#foolish conjecture | franziska headcanons

[attorneys-against-court-violence]

The Defense is not ready, your Honour...

🌙🪶Our main: @panged-lin

A sideblog for all the Ace Attorney discussion & fanart I happen to think of and like, respectively.

Our court record contains the following evidence:

Analysis on things that have stuck in my brain like corn kernels

Random ramblings I found amusing enough to put into words

JUSTICE!

Fanart. A lot of it. There's too much I can't not reblog...

An unusual amount of Dual Destinies-related posts. Athena and Simon have overwritten my neurological functions, to my chagrin.

Court Proceedings:

Posts that deconstruct canon & ones that discuss fanon/headcanons will be clearly denoted. Keep discussions neat and cleanly defined in the pursuit of the truth!

Reblogged ship art will always be tagged for those who wish to block/find the respective pair tags.

Parrots are permitted on the witness stand to provide testimony under extreme circumstances.

Anon asks are enabled. Any assassins that wish to give testimony may do so with complete anonymity and safety.

The Investigation games and other spinoffs are unfamiliar territory for this page. Bare that in mind!

Orcas are permitted on the witness stand under the same conditions as for a parrot to be brought to the stand.

Old personal tags:

#order in the court! - Any old nonsense. If it would get me yelled at by a judge it's going here.

#witness testimony - Reblogs from other sources

#cross examining the witness - Replies via reblog

#evidence approval - General fanart tag

#the court record has been updated - Follow-ups from posts made here

#turn your thinking around! - Story analysis. Headcanons are kept to a minimum.

#this is baseless conjecture! - Headcanons and similar musings. Ranges from educated to pure nonsense.

#psyche-lock cracking - Character analysis.

#perceiving secrets - Visual analysis.

#let your heart be heard - Asks, either requesting or answering.

#herman crab approved - marker for strictly non-romantic readings of plot or pairings. Those without this are open to interpretation going forward!

#the cykes brigade is totally cyked! - Athena Cykes.

#auticykes - niche tag for Autistic Athena Cykes posts

#arothena/#arothena agenda - niche tags for Aromantic Athena Cykes posts

#hi widget! - erm, Widget. Duh.

#prosecutor birdman - Simon Blackquill.

#psych siblings - Athena & Simon duo posts. Mis-written frequently, my bad.

#twin-horned devil - Aura Blackquill.

#quillblings - Simon & Aura duo posts.

#rare moon of hope - Metis Cykes.

#dear bosom buzzard - Taka.

#in robert we trust! - Bobby Fulbright.

#blade of JUSTICE - Simon and Bobby's pair tag. Non-romantic variations included.

#fey appreciation posts - Mia, Maya, and Pearl-oriented posts. Other Fey clan-related chicanery is also included.

#maya apprecition/#mia appreciation/#pearl appreciation - See above, but more specific.

#mr fine - Apollo Justice.

#what's faith without doubt? - Apollo and Athena's shared tag. Do as you will, I just really like these two and their arc.

#apollo's girlfriend - Mikeko.

#the wright man for the job - Phoenix Wright (PW1-3, DD/SoJ).

#you've come to the wright place! - Trucy Wright.

#the perceptive pair - Duo tag for Apollo and Trucy. Non-negotiably platonic/sibling.

#the king of prosecutors - Miles Edgeworth.

#beanix - Phoenix Wright (AJ:AA).

#piano man - Klavier Gavin.

#for skyentific purposes - Ema Skye.

#gone swimming - Damon Gant.

#foolishly foolish fools! - Franziska von Karma.

#call them karmic justice - Egdeworth/Franziska's shared tag. Non-negotiably silbing/sibling-esque.

#man freed from karma - Manfred von Karma.

#dirt earthman - Clay Terran.

#judge junie - Juniper Woods.

#an orange for strength - Thena and Junie's shared tag.

#17 cups of coffee - Godot/Diego Armando.

#moon's haunted - ???/"The phantom".

#hang loose baby! - Roger Retinz.

#a sad monk - Nahyuta Sahdmadhi.

#udgey - The Judge.

#this isn't texas dude - Jake Marshall.

#DISMANTLE DISMANTLE DISMANTLE- - Ted Tonate.

#a covetous crow - Kay Faraday.

#fresh as a spring breeze - Matt Engarde.

#splendiferous! - Redd White.

#i want to protect you! - Blue Badger. Yes I'm serious.

#emotional noise - Old version of #order in the court!

