#a very haphazard look at my latest brainrot

[a-very-tired-bitch]

Why Jake Marshall might be my favourite witness in Ace Attorney

Inspired by this post, give it some love y’all.

I am a whore for Ace Attorney (specifically Klavier Gavin, sir I am looking respectfully). This is news to nobody who knows me because since I’ve started replaying it I have not shut up about Miles Edgeworth. The game is excellent, especially in terms of their characters, which also isn’t news to anyone but I want to particularly talk about Jake Marshall.

Obviously, SPOILERS for mainly ‘Rise from the Ashes’ from AA1, but I will mention things from previous cases so warning for that. Also, DISCLAIMER: these are just my opinions and my interpretations of this character and the case he appears in.

First and foremost, SL-9 is a tragedy. Seven lives were irreparably damaged due to one man’s greed and hunger for power. The whole case had such potential to be a victory and instead became a bitter defeat for almost everyone involved. So, let’s look at the characters who were a part of this:

Angel Starr - She was an excellent detective and interrogator to the point where she was known as the ‘Cough-Up Queen’ (iconic) and evidently was passionate about her work, judging by her intense hatred for the prosecutors who got her laid off.

Bruce Goodman - Most of the information we get about Detective Goodman is related to his murder which says a lot, in and of itself, but I think it takes a certain kind of pure-hearted naivety to ask the man who closed up the very case you have suspicions about to open it up again.

Miles Edgeworth - SL-9 was his first big case and he took the evidence he was given trustingly and produced a verdict in court that he was almost certainly exceedingly proud of, only for it to be the source of the rumours that plagued him for the next two years (and what followed - Mr Edgeworth I am so sorry).

Ema Skye - Despite having locked away a lot of her memories of the case, the event was extremely traumatic for her without even considering her age at the time and the aftermath of it resulted in a rift between her and her sister, her only family, even causing her to alter the course of the rest of her life by dedicating herself to forensic study (an absolute queen).

Neil Marshall - The man had been a promising prosecutor, his talent probably only comparable to Edgeworth, the youngest ever to receive the ‘King of Prosecutors’ award (I think) and, in his earnest and successful effort to save Ema Skye from the serial killer, Joe Darke, he is murdered (nooo don’t die ur so sexy aha) by Damon Gant to further his career and influence.

Lana Skye - A genius detective, Lana was well on the way to becoming one of the best prosecutors in history as well as a well-liked and well-respected figure among the police and lawyers alike, only to be manipulated into obeying the whims of Gant for two years due to her love for her sister.

Jake Marshall - Two years ago, Marshall had a promising detective career who had an extremely close relationship with his brother and he lost both of these violently, didn’t get closure for two years and became cold and obsessive over the case as a result.

This case follows the classic (and also favourite) premise of mine where a cast of grizzled, worn down characters are brought together by one of them, usually by the most driven or focused, to re-explore their shared past to uncover the truth. In this story, we still have the common tropes (the good man murdered to set the events in motion, the flirt with bitter anger, the easy-going hiding their darkness, the figure of authority succumbed to evil and the treasured character whose death still haunts them all) written with the familiar, winding narrative of Ace Attorney where characters of varying depth all lead to the character at the crux of the story, usually hiding behind a front.

So, you might be thinking, that character, that’s Lana Skye, right?

Wrong.

It’s Jake Marshall.

Don’t get me wrong, Lana is at the centre of this case. It’s well-established from get-go and, as we, the player, find out more and more about SL-9 it keeps coming back to Lana Skye. So why does the narrative hinge on Jake Marshall?

Mainly because, if it weren’t for Jake Marshall, the case wouldn’t have happened to begin with. He needed closure for the death of his brother that he knew was tied up with some sort of foul play but he never got the chance to prove it, having been cast aside as soon as the trial of Darke was done. Much like Lana, he changed after that case, became colder and more obsessive behind his easy-going façade, focused solely on SL-9. For two years, along with Angel, he tried to get the case opened up again, becoming increasingly desperate as it came closer and closer to transferral, and finally begged Goodman to help him. This set off the chain of events that became ‘Rise from the Ashes’.

Jake is an extremely guarded character, using his cowboy persona almost as a shield, and this is evident in the first few parts of the case where we can barely get any information out of him until we call him to the witness stand and slowly unravel his story. And with that, he unravels too.

The day after the trial, we see almost a completely different man - he’s resigned to his fate, all the desperation and adrenaline he’s held onto has slipped away, leaving behind an incredibly sad person. His kindliness shines through a bit more which was introduced in the way he speaks to Ema, but now he offers it to Phoenix as well in both appreciation and respect for what he’s undertaking. Jake gives him his story and quietly leaves to turn himself in because he doesn’t see the point in fighting anymore - the straws he was grasping at have fallen out of reach and now he sees someone else probably with the same purity and fire that his team had had during SL-9 that he can pass the mantle to.

I think that this is where the true tragedy of the case lies: once Phoenix discovers the truth and frees the people who worked on SL-9 from their chains, they change. Lana smiles for the first time, Angel’s snappy banter softens into friendly teasing,  Jake, although only for that one moment, opens up a little, and Miles Edgeworth has a midlife crisis (understandable but you did NOT have to do that to Phoenix). And once we see this, we see how badly this case affected all of them. We see what people they used to be before they were broken down  by SL-9, the friendships they had (Jake and Angel feel like the epitome of bisexual solidarity, sue me), and in particular, at least for me, Jake’s grief at the loss of his brother. Because, for all the focus on injustice and the truth, an innocent man died and no one really got the chance to grieve in their determination for retribution. It’s only in the moments before Jake turns himself in that we see him even speak about his brother in a way that isn’t related to the truth that they’re all searching for. And that’s just so sad.

But, yeah! This one’s a bit of a doozy but I suddenly had a lot of feelings about this one cowboy and I needed to yell about it.