Characters / Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth

Ace Attorney | Main Character Sheet
Wright Anything Agency (Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice) | Defense Attorneys & Assistants | Main Prosecutors (Miles Edgeworth, Franziska von Karma) | Prosecutors & Judges | Law Enforcement | The Fey Clan | Troupe Gramarye | Kingdom of Khura'in
Witnesses and Other Characters (Original Game | JFA | T&T [Dahlia Hawthorne] | AJ | DD | SoJ | Manga | Anime | Novels | Theater) | Victims
Investigations (AAI | AAI2) | TGAA (Major | Minor)
PL vs. PWAA

Miles Edgeworth (Reiji Mitsurugi)

Voiced by (Japanese): Tatsuro Iwamoto (OT, AAI), Eiji Takemoto (PLvAA, DD, SoJ, PXZ2), Masashi Tamaki (anime)

Voiced by (English): Seon King (OT, AAI), Kyle Hebert (DD, SoJ), Mark Healy (PLvAA), Christopher Wehkamp (anime), Apphia Yu (child - anime)

Played by: Takumi Saito (film), Roi Hayashi (child - film)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

^{Click here to see him in the original trilogy and in the Investigations duology}

^{Click here to see him as a rookie prosecutor}

"There is only one thing we seek: The truth. No matter how painful it may be."

Main prosecutor of the first game, with frequent reappearances in subsequent games. By-the-book and skillful, but less than honest at first; he tampered with witnesses and coached their testimony in some earlier cases, although despite allegations in the first game, the only time he used illicit evidence, he had no idea it was forged (but that didn't stop him from using it). He's Phoenix's childhood friend, and his actions in grade school inspired Phoenix's desire to be an attorney.

He then featured as a main character in the Spin-Off series called Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, taking place between the events of Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice. By the time of Dual Destinies, he has become Chief Prosecutor, with duties that generally keep him away from the prosecuting bench.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the anime adaptation, he does not threaten to publicize Adrian's suicide attempt to force her to testify. He also manages to properly thank Maya after she gets held in contempt of court to save him from being convicted.
• Angrish: Edgeworth is prone to making these noises whenever he's backed into a corner or getting whipped by Franziska. Nnnghooooooh!
• Ambiguous Situation: While Edgeworth claims "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death" was merely a metaphorical way of declaring his Journey to Find Oneself, he also uses it as a euphemism for actual suicide when revealing Adrian Andrews' mental health records in court, hinting that he may have genuinely been on the Despair Event Horizon instead of merely Mistaken for Suicidal.
• Ambiguously Gay: Miles shows no interest in women, but has a very intense relationship with Phoenix Wright which can easily be read as romantic. There are also many moments in the Investigations games which hint at him being attracted to men. He has an on-and-off flirtatious dynamic with Agent Lang, is teased about being jealous of a pair of two men by Kay, and assumes he is being hit on by a male flight attendant, who was actually flirting with the woman next to him. And then, there's the maroon suit jacket and cravat.
• Anti-Hero: Post-Heel–Face Turn, he's absolutely relentless in his pursuit of the defendant and will not give the defending attorney an inch of slack — but it's all because he wants the truth and fears that letting the defense get away with unsupported claims or sloppy logic will allow the truth to escape.
• Anti-Villain: Pre-Heel–Face Turn, he was only a ruthless prosecutor because Manfred von Karma had raised him that way.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: His Logic system doesn't use anything technological or supernatural (unlike the Magatama, Perceive, or Mood Matrix systems), just plain old mental deduction and chess pieces made to look awesome. He was even able to successfully deduct four contradictions with one piece of evidence. In Justice for All, he manages to correctly guess what happened in Case 2-3 by just looking at the case files despite being overseas, and pulls off a Batman Gambit which relied on Phoenix realising where the murder weapon currently is and why the murderer had to bring it into court of all places.
• Back for the Finale: He makes no appearance in Justice for All, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice until the final case.
• Badass Boast: "No one gets away with murder in my office. No one." Note that this is said while said murderer has a loaded gun to his back, and causes them to leave. The person he says this to isn't the murderer, but still. Plus, the gunman was an associate with Miles' father and was investigating the Big Bad.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears one of these in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice.
• Badass Normal: Of the four main/playable characters in the Ace Attorney series, Edgeworth is the only one without some kind of truth-finding aid: Phoenix has a lie-detecting artifact, Apollo has superhuman perception focused by his bracelet and Athena has enhanced hearing with an advanced emotion reading computer. He did borrow Phoenix's magatama once, but in his own games, his "power" is simply his power of reasoning, and in Gyakuten Kenji 2 he can "measure" a person's unwillingness to reveal secrets without any special abilities or external help.
  Magical Lawyer Superpower #3: Basic Logic
• Bash Brothers: With Phoenix. Edgeworth wants the guilty to be convicted; Phoenix wants the innocent to be acquitted. There's no contradiction here. If Phoenix can demonstrate that his client is innocent, Edgeworth will do all he can to help him make his case; and if the evidence points to another person as the guilty party, both of them will join forces and take that person down. Edgeworth is satisfied with this arrangement since he cares more about the truth than a "win," and eventually he starts thinking of Phoenix as his partner.
• The Beautiful Elite: Being raised by the perfection-obsessed Manfred von Karma, everything about Edgeworth—his clothes, his job, his car, his office, his courtroom bearing—is tailored to signal he is Better Than You.
• Berserk Button:
  • He doesn't like being reminded that he was bad at origami as a child:
    Edgeworth: Be quiet already! I'll never forget the shame of that day! You want a crane! I can now make a perfect quarter-inch crane without a single flaw!
  • Don't mock or especially rip off his beloved Steel Samurai. After finding out that Larry played the titular protagonist in a stage play, he probably would've beaten the crap out of him if he could've gotten away with it. The mere existence of The Plumed Punisher sends him into a frothing rage.
  • Spirit of Justice shows that he gets pissed off when someone criticizes his decision to stay single, or when someone (e.g. Phoenix) talks about The Power of Love.
• Big Brother Instinct: As understated as the rest of his emotions, but he definitely has a soft spot for young/teenage girls like Kay, Ema and Maya (in the latter case, except for when he was prosecuting her) and shows them a lot more consideration and patience than he does other characters.
• Big Damn Heroes: In "Turnabout Revolution," he steps in with almost no foreshadowing to get Phoenix and co. over to Khura'in to save Maya, via privately-chartered jet (they couldn't have flown by commercial carrier since at least two of their number were wanted by the Khura'inese government).
• Big Good: He was behind most of Dual Destinies, working in secret with Blackquill to expose and take down the phantom, and helping Phoenix get his badge back in the process. To a lesser extent, his high position allowed him to be a great help to Phoenix and Apollo in Spirit of Justice.
