#Iris of Hazakura Temple

[oshaberi-usagi]

Bridge to the Turnabout

[clownowo]

It’s fucked up that if Iris and Phoenix ever had sex he would have been moaning her sisters name. Would really kill the mood I’d think

[small-spanish-face]

Frank Sahwit voice Don’t worry she doesn’t bite ☺️.

[raincandyart]

I know Dahlia wanted to kill him for the necklace but u imagine Iris trying to talk to Dahlia about her crush on Feenie Phoenix. I would kill him too.

[ID: Saturated art of Dahlia Hawthorne and Iris from the hips up. They walk next to each other. Iris blushes while looking off to the side and speaking, "His kicked puppy demeanour..". Her test is in italics. Dahlia interrupts her sentence with "and his easily manipulative ways." while looking down to the side with one eyebrow raised. Iris continues, "Have enchanted me." /end ID]

[relicsongmel]

Iris, Miles, and their mutual "secret"

The Ace Attorney fandom is no stranger to discussions of homoerotic subtext in the game's script—pretty much everyone who's spent more than five seconds here will be able to tell you that. Screenshots of lines that imply romantic tension between same-gender characters are all over the place, to the point that many fans are drawn to the series purely by its reputation as "the gay lawyer game." Some scenes are more well-known than others, but one I find brought up fairly regularly is this conversation between Miles and Iris:

This is optional dialogue that can be triggered by presenting incorrect evidence on Iris' Psyche-Lock during the Investigation portion of Bridge to the Turnabout. The argument here is that the "secret" Iris is referring to is the same as her own: that being, a romantic interest in Phoenix Wright. Which is definitely hilarious when you consider that Iris has known Miles for less than a day and she's already reading him for filth (granted, she could have been clued in by the similarly infamous "indispensable friend" line, and she's also exceptionally good at reading people despite Miles thinking otherwise). As a Narumitsu shipper myself I am not immune to enjoying that interpretation; however, I feel like there's a lot of nuance in this scene that isn't often addressed by the fandom at large. Which is unfortunate because watering it down to just Iris calling out Miles for being the gayass he is (to be fair. she's not wrong) does a MASSIVE disservice to both of their characters, and I'll explain why.

My bone to pick with the usual analysis of this scene is mostly centered around the larger conversation to be had regarding the treatment of female characters in fandom spaces. All too often they tend to play second fiddle to the male characters, and a similar principle holds true for ships with their canonical male love interests: mostly ignored in favor of the the more popular M/M ship(s). At best these women are sidelined, at worse they are flattened into wingmen for the boys (as is frequently the case with many AA girls and Narumitsu, Iris included), and at the absolute worst they are demonized for their perceived "competition" with whatever gay ship is most popular and therefore the Only Valid One for the male characters involved (as exemplified by some very "passionate" fans that I generally try to avoid interacting with). Whenever this scene gets brought up, the focus is almost always exclusively on Miles and what the interaction says about his relationship with Phoenix; Iris is only relevant insofar as she's the one initiating Miles' Homosexual Moment™—you could replace her with almost any other character and there'd be a similar level of neglect for their role in the interaction. Only very rarely will you see attention given to what Iris' question about Miles' secret means when she is the one asking it, and what it can tell us about her relationship with Miles/what she thinks of him, and vice versa (absolutely wild how even Miles himself is often flanderized despite being the fandom's golden child). It's all too characteristic of the systemic misogyny that has plagued fandom since its inception, which is deeply frustrating to me as someone who adores Iris as much as I do (if that wasn't obvious by now). So that said, let's dive deeper into what I think the missing link is here: namely, the Iris-Miles dynamic as it pertains to their relation to Phoenix.

Iris and Miles is one of my favorite relationships to explore in the whole series—but as I've described above, unfortunately a lot of people get it wrong in my opinion. Discussion about the two is frequently centered around Narumitsu Love Drama—which is a conversation worth having, don't get me wrong—but the elements at play there aren't always represented the way I envision them, which again, is frustrating. Take the idea of potential jealousy, for instance: it's pretty standard love triangle fare that can be (and often is) quickly turned into demonization when it's used in a shipping context, character assassination be damned (re: Narumitsu fanfic authors that project their personal dislike of Feenris onto Miles via his jealousy of Iris and/or how they tend to portray Iris unfavorably). However, it's not inherently a bad thing to explore: personally, I do believe that there is mutual jealousy between the two of them. Miles might not have the full context of Iris' history when this conversation takes place, but he's emotionally intelligent enough to pick up on what Iris means to Phoenix, and vice versa. And him being a jealous hoe about it isn't out of the question when you consider that he's a bit of a loner by nature and doesn't have many close friends or outlets for socialization outside of his job. The crucial element that's sometimes missed, though, is that Miles not only lacks the self-awareness to realize he's a jealous hoe...he's also a self-sabotaging jealous hoe.

And the same can be said for Iris, who is similarly introverted and doesn't often leave her home at Hazakura Temple.

The whole reason Miles is peering into Iris' heart in the first place can be found in this exchange, after he breaks her Psyche-Lock:

Miles uses the Magatama in order to gain the answers he needs to bring the truth to light and get Iris acquitted, and he does so for the express purpose of reuniting her with Phoenix so they can find closure—in fact, he reiterates this to her multiple times. He obviously recognizes how Phoenix is suffering from what happened between them (I'd argue he sympathizes with Iris' plight as well) and has resolved to do what he can to help him heal, but there's no reason for him to be so insistent that she rectify things with Phoenix when it does nothing but harm his own chances with him. Unless, of course...that's the whole point.

