I have nothing against the hair. However, if she went bald I would take issue. Hopefully you can see how someone might be concerned about such a thing.Sil wrote...
Ever since hearing of there being more details released regarding Mass Effect 3 in GameInformer, I've been scouring the internet for as many details as I could possibly glean to feed my thirst for knowledge. In the past few days of searching, I have come across rather a high number of forums and articles having comments regarding Ashley's characters picture shown in this issue of GameInformer, and quite a few of these have turned into arguments over how plausible/implausible this change of appearance is.
After reading many of the comments surrounding it, I am astonished at the lack of thought people put into their comments. It is because of that lack of thought that I am writing this thread, with the intention of giving people a decent understanding as to why the designers would make the choice to change her appearance and about why people should not look too deeply into it, all from the mind of a huge Ashley fan. There are a couple of large contributors to the arguments, but I shall start off with the simpler of the changes to explain:
Ashley's Long Hair.
Oddly enough I never noticed how buxom Morinth was and I love her. I took her personality and the bits that seemed like she might be contrary to what Samara said (in a very minute part or a substantial part) and she came alive to me. I couldn't help but notice the space boobs and her sultry, sexy walk to kill an Eclipse merc. Likewise I couldn't help but notice Miranda's rear (not even great at that) and ample breasts because they were constantly thrown in my face. There was no subtlety. They were defined by their sexuality. We haven't moved passed the point where women aren't judged by their surfaces. I still do it from time to time, but I can tell you that it's all eye candy to me meaning that it lasts for as long as it does until it's gone. For another example see Zero Punctuation's point about how having an Ethan Hawke (or for that matter Ebon) gets old really fast in regards to DA2.Ashley's Body Shape and Freshly Equipped Twin Bazooka's.
And this is the point where people start to whinge and whine, and complain far more excessively than is absolutely necessary. So, it is now time to try and explain why this new appearance makes sense and is generally a good thing. Let’s start with the technical and graphical reasons, before moving onto loreful reasons. Here we go...
- Let’s start with Mass Effect 1, where we first saw, fought beside and inevitably romanced Ashley. It was a wonderful game in immersion, story, gameplay and visually... or was it? On the rest, I agree, but visually? Not entirely. Let’s take a look at the character models to begin with. Almost all the female models in the game used exactly the same build (except for Tali and Matriarch Benezia), meaning that each and every model had exactly the same sized and shaped breasts, bum, etc. Commander Jane Shepard’s body shape was identical to Ashley's, whose was identical to every other random Human female in the entire game.
- Mass Effect 2 stuck mostly with the same body physiques for all the females once again, although they introduced the buxom Miranda, Morinth and Samara, along with Tali and Kasumi who had a different body shape to other people. It is even claimed that Liara's body had changes to it as well, including a different bust, which I'm afraid I can't confirm but it does not surprise me. It's obvious that the major players in the game were given differing appearances than the standard models of their species, which is blatantly obviously done to help differentiate them more. Ashley would have gained such an upgrade if she had been in the game for more than two small cut scenes, but they did not upgrade her as frankly it is a "waste" of space and time to work on a new model for a character who appears for a couple of minutes. Even as a great fan of hers, I understood why they did not upgrade her appearance to be in line with the Squad members we have in Mass Effect 2.
She does stand out against the normal models despite the fact that she has a normal"model because she's presented as a normal person doing impressive things. As I said before, until Morinth puts on Samara's outfit I don't notice or try to guess what her cup size is. The little that we get of her makes me want more. The much that I get from Samara and Miranda makes me want less. It's bad enough that guys who play games are stereotyped as being so fixated on breasts and butts that they can't do anything unless they have an explosion going off on screen. I don't need it being in game. The way it comes across to me is Bioware is further insinuating that I'm still an immature 13 y/o (not to be confused with a mature 13 y/o) who just stumbled onto pron for the first time. I take it that they're insulting me. Of course you'd probably ask, what makes me so special that I would take that stance. It doesn't make me special at all, but like yourself I have my own way of looking at things and it doesn't jive with me who thinks he can look past a woman's looks at her core and figure out what kind of woman she is.
- It makes sense that in Mass Effect 3 that when they bring her back for what is possibly her final appearance in any Mass Effect game, that they would decide to bring her appearance in line with the other unique models for the other Squad Members. Not only to make her stand out more against the normal models, but because of the fact that this is the final part of the trilogy and they want it to be as visually appealing and stunning as possible. People seem to regard this model change as some kind of betrayal, but it is almost certain that if they had given all the characters a unique body shape in the first game that she would have ended up closer resembling what we see in the GameInformer preview than the "small" chested version we saw for Mass Effect 1.
