Simeon when Bronco commits murder for an extremely petty and selfish reason: “Don’t worry Broncy, I’ll still visit you! You’re my best friend! I believe in you!”
Simeon when Bronco (as a child) is forced to betray his trust or else suffer abuse from his father: “You selfish bastard. I hope you die cold and alone.”
I like to think that if you put Simeon in a room with a group of people who hate Bronco Knight, he'd be secretly thinking, "YEEEEESSSS go off everyone >:D"
But then they'd start ranting about actual character flaws and he'd be thinking, "No, see, you hate him for stupid reasons, as opposed to me, an intellectual..."
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
iris fey/hawthorne 🍒 (also bonus question: which last name do you associate with her more, if any at all? i personally just think of her as ‘iris’ no last name, so i’m curious about your perspective)
IT'S IRIS TIME, YAY, THANK YOU <3333 I go back and forth about her last name, personally, which is why I tag it different depending on the post. Purely from a canon perspective, she is just (Sister) Iris of Hazakura Temple/no last name in the modern sense, so I get why some people are quite adamant on that point -- it reveals agency on her part to have divorced herself so entirely from the two families that hurt her, families she was never really allowed to be a part of, and provides a nice bit of characterisation when you read it like that. But, personally? I think it's kind of boring to only look at it from that angle HAHA I like the separation read, but I also like considering if and when she would have held either name.
She was born Iris Hawthorne; I suspect she would have kept thinking of herself as such even after she was left behind. In fact, I think she would have clung to it for a long time after, because, at the end of the day, she was a child, and she's so full of love, I don't think she understood what the Hawthornes were and what they did to her until years into her adolescence at least. I think a part of her always prayed, hoped, expected they would come back for her. And even after she's accepted that and released herself from the weight of that name publicly, I feel like some part of her still held onto it. Because of Dahlia. Dahlia Hawthorne, her sister, her other half. If she was Dahlia Hawthorne, then Iris would always be Iris Hawthorne. They were connected by that name even when they were miles apart, and that meant something. That's why I think, whenever she thinks of Dahlia, she also thinks of herself as Iris Hawthorne. It's also why Dahlia's insistence on a new identity, a new name, is so significant to me. It would have freed them both, and they could have been only Iris and Dahlia, no family except the ones they chose between them. But that's not how it went.
I don't think Iris ever accepted her relation to the Feys until after the game's events and after establishing a relationship with Maya and Pearl. The Fey name, to her, is a curse. She hates that family, hates what they represent and what they did. Calling herself a Fey would mean admitting that she is a part of that ugliness down to her marrow, and it would be a form of punishment bitterer than serving the clan is. Taking it would be a final act of self-loathing and defeat... until she meets Maya and Pearl. Then, I think, the shape of that name and what it represents begin to shift in Iris's eyes. Much like how 'Hawthorne' changed from being a name associated with abandonment and pain to a final, unbreakable tie to her sister, 'Fey' changes from a curse to a gift. It's connection to a cousin who reaches out to find her, a sister whom she can love without complication, a family reconning with itself and doing better. It's hope. And I think, over time, that's what the Fey name comes to be for her, a way to accept who she is and the acts she's done -- as ugly and unforgiving as her family's history -- and to move forwards. Eventually, just like Hawthorne, Fey comes to represent love to Iris, for the family she knows and has not the family who cast her aside, and that's the Fey name I believe she takes.
Anyway, on to the actual questions now lol.
off the top of your head: notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you?
adjacently—do you think fandom does the above traits justice? why or why not?
I think what's most essential to me for Iris's character, and what tends to be overshadowed by her other traits in fandom, is the fact that she's ruthless. And has only a modicum amount of foresight for her actions. Oftentimes I think people tend to forget these parts of her because they come through so much clearer in Dahlia, but Iris very much will cross moral (and legal) boundaries if she believes she's justified in doing so. This is the woman who said she'd kill her own sister if she tried to hurt the man she loved. In court. And she's also the same woman who transported and stabbed a corpse, I feel like that's something that gets glossed over a little when discussing Iris. The core of Iris's character is love, love as something to be feared. She has little love for herself, which is why she's willing and able to go so far for those she cares about. She will not preserve herself over them. This is vital to her character to me, and it links nicely to another part of her which I think gets overlooked in favour of Dahlia: Iris is a fairly competent criminal. I've posted about it before, but I think it's insane how she helped Dahlia with some of her plans, and even how well she performed during the BTTT murder. Iris is both a dreamy romantic and a relentless pragmatist; she will do what she thinks needs to be done to protect her loved ones. She gets caught because, in her mind, she has no need to conceal her own actions and, therefore, no need to think past the point where she may be indicted. It's a selfish mode of thinking that is blind to how these actions will affect the people she's so desperate to keep safe (because she doesn't think she deserves or is loved), and I think it's another form of contradictory doublethink that makes her interesting. She's always split between two forms, and I really like how that's also reflection of her relationship with Dahlia.
