#he got one over manfred

[sage-nebula]

Picked up my replay of the OG Ace Attorney trilogy again and I have to say, the real criticism that needs to be made about Manfred von Karma is that he was such a little wuss back in the days DL-6. "Waaaah I got a penalty, I need to wander around the courthouse in a melodramatic daze for hours and murder someone over it, waaaah." Cry me a river, then build a bridge and get over it. I get penalties in these games every other day in court and you don't see me having dissociating episodes and orphaning children over it, smh. Honestly pathetic behavior. What a gigantic wuss. "Most feared prosecutor" my ass. This man is so stupid he hand wrote instructions so a letter could be traced back to him with his handwriting. He's such a doofus he suggested cross-examining the parrot himself. He could let a bullet sit in his shoulder for 15 years but he couldn't take one measly penalty like a man. He's a joke. Absolutely pathetic. "But I got a penalty!" BFD I've had three penalties since the recess and you don't see me crying about it, sit tf down and put away the taser you big baby. Smdh.

[hikari-kaitou]

Translation from Gyakuten Saiban Fan Book

What sort of person is Miles Edgeworth?!

Phoenix's best friend and rival, Edgeworth, has gained a reputation among fans throughout the trilogy of being a man who carefully hides the chinks in his armor. Mr. Inaba and Mr. Iwamoto seem to have rather different opinions on the finer points of his character.

Mr. Inaba's comments

Interviewer: What blood type do you think Edgeworth is? (T/N: in Japan, it's believed that blood type reflects a person's personality)

Inaba: I happen to think he's type B.

Iv: What gives you that impression?

Ia: It's not so much that I dislike B types as I find them intimidating. They seem strong and I feel like I can't stand up to them.  I think good-natured people can generally be found in the O type category (lol).

Iv: By the way, what type are you, Mr. Inaba?

Ia: I'm a meticulous, cleanliness-loving A type Virgo. Also, I think Franziska is an A type like me. On the outside, we look like punks, but we have a fragile side that comes out looking a bit crybaby-ish sometimes. Kinda cute, don't you think?

Iv: Actually, most players seem to feel that Edgeworth is an A type Virgo (lol). So how about his birthday?

Ia: In the winter. I feel like winter suits him.

Iv: What sort of place do you think he lives in?

Ia: Definitely not in an official residence. He seems like he's probably swimming in old heirlooms (lol).

Iv: What sort of hobbies or luxury foods do you think he enjoys?

Ia: I feel like he probably plays some expensive sports and lounges at home in his robe with a glass of wine. My image of him is that he's like a host club host. His lifestyle is like a host's (lol).

Iv: Do you think he listens to music? 

Ia: I feel like if I say he listens to classical, that would make him seem too proper, so… I think he listens to new and old American and European music equally.

Iv: Do you think he has a cellphone?

Ia: He's definitely got one. One with a simple but sleek design.

Iv: And finally, what do you think his type is?

Ia: Hmmm… someone warm, I guess? This is kinda basic, but I feel like he cares more about how someone is on the inside, rather than their appearance, and he probably prioritizes personality. He might be surprisingly disinterested in women. Maybe he'd accidentally treat his partner coldly or something. Oh, I kinda touched on this earlier, but for Franziska, I think she seems like the type who'd be difficult to win over but would fall in love surprisingly easily, so I hope Edgeworth will do his best (lol).

Mr. Iwamoto's comments

Iv: Mr. Inaba said he thinks Edgeworth was born in the winter, and players overwhelmingly agreed with that. What do you think, Iwamoto-san?

Iwamoto: Edgeworth was born in June, just like me who voiced him in the games! And I think he was born in Chiba Prefecture because I was too (lol).

Iv: So from your position as the voice of Edgeworth (lol), what type of place do you think he lives in?

Iw: Either a designer penthouse, or somewhere surprisingly simple, like a place with plain concrete walls. I feel like he lives in an unexpectedly functional apartment. At least more than you might think, based on his frilly outfit.

Iv: So considering the type of room you imagine him living in, what sort of clothes do you think he wears at home?

Iw: Clothes that are out of touch with reality. Like the kinds of things most normal people wouldn't wear, or like… Like he wears silk just because, or instead of a regular shirt, a prince-like blouse. I feel like Manfred Von Karma probably influenced him there, but he dresses more plainly now than he did when he was younger (lol).

Iv: Maybe he started to notice that he didn't quite fit in with others (lol). It might be because of his frilly clothes, but he seems to be in better shape than Wright. Is his build based on your own, Iwamoto-san?

Iw: No way (lol). But I did sneakily make him the same height as myself.

Iv: Since he's in such good shape, do you think he does sports?

Iw: Maybe long distance running. He seems like the type who might go out jogging by himself in silence to "outrun his sins…" (lol)

Iv: What do you think his blood type is?

Iw: B type. I don't really have any real basis for that, he just strikes me as a B type.

Iv: And what do you think Edgeworth's type is? 

Iw: Let's see, maybe someone enthusiastic and passionate? (Lol) Like maybe he likes the kind of person who charges recklessly into things? And that's not just for women but in general the type of person he likes.

Phoenix version

[merylshades]

one thing i will never forgive the ace attorney fandom for is the severe mischaracterization and fanonization of manfred von karma. they turned him into an evil harmful abuser and it just makes a weaker narrative overall to me. i dont have any problem with it just being a headcanon because people are allowed to have whatever the fuck they want even if i dont like it but No its considered to be Canon and anyone who likes this character is Bad and its like Babe there is so many other things to hate this man over why do you choose one that is never shown in the games besides Once and that turned out to be a mistranslation and is also from a game that commonly mischaracterized its characters. what are you talking about.

you know what you CAN hate this man over? he was the one that people respected and adored, the one that was considered to be a god amongst prosecutors. he may be cold, stand-offish and a perfectionist, but miles knew he at least cared about him and was his main source of comfort when he needed it. he never knew that he was the one who killed his father and changed his life forever. he never knew that the person that gave him this much love and comfort was the person who made him scared of earthquakes to the point he'd passed out and made him always persistent on taking the stairs. the person who he hugged and cried into the shoulder of being the man who changed it all for the worse.

and for what? because he was a coward. he got scared when his perfect record has it's first penalty - and it wasn't even a loss. he still won. he could've moved on with his life and pretended it never happened. he was still respected amongst prosecutors despite it, after all, it wasn't his fault. yet he just couldn't help it. it was opportunistic and uncalculated. he was filled with such guilt and regret to the point he took in his victim's own son and raised him like his own. knowingly allowed him to cry into his shoulder and told him that it was going to be okay, he's here and that's all that matters when he was the one who took that gun and shot him.

and then people Hate him not because of all of that but because he is an Evil Abuser And Doesn't Regret What He Did At All Because He's Just That Evil.

