#also sorry i dont have anything convincing about blackmadhi. im just microwaving them

[chemicalbrew]

Simon Blackquill >:)

oh god this got so long so fast. under the cut it goes

First impression

Why are they letting a prisoner serve in the court. Bro, wait, he's kinda hot. Those bags under his eyes, holy shit...

And then he goes like

……………Hmph. ……Enough jabbering. Get on with it, already. ……Must we continue to fritter away time like this? An opening statement… would be pointless.

Look at those sweet, sweet ellipses. Truly, he is the edgelord of Ace Attorney 🖤 I think what I remember the most was just being really excited to hear his speech bubbles. And then WOAH, he has a completely unique one of his own in addition to the objection!! Damn...

Not to mention, he calls the judge His Baldness and it's still funny to me. King shit 👑

Bravo, Your Baldness. Your years of experience shine bright like your head.

Impression now

Is he the best prosecutor in the series? No. It's factually impossible to top Edgeworth, who literally has two spinoffs to himself that I consider to be better than most mainline games (aside from aa3, because that game is a banger). And of course, Miles has some of the most remarkable character development in the main games, too. You can't not at least appreciate the guy, and Simon just can't top that.

The change in writing teams (and the stupid no-spoiler policy that supposedly exists when it really should not) was pretty damn harmful to aa5-6 as a whole, and is obviously part of the reason for my answer as well (even if it in part led to Simon's existence, since he is almost completely disconnected from og trilogy events)... not only did it make the whole air of the games feel off, it also led to huge disconnects between 5 and 6 on their own.

As a very recent (to me) example, a common criticism against my latest favorite case (6-4, that I just finished a few days ago and then my friend did a celebratory art spam for me, heheeh) is that it ends up ignoring the obvious development Athena went through (both on her own and in relation to Simon) in aa5. And, like. Even though I did just say I love the case (enough to consider it ~top 2-3 cases in the series), and Simon+Athena (more on them later, I guess) are my favorite parts of it... I have nothing to really say against this criticism.

I understand that Athena's newfound power and confidence from the end of aa5 needed to be sacrificed in some way to show the delicious mentor \ student+found family dynamics (after all, what is there to teach someone who's already found her footing?), but I also can't deny that the erasure of the character's past accomplishments and developments was quite extreme. The funny thing is, I think reverting Athena's knowledge\confidence levels could serve as a great way to show the kind of threat the new prosecutor (Nahyuta. The ourple one.) presents, but... by now he's been around for three whole cases (counting 6-4) already, and even then, Yuty's writing, imo, is much weaker than Simon's ever was in the 5th game (because they didn't overtly rely on catchphrases while writing Simon, smhhh).

As for the point of this whole ramble... Simon physically can't be the best prosecutor, because, unfortunately, neither games he stars in had writers that could get their shit 100% together. There we go.

But... is he my favorite prosecutor in the series? yes, unless whoever stars in Great Ace Attorney manages to impress me even more. I know a lot of it is recency bias (I'm pretty sure I beat the original trilogy sometime in 2019-20, then I beat aa4 last year, but I only just met Simon in aa5-6 this year), but I'm going to be honest. You can't not appreciate Edgeworth, as I said, but for me, I think, most of the time appreciation is as far as it went with him. Now that I think about it, it might be part of how I prefer latching onto characters with clear gaps and flaws (flashes neon arrow signs at Simon and Nahyuta) more than well-written obvious fan favorites?? But yeah, either way, Edgeworth is cool and all, but not even while playing his games did I feel anything blorbo-esque towards him.

Meanwhile Simon, the motherfucker that he is, wormed his way into my blorbo storage room entirely too fast. There's something about his design, based entirely around black and white while still having just enough intricate details, that just stuck with me (it even serves Taka well, cause his brown feathers stand out even more in such an arrangement!). And then there's his theme (that bass, dude...) and voice (still mad we apparently don't know who did the work. Whoever it was, they did so well...) Not to mention, the way he words things... simultaneously somewhat flowery and most of the time efficient and straightforward... yeah, maybe there's a reason he had me that quickly, ngl.

Favorite moment

Ohhh, time to break into my phone's screenshot folder!!

^ just general one-off noteworthy stuff I managed to dig up. I dunno, his particular flavor of Jerkish Prosecution is so enjoyable to me, like I said🖤 Especially combined with the voice impression his speech bubbles give off... 'I relish the chance to cut down a great man' like, SIR???

^ actual three favorite moments. The first is important foreshadowing (knowing it's himself he talks about is so 🥺... Of course, he's not going to make it easy, because he convinced himself the suffering was deserved...).

