Okay now that I started talking about stuff I dislike about AFOP I canāt stop.
I HATE, DESPISE how they didnāt make the MC mourn Aha'ri.
It is a HUGE thing that I hate about the game. I generally love it and everything, but this detail just gets on my nerves too much. I canāt digest it.
Aha'ri is mourned by every other Sarentu except for us, her literal sibling. She is very often mentioned especially by Nor and Teylan, and when that happens, we have no reaction. At first I could have bought the fact (even if itās not implied in the slightest) that the MC is a more reserved person that doesnāt like talking about their losses/grief. But thatās just bullshit. Our character doesnāt even have a personality, and either way they have no problem mentioning Aha'ri in front of other people, like itās shown in the game itself.
I remember the MC kind of āāāmourningāāā her once. In a side quest when we find a Sarentu totem, and the MC says something like āI wish my sister was here to see thisā. This is all we get, in the entirety of the game.
Aha'ri is also brought up in several destabilizing circumstances, but thatās still not enough to stir a reaction from the MC. At the beginning, when we are escaping TAP, Mercer brings her up ā and not only her in general, but her murder ā in a pretty horrible way, and the only thing we say is a very flat, very unconvincing āmurdererā. Again, at the extractor plant, Harding brings up her death. And what do we say? Nothing. Not a whisper, not a gasp, not a hint at any type of reaction.
There are surely many other moments like these which I canāt remember now, but you get the idea.
The only reaction we ever get is when we are at TAP-Con1 and find her file. I liked that moment because our character seemed genuinely and realistically distaught, shocked and grief-stricken. But this is literally the only moment in the whole game.
Itās just so ridiculous to me how every other character (including fucking Alma!!) was allowed to bring her up and mourn her while the MC wasnāt. How do they feel about this? Do they feel honored when the other Sarentu mention her? Are they okay with Alma talking about her, even after finding out the truth about her, even considering the part she played in her death? Are they mad? Would they like people to stop mentioning her? Do they think itās disrespectful? How do they feel about their grief, how do they mourn? Do they feel like they did it properly? Do they like to honor Aha'ri in any way, to remember her, to make her offerings, to talk to her? Do they ever visit her in Eywa, or try to? Or are they stuck in denial and anger? Is it too difficult for them to mourn her in a more āexplicitā way, do they just prefer to keep everything inside because the grief is too painful, too difficult to face? Are they depressed when thinking of Aha'ri, or are they rageful, wishing for revenge? How did the MC react right after her death? Do they remember that at all? How did their grief change after they found out the truth about the Sarentu massacre and their motherās death? Did the loss of Aha'ri become easier to bear, or heavier? Did finding out the truth help them with the mourning process? Did they share it with the Kame'tire, with the other Sarentu? There are countless ways in which a person can grieve, and not one is more or less valid than another. Iām not saying the game shouldāve showed a perfect portrayal of grief, but still I would have liked to know the answer to at least one of these questions.
Once again, ubisoft erased an essential and huge part of the MC and the story itself in a pathetic effort to make our character neutral and customizable, when instead it ended up being disappointing and unbelievable.
