Tear Jerker / Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

Take examples from other games to their respective pages.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• Jinxie's Mood Matrix segment in Case 2. She's so afraid to recall what she saw at the crime scene that her fear overwhelms all other emotions on the matrix. She starts having a complete and total breakdown and remembers everything in the room as monsters. As Athena points out, your goal isn't so much as cross-examining her as it is giving her therapy.
• Juniper Woods breaking down after Apollo's perceiving in Case 3. She really didn't want her role as Professor Courte's class snitch to ruin the friendship between herself, Hugh O'Conner, and Robin Newman, however after she overheard that Hugh O'Conner has bribes for his grades she believed that Hugh himself is making the bribes and not his parents. And yet, even after all that, he still is willing to take the fall for her? That is true friendship right there.
  • Hugh, Robin, and Juniper each making false confessions in order to take the fall and protect the other two, knowing that a criminal record means expulsion from Themis Legal Academy.
• Hugh's desperation at shifting the blame on himself during the second day. His testimony is so outright stupid that you can't help but feel sorry for him considering how desperate he is. The saddest part is before the whole testimony though as Hugh bites into his bow crying with the theme "The Dark Age of the Law" playing, with him begging to be declared guilty.
  • Later, Hugh reveals that he was never a genius to begin with and all of his grades were just his parents bribing the school, which he found out only recently. Plus, he really thought that his friends didn't care about their friendship anymore. He lost his friendships, his self-confidence and if the mock trial wouldn't have been interrupted, he would have lost that too. Add all that is said and you have the picture of misery. He was telling the truth when he said he didn't have anything to lose anymore. The end justified the means mentality has truly done a number on those kids. Which also makes it even more cathartic to find out his testimony was vital to uncover the true culprit of the case.
• The UR-1 Incident is basically the DL-6 Incident for Athena Cykes and Simon Blackquill. The former witnessed her mother's murder right in-front of her eyes at age 11, while the latter was falsely convicted for the said murder while trying to protect the girl and is on death row for it. The former is very lucky to even being alive after that because she attacked in self-defense against the real criminal, the phantom. It is this incident where "the Dark Age of the Law" came into effect, infecting the wound that had already been opened by Kristoph Gavin's framing of Phoenix.
  • It gets to the point where Athena is accused of matricide. It really didn't help that Edgeworth, of all people (remember that before the reveal that Manfred von Karma killed Gregory Edgeworth, Miles really thought he is guilty of patricide), would suggest that an eleven-year old girl would kill her own mother and try to dismantle her to remove evidence. Nor does it help that he had to suggest that in order to bring out the fragments of truth that would reveal the real killer, even though it pushes Athena to her breaking point. Then this idea gets worse at the end of Simon's Mood Matrix, when it's revealed what he witnessed when he entered that lab and saw Athena◊. She is covered in blood with Dull Eyes of Unhappiness all while saying this line:
    Athena: Something's wrong with mom, so I'm taking her apart to fix her...
  • Then Athena completely breaks down to the point she confesses on stand and tells the Judge to get it over with and declare her guilty. If it wasn't for a certain deduction and reveal it would be a Downer Ending with the real criminal getting away with it all.
  • Knowing the truth behind that scene doesn't make it any better:it just means Athena really was trying to save her mother, but she was far too late and she went exactly the wrong way about it.
  • Heck, the UR-1 Incident was pretty horrible for everyone involved. In the picture of the first rocket launch, you can see how happy Yuri, Clay, Sol, Metis, and Aura were at that time. Aura and Metis were close as co-workers (and Aura was implied to be in love with Metis) and Metis was working hard to ease her daughter's abilities so that she could have a more normal life. Simon clearly looked up to Metis as his mentor, and seemed to get along with Athena very well. Meanwhile, Clay and Sol obviously had a strong mentor/student relationship and were striving to make it into space. All of them were working hard and full of hopes and dreams for the future. And from this one incident, it all fell apart. Metis died, leaving Aura bitter and cold and Athena horribly traumatized. Simon went to prison and basically lost seven years of his life. Sol was so traumatized by the sabotaged mission that he fell to pieces at the thought of going on another. And Yuri, who we see cares very much for the people working for him, had to deal with it all and then experience the guilt all over when it looked like the same thing would happen seven years later.
