Hi, it's Double. Been a very long time since I posted anything about myself! I don't plan on moving here permanently unless twitter's platform becomes completely unusable, but it doesn't hurt to write a refresher.
Most of my posts prior to 2017 are about Battle Spirits or Precure or Kaitou Joker. I deleted a lot of old personal stuff from the archives. If you go spelunking, please forgive the cringe...
What I've been up to the past couple of years:
Got REALLY into Inazuma Eleven, followed by Duel Masters. kind of got obsessed with two dudes from the latter franchise. whoops!
Branched out my variety, but my general interests are about the same as ever.
Safely graduated college with incident. Currently living at home in CA while I look for employment.
2 years ago we adopted new cats, Mocha and Truffle! They're very cute and fluffy (and troublesome).
Still steadily producing translations (with significantly improved quality from before). Sheer desperation has led to me picking up lots of related skills too.
I'd like to think I've matured a lot as a person since I last frequented tumblr. While I'm still prone to occasional bursts of excitement and pessimism, I've learned how to communicate with people better. Also I figured out that I'm into women and don't like being restricted to a gender binary, so that's neat.
Developed an extreme fondness for eggs. God Bless the Egg!
The Apollo Justice Timeline (without MASON timetravel)
The MASON System is used as a narrative tool in Turnabout Succession that enables investigating from Phoenix’s point of view in both the presence and the future. In doing so, you can carry evidence from past to future and vice versa, allowing Phoenix to have conversations and draw conclusions that he normally would not have been able to have at that point in time. This of course, raises two important questions:
What does it do on a diegetic level?
In-story, the MASON System is introduced as a tool for the Jurist System test. It helps give the jury members the needed context of the case. Phoenix’s explainer for them describes it as “like a game”, implying the jury members are playing it in a similar fashion to the actual player in the real world. (The 1:1 canonicity of Phoenix’s dialogue here is… debatable.)
Based on this, it stands to reason that the contents of the MASON System have been edited to a) be playable and b) make information flow in an intuitive way, explaining the nonsensical timeline. It is a curated presentation of the facts, prepared by Phoenix.
Interesting here is that the end of this sequence implies that all the footage in the MASON System simulation was captured with Phoenix’s hat camera - which would imply that he began filming immediately after Zak Gramarye’s disappearance.
What was the actual order of events?
This post was made to take a stab at answering this question. Based on the key points of the story that take place outside of the simulation, we should be able to conclude what knowledge Phoenix held at which point in time.
This timeline excludes all events not linked to Phoenix’s part in Turnabout Succession.
If I missed or misinterpreted anything, please let me know!!
2019
April 13th
Magnifi Gramarye dies.
April 14th
Kristoph Gavin commissions forged evidence in order to successfully defend Zak Gramarye. It is speculated that he was aiming for fame by winning such a high profile celebrity case, but Kristoph does not personally confirm or deny this.
April 18th
Zak Gramarye beats Kristoph at poker and dismisses him as his lawyer. He then loses to Phoenix Wright and subsequently changes his lawyer to Wright, who is not informed of his predecessor’s identity.
Kristoph, who is infuriated by the humiliation, tips off Prosecutor Klavier Gavin that Zak’s lawyer would present phony evidence in court the next day.
April 19th
On the day of the trial, Trucy Enigmar receives a page of a diary from somebody in the hall and is told to hand it to Phoenix. (It is not confirmed who the person in the hall was, so it might or might not have been Kristoph himself.) Phoenix presents the page in court and is immediately outed for forgery by a prepared Klavier. In response to things going awry, Zak stages his escape with the help of Trucy.
April ??th
The Bar Association review board has a meeting about Phoenix’s situation. They vote to disbar him unanimously, save for one vote - Kristoph Gavin’s.
April 26th
One week after the trial, Mike Meekings, the court bailiff who let Zak escape, sees Trucy’s performance at WonderBar and recgnizes Mr. Hat.
(Yes, this means Trucy was performing at a bar even in the two weeks in which she had no legal guardian whatsoever….)