• Big Little Brother: Invoked. As far as Franziska is concerned, Edgeworth is her little brother and junior in all things. The fact that he's got seven years and half a foot on her is entirely irrelevant.
• Big "NO!":
  • Played for Drama in "Rise from the Ashes," when he realized that the evidence he used to convict Darke had been forged. Preceded by a Little "No".
  • Played for Laughs in case 3-5, when, after spending ages trying to break Larry's three Psyche-locks, five more appear in their place. Not only is it funny, it's also very understandable.
  • Repeatedly in Investigations. ("Nnghooooooh!")
  • Gives no less than three "Big Nnghoooohs" when a dog attacks his cravat in case 6-5.
• Blatant Lies: In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, during his murder trial, Edgeworth angrily calls out Yanni Yogi from the defendant's stand for saying that cravat fluttered to "an extreme extent", when his cravat was fluttering at that very moment. Cue the entire courtroom doing a Face Fault.
• Boring, but Practical: Unlike other playable characters who have supernatural aids to help them in investigations and trials, Edgeworth's "superpowers" consist simply of Logic, in which he makes deductions based on what he knows about the case, and Logic Chess, in which he probes the witness with questions to get more details out of them.
• Break the Haughty: He goes through this over the course of the first game: first his perfect win-record is shattered, then he's framed for 2 murders and then he learns that the case that made his name as a prosecutor was based on forged evidence, making him as much of a cheater as Manfred von Karma was.
• British Stuffiness: One can distinguish a British accent in some of his voice clips in the original trilogy ('Take That' being one of the easier ones), the 'stuffiness' being that Edgeworth is The Comically Serious. As of Dual Destinies, the British accent has been fully implemented for the voiced cutscenes.
• Broken Bird: The DL-6 incident and von Karma's subsequent Evil Mentorship turned him from a bright-eyed truth-seeker to a ruthless Amoral Attorney who buried his conscience for the sake of a perfect conviction record.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • He respected his mentor, Manfred von Karma, and thought his tactics were tough but fair. Then he learned that von Karma had murdered his father Gregory Edgeworth.
  • He lost his faith in defense attorneys after seeing one of them get an acquittal for the man who (as far as he knew) killed his father.
  • Edgeworth himself was this for Phoenix, who admired him when they were both children. When he became the Demon Prosecutor, Phoenix couldn't understand why he would abandon his own ideals.
  • In The Movie, his father becomes this, because of the location of the DL-6 incident (instead of taking place in the elevator, Gregory Edgeworth is caught removing evidence from the Evidence Room). Edgeworth believes that his father was trying to secure a win by destroying decisive evidence, and tells Phoenix he vowed to never be that kind of an attorney. At the end of the movie, he finds out that his father was checking to see if the evidence was forged (it was), and the pedestal was restored.
• Brutal Honesty: Edgeworth does not believe in little white lies.
  Phoenix: We don't have so much free time we can spend it coming down here to laugh at you.
  Edgeworth: ... Yes, you do.
  Phoenix: (Actually, he's right.)
• Butt-Monkey: More comedic characters seem to enjoy messing with him. From Oldbag the Abhorrent Admirer, to Larry being a dumbass (admittedly, he's one around other characters too), to Yew laughing at him for being too serious, and so on...
• Celibate Hero: He is the only main character to show no romantic interest in anyone. In "Turnabout Time Traveler," he swears he'll never marry and defensively asks what is wrong with being single.
• Character Catchphrase: Eureka! in Investigations (when making a Logical connection) and "Checkmate" in the sequel (after winning a bout of Logic Chess).
• Character Development: By leaps and yards the biggest example in the series. To sum it up he goes from being fully willing to convict Phoenix for a crime he knew he didn't commit, to being one of Phoenix's closest and most reliable allies in the series.
• Chess Motifs: Invoked as his way of dealing with uncooperative witnesses he wants info from in Gyakuten Kenji 2, with himself representing the chessplayer. He also uses red and blue chess pieces to visualize his relationship with Phoenix.
• Chick Magnet: He has no trouble attracting female admirers, even though he's definitely not looking for them. Lampshaded by Gumshoe in the third game, to Edgeworth's shock: "D-Do I really inspire this sort of frothing desire from the female masses?"
• Classy Cravat: As von Karma's protege, he wears a fancy cravat to emphasize his tendency to remain formal at all times.
• Closet Geek: Zigged-zagged. For the most part he makes little to no effort to hide that he's a fan of the Steel Samurai franchise, it's just that most people assume someone as uptight and serious as him couldn't possibly have an interest in such things, so Edgeworth effectively remains in the closet purely through everyone else's ignorance. Edgeworth implausibly denying his fandom comes up largely whenever it would be funny, such as when Gumshoe asked him if he was a fan in Investigations and in the (non-canon) "Apollo Justice: Asinine Attorney" DLC case after Spirit of Justice.
• The Comically Serious: He does his damnedest to stay professional and composed no matter what, so it's inevitable that the plot will try to knock him off balance for the sake of comedy. Larry Butz and Wendy Oldbag are his usual tormentors, while his seriousness in Case 4 of Investigations, which takes place early in his career, causes Calisto Yew to burst into laughter multiple times. To wit, one of the funniest moments of Spirit of Justice involves Sha'do and his cravat — the dog growls at him, they have an (offscreen) altercation, and the next we see Edgey he is wearing Sha'do, whose teeth are now locked in his neckwear, with his trademark stony expression.
• Compliment Backfire: Edgeworth's cameo appearance in the secret episodes of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney reveals that he hates being called a "Prodigy Prosecutor," because he doesn't like living under those expectations and sees it as cheapening all the hard work he had to put into his career.
• Confirmed Bachelor: As stated in the DLC episode "Turnabout Time Traveler," of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, he has no interest in ever getting married. (Although given the nature of the games being originally set in Japan, this could still play into Ambiguously Gay, since gay marriage is not legal there).
• Cool Car: Drives a flashy red sports car, an Alfa Romeo GTA to be specific.
• Cowboy Cop: A central conflict in Investigations 2 is that the P.I.C perceives Edgeworth as this due to his methods of running off the rails of Jurisdiction Friction in his pursuit of the truth, one of which ended up technically violating Extraterritorial Rights involving boarding the president of Zheng Fa's plane to investigate a murder (under duress) and the next case involving posing as the assistant of the suspect's defense attorney, along with getting deliberately leaked information from Gumshoe. All this results in the P.I.C trying to take his badge.
• Crazy-Prepared: When a young Kay uses his Classy Cravat as a tissue, he pulls a clean one out of his pocket and replaces it.
• Crusading Lawyer: As a prosecutor, he wants the trials to convict the actual culprits rather than winning for its own sake. After the cases in Ace Attorney Investigations 2, he decides to remain a prosecutor so he can make people trust the legal system again.