The second is simultaneously ridiculously funny and a memorable power move (he really said 'Just walk out! You can leave! Even if you're convicted!'), while also being very much justified, since what he's responding to is almost useless testimony from an arrogant kid who thinks he's a genius because he gets straight As. You really can't fault Simon for having had it with all that shit 🖤

And the third... well, it's honestly nothing much, but it's memorable to me anyway, because a) HE HAS A POINT and b) it reminds me of Robin... one of blorbos ever... also every chance I can take to see a forward-facing sprite of him is A+

And these are just my favorite shots of him from the games themselves. It was always funny to me seeing the bright confetti from the not guilty verdicts over his plain ass grumpy face, and that last shot from 6-4 had no right to make him look so good, smh.

Idea for a story

I think basically everything pertaining to him could make for a nice story in the right hands.

Were all these stories he was telling about his fellow inmates real? How much more ridiculous could you make them, given this is AA we are talking about? Did he get to meet characters that were given guilty verdicts and imprisoned in previous games?

Literally everything with him and Athena. I don't know, just plop them into a room together and study them like bugs! Mentor+student? Parental figure+a young girl finding her place in the world? Exploring a feedback loop from her mom trying to help her with psychology and science and Simon being inspired to pick it all up for similar reasons? Stubborn emotionally scarred man who operates by tough love+equally determined ball of sunshine? Boomer+zoomer? Flowery persuasiveness+honest and straight-to-the-point assistance? Yeah, they got all that going for them and more. It's fucking wonderful. Let me into the alternative universe that lets them have their own game PLEASE...

What\who exactly convinced him to adopt the ridiculous samurai\swordplay aesthetic? I mean, it works, but... what if he is secretly also a Steel Samurai fan or something? :p

In general, how did being told by Miles fucking Edgeworth that you're allowed and basically have to get back to work again to have a chance at basically anything in life feel? Must have been quite a day, huh?

And then, of course, how did he end up adjusting to having freedom again, having all but convinced himself that cold prison cells were his lot in life? At least his job didn't actually change, so... maybe he would plunge himself into work?

What kind of shenanigans did he let Taka get up to, and what misadventures did they have together when they first bonded? What about him having an interest in birds in general? Would he be... jealous of ornithologists?

Food - be it soba or something else. Is he a fancy connoisseur at heart or would he just take whatever he's given? How would he react to having to try something new - like, say, a burger from Nahyuta? lol

This is the obligatory 'ugh I love blackmadhi' bullet point, except I don't actually have anything coherent to say, I just think they work well when you rotate them in your mind together. Two souls from opposing cultures being equally fucked by law and yet working hard in their own ways for the sake for returning to the ideals of pursuing the truth, in the exact same position, but with wildly different and not fully compatible methods... YEAH...

What could be said about his relationship with Aura? And what exactly did he think of his sister's connection to Metis, with her being a mentor and just a presence in his life in general? At first glance, they're just siblings with their bond taken to the extreme and tested by unfortunate circumstances, but exploring that tragedy and what they had before then is what makes this dynamic interesting to me. I just like sad shit, I guess... And then there's this off-handed quip from Phoenix about them that's just way too funny:

(Robot abuse, hawk attacks... Blackquill family life must sure be interesting.)

Unpopular opinion

Unfortunately, since this is not Nahyuta we are talking about, I can't just 'haha, the unpopular opinion is that I actually like him' out of this one... I probably could, given that Simon's still getting called an edgelord (derogatory) straight out of deviantart in 2022, but that's cheap anyway...

Um... I guess I'll just restate what I was saying about 6-4 earlier: him having to be there to support Athena by itself is not a bad thing, it was just handled poorly in part because of the weaker writing and in part because of the baffling decision to try and focus this game on like five characters at the same time... they spread themselves too thin :(

The whole point of having characters go through games-long journeys in the series is that they never truly stop learning, not even when they're actually considered accomplished. This case was a great opportunity to show this again, but it wasn't used to its fullest potential.

Favorite relationship

As per the 'idea for a story' bullet: him and Athena as found family and naturally opposing personalities still being tightly united across time and space :D You just can't go wrong with what's basically chomp lite with a huge deal of devotion and perseverance (that cannot help but show itself through the rough words and treatment) on the side

^ literally the essence of what I love so much about their writing together. Just seeing 'yup!' and 'ye gods' next to each other is taking me out 🖤🧡

And him and Nahyuta just like. In general. Do you think two prosecutors can on purpose kiss... maybe...

Favorite headcanon

He was going to cut his hair again after being released, and the only reason he didn't was because Athena has too much fun playing with it\burying herself in his hair. She would also counter his propositions with 'but Siiimon it's so fluffy... 😭' every single time, and it was too powerful for him to handle. So, long hair it is.

#🪶 #aa #long post #zero.txt #im sorry i dont have more headcanons off the top of my head wahhh #also sorry i dont have anything convincing about blackmadhi. im just microwaving them