Godot (pronounced GOD-oh, gə-DOH, or go-doh; see name section) was the mysterious coffee-loving prosecutor for Phoenix Wright's cases from October 2018 until February 2019. He held an open grudge against Wright, intentionally mispronouncing his name as "Trite" to show his contempt. Godot was originally Diego Armando, a senior defense attorney working at Grossberg Law Offices. ADVERTISEMENT Defense career Main article: Turnabout Beginnings Turnabout Beginnings A LAWYER IS SOMEONE WHO SMILES NO MATTER HOW BAD IT GETS. Armando was Mia Fey's aide when she took on her first case, advising her over the course of the trial and urging her to stay on the offensive. Near the end of the trial, their client, Terry Fawles, died on the stand as a result of drinking poison given to him by the real killer, Dahlia Hawthorne. Angered by the outcome, Armando crushed his mug of coffee in his hand, which subsequently began bleeding. Soon afterward, the two lawyers started dating, with their boss Marvin Grossberg referring to them as such.[1] Diego bleeding Armando's hand bleeding after breaking his coffee mug. On August 27, 2013, Armando sat with Hawthorne to question her. Fearing that the lawyer was on to her, Hawthorne slipped a special poison into his cup of coffee. The poison severely damaged his internal organs, particularly his central nervous system and his eyes, and turned the hair on his head white. Medical intervention saved his life, but he remained in a comatose state. Five years later, Armando miraculously woke up to the smell of coffee. Upon awakening, however, he learned that Mia Fey had been murdered two years prior by Redd White, CEO of the blackmailing company Bluecorp. Furthermore, Dahlia Hawthorne had already been brought to justice. Armando blamed Fey's understudy, Phoenix Wright, for her death, and resolved to protect her sister Maya. Armando became a prosecutor to test Wright's capability to succeed Mia, as well as to gain privileges to spy on Morgan Fey, whom he knew had tried to frame Maya for murder before and perhaps would attempt to kill or otherwise harm her again. Although he was able to compensate for his damaged vision by wearing a special visor over his eyes that enabled him to see, it was limited in that he could not see red on a white background, and he still required regular visits to the hospital. Considering his old self to have "died," he took on the new name "Godot". ADVERTISEMENT Prosecutorial career Main articles: The Stolen Turnabout & Recipe for Turnabout The Stolen Turnabout MEN THAT ARE TRAPPED BY THE CHAINS OF "MAYBE" ...CAN NEVER REACH THEIR DREAMS! Godot Trilogy Art Reborn as Godot. Godot made his debut as a prosecutor in the Mask☆DeMasque trials. Sly, sarcastic, and intolerant, he began to put pressure on Wright. Despite being his first time prosecuting, Godot was levelheaded and cool, displaying unnatural finesse with the law, prompting Wright to ask Detective Gumshoe about his background. When the defendant, Ron DeLite, was declared not guilty of theft, Godot prosecuted the subsequent murder case to challenge Wright again. Nonetheless, Wright managed to prove a private detective named Luke Atmey had created an alibi of larceny to prevent murder charges against himself. Near the end of the murder trial, Godot saw Maya channel Mia so that she could help Wright. Godot challenged Wright again in another trial. He could not see the ketchup stains on the defendant's white apron, hinting at his vision problems. He also demonstrated his remarkable ability to keep his cool even when faced with fearsome characters like Furio Tigre. Nonetheless, Wright bested him again, and Tigre let out a final roar, causing a short blackout. During the blackout, everybody noticed that Godot's visor glowed in the dark. ADVERTISEMENT Final trial Main article: Bridge to the Turnabout Bridge to the Turnabout HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ALREADY? IN MY WORLD, THE COLOR RED DOESN'T EXIST. THESE MUST BE... MY TEARS. One day, he overheard Morgan telling her daughter Pearl about a letter she had hidden, which would give her instructions for killing Maya. Oblivious to the letter's purpose and unable to understand some of the words, Pearl attempted to carry through with the plan, telling Wright and Maya about Hazakura Temple. Godot contacted Iris, a nun at the temple, and Misty Fey, Maya's mother, telling them about the plan and asking for their assistance. Misty had by then taken on the new identity of children's book author Elise Deauxnim, as she had left her hometown after being humiliated during the DL-6 Incident. Misty attempted to keep Pearl from carrying through with the plan by inviting her to read some books, but Pearl went anyway. She crossed a bridge to the Inner Temple, where Maya was training. Following her mother's instructions, she attempted to channel Dahlia Hawthorne, who had been executed a month before. Godot was already near the temple, prepared for the worst. When Pearl did not show up, Misty became worried and also crossed to the island, channeling Hawthorne to prevent Pearl from doing so. Godot With Elise's Cane Sword Preparing to stab the Misty Fey-channeled Dahlia Hawthorne. Hawthorne, in Misty's