• Announcements

    • Robin

      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
Sign in to follow this  
Tom Sewell

All Things Ashley

Recommended Posts

I just posted a brainstorm about Ashley in the Moar thread which inspired me to start a thread about All Things Ashley (which would have made a better title, but too late now. My brainstorm was that the magnifiying glass mark at the end of the first part of Squirrel Prophet just might be Ashley's. Which leads to the larger question: Does Ashley have any magic talent(s)? Which leads on ultimately to the question of questions: Why Ashley?

Some of my thoughts follow. You may want some coffee or other caffeinated beverage to stay awake.

Ashley Is Lois Lane to Sarah's Lana Lang

Since Elliot himself isn't really up on the whole Superman mythos, I'll explain that Lana Lang is Superboy's first girlfriend, the one he leaves behind in Smallville when he graduates, goes to Metropolis, and becomes Superman. If you don't know who Lois Lane is, shame on you.

I wouldn't put my money on this one, yet.

Ashley Is the Transitional Girl

That is, the girl you date right after a breakup, before you move on to your next serious relationship. In the real world, this would be very plausible. In the Moperverse, maybe less so. The Shive has stated He had wanted to introduce Ashley for a long time before she actually showed up. That's a lot of work for a throwaway character. And Elliot being Elliot, he'll feel obligated to stick with her until he's absolutely sure it's better for everyone to break up. Plus, that's kind of repeating the same thing that happened with Sarah just before Ashley. Now while repeats like that are all too common in realworld, I for one would be disappointed if it happened here, and I might not be alone.

Ashley Is Doomed

One way to remove Ashley is to kill her off. This seems pretty harsh for EGS, but real death has been an occasional visitor to the Mopervers: Damien, Noah's parents, and, most recently, Adrian's dad. This is a trope that gets used quite a lot in the superhero genre and notoriously in long-running series, usually when an actor quits or an actor. It is also a feature of coming-of-age stories, and what is EGS but a teenage soap opera with weird stuff thrown in?

Once again, I wouldn't put my money on it. The Shive was broken up by Daddy Raven's death. Despite the opportunities for some awesome reactions by the rest of the gang to Ashley's death, I don't think it will really happen. Well, I hope not.

Ashley Is Tedd's Sister

Now this one is edging into ASB territory (ASB=Alien Space Bats). But Ashley, like Tedd, is Asian or part-Asian; we haven't seen her parents; and she just might have exhibited some Tedd-like insights. Also she's obsessed with transformations, tends to go on and on about things once she gets rolling, gets into her zone and blocks out everthing else (Ashley at the bookstore; Tedd doing almost anything in the basement.)

Of course, this would seem to mean that Ashley and Tedd are twins. Or does it? We don't know exactly how old Ashley is, and we don't know when Tedd's mom took off. The only time in the entire canon so far that we have seen Tedd and his mom together was when Tedd was such a small baby he probably couldn't stand up yet. Ashley could be only a year younger than Tedd, so it would be plausible they could both be seniors in the same high school. As for why they wouldn't have noticed each other, we do know that Ashley is from California. When did she move to Moperville? Ashley's first appearance in story-time comes after Family Ties, so it's the new year and the spring semester. Ashley could have been at Moperville North for only a few days before she hooked up with Elliot. Another point: Ashley seems surprised that it's going to be very cold somewhere near Chicago in January. Kind of like she still hasn't shaken California out of her head yet, no?

Of course, Ashley isn't one of the three sisters on the title page of Sister III. And Tedd's mom is in Europe, right? Right? Not perchance in Moperville working up to finally seeing her son again face-to-face?

Ashley Is From Another Universe

Nothing at all to support this yet, but Ashley could indeed have come from California--just not the same California as the one in Elliot's universe. Ashley could be completely unaware of this. Her parents could be unaware of this; maybe they made a wrong turn Albuquerque.

Ashley Is Another Catspaw

Someone posited that Ashley is really Pandora on this forum. I'm not sure how serious they were. Anyway, while Pandora could make herself look and sound like Ashley (and Voltaire could at least mimic her voice), we've gotten a lot of Ashley's thoughts from the very first. Ashley is a real person in her own right. Which is not to say she's not being used by someone else. Maybe more than one someone. What could be a motivation for a manipulator like Pandora or Voltaire to bring Ashley together with Elliot?

