Characters / Ace Attorney: Dahlia Hawthorne

Ace Attorney | Main Character Sheet
Wright Anything Agency (Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice) | Defense Attorneys & Assistants | Main Prosecutors (Miles Edgeworth, Franziska von Karma) | Prosecutors & Judges | Law Enforcement | The Fey Clan | Troupe Gramarye | Kingdom of Khura'in
Witnesses and Other Characters (Original Game | JFA | T&T [Dahlia Hawthorne] | AJ | DD | SoJ | Manga | Anime | Novels | Theater) | Victims
Investigations (AAI | AAI2) | TGAA (Major | Minor)
PL vs. PWAA

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Warning: Due to the volume of story twists related to her, all spoilers will be left unmarked. Proceed with caution.

Dahlia Hawthorne (Chinami Miyanagi)

Voiced by (Japanese): Rina Sato (anime)

Voiced by (English): Dani Chambers (anime)

"With absolutely no proof, you treat a voluntary witness like she's a mass-murderer..."

The true villainess of Trials and Tribulations. Dahlia is introduced as the ever-sweet, ever-innocent Friend to All Living Things girlfriend of Phoenix Wright, but Mia already knew that something was wrong with her. Turns out she tried to frame Phoenix for a murder she committed, and Phoenix himself was originally supposed to be the victim. Mia eventually unmasks her and put her behind bars and eventually, on death row.

However, her criminal career actually started several years before, when she seduced Terry Fawles and used him to fake her kidnapping in an elaborate plan to get back at her family. When the plan didn't go as intended, she faked her own death and got Terry convicted to death for it, then killed her own stepsister and co-conspirator, again framing Terry, to stop her from confessing. In the following trial, after testifying under the pseudonym "Melissa Foster" (Satoko Mukui), she narrowly escaped conviction by manipulating Terry into committing suicide and, a few months later, poisoning then-defense attorney Diego Armando.

She was eventually used by her mother, Morgan Fey in her plan against Maya Fey, by calling her back from the dead via channeling her spirit after she is executed a month before the final case of Trials and Tribulations, but even then, Dahlia still carried on her own ambitions and revenge, although it is later found out that she willingly did so for her own benefit. It takes the powers of all the main attorneys and prosecutors to stop her from getting Maya in jail for matricide. She eventually gets lectured back to the underworld by Mia Fey.

