Poll: Mass Effect 1: Should I rescue Kaidan or Ashley?

[Minimike3636]

First piece of advice, MAX OUT THE CHARM SKILL. SERIOUSLY.
(That will allow you to save Wrex and do lots of other useful stuff.)

And as for the Kaiden vs. Ashley dilemma... I really hated Ashley, but I let her live because I chose to romance her for the achievement.

Also, I couldn't stand hearing Carth Onasi's voice coming from a body that wasn't Carth Onasi's. (You get me, KOTOR fans?)

 

[RollForInitiative]

You can save Wrex even without having high Charm/Intimidate. You just have to make sure you do his quest to recover his family armor. That will make him loyal enough to stand by your decision to do all that dirty business on Virmire.

 

[Choppaduel]

Didn't use either in my party, so the choice boiled down to:

Spoiler

just following the mission: it makes more sense to send Ashley with the Salarians and it makes more sense to go and make sure the bomb doesn't get disarmed... well to me anyways

 

[Goofguy]

I didn't care much for either of them. For me, neither of their personalities made me want to like them. Ashley's Bible-thumping, xenophobic, GI Jane attitude was a turn off and Kaidan's whiny, woe-is-me mentality is just annoying. I used neither of them in my party so their fates meant nothing to me (I wouldn't have minded leaving both on the planet just to save me from listening to their survivor's guilt afterwards). Plus, my LI is Liara so my johnson wasn't going to make the decision for me on this one.

So with that being said, I had to approach it from a practical perspective. My male Shep is the soldier class so I didn't need a second soldier cramping my style and I figured biotics are always handy to have around. I left Ashley behind and I don't regret it.

 

[a ginger491]

keep kaiden
for one he not a whiny ***** and 2. ME3 will have it's fair share front-heavy female characters, male humans who are not psychotic mass murders on the other hand...
oh and i live in a secret pocket universe where zaeed was the only human male crewmember you had in ME2

Wait doesn't Jacob automatically start out with you?

what did you do? all those month of therapy...now my life feels bland again...but the priiiiiiiize.




jacob is just so less interesting than everyone else on the Normandy. Mess sergeant Gardner is at least a racist. and he is just...plus his romance sucks.

Wait slow down I was only asking how you managed to make it so that Jacob and aren't on the normandy from the first mission in ME2 onwards. or do you mean that you decided to kill off everyone other than Zaeed?

 

[teebeeohh]

keep kaiden
for one he not a whiny ***** and 2. ME3 will have it's fair share front-heavy female characters, male humans who are not psychotic mass murders on the other hand...
oh and i live in a secret pocket universe where zaeed was the only human male crewmember you had in ME2

Wait doesn't Jacob automatically start out with you?

what did you do? all those month of therapy...now my life feels bland again...but the priiiiiiiize.




jacob is just so less interesting than everyone else on the Normandy. Mess sergeant Gardner is at least a racist. and he is just...plus his romance sucks.

Wait slow down I was only asking how you managed to make it so that Jacob and aren't on the normandy from the first mission in ME2 onwards. or do you mean that you decided to kill off everyone other than Zaeed?

no you have to take jacob for the first mission and his loyalty but those were the only ones i took him. Every other character is either interesting or funny or good in combat and Jacob just sucks across the board. It was bad enough he was sticking around for all the welcoming sequences.
oh and killed him off just because i don't like him(and he has no grieving relatives) every time except for my one perfect run

 

[LaughingAtlas]

I somewhat regret making ashley my first run's sacrifice, she's a bit xenophobic and I don't agree with some of her values, (Paraphrase: "If you and your dog meet a bear and siccing the dog while you run is the only way to survive, you'll do it, even if it's not human." Abandon a friend that trusts me to save myself? No, Ashley, I wouldn't.) but she was at least more intersting than kaiden ever was. "I was in a psychic academy. It was kind of bad there. I killed an instructor. Why are you sleeping?"

