#idk I like Marlene and I can appreciate the position she was in

[social-cocoon]

I will say I wish the finale had been a little longer. It felt like something was missing.

I also still dislike the change that Ellie didn't know who Marlene was from the start because I think it really hurt their relationship with each other and how the viewer sees it. Especially now that I'm looking at all these people shitting on Marlene (not like she doesn't deserve a lot of it for taking away Ellie's explicit consent to the procedure), I wish there was an extra scene with her showing the depth of her relationship to Ellie. Not the one with Abby's dad, I'd rather that stay for season two, but maybe like after she killed Anna she'd go back and take Ellie and hold her tight or something. Idk. It's easier to understand how much she cared in the game because you're able to pick up notes and voice recordings where she talks about these things, but obviously you can't do much of that in the show.

[askaceattorney]

(The Links in the Letter) -- Strong Language Warning in the first one

Dear James CyberLink,

Great!  Here’s the original letter, everyone:

And since it was your idea...

Dear James CyberLink,

Well said.  You don’t have to be famous or save lives to be a hero, do you?

That video didn’t make me cry, but I sure felt some warmth while I was watching it.  It takes a special kind of person to save so many lives and keep quiet about it.

-Phoenix Wright

Dear James CyberLink,

Whoa...  I sure wasn’t expecting that sort of thing.  That’s some high-class embarrassment, all right.

But, hey, at least you learned something from it.  It’s weird how even moments like that one can have a positive outcome.

-Maya Fey

Dear James CyberLink,

I agree that those are all important laws.  As any student in America could tell you, checks and balances are a fundamental part of any democratic government.  The law gets a bit messier when it comes to the internet and personal data, but it's no less crucial to maintain there as well.

I’d imagine the same to be true for drinking laws.  Without a breathalyzer, a bartender may have trouble distinguishing a drunk individual from a sober individual who simply acts the same way.

-Miles Edgeworth

Dear James CyberLink,

A Build-A-Bear workshop for computers?  That’d sounds like it’d be fun!  I live in a rural area too, so I’d love to learn more about how to use them.

But...where would you put the stuffed heart after you’ve finished building one?

-Pearl Fey

Dear James CyberLink,

Yeah, I’m just going to sit this one out, if that’s okay.  Good answer, though.

-Apollo Justice

Dear James CyberLink,

It’s okay to be unsure about your personality.  People have been known to change from one to another several times before they settle on one.  It’s not uncommon for them to fit into more than one either.  It’s still not an exact science.

That doesn’t mean it’s bunk, though!  If you ever meet Adam, you can tell him he’s a J-E-R-K type!

-Athena Cykes

Dear James CyberLink,

You recognize genius when you see it, don’t you?  We can thank the scientific method for helping us save lives, develop as a society, and learn things we never would’ve thought possible.  I use it in everything I do, from analyzing fingerprints to buying snacks.

-Ema Skye

Dear James CyberLink,

You’re not supposed to find out how they work!  That takes away the whole experience of seeing impossible things happening right before your eyes!  That’s the whole point of illusion!

You’re welcome to try and figure out how my tricks work, though.  Don’t blame me if you start getting dizzy from all the spinning your head does!

-Trucy Wright

Dear rogertheegg,

To me, the difference made by a gender swap would depend on the character.  For some, there’d be hardly any difference (Pearl would be just as adorable, the judge would look and sound just as authoritative, and even some of the main characters would be practically the same), but for others it’d change quite a few things about them (Laura Butz would likely be hitting on guys instead of girls, Mason Fey would have a completely different role in his family, Frederick von Karma would be intimidating in a completely different way, and so on).  And let’s not even get into Marlene Grossberg.

No, really.  Let’s not.

Dear gunmaxx,

Thanks a bunch!  Lately I’ve been afraid I might be losing my edge, so I’m very happy (and relieved) to hear you’re enjoying this blog.  Coming up with new letter responses every day and trying to keep them accurate is a challenge, but the sheer personality in Ace Attorney’s diverse cast of characters makes it a lot easier than it would be for, say, a Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, or Kirby blog.  (Would that last one even be possible?)  It’s still a challenge, though, so thank you for sharing your appreciation!

Also, no need to worry about spamming.  As long as you aren’t sending five or more letters every day, we’ll be happy to answer them.

