#Gramarye Series

[setaripendragon]

A sequel to my fic The Last Charmed One! It's been a while, but I'm working on finishing this, and I thought posting it might give me the kick up the pants needed to get the last few chapters done.

[burnmyloveaway]

I know Spirit of Justice is guilty of having retconned Apollo's backstory once more and having used his father as more of a plot device that an actual character, but I'd lie if I said it didn't make his mysterious story and dynamic with Thalassa so damn fascinating.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

I checked my dumbest moments in Ace Attorney poll and while I’m not surprised that “Maya and Trucy being unqualified to be paralegals/secretaries” had the lowest votes, I do want to stress how dumb this really is. I’ve worked in two different law firms for over eight years and, I’m gonna be honest, if the secretaries didn’t know what they were doing, either firm would collapse immediately.

We’re talking about the person who the attorney trusts with running their office. Sending out the subpoenas, drafting documents, uploading documents, maintaining the calendar, taking phone calls, greeting the clients, sending out the bills, doing supply runs and so on. Attorneys can technically do that on their own, but with how busy they can be, that’s why they bring on a secretary/paralegal.

So I’m just saying, it’s insane to me that Phoenix and Apollo decided to put their trust in Maya (a spirit channeler) and Trucy (a magician). Unless Maya can tell the spirits to send out the notice of representation or Trucy can do a magic trick that would upload the case files to their online database, ain’t no way an actual attorney would keep them on.

At least Athena Cykes is a junior attorney! She actually makes sense as an assistant. And she’d actually be allowed in a courtroom!

(This wasn’t supposed to be an “Athena Cykes is best assistant” post but it turned into one lol. While I’m at it, Klavier Gavin is the best attorney)

[inbarfink]

Okay, I’ve been considering it for quite a bit and I think that if Tumblr existed in Japanifornia… most of us would probably not be aware of the series’ main characters.

Like, lawyers just don’t tend to be high-profile publicly-known figures. Even within True Crime communities or the coverage of high-public-interest cases, people don’t tend to focus on the lawyers as much more than a representative of the defendant and the legal system as a whole. And yeah, you can say this is just because real-life lawyers are Boring and if they did the kind of Bonkers Shit AA Lawyers do we would pay attention to them… but we do actually have textual evidence that Japanifornia treats lawyers not-too-differently than real life.

Mia’s murder, and probably the uncovering of all of Bluecorp’s dirty dealing, was highly talked about, but Phoenix’s actions in court went kinda ignored. And note that this is the case where Phoenix literally defended himself and broke the Demon Prosecutor’s five years winning streak, and that wasn’t enough to draw eyes to his part in this whole case. 

And that’s also generally consistent with how characters treat Phoenix throughout the rest of the games. By the AJ Trilogy era, it’s clear that Phoenix has made quite a name for himself… in the legal world. If you are yourself a lawyer or another sort of legal professional or just unusually interested in court proceeding, you know the name ‘Phoenix Wright’ 

But if you’re just a regular person who cares about the law the Regular Amount, you probably have no idea who this is.

So I’d guess most of Japanifornian Tumblr would probably be aware of a lot of the cases in the games, especially considering how many of them concern, like, corporate corruption and organized crime and legal corruption and international politics and the entertainment industry and other such stuff that makes it likely to get national/international news coverage. And also so many of them are so bizarre and wacky and are thus prime meme fodder…

But most people wouldn’t necessarily know the name of the lawyer the Nickel Samurai blackmailed to defend him after he ordered an assassin to kill the Jammin’ Ninja, or even how involved that lawyer actually was in Matt Engarde’s downfall.

But there would probably be a small mini-fandom of Tumblrina Lawyers and other legal nerds who are ABSOLUTELY obsessed with the WAA, and trying to collect any piece of info they can find about their adventures. 

(That’s also another aspect to consider, the general public in Japanifornia does not have full knowledge of everything we get to see in the game. News coverage of the smaller cases would be extremely minimal and very regional - and even the bigger cases probably won’t give you a full line-by-line record of everything that happened in Court. Apollo Justice was, like, the Biggest Phoenix Wright Stan in the Universe and he had very choppy and partial knowledge of the Gramarye Trial. We have to consider that even folks who are trying to keep track of the AA Lawyers in-universe would not get the full picture from the media. And that’s before we get into fake news and rumors.)

And meanwhile, the rest of Tumblr would probably treat that Fandom the same sort of bemused delight we give to, like, the extremely dedicated gimmick blogs. Like, you’d probably see less posts about Phoenix and Co. as you’d see posts memeing about the fact there’s a Tumblr Fandom for ‘some random law agency in Japanifornia’, they’d be like five thousands people in the notes going “There’s a Tumblr Fandom for WHAT? WHY IS THIS THE FIRST TIME I’M HEARING ABOUT THIS??” and then one person from the WAA fandom going “NO YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS IS THE GUY WHO UNCOVERED THE PHANTOM HE’S JUMPED OFF A BURNING BRIDGE ONCE YOU LITERALLY TALKED ABOUT A TRIAL HE DID YESTERDAY YOU JUST DON’T KNOW HE WAS INVOLVED”. 

Now, that’s all for the Defense Attorneys. The Prosecutors have a bit more publicity. I mean, Phoenix literally heard about Prosecutor Edgeworth on the news.

