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first of all, YOOOOOOOOOOOO DOUGLAS SPRITE HE IS A CHARACTER AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!

Love the implication that it's because Renee loves and cares about him. To their children, he is not a real person.

(tbf, he calls Andrew the wrong name so yeah can't blame him)

But more importantly, just as the beginning of the episode gives us an insight of Douglas' parents (overbearing sexist father, meek mother), this vision fleshes out both parents but especially Renee's family situation.

At 15, her parents gave her the ultimatum of either aborting or being kicked out. She chose her boyfriend over her family: they married, and stuck together no matter what. This already says a lot about her.

It's clear that part of this virulent hatred she's showing is not just because she, understandably, is bitter about not receiving support, but because part of her parents' worries ended up being right. Sure, Douglas is not an abusive asshole, and it's touching how much she defends him as much as he defends her. But raising children is much harder than she apparently thought. Look at how much she lies to her mom that they're doing swell. No way she's going to bitch about Ashley to her mom :)

The fact that Renee was kicked out might also explain part of her atittude towards her kids. She's not kicking them out, not even when Ashley became of age and was still a problem for her. Sure, she urges her to find a job, but in a more "normal" way. She's not going to put them through that. Although, of course, she expects to be thanked profusely for that.

Funnily enough, I think this cements for me that, despite Andrew seeing himself in his father, he's more like his mother, while Ashley might be more similar to the dad. Renee's main concern is, much like Andrew, appearances. She doesn't want to be remembered as the mom of two killers. She doesn't want to admit she screwed up by having kids so young. She lies and lies to pretend everything is fine and they're all a happy family. Douglas, on the other hand, is so apathetic that he accidentally echoes Ashley's complete lack of care for consequences. "welp, it's bad, but they're kids." I think this is ultimately why Ashley has Douglas' eyes and Andrew has Renee's eyes.

Oh! And, according to Renee, Andrew is "Accident" and Ashley is "Mistake". Makes sense. Andrew was most likely not wanted. But since he was a good kid, they chose to have Ashley... and Renee is regretting it every day.

Oh yeah, I honestly respect any ship people want to have with Andrew, but my problem with the Andrew x Renee mood is that it literally makes no sense??

I mean they completely forget about the fact that Renee is the reason for the two brothers' misfortunes and just use Renee as an Ashley 2.0 with the exact same personality just a little more serious so you don't notice it lol

Same thing happens with most ocs, it's crazy to me to see people who hate gravecest/Ashley but ship Andrew with an oc that is EXACTLY the same as Ashley like ???

It's almost like... If you take Ashley out of the story the game wouldn't make sense/wouldn't be interesting!! 😱

I'm so tired of the hate Ashley Graves receives on the internet in general.

Not because I think everyone should like the character because there's no accounting for personal taste, but it's so obvious when they are just misogynists who hate Ashley but for some reason love Andrew and actively defend him for actions that both siblings committed.

Like no, Ashley did NOT force Andrew to do shit, Andrew had plenty of opportunities throughout his life to at least try to separate himself from his sister as much as possible and put a stop to Ashley's actions (example: take Ashley's harassment to Julia seriously and not just dismiss it)

The point is that he doesn't do it because he's just as bad as she is, and him blaming her for all his misfortunes is just his way of coping so he doesn't feel so bad about himself afterwards.

I know this is something a lot of people have already pointed out, but it's because I'm on Tumblr (where I only read posts from people who adore her) that I sometimes completely forget how much people actually hate her out there 💀

I don't normally watch YouTube analysis videos about tcoaal because most of them are, quite honestly, trashy and superficial but I just watched one and

From all the bs I've heard about the game and/or the siblings, this is the one (i'm paraphrasing):

"Ashley doesn't have self-worth issues, she doesn't struggle with self-image. She just pretends in order to manipulate Andrew with that."

BOY, DID WE PLAY THE SAME GAME???? Literally all the complicated shit between Andrew and Ashley starts because of her insecurities and fears (there's stuff regarding Andrew but you know what I mean)

What about the lady from 302 and the outcome????

I literally had to pause the video when I heard that. More reasons why I only consume stuff about tcoaal on Tumblr.

me because I have an unhealthy addiction to characters being evil

With how much Tsumugi loves Junko, and the Odd writing choices she made, it wouldn't surprise me if she shipped Despaircest

oh 100% there has never been a single doubt in my mind about that she is in fact in the naegi/mukuro tag as we speak spreading hate over it

ashley is such a broken girl, it's sad.

everyone in her entire life, even on some accounts her own brother, has told her that she is an insignificant, small, useless, loud, annoying, childish and irritating thing. everyone either talks bad about her directly, or has negative thoughts about her in the back of their minds. and she just lives in the label because she has, really, genuinely NEVER felt real love and affection before.

her parents conditioned her to be clingy to the one source of love that she could possibly scrape up. and even then, andy only loved her initially out of a familial obligation that he was groomed into upholding by his own mother, it's only with time (as stated in-game) that andrew grew to love ashley.

shes like a feral cat with no direction, she can't even trust the small crumbs of affection she DOES get from others, because theres ALWAYS a caviot, surely! so she pre-emptively lets the other know through aggression that she SEES through their "facade of love", "whens the carpet being pulled!! wheres the cameras!! because surely it must be a joke!!"

shes so neglected that even when she DOES receive love she doesn't know HOW to take it, so she just... responds in the only way she know how to. its so indecipherable in her brain to receive this affection that she just defaults to anger or discomfort because of its unfamiliarity. shes so lonely that shes convinced herself that Other People aren't worth it, because when have they ever been for her?

its why it makes me so upset to see people demean ashley to a one-note abuser with a shitty mom. shes so fucking scared and lonely you don't even KNOW. shes a cat that hisses and scratches at getting pet. shes scared.

Andrew after seeing THE THING

SAME Andrew LITERALLY ENTIRE GOD DAMN GAME

I love them so much