Apollo Justice: Shady Attorney?

Apollo has only 4 cases under his belt, but he’s already made quite a name for himself (rather like his mentor, Phoenix, actually). He’s undoubtedly the talk of the town for revealing the bombshell truth behind the dissolution of Troupe Gramarye, Phoenix Wright’s disbarment, and the sudden, unexpected fall of once-renowned defense attorney Kristoph Gavin. However, all is not rosy for the “passionate heart burning red.” It’s easy to overlook, considering Apollo himself is such a good guy, but in only 4 cases, Apollo has managed to rub shoulders and establish ties with as many genuine criminals as Phoenix did in his entire career. What is more, if subjected to just a little scrutiny, one crucial detail, combined with how questionable his client history appears to the disinterested observer, could cause Apollo’s promising career to come crashing down like a cursed house of cards. On what grounds do these claims rest, and what could they mean for Apollo? Let’s take a look.

(Before going any further, it should be made clear that I’m specifically referring to criminal ties through the client. For example, Phoenix has definitely crossed the mob far more than Apollo has, but never by way of the person he was defending.)

Let’s examine Phoenix’s client history first. Over the course of his 13 playable cases spanning 4 games, Phoenix has gotten a genuine criminal for a client only about once a game, on average. In GS1, it was Lana Skye. She may have been innocent of Bruce Goodman’s death, but she was guilty of tampering with the body (not to mention tampering with the crime scene of Neil Marshall’s murder and the umpteen other crimes Gant almost certainly made her commit over the course of 2 or 3 years). In GS2, the guilty party was (obviously!) Matt Engarde. No, he didn’t technically kill anybody, but he was enough of a slimeball to hire an assassin to do his dirty work for him. In GS3, we actually had two guilty parties. In case 3-2, Ron Delite was no murderer, but he really was Mask*DeMasque, with all of the thieving and pilfering that implies. (Thanks to some clever finagling, though, he was never actually convicted for it.) Finally, in case 3-5, Iris’s hands were clean of blood, but she, like others before her, couldn’t keep her hands off that crime scene.

If we turn our attention to Apollo, we see that not only does he have his own share of dubious clients, he has also managed to rack them up consecutively. In case 4-2, he successfully defended the son of a mafia boss. Think about that again. He didn’t just encounter the mafia, he defended one of their own! It doesn’t even really matter that Wocky was innocent of the crime he was accused of, the point is Apollo worked for these people and (presumably) accepted money from them for his services. You could say it doesn’t really matter, but just think about how it sounds when you hear of a defense attorney who has successfully defended the mob…

Things would be bad enough for Apollo if that were his only crooked tie, but the fun doesn’t stop there. In case 4-3, he defended a wanted smuggler. This is certainly not on the same order as murder or the like, but if Gyakuten Kenji is any indication, it’s still serious business. Finally, we arrive at case 4-4, where Apollo’s client is…a forger. Not just of art, either. No, we’re talking about one of those talented forgers, one of those people who can produce that accursed bugaboo of the entire series—forged evidence.

So, both Phoenix and Apollo have had more than a few criminals for clients. This never really came back to bite Phoenix, though, so why it should hurt Apollo? Well, it may be true that Phoenix never came out the worse for his clients’ criminal activities, but Apollo’s situation is significantly different. Again, consider just how things look overall: he has, to date, defended the son of a mob boss, a smuggler, and a forger. Never mind that guilt by association is not always a fair standard, just think about how that looks. Then remember that his first client was none other than the infamous “Forgin’ Attorney,” Phoenix Wright. (Again, don’t think about the facts, just consider public perception.) Every single case Apollo has taken thus far, his client has been, shall we say, questionable. (Even if we remember that Phoenix was ultimately exonerated, then Apollo simply trades one fishy relationship for another, considering his former boss Kristoph was accordingly exposed as a totally unscrupulous and manipulative piece of trash).

