#absolutely not phoenix would do it for the bit and kristoph would do it for the even smarmier and more condescending bit

[zoejayw]

My full piece for @aatrucyzine! This was a free digital zine and you can download the whole thing right now. I wanted to draw a Trucy Gavin because it just seemed like a fun time. Thoughts on that below ⬇

I honestly am not sure what circumstances I think would need to happen in order for Kristoph to be interested in raising Trucy. I think he'd need to know about the perceive ability for it to happen but under those circumstances I can absolutely see him leveraging that shamelessly in court. I think he'd pressure her to give up on magic and go in to law, and I think she'd be very good at it and would not like it at all.

The biggest difference in behavior I'd picture for her is that rather than acting a little younger than she actually is to get people to write her off, she pivots the other way; transparently trying too hard to make herself seem older and more sophisticated than she actually is, which gets her underestimated in a completely different way.

i like to imagine that she's spent a decent amount of time at the borscht bowl club with phoenix and kristoph and has developed some fondness for phoenix over time. Maybe she will still help him cheat at poker as a favor. I think once zak gets murdered Phoenix might still ask for apollo as his lawyer because I can't see him feeling particularly good about asking a young girl to send her own adoptive father to prison, so it's much easier to send a complete stranger into that meat grinder. I do think trucy would be champing at the bit to send kristoph to jail, contrary to phoenix's beliefs, so i think she forcibly inserts herself into the courtoom as apollo's co-counsel with the argument that she's his senior, which is true. He's probably happy to have her there until shit starts getting real weird.

I have more things I could type about this but that's long enough for now

[merethessc]

i'm fucking insane.

Ramblings under the cut

I absolutely adore that gen5 comic made Edgeworth a pegasus, becAUSE it’s a bit too obvious and boring to make him an unicorn, and to be fair, we rarely see pompous pegasus. Also thinking about how Manfred probably despised any showing of one’s ponies abilities (flight or magic of any sort) without any “proper” reason and thaaaat’s why Miles doesn’t really fly. 

And to save the status quo, Larry is a unicorn. I like to think that his cutie mark is the most confusing one because it’s so common it basically gives you NOTHING to work with, even though he’s pretty talented when it comes to arts and crafts. I always struggle coming up with cutie marks tbh

wEEeEEELL you've got the opportunityyyyyyyyy in this veeeryy communityyy he's klavier he's kristoph we're the world's famous gavin brotheeers traveling lawyerponies nonpareil  i  was dying drawing Gavins. 

Trucy being an earth pony magician makes me just so happy, g4 did have both unicorns and earths being magicianssss. Plus it helps with the whole “wait…… Phoenix had a daughter??” thing. 

Imagine if this Fulbright got accidentally reformed just because he started liking his prey for real? Now that would be funny-

Kurain village is somehow related to Mistmane’s village here, i don’t make the rules friendos ((i do actually)). I don’t think Dahlia is very well versed in magic here, so her noticeable relation to the Feys is the arched horn all unicorns from Mistmane’s village had. 

Athena definitely destroyed part of the courthouse.

The world needs more mlp aus"

The world, in fact, did not need more MLP aus

If you think about it, Trucy and Trixie are pretty much the same - random mom that just appears and never gets mentioned again and magician dad that just dips and leaves his daughter behind. also, consider this: blue. Yeah, that's my argument.

[queenlua]

hey lua what decks do phoenix aceattorney and miles aceattorney play in magic

PHOENIX WRIGHT

once upon a time, a friend bullied me into going to a Pro Tour Qualifier, which was probably the largest Magic tournament i’d ever been to at that time, right?

i was happy to be bullied, to be clear, but the problem was… i hadn’t played standard-format Magic competitively in about 2-3 years.  so my knowledge of the current metagame, what deck archetypes were popular, and what the current cards even were, was staggeringly limited.

“it will be fine,” said my friend.  “here, take this spare deck i built.  it’s super-straightforward and easy,” he lied.

he said this to me approx. 8 seconds before the first round began, so uhhhhh, i sure was playing a game of magical cards without ever having even looked at the damn deck before!

so, lo, literally in the course of playing the deck, i was learning how this shit was supposed to work.  “oh!” i’d exclaim with delight, halfway through my turn.  “THAT’S how those two cards are supposed to interact.  oh that’s super clever.  what a neat combo.”  and then i’d proceed to shiftily look at my opponent over my cards, riffle those cards a lil bit, and then say “pass” with as much of an enigmatic vibe as i could muster.

meanwhile, my opponent was Actually Prepared, and they were Trying To Win, and they were pissed.  they threatened to call Slow Play on me because i was taking so fucking long reading all the cards.  as in, he literally called a judge over, who stood there watching me the whole time, in order to determine if i was being Criminally Bad At Magic versus just A Regular Amount Of Bad At Magic, and i was sweating bullets the whole time because i didn’t know this deck or their deck or any of those cards and AHHHH why is the judge staring at me!!!

….which only served to make it EXTRA-humiliating for this poor fuck when i proceeded to eviscerate them 2-0.  hahahah get dunked onnnnnnnn nerd!!!

and then i also proceeded to eviscerate my next opponent???

sheer dumb luck.  i cannot overstate how ill-prepared i was for this tournament.  i absolutely did not deserve these wins.

meanwhile the friend who gave me the deck was having a much worse time with their deck, and they were like “what the fuck. you weren’t supposed to win. how are you winning with that shit, my deck’s so much better than yours”

anyway.  i think that’s the kind of scenario Phoenix would get into if he were an MtG player.  dude Gets Himself Into Situations And Then Uses Cleverness + Bullshit + Luck To Get Out Again.

(AA4-era Phoenix seems like he’s doing the same thing… but, in reality, he’s actually been meticulously crafting his deck in secret for the past six months.  he’s not even aiming to win the tournament, he’s just exploiting a known weakness in the opponent-matching system that lets him know with certainty who he’s going to get matched up against (spoiler: first round is Kristoph), and he’s hyper-optimizing his deck to beat Literally Only Those People.  meanwhile, Apollo, who built a tryhard hyper-optimized variant of Red Deck Wins, is lowkey annoyed that Phoenix's seemingly-random pile keeps vaulting him just one table above him in the standings, because Apollo knows his deck is better. he knows it!!!! just let him go 1v1 and prove it aaaaughhhh!!!)

((also, in case you want Actual Concrete Cards And Colors And Stuff: in general i think Phoenix prefers limited play (draft, sealed, "anything where you open booster packs on the spot & throw a deck together") to constructed play, because he doesn't like being tied down to any one game plan. when he does play constructed, i think he's less attached to a specific colors and more attached to specific mechanics. in particular: he's not a combo player exactly, but he likes mechanics that feel like bullshit. dude saw Madness for the first time & his eyes lit up & he was in LOVE, "you mean i'm discarding the card but then i can cast it for free??? hell YES." he absolutely ran a poison counter deck during New Phyrexia. ah fuck i just realized he was probably a huge stan for noted awful expansion Battle for Zendikar, i think i gotta cancel him now, sorry))

((and i think Phoenix also has a touch of Timmy in him! like, i went to a huge state tournament once with a bunch of really skilled players, and there was this one dude in our car who had a really solid deck, clearly adhered to a lot of the trends in the meta at the time... but his win condition was a Shivan Dragon. which wasn't a bad card at the time, it was a reasonable win condition, but it was... slightly suboptimal? not at all the obvious pick? sort of random? and multiple people asked him "why is that your win condition" & he shrugged and said "i like dragons." so the dragon stayed & that dude ended up getting second place in the whole tournament so FUCK optimal play, bring a dragon. i think Phoenix would sneak in a dragon now and again. just 'cause))

MILES EDGEWORTH

this one is trickier!!!

young!Miles is just going to play Whatever The Meta Deems To Be The Best Deck, right. the von Karma perfection thing and all. it's all very boring & micro-optimized to be the Best Deck Of Its Kind & he pours over the results of the big name tournaments week after week & does some math or whatever to hyper-optimize his own build of the Obviously Correct Deck. there is no soul in any of this, purely Executing On A Formula.

...but then he experiences Character Growth & has his big gay crisis & now he has to pick up the game again. he opens the latest tournament results... clicks around some win % stats for various cards in a desultory kinda way, and... his heart's just not in it, right?

enter 2-4 era Miles. 2-4 era Miles is playing some utterly unhinged Five Color Good Stuff thing. there's a lot of Planar Chaos cards in there, because that whole set was about Weird Shit & cards doing Stuff You're Familiar With (But In The Utterly Wrong Color!!!) & all that is resonating with Miles more than he'd care to admit. he cannot possibly talk about his unnecessary feelings but he can make a weird noise rock album about them. and by noise rock album i mean this fucking Magic deck.

and he's playing this deck with a 100% straight face, as though this is the exact same behavior that won him the Junior Super Series five years in a row & not a desperate cry for help from a madman. everyone else is like Miles... are you playing fucking singletons... in a fucking standard deck... you know your deck will be more consistent with four-ofs right... and then he gives a cool fish-eyed stare & taps out to cast some arcane bullshit legendary creature & gives a single rap of his knuckles against the table to indicate that he's passing the turn.

and it works, is the thing! all those years of training to be the Spikiest Spike Ever have paid off; this Five Color Good Stuff thing relies on some pretty clever insights to make the mana base work, and parts of what he's doing eventually get adopted by the larger metagame to become an Actual Serious Deck. but, like. it's still a monstrosity. any skilled players watching are still definitely wondering Are You Okay, Dude.

after 2-4, i think Miles settles back into playing something more normal. he still cares about winning, but he's going to do it with a touch of class. he wants a game that involves dialogue, some actual back-and-forth, because just trying to combo off is lame coward behavior.

aw yeah baby we're talking counterspells!!!

he's a blue player at heart & he's happiest when he's updating the autopsy report shutting down whatever his opponent's plan is. he'll splash other colors as the occasion calls for it, but he'd be happy running mono-blue the rest of his life. like, i ran a pretty fun Legacy deck back in the day which consisted of:

every kind of counterspell i could get my hands on,

propaganda because FUCK creatures,

thieving magpies for the card draw,

and a few silver wyverns to, y'know, actually win the game

...and i think Miles would appreciate that deck. just play counterspells until the opponent runs out of steam & then cruise your way to victory with a couple birds. simple. elegant. classic. doesn't involve any of this modern Planeswalker bullshit (Miles regards most developments that happened to MtG post-Time Spiral block or so as affronts to game design).

