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commentaryvorg · 2 years ago

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The Great Ace Attorney Final Trial Commentary: Day 2, Part 1

This is an ongoing mini-commentary covering the final trial of The Great Ace Attorney (Resolve) in line-by-line detail. It’s written from a perspective of already knowing the full truth of things, so there will be spoilers for facts that only get revealed later on in the trial. This is not a commentary to read along with one’s first playthrough!

(The commentary will update on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Check this blog to find any other parts currently posted, and if it’s not yet finished, follow to catch future updates!)

Now that we’re below the readmore, I can add that this isn’t quite a commentary for everything going on in the final trial. It’s focused specifically on Kazuma and what’s going on in his head, only covering things which are relevant to him in some way (for the most part). I already had a lot to say about him in a big analysis post over on my main blog – but I have even more to say about him during the trial in even more detail, so here we are!

We’re starting day 2 here, aka the first trial day of case 2-5.

Writing the commentary for this day of the trial is going to feel a little odd for me, because I’ve essentially already done it before – just in character as Ryunosuke, instead of as myself. This was a chapter in my AU fic in which this trial day goes off the rails towards the end and Kazuma gets arrested for Gregson’s murder, because he should have been and I am forever salty that it didn’t happen in canon. The purpose of the chapter in the fic, even though it was 90% retreading canon events, was to utilise all the existing buildup the game had that made it seem like things were headed in that direction, so that my AU could actually deliver the payoff it deserved to have. There are so many really good bits that would be so delightful if they were foreshadowing what was going to happen to Kazuma, except for the fact that they aren’t. I am going to be compelled to point all of these out and grumble about them here.

Here's one to get us started, just as Ryunosuke heads into the courtroom.

Ryunosuke: (Today I battle with another in pursuit of the truth. My best friend, Kazuma Asogi, who I trust more than anyone else in the world.)

Like, yes, this is adorable in and of itself, that Ryunosuke still trusts Kazuma that much even after the way he’s been acting since he came back. But! Imagine how much juicier this line would be if it was followed by Ryunosuke getting Kazuma arrested for murder! That is absolutely what I thought it existed to foreshadow on my first playthrough and asghjkghjdghjdfs.

Stronghart: “Yesterday’s proceedings brought to light a shocking and disturbing fact: There was a side to the victim, Inspector Tobias Gregson, that was unknown to his superiors at Scotland Yard.” Kazuma: “Yes, he was carrying out operations in secret, which Scotland Yard knew nothing about.” Stronghart: “And in those clandestine operations, he had an accomplice.” Kazuma: “Mr Daley Vigil, who would be given the inspector’s identification…”

During what is supposed to be Kazuma’s opening statement, Stronghart is having just as much if not more of a part in it, and they’re both practically finishing each other’s sentences. (Here is just one example of their tandem speech extremely coming across this way.) Clearly Stronghart, who is determined to keep Kazuma in line after his shenanigans with Vigil yesterday, firmly instructed him on what he was supposed to talk about, and apparently they may have even spent a while rehearsing this speech together. No wonder Kazuma wasn’t surprised to see Stronghart here at the judge’s bench today.

Stronghart: “Which brings us to the crucial issue of the victim’s time of death. The defence yesterday proposed a suggestion that the victim may have been killed one day earlier. This was based largely on the discovery that the victim’s pocket watch had not been wound.”

Not really! It was also based equally if not more so on the scorch marks on the candle, which have still not been explained as anything other than evidence that a gun was never fired there at all. But nah, Stronghart is just as happy to draw attention away from that as Kazuma is.

(Since he knows the full truth of the murder, Stronghart is also the only person who may be aware of the even more damning evidence that proves a gun could not possibly have been fired in the Fresno Street room. But he’s especially not going to draw any attention to that.)

Kazuma: “The prosecution has something to report on that subject, My Lord.” Stronghart: “Really? Go ahead, Prosecutor Asogi.”

Geez, look at him acting like he wasn’t expecting Kazuma to bring this (the autopsy report) up at all and this definitely wasn’t all rehearsed and planned out.

Stronghart: “But the official opinion of the investigation team was made clear yesterday. That the time of death was 5 p.m. on 1st November.” Kazuma: “There are indications of an attempt to disguise the real time of death, however. It seems that the natural decaying process of the victim’s body may have been slowed by keeping it chilled.” Stronghart: “That’s out of the question.”

Stronghart apparently also elected to put himself on the “nope it’s definitely impossible” side of this little scripted exchange. In reality, the entire first testimony we’re about to have is to examine the possibility that Gregson was killed the day before, and that testimony was very obviously Stronghart’s idea, so he was perfectly okay with this avenue being explored! (because he intends it to end either with nothing substantial or with apparent proof that van Zieks did it anyway.)

Kazuma: “It’s conceivable that he was killed in the course of his secret activities.” Stronghart: “Do I sense that the prosecution has some information regarding those activities?”

Gasp, look at Stronghart’s amazing sixth sense to pick up on this, and not at all that he blatantly knew Kazuma was about to bring this up because he told him to, nope, nothing suspicious here.

Honestly, this is all remarkably brazen, but I guess since Stronghart has a licence to do whatever the heck he wants, he doesn’t care how obvious it looks because nobody’s going to call him out for it anyway.

(Also, look at Kazuma acting like he’s entertaining the idea that Gregson was killed during his secret outing on the 31st, when really he hasn’t entertained that at all because it was definitely van Zieks, okay.)

Kazuma: “Scotland Yard put an enormous effort into investigating that precise matter yesterday. I think we should begin by presenting the results of that investigation work.”

Once again, note Kazuma’s avoidance of giving a direct answer to Stronghart’s question. He sure does have some first-hand information about Gregson’s real secret activities that day, but he phrases his response in a way that shifts the focus onto something he knows full well is a red herring. Again, he is so good at doing this without actively lying.

--- Testimony 1 ---

Ryunosuke: “Smuggled goods?!”

Ryunosuke is quite surprised to hear this brought up out of nowhere – as he should be. It seems he can already tell on some level that this is a complete wild goose chase that has nothing to do with the actual case.

Spare a thought for Kazuma, who gives us a summary of the smuggling case and must have spent some time researching this information to recite it in court, while knowing this is irrelevant and fully intending to throw it all out the first chance he gets.

Kazuma: “There’s no question: the accused, Barok van Zieks, was present.” […] Kazuma: “In short, Lord van Zieks had ample opportunity to murder the victim.”

Kazuma looks very smug about suggesting that van Zieks could easily have murdered Gregson at the gentleman’s club… even though he knows for a fact that couldn’t have happened. Granted, he’s intending to throw all this out by revealing what Gregson was really doing that day, but the fact that he’s looking so smug about the idea that this irrelevant point throws even more suspicion onto van Zieks is a bit much. Kazuma, please.

(This is one of the very rare instances of Kazuma referring to him as “Lord van Zieks”, incidentally! I… can’t think of any specific reason why this one might be an exception, alas. Guess he just ever-so-occasionally slips up and falls back into habits from his amnesiac days.)

Ryunosuke: “But I was hoping to find out the name of the club.” Kazuma: “That won’t be necessary.” Ryunosuke: “What?” Kazuma: “It’s conceivable that the club might be used again by the smugglers in future. Therefore… the prosecution has been asked not to reveal the name in these proceedings.”

Note Kazuma’s wording here – he has been asked not to reveal the name of the club. It’s not actually his decision, and he doesn’t actually want to hide that information. He’s just putting up a token amount of resistance here, presumably because Stronghart instructed him to, but he’s bound to be trusting that Ryunosuke will keep pushing. And when he does…

Stronghart: “The prosecution is rightfully exercising caution, I imagine.” Kazuma: “……… No, My Lord. The prosecution has no objection.” Stronghart: “…!” Ryunosuke: “Kazuma?”

Too bad, Stronghart – turns out, as the lead prosecutor on the case, Kazuma gets the final say whether you like it or not.

Ryunosuke also has an interesting little reaction there, like he’s surprised at Kazuma suddenly changing his tune, or perhaps relieved to see an indication of his friend acting on his own terms and not what he’s been ordered to do.

Kazuma: “There’s no question that Inspector Gregson was looking into these black market dealings. However… it’s not yet been established that he was on that particular trail on the day in question.”

