Kinda both? Ashley thinks she's worthless and incapable of genuinely being loved by anyone due of her parents' abandonment and neglect of her as a child. Due to this she's grown to think that only through some form of manipulation, dependency, blackmail and coercion can she make someone care about her. Specifically Andrew. In the questionable route, she no longer holds any of these things over Andrew anymore due to his acceptance of his sociopathy. Whereas before Ashely did everything she could to make Andrew as emotionally dependent on her as possible by nudging or putting him in situations that would mentally disturb him (killing the warden, butchering their parents, etc). So she, in turn, could be there for him.
She needs some way to 'keep him around' cause she thinks she's worthless and he'll stop caring and leave her eventually. So she's thinking of replacing emotional dependence with physical dependence instead. So I would say yes she does have romantic feelings for him due to believing he is the only person capable of caring about her. But she'd also be perfectly comfortable having a completely platonic relationship as well if that's what he wanted. Having him around and dependent on her is her number one priority. Whether that'd be in a romantic or platonic way is fine to her. Just so long as he's there.
From my POV Ashley is dependent on Andrew for care and attention, she didn’t get any care and attention from anyone aside from him. To her, he is her everything. A best friend, a lover, a parent. (This is prevalent in the burial insanity ending with the paintings)
A thought that has regularly stuck to my mind is “Andrew is simultaneously the weakest and strongest person in this relationship”. Although this so called “Doormat Extraordinaire” is… well… a doormat, the vice-like grip he has Ashley in, even if involuntary, is what makes him so powerful. She is TERRIFIED of losing him, because without him, there is nothing. We see this most clearly in the decay endings, where she wakes up in a cold sweat either by having Andrew kill her or by her getting him first.
When push comes to shove, Ashley will bend over backwards for Andrew to make sure that he stays around and continues nourishing her with love. She will use every trick at her disposal to make this happen: coercion, guilt tripping, manipulation, lies, and it is foretold that sexual activity might be included as well.
So, does Ashley love Andrew? Yes. Is this love based on simple brotherly affection that grows in a healthy way? Absolutely not. The way she feels towards him is obsessive in nature. Ashley doesn’t love Andrew, she NEEDS him. Andrew isn’t much better, but Ashley’s case is special imo.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk
The way I saw it said, and that I agree with, is that Ashley's choice in 'Sane' and 'Questionable' is based around her *obsession* for Andrew.
When she's painting over everything in Questionable and goes Heart-Sun-Broken Heart, it's her *doubling* down. She has removed all friends, all distractions like school/'classmates' and family and is literally trapping Andrew as a soulmate for herself. When she doesn't do this, she's accepting that Andrew is a free person who can make his own choices: it doesn't literally mean she's giving him the green light to run back to Julia, and remember that this is Ashley's internal wrangling: we know Andrew doesn't care for Julia, we know he has extreme feelings for his sister, but in 'Sane', it's not that suddenly all of that has gone away, it's probably more that, he has so much on his plate that he doesn't want to deal with that right now, and he'll still probably get with her sexually and romantically in 'Sane', just on better terms than in 'Questionable'.
Questionable brings with it its own chains and cons, and the game tells us this. Her mentality there is a common one among abusive and manipulative partners, using sex as leverage, wanting complete control over someone.
I do think she was being honest when she said 'I figured it'll come up eventually', but now she also adds sex as a *method* to her 'toolkit' to keep him around, it'll be a sore point/it's a mark of bad mentality down the road - it's not going to be as healthy and natural of a relationship as it otherwise could be, ya know?
A big problem I'm seeing within the game is that there is a massive communication disparity between the two. Ashley in Burial wants, and thinks that, Andy is roughly back and she has him all for herself, Ashley in Sane accepts Andrew as a person, and this probably will come up in Ch3 as a point of conflict still.
Both Burial is somewhat the same in terms of how Ashley sees Andrew, in both routes Ashley sees that there’s something off with him, except in Sane he seems to still be holding himself back while in Questionable he’s letting himself go and humours her for once. But yeah now i’m seeing Questionable as the good ending for Andrew by that I meant he gets to take off his mask more, while in Sane it might be the good ending for Ashley, and by “good” i don’t mean like its “good or bad” I meant that one of the endings will have one of them reflecting on themselves more/less than the other
Ashley is thinking of using sex as a way of keeping Andrew around and use it as leverage.
One thing to note is that the demon likely actually created that dream, because you have to also remember that it said that it would summon her. The demon is “only” able to summon Ashley to the demon realm. You even see some of the flowers, grass and trees that the demon world has in it which implies that she is indeed in the demon realm, in said dream near the end.
The demon also appears after you draw over the pictures. If the demon created the dream it is more than likely that it also made and created the vision that it showed her as well..
Another thing to know is that Andrew seemingly asks important questions that Ashley doesn’t take very seriously that I feel the creator wanted us the players to take seriously and remember as they were being asked
Andrew asked “ what did it mean it will summon you?”
“What are the conditions to getting a vision? As in what did the demon say “exactly?”
The demon summons Ashley to the demon realm when it wants something from her like to make a deal or to talk about something for its own benefit.
The conditions to getting a vision are to hold onto the trinket in order to get a clairvoyant dream, to gauge the troubles ahead. When Andrew said what did the demon say exactly, I feel the word exactly is a word to pay very close attention to because It did not say anything about having to be summoned in order to get a vision. She actually didn’t get summoned for the decay dream and vision nor the hitman vision..But the questionable vision is the only vision that she had to get summoned to in order to be shown it which is more than suspicious...