Pandora might have maneuvered them together for her own amusement, or for deeper reasons. Pandora says in Squirrel Prophet that Tedd is her great godson. Maybe Pandora is afraid Grace will fall for Elliot too and thus hurt Tedd, so Pandora makes sure Elliot gets another girlfriend right after the breakup with Sarah. But who knows with Pandora?

Voltaire might have put them together to set up the incident happened at the mall. If he tried to keep Ashley from intervening once the griffin appeared, it would make him somewhat less evil. Or maybe he was just adding some more spice to his game. I rather think Voltaire is as crazy or crazier than Pandora. That "better world" Voltaire spoke of to The Detective may just mean better for Voltaire.

The Government might have arranged to put Ashley in Moperville as part of a secret policy of concentrating people with detected superpowers, even dormant ones, where they can be more easily monitored.

----

Okay, enough to get this started. Let's have some more musings about Ashley. There are still many unanswered questions, such as why the heck won't her parents tell her where in Asia they come from? I mean, they would really know, wouldn't they? They wouldn't be anything like North Korean sleeper agents, would they?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
18 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

I just posted a brainstorm about Ashley in the Moar thread which inspired me to start a thread about All Things Ashley (which would have made a better title, but too late now.)

Take heart. That is what the moderator is there for. :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Ashley Is Lois Lane to Sarah's Lana Lang

This one fits pretty well as we've so far seen.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Ashley Is the Transitional Girl

While it's certainly hard to say whether or not Elliot will end up proposing to Ashley and them getting married and having kids together, I think they have enough chemistry together for this to last for a while, people (mainly Ellen) had been telling Elliot that he needed to loosen up and Ashley's been able to do that for him, she made him feel comfortable with the whole transformation stuff (it was kind of a sore spot with Sarah) so I'd think Elliot would want to hold onto that for as long as possible. Probably the only surefire way this won't last is if Ashley becomes overwhelmed by all the magic stuff and drama that the main 8 have been dealing with, she may feel like a liability considering she doesn't have much means to defend herself (the soccer ball trick probably won't work again) and wouldn't want to be a burden to Elliot.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Ashley Is Doomed

Dan had enough trouble with writing and drawing the page that mentioned Blaike's death, there aren't enough Seymours in the universe to allow this to happen.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Ashley Is Tedd's Sister

Ashley's stated that while she doesn't know exactly where her family originated from, she knew for certain it wasn't Japan, Nanase's family did originate from Japan though.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Ashley Is From Another Universe

It would have to be a pretty identical universe for her and her parents to be unaware of shifting over, I don't think it's possible to have 2 completely identical universes, it would have to have very subtle differences that they wouldn't know about.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Ashley Is Another Catspaw

Even Dan mentioned hearing about the theory that Pandora was pretending to be Ashley and thought it was ridiculous.

I think Voltaire tried to manipulate Ashley though, when he stopped her briefly at the escalator. He gave her information about the Tara being a knight from another world and mentioned "pawn of chaos", either he was trying to dissuade her from interfering with Tara attacking Elliot, or he wanted her to use that info to put her in a situation where she might end up failing to live up to any promises or something. I dunno if Ashley will play a large role in Sister 3 though, if we do see her, it would likely be at the lunchtable at school with Elliot, Sarah, Susan and Tedd.

 

There was one thing you left out in the list though:

Ashley's mysterious internet girlfriend.

Dan claims that he knows who this person is, which means she's someone we already know about, or someone Dan plans on introducing at some point. I honestly can't see Dan introducing a new character to fill this role, the only plot device I can think of would be the ex took the relationship seriously and somehow tracked Ashley down to Moperville to confront her. That's just too crazy, we already had Diane obsessing over Elliot, bringing in a new character that had obsessed over Ashley doesn't seem right.

That leaves a high possibility of the ex girlfriend being an already existing character. Ashley did say they were "barely old enough to date" so it's likely this happened several years ago, probably early junior high, let's say...4-6 years ago, who do we know of would have wished they had transformation powers? Tedd. 4-6 years ago would place Tedd just before being given the TFG (Tam et Tedd marked 4 years of Tedd working on the TFG), he'd still be in his "mopey, silent nerd" stage but he might have been more open on the internet, and it is evident that Tedd's gender struggle has been around longer than he's had the TFG so I can see him one day looking through forums regarding transformations and possibly experimented with having a female identity for the first time when he met Ashley.

