#modthorne

The Ask Ace Attorney Mod formerly known as the Modthorne (and a good friend of mine) has recently started playing The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles games on her Twitch channel!  Woo-hoo!

...Okay, maybe not that recently, but you can still catch her live for a bit longer on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 2PM PST.  You may even catch me in the chat.  ; )

Go show her some love, everyone!

Dear Alex Cornejo,

My guess is that she at least visited Phoenix every now and then.  The Mod once made a picture of her looking sadly at the spot on his suit where his badge used to be, but I was unable to find it.  And I think it should be obvious why she returned in the newest game: fan service because she’s awesome!

Dear springtime562 and Springtrap,

Thanks!  We’ll have a fight over which one of us you were referring to now.

(Previous Letters)

Dear bluedragoncody,

They were made by The Mod, and he hasn’t been around for a long time now, so...I believe we can apply the doctrine of laches here.  In other words, go right ahead!

Dear mungeondaster,

Hey, there are no dumb ideas when it comes to new Ace Attorney content, as far as I’m concerned.  The visual novel with Pearl and spinoff with Franziska von Karma stuck out the most to me as things the fanbase would enjoy the most.  You could even give players the option to use her whip on whomever they please for fun (much like Link does with his weapons).  The other ideas sound like Flash games you’d find on an Ace Attorney website, but I'd still love to see them fleshed out.  Rhythm action games are my jam.

(Previous Letter)

Dear jnv11,

You know, I never realized the similarity between those two organizations before now.  I imagine NASA still exists as a separate entity, though, so I’m leaving the letter as it is.

Dear Anonymous,

I wasn’t aware that Holmsie’s name had been changed to something else in the (supposedly) upcoming American release, but I’ll probably keep his and every other character’s name the same.  For one thing, changing their names would cause confusion for anyone searching for them by their hashtags, plus, like you said, we’re all familiar with the fan translation names by now.  It’s your own fault, Capcom.

Dear Fortune Cookie,

(Previous Post)

Dear Modthorne,

Thank youuuuuu!!!

I’d love to have you back, especially now that I’m taking a leave of absence.  It just hasn’t been the same here without...

...

...

...

...

...

Um...  Can you all give us a moment?

Dear Anonymous,

Our Christmas idea’s already in motion (*wink, wink*), but that sounds like a fun idea.  If Matthew Taranto made it work with Mario, then why not Edgeworth?  Gumshoe could easily play Bob Cratchit, and Manfred von Karma would make a good ghost of Jacob Marley, but who would the three spirits be?  I’ll leave that up to you.

Say, would it be going too far to include Professor Layton characters?  I can’t think of anyone who could pull off Tiny Tim better than Luke Triton.

Dear skibot99,

We don’t usually start working on holiday ideas until a month in advance (at most), but I’m always open to suggestions, so thank you for those ones.  If I’m still around next April Fools’ Day, I might just try one of them out.

Dear Palbert (Sorry, I couldn’t resist),

You’ve got that right, Palbert.  I’m amazed we’ve been able to keep it going this long as well.  I repeat myself, but it’s thanks to submitters like you that we’re able to!

Whether we end up getting another installment in the series or not, I’m just glad we have the current games to enjoy and re-enjoy.  I played through the first case again with my parents recently, and it was a fun time for all of us.

Dear mungeondaster again,

I imagine Franziska’s older sibling being a sister who competes with her to be their Papa’s favorite child, as well as the most perfect prosecutor in the von Karma family (similar to her rivalry with Edgeworth).  In terms of personality, I see her behaving somewhat more refined than Franziska, while insisting that she grow up in her own subtle way (which is also a lot like Edgeworth).

Franziska’s niece has actually been a subject on this blog for a while now.  I love the idea of her being a “perfect little niece” to whom Franziska talks sweetly, and for whom she attempts to provide better coaching than her sister does.  Her being called “Aunt Franzy” and getting thoroughly irritated by it is also too much fun to imagine.