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A-I

• Aesop Amnesia: You'd think that after her first set of crimes went wrong and led to her escaping by the skin of her teeth, she'd learn that she isn't cut out for this whole 'criminal' business. Nope, she just keeps trying to solve her crimes with more crimes, until finally justice catches up to her. Justified in that she's all but stated to be a textbook sociopath, who by definition can never learn from their mistakes as they believe nothing is ever their fault.
• All for Nothing: Dahlia’s entire series of murders can be traced back to the fake kidnapping that she masterminded on Dusky Bridge to steal a diamond worth two million dollars from her father, a plot that ultimately failed since she lost the jewel and led her to kill others for the sake of covering it up, only for her to eventually be executed after getting caught and fail her last murder attempt as an evil spirit summoned from the underworld.
• Animal Motifs: A butterfly. Not only do they flutter around her when she's in her "innocent" persona, but her Black Eyes of Evil give her a slightly insect-like look while her general beauty. It ties into her clothing as well; her sandals have a butterfly design, and the way her stole floats around her like wings ties her to the butterfly in particular. Finally, and most definitively, her final appearance is as a spirit after previously appearing in the flesh.
• Arch-Enemy: Towards Mia Fey, a feeling that is reciprocated. Mia hates Dahlia because she made Terry Fawles kill himself when he was about to get acquitted for a crime she committed, and because she poisoned her boyfriend, Diego Armando, shortly afterwards — in fact, Mia considered the fact Dahlia murdered Doug Swallow all but a Foregone Conclusion in Case 3-1. On the other hand, Dahlia despises Mia for finding her guilty of murdering Doug Swallow and sending her to death row.
• Asshole Victim: She gets hanged for her crimes and, when she returns from the dead, stabbed by Godot.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her court mugshot, which normally appears in full after a culprit is convicted. However, hers is completely shadowed. This goes two ways: one, it shows that since she's a dead criminal, she doesn't exist anymore. Two, it shows that while there are very despicable criminals out there, none of them have gone to the depths of evil as Dahlia had done. Having a shadowed profile shows just how heartless Dahlia is at her core.
• Badass Boast: Gets off a very low-key, but utterly menacing, one during her final stint on the witness stand.
  Dahlia: Dahlia Hawthorne. And my current profession? Permanently retired.
• Bad Liar: Both times Mia gets her on the witness stand, the only reason she lasts more than one session of testimony is because the Judge and the prosecuting attorney are both trying their hardest to let every massive mistake she makes slide. Once she even lied about the weather, a mistake Winston Payne of all people corrected, and another example had her lying about listening to music while a fight was in front of her for her, where she basically showed how insensitive she is in reality. She has a seriously hard time improvising once Mia catches her up and leaves glaringly-obvious holes in her statements, despite having personally planned out and prepared both of the murders she's testifying about. When Iris begins making the exact same mistakes against Phoenix, it's a major clue that something isn't right.
• Beauty Is Bad: While she's beautiful, saying she's bad is an understatement.
• Beware the Superman: Case 3-5 shows how terrifying it would be for a spirit with a mission and potential to be channeled to exist if that spirit was Dahlia.
• Big Bad: At least one of multiple Big Bads in a Big Bad Ensemble in Trials and Tribulations, with Godot being another Big Bad who fights against her. Cases 1 and 4 are largely (if not solely) because of her actions, and Case 5 is mostly the result of her teaming up with her mother, making her the villainess responsible for the game's overarching plot.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Dahlia teams up with her mother, Morgan Fey, as the villainesses of Bridge to the Turnabout.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While horrifyingly evil, she manages to get virtually everyone except Mia and Diego to fall for her charms, at least until she's found out.
• Bright Is Not Good: Dahlia is a ruthless killer with bright red hair and pink and white clothes, and her ghost form has off-white skin while retaining the hair. While possessing Maya's body, however, she edges closer into Dark Is Evil.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Even before she reveals her true nature, these serve as a very subtle Red Right Hand.
• Black Widow: She killed Doug Swallow, her ex-boyfriend who was trying to warn her current boyfriend, Phoenix Wright, that she was dangerous. And she then tried to have Phoenix killed after Doug. She also drove Terry Fawles to suicide.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Present when she pretends to be Iris, even if subtly. In addition to the comments mentioned below in Never My Fault, wherein Dahlia indirectly blames Iris for her misfortune, "Iris" during her conversation with Phoenix also claims that "my sister always does what's right" and shows a lot of adoration for her — which given that "Iris" at that point is actually Dahlia says a lot about how she perceives herself.
• Cain and Abel: Her first known murder was of her stepsister Valerie, and her relationship with her twin sister Iris isn't much better. While Iris, despite knowing what Dahlia has done, has a measure of sympathy and love for her, Dahlia despises Iris, scorning her sister for her refusal to participate in her original fake kidnapping plan, and even conspires with Morgan to frame her for Maya's murder.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Dahlia refers to her mother, Morgan Fey, by name in her testimony in "Bridge to the Turnabout" to show that she has no love or respect for her mother.
• Card-Carrying Villain: After her time in jail and being executed, she seems to be embracing what a horrible human being she is. Once she is revealed to be pretending to be Iris, she doesn't bother with her fake nice-girl act, even sporting some deranged facial expressions to make sure everyone sees her vile nature.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Her entire life was a protracted series of backstabbings and dirty deeds. She betrayed both Valerie and Terry Fawles, and later betrayed both of her boyfriends in college. Even after she's executed for her crimes, she still manages to screw Morgan over one last time by essentially spilling the beans on her entire plan to the court. While she believed the plan had gone off without a hitch at that point, she makes it clear she's only confessing out of bitterness and hatred towards her mother — and to rub Phoenix's nose in it.
• Clashing Cousins: The ruthless Arch-Enemy to Mia Fey, and also her and Maya's cousin via their mothers being sisters. In Bridge to the Turnabout, she plots to kill the latter as Revenge by Proxy on the former.
• Classic Villain: Representing Pride (believing that she is above the law because of her beauty and charms) and Wrath (going after people she believed have wronged her purely out of childish spite).
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Along with being the first female Big Bad and the only one to have a direct impact on Phoenix's past, she becomes the first supernatural villain of the series by means of Fey spirit channeling.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: "Melissa Foster" is from a country that underwent a civil war, which is why she claims she has no papers.
• Cop Killer: Her first murder victim was her stepsister Valerie Hawthorne, who was a police officer.
• Corruption by a Minor: At age 14, she was using her charms to manipulate her tutor, Terry Fawles, into doing anything she wanted. Even making him promise he would kill himself if he were feeling forced to “betray” her.
• Crazy-Prepared: Though Dahlia may be terrible at lying to cover her own tracks, she still got Terry to agree to a Suicide Pact in the event that she needed him to die for whatever reason, all the way back when she was fourteen. Five years later, she invokes said pact at the end of Case 3-4 to save her own skin, just as Mia was about to get Terry acquitted.
• Crime After Crime: Her original crime was trying to steal a valuable diamond from her father by faking her kidnapping with two accomplices. After that crime went south, she killed her accomplices to keep them from talking, killed an ex-boyfriend who figured her out and was trying to warn her current boyfriend (Phoenix) that she was bad news, and attempted to kill Godot (who was investigating her). She would've tried to kill Phoenix if Iris hadn't stopped her. So when she finally was caught, instead of getting a few years in prison for the scheme (maybe less if she snitched on her accomplices), she gets the death penalty for killing her ex.
• Crippling Overspecialization: She's good in using her looks to manipulate people, but that's it. She's a Bad Liar, has bad impulse control and ticks off easily. When she's against Mia who doesn't let Dahlia's looks get in the way, she's got nothing.
