#ema rant

[thatcrimsonsun]

being in marauders fandom and reading the Goldfinch where one nerdy lonely brown haired boy with glasses and black haired sassy russian are best friends and have so much unresolved tension and he literally calls him "Potter" is actually fucking insane.

[crickit-song]

One of the most fun and interesting things about the ace attorney games is that all of the main characters are deeply flawed.

From Edgeworth's disappearing/reappearing act in aa2, not to mention literally quoting his own SUICIDE NOTE in COURT:

And then in aai, his acting above the law honestly all the time because his special interest is the truth and he's certain he's the best detective around, which is justifiable but kind of extreme,

To the absolute ASS Phoenix was to Apollo all throughout ajaa, which i don't have receipts for but you remember, and his consistent trend of caustically lying to grown people capable of making decisions because he doesn't want to upset them in the moment (eg, the apollo-trucy-thalassa relation that is still hidden),

To the absolutely horrendous SHIT Apollo pulled during Turnabout for Tomorrow, which includes but is not limited to assisting terrorism (encouraging Aura Blackquill to continue the trial), asking for his close friend and motiveless colleague Athena to be arrested for murder, and leaving his ACTUAL SISTER AT GUNPOINT BY A RADICAL TERRORIST, all because he couldn't handle not having trust for like a day. If he had waited literally a day, the trial would have continued (bc at that point Terrans murder hadn't been solved) AND the TWELVE random people and FUCKING TRUCY could have escaped the space station!!! But nooo, polly, do egg on the murderously radicalized Blackquill sibling who spent years hating an actual child SURE GREAT IDEA.

Even the secondary characters have no concept of normal, with simon blackquill being a convicted death row inmate for most of dual destinies, Athena having enough trauma to kill a horse, trucy and maya with abandonment issues, pearly dealing with everything morgan and dahlia did, and Lana and ema's whole thing, not to mention the von karma fiasco.

Honestly the most normal person in all the games is klavier, who is a world famous pop star with an insane and violent serial poisoner as a brother.

I love all the characters in this game, nick and miles are my blorbos, and I adore nearly everybody else, but damn if this game doesn't make some extremely flawed little guys. Ask my parents or friends, they'll tell you how angry I got at points, lmao.

And i haven't even played SOJ or TGAA yet. I should probably be worried.

[rosa-lilisrandomness]

I really want to see Iris and Lana again in the Ace Attorney games. I mean, they're in prison for being accomplices in crimes, so I don't think their sentence should be too long, plus they both tried to help someone they loved.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

As much as the 'haha Takemichi went to save his husband after saving his wife, bisexual much?' joke is funny, people who seriously thinks Tokyo Revengers should've stopped when Hinata was finally safe and sound missed an important component to the plot.

Yes, it all started with Hinata - but since when was it all about Hinata?

Takemichi, kind-hearted Takemichi, should've just stopped everything after saving her? He got into Toman for this reason, yes, to get closer to Mikey and stop him - and Kisaki - from killing her, but he also sincerely got closer to Mikey. And everyone else. And he's supposed to simply leave them be when 'mission: save Hinata' is complete? As if the number of people he wanted to save didn't get longer with each timeline? Those are his friends why would he throw them all away.

To protect Hinata he decided to stick close to Mikey since he failed to prevent Mikey and Kisaki meeting each other - and he got attached to Mikey during that, as well as all of Toman. Each steps to save Hinata was also a step to save Mikey from corruption and self-destruction. It was all linked from the start.

There was a shift after Bonten, okay, whatever, the only thing that truly changed was Hinata's importance in it. New enemy? That happens in each arc (right, sure, there wasn't Kisaki anymore). Mikey being more and more violent? Again, each arc featured a moment of Mikey showing signs of being mentally unwell - and now it was aggravated because it was two years earlier than what Takemichi got used to go back to. Etc, etc. Toman may be disbanded, but its (at least main) members still meet and interact and they all kept in touch - Mikey aside. That just a change of mood, a mix of the present/future timelines with a more serious setting and of the past timelines with how young they are, despite not being as young as before. And future timelines have never been a problem - there's a lot of love for Manila and Bonten. If Wakui had had time and energy, Kanto Manji, all 70 and so last chapters of TR could've worked with its fanbase. For some reasons it didn't, and I don't get why by myself

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal in Ema (2019, dir. Pablo Larraín)

(these gifs also feature Mariana Di Girólamo and Cristián Suárez)

Gifs are all 540px wide so you can click to see larger.

