Seriously, Leshley is such a cute and healthy ship that I can't understand the hate.
The remake made their dynamic so much easy to portray thay as a couple so I don't understand how some people get angry about shipping two adults who did nothing in the game besides helping each other, like? It's the least problematic ship ever, there hasn't been a single moment where their attitudes towards each other have shown any evidence that it's a terrible ship like some claim to be.
It's really funny to see some people saying they're "siblings coded" or "adopted daughter" clearly an attempt to mask parasocial jealousy simply because Leon was clearly nice and attentive to Ashley in the remake. They try to deny with all their might that Leon's flirting answers was ironic, like, bitch calm down, he's not real.
I also understand those who think they don't match, everyone has their own way of thinking, but condemning a real person for a fictional ship is rather weird, to say the least.
The reasons that people hated Ashley is that they only view her as the original RE4 and accusing her of being still annoying even if she's a whole new Ashley in remake, or as I said, parasocial jealousy, or simply because they project themselves into their favorite characters and they get mad that Leon isn't exclusive to that character they glaze over (themselves).
I thought it would be nice to share my opinion with you because after that wonderful fanfic of yours (AC), it would be great to know your thoughts on anything related to Leshley.
heyyya anon. haha yeah it’s probably the most low-cortisol ship for leon.
now that the honeymoon period has passed for me, i think part of the reason why i gravitated towards the ship is because (1) i like the princess/knight dynamic (granted that the princess does her best with her limited repertoire of skill) and (2) while we don’t have much to work with with ashley character-wise, we can infer from how she behaves (in the remake, at least) — that she has a sense of initiative, follows instructions well, and a sympathetic and resilient spirit — which if leon’s dumbass would pay a second glance, ashley wouldn’t let him down? (also admirable qualities that you kinda know would carry over beyond the canon of the game. ) (3) ashley knows his life but is removed just enough for leon to not feel as though he’s still not away from his job whenever he comes home.
i’m sane enough that i know capcom will never canonize them. i don’t think leon will find with ashley the thrill he finds with ada, or the longevity of knowing each other and solidity he has with claire. ashley is… if she’s in the running, she’s lagging behind because she statistically has spent the least time with that loser (affectionate). i suppose this is why i often write leshley as…taking their time?
my favorite part about this is the “parasocial jealousy.” HAHA CLOCK ‘EM ‼️ i hope anyone who finds this gives your ask a second read, because i couldn’t have said it better myself.
i remember tweeting back in 2023 “‘leshley are sibling coded’ what the hell kind of p0rnghub family tree do you belong to?”
anyone who posits the “siblings” argument isn’t doing it in good faith. “bestie,” probably i would accept — i love them as friends and even besties because ashley would be a breath of fresh air for him, but ugh if you don’t like the ship, you can say it and go. no need to conflate the term “sibling-coded” with “actual siblings” then go “ew incest” when it’s literally not. that’s the kind of room temp IQ discourse in RE fandom (and fandom since 2020 in general) that makes me deactivate my twitter often. and really just makes me weary of even posting opinions — and mind you, i’m not one of those who type their meta analyses and tout them as gospel truth. mostly i post in a structured-argument (thesis-antithesis) and i still got harassed (and the funniest thing is they were flexing their moral superiority for knowing how to take things with a grain of salt in fiction — all the while harassing someone over things that aren’t even real) the sheer idiocy. i perused their tumblr and not a single contribution to the tag of the ship they claim to stand for. i swear, it’s always the useless ones 😂lotta ignorant assholes in these zones. that sounds mean, but i’ve kinda run out of diplomacy.
thanks for taking the time to drop by; really a lot of “how i think leon/ashley would go dynamic-wise” is written in AC. minus, of course, the cheating. i hope i was able to answer sufficiently. have a good day. :)
