Jean Armstrong in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations

Jean Armstrong is a gay male character in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney- Trials and Tribulations, in which he owns a French restaurant and conducts his business in his “French maid” drag persona named Claurice Armstrong. Some fans have speculated about Armstrong’s identity as the English localization raised some questions due to its sometimes vague descriptions of Armstrong’s gender and sexuality.  Janet Hsu, an employee of Capcom who works in English localization, penned a blog post expanding on various aspects of the Ace Attorney series. She discusses the challenge of localizing Jean Armstrong’s character, citing the difficult process of conveying his gender and sexuality accurately between languages. According to Hsu, Jean Armstrong is a cisgender gay man who operates his business related dealings in his drag persona which is intentionally non-passing. Hsu also notes that if the game were released more recently, the team would likely have been more specific with pronoun usage and explaining Armstrong’s identity. A video walkthrough of Armstrong’s portion of the game can be found here,

Citations:

  1. (n.d.). Jean Armstrong (character page). Ace Attorney Wiki. Retrieved from http://aceattorney.wikia.com/wiki/Jean_Armstrong
  2. Janet Hsu. (2014, October 30). Ace Attorney Series: Surprising tidbits you never knew!. Capcom-Unity. Retrieved from http://www.capcom-unity.com/zeroobjections/blog/2014/10/31/ace-attorney-trilogy—surprising-tidbits-you-never-knew
  3. (n.d.). Jean Armstrong. TVTropes Wiki. Retrieved from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/AceAttorneyWitnessesAndOtherCharactersPhoenixWright
  4. (2008, February 29). is jean armstrong. GameFaqs Forum. Retrieved from http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/939065-phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-trials-and/41693492
  5. (2013, June 10). Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations – Ep. 3, Part 3: Tres Bien and Jean Armstrong. Youtube Video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLcieN_NQL8