Dichotomy Of A Character Episode Playlist: bit.ly/33ImH2Q *- TIMESTAMPS -* 0:00-1:31: Intro 1:32-2:57: Hot Take: Mordin Is More Racist Than Ashley 2:58-8:57: Mods, Plugs, & Why I HATE Ashley's Appearance In ME3 8:58-15:33 : Part 0 - Player Choice & The Importance Of Nuance 15:34-27:22: Part 1 - Foundations For Ashley's Character 27:23-44:13: Part 2 - Xenophobic Hangups 44:14-1:12:19 : Part 3 - Ulysses, Telemachus, Ashley's Father & God 1:12:20-1:36:28 : Part 4 - Terra Firma 1:36:29-1:46:51: Part 5 - Ashley Did Nothing Wrong By Killing Wrex 1:56:52-2:11:10 : Part 6 - Survivor's Guilt 2:11:11-2:22:18: Part 6 (cont.) Feeling Good Enough 2:22:19-2:28:15 : To Kill or Not To Kill The Council? 2:28:16-3:02:50: Part 7 - Losing Shepard, Gaining Survivor's Guilt, & Being Right About Cerberus 3:02:51-3:23:14: Part 8: Healing Through Guilt 3:23:15-3:35:50 : Part 9 - Manipulation, Making Up For Lost Time, & Matriarch Williams 3:35:50-3:40:49: Part 10 - The Cool Green Hills Of Earth & An End, Once And For All 3:40:50-3:44:29: What Have We Learned From Ashley's Character Arc? 3:44:30-3:47:17 Thanks For Watching, & What's next for my channel?
Got to say, the work that went into to this is the extraordinary. Sad when you see so called reaction channels who don’t create any content with 100s of thousands of subs. Whilst you have what you have. I’ve subbed. Definitely deserve to have your channel grow.
When Ashley says she can't tell the aliens from the animals that doesn't have to mean every alien on the citadel. On the Normandy, both her and XO Presley didn't quite trust aliens on board yet. Especially after year 2157, Ashley simply didn't know if humanity could fully trust aliens as allies. The aliens didn't serve the alliance as well, another reason to be concerned. The council was always critical of Shepard, so of course Ashley questioned their loyalty to the alliance. When Ashley says sic your dog on a bear and run, you'll do it. As much as you love your dog it isn't human, it's not racism, not really. "members of their species will always be more important to them than humans are" She's talking about humanity as the dog. If Ashley meant aliens as the dog, she would have said "members of our own species will always be more important to us than aliens are" She was not even comparing aliens to dogs at all. If Shepard supports her belief in god, she will say she doesn't think us humans are superior to aliens. She just wants humanity to be able to stand strong all on their own. At the end of her conversation about the council, despite her thoughts on aliens, she says "it won't be a problem commander." to work with aliens. It never was. Ashley is not a space racist. She just needed time to accept aliens as allies. To accept them as friends overall, It's apart of her character development. This all comes from me, I romance Ashley Williams in the whole trilogy.
i agree, i still hate her, but i can appreciate the way shes written sort of like a well written antagonist or villain, you can hate tf out of them, but still be amazed by the actor and writers abilities
I agree. I never really liked Ashley, but I never thought she was badly written. I also don't get the hate for her as a "space racist". its very shallow thinking as this video shows.
46:31 “Abby decided to learn the sword. She always was a little weird.” WHILE ASHLEY WAS GOOFING OFF IN SPACE AND COMMITTING UNLAWFUL FRATERNIZATION ABBY STUDIED THE BLADE.
"Ashley is doomed to be a survivor, and Shepard is doomed to be Shepard." More particularly, a romanced Ashley is doomed to be Penelope, waiting for Ulysses to come back to her against all odds.
I hear that Bioware was disappointed that people thought Ashley was a bloodthirsty killer when she executes Wrex, seemingly killing him for no reason. So in the remaster they made Wrex's intentions more clear by adding a scene where he says "maclunky".
"It's hard to be a patriot *and* pissed at the government." -Ashley Williams It is the patriot's duty to protect his country (or planet, or race) from his government.
You know I actually always felt Ashley's reaction in ME 2 was kind of deserved. While trust is expected, given what you went through and if you romanced her even more so. You.. A. Come back from the dead digging up old wounds, and Ash is a very emotional person. B. Your working for Cerberus, a known terrorist organisation which raises all sorts of flags, like the who, what, when, where and why. Her suspicion in ME 3 that you may be being controlled is not unwarranted given indoctrination is a thing. C. After you came back your character made no attempt to contact her, and she had to learn about your survival through second hand sources D. Know one knows who or what the collectors are or up to, and again she has no idea what is going on. Your word is good, but she can't bet everything on that, especially when your with again a known terrorist organisation. E. She is loyal to the Alliance, which can be seen as bigoted, but when you met her she was on a mission so she could not really drop everything And it factors into another reason I love Ash. She doesn't kiss your boots, I love all the characters in Mass Effect, but few go out of there way to question Shepard, so when Ash does it feels quite personal for us the player. Your the main character and you have a lot of perspective on what's going on, and you feel some trust is earned. But again I like Ashley because she follows Shepard but I never felt she was following out of blind loyalty, it felt like she followed based on her own ideals. Never really considered her racist either. Overtly patriotic, lot of chest pounding and bravado, and with some unhealthy suspicion. But it more felt to me she was more following a chain of command and military protocol, so civilians should not have free reign. These are indeed unwarranted in hindsight, and seem really glaring on replays, but on my first playthrough while I did not agree I remember acknowledging her concern.
I never really thought that much into it. but you're right it makes perfect sense. she saw you die and get spaced. despite all the advanced tech in the ME universe resurrection is not one of them. I know it's a game but it still doesnt really make sense to me but I still never really questioned it. how tf did they bring shepard back? it doesnt make sense. I can see why she wouldn't think it was the real shepard because even on the ME universe bringing someone back from the dead is absolutely ludicrous and no one else questions it. now if they someone found a way to travel into the dragonball universe and use the dragonballs to bring shepard back from the dead that would make more sense than project Lazarus lmao.
My first playthrough i was totally in agreement with Ashley.. Playing as a colonist warhero femshep i kept wondering why i am forced to carry random xeno on a Stealth warships? Kaidan was extremely annoying with his anti-human bs. I actually confronted him about it. Only by meeting liara i said.. okay maybe these xenos are worth keeping.. You know for.. study... Come on Liara let's play protheans and archeologist :D
Ash is a soldier through and through, overly filled with Alliance propaganda about "humanity are the best and brightest", she can even say something harsh, like "I can't tell aliens from the animals", because of limited live on ground colonial station she had. She is a complex girl, protected by the sheel layer of armor for outsiders, but a honest and friendly with her own, and the eager and playful with the ones she plans to let closer. In my playthrough Shepard always pick her as a partner, because he and she is a lucky survivors, opening the whole galaxy for themselves, first Citadel, after it the whole other galaxy in the search for Saren. He treats her as equal, as a fellow sister-in-arms, there is a lot of common between them (like the same bootcamp and sergeant-instructor they were dealing with), and they start going out, but nothing really "touchy", since they still remember a rule about "fraternization". Meanwhile, Shepard and Kaiden growing hostilities, because he also likes Ashley. And after Virmire, after Kaiden agrees to sacrifice himself, Ashley loses it and reaches psychological meltdown, because she understands that Shepard let Kaiden behind because of them being in love, thus, breaking the fraternisation rule. Shepard knows that too, he is blaming himself, until before Citadel and Ilos Ash comes around, and they reconnect. There is not even a question for Shepard cheating during ME2 or 3, she's the initial one to be with him on the start, she supported him morally, and is the woman he started all this with.
The Turians were completely wrong for first contact. Common sense says that the new guy ain’t gonna know the rules. U don’t immediately start an armed conflict, u go over and say something to them. Initiate peaceful contact and inform humanity of the dangers of opening every relay they find, and that it’s illegal.
They thought humans were just primitives. They tried to colonize us. Then humans took one of their dreadnoughts and kicked their asses off a planet. Then turians got mad and brought their whole fleet. Then the council told Turians "quit being bitches" so the turians went home. That's like the first contact summed up in its entirety
@@TheIceColdBikeDestroyer the difference though is that they live in a galactic civilization. Way more complex and advanced than back when humans were colonizing each other over farm lands..
Always thought the Turians are intimidated by us for their long term plans. Though they were part of the council. Out of the 3 they had the fleet and raw power to roll them over if they choose to. When humanity came onto the scene the Turians couldn’t. As humanity had the potential of a force to at the very least counter balance them. The Turians thus turned their attention to humanity progress. I think also the salarian and asari were greatful they are not idiots. They knew the Turians had a colonial element to them. Humanity had enough to challenge them and thus keeping things neutral.
"Ashley is the biggest racist in the game" Ahem A H E M S P A R A T U S ? SALARIANS IN GENERAL? (Defending literal ethnic cleansing) QUARIANS? HELLO PEOPLE?!
Tali fanthings are deaf. It has to be the only explanation. Her racism is what makes her character great meanwhile its why ash deserved to be nuked? No. At no point did tali ever try and change, she just begrudgingly said she was wrong basically at the end of the trilogy when shepard FINALLY ended the war
@@212mochaman I get why people like Tali, but like, cmon, lets not use Tali to excuse the Quarians creating a slave race and then attempting to kill them when they wished to have freedom, or atleast, believed they might be able to obtain it
@@thepapavulture8322 even though she is no different then her entire race in that regard. I get that mass effect 2 is trying their VERY hardest to make EVERYONE a villian when we know better but to go over the top with KORIS of all people? He's the best, non existant debate over. Even as a renegade shep that only gives a stuff about war assets its telling you to say grow up to tali and it took her 4 years to do it. Most changed in the space of the first month depending on what you said, it didnt matter one bit to tali though
Ashley Williams is a really well written character. A lot of other characters are more racist than her and get away with it. Thank you for doing this. For 14 years I've been so sick of all the Ash haters for 14 YEARS! You're doing the lord's work, my friend. Not all heroes wear capes! Not to forget her romance is a good one too.
Honestly I think it is because she is human. I hear people talk about how the ME 1 human companions are boring, but I think Ashley is incredibly well written. If she was an alien, far fewer people would claim she is racist, in my opinion.
@@galacticironmike4516 absolutely. I even had a discussion with someone and her reasoning for Garrus and Mordin was "they are more interesting characters than Ashley so it's okay for them to say what they want" to an extent. She didn't word exactly like that, but she implied that reasoning, which made me raise my eyebrow. Then she called me biased for Ashley. The same could apply to her for Garrus and Mordin. While Garrus and Mordin still say they are for the genophage because "krogans ate violent," Ash is going around saying "Tali is like a little sister to me" and comforting Liara. Someone racist wouldn't do that. Ash is also the first one to warm up to Tali in ME1 hoping Tali's help with Saren changes the peoples mind about quarians while Garrus is saying her people deserve worst than exile for creating geth. I think a lot of people miss these elevator talks because they don't bring Ashley along so they never get to see her growth. They assume based on a few things she say and label her a "racist bitch".
@@WarriorSwine811 she is probably the character with the most growth seen over the three games, her or liara in my opinion. Its hard to convince people of that though. Once people decide a character is racist they basically just refuse to rethink that opinion.
@@galacticironmike4516 everyone has their Fandom favs and will rabidly defend them. Unfortunately, most of ME Fandom is convinced Ash is racist. They're entitled to their wrong opinions 🤷♀️
"We've got our suit recordings" huh, wow. Fully forgot about that line. Never realized how simple bodycams in this sci-fi universe could Invalidate almost a game and a half of content. Like F U C K.
@@XBadgerKnightX oh god lol that's tragic. Loving the series by the way and is there any chance of Dragon age characters in the future? Maybe starting with Morrigan or Alistair?
@@mojoofj0j024 I've played DA:O and DA2 but not Inquisition, because DA2 killed all my interest in playing Inquisition. I can't really do a video on Morrigan, or Alistair ( maybe I can do one on Leliana) because of all the pathways their characters can take and it seems Bioware's not done telling their story. Morrigan's story is left on a cliffhanger THREE TIMES - Alistair's story kinda just stops after DA:O regardless of what option you pick.
@@XBadgerKnightX for all it's worth, inquisition is much better than dragon age 2. The story is actually good and the dlcs are even better. If you liked DAO you should give inquisition a chance, as you can see the consequences to many of your warden's choices. Just think of it as an mmo and avoid doing every single fetch quest thrown your way. Just stick to the main mission and companion quests and you will be fine. Morrigan is one of my fav characters in all of fiction, and I think her story is complete only if you romance her in DAO, do the ritual and jump into the eluvian with her. She has an important part in inquisition, but it's not necessary to her full character arc. It's nice to see the results of your choiches though. Alistair's story, however, is greatly expanded in inquisition, and unlike for morrigan I do believe that the 3rd game is necessary for the character to truly blossom. If you do decide to play the game, you can skip Dragon Age 2, as you can fully customize your save via dragon age keep, the save import system of dragon age inquisition. If you want to play da2 to have a better picture, again, skip everything but Flemeth's quest in act 1 and the Legacy dlc (this is most important, as it gives background to inquisition's main villain). I'd argue you can even skip the companion's quests...
Ashley: When the council's backs are against the wall, they will always choose their own races over humanity. People: THATS RACIST! Council: "literally does exactly that" People: I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that. "Laughs as an innocent woman is burned in nuclear fire"
"I can't tell animals from aliens" is one of the replicas Ashley will give you when you try to talk with her on Citadel in ME1 and i'd say that this is plain racist. I'd also say that she is a bigot, I mean the writers made her that way to show the way ordinary grunts in the Alliance feel towards the aliens. Let's not forget the First Contact War, some 28 years earlier than the events of the game. Usually war propaganda dehumanize the enemy, making the people see they are monsters who deserve to be killed so it makes sense for simple soldiers to feel that way even when the conflict is over and the former enemies are now allies (see what happened with germans after the WWII).
@@georgeabel912 The Elcor, Hanars, and Keepers ACTUALLY look like animals. Not to mention that the Turians and Salarians evolved from animals and still have some of their traits after +50,000 years of evolution (Even Javik points that out, if you want to accuse someone of being racist, then he is probably the most racist character in Mass Effect) While Ashley’ comments may be taken as straight up racist, everything she says in the game makes sense and a lot of her claims turn out to be true throughout the entire trilogy. Like how she points out that the Council will always put their own people before humanity, which is the entire reason for why the Reapers ended up killing Billions of people. Every comment that she made about the council and their races ends up being true from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 3 lol. When she points out that you shouldn’t let Wrex and Garrus have such freedom in a secret prototype ship of the alliance, she actually has a solid argument, but a lot of people decide to ignore pure logic and say she’s being racist towards them because they’re aliens. There’s many instances in the trilogy where you have to help the Asari or the Turians (Especially in Me3) but despite you being the only one who can help them, they give you minimal information and put you in danger because whatever or whoever you are retrieving is a secret and they cant tell you because you are Human. Now that would be racist, but it is the logical thing to do. On the other hand you dont keep secrets and let other races aboard your ship. (For gods sakes, Tali is a Quarian on a Pilgrimage and you allow her to study the drive core of the Normandy which is one of the greatest secrets of the Human-Turian military alliance) She may not be the most interesting character since everything is about her family rather than herself, but she’s not really Xenophobic
@@roguegn So when you meet a certain type of human and you say you can't tell if he's human or an animal (things that happened a lot in the past and unfortunately are not entirely behind us) you are not a racist, you are just expressing a feeling of distrust?
@@georgeabel912 What are you talking about, what does a "certain type of human" even mean? There's only 1 type of human and for your information, humans ARE animals
If you romance Kaiden and only react with renegade choices during dialogue he becomes one of the most racist and xenophobic characters in the franchise. More renegade than Wrex in ME1 due to his new found racism
The biggest issue I have with Ashley being labelled a "space racist" or that she only cares about humans - well two biggest issues - are that 1. She only objects to aliens being on the crew in ME1 because they might have other motives or are a security risk. Which is not untrue. The other, larger issue I have is that if she really was a rah rah humans person, she would be _faaar_ more sympathetic to cerberus in 2. But she hates them and their ideas even in that game.
Exactly. People are quick to forget that the Normandy is the most advanced ship the Alliance has, and is the only known stealth ship in the Galaxy. That's the ME future equivalent of the US allowing Chinese citizens to board a prototype nuclear sub for weeks or months at a time when these citizens are known have the capability of relaying the way the tech works to their later so they can duplicate it. Plus, her fears weren't completely unfounded since we see in a description of the Quarian diplomat ship in ME3 that Tali used what she learned from the Normandy to enhance at least one of the ships in the flotilla. I personally don't fault anyone for this, but in hindsight, Ashley being worried about the Normandy's tech being used by aliens was right, even if it wasn't ultimately used against humans.
@@MoostachedSaiyanPrince "That's the ME future equivalent of the US allowing Chinese citizens to board a prototype nuclear sub for weeks or months at a time when these citizens are known have the capability of relaying the way the tech works to their later so they can duplicate it." Except, of course, that there's plenty of more advanced species around, people with a head start on humans of thousands of years and humanity will invariably have profited technologically from its mere contact with them because that's how technological progress works.
@@ohauss Yes, there are more advanced civilizations than the Alliance, but they don't have the Normandy's stealth tech. And I know how technological progress works, bit that doesn't mean that it's a good idea to just flaunt military secrets to the rest of the Galaxy.
