Here we are. Took a few extra weeks, but I got through Turnabout Time Traveler again, bringing an end to my main series replay. Spirit of Justice is the Ace Attorney game I went into with the heaviest amount of emotional investment of any, and I've been really eager to talk about it. First, my previous cast review posts:
And before we start, I need to outline a couple of differences in how I'll be handling this. I normally list the characters in approximate order of appearance, with slight variations here and there. This time, though, I'll be opening with Apollo and Phoenix specifically, and have a section later on dedicated to the relationship between the two of them, because a lot of my opinions on this game are tied to their mentor-protégé relationship, and I don't want random remarks on it cluttering the sections for other characters. Finally, this post will likely run long enough that I'll need to split some characters off into a stickied comment below, so get ready for a marathon of a post.
APOLLO JUSTICE So, I've got plenty to say on Apollo. Most of it I've said before, and I don't want this to go on forever, so let's just hit upon the most important stuff.
I love Case 2 Apollo. He feels completely like a natural continuation of AA4 Apollo, and his relationships with Trucy, Athena, and Phoenix are all great. Apparently he had a pet rabbit when he was younger, which Athena finds hilarious. He's kind of a jerk to Ema in the first few exchanges of her (pretty awful) introductory scene. Yamazaki gave an interview about Case 2 at one point, and it outlines a bizarre opinion of his that Apollo and Ema have never been friendly with one another, despite all evidence to the contrary in AA4 and its surrounding media. But whatever - they're back to friendly banter right after that, so as weird as the first part of the scene is, we can ignore it.
Apollo shows his growth as a lawyer and as a friend to Trucy all over the place in this case. It's excellent. His personality is exactly the way it should be here, and seeing him defend Phoenix's daughter in her father's absence and go head-to-head with Roger Retinz is incredibly satisfying after how sidelined he was for most of AA5's story.
Buuut now let's get to Case 5. Apollo is not the same character in Case 5, and I don't mean that like "he develops a bunch". I mean that he stops being Apollo as soon as Dhurke walks in the door, and following a five-minute ramble of exposition about this new backstory that he definitely always had and just never mentioned before, "Apollo Justice" is removed from the game and replaced with a different character entirely, sharing his face and name. Khura'in Apollo is just... frustrating to me. I can't possibly view this version of him as anything other than a mistake, and one made solely because the devs decided late that he needed to be important to this game's main story, after Phoenix had been its main character for most of the writing process.
Consequently, dorky everyman Apollo, who just wants to do his job as an attorney and be taken seriously, is shoddily transformed into an invincible escapist anime hero in an
epic struggle to fight a corrupt monarchy. Basically everything that made him my favourite protagonist in the series goes away instantly. I don't give a shit about Khura'in, and I've never stopped being frustrated by how Apollo is duct-taped into it and then sent off on his own, with the ending choosing to pretend that he's ever been allowed to have a meaningful character arc. Case 5 slaps a massive, disrespectful downgrade onto Phoenix, Athena, and even Dhurke himself in the civil trial just to make Apollo look as good as possible, and I will never be moved from that position.
PHOENIX WRIGHT So, Phoenix starts off as a marked improvement from his Dual Destinies characterization. I have to specify "starts off", of course, because a lot of that good goes away by the end of the game.
In Case 1, Phoenix acts much more appropriately level-headed, confident, and mature than his AA5 self. The frequency of his "OH, FUUUUCK" face's appearances goes way down, and we even get a nice little callback to the class trial from the original game when he chooses to take up Ahlbi's defence no matter what he's up against.
His phone call with Apollo in Case 2 is an
excellent scene, perfectly demonstrating how much he's come to trust and respect the rookie attorney he hired on two games ago.
Seeing his friendship with Maya just as strong as ever is wonderful, even if Maya herself ends up cheated out of importance almost immediately. Case 3 also gives him some great scenes with Rayfa, his parenting experience allowing him to both ease her temper and help to support her when she's feeling dejected.
And then Case 5 happens. I'll go into
that catastrophe in the stickied comment.
AHLBI UR'GAID So Ahlbi's... cute, if not much else. He doesn't really change a ton, outside of Case 1. Naïve kid, ambitious entrepreneur, and bearer of an incredible good luck streak when it comes to providing highly plot-convenient help. His sort of little-brother role to Maya is kinda precious.
SHAH'DO Little dog, who will one day become a very big dog. He's inherited his master's proclivity for stumbling into extremely plot-convenient trouble.
PAHT ROHL Dead family man. Not nearly as annoying as the other characters with name puns based on "patrol".
JUDGE (KHURA'INESE) Oddly enough, despite first seeming to be just as cartoonishly contemptuous of defence attorneys and dismissive of foreigners as most of the people of Khura'in, His Magistry actually proves himself to be about the most responsible, level-headed person in the entire country. It only takes a couple of cross-examinations for him to totally change his tune on Phoenix, and while he remains a deeply devout man who dislikes the idea of a defence attorney questioning the royal family in any way, he doesn't tend to let that affect his impartiality as a judge at all. He even stands up to members of the royal family for himself when the situation calls for it, baffled as he might be to find himself doing so.
RAYFA PADMA KHURA'IN The princess. Tell you the truth, I expected to hate her, going into the game. I suppose that was the idea, what with her pompous, high-and-mighty personality. By the end of Case 1, however, when she's escorted out of the courtroom, throwing a tantrum all the while, I had the distinct feeling that I was going to end up liking her much more than I originally expected.
I groaned when I realized that she was going to be accompanying Phoenix as his investigation assistant in Case 3. Are we really
so attached to having a teenage girl in that role as often as possible that we need to do this? Well, whatever - Rayfa goes through absolutely no shortage of great character development in Case 3. We see that she's tried to patch up her bruised ego following the outcome of Ahlbi's trial in Case 1, now more determined than ever to prove that her Séances reveal only the incontrovertible truth. But of course, following another thorough examination by Phoenix, her insights are found to be mistaken once again, and this time, it's immediately clear that her self-esteem has taken a serious hit as a result. She can't just pretend to herself that it was a fluke again, and she feels like a failure.
It's understandable, really - Rayfa's only fourteen, and her entire life thus far has been focused around only her duties as Royal Priestess and heir to the throne. Couple that with the emotional abuse Ga'ran has been throwing at her for as long as she can remember, and her downcast reaction to another fruitless Séance is exactly what you'd expect. I love the little moment at the start of the second investigation in which Phoenix tries to help her feel a bit better by prodding her into accompanying him again. Funny that he's better at acting like a dad to Rayfa in just this one sequence than he was to Trucy in the entirety of Dual Destinies.
Of course, Rayfa's troubles definitely don't end there. Maya's second trial proves that she was
completely wrong about this case from the very beginning, she learns that her Séance was actually deliberately manipulated to trick her into casting suspicion on the wrong person (clearly leaving her terrified that she's caused false convictions before),
and she has to discover that her beloved father has been orchestrating extrajudicial killings of citizens he finds inconvenient. That's a hell of a lot to take in in the space of a few days.
Everything in Rayfa's life has been thrown into question, leaving her plagued with doubts about herself, the convictions she's ensured thanks to her Séances, and her family. Who is she supposed to turn to for emotional support? Her abusive mother? Her caring father, who she's just learned was sponsoring extrajudicial murder? It's a miracle she comes out of all of this with her emotional state left intact at all.
Sadly, Rayfa becomes a victim of some writing problems in the final case. Here, her characterization basically spins off into a nearly verbatim retread of Sebastian Debeste. She's not
bad, she's just a noticeable step down from her Case 3 self. Following a little discussion I had with another user here several months back, though, I will give Case 5 Rayfa some points for basically being the same character that Nahyuta's trying to be, but much less shit. Just like him, she's been manipulated into ensuring the convictions and deaths of countless innocent people, and she's spent her entire life being fed emotional abuse and propaganda by her mother that has made her spiteful and arrogant toward defence attorneys, and yet all it took was
one trial exposing the flaws in Khura'in's justice system to completely shake her out of the mentality her entire life has pushed her into. Seeing those flaws, she has both the desire and initiative to fix them despite having less influence in the court than Nahyuta or the Judge, and once it comes down to a conflict against her "mother", she's standing her ground and fighting to ensure the truth is uncovered, while Nahyuta continues to be Ga'ran's doormat.
Just compare her insights and behaviour surrounding Jove's Séance to the way she behaved in Case 1. She's a whole different person.
PEES'LUBN ANDISTAN'DHIN Not writing that name again. Funny guitar murderer. Case goes on way too long. His fantastic animations are the perfect demonstration of just how vast an improvement the skills of the artists and animators went through between games. The voice blip jokes that he brings with him were the first Ace Attorney joke in years to make me pause for laughter.
Interesting that he's given just a tiny bit of actual story significance later on.
GASPEN PAYNE Fuck, is he awful. There really isn't anything likeable or entertaining about him. I miss his brother. Somehow, though, he's not the worst prosecutor in this game.
INGA KARKHUUL KHURA'IN Pretend I included the rest of the name.
So, Inga is a bit weird. For Case 1 and most of Case 3, he's just a classic slimy bastard with an oddly misplaced speech pattern. His quirks are kind of amusing. It's not until Case 5 that anything becomes especially interesting about him, and even then, it doesn't happen until after he's dead. I'll admit that seeing him become the victim in Case 5 was a bit more satisfying than any stabbing ought to be. Think about his final moments, too - he shot Dhurke no less than three times, still ended up chased out of the tomb by him, and now here he is, fatally stabbed from behind, looking up to see
Dhurke standing over him, seemingly still alive.
It ends up as kind of a shame, though, that he ends up being given so many interesting traits only after his death, and despite the prominence of spirit channeling in the game, he never ends up getting any extra screentime via channeling. I think the last case could've been more interesting if he had stayed alive at least long enough to carry on his conflict against his wife onscreen. The heavy implication that he was doing all of this for Rayfa's benefit and not his own is the thing that makes his abrupt death feel the most like a total waste of potential.
ATHENA CYKES Poor girl. Sidelined almost entirely just one game after her debut, and she didn't even get to be that game's main player character. So, to hit the positives first - Athena does get plenty of good screentime in this game. Her dynamic with Apollo in Case 2 is better than ever. These two are close friends, both equally determined to save Trucy from her false charges, and I love every minute of their banter together. At any given time, Athena can be genuinely complimenting Apollo, teasing him, enjoying a friendly joke, outright flirting with him - all of it feels perfectly in-character for her, and it all reminds me of why I consider her and Apollo the best defence teamup since Phoenix and Maya. There's a downside to her role in Case 2, though - after spending the first three quarters of the episode doing all of the above while also showing how much she cares about and admires Trucy, she pretty much stops existing in the trial's last segment. Once it comes time for Apollo to face off against Roger Retinz, Athena almost stops talking entirely, and is pretty much there just to act as an extension of Apollo's reaction faces. I don't really get the reason.
Let's get to Case 4 now. It's Athena's only case as defence leader in this game, and it unfortunately feels the need to wind back the development she went through in Dual Destinies pretty noticeably, turning her back into the short-tempered and confidence-lacking newbie she was in Turnabout Academy. She even comes close to another PTSD attack when put under deliberate pressure by a certain asshole prosecutor, before Simon steps in to back her up. Of course, this leads into the excellent Cykes-Blackquill defence team dynamic, so ultimately, I can tolerate Athena's downgrade in competence.
Her banter with Simon is fantastic. It's abundantly clear that the two still care about and trust each other just as much as they did in Dual Destinies, and Athena is trying her best to get her ex-con friend reacclimated to everyday society. That said, though, Simon takes very much a tough-love approach to helping Athena out in the trial, and doesn't quietly tolerate obvious mistakes on her part. It's important to take note of the reason, though - Simon knows that Athena can do better, he knows that she's tough enough to handle even his harshest criticisms, and he knows exactly how to get her back on her feet when she's really struggling. Who would've guessed that "grab ahold of her shoulders and
shake her" was exactly the right choice? It's a perfect showing of the level of trust these two have in one another.