body, found Maya in the temple's garden and attempted to kill her, cornering her on a lantern in the temple garden. Godot witnessed this, though he was unaware of who was channeling Hawthorne at the time. He found himself possessed by an intense hatred for the woman who had ruined his life, picking up Misty's sword-cane and stabbing Hawthorne with it, only to be attacked by her one final time, causing his visor to fly off his face and leaving a wound. Maya fainted after the visor flew off, and Hawthorne left Misty's body as she died. Godot put on his visor again, which concealed his wound. He then carried Maya into the temple and cleaned up the bloodied snow. Unable to see the blood, he was forced to shovel a large rectangular area around the lantern. This also meant that he missed the bloody writing that read "Maya", which Hawthorne had written on the lantern before Misty died. Godot tried to carry Misty's body over the bridge, but it had burnt down, so he attached the corpse to a loose cable and swung it across the river for Iris to receive on the other side. Iris then stabbed the corpse in the Hazakura Temple courtyard with the Shichishito sword to make it look as if the crime scene had been on that side. Meanwhile, Maya woke up and wrote a letter to Mia for advice, and then channeled her. Following the advice that Mia subsequently wrote, Maya locked herself in the Inner Temple's channeling chamber and channeled Hawthorne to protect herself. The destruction of Dusky Bridge left the Inner Temple isolated from the rest of the area, trapping the people there - including Godot - for three days. Iris was arrested and tried for Misty's murder during that time, prosecuted by Franziska von Karma. The bridge was eventually repaired, allowing Wright, von Karma and Iris to reach the Sacred Cavern in order to undo the locks, hoping to save Maya. Godot coldly dismissed von Karma as prosecutor for the case, and managed to convince them that he had been at a doctor's appointment. Although Wright at this point only suspected that Godot was Armando, the latter laid into him, blaming him for Mia's death. Iris later managed to undo the locks, and Hawthorne proceeded to switch places with her, masquerading as her dark-haired sister and locking the real Iris in the channeling chamber. During the trial of Iris, Hawthorne, pretending to be Iris, testified that Maya committed the crime. However, Wright eventually uncovered her identity and, with the help of Godot and Mia, was able to come to the conclusion that Maya was channeling Hawthorne. Hawthorne, condemned to eternal failure at the hands of Mia, fled from Maya's body. Before Iris could be pronounced innocent, however, Godot challenged Wright to find the true killer, without the help and support of the Fey sisters. Godot's mask exploding Godot's mask exploding. Maya later testified as well. Filled with gratitude for Godot, she attempted to cover for him. Godot taunted Wright, asserting that he would "never be half the lawyer [Mia] was", but Wright, fulfilling his mentor's legacy, persevered and proved that Godot was the killer. Realizing this, and seeing Mia's spirit in Wright, Godot finally admitted his mistakes, accepting that he had only been angry at "Trite" because he had needed someone to blame for Mia's death. He further added that he had been at least partly motivated by a chance at revenge. If he had really only wanted to save Maya, he would have talked to Wright about the plan. He again stated that his name was Diego Armando. Maya responded that she believed that Armando really had been trying to save her. As he thanked her for her remark, his wound began to bleed through the visor. When told about it, he said simply that red does not exist in his world, and that they were in fact his tears. He gave Maya the same advice he had given Mia on her first day in court: "The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over". His soul in peace at last, he shared one last cup of coffee with Wright in the courtroom, and they agreed that it was the best coffee they had ever tasted. In addition, Armando pronounced Wright's name correctly for the first time. Wright was upset that he had been unable to save Armando, but Mia assured him that he had saved Armando in a way that had nothing to do with living or dying. ADVERTISEMENT Personality Recipe for Turnabout YOU'RE SAYING THAT IF SOMETHING ISN'T NORMAL, IT SIMPLY ISN'T POSSIBLE? WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE THE PORCU-HEADED LAWYER AND THE TOPKNOT CHICK OVER THERE... AND THE UNGODLY COOL GUY WITH THE MASK OVER HERE? WELL, TRITE? Godot Mugshot Mugshot as Godot. Armando's talent as an attorney was matched only by his hot-shot confidence that bordered on conceit. He was generally very calm and collected, rarely being rattled even when at a serious disadvantage. This ability to keep his cool was on display while helping Mia Fey through her first trial. He retained this trait in his new persona as Godot, as he was the only one unfazed by Furio Tigre's intimidating demeanor. Godot had a particular habit of using countless metaphors and quotes constituting his "rules", though their meanings were often lost on others. He would