That’s It. THAT’S What SOTR Should’ve Been.

I feel very strongly about Recipe for Turnabout, but I don’t think it’s a very good case. I just think it has so much potential to be amazing. 

Trials & Tribulations’ running themes are deception (personas and disguises) and the lengths people will go out of devotion (usually in romantic relationships but Bridge deals with familial). And there’s so much that could have been said about identity, self worth, and being so devoted to someone that you lie to yourself in Recipe.

If Furio Tigre's impersonation of Phoenix was actually really good (and not played off as a joke), it could have done so much to explore Phoenix's identity surrounding being a defense attorney. I mean think about it, Phoenix lives for other people, he doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself when he’s alone, and became a defense attorney to save people. And Furio Tigre ripped that away from him by pretending to be him and getting an innocent person locked up. Everyone thought Tigre was Phoenix. Maggey thought he failed her. It feels straight out of one of Phoenix's worst nightmares. Seriously, why is this plot point only used for laughs?

Viola Cadaverini is probably the most intriguing new character in 3-3 but she’s completely brushed aside. She's a perfect parallel to Phoenix himself. Viola tries to convince herself that Tigre truly loves her, rather than confront the truth that he is paying for her bills and being so kind to her because he's terrified of her mafia boss grandfather. To the point where she stays by his side and becomes an accomplice to his crime. Similarly, Phoenix believed that Dahlia truly loved him. And while Phoenix wasn’t a willing accomplice to Dahlia’s crime, he still hid evidence for her and ate the necklace out of belief in her.

The game itself even acknowledges this connection briefly.

This is what Phoenix thinks after breaking Viola’s psyche-locks. He was scared of her at first but now he sympathizes with her and is filled with new determination to take Tigre down. Phoenix chooses the drink the espresso she prepared, effectively trusting her not to poison him too.

Also side note: Phoenix is really sensitive to betrayal. And it’s really interesting that he seems to hate it because it’s cowardly. Phoenix seems to hate the deception involved in poisoning and betrayal. He’s is terrified of his believing in someone so much, only to be hurt and left alone. (… eyes Phoenix’s reaction to Edgeworth’s note). Yeah it definitely stems from Dahlia.

Now imagine if Viola was the defendant instead of Maggey. That would mean Tigre, the person she convinced herself truly loved her, disguised himself in order to use her as the scapegoat for his crime. Does that sound familiar? Phoenix would probably be scared of Viola at first too. Maybe she reminds him of Dahlia. But slowly come to trust her.

Viola as the defendant would also continue T&T's pattern of guilty or questionable defendants (Ron DeLite being Mask DeMasque, Terry Fawles being in a relationship with 14 y/o Dahlia, and Iris being an accomplice). No case after 2-4 ever critiques Phoenix's misbeliefs as a defense attorney again (that being an attorney is not about saving people but fighting for them, and they everyone deserves a proper defense). But 3-3 could have done that, because Viola was still an accomplice and would have to go to jail for that. Phoenix could have continued to learn that he doesn't have to save everyone, that he has to fight for them and for the truth.

Do you see my vision? Do you see the potential? Recipe for Turnabout could have been a top tier case.

Oh and here's my collection of Recipe's most... memorable quotes. (Aka why is 3-3 like that??)

Feel free to explain your reasons in the tags! (I'm very curious)

Intro Post ✧

I'm revamping my intro post because it's been a few months since I started this blog and some things have changed.

Hello! My name is Jen and welcome to my fandom blog :) Feel free to DM me to talk about any of my interests!

I'll mainly be posting analysis/meta about whatever my main obsession is...

Ace Attorney ⚖️

Favorite characters: (1) Miles Edgeworth, (2) Phoenix Wright, (3) Franziska von Karma, (4) Manfred von Karma

Favorite ships: (1) Miles/Phoenix (Mitsunaru), (2) Manfred/Gregory (Shingou)

Favorite game: Justice for All <3

I am also a fan of over-villainized/neglected characters, like: Franziska von Karma, Manfred von Karma, Dahlia Hawthorne, Larry Butz, Viola Cadaverini.

My AA related tags:

#jen's aa rambles (just me ranting or gushing about ace attorney)

#jen's aa analysis (actually formatted analysis/meta/arguments about ace attorney)

Other Interests :)

Typology! mainly MBTI (cognitive functions!!) and enneagram

The Legend of Korra (Kuvira, Baatar jr, Baavira)

Avatar The Last Airbender (Azula, Katara)

Genshin Impact (Kujou Sara, Arlecchino, Raiden Shogun)

Other fandoms I'm in (feel free to talk to me about these but I doubt I will post anything about them in the near future): Kpop (but mainly Dreamcatcher), The Hunger Games, Divergent, Six of Crows.

