Dahlia Hawthorne

"Mia Fey"

- (Well, we know whose milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.)

Dahlia Hawthorne was a student at Ivy University and ex-girlfriend of Phoenix Wright. She appeared as a witness in the murders of her stepsister Valerie Hawthorne, her ex-boyfriend Doug Swallow, and the author Elise Deauxnim.

Early life
Morgan Fey, who was to become the head of the Fey clan, married a wealthy jeweler and had two twin daughters with him: Dahlia and Iris. However, Misty Fey, Morgan's younger sister, had more spiritual power than Morgan did, and she became the head instead, making Morgan's bloodline a powerless branch family. The jeweler divorced from his wife, taking their daughters with him. He later remarried to a woman who already had a daughter, Valerie Hawthorne. Not wanting three daughters, he gave Iris away to the Hazakura Temple. As Dahlia stayed with the Hawthornes, she began to hate her father and plotted against him for his money.

When Dahlia was 14 years old, she pretended to fall in love with Terry Fawles, her tutor, to use him to exact revenge on her father. With Valerie's cooperation, she staged a fake kidnapping by Fawles to get her hands on one of her father's rare jewels. At Dusky Bridge near Hazakura Temple, however, Valerie betrayed Fawles and shot him in the arm, the signal for the "hostage" to jump into Eagle River intentionally with the diamond in her backpack. Fawles was convicted for Dahlia's "murder" and sentenced to death row. Dahlia would become involved in more crimes later in life.

First murder

 * Main article: Turnabout Beginnings

Five years later, Fawles was being transferred to another prison, but his transport broke down and he broke out. He called Valerie Hawthorne and told her to meet him at Dusky Bridge to explain what had happened. Valerie called Dahlia and told her that she was going to tell the truth about the incident. Fearful of what would result from the meeting, Dahlia stabbed Valerie at Dusky Bridge and then, when Fawles arrived by a stolen car, she hid the body in the trunk of the car and then met Fawles at the bridge, posing as Valerie. Fawles was arrested soon afterward, now accused of a real murder.

During Fawles's trial, Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth prepared Dahlia as a witness named Melissa Foster, who would attempt to convince the court that Fawles was the killer. Mia Fey, the attorney for the defendant, was almost able to prove that Dahlia was the killer, but Fawles refused to cooperate with Fey, poisoning himself and dying on the stand instead. Fey would later recall that Dahlia left the courtroom with a "demonic smile on her face".

Attempted murder
The result of the trial drove Fey and her co-worker, defense attorney Diego Armando, to investigate Dahlia. Dahlia found out and convinced Armando to meet her in the courthouse cafeteria six months later. Fearful that Armando would expose the truth, Dahlia quietly slipped poison into his coffee from her bottle necklace. The poison had been stolen from Doug Swallow, her boyfriend at the time, who was a pharmacology student at Ivy University. Soon after, in the reading room, Dahlia stumbled across fellow Ivy University student Phoenix Wright and gave him the necklace as a "love gift" to evade the authorities. Swallow later found out about the stolen poison and broke up with her, and Armando was put into a coma from the poisoning. Armando would later reawaken and reenter the courtroom as prosecutor Godot.

Because of lingering suspicion over this incident, Dahlia asked her sister Iris to live her life at Ivy University in the event of another encounter with law enforcement, and to retake the bottle from Wright.

Second murder

 * Main article: Turnabout Memories

Having failed to retake the bottle necklace for six months, Dahlia finally went back to Ivy University herself in desperation. She tried to kill Wright by stealing Swallow's poison again and poisoning Wright's cold medicine. However, she found Swallow trying to warn Wright about the poison robbery. Wright pushed Swallow due to sheer disillusionment and left; Hawthorne then killed Swallow by electrocution to prevent the truth from coming out, and tried to frame Wright for his death. During Wright's trial, his attorney, Mia Fey, exposed her as the killer. Dahlia was then convicted and sentenced to death.

Prison and execution
"Dahlia Hawthorne"

- Yes. I was hanged. It wasn't exactly... pleasant.

Five years later, Dahlia met with her mother in prison. Morgan told her about her plan to lure Pearl Fey and Maya Fey to Hazakura Temple; there, Pearl would channel Dahlia, who would kill Maya, so that Pearl would become the master of the Fey family. Soon after this exchange, Dahlia was executed by hanging.

Summoning

 * Main article: Bridge to the Turnabout

"Godot"

- ...Upon meeting a beautiful lady, always ask for her name and profession. That's one of my rules.

"Dahlia Hawthorne"

- Dahlia Hawthorne. And my current profession? Permanently retired.