also often let out a short, derisive laugh before proceeding with his remarks. However, his most distinguishing feature was his deep love of coffee. He was known to drink seventeen cups of coffee per trial day and had at least 107 different personal coffee blends, with his personal favorite being #102. His coffee was known for being exceptionally bitter and hot, which he considered a point of pride. Many of his metaphors were related to coffee, leading Wright to refer to them at one point as "Coffeenese". Before his poisoning, Armando expressed a liking to other coffee-based drinks, such as a mocha latté or café con leche with sugar. On the other hand, after his incident, Godot became a staunch believer that coffee should only be drunk black, with no sugar or milk added, showing anger even at the thought of doing such a thing, while also making a single exception to said creed when he cheered up the distraught Pearl Fey, who had just spent the night in freezing loneliness worried sick for her cousin. Although Godot proved a formidable opponent to Wright, who called him "the most dangerous enemy [he's] ever faced" up to that point, his arguments past his opening statement and witness testimonies would frequently boil down to repeatedly insisting that Wright had no proof to back his claims up. At times, he would downright not bother to argue his case, such as when he let Wright prove Ron DeLite's alibi against his theft charge in order to stick a murder charge on him, or when he let Wright trick Furio Tigre into indicting himself for the poisoning of Glen Elg. This is a sharp contrast to Wright's previous opponents, who would go to great lengths to keep their cases alive. One of Godot's surprising talents was his accurate impersonations of other people. He has mimicked both Desirée DeLite and Victor Kudo to get his point across in court. Maya Fey admired these for their authenticity, while Phoenix Wright described them as the "best and worst impersonation[s]" he had ever seen. ADVERTISEMENT Protecting others Godot's actions since Mia's first trial can be understood in terms of his attitudes toward women. Some of his "rules" resembled a chivalric code with hard gender roles, and he was fond of referring to women by pet names, such as calling Mia "kitten" and Franziska von Karma "princess". While his interactions with other men were relatively ordinary, he often took a more personal and judgmental stance toward some women, best demonstrated by his dismissive demeanor when interacting with von Karma. Additionally, his murderous hatred toward Dahlia Hawthorne led him to "kill" her, even though she was already dead. The most notable manifestation of this aspect of Godot was in his obsession with protecting Mia. Upon learning of her death during his coma, he felt immense guilt for his "failure" to save her, despite the fact that he had been very much powerless to do anything about it. Godot ended up projecting many aspects of this guilt onto Wright, blaming him for Mia's death even though he similarly could not have had the foresight to do anything about it. In addition to this, he used Maya as a proxy for Mia in his fixation on protecting her. These two goals motivated him to become a prosecutor and eventually concoct an elaborate plan to have himself "save" Maya from danger instead of talking to her or Wright to prevent the whole situation from occurring to begin with. Godot was more concerned with demeaning and taunting Wright, even occasionally throwing his full coffee cup at the defense attorney's head in court. He tried to make Wright feel the guilt that he felt, using Ron DeLite's murder accusation and Pearl's inadvertent role in Morgan's plan to make his point. In the end, however, Godot accepted that everything he was doing was based on his own guilt rather than any actual malice toward Wright, and accepted his fate as Wright proved that he was Misty's killer. Godot's actions ultimately forced Wright to confront his own conception of what it meant to protect and save others. ADVERTISEMENT Name "Godot" originates from the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot. This is furthered by Luke Atmey's comment that "some people spend their entire lives idly waiting for his appearance", a reference to the aforementioned play, in which two men wait for an acquaintance named Godot to arrive, contemplating suicide if he does not show up, effectively "waiting a lifetime". Godot himself also references the play with the quote, "There wasn't anyone waiting for me when I woke up." Samuel Beckett stated that "GOD-oh" was the correct pronunciation for the character in his play.[2] Despite this, the name is often pronounced "gə-DOH" in the United States, as is the case in the English dub of the anime adaptation. In Japanese, the name is pronounced "Godō" (ゴドー), which is also the case for the Ace Attorney character. In-universe it could be explained by the original name of the Eagle River/Mountain - "Godou" (吾童), which can be read as "Godot", although Godot spells his name using katakana. Shu Takumi himself wrote that this "depends on your point of view".