It only makes sense to start off with the original Ace Attorney!
Phoenix Wright is the main protagonist in the first three games in the series, and again in Dual Destinies. Fun fact, before Dai Gyakuten Saiban Phoenix was the only character to appear in every Ace Attorney game, if you count cameos in the Investigations spinoff. As such, this case study will naturally involve heavy spoilers. I’m going to talk with the assumption that you know the story, so if you haven’t played the games, well, why on earth are you reading this? It’ll be much more interesting if you know what I’m talking about, trust me. Alright, with that out of the way, here we go!
Why he became a lawyer:
As anyone who’s played the first game knows, Phoenix was inspired to become a defense attorney when his childhood friend, Miles Edgeworth, became a prosecutor. For someone who had what we can only assume was a promising career in the arts (unless it was the performing arts….), this is a pretty big step to take just to get in contact with an old pal. So why did he do it? In Turnabout Goodbyes, the game divulges further into Phoenix’s backstory.
Quick summary: When he was nine years old, Phoenix had been accused by his classmates of stealing money from Edgeworth. It was decided they would hold a classroom trial, which quickly turns into a shouting match between students to see who could make poor, little Phoenix cry the most. Eventually, Edgeworth steps in and clears Phoenix’s name. Larry, another classmate, helps too. The three become best friends, until Edgeworth suddenly leaves with no explanation. As a boy, Edgeworth wanted to be a defense attorney like his father. So when Phoenix discovers he became a prosecutor 11 years later, he makes it his mission to find out why by becoming a defense attorney himself, the idea being that they’d eventually meet up in court.
Quicker summary: Phoenix based his career on a grade school buddy that helped him out once. Pretty drastic, when you look at it that way. So why would he do that? The answer to that question actually explains quite a lot about our spiky haired attorney.
Phoenix Wright is lonely.
His personality
Playing through the games, I had never given Nick’s personality much thought. In fact, for a while I had considered him to be kind of a dry character. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Feenie to death when playing his trilogy. And I was not happy when they took his badge away in Apollo Justice. But when I put my bias aside and gave Polly a fair chance as a main protagonist, I started to like him more than Phoenix. Especially with the weird, mysterious vigilante path he went down. I could look past the pink sweatered crybaby version of Phoenix. And maybe if he hadn’t been like that in college, I could’ve rationalized Hobo Batman Nick a little more. But his character’s evolutionary chain really didn’t make much sense to me.
That is, until Dual Destinies came out. One small scene in the fifth case really stuck out to me.
This is right after Phoenix and Trucy investigate Cosmos Space Center. They run into Apollo, who you’ll call is very being very dark and mysterious and emo at the time. This concerns Trucy, so she goes back to the Space Center to find him, leaving Phoenix by himself. This is his response:
Then he realizes he’s usually not alone in the office and looks back to all the good times he’d had over the years with nostalgic fondness. If you haven’t figured it out yet, he doesn’t like being alone. Let’s go a step further.
Many people have probably heard of extroverts and their counterpart, introverts. Extroverts are generally considered to be outgoing, talkative, and love to be around people. They don’t necessarily have to be the center of attention, most are just happy to be including. Introverts are generally considered to be wallflowers, kinda shy, not exactly the live of the party. They genuinely prefer to be alone, in fact too much social interaction can be over-stimulating and exhausting. However, it’s not as cut and dry as that. Intro-extroversion is a spectrum where people fall somewhere in between. It’s really more of a graph, actually. There’s the X axis, Introversion and Extroversion; and the Y axis, Confidence and Shyness. So there are Confident Introverts, Shy Introverts, Confident Extroverts, and Shy Extroverts.
You see, while often used synonymously, outgoingness and extroversion are not the same thing, and neither are shyness and introversion. Extroversion is a desire to be around people. For these people, loneliness can be very unpleasant because they crave the energy they get from social interaction. But wanting lots of friends and making lots of friends are two different things. Some extroverts are very shy, making it difficult to get their fix.
Introverts like being around people too, human beings in general are very social creatures, but overexposure can get uncomfortable. Some introverts can be very easy to talk to, and have no problem starting a conversation, but after a while it gets tiring and they need some alone time.
