Wendy Oldbag

"Wendy Oldbag"

- All you young'uns are like that nowadays, running your mouths like there was no tomorrow saying this that and the other thing. Well when I was young let me tell you we knew a thing or two about respecting your elders. Back then we did and it's a crying shame that you youths today just say what you please about poor old ladies... Graaaaaaawr!

Wendy Oldbag is a talkative old woman who has worked as a security guard for various organizations such as Global Studios and KB Security. She was a witness to the separate murders of the two actors Jack Hammer and Juan Corrida.

Early life of an Oldbag
Little is known about Oldbag before she worked at Global Studios. However, she has revealed (during one of her frequent nostalgic rambles) that even she was young once, despite her surname. In fact, as a child, the other children would make fun of her because of it, even the captain of the chess club in junior high who she had a crush on.

Global Studios
Oldbag had worked at Global Studios for a long time in some capacity, referring to herself as a "twinkle between the stars" long ago. One day, she got her hands on a photo of an accident that had resulted in the death of an actor. This incident would cause Jack Hammer, who was a popular actor at the time, to fall from grace. However, she remained a great fan of Hammer and would always watch his rehearsals and action runthroughs.

Murder at Global Studios

 * Main article: Turnabout Samurai

Five years later, during an action run-through of The Steel Samurai: Warrior of Neo Olde Tokyo that Oldbag was watching, the lead actor Will Powers messed up a move and fell, breaking the Samurai Spear prop and spraining his ankle. After the run-through ended, Hammer, Powers, and the others sat down for lunch, while Oldbag returned to her post at the security booth at the main gate.

At about 2:00 p.m., she chased off a young kid, Cody Hackins, who had tried to sneak into the studio. Half an hour later, she saw someone in the Steel Samurai costume walking towards the studios, dragging his ankle. Oldbag assumed it was Powers because she had seen his injury earlier.

At about 5:00 p.m., a rehearsal was scheduled to occur at Studio 1, but it was canceled because Hammer was found dead in his Evil Magistrate costume, apparently having been stabbed through the chest by the Samurai Spear. Powers, who was taking a nap at the time, arrived late, and was accused by Oldbag of having committed the murder.

Witness
Lawyer Phoenix Wright took on Powers's case. He and Oldbag soon met for the first time, and she asserted her belief that Powers was guilty. She was later called as a witness and immediately became smitten with prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, much to the latter's chagrin. Wright tried to buy more time by accusing Oldbag of the murder, which Edgeworth did not make a serious attempt to refute. Later, Wright got Oldbag to tell him the entire story of the murder five years prior to Hammer's murder, which eventually lead him to clinch a not guilty verdict for Powers and have the true killer arrested. After the trial, Global Studios eventually cut its security staff, and Oldbag was fired. She offered to become Edgeworth's bodyguard, but he turned her down.

Despite this rejection, Oldbag's dedication to her "Edgey-poo" did not falter. A bouquet of flowers and a Steel Samurai statue could be seen in Edgeworth's office during Wright's investigation into the murder of Bruce Goodman. Examination of these objects revealed both to have notes signed by a "Wendy".

Murder at the Gatewater Hotel

 * Main article: Farewell, My Turnabout

"Miles Edgeworth"

- I saw the report with her testimony, but who knew that under that helmet... it was the wicked witch of the witness stand!?

One year later, Oldbag once again became a security guard, this time in charge of the Hero of Heroes Grand Prix at the Gatewater Imperial Hotel. For some reason, by this point, she had obtained a space suit costume (complete with toy ray gun) which she wore as her uniform. At one point during the event, she stole a reporter's camera and learned about a scandalous story involving her latest crush, actor Juan Corrida, who was participating in the Grand Prix. She snooped around Corrida's room to investigate. Later, in the hallway, she saw someone in a Nickel Samurai costume entering the Corrida's room. Corrida was killed soon after, and the actor who played the Nickel Samurai, Matt Engarde, was accused.

