Ashley i do feel went on a lull as she went from being a force of nature to... meek. There are strong symptoms of depression but i felt the whole winter get away was all about the Twins and she was just there as a passenger going along for the ride.
It was a bonding experience for everyone, the first time Ashley and F&E did something as friends together.
The fairy arc was unusual to say the least but im not sure where its gone since the fairies have been added to her room and fully mended from injury (save blackmailing the Twins father to readmit them to school, again that feels a furtherment to Twins story and shes just a plot device there to push them along).
There is no fairy arc yet. The fairies should become much more important to the story soon. For now, they were introduced, and Ashley is bonding with them. Ashley is now able to "use" them like pokemon, sort of the same way the high elf queen did, because they have her respect. This will be touched up upon more when the fairies actually become important to the story.
The birthday event was sweet but perhaps as we didnt see the full conclussion and instead the event was mostly around keeping her distracted weve not seen where she currently is at the moment (but in all honesty any joy shes gotten from gaining so many who care about her will be shortlived as her best friend is going through the wringer) and so despite i guess and maybe some will argue against it being the one character with the most character development so far shes just currently kinda there.
There was a conclusion, you just didn't pick up what I was putting down. This was not a birthday story, the birthday was just the foundation. The story was about how all the girls see Ashley as one of them, a friend, and that Ashley is "wealthier" than she ever has been, not financially, but emotionally. Her depression is clearing up because the causes of her depression are no longer present.
Where she used to keep a knife for protection, she now keeps an endearing photo of those closest to her.
As for Android well she always was the least favourite i suppose but i personally feel shes amongst the most interesting (in fact im always coming off as the vocal minority on things as give me Android over Kali any day of the week - Kali comes across as far more generic in all honesty but thats just my opinion)
This is how most people feel about a lot of characters, and generally the feeling I've gotten is that every character adds to the experience overall. I think you may be more worried about character's placement in polls than I am haha. There is a lot of nuance in polls, and many different reasons for why people vote, including the wording I choose. I didn't ask for who had your favorite story, who you were connected to the most, who you found most attractive, etc. This is just a very general poll that gives me abstract information.
Some people do their top #1, some top 3, some 5. Some even have a different number of favorites. All of this skews the polls a bit. I don't need a more specific poll though, these are fine.
Seen comments on various places furious at the MC not putting her in place over the university stunt she pulled. Personally i get it and have defended it but is she wasnt polarizing before she certainly is now but the pay off with her will be worth it in the end. All it might indeed come down to as you say, squeezing a bit more sex into the story to balance out the harder hitting storylines which are going on for the majority of the cast at the moment and all concurrently with one another no less. Anyway thats just my personal feelings on the matter and i accept im probably wrong or unpopular in opinion regarding some of this. Keep up the good work dude.
I think you may be making this a bigger deal than it is. I also think anyone furious about MC not telling Android to stop publically sharing nudes is making this a bigger deal than it really is. As a writer, it's my job to show the reader things. The characters are artistic middlemen. The goal here was to show you that android was getting unwieldy with her power and is a bit immature with it. MC plays the "dad" role and is laid back and enjoys the nudes while still believing she should be punished after. And Kali plays the "Mom" role, being immediately disgusted by it and trying to get the MC to do something about it. In the next event, they do something about it.