• Dartboard of Hate: Too sophisticated for darts, he has a chessboard of hate in his office, arranged so that a slew of red knights with sharp-edged swords are surrounding a spiky-headed blue pawn.
• A Day in the Limelight: He's playable in the first half of 3-5 and in the Investigations games.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has a dry wit and deploys it frequently, though sometimes it's just in his inner monologue.
• Decomposite Character: In The Great Ace Attorney duology, both Kazuma Asogi and Barok van Zieks are similar to him. It helps that Kazuma is van Zieks's assistant in Resolve, and undergoes the "Demon Prosecutor" parallel when he prosecutes van Ziek's own trial without mercy.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: A lawyerly variation. To befriend him, Phoenix has to force Edgeworth to unlearn Manfred von Karma's training, and the first step to doing that is proving that defendants weren't always guilty by defeating him in court.
• Defrosting Ice King: He warms up to other people over the course of the games, especially after learning about the truth behind his father's death, and Phoenix saving him from being wrongly accused of murder.
• The Determinator: After Character Development, he wants the truth as ardently as he wanted a perfect record: he'll go to amazing lengths to find it, and he won't back down from someone trying to conceal it, no matter who they are. At the same time, he's got to do it all legally for fear of slipping back into his Amoral Attorney ways or destroying public faith in the courts. (Note, however, that when the truth and the law are in irreconcilable conflict, truth wins).
• Deuteragonist: To Phoenix in Rise From the Ashes and the second game. He could also be considered this of the overall series having two spin offs and appearing in 5 out of the 6 mainline games.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He's the last prosecutor you face in Justice for All and Dual Destinies. However, both cases involve a hostage situation and he does what he can to help you from within the limits of his role. In Dual Destinies, he steps aside after the situation is resolved, and allows Blackquill to take over as prosecutor for the final confrontation with the Big Bad (who is Blackquill's Arch-Enemy).
• Does Not Know How to Say "Thanks": Initially. When Maya takes a contempt of court charge to save him, and Phoenix acquits him of two murders in a single day, he is clearly grateful to both of them but has trouble getting the words out (he did post Maya's bail, though). After Character Development sets in, he gets over it; by Investigations he is able to say "thank you" to Wendy Oldbag with perfect grace and sincerity (albeit only after he realizes she has given him the crucial, game-winning piece of evidence).
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He really doesn't like anyone to see him in his lowest moments. Lampshaded by Phoenix in the third game, who remarks (after Edgeworth has been spooked by an earthquake and made a critical mistake as a result), "I was ready to hug it out with him, but he's just the same, prideful Edgeworth."
• Dub Name Change: In the French translation, his name is changed to Benjamin Hunter.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: At times when he's playable. In Investigations 2, he quickly goes from being a hero for his actions in Investigations to being at risk of losing his badge.
• Enemy Mine: In nearly every case against Phoenix, he is more ally than enemy (and they're friends outside of court). But he still won't help the defense until he's convinced that Phoenix has the truth on his side.
• Entertainment Below Their Age: He's a grown man who's a massive fan of The Steel Samurai: Warrior of Neo Olde Tokyo, a tokusatsu show aimed at a Shōnen Demographic, even displaying a figurine of the show's titular hero on the windowsill of his office, despite not caring at all about the person who gave him said figurine. In Spirit of Justice, he's not pleased to find out that the Kingdom of Khura'in has another tokusatsu show that's a blatant knockoff of The Steel Samurai.
• Everyone Knew Already: In the first Investigations game, Edgeworth openly declares himself to be a Steel Samurai fan. Nobody reacts in any way, not even the people performing the Steel Samurai play or the people that know him personally.
• Everyone Has Standards: He had several moments before his official Heel–Face Turn that showed he wasn't irredeemable.
  • He raised an objection to Dee Vasquez's testimony in 1-3, even though it had put Phoenix's case on the rocks, because at that point it was clear she was probably the real killer.
  • In Investigations Case 4 he immediately sympathized with Kay Faraday, since her father had died in the courthouse just as his had, and both he and Franziska tried to comfort her when she broke down and cried.
  • He demanded that the trial in 3-4 (his first trial, no less) be stopped immediately when Terry Fawles poisoned himself on the stand.
  • And more generally, he refused to cross the line of (knowingly) using falsified evidence. This soured his relationship with his deceased father in the live-action movie, because he mistakenly believed that Gregory was looking for court evidence to destroy it. He is relieved to learn that Gregory was actually checking it to see if it was forged.
• Evil Counterpart: Was deliberately and unknowingly on his part raised into this by von Karma, as to his own father as part of the latter's revenge. He decides to completely reverse this as a prosecutor.
• Face of a Thug: Many, many characters like to point out to Edgeworth that he has a cold, menacing face, with Gumshoe saying it could even hospitalize someone. Given that he's an honest person, Edgeworth is naturally taken aback by these claims, wondering if his face actually is that scary.
• Fainting: Due to his seismophobia, he can panic severely enough to lose consciousness during an earthquake. In "Turnabout Airlines," he begins the case on the floor after passing out in a rough patch of turbulence.
• Fan Boy:
  • His love of the Steel Samurai franchise is a Running Gag. He even keeps a figurine of the title character in his office, despite having absolutely no love for the person who gave it to him (his Abhorrent Admirer, Wendy Oldbag).
    Kay: Who doesn't love giant monsters?!
    Edgeworth: ...I'm not sure I see the appeal.
    Kay: Well, I'm not sure I see the appeal of the Steel Samurai!
    Edgeworth: !!!
  • In the manga, he's a fan of the Sparklestar show.
• Fandom Rivalry: In-Universe example. In Spirit of Justice, he expresses a vehement dislike of The Plumed Punisher which is... heavily based on The Steel Samurai.
• Fighting Your Friend: Edgeworth and Franziska are the primary antagonists of the first two games, both trained by her father, and prosecutors. It doesn't stop them from having a Boss Battle (in which you control Edgeworth) that is nothing short of epic.
• Finger Wag: In his earlier days, which is a tendency he picked up from Von Karma. He stops doing it by the time he's 24 (instead he taps his forehead and wears a "Nice try... but you'll have to do better than that" smirk on his face).
• Flat-Earth Atheist: In 3-5 he claims not to believe in spiritual power, despite using the magatama and acting on what it shows him. Justified, as he seems to be locked into a belief that spirit mediums are frauds due to the trauma of the DL-6 incident, when Misty Fey named the wrong person as the murderer of his father, Gregory Edgeworth.
• Foil:
  • To his mentor, Manfred von Karma. Von Karma is a Cold Ham with a blue color scheme, who tried to maintain a perfect record at any cost, cared nothing for the truth, and forged evidence to help him win in court. Edgeworth, post-character development, is a stoic prosecutor with a red color scheme who prizes the truth above all else, and actively cooperates with the defense if he believes the defendant is innocent.
