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screamingaboutaceattorney · 1 year

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apollo justice trilogy ideas

because capcom fucking WASTED the potential they had with aa4 and the storytelling of the trilogy deserved to be replicated with more characters

notes under the cut

aa4

keep everything basically the same, but add some references to clay, make sure apollo doesn’t exist in a vacuum outside of being a lawyer, yes its really fucking funny but objectively shit for worldbuilding

other than that, change nothing. this is my maybe favorite game in the series for a reason (not the cases)

aa5

scrap everything in this game. some bits and pieces can be kept, but it’s not a lot. there was momentum coming out of aa4 that capcom fucking WASTED with this game

rival prosecutor can be sebastian, detective can be kay

sebastian is friends with klavier and knows apollo because of that

when they meet there’s a scene where sebastian is like “it’s you! mr. forehead!” and apollo replies “what on god’s green earth did you just say to me” or something along those lines because it would be really really funny

klavier and ema are referenced, but not shown. in case 2 apollo can say/think something along the lines of “i wonder who i’m going up against, since ema is studying to retake the forensics exam and klavier is in germany”

speaking of which, klavier is reflecting in germany, spending time with his remaining family, figuring his life out. BIG miles in aa2 vibes but without the incredibly worrying note

trucy is in school more, which means clay can be co-counsel occasionally

background notes about what phoenix is up to (ie apollo thinking about how the first thing phoenix did with his badge back was defend a whale, mention of how he visited maya in khura’in, etc), but he’s still around for the cases. not really doing anything, but he’s there and kind of helpful

there are references to kristoph throughout the game, he is NOT brushed off or swept under the rug

case 1 is turnabout countdown without athena and apollo in the hospital, phoenix co-counsel maybe? basically ted tonate kills candice arme without any of the stuff relating to the cosmic turnabout

case 2 is the monstrous turnabout without athena, sub in trucy since jinxie is her friend anyways

case 3 is completely new, apollo’s landlord is killed, clay is co-counsel

case 4 is also completely new, a murder at a science lab maybe? but clay is co-counsel again

case 5 is the cosmic turnabout without athena and the cliffhanger to set up turnabout for tomorrow

clay and sol switch because i care about clay

culprit can be the phantom disguised as yuri cosmos, he escapes and remains at large when game ends, sets up aa6 nicely

aa6

canon has been thrown entirely out the window, khura'in can exist but it has nothing to do with apollo, it's just "where mr. wright's sister is working"

clay references come back, he's still in space, went up on hat-3 instead of sol because reasons

ema is the detective again, she passed the forensics exam and i love her

simon is the rival prosecutor, we can bring athena in gradually (and maybe set up an athena cykes trilogy but shhh i'll worry about that later)

i'm not sure what the cases are, but the central conflict is between apollo, klavier, kristoph, and the phantom

also klavier is back in japanifornia, tags along on investigations sometimes maybe?

@jackedup180 had a really good idea where there's kind of a matt engarde/shelly de killer vibe between kristoph and the phantom, kristoph makes the plans and stuff but can't commit any crimes because he is in Prison, the phantom can go commit the crimes and probably have more of an alibi

FUCK I ALMOST FORGOT but the phantom is disguised as bobby fulbright again, cause that would be a good dynamic and a decent enough twist. maybe at the end of aa5 they didn't realize that yuri cosmos was the phantom, and that can be brought in subtly now

the one case i AM decently sure of is 6-5, where the victim is metis and klavier is the defendant

no one really believes that it's him, big turnabout goodbyes vibes, but i'm doing that on purpose, dw

aura can still pull the hostage thing cause she wants justice for her wife, which leads to phoenix telling apollo about the Thing and bringing thalassa in at the end of the case because goddammit, capcom, it's been over a decade, you Need to tell them

miles can be the prosecutor cause klavier is still one of his best prosecutors and simon's too invested/not ranked highly enough and also wrightworth lol

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attorneys-against-court-violence · 9 months

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The Tenmas: Simon and Athena Lite

The Monstrous Turnabout is... an episode. It's... certainly one of the Ace Attorney cases of all time... and it has a murder...

Alright alright. I'll pack it in. There's a lot I like about Monstrous; Athena and Apollo's blossoming dynamic, Simon and Bobby's introductions... though those aren't specific to the case at hand - those things could have happened in any case.

There is ONE thing I enjoy about it that I don't see getting much attention in the Dual Destinies fanspace; the Tenmas. As implied in the title, there's a LOT of parallels with these two. But let's introduce them with a quick character analysis first! Spoilers incoming (but hopefully you already knew that!)