• Crocodile Tears: One of her many ways of getting sympathy is fake-crying.
• Cute Is Evil: She looks and seems like The Ingenue and a Yamato Nadeshiko with a white dress, Parasol of Prettiness, and butterflies flying around her. But all that hides a bitter, hateful Serial Killer with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder who uses her cuteness to manipulate men. Her sister Iris is more genuinely nice while having similar looks.
• Dark Is Evil: While she's a redhead who's heavily associated with bright, traditionally feminine colors, she becomes this while possessing the black-haired Maya. However, the scenes where she's defeated for good and forcibly excised from Maya have completely black backgrounds, and they're probably the most terrifying and nightmarish scenes in Trials and Tribulations due to the anguished Nightmare Face she wears while leaving Maya and how she 'dies' at the end. Her mugshot is also just a shadowed, featureless profile unlike the rest of the game's mugshots; this not only shows that she's dead, but also that she's a completely sociopathic and heartless monster at her core with no redeeming traits whatsoever.
• Deader than Dead: After being executed and then forcibly exorcised, the Judge says that he feels it best that her spirit never be channeled by anyone ever again. So it's probably safe to say she's never coming back.
• Dead Person Impersonation:
  • In Turnabout Beginnings, it's revealed she killed her step-sister Valerie and then disguised herself in such a way that she could pass as her in the eyes of the rather simple Terry Fawles. It's also suggested that after five years in prison, he no longer recognized either of them, and Dahlia was able to take the one article of clothing that Valerie planned on using to identify herself.
  • Inverted in Bridge to the Turnabout, where she impersonates her living twin sister Iris, while Dahlia was being channeled by Maya.
• Death Glare: During her first Villainous Breakdown she shoots daggers at Mia, before immediately snapping back to her facade after she's done. It seems she inherited it from Morgan.
• Devilish Hair Horns: Her hair braids (which she shares with Iris) resemble curved horns, which, in addition to her red hair, gives her visual similarities to that of a demon.
• Devious Daggers: She used a knife to stab Valerie in the back. Upon returning from the dead, she used a dagger to try to kill Maya and successfully deal Godot a mortal wound.
• Determinator: She does not give up easily, even when she’s cornered. Not even death stops her from trying to spite Mia.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: She escapes justice in the first trial she is in. However, she kept killing and things went downhill for her.
• Didn't Think This Through: She didn't think of the possibility of Maya channeling her, and can't improvise once she learns the truth.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Ultimately, she's not the game's final villain, despite her and Morgan being responsible for the events of Case 5. The true killer, who's taken care of after Dahlia's exorcism, is Godot.
• Disney Creatures of the Farce: In court, butterflies will flock to her out of nowhere to highlight her innocent image. During her first Villainous Breakdown, her Death Glare incinerates them with hatred.
• Dissonant Serenity: Mia narrates that after Terry's suicide, both Mia and Edgeworth were horrified... but Dahlia was smiling as she left the court.
• Distaff Counterpart: Both she and Matt Engarde are red-themed characters who uphold an innocent and sweet facade to sway others to their own nefarious ends (with their crimes being similar) — swaying Phoenix in the process to get away with their actions, and going as far to drive their 'lovers' into suicide. At a certain point they reveal that what lies beneath that sugary-sweet cover image is a selfish, cynical evil-doer who uses schemes to further their plans that benefit no one but themselves. They are only defeated when pointed out how utterly their schemes failed in the middle of court. The earliest concept art◊ had her with a lock of hair parted to the left, similar to Matt, but longer. The biggest differences are that Matt's a better liar and Dahlia is more willing to get her hands dirty.
• Easily Forgiven: Due to being such an unusual subversion of the usual Serial Killer profile, Dahlia wasn't taken as seriously as other criminals would have been. In chapter 4, she repeatedly committed perjury, faked her identity was proven to be the mastermind in Fawles' kidnapping plot, and was still a main suspect in her step-sister's murder even when Fawles abruptly killed himself. Due to her charm and beauty, she was allowed to continue her normal life and return to university, where she just continued her long string of crimes. Part of Mia Fey's hatred for Dahlia stemmed from her inability to convince the court just how dangerous she was, feeling guilty that Hawthorne had been allowed to continue doing her evil deeds.
• Enfant Terrible: She plotted to get her sister Iris disinherited when she was probably about 8.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite everything she's done, her sister Iris did feel sympathy for her and loved her, which makes Dahlia seem even worse for her manipulation of Iris and her hatred of her for not participating in her fake kidnapping plot.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She is disgusted at Morgan's plan, because she hates that she's thrusting Pearl in the middle of all the conflict in the Fey Clan. Of course, she then participated in that plan, albeit only for personal reasons of petty revenge on Mia, the same reasons she dismissed Morgan (who wanted revenge on Misty) for. Then again, it's likely that her disgust was only due to Pearl, much like herself, being Morgan's child, as opposed to any holding moral scruples against hurting children in general or feeling any sympathy for Pearl — Dahlia was just trying to insult Morgan out of bitterness and out of the knowledge she might have ended up in Pearl's situation had she got any spiritual powers.
• Evil Counterpart: She becomes one to Mia Fey, being another channeled spirit and having a deep history with the same people (Phoenix, Godot, Morgan, and so on). Now just imagine if Mia wanted to murder people instead of doing good.
• Evil Gloating: Dahlia never misses a chance to rub it in everyone's faces how she supposedly killed Maya and taunts they can't do anything about it since Dahlia is already dead. That is until Phoenix reveals that Dahlia didn't succeed in her sadistic plan because she was actually being channeled by Maya herself to hide from her, then begins to lose it.
• Evil Is Petty: Aside from cruelly putting down Phoenix for unintentionally stalling her diabolical plans, she wants revenge on Mia by concocting a plan to murder Maya at Hazakura Temple because she was defeated by her once (albeit, a defeat that led to Dahlia's death, but still). She also has a tendency to make petty insults out of jealousy towards Mia's beauty as well, even calling her a "spinster" in Case 3-5.
• Evil Redhead: A played with example. The only physical difference between Dahlia and her well-meaning twin sister Iris is Dahlia's red hair. Granted, it's likely a dyed colour as every other Fey has black or brown hair and Dahlia was explicitly shown to have black hair when she was fourteen. Still, the one distinguishing feature her ghost has is bright red hair, so dye or not, it's part of her identity.
• Evil Versus Evil: Conspires to kill Maya in 3-5, but is Out-Gambitted by Anti-Villain Godot. It's one of the few cases where the lesser evil wins.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Her beauty is often commented on in-game, but she's one of the more twisted and evil characters in the series. Being the manipulative monster that she truly is, even the Judge points out how "even the loveliest rose can hide the cruelest thorns."
• The Fake Cutie: Positively adorable in fake Moe-mode, disconcerting when she shows her true nasty colors, rather terrifying when she goes into full Villainous Breakdown mode.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride and Wrath. Dahlia commits crimes because she feels entitled to everything and is utterly confident in her ability to get away with anything by playing nice. While she is right that her The Fake Cutie act is good enough to fool most guys (though it's much less effective on women, like Mia Fey), her confidence in her lying ability is... far less well-placed, to say the least. She is also incredibly reckless and vengeful, which leads to her committing completely unnecessary crimes- like poisoning of Diego Armando and murdering Doug Swallow, neither of whom had any actual evidence against her, because she was mad they could figure her out. These two flaws led to her being found guilty of first-degree murder and getting the death penalty, but even after death she kept carrying her grudges, this time largely focusing on Mia Fey for getting her found guilty. Mia and Phoenix eventually banish her by telling her that her inability to see past her own ass and take setbacks like a lady are why she's a horrible criminal and will never win against them.