  • Also to Phoenix. Phoenix is hot-headed, bombastic, conceals a surprisingly-sharp mind behind a hapless exterior, and wears a blue suit. Edgeworth is usually cool and collected, becomes flustered and awkward when he's pressed too hard, and wears a red suit.
• Freudian Excuse: Edgeworth became the Demon Prosecutor because von Karma redirected his grief over his father's death into hatred for criminals, defense attorneys, and their clients. His hatred of defense attorneys in particular was expanded on in the live-action movie; he mistakenly believed that his deceased father and former defense attorney, Gregory Edgeworth, had gone to inspect court evidence to destroy it, when he was actually checking if it was forged. Fortunately, the fans loved him, so his Excuse was upgraded into Character Development in the second and third games.
• Friendly Enemy: While he and Phoenix are once again friends after Edgeworth's Character Development, he doesn't hold back when they meet in court. Part of it is professionalism and part of it is that his jerk side comes out when he's under stress, but it's also suggested that he gives Phoenix a rough time because he knows he can handle it. However, he is willing to cooperate with Phoenix to find the actual culprit in their cases.
• Friend to All Children: A humanising trait of his before his redemption. He's shown to be civil and polite with people like Kay Faraday and Cody Hackins, dropping his cold exterior to be more gentle with them when pressing them for information.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: By Dual Destines, he's matured into a man who is very well educated but also socially skilled.
• Gentleman Snarker: He's as relentless with his words as he is in his prosecution.
• Germanic Depressives: Not German by birth but lived most of his youth in Germany, and always maintains a dead serious attitude.
• Germanic Efficiency: Studied law abroad in Germany, and is diligent, organized and thorough when doing his job.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Sometimes points and wags his finger.
• The Glasses Come Off: As seen in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, he removes his glasses when prosecuting a case. Dual Destinies even showed him taking them off as part of the pre-trial cutscene where Phoenix and Edgeworth prepare for battle.
• Good is Not Nice: Edgeworth goes into court to reveal the truth, no matter who's hiding it or how sympathetic their motives might be. At times even Phoenix and the Judge have begged him to back off for fear of the pain he'll cause, but he goes forward anyway because running from the truth never helped anyone.
• Grammar Nazi: In Justice For All, Edgeworth gives Phoenix a lecture on sentence construction and suggests that what he meant by "confess" is better termed "public disclosure."^note True, though in this case it's actually a public disclosure masquerading as a confession—the disclosure was to be delivered by someone in the guise of the perpetrator. He also spends a lot of time correcting the hapless Sebastian Debeste in Investigations 2 when he mangles a phrase.
• Hair Color Dissonance: In game, his hair is a muted slate grey, but in official art it's been black, dark brown, or even silver. Its true color is yet undetermined, though Spirit of Justice seems to confirm that it's not black.
• Heel–Face Turn: From a ruthless, bitter rival obsessed with getting a guilty verdict to an honest prosecutor who truly cares about the truth. He's all about the truth from Justice For All onward, and the games make sure we know it.
• Hello, Attorney!: He's one of two attorneys with the misfortune of being hit on in the middle of court proceedings, the other being Mia Fey.
• Heroism Motive Speech:
  • In Investigations 2, when Courtney asks him why he would sacrifice his badge and his freedom to help Kay, he says that he had practiced law for selfish reasons in the past, but now seeks to protect others with it.
  • He, Phoenix and the judge share one about the true nature of the relationship between prosecutor, attorney and judge in court in Case 5 of Dual Destinies.
• He's Back!: In the first game, he experiences some situations that shake him to his core and make him question what he believed in, so much that he goes on a leave-of-absence not long after. He returns in the second game's final case with newfound resolve, having realized what it truly means to be a prosecutor. The theme song that accompanies his return is actually called "Triumphant Return", and has been his Leitmotif ever since.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: In Investigations and its sequel, he resorts to this to bypass Jurisdiction Friction and continue investigating, becoming a 'subordinate' to Franziska (Interpol) and an 'assistant' to Raymond Shields (defense firm), despite doing all the real work.
• Hypocrite: During his younger years, he denies the possibility of Dahlia being the murderer of Valerie Hawthorne because they're stepsisters. Years later, he's willing to accuse Maya of killing Mia.
• I Am Not Pretty: Oddly for someone dressed like a total dandy, he's genuinely baffled by the female attention he draws—on the off chance he notices it at all, that is.
  Gumshoe: It's amazin' you don't realize yourself what ya got.
• Icy Gray Eyes: Fit his cold intelligence and determination beautifully. He got them from his father.
• Informed Attractiveness: In-universe, he's considered far more attractive than Phoenix or Apollo, even though there's not much difference in their official art. Presumably he attracts attention more with his wardrobe and general way of carrying himself.
• The Insomniac: In the first trilogy he constantly looks tired. It's implied that he doesn't sleep well because of a particular recurring nightmare that is finally banished in the first game.
• Internal Reformist: He's Chief Prosecutor by the time of Dual Destinies and working to clean up his department after Blackquill's (his subordinate) arrest and conviction brought on the "Dark Age of the Law". After Blackquill is acquitted, he vows to investigate every prosecutor under his fold for illegal actions behind the scenes and add additional scrutiny to make sure that the accused really are guilty before they are convicted. By Spirit of Justice, he's given so many prosecutors the boot that they're short staffed and have to rely on transfers from other districts.
• I Owe You My Life: Agrees to help Kay find her father's killer in Investigations because she saved his life at the end of the fourth case and helped him overcome a critical obstacle in the third case. He also seems to have this attitude toward Phoenix (and Maya) after they helped him in the first game.
• Ironic Echo: He throws Justine's "Overruled!" catchphrase back in her face when objecting to her decision that Gustavia is not guilty of Dover's murder by virtue of the statute of limitations.
• I Shall Taunt You:
  • He can do this during the Logic Chess segments. However, doing so is a bad idea, as it gets the interrogatee worked up and less likely to reveal critical information.
  • He and Phoenix engage in this in Dual Destinies in court, making them sound like schoolchildren or Like an Old Married Couple. It's only for laughs and has no bearing on the trial.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a good man under the prickly exterior. After Phoenix gets him acquitted of murder, he becomes genuinely concerned with uncovering the truth over winning, although he is not above mocking the defense attorneys.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: As a corrupt prosecutor he was a model citizen; as a man trying to reform, he's a target. After he starts questioning his ways, he ends up being framed for murder and forced to confront the fact that one of his most noticeable victories in court came because of forged evidence. Justified in that the Prosecutor's Office is a crooked institution that rewards Guilty verdicts even when they're not deserved; eventually he realizes he's got to fix it himself.
• Kick the Dog:
  • His indifference toward Adrian Andrews' suicide attempt in Justice for All is this both in-universe and out.