3. throw this character at any other character of your choice to bounce off each other as outsider pov to each other— regardless of timeline or logistics. why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?
She and Phoenix have such warped yet telepathically accurate understandings of one another that I just have to see them interact again. Please, Capcom, I'll give you everything I have. They're so interesting because I do think they see each other as their best versions elevated onto pedestals, but I also think they know exactly who the other is and what their integral flaws are. I think they both know how to ruin one another and that comes from how deeply they love each other, and ahhhhh!!!! crazy. crazy to me. They're my everything.
I also think that Iris as a whole is such a complex and intriguing character that most people in universe wouldn't know what to think of her. I wish we'd gotten to see what Godot thought of her properly -- this strange woman, sister of the woman who killed him, who was willing to do anything to keep the sister of her sister's executioner safe. I wonder what he made of her. What did she make of him? They clearly understood each other, but I wonder how much of themselves they saw and knew just from those brief interactions they had. It's such an under-explored part of the story, and I'm enraptured by it.
Also, like, Franziska. She spent so much time with Dahlia acting as Iris, I wonder what she thought of the real Iris once she met her. I've said it before, but I think there'd be understanding between them of loving people they shouldn't (Dahlia and Manfred, respectively), and that would be an interesting perspective to explore.
Other people I would like to see her interact with are Justine/Verity for the religious themes and willingness to bend the rules for those they love similarities and Simon Blackquill because he, too, is 100% willing to die for people he cares about, and I think it'd help both of them to have her provide a bit of insight on that.
4. how do you think you would react to this character in real life and vice versa? would you prefer be a million miles out of range, be amicable classmates, or fall desperately in love?
It would be the same: I would have a true crime fanblog dedicated to her, and she would never know I existed or find it terrifying once she did. I love you in every universe, Ms Iris 🙏
5. ideal flavor of rotating for this character? crack them open and dissect them— do you want them tormented, pining, or being loved + comforted? do you have any specific scenarios you like to think about?
I always want her rekindling her relationship with Maya and Pearl and building a future together from there. They're family. Also Phoenix is there, but I don't think they should ever officially get back together. They need to exist in a state of 'I will love you more and understand you better than anyone else forever and that is why we cannot go back to that', and everyone else just has to deal with it. Aside from that, it's just her and Dahlia all the time. What was their relationship like, were they ever uncomplicatedly happy with one another, what did their love look like... There's so much there, and I love thinking about them.
6. weave a web of dynamics through the cast for this character: which dynamics are you most interested in? both canonically and through extrapolation/speculation— which dynamics are the richest to you, and why?
Okay, NOW I can talk about her and Pearl. Phoenix and Dahlia are a given for this question, but I think her and Pearl are the dynamic that is most complex and, in a way, important after the events of BTTT. There is just so much to unpack between them, and I find it so important and telling that Iris doesn't tell Pearl that she's her sister by the end of the case. She allows Pearl to set the boundaries of their relationship, and I think that's so loving and sad. She doesn't want Pearl to have to live with the knowledge that she has had to her entire life, of how murder runs in their blood and how blood has run over her hands. It's hard enough with just knowing about Morgan. But I do think they come to terms with it quite soon after. Maybe through Maya, maybe through Phoenix, maybe Pearl just learns enough information and puts the pieces together herself. But I do think Pearl goes to her eventually, and they form a relationship. I'm not sure that Pearl ever knows how to truly feel about Iris. I would like to think they're easy and loving, but, realistically, things are just so strange and distant between them. I'm sure she loves Iris, but is it a love that can compare to her love for Maya, or even Phoenix? I'm not sure. Besides the years of simply not knowing Iris existed and the... everything that happened during BTTT, so much of their early relationship will be built with a wall of iron separating them. Pearl's had an odd childhood, but even she's likely to be affected by that. So I think maybe Pearl always loves Iris at arm's length. However, I do fully believe that Iris pours all of her love into Pearl. I think she respects and understands Pearl's need for that distance between them, but I think she was ready to die for Pearl from the moment they met, and I think that tendency of hers to risk everything for the people she loves might actually be part of what maintains that rift. I don't think Pearl appreciates or knows what to do with love of that intensity from her, even if she may not be distinctly aware of it on the surface. I also think it echoes the lengths Maya went to to try and protect Godot at the end of the trial a little too closely for Pearl. It's kind of done away with after its first mentioned, but Mia says something to Phoenix when Maya channels her for the first time about how she is both Mia and Maya in that moment. I tend to interpret that as the medium's spirit kind of going into a subconscious state during channelling, so even though Pearl wasn't aware of what happened during the trial in detail, a part of her retains a feeling of it and what happened, and she feels that anxiety again around Iris even if she may not know why. Ultimately, I think their relationship exists in a state of imbalance, with Iris always giving a little more than Pearl but being okay with that, much like how she was okay with Dahlia and how she used her. It's sad and complicated, but it is loving.