• Fate Worse than Death: Her ultimate fate, as pointed out by Mia. For her crimes both in life and death, her punishment is being reduced to a helpless, lonely, and pitiful wretch who is forced to exist with the knowledge of how none of her plans ever worked out the way she wanted them to, only getting her killed, and how her attempt at revenge against Mia from beyond the grave also failed spectacularly and that she will never be able to get that revenge against Mia she wants so badly. For eternity.
• Fiery Redhead: For all her pretending to be a sweet-hearted, demure girl, she is short-tempered and extremely petty. Much of her crimes were done out of sheer spite towards Mia, who got her declared guilty and subjected to execution by hanging. And towards the end, when she realized her entire 'beyond the grave' revenge plan failed because she was tricked into possessing Maya and not Pearl, she undergoes an epic Villainous Breakdown where she essentially throws a (terrifying) tantrum, cursing both Phoenix and Mia's names and screaming as she is forcibly exorcised out of Maya's body. Her last moments were spent glaring and stewing in anger as she whines that she's not ready to pass on to the next life yet.
• Fille Fatale: She started seducing people and ruining lives at age fourteen, and likely started her scheming long before that (after all, she got her twin Iris disinherited at 8).
• Freudian Excuse: From what Dahlia says to Phoenix while posing as Iris (as well as during her own testimony when she reveals herself in court) and what Iris herself says later on after Dahlia's spirit is exorcised from Maya's body, it seems that much of Dahlia's malice and sociopathy was born from hatred towards her parents, as a result of her mother abandoning both her and Iris for their lack of spiritual power, and her father neglecting them after he took them away from her; neither of her parents showing any love for her is stated to be the reason why Dahlia concocted her fake kidnapping plot, as she wanted to steal the diamond to spite her father. However, in the end, this ultimately does nothing to excuse all the pain and suffering she's inflicted upon others with utterly no regard for how it affected them — especially since the diamond theft in particular involved taking advantage of the mentally disabled Terry Fawles, framing him for murder and getting him sentenced to death, before she drove him to suicide years later. Rather than elicit sympathy from anyone other than Iris in-game, it merely cements how selfish Dahlia truly is; she is willing to kill anyone without remorse just to satisfy her own petty and violent rage. And that's not even getting into how Dahlia, given how much she lies, may possibly even be twisting the truth about her parents to some extent.
• Godzilla Threshold: She's such a heartless monster and her plan is so complex that it takes Phoenix and pretty much all his friends, allies, and rivals to work together to stop her from getting Maya locked up for life.
• Good Wears White: A subverted case. Although she does wear white and she originally seems like a demure Nice Girl, it's also revealed that she's one of the vilest characters in the franchise.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Her actions pushed Godot to become vengeful against Phoenix and to become another Big Bad who targets Phoenix for misplaced vengeance. She therefore is indirectly responsible for his attempts at revenge against Phoenix in cases not involving the Fey clan, making her one of these.
• Head-Turning Beauty: The Judges and Prosecutor Winston Payne quickly get the hots for her when she takes the witness stand, much to Mia's chagrin. She's fully aware of this, and actually exploits it to get the court in her favor.
• Hate Sink: As noted by Phoenix and Mia in Bridge to the Turnabout, Dahlia Hawthorne has arranged or committed murder for spiteful, vindictive, and extraordinarily petty reasons. Dahlia is never given any sort of sympathy by the games, and while Iris does provide a Freudian Excuse for her behavior, it's not treated as something that makes her any less deplorable. Even if her childhood was unpleasant due to being born to unloving parents, she still chose to lash out at and harm innocent people that had nothing to do with her situation, and she's ultimately just a heartless, bratty, spiteful, and selfish monster who has absolutely no remorse for her actions, created with the intention of making the audience hate her guts.
• Hates Their Parent: Her original fake kidnapping plan was done to spite her father into giving up a diamond worth two million dollars before she disappeared with it as revenge for him being neglectful. She despises her mother as well for abandoning her, although she cooperates with Morgan’s plan in Case 3-5 because it gives her another opportunity to enact her revenge on Mia.
• The Heavy: The plot of Bridge to the Turnabout is centered towards her intention to kill Maya to achieve Revenge by Proxy on Mia, but not only did Morgan Fey mastermind the plan, Dahlia is also not the true killer in the case of Misty Fey's murder — she is technically the victim.
• Hidden Depths: She studied literature at university, despite such a major having nothing to do with anything that would benefit her in the slightest apart from just enjoying it. It's noticable that she went out of her way to seduce a chemistry student to gain access to poison, despite being smart enough to take the class herself if she wanted to.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: While Phoenix understood in Case 3-1 that Dahlia wanted to frame him for murder, the end of the game lets her tell him that amongst all her victims, she hated him for his positive nature and faith in others.
• High-Voltage Death: Kills Doug Swallow this way, by shoving him onto a downed power line.
• Humiliation Conga: Towards the end of Bridge to the Turnabout, her plans are revealed, her plot to kill Maya fails, and Phoenix and Mia tag-team her for a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, pointing out that every single one of Dahlia's schemes ultimately didn't work. Thus, Dahlia will now spend eternity reflecting on the fact that she was a pathetic human being who never did anything right. This culminates with Dahlia's spirit being driven from Maya's body, screaming in rage, all of her past deeds reflected on screen before the last fire of her soul is snuffed out.
• Hypocrite: She resents her mother Morgan Fey for her selfish plan to have Pearl Fey as the Master, believing that she's just using Pearl and passing over her older daughter, yet she joins in her plan because of her own selfishness and desire for revenge against an already dead Mia Fey. Phoenix Wright even calls her out on this.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: In Case 3-4, both Mia and Diego point out that she shouldn't have known that Terry supposedly broke into the stolen car, as she wouldn't have ever gotten a chance to see the scratches on the trunk if she were truly taking pictures of herself in the field of flowers. This is also how she ends up revealing her true identity in that same case; “Melissa Foster” remarks that she’s lucky that she wasn’t “wearing a white scarf.” Valerie’s note, in which she writes down to wear a white scarf so Terry can identify her, as per his instructions (he forgot what both she and Dahlia looked like after five years) and to tell Dahlia that the truth was going to come out, was never revealed to the public, so the only way “Melissa” would know that the scarf was supposed to be white would be if she was Dahlia herself.
• Irony: For someone so desperate to disown her family, she sure relied on them a lot. If it wasn't for Valerie Hawthorne, Morgan Fey, and Iris, she would never have been able to continue her crime spree. In her plans to distance herself from them, she went to them for assistance without ever seeing the hypocricy in her actions.
• It's All About Me: Her actions over the course of the game make it abundantly clear that she cares for no one but herself, and by the end she no longer even bothers to deny it.
  Dahlia: Do you understand why I would kill my cousin now? What my goal was?
  Phoenix: Obviously... It's because you were helping your mother.
  Dahlia: Helping...? Don't make me laugh. From the day I was born to the day I died, I never helped anyone! I lived for myself and, in the end, I died for myself. I thought that was obvious.
• It's for a Book: One of her excuses. It doesn't last long, as she's a literature student looking to acquire samples of toxic chemicals.
• It's Personal: She harbors a vendetta against Mia ever since being exposed as the culprit of Case 3-1, and plays along with Morgan's plan of killing Maya, though only so Dahlia can get back at Mia for exposing her true colours at that time.
• It Was with You All Along: The irony of all ironies in Trials & Tribulations. To escape from Dahlia's murder attempt on her, Maya had to "disappear" by reluctantly channeling her. Dahlia (thinking that she was currently in Pearl's body) was none the wiser, until Phoenix figured things out and gave her that Armor-Piercing Question. Discovering this sends her into one of the most terrifying breakdowns in the entire franchise.

