Okay, That's It.

i'll never get over how badly people who want to come up with ideas of how tcoaal can be "better" or "fixed" miss the points of anything.

like the other day on twitter i see this thing like. "THIS INCEST SHIT SUUUCKS IT SHOULD JUST BE ABOUT TWO SIBLINGS WHO JUST EAT ALL THE PEOPLE THEY DON'T LIKE" and it's like. oooh who’s an edgy boy yes you are oooh what a hot take your statements are so controversial what an edgy boy

and the other day like, some of my friends show me this tcoaal rewrite that involves a big sister Ashley (i only saw this post once and don't remember it well). different mom that's an entirely different shade of abusive and a whole different kind of trauma put into Ashley who wants to be a boxer now in defiance of how she was raised and i'm like... why does this have to be a tcoaal rewrite? you've created a genuinely really interesting concept... just tweak it to remove tcoaal from it's DNA entirely and you have this super solid original story idea. and i'm just here like... it's just so annoying. you have this fantastic idea for something original, why do you need to bill it as what makes canon better?

like, it's fine. it's fine to not like the incest. as much asi like to make fun of antis, there ARE genuine fans of this game that aren't really big on coffincest but like everything else- but at least THEY still acknowledge the incest is an important part of the story's DNA and it's themes, so even if they're not in it to ship it they're still here to enjoy the story.

it's always so boggling to me. granted, i've always hated fix fics- i'm totally fine with radical AUs and rewrites, but maybe it's just my personal gripes of "haha i FIXED canon it's better now >:)" like... i can appreciate a fix fic like "oh this character didn't die bc i think it's dumb" but then these are people who fundamentally don't understand what they're trying to "fix."

and like i know. antis are antis. antis always do this. but it's like... man. why can't people just say they don't like a thing bc it's not their cup of tea instead of wanting to "fix" it in a way that ruins it???

Honestly, I don’t get how people can watch everything Ashley puts Andrew through and still think she isn’t the worse of the two right now. And saying she’s worse doesn’t mean Andrew gets a free pass, far from it, but come on, she absolutely wrecks him in episode 2 and especially in Decay. She’s the one who pushes him to the edge and breaks the promise she made back in episode 1. Every time someone tries to reason with Ashley or calm her down, she just doubles, even triples down. It’s the same cycle over and over: promises to change, only to spiral even further.

Now, if we’re talking about before episode 1, sure, Andrew was a total asshole and definitely played a big part in how Ashley ended up. But seriously, try raising a traumatized kid while being neglected yourself and see how well you turn out.

You are fundamentally misunderstanding what makes Andrew tic as a character, WHY he'd rather die than be separated from Ashley no matter how awful she gets, and why those two things make people go "He's just as bad as his sister, maybe even worse"

Andrew's entire inner struggle can be explained by his thoughts on Julia after she breaks up with him "You'll never see her again, and the fact that it doesn't bother you bothers you."

Unlike Ashley, Andrew has at least some understanding of what a normal, healthy, GOOD person does or doesn't think/feel/do. But he still has all the same petty, immature, selfish, possessive, controling, manipulative and violent impulses Ashley has.

That's why, no matter if the player is making Andrew stand up for himself or revert back to Andy, the parents and the campers still die, because Andrew resents the former and doesn't care about the latter. Why his relationship with Julia is doomed, and why he'll get furious at the very thought of Ashley being with someone else. Why Ashley's obviously fake tears still convinced him to leave Nina, a girl he knows is asmathic and has clearly heard said the words "I can't breathe", locked up in a dusty box all night.

Despite knowing better, he still goes along with all the vile things Ashley wants - because even though he knows it's wrong, some sick part of him either doesn't care about these people (and thus doesn't care what Ashley puts them through) or actively ENJOYS their suffering just as much as his sister does.

Ashley is a chaotic, impulsive, reckless type of evil, and thus acts on impulse. Andrew is all about PREMEDITATED evil. He doesn't really "snap" and "get pushed too far" or even "gives into pressure/manipulation" that often. Most of the time he's making the conscious choice to ignore what he knows it's right. He doesn't care about the harm he causes, but he knows he should, and that brings him shame.

That's why in Burial, if he embraces the "Ashley and me VS the world" mentality, he is SO calm with all the vile things he's doing, that even his sister is shocked, and both demons/entities take an interest in him (as he likely "hatches" into a Tar Soul like Ashley in that route, instead of being just a grime one like in Decay, wich we explicitly know is all about self-perception - aka despite lack awareness of most things, Ashley was the only one between the siblings, up to that point, to not kid herself about the evil they did).

That's why Ashley doesn't just break her promise about never mentioning Nina again, but also points out that Andrew chose to kill her too.

Being "the doormat" that is simply "too weak willed" to tell Ashley no is far more comfortable for him than admiting that, even if she had never been born, even if he had been an only child, he would still be a terrible person, and would actively seak out someone like Ashley so he'd have someone who can understand and accept him.

"Snapping" at her only when she (admitedly) does horrible things to him that no one else would tolerate gives him a way out of acknowledging that there's a part of him that, no matter how much he loves Ashley, genuinely wants to hurt her simply because he's a monster too, not because of anything she did.

That's why he's so codependent to the point of killing himself right after murdering her - she's a terrible sister, friend, girlfriend and partner in crime, but she's still the scapegoat. If she's not around anymore, Andrew will run out of excuses, and in Decay he'd rather die than accept responsibility. In Burial? We'll see.

"Ashley is worse than Andrew" is and has always been bullshit. They're both violent, controlling, possessive, manipulative, and abusive towards each other in every way imaginable (verbal, psychological, physical, sexual). They're the exact same. And Andrew is well aware of it because, to some extent, Ashley is his creation as much as Renee's. And while he knows that should be tragic for several reasons (including the fact that he couldn't have been expected to act differently since he was just a child too) there's some part of him that is PROUD of having damaged his sister that much.

That's why he'll say things like "you're the most alluring thing I've ever laid eyes on", or mentally gush about how "his" Ashley summoned a demon on her first try, beat her to break her down even more, or actively use their feelings for each other to get her to fall in line, just like she does with him.

Andrew doesn't want Ashley to be "better", despite seeing all the harm she causes to everyone - including the two of them. At some point, he went from "Innocent child that should have never been raising another child, especially one like Ashley, because he's obviously unfit for the job and will accidentally enable her" to "Bastard that is actively shaping his sister/girlfriend to be the perfect scapegoat/partner in crime."

If she weren't exactly what she is, Andrew would have gotten rid of her a long time ago, like he did with all their victims.

for some reasons i can’t stop thinking about this silly little frame

my roman empire is the subtle differences in appearance between jinx and (alternate universe) powder. powder is taller and has fuller cheeks compared to jinx because shes not malnourished. powder is tanner than jinx and has freckles because shes out in the sun more. powder's voice is deeper to signify that she has matured, while jinx's voice is high-pitched and raspy because of her constant screaming and the poor air quality in zaun. powder has prevalent smile lines, while jinx doesnt. the difference between jinx and powder is one night, one decision.

The more toxic Andrew was in episode 3A the hotter he became. He is straight up awful and the red flags are glaring but red is my favorite color 🥰

sorry that you think my fictional ship is illegal. I actually consulted a fictional lawyer about it and he had a talk with a fictional cop about the fictional laws and then they both looked at me, and very seriously said "we'll allow it because it's hot."