#apollo justice discourse

[arklaycomplex]

Tales from the Slammer - The Gavinners, 2023

[eleccy]

The thing about Kristoph and Apollo is that they have a very disturbingly similar sense of dark humor.

From 4-1, on the card not being in the bottle and there being a fourth person present (i.e. himself!):

This is one of my favorite Kristoph lines because it's just so out of pocket. So snarky. He just says this in open court. Granted, at this point Phoenix had pissed him off enough to start breaking his gentlemanly façade. And he does apologize for it after. But it's still so hilarious. It really just kind of shows that Kristoph's internal monologue is just dripping with disdain for everyone and everything. He's so done with peoples stupidity and it's great.

And then we have Apollo. This is from 4-2:

I think this is Apollo's internal monologue, were he to say this out loud to Trucy, she probably would've responded with something funny as well. But it's so funny to me that Apollo thinks like this and there are so many other examples of times that he thinks or says out of pocket stuff. Apollo's "so done" attitude doesn't really manifest itself fully until Kristoph is in jail, but even in 4-1 there are shades of it. I can't help thinking that it's an attitude he has in common with Kristoph or kind of subconsciously picked up from him. Either way the whole thing is super funny, and kind of melancholy if you think about it for too long.

[antivan-sprig]

Rook Mythology Asks

Hello DA friends! Hitting you with some more Rook asks. It’s very fun reading all your answers (and I really do try to read them all!) Hopefully these are relatively different than my previous asks, these are, once again vaguely, related to Greek + Roman mythology.

Feel free to use as an ask game or just to inspire some writing.

Thanks to @bubblecat-co for helping me come up with a theme!

Companions/NPCs dynamics:

Rhea: Did your Rook know any of the companions/NPCs before the events of the game?

Eris: Does Rook ever have any disagreements with any NPCs/Companions?

Sisyphus: How does Rook react to Lucanis/Neve after The Big Choice™️

Hestia: Who would Rook feel most comfortable confiding in?

Hades: Do any of the NPCs have strong opinions/feelings about Rook? Do these change throughout the events of the game?

Leda: How does Rook react to the spirits they encounter in the game?

Views on Others:

Ariadne: How does Rook interact with people of different societal backgrounds?

Minos: What does Rook think about people of a different faith? Does this affect how they interact with them?

Pavo: How polite/formal is Rook?

Medea: How would someone have described your Rook as a child and/or teen?

Andromeda: Is Rook perceived as pretty/attractive? (Feel free to brag a little, or drag them!)

Values:

Oedipus: Has Rook ever been in a situation where they had to choose between someone (or group) they were loyal to and their own ethical values?

Agamemnon: How does Rook react when they make a mistake or wrong someone?

Orestes: Does Rook believe in “the greater good?”

Eunomia: What’s their opinion on rules, laws, and order?

Cygnus: Does Rook ever lie? To what extent?

Past games:

Nyx: Did the blight in DAO affect them?

Apollo: Where does Rook stand on the mage/templar situation? (Flashbacks to DA2 discourse 🙀)

Ares: Did Anders do anything wrong? (Theoretically, if they knew who he was, what would they think of his actions?)

Delphi: Do/did they believe the Inquisitor was the Herald of Andraste?

Icarus: How do they feel about Solas? Does this change throughout the events of the game?

Zeus: What does Rook think about the elven gods?

Self:

Hecate: What scent(s) would Spite (or any spirit) identify your Rook with?

Persephone: If Rook was possessed by a spirit, which type of spirit would be attracted to them? Would Rook alter the spirit? (Ex: Justice ➡️ judgement, compassion ➡️ cloying, or passion ➡️ obsession)

Medusa: How would Rook feel about becoming an abomination? Would they ever seek separation?

(Side note: abomination feels like a word that would eventually be seen as offensive in Thedas.)

Pandora: Describe a time where Rook experienced a severe negative emotion (terror, rage, guilt, helplessness, wrath, jealousy, etc!)

Psyche: Does Rook like themselves?

[satsuha]

what are your thoughts on the japanese version of spirit of justice not depicting nahyuta and apollo as brothers?

oh boy.

well first off as a disclaimer i haven't looked too deeply into aa6 in japanese as a whole (though i have seen scenes here and there in japanese) so my thoughts are based less on like... actual original text and translations and more on the uh discourse surrounding it

i want to start off by saying i feel like it's a stretch to say the japanese version "didn't depict" nahyuta and apollo as brothers and that the english version unequivocally "did depict" them as brothers because the way i view it neither of those are true but it also... doesn't... matter?? in both versions the fact that dhurke raised the two of them remains unchanged and while i have noticed that the english version of dhurke's dialogue is a lot more explicitly fatherly, i wouldn't say that the things he says to apollo in japanese is unlike a father either - one of the scenes i Have watched is the cave scene where dhurke refers to himself as "daddy" but the japanese text is. essentially exactly the same and is what a father would say to their child with or without the explicit language.

Dhurke: When you act like this, it's like seeing you from way back then again. Apollo: D-don't treat me like a kid! Dhurke: There, there! Alright! I'll buy you whatever you want once we get out of here!

i feel like apollo's feelings on the matter are more nuanced even in the english version; his profile for dhurke calls him "the man who raised me" but he still introduces him as his father to ema. it's clear that he has complicated feelings towards dhurke but i feel like it's also clear that dhurke is the closest thing to a father he's ever had, he even very clearly says he doesn't feel much about jove because he never knew him. also, apollo's profile for dhurke in japanese is actually more explicitly familial, with him calling dhurke 育ての親 (foster parent) which is also how he introduces him to ema!

Apollo: Erm... I guess he's my foster parent.

after trucy says dhurke is also nahyuta's father, ema says in japanese "that means he's prosecutor sadhmadhi's and your..." and while she doesn't finish her sentence it's obvious she was going to say father...

ok i know that was a lot about dhurke but i don't feel like i can talk about their bond as brothers without mentioning him somehow. anyway i think partially the reason apollo's more open to describing dhurke as familial than nahyuta is mostly just because dhurke obviously reached out to him first and treated him like he always had which is the exact opposite of what nahyuta did...? even in the english version neither of them actually calls the other their brother but imo while i would have liked the confirmation i also don't really think it would have changed anything... it just feels like an awful lot of arguing over semantics when i think the fact that they grew up together, that they both see dhurke as a father, and that they wanted to stay together after the events of aa6 are enough to show their familial bond and those aren't events that have version differences...

i don't know. a lot of this is coloured by my own biases obviously but i also feel that it just suits them better that the japanese never leaned too hard into the brothers language because by necessity of the language it would require apollo to call nahyuta by some kind of "big brother" title which just does not suit him at all LOL it's part of why i like to think that the difference between their ages is more like a few months rather than a full year or more. and besides ga'ran does call nahyuta apollo's 兄 (older brother) during the court sequence which is also carried over in english and YES i have seen the post saying ga'ran using this term to describe them is meant to be shocking but honestly i just don't buy it. i've watched several japanese livestreamers play this part on youtube and read out the lines and they don't react to it at All like it all just flows very naturally imo?? like yeah of course she would say that

erm but yeah my thoughts. i think (perhaps incorrectly) that the insistence that the japanese version explicitly denied their brothers relationship is overblown out of proportion. i also think (correctly) that the language used does not matter and whatever happened on screen for english players to interpret nahyuta and apollo as brothers also happened in the japanese version, i think interpretations just vary depending on the person regardless of version language. either way it's not going to stop me from depicting them that way since i believe their sibling bond is what led to them having very strong feelings towards their actual sisters (even despite not knowing the fact, in apollo's case). it just makes more sense to me that way

[kirbyofthestars]

apollo justice. obviously

what apollo justice discourses are people having

[nebjamin]

MAJOR APOLLO JUSTICE: ACE ATTORNEY SPOILERS

So, I didn’t like AJ:AA as much as I thought I would.

Keep in mind that my prior experience with Ace Attorney (AA) before this was the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy (1-3) and The Great Ace Attorney (TGAA) Chronicles, so I had very high standards. I’m a PC guy, so I just play the games when they get ported over. Also, I haven’t seen much discourse about this game, so I have no idea if my thoughts are a brand new hot take or the same stuff people have been saying for years. That said, here are my very long and drawn-out thoughts about Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

Apollo Justice is (not) doing fine.

Apollo Justice is a new defense attorney and the protagonist of this game, following up Phoenix Wright from the first three AA games. These are major shoes to fill, but moving to a new protagonist made sense - they essentially finished Phoenix’s story in the previous game in the series. Justice is a less experienced attorney than Wright, so of course he’d trip up a bit in court and occasionally fold under the tremendous pressure of prosecutor and air guitar extraordinaire Klavier Gavin (more on him later). However, I’m sure the writers could have handled this in a way that feels less frustrating to the player.

Most of the time, Justice appears helpless in the courtroom. He tries his best, but is ultimately forced into a corner by the prosecution. Ace Attorney cases are typically a constant back-and-forth between the defense and prosecution: the prosecution embarasses the defense, then the defense has a revelation and dominates the prosecution, then the prosecution dismantles the defense’s theory and forces them back into a corner, and the process repeats until a Not Guilty verdict is reached (with few exceptions). However, Justice tends to spend significantly more time crying in the corner than making a case for himself. Apollo certainly has his moments, but they felt far and few between. Half of Apollo’s gimmick is his “Chords of Steel,” or his incredibly loud voice. Even if he has nothing to say, let my man shout. His mentor is THE Phoenix Wright, after all - let Justice bluff a bit, even if it doesn’t always work out at first. 

