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Canon characters:
All tropes listed apply to their appearance here and not their canon counterparts; for that go here. Apollo Justice
Phoenix Wright
Trucy Wright
Ema Skye
Judge
Klavier Gavin
Bellboy
Original characters:
Jack Porter
Head of Security at the Royal Flush Casino and Apollo's client in the case.
Later turns out to be an undercover FBI agent investigating Rex House and his dealings with organized crime.
- Afraid of Blood: To the point where he faints when watching the trailer for Pinkie Rabbit vs. the Bad Badger. It's later revealed that Rex House tried to weaponize this by playing the trailer when he ambushed Porter.
- Foreshadowing: The star on his chest resembles that of a sheriff. What's a higher legitimate law authority than an FBI agent?
- Meaningful Name: Jack Porter. Need we say more?
- Southern Gentleman: Has a noticeable southern accent and is one of the nicest characters in the case, even after he's revealed to be an undercover agent.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Turns out to be an undercover FBI agent investigating Rex House for his connections to the mafia. To Trucy's dismay, he was also investigating Phoenix, though he makes it clear that Phoenix is no longer on the FBI's radar.
Rex House/ Noah Buddy
The arrogant and vain owner of the Royal Flush Casino and leader of "The Deck."
- Asshole Victim: The Masked Stranger who was shot to death is revealed during the first day of the trial to be House, and it turns out he was just impersonating the real Masked Stranger as part of a plot to make him ineligible before the tournament via framing him for murder. He was also a Corrupt Corporate Executive whose real name was Noah Buddy and is suspected to have acted as a patsy for the Cadaverini crime family. The fifth episode also hints that he won leadership of the Deck by unsavoury means, which is confirmed in the sixth episode; he stole the Master Key from Hector Nash, used it to frame Charles Argine for cheating in the tournament, and thus falsely won his position. Similarly, his connection to the Cadaverinis is confirmed, as Gunner reveals they were using the casino's vaults to store contraband.
- Big Bad Wannabe: He may have kick started the entire plot because of his actions during the AC-3 case but as a killer, not only did Rex fail... he failed twice; the first time was his attempt to kill Richard Gunner with a rigged sports car that ended up in Angel River in flames and the second time was during New Years Eve where he tried to strangle Jack Porter to death only for, hilariously enough, his first victim Richard Gunner to return and shoot him in the back of the head.
- Frame-Up: Twice over, ten years apart.
- Ten years ago, as Noah Buddy, he rigged the automated casino table at its debut tournament to make Charles Argine the clear winner, to frame Charles for cheating with a product he built to supposedly put an end to all casino cheating, to ruin his reputation and win by default and become the new King of the Deck.
- The third day of the trial reveals that he was attempting to frame the Masked Stranger for the murder of Jack Porter to have him disqualified from the tournament, which would let him go back to using the rigged automated card table to ensure he won the $100 million prize.
- Jerkass: He's an imperious, loudmouthed egomaniac and very nasty to people he sees as beneath him. After he's found murdered, it turns out he's actually a former small-time gambling crook named Noah Buddy, and he's suspected, and later confirmed, to have been cooperating with the Cadaverini crime family. He worked to become leader of the Deck not only for the money, but also to ruin Argine and take everything from him because of his attempts to prevent any more cheating with his tamper-proof poker tables.
- Meaningful Name: Rex is Latin for King. House is a common gambling term for a casino. His real name, Noah Buddy, is a pun on "nobody".
- Money Dumb: After he gained the Deck's assets, he began investing in many ventures that ended up failing. He even meddled with the Royal Flush Casino which was already set up to be profitable even under the strict regulations of Japanifornia, causing it to lose money. He ended up having to sell most of the Deck's assets, and eventually took out loans from the Cadaverinis, for whom he stored contraband in the hotel's treasury.
- Phrase Catcher: Anytime he gloats to someone about how they'll lose to him, they respond with "We'll see about that."
- Punny Name: His real name, Noah Buddy. He was indeed a relative "nobody" before he took control of the Royal Flush Casino from its last owner, Charles Argine, under suspicious circumstances.
- Smug Snake: Even in his desperation to find blackmail on the Masked Stranger, he completely dismisses Phoenix as irrelevant.
Hector Nash
A snide, cynical mathematics professor and a member of the Deck.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: He set up a device to count the number of rockets fired during the fireworks show in order to cheat at a contest, but his estimate came out to one too many. Justified, as his device was working perfectly, but because of how it was designed, the count was thrown off by the sound of a gunshot, which is used to prove that the tournament room door was open when the shot was fired and that only one gunshot had been fired that night.