And here he goes, opening up the possibility that Gregson wasn’t there that day at all, to allow Ryunosuke room to prove it, despite what Stronghart wants.

One incidental thing to note here is that Ryunosuke is now addressing Kazuma with his given name in court, and will continue to do so for the rest of the trial, even though he was calling him “Prosecutor Asogi” in the trial yesterday. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the conversation they had in Kazuma’s office yesterday afternoon, the first thing even vaguely close to a proper conversation between friends that they’ve had since Kazuma’s return. It seems like that closed the distance between them just slightly, enough for Ryunosuke to internalise that this is still Kazuma, albeit a Kazuma with a lot of unexpected emotional baggage, and start instinctively defaulting to calling him by the more familiar name again even in court. (Although this must be on a pretty subconscious level, since we still had Ryunosuke in that scene outwardly telling Kazuma that he’s changed.)

Ryunosuke: “The Grouse? What sort of a club is that?” […] Kazuma: “They’re not places where a foreign student like you would be readily admitted.” Ryunosuke: “Have you looked into the mirror recently?”

I love the way Kazuma tries to project his foreign student status onto Ryunosuke alone. Kazuma is above that, right? He’ll definitely be taken more seriously by the British judiciary and not be written off because he’s “just a foreign student”, won’t he…?

Ryunosuke: “As I understand it, they’re places where well-to-do gentlemen socialise with friends and colleagues.” Kazuma: “Don’t imagine for a second that a foreign student like you would be admitted.” Ryunosuke: (Seriously, is your mirror cracked or something?)

And he does it again, just a few lines later. His particular hypocritical insistence on this just really delights me, which led to me figuring out what it’s implying about his feelings on his own foreign-student status.

Stronghart: “If it wasn’t a gentleman’s club… then what was it?” Ryunosuke: “…A steamship.” Kazuma: “You think… it’s a ship…?”

There’s a subtle screen-shake on Kazuma’s line there, which I like, as it implies an undercurrent of something more going on in his head. He knows it was a ship, and on the one hand he must be glad and proud that Ryunosuke’s zeroing in on the real truth… and yet also perhaps a little worried what that might end up revealing about him.

(After all, Kazuma may well not have been expecting Ryunosuke to prove this much, since this isn’t just proving it wasn’t at the club, but also proving where it really was. He can’t have imagined Ryunosuke would randomly have Mikotoba’s steamship ticket on him in order to cross-reference the ship’s name.)

Kazuma goes on to argue that it couldn’t have been the SS Grouse because it hadn’t docked in Britain yet on the day in question. He has to feel kind of torn about putting up resistance to this, too – on the one hand he wants Ryunosuke to prove the smuggling irrelevant so that he can reveal what Gregson was really up to and is just saying this to make Ryunosuke’s argument stronger, but on the other hand, perhaps a part of him doesn’t want Ryunosuke to prove how Gregson got onto that ship in Dunkirk (and that he brought someone else with him…)

Kazuma: “Then show your evidence for that assertion!” Ryunosuke: “…Very well.” Kazuma: “…!”

Kazuma has an interesting little reaction here as Ryunosuke unflinchingly announces he’ll present his evidence. He’s got to have been expecting Ryunosuke to have something and not just be making things up, but perhaps he’s a little worried about exactly what he has and how damning for him it might end up being.

If you’re playing this part of the trial from chapter-select mode (like I’m doing right now for this commentary), the Court Record will assume you haven’t yet examined Gregson’s trunk to find the passport inside it. Which then makes the fact that I have to do so right now to be able to present the passport kind of awkward, because it will be a vital plot point very soon that Kazuma shouldn’t know that the passport was inside the trunk. So uh. Let’s just have Ryunosuke hide behind his bench to sneakily look at the trunk and take the passport out, Kazuma totally won’t see that, it’s fine.

(Of course, we can assume that canonically Ryunosuke took the passport out of the trunk at some point yesterday so that this isn’t an issue.)

Stronghart: “What’s this? A passport for travel issued to the victim?” Kazuma: “………”

Kazuma keeps himself poker-faced as the passport is presented. But as Ryunosuke shows that he’s very much figured out what it means…

Ryunosuke: “…there’s a distinct possibility he wasn’t even in the country!” Kazuma: “…!”

…he flinches back in shock. It’s a little bit of an odd delayed reaction, but I do think he’s realising here that Ryunosuke having seen that passport is a Bad Sign for him being able to keep his own dodgy actions hidden.

(And maybe he also remembers where Gregson was keeping the passport, so the fact that Ryunosuke has seen it means he’s also found a certain metal trunk that a very damning piece of evidence was left in…)

Kazuma: “……… Ha ha ha ha ha hah! I’m impressed, Ryunosuke Naruhodo! I certainly didn’t expect you to get your hands on that passport.”

But Kazuma regains his composure pretty quickly, of course. He’s fine! He’s definitely fine and proud of his friend for figuring things out and just wasn’t expecting him to have seen the passport, hmmmm, nope, nothing suspicious about that specific point.

Ryunosuke: “What? You mean… you knew about this?”

Meanwhile Ryunosuke is several steps behind those of us in the commentary who know everything Kazuma knows, and is only just catching onto the fact that Kazuma was aware of at least some of this all along. He seems pretty shocked here, presumably at realising that his friend was hiding information from him. He never openly picked up on any of the earlier hints at this – of which there were a lot – perhaps because he doesn’t want to think about how underhanded Kazuma’s capable of being.

Kazuma: “The prosecution’s strategy for this trial has been laid down by the Crown prosecution office:”

Instead of directly answering this question, and also diverting the conversation entirely away from the matter of the passport before he gives too much away, Kazuma goes on to explain that this whole angle about smuggling was something he was ordered to do. He says it was from the Prosecutor’s Office, and I guess on a technical level it was, but let’s be real – it was Stronghart. Kazuma probably even knows this, given their blatantly rehearsed opening statement… but it seems like directly calling out Stronghart for this is not a risk he’s willing to take when there isn’t much reward for it.

Kazuma: “I think the Prosecutor’s Office is trying to hide something.” Ryunosuke: “What?!” Kazuma: “And now that you’ve expertly disproven their assertion… I intend to reveal what I believe that something to be.” Stronghart: “What are you playing at, Prosecutor Asogi?”

Stronghart is glaring at Kazuma, clearly Not Happy at him going against orders like this. Again: those orders were so obviously from him, especially since it was all to hide Gregson’s role as the Reaper’s tactician, which Stronghart in particular would quite like to keep hidden, thanks.

Kazuma: “A courtroom is a forum for the truth, My Lord. Which is why it’s my duty to present all the facts, without exception.”

Kazuma’s entire speech here, and particularly these lines, really give the sense that he cares a lot about doing things honourably and without corruption in order to uncover the whole truth. Which, in principle, he does!

And yet. All the facts, without exception? He hasn’t exactly been keeping to the word of that, now, has he – and he still isn’t planning to.

Stronghart: “Let me guess… This was your intention from the outset, wasn’t it?”

Of course it was; of course Kazuma wanted to reveal Gregson working for the Reaper, just to paint an even bigger picture of how completely terrible van Zieks is. It doesn’t take much for Stronghart to figure that Kazuma planned this all along, either. There was a bit in Stronghart’s office during yesterday’s investigation, in which Kazuma was being told off for going off the rails with Vigil in that day’s trial. Stronghart ordered him to stay in line next time, and he mentioned to Ryunosuke that if Kazuma continued not to, “I will be forced to take steps”. Apparently those steps amounted to “script his approach to the trial and oversee it as the judge to make sure he stays in line”. And of course he still didn’t, because Kazuma is stubborn and doesn’t bow to authority for the heck of it.

But like… surely Stronghart would have known there’d be a good chance Kazuma wasn’t going to behave, even being directly overseen like this? What further steps was he planning to take if (when) Kazuma inevitably didn’t?

…Apparently, the answer to this is “nothing at all (other than some displeased glares)”. So that whole mini plotline about this amounted to barely anything. I guess it gives Stronghart an excuse to be the judge for the final trial days, but honestly I wouldn’t have batted an eye at him doing that anyway, minor powerplay with Kazuma or no.

