Nobody got kidnapped in 1-2 and frankly I can't really see there's any sort of real connection to it in that particular regard.
Let me rephrase what I meant by this case’s similarity to 1-2. Aside from the obvious similar murder taking in same place (that was also witnessed from same place as well), Edgeworth and Apollo suggest the possibility of somebody with big wealth and influence, maybe even connected to Redd White, being behind this all. Especially Apollo, who openly states that his case is Phoenix being killed by a hired assassin paid by some older enemy. He also suggests that Danielle herself sponsored the article that removed Edgeworth from the case.
The similarities to 1-2, the fact that somebody influenced the case through press leaks, lack of motive for Athena, established existence of many people that would want Phoenix dead, and the 12 years of Phoenix’s Agency defending wrongly accused – I believe that’s enough, even for Franziska, to think for a moment “maybe the police got it wrong and those foolish fools are right again”.
But if some older enemy, let’s say Bluecorp, was behind this, there’s a problem. After 3-5 (actually, even just after 1-2, but everybody was blind about Mia in Maya’s body), Bluecorp should know about Fey’s abilities. If they have really killed Wright and framed Athena, even if they had a magical assassin that doesn’t leave any traces behind, a big hole in their plan would be not taking care of Maya and Pearl.
And then both Maya and Pearl happened to be abroad, and couldn’t be contacted until it was too late for Edgeworth to postpone the case to wait for them. So Maya and Pearl could come to help only during the trial. But their plane had an emergency landing, and the information reached Apollo and Athena only after Danielle’s testimony was accepted by the court and they desperately needed to present anything, or the trial would end right away. And they couldn’t even beg Franziska into requesting recess to wait for Feys, because of the controversy about Edgeworth. And they couldn’t obtain direct confirmation from both Maya and Pearl about what happened. And actually they never had talked with Pearl, because of Maya’s supposed decision to keep Pearl out of the loop until the emergency channeling.
There are coincidences, and there is a ton of things forming a pattern. And the guy that was supposed to use his Chords of Steel to shout about this pattern seemingly noticed nothing.
And again -- I'm not really discussing whether or not it's suspicious. My problem is with the leap of logic from "this is kind of weird" to "CLEARLY it must be kidnapping" (it's phrased like "it could be" but then afterwards goes like "yeah they were kidnapped" and rolls with it which honestly felt like it came completely out of the left field.
I can rewrite things a bit and have phantom-Edgy start the argument elaborating more on too many coincidences piling up (in some way that wouldn’t give away answers to all the further questions), on the very likely scenario being somebody actively preventing Feys from showing up, and on the worst-case scenario being kidnapping to ensure they won’t ever show up. Franziska cares about Maya and Pearl (she spent a day on brutal forcing puzzle locks to save “Maya”, not to mention withholding the card that would, through Phoenix and Maya, connect DeKiller with Engarde), so them being at possible risk is enough to her seriously evaluate this possibility. And if nothing denies this possibility, she has to do something about it.
One thing to note, though. While I keep it from the player until the reveal, Franziska did hear the rumors about Neela. She was already suspecting Danielle’s true identity at the start of part 2, and all those flashbacks and visions were her seeing the obvious.
Coincidences happen. Gumshoe got into a car wreck delivering super-important evidence. A freakin' bridge was lit on fire by a lightning bolt to create a complex crime. My point is, it doesn't warrant calling it suspicious to such an extent when everything Franziska has to work with evidence-wise implies it was just a bad coincidence.
But again, it wasn’t just a one random event of that case. It was multiple, well-timed events.
If they were kidnapped, why WAS Pearl unavailable during call?
In-story reason, or in-Phoenix’s-story reason? Phoenix gave Franziska a hint that something was up with Pearl. As to why kidnapped Pearl would be unavailable, there are many possible explanations – she was a worse liar than Maya, Phoenix’s death and the kidnapping could make her unable to talk, etc…
Couldn't have Apollo simply lied about getting her on the line, especially since he was the one doing the calls in the detention center?
All the calls happened in front of Athena, so Athena could listen and wouldn’t have a reason to doubt them.
Or, couldn't have there been a much simpler explanation of "she was asleep" or "Maya intentionally didn't want her tell her until they were closer to home for whatever reason" or "Pearl's phone broke and whenever they were talking to Maya she just saw no point on putting Pearl on the line" (that last one I guess is half true anyway so).
In-Phoenix’s-story, Apollo was surprised by Athena suddenly telling Franziska that Pearl was unavailable even for the latest call. He started to panic and didn’t come up with any excuse.
Either way, going with the assumed timeline of events, Franziska could've concluded any of these things and then later just went "Maya must've just told Pearl about it and had her channel Nick later."
I’m confused about the assumed timeline. The supposed (according to Evol Apollo’s lies) timeline was:
- Maya learns she won’t make it in time to the trial
- Maya tells Pearl what really made them suddenly return to LA and asks her to channel Phoenix to talk with him
- Maya calls Apollo and Athena to tell them about what happened and what she learned from Phoenix.
This all run through Apollo’s script. But Athena asked about Pearl and Maya excused it with Pearl being too exhausted to talk. And Athena brought that up in front of Franziska, after she already started smelling a set-up.
Seems much more reasonable than going full-on conspiracy mode. If you want to claim she should've done it because of similarities to 1-2... Iunno. Especially since during 1-2 White's reach in the investigation wasn't THAT powerful. He controlled the witnesses, but investigators? Edgeworth?
White had Chief Prosecutor on his call and Udgy also was stated to be under his pressure. Edgeworth was seemingly clean, but he went full Demon Prosecutor anyway. It’s pretty hard to estimate White's actual power due to him being a dumbass and also due to the writers preferring to forget about the subject. (Don’t ask me how exactly White works with 1-5. Heck, don’t ask me how exactly White works with 1-4.)
Neela had only her father’s money to hire mercenaries to handle everything about Feys, and Apollo making Brusher write his article, plus unspecific dirt on the judge that still could be used. Though with kidnapped Feys, they also had a way to influence Edgewroth.
But for Franziska, Edgeworth was suspicious because of his last meeting with White that seemed fishy. And Edgeworth actually was hiding something about it, though the truth about it contradicted with everything Fransizka was lead to believe about her case.
Eeeehhhhhh... I wouldn't really agree. And honestly, Franziska of all people isn't one to go off making ludicrous theories over just her hunches.
I think that considering all that happened during the trial, even if Franziska didn’t know about Neela, there was enough to start noticing a possible set-up and worrying about Pearl and Maya. But again, I agree I should have Franziska be less sure about it and more worried that the kidnapping was a possibility that couldn’t be disproved.