Tagging spoilers just in case. Faerne is such an interesting character type and I love it so much. Ashley Johnson may actually be a Fey spirit herself because her capacity to embrace chaos is just such a fun thing to watch. I’m sure her alignment is chaotic good/neutral, but she is playing as close to pure chaos as possible to still be functional in a group.
I always loved Ashley in both campaigns, but it feels like she has found her sweet spot as the strange and curious fey. I think my favorite is that she is completely unaffected and unafraid.
I'm not crying, you're crying. Ashley's shy vocals paired with the slowed tempo hits so hard
I’m a huge fan of Critical Role, and love her as Pike/Yasha/Fearne, so I was thinking of watching Blindspot to get more Ashley. The only issue is I’m not quite sure how prevalent Ashley’s character is on the show. Is it worth watching just for her?
tl;dr: I love seeing LGBT+ reps in all media, but I'm calling ND out for how and why they chose to include them in TLOU2.
It reeked of them trying to have their cake (appeasing LGBT fans) and eat it too (appeasing homophobes). Druckmann repeated it ad nauseum in every interview after it released, and in a talkshow with IGN Johnson said Ellie just had a "I have to kiss you right now" moment, which... makes absolutely no sense.
Fast forward 6 years to TLOU2's release and the second Ellie trailer we get features her kissing another woman. If ND had just stuck to their guns and said "Ellie likes women, deal with it" back in 2014, this would be fine. In fact, I would have been out there with IGN and all the other mindless stans praising ND for making a well-loved character a LGBT rep AND the lead of their next big game. After the mess in 2014 though, it just reeks of the staff looking at how the discourse about LGBT people shifted over the intervening 6 years and thinking "hey, we can make a lot of money with this" and I absolutely hate it. It makes me incredibly skeptical of Lev's portrayal too, since his transgender-ness doesn't actually affect his story in anyway (being >!a child bride forced into marrying an old man at the head of a mad cult is more than enough reason for a young teen and their sister to want to escape said cult!<), so this also just makes me think it was a last minute change to drum up more publicity.
I had doubts about TLOU2 ever since it was announced with the tagline "this is a story about hate", but this blatant backtracking is something that's been bugging me ever since the aforementioned trailer and I've never heard anyone discussing it, so wanted to ask if anyone else felt the same way. I've seen a mix of both supportive and critical opinions on here, so hopefully people take the time to read this before assuming I'm just a troll or homophobe or something. Fingers crossed!
Edit:
I’m pretty new to critical role, I’ve seen exandria unlimited and am now pushing through campaign 2. I’m on episode 11 and Ashley Johnson kinda just disappears for certain episodes. Is that because of something with the story(no spoilers) or was she doing some other project like last of us 2 or smth.
The last two campaigns had to navigate around Ashley's filming schedule, now I feel like we finally get to see her develop along with the rest of the group in a way that's not a jarring as c2 felt at times. C1 had the home-start advantage so the chemistry with Pike was already there when she did come back for a few episodes, or tried to join via Skype (but even then it was through divine intervention that she was there, just to make it easier to explain away whenever Skype calls dropped).
But now we have our girl! Ashley Hype!
So, as many of us know who watched season one, Pike wasn't around very much during the Briarwood Arch due to Ashley's acting career. She occasionally showed up though as a mystical figure through her connection with her God. Do you critters think that they'll be keeping this in the show or ret-con her lack of involvement and allow her character to stick with the rest of the cast?
I'm on C2E52. The Mighty Nein are currently in freaking Xhorhas and I'm missing Yasha's presence.
When does Ashley return as a consistent part of Critical Role?
Trying to find a version of just Ellie singing the full thing
Send some love to our favourite gnome cleric, aasimar barbarian, faun druid and of course the incredible Gale on her special day. Can't wait to see what amazing character she comes up with next and Ashley being present for the entirety of a campaign. And if for some reason she can't, then you can just gag me with a spoon.
Also if you feel inclined you can make a donation in Ashley's name to the Critical Role Foundation.
But only if she wants to of course. Still, if she has any inclination I think she should give it a go. She would be amazing and would bring a much needed breath of fresh air to the series.
Alright, so been rattling my head over why Flo’s daughter (played by Kiki May) looks so familiar.
Well, it finally hit me and it’s the actress Ashley Johnson from Growing Pains.
That is all. 😅
Edit: I think in my excitement I didn’t word my post properly 😅 - so, let’s try this again:
I kept thinking the actress Kiki May looked very familiar..it turns out the actress that I was thinking about is Ashley Johnson. I think my wording implied that Flo’s daughter is played by Ashley Johnson.
I don't watch on Twitch or YouTube. I listen on Spotify and it's not there or at least I'm not seeing it. Has it not happened yet? Wasn't it one of the things unlocked with their huge Kickstarter that raised $11 million?
She’s had much experience playing teenage girls with varying levels of trauma like Ellie (Last of Us), Terra (Teen Titans) and Tulip/Lake (Infinity Train). So for me she works perfectly for a teenage girl that has ALL the trauma. (Physical, Mental and maybe even spiritual). So she’s who I hear whenever I read her POVs.
TL;DR: Neil Druckmann has subverted Ashley Johnson’s work in TLoU, ignoring her performance and even one personal trait of hers in order to push his one and only right interpretation in the “sequel”, undermining the whole story and Ellie’s development in the process (along with Joel’s), in a clear case of the artist desiring to be greater than his own creation. Ashley was also robbed when she lost a lot of performance awards (including TGA’s and BAFTA’s), which is not a criticism over Laura Bailey’s work but a statement that Ellie was much more complex than Abby. None of this mess would probably have happened if Bruce Straley was still in charge at Naughty Dog.
Ashley’s performance in TLoU’s ending meant nothing
>“It’s funny because that ending, everybody’s interpreted it so differently. In my mind, Joel and Ellie have already gone on this whole journey and Ellie is fully prepared – if finding the cure and getting the cure means dying – then so be it. But finally having a connection and a relationship with somebody, that becomes more important because it’s like, I’ve finally connected with somebody in this world. If your choice is to save me over everybody else in the world then… ok. I trust you now and let’s live life.” (Ashley Johnson, 2013)
This is Ashley’s interpretation over TLoU’s ending and especially what Ellie’s “Okay” meant. She, just like any other person who played the game, was allowed to have said opinion (or any other possible one) because the ambiguity of that scene was part of the game’s brilliance.
Subjectively, there were never wrong answers about that ending because our individual interpretations paved the way on how each one of us experienced the game. Objectively, however, it’s important to highlight that her words actually summarize the best possible outcome from a pure writing standpoint, because it elevates Ellie as a character, making her much more compelling:
- She was smart enough to connect the dots and to realize that Joel was lying to her. On the contrary, if she had bought into his lie, that would destroy her established development as a smart kid (so, bringing a problem in her narrative);
- She was more complex for realizing that her relationship with Joel was more important to her than her own immu
Trying to find a full version of Ellie singing the song