J-Z

• Jerkass to One: A Crueler To One example, as while Dahlia doesn't care for anyone but herself, she doesn't even pretend to be nice to Mia.
• Karmic Death: Is executed by hanging after being found guilty for Doug Swallow’s electrocution, after she got away with murdering her stepsister Valerie, drove Terry Fawles to suicide, poisoned Diego Armando/Godot, and unsuccessfully tried to poison Phoenix Wright, as well as attempting to frame him for the aforementioned murder of Doug Swallow when that didn’t pan out. Also technically receives this in Bridge to the Turnabout; while her spirit was channeled by her innocent aunt, Misty Fey, who was trying to counter a plan by Morgan Fey and Dahlia to kill Maya Fey, Dahlia herself was the intended target of a Rage Breaking Point-invoking Godot, the man whom she'd poisoned into a half-decade-long coma and consequently left with life-altering disabilities. Bonus points for him attacking her just as she herself was attacking Maya for Revenge by Proxy against Mia — Godot's lover, no less.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Falsely telling Phoenix that his first girlfriend hated him just to hurt him.
  • She exploits Terry Fawles’s (heavily implied) intellectual disability and uses it to render him a pawn in her schemes, culminating in him taking his own life at her command.
  • She plays along with her mother's plans to murder Maya for no discernible reason other than to spite the late Mia and has no problems putting blood on Pearl’s hands via possession or framing Iris, both of whom are her sisters.
• Knight of Cerebus: Outside of a few quick gags about how others act around her, there is nothing Played for Laughs about Dahlia, being a depraved Serial Killer who displays a downright disturbing level of hatred and sadism come the climax.
• Lack of Empathy: The only time she ever shows any kind of sympathy for anyone other than herself is when she states that Morgan's plan to use her own daughter Pearl as a pawn was cruel. Even then, Dahlia doesn't have any remorse for actually enacting that plan, since it enabled her to get Revenge by Proxy on Mia. So it's more like Dahlia is leaning into how Obviously Evil she is now rather than showing actual sympathy, especially since she calls Pearl a “sniveling little runt” moments later.
• Leitmotif: "Distant Traces of Beauty", a theme she shares with her twin sister Iris. They're both very pretty, but are complete opposites personality-wise, hence the name of the song.
• Light Is Not Good: Wearing white doesn't stop her from being utterly vicious.
• Magical Floating Shawl: Dahlia has a translucent pink stole floating around her shoulders, signifying that there is something otherworldly about her.
• Manipulative Bitch: "Two minutes, and she's got the whole courtroom wrapped around her little finger..."
• Meaningful Name:
  • A reference to the Black Dahlia, and she's got thorns. Possibly a Shout-Out to Nathaniel Hawthorne, specifically the story "Rappaccini's Daughter"—the title character is a Walking Wasteland with poison permeating her blood and body, and her very touch is lethal. "Chinami" refers to the saying "chi mo namida mo nai" ("without blood or tears"—basically callous to the extreme). It also sounds suspiciously like Delilah, the lover of Samson who seduced him into revealing the secret of his strength before betraying him to his enemies, leading to his death — which is similar to how Dahlia treated Phoenix.
  • It is said that dahlias symbolize elegance in the language of flowers, which matches the façade she puts on to fool the court. However, red dahlias in particular symbolize betrayal and dishonesty, which is indicative of her true nature and makes her red hair all the more appropriate. Her name can also refer to the Cactus Dahlia, referred to as "Les Etoiles du Diable" (Stars of the Devil) in France, which is rather fitting given her monstrous character.
• Medication Tampering: She poisoned Phoenix Wright's cold medicine in a failed attempt to kill him.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Exaggerated—even after her court-mandated execution, she's still amongst the living, pursuing her own nefarious ends, thanks to the Khura'in Channeling Technique. Even after her defeat in court, it's all left up to good faith whether she'll return or not; after all, there’s no guarantee that her spirit will never be channeled again.
• Mister Big: The 155 cm (5'1") tall Big Bad of the third game. For the record, she manipulated the 190 cm tall (6'2") Terry Fawles.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Despite being born into the Fey Clan, both Dahlia and Iris had zero spiritual power, which she acknowledges was actually lucky for them, as it saved them from being the subject of Morgan's schemes and abuse like Pearl was.
• Murder by Suicide: Her plan to deal with Terry Fawles was to pretend to create a Suicide Pact with him where they'd both commit suicide if they couldn't trust each other any more. Terry, being lovestruck and somewhat dim, genuinely believed that she would follow through and kill herself with him, but she had no intention of ever doing so and simply saw it as an easy way to get Terry to die before he could become a liability. She invokes it in Turnabout Beginnings when Terry is the only person who could seal a guilty verdict for her by testifying against her. He kills himself with poison from the necklace she gave him, and she walks out of the courtroom with a smile.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Believes in this big time. Your sister wants out of your criminal lifestyle? Kill her. Terry Fawles might expose your criminal actions in court? Trick him into killing himself. Defense attorney starts getting suspicious about your behavior? Poison him and put him in a coma that nearly kills him. Iris taking too long to retrieve a single piece of evidence from Phoenix Wright? Try to poison his medicine and kill him. Phoenix's friend tries to tip him off that you're a bad person? Shove him onto a live wire? And as you'd expect, this backfires severely. All the murders she commits or attempts to commit just end up painting a massive target onto her back while moving her even further away from her original goals.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: She was horrible enough in life, but being executed managed to make things worse for everyone, as any spirit medium can now channel her.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: A Played With example as it isn't her real name. However, in Japan, her fake name in case 3-4 is Satoko Mukui, which means "vengeful foster child". It's preserved somewhat in the translation, where her fake name "Melissa Foster" sounds like "malicious foster".
• Never Found the Body: She was considered dead as she had fallen from the Dusky Bridge in the fake kidnapping incident five years before Case 3-4. Of course, the reason they never found Dahlia's body was that she was alive all along. No one, not even Dahlia herself, found the jewel she had stolen, however.