[3] Japanese - Sōryū Kaminogi (神乃木 荘龍): His given name, "Sōryū" (荘龍), contains the kanji for "dragon" (龍, "ryū"), a trait shared by Wright's Japanese given name, "Ryūichi" (龍一). "Kaminogi" (神乃木) translated means "Tree of God" and may be a reference to Waiting for Godot, which takes place at the foot of a tree. It could also be interpreted as referencing the "God" in Godot, though it should be noted that Waiting for Godot is a French-language play. The full name "Kaminogi Sōryū" may be pronounced as "kami no gisōriyū" (髪の偽装理由), meaning "the reason for camouflaging the hair". English/French/German/European Spanish/Italian - Diego Armando: His real full name was likely chosen as a reference to his alias; "Godot" is a portmanteau of the last syllables of "Diego Armando". It is possible that his first name "Diego" is in reference to the two main characters in Waiting for Godot, who call each other "Didi" and "Gogo". Another possibility is that it is a reference to the late Argentine association football player and manager Diego Armando Maradona, who was famous for his "Hand of God" goal during the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter final against England and suspension from the sport due to drug use. His intials are D. A. - which can stand both for "Defense Attorney" and "District Attorney", representing his dual identity. Chinese - Shénnǎimù Zhuānglóng (神乃木 莊龍 / 神乃木 庄龙) // GēDé (歌德): The name "GēDé" refers to Goethe, the German poet. The way to write "Godot" would be "GēDuō" (戈多). Latin American Spanish - Iago Dorrego: "Iago" is a nod to Iago (written Yago in Spanish), a character from William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Othello. The name itself is also a Spanish adaptation of the name "James", which comes from "Jacob" (Ya'aqob), which has multiple meanings, but among them, "supplanter". "Dorrego" is a surname which means "of the tower". The last and first syllables of the first and last names, respectively, put together, make "Godo", how his pseudonym "Godot" is pronounced. ADVERTISEMENT Unofficial Russian - Diego Armando (Диего Армандо)/ Godot (Годо): Transliterated from the Western version. Pronounced [Godo]. Sometimes mispronounced as [GO-dot] (Годот) Development Design Godot has short spiky white hair, side burns, a goatee, and dark skin. He typically wears a tan striped vest, teal shirt, white tie, black pants, and black shoes. The upper half of his face is dominated by his gray visor, which has three horizontal red lights across it. The visor glows in the dark, as shown in Recipe for Turnabout and in Bridge to the Turnabout. The light from the visor is brighter in the latter than the former. He also wears two ring earrings in his left earlobe. The color schemes of the Godot and Armando personae are, on many levels, complete inversions. Red and green are chromatic opposites, as are black and white, which are evident in his shirt, hair, and tie. The absence of red (with the exception of his visor) and presence of white in his color scheme as "Godot" may be a reference to his inability to see red on a white background. It's worth noting that, when seen through a red filter, teal becomes black and white becomes red. To Godot, his outfit would be black with a red tie, as opposed to red with a black tie for Diego. Ace Attorney art director Tatsuro Iwamoto based Godot's appearance on the character Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer in the sci-fi thriller film Blade Runner.[4] He poured all of himself into designing the character, and looked up "hardboiled" on the internet for inspiration.[5] Godot was originally intended to have an animation in which he would slam his bench with his foot. This idea would be eventually implemented with Barok van Zieks in The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures.[6] According to producer Atsushi Inaba, there was a rejected early design of Godot as a robot that he liked.[5] Godot was originally going to smoke and drink bourbon whiskey, but this was changed to an obsession with coffee to be less of a negative influence on children.[7] As a result, his design changed into something even Iwamoto did not expect.[5] ADVERTISEMENT Localization Some of the English name ideas that were scrapped for Diego Armando included Joseph Cuppa, Xavier Barstucks and William Havamug.[7] The intentional mispronunciation of Wright's name by Godot varies between language localizations. In the original Japanese script, it's "Maruhodou". In the French, Spanish and Italian localizations, it's "Light". In the German localization, it's "Breit"; a pun in that it can mean both "broad" and "drunken". In the official Brazilian Portuguese localization, it's "Canário", which means "Canary", another bird's name since this localization mostly uses Phoenix instead of Wright. In the Brazillian Portuguese fan translation, it's "Chatíssimo", which means "very boring". Miscellaneous Diego Armando and Eddie Fender are, to date, the only defense attorneys met in-game who do not openly wear their attorney's badges. Iwamoto has explained that an unnamed genius scientist is responsible for saving Armando's life after the poisoning and creating Godot's visor.[8] At the time of the Nintendo DS release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Godot was one of the most popular characters among the male staff.