But also… I do think this publicity is highly regional. Like, Phoenix ended up stumbling on newspaper coverage of Miles because he lives in the same city as him. I’m guessing that most of the series’ Prosecutors are at least casually known not just to Legal Folks, but also generally to people within Los Angetokyo and people involved in Japanifornian Politics… but also not much outside of that sphere either. Again, the series does establish that they are not that well-known amongst laypeople even when they are famous amongst other lawyers

And are generally recognized by fellow legal professionals and journalists and people involved in criminal activity. So the situation with them won’t be that different than with the WAA, they might be a tad more high-profile, depending on how many Tumblr users are specifically from Japaniforina and wanna make memes about the local politics… but those who will get really invested in their misadventures won’t be that different from the kind of people who’d get really into Phoenix Wright. 

Klavier is the obvious exception. Like most Famous Lawyers, he’s actually primarily famous for something other than law. It’s just that in his case, instead of politics, it’s being a world-famous rock star. There’s plenty of textual evidence that the Gavinners are an actual household name and they’d probably have a pretty sizable Tumblr Fandom, but… well… while I assume any casual Gavinner fan knows that Klavier is also a Prosecutor, I’d guess only the insanely dedicated fans and the Haters looking for something problematic would actually start digging into the records of the cases he worked on. But then again, Tumblr does have a lot of insanely dedicated fans and Haters, so maybe Legal Misadventures Involving Klavier would be kinda mainstream on Japanifornia Tumblr.

[crowfanity]

Some more text post memes!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

(ID under cut)

[ID: A series of ten text post memes with Ace Attorney character sprites

The first image is a twitter post with Miles Edgeworth looking smug. The tweet reads “proud to announce that i am making a Bad decision but I’m not telling y’all what it is so u can’t stop me”.

The second image is of a tumblr post. An anon with Athena Cykes’ angry sprite next to it asks “Have you ever met someone who you just weren’t able to bully?” Underneath it is Simon Blackquill’s sprite with a smirk next to the response “no. I’m a very unpleasant person”.

The third picture is of a joke article title that says “If You Want To Achieve Enlightenment, You’re Gonna Have To Go Through Me”. In the corner is a picture of Nahyuta Sahdmadhi with his hand up in meditation.

The fourth photo is a tumblr screenshot. It says “my flatmate has just rocked in with the two lesbianest lesbians I’ve ever seen and introduced them as “my sister and my sister’s... roommate”. Underneath it has Kay Faraday grinning on the left, and on the right is Ema Skye’s confident sprite from Investigations next to pictures of Lana Skye with a neutral expression and Mia Fey smiling with her arms crossed.

The fifth image is a twitter conversation. The first tweet has a picture of teenage Maya Fey looking solemn with her head tilted down a bit. The text reads “The realization that the switch is 5 years old and they’re probably gonna reveal their next console in a couple of years just hit me like a fucking truck”. Underneath that is a response saying “I used to go into hospitals and switched the babies around. You can’t do stuff like that anymore, too many cameras.” To the right of that comment is a picture of Zak Gramarye in his magician outfit with his hands on his hips and laughing.

The sixth picture is of a single twitter post. In the bottom right corner is a picture of Nahyuta Sahdmadhi smiling with his eyes closed. The tweet says “Back in Uni, a girl mocked my presentation one time so I searched for her group and asked the topic they were presenting on. I spent 4 days researching on it and asked her so many questions like it was common knowledge that she cried. Stay blessed precious one.”

The seventh picture is of a short Facebook conversation. The first names are censored but the two commenters have the same last name. The first post says “I’d kill my own brother to be in bed right now I don’t even care” with a smiling emoji at the end. To the lower right of the comment is a picture of Aura Blackquill smiling with her chin in her hand as she leans on an upset Clonco. To the left of the second comment is a sprite of Simon Blackquill glaring. The reply says “I’d like to see you try you silly cunt I’ll put you in the fucking ground”.

The eighth photo is of a Grindr conversation. The first message is on the right with a yellow text box and just says “hey” next to a sprite of trilogy Phoenix Wright smiling awkwardly and rubbing the back of his head. The next two messages are on the left and have blue text boxes next to a sprite of Larry Butz playfully rubbing the back of his head with his eyes closed and tongue sticking out. The messages from him read “Hey” “Just so you know I’m not gay or anything”. The next message is next to a sprite of Phoenix looking confused/annoyed and sweating. It says “this is grindr my guy”. The response is next to an image of Larry looking angry with his eyes closed, teeth clenched, and hands balled into fists. The message says “I guess people who are lactose intolerant can’t walk down the fucking dairy aisle? I’m just looking”.

The ninth image is of a single tweet. In the upper right is Athena Cykes’ thinking sprite as she touches her earring. In the bottom right is a sprite of Simon Blackquill looking up and away from the camera and frowning. The tweet reads “My uncle, the countriest guy I know, just said “I fuckin hate seeing chipmunks cause it means there ain’t no big cool birds around””.

The last photo is of a single tweet in a chat format. In the upper right is a picture of Wocky Kitaki with his arms crossed and smirking awkwardly while looking away, looking smug yet nervous. Underneath him is Apollo Justice’s disheartened sprite, slouching forward a bit and looking annoyed/exhausted. The tweet says “me: [whispering to my lawyer]” “my lawyer: I’m not asking that” “me: [whispering some more]” “my lawyer: your honor would he still be guilty if he was a worm”.

