#you might also wanna play Ace Attorney 4

[gen-the-greedy]

List of things I like so that I can remember that I like them, will update as my interests come to me in prophetic visions

I humbly request you engage me in conversation about these topics

Also for the record transphobes dni

Digimon (gabumon, gazimon, and impmon favorites)

Sonic the hedgehog

Mother series

Splatoon

Smash ultimate (I main Mac and Falco)

Ace attorney

Ghost trick

Jojo's bizarre adventure

Revali from botw my beloved

Pikmin (have only played 4 but I watched chuggaconroy play the others back in the day)

Xenoblade 1 (mixed feelings on the rest of the series)

STREETLIGHT MANIFESTO why did it take me this many bullets to remember, got tier band

Halo

Fable (second game was never ported to PC so I haven't played it)

InFamous (haven't played second son)

FE three houses was good fight me (edelgard my beloathed)

Anyone remember Epic Battle Fantasy? Ebf 5 was so fucking good

ATLA

Full metal alchemist

Red Vs Blue

The Princess Bride

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny

Dr pepper 😎

Deltarune

I don't really care for the roleplay elements but I occasionally show up to my local larp group just to bash some heads

I just like martial weapons in general

Never used a bardiche but it looks like my kind of thing

I want to play dnd again but haven't had the chance (I mean I could dm a campaign myself but I don't wanna)

They Might be Giants

Lemon Demon/ Neil cicierega

Cake (the band)

Pie (the food)

Anything lemon flavored

The color purple (and that specific shade of lemon juice yellow)

Sao abridged

Calvin and Hobbes is responsible for my absentmindedly archaic and verbose vernacular that I have to go out of my way to subdue to not sound like a fuckin nerd

Coming back to this point, obviously my word choice was intentional but subdue specifically was not, I can't escape this curse

Also hitchhikers guide, but I was too young to actually remember any of it

Red Vox

Funny cat pictures

Fuckin love dragons when they're treated with respect instead of as giant beasts to slay or cute and "smol" I am very opinionated about this I grew up with

Eragon/ The Inheritance Cycle

I am way too opinionated about dragons I think I might be a kobold (the dnd ones not the german ones)

Gryphons are also cool but if you spell it Griffin dni

Might change my name to gryphon, I liked the sound of phoenix shortened to nick like in ace attorney but my friend's brother is already named that and that would get confusing

Been a while since I read Percy Jackson but I liked that

Dragon Age: Origins

Fable 3 totally ripped it's story from DA:O

I bite my ice cream cause I'm not a coward

[unnecessary-feelings]

Tell me abt the oc u lovingly refer to as "weird arson motherfucker" pls

HI sorry i forgot to answer this, thank you for asking abt her!!! i’m still in the process of fleshing everything out so things might change but she’s my ace attorney OC! i’m putting everything under a read more because this post ended up being longer than i meant it to be and i don’t want this to be a pain to scroll through for anyone on mobile who doesn’t wanna read me rambling about blorbo from my brain, i’m sorry if this is hard to read i have trouble putting my thoughts into words for other people to read hdjdbfbdn, also spoilers for cases 4-1, 6-1, 6-3, and 6-5

i made her because i started wondering what would happen if dhurke and amara had a daughter older than rayfa that was in line to become queen before the khura’in royal residence fire and then i accidentally got carried away with her story lmao

her name is kaba’anyi padma khura’in (i was thankfully able to figure out a name for her after i created her tag, it means something along the lines of “daughter of the sun” because sun motif go brrr. ALSO i got to that name because nyi means sun in tibetan and khura’in is in the himalayas so i figured that link made sense. i’m very proud of her name because i struggle with naming characters so being able to make up a name for a character from a country that doesn’t exist is very big for me), or anyi for short, and she uses she/her pronouns. she was born in 1998 (for the sake of timeline consistency in this version of AA dhurke and amara are around 5 years older than they are in canon because after i had already chosen a birth year for her i realized that dhurke and amara would have been too young at that point in time shdnrhdh) and i played around with the idea of her committing a couple of crimes as a member of the defiant dragons, set a couple of government buildings on fire to get back at whoever tried to kill her and amara (she didn’t know it was ga’ran at the time but since they would have had to have access to the royal palace she knew they would have to have been high ranking and probably still were in that position) which is how i got her tag name but now i’m not sure if i wanna keep that part in or not lmao, now that i have a probably-concrete name for her i might move everything in her tag over to a new one, probably should do that sooner rather than later before the tag has too many posts

anyways, no matter if it was arson-related or simply because y’know, she was the daughter of the man who the country believed had murdered the previous queen, she was arrested, but she broke out and managed to fake her death to avoid being looked for (that part may be subject to change if i can’t figure out how exactly that happened, while i have a good grasp on the rest of her story there’s a gap between the royal palace fire and her moving to the US that is just kind of a loose collection of things i thought would be interesting for now hjsjdjsjfh)

so after that, she moved to the US when she was probably around 21 (still working on a concrete timeline but that’s somewhere around the right age) because of the rebellion. she changed her name to guinevere amos (i chose guinevere because the rest of the WAA except for trucy has mythology themed names so i figured arthurian legend would fit into that even though i’ve gotten all of my knowledge of arthurian legend from the mechanisms lmao, and i just chose amos because it was the first name of the main character of the book i was reading at the time and i’m pretty sure amos is also a last name so i went with it) and ended up joining gavin & co law offices which turned into a very awkward sibling reunion with apollo, i think she would have acted as a second co counsel alongside gavin (pretty sure that happened once in dd so i’m choosing to believe that double co counsels are a normal thing in the aa legal system) during 4-1 and helped apollo and phoenix get kristoph arrested, then she joins the WAA alongside apollo (although i think she would have joined a little bit earlier than apollo as she was quicker to accept phoenix’s invite at the end of 4-1) and then she helps the WAA with the rest of AA4 as well as AA5

as for AA6, anyi decides to go with phoenix to khura’in because it’s been nearly a decade since she was last in contact with her family and the rest of the rebels and she felt it was time to go back even if only for a couple of weeks, since she was now going under a different name she decided that it was safe to go back if she could keep her head low and avoid getting into trouble, obviously that didn’t happen, which marked the beginning of Guinevere Amos AKA Kaba’anyi Padma Khura’in’s No Good Very Bad Vacation, canon shenanigans ensue, you get the idea, when i get around to replaying the AJ trilogy (i’m intending on replaying it when it comes out on the switch but i might end up doing it before then as well) i’m thinking abt doing a liveblog thing (is it still liveblogging if you’ve already played the game in question?) where i also explain how anyi would interact with the events of the games if that makes any sense

after the events of 6-5. she stays behind in khura’in with apollo, and works with him at justice & co law offices, my original thoughts were that she takes back the role of royal priestess alongside being a lawyer and then quits when she becomes queen instead of rayfa but it could also be that she stays a lawyer and rayfa becomes queen like in canon, either way i’d imagine it could be a source of conflict between the two, although i think they would be able to work it out, unlike amara and ga’ran

one last thing, i’m currently working on some art for her and i am so excited to post it here because she is literally GORGEOUS i’m so proud of her design <33

i think that’s everything! i hope this made sense lmao

also is it normal to be nervous talking about your ocs to other people? it feels so weird trying to explain the things that come out of my brain like this

[totallynotthecrystalskull]

(Kinda Late) Nintendo Direct thoughts (2/8/23)

Teensy bit late on this one due to being at work all day, but I wanted to capture my thoughts on the latest nintendo direct (since we hadn’t had one in months and who knows when the next one is). Go over the highlights, the cool, the meh, and everything that I thought was interesting. Not gonna cover absolutely EVERYTHING, just the things that caught my attention (sorry Samba de Amigo and Fashion Dreamer, I’m sure you’re fun games and all, I just have other things I wanna talk about)Pikmin 4: Looks neat, that’s kinda all I’ve got on it. Visually it’s beautiful for a Switch game, but it’s not a franchise I’ve really cared about, so I’m pretty indifferent on it. Pretty happy for the Pikmin fans though, I know you guys have REAAAALLY been waiting on this one, so good to see it’s finally getting shown off. The dog thing Oatchi feels a little... weird though. Kinda like Pikmin’s version of Poochy or some other example of added dog-like companion getting added to a series, they always feel a little funky when added in my opinion. I dunno though, maybe it fits right in with the rest of Pikmin, I’m not exactly super knowledgeable on the series anyways. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 DLC: That’s neat for Xenoblade fans. I only ever played X on the Wii U, so I don’t have much of a connection to the series, but hope fans of the game are hyped (also, was that Shulk and an older Rex? That was kind of a surprise to see). Who knows though, maybe I’ll try the series out again sometime in the future (probs not though, they seem too big for me) Dead Cells DLC: Ok, with every update this game seems to get, the more tempted I am to get into the game. Actually, why haven’t I gotten it yet?! It looks fun as hell, and it’s got a ton of fun crossovers with Shovel Knight, Katana Zero, Castlevania, and so so so many more games. I Really gotta give it a go at this point. Ghost Trick port: oh HELL yeah, I’ve been wanting to play this one for ages now! The Ace Attorney Trilogy has been a fun way for me to get into those original DS games, and I’m hoping this Ghost Trick port will accomplish the same thing! Bayonetta Origins: It looks ok. That’s about all I’ve got for it. It’s style is pretty different from the other Bayo games which I really like, but this one’s just not really speaking to me as much. Splatoon 3 DLC: Ok, first we’re gonna get Inkopolis as a DLC... Hub? Ok, that’s a bit odd in my opinion. Like, it’ll be nice to revisit Inkopolis after ALL these years, but at the same time it’s like... it’s just a hub... DLC just for an different hub area? Feels kinda... underwhelming I guess? I dunno, just feels like a weird thing to add. As for the Side Order DLC, now THAT ONE’S catching my eyes! More Pearl and Marina, and Splat 2′s hub being completely white and covered in Coral is so mysterious, I love this!! Fire Emblem Engage DLC: I don’t care who you add, I’m not playing this FE Game! Omega Strikers: Honestly, I’ll probs forget about this game in a bit, but I do like the character designs. I dunno, looks fun enough, a neat take on Air Hockey. Might pick it up as a Multiplayer game when I have friends over (ya know, if that ever happens). Etrian Odyssey Collection: Oooooooo, ok, I’m down for this. Only ever played a bit of EOU2: The Fafnir Knight, but the mechanics of it’s dungeon crawling and custom map making was a lot of fun!! Might pick this collection up! Advance Wars 1+2 ReBoot Camp: Hell yeah! I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since it was announced!! It’s also a series I haven’t played before, but it looks so charming and fun, happy it finally has a release date! NSO GameBoy Advanced: Didn’t care much about the GB additions, but the GBA being added?! YEAAAAAH!!! I mean I wish it wasn’t a part of the Expansion pass, but also, YEAAAAAAH!!! I love the sprite work on so many GBA games, and plenty of them I’ve wanted to play myself, so I’m really happy they’re being added (especially both Superstar Saga and The Minish Cap, I fucking love the sprite work in those games so god damn much, AAAAAHHHHH!!!) Metroid Prime Remake: Hell yeah (again)! I’ve always wanted to try the Prime games, so this should be a fun way to get into the series! And available today too?!?! Mario Kart DLC: I’m liking the look of this new course, and getting Birdo in any Mario game is always awesome!! Hoping they’ll add more characters now too since we know that’s not off the table anymore. I’d love Fawful or Starlow to appear in a MK game, but let’s be realistic, that’s not happening Extras: Magalor mode in Kirby seems alright I guess, looks a little forgettable though. That Detective Danganronpa game looks weird. New Fantasy life is neat, first game was enjoyable enough, but I’ll probs pass on this new one. Neat that there’s gonna be a new Professor Layton game. The DecaPolice game looks like it could be fun, but at this point I’m hesitant on any game where you play as cops (though at the same time, it looks to be more Detective than Police, and it’s probs based more on the Japanese police rather than western police. Still hesitant though) And last, but ABSOLUTELY not least

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: This section’s probably going to get pretty long since I am a huge Zelda fan, but first, let me just say, HOLY SHIT WAS THAT MATTHEW MERCER IN ZELDA!?!?!! FUUUCK YEAAAAH!!! Ok, all of my hype aside though, I am actually a little mixed on him being in it. Not cause there’s anything wrong with Matt’s performance (dude always kills it in his roles!), but because now when I’m playing the game, I’ll just hearing him as Matthew Mercer instead of whoever he’s playing (though, that’s not bad either. Hearing Mercer playing any role is always a very enjoyable experience, dude’s got a magic voice and I love every bit of it). And better yet, was he playing mother-fuckin’ GANONDORF?!?! I mean, he’s not immediately who I would’ve imagined for Ganondorf’s voice, but god damn am I always down for some more wonderful Matthew Mercer villain dialogue, especially for my favorite Villain!! But that said though... there’s also the possibility that the trailer mislead us and he’s NOT going to be Ganondorf, but instead playing the role of a new hidden villain instead (another Zant, Ghirahim, Astor, ect., an evil minion type character). I thought it was a little odd that there weren’t any shots of Ganondorf actually speaking, and Mercer’s voice feels a little mismatched for the (currently) dried up and mummified corpse of the Gerudo King, so that makes me wonder if we’re actually hearing dialogue from an unrevealed new villain (though alternatively it could just be dialogue from a... *ahem*,Rehydrated Ganondorf, but we don’t know if that’s going to actually happen or not). I’m not entirely sold on this theory myself (as I could very easily just be looking too far into some small details), but it is a theory I did want to bring up. The Dialogue and framing certainly point to him possibly being the King of all Evil, but those little things... it just feels... a little suspicious is all. As for everything else in the trailer though, OH MY GOD AM I HYPED!!! More Zonai stuff, plenty more enemy varieties, it looks like we’re getting both some sky islands AND underground stuff, there looks to be a ton of interesting changes to hyrule itself, and I CAN’T TELL IF THAT WAS A REDEAD OR A STALFOS BUT OH MY GOD AM I HAPPY THEY’RE BACK!! Looks like we’re getting some new Shiekah stuff, lots of new Zonai stuff, and Link’s new arm looks so interesting!! God am I hyped for this SO GOD DAMN MUCH!!! May can’t come soon enough!!

[simpleratattack]

10 Random Facts About Me

First off, thank you @venriliz for tagging me, I literally do not know what to say, but I'll try to come up with 10.

No 1. I was born November 17, but was supposed to be born on November 29th. I turned in a way that meant I would have come out feet first. No 2. I identify as non-binary, but I use She/He/They pronouns. Sid isn't my legal name, nor do I plan on legally changing it anytime soon, but I just identify with Sid more than my real name (I also just don't want my real name anywhere online) No 3. I have a ceramics and jewellery degree, only honors tho because the thought of staying another couple of years in schooling made me wanna gouge my eyeballs out. No 4. Much like Ven, I do not want children. I might change my mind in the future, but right now, no. I can barely take care of myself, why on earth would I bring a poor human who would also rely on me onto this planet.

