#more like me grasping at canon straws to justify a personal favorite hc

[velvees-archive]

Dual Destinies Spoilers (5-5)!

so what exactly did phoenix mean when he said he was sorry for everything he put edgeworth through?

a quick look at forums/reddit netted me the following interpretations:

he’s apologizing to edgeworth for ushering in the dark age of law and leaving him to deal with the aftermath

he’s apologizing for all the trouble edgeworth went through to help him get reinstated/vouching for the jurist system

neither of these feel quite right to me. the first point because phoenix says he's troubled miles for “eight years”, yet the dark age of law didn’t officially start until a year after he was disbarred (simon blackquill’s guilty verdict). this means the dark age would have only been in effect for seven years. also, shifting public opinion of the courts is edgeworth’s responsibility as the chief prosecutor, which he’d only been for about a year as of 5-5.

*granted, i wasn’t as locked in for dual destinies as i was for other entries in the franchise, so this could just be me not paying enough attention to when the dark age began.

i do think phoenix feels guilty for contributing to the public’s negative perception of the courts, so this interpretation still holds some merit, unlike the former half of the second interpretation, which doesn’t make sense at all. phoenix didn’t get confirmation edgeworth pulled some strings to get him reinstated until after 5-5’s resolution, when edgeworth openly admits it. the latter half is fine, but i don’t think it was specifically the jurist system he was referencing—one because “eight years” implies phoenix began work on the jurist system immediately after the gramarye trial and two because edgeworth’s response, “i’m sorry i wasn’t able to help you” contradicts the idea that phoenix's apology was related to his help with the jurist system.

so what is phoenix apologizing for? we know how terribly he was affected by losing his badge aka the focal point of his identity, which amplified his cageyness and bitterness tenfold. we know edgeworth was present in his life because he would fly phoenix and trucy out to europe while phoenix was disbarred. we also know from this dialogue that phoenix purposefully kept edgeworth from “helping” him (“nah. i was the one who made that decision”).

this leads me to believe the trouble he put edgeworth through was—on top of the agreeable parts of the two aforementioned interpretations—emotionally charged, angsty 7-year gap + lead up to his return anguish, wherein phoenix shut miles out and miles had to shove his way in, first trilogy phoenix style. and edgeworth’s apology, while seemingly related to phoenix’s badge, was also about him feeling like he hadn't done enough to aid phoenix during the lowest point in his life.