@@MoostachedSaiyanPrince Uhhh.. hate to break it to you, but the Normandy was co-developed with the Turians and sponsored by the Citadel Council. Your point turns into: "We can't let them _steal_ the tech of a ship _they_ helped us design." Ash might not have known that, (Although Shepard does, as he points this out to both the Alliance Ship Inspector AND Khalisah al-Jilani the reporter) but it makes the whole thing a little silly and kind of ridiculous to even think about.
@@Aaron-qe9ms I'm well aware of the Turians helping build the Normandy. Which is why I don't think Ashely knew about that before this conversation, which is why the point she's trying to make in this conversation: "I don't think it's a good idea to let foreigners onto our people's most advanced ship" is a defendable one. Because what you're saying my point would turn into: "We can't let them steal the tech of a ship they helped us design" becomes Ashely's point in this conversation if she knew that, and while I know Ashley is hardly the smartest crew member, I've never seen any evidence to suggest that Ashley is stupid enough to make that big a mistake. And the reason Shepard knew about the Turians assistance is because he was one of the crew originally assigned to the Normandy, so he's probably read files on it before the Eden Prime mission, and even if he hasn't, he's probably asked people like Anderson or Engineer Adams a lot about the ship before either that interview or the Ship Inspector. Whereas Ashley was literally a random foot soldier on a backwater agricultural world before the Geth Attacked, so why would she know literally anything about the Normandy? The conversation she has with Shepard about aliens on the ship is the first one you have with her after leaving the Citadel, and I think it's entirely possible, if not likely, that no one's told her about the Turian's help with the Normandy by that point. The trip between Eden Prime and The Citadel likely wasn't that long, and it seemed like no one on board was really in a talkative mood at that time because of Jenkins' death.
Ash: "When the chips are down they'll chose their own over us." The council after Shepard asks for help when the Reapers attack: "the unfortunate truth is that while the Reapers deal with earth we can sure up our own defenses." Nah Ash be racist
I mean… every species in ME are somewhat racist and xenophobic. I feel the ME series does a good job at pointing this out because the reality is, no matter what anyone claims, everyone is in one form or another slightly racist and everyone is damn sure xenophobic. The ones constantly saying they arent, are usually the worst offenders.
@@dracomundo1498 She doesn't shit on them. Who does she say doesn't trust? Wrex and Garrus. A mercenary who tells you stories about killing innocent cargoship Captains for credits, and a former turian C-Sec officer who is a little too gung ho. Her concerns come from being an Alliance officer and the Normandy being the single most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy. She states she had never met/worked with an alien before because she was always stationed on shit backwater planets because her grandfather was shunned for surrendering. But she does care about how Liara is doing with her mom after Noveria. She even sees Tali like a little sister. Their conversations in the elevators are illuminating. People just jump to conclusions too damn quick instead of seeing the whole picture.
I think some people identify “racism” in these games as “identifying with your species and wanting it to do well for itself” and they forget that each of these species is a space country with their own economies, militaries, etc. What seems to be the #1 plum the Council offers countries? New worlds to colonize. With no new mass relays for 2k years those are precious. When these come up, 1 of the Council’s member or associate governments is going to get a world and everyone else will not. Ditto with trading rights, contracts for the Council military, C-Sec jobs - those are zero sum games. So it’s completely rational to work for the mutually exclusive benefit of your species within the framework of the established game, the Batarians represent overdoing that and a human-dominated council gets a bad reception because they are over-reaching and not respecting the games rules
My first playthrough and I used her a lot. Im glad you've come around to her character. I'll always be a Tali fan, but Ashley is definitely one of the best written character up there with garrus. Imo.
This is actually more or less the entire problem - people decide to hate on Ashley more or less immediately and so ignore her character growth. Meanwhile, Garrus' much more horrible racism in ME1 (where he outright treats quarians and krogan as inherently malicious or stupid and chastises Tali 'on behalf of her species') is ignored because "he has character growth in ME2/3"... yes, that is as hypocritical as you might expect.
Finally there is a singular space where I find people who sees Ashley for complex and realistically skeptical character she is. My biggest gripe with people who play the game is that they don't appreciate that in ME1 it has only been 26 YEARS since the Turians started a war with humanity. A war that the Turians were 100% at fault for and the counsel had to step in to resolve peacefully. There are real life wars that started within all of our lifetimes that we are still being affected by. Just because the Turians and Humans had a forced peace treaty doesn't mean that they can trust each other. And the other races are literally super racist. The Volus diplomat you meet in ME1 keeps talking shit about earth clan, the salarians are responsible for biological genocide, the quarians created a sentient robot race and decides to try to KILL THEM because they were afraid that they'd not like being SLAVES, etc. It frustrating seeing playthroughs of people calling Ashley racist and not liking her food for thought, but don't bat an eye at the rest of the mess that the alien races do. I also think, "why did the writer create this dialog" when I interact with characters. Ashley is obviously an ally, so why is the conversation designed this way. I want to dig deeper into what the writers have prepared. She's an army brat, who's family is still freshly feelings the affects of a VERY RECENT war, and by realizing she's a secret romantic that's into poetry I realize that she is feeling all of this deeply. Her father and grandfather is dishonored by her own military over a war that the ALIENS started.
People getting mad at Ashley Williams for her healthy skepticism of AILENS don't understand a thing about human nature. She didn't even say anything that "racist".
Agreed, people are stupid and easily offended these days. Most of those who call Ash racist seem to forget that Ingroup vs. Outgroup behaviour is basic instinct throughout the animal kingdom.
I'm willing to bet that if we put them in the same postion as Williams they will 100% have the same opinion. Who would feel comfortable serving on an advanced prototype warship with other people that aren't from your nation. It's like inviting the Russians and Chinese on a new American carrier and vice versa.
Glad that there are other people who have working brain cells and see Ashley for who she really is. Hate that most of the people just play a bit of the game, listen a bit of the conversations with Ashley & immediately label her as a racist.... Especially now that the legendary edition is out & most people who play the game. They see 2 clips and have their opinions ready without giving her a chance & listening to her complete story
I have been saying Ashley is a great character for years. I did love Kaiden but he rarely lives in my playthrough because seeing Ash break the family 'curse' in Me3 made me literally bounce. I imagine if the military hadn't treated her family so horribly she wouldn't have been so xenophobic. But then she wouldn't have been half so dedicated to proving herself either
Ikr. People won't give her a chance to explore the characters. I've never played the game until the legendary edition but I've gathered some bare bones insight of the game through the osmosis content from clips of the game. People are hating on her and boils down just a space racist. After I played the first game I've went through her history and interaction I can say I understand the motive and doubt on being a "space racist".
For me, I usually have Ashley live over Kaiden for one big reason: Her family. My family is incredibly important to me as well, and the thought of any of them dying on me, no matter the reason, is chilling. I couldn't live with myself if I inflicted that intentionally on a family that close. I actually chose Ashley as my romantic partner in ME1 the first time I ever played it. Liara seemed... sweet, but too boring for me at the time, especially when compared to the complex, caring big sister of Ashley Williams. I didn't and still don't read poetry, of that nature or any other, really, so I think I wasn't able to appreciate some of her more intimate moments of emotional openness, and I'm appreciative of this video for granting context to her words after all these years for me. And, as an aside, while Kaiden's fine, and I respect how mature and emotionally healthy he is as a person... he always felt kind of lost, unsure of what to do with himself in ME3. They did him dirty there, and before this explanation video? I thought that they made Ashley overly antagonistic. It never stopped me from trying to romance her when I had the option, but sometimes it just felt... like the writers had been given her character whiplash. It took this video for me to see any sort of narrative throughline for her character through the games.
In my opinion it stems from human self hatred. Literally all of your alien crew from Liara to Garrus to Tali to Wrex all exhibit racism that isn't called out at all. The whole point is that by bleeding together and understanding one another they all grow and evolve and become beacons of hope for a better galaxy.
This is exactly why I threw in that section involving Mordin at the beginning. I don't think it's self hatred from Ashley. She's good at what she does and she knows it, she just needs somebody to recognize her for her hard work, which never happens. This leaves her in perpetual anguish as she literally tries to please everyone.
@@XBadgerKnightX I meant from actual players of the game. People are quick to criticise all of the human characters while trying their best to defend or ignore the faults of the aliens like the humans aren't the underdogs/lesser power in the dynamic.
I'll say a variation of last night when I watched Tali's video. It pisses me off when people HATE Ashley for being xenophobic but loves Tali when they are two sides of the same coin. Not only that but EVERY RACE in Mass Effect is xenophobic/racist to each other. Ashley at least has a Paradigm shift and sees the crew of the Normandy as family (including/especially the non-humans).
Well then you wont be pissed at me, i hate ashley for being herself, if i could have jenkins survive eden prime and not take her i would and the only mission she ever gets deployed on is eden prime because i switch her out for garrus the instant he joins up
@@heliosjollywolf9552 I use them both as a "clean squad". Ash and Garrus cleared a research lab without killing a single civilian and then did the same thing on Feros. Also I wouldn't say Garrus is a replacement for Ashley in any case: he's less durable (I'm an Infiltrator so it means a lot for me) but more range-focused and has some engineer skills. He's different.
I don't need a defense video of a character. She doesn't need it for me, she is good, People are petty and don't care to get to know her. Regardless though, good video!
35:16 The Turian Councilor is aware of a little event called the Rachni Wars, right? 2:23:03 Then why does sacrificing the council negatively impact the meter that decides whether Ashley lives or dies during Priority: The Citadel II regardless of the ME1 speech check? 2:38:26 Not only that but it's worse than how Mass Effect 1 started, this time Humanity was ON THE COUNCIL ITSELF!
@@NeightrixPrime good point about the writing, critical moments/decisions in Mass Effect 3's plot weren't handled as good as they should have been as seen with the exposition dump about how the Reapers somehow captured the Citadel and moved it to Earth.
i dont hate ash, i dont hate mordin, i enjoyed the tea you spilled cause god damn i prefer ash over kadien and i wish more people tried to let ashely redeem herself the way mordin does
God forbid a dev team who normally writes with progressive view points make a character with more old fashion values. I don't really like Ashley, I disagree with her on pretty much everything but it she plays such an important window into what more old fashion values would look like in a sci-fi setting. The first contact war is so much more recent than most fans really appreciate and her viewpoints and frankly a lot of minor npcs in ME1 are so realistic given the world building we have in ME1. I again, do not like Ashley but I am so happy she is in the game because SHE IS A VERY WELL WRITTEN CHARACTER. Just not one that meshes with a lot of players.
Ashley's biggest failing is that the most important parts of her character development don't happen until long after Virmire, while Kaidan is immediately demonstrated to be thoughtful, mission focused, and a good teammate. Also helps that he's mechanically one of the most useful ME1 squadmates, while Ashley is among the least useful. It only makes logical sense to send her off to find out if her God exists, and redeem her family's name. About the only reason to keep Ashley around is being on a third or fourth playthrough and wanting to see the rest of her story. Or, what I suspect happens most often "Hur hur, she hot."
One of things I found interesting about Ashley and Kaiden was their opinions on Turians. Kaiden suffered actual abuse from a Turian, to the point that he had to kill him in self defense, yet the experience showed him that aliens weren't any nobler or morally better than humans, and he develops a balanced and nuanced view of aliens. He had a bad experience but didn't let it sour his opinion of an entire race. Ash on the other hand, doesn't have prior negative experience with Turians. Rather, what she has is inherited shame from the being the granddaughter of the man who surrendered Shangxi. She is judged poorly based on the actions of her grandfather (who surrendered to save lives) and so she compensates by harshly judging Turians and other aliens, because it's easier to blame them for her sense of shame then to stand up and tell the Alliance to stop the "Sins of the Grandfather" BS. Like Pressley, she dislikes aliens because "that's what you're supposed to do". In a sense, she was raised that way. Her opinions are based on 2nd hand/3rd hand viewpoints and her familial shame, not any actual experience w/aliens, not until Shepard at least.
To add to the council being dicks, they're the ones who encouraged humanity to settle the Traverse since it's disputed territory. They have the gall to encourage expansion into potentially dangerous territory, but act as if humanity weren't baited into it by them. At least them not helping the colonies in ME2 makes more sense since those colonies are in the Terminus Systems. There's a reason why I only have respect for the salarian councilor by the end of the trilogy.
I don't think the council were being dicks. I understand why it seems that way to most but that's not how I see it. At the start of ME1, the council puts implicit, unequivocal faith in their Spectres, literally giving them free reign to do anything that they deem necessary to deal with any threat they perceive. Enter Shepard, (who will later become the first human Spectre) who accuses their top Spectre, initially without any proof, that he has gone rogue. Shepard is Anderson's XO and protégé, and Saren uses that relationship against us, due to Anderson's negative outcome on a mission with Saren. After gaining and presenting Tali's evidence, the council, understandably, changes its stance on Spectres. No longer will Spectres be trusted blindly, they require proof. Actual real, physical, evidence that they can have experts examine. The hardsuit recordings are dismissed because the council believes that Saren is manipulating Shepard, like they believe he manipulated the Geth, with talk of Reapers. There is no other evidence until Sovereign attacks the Citadel. This evidence cannot be reviewed by the player until ME2. When Shepard returns to the council in ME2, Shepard does so in the company of an anti-alien terrorist organization that even Shepard's closest team members have trouble reconciling with. Also the similarities between Shepard/Cerberus and Saren/Geth are just too close for comfort for the council. The saying "once bitten, twice shy" comes to mind, and seems proven with the events in the Bahak system. If you let the old council die, the new alien members are fearful that you did so to further human ambitions and could easy do so again, and so won't meet with you. If you kept the old council alive they're willing to talk to you and listen, but require proof. A human council again won't meet with you, probably again very much aware that their position is because of you and your willingness to get rid of the old council means they could be removed just as effectively if you disagree with them. So assuming you keep the old council alive, in other words the ones who will speak with you, they require proof of the Reapers. Everyone but Shepard and his team are telling the council that Sovereign was a Geth ship, incredibly advanced yes, but still Geth, and other than our say so, there is no evidence otherwise, and thanks to the lessons learned early in ME1 by the council, they are no longer taking Spectres merely at their word. Sovereign is being dismissed by everyone as a Geth ship, the Reaper ship in ME2 is destroyed, so no evidence there and even if there was, the experts that researched Sovereign would again likely dismiss it as another Geth ship. The only active Reaper that Shepard deals with in ME2 (not including the humanoid one) is Harbinger, who is still out in dark space, so again no evidence. Even if Shepard somehow finds some link between Harbinger, Sovereign, the Geth and the Collectors to present to the council, the arrival DLC takes place mere months before the Reaper invasion of the galaxy, and Shepard is now persona non grata, having destroyed a mass relay, wiped out the Bahak system, and killed over 300,000 Batarians. In ME1, all anyone can prove is a rogue Spectre, who used talk of Reapers to get the Geth to follow him. There is no proof of Reapers. The lack of understanding concerning the Geth causes Sovereign to be dismissed by everyone but Shepard and their team as being a Geth ship. In ME2, all anyone can prove is that a mysterious race known as the Collectors are harvesting Humans. There is no link between the Collectors and Reapers, except in the arrival DLC. The council, remembering their previous mistakes regarding blindly trusting the word of a Spectre, and having been advised by those who researched Sovereign that it is a Geth ship, don't believe Shepard. Shepard's position is further harmed by the fact that they are now working with a known terrorist group, namely Cerberus, and their position is completely destroyed after the events covered in the arrival DLC. The proof that the council needs finally arrives in ME3, by which time it's too late. The sad fact is that we are a victim of our own success. As for the reactions of everyone in ME3 (not just council, but everyone), it is to protect their own, and Shepard needs to convince everyone to work together and be willing to sacrifice their own for the greater good, which in this case means saving earth. Let me put it another way. Your home town is under attack and everyone you care about is at risk, and you are asked to defend someone else's home town while yours burns and everyone you care about dies. Which would you choose? Is it frustrating that the council doesn't simply take us at our word? Yes. But we caused that change in council policy. Is the council's position understandable? Yes, at least to me, because I'm willing to see it from their side. They require proof, and we don't have any. As for the reactions in ME3. Again I understand, and honestly, I can't say I disagree with them. They will only commit to the cause once what they hold dear is either saved or lost.
@@davebeattie9573 I never meant them not believing Shepherd. I can understand that especially since Shepherd never seems to record anything like the conversation with Sovereign or Vigil. It's implied in the Citadel DLC that the Council did believe Shepherd, but they were preparing secretly to avoid panic and didn't tell Shepherd since at the time they were working with Cerberus. I should clarify it's their attitude and helpfulness to both Shepherd and the Alliance. The Turian councilor is incredibly hostile to Shepherd in the first two games. I get that there's tension between the Alliance and the Turians, but your head diplomat should be able to put that aside. He calms down by me3 and helps out, but it's too little to late. The Asari councilor does nothing. She's polite, but so is the Salarian councilor. The Salarian councilor probably sent the STG squad to Virmire, informed the Shepherd when they sent a distress signal, and was willing to overlook the curing of the genophage unlike the dalatrass. Plus, they take time out of their very busy schedule to go to Thane's vigil, which I doubt the others would. One of these councilors pulls their weight while the others don't.
@@absollum Thank you for the clarification, and in that spirit, while my comment is in reply to your comment I was also addressing my remarks in regard to the video where XBadgerKnightX also acts like the council are being dicks for not believing us, and this is a common opinion from people I've spoken to in regards to the council's actions or lack there of, over the course of the series. Yes, I admit that Sparatus is a dick to Shepard and it seems to be for personal reasons rather than professional ones, but he is not the council and the council's reasons for not supporting us is for valid reasons, and those reasons still apply even to the one acting like a dick.