  • Aura's breakdown once she realizes Athena is innocent, and she's been hating her for seven years for absolutely no reason.
  All these years, hating Athena was the only thing that's kept me going... But what do I do now? Can anybody tell me? How am I supposed to go on?!
• The Wright Anything Agency falling apart, starting off with the murder of Apollo's friend Clay Terran, getting worse when Apollo leaves the Agency, gets much worse when one piece of evidence implies that Athena killed Clay Terran, and comes to a head when Apollo indicts Athena for the said murder. He really wants to believe in her, which is why he limited his perception ability around her but his doubts eventually led him to said indictment even though he really wants her to be innocent. The location of the murder? The same Space Center that the UR-1 incident occurred.
  • Apollo's breakdown at the end of the investigation stage in Case 4, just before he takes his leave from the agency. For a guy who's always smiling, seeing him yell out in anger "DAMMIT... IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!", and Trucy and Athena's shock at his outburst, just brings out the anger that Apollo is feeling after his best friend was murdered. Everyone's worry after Apollo takes his leave of absence is also heartbreaking.
    • Apollo is the only main character that doesn't even have a "despair" animation or one for crying, until Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice - Phoenix, Athena, Trucy, Maya, Pearl, Franziska, Edgeworth, and Klavier all have animations for this. Edgeworth's is the least showy, but the animation where he grips his sleeve and looks away, pained, says as much as Phoenix putting his head down in his hands on the bench. You'd think Apollo would have one, right? Part of the reason he doesn't is because, like Trucy, Apollo can control his feelings so well nobody knows how he's really feeling, and does it so well that even Athena doesn't pick up on his suspicion until his breakdown, going off her reaction to it. He chooses to hide all of his emotions about the case behind a mask of total professionalism because he can pretend like it's any other case full of people he's never, ever met- Clay, Athena, Sol, Cosmos, Aura... he completely switches off his feelings regarding any of them so he can treat this case with a clear mind, and it ends up causing him even more pain because Apollo is shown to have the warmest personality of the group. Apollo is shown to be quick to form friendships, always able to find something to relate to someone with, always know just what to say and most importantly Apollo is always, always optimistic no matter what. Being cold, indifferent, and distant is just not in his nature- he knows full well he's hurting people he cares about by doing it, which is likely the real reason why he leaves the Agency, apart from his overwhelming guilt about suspecting Athena as well as the fact that he knows she's lying a lot. The main reason he doesn't have one, though, is his unshakable optimism that everything will be fine. His optimism actually makes the whole thing sadder, because it's clear he's clinging to it to keep from despair, and is not actually really optimistic about the case at all. What's worse is Apollo is implied to lose this optimism if Simon is found guilty and executed, and becomes permanently cold and indifferent.
  • However, as proof that Tear Jerker moments don't always have to be sad, there's yet another scene in Case 5. Phoenix, possibly for the first time since his second case, finds himself alone at the office. With a clearly-hurting Apollo going off on his own, Trucy having decided to follow him, and Athena having been arrested at the end of Case 4, Phoenix is feeling at his lowest, as he had taken it for granted that they would always be there. Cue a letter from Maya and a surprise visit by Pearl, which end up being exactly what he needs to lift his spirits.
• The Bad Endings (most of them on Case 5, Turnabout for Tomorrow):
  • Fail to get Simon Blackquill on stand? Athena is found guilty by default and Phoenix never sees her again.
  • Fail to prove Simon Blackquill's innocence? He is found guilty in Athena's place and executed. Aura vanishes with the hostages (including Trucy), Athena leaves the agency, Apollo is completely broken by the events, and Phoenix gives up being a lawyer.
  • Fail on "Fulbright"'s final testimony? Athena and Simon both got off the hook, but "Fulbright" gets away clean and the failure to find the phantom causes public opinion towards the law to sink even lower.
  • Fail in one of the two forced questions? Aura kidnaps Athena and you never see her again.
  • Fail Rimes's Mood Matrix segment in Turnabout Reclaimed? Orla is found guilty in Buckler's place and is put down.
• Also in case 5, Aura Blackquill's outburst about her almost certainly romantic feelings for Metis puts the rest of her personality in a new light-one that turns her from a mere Jerkass into an outright Tragic Hero. All she had left of Metis was that picture on her desk, and her vengeful hatred of Athena. Goes to show just what the affects of losing someone you deeply care about are.