I’d thought, on my first playthrough, that Kazuma’s defiance here was going to lead to Stronghart realising he can’t control Kazuma and that he needs to get rid of him, therefore causing Stronghart to deliberately nudge things towards getting Kazuma arrested once the assassin thing is revealed a little later in the trial. It would have made perfect sense! Kazuma ought to be just as much if not more of a threat that Stronghart would want to get rid of than van Zieks is, given that he’s just proven himself uncontrollable and has a lot more reason to seek the truth about the Professor case than van Zieks does. But somehow, canonically, Stronghart just shrugs and decides, nah, getting rid of van Zieks is totally still the greater priority, for some reason, let’s just let things continue like this.

Grumble grumble Kazuma should have been arrested, look at how much sense it would have made.

(It isn’t even made at all clear why Stronghart is so determined to get rid of van Zieks in the first place. I’ve seen it suggested elsewhere that it’s because, what with him vying for promotion, he wants to put an end to the Reaper at last and pin it all on the poor convenient scapegoat so that none of it can be traced back to him. I guess that’s the most reasonable explanation, but it'd be nice if there was some proper indication of it somewhere in-story.)

Anyway yes, Kazuma dramatically announces that Gregson was on a mission for the Reaper that day.

Kazuma: “The prosecution made an assertion in court yesterday:” Kazuma: [yesterday] “Inspector Gregson was investigating the identity of the Reaper. When he discovered the location of the man’s secret hideout… he was killed. As I’m sure everyone can imagine… by the Reaper’s hand!” Kazuma: “But in reality… the truth is the opposite of that.”

He makes sure to clear up any confusion caused by his previous argument by citing it and pointing out it was incorrect. But conveniently, he doesn’t mention the fact that he already knew it was incorrect when he made it yesterday, because unlike the rest of the police force, he did not learn about Gregson working for the Reaper only yesterday afternoon.

Kazuma: “Barok van Zieks never carried out any of the actual killings. Whenever the Reaper’s victims lost their lives, he always had a cast-iron alibi. Which tells us… that he must have had an accomplice.”

Sure, Kazuma, it definitely tells us that, because Barok van Zieks must definitely be the Reaper, no other possibility. This couldn’t possibly tell us that maybe van Zieks just isn’t actually the Reaper at all.

(Granted, he is thinking along the right lines, since the real Reaper mastermind also does not carry out the killings himself. He also just knows that to be a fact, since he’s had Gregson approach him as merely the Reaper’s tactician. But his logic for arguing this here is based entirely on his tunnel-visioned “van Zieks is definitely the Reaper” premise and not anything rational.)

Susato: “We also arrived at the same conclusion, didn’t we? That Inspector Gregson was operating as the Reaper.”

You and Ryunosuke didn’t exactly “arrive at that conclusion”, though, Susato. Van Zieks told you that he’d figured it out during his investigations, and you believed his judgement, that’s all.

Ryunosuke: “Barok van Zieks is not the Reaper!” Kazuma: “A predictable response… from someone who’s advocating for the man.”

Nice mental deflection there, Kazuma. Ryunosuke’s totally only insisting this because it’s his job to as a lawyer, definitely not at all because he genuinely believes in van Zieks and he might be right to or anything, nope, no need to think about that possibility.

Ryunosuke argues that Gregson couldn’t have been acting as the Reaper on the Grouse because nobody was killed there.

Kazuma: “…Pfft!” Ryunosuke: “What’s so funny?” Kazuma: “You’re right, of course. No suspicious deaths were reported on board that ship. But I think perhaps you’ve missed the point. That’s precisely why Inspector Gregson lost his life!”

It’s kind of painful how Kazuma seems to think this is amusing. Van Zieks murdering Gregson for the oh-so-terrible slight of not killing his target this one time is so obvious in Kazuma’s head that he snickers at the thought that Ryunosuke stumbled into helping him argue that.

Ryunosuke: “What?!”

Understandably, Ryunosuke has no idea why Kazuma seems to think that makes sense, because it doesn’t.

Kazuma: “There’s no question that Tobias Gregson was heavily involved in the Reaper’s activities. You may just be an apprentice, but if you’ve spent any time at Scotland Yard, you must have heard rumours…”

Rumours aren’t evidence, Kazuma! Granted, he also cited just a moment ago that Gregson’s secret notebook contains details of the assassination plots, which is actually evidence, but it is something that he tries to bring the rumours into it too. Perhaps it’s that he knows for a fact Gregson was part of the Reaper for reasons he can’t reveal without incriminating himself, so it’s frustrating him that he still can’t quite treat it as fact in court, leading to him trying to back it up in flimsy ways as well as solid ones. Alas, how much easier Kazuma’s job in this trial would be if he was just willing to incriminate himself.

--- Testimony 2 ---

Ryunosuke: “I know Judge Jigoku! And I saw him the day before yesterday! Here in London! So I know for a fact that the man hasn’t been assassinated!” Kazuma: “As I said… the Reaper failed.” Ryunosuke: “Oh…” Kazuma: “Gregson missed his chance to kill his mark and returned to British shores.”

One thing the narrative never properly discusses about Gregson’s mission here is… was he even supposed to kill his mark in the first place? Gregson was the tactician, not the actual assassin. It’s his job to investigate the marks and figure out the best opportunities to kill them, and then to pass that information onto the assassin who will do the actual deed. If Gregson goes on a trip to investigate a mark with an assassin in tow, surely that’s just an information-gathering mission? Surely Gregson himself would usually try not to be present during the actual killings?

Granted, that’s all moot in this instance since this was never a real Reaper mission, and actually Kazuma was sent along so that he would, in theory, kill Gregson, but still. I guess the narrative just never discusses this because it would unnecessarily complicate things. And clearly we cannot be bringing up any possible flaws in Kazuma’s very sensible logic here, right.

Kazuma: “But the Reaper wouldn’t tolerate the mistake. So he killed the inspector… personally. The Reaper of course being the accused… Barok van Zieks!” Stronghart: “It’s… an undeniably logical argument.”

It really isn’t!!!!! There are so many things wrong with this argument that it’s honestly kind of hilarious.

It’s ridiculous that the Reaper would get so mad at Gregson failing to kill the mark when he’s not even supposed to be the assassin – as I said, this was surely just an information-gathering mission if Gregson was there. Even if it wasn’t, the killing itself is still not Gregson’s job. The Reaper should be getting mad at Kazuma for failing, if anyone.

It’s also just ridiculous that the Reaper would go so far as to kill any henchman of his for one small mistake that didn’t actually have any negative consequences. Gregson can still try again, surely? Sometimes unexpected things come up that make assassinations not safe to go for without getting caught! If he killed his men for every tiny thing like this, he’d run out of men very quickly.

It's also ridiculous that the Reaper, a very careful serial killer who has kept himself hidden for ten whole years, would apparently carry out this retribution by shooting Gregson in a house in a populated street, thus immediately getting himself caught red-handed like the most bumbling criminal imaginable.

And of course, this entire argument hinges on the assumed premise that Barok van Zieks is the Reaper, something Kazuma has still not shown any proof for whatsoever.

And, even if we somehow take everything about this argument as solid, it still only “proves” a potential motive for van Zieks committing the crime! It does not prove that he did it!

But Kazuma realises none of this ridiculousness. No, of course van Zieks is so petty and vindictive as to murder his henchmen for one tiny mistake that isn’t really even part of their job, and of course he’s stupid and bumbling enough to get himself caught for it, and of course he is definitely the Reaper, because he is The Worst Person Ever.

Stronghart agreeing that this argument is logical is laughable – but then, Stronghart is apparently (for some unclear reason) still on the Let’s Get Van Zieks Convicted train, so he’s happy to agree with anything that’ll let him do that so long as nobody questions it.

Ryunosuke: (Kazuma… You planned for the trial to go this way all along, didn’t you?)

Which even Ryunosuke isn’t doing! He’s only marvelling at Kazuma having planned this – if anything, the way he’s thinking this reads as if he feels cornered. He’s not at all considering that this is a terrible argument actually. I would side-eye his response to this the most, since he doesn’t have such a good excuse for being wrong as Kazuma or Stronghart, but… I suppose this just speaks to how much Ryunosuke idolises his best friend. It doesn’t occur to him to ever expect Kazuma’s arguments to be flawed, because Kazuma’s the best at what he does, right?

