Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice Case 2 murderer spoilers

Roger Retinz is perhaps the most evil villain in Ace Attorney's series, and certainly one of the most vile, disgusting fictional villains I have ever seen. He could get topped by somebody else in a later case, since I haven't yet played past case 2, but good luck to that happening. I am still reeling from how much of a petty sadist he is. I think he qualifies for Complete Monster, but I want to post how I personally feel more than anything. God knows getting it completely out of my system could help me get over the mess.

So the first official meeting with this ratings grabbing slimebag is met with him being a used car salesman, but it doesn't take long before the red flags show up. Wanting Trucy's head on a pike is an irksome show of lack of faith in anything but ratings, and calling magicians good-for-nothings personally offends me as a guy with a Squishy Wizard build even without the hypocrisy that Apollo notices, but what really sets me off is his casual comment about filming girls in bikinis wrestling each other. May I point out the reason Genki Girls get to be awesome by being vivacious females is because they CHOOSE, without any relevant amount of either pressure or ignorance, to dare to be awesome nice people. A contract that heavily exploits gender for cheap entertainment doesn't exactly allow that leg room.

So at this point, I'm hoping this guy will be a witness with a satisfying enough breakdown and we have hardly started at all. He next appears while the heroes are talking to Bonny de Famme. It turns out that thanks to Trucy's contract, because of the accusations of murder toward Trucy, the Wright Anything Agency now owes Take-2 TV (the company that Roger Retinz heads) a total of $3,000,000. No, I did not add ANY zeros there. The heroes actually are in that ridiculous debt because of this mess. Retinz takes the opportunity to gloat over the heroes' new predicament over this. Despite how such a contract should NEVER have been offered in the first place. At this point, I end up hoping he is the actual killer.

Oh, and it turns out he has an axe to grind with the Gramaryes. For that, he's dragging anybody associated with them into whatever his feud with them is, just for being associated with them. He then leaves dragging a seemingly reluctant Bonny with him. Ugh, the general sliminess is getting to me.

Oh, and guess what? Trucy reveals that she had in fact read the contract she signed and it said nothing about the $3M responsibility. In other words, the contract holding us to the $3M debt was FORGED. I immediately called sabotage as a result and took a well-educated, as you can see correct guess on who the final witness--and therefore the murderer--would be. I didn't even need to actively check out the holder, which turns out to have hidden carbon paper, to determine that Trucy was telling the truth.

Speaking of Trucy, she proves why magicians don't innately deserve the insults that Retinz throws at them, considering that she, a magician, did significant physical labor on the fly in response to a mistake that Bonny had made. While explaining the "abyss" as a plase where magicians' powers don't work. Reminds me of what my old man had told me about the truth about Santa Claus, that.

Back to Retinz, his next appearance is talking to Bonny in what they expect to be a private conversation. We find out that apparently, Bonny is a jealous Trucy-hating Shedog In Sheep's Clothing, giving her a motive for murder. She acts like a Bad Boss to Retinz, who has no problems with that under apparently being in love with her. I ended up hoping he kills that potential redeeming quality, though given that he's already clearly a willing part of the murder, I wouldn't have been surprised if he would have.

His next appearance doesn't do quite that, but it's incredibly slimy on his part: when the heroes return to the Wright Anything Agency office from the TV station, EVERYTHING has had "repossessed" sticker flags attached to them. Roger Retinz then comes in and tells the heroes to get out. It turns out that Retinz has paid the office a visit to take it over with pretense provided by the $3M contract beeswax. Not only that, it turns out that he had launched the plot when Phoenix couldn't be around to keep the office safe. In the meantime, the coward had also used his PR to round up a mob to surround the Wright Anything Agency office's building to get them even further harassed.