• Never My Fault: Blames her failures on others. She also breaks down in rage when Mia reminds that it was her own fault that her schemes never worked. This is also something of a tell during the period of 3-5 where she masquerades as Iris; one of the several signs that something's up is in the way "Iris" claims it was all her fault that Dahlia went bad and was eventually executed, and is suddenly penitent for supposedly "betraying" her sister by not going along with her schemes. She also has this to say when Phoenix points out the failure of the staged kidnapping on Dusky Bridge:
  Dahlia: Sh-Shut your mouth! That wasn't my fault! It was because of that stupid oaf of a prisoner and that weakling of a policewoman!
• Nightmare Face: She wears really scary Death Glares. And when she's forcibly exorcised out of Maya's body, her spirit shoots up into the air screaming with completely shadowed eyes and a particularly anguished expression, fittingly making her face resemble that of a corpse.
• Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: She is a delicate-looking and very feminine young woman who wears a pink dress, carries a matching parasol, and summons pink butterflies as a sign of her purity. She's actually a serial murderess and master manipulator who uses her feminine charms and skill at poison to commit crimes.
• Obviously Evil: After being found out in Case 3-5, she does not even try to put on an innocent image anymore; Slasher Smiles become one of her most common expressions at that point.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Dahlia is five years younger than Mia, and Mia is the one who ultimately exposes Dahlia’s crimes, saving Phoenix from being framed for Doug Swallow’s murder.
• Orcus on His Throne: She makes others do her work whenever she can, which is a big reason why so many of her schemes fail. Eventually she gets so many people involved in them that it's impossible to hide her culpability — especially once her ex-allies start communicating with each other.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Yet another part of her innocent image.
• Pink Means Feminine: Wears an all pink outfit. It's just part of her cover image, though.
• Poison Is Evil: Dahlia's overall weapon is poison, and she's both the most vicious killer in the original trilogy and the one who harmed the most main characters one way or another. Phoenix's experience with her left using poison as one of the only things he could never forgive.
• Polar Opposite Twins: While Dahlia is extremely evil, cruel and selfish, Iris is sweet, gentle and selfless.
• Posthumous Character:
  • She's treated as such during the first part of Case 3-4, as everyone assumed she had died upon falling from the Dusky Bridge. This only applies In-Universe, however, as this case takes place before Case 3-1, so the player knows by this point that Dahlia wasn't dead, and that she would be exposed and caught later. Additionally, both cases are flashbacks set years before even the cases of the first game, let alone the others in this one; she's been dead for a month by the time of Case 3-5.
  • Edgeworth reveals to Phoenix that Dahlia was executed prior to the events of Case 3-5, but she later winds up a witness in court after being executed, courtesy of Mia Fey telling Maya Fey to channel her. Subverted, as everyone initially assumes she's the living Iris due to them being identical twins.
• The Power of Hate: Not even her death stops her vengeful ways, as Dahlia takes her hatred of Mia beyond the grave by participating in Morgan's plan to trick Pearl into channeling her.
• Practically Different Generations: Dahlia and Iris are 15 years older than their maternal half-sister, Pearl.
• Psycho Pink: She sports pink, has killed many people, and is a pure evil Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
• Rage Breaking Point: She loses her composure when Mia exposes her as the suspect of Case 3-1 and flashes a Death Glare in Mia's direction... then casually concedes defeat before she's taken away. It's Case 3-5 where she truly hits the breaking point, screaming Mia's name in fury after being shown evidence that her plans failed yet again.
• Recurring Boss: The first official one of the series. She is one culprit that is encountered in three separate cases over the course of the game.
• Red Herring: While Dahlia is very heavily involved as one of the main instigators in the events of Bridge to the Turnabout, and unraveling hers and Morgan's plan takes most of the second trial day, she's not the killer (and in fact, since Misty Fey was channeling her when the stabbing happened, Dahlia is the victim in a sense). Even Phoenix and the Judge were all too happy to give Iris a Not Guilty verdict until Godot reminds them that Misty Fey's murderer had yet to be found out.
• Revenge by Proxy: Her plan in Bridge to the Turnabout is to kill Maya Fey to get revenge on the already dead Mia Fey.
• Sadist: Her falsely innocent smile at Terry’s suicide and her delight under the impression that Maya is dead show her as taking pleasure in her cruel acts.
• Satanic Archetype: Dahlia may very well be Satan in a dress. She’s beautiful and acts innocent, but she’s a prideful, selfish being who’s lies, deceives and corrupts genuinely good people into doing her bidding, all on top of being a psychopathic killer. Even her hair braids look like demonic horns.
• Say My Name: After Phoenix and Mia give her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, she is so enraged that just before being spirited out of Maya's body, she stutters out Mia's name at first, before she devolves to outright screaming it:
  Dahlia: M...M...M...Mia...F...F...Fey Mia Fey! Mia Fey! MIA FEEEEY!
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: The reason it's so hard for Mia to prosecute her is because she uses her looks to manipulate the Judge into overlooking the clear faults in her testimony instead of realizing that she simply cannot be trusted.
• Serial Killer: Comfort-Profit. Her original crime was trying to steal a diamond, but when that went wrong she started killing people whenever they seemed to be too close to the truth for comfort. She killed Valerie for wanting out, Terry (indirectly, by taking advantage of his simple mentality to lead him to suicide) several days later so he wouldn't testify against her, and Doug Swalllow about a year after that. She also attempted to kill Diego Armando eight months before Doug, but this attempt failed and merely left him in a coma, and she would've killed Phoenix if Mia didn't catch her first.
• Sibling Murder: Killed her stepsister Valerie when she decided to come clean about the fake kidnapping on Dusky Bridge.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: She is nowhere to be seen in any of the promos for the second season of the anime, making her appearance in the 13th episode a surprise.
