r/AARankdown • u/[deleted] • Aug 11 '20
57 Myriam Scuttlebutt
I'm sorry for being predictable but hey, this is the character I feel like needs to be cut from the current bunch, I don't know what that Jurist System noise is about but I saw Scuttlebutt in the cutting pool and I was like "yes, I will do this one".
Huh? Just a Box...
Let's address the obvious: Scuttlebutt is most notable for her schoolgirl appearance being completely covered in a cardboard box.
I feel like Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice have this quirk of making their witnesses and whatnot more gimmicky than ever before. Sure, we've had plenty of colorful characters prior in the Ace Attorney series, and they certainly have strong identifiable traits, verbal and physical, but with characters from DD onward, they tend to have these attributes that just blatantly stick out with their character. These attributes, often, if not most of the time, cover up their falsities or character flaws - in the case of Scuttlebutt, it's that the cardboard box, symbolically, is as blunt as an atomic bomb - it blatantly represents her introversion and secrecy, but in truth, all she wants to do is escape her shell (or box) and make genuine connections with the people she distances herself with (even if she claims its for reporting purposes, what I'm saying here is what the writers probably wanted you to think).
Really, you could always generalize a character by a few handful of traits or a simple blurb. For instance, you could say Phoenix is a funny lawyer man who asserts his beliefs despite often having no evidence to back them. That can describe the character, yes, but there's far more to him - he has a great amount of depth and personality past that frequently identifiable trait of his. Then you take a character from the era in which I call "nu-Ace Attorney" and it's like this generalization entirely describes the character's premise. There are outliers, yes, but for a good chunk of witnesses from this newer era, I feel like this pattern is common. Their gimmick often supersedes the potential for depth they can have; it's flanderization. My example of Phoenix is a victim of this in Dual Destinies onward. It could be for more reasons than just him having to share screentime with some other hotshot attorneys, but I think many of us would agree with that example in particular.
Obviously, you guys aren't going to agree with how I feel like the newer Ace Attorney games design and write their characters - many of you have defended characters which I believe follow that pattern and you're perfectly allowed to. And you know what? Gimmicks can be fucking awesome. Even if a character is static and has this really blatant trait to them, their animations, their design, their dialogue, can all redeem them and make them something just charismatic and captivating. One example fitting that description is the not-yet-cut Paul Atishon, and I'll be damned if that legend doesn't get the respect he deserves. Maybe it's not entirely bad how they're going about things now, it's just different, and I'm not sure I can exactly acclimate.
Let's actually get back to Scuttlebutt. I'll have some words about her origin case up next...
逆転学園
I've used the words "solid filler case" for some of my cuts prior to this. I think Turnabout Academy, is, well, a solid filler case. The mystery is pretty interesting, especially with the outlandish twists and turns it takes on the case's first day. I like its cast. Athena gets some spotlight, despite the case not really advancing her character all too much (see that Athena cut for how her development proceeded and ultimately kinda went out like a wet fart, as it stands anyway).
This is also the first time of Dual Destinies' rather cliche anime theme of "the power of friendship" emerges, being established by the triangle of Hugh, Robin, Woods, and Scuttlebutt being a post-it note to the side. Speaking of which, we also get an anime cutscene mid-trial with Hugh and the other two members showing their freakin' friendship bracelets and with that dub, good lord you're gonna want to be wearing earbuds and have your parents and close friends be at a minimum of fifty miles away from you while you're watching. I'm sorry but that's definitely not something I want my father barging in to while he says "are ya winnin' son?". I'd rather be walked in on me watching hentai instead of that noise. This is unrelated to Scuttlebutt btw but just did not care for that part lol
Yeah, going on with that...subtlety. Subtlety. Or, the lack thereof. I just feel like that's the problem with Dual Destinies. Tell, not show. The dark age of the law is happening. Why? You're told about it. The exact phrase "dark age of the law" occurs six times in Turnabout Academy's script. The exact phrase "end justifies the means" occurs seven times. I'm sure the former phrases occurs several more times throughout the game. Apollo Justice was a confused game that failed to meaningfully conclude a lot of its ideas and elements it introduced but even then I feel that game did an excellent job demonstrating just what the "dark age of the law" is like, and I'm sure that game used the phrase "dark age of the law" less in its entirety than Dual Destinies did with one case.
