History YMMV / AceAttorney

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Throughout the series, you can present your Attorney's Badge at different points during a case to get unique reactions and dialogue from various characters, many of which are funny, which led to [[MemeticMutation lawyers presenting their badges to everyone they meet becoming a meme in the fanbase]]. However, at the beginning of the second case of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritofJustice Spirit of Justice]]'', you actually ''have to'' present your badge to Trucy, upon which Apollo reminds her that she can trust him with anything [[UndyingLoyalty because he will always believe in her]]. And then, in that same game's third case, Phoenix has a Psyche-Lock puzzle against Datz Are'bal, with the final lock being broken by proving that like Datz's Defiant Dragons armband, Phoenix presents his Attorney's Badge as something he believes in alongside his clients.

* CommonKnowledge:
** The idea that the exaggerated legal system depicted in the games is meant to be a satire of Japan's justice system is very widespread, but in truth Shu Takumi has admitted repeatedly to having known next to nothing about law at the time of working on the original games, and that his depiction of the system in the series was simply based on loose knowledge of Japan and America's court systems gleaned from fiction.
** A very common misconception, built off a number of throwaway lines and the fact that generally culprits are never heard of again after their defeat, is that ''all'' the killers in the franchise receive the death penalty for their crimes. This is despite the fact that as early as the ''second case'' of the series is this proven false, as [[spoiler:Redd White is pushed into pleading guilty for Mia's murder, explicitly because confessing to murder would be less fatal than whatever will happen to him should his extensive blackmail network be outed]], and numerous instances since then have continued to show such an idea as untrue; for example, Frank Sahwit (whose murder of Cindy Stone during a burglary attempt was not premeditated) is seen again in prison in the second case of the second ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'', with the implication that he has a long sentence that can be shortened if he behaves himself. Additionally, the death penalty in Japan, while existent, is very much a GodzillaThreshold reserved for especially dangerous criminals without chance of rehabilitation, a fact reflected in the only specified cases in the trilogy of the penalty applied being {{Serial Killer}}s and a man accused of kidnapping a child for ransom and then murdering her in cold blood. Even the line most commonly cited as being evidence of the idea, where the Judge claims murder is a "capital crime with capital punishment" is actually a minor mistranslation, as in the Japanese script he merely states that murder is a crime which carries the ''possibility'' of capital punishment, which is both entirely true and meant to act as {{Foreshadowing}} for events later in the game.
** Despite it being near universally believed to be the case by English speaking fans, Edgeworth and Franziska are ''not'' adopted siblings in the game canon. Throughout all his appearances, Edgeworth only ever refers to the von Karmas as his mentor and mentor's daughter, and the word Franziska uses to describe him in the original Japanese script is actually more accurately "younger disciple" than "little brother", referring to them both being students of her father. There is a stronger case to be made for them being adopted siblings in the anime continuity due to AdaptationExpansion that does not contradict what is in the games, however.
** Similarly, it's widely assumed by fans that Manfred von Karma decided to mentor Edgeworth so he could try to mold him into a ruthless PersecutingProsecutor as posthumous RevengeThroughCorruption against Edgeworth's father Gregory. While this is certainly a valid ''interpretation'', it's not explicitly canon like many seem to think; the closest the games ever get to discussing the elder von Karma's motives for doing so is when he tells Phoenix that his reasons are his own and none of Phoenix's business.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Attempted with Franziska Von Karma repeatedly whipping people and getting off scot free per RuleOfFunny. However, some players find it too mean spirited to see it as funny, especially when she whips Phoenix while he's still suffering a cold.

** While the individual trials within each game are officially referred to as separate "episodes", fans have taken to calling them "cases" instead. For example, "Turnabout Sisters" is officially "episode 2" of the first game, but fans typically call it "case 2". Numbers stylized in same the way the ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'' stages are formatted are also common (i.e "2-4" for ''Farewell, My Turnabout'' as being the fourth case of the second game).