She's fun on her own in Case 4, as well. She's great with emotions, but terrible at catching jokes, going off her interactions with Uendo, and her hotheaded personality makes interacting with Owen a bit of a challenge for her. "Auntie Athena" is kind of intense.
... Athena going along with Phoenix's idiotic "don't tell Apollo what's going on" request halfway through the civil trial is aggravating, as is her demotion to joke character in the DLC. I counted no fewer than four "Athena shows up to say hi, and then bolts to escape Trucy again" jokes in that case, accounting for the majority of her appearances.
(And a random fun fact - between her dialogue and Ema's, we can safely assume that Athena is the only person in the Wright Anything Agency who can actually drive.)
TRUCY WRIGHT I don't hesitate to say that 6-2 has Trucy at her best. She's only ever improved as a magician, given time, and she shows a level of talent easily worthy of the Gramarye name. At the same time, though, this is where we finally see proof that she's not infallible. She ends up duped and manipulated by Betty and Retinz, and her mistakes nearly cost her her freedom, reputation, and entire family business. Nevertheless, with some emotional support from Athena and Apollo, she bounces back and proves essential to solving the case for real.
And speaking of that emotional support, her detention centre visit is the best scene she's ever had. She does her best to keep up her performer's smile, but this time, it just can't stick. Apollo knows she's hurting far more than she lets on, and with the right prompting the dam finally breaks.
When I first saw the promotional material for this case, including a Perceive sequence as she insists "I'm
fine, Polly", I just knew this scene was going to hurt me, and I was right. Watching Trucy break into a frightened ramble about her fear that she really did screw up and cause her co-star's death, and then seeing her finally break down crying in front of her friends - I damn near teared up. I have a lot of emotional investment in the newer cast, and Trucy is no exception. There's actually a really good little character moment with her if you pick the wrong piece of evidence to present to her after the trial, as well. While picking the correct one is obviously the better choice, and will put a genuine smile back on her face following some encouragement from Apollo, she still shows the same performer's dedication she's so well-known for if you get it wrong, earnestly thanking Apollo for at least trying to cheer her up.
For another good point, she's learned by now that keeping Apollo in the dark about how a magic trick was performed is really not a sensible decision when it's critical to understanding a murder case.
I need to address the bad parts as well, though. Trucy still gets no screentime with her best friend Pearl, being cleverly removed from the scene in Kurain Village just in time to dodge her, and in the DLC case, she regresses to her one-dimensional joke self from Dual Destinies. She doesn't even exchange a single word with Maya, and we've been waiting anywhere up to
thirteen years to know what their relationship is like.
Having her voiced by Kira Buckland is a wonderful touch, longtime Ace Attorney fan that she is.
MANOV MISTREE This poor sap didn't do a thing to deserve what Retinz did to him. ... Well, aside from taking part in the "prank" against Trucy, anyway. Wasn't his idea.
BONNY DE FAMME Bonny's alright. I was afraid she would just end up as ship fuel, when I first saw her in the magazine scan that revealed her. Fortunately, she came through mostly unharmed. Anyway, she's kinda cute, and has a really fun, energetic dynamic with her twin sister.
BETTY DE FAMME Glad she exists, despite the "twins" twist not exactly being new for this series. I was feeling a bit put out to see the first implication that "Bonny" was actually secretly nasty. I just want Trucy to have friends, after reading so many sad fanfics that depict her as an unpopular loner.
Betty does run into a problem that a lot of characters in this series have, though - sure, she didn't have any idea that Retinz was really planning to frame Trucy for a murder, of all things, but she does try her best to have Trucy convicted, and yet the game totally stops acknowledging that once attention turns to taking Retinz down, just painting her as a cute little Tsundere instead, and fuck that trope in general.
THE JUDGE Same eccentric old friend as always. He gets very little screentime in this game, of course, only appearing in two and-a-third cases in the main game, plus the DLC. They do take advantage of that time, though. He's as snarky with penalties as ever, and it's clear that he doesn't like seeing Trucy accused. Watching him irritably chastise Apollo for interrupting Trucy's magic tricks is hilarious. He also gets plenty of chances for funny exchanges with Simon in Case 4, and especially Edgeworth the DLC.
I want to mention his interactions with Trucy again, though - Udgey is obviously a genuine fan of her magic shows, and he almost treats her like a grandchild of his at times. It's really nice.
EMA SKYE Oh, Ema. You've finally got your dream job, you're all smiles after years of frustration and grumpiness, and what does the universe do to you? Well, a hell of a lot, almost none of it nice.
To start, Ema meets up with her friend Apollo, and he kind of acts like a total dick to her for the first half of her introductory scene before she straightens him out. That scene is so weird overall, and I kinda can't stand it. Apollo just acts like Ema's never been anything but an irritable grouch toward him, and he practically runs away at the sight of her, but then ten lines later they've gone right back to normal, acting like a pair of good friends again, as they should.
So, from there, Ema is paired up with another prosecutor who annoys the hell out of her. This flowery bag of dicks tells her to arrest one of her friends, accusing Trucy of deliberately murdering her co-star, he outright
refuses to tell Ema the reason for the accusation, and then her job forces her to testify against poor Trucy. This does net us one of my favourite Ema scenes ever, though, when she prefaces her testimony by stating for the record that she doesn't believe Trucy is guilty, so that's a plus.
Now, after that case, Ema catches up with Phoenix in Khura'in, but once more is denied the chance to just have a good chat with a friend of hers, because she's forced to arrest Maya. There's an implication that she and Maya met offscreen, interestingly enough. These games don't usually like to let major characters meet for the first time offscreen, so it's a refreshing change. So, Ema has to testify against Maya, and even watch as she is convicted, left to believe that Phoenix, a good friend of hers and one of her personal heroes, is doomed to be executed. She also has to deal with considerably more frustration from Nahyuta in this case, her stress-eating Snackoo habit coming back out in full force.
Then, in Case 5, she ends up stuck with the unbearable difficulty of being the one to discover Dhurke's body, and deliver the horrible news to Apollo, back in the courtroom. Seriously - what the hell did she ever do to deserve all of this? Did existence itself just consider the idea of Ema Skye being happy so offensive that it needed to directly intervene?
At least she gets to investigate alongside of Edgeworth in the DLC, with no further trauma or emotional distress included. She does her best to meet the standards of her personal hero, even if her enthusiasm causes her to screw up here and there.
A couple of other complaints - Ema comes across as kind of inept at times, in this game. I get that she's got to make the odd mistake here or there so that the defence will have opportunities to take some ground in the trials, but the shift to bring her away from being so frequently grumpy has also caused her to become noticeably less bright on average than she normally is, and that's pretty irritating. Gumshoe messed up regularly because for all of his good intentions, he was kind of dumb. Ema isn't. Additionally, of course, there's the game's insistence upon using her as a mouthpiece for
its rather pathetic attempts at pretending that Nahyuta isn't a reprehensible sack of shit. Ema comes across like a weak, pouting doormat whenever it comes to Nahyuta, and that's a complete disservice to her character. Klavier was never half as bad as Nahyuta consistently is, and Ema had no problem telling him to fuck off.
ROGER RETINZ What a class act of a villain. Kind of a waste, confining him to a plot-irrelevant filler case.
Retinz is absolutely delightful as a scummy, conniving weasel of the highest caliber. His
artistically obnoxious behaviour makes him wonderfully hateable without being too annoying, his competence as a culprit is nearly unparalleled, his story is engaging and actually ties into Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (I get the overall sense that 6-2 was written by the only person on the team who actually gives a shit about that game), his transformation and breakdown are both fantastic - I can't get enough of this guy. Heartless bastard is right up there with Manfred von Karma, so fixated on revenge against Magnifi Gramarye that he took on an apprentice and trained him to take on his old stage name, then killed the guy in order to frame Magnifi's granddaughter, who had abolutely
nothing to do with his grudge, as well as cheating Trucy out of her family business and ownership of the Gramarye performance rights, all just to take personal revenge against an old man who had been dead for nine years. Incredible.
I really mean it when I say that this case would've been perfect as the finale to an actual Apollo Justice sequel. It's got everything it needs, from an exciting and unique murder case, to great Trucy-Apollo interactions, all the way up to scenes that outline just how much Phoenix has come to respect Apollo.
PUHRAY ZEH'LOT Dead, and without anything to make me sad for it. Maya probably cared about him, too, and she has to go through both being falsely accused of his murder and learning that he was a complete bastard.
MAYA FEY I've said it before, and it still stands - Maya's characterization in this game is utterly on point. She's grown up, gaining far more maturity and wisdom, but she's still our good old goofball Maya. Still Phoenix's best friend after two years away (quite a few more, from our point of view), Ms. Fey made her return to the cast in a new form that leaves me perfectly content.
... Perfectly content aside from how completely shafted she winds up being in the story, that is. Maya doesn't get to do a damn thing for most of the game. She doesn't properly appear at all until Case 3, and then she has to spend most of that case offscreen as a defendant, or performing a channeling. She gets an absolutely wonderful scene with Rayfa at the case's end (which gets at least two full flashbacks later on, indicating that the writers were pretty proud of it), and plenty of heartwarming scenes with Phoenix, but throwing her into the defendant's position is a complete cop-out. She's not accused because of her awful family history, or because of her relationship with Phoenix. She's accused because she's Maya Fey, and these games can't let go of nostalgia.
Case 5 doesn't do much more for her. We ultimately discover that she's improved immensely as a medium, managing to maintain a channeling for
days without a break, right after she's been trapped as a kidnapping victim, but this case cheats her out of a proper appearance even more blatantly than Case 3 did. Like Ema, she gets plenty of emotional gut-punches, too. All the traumatic shit that happens in Case 3 is followed up by Inga taking her hostage, leading up to Dhurke's botched rescue attempt, in which she has to see him shot right in front of her and then watch him bleed to death, throwing herself headlong into his revolution plans immediately thereafter.
The DLC is a letdown for her, too. Even upon replay, I just can't view Turnabout Time Traveler as anything more than a painfully unambitious case limping its way along entirely on nostalgia bait, and this includes Maya being Flanderized into an incredibly childish parody of herself with only one good moment in the entire case.
DATZ ARE'BAL I like Datz. He's a goof very reminiscent of Larry, but with nearly none of Larry's worse traits. I'm not so fond of his courtroom appearance in which he lies over and over at no real benefit to anyone, making much of that trial feel like a total waste of time, but after that point, I haven't really got any criticisms for him. His friendship and trust in Dhurke feels believable, he's got plenty of entertaining quirks, and he's a genuine help to the protagonists at considerable risk to himself.
TAHRUST INMEE A bit more split on this guy. On one hand, I really respect what Case 3 tried to do, outlining in full detail that Khura'in's justice system is
fucked, and I do like the portrayal of his relationship with his wife, but he's another major victim of the "sympathetic culprit who tried really hard to frame an innocent person" thing. The case tries really hard to sell the idea that there really were no good options available for protecting his wife and their unborn child, but I can't help feeling he still didn't have to make the choice to kill himself and sacrifice Maya's life (after she had become friends with him and his wife for two years, mind), because I'm pretty sure there were several other options. One of the worse parts to it, though, is the way that the rebels just freely help his wife escape from the court after the trial is over. You're really gonna tell me they couldn't have worked out an escape plan before all of this that
wouldn't directly get Maya and Phoenix killed?
BEH'LEEB INMEE Sort of the same thing.
THE PLUMED PUNISHER Edgeworth is right to be outraged.
TAIFU TONEIDO Hello, traits borrowed from Russell Berry. If this old fool hadn't been so ridiculously dramatic and indirect about telling Geiru to pursue her own dreams, this case wouldn't have needed to happen.