Ashley will always be my main romance. In my perfect Paragon play through, she and Shepard saved the galaxy together. Her character arch is something to put in the work to see. I feel like she gets passed on because she’s human and is a bit xenophobic. She grows so much and her family history is an amazing about into more of humanity’s lore. Seeing her in that hospital made me so upset. God I love this game!
Ashley works because, she is real. she is how a normal person would act in these scenarios. Skeptical, self aware and willing to educate. but she does care too. Granted, she is does give off strong independent woman 😂. But Very similar to Panam in Cyberpunk, she is a ride or die chick.
People call conflicts between different cultures “ racism” waaaaayyyy too quickly. Humans were brutally attacked first in the first contact war, they retaliated in kind. Humans are reserved with turians becuase thier culture calls for strict military style lifestyle that only meshes with enlisted humans. Otherwise right out the gate all humans would be racist towards each other. Are they somewhat mistrustful of eacother becuase of examples you can point to? Yes. Do they hate each other just becuase of the way that appear an look. No. Racist? I don’t believe so
I mean ... turians acted in defense of council laws ... imagine someone coming in your country (I know I know, the human didn't knew back in time that they were? Was ? Violating a law , or entering council jurisdiction space) and violating every law because they didn't knew that forever killing someone for calling them a piece of sheet is kinda overreacting ? Would you let em go because of their ignorance ?
@@mozermzr3186 wow old comment lol. I think you an I both agree about the response from both. Like you said if the Tirians came in an started mucking things up In our star system yeah we’d respond probably the same way they did. But the Turians would likely respond in the way that humans did, the roles would just be reversed lol. But I think the point I was making in my former comment was that both reactions are understandable but the mistrust or more precisely skepticism of turians specifically is becuase of what her family personally experienced
@@dillonboles6226 ah . I appreciate the précision you made . For sure when you have an painful, growing some kind of bad blood is understandable. And yes would the turians had made the same "mistake" as defined by council rules, they also would have felt some kind of way for the aggression. Also sorry , I just started replaying the game and I go through the community comments to see what they think about different subject related to the game. I appreciate your calm response. 👍
I personally think that both Ashley and mordin are justified in their beliefs Ashley is the granddaughter (or is it great granddaughter) of an arguably misunderstood character by history and her views are compounded via her own life experiences and how some other races treat humans but Ashley does evolve her views over the course of the 3 games
You’re right with granddaughter, it wasn’t a long time ago so the stain has only persisted across her father and rubbed off on her to slow her down but by me3 if she lives through Virmire she’s promoted again. While I can almost get her views she doesn’t have the same presence Presley does. Even when dead the crash site dlc gives Presley an arc but Ashley just stays irritating to me. I think being surrounded by so many interesting alien people sets her up for failure, same happens with Kaiden, Jacob and Vega.
Garrus and Ashley are favorites ME1 and ME3 characters and I’m trying to convince my friend to at least pick Ashley over Kaiden. He’s of the wrong opinion that she’s racist like everyone else. If Ashley is a space racist then I too am a space racist. 😂
I personally pick Kaiden because Virmire feels like a good finally for Ashley. When she loses her life there she gains the respect of not just humanity but also the Turians and Salarians.
@@MultiKbarry The Salarians are far too racist to give Ashley any proper respect. Maybe there’s some scene I forgot about, but it seems unlikely that they will honor Ashley (except for maybe Kirrahe)
ME1 Ashley is easily the best written character in the first game. Mainly because the other characters are just walking codex entries. Ashley has always been my favorite but people dont giver her a chance because "human characters are boring"
Honestly for my two runs through the Mass Effect Trilogy I left Ashley on Virmire, I don't think that's exactly wrong because I do still like Kaidan as a character but when I get legendary edition because of this video I think I'll give Ashley a shot. Also if you could do one of these great videos on Kaidan I feel that'd be really appreciated because while Ashley is called a space racist and that's not true, people call Kaidan whiny and boring which I think isn't true to/
one thing to keep in mind is that Kaidan is voiced by the same guy who voiced Carth Onasi, the biggest whiniest bitch in Bioware games, possibly in game history ever. That plays a large part in the psychology of people seeing Kaidan as whiny. His smaller complaints become amplified. his justifiable nervousness in pursuing romance get interpreted as weak/cowardly
Went with her a lot of time when I was younger (mainly because I was on a try to bang everything that has boobs route 😅) and I'd say even of I don't really hate her because of her strong position on some points, It never really did it for me ... not my type of personality, but really touched by her tragic background when i grew on a gang on earth trying to survive...
Daddy Kaiden just doesn’t have the baggage other companions have. He has killer headaches, that’s it. Of all your companions, he’s the one you’d actually want to have watching your 6. And boring doesn’t mean bad. Jacob isn’t boring, he’s got daddy issues and commitment issues, but he’s not exactly a beloved character.
Watched streamers (and their viewers) who within literally minutes mad at Ash but than cries over Mordin. If I was signed into my account I would of called it out but instead I just made a rant on social media instead later. like every Krogan is racist against Salariens and Turians as well etc
it's crazy that so many people still think she is just a racist. There is so much more to her character. Great video hope it gets more views it definitely deserves more.
haven't watched the video yet (gonna wait until after I finish the trilogy again), but I just wanna say after seeing how Ashley warms up to her coworkers and how she treats EDI if Shepard dies, I found her growth to be very meaningful and well done. I wish others would see her like I do :(
This video gave a lot of much needed clarification on intent and perspective I needed to see Ashley as intended. Thank you for making this incredibly inciteful video. I hope you are thinking of doing everyone, would love to see an analysis on Kaiden.
2:41 Challenge accepted. Morden never Steralized the Krogen, if he did there would have been no new births at all. The reason he and the team he worked with did what they did, was the fact that the Krogen (which Morden opposed the councils decision to use as shocktroops/soldiers, saying they should have been allowed to evolve naturally), were rapidly expanding by force. The guy was given a task to deal with a problem, he disagreed with in creating. Second. Morden tried to use the remaining years of his life after his team disbanded to help people, he didn't need religion to see the ethical questions he delt with in lowering the fertility rate of the Krogen. Hell the guy was horrified at the on the ground results that he never witnessed before and nearly murdered Malen for experimenting on the Krogen. Religion wasn't what made Morden have doubts, Shepard was just the first person to hold a mirror up to Morden. Which in a final act of atonement, Morden gave his life to correct what he realized was a mistake. So no, Morden is not xenophobic nor a genocidal scientist. As for Ashly. I don't see her as a Xenophobe, she just happens to be more clued into the fact that the galaxy is not a nice place and the council races WILL throw humanity under the bus when it's convenient for them, the only thing she doesn't seem to get is, that's politics and in-group preference. Particularly the fact that politicians, by in large WILL do anything to avoid making difficult choices...including sacrificing those seen as lower class/pariahs to do so. Perfect example, Udina stabbed Shepard and company the moment it was convenient for him. The only problem Ashly has, is her experiences and family history formed a bias that doesn't allow her to see the full picture, and thus thinks somehow, other humans are less of a potential threat than Xenos species. Though the fact the Military is willing to throw anyone from her family under the bus for something they were not responsible for, should have clued her in...
IIRC, the codex in Mass Effect 1 actually addresses the why the human colonies have small garrisons that you brought up at 1:26:10. From what I remember, the the Alliance doesn't have enough men to properly garrison every single planet, so they use the garrisons as tripwires and send in their fleets as QRFs whenever the colonies need assistance.
Adding onto this excellent video. Ashley is 100% right to have issues with the aliens on the crew if one remembers they're foreign nationals (An ex cop and a merc) who aren't in anyway authorized by the Alliance to be on the ship. Nihlus was a spectre and who was assigned to the mission, he had appropriate clearance. Garrus is an ex cop with zero security clearance and Wrex obviously has none either but they're getting free reign of the most advanced ship in the Alliance navy? Same deal with Tali, you're giving her free access to critical systems and allowing her to gain intimate knowledge of this uniquely advanced ship and she's really just a random young Quarian who has some evidence showing Saren's guilt which is great but not justification for bringing her for the whole mission. If Shepard wasn't a spectre you can bet that he'd of lost the Normandy and been court martialed at least when that admiral inspects the ship.
He's a Spectre. He doesn't need Alliance authorization. He technically does not report to the alliance so long as that is the case. He's free to recruit whoever he wants so long as they're willing. The Alliance is loaning him the ship and crew which is cool but they dont really have a say in who he brings on there unless they want to take away the ship
And even then, she's seems okay about Tali at least because she only points out Wrex and Vakarian in her concerns. And they are both the roguish, trigger happy type from what she has seen of them at that point of the story.
@@MrProdigy810 You probably should of read my comment more completely and that's not strictly true as the Normandy is an Alliance ship so if they disapprove strongly enough they could very well take the ship away from you which they partially do in ME1 when they "ground" you/try to force you not to chase Saren. You literally steal the Normandy with Anderson's help.
@@thearisen7301 I didn't realize Idina was part of the alliance. But I never said they couldn't take the ship away. If you really read my comment I only said they had no say in who he chose to bring on it to complete his duties as a spectre. In fact im pretty sure I said they COULD take the ship away.
Never gave the permission to inspect "my ship" . I'm a ducking spectre. You think I'd care about an admiral or a general of whatever was is rank ? Feel overpowering trip.
I never really liked Ashley. She always rubbed me the wrong way. Not the silly racist accusations, I always thought she was pragmatic and correct about her nuanced views. I just didn't like her, and so always left her to die on Virmie (whiny Kaiden isnt much better but I disliked him far less). There was never any incentive for me to keep Ashley since I play exclusively femshep. This video has really changed my mind about Ashley though. I hate what they did to her in ME3, but I think I'll keep Ash for my next playthrough. Great character analysis
Devil's advocate for the Salarians but Krogans treat war crimes like a family game night. In game they have a set health bar but realistically an army of Krogan would just decimate ground troops in a one sided slaughter. For every dead Krogan there would be varying degrees of dozens if not hundreds of opposing casualties. Also to that the genophage only keeps the viable birth rate in like with a similar range of other species. Even by Wrex's own words in ME1 if the Krogan would stop killing each other and build towards something they could thrive. Not to mention I highly doubt Tuchanka has the resources for a population boom. They'd follow the Drell and just starve to death within the first few generations unless they took to raiding and war. Might sound like the asshole here but realistically the Salarians aren't wrong, the Krogan are dangerous. Especially if Wrex dies in ME1.
Among the human companions I find Ashley to be more interesting and after alot of thoughts she is completely correct in distrusting Garrus and Wrex at the beginning in ME1. Having Garrus on the normandy is like the Americans having a russian man working on the top secret stealth pilot in the during the cold war plus having issues with red tape and all the bullshit. Having Wrex on the normandy is like letting a violent mercenary whose age surpasses the entire Normandy combined with no reliable alligance, even alligance to the Krogan can be problematic at that point in time during the Genophage time. Her development seems less linear than Kaidan, you see she has issues and it's nice to see how in ME2 when she meets Garrus in Horizon she goes like "You are with Cerberus, Garrus too?" implying she, after ME1, got to know Garrus and legit expected more from him. You see her get over her issues and eventually after her ME1 issues with the council and her distrust, protect the council and may die for them. Kaidan on the other hand, had his issues resolved before ME1 and he doesn't have any issues to get over and has a more linear character. That's atleast in my opinion.
Never actually made the connection about that one line involving Garrus and now I'm super mad I didn't use that as leverage to argue that Ashley isn't a space racist.
I know I'm late to the party, but Ashley (and most everyone else) seems to forget there have probably been hundreds of Turians on the Normandy before her. Considering that it was a joint venture between the Alliance and the Turians. There is no war between he Turians and humans as of ME1, cold or otherwise. Reconciliation had probably happened around the time that Ash was born.
I saw this in my sidebar, saw the word defense and the length of the video and immediately clicked. I was starting to think up a way to make a video like this myself, but I don't have to. I'm not even out of Mass Effect 1 yet and I'm already floored at the level of detail you put into this and it's so damn refreshing to see. Gonna finish, but so far , well done! Also I forgot how literally dark the first Mass Effect game is that I can barely see Ashely sometimes. Good thing they fixed the lighting in the MELE.
Haters think that Ashley is comparing Aliens to dogs, because she makes the mild expression "I can't tell the aliens from the animals". Which doesn't have to mean every alien on the citadel. When Ashley says "members of their species will always be more important to them than humans are". If she meant aliens as dogs, she would have said "members of our own species will always be more important to us than aliens are." She meant the council abandoning humanity, when she says sic your dog on a bear and run. When Ashley says as much you love your dog it isn't human, she's saying that the council races would sacrifice humanity, considering human life below their own. Just like a human sacrificing a dog, to fight a bear. Considering a dogs life beneath a human life. Ashley was right about the council abandoning humanity if things got tough. The council abandoned the alliance in mass effect 3. Shepard couldn't even rely on their support in the beginning. Ashley was skeptical of trusting aliens at first. Considering her apathy of them and she's never worked with aliens before, prior to joining the SSV Normandy, and they didn't serve the alliance either. Despite all this, She says it won't be a problem, to work with aliens, and it never was. Ashley killing Wrex means nothing, If Wrex is in the party at Chora's den, he kills fist. If Ashley doesn't kill Wrex, Wrex could have killed Shepard too. Ashley not being a fan of aliens, doesn't change that she's right about the Rachni queen being dangerous. Tali and Wrex also encourage Shepard to kill the Rachni queen. Ashley didn't trust Liara right away considering her mother worked with Saren. Ashley has the right to be upset if Shepard shows interest in both her and Liara. Overall, While Ashley may seem a bit xenophobic, she's not a racist. She does admit that she's not a fan of aliens in me2. She just needed time to accept them as friends and allies. It's apart of her character development. Coming from me, I romance Ashley in the whole trilogy.
If you wanna be kinda pedantic about it, Mordin isn't racist at all. He's just so incredibly absorbed into objective, logical analysis that considering "race" never enters the equation. He doesn't hate, despise, or hold real negative opinions on the Krogan at all, and he even mentions that the genophage was the best answer to keep the Krogan population alive, because the other option was a war of extermination, like with the Rachni. And he hated the extermination of the Rachni. From what I remember, he calls it a tragedy. Throughout his conversations, Shepard has to basically _pull_ Mordin's head out of his logical ass to see that, despite the genophage being the safest option overall, it dramatically harmed the culture of the Krogan in a wide variety of ways he couldn't have modeled on a computer, and by the end of the game, he sacrifices himself to *undo* what his cold, calculated, objective mind told him was the best option. Hell, he shoves a *gun* into the face of his ex-protege, because the kids experiments to cure the genophage caused so much Krogan death.
I used to think that the way Shepard never really gets true vindication from the council in Mass Effect 1 was very frustrating and annoying, though it was nice that Tevos acknowledges this during the Cerberus coup attempt. But when I think about it more, it feels like it is fairly realistic. Shepard is doing exactly what they set him to, but they are really just in denial as Kaidan says. It's obvious that Sparatus in particular is indeed just being contrary. The one I find most annoying is the complaint about the bomb on Virmire. Obviously Shepard is aware of the Council's law about this, but a 20 kiloton nuke is not going to ravage a planet's ecology. Also the nuke wasn't even Shepard's idea. It was Kirrahe's. Did Kirrahe just not check in with his government lol? I don't think a spectre has the authority to issue orders to members of a council race's individual military.
Let's not forget about that Quarian ship in ME3 that had copied Normandy's stealth tech. I wonder how the Quarian fleet was able to replicate the most advanced ship in the Galaxy in only two years? Hmmm... Many when Ashley warned Shep about the aliens having access to the ship in ME1 she had a point. I'm looking at you, Tali. Industrial / Military espionage is alive and well. Now, without her, more would die during the suicide mission, no Geth/Quarian alliance, etc. Maybe the technology theft she perpetrated was worth it. But please don't tell me Ashely was wrong to be concerned. Ashley was right about everything.
Could you immediately tell that the hanar or the elcor were people when you first saw them? Hanar look like space jellyfish, and they are aliens. Pyjaks look like space monkeys, and they are animals. You really can't see how someone might get confused, first time on the Citadel?
@@luifalcone3543 given that when the line fired for me, literally every npc in sight was using a computer, I'd say it was fairly obvious. It honestly never occurred to me to view the elcor, hanar, or keepers as 'animals'
i am glad that you made this video. I have been a defender of Ash for a long time. I see a lot of people who would gladly leave her to die on top of a nuke on Virmire simply because they don't like her. People are so easily triggered by any perceived racism these days that it is easy to label someone like Ash as a racist because it is easy to then write them off. Then they don't have to look under the surface and try to know or understand them. Ashley is THE most divisive character in Mass Effect. No one has divided the fans more than her. I think that comes down to just how real she is. What I mean is that you could walk down the street and meet someone like her. And I think that makes some people who play this game uncomfortable. Because in this game of sci-fi space magic with aliens and death machines; Ashley is a fully flawed, three dimensional, complex human being with her own beliefs and not afraid to speak her mind. Even if she has to challenge the great Commander Shepard. But that is what I love about her and why I was drawn to her from the start.
The humans are one of the least cool species in the mass effect universe, a human surrounded by cool aliens who doesn’t like those cool aliens, I don’t like her
@@Sparten7F4 Is it or is it not true that race is a hot button topic and any perceived racism is enough to get people riled up? Also are you going to refute anything I have said or...?