/End of ID]

[sciencelings-arts]

Thought about what her design would be like in her 20s, bc I wanted to include her in my AU where Phoenix sees ghosts and I think she’d haunt Trucy bc I love the theory that she’s an ancestor in the Gramarye family with the power to perceive.

Artists commentary including spoilers under the cut

Ghost vibe, anyway I thought she deserved a cloak with a dramatic collar like her uncle Barok, which also inspired the gold details. She’s technically nobility but she prefers the title of ‘Doctor’ to ‘Lady’.

Closeups of the Sholmes emblem, making the gear a little less obvious since her whole thing is the flower. Also hearts.

I really wanted to play with the design of her goggles into glasses and added the pink part as a reference to the blood detecting glasses from Ema Skye, I feel like that’s something she’d invent lol. Also it’s really small but the earring is her flower in Ryunosuke blue with the Mikotoba touch of cherry blossom petals.

Her hairstyle is based on this concept art that I thought was really cute. And I added the longer curl in the middle bc that’s what Herlock has. Also the bunny ears cowlick that she has gets passed down to Trucy.

Anyway I think she has a gun and since she’s a van Zieks, she also gets a sword. Or a cute little dagger with hearts all over it. I love her vibe of being the adorable little girl who is related to a serial killer/ assassin and the guy known as ‘the reaper’ bc that’s just so funny. She’s also the smartest person the the AA series and they had to nerf her by making her 10 during the story.

[cherry15329]

Who is your favorite female assistant of the Ace Attorney series?

[oodlyenough]

i'm playing aa6-2 and "secret fifth gramarye troupe member, the jonkler" was already one of the funniest dumb retcons this series has pulled but this image of him being #cancelled truly did me in

no spoilers for this case plz i can't wait to see what totally ludicrous retcon lore they pull out of their ass next

[bestdeadbeatmilf]

Round One, Bracket Nine

Propaganda under the cut!

Thalassa Gramarye/Lamiroir:

Literally THE deadbeat mom ... she lost her first kid so she had another and then, when given the opportunity to tell them they're siblings and she's their mother, she straight up decided just not to. it has been years.

Inari Yoko:

Submission 1: Inari Yoko has a son named Nobimaru who is so detached from her he refers to her solely as his employer. They are on such bad terms he changed his hair color so as not to resemble her. And you know what? A few weeks after she sent him away (age 10) to prep her plans to conquer Tokyo, she went and ate a whole nother village and stole & brainwashed ANOTHER child, named Kon, whom she essentially raised as her daughter/personal assassin. Kon has never met Nobimaru. When Kon fails a mission at the beginning of the series (14) she completely forgets she exists and abandons her to live in a park. She wants to take over the country and become Prime Minister so she can control everyone with her bewitching stone and evil fox weed, because she wants to remold humanity to her whims and become 'Mother of All Creation', but when she DOES become PM she's an absentee ass mother to the whole country too. Nobimaru's holding this shit together with duct tape and the evil oni arm he replaced his with after Inari failed to tell him his hand would be destroyed by an item she told him to retrieve. She has insane abandonment issues and if you try to walk out on her she will CRAZY murder you but if you fail her she will forget you even had a name. She loves being like 'teehee time to freshen up with a hot bath!' and leave the child of the day to clean up her tantrum. She tells her son he's not cute at all. In the first chapter we see him he says that he hates her. He is her right hand man and I don't even know if he gets paid. And again, she somehow NEVER had him and her 'adopted daughter' interact at any point over the span of a DECADE. Truly this woman has deadbeat mothered her way to the top.

Additional comments: she's a kitsune and cannibal also which is pretty swag honestly

Submission 2: AWFUL mother. Sent her son down the river. Brainwashed her adopted daughter. She’s so hot tho so it’s okay.

[tacobellabeanburrito]

Guys y’all don’t know what listening to Hamilton and also being the Ace Attorney fandom has done to my brain.

I’m currently making a Kristoph Gavin playlist and holy shit, I put a lot of Hamilton songs on Miles and Phoenix’s playlist but HOLY SHIT KRISTOPH HAS WAAAAY MORE.

Anyway let me rant:

The Room Where It Happens (Basically Kristoph being a pissbaby about not getting to defend Gramarye)

You’ll Be Back (Krisnix coded guys come ON)

The Schuyler Sisters (Fey sisters coded ofc)

Helpless (Feenie coded both ways from Dahlia/Iris to Miles)

Satisfied (Feenris and Narumitsu coded holy shit can go either way)

Aaron Burr, Sir (Miles and Phoenix first meeting coded, also the rest of the characters in the song are Gumshoe and Larry coded) (And other characters) (This also includes both Story’s Of Tonight)

Wait For It (The most Miles song I’ve ever heard, could be a good one for when he writes his note)

Right Hand Man (Mia and Phoenix coded, but also any song with Washington and Hamilton is Mia and Phoenix coded omg have you guys HEARD Meet Me Inside?)

