Also Warning this blog post will contain lots of spoilers!
So lets start by talking about one of my favorite game series Phoenix Wright.
I first discovered this game when a friend of mine told me he was stuck, and I might be able to help figure it out. He was playing Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, the first game in the series to come to America for the DS. For those who don't know the game it's about a rookie defense Attorney named Phoenix getting his start in the world of criminal law. You (as Phoenix) follow all the steps in a murder trial from gathering evidence, to questioning witness on the field. Then entering the court room to face off ageist the Prosecution to defend your client. The main game play is basically puzzle solving. You have to use witness statements and find contradictions in their statement by the use of evidence.
This game series is known for it's colorful characters, and creative story plots. The women I want to talk about are Mia Fey, and Dahlia Hawthorn.
Lets talk about Mia first, she is a recurring character in the Phoenix games. She was Phoenix's mentor, and in the first game she is there to get Phoenix out of trouble in his first case. Also in that game, she dies. Then Phoenix is on his own to find and convict her murder, because both he and Mia's sister Maya (confusing I know) are suspects in Mia's murder.
Both Mia and Maya's come from a family of powerful spiritual mediums, aka they can channel the dead. When Pheonix is in trouble Maya (and later her cousin Perl) channel Mia's spirit to help him in chases.
You only really get to know Mia through these small interactions where she gives Phoenix advice, and from what Maya tells you about her. Mia became a defense attorney to clear her family's name. In a trial, Mia's mother was used as a witness for the first time, and was told to channel the spirit of the victim so they could discover his killer. Her mother was unable to channel the spirit and the Fey family was soon became known as a mockery and that spirit channeling was totally fake. Phoenix knew this to not be true because he experienced it first hand when Maya summons' Mia for the first time. Phoenix ends up clearing the Fey sisters mother when he discovered that she was unable to summon the spirit because the victim of the case wasn't actually dead.
This all comes to a head in the third game, "Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations" where you play two episodes as Mia Fey when she is first starting out as a rookie defense attorney. She is nervous, and does make some mistakes, but she proves that she believe in her client. She is also shown to feel jealousy and anger as she faces off with the witness that has the court in the palm of her hands. In the episodes of this game you play as Mia who is defending a younger Phoenix Wright who has been framed for murder. Phoenix is a big cry baby, who is obsessed with his girlfriend Dollie, and very naive towards the situation. It is revealed that Mia hadn't been on the stand in eight months since her first case. She took this case because she had a personal vendetta agesnt the most evil woman I believe was ever created for the Phoenix Wright games, and I'll even say for games in general. Dahlia Hawthorn.
Her history was revealed a little out of order for the player, but here is Dahlia Hawthorn.
At the age of 14, she convinced her 20 year old tutor, Terry Flawless to steal her father's diamond and run away with her. They were going to use Dahlia's step sister Valerie, to get away, by staging a kidnapping, and then split the money form the diamond. Valerie and Dahlia though framed Terry for the theft and kidnapping, when Valerie confronted Dahlia and Terry on a bridge in the mountains Dahlia faked her own death by throwing herself off the side of the bridge into the river. Terry was accused of throwing her in and sent to prison for murder.
Five years later, Terry broke out of prison to confront Valerie, but she too turned up dead, and Terry was blamed for her murder as well. Maya defended Terry in her first case, with Dahlia as a witness under a different name. Dahlia has the court under her thumb, acting like an innocent witness to the murder. Even her theme music tries to trick the audience into believing that she is an innocent, sweet girl. During this case you know that Dahlia is a cold blooded killer, but this is Mia's first time facing Dahlia, but she isn't fooled by her tricks. Neither is her adviser/boyfriend Diego Armando. He acts as the emotional support for Mia during her first trial, calling her a little kitten because she is still a rookie. Mia ends up taking town Dahlia for the fake kidnapping, and also the murder of her step sister. Right when the verdict is about to be announced, Terry rushes to the stand, and proclaims his love and devotion to Dahlia even though she fully admitted to using him.
I REALLY want to say what happens, but at the same time I really want you to play this game...
Ok Spoilers A Head, If you want to check this game out move past the next section.
There is no verdict given because after Terry comes to the stand, he admits that he cannot see Dahlia go to jail. He even admits to the murder himself even after he was proven to be innocent. He then commits suicide on the stand by ingesting poison that Dahlia said the two of them would take together in a couples suicide. They had matching necklaces of little hearts that had a bottle in them.
Dahlia gets off completely free. Mia very upset, not only because Dahlia got away but because she felt like she let her client down. She looks to Armando, who only smiles and says, "Mia, don't you get it? You can't cry yet. A lawyer can only cry when it's over."
Eight months later is when it was over. Mia went back to court to take Dahlia down, not only for Terry Flawless. Dahlia had also killed Armando.
Armando had asked Dahlia to lunch in the court house to try and get some explanation or evidence agents her. In panic, she put poison into Armando's coffee. She held the poison in a bottle around her neck, just like the one she had given Terry Flawless. In order to hide the bottle, she ran off and gave it to the first person she could find. That happened to be, Phoenix Wright. She wasn't taken into coustuty for the murder of Armando. Yet she still needed to get that necklace away from Phoenix. For the next eight months she continued to ask for the bottle back, until once day she lost her patience.
She soon framed Phoenix for the murder of her ex-boyfriend Doug, she used him in order to steal the poison to kill Armando.
Mia, was determined to have her revenge and take Dahlia down.
Dahlia also had Phoenix under her thumb. He couldn't believe that she would have been able to kill someone, because she was so soft and innocent. He continued to beg Mia over and over to prove or say that Dahlia didn't do anything. It wasn't until it was proven that she wasn't planing on killing Doug, she was planing on killing Phoenix in order to get the bottle back. Doug just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Realizing that Dahlia had stolen the poison, Dahlia knew she couldn't keep him alive.
Once Mia proves that Dahlia was the killer. Dahlia, just smiles at her, and calmly walks off. Only saying to Mia, "I have a long memory, we will meet again".
It wasn't over there, Mia still didn't cry for Armando or Terry Flawless.
In this series Dahlia was sent to death row, but her sentence wasn't fulfilled for a long time.
Spoilers over
There is a lot more to Dahlia Hawthorn. A lot more than I can go into here. This vengeful woman, was able to find a way to have her revenge from a cold grave.
Mia, after her Rookie trails became one of the best Defense Attorneys in her city.
What I really enjoy about Phoenix Wright as a game series is how much it feel like real life. There are funny characters that seem very over exaggerated, but some of the cases are very short and we don't have a lot of time to spend with some people so a layered character isn't possible. The characters we do get to know aren't just one dimension, and we have the time to learn about them. Mia is the Obi Won of the game. The mentor that was taken away for the hero to be able to succeed. She knows when she is needed, and even know when to hold back because she believes in what she taught Phoenix.
So that was my first Evil Woman and the Awesome Women to take them down. I hope you enjoyed it because it really means a lot to me, and I hope to continue with more women in video games that need to be recognized. I find it funny actually that I started this blog around the time where the gaming sexism idea was brought up. This was never not a thing though...Maybe it was Laura Croft who made people understand that woman characters in games aren't just T and A. I might talk about her one day, if I get around to actually playing any of the Tomb Raider games.
May the Stars Guide You
Hoshi
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