#destiny discourse

[phantomwarrior12]

I understand wanting to be positive and accepting of people who simply like a character, but a bunch of actual fascists in the cayde stan circle got outed today and honestly I don't believe terfs and Nazis feeling safe in the fandom makes it a friendlier atmosphere

I'm not saying they shouldn't be called out over actual issues like that.

I'm talking about the sheer number of posts I've come across of people complaining about Cayde stans who weren't guilty of those things is insane. It hurts exactly no one for them to lament over wanting him back on their own blogs.

Actual issues should be addressed. If those people are that shitty, yes! Call them out! But getting mad at non-offending people for wanting a character back? Not an actual issue that warrants hostility.

It's a video game, for God's sake.

[goldensunset]

noooo don’t advocate to get rid of one of the main character’s two best friends who narratively and symbolically has always represented home safety and stability in contrast to the one associated with change and risk that ultimately form a nice narrative balance between the things that change and the things that don’t because both are important in life when growing up she’s so cute ahahaha

[thewickedkat]

long post incoming; meta enthusiasts may wish to digest this in chunks.

i am so completely exasperated with Laudna as of the latest episode. however, i temper that exasperation with my enjoyment as a viewer; indeed, i am feasting on the conflict, thinking finally, some good fucking food, because i think (and have always thought) that Laudna is terrifically interesting as a character and she presents wonderful opportunities for growth not only on her end, but as a catalyst for others.

that being said. the sword. how she handled it. how she handled her own trauma bubbling up, how she handled (or didn't) Delilah, how she handled Orym and Chetney and Dorian and the whole miserable mess she made.

it was selfish. there. i said it. you may disagree with me, i care not, but her course of action was terribly selfish and destructive.

i know many people out there have been likening her behaviour to that of an addict's (and there are many common factors there: the hiding, the lying by omission, the shame, the acquiescence to bad behaviour), but i think in some ways that to do so is reductive, and also removes agency from Laudna herself.

she is allowing her trauma to almost make her decisions for her, allowing it to define her, and she is not giving herself the opportunity to realise that growth beyond it is possible--or, perhaps, she does realise this and is simply too afraid to reach out and grasp it. i think even if Delilah weren't trying to subsume her, Laudna would still be self-sabotaging and self-destructive and still try to hide the parts of her she felt were undesirable; Delilah in many ways simply makes it easier for Laudna to do so and, if pressed, provides a rationalisation for Laudna's choices and actions (as in 'it wasn't me, it was her, she made me do it).

first and foremost, Laudna was a victim of heinous trauma, being murdered and then being put on grotesque display. then she was further traumatised in coming back from the dead and being forced to isolate herself from people for many years, with only Delilah's honeysweet venom dripping into her ear for that time. then she is murdered again as an object lesson for the woman she loves, then stuffed down so deep into her own psyche by the one who first killed her; she is fought for and brought back by her friends...who then seem to do little to check in with her, to make sure she is stable, or coping, because they each have their own baggage and oh by the way, the world is possibly ending. to be fair, there is little time for therapy and stability when you are literally running from crisis to crisis and trying to stop something you haven't even conceived of in your nightmares.

she feels dismissed, often, minimised, and she never developed healthy people skills or coping mechanisms (i am sorry but as much as i love Pâté, a dead rat does not a support group make). so she lashes out, has poor emotional regulation, and Does Crappy Things. so i also understand when she said 'what else have i to give, but myself?'

all that being said. what she did with Orym and the sword was fucking selfish. she is behaving like a child, as if she is the only one whose tragedies matter; she's playing Oppression Olympics, and can i just point out that Orym was the one to say 'i'm sorry' but Laudna never apologised for accosting him while he slept and hurting him? saying 'i didn't mean to hurt you' is not the same, because that implies that if she had not hurt him, stealing from him was perfectly acceptable and reasonable.

i don't believe her when she said 'i accept responsibility' because that means one must accept the consequences of their own actions, and right after she said that, she argued with everyone, told the oldest member of the Hells that he had no right to talk about loss to her, and then fled. that isn't accepting responsibility; that is mouthing platitudes in the hopes you will sway others to your point of view and when it fails, leaving in a huff like a child having a tantrum.

she didn't even bother to ask Orym why he kept the sword. she just tried to take.