Dear starry-nightengale,

The only real difference between them is that one is the real “champion of justice,” and the other just acts like him.  If someone writes to Bobby Fulbright without stating whether it’s to the real one or the Phantom disguised as him, I usually answer it as the Phantom.  The games don’t give us much information about what the real one was like, so it’s probably safe to assume the Phantom’s personality is an almost perfect copy of his.

Dear Fulbright,

First let me just say that I’d be giving you a high-five right now if I could.  It’s a breath of fresh air to hear some words of encouragement about the controversies that have crept into this blog more often than we (and I imagine you all) would like to see.  I do my best not to let those stress me out too much, but there are times when they do, so thank you for being understanding about it.  That’s an attitude we can all use more of.

There aren’t very many characters I like but dislike answering as, or vice versa, but I guess one example of that would be Apollo.  He’s a nice guy and a great character, but he doesn’t seem to have the same goofy sense of humor as Phoenix, Trucy, and Athena -- in fact, probably the funniest thing he does is to get fed up with their jokes.  I do enjoy answering as him, but I think he takes himself a little too seriously most of the time.

A good example of a character I’m not fond of but enjoy answering is, oddly enough, Dahlia.  As much as the cut of her jib sickens me, it’s interesting to think of how she might try to out-clever people who get sassy with her (as I have many times before) or come up with a twisted rationalization of her sadistic actions and thoughts.  Not to mention I sort of like the creativity in her haiku.

(Sort of.)

Lastly, while submitters are under no obligation to keep away from any specific topic, they are advised to keep in mind that, as our Submission Guidelines page states, letters that include hot-button topics will be less likely to get an answer.  How much less likely depends on the topic, but if the risk of hurting feelings is too high, they’ll be deleted.

(Previous Letter)

Dear Mothmouth,

That happens to the best proofreaders out there.  Thanks for clarifying, though (and for expressing your frustration in a family-friendly way).

Dear Mothmouth again,

This is sort of embarrassing, but...I actually didn’t know quite how to do that until the Modthorne gave me some help.  Here you go.

Dear Guquis,

No one’s made that joke here as far as I can tell, but it has been done before.  (Epilepsy Warning)

Dear idk,

Really?  That’s a shame.  A moment of silence, everyone.

Thanks for letting us know.  I've been neglecting to check on the status of blogs we have links to, so I’ve got some “summer cleaning” to do.

On that note, if you have an active ask blog you’d like us to add a link to, feel free to give us a shout!  It’s been a long time since we’ve added any.

Dear naitomeruu,

Sorry to break it to you, but it looks like that’s already been confirmed.  If we’re lucky, maybe they’ll release a version for 3DS as well, but if not, I guess I’ll be making a quick dash to the nearest GameStop for a Switch.  I still think the Wii U didn’t get a fair chance, but I’ll do it for the blog’s sake!

-The Co-Mod

[elvesofnoldor]

i never hated this game. even back when it first came out about a year ago.  even now i still appreciate the sort of the story that the devs were trying to tell. they had good ideas. Did they do a great job executing these ideas though? i don’t think so, which is why i can never sympathize with people who thought the game was a masterpiece, it’s like, oh you mean a masterpiece on a technical level? yeah absolutely, but the story is riddled with problems and you gotta be a giant meathead if you don’t see them

i really do come to like abby’s story, even though it’s still extremely hard to stomach the fact that she took up HALF of the entire game, she’s not even on the cover of the game! (not gonna lie it’s a bit false advertising on the devs’ part lmao) The fact that abby’s father was literally a faceless npc from the first game is still blowing my mind now. joel dies because a faceless npc’s daughter is angry at him. Still hilarious. This random npc also the best surgeon on board with the fireflies, even though his name wasn’t even mentioned once in the first game cause he doesn’t exist yet! and also he’s only doctor who could have perform the surgery to develop the life saving vaccine. Again, hilarious. I would have been more opened to learn about abby if abby is connected to marlene instead. This random npc becoming more important to merlene is just wild to me. Even now, having seen all of abby’s campaign, it still doesn’t feel like she should take up that much time in the game. sure i appreciate lev’s part in her campaign, in fact lev is the best part of her campaign, and i wanted to see that as perhaps an attempt at paralleling her with joel. she’s bonding with lev as joel bonded with ellie in the first game, becoming parental figure to an orphan and whatnot. except that i dont think abby realizes this at all? it does not factor into her getting closure either? at no point does abby realize that if lev was ellie and she was in joel’s position, she could have cut down somebody else’ father too. so this joel parallel is not working that well. no, she’s supposed to parallel with ellie. 

