Klavier Gavin

"Klavier Gavin"

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

Klavier Gavin is 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.

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 and cornered him until he came up with 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 for the next seven years.

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, and Lamiroir named the Gavinners' second guitarist, Daryan Crescend, as the killer. Refusing to believe it at first, he eventually came to grips with the truth and guided Justice again to finding the evidence.

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, and 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 Phoenix Wright also being invited. Depending on the outcome of the mock trial, one of the two lawyers would teach a class for a day; Klavier if the prosecutor student won or Wright if the defense 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 Wright, Justice, and Athena Cykes (a new addition to the Wright Anything Agency) investigating the case, and agreed to help them 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. Though he abstained from taking part in the actual trial, Klavier 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 expressed his hopes for Woods as a judge, and said he looked forward to handling a case alongside her.

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 (the one to which he had invited Justice), 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 vowed never to sing the song again.

The jury trial in which Klavier saw Kristoph implicated as the killer affected Klavier so deeply that he decided to disband the Gavinners and pursue his law career more fully.

Although the band was still disbanded a year later, Klavier did agree to play an acoustic version of "The Guitar's Serenade" at the Themis Legal Academy's school festival, with Juniper Woods accompanying him by singing.

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. Klavier's 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. So engrossed was he in his music, that one time 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.


 * "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 "gewinnen" which means "to win".


 * His given name in the French localization, "Konrad", comes from the name of a saint, and was popular in medieval Germany. The name itself comes from the Germanic words "kühn" (meaning "bold" or "brave") and "rad" (meaning "counsel"). Combined it translates roughly as "courageous advice".


 * The German given name "Kantilen" 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. 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 in Turnabout Serenade.


 * 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.

In popular culture



 * One of Klavier's catchphrases, "Achtung, baby!", is similar to the name 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.


 * In episode 19 of the anime Lucky Star, Hiyori produces two drawings to show Yutaka and Minami. 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.