The Patchling

We went into court to defend Athena, or "the princess" as Aura calls her. And we got to see Edgeworth again! Going up against him was nostalgic.

What was with his 'objection', though? Never mind that I wasn't a huge fan of his voice in the cut scenes, but his objection... It didn't even sound like the word 'objection', to be honest, and I feel really bad saying that about the voice actor, whoever they are. But I honestly cringed every time he gave an objection. It was *that* bad.

His objection from the trilogy was so much better. I know things would change in 8 years, but unless something's wrong with Edgeworth's voice, I think he would be able to enunciate "objection" properly.

That aside, we got to see Ponco again, and that was just wonderful. I love that little robot, I swear. It was the cutest thing when she got all angry and scolded Edgeworth for calling her Panko.

Simon, too, was just... great. Obviously he cared for Athena, wanting to protect her from the allegations she would have faced. I enjoyed using the Mood Matrix on him.

As for Aura... well. I feel bad for her. She, herself, said that she didn't know what she would do--how she would keep going on--not being able to hate Athena any longer. Knowing that Athena did not kill Metis.

Aura loved Metis. During the UR-1 incident, she lost not only her little brother, but the woman she loved. It drove her to the extreme measure of using the robots to kidnap twelve people and threatening to kill Trucy were they not to go and re-try the UR-1 incident.

She didn't apologize, and I'm not surprised she didn't. Her actions are, as Phoenix said, inexcusable, but she only did it out of love for her brother. Simon would have died were it not for her--the courts wouldn't listen to her, so she had to make them listen to her.

I do not condone her actions, obviously. But that's her mindset.

We actually saw her cry a little. Poor Clonco, Mama Aura isn't going to be around any longer...

Still, we cleared Athena of all charges and fingered the Phantom as the killer. The trial was about to end! ...Until Apollo shows up, and asks Aura a favor: To keep the trial going, because he still suspected Athena of murdering Clay.

He mirrored several of Kristoph's mannerisms (his posture, "Evidence is everything"--to be fair, it is supremely important), but, in the end, we proved to Apollo beyond a shadow of doubt that Athena was not the killer. It was the Phantom...

...the Phantom, who is none other than Bobby Fulbright.

I already knew this, ofc. Spoilers and all that.

The Phantom, a spy, who feels very little emotion... He killed Metis Cykes and then Clay Terran.

And we have him cornered in Court.

I've loved her since the get-go, before I even met her in-game, and it's only growing. Even though she did kind of just kidnap people and threaten to kill Trucy...

To fill in what's been going on:

Solomon is not guilty! But as it turns out, he wasn't going to go into space that day. Clay and Cosmos worked together, along with several other staff members, to switch around the Museum and the Launch Pad so that the astronauts would not be injured by the bombing.

It's sad that Clay had to drug Sol, but I empathize with them; they only wanted everyone to be safe, and Cosmos feared Sol would let slip about the switch. That really bites, but hey--good intentions.

Anyways, Apollo leaves the Agency with suspicion in his heart, and we see why: At the end of the episode, when decisive evidence in favor of our case is presented, Athena is then fingered as the killer... Oh, Apollo...

The episode ends there, and we move onto Turnabout for Tomorrow.

I really like this episode, because:

-More Aura and Clonco

-Pearls and Maya!

Well, Maya gets a mention at least, and so does Kristoph--the latter only gets an extremely vague mention, and really, it's just his Psyche-Locks... But, hey.

We also find out that Phoenix has gone to Europe during his disbarment, and has known about the Blackquill case for a while.

This case is honestly a bit heartbreaking. Metis dies, leaving Simon to take the fault for her murder and her daughter and co-worker with scars.. Athena wasn't even sure if her mother thought of her as a daughter, rather than a convenient test subject. That's horrible.

Clonco lets us in on the tidbit that Aura used to not be so cruel. That she only began abusing him and calling him Hunk of Junk after Metis' death. Simon's incarceration must have really impacted her, as well as the death of her loved one.

Not to mention, with the upcoming date... Aura, no matter how inexcusable her actions, wants justice.

Her justice, however, would only lead to her digging a deeper grave for herself.

And now we must defend Athena Cykes on the charge of murdering her mother, Metis Cykes.

It starts off innocently enough, with us defending Solomon Starbuck, a man accused of the murder of fellow astronaut Clay Terran. And Apollo is having none of his crap.

