you know what’s a real burden? a person that is so scared of leaning on other people that they try to be completely self sufficient and you end up either having to help them indirectly to save their ego or they have to break down in order to receive help, both of which are so much more heavy to the person that loves them than just being leaned on casually
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
DL-6 affected people other than those directly involved in it. It was the reason Misty disappeared and it was what led Mia to pursue Redd White - in other words, it's the reason Maya's mother left her when she was a toddler and one of the things that led to her sister's murder, which she witnessed and was subsequently accused of. It's the root of her own trauma as well as a warning of the danger that befalls a spirit medium, which she would do well to learn about if she's going to be the Kurain Master.
Phoenix doesn't pry into DL-6 any more than he needs to. In fact, he's not even aware it has anything to do with Edgeworth until Grossberg mentions it - and then, he does preliminary research with the available data because he anticipates a motive angle. But before then, any of what he and Maya do to look into DL-6 is coming more from Maya than from him, because at that point, all they know is it's the reason Misty disappeared. Maya recognizes Hammond and recommends talking to Grossberg, which is how they get Misty's picture.
Speaking of which, you know how Phoenix proves they looked into DL-6 by showing Misty's picture? That's because they have another reason to look into it, as mentioned above. Maya mentions in the same conversation that Misty is her mother (with the part about her leaving when Maya was a toddler implied). It's a way of showing Edgeworth that he doesn't have to be alone with his trauma, and it's ultimately what convinces him to let Phoenix defend him.
The Gourd Lake murder and its DL-6 similarities are all MvK's doing. He orchestrated the whole thing to deliberately resemble and bring it to mind, all with the aim of manipulating Edgeworth into falsely confessing. As far as making him relive his trauma goes, MvK is the one truly at fault, as everyone else either plays a role he assigned (as Yogi does) or stands up to him (as Phoenix and Maya do). Worth mentioning is that MvK was actively abusing Edgeworth for much of his life, forbidding him from staying in contact with his friends and drilling into him the perfectionist mindset (as we can see in I1).
Having childhood trauma rehashed takes time to heal from, and during the "Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death" year, he does heal. And when he does, he finds that Phoenix's favor to him is one he can repay, not only to him, but to others in a similar situation as what he was in before, such as Sebastian Debeste in I2. The resolution of DL-6 not only helps him to stop blaming himself, it also serves as a catalyst for personal growth, and it's something he recognizes and feels grateful to "that man" for.
If Ace Attorney had branching storylines, there would exist a universe where the dark age of the law started because Miles Edgeworth ignored evidence to protect his dear and indispensable friend from an abusive ex.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
With regards to the 7 year gap, and Phoenix and Kristoph's relationship in particular, something I feel doesn't get talked about enough/is often forgotten is that part in the MASON segment where Phoenix visits the 2019 version of Drew Studio.
The MASON segment is a non-linear narrative with evidence and information seemingly traveling back in time (you have to get the nail polish and Thalassa's profile from 2026 to present in 2019, for example) and this often leads players to assume that there is literal time travel happening or that the gathering of information is otherwise retroactive. But from the way these "time traveling" pieces of information are discussed in text, it can be assumed that while the player has to "time travel" for it, Phoenix got the information himself in a more linear manner off-screen.
We already know that before adopting Trucy, he did some research on her family background to see if she had any living relatives. While the player has to "time travel," Phoenix could very well have learned about Thalassa through much less exciting means. Of course, this makes his 2026 conversation with Brushel a little weird, but what interaction with him isn't, really?
In any case, it's entirely possible that he learned about Thalassa's bracelets the same way without needing to talk to Brushel (at least not the version of the conversation that the player has to go through). When talking to Zak about the Perceive ability, the player knows to present Apollo's profile because we've been playing as him and using that ability, but Phoenix mentions an off-screen event - namely, visiting Kristoph's office (a location the player never actually sees) and noticing Apollo, observing that his bracelet is the same as Thalassa's. For Phoenix to have known that in April 2026, he would have to gather information through different means than the player, and we know that he knows about Apollo's ability in April because he teaches him how to use it during Turnabout Trump.