Again you may say, so what? It’s all guilt by association. This is true. However, now we come to the coup de grâce, the one thing that would, together with his slew of shady connections, really kill Apollo's career: he is guilty of presenting forged evidence in court, in case 4-1.

This simple fact is incredibly easy to forget because the game glosses over it, indeed, deliberately shifts the focus to Phoenix and his crime in creating the forged evidence. However, Apollo’s role in using it cannot be ignored. As the game makes abundantly clear later on, the attorney is responsible for the evidence he presents in court. Ergo, it doesn’t matter how Apollo got the forged evidence, nor does it matter that he had no hand in its creation. The bottom line is, he presented it in court, and Phoenix told him flat-out after the trial was over that it was forged. At the time it is presented, Kristoph, too, plainly declares that the evidence is fraudulent, but Apollo is only saved by Phoenix retorting that Kristoph would only know that if he were the killer. The issue is never raised after that, but it still remains. Looking at what happened to Phoenix as an example, Apollo’s career could be sunk all too easily just because of this alone. Throw in the rogue’s gallery of clients from before, and Apollo is really treading a fine line over his reputation. It’s all too easy to imagine a scenario wherein Apollo gets blackmailed over this incident or is somehow otherwise threatened over his murky past.

You may be wondering what my point was in saying all this. I’m sorry if it was difficult to discern, but all I really wanted to convey is that, just observing him “objectively,” from the outside, Apollo looks like a REALLY shady guy! Put together with the fact that he is guilty of presenting forged evidence, someone could put a quick end to his legal career with just a little digging. Does anything remotely like this have to happen? Of course not! Heck, at this point we don’t even know if there’s going to BE a GS5, let alone what the plot details would be. But even assuming Apollo was the protagonist, there’s no reason to also assume that the writers would take the story in this direction. Nevertheless, it just struck me as kind of a huge deal, not something they would do for just no reason, and not something they should be able to just quietly forget about. But hey, it could happen. After all, they were ready to consider the “new era” of Ace Attorney concluded after only one game.

Lucifer's Face: The Themes Surrounding Kristoph Gavin

“…I saw the devil’s face.”

-Vera Misham, GS4

When Kristoph Gavin is exposed as a murderer at the end of case 4-1, it is difficult not to feel surprised. He is the protagonist’s trusted mentor, after all, and his actions amount to a deeply personal betrayal. At the same time, though, a quick analysis of his character up to that point reveals nothing out of the ordinary. He appears to be just another Ace Attorney villain with a gift for poise and witty eloquence. By the end of the game, however, it is clear that Kristoph is unlike any other character in the entire series. Words, metaphors and images all point to him as possessing a nature that is singularly, literally, satanic.

The allusions to Kristoph’s devilish nature begin when Vera Misham collapses during her own trial and gasps out the identity of her client from seven years ago as “the devil” before she loses consciousness. When Phoenix is seen seven years earlier questioning 12-year-old Vera about the identity of the client, she says that “I think…they might be the devil. Or maybe…an angel.” Upon being asked to elaborate on this powerful statement, she goes on to say that the client’s face did not look like the devil, rather, “the client…was gentle…with a gentle smile.” Nonetheless, she is confident that “that person wasn’t like other people.” Putting the pieces together creates a very ominous picture. Satan is, of course, a fallen angel, a fact that fits neatly with Vera’s uncertainty over whether her client is reminiscent of heaven or hell. Furthermore, the Bible repeatedly describes Satan as crafty and devious, one who “masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). In other words, he is anything but apparent and straightforward in his evil. This description fits Kristoph all too well to be purely coincidental.