#updating the mood matrix - Old version of #the court record has been updated

#dual destinies analysis - dedicated tag for DD analysis posts, defunct

#dual destinies watchthrough - officially retired

#thena thoughts/#a thena - Athena Cykes text and fanart respectively, defunct

#simon soliloquys/#art of the twisted samurai - Simon Blackquill text and fanart respectively, defunct

#case 6 2 watchthrough - officially retired

[bindingties]

👀 + Franziska, what is the toughest thing you've ever had to do during your career as a prosecutor?

i swear to tell the truth || ACCEPTING

"I don't like cases with children."

The police don't yet respect her, but she pushes past them with the gravity of a true Von Karma. Her hair brushes her shoulders as she ducks under the police tape ( not that she has to bend far ) into the house.

A man's body lies splayed at the foot of the stairs, limbs twisted at impossible angles. His belly is down but his neck is turned far enough that she can meet his empty gaze and read the permanent surprise in his expression.

The defense attorney is going to try to rule this an accident, she thinks bitterly, ready to viciously tear this murderer apart when her gaze travels up the stairs.

There is a girl on the stairs, her age, and she stares down at the body with an empty expression, phone barely held in limp fingers. From here, Franziska can see a fresh bruise around the girl's eye. She breathes through her mouth, blood drying in the spaces between her teeth. Blood rings her nostrils too, not yet dry enough to begin flaking. Unbidden, Franziska's feet draw her closer, she picks up the scent of vomit, notices how it clings to a sweater sleeve scrunched up enough to show bruises just beginning to bloom.

She doesn't know why her fingers go to her own wrist, why her heart thuds in her chest, why her own eye begins to ache.

The girl finally moves, nearly imperceptibly, and her eyes capture Franziska's. She does not know what is conveyed in that eye-contact, has no words for it.

Nor is she any closer to understanding as she stands at the Prosecutor's bench with another win to her name and the girl meets her eyes again.

[imperfectfools]

Do you have any friends who haven't been accused of murder?

Be Nosy! || ACCEPTING

“Detective Gumshoe.”

“Yes, Scruffy.”

[bindingties]

(( fuck, just, Franziska defending her brother against her own father, a culmination of all those years of choosing to stand between the two, a full acknowledgement that she’d always choose her brother over her father, facing head-on the realities of her father’s crimes and damage he’s done

Franziska getting to kick her father’s ass

Also her later getting to chew out Ray when he does his bullshit ( not that I know how the rest of the timeline would go but shh ) just like “Well a Von Karma solved Gregory Edgeworth’s murder while you were fucking around elsewhere and if you insult my brother one more time, I’m going to ruin you.” 

Does she have serious identity issues after her father’s arrest because a lifetime of trauma doesn’t go away with one dramatic court case?  Yes.  Will she still proudly claim to be a Von Karma purely to spite people being assholes to her little brother?  Absolutely. ))

[bindingties]

(( Defense Attorney Franziska still gets shot in Farewell, My Turnabout.  She can’t stand to actually be on the defense team for the case, having got Vibes™ from Matt that she refuses to ignore.  ( Which I do imagine could cause an argument between her and Wright considering her being the assistant on the rest of the cases was supposed to be her learning to trust the clients.  But she’s staunchly like ‘There are so many reasons not to trust this man.’ )

However, in response to Maya’s danger , she steps away from the case to focus on finding Maya and bringing her to safety.  With that being all that she’s devoted to, she’s a damn fine investigator and genuinely threatens Shelly’s position.

Maybe there are a few times she sits at the defense bench and can’t help but refuse to let Wright hedge on the case so Shelly still calls it a “gift”

Part of me also imagines that her getting shot is what leads Miles to revealing himself in this verse, so it happens at the hospital.  Which makes me think of Nick doing the ‘I would have been better for you not to come back from the dead’ bit in the lobby and, from her room, Franziska’s eyes snap open and she barrels to the lobby ( drugged to the gills and still VERY injured ) solely to sock Phoenix in the jaw and then promptly pass out ( what with the aforementioned painkillers and gunshot wound ). ))

[bindingties]

What’s your entity? tagging: pilfer it y’all 

(( Did a couple so they’re under a cut

big note tho that the quiz deals w a lot of horror elements so so will these descriptions jsdhfhjsgdhjfgdshjf ))

KLAVIER

Tie between: The Stranger and The Eye

The Stranger is an otherworldly power that tends to emulate things that are almost human, but not quite. It is the manifestation of the fear of the unknown and the creeping sense that something isn’t right. It manifests as objects pretending to be humans, like mannequins and taxidermied people. One of The Stranger's most common manifestations is that of replacing someone. The Stranger kills a host and takes their life, appearing as an entirely different person appearance wise to The Host, yet blending in perfectly to their lives. No one notices the sudden difference to their friend, sibling, lover or coworker, despite The Stranger looking, sounding, and acting completely different. One person will often realize this person was replaced, which is how The Stranger will get its fear. The person who notices will be driven mad with the realization, and will have no proof to support their claims, as The Stranger changes each picture and video of its original host to its new form.

