On Iris and Miles: the commonalities of Ace Attorney's most underrated duo
Ah, Iris and Miles...by this point it's no secret that the pair has one of my favorite dynamics in all of Ace Attorney. They're just...silly. Delightfully so. Autism-to-autism communication except their autism wavelengths aren't compatible in the slightest. Autism starers who hate being stared at lest the other see the hidden depths of their soul they’ve put so much work into hiding. Spacing out and getting lost in thought and needing to remind the other that they’re still there and the conversation isn’t over. Among many other charming little moments.
Of course, nothing in this series is surface level, and there's a lot more to be said about Iris and Miles aside from the fact they're both socially awkward disaster introverts who at times can barely seem to stumble their way through basic conversation (and believe me, I say that with nothing but love for them). In terms of fandom discussion, one of the most common things you'll see is conversations regarding Iris' canonical romantic feelings for Phoenix Wright versus Miles' subtextual ones (if it can even be called "subtext" at this point), and specifically how a certain bit of easily missable dialogue seems to imply that Iris is aware of Miles' feelings (which I give my thoughts on in this post here). And while analyzing their relationship from that angle can certainly be interesting...
There is so much more to Iris and Miles that I've never seen anyone else talk about.
Don't get me wrong; I don't think anyone's in the wrong for getting lost in Gay Lawyer Excitement. I'm far from innocent of it myself—it's compelling to think about, and the Narumitsu framework serves as a backdrop for much of my analysis on the franchise, BttT and Iris included. I just think it's reductive to focus solely on the possibility of love drama and jealousy between her and Miles, while ignoring everything else that makes that oft-referenced scene actually work—that being, the very way the two work exceptionally well together as characters, through the many, MANY parallels in their upbringing and traits that I can no longer be silent about.
In fact, I'm just gonna come out and say it: Sister Iris Fey-Hawthorne of Hazakura Temple mirrors Miles Edgeworth so goddamn much that she is quite literally the perfect choice for his first client as a defense attorney. And it's through this mirroring that his choice to defend her becomes so much more than a desire to help his childhood friend, or a chance to briefly live the life he once dreamed of at age nine—it's emblematic of his own personal self-acceptance and healing, and culminates his trilogy character arc in a beautifully full-circle, satisfying way. So, let's get into the details, shall we?
The first point I'd like to bring up is that Iris and Miles have a shared disdain of spirit channeling. There's some slight differences in how they express it—Iris' distaste is mostly directed toward the practice of channeling itself, as she states very early on in BttT. That said, she lives at Hazakura Temple even as an adult and continuously dedicates herself to her training, so she still has some level of respect (or at least tolerance) for spirit medium culture. Miles, on the other hand, rejects everything to do with channeling and mediums themselves/their lifestyle, as seen by how he angrily denounces Misty Fey at the mere mention of the Kurain Channeling Technique. The way his and Iris' lingering resentment presents itself is different, but the root of it is the same: The DL-6 Incident, an event that brought both of their families to ruin and left them with a great deal of trauma. They were inextricably linked by it years before they met—and though we never see Miles move beyond his denial of spiritual abilities (there's kinda a whole lotta other shit in BttT that needs to take priority), I like to think that he and Iris could have some very interesting conversations with each other on the subject post-canon.
Next, I'd like to point out that there's a noticeable parallel between Iris hiding herself away at Hazakura after Turnabout Memories and Miles “choosing death” after AA1. I'm of the opinion that neither of them had any intentions of returning to Phoenix, let alone explaining anything, when they set out to do so—Iris resolved to train endlessly as a form of self-flagellation penance, never appearing before Phoenix again so as not to hurt him any more, and Miles left his note at the Prosecutor’s Office with full confidence he would never again return to the courtroom (whether it was truly a suicide note is up for debate, but the game makes it fairly clear that before his offscreen epiphany Miles' initial choice was to leave his prosecutor career for good). They both wholly blamed themselves for being the reason they were even put in such a position, and their absences left Phoenix with unresolved grief as large as a mountain, and deep as an ocean. They both had events that brought them out of hiding—Miles chose to reforge his life and helped Phoenix from the shadows during Turnabout Big Top, and Iris received and accepted Godot’s request for help with his plan (though I’d imagine Phoenix’s presence caught her by complete surprise). They both were put through the wringer and came out of it resolving to reveal the truth. Phoenix, despite being hurt, wanted to believe in them both and ultimately decided to forgive them due to his unwavering faith.