@@jaxsonfanta5420 You're right. Especially the bit where he implies Ashley has different beliefs to Shepard... Who, unless he's hard Renegade, isn't at all racist. Except against Batarians. ...Bioware, why is every character racist in Mass Effect?
I've been saying this for 14 damn years, Ashley is the best written and most realistic character in Mass Effect. I felt like I was talk to a real person, not a video game character. THANK YOU to all who had her back since day one.!!!
I only recently discovered a lot of people hated her. When I found out how many people I was surprised, like I missed a memo or something. All the reasons I heard were completely shallow and lacking context. Everyone has a right to say “meh I just don’t like that one, didn’t click with me.” That’s legit. I didn’t care for Kaiden. Not because he was space hitler or anything specific, just didn’t click for me, so I get that. But I’ve seen real racism. Legitimate racism in real life. Ashley’s character ain’t it. Also people just love to hate on the Christians. Nobody hates on Thane who is openly religious throughout, and yet Ashley has a couple lines about God and people lose their minds. Hate me too, I’m a Christian. Bible said you would. But at least acknowledge that you harbor a resentment for Christians specifically over any other religion, and maybe ask yourself why. Anyways, point is I was surprised at so many Ashley haters (except for the religious reasons, that doesn’t surprise me at all sadly). Also, while I only played the legendary edition of ME3, I am surprised at how many people didn’t like Ashley’s new look. That’s okay of course, to each their own, just surprised me. I really liked it. My wife is very feminine and Barbie looking so maybe I’m biased. Anyways glad to see so many people are team Ashley.
@@nauticalmiles5653 Ashley is the most realistic companion in me trilogy, other char like liara is like too soft and easy to manipulate because trusted people too easily, like for example in me2, she already know shepard was cerberus and without any hesitation give the access to her computer
@@imadeivan1887liara bought shepard back to life by stealing his body from the shadow broker who was going to sell him to the collectors. she uses those computers to track the shadow broker down.
You have to challenge her on her beliefs for the option to appear. For example, if you play straight paragon Shep who simps for the council, Ashley will reach a breaking point after your third main mission (I think). You can either charm or intimidate her to accept that the council and the existence of Alien life is part of God's grand design for the universe. This will shift Ashley towards the paragon alignment and make her argue for the preservation of the current political order (she doesn't want to kill the council.)
I'm just now getting back into Mass Effect. One of the first things i haven't saw in a long time was someone say "Ashley Is Racist." And I'm like bro. Are you dumb? Mass Effect is filled with Racism but somehow Ashley gets heat when she makes a few bad comments? Tell me you don't know Ashley without telling me you don't know Ashley.
Thank you! I’ve never bought that people hate Ashley “because she’s racist” because literally every other character hates some other race for something. I remember one of the writers at a con once mentioning how racist Tali and the Quarians are and the room fell silent and people were shocked. Like NO KIDDING. I love all of the characters because of their many flaws and Ash is no different. But she’s one of the only characters who is loud and brash and directly questions some of Shepards actions. A lot of players don’t like that, especially when a woman does it. Not to mention she’s the only character in the game who actively puts racists in their place several times. I do think she suffers from some contradictory writing here and there, especially in game 3, but overall her arch is so well crafted. I could go on and on about how great Ash is but you’ve covered it brilliantly.
Ash is one of the more interesting and dynamic characters in ME1; problem is her writing in subsequent games is not nearly as compelling. Also I despise the makeover she got in ME3. They turned her into a Barbie doll!
1:19:50 I find it a missed opportunity that in the French translation of the game, when Ashley mentions "Arnold and Quisling", they didn't bring up Pétain, the guy who sold France to Germany in WW2.
You are right, that would have been a more apt comparison than Quisling - one one hand, Paris would have been leveled by the Nazis if he didn't sign the armistice but one the other he was a national hero until that armistice was signed...
It always annoyed me how shallow people treat Ashley because of trending modern morals. Calling her a racist is just straight-up wrong because aliens aren't a race of human beings but different species entirely whose function is blatantly different from human beings. Her distrust of them on a societal level is completely justified by the actions of the council and the different species governments in the subsequent games. They do in fact ignore Earths pleas for aid in order to defend their own interests and it's only when Shepard solves their problems first that they eventually render aid. She puts the interests of her own species first which multiple members of the squad (Wrex, Grunt, Mordin, Miranda and Tali) themselves do, yet they are fan favorites. Despite this she never treats the individual members of the other species with animosity. Her spiritual beliefs are also needlessly mocked despite the fact that multiple other members of the squad (Liara, Garrus, Tali, Mordin, and arguably Wrex) are also spiritual. She also has a love of Earth poetry that creates a tangential link between mankinds development from the ancient past into the future. Shes a great character that was unfairly snubbed by smoothbrains and i believe this is largely why she got less attention than fan favorites like Liara, Garrus, and Tali.
2:46:00 Damn. I didn't even romance Ash in my playthrough but got a little teary eyed hearing that. Truly some beautiful acting, that should never have been cut. Imagine if you didn't romance anyone else in ME2 and then they played this dialogue just before the suicide mission. It would've been gut wrenching. Also at 3:16:22 Ash is obviously lying about being okay with Shepherd being with Tali, as she's clearly trying to snap her own neck to get the thought out of her head. lol
Amazing content! I’m thinking to myself who can help nerd me, and talk about the same character for hours, and I found the answer! Loved it, I’ll watch the rest of them too.
Ashley was the girl I romanced my first time playing through the trilogy, and even though I’ve romanced each of the ladies you can on different play-throughs, it’s only made me like Ashley’s character more and more.
Ash was a great character. She really grows as the trilogy progresses, reassesses her point of view and becomes more well rounded because of it. Was she xenophobic? Yes, but she learned to move beyond that. She is very complex. Unlike Kaiden who has resolved all his character arcs before the game even begins and is a flatline of a character.
From a role playing perspective, I always send Ashley with Kirrahe. Because it would be good Ashley's character and Kaidan is useless in combat and would be embarrassing. Then it only makes sense to leave Kaidan because he's the guy guarding the bomb and him staying contributes to mission success.
Liked and subscribed my man. Very well done. You've hit the nail on the head with everything I've been arguing about for years. It's a shame such an underrated character is hated because people simply refuse to look a little deeper.
33:30 There’s plenty of examples for groups not even going into the council. If they Mistreat you- look at the Terminous systems or the bartarians. Do what they did to get out of council controlled space- heck set up a alliance if you so believe the council abused theirs. “But that’s too hard” “They won’t let us do it” It’s really simple; if it’s too hard stop complaining and accept the alternative of ether climbing the latter or settle where you’re comfortable. If they won’t let you- what about it? There are opportunities to take advantage of to do so in the future as well as to climb that latter. Look at Cerberus- not a part of the council and yet they’re doing quite well for themselves and serving humanity without the council.
I'm loving this series. Actually feeling a little embarrassed that I've held the "she's just a racist" view without having given it much more thought. You've given me something to think about in my next playthrough, thank you!!!
Ashley is a dutiful beautiful family oriented God fearing woman with high in-group preference. In other words, the perfect wife. She's seemingly the only female in the entire galaxy who has a good relationship with her father. Plus, she can equip a sniper rifle.
Single handedly changed my perspective on a character I didn't have a lot of love for. Gonna' go through the game again to experience this perspective firsthand. Thanks Homie.
A vast majority of people who hate Ashley & call her a space racist are ppl that hate nuclear families & Christianity thus never are tolerate enough to hear Ashley say "I dont think we are superior" Deliciously ironic
20 Kiloton Radius of effect is approximately 2 Miles (Blast, Fireball and Radiation) a Salarian infiltration team either on foot or with light vehicles could at a full run, get out of the 1 mile zone when the Normandy maneuvered to deliver the package and rely on shields and biotics to protect from flame and radiation. this presuming the two teams not pinned down were not picked up by the Normandy. a Mako or Analogue could reach that radius is in minutes. on foot at a full run would take upwards of 20 minutes depending on local Gravity and the use of Mass Effect fields to lighten the troopers.
Ash is my favorite character in the game. Not only is she a beast in combat, but I felt she was very realistically written. I always felt that the at times "generic Sheppard" dialog options ruined some of the character development with her. Those poor interactions imo ruined many player's perception of her.
I was always rather fond of Ash. From the whole ME series Ash, Wrex, and Garrus were my favorite characters. They always had the best one liners. Maybe I'm just rough around the edges like that. I guess I just relate being former military myself. When you're in the proverbial mixing it up, it takes one to know one.
I got to say, as someone who put way more effort than is expected of a channel this small, you amaze me. I feel like im a part of the first...600? I can't remember when I subbed but at the very least the first ~900 subs, I feel like im about to witness the start of a fantastic editorial creator/author's career. I was caught up with the entire discourse about Ashley. Like how Bricky (youtube channel) said, I had a girl i left on virmire, she's ash. Im amazed it simply took someone asking if thats fair. This sent me on this 2 hour journey to reevaluate my opinions on Ashley. Like my other comment on here, I now accept Ashley more for her character, and understand her. However, it is a shame that Mass Effect forces me to make a choice. And since I have to make a decision, knowing what I know about the trilogy and just how I play, Ashley still gets the short end of the stick, just maybe now, that ratio is 40/60, instead of the 10/90. Bravo, my dude, Bra-fucking-vo. I do wonder if you could eventually do a set of videos about shepard themself. In like one about paragon and renegade, since 1 and 2 kind of forces one way or another, as Paragon almost always lead to better outcomes. Maybe when we get to see the rebalanced morality, this might be more viable. Although renegade shepard tends to just be evil more than is necessary. Regardless, fantastic work my dude. Im excited for Miranda, hopefully in the future we can see some on Jack, Mordin, and maybe, next April fools, one on a certain overly obsessed fan on the citadel. Cheers. Edit: nearly 4 hour journey. Holy crap.
I don't care what Bioware had to code it as, letting the first council die is the paragon and renegade choice, sparing them is pure fanfiction. I've gotten so much flak for explaining to people that Ash's position is just factual, pragmatic, that people are quick to dismiss her as a reeeeecist (now even more than when the game first came out) and don't even bother thinking about what she's saying. Unfortunately I don't see many companies taking the risky move of showcasing a pragmatic character that's strong enough to deliver the powerful message that literally equates to "clean your room".
This was VERY well done! I have been arguing for nearly 15 years that Ashley was not a "space racist." Does she have trust issues regarding aliens in general and a resentful attitude towards Turians specifically? Without a doubt. Are those issues and attitudes well earned? WITHOUT QUESTION. Add to that the fact that nothing in the early phases of the first game do anything to disprove her opinions ( yet ANOTHER unsolicited alien attack against humanity led by yet ANOTHER Turian, Din Korlak's blatant hatred of you for no other reason than the fact that you are "earthclan", ect), it is no wonder her initial attitude is was it is. Thank you for this character study. Hopefully it will help to change the minds of many Ashley haters out there. She certainly deserves better from the Mass Effect community than she has received thus far.
The complaint about Ashley’s looks in ME3 doesn’t make any sense. In ME 1&2, she’s a noncom. A grunt that never thought she’d get promoted to officer status. In ME3, what’s the point of being a commissioned officer if you can’t dress like one?
Wow, thank you XBadgerKnightX! I really enjoyed this video. I was always conflicted about Ashley. She is badass, very loyal, loves her family and the foot in her mouth makes her very interesting. At the same time, all those negative comments about aliens annoyed the hell out of me because I was and still am to fascinated by the Mass Effect Universe to take off my rose-coloured glasses. I still believe in Shepards words to Garrus after Saleon's death: "You can't predict how people respond, Garrus. But you can control how you'll respond. In the end, that's what really matters." I play Shepard according to my own ethics and to keep doing the right thing, be kind and nice, not matter what bullshit you get, is important, especially if your world is about to fall apart. It doesn't matter if I get ever rewarded for it or not. And the same applies for Shepard and the Council. I played the game about seven times and can't bring myself to step into renegade mode. But your video opened up my view a bit and shifted it towards Ashley. I think, I saved Ashley only once and now, in the middle of the Legendary Edition, maybe I should give it another go with Ashley. Give her more attention. After all, I still discover something new every replay.
I'm not sure if I made it through the vid a year ago. Also not sure if I commented that vid a year ago. So I won't write down a long essay on this, just saying "thank you". I don't think Ashley needs to be defended. People either love her or love to hate her. In both cases it's an achievement for the author who created her as it's quite difficult to create characters that provoke strong emotions. A totally forgettable character won't provoke any emotions and will be ignored entirely. Ashley doesn't fall in that trap as a character. For me? Favorite LI. "First girl wins". ME1 provides exactly three LI: Liara, Kaidan, Ashley. And all three can make it through the whole trilogy unless you somehow manage to lose your LI (Ashley or Kaidan) on Virmire. Most of the characters can die in the trilogy, but Ashley/Kaidan are guaranteed to die in the Virmire mission and the surviving character later can get killed in the Citadel Coup. That puts some weight in their personal story arcs which makes them both more interesting. Liara in the other hand is destined to survive the entire trilogy (the only other character is Joker) which removes some drama but also makes her story arc somewhat less appealing. Also screen time is a thing here: Liara got most (ME1, ME2 (Shadowbroker DLC), ME3), followed by Ashley/Kaidan (ME1, M3, mentioned in ME2) and Tali and Garrus (ME2, ME3). Any other LI has only one game with focus on their romantic plot. So if you're into long lasting relationships that slowly build up over time, you'll pick either Liara, Ashley or Kaidan for full trilogy or Tali or Garrus if you pretend ME1 was base building from friendship to romance.
I'll be entirely honest...I've killed Ashley for every run ive ever done, aside from the first go round ME1, and when I specifically did a romance run with her. My first impression of her was ME2, which is unfortaunte, because its only by playing ME1 that you understand how insane it is that Shepard (or anyone else from the OG Normandy) would have anything to do with them. Looking back, she's a perfectly reasonable, sensible and committed character for the first two games. And i guess 3 as well, but shes usually dead by then end of 1 for me. Kaidan is my bland, completely normal and well adjusted friend with no issues but plenty of talents.
Dichotomy Of A Character Episode Playlist: bit.ly/33ImH2Q
*- TIMESTAMPS -*
0:00-1:31: Intro
1:32-2:57: Hot Take: Mordin Is More Racist Than Ashley
2:58-8:57: Mods, Plugs, & Why I HATE Ashley's Appearance In ME3
8:58-15:33 : Part 0 - Player Choice & The Importance Of Nuance
15:34-27:22: Part 1 - Foundations For Ashley's Character
27:23-44:13: Part 2 - Xenophobic Hangups
44:14-1:12:19 : Part 3 - Ulysses, Telemachus, Ashley's Father & God
1:12:20-1:36:28 : Part 4 - Terra Firma
1:36:29-1:46:51: Part 5 - Ashley Did Nothing Wrong By Killing Wrex
1:56:52-2:11:10 : Part 6 - Survivor's Guilt
2:11:11-2:22:18: Part 6 (cont.) Feeling Good Enough
2:22:19-2:28:15 : To Kill or Not To Kill The Council?
2:28:16-3:02:50: Part 7 - Losing Shepard, Gaining Survivor's Guilt, & Being Right About Cerberus
3:02:51-3:23:14: Part 8: Healing Through Guilt
3:23:15-3:35:50 : Part 9 - Manipulation, Making Up For Lost Time, & Matriarch Williams
3:35:50-3:40:49: Part 10 - The Cool Green Hills Of Earth & An End, Once And For All
3:40:50-3:44:29: What Have We Learned From Ashley's Character Arc?
3:44:30-3:47:17 Thanks For Watching, & What's next for my channel?
Got to say, the work that went into to this is the extraordinary. Sad when you see so called reaction channels who don’t create any content with 100s of thousands of subs. Whilst you have what you have. I’ve subbed. Definitely deserve to have your channel grow.
Please make a Jack video she’s one of the best characters
When Ashley says she can't tell the aliens from the animals that doesn't have to mean every alien on the citadel. On the Normandy, both her and XO Presley didn't quite trust aliens on board yet. Especially after year 2157, Ashley simply didn't know if humanity could fully trust aliens as allies. The aliens didn't serve the alliance as well, another reason to be concerned. The council was always critical of Shepard, so of course Ashley questioned their loyalty to the alliance.
When Ashley says sic your dog on a bear and run, you'll do it. As much as you love your dog it isn't human, it's not racism, not really. "members of their species will always be more important to them than humans are" She's talking about humanity as the dog. If Ashley meant aliens as the dog, she would have said "members of our own species will always be more important to us than aliens are" She was not even comparing aliens to dogs at all. If Shepard supports her belief in god, she will say she doesn't think us humans are superior to aliens. She just wants humanity to be able to stand strong all on their own.
At the end of her conversation about the council, despite her thoughts on aliens, she says "it won't be a problem commander." to work with aliens. It never was. Ashley is not a space racist. She just needed time to accept aliens as allies. To accept them as friends overall, It's apart of her character development. This all comes from me, I romance Ashley Williams in the whole trilogy.
Pls do Kaiden after Miranda
Not liking Ashley as a character is one thing but saying she's badly written is just moronic.
i agree, i still hate her, but i can appreciate the way shes written
sort of like a well written antagonist or villain, you can hate tf out of them, but still be amazed by the actor and writers abilities
I agree. I never really liked Ashley, but I never thought she was badly written. I also don't get the hate for her as a "space racist". its very shallow thinking as this video shows.