BUCKY WHET Gotta wonder what Bucky's like when he's sober. The fact that he and
Simon of all people are childhood friends is hilarious. Anyway, Bucky's a decent guy. Not a ton to say about him.
UENDO TONEIDO Best individual witness in the series, bar none. Uendo is a masterwork of character animation, playing around with a 3D model to incredible effect and presenting no fewer than four memorable personalities in one single character. I love this guy, and this case. Seeing Athena's promising theory about Owen being the culprit completely collapse the instant he's revealed is one of my favourite moments in the whole game.
GEIRU TONEIDO One of the better attempts at a sympathetic culprit, in my opinion. Imagining her hanging out with Simon is also hilarious, of course. Does he even realize how ridiculous he looks next to these people?
Yes, Geiru has the usual "tried to frame someone else" problem, but what I appreciate about her is the fact that she clearly feels horrified and regretful about the murder she committed, and that it wasn't something she extensively planned in advance. An emotional upheaval and an awful misunderstanding led to her doing something terrible that she can't possibly take back, and while it would certainly have looked better for her if she hadn't tried to frame Uendo and then testified against Bucky when he instead wound up accused, I still think she's a much better attempt at a sympathetic killer than most in the series.
SIMON BLACKQUILL Simon's still great. Back when he still believed he would be executed, he carried himself with an air that combined theatrical menace with a childish sense of humor, but now he's had to step back into normal life, returning to work as an overworked prosecutor and watching as the number of people who take him seriously at all slowly creeps its way down. I already talked about how much I love his relationship with Athena, so no need to go over that again.
Simon absolutely going to town on Nahyuta is the other highlight of Case 4. There's nothing more satisfying. Piece of trash deserves every word of it.
DHURKE Ahh, boy. What do I say about Dhurke? I could complain some more about how much I hate Apollo's Khura'in backstory, but that's already been done. Let's try another angle.
Dhurke is an awful parent, between the neglect, abandonment, and emotional manipulation. That's not to just say he's a terrible person or anything, mind - he's just not really the right guy for the job, no matter how hard he tries. He's a friendly, jovial guy, but he's not good with emotions, and his attempts to reconcile with Apollo are awkward at best. It's obvious that he feels terrible for leaving his adopted son alone in his birth country of America all those years ago, and I can't imagine he's thrilled to be asking Apollo a favour as their first interaction in around fifteen years. On that point, though, I can't say I'm especially fond of the choices he makes. His reckless behaviour has already gotten him killed, and in keeping that a secret from Apollo, he knowingly drags the son he abandoned into a political conflict that nearly gets Apollo killed for a cause that he has no stake in more than once, and he's even putting Maya in danger at the same time, what with borrowing her body and all.
Speaking of, no attempt is made to explain why the hell he waits until
after the civil trial is over to bother telling Phoenix that Maya is already safe. He doesn't really do anything helpful throughout that entire event, which comes immediately after he nearly got Apollo killed without even telling him the reasons behind what they were doing.
I probably sound like I'm being highly negative. I do like Dhurke, honestly. He's a heavily flawed person, but that's what makes him interesting. He knows that he hasn't made the best decisions, and he has more than a few regrets he wants to make up for. His plans for revolution are ridiculously idealistic, given the odds he's up against. Were it not for Apollo's Case 5 upgrade into an invincible anime hero, Dhurke's bloodless revolution never would've had the faintest chance to succeed.
Basically, Dhurke's recklessly heroic nature makes him a strong, dependable leader for the rebels, but it's also the root cause of most of his flaws, and it kind of annoys me how infrequently those flaws are addressed both in-game and by fans. He has
an exceptional Objection shout. ARCHIE BUFF Weird. By all accounts, he was a good parent, but he was also a thief with a misguided sense of respect for the artifacts he pilfered.
ARMIE BUFF Ace Attorney is really attached to traumatizing kids. Armie seems to be on the road to recovery, though, despite the tragic and horrifying loss of both of her parents.
I like Armie. Her not-always-cooperative behaviour is completely justified, given that she's
twelve, and both of her parents have been killed. Maybe the "oh she's actually a girl" twist isn't really super-necessary, but she's definitely one of the only two things I like about the dumpster fire that is the civil trial. She also gets a great character moment with Athena, who draws from her own traumatic past of her mother's death and Simon's wrongful conviction to promise that things will get better for her, with time.
PAUL ATISHON Not quite as fantastic a villain as Retinz, and maybe he dates the game's localization to late 2016 a bit, but this guy's great. He provides most of the civil trial's funniest moments, and I can't say many bad things about him. The trial he's involved in, yes, absolutely - but not him, really. Maybe give him a "fuck you" for murdering Armie's father and then trying to kill Apollo.
PEARL FEY Pearly gets basically nothing to do in this game, and is still practically unchanged from her nine year-old self. What a surprise. It's nice to see her interacting with Apollo, but seriously - we've got this whole story segment set in Kurain Village, and yet Pearl is almost entirely irrelevant. If the team was so set on forcing an Apollo v. Phoenix trial to happen, an actual conflict between them based on Phoenix's relationships with Maya and Pearl would've been nice.
The one upside is that the end credits give us
the only post-timeskip interactions between Maya and Pearl that we've ever seen.
MILES EDGEWORTH Edgeworth also doesn't get a ton to do in this game, of course. Having him as Phoenix's investigation partner for their part in Case 5 is, fun, and provides plenty of good comedy moments to lighten the mood in an emotional beatdown of a case. My favourite is the moment when he chastises Phoenix for encountering a mess on the ground and immediately wondering if Athena caused it, as if he wouldn't have guessed exactly the same thing of Gumshoe. Second place is his outrage over The Plumed Punisher.
The DLC makes him another pretty severe victim of Flanderization, sadly. The only justification they provide for his acting like a total dick throughout most of the case is that he's dealing with the stress of being Chief Prosecutor and having to take charge in prosecuting Ellen's case because no one else will touch it thanks to the Sprocket family's influence. That's really not enough to cover how abrasive Edgeworth acts overall. The case also makes the bizarre choice of pretending that Edgeworth turning against Pierce is in any way unusual for him. Uh, yeah - of course he doesn't just let the shady-as-hell witness with a grudge against Sorin force a Guilty verdict. That isn't groundbreaking characterization for him, it's the bare minimum for post-development Edgeworth.
AMARA SIGATAR KHURA'IN Amara's nothing special. Her act as Nayna is a bit of a clever trick, even if it's pretty damn predictable as soon as her sudden disappearance is brought up. As "the good sister", it almost feels like she's being set up as the twist culprit, but no. It really was just her knockoff Power Rangers villain sister. Amara's emotional moments also don't really hit their mark for me, seeing as she doesn't really come across as an especially great person. She even goes out of her way to try and throw Maya under the bus to protect her cover as Nayna.
Seeing her suddenly get shot on the witness stand is much more impactful than when it happened to the Phantom, though.
GA'RAN SIGATAR KHURA'IN It's not a good sign when I have considerably more praise to give to a filler villain than the game's main villain. Ga'ran starts off as a genuinely imposing figure, but then she abruptly transforms into a ridiculous cartoon pretty much the moment the final trial begins, instantly spelling out that she's going to end up as the main villain behind pretty much everything. Despite this, the trial still goes through the motions of setting up both Amara and Nahyuta as possible suspects before finally presenting the "twist" that it was really all Ga'ran.
She just loses all of her steam as soon as she takes up the prosecutor's bench, and the setting has given her such an utterly ridiculous amount of power and influence over the court that there's no good justification whatsoever for her idiotic behaviour that eventually gets her defeated. For basically the entire trial, she could just order her guards to arrest or execute Phoenix and Apollo, which would instantly nullify the revolution's chances of succeeding and give her a complete win, but stupid villain pride keeps her from doing so for hours on end until she's handed Apollo everything he needs to beat her.
Apollo staring
intensely at her tits is essential to solving the case. Really tasteful, you guys.
(As expected, I'm hitting the text limit, so the rest will be in a couple of stickied comments. Read on!)
SATARA
"Imaoman domosamashi detashinuke taregasayo sonoka!" Roughly translated from Khura’inese the above line means: “I’m through playing games with you people. It’s time for me to catch my flight. You can’t touch me!”
Try again in four rounds if your putrid soul would dare.
bad man. naughty man
"Feel free to slowly mull it over while you roast over the flames of hell, you evil red pepper!" Let me be straight: I enjoy characters who are bastards, who spend lots of time acting like bastards, and even seem to take some twisted delight in acting like a bastard.
I want the person standing across from our protagonist in the courtroom to have the want and will to be a dick for no other reason than dickishness’s own sake. There is no friendly rivalry here. Nahyuta is the man who was made to be the antagonist, to look down on you from his high horse with all the pompous moral grandstanding a human can physically muster, and as he spits down at you from on high you look up and bear witness to all his
smug, righteous, holier-than-thou glory. I am very aware that there is some Discourse about how prosecutors ought to be written. Do you want them to be your friend? Your enemy? Somewhere in between? I’m happy to indulge in some post-redemption Edgeworth action where we’re all on the same team as much as the next person, but if I’m going to be spending however many hours arguing with anime characters then sign me up to argue with someone who I want to actually defeat in that argument. Give me the catharsis of putting a dude in his place using nothing but FACTS and LOGIC.
And I’m going to double down on that point: EVISCERATING your opponents with RATIONAL THOUGHT is what makes this series so fun and satisfying at its very core. Like a lot of video games, part of the appeal is to go through a power fantasy, but Ace Attorney does it in its own special way. It places you in a position where it’s impossible for bullshitters to run away from their bullshit. You get to personally corner the snakes and there is no greater catharsis than watching them begin to squirm and panic like the rats they are. Making those assholes break is why I’m here, baby. But why limit those kinds of characters to the witness stand?
The prosecutor’s bench is right there.
The Last Rites Prosecutor
”It is really not that difficult when one can read the ultimate outcome of any trial.” What I think is most immediately striking about Nahyuta’s style of prosecuting is how much focus is put on his actual arguments rather than surprise last minute evidence. It’s a staple of AA prosecutors to sit on a key piece of evidence only to reveal it just when the defense was turning things around.
I find that terribly annoying.
I don’t want our protagonist’s progress to be undone by deus ex machina autopsy reports and unreleased crime photos, I want them to struggle because the dude standing across from them in court always has a rebuttal at the ready that is based on information we all already have. You can chalk this up to SoJ’s style of trials if you wish, but I believe doing so is selling our main monk far too short. As far as I remember the only surprise evidence Nahyuta purposefully sits on for the sake of pulling a fast one is the Title Deed in 6-4, but that happens right at the start of the trial anyway so I give it a pass.
That’s Nahyuta’s big gimmick. He can "accurately read a trial’s karma to determine its ultimate fate", or in other words he reviews the evidence and anticipates the arguments the defense will make in advance, thus he prepares adequate rebuttals before going into court.
So my question is why the FUCK is this "gimmick" being employed six games into the series? Even golden boy Klav has fun hiding evidence from Apollo to set traps, and he’s supposed to be The Good Prosecutor. Like man, we’ve had prosecutors who are menacing because they’re willing to bend the truth or hide evidence so many times that it’s nice that SoJ finally said "this prosecutor is menacing because he’s good at his job." Like, wow.
But none of this means that Nahyuta is out to be the defense’s friend. He’s out to crush them, and his position as an antagonist is communicated by virtue of his unabashedly
shitty attitude rather than being obtuse with his evidence.
6-2 is our first introduction to Nahyuta, and coincidentally it just so happens that 6-2 is the perfect non-final case, but who knows that’s probably just a coincidence.
So here’s our setup: Trucy has been arrested for involuntary manslaughter. She is distraught over what she did, sobbing to Apollo that her carelessness has ended a man’s life. Everyone who witnessed Manov’s death thinks Trucy accidentally killed him, even Trucy herself. But what’s this? Out of nowhere Apollo is informed that the charges against Trucy have been raised to first degree murder. Which is obviously nonsense, believing Trucy accidentally killed a man is reasonable considering the circumstances but straight up murder?
