A conceptual piece of what could an Athena-centric Ace Attorney 7 (either solo game or trilogy, you can imagine for yourself lol) would look like!
The synopsis is as follows below:
Athena Cykes is taking the reigns as her famous mentor, Phoenix Wright, takes a back seat to work with an old colleague.
The young attorney, armed with the power of Widget and her companion, Trucy Wright, is read to defend the innocent.
Watch her defend different people across multiple fascinating prosecutors (some familiar and others not so much) to work to find the truth and justice with psychology and deductions.
Just be careful of going too far, however.
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Meanwhile, Phoenix Wright, having been eager to integrate the jury system for years, gets an opportunity to investigate it with Miles Edgeworth, how could he refuse?
The Turnabout Terror, armed with a magatama and a nagging old friend, is ready to investigate old cases and new predicaments.
Watch him draw out the truth from psyche locks and find the truth in the current justice system with bluffs, research, and investigations.
Just be careful of finding to much. however.
Read more below on my notes and thoughts of an Ace Attorney 7:
So... I was on twitter (yes I'm aware, horrible life choices) when I kept seeing disappointment over the lack of AA7 announcement for the switch direct.
and i was like
why don't i just cope in my own way and make MY OWN AA7
now here we are.
I decided to do a dual protagonist with Athena and Phoenix, but except with Phoenix is not taking any defense duties, that's all Athena's job!
Athena is defending and investigating cases, while Phoenix is dealing with the big finale case in the end of all the cases. The case to end all cases that calls back on every single lesson across the series (under the assumption AA7 is the LAST game, which probably won't happen).
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MAIN CAST: [Athena Cykes]
We have the defense and assistance versus all the prosecution!
Athena is our main protagonist, who will always be behind the bench, along with Trucy!
Athena gets to reacquaint herself with some old friends and new challengers, while trying to navigate the weird and wacky justice system.
I decided that each prosecutor gets to have an act in order to reveal more of their story and develop the theme of AA7.
Klavier is ACT 1, where he gets put to trial at some point and has to cope with the loss of his friends and brother.
Eustace and Franziska are ACT 2, where both act similarly to Edgeworth's prosecution methods and have both been scorned by a loved one in the legal system.
Finally, Simon. When I learned Simon isn't the final prosecutor for AA5 but instead Edgeworth, I couldn't help but feel conflicted. Now confliction is over with this! Simon gets to be the final boss!!
These characters are essentially the main cast in Athena's side of AA7, which leads us to move on to Phoenix's side.
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MAIN CAST: [Phoenix Wright]
He works with Edgeworth and the detectives below:
...in which they all assist both the defense and prosecution in finding the truth in their cases, while aiding in the jury system organization!
Each "detective" role is assisting a prosecutor, which means that Ema assists Klavier, Kay assists Eustace, and Gumshoe assists Simon (in varying degrees of successful lol)
Meanwhile, Phoenix is assisting Miles in research and taking care of the jury and mason system. Reason being (besides my source of inspo for this) is that I need a game where Phoenix and Miles just be friends and also work with each other, it'd be funny, heartwarming, everything. They just gotta have time to chat more.
I also thought to introduce a new detective in the form of Kay (since Ema is technically not a detective, but she's in the team regardless <3)
AND GUMSHOE!!!
I miss him, so he should be there (and gets to watch Simon and be his friend!)
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SUPPORTING CAST:
Apollo, Gavelle, Juniper, Eddie, and Lana!
These choices are made to encompass most of the two trilogies (leaving out AA3, because I do not want Godot in my GAME!! >:( Im sorry Godot lovers)
I decided that these characters would have to be able to support the two previous sides (Athena & Phoenix)
So Apollo was obvious, and so was Juniper! They both have connections to the previous cast.
Verity and Eddie were also good because Verity is a part of the prosecutor committee and Eddie could definitely be a part of the bar association.
Lana is something I thought of last minute, since I thought she could be a good representation of the police. Someone who had been corrupted and has turned good and returned back to the job she loves? That is just an amazing idea that would lead to more Skye sister interactions.
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LITERALLY SPOILING WHAT AN AA7 COULD BE SO GO TO CONCEPT ART IF YOU DON'T WANT MY IDEAS:
We start with Athena in the lobby, nervous and yet both upset at once. She's awaiting trial, comforted by Trucy. It's then revealed, in trial against Winston Payne, that Athena is defending herself in an assualt charge.
Athena gets a gash on her eyebrow (join the weird eyebrow crew), and her hair had been cut, which are used as evidence to show he she'd been attacked first. She wins her case, and meets up with Trucy and Mr. Wright. It's also then revealed that Trucy is holding a grudge against Mr. Wright, her father. Why? Well, new players will never know (but oldies will know lol)
Athena sighs, wishing to know the true reason why the culprit attacked her. She didn't get to use Widget during that trial, maybe she should use it more?
That's the end of the first case.
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Then, we start our 3 act system!
I think for every case that Athena takes, Phoenix takes an investigation duty right behind her for the juries. He gets to talk with Miles and be friends with him (and talk crap about Larry).
This back and forth continues, until it is revealed by Phoenix to Miles and Trucy to Athena, that Phoenix and Trucy are fighting, because he'd had revealed that Trucy's mom was still alive. They get into a fight and decide to take time away from each other, while they struggle with their problems.
Athena, meanwhile, struggles to keep track of all the fighting going on and keep her head above the incoming cases every week. It's getting a little overwhelming. Phoenix comes in and comforts her in the middle of Act 2 (after a lashing from Franziska), something similar to Turnabout Academy (WHICH I STILL NEED TO PLAY OOPS)
But then, everything cracks when Phoenix Wright is found injured in a warehouse and he is no longer investigating in Act 3.