7. do you have particular niche takes on this character? defend those takes.
Pro-snowmobile racer Iris for the win. I am being so fr when I say I think it's the perfect job for her after coming out of jail. She's raising funds for Hazakura and being so, so, so cool about it. Please, Capcom, I'll give you all my worldly goods for one (1) piece of official art implying that's what she's been up to.
Congratulations, Charley, on being declared Ace Attorney's Best Anything-But-A-Human! He truly is an icon among AA characters, and it seems fitting that he was the one who inspired this whole tournament before I'd even created the blog ✨
And of course, Mr. Hat deserves his place as well, being so important to AA4 and the Magical Turnabout, and just fun all around :) Both of them beat some good contenders on their way to the podium :0
Thank you all so much for following along with me for this tournament! I hope to see you all for the next one, though I'm not quite sure when that will be yet as I'll be busy basically from now until the end of July. I'm thinking I'll run a few smaller polls that are much less time-intensive to set up so the blog isn't entirely inactive, so let me know what you think would be fun! Polls can have up to 12 contestants, and 2-round tournaments with more than 2 contestants per poll can have 18-32, so there are lots of things we could run that are too small to be a normal 4-5 round tournament. You're also welcome to suggest normal tournaments if you have an idea with more than that number.
I hope you all have a lovely day <3 And happy Pride!
Those annoying tik tok influencers that call everything __ theory are a lot funnier to listen to if you imagine them as a zero escape AU where everyone’s a dumb bitch.
Akane: have you ever heard of “Hair Theory”?
Junpei: huh? What’s that?
Akane: it’s the idea that doing something so simple as changing your hair manipulates the way others perceive you. Going for a different style or even just framing your face differently can make you seem like a whole different person.
Snake: incredible… to think someone could do all that with only a haircut
Ace: changing… your hair…?
Clover: big deal. I change my hair all the time and I’m still me
Santa: imagine a version of me with white hair and a version of me, in a different timeline, who dyed his hair black
Junpei: imagine if we all went bald. No, that’s stupid, why would I- wait. These memories. Where are they coming from? I’ve never been bald, have I? But
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I am having feelings again about "AU where Kanis adopts Simeon and Bronco instead of taking them to the orphanage," aka Assassin Dad AU.
The thing about Kanis is that he's pretty honest and upfront about what he's good at and what he's still learning in AAI2 (obvious trolling of Edgeworth aside). He still considers himself a beginner at chess, but doesn't treat this as something to be ashamed of. It's just a skill that he's working on.
And I feel like he'd have the same approach to parenting, treating it as another skill that he can learn with time.
The kids are somewhat confused by this.
There's a lot we don't know about the Gusto & Frost years. But what we do see is Carmelo Gusto's obsession with his budding confectionery career and how quickly he dropped Simeon after Simeon stopped being useful to him. The less said about how Artie Frost treats Bronco, the better.
However you slice it, Gusto and Frost ultimately put their own needs and desires ahead of their sons during IS-7. And that probably seeped into much of their everyday lives. Simeon and Bronco would've subconsciously come to accept the idea that their own needs were always going to be less important. What their dads wanted would always outweigh what they wanted.
