History YMMV / PhoenixWrightAceAttorney

This page covers the first three games and the film adaptation. Take general series tropes to YMMV/AceAttorney, and take tropes specific to ''[[YMMV/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Apollo Justice]]'' or ''[[YMMV/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' to those pages, please.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AwesomeMusic/AceAttorney Has its own page]]

* JailBait: Get into any location that contains Phoenix/Maya and Phoenix/[[spoiler: Iris]] shippers and ask whether Maya is too young for Phoenix.

* DownerEnding - [[FlashBack Case 4]]: [[spoiler:Mia Fey was [[AcquittedTooLate THAT]] close to proving Terry Fawles' innocence for both the current murder and the events five years earlier but instead of continuing his testimony he [[DrivenToSuicide commits]] [[SuicidePact suicide]] in front of the entire courtroom.]]

This page covers the first three games. Take general series tropes to YMMV/AceAttorney, and take tropes specific to ''[[YMMV/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Apollo Justice]]'' or ''[[YMMV/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' to those pages, please.

** Well, given how it's Wendy Oldbag we're talking about here, who is very dramatic, they probably did that [[RuleOfFunny on purpose]].

* BaseBreaker: Godot.
* BreatherBoss: In Case 3-3, Gumshoe's Psyche-lock regarding the lottery.

** Mia's random comedic assaults on Grossberg in case 3-1 every time Phoenix says something adoring about Dahlia become much less funny when you realize that it's not just low tolerance for sappy, saccharine gushing -- it's because she's bottling up a lot of ''hate'' for Dahlia and with very good reason.

* TheWoobie: Pearl. Oh, you poor kid. Her role as TheWoobie 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 [[spoiler:after Maya's kidnapping]]. And then there's her role in case 3-5, where [[spoiler:she's used once again by her mother to try to kill the girl who is her remaining closest family]]. 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 when she's convinced she's losing her powers on top of everything else.

** [[spoiler:Redd White]] from 1-2. [[spoiler: He blackmails numerous people, most of whom committed suicide because of him, and the rest having their lives ruined. When Mia Fey began gathering evidence, after he ruined her mother's career, and got close to busting him, he killed her himself. When Phoenix confronts him, Redd punches him in the gut, and challenges him to file a lawsuit, knowing full well that he had every judge and lawyer on his side, and could get him convicted in a heartbeat.]]

** By the same token, [[spoiler: Juan Corrida is implied to have been just as heinous as Engarde was, especially concerning Adrian and Celeste. When Matt revealed that Corrida was dating Matt's sloppy seconds, he called off his wedding with Celeste, directly causing her suicide. As revenge, Corrida forged a suicide note detailing all of Matt's misdeeds and hid it from the authorities, waiting until the opportune time, so he bring him down when it hurt the most. He may have even hid a legitimate suicide note, considering that traces of ink where found on Celeste's hands. In other words, Corrida used a suicide of his lover that he caused to further his rivalry with Matt Engarde. If Engarde had this kind of dirt on Corrida, he may very well have hired Shelly de Killer instead.]]
** Oh yeah, and how about that [[spoiler: Morgan Fey]]? Tried to ''kill her'' '''''own niece''''' just to get her daughter to become Master, indirectly caused her own sister's death, and then there's [[MoralEventHorizon how she plans to use]] [[TheWoobie Pearl]]... It's also explicitly mentioned that the reason she planned to [[spoiler:set up Pearl as the Kurain heiress]] is not for her young daughter's well-being or benefit, but instead to revive a shred of her petty prideful dignity in assuring that [[spoiler: she is the mother of the ruling line of the Kurain]]. She seriously did not give half a damn about her eight year old daughter's feelings on the matter.
*** She's ''even worse'' when you consider that, in case [[spoiler:3-5]], it's mentioned that Pearl would ''not'' have wanted to [[spoiler:go along with Morgan's plan if she had known that Maya would die]]. It's bad enough that she was going to use Pearl for her own benefits, but the fact that she deliberately lied to manipulate Pearl's devotion to her is even more awful.
*** To put things into perspective, [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne]], ''another'' CompleteMonster, [[EvenEvilHasStandards finds her overly petty and prideful]].

** [[spoiler:Furio Tigre]], arguably - while the murder of Glen Elg was out of little more than desperation, his manipulation of Viola and the [[MoralEventHorizon lengths he went to to get Maggey convicted]] push him into this category.
* DownerEnding - [[FlashBack Case 4]]: [[spoiler:Mia Fey was [[AcquittedTooLate THAT]] close to proving Terry Fawles' innocence for both the current murder and the events five years earlier but instead of continuing his testimony he [[DrivenToSuicide commits]] [[SuicidePact suicide]] in FRONT OF THE ENTIRE COURTROOM.]]

*** [[spoiler: He arguably transitions to WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in 3-5.]]

*** [[spoiler: Although he arguably transitions to WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in 3-5.]]

** [[spoiler:Redd White]] from 1-2.
*** Well, [[spoiler:Redd White]] kinda did have an excuse. [[spoiler:Mia was keeping tabs on him. She was tracking all of the horrible things he had done such as how he blackmailed numerous people. Throughout the years, Mia was slowly gathering evidence. She wanted to take him down after what he did to her mother. Redd, however, caught on to this and killed Mia.]]
*** No. [[spoiler: Redd White]] is a complete monster. He [[spoiler: punches Phoenix in the gut, and then challenges him to file a lawsuit, knowing full well that he has every judge and laywer on his side, and could get him convicted in a heartbeat.]]
*** [[spoiler: Phoenix KNEW he was the murderer. Redd White had the power to convict Phoenix of murder and thus get him off his back. That's not CompleteMonster material, that's just...normal.]]
**** [[spoiler:...Whether that sort of thing is "normal" or not, he still blackmailed a very large number of people, driving quite a few of them to suicide and ruining the lives of the rest of them, and killed the person who was trying to expose that villainy.]]
**** [[spoiler:Does trying convict someone you ''know'' is innocent after blackmailing countless people really sound like a "normal" thing to do?]]

*** [[spoiler:He arguably transitions to WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in 3-5.]]

*** [[spoiler:He arguably transitions from this to WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in 3-5.]]

*** [[spoiler:Although 3-5 seems to turn him into more of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.]]

*** [[spoiler:Though 3-5 arguably turns him into more of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: Phoenix's comment in 3-3 that [[spoiler: the only way to win a phony case is with phony evidence]] becomes a ''lot'' harsher after the events of ''Apollo Justice'', where he [[spoiler: loses his badge due to evidence forgery.]]

** [[spoiler:Phoenix is disbarred approximately three years later in-game.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: Maya, despite being cleared of all charges, laments at the end of Case 2-2 that every time something like this happens, she loses someone close to her. In the next game, she loses [[spoiler:her long-lost mother]]

* Godot. A mysterious, badass prosecutor with a cool design and sympathetic, tragic past, or an overhyped sexist scumbag who's never brought to account for all his bad choices?

** Edgeworth and Franziska to an extent as well

** Maggey Byrd, who gets caught up in ''three'' murder trials over the course of the series ([[BornUnlucky and that's not even covering half the things that have happened to her]],) but remains plucky and optimistic throughout.