  • His appearance in the DLC case for Spirit of Justice perhaps has his nastiest moment in the series yet, where he mocks Ellen, a bride defendant, right after her groom testifies that she's the killer. Phoenix, Maya and even the Judge make sure to call him out for this one.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Averted in Investigations, where he only takes notes in his Organizer unless the actual piece of evidence is given to him or otherwise clearly his to take.
• Kubrick Stare: His 'serious/focused' expression is a death glare with his head slightly lowered. It's been trained into him to the point where he doesn't even realize he's doing it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the first game, his philosophy is that it's not wrong to go for a conviction, even when the defendant probably didn't do it, because everyone's guilty of something. Then he gets framed for murder and is prosecuted by the very man who taught him that philosophy. Moreover, no defense attorney will take his case after what he did to their clients as the "Demon Prosecutor". Had it not been for Phoenix, his goose would've been cooked.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Now that he's the protagonist of Investigations, there's no real drama in his character arc in the first trilogy (which suggested he'd end up irredeemably evil or dead if Phoenix failed).
• Leitmotif:
  • From the second game onward, he and Franziska both use "Triumphant Return" (each with their own instrumental mix). In Investigations, he also gets his own version of "Objection!", which draws from "Triumphant Return".
  • "Reminiscences - The DL-6 Incident" is the theme of his sadder moments, particularly the death of his father.
• Like Brother and Sister: He and Franziska are siblings in all but blood, with the expected rivalries and petty quarrels that come with it that doesn't change how much they care about each other.
• Living Legend: A prosecutor with an unbroken record of successful convictions for five years straight from the years of 2012 to 2016, inclusive. Unfortunately this also comes amidst a litany of accusations that he used underhanded and duplicitous tactics to secure those victories, earning him the moniker of a "demon" behind the prosecutor's bench. Later in his career he sheds this impression and leverages his actual prosecutorial skill into becoming the Chief Prosecutor of the district, giving merit and title to his perceived talents.
• Mean Boss: At least during his Demon Prosecutor days, if not after his Character Development: using luminol in his office in 1-5 (something you have no real reason to do) reveals blood spots on the carpet in front of his desk. Phoenix speculates that they came from him slapping Gumshoe.
• Meaningful Name: "Edgeworth" and "Mitsurugi" ("honorable/Emperor's blade") are both references to his sharp wit and his role as a prosecutor. "Miles" means "soldier" (or "servant," which was his treatment under Von Karma) and "Reiji" means "clever samurai".
• Medal of Dishonor: In Case 1-5, he treats the "King of Prosecutors" Award as this, going so far as to call it a "toy" meant to mock his stint as the Demon Prosecutor (which he's since come to resent after his acquittal in the previous case). It's unceremoniously dropped on his office's couch the day he was awarded it, but later puts it on his windowsill.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In the Investigation games, his Logic and Logic Chess segments are presented in a manner similar to Phoenix's lie-detecting Magatama, Apollo's visual hyper-sensitivity with the Perceive system, and Athena's emotion-reading Mood Matrix, yet all he's really doing are drawing conclusions with known facts and asking questions to gather more information out of witnesses, respectively — two things that mentally able humans don't need superpowers to do.

N-Y

• Nerves of Steel: In the very first case of Investigations, Edgeworth had entered his office (which, to his surprise, was unlocked) when he was threatened by an unknown gunman. Anyone would be understandably terrified, but what does Edgeworth do? He refuses to cow, and makes it clear to his mysterious would-be assailant that he will not permit any act of murder in a prosecutor's office. It actually makes the gunman back down and flee.
• No Social Skills: More pronounced early on. His courtroom etiquette was impeccable, of course, but he had severe trouble with regular interactions with people outside of his job, whether it's a simple thank-you or holding casual conversations.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: He's managed to resist the charms of every attractive female witness, even Dahlia Hawthorne, to the point of probable asexuality. Word of God states he's not really interested in women. The jury (pun intended) is still out on whether that makes it Word of Gay.
• Nothing Personal: When facing off against Phoenix in Case 5-5, he makes it clear to him that he doesn't hold anything personal against him for indicting Athena on a murder charge, as he's mostly concerned with uncovering the truth.
• Not Love Interest: To Phoenix. An old childhood friend with a troubled past, his frosty demeanor melted by the Power of Trust...
• Not So Above It All: Edgeworth treasures his composure and ability to react stoically even to the most ridiculous happenings of the world he inhabits. But sometimes, often Once per Episode, the mask slips, and he proves just as hilariously petty and over-the-top in his own classy way as the rest of the cast, whether it's angrily breaking down into glaring at whichever opponent has managed to get under his skin or comically overreacting to what should be relatively minor problems. And that's before getting into his probable status as a Closet Geek.
• Obliviously Evil: He was this before Manfred von Karma prosecuted him because Manfred, as Miles's mentor, taught him that prosecutors must do everything possible to get guilty verdicts, turning him into an Amoral Attorney, and he thought that he was being a good citizen when he was not. When Phoenix's first win against him introduces him to the idea that defendants might actually be innocent, he nearly has a mental breakdown. When he realizes during Rise from the Ashes that at least one of his victories was illegitimate and that the police were willing to deceive him with forged evidence, he actually does have a breakdown and runs away to Europe for a year.
• Oblivious to Love: In Investigations, Rhoda Teneiro is implied to develop a crush on him, and Lauren Paups falls head over heels for him. He's none the wiser. He's only too aware of Wendy Oldbag's affections, however.
• Oh, Crap!: Impressively, one can pinpoint exactly where in the series Edgeworth begins his Heel–Face Turn - Case 1-3, specifically when he begins to freak out on realizing Dee Vasquez is the actual killer. Immediately after this, he begins to drag out the trial to give Phoenix the chance to prove it.
• Older and Wiser: Edgeworth is 34 years old by Dual Destinies and while it has been a while since he stood in court (he was promoted to Chief Prosecutor), Edgeworth returns to face Phoenix for one more trial while showing he's wised up.
• Only Sane Man: Most of the attorneys you get to play as have some form of special "ability" they can use to detect lies and bring themselves closer to the truth. Phoenix has the Magatama and Psyche-Locks, Apollo has the Perceive system, and Athena has the Mood Matrix. In Investigations, the player finally gets to play as Edgeworth for more than a fraction of a case and his ability is... Logic. And many of the other characters treat it as some kind of mystical superpower that only he can use. It's like magic!
• ...Or So I Heard: Edgeworth's reaction whenever Franziska or Gumshoe become suspicious of his knowledge of the Steel Samurai in Investigations.
