Phoenix Wright |
Charley. A quite decorative plant. He's a handful, but I've grown quite attached to the little fella. He also helps me to remember all the good times with Mia. |
Charley is a potted plant of the species Cordyline stricta (also known as the Slender Palm Lily or Narrow-leaved Palm Lily) that has been in the Wright Anything Agency ever since the agency's founding by Mia Fey as the Fey & Co. Law Offices. Fey loved the plant, even providing a name and going as far as to make it the firm's official mascot.
Mia's death[]
- Main article: Turnabout Sisters
Charley was caught in the cross-fire during Mia Fey's murder at the hands of Redd White, as her student, Phoenix Wright, found him knocked over in the trashed office. However, by the time Wright was allowed to return after the police investigation, the plant had been returned to his normal upright position. It was during this return to the office that the presence of Charley showed an unexpected botanical knowledge in Detective Dick Gumshoe, who quickly chipped in with the plant's scientific name while Wright was trying to identify it.
After Wright was able to prove White's guilt in court, he inherited the offices and left it a similar state to the manner his mentor had kept it, including keeping and taking care of Charley. However, it would not be until the following month that Wright would even learn of the plant's name when Mia's younger sister, Maya Fey, channeled her and it came up in a conversation between the two.
Life at the Wright Anything Agency[]
In the first few months of the newly branded Wright & Co. Law Offices, Charley was subjected to Maya Fey's overenthusiastic watering, which resulted in the plant looking a little "swollen" and has led Wright to wonder if Maya was perfecting her water torture technique on the defenseless plant. Then, during her visit at the office, Ema Skye's well-meaning attempts to improve Charley with an unknown additive resulted in the plant quickly reacting negatively to it and temporarily turning a little yellow. Wright eventually perfected the correct watering technique, which resulting in Charley's return to health. However, almost a year later, during the three days when Maya Fey was kidnapped, Charley, who had already been recently watered by Wright, once again came to peril when he was excessively further watered by the combined efforts of the over-eager Pearl Fey (described by Wright as "Typhoon Pearl"), and then later by the temporarily-discharged Gumshoe, with Charley wilting a little as a result.
Despite these unintentional threats to his life, Charley has been a mainstay in the office throughout Wright's entire career, including his disbarment and eventual reinstatement, with Trucy Wright, his adopted daughter, taking over as the main provider of Charley's water and referring to him endearingly as "Mr. Charley". When he first began working at the Agency, Apollo Justice was slightly confused by the amount of respect given to the plant, and was later somewhat suspicious that Charley was seemingly the only object in the room without some secret function, but he eventually warmed to Charley. Charley himself went through another difficult period when, during a week where it was Phoenix's turn to water him, he did not receive said water due to Phoenix spending very little time at the office, as he was otherwise occupied by his secret investigations into the case that caused his disbarment; as a result, Charley's leaves began browning, before Justice noticed and Trucy took actions to undo the damage, although at first she wrongly assumed that it was due to the stress of having a new face, namely Justice, hanging around the office.
Athena Cykes, the newest recruit of the now renamed "Wright Anything Agency", has occasionally caught Phoenix staring at Charley and smiling to himself, but he apparently doesn't talk about the plant much with his subordinates.
Saved from repossession[]
- Main article: The Magical Turnabout
When Phoenix Wright's daughter Trucy was arrested for the death of Mr. Reus during a magic show rehearsal, the producer in charge of her show tried to claim compensation for liability using a contract she had been tricked into signing. When Phoenix's subordinates Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes returned to the office during their investigation into the incident, they discovered that everything in the office had been covered in repossession labels, including Charley. Thankfully, Justice was able to null the terms of the forged contract by proving Trucy's innocence, thereby also saving the office and Charley.
After Justice left the Agency, Charley's care became managed by Cykes and Trucy, with Phoenix falling behind in that regard; nevertheless, thanks to the tender attention he received, Charley became lush and perky, even assuming a healthier shade of green when Maya visited the office for the first time in many years.
Name[]
- Charley's name may be a homage to "Chuck the Plant", an in-game potted plant that originally appeared in the 1987 Lucasfilm Games graphic adventure game Maniac Mansion; and later reappeared in other Lucas adventure titles, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure and Tales of Monkey Island.
- Alternatively, the name might come from Charlwoodia stricta, one of the taxonomic synonyms for Charley's species.