Gender: Female
Location: Australia
Rank: Ace Attorney
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:20 pm
Posts: 2197
MapleRose wrote:
Yeah, there's no doubt that they're close, but I guess I can't decide if I see them in a romantic relationship or the asexual platonic soul mates bff much like Nick and Mia XD (and tbh, sometimes Nick feels like Maya's babysitter)
What do you WANT to 'see', after the games? The canon has literally left it to the players'
choice of imagination..
The games give us all the basis to reasonably support the P/M concept; and really all that's required to ship it is to like the idea and to have the capacity to imagine it at some point of time in the future, no matter how far away.
Equilibrate Concerto wrote:
However, and I don't mean to offend other shippers, in my opinion the material we can extract from the script puts P/M closer to this asymptote than nearly any other comparable ship. I'd argue that we're closer to it than any of the other Phoenix/someone or Maya/someone pairings.
Ah, you taught me a new word. And it describes the concept
perfectly. See, P/M is sooo educational...
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But with Nick... First of all, because the game itself isn't the Romance genre, even though we hear Nick's thoughts, I think it's expected that we don't go too deep into his Romance department, however odd it may seem (Personally I think Nick's just not interested in Romance atm, being too focused on his career and all that). JFA had me pretty convinced that Maya is the closest to him, and he might even have romantic feelings for her. But then you get to T&T and Iris/Dahlia is introduced...
There's a progression over the course of the games in the closeness/extremity of the Phoenix-Maya partnership. Similarly, feelings of physical attraction could progress over time - people can BECOME attractive. The situation where they met well explains why there may not have been INITIAL bond based on physical/romantic attraction -P/M in game 1 is questionable, borderline pedo. Phoenix wouldn't have seen her that way initially. But Maya just gets older, supposedly she's more mature and taking on her true 'adult' role after 3-5 - which of course, includes still being Phoenix's 'partner'. He can progress to seeing her in a slightly different context.
Another support the Dahlia/Iris story has for P/M is that the lingering trauma from the Dahlia thing may have subconsciously or otherwise made Phoenix deny/not pursue any kind of 'romantic' feelings. The partnership they have is clearly the closest thing in reality to his 'partnership' fantasy he never really had with 'Dollie' [Maya WILL support him and believe in him to the death!] viewing it in a romantic context may have reinvoked trauma or maybe Phoenix doesn't believe in fairytale romance any more, so he doesn't notice it when it slaps him in the face. Once he gets closure after 3-5 this would not be a problem. And it's clear that Phoenix would have a greater awareness of how much Maya and their 'partnership' actually means to him after the whole 3-5 breakdown/demanding Maya's return scene [the 'only' thing I want!]. We only see limited interaction between them after that. Set it to sink in for a few months/years, recalling also that Pearl will slap down any other potential derailments...
The entire existence of the Dahlia-Dollie-Iris plot is some of the best 'romantic' P/M evidence we have, though it gets heavily into symbolics. [Maya even gets a rival - a fake 'partner' to prove the genuine P-M partnership!] Basically, however, Phoenix clearly recognises his partner Maya as the true and genuine relationship of value, platonic or not, they're the partners canonically together for the 'happy end'. It's also 'proven' in court to be a partnership he *can* believe in, in the way 3-1 Phoenix-> Dollie and Phoenix-> Iris and 3-4 Terry-> Dahlia were not. And its framed as being the reality version of what he desired in his 'romantic' partnership, which frames P-M romantically from Phoenix's end, which is, interesting, to say the least.
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The thing is though, imo for a sexual romantic relationship to work, you need a strong bond, but physical attraction is another aspect of it. Other than the maid scene (haha maybe Nick has a maid fetish XD), neither Nick nor Maya seem to give off that vibe about each other. I guess this sounds really subjective, but they never really flirt, or anything that seems to be like flirting anyway. They do tease each other a lot, but Nick teasing Maya seems more like teasing a little sister to me, and Maya's teasing reminds me of between best friends. Maybe it's just not shown on screen because of the genre of the game, or Nick's simply has the romantic awareness of a brick, but I don't sense a lot of... sexual tension I guess...
There's nothing at all to indicate they're NOT physically attracted, in the way surrogate siblings would get psuedocest undertones. They [especially Maya] break an awful lot of 'just friends' boundaries even in the limited portrayal of the games [and it's not like the sprites even cater to two-person interactions in those games...] I don't know to what conscious level Maya is aware she has a thing for Phoenix in that specific vein, being immature and all, but I think she'd be able to better recognise it in a few [even, say 7] years. One reason we don't get explicit inignorable canon P/M, I believe, is that it would have to be handled tastfully for it not to look like Phoenix is taking advantage of her immaturity and trust in him from day 1, and it would be hard to deal with this with the focus of crime plots and such rather than romance. And really, how do they show that kind of tension w/Phoenix in the games? They make him blush and occasional lewd jokes (April May?). He blushed to Pearl's assertions, and the lewd jokes would be tasteless. And yes, he probably does have the romantic awareness of a brick....
As for the maid scene, Phoenix didn't freak out when he saw Maggey or Mia in the maid uniform, so I don't think it can be put specifically to a maid fetish. It does, however, show his perspective changes in an *interesting* direction when he views Maya marginally outside his usual context.
And if we did get a scene where Phoenix undeniably flirts with Maya, it would sink every single other ship, because these two already have the kind of relationship which screams 'life partners'. Which ruins other shippers' fun. I think some of the staff [such as Pearl's char designer, definitely] but not all were P/M shippers.