The other half of his gimmick is his bracelet, which lets him find minute details of a person’s body language, and use that discovery to pull the person into the shadow realm to question them and extract the truth. This is a really creative idea which breathed some new life into the gameplay of the four cases, but I do feel like it could have been executed significantly better. In order to find the details of a person’s body language, Justice’s vision excessively zooms in on a character, and the player is tasked with panning around with Justice’s super-powered eyes as the witness gives their testimony. When you’re that zoomed in, finding a slight twitch of a finger or a bit of moisture in a witness’ armpit can feel like finding a needle in a human haystack, especially when you have absolutely no idea what you’re looking for. It’s a great concept, but in execution, it proves to be more frustrating than enjoyable.

Given how helpless he is in the courtroom, I felt that Justice and his revelations don’t really drive the story as much as they should. More often, he just happens to be there in the courtroom as the story happens to him. This doesn’t change much as the game progresses either - he has some growth over the course of the story, but it isn’t really felt as the cases march onwards. Unfortunately, Justice never really grows the strength and mental fortitude to push the story and the mystery forward himself. Even when he does in Dual Destinies, it feels like borderline character assassination, but that’s a different game that deserves a different rant (coming soon?????). In AJ:AA, there’s another character who really pushes the story forward, constantly leaving Justice in the dust.

Klavier Gavin is ready to rock (a little too hard).

SPOILERS FOR ACE ATTORNEY 1 & 3 IN THIS SECTION

Klavier Gavin is this game’s new prosecutor, and he also has big shoes to fill - but for different reasons. Each Ace Attorney game up to this point has had different prosecutors facing off against the defense, and the standouts were undoubtedly Miles Edgeworth and Godot (my apologies to the Von Karma and Payne families). Edgeworth was Phoenix Wright’s first main prosecutor opponent, and he was formidable for many reasons - he was a very skilled prosecutor, he had much more experience in the courtroom than Wright, and he had never lost a case. Thus, when he experienced his first ever loss to novice defense attorney Phoenix Wright, he was horrified. He came back for revenge and lost again and again, until Wright defended him in court as the defendant against the legendary prosecutor Manfred Von Karma, causing him to re-evaluate. This made Edgeworth an incredibly complex and intriguing character, and a great opponent in the courtroom. Two games later, Godot served as the main prosecutor of AA3, and was also a hugely complex character due in large part to his past association with Mia Fey. Fey was Wright’s late mentor, and Godot’s complicated relationship with both Fey and Wright made him a very interesting opponent, especially in the last case of the game. I still can’t hear the words “the only time a lawyer can cry is when it’s all over” without tearing up just a little bit. These prosecutors all went to war against Wright in the courtroom, and were devastated when facing defeat. Not Klavier Gavin, though. He’s different.

As Justice got his first Not Guilty verdict against Gavin, Gavin simply stood and smiled. He wasn’t banging on his desk or breaking coffee cups like two other prosecutors I know - he just stood and smiled. This created an air of mystery around him - why isn’t he upset? Did he want to lose? What is this guy’s motivation? Although this left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied with the case’s conclusion, I moved on to the next case in the hopes that something would eventually be explained. But it wasn’t. Even as the game came to its conclusion, Klavier Gavin didn’t have a single major breakdown. It was as if every event of the game went exactly as he planned it. If that’s how Gavin’s actions were supposed to be interpreted, then it makes for a very unsatisfying conclusion. Apollo Justice was the protagonist, and yet no victory was truly his - he was just guided along the correct path by the prosecutor on the other side of the courtroom. Gavin would often give Justice hints or lead him into a line of reasoning that Justice would need to win the case, which makes me feel like this was what the writers were trying to do with his character. Yet, with an “antagonist” that predicts your every move and is always one step ahead, you need two things: an overarching goal and a defeat at the hands of the protagonist. In Gavin’s case, these two were in constant conflict.

Klavier Gavin’s main motivation throughout the game appeared to revolve around his older brother, Kristoph Gavin. Kristoph was referred to as “the devil” and was found to be the culprit of both the first and last cases of the game (more on both of those later), and I believe it’s safe to say he was the overall antagonist of the game. Klavier Gavin, being his brother, had complex feelings towards him in theory - he loved Kristoph as a brother, but hated him for who he was and what he’d done. This was also not executed well, as we (the players) were never really given a glimpse into what this relationship was - we were just told that it was there. The interactions between Klavier and Kristoph were very limited in number, and showed nothing more than the surface level of their relationship. Don’t get me wrong - I like it when details like that are just implied, and I don’t need every little thing spelled out for me. Still, I felt like their relationship was shown a little too much to be “just implied,” but not enough to be explored in any meaningful depth. When Kristoph was found guilty at the end of the last case, Klavier seemed happy, proudly declaring to his brother that “Kristoph… it’s over.” It appeared that this was what he wanted, this was his end goal, this was his motivation. He got it - he won. Yet, this made for a very unsatisfying conclusion, as Apollo Justice was the protagonist, and he needed to win too. He won each case, sure, but Klavier never lost. Klavier was always one step ahead of Justice, and he got what he wanted without much difficulty. The protagonist never truly won if we consider Justice to be the protagonist, but what if we consider Klavier to be the protagonist?

In order for Klavier to function as the protagonist, he would need one thing that he doesn’t show nearly enough of: character growth. The first time we see him, he’s already a successful prosecutor AND the lead guitarist, singer, and frontman of a ridiculously successful rock band NAMED AFTER HIM. There isn’t much further to go from there. He shows this success in the courtroom too: he appears cocky and confident, forcing Justice into corner after corner, with a charismatic smile that rarely leaves his face. His only point of weakness seems to be his brother. Supposedly, he’s always lived in the shadow of his brother, and this is his chance at redemption - but is it really? What part of headlining a rock band NAMED AFTER YOU is living in your brother’s shadow? What part of his long, successful career as a prosecutor is in his brother’s shadow? His confidence wavers a little as he faces his brother at the end of the story, but that is the only time he’s shown interacting with his brother. Ultimately, Klavier stares his brother down, watches as Justice corners Kristoph in a cross-examination, and smiles as his brother is taken back to jail for good. His demeanor never changes - he never seems any less cocky, and he always has the same exact smile. It’s as if the story doesn’t affect him. This is frankly frustrating to watch, seeing all his potential as a character go to waste. He has minimal character growth, and the little he has isn’t earned. Klavier is a bad antagonist and a bad protagonist, as if the writers had no idea what to do with him.

If you want my theory on the matter, I think the writers really wanted to create a character that people would like. They saw the people’s love of Edgeworth, of Franziska Von Karma (to some extent), and of Godot, and they wanted to replicate that feeling. In their attempts, though, they forgot what made those prosecutors so loveable. Yeah, they were quirky and charismatic little guys to some extent, but they were also powerful foes who proved to be mountains for Phoenix Wright to conquer. We hated them as enemies at first sight, but as we got to know them better, we came to love them as friendly rivals. Not only that, but they all grew as characters in meaningful ways. With Klavier, they tried to rush the process, and it didn’t work out. They wanted us to love Klavier from the start by making him cool and a bit quirky, but that was all on the surface level. We loved what laid beneath the surface of Wright’s relationships with Edgeworth, Franziska, and Godot - we loved the depth of their characters and of their stories. In order to give Klavier and his relationship with Apollo that kind of depth, they would have needed to build Klavier’s character up much more over time. However, that would mean that Klavier’s character couldn’t already be perfect from the start. The writers assumed that we loved the previous prosecutors because of how cool they were on the surface, but they missed everything beneath the surface level that was truly the foundation for our collective love for our foes of the past. Then again, that’s just my theory - I have no idea what was actually going on in the writer’s room at the time.

I did like Klavier Gavin as a character, I just didn’t love him, and I honestly think he’s my least favorite main prosecutor of the series only because of the high standards set by other prosecutors. Nothing will beat out my love for Godot and the TGAA prosecutors, and unfortunately Gavin didn’t even come close. In fact, my favorite case from the game is actually the only one he isn’t involved in.

Case 1: Turnabout Trump (lives up to its name).

I would like to clarify that the game and I are referring to the verb “trump,” which means “to get the better of” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). I am not referring to the former president of the United States. This game was released in 2007, 9 years before the start of the presidency of Donald Trump. It was released 15 years after Trump played his prolific role in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, though. That seems important.

Nonetheless, I genuinely believe this is one of the greatest opening cases in an Ace Attorney game, right up there with AA3 and TGAA 1 & 2. It does a great job of introducing Apollo Justice as an attorney and putting the player into his shoes, while showing that his heart is in the right place but he still has room to grow. Unfortunately, he never wound up growing that much in this game, but that’s a problem to take up with the rest of this game’s cases. This case also functions as the player’s introduction to the overall mystery of AJ:AA, and Justice acts as your eyes into this new world of unsolved mysteries. This game takes place 7 years after the previous game in the series, and the old protagonist, Phoenix Wright, is very different from how we last saw him. AA3’s conclusion saw Wright win his hardest (and best-written) case yet as a successful attorney with a growing history of success, but AJ:AA opens with Wright as a disgraced, disbarred former attorney, working as a pianist that can’t even play the piano. He’s even the suspect of a murder in this opening case. Naturally, the player has to wonder what caused this, which sets them on track to uncover the mysteries that the rest of the game has in store for them. Apollo feels the same way, and thus your motivations align as player and protagonist. This helps the player better connect with the new protagonist, and Apollo Justice already feels at home as the new head of the Ace Attorney series (until Dual Destinies at least). Not only that, but the other new character introduced also proves to be fascinating and intricately connected to the mystery at hand.

