Ashley Joanna "Ash" Williams is the main protagonist in the Evil Dead series and is also the primary protagonist in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash and Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors.
Biography
Ashley Williams was just a simple S-Mart employee until one fateful day. He took his girlfriend, his sister, and two other friends up to a cabin in the woods and did something that changed his life forever. He played a tape recorder that had spells of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis; the book of the dead. The spells cursed his right hand which he was forced to lop off but also possessed his friends, whom he was forced to kill and he is still haunted by that event. He survived two nights in the cabin but the Necronomicon opened a vortex that took him to the middle ages.
He quickly assumed power and then became the leader of a group of knights who fought Deadites and an evil Deadite version of himself. He was eventually returned to the future and that day began his life as the "Chosen One". His Chosen One duties took him all over the world, where he teamed-up with other heroes to bring down whatever evil he faced, whether it was fighting Herbert West: The Re-Animator, facing Dracula and his army of vampires, meeting the anti-hero Darkman, or dying and ending up in a universe full of zombie superheroes. When Ash returned from said universe, he began to take his Chosen One responsibilities a bit more seriously, and began hunting down copies of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash
However, all of the monsters he faced before this could not have prepared him for when he had to fight both Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. He was transferred to the New Crystal Lake S-Mart, which was renamed Forest Green to try and separate itself from the gruesome Voorhees' murders. He learns of Jason Voorhees and his killings and Ash is hellbent that Jason is some Deadite manifestation. So he goes to the old Voorhees house and so do some sex crazed teenagers that Jason kills. Ash finds the book and has a near fatal run in with Jason. He along with two young women escape back to the S-Mart where he has another run in with Jason. He kills everyone there and manages to get the Necronomicon from Ash and gives it to Freddy. Who used it to escape Jason's skull and he intends to kill Ash Williams himself, since Jason failed.
In the dream world Ash relives his time in the cabin and meets Krueger who Ash thinks is some kind of Deadite. Freddy proves he is no Deadite and attempts to kill Ash in the dream world but Ash manages to escape. Not before Freddy kills one of Ash's young companions he saved from the S-Mart. Ash soon realized that both Jason and Freddy needed to die and attempted to eliminate them for the good of humanity. He set a trap for Jason at the old Voorhees home, however Freddy used the book to make Jason smarter, so he didn't fall for it. Ash found the Necronomicon again but Freddy stopped Ash from getting it and showed Ash his new evil and divine powers. Both Jason and Freddy actually engaged in battle again but they couldn't kill each other again. Even though Freddy revived all of Jason's victims as Deadites to do him in.
Ash escaped with the book and he was attacked by Deadite trees and birds who attempted to kill him. Ash escaped and after a skirmish with Freddy he was left unconscious. He eventually managed to wake himself up and after another lengthy battle with both horrors managed to send Freddy to the Deadite dimension. Jason is trapped under a frozen lake with the Necronomicon, however Jason awakes and it soon leads to Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: Nightmare Warriors.
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: Nightmare Warriors
Six months later, Ash is living in Franklin, Michigan with his girlfriend Caroline, believing his past fighting monsters is behind him. While preparing to host a backyard barbecue Ash is visited by Doctor Maggie Burroughs, who tries to convince him to join a group started by herself and Doctor Neil Gordon consisting of people who have fought and survived "unnatural evils". Annoyed by his visitor, Ash sends Maggie away before going to the store for supplies for the party, leaving Caroline alone. Elsewhere Stephanie Kimble and Alice Johnson experience visions of Jason and Freddy, while Jason attacks and kills Caroline. Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, Russell reveals his plan to create an army of demonic soldiers using the Necronomicon.
After discovering Caroline's body, Ash flees the scene as the police arrive, not noticing a man in a hummer spying on him. At his headquarters, Russell uses a combination modern technology and the Necronomicon to pull an unburnt and seemingly powerless Freddy Krueger out of Deadites' realm to Earth. Ash boards a train to Baltimore, Maryland to look for Maggie and her group and Jason follows him by stowing away in the vehicle's boxcar. Stephanie, her father Steven, Alice, and her son Jacob show up at Maggie and Neil's house, where Tina Shepard and Rennie Wickham are already living. When Ash arrives, Maggie gets everyone settled and begins to tell them about her and Neil's goals. They are interrupted by Jason, who comes crashing through the door and kills Steven. As Ash arms himself, the man in the hummer drives through the wall of the house and rams into Jason. Everyone escapes, and their savior introduces himself as Tommy Jarvis.
