I'll Never Get Over The Fact That My Top 3 BPD Coded Characters In Fiction All Have Their Older Sibling

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.

on my 36th gameplay at this point and this just breaks my heart man .. i can’t believe they were like this for over a year .. we know andrew was miserable but ashley must’ve been so lonely too :( she had no friends at school and ended up dropping out, the closest person she’s ever had doesn’t talk to her anymore .. and here, andrew can’t even cheer her up properly when they used to be everything for one another 😞

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.

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You gotta love how it only took an episode for Vi to get over her angst phase and immediately be all "Let's settle down and raise our daughter together in the hippy commune!" with Jinx.

Also big respect to Isha. Sometimes a family is just an adopted mute girl, her two sister-mums, and her werewolf grandad. And she'll do anything for them. That's beautiful.

and yet i wouldn't have it any other way

I saw this and I can't stop laughing.

I think this is gonna be Lord Unknown with Andrew in Decay part 2

I love them so much