i think the story is supposed to say that sometimes bad things happened to your loved ones and it’d left a hole in you and you would want closure and you would want justice, but these things are not that easy to come by; and when the circumstances is right, you could have been the one to make bad things happen to other people’s loved ones. joel took away abby’s loved one and abby took away him, who was in turn someone important to ellie. ellie retaliated by taking away abby’s other loved ones while looking for her, and abby killed ellie’s loved ones in response. it’s just a cycle of pointless violence all stemmed from grief.  in the right circumstances, they each could have play the part of the villain in one another’s life. the story is about dealing with grief and loss as the last game, except that this game emphasized on the darker side of the process. it’s about the anger that’s stemmed from grief and how that anger drives one to do pointless things for empty justice, dealing further grief and damage, destroying their own life in the process. Only by letting go of that anger can one truly be free. In theory! it could have made a powerful and heart wrenching tragedy! only in theory though! 

let’s go back to the cover shall we. who’s on the cover? Ellie. this is marketed to be ellie’s story. it was supposed to be ellie’s story. abby’s part, especially after it’s over, just feel like an HOURS long distraction. im still amazed that we learn more about abby and owen’s relationship with one another than we did ellie and dina’s relationship. by amazed i mean angry, actually. i don’t hate owen and abby’s story, i like it actually, but this shouldn’t have been about them. this game should have been about ellie’s complicated relationship with joel after she discovered the lies he told her, it was supposed to be about her grief over losing the only family she has left in this world. this is supposed to be the core of the story while we learn about the life she’s building while befriending dina and jesse. As we become invested in dina and jesse as characters, we’d also learn about the life she would have gone to destroy as she grieves for joel. this game is supposed to be ellie’s story and ellie’s grief, as the last game is joel’s story and joel’s grief. abby simply doesn’t make the most meaningful contribution to ellie’s story. 

not only that, we are supposed to beat the SHIT out of ellie as abby!! my fucking god!! im not angry about anything else in this game up until that point in the story. joel’s death was very rough, but i get it, i get the part it plays in the narrative, but what the fuck is this? Am i supposed to identify with abby here? it seems like we are supposed to considering we are forced to take control of her here. she brutally murdered a guy in front of his loved one, and then now her friends are dead because of what she decided to do and i guess she’s pissed about it and wanted ellie dead? “you killed my friends. we let you live and you wasted it” yeah that line is not registering abby, you tortured someone to death in front of their loved one so honestly idk what you were expecting. im having immense difficulty sympathizing with abby here and honestly i can’t imagine most people in their right minds being able to sympathize with abby here either. And if the players can’t sympathize with their character and want to do what they want to do, then the story fails and the game fails, it’s that simple.

i forget about this boss fight before starting to watch the full playthrough. this entire time i was thinking how fun the combat is and how i would definitely check out the game when im able to, right until that stupid boss fight. somebody talked about how that boss fight mirrored ellie’s fight with the p*dophile from the last game. you know, the guy who was trying to groom her and later kill her? that piece of shit? except now, ellie is in that piece of shit’s place, and you know, unlike him, she is not a piece of shit! And just in what goddamn game, do i want to beat the shit out of one of my most favourite video game characters of all time? devs gotta be out of their goddamn minds thinking people would want to try to kill a well loved character in a boss fight. 

they could have delivered a tightly-packed well-curated experience with a clear albeit potentially non-linear story about ELLIE--as they advertised this game to be, as the players expected it to be. And it would have been great, it would almost definitely still win as many awards as it would now. it would definitely still be the game of the year because it would still be the only game that tried to tell a story as meaningful and soul searching. abby is a good character, i’ve seen people saying she was a fascist? she became a part of a militant resistance group that has evolved to exert authoritarian control over its populace after it destroyed the previously authoritarian military presence, but idk if that’s enough to label the group she’s part of as fascist. And all of that shit happened before she joined. plus she’s not fanatic about the group she joined either, and she defected for most of her story, so yeah i don’t see anything concrete and definitive backing up that claim.  she is not a significantly worse person than ellie, but she sure shouldn’t have been in her story.