Attorneyologies

I imagine a lonely Miles sitting at night in a hotel somewhere far away in Europe, hating himself and not knowing who to be and turning on the TV in a hopeless attempt to somehow distract himself from heavy thoughts and seeing instead of his favorite show that was supposed to be on now this

And thinking

"This sucks so much that I want to prosecute this guy, send him to prison and make sure that something this bad never appears on TV again."And hope appears in his heart, a reason to live and fight for truth and justice. And when he learns from Gumshoe about Engarde, he realizes that the time has come.

Yes. I think grouping the last three games into an “Apollo trilogy” doesn’t work because it so obviously wasn’t intended to be a trilogy. The original Apollo Justice was originally intended as a completely new game (with no Phoenix) but Capcom got cold feet and forced the plot to be changed halfway through development, and make Phoenix a main character, then after fans complained about how different Phoenix was in AJ, Capcom gave the series a “soft reboot” for DD where Phoenix was reset as a character and Athena was his assistant…but then Apollo and Trucy had nothing to do.

In DD Apollo was more of a plot device than anything else (he was just needed to angst about Clay - a character that was never mentioned before or since - and drag the last case out for extra drama by accusing Athena, something which felt very out of character for Apollo) none of the plot threads set up in AJ get resolved or even touched upon. People kept asking Capcom to give more details on Apollo’s family, develop his connection to Trucy, and his dynamic with Klavier…and Capcom just completely ignored them and instead gave Apollo a brand new family (set in a kingdom that was never intended to exist/was was only created to give Phoenix a new challenge to overcome) and separated Apollo from Trucy and Klavier so now we will likely never see them interact (outside of a non canon joke case) again.

It’s extra frustrating because, not only will the AJ cast never have a satisfying ending to their story, but we will probably never see a continuation of Athena’s story either. Just like Apollo in DD, Athena had nothing to do in SOJ, so there’s no opportunity to develop her and Blackquill as characters now.

Look, I do love Phoenix, and the original cast, but his story was over by the end of the original trilogy. He saved Edgeworth, avenged Mia and grew into a brilliant lawyer! That’s it! That’s the end! That’s why Phoenix needed to be changed so much in AJ, that’s why DD was so Athena focused (and why Athena has a very similar backstory to Edgeworth) and why the “Kingdom of Kura’in” needed to be created - Phoenix has nothing left to do so they just keep repeating the same plots over and over just slightly altered/“made more dramatic.”

I really, really hope that if AA7 ever happens we just get a brand new main character, with a brand new cast, with completely different problems and no connection to Phoenix and the Wright Anything Agency. I think that part of the reason TGAA was so well received is that, despite staring Phoenix’s own ancestor, there was still enough space for the rest of the cast to breathe and the second game actually followed up on the story of the original.

I've been meaning to share my older apollo design. Like, I'd say closer to 30's Apollo. He's a little tired, but he's filled with love and justice.

We see Trucy's impeccable observation skills + intelligence at play when she notices that Stickler is hiding something, her cunning and quick thinking in coming up with a scheme to not only delay the verdict but to create an opportunity for herself to convey this information to Apollo privately, and her boldness + confidence to fake her own kidnapping in the middle of a courtroom in the first place

It's been pointed out before, but Apollo is so empathetic in the way he bursts into tears out of fear for Trucy's safety, but also in his righteous anger towards the "gangsters" he thinks kidnapped her ("There's some things you just don't do! I'm pressing charges!"). Then, when he's back in the courtroom, we see his brash confidence in how he proclaims to the judge that he "settled it". I would need to replay the games to see if the rest of the canon supports my reading of him as a bad liar, but his awkward claim that it was an "out of court settlement" in this moment certainly isn't a good lie.

And this is one of the moments I always point to when discussing that Klavier is very intelligent and not the blonde himbo he gets characterised as in fanon sometimes. He's the only one in the courtroom that knows Trucy's "assailant" is just a magic trick, and he isn't fooled for a second. I also find it so interesting that he goes along with the scheme and even plays into it ("I see no reason to further aggravate this gentlemen"), but at the same time, makes it very clear to Apollo and Trucy that he knew exactly what they were up to ("Perhaps Fraulein would have us believe it was nothing more than a passing dream... a fantastic illusion, now you see it, now you don't"). Prolonging the trial serves his desire to better understand the attorney that had his brother arrested and that's most likely what his motive is here, but I also like to interpret Klavier as someone who likes to be entertained as much as he likes to do the entertaining, and Apollo and Trucy both are an endless source of amusement for him.