Lamiroir

"Lamiroir"

- Why should it matter where I sing, when everywhere I go is the same darkness?

Lamiroir is a famous singer from Borginia and a witness for the murder of her bodyguard. She is particularly famous for the song "The Guitar's Serenade". Her real name is Thalassa Gramarye, and she is the daughter of renowned magician Magnifi Gramarye. She was a magician's assistant in Troupe Gramarye, which included Magnifi's pupils Zak Gramarye and Valant Gramarye. Like all of Magnifi's descendants, she can utilize special-alloy bracelets to "perceive" subtle nervous habits. During a magic show rehearsal, she was accidentally shot. She subsequently lost her sight and her memory, and she came to live in Borginia.

Early life and children
When Thalassa Gramarye was young, she left Troupe Gramarye to marry a guest performer from one of their shows, having a son with him. A year later, her husband was tragically killed on stage. Thalassa gave her son one of her bracelets and left him to return to the Troupe (what became of her son prior to his court debut is unknown). She then married one of the members of the troupe, Zak Gramarye, and they had a daughter together.

Accident
A few years later, during a rehearsal of "Zak & Valant's Quick-Draw Shootem", which required the use of prop pistols, Thalassa was shot. Her father quickly took charge to cover up the accident, to protect the Gramarye name. Zak and Valant believed Thalassa to be dead. However, she survived and ended up in the small European nation of Borginia. She lost her memory and her sight from the trauma, and thus she had to restart her life from scratch.

Rebirth as Lamiroir
To make her living, Thalassa began singing in a small restaurant. She called herself "Lamiroir", and she performed with a young piano player, Machi Tobaye. Lamiroir stayed in Borginia until a producer discovered her, and she toured the world. However, the producer came up with the title "The Landscape Painter in Sound" before finding out that Lamiroir was blind, so to be able to continue to use the title, they agreed under contract that Tobaye would pose as the blind member of the duo. No one else knew about this except Lamiroir's bodyguard, Romein LeTouse.

Witness to murder

 * Main article: Turnabout Serenade

One day, Klavier Gavin visited Borginia and found Lamiroir. Moved by her singing, he invited her to sing in one of his concerts. They wrote a song together, "The Guitar's Serenade", as a solo by Lamiroir, accompanied by Tobaye on piano and Gavin on guitar. The song was planned to debut in the second of three sets, while Gavin's band, the Gavinners, would play in the first and third sets. Valant Gramarye was hired to help with an illusion that would be performed during the concert. Valant remained oblivious to Lamiroir's past identity.

The concert went as planned. The Lamiroir on stage during her performance was actually Valant Gramarye, who would "disappear" during the performance, while the real Lamiroir crawled through the air ducts toward a platform on which she was to "reappear". However, while she was crawling through the ducts, she came within earshot of her dressing room, and she heard a man's voice saying, "It's over. Press the switch! Now!" followed by two gunshots. However, the show had to continue and she went on her way. During the last set of the concert, Apollo Justice and Ema Skye discovered a dying Romein LeTouse in Lamiroir's dressing room, who told Justice, "The wi...witness...is ...si...si...ren..." before succumbing to gunshot wounds. Tobaye was later arrested for the murder.

Justice represented Tobaye for his trial, assisted by Trucy Wright. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, these happened to be Lamiroir's children. Justice called Lamiroir to the stand, as LeTouse had indicated her as a witness, and she was the only possible witness to the murder. Lamiroir gave her testimony, but lied about seeing the murder to honor her contract and hide her blindness. Nonetheless, Justice still had the bracelet that Lamiroir had given to him as a baby, which helped him to notice her lie. Eventually, the lie was found out; Lamiroir, not Tobaye, was blind. Just then, someone entered to report that LeTouse was an Interpol agent who was on an undercover investigation. Suddenly, Lamiroir recognized the voice of LeTouse's killer: Daryan Crescend. Court was adjourned in light of this development.