Facts I hate her but she’s well written
Damn, I have always been ok with Ashley but after this video I love her
I feel like she is badly written at points in ME3, but that’s more due to that game’s writing problems in general. It’s not specific to her.
46:31 “Abby decided to learn the sword. She always was a little weird.”
WHILE ASHLEY WAS GOOFING OFF IN SPACE AND COMMITTING UNLAWFUL FRATERNIZATION ABBY STUDIED THE BLADE.
The art of the blade the only true combat
This message was approved by the Kai Lang fanclub, all like 3 members.
Abby versus Leng! Abby versus Leng!
Everybody wants to see this happen!
@@MagnusVictor2015she would mess him up harder than the renegade interrupt.
In all fairness Ashley tells you she chose Marine Hand to Hand, and her other sisters chose some form of martial arts.
Bro, you talk faster than Mordin after chugging a case of redbull and snorting a handful of adderal.
He has to. Or this video would be five hours long. He's saving time lol
Im pretty sure he speed up the audio when he talks. When you put it to 0.75 it sounds normal.
Well done!
_flammableorinflammableforgetwhichdoesn'tmatter!_
All of that would make a salarian do a speed run to their funeral
"Ashley is doomed to be a survivor, and Shepard is doomed to be Shepard."
More particularly, a romanced Ashley is doomed to be Penelope, waiting for Ulysses to come back to her against all odds.
I hear that Bioware was disappointed that people thought Ashley was a bloodthirsty killer when she executes Wrex, seemingly killing him for no reason. So in the remaster they made Wrex's intentions more clear by adding a scene where he says "maclunky".
Underrated comment.
Maclunky?
THAT'S OUR WORD
"It's hard to be a patriot *and* pissed at the government." -Ashley Williams
It is the patriot's duty to protect his country (or planet, or race) from his government.
That sounds very arbitrary. One man’s patriot is another man’s traitor.
@@natedagreat19 bingo
"It's hard to be a patriot and *not* pissed *off* at the government" - there, fixed
i would say it is more the existence in that state is hard, rather than having both views being hard to attain.
You know I actually always felt Ashley's reaction in ME 2 was kind of deserved.
While trust is expected, given what you went through and if you romanced her even more so. You..
A. Come back from the dead digging up old wounds, and Ash is a very emotional person.
B. Your working for Cerberus, a known terrorist organisation which raises all sorts of flags, like the who, what, when, where and why. Her suspicion in ME 3 that you may be being controlled is not unwarranted given indoctrination is a thing.
C. After you came back your character made no attempt to contact her, and she had to learn about your survival through second hand sources
D. Know one knows who or what the collectors are or up to, and again she has no idea what is going on. Your word is good, but she can't bet everything on that, especially when your with again a known terrorist organisation.
E. She is loyal to the Alliance, which can be seen as bigoted, but when you met her she was on a mission so she could not really drop everything
And it factors into another reason I love Ash. She doesn't kiss your boots, I love all the characters in Mass Effect, but few go out of there way to question Shepard, so when Ash does it feels quite personal for us the player. Your the main character and you have a lot of perspective on what's going on, and you feel some trust is earned. But again I like Ashley because she follows Shepard but I never felt she was following out of blind loyalty, it felt like she followed based on her own ideals.
Never really considered her racist either. Overtly patriotic, lot of chest pounding and bravado, and with some unhealthy suspicion. But it more felt to me she was more following a chain of command and military protocol, so civilians should not have free reign. These are indeed unwarranted in hindsight, and seem really glaring on replays, but on my first playthrough while I did not agree I remember acknowledging her concern.
I never really thought that much into it. but you're right it makes perfect sense. she saw you die and get spaced. despite all the advanced tech in the ME universe resurrection is not one of them. I know it's a game but it still doesnt really make sense to me but I still never really questioned it. how tf did they bring shepard back? it doesnt make sense. I can see why she wouldn't think it was the real shepard because even on the ME universe bringing someone back from the dead is absolutely ludicrous and no one else questions it. now if they someone found a way to travel into the dragonball universe and use the dragonballs to bring shepard back from the dead that would make more sense than project Lazarus lmao.
My first playthrough i was totally in agreement with Ashley..
Playing as a colonist warhero femshep i kept wondering why i am forced to carry random xeno on a Stealth warships?
Kaidan was extremely annoying with his anti-human bs. I actually confronted him about it.
Only by meeting liara i said.. okay maybe these xenos are worth keeping..
You know for.. study... Come on Liara let's play protheans and archeologist :D
Ash is a soldier through and through, overly filled with Alliance propaganda about "humanity are the best and brightest", she can even say something harsh, like "I can't tell aliens from the animals", because of limited live on ground colonial station she had. She is a complex girl, protected by the sheel layer of armor for outsiders, but a honest and friendly with her own, and the eager and playful with the ones she plans to let closer.
In my playthrough Shepard always pick her as a partner, because he and she is a lucky survivors, opening the whole galaxy for themselves, first Citadel, after it the whole other galaxy in the search for Saren. He treats her as equal, as a fellow sister-in-arms, there is a lot of common between them (like the same bootcamp and sergeant-instructor they were dealing with), and they start going out, but nothing really "touchy", since they still remember a rule about "fraternization".
Meanwhile, Shepard and Kaiden growing hostilities, because he also likes Ashley. And after Virmire, after Kaiden agrees to sacrifice himself, Ashley loses it and reaches psychological meltdown, because she understands that Shepard let Kaiden behind because of them being in love, thus, breaking the fraternisation rule. Shepard knows that too, he is blaming himself, until before Citadel and Ilos Ash comes around, and they reconnect.
There is not even a question for Shepard cheating during ME2 or 3, she's the initial one to be with him on the start, she supported him morally, and is the woman he started all this with.
Exactly. Players need to look at Ashley in the context of being an alliance soldier to fully understand her.
The Turians were completely wrong for first contact. Common sense says that the new guy ain’t gonna know the rules. U don’t immediately start an armed conflict, u go over and say something to them. Initiate peaceful contact and inform humanity of the dangers of opening every relay they find, and that it’s illegal.
They thought humans were just primitives. They tried to colonize us. Then humans took one of their dreadnoughts and kicked their asses off a planet. Then turians got mad and brought their whole fleet. Then the council told Turians "quit being bitches" so the turians went home. That's like the first contact summed up in its entirety
Turians did exactly what humans did to other humans during the age of exploration. You find new people then five minutes later you are killing them
@@TheIceColdBikeDestroyer the difference though is that they live in a galactic civilization. Way more complex and advanced than back when humans were colonizing each other over farm lands..
@@rey_0291 We are supposed to be more advanced then we were 2-3 hundred years ago but there you go
Always thought the Turians are intimidated by us for their long term plans. Though they were part of the council. Out of the 3 they had the fleet and raw power to roll them over if they choose to. When humanity came onto the scene the Turians couldn’t. As humanity had the potential of a force to at the very least counter balance them. The Turians thus turned their attention to humanity progress. I think also the salarian and asari were greatful they are not idiots. They knew the Turians had a colonial element to them. Humanity had enough to challenge them and thus keeping things neutral.
"Ashley is the biggest racist in the game"
Ahem
A H E M
S P A R A T U S ?
SALARIANS IN GENERAL? (Defending literal ethnic cleansing)
QUARIANS?
HELLO PEOPLE?!
Tali fanthings are deaf. It has to be the only explanation. Her racism is what makes her character great meanwhile its why ash deserved to be nuked? No. At no point did tali ever try and change, she just begrudgingly said she was wrong basically at the end of the trilogy when shepard FINALLY ended the war
@@212mochaman I get why people like Tali, but like, cmon, lets not use Tali to excuse the Quarians creating a slave race and then attempting to kill them when they wished to have freedom, or atleast, believed they might be able to obtain it
@@thepapavulture8322 even though she is no different then her entire race in that regard. I get that mass effect 2 is trying their VERY hardest to make EVERYONE a villian when we know better but to go over the top with KORIS of all people? He's the best, non existant debate over. Even as a renegade shep that only gives a stuff about war assets its telling you to say grow up to tali and it took her 4 years to do it. Most changed in the space of the first month depending on what you said, it didnt matter one bit to tali though
@@thepapavulture8322 Are you serious? Stop enslaving your toaster, vacuum and smartphone!
@@ralph1125 difference is that the geth are sentient by the morning war
Ashley Williams is a really well written character. A lot of other characters are more racist than her and get away with it. Thank you for doing this. For 14 years I've been so sick of all the Ash haters for 14 YEARS! You're doing the lord's work, my friend. Not all heroes wear capes!
Not to forget her romance is a good one too.
Honestly I think it is because she is human. I hear people talk about how the ME 1 human companions are boring, but I think Ashley is incredibly well written. If she was an alien, far fewer people would claim she is racist, in my opinion.
@@galacticironmike4516 absolutely. I even had a discussion with someone and her reasoning for Garrus and Mordin was "they are more interesting characters than Ashley so it's okay for them to say what they want" to an extent. She didn't word exactly like that, but she implied that reasoning, which made me raise my eyebrow. Then she called me biased for Ashley. The same could apply to her for Garrus and Mordin.
While Garrus and Mordin still say they are for the genophage because "krogans ate violent," Ash is going around saying "Tali is like a little sister to me" and comforting Liara. Someone racist wouldn't do that.
Ash is also the first one to warm up to Tali in ME1 hoping Tali's help with Saren changes the peoples mind about quarians while Garrus is saying her people deserve worst than exile for creating geth.
I think a lot of people miss these elevator talks because they don't bring Ashley along so they never get to see her growth. They assume based on a few things she say and label her a "racist bitch".
@@WarriorSwine811 she is probably the character with the most growth seen over the three games, her or liara in my opinion. Its hard to convince people of that though. Once people decide a character is racist they basically just refuse to rethink that opinion.
@@galacticironmike4516 everyone has their Fandom favs and will rabidly defend them. Unfortunately, most of ME Fandom is convinced Ash is racist. They're entitled to their wrong opinions 🤷♀️
AMEN
"We've got our suit recordings" huh, wow. Fully forgot about that line. Never realized how simple bodycams in this sci-fi universe could Invalidate almost a game and a half of content. Like F U C K.
The line made it to the remaster hahahaha
@@XBadgerKnightX oh god lol that's tragic. Loving the series by the way and is there any chance of Dragon age characters in the future? Maybe starting with Morrigan or Alistair?
@@mojoofj0j024 I've played DA:O and DA2 but not Inquisition, because DA2 killed all my interest in playing Inquisition. I can't really do a video on Morrigan, or Alistair ( maybe I can do one on Leliana) because of all the pathways their characters can take and it seems Bioware's not done telling their story. Morrigan's story is left on a cliffhanger THREE TIMES - Alistair's story kinda just stops after DA:O regardless of what option you pick.
lmao Ashley said she couldn't tell difference between the aliens and the animals
@@XBadgerKnightX for all it's worth, inquisition is much better than dragon age 2. The story is actually good and the dlcs are even better. If you liked DAO you should give inquisition a chance, as you can see the consequences to many of your warden's choices. Just think of it as an mmo and avoid doing every single fetch quest thrown your way. Just stick to the main mission and companion quests and you will be fine. Morrigan is one of my fav characters in all of fiction, and I think her story is complete only if you romance her in DAO, do the ritual and jump into the eluvian with her. She has an important part in inquisition, but it's not necessary to her full character arc. It's nice to see the results of your choiches though. Alistair's story, however, is greatly expanded in inquisition, and unlike for morrigan I do believe that the 3rd game is necessary for the character to truly blossom. If you do decide to play the game, you can skip Dragon Age 2, as you can fully customize your save via dragon age keep, the save import system of dragon age inquisition. If you want to play da2 to have a better picture, again, skip everything but Flemeth's quest in act 1 and the Legacy dlc (this is most important, as it gives background to inquisition's main villain). I'd argue you can even skip the companion's quests...
Ashley: When the council's backs are against the wall, they will always choose their own races over humanity.
People: THATS RACIST!
Council: "literally does exactly that"
People: I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that. "Laughs as an innocent woman is burned in nuclear fire"
They do it in all 3 main games as well.
"I can't tell animals from aliens" is one of the replicas Ashley will give you when you try to talk with her on Citadel in ME1 and i'd say that this is plain racist. I'd also say that she is a bigot, I mean the writers made her that way to show the way ordinary grunts in the Alliance feel towards the aliens. Let's not forget the First Contact War, some 28 years earlier than the events of the game. Usually war propaganda dehumanize the enemy, making the people see they are monsters who deserve to be killed so it makes sense for simple soldiers to feel that way even when the conflict is over and the former enemies are now allies (see what happened with germans after the WWII).
@@georgeabel912 The Elcor, Hanars, and Keepers ACTUALLY look like animals. Not to mention that the Turians and Salarians evolved from animals and still have some of their traits after +50,000 years of evolution (Even Javik points that out, if you want to accuse someone of being racist, then he is probably the most racist character in Mass Effect)
While Ashley’ comments may be taken as straight up racist, everything she says in the game makes sense and a lot of her claims turn out to be true throughout the entire trilogy. Like how she points out that the Council will always put their own people before humanity, which is the entire reason for why the Reapers ended up killing Billions of people. Every comment that she made about the council and their races ends up being true from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 3 lol.
When she points out that you shouldn’t let Wrex and Garrus have such freedom in a secret prototype ship of the alliance, she actually has a solid argument, but a lot of people decide to ignore pure logic and say she’s being racist towards them because they’re aliens.
There’s many instances in the trilogy where you have to help the Asari or the Turians (Especially in Me3) but despite you being the only one who can help them, they give you minimal information and put you in danger because whatever or whoever you are retrieving is a secret and they cant tell you because you are Human. Now that would be racist, but it is the logical thing to do. On the other hand you dont keep secrets and let other races aboard your ship. (For gods sakes, Tali is a Quarian on a Pilgrimage and you allow her to study the drive core of the Normandy which is one of the greatest secrets of the Human-Turian military alliance)
She may not be the most interesting character since everything is about her family rather than herself, but she’s not really Xenophobic
@@roguegn So when you meet a certain type of human and you say you can't tell if he's human or an animal (things that happened a lot in the past and unfortunately are not entirely behind us) you are not a racist, you are just expressing a feeling of distrust?
@@georgeabel912 What are you talking about, what does a "certain type of human" even mean? There's only 1 type of human and for your information, humans ARE animals
If you romance Kaiden and only react with renegade choices during dialogue he becomes one of the most racist and xenophobic characters in the franchise. More renegade than Wrex in ME1 due to his new found racism
The biggest issue I have with Ashley being labelled a "space racist" or that she only cares about humans - well two biggest issues - are that 1. She only objects to aliens being on the crew in ME1 because they might have other motives or are a security risk. Which is not untrue. The other, larger issue I have is that if she really was a rah rah humans person, she would be _faaar_ more sympathetic to cerberus in 2. But she hates them and their ideas even in that game.
Exactly. People are quick to forget that the Normandy is the most advanced ship the Alliance has, and is the only known stealth ship in the Galaxy. That's the ME future equivalent of the US allowing Chinese citizens to board a prototype nuclear sub for weeks or months at a time when these citizens are known have the capability of relaying the way the tech works to their later so they can duplicate it. Plus, her fears weren't completely unfounded since we see in a description of the Quarian diplomat ship in ME3 that Tali used what she learned from the Normandy to enhance at least one of the ships in the flotilla. I personally don't fault anyone for this, but in hindsight, Ashley being worried about the Normandy's tech being used by aliens was right, even if it wasn't ultimately used against humans.
@@MoostachedSaiyanPrince "That's the ME future equivalent of the US allowing Chinese citizens to board a prototype nuclear sub for weeks or months at a time when these citizens are known have the capability of relaying the way the tech works to their later so they can duplicate it."
Except, of course, that there's plenty of more advanced species around, people with a head start on humans of thousands of years and humanity will invariably have profited technologically from its mere contact with them because that's how technological progress works.
@@ohauss Yes, there are more advanced civilizations than the Alliance, but they don't have the Normandy's stealth tech. And I know how technological progress works, bit that doesn't mean that it's a good idea to just flaunt military secrets to the rest of the Galaxy.
@@MoostachedSaiyanPrince Uhhh.. hate to break it to you, but the Normandy was co-developed with the Turians and sponsored by the Citadel Council. Your point turns into: "We can't let them _steal_ the tech of a ship _they_ helped us design."
Ash might not have known that, (Although Shepard does, as he points this out to both the Alliance Ship Inspector AND Khalisah al-Jilani the reporter) but it makes the whole thing a little silly and kind of ridiculous to even think about.
@@Aaron-qe9ms I'm well aware of the Turians helping build the Normandy. Which is why I don't think Ashely knew about that before this conversation, which is why the point she's trying to make in this conversation: "I don't think it's a good idea to let foreigners onto our people's most advanced ship" is a defendable one. Because what you're saying my point would turn into: "We can't let them steal the tech of a ship they helped us design" becomes Ashely's point in this conversation if she knew that, and while I know Ashley is hardly the smartest crew member, I've never seen any evidence to suggest that Ashley is stupid enough to make that big a mistake. And the reason Shepard knew about the Turians assistance is because he was one of the crew originally assigned to the Normandy, so he's probably read files on it before the Eden Prime mission, and even if he hasn't, he's probably asked people like Anderson or Engineer Adams a lot about the ship before either that interview or the Ship Inspector. Whereas Ashley was literally a random foot soldier on a backwater agricultural world before the Geth Attacked, so why would she know literally anything about the Normandy? The conversation she has with Shepard about aliens on the ship is the first one you have with her after leaving the Citadel, and I think it's entirely possible, if not likely, that no one's told her about the Turian's help with the Normandy by that point. The trip between Eden Prime and The Citadel likely wasn't that long, and it seemed like no one on board was really in a talkative mood at that time because of Jenkins' death.