Phoenix is shown to be very comfortable approaching strangers for the sake of his investigations, and he thrives in the very public courtroom, so I think it’s pretty clear that Phoenix falls more on the confident side, therefore we’ll focus on that. But is he introverted or extroverted? Well, these are quotes from actual extroverts explaining how they feel when they’re lonely.
“It’s almost like I’m going stir crazy–I just need to get out and do something — anything. I’m antsy. I can’t sit down. I pace. I have problems focusing. It’s almost like you’re starving and you have no food in the house. Physical activity helps a bit, but after the endorphin high wears off, the restlessness returns. So I usually just go out and do something, or call some friends and ask them over. Then it’s all better, and I can focus again.” –Candy
“…it’s a sense of feeling blue and unhappy. I feel like my ideas are stale and I’m not bringing my best work to the project. When I start to feel unhappy, I know it’s time to get out with people and recharge. I’ll usually come back to the project with renewed enthusiasm and new ideas.” –Gwen
Mentally starving, blue and unhappy. These people in particular can get seriously down without someone to talk to. Remind you of anyone? So it’s safe to say that Phoenix is an extrovert. He needs other people to keep his energy up. But it’s more than that. He gets lonely extremely quickly. In that scene I mentioned earlier, Trucy had only been gone for five seconds when Phoenix’s spirit completely deflated. Now as someone who identifies as an introvert, perhaps I can’t truly relate to how a lonely extrovert feels. But this seems like a rather extreme reaction.
Of course, one might argue that it’s the circumstances surrounding his being alone that are responsible for his less than enthusiastic attitude. Athena is in jail, Apollo has gone rogue, and Trucy…. Well, she was held hostage later but at this point it’s presumed she’s safe. And keep in mind that once Pearl popped up he was all smiles again. So is that really all there is to it? Is Phoenix just an extreme case of extroversion? Or does it go deeper than that? I think it does. When you look back at all the times Phoenix is faced with being alone, it cripples him. Just look at Hobo Nick. Trucy was probably the only reason he didn’t sink into major depression. So what’s up with the Ace Attorney? After a bit of research, I think I’ve got it.
Co-dependency
When Ace Attorney fans hear about co-dependency, their first thought may be Adrian Andrews, a minor character who has appeared in two of the franchise’s games. Many fans found her distant, collected exterior and deep-seated insecurity relatable and captivating. The game goes a step further with her character by saying that she has “co-dependency”, explaining her drastic measures to protect the image of her deceased mentor. It was well executed, and her backstory made Adrian one of my favorite minor characters. The only problem is her diagnosis of co-dependency is inaccurate. It’s excusable though. There’s a lot of gray area in psychology, which leads to some clinical terms being used interchangeably even when they mean different things. (It confused me when I first started doing the research for this blog.) Adrian isn’t co-dependent, she’s actually dependent. What’s the difference? Well, it’s a bit complicated.
Dependency is defined as relying on another person. See? Complicated already. Anyway, this is not inherently a bad thing. When we’re babies we’re completely dependent on our parents to take care of us. Of course over time we’re able to tie our shoes and get food without any assistance, but no matter how old you get you’re still going to require emotional support from time to time. Perhaps you got into a fight with someone and you need to talk about it with someone, or you just had a bad day and you need a night out with your friends. Perfectly healthy. But moderation is the key to everything. It’s only considered problematic when someone devotes everything about them to one person, to the point where they have trouble functioning without that person around. An example would be a friend that calls you whenever faced with a ‘crisis’.
Co-dependency, on the other hand, isn’t just about relying on someone. It’s a need to be needed. A codependent is a people-pleaser by nature. This may not sound like a bad thing at first glance, but just like with dependency moderation is very important. Taken too far, codependent relationships are actually very unhealthy. These people will sacrifice their social life, their independence, even their identity to make the other person happy. Why? Because they feel like they have to. The foundation of these relationships is a sense of crippling insecurity and guilt. They’re happy to give up anything for their partner, because if they don’t they feel inadequate. To make the other person upset would mean you’re a failure, something they really don’t want to think about. These conflict avoidance strategies only enable their insecurity though, because they don’t have to face it. Basically, taking care of someone (or in some cases everyone) is who they measure their self-worth. “My friend needs me, and I do what they need me to do, so I’m a good person. But my friend doesn’t need to do anything for me, why should they?”
