no matter what.

If I want to talk about Ashe, I have to talk about Bob.

They come as a pair. You don't see one without the other. Arguably he's the most important figure in her life. He's her protector, her guardian, her ride or die: the only one who's ever been there for her, always. He can't even speak but she tells him everything anyway. She knows him. She shouts and throws a fit when things go wrong and her expectations aren't met but it's all bluster. Ashe is protective of Bob to the letter – this veers into suppositional voiceline territory of if the cast did interact but, when Ramattra threatens Ashe with the concept of 'freeing' Bob she says in the most threatening, cold tone "you lay one finger on Bob and I'll show you what fear means". She did it once and she refuses to live without him again.

He has her life. She would lay it down for him – she almost does in Luck of the Draw. From someone who is hardly a hero, that says something. She needs him, as much as he needs her.

“ You okay, big guy? Don't you dare pull anything like that again, you hear me? And don't give me that look either. I said what I said and I meant it. Beginning to end, Bob, you and me... you and me. ”
-- Ashe in Luck of the Draw

Ashe is Bob's person, his reason. I've mentioned this previously in Ashe's lore as it's so important, but when the first omnic with sentience, Aurora, sacrificed herself to share that gift amongst her kind and cast off the shackles of Anubis' control, every omnic became aware. "We all have one life. Choose well." The first thing they all experienced was a feeling. When Bob woke up, he had the choice to not return to that previous life of servitude, to do away with employers who saw him as a convenient tool for raising their daughter. But in all those years of not truly being alive, he'd forged a bond – one that was absolutely inseverable. Ashe is not easy to live with. She says things she doesn't really mean, especially as a kid because she's just so angry and alone and there's no one, there's no one who understands her or wants to be in her corner; she wasn't enough as she was or is for her parents, everyone leaves her eventually—

But there's Bob. There's always been Bob and there always will be.

Her parents never perceived him as having agency: they say they'll take him away from her, thinking he's just there to work. And in the end he rebels, cause it was never about them.

And it's like, with Bob choosing her – that's true love. And if that doesn't make you a little bit misty eyed or hit you in the heartfeels, I don't know what will. That's the good shit. He's the family everyone needs. In all but name that's her effective father figure.

“ Bob! Do something! ”
-- Ashe's Ultimate Voiceline

Ashe has a completely unique perspective of omnics that no one else in the roster shares. Null Sector's biggest claim is that omnics have tried co-existence and humans are simply not interested; they are feared, or used. The prejudice runs deep. They are a single generation and many lie dead from human aggression. These events are true: even playable heroes had understandable resentment toward omnics based on what they lived through, and have gone through progression in their individual stories of these views being challenged and softened. Their stances against omnics change. But it does not change the fact that there are humans out there, humans like Ashe, that dismantle Ramattra's entire argument. There are families, composed of humans and omnics: not just where they might be romantically involved but parents and children. Families that have existed since before the first Crisis and still do.

Ashe has spent her whole life shoulder to shoulder with omnics. Since she was old enough to remember she's lived with Bob. Perhaps at first this was not in equality, but then again, she was a child. All she knew was that this butler, somehow, cared about her. Loved her, even. He was never just an object to her and he'll never abandon her. She always saw him as someone even before the Awakening. And if anyone talked badly of him, she'd bite back.

She still does. Beginning to end, Bob. You and me.

Deadlock was, until the introduction of the Phreaks, the only named faction mentioned in the entire lore that treated omnics as equals - and that's a lot of organisations to sift through. Not even the original Overwatch prior to their initial disbandment managed this. It's her way, she says – this is her way. Family is so important for Ashe's character it's the centrepiece of her Origins Story. And in nearly every shot, Bob is present. It's perfectly clear who she's talking about. She dismisses the notion to the Jackpots that the omnics in their company can be used as bait; it's deplorable. They have as much personhood as her human companions have. But this perspective Ashe and Bob share, the world as Ashe knows it, is simply… never utilised – and so long as Ashe remains on the fringes of the lore and just a sour note in Cassidy's past, never will be.

Absolutely integral… nothing. Sure, she wouldn't actively go do it and get involved in the world's problems, but…

Man.

Deadlock Gang

courtesy of the deadlock gang.