This case also functions as the player’s introduction to Kristoph Gavin, a renowned defense attorney that appears to be friends with Wright, and Justice’s mentor. He walks the player through the tutorial, which is not only useful from a gameplay perspective, but also portrays him as a reliable character from a storytelling perspective. This seemingly tiny detail makes the player trust Kristoph more, just like Justice does, and thus puts the player further into Justice’s shoes. Mia Fey gave the same instructions to Phoenix Wright in the first Ace Attorney game and she was very trustworthy, so the player would subconsciously think of Kristoph the same way they thought of Fey, putting them on the same pedestal. Justice trusts Kristoph as his mentor, so once more the player feels better connected with the new protagonist. This isn’t the only way the game tricks the player into trusting Kristoph, though. Typically in the first case of an Ace Attorney game, there will be four or five major characters - the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the defendant, the witness that turns out to be the true culprit, and possibly a mentor or partner for the defense. Thus, when the witness (Ms. Olga Orly) takes the stand, the player would naturally assume that they’re the true culprit - it’s happened in opening cases in games prior, and it would proceed to happen again in future games. Kristoph tries to guide Justice (and the player by extension) to accuse Ms. Orly, which would naturally make sense to the player. They trust Kristoph and they’ve done this song and dance a few times by this point - it must be Orly. However, Wright leads Justice and the player in a different direction, with the knowledge that Orly isn’t the real killer. Instead, it’s actually Kristoph Gavin himself, in a massive betrayal and twist as the writers flip the opening case formula on its head. Wright takes the stand next to you as you prove your formerly trusted mentor’s guilt, sending him off to jail. The writers completely subverted the player’s expectations over the course of one short case.

Additionally, this perfectly clues Justice and the player into the mysteries of the game, without revealing too much. The player knows just enough to wonder, but not enough to have any answers. What happened to Wright? What’s with his pendant? What was Kristoph’s motive? What aren’t they telling us? All of this gets the player (or at least got me) genuinely interested and excited for the events to come, especially after this wonderfully-written case. I was worried that these cases wouldn’t be able to live up to the ridiculously high bar set by their predecessors, but this case proved that the writers were more than capable. At least, I thought it did. You’ve already seen the first two sections of this essay, so you know that this game did not live up to my expectations at all. In addition to the previous games, I blame this first case for setting the bar way too high for the rest of the game. Because of this case, I expected the rest of the game to have superb writing and direction to match this masterpiece of a case, but it didn’t. I felt that the rest of the game’s cases - 2 and 3 - were just okay at best. They certainly had their moments, but ultimately, they were just average. I don’t have much to say about them (although I’ll touch on them a bit in the “other things I want to rant about” section), but after all the mysteries introduced in the first case, there was a lot hinging on the grand finale: case 4. I was still extremely curious to find out the answers, but ultimately, the way they were delivered was nothing more than a letdown for me.

Case 4: The MASON System (has an error).

I have a LOT to complain about for the fourth and final case, so I’m splitting it up into two parts, like how it was in the game. I know I’m skipping over the first half of the case, but my main criticisms really lie in the case’s dramatic and disappointing conclusion. First, I’ll be talking about the portion taking place in the MASON System, which frankly just confused me and took me out of the experience. I can only suspend my disbelief so much, and this weird and unexplained segment pushed me over the top. I’m still not entirely clear on what the MASON System even is, but I’ll do my best to explain what I experienced inside it. As the player, you see what appears to be a loading screen, and then you’re shown a black background covered in moving green binary code, just like something a hacker from of a cheesy 90s movie would see as they hack into the mainframe (as you can see in the image above). In front and facing you is Phoenix Wright, who appears to be talking directly to you. He’s not talking to Justice anymore, because Justice isn’t here, wherever or whatever here is. Wright appears talking directly to you, the player. The player is later revealed to be seeing through the eyes of “Juror No. 6,” but I’ll get more into that in the next section since it isn’t revealed until the end of the case. It also doesn’t explain how the juror got immersed in the MASON System or what it even is, but I digress. Wright then tells you that you can use the system to jump through space and time in order to experience Wright’s memories and to find the “keys” (evidence) to unlocking the truth, which you’ll then use to find the real truth of the mystery.

If you got lost somewhere in that last paragraph, me too. The game doesn’t explain how the MASON System connects to anything else in the game (or in Ace Attorney canon for that matter), how it knows Wright’s memories so intimately that the user can fully re-experience them, and why Justice can only get that game-changing evidence after some random juror experiences Wright’s memories. As far as I’m aware, this is the only time something like this has been done in Ace Attorney, and for good reason: it completely breaks immersion. Even if Wright isn’t actually breaking the fourth wall, it certainly appears like he is, which is not something Ace Attorney has ever done in a serious manner before, outside telling a player to press a certain button in a tutorial. The presence of Juror No. 6 is used at the end of the case to show that it wasn’t actually a fourth wall break, but that was long after the player left the MASON System and long after my inversion was ruined. I can accept weird and barely explained concepts in Ace Attorney - in fact, I’ve come to expect it. However, these usually follow a set of established rules in the Ace Attorney universe, so the player stays immersed. There’s nothing realistic or sensical about Wright’s “Psyche-Locks,” the Fey family’s ability to summon spirits of the dead, or really anything in Spirit of Justice (I’ve only played the first case, don’t spoil it for me). However, it’s an established rule in the world of Ace Attorney that magic exists and certain people can wield it. Thus, despite not being at all realistic, it makes sense in the context of the world. The MASON System, however, does not. I still don’t really understand it, and honestly, my enjoyment of the game is heightened if I just forget about the system itself and just remember what happened inside of it.

Even if I didn’t like the MASON System as a concept, I have to give credit where credit’s due: I did enjoy experiencing Wright’s memories and slowly starting to piece together the truth of the incident that led to Wright getting disbarred and the apparent death of Thalassa Gramarye. There were two ongoing mysteries at that point - the case of Magnifi Gramarye’s death (and Wright’s disbarment) from 7 years ago, and the case of Drew Misham’s death in the present. These two appeared to be inseparable from each other, and the truth about both would have to come out together. In truth, I’m kind of a sucker for mysteries where the past and present collide, even if it’s on the verge of becoming an overused trope in the Ace Attorney series by this point. I love figuring out the truth behind a long-lost case of the past and using that to answer questions about the present, and the MASON System delivers that perfectly. I especially love the use of Psyche-Locks throughout, which are essentially visualizations of secrets that people hide. These appear when a person is hiding something from Wright, and by presenting evidence, you can crack open these “locks” until the truth is finally laid bare. In this section, you slowly pick away at Valant Gramarye’s Psyche-Locks as you explore and gain new evidence. You figure out the existence of a secret as you question Valant, explore somewhere or someone else until you have the right evidence to force the truth out of him, then come back and land another blow that gets you ever closer to the truths behind Magnifi’s death and the Thalassa incident. This allows the player to see how close they’re getting to the heart of the mystery, and is certainly much better than any use of Psyche-Locks in Dual Destinies, where you already have the evidence from the moment the locks are put on display. Then again, that’s another essay for another time. I may not like how the writers used the MASON System to link Wright’s past to Justice’s present, but that was a very satisfying part of the mystery to conquer - if you ignore the MASON System itself, that is. Now that the answers to the mystery are starting to make themselves apparent, all the writers had to do was to stick the landing and call it a day, but it felt more like a belly flop than anything.

Case 4: Turnabout Succession (was not a success).

SPOILERS FOR THE GREAT ACE ATTORNEY 1 IN THIS SECTION

Most of case 4 played out like the rest of the cases in this game: just okay. It wasn’t exceptional, but I don’t have any major problems with it either. My main issue was the way the case was concluded, with a strange turn of events that felt out-of-place and caused a generally unsatisfying conclusion that ultimately made the journey feel like a waste. To explain this, let me give some context about Phoenix Wright’s adventures before and during the events of this game. Despite having been disbarred for presenting forged evidence in court, he was still very involved with the legal system and creating change within it. Specifically, he wanted to incorporate a jurist system into the courts, meaning that the verdict would be decided by six jurors instead of just a judge. This trial would be the first in the country to use the jurist system, and would be a test of this new system. Additionally, it’s revealed at the end of the trial that the player takes the role of a juror, Juror No. 6. This is the same character that experienced the MASON System just prior. Given all this information, you might be wondering: Why does Phoenix Wright have the power to alter the trial system in such a drastic way? Why would the verdict of a “test run” of a new system decide whether the defendant, a 19-year-old girl, spends the rest of her life in jail? Why does the player, who plays the role of the defense attorney, also get to play the role of the juror who decides the verdict of the case? And to those questions, I have no answer, and neither does the game. The end of this last trial entirely revolves around this “jurist system” subplot, and yet it feels tacked-on and pointless in the grand scheme of the game’s story. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad concept - Kristoph Gavin’s breakdown at the hands of the jury showed a glimpse of everything this game could have been. Yet, it just felt improperly executed, as if the writers just forgot about it until the last moment and scribbled down a couple new plot points at the end to make it fit. Furthermore, the whole concept of a jurist system as it existed in AJ:AA just isn’t compatible with the Ace Attorney formula. The judge’s decision is an integral part of a trial, and the only reasonable way they could make it work would be something like the system in The Great Ace Attorney 1 & 2. In TGAA games, the jurors are right in front of the judge, and both the defense and prosecution can argue directly to them. Instead of maintaining the idea of an anonymous jury decision behind closed doors, Dual Destinies just pretended that the jurist system was never introduced, which was honestly a smart decision if they wanted to maintain the classic Ace Attorney formula.