History Has It’s Eyes On You (Omg, just every single lawyer in AA coded? I once saw an animatic of this song with Sebastian and Miles and holy shit it was great, it’s also them coded)

Dear Theodosia (Oh my goodness Trucy and Phoenix coded oh my goodness I love them)

Non-Stop (This is such a good one for the whole of the AA series guys, I think this one is a good song for the Trilogy in particular)

Laurens Interlude (I know it’s not technically in the soundtrack but this is really TRULY Phoenix gets Miles’ note coded oh my goodness)

What’d I Miss (Kristoph and Miles coded both ways, oh my goodness, Miles coming back from his death and Kristoph being a bitch)

Cabinet Battle (1 and 2) (Oh, oh baby girl this is, so beautifully every single court case coded in existence)

Say No To This (…Is this Krisnix coded? NO. No… Definitely not…) (Also I know Phoenix would never cheat on Miles if they were together during the 7yg but omg this is the perfect song for it if he were cheating on Mike’s with Kristoph)

The Reynolds Pamphlet (Oh my god, this is sooooooooo so sooooooooo Phoenix just getting disbarred coded) (Kristoph and Klavier and Payne as Burr, Jefferson and Madison? Yes. Yea I just said that) (…Angelica as Miles…)

Blow Us All Away (Aside from the dying part, Trucy and Phoenix coded) (I did wanna do some of these songs for Sebastian and Apollo and Kay but I feel like they go so much better with my girl Trucy)

Your Obedient Servant (This is soooo Kristoph and Phoenix coded they are soooo this song)

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? (Ace Attorney coded in general come on)

Alexander Hamilton (Oh my god guys holy shit this song…)

(We fought with him: Godot, Franziska, Larry and Gumshoe, Maya and Pearl

Me I died for him: Mia

Me I trusted him: Athena, Apollo, Klavier and Trucy

Me I loved him: Miles and Mia

And me? I’m the damn fool that shot (disbarred) him: Kristoph)

[folkdances]

i really like how edgeworth and phoenix’s development during the 7yg mirrors each other. trilogy edgeworth was caught up in a series of constant upwards motion in order to become a prosecutor as successful as he was at his age while also being incredibly emotionally stunted and i like considering how he might have settled into both his responsibilities to, for example, interpol and universities and of course the german public prosecutor's office, and a state of emtional wellness that more closely resembles "normal", so that he can then adopt the more mature role he occupies in aa5. phoenix's life during the trilogy was equally breakneck since he was taking on a lot of big cases, usually with immense personal stakes, already struggling to make ends meet when the troupe gramarye case rolls around, and i enjoy exploring how he grows to become more reserved and almost cynical as he sheds his naïveté, for lack of better term.

and i like how messy the middle is by necessity. edgeworth becomes more empathetic and softens somewhat and is therefore more willing to afford phoenix courtesy and kindness while still carrying that easily-affronted and prideful underside, while phoenix is still clealy able to recognize the olive branch being extended to him for what it is but is also rapidly developing a sheen of automatic distrust and paranoia and is therefore more inclined to turn it down or be wary. i need to know what happened during those trips to europe.

[setaripendragon]

So, because I've been working on this series again, I've been getting back into Charmed a bit, and I decided to do something I've been wanting to do since I was, like... eight? And that is to figure out exactly what the Warren Family Tree actually looks like... given that the one we see in canon has some laughably incorrect dates on it.

(Getting birth and death dates wrong on incosequential people I can forgive (Grams' brother apparently married a woman born in 1870-something? It's not impossible, I suppose? She's probably a demon or something.) but what I can't forgive is that they messed up the details of the crucial plot point of that episode that the family tree was made for. (Phoebe gets the family tree out to look up their past lives, and lo and behold, the family tree tells us that Prue's past life died after she was born.))

Still, it's the only real canon information we get about everything between Prudence Warren and P. Baxter (who is Grams' mother. Somehow, I don't think the creators thought through the implications of that. Piper was raised... by a woman she raised. Even if she doesn't remember it, that's still gotta be a bit of a trip if you think about it too hard. Like, do you think Grams learnt the 'keeping her hands busy in the kitchen' thing from her mum? And then teaches it to Piper, who is her mum...). Anyway! That's... over two hundred years unaccounted for, and I don't do well in a creative vacuum. Blank page paralysis is real and devastating.

So I did my damnedest to decipher the very blurry screenshots I managed to get off ITVX, and...

You know another mistake they made? The Charmed power is a female power, and given the show's rather, uh, unconsciously gender-essentialist approach to girl power, it boggles my mind that the family tree is still so patrilineal? Apparently, the Charmed Ones aren't even descended from Prudence Warren? They're descended from her little brother instead? What? How did that get past anyone involved in the process?

But! I jiggled some things around so that the line from Melinda to Prue is an unbroken line of women (trans inclusive!), and discovered that they also, to no one's surprise, didn't put any real thought into the rest of the dates on this thing! In order for all the generations I could see on the family tree to fit into the timescale given, a lot of these ladies were having kids, uh... quite young.

And, sure, one or two, I'd accept, even the majority being under 25 given the social mores/life expectancy/infant mortality of the times, but... I've got a whopping seven (out of fifteen) generations who were 18 or under when they had their first kid. It goes up to eleven if it's 20 or under.

I was really tempted to take a generation out. There's a few that are just one girl baby after another towards the end there, so I could've just whipped one out and rejiggled the dates, but for reasons to do with symbolism and also perfectionist nonsense (I may have been flipping genders left and right, but just toss the dubious canon info out the window?! Never! -rolls my eyes at myself-), I was reluctant.