It’s trial time. Nahyuta lays out his reasoning for why he thinks Trucy planned Manov’s death and how she did it. After a few cross-examinations Apollo is able to prove that Trucy could not have lured Manov to his death intentionally and Nahyuta… agrees:
Nahyuta: "Precisely. However, this does drastically change one aspect of this case: If the accused did not lead the victim into the coffin on purpose… then it means the victim’s death could have been accidental. If it was indeed an accident, the defense can argue that it was involuntary manslaughter."
Judge: "I see… If it was involuntary manslaughter, they could plead extenuating circumstances. And the severity of the crime could be mitigated."
Hook, line and sinker.
Nahyuta never believed Trucy murdered Manov on purpose. He always believed it was manslaughter. The one and only reason he raised the stakes was because it makes proving that she committed manslaughter much, much easier. He doesn’t want the argument to be about whether Manov’s death was unrelated to Trucy’s mistake, he wants the argument to be about whether Trucy made a mistake at all.
Nahyuta continues:
“Defense, if you believe the accused did not murder the victim… ...then do you argue that it was an accident?
What a work of art.
That simple change in expression from deadpan indifference to the slight curl of a sinister smirk levels me. He controlled the narrative to make Apollo think that taking the manslaughter charge was a victory for the defense, yet that’s exactly what the prosecution wanted all along. That simple shit-eating smile when he asks Apollo if he wants to change his argument is everything. And, as the player, that tiny moment where I realised what he’d been doing makes the trap all the more engaging to be sprung.
Prosecutors laying traps for our protagonists to fall into is nothing new. But this trap is special for being so subtly woven in. They communicate exactly how intentionally underhanded Nahyuta’s tactic was with a simple head tilt and curl of the lip, and it places Apollo in an excellent position to flex his own character strengths.
We get teased with the idea that Apollo might have some inner-conflict about how he should approach the case, and it does feel really great to see him just press on with total unabashed confidence. The position that Nahyuta’s clownery has forced Apollo into makes for a more interesting dynamic than we typically see when defending our clients, which is something you love to see.
My opinion of Apollo soared in 6-2 compared to his previous appearances and I think a big part of that is they finally gave him a proper adversary to show off how much conviction he really has beneath the fluffy boy routine.
There’s a lot of fun to be had watching Apollo take jabs at Nahyuta every time his composure begins to crack:
Nahyuta: "Enough of this foolishness! One person could not possibly be two! Those fingerprints could have been left, not only during the show, but at any time!"
Apollo: "It’s not like you to lose your cool like that, Prosecutor Sahdmadi."
Nahyuta: "................."
This is our first impression of Nahyuta. A prosecutor that’s competent yet refreshingly subdued in how the game gets that message across, and neatly allows our MC to show his mettle.
An added bonus for Nahyuta is that he’s a prosecutor that nearly never at any point uses absurdist nonsense arguments to back the protagonists into a corner. His line of thinking always flows naturally whenever he refutes an objection and it’s exciting to always be on the backfoot without feeling like the tension is being forced.
I’d be remiss to not mention how I enjoy that he never intentionally manipulates the evidence or witnesses. No updated autopsy reports or surprise evidence he sits on for no reason. No prepped witnesses who are instructed to leave out critical information. I especially like instances where he loses his temper at witnesses like Betty or Datz for lying on the stand even though their lies are beneficial to his case:
Nahyuta: "You have been chasing the shadow of an illusionary culprit, defense. And having chanced upon a convenient target, you have let yourself get carried away."
Betty: "Exactly! Where’s your proof?! Huh?!"
Nahyuta: "And yet, I concede that the witness’s taste for false words has also been proven. I advise you to confine your deceitful trickery to your magic act, witness!"
…
Nahyuta: "Mr. Ihmus, you failed to mention any of this during your pre-trial questioning. Continue such slipshod testimony and you will be cast into the Hell of Hangnails… where you shall have hangnails grown and ripped out for 800 million years." … "...Quiet, you fool. You should use this time to prepare yourself for what is to come. For a fate far worse than Hangnail Hell awaits you now."
Imagine Ace Attorney prosecutors getting angry at their own witnesses for telling lies beneficial to their own case. Inconceivable.
I am very much a fan of how Nahyuta’s skill as a prosecutor is shown off. He’s just good at his job without needing any odd gimmicks to be imposing or threatening. It’s such a boon to SOJ that the protagonists always feel like they’re on their last leg based on a fair argument.
Well, to be fair, Nahyuta does have one gimmick intimidation strat, the beads of constriction, but come on,
that’s just fuckin funny. And on top of all of this: doesn’t it make your victory feel more earned with a prosecutor like this? A sincere dickhead that puts up a fair fight? Exchanges like this feel so good:
"Feh! You and the accused are most certainly bound for hell!"
"Really? Ms Wright and I? Because I’d think you’re the one with a ticket there for trying to convict an innocent girl."
I get a massive kick out of the whole putting the jerk in his place thing. It just feels good.
An Inherited Burden
"My relation to the accused is irrelevant. The fact remains, I am a prosecutor." I’ve been wishy washy this whole time while talking about Nahyuta. Sure I like his aesthetic, humour, and role as an antagonist, but I also think he’s a genuinely richly written character.
Just about every killer in SoJ had the same motive. Retinz thinks he deserved to be accepted as a Gramarye, and when that privilege is denied he plots to destroy the Gramarye name out of spite. Geiru thinks she deserves the honour of inheriting her father’s name and commits murder when that right is denied. Atishon thinks he has a claim to his political position and the founder’s orb because of who his daddy was, and resorts to murder when he isn’t handed what he thinks is rightfully his.
There’s a very clear pattern here. They all think they are entitled to inheriting the great reputations and honours that their predecessors held. And when the world says, no, they aren’t allowed to leech off of other people’s legacies, they lash out, bemoaning how they
deserve this inheritance and that they’re the real victims for not being treated with the same prestige as the people who came before them.
And then Nahyuta comes about and flips the script on this attitude.
According to Khurain customs, the sins of the father are passed onto their child by law. Nahyuta is ousted from the royal family because, according to this custom, he is just as guilty of the attempted assassination of the queen as Dhurke was, and it is only through Garan’s benevolent pardon that Nahyuta is still a free man… but the fact that Garan could spring this law on Rayfa too whenever she wishes keeps Nahyuta in check.
And Nahyuta doesn’t question how unfair this system is. He thinks the law is the law, and knows well that according to custom Rayfa has also committed this sin. He doesn’t think the system that enables this absurd attitude towards inheritance can be changed, and so resigns himself to carrying that burden.
The motivations for Nahyuta’s actions act as a mirror to our killers. Just like them, he’s been conditioned to think he deserves this inheritance. Any sane person could see he doesn’t deserve the terrible legacy that’s been foisted upon him and Rayfa, just as any sane person could see that none of our killers deserved the legacies they desperately laid claim to.
SoJ makes clear how this attitude toward inheritance is toxic in both directions. It doesn’t matter if someone has deluded themselves into thinking they deserve to inherit something good
or bad: either way it’s a corrupting attitude that ruins lives.
You are not entitled to inherit privilege no more than you deserve to inherit suffering.
Over the course of SoJ Nahyuta faces off against our trio of protagonists one time each. When he is defeated by Apollo he bears a grudge against Phoenix for polluting Apollo’s mind. When he is defeated by Phoenix he promises to get his revenge by making Athena pay her mentor’s debts. But when Nahyuta is defeated by
Athena there’s a rather startling shift in attitude.
Nahyuta decides that Athena deserves his respect. Unlike with Phoenix and Apollo, he bears no grudge against her after his defeat. But why? What’s so different about her that she becomes his exception?
I think we just need to look at what Athena says seconds prior to this moment:
"Geiru. I get your desire to inherit your father’s name. But what you really should’ve inherited from him wasn’t his name… but his heart."
Please set aside how repugnantly cheesy this line is for a moment.
Think of the position we soon learn that Nahyuta’s in. He was a promising up and coming rebel who the dragons revered for having the same spirit as his father, only for him to abruptly abandon his father’s creed when Garan got her claws into him. We know from 6-5 that there’s a part of him that wants to carry on his father’s legacy by carrying out his ideals, but he is too much of a coward to follow through.
He wants Dhurke’s heart, but all he has is Dhurke’s name. The only thing Nahyuta has successfully inherited from Dhurke is the Sahdmadi name, and the Sahdmadi name is nothing but a burden that brands him a sinner just like his father.
When Nahyuta hears Athena lecture Geiru about her father, it resonates with him. He’s found the only lawyer at the Wright Anything Agency he can’t resent.
Monks aren’t supposed to have FEELINGS
"Are you satisfied? If not, I could explain the twelve types of endings to such stories… or shall I perform the famous story of Jugemu instead? If that is your honor’s request… Jugemu, Jugemu--" Let’s talk more about Rayfa’s hostage situation because it ties into the overall themes the game is pushing with Nahyuta fantastically.
Nahyuta is someone struggling against a blatantly corrupt state that he knows he has no power to control. He’s so resigned to his fate that he can’t imagine a better world. Yes, Khurain is an unjust authoritarian state, but hey, what can you do but give up and let go of your hopes to change the system? Just be a good little monk and do as you’re told. That’s the least painful route.
I love the admiration he shows to Ema a lot because it gives a fascinating glimpse into the kind of person Nahyuta values the most. In 6-2, Ema is resistant to cooperating with Nahyuta because she cares about Trucy too much to testify against her. He admonishes her:
"Keep your private considerations separate from your public duty. Ema Skye, you are a detective first and foremost, not the accused’s friend. Remember your duty and fulfil it faithfully."
This isn’t the only instance of this. He’s often set-off by people injecting their personal sentiments into what should be their objective moral duties.
Once Ema is able to grit her teeth and testify against Trucy, Nahyuta, to Ema’s great surprise, starts heaping praise upon her:
Nahyuta: "One moment, Detective Skye."
Ema: "! U-Um… I’m sorry… for, you know… the way I handled all of this…"
Nahyuta: "You did a fine job, Detective. Your testimony was invaluable."
Ema: "It was?"
Nahyuta: "Yes. You served well as a detective, and did not allow your personal feelings to interfere. You overcame the conflicted emotions you felt and performed your duty admirably. You will be rewarded for your fine work."
Ema: ".............Oh! Uh, thank you."
Nahyuta: "I hope we can work together again in the future."
This is one of the most important interactions in the game for understanding Nahyuta. He’s sincere in his praise, and Ema is consistent in upholding the high standard of professionality he expects of her. In the very next case Ema is placed in the same dilemma again when she is forced against her will once more to condemn someone close to her, and Nahyuta is patient with her as he helps her come to terms with what she needs to do:
Ema: "Sorry, Mr. Wright."
Nahyuta: "Detective Skye. I understand how you would wish to save the accused and the defense. They are your friends, after all."
Ema doesn’t understand what exactly Nahyuta sees in her. She assumes at one point that he must be impressed with her forensic abilities, only for her to begrudgingly realise that the Khuranese are far behind when it comes to forensic science and she’s obviously not here for that. Yet Nahyuta obviously values her: during the third trial Nahyuta even gloats that this will be the most magnificent last rights ever performed thanks to the incredbile detective he’s brought from overseas. But their relationship has nothing to do with her abilities as a detective: Nahyuta keeps her close because she possesses the traits that he wishes desperately to have himself.
Nahyuta is in the exact same boat as Ema. Nahyuta desperately wants to do his duty, to do what’s right, and join the rebellion against Garan. But he can’t, because he loves Rayfa and would never risk her harm, just like how Ema hesitates in her duties as a detective because she doesn’t want to see Trucy, Phoenix, or Maya come to harm. The difference between the two of them: Ema actually overcomes her misgivings and seeks the truth regardless of the consequences. Nahyuta only wishes he could have that level of conviction.
