A Complete Turnabout

The world had suddenly decided to take a joyride on the road of irony and not to take me with it.
—Phoenix Wright, Chapter 1

A Complete Turnabout is an Ace Attorney fanfic by Nenilein, set in in an alternate universe. The twist? Phoenix appears to be the only person in that alternate universe from the Ace Attorney world that we know.

Phoenix Wright, the Defense Attorney with a fondness for The Perry Mason Method, wakes up in an alternate universe where he is a respected Amoral Prosecutor. He finds himself in a world where almost everyone he knows and trusts hates him instead - oh, and Edgeworth is a Defense Attorney. To make matters worse, he finds that 'he' had recently got Mia Fey, his canonically deceased mentor, and Dahlia Fey (yes, you read that right, Fey) a life prison sentence.

Phoenix traces the root of the differences in this universe to the absence of the DL-6 incident in its timeline, but that doesn't make much difference - he is simply lost in a world where all the events and people in his life are now radically different. On top of the mystery of how and why he got there, he's then forced to prosecute a case involving the murder of Ema Skye, with Lana Skye as the defendant.

It's an enthralling mystery, and despite the flipped premise, a strong Original Flavor fic for Ace Attorney fans. Characters from all four main series games, as well as from the Investigations spinoff, will all be making an appearance at some point.

Has now an In-Universe Tumblr-Blog

Tropes used in A Complete Turnabout include:
  • Alternate Universe Fic
  • Amoral Attorney: Prosecutor!Phoenix jails his girlfriend's sister and cousin without allowing the defense the oppurtunity to find the whole truth. Franziska Von Karma is like her canon self but without the Character Development. Possibly Lilie Heatherd
  • Amnesiac Dissonance
  • Ascended Fangirl: Maya, still a Steel Samurai fan, manages to turn her Steel Samurai Fic into a plot for a movie, plus getting to play one of the main villains.
  • Arc Words: Are you lying Mr. Wright?
  • Asshole Victim: Damon Gant in spades.
  • Batter Up: Maya conjures a baseball bat up, seemingly out of Hammerspace when she tries to chase Phoenix out of Edgeworth's office.
  • Big Eater: Not only is Maya as Junkfood obsessed as ever (The Fic actually makes use of both, her US-Version Hamburger addiction and her JP-version Ramen addiction) and even tries to actually use this as an alibi in her testimony, there's also Lilie Heatherd, who's basically a walking food-lexicon.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Translating the German in Chapter 22 leads to rather... disturbing revelations. Franziska has a wound in her (right) shoulder from being shot by her father. Also, Gregory Edgeworth was the victim in the BD-7 case, and Dahlia is heavily implied by von Karma to have something to do with it.
  • Bizarro Universe: A minor and actually well thought out example; Edgeworth fufilled his childhood dream of being a Defense Attorney. There is no reason yet given for Prosecutor!Phoenix's career change.
  • Brain Bleach: Directly referenced at one point, when Phoenix comes up with a particularly disturbing image during his Inner Monologue.
  • Counting Sheep: Phoenix tries this to get some well deserved rest. It works.
    • that depends on your idea of rest. *shivers* the nightmare...
  • Creepy Child: Pearl is a bit...different. Such as how she's alive when she doesn't exist.
    • Mia states that that isn't actually Pearl, but something copying Pearl's shape from Nick's memories. Note that this isn't actually helping any, because we don't know who this spirit actually is and why s/he has it in for Nick.
  • Died In The Alternate Universe: Ema Skye, Morgan Fey, and Callisto Yew.
  • Dramatic Irony: Anyone who's played Apollo Justice knows that Phoenix is repressing from himself anything related to his disbarment as an attorney. This can create some disturbing Epileptic Trees
  • Fan Boy: Edgeworth is still one, seeing how he reacted when he saw Phoenix's Steel Samurai cards.

Miles Edgeworth: "You… You got the limited edition Mayoi and Chinami cards from the 'Moonlight Showdown' series!"
Phoenix Wright: "I got what of whom from what?"

  • For Want of a Nail: So far the only characters who retain their canonical roles in the story are the Skye Sisters and Gumshoe.
    • Arguably though, the fact that Morgan Fey became the Kurain Channeling Master instead of Misty should be considered another nail that changed, since it is in theory independent of the DL-6 incident.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Mayoi's schtick
  • Heroic BSOD: Mentally discussed:

The moment this whole implication turned out to be true, I would just do like the first PC I ever handled and suddenly shut down, accompanied by a weird, blue screen telling everyone that I 'encountered a problem'.