Wheels slow, the fumes die There’s nobody left, she’s alone and counting

That’s precisely why Farewell My Turnabout is so so important to their relationship. It’s the case where Miles saves Phoenix <3

I cannot overstate how important Phoenix and Edgeworth are to each other’s lives. There is something so beautiful about Edgeworth’s walls crumbling before the man who picked up his father’s legacy where he couldn’t. There is so much care in the fact that Edgeworth returns to guide Phoenix when duty versus personal circumstances shake the latter’s principles to their core.

They spend their lives reciprocating each other’s acts of kindness, and it is in this eternal dance that they find comfort, trust, and love in one another.

Comparing some quotes from Farewell My Turnabout to AA1, you start to realize what Miles Edgeworth’s redemption arc is really about…

Turnabout Sisters: "Innocent"...? How can we know that? The guilty will always lie, to avoid being found out. There's no way to tell who is guilty and who is innocent! All that I can hope to do is get every defendant declared "guilty"! So I make that my policy. Versus Farewell, My Turnabout: It doesn't matter how many underhanded tricks a person uses... The truth will always find a way to make itself known. The only thing we can do is to fight with the knowledge we hold and everything we have. Erasing the paradoxes one by one... It's never easy... We claw and scratch for every inch. But we will always eventually reach that one single truth. This I promise you.

Rise From the Ashes: But in order to fight crime on my own, I'd need a "weapon." It's scary, but I've known that to be true for quite some time now.  Versus Farewell, My Turnabout: Working together is the definition of teamwork. It's the power to find the truth.

Edgeworth’s redemption isn’t about him gaining +100 morals. He turns his cynicism that used to blind him from seeking the truth into unflinching realism. He goes from being detrimentally independent to understanding the importance of teamwork. 

Miles Edgeworth is just as ruthless and unrelenting, but decides to use it to try to do good. He’s still overly focused on a singular goal, but instead of guilty verdicts, his goal is the truth. He’s still an insensitive prick. He acts condescending to the people he wants to help. He doesn’t fully comprehend how much his actions hurt the people who love him. But he does everything he can to help Phoenix save Maya. And he sees through Phoenix’s and Franziska’s misbeliefs when it comes to practicing law, and does his best to help them find themselves too.

Honestly, to me Manfred seems like he would be too rational to spend time on hating a group of people like that. He's extremely obsessed with "perfection" and looking back on Turnabout Goodbyes, he's also ruthlessly efficient. He prides himself on finishing trials in mere minutes and when Phoenix exposes his crime, all he does it tell the judge to hurry up with putting him away. He only acts irrationally when his "perfection" is threatened, namely when he shot Gregory over a penalty. And he puts a lot of effort into regaining his composure (taking the only vacation of his career after his crime). And adding all that on top of everything OP said about him raising Franziska... Manfred being misogynistic just doesn't seem very consistent with canon.

It's really easy to hate Manfred if you love Miles or Franziska and there is nothing wrong with interpretations, but I would recommend taking a good look at the evidence in canon.

Kinda scared to post this, but this has been on my chest for years and I finally have a platform to air it out. I don’t understand people who think that manfred is misogynistic. I know it’s like the cool thing to do in the aa fandom to hate manfred for fanon reasons, but I think manfred being misogynistic is one of the most unrealistic ones for me. Especially since Franziska turning out to be, well, Franziska, indicates otherwise. Like, Franziska is a loud, outspoken, confident, man-hating lesbian with anger issues that scares tf out of people. Basically everything that men hate. If manfred was misogynistic he would’ve snuffed that out as soon as he could. But he doesn’t. Bc he lives for that shit. I highly doubt he would try to constantly bring her down bc she’s a woman and “manfred wanted a male heir” (a fanon idea I also don’t understand since the competition that she and miles had together was started between them, and not directly initiated by manfred at all). Franziska being the way the she is literally can’t be more fitting of Manfred’s ideal of a von karma.

I just think it’s funny that manfred raised an angry lesbian daughter, is supposedly a wife guy (aai2), and overall has never said anything directly misogynistic in the games and the aa fandom chose him to be the misogynist of all people just bc he’s a villain. Really feels like the only reason people do that is bc they hate him so much they pile quite literally every horrible human trait they can think of onto him, and not bc it’s actually justified based on his character….

