#fixy writes about lore

[turnaboutfix]

Oh yes of course!!!

I meant specifically like her very early concept art (blue haired) and like, one of the first ones where she has short hair (but still with those 2 loose locks at the front)? I hope you know which one I'm talking about lolol

BUT if you wanna speak your thoughts on like. All of them. I want to hear 👂❓️

( @ellivcca asked what I thought about Maya's concept art and I replied in priv if they could be more specific)

Let's talk about Maya's designs! ✨

I will skip the blue-haired art for now, since I have more to say about her other early designs. They're in a few Japanese AA Guidebooks, but "逆転裁判2 真相解明マニュアル", or "Gyakuten Saiban 2: Fact-Finding Manual" has the most in one place. There are blurbs that discuss the designs, and I'll do my best to summarize them. My Japanese isn't amazing and I had to mostly rely on machine translation + cross referencing dictionaries, so it's possible I may be inaccurate. Also, I'm a novice at Japanese culture, so if I'm misrepresenting anything please bring this to my attention and I'll correct things accordingly!

The book acknowledges that Maya was intended to be of high-school age, hence the the sailor suit artwork. They seem to suggest that the loose socks was a hint at Maya's spunky personality.

When they began to explore her as a spirit medium (1), they wanted her to come from a wealthy, noble family. It looks like a lot of these explorations made it to Franziska's design, with some of the shapes of the shoulders and the jabot-looking neck wear, which is interesting!

As they kept exploring in the second round of sketches (2), they stressed traditional/folk dress as being an important part of her design. They noted they had her carrying something on her back at the time, which I think hints more to her "folksy" feel.

The beaded necklace she's wearing in (2) are drawn from Mala bead necklaces, which are prayer beads rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism and are said to help focus the mind during meditation. They seem present in a lot of spiritual figures in Japan.

Later (3), they explicitly comment drawing inspiration from the Matagi, a group of hunting clans in the northern Japanese mountains (be careful looking them up, they do bear hunting and there's a lot of explicit imagery, even on the wikipedia).

They comment on that this version of her early character might be very athletic. She also seems to be more stoic in these explorations.

Then, for (4) and (5), they evolved the design to make it look appear more feminine, giving her long hair, but making a note that her look isn't typical of modern people. The large orbs in (3), (4) and (5) I think are supposed be drawn from "Yuigesa"(結袈裟), or harnesses decorated with pom-poms worn by Shugendō practitioners, hermits who live in the mountains and practice asceticism.

Then in (6), they added the magatama and committed to her having black hair. They note shortening the hem of her costume from design (5).

The magatama addition is pretty significant! Magatama necklaces are used by noro priestesses of the Ryukyu Kingdom from the islands in the very south of Japan.

Their religion broadly speaking, involves ancestor worship and the relationships between the living and dead, gods and spirits. It seems to me like the culture in Kurain Village draws a lot from the Ryukyuan people--and you can even see this with the beads along with the magatamas.

But there seems to be a lot of generic imagery of Spirit Mediums that I've been able to find in Japanese media which have shared elements of design in Maya's final design. The most interesting of these to me is "ほんとにあった!霊媒先生", or "It Really Happened! Spirit Medium Teacher". The design similarities are striking (and make me wonder if Maya was an inspiration?)

So, to summarize it all up, it seems like the early designers (and there were only two! Kumiko Suekane and Tatsuro Iwamoto) wanted a character who was different, folksy, feminine and spunky that displayed unique spiritual power to aid in the narrative/game mechanics of the games, and they explored the different facets of their own culture--from the northern Matagi clans to the southern Ryukyuan people--Japanese iconography, and tastes into Maya's final design.

And I think that's Real Neat. :)

Thoughts about other designs (Blue-Haired/SoJ Maya) under the cut cuz oh my gosh this post is already huge.

Blue haired Maya!

What's interesting to me is that a lot of the design language on this early Maya art seems to have been carried over to Ema's design (glasses, boots, coat/skirt). She also has similar vibes to Lynne from Ghost Trick.

I definitely enjoy Maya's final design a lot better, but I like the triadic color harmony and spunk here!