At the very end of the case, the player takes control of Juror No. 6, and gets to make their vote to decide whether the defendant is guilty. The player, who has been arguing that the defendant isn’t guilty to the court for hours, gets the chance to decide whether or not the defendant is guilty. As you can probably tell, there is a correct answer. An Ace Attorney game with multiple endings is a cool idea in theory, but in practice, there’s really only one ending in AJ:AA. If you choose to declare the defendant “not guilty,” you finally catch the real killer and happy music plays as the credits roll. If, for whatever reason, you declare the defendant that you’ve been defending for multiple hours “guilty,” then you’re told that the defendant died in a hospital bed and you’re kicked back to the main menu. The credits don’t even roll if you decide to indict the defendant. The idea of choice is a very important one to this game’s story, yet the one real choice the player is given has a correct answer, and the game punishes you for answering incorrectly. Once again, this doesn’t feel thought-through at all - it was just tacked on at the end for seemingly no reason at all. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad concept. For instance, what if it was used in a case like “The Adventure of the Runaway Room” (case 3) from The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures? That case was an incredibly interesting case for a number of reasons, including the fact that it was the protagonist’s first time acting as an attorney in a court with a jury. But more than that, it was interesting because of one ginormous detail of its beautifully unsatisfying and unsettling conclusion: it’s never made clear whether the defendant did or didn’t commit the crime. You get your “not guilty” verdict from the jury, but you never get a magnificent breakdown from the true culprit, and the defendant acts smug and suspicious as he’s given permission to walk free. In this case, there wasn’t a right or wrong answer, and neither the player nor the protagonist are ever given an answer as to whether or not they did the right thing. They just have to live in suspense and pray that they didn’t just set a murderer loose upon the world. If the final case of AJ:AA was structured more like this, it would make sense to have the player make the decision, since it easily could go either way. However, this isn’t at all similar to what the case actually was, leading to immense disappointment instead of the unease and intrigue it should have provided.

Even so, there was one thing this ending did right: the reveal of Juror No. 6’s identity. By this point, Thalassa Gramarye’s true identity has been revealed as not just the wife of Shadi Enigmar and daughter of Magnifi Gramarye, but also the mother of Apollo Justice as well as the mother of Phoenix Wright’s adopted daughter, Trucy Wright. The key to this realization laid in the bracelet she had on her wrist, which was identical to the one worn by Justice which gave him his powers. However, during his investigation, Phoenix Wright also learned that Thalssa had an unfortunate death in an accident years and years ago. When Juror No. 6’s perspective is shown as they look down on a screen with options for “guilty” and “not guilty,” a reflection is shown on the screen, vaguely showing the face of a prominent witness from “Turnabout Serenade” (case 3) by the name of Lamiroir. She always wore a hood and a mask over her face, which I assumed was just meant to make life easier for the animators. Still, it was instantly recognizable, even if it was just a faint silhouette. Additionally, her sleeve extended up her arm, showing that beautiful and recognizable pattern the player had seen numerous times behind the witness stand. Yet, as the player controls her arm and moves it to the “guilty” or “not guilty” buttons, her sleeve falls down, revealing a golden bracelet - identical to the one worn by Apollo Justice. Thalassa Gramarye is still very much alive, and she’s living life as Lamiroir. I was grinning ear to ear with my jaw on the floor as the answer to the game’s final (intentional) mystery was revealed - exactly how I should feel at the end of an Ace Attorney game. The reveal was subtle enough that I felt smart for figuring out what it meant, but obvious enough that it was near-impossible to miss. The game doesn’t outright tell you what it means (until a wrap-up scene right after), but instead takes a look at the puzzle of answers you’ve been building up throughout the story, and gives you the final piece. Because of this perfectly-written moment at the end, the game actually left a pretty good taste in my mouth, despite everything I just complained about. I may not have loved a lot about the ending of this case, but this one detail almost makes it all worth it. Almost.

Other things I want to rant about

SPOILERS FOR ACE ATTORNEY 1 & 5 IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH

I’ve talked about all my main points of controversy about this game, but there’s still a bit I want to get off my chest about a few other topics. I don’t have as much to say about these as I did about my main topics, but this is a comprehensive essay on nearly all of my thoughts about Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, so why stop now? First, let’s talk a bit about the man in the picture above: Phoenix Wright. Honestly, I liked the way the writers treated him in this game. Introducing the former lawyer extraordinaire as a washed-up bum raises a lot of intrigue from the player, and seeing him in his natural habitat at the defense’s bench supporting Justice was a satisfying thing to see. To Justice, Wright serves as a mentor. Although he’s a very different character now, he still has the intelligence and the whimsy that Wright is known for. He’ll act mysterious when it comes to important topics and he’ll get serious when he needs to, but he’s also just telling dad jokes and reminiscing on his days of presenting his attorney’s badge to every person he saw. He’s an old, retired veteran of an attorney, and a hero for Justice to look up to. Yet, at the same time, he’s a weird and silly old dude with that same old silly sense of humor he’s always had. It would have been very easy to essentially pull a character assassination on Wright by putting him into this role, but the writers of AJ:AA walked the tightrope perfectly and gave the foundations for him to be a great mentor to Justice and possibly take on a role similar to that of Mia Fey for the rest of the series (with or without dying). I have mixed feelings about their decision to bring him back as an attorney in Dual Destinies instead of just entrusting Justice (and maybe Cykes) with the lawyering duties, but then again, that’s another essay for another time.

While we’re on the topic of characters, there’s one more I wanted to rant a bit about: Trucy Wright. As I mentioned in the last section, Trucy is the adopted daughter of Phoenix Wright, and plays a role as an assistant in this game similar to Maya Fey in past Ace Attorney games. (Which makes sense, since Trucy is Justice’s biological sister. Wait, as I’m typing this, I’m realizing: were they ever told that they were siblings? That’s their character dynamic, but Wright just says at the end of AJ:AA that he’ll tell them when the time is right. Was it still not time yet by the end of Dual Destinies? THEY DESERVE TO KNOW!) Trucy’s profession at age 15 is that of a magician, being the sole true heir to the legacy of the famous Gramarye family of magicians. I like her character and her role in the story overall, but I have one major complaint: why are the writers so obsessed with this 15-year-old girl’s panties? The first major magic trick of hers that’s shown is her “magic panties” trick, in which she can make things appear and disappear into her panties. Her panties essentially act as a pocket dimension, like Mary Poppins’ bag. For whatever reason, the writers KEEP COMING BACK to the same panty trick, OVER and OVER and OVER. It’s supposedly her most popular trick, and yet neither she, her adopted father, nor Justice ever question why an audience of grown adults is so keen on seeing this 15-year-old girl’s panties. In so much of anime and so many anime games, there’s that one episode or that one scene that you just can’t defend, and in this game (AND IN DUAL DESTINIES TOO) they just can’t let it go. As much as I love her character, this is the one sin I can’t overlook, no matter how much I want to.

There’s no way to talk about Ace Attorney without talking about the music. I don’t have any real analysis to make about the new tracks in AJ:AA, but I do want to say that I really like the new direction they took with the music in this new game. Justice is a new protagonist, so his music shouldn’t sound exactly the same as Wright’s, but it should still be recognizable enough to feel like a proper Ace Attorney game. The OST of AJ:AA does this near-perfectly. Even Justice’s “objection” theme goes by a different name: “A New Trial is in Session.” Justice is his own person and his own attorney, and this shows the new direction that the Ace Attorney franchise would be going in from here on out. This is another detail that was written out by the writers of Dual Destinies, for the better or worse, but the people behind AJ:AA had no way of knowing what the next game would do. Justice’s new tracks all have a uniquely “Apollo Justice” feeling to them, from the objection theme to the pursuit theme to the all-new “perceive” theme for Justice’s body language-reading abilities. Klavier’s theme feels perfectly cool and high-energy, and Kristoph’s theme feels like the exact opposite with a slow and methodical feel. Also, the various little easter eggs revolving around Klavier’s theme never failed to make me laugh, from hearing it in a live performance in case 3 to hearing a little pixelated version of his theme as his ringtone. And for the guitar’s serenade, well, I could probably write a whole paragraph about that. Actually-

Lamiroir was introduced in case 3 as a singer from the fictional Eastern European country of Borginia, and a very talented singer at that. We’d later learn that she’s actually Thalassa Gramarye after getting shot, losing her memories, and being presumed dead, but that’s neither here nor there. There may not have been enough space on a DS cartridge to fit high-quality human voices, but there was enough space to fit a midi file with a high-pitched part that represented the singing voice of Lamiroir. This track is one of my favorites of the entire OST. Towards the beginning of the case, you witness a joint performance between Lamiroir and Klavier Gavin, entitled “The Guitar’s Serenade.” You’ll be hearing this track again and again as you analyze the video for evidence over the course of the trial, and also because you just want to hear the song again, turn on your phone’s flashlight, and wave it back and forth over your head to the beat. Despite being such a small audio file without any actual human singing, it perfectly displays the soft, gentle, and beautiful nature of Lamiroir’s voice. The Ace Attorney games usually just have to say “trust me bro” after telling you what a witness’ voice sounds like, but this is the exception. Additionally, parts of the song are used in Lamiroir’s theme, giving it that same gentle, majestic, and elegant energy found in the song. This made it very easy to like Lamiroir as a character, which only added more magic to the reveal of her true identity at the end of the game and its story. I’m honestly not sure if I want her to return in a later game for more, or if I’d rather not hear a worse interpretation of her character that sours the memories of her character in this game. I guess all I can do is place my trust in the writers, no matter how hard of a task that may be.