No 5. Used to be Christian (was christaned and everything), but that was mainly because my mum's religious. Just started to not believe in it fully, but I also don't fully disagree with it. So that was just a winded way of saying I'm agnostic. No 6. My first Sim's game wasn't a mainline series, but was actually My Sims, for the Wii! (the worst version, PC is better). I played a few of the other games in the series, but nothing (NOTHING!) beats My SIms Agents. (EA, bring back My Sims, or port it to a console, I'm BEGGING! No 7. Since I post a lot more about Fashion Dreamer than Sims (1 post, 1 sims post), I have been playing the Syn Sophia games (the Style Boutiques games at least) since the original one on DS. (Syn Sophia, if you're able, post those games to the switch too! Or remake the first one!) I first owned a totally legal, not at all pirated, copy of it that totally didn't stop me from going past a certain point, hahaha🏴‍☠️ No 8. Outside of the Sims and Fashion Dreamer, games I enjoy playing are Ace Attorney, Persona, Detective Grimoire, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, and whatever indie game I can get my grubby little hands on. No 9. My user name was actually inspired by @/early-gape (I have had so many iterations of this user name of this god forsaken hell site/app), but I made it rat. Used to have a side blog called distressed-posum, cannot for the life of me remember what I reblogged there, but I'm fairly certain it was fanfic related. No 10. I'm Welsh! ...Nothing else to add really, just that I'm Welsh.

So some of those facts were a bit of a reach, but we're here, and it's over, I can go to bed (code for stay up until 12 watching funny videos on my phone.)

If you've got this far, then guess what, you've been tagged (code for I'm too tired to tag anyone it is 22:22pm, I have been at work all afternoon, it is hot as hell outside and our air conditioning is shit).

🍉 If you don't want to do it, then you know what you can do for me, is go here, click, and you can help save someone's life. 🍉

[viscerasmoothie]

Hello Tumblr!

I'm moving here from Reddit due to API policy changes over there, and even though I personally don't use 3rd-party APIs, there are many people who do, plus I just think it's stupid regardless. Even though I bet that the only people this will reach will end up being people who already follow me, I still want to say that if you were following u/Blood_Covered_Bread this is in fact me. If you go to my Reddit account, this blog will be linked both directly AND in the Resite link I posted due to linktree not working for me. Don't expect a lot of content here (or anywhere else) though because I still have a negative amount of motivation to do anything other than scroll through shit and play ACNH.

I'm still a fairly new Tumblr user though (and I'm neurodivergent; on a year-long wait list for Autism testing + I was dx with ADHD at 6) so please be patient with me. I also type quickly so please feel free to point out spelling mistakes, as I don't have autocorrect and either miss red-lines or the error isn't caught in the text due to it being a legitimate word.

I'm into Ace Attorney and FNaF, but am open to looking at other people's fandoms and OCs.

My Specs are:

Windows 10 home edition

HP Laptop that is about 4 years old - Hand-me-down from my uncles' fiancee after she used it for college

12 GB of RAM

900+ GB of Storage (I've used like a third of it though lmao, might get a TB when I figure out what kind of storage add-on I need)

According to Avast Anti-virus (free edition) I have 14-16 outdated drivers

64-bit OS and processor

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U CPU @ 2.30GHz 2.40 GHz (Copy and pasted from my settings)

Touch screen with 10 touch-points (Yes, really. I don't even wanna know how much this cost brand-new)

Main browser is Firefox

In other words; my laptop is expensive but also dogshit, and I use Firefox.

Did you need to know that much about my laptop? Nope! But I don't care because at least I didn't dox myself.

[thatluckybear]

What kinda gamer is ThatLuckyBear?

This is a long post. So I'm into video games maybe a bit too much. Here's what I like:

Tetris + Dr. Mario (puzzle games): Core to my gaming spirit. I like to do speedruns of 0-21 on Dr. Mario 64 and I've been known to play 0-20 on Dr. Mario for the NES as well. I loved Tetris since NES but fell back in love with Tetris DS and now I mostly just do sprints on tetr.io. I'm also a 8 chain Puyo-Puyo scrub and I like the game but lack the energy to get better at it. Since this is kind of in the vein of puzzle solving the Ace Attorney games as well as oldschool Point and Click adventure games are wonderful for me as well.

Soulslike: These are all fun. I haven't played most of them though. Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne are my favs and I've put a lot of time into Elden Ring but Miquella shut down my run and I haven't had time to grind it out. I'll finish it eventually though.

Metroidvania: Huge fan of the genre. Hollowknight is my favorite at time of writing but Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow is an ultra banger and I would have a hard time not mentioning it. I've played all the DS Castlevanias and I love them all.

Schlooters: Looting and shooting is fun. I play coop with my wife and we really enjoy Borderlands. We also had a good time with Outriders. Destiny 2 has been kinda tough to get into but we're trying to get a feel for it before investing any money.

MMORPGS: I've been doing these since 2003 if you can believe it. I was playing Ragnarok Online pre-beta by sneaking onto jRO. I really hit the road running with the iRO beta. Since then I've put a lot of love into Tera Online (Elin berserker just tickles my "hehe" bone, I had a popo too but Elin was the best imo) - I enjoyed FFXIV (Lala paladin) but it's too expensive for me to keep up with the monthly. I really wanna finish FFXIV's story someday. Phantasy Star Online, and Dungeon Fighter Online get a honorable mention but I really haven't had a chance to be in love with them since my MMO muscles are weak and my gaming time short in my age.

RPGS: Classic and modern I'm a big fan of RPGS. I've fallen in love with Dragon Quest recently although it was one of the first RPGS I played (Dragon Warrior NES.) I remember looking through Nintendo Power Magazine and looking at the illustrations and descriptions of the weapons and just getting SO JAZZED. Anyway Super Mario RPG is the best RPG of all time followed by Pokemon Blue/Red would be my call. I love modern Pokemon games but I haven't spent much time with others.

Action RPG: Monster Hunter, Yakuza (love but never played much,) Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil (2/4/7) and so many more. I'm a hunting horn main and I am head over heels for Monster Hunter and will always love it.

Competitive: I like to compete but I don't do it much because I have /emotional issues/ and I can't keep my lid on proper. That said I really have a great time playing Smash Ultimate (not a Melee guy sorry it's too hard for me) Street Fighter, Tekken, Granblue VS, and Smash are kind of the only ones I like playing these days. While I used to do a lot of FPS competitives I'm boycotting Actiblizzard so no COD or Overwatch til they remove Bobby Kotick. Valorant is too hard and time consuming but I love it (I'm bad at it sadly.) I might play Fortnite someday but idk if I'll get into it.

the COMF: I love some comfy games. Some of the above fit that category for me (Pokemon Red/Blue to be specific) but Stardew, Animal Crossing, anything Wholesome games, Minecraft, Stray etc. Anything that can make me sleepy usually fits me well.

Platformers: I get into some 3d mario games. I especially enjoyed Odyssey. I kind of get most of my platforming jazz out of the metroidvania stuff but I couldn't get through this without mentioning how much the 3d (and 2d for that matter) mario games matter to me.

There's obviously millions more games that I forgot and couldn't touch on. Day of Defeat was a formative competitive shooter experience as well as all the other HL1 mods I played. I could go on forever but I hope this helps you understand what kind of gamer I am. While I'm pretty eclectic in taste I'm also pretty formulated. These days I spend most of my time trying to find coop experiences to have with my wife so lmk if you've got some cool ones I should look into. 🧡

[inspector-montoya-fox]

ok so today i’m feeling very sentimental because i’m pretty sure it’s the last time i’ll hang out with my family until i graduate in July so we’ll be ranking the top 10 locations from Ace Attorney i’d rather be at right now instead of at my desk trying to write my 3,500-word essay due in 8 days. i haven’t included locations from Investigations because that’s a list for another time. let’s take a look:

10. Prosecutors Office Underground Parking Lot: kicking off the list is a location i initially hated but have ultimately to come to appreciate. what’s there not to like? there’s a sense of mystery, it’s supposedly the scene of the crime, Edgeworth’s busted car is there, it’s where we meet Angel Starr (an icon). the only thing that could make it better would be Maya’s input

9. Sunshine Coliseum Backstage Hallway: if you tune in to Turnabout Podcast you probably know I love Scooby-Doo. this is straight out of a Scooby-Doo episode. it might sound like sacrilege but i chose this over Turnabout Samurai’s studio locations because this is just so... Scooby-Doo-y, i can’t. the glam of it all !! it’s reminiscent of the Mystery Inc. episode with the Hex Girls (love). and also the fact that Apollo and Ema were ki-ki-ing outside while Romein Letouse was getting shot in the dressing room? honey, yes.

8. Hotti Clinic: ok listen. i am an absolute slut for public sector locations (i don’t know what else to call them, pls educate me). as morbid as it sounds, i love the white LED, reflective floor, sitting area reception of the hospital. so many stories to tell, so many people to meet. and Japan is known for how well organised their public sector is. it’s not American tv drama hospital, like all grimy and disgusting, it’s more like... Trauma Centre.

7. Dr Meraktis’s Office: fittingly, yet another hospital location. what an a amazing office. this belongs in a coffee table book on office decor. i mean sure, the choice of desk lamp, wallpaper and exposed safe are all very gaudy, but the jars of fluorescent liquid more than make up for those. and the wall-sized window? stunning. knowing Apollo, he probably didn’t even stop to take this all in during his investigation. he probably complained too, like idk about the hospital smell or the spilled coffee. what a nerd. hate him

6. Kurain Village: Kurain Village looks like such a peaceful place. it’s so rich with history and culture, and Maya, Mia and Pearl lived there. i love that we get some more exposition in SoJ and get to explore the stunning view of the mountain in the background. i love that taking the bus there is also like a little excursion too. 100% i’d visit and i’d join one of the Fey classes too

5. Blue Screens Inc.: your eyes are not playing tricks on you, this isn’t a Tumblr shitpost. the design here? 10/10 stunning. imagine working at Blue Screens, under Lisa Basil’s supervision, with charismatic coworkers like Glen Elg and Adam Mada. one of my friends is currently writing her dissertation on how personalised workspace helps build up work ethic, and honestly i’m gonna tell her to include this place because if i worked there i’d be the most productive employee

4. Gourd Lake Entrance: as we reach the top picks on this list, you’ll notice that a lot of them have been chosen because of the sentimental value they hold. not only does Turnabout Goodbyes take place here but it’s also such a peaceful and endearing location. forget the other Gourd Lake locations, full of clues, where we interrogate Lotta Hart, Larry and Yanni Yogi. this is just a serene entrance to the park, where Gumshoe gives us the lowdown and the Wintery backdrop looks so charming. i wanna walk my dog down that nature trail

3. Fey & Co. Law Offices: i don’t want any of that Anything Agency bullshit. this is the original, so rich with lore. Charley front and centre, Mia’s favourite movie on the wall, the view of the Gatewater. the conversations we’ve had here, asking Maya any ideas? and what do you think? or having Gumshoe be the office caretaker, preparing food for us? it’s the location where we receive all our original cases, Phoenix gradually starting to make a living out of being a lawyer. it’s home away from home

2. Damon Gant’s Office: this is another Scooby-Doo-esque location. a true villain’s lair. the dual nature of Gant and Lana’s former office clashing with each other, the villainous decor like the church organ, the stained glass windows and the knight armour, it’s all so... malevolent, so dramatic. like i can imagine Damon Gant on the 81238016th floor of the police station playing the organ and the people down at the basement hearing it through the pipes. and the church vibe is kinda illustrating Gant as this self-righteous, divine individual who loves to play God because he’s got the systematic power. the location elevates the narrative here and further fleshes out the characters. 10/10 love

1. Viola Hall: this is a masterpiece. this is not only a location straight out of an excellent Scooby-Doo episode, but it’s also so majestic. looking at it transports you into the moment. imagine wearing your best tux/gown, gathering for a tv show convention of all things, the food being delicious, the company being lovely, and all of a sudden there’s both a murder and a kidnapping. i live. honey, i live, truly. and the fact that in the end Maya has 0 PTSD from getting kidnapped and they all celebrate there because the two misogynist disasters Juan Corrida and Matt Engarde have been eliminated - chaotic excellence.

[theworldsforgottenboy]

What’s Ace Attorney? Do I wanna know?

its a 20 year old video game (and anime ig) that's way more popular in japan. so far ive only played the first game so this is not the full story

ok so you play as this adhd bi disaster rookie lawyer phoenix, he's basically mlm elle woods and he takes all of these impossible murder cases and gets his clients declared innocent, he has an awesome chaotic spirit channeling assistant named maya who some times turns into your mentor and her sisters ghost to give you legal advice (and inexplicably grow huge boobs) yada yada yada he cross examines a parrot at one point you get the gist

anyway, it’s also one of the best childhood friends to strangers to rivals to friends to lovers arc of the 21st century

your prosecutor rival is one miles edgeworth, an extremely fruity individual with a frilly cravat who's a little bitch during the first trial and is overly proud of his perfect trial record. so you beat him, and he's bitchy about it. but then in the next trial he helps you and everyones all confused about why.

he takes you aside after the trial and tells you that he "didnt expect to see you again”, and that “in retrospect it would have been better if we hadn’t met” because……

,Lets break this down.

