CantFaketheFunk[]
9. Dahlia Hawthorne
To put it simply--if the Phoenix Wright trilogy has a "final boss," Dahlia is it. She's manipulative, cunning, evil as hell, and sort of redefines the concept of "evil *****." No villain in the series has quite the record she does--she stole a valuable diamond and doublecrossed both her boyfriend and her adopted sister. She later murdered her sister and caused her former boyfriend to commit suicide. To cover her tracks, Dahlia poisoned Diego Armando, and then to cover those tracks, deceived Phoenix Wright with the help of her twin sister, murdered Doug Swallow, and almost did the same to Phoenix as well.
Then they killed her. And she still wasn't done.
Dahlia is tremendously well-executed (lol) as a villain, being the primary adversary in not one but three cases (depending on who you see as the true villain behind 3-5, but I think most would agree that it's her). In 3-1 you get a glimpse of her true nature (and her death glare is still one of the more "holy ****" animations in the series), but it isn't until 3-4 that you find out how deep her hatred truly runs. The way she manipulates pretty much everybody around her, the way she doesn't hesitate to carelessly throw away people who claim to love her? Dahlia is unquestionably evil, and the writers pull her off so damn well. In 3-4 you find out the reason for the hatred between her and Mia in the first case, and 3-4 builds to the final climax of 3-5 excellently. The double-team of Phoenix and Mia vs Dahlia is probably one of the best moments in the series, if only because she deserves it so much.
However, unlike Engarde, Gant or Manfred von Karma (the other great villains in the series), there's actually shown to be some reason behind Dahlia's actions. She's certainly sociopathic, yes, but we get the feeling that she almost feels justified in doing the things she does due to the way her father treated her, her sister, and her mother. Dahlia's relationship with Iris, too, is rather interesting--it sometimes seems that Dahlia almost cares for Iris in a twisted sort of way; she allows Iris to try and get the necklace back from Phoenix for six months, etc etc. Immediately after Iris and Dahlia switch in 3-5, when you're talking to Iris--who is really Dahlia-in-Maya's-body... I think it's interesting watching Dahlia pretend to be Iris and say the things she does.
But even though she's got some character behind them to make her a bit deeper as a villain, she's mainly just a fantastic adversary and probably the best in the entire AA series bar none... or at least my favorite.
Cloud and Squall[]
13th: Dahlia Hawthorne
Appearances: 3-1, 3-4, 3-5
Favorite Quote: "You and I will meet again... I'm certain of it."
If I were to rank the Phoenix Wright Villains in terms of only being villains, Dahlia would be number one. Yes, even ahead the likes of Von Karma, De Killer, and Matt Engarde. And I'll tell you exactly why. For one thing, she's not a one-time villain. Unlike Von Karma and Engarde and even DeKiller, she shows up three times, twice as the culprit, three if you count the fact that she tried to kill Diego Armando. But looking past even that, she manages to get away with so much, before actually being put away. She fakes her own death, allows a man to go to jail for murdering her, she kills her own step sister, and tries to kill Diego Armando. It's not until she makes the mistake of killing Doug Swallow that she gets caught, and even then it wasn't because of that crime. It was because of a crime that she hadn't committed yet- killing Phoenix Wright. Up until that case, she has the judge, and even the prosecution fooled. She's able to change her name twice. She certainly lives up to the reputation of Morgan Fey's daughter. Furthermore, even after she's caught, and killed, she attempts to kill Maya Fey. But does she do it because she cares about her mother, and little sister? No. Not even close. She only does it to get back at Mia Fey the only way she could- by killing Maya. That's what makes her such a great villain. She doesn't just die off quickly. She keeps coming back, and doing things that make everyone else look tame in comparison. She has such control over men, that she got Terry Fawles to kill himself, and almost got Phoenix Wright to do the same. And she does all of this under the pretense of being in love. Her situation almost makes me feel sorry for her. But in the end, she's just a cold hearted woman who deserves no sympathy. Both of her parents seemed like horrible people- especially Morgan. I could understand her doing what she did, and at the same time, think that she's completely out of line. Which I guess might not make much sense. But that's how it is to me. I know WHY she did it, but don't agree with HOW she did it. There were so many other ways. And all she did to cover it up? It was pretty brilliant. Making Terry love her so much that he'd kill himself before giving her up, even after she had betrayed him? That takes some planning. Her sweet smile, and pretty looks get her pretty far. But she's fairly easy to get to breakdown. She seems to accept defeat in the end. She's a horrible person in the end. She used her sister. She used Phoenix. She used Terry. She used Valerie. In the end, she even used Morgan, though I suppose it's more that they used each other. Such a horrible person, that I almost want to feels sorry for, yet can't because of her actions. She's a very well done character, and one that I can certainly both understand, and despise at the same time. Something that takes a bit on the work of the writers.
