to solve a clue on the Founder's Orb by a corrupt politician who wanted to give the orb to Justice Minister Inga. It's only thanks to Apollo's courage that she is able to get on the stand and testify against Paul Atishon, her father's killer and help convict him. You'll want to smile when she finally starts to walk again.
    • Nahyuta Sadhmadhi qualifies in a similar vein to Edgeworth. The guy used to be a sweet kid if flashbacks are anything to go by and secretly began his career within Ga'ran's regime as part of an effort to help the resistance group the Defiant Dragons. His jerkass attitude is something he's been forced to adopt and maintain to keep the tyrannical Queen Ga'ran from executing his sister and mother, the effort driving him further and further into hopelessness and despair. Eventually, he is forced to prosecute his own father knowing very well that by doing so is sentencing his foster brother and biological father to the gallows should he win. Turns out Dhurke was killed by Justice Minister Inga and the Dhurke that is being prosecuted is his mother the previous queen, who is shot by a royal guard, leaving him at risk of losing yet another of his few remaining family members before Amara recovers. Near the trial's conclusion, he is accused of murder himself by Ga'ran and it takes Apollo's unyielding will to defeat Ga'ran and save his foster brother.
    • Rayfa, Rayfa, Rayfa, you poor thing! After she starts to doubt her mother and father, it turns out she's not related to either of them, and they are both horrible, horrible people but Ga'ran especially breaks her with her calling her useless when she's not able to perform the Divination Seance for her "father"'s murder, she'll be killed if Ga'ran finds her big brother has betrayed Ga'ran, she's had to witness her father's (granted he wasn't a saint, but she thought the guy was her father and he actually kept her letters to him in a secret safe showing that unlike his heartless wife, Inga at least cared about his daughter). When she finds out Dhurke is actually her father, you can tell her little heart snaps in two when she finds out he's been dead this whole time and her mother is shot by Ga'ran's henchman, the poor thing's just struggling to keep it together and it's great to have her on your side when you accuse Ga'ran of murder. She also defrosts like Franziska.
    • Sorin Sprocket, come on down! He's a sweet young man who has to live with Loss of Identity every morning of his life — an accident took his ability to retain memories, meaning anything he doesn't write down during the day is lost the minute he goes to sleep. Then Phoenix suggests that someone is tampering with his book — effectively rewriting his memories — and the realization that he might not be able to trust anything sends him into a panic attack and then unconsciousness. And did I mention all of this happens during a trial in which he's confessed to a crime he doesn't remember doing, all because — yes — it's written in his notebook that he did? Someone give this kid a hug.
    • Speaking of the DLC case, we have yet again, the culprit Pierce Nichody. While he may have Dr. Jerk tendencies in court after he's exposed, you've got to understand he lost his fiancee due to Sorin driving the car and wanted Sorin to suffer the same pain he suffered at the loss of his older sister. Plus he was the surgeon for Selena Sprocket, and his failure to save her basically meant I Let Gwen Stacy Die. He's not a monster, but his envy of Sorin's happiness trapped him in his own "loop" from which he couldn't move on — until the verdict, when it's too late to undo the damage. He's also one of the few culprits to show genuine regret.

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