- Cynicism Catalyst: His hatred of lawyers stems from Richard Gunner demanding a ludicrous sum of money for his services from his close friend and co-worker, Charles Argine, before simply throwing him to the wolves when offered more money, even disregarding Hector's attempt to testify about the mistake he made.
- Freudian Excuse: His distrust for defense attorneys and generally unpleasant disposition began when Richard Gunner heartlessly sold out his friend Charles Argine because "he got a better deal", leaving the utterly innocent Argine's life destroyed. This made him believe that all defense attorneys ultimately care about is themselves, and his attitude toward them was later reinforced by the "Dark Age of the Law". However, Trucy and Apollo's earnest insistence that they really do care about the truth and proving their client innocent eventually gets through to him and he does what he can to help their case.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He was able to build his own device for counting fireworks that only failed at its job because the count was thrown off by the sound of a gunshot and later identifies a pair of electrical devices inside the burned remains of a Pinkie Rabbit doll.
- Hates Small Talk: He's not a fan of idle conversation.
- Insufferable Genius: He's a Jerkass with a PhD who works as an engineer and statistician when not playing poker. He also bases his poker playing on statistics and calculations, tests out his strategies with a poker app on his phone during smoke breaks, and rudely dismisses any possibility of luck. His current behavior is due to what happened to his friend, Charles Argine, the original leader of the Deck.
- Jerkass: Hector Nash is a rather curt fellow as well. He may not go out of his way to be unpleasant to others as House may (unless he feels provoked, it seems, such as when he believes he's been cheated out of a prize he rightfully won), but he's far from friendly.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He used to be a kinder person in the past, though, and after opening up to Apollo and Trucy and subsequently helping them with the case, he proves to be so.
- Even earlier when Jack Porter faints from watching the gory reboot of Pinkie Rabbit, he's the first one to actually check if he's okay; as opposed to Apollo and Felicia (who panicked), Rex House (who was apathetic and even tried to exploit it) and Rockwell who thought he was dead.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He used to be a kinder person in the past, though, and after opening up to Apollo and Trucy and subsequently helping them with the case, he proves to be so.
- Meaningful Name: His last name refers to John Forbes Nash Jr.
, an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory. - My Greatest Failure: When he was working with Charles Argine, they decided to respond to the Japanifornia Gambling Act by creating a gambling machine that was completely impossible to tamper with to ensure fair gambling. However, in his rush to finish the machine for mass-production, Hector accidentally let a potential cheating method slip by, and only found out after the machine entered mass-production. Even worse, his inability to find a solution to the problem led to him deciding to start Drowning His Sorrows, but this led to him blabbing about his problem and getting his notes on the gambling machine and the cheat device stolen.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After Apollo and Trucy listen to his story and promise to set things right, Hector Nash, while maintaining his rough edges and snark, becomes significantly more helpful. He gives Apollo a heartfelt thanks and even helps him take down Richard Gunner in the final trial session.
- When She Smiles: A male version. While he doesn't smile often at first, any time he does is a happy time, as they occur when he recalls the better times working with his friend Charles Argine and when he sees that justice will be done for the latter.
Flint Rockwell
A stoic gambler of some repute and member of the Deck.
- The Big Guy: Gives off this vibe. At least in public.
- Four Is Death: Considers the number 4 to be unlucky, so when he got suite number 4, he switched rooms with the Masked Stranger.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: As a child, he was planning to watch cartoons on Easter Sunday, but the TV station accidentally aired Killer Bunnies from Beyond the Moon, which left him traumatized.
- Loud Gulp: His nervous tic that Apollo perceives when insisting he has nothing against Garnet's lucky rabbit toy.
- Punny Name: Fint Rockwell; a fitting name for a man with a face of stone who barely speaks. It turns out to be an act; he's a lot softer and more talkative in private.
- The Quiet One: Uses a minimal amount of words to get his point across. It's all part of his "Unflinching Mountain" persona; when he finally cracks on the stand and drops it, he proves to be a lot more talkative.
- Terse Talker: He's a man of few words. When sporting his "Unflinching Mountain" face.
- Vocal Dissonance: Turns out his natural voice is really high-pitched rather than the gruff, heavily accented tones he uses in public.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: As it turns out, he has a fear of rabbits due to a childhood trauma centered around Pinkie Rabbit and a horror movie called Killer Bunnies from Beyond the Moon, hence his irrational belief that Felicia was using her doll to throw him off his game.