So come the investigation phase's end and I'm in massive shock. Roger Retinz has already managed to make me wish I was dealing with Matt Engarde all over again. At least with Matt Engarde, the one particularly aggravating thing* he did was attack Maya's agency, and even that was staggered by Genki Girls generally being creative souls (in Maya's case using a note to tell Phoenix to just get Matty his well-deserved Guilty verdict instead of trying to rescue her, as if Phoenix wouldn't try to Take A Third Option). Roger Retinz did a LOT to be an incredible, chauvinistic, cowardly scumbag, with no way to stagger it decently. You see why I made the topic on GameFAQs remarking about him being a Hate Sink.

*Somebody pointed to me about Matty's treatment of Celeste Impax. I didn't think about that hard enough because it was far enough in the background and Matty spent half of Farewell My Turnabout making us think he was a decent person, but in hindsight, it does deserve mention. Not everybody could have a wife--God knows that frustrates me--so it's sickening that Matty could be such a sadist toward somebody who would otherwise have wed him, somebody who is older than him at that for experience factor to help with the insight. Even then, however, trust me, Retinz has an even worse variant of this. Good *GOD* does he ever.

The ONLY good thing that came out of this was what the forged $3M contract proves: that the murder of the Great Mr. Reus was first degree, which means that Retinz being, inevitably at this point, caught would make him eligible for the death penalty. If it wasn't, then the contract is an unbelievable coincidence. The $3M demand requires the failure of the show on Trucy's part, and Retinz certainly acted actively on the insurance fraud--in hindsight, that hints that he's the one behind the entire plot. Of course, the big problem is making it clear that Retinz had his definite willing part in the murder.

Oh, and remember, this is only the Investigation phase. Roger Retinz proves to be even worse in the Trial phase. That isn't a surprise, of course. What is, is how much worse, and good GOD am I hoping I can keep things terse enough despite how during the Trial phase Retinz manages the incredible accomplishment of easily topping himself in his cruelty.

I need to clear this up first: in a twist during the Trial segment, it's revealed that Bonny de Famme has a twin sister in Betty de Famme, who have Sibling Yin-Yang going on despite being fraternal twins. It's not hard to guess that Bonny was the one who was witnessing us getting the $3M contract from Retinz and then got dragged off, and Betty was the one having the overheard conversation with Retinz. Anyway, shortly after the reveal, it turns out that Betty wants to stop talking about how she knew the show would be cancelled despite saying she isn't the murderer because the de Famme sisters are UNDER CONTRACT. In other words, Retinz doesn't give a damn about the de Famme sisters.

That's not bad enough for you? Well, turns out that the explained alibi of the de Famme sisters was in fact because of something Bonny confirms by begging Betty to reveal as much: they were paid to handle a hidden camera prank on Trucy, one handled by Take-2 TV. The plan was for Manov Mistree--the Great Mr. Reus to clear that up--to pretend to be dead. At least, that is what they were told. You can guess Retinz in fact manipulated Mistree and the twins, and likely the Take-2 TV station staff as well, under this premise, then killed Mistree to frame Trucy for it. This also clears up why Betty, with a Big Sister Instinct toward Bonny despite her gruff talk, was angry at Retinz, not like we can blame ANYBODY at this point.

So, during the court recess, Retinz has the gall to pull some more harassment toward the heroes, even bringing in "fans" of Trucy (read: whipped up hecklers). When he violates a no camera rules the courthouse has, Athena calls him on it and Retinz suddenly no longer has the camera in sight. This makes it clear to the heroes that Retinz is in fact capable of magic--making it clear he's a magician, when he has called magicians good-for-nothings. Add being a Boomerang Bigot to his hypocrisy.

When Trucy is proven to have done the sword-switching trick after all, revealing significant footage editing in the process, this forces Retinz to go on the witness stand, where we want him because the moment they do so, the murderer, Roger Retinz in this case, will inevitably prove their guilt, to clarify why he had to edit the footage. This is where his sadism with the $3M contract starts to really come back to haunt him, as it is even around to prove that the carbon paper was used to forge a note intended to frame Trucy, proving his spite toward Trucy to the court, and doing another important thing: revealing that Roger Retinz is in fact the real Mr. Reus, who it should be mentioned because it's going to be important very soon that Mr. Reus had been with the Gramaryes and then fired by Magnifi Gramarye and fallen in disgrace 13 years prior to this case.