  • Not to mention, Ponco tells you how Aura began crying at night after Metis died and refused to let the robots call her "Mama Aura", like they used to.
• Case 5 again. The revelation that Bobby Fullbright was killed and replaced by the phantom before we ever met him. There really was a detective as kind-hearted and dedicated to justice as Bobby Fulbright, but he was murdered just so that the phantom could use his identity as a convenient cover.
• Another one for case 5, which is more of a happy example: after being confronted by Blackquill, who expresses his gratitude towards Athena, she breaks down in Tears of Joy. Phoenix's thought helps seal her breaking out of her Stepford Smiler status.
  Phoenix: (............Thatta girl, Athena. It's good to see you finally let your tears out.)
• Heck, just the fact that, in a first for the series, there isn't a single Asshole Victim to be found among the murder victims of the game, all of them were genuinely nice people. Meaning this is possibly one of the saddest games in the series when you think about it. To wit:
  • Candice Arme was a dutiful police officer who was suddenly murdered trying to stop Tonate from stealing the bomb evidence.
  • Rex Kyubi tried to protect a village secret and stay friends with Tenma, it was also implied that L'Belle threatened his hospitalized wife.
  • Constance Courte tried to teach her students that fair play in court was the only way and fought against Professor Means' philosophy. She was murdered by Means over bribery. As a mentor to Klavier, she falls into Too Good for This Sinful Earth territory, especially with the atmosphere of Themis ensnared by Means' grip, being the sole voice of reason.
  • Clay Terran was entrusted by Director Cosmos to help stage the rocket swap, to protect both him and Starbuck, who was traumatized by the HAT-1 disaster seven years prior. As Apollo's friend, he helped push Apollo towards his goal as a defense attorney as Apollo helped pushed Clay into becoming an astronaut. He was murdered by the phantom for something he didn't even know he had, namely the moon rock in the Hope capsule. He never got to achieve his dream of going into space.
  • Metis Cykes was introverted, but loved her daughter Athena with all her heart. She tried to help the child with her inability to tune out emotions, but was seen by Athena as just being part of being used for an experiment. Her murder came at the hand of the phantom for a psyche profile she no longer had, but her gift to her daughter ultimately helped catch her killer.
  • You never got to meet the real Bobby Fulbright. However, if the phantom's act was anywhere close to the real deal, then Fulbright was a good man dedicated to justice who was cut down all too soon, for something he never even saw coming.
  • This also applies to the DLC Case, Turnabout Reclaimed. Both deaths involved in the case were accidental: Azura Summers died of a heart attack from a condition she kept secret from everyone due to not wanting to give up her job as a trainer, and the blame fell on the original Ora who was trying to save her (and later on Orla who was put in the original's place); while Jack Shipley died trying to save Orla from Marlon, who didn't want Jack to die at all. Shipley did some mildly unscrupulous stuff, like using technically illegal monitoring equipment to watch out for his animals and lying about euthanising the first Ora. However, he was otherwise a solid guy through and through (such as wanting to stop Sasha from performing because he learned of her heart condition and not wanting a repeat of the aforementioned trainer's death), and he actually rescued Orla when she was beached, nursing her to health to the point that Orla, when released into the ocean, came back to Jack. It's implied that he let himself fall when Rimes tried to save him, so Rimes wouldn't fall in and die with him.
• Following up on that, how about the defendants themselves? Juniper is frail and sickly yet accused of two crimes (both of which would land her for first degree murder charges), Damien Tenma has only his beloved daughter and his going to prison would leave her alone in the world; then there's the last three defendants, all of whom seem to suffer some degree of PTSD linking back to the same incident seven years ago, two of which you have to continue to trigger in order to get the truth out. In the DLC case, the first of the accused can't even speak out to defend herself, and the second puts her with the likes of Juniper due to her medical problems. Usually in the games, there's at least one trial where the defendant isn't a complete woobie. Not so in this one.
• Marlon Rimes' Villainous Breakdown at the end of Turnabout Reclaimed. Despondent at the discovery that he was trying to kill an orca who was not at all involved with his girlfriend's death, he refuses to admit that Jack Shipley's death was accidental, instead claiming that he deserves the death penalty. It's only after Phoenix reveals that Marlon had tried to save Shipley's life and Sasha tells him to return to the aquarium after his rehabilitation is the BSOD broken.