Now, for a (not so) quick rapid-fire round: Payne was really funny in the first case as he completely lost control of the trial, which became a duel between Wright and Kristoph Gavin. I still see Kristoph and his devil-hand in my nightmares sometimes. Ema Skye’s return after Rise From the Ashes (bonus case from AA1) was really fun and cool to see, and I enjoyed the return of the forensic examination techniques. Seeing the Kitaki crime family after having played through the entire Yakuza franchise was really funny. The reveal that Patriarch Kitaki’s shades were actually just huge eyebrows covering tiny little baby eyes was absolutely hilarious. Wocky Kitaki is a baby version of Akira Nishikiyama if he was a furry and also straight (or maybe Alita’s betrayal is what drove him to loving men?). Trucy’s Mr. Hat magic trick is her best trick and I’m honestly appalled that it never showed up in Dual Destinies. Borginians speaking in wingdings is really funny, and I’d love to hear what that sounds like. Valant Gramarye is very evil but also really funny so I think he should be pardoned. Little Trucy in the flashback is really cute, and I love Klavier’s flashback outfit. Kristoph going super-saiyan in his breakdown is really funny and the animation is perfect. I love how everything new they did with Phoenix Wright was explained by just those seven years since disbarment, rather than adding even more things to his backstory (although I think it would be really funny if in a future Ace Attorney game, they just added a bunch of random details to Wright’s backstory then explained at the end of that game that none of it actually happened and the villain was just messing with their brains with magic) (hit me up Capcom I have ideas). I really loved the credits sequence with all the printed pictures. All in all, I feel like I didn’t love the parts of this game that really mattered, but the little unnecessary details were all perfect. Anyway, I think it’s time to wrap up this rant - it’s gone on for long enough.

The verdict on Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Now that I’ve dogged on Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for 27 paragraphs and over 7,000 words, I feel like it’s time to say that it’s not actually that bad. A rant this long can only come from a place of love, and I absolutely love the Ace Attorney series. I started playing the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy in late 2021, which was a pretty bleak time for me coming out of the pandemic. During the pandemic, video games were the only things that really kept me going, giving me something to look forward to day to day as all the days blended together into one blob. Because of this, the games I played at the time all hold a very special place in my heart: Persona, Halo, Devil May Cry, Yakuza, Ace Attorney, and so many more. Maybe my experiences with the games were altered by the conditions of my life as I played through them, but still, I know just how amazing Ace Attorney can be. That’s exactly why I felt so upset playing through this entry of the series - I know the writers can do so much better. The game wasn’t really that terrible as a video game and as a story, but when it has to live up to the brilliant standards set by the Ace Attorney franchise, it just falls flat on its face. I did really enjoy my time playing through this game and I did really enjoy all of the cases, but I just know that Apollo Justice and Klavier Gavin had the potential to be so much more interesting and to be written so much better. I’m not going to give the game a numerical rating or anything like that because that system has no room for subjectivity, but I would genuinely recommend the game to any Ace Attorney fan who finished the first trilogy (and maybe The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles) and is looking for more - in other words, anyone like me. I may not have loved this game as much as some other games in the series, but I do not regret one second I spent playing that game. If nothing else, it gave me this chance to reflect on myself, my thoughts, and my feelings about the series as a whole. I’ll always be grateful for that, and rest assured my love for the Ace Attorney franchise will not fade anytime soon.

I’d also like to briefly say that, if you read this far into the ramblings of an insane Ace Attorney fan, thank you. I wrote this to get my own thoughts and feelings off my chest, but if anyone else reads through these words and gets literally anything out of them, then this was all the more worthwhile. And if you’re a vehement Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney fan who’s foaming at the mouth with pure rage while hate-reading my rant, please tell me why. I don’t mean this as a joke or a diss, I genuinely believe that the ability to debate and argue about the things you’re passionate about is one of the greatest joys life has to offer. While I’d rather not have any death threats sent my way, I would still greatly appreciate the chance to keep talking and thinking and debating about this messy yet beautiful game in one of the best series of stories I’ve ever had the joy of experiencing.

And as a thank you for reading this far, I’d like to let you know that I’m a screenshot addict. I cannot stop myself from taking a ridiculous number of screenshots every time I play a game, and it’s killing my hard drive. I still have a lot of really funny shots that I wasn’t able to include as section titles, so without further ado, here are some…

FUNNY SCREENSHOTS!!!!!

[the-nova-council]

Picrew: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/582810

We're the Council, nice to meet you! Here's a quick introduction to each of us:

Apollo ☀️ The democratically elected head of the Council, our beloved leader and older brother figure. He gets shit done and we love him for that! He also keeps us functioning and we tend to fall apart when he's in the void for a long time.

Felix 🐈‍⬛ That's me, author of this post! And reluctantly the host for now. I'm the researcher and compiler of information, but I also get really sad a lot, sorryyyyy

Artemis 🌙 Our social butterfly and hair dye expert, sk8er girl, skin care routine, taker of showers and brusher of teeth. And a gossip! She does, in fact, want to hear about your friend's mom's crush who works at the drugstore, and your neighbor's beef with the mailman, please spill the tea. (Also took co-front to help write these so I'm here now, Hiiii! -Artemis)

Cora 💜 Our middle and a major component of our mask- she was the host throughout childhood! Loves to be colorful and messy. A free spirit and creative artist and poet!

Wyldfire 🔥 On all levels but physical, he is a wolf. Awooo - For real though, he has a teen form and a wolf form and is quick to anger. He likes loud, bass-heavy music, will bite people in a mean way, and has a strong sense of justice.

Elias 🪞 The only non-asexual member of this system. Has his own separate Tumblr account because he's a bit of a freak /affectionate. He is allowed to post friendly things here but if he's in a mood he will be banished to his private account and/or horny jail.

Mino ⭐ Our little! Beloved baby boy, he rarely fronts and doesn't type so good, but he is a sweetheart.

Eerie 🌀 Local gatekeeper is the only member of this system who doesn't like coffee, more at six. Eerie stays near front the majority of the time and helps things run smoothly, despite being our most recent split Apollo considers her his assistant and right hand man. (I'm his left hand man :3 -Felix)

Epsilon ⏰ Our only known fictive, so far removed from her source she is unrecognizable! A Time Lady of Gallifrey, survivor of the Time War, medic and mechanic, she is our mother figure, caretaker, and favourite backseat driver. When she fronts, we don't emote much and speak in a freakishly flat tone, and she doesn't experience many emotions! We love that for her /gen

Angel 🪽 Self-identified persecutor, he is also our oldest friend. Angel is the only member of our system who isn't atheist/agnostic, which is indeed a little weird. Nonhuman, a little creepy, rarely fronts, suspected trauma holder... Being of divine love and divine justice. And catholic Guilt. Whoops.

Bastion 🛡️ Rare fronter, high memory barriers, low communication. He has recently begun sharing more, and even spending time in the headspace! He likes hiding (but not seeking), and bunnies. He is an age slider similar to Cora, within the 6-12 range.

Additional system info: The body is 23, we collectively use they/he pronouns (individual intro posts will be made by those who want to make one when they come to front!!), we are an undiagnosed mixed origin OSDD system, we have other mental health issues we will not be listing here, English is our only language, we are American, we are queer, we don't tolerate hate or exclusion, and we are quick with the block hammer. We don't have time for discourse. We welcome any and all friendly interaction though!

Merricat 🌸 Clone of a fusion of Felix & Cora! They chose their name from We Have Always Lived In The Castle and has many traits from each of the original components of her fusion, but has grown into an individual since then and even co-fronted with Felix!

Marten ☕ Fictive from the Magnus Archives, and still a fan of it. Also a fan of tea and ultimately concerned with being cozy. Content alone but likes trying to make friends.

Havoc 🔪 does not want to share at this time but has consented to being listed.

Nully 📍 went dormant when we were a young teen and resurfaced November 2024. She feels stuck at 13 and is still reeling from waking up as an adult with a whole different life. Please be patient with her.

Gemini ☯️ He's chill. Likes Percy Jackson, watching TV and reading. Would like for everyone to get along. Mild interest in politics.

Gregory 🎃 and Freddy ✨ are Fictives from FNAF security breach, arrived as a pair. Freddy is a caretaker and occasionally comes out alone to help. Gregory has yet to come out alone yet.

Jester/Jelly 🍇 is a chaos entity, a shape shifter, and a generally fun little critter. Fan of youtaite music and vocaloid. Likes loud breakcore and dubstep also.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Main Blog, which existed long before we had our syscovery, and will continue to be run as usual: @apollo-zero-one

[caliartcat]

welcome! (pinned post 23/06/24) this is my art blog where I mainly post my finished drawings (and the occasional shitpost). the art itself is usually sfw as well, as drawing nsfw doesn't interest me. at the moment I'm mostly obsessed with apollo justice and anyone he interacts with as well. if you like my art please reblog rather than just giving it a like, since it helps a lot more, and I read all the silly tags <3 my pronouns are only he/him, so refer to me accordingly. personal blog is @calicopecat fandoms: • ace attorney • mairuma • enstars • vocaloid you're allowed to send me art requests but I can't guarantee fulfilling all of them since I mainly just draw what I'm interested in myself, you're still free to send me nice asks though! if you're proship or anything like that (as in posting incestuous or pedophilic content) please don't interact with my posts or myself and do not start discourse with me I'll just block you. I also post about different lgbtq+ headcanons and if that bothers you please leave.