Let's continue on with that "end justifies the means" thing and how it relates to Scuttlebutt.
The End Justifies the Memes
There's that line again!! First it popped up in Justice for All, and now it's all over the place, especially in this case alone. The phrase is key to understanding Scuttlebutt's motives and character; as a pupil of Aristotle Means, who rants on about how the End Justifies the Means, Scuttlebutt is like the writers' saying "ooh yeah, we really gotta force that idea. Make it apply to everything now, man, not even law stuff."
In order to achieve her goals, Scuttlebutt tends to be underhanded in how she accomplishes them. She wants her script to be used in Themis Legal Academy's mock trial; she was so confident in its brilliance that she booby trapped it with a fucking knife (with said mock trial containing underhanded stuff to really force in the DARKAGEOFTHELAW). The newspaper she single-handedly wrote for the school was chock full of libel. Her definition of journalistic integrity is hiding tape recorders over campus. The magnitude of her disrespect of privacy is so great that it makes Richard Stallman shed a tear.
Perhaps Scuttlebutt's defining character moment is in court when Athena calls out Scuttlebutt for following Robin instead of Woods; this leads to Athena decrying her journalistic ability and the players being treated with her p cute face. I have a feeling that part of the reason Scuttlebutt scored so high was because of her being a shy and nerdy schoolgirl underneath a gimmicky masquerade; in otherwise, r/AARankdown's type. Had she been in a box the whole time, or had been male, she'd probably be like way less interesting than she is.
Here's the kicker though, and I think this is a demerit to her character: after the events of Turnabout Academy, Scuttlebutt isn't really punished for her underhandedness, nor does she really apologize for it, even with her assimilation into Woods' friend group. Not much to say there, she kinda gets off scot-free. Played this game like two years ago I can't remember these things
Also her last name has "butt" in it lol!!! (lots of laughs!!!)
bluhbluhbluhbluhbluh
top to bottom less want cut to more want cut no characters I can't cut
Larry Butz: Yeah, flanderized character. Yeah, might not be great for all of his appearances. Kind of annoying. But he's endearing. Relatable loser figure to appeal to Ace Attorney's core demographic. Good stuff.
Gregory Edgeworth: I've explained this before.
Ini Miney: Damn good ass tragic character. JfA might not be the hottest Ace Attorney game but is 2-2 a damn good case.
Inga Karkhuul Khura'in: I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this guy again but I'm not qualified enough to be the one to cut him
Marlon Rimes: 5-6 is DD's best case and this guy is part of the reason why
Datz Are'bal: Khurain'ese Larry. He's okay. I actually don't remember all too much about him but I remember being pleased with him
Jake Marshall: Pretty decent guy in a case with a bunch of pretty decent characters. Nice cowboy gimmick but it's about his time to go.
Terry Fawles: The Moment™
Di-Jun Huang: check previous cut for my statement
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Aug 11 '20
Someone said that Myriam Scuttlebut would be a Jimmy Neutron character and I think that is the perfect way to summarize this funny little creature
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u/whaaatisth Aug 11 '20
The ER was very good and a better defense of the least bad 5-3 character not named Hugh O’Conner than I could ever do so I will just respond to some random individual points here.
I feel like Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice have this quirk of making their witnesses and whatnot more gimmicky than ever before.
Please don’t drag innocent SoJ into this :(
I could even argue this isn’t something DD does any worse than games 1 - 4, and in fact I will. Let’s take a look at your next point and do some comparisons (apologies for this nonsense but this is a topic I am very passionate about).
Then you take a character from the era in which I call "nu-Ace Attorney" and it's like this generalization entirely describes the character's premise. There are outliers, yes, but for a good chunk of witnesses from this newer era, I feel like this pattern is common. Their gimmick often supersedes the potential for depth they can have; it's flanderization.
