mischaracterization of the ddlc characters is rampant in fanworks, but i've noticed that it happens the most with one specific character: natsuki. throughout mods, fics, and even art, natsuki is always portrayed incorrectly. it bothers me horrendously, and i simply need to talk about it.
first off, i have literally no issue with tweaking character personalities as per an AU or a headcanon, that's cool and chill. the issue lies in the fact that in most occurences i see of natsuki being mischaracterized, it's not either of those things; the person making the work is trying to badly impersonate natsuki, completely misunderstanding her character.
the thing i see most often is just...making her more of a tsundere than she already is. grabbing the dial and turning it from 100 to 1,500. and it's horrendous. she can't go five seconds without yelling at someone, calling them an idiot, or just generally being a pain. and that's *not* who she is at all. her rude attitude stems from insecurity; from being picked on; from being judged because of her appearance; from always being looked down upon, both literally and figuratively. she isn't always mean!!
and natsuki can't seem to get a break from these things in the club, either. right at the beginning of the game, mc immediately assumes she's a first-year because of her size, and monika outs natsuki for liking to write about 'cute' things soon after. monika then almost spills the name of a poem natsuki had been working on, which she clearly hadn't meant to show anyone, and definitely hadn't wanted monika to read. after this exchange, sayori exclaims "everything you do is just as cute as you are!". we all know sayori meant well, so she gets a pass for this time. monika, however, doesn't, because to me it's clear she's trying to tear natsuki down on purpose. she actually does this quite a bit—towards all of the dokis—but i'll save my thoughts on *that* for another blog post.
she's judged by her friends, and half of her own club (monika + yuri). if i was her, i'd be irritable as well. but again, she isn't always mean! in her weekend exclusive, she's much more well-tempered, because she feels safer and less likely to be judged for how she acts and what she does.
to finish off this rant, take a quote that i sadly do not remember the origin of:
"ayo that natsuki chick isn't a meanie panini, she's just lwk awkward and also definitely autistic"
i fucking hate ai. ai sucks ugghhhh. ok so . ive been putting off working on my silly little site cause. im lazy and its too much work, but another thing thats been stopping me is ai , in a way!! i need to add watermarks to all my art before i post it online, and on top of THAT i also want to. whats it called. its 3am my brain isnt working. theres something people do to their art which distorts it, so it'll mess up ai training off that specific piece, and i want to do that. and i just . why are all these programs allowed to steal my stuff i made ?! ai steals other creative work, like fanfics as well, and i just. gr... grrrrrr.. GGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRKWEOJGRGTJHIUJFD.. this isnt even a blog post its just me fucking growling. sob. whatever. reality can be whatever i want. apparently AI has been training off of AO3 fics as well, which . i have plenty of. its so fucking annoying as well as theft, why should my work just be fucking scraped and used by someone else, i never gave permission . jfuherigkemltmfk UGH.
why must it be so difficult to draw ? why can i not simply project what i want onto the screen. i draw well, but im much better irl !! when i draw digitally, half the time it's not nearly as good, and it makes me so sad. i have so many drawings that ive yet to finish (that i will probably never finish), because i grow WEARY of drawing. and then when i come back to draw, i feel like too much time has passed , and im not allowed to mess with it?
im one of the types that thinks you should never delete drawings or writing—so it can be preserved—but it then leads me to never finish my art. because after a certain point my art skills and/or art style have improved a miniscule amount, and i go 'oh . well this must be preseved, even though it's a WIP that ive never finished, ill never finish it now on PURPOSE.' and then nothing ever gets done !!!
it is frustrating, but . i actually just now came up with a solution. like, actively while writing this. i can simply . make two copies of the art, one for preservation and one for fixing and continuing. wow. crazy how this is a problem i've had for months and yet all i needed to do to come up with a solution was to write about it. yipee yipee!! the good ending!!
Athena is one of the main characters of Ace Attorney, but she sure doesn’t feel like it.
Ace Attorney is a video game series where you play as one of many lawyers, fighting crime and earning guilty verdicts in an era of legal corruption. One of the newest playable main characters introduced was one Miss Athena Cykes, part of the game Dual Destinies, the fifth and second-to-last game in the series. And boy, is she...in the game. She certainly...is a character. She definitely...has a career in law. She is indeed a defense attorney. What I’m trying to say is, she’s underutilized. Heavily. Despite being a main character, one of three in the games she’s from.