So, they're baffled when Kanis asks for their opinions on things. To Kanis, it just makes sense to ask them. How else is he going to know what they like to eat? What do they like to wear? What do they need to keep themselves entertained? What are they afraid of? Are they allergic to anything? No point in wasting money on food or clothes that they won't like.
Can't remember their names? Okay, what do they want to be called? Because of course that should be their decision. It's their names.
If Simeon doesn't like sweets anymore, why make him eat them? If playing chess keeps Bronco entertained for hours, then why not let him do that?
It takes years for them to get used to the idea that their input does matter. How they feel about something matters. Kanis might not agree with them on everything, and he definitely doesn't let them walk all over him. But that's okay. They can talk things out with him, and even if the answer is still no, they'll at least get an explanation as to why.
They keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never does.
(Well, that, and everyone knows that the family member who ACTUALLY calls all of the shots is Helmut. But, y'know. That's to be expected.)
I'm probably not remembering super accurately, partly due to age and partly because I didn't think of the things I liked as "fandoms" at the time. They were just things I really liked.
Well, Simeon, after giving your question a lot of thought and carefully considering the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that the answer is "no."
Granted, I never played the fan translation, so this was my first experience with the twist. But I thought it was very clear that Bronco cared about Simeon.
I thought so too! Bronco is a bit more openly affectionate in the fan translation
But I always preferred the official translation’s take on his interactions with Simeon. He’s less “cheerful” but his dialogue feels more subtly affectionate.
Oooo, thank you so much for providing the screenshots!
Some of this is almost certainly "experienced the official version first" bias, but looking at them back to back, I still prefer the official translation too.
This is getting a little nitpicky, but for me, it all goes back to that first bit: "I get to see a circus show" vs. "I get to see your circus thing." The fan translation almost comes across as if he's excited about getting to see a show at all. Whereas with the second one, it's clear that he's only excited about it because Simeon's going to be in it.
To me, that comes across as more caring. It's the sentiment of, "I'm not into this thing on its own, but because it's something that you like and is important to you, I want to support it."
It hits even harder when compared to Gusto and his whole, "I got my sense of taste back. What need do I have for a son?"
Bronco doesn't need Simeon as a source of entertainment. He doesn't care about the circus on its own and his interactions with Edgeworth suggest that he's perfectly happy playing chess with anyone who wants to match wits with him. He simply looks forward to doing these things with Simeon because he likes Simeon.
One of my fave Miles and Fran contrasts is that Edgeworth is a skeptic who is very hesitant to believe in the supernatural despite seeing a woman he knows to be dead on the other side of the courtroom several times.
Franziska, on the other hand, turns up, acknowledges that ghosts are real and immediately works out how to use them to create illegal evidence in a murder trial.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
It's interesting in hindsight that, if Simeon is to be believed, he's the one who gave Bronco the idea for how to pull off the fake assassination plan in Turnabout Trigger.
Looking at the way Simeon presents himself in Case 2, does he really come across as the kind of person you'd go to for help with a scheme like that?
Yeah, as far as Bronco knows, they're best friends. But Simeon acts so timid and sweet and innocent. And yet Bronco still goes to him for advice on how to pull off a conspiracy and presumably doesn't bat an eye when Simeon comes back to him with an idea that almost worked.
It leaves me with the impression that Bronco probably knows the real Simeon better than one would think. Maybe better than even Simeon realizes.
Well, Simeon, after giving your question a lot of thought and carefully considering the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that the answer is "no."
Granted, I never played the fan translation, so this was my first experience with the twist. But I thought it was very clear that Bronco cared about Simeon.
Well, Simeon, after giving your question a lot of thought and carefully considering the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that the answer is "no."
Do we think Lang was more upset that Shih-na betrayed him or more upset that he felt she had never really trusted or relied on him enough to tell him she was trapped and needed help?
I wouldn't be surprised if it was the second one since he seems like that kind of guy but could be a mixture of both too.
I can't imagine how hard it would've been to go lock shih-na away and come back to solve the case alone when they had always been together before and now he had to treat her like a criminal and be apart from her when learning about the economy downfall of what he thought was THEIR country.
I dont know if he would be the type to rush back to her side immediately after putting alba away or if he would take a day or so to try to process things first and get out his anger about the situation before coming to visit her.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
You're on a cabin in a cruise ship. Somewhere in this ship, there is a door that carries a 9. And in the incinerator beyond that door, there is a girl.