[kierpollo]

pinned. . ➜ hello hello! please call me kieran/gallagher. i go by they/he/it prns :) ꕀ im (a) yumeshipper/ficto and im looking to make friends with other yumes/self shippers and just have fun! ヾ(•ω•`)o

(more info utc!!)

⟢ i’m currently 19 years old!

⟢ ive been yumeship for a few years now but decided to try and put myself out there into the space for once. not my first tumblr acc but i’m suuuper socially anxious so i’ve deleted my old ones but i really wanted to try and make friends and step outside my comfort zone!

⟢ i just recently discovered that i’m ficto. i’ve considered myself aroace (and still do!!) for years but i feel that term fits me more :)

⟢ here is my dni list, please be respectful and dni if you are any of the following! : pro.ship/com.ship/adjacents, m//aps/p//edo, zoo//philes, bigots, lgbt exclusionists, trans/homo phobes, aphobes, anti self ship/ficto, trump supporters, zionists, pro harassment, terf/truscum, radfems, ed/sh blogs, rpf creators/blogs/shippers, purely n.sfw blogs, anyone under 16*

⟢ i block liberally and i block pro//shippers on sight. if you’re not pro//ship and are blocked it’s likely that we share an f/o or that your content just isn’t for me!

⟢ on the same topic of pro//ship, don’t try to argue with me or start ship discourse, i’m not here to argue about it, it’s a boundary of mine and it makes me uncomfortable. so don’t try to cause drama, i will block and report you.

⟢ my main romantic f/o is apollo justice from ace attorney! (loml.. <33 1/1/24) no doubles/sharing please, im extremely attached to him! as a side note, please do not mention any canon x canon ships involving apollo to me, for my own comfort :)

⟢ my secondary romantic f/os are aizetsu from kny and risotto nero from jjba! i’m a little iffy on sharing them!

⟢ my platonic f/os include: ume/daki, gyutaro, zohakuten (+the other hantengu clones..), tanjiro kamado, muichiro tokito, mitsuri kanroji, phoenix wright, trucy wright, athena cykes, giorno giovanna, pannacotta fugo, taranza

⟢ my familial f/os include: courtney(pkmn), juliana/florian(pkmn) and trish una

⟢ i’m not a roleplay blog and i’d prefer no roleplay interaction please!

⟢ please do not randomly dm me, it makes me anxious :( please ask first!

⟢ *i’m turning 20 soon and having someone that young interacting with me is just a bit odd to me, sorry! you’re totally allowed to reblog my art n reblog games n such but please don’t follow me! thanks!

thats about it! thanks for reading!! have a good day ❤️

[39mice]

welcome to my account! 🐭🩷

crea or polly || she/squeak || aroace lesbian || ⚢ ∞ || icon artwork by @iheartarisa

my twitter ‪ ✧ archive of my transfem Apollo stuff

✧ #crea.talks ← all my posts can be found under here. ✧ #crea.png ← all images of mine can be found here. ✧ #crea.draws ← all my art can be found here. ✧ #crea does textposts ← as suggested all text posts can be found under this tag. ✧ #crea art pile ← tag for other people’s art that I find cool. ✧ #fav vids ← contains all my fave videos. As you probably guessed. ✧ #transfem apollo justice <- as the name suggests. All posts about transfem apollo are in here. I’m very normal. ✧ #minecrea ← my tag for Minecraft and Minecraft adjacent content. If you do not want to see the little block fellas mute that tag.

If you’re looking for a post past 3/4/24 there’s a slight chance you won’t be able to find it because i haven’t updated or used some of these tags before that.

I’ve been stuck in the fandom hell ive been hyper fixating on ace attorney for the last year or so. I’ve played AA1-5 and am working through 6. That’s mainly what my blog focuses on but my other interests include:

✧ Hermitcraft, Magical girls (Madoka, Precure etc), Welcome to demon school iruma-kun, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Log Horizon, Splatoon, Ghost trick, Old Web, Ai: the somnium files, Adventure time, Mob Psycho, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Nilfruits, Umineko, Mice & other marsupials if that wasn’t exceedingly obvious.

I’m a radical feminist but I do not support or want terfs near me. And I truly believe that if you’re trans exclusionary that you are not a real feminist.

I like Hugh O’Conner ace attorney and I’m autistic over him please don’t be mean about him on my posts </3 peace and love!

No bigots allowed on this blog I will punch you.

don’t follow me if you’re an nsfw blog or a “minors dni” blog, someone who regards themselves as a “proshipper” or “anti anti” (I am not arguing w u over this get a job im dead serious.) engage actively in slur discourse or queer discourse. Also no zionists.

outside of that if I don’t like you I’ll just block! peace and love on planet earth!

I do not do genderbent versions of characters unless stated otherwise they are transgender

[raven]

what video games would u recommend. based on me seeing ur posts and thinking ur right even though i never know what youre talking about. also i have dogshit taste but i have good taste actually but its bad

OMG

hop on backloggd heres mine and heres my buddy rory's bc they make points too and are generally more serious than me so if you want to be serious u can go there. More under the cut bc i cant shut up 👍

otherwise my pretentious but #real and #true recs that i genuinely think everyone should play are disco elysium, pentiment, and kentucky route zero.

"theyre just good!" - who's lila?, the world ends with you, return of the obra dinn, hylics 2, portal 1&2, ghost trick, outer wilds (however outer wilds may be difficult for whatever reason- i recommend hollow_tones on twitch's streams although she has not streamed the dlc!)

series that have taken over my life for periods of time, for good or ill - dragon age (2 is my fav, all are worth playing, inquisition is dogshit storywise but has good gameplay, centrist liberal writers that make u want to bomb a church (for the record @ fbi this is a reference to the events of one of my favorite characters in the series, not real life. he was justified), ace attorney (1-3 are great with some questionable moments but apollo justice is the best overall game, 5&6 are some of the worst games ive played in my life, and the great ace attorney... exists), and persona (UGH). i can go more in depth about any of these, but i will go more in depth about persona because thats my current disorder and because theyre the most problematic, LOL. but dgmw da and aa are also problematic in many ways

persona - ive posted about it. im realizing i didnt talk about the misogyny in that post because i thought it was well known honestly but like. my god. the misogyny. especially persona 5 royal. dont play 4. or do, bc i need anyone to suffer as i have, but im serious. i feel like whatever people say, its worse. ive also posted about 4.

if you want to lose a week of your life in a "game for 16ish hours, sleep for 8ish hours, repeat" cycle play baldurs gate 3. its a fun game it takes up your time it has great mechanics! do not pay attention to character discourse baby.

if you like good gameplay, play dishonored 1&2

if you don't like good gameplay, play morrowind (this is kind of a joke in that i dont actually think morrowind has bad gameplay, but it still can be tedious.)

if you don't like good gameplay, play the persona 2 duology (this is not a joke, the gameplay in those games are actually bad.)

if you like gameplay, play any katamari game

also gonna plug one of my favorite genres, nonlinear visual novel adjacent games (lots of wordy, story-based segments but there are actual gameplay portions) these games also are not necessarily "good" but they are "fun": 999 (play on DS!!), ai the somnium files (note that this and 999 kind of require a... specific taste with the sexual humor) these games did have sequels but theyre all pretty bad for various reasons but check em out if you enjoyed the originals, paranormasight (one of the best ones in this genre imo), gnosia, 13 sentinels

also i have not hopped on final fantasy 7 (ORIGINAL) but i am about to hop on final fantasy 7 (ORIGINAL). and i am currently struggling against the current playing smt iii nocturne.

also, games that i have not played but interest me storywise and deserve honorable mentions are baroque (not really planning on playing but planning on watching stuff), pathologic classic (played a little and watched a full playthrough years ago, probably will get back to one day), pathologic 2 (never completed), fear and hunger (played for a few hours and decided to watch a playthrough instead), and fear and hunger 2 (not played but planning on playing bc ive heard its a little more user friendly than the original!)

so thats video games.

