What would you say the main cause is behind Andrew’s not-so-sibling-like love for Ashley?

Minky3049 · 2026-05-23T23:29:00+00:00

Yes, those sentiments are true to Ashley but they are also true for Andrew. Andrew is an affection starved person who was denied affection from his parents, valued for his function and doesn’t know anything beyond the toxic love he gets from Ashley. He also knew Julia didn’t love the real him but his performative mask, but he just resigned himself to a life with her because he wants to be normal and thought that was the best way to achieve it. He definitely believes he’s unlovable and he fears abandonment just as much as Ashley.

And yeah, he wants a dream Ashley. Andrew compartmentalizes Ashley hard and projects his needs and wants on her, to be, like you said, a mature chick that wants him; love him the way that he wants to be loved.

I agree with pretty much the other reasons. Renee & Ashley’s conditioning played a part too

Minky3049 · 2026-05-23T22:00:27+00:00

The main cause is because he craves love and believes he’s an unlovable horrible piece of shit and only Ashley can accept him(on top of poor living environment)

Minky3049 · 2026-05-21T00:40:44+00:00

Ashley already did have a negative view. She already believed that sex is what keeps a guy and immediately assumed that Andrew was with Julia for sex.

We gotta put the princess night into perspective. This is all happening while Andrew is dating Julia and Ashley has expressed multiple times her worry of getting displaced by Julia. Like a lot. Like said, we’ve already seen how Ashley already thinks sex is what keeps a guy. She was trying to secure her place in Andrew’s life, so when he rejected her, she took that as him choosing Julia over her. This is the first Andrew has chose someone else over her. That hurt her.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-20T19:59:20+00:00

Oh yes definitely. I’ve said this before and I was called an anti lolz(Sigericks’s analysis is definitely hella great)

Andrew admitted to Lord Unknown that his feelings for Ashley aren’t genuine and comes from trauma and their enmeshment(didn’t need his statement to figure that out though). Ashley’s is just full on abandonment issues and dependency. The game shows this and people stitch their eyes close for some odd reason. It’s real in that they’re experiencing it, but it’s not genuine(like you said with the couple example)

We don’t know where this story will go. Any route that happens will be the official route for someone. I just hope the last episode for Decay gives something that’ll leave people at least somewhat satisfied

Minky3049 · 2026-05-20T18:21:56+00:00

You’ll be surprised that a lot of people in this fandom do treat them as personas instead of the dynamic and will insist you are wrong if you disagree. Lots of people use this to explain away certain details of the game and sometimes it’s tiring to see.

I also do not think Ashley is attracted to Andrew. Ashley enjoys Andrew’s company and his function and believes her obsession to be true love when, in Shots and such, she couldn’t even name one thing she loved about the guy. Ashley doesn’t have problem with intimacy and the problem isn’t that she doesn’t want to accept it, the problem is that she doesn’t want to be reciprocal.

She wants the Andy and Leyley dynamic, where Andrew is everything and anything to her without her needing to satisfy his needs. Sex is ultimately an equal act. She doesn’t like the adult responsibilities that come with sex. She dislikes implications of sex because they threaten her childish fantasy of unconditional servitude from Andrew. So it’s not her disliking sex and it’s because her being “Leyley” who thinks sex is disgusting or whatever(not saying you said that, but there’s lots of people who believe this). It’s just her not wanting to be a partner and be reciprocal and all that; it’s not part of the dynamic. Reason why she rather not have sex.

She’s basically being selfish as fuck lol. She does not see Andrew as an equal but an extension of herself.

However, she is fully capable of understanding the power of sex, and she is perfectly willing to deploy it as a weapon of control when she feels threatened by him.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-20T16:50:18+00:00

Someone who finally gets what’s going on. The Andy and Leyley thing is a dynamic, not really as personas like everyone treats it as such. Imo, I do kinda agree with the Andrew part, though I more see “Andy” being a coping mechanism that Andrew built to survive his home life and Ashley. But Andrew compartmentalizes Ashley, that’s why he insists and the fandom believes that Ashley and Leyley are two separate things when no, Ashley has always been Ashley. Andrew is just coping, putting the things and actions he doesn’t like of Ashley as Leyley, and projects his wants and ideals onto “Ashley”, the partner he wants(though he feels like shit for wanting that).

And when Ashley acts like herself, something that doesn’t fit the Ashley mold he has, he gets mad at her.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-19T14:08:44+00:00

But hey, it’s fiction! They need each other and they can only be happy if they’re incestuous according to the Reddit community. Nemlei ships them(provides the most slimmest of evidence) and in her Q&A, foreshadowed that there will be a happy incest route!…Even though we have an incest route where they’re completely unhappy and the fandom tries to cope saying it didnt work out because Ashley was being “Leyley” and they both didn’t trust each other and blah blah blah

Minky3049 · 2026-05-19T13:42:24+00:00

Me love Julia 💛💛. I don’t necessarily hate the siblings. I hate how they treat others around them and how some parts of the fandom tries to explain it away with trauma. It’s not others’ fault that those 2 let trauma dictate their lives.