Phoenix Wright was on the defense's case again. Oldbag refused to cooperate in his investigation at first, but she melted and spilled most of her information on the case when Wright gave her a note autographed by Corrida addressed to "Wendy" (though it was most likely not addressed to Oldbag). To prosecutor Edgeworth's dismay, she was called as a witness during Engarde's trial, and Wright noticed that the Nickel Samurai in the photo was shorter than the one featured on a promotional poster. The person who had left Corrida's room was actually Engarde's manager, and Corrida had already been killed by then. Engarde was eventually found to be guilty of hiring an assassin to commit the crime.

At KB Security

 * Main article: The Stolen Turnabout

After the Corrida murder case, Oldbag was hired as a security guard at KB Security with Larry Butz accompanying her. Wright visited the KB Security offices, but he never saw her. Oldbag was later seen complaining that she had not appeared at all in the documentation of Wright's latest investigations.

At Gatewater Land

 * Main article: The Kidnapped Turnabout

"Miles Edgeworth"

- Kay, please, I'm begging you. By all means, do not provoke her any further...

Oldbag was next seen working as an entertainer dressed as the Pink Badger at Gatewater Land on Mar. 13, 2019. She witnessed what she believed was a murder, but she couldn't see the shooter or the victim properly. Miles Edgeworth, who was investigating the murder of Oliver Deacon, rushed to the stadium of the park upon finding out about an apparent witness to the crime, only to be horrified upon learning the witness's identity. Oldbag's testimony was too vague to be of help to Edgeworth until a device called Little Thief was used to recreate the crime scene. The murder that Oldbag had seen later turned out to have been a set-up.

As the Pink Princess

 * Main article: Turnabout Ablaze

"Wendy Oldbag"

- And here I thought you were avoiding me, Edgey-poo!

"Miles Edgeworth"

- (That was no miscalculation on your part. That's PRECISELY what I was trying to do!)



The next day, Oldbag was called to fill in as the Pink Princess (the usual actress, a woman named Mindy, was ill at the time) for a stage show at the Theatrum Neutralis between the embassies of Allebahst and Babahl. As part of her duties, she assisted the Steel Samurai in handing out boxes of Samurai Dogs to various members of the embassy's staff, however she took some of the boxes for herself, including one "special" box apparently containing a hinomaru fan design. She fractured her hip during the show, and so she was taken to the room next to Quercus Alba's office on a stretcher to recover. As she was warming her hip and drying her undershirt on a fireplace, a love letter from an apparent stalker fell through the chimney. Meanwhile, the Iron Infant (a prop from the show) was lost in a pool in Allebahst's rose garden.

Later on, Oldbag entered Alba's Office to complain about the noise coming from it. A suddenly dismayed Miles Edgeworth was there again, investigating the murders of Ka-Shi Nou and Manny Coachen. The unmasked Steel Samurai, Larry Butz, was there as well. As Edgeworth questioned Oldbag, he deduced that the fireplace in Alba's office shared a chimney with the fireplace that Oldbag had used, and that the two fireplaces were connected by a revolving wall. It also turned out that the letter's sender was Butz, who had intended the letter for Mindy.

Later that night, Edgeworth's suspect was named: Ambassador Alba himself. While he was rebutting Alba's testimonies, Butz found the Iron Infant in a pool in Babahlese Embassy. He and Oldbag went to the Theatrum Neutralis to deliver the news, which was just what Edgeworth needed to prove that there was a way to transport Manny Coachen's body from the Allebahstian to the Babahlese Embassy undetected. Through further examination of Alba's testimony, Alba was forced to admit that he had been inside the Theatrum Neutralis stage's dressing room, but that room had already been investigated and no evidence of murder had been found. At this point, Oldbag gave Edgeworth the "special" box of Samurai Dogs that she had kept for herself. This again turned out to be just what Edgeworth needed, for the hinomaru was in fact a drop of blood, which Alba had shed when Coachen tried to defend himself. Alba was consequently arrested, not only for the two murders he had committed, but also for leading an international smuggling ring.