• Outranking Your Job: A chief prosecutor doesn't usually take care of trials, instead having more administrative or investigation focused duties. Despite this, he prosecuted the trials of Turnabout for Tomorrow and Turnabout Time Traveler, which took place after he became chief prosecutor. Both examples are Justified: In the former, Aura started a hostage crisis and directly told Edgeworth to take the case, so he had to comply to ensure the safety of the hostages, while in the latter, the Sprocket family tried to use their clout to put pressure on the Prosecutor's Office, so none of the other prosecutors were willing to get involved.
• Parental Substitute: Often acts like this to Kay Faraday, which is taken further in Invetigations 2 where he flips out at Blaise Debeste for planning to frame her for murder, and hands back her Promise Notebook from her deceased father in a similar fashion to when she first recieved it from him, which is enough to bring her memories back.
• Patricide: Averted, but for fifteen years he believed that he was the killer in the DL-6 Incident, in which his father was the victim.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Part of why von Karma had such an epic breakdown in court after trying his damn hardest to convict his own apprentice of murder, was that Edgeworth recognized the man's "demonic" screaming and publicly outed him as Gregory Edgeworth's true murderer. The result was von Karma loudly cursing Miles and Edgeworth for ruining him.
• The Penance: He became a prosecutor as retaliation against criminals like the one who killed his father. This included himself.
  Edgeworth: For the longest time, I thought that I might have killed my own father. I thought I might be a criminal. I became a prosecutor in part to punish myself.
• Perpetual Frowner: A frown is his default expression, to the point where Phoenix and a few others start teasing him about how deep the lines on his forehead are becoming. He smirks quite often but very rarely shows a true smile.
• Persecuting Prosecutor: As the "Demon Prosecutor," he pulled a lot of underhanded tricks to get a conviction. After Character Development, he seeks to find the truth of the case in any legal way he can, albeit not always nicely.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In Case 1-4, Maya deliberately performs contempt of court in order to get Lotta Hart to testify about the clarity of her photograph, leading to her arrest for that, but saved Edgeworth from a Guilty verdict. He (according to Gumshoe) was so moved by this that he posted her bail.
  • Case 4 of Investigations takes place long before his Heel–Face Turn, and features him showing empathy toward Kay and helping to defend the innocent Gumshoe. It seems as though he Took a Level in Jerkass between that case and his real first case (3-4), and he's gone through a few more levels of Jerkass by case 1-2.
  • In 3-4, which takes place several years before his Heel–Face Turn due to its status as both his and Mia's first case, he immediately demands that someone call an ambulance when the defendant poisons himself on the stand.
  • In the Investigations series, a Running Gag is that if someone he's working with gets their clothes dirty, he offers to cover their cleaning bill.
  • In I2-1, if he inspects the Samurai Dogs stand, he offers to buy Gumshoe a box of them after the case is over.
• Pretty Boy: He's considered very attractive by in-game characters and fans alike. He even benefited from Progressively Prettier once he became a sympathetic character — in the original trilogy he looks permanently tired, but he doesn't have the same shadows under his eyes in later games.
• Pride:
  • It kills him on the inside to have to get his rival Phoenix to defend him in court, and his pride nearly prevents Phoenix from taking the case at all. (Moreover, he believed Phoenix wouldn't win because Manfred von Karma took the case.) He mostly gets over it, but never entirely. It seems he has that particularly self-effacing form of pride found in those who are "gifted" or told from a young age they possess natural talents, where he places all of his value as a person on his successes and his talents, and so takes failure very, very hard, often treating it as a combination of letting others down and a frightening sign his "gifts" are disappearing. It can cause him to lash out at others about as likely as it can cause him to lapse into self-loathing.
  • By Dual Destinies he's more mature about his pride: getting "offended" at something so petty as Phoenix insulting his sense of aesthetics but graciously stepping aside for Blackquill in the final battle because it was Blackquill's fight to win or lose.
• Princely Young Man: He's treated and presents himself more like aristocracy than a public prosecutor.
• Privileged Rival: Word of God says that Edgeworth didn't really gel as a character until they decided to make him rich. In all of the Phoenix-centered games (especially the first one), Edgeworth holds a significant advantage over him, and losing cases despite apparently holding all the cards is what shakes him into rethinking his strategy. In the Investigations games, where Edgeworth is playable, he loses his privilege early by being put up against someone better connected than him (Interpol in the first, the P.I.C. in the second).
• Progressively Prettier: He was actually drawn to have very pointy features and rather smug expressions in the first game, and his Bishōnen looks were more of a matter of Self-Fanservice. By the second game, however, all new artwork of him was cleaned up to make him very good looking.
• Promoted to Playable: After appearing in the first two games as an opposing prosecutor, Edgeworth becomes playable during the first part of the final case of Trials and Tribulations, and then becomes the playable character in his own Spin-Off.
• Properly Paranoid: His early dislike of defense attorneys wasn't entirely irrational, given that some of them were proven to be just as corrupt as any prosecutor. The games make it clear that the Dark Age of the Law meant both sides of the courtroom would do whatever it took to get their verdict.
• Psychological Projection: Part of the reason he's so fervent about believing in defendenets' guilt before Phoenix beats sense into him is because he believes that anyone who pleads their innocence is just as innocent is he is... and he thinks that he is a Karma Houdini for the DL-6 incident.
• The Purge: Following the events of Dual Destinies into Spirit of Justice, he used his Chief position to clean out the Prosecutor's Office of corrupt prosecutors, including Gaspen Payne. However, this led to an understaffing which caused him to take some cases by himself.
• Rank Up: He was promoted to the position of Chief Prosecutor before the events of Dual Destinies.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives Sebastian a brief one late in "The Inherited Turnabout," saying that if he's obsessed with winning and losing, he has no business being a prosecutor.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As the Chief Prosecutor. He allows Blackquill to prosecute because he fully believes he is innocent. Also, once the immediate crisis has been resolved, he reviews everyone in the Prosecutor's Office and fires the corrupt members.
• Red Baron: "Demon Prosecutor". It's never mentioned after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calmer, snarkier Blue to Phoenix's more naive, emotional Red, even if their suit colors are switched.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Absolutely stone-cold ruthless in the courtroom, no matter who's in the defendant's chair or what they're accused of doing... but it's all to find the truth.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: After leaving for self-reflection and left behind a suicide note, a majority of the cast believe that he's really dead, until his return.
• The Rival: To Phoenix from the first game on. Despite the friendship and trust that grows between them, he always meets Phoenix in court as an antagonist and even seems to enjoy luring him into logic traps and embarrassing him.
• Running Gag: His not-so-secret Steel Samurai fandom; his difficulty in getting witnesses to give a straight answer to "What is your name and occupation?"; and his tendency to get names or technical terms slightly wrong (e.g. "Psycholocks" for Psyche-Locks) if he hasn't made a special effort to remember them.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Mainly in Investigations, where he has to confront criminals who are either protected from the law or using the law to conceal their crimes.
