Mia Fey

Mia Fey
Ace Attorney character
Mia Fey in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
First appearance	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2001)
Created by	Shu Takumi
Designed by	Tatsurō Iwamoto

Mia Fey, known in Japanese as Chihiro Ayasato, is a character in the Ace Attorney series, first appearing in the 2001 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. She is a defense attorney and mentor to protagonist Phoenix Wright, as well as the older sister to Maya Fey. Like Maya, she is also a spirit medium, able to commune with the dead. She is murdered in the second episode of the game by a man named Redd White in order to conceal the truth about him, only for Maya to channel her into her body. She reappears throughout the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy as a spirit possessing either her or their cousin, Pearl Fey, offering assistance and guidance to Phoenix. Mia appears in the third entry, Trials and Tribulations, as a playable character during flashback episodes.

Mia was created by Shu Takumi and designed by Tatsurō Iwamoto. She was initially conceived as an older man, though this was changed due to the high number of old men in the story. Mia has received generally positive reception, praised for her strong character and beauty, with multiple critics discussing the untimeliness of her death.

Mia Fey first appeared in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney as Phoenix's boss and mentor at Fey and Co. Law Offices. She assists him in his first trial and helps him get a not guilty verdict for his client. In the next episode, she is killed by a man named Redd White in order for him to keep secrets about his blackmailing she had about him hidden. Her sister, Maya Fey, is framed for the murder, and Phoenix defends her in court. During the case, Phoenix discovers that both Maya and Mia are from a family of spirit mediums, and Maya, a spirit medium, channels Mia's spirit, allowing Mia to aide Phoenix and causing Maya's body to change to Mia's proportions. After Phoenix struggles to beat White and his prosecutorial rival, Miles Edgeworth, Mia intervenes, reading out White's secrets, before White confesses in order to get her to stop talking. During the fourth episode, Mia and Maya's mother's past, which involved her falling into disgrace after channeling Edgeworth's deceased father and causing spirit mediums to fall into disrepute due to Edgeworth's father naming the wrong person as his killer, entered the forefront. Maya struggles to channel Mia, ultimately going back to Kurain Village to train her spirit medium abilities. Mia later appears in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, where she is at turns channeled by Maya or their cousin, Pearl Fey. During the second episode, Mia, through Pearl, helps defend Maya for murder, proving that their aunt, Morgan Fey, was the true mastermind. This also allows Mia and Maya to see each other again for the first time since Mia's death. In the fourth episode, Maya is kidnapped, and she channels Mia in order to have Mia take in information on where she was being held to tell Phoenix about through Pearl.

Mia appears again in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, where she serves as the main character and player-character of the first episode. This episode is set during her second trial, and she is defending Phoenix, who is on trial for murder. Her goal in this case was to pursue Dahlia Hawthorne, Phoenix's girlfriend, who she believed was the killer in her first trial. She ultimately proves Dahlia is the true killer in this case, and Dahlia expresses a desire for revenge against Mia. During the second and third episodes, Phoenix faces a new prosecutor called Godot, who expressed deep resentment for Phoenix. The fourth episode depicts Mia's first trial, defending a man named Terry Fawles for murder. She faces against Edgeworth in his first prosecution. Terry, who was in love with Dahlia, ultimately took his own life on Dahlia's prompting in order to not betray Dahlia by revealing she was the killer, resulting in no verdict. Her mentor, Diego Armando, was ultimately put in a coma by Dahlia through poisoning six months after the case. During the fifth episode, it is revealed that Godot and Diego are one in the same, and he resented Phoenix for not protecting her. Mia's spirit ultimately watches over Phoenix as Phoenix defeats Godot in court.

Mia was created by the series' creator, Shu Takumi. Originally, Takumi planned to have Mia's law office consist of a protagonist, helper, and mentor, but this changed when Takumi's boss told him to remove one, arguing that three was too many. Takumi did not want to do this, choosing to handle it by having Mia die and exist as a spirit through a spirit medium, saying that this would end up being two characters. He stated that he considered having Mia be a spirit from the very beginning of the game, and positive reception during development spurred on this idea. The first trial was intended to be about the murder of Phoenix's mentor with Phoenix as the defendant, but this was scrapped with the idea being that the death wouldn't have an impact if the player had not met the mentor before. Thus, he introduced a new prologue with the mentor assisting Phoenix in his defense. The spirit medium angle was planned to be used only in the first game, but expanded this aspect in the second and third games, where the third entry became centered around spirit mediums.^{[citation needed]} Takumi expressed worry, when designing her younger self for Trials and Tribulations, about pulling it off properly.^[1] When designing the fourth episode of Trials and Tribulations, Takumi wanted Mia to face off against Edgeworth, but experienced complications due to both having not lost a case before. He ultimately decided to have defendant Terry Fawles die during court in order for the trial to end without a verdict in order to deal with this.^[2]

Mia was designed by Tatsurō Iwamoto, who originally conceived her as an older man wearing a geta. They decided to change this after determining that too many of the characters were old men, causing them to change Phoenix's mentor character to be a young woman. The original old man design was repurposed for the Judge's design.^[3] When designing Maya in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice, the game's character artist, Takuro Fuse, considered making her resemble Mia now that she is grown up, ultimately coming up with a design that felt similar to Mia's while attempting to not lose Maya's charm.^[4] The theme song for Maya and Mia, "Turnabout Sisters Ballad," was originally written to be cheerier, but once Mia's death was written, the song was changed by adding a semitonal chord shift to the main part of the song to express sadness.^[5]

Mia Fey has received generally positive reception. KK News staff noted that she was a popular character with the Ace Attorney fandom, attributing this to her beauty. They also noted how she nurtures Maya as her older sister, as well as nurturing Phoenix as his mentor.^[6] They found Mia's plot line a disappointing one, expressing how they initially viewed her as the game's heroine until her death and as beautiful, mature, and smart. Despite their disappointment, they felt excited every time she reappeared through Maya's spirit medium abilities.^[7] They stated that her life was as gorgeous and short as fireworks, stating that her smile, grace, confidence, and justice would remain with players forever. They found her teaching that you must smile in front of others no matter how difficult things are to be memorable.^[8] Dengeki writer Ayana felt that her words to Phoenix, to reverse his way of thinking, resonated with her, feeling that being able to change one's way of thinking was a valuable quality in all walks of life.^[9] Eurogamer writer Jay Castello, while discussing their desire to become a lawyer as a teenager, stated that Mia was the character who drove this desire. They called her "compassionate, dedicated, and hyper-competent," and that she was the kind of person they aspired to be.^[10] Fellow Eurogamer writer John Walker called her a "wonderful" character, enjoying her presence in the game while expressing that he had a lot of affection for her as a female video game character.^[11]

Game Revolution writer Joe Dodson discussed her sexuality, particularly noting that her breasts were particularly large and commenting on how weird it is that she can possess Pearl, an eight-year-old, giving her breasts.^[12] Nintendo Life writer Kate Gray also commented on Mia's design when channeled by Pearl, calling it creepy. On Mia's character, she felt that Mia's death was meant to teach players not to take anything for granted, comparing this scene to a later case where Phoenix's client turns out to be guilty. She felt that this twist was written with the idea that you'd grown complacent. On Mia, she discussed whether Mia falls under the women in refrigerators writing trope, where women are killed, abused, or otherwise harmed as a motivation for the player or protagonist. She argued that while she fit this trope, she doesn't "stay in the fridge," stating that she remains "strong, powerful, and utterly unfazed by her own murder," as well as a superior lawyer to Phoenix.^[13]