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“ | ... Tee hee. You haven't changed a bit... Mia Fey. | „ |
~ Dahlia Hawthorne's sweeter side. |
“ | Do. You. Think. You've. Won? Well?! Do you, Mia Fey? Heh. Heh. Heh. Heheh... That's. Just. Fine! | „ |
~ Dahlia Hawthorne's darker side. |
“ | You're as foolishly optimistic as ever, aren't you... my darling Feenie? Do you want to know the truth? Ever since we met... I've despised you. Your sniveling naïveté and your pathetic faith in other people. | „ |
~ Dahlia Hawthorne revealing her true nature. |
Dahlia Hawthorne (Japanese: Chinami Miyanagi) is one of the main antagonists in the Ace Attorney franchise.
She is the main antagonist of the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, being the overarching antagonist of the 2001 visual novel Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and one of the two main antagonists (alongside Godot) of its 2004 sequel Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations.
She is a selfish, heartless, and sociopathic serial killer who uses her sweet and kind demeanor and appearance to manipulate people, especially men. She is also the arch-nemesis and evil counterpart of Mia Fey, as well as the first arch-enemy of Phoenix Wright, whom she manipulated in the past.
She was voiced by Rina Satō (who also voiced Baby 5 in One Piece) in Japanese and Dani Chambers (who also voiced Mary in Fairy Tail) in English.
Biography[]
Turnabout Beginnings[]
Dahlia Hawthorne and her twin sister Iris were born to Morgan Fey and her husband, a wealthy jeweler. Morgan's husband had married her under the impression that she would become the head of the Fey Clan, but due to her lack of spiritual power, Morgan's younger sister Misty assumed the position instead. Morgan's husband subsequently divorced her, taking Dahlia and Iris with him, though Dahlia believed that Morgan had abandoned the three of them due to her and her sister's lack of spiritual power. The jeweler eventually remarried, and subsequently adopting the woman's daughter, Valerie, as his own. Seeing her own twin as a nuisance, Dahlia convinced her father to leave Iris at a channeling dojo called the Hazakura Temple.
At the age of 14, Dahlia and Valerie conspired to steal a two million dollar jewel from their father with the aid of Dahlia's tutor, Terry Fawles, via a staged kidnapping. Terry was to be the "culprit" responsible for abducting Dahlia, and Valerie, who worked as a police detective, was to make the exchange. After Fawles had the jewel, she would run away with him.
However, when the time came, Dahlia threw herself into the Eagle River (with the diamond) in an attempt to cut Terry out of the deal. Her body was never found, and Fawles was tried and convicted for her murder. Dahlia actually washed up on the river bank at Hazakura, where Valerie discovered her, nursed her back to health. Iris was supposed to take part in the fake kidnapping plan, but she backed out out of fear. Dahlia would never forget her sister's betrayal, viewing her as nothing but a backstabbing traitor from then on. In the time following the incident, Valerie would help Dahlia create a new identity for herself under the alias of “Melissa Foster”.
Five years later, Terry Fawles escaped from a bandwagon and phoned Valerie to meet him at Dusky Bridge. Because he had spent five years in jail, he had forgotten what Valerie looked like, so he instructed her to wear a white scarf. Soon after, Valerie would contact Dahlia, telling her that she intended to tell Terry the truth about what happened. Dahlia, afraid that her crimes and true identity could be exposed, committed her first murder by stabbing her step-sister in the back and placed the body in the trunk of a car that was stolen by the fugitive Fawles.
During the trial, Dahlia, still going by the alias "Melissa Foster", appeared and testified against Terry Fawles. Before attorneys Mia Fey and Diego Armando could bring her to justice, Fawles poisoned himself due to a promise he and Dahlia made, which was that if neither one could trust the other, then they had to drink the poison in the bottle. As a result, Fawles died, and Dahlia Hawthorne walked out of the court a free woman.