If this evidence were not sufficient, the game offers much more. When Phoenix uses the Magatama to reveal Kristoph’s Psyche-locks, he is unable to break them, another indication of Kristoph’s inhumanness. Drew Misham’s last letter, addressed to Kristoph, requests that he release Vera from the “spell” he has put on her. (Phoenix himself observes that Kristoph has her “charmed.”) When Apollo perceives Kristoph’s hand tensing, the signal of his untruthfulness, he says that “a little devil appeared to give [him] the news,” presumably referring to the ghoulish image on the back of Kristoph’s hand. Both the image and Apollo’s choice of words are equally impossible to ignore. Finally, when Kristoph breaks down at the end of the game, the animation used is stunningly unique. No other witness breakdown comes even close to it: his hair rises into the air as though suspended by an aura, the pupils of his eyes disappear completely, and his hands compulsively cross each other at the wrists in a sinister manner as he screams in fearful, unearthly rage. The signs all point to the same conclusion, and examining the comparison in just one more light reveals an entirely different yet still compelling layer of the argument.

In the Bible, Satan is also described as the tempter, one who plays on a person’s own desires in order to guide that person to an action or behavior that is sinful or weak. Again, this characteristic uncannily applies to Kristoph. By Phoenix’s own admission, the fact that he presented forged evidence in court was partly his own fault. He made no effort to confirm its origin or legitimacy and simply used it when the need arose. In this way, it could be said that Phoenix gave in to the temptation to rely on dubious evidence so that he could win the trial, albeit for the sake of his client. Similarly, when Vera spoke with Kristoph and told him she was afraid to go outside, he encouraged this attitude and told her, “‘Don’t go outside if you don’t want to.’” Granted, a child is much less inclined to quibble over what’s “right or “wrong” and just do what she wants unless otherwise influenced, but Kristoph’s comforting reinforcement of such a self-depriving and weak behavior is none the less insidious for it.

There is at least one more incident in the game when Kristoph tries to seduce someone down the wrong path: case 4-1, the trial of Phoenix Wright. When Phoenix takes the stand to testify about Kristoph’s presence at the Borscht Bowl Club, Kristoph flatly states that “he’s lying,” and immediately orders Apollo to “expose him. Now.” Though Apollo’s internal struggle over this scenario is, for the most part, not highly apparent, it still probably existed, even if only to a tiny extent. He can take the path of least resistance and reject Phoenix’s testimony as lies, thereby securing his own safe status in life as the apprentice of a well-respected defense attorney; or he can do what is right and run a high risk of losing his mentor, his job, and his credibility. Thankfully, Apollo chooses the latter course, but the fact remains that Kristoph once again tried to play on another’s circumstances and desires to get them to do something wrong.

At this point, some will surely argue that Kristoph is not, in fact, unique. There have been other conspicuously dark characters, namely Dahlia Hawthorne and possibly Damon Gant. This is very true, and there are unmistakable indicators of their own supernaturally evil natures. However, two key differences exist between them and Kristoph. First, Dahlia is only ever referred to as a demon, and Gant is never explicitly called anything, demon or devil, while Kristoph is referred to as the devil multiple times. Obviously, demons are the devil’s underlings, not his equals. The second difference also follows this train of thought in that both Gant and Dahlia, when they were finally cornered, ultimately admitted defeat and submitted. (In Dahlia’s case, the real submission comes near the end of case 3-5, not in case 3-1.) Kristoph, in contrast, never shows any sign of giving in, not even at the very end of case 4-4 when he lost his temper. His total rage is clear, but there does not seem to be any tone of defeat in it. This alone is enough to distinguish him from Gant and Dahlia.

If it really is true that Kristoph Gavin is literally Satan incarnate, it could very well be asked, “Why would the development team take the story in such a religious direction? That kind of makes the whole series more fanciful and less believable, doesn’t it? Besides, it’s stretching it a bit to even think that there’s that much religious symbolism, right?” To those concerned about how grounded in reality the story is, it’s already pretty far from reality because of the frequent summoning of dead people’s spirits in the first 3 games. If anything, the prominence of spirit channeling in the story gives credibility to the importance of any other references to spirituality or religion that can be found. In any case, it is true that the series takes on a much more fantastic tone than even before if the religious references to Kristoph are taken literally. However, the references that surround Kristoph Gavin are very far from all that the series contains. Rather, these are liberally peppered throughout the entire series. The next essay will recount these examples in detail.