Disappointed by Ava route (spoilers)

[Velorien]

When I came to Sunrider Academy, having played Mask of Arcadius I figured that Ava would be my best girl. Instead, I found her route both frustrating and disappointing.

To begin with, there is Ava's own personality. She feels two-dimensional, swinging from "I must tick every box of student council responsibility and no one and nothing else matters" to "hold still; I will have sex with you now" with little in between. The events of the route do nothing to soften this or give a new perspective (the way Chigara's route does with Lynn's behaviour) - if anything, Ava becomes steadily worse. She is shown to be ever more ice-cold, unempathic, obsessive, narrow-minded and ironically self-centred in that she claims to act for the good of others while not caring about anyone else's thoughts, feelings or non-bureaucratic needs in the least.

The revelation that her father is literally beating her sense of values into her doesn't help. It is clearly meant to provide a justification for why she is the way she is, but the psychological implications of being an abused child are barely touched on, leaving it is a dry fact that does not inspire any real sympathy for her.

Then comes the revelation about the student council being a sham. Suddenly, Ava's behaviour is not simply obsessive but truly insane. She dedicates everything to an activity she knows means nothing, and is furious with those who fail to do the same. It's like someone professing concern for their health while downing a bottle of sleeping pills. But this absolute contradiction is never explained or explored within the narrative.

The beatings stretch my suspension of disbelief as well. Ava's father beats her with a stick hard enough to make her scream. Kayto, her neighbour and best friend for as long as he can remember, never notices any bruises. Neither does his family or anyone else. Ava screams loud enough to be heard through the walls. Again, no one notices. He hits her hard enough to make her scream, but there is no pattern of her needing medical attention while he is home.

All of this isn't *impossible*. Ava's father may be very good at what he does, Ava may be skilled at hiding the signs, and their friends and neighbours may not be terribly observant (though when the screams are audible from outside the flat...). But the way the whole issue gets hand-waved without comment is striking to anyone familiar with more realistic descriptions of physical abuse.

The worst part of it all, though, is Kayto's reactions throughout the route. Kayto is not a passive man. He leaps to the defence of those he loves in the face of apparent rapists, yakuza enforcers and even the very laws of space-time. Yet he stands by and watches his childhood friend proceed ever further on her self-destructive path, alienating all around her, throwing away her chances to be happy and constantly balancing on the edge of burnout, and his sole response is low-key grumbling and occasionally dragging her to one-off relaxing activities. Then, upon discovering the beatings, he is outraged, he comes to hate her father, but it never so much as occurs to him to wonder if he should do anything about it. For all the high feelings, his actual response amounts to "I don't like this, but she says she's OK with it, so never mind".

The overall theme here is that if the author has thought about all these issues, there's no sign of it. It was possible to explore how Ava's beatings made her the way she is, and how she feels about that. It was possible to talk about why Ava works obsessively on paperwork she knows full well doesn't mean anything. It was possible for Kayto to wonder about, and maybe find explanations for, why he never noticed what her father was doing. It was possible for Kayto to come up with reasons why he wasn't confronting Ava about her behaviour or taking action over her abuse. All of these things could have been done while preserving the story the author wanted to tell, and some of them would only have taken a couple of paragraphs.

So that's where Ava's route leaves me. Sunrider Academy's sense of humour is sublime. The rest, apparently, is hit-or-miss.

[Crescence Toran]

I sort of skimmed through much of your ranting.

Is there a point that you want to discuss, or are you just sharing your thoughts to the community?

[Velorien]

Originally posted by Crescence Toran:

I sort of skimmed through much of your ranting.

Is there a point that you want to discuss, or are you just sharing your thoughts to the community?

Just sharing my thoughts. Yes, it's kind of ranty (I did redraft it a couple of times to make it less so), but I also hope that it will serve as feedback for the author to consider when writing his next game.

[Sima Marlin]

How the hell you even got to ava's route?

I had the option to pick her route, I did, nothing really changed, I had her affection capped by pure day, I were on 99% percentile on all exams and literally won every single competition,actively searched her events and yet STILL got dissapointed little sister end.