May 3rd
Phoenix adopts Trucy and the Wright Talent Agency is founded.
If we take everything from the MASON System to be based on actually filmed material, this is when Phoenix starts carrying his secret camera.
May ??th
Phoenix meets with Mike Meekings and confirms that Trucy was the one who helped Zak stage his escape back then.
May ??th
Phoenix begins playing piano at the Borscht Bowl Club.
(He mentions this employment in the subsequent ‘Past’ MASON segments, implying it began at this point in time and continued the whole seven years.)
May ??th
Phoenix meets with the Mishams. The first anachronism in the MASON simulation occurs.
MASON-Version
Phoenix asserts that Vera is the true forger. He further brings Kristoph’s nail polish bottle from the future and presents it to Vera, thus verifying both that the customer gave her the nail polish and that Kristoph is said customer.
Reality?
Based on Drew’s behavior, it should still be possible for Phoenix to deduce that Vera is the true forger. Further, Drew describes both the stamp and the nail polish bottle as Vera’s precious belongings, using the same kinds of terms. This should make it possible for Phoenix to deduce that the mentioned ‘gift’ from the customer is the nail polish.
The real head scratcher is the confirmation of Kristoph’s identity. At this point in time, Phoenix had no knowledge of Kristoph’s nail polish and could not suspect him based on the brand. Thus he has no reason to ask Vera about Kristoph specifically.
It stands to reason that he leaves this visit at the Misham’s without having learned anything definitive about the identity of the customer.
May ??th
Phoenix visits Valant Gramarye in the detention center. He learns that Trucy’s mother, Thalassa, allegedly died in an accident during rehearsal, killed by both Valant and Zak.
Interim
Phoenix meets up with Kristoph regularly, frequently having lengthy dinners together. Phoenix’s motivation in doing so was always his heavy suspicion of Kristoph as a person - whom he at this point has no evidence against. The only things implicating Kristoph are that he is Klavier’s brother and that he was cordial towards Phoenix after he was disbarred.
(It is possible, though not actually textually implied, that Trucy at some point identified Kristoph as the man from the hallway, thus confirming Phoenix’s hunch.)
Kristoph is aware that Phoenix suspected him from the start and pursued the friendship for that reason, but plays along for the sake of keeping an eye on Phoenix in turn.
2026
???
Phoenix briefly visits Kristoph’s law office and catches a glimpse of Apollo. He spots Apollo’s bracelet and picks up on a connection between him and the Gramaryes that way. We can be certain that Phoenix is aware of Apollo’s potential because he informs Apollo about it during the second case.
MASON-Version
Phoenix recognizes the bracelet because he is a time traveler and has received a photograph of Thalassa with her bracelets from Brushel, six months into the future.
Reality?
Phoenix presumably has just seen some other pictures of Thalassa with the bracelets - the woman was a celebrity, Trucy and/or the media should have more pictures of her than just the single one in the locket.
(It should be noted, however, that Thalassa does not visibly wear the bracelets in her stage outfit, so it would need to have been a private picture.)
April 16th
Zak meets up with Phoenix to settle the transfer of the Gramarye stage rights to Trucy. On the way in, Zak recognizes the just-leaving Kristoph. This comes as a complete shock to Phoenix, who had no idea that there was a connection between these two people.
MASON-Version
In the future, Phoenix has talked to Brushel and learned that Thalassa had a former husband and child. He uses this knowledge to prompt about Apollo and receives confirmation of Apollo’s identity as well as learning the specifics of the Gramarye’s perception powers.
Reality?
Since Phoenix has no way of knowing about Thalassa’s previous marriage, he presumably asks about Trucy’s power and the conversation eventually falls onto the bracelets that Thalassa used to wear.
Somehow Phoenix comes to believe that Apollo can use the power of the bracelets.
April 17th
In the a.m. Zak gets murdered by Kristoph. Phoenix figures this out based on Kristoph’s slip of the tongue - the first time he has any reason to suspect Kristoph of a violent crime.