I love the sheer audacity of van Zieks striding up to the witness stand during his own trial and slamming his leg on it to express his displeasure at the bullshit going on. It’s so very him. And I really can’t blame him right now.

Kazuma: “The accused has no right to speak uninvited in court. You will return to the dock.”

Kazuma is Not Happy. He may have been fine with calling van Zieks to testify unnecessarily yesterday, but in that instance, he was in control and was doing so to prove van Zieks to be a terrible liar. Can’t have van Zieks speaking out of turn and saying things that might make people think he’s not a horrible person.

Also, one little detail I enjoy during this bit is that the angle of Kazuma’s eyeline in his poses while he’s addressing van Zieks is just slightly lower than normal. It gives the subtle sense that he’s not looking van Zieks in the eye. Of course he wouldn’t want to do that.

Van Zieks: “That girl is no detective.” […] Van Zieks: “Repeating rumours heard around the Yard… Reading entries from a notebook of unconfirmed origin… That’s not testimony. It’s practically a script. No doubt the rest of this trial will go exactly as you’ve clearly planned.”

Van Zieks is essentially accusing Kazuma of being corrupt, of having rigged the entire trial to get him convicted unfairly. And it’s not that Kazuma isn’t being kind of corrupt right now, what with his very terrible argument that Stronghart is conveniently choosing to agree with… but it’s not really in the way that van Zieks is suggesting here.

The first testimony we had today, about the smuggling, really was practically a script. That whole line of argument was bullshitted by the Prosecutor’s Office (aka: Stronghart) to come up with something to hide the truth about Gregson acting for the Reaper. And Gina, a very inexperienced detective who doesn’t know much of what’s going on and is the most willing to accept anything that doesn’t involve Gregson working for the Reaper, was called to give the testimony, even though all she was really doing was reciting what she’d been told to say about the smuggling. And Kazuma didn’t like that he had to script that part of the trial, and was happy when Ryunosuke managed to disprove it for him!

This second testimony of Gina’s is a lot less scripted, though. She’s stating actual facts about what’s written in Gregson’s secret notebook (the notebook she found, so she’s a relevant person to testify about it), and the purpose of the testimony is to prove that Gregson was indeed working for the Reaper. This is something that van Zieks knows to be true thanks to his own investigations, some of which involved that very notebook! And Gina is the one person who’s actually trying to argue against this angle on Gregson in her testimony, by adding an unwarranted personal-opinion line at the end about how surely he was really just investigating the Reaper. So she’s hardly a witness who’s biased towards Kazuma’s case.

The actual problem here is that Kazuma is taking the true and backed-up facts that Gregson was working for the Reaper and went on a Reaper mission that day, and using those to spin a thoroughly flawed argument about how this means that van Zieks, who is totally the Reaper, totally killed him. Van Zieks… doesn’t quite seem able to see that. His own hatred of Kazuma is twisting his judgement just a little out of whack on this matter, too.

(It’s pretty amusing that van Zieks’s mistake here is that he’s assuming Kazuma is being corrupt in a more competent way than how he is actually being corrupt. Everybody is overestimating Kazuma’s ability to form a coherent argument here. Which is fair, because Kazuma really is so much better than this the rest of the time!)

Kazuma: “………”

Kazuma’s response to van Zieks insinuating that he’s rigged this testimony is nothing but a silent glare. Maybe he feels somewhat secure here, because at least he knows that he hasn’t really rigged the testimony at all.

(He was trying to bring the rumours into it, though. Van Zieks isn’t wrong to call him out on that bit.)

Van Zieks: “In your mind, I’m sure I am the Reaper… who sent your father to the gallows all those years ago.” Kazuma: “…!”

Kazuma remains in the same pose, but his text box implies a slightly more intense reaction to van Zieks bringing up his father, because of course. I really like how van Zieks is able to empathise with Kazuma to some extent and understand how he must feel about the death of his father, even though van Zieks believes that Genshin deserved it!

Van Zieks: “But you’re in danger of becoming a far more sinister Reaper yourself… by attempting to have me condemned with this feeble excuse for testimony.” Kazuma: “What did you say?”

This is the only part of van Zieks’s words that gets a verbal rise out of Kazuma. Of course he’s especially not pleased at the insinuation that he’s being worse than van Zieks himself in the way he’s approaching this. And, hey, while van Zieks is off about the precise ways in which Kazuma’s being corrupt right now, he’s not wrong to suggest that at all! Kazuma, please take a step back and look at yourself before you become the very kind of demon that you’re trying to fight.

This delightful little exchange gets interrupted by Susato and Ryunosuke, as the latter appeals for van Zieks to remain in the stand for the cross-examination, since he might know important information. It’s almost like he’s the one who actually has proper information on the testimony’s topic of Gregson being part of the Reaper, because he literally agrees with what the testimony’s arguing! Not such a corrupt testimony, really, is it, van Zieks?

(This trial day is short enough that it isn’t split apart with a save point, but I have so much to say about it that I’m splitting it into two anyway! So I’m stopping here, just before we start the actual cross-examination.)

#ace attorney #great ace attorney #the great ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #tgaa #dgs #dai gyakuten saiban #the great ace attorney resolve #the resolve of ryunosuke naruhodo

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commentaryvorg · 1 year ago

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The Great Ace Attorney Final Trial Commentary: Day 3, Part 4

This is an mini-commentary covering the final trial of The Great Ace Attorney (Resolve) in line-by-line detail. It’s written from a perspective of already knowing the full truth of things, so there will be spoilers for facts that only get revealed later on in the trial. This is not a commentary to read along with one’s first playthrough!

(This is the final part of the commentary. Check this blog to find the rest of the parts that came before this!)

Last time, with the help of his best friend, Kazuma finally, finally got his head on straight about van Zieks and stopped being driven by his emotions. His emotional arc of twisted tunnel visioning and mental gymnastics that was most of the reason I wanted to do this commentary is basically over now, but there’s still some more of the trial left to go with some tasty Kazuma moments, so it would be remiss of me not to cover the rest of it anyway.

Kazuma: “The reason you’ve been summoned here to court today… is to testify about the jailbreak of the so-called ‘Professor’ ten years ago.”

Heh. “So-called”. Of course Kazuma would phrase it like that, because his father wasn’t really the Professor at all, damn it.

Kazuma: “If it turns out that you were involved in the plot to break Mr Asogi out of your prison, then of course… the consequences will be very serious. In all likelihood, a capital punishment.” Caidin: “Gads! Hold on there, laddie! All I did was—”

Kazuma really does like to threaten witnesses with capital punishment to get them to talk, whenever he can have it make sense. It almost works here, too! Alas, Stronghart jumps in to very sternly tell Caidin to think before he speaks.

Stronghart: “And Prosecutor Asogi… if you threaten the witness again, you will be held in contempt of court.” Kazuma: “…! My apologies, My Lord.”

And then he tells Kazuma off for doing this. To be fair, Stronghart’s obvious desire to hide the truth aside, threatening witnesses with capital punishment probably isn’t considered good courtroom etiquette.

(This isn’t just a sign of Kazuma’s more ruthless and desperate prosecutor behaviour – he actually does something similar from the defence bench at one point in 1-1.)

--- Testimony 5 ---

(As a reminder, I am using different testimony-numbering to the game’s chapter select, because the chapter select bizarrely treats it as if day 2 and day 3 are one continuous day, when they are not. Add two to these numbers to match those in the chapter select.)

Susato: “I really don’t think that Kazuma-sama’s father would have engaged in such negotiations.”

Aww! Susato never knew Genshin herself, but even then, she believes that Kazuma’s father wouldn’t have been the kind of person to do something like that, just like Kazuma does!

Vigil: “In order to hide his identity, he was forced to wear an iron mask over his head.” Kazuma: “Hideous treatment.”

Aww, Kazuma. Genshin being forced to wear that mask for so long really must have been pretty horrible and uncomfortable and dehumanising, and of course Kazuma has Opinions about that that he feels the need to briefly express here.

Caidin: “The witness stand is no place for tellin’ what ya don’t know for sure. I ken that much, I do.” Kazuma: “Then I presume you also know this. Not telling what you do know is a criminal offence.”

Kazuma is, again, low-key threatening the witness, less harshly this time so that Stronghart won’t object to it.

