LessThanKate wrote...
I do have to say, it's not the criticism I resent, it's the...manner in which it's given. Like, "Nice suit, Ashley, give it back to Miranda,", like only Miranda can pull it off, like we can give her some sort of poetic license but Ashley is not allowed such a luxury. Or like every other female in the series can dress completely inappropriately for heavy combat, but when one more does it---and she's by no means the worst offender--it's suddenly an issue.
And I've said it before, but I really dislike the constant mentioning of Miranda.
That being said, even though I found Ash's outfit acceptable--not great, acceptable--I am relieved she'll get to wear armor. Since in ME2 everyone had their own unique look, I'll take a guess and say her suit serves as the bare template, for which various kinds of armor can be added upon.
Being one of those who don't like it I would like to say that it's not about Miranda being able or not able to pull it off. I don't think she does. My first playthrough had me rolling my eyes at anything Miranda said regarding her looks or whenever it was brought up. I just found her ridiculous. The fact that she clears the engine room just to get it on with Shepard only serves to heighten that feeling. Granted when it came to the direction of the women in-game and Thane, and Jacob...I think that's it, I couldn't not find something that I felt was face-palm worthy.
While Jack was a cliche that surprisingly didn't want to get it on with female Shepard (not that I had any intentions of pursuing her. I just hated how much of a cliche she was and never wanted her from the outset of her first video reveal), I felt that Miranda was an insult to me. Not me personally, but the part of me that considers myself a mature adult male. The camera angles didn't help either. So when I see Ashley in that get-up I'm not thinking that she can't carry that look. She can. I just think she's being diminished. ME2 set a bad precedent in my mind and I'm not comfortable with someone upending a character for what seems to be sexual gratification on whatever level they're going for.
Ashley's look in E3 and the recolor picture is why I have constantly made a reference to my thinking this is Bioware's retaliation against L'Etoile. Looking at his blog it would appear that conflicts in the writing of ME resulted in Drew's move to TOR. Enter Mac Walters whose direction, as evidenced by the comics, leads me to believe that there was more conflict and L'Etoile left what he felt was a bad situation. I don't know the specifics, but with what's available I can only make assumptions as reasonably as I know how.
I do have to say that I'm surprised in how people want everyone to just relax because the looks of the character may not mean much in-game when gaming is first and foremost a visual medium. We have to look at these images, characters, and lanscapes during the course of the game. Every visual piece adds to the atmosphere that's supposed to invoke a particular or several types of feelings in any one area at any time. So if I see one character that was written a certain way in what's supposed to be the foundation of the series looking contrary to what her views were in that foundation, I have no other option than to judge that book by its cover. So I and anyone who expresses derision towards that look are expressing what we feel is a hijacking of Ashley's character before it's set in stone of what's supposed to be the roof of (what many deem) a straw house on top of a strong foundation.
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