Laudna often reacts from a place of fear: of pain, of more trauma, fear of inadequacy, of loss. all of these fears are valid. they are understandable, given all that has happened to her. but just because her fears are valid does not give her the right to make others pay for her emotional baggage. this is what makes her behaviour in ep 95 selfish. all of her actions in the back half of that episode are things she chose to do, and now she must sit in the mess she made. Laudna seems to be falling into the same mental rut that many victims fall into when their trauma isn't dealt with in a healthy fashion: they start fucking others over, as if being a victim excuses it. it does not.

and before others come for me, i say that as one who used to do the same fucking thing but i was lucky enough to have therapy. Laudna doesn't have that luxury--none of the Hells do. there simply isn't time to make space for any of their issues, not just Laudna's. Imogen is still wrestling with her mother; Fearne is wrestling with her parentage; Orym is just trying to keep his feet under him and do what he feels is right without betraying anyone he cares for (yes, including Laudna, shut up); Ashton is still trying to process the loss of Fresh Cut Grass (for gods' sakes, the crafting night was a fucking wake for the lil guy); Dorian just lost his brother and watched his friend succumb to a Betrayer God that turned her into a monster; and Chetney? Chetney is an old man who, i personally think, can pick his battles and knows how to compartmentalise better than any of these kids.

Laudna is not unique in that she has suffered horribly. no one is saying she hasn't, but her behaviour implies that she believes they are saying that. her actions imply she believes not only that she does not trust her friends (thanks, Dorian), but that acknowledging others' losses somehow negates hers. there just isn't time to healthily process any of this, which sucks. it does. i do think her friends love her, care for her deeply, and i think part of the reason they haven't checked up on her as much as they could is because a) they're afraid that her problem with Delilah is much worse than they thought (duh, it is); b) they can't fix the Delilah Problem right now even if they were qualified to do so (even Pike couldn't scour that bitch out of Laudna, she said as much); and c) they run the very substantial risk of wholly alienating Laudna if they press the issue too hard, thus not only losing an asset in the fight against the Vanguard and Ludinus, but also a friend and lover.

it's shit, all around, we all know that. but to pretend that it's okay she did what she did to Orym--or worse, somehow transfer responsibility from her onto him and make it his fault--is infantilising and disingenuous at best, and more than a little insulting.

[attorneys-against-court-violence]

Ace Attorney peeps who have played both games

How do we feel about Trials & Tribulations being in non-linear order vs Dual Destinies being non-linear?

[autistic-evil-xisuma]

this is mostly rephrased from stuff I've already said on discord, but I thought it was worth saying here too. And disclaimer that I am USAmerican and not Indigenous to here. That said.

Not hating on Grian, I don't think it was necessarily his fault that he didn't know the history of manifest destiny, and it's actually a breath of fresh air that he apologized for his mistake and fixed it (instead of doubling down, like. Certain other hermits have in the past).

However I do think it's a bit of an... oddball statement, for a White British person, to say that he just didn't know the context behind it because he isn't American. When. Quite famously, American colonialism IS British history. It's likely something he wasn't taught much about in school, which isn't on him. But I think it's also an individual's responsibility to make an effort to learn about the historical and/or ongoing colonial violence that their own country has inflicted on the rest of the world, and the continuous impact it's had. For British people, that includes the colonization of USAmerica and genocide of Indigenous Americans. "Manifest Destiny" was coined after USAmerica was independent from Britain, but it still represents the exact same principles which British colonizers used to justify their violence against the land and Indigenous people living there. Using that phrase doesn't just invoke a brutal history from some other country that Grian doesn't belong to, it invokes the belief in White supremacy and entitlement held by his own country.

Also... at this point there's a bit of a track record of hermits unintentionally doing/saying things that are insensitive to Indigenous Americans. So I wish we saw them being more intentional about educating themselves to prevent it from continuing to happen.

