The song, "Midwestern Dirt" by Dear and the Headlights is a song that means a lot to me, despite not really caring for it nowadays. While the lyrics are just about a trophy wife regretting her abusive relationship, I feel like the song still has a lot to do with me.
When I was in middle school, I was kind of a contrarian little shitheel. I refused to listen to music, thinking that i just didn't like the medium at all. Also while i was in middle school, as much as i hate to admit it, i had a tumblr account. I don't even remember the name of it, nor do i want to, but that's besides the point. one person that i followed on tumblr had posted the song by Dear and the Headlights, "Talk About". when i listened to it, i figured "wow, this song is actually pretty damn good". After this I started to listen to Dear and the Headlights discography of my own volition. They are the first band that i ever discovered not via my parents, who only listen to mid-late 2010s country music. (I am well aware that disliking modern country is as common of an opinion as disliking being stabbed)
The one song of theirs that i found myself listening to the most however, was "Midwestern Dirt". This was my first favorite song of all time, though I wouldn't even put it in the top 100 now. There was something about this song, one that's about a trophy wife in an abusive relationship, something that has nothing to do with me or my life, that really spoke to me. I am from the Midwest, born and raised. I only leave my state maybe once a year if that. At the time, I had been feeling like i was dirt, as most socially awkward middle schoolers do. I really and truly believed that I was Midwestern Dirt. The angst in the song, while still very apparent, wasn't the type that was angry, it didn't want the world to pay for treating its residents so cruelly, it wasn't about how society should crumble for being mean to me. It was more realistic. It was a type of angst that felt regretful. Regretful for ones own actions and thoughts, while still dreading others. That is how I really felt at the time.
My, and I'm sure many others' darkest time in life was middle school. I always say that if i could beat up any "past self" that I had, it would be my middle school self. Of course, all middle schoolers are weird cringelords who grow up and out of that phase quickly. However, I always say I would beat up middle school me, not because I hated the weird things i was into, but because I genuinely think that a good punch over the head or two would help me a lot later in life. I was an ungrateful brat, and hated everything around me and refused to connect with my peers. I never faced any immediate punishment for the things I said or did, and this only worsened how I thought and acted and spoke. I felt horrible all the time as well, Midwestern Dirt is how I would have described myself. Dear and the Headlights had made a song relate to me despite the lyrics having nothing to do with me or experiences I've ever had.
I view the Ace Attorney series very similarly to how I view Dear and the headlights. It's something I discovered in middle school via my own devices. Dual Destinies first case as well as the first 2 cases of the first game were free on the App Store, and I had really enjoyed what I played (particularly of PW:AA lol) but didn't have the money or excuses to my parents to buy the rest of the trilogy or DD. However the Anime had been coming out maybe a year or so later prolly less, and so I watched that. It was probably my second anime ever. I never watched the second season, I had entered High School and didn't really have the time.
However, the series still intrigued me, and when I finally got my PC (either Sophomore or Junior year I forget, but I think it was early Junior cause I was finishing up Umineko at the time), the first game I sat down and played through was the Ace Attorney Trilogy. I was going through memory lane a lot when I was playing the first 2 games, and the third I VERY much enjoyed. Still, there was a lot more to the series than just the trilogy, but playing that was enough for me (read: I didn't wanna bother emulating the other games). When Great Ace Attorney Chronicles was announced, I was ecstatic, and preordered it ASAP. Loved it, and figured that DD/SoJ would get the same treatment soon, and I'd only have to emulate 4 and the Edgeworth games. I still hold onto that hope, and am planning on playing AJ:AA after vs Layton.
I still couldn't be assed to actually download an emulator for the other games until I played Flower, Sun, and Rain. (DeSmuME sucks ass format wise. I played the android port of AAI1 on Bluestacks, and played AAI2 using DraStic on Bluestacks) I thought AAI1 was extremely mediocre, and had no idea why AAI2 was so highly revered, maybe because its fanslation only?
Well now that I have played AAI2, I completely understand the hype. Every case being so immensely important, not only to the main themes of the game, but to the plot and how it all lines up in case 5, is genius. There is no filler, though case 3 did feel like it was teetering because it was so immensely long.
The reason I'm telling my embarrassing, and probably generic, middle school life story on this specific game is because its main themes are that law does not equal justice, and that your blood doesn't decide your path, you do. That second theme is what made me reminisce about middle school.
I hated music because what my parents listened to was awful. I then discovered a band on my own, which led me to discover more bands, and friends that I made in high school started recommending me things, and now I listen to music that if I made my mom listen to she would turn the speakers off. I finally had learned to branch off from what they listen to, which also taught me to branch off from how they think, their philosophies, and more. I still have a lot to learn in life, I'm only just now entering college, but I'm glad. If I hadn't started discovering music on my own, who knows what I would be like. I might be some empty shell of a person only capable of expressing distaste, or I could be a boring dull neocon. I'm not Midwestern Dirt, and I never was. I only felt that way because I was too stubborn to consider my surroundings, and excluded myself from my peers.
Unlike Dear and the Headlights however, I am still into Ace Attorney and don't find it boring, and cannot wait to join the AA7 desperation train like everyone else.
