| “ | Now hear me, you useless lawyer. Cease this charade and bow before me. For I, Queen Ga'ran, shall finally have your head! | „ |
| ~ Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in |
Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in is the primary antagonist of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. She has been the queen of Khura'in for 23 years, ever since her older sister Amara was assassinated. In the aftermath Ga'ran ascended the throne and married Inga Karkhuul; over the next few years she phased in the Defense Culpability Act, which declared attorneys would receive the same sentence as their clients. She now has absolute power within the country.
Appearance
In her duties as Queen, she seemed to dress with the intention of seeming regal and harmless. Ga'ran wore a heavy white robe with red and gold trim, along with a golden ministerial hat and her hair styled in extremely tight buns. As with her kindly persona, this was a mask-underneath her robes, she wore a customized prosecutor's uniform-a far more revealing, skintight purple dress and a necklace of Magatamas, with a bindi head jewel, large hair clips and mascara to give herself a seemingly perpetual sneer. When removing her royal robes to reveal her dress, she would also undo her buns, allowing her hair to fan out to into stiff coils and bangs that resembled a spider's legs and mandibles. She grew her nails long and painted red, and carried a large red and purple fan (which she uses to blow at the defense when making her claims), as well as carried around a book about Khura'inese law that she would slam the desk with as a prosecutor (and make edits to when issuing her decrees).
History
Prior to Amara Sigatar Khura'in's assassination attempt, Ga'ran served as a prosecutor and the Khura'in Minister of Justice while her sister, Amara, ruled as Queen of Khura'in. This caused her to develop a deep jealousy towards her sister, culminating into a plan to replace her and discredit all defense attorneys, effectively giving her and her loyal Ministry of Justice absolute power over Khura'in's legal system.
She set her plan into motion, starting a fire at the Amara's residence during Jove Justice's performance. To the public, this seemingly killed Amara, allowing Ga'ran to take her place as queen. However, the truth of the matter is that Amara survived, and Ga'ran blackmailed Amara into staying hidden and help her when needed, using Amara's daughter Rayfa's safety. In the process, defense attorney and Amara's husband Dhurke Sahdmadhi was accused of causing the fire. Ga'ran prosecuted the case, causing an unjust guilty verdict, leading Dhurke, his son Nahyuta Sahdmadhi and foster son Apollo Justice to go into hiding, and eventually causing a widespread discrediting of defense attorneys, leading to the occupation to become dangerous and borderline illegal via the Defense Culpability Act. When Nahyuta was forced to become a prosecutor rather than a lawyer as he had initially desired, she recognized him to be a threat and decided to force him into compliance by threatening to expose Rayfa's true parentage, forcing her into the same status as a pariah he had suffered for being Dhurke's child, making him become the embodiment of the draconian legal system she forged. Unlike Inga, she never truly developed a soft spot for Rayfa, only seeing her despised sister's image in her niece, and her neglectful and abusive behavior ended up giving Rayfa a high-strung and overly perfectionist attitude that would torment her throughout her life.
Breakdown
After being accused and then challenged by Apollo Justice to channel the Holy Mother, the guards in the courtroom are blown away while Ga'ran reels back in shock. She then tries to perform the Divination Séance dance to channel the Holy Mother while the guards encourage her, only for it to fail. Her guards realize that she is both a murderess and, according to law, a false queen, since she has no spiritual powers of her own. As they aim their rifles at her, she pleads with them and attempts the dance again, only for it to backfire, knock her unconscious, and cause her to fall backward into the pool. She then lies on the pool, bemused.
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Trivia
- Ga'ran's unique speech bubble "Such insolence!" is "Hirefuse!" (ひれ伏せ！) in the Japanese version, which roughly translates to "Bow down!" This fits her status as the Khura'inese queen and arrogant personality.
- Her outfit, design, and using a fan as weapon may have been inspired by the Princess Iron Fan from Journey to the West.
- Ga'ran's design seems to bear resemblance to High Inquisitor Darklaw from the crossover title Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Both appear to be witch-like design and bother serve as the prosecutor of the last case of their game.
- Ga'ran can be compared to both Manfred von Karma and Morgan Fey. Like Manfred, she is a corrupt prosecutor who tries to convict someone else for her own murder and is responsible for much of the other party's darker actions (more directly, in her case, as Nahyuta only became such a merciless prosector because he was being threatened by her), and during the final trial regularly directs its general flow (although Ga'ran has actual authority over the judge, as opposed to Manfred, who is just too indimidating to gainsay). Like Morgan, she is powerless woman from a family of mediums driven by jealousy of her nobler sister, and manipulates her daughter (adopted, in Rayfa's case) to be her political pawn against her enemies (though, unlike Morgan, Ga'ran has nothing resembling affection for Rayfa, emotionally and verbally abusing her as a way of getting back at her sister by proxy).