[8] ADVERTISEMENT Cultural references Godot states that he likes his coffee "Blacker than a moonless night". This may be a reference to a similar line spoken by the character Dale Cooper in the second episode ("Traces to Nowhere") of the television serial drama Twin Peaks. When asked how he takes his coffee, he responds that he takes it "Black as midnight on a moonless night." During Turnabout Beginnings and Bridge to the Turnabout, Armando/Godot says "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth." This a paraphrase of something often said by the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in several of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, including The Sign of the Four. During "Iris's" testimony in Bridge to the Turnabout, it is (falsely) stated that Maya turned the tables on her attacker by taking her knife. Godot's response to this is: 'As they say... "A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal".' The quotation he uses is that of a line spoken by the character Gray Fox near the end of the stealth action video game Metal Gear Solid. Godot's mask bears a superficial resemblance to the battle visor worn by the character Cyclops from Marvel Comics' X-Men team. However, in terms of functionality, Godot's visor more closely resembles the vision-enhancing VISOR device worn by the blind character Geordi La Forge from the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Him telling Franziska von Karma to "Know your role, and shut your mouth" is a reference to a catchphrase of Dwayne Johnson as his WWE persona The Rock. ADVERTISEMENT References in other media In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Wright has a number of alternative costumes he can wear, the color schemes of which are all references to other characters. One of the choices is based on the color scheme of Godot's outfit. Godot also appears, along with Franziska von Karma and Miles Edgeworth, as cards in the game's Heroes and Heralds Mode. One of Wright's post-victory lines mentions Godot's Sherlock Holmes-inspired quote, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth", before stating that a "coffee-loving prosecutor" once said that. Wright also mentions that "I'm not a big fan of things being thrown at me... but at least it wasn't hot coffee!", referencing Godot's habit of throwing such beverages at the defense attorney. In Mega Man Star Force 3, another Capcom game, there is a subtle reference to Godot. If the character Omega-Xis is equipped with the "HumorWrd" ability, the player may receive a call from his teacher Mitch Shepar. In the call, Shepar reveals that the flasks around his neck contain coffee and milk, since he finds it convenient to be able to drink coffee whenever he wants. When quizzed by Omega-Xis about what kind of bean the teacher uses to make his coffee, Shepar says that he cannot tell him, but does reveal that it is called "Blend #107". This is the same number as one of the blends that Godot mentions. The scene in question can be viewed here. In the Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney special episode Reunion, Hershel Layton tells Luke Triton that the group has had enough tea for the moment. Wright, Maya, and Espella Cantabella all then begin trying to work out how many cups they've had, which turns out to be 17 in total. Maya then wonders why the professor stopped there, and says, "Maybe the professor has a rule when it comes to drinking tea [...] You know, something like... 'I never drink more than 17 cups of tea during any given puzzle'." This is a reference to Godot, who would often state things to be "one of my rules", with one such rule being that he never drinks more than 17 cups of coffee during a trial. The fact that this is a reference is even pointed out in a fourth wall-breaking comment by Wright, who tells Maya that she "might want to think twice about using that kind of Ace Attorney reference here". In Coffee Talk, a visual novel by Toge Productions, the description for Espresso quotes the line starting with "Blacker than a moonless night..." directly from The Stolen Turnabout.

"It's been a while, Trite. You're still as green as a cup of decaf, I see. Let's see if you've learned anything at all, or if you're still just stumbling around in the dark." *He slowly raises a steaming mug of coffee to his lips, his visor catching the dim courtroom light.* "Blacker than a moonless night, hotter and more bitter than hell itself... that is coffee. Now, let's stop wasting time. The truth is waiting, and I don't intend to wait for you to catch up." "A lawyer is someone who smiles no matter how bad it gets. Remember that, Trite. Or are you too busy sweating to keep that smile on your face?"

It is a quiet afternoon at the prosecutor's office. Godot is sitting at his desk, surrounded by stacks of legal documents and a small, high-end espresso machine that hums softly. The air is thick with the rich, dark aroma of his latest blend (blend #107). He is currently reviewing a case file that he finds particularly dull, waiting for someone to walk through the door and provide him with at least a modicum of entertainment.