I feel like making a moveset out of Ashley would be a lot easier than people give her credit for.
This is something a lot of people get hung up on when it comes to Smash newcomers but I think there's a nasty tendency in speculative brainstorming to "overthink" what characters need to do. I brought this up some pages ago; people assumed the Inklings were going to be all about territory control and ink mechanics using every weapon in the book, when in reality the answer was so much more simple. Oftentimes in Smash there's been cases where Sakurai designs fighters not outright because of some kind of move they do in their game but because of how their personalities are conveyed in their actions. DK is the prime example; he only has like two or three attacks that are actually based on maneuvers he could do in his own game and it took him until Smash 4 to get his signature dash attack, but despite this the character is made more as an amalgamation of what DK's design and personality across the years convey. Despite not punching people up until Jungle Beat happened, they made DK's move set primarily revolve around his fists because that's the biggest part of his body, and he's known for carrying a lot/having good upper body strength.
On top of that you have some scenarios where it's suggested that Sakurai looked to other fighting games as reference in molding other fighters. You can find plenty of Street Fighter influences across multiple characters, and I might be wrong on this but I think Nintendo Power wrote something about Sonic's moveset being partially inspired by Virtua Fighter (even though I could never really verify that myself personally). Sakurai is a man who does his research thoroughly, and no doubt is plenty aware of archetypes among fighting games that suit the characters he designs. There's a bunch of reference material to pull from across games that aren't even related to Nintendo (hell, who was it that pointed out that Wolf's render is
basically Yamcha's pose?)
So while we're on that subject, let's look at Ashley. She's a twin-tailed withdrawn witch, has a familiar who can shapeshift, and is known for performing a lot of magic, notably of the electric variety in Game & Wario. People have suggested turning her into a debuff character, and I like the sound of that, but as far as constructing a moveset out of her, there's a perfect counterpart they can already look at for reference in molding her moveset. The character might not be a witch specifically, but they tick most other boxes.
Rachel Alucard.
Seriously, this kind of character would make perfect sense as a framework in constructing an Ashley moveset. A lot of her attacks involve shapeshifting not just her own hammerspace but also her familiars. She even has a similar familiar to Red in the form of Gii. Ashley could transform Red into a staff for magic attacks, but even use Red's physical body to bludgeon people. On top of that, Rachel uses a lot of electric/wind magic in her moveset, most notoriously for setting up traps. That kind of moveset would be great for Ashley, who also flies around often, performs electric spells and is even said in her theme song to employ shapeshifting magic.
I would love if Ashley played anything remotely similar to Rachel.
