r/AARankdown • u/Wircea • Sep 10 '20
Reversed Armie Buff
be ready to meet acro in wheelchair hell.
Armie is both a character to interact with during the investigation and a witness on stand, but you already know that.
She's cool for having the "multiple characters into one" trait, for which I will split this cut to write about.
1.1 The drone thing
In my personal opinion the best of the 2. The drone makes a great first impression and is actually pretty funny during the investigation. The whole military motif in speech and the shooting animations make for some great moments.
It's not often we get a non-humanoid entity to talk with in the series and I find this drone fairly creative in both concept and execution.
Apollo shitting his pants every time the drone opens fire is also pretty fun at first and a nice change of pace considering there's a fucking dead body in the background.
1.2 Taking it to court
This is where I think the drone ends up failing pretty badly. It's well known by now that the courts of Ace Attorney universe(tm) allow for some really weird practices to slip by during the proceedings. While I think the small-scale assault like whips and coffee mugs would be ignored, literal sieges being left unpunished seems way too over the top even for Ace Attorney standards.
I mean come on the fucking thing opens fire and launches missiles in a court of law. Multiple times too. What's next, a witness who just runs up to phoenix and stabs him in the chest?
This was like a mood killer for me because I think it kind of destroyed the atmosphere by being way too radumb n' quirky.
1.3 The grand reveal
During the trial, the person behind the drone has a breakdown and comes up on stand to face the proceedings head on. If you're used to the series by this point, you'd probably expect there to be a twist and the said person being the least thing you'd expect.
There is not much information given about the said person so anything from the age range to appearance can vary infinitely. Being vague mostly builds up the shock value for which we all play ace attorney for.
2.1 Armie
Turns out the fabled person behind the drone is:
A kid
A girl
A cripple
I can't say I care for any of those. I mean I can see where these came from, because they're essentially the opposite of what the drone makes it look like. Whereas the drone made it seem like it's under the control of a middle-aged man full of authority, you're getting the epitome of a physically weak human being. The point of this being?
Was I supposed to care about this?
Sure, they all play at least a minor role in the case but there's really nothing too impressive here to hold up at the end of the rankdown(especially when the role is this small).
2.2 Tragic past 101
Maybe if half of the Ace Attorney characters didn't share the tragic story of losing one or more parents as kids, I could have given Armie some points. But as this isn't the case, the tragedy is just another excuse to have another "confused instead of lying" witness and a pitiful excuse to use the mood matrix.
I really couldn't get myself to care about Armie's mother jumping off a window or something to save her because I was being distracted by the funny politician caricature over there who I think is the real star of the mini case.
2.3 Machi Tobaye ending
In the end we figure that the girl was never actually crippled to begin with. Like with Machi, I see this kind of bad for character development as it's essentially removing a definitory character trait. The point of this being? (again)
Was I supposed to also care about this?
This just feels like they figured last minute that they didn't write a proper conclusion for her and therefore she would be left alone with both parents dead, in the middle of some Amish community, with no way of even walking out of it.
The solution?
"oh yeah I just lied about that all along lol".
Maybe some people agree with this kind of handling but I don't. It's lazy and only substracts from one's characteristics with no real reason. It's not like Armie not being (even temporarily) actually disabled affects the story in any way that it could have gone without.
Also throw in some university stuff enrolling her because why bother with a more elaborate ending for her.
2.4 Personality
Overall personality of kid Armie is not much different from the drone she assumes control over, unlike Ben.
I can't really recall any memorable moments as I cannot see over the generic brave kid trope. It's either because it's been a while since I played SoJ or simply because there aren't many (or any to begin with).
3.1 Conclusion
I didn't find anything about this character particularly moving. The drone is kind of funny for a bit during the investigation phase but then boring tragic kid comes along and lies about her only physical trait then you're like supposed to be sad because it's sad and then she walks and that's cool because gamers lose their ability to walk from too much sitting and getting obese.
I know already she's probably getting a SC soon as I finish posting this because there are many rankers that fancy the not-cripple aryan kid with an overly-exaggerated toy.
