If you don't like her, that's fine. I'm not trying to convince you to like her.
She just isn't the sociopath you think she is. Ashley is a broken person and does heal. She is also not the only character with a few bigoted views at first. F&E are very classist and rude, as just one example. These are plot points that eventually become resolved, as is the nature of a story. Rags to riches, in a sense.
I agree, a lot of the characters do have bigoted views however they are at least civil to an extent. My only point was that while the other characters such as F&E may be rude, they are never threatening to anyone else and at worst attempt to stir up problems which gets shut down quickly. Ashley is the only one of the cast who actively goes out of her way to consistently threaten and assault which seems out of place from the other cast.
I understand that Ashley may be your personal favourite character as the writer and I dont wish to berate the writing as a whole as it is genuinely excellent for the rest of the cast, however it would at least be nice to have an option to call her out when she is out of order instead of being forced to go along with it.
Maybe it would be worth slowing the escalation the more friendship you have with Ashley as currently if you dont do her story but do everyone elses, everyone else is facing their demons and overcoming trauma, meanwhile Ashley is running around like a mad-woman brandishing knives and attacking people and that's at friendship level 13, which is normally the point where you understand someones backstory enough to get an idea of who they are and how to fix their issue. You also dont fix someone with those kinds of issues by going along with their defence mechanism. Heck if you could call Ashley out and it lowered her affection then that would make sense. It could also introduce a mechanic where sometimes you need to be cruel to be kind like you do with Lin and her story of becoming free. As a mechanic, it could be a puzzle of sorts and would give you as the writer more opportunities to add even more depth and approaches to each girl.
I genuinely dont mean what I am saying here as an insult as there is a lot here to love and I want to see it improve even more than it already is, however I fear that anyone who has had to deal with the aftermath of an Ashley in real life will not take kindly to her actions and may be taken out of the game's world as a whole due to there being no choice to say she is in the wrong.
What can I say? I already understand you don't like her. The points about you not liking it are clearly understood by now.
Ashley however isn't the crazy sociopath you claim she is. She isn't going out of her way to start fights (though she does engage in them early on, like you said, defense mechanism), or attacking people with knives, nor does MC go along with any of that. Friendship 13 is very early in her story. You also don't fix a broken person by being cruel to them (which is also not something you do in Lin's story?) You have a very wrong impression on her character and story, simply because you haven't played all there is yet. Others can attest to this. I hope anyone who deals with any Ashley in real life doesn't think they're just a sociopath who attacks people.
If you want to argue with the writer over the intent of a character you haven't fully experienced, this isn't a conversation I want to further engage with.
Oberon--follow Ashley's story through. I was a bit put off as well, but the pay off is worth it, as it lead to, to me, some of the most touching emotional scenes of the game.
Runey--May I just start off by pointing out I would absolutely never have thought I'd talk about "touching emotional scenes" in a sex-oriented game? Much kudos for that.
That said, I get Oberon's points, the character's extremeness can be difficult to come to grips with to begin with, and, more importantly, there doesn't seem to be much motivation for MC to allow her actions toward the other characters -- especially if you've advanced them more. For instance <spoiler>I advanced F&E to where they had their heartfelt moment with Ashley, but then advanced Ashley a bit more and so almost immediately after Ashley seems to be warming up to them, she then turns and runs the blackmail on Felicity.</spoiler> For me, it kind of broke immersion and I was like, "Why would MC just let this happen to these girls he's just enlightened some?" I wonder if this kind of thing might be alleviated by giving MC some dialogue options that at least indicate his disapproval of the infighting. Or alternatively, for some of the more extreme actions, such as the knife threatening, bring in a character like Ellen to take control of and have sympathy for, thus giving MC a reason not to simply toss her out for threatening other guests.
Basically, I wouldn't want a couple of rough patches put players off from following what is an otherwise amazing story arc.
Regardless, thanks for this, it's broadened my idea of what might be possible in an adult-themed game.