Feel Free To Explain Your Reasons In The Tags! (I'm Very Curious)

I love that phoenix is a bit of an asshole like he’s the most character ever

but i will not stand for goofy dumbass pathetic Phoenix erasure.

Bro canonically says “YEOWCH!” when he gets stabbed or hit.

He grabs the back of his neck and chuckles when he’s feeling sheepish.

He called himself “Sherlock Holmes II baby!” when sherlock holmes never existed. A HERLOVK SHOLMES DID

He gushes when something is cute or romantic. “You’re too cute to call you just pearl!” “*actively crying at the delite’s love story* thats so romantic…”

He copies his friends’s mannerisms bc he loves spending time with them. (also bc he has adhd. No this is canon and i’m correct about it no one fight me)

Feenie copies a lot of Larry’s mannerisms

Phoenix copies a lot of Mia’s mannerisms

Beanix has a lot of Dahlia’s mannerisms which i wont look into bc i value my mental health

In the anime he copies Ron Delite when he was yelling and that was so funny

theres more but i always write these when i’m half asleep

He loves to gossip with Maya, (like when gumshoe got a crush)

He loves to argue about pointless shit as well like ladders, which kinda leads into him trying to purposely be difficult bc he thinks its funny

idk i feel like people forget that this is the same dude who got amnesia twice and still went to work (once as his actual job: attorneying and once as a friggin baker 😭😭)

theres a TON of goofy cartoony shit that phoenix does! Yes he can be sarcastic, but he’s also a giant loser who is REALLY good at improv.

Phoenix is just as weird as everyone around him. He’s also a goofball who happens to be a big hater.

THEY SHOULDVE HUGGED IT OUT 💔💔💔💔💔

Actually, “Feenie” Makes Perfect Sense as a Backstory for Phoenix (+ 3-1 Initial Thoughts)

I've decided to start a series where I record my thoughts and analysis as I play through the Ace Attorney games for the first time. I'll try to post these as soon as I finish a case so that my thoughts are fresh.

Phoenix Wright/"Feenie"

I've noticed critiques in this fandom that "Feenie" from Turnabout Memories is too different from Phoenix in the trilogy or that the backstory is poorly inserted. But, honestly I disagree. It's easy to treat Phoenix and Feenie as different people because of their different outfits and mannerisms, but I think the characterization is consistent (despite "Feenie" being exaggerated sometimes for comedic effect).

I've seen the fandom portray "Feenie" as a sweet pushover. But if anything, his belief is extremely stubborn and strong-willed. Phoenix believed in true love and fate which was why he accepts that necklace in the first place. He also never relents to Dahlia (or should I say Iris) when she asks for the necklace back.

He’s only able to be used and manipulated by Dahlia because his own goals and beliefs aligned with the facade she presented to him.

Phoenix literally shoves a guy so hard that he fell onto his back because he badmouthed Dahlia. I think one constant of Phoenix's character is that he cares too deeply and is protective over the people he loves.

There's also the part where Phoenix mocks Doug for being British? or wearing the British flag (I didn’t take a screenshot of it). “Feenie” is just as sassy and judgmental as Phoenix is. He might be a lot more naive and immature but he's still Phoenix.

Oh Phoenix... back when you believed in people saving you... before you bottled up your problems and refused to let anyone help you...

To be fair he is the defendant here but still. He doesn't ask for support after Edgeworth disappears, he doesn't ask for help at first when Maya is kidnapped.

I think, unfortunately, this incident with Dahlia is what kickstarted a lot of his trust and abandonment issues. His overwhelmingly strong belief and trust in Dahlia backfired in the worst way possible. It’s not a stretch that this made him too terrified of betrayal to open up to anyone in the trilogy.

So I know this is for comedic effect, but it’s also really good proof that Phoenix heavily idealizes the people he gets super attached to.

(Coughs in Edgeworth and Justice for All)

… I mean he’s not wrong! But he’s also being delusional

This is one of the first things Phoenix says after finding out he was betrayed. He doesn't spend much time acknowledging his feelings of hurt. He just goes into denial.

(COUGHS IN EDGEWORTH AND JUSTICE FOR ALL)

This is just further proof for me that Phoenix’s coping mechanisms are suppression and delusion.

And then Phoenix immediately he moves on to saving Edgeworth! He just shoves all that trauma aside to fixate on saving someone else... to cope by giving himself more control. Phoenix's savior complex stems from abandonment issues.

