You’re kind of right, anon.

Specifically from a “doylist” perspective, outside the narrative– Phoenix Wright gets a pass because he’s the protagonist and the story follows his point of view and supports his justifications.

However, from a Watsonian perspective, inside the narrative– is Phoenix Wright really getting a pass? We don’t know.

In the cases of Damon Gant, Kristoph Gavin, Blaise Debeste, and Manfred Von Karma it took years and years for their corruption to be uncovered.

At the current furthest point of the timeline in Ace Attorney it’s only been two years since Apollo Justice was manipulated into presenting Phoenix’s false evidence. There is plenty of time for his sin to catch up with him.

What we don’t often grapple with in the Ace Attorney fandom is that both Kristoph Gavin and Phoenix Wright were just playing the game the way everyone else had been playing it.

The court in Ace Attorney has been dominated by corruption and forged evidence for over 20 years. Going on 30 at the end of the timeline.

Phoenix Wright’s “fall” is stooping to the same level that every other legal worker in the game he’s gone up against has. He knows that the only way to get a guilty verdict is by forging evidence.

And by the time 7 years have passed he’s jaded enough to do it.

And that’s not even touching the fact that Phoenix Wright’s solution to the forged evidence problem– the jurist system– is just switching the courts from an evidence based system to a vibes based system.