Character Analysis - Miles Edgeworth

Our job is to find truth, no matter how painful it may be.

Miles Edgeworth is a critical part of the Ace Attorney franchise.  (Because Ace Attorney Investigations 2 has not been localized for the west and the AAI series takes place after the main games, I will focus on the main games.  As always, Spoilers ahead)   

We meet Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth in case 1-2. (Turnabout Sisters) He explains that he has decisive evidence, has never lost a case, and he strives to find EVERY defendant guilty. Rumors persist of bribes to judges, doctored evidence, and back room deals so the defendants are always convicted.   Several times in the series it's revealed he asked people to keep quiet on parts of what they saw or heard so it helps his case.  You hate him with every fiber of your being.

The guilty will always lie, to avoid being found out. There's no way to tell who is guilty and who is innocent! All that I can hope to do is get every defendant declared "guilty"! So I make that my policy.

 As such, he is the polar opposite of our cheerful and snarky Main Character, Defense Attorney Phoenix Wright, who believes in his clients no matter what. This is even more striking when it's revealed that Phoenix and Miles used to be friends.

Over the course of the game, we see him loosen up slightly.  Wendy Oldbag gets him visibly flustered and he tells Will Powers that he (Edgeworth) is a fan.  And then he is arrested for murder.

He refuses Phoenix's help a few times, but then we see the first true weakness.  A minor earthquake hits while Phoenix and Miles are talking about the case.  Phoenix and Maya are fine, but Miles is curled up in a fetal position on the floor.  A little more digging into his past reveals that when he was young, he had been trapped in an elevator with his father(A defense attorney) and a baliff because an earthquake shut off the power.  His father was shot in that elevator and Miles Edgeworth has spent every night after that dreaming that he shot his father.  While it was eventually revealed that he did not commit the murder he was accused of, he then confessed to killing his father.   Phoenix pulled out all the stops and managed to mount a case that proved not only was Miles innocent, but that the person who raised Miles after his father's death was guilty!  ( I am hugely simplifying this case.  Play it, please.  I'm leaving out most of the DL-6, Yani Yogi, the reason why Miles doesn't believe Maya can summon the dead.  There's just alot here that I can't talk about right now)

After this he only showed up in the final cases of games 2 and 3.  Despite this, his presence is felt.  Phoenix believes that he committed suicidein game 2 because he was ashamed of how the last few cases ended.  This makes it even more amazing when it's revealed he's actually been living internationally and was the one who gave the key evidence in Phoenix's last trial.  When he finally enters a court room again, he reveals what he is now fighting for, the truth.  

He will find the truth, no matter what.  He will use the truth to convict the guilty.  And he will do it while remaining above the law.  There is reason why his theme is "Great Revival"

So, what does all this tell about him?

He's human.  While it may seem obvious, we can easily find these little chinks in his armor that show how human he is.  He is terrified of Earthquakes (the AAI series expands this to elevators also) When he heard Phoenix was dying, he flew half way around the world to see him one last time  and finish his case. (This turns out to be completely false.  Phoenix and Miles share a grade school friend named "Larry Butz"  and Larry has a tendency to exaggerate.).  He's launched task forces to save Maya at least twice,   and he is secretly a fan of the Steel Samurai (this was hinted at several times in the main series, but received more focus in AAI) 

He's stubborn, but not stupid.  Through out the series he's stuck to whatever he believes is true.  He's believed Maya killed her sister,  that he killed his father, and all defendants are guilty. (This last bit may be part of a guilt complex. He believes he killed his father, they already convicted his father's killer, so he prosecutes everyone else to make up for it) But when enough solid evidence comes to light that shows his ideas may be wrong, he rethinks the idea and chooses what he believes is the truth. It may be the old idea, but it can also be the new one.

He really does want to do the right thing.  Living with prosecutors made him chose the prosecutor path over the defense path, but the right thing is what he wants to do.  When he believes all defendants are guilty he pursues that path, but when he realizes he was wrong he adopts his new path and continues to follow it.  He will fight tooth and nail for what he believes is the right thing to do.  This has included randomly objecting to buy Phoenix time, having the defense call witnesses, BEING a defense attorney at least once,  and stepping in to prosecute when his adopted sister was shot (she survived).

There is quite a few reasons why Miles Edgeworth a fan favorite character, and I've barely gone into any depth (and I've left AAI out of this analysis) Play the games, see why Miles is so great.