Ash: "When the chips are down they'll chose their own over us."
The council after Shepard asks for help when the Reapers attack: "the unfortunate truth is that while the Reapers deal with earth we can sure up our own defenses."
Nah Ash be racist
I mean… every species in ME are somewhat racist and xenophobic. I feel the ME series does a good job at pointing this out because the reality is, no matter what anyone claims, everyone is in one form or another slightly racist and everyone is damn sure xenophobic. The ones constantly saying they arent, are usually the worst offenders.
@@thebk247 yes but Ashley is the only controllable party member who shits on your other party members and your other party members are fucking awesome
@@dracomundo1498 She doesn't shit on them. Who does she say doesn't trust? Wrex and Garrus. A mercenary who tells you stories about killing innocent cargoship Captains for credits, and a former turian C-Sec officer who is a little too gung ho. Her concerns come from being an Alliance officer and the Normandy being the single most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy.
She states she had never met/worked with an alien before because she was always stationed on shit backwater planets because her grandfather was shunned for surrendering. But she does care about how Liara is doing with her mom after Noveria. She even sees Tali like a little sister. Their conversations in the elevators are illuminating.
People just jump to conclusions too damn quick instead of seeing the whole picture.
I think some people identify “racism” in these games as “identifying with your species and wanting it to do well for itself” and they forget that each of these species is a space country with their own economies, militaries, etc.
What seems to be the #1 plum the Council offers countries? New worlds to colonize. With no new mass relays for 2k years those are precious. When these come up, 1 of the Council’s member or associate governments is going to get a world and everyone else will not. Ditto with trading rights, contracts for the Council military, C-Sec jobs - those are zero sum games. So it’s completely rational to work for the mutually exclusive benefit of your species within the framework of the established game, the Batarians represent overdoing that and a human-dominated council gets a bad reception because they are over-reaching and not respecting the games rules
“Sorry Ashley I had to cheat on you for character insight.”
I will not lie, I've never used Ashley enough to see any of this. Holy shit, consider my opinion radically changed.
My first playthrough and I used her a lot. Im glad you've come around to her character. I'll always be a Tali fan, but Ashley is definitely one of the best written character up there with garrus. Imo.
This is actually more or less the entire problem - people decide to hate on Ashley more or less immediately and so ignore her character growth.
Meanwhile, Garrus' much more horrible racism in ME1 (where he outright treats quarians and krogan as inherently malicious or stupid and chastises Tali 'on behalf of her species') is ignored because "he has character growth in ME2/3"... yes, that is as hypocritical as you might expect.
@@ISIIN15 she's still kind of a bitch though.
@@MrProdigy810 agreed but shes a tough woman in the military. Shes not gonna be a soft, gentle woman. Lol
@@ISIIN15 Tali was also a woman in the military.
Finally there is a singular space where I find people who sees Ashley for complex and realistically skeptical character she is. My biggest gripe with people who play the game is that they don't appreciate that in ME1 it has only been 26 YEARS since the Turians started a war with humanity. A war that the Turians were 100% at fault for and the counsel had to step in to resolve peacefully. There are real life wars that started within all of our lifetimes that we are still being affected by. Just because the Turians and Humans had a forced peace treaty doesn't mean that they can trust each other. And the other races are literally super racist. The Volus diplomat you meet in ME1 keeps talking shit about earth clan, the salarians are responsible for biological genocide, the quarians created a sentient robot race and decides to try to KILL THEM because they were afraid that they'd not like being SLAVES, etc. It frustrating seeing playthroughs of people calling Ashley racist and not liking her food for thought, but don't bat an eye at the rest of the mess that the alien races do. I also think, "why did the writer create this dialog" when I interact with characters. Ashley is obviously an ally, so why is the conversation designed this way. I want to dig deeper into what the writers have prepared. She's an army brat, who's family is still freshly feelings the affects of a VERY RECENT war, and by realizing she's a secret romantic that's into poetry I realize that she is feeling all of this deeply. Her father and grandfather is dishonored by her own military over a war that the ALIENS started.
People getting mad at Ashley Williams for her healthy skepticism of AILENS don't understand a thing about human nature. She didn't even say anything that "racist".
Agreed, people are stupid and easily offended these days.
Most of those who call Ash racist seem to forget that Ingroup vs. Outgroup behaviour is basic instinct throughout the animal kingdom.
People are just soft.
@@wedonotsow7714 every human is xenophobic by nature. Yes
So are animals.
I'm willing to bet that if we put them in the same postion as Williams they will 100% have the same opinion. Who would feel comfortable serving on an advanced prototype warship with other people that aren't from your nation. It's like inviting the Russians and Chinese on a new American carrier and vice versa.
Ashley literally says she can't distinguish aliens from animals. Sorry, that's racist.
Glad that there are other people who have working brain cells and see Ashley for who she really is.
Hate that most of the people just play a bit of the game, listen a bit of the conversations with Ashley & immediately label her as a racist.... Especially now that the legendary edition is out & most people who play the game. They see 2 clips and have their opinions ready without giving her a chance & listening to her complete story
As regional captain of the Ashley Appreciation Squad. I thank you. I've had to defend my love for Ashley so much over the years.
I want to join!
Same here.
Me too man I defened her all these years
I have been saying Ashley is a great character for years. I did love Kaiden but he rarely lives in my playthrough because seeing Ash break the family 'curse' in Me3 made me literally bounce.
I imagine if the military hadn't treated her family so horribly she wouldn't have been so xenophobic. But then she wouldn't have been half so dedicated to proving herself either
Ikr. People won't give her a chance to explore the characters. I've never played the game until the legendary edition but I've gathered some bare bones insight of the game through the osmosis content from clips of the game. People are hating on her and boils down just a space racist. After I played the first game I've went through her history and interaction I can say I understand the motive and doubt on being a "space racist".
For me, I usually have Ashley live over Kaiden for one big reason: Her family. My family is incredibly important to me as well, and the thought of any of them dying on me, no matter the reason, is chilling. I couldn't live with myself if I inflicted that intentionally on a family that close.
I actually chose Ashley as my romantic partner in ME1 the first time I ever played it. Liara seemed... sweet, but too boring for me at the time, especially when compared to the complex, caring big sister of Ashley Williams. I didn't and still don't read poetry, of that nature or any other, really, so I think I wasn't able to appreciate some of her more intimate moments of emotional openness, and I'm appreciative of this video for granting context to her words after all these years for me.
And, as an aside, while Kaiden's fine, and I respect how mature and emotionally healthy he is as a person... he always felt kind of lost, unsure of what to do with himself in ME3. They did him dirty there, and before this explanation video? I thought that they made Ashley overly antagonistic. It never stopped me from trying to romance her when I had the option, but sometimes it just felt... like the writers had been given her character whiplash. It took this video for me to see any sort of narrative throughline for her character through the games.
Ashlet got some banger lines in the first game, ngl lol
Her and Wrex are the best squad. Garrus and Grunt are my bros for ME2
You may or may not like Ashley, but can we just all agree that Kimberly Brooks' line delivery is on point?
A1 deliveries
In my opinion it stems from human self hatred. Literally all of your alien crew from Liara to Garrus to Tali to Wrex all exhibit racism that isn't called out at all.
The whole point is that by bleeding together and understanding one another they all grow and evolve and become beacons of hope for a better galaxy.
This is exactly why I threw in that section involving Mordin at the beginning.
I don't think it's self hatred from Ashley. She's good at what she does and she knows it, she just needs somebody to recognize her for her hard work, which never happens. This leaves her in perpetual anguish as she literally tries to please everyone.
@@XBadgerKnightX I meant from actual players of the game. People are quick to criticise all of the human characters while trying their best to defend or ignore the faults of the aliens like the humans aren't the underdogs/lesser power in the dynamic.
@@tahjsimon9058 Ahhh I see tha makes more sense
What a bunch of nonsense lol
@@Mystra How eloquent, you really demonstrated the validity of your assertions.
I'll say a variation of last night when I watched Tali's video.
It pisses me off when people HATE Ashley for being xenophobic but loves Tali when they are two sides of the same coin. Not only that but EVERY RACE in Mass Effect is xenophobic/racist to each other. Ashley at least has a Paradigm shift and sees the crew of the Normandy as family (including/especially the non-humans).
Well then you wont be pissed at me, i hate ashley for being herself, if i could have jenkins survive eden prime and not take her i would and the only mission she ever gets deployed on is eden prime because i switch her out for garrus the instant he joins up
@@heliosjollywolf9552 I use them both as a "clean squad". Ash and Garrus cleared a research lab without killing a single civilian and then did the same thing on Feros.
Also I wouldn't say Garrus is a replacement for Ashley in any case: he's less durable (I'm an Infiltrator so it means a lot for me) but more range-focused and has some engineer skills. He's different.
I don't need a defense video of a character. She doesn't need it for me, she is good, People are petty and don't care to get to know her. Regardless though, good video!
35:16 The Turian Councilor is aware of a little event called the Rachni Wars, right?
2:23:03 Then why does sacrificing the council negatively impact the meter that decides whether Ashley lives or dies during Priority: The Citadel II regardless of the ME1 speech check?
2:38:26 Not only that but it's worse than how Mass Effect 1 started, this time Humanity was ON THE COUNCIL ITSELF!
@@NeightrixPrime good point about the writing, critical moments/decisions in Mass Effect 3's plot weren't handled as good as they should have been as seen with the exposition dump about how the Reapers somehow captured the Citadel and moved it to Earth.
i dont hate ash, i dont hate mordin, i enjoyed the tea you spilled cause god damn i prefer ash over kadien and i wish more people tried to let ashely redeem herself the way mordin does
I did ... I let her blew herself to smithereens with that nuke to stop Saren breeding fake krogan 😏
I spared her half the time. Kaiden got spared 1 less as I messed up so gotta replay soon.
I let her redeem herself the same way mordin did, dying in an area with a bunch of krogan right before it exploded
Honestly, I usually let ash die because I just don't need a soldier class, I got enough heavy guns anyway
God forbid a dev team who normally writes with progressive view points make a character with more old fashion values.
I don't really like Ashley, I disagree with her on pretty much everything but it she plays such an important window into what more old fashion values would look like in a sci-fi setting.
The first contact war is so much more recent than most fans really appreciate and her viewpoints and frankly a lot of minor npcs in ME1 are so realistic given the world building we have in ME1.
I again, do not like Ashley but I am so happy she is in the game because SHE IS A VERY WELL WRITTEN CHARACTER. Just not one that meshes with a lot of players.
this is a goods comment
someone in the military who is conservative, shocking ;)
Ashley's biggest failing is that the most important parts of her character development don't happen until long after Virmire, while Kaidan is immediately demonstrated to be thoughtful, mission focused, and a good teammate. Also helps that he's mechanically one of the most useful ME1 squadmates, while Ashley is among the least useful. It only makes logical sense to send her off to find out if her God exists, and redeem her family's name.
About the only reason to keep Ashley around is being on a third or fourth playthrough and wanting to see the rest of her story. Or, what I suspect happens most often "Hur hur, she hot."
Kaidan's the least useful in ME1, lol.
One of things I found interesting about Ashley and Kaiden was their opinions on Turians. Kaiden suffered actual abuse from a Turian, to the point that he had to kill him in self defense, yet the experience showed him that aliens weren't any nobler or morally better than humans, and he develops a balanced and nuanced view of aliens. He had a bad experience but didn't let it sour his opinion of an entire race.
Ash on the other hand, doesn't have prior negative experience with Turians. Rather, what she has is inherited shame from the being the granddaughter of the man who surrendered Shangxi. She is judged poorly based on the actions of her grandfather (who surrendered to save lives) and so she compensates by harshly judging Turians and other aliens, because it's easier to blame them for her sense of shame then to stand up and tell the Alliance to stop the "Sins of the Grandfather" BS.
Like Pressley, she dislikes aliens because "that's what you're supposed to do". In a sense, she was raised that way. Her opinions are based on 2nd hand/3rd hand viewpoints and her familial shame, not any actual experience w/aliens, not until Shepard at least.
To add to the council being dicks, they're the ones who encouraged humanity to settle the Traverse since it's disputed territory. They have the gall to encourage expansion into potentially dangerous territory, but act as if humanity weren't baited into it by them. At least them not helping the colonies in ME2 makes more sense since those colonies are in the Terminus Systems. There's a reason why I only have respect for the salarian councilor by the end of the trilogy.
She wants me to betray Wrex, why would you respect her?^^ Rest is true though.
@@Azaghal1988 you're talking about the delatrass. That's a different person to the councillor
I don't think the council were being dicks. I understand why it seems that way to most but that's not how I see it.
At the start of ME1, the council puts implicit, unequivocal faith in their Spectres, literally giving them free reign to do anything that they deem necessary to deal with any threat they perceive.
Enter Shepard, (who will later become the first human Spectre) who accuses their top Spectre, initially without any proof, that he has gone rogue. Shepard is Anderson's XO and protégé, and Saren uses that relationship against us, due to Anderson's negative outcome on a mission with Saren.
After gaining and presenting Tali's evidence, the council, understandably, changes its stance on Spectres. No longer will Spectres be trusted blindly, they require proof. Actual real, physical, evidence that they can have experts examine. The hardsuit recordings are dismissed because the council believes that Saren is manipulating Shepard, like they believe he manipulated the Geth, with talk of Reapers.
There is no other evidence until Sovereign attacks the Citadel. This evidence cannot be reviewed by the player until ME2.
When Shepard returns to the council in ME2, Shepard does so in the company of an anti-alien terrorist organization that even Shepard's closest team members have trouble reconciling with. Also the similarities between Shepard/Cerberus and Saren/Geth are just too close for comfort for the council. The saying "once bitten, twice shy" comes to mind, and seems proven with the events in the Bahak system.
If you let the old council die, the new alien members are fearful that you did so to further human ambitions and could easy do so again, and so won't meet with you. If you kept the old council alive they're willing to talk to you and listen, but require proof. A human council again won't meet with you, probably again very much aware that their position is because of you and your willingness to get rid of the old council means they could be removed just as effectively if you disagree with them.
So assuming you keep the old council alive, in other words the ones who will speak with you, they require proof of the Reapers. Everyone but Shepard and his team are telling the council that Sovereign was a Geth ship, incredibly advanced yes, but still Geth, and other than our say so, there is no evidence otherwise, and thanks to the lessons learned early in ME1 by the council, they are no longer taking Spectres merely at their word.
Sovereign is being dismissed by everyone as a Geth ship, the Reaper ship in ME2 is destroyed, so no evidence there and even if there was, the experts that researched Sovereign would again likely dismiss it as another Geth ship. The only active Reaper that Shepard deals with in ME2 (not including the humanoid one) is Harbinger, who is still out in dark space, so again no evidence. Even if Shepard somehow finds some link between Harbinger, Sovereign, the Geth and the Collectors to present to the council, the arrival DLC takes place mere months before the Reaper invasion of the galaxy, and Shepard is now persona non grata, having destroyed a mass relay, wiped out the Bahak system, and killed over 300,000 Batarians.
In ME1, all anyone can prove is a rogue Spectre, who used talk of Reapers to get the Geth to follow him. There is no proof of Reapers. The lack of understanding concerning the Geth causes Sovereign to be dismissed by everyone but Shepard and their team as being a Geth ship.
In ME2, all anyone can prove is that a mysterious race known as the Collectors are harvesting Humans. There is no link between the Collectors and Reapers, except in the arrival DLC. The council, remembering their previous mistakes regarding blindly trusting the word of a Spectre, and having been advised by those who researched Sovereign that it is a Geth ship, don't believe Shepard. Shepard's position is further harmed by the fact that they are now working with a known terrorist group, namely Cerberus, and their position is completely destroyed after the events covered in the arrival DLC.
The proof that the council needs finally arrives in ME3, by which time it's too late. The sad fact is that we are a victim of our own success. As for the reactions of everyone in ME3 (not just council, but everyone), it is to protect their own, and Shepard needs to convince everyone to work together and be willing to sacrifice their own for the greater good, which in this case means saving earth.
Let me put it another way. Your home town is under attack and everyone you care about is at risk, and you are asked to defend someone else's home town while yours burns and everyone you care about dies. Which would you choose?
Is it frustrating that the council doesn't simply take us at our word?
Yes. But we caused that change in council policy.
Is the council's position understandable?
Yes, at least to me, because I'm willing to see it from their side. They require proof, and we don't have any.
As for the reactions in ME3. Again I understand, and honestly, I can't say I disagree with them. They will only commit to the cause once what they hold dear is either saved or lost.
@@davebeattie9573 I never meant them not believing Shepherd. I can understand that especially since Shepherd never seems to record anything like the conversation with Sovereign or Vigil. It's implied in the Citadel DLC that the Council did believe Shepherd, but they were preparing secretly to avoid panic and didn't tell Shepherd since at the time they were working with Cerberus.