Again, not an attack on Grian. I don't think anyone should be attacked for non-malicious ignorance, mistakes are how we learn stuff and all that. But I wish he'd admitted straight up that he made a mistake out of ignorance, instead of excusing it by suggesting it isn't history he should know. It looks like he's actually deleted the comment apologizing on his video, which could be for any number of reasons, maybe because he realized it was an incomplete apology. Who knows.

[deathbirby]

also, you ever think about how Edelgard's "humans should be in charge of their own destiny!" rhetoric wonderfully parallels the Agarthans' "we have the tech, screw the gods, let's fuck up these nations with nukes" hubris before Sothis flooded the planet? It's almost as if FE3H has some very Japanese sentiments about how unchallenged advancement into technology might be Bad, Actually, and humanity needs to learn to coexist with nature and others unlike them before they--

nah screw that humanity rah rah

HUMANITY FUCK YEAH

COMING IN TO NUKE THE MOTHERFUCKING PLANET

HUMANITYYYYY

[evilroachindustrial]

Apologies to other fandoms and the other utterly buckwild disk horses in the barn, but nothing will ever beat the absolute low stakes, dumb disk horse silliness of the Destiny community’s front vs back King’s Fall debate that has been simmering for the past seven years.

[butterflieswhisper]

hhelp wait this is so funny. didnt you follow me forever ago after a scott themed october song analysis . sorry if you dont remember that and this ask doesnt make sense but this is still funny to me

hi!!!! yeah. it was the cherri crane lives art i think and also where you made your flower husbands tag! I have never really interacted with fh outside of you (and like, seeing pretty fanart) but i am nonetheless deeply invested in your interpretation specifically!!! I honestly haven't watched jimmy outside of rats and the beginning of empires2 either i genuinely have no clue what they get up to you just seem to have a lot of fun with it

[synnthamonsugar]

Sometimes a bisexual person will experience an even split of attraction to their own gender and other genders.

Sometimes, a bisexual person will have a preference toward a particular gender, and incidental interest in others.

And other times, a bisexual person will have exclusive interest in her own gender until the arrival of her arch-nemesis, The Great Navigator, King of Bone and Lord of Shapes, He Whose Will Is Made Manifest Upon Reality, and in devoting herself to the task of comprehending him, learning about and foreseeing him, thinking as he thinks and knowing what he knows, becoming like him and becoming his one worthy enemy, realize he's hot.

[bowbowis]

Edelgard the Underdog

Something that tends to get overlooked because the Empire has the biggest army in Fódlan is that Edelgard herself is by far the biggest underdog among Three Houses' leaders. Yes, she is a princess of the Adrestian Empire but she was never meant to be Emperor, she only became the heir because she alone among her siblings was able to withstand the torturous experiments they were subjected to. By that point the Insurrection of the Seven had already happened and whoever held the position of Emperor was little more than a puppet dancing on the Prime Minister's strings. Dimitri's status was assured the moment he popped out of the womb with a Crest. Claude just had to convince his grandfather he was who he claimed to be and could always fall back on trying to stake his claim to the Almyran throne if things in Leicester didn't pan out. Rhea and Thales have run their respective organizations for over a thousand years. In contrast, Edelgard's position granted her right to little more than a fancy title and a gilded cage (once they let her out of the literal torture dungeon that is). She didn't have any power, and she was never meant to have any power, whereas everyone else either already had power or was set to inherit it in due time.

So yeah, she ends up with the best army by the start of Part II, but only because she fought tooth and nail for it, using every ounce of cunning and political acumen she had, all while keeping the Those Who Slither in the Dark in... well... the dark, as to her plans.

[phantomwarrior12]

(again - i know you might no answer) but is so weird how people police what other people harmlessly do on their blog. anyway, i hope you have a great day

It's a foreign concept to many: Don't like what they're posting? Block. Hands down, easiest solution.

But

Have a great day as well, anon!!!

[coldgoldlazarus]

Rewatching ATLA and got to Crossroads Of Destiny, and I noticed another interesting parallel/contrast between Aang and Zaheer. Both struggled with the problem of attachment to a loved one, holding them back from reaching full spiritual balance and potential. Aang was prevented from attaining the Avatar state at all until he completed the unlocking of his Chakras, and Zaheer was unable to master the extremely difficult airbending technique of unaided flight.

