Tin Foil Skirt and Thigh-High Boots - Ashley Williams Thread

From the wiki: 
On the other hand, if Williams died on Virmire, a news broadcast on the Citadel reports that Ashley Williams has been decorated for her service by both the salarian and turian governments, receiving the salarian Silver Dagger and turian Nova Cluster medals, becoming the first human to receive these awards and being quoted as saying "human or alien, we're all just animals".

Cool. Thanks. I did not know that. Then add a +1 for Ash on my scoreboard. But I gotta wonder, when did Ash even say this line? 

Garrus does back up Shepard if they are unable to shoot Ash/Kaidan. I will agree the scientist mission makes everyone look bad. The Grissom mission not as much to me.

And that's fine if you are ok with it. I'm not for the reasons I listed.

Or she's a complex character who doesn't have to start out as a girl scout. Remember, we could have a Renegade Shepard who does a lot of shitty things, including destroying any race who stands in the way if his objective (the krogan, geth and/or quarians). If that's not racism I don't know what is.



Pressly was not in any way overwriiten. Pressly learned through experience that his assumptions were wrong. Why not allow Ashley to have that same level of growth? It's like saying she was a terrible person until BioWare "fixed" her rather than someone who spent some time in the presence of aliens and learned they're not all like she initially thought. That's not character growth. It's actually the opposite.

Same reason Thane doesn't seem to care when the Hanar homeworld gets destroyed or how Kasumi says "there's no way you're recruiting me to fight in a galactic war." It just bad writing. 

I also doubt Garrus and especially Liara's words would matter much in this situation. Garrus is like a Shepard henchman at this point and Liara didn't seem to care enough to join Shepard in ME2 anyway. 

Ashley's 'I sometimes can't tell the animals from the aliens' remark has been misused/abused by people to argue she's racist or whatever. She says that when she first encounters a Keeper on the Citadel, but it bugs out and makes her say it on several occassions, unintentionally.
The thing is, she literally can't tell the difference, throughout most of her service in the military she's been stationed on far away bases where she had little interaction with anybody really, let alone aliens.

When humanity first encounters aliens, Ashely wasn't even born yet. The First Contact War happened 1 ME year, whatever metric they use, before she was born. She's around 28 when we first see her in the game, up to that point she had never met aliens, or at least not many.

'I can't tell the animals from the aliens'. Oh man, that line. In russian version it was mistranslated as "Aliens are like animals, they just can speak". I once tried to explain why this translation is incorrect and I failed.

Ashley mentions being raised in a pro-human environment. It also doesn't help that the council has proven to be a complete road-block to human progress - something we, the player, experience across all games involving the original council, but most pointedly in ME1, hence the apprehension about humans working with aliens, especially Ash who is also being held back by her own race (humans) due to other political/military nonsense. In short, she's a stubborn hot-head with unflattering views that we had yet to understand -- yet it's easy to fall into the trap of taking it literally as an extreme (ie. Racism/Xenoism), especially when either A or K can be killed off before those stories are fully fleshed.

She thaws out eventually, but this won't really happen until Vermire. By then, first impressions last, and we all know the reputation she's garnered thanks to these simple impressions we're given early in the game. Any time I see someone call Ashley a 'racist', all I can do is roll my eyes as only someone who avoids dialogue with her or is unaware of the climate in ME1 would believe that. It was never the impression I got, mostly because I'm not incapable of putting all the little pieces together and realizing it's obviously not the case, even if it's an obvious grey area being explored, but given the context of the game/universe and what we learn about the human integration into alien society (as well as her upbringing/background), you're given more than enough information to help you understand why she's a bit pissy with non-humans, and can see signs from time to time of her being regretful or embarrassed over her own reaction.

If she was a full-on racist/xenophobe, she wouldn't have been so quick to offer assistance to the Salarians on Vermire, even going as far as suggest herself over Kaiden and scolding him with a snide remark when he informs her it's not her decision to make. She hates Cerberus (a faction quite literally being pro-human to the extreme) more than almost everyone else in the trilogy roster (bar a few). She's friendly with the crew regardless of race, if not entirely then at least cordially, later in the trilogy. Racists/Xenophobes wouldn't want anything to do with any of them - certainly not put their life on the line for them in any capacity. I always send Ashley with the Salarians, and then have Kaiden eat the nuclear sandwich. They're quick to compliment her - and if memory serves me right, she compliments them, too.

Either way, Ashley (to me) was the far more interesting companion of the A/K combo. I do like Kaiden (despite being somewhat bland and having a less relatable biotic story), but there's no reason for me to keep him alive, even if I'm playing FemShep who can't romance Ash.

I think you buy Tennyson poetry at the hospital and give it to her. Keep visiting. And for God's sake, don't shoot her or anyone else do so while she's trying to protect the Council! Then invited her to join the Normandy. Talk to her a lot. Get invited for dinner. Say yes when she says she wants to be with you. Then, just before going to Cronos, bang her!

I've never played this. I'm aware of the poetry thing because I've heard it said, but we also learn from her in ME1 how much she likes poetry.

How I wish Ash AND Kaidan can be saved. Screw the people who think these characters both suck.

A true shame then. I still don't get why Liara cannot be rejected or killed off in this trilogy in any capacity (until the beam run in ME3) but nearly everyone else can. 

Just like dmc, the more I talk to Ash in general, the more I like her. I think her chemistry with broshep as a romance is truly great as both come off a really well together. They have great lines together. But I also like Kaidan as a good friend as well (or even love interest for those who choose to go that way).

I remember earlier this year, I was mentioning being disappointed in Ash's romance into ME3. Its still not as well written as it could have been. However, I did the romance again and I found quite a few instances of Ash being pretty awesome. There are subtle instances where she shows concern for me. But I loved her Citadel party scenes during the relaxed party. The way she dealt with Joker/Traynor ganging up on her and making fun of her was pretty funny. And just before taking the picture she said something like "when you shoo everyone out, find me... i mean it." Just... the tone in her voice.