@occulure this is a beautiful beautiful addition! (I see you're a biologist too! 😄) I just wanna say this makes me so happy that you see the symbolism in Hawthorn's cause there's definitely a lot there! Thank you so so much! This is brilliant! 💖💖
You're absolutely right! Hawthorns are interesting because they are, just like you said, very dangerous if you get too close. Here's the fun catch tho: the thorns are aposematic (thorn colors warn predators and herbivores to steer clear) and the berries aren't actually poisonous (haw jelly is super tasty hahaha). It's the seeds!
What I'm getting at is that even though their thorns are very painful and their berry seeds can kill, there are still small parts of it that will warn you of this danger and in some cases, may also conceal it. Now where have we seen this before?
She's the cover to Dahlia, the warning, and the sweeter and kinder counterpart. She's the berry to cover the killer seeds. Recall the she warned Phoenix of the dangers of Dahlia while still concealing her sister's murder. It's almost too perfect and the symbolism is really really cool! Or, it could be I could be thinking too much into this haha.
As for the seeds, you are definitely onto something when it comes to that being her go-to poison. The seeds are made up of a compound called amygdalin, which is essentially just a sugar bonded to cyanide. I think you can tell where this is going...
When amygdalin enters the small intestine, it reacts to form hydrogen cyanide which depending on how much you've consumed, can seriously kill. It'd be the perfect poison for her to use! I seriously love this.
However, I must also add my own personal theory when it comes to the poison Dahlia uses (just cause I can haha). I've always thought it to be atroquinine, the made-up poison in ace attorney. The reason I believe this to be the case is because Klavier references it a lot in AJ, and states that his inspiration was gained from a previous case he had witnessed (which I would assume to be the one with Diego Armando). But there's also one other reason: the poison put Diego Armando into a coma.
Now, this is a bit tricky because while cyanide COULD put someone in a coma, the amount consumed to do so would kill them in a matter of minutes as well. But, it is still possible, as there is a small window where death is escapable. If this were the case, it would seriously make Godot's comeback all the more impressive (it would also reinforce the idea that he received brain damage from it too!). As for his vision? While it's pretty rare for cyanide poisoning survivors to receive vision problems, it's not impossible either. It's only rare because cyanide usually never fails.
On the other hand, it's the fact that cyanide usually never fails that I also believe Dahlia's poison to be atroquinine. This is because Dahlia's poisoning plans didn't fail just once, not twice, but a whole three times. This would mean that unless there's a very detectable amount of the poison, it did not guarantee death (I would imagine atroquinine is expensive too. So that, plus needing to keep things lowkey would explain why she never had too much of it).
Atroquinine also has a lot of canonical properties that fit the mold for the poisonings we've seen in ace attorney. We know that a very small amount is needed to kill but it doesn't have a 100% success rate and we know it causes comas (as referenced with Vera Misham). It is also known to paralyze the nervous system (as stated in-game).
And well, if atroquinine was Dahlia's poison, it explains why Diego Armando fell into a coma but still survived (Vera did this as well), it ties in with Klavier's reference to atroquinine (which happens to be Kristoph's go-to poison as well), and it explains why Godot is colorblind (it affects the nervous system which can directly cause vision loss.)
Now I'm not sure if I've even done a headcanon on this but I've always believed the real world equivalent of atroquinine is tetrodotoxin (TTX), or blowfish poison! TTX shares all the same properties as atroquinine in the sense that not much is needed to kill, it doesn't have a 100% success rate, it causes paralysis of the nervous system (by shutting it down), comas, and it can even cause vision problems!
TTX's effect on vision is interesting actually, for some reason it causes retinal fibers to bundle up and it kills the ganglion cells. It's kinda wild haha.
But I digress! Whether it's cyanide, atroquinine, or TTX, either way Dahlia is a super cool character and shares a lot of symbolism with hawthorn trees! It's perfect cause she's beautifully deceptive!
But y'know what? Atroquinine is not as cool imo hahaha. I actually think it'd be super cool if Dahlia used cyanide, because it definitely adds a lot more to the symbolism! Thank you again for this addition! (Sorry if this was super long btw I just had a lot of fun writing it haha!) 😄💖