And then I thought:

Technically, that spell up there that I wrote is a curse. A death curse, even. And I've since decided that both Prudence and her daughter also cast it on their deathbeds, it's a Threefold Death Curse. Because, well, on rewatching a bunch of episodes to check historical dates including, specifically, the one with Melinda's birth in, I was reminded that the Charmed Ones aren't just... extremely powerful witches, but The Most Powerful Witches Of All Time. As in, Eva cast a spell to summon the most powerful witches, and got the Charmed Ones, so it's not just a cute title.

(Now, given Charmed's dubious worldbuilding, you could say that's the Elders sticking their grubby little hands in and doesn't actually mean there will never be a more powerful witch than Prue, Piper, and Phoebe, but I'm going with, no, Eva cast her spell, and magic itself decided Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were what she was asking for.)

So yeah, whatever made the Charmed Ones the Charmed Ones has to pack a mean-ass punch.

Threefold Death Curse it is.

Which means that... Actually, there's an in-built reason why all these Warren Witches are getting pregnant as soon as they discover what sex is. They're literally cursed.

Melinda, dying, grasping onto her vision of her descendants as a last spark of hope: "...My line will continue unbroken, to my daughters this gift I now give..."

Every single future generation, in a chain of faulty pills, broken condoms, inconsiderate lovers, accidents, and possibly worse: "Fucking thanks, Mel" /sarcasm

(Also, we stan P. Baxter, who fought the curse for a whopping thirty-three (33!) years before popping out our beloved Grams. This even while fucking two (2!) guys on the regular for a while there. No wonder she was destined to be reborn into one of the most powerful witches of all time, she was already kick-ass even without that power-boost. The next oldest was Prudence Warren herself, and since that's before the curse got tripled ("Fucking thanks, Prue"), I'm quite satisfied with that.)

Apologies for vanishing again~ ^^” August has been a Hell Month for me, cause I managed, somehow, to break my ankle at the beginning of the month, and let me tell you, that has been an Adventure (and not the good kind). Writing is just not a thing I want to do when I’m having multiple-panic-attacks days alongside eight-hours-in-the-hospital days (the two are not unrelated). And spiffing up my writing for posting is even futher down my list of priorities, so, it maybe another month or so before I get any new writing posted (but! I’m pretty sure I do have a whole completed fic ready for editing and posting once I’m ready to get stuck back in =D)

That being said, I did get a creative itch after a couple of weeks of not touching my writing, so I started digging into some plotting/research I’d been putting off for the sequel to my Charmed AU, The Last Charmed One. (For those of you who remember that/are hoping for the sequel, I have about half of it fully written, but things didn’t go exactly to plan, so I had to re-adjust the entire second half of the plot to compensate… Which I have now done! =D And unless I go nuts at some point between now and then, I’m thinking I’m going to make finishing it my NaNo project this year, so… -fingers crossed-? =D)

Anyway, all this is a prelude to the fact that, in jiggling my plot about, I re-encountered a note I’d made about the… mechanics of the Charmed power in my ‘verse. And this may end up being spoilers somewhere down the line of this series (like… I think it might be part of the plot for book… seven? eight? Something like that…), but given that I have no real guarantee that I’m ever going to get that far, I figured I could throw it into the void now anyway?

Random Charmed/Gramarye backstory ahead (with bonus spell!):

Keep reading

[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Morally Questionable Anime Milfs Round 1 Matchups!

SIDE A

Lusamine (Pokémon The Series: Sun and Moon) VS Izumi Curtis (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Sara (Kiba) VS Rem Saverem (Trigun)

Holo (Spice and Wolf) VS Zeqing (Forge of Destiny/Destiny Cycle)

Dr. Courtney Sithe (Ace Attorney) VS Yuuko Ichihara (xxxHolic)

Angelina Dalles/Madame Red (Black Butler) VS Kaato Higashikata (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

Karen Kurokawa (Tokyo Revengers) VS Mitsuba Higashikata (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

Kouyou Ozaki (Bungou Stray Dogs) VS Lalaco Godspeed (Space Patrol Luluco)

Yachiru/Retsu Unohana (Bleach) VS Aponia (Honkai Impact 3rd)

Numeri (Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure) VS Chikage Kuroba (Magic Kaito)

Natsuhi Ushiromiya (Umineko When They Cry) VS Curly Dadan (One Piece)

Ritsu Nagai (Ajin) VS Kyrie Ushiromiya (Umineko When They Cry)

Misaki Unasaka (Buddy Daddies) VS Ozen the Immovable (Made in Abyss)

SIDE B

Junko Kaname (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) VS Yui Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Koram (A Tree of Palme) VS Amara Sigatar Khura’in (Ace Attorney)

Echidna (Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World) VS Mari Nagare/Maria Akeboshi (Maria no Danzai)

Mitsuki Bakugou (My Hero Academia) VS Michiko Malandro (Michiko & Hatchin)

Ah-Duo (The Apothecary Diaries) VS Sara Lee (Hand Jumper)

Sloth (Fullmetal Alchemist 2003) VS Kirio Hikifune (Bleach)

Yukiyo/Kirika Misaki (Another) VS Morgan Le Fay - Lostbelt Version (Fate/Grand Order)

Captain Dola (Laputa: Castle in the Sky) VS Thalassa Gramarye/Lamiroir (Ace Attorney)

