History Characters / EvilDeadAshWilliams

* AdaptationalWimp: In''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight''. While he's a playable character, his chainsaw hand and Boomstick are not available to be equipped, and he's denied the ability for hand-to-hand combat the same as the other survivors. His only defenses are blinding the killer with a flashlight, doing a pallet stun, or a kick-off if he's equipped with "Decisive Strike." However, these abilities are the same as any other survivor, so Ash REALLY suffers from The Entity's setbacks, as even without his chainsaw hand and Boomstick, he should be tougher than any other survivor, save for perhaps Bill Overbeck.

* AesopAmnesia: Routinely played for laughs in Army of Darkness and Ash vs Evil Dead. Ash has a tendency to always forget or DramaticallyMissingThePoint when it comes to the obvious lesson from his situation. In Army of Darkness in the happy ending he messes up the magic words ''again''. He reads from the Necronomicon while high to impress a girl in Ash vs Evil Dead.
* AdaptationalWimp: In VideoGame/DeadByDaylight. While he's a playable character, his chainsaw hand and Boomstick are not available to be equipped, and he's denied the ability for hand-to-hand combat the same as the other survivors. His only defenses are blinding the killer with a flashlight, doing a pallet stun, or a kick-off if he's equipped with "Decisive Strike." However, these abilities are the same as any other survivor, so Ash REALLY suffers from The Entity's setbacks, as even without his chainsaw hand and Boomstick, he should be tougher than any other survivor, save for perhaps Bill Overbeck.

* {{Flanderization}}: In the first movie, he was a normal, somewhat dorky young man who endured great suffering before unexpectedly defeating great evil. When the franchise became a comedy, he became a cartoonish dumbass who takes absurd slapstick knocks, then quips blithely before carving evil up with a chainsaw. Even SamRaimi himself admitted that he feels Ash's personality transformation in ''Army of Darkness'' was very out of character. [[Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad Fans generally prefer this version of Ash]].

* {{Catchphrase}}: "Groovy!"

* CoolLoser: Chainsaw-handed undead slayer he may be, but in his day to day life, Ash is an idiotic social outcast stuck in a dead end job that he has no real hope of escaping.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ash_j_williams.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Groovy."'']]

-->''"[[AntiHero Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun.]]"''

* {{Flanderization}}: In the first movie, he was a normal, somewhat dorky young man who endured great suffering before unexpectedly defeating great evil. When the franchise became a comedy, he became a cartoonish dumbass who takes absurd slapstick knocks, then quips blithely before carving evil up with a chainsaw. [[Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad Fans generally prefer this version of Ash]].

* GadgeteerGenius: He modified a chainsaw to serve as a BladeBelowTheShoulder, created gunpowder by referencing its elemental makeup in a chemistry book, converted his car into the [[WeaponizedCar Death Coaster]], and crafted a fully functional prosthetic hand from a metal gauntlet. It's worth noting all but the first example he did in medieval times under a strict timeframe, with only a single blacksmith and a handful of wiseman around to lend a hand.

* {{Manchild}}: He’s a grown adult, but some of his humor and one-liners show that he can occasionally act ''very'' immature in times of crisis.
-->”I’m gonna bury that book, then I can finally say to Evil ‘Hey Evil, why don’t you eat my butt?’
* MrViceGuy: In his older years, he's become a substance-abusing, womanizing and cynical burnout without any real prospects going on in his life. Doesn't take away from the fact that he may be the only hope the world has against the Deadites.

* TheCameo: In TheStinger of [[Film/EvilDead2013 the remake]].

* ZombieApocalypseHero: Ash Williams, Deadite hunter extraordinaire. His [[WeaponOfChoice Weapons of Choice]] are a SawedOffShotgun dubbed his "Boomstick" and a [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] that [[BladeBelowTheShoulder replaces his amputated hand]].