Personality
Oldbag mainly comes across as a stereotypical cranky old lady. She is prone to ramble on and on when given the opportunity, lecturing others about their behavior and comparing their actions to the "good old days". She is also very stubborn, especially with those she views as "young whippersnappers", and reacts badly to anyone bad-mouthing her crushes. She has not kept track of her age since her 20s, so even she doesn't know her real age.

Crushes
Oldbag has had crushes on Miles Edgeworth, Jack Hammer and Juan Corrida. She has stalked all three of these individuals and has continued to stalk Edgeworth, even sending gifts of flowers and Steel Samurai statuettes to his office. Her attachment to Edgeworth is such that, although she showed some signs of an attraction towards Shi-Long Lang, she remained on Edgeworth's side during his investigations.

Name

 * "Ooba" comes from "obaa-san" which means "grandma" in Japanese. On the other hand, it may come from "oobaka", which means "a big idiot", or a combination of "obachan" ("old lady") and "baka" ("Ohba, Kaoru", which means idiot).


 * "Wendy Oldbag" is a pun on "windy old bag" or "old windbag", which is very suitable, seeing as she has the tendency to go on and on about her youth and other unrelated topics. It could also be a play on "old hag", referring to her generally less-than-pleasant personality. According to Ben Judd, her name was chosen because "she seemed like the sort of old lady who would carry around a big bag with her whole life packed up inside it".


 * Her French name, "Flavie Eïchouette" may come from "vieille chouette", a pejorative expression that literally translates as "old owl", but means something closer to "hag" or "crone".

Development

 * Oldbag has made an appearance in most Ace Attorney games, excluding Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (although she did appear in a trailer for the game) and Gyakuten Kenji 2 (however, she was alluded to in the TGS 2010 Special Stage Show which made Edgeworth regain his lost memories). In Gyakuten Kenji 2, she was originally supposed to cameo in The Inherited Turnabout, appearing in the 12 Constellations Art Gallery, but nothing came of the idea.


 * She was cut from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations due to game memory issues, only making an appearance at the very end when the development team discovered that they had just enough memory left to squeeze her in. Director Shu Takumi had wanted to give her a lei to signify that she had gone to vacation in Hawaii, but even this added extra was too much and thus did not make the finished game.


 * Oldbag is never referred to by name in the court record or organizer and instead is listed as "Security Lady" or "Ex-Security Lady". Her name is instead given in her court record biography text, and is phrased in a way that shows that neither Wright nor Edgeworth are sure about it.


 * In every case Oldbag is connected to, an important contradiction in her own or other witness's testimony involves people who are wearing costumes. In Turnabout Samurai, she said that Will Powers was in the Steel Samurai costume when it was actually Jack Hammer. In Farewell, My Turnabout, she says she saw Matt Engarde leaving the room in his racing jacket when it was actually Adrian Andrews in the Nickel Samurai costume. While she did work as a guard at KB Security, she did not appear in-person in The Stolen Turnabout. However, an important fact in the case was that Ron DeLite was wearing his Mask☆DeMasque costume when he visited Kane Bullard's office. In The Kidnapped Turnabout, she claims to have seen people outside a stadium with one shooting the other, but later remembers both were in costume. Finally, in Turnabout Ablaze, her stage partner, Larry Butz, thinks that the usual actress is the Pink Princess, when it is actually Oldbag acting as a replacement.

Appearance in the Gyakuten Saiban 4 trailer
In a Gyakuten Saiban 4 trailer, Oldbag appeared as a "witness" to the crime. She was a security guard at Capcom who stole the confidential files for Gyakuten Saiban 4 and blamed the crime on Mask☆DeMasque IV, who was aimlessly wandering around in the company storage. In her testimony, she became so excited she confessed to stealing the files. When the judge asked her why, she responded that it was for love and showed them the page describing the main character. From the descriptions, she thought it was Edgeworth who was the main character. This was disproved by Wright, who noted that the protagonist for the new game was 22, but Edgeworth was older. It was then discovered that the identity of Mask☆DeMasque IV and the main character was Apollo Justice.

Trivia
Wendy Oldbag is set to make an appearance in Project X Zone 2 as an assist character. She will be in The Pink Princess Costume.