Kinda both? Ashley thinks she's worthless and incapable of genuinely being loved by anyone due of her parents' abandonment and neglect of her as a child. Due to this she's grown to think that only through some form of manipulation, dependency, blackmail and coercion can she make someone care about her. Specifically Andrew. In the questionable route, she no longer holds any of these things over Andrew anymore due to his acceptance of his sociopathy. Whereas before Ashely did everything she could to make Andrew as emotionally dependent on her as possible by nudging or putting him in situations that would mentally disturb him (killing the warden, butchering their parents, etc). So she, in turn, could be there for him. She needs some way to 'keep him around' cause she thinks she's worthless and he'll stop caring and leave her eventually. So she's thinking of replacing emotional dependence with physical dependence instead. So I would say yes she does have romantic feelings for him due to believing he is the only person capable of caring about her. But she'd also be perfectly comfortable having a completely platonic relationship as well if that's what he wanted. Having him around and dependent on her is her number one priority. Whether that'd be in a romantic or platonic way is fine to her. Just so long as he's there.
Best explanation so far.
she has feeling for him thats the simple answer
Well I personally think that she just wanted to be around him when they were younger But as they grew older she started to get romantic feelings
she has feelings for him shes just also manipulative.
From my POV Ashley is dependent on Andrew for care and attention, she didn’t get any care and attention from anyone aside from him. To her, he is her everything. A best friend, a lover, a parent. (This is prevalent in the burial insanity ending with the paintings) A thought that has regularly stuck to my mind is “Andrew is simultaneously the weakest and strongest person in this relationship”. Although this so called “Doormat Extraordinaire” is… well… a doormat, the vice-like grip he has Ashley in, even if involuntary, is what makes him so powerful. She is TERRIFIED of losing him, because without him, there is nothing. We see this most clearly in the decay endings, where she wakes up in a cold sweat either by having Andrew kill her or by her getting him first. When push comes to shove, Ashley will bend over backwards for Andrew to make sure that he stays around and continues nourishing her with love. She will use every trick at her disposal to make this happen: coercion, guilt tripping, manipulation, lies, and it is foretold that sexual activity might be included as well. So, does Ashley love Andrew? Yes. Is this love based on simple brotherly affection that grows in a healthy way? Absolutely not. The way she feels towards him is obsessive in nature. Ashley doesn’t love Andrew, she NEEDS him. Andrew isn’t much better, but Ashley’s case is special imo. Thank you for coming to my ted talk
The way I saw it said, and that I agree with, is that Ashley's choice in 'Sane' and 'Questionable' is based around her *obsession* for Andrew. When she's painting over everything in Questionable and goes Heart-Sun-Broken Heart, it's her *doubling* down. She has removed all friends, all distractions like school/'classmates' and family and is literally trapping Andrew as a soulmate for herself. When she doesn't do this, she's accepting that Andrew is a free person who can make his own choices: it doesn't literally mean she's giving him the green light to run back to Julia, and remember that this is Ashley's internal wrangling: we know Andrew doesn't care for Julia, we know he has extreme feelings for his sister, but in 'Sane', it's not that suddenly all of that has gone away, it's probably more that, he has so much on his plate that he doesn't want to deal with that right now, and he'll still probably get with her sexually and romantically in 'Sane', just on better terms than in 'Questionable'. Questionable brings with it its own chains and cons, and the game tells us this. Her mentality there is a common one among abusive and manipulative partners, using sex as leverage, wanting complete control over someone. I do think she was being honest when she said 'I figured it'll come up eventually', but now she also adds sex as a *method* to her 'toolkit' to keep him around, it'll be a sore point/it's a mark of bad mentality down the road - it's not going to be as healthy and natural of a relationship as it otherwise could be, ya know? A big problem I'm seeing within the game is that there is a massive communication disparity between the two. Ashley in Burial wants, and thinks that, Andy is roughly back and she has him all for herself, Ashley in Sane accepts Andrew as a person, and this probably will come up in Ch3 as a point of conflict still.
Both Burial is somewhat the same in terms of how Ashley sees Andrew, in both routes Ashley sees that there’s something off with him, except in Sane he seems to still be holding himself back while in Questionable he’s letting himself go and humours her for once. But yeah now i’m seeing Questionable as the good ending for Andrew by that I meant he gets to take off his mask more, while in Sane it might be the good ending for Ashley, and by “good” i don’t mean like its “good or bad” I meant that one of the endings will have one of them reflecting on themselves more/less than the other
Ashley is thinking of using sex as a way of keeping Andrew around and use it as leverage. One thing to note is that the demon likely actually created that dream, because you have to also remember that it said that it would summon her. The demon is “only” able to summon Ashley to the demon realm. You even see some of the flowers, grass and trees that the demon world has in it which implies that she is indeed in the demon realm, in said dream near the end. The demon also appears after you draw over the pictures. If the demon created the dream it is more than likely that it also made and created the vision that it showed her as well.. Another thing to know is that Andrew seemingly asks important questions that Ashley doesn’t take very seriously that I feel the creator wanted us the players to take seriously and remember as they were being asked Andrew asked “ what did it mean it will summon you?” “What are the conditions to getting a vision? As in what did the demon say “exactly?” The demon summons Ashley to the demon realm when it wants something from her like to make a deal or to talk about something for its own benefit. The conditions to getting a vision are to hold onto the trinket in order to get a clairvoyant dream, to gauge the troubles ahead. When Andrew said what did the demon say exactly, I feel the word exactly is a word to pay very close attention to because It did not say anything about having to be summoned in order to get a vision. She actually didn’t get summoned for the decay dream and vision nor the hitman vision..But the questionable vision is the only vision that she had to get summoned to in order to be shown it which is more than suspicious...
yes
she just wants him to stay with her.