Government agents show up at Maggie and Neil's house and take Jason down with bullets and missiles. Meanwhile, the survivors take refuge at a motel and Maggie suggests they visit her father, Gordon Russell, to use the Necronomicon to defeat the killers. Unimpressed, Tommy breaks away from the group and goes solo. At the Capitol, Jason is put in a holding cell full of Deadites. He is visited mentally by Freddy, who proposes that they team up to massacre the world. Jason accepts when he hears that his old enemies—including Tommy—will be coming for them. Freddy appoints him the general of his Deadite army and repairs his decomposed body. Meanwhile, the group (minus Stephanie and Jacob, who remain at the motel) also arrive at the Capitol and are locked up, with the exception of Maggie, Neil, and Rennie, who Russell takes to visit Freddy. Freddy transforms back into his burned, demonic form, and reveals that he has bonded with the Necronomicon and possesses all of its powers. Russell attacks Freddy with his own glove, but Maggie turns the blades back on him and kills him. She reveals her true identity as Freddy's daughter, Kathryn Krueger, and attacks Neil and Rennie. Tina feels the psychic impact of Rennie's death, and uses her telekinesis to break out of her cell. As she, Ash, and Alice escape, Jason and his army of Deadites descend on Washington.
Ash, Tina, and Alice fight and destroy a Freddy-controlled robot to acquire the Necronomicon. Meanwhile, Tommy confronts Jason on the streets of Washington as he and the Deadites cut a swath of destruction across the city. While opening fire on his nemesis, Tommy is attacked by winged Deadites, who take him to Freddy. Back at the motel, Jacob and Stephanie fall asleep, and Freddy possesses the latter. Stephanie/Freddy seduces and attacks Jacob, forcing him to call out to his mother. Alice hears her son's cries and uses her Dream Master powers to transport herself, Ash, and Tina into Jacob's nightmare. Immobilizing Ash during the fight, Freddy flays Stephanie alive and escapes with Jacob. Still in the dreamscape, Tina and Alice put Stephanie's skin back on and she wakes up physically unharmed. At the White House, Tommy and Jacob are held hostage by Freddy, Jason, and Maggie. Disguised as the President, Freddy addresses the nation, describing his new policy "no kid left alive" and the carnage he plans to cause all over the globe. Having seen Freddy's broadcast, Ash and the girls break into a nearby pawn shop for weaponry and head to the White House.
As it literally rains blood in Washington, Ash, Alice, Tina, and Stephanie plan their way into the White House. Upset by Ash and Alice's bickering, the traumatized Stephanie wanders off alone. The group are provided the distraction they need to get in when an army of soldiers arrive to rescue the President. Tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets battle the Deadites, but the soldiers suffer heavy losses and Freddy manifests in the clouds to blast the helicopters out of the sky. Elsewhere, Stephanie passes out and finds herself back in the dream world. She arrives at a church and meets Freddy posing as a priest; he informs her that, as member of the Voorhees family, it is her destiny to become a murderer like Jason. Clad in a hockey mask, Stephanie leaves the church to fulfill her birthright and kill Jason. Back at the White House, Maggie and Jason break out in a fight, but are interrupted by Tina who telekinetically lands a tank in the middle of the room and kills Maggie. As Ash rescues Neil, Jacob, and Tommy, Alice confronts Freddy face-to-face. She reveals that she has a terminal illness and that her Dream Master abilities are weakened, so allows Freddy to kill her so she can pass her power over to Jacob. As she dies, she releases the souls of the people Freddy has killed over the years. Furious at his mother's death, Jacob declares he is the Dream Master now, surrounded by the spirits of Amanda Krueger and the Dream Warriors.
Amanda and the other souls successfully destroy the Deadite army, but Freddy quickly severs their connection to Earth by mortally wounding Jacob. As Tina tends to Jacob and Ash battles Freddy, Tommy takes it upon himself to deal with Jason. In a closely-matched fight, he taunts Jason for never being able to kill him. Stephanie appears and impales her uncle with a machete; this distraction provides Tommy the opportunity to decapitate Jason with a shard of glass. However, Freddy exploits this victory by absorbing Jason's soul to increase his own power. As Neil struggles to read the Necronomicon's passages to banish Krueger, he is joined by the spirit of Nancy Thompson; together Neil and Nancy recite the words to open the Deadite dimension. Freddy resists the vortex, until the Necronomicon itself declares him unworthy and strips him of his power. The human Freddy begs for forgiveness, but Ash mercilessly blasts him into the vortex with his shotgun. At the same time, Nancy leaves Neil to rejoin the other spirits. Around the same time, we see Jason's hand feeling for his head, with Mrs. Voorhees' voice telling Jason that he can never die. The next morning, Ash bids farewell to Tommy, Tina, Neil, Jacob, and Stephanie, appointing Tommy the new captain of the "Nightmare Warriors". In Springwood 1964, a time displaced and disoriented Agent Wesley Carter, who had been sucked into the Necronomicon's, finds himself in the Springwood Police Department on the day of Freddy's arrest, and impulsively signs Freddy's paperwork when he finds his file on a desk in front of him, altering history.
Life After Freddy And Jason
Ash realized that he could never truly give up being the Chosen One, and returned to a life of monster hunting.
Notes
- See also: w:c:nightmareonelmstreet:Ash Williams
- The version of Ash that fought Freddy and Jason lives on Earth-818792. He is not to be confused with the Ash seen in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead film trilogy (although similar events did happen to the both of them) and the STARZ television series Ash vs Evil Dead. For the film/TV Ash, please see the Evil Dead Wiki page. For a more detailed history of the Ash of Earth-818792, please see the Dynamite Entertainment Wiki page.