Kristoph Gavin

Kristoph Gavin is the main antagonist of the video game Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, but specifically of the cases Turnabout Trump and Turnabout Succession.

Biography

Gavin was a famous attorney. He despised Phoenix Wright, because he believed Phoenix used cheap tricks like bluffing to win his cases.

Gavin was hired by a famous magician known as Zak Gramarye, who was being accused of murdering his mentor, Magnifi Gramarye. However, Zak tested Gavin in a Poker game, which Gavin lost. Zak then fired him, and hired Phoenix Wright in his place. Zak played Poker with Wright as well, but Wright won. Gavin started despising Phoenix even more, as well as Zak, because he couldn't believe he was discarded by such a trivial thing like a Poker game.

Gavin then decided to ruin Wright's career: He hired a professional forger to create a false letter from Magnifi, and gave it to his brother, Klavier Gavin, who would be the prosecutor for that case. His plot was successful: Phoenix lost his attorney's badge for presenting a letter he did not know was forged, while Zak Gramarye fled using his magic skills, never to be seen again. Gavin also gave a nailbrusher to the forger's daughter, which contained deadly atroquinine poison, in order to clean up all loose ends. To earn Phoenix's trust, he voted not to disbar Phoenix.

Eventually he hired Apollo Justice on his law firm.

Years later, he was chatting with Phoenix. When he was about to leave, he saw a very familiar face. A guy calling himself Shadi Smith wanted to take Phoenix in a poker game. But Kristoph immediately recognized him as Zak Gramarye. While Zak hit Olga unconscious, Phoenix called the police, while Kristoph went to kill Zak. After Zak's death, Phoenix covered his head to hide Zak's baldness and called Kristoph to get a defense attorney if he was arrested. In the call, Kristoph was aware that Zak was bald and this made Phoenix suspicious. For his trial, he requested that the defense attorney be Apollo.

During the trial, Kristoph was Apollo's co-counsel. In his ruse to defend Phoenix, he tried to pin the guilt on Olga, but then decides to falsely confess that he saw Phoenix hitting Shadi. When Kristoph starts testifying against Phoenix, the latter takes over the co-counsel role and instructs Apollo to demonstrate that Kristoph was the murderer. A tainted card was brought as evidence, which Kristoph discards as forged, but his rebuttal and the logic reveal Kristoph as the real murderer. After that he was incarcerated in a luxury prison.

Breakdowns

Kristoph has two breakdowns, each of them in a different trial. In Turnabout Trump, when Apollo and Phoenix accuse (and prove) that he killed Shadi Smith/Zak Gramarye, he raises his fist while the lobster and plates that Olga Orly (a witness) dropped levitate behind the witness stand. He then slams his fist on the witness stand.

In Turnabout Succession, his second breakdown starts like the first one: raising and slamming his fist (without the floating objects). However, when he finally discovers that mere members of the court are rendering the verdict, and that Wright had had that idea, he first does his previous breakdown without the plates and lobster. Then, he crosses his arms, his glasses fly off his face, and his hair billows above him while cursing Wright's name. After it has stopped, a broken Kristoph is seen, now with his hair (usually well-cared) completely disheveled, his mouth twitching, and him saying that there are only two things in the courtroom: himself and the law, which he claimed were absolute. Apollo, Klavier, and the Judge declared that "Law is never absolute. It will continuously evolve," and that Kristoph himself had stopped. Finally, after the jury declares Vera Misham not guilty, Gavin goes completely insane in the wake of his defeat and laughs hysterically as he is taken away.

Personality

Kristoph's reputation for being the "coolest defense in the West" was well-founded: Both in and out of the courtroom he was incredibly pleasant, obsequious, laid-back, and polite. However, he also had an evil streak a mile wide, and regarded himself to be superior to everyone else. He was willing to manipulate others to reach his own ends, and even poison an innocent girl in doing so.

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Trivia

• Gavin is the first villain in the Ace Attorney series to be defeated by Apollo, and the first and only villain Apollo has defeated twice.
• Gavin is also the first main antagonist of an Ace Attorney game to be defeated by Apollo, thus marking the first time the main antagonist has been defeated by a playable attorney other than Phoenix.

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