Felicia "Lady Luck/Lucky" Garnet/ Angela Argine
A hotshot young member of the Deck, playing in the All-Star Legends Tournament for the first time. Later turns out to be Angela Argine, granddaughter of former Royal Flush Casino owner Charles Argine.
- Commonality Connection: She warms up to Apollo very quickly due to their shared love of the original Pinkie Rabbit show, as well as their scathing shared hatred of the Darker and Edgier Reboot.
- She also finds common ground with Apollo and Trucy over their history of being raised without their birth parents, whether in foster care or with a Parental Substitute.
- Entertainment Below Their Age: She's 24 years old and is a self-confessed fan of The Pinkie Rabbit Show, which is stated by Apollo to be aimed at kids. A plush of the show's titular character is even her lucky charm in the poker tournaments she participates in.
- In-Series Nickname: "Lucky."
- Parental Abandonment: She was abandoned by her only parental figure, Charles Argine, when he fled to avoid being sent to prison, so she ended up in foster care. However, unknown to her, he had planned for his close friend Hector Nash to take her in, but social services wouldn't let Hector see her because he is officially a stranger and not a relative. Even if Felicia resents her grandfather for what happened, she still kept the Pinkie Rabbit plush he gave her. It also turns out that Angela and Charles met later down the line, with the two deciding to work together to get justice for the latter after Noah's cheating came to light; when Angela finds out that Richard hurt her grandfather and stole his suit and mask to impersonate him, she is livid.
Aldric Fitzroy/ Charles Argine
An enigmatic man Apollo and co. bump into the Casino.
Later turns out to be Charles Argine, former owner of the Royal Flush Casino, CEO of Argine Systems, and leader of the Deck.
- Benevolent Boss: Implied by Hector Nash, who says he was brilliant to work with, strengthen by the fact that he bared no hostility or ill-will towards Hector for unintentionally letting a bug in the Poker Table's code that started the AC-3 Case
- Cool Old Guy: Where do we even start with him, aside from his general friendliness toward other patrons? He, aided by Hector Nash, set out to manufacture a line of tamper-proof poker tables to combat the money laundering and fraud often present in gambling; that and the fact he cared deeply for his granddaughter and raised her after her parents died both speak volumes about his character, and let's not forget that he's the true identity of the Poker Legend known only as the Masked Stranger, which consisted of a voice-modulated mask of his creation, as well as making mini EMP devices and signal jammers, all of which he used to sneak into the tournament room to find proof that Rex House was not only a fraud who rigged tournaments in his own favor, but was also the true culprit of the AC-3 case. The icing on the cake comes on the final day of the trial when he reveals the note sent by his attorney and the real murderer, Richard Gunner, which instructed him to burn the note upon meeting with him; Charles, wise to Gunner's slimy personality, trumped him with a simple bluff, burning a copy of the note and keeping the original one safe all these years, which ultimately renders Gunner's legally dead status null and void.
- Meaningful Name: "Charles" means "free man" in Proto-Germanic, referencing his innocence in the AC-3 case being proven on the final trial day. His surname is also an anagram of "Regina", which is Latin for "queen"; it is also the Italian word for "riverbank".
- Mr. Exposition: He explains to Apollo and Trucy who the Masked Stranger is and his reputation in the poker world. His knowledge of the Stranger hints that he himself is the Stranger.
- Nice Guy: Along with Jack Porter, he's one of the friendliest characters in the case.
The Masked Stranger / Charles Argine
An enigmatic, masked poker player famous for their skill.
- Collective Identity: Multiple people took on their identity. Even not counting Rex House, who wore a counterfeit version of his outfit, there are three people who wear the genuine mask.
- Their true identity is Charles Argine, who created the persona to play poker.
- When we first meet them in the hotel lobby, they were played by Felicia aka Angela to give her grandfather an alibi.
- The one present at the crime scene and the one who takes the stand turns out to be Richard Gunner.
- Cool Mask: Wears one of these to hide their identity. It even comes with a voice filter that makes them sound like a robot. The voiceprint of said filter is actually the Masked Stranger's "secret signature" that can be used to tell the real deal apart from impostors.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Their low, computerized voice proves quite sinister when the one in the courtroom starts to be revealed as the true murderer.
- Mysterious Stranger: They appear at big poker tournaments without warning and never take off their mask in public.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "The Masked Stranger" is known as such because they never gave their name, leading to the public coming up with that moniker. Jack Porter realized right away that the person who slipped him a note supposedly signed by the Masked Stranger couldn't be the real deal because the real Stranger doesn't actually refer to themself as "the Masked Stranger."