Turnabout Memories[]
Six months later, Dahlia met with Diego and poisoned his coffee with the same poison that had killed Terry. She handed the poison vial, which was actually a pendant she wore as a necklace, off to Phoenix Wright so that she wouldn't be caught with it. She intended to kill him later and get it back, but Iris begged her to spare his life, promising to get the necklace back herself.
Dahlia waited eight months for Iris to do so, but she failed, having genuinely fallen in love with Phoenix despite remaining disguised as Dahlia. As a result, Dahlia took matters into her own hands and tried to kill Phoenix herself. On April 9th, Dahlia stole Phoenix's cold medicine (Coldkiller X) and poisoned it so she could kill him. However, when she discovered her ex-boyfriend, Doug Swallow, talking to Phoenix about her, she panicked and decided to kill Swallow instead. After Phoenix had angrily pushed Swallow to the ground and left the scene, Dahlia electrocuted Swallow with a snapped power cable before placing the poisoned cold medicine in his hand, framing Phoenix for the murder.
At the trial, however, she was caught and exposed by Mia Fey, who was out to avenge Diego Armando. Before she received her sentence, Dahlia promised Mia that it was not over between them.
Bridge to the Turnabout[]
Five years later, Dahlia was executed by hanging, but not before her mother, Morgan, who had been imprisoned due to her involvement in an earlier murder, informed her about a plan to kill Maya Fey, Mia's younger sister. She would have Morgan's youngest daughter, Pearl Fey, channel Dahlia's spirit and kill Maya, allowing Pearl to become the next master of the Fey Clan. Dahlia only agreed to go along with the plan because she wanted to have her revenge against Mia, who had been killed two years earlier.
After five years in a coma, Armando woke up and heard about Mia's death by Redd White, but blamed it on Phoenix Wright for letting her down. He changed his name to Godot and became a prosecutor to follow Wright and defeat him in court. However, he heard about Morgan's plan and called both Iris and Maya's mother, Misty Fey (who was under the alias of "Elise Deauxnim"), to channel Dahlia before she could be called through Pearl.
Misty channeled her according to plan, but when she tried to kill Maya, Godot saved her by killing Misty on the spot with her own sword. Afterward, Maya was told by Mia, who Maya had channeled, to lock herself in the nearby temple and channel Dahlia into her own body. However, an earthquake struck, and seeing Miles Edgeworth having a panic attack while watching Iris, Dahlia swapped places with her and locked her in the temple. Dahlia later posed as Iris and tricked Wright in court to believe Maya was dead, not knowing the truth herself; she erroneously believed that Maya had committed suicide by jumping into the Eagle River out of guilt for being forced to kill her mother.
However, Wright figured out the truth and, after much effort, exposed Dahlia's lies. Finally, when Dahlia said she couldn't be punished because she was already dead, Mia (who was being channeled through Pearl) said she already received her punishment by being herself, a "miserable, pathetic, weak creature who can never win at anything." She then immediately left Maya's body and, according to Godot, returned to the Hell she came from.
Breakdown[]
Dahlia has two breakdowns, each occurring in a different case. In Turnabout Memories, she begins pronouncing Mia's name in anger, then turning her head to the camera, her eyes glowing in wrath while the butterflies that usually surround her burst into flames.
“ | I'M... NOT... READY... NOT... READY... TO... GO... | „ |
~ Dahlia's spirit before being banished from the world of the living. |
In Bridge to the Turnabout, when Phoenix finally corners her and Mia (while being channeled by Pearl) verbally breaks her, she slams her head on the stand while holding it with her hands. She then screams in agony while her spirit leaves Maya's body, her hair flowing in every direction like fire and her eyes radiating a sinister glare. She disappears in a burst of blue flames in the shape of a Magatama while images of her crimes flash behind her. Following Dahlia's exorcism, an exhausted Maya weakly calls out to Phoenix and Mia before fainting at the witness stand.