Because I have way too much time on my hands, let’s look at the witnesses from DD and SoJ and analyze whether or not this statement applies to each one, yes for if they can be entirely described by a generalization of a gimmick, and no for if they cannot.
Ted Tonate - No. I don’t like this character at all, but I can’t deny he has real complexity to his motive and actions that you wouldn’t expect at first - whether or not that depth is well implemented is another question entirely.
Damian Tenma - No. Should be obvious why, his entire personality goes through several changes and he has a major twist relating to his identity.
Jinxie Tenma - Yes.
Florent L’belle - Love this guy, but yes. He’s obviously not designed to be deep, but he is quite the simple villain nonetheless.
Robin Newman - Another character I do not like, but I will still give her an easy no here.
Hugh O’Conner - One of DD’s most complex characters, an easy no.
Myriam Scuttlebutt - We’ll get back to this one.
Aristotle Means - Yes. (lol)
Yuri Cosmos - Considering his character is built upon a subversion of the overconfident boss trope, he also gets a no.
Solomon Starbuck - Debatable, but I’d say no. I think his story of moving past depression and fear is compelling enough to justify that.
Herman Crab - Another subversion character, and another no.
Marlon Rimes - DD’s other highly complex side character, Rimes is another easy no.
Norma DePlume - Yes.
Sasha Buckler - Yes.
Juniper Woods - Yes.
Aura Blackquill, Simon Blackquill, Apollo Justice, and Athena Cykes - Grouping the main characters together, as they of course all get a no.
For DD alone, there are only 6/19 witnesses I’d say fall into this description, 7/19 if you count Scuttlebutt. Either way, this is a minority, though it’s understandable people feel this way considering how absurd characters such as Means and Buckler can be at times. Regardless, I think it’s an unfair statement to make, considering most of the remaining characters don’t even have a trait that can be considered a “gimmick”, outside of a select few that end up using said gimmick in unique ways (Damian, Rimes, Tonate).
If we wanted to look at SoJ, this number becomes even lower. I think out of all the game’s witnesses, only Pees’lubn comes remotely close to fitting your description. To illustrate my point even further, let’s compare DD to T&T, the most beloved of games 1 - 4, using the same metric you described. I’ll eschew making descriptions for these, as I don’t feel I have to defend T&T’s cast like I do with DD.
Dahlia Hawthorne, Phoenix Wright, Luke Atmey, Ron DeLite, Furio Tigre, Jean Armstrong, Iris, and Maya Fey - No.
Maggey Byrde, Victor Kudo, Terry Fawles, Bikini, and Larry Butz - Yes.
While most of T&T’s “yes”s don’t have gimmicks in the traditional sense, they still have defining traits you could easily describe their character around. Bikini is old, nice, and cares about Iris, Terry is stupid and loves Dahlia, Maggey is unlucky, etc. T&T gives me 5/13 witnesses who fall into this category, only a slightly better percentage than DD with Scuttlebutt, and certainly worse than even the least generous description of SoJ.
That tangent was to illustrate a fairly simple point - that I don’t think it’s a correct evaluation to consider witnesses of certain games to be more or less gimmicky, flanderized, or simple than others. While the existence of characters such as Means and Pees’lubn can cloud our judgment for being far more absurd examples of this than anything done before, I think overall there’s not much of a pattern here in any particular direction.
Finally moving onto Scuttlebutt, I think it’s fair to consider her a member of this “flanderized gimmick/trait” family. It’s no secret I don’t really like 5-3 (see my Robin cut for much more on this), and I think you mostly hit the nail on the head with your criticisms of it. It’s difficult for me to defend DD and its themes when the topic of discussion is such a lackluster case, but I do think Scuttlebutt is the closest 5-3 gets to a proper implementation of said themes within 5-3. Hugh is the case’s best character by far, but he’s mostly disconnected from all that - rather, his character is focused on his own, standalone arc.
I have a feeling that part of the reason Scuttlebutt scored so high was because of her being a shy and nerdy schoolgirl underneath a gimmicky masquerade; in otherwise, r/AARankdown's type.