1. This is all thanks to Phoenix. Phoenix caused this. It’s his fault

2. Saddles = gay

3. The feelings seem unnecessary. This is how I would have described a crush in middle school.

4. … = gay, at least in this context

(The specific feelings are described as “unease” and “uncertainty” btw but still pretty gay)

He follows this up with “never show your face in front of me again” (insert the “get out of my school” tweet here) and leaves

we don’t see him for a while until the next case, which is when he's accused of murder himself *gasp*. its a hopeless case, since he was on a boat with the victim when he died in the middle if a lake and had his fingerprints on the gun, and since he's been a little bitch, nobody wants to defend him.

but phoenix refuses to belive he did it, even when edgeworth point blank told him to fuck off. its revealed that the reason he doesnt want phoenix to defend him is because the case has something to do with "DL-6", the incident where his father, gregory edgeworth was killed in front of him in an elevator. the statue of limitations is almost up on the case, and he doesnt want phoenix to get involved with it for some reason.

anyway the prosecuter for this case is m*nfred von karma, edgeworth's mentor and legal guardian after the death of his father. now, if you thought edgeworth was a bitch, he's a thousand times worse. he insists on perfection in everything, and is not above assault and murder to get his way. he really fucked up edgeworth and his daughter franziska.

anyway, we do a bunch of bullshiting and logical gymnastics to basically prove he didnt do it, but then edgeworth says that it was actually him that accidentially killed his father!!

now since this happened when he was a kid, was an accident, he passed out after, and a bunch of other factors, i could get him off easy but he insists that he deserves to be punished and is a murderer.

so phoenix now has to make a case that he didnt do it, and he reveals why he's so passionate about proving edgeworth innocent. spoiler alert its very gay

so when phoenix was nine he was accused of stealing edgeworths lunch money, and was put on a class trial. everyone was yelling that he did it and traumatizing the poor kid until baby miles edgeworth stood up and defended him like a little lawyer. then they were best friends, and he talks about how his dad was a defense attorney and miles wanted to be just like his dad and its cute. then edgeworth stopped showing up to school (cause his dad was murdered and moved to germany by von karma) when he was at his lowest miles helped him, and it left a lasting impression on the kid.

later, when phoenix is in college, as either a drama or art major, he see's edgeworth in the newspaper, with the article talking about how he's really sus and might be forging evidence and shit, but phoenix refuses to belive all that, or at least wants to know what happended. so instead of just i dont know, showing up at court or something, he decided he was gonna become a lawyer himself to see him again.

again, he's mlm elle woods

it turns out that it was manfred von karma who killed edgeworth dad, not miles, amd he flips the fuck out. its so cathartic.

more shit happens but i havent played the rest of the games

[razeluxe]

Razeluxe’s Top Ten Male Characters

So I’ve been thinking about doing a particular list for my favorite characters across anime and games for quite a while and with some advice I decided to break it into my favorite male and favorite female characters. Most people that know me can probably guess at my top three favorites but if you don’t know me... well you ‘bout to learn lol. This was harder than I thought to compile...enjoy my fanboying of the boys lol.

By the by, I’ll do my best to keep spoilers to a minimum.

10) Apollo Justice (Phoenix Wright Series)

I’ve played only two games that this character was in (Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies, slowly working through Spirit of Justice) and this character particularly in Dual Destinies struck me even more than Edgeworth who is another amazing character. Apollo has an amazing spirit and it was only through playing Dual Destinies that I really got to understand Mr. ‘I’m Fine’ and his stupid ‘Here comes Justice’ puns. I feel his original game didn’t allow him to shine (still a great entry in the Ace Attorney series I don’t care what anyone says) and Dual Destinies allows him the development he deserves. He gets hurt during a trial and it allows a deep dive of his character even if his personality shifts for a while. Damn he’s savage. He’s considered the underdog in the Wright Anything Agency but he’s to me the hardest working person there who is also the most factual in court.

9) Gokudera (Katekyo Hitman Reborn)

Or as I like to call him, Scowludera since he’s scowling like 90% of the time. This Ichigo ripoff’s character development is insane. And I think that trend follows most if not all the characters in this list. His relationship with his sister is interesting and he’s pretty explosive in terms of personality and intelligence. His fights are all really interesting too, he has some of my favorite interactions in the series thus far (haven’t read the post anime manga chapters yet sadly, but he’s more than earned this spot on this list). He butts heads with people a lot and he can be ignorant but he grows from his experience and you get to see it bit by bit. This dude is loyal to the bone. RIP if you aren’t Tsuna or Reborn. Also, I’d like to shout out this anime as one of the few to do the shounen genre proper justice. Go watch it. Also his sister Bianchi is <3. Oh wait. Male list. Oops. Can we also talk about his weapon? Not gonna say spoilers but that thing is dope and probably one of the best ever designed weapons. And his kitty Uri <3

8) Joshua Bright (Trails in the Sky)

This will be short as I don’t want to spoil anything, but Joshua is a very easy character for me to connect to personally. His feelings, actions, development probably relates more to me than a lot of characters on this list. He’s got good people around him...I’m very happy for his ship and support it 120%. Also the Trails Series, both Sky and Cold Steel are probably my favorite series of anything period. Go play it. There is more to this character that meets the eye and has broken my heart more than once ;_;

7) Neku Sakuraba (The World Ends With You)

Neku Neku Neku. Another very relatable character for me (see the theme here? lol) He initially shuts out people and over time, through his experience in the Reapers Game, he starts to open up and bring people into his circle. He goes through some crap, like a lot of trauma. When you learn of him it’s no wonder he wound up disliking people and society. He’s extremely creative and that creativity manifests itself in different ways. Kinda like me. It’s worth mentioning I used to roleplay this character back in the day, the very first canon character I used to write for. 

6) Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles)

One of the only blonde’s on this list. Shulk is a character that is driven by revenge but eventually changes. He goes through some pretty traumatic stuff that I absolutely will not spoil. His personality when he encounters a certain characters shifts big time and it’s kind of scary considering how early you see this. Also he gets points for being a notably intelligent character. I mean, the dude has his own lab...and is able to fix and adjust stuff. He’s really a great and well balanced character despite all the crap he goes through. Also I used to make fun of this character and dislike him a little bit, but then I grew up. 

         The list gets real starting...now. Not that it was fake before. :o

5) Jaden Yuki (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX)

Anyone who has actually watched the entirety of GX might know why he’s here. His character development in the latter seasons so unreal and interesting. I’m not spoiling crap but there is a lot more to the character than meets the eye. Like a lot lot. Over the course of the series he loses his innocent eyes and his personality changes a lot...His character is probably one I can relate to in terms of the reasons for his actions, the way he gets down about himself, the way he acts in the final season...it hits me hard...he’s too dang relatable...just like..

4) Rean Schwarzer (Trails of Cold Steel)

Surprise surprise. Rean is here. -hears crickets- Guess you’re not surprised. I wonder why. I think I relate to this character more than anyone else on this list. Except number one. Number one is in his own league. Rean is a character who generally carries a happy disposition...he has a unique power but you can see he is actively scared of it. It’s something I actively deal with...he’s so scared of himself that he puts distance between family and friends. He never feels he’s good enough. He’s made headway through this, but...

One thing that’s extremely interesting about this character is his selflessness. You may think this is driven to the ground in character stereotypes but for Rean it’s different...his selfless has been described as abnormal by characters in game, and it’s not for positive reasons...Rean deals with some real unhealthy stuff. This is getting long.

As of this post Cold Steel 4 comes out in one month and I’m extremely worried for his character. If you’ve played 3 then you’ll know why. Also if you haven’t played the Trails series, go play it. No buts. Heck I’ll even buy the game(s) for you if I can.

--

Oh look we’re at the top three. I want to say that while numbers two and three here are pretty interchangeable, these characters have been in my top three for over a decade and a half and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Rean I love you but you have your work cut out if you ever want to breach the top 3. I wanna post a few honorable mentions here. They didn’t get into Smash but they do get Mii Costumes at least! -shot-

Davis Motomiya (Digimon Adventure 02) 

This character was everything I was when I was a kid. The way he tries everything to woo Kari is too cute. Also his unwavering faith in Ken. Also Davis Cries Veemon.

9S (Nier Automata)

Not mentioning any spoilers. Just watch this character and see how his vision of the world changes over time.

Okabe Rintaro (Steins; Gate) 

Okabe’s shift from his ‘persona’ as things get real and his efforts to fix everything is too relatable for me ;_;

Yosuke Hanamura (Persona 4) 

No, I do not ship him with Yu. They’re great buddies for sure, and he’s pretty cool. Really likable character for me personally save for a few moments in the game...he’s also the main in the Arena games. “Let’s do this, Jiraiya!” He’s so cool lol.

                    Top 3 time. Fiercely dedicated to these guys.

3) Robin (Teen Titans Go! 2003)

Robin is such a raw character that carries his past and tries so hard to move from it yet it embodies him to his core. He has since gained a softer side from forming a team, and has been doing normal teenager stuff...which is good for him. However at times that Batman side impacts him so hard that he can only concentrate on his mission, and starts shutting out everyone and everything to do things himself. It actively gets in the way of his interactions. He deals a lot with moving on from failure and acknowledging his friends more, which he does get better at over time. He is also represented by the color red. My favorite color. He’s badass and yet carries so much crap. I connect to this character a lot even now. Third canon character I ever wrote for.

2 Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia)

I love Lloyd. I love his voice, I love his attacks, I love his stupid double sword logic. He says wielding two swords makes him twice as powerful lol. I love his development. I love his idealism and how it matures over time. I love everything about Lloyd. It was legit love at first sight. I remember being 15-16 and seeing him on that Gamecube boxart and saying “I wanna play that guy” Most people I feel (guys in particular) probably looked up to certain characters growing up as a child/teen. Lloyd was mine.

1. Zidane Tribal (Final Fantasy IX)

While it was love at first sight for Lloyd, that was not the case for number one on this list. I was 13 when I first played FFIX. Zidane upon encountering him, I always thought he was a cool character, but he was nothing special.  Even at Zidane’s lowest point I thought he was an okay character at best. I had not finished the game.

Fast forward a few years and I decide to play FFIX again, this time determined to finish it. I had went through some things, grew up a bit before turning this game on. This damn bandit...I remember writing this bit years ago: “His infamous mantra labeled above describes him well, but under his ability to console others with a smile, to cheer people up and meet them at their point of need with his abundant optimism lies a blonde who masks his pain and keeps his issues to himself. Despite his many friends and buddies he harbors a deep loneliness that, like his problems, he keeps to himself. One would have to look carefully to notice his character flaws for Zidane does an impressive job of hiding these problems. Whether it be through his energy, his theatrics, or focusing on other people, Zidane can cover things up quite well.”

Zidane has an absurd amount of depth to his character that I was never able to comprehend as a kid, beneath his flirting, his playful attitude, he hides a lot of feelings, a lot of anger, a lot of sadness. It used to boggle me how he’s able to uphold his sense of virtue despite what goes on in his life and the end of disc 3 answers this for me. It goes without mentioning that this was the second canon character I’ve ever written for, and I still love writing him. I could and write walls of text about how Zidane is so amazing, a chivalrous thief, a lover and a flirt but I think I can let you go lol. Hit me up if you really want to hear me ramble about any these characters, also play FF9.

...So I wrote all of that and forgot to write about Zidane’s ship...have to give it its own paragraph because I love these two together and she does wonders for Zidane as a whole as does he to her. She’s a princess and he’s a thief, they take their time to show them together through different things, different ordeals...particularly the ordeals. Its interesting seeing them both at their worst moments and the many funny moments..Man, that boat scene gets me every time...If I ever write a top ten couples list this couple would no doubt be in the top two if not number one. And I’d probably write way more than this about them because they’re great. Also they’re canon. A healthy canon. Also Dagger’s hot. Oh wait wrong list.

Okay finally done. Not editing this anymore :P

[catgirlautomaton]

Triple-dog dared to do this by @catgirldick since I have a catgirl[blank] URL so here goes.

Answer 30 questions and tag 20 people!

1. Name/ nickname: Dawn / I don’t really have a nickname?

2. Gender: She/they enby catgirl

3. Star sign: Aries

4. Height: 5′4′ or 165cm approximately?

5. Time: 2:28pm

6. Birthday: April 3rd

7. Favourite bands/ groups: Red Vox, Florence & The Machine, whoever went the FUCK off for the Sonic R soundtrack

8. Favourite solo artists: Clairo, Ellie Goulding but just her old stuff, uh idk who else?

9. Song stuck in my head: Pretty Girl by Clairo

10. Last movie: Kung Fu Hustle

11. Last show: Samurai Jack

12: When did i create this blog: Somewhere around 2012

13. What I mostly post about: Stupid memes mostly and cute art

14. Last thing I googled: Harbinger Destiny 2 (I was making sure I remembered the name of the activity lol)

15. Other blogs: eltugard, my art blog for one of my OCs. I also still have my old URL backed up and catgirlboobs because I might wanna switch to that if I get bored of thrussy lol

16. Do I get asks: Like once a year lol

17. Why did I choose this url: I was sick of my old URL that I’ve been using for almost a decade now and as a catgirl I wanted to join the trend of catgirl[blank] URLs because they are all great.

18. Following: 442

19. Followers: 334

20. Average hours of sleep: I try to get at least 8 if I can

21. Lucky number: 25

22. Instruments: I can barely play the ocarina

23. What I am wearing: Flower leggings, an N64 shirt and one of my husbands hoodies (orange texas hoodie lol), though I just got a catgirl maid outfit recently and in spirit I am always wearing it now

24. Dream jobs: I do not dream of labor (though I would like for my art and streaming to make me enough to live off of and not have to work where I work now but I don’t have time for it anymore :\)

25. Dream trip: There’s a lot of places I want to go, but right now the dream trip is going back home to Florida to visit my friends and family there.

26. Favourite food: Pizza Hut pizza. Don’t bully me, I know it’s objectively bad but I love Pizza Hut.

27. Nationality: American (unfortunately)

28. Favourite song: Pursuit ~ Casting Magic from Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney. If game soundtrack songs don’t count..... Back to School by Red Vox? Idk, I always have time picking a favorite.

29. Last book I read: Artemis Fowl

30. 3 fictional universes you’d like to live in: Hyrule, Pokemon’s world, and the Megaman Battle Network world?

