In honor of Women’s History Month, Byte is doing a month long Byteing Question about the most iconic female characters and why they matter. Every day two writers will look at two characters that are important to them in many different ways. Today, we look at Ashely Graham and Gwen Stacy
by Ian Pemberton
Resident Evil 4 is rightfully known as a ‘modern classic’ of the Resident Evil games. The tense gameplay moments where you limp out of a boss fight with three bullets, a hand grenade, and a room full of zom- sorry, I meant ‘Ganados,’ all crying for your brains and you have to use your wits to survive? Almost everything in the game seems to sort of click in just the right way with just the right controls for it all, excusing one part here or there.
True to its name, the game actually went through around four prototypes before the lead director Shinji Mikami (former producer of the previous prototypes) finally told the rest of the team that they were going to focus on action rather than horror and got to work on what we now know as the finished product.
But here’s the rub: whose idea was it to put in Ashley in the game? According to the Wikipedia page it’s been in there ever since around the second prototype or so. I’m serious. Whose idea was it to have a fema- no, a girl character who yells at the top of her lungs whenever she needs her shoe tied.
Look, I know that this might seem churlish to point out, but when even the voice actor of the character notes that Ashley is, "vulnerable, because Leon has to come to her rescue all the time,” that’s when you might need a rewrite or two. She’s so notoriously hated in the community that even the speed runners dislike her, and they’re a very patient group.
The way that it works in-game is pretty simple. In terms of the story, she’s the president’s daughter that you must rescue. I understand that she’s not exactly been trained for special ops, but she should at least have been taught how to hold a gun by someone by this point in time in her life.
Really all she can do to help you out is pull a lever that you can’t reach here or there, and that only happens for a few rooms. Other than that, she gets scared and hides from your gun (although you can still kill her, but the game doesn’t like it), but all she can do is hide in a bin while you sort out the undead legions yourself.
So either way you look at it, love her or hate— who am I kidding, hate her or hate her more, she’s basically just dead weight in both the story and the gameplay. She only exists to look pretty (even in her suit of armor), and doesn’t do much for helping women wear more pants in general in the world. While yes, she adds challenge, she doesn’t help you like other characters do, and she merely adds frustration. But at the same time, the game wouldn’t have been the same without her. Because as a player, you need someone or something to get angry at. And with someone so easily blamable waiting around like a baby holding candy precariously? It’s like— oh, you know.
by Nick Dowell
Gwen Stacy is an interesting woman to write about. Much like Spider-Man, she has existed in several different iterations, from comics to TV to movies. For the longest time, all she really did was die in The Amazing Spider-Man #121 and #122.
After that, she kind of fell off the back burner until Ultimate Spider-Man started. In this series, Gwen not only lived, but became Carnage for a little while. Then in 2011, when Miles took over as Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe, Gwen sort of faded out of existence with the rest of the cast. Technically, she’s dead since the Ultimate universe was destroyed, but welcome to comics.
Gwen Stacy as we know her now came into existence in 2014 as a teaser character to Marvel’s Spider-Verse event. She was put in a one-off comic that received universal love (from me, especially). Marvel did not expect the punk-rock iteration of Gwen Stacy to receive the praise that it did, but boy did they cash in on it.
In 2015, Spider-Gwen started, turning Gwen Stacy into the superhero that nobody knew they wanted. In her universe, Peter Parker was the one who died with her partially to blame. It’s been a constant ride watching that kind of fallout, especially since we would always see Peter mourning Gwen’s death.
Spider-Gwen kicks butt, plain and simple. As a character, she’s so easy to root for. She’s endearing, funny, and an all-around good character. She’s also proof that even the most outrageous ideas can turn into something revolutionary. Spider-Gwen is a household name to several comic book fans. Her story personally reignited a love of Marvel that was slowly dying after months of relatively boring comic book series.
Gwen may not have the same impact on the Spider-World that Mary Jane Watson does, but she’s made me remember why I love the Spider comics. At the rate things are going, Gwen is set to replace Peter Parker as my favorite superhero of all time.
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