about a third of the way through episode 2 now (i assume), and i'm currently fascinated by Morgan's apparent lack of experience with love and sex.

in episode 1 she reacted with confusion to the apparent chemistry between Jessica and London, but i wrote it off as a lesbian being weirded out by heterosexuality. later in the nightclub, she was also clearly uncomfortable discussing whether David and Isaac were together. when Serra pressed, she quickly changed the subject. at the time, I didn't give this much thought either, since David had recently died, and he was a close friend of Morgan's.

but now, in episode 2, she meets Adelaide Han, who shows romantic interest in Morgan almost immediately. but despite Han's persistent flirting, not to mention literally giving Morgan her number on a business card, Morgan seems to not remotely comprehend she's being flirted with. she doesn't really acknowledge any of it, not even in her internal dialogue, and her narration on the business card states she doesn't even understand why Han's number is on it.

i'm finding this very fascinating. because we KNOW Morgan is attracted to women. she HAS to be, right? i mean, Emma's whole introduction in episode 0 is set up to spell out that Morgan is DOWN BAD for her. all of Morgan's last 6 victims resemble Emma. it's all but spelled out that Morgan has a psychosexual obsession with her rival. the game is marketed as "toxic yuri ace attorney" for crying out loud.

even here, in the early hours of episode 2, Morgan shows definite attraction towards a woman: Mirei. the second she enters the scene, Morgan's narration becomes uncharacteristically flowery, clearly sparking personal fantasies of being a noir detective meeting a femme fatale. she's transfixed.

so Morgan absolutely has an attraction to women, and yet she seems completely uncomfortable with any display or discussion of romance or sex whatsoever, and can't recognize when other women are interested in her.

i find it a very compelling character beat. an intelligent woman like her, who by her own account has spent a LOT of time learning about how humans communicate and interact, should surely be more familiar and comfortable with those topics, right?

and yet. and yet.

we do also know that Morgan can be embarrassingly unselfaware. that's half the reason Emma gets the better of her so hard in episode 0. and while Morgan is Clearly attracted to both Emma and Mirei, her narration never directly acknowledges as much. so is Morgan just... genuinely not aware of her attraction to women? is that even possible?

it compels me.

@alicerosebee dared me to voice this optional line of internal dialogue, since we didn't encounter it in our playthrough. please enjoy.

Fascinated by the things Evangeline Morgan is and isn't good at.

According to her profile in episode 1, her hidden talent is baking. What's interesting about that is that it's a skill based largely on precision. Unlike cooking more generally, there's very little room for improvisation or creativity in baking. It's something you do by Completing Tasks Well. It's rote memorization and following instructions. This slots well into her profession, as a lawyer would need a strong memory and a keen eye for detail, as well as her identity as the "Heartbreak Killer," an aspect of her character that also requires high precision and thoroughness.

Contrast this, however, with how the game makes it clear repeatedly that she has no understanding or talent for art whatsoever. In episode 1, she's not able to glean much of anything from the painting in David's basement, incorrectly identifying it as "Cubical" (she meant Cubist, which is also wrong) and saying she can't really make any sense of it at all. In episode 0, she draws a rendition of the crime scene which resembles a drawing a small child would make. It's an interesting quirk, since we generally know her to be incredibly skilled and knowledgeable about everything she puts her mind to.

Her profiles also state that she "cannot carry a tune" and "dislikes karaoke." Morgan values her image greatly, and singing is a uniquely embarrassing activity if you're not good at it. There's no way to get better at it other than to practice, which requires a certain amount of willingness to let others see you vulnerable, so I can easily see Morgan struggling with it.

Despite her impressive coordination in all other respects, Morgan seems to struggle with anything "artistic." Anything that requires honest expression or creativity from herself, she seems uncharacteristically incompetent at. It's some fascinating characterization, and connections *have* to be drawn to her wider persona.

Morgan, as we currently understand her, seems to function on copying. She absorbs information and behaviours from the things she sees around her, retains it, and uses it. Serra notes that she frequently adjusts her mannerisms to match whomever she's speaking to, "mirroring" them. In the flashback in episode 1, we see that at least one of her trademark expressions is copied directly from an actress she saw on TV as a child. During episode 1's trial, she supposedly quotes the state's stance on AI entirely from memory. She has incredible recall and adaptation, but she falters when she doesn't have a "right" answer to fall back on. When she needs to express her inner self openly and fully, she struggles.

We know Morgan hates herself, and sees herself as a monster. This likely makes it hard for her to engage with her inner self in any real way, stifling herself. It's probably even a negative feedback loop. When she has to express herself, she reaches inside, but she finds nothing, which makes her hate herself even more.

The lady is not okay. But we knew that.

watch my stream this sunday twitch.tv/demilypyro

Serra Ashur really is the perfect deuteragonist to Morgan. I'm insane. Morgan's complete lack of scruples next to Serra's steadfast moral compass. Morgan's bitter cynicism next to Serra's commitment to seeing the good in people. Morgan's feelings of inhumanity despite being entirely human next to Serra literally not being human but having so much humanity inside her. The black and white outfits. The red and green. They're so well balanced. Straight up yin and yanging in this bitch. The duo of all time. Nth circle when I GET you

Serra Ashur lines that live in my head rent free

Morgan is everything to me because she's SO cool and awesome but if you look even slightly under the surface she's coping mechanisms stacked on coping mechanisms stacked on coping mechanisms stacked on 5 miles of trauma. She somehow manages to be both the coolest person in the room and the most pathetic little meow meow in the room. It's crucial that she is not aware of this. She thinks she has great self-awareness ("I am so evil I'm a twisted fucking cycle path") but she actually has zero self-awareness ("my actions are a trauma response and I have a need to feel loved"). It's so awesome how much she sucks. She unironically sits there soliloquizing to herself about society. The brooderrrrr. I think if she ever became fully aware of her feelings towards Emma it would destroy her. She would collapse like a house of cards. I need her to cry. I need her to experience catharsis. I need Emma to dom her. Anyway

I love the triple fakeout with Morgan's characterization

She's introduced in Episode 0 like this experienced noir detective who immediately sees through the case and solves it expertly. Highly intelligent, perceptive, cunning, she holds all the cards.

Then you realize she knew who committed the murder ahead of time (because it was her) and she was really just lying her entire face off the whole time, to both her client and the audience. It reframes her entirely. Now she's not an expert detective, but a mastermind, a supervillain, a perfect killer. Excessively detail-oriented, and impossible to touch. She spends a whole scene gloating to herself.

Then Emma enters the scene and we see Morgan when she's up against someone who can rival her: out of her depth. She's still pretty damn intelligent, but she can't hold a candle to Emma. Her smug demeanor is crushed instantly under Emma's analysis, especially when she begins to read Morgan's character to filth, without even knowing who she's talking about. Suddenly Morgan is being framed as childish, obsessive, not to mention *un-self-aware.*

Then finally, in Episode 1, we see what Morgan is like when she's handling a case she didn't cause herself. And she's kind of a total mess. She's not the unaffected killer she purports to be in the slightest. She gets emotional, she gets attached, makes totally illogical decisions, and then justifies them to herself. Her tactics amount to bluffing, sowing confusion, and making a mockery of the court. She's almost.... trolling. The calm and collected noir detective from the opening of Episode 0 is... nowhere to be seen.

The thing is, all of these characterizations build on eachother. We're not contradicting what we learned earlier, we're just recontextualizing. She's still intelligent, smug, and extremely precise, she's just also childish, un-self-aware and out of her depth. Each scene just tells us more about her. We've hit Maximum Morgan.

Morgan of the Devil "oh no" edit