This trial doesn't give Phoenix the idea to save Edgeworth, it solidifies it.

After being reminded by Mia of his belief that a defense attorney saves people, Phoenix firmly sets himself on this path.

There it is. Phoenix says it himself... he suppressed these memories. That's why he never brought it up in the last two games. I know the real reason is because the creators didn’t plan it, but it also makes sense narratively.

I mean, Phoenix hides the class trial story until Turnabout Goodbyes. This man does not like to talk about his problems or trauma.

Mia Fey

Damn Mia is so brutal. Is this where Phoenix gets his sass from?

Mia is also not how I expected her to be. I mean whenever she gets channeled to help Phoenix out, she's in the role of the wise mentor. But here? She's a nervous wreck, cynical of romance, and full of trust issues.

Speaking of trust issues... I unfortunately did not take a screenshot of this but as soon as Mia finds out Phoenix has lying to her, she reacts very strongly with distrust. She also has to convince herself multiple times to trust in him again. Believing in people or trusting them doesn't seem to come easy to Mia. Which is super interesting because her advice is to always believe in your client. Maybe Mia eventually got used to trusting her clients but... she also never tells Phoenix about her investigation in Redd White. I don't think Mia is as trusting as she presents herself as.

An Intro Post (of sorts)

Hi! My name is Jen and welcome to my writing + fandom blog.

I'll mainly be posting about writing: info about my wips, my poetry, opinions about tropes/writing things, writing tips, etc.

I'm also really interested in typology, mainly MBTI (cognitive functions!!) and enneagram.

My current obsession is Ace Attorney. My favorite characters are Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix Wright and Franziska von Karma. I mainly ship Wrightworth/Narumitsu but also Franmaya, Godonix, and Klapollo. Original trilogy spoilers will not be tagged.

Here is a list of my other obsessions (aka fandoms I will talk about the most) and my favorite characters from each:

The Legend of Korra (Kuvira, Baatar Jr, Korra)

Avatar The Last Airbender (Katara, Zuko, Azula)

Genshin Impact (Kujou Sara, Raiden Ei/Shogun, Collei, Furina, Nahida, Scaramouche, Childe)

Other fandoms I'm in (and will probably talk about sometimes): Dreamcatcher (kpop), Persona 5, The Hunger Games, Divergent, Six of Crows, Once Upon a Time, Warrior Cats, Wings of Fire.

"#no no i do much mia meta and she meant it exactly like that#phoenix heard her exactly the way she meant#and that's why they're both so angsty" <-- pasting the tags of someone who reblogged my post because omg thank you

I always had this Feeling that there is so much more to Mia Fey than meets the eye. But I was always like: okay, we'll cross that bridge when we get there (aka after I lose my mind analyzing Phoenix, Miles, and Franziska).

Honestly that piece of advice from Mia is what tipped me off first, because I was like: are you telling someone to like, ignore their emotions? hmm suspicious.

And in Reunion and Turnabout, Mia started protecting Morgan? We literally had to break her psyche-locks.

Also in Farewell My Turnabout, Mia seems to be just as suspicious and distrusting of Edgeworth as Phoenix is? But at the end she goes: so now do you know what being a defense attorney means? ... Mia, I swear YOU didn't get it either until Edgeworth showed both you and Phoenix.

These are just observations, I really need to comb through this and properly analyze Mia Fey because gosh. (And I need to finish playing T&T).

Is it just me or is this piece of advice from Mia, "for a lawyer, the worst of times are when you have to force your biggest smiles", really sad?

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently sad about it. I get that it's about not giving up, pushing through impossible odds and rock bottom for your client. Because for most people, being a lawyer is a just a profession.

But for someone like Phoenix? Someone who hides their pain behind saving others, who never talks about their trauma, who (subconsciously or not) considers being a lawyer not just a job but their entire identity...? All of a sudden, Mia's advice isn't just about the courtroom anymore, because for Phoenix being a lawyer was always about being good enough and able to save people. To Phoenix, Mia's advice is about pretending you're fine, not letting anyone see how you truly feel or else you can't save anyone.

Why are my favorite ships always:

Different but in the way that they make perfect partners and achieve so much together. Believing in each other when it seems like no one else does. Different and despite that, they understand each other until they completely don't. Some kind of betrayal and at least one of them has abandonment issues. So much emotional constipation and painful pining. Childhood friends to [insert decades long mess here] to finally, finally lovers. "My heart has always been yours. Even when I hated you. Even when there was so much distance between us I thought we'd never pull through. There's no one else in this world for me. So, yes it's you, it's always been you".

