History Headscratchers / PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations

* When Phoenix first meets Tigre, Tigre told him HE was Phoenix Wright, and Phoenix is confused as to what Tigre's talking about. You'd think that, after thinking back to this conversation, Phoenix would later determine that Tigre was the imposter who got Maggey guilty the first time, but it's never brought up again, and as far as the rest of the case is concerned, it never happened. To say nothing of Tigre apparently suffering from Plot Amnesia, cuz apparently he forgot he made that claim, and the case pretends he didn't make it.

** Consider that Atmey implies that it was ''Mask☆[=DeMasque=]'' who hit him on the head, bending the Shichishito. However, from Atmey's point of view, ''he is Mask☆[=DeMasque=]''. Of course it was Mask☆[=DeMasque=] who bent the sword [[spoiler:and that Mask☆[=DeMasque=] is Atmey himself]]. That was "the truth" on about the same level as Matt Engarde's.

* Luke Atmey's plan does not make much sense. He wanted to avoid [[spoiler: being found guilty of murdering Kane Bullard]] because of the punishment he would receive, so, he was planning to [[spoiler: be found guilty of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=] instead]] because the punishment would be lighter. However, Kane Bullard's list of the things Mask☆[=DeMasque=] stole are: The Tear Of Emanon (a jewel), which costs $100.000, The Crown of Bongora, which costs $150.000, The left hand of Hades (a sculpture), which costs $240.000, and the painting of Mejeena, which costs $500.000. This means that [[spoiler: he would have been found guilty of stealing $990.000, which would still warrant a decades long prison sentence, if not life]] how exactly would he have been a KarmaHoudini?
** Because being [[spoiler: convicted of being Mask☆[=DeMasque=]]] was his back-up plan, to be activated in case the primary plan, [[spoiler: framing Ron [=DeLite=] for Bullard's murder]], didn't work out. Also, because being popular is something Atmey likes, and it could be worth it being convicted of being a popular jewel thief. Doubly so if it means [[spoiler: being impossible to convict of being a murderer.]]

* So... why didn't [[spoiler: Adrian Andrews]] or any cleaning staff really just use white spirit to clean up all the pink mess?

* How exactly did [[spoiler: Viola manage to impersonate Maggey? Even if Kudo saw her from behind, wouldn't he notice her bandages]]?

* How did [[spoiler:Furio Tigre]] manage to trick the entire court room into believing that he was Phoenix? I mean, I can understand how Maggey might have been fooled, since she only met Phoenix once before, and it's possible that Payne noticed it but decided not to say anything about it because he couldn't pass up a chance to stroke his ego with an easy victory. But the judge had seen Phoenix on multiple occasions over the past three years! Are you going to sit there and tell me that he sat through the whole trial without noticing that [[spoiler:"Phoenix" now had bright orange skin, a thick Brooklyn accent, a nasty temper, and, to top it all off, a ''fake paper badge'']]?
** What's important about the series of events preceding 3-3 is that they serve to communicate that, to the other characters, [[spoiler:the only truly memorable thing about Phoenix is his spiky AnimeHair]]. Beyond that, I'd say that the Judge was so cowed by the imposter that he wasn't really willing to question him. Also take into account that the Judge is pretty old and the relative distance involved -- it's possible that, be it from his poor eyesight or from that distance, he couldn't tell that [[spoiler:the badge was fake]]. It's actually more unsettling that ''Maggey'' didn't notice, given the physical proximity that she would have had. Remember that in her first appearance [[spoiler:she pretty much idolized Phoenix for getting her off the hook]], and it's not too hard to imagine that she would be rather familiar with Phoenix's behaviour through her correspondence with Gumshoe. She's the one who would have been the ''least'' likely to be fooled, and with her gung-ho attitude and police experience it's hard to believe that she was simply too scared of the imposter to call him out.

** [[spoiler:He went on vacation and got a tan. His badge got a tan, too.]]

* Pheonix eventually learns that [[spoiler:an accident with Furio Tigre's scooter colliding with Viola Cadavarini's car somehow caused enough physical damage to Viola to warrant a $1,000,000 surgical procedure. I'm not saying it's impossible but going by the image shown during the case, she plowed into him and she ends up receiving the brunt of the damage...from hitting a ''scooter with a luxury car''? Tigre's scooter isn't even that badly mangled by it (it has some dings but it runs okay enough to get him around regardless).]]
** I suppose it depends on how fast they were both driving. Assuming [[spoiler:Tigre was speeding (which isn't unlikely, given his personality), then crashing into Viola's car could conceivably both knock him backwards and cause her a significant amount of damage]].
** After hitting [[spoiler:Furio, Viola]] may have panicked, and swerved her car into a tree, wall, or other such obstruction.
** [[spoiler:Wall of meat that he is, Tigre could have definitely suffered just as much potential damage as Viola and simply walked it off. The $1,000,000 surgery might have been fluffed up a bit because the mob wanted to make use of Furio.]]

