Ashley Williams (Mass Effect)

Ashley is a soldier skilled with weapons and standard combat hardsuits. Prior to the events of the Mass Effect series, she is considered by Alliance leadership to be a "reliable and dedicated noncommissioned officer, but her service in rear-area garrisons has prevented her from gaining actual combat experience".[1] Her great-grandmother, grandfather, and father all served in the Systems Alliance Navy. However, her grandfather General Williams was the only human officer to ever surrender to an alien force, specifically the turian fleet at the colony of Shanxi during the First Contact War, where humanity's first contact with extraterrestrials broke out in violence. Even though her family has been disgraced due to her grandfather's service history, she enlisted with the Systems Alliance as she felt she had something to prove.

BioWare's profile for the character on the defunct official website for Mass Effect 2 described her as "confident, independent, and at times, outright aggressive". She is also "stubbornly insular and not willing to accept help when it is needed". Ashley's xenophobia is noted as one of her major flaws; she is known for her "aggressive instincts and tendency to speak bluntly" which is a liability when dealing with civilians, and occasionally expresses political opinions the Systems Alliance consider "problematic".[1] While primarily presented as a tough and strong-willed woman who is an equal match to a male protagonist, her sensitive side is expressed through her interest in the poetry work of Alfred Tennyson.[2]

Ashley is also depicted in the series as a religious character and family-oriented character. Her precise faith and beliefs are never elaborated upon except for her belief in a greater power and a concept of a final and infinite judgment by God. Joshua and Ita Irizarry, co-authors of a research paper published as part of the Religion in Digital Games anthology publication, noted that Shepard may engage in explicitly religious discussions with Ashley as she is one of the more openly religious characters in the series. They observed that the character has strong religious beliefs, though she is more reticent in sharing them with other crew members as she is concerned about how they would react.[3] A recurring element of Ashley's subplot in Mass Effect 3 involves her family's plight during the Reaper invasion, in particular her brother-in-law Thomas being killed in action and widowing her sister Sarah Williams.

Kimberly Brooks voiced Ashley Williams in all media.

Ashley was one of the companion characters to be featured in the earliest demo footage for the first Mass Effect game; in a 2006 video, director Casey Hudson drew attention to her fully voiced interactions with Shepard and another squad member, Garrus Vakarian, where she expressed cynicism and exasperation at his alleged ethnic loyalties. This is meant to evoke a seamless cinematic experience as opposed to the player reading an extensive amount of dialogue text.[4] She ties her hair into a bun, and wears a bubblegum pink and marshmallow white battle armor as her default appearance in the first two Mass Effect games.[5][6] For her appearance in Mass Effect 3, Ashley is intentionally redesigned to showcase her sex appeal and lets her hair down instead of tying it up.[7] She wears a stylish officer's uniform which showcases the new Alliance colors of blue and white when not on the field.[7] An unused idea from the third game's early development process involved Ashley confronting a corrupted Shepard, who had been forced to turn to Reaper technology to accomplish his goals, which echoed Saren's character arc from the first game.[8] Another scene cut during development involved Ashley asking whether Shepard has any recollections of experiencing the afterlife between the Normandy's destruction and revival by Cerberus' Project Lazarus.[9]

Ashley was originally voiced by E. G. Daily, but she was recast when the developers did not feel the romantic chemistry they were aiming for between the character and Shepard.[10] Kimberly Brooks credited voice director Ginny McSwain, whom she had worked with prior to Mass Effect, for helping her "tap into the character" as a woman soldier who is deeply religious and whose family has a strong military service tradition.[11] Brooks recalled that there were well over ten recording sessions and would generally last about four hours, where she often recorded by herself.[11] She said working on a BioWare video game is intense as there is a lot of depth to the story and its characters, and that it is vocally stressful and more labor intensive then other media due to the size of the project and its numerous possibilities. Brooks herself does not play video games, citing a lack of free time, though she enjoyed playing Ashley.[11] Her positive experience as Ashley's voice actor got her interested in doing further voice over work for video games.[12]

The character is held to be a notable example of the consequences that come with branching narratives in video games.[13][2] In his article which was published by Gamasutra, Brandon Perdue noted that since players interact with the game through gameplay, the significance of choosing which character to save feels non-trivial and arises from its very real gameplay consequences.[13] Along with Kaidan Alenko, Ashley's role in the narrative of the original trilogy was termed "The Virmire Survivor" and analyzed in the 2017 book 100 Greatest Video Game Characters; whoever is saved serves as a constant reminder of player choices throughout the trilogy.[2][14]