Personality[]
Initially, Dahlia Hawthorne appeared to be a sweet and angelic young woman, easily gaining the attention and affection of any man she came across. This, however, was merely a façade. In reality, she was as cold, cruel, arrogant, and manipulative as they came, not caring for anyone or anything but herself, all of which were the characteristics of a true, evil sociopath. She used her "sweet and innocent" persona to gain the loyalty of others, namely a college student named Phoenix Wright and a tutor named Terry Fawles, and bend them to her will, with the latter even being willing to commit suicide for her while on the witness stand.
Despite her charming nature, she is bad at lying. When cross-examined, she tended to commit several mistakes. She tried to claim that there was a lightning bolt, but Payne debunked her despite otherwise being protective of her. When impersonating Iris, Wright could see Psyche-Locks while Iris successfully lied to Wright about not leaving the temple.
Dahlia was eventually found guilty and executed for her second murder (that of her ex-boyfriend, Doug Swallow), but even death couldn't hold back her malice. Dahlia's spirit later returned to torment Phoenix and her relatives in the Fey clan in a scheme that resulted in the murder of her aunt, Misty Fey (the mother of her nemesis, Mia Fey,), and endangered the life of Mia's sister, Maya. Fortunately, both Phoenix and Mia defeated her again with a breaking speech, after which she broke down, and left Maya's body, whereupon it was agreed that she would never be channeled again.
However, Iris later showed a tragic side to Dahlia, explaining that if she'd gotten a true parental figure (like Bikini to Iris), then she might never have been a murderer.
Victims[]
A list of characters that have fallen under harm from Dahlia Hawthorne's actions |
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Through flashbacks, it's revealed that Dahlia was the first villain ever defeated by Mia.
- She is also the first villain not to be defeated in court by Phoenix Wright.
- Dahlia is the first culprit to get away with some of her crimes, escaping blame for Killing Valerie Hawthorne and Terry Fawles as well as trying to kill Diego Armando. While she is eventually arrested and executed, the conviction is for a different murder.
- Dahlia is the first female villain to be the main antagonist of an Ace Attorney game. She would later be followed by Queen Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in.
- Dahlia is the first female serial killer in the franchise, and she has the highest direct body count out of any female villain.
- Dahlia is the culprit in three separate trials, the most out of any villain. However, she goes free in the second trial despite being the killer.
- "Dahlia" and "Iris" are both names of flowers. However, Dahlia's name may be a reference to the murder novel "The Black Dahlia. Also, "Dahlia" sounds much similar to the term "the liar."
- "Hawthorne" is also the name of the Hawthorne effect, in which someone acts different when being observed. This effect also applies to Dahlia herself.
- "Miyanagi" (美柳) is a name that usually evokes tranquility. "Chinami" (ちなみ) may come from the phrase "chi mo namida mo nai" ("without blood or tears"), basically meaning "heartless".
- Dahlia, alongside Kristoph Gavin, Quercus Alba, Simon Keyes, and Mael Stronghart, is one of the few overarching Ace Attorney villains, being behind the events of their entire game.
- Dahlia is the shortest villain in the entire Ace Attorney series, being only 155 cm (5'1") tall.
- In a game series where most of the final culprits are the primary antagonist in their respective games (except Matt Engarde, who had almost no relations to any of the previous cases in the second game except its final case), Dahlia was a special case as the main villain of the third game, since she was not the final culprit of the third game, but she had a heavy role within it.
- In fact, although Godot/Diego Armando was revealed to be the final culprit of the third game, Dahila is the main antagonist (as well as a catalyst) in the game even though her defeat was before Godot's defeat since she once possessed Misty Fey in order to kill once again, and Godot's murder on Misty had interfered with her plan. What was more, Dahlia was the main cause to make Armando into Godot, who is just antagonistic rather than villainous.
- The only other Ace Attorney villain with a similar role like Dahlia was Excelsius Winner from Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Although he was not the final boss of the game, Excelsius could be considered as the true catalyst and/or even the Bigger Bad of the Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Prosecutor's Path who drove its main and final antagonist, Simeon Saint, into villainy.
External Links[]
- Dahlia Hawthorne on the Pure Evil Wiki.
- Dahlia Hawthorne on the Ace Attorney Wiki.