So I've been replaying the original trilogy whilst I wait for AAI and I've nooticed that each game seems to have one theme throughout all of it's cases. For JFA and T&T it was fairly easy to spot. Each case in JFA seems to deal with tradegy:



While T&T's cases seem to deal with love and betrayal as each case (barring 3-5) has these themes intergrated into their plot:



However for AA there is no obvious theme that sticks out like the sequels. The two themes I think that fit the bill however could be "The Past" or "Blackmail"


What do you think?

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Aside from 1-1, Blackmail could've very well been a theme. But there is no blackmail of the sort in 1-1. Not even close.

How about Theft?



Maybe not the best theme, but I can't think of anything else.

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Blackmail was definitely the theme of PWAA, regardless of whether it was present for the first case or not. I just replayed it (in French~), and for every case I was left with a feeling of "Golly, I think I've seen this before".

Nice theme-finding skills though, Rossco. I wouldn't have thought of those.

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Ooh! I just figured out how blackmail is used in 1-1!

Larry uses his friendship with Nick to get out off paying him!

...

Yes it's a stretch but still...

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Glad I'm not the only one who found blackmail almost overused in GS1.

An what about GS4?

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"Gavin" is the only theme I can see. Or perhaps, "justice"?

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The thing is, "Justice" really is a theme of AJ, while what you people are talking about are motifs :P

JFA is not "about" tragedy. It just keeps popping up. (It is about who you are, and if you are willing to give that up for something close to you.)


A motif in AJ could probably just be "crime"...

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JFA's "Theme" doesn't work.

Every case in the series is a tragedy, because someone dies.

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AJ's theme could be each of the clients did something wrong.

The overarching theme of the series is 'bad things happen, but they are overcome'. Apart from GS4, which was depressing.Oh, and Evidence Forging is a Crime.

GS3 - Definitely love/betrayal.

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AJ seemed to have a relativity thing going, as far as I could tell. Like neoswordmaster said, each of the defendants did something wrong at some point, so nobody was perfect. In teh other games, pretty much every ended up being really innocent But, you get my drift.

Well, then again, maybe not... People pretty much started having flaws after Engarde. So, meh? 'Dunno about 'Polly Justice.

Regarding JFA... as the others have pointed out, "tragedy" occurs in every game.
I would say the problem of one's identity and personality(ies) is one of the recurring themes in this game.
In 2-1, Phoenix loses his identity along with his memory. He can't remember who he is.
In 2-2, Ini impersonates her sister. She's both Ini and Mimi at the same time.
In 2-3, Ben & Trilo act like two different people, the real Max is nothing like his stage persona, etc.
In 2-4, Engarde has two roles / personalities, Adrian pretends to be strong while she's in fact codependent, and de Killer the man / the assassin are clearly separated.
Also, throughout the game, you've got Franziska imitating her father as well as Edgeworth and Phoenix trying to find out who they really are.
Another recurring theme would be superficial, self-obsessed people and the trouble they cause for others. Wellington, Max, Engarde... have striking similarities in that regard.

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I agree with Ping'. By the end of JFA they make it all about "What does it mean to be a lawyer?" and Phoenix has to face up to his own identity. Plus a lot of the cases have to do with redefining yourself. I'm not sure it was intentional because there are lots of cases that have witnesses with seemingly dual personalities, but the connection is there.



I think in 2-3 the more compelling example is Acro. He didn't have a drastic personality change on the stand like Ini or Matt, but you could say he "lost his identity" as an acrobat after the Leon accident. He even sort of lost the ability to identify as a brother, with Bat being comatose. Having those things stripped from him directly led to his downfall.

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I think the first game's "theme" is losing something important to you:



And since there was a discussion about it, I think AJ's theme is "betrayal":



Those are the patterns I've seen.

I was going to say something similar, but for the third game. There's a false identity or impersonation in every case.


[/spoiler]

I find "deception" a better motif for GS4 than anything.



Here are my favourites for the motifs from what everyone's said:

GS1 - Losing Someone and Blackmail
GS2 - Losing your Identity and overcoming obstacles
GS3 - Love and Betrayal
GS4 - Deception (and also Betrayal?)