I’m not gonna tag 20 people but if you wanna do it, go for it and you can just say I tagged you lol

[carbootsoul]

i was tagged by @katarahairloopies!!! thank u :mwah:

name: leo! @/zeitgeistofnow on ao3, @lazypigeon & @timetohope on here, altho i’m considering uh switching back to not having an art blog :/ i have to think abt it.

fandom(s): ace attorney is my main one rn bc i’m replaying the games with a friend of mine and it’s reminding me how invested i am in the characters!! a lot of my recent fic is atla stuff, altho i’ve been distancing myself from the fandom bc i’ve kinda exhausted my interest in it. finally i’ve been reading a lot of mp100 fic but i don’t think i’ll ever write for it. i just love how dumb all the characters r (with the dubious exception of ritsu)

where you post: ao3!! tbh i always get suprised when people say they write/read fic on any other platform like i haven’t messed around w wattpad or ff.net since middle school... catch up........

most popular oneshot: going just by “one chapter” as the definition of a oneshot, the firestarters, bc it’s fluffy and modern au :) i wouldn’t necessarily call it a oneshot tho bc to me a oneshot shows like, one scene? so like by my definition and your sweet sweet sun makes me crazy (i wanna lay you down and see how you amaze me is my most popular!! (also @ kit u thought UR fic titles were unnecessarily long??? i’ve hit the ao3 LIMIT for characters in titles. it’s about the aesthetic

most popular multichapter fic: sdkjflakjlkj it’s two crowned kings; and one that stood alone, which is a w359 fic i wrote back in late 2017. it’s literally the last fic i haven’t orphaned from when i actually wrote podcast fic (i have 4 other podcast fics but they were all borne out of nostalgia and written after i stopped participating in the fandom). i rewrote all but the last chapter? the last two? about a year ago and i fucked up halfway through so like chapter 6 and 7 are repeated and there’s something missing but i’m too lazy to fix it. no one’s going to read it now anyway :) it WAS the top minlace fic for a little while tho which i take great pride in.

favorite story you’ve written so far: oh that’s a hard question akfsldkfj i honestly like most of them!! and i write a LOT so there’s a lot to choose from. tonight, we are young is def one of my favorites- it was fun to write and i got to explore the ways zuko and yue r similar, which i LOVE to do outside of a zukka/yukka view. you can lean on my arm as you break my heart  is one that i’m really proud of? the whole “cooking as an expression of bato’s love” is definitely some of my favorites. a lot of my ace attorney fics would be categoried as my favorites if i hadn’t improved, too, if that makes sense. like they’re no long my favorites because i can see where my writing is shitty and it bothers me, but if i had written them a month ago they’d be my favorite.

fic you were nervous to post: figures 1-5: killing gods def!! it’s a lot more purple-prose-y than most of my fics and it was also written before i’d kinda like emersed myself in the atla fandom so i didn’t have as good a grasp on the general understanding of zuko’s character as i do now. tbh it’s one i’m rly happy w tho!! i have a few people leave really nice comments on it and rereading them makes me really happy. also it was the start of me hating the position of fire lord and being at least passively anti-it in my fics.

how you choose your titles: they’re almost all song lyrics!! only 14 of my 50 words AREN’T song lyrics and about half of those are from before i started writing ace attorney fic lol. sometimes i go into a fic with a song in mind for the vibes and then i usually go with lyrics from that (like in ‘cuz we’re the greatest /they’ll hang us in the louvre), but otherwise i usually pick an artist i’ve been listening to and go through their songs until i find a lyric that fits. sometimes the lyric doesn’t even really fit the fic and i just chose it at random or because i searching up the word “fly” in my spotify library or whatever. honestly i like coming up with titles? i know a lot of fic writers hate it but being able to just use song lyrics is v soothing for me and while i know that most people won’t search out a song just bc it’s a fic title like.. seeing that the title of a fic is a hozier lyric does affect how i read it and i kinda like that.

do you outline? i outline my long form/multichaptered fics with varying strictness. usually anything over ~8k will have some kind of outline. sometimes i go into it with every single scene planned out, sometimes it’s just notes on the side of the google doc that say “it's about MORE family. about how it's not betraying your existing family to find more” and “scenes i want to include: [...]” and “vampires... ngl kinda hot.” i’m trying to outline super strictly less bc i’ve found it’s less fun? but i do try to keep a plot arc in mind. since most of my fics are more character-driven than plot-driven, that usually just means keeping track of what character development i want to happen or what is motiviating the characters. 

complete: um everything posted on ao3 i guess. also the MULTITUDE of orphaned fics out there asksfjldkj i always click ‘leave my pseud on’ so if u look up my username you see all of my fics and then a. lot of other ones.

in progress: - a fic titled ‘dad phoenix’ that is actually just a no DL-6 au with defense attorney miles edgeworth and single dad bartender phoenix where neither of them want to date for A While but phoenix gets wrapped up in one of miles’s cases. it’s about family. it’s about writing teenagers. it’s about the background franmaya which is ALWAYS what i’m here for in wrightworth fics - a franmaya werewolf/vampire au because i’m ~gay~ and love rivals to lovers and also franziska and maya both being angry their older brothers r dating each other. - my secret santa fic!! which i can’t talk about much but it does feature toph and zuko and also piandao and jeong jeong???? idk where they came from but they are Part Of The Fic Now also i forgot iroh existed for half the fic and wrote piandao as zuko’s father figure and now i’m in too deep. - a 5+1 bakoda fic (maybe a bato/hakoda/kay fic??? i need to decide. that’s part of why this fic is still incomplete bc i can’t decide which relationship dynamic i prefer) that’s 5 times bato said he loves hakoda and one time hakoda said it back. possibly i have already written him saying i love u back and i need to change the title a little. - retail au klapollo where klavier works at an overpriced boutique and apollo comes in to buy earrings for nahyuta’s birthday. klavier gives him a punch card (one that the store doesn’t actually offer anymore as a bid to get apollo to come back) and all of apollo’s family come in to use the punch card and also give klavier variations on the shovel talk/find out if he’s actually into apollo. - a LOT of atla fics that i don’t think i’ll ever finish :(

coming soon/not yet started:  - i want to write some blackmadhi bc they’re.. cute..... and it’s a good excuse to also write athena and i love her - my stuff for yueki week!!! i have NOT prepped enough but hopefully i’ll remember in time! i wrote the prompts in a way that kinda set up stuff i’ve already wanted to write (don’t look at me lol) so hopefully i’ll get at least two or three fics finished in time. - i want to rewrite the wrightworth fic i have about them not getting married bc it was interesting and i like what i wrote about but i think i could have written it better and made it more interesting. rewriting fics is hard tho bc i’m never sure if it makes sense to just edit in the new work or to repost it? and then if u repost it do u delete the old one? conflicting so i might just not

do you accept prompts? totally!!! a disclaimer tho i’m not super into writing atla stuff anymore (most of the atla stuff i’m still writing is  something i made a commitment to finish) so if your prompt is an atla one i probably won’t do it :/ basically anything else is fair game tho!! podcasts/aa/sa/uh i don’t remember anything else but like if you search a fandom on my blog and come up with more than two posts about it chances r i’d be happy to write fic for it!

upcoming work that you’re most excited about: oh huh i mean probably the no dl-6 au!!! it’s the longest ace attorney fic i’ve written already and since it’s wrightworth it’ll get more attention than any franmaya fic i write. my standards r so high now tho after getting to much feedback from atla fans... love u all... obviously i have no choice but to pressure my atla mutuals into playing ace attorney. pls ask abt it bc i WIll Give You A Sales Pitch about why you’d like it in relation to atla

tagging: i’m not rly tagging anyone!!! @deadflora if you still consider urself a fic writer also consider urself tagged! also any of my other mutuals who write fic i just can’t think of anyone rn

[klavierbi]

tagged by @ofcatsandstars aaa thank u!!

name: inara >:3

nicknames: oh boy... nya (thanks mish), narnar, banarnar (thanks aech), innoo just to name a Few

zodiac: leo (leo-virgo cusp but. technicalities.)

height: 5′3.5″ short king hours

languages: english >_<, urdu, french (but like really badly), i can phonetically? read arabic

nationality: american stinkeyyy

favourite season: summer i am Biased also no school is always a plus

flower: sunflowers :pleading_face:

scent: anything that’s either floral or spicy

fictional character: hinata (hq!!) and i are 5′3.5″/one brain-cell solidarity

coffee, tea or hot chocolate: TEA BY FAR!!! jasmine tea with honey is >>>. i like the taste of coffee but caffeine makes me conk out in like 30 seconds

average sleep: god i dunno like. 5/6-ish hours? my avg for this week is considerably worse lmao i slept at 6am and woke up at 7am twice in the past few days

dogs or cats: cats :3c

number of blankets: two usually, three in winter. i must be layered at all hours like an onion

dream trip: genuinely i don’t think i have a *dream* trip anymore but lowk i wanna see the netherlands... my parents almost moved to amsterdam before deciding they’d preferred nyc so i am Curious. might also be nice to visit pakistan again at some point once i get past that cultural detachment guilt y’know

blog established: march 19th 2018 apparently... tho i’ve been on this hellsite on my art blog since june 2016-ish

random fact: i’m the second person in my school’s theater history to have broken a family heirloom during a blackbox production. it was a trombone. the first person broke an antique table last year. i made fun of him for the table nearly every day up until the trombone incident. i will never live this down

gender: gonna steal emma’s “girl but with an asterisk” answer bc wow i feel that

current time: 7:11pm (blaze it)

fav music artist: BASTILLE!!!! i also adore mcr and lorde

stuck in my head: KABIRAAAA (it’s been on repeat in my head for the past 24 hours i...)

last movie i saw: on god i think it might’ve been the ace attorney live action movie at ffac night a month ago jshdkjd

last thing i googled: wordreference

other blogs: @emomacbeth (art), @ellesmera (insp/ref storage)

lucky numbers: 13, 4, 39

currently wearing: pajamas consisting of a normal t-shirt and bhangra pants whoops

dream job: town crier. fr real though definitely something art related! architecture or maybe game/character design would be ideal

favorite foods: ok this is gonna be very specific but my mom makes this one salan (gravy) with potatoes and eggs and by god it is my ULTIMATE comfort food with rice. i also have the HUGEST sweet tooth omg the amount of peach gummies i’ve consumed in the past week alone...

instruments: i play the piano + guitar but like at the most BASIC level. were it not for the laws of this land i would have been fluent in accordion by now.

favorite song: the answer always changes lmao but i’ve been losing my mind consistently recently over “strawberries & cigarettes” (troye sivan), “another place” (bastille), “and “khuda jaane” :pleading_face:

i tag: @paladin-of-fandoms, @jackofpantrades, and i can’t think of anyone else who hasn’t been tagged for this yet hdhsj so if you want to do this pls go ahead!!!

[mistytpednaem]

okay, so i’ve finished the great ace attorney! some overall spoiler-free thoughts before i move on to case-by-case remarks:

it waaaaas a good experience overall, but unless i’m mistaken, this game has the weirdest, if not actually the worst pacing out of the entire series? like, i was warned about plot threads not reaching a conclusion since this game was made with a sequel in mind from the get-go; that’s not what i’m talking about. i’m talking about redundancies in the writing and just... bold decisions in how long certain parts of certain cases go on for, i suppose you could say?

still, as long as you’re prepared for that and are ok with it, it’s still absolutely a worthwhile experience. i mean i love ace attorney so of course i’d say that but still. this game has a really strong cast and i can’t wait for the sequel to get a thorough fan translation as well, so great job and thanks to studio scarlet (EDIT: wait no. it’s scarlet study) for helping people enjoy this game!

OKAY. more specific and spoilery observations under the cut:

case 1: I’m gonna be honest I played a lot of the early bits of this game in bed right before going to sleep so my judgement may not be the best because i was only half-conscious at times w-whoops. this one’s a fine intro case, even if it starts to run a bit long towards the end. great intro to our anxiety boy, hosonaga did not disappoint. obviously, now that i’ve played the game, i can no longer say he was the first de killer... ... he’s just OBVIOUSLY shelly’s actual blood ancestor. like, hello?? the gumption? the dedication to his job??? please do not die of tuberculosis, hosonaga. also asougi’s hair is dumb but his theme is really good and oh no he shares his VA with bruno bucciarati oh no

case 2: i cannot in good conscience dislike this case, which is honestly kind of impressive considering it’s All Investigation. :V but maaaan, it really started dragging towards the end. :( the climax just felt... drawn out and unsatisfying, unfortunately, and i feel like that’s a symptom of this game’s format being so different from all the rest - there’s a much larger focus on telling a long, overarching story. and that’s not necessarily wrong, and i appreciate them trying out something new,  but... if it’s not broke... i’m honestly surprised by how much i liked sherlock, haha. i mean susato is also great but i was just not expecting to be so amused by holmes?? what a great take on the character. also the Deduction bits may not be particularly challenging - and, yes, suffer a bit from the game’s overall weird pacing - but honestly i love them. love holmes being a ham,  love naruhodou joining him

case 3: this fucking case shook me to my core. i happened to examine the omnibus close to the end of the first part of the trial, and then close to the start of the second part, which meant the details were still fresh on my mind AND the alarm signs started going way the fuck off in my head from early on. it’s a fun play on the old ace attorney gambit of “oh no our defendant looks shady but surely he must be good” - it adds the conclusion of “oh FUCK NO oh my GOD eat the RICH.” i’m still sad barok’s name wasn’t ultimately romanized as baroque, but alas, that doesn’t detract from my big awful crush on him. i may or may not still blush when i think of him stretching his leggy out and i’m glad his rampant xenophobia seems to be something that might get character development’d out. ALSO the new juror thing is fun too! i really like all (... or most) of the new mechanics in this game. shame most of the jurors don’t get names, though, especially since so many of them are so much fun - capcom ripped off my oc and didn’t even give him a proper name?? no dignity OH YEAH SPEAKING OF ROMANIZED NAMES: i still think HURT VORTEX is superior but i’ll take hart vortex too

case 4: welp, there’s usually ONE downer in these games and this one’s mine. i’m not even saying it’s objectively bad, but between the fat jokes and the spousal abuse jokes, by the time the truth was becoming clear, i’d reached 2-3 levels of “NO SHUT UP THIS IS STUPID”. shame, because I actually quite like the garridebs’ character designs, and souseki is great fun - you all know i’m a fan of taking real dudes and having fun with them in fiction. it... didn’t help that i got very drowsy during chunks of the whole thing ultimately, i think one of my favourite parts of this case was one that wasn’t connected to the case itself, and that’s not great praise, haha :V;; (”what’s the big deal with the grim reaper anyway we won that trial just fine” “yeah but is megundal alive” “wh-” “IS HE ALIVE, BOY”) ALSO another symptom of the weird, bbbbbold pacing and writing decisions in this game: this one... shakespearean dude who just showed up for two minutes and then fucked off for the rest of the game?? hello??  sir???? what????? WAIT DOUBLE ALSO was this the case where barok just flung his bottle behind his back for the first time because the first time i saw that animation i had to stop and laugh for a second and i love it when these games do that to me

case 5: this case is extremely good because a) the pacing is super fucked (it takes like an hour for a crime to even happen and it gets up to INVESTIGATION 4 before the trial starts, jesus) and i still had fun and b) chekov’s cat flap gun is objectively dumb and i don’t even mind. it bothers me way less than Knife Drop actually so. disclaimer. i’ve thought “egg benedict” was incredibly handsome from the moment i first saw a screenshot of him, so obviously i’m biased, but to no surprise he’s my favourite culprit in this game w-whoops. the ones i wasn’t expecting to ALSO love were the tinpillars, holy shit, what a power trio. i was in fact a little disappointed that rupert (... robert? i’ve seen a couple of different romanizations of his name) was not the long lost third tinpillar brother, but then the credits had them pose together and i felt so much joy in my heart (also, extremely unusual for the true culprit of a case to be in the credits, but i’ll take it??? especially for the GROUP POSING i seriously can’t overstate how happy i was)

anyway, these thoughts are a little disjointed, i know, but i always have a little trouble getting my shit together when i’m talking about a game like this, haha ;v; feel free to ask me stuff or just casually hit me up if you wanna chat, though!

“wait, naem! you said you liked ALMOST all of the mechanics in this game! what’s the exception?”

........ well

it’s not so much a matter of not LIKING it, i just

i cannot, for the life of me, get magic eye pictures to work

yes i know how to cross my eyes. yes i have read how to do it multiple times. at this point i’m convinced my eyes are just fucked in some particular way that doesn’t let me Get It

i will never, ever know the unabated joy that case 5′s juror 3 experienced...........

[96percentdone]

Oumasai with every number?

