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

It just dawned on me after all this time that Phoenix armor is probably deliberately named that way for Ashley. Ash, rising from the Ashes of Eden Prime and all that.

For me she was absolutly awesome in the first ME. Her character, development, attitude and stories that she told you - everyting made me love her. Then ME3 came out and they made her far less interesting to the point that she became annoing with her constant: "Shepard, are you real?". I also wasn't fan of her getting drunk all the time. Still I think it's a great character.

Both characters kind of suffered since ME2. I think Kaidan less so though. Her new writer didn't pick up the slack.

Kaidan suffered less because he never was that interesting (at least for me ). I mean he had his moments but overall was pretty boring to me even in the first game. Ashley on the other hand...I thought that at least Citadel DLC would make her justice but she only had that one bar scene. Still I have to say that she at her worst is still far better than some characters at their best .

I like Kaidan in ME3 especially his scene with Shepard after getting back on the Normandy and after rescuing the ex-Cerberus scientists.

The best part of the bar scene is her punching the vorcha and batarian as the scene went fade-to-black

I've grown to like them both, even if they got a bit neglected. And years later, I still struggle on who to save. I postponed my current playthrough for like a day. lol

Don't get pissed at this, but personally my favorite is half-romanced Ash who dies on Virmire. It makes me sad, but it works for my particular story.

If I was gonna stick with a romance from 1-3 though, both are great for that.

That one is nice as well yes, especially the music. Although I think he went a bit overboard with the scene switching, too fast, doesn't always fit the music. Nice though how he used a lot of Ashley material in there, must be an Ash fan


On the topic of ME2, I think the developers either didn't know what to do with Ash and Kaidan, or they didn't care or they wanted to focus more on the new crew. Then again, Liara got a whole dlc. Which again enforces the idea that Bioware really wanted to push the alien romance idea.
To me it's mostly sloppy story telling, romance is a big part of the game, and people that romanced either of the Virmire survivors got shafted.
You get invested into a very nice (the best imo) romance in ME1 and then they don't follow up on that in ME2, like really?

And then there's Ash in ME3, some hospital scenes, which were very nice, but after that you get the Udina encounter, which I believe could have been handled way better. And then there's the drinking game in the Citadel dlc. Which admittedly was fun but left some to be desired. No option to ask her to come over.
A lot of lost potential I'd say.

Having said all that, Ash is worth it.

Well, you get to start a great romance in ME1 and there's no follow up in ME2. The Mass Effect games have always been about engaging story telling with immersive gameplay and romances were a rather big part of that. You get shafted really in ME2, there's no way around that. I can totally get why Ashley reacted the way she did on Horizon, and that's fine, but what's not fine is the fact that Shepard can in no way redeem himself or reconcile with her. No more messages, no other encounters, just one small conversation, and that's it. Given their history, that really is a waste and just awful writing.

I always romanced Ashley so no idea how it goes for other romance options but I'd assume it's mostly the same.

Wow I forgot about Vega thing. Probably for the better.

I liked Kaidan as a character. He just didn't make it past Virmire in any of my playthroughs. I did do one playthrough where I let Ashley die out of respect for the Kaidan fanbase. It was one of the hardest choices I have ever made in gaming. 

Kaidan and Ashley are intertwined forever in Mass Effect lore because of Virmire. The fanbases are also.

I remember seeing a playthrough of the Citadel dlc before I played it myself, and seeing Ash and Vega flirting. It felt so out of character for her to be flirting with him. I always saw her as a bit 'hard to get', maybe I'm wrong. There's a conversation in ME1 where she says something along the lines of 'I have a lot of baggage, are you sure you're ok with that?'.
I remember hating Vega for quite a while after


He grew on me eventually. Didn't like him for a long time, not only because of the flirting, always thought he was mostly a meathead, training his body, not his brain.