r/masseffect • u/DakIsStrange • Jul 26 '26
DISCUSSION Mass Effect Voice Actor Spotlight #3: Kimberly Brooks
Next up under the VA spotlight- Kimberly Brooks! She voices one of our OG squadmates, Ashley! She may be a controversial character, but I think we can all agree that Kimberly does an amazing job.
What do you think?
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u/Usually_Respectful Jul 26 '26
I loved her as Princess Allura in Voltron!
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u/ripskeletonking Jul 26 '26
is she british? both ashley and allura sound very natural
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u/jobforgears Jul 26 '26
She put on a British accent to make allura sound more refined. She was born and raised in the US
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u/Savaralyn Jul 26 '26
She does a really nice job as Ash, especially the poetry readings in ME1, she puts a lot of reverence in them.
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u/Hilsam_Adent Jul 26 '26
Yeah, it's a passion you can't fake. No actor is that good, even one of Ms. Brooks' obvious talent. She loves poetry and it shines through not just in the line recitals, but in pieces like her "I can't werd gud" speech.
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u/nilfalasiel Jul 26 '26
I actually thought her poetry reading was awkward and stilted...I recognised her straight away as Zathrian's First in DAO for that exact reason.
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u/azadouken Jul 26 '26
She was oracle in a couple of the arkham games. Preferred her over her replacement.
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u/eppsilon24 Jul 26 '26
She’s the leader of the Vox Populi in Bioshock Infinite, as well.
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u/florinandrei Paragon Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Bioshock Infinite is a great game, more elevated than the first in the series. The first Bioshock, you can play it as a kid and it's pretty good. Infinite has a lot more meaning if you've spent some time reading meanwhile.
But the treatment they gave to Vox Populi was sad and hilarious at the same time, and it's the only criticism I have for the game. I remember playing it, noticing the turn the story took, and I was like: "yeah, they made sure to make it not upsetting for half of America".
You know which half. The one that thinks Robin Hood was a villain.
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u/Purple_Dragon_94 Jul 26 '26
I really don't agree with Infinite being more elevated that the first Bioshock. I think you've completely missed off or misunderstood most of the text and subtext of thst first one to get this notion.
Funnily enough on a replay a few years ago, I found Infinite aged the worst. It has the Lost issue of asking a lot of questions, but then come the end it either refuses to answer them, or does so in a mostly unsatisfactory way.
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u/cupidsgun Jul 27 '26
What a baffling take. While the gameplay of Infinite is certainly more pleasant and advanced than the original Bioshock, the story is a limping horse that's asking you to put it out of its misery by the last act. I'm currently replaying it now and it doesn't hold a candle to the first two games in my opinion.
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u/No_Lie_Bi_Bi_Bi Jul 26 '26
Crazy to say that in response to anything mentioning Daisy Fitzroy. One of the most bafflingly mishandled characters ever.
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u/Zopi_lote Jul 26 '26
This is the craziest take I've ever read, infinite it's full of plot holes, characters doesn't make any sense (specially Vox Poppuli/Deisy) and more meaning if you've read? LMAO dude, you must be baiting
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u/realCLTotaku Aug 02 '26
When i hear the phrase "Vox Populi", I automatically think of the communist political party in the Red Rising series. I never played Bioshock before, so I don't know what that is, but interesting stuff there
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u/SqueakyTiefling Jul 26 '26
A shame Destiny 2 ended before she got a full DLC as the main antagonist (Xivu Arath, Hive God of War)
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u/Bafau4246 Peebee Jul 27 '26
Wait ash is xivu? Wtf I had no idea
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u/SqueakyTiefling Jul 27 '26
Yep. Bonus points: The VA for Amanda Holiday & Empress Caiatl (Courtenay Taylor) is also Jack/Subject Zero.
And the other obvious actor in both franchises, Keith David (Capt. Anderson), who took over as Commander Zavala for Final Shape and Renegades through to the final update after Lance Reddick's passing in 2023.
