Poll: Mass Effect: Kaidan vs Ashley who to save

[MysticSlayer]

I'd say a few things play into the decision:

1). Are you romancing Ashley or Kaiden? If you are, I'd save the one you're romancing. If you are romancing Liara or not romancing anyone at all, keep reading.
2). Is one of them important to your squad setup? Save the one that is more important. If they are both important, then save the person who's skills are least like your own. If this still doesn't fit, then...
3). Save the one you sent to work with the Salarians. The Salarians come back in ME3 if you save the person you send to fight alongside them.

Personally, I saved Ashley, but that was because she was my romance option in ME1 and stuck all the way through the whole trilogy. Then again, her character is more compelling, and she was a key squad member for me in ME1. Also, I always send her to work with the Salarians, and since I want their help in ME3, I save her and them. If I ever choose to play as a Soldier class then I may save Kaiden, but I don't see myself doing that anytime soon.

 

[blackrave]

Ashley
Never could understand hate towards her
I kinda liked her relationship with her family
And her paranoid attitude towards aliens resembled my shepards attitude
Not to mention THAT moment in ME3

 

[Lrbearclaw]

...yet I never hear anything about Wrex. He's a gun-for-hire that shows little care for the deaths of innocents, yet no moral outrage over that.

Uncle Urdnaut brings the boom. THAT is why.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Kaiden.
Because Ashley is a fucking racist-ass dick.

Technically, she does have more character than Kaiden- but he's not a xenophobic *****.

 

[Ymbirtt]

I lost all my saves before I moved on to ME3, so I had to redo things. I decided I'd leave a small derp in there, and see if the game would react. I decided that I'd seduce both Ashley and Liara as much as I possibly could, pick Ashley at the "pick one of us you manwhore" moment, then nuke her from orbit and run off with Liara. I was quite disappointed - everything worked out great right up to the point at which Ashley got fried. The game did not present me with the option of running back to Liara. Not only that, but Tali never seemed to mind the fact that I staged a thermonuclear break up with my previous girlfriend, and nobody mentioned it at any point in the following two games.

Maybe this makes me a terrible person...

 

[Vale]

I remembered that if I didn't manage to talk Wrex down quickly enough, Ashley would just shoot my favourite Mass Effect character in the back.
Also she was religious LOL
Okay, I'm not going to incite a riot. Disregard distasteful disjoke.

 

[hazydawn]

I simply chose her because I was closer to her and somebody had to make sure that the fucking bomb would stay intact and wasn't overrun by the enemy. :/

 

[Echopunk]

I left Ashley to die about 95% of the time. She just wasn't that useful to me from a gameplay perspective. Tech abilities were extremely useful in the first game due to all of the Geth, with Biotics being excellent for crowd control. I used Kaidan and Garrus as my go to team, subbing in Wrex or Tali depending on whether I needed extra damage or hacking.

With an Engineer, Adept, Infiltrator, or Sentinel Shepard, the combo of Kaidan's tech and biotics and Garrus' combat prowess and tech meant I could lock down the entire battlefield in about a second and a half, letting Garrus assassinate whatever wasn't presently overheated, on fire, in the air, or held in stasis.

The power loadout in ME3 makes the Garrus & Kaidan combo even better. My fast casting (as opposed to hard tanking) sentinel can set up tech and biotic explosions off of them, and vice versa. With explosions and bursts going off left and right, I'm able to mow through enemies like I used to in the days of Chemical and Polonium ammunition.

I did a dramatic role play run through the series where my Shepard pursued a romance with Ashley only to have to choose the mission over her life, but it wasn't even worth it. Without a living love interest in your ME import, ME2 pretty much just assumes you came down with Blue fever and hooked up a power coupling with Liara.