Athena, Trucy, and Miles work together to keep everything afloat, but it becomes difficult to juggle so many emotions. But they keep fighting with Simon and come to a head in the last case!
And let's end that there. Because that's a lot and my hands hurt...
But suffice to say, this last game (trilogy or just mega game) will have a lot of ways to solve loose ends in the game.
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CONCEPT ART:
At last, more conecpt art and no yapping!
small little info pamphlets that are laughably hard to read
art for our protagonists and their assistants (with a sneak peak on the story because i'll allow a little something for the people who want to kill of Phoenix)
Logos that look purple on phones for some reason (It's meant to be blue but the color correct on my laptop is FRUSTRATING!!)
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This concept is inspired by CoolCarGuy, who made a really cool explorative video on what AA7 with Athena Cykes could look like, while showing off some themes it could handle.
Inspired by CoolCarGuy on YT
Check him out! Love his video essays and makes very cool points!
Theory: Diego Armando used to be acquainted with Gregory Edgeworth (Part 1 of 3)
Hello besties! I have a little theory that’s been rotating around in my brain, and I wanna talk about it :3
(I had to split this into three parts because tumblr only allows 10 images per post, so please take a look at the notes of this post for the rest!)
Major Spoiler warning for AA3 and AAI2
Where to start? 🤔 I guess we’ll start with this official artwork.
This depicts a time from before the DL-6 Incident, as you can see Miles, Phoenix and Larry during their grade school years being friends.
Let’s zoom in real quick!
You can also see Diego, Grossberg and Hammond in the background.
Since this is before the DL-6 Incident, this must be during a time between Spring and Summer of 2001. Diego must’ve been 16 or turning 17 in this image, so still a teenager. (Also just a sidenote that I love to point out: it kinda looks like he’s rocking a mohawk in this image so I like to include that as one of my headcanons for when he was a teen :3)
This is, to my knowledge, the only fully-rendered official artwork that shows Diego as a teenager. This is as far back to Diego’s past as we can get right now, so ofc I’m going to overanalyse it and pick it apart for my own personal enjoyment.
It’s an interesting choice to include Diego in a picture like this considering he has no connection to the DL-6 Incident at this point in time; even though it hasn’t happened yet.
But what if there was a connection besides him being an employee at Grossberg’s?
Well… Since we know that the DL-6 Incident hasn’t happened yet, obviously that means Gregory Edgeworth would’ve still been alive. This makes it entirely possible for Diego to interact with Gregory at this time.
But wait, Bagel! Diego was only a teenager who’s barely starting out as a defense attorney, how would he be acquainted with Gregory?
I can see a couple ways for them to be acquainted :)
1: He’s with Grossberg in this image, so it’s implied that he’s already working there. It’s also entirely possible that Gregory paid a visit to Grossberg’s law firm from time to time, considering they’re both defense attorneys.
2: At the same time, Gregory had his own intern known as Eddie Fender. Not only that but Eddie is around Diego’s age, more specifically he’s only two years older than him.
(Ignore the other names, I’m currently making a huge ass spreadsheet of the ace attorney timeline by using my own research because I refuse to use the Fandom Wiki. I did the maths so many times and these are their correct birth years, the Fandom Wiki can’t seem to get Diego’s age right, ANYWAY-)
Eddie officially became a defense attorney in 2001 (Could be 2002 since I can’t remember if it was just before or after Gregory died). Eddie would’ve been around 19 when he started his legal career, which is pretty young. Like, impressively young yet nobody talks about him being a prodigy smh-
Anyway, since Eddie and Diego are of similar ages and are practicing law during their teenage years, it’s entirely possible that they both went to the same law school together. And because of that, Diego may have gotten to know Gregory through Eddie.
But only Eddie became Gregory’s intern. There could be several reasons for this, but I think of it as: Gregory couldn’t take on more than one intern at a time. Probably because he was a single father with a busy job.
Still, I could see Eddie bringing Diego to Gregory’s office from time to time, maybe for some friendly banter or some career advice, and that’s where Gregory was like “sorry I can’t take you in, but I can recommend some other places for you” and that’s when Diego started working at Grossberg’s.
On top of that, there’s some canon implications that Diego was acquainted with both Gregory and Eddie:
There’s a Diego quote, word for word. Like sure, this could just be a silly little one-off reference to him since this game is full of those. But like, c’mon. It’s such a specific quote, there’s no way they both say that and not know each other 💀
Now this got me thinking… Is this how Diego’s whole coffee addiction started? 😭
Like Gregory seems to only make bitter black coffee at his office, which is exactly the type of coffee Diego is so fond of. It’s also worth mentioning this little reminder that Diego also canonically liked sweet coffee as shown here:
Mocha latte includes espresso, steamed milk and chocolate syrup! Diego doesn’t hate sweet coffee just as an FYI! People seem to forget about that fact.
Anyways, more to the point, if Gregory made bitter black coffee in his office, don’t you think Diego regularly paid a visit there so he could try his coffee? I’m sure it started off as Eddie bringing him along to help with his legal studies, but then Gregory offered coffee to him one day and he was immediately hooked.
Perhaps the quote “Blacker than a moonless night, hotter and more bitter than Hell itself… That is coffee.” originally came from Gregory himself. Diego may have picked that up from him and took it to heart ever since. Afterall, Diego does often quote things from other people; it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that this quote is another example of this.
