w1ngedv1ctory

[w1ngedv1ctory]

[w1ngedv1ctory]

Undertale and Deltarune are lovecraftian horror stories except the twist is that you are cthulhu.

[w1ngedv1ctory]

[w1ngedv1ctory]

Neither enemies to lovers nor slow burn but a secret third thing called Schrödinger's intimacy. We are in love and we are not in love do NOT open that lid I swear to God.

[w1ngedv1ctory]

A lot of old man on the Fucking That Old Man website aren’t even in to old men. They’re talking about dudes that are 45-50 tops. Not me. I am serious about fucking that old man. There are men and women 80+ that I WOULD if given half the chance. I’m not just fucking that old man, I’m entering some sort of gay Harold and Maude situation with that old man.

[w1ngedv1ctory]

I hate how every medical show does the “organ donor is not really dead but everyone is greedily pushing for collection anyway and the brave and noble protagonist doctor is the only one trying to stop it” it makes me almost as angry as the “brave and noble protagonist doctor ignored a DNR and got in trouble with admin but the patient ended up being grateful” trope.

[w1ngedv1ctory]

So I started playing Ace Attorney but I accidentally started with the third game, Trials and Tribulations, and played the first case (Turnabout Memories) before realizing my mistake – but I did think, at the time, that it was a brilliant and daring design choice to start you out as Mia Fey, Phoenix’s mentor, in flashback, and play has her against several condescending, infantilizing, or even outright sexist court personnel in a drama that just so happens to feature the cool lawyer guy on the box in the most pathetic and embarrassing state imaginable before you even get to play as him. But then that “first” mission dovetailed into the actual first mission from the first game (The First Turnabout) perfectly, because Turnabout Memories is more or less a fanservice recreation and expansion of that first case, but by playing them in opposite order and immediately in sequence, it comes off instead as seeing right away via timeskip just how well that blubbering idiot you helped can handle himself in a court of law now, thanks to Mia’s tutelage – which is itself a continuation of Grossberg’s, as experienced prior. And every note is there, right down to your mentor getting stressed out to the point of exacerbating a medical condition, and opposing the same loser prosecutor.

And then the second case from the first game (Turnabout Sisters), of course, is about the death of Mia Fey that was foreshadowed at the end of Turnabout Memories, making it the first case where you (the player, mechanically) and Pheonix Wright (the character, narratively) are effectively on your own. You (as Pheonix) finally meet Grossberg again, and his staunch refusal to assist in the case is only made more concerning and significant by your firsthand experience playing as Mia under his wing in Turnabout Memories as the “first’ case, and you wonder immediately about their falling out. Maya’s introduction also keeps Mia in the world (including somewhat literally) by revealing more about the Fey family and Mia’s history, relationships, and legacy, and the thing is that I do have to say that playing Turnabout Memories first and getting that experience as Mia, and seeing her as a flawed and insecure rookie fighting for the win before we see her as the effortlessly cool and confident mentor figure, made for a much more narratively satisfying death of a woman than I think it would have been otherwise. You even get a line from Edgeworth in Turnabout Sisters where he calls Pheonix out for using “Mia’s style” of cross-examination – what he calls cowardly nitpicking of perfectly fine testimonies isn’t just how Pheonix does it narratively, it’s how you (the player) do it as the core mechanic of the game, because it’s how Mia does it, and while she is your guide in The First Turnabout, playing as Mia before you play as Pheonix and doing the same thing shows you firsthand that she’s taught him so well that even the prosecution can see it.

This accidental play-order of Turnabout Memories before The First Turnabout and Turnabout Sisters shows off an invaluable amount of Mia Fey’s character, agency, and development that combine to make her feel like the main character for a perfect and holistic three-act introduction to the series, where it doesn’t feel like Pheonix truly “takes over” until Turnabout Samurai – in which he literally does, in fact, take over the law office with Maya as his assistant. It left such a massive impression on me – much more of an impression, I think, that the intended play-order would, which I don’t think does Mia Fey a total disservice at all, but definitely relegates her to a relatively more one-dimensional mentor figure in Pheonix’s shadow for almost the entirety of her short on-screen lifespan if you don’t have the experience of playing as her in Turnabout Memories first. You as the player develop a much richer relationship to Mia that makes her death in Turnabout Sisters feel so much more personal, and the stakes of cracking the case so much more significant. It just enhances her character, and her role in these two cases, immeasurably.

