Elizabeth Caledonia "Calamity" Ashe is a character who appeared in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment–developed first-person hero shooter, and the resulting franchise. Commonly referred to as Ashe, she first appeared in the 2018 animated short Reunion, and was soon thereafter added as a playable character in the franchise's first game. Ashe is an American outlaw and leader of the Deadlock Gang, a band of arms-trafficking criminals. She does this alongside her sidekick B.O.B., a large mustachioed robot whose name stands for Big Omnic Butler. In all appearances, Ashe is voiced by Jennifer Hale, while B.O.B. communicates strictly through body language and eye movement.
Ashe's development was different from other playable characters for the game, conceived originally for the animated short by Jason Hill as a foil for the character Cassidy. However, after artwork was drawn by Mio del Rosario and JungAh Lee, the team took a liking to the character, as well as her sidekick B.O.B. Around the same time, project lead Geoff Goodman was interested in introducing a new playable character into the game, and seeing her lever action rifle took a liking to the idea. As a result, when the short was released, they announced her as a character for the game shortly afterward.
Ashe received mixed reception. While she was popular with many fans upon release, some drew issue with the lack of black female characters in the game, and saw Ashe as a disregard for those concerns. This was compounded when concept art revealed at one point in development it was considered to have her be a woman of color. Additional criticisms were raised about her body type being too standard for female video game characters, and the clash of her cowboy character against the game's science fiction background. However some sources noted her contrast to Cassidy as a positive, and praised her portrayal in literature related to the game's universe. B.O.B. himself was more warmly received, with some inquiring if he could be made into a playable character himself.
Conception and development
When developing Reunion, an animated short for the Overwatch franchise, project director Jason Hill wanted to explore the "Deadlock" gang the character Cassidy had previously belonged to. He approached storyboard artist Mio del Rosario with the concept of the leader being "female with this big brim hat, and this long duster, and a lever-action rifle". In addition, her bodyguard would be an omnic, a type of robot within the Overwatch universe, but Hill wanted it to look different from those normally shown to illustrate that they came in "should be able to come in all shapes and sizes" and make him appear large. Del Rosario presented a basic sketch of Ashe, B.O.B. and other members of her gang, drawing Ashe in the center as an older woman with sunken cheeks and sharp features. Hill upon seeing it recalls commenting "Yes, that's it, that's it. This invoked the feeling that I wanted", praising the emphasis on her commanding presence being drawn front and center, while her large mustached bodyguard loomed in the background. He found her particularly striking, and as storyboarding progressed she became more and more the focus of the short.
Concept artist JungAh Lee sketched several basic concepts, taking inspiration from biker gangs, vampire hunters, and cowboys, as well as the anime Trigun. While Hill felt it hit the mark he was going for, it didn't quite work as a character for Overwatch, describing it as "more of a gothic look and you would expect her to be hunting vampires or werewolves, or something like that", and upon stepping back realized that she resembled another character in the series, Reaper, in terms of silhouette and color palette. Hill suggested she try more freeform ideas with the design, and several others followed, including a woman of color in a brown duster Hill felt was too similar to Cassidy, a woman with a long red ponytail and spiked attire he felt was too punk, and a woman clad in white with a long flowing poncho he liked, but felt it made her resemble a superhero. At this time art director Arnold Tsang also weighed in, feeling that the combination of pale skin with white hair made her seem vampiric, and that the cowboy aesthetic overall belonged more to Cassidy, suggesting instead to emphasize her biker aesthetic. They started instead taking elements from her previous designs and working them into her finalized appearance, with a focus on giving her class with a menacing edge to set her apart from Cassidy. Artist Ben Zhang also helped develop tech concepts for her character, which the team felt solidified her better into Overwatchs setting. In addition, her hair was shortened, to help reduce workload and complications from animating long flowing hair. B.O.B.'s design on the other hand changed very little during development, with the team loving the idea of a "burly, mustached omnic in a bowler hat".
At this time, project lead Geoff Goodman was considering another playable character to add to the game, wanting to implement a weapon focused character, in contrast to the previously released Sombra and Doomfist who he stated were ability focused. Upon seeing the early storyboards for Reunion they were impressed with Ashe's design, and felt her weapon, a lever-action rifle, would be fun to make for the game. Hill was receptive to the idea, stating he had originally only intended to include Ashe in possibly future comic books related to the game. The team immediately went to work on the character, with several designers submitting concepts for her implementation into the game. The development team was also adamant on implementing B.O.B. in some fashion alongside her, (Video) with both Goodman and former Overwatch designer Adrian Finol comparing notes on the best means to do so. B.O.B.'s implementation however, caused some difficulties for the development team, to the point they almost considered not implementing B.O.B. or Ashe herself.