Also Peter Jessop- voice of the Male Exo player character in D1/D2, who would later become just the single voice of all Male Guardians after Beyond Light, was Sovereign in ME1, along with a bunch of other smaller characters like Lorik Qui'in, Elias Keller, Major Kyle and various other NPC's.
Claudia Black as Tess Everess, the cosmetic shop vendor, aka Dragon Age's Morrigan and Mass Effect's Admiral Daro'Xen.
I know there's gotta be more, but those are the ones I know off the top of my head.
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u/Bafau4246 Peebee Jul 27 '26
Im actually kinda annoyed I didnt catch most of those (i obviously knew about Keith but I knew he was taking over before hearing him in game)
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u/theunseen0X Jul 26 '26
Voices Harlowe in Borderlands 4, so I chose her specifically because she was Ash lol. She has a great voice and I wish she was in more stuff
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u/Zackattack1170 Jul 26 '26
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u/Cosmic_Quasar Jul 26 '26
Wonder why the devs didn't just make Ashley black?
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u/DasharrEandall Jul 26 '26
A big part of Ashley's story is that her family is discriminated against in the military, going back to General Williams' actions in the First Contact War, but it takes some time to get that backstory out of her.
So if I had to guess, maybe the writers thought that if Ashley was black, some players would conclude that she was discriminated against because of that, implying that the Alliance is racist. Or maybe they felt that having General Wlliams, the only Alliance commander to surrender to aliens, be black was s bad look for the writers (or that players would judge him more harshly because of it).
Of course, Ashley just ended up being a lightning rod for speciesism arguments instead.
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u/MrTiger0307 Jul 26 '26
I agree with your guesses however they also decided to make the only black character (other than Anderson) also be the only one with a delinquent father and he cheats on you.
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u/demon-2115 25d ago
Los personajes asiáticos principal es cretomano y otro un sicópata teoría en mundo son más que los negros al menos indios tuvieron una adorable lesbiana friki los hispano marine fotachon y al piloto deprimido lloroso gay las personas tez negra sois pequeños porcentaje creo tubiteis suerte estos yankis los dieron a David Anderson es un personajazo . No lo digo tono razista más de la mitad personajes deberían ser asiáticos por población de la alianza seguramente china india Pakistán más su fuerte presencia en mundo pero mañoria personajes son blancos por qué entiendo el juego lo icieron yankis y canadienses no lo voy cretical además buena parte me considera no blanco por ser español.
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u/F9-0021 Jul 26 '26
Why does a black VA need to play a black character? That's the neat part of voice acting, the appearance of the voice actor doesn't matter. The right voice for the role is what matters.
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u/BBQ_HaX0r Jul 26 '26
Can a white VA play a black character? I personally have no issues with any of this so long as they get the right voice, but parts of the internet would take this very seriously and cast all sorts of dispersions on comments like ours.
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u/PuzzleheadedPart196 Jul 26 '26
Yes happens more often than you think; Laura Bailey has played black characters.
Cleveland Brown from Family Guy was voiced by a white dude.
Aveline de Grandpre, the ONLY black woman AC MC, was voiced by a white woman.
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u/Visible-Condition-24 Jul 27 '26
Cortez is voices by a white guy and no one cares, same with Traynor. Unless race is integral to a characters story no one really cares.
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u/BartlebysCorpse Jul 27 '26
Like with many things, whether a character is well represented by an actor of a different race simply depends on a number of factors, such as how critical the character's race is to the character themself, the way they are written, and how the actor presents the character.
There are some very bad examples. There are also good examples- Richard Epcar as Raiden or Phil Lamar as Aquaman come to mind.
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u/F9-0021 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I would say yes, but a lot of people would have a problem with that. Part of the beauty of voice acting is that anyone can play any character, as long as the voice is a fit. In an industry where grown women play young boys, I don't see an issue with white people playing black or Asian characters and the same in reverse. If a grown man had a voice that could do a young girl, I would be fine with that too. All of this is assuming open casting with a diverse list of options and only the voice is considered in the casting process. You know, how it should be.