EVERYTHING YOU SAID YES

Notice that Miles never mentions following in MVK's footsteps or the "von Karma creed/blood/name" when talking about his motivations to prosecute. (Compared to Franziska who mentions it as soon as she is introduced in 2-2). Miles only talks about the DL-6 incident and his father's death and punishing himself in relation to why he became a prosecutor instead of a defense attorney.

Now I'm not saying Miles wasn't influenced by MVK, I'm sure he was. But ignoring the reasons that Miles explicitly tells us, and instead claiming brainwashing or abuse, is doing a huge disservice to both Miles's and Manfred's character.

Manfred is a petty, cowardly man who killed a man over a penalty and ruined Miles's life. And considering all the issues Miles and Franziska has, I believe he is also quite a flawed parent. Manfred being abusive, homophobic, sexist, etc however, is not canon (him calling Miles "worthless" is a mistranslation!!).

So yeah, I rest my case. Miles, Franziska, and Manfred are some of my favorite Ace Attorney characters and Manfred not being Pure Evil™️ honestly makes all the angst and pain so much more delicious.

“Manfred von Karma brainwashed Miles into becoming a prosecutor!”

*scratches head*

Not gonna lie, I was one of the people who believed in this claim until a friend told me otherwise and I started replaying Turnabout Goodbyes recently.

It's really wild to me how almost all of Manfred's mischaracterization can be tied back to Miles' mischaracterization from the AA fandom LMAO

Fandom telephone can be such a curse sometimes.

writing around feelings

imo the absence of a feeling in writing is more powerful than directly describing it. people comment about how i do this a lot in writing so i thought i’d share what i mean and how i do it

so basically i’m trying to articulate a feeling without actually acknowledging it in the writing. when people avoid a thought or a feeling they don’t give it a name. it’s like touching around a bruise, you feel a little around it but avoid fully touching it because it hurts. that’s what i mean

in practice i think i have a couple ways of doing this:

1/ does, doesn’t, would, could: even if a character doesn’t take an action or acknowledge a feeling, the possibility is there in the story and i like drawing attention to that, it addresses the periphery of an emotion in an interesting and internal way, examples:

Erik raises the visor of his helmet. A soft summer breeze hits his face, catching on the sweat and cooling him ever so slightly. He feels Istvan’s eyes on him but doesn’t meet them.

Ryunosuke faces forward, letting his hand drop from the hilt of the sword. He takes a short breath. He tries not to focus on the dust.

2/ flat description of actions: you can describe an action without describing the emotion attached to it. i feel this is more impactful than doing both at the same time, or just choosing to focus on an emotion. there is emotion in the action, the reader can decide which one, examples:

“Kate,” he says, a little too sharply. “Be very careful there. Be very careful.” His hands are shaking again. He crosses his arms and shoves his hands under his armpits.

His computer gives a soft chime. An email. A new lead, but the stories are safe and tame, nothing like the danger he was used to. He shakes his wrists again, warding off carpal tunnel for another day. Another chime sounds. He looks out the window again.

3/ bury emotion in metaphor: this one i do constantly, i’ll just go off on a tangent about something else and the emotion will come through, kind of like how a character will try to distract themselves when faced with an emotion they don’t quite know how to process, example:

Sunlight trickles in through the dense tree cover, like water. A ray touches Hans’s golden hair. Henry watches the light play on the yellow strands. His hair is combed back but a few strands fall onto his forehead, pushed around by some invisible wind. They could be harp strings, or silk threads. Something delicate and fine. Another ray of sunlight falls over Hans’s hair and it seems almost to glow.

He unclenches his hands one finger at a time. The stress of muscles tensing no longer exists, not here, but the ghost of tension still lingers, the memory of it, over his knuckles and in his wrists. He wishes he could just have this. Just the pain in his joints of holding onto something too tightly for too long.

Why are my favorite ships always:

Different but in the way that they make perfect partners and achieve so much together. Believing in each other when it seems like no one else does. Different and despite that, they understand each other until they completely don't. Some kind of betrayal and at least one of them has abandonment issues. So much emotional constipation and painful pining. Childhood friends to [insert decades long mess here] to finally, finally lovers. "My heart has always been yours. Even when I hated you. Even when there was so much distance between us I thought we'd never pull through. There's no one else in this world for me. So, yes it's you, it's always been you".

And the only two that have qualified so far are Wrightworth (Phoenix + Miles from Ace Attorney) and Baavira (Baatar Jr + Kuvira from Legend of Korra). I love how Wrightworth's partnership led them to find the truth and redeem each other, while Baavira's led them to create a dictatorship and commit war crimes.

If you have any more examples of ships that fit, please let me know.