Significance of Allyson

[Jill's Boob]

I'm curious to know what others think about the presence of Allyson.

Did Capcom just happen to randomly come up with a twentysomething blonde girl in distress in Kijuju? Why was she included? Was it a wise move?

Everyone thought she was Sherry (though I heard the same thing happened with Ashley in RE4, although I do not know how early in the development of RE4 images of Ashley were released to the public eye) from the minute we saw a picture of her. But the idea of Sherry popped up from the time the first picture came out of Jill in the stasis tube. People were certain that Sherry was being experimented on by Wesker.

Did Capcom catch wind of the rampant fan speculation, and thus build the model for Allyson to add fuel to the fire? Or was it purely coincidence like dumbo-earred blonde Ashley Graham?

Am I giving Capcom too much credit in perhaps concocting such a devious scheme?

And isn't the presence of a young blonde girl, being victim to savages in Africa just a little risque? Sure, hardcore fans who read Adam's blog know who she is, but the general gaming public probably has no idea whatsoever other than random blonde girl victimized in evil way. I mean, her status isn't explained in any other way than the blog. What was the significance of that scene? We'd seen it before in the very first encounter of the game.

Yet it was shown again, on a young blonde woman. I have to think Capcom threw her in there to give hardcore fans the hope that Sherry Birkin would make her return.

Even I, who guessed Jill as Mystery Woman almost a year ago, thought until the very end that Allyson was indeed Sherry. I'm still disappointed that it was not indeed her...

Anyway - what do you all think? Is there any significance to Allyson? Was she an intentional red herring of sorts? Or just a random coincidence?

[Dot50Cal]

They've done this previously with that UC prequel comic as well. It had a girl who looked a bit older than Sherry as well.

[A-J]

Capcom just tried to increase the "shock value" of the ruthless-ness of the majini with her character. Too bad she just ended up being a throw away. As for her resemblance to Sherry, I would say that was probably done on purpose to keep the fans speculating.

[REmaster]

Not a very nice thing to do I might add I thought for sure she had a bigger part to play.

[Sevket]

What is this Adam's blog you are talking about ? I'd like to know more about this gal

Edit: Found it. Too bad I didn't follow the blog before the game came out

http://kijuju.blogspot.com/

[Jill's Boob]

They've done this previously with that UC prequel comic as well. It had a girl who looked a bit older than Sherry as well.

That's right. The little girl, Anna, I think was her name.

What is this Adam's blog you are talking about ? I'd like to know more about this gal

It's called "Experience Kijuju." It's a fake blog that accounts for this character named Adam who sees firsthand the events leading up to RE5. Check it out as it is really cool.

[REmaster]

Here's a link.
http://kijuju.blogspot.com/2008/12/adam-is-back.html
I still havent got to see that UC prequel , any links to that?

[Bianca]

Thank you for starting this thread, Jill’s Boob. I've been meaning to bring up Allyson for a while now, but keep forgetting. I’m still a little confused as to her significance, if any, in the game. Part of me thinks Capcom specifically designed the character with the intention of making her Sherry. I can’t remember whether it was Jun Takeuchi who said this, but I strictly remember someone from Capcom stating that they were a few other storylines they wanted to tie up in RE5 but didn’t have the opportunity to pursue. Perhaps they were referring to Sherry? I just find it really hard to believe that Capcom would go through all the trouble to design a character like Allyson—who has extremely specific and memorable looks—only to throw away the character by having her die within two seconds of meeting her. I mean, for goodness sake, she was even given her own voice actress (at least, I’m assuming so?—she doesn’t sound like anyone else in the game, even the “extra” characters).

The possibility she was intended to be Sherry is further debatable by the creation of the Kijuju blog. It almost seems like that blog was thrown together to tie up the obvious plothole of Allyson’s purpose. Then again, that seems highly unlikely, because if they had time to remove any possible storyline regarding Sherry in RE5, surely they had time to include in-game files about “Allyson” instead of putting together that blog. I just find it odd that there is honestly NOTHING in the actual game that explains her appearance. And, like you said, only those who actually read the blog (most of whom are probably only the fans more involved in RE fandom) would understand who she is and why she was there. Honestly, why wouldn’t Capcom take the time to include that in the game itself? That’s really peculiar to me.

From browsing various message boards, it seems a majority of people think Allyson was included for some kind of diversity, to remove accusations of racism, but I really do not agree with any of that. In many ways, having some white blonde woman being victim of a group of minorities would only seem to heighten the racism accusations. But whatever. I don’t agree with any of the racism accusations in the first place.