The Deadlocks were founded in Ashe's youth: her co-founders being Bob, Cassidy (long gone, betrayer, marked for dead, hate that guy), Frankie, and Bez. They swore themselves, and, "like a real family, once you're in Deadlock, you're in it for life". Frankie and Bez only star in the novel, although they are mentioned again in the short story when Ashe goes to Vegas. The gang members we do see on screen are the triplets, Terran, P.T. and Zeke, and a sniper rifle wielding sharpshooter omnic, Bars.

Ashe has a great deal of respect for Bars. Bars is mentioned a few times in-game in Ashe's voicelines: if she hits a headshot at long distance she sometimes comments "that shot would have made Bars proud", and it was with the addition of her being mentioned in voicelines that we also learned Bars' pronouns and that she identifies as female. Which is a rather rare occurrence, actually – the majority of named omnics are male, all the playable omnics are male… Orisa and Echo were made after Aurora's departure and are thus not omnics by definition. All of the named female omnics are not active fighters… except for Bars. Her design doesn't even suggest stereotypical femininity, and that's such a win? There's potential there, and she certainly is on my now very short wishlist of characters I'd love to actually one day see in the game.

To Ashe, the Deadlock Rebels are her family. Everything she does is for this family: that's her modus operandi. Ashe's monologue in her Origins Story is not just a sad tale about herself and the neglect she went through with her parents, but about how the gang operates. Her fellow founders made a bond forged in fire, one of understanding from the shared experience and fall-out of the first Omnic Crisis and the many children displaced from it and suffering as a consequence. Bob fought in it, as did every other omnic who's joined up with the Deadlocks. Of course, Ashe was not directly affected – if anything the profits for Arbalest Arms boomed in the aftermath – but she chose this involvement. She cast her lot in with the people who showed her respect and love. She was thrown out of the nice cushy life she might have inherited and used everything she taught herself to provide for the people she cared about, and always keeps her word. They share in the success. If something goes wrong, they fix it. For Ashe, it's difficult to remove the personal from business, because it's everything to her. The very language she was taught. The way she makes a mark, her legacy…

Deadlock is the place she belongs. With people who like her as she is, no matter what they are; who helped her understand what happiness was, that gave her more to feel than just calculating anger and crippling loneliness. Maybe it's not the most effective, bloodthirsty way for her to put family first… but she has to prove that she's better than the place that birthed her. To them, and herself.

And she doesn't steer them wrong. She upholds their trust in her. Deadlock as a faction was such a threat that when she wasn't even twenty years old Overwatch did a whole sting operation on them to try to bring order to the region… which they ultimately failed at, by the way. Ashe did it. She fixed the problem. Maybe not in their intended way, but there's order and honour amongst thieves now.

Deadlock might not be the biggest fish in the sea, but I've always liked how a lot of the minor factions in the lore are headed by successful women.

Cassidy

Cole Cassidy is incredibly charming, charismatic, and well-liked by his peers; ironically cherry-picked by one of his former commanders to recruit the next generation of Overwatch, despite never having led a thing in his life. Cole was there in Deadlock from day one. He was the person Ashe chose to make a partner in crime of – and without her, would have spent his young days languishing away directionless on a Megafarm. Following Overwatch's sting operation on Deadlock Cassidy took the fall, being given a choice of prison or Blackwatch: the hidden arm of Overwatch and its undercover operations such as the one he was currently experiencing, and he chose the latter.

It's not until twenty years later that he saunters back in to Ashe's life, with the sole reasoning being to use her; to betray her.

“ There we were, watching the world’s most well-guarded train wind across that purple valley. And I said to Ashe, "You... sure about this?" And she said... well, I can't repeat what she said in polite company. ”
-- Cassidy voiceline during set-up

You can frame that how you want, that Ashe could have just left with the rest of the cargo and let him have the one thing that he wanted, but she figures out she's being used for herself. It's been years since he was freed from Overwatch's grasp when they disbanded, making a nuisance of himself as a bounty hunter; he's had plenty of time to come home. But there was no toppling that train without Deadlock to do it for him. And it gets worse. It gets so much worse.

Their relationship is left deliberately ambiguous. The devs have mentioned in the past they never dated, but they were close – family. Found family. The kind that's gone to hell and back and proved it. And most importantly they were each other's respective first person to take the other seriously – who thought they could be and were worth something good. Regardless of romantic inclinations or not, that's absolutely a recipe for a first crush. And the most interesting aspect to me, is the answered question – what happens when your found family chooses someone else? When they decide what you were isn't good for them anymore… and perhaps never was?

