MattxAshley Propaganda

Hi!

Sorry. This has been sitting here for a bit as I figured out how to phrase my take.

VERY IMPORTANT BEFORE I START: I will sound a little heated while presenting some points, but this is NOT IN ANY WAY aimed at you, dear anon. I love getting asks. I just can be strongly worded about things I like and dislike.

To start off, Chrashley is my favorite of the three canon couples.

I think they can have, by far, the strongest story arc as a couple. I like that they start from a place of actual love that's noticeably less selfish than what we see of Emily for Matt and Mike/Jess in the early game. I think that Chris and Ashley kissing before his chase is the strongest conclusion we get to any mini-arc. Some of their dialogue is really memorable as well.

I also just have a MAJOR soft spot for the Old Hotel arc because I love that location and the Mystery Man clueline, and Chris and Ashley were both key players in that.

However, I'm also not totally positive about it? To the point where I do like Chrissam and MattAsh more.

I mean this is obviously about Chris's door death lol...

I don't like that situation in terms of the writing or in terms of how it's engaged with in the fandom. It's actually such an upsetting scene to me. You're watching an overall very human, good guy beg for his life to someone he does love despite how he acted under EXTREME duress. And he's just stared at as he sobs and is literally ripped apart. It's SO upsetting to every part of me that has empathy for people. The scene is the product of a need the game had (to justify the butterfly effect and provide a consequence for not keeping characters in good standing). But I am in the small percentage of people who finds Ashley's behavior here actually really un-complicated to a frustrating degree. Ashley is coded in a really procrustean manner where, regardless of human attachment or any additional nuance to how you played Chrashley, she will kill Chris if he makes this decision, and it absolutely weakens the romance for me.

And to go on to how I don't like the fandom response to this... I'm sorry, but I am actually deeply bothered by the commentary sometimes. Loving Ashley for the routes where she's honestly sweet and funny and has a well-developed arc with Chris is understandable! Even reading this scene a little different from me is understandable! (Though I truly think that the reading "it was an accident" is not at all backed by the game. Plus it was denied by multiple devs. I have receipts).

But the rhetoric that irritates me is "Ashley had a right to do this" or "she was justified." No she wasn't. And I say that about what Chris did! I find that more empathizable than what Ashley did. I don't think these are equal situations. They're different. But I also don't think Chris was right to shoot Ashley even if she asked him to. I just think the game justifies his position remarkably well. Chris was put into a situation that was fabricated to have no good answer, and so I find his choices all really human and designed specifically to be unfair to him. But shooting Ashley is immoral regardless.

The issue that starts to bleed into how I feel about Chrashley is that I see people on Tumblr and Reddit who are actually trying to say that there's nothing morally wrong about this situation. And I see other people who are presenting clearly bad-faith readings on who Chris is in order to make him a palatable victim. And I find that... Icky. I can't help it and feel like the modern fandom treats fans who feel this way pretty badly. I've had REALLY needlessly abrasive people getting on me for daring to find this scene immoral and daring to say I find this specific act evil due to my own moral understanding. Instead, people get into "there must be a side of you that hates women" or "you're stupid."

In what world do you think this is going to convince me to love Chrashley and Ashley to the extent you do?

Finally, the other side of the fandom response to this scene is meant in humor but it also sits with me wrongly... Which is the "Ashley had every right to do that to a man" Tumblr posts. Or "I don't think Chris should die for his decision in the trap. I think he should die because Ashley decided he should, and I love girls so much and support their choices."

The amount of times I've seen posts like that is... staggering. And I DO NOT BELIEVE PEOPLE MEAN IT. I just don't think it's funny. I don't find "death jokes about half the human race" humorous. I don't think people are BAD people for making these jokes, but it's a brand of humor I find upsetting, and that's how I am.

So, this got long anyway but my final thought is:

I like Chrashley at their best. I like Ashley at her best. I adore Chris. I find it really hard to get over this scene of the game which, to me, makes it hard not to find at least a small level of very personally triggering toxicity present in this pairing...

Now... I swear. If I get comments implying I'm somehow an idiot or bad person for this take I'm going to be so annoyed. I think it's usually teens who haven't learned to regulate how they feel about characters yet, but I swear there are people who take it as a personal slight and a moral failing on my part to find their favorite character or favorite ship unlikable to any degree.

And c'mon... I do not do this to other people. I like Jossam, but I've obviously had it laid out for me why people find that ship icky and unpalatable. And my take? It's their prerogative to feel that way and to voice that shipping it is too against their sensibilities. I see the ship differently, but I also cannot fault others for being harrowed by certain toxic scenes in a way that I am not personally harrowed by those same scenes. I say I like Jossam because I see complexity and some possible redemption in them, but how can I fault someone for finding obvious maltreatment upsetting? Or saying they don't like the ship because of obvious flaw in the ship? (Now I will say that some anti-Jossam people do this thing where they act like people who ship it are abuse apologists, and I think that's stupid, but I don't blame them for not liking this ship that I do).