Dear Matt,

I’m honestly not sure what to say to that, except thanks!  I majored in computer science, but all the research I’ve done for Ema’s responses has come from the internet, not any scientific studying on my part.  I don’t know how I pulled off sounding so smart, but I’m glad it worked out that way.

With that in mind, thank you for trusting us, but don’t be afraid to check another source for anything we (or the characters) say.  That’s what the experts do, after all.  ...I think.

Dear snowthefirst,

Co-Mod: Unfortunately, I checked the inbox and my stash of deleted letters and didn’t see that letter among them, which either means it was deleted by accident or Tumblr ate it.  Feel free to resubmit it, and I’ll answer it and stick it in the queue.

(Edit: Looks like you already did.  Sorry for the wait!)

...Well, I do!  I just remembered that I’ve been keeping scans of all my colored pencil artworks before adding the color, and I haven’t shown any of them here, so here they are if you enjoy seeing that sort of thing:

I know, I know, I was only on for like... a year, altogether. I mean, I technically co-owned this blog for two I think, but I don’t even think I was on for 50% of that. The truth is, I was probably not right to win that draw back when the old Mod retired. I only entered for fun, I didn’t actually expect to win. I figured I could balance it with school and what have you, but the truth is once Co-Mod joined, I completely dumped it onto him.

I’m also quitting because, if I’m entirely honest, Ace Attorney has completely lost it’s spark for me. I only feel real motivation when I’m playing the games, and they don’t really have much replayablility to make me play again, unlike Professor Layton or Oneshot or what have you. Perhaps I’ll get motivation when the foreshadowed AA7 comes out, but who knows when/if that will happen. I can’t leave Co-Mod hanging like that.

It’s only fair to everyone that I leave this fandom once and for all. I offer one final apology for every mistake I made on this blog, including continuity errors and controversial topic either Co-Mod or myself have accidentally crossed into. I was not prepared for this blog, so I do hope Co-Mod will be able to handle this blog on his own. Now I’ll just be watching from my personal blog, enjoying it like a bystander like I used to.

Dear CreatorOfSinyove,

Gotcha.  Unfortunately, it’d take way too long to go through over a year’s worth of letters looking for the ones with commentaries, but we can definitely start adding that tag to future letters.  Thanks for taking the time to read them, by the way!

Dear CreatorOfSinyove,

I guess we can start tagging the tag commentary, but I fail to see the point. The main purpose of this blog is to focus on the character’s answers; the mod jokes are just an added bonus.

Dear Anonymous,

?

Dear Anonymous,

I prefer exclamation points, personally.

Dear Afool Ishdud,

I’ll be completely honest, I haven’t actually done much on this blog in a couple of months... I’ve been doing my own things such as doing covers and trying to write original music. All the credit for the last... pretty much year and a half can almost all go to Co-Mod. Heh... and I’m the one who won the draw to inherit this blog.

But, I guess I can still answer this since I am also role-playing on the side on another site. Writing as a Canon character I find takes not only a certain amount of love for the character/franchise, but also a distinct amount of knowledge on how the character acts, who the character knows, what the character’s history with certain items or places are, and so on and so forth. With certain characters like Victor Kudo, we can sort of insert whatever we want for his answers as long as his personality is on point, because of how minor he is. But say Dahlia Hawthorne or Calisto Yew, two main antagonists, you would have to play their games and read their dialogue and know what they are for and what they are against in order to correctly do them.

It takes patience and a whole lotta dedication. Don’t worry if all you can write is your OC’s, that’s a really good way of practicing keeping a character’s personality straight for if you ever want to do canon characters.

Dear Afool Ishdud,

Before I answer, I’d just like to say that it’s letters like this that make me want to do the best job I can.  Thanks a whole bunch!

The best advice I can offer is to do careful research of the character you’re roleplaying as.  What do they like (or hate) to talk about?  Are they more introverted or extroverted?  What experiences have they had that might affect how they feel about certain things?  How do they react to unexpected situations, or things that seem to make no sense?  Then there are smaller things, like their dialect or accent, their general mood, their level of education, and so on.