• Smug Snake: Despite being a constant schemer, none of her plans ultimately go right. Her sloppy criminal activity stemming from her theft of the jewel (itself a failure, as she lost the jewel) forced her to commit more crimes to cover up the first, and her sloppy attempts at these resulted in further collateral damage, which eventually resulted in her getting the death penalty when her attempt to kill Phoenix Wright caused the death of Doug Swallow. Post-execution, she attempted one last time to get revenge on Mia Fey, the attorney who exposed her for what she was, by killing her sister Maya...only to see that attempt fail, with the icing on the cake being that Maya herself was channeling Dahlia to protect herself. Her long history of failed crimes ends up being the subject of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech delivered by both Phoenix Wright and Mia Fey, resulting in one final Villainous Breakdown by Dahlia's spirit. Even after she's gone for good, the one crime Phoenix and Mia don't touch upon — the poisoning of Diego Armando — is revealed to have been botched too, as he revived as Godot and ultimately saved Maya.
• The Sociopath: She's all but stated to have antisocial personality disorder, being one of the most blatant examples in all of gaming.
  • Crime is her go-to method to get what she wants and she proves countless times that she has no regard for the wellbeing of others, coldly disposing of others when they are no longer useful to her.
  • She is superficially charming but unable to form a genuine bond with anyone, with her emotional range being limited to "haughty" and "furious". All of her crimes revolve around her ability to quickly make others like her — manipulating Terry into the fake kidnapping, getting close to Doug for poison, convincing a younger Phoenix that they'd fallen in love at first sight (while it was her sister Iris who actually kept up the relationship, it was Dahlia who first met him and passed off the necklace as a love present), and charming the prosecution and judge into believing in her innocence.
  • She is a pathological liar and a Manipulative Bastard to the extreme, only being truthful when she wishes to hurt someone.
  • She is entitled to an incredible degree, believing herself worthy of wealth and admiration despite doing nothing to earn it. She reacts with temper tantrums and violence if she doesn't get her way.
  • She is able to understand right and wrong, yet apathetic to social norms unless they can be used to deceive and harm others.
  • She is immature and hedonistic, relying on others to do work she could easily do while reaping the results for herself so she can live an easy yet parasitic lifestyle. Her original crime involved her two accomplices doing the hard work in stealing a precious diamond, while she played the kidnap victim.
  • She is unable to take criticism or responsibility, finding ways to blame others for her shortcomings. Due to this, she doesn't learn from her mistakes, believing they were made by others and therefore not her fault in the slightest.
  • She is overly hostile even when it could blow her cover, turning confrontational and violent on the drop on a hat. She is also bad at hiding her irritation or contempt regarding others, being passive-aggressive even during her "polite" façade.
  • She is a narcissist, seeing herself as superior to others and therefore unable to be outdone by anyone — which is why she gets so angry at Mia when Mia beats her in court. She is always right in her own eyes.
  • She is impulsive and irrational, being overly dramatic and unable to plan ahead, relying on others to fill in the gaps. She gets by on luck and manipulating others to save herself, not good planning.
  • Her relationships are all abusive and cold. Every boyfriend she had was useful to her in some way and discarded once their purpose was served — Terry was her Dumb Muscle and Driven to Suicide so he couldn't expose her, Doug was her key to get poison from the college chemistry building and dumped as soon as she'd poisoned Diego, and Phoenix was to unwittingly carry important evidence away from the crime scene. Her twin sister Iris is basically just Twin Switch material, her father was only important because he was rich, her half-sister was just an accomplice, and her mother was an opportunity for revenge against Mia.
  • Last of all, she was also incredibly reckless in her actions; jumping off a bridge and murdering people in broad daylight, despite the fact she could easily be caught or killed at any moment. She also was unable to give up a fight, staying to the bitter end even when outmatched.
• Sore Loser: She doesn't receive it well at all when Mia notes that all of her schemes ended in failure.
• Spoiled Brat: While she wasn't spoiled by either of her parents, Dahlia acts the part in the final trial. She goes into a bratty tantrum after Phoenix and Mia pointed out that Dahlia's entire petty revenge scheme had failed before being forcefully ejected from Maya's body. Dahlia ranted and raved about how her life was ruined because her intended victims didn't "die like they were supposed to", blaming everything and everyone else for her death row sentence.
• Start of Darkness: Although she had a predisposition toward evil from birth given the circumstances behind it, Dahlia didn't become the terror she is well known for being until joining in on a petty crime concocted by her stepsister, Valerie. Valerie had no idea just what a mistake she was making giving Dahlia a taste of illegality until it came back to bite her a few years later.
• Starter Villain Stays: Though she's arrested and eventually sentenced to death in the game's first case, she turns out to have far more presence in the game than the typical first culprit, also being the culprit of a later (though chronologically earlier) case and one of the main antagonists in the final case despite being dead.
• Stealth Pun: The little butterflies that fly around her as a Moe literally die a fiery death when Dahlia shows her angry self. Moths to a flame.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She's the spitting image of Iris in all but hair color. It's justified as she and Iris are identical twin sisters, with Dahlia having red hair to make her different from her sister in appearance and personality. Her Death Glare at the end of Turnabout Memories also evokes similarities to her mother, Morgan Fey.
• Supernatural Floating Hair: As a ghost.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Often fans call her the female Matt Engarde. They're both young and pretty people who Phoenix initially thinks are innocent (and they manipulate him into helping them in court), but later show their true sociopathic selves. Both drove an ex to suicide and are brought to court for murders they committed to cover up initial crimes, and initially get away before losing it all at the last minute because of some unnecessary evil deed.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: She poisoned Diego Armando's coffee in a failed attempt to kill him.
