Exactly this, she has a character arc in the game in that she starts off as a relatively helpless college student thrust into an extreme situation and learns how to take agency in the situation. It’s not like Leon’s going to give her a gun given that she’s untrained and more susceptible than him to Saddler’s mind…

I guess we’ll never know why this was written or why someone would be concerned with characters named Ashley

She’s 2o years old and in a terrifying situation. Of course she’d be a shadow to the grown man trained agent who is saving her life ever few minutes. This isn’t a 2005 vs 2023 treatment of females issue.

Why does this have such a “men are pigs” undertone. I would have enjoyed a more in-depth opinion piece about how Ashley is portrayed in the remake but this soured it.

This part seems unfair, perhaps this is how the writer felt in 2005.
“This problem might not have bothered 2005 RE4 players as much; they were satisfied…

I don’t think they took out any dialog that ties Krauser to Leon, honestly. We saw them knife sparring in the beginning cutscenes when Leon talks about training, and Krauser himself talks about Operation Javier, to which Leon reacts accordingly instead of giving very stilted exposition. They’re not explaining what…

To be fair to Ashley, I’d probably behave in the same way she does, if I were put into the same situation. And I resemble a partially-shaved gorilla.

Well, I am talking like, historical context here. RE7/8 are obviously better written then RE2/3, but the bar for good game writing now is significantly higher than it was in the 90s. By the standards of the day, RE1, 2 and 3 were not incredible, and RE1 was famously bad, but so was almost every other game outside of…

Yeah I can't agree with the originals being better writing wise.  Like the hokey voice work and absurdity was a charm but it hurt any emotional attachment.  Starting with RE7 they started taking things seriously enough so that scenes like Jack Bakers farewell, Annette Birkens passing and eveything that befalls Ethan…

Yep when Saddler controls Ashley she fights back enough to shoot two cultists and not Leon. That’s definitely some nice characterization. Also Luis is waaaaay better here. In the original he’s just a former cop with science skills who Saddler trusts. The added info about being a villager whos grandfather was burned…

Wow... I genuinely thought she was about as obvious an improvement as you could get.  The voice actress is very talented, she's not an annoyance that screams three generic lines.  She makes corny jokes, she helps out in fights like the knights, is more mature and not sexualized.  They toned down the number of…

This take might be worse.

Ofc, Capcom those sexist pigs making shitty girl characters for RE4 in 2005.
Sooooo glad they finally made strong female characters like Jill Valentine -9 years later for RE1 in 1996.

You may have missed a lot of Ashley’s situational dialogue. There are moments that don’t always trigger. Like taking her to the body of the first Garrador. As the game progresses, she gets more confident. By the time you reach the island, she’ll even kill a Regenerador if it follows you to the bridge she’s holding up.

Sounds more like you’ve just grown out of the series more than anything. RE7 WAS the God of War style reboot. If that didn’t get your interest, then nothing else will.

The concluding statement implies that the RE series writes male characters well which is...debatable at best. Ethan’s defining characteristic is “his hand gets fucked up a lot.” I don’t necessarily disagree with any of the critiques here but it’s not like there’s this huge disparity between the quality of the male and…

This is a bananas awful take 

I see your point and respect your opinion. But I find issue with this statement:

i’m surprised you dont drag silent films for not letting the women speak.

That’s a take I guess. I found her to have way more personality and development in the Remake personally. 

Every character in this game is about as deep as a thimble. The narrative is simply a driver for the game to go to different environments and situations. There is nothing in the game beyond “We must win.” That being said, because this is a video game, there are many other elements that can delight the player besides…