[oodlyenough]

with the apollo justice ports around the corner I finally made a concerted effort to finish AAI. there was a period where i thought i'd play both investigations games AND tgaa before now. lol. lmao even

fandom wasn't kidding that last case can long

miscellaneous spoilers and overall thoughts on AAI1. also it's very long

let's get some good stuff up top to start:

it was pretty funny

the pixel sprites were soooo cute, and most of the character art was nice in general

i liked seeing more of edgeworth and franziska together. this was 80% of the reason i played the game to begin with. stupid little details like the fact that she does, actually, still call him "miles" occasionally were nice to have, and i liked a lot of their bratty sibling interactions

callisto yew was the best lmao i loved her

kay's cute. i gotta disagree with the common fanon that she's literally edgeworth's daughter, on account of it's been two days and someone else has raised her to near adulthood, but being a teenager who shows up sometimes to bother him is a very funny thing for her to be, anyway

the yatagarsu actually being a toxic polycule was funny as shit lmao i love it. and kay at the end saying she wants to find 3 fellow teenage beauties to do it with her fhkldhglkhlfg yes girl end up on reddit queer housing discourse i believe in u babe

i didn't like lang all that much to begin with but once we got to the shih-na reveal i was all in, lmfaoooo. i joked "i hope he eats a poison necklace for her" and five minutes later he was taking a bullet. amazing. in all seriousness their relationship felt like much of what i enjoyed about dahlia and phoenix minus the stuff i felt was stupid. let's hear it for toxic workplace romances. edgey comes out of 3-5 like "well that was a lot" and then meets some new spiky weirdo to have homoerotic rivalry with only to discover that guy is also insane about some evil woman

cammy and ms teneiro were also great. lot of funny women in some of these cases. i like that.

this game could have attempted to sell me on some het romance for edgeworth -- it wouldn't have worked, but i wouldn't have exactly been surprised if it had tried, yknow -- but anyway instead it had miscellaneous women flirt with him while he was consistently baffled and/or oblivious and/or revolted. don't worry mr edgeworth i saw your magenta suit

i think broadly that covers the stuff I liked. which leads me to ... stuff I did not:

this game was... rough, imo. after i finished the trilogy this summer i was excited to play this, in particular because one of my few but key complaints with aa3-5 was that franziska and edgeworth just kind of disappeared and i was hoping this would give more exploration and closure to their characters.

that... did not happen. i felt like i was waiting for it to hit a point and get good for pretty much the entire game; it'd be like "well at least franziska is here soon" "well i want to meet kay" "well there's the baby franziska case" "well it's the finale surely it'll be fun!" and mostly none of that really materialized. largely i found it disappointing and anticlimactic.

i don't think i learned anything new about the existing characters -- edgeworth just kind of seemed to be reiterating lessons we already learned in the trilogy, and i felt they negated a lot of franziska's trilogy development and/or flanderized her a lot. the new characters are ok -- i LOVED yew/shih-na lmfao, and I like Kay, and I eventually came to like Lang once I saw him be unhinged about shih-na. but overall i felt the character work was weaker than I was expecting, and without the investment I have from the trilogy I doubt I'd have finished the game. the bratworth + baby franziska case was my fave of the game, because it was fun to see them together in that period of their lives, but even then I don't think how edgeworth was written makes any real sense with aa1 -- i think trilogy bratworth would take the easy conviction against gumshoe and be done with it. that was like. pretty core to the first three games.

I didn't find anything particularly emotional. I WAS interested in Callisto and her dead sister as compared to Kay and her dead father but, never mind, that was a lie. They tried to convince me KG8 was personal to everyone, but it didn't really feel like it for anyone but Kay -- who I like but met two cases ago, and whose connection to even Edgeworth is tenuous. Like they make it pretty clear Franziska is haunted by that case but ... why? Because she regards it as a semi failure I guess...? Like sure, I guess, but ... that's kind of remote. Compare to the trilogy finale stakes of defendant Edgeworth, Maya kidnapped, Phoenix falling off a bridge + Maya missing... the big threat here was that some guy we just recently met might go on to murder other people we've never met in foreign countries. Objectively yes that's bad, but it's not exactly emotionally gripping, imo.

I feel like the nature of the games and its place in the broader AA universe meant the stakes were off. edgeworth and his allies get accused of murder every five minutes in this game, but none of it ever feels real, because by "accused" they mean the police ask a few questions. in AA terms, this is nothing. there's no detention center or arrest or the threat of a 3 day trial and inexplicable death penalty. i've been saying for ages that i would love to see defendant franziska, everyone else got a turn!!, etc -- and technically this last case gave it to me except, well, she was one of about a dozen people accused over the span of the world's longest case, there's no real threat there, and frankly where's the fun in franziska being accused of murder if not for her to grudgingly accept phoenix as her representation. AAI's determination that everything happen pre-trial means that mostly none of it felt very serious; no one even gets arrested. maybe in a vacuum the threat of arrest would feel like enough, but in a series where you have Maya as Murder Charges Georg it just felt like nothing was really on the line -- what's the worst that happens, they get arrested and they hire phoenix? lol. don't threaten me with a good time!

this post is a million words long so I'll stop there. in conclusion, the worst ace attorney game I have played so far. fortunately(?) for AAI and unfortunately for me, i have not yet played dual destinies or spirit of justice, so stay tuned to see if it gets dethroned, lmfao.

i will, probably, eventually give AAI2 a try, if only to better understand everyone's fanfiction, but my hopes are pretty low.

[mi4017thesandukandevidanalge]

Film Review

The Shining

(Subtle) "The Shining" (softly) If you're someone who's never heard of a film and happens to watch it in the cinema, you probably won't be impressed. After all, in murder plots, movies tend to whisper. But why would a single word unsettle you? What does it mean? Is "The Shining" in the film about the cycle of death, or is it about the maze leading to the unknown, confinement, despair, and madness? When people slaughter Native Americans in the name of justice, when people, driven by desire, find themselves trapped in a maze and resort to cannibalism, when a hotel caretaker murders his family, and ultimately when a mad writer sells his soul for fleeting power and greed, ascending into the maze only to perish in desperate flashes of light.

I find this film to be nothing short of a poem, with its marvelous composition, cleverly arranged eeriness, and psychological implications woven through intricate details. With its flawless screenplay, every scene advances the plot seamlessly, making the lengthy narrative feel remarkably compact. Even the criticized opening scene, ingeniously linked through road layouts and shots of the hotel, focuses on those fleeing, cars with lights on in the daytime, and those stopped, cars involved in accidents; amidst eerie settings, the protagonist journeys toward the hotel of horrors. Swiftly, through several key scenes — a count that can be tallied on two hands — all the keys to the film are presented, leaving the rest to the viewer's interpretation.

Like the arrangement of horror in haiku, even the answers are extended through off-screen implications. How can such a film not provoke thought? How can one not reminisce about the characters? I truly admire the director for effortlessly condensing countless scenes, efforts, and reshoots into this two-and-a-half-hour masterpiece. What mastery it requires! Truly worthy of a maestro.

However, truth be told, I don't consider "The Shining" to be a film that truly encapsulates his efforts, considering it's based on Stephen King's novel. With its abundant conflicts of gender and race, what significance does such content hold for him? Is the entire film crafted merely for those two insignificant and irrelevant pedophilic episodes? Or is it a discourse on conspiracy theories, hinting at the Apollo moon landing hoax? Is it the protagonist's hysterical justifications expressing his conflicted desires to admit and deny? Or is it for the vindication of a Beatle?

Yet amidst all these details, the most evident implication seems to be reincarnation, akin to being trapped in a maze where one endlessly turns corners but still moves forward. Either tempted by desire and driven mad in solitude, or gradually retreating step by step, leaving the maze, escaping the labyrinth of the beast Daros. The beast's hypocritical humility serves to sell your soul in madness, dancing for insanity, one should beware of losing oneself. Do not be deceived by the facade embellished by authority, for within the strong lies the stronger, within the weak lies the weaker. Though a domineering husband may oppress his gentle wife, the wife is the reliance of the helpless child, while the husband is powerless before his superior. Clearly branded as a societal failure, the protagonist, amidst the hotel's meticulously crafted compositions, dons a shining crown symbolized by a chandelier, blinded by the power within the crown, he ventures into the labyrinth of authority. Able to surveil his family freely within the hotel, akin to overseeing the maze. Hence, when his wife attempts to flee the hotel, Jack defends it as their abode, demanding, threatening them to stay. But where there's no perpetual weak or absolute strong, Jack loses his way in the labyrinth.

The office scene resembles a voyage of the soul in an office, although Ullman, in his neutral manner, outlines the risks of Jack's impending choices, Jack, unswayed by Bill's guidance, insists on meeting Satan, whether lured by the devil or the demon within. Yet, he is blatantly deceived within the hotel. Initially the one his wife cares for the most, due to the hotel's machinations, she abandons him, plummeting him into despair. Yet he willingly descends into hell, "selling his soul for a drink" (a line from the movie), then signing a contract amidst the crimson toilet, preparing to dispose of his family, relishing in power. It's rather intriguing, as Carl Jung's concept of the unconscious speaks of the hidden evil within human nature. This suggests that those who consort with demons are the demons' cohorts.

However, what I find most intriguing is whether the hotel itself qualifies as a character. If something serves only one function, one purpose, an unchanging meaning, then it should be deemed an object; but if it can change, act, think, possess character and will, then where lies the distinction from a character? Are the two little girls, the woman in the bathroom, the crowd in the hotel ballroom, and the hotel staff not part of the hotel? If the protagonist Jack is part of the hotel, could the hotel not be an extension of him? Seeing the two paintings on either side of the bloodbath scene, the flying bird from "Afternoon in December," the hunter from "Hunting Camp," wouldn't they symbolize not only Jack but also the hotel?

There are many more details in this film that I cannot list all at once. However, regarding the theme of reincarnation mentioned earlier, it doesn't only manifest in the protagonist but also in society. Society squeezes Jack into failure, causing him to seek solace from his family. But from a perspective of racial discrimination, from the recurrent massacres of Native Americans to Jack's final decision with the hotel to avoid Black intervention, society seems to also be squeezing the hotel chef. Could it be that the ability of the hotel chef, the chef's grandmother, and Danny to have the shining is due to their status as oppressed individuals, traversing through women, ethnic minorities, and children, three vulnerable groups? Perhaps the entire film is about the cycle of power dynamics? Who knows? Truth be told, the film is formidable, truly a masterful horror piece, but as for its depth, I haven't really pondered much.