** The answer is just that Phoenix knows there's a woman that looks '''a lot''' like Dahlia and knows him from somewhere despite denying that she attended the same university as him. Not only that - [[spoiler:he didn't know Dahlia was hanged until Edgeworth told him late in the second day of investigation in 3-5]]. For all Phoenix knew, it looked like Dahlia was back and had dyed her hair black. Pay attention to his reaction upon [[spoiler:seeing Iris in the newspaper article Pearl brought]] at the start of 3-5, and it makes more sense.
* Why is the obvious contradiction that [[spoiler: The people on the bridge are facing each other, there is no way the defendant could push her down]] not able to be pointed out?

* In case 4, how did Valerie and "Melissa" get to the Dusky Bridge area on the day Valerie was murdered? If they drove, where were their cars? For that matter, did the culprit really carry around a knife, a [[spoiler: tripod camera]], a [[spoiler: spare change of clothes (so that she could be photographed as Valerie and herself)]], a [[spoiler: scarf]], and possibly a phone and watch and [[spoiler: umbrella]] and [[spoiler: lockpick]] all over the wet mountain that day?
** Dahlia is CrazyPrepared. After all, ''five years ago'' she had convinced Terry to agree to take [[spoiler: the poison]] they left at the temple, right before she [[spoiler: faked her own death without his knowledge]], ''just in case'' they happened to meet up again in circumstances that would threaten her. Also, she must've taken Valerie's [[spoiler: scarf after killing her]], and may have already had a coat that would look the same in the black-and-white photo her camera took even without the obscuring drizzle. As for getting there... got me. I'm more surprised that Dahlia was able to get [[spoiler: the necklace -- wasn't this what Terry used to kill himself? -- ]] back after the trial.
** Considering that [[spoiler:their SuicidePact appeared mutual to Terry, she might have had a necklace of her own. (See below.) She just didn't say its contents weren't intended for ''her''.]]

* What exactly was Terry Fawles [[spoiler: hired to tutor Dahlia in, especially with his mental condition? I understand that if Mr. Hawthorne hired him, he probably wouldn't have really cared to give the man a background check, but it's still strange.]]
** She was probably just lying about that, and they met through other (probably more suspicious) means. Especially considering [[spoiler: Dahlia didn't even mention they were dating at all.]]

* How did Maya not know Godot? He was Mia's boyfriend, and it is heavily implied that Maya regularly visited Mia before the events of 1-2. [[spoiler:When Diego fell into a coma, Mia must have grieved for a while too, and at least mentioned him to Maya.]] So how could Maya have not known or recognised him?%%Ed Note: Although the interactions questioned would be in cases 3-2 and 3-3, there would be no reason to question them until 3-4, hence why it's here.
** Maybe Maya did remember [[spoiler: Diego and that Mia had a boyfriend that "died", but just didn't remember what he looked like, or what his mannerisms were? Besides that, there's an even more probably reason: Diego was supposedly killed. Although officially it wasn't classifed as a murder, it was to the general public, and possibility therefore even Diego's friends & family. Although we're not given a reason as to why the incident was made to look like a murder, it's entirely possible that Mia thought it was one, and that Maya therefore thought it was too. If that's the case, then it stands to reason she wouldn't think Godot is Diego. Diego is dead from her viewpoint]].

* So Terry [[spoiler:poisons himself in the courtroom and dies from it]], with everyone there as a witness. After a conversation with the woman who the prosecution had confirmed had known him for years, in which it is established that she gave him the bottle as a gift. And that they had made a promise to each other. And she showed open contempt for his inability to keep it. And possibly some other things that I'm forgetting. Maybe [[spoiler:his death marked the end of the trial for Valerie's murder, but why in the world was his suicide never investigated as its own case afterward? Surely just from the evidence seen in that courtroom, the police might look into the possibility that Dahlia either drove him to suicide or even assisted in it via providing the weapon.]] But apparently Diego was the only one who even considered the possibility. (Made even more glaring when compared to ''Apollo Justice'' case 4, in which [[spoiler:the defendant seemingly poisons herself and her motive and method actually get discussed during the next trial day]].)

* [[spoiler:Is there any way that Godot's going to get any sort of harsh sentence for actions? He was protecting someone he cared about from an obvious psychopath who had killed multiple times before.]]

