#this is not a hate on either ema or kay btw I think both these characters are fun

[betterbemeta]

I don't really understand why Ace Attorney went with Kay Faraday as a Helper Cutie for Miles Edgeworth in Ace Attorney Investigations. They had Ema Skye right there, and the game was even originally conceptualized as her game.

'The Yatagarasu' is pretty much a whistleblower, not 'a thief?' Theft in this case is like a performative identity smokescreen for the whistleblowing activities. While whistleblowing often requires illegal action or breaks contracts which can result in lawsuits, I think the game's whimsy dodges a serious discussion about 'the limits of the law' even as it has at least one major character say those words outright:

While this is a pretty strong theme for a game to even mention, it's undermined by a) Kay having a very simplistic understanding of the topic as one who 'inherits' it, and b) the main character himself.

I personally felt it could have been really good to more explicitly contrast,

how Manfred Von Karma discarded the limits of the law for the sake of corruption, and

how 'the Yatagarasu' discarded the limits of the law for the sake of fighting corruption.

But we only really go there... indirectly, through the Amano Group and the Smuggling Ring. We get to name these things as corrupt, and catch them, but all completely within a system that is considered 'just' even while these entities could set it up in the first place to spit out injustice very easily. Hell, in main series Ace Attorney games, Phoenix often has to surpass 'the system's expectations' to kind of prosecute from the defendant's bench when the Real Criminal gets called to the stand, 'catching them' via their testimony. Because that is the only way to get his clients acquitted.

But I don't think "Kay Faraday, the Second Yatagarasu" as a character can carry this theme (of having to transcend a corrupt system) on her own very well. And the game itself won't help her: it's a little too cowardly to actually question 'the law' in a serious way-- in fact, we rarely engage with 'laws', besides occasional restrictions that can complicate a case.

In AAI, we are usually facing down individual corrupt people instead of asking questions like, "what is the law for", which a baby Edgeworth ALMOST gets to,

but stops short. Tool for what, kid? Wielded in whose interest? Later in the timeline, this guy will go on many Tsundere Rival Defeat Field Trips, in order to Contemplate... and will return with a face turn but very few serious answers.

A game where we use tools, and even kind of worship the tools, to 'uncover the truth' is much more suited for someone like Ema. Through her, the discussion must be more about epistemology and specifically deduction (a priori reasoning) vs. induction (a posteriori reasoning). Ema applies scientific methods to uncover evidence that is observably 'true,' and Edgeworth applies logic to understand what also must be/have been true for the evidence to have arrived in place even if he can't directly observe it.

I love Kay, but her backstory and the real-life significance of its ideas sometimes feels like something Ace Attorney games may not be ready for. Her Little Thief tool is like a visualizer that would help us reach a consensus between the two types of knowledge above, not 'a crime simulator.' It has relatively little to do with what's really significant about her character.

To me, this tool feels like a better fit for Ema who herself seems like the better fit for what Edgeworth circa this game is ready to digest.