WElp. I knew this was coming at some point. Come to think of it I think I’ve done this meme before for oumasai like the whole thing. is it cheap if I just copy paste my answers. eh I’ll see if anything’s different. under the cut!

1. If you had to change the pairing’s very first meeting, how would you change it?

Neither Kiibo nor Akamatsu are there and it’s just a 1 on 1 clash of personalities. Saihara tries prying at Ouma for information and details but Ouma keeps lying and prodding at him for fun. It sets up the rivalry really well and the themes of the game by having them come into direct conflict like this. Also I just feel like we should start with Saihara as the protagonist since Akamatsu as a protagonist gives us nothing except a bait and switch. Like anything else she does could easily be done as an assistant. 

2. What song fits your pairing the most?

I’m not good at this sorry. No idea.

3. What is your favorite AU/prompt idea/trope for your pairing?

uhhh right now its the band au I thought of but generally speaking I really like mutual pining and two person love triangles, and Ouma really makes it easy to give me a two-person love triangle, although this ship can do that in other ways. Phantom thief is really good for both of those things but I have since expanded my horizons to More Creative versions of the same two tropes. I just think it suits them.

4. Do you prefer canon ideas or do you have your own headcanons for them?

This is like a weird question because aren’t all headcanons in some essence based on canon. like even headcanons for an au setting are still using characterization from canon in some way. But like I generally like aus more than I like canon fics for v3 because v3 is just....hoo boy. But like all my headcanons and fics are based on analysis I did of canon and what canon told me these characters would be like. So.

5. Favorite canon moment of them?

So my definition of canon might be super picky to some people but it’s basically “content you can’t skip” meaning no ftes, bonus dialogue, etc. So for me that’s...probably right now it’s that bit at the end of chapter 5 where Saihara calls Ouma a friend despite literally everything it makes me sentimental. but I’m also a sucker for the ch4 “when I find someone I like” scene. 

6. Least favorite canon moment of them?

This hasn’t changed but it’s still the fuckin “You’re alone and you always will be” line. It’s not in character and it's narratively redundant and ineffective. More on that here.

7. Favorite headcanon trope/idea? (Your own or someone else’s)

the band au I have in mind. I really wanna write it right now but I feel bad because I still have prompts, even though right now I have no prompt ideas and the prospect of them is exhausting. but LISTEN. the band au is gonna be really good I swear.

8. Least favorite headcanon trope/idea? 

Excluding pre-game, which isn’t actually real and if you believe pre-game was a real thing in the way shirogane presented it, you have been duped, as well as other fujoshi fan favourites uh...any trope or au that involves ouma being a killer in some way. Like if they put him in the position of killer in a way that doesn’t really justify it based on his canon characterization I just don’t care. It’s cheap writing just for angst and dark vibes.

9. Favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics?

Honestly I’m here for the entire dynamic. I’m a real sucker for characters that are foils that encourage growth and development in the other through one way or another. I honestly wrote about this much better in other posts, including the one I linked to, and its one in the morning, but yeah. I really just like what canon provided me as a whole, and I love how they play off each other by representing the opposite of what the other stands for down to their cores.

10. Least favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics? (Can be headcannon)

pre-game isn’t fucking real it is a LIE by shirogane stop talking about it. Actually kinda like in my komahina answer, I feel like ouma’s character arc was really well resolved, and like way better than Komaeda’s, but I feel like his arc as an antagonist with conflict wasn’t. He was just killed off and then Shirogane came in with her 100000 lies for chapter 6 and derailed everything in Kodaka’s attempt to be clever. “See I’m showcasing the themes by having everything shirogane says be a mix of truth and lies, and be saying something thematically different, because I’m being really clever and lying about the themes at the last second.” it’s dumb.

Unfortunately unlike with Komaeda there’s no easy way to fix this without trashing Kodaka’s chapter 6 as a whole, which also means throwing out everything that was building up to it because its the core of the game. I’d like for there to be a version of v3 where Ouma is truly confronted with him being wrong instead of it just kinda happening offscreen in an implied manner and never talked about again.

Saihara’s monologue in the epilogue has like a compromise of both their views, which I actually think is a good one and a thematic resolution to his character arc as well as the game, but it really kinda sucks the character that represents the other half of that didn’t get to see or realize that in his own right. It’s kinda lopsided. 

11. If they aren’t a canon pairing, how would you get them together?

Ya kinda can’t in canon because of everything you’d need some serious canon div and even then it would be a post canon slow burn. Because they both would have to get past their issues in canon and only then can they really get closer and be together.

12. If you had to take them and plunk them into another fandom, what fandom would that be? Why?

last time I went with ace attorney, and i’m probably not gonna top that au I invented on the fly, but my ideal au for any given series is “how can I make this higurashi.” the answer is higurashi. one day I’ll finish writing that ask about it.

13. How hard is it write/draw your pairing? Scale of 1-10.

eh it’s not very hard I’d go with like a 2-3.

14. Is there a pairing that you think rivals them?

For me, not really. It’s the most compelling dynamic written in dr as a whole, and I have a lot of fun exploring other ships, especially wlw ones, but this one is still canonically the most interesting.

15. Which character of the pairing do you like more? (Would you ever pair yourself with them?)

It flips but rn Saihara

16. Which character of your pairing would be the one to break up with the other? Why?

Ouma because he’s the kinda dipshit who’d bottle up his emotions and then decide instead of talking about anything he’s worried about he’ll just break up but he won't mean it. and it’ll be really messy but I think Saihar’s intuitive enough to be able to push through that.

17. Are they relatable as characters or as a pairing?

See my last remark reminds me very much of my own literal actual relationship so I’m gonna say pairing.

18. Did you once/ever dislike one/both of them?

I didn’t like Ouma before the game came out because everyone else loved him for no reason. I changed my mind. I always liked Saihara though.

19. On an estimate, how many posts have you made about them?

idk. 100? maybe?

20. What made you decide to ship them?

Canon gave me a lot of material but I was in the moment I knew Ouma was canonically gay for Saihara, which I learned like before everything else.

21. Favorite genre for them? (Angst, fluff, etc.)

I like fluff man. I’m a fluff guy. I’ll take some angst but I need happy endings.

[scarlettlawyer]

Part 12 of my reaction/commentary to the Phantoms & Mirages Saga, the fanfic series by @renegadewangs​

(Chasing Phantoms): Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

(Haunted Specters): Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

(Vanquishing Mirages): Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

Vanquishing Mirages / Lifting Spirits: Part 10

Lifting Spirits: Part 11

We are rapidly hurtling towards the end. Or… the “end”.

--------

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 12

A single line into this chapter and it had already one-hit-killed me (IN A GOOD WAY). What.

Ohhh my weakness, my weakness…!

THIS SONG?? HIM? THIS SONG???

I have such happy and important memories attached to this song, it’s not just a case of “oh it’s upbeat and I like it” for me, it goes pretty deep. I’m BARELY into reading this chapter and was already put into an unbelievably good mood on the power of the song alone and the memories I have attached to it, let alone everything else about the fact that he is the one who is listeni – ohhhhh going straight for my weaknesses aren’t we.

I’ve gone over being so very happy that he has the ability to listen to music and enjoy it before but you went right ahead and, this was a whole other level, suddenly.

He can pick up & enjoy the happy vibes of this song, aaaah…!

He is listening to Wham! on repeat and no matter what you do, no takebacks, I’m cherishing this for FOREVER. XD

IT’S SO GREAT AND SO AMUSING BECAUSE IT’S H

“You take the grey skies out of my way! You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day! Turned a bright spark into a flame-”

He was going to die. He knew he was going to die.

Honestly GREAT work here with the mood contrast, but I was too busy being blown away/happy and amused by the song situation and shocked that the narrative just did this xDDD like I picked up on this mood whiplash and was like “um whoa” but it kinda passed like a blip when it came to my absorption of this scene/overall mood ahahaha.

Truly though, what excellent contrast going on here simultaneously wherein the reader is drawn into reading of these two threads of such different emotional resonance at the same tiiiime.

And it’s scenes like this where he’s doing stuff like, you know, just sitting and listening to music and the PORTRAYAL and I’m just sitting here like oh my g… s-stop encouraging me… please stop encouraging me… “I’M BAD ENOUGH AS IT IS WHEN IT COMES TO BEING A PHANTOM FAN I REALLY SHOULDN’T BE ENCOURAGED LIKE THIS..!” sdkjnsdnklsd …The rest of this chapter refuses to stop said encouraging. :P

”If, through some miracle, they’ll grant me leniency, I think I’ll spend the rest of my life tucked away in some quiet little corner. That’s the best way for me to stay out of trouble, isn’t it?”

But the image this gave me was so absurd it refused to stick and just bounced right off. That’s just – no, nah, that’s not how this works, you know? There is no good ending. That’s impossible. It’s execution or prison and that’s that. And I was still advocating for execution. Welp. This statement took me off guard and there was this moment of… A sense of… Something. Before I dismissed it. Before it got lost again amidst the other things as I read on.

“One might argue that trouble has a way of hunting some people down.”

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 13

Phoenix Wright would be taking the defense again, as it was just as the Luster trial;

“wait wait wait WHAT – PHOENIX WRIGHT IS DEFENDING? PHOENIX WRIGHT?”

This info is just CASUALLY dropped in this “oh yknow just like with the Luster trial” manner - NO??? THE LUSTER TRIAL WAS A PURE PLOY TO CAPTURE MIRAGE AND THE PHANTOM BEING THE DEFENDANT WAS JUST, BAIT. AND HE WAS ACTUALLY INNOCENT OF THAT SPECIFIC CRIME IN QUESTION AND THE VERDICT ULTIMATELY HADN’T MATTERED ANYWAY AND? IT WAS ALREADY KINDA WILD TO SEE PHOENIX ACTUALLY BEING THE PHANTOM’S DEFENSE ATTORNEY EVEN BACK THEN AND AND AND…!

It’s NOT like the Luster trial it’s VERY different.

Phoenix Wright taking on the defense of Alexander Luster Jr’s case IMMEDIATELY implies a couple of things. Since Phoenix Wright is the posterboy of the entire Ace Attorney franchise, and he has won ALMOST every case he has taken and in each and every one of those scenarios where he won the case, he has indisputably been on the side of good and the side of right and- and he, as a rule, always tends to side with what is right and what is just. He is always ALWAYS striving to be on the side of justice. AND HE IS NOW ALEXANDER LUSTER JR’S DEFENSE ATTORNEY…

The dynamic of the games alone, the Ace Attorney Specific Tropes™ instantly then marks whoever’s side Phoenix is on tends to be a) The Right, Good Side & b) The Winning Side, applying both to the defense of Lex here. That’s what this tells us. That’s what it tells me. Told me. The narrative is directly reaching over and saying “Phoenix is advocating for him, and therefore this is the team you SHOULD be on. This is the team you should be cheering for”. And given Phoenix’s track record, the chances of him losing this are very, very slim.

And I was kind of sitting there like “Hello??? Excuse me?”. The narrative seemed to almost have this… assumption that we should be… Automatically accepting of this. That somehow, we should uncritically want Phoenix to win this trial and for Lex to win his lenience. By bringing Phoenix into this that’s kinda what it appears to definitively tilt the direction in. And I, with a years-old grudge against a character in an ENTIRELY different story written by an entirely different person*, and had been stubborn & adamant from the very beginning that the phantom NEEDED to face execution at any cost when the notion of rehabilitation was raised, was NOT buying it. I was not buying this. The narrative felt like it was making an assumption about the audience’s predisposition – about the audience’s wishes - that still did not apply to me.

*TttP is, for the record, not the only reason I felt the way I did at this point in the narrative. I’ll get into some of the other things fuelling my feelings on the matter a little later. But heh, yeaahhhhh.

Because like, you have characters like Bobby and Athena who are already fully established Lex-supporters, which is totally fine, but Phoenix has barely been in this and we’ve had no scenes at all with him interacting with Lex – there’s been no set-up of “Phoenix wants to advocate for Lex” – we are simply informed of this matter-of-factly, which implies “of COURSE Phoenix would take on Lex’s defense, it’s so OBVIOUS that it’s the right thing to do.” And I was like “oh so we’re doing away with subtlety somewhat on this front regarding the narrative’s agenda?” sdjsdbks. (I MEAN. LEX’S PORTRAYAL AND HOW WE’RE MEANT TO FEEL ABOUT LEX IS NOT SUBTLE AND I ADORE(D) THIS FIC FOR IT, but this was still different – a different angle as it is beginning to tackle the notion of rehabilitation/redemption/leniency head-on. The former was all fun and games but the moment the latter got raised I was immediately in a battle stance).

[Me, pulling up my sleeves: “oh so this is how you wanna play this huh. Bringing in the Big Guns with Phoenix being on his side- you talk a big game but see, not sure if you’re gonna be able to back this up buddy. Biting off more than we can chew, it looks to me.”]

Okay and the other reaction I had to this casual mention of “oh btw Phoenix is gonna be defending Lex”? IT WAS REALLY FUNNY BECAUSE IT WAS THIS SUDDEN JARRING MOMENT WHERE IT WAS LIKE OH, THIS IS ACE ATTORNEY FANFICTION. Okay I want to make this clear – I never at any point “forgot” this was Ace Attorney fanfic, of course. But like. This whole 4th fic so far has been focusing on Lex – now so far removed from the counterpart we see in canon, and Benny, an OC altogether, has also been so prominent and under focus. You of course, still have characters like Bobby and Simon but, see, at this point, this is the fourth instalment of the series, and we’ve been with these characters for so long now. We’ve been spending so much time with them that – these characters – the canon characters that were getting all the focus at this point were just about all VERY removed from the centre of the ace attorney series. It feels so very, very tucked away in this – such a niche little corner of the ace attorney universe with some very specific characters interacting and driving the plot forward, and having spent so much time with them independent of the rest of the ace attorney cast it’s really felt like they’ve well and truly taken on a life of their own that’s attached to this series specifically. Reading so much about “OC”s like Benny and Lex (because in AA canon there is no “Lex”!) and everything and then all of a sudden casually throwing the central character of all of the mainline ace attorney games casually back into the plot like this felt jarring in the best possible way. It was just like “oh, RIGHT. Phoenix. He actually EXISTS in this world. He’s still around, I mean, obviously. This is Ace Attorney Land. Oh my god. In spite of everything – in how much EVERYTHING has evolved and separated itself from and focused on this one tiny little realm of ace attorney characters and canon… he’s still around and can actually get involved in the plot like this. That’s so wild.” LIKE. I MEAN. It well and truly felt like Phoenix Wright was from A Different Universe, so independent and separate from a world where Lex, Benny, Alive & Post-Randy Bobby, and even Blackquill (after how much this fic has focused on him and a specific interpretation of his character) exist. Honestly to even think that Phoenix Wright and Alexander Luster Jr actually exist in the same canon fic verse… whoa.

