(no subject)
I think the people who make Pheonix Wright really really hate authority. Yes, you play as a laywer, which is pretty much the definition of slimebag for many people, but...
Villians have included: a buisnessman who blackmailed the entire government and justice system, a studio head who fixed the TV studio's problems with her mafia at a price, a prosecutor with a very high reputation due to having never lost a case, the de facto head of an ancient and o powerful magic family, a famous and well-loved movie star, another buisnessman, another prosecutor, a defense attorney, an ambassator and in this bonus case I finished, a chief of police. Often the source of these people's authority and the priviledges they have as a result are invoked to make them harder to attack in court, especially if they're the final boss.
The police are incompetent, the judge is an easily-swayed senile fool, two lawyers (one famous defense attorney, one Head Prosecutor) are blackmailed into either not interfering in crime or doing crimes for the blackmailer. Most prosecutors and at least two defense attorneys mentioned in-game are more focused on perfect records and other matters of pride than in making sure the client gets what he or she actually wants. For example, one defense attorney forced his client to fake brain damage for the rest of his life so that the insanity plea could be invoked.
The player, who does NOT have the authority to investigate or collect evidence at all in all but one game, does so anyway in order to find enough information to go up against the prosecutor. A girl who's not even a proper scientific investigator finds blood traces, fingerprints, and undersketches better than the people who are supposed to do that for a living. Two lawyers and a detective break into centers of smuggling ring activity and give the evidence to the police anonymously because they believe the law by itself is not capable of fighting against the international ring. And the whole Appollo Justice game basically is about how the justice system in the game (an exxagerated version of Japan's legal system at the time) is completely broken and impossible to win against if the defense attorney plays 100% by its rules.
Let's think about this, ladies and gentlemen.