Spoiler Character (Spoilers Unmarked!)
Richard Gunner
A notorious, duplicitous defense attorney whom Charles Argine hired to help deal with the AC-3 case.- Amoral Attorney: Hoo boy… He'd win cases for criminals or even throw his clients under the bus if paid handsomely, like what he did with Charles Argine. Hector Nash, who hated Gunner, felt it was karmic Gunner died in a car "accident" shortly after "botching" Argine's defense. Then on the last trial day, we actually meet Gunner, who faked his own death, and he goes even further; not only is he the true culprit of the case, but he's a very slippery customer who uses all manner of cheap tricks to try and worm out of his comeuppance.
- Anime Hair: His hair is even more bizarre and "horny" than Apollo's!
- Big Bad: The real killer of Rex House.
- Brooklyn Rage: He has a very distinct raspy New-Yorker-eqsue accent, which goes with his less than quiet personality and affiliation with the Cadaverinis.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He's fully aware he's a mob lawyer, and does everything legally short of boasting about it in court.
- Entitled Bastard: When finally backed into a corner, Gunner expects Argine to listen to him "as [his] lawyer" after he "failed" to defend Charles Argine in court, forced him to run away and abandon his granddaughter and only contacted him to propose a revenge plot towards Noah Buddy note only to knock Argine out, cuff him to a radiator and threatening his granddaughters life if he makes too much noise all so that he can shoot Noah Buddy in the Argine's "Masked Stranger" suit before planning to kill Argine and paint him as the murderer... REAL classy Gunner(!)
- Evil Gloating: He doesn't bother hiding from Nash that he was offered a better deal to botch Argine's defense in AC-3. When Hector Nash told him that he would shove the cigarette he punched out of his mouth down his throat the next time they met, Gunner told Nash that he was looking forward to it. After revealing himself on the witness stand in the present day, he happily confesses to multiple crimes while mocking the others about how they're seemingly powerless to bring him to justice.
- Evil Is Petty: He spent 10 years plotting revenge on Noah Buddy due to trying to kill him with a sabotaged car.
- Evil Sounds Deep: His real voice is almost deeper than his Masked Stranger disguise.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: He speaks with a raspy growl.
- Eye Twitch: His nervous tic that Apollo perceives after he unmasks himself in the courtroom.
- Frame-Up: A multilayer version:
- He sets up the crime scene to frame Jack Porter for killing House.
- He sets up House to try and kill Porter to claim that the murder was to save Porter's life.
- He intended to frame Argine for the murder after the trial by making it look like he killed himself.
- Hidden Villain: We're led to believe he's been dead for ten years. Not only does he turn out to be alive, but he's the actual murderer.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: His ultimate downfall can be summarized as a lot of his actions, some of which were done with the intention of covering his ass, coming back to bite him.
- When Apollo tries to prove that Gunner's murder of House wasn't to save Jack nor in self-defense, but premeditated, he claims that the threatening letter House got wasn't from Tender Lender but from Gunner, citing that he's the only one who calls House by his real name of "Noah" like in the letter. Gunner claims that a fingerprint analysis won't be able to prove that, to which Apollo calls his bluff and does it anyway, finding that there are no actual fingerprints. However, this ends up proving it since Gunner earlier admitted to having melted off his fingerprints with acid when he went into hiding, and the fingerprints of everyone else who could've handled the letter are intact, meaning that out of the people who could have sent the letter, he's the only one whose "prints" match. Gunner even has a minor Villainous Breakdown over the fact that he burned his prints off for nothing.
- His next defense is that he can't be held accountable for House's murder and all associated crimes because the long time he spent in hiding means he's now considered legally dead. As he further points out, by the time they're able to reverse his legally dead status, he'll have long gone back into hiding. However, Phoenix pulls a Big Damn Heroes and advises Apollo that if they can prove Gunner's had contact with anyone at some point before he was declared dead, it should render void his legally dead status. Apollo is able to prove this using the letter Gunner sent to Charles Argine to propose the revenge scheme; Argine's more than happy to reveal he has it in his possession, having tricked Gunner into thinking he burned it with a copy.
- The second to last and arguably most bizarre move is taking advantage of his numerous counts of perjury to claim that he's not Richard Gunner, but a Body Double hired by the real one, since nothing, not even his initial claims of being Gunner, can be trusted at this point. This gets undone thanks to Hector Nash, whom Gunner had mockingly given a cigarette he was going to smoke before Hector angrily knocked it out of his mouth for his betrayal. Said cigarette, having his DNA on it via his saliva, is used to prove his identity, in addition to his old fingerprints that can be matched with those on a letter he wrote in the AC-3 case file.