[musashi]

it's so good to see other people making posts about the relative lack of nuance, understanding of interpretative text, and reading comprehension of the ace attorney fandom. y'all know it drives me crazy, how people more or less just project whatever they want to onto the characters and then get mad at you when you tell them it never happened in the games.

but i will say, one thing that a lot of newcomers to the aa fandom are missing, something it took me ages to find out: a TON of the people in the ace attorney fandom... just straight up have not played ace attorney. or, they played one or two games and fell off. even i myself have not played the sequel trilogy yet.

a huge chunk of the ace attorney fandom get the story SOLELY from the fandom. but they do not actually have the text anywhere in their mind. several others played the game ages ago but have not revisited it, and subsisted solely on fanworks since then.

i got into AA in the past few years, and i theorize this is why i feel such a disconnect from the fandom. furthermore, my autistic predilection to infohoard and obsessively play the cases over and over and over again means i have every minute character detail fresh in my head. whenever i find someone with similar bafflement and negative opinions on the fanon as me, it usually turns out they too are a newcomer!

i think the reason the AA fandom is so reliant on incorrect flanderization and fanon is because a huge chunk of them are all playing a game of telephone. literally, character interpretations have been passed around so much and no one is re-experiencing the games, and as a result no one remembers what is canon anymore.

i use this example a lot but it still baffles me to this day: i'm a known manfred liker, right? lots of people try and debate me on if he's a child abuser or not (i don't care as long as it's written well, but i don't think it's in the text) and one of the points they constantly bring up is that phoenix wrote letters to miles when he disappeared, and manfred burned those letters.

this did not happen.

not only did manfred have no part in anything of the sort, but phoenix literally never wrote letters to miles. the only thing phoenix says about it is that he tried contacting miles "countless times," but he does not explain how, when, over what period of time, or any such details.

to me, "manfred burned the letters" is certainly a valid interpretation of the text. but so is "miles edgeworth is a disaster human who 100% would reject any attempts from phoenix to reconnect because he believes a part of him died in that elevator too."

but as previously mentioned, the ace attorney fandom, alongside everything else, has no concept of nuance. characters are either victims or abusers with no gray area in between. miles is a victim (he is) but to reject poor sweet phoenix (also a victim) would tip the scales (haha) toward him being... a bad guy! so we introduce manfred (abuser) into this equation. there. problem solved.

but if i walk into the scene like "hey, that's a headcanon, this did not happen in the text, personally i think it's more realistic that miles rejected phoenix's attempts to reconnect because he is a traumatized adolescent making foolish decisions." 30 people are gonna point at me like SO YOU'RE SAYING YOU CONDONE ABUSE? and i will just sit there blinking, perplexed.

this happens like, three times a week.

tl;dr a massive chunk of the aa fanbase hasn't actually played aa recently or ever they just get all their info from wrightworth fanfic and incorrectquotes posts

[tossawary]

I've been thinking a lot about DCU stuff and Ace Attorney thoughts got mixed in by accident, because it's got a lot of the same themed, colorful character designs and silly pun names. So, of course, I started immediately daydreaming about a DCU-style Superhero AU for Ace Attorney. (I often do not fully control what I think about.)

And then I was like, "I think I just finally have to play Ace Attorney at this point, before I get stuck in a weird daydream loop because I don't know enough about the plot to worldbuild properly. I will let this be the final push to just start these games."

Based on my extremely limited knowledge (I have only actually played 2 episodes of the first game), here are my Superhero AU thoughts so far. I don't like 1-1 character role match-ups in general when I fuse worlds, so none of these AA characters are fully aligned with any particular DCU character.

Phoenix Wright would make a good speedster, I think. This is partially because of the spiky hair, but also because there's a terrible irony to being the fastest man in the world who keeps being too late to stop certain tragedies. It also suits the way he's apparently never properly prepared for anything but also quickly manages to pull through. He's probably still a defense attorney in his civilian identity. (In accordance with later games, he has to stop being a superhero for several years when he's framed for a crime.)

Besides Phoenix's mentor Mia, who is also both a superhero and a lawyer, ordinary civilian Larry Butz is the only person who initially knows that Phoenix has superpowers. He honestly hasn't told anyone Phoenix's secret identity! But Larry also somehow gets into more scrapes and "damsel in distress" situations than Lois Lane and he's not even an investigative reporter.

Mia Fey, Maya Fey, and Pearl Fey have a Shazam situation, I think, in which they transform into a "Mystic Champion" magically empowered by the ghosts of their ancestors. Like a Shazam & Danny Phantom fusion. Mia Fey was the first in her family to become a publicly known superhero. A lot of people don't know that it's not the original Mystic Champion (same face and same superpowered form as Mia, which breaks Phoenix's heart a little every time) until Maya or Pearl transforms back into a regular girl after the fight is over.

I think Miles Edgeworth is a Batman type hero, but one still partially ensnared by Manfred von Karma, who is his Ra's al Ghul. (This makes Franziska into Talia, but there is definitely nothing romantic there.) Maybe he does have superpowers of some kind, maybe not, and he could still potentially be a prosecutor. He doesn't have a Brucie persona, though. Phoenix is not impressed by Edgeworth's harsh and even cruel approach to vigilante work. (Steel Samurai was Miles' Gray Ghost or Zorro hero inspiration, I'm guessing.)

Gumshoe is Miles' Commissioner Gordon figure and doesn't know his secret identity yet. He's either going to learn in the middle of a really bad situation or he's just going to straight-up figure it out himself one day and scare the hell out of Miles.

I'm still thinking about characters like Kristoph and Klavier Gavin, Apollo Justice, and Trucy Wright, but I don't know enough about them to fully flesh these thoughts out yet. I think the Gavins would make good Kryptonian equivalents (a cold and calculating Superman and a rockstar Supergirl), Apollo might make a good Wonder Girl equivalent (his bracelet becomes a Lasso of Truth) as the lost son of an Amazon, and Trucy would obviously be fun as a Zatanna type of hero.

[tobiasdrake]

I've never forgiven AA 2-4 for Edgeworth.

To date, 2-4 is the only case in the entire series that is actually difficult for me to tolerate, and that I often wind up skipping entirely on replays of the series.

I just. I hate the choice they made here to deny Franziska any participation in the climactic finale of her own plot.

Well. No. That's not entirely fair. She shows up very briefly at the end as a mode of transportation.

Throughout Justice For All, Phoenix and Franzy are two sides of a coin. The central story idea for Phoenix is that he is, himself, now Edgeworth. Having defeated the legendary prosecutor Manfred Von Karma and riding high on an undefeatable record, 2-4 places Phoenix in the predicament of having a client he knows to be guilty.

It forces Phoenix to make a choice between his conscience and his record. To decide what matters more to him: Justice or putting another notch in his belt. To this end, it's easy to see what they were going with in bringing back Edgeworth, because this was Edgeworth's conundrum in the first game.

But Edgeworth doesn't need this. It lends nothing to his character. This isn't his story. All he contributes to 2-4 is smugly teasing over and over, "Hey. Hey, Wright. Did you know. That you're doing my character arc? Hey Wright. You're doing my character arc, Wright. Hey Wright, you're doing my character arc. Are you prepared for my character arc, Wright?"

That's it. That is his entire character throughout 2-4. We shot Franziska with a gun so that Edgeworth could stand nearby and hit the theme with a hammer over and over.

Franziska, meanwhile, is in the opposite boat. A literal child with a chip on her shoulder, Franzy wants revenge against Phoenix for vanquishing Edgeworth in the first game. She's mad that Phoenix beat Edgeworth so hard he up and vanished on her, so she wants revenge against Edgeworth by defeating the man who defeated him.

Franzy is angry, confused, hurt, and she thinks that winning a court case against Phoenix will fix it. That if she can just get a single W over him then it will give her value as a person. She's pinned her hopes on the premise that this one hollow victory will suddenly make it all okay and she can be happy again.

Phoenix is here in this case to learn that it's okay to lose.

And Franzy is foolishly convinced that her life will be fixed just as soon as she manages to win.