But the key difference is that when it came down to the bare wire, Aang realized that the world needed to come before Katara, and that he could love and try to help her, while accepting that to some degree her fate was ultimately out of his hands. By releasing that intense attachment, he was finally able to unlock his last chakra and reach the Avatar state. (And then Azula happened, of course, but that doesn't undermine that moment.)

Meanwhile, I think Zaheer somewhat failed in that by comparison. He could not let go of his attachment to P'li until after she literally died. Only then was he able to embrace the void and attain true flight, because that attachment was severed, rather than a conscious decision on his part. It's a subtle but interesting way of showing how close he was to understanding the Air Nomads' philosophy, and yet still so far from it in a few key ways. And that of course led to his flawed overall outlook on the world, and the well-intentioned but ultimately still monstrous path he and his followers took.

[xboxseries]

“morally questionable ship” I think I know who you’re referring to. And you’re so right lmao. Let’s just say they were family coded at first. But if you say anything contrary ppl will be like nooo ur so wrong and dogpile you or just straight up act like D1 never happened. It’s also just not written well :/ very much pandering and I wish our community saw that they don’t care abt rep actually

bro i was referring to the creative lead being a reylo. who got her job with ao3 fanfics. the ao3 reylo fanfic writer.

[fluxphage]

for that matter while i'm pissed off about how d2 characters are depicted in fandom

eris morn has a medium skintone, and unhealthily thin due to her time in the hellmouth. this is a literal part of her canon story and a reason she's alienated in the Tower.

drifter has a medium skintone, and is heavier set. he isnt fucking skinny

osiris has israeli/jewish features like heavy lids and a hooked nose, he is not black he's egyptian israeli- specifically mizrahi, we are predominantly MENA not black and you are erasing his heritage and ethnicinity by changing it.

actual members of these communities and ethnicinities see this shit. represent us correctly.

[linklethehistorian]

“Choose Violence” Asks: Ace Attorney fandom

Y’all asked for it, you got it. I have answered the entire question list for the Ace Attorney fandom; hope you enjoy!

Answers below the cut both due to length, and for spoilers for various games. Proceed at your own risk.

the character everyone gets wrong

Unpolished ramble answer from livestream:

[Transcript from Linkle Plays: Persona 3 Reload (Live)] “I… *sighs* Offhand I only have a few…in mind; I’m sure that I could come up with…more than that when I actually write it out…but…at this moment in time… *sighs*

The character that I feel…m— a lot of people get wrong, in a sense, in Ace Attorney would be…*sighs* probably Athena Cykes, because….a lot of people…try to claim that’s she’s — well, at least a lot of people that don’t like her — claim to tend that she’s…just kind of a replacement for Maya and I don’t…really feel like that’s the case at all. I don’t think that they’re even comparable by means. I…feel like… *sighs* I feel like Athena, she…has an entirely…different vibe to her. …I-I — I know people miss Maya, and she’s beloved, but I gotta be honest; between the two of them —

*sighs* I’m not saying Maya’s not an interesting character, or that…the — or that…people loving her is unfounded, but, I feel Athena kind of has deep — deeper story from the get-go. I…very much enjoy her story in — in Dual Destines; I think that she’s…very strong — has very strong story, and…for me, the things that she went through — and…spoiler alert, if you haven’t played that, so uh…if your worried about the spoilers, maybe, mayyyybe mute meee…for a few minutes, but — I feel like, she — what she went through as a child, with…her mother experimenting on her and — and…her bonding with Simon Blackquill, and…then having to — despite her…issues with her mother and believing that she was…doing this and using her as a Guinea pig, when that is not the truth and her mother loved her very much, but I feel like…watching her mother die and, believing that she was responsible so much that she blocked this out, and Simon coming and saving her and taking the blame, purely to protect her, and her living her entire life trying to get him out of his situation because she believed so strongly he was not responsible, despite everything, I…feel like she had a much stronger and deeper and more well-written backstory from the very beginning, whereas Maya, she — kind of just was what she was; yes, she lost her sister, but…beyond that — I mean, come on, let’s be honest: she was getting framed for something every day of the week practically in most of the Ace Attorney games, let’s not even lie here — it — she was just kind of there to be…Phoenix’s reason for doing things, and…not so much — where Athena was more her own person, and…was separate from that, and…from the very beginning, and — yeah, I could definitely write about this better, but…I think that a lot of people don’t really give her enough credit, she’s really an amazing character and, I’ve always liked her? I don’t think that it’s fair to compare the two; I think they’re two very…very different characters, I…don’t dislike Maya — I think she’s very likeable, but…yeah. [/end transcript]