The Eye is one of The Entities and is the manifestation of the fear of being watched, exposed, followed, of having secrets known, but also the drive to know and understand, even if your discoveries might destroy you. It is also the fear that you’re suffering for the sake of something watching. It is an entity of great power that does very little and seems content only with feeding its thirst for knowledge. The most common manifestation of The Eye is simply that, an enormous watching eye, but the entity is known to influence certain hosts that it can use to quench its needed thirst for knowledge.

FRANZISKA

The Vast

The Vast is one of the Entities. Its domain is our fear of our own insignificance in this universe, of losing yourself in too much space.

Its effects involve void, vertigo, and falling, but also anything to do with openness and open spaces, fears like Agoraphobia, fear of deep water. The Vast is anything that is so large it's unknown where it stops and ends. It's the fear of being lost, swallowed up, or even being forgotten by the world that surrounds you. Rendered insignificant in the grand scheme of everything, never to be remembered or mentioned.

SEBASTIAN

The Desolation

The Desolation is one of The Entities. It is also known as "The Lightless Flame." It is a manifestation of the fear of pain, of loss, burning, fear of unthinking or cruel destruction: "all of the worst parts of fire, with none of the warmth". Those who align themselves with The Desolation gain the ability to produce fire, have skin that runs like wax, and emanate extreme amounts of heat at all times. If one such person touches you, your body will erupt in pain from the excruciating heat they produce.

KAY

The End

The End is one of several powers called The Entities that influence our world. The End's sphere of influence includes death and the fear of death, cruel and unstoppable. The End can manifest as a large amount of death all occurring in one place similar to The Slaughter, but may also manifest into a grim reaper, or something cursed so that it cannot die. Although it represents the fear of death, it can work in the opposite way, with those who crave it being forced to live on no matter what.

BONUS: ACE, aka THE MUN

The Dark

The Dark is one of the fourteen main Entities that can affect our world. It is a manifestation of our very primal fear of the dark and what might be in it. It, along with The Hunt, is one of the oldest Entities. The Dark is similar to The Vast in that one could easily become lost in it. It also manifests as a fear of the unknown, serving as a shield for whatever may be lurking inside it. Sometimes, The Dark can be so powerful that it devours the sources of light it interacts with, making it so that nothing can overpower it.

[bindingties]

What are some ways Kay/Miles Swap Franziska is affected by living with her mother to age 13, rather than to age 3 ish?

(( Seeing the alcoholism up close left Franziska feeling much more reluctant to try alcohol; she didn’t want to become the apathetic void that her mother tended to be.

Due to being trans and not figuring that out until closer to 13, due to lacking Miles’s influence to help her piece it together earlier, she didn’t grow up with a full thirteen years of direct pressure regarding all of Marie’s appearance issues, but Marie would talk and some of that slipped in and Franziska got more of it upon coming out.

When Franziska came out, Marie did the closest thing to mothering she has ever done and went ‘well if you’re a girl, I’m going to teach you how to be one.’  Manfred had his own feelings about that whole business, mostly along the lines of not liking how it slightly undermined his ability to use Franziska’s name & pronouns to further exercise control and also finding it a waste of time since he wasn’t about to let Franziska openly present as a girl since it wasn’t “convenient.”

However, Marie has, shall we say, a fuck ton of baggage left from her own mother and modelling career and so had very specific ideas of what Franziska should be.  There was a lot of ‘these features need to be downplayed’ ‘you have your father’s shoulders which means they are far too broad for a woman’ ‘don’t smile you’ll get wrinkles’ ‘don’t scowl you’ll end up looking like your father.’

A lot of it involved digs against Manfred and so Franziska got left in this miasma of dysphoria, Marie’s ideas about womanhood, and also her own admiration of her father.  Yes, she walked away knowing how to do her eyeliner, but also ended up just being more confused and dysphoric with her perfectionism tangling up in it all.

So once she starts living with Liv, she’s very ‘?????’ especially with her admiration of her father getting tangled up in ‘he literally murdered someone’ so all the traits she used to admire and not mind that she shared with her father became ‘oh no, was mama right in saying that these are bad things?’ and begins to have some faint stirrings of disordered eating.  Liv is so very, very attentive though and Franziska had already been getting help with perfectionism and the whole ‘you saw your dad pull a gun on a detective, let’s maybe help you deal with that’, so when other stuff started creeping out, it was picked up much faster and she got help before things could spiral.