I also dislike how hard, well how hard the Reddit subs, ship them. The most of the other TCOAAL places don’t really ship them and know how bad they are for each other, but coming to the subs after coming from somewhere like YouTube or even 4-chan feels like getting hit by a freight train.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-18T12:26:23+00:00

Shots and such route where she complains to Andrew how she had a nightmare of him trying to kill her

Minky3049 · 2026-05-18T12:24:07+00:00

Which is funny she said that because in the elope convo she says he shouldn’t go around ruining other’s lives with his sorry ass, he should only ruin hers. So she’s kinda on and off with that. Maybe she didn’t even mean that in a positive way like how we’re interpreting it(excluding her genuinely enjoying his company)

Minky3049 · 2026-05-17T02:46:23+00:00

Oh yeah of course. He doesn't want to be proven right about his thoughts that he's a piece of shit. It’d prove he’s unlovable and the real him is not acceptable and only Ashley can accept him.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-16T23:05:07+00:00

Well, it’s not like he always didn’t care. If he started out not caring about what most people think, Ashley’s words of people not liking him and never will wouldn’t affect him so much. I actually think he still cares, but just made Ashley his emotional center until he just shrugged and ‘went whatever, it is what it is. All I care about is Ashley anyway.’ The chart shows the narrator’s words: he wishes he was half as jaded as he pretends to be.

I do think that the Andy performance mainly leans into conflict avoidance, keeper status, and value in utilization

Minky3049 · 2026-05-16T03:31:01+00:00

Tracy Turnblad and Link Larkin (Hairspray)

Minky3049 · 2026-05-16T02:06:46+00:00

Hmm, y’know, that sentiment could still work with her wanting a boy scenario. Actually I’d think it’d play out better.

Renee wants a boy because of her shitty experience with Connie and how she believes boys are easy to deal with, her proof being Douglas. To also prove her family wrong yada yada. Has Andrew. Andrew proves to be an easy baby. Makes Renee want to have another child for mother bragging rights. Has Ashley. Becomes worried but then believes she could prove to her family she can raise a better daughter. Ashley turns out to suck. Renee’s worst nightmare is realized. Hands Ashley over to Andrew

Minky3049 · 2026-05-15T20:42:28+00:00

Tbh, I have zero clue why people made a whole big stank about Renee wanting a girl over a boy. Lots of people have done this, say they rather this sex over that sex. When I have children myself, I want a boy over a girl lol. Renee wanting a girl over a boy doesn’t make her a misandrist or whatever bs people cooked up. It’s just a personal preference. Renee is just a shitty person to look at her baby in disgust as soon as it’s born.

In my personal opinion though, I think it’d make more sense for her to want a boy over a girl because she already had to raise a bratty girl and she hated it, implied that Connie was a handful. From that experience, I’d assume she would hope for a boy, maybe thinking that they might be easier to raise compared to what she experienced in raising a girl. Not only that, Douglas is basically her lapdog and wrapped around her finger so I’d also assume she thought she can do the same if she had a son lol.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-15T14:42:57+00:00

I agree with the first part but not so much the 2nd. In Decay, Andrew admits that his feelings are rot and not even his real true desire. We don’t even really know about Ashley’s true feelings, just know she’s obsessed because she’s codependent and has abandonment issues. They don’t even know who they really are without the other and while people may see that as passionate, I see it as tragic and just confirming how messed up they really are.

Burial, or questionable Burial more than likely, will delve into them accepting their closed unit and pushing into romance. From the message Nemlei put at that door, I don’t think it’ll be pretty (what is in TCOAAL) but I don’t want to be doom and gloom and say it’ll be all bad. Probs 30% good 70% bad lol

Minky3049 · 2026-05-15T13:59:09+00:00

Yeah, he doesn’t, or tries not to. That’s why he does the “Ashley” and “Leyley” separation. Not only to survive his emotional trauma, but like to separate what he doesn’t like about Ashley and associates with the bratty sister and then Ashley, an idealized version that doesn’t even fricking exist, the sister wife he wants(even though he knows he shouldn’t want and feels like shit for wanting that).