“The fate of execution does not necessarily mean perfection. If leniency is deserved, leniency is what the prosecution is meant to support,” Simon found himself arguing despite his better judgment.

Me: “SIMONNNNN NOT YOU TOOOOO”

Me at this, on top of the whole Phoenix Wright Defending thing: [resigned, frustrated sigh] “You’re not gonna kill him, are you, Author? You’re not gonna go through with it and kill him off, are you?? I told you like two fics ago to KILL HIM.”

I was a) a phantom fangirl & had been for years (of course) b) “Lex is great how can you not love Lex?” c) Uh… still actively advocating for his execution d) NOT pleased that it looked like said execution was not gonna be followed through on by the narrative.

Okay, but this line from Simon was also frustrating for another reason: it engages with real-life morality, just as Benny’s assessment that Lex being “taken out back and shot” is not something that he feels is “the right thing to do” does.

I was sitting in an ever-so-simplistic corner and not critically engaging with how the ace attorney universe’s punishment system actually functions. The death sentence, as we all know, is so very prominent in this universe. If you kill someone, you die, them’s the breaks it seems. That’s the universe’s rule so that’s the rule we go with, right? Only taking this universe’s criminal justice & punishment system & morality into account, it was So Very Easy for me to sit there and fiercely be all, “the Phantom killed people, and even if he can feel things now, that won’t bring those people back, therefore he gets executed because THAT is justice according to the laws of this universe and justice won’t be served until that’s carried out.” This simplistic stance bypasses entirely any questioning or attempt to consider the actual “justice” of such a system, and flatly refuses to even question the ethics of capital punishment – a topic that can be so very controversial IRL.

It was frustrating to me personally because the narrative seemed to be bringing real life morality into this. In real life, so very many places have abolished capital punishment altogether. It’s a lot harder to flatly argue that Lex should be executed when considering that, realistically speaking, rehabilitation is the far more desirable option and if at all possible should probably be strived for in real world scenarios.

I was arguing for execution on the basis of Ace Attorney Morality and the narrative was retaliating with a taste of Real World Morality which gave me pause. I was so steadfast and convinced of my stance that to have it momentarily shaken like this was exasperating, because “no see, I know I’m right, see, I have to be right, because the alternative is just too far out of reach. It’s too absurd, it’s a pipedream… The phantom was just that sucky that even applying IRL morality… I must be right… right? Yeah. Anything else is just unrealistic. It can’t be done.” I shook it off, and ploughed onwards with my stance.

Leniency from the court system didn’t mean there would be leniency from those outside the courts. With so many people out for the Phantom’s head, there was no telling how fast any sentence that wasn’t the death penalty would lead to a furious rebellion. There was no telling how fast someone might attempt to hunt down Alexander and finish the job that the executioner was deprived from.

“Whoa, very good point. Okay, so maybe there’s a chance he’ll get executed after all since not getting executed is not necessarily being shown as the “better option” in this regard by the narrative. There’s still hope for an execution yet. A nice, clean execution if the alternative isn’t being portrayed uncritically as the “best” option.”

Simon wondered vaguely if he should apologize for all the times he’d thrown a blade at the defense or sent Taka their way. Ultimately, he decided against it.

Sdkjdskj

The scene with Bobby and Palaeno just before the trial begins… How worried Bobby is and how much he truly cares for Lex… It’s just not a joke anymore. It hasn’t been a joke for quite some time. It’s being played completely straight. There’s just nothing to even really laugh at or be amused by here?

Back in Haunted Specters a lot of Bobby’s behaviour towards/concerns for the phantom can largely be written off as Rule of Funny and also accepted BECAUSE of its intentionally surrealist nature & impression it leaves the audience. I readily accepted it because it slots into the character dynamic(s) role and set-up crafted by the story so perfectly, and it’s so much fun.

I, of course, could see the direction Simon and Bobby’s behaviour was heading towards… Yes, they were getting too attached for their own good, to the point where things would become painful. I knew it was coming and I accepted that and, in fact, I was READY for it.

But Lex.

What I did not foresee was the huge, HUGE transformation that took place. Lex changes everything. It changes the dynamic that is subsequently involved. It negates anything about Bobby’s behaviour being “kinda funny in a misguided way”. The existence of Lex changes it dramatically from “haha funny & surreal behaviour from Bobby” to just plain “Bobby is very invested in this man and very worried for him” and there’s nothing funny about it. We just feel plain bad for Bobby and that’s it. I’ve focused on Bobby pretty exclusively here because he’s the one whose narrative thread we’ve been following the most in this particular regard, but. There are many characters (like Palaeno) who care about Lex, and it’s played straight.

It is a scenario that can very much be pulled off and played straight with the emotionless phantom, but Lex’s whole existence throws an unexpected curveball in HOW the situation is played straight and the subsequent impact had on the audience.

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 14

“Quite a long list of murders, several attempted murders, grand theft identity and all the crimes that accompany such a thing, terrorism, vandalism, assault, perjury in a court of law, selling government secrets… To name only a few.”

“And the defense’s assertion?”

“The defense’s assertion is that every single one of those crimes was committed by the Phantom- WAAGH!” Phoenix broke off into a terrified holler when Von Karma snapped her whip at him.

SDJBDKJSDJK perfect.

Volent smiled, his kindly demeanor at odds with his rather arrogant response. “Instability, Your Honor. The concept is exactly what it implies- the defendant’s emotional state is not stable. To put it in layman’s terms, he suffers from severe mood swings. I couldn’t uncover enough symptoms that would allow a full diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, yet I would daresay that further therapy might’ve confirmed such a thing. … It wasn’t my job to diagnose any sort of disorders either way.”

Whoa WHOAAA SPECULATION OF A REAL-LIFE DIAGNOSIS…!

This was SO good to see. I really REALLY liked – no, LOVED this a lot. It was just like, of course, of COURSE…! It’s not just cartoonish “hehe look at how emotional he is!” THERE PROBABLY WOULD BE AT LEAST SOME LEVEL OF CONNECTION THAT COULD BE TRACED TO REAL-LIFE DISORDERS…! I don’t know how to express how cool I found this kind of connecting-it-to-real-life to be and introducing mention of a REAL-LIFE disorder.

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 15

Benny taking his testimony and turning everything around on its head was SO awesome. So very awesome. Only reason I’m not elaborating is that I have so very much to cover in this post…!

Simon’s. Testimony. My god, Simon’s testimony. I KNEW it was coming but ohhhhhh wow…! I’m still in awe, dude.

“Did you hear, mommy? It must be true love!”

OKAY YEAH OKAY THANKS FOR HAVING WACKED ME IN THE FACE WITH THIS LITTLE REMINDER WHEN I WAS STILL LICKING MY PHANTOMQUILL WOUNDS DFKJSDKLSDNS

BUT ALSO I REALLY LOVED THIS LINE LOL CAUSE LIKE? There’s a kid out there in this fic’s universe who canonically ships phantomquill. But it’s more than that it’s like!!! Phantomquill as a ship is definitely grouped in some of the LEAST kid-friendly ships I know. When I think about phantomquill the LAST thing I think about is a kid being aware of it let alone shipping it – it’s such an interesting juxtaposition to have (presumably) a child, given the information they’ve been presented with, immediately go “Oh True Love!” about what is, in standard practice, an unbelievably dark, twisted and angsty ship.

But in any case, it was around this point that I just kind of started thinking to myself “Oh my god… Oh my god… The author is actually gunning for this, she’s ACTUALLY gunning for a full second chance for him, THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN. BUT WHAT’S EVEN CRAZIER IS THAT SHE ACTUALLY APPEARS TO BE PULLING IT OFF.”

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 16

Crack! Franziska cut him off with a quick snap of the whip. “You must pay due respect to Cohdopian court regulations, Your Honor! This trial has an international nature, thus we can apply international rules. The defendant has recently regained his Cohdopian nationality and this method of questioning is a common occurrence in his home country’s court of law.”

This is ABSOLUTELY allowed, I’m not even gonna attempt to dispute it. Rule Of Drama is in full effect here and I LOVE it, it has my full support.

“Now then, witness. My first question,” Franziska leaned forward, resting one arm on her bench. She was watching Athena with a smug grin on her face. “Do you think the image of your mother’s corpse will ever be erased from your mind?”

OHHH MY GOD. I am… here for the brutality of this direct approach. It’s… necessary.

Lex had turned a few shades paler in a matter of ten seconds.

GET READY LEX. GET READY LEX. Strap in buddy. You WILL sit there and you WILL suffer. You are fantastic and amazing and my favourite character but :^) you’re on your own here.

Franziska shook her head in exasperation. “Tsk tsk. Very well then… Witness, is it true that the defendant took you hostage after he escaped from the federal prison in February?”

As we know, Chasing Phantoms felt like a separate entity from the rest of this series to me, and I had been somewhat less engaged while reading it. This just made me go “oh my god… she’s right… that happened in this series too…!” YOU WERE NOT ONLY TRYING TO ULTIMATELY GIVE THIS MAN A SECOND CHANCE IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING HE’D DONE IN CANON, BUT HE HAS ACTIVELY DONE EVEN FURTHER TERRIBLE THINGS IN THE CANON OF YOUR STORY ON TOP OF ALL THAT. And you WEREN’T even shying away from acknowledging it either. You were shining a spotlight DIRECTLY on this fact as you ploughed forward against the incredible odds. AMAZING. You ALREADY had your work cut out for you and you had gone ahead and actually ADDED to that workload, you absolute madman, this was wild.

But not only this, you were, here, in this scene, drawing a direct link between Chasing Phantoms and Lifting Spirits, with their two such vastly different narrative landscapes. You are reaching out and reminding the audience - having the audience acknowledge the part of the story when the phantom was at his worst while showing us him, a changed person, at his best.

You’re not even trying to hide or gloss over a damn thing.

I don’t even know what to say about Phoenix’s cross-examination of Athena it’s just so good. So vivid. Like, I can picture it in my mind.

It was Lex who spoke up. It was Lex who pushed himself to his feet, his manacles producing a soft clanking sound as he did so.

Oh my gosh… Here it is…

This whole scene where he says thank you. It’s soooooo sappy but I don’t care, I don’t caaaaaaaare I LOVE IT IT’S PERFECT and I will eat it up I WILL eat this sentimentality up forevermore. I’d actually misremembered this scene as being complete with gratuitous tears and big, glistening eyes listen it’s over-the-top and I LOVE it being over-the-top. IF YOU’RE GONNA GO ALL OUT WHY NOT GO ALL OUT? And it DOES do just that SPECTATOR’S COOING I. I LOVE this goddamn series oh my GOSH.

I was so very stubbornly trying to work against my favourite character, but you brought your A-Game. You put in overtime for this character. it felt like WHY DON’T YOU JUST GO RIGHT AHEAD AND DRAW A FLIPPIN’ HALO ABOVE HIS HEAD?! DSJNKSDKJNSDNKJ. So much of Lifting Spirits was me BEGGING you to stop encouraging me to such a ridiculous extent, to no avail.

And noooow it’s AURA TIME.

Enter: Aura Blackquill.

A smile flickered across Aura’s face, but it disappeared again the moment her eyes fell on Alexander. Even from such a great distance, Simon could see it: the raw hatred that was shimmering through. It was no wonder, really, that Alexander cowered in his seat. Most people would think to duck for cover if they were on the receiving end of such a terrifying glare.

OHHHH MY GOD… AHAHAHA… YES.

“I have quite a few things to say to that miserable excuse of a defendant,” Aura began, her tone of voice as venomous as the look on her face. “but such words aren’t befitting of a lady and it appears some clods thought to bring children to this courtroom, so I’ll keep that particular feat of vocabulary to myself.”

Alexander cowered even further. Surely, he understood just how much Aura hated him. Just how far she’d be willing to go to see him hanged. Having her here in the courtroom must’ve been agony on both ends, for Alexander feared for his life and Aura ached to end it.

OMG. GET HIM. MAKE. HIM. SQUIRM.

“What I will say is this. If this monster hopes to be human, he needs to understand that real humans don’t get second chances at life. Especially not those who rob others of their only chance. We live as flawed beings and we die as flawed beings- the size of the handicap makes little difference. Why should he deserve to go on while others don’t? The rules of life and death apply to everyone, no exceptions.”

What a horrific speech. Leave it to Aura to spew something like that.

“I MEAN… SHE… HAS A POINT… SHE RAISES A VERY GOOD POINT…”

The worst part was that from the corner of his eye, Simon could see Apollo Justice nodding.

HHHHHHHHHHHH

Aura slammed one of her hands down on the witness stand, her shackles clattering loudly as she did so. She was addressing Alexander directly, now. “I am not speaking only for myself, I’m speaking for everyone who’s lost someone dear because of you. I’m speaking for everyone who’s suffering because of you. Believe me, we are great in number. We will not forgive and we will not forget. You can’t run from us.”

Ohhhhhh GOOOOOOOSH I WAS 100% CHEERING HER ON DURING FIRST READTHROUGH OF THIS SCENE BUT I AM TERRIFIED OF WHAT TRACKING GHOSTS COULD ENTAIL PLEASE SEND HELP

Alexander shivered and hid his face behind his hands.

PLEASE I JUST. PLEASE. NO MORE. Look at him.

“Hm. No, I believe I’ve made up my mind. Taking all the testimony into account, it’s clear to me what needs to be done.”

The judge raised his gavel. This was it. The moment they’d been working toward. The moment they’d been working for. Alexander’s life hinged on these next words. Nobody dared to speak. Nobody dared to move. Bobby’s hand once again found Simon’s own. He squeezed it in return and glanced sideways to see that Ambassador Palaeno was crossing his fingers.

Me: [Shakes head ruefully] “Well, okay, very well. You did it, author. You earned this, well and truly. Go ahead. You can have this. You actually did it, I suppose. I can’t believe you did it, but you actually earned him his right to a happy ending. So… I won’t object. It’s all yours for the taking.”

I mean, the fact that the trial was ending just after AURA’S testimony was a little foreboding, but… It just wasn’t enough to balance out the rest of the trial and the tone of the entire fic. The verdict felt so clear, I mean, c’mon. C’mon. And the narrative slant, too. The narrative and the POV characters that we are following are so very biased in his favour. This IS what the entire fic had been building towards, and the entire fic had been so terribly biased towards him and the notion of salvation.

So I’m like [rolls eyes], “alriiiight, go ahead, if you must. Give the man his verdict of lenience like ya set out to do. I’m not complaining like I thought I would be. You win again. You set out to do this and I don’t know how, but it looks like you actually got there in the end. If you insist, then he doesn’t have to die after all. I accept that.”

”It pains me to conclude that rehabilitation and civil commitment are impossible in his case. That is why this court finds the defendant guilty and hereby sentences him to immediate execution.”

…Come again?

Um.