Yayoi Kusakabe (High-Rise Invasion) VS Leona Herace (The Rogue Prince is Secretly an Omega)

Charlotte Linlin/Big Mom (One Piece) VS Hiroko Hagakure (Danganronpa)

Umeko Sawamura (Those Snow White Notes) VS Atsuko Urameshi (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Akito Sohma (Fruits Basket/Fruits Basket Another) VS Haruko Kamio (Air TV)

[vonlipvig]

Causes of death in the Ace Attorney franchise

Because I'm bored, and what do we do when we get bored? We MAKE LISTS! I went through every character dead character in the canon game universe (so AA1-6, AAI1-2, and TGAA1-2, sorry PWvsPL) and jotted it all down below, so let's see what the most common (specified) cause of death in Ace Attorney is:

Stabbed (x15)

Shot (x15)

Hit by a blunt object (x14)

Impaled (x5)

Poisoned (x4)

Fell to their death (x3)

Hanged (x3)

Car crash (x2)

Strangled (x1)

Electrocuted (x1)

Crushed (x1)

Suffocated (x1)

Asphyxiated (x1)

Heart Failure (x1)

Burned (x1)

Full list with character names all color-coded by game and more specific data below! (Beware of SPOILERS for the whole series!)

COLOR CODE: OG Trilogy - AJ - DD & SOJ - AAI1 - AA12 - TGAA 1 & 2

(AAI gets two different colors since a lot of people probably haven't played AAI2 yet. Sorry, DD and SoJ, you have to share. 'Why don't you do one color for the whole Apollo Trilo-' No <3)

---

Stabbed (x15)

(Bruce Goodman, Misty Fey, Rex Kyubi, Constance Courte, Clay Terran, Metis Cykes, Inga Karkhuul Khura'in, Byrne Faraday, Manny Coachen, Horace Knightley, Di-Jun Huang, Mason Milverton, Jezaille Brettª, Odie Asman, Klint van Zieks)

Shot (x15)

(Gregory Edgeworth, Robert Hammond, Turner Grey, Pal Meraktis, Romein LeTouse, Magnifi Gramarye¨, Dhurke Sahdmadhi, Buddy Faith, Oliver Deacon, Deid Mann, Mack Rell, Ethan Rooke, Pop Windibank, Genshin Asogi, Tobias Gregson)

Hit by a blunt object (x14)

(Cindy Stone, Mia Fey, Russell Berry, Kane Bullard, Zak Gramarye, Candice Arme, Paht Rohl, Archie Buff, Jove Justice, Dumas Gloomsbury, Ka-Shi Nou, Isaac Dover, Jill Crane, Jack Cameron)

Impaled (x5)

(Jack Hammer, Neil Marshall, Manov Mistree, Puhray Zeh'lot, Tahrust Inmee¨)

Poisoned (x4)

(Glen Elg, Terry Fawles¨, Drew Misham, John H. Wilson)

Fell to their death (x3)

(Dustin Prince, Jack Shipley*, Akbey Hicks)

Hanged (x3)

(Joe Darke°, Celeste Inpax¨, Dahlia Hawthorne°)

Car crash (x2)

(Ini Miney*, Selena Sprocket*)

Strangled (x1)

(Juan Corrida)

Electrocuted (x1)

(Doug Swallow)

Crushed (x1)

('Di-Jun Huang')

Suffocated (x1)

(Taifu Toneido)

Asphyxiated (x1)

(Duncan Ross)

Heart Failure (x1)

(Azura Summers^)

Burned (x1)

(Magnus McGilded)

---

ª: She was stabbed, right? Like, she was poisoned first, but she died from the stab wound first, if I'm correct. Do tell if I'm wrong, lmao.

*: Accidental deaths

^: Natural death

¨: Deaths by suicide

°: Executed (Joe Darke's method of execution isn't mentioned, but if we assume Japanifornia goes by Japan laws, then hanging is the only method of execution used. Probably a higher number of deaths by hanging then, whether you believe some people got executed or not. Also, a lot of the killers in TGAA probably got executed, too? I just jotted down the confirmed cases, but yeah.)

(Also, von Karma died of 'Something'. Who knows. Of being too ashamed, maybe. Sucks to be him).

I probably missed some characters/omitted them, because who knows, it's my list I guess. If I forgot someone important do let me know!

[journalsouppe]

APOLLO JUSTICE!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! What i would literally give to have a true AA4 sequel. I wholeheartedly believe if Yamazaki's team could ignore aa4 canon to make 5 & 6 then Shu Takumi should absolutely be allowed to ignore any 5&6 canon to make an aa4 sequel. I'm dying out here pleaseeeeee

The Phoenix sticker is from Peachcott. The Klavier sticker is from Ayabit from the Turnabout Cinema zine. The Apollo and Trucy stickers are from astarsor.