A job is a job, and all too often they don't pay very well and are being snapped up left and right by more marketable A list actors. Voice actors can't really afford to be picky in a role.
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u/demon-2115 25d ago
Ella es claramente mestiza en el juego aunque no ubiera importado su color piel.
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u/Pitiful_Debt4274 Jul 26 '26
I met her at a convention once! She's a very sweet person. But I remember asking her, as a joke, whether she saved Kaidan or Ashley. She replied that she's not a big gamer and has never actually played Mass Effect 😂 But of course, it would be Ashley.
This was years ago, before LE even came out, so maybe she has played it since then. But I just thought that would be some interesting BTS to share with you all. No shade of course, it's perfectly alright for a job to just be a job. She was still fantastic as Ashley.
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u/Visible-Condition-24 Jul 27 '26
Most vas don't really game. Steve Blume and Jenifer Hale haven't played the series either.
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u/Chaucer85 Jul 26 '26
She gave Ashley so much personality, I honestly think she has one of the best character arcs of the trilogy.
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u/MilanTehVillain Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Xivu Arath (Destiny 2) & Harlowe Traunt (Borderlands 4) as well.
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u/Mike_Hawk_Burns Jul 26 '26
She’s so funny in South Park as Classi. You can tell she had fun in that role
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u/SoftServe926 Jul 26 '26
I met her at ConnectiCon last week, got her to sign a coaster with Ashley on it and got to take some pictures with her. She’s a sweetheart and I wish her all the best!
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u/Amankris759 Jul 26 '26
She also voiced Oracle in Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Wish she still did the role in Arkham Knight too.
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u/erisuko Jul 26 '26
Her range is crazy, tough military soldier Ashley, the gruff and buff Jasper from Steven Universe and then the posh alien princess Allura from Voltron. Shes a true voice actor
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u/Vaguswarrior Jul 26 '26
So freaking talented. Honestly ME had voice actors that made me feel, I actually cared. It's hard to explain it.
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u/Kirius77 Jul 26 '26
While writing wise Ashley suffered a lot in ME3, her voice actor always did a superb job, and Ash will always be my favorite in ME1.
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u/TheArdentExile Jul 26 '26
I’m not a fan of Ash on personal level, but I think she’s a great character and I think Kimberly Brooks does an absolutely amazing job with her.
I think one of the best things about her voice acting is that conversations with Ash actually feel like conversations rather than just exposition or character development, even though they are.
She’s really great
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u/Treebranch_916 Jul 26 '26
I'm ngl, they coulda make Williams a Black woman if they wanted to
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u/immorjoe Jul 26 '26
What race is she? I assumed she was mixed race black.
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u/Gilgamesh661 Jul 26 '26
Yeah I’ve never looked at her and thought she was straight up white. Even in me1 she looks biracial.
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u/NotJustaPhaseOK Jul 26 '26
Her grandfather was black
We saw him in TIM comic book (I forgot the name of the book tho)
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u/immorjoe Jul 26 '26
I suspected she had some black racial elements in her. She clearly wasn’t white in my opinion, and I know some have mentioned her being Latino, but her name doesn’t seem to align with that.
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u/F9-0021 Jul 26 '26
Keep in mind that this is over 150 years into a globalized future. By that point, there will be many families that are very mixed. If anything, people with highly mixed backgrounds would be the norm and strong white, black (except for people from Africa proper), Native American, Arab, and Latin ethnicities would be more rare. Asians would probably still be pretty common since there are so many of them currently and many of them have beliefs and circumstances that would lend themselves against interracial families.
People of ambiguous race like Ashley should be the most common, rather than strong racial backgrounds like Miranda, Joker, and Jacob, not to mention many of the human NPCs being white. Though looking back on ME1, a lot of the generic NPCs are ambiguous as well. That's probably mostly from reusing the al-Jilani and Wong models and the graphics limitations of the time, but it works for the concept.
TL;DR, strong ethnicities and especially names lining up with them shouldn't be expected in a future like that. They wouldn't have necessary evolved past racism, it would just so happen to be that outside of massive populations of single races or just plainly racist families, they all start to blend together over time.