It doesn't matter if it's not explicit within the game scenes. Can you imagine it becoming more 'romantic' attraction that way in future? There's no end date to shippings, either. Phoenix realises how much he values Maya in the games when he's about to lose her, so a little time and distance could easily trigger seeing her in a slightly different light. No offense to other pairings but i have considerable difficulty imagining other pairings after the GS4 story, particularly. In some ways the dynamic/loyalty of their 'partnership' more closely resembles a long-married couple who's not candidate for divorce, rather than the intense and 'romantic' stages of romantic attraction. Yeah, it's all very atypical, but we think it would form the basis to underpin an amazing romantic partnership. It was
Our Secret Mission who broke the 4th wall with 'In typical P/M fashion, we're doing everything backwards'.
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I thought Diego x Mia is more or less confirmed in the game, 'cause Grossberg mentioned the victim of the poisoning being her boyfriend (and this is before we even meet Diego/Godot)
And Dahlia calls Maya Phoenix's girlfriend in 3-5: "She's your girlfriend, isn't she?" and he doesn't deny. It's identical to the Mia-Grossberg exchange. Mia doesn't deny, but she doesn't confirm it either. She could be mad over her arch rival Dahlia murdering another innocent person - Diego, who she clearly knew as an associate even if they weren't 'in love'. There's a difference between Mia, say, agreeing to go on one date with Diego and being in love with him. Court is clearly not the time for Mia to clarify, and it would all be tactless since Diego is deceased.
Of course I'm not trying to argue that assuming Diego/Mia is unreasonable - because it isn't. But I'm making a point here.Pretend there was a concurrent hyper-popular Mia/SomeoneElse fan ship from game 1 or 2, and imagine the denials and arguing. Mia never appears to Diego or says anything kind and loving when she's channelled. Mia never hits on Diego in 3-4 or indicates at all she considers him attractive, it's all one-sided. Mia never gives any confirmation on their relationship. Mia isn't too upset when he's taken off as a murderer. Etc. And what's more, we're IN MIA'S HEAD in 3-1 and 3-4, so we could have seen her inner thoughts on Diego, too. A near-canon pairing can be ripped to shreds from Mia's end based on the portrayals this game gives us.
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I guess it's supposed to be an Easter Egg and not to be read too deep into either way.
Yes. What we should take out of it is that Phoenix and Maya are still clearly close friends of undefined nature. Which is enough to make P/M, then or in the future, plausible, based on what was built up in games 1-3 of course.
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But speaking of AJ, another thing that kinda irked me is that after Nick's last trial, and he's talking to Trucy in the office, it feels like he's all alone
But you can see that's a plothole even if their relationship IS only 'sibling' Maya would never abandon her 'brother', either.
Similarly, Edgeworth's apparent disappearance from Phoenix's life can seem implausible, without having to ship P/E. The entire GS4 game and MASON System especially has to be taken with a grain of salt [time travel?] It's, of course, the biggest source of controversy and divisiveness in the fandom, even more than pairings probably. Looks like it *can* be viewed as semi-AU. Takumi felt he was writing a 'different story' and they made no attempt at continuity to anything except Matsukawa's baby 1-5 and , by extension, game 1. I view 3-5, not AJ, as the official line on the Phoenix-Maya partnership, because Maya and Edgeworth clearly did not receive plotwise comprehension. it was, however, considered important enough to show that the relationship still exists even in 'another story' [DVDs]. Oh, and the MAGATAMA. That's a big one. If they did not have a close relationship still, Maya would want it BACK... but he's still using it in 4-4. It's a priceless Fey object, and pretty much the symbolic object of their 'partnership upgrade' in 2-2.
Now I'm betting if we asked what Phoenix was doing on his 'secret missions' in AJ, we WOULD be told the usual on it's plotwise undefined and up to the players' imagination and whatever.
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And that's amazing. So I hope you warm to P/M enough to draw more *pleading eyes*
Oh, forgot to reply last time about the 3-2 scene. P/M detractors eagerly claim this somehow sank the ship, but it doesn't. I mean, I used to ship P/E after I played game 1, although I was liking the P-M partnership better by game 2 I managed to ignore all Pearl's 'shippings', partly because I remember being told that P/M was going to be 'proven' incorrect by the scene. And much as I wanted to be in denial, when I played it, it clearly didn't at all. Especially when actually taken in the
context of the game plot. The only thing it 'proves' is that they are not actively involved in an official admitted 'romantic relationship' at this point in time, but we would not think this anyway! And even [i]this is ambiguous. Pearl has 'the wrong idea' even if they WERE romantic partners. I mean, look what the conversation is REALLY about. Pearl thinks that Phoenix has 'betrayed' Maya by taking Ron's case - even when MAYA herself is okay with it! Pearl's ideas of what Phoenix 'should' do if he loves Maya -romantic or not - are clearly unworkable in reality. And in reality, MAYA doesn't see it as betrayal. So, ironically enough, the partnership they really do have is stronger than Pearl's childish fairytale notions.
And what are we seeing this straight after? 3-1 and delusional Feenie with his unrealistic fantasy ideas of romantic relationships and partnerships! It's essential for new players [that's their intro to Phoenix!] and people who haven't played game 2 for ages to demonstrate here Phoenix is no longer delusional, childish Feenie -and that his belief in Maya and their partnership is not similarly caused by fairytale fantasy idiocy.
Also notice Maya denies NOTHING. Pearl's ideas are clearly unrealistic even if they were romantic partners, and Maya even gets briefly embarrassed over how Pearl got those ideas.
Phoenix: And what about you...? Are you okay with me taking Mr Delite's case?
Maya: Y-yeah. I'm fine, Nick. I believe in you.
Phoenix: ...
*sniffle*
I think I'm going to cry.Unlike Feenie with his impossible fairytale ideals over Dollie, their relationship is of a more mature and durable variant. It's not a disaster or 'betrayal' as it would be in Feenie/Pearl irrationality.