Ashley Graham

Ashley Graham (born 1984 or 83) is the deuteragonist of the 2005 video game Resident Evil 4 and its 2023 . She is the 's daughter who has been held captive by a mysterious and sinister Spanish cult known as Los Iluminados, until she is retrieved by government agent Leon Kennedy.
She was voiced by , who also voices Sandy Cheeks in and Cindy Vortex in . Her face model was provided by Brooke Mathieson.
In the remake, she was voiced by (English) and (Japanese). Her face model was provided by Ella Freya, and her body model was provided by Sophie S.
==Biography==
Ashley Graham was born in the . In 2004, when she was coming home from her university in , Ashley was suddenly kidnapped by mercenary Jack Krauser, who was working for Lord Osmund Saddler, and then taken to Valdelobos, a remote village somewhere in , where she was apparently held prisoner for ransom by the cult, Los Iluminados.
Ashley was discovered by Leon Kennedy, who was sent by the to rescue her, in a church on the outskirts of the village. Shortly afterwards, Leon and Ashley met with Saddler, who revealed that both Ashley and Leon were administered with one of parasitic organisms called Las Plagas, and he himself was planning to bring Ashley back to her father in order to infiltrate and destroy the U.S. government from within.
After escaping from Saddler and the villagers, the two found their way into Ramon Salazar's castle, and later onto Osmund's island complex. Ashley, however, would be repeatedly recaptured by Los Iluminados during Leon's mission and subsequently rescued each time. While at the island complex, the duo found a laser surgery machine built by Luis Sera with the purpose of removing a Plaga internally from its host's body. Leon and Ashley used the machine on themselves, destroying their Plaga parasites and thus removing Saddler's only leverage on them. 
After Saddler was eliminated, Leon and Ashley finally made their escape from the collapsing island on a jet ski left by Ada Wong. Ashley then offered Leon to come over to her place for "some overtime", which Leon politely declined much to her disappointment. Afterwards, the two were picked up by American authorities.
==Appearance==
Ashley is a young Caucasian woman with a slim frame, pale skin, and short blonde hair. She is considerably voluptuous in RE4 (as noted by Luis when first meeting her), but this is toned down in the remake. Her eyes are green in the remake, but light amber in the original, a very rare eye colour.
She wears an orange sleeveless sweater, a dark red sweater tied around her neck, a short green skirt, long brown boots, and a bracelet. In the remake, she also has an orange jacket and dark stockings.
She has two non-canon outfits in the original game. The first consists of tight, light-pink pants with a very revealing shirt in the same colour. The second outfit is a full suit of knight armour; when wearing this outfit, she will strain Leon's back when he catches her from jumping off a ledge.
==Abilities==
Ashley is not a strong person, but she makes up for it by occasionally using her wits, and usually sticking by Leon's side. However, in the version only, she may suplex a Ganado if she pushes a door into him.
==Legacy==
Despite having been heavily criticised in the 2005 game by fans for being a defenseless tagalong character that the player must escort, Ashley works very well in tandem with the player, as she never lags behind Leon when following him and always moves away from his line of fire, either by ducking to the geound or gluing herself to Leon's back. This is more than can be said for other video game escorts, such as the survivors from , or from .
Moreover, some areas contain bins for Ashley to hide in, making it impossible for her to be captured by Ganados. Similarly, she hides in a wardrobe during the cabin fight with Luis, making Leon's job easier. Despite most fans' frustration with escorting Ashley, she only appears in 5-6 of the 18 chapters in the game.
In the remake, she was praised as a character for being more of a teammate to Leon instead of a damsel, as well as being given a real character arc - from being a scared young girl, and turning into a more independant and capable person - and solidifying a true friendship with Leon (and, to a lesser extent, Luis).
==Quotes==
===Resident Evil 4 (2005)===
===Resident Evil 4 (2023)===
==Trivia==
*Her remake outfit is similar to her beta OG outfit.
*She wears Fiona Belli's outfit in the 2007 live-action ad for the version.
*Her phone in the remake is a with 'Sigma Gamma Phi' stickers on it.
*Her knight outfit doesn't appear in cutscenes; instead, it switches to her default outfit.
*If Leon's hands make physical contact with Ashley in the version, his hands will vanish.
*In the Jap version of RE4, the segment where players control Ashley has fixed cameras, like the classic RE games.
*As revealed in the remake, Ashley's prowess to operate a is revealed to be driver's ed class, something she amusedly credited to.
*Her appearance may have been inspired by Rachel MacPherson from , Lisa Rogan from , and Heather Mason from .
*The segment halfway through the game where players control Ashley was the inspiration for , since that game is one of the scrapped versions of RE4.
*She is the protagonist of RE4 Otome Edition, a fan-made which tells the story of RE4 through Ashley's perspective, and how she was captured by Krauser in the first place.
*Ashley's role is similar to the plot of : the president's blonde-haired daughter (Rachel and Ashley) is kidnapped after returning home from uni by a merc (Wild Dog and Jack Krauser) hired by an evil group leader (Sherudo Garo and Osmund Saddler), and is later rescued by a lone agent (Richard Miller and Leon Kennedy) with just a pistol.
*Ashley seeks sex for solace after the stressing events of her abduction, though she only propositions Leon, as she trusts him. This was somewhat toned down in the remake, in which she considered promoting Leon to be her bodyguard in hopes of a similar outcome, seeing him as sort of role model, judging from her interest of becoming a trained agent like him.
*Ashley's aforementioned interest of becoming a trained agent in the remake is attributed to the desire of being able to handle herself should she found herself facing a predicament not unlike with Los Iluminados in the future, and inspired by Leon encouraging her not to fall into panic and despair against adversities. Considering how she still woefully outmatched against the cult's forces in direct combat, this is understandable, despite being more proactive and thus having to rely on her wits, since her original iteration and even Leon still need all the help they can get.
**While inspired by how Saddler mind-controlled her to steal his knife and subsequently attempt to injure him with it in retrospect, Leon doesn't rule out the idea of Ashley having potential to be proficient with knives as much as him, since he suggested her to get knife lessons as alternative to training regiment he went through.
==Licensing==
This article contains content derived from the "Ashley Graham" article on the Resident Evil Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
==External Links==
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