• Seen It All: By the time Dual Destinies rolls around, he barely reacts to Phoenix's weird outbursts and Unconventional Courtroom Tactics.
• Serious Business: Finding out that Larry is the one in the Steel Samurai costume in the fifth case of Investigations really sets off the angry fanboy within him.
  Edgeworth: (while presenting the Steel Samurai autograph to Larry) Larry. I have one question for you, and depending on how you answer, I may let you live.
• Shoot the Dog: In 2-4, faced with an uncooperative Adrian Andrews, Edgeworth threatens to reveal her codependent nature to the public in order to arrive at the same conclusion her cooperation would lead him to. When Adrian makes it clear that this would destroy her life in the same way Celeste's death almost did, Edgeworth doesn't budge, and is about to go through with his threat until she gives in.
• Shout-Out: In Investigations, Edgeworth begins to show a lot of similarities to a certain great detective. He even has Gumshoe as The Watson.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In the main Ace Attorney series, he doesn't go into court "believing" that anyone is innocent: that's a defense attorney's job. His more cynical outlook seems to work best when balancing out Phoenix's idealism by pushing them both to go above and beyond when presenting their arguments and steering the trial towards the truth. After all, Phoenix was wrong once... He does note this as one of the things he has to take into mind while taking Nick's role as a defense attorney in 3-5. In his internal monologue, Edgeworth states that if he is to take the role of the defense, then he had to be in the proper mindset, and mimicking Phoenix's belief that his clients are truly innocent no matter what was the best way to do so.
• Slobs vs. Snobs: While their monetary positions don't factor into the story, Miles is shown to be very well off shown by his office being practically a one-room mansion and drives a sports car, while Phoenix can barely pay his own rent to keep his basic office open.
• Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: As an intelligent but cold prosecutor, he's the Smart Jerk to Gumshoe's Nice Moron.
• Smart People Play Chess: He has a chessboard in his office and even plays it in his head.
• Stock Shōnen Rival: In the first game. Ticks all the boxes (a privileged, gifted prosecutor with an unbeaten streak that is haunted by accusations of manipulation and forgery runs across a fresh-faced and novice defense attorney with nothing but raw determination who thoroughly cleans his clock in court and forces him to rethink his life). Possibly an enforced example as he was once a happy child with aspirations of being a defense attorney until his father was murdered and his father's murderer takes him under his wing as part of a twisted revenge scheme to turn him into everything his father was not. After being humbled by Phoenix Wright on two occasions followed by being wrongfully accused as part of said revenge plot and learning his mentor was really an unscrupulous Jerkass, he gains a lot of Character Development that takes him out of this mold.
• Stoic Spectacles: From Dual Destinies onward, for the additional deskwork his promotion to Chief Prosecutor entails.
• Straight Man: In 3-5, as the Flat-Earth Atheist in a case heavily revolving around spirit channeling. He's this especially in Investigations, where he plays the serious, strait-laced protagonist for the zany supporting cast to bounce off of.
• Straw Vulcan: In the first game, he accuses Phoenix of unearthing long-buried "unnecessary feelings" that only get in the way of his job. Ironically, he actually becomes more logical after Heel–Face Turn, since one of those feelings—uncertainty—helped him break out of the Theory Tunnel Vision that often led him to ignore or dismiss exculpatory evidence.
• Stronger Than They Look: Edgeworth in Spirit of Justice is apparently strong enough that he barely registers when a suitcase he's carrying contains 100 more pounds of teenage girl in it than it normally has. Trucy takes advantage of it to smuggle herself onto international flights, much to Phoenix's frustration.
  Edgeworth: I'm afraid Trucy employed the old "Let's Stow Away in Mr. Edgeworth's Suitcase" trick again.
  Phoenix: Tell me you at least noticed it was heavier than usual...
• Strong Family Resemblance: Cut off Edgeworth's fringe and give him a trench coat and fedora, and you got a younger version of his deceased father, Gregory, especially once Miles starts wearing glasses. Manfred certainly noticed, and for that purpose, he molded the young Edgeworth into becoming the Demon Prosecutor so he could spit in the face of everything his rival stood for in revenge for humiliating him once. And when history repeats itself once again, Manfred starts screaming and cursing both Miles and Gregory for bringing about his downfall. Truly spectacular.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Well, he's constantly accompanied by Gumshoe in any case.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: His hair is lighter than the usual, but boy is he tall and snarky.
• Take a Third Option: In Investigations 2, he's conflicted over whether he should fight crime as a prosecutor or save people as a defense attorney. In the ending, he decides to save people as a prosecutor by using his position to reform the legal system, which explains why he became the Chief Prosecutor.
• That Man Is Dead: He announces his Journey to Find Oneself with little more than a cryptic note reading, "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death." Phoenix did not take this well.
• That Was Objectionable: Trope Namer, from "Turnabout Sisters." He also objects just to stall a couple of times in "Turnabout Samurai", at one point actually coming up with a valid objection afterwards.
  Edgeworth: Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!
• Theory Tunnel Vision: His original approach to cases was to assume that the defendant is guilty—not guilty until proven innocent, but guilty period. Any evidence to the contrary was either coincidental or a deception on the part of the defendant, no matter how much mental gymnastics were required to explain it away. Notably, one can see where this line of thinking collapses - in 1-3, he has a breakdown when he realizes who the real murderer is, followed by him actively helping Phoenix catch the real killer for the first time in the series.
• Thinking Tic: Edgeworth crosses his arms and taps his pointer finger on his bicep in his thinking animation.
• Think Nothing of It: He has gone out of his way many times to uncover the truth, often at a loss to his personal record, but he generally brushes off attempts to thank him with "I was just doing my job."
• This Is Gonna Suck: He has many instances of this, usually in a situation that involves dealing with Oldbag or Larry. Two notable instances of it are in "The Kidnapped Turnabout" where he meets Oldbag after he had already lost investigative authority in the case he was working on up to that point...and in "Turnabout Timetraveler" when Phoenix calls Larry to the witness stand.
• To Be Lawful or Good: His Character Development could be summarized as a series of swings between these two poles. He's both lawful and good, but he's trying to find the right balance. Generally speaking, he goes more Good when alone but more Lawful when Phoenix is there to counterbalance him. The last case in AAI specifically focuses on this: when confronted with the need to use illegal evidence to take out the Big Bad, he concludes "The law must serve the truth" and does so.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • In "Turnabout Goodbyes," he picks up a murder weapon with an ungloved hand, getting fingerprints on it. If he'd picked it up with the same hand that the shooter used to fire at him, Phoenix couldn't possibly have saved him from being convicted for Hammond's murder.
  • In I-3, the kidnappers he's dropping a ransom for ask if he's a police officer. Edgeworth replies that no, he's a prosecutor—someone who is higher on the law enforcement chain. Unsurprisingly, he gets clonked on the head and tied up. (The way he answers, with a long pause in the sentence "I'm a........ prosecutor," may indicate that he realized this as he was saying it but couldn't stop himself anyway.)