Nahyuta doesn’t hold Ema in high regard because she’s a talented detective, he thinks highly of her because she’s the type of person he aspires to be.
This all comes to a head in 6-5 when Nahyuta’s ability to prosecute his father is challenged. There are concerns that his personal feelings could cause him to go easy on Dhurke. But Dhurke speaks up in his defense and we get this exchange:
Dhurke: "Fellow citizens, you would do well not to underestimate my son. He’s not one to allow personal feelings to interfere with the execution of his duty. Isn’t that right, Nahyuta?"
Nahyuta: "...! ...I will not stop until my work here is done."
What a fantastic double meaning.
Nahyuta hasn’t shut up about not letting one’s personal feelings cloud their judgement for the whole game now. But he’s lying. He’s a slave to his emotions. His choice to prosecute Dhurke doesn’t stem from a stoic desire to uphold his duty, it’s the reverse: he chooses to falsely prosecute an innocent man because he’s scared of jeopardizing the life of someone else he loves.
Dhurke isn’t telling Nahyuta to bravely sentence him to death. He’s encouraging him to bravely stand up to Garan. To not let his fears for Rayfa’s safety cloud his sense of justice and that everything will be okay if they just seek the truth.
Nahyuta is an enormous hypocrite. The game knows it, the player knows it, and Nahyuta knows it. He is not above letting his personal feelings interfere with his duty, and it is so incredibly liberating to see him finally overcome this failing in the game’s climax.
It all comes full circle because of the defense culpability act. Nahyuta declares his allegiance with the rebellion and is ready to turn on Garan, only for Garan to stop Apollo dead in his tracks. If Garan gets charged with murder, then Nahyuta will face the same punishment under the DC act.
But Nahyuta doesn’t care. He’s spent years being unable to exact justice in Khurain because Rayfa was being held hostage, and the moment he slips into the hostage role himself he tells Apollo to forget him and take down Garan. He’s not about to let Apollo face the same torture he had to go through himself, and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to wrap up this facet of his character.
As an aside, this struggle Nahyuta has with whether or not to keep his emotions out of the courtroom couldn’t be more perfect for a rival to Apollo. The final boss of AA4 was a guy who flipped his lid when it’s insinuated emotions ought to be taken into account when prosecuting a case, and then we’ve got Monk Man who is insisting on the exact same mantra of keeping their emotions out of the courtroom. It feels like the emotional journey that was promised in Apollo’s debut game was finally delivered on when we got Nahyuta to properly follow up on this concept.
Speaking of Kristoph "the law is absolute" Gavin:
Laws aren’t real. We made them up.
"I must obey the law above all else. […] Before country, queen, law, and everyone’s future… My personal feelings are of no consequence. That is why I resigned myself to my fate. I know I must accept the status quo without any thoughts of change." In AA4, we get teased with the idea that
maybe in a future game Apollo will
eventually develop into the kind of person who could take on Kristoph the same way Phoenix did. AA4 is crystal clear about what the message of Kristoph’s character is: his failing was assuming that the law was an unchangeable truth that can never be tampered with. He never accounted for the possibility that someone could purposefully change the law for the express purpose of bringing him to justice. When Apollo watches Phoenix take Kristoph down he wishes he could have that kind of talent:
"...I couldn’t think of anything to say. Maybe… because I still haven’t seen enough… But someday, I’ll know what law is. And I’ll fight to change it if I have to!"
That’s the incomplete character thread AA4 dangles us on. Apollo wishes he had the power to change unjust laws when he encounters them. (Funny how the final villain of AA4 was undone because he thought the law was rigid and unchanging, whereas the final villain of AA6 was imposing because they knew the law was flexible. Garan is conceptually such a great natural end-boss for Apollo after Klavier.)
I’m waffling. The point is that Nahyuta has the same perspective on the law that Kristoph had: that it is rigid, immutable, and unquestionable. The law is absolute. It’s a terrible attitude on the law that will inevitably lead to injustice, and it’s an attitude that Apollo struggled to let go of during his DD phase where he is deliberately portrayed as emulating Kristoph.
And here’s where we get to one of my favourite Nahyuta/Apollo moments:
Apollo: "Be honest. You don’t really want to do this, do you?"
Nahyuta: "You speak of love and sentiment. I do not deny such human emotions. But… the law is the law. And placing personal feelings above it is beyond reprieve… Do you disagree? Civilizations only exist due to the confines of the law. Without them, love and sentiment would lack the fertile soil they need to flourish. Do you disagree? The law must be obeyed. This truth sits above all else, including personal feelings. Therefore, whether or not I am the son of the accused is of no consequence. It is that simple, or would you say otherwise?"
Apollo: "But don’t you… you know… wish it wasn’t that way…?"
I love Apollo’s response here and I’m not joking. There’s something so purely Apollo about listening to an eloquent and thoughtfully put argument for why Life Is Simply Unfair, only for him to absolutely ether Nahyuta with "...but don’t you wish it wasn’t?" without further elaboration. He doesn’t argue that the law is actually just or fair, he simply wishes it could be better.
Nahyuta is putting into words the struggle Apollo has had on the backburner for nearly three games now. The two of them can agree on the fact that the law sucks, it’s just that Apollo has yet to throw in the towel and give up on reforming the law that needs changing. Apollo still doesn’t have a solution to this struggle, but he still hopes he can one day do
something.
And that’s the difference between the two of them. Apollo’s been fighting to become strong enough to fight the law for years. Nahyuta gave up years ago.
He let it go, and he moved on.
The Court of Resignation
"What you speak of… is futile. Let it go, and move on. The guilty verdict… The hopelessness… You must resign yourself to it all. Clinging to false hope now will only serve to magnify your future despair. So let it go… and move on…" You don’t have to be a genius to pick up on the irony of the Khurainese court’s nickname. It’s the court of resignation because all defendants who are prosecuted are resigned to their fates, and yet the most defeatist, pessimistic character we interact with for the entire game is the prosecutor himself.
Nahyuta tells our protagonists in every case the same thing over and over again. That
having hope that they might win the case will only magnify their despair when they inevitably lose, therefore it’s more ethical to simply fold immediately to alleviate the defendant’s suffering.
At first blush his sentiments come off as condescending and arrogant. He’s being a dick and saying he’s going to crush you in court, every other prosecutor trash talks too, this is nothing new.
But the game continues and it becomes increasingly clear that this isn’t lip service. It’s not a meaningless rhetoric he holds no stock in:
he sincerely believes that when facing difficult odds that the most logical thing to do is give up. As we hit the final case it becomes crystal that the reason he holds such a pessimistic worldview is that it’s his coping mechanism.
Nahyuta gave up. When he was younger he sought to fight for justice, yet when Garan stacked the odds against him he stopped fighting. The only world in which Nahyuta can believe he’s a good person for licking Garan’s boots is a world where the honourable thing to do is surrender when the going gets tough. And so he tells himself the lie that giving up was the right thing to do, and he tells Apollo and pals every chance he gets that they should give up in the face of terrible odds too.
...but what happens if Apollo doesn’t give up? If Apollo hears what Nahyuta has to say about “letting it go”, refuses to let go, and winds up being victorious,
what does that say about Nahyuta? When Apollo insists that refusing to give in is the correct thing to do, he’s proving to Nahyuta that he’s in the wrong for holding the beliefs that he does.
There’s a point around the midpoint of the 6-2 trial where Apollo thoroughly and completely has his ass handed to him by Nahyuta. There’s no hope left, the sad despair music is playing, and the judge is moments away from declaring Trucy guilty. But surprise! Apollo yells objection at the last second and insists on keeping up the fight.
And it pisses Nahyuta off. No matter how desperate the situation got, Apollo kept on trucking, and that, more than anything else, makes Nahyuta furious. Every time one of our protagonists pulls a stunt like this, from his perspective they’re spitting in the face of his entire philosophy.
If Apollo and his pals can so completely reject his defeatist ideals and still win, that means Nahyuta is in the wrong for giving up on fighting Garan. Every victory our heroes pull off against Nahyuta he views as a personal attack on his own moral character. It’s proof that he’s a bad person, and he doesn’t like having to face that.
Nahyuta’s "let it go and move on" doctrine is a lie he tells himself to cope with his own failures. All his talk about letting it go is just that. All talk. There’s still the will to fight hidden somewhere inside him, and it’s alluded to expertly. When Dhurke tells Nahyuta that he may return to the rebellion at any time and they’ll accept him with open arms,
Nahyuta reacts like this. He can’t keep believing his own lie forever.
A Dragon Never Yields
"In all this time, not once did I reflect on my own conduct... for I had believed all was fate. Lost in my own sense of resignation, I was unable to wake up from my despair. But you, Apollo. You have awakened me with your demonstration of our father's creed. A dragon never yields." Nahyuta declining to confiscate Dhurke’s attorney’s badge is when it all begins to unravel. Apollo calls Nahyuta’s bluff and says the fact that he couldn’t steal away the symbol of the resistance is proof that Nahyuta still has a lingering sense of hope. And Nahyuta says… sure, maybe he did have hope that Dhurke would right the world’s wrongs:
"It may very well be as you say. Why did I not confiscate his badge? Even I did not know… until now. Perhaps… I was waiting for him to save me. Someday… he would come and free our family from the chains of the past. Perhaps, deep down… that is what I believed. I believed in Dhurke… our father. However! It was but a dream. And now that dream has died. Murdered, along with Dhurke!"
It would have been so easy for the game to let this moment be the tipping point where Nahyuta has an epiphany and decides to join Apollo. Yet they do the opposite.
This moment is what Nahyuta has been warning Apollo about the entire game. It’s just as Nahyuta always said: clinging to the hope that there will be a miraculous turnabout isn’t inspiring. It’s hurtful. The fact that Nahyuta couldn’t let go of that last bit of hope that his father would come to rescue him makes his passing all the more difficult to come to terms with. Processing this would have been so much easier if Nahyuta had truly given up hope and moved on like he said he had.
This is why Nahyuta kept saying that giving the defendants false hope was crueler than giving up the case. The quicker you concede, the less heartache you’ll feel when you lose.
I love the contrasting reactions of Apollo and Nahyuta in the moments immediately following the reveal that Dhurke has been dead all along. Both of them are understandably completely distraught, and we see Apollo think to himself:
"(Who… what… was I even fighting for? What am I supposed to do now…)"
But Apollo takes a deep breath, collects his thoughts, confidently declares that he’s fine and continues pressing onwards, and
Nahyuta is simply bewildered by this development. From Nahyuta’s perspective, this is the moment where it’d be insanity to not give up on revolution, but Apollo’s a madman who instead decides to double down. Nahyuta shuts up the inspirational music with a clap and delivers more sermons:
"Those dreams of revolution Dhurke was always spouting… They placed nothing but false hope in the minds of the people. And in the end, they were simply fantasies. Karma has spoken. The dream of revolution has withered on the vine. Its fate is sealed."
You don’t have to dig deep to pick up on the ideological battle going on between the two. Never Yield vs Let It Go.
Nahyuta clung to the hope that his father would miraculously save him, only for him to discover his father was dead a day later. Clinging to that hope was a mistake. It’s a confirmation of his view that giving up is the best course of action, and he desperately needs to get Apollo to see things from his point of view or else he’ll suffer more too.
But the trial keeps going and Apollo keeps fighting. We know what happens next: Apollo exposes the fact that Dhurke never attempted an assassination. Therefore his children, most importantly Rayfa, are absolved of the crime their father committed, and the thing Garan had been using to blackmail Nahyuta suddenly disappears. And Nahyuta
finally gets it.
It was never hopeless. If Nahyuta had put in the work then he really could have exposed Garan and saved Rayfa himself, just as Apollo has done now. The truth that Nahyuta’s entire world view was wrong has at last penetrated his stupid, stubborn head.
And holy hell does it feel good to watch that glove toss.