It hurts her and Ashe doesn't like being hurt. Cole walks back in but it isn't for her. After twenty years of hanging on a hope Ashe realises that he's decided Deadlock, her because she's synonymous with it, isn't what he needs. He's got himself a new family – and in that moment he's her parents. Abandoning her again, albeit slowly. Leaving her. She waited and he was already gone. She never even knew. Didn't have the decency to even tell her, just assumed she'd have moved on too.

“ Can't exactly say it's nice to see you again. ”
“ Bite me. ”
“ I'd rather bite the dust. ”
“ Good. I'll kick some up for you. ”
-- Cole and Ashe spawn room interaction

She's sentimental. She wouldn't have kept the photo from simpler times on her bike's speedometer if she weren't: a photo that's scuffed and folded and torn up in a fit of rage, almost burned but she couldn't do it, cause she can't bear the thought of being left behind again and she won't do it first, she just won't. Ashe says after he's gone that she hates him and she does – but deep down she still cares and that makes it intolerable. Worse because he was there, he knows what her parents did and didn't do and how it's always been a thorn in her heart. She can't break a single one of her rules about dealing with someone that's betrayed her – particularly when it's a founder – not to mention the tarnishing of her reputation. And so she swears herself vengeance on the man who's sorely wronged her.

So be it then, if that's what he wants.

There's a lot of ways the reunion could have gone. He can talk himself up as someone who wants to save the world and do the right thing, but she knows where he came from. Cole decides all of it. He burns his bridge. He's always been more of a lone wolf than she is. He doesn't solely betray her, he takes advantage of her hesitation - no, spurns her good will - and humiliates her. And what for? What are Cassidy's motivations and thoughts other than retrieving Echo, how he feels about how Ashe didn't come to break him out, about the man he's trying so hard to not be anymore but just continues to unintentionally double down and enforce that he is? Does he feel resentment towards her? Bitterness? The problem with Ashe is, she's possessive once she's attached. She won't let him out. It's suffocating. Is that it?

We don't know. Cassidy's perspective on his encounter with Ashe is left unexplored - even now so many years later, cause he's tied up in the main story, his history with Ashe a minor detail when he's already got so much else going on. Unfortunately this is what Overwatch lore is like – a half-baked cake that's got gooey molten bits still inside. It's such an intricate jigsaw, one that drew all of us in and made us want more narratively of what is fundamentally a multiplayer first person shooter experience, and some puzzle pieces are beautifully detailed – but the ones inbetween are sketched out and vague, left open to the imagination, that might be returned to one day. Which I'll add is great for writing fic: it's why I so enjoy shuffling Overwatch characters around, because in some ways they're blank slates of firm traits and personalities that you can make react to things and develop on your own. Writing in established settings and universes is what I prefer. But lore like this is just so rough for Ashe when all she has to connect her to the present narrative is a grudge she didn't even introduce, when for Cole it's just a footnote. It's a tough one, because I love this aspect of her all-consuming fury. I don't necessarily want it resolved. Just, acknowledged. Ashe is so loyal it hurts. Cole's unintended disloyalty to everything he's involved in is such an interesting parallel. Make the man grapple with the consequences of his actions: and delve more into Ashe and give her some connections, please.

That's the theme of this page, really. The foundations are so good… but they're not used.

The saddest part about the bad blood is that I think if he'd come to her upfront and asked – after she'd have yelled at him a fair bit for his lack of contact – Ashe would have helped him. Literally for old time's sake. Maybe not in challenging the gang's principles about providing ordinance to whoever'll pay for it but she would. If she knew what Echo was, I don't think she would have sold her. She might not be an omnic, but Ashe has such a link to sentience in robots and their personhood she just— wouldn't. Yet if he had been honest, it would have given Ashe the opportunity on doubling down that he belongs to Deadlock and Cole doesn't want to be anymore.

Instead Cassidy makes his bed, dismantling both omnics, stealing her bike, and leaves Ashe and her enterprise in tatters, rather than be direct about it. A man would rather do all that than get therapy. Good job, Cole.

A terrible, terrible man.

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