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Between his elementary school days and his first appearance in 1-2 due to growing up under von Karma's tutelage, which serves as a Broken Pedestal for Phoenix.
  • In Turnabout Time Traveler, he's meaner and snarkier than most of his recent appearances, mocks Phoenix more than usual and is rather harsh with Ellen. It's implied that it's due to the stress of the prosecutor's office being short on prosecutors, and as a result, none of his remaining subordinates can or will take on the Sprocket case (possibly due to the Sprockets threatening to use their influence to see that the case never reaches court, although Pierce claims they only wanted a "consultation" with the Prosecutors' Office and gave up when Edgeworth refused), meaning he has to do it himself. He may just have been taking it out on Phoenix and Maya, though, and there's clearly still some affection there (for example, he'll want to be invited to a welcome-back party for Maya if it's off-the-clock, and his infamous banter with Phoenix is back in full force).
• Tragic Keepsake: Implied Trope. Many games make a point of mentioning the jacket Edgeworth has framed and hanged on the wall of his office as the one he wore on his debut trial, including Edgeworth himself. The tragic part comes into play when one remembers said trial was the very tragic 3-4, although Edgeworth himself doesn't bring it up.
• Trauma Button:
  • Earthquakes or anything that feels like one (such as airplane turbulence). Justified in the wake of the DL-6 incident.
  • In a more comedic example, just hearing Larry or Wendy Oldbag's voice is enough to make him cringe.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Between this and oxygen deprivation, he doesn't remember exactly what happened when his father died.
• Tsundere:
  • Though it's not as pronounced as Franziska, he definitely has a prickly, cold exterior hiding a softer center. His behavior towards Phoenix is certainly more dere than towards most others.
  • His interactions with Gumshoe showcase a more obvious example of this. While he's generally cold, indifferent and frustrated with Gumshoe due to his incompetence, Edgeworth does seem to appreciate his work and loyalty despite his hesitance to admit it.
• Turn in Your Badge: Case 4 of Investigations 2, when forced to decide between defending Kay and keeping it. He gets it back in the ending.
• Unwitting Pawn: A few times.
  • During the SL-9 incident, he was brought in to replace Neil Marshall as the main prosecutor following his murder, and unknowingly used false evidence handed to him in order to convict Joe Darke.
  • Damon Gant tricks him into helping disguise a crime scene in 1-5 by driving his car back to the Prosecutor's Office to keep some evidence from a closed case in his office as a favor, except that the victim's body was stuffed in his car's trunk.
  • Ernest Amano involves him in a false kidnapping scheme in Investigations.
  • In Investigations 2, The Mastermind plants Kay Faraday at the scene of Jill Crane's murder, since if she was killed by Blaise Debeste; his true target, Blaise would definitely try to pin the crime on Kay, bringing the fury of Miles Edgeworth into play.
  • And more broadly, he doesn't realize until he himself is put on trial that his prosecuting career is Manfred von Karma's revenge against Gregory Edgeworth.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Edgeworth has many, many former paramours which exist exclusively in Detective Gumshoe's head.
  Gumshoe: Well, everyone knows that you are quite popular with the ladies, sir... Maybe she's an old girlfriend that you sent to Dumpsville when you were younger.
  Edgeworth: D-Detective! Where did you hear such nonsense from!?
  Gumshoe: I didn't hear it from anyone. It's just sorta how I imagine you to be... sir.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: A murder trauma would cause any nine-year-old kid's personality to be majorly screwed up. To make things worse, he was raised by said murderer Manfred von Karma, who murdered Edgeworth's father for humiliating him in court, just so he would grow up to be somebody his father would hate. Fortunately, he got better.
• Verbal Tic: In the Japanese versions, he often starts his lines with "Mu" (close to "Mm" in English).
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Most of his interactions with Gumshoe can be summarized as Edgeworth coldly shutting down whatever Gumshoe has to say or harshly criticizing his constant use of fuzzy logic. Despite this, Edgeworth seems to trust Gumshoe almost as much as he does the likes of Phoenix and Franziska, and he genuinely seems to appreciate his company as his most frequent accomplice. He also had shades of this with Larry, whom he really doesn't like and won't associate with by choice.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: His appearance in case 1-2 means it's time to get serious.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In his Demon Prosecutor days, he genuinely believed every defendant was guilty. It took a couple of losses to Phoenix, a dose of Laser-Guided Karma, and a "Not So Different" Remark from a man whose tactics he abhorred to shake him out of it.
• Wham Line:
  • In "Turnabout Samurai", he objects to his own victory when he notices that there's something off about their nearly-dismissed witness. He and Phoenix turn about to be right about them being the (sort-of) culprit.
  • In "Turnabout Gallows," Phoenix proposes calling Spitzer in as a character witness for Bobby, but Edgeworth gives Phoenix a nasty surprise when he announces that Spitzer is going to testify for the prosecution.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Chews out Adrian Andrews in "Farewell, My Turnabout" for stealing the Calling Card of a very dangerous Professional Killer from the crime scene, putting nearly every party in danger since that was the first they've heard of Shelly de Killer's involvement.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Thanks to a traumatic event in his past, he is terrified of earthquakes. It's not uncommon for him to faint during a strong one. He doesn't like elevators much either, but they don't incapacitate him the way earthquakes do.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Phoenix puts it best in 2-4.
    Phoenix: I think we're OK; like we can do this. As long as he's standing there across from me... No matter how strong of a punch I throw, he'll counter it...
  • The trope is subverted in that, while on opposite sides of the profession, both Phoenix and Edgeworth, more than wanting wins on their record, want justice to be served. If Phoenix has a definite lead in court that points to his client being innocent, Edgeworth will pick up on it and do everything in his power to help Phoenix, as long as it is within his ability and duty as a prosecutor. The way they took down Damon Gant, in particular, shows how much criminals should quake in fear if both of them are on the same case.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: His court debuts didn't go well at all. He was hoping to get a Guilty verdict to make Manfred proud on his first day, but the trial got cancelled due to the defendant and prosecutor he was supposed to replace were found murdered and he spends the rest of the day trying to find out why. On his actual debut, he cancels the trial himself when the defendant suddenly commits suicide halfway through it, which mentally wrecked him and Mia. And even if that didn't happen, Mia clearly had him on the ropes and it was almost guaranteed that he would have lost.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: His speech to Franziska at the end of Justice For All amounts to this, as she is about to quit being a prosecutor because she doesn't believe she can change for the better the way that Edgeworth did, which is something that Edgeworth refuses to agree with.

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"My only mission is to bring the truth to light. If it's the prosecutor's path is to turn a blind eye from the truth... then that title is worth nothing to me!"

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