Writing typed below!

rating: 9.8 played: Fa 2023 port: 3DS favorite? Y replayable: Y recommend? Y series: Ace Attorney

Comments

THE JUDGE PAINTING

apollo's such a dork <3

ooo i like the perceive function

i love the music

DONT SAY THAT TRUCY T_T

there's so much going on in this investigation

wow i love how uneasy i feel even after the trial ended

LMAO I FORGOT ABOUT THE PHOENIX SEX PHOTO

i dont think y'all want your panties back...

klav's a bill and ted fan i see lol

LOVE mr eldoon's design 10/10

klapollo meet cute moment LMAO

oops ^^; i accidentally wrote a 600 word essay about the first case

i like how apollo cried over trucy

IT'S JUSTICE TIME??? T^T

i like klavier's hands a normal amount

alita must have some dirty fucking feet

the animations are so smooth

apollo being jealous of klavier at the concert and thinking he's cool LMAO

apollo is WHIPPED

trucy is KILLING it in court, she really is nick's daughter

klavier's shoe print *skull emoji*

out of pocket shiny forehead comment LMAO

lamiroir has similar vocal tones as malon!

THE PENIS FIRE AND KLAV PUTTING IT OUT IN THE BKGD

the smile and hair twirl klavier LMAO

why am i doing this music recording thing T^T

i dont like looking at daryan T_T

letouse kazuma moment lmao

capcom loves the face down death with writing on the ground huh LMAO

wtf is the judge talking about

i love all these scientific tests with ema! :)

i love the snackoos SFX

klav does not miss an opportunity to take a short at apollo's big forehead LMAO

APOLLO YOU DUMBASS

faking blindness is crazy

I KNEW IT WOULD BE DARYAN'S VOICE

klav's office is so much more normal than edgeworth's

WAIT IS IT GRAMARYE AND NOT GRAYMAYRE??

THE ANIMALS??

i love apollo and lamiroir goofing on klav

similar tech opening to brc

WTF WAS THAT KRISTOPH JUMPSCARE T-T

LORD DADDY???

oh he's insufferable

HOLY SHIT THAT'S WHY VERA IS STARING AT KLAV??

"rip off" phoenix is so real for that

are they injecting magnifi with piss??

im curious why kristoph would do this to phoenix

he just left his daughter???

tf is going on

T^T THE KRISTOPH ZOOM IN

why does klav have that egg from dragon tales

apollo understands me with mascots

this is so gay omfg

daryan not liking trucy means he goes even more into the shit book than before

apollo the journaling king

the x-ray function is a really fun addition

BABY TRUCY

omg phoenix with out the ugly hd redraw

GUMSHOE

he said it!!! he said 'ace attorney' lmao

i love and hate that i have to present the journal page

why does the screen shake when mr misham speaks T_T

THAT SCAR IS FREAKY

siblings omgggg

Summary:

I love this game so much. I love it so much that I am heartbroken knowing that AA 5 & 6 butchers the story it setup and I'm considering not even playing them unless AA7 is announced. I love all the main characters so much, the whole story was so well built and I can def see the influence the story had on DGS. Apollo is such a good protagonist, he's relatable but also so unique. I love seeing his character progression in the game: a new attorney who is easily manipulated to a confident and determined attorney who trusts in his own judgement. I LOVED Klavier oh my god. I love how much he respects Apollo and although he doesn't hesitate to tease him, he doesn't bully or abuse Apollo in any way. They both have a mutual admiration and rivalry where they try to play as fairly as possible. Klav doesn't maliciously withhold or change evidence, but he does spend hours reviewing his arsenal and thinks of all the counter arguments the defense could bring up. I really like Apollo's ability, it continues the mystery and mysticism from the original trilogy but with new mechanics. I adore Trucy so much. She honestly might be my favorite AA character. She's determined, strong willed, and above all -- extremely silly. I couldn't of asked for a better character to be Phoenix's daughter. I also LOVE the sibling reveal at the end but gdi if only they actually figure it out T^T T^T. I think Apollo and Trucy's dynamic is probably my favorite Defense and assistant dynamic. This who game was so fun, I know 4-3 is not everyone's favorite and it is a little all over the place but I also enjoyed it and loved the premise. There's so much to say, I haven't even talked about Nick and Kris - what an incredible feud, what a genius development for Nick. I cannot recommend this game enough, I am so obsessed with it and cannot wait to make art <3 <3.

[flamingtunapictures]

AA Spirit of Justice - Game Review

Tl:dr - A visual and symphonic triumph, this title delivers on striking visuals, a beautiful score, and a wacky, colorful cast innate to the AA DNA. Though there is absence of robust worldbuilding, the story is engaging, ending with an epic finale episode. 

Spirit of Justice is one of the longest titles in mainline Ace Attorney games, clocking in at an average of 25-30 hours of gameplay. It features a cross oceanic adventure that takes up courtroom calls in the familiar “Japanafornia,” but also in the new Asianic/Tibetan-inspired Kingdom of Khura’in. 

Visually and symphonically this game is an absolute triumph. The game falls in line with the latest generation of Ace Attorney games, defined by immaculate employ of 3D graphics and animations. State-side character designs and animations are some of the brightest, wackiest, and most memorable of the entire series. I have found over the years the AA witness designs I reminisce over the most tend to come from this game. The main eastern counterparts are equally visually striking, albeit not as compelling or memorable as they could have been (more on that later). 

The music, per usual, metered and complimented the world and narrative beautifully. From sentimental originals like Reminiscence: Inherited Hopes, to new cultural sounds of Defendant’s Lobby and reorchestrations of classics Allegro, Pursuit, and Troupe Gramarye, there was never a reason to turn the volume down.