Additionally Manfed’s outright aggression paired with Marie’s passive-aggression toward him left Franziska extremely sensitive to the slightest shifts in atmosphere.  She wasn’t necessarily in danger from Marie, but a short comment from Marie at Manfred could easily spin out of control.  It was a Bad Marriage and more time did not make it better.  

Franziska doesn’t actually remember specific incidents, though; all of her trauma memories tend to be held within a thick shroud of amnesia.  Still, Livia sighing too loudly would make Franziska nervous and wary.  Livia also swiftly learned that snapping was a huge trigger, even if Franziska could never articulate exactly why it made her so terrified.  She could remember her father doing it for silence and order, but couldn’t remember the punishments for failing to do so.

So the extra time living in a house with Manfred and Marie’s terrible marriage left her with wariness toward alcohol, trauma, worse dysphoria, overall body image issues, and a fear of intimacy and marriage. ))

[bindingties]

4, 10, 14 for miles edgeworth

Muse Development || ACCEPTING

4. what seemingly insignificant memories stuck with your character?

(( Franziska made him eat a bug once.  A lot of his memories in Von Karma’s household tend to be fuzzy in some way or another, but the Bug Incident is crystal clear.

He also has a memory of looking in the mirror while getting changed and really noticing his top surgery scars.  It had been years after the surgery itself, but that day he just saw them.  And it made him so happy.  Those are really the only scars of his that he’s happy to see and make him feel comfortable in his skin; which was part of the reason the memory stuck with him - none of his other scars elicit such a positive surge of emotions. ))

10. what would your character make a scene in public about?

(( Honestly, he likes to think he’s similar to Gregory in that he’d only make a scene in dire situations, but he is 100% more like Liv and can be very Dramatic.

Notably he will loudly lament if his clothes get somehow ruined ( like when Kay blew their nose in his cravat ) and, while Wright was disbarred, there were more than a handful of times he overheard rude gossip regarding Wright’s character and got involved. 

Wright: please don’t make a scene; it’s really fine, edgeworthEdgeworth: im not going to make a scene, wrightEdgeworth: *proceeds to make a scene*

))

14. how does the image your character tries to project differ from the image they actually project?

(( Post-AA6, Miles really is 100% trying to project the image of a Chief Prosecutor who deeply cares for his colleagues and, thus, should be approachable should anyone need support or the like.  However, he still generally appears as very stern, intimidating, and fairly unapproachable.

His gaze is piercing and his default expression is dangerously close to a scowl.  Even happier as he is at that point in his life, he’s still hard to read and is still as stubborn as anything. Admittedly, the latter isn’t much about image projection but it does make people leery about chipping in their opinions.

He also still tends to fall into ‘oops i made eye contact… it’s staring contest hours’ if he’s not paying attention.

Really, he has gotten warmer over the years, but only people who knew him during his 20s would really pick up on the difference. 

Franziska: you’ve gone soft in your old age, miles edgeworthGreen-horn Prosecutor: ???? this is soft?????? did u mean physically????? bc u cant possibly mean personality-wise……..  

))

[bindingties]

(( Franziska’s lingering anger regarding the Turner Grey case is super complicated bc it’s basically ‘yes, maya fey was innocent and i am at a place in my life now that i can accept the fact that i lost and accept that that is okay and i am better at accepting that a loss does not mean i am any less of a person bUT FUCKING THAT BULLSHIT SWITCHEROO NONSENSE WHAT THE FUCK TELL ME YOU WOULDNT BE FURIOUS TOO WHAT THE FUCK’ ))

[bindingties]

📂 Franziska!

Headcanon Hours || ACCEPTING

(( When Franziska gets older, she ends up needing a cane.  Her cane is pearl white with gold and blue accents. ))

[bindingties]

@onceuponymous replied to your post “(( Franziska’s lingering anger regarding the Turner Grey case is super...”

Franziska thinking about that particular State vs. Fey *to picture of Maya*: I can't be mad at you, you did nothing wrong *to picture of Phoenix*: I can't be mad at you (for this particular case), you were doing your job and making sure an innocent woman didn't go to prison *to picture of Mimi*: BUT I CAN SURE AS HELL BE MAD AT YOU

(( KJDSFJHGSDHJFGH I MEAN... YEAH P MUCH ))

[bindingties]

(( I was thinking, and I kinda of love comparing the court philosophies of my older muses to the younger ones.