April 20th
Phoenix is put on trial and, knowing Kristoph is the culprit, chooses Apollo as his lawyer. Through a dangerous forged evidence trick that is identical to the one used to disbar him seven years ago, he leads Apollo to victory and exposes Kristoph’s crime.
June 15th
Apollo is strong-armed into joining Wright Talent Agency, now named Wright Anything Agency.
July to October
Phoenix is almost never at home, due to a “Secret Mission”. In reality, he is preparing the trial run of the Jurist System, which he has somehow been placed in charge of. (One has to assume that Edgeworth pulled rank offscreen to make this happen despite Phoenix’s disbarment.)
October 6th
Drew Misham dies during an interview with Spark Brushel. This interview was foretold to him by his customer (Kristoph), implying that Kristoph can keep tabs on his targets very well even from his solitary confinement cell.
Phoenix recognizes the connection to Kristoph and decides to use this case for the Jurist System trial, which means he somehow created that whole matching MASON simulation in less than two days…?
October 8th
After the first half of Vera’s trial is done with, Phoenix goes to visit Kristoph in jail.
MASON-Version
Phoenix spots Kristoph’s nail polish and is given a bottle, which he takes to the past.
Reality?
Phoenix still spots Kristoph’s nail polish and is probably still gifted a bottle of it.
Seeing the distinctive design of the bottle, he likely remembers having seen one like it before when he visited Vera seven years ago and makes the connection.
Phoenix likewise goes to speak to Spark Brushel in the Studio Drew. Bushel confides in him that he felt watched the whole seven years, alluding to Kristoph’s stalking. (Phoenix reacts with surprise to the idea that he may likewise have been watched, indicating a shocking lack of understanding for the reasons Kristoph kept up their ‘friendship’...)
MASON-Version
Brushel informs Phoenix about Thalassa’s first marriage and the child from it. Phoenix travels to the past with this information and confronts Zak with it.
Reality?
Bushel still informs Phoenix about Thalassa’s first marriage and other child. Phoenix has to deduce all on his own that Apollo is that very child.
Next, Phoenix goes to meet Valant. Here he finally learns the truth about Magnifi’s death. He further hears Valant wonder if Thalassa could still be alive.
And finally, Phoenix returns to Kristoph’s cell while Kristoph is out. He uses the chance to open his personal mail and confirm once and for all that he is Drew’s customer.
October 9th
This is presumably the day during which all the MASON footage is shown to the Jury.
The trial concludes and Vera is found innocent by the Jury. After trial, Phoenix and Thalassa have a conversation. Thalassa suspects that Phoenix knew who she was all along and put her on the Jury for that exact reason - Phoenix denies these claims in a rather shady manner, but given the timeline constructed above he truly might not have had more than a vague hunch before.
Conclusion??
There were six members on the Jury, one of them Thalassa. This means there are five people out there who have watched a gamified movie of every single one of Apollo and Phoenix’s darkest secrets. There are five people out there who know Apollo and Trucy are siblings, who understand the Magatama and the perception powers.
These people are just there. Going on with their lives. Minding their own business.
Presumably they reviewed the Jurist System by saying “yeah, the part where the trial guide explained his whole sobstory to us at length in a clear bid to impact how we vote was kind of weird” …. and thus the Jurist System was not installed for any of the later games.
… or maybe, since Phoenix handpicked everyone on the Jury, the other five people are all just his buddies, like Gumshoe and Larry and co…. in which case, congrats Phoenix, you truly fucked this trial run up for your personal vendetta. Great job!
I’ve been watching so many old garbage movies recently that I’ve started to have like 60s sci fi themed nightmares where I’m being attacked by like horrible ape monsters and it’s actually scary as fuck! What an awful problem to have
Last night I had a dream about a terrible science experiment called Moon 13 that involved putting scantily clad women inside of large lava lamps to harness their innate psychic ability. I wish this was a joke
"retiring for the evening" is a very useful concept lol we should be free to say "i'm not gonna be chatting anymore tonight" without then having to pretend to be asleep. if we ever talk and you say goodnight don't stress it if i see you online later hahahahah