For characters from video games (including Ace Attorney), there’s usually a wiki site you can refer to, where fans have pieced together their collective knowledge of every character’s life.  I also often refer to the timeline page for specifics about what happened when in each character’s part of the story.  And when a question comes up about a specific moment that I don’t remember the details of (or at all), I look for it in the many playthrough videos made of the games -- usually one of ZSlyzer’s videos.

I hope that helps, and thanks again for the compliments.  Happy roleplaying!

Also, yeah, it’s just been me on here for quite some time now.  Thanks for taking the credit (and the blame) with me for so long, Modthorne!

Dear Director Hickfield,

Sure can!  She might be dead, but when has that ever been a problem in Ace Attorney?

Uh... are we sure we want Director Hickfield near Ini Miney...?

Dear patablegecko,

I think that only refers to chat messages -- the kind you send by clicking the smiley face icon near the top-right of the window.  To send a letter to a character (or to one of us), just click the link on the blog’s sidebar:

Anyone is allowed to send letters, whether follower or non-follower.  Sorry if that was confusing!

So (there it is again), without further ado...

This blog’s 10th “big reveal”!

I present to you a typical day at the Wright Anything Agency:

There’s me on the left, shouting in a very Ace Attorney style:

...the Modthorne in the back, wheeling out a bunch of answered letters:

...Athena Cykes working on a letter response:

...Maya Fey, a very popular character, reading yet another letter shipping her with Phoenix (and wondering why the fans haven’t gotten tired of that yet):

...young Trucy Wright, delighted by a particularly funny letter:

...Ms. Pearl Fey, standing in awe at the sheer number of letters we received:

...and of course, the Turnabout Terror himself, Phoenix Wright!  Part of him, anyway:

...All right, so this may not be what it’s really like, but I thought it’d be fun to draw a visual representation of what we pretend to do on the blog.  It was originally created by someone who went by the name “Ace Admin,” who then handed it off to someone who called himself “The Mod,” and is now currently run by me and the Modthorne (we still don’t know what happened to the first two, by the way -- they sort of disappeared on us).

Though, to be fair, the ones who really keep the blog going are the numerous Ace Attorney fans who submit their questions and comments to us on a daily basis.  If you happen to be one of those and you’re reading this, you have my sincerest "thank you” for helping us keep this good thing going.  It’d be impossible without you.

So (dang it), here’s my question for you: How have we been doing as moderators?  It’s no secret that I haven’t done a perfect job (and that I’ve made a few serious blunders along the way), but I hope to keep improving for as long as my moderator “tenure” lasts, so please let me know how you feel about my writing and character portrayals thus far, and where you see any room (or need) for improvement.  My goal is to keep it as fun and entertaining as it was for me when I first discovered it, so I’d love to hear your opinion on it, either here or on the blog itself.

Just...keep it civil, all right?  I’m still in the process of learning how to do comedy right.

And one last thing -- this picture is dedicated to everyone who has enjoyed the engaging and hilarious interactive stories that Ace Attorney has provided for gamers and non-gamers alike over the years.  There are all kinds of visual novel games out there, but none of them have been able to pull off turning something as common as the lawyer business into an adventure like this series has.  It’ll always be among my favorites as a lover of video games.

Dear ellipis-ultima,

As much as I like the joke of Phoenix joining Smash, it’s the same thing of everybody in the PL fandom want’s Professor Layton to be in the game. They have the same possibility, but the majority of people either don’t know the characters, don’t know the capability of the characters, or don’t care about either. Now, about the game as it is...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Kumatora Kumatora Kumatora! Ku-ma-to-ra!! I’ve always been a Lucas main, but I’m DEFINITELY going to main Lucas, JUST so I can see Kumatora in his final smash. And the Inklings! I wanna play them so badly!! I’m SO hyped!

Dear ellipsis-ultima,

It’s funny you should ask -- I already made a comment about it using one of Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” comics on my other blog:

Needless to say, I’m quite excited at the prospects of a Smash Bros. game that includes every flippin’ fighter from previous games.  It does make me wonder how much content we’ll get in terms of the music, stages, and storyline (if there is one), but it’s still an intriguing thought.

