when i'm good and ready.
This page primarily focuses on Ashe's default classic outfits, plural. If you're looking for my thoughts on other specific skins she can wear in game, you'll want to head over to cosmetics and skins.Visual design in Overwatch is particularly important. There's a set of design principles. An enemy's model must be distinguishable from over forty other heroes at a distance; even down to the way they move is telling as to what composition you are up against. A character wearing anything other than their base skin must still be perceivable as that hero, no matter how far from the concept you take it – and Overwatch achieves this with strong silhouettes and each hero having a set of definable features that carry over between skins. You can perhaps get away with not having one or two of these things, so long as the outline, their silhouette, stays the same… but something else in what makes any hero identifiable needs to pull double duty.
Ashe is no exception to this rule. When I think of Ashe visually, certain things come to mind: a pride in who she is, in the Deadlock Rebels. A connection to roses, subtle like the tattoo on her arm or more blatant. Make-up game on point, black eyebrows, red lips. Striking facial features. That one little beauty mark by her mouth. Face sharp and angular, a shock of white hair off-set by blood red eyes. Her colour palette compliments this – she wears black with splashes of white and red, against accented gold. And she looks really, really good.
Even before she stole my heart Ashe's design was probably my favourite of the entire roster in Overwatch 1. The outfit too. Especially the outfit. It's just – it's just so good. Look at her. Look at her. What a design – it's fantastic: a business oriented cowgirl with a twist, in that it's almost steampunk as well as futuristic. The armour, the waistcoat, the iconic popped collar… this is a woman who does not mess around with her wardrobe; she knows what she looks good in and she sells it. She understands the importance of contrast, of first impressions. It's no small wonder she literally steals and proceeds to run the show during Reunion.
It's hard to beat perfection, and honestly, I don't think her Overwatch 2 outfit comes remotely close. That's not to say that I don't like it, because I do. At its reveal, I wasn't a fan, but I've softened to it. It's a slightly more mature flavour veering further down the biker gang slider rather than rich-business cowgirl and it does have its appeal. Her hair's a little funky and the earrings gave me pause at first but, yeah, I can see it. She's forty-one now. We're getting away from the old look she's had for the past twenty years.
Importantly, it still has quintessential design elements that tell me, "this is Ashe". A hat on her head is a must – doesn't matter what kind – there's a cape at her back and usually she's wearing boots, a set of grenades attached to a belt on her waist. Viper is not an accessory but of course it compliments her overall aesthetic, and the only bit of skin that remains visible is her still showing off her tattoo (roses, vines, Deadlock Rebels. Remember that).
Flowers are of significance to Ashe. It's not as overt as say, Lifeweaver, but she's always been depicted with roses. All of her launch skins included a rose in some way; even though she's long left Lead Rose and her socialite life behind it's where she came from, still a part of her. Roses, red roses, are for love. But if you aren't careful they still have thorns to hurt you.
Rare skins are recolours of a hero's classic skin – in Ashe's case, red, blue and green waistcoat variants, or the signature black with a yellow shirt instead of white. Rares are named along a theme, and all of Ashe's rares are named after flowers: Paintbrush - which, in the language of flowers, represents confidence and clarity of thought if a person is embarking on a new life path; Tansy, representing hostile thoughts and for declaring war; Yucca, new opportunities, loyalty, protection and purity; and Sunflower, tall depicting haughtiness, and small adoration. These are very well picked flowers. Ashe is all of these things. She's complex. She also has a bright pink recolour of her base skin with a rose symbol on the jacket fittingly named Thorn. Using flowers so extensively for this site's overall design just made sense to me, given how often they were used for her. Less so now: but I remember.
(When her mythic weapon was revealed, covered in roses, I was very, very pleased.)
Ashe's overall design is one of my favourites for any fictional character. She just has such a presence when placed amongst the rest. I saw someone on tumblr describe it as 'this isn't business casual, this is "business: killing you"' and honestly, yes. She's here to have a great time stealing shit and taking charge and she's going to look good whilst she's doing it. God forbid women do anything.
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