Ashley Williams Part 2 Special for Gamer.RU
Consequences of Choice
If Ashley's life is spared during the operation on the planet Virmire, Sergeant Williams continues to fulfill her duty to the Alliance aboard the star frigate "Normandy," pursuing and destroying the last remnants of the geth uprising. During another patrol in the Amada system of the Omega Nebula near the planet Alchera, despite the advanced stealth systems of "Normandy," an attack is launched by a battle ship belonging to the mysterious Collectors. In the chaos of destruction and mayhem on the crippled frigate, Captain Shepard orders Sergeant Williams to evacuate the remaining crew members. The Captain's ship, an attempt to build a bridge of friendship between the human and turian races, the "Normandy," was destroyed. In a noble attempt to save the pilot who refused to abandon the ship, Captain Shepard was killed, and his body was thrown into the vacuum of space. This is the second fact that relentlessly torment the soul of this strong woman. Nonetheless, she finds the strength to remain in service to the Alliance for the next two years. Thanks to her bravery displayed while fulfilling her duty under Captain Shepard, she is promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant. At the same time, Sergeant Williams tries to move on, to live with the terrible loss of her beloved man.
Reunion
After several Alliance colonies were completely devastated, the most credible version was the hypothesis accusing the pro-human organization "Cerberus" of these atrocities. Staff Sergeant Williams was informed by a strange message stating that Captain Shepard has been resurrected, he was alive and working for "Cerberus." In this case, she was dispatched to the human colony on the planet Horizon to strengthen local defenses against the expected assault by "Cerberus." However, the real threat of concern was the assault by the Collectors at a time when the defenses were still unable to repel the attack. During the assault, Ashley is bitten by a Reaper. The sergeant is paralyzed, but fortunately, she is found after the Collectors leave the battlefield. Although she is happy to see Captain Shepard again, Ashley is not pleased with his work for "Cerberus," fearing that he may be compromised by this organization notorious for its brutal experiments, torture, and murder of aliens.
Love
If Shepard was in a romantic relationship with Ashley in the first part of the game, her photograph will be on his desk in his personal quarters aboard the "Normandy," symbolizing his love for her. She and Shepard experience an emotional reunion on Horizon, and after the mission, the Captain receives a message in his inbox from Ashley in which she apologizes for her distrustful behavior. She confirms her feelings for Shepard by saying: "Just try to stay alive… Skipper. I can't lose you a second time." If Shepard remains faithful to Ashley throughout the events of the second part of the game, before completing a deadly mission on the Collector base, he looks at her photograph in his cabin for some time and smiles...
Interesting Facts
• Ashley is one of the "memorable" characters in the first game and often appears in promotional art alongside Garrus Vakarian. This duo also accompanied Shepard in most demonstrations, including the mission on the planet Caleston, where Ashley can get into an argument with Garrus. When the turian says they cannot risk the mission to save a group of human miners trapped due to the geth attack, Sergeant Williams reproaches him that if it were a group of turian miners, he would have rushed to their aid immediately.
• According to the official character description by BioWare, Ashley's military code is B4, and her blood type is B positive. She has received genetic enhancements including in utero vision correction (family predisposition to nearsightedness) and a package of enhancements for Alliance Infantry Class B.
• The name Ashley Williams is a reference to the well-known character Bruce Campbell's Ash "Evil Dead" Williams from the "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness" films. If Ashley is in your team during the mission on Virmire, she will say that she will "shoot these things with her Shoot-Handle."
• Originally, Ashley was supposed to recite "Green Hills of Earth" by Robert Heinlein. However, obtaining the rights to Heinlein's works is quite complicated, and when it came time to make a decision, the verse was replaced with the poem "Ulysses" by Tennyson, which is in the public domain. She uses the second and third lines of Ulysses when talking about her father, and the final fourth line before landing on Illium.
• Ashley's middle name is Madeleine, another reference to Tennyson's work, given to her by her poetry-enthusiast father.
• Like all team members, Ashley has unique dialogues that the player can hear while visiting various locations, during missions or assignments, or when a special team member is chosen to accompany her.
• It appears that Ashley was also a potential romantic interest for a female character, but this idea was dropped during development.
• The name and tendency of instructor Allison to use coarse language is a reference to writer Harlan Ellison.
• "James" is the name of Sarah's (Ashley's younger sister) impatient suitor about whose transfer to the new base in the Kepler Verge, Shepard learns from a personal letter from Sarah to Ashley, is a reference to a technical designer at BioWare who was transferred to the Austin studio on the day this letter was written.
Author’s translation of the article with personal additions
Illustrations