At the beginning of this writeup I talked about how I enjoyed Nahyuta simply for the antagonistic role he filled. He’s portrayed as a slimy, condescending jerk, and I
love that. I love being given permission from the game to want to
sock the fucker, and
it feels good to watch him break composure and panic when his smug ass starts losing. It’s a kind of catharsis we should all be very familiar with when playing Ace Attorney: Nahyuta wasn’t the first character in this series written with this objective in mind nor will he be the last.
But that glove toss taps into a new cathartic feeling that’s completely foreign to Ace Attorney. The pent up release of emotion finally let out isn’t due to a celebration from seeing someone get their comeuppance. Rather, it’s out of seeing someone let go of their negative emotions all at once. Nahyuta was suffering because of his own attitude, he was a hostage of his own toxic mindset for the entire game. Watching him break free from the mental prison he’d trapped himself in granted me a strong cathartic feeling that is incomparable to any killer breakdown.
Nahyuta is on Apollo’s side now unquestionably and is ready to go all in on toppling Garan. Love this:
Garan: "Clothing can be disposed of most anywhere. I doubt you could find them now."
Nahyuta: "OBJECTION ......Then you don’t know us very well."
How many times have we seen the above kind of interaction played out over the course of SoJ? The prosecution neatly dispels our protagonist’s theory, only for us to yell objection and start pulling shit out of thin air because fuck letting it go and moving on. Each time our protagonists did that Nahyuta would boil over in anger, but not anymore. Now he’s the one doing the defiant objecting in a hopeless situation and you love to see it.
And so as the game hits its climax Nahyuta gives us one of my personal favourite lines in the entire series:
"...It would seem, Apollo… that not one, but two auspicious creatures dwell deep within you: a fierce dragon and a virtuous phoenix that shall scatter the clouds hiding the heavens! I shall join you in your death-defying bluff!"
Aside from the fact that I think this is just a cool fuckin line, that last part is the cherry on top of Nahyuta’s journey throughout the game.
He thought defeat was inevitable, and when facing defeat the only thing you could do was surrender to minimise potential suffering. But now, as he faces down Garan saying she’ll literally execute him on the spot if he doesn’t back down he says, fuck it, let’s just go for it. Bluff like you’ve never bluffed before you beautiful bell pepper and if I die then so be it.
Nahyuta’s redemption in the final act of the case made me get swept up in the hype of the moment like no other AA final case has.
Conclusion
"I found ‘The Ratings Rajah Goes to Burger Barn’ of particular interest. It inspired me to visit that restaurant straight away to learn more about the local cuisine. I recommend the Southwestern burger with Jalapeno Jack cheese, by the way." Lemme tell you a story.
Back when I first finished SoJ I posted on the main sub about how I really liked it and talked a bit about why I liked Nahyuta. One person replied that while they enjoyed my thoughts, their brain completely shut off when I talked about enjoying Nahyuta because they hated him too much.
I thought that was a bizarre comment. Why would Nahyuta inspire so much contempt? He seemed like a great character to me. It was at this point that I could freely read discussion about SoJ and was surprised to find out that this dude is absolutely loathed. I found it hard to empathise with that perspective.
"Nahyuta is boring and has little depth." "Elaborate on that." "No." Is an interaction I’ve read an awful lot and, I’m sure you’ll not be shocked to discover, it is one that I don’t like seeing.
Part of me thinks that the disdain must come from the fact that he was expressly written at the beginning of the story to be disliked, but he was so goddamn good at filling that role that a lot of people could only see him as "bad man" and nothing more. It is a fact of fiction that kinder characters will be more well liked overall and therefore Nahyuta will have a tougher time, but hey, that’s showbiz, baby. I wouldn’t trade that part of him for anything.
At the very least I hope everyone will have been able to read this without their brains shutting off.
I think Nahyuta’s pretty neat. I like that he’s a real obstacle in trials based primarily on his arguments and is still coded as a villain by his attitude. His antagonism of our protagonists stems from his frustrations that they don’t conform to his philosophy, and their non-conformity hurting his own sense of moral righteousness is a dynamic I really love watching unfold. Yet we also get moments where he displays a sense of melancholy that he’s failed to “save” Apollo since he cannot convince him of his defeatist perspective. The game weaves in subtle character dynamics like with Ema or Athena that inform us of his struggles, and those struggles are thematically relevant with how the game frames every killer and defendant. He looks cool and says funny things.
Point I’m trying to make is I absolutely don’t want people to think I’m simply saving him because he’s a main character and thus shouldn’t go out early. I genuinely think he’s one of the series’ best characters.
I would consider this ER a victory if it could convince at least some rankers to leave Nahyuta alone after the skill has worn off, and maybe he will do a bit better in the polls too if I’m lucky.
If not then I’ll see you all in Hangnail Hell.
tl;dr: he is mean on purpose that is so funny ahahahhaahah
I will keep my goodbye short. I don't enjoy the podcast like I use to. I feel like it has changed and it's not for me. I think it's time for me to take my jeans off. Anyways, I thought a great goodbye gift would be my personal YMH list. So here you go.
A few things before you see my list:
The list has moments from the podcast, Mommy terms, and clips.
My list covers episodes 2-500.
I dont have to many of the 400s because my 400s file was corrupted and I lost them all. I had to go back and look for the different iconic YMH moments again. I didnt find all of them
I am missing episode numbers for 4 or 5 bullet points. I am to lazy to find them.
If you think any of the bullets are worth being added to the YMH Database feel free to add them.
My YMH List
■A
•"Ahhhh Fucking Nigger" girl gets her asshole tattoo ep500 •Angel's fellatio secrets bj on a dildo ep100
•Angel's fellatio secrets "figure 8" technique ep 101
•Angel's fellatio secrets "grapefruit" technique ep 221 •Angel's fellatio secrets interview ep 104
•Angel's fellatio secrets "Put your dick between your legs" ep101
•"Animal Passions", a couple's sexual experience with a horse ep104 •Are you thirsty? Do you want to suck on these big large nips of mine? Ep193 •Argintinian ball kicking video ep33 •Arpad Pazsitzky-Christina's dad ep61
•Asian man's legs get pinned by car ep323 •Asshole clip ep123 •Auntie Fee "sweet treats for the kids" ep248 •Auntie Fee Fee ep94 ■B
•Ball Hog and Payten Laferty ep431
•Banana Farts ep411
•Bannismurferney-anniversary ep31
•Barstucks-starbucks ep224
•Beatles vs. Biggie debate ep 227
•Bert Chryslar-Bert Kriesher ep 38
•(Why is)Bert Kreischer so fat? joke ep345
•Bert is fat internarional sumissions ep 355
•Bert Kreischer looks like Gerard Depardieu ep325
•Big Time Tommy ep500
•Big words quote ep43 •Bikes!! ep82 •Bill cosby acting stange on ESPN ep 57 •Bitch clip ep287 •"Blast my fucking face"porn clip ep170
•Blood, Fam ep378
•Blowjob Betty song review ep280
•Blueban-the bird producer of YMH ep40
•Bobby and Karen ep372
•Bobby and Trish ep383
•Boring videos segment ep378
•BOW BOW BOW BOW ep 117 •Brace gigolo "The Brace Philosophy" ep 36
•Brace gigolo quote "Dumping clips" ep 115
•Brace gigolo quote "Fuck off" ep74
•Braco aka Crapsoe and his healing gaze ep 111 •Brawstrerries-Strawberies ep111
•Braxtin family values ep44 •Bristol stool chart ep 149
•Brown talk announcement drop ep47
•Bug Chasers ep299 •Bumpin Bumpin ep7 •Buttery yellows-yellow teeth ep71
•Buttfloss- mommy term for a thong ep 67
•Buttplugs- mommy term for ear plugs ep301
■C
•Cargo shorts debate ep 249
•Carla 24/7 ep199 •Carl's Jr. Baby name joke ep359
•Cat eating kibble ep297
•Cats love hot sauce. Mommies make fun of cousin Bry-Bry ep169
•Case of the meanies-angry eyebrows ep271
•Charo ep 41
•Charo add read ep129
•Charo add read "Do you like big tits? Go see Christina do stand up." ep399
•Charo's massive fart ep500
•Chest beefers-Mommy term for tits ep 40
•Chest/beard flakes-mommy term for beard dandruff ep143
•Ching chong, ching chong ep331 •Chips in a bowl audio ep233
•Chopper dyes his pupes ginger ep 34 •Chris Gaines ep271
•Christina does not understand Smart and Final's name "Smart and Final, you are smart for shopping here but all sales are final." ep264
•Christina "God's real. God blesses a nigga" ep253
•Christina loves L.A. and everywhere else sucks joke ep391
•Christina realizes she has been saying combative wrong ep276
•Christina's aunt sends her a racist chain letter ep91
•Christina's first shart ep73
•Christina's ice cubes smell like a butthole prank call ep125
•Christine ep415
•Cinncinati Fart ep306
•City Connection-webster ep 158 •Cops are all bald and shit ep250 •Cock throughts by Hirsuit Pursuit ep23 •Country club-mommy term for the mall ep382
•Cousin Jeanette ep193
•Cousin Julie ep107
•Cousin Sari ep121
•Crazie Locs ep 334
•Crossfarts-crossfit ep135
•Cum dog-male or female who lives in your backyard and is used only for sexual purposes. It can only be fed with your cum ep83
•Cum dog sprinkler audio drop ep86
•Cum Gum ep279
•Cum Huggers aka Tantric sex ep407 •Cutman ep 37
■D
•Dadboner-mommy term for dads that are lame ep 40
•Daddy told us not to be ashamed of our dicks ep361 •Dadmouth- the bad breath earned after becoming a dad ep52
•Dalmation- mommy term for a dumb hot girl ep is Bonus episode in irvine after ep391
•Dalmation wife-a dumb hot second wife ep402
•Dan Pena ep350
•DC/LC-Maria's term for Dumb Cunt/Lazy Cunt ep85
•Dennis Rodman ep186
•Dennis Rodman "Watch this bullshit wahhhh!" Ep302
•Dental update music ep15
•Dental update official name ep17
•Dental watch origin ep13
•Diabeetus-diabetes ep102clip •Diamond in the crevas of your pussy ep373 •Dick Detectives ep23
•Dick will make you slap somebody in the face ep82 •Dick tips-mommy term for burnt ends ep50
•Did some singing and some dancing(a politician refering to Michael jackson) ep283
•Diego and his beautiful guppies ep313 •DJ Dadmouth name first introduced ep303
•DJ Dadmouth's first appearance on T.V. ep338 •Do dogs have brains? Trisha Paytas ep164 •Do not abuse me mommy. Do not hit me mommy. Do not scream at me mommy. Ep380 •"Do you want two dicks in that ass? Just quit debating" porn clip ep 137
•Dog bed- a bachoelars bed with no bed frame ep22
•Dog cunt ep430 •Dog Dick Afternoon ep237
•Dog in the bathtub- when dick and balls are in the other persons mouth, asshole, or vigina ep33
•Dog shit person-someone who does not pick up their dog's shit ep106
•Dog's tits ep168
•Dog's tits meaning ep185