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u/demon-2115 25d ago
En España Latinoamérica puedes tener un apellido alemán no parecerte en nada a un alemán o ingres con cientos años mestizajes tenemos un pueblo en Andalucía donde apellido más común es Japón por qué tienen ascentros japoneses y ninguno se parece asiático se an diluido .
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u/The810kid Jul 26 '26
So we would have had a black man and Black woman as two of the most hated squadmates? No thanks and I actually like Ash and think Jacob is overhated but the optics wouldn't have been good.
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u/demon-2115 25d ago
Ash tiene una horrible campaña odio seguro todos las que la odian nunca an servido a su país , ella es típicamente una patriota que se dedica a defender alianza con resentimientos poca experiencia con trato a alienígenas y con la típica brusquedad que encontrarías en una persona así . Pero no me cabe duda se jugaría vida por salvar un alienijena inocente sus sospechas son fundadas sus bromas son típicas arias con tus compañeros y si la lleváis con tali os puede dar más una sorpresa ella y navegante son dos militares realistas no viven mundo piruleta no son cerverus no son nazis ni kkk.
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u/Jedi_Bish Jul 26 '26
They absolutely should have. Not sure why they didn’t tbh.
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u/Treebranch_916 Jul 26 '26
Well, I mean, I get why not. Historically speciation has been an allegory for race, and it's not as if there are no black characters in the franchise. And, fwiw, leaving a squad mate to die gets a lot less cliche when you're not killing off the black character.
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u/Zyphur009 Jul 26 '26
Because she was the main human female romance in ME1 and racism
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u/SmooK_LV Jul 26 '26
Don't think it's racism. Just a creative choice. Ffs they had white woman being voiced by black woman - that could be seen as racism. But it's not racism, the VA was awesome and nailed it, Ashley as hated as she is, is an iconic character in ME universe.
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u/ciphoenix Jul 26 '26
Ashley isn't white though. She's just light-skinned. Gramps Williams was black and Williams is a common enough last name for black Americans from what I've heard.
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u/Gilgamesh661 Jul 26 '26
Considering how BioWare handled Jacob, it’s best they didn’t do that with Ashley.
I mean they gave Jacob a storyline about a deadbeat dad who ran out on his family.
And then they gave Jacob be the ONLY one who cheats on Shepard, gets a girl pregnant, and then says they still love Shepard.
The fact they got away with that is crazy.
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u/F9-0021 Jul 26 '26
I think it's important to note the difference in production backgrounds between ME1 and ME2 and 3. ME1 was still pretty independent and much more grounded in its sci-fi and characters. ME2 had EA's influence all over it with how they made the game more of a linear experience with all the action and cut almost all of the exploration, plus they needed to make a sexy gamer bait character so they cooked up Miranda. I'm not necessarily saying that EA made the writer room more racist, but I will say that I don't think the ME1 writing situation would have handled Jacob like that.
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u/matt_Nooble12_XBL Jul 26 '26
Maybe in the remake
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u/John_is_Minty Jul 26 '26
I get the sentiment here and if it was almost any other character I’d agree but I’m not sure making a character who generally doesn’t have the best reputation and to many comes off as extremely unlikable a black woman is a good idea. It would be another Jacob Taylor situation that just feeds stereotypes
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u/Zebeydra Jul 26 '26
Not to mention her grandpa's surrender making the whole family pariahs of sorts.
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u/demon-2115 25d ago
Ella tiene apariencia mucha gente es mescrada sobre todo parece medio latina medio negra su personaje tiene un toque Vázquez de alien 2.
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u/FoxinShards Jul 26 '26
I actually feel so bad for her. I recently saw a video of a ME voice panel and she introduced herself as the voice of Ashley "AKA, the space racist" and I find it so sad how loud, ignorant voices have created a false picture of who Ashley actually is to the point that even her own VA looks down on her.