I love Apollo, and to see him change and snap at the Judge is--wow. Poor baby. He is obviously affected by the loss of Clay, but... when it was Mia who died, we had an attachment to her. I was shocked. That moment stuck with me through the games, y'know?

But with Courte and Clay, we don't get that prior attachment. They're gone from the get-go. And sure, we get Klavier, who obviously idolized Courte and is incredibly sad (regardless of whether he shows it or not) by her passing... And then there's Apollo, who is clearly affected by the loss, and we do slowly get to learn more about Clay through the game, yet there's none of that prior attachment.

Again, though. With Clay, we're slowly learning about him through the game, and I can't wait to see how they will show the pain of his passing and its effects on Apollo.

The courtroom blew up; Tonate set off the bomb. Athena had to practically drag Apollo out, except Apollo had to go back to save Juniper, suffering from serious injuries. Plus what happened with Tonate (screw that guy, seriously), Apollo is laid up in the hospital.

We now get the familiar face of Phoenix Wright; we're back in his mind, playing through the game.

Sadly, I've had SO MUCH of this game spoiled for me, I know why Athena knows things that supposedly she "read in the pamphlet", or "studied up on".

Turnabout Academy--finished. Professor Means was the killer, and we caught him in court! He certainly had an interesting breakdown. Not one of my favorites, but humorous enough.

Athena... she froze. Utterly froze. When we were about to lose, everything went black and I thought Apollo would have to take over and finish it for her.

EIther way, we won the case, and we received a bit of information on Clay, too! Apollo's best friend.

We've discovered Prof. Courte's killer--I knew who he was anyways--and now we're cornering him.

The last day of investigation ended pretty interestingly. We finally had an explanation for the "You're a goner!", Robin stole evidence from us (wtf Robin), and we convinced Junie to allow us to remain her lawyers.

There's some big problems going on with Themis, though. Junie's a snitch. Hugh...

Hugh...

Hugh.

Like, wow. What.

He's not eighteen. He's twenty-five. I mean, I THOUGHT I knew his secret, but no. Nope. Not at all.

So, to get this straight... It's his senior year in Themis, he's twenty-five--so he returned to Themis at 21. (At least, that's my guess, since according to what I've heard, Robin, Hugh, and Juniper have been friends since enrolling).

That means, he was probably 14 when he dropped out of high school. Which is kind of cool, because he would have been a freshman when Klavier was a senior at Themis.

[I realize they are technically the same age, but as stated in AJ and confirmed in DD by the man himself, Klavier spent two years abroad in Germany to get his badge early. He was in the states when he was seventeen. So he would have had to have finished high school at fifteen, meaning he began at eleven...]

And, then, of course, we have the purchasing of grades. To Hugh's credit, he didn't even know...

And then his breakdown in court. He was trying to help Junie; he didn't care what happened to him, he only cared about protecting Juniper, even though he didn't believe that the trio was a trio anymore.

I am always uncomfortable watching crying scenes. They make me feel extremely awkward, though Hugh's got to me... Until they did the dramatic, 'throwing head back and wailing at the top of the lungs'. It kind of ruined the moment for me.

ALSO. WHO LET THE DEFENDANT RUN AROUND THE COURTROOM?

Honestly. Junie was screwed six ways to Sunday. We were going to lose. And then Robin jumps in and just confesses. Then Junie. And then we have Hugh--and, honestly, I was happy to see that. At least they stood up for each other.

Seriously though. Who cares if you won't graduate? If you're convicted of murder, not graduating should be the LEAST of your worries. Life in prison sounds a lot worse than being expelled.

I feel so much second hand embarrassment with Klavier in this, though. His lines are hard to read--not because they're bad, but because it's silly. Though, kind of cool thing to take note of; Klavier, according to himself, has been using his specific style of prosecuting since he was in Themis. So he really is a goofball.

I'm pretty sure I'm nearly finished with the investigations day. Soon, all we'll have to do is go and make sure Junie doesn't fire us.

No, that's just Robin.

Okay, so Junie isn't looking so bad except for the fact that she probably lied about not being at school at that time.

Just. for the love of.

JUNIPER. ROBIN. HUGH.

MYRIAM.

WHY?

Junie and Robin are cheats, Hugh is just ugh, and Myriam--they're all just so frustrating. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy the game, and I like them as characters, but they, themselves, are frustrating.

