#ESPECIALLY SINCE IT PARALLELS TURNABOUT GOODBYES SO WELL

[winterstaryu]

Feeling so normal about Miles Edgeworth solving the case that got his father killed.

So. So normal.

[might-be-tiny-gt]

Let’s talk about this, because this is a really interesting problem that requires creative thinking to work out. I’ve been overthinking the hell out of this and will post the results of my ramblings under the cut. Disclaimer, these are pitches as to how to work around some of the plot issues and not set in stone head cannons. So please feel free to share your ideas too!

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR JUSTICE FOR ALL AND ESPECIALLY TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS BELOW, DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED!

Making Trials and Tribulations Work in the Rattorney AU

The Dahlia/Phoenix Relationship

- Solution one, Phoenix and Dahlia are complete strangers and don’t meet until Bridge to the Turnabout. Simple, but boring.

- Maybe, Phoenix briefly lived in the Hawthorne house, shortly before the events of Turnabout Reminiscence. He pitied her terrible home life, but wasn’t around long enough or attentive enough to catch on to Dahlia’s true nature.

- If Phoenix meets Mia before or during Turnabout Memories, he could make attempts to vouch for Dahlia’s innocence only to discover her true nature as the case progresses.

- If Phoenix meets Mia after Turnabout Memories, he could vaguely hear about Dahlia when Mia talks about old cases. Maybe she explains everything, or maybe Mia’s doesn’t say much about her encounters with Dahlia, just enough for Phoenix to make the connection between Dahlia and Iris in the beginning of Bridge to the Turnabout.

- How does Turnabout Memories occur if Phoenix can’t be the defendant? Stick with me, let Larry Butz be the defendant. Phoenix’s behavior in this case can easily be something Larry does. Quickly falling for a girl that’s taking advantage of him and getting caught in the crosshairs of her evil schemes.

- This also allows for Mia to have an established dynamic with Larry, making the events of the First Turnabout a bit more personal for Mia.

- Maybe Larry can learn about Phoenix around this time as well, so later in the timeline Phoenix and Larry can have a similar friendship? Toleranceship? As in canon.

The Diego/Godot Dilemma

- If Phoenix doesn’t become a lawyer in Mia’s stead, then what motivates Godot’s turn into a prosecutor?

- The easiest fix is to have Godot become a prosecutor to look after or even test Maya.

- A good way to strengthen this motivation is to establish a parallel conflict for Maya, that being her future as either a lawyer or the master of the Kurain channeling technique.

- Back tracking to Justice for All, specifically Reunion in Turnabout, with Maya busy being a lawyer, this case practically ceases to exist as, logically, Maya would be too busy with defending to accept an invitation to perform a spirit channeling AND Morgan would not have any motivation to frame Maya for murder because if Maya per sues law full time, Pearl would be next in line to become the master.

- One way to make this case work is to have Maya conflicted on the future she wants. She loves defending along side Nick, and it connects her more than ever to her sister. On the other hand, spirit channeling is her family legacy and her strongest tie to her mother, in addition, if she doesn’t at least attempt to strengthen her powers, she may never be able to channel Mia again.

- Instead of Maya leaving at the end of Turnabout Goodbyes, she stays for Rise From the Ashes, making Reunion in Turnabout her first time properly returning to Kurain Village since Mia’s passing. Maya agrees to a spirit channeling; either to test her skill, as a transition into her proper training, or maybe out of obligation to her family legacy. Whatever the case, Maya doing this channeling leads Morgan to believe Maya wants to become Master instead of leave and become an attorney, thus Reunion in Turnabout happens.

- Back to Godot, when he wakes up, he hears about what happened to Mia and how Maya became an attorney in her absence. Maybe he does extensive research and learns about Maya’s conflict between choosing lawyer and spirit medium. Thus he becomes a prosecutor, not to protect Maya exactly, but to test he resolve and see if she’s truly capable of becoming a lawyer. Maybe it’s for a more selfish reason, maybe he thinks that by facing Maya in court, he might be able to see a bit of Mia’s fighting spirit in her sister and find some peace with Mia’s death.

Bridge to the Turnabout

- Ah Bridge to the Turnabout, probably the biggest hurdle when I comes to making this AU work. There are two major reasons why this case can’t work as is in this au, and they both involve the titular bridge.

1. Who’s trapped on the other side of the bridge, being absent for a majority of the case?

2. Who falls from the burning bridge into the river, putting them out of commission for the first investigation and trail of the case?

From a story telling stand point, the whole reason why Maya is M.I.A (oh I just got the pun for Mia’s name….) for most of the case is because she is a key witness to the murder. If she was able to testify from the get go the case would be finished much sooner and probably not have as big an impact.

Admittedly I don’t have any perfect solutions to resolve this but I have a few ideas that could be mixed and matched to make the class flow better.

- Miles could defend for the entire case, let the first half of the case play as normal and then have Phoenix join him during the second half.

- The Dahlia Hawthorne switched p;aces with Iris twist was written with Maya in mind, so if we remove Maya from this position, who can be the spirit medium channeling Dahlia in court. It could be Pearls, have her missing from the whole case and have Maya and Phoenix piece together her involvement with out questioning Pearls. But the dead give away to this twist would be the hair color. Iris and Maya have black hair so when Dahlia is channeled through Maya, you can’t tell the difference, Pearl’s hair would be a dead give away.

- The other option is Misty herself. Misty is a powerful Medium and has black hair, if she channeled Dahlia in court, there’s no way anyone can tell the difference. Big problem being that Misty is our murder victim an thus, can’t testify in court.

- BUT WHAT MISTY FEY WASNT THE VICTIM!?!?

- This is a thought I’ve been thinking about for a bit, have Misty live and Misty could be the tragic killer by the end of the case, forced to get blood on her hands to protect her daughter.

- But if Misty is the Killer than who’s the victim?

- Truth is, the only person I can think of to take Misty’s place as the victim and not only make the most narrative sense but the most emotional impact is having Godot be the victim. Of course having him be the victim still means that he can not be the prosecutor in the final case, nor will any of the development from the final case be coming from him directly, at best it’ll come from what people can infer based on evidence which isn’t as impactful.

- For anyone wondering how the murder itself would work with Misty and Godot switching places, I though maybe Maya figures out something about the plan and channels Dahlia herself. Misty finds her, and maybe not realizing that Maya is the medium channeling Dahlia, confronts her. Dahlia gets violent and Misty is forced to defend herself. Godot witnesses this, and realizing that Misty might injure Maya, steps in the way of a fatal blow. Have the rest of the murder and cover up play out like in game.

- With Godot gone, Franziska will be the obvious choice to prosecute the full case.

- Once again, this isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s an idea.

The entire third game needs a lot of changes to fit into the ratattorney au. Like, nick and dahlia can't really have a relationship. There's no organic way for them to meet, he can't exactly wear or swallow the necklace, and does any of it really track if the whole time she coulda just... Stomp? Furio tigre can't impersonate nick if nobody knows who he is. Bridge to the turnabout kinda... Can't work at all as is.

The stolen turnabout is the only one that comes out mostly unscathed.