Ace Attorney Wiki:Timeline

This page concerns the way in which the dates of various events in the Ace Attorney series are determined. The Ace Attorney fansite Court Records uses multiple timelines: one for the original trilogy, and one for each subsequent game. However, ambiguities and potential contradictions cause difficulties in attempting to construct a single unified timeline for the entire series. This can cause problems when attempting to determine the age of one character relative to another.

This information is in its own page separate from the Timeline page. This is because the Timeline page is supposed to be a content page and not a policy page. Moreover, this policy affects the birth years listed in character infoboxes, as well as dates referred to throughout the content in the Ace Attorney Wiki.

Background
On paper, we should be able to date every event unambiguously by comparison to other events, all based on the fact that, in Turnabout Goodbyes, the DL-6 Incident is stated to have occurred on December 28, 2001. Supposedly aiding in this endeavor are the profiles in the court record and organizer, which list the ages of characters. In fact, in the vast majority of cases, characters are not even shown as having birthdays during the course of a game.

No-birthday principle
Because birthdays mostly do not occur during games, this wiki will not attempt to deduce characters' birthdays. It does not make much sense to deduce the birthday range of a major character on the basis of the fact that certain episodes take place at certain dates. Character profiles in the games essentially use ages that the characters will reach by the end of the "year" of the game. One could think of it as a school-year type of arrangement. For example, Miles Edgeworth is either 24 or going on 24 in Turnabout Sisters, but no attempt is made to determine which it is.

Direct dating of flashback cases and time skips
Things start to become potentially ambiguous when considering the fact that the first three games cross over the new year. This fact becomes an issue in dating "flashback" cases and time skips. Due to the aforementioned no-birthday principle, this affects characters' years of birth as well (more on that later).

Suppose one is trying to determine the year in which Turnabout Memories takes place. At the beginning of the episode, text appears that says that it takes place "5 Years Ago". "5 Years Ago" from what? The "present-day" episodes of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations take place between 2018 and 2019, so Memories could take place in 2013 or 2014. A natural solution would be to consider Turnabout Beginnings, which takes place "6 Years Ago". Again, one could ask what the reference point is, but since the introduction is shown in the perspective of a hospitalized Phoenix Wright researching the case during the events of Bridge to the Turnabout, one can fairly unambiguously peg Beginnings as taking place six years before February 2019, i.e. in February 2013. Memories takes place a year later, in April 2014.

Things get a bit weirder when trying to determine the year in which Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney takes place. Two months after Bridge (the end of Trials and Tribulations), Phoenix Wright is caught presenting forged evidence, and his client disappears. Almost seven years later, the client comes back, just in time to write a will before he's considered legally deceased by death in absentia. Without that bit of information, the year in which Apollo Justice takes place is again ambiguous. Does it take place in 2025 or 2026? The death in absentia logic is the only thing that unambiguously places Apollo Justice at 2026.

Conflicts with profile ages
So, the dating of certain events is potentially ambiguous, but evidence is provided to make it fairly unambiguous. The problem is, this approach creates some major conflicts with the no-birthday principle, the logic of the ages given in character profiles. Here are a few examples:


 * Phoenix Wright is 26 in The Stolen Turnabout (October 11-13, 2018) but is 34 in Turnabout Academy (October 24-26, 2027), losing one year.
 * Miles Edgeworth is 24 in Turnabout Sisters (September 2016) but is 34 in Turnabout for Tomorrow (December 2027), losing one year.
 * Pearl Fey is 8 in Reunion, and Turnabout (June 2017) but is 17 in Turnabout Reclaimed (July 2027), losing one year.

This list may or may not be exhaustive when keeping track of exact dates. Another peculiarity is that the original Japan-only version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (lacking Rise from the Ashes) takes place entirely in 2016, so when using the no-birthday principle, one year is lost between Phoenix Wright and the flashback cases in Trials and Tribulations, which take place 3-4 years beforehand. However, this could be interpreted as a relatively minor issue due to the inclusion of Rise from the Ashes in subsequent releases. If we look at the conflicts above, it is clear that the largest conflict occurs in ways in which the seven-year time skip is treated. The no-birthday principle used in character profiles conflicts with the death in absentia dating of Apollo Justice. This has caused people to recommend doing away with one in favor of the other.

Solution
The following entails the system under which the wiki operates when dating flashback events, time skips and character birth years. Essentially, there is a conflict between the no-birthday principle and the direct dating of events in the series. The direct dating is practically unambiguous; the no-birthday principle is less so. Thus, the no-birthday principle should be modified.

Two-year principle
Under this modification, each time period is assigned two years instead of one, as follows:


 * IS-7 Incident - 2000-2001
 * DL-6 Incident - 2001-2002
 * SS-5 Incident - 2006-2007
 * KG-8 Incident - 2008-2009
 * Turnabout Reminiscence - 2011-2012
 * Turnabout Beginnings - 2012-2013
 * Turnabout Memories - 2013-2014
 * SL-9 Incident - 2014-2015
 * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 2016-2017
 * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All - 2017-2018
 * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations / Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth / Gyakuten Kenji 2 / Turnabout Succession (past) - 2018-2019
 * UR-1 Incident - 2019-2020
 * Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - 2025-2026
 * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies - 2026-2027

Years of birth are extrapolated from both years, resulting in a two-year range. Phoenix Wright is 21 in Memories, 26 in Trials and Tribulations, 33 in Apollo Justice and 34 in Dual Destinies, all pointing to a birth year range of 1992-1993.

Displaying years

 * Honestly, this may not even be a big deal and we actually could display two birth years for everybody if people want. Only if people want it, though.

The practical issue with the two-year principle is that it is rather cumbersome and awkward. Every character has two possible birth years, which can look very odd, especially for minor characters who appear in one or two episodes. It would become a pain to try to compare the relative ages of different characters, which is more or less the point of listing birth years to begin with. Plus, the intent behind the system could be misinterpreted, resulting in unnecessary maintenance overhead.

Thus, in content pages, only the latter year will be used (e.g. Phoenix Wright's birth year is displayed as 1993). This is mainly to fit with the fact that most of the isolated incidents listed take place in the latter year (e.g. Beginnings in 2013, UR-1 in 2020). Only IS-7 and DL-6 happen unambiguously in the former year.