Jinxie Tenma

Jinxie Tenma, the first of them we meet, is a woefully troubled lass. A combination of schizophrenia and the yokai-obsessed culture she was born into leaves her shaking with fear most of the time, constantly wary that a monster is lurking nearby to do harm. She carries charms with her wherever she goes, even wearing one on her head, and reflexively slaps one on people who manage to scare her (not a hard thing to do honestly). She's constantly vigilant and her psychosis doesn't lend itself to being easily understood by others. When she's gripped by intense fear, her schizophrenia worsens to the point where she sees yokai inhabiting an entire room, obscuring the moment she found the Alderman dead and her "father" close to unconsciousness.

It's said she lost her mother at a very young age, finding courage in the golden flowers that symbolise her. We'll come back to this, don't worry.

She also has a habit of sleep-walking far from the mansion, rationalising that she had been possessed by a yokai - namely Tenma Taro. Both she and her father have seals on their heads to prevent such a thing from happening - Damian getting the entire top of his head covered in warding seals to prevent Tenma Taro from escaping. We'll come back to this too.

Damian Tenma

A stone-faced man with an intimidating build to match, but a heart of gold to contrast it. He's annoyed by how the former belies the latter but apologises profusely for causing distress. He's also extremely protective of his daughter - especially after his wife passed away. How kind and protective? Well... threatening to break out of the Detention Centre to offer Apollo tea and later to go check up on Jinxie should give you a good idea!

He's adamantly against the merger with Nine-Tails Vale and is quite unpopular in the region. Despite this, his wife was born and raised in the Vale and Jinxie had decided to move there to be more independant and get closer to her mother's origins. Damian doesn't seem to have any objections to this, preferring that her daughter pursues what makes her happy than be overbearing. The pressure-point that pushed him toward the merger was a threat against his daughter's well-being - an anonymous threat from L'belle in his efforts to obtain "Tenma Taro" (a giant gold nugget) from the Vale to pay off his debts. Still wanting to fight the merger without drawing attention, he did so under the guise of the Amazing Nine-Tails who fought against Tenma Taro (ie Nine-Tails Vale would fight against Tenma Town, never to join forces). Notice also that the first time we see him in this guise, he's protecting his daughter from the curse of Tenma Taro. Knowingly or not, he's protecting his daughter from becoming a casualty of the greed Tenma Taro inspires in people such as L'belle.

Up to now, he's shown himself to be a kind man and a loving father. A smart one as well, finding a way to fight against the merger and rally Nine-Tails Vale behind his cause without giving his identity away and resulting in the blackmailer making good on their promises. When his daughter's on the line, he's willing to play both sides to make sure she isn't in harm's way. And when his trial threatens to put her in the line of fire...

Tenma Taro

Alright, this is less of a character and more a persona. "Tenma Taro" himself isn't interesting - an entertaining sequence but not that deep. It's the act of Tenma - no, not this one - NO, not the rock, pay attention - DAMIAN! Damian Tenma! Him taking on this comically villainous persona that re-enforces what we already know about him. For one, it's to protect his daughter. She's far and away the most important part of his life - more-so than his political standing - yet despite not being guilty, he plays the villain to help her testimony hold water, even if it implicates him all the more. For two, he's very good at playing up a character to make his ends meet. The Amazing Nine-Tails is a chilvalrous hero valliantly protecting Nine-Tails Vale from Tenma Taro, swaying the public towards his wishes of going against the merger. It's hammy, sure, but the people seem to buy into it!

Hmm... I wonder if that's a dig at how easily people took to Fulbright's ridiculously heroic visage... hmm.

For three, it's him turning a part of himself he disdains to his advantage. He knows he's an off-putting guy and it bothers him quite a bit, but he's willing to lean into that in order to protect what's important to him. It's resourceful and a showing of how much he loves Jinxie that he's willing to do this. He's even willing to play on his daughter's belief that they are at risk of being possessed by Tenma Taro - an evil that threatens to harm both of them through L'belle's schemes and the one she believes to have killed the Alderman. Nevertheless, he takes the burden of being the villain to protect her.

Now I was going to talk about how Taro could be an alternate personality here... when being asked questions about what Damian saw, Taro draws upon what Damian knows as if he were another person. When he comes-to in the detention centre, he questions why Apollo and Athena are talking to him like he's some evil overlord. I figured "oh, maybe this Tenma Taro is just a yokai-fied explaination for his system of personalities". Buuuuuuut... the ending of DD makes it clear that it is, in fact, a persona, him lamenting that he can't fight himself when people requested "Tenma Taro" face of against the Amazing Nine-Tails.

Referring to both Nine-Tails and Tenma Taro as "himself" is decent enough evidence that this isn't a system of multiple people like Uendo, though feel free to pitch in if I made a mistake here. Chances are I have!