One month after Dahlia's execution, Godot and Misty Fey learned of Morgan Fey's plot and tried to stop it by having Misty channel Dahlia instead. Godot would then restrain Dahlia and stop her from killing Maya. However, Dahlia attacked Maya at the Inner Temple, which was some distance away from Hazakura Temple. Upon seeing her silhouette, however, Godot was overtaken with a desire for revenge, so he picked up Misty's sword-cane and stabbed Dahlia, which killed Misty. Iris was put on trial for the murder.

After channeling and asking her sister Mia for help, Maya used Mia's advice and locked herself in an icy training room, called the Sacred Cavern, inside the Inner Temple and channeled Dahlia to prevent Pearl, who was unknowing of the entire plot, from channeling Dahlia and consequentially murdering Maya. Later, in an effort to save Maya, Iris was called upon to undo the locks to the training room. Once Iris had undone the locks, an earthquake shook the region, and Dahlia took the distraction as an opportunity to switch with Iris and to lock Iris inside the training room. Rescue efforts then continued to save Maya from the Sacred Cavern, though Maya was, in fact, outside channeling Dahlia.

During Iris's trial, Dahlia, posing as Iris, claimed that Maya had killed Misty and then had killed herself in her guilt. However, Wright figured out who she was and who was channeling her. Distraught over her failure to kill Maya when she had been so close to her for days, Dahlia left Maya's body, and the judge suggested that her spirit never be channeled again.

Personality
Dahlia Hawthorne knew that her beauty and innocent appearance threw others off her true nature and took full advantage of it. She had the ability to make herself appear serene and innocent; she was often portrayed as having small butterflies flock about her and flutter gently. However, this aura of innocence was a facade, and when pressed into a corner, her demeanor could change to a terrifying, almost demonic visage which even caused the aforementioned butterflies to burst into flames at one point. Her fiery temper and sharp tongue were of the stereotypical redhead. In truth, Hawthorne looked after and cared about nobody but herself, and even went as far as to state that this had always been the case for her.

Many who have seen Hawthorne's true nature, such as Phoenix Wright and Mia Fey, have described Hawthorne as evil, and even the judge has suggested that she never be channeled again. Indeed, all of Hawthorne's murders and attempted murders were committed to cover up a previous crime or to exact revenge on Mia Fey. She displayed absolutely no remorse or regret for any of the crimes she had committed, and seemingly had no qualms about murdering completely innocent people for self-preservation. In fact, of all the characters Wright encountered, Dahlia was the one with the most intended victims, eight in total. Of these two died by her hand, one killed himself, two were killed by other people and three failed altogether.

Dahlia Hawthorne's sister Iris once gave a somewhat different description of her. Having been abandoned by her mother and neglected by her father, Iris felt sorry for Dahlia because Iris at least had Bikini, a fellow nun and acting mother to Iris, to take care of her. Iris also described Dahlia as "strong" and "smart", never complaining about her situation. She was thankful that neither Iris or herself had much spiritual power and so couldn't be used by their mother and showed a slight trace of sympathy for her half-sister, Pearl Fey, who her mother could use.

Name

 * Dahlia is the name of a flower, but it is especially well known from the murder mystery The Black Dahlia. She shares her floral first name with her sister Iris.


 * "Hawthorne" is a topographic or habitational surname for someone who lived near a hawthorn hedge or in a place called Hawthorn. It may be a reference to famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote Rappaccini's Daughter, a short story in which a man falls in love with a woman. This woman has a strong poison coursing through her veins and can kill anything with a simple touch. Hawthorne also wrote The Scarlet Letter, which deals with the guilt of a woman in 17th-century Boston who has an illegitimate child. The child's name is Pearl, drawing similarities to Pearl Fey.


 * "Hawthorne" may also be a reference to her "having thorns".


 * The "Hawthorne effect" is when the subjects of an experiment improve an aspect of their behaviour, such as working harder, simply because they are being studied and not as a result of any experimental manipulation that the researcher may be studying. This is similar, in a way, to the way that Dahlia behaves; she is "nicer" when she is being "examined".


 * Her fake surname "Foster" mimics her Japanese name, "Satoko Mukui" (Mukui satoko literally means "a vengeful foster child").


 * "Miyanagi" (美柳) is a name that evokes a feeling of tranquility. "Chinami" (ちなみ) may come from the phrase "chi mo namida mo nai" ("without blood or tears"), basically meaning "heartless". It also follows Wright's naming convention, as "chinami ni" means "by the way."


 * Her French surname "Plantule" means "seedling".

Development

 * Since she only appears while alive as a witness, Dahlia's non-spirit sprites are cut off and are not full length, similar to other courtroom-only characters such as Frank Sahwit and Richard Wellington.


 * Her appearance, outfit, and the butterflies that circle around her were all designed to give the impression of an "heiress".