Anyways, it’s been clearly stated that Adrian heavily relied on Celeste to keep it together. But never is it suggested that Celeste needed her for anything. If Adrian were codependent, she would’ve been taking care of her mentor in some way. But Adrian has never displayed any tendencies to enable others, in fact she would often put them down because she was mimicking her mentor. This fixation on her departed mentor shows that she’s extremely dependent. (Capcom actually corrected this error in when they reformatted the Phoenix Wright Trilogy.) What about Phoenix though?
His childhood
Returning to our original question, why Phoenix would base his career decision on a man he hadn’t seen in over a decade, co-dependency sheds a lot of light on this curious behavior. As someone who generally doesn’t expect compassion or sympathy, Miles standing up for Phoenix when everyone else was against him would come as a massive shock. He hadn’t known Miles very well until then, he was basically a stranger. He had no clear reason to side with Phoenix, he’d never done anything for Miles, they’d barely even spoken to each other before. And yet there he was, taking his defense. Miles never asked for anything in return either. It must’ve been obvious that his new friend would do anything he asked, but Miles never took advantage of that. No doubt Phoenix was grateful, but perhaps he felt a little guilty as well. In his eyes, love needed to be earned. But he went along with it, biding his time for the perfect moment to pay his debt to Miles, not recognizing that it would never be enough. Then, much to his surprise, Miles just vanishes. He moves to another country without a word explaining why. Naturally, Phoenix is devastated and tries to get back in contact with him, but to no avail.
After that, the game doesn’t really give much detail about the rest of Phoenix’s childhood. But here’s an educated guess as to how it went. With Miles gone, he’d be kind of lost. But he still has someone to keep him from being completely alone again, namely Larry. We don’t see much of Larry as a kid, but it doesn’t take much to figure out what kind of kid Larry was. Maybe not a bad kid at heart, but a troublemaker if there ever was one. No doubt he’d get Phoenix involved in his antics, it wouldn’t be difficult seeing how Nick would do anything to preserve their friendship.
You can see how much Larry means to him in the first case. When we first meet Larry, he’s a total wreck. Spouting hyperbolic jibberjabber about how he was going to die without the girl that had already left him a while ago, not cooperating with his attorney, messing up his testimony, and saying things he really shouldn’t have said in a courtroom. Phoenix defended not only his murder charge, but his behavior.
“He has a knack for getting in trouble…. One thing I can say though: it’s usually not his fault. He just has terrible luck.”
- Phoenix Wright, The First Turnabout
He never got mad or frustrated with Larry like everyone else did. Larry was Phoenix’s only friend, excluding Mia. He was a nice guy who genuinely liked Nick, so who cares if he’s hotheaded and irresponsible? Even if it did bother Phoenix, he wasn’t about to risk losing his friend. So while unintentional, Larry would most likely exploit Phoenix’s insecurity from time to time. He is shown to be a very needy guy, and Phoenix is an enabler by nature. (Larry has a dependent personality, as evident by said neediness. He’s a bit fragile because of his insecurities.) Not the healthiest relationship.
So, what have we learned? We’ve learned about extroversion, insecurity, codependency, and how it all affects Phoenix as a child. But there’s one big question we haven’t answered yet.
Why?
Why does Phoenix feel this overwhelming need to please others, where does it come from? The intense insecurity that stems from codependency doesn’t just happen.
Allow me to propose a theory.
Codependency, just like any attachment style, is a learned behavior. You aren’t born knowing how relationships work, if that were the case divorce wouldn’t be so common. So where would Phoenix learn to put other’s needs first like this? Come on, I’m using Freud’s research you know where I’m going with this. Phoenix’s parents. As I just said, attachment styles are learned behaviors, and seeing how your parents are the first people you attach yourself to, where else would he learn this kind of thing? A common story for codependents is irresponsible parents who used their love and attention as a reward for what they deemed correct behavior. Instead of just being the primary caregivers of their child, they ask for something in return. Basically, they put their agenda before their child’s. In these kinds of circumstances, with the child never being a first priority, said child quickly learns that love needs to be earned. And they’ll do whatever it takes to get it.