And then her design update in Spirit of Justice! These concepts are from "逆転裁判6 公式ビジュアルブック", or "Gyakuten Saiban 6: Official Visual Book". :)

Takuro Fuse (the character designer) comments that he never drew Maya before when he took a stab at updating her, so he wanted to get that down first before tackling the designs. He wondered how she would change over the course of 11 years, and first experimented with a design, thinking about how Mia would look like as a spirit medium. He thought it would be interesting if Phoenix wouldn't be able to tell if Maya channeled Mia. (Me too tbh.)

I feel like this design has a bit too much going on, but I do like the longer cream colored sleeves!

Takuro talks more about how he was exploring all sorts of designs before landing on something more simple. He wanted her to have what he called a "traveling costume" and was very fond of the hat. These designs seem to pull from similar places I've discussed with Maya's early designs, as well as Japanese pilgrims.

As fun as the additions and changes to her design are, I think it was very smart to just add subtle changes: the longer robes, jacket, and the additional beads to her necklace. The shawl is a nice touch, too. This reflects how post-7yg Phoenix and Edgeworth also have subtle changes to their designs as well, which I love and I think were very smart moves from a design-perspective as well as personal taste. Their designs are very iconic and I think it was a service to maintain that iconography.

This was a very fun thing to explore! Thank you kindly @ellivcca for the ask!

#maya fey #ace attorney #maya may #fixy writes #fixy writes about lore #real life lore? #sorry this is like two days late I was lost in the research sauce 😭 #ace attorney art

[turnaboutfix]

I kind of like the idea of Maya naming Pearl her heir (in the case that she doesn't have kids of her own) because in a way it would kind of be the ultimate "screw you" to Morgan. She didn't HAVE to scheme and plot murder to see Pearl become the Master one day, she could have just been Maya's aunt and would have gotten what she wanted. Now Pearl is the Master and its completely in spite of Morgan, she can't claim any kind of credit for it.

Heh heh. That is a fun thought! "Have fun in prison when you didn't need to xoxo."

For my own thoughts though, I'm not sure if Morgan is motivated by being the responsible for the main family line ending with Maya. Her goals were to have Pearl become Master. She might give herself a good smack on the forehead in her prison cell if she found out Maya named Pearl her heir, but at the end of the day, she would be very pleased that the main family would descend from her through Pearl after all.

It is my opinion that members of the Fey clan would hold a lot of importance to lineages, since Japanese clans were similar to European nobility. In the Japanese family system, the main family are direct descendants of the first-born unless proven unfit, like in Morgan's case. Her lack of skill caused the main family line to divert away from her to that of her younger sister. Therefore, Morgans goals I think would be of a larger scope than her own time on earth: her place in the Kurain Genealogy as part of the main family line.

…My… precious Pearl… You are the only one suitable to be the Master of Kurain, dear child. I sacrificed it all… All for you… I helped that brainless nurse carry out her murder, and cooperated with that whip-happy prosecutor… It was all to unseat that annoying, witless main family girl… That Maya Fey. …But I shall be patient, my dearest Pearl… A chance will present itself… Your time will come…

2-2

#maya fey #ace attorney #maya may #fixy writes #fixy writes about lore #I feel like I cited friggin religious text with the “2-2” #ace attorney scripture study

[turnaboutfix]

Hiya!! So… we know that the Kurain elders would eventually want Maya to have an heir.. do you think she’d go through with it? Or do you think she’d be the first to break tradition and not have kids? (Despite knowing that the master line could eventually end with her)

Oohh also a good question. We know that despite a moment of doubt in Bridge about wanting anything to do with the Fey Clan, Maya seems to be taking her training and her future role as master seriously after that trial and all the way into DD and SoJ. I don't see why she wouldn't continue the line because of this. Plus, I think Maya and Pearl are both fully aware that if the master line does end with Maya, Morgan would have gotten what she wanted with the main line descending from her through Pearl.

That's my opinion based on the stuff we know from the games (which is not much at all). That being said I have my serious doubts this will be addressed in any future games, lmao.

#ace attorney #maya fey #maya may #fixy writes #fixy writes about lore #keep those asks coming this is fun