Like Gregory and Vox generally have a similar stance on their role, even though they’re a defense attorney and prosecutor respectively.  They both see the practical aspects of their role and don’t really hold it to a moral standard.  Vox does not view being a prosecutor as raining judgement down upon criminals and nor does Gregory view being a defense attorney as protecting hapless innocents.

They both are willing to accept walking into court "on the wrong side.” Vox knows that they may walk into court and the evidence will thoroughly condemn someone who is innocent. Gregory knows that the evidence may exonerate someone who is entirely guilty. Neither of them agonize over that; it’s just part of their job.

Gregory leans more idealistic in that he does view the truth as something obtainable and a nice secondary goal to have, but Vox operates in a space of ‘95% confident has to be good enough. There will always be doubt.’

Meanwhile, Miles, Franziska, and Klavier operate on this very simultaneously noble and idealistic pursuit of truth.  That’s where their main focus is 1000%. Instead of their purpose being [insert the legal definition of a prosecutor’s duty here], they exist to find out exactly what happened. They believe that truth is obtainable no matter the case so they have to find it come hell or high water. Their legal duty comes second. Miles especially believes the law comes second to the truth, even as a Chief Prosecutor.

Along a similar vein, Gaura, who is on the younger side, walks in to win. Her sole goal is winning ( and perhaps scaring someone half to death in the process ), which is unarguably childish and dangerous. Which brings me to Manfred who is old as dirt and no more mature than someone a mere few months older than I am. While Miles, Franziska, and Klavier have more of a youthful idealism or optimism, Gaura and Manfred have pure childish need to win, to be better than anyone else. ))

[bindingties]

🔀 // for franziska? :3c

Facets || ACCEPTING

There is a woman with long, snow white hair tied up into the messiest of buns carefully pouring wax onto an envelop and pressing a stamp into it. Laurel Winter is not, strictly, a single facet of Franziska, but she is a few facets distilled into a single entity of Franziska’s creation so this definitely counts.

Laurel does still look like Franziska. The facial features and body type are all there, but the hair begins the process of detracting from that image. What further makes her hard to recognize as Franziska is the flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and worn jeans.

Perhaps a modern writer would not have ink stained hands, but Laurel does. She perks up with a smile.

“Oh! My apologies, I didn’t see anyone come in. I was just replying to some fanmail and… well, I got a little occupied!” She laughs, the sound warm and full. “It’s easy to let my mind wander to story ideas while I stamp envelops closed.”

[bindingties]

(( I do love the fact that with how much angst potential there is with Vox and Miles actively working in the same office, both of them just refuse to acknowledge the shared history to the other. Just absolutely ‘what DL-6 incident?’

To be fair, though, nine-year-old Miles was dissociating that entire trial and it is nothing short of a miracle that he managed to remember both Hammond and Yanni. I may just commit to the idea that he 100% does not remember the prosecutor for that case.

Meanwhile Vox just ‘tfw a child witness from one of the cases with the most repercussions of ur career becomes ur boss and u’re not sure if he even remembers u & there’s no way to ask w/o bringing up his trauma so u gotta sit in limbo wondering if he even knows u’

...

Franziska would know, wouldn’t she? I mean I headcanon her as having dug the fuck into that incident for Miles’s sake, for better or for worse.

Franziska, casually: You are not very adept at handling more delicate witnesses are you, Prosecutor Vox Norikiru?  Vox: taxidermyfox.jpeg ))

[bindingties]

(( also if you missed my 3am ramblings last night, I’ve given Franziska a verse where, post-Farewell, My Turnabout, she publishes an anthology of adapted and heavily edited fairytales under the name Laurel Winter and becomes fairly well-known in literary spheres because of it.

It works both within Franziska’s verse where she quits prosecuting post-Farewell, My Turnabout ( & into her becoming a judge instead ) and as an addition to the canonline. Either way, being recognized as ‘Laurel Winter’ helps her realize that she’s competent and can succeed on her own merits and is, likewise, not bound to her father’s legacy. And she continues writing and publishing under that pen name.

On a silly note, I imagine her About the Author sections tend to have plenty of words there but don’t really say anything ( being a lawyer does give her plenty of skill in saying a lot without really saying anything at all ). Also her “portrait” is just as close-up photo of Pumpernickel’s paw pads and the whole section is “signed.” The “signature” is just a stamp of Pumpernickel’s paw. ))

[bindingties]

Franziska, how and when did you realize that your brother is irretrievably gay for Phoenix Wright?

“Asking me when I figured out that my brother loves that fool is like asking me when I learned that the sky is blue.”