Klavier Gavin

"Klavier Gavin"

- Achtung, baby! Today, we play it my way!

Klavier Gavin is a veteran prosecutor and Apollo Justice's rival. He is the younger brother of Justice's former mentor, Kristoph Gavin. He was also the lead vocalist and guitarist of his own rock band, the Gavinners, before they disbanded so he could continue practicing law full time.

Law career
Klavier Gavin trained to become a prosecutor at the Themis Legal Academy. While there, he grew to respect the judge course teacher Constance Courte and her ideal of seeking the truth in trials, despite not being in her class. He then spent two years studying abroad in Germany. Klavier was soon touted as a genius, a "true thoroughbred of the prosecutor's office", which helped to propel him to his first trial at the age of 17, in which he would face off against the renowned defense attorney Phoenix Wright.

First trial

 * Main article: Turnabout Succession

Before the trial took place, Klavier's older brother, Kristoph, told him that Wright was going to present false evidence in court and gave him a witness to testify as such. Convinced that Wright was a fraud, Klavier engaged Wright rudely and taunted him. Eventually, Wright was forced into a corner and presented the fake evidence. Klavier sprang his trap, and Wright was exposed as a fraud. However, the defendant disappeared from the courtroom, and no verdict was given. Wright would later lose his badge in a hearing with his fellow defense attorneys. Klavier always wondered how his brother knew about the forgery ahead of time, but never questioned him about it.

First encounter with Justice

 * Main article: Turnabout Corner

Seven years after Wright's disbarment, Apollo Justice got Kristoph Gavin convicted for murder. Intrigued, Klavier faced Justice in his next trial to test the young attorney's true worth. Justice eventually convinced Klavier that he had the wrong suspect on trial, and Klavier turned to guide Justice through the process of implicating the real criminal, causing Justice to wonder whether he really had "won" the case.

A concert goes awry

 * Main article: Turnabout Serenade

Klavier then invited Justice and Trucy Wright to one of his concerts, in which he was to perform with a well-known Borginian singer, Lamiroir. However, it was not a good day for Klavier. First his keys were stolen, forcing him to take a taxi to the concert and break open his guitar case. Second, during his performance with Lamiroir, his guitar burst into flames for no apparent reason. Finally, to round off the whole fiasco, Lamiroir's bodyguard was shot dead with his own revolver. Justice and Klavier faced off in court again, with Lamiroir's piano accompaniment Machi Tobaye as the defendant. In court, Lamiroir named the Gavinners' second guitarist, Daryan Crescend, as the real killer.

Klavier refused to believe Lamiroir's accusation at first, but eventually came to grips with the truth. It turned out that Crescend was behind the illegal smuggling of a Borginian cocoon, and that everything that had gone wrong with the concert had been linked to the smuggling operation and the murder. Klavier helped Justice again to find the evidence, until eventually there was no more evidence. The only way to prove Crescend's guilt was if Tobaye admitted to being involved with the smuggling, which he did because the penalty in his country was death, and he would receive a lighter sentence in the United States. After this, Klavier bid his former band mate farewell.

The Jurist System

 * Main article: Turnabout Succession

Three months later, Klavier participated in Phoenix Wright's test trial for the Jurist System, which involved the poisoning death of Drew Misham, with his daughter Vera Misham as the defendant. The case's connection to Klavier's first case came to light, and Klavier was forced to face the past. His brother Kristoph was summoned from his cell as a special witness, accused of being the real killer. Klavier wanted to believe in his brother, but Kristoph tried to bluff his way out of his predicament, and Klavier finally came to accept the truth. Once again, Justice and Klavier worked together to piece together the circumstances and motives behind the crime at hand, but they could not conclusively prove Kristoph's involvement in the forgery that had ended Phoenix Wright's career. Nonetheless, Klavier remembered that the jury, not the judge, had the power to decide the defendant's fate. When Kristoph found out about the jury, he was furious at the prospect of his plan being nullified by common people. Klavier told his brother that the law no longer needed him, and the jury declared the defendant innocent of the murder.

Return to the academy

 * Main article: Turnabout Academy

Following the Gavinners' breakup, Klavier redoubled his efforts as a prosecutor. Roughly a year after the Misham case, he returned to the Themis Legal Academy, this time as a guest invited by Courte and the defense attorney course teacher Aristotle Means, to watch a mock trial put on by the students, with the recently reinstated Phoenix Wright also being invited. If the prosecutor student, Robin Newman, won the mock trial, she would be treated to a lesson from Klavier, while Wright would do the same for the defense attorney student, Hugh O'Conner, if he won. Klavier was also asked to put on a special show for the academy as part of their school festival. Klavier agreed, and worked with judicial student Juniper Woods to create a special performance of "The Guitar's Serenade", in which she would wear an outfit based on Lamiroir's.