(i do think Miles has a secret fondness for sagas as a card type, however. they remind him of all that Character Growth, but in an abstract/subconscious/nonthreatening way. too bad most of them are a bit of poor match for the kinds of decks he likes to play)

FINALLY: i think Miles hates playing Commander with every fiber of his being & Phoenix loves it & this is a pretty serious point of contention in their relationship. poor dudes

[satsuha]

not sure if you would agree but sometimes the ace attorney fandom feels like the Shu Takumi fandom, especially since all the games he is head writer on get a lot of praise, with people quickly brushing aside the flaws in the games he worked on or outright making up excuses, such as claiming he was drunk writing turnabout big top but totally sober writing every other case in the 2nd game because"they're good".

Meanwhile the fandom is very harsh towards the games with Takeshi Yamazaki as head writer, only focusing on their flaws, which aren't always flaws and claiming he "ruined ace attorney" or that the games he's head writer on "aren't canon".

Only expections seem to be AA4 and AAI2, but AA4 is overall loved a lot more than the other two Apollo Justice trilogy games and AAI2 has a more niche fanbase, due to only recently being localised, so I worry that game will get more hate because of how harsh people are to AAI1.

oh yeah i totally agree and like, i get it. as someone who got into ace attorney because of how much i liked ghost trick, i get it... but it is absolutely true that fans tend to put takumi on way too much of a pedestal. my personal feelings on the games takumi has worked on are extremely mixed (i think aa3 is amazing but i really did not like tgaa at all), as are my feelings with the games yamazaki directed (aa5 and aa6 are what i would consider my least and most favourite in the main series, while i like the aai games), so they're kinda equal in my book lol

it's ridiculous to me because takumi himself really REALLY likes turnabout big top (source) enough to call it one of his favourite cases so...? those fans would be straight up putting words in his mouth. it's a case i really enjoyed as well, and it's a downright shame that people can't look past a few gripes to just enjoy the case for what it is. i think the berry big circus' return in aai2 shows how well liked it is amongst both the dev team and the japanese fan base (famitsu poll where big top ranked #7 in "most memorable case" and one of the cases mentioned under "did you cry during any of the games", and max ranked #5 under favourite defendants)

i know i said takumi and yamazaki are equal to me right above but in terms of personal preference i would actually pick yamazaki, simply because he's the type of writer who clearly cares so much about his protagonists and the story they have to tell, and the journey they go on. takumi and yamazaki are nearly opposites in this regard if you ask me, with takumi saying phoenix ended up subconsciously being a bit of a self insert (source) while yamazaki tends to lean in much harder on what makes the protagonists unique. i like phoenix well enough but i think all of takumi's games are similar in that the protagonist (playable character) is never really the main character in the stories the games are telling - the one criticism people seem to have about aa4 is how much apollo is a bystander in phoenix and kristoph's story, but in my opinion all of takumi's games are like this, even ghost trick. i hesitate to call it a flaw because it feels very intentional to me and clearly some people like how it worked out with phoenix in aa1-3 and ryunosuke, but if i'm going to spend the whole game with a character and seeing all their thoughts i'd much rather the character have really strong personality traits that shine through in their dialogue/thoughts. this is what i really enjoyed about aai - edgeworth has a really strong personality and getting to see his thoughts was already really fun in aa3-5 and the investigations games were just more of that imo. it's also why i like aa6 and not aa5 - while apollo doesn't "spoil" anything for the player in his thoughts during 6-2, it made a lot more sense for him to be doing that with nahyuta as opposed to his relationship with clay. it's also why aa6-5 is one of my favourite cases... getting to play through that story through apollo's eyes was just. really really good.

but i really hope aai2 doesn't go down this same path... before playing it i already knew it was a lot of peoples' favourite aa game, and unlike tgaa it really did not disappoint for me... i understand that changing scenario writers mid-series can be rough, and i think capcom's insistence and reliance on keeping phoenix in the spotlight throughout the aj trilogy plays a big part in making the transition feel worse, but i just wish people could see yamazaki's writing for its strengths, like they do with takumi

[itwassophiehanseniswear]

so I just finished dual destinies (I'm on the orca case rn) and I ADORED it but I had some minor thoughts on the presentation of the story lines. (don't get me wrong, it was absolutely amazing! but I do think they could've executed some of it better).

this about sums up my feelings on it but I did get a bit intense about it while writing it so

rant under the cut, uhhh warnings dual destinies spoilers and a history nerd yapping too much :3

tl;dr, 'ages' aren't something easy to implement into a game. Capcom did a great job, even involuntarily I suppose, building up to the dark age of the law, with characters such as Manafred Von Karma and Damon Gant, even in the investigations duo, with Excelcius Winner and Fifi Laguarde. and, as involuntary as it was, I believe that having wright get disbarred was the PERFECT setup for the dark age of the law. think about it: he has all of these connections in the law world, high up connections like Franziska Von Karma and Edgeworth, to name arguably the most high up. And they care about him and have connections of their own. So the question arises: why doesn't he use them? easy! foul play. When the whole system is corrupt, pulling a few strings won't overturn a decision. this is summed up really well in this video, although I have my own thoughts I wont share atm

basically, one, or a few, people wont win a war against a corrupt system. so why didn't this carry properly into dual destinies, where Edgeworth and Wright face all they've worked to destroy over the last 10ish years or so: a corrupt system. this alone is a BEAUTIFUL story, and paired with amazing new characters and mysterious pasts, great new cases, and Apollo getting his own development BEYOND Phoenix and Kristoph. but where it gets iffy for me is how this "dark age of the law" is presented. There are many moments across the game where characters talk about it, using its name. for example:

(this is the timestamp from earlier btw :3)

Sure, I assume some people probably go "aha the law is so corrupt nowadays its like we're in a dark age of the law" and I could see it potentially rise up through the internet, making it to Apollo and Athena (though that's a bit of a stretch, but I'd have less of a nitpicky problem with it if that was the case), but for it to make it to the news, to the actual Bar, having enough influence to create fucking MERCH for the court? making it to edgeworth and wright, the Chief Prosecutor and an infamous attorney?? that's INSANE. thats way over-the-top. I mean cmon, do you think people living in the Prohibition Era called it the Prohibition Era? No! they thought it would last forever! Or The Great Depression! THEY DIDNT KNOW THEY WERE LIVING THROUGH A DEPRESSION!!! or even the most famous example, World War One! called the Great War! Ya know why? CAUSE THEY DIDNT KNOW THERE WAS GONNA BE A SECOND. "The War to End All Wars", anyone?

(this is quite US History centric, I apologize, I am an American, after all.)

Another nitpicky thing is how they talk about how they're just going to "End" The age. Like... that's not how it works. righting one wrong does not undo the whole system. You need to work tirelessly to undo all of the hurt and pain that will amount from what happened. You need to account for the people who will still try to cheat. there will always be some more people. From a world history lense, this is never an easy task. ripple effects of the actions taken over a hundred years ago are still felt today, from imperialism and colonization across the world, to stuff like the entirety of the Soviet Union. (just look at the state of Russia today! like! Cherynobl's effects too!)

look, Professor Means was teaching a whole student body to be corrupt and win by any means nesissary. if that wont have ripple effects, then I don't know what will. (and, off topic a bit, but the way he and the other students kept repeating "the end justifies the means" made it feel very. off. for me, and made the statement it was trying to make less powerful.)

Think about when leaders implement new laws/rules to follow. that change is never immediate, it can be repealed, and it doesnt mean the end of a fight for change. I am very interested in how they will tackle this in Spirit of Justice, if at all.

tl;dl FOREAL THIS TIME LMAO: the storylines in dual destinies are beyond amazing, and paired with lovable characters and cases puts it on par with trials and tribulations, for me. however, the way capcom presented- in dialogue, at least,- the "dark age of the law" makes it feel lackluster, which is why I think some people may be put off of it. it also signifies a new era in the AA universe, with 3d sprites, I mean. (man I could go on about those sprites for AGGGGES the uncanny valley feeling and the incosistant styles... eek).

apollocheese again for the us/global history refernses. and if you want a more niche or easier to swallow (depending on how you look at it) refernence to help me reiterate my point: think about the stone age, the iron age, the bronze age, ect. That was over long periods of time, with a gradual and exponential climb, and a gradual and exponential drop. it doesn't just stop. and then apply that to ace attorney!

one last thing, as I feel that in these times things like the storyline in dual destinies hits much closer to home in our corrupt society, but this does not mean you shouldn't fight to end this corruption, because without people fighting it will never end. Wright and Edgeworth were right in the idea that they were going to end the dark age of the law, but not in the way that they thought, no. Without the help of other people, help that wright and edgeworth nutoriously push away, the spark they ignited wouldn't fan into a flame. they righted one wrong, and that would push the corrupt system over the edge. it would not kill it, but it would get close. sorry felt poetic there for a second.