Naye745[]
9. Dahlia Hawthorne
Dahlia has to be the most hate-able villain in the Phoenix Wright series. She totally crushes Phoenix in 3-1, and you hate her for it. Then she drives a man to suicide in 3-4, and you learn she's not just heartless, but absolutely crazy evil. By 3-5, my hatred for her was so much that I wanted Iris to be found guilty, since at that point I thought she was Dahlia. Ultimately, she gets owned again by Mia and it's satisfying and stuff, but for being as horrible, selfish, and villainous as Engarde x100, she gets put slightly ahead of him.
Paratroopa1[]
8. Dahlia Hawthorne
The Phoenix Wright series has so many awesome villains, but Dahlia stands apart from the crowd by being a reoccurring villain, which is a first for the series when she shows up in three different cases. This really made her feel like something special, you have a whole three cases to really build up your hatred for her and her ****ing crazy evil murders and it makes her total ownage in the final case just that much more sweet.
When you first see her in the first case it's pretty obvious that she's bad, but PW has a way of making me go HOLY **** even when I know someone's evil (like Engarde) and the DEATH STARE THAT INCINERATES BUTTERFLIES stands behind only LIGHTNING GANT for "holy **** that was the best evil look ever." Then in case 5, holy **** she comes back from the dead to try to kill someone, that's dedication! The ownage Mia lays down on her in that case remains one of the best moments in the series, and I really wish the case had ended on that high note than the way it did. Oh well.
SSBM_Guy[]
9. Dahlia Hawthorne
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Case(s): 3-1, 3-4, 3-5
Ah, Dahlia. The closest you can ever get to a "final boss" in Phoenix Wright. Argubly the most evilest PW villain, Dahlia starts off as a simple Case 1 murderer. You would think she just shows up for that one case, but no. She doesn't. But let's start off with that case, shall we? Case 3-1, Turnabout Memories. Dahlia was Phoenix's girlfriend at the time (Well, actually it was Iris, but she was posing as Dahlia, so eh.) and is also the murderer. Here, you can see a bit of evilness of Dahlia. First off, she was planning to kill Phoenix Wright. Why? Because he had the evidence that proved she killed another person, Diego Armando, back in the past. So yeah. Doug tells Phoenix to watch out for Dahlia, so Dahlia decides to kill off Doug. ...Yeah. She killed 2 people already and was planning to kill one more. She would probably kill Mia, too, if she had the chance. <_< And that's the thing about Dahlia. She loves to kill. I think she personally kills...3 people on her own and was planning to kill 2 more. Plus, she also causes the death of two people. That's...a total of 7. Damn. And if you want...she would probably kill Mia, too. Make that 8. Yep. Dahlia is just damn crazy.
But that's what is so great about Dahlia. She's an excellent villain. She has great murder plans and she is able to manipulate everyone so easily, due to her looks. Plus, she could have to most simplest reason to killing anyone. Doug? He warned Phoenix about her. Phoenix? He had evidence that she herself gave to Phoenix. Diego? He was on to her and probably knew that she did it. Terry? She was able to manipulate him and got him to suicide. Valerie? She was going to betray her, I guess. Maya? Just to make Mia and Phoenix suffer. Mia? Well...she did get her guilty and was the reason why Dahlia died. Elise? She just had the misfortune of Godot going crazy and killing her when channeling Dahlia. Yeah. Wow. Anyways...let's get to Case 3-4.