...and rather than having Franzy face the ugly reality of a hollow victory and having to learn something about herself, they instead gave it to Edgeworth.

The game ends with Franzy kicking the can down the road, promising a future confrontation with Phoenix since her arc never got to finish. And then they never meet again. For the rest of the series, she's relegated to a satellite character for Edgeworth, showing up to antagonize him so he can explain to her how wrong she is about everything. She's pushed down into the role of "Edgeworth's Kid Sister", denied any resolution to the ideas set up in Justice For All.

Edgeworth stole her story climax from her.

And I just. I hate it. I can't in good conscience say that 2-4 is the worst case in the series. From a technical perspective, there's a lot about the case that hits. There's so much good to be found in 2-4.

But I hate it. It is the one and only case I often find myself skipping. I just. Hate it.

[oldshowbiz]

To the public Red Skelton was the God and country comedian. He recorded a best-selling version of the Pledge of Allegiance and told reporters that he read the bible every night before going to bed. His friends and colleagues say it was just an act to ingratiate himself to the public.

Television producer George Schlatter worked on The Judy Garland Show at CBS Television City, just one soundstage over from The Red Skelton Show. Schlatter says, “Red Skelton was a phony with all his God bullshit. He ended every show saying, ‘God Bless.’ Then you realize that his dress rehearsal was the filthiest event in town. They did the dirtiest dress rehearsal and then he would go on and do this, ‘God Bless,’ and the country and the flag and all this shit. He was a dirty old man.”

According to the FBI, Skelton possessed one of the largest collections of pornography in Hollywood. A Bureau memo from the 1940s said that “during the course of an investigation of a purported ring of obscene motion picture operators in Hollywood, information was received that the best known customers for obscene film in Hollywood were Red Skelton, Lou Costello, and George Raft.”

The contradiction between his public front and his personal life was the stuff of tabloid legend.

“Red’s constant drinking when he had his CBS radio show was the whisper of the microphone colony,” reported the trashy magazine Confidential. “Often his hands would be shaking so badly he could hardly get into his clothes to begin the show.” The tabloid claimed Skelton regularly “terrifies wife and kids with loaded pistols.”

Skelton was often criticized for laughing at his own jokes or breaking up in the middle of a scene. It was an ancient stage trick. Skelton knew that if you lost it on camera, it often made the audience laugh harder. It was a gimmick despised by fellow comedians who saw right through it.

“Dreadful,” said Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame. “Just dreadful. I love his talent but I hate … when he does that deliberate and undeliberate breaking up. In my opinion this is the worst possible thing any comedian can do – the worst. And he even lets some of his untalented guests do it. Dreadful.”

Many viewers felt the same. Patty Valentine of Cincinnati wrote, “There is only one person laughing at him and that is himself. He thinks he is funny but no one else does.”

By 1964 the program hadn’t changed much since its first episode back in 1950. The show got strong ratings, but the demographics were far too old for the sponsor’s liking. In an attempt to court the youth market, Van Bernard Productions, Skelton’s production company, negotiated an exclusive deal with Sir Lew Grade in the UK to provide British Invasion rock groups for the show. Changing its name to The Red Skelton Hour, the program presented The Kinks singing “Got Love If You Want It,” Manfred Mann doing “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” The Hollies performing “Look Through Any Window,” and The Animals playing “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.”

Skelton introduced many British Invasion groups to Middle America for the very first time. But he promised his elderly demographic that he didn’t fully approve, always cracking jokes about their hair and fashion sense.

[autisticsupervillain]

Could the Wright Anything Agency catch Agent 47?

Assumptions

I'm analyzing this under the pretext that Agent 47 has killed someone and sticks around under the same cover to scope out another target in the same area. The person 47 was disguised as at the time gets framed for the murder and the WAA take the case, looking into this "Tobias Rieper" guy when it starts to seem like he might be involved.

Neither has any prior information on the other going in.

Pre-Disbarment Phoenix

Given the Timelines of both franchises, this is Phoenix going up against World of Assassination Era 47. That is.... not good.

Basically, 47 is at his prime both in his abilities as an assassin and his resources with the ICA and he's going up against Nick back when he still needed Mia's advice from time to time.

Okay, that is unfair. Phoenix has taken down some very tough cookies. Damon Gant, Manfred Von Karma, Matt Engarde, and so on. All of whom were either very connected, very intelligent, or both. 47 is very much both.

I do genuinely think 47 can talk his way around the Magatama. 47 at this point has a particular habit of speaking when undercover, where he'll tell technical truths as a little private joke to himself. Lies of omission. Much like how Matt Engarde got around it by technicality, I do think 47 could as well.

Example: "Hey, doc, what's in that shot you're giving me?" "Floral extracts. Mostly belladonna." "Uh, isn't that poisonous? Shouldn't I be worried?" "I'm not. Just sit back, it'll all be over soon." Etc.

Not straight up lies, just not giving an entirely upfront answer.

That said, the name "Tobias Rieper" mosy definitely would cause a ding, because 47 himself doesn't consider himself as having one. That'll probably be what prompts Nick into poking around.

47 takes care to avoid getting recorded or photographed, and takes time to destroy such evidence when he has to, so Nick's gonna have to rely on witness testimony to prove 47's disguise didn't match his client. His basic Pressing techniques should be enough on that front, getting them to mention 47's completely hairless physique, tall stature, monotone voice, etc by pressing for more detail.

That said, I don't think Nick can genuinely catch 47 out with anything. He was genetically engineered to not leave a trace behind, so he can't grow hair and might not even have fingerprints. He prides himself on the bodies either not being found until hours after he's gone or spinning his kills as elaborate accidents. Nick can definitely bluff and theorize his way into working out how 47 did it, but without any proof, all he can do is prove it couldn't have been his client.

Also, First Game Nick dies here. Dude almost got himself assassinated by the mafia and 47 won't hesitate with that fiber wire.

That said, 47 does play into Nick's hand a little bit. He's been known to concoct overly elaborate kills that only he could ever possibly pull off just to make things interesting and if there's one talent Nick has its untangling convoluted murder plots through logical leaps no one else is willing to make.

47 also canonically has an "aura of death" that psychics can sense because of how many people he's killed. Don't know if the Magatama or Maya can pick up on that, as that's not really in their wheelhouse, but it's there if you want to argue it.

Similarly, 47 has met ghosts before, so he's liable to put his guard up if Mia tries to interject. Hell, he's met actual Santa too.

Also, if Phoenix does get his man, he'll have incurred the wrath of the entire ICA so... lose-lose really.

Ultimately, I think Nick can get his client off the hook, but he won't be able to corner a man as slippery as 47. 47 covers his tracks too carefully. 5/10, would solve case, would not catch killer.

Post-Disbarment Phoenix

A lot of Nick's advantages from before still carry over, but with a few extra notes.

First off, timeline wise, this is Freelancer Era 47. 47 no longer has an entire international assassination agency backing him up and now relies on his contacts in the black market and Diana Burnwood to get around. He also has a home he can be traced back to while previously he moved around constantly.

This time, Phoenix is the one with higher resources, as he has connections to Interpol through Edgeworth and connections to Khura'in through Apollo. He has the means to organize an international manhunt if he has to.

Nick is also a lot more willing and able to play the long game. Take his seven year plan against Kristoph or his collaboration with Edgeworth to catch The Phantom, for instance. Nick won't stoop to the lows he did against Kristoph again, as that came about from him being at the lowest point in his life, but his plan there proves he's absolutely able to play the long term Chessmaster when silly bluffing lawyer man won't cut it.