• Teens Are Monsters: Dahlia brainwashed and manipulated Terry Fawles as her scapegoat for her plot to orchestrate a false kidnapping to obtain a diamond from her father as the ransom, even convincing him to agree to a Suicide Pact in the event that she needed him to die to cover her tracks, and framing him for her own "murder" as she faked her death by jumping off Dusky Bridge into Eagle River below, all at the age of 14. She later murders her stepsister in cold blood and manipulates Terry into suicide at the age of 19, making her the second youngest killer in the franchise.
• Terms of Endangerment: She has "Feenie" for Phoenix, which she took from her sister. Unlike Iris, she doesn't say it with affection.
• Thanatos Gambit: She planned to kill Maya Fey by being channeled by Pearl Fey and using Pearls' body to murder Maya in to get Revenge by Proxy on Mia Fey, Maya's dead sister, after Dahlia was executed, thanks to a plan by Morgan Fey to trick Pearl into channeling Dahlia after the execution.
• Theme Twin Naming: Both Dahlia and Iris are named after flowers.
• This Cannot Be!: Has this reaction when it sinks in that she’s been fooled by Maya, and has utterly failed at getting her revenge against Mia.
• Traitor Shot: In the anime, she smirks as Terry drinks the coffee, and her poison along with it.
• Unfinished Business: She planned to kill Maya Fey with a Thanatos Gambit by being channeled by Pearl Fey and using Pearls' body to murder Maya in to get Revenge by Proxy on Mia Fey, Maya's dead sister, after Dahlia was executed, thanks to a plan by Morgan Fey to trick Pearl into channeling Dahlia after the execution.
• Unreliable Expositor: Even when she's not putting on her goody-two-shoes act or pretending to be someone else, the veracity of much of what she says about others' motives, particularly her parents, is fairly questionable.
• Unwitting Pawn: What factored into the intensity of her second Villainous Breakdown was discovering how she was essentially tricked into possessing Maya instead of Pearl, not even realizing what happened until Mia Fey (who was possessing Pearl) and Phoenix spelled it out for her. She was so angry upon learning of the deception that she ends up stuttering, then shouting Mia's name in sheer rage. It's quite fitting karma for someone who manipulated, ruined, and killed people all her life.
• The Vamp: She's more 'cute' than 'sexy' due to her young age, but seduction is still her go-to method of manipulation, and she only dates people who make good pawns: Terry Fawles because she needed some muscle for her plan, Doug Swallow to gain access to poison to use against Diego, and Phoenix Wright to get the poison she used off her person (though that failed when he was so besotted with her that he refused to give it back so she could properly dispose of it). She ends up trying to kill all her boyfriends (only failing with Phoenix because of Mia's intervention) because they knew too much.
• Villain Decay: An intentional example. The first time she goes to court, she might have trouble with Mia, but gets away with her crimes. But she would not just stop killing to cover her tracks. The second time, Mia caught her and got her executed. She came back from the dead to spite Mia, but not only did she fail, that allowed even previous victims of her evil (Godot AND Phoenix) to take revenge on her and Mia outright called her a miserable failure. The once Karma Houdini who masterminded such devious plots and evaded justice ended up being a miserable failure who only got herself killed twice in the end.
• Villain Has a Point: She's not wrong about Morgan Fey being a terrible mother, despite being a terrible person herself.
• Villainous Breakdown: First when Mia exposes her as she really is, and the second when Phoenix and Mia lecture her to the underworld.
  • The first one is relatively downplayed; she simply gives a Death Glare that burns through her good facade, then calms down and seemingly accepts her defeat.
  • The second is much more extreme; first she's forced out of Maya's body screaming in agony, then her spirit lingers on for a short while, desperately pleading that she's not ready to go. Her spirit then bursts into fire, breaking off into several flames in the shape of a magatama, which disappear until only one is left. After events from her life flash in the background, the final flame finally fades away.
• Villainous Lineage: Just like Morgan before her, Dahlia grew up to be a bitter murderess motivated by hatred and jealousy. This is in stark contrast to her twin sister Iris, who became the complete opposite of their mother.
• Villains Never Lie: Her testimony after being revealed on the witness stand is taken at face value despite how often she lied previously. It's justified in that Dahlia has nothing to lose from being honest since she's dead already and can't be punished any more, and telling the truth would screw over Morgan Fey, who Dahlia hates for abandoning her. And played with in that while Dahlia isn't lying, she is mistaken about several important facts.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: For the very first culprit of an Ace Attorney game, Dahlia takes significant effort to take down. Only Kristoph Gavin, who is also the main villain of the game he is in, can dare to come close to that.
• Walking Spoiler: So much of her entry is trenched in spoilers that her page had to leave them unmarked.
• Wicked Cultured: How many soulless murderers are literature students?... Well quite a few I guess...
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: Her red hair combined with her white dress and parasol gives her this trope, rather fitting for a character like her.
• Would Harm a Child: Had zero qualms about using the body of the child Pearl Fey to murder Maya Fey, barely an adult herself at the time. Solely interested in posthumous revenge against Mia, she was unconcerned at the very high possibility that she had gotten Pearl killed in her attempt on Maya's life- despite Pearl's ascension to Master being Morgan Fey's sole motive in orchestrating the whole murder plot in the first place. Indeed, Godot even admits that it wouldn't have mattered to him if Pearl had been the one channeling Dahlia as planned, he would've stabbed Dahlia regardless. A reckless oversight on Morgan's part, a cruel and intentional callousness on the part of her equally deranged daughter.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Dahlia is very good at playing up her sweet, innocent persona and letting people's own assumptions do the rest of the work for her. However, she's actually a terrible liar. She can't improvise to save her life, she leaves glaring holes in her testimony, and she lets herself get flustered easily. To compensate, she acts injured and defenseless whenever somebody turns up the heat, weaponizing the trope.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Subverted. At first glance, she looks like a demure, kind, and sweethearted girl whose presence attracts butterflies. However, with her it's an act she keeps up to mask her sociopathic evil — it's her sister Iris who is the genuine article.

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"...How...coULd... I... loSe... to... THe... likES... of... YOU...?"

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