Just what the ♥♥♥♥, how stupidly can they desing things ?

How is it possible NOT to get to her route when you get all everything capped >.<

[Velorien]

Originally posted by Doomdancer:

How the hell you even got to ava's route?

I had the option to pick her route, I did, nothing really changed, I had her affection capped by pure day, I were on 99% percentile on all exams and literally won every single competition,actively searched her events and yet STILL got dissapointed little sister end.

Just what the ♥♥♥♥, how stupidly can they desing things ?

How is it possible NOT to get to her route when you get all everything capped >.<

Why would you even post this in a topic labelled "spoilers for a route you haven't played yet"?

Anyway, you must have missed one of her events. I got them all and it gave me the route. Use the events guide under "community guides".

[Sima Marlin]

Why ? because I wanted to know how the damn route works, since I can't get there for the love of god.

Also, I think games and books are like classic theater plays (or movie adaptations of books), you might know the plot already , but doesn't stop you from going to see a new presentation of it, or how it unfolds in that given format.

[MSgt Peterson]

Personally while I found Chigara's route the most interesting and entertainting(That Sh** was fu**** up what she did, No woman would pull that sh** on me), I think Kayto canon wise to supposed to be her before she finally leaves for the Military. If you play Academy, do her route right then when you play First Arrival and Mask of Arcadius, If feels completely right even if what between the two is fu**** up

I dont personaly blame Ava for the way she is, people are products of there enviroments and uprising, does it excuse her BS? F*** no it doesnt but playing as Kayto, you try your hardest to being her friend and caring for her and while she would never show it, deep down she glad your still around looking out for her and caring about her. The other routes just feel wrong to me like they would never happen if SA was canon and not a what If Side story.

I got to deal with an Ava in real life, the only difference is that she finally admitted to being in love with me and realized through all the BS, I was still there for her and became none replaceable lol

[mademan2]

I came to rant here as well, was actually looking for a thread like this. I didnt play Asaga and Chigaras route yet, but seeing the pattern its not gonna be happy go lucky as it seems at first. Still I am pretty sure I will not dislike either of those routes more than Ava's. Sola had a nice route, somewhat fantastical and nonsensical but hey, it was a fun and nice read. Ava's route just made me mad.

OP pretty much summed it up, her behaviour is awful, makes no sense and its never explained. The way Shield is behaving is not really being a friend, its just accepting all the ♥♥♥♥ thats happening and never fighting it, just like Ava.
Nothing changed during the whole route, either in Ava or Shield, until sex fixed all the issues at the very end.

I was stunned at how bad this was. How easily all issues were sidetracked by absolutely unimportant stuff and how her father freaking beating her, was barely touched upon after the reveal.
What the ♥♥♥♥ do you mean Shield would be in trouble? If he went to police her father would have been ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ arrested, you cant be serious. The whole time I was expecting something to change, either Ava's behaviour, her realising how overzealous and stupidly poetic and unrealistic her ideas were (everything she said is almost complete BS which changes from perspective to perspective and yet Shields always just swallows it) to Shields actually developing balls and tells her off, explaining that her point of view is not only screwed up, but the fact that she just accepts all that is happening is even more so. There is being accepting and supportive of your friend, and than there is being stupidly ignorant and blind.

I mean holy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crap, her father is beating her and she is so broken in that she thinks its fine? Of course Shield would think he is trash father, I mean holy hell, cmon game, how is that not ever improtant again? Not even at the end when they are married. The whole time I wanted a scene where he would tell him off, saying something like that they are dating now and if he will lay hands on her again, he would reveal everything, on top of punching his face in.

The moral of the story basically is, world is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, nothing you do cant change anything, if has ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up beliefs its ok as long as you support them and there is no need to change or discuss anything to be friends or lovers.

No development happens, non whatsoever. I mean it has a happy ending, yay, I honestly wasnt expecting it seeing as how up until the very end everything sucked, but its a happy ending that is empty.

Anyways, seriously, after Solas route this was such a dissapointment.

Now onto Asaga, cant wait to see how she is not the character I think she is o.O But im sure it will at least have better character development :D