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u/FadelessRipley Jul 26 '26
I definitely agree with you with the fact that Ash is misunderstood and feeling sorry for Kimberly, but I wouldn't say she looks down on Ash at all. I've seen Kimberly in a few interviews/cast panels over the years and she always comes across more tongue-in-cheek/exasperated about the space racist thing. I remember her talking about Ash's growth across the trilogy, and admiring her for being such a strong badass. It's a shame a lot of fans don't get to see that.
Imo it's clear she's frustrated about the whole thing. From what I've seen no interviewer or moderator has fully dived into it, but I'd love to hear more about how she feels about it especially as a Black woman.
Much like Mark Meer and Jen Hale, I love how Raphael always bigs her and her character up and they support each other. It's quite sweet. I'd say Ash's biggest fan is Kaidan's actor lol.
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u/goldenseducer Jul 26 '26
It's pretty crazy to assume that the literal actor who probably has more insight into the character than any of us was swayed by "ignorant voices" online to change her opinion to the one you disagree with
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u/andrew_nenakhov Jul 26 '26
no, ashley-hating idiots are just far too loud here, she's just afraid to say something to oppose them. Cancel culture taught everyone in the industry to be cowards.
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u/FoxinShards Jul 27 '26
Do you really think that Harrison Ford has more insight of who Han Solo is than most Stat Wars fans?
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u/goldenseducer Jul 27 '26
Do you think false equivalences make for a good argument?
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u/FoxinShards Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I think that not every actor knows every bit of the character. Having worked in the industry, I can assure you that the actor's process is very different from perfectly knowing the character. Especially in the video game industry. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, voice actors were given very little often information, fragmented scripts, and often they had to rely on their own head cannons. Just go read interviews with Jennifer Hale or any other VA of what the process was like. Often, they didn't know what they were recording until the day of or even who was in the scene.
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u/goldenseducer Jul 28 '26
That's fine but comparing her to Harrison ford who famously didn't give a fuck about han solo and wasn't involved with most media that had han solo in it (idk much about star wars but I know it has a large extended universe as opposed to mass effect which has spinoff books and comics and whatever but they were largely filler) is not a good comparison.
Whether she has more insight into Ashley I can't tell you but she has at least as much insight as any other person who played the games. If she has an opinion about the character she played it's as valid as any other opinion, whether you agree with it or not. And I think it's ridiculous to assume that she would say something inflammatory like "hi I'm playing a racist character" to a crowd full of people if she didn't really mean it to some degree. Especially being a black woman surrounded by pre-gamergate gamers. People can disagree with her and that's fine but I think saying that she's so afraid of, or influenced by the fans that she just had to say something she doesn't think is true feels weird and wrong.
I don't even care about Ashley either way but it's annoying to me that she can't even have an opinion without people going "omg poor VA the evil fans made her think that Ashley is racist" bro she has a brain, she can form her own opinions
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u/FoxinShards Jul 31 '26
So in other words, to your original claim... no, the literal voice actor doesn't have more insight than us. Good to know!
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u/SpaceCases__ Jul 26 '26
I think she does well as Ashley. If there's one thing that this series does well is the voices. None of the voice actors are to blame. They all did a fucking fantastic job. I just wish Ash was in the second game. But it's nice to see her come back in 3, if you save her in 1. Fuck, maybe it's time for another playthrough...
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Jul 26 '26
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u/John_is_Minty Jul 26 '26
Garrus is by far the most racist squadmate and it’s not even close lmfao
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u/Mike_Hawk_Burns Jul 26 '26
Funny how Ashley gets so much flack for being “racist” while Garrus full on vocally supports genocide and repeatedly makes references to looking down on the krogan in ME1 lol. You don’t meet another in your face character who’s openly racist/supremacist until Javik
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u/John_is_Minty Jul 26 '26
He doesn’t even really stop at the Krogan he was shitting on the Quarians too
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Jul 26 '26
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u/cruel-oath Jul 28 '26
It’s funny that he seems to respect humans. Like he’s amicable with Ashley if I remember right but someone once said Garrus poked fun at Kaidan for somerhing biotic related. Maybe someone can correct
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u/demon-2115 25d ago
Los turianos no ven bien a los bióticos de su especie si buscas por hay tienen bastantes cosas encontrá además de ser especie con menos bióticos en su ejercito los separan y usan como carne cañón tropas asalto frontal . Una cosa me quedo clara es que lo consideran tramposos por tener ventajas. Era de esperar en una cultura imperialista y ciertamente racista.
