Youth4Ever wrote...
I think Allers was referencing the loss of the 212 and perhaps Kaidan on Virmire. Maybe Shepard's death, maybe even her father's death. It's not clear. There has been a lot death, a lot of loss in Ash's life recently. You could even count Thomas, her brother-in-law, as his death had a big impact on her and her sister Sara, their relationship.
Death closes all... Ash has almost died quite a few times in the series, also. Had a few close calls.
No doubt she's been rather unlucky. I mean, she has a few highlight reel worthy accomplishments and memories, but there's been a lot of tough sledding in the life and times of Ashley Williams. Eden Prime, Virmire, Horizon, Mars, the Coup Attempt. That's just what we know about. I remember in ME1 she says bad things happen to her but she just doesn't tell anyone about it and if you stayed with her long enough she might tell you about some of them. Short end of the stick, indeed.
That's sort of true. I hope she gets better post war.
However, you also could see it the other way around: not death follows Ashley, but Ashley is a survivor. Get what I mean?
She's the only survivor of the 212. The only one. And you find her still fighting against all odds. She didn't look like a coward that abandoned her unit to see another day. Nope. She just had the skills and some luck to stay alive until Shepard arrived to save her ass.
No idea how long the fight was going on already, an hour, maybe two? It's not clearly stated. Maybe it was even less than half an hour which means, she survived a slaughter where hundreds of soldiers died.
Ash is a (sole) survivor.
You can play it that trope straight on Virmire again: by not helping Kirrahe while infiltrating Saren's facility. In that case, Kirrahe and his squad dies, while Ashley survives the fight. Don't forget Kaidan.
But technically, it's not Ashley's fault the STG team died. It was Shepard's fault in that case. Doesn't change the fact Ash is the only survivor of her team on that mission.
Trope not fully played in that way in the beginning of ME2: Ashley is not the only survivor of the Normandy, but one of few. I don't get it why ppl say "almost everyone of the Normandy got saved" - 20 died. It's funny since you never saw 20 crewmen in ME1 - there were less on board. Even if some of them were sleeping (did you see any crew quarters?), I doubt the SR1 had much more than 30 crewmen plus officers and Shepard's squad. Which means, more than half of the crew died in that attack. Just for the record.
Ashley made it out of that mess, just in time, she's a survivor AGAIN. And she didn't want to go.
It is, however, played straight on Horizon. This time, there was nothing she could do, without Shepard she would have been abducted and liquified
- god thanks the Collectors rather picked up civilians than the only Alliance soldier on that planet.
Which is interesting, by the way. Was Ash really the only Alliance presence on the planet? I didn't see any other soldiers, so the answer should be "yes". We know Ashley's priority wasn't to get the guns back online but to investigate Cerberus involvement with the abductions, so she was already used as a "special agent". It becomes even more "special" since Anderson requested her presence. Guess he simply trusted her most.
Again, Ash is a survivor, although this time, she definitely needed Shepard to survive.
The trope gets suppored and subverted in ME3: somehow, Ash made it to the Normandy on Earth. So did Vega and most of the Normandy's crew as well. The game itself tells a lot of crewmen of the SR2 became part of the crew since they were on board when the Reapers attacked: like the two doorguards and Traynor.
On Mars, however, Ashley was the one who gets brutally battered to pulp by Eva Core. End of luck? The survivor finally nearly died, so to speak. That one scene subverts the trope, 'though it gets reinforced by the following third of the game: Ash recovered within 2 or 3 weeks. That's what I'd say it took to form the Krogan-Turian alliance and before Udina tried to seize power.
Rest of game is all about survival. Facing Banshees, taking dowm Brutes, being swarmed by Husks? Ash got through all that mess. She even survived the final battle, the final charge ...
It's not that Death is following Ashley. She just survived against all odds. That alone proves she's Spectre material, that alone shows her fighting spirit. Yeah, Ashley saw a lot of good friends dying. But she never gave up and surrendered to grief.
I like that interpretation more than "death seems to follow her".
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