Honestly, it really shows how far their relationship has come that Franziska is willing to give Miles a chance here.
I mean, when you take a second to think about everything with Miles for the last few years from Fran’s perspective- REALLY think of it- it’s just heartbreaking and it shows a strong bond between them that she’s trusting him enough to even hear him out after all of it.
She’s already stated that it hurt her and she felt abandoned when Miles just sort of left to be prosecutor at his home country and presumably didn’t even keep in touch with her. She was in another country and after not hearing from him or her dad for what was probably quite a while. Then out of the blue she gets a call that like. “So yeah, your dad’s been found guilty of murder. Turns out he killed your adoptive brother’s dad. He actually only adopted your brother in the first place so he could frame him for murder, apparently. And he nearly succeeded, your brother went on trial and everything and nearly got the death penalty, but then your brother’s defense attorney friend exposed your dad as the real killer”.
And you KNOW Miles did not contact her about any of this. This is Miles. He would have been afraid of what her reaction would be to break the news to her. Heck, part of him was probably scared she’d take von Karma’s side and blame him for getting her father arrested. If she tried to call him after hearing this, he would have ignored her calls, being too afraid and overwhelmed to deal with it. So she gets this huge bombshell unloaded on her and isn’t even able to talk to her brother like that. (And in a reflection of Miles’ fears, I can totally see Fran wondering if HE blamed HER and felt she was somehow complicit in her father’s actions)
Then would have also gotten a call that was like” Um, yeah, your brother is he’s missing right now. He left what appears to be a suicide note and we can’t find him.The note says “Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death” so I guess he feels like a failure as a prosecutor after everything? He lost quite a few trials to his defense attorney friend. Yeah, the same one that got your dad convicted.”
So here it is. Not only has she lost her dad, her brother has apparently completely fallen apart in response to everything, given up on his career he worked so hard to and vanished without bothering to talk to her. He didn’t talk to her about anything that happened, he didn’t tell her he was going to do this, even after all they’ve been through and how they studied together to become prosecutors, he didn’t feel she was important enough to talk to about any of this.
So she directs all her anger at the defense attorney who beat him, blaming him for driving Miles to do this, vowing her “revenge”. She refuses to accept he’s dead, he clearly just ran away (I wonder if Miles ever ran away and left weird notes behind when they were kids? I could see that.) Once she beats him, Miles will have to come back and acknowledge her.
When Miles DOES come back, she is angry at him for leaving without saying anything the same way Phoenix is and even expresses it the same way, telling him she never wants to see him again even though that’s specifically what she came here for. She couches it in him being a “disgrace” but the later admits she feels abandoned. And she finds once again Miles has moved on and decided something without her- he doesn’t care about winning anymore, he’s given up on being a “prosecutor” the way they’re supposed to be, once again, leaving her behind. So she gives up. She feels like a failure for not winning, for losing her father and its clear to her she’s lost Miles too, that he doesn’t care about her or how hard she’s trying to prove herself, that he’s left everything that tied them together behind.
But then he comes after her for once.He tells her that he’s not actually giving up on being a prosecutor, that he’s just doing it his way, that he’s continuing down this path he has chosen and he’ll never give up on it again. So if she wants to continue being a prosecutor too, he’ll be there, walking the same path. That’s still something that still binds them. He’s not giving up on all they’ve worked for and he’s not running away again.
And that’s enough reassurance to Franziska for her to keep going. He isn’t abandoning their childhood goal, their dream. And he knows she’s following that path too. She still has that piece of her childhood, that reassurance. She can compete against him and work with him and know she still has a family, that there’s someone else carrying the burden her father had left. As long as he doesn’t give up, she can’t let herself give up either- partly out of spite, partly out of that childhood competitiveness and partly of that desire to keep having a connection to her family as she pursues her goal.
They start to rebuild their relationship after this. They solve cases together, he even backs her up when she’s accused of murder and she starts to trust him again. That he really won’t leave her this time, that they’re actually starting to communicate.
Then Miles just quits being a prosecutor, like it’s nothing, directly going against what he’s promised her. That must feel like such a huge betrayal. She even says it feels like he’s abandoning her again.
But this time, her reaction is different. Franziska decides just because he gives up doesn’t mean she’s going to.She’s accomplished a lot on her own while working for Interpol, without him or her dad. She doesn’t need him to continue forward on her path, she’s going to continue to be a prosecutor for herself.
And then Miles reassures that he actually HASN’T given up, that he is going to keep doing what he did as a prosecutor even without the badge. He’s not running away and he’s still pursuing the truth. They’ve still got that same goal.
it says a LOT that Franziska trusts him enough now to accept this explanation and gives him the chance to prove it to her, even after all that. It says a lot about the bond between them and how much they’ve both grown. She takes him at his word that he’s not going back on the convictions that bind them together and thinks highly enough of him to accept the possibility he can accomplish things even without his badge. And she’s secure enough in their relationship and in herself now to accept this decision if that’s the case, even if she can’t help but feel angry or hurt.
I just…love Franziska. She’s come so far and it makes me proud. And even though it can be hard to tell, she and Miles really have come a long way and trust and believe in each other a lot at this point, in their own way. so I’m also just proud of these loser siblings and love that their relationship has been able to survive all this despite what huge disasters they both are and all the shit that’s happened to them.
