It's going to likely be contested heavily by @BooDestroyer, but... I think there's evidence out there that Ashley isn't really as popular among the Wario and Nintendo fanbase as some people seem to believe.
For one thing, the fan communities out there don't seem to include the character in as much fan material as you'd think. The cosplay topic for example shows that on DeviantArt, the percentage of Ashley cosplays is probably closer to 30-40% of Wario cosplays, not the 60 or 70% some people previously believed.
And many other fan fields are the same way. The amount of fan art showing her as the only character is relatively high, but it's not arguably the majority of it. For example:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=w...AYrnap2jgcAJ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1886&bih=895
The vast majority shown there (especially when you start) is made of ensemble shots of the WarioWare cast, not one character alone. Out of those left, maybe about 30% has a focus on Ashley.
On Fan Fiction... well, the amount of stories specifically about the character isn't actually that high:
https://www.fanfiction.net/game/Wario-Ware-Inc/
About six stories come up where Ashley is one of the main focuses (you can choose what characters you want stories about in the filter menu). The other 84 or so are ensemble cast stories (like the WarioWare cast taking over Wario's Woods or some original character moving to Diamond City or Mario taking over WarioWare Inc) or focused on other characters.
For Smash Bros mods... well, the fact we had no original character model for her for about... maybe 5 years or so indicates that wasn't exactly ever the priority for most modders or the Smash Bros modding userbase.
And for character request popularity... well, she's not the character with the most posts in her Smash Boards support thread. And a poll showing who people voted for on the official site had her listed as having about 0.5% of the votes. About 50 characters had more requests, putting her at about the same support level as Fawful rather than K Rool or Ridley.
Finally, the fan game/hack scene has Ashley as pretty much non existent as a character. Across Mario Fan Games Galaxy, SMW Central, ROM Hacking.net and Fusion Gameworks, not one game I could find had her as a character (significant or otherwise). There was one skin mode for Mushroom Kingdom Fusion and a few resources on MFGG, but for the most part, Wario Land references were significantly more common than Ware ones, and the few Ware references there were focused on Wario, Mona or 9 Volt rather than Ashley.
So her popularity online is arguably quite significantly overblown, even when compared to other Wario series character and elements.
For one thing, the fan communities out there don't seem to include the character in as much fan material as you'd think. The cosplay topic for example shows that on DeviantArt, the percentage of Ashley cosplays is probably closer to 30-40% of Wario cosplays, not the 60 or 70% some people previously believed.
And many other fan fields are the same way. The amount of fan art showing her as the only character is relatively high, but it's not arguably the majority of it. For example:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=w...AYrnap2jgcAJ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1886&bih=895
The vast majority shown there (especially when you start) is made of ensemble shots of the WarioWare cast, not one character alone. Out of those left, maybe about 30% has a focus on Ashley.
On Fan Fiction... well, the amount of stories specifically about the character isn't actually that high:
https://www.fanfiction.net/game/Wario-Ware-Inc/
About six stories come up where Ashley is one of the main focuses (you can choose what characters you want stories about in the filter menu). The other 84 or so are ensemble cast stories (like the WarioWare cast taking over Wario's Woods or some original character moving to Diamond City or Mario taking over WarioWare Inc) or focused on other characters.
For Smash Bros mods... well, the fact we had no original character model for her for about... maybe 5 years or so indicates that wasn't exactly ever the priority for most modders or the Smash Bros modding userbase.
And for character request popularity... well, she's not the character with the most posts in her Smash Boards support thread. And a poll showing who people voted for on the official site had her listed as having about 0.5% of the votes. About 50 characters had more requests, putting her at about the same support level as Fawful rather than K Rool or Ridley.
Finally, the fan game/hack scene has Ashley as pretty much non existent as a character. Across Mario Fan Games Galaxy, SMW Central, ROM Hacking.net and Fusion Gameworks, not one game I could find had her as a character (significant or otherwise). There was one skin mode for Mushroom Kingdom Fusion and a few resources on MFGG, but for the most part, Wario Land references were significantly more common than Ware ones, and the few Ware references there were focused on Wario, Mona or 9 Volt rather than Ashley.
So her popularity online is arguably quite significantly overblown, even when compared to other Wario series character and elements.