* [[spoiler: Why didn't Godot swing across on the same rope that carried Misty's body?]]
** [[spoiler: He never got the chance to actually escape, after using the rope to swing the body it ended up dangling in the middle of the bridge like it's seen on the photo, it didn't return to the other side. And he didn't swing along with the body because he had cleaning to do.]]
** Not to mention [[spoiler: he got stabbed in the face earlier. Do you really feel like swinging across a dangerous river on a flimsy rope connected to a burning bridge, all the while with a stabbed face?]]
* How did Dahlia [[spoiler:successfully impersonate Iris? We've seen various members of the Fey family channel Mia, and each time, while [[{{Fanservice}} Mia's presence]] was fully visible, it was also obvious who was channeling her. Yet she managed a picture-perfect Iris imitation, and one that can fool ''the player'', unlike Tigre. She didn't display Maya's black hair, nor her usual red. She couldn't have planned for this, either; the intent was for ''Pearl'' to channel her, and both Misty and Maya's channelings occurred without her knowledge.]]

* Godot [[spoiler: replaced his blood on the dagger with some other blood, I assume. Why didn't he just get rid of the thing? There was a raging river right below him.]]
** [[spoiler: If you mean the night of the deal, he couldn't find the dagger. If you mean the day of the trial, Gumshoe was the one who gave it to him, he couldn't just get rid of it after that.]]
** It's distinctly possible that he [[spoiler: changed the blood on the dagger at all.]] Why? Because the dagger, [[spoiler:and the blood on it,]] is the ''only'' direct, physical evidence of [[spoiler: Godot's presence at the scene of the crime.]] Which means that, if Godot's coverup of what happened failed, that dagger, [[spoiler:and the blood on it,]] is the only way he has to [[spoiler:prove Maya Fey's innocence.]] The reason he says that [[spoiler:he swapped the blood on the dagger]] is just to throw a final hurdle at Wright, to force him to prove what really happened, leaving no doubt about who the killer is.
** [[spoiler: Why could he not find the dagger the night of the murder? The garden isn't that big.]]
*** Yes, but it ended up [[spoiler:stuck in the back of a tree.]] Not exactly the first place you'd look for a [[spoiler:knife that had been randomly flung somewhere.]] If that doesn't do it for you, well, Godot's vision is messed up.
* I'm very confused by the map of the Hazakura Temple area you receive in case 3-5. It appears to be a scale map of the area, including both temples, the hall and the bridge. The thing is, we know that bridge from the previous case, and both that case's map of the bridge and [[spoiler:Edgeworth's estimate of its length to Gumshoe]] put it at twenty meters in length. The path from Hazakura to the bridge appears to be about three to four times that distance, counting meandering. So eighty meters tops. It takes ''fifteen'' minutes to walk that far, or five minutes by snowmobile? That's basically... eighty steps. Even in the cold, you should be able to take more than five steps a minute!

* Once [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne]] realises that [[spoiler:she's being channeled by Maya]], why doesn't [[spoiler:she attempt suicide]]? After all, we hear over and over again that [[spoiler:her objective is to kill Maya]]. Admittedly, it appears that [[spoiler:she's in denial over it for a while]] and [[spoiler:she IS in a court room]], but we already know that [[spoiler:she's a master of hiding her true nature]] and [[spoiler:it wouldn't be the first time someone has fled from, or died on, the witness stand]].

* If Godot [[spoiler:wanted to protect Maya]], why didn't he just [[spoiler: destroy Morgan's instructions so that Pearls would never find them in the first place]]?
** Because Godot's desires were not as altruistic as he made himself believe. [[spoiler: He didn't just want to protect her, he wanted to ''save'' her, like he felt he had failed to do for Mia. And he couldn't do that if she wasn't in danger in the first place. He admitted as such. He even admitted the best thing he could have done was to simply tell Phoenix, who was almost always by her side, and the whole debacle would never have happened.]]

* Why did Phoenix decide to defend Iris? At the time, [[spoiler: he didn't know Dahlia had a twin: Iris. For all he knew, he was defending Dahlia who, most likely, escaped from prison.]]

** The last Phoenix saw of Iris was five Psyche-Locks, he wanted to protect her til he got the truth out of her. And he had reason [[spoiler: to believe she wasn't Dahlia because none came up for going to his university.]]