I also can’t help but wonder: is it actually a criminal offence, to hide the truth on the witness stand without outright lying? Kazuma should know that all too well himself, since he’s so very skilled at doing that. But then, he’d say anything here to try and convince the witness to talk.

Kazuma: “So you were just following orders, is that it? I’m afraid that won’t absolve you of guilt here.”

Kazuma definitely has opinions about this, too. So many of the people involved in his father’s death did it because they were “just following orders” (hi, Gregson) – that doesn’t make them any less responsible for their part in killing an innocent man. If you’re in a position where you’re given orders to kill a man, the morally correct thing to do is refuse to follow the orders, obviously.

(Something else Kazuma also knows about all too well.)

Ryunosuke: “You may very well be found complicit in murder, Governor!” Caidin: “………” Kazuma: “So that’s what it’s to be, is it? Even with the threat of conviction, you won’t break your silence.”

Kazuma must be getting so frustrated with all these people who simply refuse to give him the truth, even under threat of death. Stronghart really does (somehow) spur that much dogged loyalty in his minions, geez.

Kazuma: “As you know, Genshin Asogi was shot dead in Lowgate Cemetery after the escape. Tell me… was that part of the plan, too?!” Caidin: […] “Personally, I believe his death was the last part of the plan.” Kazuma: “WHAT?!”

Despite having got a decent hold of himself earlier, Kazuma’s getting emotional again. He can’t stand the idea that his father being shot dead in the cemetery was something as vile as a deliberate, premeditated betrayal.

Kazuma: “Who was it? Who shot my father in the cemetery that night?!” Caidin: “…I’ve no answer to that question.” Stronghart: […] “This court will not pursue the identity of the individual who carried out the order.” Kazuma: “Grrr…”

And of course he desperately wants to know this. Now that he’s finally escaped his tunnel-visioning on van Zieks, and especially now that they’re discussing the prison break in which his father would have hypothetically survived if not for someone shooting him, of course Kazuma wants to learn just who it was who took away that chance of him seeing his father again after all.

(You get this and the previous reaction by ignoring Vigil’s interruption that you’re supposed to pursue in order to progress. Sometimes there can be fun dialogue in these bits that’s easy to miss, because most first-time players would go straight to pursuing the other witness as the obvious way forward.)

Vigil: “I was betrayed by my superiors… in the name of my country.” […] Kazuma: “Just as my father was betrayed, it seems.”

Kazuma’s still low-key having Feelings about this. I wonder if he feels a certain amount of empathy towards Vigil, because he was also just a victim in this huge conspiracy (not to mention the whole PTSD-amnesia thing).

Kazuma: “…It all happened in that vast chamber of secrets that is Barclay, behind the high prison walls. I suppose nobody knows what really went on in the execution room now… Yes, it’s an unsettling mystery, certainly.”

This little speech seems really weird for Kazuma. It’s so unlike him to just be going “welp, it’s a mystery, guess we’ll never know”, as if he’s just accepting that. (Also, there literally is somebody who knows what happened – Dr Sithe sure does, even though she’s been forbidden from testifying because Stronghart Says So.) Where’s his determination to find the truth no matter what?

So I wonder if this is instead Kazuma deliberately trying to manipulate the witnesses – probably Caidin in particular – into letting something slip by presenting it this way. I just can’t wrap my head around Kazuma inexplicably acting like this otherwise. And hey, this does spur Caidin into offering up another opinion that then gives Ryunosuke an opening in his testimony.

With that, they get talking about how Genshin’s will was apparently a “weapon” that he used to bargain for the escape plot.

Ryunosuke: “You see, there’s an undeniable inconsistency here.” Kazuma: “What?! What inconsistency?” Ryunosuke: “Mr Asogi described this document as the only weapon he had left. And yet this will contains nothing of significance at all.”

Kazuma’s getting notably worked up, apparently one step behind again. Which makes sense, since he doesn’t seem to have been privy to any of the information Ryunosuke gathered about the Asogi Papers and the will being a weapon, so he’s frantically fumbling to piece this new story together in his head.

(Also, he just hasn’t had the chance to read his father’s will, while Ryunosuke’s been carrying it around this whole time, so maybe there’s some emotions about that bubbling forth here.)

--- Testimony 6 ---

Stronghart: “We complied with Asogi’s will as far as was possible. All of his personal effects were delivered to his family home in Japan. …As a courtesy to the homeland of the most notorious killer our country has ever seen.” Kazuma: “……… And we were much obliged. I can confirm that all of my father’s belongings arrived safely.”

Oof, Kazuma’s pointed silence before speaking says a lot here. No doubt he’s masking the contempt he must be feeling at the sheer backhandedness of Stronghart’s pleasantry there, because, well, he is glad they did at least return his father’s belongings. (Imagine if they hadn’t, and he’d never been able to inherit Karuma! Unthinkable.)

Kazuma: “…Yes, there’s no mistaking that it’s my father’s brushwork.”

It’s pretty adorable that Kazuma can be so sure of this even after ten years. But of course he would have read and reread every one of the letters his father sent to him during his time in Britain, especially after he was gone and it was one of the only remnants of his “voice” Kazuma had left.

Stronghart: “And this last will and testament was the man’s last ‘weapon’, was it? I think we can safely assume that the convict was merely prattling… knowing that his end was nigh.” Kazuma: “………”

Another pointed silence from Kazuma. He’s certain that his father was not the kind of man who would “prattle” like that, claiming he had something out of empty desperation without having the substance to back it up. But that thought is based entirely in his emotions, and he knows better than to try and use those to argue with now.

Ryunosuke: “So that would mean that you conversed with Mr Asogi?” Vigil: “Yes, certainly. Though there was precious little time before his execution was due.” Kazuma: “………”

Again, the game makes a point of showing us Kazuma’s silence. No doubt he’s having some Feelings about the thought of his father having so little time left alive. I enjoy that the narrative wanted to highlight that.

Vigil: “I can still recall his reply: ‘I’m guilty of the unforgivable crime of ending another human’s life, yes.’” Kazuma: “…!”

Of course Kazuma reacts to this. This is a totally different situation than the false confession in court done on the promise of an escape plan – this is privately, in confidence, between two men as equals. And it’s clearly not a confession to the five Professor murders, either. His father wouldn’t have been lying about this. But then, that means… he really did kill someone after all…?

(Vigil already told this to Ryunosuke and Susato when they visited him in the hospital a couple of days ago, but evidently he did not mention this part to Kazuma when he also visited that day.)

Ryunosuke: “His sword?!” Kazuma: “Karuma, the famous sword of the Asogi clan. …It bears the soul of my family.” Ryunosuke: “I, I don’t doubt it, but I wasn’t really getting at that…” (Forget it being the soul of the clan! Could the man have had a more obvious ‘weapon’?) Kazuma: “Have some respect, Ryunosuke.”

Aww, Kazuma still being so stern about the importance of Karuma. And of course Ryunosuke understands that and genuinely believes it contains the Asogi clan’s soul – after all, he carried it for months while thinking of it as Kazuma’s soul! He’s just capable of taking a step back and acknowledging that it’s a still bit much that a death-row convict was allowed to carry a sword.

(This is, of course, also important setup to remind players that Genshin had Karuma on him, so that they can figure out where he hid the will.)

There’s some more fun missable bits if you ignore pursuing Vigil here like you’re supposed to…

Kazuma: “My father had a passion for calligraphy. He found the profound black colour of sumi ink to be very soothing.”

A neat little tidbit about Genshin, which also explains everything we need to know about Kazuma’s calligraphy scroll in his cabin on the Burya. Evidently he took up calligraphy himself, knowing his father was passionate about it, as a way to feel closer to him.

Stronghart: “Despite the seriousness of his crimes, he was treated in a gentlemanly fashion until the end.” Kazuma: “When he was callously betrayed and shot dead in a dark cemetery in the middle of the night. …Yes, the gentlemanliness of it is overwhelming.”

Some very understandable savagery from Kazuma! He isn’t even able to make it quite as barbed as he’d like, because in that last sentence, he turns his head away, suggesting his emotions are getting a little too much and he’s trying to make them a bit less visible.

Kazuma: “So the document had disappeared… Are you suggesting… that the document my father had in his hand that night in his cell was…?” Ryunosuke: “The same document that Lord Klint van Zieks was writing moments before his death.”

