ok everyone I'm MOVING!!!!! i got fl@gged for posting my spicy gravecest a while back and I'm sick of not having an icon or header anymore it makes me not wanna use this blog. but now that decay part 1 is out i wanna be able to blog abt tcoaal. go to my old username to find me from now on thank yewww
ok everyone I'm MOVING!!!!! i got fl@gged for posting my spicy gravecest a while back and I'm sick of not having an icon or header anymore it makes me not wanna use this blog. but now that decay part 1 is out i wanna be able to blog abt tcoaal. go to my old username to find me from now on thank yewww
still trying to process what i've played of decay ch3 so far and i really appreciate how much more andrew-centric it is and just like.
spoilers for the "splat" route ending
i think it is really interesting how much andrew is pushed to his limit and just fucking snaps
the way names play such a huge role in this, how "andy vs andrew" is the defining difference in this side's routes. andrew going so far as to say "andy" is "some other dude's name"
how "andrew" is said to be the "real him," the part that wants to grow up, be normal, be free of leyley finally
he never wanted ashley in his life. he hates his parents, especially his mom, for forcing him to raise ashley on his own. and ashley is an entire problem and then some
how much ashley regresses into "leyley" and andrew fucking hates that.
how much andrew has repression and wants to have some shred of dignity while ashley threw it all away
how andrew has the will to kill her. while leyley hesitates, because all she wants is to be with him
how this specific combination of "andrew & leyley" is like, maybe the worst we'll see their relationship as. rather than "andrew & ashley" or "andy & leyley"
how much more heavily andrew indulges in alcohol & drugs and becomes abusive towards her, but she's also abusive to him back, just overall no good. neither of them are fucking sane
you know the misogynistic saying of calling a wife your "ball and chain?" leyley is literally his ball and chain, even she chained him literally. (speaking of which, when i first saw the chain in-game i really was laughing so hard WHY IS IT LIKE THAT)
i also love the part about names where the elementary school teacher says to not use childish nicknames and you should use a person's full name as a sign of respect, names hold meaning and power
ashley calls him "andrew" here at his insistence, bcs if she tries otherwise he will be more aggressive, but she just wants "andy" deep down. that's breaking her apart. how much she's on edge ever since the premonition where he killed her
how much andrew calls her "leyley" more and more bcs he's respecting her less and less. how he sees she's just a "child" in this route. how all he sees is not the sly woman he reluctantly became attracted to, but the child that he was forced to raise, a burden upon him and all of his relationships growing up. and now the very thing that will kill him if he doesn't fucking kill that thing himself
the real horror of this game lies in the psychological, mental, emotional, traumatic, etc aspect of their relationships. and that kind of abuse & trauma could really happen to anyone, it's a very real kind of horror. of course, it's exaggerated to almost the absolute worst a human person could be, but i'm sure there's many who can recognize the trauma portrayed in tcoaal so far having unfortunate parallels to their own lives however small.
and like, god, the toxic codependency is so insane and good and i love the writing of it. they are so obviously absolutely terrible for each other but at the same time they cannot live or even die without the other. sentenced to living torment for all time
Something I really loved about episode 3 was how heavily the puzzles were used to explore Andrew's psyche. It's convoluted and difficult to decipher, for him as well. Because he lies to others but also to himself. And because he's a liar and because he represses so much, because it's his instinct to hide things, there are things you just won't get out of him outright. But there is so, so much that tiny details in all of the puzzles tell you. There is so much you are told just by how this whole part is structured. For a character like him, I think this was a perfectly done dive into his mind.