* Why did Godot try to [[spoiler: frame Iris]] in the fifth case? [[spoiler: Yeah, Iris agreed to get framed willingly, but Godot's whole goal was to protect Mia's family, right? Plus Iris is younger than him, healthier than him, female (which would presumably matter if his chauvinism is accompanied by chivalry, as is implied), etc. Is Godot really so selfish that he has to have her take the fall for what he did (which is exactly like what Dahlia did)? What makes matters worse is that it is implied that Iris agreed to take the blame because she was afraid Maya would get blamed otherwise, which would mean that she thought Godot would actually be willing to frame the very person he was trying to protect. It would be pretty crazy to kill Misty in order to protect Maya only to have Maya executed in order to protect himself! It could be argued that Godot was angry with Iris for her role in protecting Dahlia, but if he trusted her enough to enlist her help, he must have known that her goal is to protect her family. I guess maybe Godot thought that he needed to stay alive to protect Maya again if Morgan kept trying to kill her? Or maybe he thought Iris was going down anyway because of how Bikini saw Iris desecrate Misty's body?]]
** [[spoiler: In retrospect, at no time did Godot ever say that Iris killed Elise/Misty. He never really pushes for a guilty verdict in court (though the game still gives you one if you run out of "health"). He spends a large portion of the time in court trying to force Phoenix to present better arguments about why Maya is innocent. He doesn't ever seem to want to say who did it or even attempt to suggest that Iris did. He still admitted that the plan called for Iris to "take the fall" if they couldn't keep track of Pearl, though.]]

** Keep in mind that it's possible Godot knows [[spoiler:that Iris was, to some degree, involved in her sister's evil activities. If that's the case, it'd make sense that he wouldn't particularly mind if she took the fall for the crime. It would seem the sort of rationale he'd follow, that it'd be a fitting punishment for her letting Dahlia poison and murder people, and put him in a coma.]]

** It's worse than irony. [[spoiler:Godot was willing to frame Iris in order to protect Maya. And then "Iris" claims that Maya did it... and he agrees with that assertion?]] At that point, the only rational explanation for his actions in court is "he'd do anything to defeat Trite". Interesting how both prosecutors in that case are motivated primarily by their personal rivalry with the defense.

* Why didn't Elise or Iris [[spoiler: tell Phoenix, Maya, Pearl, or Bikini about the plot to kill Maya?]]
** The plan on the whole is being masterminded by [[spoiler: Godot, who for his own personal reasons would have insisted Phoenix and, by proxy, Maya, who'll just blab it all out to him, be kept out of the loop. Presumably, Iris and Elise trusted him, and therefore believed him to have a better justification for this then he ultimately turned out to.]]

* Speaking of Iris and the Magatama, Edgeworth breaks her "psycholock" on the first day to figure out why she never went to the temple by figuring out that she was scared to go because of Larry's "blackmail letter". Indeed, Larry repeatedly testifies during the first trial day that before the incident, he spent the night waiting for Iris, but she never showed. But then on the second day, [[spoiler:we learn that Iris was in on the entire plan and not only had a valid reason to not go to the Inner Temple, but did in fact head to Dusky Bridge to move a dead body during the time that Larry was waiting for her. We can accept that Larry both took some time to get to the bridge and was more interested in drawing the flying body than noticing a nearby Iris (even though he thought the body was Iris), but what about the Magatama?]]

* What exactly was Iris's role in the [[spoiler: Dusky Bridge fake kidnapping]] supposed to be? Supposedly she [[spoiler: got scared and ran away, and supposedly this "betrayal" led to problems for Dahlia]]. What exactly was she expected to do?
** Most likely, to provide some sort of escape route. If she had done her part, presumably [[spoiler: Dahlia would not have had to jump in the river and risk her life (and the diamond) to get out of there alive.]]
** Or perhaps she was supposed to [[spoiler: pull a TwinSwitch with her, leaving Dahlia free to run off as somebody else with the gem]].
* Even considering light sources, it's surprising that someone attacking someone else with a weapon could [[spoiler:strike him in exactly one place, and have it be the one place that is covered with protective metal, in such a manner that he doesn't even need to adjust it to cover up the wound later]].

* Why couldn't [[spoiler:Misty Fey]], ''the master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, [[spoiler: exorcise or control Dahlia's spirit and stop her from killing Maya? Presumably she has more control over the spirit's actions then, say, Maya and Pearl would. Not to mention she wouldn't have died.]]

** [[spoiler:Misty channeled Dahlia as a last-ditch plan. She was out looking for Pearl (since obviously keeping Dahlia from being channeled at all would be best) and, when it became apparent that time was running out and Pearl couldn't be found and stopped, she resorted to doing the channeling herself. As for why she didn't ask Iris to tie her up, Iris was elsewhere, doing jobs for the temple. Most likely Misty was out in the woods with no one else around when she had to get to it. As for why she didn't think to just do it ahead of time, well, no one knows precisely how much Godot told the women. He could have somehow pitched it to them in a way that made it sound like their plan was the best to go with.]]

*** Maya was probably lying at that point, presumably to try and protect Godot; according to ''Spirit of Justice'', you aren’t able to channel someone if you don’t know what they look like.

*Why can’t we talk to Maya through the bars of the Sacred Cavern and check on her every once in a while? We can see EVERYTHING inside it.