Kazuma leans over his bench for the second half of that line, meaning he’s having some amount of emotional reaction. Probably at the realisation that his father was in possession of the last thing Klint wrote before his death, meaning he was very likely present when Klint was killed, and that confession of his to having killed one person might actually mean…

Vigil: “But what’s on that paper?” Asogi: “…A last will and testament.”

Naturally, Genshin was also extremely good at concealing the truth without actually lying, implying it’s his own will without explicitly saying so in his words so that they aren’t a lie. Like father, like son.

Ryunosuke: “It was the last will and testament of Lord Klint van Zieks!” Van Zieks: “No…” Kazuma: “WHAAAT?!”

Van Zieks reacts to this, of course – but Kazuma also has a strong reaction. It must be starting to sink in just how likely it is that his father really did kill Klint after all.

Stronghart: “Pursuing this notion of a phantom will nobody can attest to having seen serves absolutely no purpose.” Kazuma: “Objection! No, My Lord, that’s unacceptable.” Stronghart: “What did you say, Counsel?” Kazuma: “The last will and testament that Genshin Asogi had in his possession was that of Lord Klint van Zieks. All the testimony and evidence presented to the court has logically led us to that as a possibility. We have a duty… to pursue the line of reasoning to its conclusion!”

Look at Kazuma having his head on straight! Stronghart is trying to shut this down, and instead of getting emotional, Kazuma’s able to calmly argue for the objective reason why they ought to continue this. I’m not sure he would have been capable of that not so long ago.

Stronghart goes on to point out that they can’t pursue anything without any knowledge of what the document contained, which makes Kazuma falter somewhat. Meanwhile, Ryunosuke has figured it out, and with some encouragement from Susato to help him overcome his nerves, begins to make a speech.

Ryunosuke: “In all probability, the details in the will were related to the Professor case.” Stronghart: “The defence’s last statement is mere conjecture.” Van Zieks: “What are you getting at, man?” Kazuma: “Ryunosuke?!”

I love Kazuma’s reaction here. He has no clue what the will contained himself, but he can see from the look in his friend’s eyes that Ryunosuke’s definitely onto something big here that’ll give them exactly what they need to keep this going.

It’s very obvious from his inner monologue that Ryunosuke’s figured out the actual answer here, but if you mess around and pick something wrong, you get more fun dialogue:

Kazuma: “Come on, Ryunosuke! I know you! You’ve seen to the heart of all of this, haven’t you?”

Kazuma believes in his best friend so much and is desperately relying on him to be able to continue the trial where he can’t, hnnnngh these friends. I love the way that really, Kazuma’s the one who idolises and depends on Ryunosuke, despite that things seem on the surface to be more the other way around.

Kazuma: “A, a confession…?” Ryunosuke: “Regarding the mass murderer known as the Professor… and his true identity!” Van Zieks: “Objection!”

This isn’t supposed to be a van Zieks commentary, but guh. Ryunosuke hasn’t even explicitly said in as many words that Klint was the Professor, but Barok knows exactly what he is getting at right away. His body language looks so hurt and defensive, protectively clutching at Klint’s badge like that.

I will restrain myself from commenting on all of van Zieks’s reaction to this – again, this commentary is here to analyse Kazuma, not him – but fff, it’s so good. One thing I want to highlight is the way that, while almost all character animations end on a still frame, most of the ones used for van Zieks’s breakdown here don’t, lingering on a constant loop of heavy breathing, which gives a real sense of extra intensity to the emotion he’s feeling. This poor man needs so many hugs (that he would never accept).

Ryunosuke: “The killer that terrorised London a decade ago and became known as the Professor… The man believed to have murdered five members of the aristocracy… wasn’t Genshin Asogi at all.” Kazuma: “…! No… you can’t be suggesting…?”

Meanwhile, Kazuma’s still one step behind his friend. His shocked reaction here is obviously not at the fact that the Professor was not his father – instead, this is him only just figuring out who it really was.

(Something relevant to note about Kazuma is that, although he’s been so fervently determined this whole time to prove that his father was not the Professor and punish those who framed him, he’s never been shown to have any particular investment in the question of who the real Professor was. That part’s basically just irrelevant to him, unrelated to the people who decided to condemn his father to death. He probably never spent much time during his investigations thinking about the real Professor and trying to figure out his identity, to the point that it comes as a complete shock to him here.)

Kazuma: “I don’t believe this…”

A little later, after Barok’s scream of agony at the explicit reveal and him reluctantly informing us that Klint did indeed own a large dog, Kazuma can still barely believe it. He’s staring down at his bench, as if half lost in his own private world. I wonder if he’s starting to see the irony of this, that van Zieks has also spent the past ten years wracked with desperate denial over the possibility of his loved one being this terrible mass murderer, and that’s why he was so viciously determined to convict Kazuma’s father rather than face the truth. You and he really aren’t so different after all, Kazuma!

Kazuma: “My father knew that, and was using it to negotiate his way out of the unjust charges brought against him. But at the very last hour, those he’d bargained with betrayed him… slaying him mercilessly on foreign soil.”

Kazuma still has some Strong Words about his father being betrayed and murdered. (I wonder if he’d word things quite this way if he realised that the person who shot Genshin was in fact not a foreigner he’d bargained with but his compatriot and friend.)

Stronghart: “It’s ironic, really – and somewhat surprising – that the truth has once again been unearthed… by a Japanese.” Kazuma: “Once again? What do you mean?!”

Kazuma’s asking a question, but based on his emotional reaction here, he seems to have already realised it was probably his father who figured Klint out. (After all, his father was the greatest detective ever, right? Of course he’d be the one to find the truth!)

Susato: “So, in actual fact… Kazuma-sama’s father did…?” Ryunosuke: “He made the late Lord van Zieks meet the same fate…”

Unsurprisingly, it is not Kazuma who voices this realisation that his father really did go and kill Klint, even though he’s no doubt also figured this out.

Stronghart: “As soon as I heard, I hurried to the mansion. When I arrived, it was easy to grasp what had happened.” Kazuma: “And? What about the will?”

And Kazuma is immediately moving on from the murder part and focusing on something else, nope no need to think too hard about the fact that his father really did kill someone, gonna file that away to deal with later

Stronghart: “I was the only person who knew the true identity of the Professor. So… I resolved to keep it a secret and guard the secret to the bitter end.” […] Kazuma: “It was you, then, who pinned the crimes on my father!”

Kazuma has finally, finally found the right person to blame! Of course, it’s been pretty clearly Stronghart and not van Zieks for a while now, but there must be some satisfaction in hearing him clearly willing to just admit it at last.

(Even then, there’s an urgency to Kazuma here but not as much of the vicious hatred that there was with van Zieks. It really does hit different when it’s not the man he’s spent the better part of ten years desperately clinging to hating in order to cope with his grief. Which is to say, he’s able to be more rational about this!)

Kazuma: “But I just don’t believe that part. As far as I knew the man, my father despised such underhand dealings.”

Of course Kazuma saw his father that way! We’ve seen just how carefully he avoids ever telling a direct lie, which I strongly believe is because his father impressed upon him that one must always tell the truth. And even then, there’s so many underhand things Kazuma himself had to agree to in order to make it to Britain – he must have been torn apart with guilt at the thought that this is exactly the kind of thing his father would have hated him doing.

Still, Kazuma is only bringing up this argument – an emotional argument – about his father’s actions now, now that there’s no more deductions to be done and Stronghart’s basically just telling them everything. Kazuma was able to keep his emotions in check in order to follow the logic and find the truth, just like Ryunosuke encouraged him to do!

Stronghart: “…It was extremely easy to make him comply. You see, he had one crippling weakness.” Kazuma: “W-What weakness?”

What is Stronghart talking about? Kazuma’s father was invincible, the greatest man ever; of course he couldn’t possibly have had any kind of weakness, that’s nonsense…! Oh, Kazuma.

Stronghart: “Isn’t it obvious? You… Kazuma Asogi.” Kazuma: “M-Me?!”

It’s so heartbreaking that this never even occurred to Kazuma. On his end, he adored his father so much that he unthinkingly chose to shape his entire life around finding justice for him, sacrificing anything and everything necessary – including his moral integrity – to achieve that. But it never once crossed his mind that his father felt just as strongly about him, and would have obviously chosen to make a similar kind of sacrifice for his sake.