Now, as for the events of BttT themselves, specifically Miles' choice to take up the mantle of a defense attorney and represent Iris in court, it's worth noting that he has multiple reasons for doing so. He just saw his best friend clam up in the hospital when pressed about Iris and wants to do what he can to help him heal, and in Miles' mind, truth in the most healing thing of all, so he becomes her attorney on the condition that she will eventually tell Phoenix what she's been hiding from him. The popular fanon joke about this is that Miles flew halfway across the world in a private jet when he heard his boyfriend was in peril, and took his attorney's badge simply because he couldn't say no to him—and they do have a point that that is an utterly Deranged™ way to express loyalty to someone...but I will argue until my dying breath that it wasn't just about Phoenix or Miles' latent feelings for him (or his latent jealousy prompting him to self-sabotage by pushing Feenris together). It was more than that.
Phoenix may have been the instigating factor, but I believe the reason Miles ultimately decided to defend Iris was because he empathized with her.
Because he saw himself in her.
A young, guarded individual stuck in the detention center for a murder they didn't commit. Going along with the punishment because even if the crime they're on trial for isn't the same as the one they committed, they believe themself guilty regardless. Stuck in a hopeless rut of neverending self-blame, and desperate to keep someone they care about from discovering the truth about them.
Sound familiar?
Miles doesn't make any promises to Iris initially, but after hearing her out...he learns of a tale all too familiar to his own experience in the defendant's seat two years prior, and he empathizes with it. He's far from upfront about his own feelings most of the time, but he demonstrates on multiple occasions that he actually has quite the knack for understanding other people's emotions (such as the end of BttT, when he explains to Phoenix that Maya is very emotionally resilient when there's someone she has to be strong for). Miles may have chosen the path of a prosecutor, but due to his upbringing of having been raised by Gregory, he has the instinct of a defense attorney—he feels strongly compelled to save people, whether they be the falsely accused or the victims of crime. And after finding common ground with Iris, he resolves to do the same thing for her as Phoenix once did for him—save her by proving her not guilty and giving her closure. It's an undeniably selfless act that speaks volumes as to how far he's come since we first met his douche-y AA1 self, and serves as excellent contrast for how we just saw Bratworth act in Turnabout Beginnings.
What really tips the scene over the edge, however...is that because Iris reminds Miles so much of himself, his offer to defend her becomes symbolic of his own self-acceptance.
While it's true he was proven innocent two years ago, and reinvented himself as the kind of prosecutor who can truly bring about justice for those who need it, and shows nothing but confidence in his newfound ideals...we never really see him acknowledge that he was worthy of such redemption. Certainly not with words, at least.
But thanks to Iris, we get to watch him prove it through his actions. Through his unyielding dedication to ensuring that this woman, who's clearly suffering from repressed guilt, knows that she is just as worthy as he was of being freed from her shackles, both real and self-imposed, by the all-encompassing light of truth. And I don't think it's a stretch to say that Iris found that inspiring. So much so that after a single conversation, she decides to finally let go of her need to obfuscate anything and everything about herself/her actions that could interfere with how she feels she has to be perceived in that moment, and begin to own up to the harm she's done by telling Miles what she did (in vague terms, granted, but this is the most progress ANYONE'S made in getting Iris to come forward with what’s on her mind to this point, which is still impressive). And for the first time, someone has helped her realize that maybe, just maybe...she could start on the path toward revealing the truth to the person most in need of the answers she's kept locked away in her heart all this time.
Iris wouldn't have found the courage to seek the truth if not for Miles. And it's because of Iris that Miles gets the chance to prove to himself that he was worthy of salvation all along.
They're perfect, your honor.
