Psyche-Lock

Psyche-Locks are mental barriers that appear in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series, first appearing in the second game, Psyche-Locks are a spiritual representation of an individual's barriers they create to protect a secret. Psyche-Locks have appeared throughout the series, appearing in every mainline entry game except Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney as the concept wasn't introduced until Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All. Phoenix Wright is able to perceive these barriers through the Magatama he obtained from Maya Fey and subsequently had charged by Pearly Fey.
Though Phoenix is often the one who sees the Psyche-Locks, anyone wielding the Magatama can see them as was demonstrated by Miles Edgeworth during the events of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations.
The number of Psyche-Locks which manifest reflect the individuals resistance to revealing said secret, Psyche-Locks are capable of being broken through showing evidence or breaking through to the individual via other means such as deducing information, confronting them with other characters and connecting information together. Once all Psyche-Locks are broken the secret is often then revealed to the player. To date only five Psyche-Locks have been unbreakable; three in Trials and Tribulations (two originating from Iris and one originating from Larry Butz), one in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (originating from Kristoph Gavin, and to date the only Black Psyche-Locks to remain unbroken) and one in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (Originating from Herman Crab)
==Types of Psyche-Locks==
There are currently two canonical types of Psyche-Locks in the games; Red Psyche-Locks which first appeared in Justice for All and Black Psyche-Locks which first appeared in Apollo Justice. The two locks serve different functions. In total when someone is confronted a maximum of five Psyche-Locks may manifest and are always of the same colour.
===Canonical Psyche-Locks===
====Red Psyche-Locks====
The Red Psyche-Lock (as seen above) is the most common type of Psyche-Lock present in the Ace Attorney series and represents the deliberate and conscious effort to hide a secret. They're able to be broken through conventional means primarily through presenting evidence to prove the presence of the secret in question. The frequency of the Red Psyche-Locks has differed from game to game, with Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations having significantly more than later games.
====Black Psyche-Locks====
The Black Psyche-Lock (as seen above) is a much rarer and much more difficult variant of the Psyche-Lock that appears in the series. To date only two individuals (Kristoph Gavin and Athena Cykes) have manifested Black Psyche-Locks. Their role in the series is somewhat unclear as their function changes between the two characters. What is known is that they're described by Phoenix Wright as "Dark... cold... full of despair..." suggesting that much more intense emotions are tied to these Psyche-Locks. In Kristoph Gavin's case this emotion is likely paranoia due to the nature of his scheming and hiding of information, while for Athena Cykes' case the emotion is a deep-rooted traumatic experience which induced fear into her causing her to subconsciously block out the memory of the event.
Destroying these Psyche-Locks is extremely difficult and to date only half of all Black Psyche-Locks have been destroyed, the method for destroying the five Black Psyche-Locks that Athena possessed was done so during the court session and differs from breaking Red Psyche-Locks as the locks were broken together in unison which is quite rare for Red Psyche-Locks.
===Fanonical Psyche-Locks===
Psyche-Locks presented below are not canonical to the series. If Psyche-Locks of these natures or appearances to appear in the series it is merely a coincidence and information below should be ignored when discussing canonical elements of the series.
====Green Psyche-Locks====
The Green Psyche-Lock (as seen above) are a common Psyche-Lock which results from significant emotional baggage. Individuals that manifest this type of Psyche-Lock will attempt to omit guilt from themselves and push it onto others; this often results in a multi-layered lie where the player must deduce both the individual being targeted as well as how the individual who manifested the Psyche-Locks is related to the crime or situation in question. These locks are fairly easily broken through presenting evidence and profiles as well as deducing information.
====Bronze Psyche-Locks====
The Bronze Psyche-Lock (as seen above) is a rather uncommon Psyche-Lock which appears when an individual is provided with information that causes them to have a conflict of understanding about a situation, it develops due to the person blocking out the true information and substituting it for false information provided to them. This is usually done by individuals who are negatively impacted by the true information or would hurt people they care about with that true information. The Psyche-Lock always manifests in two or four and must be broken by unveiling the true information while destroying the false information, as such the Psyche-Locks are destroyed in pairs.
====Yellow-Orange Psyche-Locks====
The Yellow-Orange Psyche-Lock (as seen above) is a somewhat rare Psyche-Lock which appear when someone is creating a lie through plagiarism, it is an uncommon sight because of this and effectively has two forms; Yellow and Orange. Conventional plagiarism manifests the Yellow Dominant variation of this Psyche-Lock and is broken through proving the occurance of plagiarism through evidence and profiles, sometimes also using deductive reasoning as well although less often than Red Psyche-Locks. The Orange variant however occurs through non-standard plagiarism such as identity theft, motive theft and body doubles among other things, these variants are rarer and more difficult, breaking them often requires evidence of the existence and distinction between the Psyche-Lock individual and the person or thing they're plagiarising.
Yellow-Orange Psyche-Locks may sometimes also manifest together, hence why they're grouped as such, in these instances the person is manifesting both types of plagiarism, in an associated manner, breaking the locks remains the same although the Yellow variants are always broken first.
====Blue Psyche-Locks====
The Blue Psyche-Lock (as seen above) is an incredibly rare Psyche-Lock that rivals the Black Psyche-Lock in sheer power, they manifest when individuals with Multiple Personalities forcefully submerge a personality, using the Psyche-Locks as a means of trapping the other personality thus preventing them from arising. The Psyche-Lock is extremely difficult to break and requires extensive historical evidence of an individual's past and the existence of the submerged personality. Due to the rarity of Multiple Personalities the Blue Psyche-Lock is almost never seen, like the Black Psyche-Lock however it will always manifest as five Psyche-Locks.
==Gallery==
New Red Psyche-Lock.png|An alternate Red Psyche-Lock
New Black Psyche-Lock.png|An alternate Black Psyche-Lock
Category:Ace Attorney (series)
Category:Concepts