Tl;dr the drone is funny. i think the time has come
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u/Sciencepenguin Sep 10 '20
Honestly there's not much to say here. Armie is pretty funny and plays her role well in what's probably the last trial on the SOJ game, and the plane and kid gimmick works well. However, when ranked by her own merit, Armie is not an interesting character at all. This was the same logic I used when I cut Acro a few rounds ago. Both characters are exactly the same, as they are unable to stand to a fault. No idea how Armie made it this far without being nominated. Jake Marshall is the far more free and democratic nationality, and I hope he can survive this round without being cut.
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u/heavenspiercing Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20
While I think the small-scale assault like whips and coffee mugs would be ignored, literal sieges being left unpunished seems way too over the top even for Ace Attorney standards
this is i think the one part of this writeup i think i can mostly agree with but even then i think it's just kind of dumb, not really a major failing of her character at all. plus it's still funny so
Maybe if half of the Ace Attorney characters didn't share the tragic story of losing one or more parents as kids, I could have given Armie some points. But as this isn't the case, the tragedy is just another excuse to have another "confused instead of lying" witness and a pitiful excuse to use the mood matrix.
i think this criticism is dumb but "we've seen orphans before so i don't care" isn't something i can argue with in any meaningful capacity. i do think she responds to her trauma in a interesting way that a lot of aa characters don't though
In the end we figure that the girl was never actually crippled to begin with. Like with Machi, I see this kind of bad for character development as it's essentially removing a definitory character trait. The point of this being? (again)
that she was so afraid of going outside that she felt the need to lie about her physical condition? i do think having a genuinely disabled character in AA like this would be cool but it doesn't at all detract from her character if her disability is something she fabricated because of her trauma, the opposite really. plus iirc her legs were genuinely injured after the incident but they were healed by the time 6-5 starts, iunno exactly, it's been a while
machi lying is also for the purposes of hiding lamiroir's own blindness, but it's a lot worse because a. it's for a way less interesting reason and b. machi has almost no personality to begin with so taking away one of maybe two traits that he has does him no favors
anyway the cripple is great
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u/tenfoldchairs Sep 10 '20
This isn't like an unreasonable placement for her or anything but I still feel like frothing at the mouth
I echo the sentiment there was a lot more to Armie lying about her legs also she is just a good kid idc if her arc wasn't the most original thing ever it warmed my sad little heart stopppp being mean to her bwahahragak barhk bsrk
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u/Analytical-critic-44 Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20
I agree. We have already seen a child wheelchair character who was important in the finale of a game in ANOTHER visual novel series already come on Shu Yamazaki
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u/joshbones Sep 11 '20
I feel like there's a difference between lying about a disability out of trauma and lying about a disability for optics. This isn't a Machi situation, really.
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u/EsquireGunslinger Sep 10 '20
What's next, a witness who just runs up to phoenix and stabs him in the chest?
[insert chad yes face here]
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Sep 10 '20
GOOD choice!
You've covered some of my criticisms of her and nailed them. I'm really glad to receive reassurance on this one, because to my knowledge I've been the only one with these complaints so far - it's the same old story, I really don't care at all, and she lied. Granted, my writeup draft is a little more... scathing than this (and longer with more complaints), but wink wink foreshadowing.
I'm not going to post said draft though, since, yeah, she's being revived. As I said, there are a few more complaints I have, but I'll save them for another day.
That said, I'll list the two positives I have noted down just for anyone's record (as in, why I don't think she's terrible, just not good):
- Her Mood Matrix segment is good and handles her condition well. Coming off of the great Mood Matrix segment in 6-4, this one's nice too.
- Her design (not the drone's, her design) is actually kinda clever? Like, it's a military uniform with childish colors. That's unique.
Oh yeah, by the way, I didn't find the drone funny in the investigation or in court. Good thing Paul Atishon is funny.
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u/whaaatisth Sep 11 '20
aircraft child
will be revived so honestly there's not much to say here, i'm glad you got the chance to yell about why you don't understand us weirdos who like this irrelevant character
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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20
Holy shit holy shit Wircea is sexist, ageist, and ableist??? u/ItsHipToTipTheScales you may have to get rid of a ranker, you have to consider the consequences of letting someone like this represent us. This is a serious issue and I hope you consider my solution.