Again, Nick won't be able to catch 47 on their first run in. He just runs too tight a ship. Unlike previously, Nick will have the means to conduct follow up investigation and won't have to do so with a massive target on his back because the ICA doesn't exist anymore.

That said, a 47 whose at the top of his game is still a bit more than the Interpol of Ace Attorney can handle. It will take a lot of planning to create a trao that 47 can't just shoot his way out of. Most likely by going after Diana, but it'll take awhile for him to figure out she even exists. Diana's a force to be reckoned with on her own.

In brief, he can, but he'd have to dedicate a significant chunk of his life to it, pulling every string he has through connections and friendships. 9/10

Apollo Justice

Gonna be blunt, perceive is not gonna work. Like, flat out.

47 doesn't have body ticks. He's unnaturally stiff at all times, even while relaxing and having fun. He doesn’t emote or react or change his tone of voice in a situation. There wouldn't be a microexpression to give away the lie because 47 barely has expressions.

That said, he's just as good at the classic approach as Phoenix is, so a lot of what I said there applies here. Press for more testimony and point out the physical discrepancies that come from that.

Of note, if the crime takes place in Khura'in, then the Divination Seance may screw 47 over. He's had entire conversations with targets before killing them, after all, so it could catch him right there if he's not more careful than usual.

That said, Khura'in by itself doesn't have nearly the presence or resources to catch 47 on the follow through unless he stays relatively close by geographically, so even with all of Khura'in's investigative abilities focusing him, 47 should escape afterwards just fine.

Unless you count Apollo bringing in Phoenix to bring in Edgeworth and Interpol, Apollo just doesn't have the right deck to play with 47. 7/10 because Divination Seance and death aura might get 47 in Khura'in though.

Athena Cykes

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Athena basically hard counters 47.

A seemingly emotionless assassin whose a master of disguise. Think I've heard that one before....

That said, 47 isn't just Phantom 2. He does actually have emotions. He just buries them deeeeeeeep in there.

Honestly, 47 is a massive trauma magnet with a lot of damage upstairs. He was genetically designed to be an assassin from the ground up, waa abused all his childhood in an attempt to purge all emotion and empathy from him, had to witness the first family he ever had he shot and killed in front of him to "teach him a lesson", was drugged into believing he killed his best friend and brother for years, and now has to live with the fact that he killed the parents of the one person left in the world that he cares about. Just... that's rough buddy.

Yeah, Athena would hear nothing when 47 talks about the murder and hear a biiiiiiiig blip when someone says the name Diana or Lucas and that's a big give away.

Could Athena talk him into giving up his career? That's a big if. 47's been kicking the can around in his head for awhile and he always comes back to "killing bad people is the one thing I enjoy in life" so... I'm not optimistic.

She also has no way of actually apprehending him, with none of Apollo's or Phoenix's resources (beyond having them in speed dial, at least).

That said, she'd shake him to his core in the way the other two could never. He'd come out respecting Apollo and Nick but shaken by Athena and that's a big win.

All of them:

Combine all those advantages and what do ya get?

That's a conviction several years in the making, my friend.

[feluka]

there's this biology teacher i know who's the most terrifying man on earth. the best way i could describe him to someone doesn't know him is this: if i didn't know better, i would've assumed that he deliberately modelled his entire personality after manfred von karma (down to the finger snaps and setting "time goals" and getting mad and blaming others when they "delay" him. seriously.) but he's too old and doesn't play videogames.

anyway we'd be so terrified by him that several students dropped out just so they don't have to make eye contact with him (you'll say we were imagining it out of fear, but seriously his eyes looked like a snake's.)

he didn't do anything in particular to frighten us. like he wouldn't threaten us or anything. it's literally just his presence that would freeze us with fear. those of us who had older siblings who'd already gone through him (like i did) know that they were still terrified even at the mention of him, even after they graduated. he's kind of like a celebrity that way.

one time i got to class early and he was there and it was just him and me and i could've passed out from dread but he'd already seen me and it would've been infinitely more awkward if i immediately turned around and walked away after seeing him.

he beckoned me over. oh god. this is it. i'm going to die today, i thought.

then he said "do you like dalida?"

i said yes. he said, "I thought so. you look like someone who appreciates dalida. not enough people do these days."

i was still deer in headlights but the other students came in and class proceeded as normal, only that occasionally he'd do a little "hello there" gesture at me after that day. whenever that happened my classmates would look at me as if i'd used forbidden magic to make him friendly. but no, it was just a common love for dalida.

i got sentimental about this contender for top 3 weirdest interactions i've ever had in my life because i recently heard that he got diagnosed with lung cancer 😔

[pinturas-gran-guerra-aire]

1917 09 23 Last dance of the hussar - Russell Smith

note: this is an old painting when there was the interpretation that the triplane had a yellow cowling

Leutnant der Reserve Werner Voss, from Krefeld, Germany, was Germany’s 4th highest ranking ace of World War 1. With 48 kills to his credit he is still considered by many to be the greatest pilot of that war, having skills that even surpassed Manfred von Richthofen, the “Red Baron”. On September 23, 1917 he became involved in what is known to be one of the greatest dogfights of World War 1. While out on patrol he came across a flight of six British SE5’s from 56 Squadron, each flown by a famous ace. Among the RFC pilots involved in the encounter was British ace James McCudden, who reported: “I now got a good opportunity as he was coming towards me nose on, and slightly underneath, and had apparently not seen me. I dropped my nose, got him well in my sight and pressed both triggers. As soon as I fired up came his nose at me, and I heard clack-clack-clack-clack, as his bullets passed close to me and through my wings. I particularly noticed his red-yellow flashes from his parallel Spandau guns. As he flashed by me I caught a glimpse of a black head in the triplane with no hat on at all.” For over ten minutes Voss singlehandedly fought the aces without retreating. He inflicted considerable damage on all five aircraft before his own engine finally seized and he was sent plummeting to the ground by Lt. Arthur Rhys-Davids. Major James McCudden, who was also involved in the fight, said of him later, “His flying was wonderful, his courage magnificent and in my own opinion he is the bravest German airman whom it has been my privilege to see fight.”  Leutnant Werner Voss was just 20 years old.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Manfred von Karma

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

The Ace Attorney series has no shortage of iconic prosecutors going up against Phoenix Wright in court, but most of them aren’t really Psycho Analysis material. Edgeworth, Franziska, Nahyuta, Blackquill, and even Winston Payne are all simply antagonistic and ultimately are revealed to be good people when it comes down to it, while Klavier Gavin is outright a nice guy—it is his defense attorney brother who’s an irredeemable monster. There are only a small handful of legitimately villainous prosecutors who will be covered, and one of them is the epitome of an anti-villain. But this guy here that I’m reviewing now? He is easily one of the biggest bastards in the entire franchise.

Manfred von Karma is a prosecutor obsessed with the idea of perfection, and he seeks to achieve it both in and out of the courtroom. He’s ruthless, unscrupulous, and will do anything to achieve victory, be it by manipulating and destroying evidence or orchestrating an over-complicated revenge scheme. And on top of it all, he is one of the single most important antagonists in the series; in fact, he kickstarted the entire plot with his actions.