As I said in another thread (I forget which), Takeuchi specifically addressed the rumor of Sherry being in the game (around 2:15). One thing that piqued my curiosity is how he says it: He says this with a smile on his face, and you can hear people in the background laughing. I’m almost tempted to think they were laughing at the fandom for what they considered ridiculous speculation... or if you’re right—they were messing with our heads with the creation of Allyson. And, if the latter is true, then when the hell are we ever going to see Sherry again? And, if they’re honestly aware that the fandom still speculates about her, do they not see opportunity in using her character in the future? Siggghhh.

I find the whole revelation that Allyson was not Sherry to be continually disappointing. Personally, I just really loved Allyson’s character design. The red dress, the long blonde hair, the sandals. She’s just so pretty, and it kills me that they wasted a design on character we could’ve done without.

[Henry Spencer]

So whatever happened to Adam? He said he saw Chris and Sheva, but he never encountered them. Maybe a DLC side story for Adam (sorry Jill fans, but this is more likely).

About Allyson though, I felt like Capcom were poking at the fans by making it look like you would have to escort her around like Ashley. I remember when Allyson first came onto the scene, some fans were dreading more rescue missions to protect somebody, like Ashley all over again. Capcom thankfully pulled that rug from underneath us and were playing a trick. As you said though, most fans believed it to be Sherry, but alas, Capcom wouldn't want to tie up that plot strand, since it is convoluted what exactly happened to her now (the most recent Wesker Report took out any importance of Sherry).

All that Allyson became in the end was there to just introduce the first parasite enemy to us, and that's all.

[A-J]

Adam re-opened a shop in Kijuju for all the PS3 Home people ..

[aris13]

Having read Adam's blog I really liked Allyson's little part and I think that It was for the best not to include Sherry in the game. Maybe she will get a closure in DSC.

[Spiderpope]

I quite liked having her appear as a tie in to the Viral marketing.
As for Sherry, Capcom will likely tease us with her for quite a while yet. They know how much fan speculation there is about the character, and its a good way to draw us all back for the next Resident Evil game- shove a blonde girl in a trailer and watch us all go mental trying to work out if its Sherry or not.

[Weskers Flag]

I'm trying to think of something to say, but I'm too distracted by Jill's Boob's avatar...

[Yzak]

How early did Allyson appear in trailers again? I ask this because it may not have been a case of purposely red herring... ing people, but that she appears early on in the game, earlier trailers would only have that and a few other scenes to tease people with.

If anything, it could also be a case of them seeing the speculation of who the girl was when she was first shown, and looking at each other going "uh but she dies like 30 seconds later, they're going to be disappointed with this" and deciding to at least give her some ... thing for people to read in the form of the Kijuju blog to make up for that inevitable disappointment.

[A-J]

we've seen that clip of her running on the balcony in some of the earliest trailers, she was still the "girl in red dress" then, can't figure out why they changed it to black for the final game ..

[Vector]

I gave up on trying to figure out what Capcom thinks a long time ago. I'm not sure what the hell they were going for with Alyson's inclusion, whether it be shock value or randomness...but I'm pretty sure that she was included from the game early on, and then 'expanded upon' outside the lines during Capcom's "hey, how can we advertise the FUCK out of this game?" meetings that took place somewhere in the summer of 2008.

[padamibr]

I just think she's there to show that blonde and white people can be infected as well.

[Darinl1979]

I recall someone saying that the red dress was kind of an inside joke. Allyson was supposed to be a mixture of Alice from the movies and some blonde girl from the Outbreak/Survivor game (I dont know which since I avoided those terrible games) whos name started with an A. Probably just felt it was better to change it to black.

She has no purpose other then being a unique game model that gets infected and tried to kill you. Chances are people are right though, Capcom wanted people to speculate that it was Sherry. I imagine thats also their reason why Jill (2009 edition) was blonde. Sure it was explained why she was blonde but in the event that images were leaked before the game came out...people would assume Sherry. Its decent misdirection but also ends up disappointing fans who expected Sherry.

You can't really be mad at Capcom though, some fans will claim they promised Sherry in this game, but theres no such proof that they ever said.

[Bertha]

we've seen that clip of her running on the balcony in some of the earliest trailers, she was still the "girl in red dress" then, can't figure out why they changed it to black for the final game ..

What was changed to black? Her dress? Her dress is a deep maroon.


I think Allyson existed as a marketing tool...Game wise though....she really wasn't important at all.

[Henry Spencer]

Yeah, they changed the colour of her dress, don't know why either.

And it was good advertisement on Capcom's part, it pretty much deceived a good 90% of the fanbase into thinking she was Sherry. But when I say thinking, I really mean hoping this plotline would come to an end, since Wesker was back too (since he was the one who captured Sherry), I can see how most of us were fooled.