And the only two that have qualified so far are Wrightworth (Phoenix + Miles from Ace Attorney) and Baavira (Baatar Jr + Kuvira from Legend of Korra). I love how Wrightworth's partnership led them to find the truth and redeem each other, while Baavira's led them to create a dictatorship and commit war crimes.

If you have any more examples of ships that fit, please let me know.

#i feel like i'm gonna get thrown tomatoes for this but#he's terrible for that but honestly i get it #it's the courtroom. not a therapy session #on my replay #i got to that part yesterday and i thought it would make me mad but as someone who's similar to adrian... #being slapped with reality like that works in waking you up sometimes #like yes it deeply hurts when things like that get unearthed but by ignoring it and refusing to talk about it........ it's more damaging yk #but ofc it's different for everybody #idk man.... bc considering he's also suicidal.... well. Well. it has certain implications #and imo he didn't mean it......he just wanted the truth out of her rather than telling it himself i guess #not defending him tho. irl that's unredeemable in my eyes lol <-- previous tags

No, no, you're right! And that's pretty much what I was trying to say. Ruthlessness is not inherently a good or bad trait. What Miles did was hurtful... but it was necessary in the end. And I truly love this part of his character, how he's so adamant about dragging the truth out and dismantling people's delusions. I wish this side of him was acknowledged more in the fandom.

(tw: mention of suicide) Did we, as a fandom, just collectively forget how ruthless Miles Edgeworth can be sometimes? And I’m not just talking about his demon prosecutor era, I mean also after his redemption arc. Because I was just playing through Farewell My Turnabout and watching him reveal Adrian Andrews attempted suicide in court after she begged both him and Phoenix not to… I was sitting there with my mouth open thinking: damn Edgeworth, was that really necessary??

And you know what, I love it. I love how he was ruthless in getting a guilty verdict in the past, and now he uses that ruthlessness to find the truth. Because I'm not just here for the traumatized, socially awkward, emotionally constipated, caring Edgeworth. I'm also here for the ruthless, intimidating, competent, morally grey Edgeworth. I'm not here for a watered-down version of Edgeworth. He wouldn't be my favorite character if he didn't have this nuance.

That's such a good point. There’s also the fact that their both involved with Phoenix but Krisnix is super popular as a toxic ship while I've seen almost zero Phoenix x Dahlia. I haven't played Apollo Justice but Kristoph and Dahlia have so many parallels that this disparity in the fandom is insane to me (poison? manipulator? manipulates a sibling to do their dirty work? polite/pleasant facade?).

Dahlia has so much potential that's literally right there in canon, why are we ignoring it?

god remind me one day to go on like. a proper rant about how people in the fandom treat dahlia vs how they treat kristoph. kristoph is seen as some mastermind who has some deep secret trauma because it’s vaguely hinted at while we KNOW for a fact that dahlia definitely has a fuckton of trauma between what we see in the flashback case and just, her involvement in the fey family in general but especially how she specifically was treated but????? nobody fucking cares??? like sure she’s not justified but neither is kristoph and i’ve still seen people arguing that he is. he’s so babygirlified by the fandom and i fucking hate it. people are tagging him in posts about evil WOMEN. dahlia is RIGHT. THERE. like my fault for expecting people to give basic respect to women but good fucking lird i could not make this kind of shit up if i tried you people are ridiculous

You literally pulled the thoughts out of my head!! I agree with everything you said about Edgeworth in 1-4. I just didn’t include it in my post because then we’d be here all day.

I think RTFA confirming that Miles Edgeworth didn't intentionally forge evidence does align with his established character in the first four cases and isn't a retcon. It does take away some audience interpretation but personally I'm fine with that.

First of all I don't think the rest of AA1 ever confirmed it one way or the other. There are a few instances where Phoenix thinks of Edgeworth as an evidence forger but it's not like Phoenix would know for sure either. (Do correct me, with specific lines please, if I'm wrong though).

But more importantly, if you only look at the first four cases of AA1 Edgeworth being an evidence forger doesn't make sense with his character. Why would a prosecutor forge evidence? Not including reasons like being blackmailed. 1) If they don't care (enough) about the truth (prioritizing things like success over it), or 2) if they truly believe the defendant is guilty and are desperate for a conviction (aka the reason Adrian Andrews forges evidence in 2-4).