  "Once again... I'm too weak... To help anybody..."
• A large portion of the last two cases are just horribly depressing by default, especially since it's hot on the tail of what can be the most comedic trial in the series, victim's death aside. Following a hilarious Unsettling Gender-Reveal, Athena trying to turn herself into a bust of Phoenix Wright, and Professor Means' sudden personality shift on top of Simon as the Only Sane Man, we have the brutal murder of Apollo's best friend, the accusation of Sol who was Apollo's hero and friend as well as the accusation of Athena who is Apollo's friend as well, being forced to trigger both Sol and Athena's PTSD, the abduction of Trucy, the entire UR-1 incident and the things that surround it, and an endless list of other depressing things. It's like the writers took the saddest bits of Cases 1-4, 1-5, 2-4, and 3-5 and brought them together in one unholy abomination of sad. In-universe, cases 1, 4, and 5 all happen within just a few hours of each other; Case 4 begins on 16 December, then Case 1 is 17-18 December, and Cases 4 and 5 are 20 December. 15 December to 20 December must have been really, really rough on the characters.
• One more for Case 5: Apollo on the witness stand. Unable to accept Athena's innocence so easily, he takes the stand accusing Athena of murder while emulating his first mentor, Kristoph Gavin, just so that Phoenix can find some hole in his logic and let him believe in his friend's innocence.
  Apollo: You're just bluffing again, aren't you?......It's fine, Mr. Wright...Even a bluff would suit me just fine...As long as you can...clear up this doubt inside me!
• Apollo's not done yet. Clonco calls him "Mr Terran", since Apollo is wearing Clay's jacket]]. By this point, Apollo's largely shut out his feelings and has no visible reaction to this at all. It's heartbreaking because Apollo clearly forms rather deep bonds with people soon after meeting them and is quite emotional (he'd known Trucy for how long exactly before he was in tears at the idea of her being abducted by an armed kidnapper back in his own game?). His best friend of more than ten years being murdered doesn't cause him visible anguish; he shuts down, except when he can't keep them bottled any longer and he lashes out at people.
• Solomon Starbuck lapses back into a dejected mood when recalling that upon Athena's arrest, as she was being led to the detention center, she still had to flash a smile and congratulate Solomon on getting off despite the fact she couldn't hide how much she had been crying on the ride over. The whole mood of the beginning of case 5 is just nothing but dead air and really sad feelings.
• When you consider a few things, and think into a bit of what's said or shown, two things become even sadder than they already are:
  • On the one hand, you have the discussion between Fulbright and the Judge about Clay soon after his murder is brought up. The Judge never asks if the victim was dead when they were found, except this once. It almost implies that Clay suffered immensely before his body could no longer take it and he died.
  • The other thing is that people don't go into space alone. There was very likely someone on the HAT-1 Mission with Sol. Someone, or maybe several someones, who died, probably due to problems in their suits. They were someone(s) who Sol was probably friends with, who he worked with, maybe even someone he idolised or even someone he fancied a bit. They were someone Apollo and Clay probably knew. The person, or people, who died out in space on the HAT-1 Mission were a person or people Athena and Aura and Yuri all knew. They may have suffocated to death because their tanks malfunctioned. They may have frozen to death slowly in the vacuum of space because their suits had been tampered with. They were someone who gave their life so that Sol could live. Maybe a few someones, depending on how big the project was. Sol likely had to fix up his suit using those of his dead companion/s, since his suit likely had a malfunction, too. They were people Sol watched suffer and die, people he couldn't help because their suits and the ship just didn't let that happen. Sol could not have been alone on that journey at first.
• Case 5. Athena asked "Did I kill my own mother?" Her eyes, & Widget, go dark. Cue black psyche-lock. Open the flood gates, the team's darkest hour has arrived.
• The phantom's breakdown is this with a splash of Nightmare Fuel; he's been impersonating so many people for so long that he can't even remember who he is or what his face looks like. When it gets down to brass tacks and they put the final nail in his coffin he just starts ripping off mask after mask after mask trying to find his real face in a hauntingly well-done Shapeshifter Identity Crisis before getting shot by a rooftop sniper.

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