>>92668378>Ashi doesn't have any story-significant flaws outside of being brainwashed, and once she overcomes that there's nothing left for her to overcome. She effortlessly steamrolls every single obstacle in her path from Episode 5 onward. Not once does the audience feel any kind of tension during an Ashi scene because there is no internal flaw barring her path to victory.That's seriously reaching. She's no more flawed than Jack is.
She doesn't have an honor code and has only just figured out that bad things are bad, so her struggle works out at a lower level of culture, and isn't given much screentime since she has never been the main character. Her struggle is saying fuck you to Aku and the high priestess.
Remember when she had to be chained to Jack's back to stop her from deliberately kamikaze-ing him? He treats her like a enraged zoo animal and it's hilarious.
Then she has to reject the high priestess. She even has a battle. We know how it will end, of course, so there isn't much tension. But is there ever much tension about Jack not doing the right thing?
Being taken over by the Aku essence is every bit as tense as Jack's earlier Aku infection, though it needed more screen time.
Yes, she's blandly likeable. But so is Jack, when you get right down to it. The difference is that we respect Jack because of his skills and integrity, and we are annoyed at Ashi's skills, and also annoyed with her female equivalent of integrity, which is love, something we are usually embarrassed about rather than proud of.
Not caring about something is not the same thing as having nothing to care about.