(Maybe some of this comes from the fact that his father left him to go and study on the other side of the world for six years, so Kazuma has this unspoken sense that his father can’t have loved him that much, that obviously he must have cared about truth and justice and integrity more than his own son. I don’t believe Kazuma holds any conscious resentment towards his father for leaving him to study abroad, because he idolised him too much to feel like any of his decisions could have been wrong in any way. But still, it could have easily left him underestimating – and simply accepting, because he was just a kid – just how important he always was to his father.)

Stronghart: “…Perhaps you have no desire to return to your homeland, Asogi.” Asogi: “What?” Stronghart: “Though I hear you have a fourteen-year-old son.”

Stronghart’s no doubt bringing up Kazuma’s exact age in order to better emotionally manipulate Genshin here – but it is notable that he knows exactly how old Kazuma is in the first place. Evidently Genshin talked about his son a lot, to the point of mentioning things such as his exact age and when his birthday was! Gregson was abundantly aware that his colleague had a “young lad” back home in Japan, and it seems even Stronghart was able to piece this together from things Genshin had mentioned. Genshin really did love his son so much that he never stopped thinking and talking about him, even as he was living on the other side of the world! It really is possible to be so far away while still loving your son more than anything.

(Incidentally, this narrows down the possible range for Kazuma’s birthday. He was listed as twenty-three before his disappearance in January, and twenty-four since he reappeared in October. But for him to have been fourteen ten years ago before any of this stuff with Klint went down, his birthday has to be May at the latest. So it’s sometime between January and May, apparently.)

Asogi: “You… you scoundrel!”

I like that Genshin feels the need to curse at Stronghart for this. He knows that Stronghart’s bringing up his son in order to emotionally manipulate him, and he hates it. …But even as knows that, it’s still going to work on him.

Stronghart: “I only want to protect this country’s law and order, you understand.”

Very rich that Stronghart makes this Suspiciously Specific Insistence of his even to Genshin, who has read the will and is the one person who knows exactly what Stronghart is really trying to protect.

Stronghart: “So… what’s it to be, Asogi?” Asogi: “……… …Ka……… Kazuma… ………”

Hnggggh, my heart. Genshin really did want to stick to his principles and risk getting executed in order to make sure the truth came out, but as soon as Stronghart reminds him of how much he loves his son, and that he’ll in all likelihood never see him again if he goes through with this… suddenly Genshin can’t do it. He really did love his son more than anything, to be willing to sacrifice his honour and integrity, something he valued so much, for Kazuma’s sake.

(So that Kazuma wouldn’t have to grow up fatherless and grieving. Genshin was willing to make this sacrifice to save him from that… and yet, it still happened anyway.)

Kazuma: “He… he did it for me…”

Kazumaaaaa. Guhhh, his face here. He’s only just realising that, even though he was half a world away for six whole years, his father really did still love him so, so much. Just as much as Kazuma’s always loved him, to make such awful sacrifices for his sake.

So Stronghart confesses to being the Reaper as well, entreating the judiciary to keep it under wraps, and is about to end the trial when Kazuma interrupts to ask something to van Zieks.

Kazuma: “Of course, I know that you’re a highly accomplished prosecutor. So I find it hard to believe… that you didn’t have any doubts at all. That you never suspected your older brother.” Van Zieks: “…” Ryunosuke: “Yes, the same thought occurred to me.”

This had indeed occurred to Ryunosuke a little while ago – and it’s very remarkable that Kazuma has thought about it too! Look at him thoroughly being able to see van Zieks as a person, acknowledging his skill as a prosecutor and the humanity of the fact that surely, being so close to his brother, he would have noticed something off. Ryunosuke knows van Zieks well enough to see this after everything that’s happened – and, it turns out, so does Kazuma! He has spent months working as the man’s apprentice, and with the irrational hatred finally pushed aside, Kazuma is actually quite able to acknowledge van Zieks as the human person that he is.

After van Zieks and Stronghart both say some things in response to this, Stronghart is about to adjourn the trial again.

Ryunosuke: “Objection! Thank you… Kazuma.” Kazuma: “Me…?” Ryunosuke: “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have made this eleventh-hour discovery.” Kazuma: “What discovery?” […] Kazuma: “But… all I did was ask the accused one simple question!”

I love how Kazuma is totally bewildered as to how he was helpful – it really was just a coincidence that his question led to Stronghart letting slip something useful – but Ryunosuke felt the need to thank him for it anyway. Did you know, they are friends. Maybe this is a sign of Ryunosuke’s idolisation of Kazuma, in that he assumes Kazuma got this to happen on purpose, when no, he really didn’t!

And, of course, Kazuma has no idea what was said that was relevant, while Ryunosuke managed to pick up on that tiny detail (Stronghart mentioning that Genshin’s will had three pages and not two), because Ryunosuke really is a talented lawyer whose eye for detail is even sharper than Kazuma’s.

Caidin: “If I mind correctly, the third… was a message to his lad back in Japan.” Stronghart: “For legal purposes, we required only his will.” Caidin: “And we would’nae have wanted any… uncomfortable words aboot Britain to get back to Japan, eh. So it was decided that the third page ought’nae to be sent.” Kazuma: “Objection! How dare you make that decision?! I had a right to know what it said! To hear my father’s final words to me!”

Aww, Kazuma. He doesn’t even expect that third page to have contained anything important; he just feels like he deserved to hear what his father wanted to say to him before he died! (Especially after having only just realised how much his father loved him and was thinking of him even at a time like that.)

Man, if only that page had been sent, though. No doubt Kazuma would have figured out the riddle at some point, and found Klint’s will… and then this would have been a very different story indeed.

It appears that the third page not being sent was just a case of the concerns mentioned here and not any more sinister machinations trying to prevent Kazuma from learning the truth. I can only assume that the English people involved only knew the third page was a message to Kazuma and couldn’t actually read it. If Stronghart could read Japanese and read that third page himself, he would certainly have been likely to figure out where the will was hidden. So it seems that wasn’t the case.

(I was going to say here that it was presumably Genshin who told them that the final page was a message to his son, thus unintentionally causing his plan to fail, but on second thought, maybe that’s not it. Someone would have needed to translate at least the first page to the English people in order for them to comply with Genshin’s wishes to leave everything to Kazuma – and this probably happened after his death, perhaps with Mikotoba as the translator. So maybe Mikotoba was reading out the will in English, only he stopped at the third page when he saw it was a private message to Kazuma… and he mentioned that fact, and that’s why it didn’t get sent. It may not have been Genshin’s fault.)

Ryunosuke: “A haiku poem? Twist thy head…?”

Shout-outs to Mikotoba for translating Genshin’s haiku on the spot here and managing to get the syllables to match in English too.

Kazuma: “Father…”

Kazuma finally hears his father’s final words to him… and they’re not something sentimental like he might have been imagining after the recent revelation about his father’s reason for taking the deal. It’s just a few vague cryptic lines, which Kazuma must realise was his father trying to tell him something, only he can’t figure out what it is…!

(Valuing truth and integrity and never telling direct lies, and yet very cryptic and evasive. Yep, like father, like son.)

Ryunosuke: “It’s the ‘katana’ sword that was submitted as evidence earlier in these proceedings. The one worn by the prosecution counsel when he… confronted Inspector Gregson.”

I note your awkward pause there, Ryunosuke. Someone still doesn’t want to think too hard about the fact that Kazuma threatened someone at sword-point and actually swung at him.

There’s some missable dialogue if you examine the head of Karuma again after finding the will. (You even get an achievement for doing this.)

Ryunosuke: “Kazuma’s father certainly had a way with words.” Susato: “And he certainly thought up an ingenious hiding place, too. It seems almost playful at first, but I do wonder if over the years perhaps… the duties of the Asogi clan have actually called for such inventiveness.” Ryunosuke: “Protecting great secrets, you mean? Those sorts of duties?” (Well, I could believe that. Kazuma conducts himself like someone with the weight of his clan’s long and noble history on his shoulders.)

His clan’s long and noble history of hiding secrets while maintaining an outward appearance of truthfulness and integrity, indeed. It is some interesting musing that the existence of this hidden compartment inside Karuma suggests that this secretiveness might be a part of the Asogi clan’s legacy.