Ashley has received a generally negative reception from fans and video game journalists. PC Gamer included her in their list of most annoying characters,[15] and ridiculed her pink and white armor, though her default cobalt blue armor in Mass Effect 3 is considered to be an improvement.[6] GamesRadar criticized her abrasive personality and said she has similar traits as Ana Lucia Cortez from the ABC television series Lost.[16] Daniel Horowitz from VentureBeat consider Ashley to be "harsh and brash", and that her attitude is "out of line" compared to the mild mannered Kaidan.[5] Alex Knapp, a staff writer at Forbes, criticized Ashley's revamped design in Mass Effect 3, claiming that she looks like a stripper.[17]

While Ashley is statistically more likely to be chosen compared to Kaidan for the decision at Virmire, some sources opined that this is because Kaidan is perceived to be the less palatable option; she is considered one of the least popular characters in the entire trilogy.[18][13][3] Both Destin Legarie from IGN and Andy Kelly from PC Gamer expressed a personal preference for Kaidan over Ashley when choosing the Virmire Survivor in the first game.[14][15] Horowitz argued that logically Kaidan should be prioritized over Ashley as the Virmire Survivor since she is "merely a straggler picked up on Eden Prime" while Shepard’s history with him "extends far beyond the opening events of the story".[5] Conversely, Perdue questioned the emotional weight behind what was "popularly discussed as one of the most momentous decisions a player can make in a game" as he found neither character to be particularly sympathetic.[13]

The character has been criticized for being "racist".[13] Evan Narcisse, writing for the Atlantic, said her racist attitude "floated around as an annoying buzz in the background" until the scene where she unexpectedly shot and killed Wrex in Virmire, and noted that he did not hesitate to leave Ashley to her fate later on.[19] Yussef Cole found her views about working with other alien races "troubling" and compared her shooting of Wrex to "faux self-defensive violence that is uncomfortably reminiscent of the way police in America react to black men and women".[20] Knapp argued that her characterization in Mass Effect 3 was awful, alleging that she is "more racist and more of a jerk" and that "everything that had the potential to redeem her character was stripped away".[17] Stephen Bush from the New Statesman remarked that Ashley is "one of the most disliked characters in videogame history", and commented that her character is consistently "prickly and anti-alien" throughout the series.[21]

The character's emphasis on her faith has not been well received. Joshua and Ita Irizarry noted the "broad negativity" many players have shown towards Ashley's expressions of her faith in the original Mass Effect during the course of their research, with only a minority of players indicating that Ashley's flawed personality made their gameplay experience more interesting. They surmised that based on Ashley's assertion that her faith plays a major role in who she is, her "religiosity may have been seen as a reflection of the player, individually, and humanity as a whole".[3] Matt Cronn from Geeks Under Grace, an American pop culture website which publishes news, culture, reviews, and videos from a Christian perspective, felt that the original Mass Effect fumbled on the subject of God and religion. He opined that Ashley "did not go on to represent God in the best fashion", and called her a "hot-headed, judgmental" character who is xenophobic.[22]

A few PC Gamer staff members, most notably Chris Thursten who emphasized her staunch opposition to pro-human groups like Cerberus and Terra Firma as well as her willingness to question the infallibility of Shepard's decisions, dissented from consensus.[23] He argued that Ashley is "one of the most substantially well-rounded characters in the series" as well as "one of the few that doesn't need Shepard to step in and fix her life".[24] In an article published by GamesRadar which focused specifically on Ashley, Thursten acknowledged that while she is probably the most contentious among the original trilogy's cast of characters, he maintained that "her value to the series comes specifically from the fact that she's willing to voice challenging views", and that "companion characters are at their best when they're written like real people."[18] Luca Sarpori from The Games Machine called Ashley a strong female character, and suggested that she is despised by some players because of her potential role in the killing of Wrex in the first game.[25]

Brooks released a fully voiced recording of Ashley's email to Shepard on the internet sometime after the release of Mass Effect 2 and prior to the launch of Mass Effect 3.[11] She noted that it was very well received as fans had wanted a more substantial appearance by Ashley for the second game. In her view, the best aspect about voice acting for a video game is its fans, drawing attention to the passionate reception she has experienced from Mass Effect fandom.[11] Brooks is aware of her character being called a "space racist" by players, and remarked that "everyone either loved or hated Ash".[12][11] Tyree Brown from The Nerdist noted Brooks as a black actress who voiced a white character in a critical examination of the relationship between the video game industry and the Black Lives Matter movement.[26]

Ashley was featured prominently in marketing material such as commercials and trailers, as well as cover art for the first game.[5][27][28] She is seen accompanying both gendered versions of Commander Shepard to battle in the cinematic trailers which promoted the March 2012 launch for Mass Effect 3.[29][30] An action figure for the character was released by Play Arts Kai in 2012.[31]

• Ashley Williams Galactic Codex Entry on the official Mass Effect website at the Wayback Machine (archived June 26, 2009)
• Ashley Williams profile on the official Mass Effect 2 website at the Wayback Machine (archived August 23, 2011)