•Don't be peter gazing ep267 •Dont bring anyones mother into this ep14 •Dookie love- the love bobby brown and whitney houston had for each other ep42
•Double Pipe Classic- Fart and burp at the same time ep87
•Downton Daddies-fans of Downton Abbey ep 106
•Duct tape ep358 ■E
•Eat a booty gang ep241
•Eat the poo poo ep221 •Eco sex ep403 •Equine diarrhea ep190 •EV mic guy ep 347 •Eye..eye..eye on the road ep34 ■F
•Face Farts ep466
•Face meat pushes down on the throat meat-the reason why tom snores ep42
•Fan made song "Bert is fat" Ali Xie Xer ep354 •Fan made song "Biggie vs Beatles" ghost kru ep 244 •Fan made song "I am Peter stain" by Obe1canolli ep260
•Fan made song "Jeans in my cunt" by max newman ep236 •Fan made song "How I Glass" by Young Patreon ep 382 •Fan made song "Love comes down" by ghost kru ep288
•Fan made song "Ohh My Gosh" by max newman ep168
•Fan made song "Problems make my dick soft" by max newman ep 334 •Fan made song "Sharkeisha Week" by ghost kru ep198 •Fan made song "Salome " by Jordan Wolf ep363 •Fan made song "Theo song" version1 by obe1cannolli ep187
•Fan made song "Theo song part duece" by obe1cannolli ep252 •Fan made song "24/7 Theos Groove" by ghost kru ep209 •Fan made song "YMH promo" Jo-DBL ep51 •Fan made song "2short" obe1cannoli ep288
•F.A.R.T. ep 372 •Fart in a jar- a product the mommies were thinking about making ep71
•Farten ep371 •Fartgician ep176
•Farticheocs- farts from artichoecs ep100
•Fartmistress ep400
•Fedex debate ep319
•FGT RTD ep460
•Fill her up and seal her shut ep 45
•Fill her up and seal her shut music ep46
•"For all the niggas in the wu tang clan" porn clip ep 254
•Foreign accent syndrome 152 •Four Stokes ep446
•Fuck me in my ass man! ep194 •Fuck my stoma (Christina quote) ep 137
•Fuck My Triple D Slut Wife ep396
•Fuck stimulating my clit stimulate my motherfucking mind ep217
•Fuck the points ep 22
•Fuck watcha heard. I am an ass licker. Ep400
•Fucken camp ep43 ■G
•Garth Brooks ep270 •Garth Brooks interview he describes his music is like a sexual experience 368 •Gigolos ep15 •"Girl get cho life"- Taymar braxtin quote ep72
•Girl gets shot in the ass with a cactus ep181 •Givin him the grease like fuck himself ep141 •Gloria Estefan ep293
•Goat lips-what tina's lips look like when she drinks water ep63
•Go see the Doctor song review ep102 •Good Morning Julia ep465 •Good Morning Julia video 3 ep478
•Gooder than a Bitch ep 118 •Got any cum in those balls ep333
•Gucci Gucci by Kreayashawn ep20 •Guy orgasms 100x a day ep259 ■H
•Hard fucken core ep219 •Hardcore fun ep483 •Hardrocknick"Women are motherfucken hating cunts" ep486 •Hat comic joke ep417
•Hates-giving- The Thanksgiving with Maria when she was pregnant. She said a lot of racist things about Dominicans and Puerto Ricans ep49
•HD vision glasses ep24
•"Hell nah to the nah nah nah" ep304 •Hen the gender neutral pronoun ep418 •Henry's Portait of a Serial Killer ep17 •Hey Hitler ep325 •(Hey Hitler) Danny's friends are on shrimp scampy boat being turned into lasagna ep348
•Hey Mommy Thanks Jeans origin ep266
•Hey Mommy Thanks Jeans(fan submissions) ep373
•Hi mommy! Hi mommy! Hi mommy! Ep329 •High n' Tight ep12
•Hillary Clinton ate my asshole ep403 • Honestly,It wasnt until, and this goes for almost all the moments. It wasnt until someone was there telling me, You have 2 in or you have 3 in you....I am proud of myself ep148 •"How does my asshole smell?" Ep279
•Hungarian phrase"losfaz a segeddbe" means horse cock in ass ep411
•Hungarian term "Punzi semed"-pussy eyes(racial slur for asians) ep 248
•Hungarian word "Cigány" means gypsy ep 58
•Hungarian word "Punzi" means pussy/gay ep75
•Hungry tits-mommy term for small tits ep234
•Hungry tits dance ep266
•
http://www. joke ep 52
■I
•I am at the comedy club ep37
•I am going on a cum strike ep383
•I am looking for a girlfwend ep266 •I dont give a fu..shit ep 310 •"I dont know what yah saying and I dont know what you mean" Judge Mathis ep202 •I got a bad bite ep361 •I have cum all over my face ep372 •I hate the gooks ep146
•I hate you motherfuckers. I hate you motherfuckers. GG Allin quote ep 87 •"I have a bad case of diarrhea" japanese song ep211 •I have my dad's dick. I need my dad's balls movie idea ep304
•I left my wallet there ep125
•"I only got but two nuts to bust" (couldn't find clip or when it was play on podcast but mommies said it on ep253) ep?
•I wanna find a skinny ass little bitch, and make her fat, and we could loose weight together. Ahhhahhhhh ep166 @6:22 time stamp is for the link •ICDC college-I can do college college ep287
•Idn't greezy, Chuck Woolery ep174 •Immagrant mother fucker, you spic ep285
•Intervention cry ep 13 •"It's fucken morning" cholo clip ep206 •"It's only smells" Rocco Safredi quote ep240 ■J
•Jane Segura ep76
•Jane Segura quote •"Seriously, seriously, seriously" ep76
•Jean ep372
•Jean Segura baseball player ep126
•Jeans-The first time Christina calls Tom by this pet name ep38
•Jeff Tate hot dogs and gatorade ep36
•Job stoppers mommy term for knuckle tattoos ep210
•Juice juice porn clip ep80
•Just glassin ep368 •Just like the gays ep371 ■K
•Ke..Kellogs corn flakes ep81 •Kickie foot ep 132
•Kids of Whitney High ep30 •Kim Anh ep260
•Kim Anh "what is amaze" ep260
•Kim Anh "Asshole" ep 333
•Kim Anh interview ep348
•King Ass Ripper ep144
•King ass Ripper "you do the math"ep 149
•Kiss my pussy. KISS IT!! ep301 •Kitchen deodorant ep 289
■L
•La Croix debate 337
•Lady makes a fart video in her shed ep400
•Lambo prank ep420
•Last Cruise joke ep5
•Lets Get Social ep218 •"Lick my ass. Lick it"Rocco Safredi porn clip ep?
•Lightning crew-Christina's college friends group name ep25
•Lil Trump 90 ep381
•Lil Trump 90 "Pomcast" ep386
•Linkendin-Joey Diaz term for Linkedin ep341
•Listen to me you piece of Fuck! For one I am not bisexual, two I'm not gay, threeno, I'm not God damn fat. I am skinny as hell, four I'm fucken Wiccan. If you have a problem with that. You can go fuck yourself. Piece of Shit. Ep207 (true origin is bonus episode 4 but you have to buy it)
•Look at the river. Look at the river! Ep385 •Look at yourself in the mirror ep 108 •Love Mustard-cum ep2
•Low and loose (It is the first time I heard the mommies say it,but I could be wrong)ep87
■M
•Machines Within ep417 •Main Mommy debate ep175
•Make a bridge and get over it ep307 •Making fitness ep164 and (definition)246
•Making fun of comedy club names and places ep21
•Maria origin ep77/79
•Maria/Jane intro ep94
•Maria's crazy starbucks order ep80
•Maria's quote about the cream topper on her starbucks order ep109
•Maria quote "Dirty and disgusting" ep109
•Maria's quote "You take your fucking scissors and use your puggy fucken monkey hands. Cut the box open. Cut a hole in it, and pour it in the bottle" ep93
•Maria's porn read ep178
•Master of accents ep327
•Mom, Mom, Mom, why did you do that to me? ep316 •Mommies secretly record conversation with a pharmacist about poop ep69
•Mommy Dance ep45
•Mommy definition ep35 part2
•Mommy Dome ep42
•Mommy term first used ep1
•Mommies made death threats ep82
•Moose soup lady ep403 •More Pwesha ep85
•Mr. White Folks ep333 •Mushy Purples ep373
•Musical jeans "Animal song" ep125
•Musical jeans " Butthole song" ep126
•Musical jeans "Call me mommy" ep85
•Musical jeans "Chuy Bravo song" ep96
•Musical jeans "Do you like Bbq like I like Bbq?" ep99 and 145
•Musical jeans "Do you wanna fart? Do you really want to fart? Ep304
•Musical jeans "Don't go smelling my farts. Don't go eating my ass" ep275
•Musical jeans "Don't smell my farts/Don't eat my ass" ep159
•Musical jeans "Feef out" ep243
•Musical jeans "Feefo Feefum" ep304
•Musical jeans "Fist song" ep127
•Musical jeans "Get out of my dreams and into my jeans" ep275
•Musical jeans "House of Farts" ep286
•Musical jeans "Hungry Ass" ep234
•Musical jeans "I am in charge. I run the show. They call me Feefo." Ep 304
•Musical jeans "I sharted in Africa" ep354
•Musical jeans "I sharted on the way to Africa" ep353
•Musical jeans "I think. I love you but you are made of dog farts" ep327
•Musical jeans "In a world full of jeans only some are tight. Isnt that crazy. Crazy." Ep330
•Musical jeans "Kentucky song" ep127
•Musical jeans "Love wipes down" ep50
•Musical jeans "Mommy mommy mommy is the best .Daddy Daddy Daddy doesn't know your middle name" ep359
•Musical jeans "Miami Fart Machine" ep289 •Musical jeans "She has tits and she knows how use them. She takes shits and she knows how to duece them? Ep452
•Musical jeans "Shrimp song" ep22 and 98
•Musical jeans "Smurfday song" ep110
•Musical jeans "Squeeze my tits and pull my dick real hard" ep73
•Musical jeans "Tell me how you feel about my fart" ep323
•Musical jeans "Unbreak my farts" ep262
•Musical jeans "we fell in love in a homeless cave or we fell in love with some homeless gays" ep42
•Musical jeans "You can't always shit when you want" ep279
•Musical jeans "Your problems make my dick soft" ep95
•My-anus clip ep106 •My cunt, my cunt, my cunt uhhhh ep231 •My eyes turn into a telescope when I see your face ep476
•My husband just farted-a game where Tina rolls down the window of her car telling everyone on the street that her husband farted ep55
■N
•Nappy Jew Hair- mommy term for Happy New Year ep92
•Nasty Championship ep431
•Natural Harvest ep50
•News woman falls down whiles squishing grapes and gets the wind knocked out of her. ep234 •"Nigga nice nigga nice nigga nice" ep63 •Niggas hating on meeee ep217
•Never ending wipe ep 36
•No, aint no privvicy ep215
•No such thing as Wednesday ep161
•No talking until January- mommy term for no talking/bothering during football season ep25
■O
•Obama quote "I aint yo bitch nigga get your own god damn fries" 77 •Oi..oi..oil on the road/eye..eye..eye on the road debate ep73
•Oh hi Hitler ep339
•Oh my Gosh! Ep141 •Oopsies-mommy term for swets or athletic shorts that are so loose as you walk they slide down and reveal privates ep326
■P
•Pastor Manning "There is semen in the Starbucks. You better watch out. You might just get pregnant" ep289 •Pastor Manning "What's wrong with chu? What's wrong with chall? Yah niggas are crazy!" ep212 •Patreon put that shit down ep 344
•Paul F. Tompkins reads the coach Ice script ep48
•Peepee stuck in butter, oh no ep 211 •Peeza-pizza ep46 @3:22 •Perfect Smile ep366 •Personality Championship ep378
•Peter Cane ep 226
•Peter Cane call/interview ep262
•Peter Cane "Friends are the worst" ep231 •Peter Cane "Linked in is helpful" ep 311
•"Please give me cock. Cock. Cola" asian teacher teaching english ep188 •Pleasahh-pleasure ep73
•Plies ep275
•Plies "Critmit time" ep277
•Polyamory "I am going to fluid bond with Jessie and use condoms with Tahl"-Jen ep302
•Polyamory "I am proud to aunounce that I polyamorous and bisexual"-Tahl, ep302
•Polyamory "Megan and I have been together for nearly 3 years now"-Michael ep302
•Poo Pile ep351
•Poop soup mommy term for Christina's special soup that makes you poop ep?? •Poopy kisses-mommy term for fart ep401
•Pooty eye-Bill Cosby's lazy eye ep 52
•P.O.P. Pimp squad ep258 •Popcorn teeth- yellow teeth ep76
•PornstaHooker math ep300
•Pup play ep346, 370,377,379
•Pup play "Run your finger along the crack of your ass. You dont need to finger your hole. You dont want shit on your finger. Ep377