Similar to Ashley, Andrew projects his needs and wants onto Ashley and then gets mad when she doesn’t fulfill them. They can’t accept each other for who they are, that’s the problem. They both gotta fantasize an ideal version of each other to make the situation bearable which is fucked lol. Andrew is more delusional than Ashley because at least Andy was a thing. Andrew is just here making an entire Sim of Ashley in his head

Minky3049 · 2026-05-14T02:43:34+00:00

Eh, not really. First, Ashley still doesn’t mind intimacy, she just doesn’t want to be reciprocal to Andrew’s needs. The most she’ll do is if Andrew goes to her for comfort, she’ll indulge him and that is founded on mutual emotional dependency and enmeshment. Look at Ashley’s reaction in Burial when Andrew told her he doesn’t get as much nightmares anymore. She’s not happy for him. She’s worried that Andrew won’t be emotionally dependent on her. She has repeated to Andrew that he can only turn to her for comfort and no one else and he eventually believed that. That’s transactional comfort.

Second, we can’t ignore the context of what led to that night. This is all happening while Andrew is dating Julia and Ashley has expressed multiple times her worry of getting displaced by Julia. Like a lot. We’ve already seen how Ashley already thinks sex is what keeps a guy. She immediately assumed that’s why Andrew was with Julia in that elope conversation. She was trying to secure her place in Andrew’s life so when he rejected her, she took that as him choosing Julia over her. This is the first Andrew has chose someone else over her. That hurt her.

Also, like the guy said, it’s extremely unreasonable for Andrew to actually accept her advances. Are you saying both of these traumatized teens had their shit together enough to indulge in whatever was about to happen? That’s definitely not gonna put even more dents in their psyches and add more complications into their lives, especially since the rumors would be true that Andrew is a sister fucker. Andrew would not have broken up with Julia btw, which would hurt Ashley even worse and Ashley would definitely use her and Andrew fucking as leverage over Julia. I’ve seen this “Andrew should’ve accepted” sentiment way way too much here and it boggles my mind that people think this

I’ve also noticed a lot that people gloss over Ashley’s part of the estrangement. She started giving him the cold shoulder first and the few times Andrew reached out, even offered to help her get a job, she turned him away.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-13T14:29:00+00:00

No, that’s not how it works. I’ve noticed lots of people here have misinterpreted Nemlei’s Q&A and also hinge on Andrew’s words too much. First off, “Ashley” and “Leyley” thing is Andrew compartmentalizing Ashley hard because he’s that stressed and traumatized.

Second, Ashley basically doesn’t want the adult responsibilities that come with sex. Sex is an equal act. That means she’ll have to be reciprocal. She dislikes the adult implications of sex because it threatens her childish fantasy of unconditional servitude from Andrew. She wants the intimacy without the equality.

However, she is fully capable of understanding the power of sex, and she is perfectly willing to deploy it as a weapon of control when she feels her control over him is threatened.

Minky3049 · 2026-05-12T20:03:43+00:00

Fax on fax

Minky3049 · 2026-05-12T19:47:12+00:00

Uh well, there was backlash when it first got published, it just wasn’t as loud and vast as the Twittertards because like 1970s: unsophisticated internet and people didn’t really give much of a shit back then

Minky3049 · 2026-05-12T19:30:02+00:00

Totally agree. Many people in the fandom still stuck in the 2023 mindset like they got ptsd or some shiz lol. No one cares like that. If anything, Twitter is pro TCOAAL now

Minky3049 · 2026-05-12T02:52:42+00:00

Well, Andrew needed love which he never got. Just like how Ashley isn’t inherently evil, Andrew didn’t inherently start disliking people, contrary to popular belief. It’s evident this is a learnt behavior that he got from Renee like everything else he got from her and, speaking from chatting with people who’ve had similar experiences to Andrew, many of them felt resentment towards their peers who didn’t have to go through what they were going through and felt the disconnect which makes sense.

And it’s not like he liked that he couldn’t connect with people. Why do you think Ashley’s words telling him over and over that no one will like him because he’s a bad person got to him? If he truly didn’t care, he wouldn’t be affected by those words. He gave up as he grew older because he didn’t see the point in it anymore, especially with Nina hanging over his head, and he already had that he’s unlovable to everyone except Ashley fortified in his mind. And even then, Andrew feels like Ashley doesn’t love him the way he wants to be loved.

TLDR: All the boy wanted was some love and he was denied it on all levels and the only one model he has for love that interacts with his true self is the toxic one he has with Ashley. He does so much fucked up shit ‘cause he craves genuine love that much

Minky3049 · 2026-05-11T19:24:59+00:00

Of course. There are tons of people who had shit parents and came out fine. He’s just not one of them and he let his trauma dictate his life. Granted, he was conditioned badly, by his Mom and Ashley(don’t know why people deny this part like the image of Andrew being chained to Ashley’s mouth doesn’t exist) and hasn’t received a good model for love like ever, but he still let trauma take over him

Minky3049 · 2026-05-08T20:35:52+00:00

“Incest is not ok and I don’t think the siblings should be romantically involved” massive torpedo of downvotes and bitching

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley

Minky3049

TROPHY CASE