Okay, so who is Manov Mistree when he's clearly a stand-in? Well, Retinz reveals something that makes it clear that he, Roger Retinz, is a contender for deserving to be called the lowest of scum: Manov Mistree was a simple fan of Mr. Reus who Retinz had a chance encounter with during one of his programs. Due to Mistree's high opinion of Mr. Reus, Retinz revealed who he was to the guy and basically named Mantree his successor.

In case you can't guess what makes this bad, it's the simple fact that Retinz had sacrificed Mistree, a loyal enough fan, simply to ruin Trucy's life as much as he can, because of his revenge motive toward the Gramaryes. This, when Trucy was maybe 4 when the Retinz had been fired and disgraced. She couldn't even have been doing ANYTHING to manage to warrant the venting. Attacking her, and especially the Wright Anything Agency by extension, is ridiculously arbitrary. Seriously, he manages to make KRISTOPH GAVIN look magnanimous.

May I also point out that Manov Mistree HAD NEVER CARED THAT MR. REUS GOT DISGRACED. This instantly butchers the validity of the revenge motive anyway, because Retinz had somebody who didn't care what the Gramaryes, in all their own actually stuck-up BS like firing DAs for losing Poker games, think. Retinz, rather than try to note that to let Mr. Reus regain glory naturally, simply murders Mistree, who never realizes the truth at the very least before having already been stabbed dead and thus had been loyal to Retinz the whole time, for a plot that wouldn't have gone to court without the murder itself.

I looked through crimes in Ace Attorney's mainstream series. There's 5 total that can be compared to what Retinz did to Mistree, and they are ALL committed by the Big Bads. 3 of those crimes involved the given Big Bad covering their tracks, when Mantree's death is the only reason the law's attention could even be needed. The other two are surprisingly less if still massively unjustified versions of Retinz sacrificing Mantree. With Manfred Von Karma raising Miles Edgeworth to be a lamb for the slaughter, it's a perceived Sins of the Father case directed toward Gregory Edgeworth.

The comparison to Matt Engarde torturing Celeste Impax needs its own paragraph. Matty's crime is abhorrent enough, of course, because that's him not realizing or perhaps not caring that not everybody even gets to have a wife, so what he did is indeed a special kind of evil. However, there are a few things that make Retinz's similar treatment even worse. First off, Celeste Impax at least had a choice to live on even after Juan Corrida dumped her; even if it still would have sucked, at least she knew how vile Matty was when she instead chose to commit suicide and she could very well have been admirable enough if she hadn't, of course we'll never know. Mistree never had that slim chance of making a responding choice; he was already stabbed dead before he could have realized Retinz's treachery. Second, I would argue that killing one's own surrogate son is arguably worse than killing or even torturing one's own wife, the latter of which is heinous enough to begin with. Matty did the latter. Retinz did the former. And third, and this is why the whole thing presses a MASSIVE Berserk Button on my part, Mantree had steadfast loyalty to Mr. Reus, not being bothered by him having been disgraced by the Gramarye Troupe. This in comparison to Celeste Impax bailing when finding out about Matty's monstrous side, rightly so but even then, by the time she committed suicide, she had already hated Matty's guts for a while. Mantree, by contrast, was deceived from beginning to end, by an absolutely unrepentant natural, and the most disgusting part is, had Retinz not been the sociopath he is, he would have had somebody with Undying Loyalty by his damn side.

Can you see how. Horribly. Disgusted. I. *AM*?!?!?