Later that day, Crescend attacked Lamiroir in the Sunshine Coliseum, in an attempt to prevent her from testifying further. However, Lamiroir managed to hide inside a contrabass case to evade her assailant, where Justice discovered her. Phoenix Wright visited her during her subsequent hospitalization and suggested that she have an eye operation, but she feared what she would find out about her past life if she went through with the operation. Justice later talked with Lamiroir about what LeTouse had been investigating: the smuggling of a Borginian cocoon, which was punishable by death in Borginia. They realized that Tobaye was involved, but Crescend moved Tobaye to the Borginian Embassy before Justice could get much information out of him.

The next day in court, Justice decided to try to get the truth out of Tobaye under oath. Tobaye testified, with Lamiroir interpreting his Borginian, that he did not know English, but Justice saw through the lie that both of them were trying to maintain. Justice insisted that they should trust him instead of trying to protect each other with lies, so Lamiroir found herself testifying on the murder again. Valant's illusion became a key factor in the case, as it, combined with what Lamiroir had heard the killer say, unraveled a plot between Tobaye and Crescend to smuggle a Borginian cocoon, and burn it via remote-activated firecrackers if things went sour. Although Crescend proved formidable on the witness stand, and Justice had no decisive evidence to pin him as the killer, Tobaye eventually agreed to testify about his role in the smuggling operation, so that he would be tried and punished in the United States and avoid an automatic death penalty. This would decisively establish Crescend as the killer.

Justice's defense inspired Lamiroir to go through with the eye operation, and she subsequently recovered her memory and her sight. However, Justice and Trucy continued to have no idea that they had seen their mother.

Jury

 * Main article: Turnabout Succession

Lamiroir participated in the first trial for the Jurist System, a revival of the jury trial system, as "Jurist No. 6". The jury unanimously declared the defendant innocent after Phoenix Wright revealed a long and complicated background behind the case implicating someone else as the real killer. The case turned out to involve many people, including Troupe Gramarye.

Thalassa Gramarye thanked Wright for all he had done, including allowing her to see her children and adopting Trucy. Phoenix asked whether she would reveal herself to them, and she replied that she would wait for the right moment.

Name

 * Her Japanese surname, "Arumajiki" (或真敷), means "unworthy". It could also be a play on "aru" meaning "there is" and "majiki", possibly meaning "magic".


 * Her Japanese given name "Yuumi" (優海) contains the kanji for "gentle" or "elegant" (優) and "sea" (海).


 * Thalassa is the name of a sea goddess in Greek mythology. This fits with her son Apollo Justice's name, and it references her Japanese given name.


 * The English surname "Gramarye" comes from a word once used as a synonym for magic or sorcery. It is also an alternative spelling of "grimoire", which is supposedly a book of instructions in the use of magic. The French surname "Grimoire" is a more obvious play on this.


 * "Lamiroir" comes from the phrase "le miroir", which means "the mirror" in French. "La" is probably used instead of "le" because of Lamiroir's gender.


 * In-game, "Lamiroir" apparently means "goddess of song" and "the Siren" in Borginian.

Development

 * The design on her face mask is a hiragana "ra" (ら). When she is surprised, it flips upside-down, making it resemble a question mark.


 * Like the other members of Troupe Gramarye (while she was still part of the group), Thalassa's cape is held in place by a brooch in the shape of a suit in a deck of cards. In Thalassa's case, this is diamonds. A diamond brooch can be seen on the white dress she wears.


 * The player briefly controls her at the end of the trial in Turnabout Succession as she votes for a guilty verdict or an innocent verdict (depending on whether the player wants the bad ending or the good ending).


 * Lamiroir's outfit makes a re-appearance in Turnabout Academy, as a costume supposedly designed by Juniper Woods for the mock trial at Themis Legal Academy. The constellation-patterned cover and the dress underneath match exactly.