Warning: I’m gonna be angry and harsh in this. I’m telling you NOW that this is a criticism of apex and I’m putting it under a spoiler so I swear to god if anyone gets mad at me for it.... just don’t click it if you don’t want the negativity, because I get it.
specifically, this post is about ash and the new lore (the last comic + the newest SFTO). also some of it is pasted from some discord chats I was having so if I say things like ‘again’ or ‘going back to’, thats why, but I think it’s still intelligible like this?
I really did feel like they were building up something special with her before.
I feel like they've basically just dumbed down what WAS being set up as a complicated character. First we had Ashleigh who we could see as tough and hard-headed and generally rude and short-tempered, but who over an extended period of time warmed up to Mary and Newton. Who then convinced herself to make a decision for her own benefit (betraying mary), and eventually came to regret it, only realizing after the betrayal how much she did really care for them. Second we had Ash, a robot who on the surface seems to have no empathy but who's patient, quiet, analytic, and curious about her past. She's different, but not because she's a wholly different person, only because she developed in a new and different environment with some memory loss but aware of who she was in that moment, and also that she eventually regains some of her memory (which we know because she knew who horizon was). We know she had some sort of complicated emotion around Horizon and that she has some sort of internal set of morals (giving Jack a 'fair fight').
Basically all of that has just been thrown away. The new interpretation of this they've given us is that 1. Ashleigh was rude sometimes but cared about Mary and Newton and at some point seemed to be outright kind to them. And 2. that her betrayal wasn't her own decision based off of complicated misinterpretations of her own emotions, but rather an 'evil side' taking over and doing it for her. It's removed all agency, complexity, and blame from Ashleigh and placed it onto the 'evil side'. Then, for some reason, this 'evil side' becomes dominant when she became a sim while the 'true self' became dormant, again, for... handwaves... some reason. And any of the kinder things that this 'evil side' has done, like saving Horizon, were actually just the product of the 'real her', and that the 'evil side' is just a wholly one-dimensional personality with no depth.
What I can't wrap my head around is that they seem to be implying that evil ash existed before she got sim-ified? With the whole "oh, you think that was you?" thing? which is like.... okay are they now implying that ash just ALREADY had ‘multiple personalities’ BEFORE she got sim-ified? and that she's ALWAYS had an evil side? because i'll... reluctantly accept ~evil side~ as a byproduct of scifi/supernatural affairs but if they're just saying she HAS that to begin then that's a... bad representation of DID and systems and there's really no other way to cut it.
So I keep thinking: why? why the fuck set up such a complicated explanation for something that could've been much simpler and sensical? And the answer is because it sets up the 'development' to be simple. There doesn't need to be a complicated and messy relationship between sim!ash and horizon, about sim!ash regaining more and more memory and knowledge of her past with horizon, of learning to experience some amount of her regret for her actions (the kind that she once had but forgot about). Apex has no space for a complicated relation buildup like this and they're not going to try. It's MUCH easier to say that the REAL ash had no blame in her betrayal of horizon, meaning that horizon can simply say "whoops, guess it wasn't your fault, it was actually just the EVIL you's fault." A few dramatic clean-up moments, sad apologies, maybe even a hug. It gives a simple black-and-white, right-and-wrong, and it gives them chances for more of what I call 'candy media' (stories which are defined by quick quips, dramatic standoffs, flashy battles, and righteous fury, with little room for genuinely complex characters and realism. I could go into more depth but it's a little hard to explain. But for example: most disney content, really). It's easy to digest, it doesn't make you think. It wouldn't ever dare to make you uncomfortable, wouldn't ever make you question your world in any way. Titanfall, while not as deep as it could have been, still did try on an admittedly basic level to give you things to think about (albeit still being what I'd consider a type of candy media). Apex isn't even pretending to try anymore. Cutting a complex character into a good-vs-evil split personality is just about the most laughably perfect analogy for it.
Maybe it’s just my fault for expecting Apex to be anything but what it is. What’s also clear now is that when they sometimes are willing to create some depth, the villainous characters are not ever going to be given the same privilege.
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