[other gael filmography gifsets]

[someonedefinitely]

now don't get me wrong, I adore klema but seeing few fanfics (I repeat, few) turn the "friendly rivalry" between the two turn into klavier mostly harassing Ema to go on a date with her (WHICH SOUNDS VERY NOT IN CHARACTER) and Ema being "Ugh this fop, stupid, glimmerous, pretty boy! But alas I'm being dragged into a restaurant, guess I'll give this guy a shot." is... something

there is absolutely nothing wrong with exploring these kinds of dynamics though, but it sometimes feels like authors try to romanticize this kind of behaviour (fiction, so it isn't that bad, but when I realize this I'm immediately turned off :')). because to me this just sounds out of character

like oh my god the multi chapter fics in which Ema (slowly) gets closer to klavier, either through trauma bonding or just with their revelations in canon? I am a SUCKER for those, but in the case of one shots it can be difficult esp working with a lesser word count (in general, of course. either way longer one shots is just more foods gifted by the holy mother above (aka authors))

[loz-the-noob]

Turnabout Ema Dropkicks a Child (Very real and true thing that happens in hit game Apollo Justice)

[crispyliza]

An old classmate from highschool has become an actress and she's in a pretty popular tv show here in Greece where she plays a teenager. and it's just so wild to see while knowing what she looked like as an ACTUAL teen. She'll be 25 soon lmao 😭

[higanberryceo]

the ema skye hyperfix is TAKING OVER SAVE ME

[thatcrimsonsun]

I laugh out loud every time I remember that scene in tsc where Jean was like "Well HE has scars as well and you don't question HIM!" and Jeremy is like "Jean. He's trans, those are his top surgery scars. You're traumatized. Not the same."

[crickit-song]

One of the really fun and interesting things about ace attorney is that actually none of the mcs are normal functioning human beings and they're all deeply flawed. I kid you not, I have spent at least a solid minute DESPISING nearly every main character.

From Edgeworth's disappearing/reappearing act, not to mention literally quoting his own SUICIDE NOTE in COURT in aa2:

And then for a lot of the aai games he actually acts above the law a lot because he's the best detective around and he values the truth more than anything, which while justifiable is a very extreme take,

To the absolute ass Nick was to Apollo during ajaa, which i don't have receipts for but you remember, and also not telling apollo and trucy they're siblings, which actually continues a trend where he tells caustic lies to people to avoid hurting them in the moment,

To that absolutely horrendous SHIT Apollo pulled during turnabout for tomorrow, which includes but is not limited to assisting terrorism (encouraging aura blackquill to continue the trial), asking his close friend and colleague athena be arrested for murder, and ACTUAL SISTER be held at GUNPOINT by a murderous terrorist, all because he couldn't cope with not having trust for like a day. If he had waited for literally a day, the trial would have continued AND the TWELVE random people and FUCKING TRUCY could have escaped the space station, but no, please polly, do egg on the ACTUALLY murderous and radicalized Blackquill sibling who spent 7 years hating an actual child SURE GREAT IDEA.

Even the side characters have absolute no concept of normal, with simon blackquill being a convicted death row inmate for most of dual destinies, Athena having enough trauma to kill a horse, trucy and maya with abandonment issues, pearly dealing with everything morgan and dahlia did, and Lana and ema's whole thing, not to mention the von karma fiasco.

Honestly the most normal person in the games is Klavier, who is a world famous pop star with an insane and violent serial poisoner as a brother.

I love these characters to death, nick and miles are my blorbos and I adore pretty much everybody, but damn if these games aren't great at making flawed characters. Ask my parents or friends, they'll tell you how angry ive gotten, lmao.

And I haven't even played SOJ or TGAA yet.

[itsbebebe]

No but like Ema physically couldnt be ooc in aa4 considering she only appears in one case set 10 yrs before aa4 and because that case was literally written only a couple years before aa4 was released. Her character rlly couldnt have been fucked up in aa4. After that? Sure they ignore her character progression and she grows off screen ambiguously which sucks ass. But defo not ooc.

