r/AceAttorney • u/TheRiverian31 • Feb 02 '26
Full Main Series If Phoenix Wrigth were "evil"? (Corrupted AU Part 1) Spoiler
New series of posts (one of the many I haven't continued yet.)
To keep it short, let's do an AU where characters from the series, generally considered "good" people, are corrupted for one reason or another.
I'll start with Phoenix Wright:
There's an AO3 fanfic where he's replaced Edgeworth for being the arrogant prosecutor, since he hadn't defended him in the school trial and... well, I won't say anything more.
But in my version, I'll decide that his corruption lies with Apollo Justice. Let's keep it simple, since it's shown as questionable that he forge evidence, and then on top of that, created a jury (and semi-biased) system solely out of revenge.
Of course, Kristoph deserves it, but what happens if Wright loses his mind about this? He retains his self from the fourth game, but something has changed; now, he's more closed off with Apollo and Trucy. And what if Kristoph isn't the only one who needs to be put behind bars?
In a nutshell, Phoenix chooses to embrace the phrase "the end justifies the means" to deliver justice from the shadows, especially in this dark age of the law. Not necessarily evil, but he's not the same as before.
Now for the most important part: what will his loved ones think?
Apollo would be in the same situation as during the first trial, to the point that he's considering leaving his agency, since he doesn't support its methods. As for Trucy... she's just pretending to be happy with his achievements so she doesn't have to show him how worried she is about him.
And that was my version. What do you think? How would you corrupt Phoenix?
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u/TheKingofHats007 Feb 03 '26
Me and my boyfriend actually have a long-standing roleplay/writing session that focuses on this.
It starts at a similar point to your idea. After the events of Apollo Justice, Apollo discovers corespondance between Phoenix and Thalassia which proves his hand in the jury tampering, and more importantly to him, that Thalassia is his mother which means Trucy is his sister. Outraged, he sends in a report with not only his actual jury tampering, but also this information about the jury. Because of this, Phoenix remains without his attorney's badge, and isn't even allowed anywhere near a court of law.
Phoenix turns more openly abusive, treating Apollo like dirt, and this lasts until Apollo starts getting more romantically active with Klavier which means he gets out of under Phoenix's thumb. At the same time, Athena and Jupiter also hook up. Phoenix, already in a mentally unwell state, completely breaks once he's essentially alone (even Trucy distances herself when she learns of the abuse against Apollo)
In a desperate, horrifying act, Phoenix places two bombs at Apollo's apartment and Athena's apartment in an attempt to kill the two of them. He is unaware that both aren't actually present at the time, but this still does result in the deaths of a number of people. This becomes known as the Dual Bombing Incident. Simon Blackquill (who is living with an alive Bobby Fullbright) vows to kill Phoenix himself, and both Phoenix and Blackquill are unseen for two years, with someone sending cryptic messages to Fullbright about what Blackquill may have done.
After that point it gets a little more wacky, involving a sort of revamped version of the Dark Age of the Law which is primarily being enforced by a new society named True Justice, and their leader; a psychopath in a robotic suit with seemingly unfathomable power named Just Authority. Then there's just some stuff about him creating a rift in the timeline and a number of the Great Ace Attorney characters coming to the modern day, Phoenix being involved in the conspiracy, a whole lot of other kinda fuck-y stuff in hindsight (Valant shoots Trucy in the leg after being manipulated, Kristoph getting a bit of power to move through the dimensional rifts, the son of a Governor getting killed by seemingly Phoenix which is leading into a big trial to prove that the justice system can work).
It's a fun thought exercise.
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u/MikanTanaka Feb 06 '26
I thought about this... but going way back further before any of the games began.
Basically, instead of continuing to believe in his "Dollie", he now despises her and hopes she burns, while developing a fear of women being snakes by nature. He noticed how Mia thought of him at first, when she decided to defend him, and while he looked up to her, he still viewed her as a manipulative snake of a woman. He still cared about her in a way, but was even more closed off than he already would've been. His bitterness doesn't let up, even when Mia dies. He blames her for having to take care of Maya, and also kind of resents Maya for draining his wallet and "being a brat". He eventually starts emotionally abusing her, whether he realized it or not, and Pearl mistaking the two as a couple could even lead to darker paths of manipulation and abuse towards Maya.
He never forgave Edgeworth for "choosing death" in the second game, and constantly wants to get back at him and torment him about it.
Because of Larry, he started viewing friends as useless backstabbers that only exist for him to also use for his own benefit.
Instead of winning trials by luck, he becomes incredibly dark minded and manipulative, destroying the lives of those he deemed to be on his bad side.
He's great at two things, getting his verdict, and completely convincing someone that they are nothing.
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u/Arcane10101 Feb 03 '26
I like Apollo Justice as a turning point, but what if we go back a bit further and change the outcome of 4-1? Phoenix tries as hard as he can to implicate Kristoph, but Kristoph was better prepared, and ultimately Phoenix is forced to choose between saving himself or Olga Orly; knowing that Trucy needs him, he chooses himself.
This teaches him that he can’t win without stopping to Kristoph’s level, and as a result, he cuts more and more corners in the pursuit of clearing his name and delivering justice. This is worsened by Apollo either staying under Kristoph’s thumb or being murdered after losing Kristoph’s trust.