TL;DR: justine courtney is the baddest bitch in ace attorney and its not even close
When I was in middle school, I was kind of a contrarian little shitheel. I refused to listen to music, thinking that i just didn't like the medium at all. Also while i was in middle school, as much as i hate to admit it, i had a tumblr account. I don't even remember the name of it, nor do i want to, but that's besides the point. one person that i followed on tumblr had posted the song by Dear and the Headlights, "Talk About". when i listened to it, i figured "wow, this song is actually pretty damn good". After this I started to listen to Dear and the Headlights discography of my own volition. They are the first band that i ever discovered not via my parents, who only listen to mid-late 2010s country music. (I am well aware that disliking modern country is as common of an opinion as disliking being stabbed)
The one song of theirs that i found myself listening to the most however, was "Midwestern Dirt". This was my first favorite song of all time, though I wouldn't even put it in the top 100 now. There was something about this song, one that's about a trophy wife in an abusive relationship, something that has nothing to do with me or my life, that really spoke to me. I am from the Midwest, born and raised. I only leave my state maybe once a year if that. At the time, I had been feeling like i was dirt, as most socially awkward middle schoolers do. I really and truly believed that I was Midwestern Dirt. The angst in the song, while still very apparent, wasn't the type that was angry, it didn't want the world to pay for treating its residents so cruelly, it wasn't about how society should crumble for being mean to me. It was more realistic. It was a type of angst that felt regretful. Regretful for ones own actions and thoughts, while still dreading others. That is how I really felt at the time.
My, and I'm sure many others' darkest time in life was middle school. I always say that if i could beat up any "past self" that I had, it would be my middle school self. Of course, all middle schoolers are weird cringelords who grow up and out of that phase quickly. However, I always say I would beat up middle school me, not because I hated the weird things i was into, but because I genuinely think that a good punch over the head or two would help me a lot later in life. I was an ungrateful brat, and hated everything around me and refused to connect with my peers. I never faced any immediate punishment for the things I said or did, and this only worsened how I thought and acted and spoke. I felt horrible all the time as well, Midwestern Dirt is how I would have described myself. Dear and the Headlights had made a song relate to me despite the lyrics having nothing to do with me or experiences I've ever had.
I view the Ace Attorney series very similarly to how I view Dear and the headlights. It's something I discovered in middle school via my own devices. Dual Destinies first case as well as the first 2 cases of the first game were free on the App Store, and I had really enjoyed what I played (particularly of PW:AA lol) but didn't have the money or excuses to my parents to buy the rest of the trilogy or DD. However the Anime had been coming out maybe a year or so later prolly less, and so I watched that. It was probably my second anime ever. I never watched the second season, I had entered High School and didn't really have the time.
However, the series still intrigued me, and when I finally got my PC (either Sophomore or Junior year I forget, but I think it was early Junior cause I was finishing up Umineko at the time), the first game I sat down and played through was the Ace Attorney Trilogy. I was going through memory lane a lot when I was playing the first 2 games, and the third I VERY much enjoyed. Still, there was a lot more to the series than just the trilogy, but playing that was enough for me (read: I didn't wanna bother emulating the other games). When Great Ace Attorney Chronicles was announced, I was ecstatic, and preordered it ASAP. Loved it, and figured that DD/SoJ would get the same treatment soon, and I'd only have to emulate 4 and the Edgeworth games. I still hold onto that hope, and am planning on playing AJ:AA after vs Layton.
I still couldn't be assed to actually download an emulator for the other games until I played Flower, Sun, and Rain. (DeSmuME sucks ass format wise. I played the android port of AAI1 on Bluestacks, and played AAI2 using DraStic on Bluestacks) I thought AAI1 was extremely mediocre, and had no idea why AAI2 was so highly revered, maybe because its fanslation only?
Well now that I have played AAI2, I completely understand the hype. Every case being so immensely important, not only to the main themes of the game, but to the plot and how it all lines up in case 5, is genius. There is no filler, though case 3 did feel like it was teetering because it was so immensely long.
The reason I'm telling my embarrassing, and probably generic, middle school life story on this specific game is because its main themes are that law does not equal justice, and that your blood doesn't decide your path, you do. That second theme is what made me reminisce about middle school.
I hated music because what my parents listened to was awful. I then discovered a band on my own, which led me to discover more bands, and friends that I made in high school started recommending me things, and now I listen to music that if I made my mom listen to she would turn the speakers off. I finally had learned to branch off from what they listen to, which also taught me to branch off from how they think, their philosophies, and more. I still have a lot to learn in life, I'm only just now entering college, but I'm glad. If I hadn't started discovering music on my own, who knows what I would be like. I might be some empty shell of a person only capable of expressing distaste, or I could be a boring dull neocon. I'm not Midwestern Dirt, and I never was. I only felt that way because I was too stubborn to consider my surroundings, and excluded myself from my peers.
Unlike Dear and the Headlights however, I am still into Ace Attorney and don't find it boring, and cannot wait to join the AA7 desperation train like everyone else.
TL;DR: justine courtney is the baddest bitch in ace attorney and its not even close