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Another possible theme for AA could be abusing power. All of the villians did it except Frank Sahwit.

How 'bout friendship?

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Don't Forget.

Major spoilers ahead.

The most obvious game-specific theme:

T&T: "Love makes us vulnerable."

Absolutely central to cases 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, AND 3-5. This had to have been deliberate, because it doesn't show up in any other case except 4-2. "Betrayal hurts" almost works as a theme, but not quite - it doesn't fit 3-2, where Ron and Dessie are absolutely faithful, and it's not quite a fit to 3-5 either.

(Note: If the theme holds true for Phoenix, Ron, Viola, Terry, and Godot, some people may be tempted to add Edgeworth and his frantic jet flight to the list. I don't think I need to comment on that...)


PW: AA: "Even heroes have feet of clay."

The first case establishes that Phoenix Wright, our hero, is going to be an unsteady novice at best. In the second case, Mia Fey dies shockingly and unexpectedly. In the third, Wright has to destroy a kid's belief that 'the Samurai always wins' in order to save the day, and the actor playing that TV hero has his career ruined. In the fourth, Edgeworth learns the truth about his 'perfect' mentor, and his own weaknesses. And in "Rise from the Ashes"... wow.

Everybody tries to do the right thing, even the serial killer who guiltily turns himself in! But, by the end, all of them are disillusioned or dead. Edgeworth, Ema, Lana, Neil, Bruce Goodman, Jake, Angel, and ex-hero Gant fall from grace, Gumshoe gets temporarily fired, and by the end, Phoenix himself has stolen evidence from a police safe, traumatized Ema on the stand, and pulled a trick that verges on evidence concealment.

The theme of fallen heroes and mentors shows up now and again in the series (2-4, 4-1, 4-4, arguably 2-2), but never as much as in the first game.


PW: JfA: "Winning will not help you find your real identity; losing might."

We never learn why Manfred wants to win so badly, and Dahlia and Kristoph apparently both hate to lose just because it makes them losers. Gant loves the control that victory brings; simple enough. But in JfA, it's not like that at all. Every character who strives for victory eventually reveals that they were hiding a deep identity crisis. When the worst happens and they finally lose, Wellington, Mimi, and Acro are subtly, or even openly, relieved. There's no need to maintain a fake identity anymore. Compare this to the resigned, angry, or insane tone of the other villain breakdowns in the series, and there's a world of difference.

(Sneakily, 2-1 puts the same fallacy in Phoenix's head. Surely he can just win, and everything that defines him will flood right back, just like his memories did. No wonder 2-4's such a shock to him!)

Edgeworth states this theme openly and clearly. You can't miss it, not with Franziska ("I AM A VON KARMA!") whipping it into even the densest player's skull. Of course, Engarde cares about winning most of all. And, in the end, if the player chooses to declare him Guilty, we learn that he just can't bear to see both of his masks break at once and reveal the pathetic truth of his real identity.


AJ: AA: "Everything is connected; the wheel of Fate spins big crimes and little crimes together."

The weakest theme of all of them.

This running sense of connection and predestination, where every case fit into an unalterable arc plot, may have been largely responsible for the love-it-or-hate-it response the game got. Want to change the outcome of that fated trial seven years ago? You can't! It ties into all the other cases! It would ruin the giant tangled ball of coincidences. The shark-jumping moment may be the scene where, with the subtlety of an anvil, the designers have you discover paintings of all the other cases in 4-4.

The other theme of AJ: AA is "Court systems are not perfect." But this call for a court system based on common sense rings hollow in a story driven entirely by far-fetched contrivances.

There's also a motif of 'family', but it never goes anywhere interesting. "Family is good" might be the theme, except that the Gramarye family is horrific. "Family defines us" might be the theme, except we know nothing about Phoenix or Apollo's upbringing. "Family relationships make for easy plot twists" might be it.

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I was going to pass over this thread, since it didn't really seem to be going anywhere before (no offense to anyone) but then I saw it was FerdieLance that posted...

I really like those. They really do seem to fit very well.


...And they're not motifs xD

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