Polished answer:

Athena Cykes — not necessarily in terms of fanfiction and the like, which I feel like this question would usually be interpreted to mean, but rather just on a more basic, fundamental level of misunderstanding.

There is this really unfortunate attitude within the Ace Attorney community that Athena only exists as a stand-in and/or discounted replacement for Maya, and I honestly find it really insulting and diminishing towards her character and all that she is — not to mention just plain wrong.

Don’t get me wrong — I know Maya is a really beloved character to a lot of people in this fandom, and I’m not meaning to ignore or put that down in any way; I think it’s completely valid on every level, but…calling any female lead that happens to enter the scene “just a cheap replacement for Maya” is just plain absurd, especially when it’s a character like Athena, who from the very get-go of her introduction case and game automatically came with a clear unique personality, ability, and deep, complicated story, motivation, and narrative masterfully interwoven with the other characters within the game.

With all possible due respect to Maya and her fans, it is my personal opinion that between the two characters, if we are talking about a sense of narrative relevance and involvement and the complexity and depth of backstory, Maya by far pales in comparison in the vast, vast majority of her games to Athena in just her one singular introduction game alone.

While yes, Maya did lose her sister in her intro case and get framed for her death and that’s very, very sad — that’s about all the depth there is to her character for the entirety of the game; she was the sister of your mentor character, who unfortunately just happened to be visiting at the wrong place and wrong time and then somehow ended up tagging along with you from that point forward because her power to channel spirits came in handy. Aside from her first case and the last few cases in the third game, she didn’t really serve much purpose other than to be that character who is Phoenix’s silly, goofy, quirky sidekick and when the situation called for it, his motivation to put up with absurd circumstances — usually because she was either being framed for something, or kidnapped, or otherwise put at threat of serious danger if he didn’t; I mean, let’s be completely real here — lovable, iconic character or not, she was practically getting into trouble every day of the week like it was her fucking hobby. She was, in essence, his damsel in distress in need of constant rescuing like Princess Peach/Toadstool in the older Mario games.

And then, on the other hand, we have Athena, who is someone Phoenix took in initially not out of guilt but out of seeing sincere promise in her ability in a lawyer and passion for seeing her dream through — a deep, moving, endgame plot-relevant dream of saving the man who believed she snapped from her torturous experiments into her power and killed her (in her own eyes) cold and abusive scientist mother, choosing to shelter her and damn himself to take the fall for the woman’s death to the point of receiving the death penalty. We have Athena, who spends the entire game having blocked out the memory of what she supposedly did from the sheer trauma of that moment, and yet still believes so intensely in the innocence of the man she once called a dear friend that she continues to chase desperately after that dream and rush to become a lawyer and frantically search for a way to clear his name — even as the month and day draw ever nearer and all seems hopeless and without a single loose end to be found.

Whether you believe Maya to be the best female character in the series or otherwise (I personally do like her a lot, though I would never go that far), Athena is nevertheless not a mere cheap stand-in for her absence, but completely her own character with a unique identity and purpose all hers and hers alone.

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

Ron DeLite is SO not a top, and he would never top, and you cannot convince me otherwise. lol His wife, Dessie, has all the top energy that exists in that relationship and he just has absolutely none of it. He is very smol and timid and submissive — especially to her, and I think she adores that about him.

So yeah. I’m not saying Ron could never top anyone ever physically, but I just really don’t think he wants to, you know? I imagine Dessie is absolutely on top no matter what they’re doing, and I think he’s very comfy with that — with letting his wife have all of the control in the situation, since he loves seeing her happy and would do anything for her at all. He probably gets pegged sometimes, too, honestly.