- On his last legs, he claims that he’ll make a deal with the FBI, who are investigating the Royal Flush casino for dirt on the Cadaverini crime family, to tell them everything he knows about their dealings in the casino so they can get a warrant to search the place, which they otherwise can’t do without the permission of the dead Rex House. What he doesn’t know is that, with House’s crimes and cheating exposed, all leadership and assets of the Deck, including the casino, has immediately gone back to Charles Argine, who’s quick to grant the Feds permission. This not only removes Gunner’s last line of defense, but also puts him on the Cadaverinis’ shit list for being quick to betray them on live television, finally prompting his Villainous Breakdown.
- The Hyena: More than half of his lines either end with or are just him laughing like a madman.
- Jerkass: Not only did he betray his innocent client Charles Argine when House made him a higher offer, but he spent ten years planning his revenge against House for trying to off him with a rigged car after the trial, manipulating Argine and everyone else to his ends and even impersonating the Masked Stranger. After being unmasked, he spends his entire time on the stand gloating about his evil deeds, insulting anyone he pleases, and trying to weasel his way out of being convicted with one dirty legal trick after another until he finally runs out of options.
- Large Ham: He milks his big reveal for all it's worth, with a considerably loud and raspy voice.Gunner: I like to be modest like that!
Apollo: (Modest? Not the word I'd pick to describe this guy!) - Loophole Abuse: He abuses this trope to the point it may as well be his main talent. He uses all manner of dirty tricks to sneak out of legal responsibility, including claiming that his murder was done in an attempt to save Mr. Porter's life, abusing the fact that he's legally dead when the law only applies to those who are alive, claiming he isn't Richard Gunner at all, and trying to strike a deal with the FBI for clemency lest their evidence be declared null by the doctrine of the fruit of the poisonous tree.
- Opportunistic Bastard: He takes the opportunity of Buddy's attempt on his life to fake his own death and go into hiding.
- Posthumous Character: Subverted. He's mentioned to have died in a car accident years before the case, but later turns out to have faked his death.
- Precision F-Strike: Gunner is the only character who uses a hard swear, twice; from recollecting that removing his fingerprints with acid "hurt like bitch" to him explaining the Higher Courts reactions to those who try to convict a legally dead man ("[they] hate that kind of Bullshit")
- Punny Name:
- The man who shot Rex House was Richard Gunner; geddit?
- His chosen alias was Adam Lyre ("A Damn Liar"), fitting for a slimy lawyer who lies as easily as breathing and even gloats about it.
- My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours: The final part of the final trial day is essentially him and Apollo one-upping each other with this trope until Gunner finally runs out of options.
- Sadist: He acknowledges that he didn’t need to kill House to get his revenge, and in fact could’ve watched him dig his own grave while doing absolutely nothing, but decided it would be more satisfying to be personally involved in causing House’s downfall.
- Slimeball: He's downright proud of his own depravity and all the horrible things he's done and keeps addressing others in a sneering, condescending way.
- Stranger Behind the Mask: Downplayed; the main Masked Stranger turns out to be someone we know, but was honestly thought to be dead for years and only reveals his survival when taking off his mask.
- Smug Snake: He is extremely arrogant and full of himself as well as callous and dismissive to everyone else, keeps gloating about his evil deeds because he thinks he can't be punished for them, tries every dirty trick he can find to escape said punishment, and has a spectacular breakdown when he finally realizes there's no way out for him.
- Tempting Fate: Gunner, denying the fact he wrote to Argine proposing the revenge plot against House, "hypothetically" proposes that if he did contact Argine in such a way he'd have sealed the deal by having Argine destroy the letter and believes he had... Unsurprisingly Charles Argine knows better. note
- Villainous Breakdown: Gets closer and closer to losing his cool as Apollo tears apart his Blatant Lies and various attempts to escape justice, from pinning the blame on others, to claiming that he killed House in the spur of the moment to save Porter, to claiming he's legally dead and can't be convicted, to passing himself as a Body Double of Gunner, to trying to cut a deal with the FBI, until he's finally cornered; his eyes go white and he starts screaming about being a dead man walking (due to having boasted of his involvement with the Cadaverini crime family on a livestream) and pounding the witness stand until he finally makes a finger gun and "shoots" himself, complete with a flash of his silhouette, then collapses in a faint.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that he's still alive, let alone the fact that he's the culprit of the case, makes him particularly spoileriffic.