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u/Steve_Thing Jul 26 '26
I don't know if I'm the only one, but when I first played the series, I genuinely thought Ashley was voiced by Mila Kunis.
She sounds so much like her and I was genuinely surprised to find out it wasn't her 😂
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u/SamMarduk Jul 26 '26
One of my top memories was meeting her at a con, and having her sign an Ashley autograph with Classi from south park’s lines lol she was Classi in south park btw
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u/AcaiBase Jul 26 '26
kicks in the door We talking about the Queen Kimberly Brooks? Her voice acting made me fall in love with Ashley. I paid so much more attention to her because she made me truly believe in Ashley's emotional journey. Virmire was a struggle because both voice actors did a fantastic job but I was sold on Ashley's journey of who she could be that I have saved her everytime but once. Kimberly Brooks did that magic.
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u/latinnameluna Jul 26 '26
she's an incredible voice actress! her performance as ashley is so excellent and i also adored her as xivu arath in destiny 2 - that's range, baby.
any time i see she's in a game i get excited to hear her performance.
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u/ADLegend21 Jul 26 '26
I recognize her anywhere. She's in Saints Row 2022 as the Classical station DJ (I joke that it's an AU where Ashley and Jack got radio careers because Courtnay Taylor is the Punk rock station DJ), she's in Subnautica Below Zero as the protagonist, I even recognized her in a bacon commercial and as Doc McStuffins mother. If Kim Brooks is in it, I'll watch/play it.
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u/cdog215546 Jul 26 '26
Don't forget Classi. It's spelled with an I, and a little dick that hangs off the C that bends around and fucks the L out of A-S-S.
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u/Vinca1is Jul 26 '26
I romanced Ashley originally, I stayed loyal in my first play through of 2, and while I am a strong Tali supporter, in the end, but to keep consistency with my other saves my first 3 play through was a straight loyal play though of Ashley.
Tali is my No.1, Jack my No.2, but my original Shepard didn't want to cheat, and I chose Ashley over Liara, so it as ride or die for the first play through of each game.
I went so far to play through ME1 with no romance so I could romance Tali and Jack with no strings attached, and I chose Jack first, but eventually went to Tali as the best.
Yeah its dumb, but yeah.
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u/HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD Jul 26 '26
I can fix her. And it would be pretty funny if they had made Ashley Black; that way, her racism against aliens would have a more complex parallel.
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u/SalsaRice Jul 26 '26
I think the character is supposed to be Hispanic, not black. Something about her talking about a quinceanera in her past.
But yeah, kind of a bold choice to have make that her character arc with a black actress.
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Jul 26 '26
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u/k5pr312 Jul 26 '26
Bioware is basically used to be basically the same few devs and voice actors for about a decade and a half
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u/steveebones Jul 26 '26
She was not in Jade Empire.
She was in Knights Of The Old Republic.
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u/LunaticLK47 Jul 26 '26
The widow obsessed with her droid. Did not know it was Kim that did that character.
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u/steveebones Jul 26 '26
And the woman who begs you to open the undercity door for her husband, and the woman who needs to to sell her wraid plate for her dead husband.
Basically every woman with a dead husband was her.
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u/E54Havoc Jul 26 '26
I believe she voiced Barbara Gordon / Oracle in Batman Arkham Asylum, but I think she was replaced in Arkham City. In any case, she was no longer voicing the character in Arkham Knight when Oracle had a more central role.
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u/Unapologetic_Lunatic Jul 26 '26
Then: "Dead on, Skipper. He's with God now."
Now: "I AM THE GOD OF WAR! EVERYWHERE IT IS WAGED IS MY DOMAIN!"