Fortunately, because things hadn't gone to Retinz's script, his alibi of being at the TV station when Mistree had been murdered falls apart, and interestingly, Retinz had in fact caught on to Bonny's mistake with Mr. Hat, and attempted to fix it, and yet he still acted ridiculously cocky, thinking there couldn't be a blind spot ANYWHERE, despite evidence to the contrary, such as, of course, the $3M contract. In other words, it wasn't simply because one of his (unknowing) accomplices had made a mistake that he ultimately gets busted like people say, though that contributed. It was because Roger Retinz is himself a sadist that he is exposed and defeated, his show cancelled permanently like Apollo says in his Bond One Liner.

Roger Retinz's breakdown, now that I can get to talking about it directly, is VERY satisfying and generally well done, aside from one problem I do notice from wanting to allude to it efficiently outside spoiler tagging. For the first minute, Retinz denies being out of tricks, and claims his magic is genuine. He then does a show where he burns masks one-by-one, each mask representing the Gramaryes--in order: Lamiroir, Valant, Zak, and Magnifi--while they're attached to his cape, and by the way, Retinz shows more proof of his being a pyromaniac in the process, always a sign of a good person. This of course shows that Retinz thinks he is still in control.

He then gets to the last mask, alludes to Trucy, and whips out the last mask, but before he starts to burn it, he notices, too late to hide it, that it's the Mr. Reus mask, now exposed for everybody to see. He hides it, brings out the next mask and it's the Mr. Reus mask again, this time all bloodied up, which proves particularly implicating. I'm thinking that's because the blood reveals that Retinz had indeed tampered with the crime scene, per the defense's very argument. Whatever the reason, Retinz starts screaming that he didn't do anything wrong even though it's clear to the entire courtroom's participants that he did, and then starts trying to hide from the spotlights that start turning on pointing toward him, to the uselessness of trying to do so.

I was worried, even before the Trial phase, that Retinz's breakdown would only be satisfying enough for any other Ace Attorney villain, but certainly not Retinz. However, it managed to be satisfying for Retinz, despite the loyal fan butchering (GOOD GOD THAT STUPIDITY) being added, for one reason: the spotlights. There are two reasons the spotlights is effective. First is that they basically represent pointer fingers. Remember that police use spotlights to place light on criminals. Naturally, it's now clear that Retinz is a criminal, guilty of first degree murder among other things at that, so now he is surrounded with no chance that he can escape. He can't talk his way out either because, as Trucy points out, Retinz turned magic into a weapon for monstrous treachery instead of a way of bringing joy.

The second, and more thematic as well as cathartic, is that Retinz had wished to have the spotlight of fame all to himself. He had wanted to be famous. What did he do to become famous? Unpleasant troll things. Roger Retinz had been a troll and would have done anything up to and including the incredible betrayal of a loyal fan for a few cheap laughs. Now the spotlight is on him, only its on him because of what he has done. Roger Retinz has become famous as a particularly cruel sadist, and now he wants out of it, but of course, this is NEVER going to happen, not now that he has done unforgiveable stuff for petty reasons. If Retinz wasn't in this position by being beyond heinous, I'd simply be suggesting to be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

The first part of the breakdown is also thematic, because it's a fake-out that had me think for a moment that the breakdown wasn't such, as suggested by my commentary, and we are talking about magicians and their sleight-of-hand, so the concept works. Of course, if there is one thing I had to fix about the breakdown, it would be the segments' lengths. I have to play devil's advocate because Retinz mentioned at one point about editing scenes to make them more interesting, but I think the breakdown segment length shouldn't skew toward the fake-out. Obviously, I wouldn't say the fake-out length should be completely neutered, but I feel the spotlights segment could have stood to be a touch longer at least, because it's the part that players would really like and would really appreciate after all the misery they had to deal with from Roger Retinz.

Even then, however, just that the breakdown manages to satisfy me after all the outrage from Roger Retinz is enough to make the breakdown well worth reaching.