As to the possible plot for this, I can see Tedd being initially embarrassed and ashamed at the fact that he technically lied to Ashley about his gender, I say technically because Tedd didn't know what transgender or genderfluid meant back then, in his mind, it was just some made up persona so Tedd might expect Ashley to be mad about it which probably won't be the case, though I would see Ashley learning more about Tedd and the TFG and getting further into the circle through a plot like this.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

. . . As for why they wouldn't have noticed each other, we do know that Ashley is from California. When did she move to Moperville? Ashley's first appearance in story-time comes after Family Ties, so it's the new year and the spring semester. Ashley could have been at Moperville North for only a few days before she hooked up with Elliot. Another point: Ashley seems surprised that it's going to be very cold somewhere near Chicago in January. Kind of like she still hasn't shaken California out of her head yet, no?

Ashley's been in Moperville long enough to form a close friendship with Liz and to have gone to the movies with her the previous summer. She seems to have been so focused on impressing Elliot that the weather was, at best, a secondary concern. Which is an interesting aspect of her personality--she can get so focused on something (the date, a book) that everything else fades into the background. Just a quirk, or does Dan have plans?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Ashley's been in Moperville long enough to form a close friendship with Liz and to have gone to the movies with her the previous summer.

I forgot that. Shame on me. But Ashley could still have just met Liz that summer. Or maybe Liz used to live in California and was friends Ash, and, like Ashley, had to move to Moperville with her family, only the move came earlier. And if The Shive needs this kludge to retcon Ashley and Liz's backstory, He can have it free, gratis, and without acknowledging I may have thought of it first.

5 hours ago, Scotty said:

Dan claims that he knows who this person is

When and where did The Shive claim this? I'm not disputing it, I just want to know, and I haven't saved all of The Shive's commentaries yet so I can search them.

Tedd being Ashley's ex-girlfriend is an interesting concept, but given how dorky Tedd was before Grace (and Sarah, and Susan) started taking off his rougher edges, I have trouble buying it. Tedd wouldn't have done anything like that after meeting Grace.

However...

Tedd already could change anyone's sex before he met Grace. Now, with that in mind, wouldn't he have at least considered meeting Ashley as a girl? Too bad it's already canon that Ashley never met her internet girlfriend; it could have made for a great flashback sequence.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Sure it isn't Ellen?

Pretty sure.  Ashely doesn't look like like any cat we have seen as yet.  Which is not to say it could be another cat, but my Ashley doesn't talk (or at least not human) and doesn't have a collar, so the change back might be awkward.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
50 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

When and where did The Shive claim this? I'm not disputing it, I just want to know, and I haven't saved all of The Shive's commentaries yet so I can search them.

 

 

51 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

However...

Tedd already could change anyone's sex before he met Grace. Now, with that in mind, wouldn't he have at least considered meeting Ashley as a girl? Too bad it's already canon that Ashley never met her internet girlfriend; it could have made for a great flashback sequence.

As I said, this relationship could likely have happened before Tedd was given the TFG to work on. When William and Gillian stopped by Tedd's place to see if he had made any progress with their human forms, 4 years had passed, so he would have been 13-14 years old when he got the TFG, an internet relationship with Ashley could have taken place the in the year prior to getting the TFG, Tedd would have been wishing he had the ability to change forms which would have fuel the roleplay session with Ashley,  and when William and GIllian first showed up asking for help with the TFG, Tedd saw it as a dream come true which would explain him speaking up for the first time in years.

A twist on that would be if Ashley broke up with Tedd because of not being able to see each other, but Tedd was also worried that if they did see each other it'd break the masquerade he was putting on with saying he was female (again, this is before Tedd knew about proper transgender and genderfluidity) and so the TFG presented an opportunity to let him be female if he ever did get a chance to meet Ashley in person.

Tedd, of course, would have overtime forgotten about Ashley as he got engrossed in playing with the TFG and became the snarky jerk he was before Grace appeared.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, Scotty said:

As I said, this relationship could likely have happened before Tedd was given the TFG to work on.

Yes, and that would mean Tedd would have been no more than fourteen then, as you said. Would any earlier than that be "barely old enough to date" which is what Ashley told Elliot?