Well...Dahlia goes under the identity of Melissa Foster...since Dahlia was considered dead at the time. Didn't take long for Mia to figure her out...as well as accusing her of the murder. However, Dahlia was able to get out of this situation...by manipulating Terry and telling him to suicide. Yeah...this just proves how completely evil Dahlia is. And then, 3-5. Oh man, 3-5. By the time 3-5 happens, Dahlia was executed, due to Case 3-1. Yeah. But...Dahlia is basically the equivalent of Liquid Snake. She just won't die. She comes back via channeling and attempts to kill Maya, but failed, thanks to Godot. However, she left her mark...she caused Elise to die. Also, we get a nice bit of backstory about Dahlia in Case 3-5. The reason why all those murders started...was because she wanted to get back at her father. She stole the diamond and jumped off the bridge. This led to Valerie questioning her...which led to her death. And Valerie's death leads to Terry's suicide. Terry's suicide leads to the Doug's death. And Doug's death leads to Elise's death...yeah. So all of this happened because of Dahlia's father being a complete bastard. She is scary!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
transience[]
6. Dahlia Hawthorne
- holy crap this girl is ****ing satan
- Dahlia's the only multi-case villain and she certainly takes the title of most successful villain of the series. she's twisted and deranged. she jumped off a bridge to keep her plans alive. she killed her sister, she tried to kill her sorta boyfriend, she pretty much killed Diego Armando, she tried to kill Mia's sister just because she couldn't kill Mia. she's freaking twisted.
- the reason Dahlia is awesome is because she has a personal relationship with seemingly everyone. Mia, Phoenix, Edgeworth, Maya, Godot.. everyone in PW3 has some connection to Dahlia, and she's just the most evil piece of scum that ever existed. part 4-2 of case 3-5 is just one big kick in the balls with her rubbing it in how Maya is dead. it's cruel, nasty, and awesome.
- I still think that if Dahlia was real she would have killed herself the second she realized she was being channeled by Maya, but that would kinda ruin the happy ending so whatever
-It was a little too late for that once she found out. You need some sort of tool to kill yourself and they weren't going to help her kill Maya.
WiggumFan267[]
5. Dahlia Hawthrone
Aw man, awesome villain alert. The only “final villain” who’s involved in not just 1 case…, but 3!! Dollie, the non-Iris version… well, since she wasn’t that person who dated Feeny for 6 months after all, let’s just have a look, shall we?
You got 3-4. Great case here. Best one in PW3 as I say again and again. Her being Melissa Foster is “lol”. I’m like oh **** man! That ain’t no Melissa… IT’S A DAHLIA BABY! Ok enough with the Austin Powers (lol Will Powers references). She has that whole crazy ass past, with the $2 million gem, and her pretending to kill herself, along with killing Valerie, and indirectly killing Terry; the man she knew trusted her to the bone and would kill himself for her… as he did. Dahlia was the only who got away happy from that case, leaving everybody else tainted miserably. All because of the evil incarnate that is Dahlia.
Then she goes and meets Mr. Feeny himself, who she gives the poisoned necklace!! And then as we know, she “kills” the one man who might have been able to solve the mystery… and well, I guess she didn’t completely kill him, but she did what she needed to do to crush him… have him “reawake” when Mia was already dead, effectively killing Godot’s spirit. Of course, when she can’t get it back from him, she’s outraged… well… SHE was, but Iris wasn’t good enough at getting it back… so, hating her sister with a passion (and arguably, I think she really hated her mother too, just going along with her plan for different reasons… why? BECAUSE SHE IS EVIL AND IT IS AWESOME!). Getting into that Fey family bloodline is really confusing, but she basically wiped out her entire family, in one sense or another, except for Pearls and Maya. So, after killing Dougie, which was far from any accident, and failing to kill Feeny, she is finally caught at the hands of Mia… and it’s funny… That she can hate Mia so much… and Mia back… and the only met twice. And that’s what so great about Dahlia. You meet her twice, and she causes so much pain & suffering in everyone she meets,, and wrecks her evil havoc just by…… smiling prettily…
And to top it all off, if meeting her twice causes so much grief… and then she’s executed…… SHE COMES BACK FROM THE FREAKING DEAD FOR A THIRD VISIT AND RUINS MORE LIVES HOORAY! I mean, just look at 3-5. She is the source of why everything that happened did. And on top of it all, she was like “*** * Morgan, I do things my own way”. So, she goes, thinking she’d be channeled by Pearls, allowing her to kill Maya. But her plan backfires, and Misty channels her. But she still (almost) managed to make her killing spree (don’t want to call it a plan because it was Morgan’s plan, but Dahlia’s spree) work. She almost killed Maya. She got Misty killed, which she knew would have to happen one way or another, allowing her to pin the blame on Maya if she didn’t get killed, then at the very least allowing her to live with the utmost guilt of killing her own mother. And had it been Pearls, can you imagine how much worse it would have been? To have Maya attacking “Pearls”, and vice versa? Either way, she’d be able to scar Maya, Pearls, and Misty for life, not to mention the fact that she was able to use her sister in all this. Iris, being Dahlia’s sister and loving her as such, still trusted her. Dahlia used her, and probably tricked her into thinking she’d be sisterly back, but in the end, she didn’t care. Dahlia’s only scheme was to hurt everyone involved, getting her revenge. And she did so to Iris here too, again, making it seem like she was guilty of the crime, but actually locking her in the cave.
