[Ace Attorney; fictional childhood neglect & abuse] one of my favorite funny things about canon-adjacent fans is the prevalence of the assumption that since Maya is bouncy and happy and manipulates Phoenix into buying her things that she for some reason must not be able to cook/clean/do home tasks

There's often this assumption that she is messy and I'm like

Friends Morgan would have had her head if she was messy

Also no one would have made her food. She would have been On Her Own in her own lonely ass mansion since 13 and it was she and Mia before that

They'd have been cooking and cleaning for each other and then she would have done it for herself, and because Morgan is so appearances-based, Morgan would have shamed her if the manor ever fell out of order

She manipulates folks into making her or buying her food BECAUSE of that— because when you've had nothing but your own food for so long it's a damn treat when others make things for you
And also it gets boring when you're the only one taking care of yourself!

It's fun bc she is a manipulative character who uses it as a survival tactic and to better the situations of her friends

So it's an old trope, manipulation, but used in a somewhat unique way...

also, like, at least as far as miko go.... like a good 80% of their job is basically janitorial services for the shrine?

cleaning and maintaining the grounds and interior, setting up and breaking down after services etc

which is funny because whenever they introduce any type of shrine maiden or temple worker in anime, it's almost always them outside sweeping the grounds

Yup!!!

in the ace attorney anime they seemed to have her in charge of more ceremonial things than I expected honestly!!!

Bc I'm used to shrine girls being so janitorial

yeah, and most of the stories, unless there's some kinda magical elements involved in it, don't really focus on the ceremonial aspect

like when Rei uses the fire divination in one or two episodes of Sailor Moon

Right!

Which I noticed both the anime, later games, AND the LA Movie made a bigger deal of the ceremonialism of channeling

i think partially it's because it becomes so plot relevant in a couple of the trials, so there's more reason for it to be explored and shown to the audience!

Yeah!!!

I do think it's like FIGSJKGKG IT'S FUNNY THAT SOMETIMES THE AUDIENCE FALLS FOR THE STORY
like everyone ICly thinking that Maya must be bad at being a shrine girl is the POINT

But YOU, the PLAYER, are supposed to use the evidence you are shown to put together oh. Actually the story is saying she is good at these things and Morgan has been actively suppressing her powers bc she doesn't want Maya to become the leader