During the mock trial, Courte's body was discovered and Woods was arrested on suspicion of murder. Klavier soon found Justice investigating the case along with his new co-worker Athena Cykes, who had taken her friend Woods's case. Klavier agreed to help Cykes and Justice in their efforts by taking part in an abridged version of the mock trial alongside Justice in order to help ascertain the facts of the case. He did not take the prosecutor's bench in the actual trial (with said role being taken by Simon Blackquill), instead opting to help Cykes.

The next day, Klavier found Cykes and Justice at the crime scene, and helped them reassemble two statues that had been broken near the crime scene. Klavier later used his connections in the music industry to have an incriminating tape analyzed and determined to be a fake designed to incriminate Woods. After the trial, Klavier and Woods performed for the students, with Wright, Justice, and Cykes amongst the audience.

Klavier would later express his hopes for Woods as a judge, and said he looked forward to handling a case alongside her at some point in the future.

Fräuleins on the rise

 * Main article: The Magical Turnabout

When Trucy Wright was set to make her big television magic debut in "Trucy in Gramarye-Land", Klavier was among the well-wishers who sent her flowers as a sign of support, sending a bouquet of red roses (along with a small Gavinners logo trinket).

Ema Skye, having finally become a forensic detective like she always wanted, commented to Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes that she was glad to not have to work with the "glimmerous fop" anymore, although she did still have some reservations about her new superior, Nahyuta Sahdmadhi.

Singing career

 * Main article: Gavinners

Klavier started his rock band some time before he started his law career. His band's first single, "Thirteen Years Hard Time For Love", went platinum overnight. However, he still considered his band a hobby compared to his job as a prosecutor.

Seven years after kicking off his double career, Klavier visited Borginia. He met Lamiroir there and was entranced by her voice, calling it "divine". He invited her to sing in one of his concerts, and he also received a guitar. Lamiroir and Klavier performed a duet of "The Guitar's Serenade" for the concert, but the guitar caught fire during the song, and Lamiroir's bodyguard was also killed. Distraught by these events and the conviction of Crescend for the murder, Klavier decided that he would never play the song again. Months later, the jury trial in which Kristoph was implicated as the killer affected Klavier so deeply that he decided to disband the Gavinners and pursue his law career more fully.

A year later, despite Klavier's earlier declaration, he agreed to play an acoustic version of "The Guitar's Serenade" at the Themis Legal Academy's school festival, with Juniper Woods taking the singing role.

Personality
Unlike Phoenix Wright's usual opponents, Klavier Gavin is quite honest and friendly. He maintains his rock-star mannerisms in the courtroom, and he avoids investigative work, but he takes both of his jobs very seriously. While he is a perfectionist when it comes to his music, being easily angered if he hears even the smallest mistake, he is more concerned about getting the right person convicted when he is in court, which is another major difference from Wright's rivals. As well, Klavier considers his music career a hobby and his law career his real passion. Klavier Gavin is also somewhat like Miles Edgeworth in that he shows respect for the judge, unlike some other prosecutors who frequently abuse the judge verbally or physically, or even do his job for him. While he is very similar to his brother Kristoph, he can ultimately be considered a "chaotic good" individual, being in many ways an opposite to Kristoph's "lawful evil" personality.

Sometimes, his band's platinum hit single "Guilty Love" plays in the courtroom (i.e., it actually plays and people notice it), and Klavier sometimes makes gestures as if he is playing a solo on an invisible electric guitar. Although Klavier isn't actually German, as evidenced by his noticeably affected accent, his speech makes gratuitous use of German words, even starting his pet names for various people with "Herr" (German for "Mr.") and "Fräulein" (German for "Ms.") (e.g. "Herr Forehead" for Justice), and beginning several sentences with "Achtung" (Attention). He is cool and confident, and he likes to taunt and tease Apollo Justice when the defense attorney falters.