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 17

They'd known from the start that there could be only one ending to the Phantom’s tale. They'd known, yet they struggle to accept the bitter disappointment that comes with it.

Execution… Immediate execution. How soon was immediate? Quite soon, apparently, as Lang gestured towards the Interpol escort.

WHAT THE F U D G E

They saluted and made to surround Alexander. To grab him and drag him from the courtroom. The spy jumped up from his chair and backed away in painfully apparent fright, but there was nowhere for him to run. The agents snatched him by the arms just like that. The spectators became even more agitated.

“IMMEDIATE” EXECUTION?! THAT’S… THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS THOUGH. That’s SO fishy. You can’t – you literally can’t just take someone out back and promptly shoot them IMMEDIATELY after a sentence is handed down… can you? THAT’S NOT HOW THIS IS SUPPOSED TO WORK. THERE’S SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE, PROTOCOLS AND PAPERWORK TO BE FILLED OUT AND SCHEDULING TO BE DONE… DON’T tell me they’re just gonna – WAIT. JUST WAIT. HOLD ON NO YOU CAN’T JUST – NO.

At the very least, “immediate” execution seemed like it would be carried out a few days after the sentencing, not… like… ACTUALLY immediately. BUT THE STORY SEEMED TO BE PLAYING IT LIKE THIS.

Just because it felt unrealistic, unrealistic to the point it was fishy, didn’t mean the story couldn’t be about to implement just that, though.

Yet, even through the chaos, Phoenix Wright’s shouts were heard.

“OBJECTION! Your Honor! The defense…-! The defense would like to cross-examine the last witness after all! Your Honor!”

But the judge was already getting to his feet. He was preparing to leave the trial behind. That was only natural. The verdict had been delivered and once that was done, no one could change it.

This is the bad end. This is the game over. God DAMMIT Phoenix you should have LEARNED by now that if given the option to further question the witness or not, you ALWAYS take it lest you choose not to and get an immediate game over. Okay. You need to listen to me. You DID save right before Aura gave testimony, right? So you need to press the start button and reload at an earlier save point and then when given the option to PRESS you- sdkjdflndslksdkj

“Lex!” Athena rushed out from behind the defense’s bench to block the group of Interpol agents. To stop them from dragging a struggling spy out the back door, towards the prosecutors lobby.

YES ATHENA SAVE HIM. SAVE HIM.

It didn’t do much good; there were five of them and only one of her. She was shoved aside as if she wasn’t even truly there.

AAAAAAAAAH

Alexander… He was attempting to fight back like a madman now. Perhaps he was a madman. He was digging his heels into the ground, moving every which way to try and slip through a crack in Interpol’s escort, yet their hold on him was too great. He was screaming, he was shrieking. […]

He would be taken away to be killed. A fate he’d accepted for himself a few months ago, yet things had changed. His desire to live had grown too great.

NO NO NO NOOOOOO. NO!

Phoenix Wright stood motionless by his bench, head buried in his hands.

The miracle never happen.

“I can’t. I have to… I have to see Lex,” Bobby insisted once more.

“No. Last will and testament need to be compiled and you would only get in the way. We’re taking the Phantom to be executed the moment all the final arrangements are done.”

THAT’S SO MESSED UP. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! THAT IS SO MESSED UP. “LEX. IS LEX IN THERE? IN THE ROOM? WHY CAN’T WE HEAR HIM HE WAS YELLING SO MUCH BEFORE WHAT’S GOING ON.”

“This is the only ending this story could possibly have and you knew that from the start.”

Oh how daaaaare you turn this line back around on me like this, against me. The first time I ever heard the equivalent of this line in the series, I knew it was planted with the intent to come back to bite the audience. I was all “hah, you don’t scare me. Joke’s on you because that ending to this story is EXACTLY what I want, so TRY me.”

Seeing it again NOW was terrifying. It was a threat. I did not truly believe that the story would end like this. But this line… embedded into the narrative as it had been, was effective at convincing me it was plausible… it was POSSIBLE. Recurrent lines like this would destroy me on a regular day when I know that they’re coming. I had done NO preparation to handle this line doing exactly what I figured it intended to do when it inevitably came back around because back then, when it was planted, it is exactly what I had wanted, and therefore felt like I didn’t need to. And in the interim, the narrative had gone soft, so very soft, so very, very soft on him, and appeared to no longer have what it takes to go ahead and kill him off, the arc words laying forgotten. Until now, being wielded with full force. Didn’t like the sound of this at all.

Now I would like to break down different aspects of the scene(s) that unfold in the aftermath of the verdict, because there are so many angles at play here:

1. The verdict is still unbearably painful even when clinging to the thought/hope and possibility that he isn't dead/manages to survive/will not die

Because we've spent the entire fic being shown just how much Lex is brimming with emotion and personality and potential from head to toe, only to be told at the end that all of it was worthless, that all of it IS worthless: that he is unworthy of salvation, that all of the striving was for absolutely nothing and MEANS nothing. That, even if the plot allows him to go on living, even if the characters and the narrative (and the audience!) clearly believe he is worthy of a second chance, the law and the legal system doesn't. That in the eyes of the law, his life and newfound being is not worth preserving.

A solid three fics spent on development - and the verdict declares in one fell swoop at the end of it all that he should die, the verdict declares he shouldn't even get to live and should in fact be killed as soon as possible.

The law does not know and does not care about the things we and the characters have seen, the things that the characters have been through together, or the extent of his suffering and STRIVING all the way up until this point. The law doesn't care.

The narrative seemingly turns on its audience in an instant with a snarl. "Well, what did you expect? You're an idiot for expecting anything more than this. Haven't you forgotten who that man is and what he's done? Don't tell me you were actually stupid enough to have hope. You're naive. Just as naive as the characters are. Even when you could see for yourself they were getting too attached for their own good, what did you do? Did you actually follow in their footsteps? You should have known better. You should have had more foresight than that. In fact, you DID have the benefit of foresight and you WASTED it! You have even less excuse than the characters!"

At least, that's the stunt it TRIES to pull, and momentarily, for a horrible, horrible point in time it almost works. But then I'm yelling my defiance too. It's like, "no, actually, story, stuff you, I wasn't stupid at all for having hope, because the narrative itself was the one to give me that hope and that belief in Alexander Luster Jr in the first place. It's wanted us to believe in him from the very beginning, so it's no wonder. This story has been ridiculously biased TOWARDS him, and I know that for a fact because I've been fighting against his having a second chance the entire time and received nothing but opposition in terms of the narrative's directional slant."

So it's like, okay, it wasn't stupid at all in terms of narrative portrayal. The audience can't blamed; it's no wonder they believed. But were they objectively right in doing so or was their belief misplaced after all?

There's this dizzying moment of "WAS the verdict right in its decision? Is what the judge says really true? Is there genuinely no hope for rehabilitation in his case? Is there something that the Judge can see that we can’t?"

The thought of it is so painful. Are the characters supporting him and the audience just idiots, but the court - the judge can objectively see the "full unbiased picture" that we aren't getting, in order to have reached this conclusion? Is he really not worth a second chance? But how? How?! How can that be!

And then the thought passes, it's shot down. No, no. Rehabilitation - a second chance - is obviously possible. How can it not be possible? How can you tell me I'm wrong?! It has to be, look at him. if you've been paying attention to Lifting Spirits for five minutes-

2. The verdict was not the right decision to make and does not bring about any kind of justice.

The verdict is wrong. That's the conclusion we arrive at. There is nothing just about this situation. There is no victory here.

“No! This can’t…! This can’t be right!”

This is wrong. This is not justice. The narrative doesn't even attempt to say otherwise: that's how it's being portrayed. The narrative AGREES that this is wrong.

“Let go of me! This isn’t right!” she hollered, hoping to free herself from Lang’s grip. “You can’t execute him! He’s not a killer anymore! Let go of me!”

Up until the very end... Even as the verdict was being read and I was convinced it would side with lenience, I wasn't entirely sure of what the right choice was, even though I had finally decided to accept such a verdict of lenience.

In the aftermath of the verdict's announcement, I still wasn't sure what the "right" course of action was, how best to handle his case, or what "should" be done.

But it didn't even matter any more. I didn't - I didn't care. I no longer cared about that. It didn't matter what the “best” decision was anymore, I wanted him to- where, where is his lenience?! Give - GIVE it to him!

I was desperate for him to have this regardless, to have this second chance, it was painful and this didn't feel right.

In a sense, when it came to the question of what "should" be done, or what side I was ultimately on come the end, that alone - my feelings and response to this situation - clearly gave me my answer.

And if he didn't die, if he managed to escape death somehow, that wouldn't truly be good enough in alleviating all the pain of this. No, that's painful and would imply still that he's not good enough. But that is antithetical to what we have been shown, and the idea hurts. He needed to be fully, properly have his second chance recognised in the eyes of the law. It got snatched away when it was so close and I couldn't - it needed to happen.

It’s torturous.

3. The main characters that we have been following are actively invested in his survival and his second chance. They WANT him to live and they do not WANT him to die.

Wasn't this what I wanted?

But the thought of his impending death was hurting our main characters so much more than the alternative. They weren't asking him to die. They weren't expecting him to die. It's a very different situation.

For Alexander Luster Jr, the chance of redemption hinges not upon accepting death, but in being granted life.

This idea of him needing to die... One of the key ideas it comes from is that to give him a second chance is disrespectful to all the people that he murdered and all the people that he's hurt, emotionally and physically.

But characters such as Athena, Bobby and Simon are members of that group of people hurt by the phantom, and they are the ones advocating for him, they are the ones who are desperate for this chance and his survival - for him to have a chance.

There is, of course, a very impressive list of other people hurt by the phantom for whom his death is deemed important and necessary. But we have not followed their POVs. As it stands, when we think of who the phantom has inflicted harm on, many of the first characters that may come to the reader's mind are those who /want/ him to live. So what meaning does "disrespectful to those who have suffered because of him" continue to hold when they are our main point of reference?

It does still hold meaning. But it's far more difficult to uniformly advocate for the man now known as Lex to die when this is how at least some of the phantom’s victims feel.

4. The bar for his salvation is set very low, and the severe injustice invoked by that bar seemingly not being met by the court's standards is portrayed very strongly.

The bar is so low. A) There is no need to forgive the phantom of all his many crimes, but merely to acknowledge Lex as his own person b) lenience. Just. Lenience. Not “all charges are dropped you are free to do as you wish”, lenience.

And in contrast, everything about the fake-out screams injustice, almost outlandishly so. The speed at which everything happens – he’s hastily carried away. Bobby and Simon not getting to say goodbye. The characters, the spectators who were on his side screaming their defiance. Everything is taken to its extreme in a mad rush.

And then, of course, there's Aura.

5. The narrative makes no pretence at ignoring the harsh reality of what the phantom was like and what he has done. There is unabashed acknowledgement.

I'm glad Franziska asked Athena if the image of her mother's corpse would ever fade. At that point I was a little like "whoa, okay, at least we are acknowledging this. We are ACTUALLY tackling this angle, I’m impressed.”

And then Aura just came in and blew me away. Aura came along and put my very own thoughts into words, she said EXACTLY what I was thinking, right at the last minute. Words I thought would be left unsaid, and would therefore leave me feeling somewhat frustrated and unsatisfied. But she voiced them and forced the story to confront the fundamental unfairness of the killer getting a second chance when he took away his victim’s only chance.

6. The narrative fully acknowledges that there is no way to make everyone happy and satisfied regardless of whatever outcome is chosen.

“In light of all the information and all the opinions shared with this court, I believe there is no way to please everyone.”

Through both the wording of the judge's verdict and the extremely divided and opinionated spectators, it's abundantly clear. This was a great signifier for me because to give him a happy ending, favourite character or not... It can be very hard to be fully satisfied when the consequences of his past actions are ongoing (e.g. people who are still feeling the losses of loved ones that can never be replaced) or if it feels like certain perspectives are being conveniently ignored/overlooked so as to justify a happy ending.

I fought against Lex's salvation partly because I was convinced that there was no way I could be completely satisfied with it, and that it would therefore feel somewhat hollow or sour if thought about in too much depth.

But the narrative just went right ahead and said "you might not be 100% satisfied, and that's fine; not everyone is going to be 100% satisfied in-universe anyway. Such a thing is impossible. If you're expecting all of the characters to be satisfied before YOU accept the ending, then I am telling you right now that you're asking for something that's never going to happen, because it's just not realistic."

The narrative also played a sneaky little game of "okay, if you're not happy with this, then here's a glimpse of the alternative. Now tell me, which ending do you prefer?"

I’d already conceded and accepted the presumed outcome towards the end, but the story wasn’t satisfied with my mere acceptance. Ohh no, it was like, “not good enough, you’re going to REALLY want this. You have to REALLY want this.” And BOY, AFTER THIS CRUEL FAKE-OUT DID I EVER.

The ending made itself all the better because it forced me to really work for it. Noooo way in hell was it gonna feel even remotely hollow, no way in hell EVER, I am no way no way gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

The acknowledgement of ANY ending’s inability to satisfy absolutely EVERY angle of every perspective in and of itself made me rush over to embrace the ending in all its splendid glory.

“That’s ridiculous! We’re just as much Lex’s family as Palaeno is!” Bobby blurted out.

There it is. There it is. The conclusion… The inevitable conclusion of what this entire series has been building towards since around Haunted Specters.

There’s only so far you can take a joke before you have no choice but to play it straight.

1. Set up and frame a seemingly absurd/surreal/odd scenario and seemingly play it for laughs

2. Keep playing it for laughs

3. Keeeep going. Keep running with it

And through both escalation and narrative reiteration and reinforcement…

4. It’s not a joke anymore and the audience is invested, Actually. No matter how odd the set-up seemed originally.

I loved that Lang immediately responds with anger to Bobby’s proclamation. I loved that. It makes sense that he would. In fact, it is a completely reasonable response. And we have spent so long building towards this. Lang’s irritation and misgivings about Bobby’s level of investment have been clear as day for a long time – he’s made no secret of it - and they have been building, and right here, Bobby confirms to him beyond all shadow of a doubt that he is too far gone, he is too far gone. He crosses a line. He crosses a line and it is too much for Lang. Two powerful opposing perspectives come to a head in this single moment as they both explode forth at once.

You played Bobby’s investment completely straight… and then you turned it back around on its head again as it is confronted like this by Lang. It is not enough to merely play it straight, but here, the narrative goes one step further and asks “if it is played straight, if it is grounded undeniably now in the character and the narrative’s reality, what does that mean? In what way should it be approached?”

Lang was right; this was bordering on Stockholm Syndrome. They shouldn’t care this much about Alexander.

I am. Floundering.

You are MEAN. YOU ARE MEEEEEAN. XD.

Maybe it was a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome.

No, no. This was a horrible kind of stinging slap to deliver.