You might be saying, “Okay, this came out of left field. Where in the game is it ever suggested that Phoenix comes from such a family?” Well, nowhere. We know absolutely nothing about his family really. Nothing at all. No matter what’s going on in Phoenix’s life, his parents are never mentioned. Not when he was arrested for murder, not for his first trial, not when he lost his job, adopted a child, or the second time he got arrested for murder. I don’t know about you, but if Phoenix were my child I’d want to be there for at least one of those things. But we never hear Trucy say anything about Grandma or Grandpa. So based on this absence, you have to wonder what’s going on here. Perhaps you’re asking, “Well, what is going on here? What kind of people are Phoenix’s parents?” To answer your hypothetical question….
Your guess is as good as mine. As I said before, we know nothing about these people. It was by design. Shu Takumi, the creator of Ace Attorney, purposefully gave Phoenix as little backstory as possible. Phoenix was designed to be a protagonist and nothing more, his personality and background just vague enough that everyone who played the game could relate to him. But we saw through that, didn’t we?!
So, there’s really no way to say with 100% certainty what kind of home life Phoenix had. The best that we can do is speculate with the little information we’re given. So, here’s what I came up with. We know Phoenix’s elementary school was, as he put it, kind of poor. This suggests that the rest of the area was also kind of poor. Pair that with Phoenix’s cow tipping story, and we can deduce that he came from a more rural town. Semi-rural, most likely, seeing how it must’ve been somewhat close to the city courthouse since the school had the son of a lawyer as a student (Miles). This actually checks out, as there are semi-rural areas in Los Angeles. Japan as well, for those that wish to stick to the original version of the game. So, we can, CAN being the keyword here, say that Phoenix grew up in a kind of poor neighborhood. One that probably has a lot of farms in the general area. This tells us that Phoenix’s parents probably weren’t the wealthiest folks. What else can we guess? Well, with codependents, common themes are family members with some form of addiction or illness. This would be where the ‘second place’ mentality stems from. Given Phoenix’s, ahem, ‘grape juice’ habit that he picked up when he was disbarred, perhaps alcoholism runs in the family. Just like with any other kind of illness or condition, your genetics can make you more or less likely to be susceptible to it. (Genetics are far from the only cause of addiction. Having an alcoholic family member doesn’t mean you’ll become alcoholic, just as not having an alcoholic relative doesn’t mean you’re immune to the condition. But bear with me.)
So perhaps one of his parents, his father we’ll say, was an alcoholic. Excessive spending on alcohol doesn’t help when you don’t have a lot to spend in the first place, so to make ends meet Phoenix’s mother got a job. With neither parent devoting much time at home, a lot of chores would probably become Phoenix’s responsibility. This could explain his obsession with cleanliness that we get glimpses of throughout the series. If he didn’t clean something, it probably wasn’t going to get cleaned. And lastly, Phoenix’s mother, juggling between her job, supporting her alcoholic husband, and being a mother, would perhaps reward herself on occasion with some knick knacks or other fancy things she was fond of. Perhaps she would take Phoenix with her to buy those things sometimes, explaining why he’s more familiar with fine bone china cups than the average Joe.
So, that’s Phoenix’s childhood in a nutshell. He’s a well-meaning kid who just wants to be liked. If you want to see how this affects him as an adult, keep on the lookout for the next post! And if you want to see the research that went into this project, check out the links below!
As my final note, I’d like to ask you. What do think Phoenix’s childhood was like? Did you agree with me? Did you have your own theory? Did you think I missed anything? Let me know in the comments section, I’d love to know!
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-introverts-corner/201305/why-extroverts-are-so-needy
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1646287/
http://www.whatiscodependency.com/7-parenting-essentials/
http://humanisticcenter.com/when-love-bites-the-awkward-dance-of-codependency/
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/co-dependency
https://ncadd.org/about-addiction/family-history-and-genetics
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