#Need that tag lol

[characteroulette]

OKAY FINE LET'S GO OVER THIS IN MORE DETAIL

here's why backfill works in the original trilogy while it doesn't for the Apollo trilogy.

So, our cases are: Dahlia Hawthorne (Phoenix had a girlfriend???) and Clay Terran (Apollo had a bestie???)

For Dahlia, it's written into the narrative so it's a bit of a bad comparison, but it's the best I got. Of course Phoenix never wants to talk about it or acknowledge it. He was so betrayed by someone he loved that it's too much hurt to bring up in casual conversation. (You'll notice how in the beginning of 3-5, even after the player has been given pretty much all the pieces, Phoenix continues to refuse to talk about it. Maya starts needling him about his weirdness around Iris and still, and still, and still, Phoenix refused to say a word.) (And this is sticking to his previous characterisation!! In the first game, he doesn't talk about his connection to Edgeworth until the final case, 1-4. In JFA, he refused to talk about what happened with Edgeworth until 2-3, at the last possible second. And even then he doesn't really explain why he reacted so badly until 2-4. It feels natural because we've had examples of Phoenix doing this shit before, so it makes sense that he has a life outside of the narrative that he just doesn't want to share with us.)

Not only is Dahlia integrated through the narrative as naturally as she can be, she's also integrated well into the characterisation of those she's attached to. Phoenix's bad reaction to Edgeworth's thing in JFA starts making *more* sense when taking his time with Dahlia into consideration. Edgeworth's cold and controlling approach to court is a product of Von Karma, but Dahlia's hand in his first ever case helps add to that "no more surprises" mentality he's got when we first meet him. (And even his turnaround in 1-3!) The only one who kinda suffers characterisation wise from Dahlia being a thing is Mia, in my opinion, but only because of what the narrative had to do. She's so traumatised by this case that she stayed out of the courts for a whole year?? Not the impression she gave off in the first or second games. (But it can be excused through the passage of time. Dahlia's impact was about four years removed from 1-1 and all.)

Dahlia being such a huge thing in Phoenix's backstory doesn't feel tacked on or added for the sake of drama, despite being exactly that, because of how it was integrated.

Now, contrast, Clay Terran.

For starters, who even IS Clay Terran? He's Apollo's bestie (reportedly) and is an astronaut, loves space, and is willing to drug his idol/coworker in order to play along in a farce to prevent a spy from hijacking the station. Okay, sounds great! *We never meet him on screen in the one case he's important for.*

(Quick note, I tend to treat 5-4 and 5-5 as the same case in my brain because 5-5 is just an extension of 5-4. And 5-4 is already interrupted timeline-wise by 5-1 so. You can forgive me for this.) (DD is a real doozy of a timeline wtf were they thinking)

Anyway all this to say, Clay Terran is not important. He's a victim, so the most we get about him is just backfill. Posthumous characterisation, which works when your character isn't so important that you're basing one of your three main leads on it for their heel turn. (Another momentary gripe, I feel like they really leaned into this because it was their only idea for Apollo. "Make everyone wonder wow, Apollo's so different now! What happened to make him like that?" Is a fine idea in isolation, but in practice it really just makes Apollo feel like a completely different character from the one we spent all our time with in AJ.)

Okay so second important question: Who is Apollo Justice? He's an eager no longer so naive kid who's a little loud, a little cranky, and willing to put his trust into his clients and those he comes to know over the course of his journey. Fantastic. This applies only to AJ; in DD, he is willing to mention a friend he's got *constantly* and also wayyy too quick to attach himself to his new coworker, Athena. (It's an issue of story as to why this happened, once again. Apollo had to be on great terms with Athena for the drop to hit as hard as it does in 5-5. He had to mention this otherwise unknown friend for everything in 5-4 to even function.)

But anyway. The reason Clay Terran doesn't work where Dahlia Hawthorne did is simply because. Apollo's whole characterisation had to be tweaked for Clay to even exist whereas Phoenix's whole characterisation was fitted into Dahlia's existence.

Phoenix keeping secrets about his past? Believable. He's done it before. It's congruent. Apollo blabbing about an element that otherwise didn't exist before? Excuse me, uh, you have a friend??? Incongruent I hate it.

(They really had to jam Apollo mentioning Clay into both 5-2 and 5-3, didn't they? Apollo talking about this otherwise unmentioned friend threw me for the biggest loop, mainly because the Apollo I got to know in AJ and form ideas about never had any friends before being forcibly adopted into the Wright family. It seemed out of the question before DD was a thing; he was too grumpy, too lonely, too lacking in extraneous past life details for me to even consider his having a friend, let alone a bestie whom he would throw away everything for.)

You can absolutely explain all of this away but it won't convince me. They jammed Clay Terran into the narrative as sloppily as they did Dhurke and Khura'in and I will die mad about it.

[bytedykes]

ok fine maybe i DID come back wrong. what are you going to do about it. kill me? put me back in the ground? after all this effort? all this pain and suffering only to find out bringing me back wasn't worth it after all? you worked so hard. are you going to waste all of that just because im not what you wanted? just because i belong only to myself? are you going to let me pick out my own coffin

[babbeldumpsterfire]

Bildad's battle cry in the italian dubbing always cracks me up...

In english he's like: "Woah woah woah there!" but in italian he's like "WOOOOOO OHOOH-WOWODBOLOBOWAWAWA".

[toasteaa]

Everyone loves the Boyfriend Jacket, but what about the Husband Coat?

Diluc draping his coat across your shoulders because you forgot your own? Immediately looking the other direction to hide the heat coming to his cheeks when you settle into it?

Zhongli's thinly veiled swell of pride when he sees his coat around your shoulders? Savoring the scent of your perfume as long as he can for days after you've returned it to him?

Wriothesley's little half complaints about the chill in his office after you've taken his coat? Hiding how much he actively enjoys the sight of you utterly swamped in the fur and bulk of fabric?

Neuvillette having removed his mantle and stole in order to drape his robes across your sleeping form? His inability to completely focus back on his work after he sees how immediately you curl into it with that satisfied little hum he's come to enjoy so dearly?

Just...husband coats...

[machinerot]

[oh-gh0st]

i heart these rivals so much. maybe they'll kill each other. maybe they'll kiss. maybe they'll make ou

[katnissandpeetamellark]

More random Incorrect quotes 🫶

[big8cola]

[mossytrashcan]

I put her in my pocket and then she literally chewed a hole in it and escaped

[anatomical-puppet]

my source is that i am autistic about horror

[cowboycannibalism]

one of the things that annoys me so bad right now is seeing letterboxd reviews about Lisa Frankenstein being like "she's such a horrible character", "those people didn't deserve to be killed" blah blah blah

SHUT UP

it's a horror romance!! a girl keeps a reanimated dead guy in her closet and falls in love with him! what did you think was going to happen? it's SUPPOSED to be fucked up and weird and that's part of its charm. quit being boring, let female characters (esp in horror) be messy and chaotic and morally gray.

[striveattemptfail]

had a conversation about my adhd recently then went to make this lmao

[stedesmoth]

[batshaped]

trick(xie) question

[kays-artstuff]

I made a quick lil doodle that's probably been done before but it was cute so I did it anyway :D

Once again, I'm drawing @kitsuneisi and @xmaruu11 's ddvau because it has me in a chokehold

[reigobun]

e z bre z