Resident Evil 4’s Ashley mouse meme explained

The co-star of Resident Evil 4, Ashley Graham, has changed quite a bit for Capcom’s new remake of the action-survival horror classic. She’s more present, less prone to danger, and less of a babysitting nuisance in the RE4 remake. But one proposed change to Ashley could make her even better: turn her into a mouse.

Fan art of Ashley as a mouse — aka Moushley — has been flooding Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram over the past week as artists interpret Leon S. Kennedy’s charge as a cute, cheese-hungry little rodent. It’s all in good fun, and prompted by a particular piece of fan art of Ashley in mouse form from Twitter use Agrimmora. They posted the following thought exercise on March 24 — the same day Resident Evil 4 launched — and inspired hundreds of pieces of fan art.

Since then, other artists have recreated Ashley-as-a-mouse in every way imaginable, from Animal Crossing-style mouse villagers to a cheese-wedge-shaped Jerry from Tom & Jerry to The Rescuers-influenced Moushley. There’s so much great stuff, but here’s a sampling.

All that Moushley fan art got the attention of Capcom, who appears to approve.

All that’s left now is for some brave modder to get Ashley in mouse form — and cheese sold by the Merchant — into Resident Evil 4 itself.

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