The more I think about Edgey's initial plan to end the Dark Age of the Law, the more insane it seems.

"Herpa derp derp, I'm just gonna accuse an ELEVEN-YEAR OLD GIRL of MATRICIDE to get my subordinate's conviction overturned, that'll restore public faith in the courts for sure! What? The media will probably go nuts and accuse me of being a corrupt bastard who pinned everything on said innocent girl just to cover for said subordinate? That in turn will probably cause public opinion to sink even lower? NONSENSE!"

Yeah, real brilliant plan there, Mr. Logic...

While I won't deny "accusing an eleven-year-old of matricide" is what happened, I really don't think that's what Edgeworth had in mind to "restore public faith." It doesn't make sense for Edgeworth to do that, as a character.

It's more like he wanted to bring the real culprit to justice, but in order to do that, he had to be willing to go that far.

You have to remember that the courtroom is a different stage for Edgeworth. That's just the way it's always been. As he states in 2-4, it's a garden of judgment. But one of the reasons he goes that far is because he trusts that the defense (Phoenix) will call him on it and try to figure out the real culprit, just like he always has. The two work together to find the truth, instead of just settling for the initial charge. (And it isn't as though Edgeworth pulled the charge out of his own ass or anything; both Aura and Simon had their own suspicions, though the latter wasn't willing to admit to them at all. And the former was the cause of the non!trial, and even had some hostages just in case something didn't go her way.)

Did anyone else notice that the bad ending left so many things unanswered? I mean, just think about it. Athena is still on trial for the Clay Terran case... so she can't just simply "leave the office" as Phoenix tells us she does. And what about Apollo? He took a leave of absence... but that doesn't mean he left for good. Did he come back to the office, or what? Is he still a defense attorney? All it says is that he stops smiling. And then there's the issue of Phoenix. He doesn't have Trucy, he gave up his badge, Athena leaves the office, Apollo is who knows where, Pearl is who knows where, Maya is still training... so what does Nick do? Does he go back to his days of piano playing and poker? Or does something darker happen... I don't even want to say it... but in that ending, he sounded pretty depressed - even suicidal. Ugh... this is why you should just win the game.

And then when Phantom shows up, Blacky livens up the mood himself.

Yes, for sure, if Phoenix's 'rigging of the system' by having Thalassa as a jury member were discovered, then the public outcry would be huge.

But I'm also thinking that maybe Kristoph Gavin had a point about 'keeping the mouth-breathers out of the courtroom'. Common citizens may have common sense, yes, but they don't always exercise it. We've seen it countless times in real life (with the American legal system especially) where someone who is clearly guilty as sin is acquitted by a jury of their peers simply because they (or their defense attorney) is sufficiently charismatic and able to charm their way past the evidence with emotional appeals.

If there were a case where, say, the jurists let off someone who the general public perceived as being guilty-and more suspicious deaths surrounding that person were to result, but without any definitive proof that it was THEY who did it... Well, the outcry against the jurist system would be enormous, wouldn't it? Thus why it wouldn't be around anymore in GS5 or subsequent games.

Bobby Fulbright is dead.