And if, by some miracle, Phoenix appeared on the roster, my reaction would probably be the same as the one I had when they announced the new Ace Attorney game for the Switch:

Dear Afool Ishdud,

Fixed it.  Mind if I borrow your name for a little while?

Dear Inferno,

...Whelp, that’s a book to add to my reading list. If we’re giving out legal book recommendations, I recommend to everybody “Black Jack Justice” by Gregg Taylor. It’s based on the podcast of the same name, and it’s about an old-timey detective and his... perky girl detective partner, and how they first met.

Dear Inferno,

I’ve only read his first book, A Time to Kill (and seen the movie adaptation), and from what I remember, it was pretty great in terms of plot buildup and suspense.  I’m admittedly not much of a book-reader, but if his other books are as good as that one, I’ll definitely check it out sometime soon.

(Referenced News Report)

Dear Tanlerst,

Unsurprising.

Dear Tanlerst,

Word.

(Previous Letter)

Yikes...  Thank you very much for finding that for us, as well as finding a better link (and another link after that one).  Considering how many other links are on this blog, it might be a good idea for us to hire a quality control person.  Do you know anyone with a palindromic name?

(Previous Letter)

Dear Guquis,

Possibly, but I'd say it was worth it.  It isn’t the first time Athena has made a generalization about men, plus, as a member of that group myself, I wouldn’t say she’s too far off.

Dear Laura,

I’m so sorry I missed your birthday! Happy Birthday anyways! Sorry, I was so caught up with my own things. My friends and I are working on numerous things IRL, plus I’m waiting for a job application to go through, and a lot of other IRL nonsense. :(

Dear askaccurateaceattorney,

Dear Fulbright,

I haven’t been following Pokemon very much lately, so let me just take a quick look at it...

Hmm.  Gameplay-wise, it seems like it’s playing the nostalgia card for the sake of older Pokemon fans, but even so, I like how the music sounds, how the multiplayer system works, and how much more real they’re attempting to make raising Pokemon.  If I had one of those real-life Pokeballs, I’d probably be petting it all day.  As someone who isn’t a hardcore Pokefan, I’ll withhold judgment of it until I see more, but I’m guessing its popularity will mostly depend on which features the developers decide to focus on (hardware, gameplay, graphics, etc.).  Who knows?  It might end up being great.

I’m also waiting for the Switch’s price to go down a little before I buy one.  It looks pretty entertaining from what I’ve seen, but I’ll probably keep clinging to my Wii U until the Switch is within my grasp budget-wise.  I’ve also been a fan of the 3DS for a long time (true, I stopped using the 3D feature a while ago, but it’s still amazing), so I hope it retains its popularity for at least a little while longer.  The funny thing is, I was lucky enough to find a used one pretty cheap, but I still think it was worth way more than I paid for it.  Sorry for ripping you off there, Nintendo!

Dear Pinky the Artist,

I LOVE fan art! It’s, in my personal opinion, one of the best things about any fandom!

Dear Pinky the artist,

Do I?  DO I!?  I wouldn’t make fan art myself and not accept it from others.  Send it on in!  (Assuming it’s tasteful, of course.)

And while I’ve already explained this over on my blog, I might as well explain it here so everyone can see it:

This blog was created by someone who called herself Ace Admin (a very clever name, in my opinion).  She later handed it off to a guy who called himself the Mod (short for “Moderator”), who ran it up until about a year ago.  At that point, he held an audition to pick a new moderator, and the winner was my good friend, who goes by The Modthorne, and she later allowed me to join her as the Co-Mod.  (We both picked those names for ourselves, by the way.)  The Mod said he was planning to stop by every now and then to answer a few letters, but we haven’t seen him in quite a while, so the blog is now run by the two of us.

However, as I mentioned before, it’s really the writers who provide “fuel” for the blog.  We’re just the pilots.  We hope you’re enjoying the ride so far!