Motivation/Goals: Von Karma is absolutely obsessed with the idea of perfection, and to this end he concocted the most absolute, perfect revenge against the family that tarnished his perfect prosecution record. Gregory Edgeworth got him penalized back in the day, so von Karma seized upon a golden opportunity and murdered him in cold blood, which turned into the DL-6 incident—something that pretty much set the stage for the whole series.

But that’s a bit too mundane for a man like von Karma, so he didn’t stop there! He took in the son of his most hated rival, warped him into becoming a ruthless prosecutor, and then on the eve of the statue of limitations running out on DL-6 manipulated events to get his protege framed for murder, be it that of Hammond or his own father. Von Karma is just incapable of settling for something simple and clean, the man wants to completely and utterly decimate the Edgeworth name’s respectability for the slight against him.

Breakdown: Befitting the final boss of the game, von Karma’s breakdown is absolutely spectacular. Once you finally reveal him as the killer of Gregory Edgeworth because of that bullet he carelessly left embedded in his shoulder, he lets out a massive screen-rumbling roar as images of DL-6 flash onscreen.

Then he smashes his head on the wall, all while ranting about Edgeworth. It is incredibly satisfying to watch this smug bastard fall apart after being so thoroughly trounced by our rookie protagonist, and it really seals the deal on Wright's character development over the course of the game alongside Edgeworth's.

Final Fate: Von Karma is in a very small pool of Ace Attorney villains we get a definitive word on the ultimate fate of, with most others only getting ambiguous demises at the hands of the judicial system or otherwise imprisonment. By the time of the third game, he is explicitly stated to be “gone from this world.” Whether he was executed, killed himself, or simply died from natural causes is of course left to your imagination, but it’s still reassuring to know the bastard is dead after everything he put the heroes through.

Evilness: On the surface, Manfred seemingly pales in comparison to later villains like multiple murderer Dahlia Hawthorne, professional killer Shelley De Killer, or international espionage master “The Phantom,” as he only ever killed a single person (albeit a very important person, with the killing done out of spite). A single murder isn’t really enough to get a high Evilness score, no matter what the reason is.

But then you think about his decades-long prosecution career where he did literally everything he could to get a conviction. How many innocent people did the Demon Prosecutor send to an early grave despite their innocence? And look at how he adopted the son of the man he killed and warped him into his antithesis just to get one over on the man who put a mark on his perfect record; that shit is beyond diabolical. That’s not even getting into how he treated his own daughter.

I think it’s honestly wild how even with all that to consider, he’s still not the most evil guy in the franchise. He’s a 9/10 on the evil scale, a truly nasty, monstrous piece of work who is theoretically responsible for dozens upon dozens of deaths of innocents, and is most definitely a warped, vindictive bastard.

Final Thoughts & Score: Von Karma is one of the best Ace Attorney villains, but I think he kind of suffers from how the game he appears in is structured. Like this dude is monumentally important to the entire plot, the whole series wouldn’t have happened at all without his actions, and yet he appears in one single case at the end of the game, which doesn’t leave a great deal of time to expand upon him the way the other prosecutors of the series get expanded on. By all accounts, he should be just as pitiful as Redd White is

The thing is, though, that von Karma manages to cram so much personality into his limited time onscreen that he becomes unforgettable for all the right reasons. Unlike White, we get several courtroom segments where we have to contend with his manipulative antics and none of the battles with him disappoint—fitting for the man who taught Miles Edgeworth. And again, unlike White, von Karma manages to have a meaningful impact and presence beyond his only appearance; his daughter is the antagonistic prosecutor of Justice For All, and he pops up in a couple of cases in the Investigations games, one of which is a flashback to the case where Gregory Edgeworth gave him his one and only penalty.

I think what really helps von Karma stand out is just how vindictive he is. Frankly, the sheer insane lengths the man goes to for his revenge is utterly disturbing for something so incredibly petty. So many killers do the deed for equally petty and self-servng reasons, but outside of Kristoph Gavin none of them are as terrifyingly shallow as von Karma and none of them go to the same insane, absurd lengths he does to crush those who he views as having wronged him. He is one of the single pettiest bitches in the entire series.

I think von Karma manages a nice 9.5/10. He’s really only held back slightly by his extremely limited screentime, but he certainly makes the most of it whenever he appears. It’s honestly pretty amazing that the first game managed to have both an excellent significant plot-relevant villain and a pathetic significant villain who barely makes a splash, but any flaws White brought to this game are easily forgotten when Manfred shows up. He’s just a great final boss, plain and simple… or he would be if it weren’t for the bonus case. But that’s a Psycho Analysis for another time.

[blue-aconite]

There Will Be Blood - A Top Gun Maverick Mafia!AU

Pairing: Bradley Bradshaw x OC, Jake Seresin x OC

Summary: Ava Castello always knew she was going to end up marrying Bradley Bradshaw. She knew it from the moment she overheard her parents fighting in the kitchen at 3am when she was 10 years old. After that it had been set in stone and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. 

Bradley was easy on the eyes and despite the ruthless name he’d made from himself as Nick’s heir, he was always kind and polite whenever he and Ava were in the same shared space. She could think of cruller men to be betrothed to. 

She knew that their marriage would be a way for her family to get out of the debt the owed the Bradshaw family and she was fine with paying the price. She’d be safe and looked after as Bradley’s wife.

But after a whirlwind of a night, Ava ends up at the Seresin estate, the last place she should be at. The shared hatred between the Bradshaw’s and Serein’s is no secret and their constant fight for control over the city has taken many lives and years. 

After Jake saves her life that night, Ava knows she owes him a debt. And that debt might come with too high a price.

The Girl in the Creek - A Top Gun Maverick AU

Pairing: Jake Seresin x ?

Summary: Sheriff Manfred Johnson gets the call at 7am on a Sunday morning. A jogger has found a body in the woods, out by the creek. So much for his quiet morning.

It's no secret that the creek is a popular hangout for the town's teenagers. After interviewing several witnesses, who aren't much help, the sheriff department rules the incident as accidental drowning. To placate the distraught family, the creek is closed to the public to avoid further accidents.

The newspapers name the case "The Girl in the Creek" and it sticks.

Everyone says that his sister drowned, that she was drunk and fell into the creek and the people around her were too drunk to help. Everyone says it was an accident.

But Jake knows something else happened that night. He just knows it.

25 years after his sister's death, Jake decides to find out what really happened that night. He's a detective now, he's got more solved cases on the force than anyone else.

With the help of friends and family, Jake is determined to find out the truth. There's so many unanswered questions.  And the most intriguing one of all, what really happened to the girl in the creek?

In The Deep - A Top Gun Maverick Mermaid!AU

Pairing: Jake Seresin x reader

Summary: Everyone knew the stories. During the summers, it was all your town thrived on. The local legends brought a swarm of tourists each season, all of them searching for what you believed to be absolute bullshit. 

Vessels overturned in the middle of a calm day, sailors abandoning post and jumping into the water for unexplainable reasons. A faint song in the evening breeze, heard by only those meant to. Beautiful yet terrifying creatures roaming the deepest parts of the ocean. Sharp fangs and enchanting eyes, shimmering tails and a deadly song. 

Those were the stories your grandfather and father had fed you your entire life. But growing up in a coastal town with parents who all but worked on a boat all day long, you know better. You’ve never even seen anything remotely close to a resemblance of the creature, so you don’t understand how the legends fascinate anyone.

“Don’t stare at your reflection for too long, ma cherie. Or the creatures might lure you into the water, never to be seen again.” That was your grandfather’s warning each time you went out on the ocean. You’ve always scoffed and ignored it but this time it feels different. This time, his warning stays with you as you watch the clouds roll in and the waves grow bolder. What if there’s really something down there? And if there is, what is it?