But hell, maybe instead of implants, Kaiden got a new back story, like Garrus between ME1 and 2.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Ashley's a ***** and Kaidan is blander than that Thomas Ruff inexpressive fellow.
Flip a coin.

 

[trouble_gum]

Whilst I lean towards the "flip a coin" school, I ultimately went with leaving Kaidan behind because he was pretty much useless since I had Liara. He, and his character sheet with all its XP, pretty much went out of my mind once I had Liara on board and she'd levelled up her biotics a bit.

 

[ZeroDotZero]

You know the Virmire mission near the end of the first Mass Effect where you have to choose whether to save Kaidan and let Ashley die, or vice-versa? This is my second time playing through, since I lost my first save file, and I'm in a bit of a conundrum over who to save.
Kaidan is totally useless in a fight (I'm a Soldier class) but he's a cool guy.
Ashley, on the other hand, is much better in a fight, but a total *****. I don't like her at all.
Some background info that may or may not help--I've played ME2. I'm hooking up with Liara in ME1. I don't really command my squad to do anything during a fight. I let them handle themselves while I kick ass, take names, and chew gum. Too bad gum isn't included in standard Alliance rations.

EDIT: Ah, one more thing--is there a way to save Wrex from his untimely demise?

If you hate Ashley, don't save her. Likelihood is you will be forced to put up with a lot more of her.

Simple as.

 

[WolfThomas]

I saved Kaidan because I used him in my party a lot. Where as Ashley was just a solider like me. I had been romancing her. I thought it made the story more bitter-sweet if I lost my love interest in that moment. Also Kaidan was with the bomb, I had to protect it.

 

[badgersprite]

I've picked each one on different playthroughs, just to be fair. So coinflip.

EDIT: Yes, you can save Wrex. To my knowledge, it's a matter of having high enough charm/intimidate to get him on side. But there's probably a middle path of dialogue you can take if you don't have that. Been too long since I played to remember for sure.

 

[holy_secret]

Ashley's a racist religious *****. What is there to like about her?
In my opinion, Liara is more likable and hotter. Kaidan is also hotter than Ashley, and has a nicer personality.

That's how I do it. In both my fem-shep and male-shep playthroughs, Ashley's bit the dust both times.

 

[Nickompoop]

Jeez, it's neck and neck. I didn't know this issue was split pretty much down the middle.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Man I wish I had saved Kaidan instead of Ashley. Totally regret letting Kaidan die.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

snip

Good sir, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

No Ashley is no *****, nor religiously fundamentalist, nor xenophobic or racist.

As for who to save, the dedicated roleplayers should save whichever one they think their Shepard would be more likely to save. Mine for example saved Ashley, because as the one with command potential Kaidan had led the Salarians, and it made more sense to guard the bomb rather than rush to Kaidan's aid.

The ones who play it only for the stats should save whoever is the more used one in combat. This would have led to me saving Kaidan, since I go for biotics and tech every time over brute force (sorry Garrus, Wrex, Williams fans)

 

[Free Thinker]

Mass Snip.

Oh sweet Krogan quads! That nose! What is wrong with it?!?! One would think in the future, you could fix a nose like that no problem. Also, yes Kaidan is now a badass. All he needed was heavy armor and beard. Light armor doesn't exactly make for intimidating presence.

 

[Beryl77]

I don't like either of them but Ashley annoys me more and I was happy to send her to her death.

 

[Darquenaut]

I almost feel sorry for Kaidan. I never used him in the game, not on a single solitary mission unless I HAD to. When I alked with him, he bored me to tears, but he did an excellent job of holding down that piece of floor on the Normandy. When it was time to pick, I decided to make Kaidan my Rudy, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Boy, it's time for you to shine!" And off he went, the little, boring, trooper that he was.

Looking back now, it's strange but I realize I usually next to never use any human characters... ever. The cloeset one I suppose would be Jack, but she's so much of a Looney Tune that I don't think it really counts in the long run.