To convince Iris to reveal her secret so he doesn't have to face his own, because he thinks himself undeserving.

And Iris, noticing this because she empathizes with that feeling of unworthiness, calls him out on it in an almost uncharacteristically forward manner when she asks him what he's hiding.

Takes one to know one, indeed.

Iris highly respects Miles for taking on her defense despite the risk to his job as a prosecutor. She's willing to trust him after hearing he's a friend of Phoenix, hearing him out and letting him reason with her. She still keeps her cards close to her chest in some regards, but she's more honest with him than she's been with anyone else in her life apart from her sister. She sees his commitment to the truth and how it starkly contrasts with how she's lived her life to this point, and thinks that this is the type of partner Phoenix deserves—not someone like her, who only knows how to survive using lies and deception. She sees so much strength in him but still recognizes the insecurity lurking beneath his tenacity, which is why when he falters in his logic, she takes a leap of faith and gives him one last chance to examine his reasons for pushing the burden of his unspoken affections onto her, as if to say: "Look in the mirror. Is this really for me? Or is it for you? Do you really seek the truth for its own sake, or do you merely hope to find one truth so you might run from another?"

Her question to Miles is a gamble—a coin flip of self-sacrifice. If she loses and he presses on, she has to face the secret within her heart she's been suppressing for five years. But if she wins and he gives in to the truth in his, she has to live the rest of her life watching it unfold and knowing she threw away her chance to finally stop living in fear of her own love.

Either way, there's no escaping heartache for her anymore.

Miles and Iris both want what's best for Phoenix and prioritize their vision of his feelings over their own. However, they are also both deeply emotionally repressed people who find difficulty in being direct with their feelings, and are predisposed to self-sabotage due to childhood trauma. These tendencies may manifest in different ways for both of them, but the fact remains that such people would likely not compete for a person's affection in the traditional sense, which is exactly what we see with how Iris and Miles deflect their feelings for Phoenix. These selfless, lovestruck idiots toss that man around like a game of hot-potato because their mutual self-hatred for the ways they've harmed him has rendered them terrified of the reality of what he means to them, and desperate to find a way out of admitting to it. It's the most compelling explanation I can think of for why the usually unassuming Iris makes such a bold judgment about what Miles might be keeping locked away, and why Miles goes to such lengths to make sure she talks to Phoenix and tells him the truth—his agreement to defend her was conditional on that exact promise. They go through this whole song-and-dance of playing wingman to ignore their own feelings while still trying to bring Phoenix the happiness they think he deserves—and then they wonder why seeing Phoenix give the other one attention burns them up inside.

Because they’re dumb. And I love them.

TL;DR the Iris Psyche-Lock scene in BttT is so much more than just "haha Miles gay" and I wish people talked about it more. Also Iris and Miles are way more similar than they appear at first glance and if I think about it for too long it makes me physically ill thank you for coming to my TED talk

[cubedmango]

practice makes perfect

[haunted-xander]

Can't stop redrawing PTE comics its too fun (Pt. 1, pt. 2 here)

[onsukun]

favorites drawings fro my sketch book

[nay-lon]

I've decided to let phoenix be happy

for now

[Image description: Digital drawing of Iris, Phoenix, and Miles from Ace Attorney. Iris and Miles are kissing Phoenix's cheeks. Phoenix is grinning. He has one arm around Iris, and the other is interlaced with Miles'. Iris is wearing a purple magatama, a purple sweater,a light pink dress, and white earrings. Phoenix is wearing a blue suit, his badge, a blue sweater vest, and a red tie. He also has brown skin. Miles is wearing his red suit and glasses. The background is a cream arch with flowers above it. The piece is singed nay-lon. End description.]

thanks to @quailfence for the description

[maglorthecrab]

the fey girls

[inbarfink]

[oshaberi-usagi]

Bridge to the Turnabout

[clownowo]

thought about them too hard and exploded. sorry !

[small-spanish-face]

I almost forgot to post this here. My top 5 Ace Attorney blorbos :3 (yes it is an insane group of people. don't worry about it ^_^)

(Version with normal colors/no background under cut)

[arklaycomplex]

redesigns/updates

[relicsongmel]

Thinking about Iris being blindsided by her love for Phoenix.

Iris feeling nothing for him at first, only dating him to prevent yet another needless death and even more blood on her sister's hands.

Iris seeing his earnestness and dedication to becoming a lawyer for his friend and being profoundly moved by it.

Iris asking Phoenix to return the bottle necklace less and less often because him doing so would mean her losing the greatest joy she had ever felt outside of her love for her sister.

Iris overthinking her own happiness when she's with Phoenix because this wasn't supposed to happen.

Iris stifling her love for Phoenix because she feels guilty for it.

Iris knowing her love is doomed to fail.

Iris feeling sick to her stomach when Dahlia expresses to her exactly how much of a nuisance she thinks Phoenix is and how things would be so much easier for her if she just got rid of him.

Iris debating if her love for Phoenix is worth dismantling the lie she's created.

Iris debating if her love for Phoenix is worth more than her own life.

Iris debating if her love for Phoenix is worth more than her sister's life.

Iris thinking her love will forever remain unsaid after Dahlia frames Phoenix for murder.

Iris seeing Phoenix again five years later in a cruel twist of fate and fearing her love will be discovered...and soundly rejected.

Iris seeing Phoenix again five years later in a cruel twist of fate and fearing her love will be discovered...but not rejected.

Iris fearing that she will be loved despite her love.

Iris fearing she will be seen for all she is, in all her unmasked, cowardly, selfish glory...and accepted.

Iris being unable to imagine a fate more cruel than being loved after all she's done.

Iris being doomed by her love.