Sharpest Blade, Gentle Breeze - A Top Gun Maverick Hunger Games!AU

Pairing: Jake Seresin x reader

Summary: After winning the 79th Hunger Games, your life changed completely. The Capitol loved you. The people loved you. You’re the first tribute in years from District 1 that didn’t volunteer to enter the games. 

With the 80th games looming on the horizon, President Simpson decides that the tributes will be reaped from the existing pool of victors from each district. 

Thrown into a war with deadly consequences, you’re not sure who to trust. You’re paired up with victors deemed as the best of the best, forming an unlikely alliance. 

While on the outside of the arena, an uprising is brewing, your mentor doing whatever he can to make sure you make it back home. To him.

Swords and Smoke - A Top Gun Maverick Royal AU

Pairing: Jake Seresin x OC

Summary: King Nicholas II and his wife Queen Carol were blessed with not one but two strong and healthy boys born within the year from each other.

Bradley came first, a true winter child, born to follow in his father's footsteps and ascend the throne when the time was right. A true heir to his father's kingdom.

Then there was Jacob, who was happy to be second in line. None of the heavy responsibilities on his shoulder, happy to be an advisor to his older brother. He knew he one day would have to shoulder being the right hand man during his brother's rule but it never bothered him.

When their parents arrange for Bradley to wed the Princess of one of their allied kingdoms, Bradley is devastated. While he knows his duty, he's deeply in love with one of his mother's handmaidens, Natasha.

Jacob decides to help his brother out, and offers himself to take Bradley's place. He's not the heir, but being the second born of the most powerful king in the South is quite the feat. Surely it would be enough.

Jake soon realises he’s thrown into more than just an arranged marriage, suddenly caught in a deadly spiral with an outcome no one is ready for.

[alkalische]

Quick Design analysis of Hoederer's changes

Darknights Memoir Appearance (DESIGN 1)

-he's soooo ferrety here. silhouette is a lot rounder and softer (esp around the shouldersand boots) and his hair gives a nice prickly texture at the top, adding some visual interest

-colour pallete is also limited, with red being used to visually draw your eyes to important areas (his face and the little dangly thing which i assume to be the kazdel signifier)

-combined with the goatee and the ripped up cape he ends up looking a lil scraggly. which is fitting for a merc who who's constantly on the move

-I feel like his hair being so shittily cut might imply practicality. Maybe he cuts off the fringe so it doesn't get in his eyes.

-he's also pretty heavily armored and dressed for the cold kazdel climate. I feel that it kinda looks like his posture is stooping a little with the weight of the armour which is interesting. He looks bulky and weighty.

-Position of sword implies that he's right handed

-interestingly he's got a crossbow on his back, which doesn't make in into any of the other designs. suggests he can use one.

----

Chapter 10 Appearance (DESIGN 2)

-It's been a couple of years. His face looks less sallow, his cheekbones less pronounced. maybe he's been eating better. His hair is also longer. He did keep the parting, though.

-Notice he's facing you with his right side (can also be seen in his 3rd design). It's cause he's only got one eye and he's looking at you with it

-His shape language changed to be a little more sharp, a little more triangular, suggesting tension and danger. You can see triangles and sharp edges being emphasized throughout the design (shoulderpads, chestplate taper, kneepads)

-He's still as armoured as his previous iteration, it's just that the armor design is also a lot less bulky, it's got the prominent 'sarkaz occupation in victoria' look that a lot of the NPCs tend to have

-The armour doenst use as much geometric shapes, instead having patterns of intricate smooth curves. You can also see this on manfred's arm

-Anyway the less bulky armour suggests that he doenst have to be carrying supplies around with him as he does whatever job manfred sends him out to do. He's kind of got a place to return to at this point.

-He's holding his knife in his left hand here. Is he just holding it temporarily or can he use both hands? My theory is that he probably favors his right hand.

----

Playable Appearance (DESIGN 3)

-This design is kinda a combination of his first and his second design. He's gone back to having rounded design language, but still retains aspects of the sharpness and danger of his second design.

-He's actually shed most of his armour here. He's not wearing any kind of chestplate. Literally just wearing a T shirt (you can see a strip of exposed skin on his bicep and also in his e2) Bro is wearing a cape and light armour over T shirt and pants no WONDER he takes so much damage

-The flowing cape lets him keep some of that nice spikiness and balances out his roundness.

-Red thread all across the design, binding him to W and Ines.

-Generally a notable increased amount of red being used across the design.

-He's got more scars on his face, and has returned to charmingly shitty short haircut. Oh but the back part of his hair is actually as long as the second design's one, it's just tied up. Poor hedley doenst have thick hair genes.

-His shoulder pads are reminiscent to his merc armour, but the arm guards are the same as the kazdel's armour.

-I really like the way they make him turn his good eye to the camera to get a better look at us it makes a lot of sense

[landfilloftrash]

May I ask for more of your ShinKaru headcanons please? 😀🙏 or even about Manfred, do you have any HC about his wife?

Not gonna lie with you Chief, it took me longer than it probably should’ve to realize that you were using “Karuma” for the second half of the ship name lmaooo (very jovial)

But headcanons for Gregory and Manfred!!! I have those in spades! I won't go into tooooo much detail because we'll be here all day but I can give you some I sent to my partner! But as always I must preface; this is mostly based on vibes, certain lines I cannot quote off the top of my head, and fanfic-- because both characters and their backstories have not been TOUCHED let me see how they GOT HERE

Anyways /lh

In actual canon, my guess is that they met for the first time during the IS-7 incident. More specifically, the first time they’ve actually TALKED.

However, this alone is boring; So I imagine they’ve seen glances of one another in the courtroom. On Gregory’s end, he has seen von Karma in passing, fresh from the courtroom, going into battle, or going over something in the lobby and scowling, given a polite nod to the man or a nice tip of his hat if he was wearing it and mostly classified MvK as “older gentleman with nice taste in clothing.” if he ever sees him again.

MvK on the other hand might have heard of Gregory in passing? Extremely good defense attorney who regularly beats prosecutors; that’s not saying he’s perfect, that would catch the older man’s attention after all, but MvK has probably heard of him and his Justice filled ways and gone “bah. these fools don’t know how to prosecute that’s all, and he’s a naive fool.” If SEEING him without first noticing his badge, might politely nod back or huff a breath in lieu of greeting. If seeing his badge, 100% a nearly uncontrolled sneer. A mere defense attorney. A bug to crush.

And if later down the line Gregory wants to be that cool bug that Manfred studies closer and finds interesting, that’s his own damn business, thank you very much /lh

The only way I see them happening would be if Manfred's wife was either divorced or dead; He brags about his wife's cooking in a contest about baking that man is a wifeguy fo sho

Anyways

They are court rivals!

They match each other blow for blow, which means whatever Manfred’s brand of insane is that trial, Gregory is ready to go with it and turn the tide, and even if he doesn’t win (perfect win streak), the crowd goes away with a sense of “wow. Von Karma was really on the ropes a couple of times.” and Manfred HATES IT. Not the crowd’s whispers— but now people know there’s someone who can actually MATCH his damn insanity and that riles him up to the point of bloodthirsting lust

Gregory ALSO hates it but for a different reason; he's fighting for his gawddamn life with these cases, doing his best as a defense and usually coming so so close but missing just that little something, and von Karma wins.