And I mentioned it earlier, but it can’t be said enough that the player’s relationship to Pheonix benefits from this play-order, too – it’s because of Mia that he goes from the sobbing idiot who ate a bottle of poison on the witness stand for a girl who tried frame him for murder into the hotshot rookie lawyer through which you (the player) get to ask Mia for help during the trial in the first place! And she gives you that help because she has been in this same position herself and understands completely! You (the player) were there! The First Turnabout is also, honestly, kind of an underhand toss after Turnabout Memories (it's literally the first ever case so of course it's easy), but it only benefits the pacing of this play-order to have it as a second act before the much more complicated Turnabout Sisters. And when you, the player, are on your own after Turnabout Sisters and have to start Turnabout Samurai without her help, the only way that I can describe it is that you feel ready to make Mia proud.

[w1ngedv1ctory]

"I'm just a swirl" -ice cream cone who uses TikTok

[w1ngedv1ctory]

On Ace Attorney and Gay Lawyers

If you know anything at all about Ace Attorney, even only through meme osmosis, then you probably know it’s about two gay lawyers. One blue and one red.

Except it’s not really about that, is it?

Let me preface this with saying that I enjoy WrightWorth as much as the next person and this is in no way against the ship or its fans. Rather, this is more about a wider problem in fandoms when it comes to headcanoning and championing characters as gay when they canonically aren’t, while ignoring actually gay/lesbian/bi/ace characters.

I’ve been frustrated for a while regarding how the most basic and plausibly deniable “queer coding” or “hinting” is taken as highly praised representation for a while. Not only because it teaches entertainment companies that they don’t actually have to give us real representation to make us happy, therefore sticking us with nothing but questionable subtext that can be easily cut out for international releases, but also because it also robs credit from the brave creatives who actually fight for real representation and sometimes pay the price for doing so.

Maybe the “saddled with unnecessary feelings” line from Edgeworth was enough in 2008. After all, gay acceptance still had a long way to go and coding a character was often the best you could get. Both in Japan and the USA.

But it’s well into the 2020s and we have had several Ace Attorney games and spin offs since. So where are all the gay attorneys?

I’m happy to report that we actually did get one!

And then sad to report that he was immediately abandoned and the fandom let it happen with nary a whimper.

It frustrates and depressed me that for a series known for having “gay lawyers”, we only actually got ONE attorney that even approaches actually canonically being same sex attracted and he got practically written away.

It’s Klavier.

For all of the implications and suspiciously-worded subtext with Phoenix and Miles, Phoenix only ever shows interest in women and Miles never shows interest in anyone.

Klavier is the only attorney on either side of the aisle to show canonical queer inclinations (hitting on both Apollo and Ema).

There’s something really disheartening to me about fandom obsessing so hard over two characters who are not canonically gay or in a relationship (not to say there’s anything wrong with shipping them! Just in context with this next part), only to not respond when we finally get a queer prosecutor.

I wish the fandom had reacted more to Klavier being de-emphasized. He really deserved to be fleshed out and explored as much as Miles.

It’s especially upsetting after DD made it clear that Capcom has no intention of ever canonizing WrightWorth out of questionable subtext that’s up to interpretation. For however much we love Miles as gay, Capcom doesn’t see it that way. And the character Capcom was willing to take that risk with, got shoved aside after his first game and promptly forgotten.

(Unrelated, but you know how Miles in DD said he plans to never marry, and Maya in SOJ showed zero romantic interest in Phoenix once reconnecting with him? And yet Miles still showed up for that wedding and Maya tried so hard to catch the bouquet. Inadvertently it almost seemed like they’re hooking up behind Phoenix’ back and they’re both trying to let Phoenix down gently. 😂 At least that’s what my friend who had never played the original trilogy thought was being implied! Cracked me up!)

[w1ngedv1ctory]

I LOVE BEING IN FANDOMS WITH READING COMPREHENSION

(dude that is waiting for her fandom to learn how to visually read the visual novel for once in thier lives)

[w1ngedv1ctory]

[w1ngedv1ctory]

Do we like the vision

do we

[w1ngedv1ctory]

did this last night before i got any sketchbook requests. miego enjoyers come here i love you

[w1ngedv1ctory]

[w1ngedv1ctory]

Tbh as a non-American, reading media set in USA sometimes feels like you stumbled into a fanfic fandom-blind and there's naturally no exposition about the setting because you're supposed to be aware of it. But you're not so you just nod along and hope it's not relevant to the story. Like the characters being from different states probably has some significance to their backstory but it's never explained. The story being set in this state also probably has some significance but it's also not explained. Being in this diner/shop/Americanism-store thing whatever probably has some context clues (is it supposed to be posh? Common? Cheap? Accessible? Old-fashioned?) but it is also not explained. It's like when you're reading a new scifi/fantasy story and there's a hundred new terms but you can't extrapolate their meanings from context clues/flavour text because they just give you a name and you're like "cool, dunno what that means at all".

[w1ngedv1ctory]

Spin this wheel first and then this wheel second to generate the title of a YA fantasy novel!

(If the second wheel lands on an option ending with a plus sign, spin it again)

Share what you got!

[w1ngedv1ctory]