•Put some respec on my name. (also) Are we finished or are we all done? ep341 ■Q
Quiet riot-a silent but deadly fart ep67
■R
•Rack em Rack ball ep154 •Rain Florence coffee enema ep323 •Rain Florence urine enema ep410
•Real Man book review ep 282-283
•Real Talk-discuss reality shows ep44
•Reason why Yourmomshouse is called Yourmomshouse ep79
•Riding the Bus with My Sister ep471 •Ring sting- the pain on your butthole after taking a dump ep69
•Robin Wright, you must sniffing her butthole when you introduce yourself joke ep203
•Roll tide. Roll tide. ep159
•Rub rub rub guy ep399 •Rumors, (wisper) I heard you were funny. Joke ep77
■S
•Sack lunch ep82 •Salasious barking dog ep 27 •Salome ep 317
•Same shit different toilet ep99
•Same strokes..uh different folks ep278
•Scoop and score-when cum is left on the rim of the girl's/guy's mouth and she/he uses a finger to push the cum into their mouth. ep2
•Scrum-mommy word for taint and butthole ep422, ep428(definition)
•Seriously-mommies are making fun of Jane and Maria ep36
•Shakey Cheese-Kraft parmesan cheese ep36
•Shakey Jeans-Michael J. Fox ep155
•Shane Lee ep269 •Shane Lee interview ep273
•Shane Lee made a video for mommies "Love comes down" ep286
•Sharkiesha no ep184 •Shart week-Shark week ep23
•She's retarded ep419 •Shirley-mommy term meaning to over eat ep96
•Shit Blanca ep5
•Shit brick house-brick shithouse ep55
•Shit freckles- freckles morgan freeman and bill cosby have ep58
•Shit hammock, Pat Mcafee ep378 •Shit to shower ep 100
•Show me how those big tits fart ep214
•Shrimpen-biting toe nails ep45
•Sissy of Freemont street ep444 •Sixty Nine on the night before 70th birthday joke ep422
•Skippy vs Jiff peanut butter debate ep289
•Skullet ep373
•Smurfday-Birthday ep110
•Snushi-sushi ep55
•So Major ep 36
•Staló 120 days of Soddum (one of Tom's favorite movies) ep25 •Stanima ep360 •State Droopers ep406
•Stayin Alive homeless guy ep439 •Steve Harvey's-huge white teeth or viniers ep211
•Steven Seagal "I am the king of improve. Forgive my saying so" ep 304
•Steven Seagal "What is the Buddha nature? Ep242
•Stevie "I was going to knock her in the head one day out here beside the garage because she called me uh retarded. I was going to knock her in the head with a claw hammer", "he was the only dad i ever knowd", "thats where i get my name snake because i aint afraid of them","people changes" ep67
•Stevie's aunt " He got a stiff dick", "He had a hard on" ep67
•Stevie's dating profile ep69
•Stevie's girlfriend "when he is on that marijana and wiskey; he gets crazy" ep 67
•"Stick your tongue in my asshole" ep279
•"Succulent Chinese meal"and"Get your hand off my penis" ep 150 •Summertime song ep227 •Sup sharry. Sup berry joke ep84
•Sushi waitress scolds mommies for ordering to much food origin ep96
•Synergy-mommy term meaning when a couple burps at the same time ep 347
■T
•T.A.I.N.T. sign language ep381 •Ten or twelve Benydral guy ep418 •"Thank you sir" man has intense sex with MacSF ep164
•The library blocked my password ep489 •The time is now ep315
•The towels can have aids ep271 •Theo(tom's voice) ep106
•Theo's origin and sad story about him ep104
•Theo's name changed to Feefo ep270
•This is your last rondey voo ep12
•Throatzilla ep319
•Throatzilla call ep321
•Tighten up world ep251
•Tiny hats ep43 •Tiptoes ep474 •Tits/dick for days ep150
•To make a long story short, I put a whole bag of jelly beans up my ass ep217 •Tom and Berts shaving their chests story ep24 •Tom "I am poly and I'm bi" ep302
•Tom milks tina story ep 57
•Tom prank calls a barber shop ep125
•Tom or Black ep95
•Tom or White ep261
•Tom's brown was so loud and violent that Christina was ready to take him to the hospital story ep42
•Tom's poop in a bag prank story ep54
•Tom's Ruth's Chris baby name joke ep359
•Tom's story about possibly being in a subway commercial ep21
•Tom's story about getting banned from a bank ep 37
•Tom's sup Kane story ep75
•Tom's tourrettes classmate story ep34
•Tom's "What if Mike Tyson raped my sister" joke idea ep251
•Top Dog origin ep 41
•Top Dog booger on elevator story ep42
•Top Dog "Dumb broad" quote ep358
•Top Dog explains how to hit on a bank teller ep63
•Top Dog "Five feet to far" quote ep63
• Top Dog loves Mcdonald's coffee but hates the 2 lane drive thru ep41
•Top Dog "hehehe...Multiple choice" ep 156
•Top Dog shit his pants in Maine with Tom ep62
•Top Dog revisits the Orland airport where he shit his pants before his flight ep134
•Top Dog wipes after a brown with bleach wet wipes ep42
•Top Dog "You need to wipe down" quote ep42
•Top Dog's pick up line "Do you like sweetner or splenda?" ep267
•Top Dog's 1986 brown story ep 49
•Trans-Canada Highway ep390 •Try It Out Guy ep420
•Try It Out Guy interview 1 ep496
•Try It Out Guy interview 2 ep497
•Turds on the ground-Christina overflows a toilet story ep173
■U
•UB40 "Red Red Wine"-Christina hates this song ep62 •Uh retard or uh retarded debate ep67
•Uncle Bill ep276
•Uncle Terry ep482 ■V
•Valentimes Day ep36
•Vegan Vigina Guy ep259 •Vegan Vigina Guy video of him removing his tooth an licking it ep365
•Vietmom-mommy term for Christina's new Vietnamese mom ep489
•Vitamin Ds-a mommy term for big tits ep234
•Vocal fry ep150 and 277(indepth look)
■W
•Wanna fuck wit me Miemie huh? Ep331 •Wanna talk some shit? Ep176 •Watch your profanity ep116 •Water Championship ep347
•Way worser(no clip played on the show, but Christina started saying it. Because she was watch My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding ep41-87) ep?
•We ain't going out like that. This shit should be easy ep12
•"We talking about practice?"(might have been played early in YMH history) ep262 •Webster, "You and George make great daddies, but there is only one mommy" ep158 •Whatcha doing homie? I am taking a shit. ep382 •What's Calculus? ep 206 •What's going on here ep 100 •"What's up with the jeans" Joe rogan quote ep282
•What's your name? What's your pronoun? Ep352 •When you are Puerto Rican you are just Puerto Rican ep49
•Where are the dudes at? story ep 33
•Where are the dudes at? story clarified 35 pt1
•Where are the dudes at? Casey quote ep 36
•Where are the dudes at? Monkeytodd quote ep37
•Where is the cum? Ep336
•Which Braxton are you today? Ep262
•Which is Mike Singletary game ep34
•White bummer-sad movies white people like ep??
•White lightning- mommy term for strong coffee ep222
•White tigress practice ep 98 •White niggers ep215 •Whitney Wisconsin(mommies dont believe she fucks dog) ep322
•Who's Randy? Ep36 •Winnipeg Bombing ep172
•Wipegate ep283, official name on ep286
•Would you ever date your mom? I said, I really would Ep371 •Would You Rather all music is "The Heat is On" or all movies are "Sister Act 2 Back in the Habit" Ep34
•Would You Rather be retarded or molested by your grandfather on a farris wheel and get as much funnel cake after ep 333
•Would You Rather gather your whole family and play a video of 10 homless guys/girls mastrabate on your face or your whole family watches you mastrabate to completion ep25
•Would You Rather music- jello pudding remix ep77 ■X
■Y
•Yeah clip ep91 •YKWIS(You Know What I'm Saying) asian girl ep202
•YKWIS counting/competition begins ep153
•YKWIS Half ounce "you know what i am talking about, yeah feel me, yeah nah mean" ep251
•YKWIS Kenyan Martin ep173
•YKWIS Miss Fluff ep371 •YKWIS Pshhh... YKWIS ep146 •YKWIS Pimp clip ep153
•YKWIS Prison rape clip(first YKWIS clip) ep141 •YKWIS ya know, ya know, ya know, YKWIS ep332
•YMH intro song ep36
•Yoshi's offensive audio drops ep138
•Yorkie sips-mommy term for how Christina drinks water ep352
•You are completely retarded ep483 •You can suck my goat sack punk ep145
•You can try me fat so ep105
•You got any cum in those balls? Ep333
•You jew motherfucker you ep111
•You like uncircumcised guys as I recall. Ep333
•You make my pussy dry ep113 •You want 2 dicks in that ass? Just quit debating ep137
•You're like a son to me man ep12
•"Your mama is in the fucken stands. They are trying to disrespect me. They are in my house grabbing the remote control and contolling your tv. They are putting on your shirt. They say fuck you" ep12 •Your mom's house said by a high homeless man on the show "Cops" ep190
•You're the man now dog ep63 •"You're the man now cum dog" audio drop ep86
■Z
Betty Wright - After the Pain Lyrics. Well, I couldn't resist the urge to tell you the end of my story For all those who wanted to know was there life after the pain After the p BETTY WRIGHT After The Pain Lyrics. Well, I couldn't resist the urge to tell you the end of my story For all those who wanted to know was there life after the pain After the pain You come and love me And I welcome you You're a glad sight to see And after the rain And all that I have been through I still can't explain How I can still love you like I do But I do, yes, I do Still love you like I ... Betty Wright quotes As long as you keep yourself in love with people, you can transcend time. Install the free Online Radio Box application for your smartphone and listen to your favorite radio stations online - wherever you are! After the Pain Lyrics: Well, I couldn't resist the urge to tell you the end of my story / For all those who wanted to know was there life after the pain / After the pain / You come and love me / And I Sing After the Pain by Betty Wright with lyrics on KaraFun. Professional quality. Try it free! Back to home page. Catalog; Apps; Subscribe; Gift Card; Help; Log in; Home. Catalog. Betty Wright. After the Pain ; Search an artist or a title. Search. Karaoke. After the Pain. Betty Wright. View more info 07:05. In the same key as the original: C # Soul # R&B # 80's # 1987. Play the karaoke of ... Betty Wright (born Bessie Regina Norris in Miami, Florida, on 21 December 1953; died 10 May 2020) was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter and background vocalist, who rose to fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight is the Night". Betty Wright (born Bessie Regina Norris in Miami, Florida, on 21 December 1953; died 10 May 2020) was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter and background vocalist, who rose to fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight is the Night". Listen to After The Pain by Betty Wright. Join Napster and play your favorite music offline. [Dm F Am Gm Bbm C] Chords for Clean Up Woman - Betty Wright (1971) with capo transposer, play along with guitar, piano, ukulele & mandolin. Listen to After The Pain by Betty Wright, 129,968 Shazams, featuring on Betty Wright Essentials Apple Music playlist.
About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ... Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. One of Betty Wrights best songs ever. Love it Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Provided to YouTube by The Orchard EnterprisesPain · Betty Wright · LatimoreSevens℗ 2010 Ms. B RecordsReleased on: 1986-01-01Music Publisher: Miami Spice Mus... NEW ORLEANS BOUNCE D.J. DONALD About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ... Betty Wright"Tonight Is the Night"Betty Wright Live. Betty Wright"Tonight Is the Night"Betty Wright Live.