I'm sorry, but I don't view the Miranda look to be superior at all. If I'm going to delve into the superficial part of my masculinity I'm going to say that her rear doesn't come close to what I find attractive at all. It needs lift and just the right amount of elevation away from the body or protrusion (for lack of a better word) to give it that athletic look. Think Isabela from DA2. Miranda has the hips I'm fine with (though it could be a teeny-tiny bit wider), but the butt's not all right. In any case, the way she looks now, might be initially intended, but considering how Liara looked I'm left wondering why Ashley is the way she is if she's supposed to be more femme fatale-ish.
- It is entirely plausible and likely that she was originally envisioned as having a more buxom appearance, just as it is plausible it was done to add sex appeal in the same method that Miranda brought it to Mass Effect 2. Either way, it is a retcon which makes sense due to the graphical limits of the original Mass Effect games and their inability to have too many variations in people. It is also plausible that they used Miranda's model as the basis to start work upon Ashley and would make a lot of sense considering Miranda's model is superior as a graphical model than that of the original Human female models.
- We also should remember that the game is 7-8 months away, which means that what we see of Ashley now is in all probability going to change in some way before the game is released. We should remember that it is essentially a beta version of what we'll see.Regarding the "cat suit" or "bodysuit", I think we can draw enough conclusions from it to understand that it is either her out of armour uniform, her garments beneath her battle armour, or her formal military attire. Ashley was a Soldier, in both Mass Effect 1 and 2. The kind of suit she is wearing would make sense in battle for a character that is of another type, such as a biotic or an engineer. She's a Soldier through and through, so it’s obvious she'll be outfitted like one.
Ashley is quite possibly the most centered female I've ever encountered in a game as opposed to Aveline. Maybe her line about what the kimono did to her sister's figure might be something, but I never got the idea that she didn't accept what she had and loved it because it's her. She owns it, and she's not in some contest to see who can bring the better bust to the table for ogling.Phew, that took a while to write! Man, my fingers ache a bit, hmm.. Anyhow! My personal viewpoint on Ashley's new appearance is that whilst wanting to add alil extra sex appeal to who is likely to be the poster girl of Mass Effect 3,
this new design is closer to her original conception in the minds of those at Bioware. But, let’s look at this from another viewpoint for hypothetical reasons; is it possible that Ashley had herself altered to look this way?
- Though Ashley is as confident as they come, it is also known that she has her weaknesses, and just like every person in the world she likely has parts of her own body which are not quite to her taste. Now let’s take the hypothetical view that her appearance in Mass Effect 1 was exactly how she was intended to look, down to breast size, height, etc. It is entirely plausible that a) she was uncomfortable with their size, and
that she had them altered. It's not outside of the realms of possibility that by then it could be the norm to do such things, especially with the advanced levels of biological engineering mankind seems to be capable of now (what with drugs which claim to help in those departments), let alone in 100 years’ time. Society 100 years from now could take physical alteration as being perfectly normal for all levels of society and be at a cheap enough level for any and all. If they can build a "perfect" woman from a man's cells (Miranda), they could manage that.
I'm fine with the clothes giving the effect (hopefully she didn't seek them out for said effect) that she's bigger than she is, but ME2 already gave me my initial feelings about how women were portrayed in-game. I still can't get over seeing female Shepard's eyes narrow at the comment by the Batarian on Omega. The entire time up until that point I imagined my female Shepard wouldn't react to such a comment because it's childish. I have to reason that my Shepard has a bias towards Batarians and she doesn't like that that one thought to have a laugh at her expense. She doesn't care about the comment. She cares that the Batarian opened his mouth to make it.
- In the less hypothetical circumstance, it is entirely possible that this sudden bust increase is due to the clothing she is wearing. There are already bras out there which give the illusion of a bigger bust, so it’s possible that what she is wearing in the Mass Effect 3 picture is an illusion created by the clothing she is wearing at the time. This could even come from the bodysuit itself.
Conclusion
I'm not sure if I can come to a true conclusion over the Ashley situation, other than that people need to look more closely at the previous games graphics, tech and lore in order to find some method of explaining why they have altered her appearance for the final game in the Mass Effect Trilogy. I personally am happy with her new look, as it finally differs her from the clone bodies of other female Humans in the game and makes her more unique. The only thing I personally worry over regarding the character is whether they keep to her slightly xenophobic and poetic manner along with her slightly macho soldier moments, but I have faith that Bioware will not let me down.
I hope you enjoyed reading, and hope it makes you think more on their design decisions.
I'm glad you like her look, but I can't resolve the way I feel about it. It diminishes her in my eyes. It reduces her to 'T n A' and it doesn't make me happy.
Modifié par Xeranx, 21 avril 2011 - 06:48 .
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