(You Can Tell I'm a Writer When I Don't Have a Title Yet)

honestly the fact that she refers to the prisoners as her family when we've seen that she abuses them (and also excuses forcefully kissing Eddie as "important for family") feels so much creepier when you remember that her orphanage was called Happy Family Home, and that child Simeon preferred to be outside during winter "taking refuge" inside an igloo instead of being inside the warmth of the orphanage, and he also already had kerosene inside it ready in case he needed to use it to run away or help someone else run away... I really do think that Fifi was abusing him (and maybe other kids) even way before the whole "witnessing the murder" thing happened

I've seen people criticize I2-5 for "ruining" Fifi Laguarde by making her straight-up evil. But even without taking all of the above into consideration, the idea that she was this well intentioned person that cared about the inmates until she got driven to paranoia by Kanis never sat right with me.

Because she's not nice to the inmates. She doesn't treat them like people. She treats them more like cute, exotic pets. If you examine the cell next to Rocco Carcerato's, it has this description of the prisoner inside as if he's up for adoption at the local animal shelter.

She gushes about "Frankie" and the strides he's making towards self-improvement. But she's got him working as an accomplice to smuggle contraband to Kanis.

It all feels patronizing and wrong. It doesn't feel like she cares about them. The "happy little family" talk has the same vibes as "Here at Mega Corporation, we CARE about our employees! We treat them like family! Family that we can fire whenever we want!"

Not to mention subjecting Bronco Knight to sleep deprivation before she even murdered him because she decided to have that interrogation at THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. We see Manfred von Karma do the same thing to Samson Tangaroa in the next case, and everyone is appropriately disgusted and concerned by this.

I will say, as a heads up, the "Classic" lists tend to be curated by non queer, white, perisex, able bodied, men. While these movies will be good and classics for a reason, The starting points are going to be bereft of minority directors, is very American focused, and/or treating some people with grace that we would see in more modern stuff. 1) The AFI lists in 1998, AFI (American Film Institute) released "100 years, 100 movies" with a list of, well, that. Every year after that they put out a list of 100 years, 100 (genre) and then did a reranking in 2007. While it has repeats, it also has some real deep cuts (especially in the genre ones) that will give you a very solid start. This will, again, only go to 2007. 2) The National Film Registry Every year for quite a while, the Library of Congress selects 25 movies to add to it's preserved collection. This will be a bit more diverse and be a bit more updated.

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.

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.

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

...

Wait, really?

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?"