Lang framing it that way was fine.

But a character like Bobby potentially internalising it was so very harsh a punch.

For other characters to react to and interpret Bobby (and Simon’s) investment in Lex in a realistic way was one matter. For the characters whose POV we’ve been following the whole way to take up the same line of thinking… felt like a horrific intrusion on some kind of sacred space. An unbreachable, unwritten narrative rule supposedly laid out by the series itself felt as if it were being mercilessly snapped clean in two here.

It seems so very cruel, narratively speaking, because it felt to me like the reader was never ASKED to frame the behaviour and dynamics of the characters in a realistic or critical manner. It was. A JOKE. It started as a surreal joke, serving its specific narrative purpose and then moving on its way. To have ever been realistically critical of the characters’ behaviour felt like it would have only hindered what the narrative seemed like it was trying to do at the time. And of course, it became more than a joke but the narrative has been tailored for the audience to be invested in these characters’ connections. To abruptly rescind on this unwritten rule of “this is fiction and therefore we can have some fun with it and set up some interesting character dynamics!” was like stinging betrayal.

Or rather, we ARE perhaps asked or even encouraged to be critical, but perhaps not in the way it is suddenly portrayed here. The reader does in fact pick up on the fact that Bobby and Simon are getting too invested and that this investment is perhaps not in their best wishes. But that investment seems to be portrayed so as to be compelling, something we are drawn to… not… like this. Or maybe that was just how it felt to me.

For a character like Bobby to be thinking about Stockholm Syndrome… It is not a clear-cut case of Bobby being hurt and grieving. He ponders framing his own grief and attachment in a critical manner. That he “shouldn’t” have been invested or cared this much. That felt so negatory of Lex and his whole existence… It felt negatory of the very plot that the readers had become so very invested in.

Cruel, cold realism.

You finally brought this particular narrative thread to a head, made it so very realised, and then immediately you appear to set about deconstructing it. Through Lang’s reaction. Through the internal thoughts that go through Bobby’s and Simon’s minds.

But my instinctive response is, "no, NO. Your attachment means something. It MEANS something! It's NOT just Stockholm Syndrome!"

If it was the emotionless phantom who had died that they were mourning, then sure, to think of their feelings in this manner... I don't think I would object.

But Lex is full of emotions, he cares!!!!

They can't possibly turn their back on the bond they'd ultimately grown with Lex like this. They can't.

And they aren't. They are just suffering a lot right now, trying to make some sense of this situation - anything, anything to try and make it stop hurting, to force it to hurt LESS. The narrative seems to teeter dangerously close to borderline dismissing the bond they'd grown with Lex through gritty, negative framing tied to a sense of realism. But ultimately...

It didn’t matter now.

Does it, would it even matter, how it's framed at this point? It wouldn't make a difference anyway. What's done is done, what happened is what happened.

The hurt inflicted by Bobby's internal thoughts in this moment and my instinctive objection to them is drowned out and washed cleanly away as we return to focus on the hurt caused by the overall situation and its magnitude. "Does it even matter?". It's like, who cares, who cares about analytical dissection right now, this is where we ended up either way.

It’s something Bobby considers but he’s just too tired to ponder it much because what difference did it even make? That same tiredness to fight back against the framing applied to me, as there was so much else to worry about in this moment.

What was perhaps the most cruel aspect of it all was that Alexander- no, the Phantom had attempted to shield them from this sort of devastation.

Oh no nooooooo. This hurt. Just twist the dagger in some more hhhjghj. It was absolutely true. The phantom had foreseen this. When it came to something like that kiss scene – I was busy focusing on so many other aspects of it, and very distracted by so many narrative threads after that and into Lifting Spirits that I totally failed to seriously register that attempt to shield a character like Bobby from this pain. I should have been prepared for that particular narrative angle to circle back around and I absolutely was not, I had not taken it seriously enough and had been far too distracted. I had been very dismissive of the phantom’s actions in that regard and found him so very stupid for it. Like, “yes, Bobby is too attached, this is apparent, but for GOD’S sake…”

Should have probably expected this, but I did not, and therefore it came as a very harsh shock that the phantom had seemingly been Right All Along.

This was so worrisome. Was the story REALLY about to dump a “this is the best outcome in a sense, as Bobby and Simon’s attachment was too unhealthy anyway, so this was the only way. It’s the best thing for the characters who should never have allowed themselves to senselessly get attached” on us?!

I knew there was one more fic to go in this series. I knew that much, and I did my best to cling to that, to cling to how suspicious and fast this all was, that they didn’t even get to say GOODBYE, but some of the narrative framing was so very scary. I did start to feel a tiny bit of panic, struggled to keep it at bay. But I was on the verge of becoming VERY, VERY upset. I could not allow myself to do so until I finished this fic, because if I allowed myself to become upset – to lose hope over this - it would be all over – there’s no telling how much it would’ve crushed me.

I just needed to power on through and keep reading as fast as possible before I had the chance to become upset. Just… keep reading, keeeeep reading, until I could relax once more… There had to be a reveal that he is okay, there had to be, because the alternative was too unbearable to consider.

The mere possibility of this truly being how this fic ends was way too terrifying.

It was like you suddenly out of nowhere grabbed my arm and BRUTALLY twisted it and just went “oh my god, shut up about phantomquill. Shut up about phantomquill. And will you STOP complaining already about every godforsaken little thing? I’ll kill him. I swear to god, I will kill him. I’ll do it. Do not test me. I’ll do it.”

This couldn’t be the end (could it?!) but there was no way in hell I was going to risk growing complacent and trying to call your bluff. I was terrified. I could NOT risk this all being real no matter what, no matter how small the risk might or might not be I was so scared.

“Please… Just… Just… Don’t do this. Please. Just let him still be alive.”

And he was.

“So… will you finally shut up about phantomquill? Will you finally be GRATEFUL once more and ACCEPT what you are given?!”

Oh, yes. Yes, Meowzy, please, just don’t hurt me.

XD

When there is a defining moment in a story that causes me to flatly deem that moment and by extension everything after it technically “non-canon”, it is VERY hard, nigh impossible, to win me back, because it tends not to matter how fantastic anything that comes afterwards is – because the line of continuity to get to that point had been fundamentally broken in my eyes, usually senselessly so. The appreciation of great stuff from afterwards doesn’t feel “complete” because I am no longer capable of considering it the “true timeline”.

By “win me back” I don’t mean “enjoy the fictional work in question”, because I am still completely capable of doing that if there’s still awesome stuff going on. I mean “restore the work’s claim to being the “true timeline” in my eyes.”

A lot of the Lifting Spirits journey is winning me over and winning me back over. I had already largely gone “okay, okay, I guess… all of this stuff is just so awesome that it’s still pretty much the true timeline. It’s just so good.” Unlike in some other instances where I had made the “non-canon” declaration in the past:

-There is absolutely no drop in writing quality whatsoever. The work demands its place in the true timeline with the rest of the series because it fits in seamlessly

-Just about everything going on is so great and awesome that you’d be hard-pressed NOT to want to fully accept and embrace it all

-The occurrence that I had declared the work was “finished” over (Fake Phantomquill kiss) was so very inconsequential and minor in the grand scheme of things. The declaration loses its meaning when it becomes to seem like just a blip in the radar of all the amazing stuff going on

-The actual goings-on of the scene do fit in fine with the rest of the story, and the scene is not TOO central or relevant to what takes place afterwards so as to be a constant reminder or thorn in my side that I had been baited. The story moves on from the scene after it plays out to far more pressing matters.

But still, STILL, I had withheld its right to Full Canonicity in my eyes. I had been “wronged” XD.

But the fake-out… and then the ending… I was nothing but grateful. True timeline. True timeline. This WAS the true timeline; this is the true timeline and I fully acknowledge it 100%. I embrace it. Why would I EVER throw this golden ending away for the sake of some one-sided phantomquill, if I had to make that choice?! Never.

I’ve much more to say and/or elaborate on, and I will do so… in the next post!

Wow. Looks like one more post and I will have finally done it. That’ll truly take us to the end of Lifting Spirits…

[chibigissy]

This was Too Annoying for a Video so here’s a Tumblr Post that’s a Ted Talk. (PLEASE READ THO)

Okay, let's start out by saying, I had originally had a recording for this type of subject, which is a bit of a response to Evan's podcast "Animation Hour", or at least part of it. It's was mainly about works that in a style of a motion comic and works that in a style of a Visual Novel. It was before I talked with a good friend of mine about this and he coined a term that is more broad terms for the type of content we do, which started out as a semi-joke before I'm actually starting to legit like the term. So recording and video I originally had is useless no longer relevant in my eyes. But hey, it's better to start over from the ground up when doing these types of discussions. If you have not seen Animation Hour and have read the comments, I recommend you do so. Cuz, I'm sure this shit is gonna get confusing.

With all that said, let's get started.

So I know that Evan's First Animation Hour, where he talks about fanime, and already, there has been plenty feedback. Alot them are fairly good. Some positive and some fairly critical with reasoning behind it. There is a bit of a discussion. Yeah, 25 comments is not a whole lot compared to other types of YouTube videos that got like a million comments per day but compared to some videos those in our community get, I'd say that is a fairly decent amount, if I do say so myself. One thing that has been brought up in some comments of the video, is the term the Evan coined, which is OAS. OAS stands for Original Animated Series. And it's good term. It's a abbreviated like AMV, PMV, MAP, and MEP. It's short, sweet and to the point. AND It's more board so anyone can join and we can refer to our fanimes as such when promoting them to those outside of the fanime community. However, I do feel there is a bit of a miscalculation Evan might have.... well, unless he'll explain what he means in the next animation hour. I do feel OAS might exclude those that don't animate much for there series, such as doing things in a style of a motion comic or a visual novel (The latter being more of my concern, since initially, what the fuck can you call that besides fanime.) See, I said my original discussion video, you can easily refer to your motion comic style series as motion comic, as it is an established genre. With a visual novel style series, I did tried to coin the term "VNS" which stands for "Visual Novel Series" but it has it's ups and downs. The downside is that it's a little to vague of a term and it could apply to a series of visual novel games, say like Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, and Higurashi. The upside is that acronyms can have more that one meaning. There are two meanings for PMV. My friend, TenshiHanka, told me it could mean either "Picture Music Video" or "Pony Music Video". Speaking of which, I had a conversation with Tenshi and UniversalFiction about OAS. Universal was asking if we're going to change the name of the Fanime World Server to something like OAS, which I was not sure if the mods would agree to that idea. And least not yet. Might be too soon at this point in time. As for Tenshi, he is basically, like "Yo. I got it! OWS. Which stands for "Original Web Series". And OWE , which stands for "Original Web Episode!" Now, like I said at the beginning of the video, this was a bit of a semi-joke. It was a semi-joke in a sense that we both pronounced them as "ow's" and "ow" and saying shit like "Cuz making art is an ow", which in all fairness, it is. Art can be a pain sometimes. And so, he posted his comment about on his TenshiHankaTR account, which compared to his Otaku Krap account, it's is smol! Like, with the other comments (especially mine), you would need 15 semi-trucks to carry them! With the smol comment, it's straight into the point! Then Universal's comment came a long and she brought up legit good point about how OWS is more inclusive than OAS and I'm like "Oh..... what's feeling in my heart. I think I'm starting to legit like term OWS and OWE" And that's what I feel actually, OWS is good for a series that episodes on YouTube or just the internet in general and OWE is good for one-shot story that is in a video format. It's open for animators and those who don't animate but still like to portray their stories through art and a video format! I'd say it's down right genius Now, I have a bit of hot take, You can have your series under the OWS and OAS labels. After all, as Evan said, you can use as many tags as possible to promote yourself out there. And another hot take, you can also have the fanime label for your OWS in the tags. I feel you can have a community within a community. Now I know what ya'll thinking "Gissy, what the angling fuck are you going on about? And what are you smoking and can I have some of it?". Well, I've seen communities outside of the art community that have their own little sub communities. An example I can bring up is with Twitch. Twitch, while it's a big ass community, has like a shit tone of communities that surrounds a Twitch streamer. There are two I'm in are related to Doodletones and KisakaToriama. And sure, there are times when it's just a chill streams, sometimes it can have a shit ton of overs of... 20 something views. (In the case with Kisa, might be around 30 or more, if she is like playing a popular game) Now I can got into other community types but if I do, we'd be here all day. So yeah, with that example in mind, I'd say, you can have the fanime community with an OAS and OWS/OWE community community! Checkmate, Atheists!! Now, there is one more thing I wanna bring up and that is that what would be a good main hub to post our work, besides YouTube and other Social Medias. Because face it, YouTube is dun mcfucked right now and if you don't have a big following and/or not using your tags properly, your work is gonna get buried by other tweets about some fuckward doing something stupid or illegal for like the millionth time. I know some of you are gonna be like, “Why not a Discord Server as the Main Hub.” And I'd say that is a fairly decent idea. Just don't let me be the moderator for it. Cuz I have the Fanime World Discord to deal with and trying to moderate that server alone is freakin difficult at points. I don't even WANT to imagine how moderating a OWS server would be like, if it has more people than with Fanime World. But there are other options as well. There's creating an amimo for OWS's. There is a problem however, Amino is kinda hard to keep up with. Trying to look at your mobile is tedious at points and the desktop version of Amino kinda sucks, if I'm honest. But here, something like an OWS Amino can work for mobile users that like said app. There's also a creating a forum for OWS's. It's just.... Forums are kinda going extincted, sadly. Like, unless it’s for something popular, it's hard to make forum of something not to popular. "But wait, what about Creative Studio Forum?" you may ask. I know that was popular back in the day but it's currently in the dead zone and none of the moderators of that forum probably don't care about anymore to a point that unless you already have an account on CSF, you get the freakin' #Hashbrown theme since that's currently the default theme. Tho who knows, maybe there will be a "Creative Studio Forum 2: Electric Boogaloo" one of these day. After all, there are other types of projects the tell a story and don't involve video editing exists. I mean hell, Penalty All About was originally a web novel, my duudes! There would just be an OWS sub-section in the of the Visual Project Section of that forum There were other options, such as mastodon or even creating a website from the ground up. The latter might get too confusing, if you don't know any coding. Not to mentioned, both of them cost money. (Even tho, the former claimed to be open source. Don't think I'm not salty that false advertisement, Mastodon....) Anyways, this has gotten a little all over the place but to summarize: 1. OAS is a good public name but it might exclude those that 2. OWS/OWE is a more inclusive those that animate and those that don't but still wanna make episodes. 3. The Fanime Comminity can be within the OAS community and OWS/OWE Communities, change my mind. 4. WE NEED A MAIN HUB CUZ YOUTUBE SUCKS, DAMNIT 5. ????? 6. Profit Okay the last two points are a joke but I hope you get my drift. That is all I gotta say, hope you have a good day, and thank you for coming to my ted talk.