Overall, the Tenmas are a fun pair of characters and their story highlights a lot about them. The tragic daughter of a long-lost mother - trying her best to live a normal life in spite of her condition - threatened by the plans of a supposed aide to steal the rock that would solve all of his problems. Despite his misgivings, a stoic and intimidating guardian takes advantage of his most belothed traits in order to protect this girl he holds so near and dear, respecting her independance despite it going against his stance on where she intends to go.

Hey wait a minute-

The Parallels

Athena and Simon's plight is the beating heart of Dual Destinies. There is no debate. EVERY case in the game has some significant (and even minor) element that ties back to their conflicts. In the Tenma's case, it's almost play-for-play a spin on the very incident that started this mess.

Simon and Damian - responsible to varying degrees for the saftey of a young girl - are forced to take the fall for a crime committed by an unknown force most only know as a supernatural entity. For their respective reasons, this mysterious assailant wanted to steal away a priceless rock from the person they had killed (both very important people in their own right, clad in white and yellow). Said unknown party posed as someone important to this girl in order to get away with their crimes; L'belle disguising as Damian under the Amazing Nine-Tails mask & the phantom disguising as Metis using a Noh mask. These items also have supernatural connotations, with the Nine-Tailed Fox being a key figure in the myth of Tenma Taro and the Noh mask being said to be able to turn the wearer into. Wait for it. A phantom! When push came to shove and the girl was at risk of being indicted for the crime, Simon/Damian leaned into the false acussations, using their naturally intimidating qualities to their advantage in order to either buy enough time for the mystery to be solved or simply to take the fall in her stead.

Finally, the ones responsible for these crimes were thought to be valuable aides to both men; L'belle being the literal aide to Damian and "Bobby Fulbright" being the detective responsible for handling Simon during his conviction.

The Tenmas in this case serve to highlight the undying love and loyalty underpinning Simon Blackquill's actions. Damian is a scary guy but is aggressively polite and puts a great deal of effort in ensuring the safety of his daughter Jinxie. Simon has built quite a frightening reputation himself, but everything he does - from taking the fall for UR-1, to gunning after Starbuck so hard in 5-4, to stepping in and recounting his false confession in 5-5 - is all done to protect the most valuable and beloved treasure of his mentor, and someone he undeniably cares for himself. While prison has changed him quite a bit, he's retained a keen awareness of other's needs and breaks character on occassion to reveal his softer side. In this case, accepting Jinxie's warding charm shortly after threatening to behead her father, likely realising this is a genuinely mixed-up but still kind girl that he's needlessly frightened.

It's also worth noting that despite Damian's seeming dislike of Nine-Tails Vale based on the merger, and Simon's disdain for defense attorneys, both respect Jinxie and Athena's pursuits in a place they're not too fond of respectively. Speaking of, Athena's first reaction upon hearing about her client Damian? Tears. Literal tears. Probably not just for how much he cares for Jinxie - she probably caught the similarities to Simon and was reminded of his dorky kindness. Granted it doesn't take much to make Athena cry but I'd say that's a good enough reason to.

I'm quite fond of the Tenmas myself, though part of me does have to admit it's because they're shadowing a much more important and stirring dynamic. I liken their story to Sasha and Orla's in 5-DLC, oddly enough - one focusing on Simon's side and the other on Athena's. How both of them risk being run to ruins but being completely geniune in their desire to see the other free. Man, now I have to talk about Reclaimed at some point!

Did I mention that Jinxie and Athena are at least some flavour of neurodivergent? At least, that's what's implied on Athena's end. Jinxie's unambiguously schizophrenic. Maaaaaan, I gotta talk about Athena's divergent little brain too... been holding off on that re-write for too long, maaaaaaaaan!

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY! Just the same as Jinxie found courage in her mother's golden flowers, Athena found a posthumous connection to her mother through studying analytical psychology. It's through that she's able to find the ability to actually help the situation with Simon. Both found themselves enabled to help resolve the situation through their connections to their mothers. And like how people would think Jinxie was possessed by Tenma Taro - both during the trial and during her sleepwalks - Athena would similarly be accused of being the monster that caused UR-1 in the first place. Damian and Simon would protect both from this by shouldering the burden of being the monsters for them - Damian the evil crow man, Simon the phantasmagorical killer.

So yeah, the Tenmas are alright. Now if you'll excuse me! I need to figure out who the Phineas Filch is in UR-1...

#dual destinies analysis #dual destinies spoilers #ace attorney spoilers #aa5 spoilers #damian tenma #jinxie tenma #tenma taro #florent l'belle #simon blackquill #athena cykes #bobby fulbright #the phantom ace attorney

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