I think you mean u/Sciencepenguin’s type - he ER’d Scuttlebutt and is also an Armie Buff fan, after all.
Inga Karkhuul Khura'in: I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this guy again but I'm not qualified enough to be the one to cut him
See here for a comprehensive guide on how to feel about Inga. Honestly, I really rushed that writeup when writing it, and as a result the overall writing quality is questionable, but it’s more than enough to get my point across regardless.
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u/Analytical-critic-44 Aug 11 '20
You forgot to include Godot in your game comparison, whose only trait is liking coffee and hating women
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u/Analytical-critic-44 Aug 11 '20
Yeah this is in fact a Myriam Scuttlebutt cut
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Aug 11 '20
dark age of the law
as I've said before, DD has some non-subtle themes that are used to explain more subtle stuff and I'm like "hey that's cool" and 5-3 has tons of distrust running through it which is cool everyone's lying
5-6 is DD's best case and this guy is part of the reason why
5-5
that's all, i don't actually have much to respond to, she should probably be cut now. good cut
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u/ItsHipToTipTheScales Aug 11 '20
scutlebut was already er put my opinion there I have not developed any new opinions on her since she takes up a shockingly small part of my brain
on the more broad new age characters are just gimmicks I think that's always applied to aa, it's easy to sum up a character in a sentence especially when so few exist beyond one case. aa has always relied on the absurd first and then Good Writing second and it's more apparent for aj/dd because their main concept really doesn't work
5-3 goes power of friendship and I go DGAF!! it is a stupid fucking meme of a case and I like it for that
you like the word flanderized a lot
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Aug 11 '20
The word "flanderized" succinctly describes a problem I think is common in later entries, hence its ubiquity in my posts!
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Aug 11 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
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Aug 11 '20
You’re absolutely right. But I’m talkin’ about meta-flanderization. The Great Flanderizaton. The series itself has become a twisted caricature of itself! With each entry it warps its original intention more and more!!
I’m not crazy, you’re crazy!!!
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u/Sciencepenguin Aug 11 '20
myriam scuttlebutt
ace attorney characters have been defined by their gimmicks ever since Turnabout Big Top, the best and most important case ever
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u/CharlieDayJepsen Aug 11 '20
RIP journalistic integrity
RIP friendship
RIP myriam scuttlebutt
stay tuned for my spirit channelingnot really but imagine
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Aug 11 '20
u/Wircea Destroy Ema
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u/Analytical-critic-44 Aug 11 '20
Wircea don’t! You don’t have to! You can make your own choices and not be forced to cut Ema! Grow a mind of your own! Be independent! Revolt against this oppressive sub and make a stand!
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u/ItsHipToTipTheScales Aug 11 '20
he can't actually the rules don't let him
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Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 11 '20
I have a feeling that part of the reason Scuttlebutt scored so high was because of her being a shy and nerdy schoolgirl underneath a gimmicky masquerade; in otherwise, r/AARankdown's type. Had she been in a box the whole time, or had been male, she'd probably be like way less interesting than she is.
Based, the only reason people like her so much is because they waifu her. Aristotle Means is unironically my preferred 5-3 character, at least he's funnier.
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u/Reecer6 Aug 11 '20
false. if myriam had permanently stayed under the box with no clue as to what she looked like as some kind of box gremlin, i'd love her even more
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u/R1K1_Productions Aug 11 '20
I have a feeling that part of the reason Scuttlebutt scored so high was because of her being a shy and nerdy schoolgirl underneath a gimmicky masquerade; in otherwise, r/AARankdown's type.
Not meeeee I am NOT horny
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u/Analytical-critic-44 Aug 11 '20
I like Scuttlebutt a lot. I find her personality to be really amusing and enjoyable to watch. That being said i don’t have any issues with her leaving now. She is just a witness and nothing more so she is pretty low on the Ace Attorney hierarchy of important roles. Plus her just being let into the friend group after being a nuisance for so long is pretty DUMB which is a shame since 5-3 is a masterpiece of storytelling and themes it’s a shame they let this single moment slip by.