Light, just a question about Ace Attorney: who do you think out of the series is the most sinister, wicked criminal?
That's really a great question, Mr. Doom. I was thinking about that a while ago and I'm glad to have the opportunity to share my thoughts on the matter.
Out of the 5 games in the series (PW1-3, AJ and AAI) there are 5 candidates for what could be considered to be a major villain. These include:
- Manfred von Karma (PW1; Case 4)
- Damon Gant (PW1; Case 5)
- Dahlia Hawthorne (PW3; multiple cases)
- Kristoph Gavin (AJ; multiple cases)
- Quercus Alba (AAI; Case 5)
Justice for all had weak villains, so it's out of the running. Now then:
- Manfred von Karma is a perfectionist gone wrong, there's nothing else about his personality. Everything is an 'ends require the means' ordeal with this guy. He is the cause of 2 murders in the game. The first one is when he finds Gregory Edgeworth knocked out in the elevator and, as he has just suffered his only penalty in court, decides to take it out on Edgeworth. If it stopped there, he'd be dead last in terms of evilness. He then, however, adopted Miles Edgeworth, trained him to be closer to his image than his father's and THEN set up an elaborate scheme to trap Miles and have him accused of the murder of his father. It was a perfect plan and very diabolical but it's not 'evil' per say. It's just what was needed to remove every trace of von Karma's penalty in court.
- Damon Gant is a much more believable villain than von Karma is, to his credit. What he did was pretty much he set up a a scene in which three people were unconscious in the following manner: He killed one of them, made it look (to the public) like person two killed him so as to get the death penalty for person two and then (privately) forged incriminating evidence against person 3, Ema Skye. This forged evidence was used to keep Lana Skye in check for two whole years, allowing him to do as he pleased. His crimes came to light as he tried to off Bruce Goodman for poking his nose into the affairs. Despite all of this, however, he wasn't a bad person. He was clever and calculating, and a murderer, but he wasn't really as evil as the next two "contestants."
- Dahlia Hawthorne ties for first place in the evil category. She did everything imaginable with absolutely zero remorse for her actions whatsoever. She started off by stealing from her father and running away, blaming her co-conspirator, giving him a poison necklace in case he ever goes to testify (which would kill him instantly), poisons someone else snooping into the case and then hands the necklace to Phoenix Wright. Then she attempts to kill Wright for not handing back the necklace (and kills someone else too!). All of this under the guise of a sweet innocent girl. This was all incredibly clever and evil but she then returns from the dead after her execution and attempts to kill even more people. Her deep hatred and calculating schemes make her tied for #1.
- Kristoph Gavin is also tied for #1 just for the sheer planning capacity he had in everything he did. While defending someone in a murder case, he forges evidence and gives the forgers poisoned items so that as soon as they try to do anything behind his back they'll die. He later is unexpectedly booted from the case and Phoenix Wright is meant to take over. He then lets slip that the evidence is forged and manages to get PW's license revoked! As if this wasn't enough, as soon as Shadi Smith (Zak Gramarye) returned to talk with Phoenix Wright, Gavin offs Smith with a bottle to the head and tries to convict Wright. The sheer tenacity / planning of this man, along with his insane breakdown in court are what tie him with Dahlia.
- Quercus Alba really isn't in the same league as the last two, he just has no remorse. There's not really too much to say about him except for the fact that while his plans are really good, he left too much evidence laying about to the point where the only thing he has going for him is that he used diplomatic immunity to 'guarantee' safety. He's really not that evil, just remorseless.
Tier list of evil probably goes:
1) Hawthorne
1) Gavin
3) von Karma
4) Gant
5) Alba
That was way longer than I intended for it to be, but I hope it helps regardless.
