Chrome version:

A character encounters a boring modern industrial building and is grateful to find a ritual bundle of bones hanging from the ceiling, adding a touch of normality to this strange space without gothic arches.

So basically I think there are 2 schools of thought here. The correct one that’s harder to get to and the wrong one that seems immediately apparent. Let’s start with the wrong one.

It’s easiest to say that she advises Phoenix to take the reasonable self defense plea because it’s the easiest way to beat him. Bing bang boom, he admits his client is sorta guilty and she wins quickly. This is wrong for two very important reasons.

Franziska von Karma is like a cat with a mouse. She plays with it before going in for the kill. We see it in this very trial with Mimi Miney (pretending to be Ini) when the judge quite literally says that he’s done hearing her testimony despite Phoenix insisting he be allowed to question her further. She had Phoenix on the ropes. Literally about to have a win in her back pocket and then she couldn’t resist herself.

piggybacking off my first point, Franziska von Karma wants everything to be perfect. She wants a perfect victory. She wants to pick apart all of his claims and completely and totally destroy him. That is a total victory. What isn’t a total victory is winning by default. It’s like playing chess against someone and they tip their king over as their first move. Or playing poker and the person goes all in as their first bet and folds. Yeah you won technically, but she wants to destroy Phoenix. She wouldn’t accept that.

Now the second school of thought (which is correct in my opinion) is simple. Franziska does not think Maya Fey should be on trial for murder. I know what you’re thinking, but bear with me. I promise it’ll make sense.

This is not to say that she thinks there’s a plot to frame Maya for murder. But that Maya had no intent to commit a murder. She believes that Maya’s hand pulled the trigger, but she also believes that Mimi Miney did the murder. It’s so funny how kinda right she was.

It’s been established that in preparation for this case, Franziska von Karma learned about the Kurain school of channeling. Meaning she understands that in order to channel, the medium essentially gives up their body to the spirit they are channeling. And this means she understands that were Maya to be channeling, she would have little to no control over her own actions.

Part of murder is an intent to kill. This separates it from manslaughter and negligent homicide. If Maya Fey is no longer in control of her own body, then how does she have the intent to kill? She doesn’t. Simple as that.

So she offers Phoenix an out. Because yes, she believes that his client’s body murdered this man. But she does not believe that his client was acting maliciously with the intent to kill or even cause harm. Realistically, and I think Fran would agree, Maya should have been put on trial for negligent homicide at most.

And again. She wants a perfect win. With perfect justice. For her perfect revenge. Is convicting someone who did not have any agency or malice of forethought a perfect prosecutorial win? I don’t think so. The perfect win would be to send Mimi Miney to super hell and stick Maya, and Morgan for that matter, with a big ole fine.

Plus this is a death penalty case and Franziska only ever practiced in Germany, which has abolished its death penalty in 1987 (1949 in Western Germany). Making this the first ever death penalty case Franziska has ever prosecuted. Say what you want about her, but I don’t think Franziska is going to try and get someone convicted for a crime she genuinely does not think they committed willingly. She might commit felony assault, but I don’t think she’d be into that.

No, I’ve talked about it before, but I think that part of the reason why Manfred von Karma had Miles keep his original surname is that… he basically wanted to claim Gregory’s name legacy as his own. Ace Attorney is a franchise that is focused a lot of the subject of legacies and family, so it only makes sense that it’s first, and probably most famous, Big Bad is all about legacies - and the twisting and weaponizing therefor. Both in the way his own legacy caused so much pain to his children, and in his plan against Gregory. Manfred wanted the name ‘Edgeworth’ to be ripped from it’s association with heroic-defence-attorneying and to be forever connected with his praticular brand of immoral, corrupt, merciless prosecution (and then with murder and patricide, had his plan came to it’s full fruition). 

This is probably part of why Raymond Shields decided to never change the name of the Edgeworth Law Offices. He saw that this is what was going on and was delibertly fighting against it and trying to preserve Gregory’s original legacy.

And it is only fitting for this plan to backfire COMPLETELY. Since AA1, Edgeworth has completely reinvented his own legacy - based on his own brand of *heroic* prosecuting. AAI2 basically redefines it as his own way of continuing his father’s legacy, while being his own person.

By the time of DD, nobody thinks of ‘Von Karma’ when they hear the name ‘Edgeworth’. This is Miles’ legacy now to shape. And I hope, if we ever see her again, that Franziska has managed to do something similar with the name ‘Von Karma’ itself. Redefining it as her own brand of heroic, whip-wielding prosecution and leaving Manfred totally forgotten by the wayside.

Manfred von Karma has not only tried to corrupt and twist the Edgeworth Legacy in his own image as part of his petty revenge scheme - but he caused his own daughter SO MUCH pain due to the Von Karma Legacy, both direct abuse and indirect harm due to the expectations everyone else has of Franziska as his daughter.  It’s only fitting that his final ‘punishment’ after his death is to just… to be forgotten, just to be robbed of the power of legacy. The daughter he ignored has basically taken the Von Karma name and remade it in her own image and rose to such level that Manfred was just… forgotten. 

Get FUCKING wrecked, Manfred!

Of course, the OTHER reason why Manfred had Miles keep his last name is like… he didn’t *want* Miles to feel like he got adopted into a family. He didn’t want Miles to feel like he’s a ‘Von Karma’. 

It was part of a very deliberate tactic of emotional deprivation and aliention that Manfred inflicted on Miles. Manfred wanted Miles to constantly feel the pain of having lost his only family - and that mean no potential relief from having a ‘new family’ that could ease that loss. He wanted him to feel like an outsider in the household he grew up in. Not a son or a brother or a cousin, just a ‘student’, just a kid who happens to live under the same roof as Manfred and Franziska and whatever other Von Karmas exist off-screen. The house he lives in is not really his, the person who is raising him is not really connected to him in any way - therefore he must feel thankful to Manfred for barely doing the basic things you’d expect a ‘parent’ to do. This is heavily tied to the feeling of being a 'burden’ he internalized. He’s gotta call Manfred “Mr. Von Karma” or “Sir” all the time. Manfred only calls him “Edgeworth” (In Japanese, was it 'Mitsurugi’ or 'Mitsurugi-kun’? That feels like an important distinction but I can’t find a source as to whichever one he used in “Turnabout Reminiscences”). Always keeping an emotional distant - and it’s not like he’s super effectionate with his bio-kids or anything! This is just going the extra mile (pun not intended).

Whatever or not Franziska consciously noticed what her Papa was trying to do to Edgeworth, I can’t tell you - but she always rejected it outright. Franziska can be… rough around the edges, but she always tried to make Miles feel like he is part of her family.

 As fans who know all that Manfred has done, and that he was trying to erasue Miles’ connection to his father’s legacy, and that haven’t seen MUCH of Miles’ tutalge - it’s understandble that we have such a negative gut reaction to the idea of Miles being a Von Karma. Franzy’s insistence that he is a ‘Von Karma’ can feel insensitive. But Miles was once an orphaned 9 year old who’s only parental figure was actively depraving him of emotional connections and feelings of family. Having someone who insist that you are a part of the family, that you are her 'brother’ - That must have been a great comfort.