I should clarify it's their attitude and helpfulness to both Shepherd and the Alliance. The Turian councilor is incredibly hostile to Shepherd in the first two games. I get that there's tension between the Alliance and the Turians, but your head diplomat should be able to put that aside. He calms down by me3 and helps out, but it's too little to late. The Asari councilor does nothing. She's polite, but so is the Salarian councilor. The Salarian councilor probably sent the STG squad to Virmire, informed the Shepherd when they sent a distress signal, and was willing to overlook the curing of the genophage unlike the dalatrass. Plus, they take time out of their very busy schedule to go to Thane's vigil, which I doubt the others would. One of these councilors pulls their weight while the others don't.
@@absollum Thank you for the clarification, and in that spirit, while my comment is in reply to your comment I was also addressing my remarks in regard to the video where XBadgerKnightX also acts like the council are being dicks for not believing us, and this is a common opinion from people I've spoken to in regards to the council's actions or lack there of, over the course of the series.
Yes, I admit that Sparatus is a dick to Shepard and it seems to be for personal reasons rather than professional ones, but he is not the council and the council's reasons for not supporting us is for valid reasons, and those reasons still apply even to the one acting like a dick.
Ashley will always be my main romance. In my perfect Paragon play through, she and Shepard saved the galaxy together. Her character arch is something to put in the work to see. I feel like she gets passed on because she’s human and is a bit xenophobic. She grows so much and her family history is an amazing about into more of humanity’s lore. Seeing her in that hospital made me so upset. God I love this game!
Always Ash 😤
Ashley works because, she is real. she is how a normal person would act in these scenarios. Skeptical, self aware and willing to educate. but she does care too. Granted, she is does give off strong independent woman 😂. But Very similar to Panam in Cyberpunk, she is a ride or die chick.
"Great mass relay in the sky" that's a good one.
People call conflicts between different cultures “ racism” waaaaayyyy too quickly. Humans were brutally attacked first in the first contact war, they retaliated in kind. Humans are reserved with turians becuase thier culture calls for strict military style lifestyle that only meshes with enlisted humans. Otherwise right out the gate all humans would be racist towards each other. Are they somewhat mistrustful of eacother becuase of examples you can point to? Yes. Do they hate each other just becuase of the way that appear an look. No. Racist? I don’t believe so
I mean ... turians acted in defense of council laws ... imagine someone coming in your country (I know I know, the human didn't knew back in time that they were? Was ? Violating a law , or entering council jurisdiction space) and violating every law because they didn't knew that forever killing someone for calling them a piece of sheet is kinda overreacting ? Would you let em go because of their ignorance ?
@@mozermzr3186 wow old comment lol. I think you an I both agree about the response from both. Like you said if the Tirians came in an started mucking things up In our star system yeah we’d respond probably the same way they did. But the Turians would likely respond in the way that humans did, the roles would just be reversed lol. But I think the point I was making in my former comment was that both reactions are understandable but the mistrust or more precisely skepticism of turians specifically is becuase of what her family personally experienced
@@dillonboles6226 ah . I appreciate the précision you made . For sure when you have an painful, growing some kind of bad blood is understandable.
And yes would the turians had made the same "mistake" as defined by council rules, they also would have felt some kind of way for the aggression.
Also sorry , I just started replaying the game and I go through the community comments to see what they think about different subject related to the game.
I appreciate your calm response. 👍
I personally think that both Ashley and mordin are justified in their beliefs Ashley is the granddaughter (or is it great granddaughter) of an arguably misunderstood character by history and her views are compounded via her own life experiences and how some other races treat humans but Ashley does evolve her views over the course of the 3 games
You’re right with granddaughter, it wasn’t a long time ago so the stain has only persisted across her father and rubbed off on her to slow her down but by me3 if she lives through Virmire she’s promoted again.
While I can almost get her views she doesn’t have the same presence Presley does. Even when dead the crash site dlc gives Presley an arc but Ashley just stays irritating to me.
I think being surrounded by so many interesting alien people sets her up for failure, same happens with Kaiden, Jacob and Vega.
Garrus and Ashley are favorites ME1 and ME3 characters and I’m trying to convince my friend to at least pick Ashley over Kaiden. He’s of the wrong opinion that she’s racist like everyone else. If Ashley is a space racist then I too am a space racist. 😂
yes, you're right, you both are. funny how that works, right?
@@skyhawkslcb18 you’re a dummy my guy
I personally pick Kaiden because Virmire feels like a good finally for Ashley. When she loses her life there she gains the respect of not just humanity but also the Turians and Salarians.
Kaidan is really boring imo. Come on people, Wrex is probably more racist than Ashley and if you don’t love him there’s something wrong with you
@@MultiKbarry The Salarians are far too racist to give Ashley any proper respect. Maybe there’s some scene I forgot about, but it seems unlikely that they will honor Ashley (except for maybe Kirrahe)
Never had a problem with Ashley to begin with and this video just gave me a deeper respect for her and insight into her as a character. Well done!
ME1 Ashley is easily the best written character in the first game. Mainly because the other characters are just walking codex entries. Ashley has always been my favorite but people dont giver her a chance because "human characters are boring"
Honestly for my two runs through the Mass Effect Trilogy I left Ashley on Virmire, I don't think that's exactly wrong because I do still like Kaidan as a character but when I get legendary edition because of this video I think I'll give Ashley a shot. Also if you could do one of these great videos on Kaidan I feel that'd be really appreciated because while Ashley is called a space racist and that's not true, people call Kaidan whiny and boring which I think isn't true to/
Oh and after watching the what's next for the channel part definitely approve of the Persona 5 decision.
I was actually surprised about kaiden in 3, he actually had some major development. I do have to say he's a better squad mate than Ash in 3 imo
one thing to keep in mind is that Kaidan is voiced by the same guy who voiced Carth Onasi, the biggest whiniest bitch in Bioware games, possibly in game history ever. That plays a large part in the psychology of people seeing Kaidan as whiny. His smaller complaints become amplified. his justifiable nervousness in pursuing romance get interpreted as weak/cowardly
Went with her a lot of time when I was younger (mainly because I was on a try to bang everything that has boobs route 😅) and I'd say even of I don't really hate her because of her strong position on some points, It never really did it for me ... not my type of personality, but really touched by her tragic background when i grew on a gang on earth trying to survive...
Daddy Kaiden just doesn’t have the baggage other companions have. He has killer headaches, that’s it. Of all your companions, he’s the one you’d actually want to have watching your 6. And boring doesn’t mean bad. Jacob isn’t boring, he’s got daddy issues and commitment issues, but he’s not exactly a beloved character.
Watched streamers (and their viewers) who within literally minutes mad at Ash but than cries over Mordin. If I was signed into my account I would of called it out but instead I just made a rant on social media instead later. like every Krogan is racist against Salariens and Turians as well etc
Krogan *eat* salarians....
it's crazy that so many people still think she is just a racist. There is so much more to her character. Great video hope it gets more views it definitely deserves more.
Yeah. Shes more than a racist. She has other qualities too.
People tend to see in others (fictional or otherwise) what they've repressed in themselves 🤷
They use anything they can to "show their virtue"
haven't watched the video yet (gonna wait until after I finish the trilogy again), but I just wanna say after seeing how Ashley warms up to her coworkers and how she treats EDI if Shepard dies, I found her growth to be very meaningful and well done. I wish others would see her like I do :(
This video gave a lot of much needed clarification on intent and perspective I needed to see Ashley as intended. Thank you for making this incredibly inciteful video. I hope you are thinking of doing everyone, would love to see an analysis on Kaiden.
2:41 Challenge accepted. Morden never Steralized the Krogen, if he did there would have been no new births at all. The reason he and the team he worked with did what they did, was the fact that the Krogen (which Morden opposed the councils decision to use as shocktroops/soldiers, saying they should have been allowed to evolve naturally), were rapidly expanding by force. The guy was given a task to deal with a problem, he disagreed with in creating.
Second. Morden tried to use the remaining years of his life after his team disbanded to help people, he didn't need religion to see the ethical questions he delt with in lowering the fertility rate of the Krogen. Hell the guy was horrified at the on the ground results that he never witnessed before and nearly murdered Malen for experimenting on the Krogen. Religion wasn't what made Morden have doubts, Shepard was just the first person to hold a mirror up to Morden. Which in a final act of atonement, Morden gave his life to correct what he realized was a mistake. So no, Morden is not xenophobic nor a genocidal scientist.
As for Ashly. I don't see her as a Xenophobe, she just happens to be more clued into the fact that the galaxy is not a nice place and the council races WILL throw humanity under the bus when it's convenient for them, the only thing she doesn't seem to get is, that's politics and in-group preference. Particularly the fact that politicians, by in large WILL do anything to avoid making difficult choices...including sacrificing those seen as lower class/pariahs to do so. Perfect example, Udina stabbed Shepard and company the moment it was convenient for him.
The only problem Ashly has, is her experiences and family history formed a bias that doesn't allow her to see the full picture, and thus thinks somehow, other humans are less of a potential threat than Xenos species. Though the fact the Military is willing to throw anyone from her family under the bus for something they were not responsible for, should have clued her in...
IIRC, the codex in Mass Effect 1 actually addresses the why the human colonies have small garrisons that you brought up at 1:26:10. From what I remember, the the Alliance doesn't have enough men to properly garrison every single planet, so they use the garrisons as tripwires and send in their fleets as QRFs whenever the colonies need assistance.
Adding onto this excellent video. Ashley is 100% right to have issues with the aliens on the crew if one remembers they're foreign nationals (An ex cop and a merc) who aren't in anyway authorized by the Alliance to be on the ship. Nihlus was a spectre and who was assigned to the mission, he had appropriate clearance. Garrus is an ex cop with zero security clearance and Wrex obviously has none either but they're getting free reign of the most advanced ship in the Alliance navy? Same deal with Tali, you're giving her free access to critical systems and allowing her to gain intimate knowledge of this uniquely advanced ship and she's really just a random young Quarian who has some evidence showing Saren's guilt which is great but not justification for bringing her for the whole mission. If Shepard wasn't a spectre you can bet that he'd of lost the Normandy and been court martialed at least when that admiral inspects the ship.
He's a Spectre. He doesn't need Alliance authorization. He technically does not report to the alliance so long as that is the case. He's free to recruit whoever he wants so long as they're willing. The Alliance is loaning him the ship and crew which is cool but they dont really have a say in who he brings on there unless they want to take away the ship
And even then, she's seems okay about Tali at least because she only points out Wrex and Vakarian in her concerns. And they are both the roguish, trigger happy type from what she has seen of them at that point of the story.
@@MrProdigy810 You probably should of read my comment more completely and that's not strictly true as the Normandy is an Alliance ship so if they disapprove strongly enough they could very well take the ship away from you which they partially do in ME1 when they "ground" you/try to force you not to chase Saren. You literally steal the Normandy with Anderson's help.
@@thearisen7301 I didn't realize Idina was part of the alliance. But I never said they couldn't take the ship away. If you really read my comment I only said they had no say in who he chose to bring on it to complete his duties as a spectre. In fact im pretty sure I said they COULD take the ship away.
Never gave the permission to inspect "my ship" . I'm a ducking spectre. You think I'd care about an admiral or a general of whatever was is rank ? Feel overpowering trip.
I’m commander Shepard and this is my favorite defense video on RUclips.
YOOOOOOO
"Does anyone know how to outrun a 20 kiloton nuclear bomb?"
Yep. Be Harrison Ford. And ideally find a fridge. x)
I never really liked Ashley. She always rubbed me the wrong way. Not the silly racist accusations, I always thought she was pragmatic and correct about her nuanced views. I just didn't like her, and so always left her to die on Virmie (whiny Kaiden isnt much better but I disliked him far less). There was never any incentive for me to keep Ashley since I play exclusively femshep.
This video has really changed my mind about Ashley though. I hate what they did to her in ME3, but I think I'll keep Ash for my next playthrough.
Great character analysis
Devil's advocate for the Salarians but Krogans treat war crimes like a family game night. In game they have a set health bar but realistically an army of Krogan would just decimate ground troops in a one sided slaughter. For every dead Krogan there would be varying degrees of dozens if not hundreds of opposing casualties.
Also to that the genophage only keeps the viable birth rate in like with a similar range of other species. Even by Wrex's own words in ME1 if the Krogan would stop killing each other and build towards something they could thrive. Not to mention I highly doubt Tuchanka has the resources for a population boom. They'd follow the Drell and just starve to death within the first few generations unless they took to raiding and war.
Might sound like the asshole here but realistically the Salarians aren't wrong, the Krogan are dangerous. Especially if Wrex dies in ME1.
Among the human companions I find Ashley to be more interesting and after alot of thoughts she is completely correct in distrusting Garrus and Wrex at the beginning in ME1.
Having Garrus on the normandy is like the Americans having a russian man working on the top secret stealth pilot in the during the cold war plus having issues with red tape and all the bullshit.
Having Wrex on the normandy is like letting a violent mercenary whose age surpasses the entire Normandy combined with no reliable alligance, even alligance to the Krogan can be problematic at that point in time during the Genophage time.
Her development seems less linear than Kaidan, you see she has issues and it's nice to see how in ME2 when she meets Garrus in Horizon she goes like "You are with Cerberus, Garrus too?" implying she, after ME1, got to know Garrus and legit expected more from him. You see her get over her issues and eventually after her ME1 issues with the council and her distrust, protect the council and may die for them.
Kaidan on the other hand, had his issues resolved before ME1 and he doesn't have any issues to get over and has a more linear character.
That's atleast in my opinion.
Never actually made the connection about that one line involving Garrus and now I'm super mad I didn't use that as leverage to argue that Ashley isn't a space racist.
I know I'm late to the party, but Ashley (and most everyone else) seems to forget there have probably been hundreds of Turians on the Normandy before her. Considering that it was a joint venture between the Alliance and the Turians. There is no war between he Turians and humans as of ME1, cold or otherwise. Reconciliation had probably happened around the time that Ash was born.
I saw this in my sidebar, saw the word defense and the length of the video and immediately clicked. I was starting to think up a way to make a video like this myself, but I don't have to. I'm not even out of Mass Effect 1 yet and I'm already floored at the level of detail you put into this and it's so damn refreshing to see. Gonna finish, but so far , well done! Also I forgot how literally dark the first Mass Effect game is that I can barely see Ashely sometimes. Good thing they fixed the lighting in the MELE.
Haters think that Ashley is comparing Aliens to dogs, because she makes the mild expression "I can't tell the aliens from the animals". Which doesn't have to mean every alien on the citadel. When Ashley says "members of their species will always be more important to them than humans are". If she meant aliens as dogs, she would have said "members of our own species will always be more important to us than aliens are." She meant the council abandoning humanity, when she says sic your dog on a bear and run. When Ashley says as much you love your dog it isn't human, she's saying that the council races would sacrifice humanity, considering human life below their own. Just like a human sacrificing a dog, to fight a bear. Considering a dogs life beneath a human life. Ashley was right about the council abandoning humanity if things got tough. The council abandoned the alliance in mass effect 3. Shepard couldn't even rely on their support in the beginning.
Ashley was skeptical of trusting aliens at first. Considering her apathy of them and she's never worked with aliens before, prior to joining the SSV Normandy, and they didn't serve the alliance either. Despite all this, She says it won't be a problem, to work with aliens, and it never was. Ashley killing Wrex means nothing, If Wrex is in the party at Chora's den, he kills fist. If Ashley doesn't kill Wrex, Wrex could have killed Shepard too. Ashley not being a fan of aliens, doesn't change that she's right about the Rachni queen being dangerous. Tali and Wrex also encourage Shepard to kill the Rachni queen. Ashley didn't trust Liara right away considering her mother worked with Saren. Ashley has the right to be upset if Shepard shows interest in both her and Liara. Overall, While Ashley may seem a bit xenophobic, she's not a racist. She does admit that she's not a fan of aliens in me2. She just needed time to accept them as friends and allies. It's apart of her character development. Coming from me, I romance Ashley in the whole trilogy.
If you wanna be kinda pedantic about it, Mordin isn't racist at all.
He's just so incredibly absorbed into objective, logical analysis that considering "race" never enters the equation.
He doesn't hate, despise, or hold real negative opinions on the Krogan at all, and he even mentions that the genophage was the best answer to keep the Krogan population alive, because the other option was a war of extermination, like with the Rachni. And he hated the extermination of the Rachni. From what I remember, he calls it a tragedy.
Throughout his conversations, Shepard has to basically _pull_ Mordin's head out of his logical ass to see that, despite the genophage being the safest option overall, it dramatically harmed the culture of the Krogan in a wide variety of ways he couldn't have modeled on a computer, and by the end of the game, he sacrifices himself to *undo* what his cold, calculated, objective mind told him was the best option.
Hell, he shoves a *gun* into the face of his ex-protege, because the kids experiments to cure the genophage caused so much Krogan death.
I used to think that the way Shepard never really gets true vindication from the council in Mass Effect 1 was very frustrating and annoying, though it was nice that Tevos acknowledges this during the Cerberus coup attempt. But when I think about it more, it feels like it is fairly realistic. Shepard is doing exactly what they set him to, but they are really just in denial as Kaidan says. It's obvious that Sparatus in particular is indeed just being contrary.
The one I find most annoying is the complaint about the bomb on Virmire. Obviously Shepard is aware of the Council's law about this, but a 20 kiloton nuke is not going to ravage a planet's ecology. Also the nuke wasn't even Shepard's idea. It was Kirrahe's. Did Kirrahe just not check in with his government lol? I don't think a spectre has the authority to issue orders to members of a council race's individual military.
Let's not forget about that Quarian ship in ME3 that had copied Normandy's stealth tech. I wonder how the Quarian fleet was able to replicate the most advanced ship in the Galaxy in only two years? Hmmm... Many when Ashley warned Shep about the aliens having access to the ship in ME1 she had a point. I'm looking at you, Tali. Industrial / Military espionage is alive and well.