Junie. Okay. You didn't want to ruin your friendships, so you tried to change things to favor the prosecution. But, weren't Robin and Hugh fighting over which one of them would confess? While the details may have been fudged somewhat by Myriam, and Robin wasn't going to actually confess any romantic feelings, it doesn't sound like that's a good idea to save your friendships. Unless you really like Robin. Which is cool. [She was blushy-blushy in that special-edition photo...]

In that case, kind of sucks for Hugh--though... did Junie know Robin was a girl? I mean. Robin. If you're going to confess to someone, I hope you would bring that up.

Hugh, ahaha. I know your secret, boy. Guessing Simon does too. You won't be seen as much of a "genius" when it gets out, will you? :I

Hugh sees a body. Doesn't report it.

Junie and Robin conspire against Hugh in the mock trial. (Okay, this is true--though they didn't conspire together. Junie still tried to ruin the even playing field because of personal matters, but at least she didn't intentionally leak information to Robin.)

Robin--just, Robin. She was watching the trial, wasn't she? Simon didn't have her up as a witness according to what he said, so if she really was in the gallery... Her parents raised her to be a boy. She so desperately wanted to keep her secret. But it's frustrating that she's supposed to be Juniper's friend and, if she really was watching the trial, didn't break the prosecution's claim that Juniper intentionally tried to stop the mock trial.

Had Robin come forth, that would've been a big help. She's studying to be a prosecutor. She should have been able to realize, "Hey, that's real bad for Junie."

Of course, she was raised for eighteen years to be a boy, it seems. She wanted to keep the secret so badly--a secret her parents, presumably, forced upon her. **EDIT: I JUST REMEMBERED ROBIN CHEATED HERSELF, NOT JUNIE. WOOPS**

And Hugh. Well, I can already guess why Hugh didn't want his meeting with Prof. Courte to get out. [Aside from the fact it would make him a suspect in the case.] Still... did he really see Juniper, or was he lying? I have a feeling it was the former.

This is why I actually love the game. I see the POV of these guys; I understand it, even. And it still is frustrating and I enjoy them as characters. I still would like to smack them, but I'm enjoying it.

Athena even said she felt his sadness and wanted to cry herself. Now, Athena's kind of... empathetic, really empathetic, so that wasn't too surprising. But we do know Klavier is hurting over Prof. Courte's death.

The mock trial was fun, and we got to see Klavier insulting Athena.

"That's some pretty bad acting," was the comment.

Reminded me of Turnabout Serenade Klavier. Love him or hate him, he was a jerk in that. And in Turnabout Succession.

Anyways, the mock trial went well, though it was odd being the Judge rather than the defense attorney.

I also want to say I LOVE Klavier's sprites... at an angle. His little hair flip and the snapping (though the snapping noise does get a little agitating, kudos to the team for putting that in there) are perfect, though I'm not as big of a fan as the full-on view of his face. Just me. The graphics still treated him nicer than Trucy.

Anyhow.

Prof. Means is obviously not that clean of an attorney, someone needs to tell Hugh "You keeping using that word but I don't think it means what you think it means," and Robin is hilarious. And sweaty.

I'm at the first day of the trial, and it's going okay. I just started with Myriam's testimony and pointed out the first contradiction.

Oh, Myriam.

I don't like you. You're a good-for-nothing sneak. And you don't see anything wrong with that.

I honestly just started, though. I haven't yet finished talking to Klavier.

Speaking of Klavier, I do not envy his schooling.

From AJ, we know he spent two years in Germany studying abroad after graduating from Themis. Assuming he spent the full four years at Themis (since it IS still a high school according to the wikia) instead of graduating early, Klavier decided on a law career at age eleven.

This actually makes sense, as Kristoph is roughly eight years older than him, so big bro Kristoph would have started college shortly before Klavier entered Themis.

I suppose this means Klavier did live in America [I had assumed he came from Germany like Franziska] prior to the Gramarye trial. Makes sense.

Anyway, with the dead body of Constance Courte found, and Athena taking up Junie's defense, things should get moving soon enough. We've already met O'Connor and Robin--two characters, for sure--and Prof. Means.

But... does Klavier know about the news? I mean. We'll probably get to it soon, but... Yeah.

Final note, there is one thing I wished would've happened--and that would have been Apollo commenting on Junie's Lamiroir outfit. I would've loved to have seen him go "Oh, you're dressing up as Lamiroir? Yeah, I met her once."