Athena works for the Wright Anything Agency, learning from her boss; Phoenix Wright, and her older co-worker; Apollo Justice—who is also fairly new. When Apollo was introduced, he got an entirely new game dedicated to him: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. There, he takes on four cases with the help of Phoenix and Trucy Wright as his co-counsel. During his game, he’s the only attorney—outside of one flashback case where you play as Phoenix—and though he is sidelined a bit, all of the cases in his game are his own. He’s the attorney for all of them...The same can’t be said for Athena and her game.
It isn’t fair to count Apollo Justice’s cases before Dual Destinies, though, since Athena hadn’t joined the agency yet. So, we’ll look at Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice instead, the fifth and sixth games respectively. In Dual Destinies—the game she’s introduced in—Athena heads two cases out of six. Barely. And I say ‘barely’, because in the very beginning of her introductory case, Athena has a mental breakdown; flashing back to a traumatic case from years ago. She’s unable to speak, and just when a verdict is about to be handed down prematurely, Phoenix Wright bursts through the door and takes the case from her. So, really, Athena heads *one* case.
At the end of Dual Destinies, though, Athena finds out the truth about her past, giving her closure on her trauma and letting her have the ability to finally move on and heal. So, you’d think that, by Spirit of Justice, she’d be able to take on her own cases, right? Wrong. Out of the seven cases in the game, Athena heads *one*. One singular case. And just like all the other times, she can’t go through it alone.
In Turnabout Storyteller, the one case Athena’s allowed, she has yet another breakdown, but this time it’s brought on by foul play. The prosecutor for the case—Nahyuta Sadhmadhi, after insulting and making fun of her—rallies the gallery to call Athena’s ability and skill into question, making her doubt if she’s ready to take a case on her own. At this point, Simon jumps in and acts as Athena’s co-counsel, and she’s able to continue the trial with his help. Yet again, Athena is being saved by someone else.
In every case that Athena leads or has a major part in, she has a breakdown. Does this mean Athena shouldn’t ever have had a single breakdown? Not at all; her breakdown in Turnabout Academy was necessary, as it allowed her to deal with and take a step towards overcoming her trauma. She came out of it stronger, and managed to complete her trial without anyone else taking over for her, save for Apollo helping out as her co-counsel. The issue is that this happens in every case she takes up, making her seem incapable of doing her job.
So, to recap...out of the thirteen cases in both games, Athena heads...two cases. One in the game that’s literally titled Dual Destinies, a game meant to be about her relationship with Simon Blackquill, despite Simon himself prosecuting four cases. But, hold on. Maybe this isn’t really an issue with Athena being sidelined; maybe it’s just Phoenix—the head lawyer and main character of the first three games—taking all of the cases for himself. After all, he did steal the beginning case from Athena. Maybe Apollo is done wrong in these games, too.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. If we combine the cases from both games, we discover that Phoenix has six cases, Athena has two, and Apollo has five. There’s clearly something off here. And that’s not even counting Apollo’s four cases from his own game (which, might I remind you, is named after him?). On top of this, Apollo gets more character development in Spirit of Justice; we learn about his real father, adopted father, adopted brother, and, by extension, their family. What do we learn about Athena in SoJ? Nothing. The closest thing we get to more Athena lore is that Simon, her found-family brother, has a friend who works at a soba shop. How nice.
And Athena’s mistreatment doesn’t stop there; it extends into the fanbase as well. On March 1st, 2024, Capcom held a poll to decide who were the best characters in the Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice Trilogy. According to that poll, from first to last, here are the top ten characters in Japan; Miles Edgeworth, Simon Blackquill, Apollo Justice, Phoenix Wright (DD-SoJ), Klavier Gavin, Phoenix (AJ), Bobby Fulbright, Trucy Wright, Maya Fey, Ema Skye.
Now, I’m sure you and I both noticed something very important, which is the fact that Athena is nowhere on this list at all. And she didn’t fare much better in the international poll either—only getting 9th place, despite being one of three main characters. For crying out loud, Phoenix and his two slightly different personalities are on the list *twice*!
In conclusion, Athena deserves better. She’s a bright, talented, fiery young woman whose upbeat and positive personality brings a fresh change of pace in comparison to Phoenix and Apollo’s snarky and downright pessimistic natures, respectively. With her mood matrix and the ability to hear the voice of people’s souls, she could completely change the game—If Capcom would only let her.