I'm going to give everyone a break from this story and do something random. When writing No Escape, I wrote sorta commentaries on the fan fiction. Though, since I'm kinda writing small notes on the very bottom of each chapter for this story, I thought I'd instead focus on the characters and my interpretation I have for them in this story. Considering that this is a what if story, I will dive into why I made their characters the way I did in this story. I'm going to start with the character I consider to be the most misinterpreted character and often the commonly troll character in AAO (Ace Attorney Online), Manfred Von Karma.

Writing this, I knew that everyone was going to go into this with the mentality that Manfred Von Karma might be the kidnapper, bad guy in this story or least bad person. It's difficult doing stories like that, because in order for it to work, you have to make the main antagonist or villain be far worse than the arch villain. In Dragon Ball Z, the second season introduced Freeza, who not only destroyed the home planet of the previous villain from season 1 and Goku's birth planet, but is the destroyer of many worlds. He was the kind of villain that not only became personal to Goku, but to Vageta, who had previously tried to destroy Earth in season 1. Other examples include Walker from Danny Phantom, who arrests Danny unfairly and forces him to join forces with his previous enemies, and the two aliens from Kim Possible, who kidnap Kim and force her and Ron to team up with their arch enemies in order to defeat them.

That's not where I wanted to go with Manfred Von Karma. I wanted to go the same route as the first Phoenix Wright game where you think the main villain is Miles Edgeworth, until you realize that he's actually the victim that Phoenix Wright is trying to save. Of course, the connection between Manfred and Gregory would be far different. Regardless, I wanted to set up the story where Gregory doesn't just defend Manfred Von Karma to save his son, but to save Manfred Von Karma himself. The question became if I can turn Manfred Von Karma from one of the most hated characters in Ace Attorney to a tragic character that my readers will want to side with. The answer is most definitely.

What many people make the mistake with Manfred Von Karma is assuming he is the worst of the worst, the most evil villain on the planet. In truth, he's more of a gray character than a bad guy. He's not a good person by any stretch of the means, but he's also not heartless or devoid of emotion or feeling. Even when talking with many Ace Attorney fans like myself, we all agreed that Manfred Von Karma did love and cared for Miles Edgeworth like a son, regardless of whose son he belonged to. By playing just the trilogy, you wouldn't know this, even with Franziska making her appearance and showing her devoted love to Miles Edgeworth as her older/younger brother. Though, when playing the Miles Edgeworth spin-off games, there is an obvious close relationship Miles Edgeworth and Manfred Von Karma have with one another. The second Miles Edgeworth game makes it clear, when you compare Blaise Debeste's relationship with his son, that it proves that Debeste never loved him and constantly abused him in every way possible. Manfred, on the other hand, had always treated Miles Edgeworth fairly and taught him everything he knew. It's easy to throw stones at someone until you realize that there might be more humanity to them that is often overshadowed by the evil they do.

One thing I can say about Manfred Von Karma, no matter how many crimes he's committed, is that he is not devoid of human emotion or capability of forming relationships. Not only does Manfred have a daughter, but he even mentioned about having a granddaughter with a dog named Phoenix in Turnabout Goodbyes. Now, this could be interpreted as him grasping for straws and lying through his teeth, but considering his relationship that we see of him with Miles Edgeworth and young Franziska Von Karma, him having a granddaughter might not be that far fetch. It's very close to possible for Manfred Von Karma to be both a cruel prosecutor and a family man that loves his family very dearly. This would be the catalyst to the plot of the story, while also being what gets my readers to start sympathizing and siding with Manfred Von Karma. Generally speaking, it is hard to hate an action that is out of love or someone that proves he can love. I don't mean how Thanos claimed to love his daughter before sacrificing her in order to gain one of the reality stones, but one that is shown through action and sacrifice.

The second thing I needed to do in order to gain the reader's favor for Manfred Von Karma is to make him as weak and suffer as much as possible. The weaker and more suffering you make a character, the more sympathy and favor you will gain from your audience. Manfred Von Karma's goal is simple: he wants to protect and save Miles Edgeworth, because his suffering bring Manfred pain. Considering Miles is 8 years old and has been seen suffering, it's easy for my readers to get behind that goal. Though, I also wanted to strip Manfred Von Karma all the powers he had in the Ace Attorney games. It wouldn't just be him simply being arrested or accused for a crime he didn't commit, since that's in every Ace Attorney game, but also punishing him for all the crimes he's committed in the Ace Attorney games. It comes to a point where no matter how hard Manfred Von Karma tries, he cannot reach his goal of protecting or saving Miles Edgeworth. If Manfred Von Karma cannot protect Miles Edgeworth, how can he protect the rest of his family? That's where his weakness and suffering come in.