[thetitansocietyorg]

Facing the Illusion: Unveiling the Truth of Existence

Facing the Illusion: Unveiling the Truth of Existence

“You fail to comprehend or acknowledge the truth of your existence you have derived a delusion of this which has become encased and entrenched with yourself and your society, the outcome from myself Asteria is justice from this action of yourself and your eventual denial of this fact and the outcome of this within yourself and your civilisation” – Asteria ‘Nocturnal Oracles and Falling Stars’ – Andrew Rogers ‘Titan Auteur, Writer, Oracle’.

Understanding Asteria's "Nocturnal Oracles and Falling Stars"

In the enigmatic text Asteria, a Titaness, communicates a profound message regarding the truth of existence and the consequences of denying it. The message seems to address individuals who fail to grasp or acknowledge the reality of their existence, instead choosing to embrace a delusion that becomes deeply ingrained within themselves and their society.

Asteria's declaration of seeking justice from those who exhibit this behavior implies a moral and cosmic retribution for denying the fundamental truth of existence. It prompts reflection on the potential repercussions of such denial, both on a personal level and within the broader scope of civilization.

The cryptic yet compelling nature of Asteria's words invites contemplation on the significance of acknowledging and embracing the truth of one's existence. The text's profound themes undoubtedly offer ample room for introspection and philosophical discourse.

The Titan Society – Cronus ‘Titan Leader, Destroyer’, Hecate ‘Witchcraft, Destroyer’ Circe ‘Sorceress, Destroyer’.

Andrew Rogers – Founder, Creative Director, Writer, Oracle.

The Mythological Figure Asteria: A Titan Goddess of Night and Refuge

In Greek mythology, Asteria holds a significant place as the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and as the sister of Leto. Known for her dual roles as the goddess of nocturnal oracles and falling stars, Asteria's story is one of both bravery and transformation.

According to Hesiod, Asteria bore a daughter named Hecate with Perses. However, it is her own escape from Zeus's advances that truly sets her apart. Faced with the relentless pursuit of the king of gods, Asteria took on the form of a quail and flung herself into the depths of the Aegean Sea. This act of self-transformation gave rise to the legendary "quail island" of Ortygia.

Ortygia, initially just a small piece of land surrounded by the Aegean Sea, would eventually become associated with the island of Delos. It was on this sacred land that Leto, pregnant with Zeus's twins – Apollo and Artemis, sought refuge from the wrath of Hera. The island of Delos, under the protection of Asteria, provided sanctuary for Leto during her time of need.

The tale of Asteria showcases her resilience and sacrifice, as she chose to surrender her physical form rather than succumb to Zeus's advances. Furthermore, her association with oracles and falling stars emphasizes her connection to the night sky and the mysterious forces that govern it.

In Greek mythology, Asteria's legend serves as a reminder of the power of transformation and the significance of finding refuge during challenging times. Through her courage and protectiveness, she embodies the essence of a goddess who defied divine authority for the sake of her own autonomy and to offer solace to others in need.

Although her presence may not be as prominent as some of the well-known deities of Greek mythology, Asteria's story provides a glimpse into the rich tapestry of ancient Greek folklore. Her role as a goddess of night and refuge adds depth to the intricate web of divine narratives, reminding us of the enduring power and significance of mythological figures like Asteria.

See attached.

All images, text, design, and art license owner Andrew Rogers©.

Andrew Rogers

Founder, Titan Auteur, Creative Director, Consultant, Writer, Oracle  

The Titan Society

E: thetitansocietyorg@gmail.com

[preheville]

i see what you mean! i didn’t include any thoughts on dd/soj because i seriously did not expect anyone beyond my mutuals who already know my opinions on the games to see this post. i think it’s important for to keep in mind that these are all literally my own personal opinions.

anyway regarding the aa5-6 issue: i don’t think they’re bad games. i think they’re really fun games, actually! one thing i really admire about aa is that even the weakest entries into the franchise are incredibly fun to play, packed with interesting and funny dialogue and cases that take unexpected twists and turns.

i’m not talking about them being bad games, i’m talking about them being bad stories when taken into the context of being ace attorney games. they regularly introduce characters who they simply are not capable of fully developing and butcher pre-existing characters. the prime example of this is the phantom/bobby fulbright, a character who had reams of potential that was simply ignored in favour of pure “shock” value — a plot twist that felt unmerited and frankly insulting.

another example is athena cykes. apollo justice featured apollo as a new defense attorney and that in conjunction with the investigations duology proved that it could write a non-phoenix protagonist competently and well. it would make total sense that they’d do the same thing in aa5 and give most of the spotlight to athena or apollo and athena together, but they didn’t and instead decided to have phoenix spearhead the most important case of the game instead of relegating him to a mia-like mentor figure.

the same can be said of soj, a game i have equal issues with because it had the ghost of a good plot same as aa5 but to an even greater degree. rayfa in particular was a very interesting character that they decided not to test the limits of. that in combination with the weird location-split, phoenix taking on the role of the main chracter, and the frank racism of the plot came together to create a game that was stunning in its mediocrity.

i think one of the biggest issues the two 3d games have is that they kind of play this weird game where they try not to spoil previous entries. that doesn’t make any sense; most people do not pick up the 5th and 6th entires in a visual novel series without at least a passing familiarity with the previous games. but they do and that, i think more than anything, damns the games. at the very least it tanks apollo’s character.

(also: i completely disagree with what you say about aa4. i think it does a very good job of establishing klavier as a character and it’s the sequels that water him down — that same no-spoilers policy, in fact. i think it’s a very strong game, almost as strong as pw:aa. i’m not talking about fanon; i’ve replayed it at least 3 times and it holds its own very well!)

finally, i just want to re-highlight the fact that this is all my opinion. i like aa5-6 as games but i vastly prefer the other games because they are simply better plot-wise. i’m not trying to tell anyone dd or soj is bad and in fact would vastly prefer if people played the games before seeing people’s interpretations of them because then they’re able to form their own opinions on them and lend to the discourse in fresh and new ways. i guess to each their own in the end!

ok there's this thing where like [thing exists] -> fanbase creates an interpretation of it and as enough time goes on and you don't revisit the original [thing] you start falling into this trap of thinking the fanbase version is truer than it actually is. and obviously this happened with ace attorney and there is this attitude amongst fans to think that the only good thing ace attorney brought to the table was characters that could be played around with like dolls which, okay, fine, is the nature of any fanbase, but i think that that's a really unfair interpretation because ace attorney is actually really, really good and people forget that! excluding soj and dd every game was written really incredibly well and the characters are written very well their motivations and backstories are just the right level of convoluted and they're all super fun to play too. like they perfectly balance having nutty plots and loveable characters while still remaining very funny and fun games. idk what i'm saying. go replay aa NOW!

[astrobowie]

further thoughts on the update. upd8. the epilogues.

alright so having had some time to cool down, i am able to more fully appreciate the epilogue. this, however does not mean that i think it should be canon. as its own sequel work and continuation of homestuck that takes the characters and develops them in new ways, i think it is good. as an epilogue to the work homestuck, it sucks so much ass its a god damn fusion of a vacuum and the human catapillar. the purpose of an epilogue is to add a note of finality and help put the mind of the reader at ease by extending the falling action and showing where characters end up. this adds only new problems. we see no closure and no purpose to anything and even the ending of the epilogue leaves more questions than answers. if you looked at dragon ball z as an epilogue to dragonball it would be like the concept of an ending got up at your wedding to make a speech and then dissapated into a pile of scorpions that proceded to pee on everything they could get their hands on. as a continuation however, well, thats a different story. however, like dragonball z, something important is lost in the shift. compare megaman zx to megaman 2 and youll find fundamentally different aesthetics and design. i think the most apt comparison here is one thats a little more... recent. technically. this past week we came upon the aniversary of the start of the timeskip from pheonix wright: ace attorney; trials and tribulations to apollo justice: ace attorney. in this interrim, pheonix, our beloved main character and a good person who we care about, looses his attorneys badge and falls into depression. the fallout causes a deep shift in the character of both pheonix and the world around him. where before the world of ace attorney was one where truth was difficult but justice was attempted, the world of apollo justice is one where the truth was failed and justice died. the hero we once loved is fallen and almost unrecognizable. apollo justice is a young attorney left to pick up the pieces. and of course, he does, and the truth that died 7 years ago is found and revived as well (in more ways than one). it tells an interesting story that the background of ace attorney was necessary to tell and it comes out a good game and a good story.

but...

it wasn't the story these characters were meant to tell.

that story ended in trials and tribulations.

the story of candy amd meat, though ultimately possible for the characters, is not one that they were originally intended to tell. similarly to apollo justice the story that these characters were meant for ended in the actual epilogue posted on snapchat and later the homestuck site. yes hussie is within his rights to do this and yes i think its a good story. no, i do not think that it is canon to homestuck. not as long as you dont want it to be. in the ace attorney fandom, theres a good chunk of people who are extremely dissatisfied with apollo justice and all the subsequent games. these people regard only the first three games to be 'canon'. some regard the ones after apollo justice to be non canon but consider it entirely within the canon. but ultimately, a large portion of the fanbase has decided to disrregard the latter portion of the series. we can do that too. we have our own blue hero that did not deserve what he got out of a 7 year timeskip. and as much as we can or cant appreciate the story that timeskip tells, you dont have to accept it as essential, you dont have to accept it as relevant, and most of all,

you dont have to accept the homestuck epilogues as true.

thank you for your time.