 

17 hours ago, Scotty said:

Ashley's stated that while she doesn't know exactly where her family originated from, she knew for certain it wasn't Japan, Nanase's family did originate from Japan though.

She asked her parents. Noriko couldn't possibly have changed her name, could she? And she wouldn't lie, would she? Although technically she wouldn't have been lying about herself; if she went to Moperville South with Tedd's dad, she could well be as native-born American as William and Gilliam. And even if Ashley has perfectly ordinary parents, quite a number of Japanese-Americans changed their names back in World War II, such as the late Jack Soo you might remember from Barney Miller and the the original movie version of Throroughly Modern Millie.

Anyway, I wouldn't bet my own money (of which I have extremely little) on Ashley being Tedd's sister or Tedd being the Mysterious Internet Girlfrine (MIGF). But if Tedd was the MIGF, I can see a really sweet flashback about Tedd almost meeting Ashley but losing his nerve or deciding it's a bad idea or both. Or maybe he actually did meet Ashley when he was in girl-mode, but never identified himself as the MIGF.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Yes, and that would mean Tedd would have been no more than fourteen then, as you said. Would any earlier than that be "barely old enough to date" which is what Ashley told Elliot?

Considering I had a girlfriend when I was 12-13, plus had two friends that had admitted to "dating" each other briefly in 5th grade. I'd say a 12-13 year old Tedd and Ashley being "barely old enough to date" would be plausible.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Going back to Identity, the first thing that Tedd says upon seeing Ashley is "Who is that girl?" so it seems to be canon that Tedd has never met Ashley before. He doesn't even recall her as the girl who dropped her phone that Elliot picked up. Hmm, I just wrote an ambiguous clause, but Elliot does pick up Ashley, just awhile after picking up her phone. So, no flashback to Tedd meeting Ashley or almost meeting her earlier. I mean, in canon. Unless someone writes a fanfic or something. And The Shive is said to frown on that sort of thing.

But that still leaves Tedd as a pretty good suspect for the AMIGF (Ashley's Mysterious Internet Girl Friend.)

BTW, is there anyone who doesn't get that "The Shive" is a riff on "The Lucas"?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Perhaps Ashley and unidentified girlfriend met on text-only forums... in which case it could be Tedd, and he wouldn't recognize either her appearance or her voice.

(Plus, it probably was several years ago - both appearance and voice can change significantly in a couple years at that age.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
29 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Perhaps Ashley and unidentified girlfriend met on text-only forums... in which case it could be Tedd, and he wouldn't recognize either her appearance or her voice.

(Plus, it probably was several years ago - both appearance and voice can change significantly in a couple years at that age.)

Considering all instances of internet communication between cast members has been through an instant messenger program, which is text,  it would be safe to say that Ashley and her girlfriend also used an instant messenger program. At best they would have had avatars, but there's no guarantee that they'd use actual pictures of themselves, Ashley did say that she dressed up for her "date" despite her girlfriend never seeing what she looked like. I never used a picture of myself for anything the first several years I was online. Then again, as evidenced by my lack of avatar on the forums, I rarely had one for anything aside from games.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

Duh. An Elder God of dubious sanity. It was you the dishwasher was trying to summon all this time.

Summoned because the dishwasher needs more tablets.

And all I have are kitchen sinks. It stinks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Duh. An Elder God of dubious sanity. It was you the dishwasher was trying to summon all this time.

Well, that explains a lot.

1 hour ago, Stature said:

Summoned because the dishwasher needs more tablets.

And all I have are kitchen sinks. It stinks.

Right now, I'm down to two that work, unless you count my rather large smart phone that can't be a phone, in which case I have 3.

Or do you mean the soap filled things that dishwashers need?  I've got a good sized bag of those.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On July 27, 2016 at 8:36 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Étienne de Silhouette hasn't been active on this forum since 1767.

And Étienne of Navarre would, of course, be a black silhouette.

On July 27, 2016 at 0:44 PM, mlooney said:

Right now, I'm down to two that work, unless you count my rather large smart phone that can't be a phone, in which case I have 3.

Hmm, I have an iPad with a broken volume button and the corner of the screen cracked, and a Nook Color for which I can't find the power cord.  Both work, per se....

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have one that doesn't have touch capability in the upper half of the screen anymore.

Perhaps we should start a Graveyard of the Damned Electronics.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this