Waifu Maya Fey

Rounding out Waifu Month is my favorite Ace Attorney lady, Maya/Mayoi herself!

Look, I love Ema, Trucy, and Kay. I think they're all terrific characters. But the thing is, they're all just different flavors of Maya. Science Maya, Magic Maya, and Ninja Maya. And, yeah, they all have their own endearing quirks and their own equally tragic backstories, but for my money, none of them can hold a candle to the original.

I distinctly remember finding Maya annoying my first time through Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and when I look back now, I can't for the life of me remember why. Yeah, she's a little ditzy, but her relentless optimism is really infectious, and I would argue totally necessary for a game where the universe shits on the protagonist this much. When you're between a rock and a hard place, sometimes all you need to pull you through is a nice, big Maya smile. For as many times as she ends up needing Nick to save her ass, I still firmly believe Maya is absolutely one of the strongest ladies I've drawn this month, and you should know by now that that speaks volumes. Her ability to keep smiling after all the horrible tragedies she's seen in her lifetime just has to be admired.

And, I know I just got done calling her ditzy, but I think she's actually brilliant, in her own way; every time she's in trouble, the very first thing she does is call her sister. I don't think she would have survived her kidnapping or her murder attempt if she hadn't been smart enough to ask her genius sister for help. That's a totally different kind of wisdom that I think deserves to be appreciated too; "A wise [wo]man knows [her]self to be a fool," as it were.

And think of me what you will, but one thing I sorely missed with the other aides was the thick sexual tension between her and Nick. You never see Apollo kick down a door to save Trucy, or Edgeworth cross a burning bridge to reach Kay. And even if you did, it would be hella weird, for one spoilery reason or another. Phoenix and Maya had real chemistry, and the two of them always soaked up the scenes they shared.

Even her theme song ties the first three games together musically, just like she holds it together as a character. I'm still really upset that she wasn't even mentioned in AA4, and as thrilled as I am to see Phoenix back in the driver's seat, I'm even more upset that we've heard no word of Maya for AA5. It makes me deeply sad and hurt to see that Level 5 seems to have a better understanding of her importance to the series than Capcom does. Sherlock has Watson, Batman has Robin, Layton has Luke, and Phoenix Wright has Maya Fey. And call me old-fashioned, but I don't like this new chick messin' with the formula.