But he’s stubborn. He will get people their Justice, and he WILL literally die trying so help him gods. That stubbornness extends to von Karma; he WILL win against this man one day, and he’s tenacious and firm, so one day, it WILL happen.

On other hand.. he’s also interested in the amused expressions and sometimes even delighted smile that pops up on extremely brief and rare one second occasions when Gregory pulls a trap of his own or turns von Karma’s trap around; It’s a predator amused that his prey thinks it can win, but playing along and once again trapping the poor creature, but he can’t deny that the expressions make him pause for a moment. Von Karma is very intrigued as he is incredulous about Edgeworth; the fact he only smiles when cornered, so deadly serious and matching fire with fire, a little bit of a nerd! What is this man and why is he so amused by him? He's gonna have an aneurysm

Outside of the courtroom, there’s not much interaction. But… on occasion, they will cross paths while investigating, and almost make a game of it.

They’ll bicker, snip at each other, get close to violence on a couple cases, occasionally even laugh at a stupid/funny comment the other made, quip and quote back and forth like their lives depend on it and should they fail they’ll disintegrate.

Most detectives, especially Badd, the one they most regularly have to deal with, have caught onto this and stay the FUCK out of their way; no matter if von Karma demands they don’t let Gregory onto the scene, they find out later he snuck past them and is up to his thighs in a mystery he’s two thirds of the way figured out

Meanwhile von Karma is already ‘hiding’ witness testimonies and figuring out what he might need to smudge to keep the 'innocents' safe and the 'culprits' put away. While this is a tried and true tactic, and a very welcome one, if he can get away with not doing those things, he prefers it.

Gregory on the other hand, has a notebook for every case he’s been on with MvK as the prosecutor because every time they go against each other he needs to write down every thought that comes to mind in regards to the case. In other cases not against Manfred, he’s decimated the prosecutions arguments before they get off the ground thanks to having to deal with the god of prosecution. But he goes over these notebooks and regularly writes new theories and ideas on what might’ve actually happened, or if he came across the truth and was unable to prove it, circles it, and when they're all actually solved, he closes that notebook permanently.

On the extremely rare occasion that they have NO culprit, but there’s a crime they’ve been assigned to, they have tossed theories at one another, simple to try and one up each other of course. But it’s a different kind of race and game. It’s slower, much more careful.

Manfred once couldn't get to a crime scene up on a hill because it was a terrible pain day and Gregory said nothing about it as he supported Manfred’s almost full weight and let him recover before they actually approached the police and the scene. They never bring it up again and Manfred hates the fact that it even happened, but Gregory soon after finds a small gift basket and a note that says “tell no one. they will never believe you.” and Edgeworth keeps the note.

Gregory is a very calm and chill man, but he has on multiple occasions yelled in true anger at Manfred for certain topics, and Manfred purposefully doesn’t bring those topics up again unless truly relevant, which is almost never.

Manfred absolutely hates Gregory the way you hate a dog. Gregory hates Manfred the way you hate a season.

That's where I'll leave those for now lmao-- but now. Ouuuh. Headcanons about Manfred's wife, huh? She's not so closely my department in headcanons/personal canons like my buddy @.nwdolphin is! But if I were pressed...

May perhaps not be a perfectionist like her husband, but probably strives for it in a way that Manfred saw, appreciated, and partially married her for

I'm not quite sure on ethnicity or name-- depends on if they met in Germany or Japanifornia, and even then it's a mixed bag either way-- but definitely not "noble birth" or whatever if going on with MvK's edwardian outfits /aff Just a normal person from a normal Ace Attorney universe family, so of course her name is a pun/irony.

That being said-- Business woman though. Possibly a CEO of some kind? Possibly just a simple worker. Either way, she commands attention

Softer face for Franziska? She's who it came from!

Like I said earlier in the post; Manfred brags about her cooking! Wifeguy for sure. Her cooking may not be "perfect" but it's made with a genuine effort and a love of the task/people it's made for, so it's perfect to him, goddamnit all, and he will stand by this until he dies

This is all not to say that she's perfectly fine with her husband's bullshit; she calls him out when he gets too Into It

Definitely challenges her husband in more than one way-- whether it be verbally, mentally, or maybe even physically in a sparring match when they were younger and Manfred's leg didn't act out as much!

Manfred fr wouldn't have it any other way; he strikes me as the kind of guy who would decay rapidly without a proper challenge in some way or another (enrichment for the caged tiger in his enclosure please)

I could definitely see her being the one that completely and utterly endorse her youngest daughter wielding a riding crop as little more than two so even she could defend herself

Both of them were definitely so proud of her

Of course her eldest also got a weapon (<- the one who gave them their weapons) who do you think she is

Their granddaughter is named after her, methinks; the eldest keeps in contact enough for Manfred to know her dog's name is Phoenix (whether or not he was simply bluffing on this is irrelevant, I'm taking it and running with it /lh) and even if it isn't, he still knows his granddaughter has a dog who she very much adores.

I think around the time she left his life (death, divorced, missing, etc.) is around the time he truly started to lose the way of how he wants Perfect Justice and instead started to perfectly embody everything wrong with the Law

[musashi]

Hey, you're really the only person I follow who appreciates Manfred in all his glory, so just a quick question but do you have any tips on characterising him when writing?

genuinely, we see very little of him in canon, so a lot of how you characterize him is up to you! some people make him evil incarnate, cruel just for the sake of cruelty, and there is really little in canon that contradicts that. others, like me, prefer to make him a very over the top villain in mannerisms alone but with a good deal of humanity still buried within.

i tend to be INCREDIBLY selective with the words i read RE: him so i don't exactly know what pitfalls people fall into other than just kinda making him a horrible child abuser who does what he does for no reason other than to cause pain. off the top of my head though here's some things i think to keep in mind abt manfred:

he believes he is on the side of good. i feel like miles is one of the only prosecutors who people really keep this in mind about. even though the prosecutors of AA are antagonists by definition, they believe they serve a vital role, that of punishing evil. from the perspective of the prosecutor, they are handing down justice and putting away evildoers. this might seem very 'duh' but because you play as a defense attorney in AA you are predisposed to see them as their own sort of evil, coming after innocents. it's important to remember there are two sides to every story.

adding onto this, his proteges see him this way! miles and franziska both view him as a noble man who fights for justice. in the anime, franziska says of him, "he's basically like a superhero. he never lets the bad guys get away."

manfred is charismatic. a lot of people playing the game dislike him outright because of how tough an opponent he is right from the get-go. but he has both the charisma and the domineering attitude to get the courtroom to hang on his every word. there is a reason he commands attention and is revered as the legend he is.

manfred is not serious all the time. he makes stupid dad jokes in court. he likes karaoke. he has incredibly strong opinions on fashion and berates the other prosecutors for not dressing better. people get so tunnel visioned on all the bad things he has done that they forget he is in the ace attorney series, which is a very silly series alongside all its seriousness.

many canons show that manfred loves his family. this includes miles. even if you want to make him manipulative and abusive, it's important to remember this. abusers can and do love their victims, and it makes for a much more compelling story!

manfred obsessively plans ahead. if he wants something to get done, he has likely thought of every single obstacle that might stand in his way and taken care of it pre-emptively. remember that phoenix might have called that parrot to the stand, but manfred predicted he would do it. a lot of people pretty erroneously claim that manfred got where he did by lying, cheating, forging evidence, etc--this is, again, something that is not present in canon before 1-4. even the penalty that caused DL6 was something that manfred was actively misled about. he was good at his job.

