Tilda and Beta? SPOLIERS

[Kuro X Kage]

Just wrapped up the main story. Beta clearly seems off, in terms of a sobek clone. Very much unlike Aloy. Seemingly heavily abused and filled with fear. Mid campaign we learn Beta and Tilda had a secret relationship. One that Beta seemed to cherish as did Tilda. However, before the finale TIlda makes it clear Beta is a pathetic copy missing what Aloy has. Almost like she always hated beta?

Which begs the question. Why set up a secret channel from other Zeniths to show Beta paintings and spend time, if she never truly saw her as a sobek? Story was interesting to say the least. After hearing her clear disdain for Beta I wondered what her motivations were with all the secrecy?

[Tijger]

Beta lacks the enviroment and role models that the real Elizabeth had and that Aloy had, I think thats also why she lacks the drive and passion (or fury?) that the other two have.

Tilda mentions that she's never forgiven herself for leaving without Lis but she doesnt want a copy without the character of Elisabeth...Aloy has the fire and steel of the original, Beta doesnt. From everything we see of the real Elizabeth in HZD its pretty clear she's not one to suffer fools or lacking in drive or fire.

But also imagine living a 1000 years with that guilt and seeing a living copy of the person you loved....how could you not try and get close to that person?
When Tilda realized that Beta was....to be crude, an inferior copy she cut off all contact because it just made her guilt worse, she'd see Elisabeth in Beta but knows that Beta will never be who she wants her to be.

[Helifax]

It is quite simple :)
Tilda was in love with Elisabeth (and the other way around). Based on the logs you can find in the game.
Beta is a clone of Alpha. (Alpha being the original Dr. Elisabeth Sobek)
Beta gave her the chance to try to rekindle that lost love (We find out that Tilda & Elisabeth had an argument and ended things in a sad way).
The problem was Tilda never knew about Aloy. Aloy is everything that Beta isn't. And Aloy looks & feels more like the original Alpha.
So now Tilda want's the original copy of Alpha not their Beta version of Elisabeth ;)
(She sees more of Elisabeth in Aloy than in Beta. Hell even Aloy says this after the big rescue, that Beta doesn't seem to be anything like Elisabeth ;) )
While Beta has the brains - since she was educated - she lacks the courage and determinism.
Aloy has all of this and the martial prowess, but lacks the knowledge of chemistry, engineering, etc since there was no Apollo to teach her ;)
Hence why Tilda does what she does and says what she says! I find their story arc very nicely done.

[GlowWorm]

-- Tilda is severely emotionally damaged.
-- Tilda's proper relationship to Beta should have been as a maternal (or possibly mentor) figure, given the stage of Beta's emotional development.
-- Tilda would have started her very misguided attempt at a relationship with Beta, but then become disillusioned that a relationship with Beta could not work (like, duh).
-- Tilda would have placed the blame for that failure on Beta, when the real blame was that Tilda is severely emotionally damaged, unable (after more than 900 years of exposure to all of the other very damaged Zeniths) to have any real connection with anyone.

[Kuro X Kage]

What great insight everyone! Thanks for this. I will reconsider and replay to get those missed logs to further my understanding. I quite enjoyed this story. Has been awhile since fictional characters made me think so much

[WeissRook]

Looks like most of this is covered, but it also seems like you missed some of the other character development conversations.

Tilda and the original Liz had a short relationship back in the past, but they just ended up drifting apart as Liz's heart healed from her family loss. On top of that Tilda feels guilt for leaving Liz on Earth when she left with the Zeniths, only to basically gain immortality. Throughout her long lifespan, as the other Zeniths' personalities basically devolved into self indulgence to continue their drive for life, Tilda apparently continued to obsess over Liz.

On the way back to Earth, they made Beta. Tilda saw Liz in Beta, but Beta was basically a blank slate personality-wise because she was kept in isolation the entire time, not even seeing the faces of the Zenith members, and was basically just forced into a life of tech training with no cultural/societal reinforcement to her personality.

So, Tilda tried to give her some of that reinforcement to see if she could make Beta how she remembered Liz, but since there was no actual social acclimation or culture to base the artworks' relevance from, none of what she was trying to get Beta to appreciate stuck. So, with the excuse that Tilda was afraid that Beta would get caught and punished, she stopped the program, causing Beta to think she was cast aside (she was) and that drove her deeper into isolation/depression. That, of course, turned Tilda off from her even more.

It wasn't until well after this that she saw Aloy's memories and came to partially obsess over her. But, again, Tilda was sill pining for Liz, and didn't really seem to regard Aloy as her own person. Apparently, a thousand year obsession is a hell of a drug.

tl;dr version: Basically, Tilda didn't dislike Beta at the beginning, but she was looking to make Beta into someone else and skipped important steps that were required to do it. Since it basically didn't work, Tilda abandoned the idea.