I love them.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I’mma be honest; I’ve never been on Ace Attorneyblr, and I have no idea whether that is a blessing or a curse, but at the very least it means that I don’t have any horror stories from Tumblr to share with y’all.

As for a description of the worst take I’ve seen anywhere ever…well, probably just in general any of the takes that talk about any new character just being a discount replacement for one of the old ones, or Dual Destinies being the weakest game in the series…but we’ll get to the latter issue later.

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

I’ve never blocked anyone in the Ace Attorney fandom, and I’ve never really felt the need to, yet, either; all my disagreements with a lot of this fandom’s general opinions aside, I’ve never really had a bad experience in this fandom that ever inspired me to block someone. Lovely fandom all in all when it comes to respecting each other — from what I’ve experienced, at least.

Here’s hoping it stays that way.

5. worst discord server and why

I’m not in any Ace Attorney servers, so…sorry; I can’t really comment on this one.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

To be honest, I can’t really think of any ship fans in this fandom that are really particularly annoying on the whole… I mean, sure, there are some annoying shippers out there, but like…isn’t that just true of nearly every single fandom and even semi-popular ship that exists out there in some manner?

I guess if I had to pick out ships in this fandom in particular that have an at least slightly noticeable level of annoying people in them, it would probably be NaruMitsu and NaruMayo — but both for totally different reasons: certain NaruMitsu fans for allegedly sometimes bullying the NaruMayo fans out of ship rivalry (though this cannot be confirmed, as I’ve only ever heard about and never seen this happen firsthand), and certain NaruMayo fans for playing the victim card constantly about being oh-so-tiny and “not popular enough” and daring to tell others in and out of the fandom that “you’ve never experienced a small fandom if you don’t ship them”, when, in fact, they are basically the second biggest ship between the main characters of the first three games. -_-

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

As I said in my Legend of Zelda version of this post, I’m not really typically the type of person who can have a character or ship or fandom ‘ruined’ for them by association to something negative, so obviously, there’s no one in this series that has become hated by me because of such things.

I guess the closest thing I can say is just that although I do still like Maya as a character a lot, I do end up thinking a lot about the childish tantrums this fandom has thrown over her every time I see her. 😅

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Well, also like I’ve said in a previous post for a different series, I don’t believe that an opinion — if it is truly an opinion — can, by definition, be wrong; the very nature of opinions is that they’re supposed to be subjective personal feelings on something, so there is no such thing as right or wrong ones — merely different ideas.

However, there is such a thing as a false statement, and unfortunately many so-called “opinions” are actually this — something that regardless of anyone’s personal feelings, is just plain factually incorrect in terms of canon, so today I’ll just talk about those instead.

For starters, there’s the stupid widespread attitude where every new sidekick, main lawyer, or detective is treated as though they are just a weaker, more watered down bootleg version of the original cast from the first game; that’s just absolutely absurd.

I don’t want to get into explaining why they’re wrong about every single character that’s gotten accused of this, as this would get much, much too long if I did, but I’ve already given a very good example of what I mean back in the first question when I was talking about Athena Cykes.

Athena is NOT a cheap replacement for Maya Fey or Apollo Justice or Phoenix Wright; she is Athena Cykes, a character with her own personality, talents, well-written character arc(s), motives, and place within the series.

Trucy is NOT a cheap replacement for Maya Fey; she is Trucy Wright, a character with her own personality, talents, well-written character arc(s), motives, and place within the series.

Ema is NOT a cheap replacement for Maya Fey or Dick Gumshoe; she is Ema Skye, a character with her own personality, talents, well-written character arc(s), motives, and place within the series.

Bobby is NOT a cheap replacement for Dick Gumshoe; he is Bobby Fulbright, a character with his own personality, talents, well-written character arc(s), motives, and place within the series.

Apollo is NOT a cheap replacement for Phoenix Wright; his is Apollo Justice, a character with his own personality, talents, well-written character arc(s), motives, and place within the series.

They all have different personalities.