Now, without her, more would die during the suicide mission, no Geth/Quarian alliance, etc. Maybe the technology theft she perpetrated was worth it. But please don't tell me Ashely was wrong to be concerned.
Ashley was right about everything.
While the theft is extremely suspect, and Ashley has a right for her suspicion, I believe having Stealth tech to use against Geth is more warranted
Ash's stances don't make me think she's a racist. The line "I can't tell the difference between the animals on the Citadel and the aliens...' does.
Could you immediately tell that the hanar or the elcor were people when you first saw them? Hanar look like space jellyfish, and they are aliens. Pyjaks look like space monkeys, and they are animals. You really can't see how someone might get confused, first time on the Citadel?
They look like animals.
@@luifalcone3543 given that when the line fired for me, literally every npc in sight was using a computer, I'd say it was fairly obvious. It honestly never occurred to me to view the elcor, hanar, or keepers as 'animals'
i am glad that you made this video. I have been a defender of Ash for a long time. I see a lot of people who would gladly leave her to die on top of a nuke on Virmire simply because they don't like her. People are so easily triggered by any perceived racism these days that it is easy to label someone like Ash as a racist because it is easy to then write them off. Then they don't have to look under the surface and try to know or understand them.
Ashley is THE most divisive character in Mass Effect. No one has divided the fans more than her. I think that comes down to just how real she is. What I mean is that you could walk down the street and meet someone like her. And I think that makes some people who play this game uncomfortable. Because in this game of sci-fi space magic with aliens and death machines; Ashley is a fully flawed, three dimensional, complex human being with her own beliefs and not afraid to speak her mind. Even if she has to challenge the great Commander Shepard. But that is what I love about her and why I was drawn to her from the start.
The humans are one of the least cool species in the mass effect universe, a human surrounded by cool aliens who doesn’t like those cool aliens, I don’t like her
Imagine thinking calling people triggered will convonce literally anyone lol
@@Sparten7F4 Is it or is it not true that race is a hot button topic and any perceived racism is enough to get people riled up?
Also are you going to refute anything I have said or...?
Nothing Kirby said was wrong.
@@jaxsonfanta5420 You're right. Especially the bit where he implies Ashley has different beliefs to Shepard... Who, unless he's hard Renegade, isn't at all racist.
Except against Batarians.
...Bioware, why is every character racist in Mass Effect?
I've been saying this for 14 damn years, Ashley is the best written and most realistic character in Mass Effect. I felt like I was talk to a real person, not a video game character. THANK YOU to all who had her back since day one.!!!
I only recently discovered a lot of people hated her. When I found out how many people I was surprised, like I missed a memo or something. All the reasons I heard were completely shallow and lacking context. Everyone has a right to say “meh I just don’t like that one, didn’t click with me.” That’s legit. I didn’t care for Kaiden. Not because he was space hitler or anything specific, just didn’t click for me, so I get that. But I’ve seen real racism. Legitimate racism in real life. Ashley’s character ain’t it. Also people just love to hate on the Christians. Nobody hates on Thane who is openly religious throughout, and yet Ashley has a couple lines about God and people lose their minds. Hate me too, I’m a Christian. Bible said you would. But at least acknowledge that you harbor a resentment for Christians specifically over any other religion, and maybe ask yourself why. Anyways, point is I was surprised at so many Ashley haters (except for the religious reasons, that doesn’t surprise me at all sadly).
Also, while I only played the legendary edition of ME3, I am surprised at how many people didn’t like Ashley’s new look. That’s okay of course, to each their own, just surprised me. I really liked it. My wife is very feminine and Barbie looking so maybe I’m biased. Anyways glad to see so many people are team Ashley.
@@nauticalmiles5653 thank you .
@@nauticalmiles5653 Ashley is the most realistic companion in me trilogy, other char like liara is like too soft and easy to manipulate because trusted people too easily, like for example in me2, she already know shepard was cerberus and without any hesitation give the access to her computer
@@imadeivan1887liara bought shepard back to life by stealing his body from the shadow broker who was going to sell him to the collectors. she uses those computers to track the shadow broker down.
I....have never seen that charm/intimidate check with Ashley. What conversation path leads to that? I talk to her all the time.
You have to challenge her on her beliefs for the option to appear. For example, if you play straight paragon Shep who simps for the council, Ashley will reach a breaking point after your third main mission (I think). You can either charm or intimidate her to accept that the council and the existence of Alien life is part of God's grand design for the universe. This will shift Ashley towards the paragon alignment and make her argue for the preservation of the current political order (she doesn't want to kill the council.)
@@XBadgerKnightX that's weird. I thought I've played full paragon with Ashley before.
The worst tragedy is that renegade shep was right because they did bury their heads in the sand until the very end
I'm just now getting back into Mass Effect. One of the first things i haven't saw in a long time was someone say "Ashley Is Racist." And I'm like bro. Are you dumb? Mass Effect is filled with Racism but somehow Ashley gets heat when she makes a few bad comments? Tell me you don't know Ashley without telling me you don't know Ashley.
Thank you! I’ve never bought that people hate Ashley “because she’s racist” because literally every other character hates some other race for something. I remember one of the writers at a con once mentioning how racist Tali and the Quarians are and the room fell silent and people were shocked. Like NO KIDDING. I love all of the characters because of their many flaws and Ash is no different. But she’s one of the only characters who is loud and brash and directly questions some of Shepards actions. A lot of players don’t like that, especially when a woman does it. Not to mention she’s the only character in the game who actively puts racists in their place several times. I do think she suffers from some contradictory writing here and there, especially in game 3, but overall her arch is so well crafted. I could go on and on about how great Ash is but you’ve covered it brilliantly.
Ash is one of the more interesting and dynamic characters in ME1; problem is her writing in subsequent games is not nearly as compelling. Also I despise the makeover she got in ME3. They turned her into a Barbie doll!
Tea.
Well said. The only other character in ME1 with such a defined character was probably Wrex.
1:19:50 I find it a missed opportunity that in the French translation of the game, when Ashley mentions "Arnold and Quisling", they didn't bring up Pétain, the guy who sold France to Germany in WW2.
You are right, that would have been a more apt comparison than Quisling - one one hand, Paris would have been leveled by the Nazis if he didn't sign the armistice but one the other he was a national hero until that armistice was signed...
Ashley's distrust of alien species is justified.
It always annoyed me how shallow people treat Ashley because of trending modern morals.
Calling her a racist is just straight-up wrong because aliens aren't a race of human beings but different species entirely whose function is blatantly different from human beings.
Her distrust of them on a societal level is completely justified by the actions of the council and the different species governments in the subsequent games. They do in fact ignore Earths pleas for aid in order to defend their own interests and it's only when Shepard solves their problems first that they eventually render aid.
She puts the interests of her own species first which multiple members of the squad (Wrex, Grunt, Mordin, Miranda and Tali) themselves do, yet they are fan favorites.
Despite this she never treats the individual members of the other species with animosity.
Her spiritual beliefs are also needlessly mocked despite the fact that multiple other members of the squad (Liara, Garrus, Tali, Mordin, and arguably Wrex) are also spiritual.
She also has a love of Earth poetry that creates a tangential link between mankinds development from the ancient past into the future.
Shes a great character that was unfairly snubbed by smoothbrains and i believe this is largely why she got less attention than fan favorites like Liara, Garrus, and Tali.
2:46:00 Damn. I didn't even romance Ash in my playthrough but got a little teary eyed hearing that. Truly some beautiful acting, that should never have been cut. Imagine if you didn't romance anyone else in ME2 and then they played this dialogue just before the suicide mission. It would've been gut wrenching.
Also at 3:16:22 Ash is obviously lying about being okay with Shepherd being with Tali, as she's clearly trying to snap her own neck to get the thought out of her head. lol
Amazing content! I’m thinking to myself who can help nerd me, and talk about the same character for hours, and I found the answer! Loved it, I’ll watch the rest of them too.
Ashley was the girl I romanced my first time playing through the trilogy, and even though I’ve romanced each of the ladies you can on different play-throughs, it’s only made me like Ashley’s character more and more.
This video is still awesome! Great replay ability and I’m gonna go right into the Miranda one!
Glad you enjoyed!
Ash was a great character. She really grows as the trilogy progresses, reassesses her point of view and becomes more well rounded because of it. Was she xenophobic? Yes, but she learned to move beyond that. She is very complex.
Unlike Kaiden who has resolved all his character arcs before the game even begins and is a flatline of a character.
From a role playing perspective, I always send Ashley with Kirrahe. Because it would be good Ashley's character and Kaidan is useless in combat and would be embarrassing. Then it only makes sense to leave Kaidan because he's the guy guarding the bomb and him staying contributes to mission success.
Liked and subscribed my man. Very well done. You've hit the nail on the head with everything I've been arguing about for years. It's a shame such an underrated character is hated because people simply refuse to look a little deeper.
33:30
There’s plenty of examples for groups not even going into the council.
If they Mistreat you- look at the Terminous systems or the bartarians.
Do what they did to get out of council controlled space- heck set up a alliance if you so believe the council abused theirs.
“But that’s too hard”
“They won’t let us do it”
It’s really simple; if it’s too hard stop complaining and accept the alternative of ether climbing the latter or settle where you’re comfortable.
If they won’t let you- what about it?
There are opportunities to take advantage of to do so in the future as well as to climb that latter.
Look at Cerberus- not a part of the council and yet they’re doing quite well for themselves and serving humanity without the council.
I'm loving this series. Actually feeling a little embarrassed that I've held the "she's just a racist" view without having given it much more thought. You've given me something to think about in my next playthrough, thank you!!!
Ashley is a dutiful beautiful family oriented God fearing woman with high in-group preference. In other words, the perfect wife. She's seemingly the only female in the entire galaxy who has a good relationship with her father. Plus, she can equip a sniper rifle.
Can't believe I just spent nearly 4 hours watching a character defence video. Amazing.
Single handedly changed my perspective on a character I didn't have a lot of love for. Gonna' go through the game again to experience this perspective firsthand. Thanks Homie.
A vast majority of people who hate Ashley & call her a space racist are ppl that hate nuclear families & Christianity thus never are tolerate enough to hear Ashley say "I dont think we are superior" Deliciously ironic
20 Kiloton Radius of effect is approximately 2 Miles (Blast, Fireball and Radiation)
a Salarian infiltration team either on foot or with light vehicles could at a full run, get out of the 1 mile zone when the Normandy maneuvered to deliver the package and rely on shields and biotics to protect from flame and radiation. this presuming the two teams not pinned down were not picked up by the Normandy.
a Mako or Analogue could reach that radius is in minutes. on foot at a full run would take upwards of 20 minutes depending on local Gravity and the use of Mass Effect fields to lighten the troopers.
Ash is my favorite character in the game. Not only is she a beast in combat, but I felt she was very realistically written. I always felt that the at times "generic Sheppard" dialog options ruined some of the character development with her. Those poor interactions imo ruined many player's perception of her.
The only time Ashly vanilla ME3 appearance felt appropriate was during the citadel infiltration of the casino where everyone dresses
I never liked Ashley's look in ME3. Much preferred her ME1 and 2 look.
Same
I was always rather fond of Ash. From the whole ME series Ash, Wrex, and Garrus were my favorite characters. They always had the best one liners. Maybe I'm just rough around the edges like that. I guess I just relate being former military myself. When you're in the proverbial mixing it up, it takes one to know one.
I got to say, as someone who put way more effort than is expected of a channel this small, you amaze me.
I feel like im a part of the first...600? I can't remember when I subbed but at the very least the first ~900 subs, I feel like im about to witness the start of a fantastic editorial creator/author's career.
I was caught up with the entire discourse about Ashley. Like how Bricky (youtube channel) said, I had a girl i left on virmire, she's ash. Im amazed it simply took someone asking if thats fair. This sent me on this 2 hour journey to reevaluate my opinions on Ashley. Like my other comment on here, I now accept Ashley more for her character, and understand her.
However, it is a shame that Mass Effect forces me to make a choice. And since I have to make a decision, knowing what I know about the trilogy and just how I play, Ashley still gets the short end of the stick, just maybe now, that ratio is 40/60, instead of the 10/90. Bravo, my dude, Bra-fucking-vo.
I do wonder if you could eventually do a set of videos about shepard themself. In like one about paragon and renegade, since 1 and 2 kind of forces one way or another, as Paragon almost always lead to better outcomes. Maybe when we get to see the rebalanced morality, this might be more viable. Although renegade shepard tends to just be evil more than is necessary.
Regardless, fantastic work my dude. Im excited for Miranda, hopefully in the future we can see some on Jack, Mordin, and maybe, next April fools, one on a certain overly obsessed fan on the citadel.
Cheers.
Edit: nearly 4 hour journey. Holy crap.
Thank you so much for this resource. This will be massively helpful for my fanfic.
I don't care what Bioware had to code it as, letting the first council die is the paragon and renegade choice, sparing them is pure fanfiction.
I've gotten so much flak for explaining to people that Ash's position is just factual, pragmatic, that people are quick to dismiss her as a reeeeecist (now even more than when the game first came out) and don't even bother thinking about what she's saying. Unfortunately I don't see many companies taking the risky move of showcasing a pragmatic character that's strong enough to deliver the powerful message that literally equates to "clean your room".
Until I saw this video I thought I was the only one that understood Ashley.
Any chance of doing one for Kreia? People who analyse her care too much about what she say and not who she is.
How would you run from a nuke "Run fast as fuck boy"
This was VERY well done! I have been arguing for nearly 15 years that Ashley was not a "space racist." Does she have trust issues regarding aliens in general and a resentful attitude towards Turians specifically? Without a doubt. Are those issues and attitudes well earned? WITHOUT QUESTION. Add to that the fact that nothing in the early phases of the first game do anything to disprove her opinions ( yet ANOTHER unsolicited alien attack against humanity led by yet ANOTHER Turian, Din Korlak's blatant hatred of you for no other reason than the fact that you are "earthclan", ect), it is no wonder her initial attitude is was it is. Thank you for this character study. Hopefully it will help to change the minds of many Ashley haters out there. She certainly deserves better from the Mass Effect community than she has received thus far.
The complaint about Ashley’s looks in ME3 doesn’t make any sense. In ME 1&2, she’s a noncom. A grunt that never thought she’d get promoted to officer status. In ME3, what’s the point of being a commissioned officer if you can’t dress like one?
Wow, thank you XBadgerKnightX! I really enjoyed this video. I was always conflicted about Ashley. She is badass, very loyal, loves her family and the foot in her mouth makes her very interesting. At the same time, all those negative comments about aliens annoyed the hell out of me because I was and still am to fascinated by the Mass Effect Universe to take off my rose-coloured glasses. I still believe in Shepards words to Garrus after Saleon's death: "You can't predict how people respond, Garrus. But you can control how you'll respond. In the end, that's what really matters." I play Shepard according to my own ethics and to keep doing the right thing, be kind and nice, not matter what bullshit you get, is important, especially if your world is about to fall apart. It doesn't matter if I get ever rewarded for it or not. And the same applies for Shepard and the Council. I played the game about seven times and can't bring myself to step into renegade mode. But your video opened up my view a bit and shifted it towards Ashley. I think, I saved Ashley only once and now, in the middle of the Legendary Edition, maybe I should give it another go with Ashley. Give her more attention. After all, I still discover something new every replay.
I'm not sure if I made it through the vid a year ago.
Also not sure if I commented that vid a year ago.
So I won't write down a long essay on this, just saying "thank you".
I don't think Ashley needs to be defended. People either love her or love to hate her. In both cases it's an achievement for the author who created her as it's quite difficult to create characters that provoke strong emotions. A totally forgettable character won't provoke any emotions and will be ignored entirely. Ashley doesn't fall in that trap as a character.
For me? Favorite LI. "First girl wins". ME1 provides exactly three LI: Liara, Kaidan, Ashley. And all three can make it through the whole trilogy unless you somehow manage to lose your LI (Ashley or Kaidan) on Virmire. Most of the characters can die in the trilogy, but Ashley/Kaidan are guaranteed to die in the Virmire mission and the surviving character later can get killed in the Citadel Coup. That puts some weight in their personal story arcs which makes them both more interesting. Liara in the other hand is destined to survive the entire trilogy (the only other character is Joker) which removes some drama but also makes her story arc somewhat less appealing. Also screen time is a thing here: Liara got most (ME1, ME2 (Shadowbroker DLC), ME3), followed by Ashley/Kaidan (ME1, M3, mentioned in ME2) and Tali and Garrus (ME2, ME3). Any other LI has only one game with focus on their romantic plot.
So if you're into long lasting relationships that slowly build up over time, you'll pick either Liara, Ashley or Kaidan for full trilogy or Tali or Garrus if you pretend ME1 was base building from friendship to romance.
Ashley has always been Best Girl for me tbh so it's great to see this
I'll be entirely honest...I've killed Ashley for every run ive ever done, aside from the first go round ME1, and when I specifically did a romance run with her.
My first impression of her was ME2, which is unfortaunte, because its only by playing ME1 that you understand how insane it is that Shepard (or anyone else from the OG Normandy) would have anything to do with them.
Looking back, she's a perfectly reasonable, sensible and committed character for the first two games. And i guess 3 as well, but shes usually dead by then end of 1 for me.
Kaidan is my bland, completely normal and well adjusted friend with no issues but plenty of talents.