[bblueraven-and-fandoms14]

Controversial take the AA and Narumitsu fandom are going to flame my ass whatever but as an avid Narumitsu shipper and Miles Edgeworth fan (he's my #1 favorite character of the franchise) I love bastard Phoenix but in the specific flavor of him cheating on Miles with Kristoph during the 7yg. Like. Because tbh Phoenix gets attached and loves (obsseses) over people so readily and easily that once he has very little to loose he decides to try and keep what he does have and he wants both. Why CAN'T he have both he wants both. Is it fair to Miles AND to Kristoph? No but life hasn't been fair to HIM either and it's selfish and he's a horrible partner, he feels guilty so so much, but he can't stop, he can't let go of either because he wants BOTH. He clings to both and refuses to let go. He has so much to give why can't he take a bit, too. Why can't he have them both!!!! Miles is his past and Kristoph could be part of his present and he refuses to let go of any of it. Then he fully learns was Kristoph is doing and plays the game and continues because, yeah he'll bring Kristoph down but he still wants both, even if it's not good for him. So he'll keep both as long as he can. Even if he's going to destroy one of them in the end. Once again life is not being fair and this must be Karma, for trying to grab too much, trying to hold too much in his hands. So if it's going to be over and by his own hands, he will keep indulging as long as he can.

Extra points Kristoph absolutely knows and seethes everytime Miles visits because Phoenix goes away during that time even though he ends up back with him once Miles leaves and why is Kristoph once again coming second? He hates Mile's ass (but he wonders what it is about that man. He is curious, in a morbid way. He wants a taste himself, just to see what of Miles is so good that Phoenix can't stop himself from eating from it even now).

Miles doesn't know at first but he starts suspecting and then he learns about it but he... doesn't say anything. He's a self respecting man, he SHOULD say something for his own self at the least but he. He thinks of everything that has happened. He sees how defeated Phoenix is. He remembers being defeted himself. He remembers he owes Phoenix half his life, really. He is so attached himself, and what would he do without Phoenix in his life? So he decides its fine, isn't it? Because it's partially Miles fault, too. He's not There. He's away too much, all the time, during Phoenix's time of need. And Phoenix is just a man. Just like him. And he wonders. He wishes he knew Kristoph more, and he's jealous and angry at him because Kristoph is dignified and not a bit weird in his likes and idiosyncrasies and perhaps that's the appeal, someone who isn't a bit odd and who is actually there. He remembers that one date he's ever been to, back in highschool. He remembers trying so hard to be likable. He remembers failing at it. He sees how easy it is for Kristoph to do what he couldn't and still can't. And he wonders how it is to taste that in a partner.

Anyways in the end I think they should all kiss idk 🧍🏻‍♀️ (there are two specific things I have consumed in this fandom that have built my hc's for Krisnix, Nrmts, and narumitskris during the 7yr gap and the fic specifically is /it/ like that's lowkey canon to me with some tweaks to fit canon timeline and events and characters).

*coughs* I rambled I just think all 3 could have the most interesting dynamic known to man YES including Miles/Kristoph can you imagine the chaos of that? It's Phoenix's worst and best dream come to life. I think Miles/Kristoph is supremely underrated actually. I think they should all fuck nasty and hate-filled. Thank you for coming to my....uh. Insanity.

(I also love the idea of Miles and Kristoph cat fighting over a man who CHEATS like girls get up omg [all 3 are deranged])

[just-a-gamer-daydeamer-girl]

Ace attorney headcanons I have cuz I can’t focus on just one thing

Phoenix/Ryuichi hated his name when he was younger but he has grown to love it in his adulthood

Miles finds Kay’s rants interesting

Phoenix is a Japanese American hybrid and is proud of his heritage on both sides.

Trucy actually knows quite a bit of law

Phoenix is great at Japanese but not perfect

Ryuichi is great at English but not perfect

Edgeworth has ‘girls nights’ with franzica where they gossip

Larry was messing with Phoenix in the beginning of turnabout time traveler.

Apollo naturally attracts ladies (juniper was not a solo incident), but he is too focused on other things to notice or care.

Phoenix doesn’t have a law degree, he has a degree in art though. (Look it up it’s not required to have a law degree to take the bar in some places)

Athena wears her special headphones somedays when everything is too much.

Maya is acesexual and maybe Aromantic as well.

Trucy has an inkling of her and Apollo’s biological relationship.

The ‘little big brother’ is a running gag of sorts between the group.

Phoenix is actually a genius and would be absolutely terrifying if he ever got serious or learned how to properly use his smarts. But his brain sometimes makes connections before he even realizes it, and ‘bluffs’ as a result.

Kristoph did his best to isolate Phoenix from his friends. It got to the point where Phoenix had to be careful who he meet up with or what he wrote or spoke, thankfully he managed to keep some friendships.

Phoenix has a bit of a rough relationship with his parents as an adult, he loves them and they love him but there are just some things they can’t agree on.

Apollo has a great singing voice, but gets super nervous when others are watching him so it causes him to mess up with his cords of steel.

All the Lawyers in the wright anything agency are strong. Phoenix can kick and knock down doors, Apollo helped Clay with astronauts training, and I don’t need to tell you about Athena do I?

Phoenix is actually pretty well off (royalty checks from Britain for some reason) but he was taught that money earned himself is better. He was also taught to be frugal. But he is often a little TOO frugal when he doesn’t need to be and that offen leads to greater trouble. (This might as well be cannon, the reason why his back was so bad in SoJ was because he skipped out on a proper hotel, yet he had money to blow for Trucy’s allowance in aa4 and on a plane ticket)

Kay is super athletic and is a master at parkour

Maya is kinda bitter about Mia leaving the Fey clan and becoming a Lawyer, not in the how dare you kind of way more like, I miss you and hate that you left me way, like someone you were really close to moved to a new town for understandable reasons but you don’t get to see them as often.

Pearl needs glasses

[agoldengalaxy]

Catharsis

read on Ao3

words: 3309

Though his hands had begun shaking at his sides, Apollo continued. “You had a habit, earlier. And I just saw you do it again.” “Ach, not this,” Klavier sighed, waving a hand dismissively. “I’m not a witness in a courtroom. Your strange strategy is not necessary here.” “Oh, but I think it is,” he continued, feeling a little more emboldened - perhaps because it really did feel like court at the moment. “I don’t believe you when you say you’re okay. You see, whenever I or the reporter asked about that, you’d push up your sunglasses. In fact, why do you have those on inside?” Klavier swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

--

“And…ta-da! Your index cards have disappeared, Daddy! Hit it, Polly!”

Apollo, trying to hide his smirk as the great Phoenix Wright stared in absolute defeat up at his teenage daughter, held up his textbook. “Okay, Mr. Wright. Define malum prohibitum.”

“It’s…Latin.”

“Um, yeah. That’s not a definition. Try again.”

Phoenix grinned widely. “Man, you should’ve seen the look on your face. I was just joking. Acts illegal by statute, but not inherently immoral.”

Having to resist the urge to roll his eyes, Apollo nodded, wondering if he’d ever be able to tell when his mentor was joking or lying. Just as he was about to ask another question, Trucy gasped.

“Look! It’s Prosecutor Gavin!”

Both men followed her outstretched arm, pointing to the small television set amongst the clutter of magic props. Sure enough, out in front of the prosecutors’ building stood Klavier, sunglasses perched on his nose, an easy smile on his face. The reporter seemed a little put-off by this, and she hesitated before asking her question.

“Mr. Gavin, the nation is still reeling from that case a mere two weeks ago, where your brother, Kristoph Gavin, was found guilty through the new jurist system. Have you seen him since then?”

Klavier smiled a little, pushing his sunglasses up a bit further onto his nose. “Fraülein, as far as I am concerned, he is a dead man. The Kristoph I once knew has died.”

“How succinct.” The reporter looked at him with a certain pity in her eyes. “You’re looking rather well, all things considered.”

“ Ach, thank you. I find that looking my best helps me feel my best,” he replied, pushing his sunglasses up once more. Apollo felt something on his wrist, but was too transfixed to look down.

“Now, do you have anything to say to the citizens that disagree with the use of the jurist system?”

Caught off guard for only a moment, Klavier adjusted his weight from one foot to the other, glancing toward the camera. “I understand it is unconventional. I was wary of the idea, myself, at first.” His face hardened. “Without the help from the jurists, Kristoph never would have faced justice for everything he’d done.”

“Well put, Mr. Gavin. And I think I ought to commend your bravery in that courtroom. It could not have been easy.”

“ Ach, so is life, Fraülein. I am ready for the next.” Klavier pushed his sunglasses further up his nose again. Apollo’s bracelet tightened. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Trucy’s brow furrow. “Plus, I cannot take all the credit. I could not have done it without Herr Justice.”

Apollo’s eyes widened. He hadn’t been expecting him to mention him.

“Your rival?”

“Yes. But are we not both fighting for the same conclusion?” Klavier’s smile was a little more genuine now. “He is a force to be reckoned with, but so am I. Together, we can find the truth of any case.”

The reporter seemed a little confused, but she shrugged and continued. “And, I hear, you made quite the shocking announcement yesterday.”

“I’m afraid, though it pains me to say it, I have disbanded the Gavinners. I have to focus on what is really, truly important to me. A certain someone reminded me of that.”

The reporter nodded. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Gavin.”

“What?” Trucy shouted, nearly pulling Apollo’s arm off in her haste to shake him. “The Gavinners broke up?!”

“Apparently.” Apollo was more fixated on something else, personally. Quietly, he snuck a glance down at his bracelet, knowing he couldn’t have just imagined it.

“You saw it, too, didn’t you, Apollo?”

His gaze snapped up to Trucy, whose dramatics had completely melted away. She was staring at him with the eyes that had bore into him during the Kitaki trial, insisting that he had a special power. As Phoenix looked between them with a sort of quiet interest, Apollo nodded.

“He pushed up his sunglasses whenever the reporter asked about Kristoph. Or…himself.” That was what really troubled him. Even in the face of an unbearable truth, the prosecutor saw it through to the end. Klavier Gavin was nothing if not cool and collected. The façade he put on, maybe, would have worked on Apollo a few months ago. Not today.

“He’s strong,” Phoenix murmured after a short pause, “but he’s bearing a lot by himself.”

Apollo glanced up at his mentor, who had shed the beanie earlier in the day, letting his wild natural curls free. Since the Misham trial, his eyes had seemed a little brighter, a little less sad. Seven years of blood, sweat, and tears finally paid off. And, despite that hardship, Apollo didn’t sense a single bit of resentment from him when he looked at Klavier.

Despite his many thoughts about Phoenix Wright, he was certainly a good man. Perhaps he’d never been wrong to idolize him - he was just a different man than he thought he was a few years ago, and that was okay.

“Had a lot of good things to say about you, though,” Phoenix continued, a slight smile pulling at his lips. “Maybe you ought to pay him a visit.”

“Me?” Apollo was so caught off guard, his infamous Chords of Steel betrayed him, and his voice cracked. He cleared his throat. “I don’t…think he’d want to see me, Mr. Wright. It’s not like we’re friends.”

Trucy scoffed. “Of course you are! Didn’t you see how you worked together on all those cases? I’d say that makes you friends!”

Sometimes, Apollo did wish the world was as simple as Trucy made it out to be.

“Might I remind you that his band is broken up, and not only his brother, but his dear friend is behind bars for murder?” Phoenix replied, a little less than tactfully. Apollo had to wince. “Unfortunately, if I had to guess, you’re the closest thing he has to a friend right now.”

Phoenix was speaking as if he knew this for sure. Vaguely, Apollo remembered Phoenix having a similar relationship with another prosecutor. He wondered whatever came of that.

He shook his head. “Trucy should go. He likes her.”

“Nuh-uh. I’m performing at the Wonder Bar soon. I don’t have time to go to the prosecutor's office!”

“And until I get my badge back, she’s the only source of income, unless someone magically wants to hear my piano playing.” Phoenix and Trucy shared some sort of knowing look.

Apollo tried not to think about that very much. The two of them always seemed to communicate by mind reading. “…I still think it’s a bad idea.”

Trucy pouted, bouncing on her toes impatiently. “C’mon, Polly. You know Prosecutor Gavin would do the same for you!”

That caught Apollo off guard, too. He almost immediately waved the thought away, but the words died in his throat. He couldn’t imagine Klavier Gavin ever taking time out of his day to check on Apollo of all people, but besides the nickname, he’d only ever been…kind. The world wasn’t as simple as Trucy wanted it to be, but in this case, maybe she was right.

He looked between the Wrights, feeling some heat rise to his cheeks, wondering what they were both staring at him for. “Alright, fine! I’ll go, if you stop looking at me like that…”

While Trucy cheered, a more genuine smile appeared on Phoenix’s face. “Apollo, don’t think so much. He’ll be happy to see you.”

Easy for you to say, Apollo thought, but sighed. “Good luck at your show tonight, Trucy. Mr. Wright, I’ll be back later to help you study.”

“Thanks, Polly!”

“Take your time!”

Apollo had a very, very bad feeling about this.

***

That bad feeling intensified the second Apollo stared up at the prosecutor’s building, towering high into the late afternoon sky. He had no reason to believe Klavier was still here. He had no reason to enter this building. He ought to just lie and tell the Wrights that he couldn’t get ahold of him and just go home.

Though he thought those things, he found his legs taking him inside before he could really process what he was doing. And once inside, he couldn’t exactly back down, could he?

He hesitantly asked the person behind the desk if Klavier was still around. Seeing the badge on his chest, they picked up the phone, asking for Apollo’s name. When they spoke the name into the receiver to tell Klavier he had a visitor, their eyebrow quirked upward. Somewhat surprised, the receptionist pointed toward the elevator, telling him to go to the sixth floor.

Apollo’s heart echoed in his ears as the elevator slowly climbed each floor. He wondered why he felt like he might faint at any moment. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, was it?

When he reached Klavier’s door, he almost turned around to leave again. Much to his surprise, however, the door opened before he could knock.

Klavier stood in the doorway, wearing his usual purple jacket, but the large Gavinners necklace was missing. Despite being indoors, the sunglasses were still perched on his nose, as if he’d forgotten to take them off. He smiled. “Herr Forehead! I must say, I was surprised to hear from the receptionist that you had come to see me. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Um…” Suddenly, Apollo’s throat felt incredibly dry. He wanted to run, but as much as Klavier was trying to hide it, Apollo knew Phoenix was right. He needed help, and although he felt insanely unqualified, he was the only one who could provide that right now. “I…wanted to come see you,” he answered, immediately cringing at the way the words sounded. “Can I come in?”

Klavier’s smile widened a bit as he stepped to the side, allowing Apollo into his office. “For once, we don’t have a case to talk about,” he mused, watching Apollo step uncertainly inside. “Surely you did not come for idle chat, no?”

The door swung closed, and Apollo took a deep breath, turning around. “No, you’re right.” Unconsciously, he fiddled with his bracelet. “I came because, um, I’m…worried about you?”

His heart stopped. What was he even doing? Did he have a right to say that to Klavier, after everything that had happened? The Wrights’ stupid optimism had rubbed off on him, and now he was making a fool of himself here. They weren’t friends. He shouldn’t even be here.

Klavier’s smile faded, only for a moment, his jaw somewhat slack, before he remembered to put it back on his face. “You’re worried about me?” he replied, a somewhat teasing grin on his lips. “I had no idea you had such a soft side, Forehead!”

Apollo almost got frustrated. Almost. “Yeah, yeah. But, really. Are you okay?”

Perhaps he’d been expecting frustration or anger, but Klavier wasn’t expecting this. He paused, a millisecond too long, and reached to push up his sunglasses. “Of course. You don’t have to worry about the opposition, ja ?”

“Right. Um…I saw your interview earlier.”

“Oh!” Surprisingly, Klavier’s cheeks splashed with pink. “Well…for what it’s worth, I did mean every word. I enjoy going head to head in court with you.”

Apollo swallowed thickly, hoping the heat in his cheeks wasn’t obvious, either. “...Thank you, Prosecutor Gavin. I feel the same way. But that’s not what I was getting at.” Klavier tilted his head to the side curiously. Though his hands had begun shaking at his sides, Apollo continued. “You had a habit, earlier. And I just saw you do it again.”

“ Ach, not this,” Klavier sighed, waving a hand dismissively. “I’m not a witness in a courtroom. Your strange strategy is not necessary here.”

“Oh, but I think it is,” he continued, feeling a little more emboldened - perhaps because it really did feel like court at the moment. “I don’t believe you when you say you’re okay. You see, whenever I or the reporter asked about that, you’d push up your sunglasses. In fact, why do you have those on inside?”

Klavier swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I…ah, well, that large window - the sunlight still gets pretty bright, even indoors.”

Shaking his head, Apollo took a slight step closer. “Not now, though. The sun is going to be setting soon on the opposite side of the building.” He hesitated a moment when Klavier took a step back, probably instinctually. Apollo sighed, softening his tone. “Prosecutor Gavin, please. Take off the sunglasses. You…don’t have to hide it from me.”

It was silent in that office for what felt like years. And then, a quiet, sad, laugh, unlike anything Apollo had ever heard. “I suppose you would not believe me if I told you it was a fashion statement…?” Slowly, Klavier reached up, removing the sunglasses.

Beneath them was the terrible sight Apollo had been expecting, but was still so shocked to see on someone like Klavier Gavin. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, rubbed red and raw, his blue irises swimming in a seemingly perpetual film of water, with dark shadows framing them beneath.

“Prosecutor Gavin…” Apollo whispered, feeling his heart twist painfully in a way it never had before.

“Your deductive reasoning has not been wrong yet, Forehead,” Klavier murmured with a wavering smile. “Are you happy?”

Apollo’s heart hurt more, so much so that it felt like it shattered and all the small pieces were stabbing his chest. “Of…Of course I’m not happy.” Without really thinking, he stepped closer, shaking his head as he searched the other’s face. “I just didn’t want you to have to go through this by yourself.”

Klavier’s brows furrowed a little. “...Why do you care?” he whispered, and though the words were harsh, Apollo could tell he really wanted to know the answer, like he couldn’t fathom why Apollo would ever want to check on him. Apollo bit his lip, thinking about how he had been thinking the same thing earlier, if the roles had been reversed.

“Look, I know we’re not friends. We’re rivals. We compete against each other.” Apollo sighed. “But I like you, Prosecutor Gavin.” His cheeks reddened. “U-Uh, what I mean is, I think you’re great. And, um, I think you feel the same. I think…you’d do the same thing for me, if I needed it.” Klavier seemed surprised by this, his watering eyes widening a little as Apollo continued. “I could never understand what you’re going through, but I think that…I’m probably the closest? So I’m here. For you. If you want me to be.”

Apollo cringed a little at the words that tumbled out of his mouth, but before he could make a break for the door, something shocking happened.

Klavier sobbed, dropping his head.

And Apollo’s eyes widened, holding his hands out in front of him as if touching the air would fix this. “P-Prosecutor Gavin! I-I’m sorry, was it something I said? I’ll leave, if you -”

“Forehead. No. Apollo ,” he cried, his voice breaking, shutting him up. “Stay. Please.”

Apollo froze, staring at the man in front of him, wondering if this was the first time he’d used his actual name. Klavier was standing with his hands in fists at his side, his entire body trembling with the effort of keeping the sobs more or less contained. Without thinking, Apollo stepped closer, drawing him into an embrace.

Klavier sobbed again, burying his face in Apollo’s shoulder. He returned the embrace, but his knees seemed to give out at that moment. Apollo gently lowered them both to the ground, not once letting go of the hug. “It’s okay. Just…Just let it out.”

He did. For a while. Every now and again, letting out a heart-wrenching wail about Kristoph, about how he should have known, how maybe he never truly knew his brother, how every time he looked in the mirror, he saw him. Each time, Apollo’s heart twisted painfully, but he gently shushed him, telling him it wasn’t his fault, telling him it was okay.

By the time the trembling lightened up, they were sitting on the floor of a completely dark office, the sun having set in the time that they’d been together. Slowly, Klavier pulled away, wiping at his eyes tiredly. “I…apologize. You should not have had to see me like that.”

Apollo smiled, if a little sadly. “I apologize for pressing you.”

Klavier blinked, his eyes nearly glowing in the darkness. Despite the situation, he smiled slightly. “I think…this makes us friends.”

Apollo supposed tonight would be the night that Klavier would continue to surprise him. He smiled a little in return. “I’d like that.” Slowly, he got to his feet, offering his hand to Klavier, who gratefully took it. He pulled him back to his feet, and their hands stayed intertwined for a moment before they both pulled away. “Here.” Carefully, Apollo handed the sunglasses back to him. “I think it’s time to go home.”

“You’re probably right…”

“Are you, um, gonna be okay?”

Klavier hesitated for a moment, spinning the sunglasses in his hands. “Of course. I always am.”

Very convincing, Apollo thought, shaking his head. “C’mon, my place isn’t too far. You can crash on my couch.”

“I would not want to impose…” he mumbled, his brows furrowing.

“Isn’t this what friends do?”

They stared at each other for a moment. Klavier smiled slightly, turning his gaze to the floor as he put his sunglasses back on. “ Ja , I guess so.”

The walk back to Apollo’s apartment was a quiet one. Klavier’s steps were slow and heavy, like he might fall over any moment. And Apollo couldn’t blame him - but he sure hoped he’d wait until he made it to the couch.

Once inside, Apollo turned on the lights, gesturing to the couch. “Here. It’s not much, but, um, it’s pretty comfortable, I think. Make yourself at home, I’m gonna get you some water.”

Apollo stepped into his kitchen, grabbing a glass to place beneath the faucet. If someone had told him last month that he’d be consoling Klavier Gavin for the last hour, he’d have laughed in their face. But he couldn’t help but think about the Wrights again, and wonder how, once again, they were right all along.

He turned off the faucet, grabbing the glass, and headed back into the living room, only to find Klavier already asleep. He was lying on his side, his face slack, still glistening with tear tracks in the dim lamplight. His lips were parted to make way for congested breaths, looking surprisingly at peace despite it all.

Apollo found himself smiling, his shoulders relaxing a little at the sight. Like this, he didn’t look like Prosecutor Gavin. He looked like Klavier. And Apollo found himself lucky that he could see it.

Carefully, he placed the glass down on the table for him and grabbed the nearby blanket. As gently as he could, he tossed the blanket over Klavier, making sure he’d be as comfortable as possible.

As he stood up to turn off the light, a quiet moan reached his ears. Klavier’s eyes were still closed, but his brow furrowed slightly. “Justice,” he mumbled, like the word was a chore.

“Yeah?” Apollo asked gently, crouching down beside the couch carefully.

“... Danke ,” he managed, as his face relaxed once more.

Apollo’s heart tumbled in his chest. He smiled, knowing that no one would see it, and slowly 

stood up. “...Anytime.”

And with that, he turned off the light, bathing the room in surprisingly warm darkness. Apollo settled into the nearby armchair, intent on sitting for just a while to keep an eye on Klavier. His rhythmic breathing, however, soon lulled Apollo to sleep, too.

Soon, the sun would rise on a new day, and a new friendship.

[box-dwelling]

Listen I'm just going to say that I think Phoenix gets too much of a bad wrap for being a shitty boss given how God damn charitable we are about Edgeworth as a boss.

That bitch even post redemption slashes gumshoe's pay constantly and drives him into deep poverty despite him being probably his most trusted ally and also one of a handful of people he can even tolerate.

Yet he gets the "oh he's such a good boss treatment" when Apollo is to everything that's ever been said doing basically fine financially despite being an illegal immigrant and orphan with a law degree which would make you think he fucking wouldn't be.

Like I'm not saying him making him baby sit Trucy is ok but like she does also actively work as his assistant for what's implied to be free of charge and the two of them are friends and Phoenix knows their family so like it's maybe a little more reasonable.

I think it's also worth saying that in AA4 they're more colleges than anything. Mentor and mentee definitely but like, the actual power system there is that it's an agency they both work at that technically Trucy owns because she's the one actually making money. It's basically freelance work that Apollo takes on and the Phoenix mentors him in, free of charge. Phoenix doesn't get shit for the cases in AA4 beyond the satisfaction of fucking over Kristoph and helping the kid out.

In AA5 he is considered the boss given Phoenix, Apollo and Athena work mostly as a cohesive unit and he's the oldest and most experienced and when he has his badge back he takes over actually running the WAA from Trucy. Like the profiles in DD say as much. He's still just a pianist in 5-2 where he's getting Apollo to babysit. It's later on in the timeline that he gets changed to be the boss and person running the agency.

Also idk man I genuinely think that as soon as you complete the mason section in AA4 they're relationship is significantly better. Apollo just enjoys being a little hater. But he genuinely respects Phoenix at the end of that case. He goes back to talking about him how he does in 4-1. Then by dual destinies they have a pretty friendly dynamic. They clearly both care about each other it's just that Apollo has a very sarcastic sense of humour. He talks about Trucy and Athena the exact same way as well as like basically every character he interacts with ever.

I just do not see Phoenix being that bad a boss. Cryptic and annoying vague? Absolutely, but so was Mia. Deeply enjoys teasing his employees through various bits with Trucy? Definitely. But it's no comparison to how bad Edgeworth is with gumshoe.

[wowowwild]

For my krisnix enjoyers. Pls accept my ramblings below.

Good evening. It's me, Mx. Wild. First and foremost, I don't think anyone does, but I definitely do not think they are health, just to be exceedingly clear. Also these are my mostly canon compliant musings, I have other 'if this, then that' headcanons I'm not shoving in here bc nobody has the time for all of that at once. Now, moving on.

Look, Phoenix has bad taste. Kristoph is known to make horrible decisions. Match made in a hell equivalent. Kris wants to keep Phoenix close bc he's paranoid, Phoenix wants to keep Kris close bc he's a sketchy mf (imo).

I think Phoenix would know Kris wanted something out of the relationship. Some random guy he doesn't know stands up for him and tries to be besties with him all of a sudden? Kristoph could absolutely spin it that he knew the legendary Phoenix Wright would never and he feels bad bc it was his little brother who exposed the fake and is so appalled that someone would frame Phoenix and he wants to get to the bottom of it. That's even believable. I don't think that takes away from the clear indication that Kristoph wants something out of the relationship.

And Phoenix isn't stupid. Don't get me wrong, mans is dumb of ass, but he's incredibly intelligent. I think fairly early on if not immediately he would expect that the relationship (at this point budding friendship) is transactional to a certain degree. And honestly, he would get a lot out of it, too. Someone definitively believes he's innocent and is helping him through the worst years of his life. At some point Phoenix figures out the truth, but I don't see any universe where him knowing that is immediate. There would be too much going on. They have time.

From Kristoph's perspective, he needs to keep Phoenix close and figure out what he knows at all times. Kristoph isn't stupid either, just spiralling further and further out of control. Once Phoenix begins to suspect, it's a matter of time before Kristoph suspects that he suspects. Whole lot of suspecting going on. But until then they have time.

So while they have time, they 're both putting into this relationship they have. They're 'friends'. From the outside it wouldn't look like it, but they care, Phoenix might care a bit more genuinely on purpose, but Kris would also have to care somewhat after all that time. Even if it was on accident, if someone is a big enough part of your life, even if you hate them, you start to care.

I think the type of person Phoenix is, is someone that Kristoph has not seen a lot of. Phoenix and Klavier are pretty similar, I can see him drawing some parallels, but he's not really close to Klavier at this point. I think Phoenix's true personality would be pretty disarming for Kris, he wouldn't know what to do, how to act towards someone like Phoenix. With that loss of control and stability, I can find him accidentally very quickly coming to care to Phoenix, despite also hating him. As strange as it is to say, you can hate someone without disliking them, just like you can love someone without liking them.

So taking this time, we've come to a situation where they care for each other. Depending on how long they have, maybe they've come to love each other platonically, romantically, and/or otherwise. But at some point Phoenix begins to suspect. It would be complicated for him. He doesn't want to suspect his friend of being a forger or eventually a murderer. It's hard to say exactly when those two dots might connect or which came first, but at some point he realizes these things. So what happens then?

Phoenix has learned his poker face by now, but Kristoph knows him fairly well at this point too. Phoenix can probably keep the fact that he's suspicious under wraps for a while. Even though Kris knows him well enough to eventually see through, Phoenix knows Kristoph well enough to know how to hide it. Kristoph can never get out of Phoenix anything definitive. Nothing that could be used as an admission. At this point they both know what game they're playing and that the other is in just as deep.

At this point, it would hurt them both deeply if they had fallen into a committed relationship (qpr, romantic relationship, exclusive fwb, etc.). Phoenix has to have some PTSD about the Dahlia situation, and Kristoph doesn't strike me as the type to have thought much about that type of relationship before if at all. He's honestly way too paranoid imo. I think it would cut them both deeply either way, but having someone you've committed to sizing you up like that hits a little different in most cases. (I am aroace but i've been in relationships, I am working based off of my own experiences which are not universal.)

They're out of time now. Any day the other shoe could drop. Kristoph could take Phoenix out of the game once and for all. Phoenix could find the one piece of evidence he needs to pull the curtain crashing down on Kristoph. In the end, it's the latter, but until that day they're frozen, stuck pretending everything is ok, playing their roles the best way they know how, time is standing still around them.

And then a hard rubber sole meets the concrete. That is my broad interpretation of the relationship between smarmy bitch Kristoph and shady asshole Phoenix (affectionate in both cases). I could pick all my little headcanons about this, that, and the other thing to show you, but I'll do that later if y'all want. (pls ask me questions, I would love to explore answers to them)

[cornertheculprit]

for me personally, this exchange in turnabout succession is what made me think that phoenix was always suspicious of kristoph:

Phoenix: For seven years we've been friends... and yet, I still don't understand you.

Kristoph: But Wright, your "friendship" toward me was never pure. ...You suspected me then as you still do now, don't you?

Phoenix: ...Honestly, right now, I'm not sure what I think.

see, i get that, but i think the key phrase in there is phoenix saying that he isn't sure what he thinks. and i think that if you view the situation from a greater perspective, it makes sense that he would say that—think about it for a second. you suddenly find out that the person you've been friends with for seven years, the only one who voted in your favor, who stood up for you when you were being disbarred, did All Of That. i personally think it would only be natural for someone to immediately start combing through every memory they have of that friend, trying to figure out the answers to questions like "did they ever act off in a way that made me suspicious? did i notice it and ignore it somehow? did i just completely miss it?" and so on.

i think phoenix's reaction to dahlia's apparent betrayal (though he didn't know that it wasn't actually her he was dating the whole time) is also something to take into account. he was upset by it, absolutely. he thought that the dahlia on the witness stand might've been a fake compared to the "dollie" he knew (and in his own way, he was completely right! because iris was the "dollie" he knew!), but he never took the investigation of it any further than that simple remark until seeing iris in bridge to the turnabout all those years later, instead throwing himself headlong into speedrunning a law career so he could find edgeworth.

and when you fast forward to the future, with the disbarment situation being as immediate as it was and also Having A Brand New Child Dropped Into His Lap To Deal With, while i can see the possibility of him wanting to investigate, it also seems equally likely that he just had too much on his plate re: figuring out how to look after a kid while also having to scramble to find a job at the same time and anything he searched for became a dead end so he left it at that. and kristoph saying odd things about the case here and there, if he ever brought it up, could just be attributed to the fact that he was part of the bar association and maybe they were all talking shit about phoenix in their corner or something. who knows. and, again, kristoph was the only one who stuck up for phoenix. and we all know of phoenix's instant idolization of anyone who does that for him (edgeworth, mia). so even if kristoph did say something funny, i think the chances of phoenix being like "(...geez, he's a little bit weird, huh?)" and then moving on is pretty high, actually.

i think given kristoph's legitimate surprise when phoenix started accusing him, it's also not entirely impossible that he just Assumed that phoenix had suspected him the entire time. i also think it's not entirely impossible that phoenix would be questioning himself on whether or not he suspected him at all during their many years of friendship. but ultimately we're never going to get any confirmation of this because of the utter destruction of characterization for everyone in aa5 and aa6.

[nyaagolor]

I originally was going to make this a comic, but then realized I don't have the skill, time, nor motivation to execute it so it's a textpost now. Anyway.

I was thinking about Dual Destinies (again) and about what would happen if Clay were the defendant rather than the victim-- but the more I started playing around with this tweak the more things got out of hand and now I'm effectively looking at a rewrite

The first change is in the setting: Aura / Simon / Metis / Athena / Clay were all working / living at a rehabilitation center connected to the prison system. Thematically I prefer it to the space theme, it puts a lot more ambiguity on the situation with Metis and Athena (since raising ur child in a correctional facility is. Questionable.), and imo psychologists make more sense working at a prison than like. Nasa.

Clay isn't an astronaut in this AU, but instead some kind of guard / bailiff. This gives us a chance to interact with him in the game itself (he's the one bringing witnesses from the courthouse and he's at the detention center) so we get to actually see him and care about him a little bit more. I'm imagining he gets the job as the guard in the corner of the room in the detention center and if you "examine" that spot as Apollo you'll get some flavor text about him waving to you or smth. Either way, the last case starts with Clay getting a promotion and being responsible for some of their more dangerous / high profile criminals

He calls Apollo shortly after in a complete panic, saying he's been accused of murdering his charge and that he's so so so sorry because he knows how personal this is, but he needs Apollo's help. Apollo immediately agrees to defend him, trying to get him to calm down and just explain. Clay finally admits that the reason he was so nervous about calling Apollo specifically is because the victim of this case is Kristoph Gavin

Apollo decides to set off on his own immediately, because while he does trust Phoenix way more now, the subject of Kristoph is a really sore point for him and he doesn't want Phoenix involved. Klavier, who was banned from prosecuting the case for Conflict of Interest reasons, joins him because he is also extremely invested in this case For Reasons and he has trust issues about it For Reasons. They end up getting Clay declared innocent and in the process of investigating find the lighter, which basically shatters Apollo's already fragile trust in Phoenix because What Do You MEAN the random girl you mysteriously hired is related to the Kristoph case What Are You Hiding Now. The hostage situation with Aura happens in the same way, but this time Klavier forces his way onto the prosecution with Apollo as his co-counsel because the two of them are PISSED

The idea is for Athena to be her own defense, but she's so emotionally rattled that she needs a co-counsel. To Aura's shock and horror, Simon says he'll do it. When she says he's a prosecutor and he can't, he counters that this is a fake trial anyway so the rules don't really apply. The trial is extremely emotionally driven because it's super personal for everyone involved and is just an absolute goddamn disaster. I haven't figured out anything with the phantom yet or how all this ties together, but that's a problem for later

[ind1c0lite]

Assorted headcanons about Phoenix and the seven year gap because it lives rent free in my head and I must yell

-I made another post about it but Edgeworth was the first to hear about State v Enigmar and Maya was the first to see Phoenix in person after he's disbarred (and the first to meet Trucy)

-Originally Phoenix and Trucys situation was just him fostering her at first, not an immediate adoption of her, largely cause Phoenix was hoping for her sake that Zak would eventually come back to AT LEAST see her, but after like- year 2 of Zak being gone, it turned into an actual adoption of her and she legally became Trucy Wright (although she had started going by that name a few months beforehand)

-The first year for Phoenix was- Well Rough To Say The Least, he ended up getting into a l o t of fights with both Maya and Edgeworth and started really pushing them away (never in front of Trucy but she could tell something was going on) largely cause in his mindset at the time he didn't really think they understood what was going on (which he very much realized was VERY stupid considering who he was talking to) and eventually it ended in both Maya and Edgeworth staging something of an intervention and being like "hey man your being a huge dick to both of us we're trying to help you through this but also whats going on in that head", they ended up finally actually Talking and settled things for once, things got better after that! slowly yet surely

-After the bar association trial, Phoenix was the first to approach Kristoph for believing him, and that where their friendship started (Kristoph was going to just do regular ol stalking instead but decided that being "friends" with him would probably be easier here so he went with it)

- personally my least favourite interpretation of the 7yg is where Phoenix knows that kristoph was the one who framed him all along, like idk it's just not very interesting to me, it's kinda boring ghjkhlj I absolutely where people are coming from with it though but idk hgjkhl it's lame to me

- Even though Phoenix was no clue whether or not he's going to become a lawyer again and pretty much had adapted to his new life, he always has that little thought in his mind that if he becomes one again, everything in his life will get better instantly, he'll be useful again (spoiler alert, it doesn't immediately fix his life! he has Depression)

-Around year 2 was when Edgeworth started bringing over Phoenix and Trucy to Europe (in my mind he spends about half the year in Europe and Half in America), while he DID give the reason that he needed Phoenixs help with a case or two (and that wasn't an outright lie) largely he just wanted to spend time with the two of them and didn't know how else to express it, by year 5 Phoenix caught on to what he was doing and found it VERY funny, after that their trips were much less law focused

-Phoenix met Athena in Europe in Year 3 and kept in contact with her until she arrived in America, and oh BOY can she tell he is very upset

-Eventually he does go to therapy like- after DD, at the insistence of Athena and Trucy (it takes him a bit cause he's one stubborn man but he gets there eventually!)

-He started growing out his hair and realized that he did actually like this hair longer so he kept it!

-While he does not regret making Apollo use the forged ace in court, he does hope that one day they'll be able to mend things since he knows it hurt Apollo a lot, he cares about Apollo but is giving Apollo the space he needs to make that choice on his own, he's very proud of both him and Athena

-Trucy gave him her second earring so they could match! He nearly sobbed when she did that hgjkhl He did have to get his ears pierced to wear it but dw he was very brave about it

ok thats all I can remember rn enjoy HJGKH

[freakcliff]

good ace attorney fanfics.

according to me. im the worlds pickiest fanfic reader tho so if i say its good its good. mainline series; here's good dgs fics

Trilogy centric:

and we'll toast these stunning ruins by ohallows [~9k; oneshot]

He pulls the door open and all his thoughts grind to a halt. Miles Edgeworth is standing there, dripping with rain and looking a bit like a drowned cat. If Phoenix was being honest, he’d almost forgotten about him being back amidst the chaos of the day and the conversation with Maya. It’s a novel experience, actually; he can’t remember a time when Edgeworth wasn’t hovering, wanted or not, near the forefront of his mind. But he’s here - he’s real, standing on Phoenix’s doorstep in his dingy hallway in an apartment complex that probably costs less than Edgeworth’s entire salary, looking awkward as all hell.

[wonderful expansion on the whole Thing Phoenix & Edgeworth have going on during Farewell my Turnabout. its so messy i love them. General stamp of approval also on everything this author writes.]

Marriage, Magic, Misunderstandings by theacegrace [~20k; oneshot]

When Mr. Nick gets disbarred, Pearl decides there is no better opportunity than this for him to finally move to Kurain Village so he can be with Mystic Maya. With the help of Mr. Nick’s new daughter, she decides to plan the perfect wedding for the two of them, and won’t let anything get in her way. After all, Mr. Nick and Mystic Maya are in love… aren’t they? (AKA: Pearl and Trucy plan a wedding, and neither parties involved want it.)

[Love how this one takes a joke from the games that is stupid and often uncomfortable and gives it such depth and weaves a beautiful story out of that. Shoutout to ao3 user theacegrace everything they write is a banger.]

A False Start by theacegrace [~50k; 5 chapters]

Twenty-one year old Miles Edgeworth finds himself reconsidering his perceptions of State vs Fawles after running into an old friend at a train station, carrying a suspicious necklace and in a relationship with a suspicious woman. And perhaps he could ignore it, except it’s a little hard for him to ignore a particularly clingy, emotionally volatile Phoenix Wright. AU. Miles and Phoenix meet while Phoenix is still in college. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

Apollo Justice (game) centric:

Alternative Dispute Resolution by FaustianAspirant [~19k; 5 chapters]

In a fit of impulsiveness, Klavier asks Apollo on a date. Unexpectedly, Apollo accepts, but under one condition: in the interests of avoiding further awkwardness, Klavier must resolve his remaining differences with Phoenix Wright. What follows is excruciating for everyone involved.

[This is my favorite Klavier fic. It has everything a girl could want: exploration of the small glimpses we got of whatever the hell is going on with Klavier Gavin (& his brother) in aa4, resolution on Klav and Phoenix's relationship, and the best fake Gavinners song & album titles I've ever had the pleasure to read. If nothing else, read this one for this line:

How fitting, though, that he is destined to be a martyr for love! It’s just like in that track on the Gavinners’ third album, ‘I Would Do Anything for Judicial Impartiality (And Also Love)’, or that other track on the Gavinners’ third album, ‘Stop in The Name of The Legal Authority I Legitimately Wield (And Also Love)’.

Also like, the rest of it. Perhaps the best thing about this fic is how it manages to weave absolutely insane ace attorney bullshit like the Gavinners song titles with such depth of characters and emotions.]

Fuel for the Funeral Pyre by MoominQuartz [~7k; oneshot]

Kristoph Gavin wants him dead? That’s fine. Phoenix Wright wants him dead a thousand times more. If he expects Phoenix to lie down and let the snake bite him, that just means he won’t be looking for the trap lying in wait. A look into Phoenix's head during the seven-year gap

Everything Good (Eventually Hurts) by Wildfey [~10k, oneshot]

Phoenix: I'm talking about evidence that shouldn't have existed. A naughty magician's trick...

The second time that Trucy's life falls completely, irrevocably off its rails, it’s a Friday, and she doesn’t even notice. A story about what Trucy was doing during the events of Turnabout Trump.

[everything by this author is also good 👍]

The Phoenix, and Other Early Birdsby Wildfey [~100k; 16 chapters]

Wright grimaces. “Sorry to tell you this, but as of six hours ago, I’m officially a stay-at-home dad rather than a lawyer. I might be able to recommend you someone else if-” “That’s why I’m here!” Apollo half-yells, and then feels the tips of his ears flush because he just shouted over Phoenix Wright. “I know we’ve never met before, Mr Wright, but I think you’re being framed, and I want to help you clear your name!” ~*~ In which Apollo is 15, Trucy is 8, and Phoenix is very confused as to where all these children keep coming from. (Also known as the 'Apollo goes to the Enigmar trial AU')

Wrong from Right (Wright from Wrong) by Wildfey [~9k; oneshot]

“I’m not sure what exactly you want, Herr Wright,” he says instead, flattens his voice down so neither anger nor tears leak through, and tries not to wince at the fact it defaults to friendly but distant charm instead. Like Wright’s an overenthusiastic fan who’s caught him while he’s busy and won’t take a hint. Wright knocks a fist against the doorframe, somewhat absent-mindedly. “I want lunch,” he says, finally. “The bus takes forever, give me a lift back into the city, will you?” In which Klavier and Phoenix are smart enough to finally have that conversation about the past, and dumb enough to do it in two parking lots and a burger barn drive-thru. There's no accounting for taste.

disillusioned twenty-something(s) by kitelines [~2k; oneshot]

She’s known him only a week, but it’s already clear to her that Klavier Gavin has high expectations of the world around him. And Ema hates people who have high expectations. It’s unrealistic. It’s blind naïvety. You have high expectations, and you set yourself up to fail. It’s something she’s seen time and time again. And it’s a lesson Gavin needs to learn, starting off small—because it’s 8AM at a murder scene in a 7/11 and he’s already dipped his hand into her bag of Snackoos that she’d taken the only one grieving. (Post AA4, Klavier-centric, not shippy.)

The Devil's Brother by ItsyRoyal [~6k; oneshot]

When Vera is lost in grief and afraid to face the empty studio where her father should be, Klavier offers her a place to stay. She quickly realizes she's not the only one grieving. (Post AA4, Klavier-centric, not shippy.)

In Better Light by cosmogyral & sunsmasher [~60k; 7 chapters]

Apollo’s been stationed at the Los Angeles Shatterdome for just over a week before a young woman his exact height pops out of a basement stairwell and says, “There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

* AA4/Pacific Rim fusion. Apollo and Trucy save the world. Phoenix and Edgeworth help.

[I think about this AU every fucking day. there's goddamn themes and narratives in here; this is the absolute pinnacle of what fanfic aus can do. someday in the distant future i hope to be able to create something half as incredible as this. also; both of the authors generally have good works]

forty years in the wilderness (and the following holiday weekend) by sunsmasher [9k; oneshot]

Miles Edgeworth comes home five weeks after Phoenix finishes rebuilding the jury trial system with his own two fucking hands.

[bookmarker's note: augh, yeah.]

no feeling (is final) by zombiekittiez [5k; oneshot]

Mr. Wright marks the date on their official wall calendar, a freebie from the grocery store that features seasonal produce. “Not every day you get to see a murderer marry the guy she framed for it,” he quips. ~~ Alita Tiala serves three years in the state penitentiary; Wocky Kitaki marries her anyway.

[bookmarker's note:👍👍👍]

Misc:

selected conversations from the magisteel discord server by liilllyyyy [~30k; oneshot]

A comedy of errors, ft. Discord shenanigans, friendship, gay pining and more!! aka. Miles Edgeworth and Maya Fey co-run a Steel Samurai/Evil Magistrate discord server; neither knows who the other is. What happens next will shock you

[This is the only chatfic ever. no chatfic will ever be this.]

The Catch-Up Game by theacegrace [~60k; 9 chapters]

With his daughter away for the year on a magic show tour, Phoenix’s life is upended enough as it is. The realization that his childhood best friend and courtroom rival may be in love with him, and the complicated feelings that come with that, are the last things he needs. Written for narumitsu week 2020, each chapter loosely based around the prompts: family, marriage, free day, pining, opposites, AU, hurt/comfort, and future.

[I've read this one multiple times, and it's still the Definitive Phoenix Fic in my head. This is the culmination of his development throughout the games that I had wanted so badly, and for that it has the absolute highest honors a fanfic can get in my head. 10000/10]

pressure (pushing down on me) by ApprenticeofDoyle [~130k; 7 chapters]

Dahlia Hawthorne is going to prison, and Phoenix Wright is a free man. Mia Fey takes one look at the glassy-eyed teenager collapsed on her couch and thinks, by the Mother, this kid needs therapy. Luckily, she knows somebody. (Or: Six times that Phoenix Wright needs help, and one time he gets it, without even having to ask.)

The Art of Personal Transfiguration by estelraca [~9k; oneshot]

Athena convinces Simon to stay at her place for a few days while he's getting his feet under him after his release from prison, and the two of them spend some time trying to get to know each other and themselves again. Post-Dual Destinies.

Of Haircuts, Pocketwatch Chains, Other Uninteresting and Undesireable Things, and Generic Wholecloth Christmas Magic by ribbontype [~9k; oneshot]

Phoenix finds an old gift lying around that he had meant to give to Edgeworth years ago, and Edgeworth finds himself obligated to return the favor. Meanwhile, Phoenix continues to live his life. Neither of these things are particularly easy. They are also not as hard as Phoenix and Edgeworth are making them.

[bookmarker's note: this guy fucking gets it]

The Turnabout Job by ribbontype [~15k; 2/6 chapters finished]

“Please, Mr. Edgeworth! Please! You know how the police in this country are - how our laws are. You’ve seen the way people are rewarded when they try to do the right thing the right way,” In a kinder world he could have disagreed with her, but they’re not in a kinder world, they’re in Los Angeles. “I don’t need the police. I need a good man who wants to help.”

Edgeworth makes a mistake that has him straying farther from the path of the courts than he ever has and, even worse, it could mean other people are going to go down with him. After seven long years abroad, his ill-advised stint back in Los Angeles forces a reunion of allies who had long since gone their separate ways. It'll take one last big turnabout to right the wrongs they've done. Just one big job, then everything can go back to normal

[grabs you. ace attorney leverage au]

i havent written anything ace attorney really but i've been your host ao3 user kaetor if you want to see. idk my other bookmarks

[the-bar-sinister]

The Nature of the Law (694 words) by thesavagesabretooth

-

Apollo listened eagerly, taking notes as Mr. Gavin interviewed their client.

After a while his boss turned to him with a sweet smile. "Today's an interesting day, Justice. This case is worth doing a little of our own investigation."

"Sir?" Apollo gave him a quizzical look. Defense Attorneys weren't strictly allowed on crime scenes after all– that was prosecutorial business.

Gavin wagged a finger at him however. "Tut tut, Justice. We won't do anything illegal, obviously. Come along. The game's afoot!"

-

They'd been poking around the scene of the crime for about an hour. Mr. Gavin had gotten permission from the detective in charge with a smiling conversation.

It was thrilling, really. Not part of the job that he typically had gotten to see yet in his internship. Not technically part of the job at all, though he knew his idol, Phoenix Wright was known for doing such things.

Still, the more they investigated, the more Apollo began to feel unsettled.

"Sir," Apollo finally said, pulling his boss aside quietly. "I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this."

Gavin cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? Do elaborate, Justice."

"Well…" he rubbed his arm, his fingers trailing over his old bracelet. "I'm starting to get the feeling that our client actually did it."

Kristoph Gavin smiled. "Oh, is that all? Yes, Justice, well spotted. That does seem to be the very likely probability. I've expected that the entire time. Even before I took her case."

Apollo looked up at him with wide eyes. "You did? But–"

"The law is absolute, Apollo," Kristoph said, lifting his chin up. "It is absolute, and it applies equally to every person, to widows and to orphans, in every case, without regard for pity. But courtroom procedure, thank lady justice, is part of the law. Our client may have killed someone, but we will see to it that the law does not find her guilty. I invoked Sherlock Holmes earlier, did I not?"

"You did," Apollo murmured.

"In the stories of Sherlock Holmes, it was solving the mysteries that were important to Holmes," Kristoph explained. "He often, in his mercy, let a criminal escape. Refused to explain the mystery or even lied to the police to allow it to be so. Sometimes the law and justice are incompatible."

"The law and justice are incompatible?"

"Sometimes," Kristoph said. "The law is absolute, as I said. It is a blunt instrument when its wielded by the prosecution, without pity and without mercy. We are Defense Attorneys. And it is our job– our duty– to protect our client from the law wherever we can. It is their right to a good defense."

"But…" Apollo wrinkled his nose. "But sir, she killed someone."

"Indeed," Kristoph agreed. "At least that would appear to be the case. But what do you think of the victim? Now that we've had a chance to do some investigating."

Apollo bit his lip, thinking over the evidence. He didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. "It ah, it seems like he beat her quite badly, sir. For a long time."

"And do you think our client has suffered enough, perhaps?" Kristoph looked down at his student.

"I don't know, sir, that's not up to me to decide."

Kristoph shook his head. "No, Apollo Justice, it isn't. It's up to the judge to decide. The law is our battlefield, and we are defense attorneys. A defense attorney is a shield against the attack of the law. And the law attacks the evil, and the good with equal and pitiless ferocity. We must do our duty as a proper shield. If you would like to be a sword of the law instead, you will have to join the prosecution."

"I… understand, sir," Apollo said, thinking it over. "It just seems… morally dubious."

"Perhaps, Justice. But the law and morality aren't the same thing. The law is a great web in which we are all ensnared. Thank lady justice that the web has as many holes as it does strands, wouldn't you say?"

Kristoph offered his hand to his pupil. "Now come along, Justice, and we'll properly prepare our shield at the office."

[noxiatoxia]

love the gavincest thoughts

using this ask as a springboard to talk about them more bc we as a society do not talk about them enough. cw incest noncon darkfic you get it

though meant to be a gag, these pages from the anthology make me crazy. it's such a minor thing but it shows A) Kristoph would straight up gaslight his little brother even way back then and B) Kristoph had no issues using this form of abuse on Klavier even over mild things like breaking something in the house.

Now I be going off the rails a bit because I haven't played AJ in a hot second so the smaller details may be lost on me. But we do know Kristoph is cold, calculating, willing to play the long game (7 years to be exact) and willing to use his brother in any way that benefits him. He is also not above murdering a little girl. So we can gleam a lot about his character from these things alone.

What I find interesting are two things: 1) Though being the conscious, direct reason Phoenix lost his badge, Kristoph was the only one on the board of attorneys to vote against a strict punishment, and 2) when asked why he killed Zak Gramarye, several black psyche-locks appear (Phoenix's magic ability to see when people are lying.) The black ones, from what we know, imply a secret or other that the individual is subconsciously hiding. For reference the literal only other character in the series seen with black psyche-locks is Athena, and the reason she had hers was due to intense PTSD, as they surrounded the murder of her mother that she witnessed as a child. She couldn't remember what she saw at the time because she had repressed it so heavily, hence the locks.

As for the first point, it is either a way to keep his enemies close (which I believe is most likely, given how paranoid he is), it was a way to mock Phoenix, or he may have felt an ounce of guilt at his actions.

The second implies interesting things for Kristoph. We all know he lies and shit constantly, but telling us there are things even HE isn't aware he's hiding from himself is fascinating and makes me insane in the head. Since it's related to the 7 year old murder case, one can make many guesses. But honestly, one of my lead theories is it pertains to feelings of guilt. It's the one thing we don't ever see Kristoph express over his crimes. Over what he did to Klavier. And I have to think, deep down, he's not this evil guiltless guy. I think a part of him very deep down feels awful for what he did. He probably didn't expect the situation to spiral so far out of his control, resulting in him having to commit murder to cover his secret up. And in order to save himself from the guilt these new, fast-paced developments brought, he had to quickly delude himself into not feeling guilt for it.

(Now granted he DID always plan to kill Misham with the stamp, but my gay ass can't remember if it was the plan to kill Mr. Misham or Vera. Or both.)

Anyhow let me rope this back to the main topic. INCEST !!!

I think with all that we know of Kristoph, he could and sadly probably would do absolutely anything to Klavier so long as it benefited him or sated whatever whims he had. After all, literally all this 7 year BS started bc he just wanted to get Phoenix fired bc he thought he was annoying. PETTY AS FUCK. So I can see him abusing Klavier for equally as petty reasons...although, in my head, I like to believe Kristoph does have a soft spot for Klavier in some ways. He does love his brother and care about him. he just cares about himself way more, so Klavier's own feelings don't really come into play.

And analyzing the "why Kristoph would do it in the first place" is cool and all, but thinking of it from Klavier's perspective is equally as interesting.

Kristoph gaslights him and emotionally abuses him constantly. He puts Klavier down in very subtle ways, quietly getting the idea into his head that Klavier cannot make good decisions for himself, that he's inferior to his older brother, and that his older brother is always correct and just in any disagreement they have. In this way, I can 100% believe Kristoph could gaslight Klavier into believing his own abuse he is experiencing is his fault. Even some of the more vile actions, if you want to get into that territory, would be spun in a way to make Klavier feel like he was asking for it, or that he prompted it, or that in any case it was his fault it happened at all. Kristoph is eloquent and commanding and has a way with words.

Now, while I do love unabashedly dark stuff like that, again, I like to think Kristoph - at the very least a younger Kristoph - would not stoop to such levels even if he wanted to harm Klavier. I can maybe see in this scenario, he does little things here or there but they are infrequent and stay capped at inappropriate touching. He could probably convince Klavier that this is either not inappropriate or even get him to believe he dreamed/imagined it.

In a situation where they had some weird hookup even around the time AJ takes place, this would make the final case a lot harder on Klavier, as he'd have to come to terms with both Kristoph's involvement in these murders but also how he has been treating him.

Maybe later I'll have more concrete ideas, but I do love gavincest so much. Klavier looks up to his older brother so much, it's why he became a prosecutor. So much of how he views himself, his esteem, his self-worth is based on his brother's word. And it's insane to think that when this guy is an internationally famous musical artist. Yet even if millions of people are screaming his name at a concert it means nothing to his ego. Not like his brother.

And then, you have Kristoph, who is portrayed as nothing but a manipulator, a liar, and cold and heartless, yet also very kind and helpful. He's a defense lawyer. He's there for people in need. He was the only one to stick up for Phoenix. His kindness is a front he puts up, but it's a very convincing one, and it makes him seem like the good guy. But he's willing to do some of the most evil shit ever to get what he wants, throw as many people under the bus, etc. Yet we have indication there's something deep, deep down that even he's not aware of that surrounds these things...could be guilt, paranoia, some locked away memory. We don't know. We don't even really know how he feels about Klavier, if Klavier was ever more than just a pawn to him.

So like yeahhh it's cool to think of these two.