They all have different strengths and weaknesses.

They all have different character arcs and well-written backstories and motives for what they do.

They ALL belong, just as much as the OG cast.

And as for another major “opinion” this fandom is wrong about, it’s that Dual Destinies is the weakest game in the series.

Everyone is allowed to have their own preferences and opinions in regards to which is the subjectively best or worst game in the series, but when it comes down to calling Dual Destinies the “weakest” in the series, this is just plain untrue; love it or hate it, in terms of its main overarching plot, even from a purely standalone perspective, Dual Destinies is literally the most structurally sound and well-put-together story in the entire series, possessing the most and best-written foreshadowing throughout the entire game that any main entry in the Ace Attorney franchise has ever managed.

I could write an entire essay on that game — and someday I probably will — but seriously, calling it weak very simply is not correct, even if you for some reason absolutely hate the story.

Feel how you will about that game, but weak is not a word you can factually use to describe it. It’s just absurd, and I hate that peoples’ weird bitter biases lead them to claim shit like this.

9. worst part of canon

Definitely not a point a lot of people are going to agree with me on, but honestly, for me, it’s some of the very poor writing decisions in Spirit of Justice that bother me the most — from the fact that despite having Apollo recite the very most important parts of his life and the people in it to his adopted father, he somehow forgot and failed to mention his lifelong best friend who was murdered only just the prior year, to setting up an entire case merely so that you could pit Apollo and Phoenix against each other in what felt like a very ham-fisted and unnatural way.

10. worst part of fanon

I’m not really sure; I can’t say that there’s a lot in fanon that I hate enough to call it the worst, but I suppose the constant erasure of Miles’ long-since officially confirmed asexuality is a little frustrating.

I’m of the opinion that it’s perfectly fine to do whatever you want in AUs (though I will question at some point if you change a character so fundamentally why you don’t just create an OC instead), but a lot of people I’ve seen in general tend to act like Miles’ asexuality doesn’t necessarily exist in canon, and it’s kind of annoying. It’s very rarely acknowledged.

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered

None, yet; that could change someday, but for now, there are no words or tags I’m filtering when I search for something.

I suppose in this case, it’s because, aside from being a little loud in an irritating way from time to time, it’s definitely not the worst fandom ever to be in. Far from it.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Well, I already went on a long rant about Athena earlier, so I suppose she’s definitely on the list, but I think another one would be Pierce Nichody; while there are definitely some extremely human characters and even antagonists throughout the series, I think that Pierce is above all one of the most tragic antagonists to exist — slotted right alongside Godot, and certainly sharing his grief over a lost loved one, but quite unique from him, as well.

While Godot’s decision to risk his life to protect his late fiancé’s sister is definitely one of the forms that love and grief can take and infinitely healthier than Pierce’s, there is still something so compelling to me about the idea of grief over loss of a loved one being so intense that their entire world stops at the moment of said loved one’s death and they become so overcome with anguish and despair that they are willing to burn the world over that event and to try to “fix” things (whatever that mean for the individual character and circumstance), even though they may know it’s not necessarily the right thing to do or even what their dearest would want.

And Pierce’s pocket watch — the one belonging to his late fiancé, that broke on the day of her fatal accident — somehow finally advancing time again at the end of the trial to remind him that he could move forward and let go and that she would always be with him, and having him break down over that and the weight of his actions, is so absolutely heart-wrenching and beautiful.

There are a lot of other characters I could talk about, yes, but I think Pierce is definitely the one who deserves the most credit and appreciation and yet never gets it.

13. worst blorboficiation

*shrugs* Still can only guess what this means, but even then, I don’t think I’ve necessarily seen this in this fandom; usually when there’s a character being mischaracterized here, it’s because someone has a chip on their shoulder against them — not the opposite.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

NaruMitsu….? lol Other than that and a few other popular ships, not really much comes to mind as typical to see in an Ace Attorney fic — either positive or negative.