manfred is a control freak. when he begins to lose control of a situation, that's when his mask is likely to slip.

he is stony, cold, calculating, and dismissive of that which he's disinterested in. manfred views most things as below him & his ilk. he is passionate about what he loves and has little tolerance for what he doesn't.

like his proteges he is wordy and overly formal in his speech. if you can write franziska & miles' dialogue you can write manfred's, he's the reason they talk like that. the biggest difference is that he tends a little more toward finding different ways to call something ridiculous. franziska will say foolish every time. manfred will say asinine, infernal, trifling, anything in that general area of 'why do you talk like a fucking video game villain'

honestly if you can write franziska you can write manfred. they are very similar. the biggest difference is that franziska is young and has a more flexible worldview--her concept of what justice is can shift and change. manfred is set in his ways, he believes in good and evil and little in the area between. franziska is also a lot more loving and protective. the biggest difference between them is their prosecution style: manfred wants trials done quick, franziska wants to drag them out as long as possible and follow every thread, crushing each argument one by one. to manfred, "perfect justice" is exposing the truth as quickly as possible, clean and succinct. to franziska, it is making sure no scrap of it remains unexplored.

this literally only applies to court scenes but its a huge pet peeve i have: manfred does not refer to the judge as 'your honour.' he exclusively and informally calls him judge, likely as a power move. little thing but it can make all the difference. iirc he also does this to a lot of others ie 'defense attorney' 'detective' etc but most of that is in aai which is very take it or leave it canon with some weird localization choices tbh.

thats all i can think of i am so bad with general questions but if you have any questions in particular please hmu

[mariacallous]

I can predict with safety that the prosecution of 700 innocent postmasters and mistresses will be remembered for decades.

It was not just that when the Post Office jailed employees and drove them to suicide it presided over one of the gravest miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

It is that the injustice will be remembered far beyond the UK. The technology said the postal workers were guilty of stealing from their tills, and everyone – judges, juries, police officers and government ministers – believed the faulty software rather than innocent men and women.

As facial recognition technologies take over police work and AI determines job prospects, the story of how the Post Office computers got it wrong will be a part of 21st century folklore.

But this terrible scandal deserves to be remembered for one other reason: the attitude of managers, who did not for a moment think there was something wrong in believing that hundreds of their colleagues were criminals.   

The notion that the accusations must be flawed because the scale of the alleged fraud and the numbers of suspects beggared belief never occurred to them. They justified their salaries and bonuses as a legitimate reward for presiding over underlings who were no better than common criminals.

Chris Dillow, the author of the Stumbling and Mumbling economics blog, is one of the best critics of the managerialist ideology that drove the Post Office scandal. You can listen to my Lowdown interview with him via the links above.

I thought it would be worth going through the evidence we discuss on the show as we look at the dictatorial attitude of so many managers.

We are not making an argument for anarchism. Successful organisations have successful managers.

They tend to be modest managers who understand that it is impossible for the people at the top of complex organisations to know all they need to know.  They have genuine consultations with their staff to fill the gaps in the knowledge. They do not behave like dictators by insisting on subservience and by refusing to allow criticism.

However many managers, perhaps most managers, are not like that. And here is the main reason.

They have been imbued with the ideology of managerialism, which holds that organizations in the public and private sector can be run from the top down by an elite of experts.

Instead of valuing specific knowledge about a company or organisation they believe in a generalist skill of “management”; and that a managerial elite can move from company to company, public body to public body, without losing effectiveness.

In place of specific, practical knowledge about the institutions they are meant to control, they offer “visions” and demand obedience.

Paula Vennells, was the chief executive of the Post Office as the number of false imprisonments rocketed.  She had not spent a working lifetime getting to know her colleagues. She had flitted between  Unilever, L'Oréal, Dixons Retail, Argos, Whitbread, the Cabinet Office and the Anglican Church.

If the people at the top of organisations cannot know all they need to know, and if their subordinates know they must suck up to the boss and tell him what he wants to hear rather than what he needs to hear, then you have miniature versions of Vladimir Putin’s Russia where no one dares contradict the big boss.

The type of people who thrive in these conditions are, frankly, psychopaths. By which I do not mean mass murderers but egomaniacs with no capacity for empathy or remorse.

According to a study dating back to 2010, there were at least three times as many psychopaths in executive or CEO roles than in the overall population. More recent data estimated that psychopaths filled 20 percent of executive posts

The Dutch management scholar and psychoanalyst Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries described managers who were

“Outwardly normal, apparently successful and charming, [but] their inner lack of empathy, shame, guilt, or remorse, has serious interpersonal repercussions, and can destroy organizations. Their great adaptive qualities mean they often reach top executive positions, especially in organizations that appreciate impression management, corporate gamesmanship, risk taking, coolness under pressure, domination, competitiveness, and assertiveness. The ease with which [they] rise to the top raises the question whether the design of some organizations makes them a natural home for psychopathic individuals.”

Shareholders may think that psychopath bosses will benefit them by keeping the profits flowing. As one business theorist put it in 2022

“Being a CEO or in a position of true power requires certain skills and abilities that psychopaths exhibit with ease. Making objective, clinical decisions entirely void of emotion, planning meticulously and in great detail, being patient, restless and confident, having a need to be in control… are all characteristics that psychopaths and prominent leaders share.”

And it is true that I have never heard of a CEO or head of HR refusing to fire subordinates because they could not bring themselves to ruin the lives of people less fortunate than themselves.

For all the talk about woke corporations and management diversity and inclusion initiatives, when it comes to mass sackings the new boss is much the same as the old boss. And you can see why that might please the shareholders.

Chris Dillow explains it thus

“People who are unusually concerned with status and power are precisely those who aim for the top of hierarchies (whereas many others of us just want to get on with our jobs), and psychopaths' superficial charm and fluency appeals to hirers. As David Allen Green says, "the likes of Paula Vennells are always with us and will always somehow obtain senior positions." This is consistent with a finding by Luigi Zingales and colleagues, that a lot more corporate fraud occurs than is actually detected. What's more, companies also select for over-confidence as they mistake ‘competence cues’ - the right body language or the illusion of knowledge - for actual ability. (All this might also apply to politics).”

You might think shareholders have nothing to complain about because vicious management protects dividends. But, as I have seen happen many times in the media, brutal managers can destroy businesses.

Chris explained the tension

“Often a company needs to cut costs and a psychopath who doesn't care about making people redundant, might be better at cutting costs than someone who's more empathetic. On other hand, we know that, psychopathic tendencies, can be very corrosive to an organization because it leads to managers who don't listen, managers who are so determined to make cuts to their organization that they end up cutting not just the fat, as they like to think, but, but cutting the meat and the muscle as well.”

If you listen to the podcast, you will hear a long discussion on why checks and balances don’t work. In theory shareholders are in control. In practice, as economists have recognised since the 19th century, they do not have day to day power. Managers can enrich themselves and follow disastrous policies without being stopped.

In the case of the Post Office, all checks and balances failed including, and most ominously, the checks of the legal system.

Dismal though that picture is, I will not end with it. One point that is not made often enough is that today’s full employment in the UK and the US is freeing workers. People who are stuck in terrible organisations with psycho bosses can just walk out and w​alk into other jobs.

Full employment is not high up on progressive wish lists. But for millions it is a liberation.