But, despite how evil her plan was, and how damn masterful it was… (and once again, I extend Dahlia’s plan from Morgan’s since her motivation was complteley different), she was able to get Godot TWICE, because even though Godot stabbing her wasn’t according to plan… well, she got him with a guilty verdict, and perhaps Dahlia, being evil as she is, didn’t realize that Godot being rendered Guilty was a GOOD thing. It made him truly realize and accept what had happened, and made him finally content with himself, so he could “die” happy. She wanted to be able to get Mia again, through the dead, as she attempted once more to go womano-a-womano in court… and maybe by doing this, hurt Phoenix and Godot in the process, but alas, she failed her, due to the amazing legal powers of Mia and Phoenix, and once she was extracted from Maya (which is one of the coolest scenes in any PW game), she was done for. The vengeance she tries to wreck on Mia, Mia completely turns it around and sends it back at her, and vanquishes her spirit for good.
So yes, in my opinion, Dahlia is easily the most complex villain in the series, and definitely the most interesting. She makes everyone hate her with a simple appearance, while making everyone gaga with a little girlish smile. She is the villain who is evil in the finer regards… the kind of person who knows exactly just how to make everyone tick, and how to exploit that to its finest. Truly, Dahlia is an example of a villain with all the qualities one should have. She inspires fear, hatred, suspense, intensity, and so on. There’s just one thing Dahlia is missing from keeping her from being the perfect villain…
…she isn’t Manfred von Karma.
Leonhart4[]
13. Dahlia Hawthorne
The Good: This girl is probably the most easily hate-able character in the series, which is probably due in part both to the fact that she appears in three cases as a villain and the fact that her actions affect so many characters in the series, including Phoenix especially. She's just pure evil, and she's got the Judge eating out of the palm of her hands just as well as (if not better than) Manfred von Karma or Damon Gant did ("Well, we know whose milkshake brings all the boys to the yard," aw yeah). And I think that's what makes her so frustrating and such a great villain. You know how evil this girl is, but NOBODY else sees it! It's just an uphill battle to beat her in 3-1, and then you don't beat her in 3-4 even though you're THIS close. Then she comes back FROM THE DEAD to haunt you and try to kill Maya. What in the world? It's like you just can't get rid of this girl.
The Best: I love it when Phoenix and Mia team up to blast Dahlia at the end of 3-5, reminiscent of the "You're a loser, and you'll always BE a loser; I'm a winner, and I'll always BE a winner" line from Seinfeld. You've been dealing with this girl for three cases now, and she's been rubbing it in your face that Maya Fey committed suicide after killing her mother (oh, and Dahlia's theme playing during the cross-examination was great). Then Mia appears and owns Dahlia by revealing that Maya was hiding from Dahlia the only way she knew how: by channeling her, and Mia was the one who told her to do it. What a satisfying nail of the series' final villain. Oh, and can't forget the butterfly-disintegrating stare! Great animation.
The Bad: I'm not sure I like the fact that you beat Dahlia and catch her in the tutorial case, and then you have a case set before that where you know she gets away. Kinda takes a bit of the drama out of it (though you're still wondering how exactly she gets free). This is kind of a minor point though, but I think a lot of the flaws for these top 15 characters are going to be pretty minor things. I love these guys.
The Worst: As great as nailing Dahlia in 3-5 was, nailing her in 3-1 was not so great. She basically just...accepts the fact that Mia beat her. "I give up. You win." You just don't realize the magnitude of what you've done at the time, though I'm not sure you're supposed to understand it. Plus, after all she's done and all the things she's managed to get away with, she just...gives up. Almost seems out of character.