Lastly, I needed for Manfred to be able to take all the suffering and torture he's taking and turn it into a strength. The mentality of not giving up does have its strengths, especially from its readers. The reason many heroes in anime are highly favored is because of how they endure the suffering and torture. Like a Saiyan in Dragon Ball Z, the more beatings they take, the stronger they'll get. That's why people side with these characters. When they get tossed around, they don't go whine or cry about it, but instead get back up when they're down. Not to say they can't cry every once in a while, but it's never during the battle. As Godot says, "a lawyer never cries until it's all over." That's the kind of mentality almost everyone on the planet will side with. Nobody sides with crybabies, but those that cry when they've lost or won out of joy. Manfred works in the same way. The one time he cries is the one time when he truly believes he has tried everything in his power and has failed. It's not to say that Manfred has never felt like giving up, but feeling like giving up and actually giving up are two different things. You show your true strength when you refuse to give up, even when you feel like it.

The second character I want to talk about now is one of the protagonists, Gregory Edgeworth. Now, unlike Manfred Von Karma, whom I intended on giving more humanity to make him more likable, with Gregory I wanted to give him more flaws. Due to Gregory Edgeworth being... well... dead, he was given the Wayne Family Treatment. Though, as I have stated before, if you bother reading the After Story Notes, Gregory Edgeworth lied in his testimony when he was summoned by Misty Fey during DL-6. Because of his lie, he ruined the lives of Yanni Yogi, Robert Hammond, Misty Fey and his son unintentionally. This, and a musical that actually brought out the idea of Gregory Edgeworth having quite a few forgeries in his closet, gave me the idea of involving Gregory in forgery.

Now, keep in mind that I had already came up with this idea far before I started this fan fiction. If you look in Ace Attorney Collection and read Dear Journal, you will notice that, aside from Rachael's last name, all of Gregory's backstory in that one shot is followed to a T in this story. I decided to take that backstory and apply it to this one. The reason is to give Gregory Edgeworth a connection to Manfred Von Karma. This also makes Gregory Edgeworth a lot more gray than canon and is no longer given the Wayne Family Treatment. By making Gregory, the protagonist, as gray of a character as Manfred Von Karma, their rivalry starts drawing a connection. They're no longer enemies, but respectable rivals much like Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, Apollo Justice and Klavier Gavin, Athena Cykes and Simon Blackquill, and others to come.

Another thing I wanted to give Gregory, aside from flaws, is humility. It is important that if you give your characters flaws that your readers can forgive, you must also give your characters humility, if you do not plan on punishing them. If the story will not punish the characters for having those flaws, then they need to punish themselves. Even self doubt can be a punishment in of itself. It's how you get your readers to side with these characters. I didn't want Gregory to come out as self righteous or a hypocrite, so I gave him humility and self punishment. He is aware that if anyone he loves were to be placed in the worst situation possible, he could revert back to his forgery ways. At the same time, we also see him blaming himself for the execution of his former lover, even though he was being used and tricked. Even if Gregory is being too hard on himself, the readers will instantly be on his side. Nobody will like or respect Gregory, if he was to point fingers at Blaise Debeste and not take a good look in the mirror.

So, now we have two characters that are connected by the love for their family and flaws. Their connection becomes very clear as the story goes on. It starts connecting, because these two characters share the same enemy, skeletons and humanity. It's by revealing this that they start to understand each other. Gregory wants to save Manfred to give him the happiness he will never have. In return, Manfred wants to save Gregory like how he saved Manfred. This chains them together in a bond that refuses to break. Even though Manfred had tried to murder Gregory, because of their deep connection and being indebted to each other, they both are now motivated to protect and save each other in every way possible.

With these two, I wanted to give my readers a feel of wanting both these characters to save each other much like Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, only from a different angle. We all know that not only is Manfred beginning to change to a better person, but Gregory is also beginning to change as well. That being said, I don't want Manfred to change like how Miles Edgeworth and Franziska Von Karma changed in canon. We are already starting to see that in the story. He still seeks perfection, but through working his hardest and not preventing mistakes. He also is becoming more focused on caring for his family and those under his protection. Gregory, though, is seeking courage within himself and his loved ones. The suffering he faces is forcing him to confront his past and be willing to face it head on.

The one, whose change is the most drastic, is young Miles Edgeworth. He isn't just confronting his fears every single moment of the story, but his father's past mistakes. He is very loving and forgiving, which can be taken as naivete. Miles is still forgiving and sweet, but now he's learning that mistakes don't just effect one person, but many different people. He learns that a single case doesn't just effect the defendant alone. Because of this, it challenges Miles to see things from a more broader perspective. He starts understanding what it means to be strong, but he also starts learning that committing crimes have consequences that effect the defendant and everyone around the defendant.

Unlike canon, Miles starts going through the process of finding out what he wants to do in life or what path he wants to take. He is given the question if being a Defense Attorney is really what he wants and I think it's something that is very healthy for him to think about. I don't believe that Miles becoming a Defense Attorney, if his father was still alive, is something to take lightly. It's possible he might've gone through the same difficult path, regardless if he became a Defense Attorney or Prosecutor. I like the idea of challenging Miles Edgeworth's path, while he's still young, with a father that is still alive. It helps us discover Miles Edgeworth's identity.

I think that will be all to talk about. I might go into the side characters, but I want to wait until I get into more story. This is especially since we just found out Damon Gant's history with Gregory Edgeworth. For now, this will be all. I hope you enjoyed this. I will continue the story at some point, but for now, enjoy!