Design Ashe stands 5 feet 6 inches tall, and is a woman with red eyes and white hair cut into an asymmetrical bob cut, covered by a black wide-brim cowboy hat. She wears a white long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a red tie, and a black long tailed vest with her gang's logo on the back. Her gray pants are covered by leather armor from the upper thighs to the knees, with metal knee guards linking them to her black boots. Her right arm is covered by armor to the wrist, while her left forearm has a visible gray tattoo of her gang's logo along its length, with fingerless gloves covering both hands. In addition, a pouch is strapped to her right thigh, while an angled belt holds grenades at her right hip. Her weapons consist of a gold engraved lever action rifle with a notched stock, and a sawed-off double barrel shotgun. Her design was changed slightly for Overwatch 2, giving her a full opened jacket with red accents and an armored vest underneath.
While B.O.B.'s height has never been stated by the developers, he stands significantly taller than Ashe. He appears as a large humanoid robot with a muscular physique, two small green eyes on his face, and an additional smaller pair of green lights further up his head. He also has a black handlebar mustache that goes around the sides of his head. His outfit consists of an open sleeveless biker jacket with a fur collar, a small bowler hat atop his head, grey pants with leather chaps, black boots, metal pads covering his knees, and the gang's logo drawn on his left bicep. B.O.B. has three double barrel guns hidden in each arm, which deploy outward to the side when needed.
Like other Overwatch characters, Ashe received skins, unlockable cosmetic items to change her in-game appearance. However, B.O.B.'s implementation forced the team to develop outfits for him that worked alongside Ashe's. Arnold Tsang particularly enjoyed this aspect, noting that while some concepts would not work for Ashe, they were able to work those onto B.O.B. instead. Two notable skins for the duo include the "Mobster" and "Safari" sets, which were meant to tie into their thematic elements, emphasizing Ashe's imagery of her as the leader with B.O.B. as her lackey, (Video) while also sticking to themes that would suit the vigilante aspect of her character. In contrast, her "Socialite" skin was designed to emphasize her rich upbringing. B.O.B. is dressed as a butler, and her weapons are given an art deco appearance.
In video games and film Elizabeth Caledonia "Calamity" Ashe, typically referred to by her last name, was introduced in November 2018 to the first-person shooter Overwatch. Born into a wealthy family from the Southern United States, she was largely neglected by her parents and left in the care of their large butler, B.O.B., a type of robot called an "omnic" whose name stands for "Big Omnic Butler". After meeting Cole Cassidy and doing a string of petty crimes together, she decides to form the arms-trafficking Deadlock Gang with him and B.O.B., though at one point Cassidy was forced to leave. As they grow in prominence, she convinces other gangs in the American Southwest to either collaborate or not interfere with each other, and becomes a legendary outlaw through her increasingly elaborate crimes. She and B.O.B. both appear in Overwatch 2, where it is revealed she has allied her gang with the terrorist organization Talon.
Prior to her in-game appearance, Ashe was showcased in the animated short Reunion, part of a series of Overwatch animated shorts. In it, Ashe and her gang cause a train crash, and begin looting the contents which include multiple grenades and a large white egg-shaped crate. Cassidy, now a member of global peacekeeping task force Overwatch, shows up and demands just the white crate. After looking inside Ashe decides to keep it and a conflict ensues, with Cassidy using the discarded grenades to incapacitate Ashe and her gang and dismantle B.O.B. He ties them up and sends them off, with Ashe promising revenge once she repairs B.O.B.
In all appearances, Ashe is voiced by Jennifer Hale, who Hill had originally wanted for the role and was pleased with her portrayal after auditioning several voice actresses. Hill encouraged her to ad-lib and improvise dialogue for the original short. (Video) As B.O.B. does not speak, (Video) the character communicates via his body language and eye movement.
Gameplay In Overwatch, Ashe is classified as a Damage-class character, designed to provide a more offensive role in team compositions. Her main weapon is a lever-action repeating rifle that can be used for short-ranged quick fire, or the player can aim down the weapon's sights for long shots. Unlike other weapons in the game, her rifle is not loaded by a magazine but instead with each individual bullet until full. This reload process can be interrupted to quickly fire the weapon again with the reduced ammo quantity, and was intended to help offset the rapid fire nature of the weapon when not aiming down its sights. When developing her gameplay, Call of Duty series development studios Treyarch and Infinity Ward both offered insight on refining Ashe's behavior when aiming down the sights of her gun. In Overwatch 2, Ashe temporarily reduces the amount of healing an enemy receives when she damages them, due to a new passive ability given to all Damage-class characters.