“Phoenix is aa4 is ooc” no that’s just what hanging around kristoph for seven years does to a guy. “Ema in aa4 is so ooc” no that’s just what hanging around Klavier for five minutes does to a guy

[drenched-in-sunlight]

Hey, so I remembered in one of your earlier post you said something along the lines of souls women only really falling into the helpless victim or serious sword lady trop. And how Ema was a great subversion of it, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on

I’m making a souls-like and trying to avoid the pitfalls where I can

Btw, I love your art so much I would love to support you but I am broke

sorry i let this reply marinate in the docs for months (along with a lot of other replies like im having a catalogue of Fromsoft replies that read like thesis at this point *crying* my job is not letting me sit down and edit them) but here it is.

firstly, thank you for your message, kind encouragement already means a lot to me, so don’t worry about not being able to support me or anything ! After all I’m not putting out any new books or fan merch haha.

Here is a whole rant about Ema but somehow my grievances with how they handle Malenia's story in comparison to Messmer also pops up.

Regarding your question about Ema, I love her because of how complete her story feels and how her personal motivation and personality are written as coherently as the male characters.

She’s a war orphan who did her best to survive, learned the sword from the best swordman but with the only purpose is to kill demons. Ema saw firsthand how violence and meaningless killing did to people, so her aim can be seen as trying to offer those lost souls a mercy death, so they don’t have to suffer as a mindless demon for eternity (as in shura ending).

Yet, she's actually more interested in being a doctor & saving life and it’s not something expected of her because she’s a woman or whatnot, she chose that.

(+ she's skilled enough with the blade that it shows in her mannerism to the point Wolf, who had never seen her hold a sword, knows that she's good with one).

she was ready to kill Scuptor - someone akin to a parental figure to her, should he succumb to grief and hatred. because she loved him. not to mention she saw Tomoe - someone in a way is also her mentor, tried to take her own life, while her childhood friend Gennichiro slowly went apeshit. like that girl witnessed so many insane stuffs & they spur her to be strong & steadfast in her ideal to protect her loved ones, even when it means to lay them to rest by her own hands.

her dialogue in Shura ending "maybe i should have killed you long ago" feels like being punched in the guts to me, because she knew Wolf turning out that way meant that somewhere along the way, all of them had failed him, had ignored the signs that all the killings he was tasked to carry out was taking a toll on him. And so she took upon herself the responsibility to offer him a mercy death, even as it broke her heart.

It’s the passionate drive and decisions made as her own person, not out of blind devotion to another character, and how much we know of that because the game let us find more about her, that makes her stands out from the epic sword lady category, while the violence and steely resolve she was capable of makes her stands out from the helpless maiden one.

-kinda lose the plot here with Elden Ring rant jumping out-

This is one of the main points I have about the difference between Messmer and Malenia, how even though their stories parallel each other, I think Messmer has the better writing and gets a more complete story. He’s super devote to Marika, but in his own way, not what Marika wants of him. Evidently with how he still fights the Tarnished because he deems us unworthy, despite knowing Marika sanctioned us for Lordship.

We see a lot of sides to him outside of just a filial son, his rage and sorrow and love and a moment of stubborn selfishness that results in him willingly become a curse that clings to Marika than to let go. We see his relationship with other characters and even though his love for Marika outweighs all else, it doesn’t negate completely others that exist outside of it.

And precisely because of that, it’s more heartbreaking to see despite all these connections he has with other people, he yearns to be reunited with his Mother above all else. That kind of devotion is more hard hitting to me than the writing for the Empyrean twins.

Like, Malenia…. outside of Finnlay (whose description says more about herself than shedding any new light on Malenia) and the mentor that we actually don’t even know much about yet, what are other personal connection she has outside of Miq? I could argue the Marika’s Soreseal in the Haligtree was meant for her and that she still loved her Mother in some kind of way all I want, but at the end of the day that’s a headcahon I have to theorize from item placement, and not many ppl will notice that. We don’t know for sure what Malenia thinks of anyone else but her twin and it drives me up the wall.

Another comparison I want to bring up is DS2 Lucatiel.

I fr think even Lucatiel gets a better story arc than Malenia, despite also largely being shaped by her relationship with her brother.

Loss frightens me no end. Loss of memory, loss of self. If I were told that by killing you, I would be freed of this curse… Then I would draw my sword without hesitation. I don't want to die, I want to exist. I would sacrifice anything, anything at all for this. It shames me, but it is the truth. Sometimes, I feel obsessed… with this insignificant thing called "self". But even so, I am compelled to preserve it. Am I wrong to feel so? Surely you'd do the same, in my shoes?