Does Edgeworth care about the truth, before coming back in 2-4?

Yes, I'd say so. One thing that still kind of surprises me is just how quickly Edgeworth changes sides and begins to fight for the truth. It happens at the end of 1-3.

You could argue that Edgeworth had already lost once to Phoenix and thought "screw this, my perfect record is already gone, another loss wouldn't change that fact". But compare him to two characters who are actually obsessed with their perfect records. Manfred, a perfectionist control-freak, getting a penalty (not even losing!) unraveled him so much that he killed Gregory in the heat of the moment. Franziska after losing in 2-2 declares that: "That spirit channeling trial was a sham! I refuse to acknowledge its legitimacy! It did not count!" She doesn't even want to admit that she lost. Edgeworth, on the other hand, doesn't act like someone who truly prioritizes his win record over the truth.

Because Edgeworth didn't just let himself lose in 1-3, he made himself lose. He made Vasquez testify again. She would have gotten away if Edgeworth didn't say anything. And after the trial he tells the judge "Will Powers was innocent. That he should be found so is only natural… not a miracle."

Okay but if Edgeworth does care about the truth, and believed that every defendant being guilty was the truth, he could have easily gone down the path of forging evidence to ensure the verdict reflected what he believed to be true. That leads me to my next question:

2. Does Edgeworth truly believe that every defendant he prosecutes is guilty?

Actually no. He says this in Turnabout Sisters: "Innocent"...? How can we know that? The guilty will always lie, to avoid being found out. There's no way to tell who is guilty and who is innocent! All that I can hope to do is get every defendant declared "guilty"! So I make that my policy.

Yeah I think that line speaks for itself.

Miles Edgeworth's duality pre-redemption is this: he cares about the truth, but he's lost faith in finding it. So he commits himself to getting guilty verdicts because he believes that's the best shot he has at enacting justice, even if he accidentally convicts innocent people from time to time.

And to me that aligns with his reaction to finding out he unknowingly used forged evidence in 1-5. Edgeworth was so disillusioned with finding the truth that he has accepted that some collateral damage would inevitably happen as a result of his mindset. However, because he still can't let go of his dedication to the truth, he wouldn't want to lie or rewrite the facts to achieve his verdicts.

Azula's Motivations in ATLA

I haven’t been in the ATLA fandom long enough to know how popular this opinion is, but I think at her core, Azula wants to be accepted, to be loved, to belong.

I think you can tell a lot about a character by finding out what breaks them. Looking at goals can be helpful, but a lot of the times goals can mask true desires.

What truly begins to break Azula is the betrayal from Mai and Ty Lee. She's also strangely bothered by the belief that her mother thinks she's a monster. In the scene where she hallucinates her mother, Azula only breaks down and shatters the mirror when her mother says she loves her. As if Azula desperately wants it to be true but can't believe it, so she lashes out.

In the finale when Ozai leaves her behind to go destroy the earth kingdom, she says: “I thought we were going to do this together” and “you can’t treat me like Zuko”. She’s desperate to belong, to be accepted by her father. And even though she’s had his approval for her entire life, she’s immediately afraid of being cast aside.

While she is pretty obsessed with succeeding at everything she does and doing things perfectly (ie “almost isn’t good enough”), I think the real reason she’s so obsessed is because she believes she must earn her worth in order to be accepted.

Azula hasn't had many experiences with healthy relationships as a child so she makes people stay by instilling fear and proving her worth. Power and success aren't what she truly desires. They are more so a means to an end.

I also think in the last Agni Kai, she breaks down not just because she's defeated, but because Zuko and Katara defeat her together. A painful reminder that other people have support they can rely on, but she has no one.

It's also really interesting to compare her to Zuko because I don't think Zuko has the same motivation at his core. Yes Zuko became obsessed with chasing the Avatar to be accepted by his father, but really it was about his honor. Zuko saw acceptance in the Fire Nation as a means to an end for his own worth and honor.

And that's the reason Zuko isn't satisfied when he's back to belonging in the Fire Nation again in season 3. And he's not satisfied in the Earth Kingdom with his uncle's support, nor satisfied being accepted and trusted by Katara in that cave.

I'm not saying Zuko doesn't care about or want acceptance from people, just that there is something deeper motivating him.

When Azula pushes people away, it's defense mechanism. When Zuko pushes people away, he's yearning for something more.