Back to the 2019 version of Drew Studio. We know that the MASON segment is a non-linear narrative, even within the same year ("Borscht Bowl Club" is contained to April 2026, whereas the other 2026 segments presumably take place in October). It's safe to assume that the 2019 segments are also told in a non-linear manner and that the narration can serve as a clue for the true order of events. We know that "Defendant Lobby No. 2" takes place after Trucy's adoption (in May) because of a line where Phoenix refers to Trucy as his daughter. But in "Drew Studio," the narration states that Phoenix doesn't know what fatherhood is like, suggesting that it takes place before, most likely in April.
Now here comes the interesting part. We have to present (some version of) the notebook page to talk about forgery. The player has to get the true notebook page from the future, but we can assume that Phoenix still has the forged notebook page since it was evidence in the trial. Then we unlock Drew's Psyche-Locks by stating the same thing Apollo did in the day 1 trial, that Vera is the real forger, except Phoenix figures it out faster and more logically based on the fact that Drew didn't actually meet the client. We present the stamp to talk to Vera, and she has Psyche-Locks about her client.
Here's the thing: we can get the stamp into the Court Record from the same room, but we can't do the same to the bottle of nail polish sitting right next to it. From a game mechanic standpoint, it's to make sure we know which person to associate that nail polish with - we have to visit Kristoph in his prison cell in the future to get nail polish into the Court Record. That is entirely for the player's sake so we know to associate nail polish with Kristoph and we're not left to throw out guesses at Vera's Psyche-Locks. But like with Phoenix's knowledge of Thalassa and the Perceive ability, we have to assume he found out through other means. And what could those other means be?
We know that Kristoph was a member of the Bar Association at that time and that he was present at Phoenix's hearing. We know that he cast a dissenting vote, and said it was because he wanted to apologize for Klavier. The hearing itself and any further interactions with Kristoph are off-screen events that might serve as Phoenix's information sources. Phoenix calls Kristoph a "friend" when we present his profile, but we know that based on the nail polish, he can guess at that point that Kristoph is Vera's client, something which is only confirmed when her Psyche-Locks unlock.
We have to remember that the MASON segment is more than just a device to show the player what knowledge Phoenix has. We're not really playing as him during that segment, but as the jurists, who are figuring out the case's development for themselves based on the information Phoenix shares with them. The details about Troupe Gramarye and the Perceive ability are there because it's part of how the forgery incident developed, but Phoenix's actual means of finding this information out are somewhat personal to him and Trucy, so he doesn't share that part directly.
So what does that mean about the nail polish? Clearly, Phoenix had to have made the association between Kristoph and nail polish himself based on their interactions before his visit to Drew Studio. So why not show the jurists that? Why show them Kristoph's prison cell to have them make the association?
A likely possibility is that he wanted to keep things (somewhat) simple. Valant is the only person we talk to on both sides of the 7 year gap, both times with Psyche-Locks, so it's possible that Phoenix purposefully limited everyone else to only one appearance to reduce "noise" from unnecessary conversations. We can be a lot more direct with 2026 Kristoph (and talk about more pressing matters, like his murder of Zak and how it might be connected to the current case) than we could have been with a hypothetical 2019 Kristoph. And it's just a bottle of nail polish, important enough to Kristoph that he has one in his cell, how much is really lost by trimming the 2019 interactions? Not to mention, the jurists would be familiar with Apollo's ability from watching the day 1 trial, so nothing is lost by trimming the encounter in Kristoph's office.
In short, what exactly is presented in the MASON segment and in what order is about what the jurists need to know and letting them (and the player along with them) figure out how the case developed. They don't need to know the details of Phoenix's personal life or directly see Kristoph's "apology" to understand that he was the one behind the forgery. It's also possible that with Kristoph trying to shift the blame onto Klavier, Phoenix including that would risk the jurists suspecting that Klavier was in on the forgery somehow.
So to conclude, the evidence doesn't actually time travel, Phoenix uses more linear means of gathering information than the player, and he really did have suspicions about Kristoph as early as April 2019. His suspicion was based on a bottle of nail polish that he either received from Kristoph or saw him using, and it formed relatively soon after they first met at the hearing, during the three weeks before he adopted Trucy. Do with that information whatever you will.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming