#dont get me started on apollo trying so hard to appear american vs Klavier intentionally forcing a thick accent

[shitpostingkats]

Perhaps the coldest ace attorney take ever, but I really wish we got like. A top-down perspective on Apollo. An Apollo where all his backstories are allowed to interact and inform his character from the beginning.

What was it like for him to study law, trying to forget all his immigrant experiences and "blend in", when his childhood is the very reason he's pursuing the profession? Did Phoenix's career speak to him; a lawyer facing down impossible odds with horrible consequences if he fails, and never backing down? Never yielding?

Did Phoenix ever remind him of Dhurke?

Did that make it all the more painful when that man let him down?

Did Trucy remind him of himself? They're foils in so many ways, how did it feel to see an adopted kid trying to balance her birth heritage and her true family? To flaunt it and embrace it, instead of hiding and ignoring.

And he's foils with Athena: the kid who was never the most important piece on the board, versus the little girl that everyone put first, above even their own lives. How much does that s t i n g, to see how desperately Simon clings to protecting her, thinking how no one's ever done the same to him. Simon's so much like Nahyuta: loyal, unflinching, intelligent. And Athena is just the youngest child, the princess, sent away from homes and desperate to claw her way back.

And, well, Apollo's already seen what happens when he places his trust in people who remind him of his family.

Give me immigrant Apollo. Give me family issues Apollo. Give me Apollo who's been screwed over by the system one too many times, but wants to become a part of that system and rebuild it for the better. Give me Clay being an entity in his life in AA4, give me Apollo and Trucy bonding over being adopted, give me surprisingly-proficient-at-crime Apollo trying and failing comically to not be weird and no one in the WAA cares.

I know someone's written a gorgeous fanfic with this exact premise. I just have to find it.