  • Idol Singer: MAYOI.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: like all Canon AA cases the fic uses Turnabout in the title.
  • The Ingenue: Iris refuses to give up on Phoenix despite being aware of Prosecutor!Phoenix's actions
  • In Spite of a Nail: The SL-9 case still occurred, unfortunately for the Skye sisters.
  • Jerkass: Lilie Heatherd. So far, she's been an annoying witness, obstructed a police investigation because she didn't want to be bothered, disrespected the court where she works, been a bitch to Maggey, and being all-around immature.
    • It's later implied that the reason she got together with Dylan Sengage is that she could pin the murder on him. Bitch.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Because asking outright would not be one of Phoenix's brightest ideas right now. The reader is very much welcome to look over the court record and speculate.
  • Meido: Maggey, once again. But this time the dress is pink.
  • Mind Screw: The dream. Lampshaded by the author. It was delicious mindfuck alright.
  • Mirror Universe: Avoided. Despite at first looking like one of these, the differences between the two are a bit more complex then a simple morality/position flip.
  • Mood Dissonance: Find out more about this world, maybe it's not so bad: No DL-6, Mia and Misty Fey and Gregory Edgeworth are all alive, happier childhoods for both Edgeworth and Dahlia, Maya is living the dream as an idol singer... and then they enter the appartment.
  • Mythology Gag: During Maya's song, her voice quakes when she sings the line "And my miracle will never have happened" so that the last word almost gets cut short.
  • Older Than They Look: Lilie Heatherd. She looks 15. Her actual age is 23. Her personality doesn't help much and neither does the fact that she tends to exploit her youthful looks to her advantage.
  • Ontological Mystery: How canon!Phoenix got to this universe is just as much as a mystery as the actual trial. It's likely to be related to his Trauma-Induced Amnesia which is more of a mystery to Phoenix than the reader
  • Original Character: Lilie Heatherd. Dylan Sengage, her boyfriend.
  • Princess Curls: Lilie Heatherd has them.
  • Porky Pig Pronunciation: Maya in Chapter 7.
  • Quest for Identity: And the truth is shaping up to be more and more unpleasant.
  • Ret-Gone: Pearl Fey no longer exists because she was born after DL-6. Which is strange, seeing as we met her eariler.
    • "Pearl" is a spirit, most likely malevolent, who's taken Pearl's form through Nick's memories. It's not the actual one, but we didn't know that at the time. This leaves the question: who is that girl?
  • Running Gag: A lot of things Phoenix encounters on the second day just happen to be pink. Among them: The Hello-Kitty themed cafeteria deco, Maggey Byrde's new uniform, Maya's mysterious letter, the blossoms of the cherry tree down the river and Kay Faraday's shirt. It would have more if Sōta Sarushiro's pink hoodie were there to.
  • Sailor Fuku: According to the author's sprite-thread on Court-Records.net, Lilie Heatherd's clothes were partly based on this.
  • Secret Keeper: Pheonix decides to tell Mia and later, to a far greater extent, Maya the truth about the fact that he's from an Alternate Universe.
  • Shotacon: Technically he's fifteen but Phoenix comments on how creepy Lilie's relationship is with Dylan Sengage is.
  • Shout-Out: Quite a few.
  • Spared By The Alternate Universe: Mia Fey, Gregory Edgeworth, Dahlia Hawthorne, and Misty Fey. Presumably there are more.
  • Squee: An absolutely hilarious example occurs when Edgeworth notices Phoenix has limited edition Steel Samurai trading cards. The fact that you can see the canon Edgeworth doing this makes it even more LOL-worthy
  • Stylistic Suck: Maya's script for the Steel Samurai movie.
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Phoenix has been having odd reactions to anything from Apollo Justice. Such as Psyche Locks
  • Unreliable Narrator: One where it's unintentional on the part of the character. Phoenix is not deliberately lying to the reader, but he's got Psyche Locks on himself.
  • Wham! Line: "Scientifically speaking, she is right"
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Several times. While still unsure about the details of what everybody else is talking about.
    This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.