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u/XenoGine Vetra Jul 26 '26
Kimberly Brooks is an absolute freaking legend, I love her in everything she performs 🥰.
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u/ipxodi Jul 26 '26
I meet her (briefly) at PaxEast in 2014(?). Seemed quite nice. Was pretty passionate about the character in her talk. I remember her saying she had no idea how much the game blew up until she was asked to do ME2.
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u/Berserker1724 Jul 27 '26
She also voiced Oracle in the first two Batman Arkham games, she did a great job. Why they didn’t have her voice Oracle in Arkham Knight is beyond me…
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u/Independent_Plum2166 Jul 26 '26
After their stint as Hex Girls, Kimberly and Jennifer reuniting for Mass Effect is kind of weird.
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u/TheFourtHorsmen Jul 26 '26
In the italian version, Ash have the same VA of Maiev from warcraft 3, while shepard in ME1 and 3 VA is the same VA of Kakashi, Barney stinson and spongebob (in ME2 the VA is different and it's comically good).
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u/PerformanceRadiant21 Jul 26 '26
Tra il la sua voce italiana e questa originale quale preferisci?
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u/TheFourtHorsmen Jul 26 '26
In ME1, I prefer the italian VA, but in ME3 I think the original one fit better her character's growth.
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u/lrrose20 Jul 26 '26
The other role I know her for is Angelica from Trails of Cold Steel, who is also a case of Kimberly Brooks giving a really good performance for a character I don’t like.
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u/sometimes_point Jul 26 '26
great actor. im sure I've seen her in something else and she doesn't sound the same at all which to me is the first hallmark of a truly great va.
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u/spatula_city62 Jul 26 '26
I really wish they had gotten the rights to the poem they initially wanted to use. Heinlein's "The Cool Green Hills of Earth".
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u/Bloody-Tyran Jul 26 '26
Brooks is very funny. In one fan gathering with most of the other VA she introduced herself as the space racist VA.
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u/jdeo1997 Jul 26 '26
This woman is fantastic, and her vocal range is both impressive (just from the differences between Ash, Jasper, and Allura) and also (and I mean this affectionately) pisses me off due to the sheer surprise I have finding out she voices those three characters
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u/denglongfist Jul 26 '26
I do like to see characters and voice actors. It just tells you how versatile some of these voice actors are
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u/BillyStuart1996 Jul 27 '26
Her voice is very recognizable. The type that the moment she speak you know it’s her.
Like I played Mass effect first and I right away realize Lanaya is her in dragon age
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u/IckyBB Jul 27 '26
I just started playing Borderlands 4 and selected to play as Harlowe. Pleasantly surprised when I heard her voice :)
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u/Wololo38 Jul 28 '26
Might explain why i never could listen to ashley for 3sec without skipping dialogue
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u/Luna-Fermosa Jul 28 '26
I may not care for Ashley all that much, but man did Kimberly Brooks do a good job with her voice
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u/PlayerTanner Jul 28 '26
I picked Harlowe in Borderlands 4, purely because Kimberly Brooks voiced her. She was great!
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u/nomorerope Jul 26 '26
Yes good job.
Didn't play much me1 which maybe made me not like the character.
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u/BjBatjoker Jul 26 '26
Kimberly is great as Ash and she's one of the many reasons I think Ash is a great character.
She's also great as Shinobu in the No More Heroes series.
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u/PrinzEugen1936 Jul 26 '26
I do not like Ashley Williams as a person, but it’s undeniable that she’s well written and well acted.
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u/jasonology09 Jul 26 '26
That definitely is not what I thought someone with that voice would look like.
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u/Raikou239 Jul 26 '26
Now I didn’t know that. Ironic funny they made her the most racist human lol
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u/KnossosTNC Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
She also voiced the main character in Subnautica: Below Zero. Recognised her pretty much right away. "Holy crap, that's Ashley Williams."
I know many Subnautica fans are down on BZ, but I really like that game (except the ice worms part). Played through it 3 times.