15. that one thing you see in fanart all the time

Again, just some typical ships: NaruMitsu, KlaPollo, for some reason Simon Blackquill x Bobby Fulbright despite it not being super popular outside of art… Beyond that, not a lot to comment on.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Spirit of Justice in general, compared to Dual Destinies; don’t get me wrong — SoJ did have some good moments and even good cases, and I don’t think there was anything wrong with it in concept overall, it’s just that…it’s quite weak compared to DD plot and writing wise?

My best guess is that it’s because Maya and Ema both come back — though especially Maya — in that one, and since people worship the ground those characters walk on for whatever reason compared to some of the newer cast, the nostalgia bias is making people prefer it, but really I just found it underwhelming.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

Platonic (or hell, even romantic) ClaPollo and JuniPollo art in general would be nice to see, and I’d definitely like more fics that are written in the same format of the games (I came across one like that once and it was super awesome, though I can’t for the life of me remember which one right now), but at the end of the day, as I’ve said, people should really just write and draw whatever they’re inspired to — not what I *personally* or anyone else would like to see.

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

Like I said, Dual Destinies in general, and also Spirit of Justice’s DLC case, Turnabout Time-Traveler — the latter of which not only is the case Pierce is in, but it’s also just an incredibly wild, plot-twisty, deep, and heart-wrenching ride altogether for a lot of the case-specific characters involved. Also Turnabout Stoyteller’s Athena and Simon dynamic with Simon on co-counsel; it is so fucking good and just…nobody appreciates it enough.

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

Simon/Bobby (once upon a time I actually knew the ship name for this, but I’ve forgotten and I’m too lazy to google at the moment lol), as a ship.

Like….I don’t ship it at all, personally, but I have to admit I do find the concept of it so appealing, considering how it would mean that Simon fell in love with this absurdly altruistic detective bent on saving him from himself and reforming him and getting him off of death row, only to later find out that the man he cared so much for was actually dead (potentially even before he met him — I can’t remember when Fulbright started hanging around him) and all along this has been an imposter essentially wearing his skin, who actually is the reason he was charged and put on death row to begin with, and is actively seeking to destroy him and the only other people in his life that Simon cares about. It’s just…a really cool and exciting and heartbreaking concept. So yeah, I get it, even though on one hand I can’t possibly bring myself to actually ship it or even see it as being truly plausible in canon.

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

I don’t know… I guess Justice for All had some cases that were really kind of flops — especially the first Maggey Byrde case (2-1); they weren’t all bad, though.

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

I guess just Maya Fey and Spirit of Justice in general, for the reasons I’ve already stated.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Not to repeat myself for the umpteenth time, but definitely Dual Destinies as a whole, SoJ’s DLC case, and the Simon and Athena dynamic present in Turnabout Storyteller.

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

NaruMitsu — I was originally a NaruMayo fan back in the early days simply because I used to buy into the “if there are a male and female protagonist, they must be in love” rhetoric with no further basis needed, and I used to see Miles as so AroAce that he would never pursue a romantic relationship with anyone, but over the years and having seen enough canon evidence to the contrary, I’ve eventually stopped thinking that for me Phoenix and Maya really have that kind of vibe in canon, and come around to the idea that perhaps Miles may be Ace and on the spectrum of Aro, but Phoenix is an exception for him, though he hates to admit it.

I’m not sure if I actively ship it or not, but if I don’t I’m very close to doing so as it is and only very slightly bordering on indifferent whether they’re romantic or platonic. I definitely think Phoenix likes Miles, at the very least.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

I don’t know… I can’t really think of anything in particular at the moment, to be honest; this fandom is relatively chill overall.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Again, this attitude that in order for another lawyer character to exist, be they male or female, but especially female, they must be a replacement for another character.

Also the Dual Destinies hate, and Apollo supposedly “having three backstories because they couldn’t choose one”, when in reality what actually happened — aside from some moments of poor writing I can’t and won’t defend — is that he was a character that grew and was expanded upon over the course of multiple games, and none of what was revealed ever necessarily conflicted with or contradicted any other part of the backstory.

People are allowed to decide to expand on their characters further and add new details to their lives — y’all don’t need to take everything so personally.

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[silversiren1101]

Br!@nna Wu, of all people, outing herself as a truscum terf self-proclaimed zionist was not on my 2024 bingo card