Thanks for being respectful about this... and for liking my avatar. But there are some problems with this counter argument, in that it still does not acknowledge the differences in circumstance between Apollo within his own game, and Apollo's situation within Dual Destinies.
A lot of what this Storyteller has to say seems to be making a point based on an idea he's already settled on - that Apollo's redesign was meant to appeal to a different audience. (The first quote talks about the redesign, and the next brings up the redesigns of Sonic Boom, which had a similar purpose to the one he claims is being used for Apollo's new design. That's a possibility, but his points aren't strong enough to prove that, since the reasons why he has done things now and not before are simply because of circumstance.
First, Apollo does not sport bandages simply out of the need to be an edgelord. He specifically covers his eye to not glance at Athena. Admittedly I find this strange, since Athena stands to the left of Apollo during trials as far as perspective is concerned, but never the less, this reason is explained by Apollo himself in game. Obviously he would have no need to do something this drastic around Kristoph - there was no bodily function that was filling him with doubt at the time, like say, the ability to be a human lie detector and notice small "twitches" a person has, since he did not know about that skill at the time.
This point isn't my second main point, but it should be stated that while Kristoph was Apollo's mentor and boss, Wright was his
idol. While we may not know much about Apollo, we know for sure that he looked up to Wright a lot as a defense attorney prior to meeting with him. Any bond he did or did not have with Kristoph would have been put in conflict with his ideals of Wright, who was doing a good job of explaining how Kristoph was the killer, which I said earlier, appealed to Apollo's sense of logic. Once again, Apollo does not put bandages on out of sadness or anger, he specifically wears it to stop reading Athena's tells, not because he literally did not want to see her.
My real point is that at no point does Apollo cower from the truth. He quite specifically faces the truth head on by carrying out his own investigation, regardless of who gets in his way, including Wright, much like how he was willing to accuse Kristoph based on the logic. More importantly, I hardly see how building a case against the person you suspect is "cowering from the truth". Is this not the standard routine for main characters in this game? Find a lead, find some evidence? Even if Apollo did not think his life was in danger, he's been in this game too long to assume that even if Athena was the killer that he could prove it without evidence.
His sense of justice is in tact - it's so strong that even tho' he is convicting a friend of murder, who is already under heavy psychological trauma from being accused of killing her mother, he
still appears in court to call her out. This is very in line with the same man who was willing to accuse someone else close to him, Kristoph, and is reminiscent of "doing whatever to get to the truth" like Edgeworth - to the point where Edgeworth supports Apollo's willingness to do this. The only one who disagrees with this isn't even Athena - it's
Wright. Wright uses silly sentiments like "she's your co-worker" or "have faith" to dissuade Apollo, but he won't have it. Apollo wants Justice, regardless of how badly this turns out for him and ALL of his friends. THAT is true
Justice. That is Apollo's character. It has not changed at all from his game.
Finally, the reference to Kristoph at the end does not mean he has "remnants" of Kristoph within his personality because of a close personal bond. Just because I can quote my history teacher from elementary school does not mean I was deeply bonded with that person. But what the line does imply is that Apollo, if anything, has grown as a character who truly is willing to do WHATEVER it takes to get to true justice - even if it means becoming as shrewd as his old mentor to do it. He remembers the line because it's true - all the sentiment in the world won't help you in the face of evidence... which Apollo learned all to well towards the end of Case 4, where Kristoph almost got away thanks to loopholes. Apollo used the reverse of that - he wouldn't allow Wright to get away with a simple "maybe she didn't, maybe she did" in the face of Apollo's equally relevant, if not stronger, evidence against Athena.
And once again, Apollo did not run away from the situation. He built a case against Athena properly, instead of blurting out "YOU ARE TEH KILLER" and risking losing that lead. He then confronted Athena before it was too late, and he did everything to challenge Wright so that they could have a fair trial where they analyzed all the evidence properly to reach a fair verdict. Because that's what his friend deserved - both Terran in his death, and Athena in her potential framing.
They deserve Justice.
Take that.