She is trying to find her brother, but at the same time wrestling with her own troubles and limitations. We get to know a lot of her own motivation and her fear. I mean one could argue that it's because she's an NPC while Malenia is a boss, but the same thing could also be said for Messmer like I explained above.

-back to Ema-

As the extra sauce, I love that Ema boss music has such layers to it. the theme of her - someone clinging to her humanity to the very end because she has ppl love & support her, also acts as an elegy for Wolf's lost of humanity, of him not being able to escape the abuse trauma he grew up in. its opening instrument also appears in Demon of Hatred's OST. Her presence and theme affects other characters’ life, and we get to see her marks on a personal level in the story’s overarching narrative.

Which is the same as how Marika’s presence is everywhere in the Elden Ring OST, that little soft piano. A little in Radagon’s theme, in Shaman’s Village, in the final DLC boss ost where the female vocals starts belting out “Hail, Marika the Eternal”, in a boss arena where she had walked through to scavenge the remains of her fallen family and ascended to an existence she knew would kill her all the same, but she would do it again every single time. Walking down that hell with her eyes wide open.

When a character that could get me to write paragraphs about like that… man you know how much the writing cooks.

[beyondtheotherside]

First off I'd like to thank @assasinationbycarscoveredinhamrs for her post here

it gave me the idea to make fanart based on Ema's first day of being a detective, which is the job Lana used to hold. I believe Ema must've felt torn about her detective job. Perhaps there were times when she looked in the mirror and saw Lana, which reminded her of a time where everything was good, such as her relationship with Lana and Lana's reputation as a detective. On the other hand, when she looked at the mirror and saw herself, she must've felt like she failed Lana(who was willing to break laws to protect her) by not becoming a forensic investigator.

Also, art is loosely based off of

By @rentonotnerd

The arts not that good but I still wanted to share my interpretation, thanks for reading my rant👍

[tomssexdoll]

can you please do Tom with energetic,hyperactive,kinda loud reader?

hi pookie ema ily

these will be headcannons

sometimes has to remind you when you're being too loud

loves seeing you get really hyper when you're happy

always has time for your high energy

knows how to calm you down quickly

honestly finds it funny when you say something really loud and are confused as to why everyone is looking at you

very affectionate and loving towards you

would do anything for you

always buys you gifts to see you get really energetic and happy

loves listening to you rant or yap

hates when people complain about you being super hyper

calls them out for it and shames them

always takes you on fun dates to make you happy

tags: @itsmealaiah @itsangelll @tomscumdoll @tomkaulitzloverr @ge-billsgf @ballhair @estxkios @bkaulitzlover @charliesgoodboy

[legalbrats]

After some particularly violent munching and swallowing, Ema glared at the other detective like he had personally been responsible for all her troubles.

"What did he do?" She hissed, aggressively crumpling up a now empty pack of snacks and- stuffing it into her back, since there were no trashcans that she could see. She might be angry, but she would never stoop to littering. "What didn't he do?!" She started pacing around the detective as she ranted. "He just had to agree to another case with some other stupid magician involved, who just had to use the sewage system as an escape route, so we all had to investigate it and then chase him around until we completely lost him, and my phone was low on charge and the last person I talked to just had to be that stupid Glimmerous Fop wishing me luck on finding my way back and-" she took a deep breath in- "and then I think I met some cultists down there and spent ten hours running around until I finally made it out, but the sun is still bright and out, and-"

She stopped, deflating and trying to catch her breath again.

"And now my phone is dead, my legs are wet and I sound crazy."

She almost felt bad for unloading all of her frustrations on Shuuji. But now that it all left her body, she felt lighter. Maybe even lightheaded. She should get that checked out later.

"Har-har," Ema mock-laughed, no humor to be found in her voice or expression as she climbed out.

She huffed as she dusted off her lab coat, which was somewhat dirty and wet at the bottom. In fact, everything from her knees and below was wet.

"Yeah, I found some. They said they missed seeing you around. You should totally go visit them right now." She grumbled before pulling out a bag of snacks and chomping down on a handful. Yet she continued to growl, "Stupid fop... Stupid magicians... Stupid..."