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

I should romance her... I should romance her in ME1... I just, don't like male sheps voice very much...

True, as gkonone said ME is based on choices made by the players. And there are so many different choices along the series that whichever storyboard a movie could have it would probably end up in dissatisfying a lot of fans for one reason or another.
It's truly a difficult series to transition to a movie

Well, Hollywood is stil a male dominated world, most protagonists/lead roles in big movies are played by male actors afaik. Whether that's a good thing or not, no idea, I'd watch it regardless of what sex Shepard would be in the movie. Therefore I don't see Shepard being the main obstacle. 
It's mostly the choices that might cause some problems, although they could just go with what the majority of players have voted for in some of the surveys. Assuming those surveys somewhat represent the total player base.

Oh well, that movie is probably never gonna happen. Would be awesome if it did though.

This reminded me of the following post made in another place which tried to examine the negativity which gravitates towards Ashley.  It's taken from "An Epitaph for Lt Commander Ashley Williams" ME3 thread, Bioware Forum.

"I've just started a series replay after deliberately avoiding playing it for some time. So I'm trying to approach this with a fresh perspective and unlearn what I already know and ditch some of my established character/game prejudices. After all familiarity breeds contempt.

In this playthrough I'm going to avoid the "virtuous" or unsubtly signposted underlying "recommended" relationship. So with this in mind and after reading the op's observations I think I'll try and reassess Ashley Williams and focus on her in this replay. Compared to other characters they don't make it easy for her. Maybe WIlliams needs a revisionist examination are we being unfair and intolerant of independent and dissenting voices or do we want to surround ourselves with unquestioning yes-men.

On a virgin unspoiled playthrough the Horizon conversation is kinda rage inducing I don't know if this is just because we don't get our own way and it upsets the cozy apple cart. Somebody actually says no to the infallible glorious leader. It's a good dramatic device on your first run as it takes us by surprise and knocks you off balance by overturning the slightly formulaic convention/expectation of complete mission, meet character then recruit character.

This can bruise the ego of a player and taint/sour the future relationship. So is our view of Williams rational and fair or is it skewed by our own ego and pique. If we look at it through the eyes of Shepard the military veteran, professional career officer and not through gamer eyes then Williams reactions on Horizon are perfectly justified and reasonable.

Put yourself into Williams shoes or reverse the scenario. How would Shepard react to one of the crew mysteriously resurrecting after being dead for two years, revealing that they are now working for/with an notorious terrorist/supremascist organization they had previously fought against and known for their black-ops, assassination and genetic experiments? Remember Miranda wanted to chip Shepard, knowing Cerberus capabilities might not Williams anticipate this, is Shepard real, a clone, an imposter or being externally controlled or manipulated?

It's slightly ironic that the apparently prejudiced xenophobe takes the moral high ground and is the one not to sign up with the human fascists. Also on a personal level we learn of Ashley's spiritual beliefs in ME1, afterlife etc., so she's probably made peace with Shepards death and maybe this is all too much for her.

In fact is the Ashley relationship the most realistic one? It's not sickly and sacharrin or worshipping and she's not a doormat. The Ash relationship is fiery without being psychotic. She's not perfect and she's flawed but in reality most people are not perfect and sometimes we are actually attracted by other peoples apparent flaws. Some of the relationships can be extreme examples too perfect, subservient, obsequious, worshipping, needy, confrontational and aggressive.

Early observations on my new playthrough, surprised by how obsequious Garrus is, he's a real Shepard fanboy in ME1, totally get the unemployed cop thing, you see the seeds of it in ME1 before he goes full Turian Dirty Harry in ME2. Do you think Garrus has been watching too many Blasto vids? Oh, forgot how great Wrex is."

OP "Tearjerker" August 2016

Hi guys
Does anyone know when exactly the Ashley romance locks in in the first Mass Effect? Is it after Virmire?

Not sure when the conversation happens, but there is a dialogue where you catch her talking to her sister, and Ashley tells her sister how cute Shepard is. It's either that dialogue or the one where she tells you 'I'm a girl with a lot of baggage, can you handle that?'. Something like that. 
If you say something like 'I do', I think that's when the romance locks.

Thank you both!

I agree, although I did like the hospital scenes and the follow up with her sister. The Udina encounter was horrible. But Bioware mostly screwed up with how they handled her in ME2.
I mentioned this a couple of pages back.

This is interesting though, if you think of the amount of interaction you get in ME3, compared to ME1, it's probably roughly the same. The quality of interaction might be different.
In ME1 you have about 5 conversations I believe, could be wrong. Although there are more opportunities to interact perhaps. There's the initial getting to know each other when she first joins, then there's the 'talking about her history', after that 'poetry and not trusting aliens', then 'not agreeing and liking you', and in the end the kissing scene that Joker interrupts and the scene at the cabin. I probably didn't get that right, but just a rough estimate.

In ME3 it's hospital scenes, supporting her sister, the Udina encounter (if you want to count that). After that, the meeting on the citadel where you seal the deal, the cabin scene before Priority Earth, and her being drunk. And Citadel stuff.
And for some reason it didn't feel fullfilling. Either because after ME2 some of us, me at least, expected more, or because it was too spread apart. Or it felt a bit seperated from the relationship you had in ME1.

Yes. It's the whole "Mass Effect 3 is a great place to start!" nonsense. All I can say is by not starting the trilogy with me1, they missed out on one of the best written characters in gaming, imo.

This might not be completely accurate, it's nice though. 

It just occurred to me, has anyone ever made any fan art of Ash in a Tinfoil Skirt, and Thigh High boots?