Ryunosuke: “What about Inspector Gregson then?” Stronghart: “…!” Kazuma: “And Dr Wilson. They were no criminals. You used them to achieve your ends… and then you had them killed!”

Interesting that Kazuma’s putting in a word in defence of Gregson and Wilson, the two men who framed his father. That was them committing a crime, and Kazuma of all people has certainly had some Opinions about that! It seems that here he’s approaching this from the perspective of: they wouldn’t ever have become criminals, if it hadn’t been for Stronghart using them as pawns.

Van Zieks: “This gentleman has an uncanny habit… of producing evidence at the final hour that had escaped everyone else’s attention!” Stronghart: “Nonsense…” Kazuma: “What is it, Ryunosuke?! What do you have?!”

Aww, Kazuma. He doesn’t even realise what the evidence could be (despite the one very obvious answer at this point), but he’s so sure that his friend has found something to miraculously turn things around!

Ryunosuke: “It was rolled up inside this.” Kazuma: “I-Inside Karuma?!”

Must be a pretty big shock for Kazuma to realise he’s been carrying the key piece of evidence that his father left for him by his side for all these years, and he had no idea.

Stronghart: “As I’ve explained countless times already, it was all done for the furtherance of law and order in London!” Kazuma: “Objection! Are you going to legitimise the murder of my father now, too?”

I’m sure Kazuma hates hearing anyone talk as if his father’s death was “for the greater good”. As if that would make it okay even if it were true and not just Stronghart bullshitting to save face.

It feels to me like Kazuma coming out with this doesn’t necessarily need to be about Genshin being shot – he ought to be just as angry at the idea of him being framed and falsely executed for these reasons. But they do go on to talk about specifically the part where Genshin should have survived but didn’t.

Stronghart: “Well, that was unfortunate. I had fully intended to send him back to Japan as we’d agreed.” Kazuma: “I don’t believe you! It was you, wasn’t it? You killed him!”

Ugh, Kazuma really wants to believe this. He finally knows who was truly behind everything, who was truly deserving of all of his hatred – he so wants it to be true that Stronghart was the one who shot his father dead on top of everything else, so that he can keep piling all of his hatred onto this one person and things don’t have to be any more complicated than that.

But in his desperation, Kazuma isn’t able to see just how unlikely that is to be the case. Stronghart has shown himself to be very notorious for never actually pulling the trigger himself. Of course he’d have got someone else to do it here, too.

Not that that makes him any less guilty of Genshin’s murder, nor any less deserving of Kazuma’s hatred for it, though. But on top of that, Kazuma’s also got to come to terms with the fact that it was his formerly-trusted family friend Jigoku who actually did the deed. Ouch.

It’s kind of a shame we don’t have Jigoku himself here for this reveal to see how he feels about it, because I imagine there’s a lot of genuine guilt and regret there. Based on the flashback, it very much comes across like Jigoku did not want to kill Genshin at all and was just pressured into it in the panic of the moment by Stronghart.

Stronghart: “He claimed to be the man’s friend, but when push came to shove, he pulled the trigger.”

Says the push who came to shove! Geez, what a hypocrite. None of this is at all Stronghart’s fault, you guys, it’s all Jigoku’s for being a backstabbing fake-friend. Totally.

Kazuma: “………”

We also don’t really see much of Kazuma’s reaction to learning this. There’s just this silence, as he leans urgently over the bench. I imagine that in true Kazuma style, he’s suppressing however he feels about this to deal with and process later, maybe, if at all. Oh, Kazuma. I wonder if he ever visits Jigoku in prison at some point in the future to confront him over this.

Kazuma: “So you coerced him, too? Using what happened in the graveyard!”

Based on this, it also seems that for now at least, he’s kind of framing Jigoku in his head as another of Stronghart’s victims, a bit like he was for Gregson and Wilson earlier. Which is not untrue.

Stronghart: “He would have lost everything. …I merely reminded him of that.” Kazuma: “How do you sleep at night…?”

Some of Kazuma’s personal feelings shining through here. Of course he finds Stronghart’s manipulative nature and skirting of his own responsibility to be completely despicable. This is the very opposite of the principles of integrity and honour that his father would have taught him to uphold! All of that got a bit, uh, skewed here and there throughout the events of this case, but here at the end we finally have Kazuma with his moral compass right back where it always should have been.

Stronghart: “I saved Klint van Zieks from dishonour in his death!” Kazuma: “Objection! Whilst behind the scenes you systematically buried anyone who stood in your way. And then you made my father take the blame!”

Damn right – it’s hardly noble of Stronghart to “save Klint from dishonour” when he did so by thoroughly dishonouring somebody else who didn’t actually deserve it.

Kazuma: “Let’s not forget the others you had killed as well. Setting the defendant up as the Reaper to cover up the truth behind the murders of countless more!”

Look at him standing up for van Zieks being unfairly persecuted! It really didn’t take him that long to change his tune there, once Ryunosuke talked some sense into him.

(It’s also interesting to note that he’s calling van Zieks the “defendant” here, not the “accused” – the defence lawyer perspective! He did actually call him the “accused” just a little earlier when asking him that question about if he suspected his brother, but perhaps that was because that was a more Formal Courtroom kind of moment, so he stuck to the Correct Prosecutor Language. Here, though, speaking less as the prosecutor and more just as himself – van Zieks is the “defendant”, because he’s innocent and Kazuma knows that!)

Kazuma: “Objection! You’ve done nothing! It’s Lord van Zieks here who worked tirelessly and justly in court, whilst enduring the disgrace of the Reaper name!” Van Zieks: “…!”

Look at Kazuma not only standing up for van Zieks but sympathising with the burden he’s been carrying! He’s seeing van Zieks as a human person who’s suffered undeservedly! Just like he was always capable of doing all this time, if only he could have put his hatred aside for long enough to see it.

I love that van Zieks reacts to this, too, realising that his erstwhile “enemy” actually understands and cares about what he’s been through, more than he was probably ever expecting Kazuma to. These two are gonna be friends one day, dammit.

Ryunosuke: (Lord Stronghart really is a master of manipulation.) Susato: “You’ve conclusively proven his guilt. Yet he still manages to evade justice. I, I just don’t know what we can do…” Kazuma: “Ryunosuke…”

As Stronghart (somehow) manipulates the judiciary into cheering his name despite his explicit and reprehensible guilt, and Ryunosuke is pretty much just standing there thinking, not showing any obvious signs of having a plan yet… Kazuma still believes, or at least hopes, that his friend might just be able to pull out some miracle to save this. Aww.

(Which, he’s about to. But that’s a lot more down to Sholmes than anything to do with Ryunosuke’s talents this time.)

Ryunosuke: “The truth can also cause great pain. Sometimes even leave people on the brink of despair.” Kazuma: “And for that reason, there are those who feel the need to hide the truth. Who do it instinctively, even.”

Here’s one more line that looks like Kazuma might be vaguely alluding to his own PTSD-amnesia again, just a tiny bit.

There’s some interesting interactions between Kazuma and van Zieks in the defendant’s antechamber scene at the end, but I’ve already covered what I’d want to say about them in my big analysis post on Kazuma’s character, so I’ll refrain from repeating myself here.

One other notable thing in this scene is that Kazuma is the one who brings up the question of Klint’s second request that he didn’t mention in the will (that turns out to be about Iris). I imagine Kazuma’s the one to ask this because he’s thinking about the fact that his father agreed to honour this request, and wondering whether or not he managed to do so before his death.

As Kazuma leaves the antechamber with van Zieks – after encouraging him to not give up prosecuting now that he’s finally rid of the burden of the Reaper name – Ryunosuke has a little musing that seems like a good note to end this commentary on.

Ryunosuke: “Kazuma Asogi… It seems as though he’s really matured suddenly.”

Aww. This might have seemed a bit much from Ryunosuke at the beginning of the game, in which Kazuma gave the impression of being by far the more mature one of the two of them. But now, having seen the irrational mess that Kazuma was in court not so long ago… yeah, he has matured quite a bit, and quite suddenly too, now that he’s cast that part of himself away! Good on him. And good on Ryunosuke for noticing that about his friend.

#ace attorney #great ace attorney #the great ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #tgaa #dgs #dai gyakuten saiban #the great ace attorney resolve #the resolve of ryunosuke naruhodo

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