Gameplay wise, the game functions virtually the same as all the previous titles with the addition of “Seance Divinations.” This new mechanic allows you to behold the final memories of the deceased…in order to point out contradictions in classic AA fashion. A neat thought, however not entirely memorable or largely contributive to the gameplay as a whole. If anything, it just provides another venue for player frustration at “obscure logic” to manifest (I’m looking at you “man’s voice”).

Most importantly however, as it comes to AA games, how is the story? As I mentioned before, this game is an average of 7 hours longer than your typical AA game. It features 5 episodes instead of the usual 4, bouncing between East and West to give all protagonists equal facetime. 

The first episode acts to establish the new Kingdom of Khura’in and the Divination Seance. It is quick, orientational, and full of excellent characters. My main criticism would be the generally insufferable characterization of Nick as the worst kind of tourist.* 

The second case brings you back “home” and treats fans to classic Apollo/Trucy shenanigans and more Troupe Gramarye lore. 

The (infamous) third episode returns you to the land of Khura’in to solve an unfortunately drawn-out and convoluted tale of death supported by a cast of uninspiring, vanilla characters. Its purpose was to establish plot points for the final episode. However, I’m not totally convinced they were necessary for the final episode to land as well as it did. For that reason, the main purpose of episode three was actually to celebrate the return of Maya Fey in the most Maya way possible: Maya getting accused of murder…again! 

The fourth episode brings you back stateside for a quick one day cross-examination of kooky rakugo school students helmed by Athena and special guest Simon Blackquill. It’s a rather inconsequential episode in terms of overall plot, but I found it delightful nonetheless. 

The game finally wraps up with its piece de resistance final act —Turnabout Revolution. This episode was a diligent convergence of East and West, giving both settings equal presence and relevance to the final arc. Not only did it lean into AA legacy locations/references like Kurain Village, but, much like Luke Atmey’s larceny case from Trials and Tribulations, the courtroom battle deviates from the typical murder-trial cadence. In the first act of Turnabout Revolution, Apollo and Phoenix go head to head in a civil dispute case. Gone are the too-oft’ drawn out rebuttals, ad-hominem attacks, and tangents on incompetency from the prosecution. In its place, a steady, well paced, respectful exchange is had between attorneys. The first case concludes on an ambiguously sinister note that forces the characters to deadhead east to Khura’in. It is in this new setting the final compelling plot twists, hard-hitting sentimentality, and absolutely stunning character designs are revealed.

MAIN CRITICISM

For as compelling and inspiring the final act was, there was much left wanting in this title as a whole. I think this is largely due to the Kingdom of Khura'in’s lamentable lack of depth and cultural development. Visually and musically it is executed beautifully, but nevertheless remains skin-deep. There is little for world-building fans to sink their teeth into. Consequently, characterization and story intrigue are sacrificed. 

While I could comment on the gimmicky religion that is too often treated with the reverence of parody, I would prefer to focus on what I perceive to be the largest under-miner to what could have been a robust Khura’in.

There was a notable lack of consideration taken towards the use of the Khur’ainese language. Sure, there is a word or two, the suggestion of a written language, and Sahdmadhi had that one VA line (that didn’t even sound like a convincing language), but nothing sociologically compelling. The names are some of the laziest puns in the entire series, opting to just drop letters and add apostrophes to existing English words. They are entertaining, but forfeit opportunities for a believable culture in lieu of a quick laugh.

Imagine the intrigue that could be infused if two Khura’inese characters (Dhurke and Datz for example) converse in <Khura’inese> in front of Nick. It would enforce the feeling of Nick being a foreigner in a foreign land and that the Kingdom of Khura’in is its own legitimate ecosystem. *Having characters converse in their native language in front of Nick would also help abate the irritating characterization of him as the “self-righteous,” boisterous, and meddling foreigner. The lack of basic tourist etiquette killed me during this game. I understand Phoenix is the main character, but sometimes taking a third person perspective to a country sorting out their own problems makes for a much stronger narrative.

Now let’s take a look at Apollo as another example of how the use of a <foreign language> could add more character depth. The man grew up in a foreign country and doesn’t talk about it — that is fascinating. Now imagine if the use of foreign language was mixed into how that story was revealed. What if, instead of just his father showing up after 10+ years in the Wright Anything Agency office saying, “Hi Son! Long time no see,” he said, “<Hi Son! Long time no see>,” and then Apollo responds in (rusty) Khura’inese, “<What are you doing here?>”  We would all become Trucy Wright in that moment, and the question wouldn’t just be, “How do you know this man?” It would bloom into, “How did you understand what this man said?”, “Wait, Apollo speaks a foreign language?” Then it would become “How do you know this man?” etc. The intrigue and layers this interaction alone could add to Apollo as a character are there for the taking…if only a second longer was taken to incorporate the use of <Khura'inese>.

Finally, the choice to not employ accents in the voice acting of the Khura'inese characters (Dhurke, Rayfa, Datz, Ahlbi, Guards etc) feels nothing short of lazy. The use of accents would have added a nice touch of texture to the already visually striking characters. If a game like Dragon Quest VIII can cast a variety of generically “foreign” accents to even its minor characters, there’s no legitimate reason the citizens of Khura’in should be depicted with the flattest American accents imaginable.

In conclusion, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice is a solid title to the main series. Though it suffers from weak world-building, its story is still largely compelling and enjoyable to play!