Klavier has a strange dynamic with Apollo Justice, in that the prosecutor does not seem to see Justice as a rival at all. He often calls Justice "Herr Forehead" in reference to an objection made by Justice about where a murder victim had been shot, as well as to the defense lawyer's rather large and exposed forehead. However, unlike the prosecutors whom Phoenix Wright had to face during his time as a lawyer, Klavier is pretty friendly towards Justice out of the courtroom, even talking openly to him about cases on which they are both currently working. Justice, on the other hand, often shows jealousy and a sense that Gavin is "stealing the show", while also showing a certain morbid disdain towards Gavin's brand of loud music. Despite this, the two eventually worked together in court to convict Kristoph Gavin. Klavier has a similar working relationship with Ema Skye, with the prosecutor teasing her and the detective treating the "glimmerous fop" with contempt.

Klavier would often come up with lyrics for his music on a whim, and even changing them on a whim, much to the chagrin of Daryan Crescend. He described his music as being based on feelings rather than on memories. He was once so engrossed in his music that he lost his voice and kept on singing without even realizing it. Klavier also enjoys traveling and can speak a little Borginian.

Although most other lawyers tend to either slam their fists or palms onto their desks when making a point in court, Klavier instead slams his fist behind him into the courtroom wall.

Name

 * "Garyuu" (牙琉) may come from a combination of "self taught man" and "a dragon's fang". The first kanji in "Kyouya" (響) means, "to echo" or "to resound".
 * "Klavier" means "piano" in German and "clavier" is the name for the keyboard of an organ, pianoforte, or harmonium, though he doesn't actually play any keyboard instrument in his band. "Klavier" also closely resembles the German word "kavalier", which means "gentleman", which somewhat reflects his personality, at least compared to other prosecutors in the Ace Attorney series.
 * "Gavin" was chosen to retain the double meaning (surname and name of his band) of his "G"-shaped necklace. It is also a medieval variant of "Gawain", the name of an Arthurian knight. It is probably of Celtic origin, coming from the Welsh words "gwalch" ("hawk") and "gwyn" ("white"). It also sounds like the German word "gewinn" which means "winnings" or "profit".
 * His given name in the French localization, "Konrad", is believed to ultimately come from the Proto-Germanic words "kōniz" (meaning "bold" or "brave") and "rēdą" (meaning "counsel"). Combined it translates roughly as "courageous advice".
 * The German localization has his given name as "Kantilen", which likely comes from "cantilena", a vocal melody or instrumental passage in a smooth and lyrical style.

Development

 * Klavier Gavin's signature "air guitar" animation, in which he gestures as if he is playing an invisible guitar, is one of the longest in the Ace Attorney series. However, because of the nature of sprite animations in the games, the animation has Klavier "playing" his "air guitar" in a left-handed manner despite being right-handed, as seen when he plays his real guitar in Turnabout Serenade and Turnabout Academy, as well when he is seen cleaning it in a flashback in Turnabout Succession. Incidentally, the "air guitar" animation was not seen again in his subsequent appearances in Turnabout Academy and Apollo Justice: Asinine Attorney, along with a few of his other courtroom animations.
 * Klavier's necklace forms a "G" for "Garyuu" as well as the shape of his hair, upside down. This meant that the English name had to start with "G" to retain the double meaning of the necklace. The same symbol is found on the bottom of his shoes and is also the symbol for his band.
 * The Gavin brothers were originally designed each with two pointy hair twists (one on each side of their heads), which made them look like ancient Egyptian pharaohs (more specifically pharaoh head-dresses).
 * Klavier is the only character in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies to have debuted in another Ace Attorney game and not (with a brief exception during the epilogue/credits) appear during Turnabout for Tomorrow.
 * A guitar chord is audible during the "damage" animation used when Klavier is shocked in court.
 * Despite only appearing in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice in the non-canonical Apollo Justice: Asinine Attorney, Klavier is the only prosecutor in the game to never use the "Objection!" speech bubble.

References in/to popular culture

 * In the episode "There is Substance in 2-D" of the anime adaptation of Lucky Star, Hiyori Tamura produces two drawings to show Yutaka Kobayakawa and Minami Iwasaki. These are of chibi versions of Klavier Gavin and Apollo Justice, complete with "Objection!" written beside the picture of Justice. The episode premiered in Japan on August 12, 2007, four months after the release of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney in Japan. The scene can be viewed here.
 * One of Klavier's catchphrases, "Achtung, baby!", references the title of an album by U2.
 * Two of the phrases Klavier says during his first trial against Phoenix Wright are references to two songs. The phrases are "...He Would Knock, Knock, Knock on Heaven's Door..." and "...He Would Take The Stairway To Heaven...", referring to the death of Magnifi Gramarye.