Poll: Mass Effect: Kaidan vs Ashley who to save

[PJGlenn]

I based my decision on who to kill/save purely on who I needed the most, I found Kaidan was a far more useful squad member than Ashley in the first Mass Effect. I did start the romance plotline with Ashley first so I could feel angsty about sacrificing her for the greater good.

 

[Joshimodo]

Kaiden. Dull, but actually chummy and not a complete asshole. Also serves as an insight into the tech of the world (the implants used by Biotics), and as a juxtaposition with Shepard in regards to being a skilled but not exceptional soldier who has been through some odd stuff, but a parallel in that he's actually a functional human being, not some sack of emotions or stonewalling traits. Useful in combat too, if you're not rolling with the obvious choice of Garrus and Wrex.

Ash was a racist Christian with daddy issues on a spaceship filled with aliens with many different beliefs. She sucked in combat. She was annoying and/or boring in all bar about 2 conversations in the game, and progressively became more of a *****. Plus, Ashley's face looked like someone hung some flesh over a brick wall.


So yeah, save Kaiden.

 

[bat32391]

Well I chose Kaidan, mostly because he doesn't go all super ***** like Ashley does and he doesn't shoot Wrex for no damn reason when I was about to talk him down, thus forcing me to reload my damn game and half of that mission on Feros and the whole damn Virmire mission.

 

[LetalisK]

Kaiden wins every time. Why?

- There's a chance that she'll kill Wrex. So besides being a ***** for killing one of the coolest characters in the entire series, she potentially dooms the krogan as a whole because of it (without Wrex to reign in the krogan, they don't gain any favors with any of the other races and are more prone to driving themselves towards extinction).

How do you guys mistakenly get Wrex killed? I always thought it was way easy to avoid it. You literally have to do one particular side quest and you're good. Or be persuasive.

- Kaidan interacts way more with everyone else. Again, this could be more of a personal preference, but I'd rather have that than miss antisocial. (this is more noticeable in the Citadel DLC)

I haven't played the Citadel DLC yet(still going through ME2 right now), but I did look up the Ashley romance in it and it's fucking pathetic. She has some good lines, but she's pretty much ignored compared to the others. I know they like to focus on Liara way more than the other romances, but holy shit.

Also, I second your comment about her being a Soldier. Even if you don't play a Soldier, there is no reason to bring a Soldier. The AI can't shoot for shit, so they're just there for powers. Enter Kaiden.

Ash was a racist Christian with daddy issues

She was one of the few members of the Normandy that had a good relationship with her dad.

 

[alithanar8]

I always save Ash, I find I cant do any less considering she is by far and large the most interesting character in ME1. She has a healthy family life and she shows her respect of the entire military by marching straight in even though she was never guaranteed promotion, simply because she felt it was her duty to serve. I also admire her devotion to her sisters and her faith. All in all probably my favorite character (second is Garrus followed by Wrex)

As a side thought, I can't believe she is winning in this poll... most tend to think of her as racist and a bible thumper, when they just don't realize that she is right and the Council (vocalized by the Asari counselor) was planning on throwing the humans away for more time, and generally she brings up religion all of 1 time in ME1. (off mentions of God other times but I don't see anybody jumping on the Asari for constantly saying "By the Goddess!")

 

[Joshimodo]

She was one of the few members of the Normandy that had a good relationship with her dad.

She also has...daddy issues! She hates that her father never "became" anything, had to help raise her family, blindly follows her family's "tradition", and has lingering issues with her ancestor's surrender at in the first contact war.

 

[soren7550]

Kaiden wins every time. Why?

- There's a chance that she'll kill Wrex. So besides being a ***** for killing one of the coolest characters in the entire series, she potentially dooms the krogan as a whole because of it (without Wrex to reign in the krogan, they don't gain any favors with any of the other races and are more prone to driving themselves towards extinction).

How do you guys mistakenly get Wrex killed? I always thought it was way easy to avoid it. You literally have to do one particular side quest and you're good. Or be persuasive.

I didn't let Wrex die, I just said that there's a chance that she'll kill him. I ain't letting that beiotch kill mah bro!

And yeah, it's fairly easy to avoid him dying.

 

[LetalisK]

She was one of the few members of the Normandy that had a good relationship with her dad.

She also has...daddy issues! She hates that her father never "became" anything, had to help raise her family, blindly follows her family's "tradition", and has lingering issues with her ancestor's surrender at in the first contact war.

And all that anger is directed at the Alliance. She doesn't fault her father for making hard decisions, adores him, and knew exactly what she was getting into when she followed in his footsteps. She doesn't have daddy issues. Maybe Alliance issues. >.>

Edit: Not even "maybe", she definitely has Alliance issues. She's pissed at them for how she perceives her family was treated by them and feels they're not standing up for their own citizens.

 

[Goofguy]

For me, Kaidan was the lesser of two evils. He and Ashley were both pretty bland characters particularly when you stack them against Garrus and Wrex. I saved Kaidan because he's this well rounded, level headed, normal soldier. He doesn't have any issues or chips on his shoulder, he's just a squad mate who's along for the ride.

 

[lunavixen]

Simply believing in god does not make one a fundamentalist. And xenophobe is a gross exaggeration. At worst, she distrusts aliens, but even that is developed into simply wanting the Alliance to be strong enough to not have to rely on them(and what with self-reliance being a core value of hers, this is hardly surprising). She's one of the few characters that has an arc of much substance, Garrus being the other. I also never understood how people take moral stands on Ashley, 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.

I agree with everything you said here and it's why I save Ashley every time, to me Kaidan is very irritating with that bland attitude, he's just there, like the plaster on your walls.

 

[LetalisK]

Simply believing in god does not make one a fundamentalist. And xenophobe is a gross exaggeration. At worst, she distrusts aliens, but even that is developed into simply wanting the Alliance to be strong enough to not have to rely on them(and what with self-reliance being a core value of hers, this is hardly surprising). She's one of the few characters that has an arc of much substance, Garrus being the other. I also never understood how people take moral stands on Ashley, 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.

I agree with everything you said here and it's why I save Ashley every time, to me Kaidan is very irritating with that bland attitude, he's just there, like the plaster on your walls.

The funny thing is, I still killed off Ashley almost every time. Kaiden was just more useful to me as a squadmate.

 

[superline51]

I always pick Ashley, because boobs.

 

[OpticalJunction]

Save Kaiden. Ashley is cool and all, but her character does a 180 in the third game.

 

[lunavixen]

The funny thing is, I still killed off Ashley almost every time. Kaiden was just more useful to me as a squadmate.

The thing is, I played as a sentinel, rendering Kaidan moot, giving me more reason to stick him with the bomb and leave him there, and i've certainly never romanced him (never will). But yeah, it depends on your play style

 

[2fish]

Ashley will follow orders Kaiden will whine. His heart may be in the right place but like Carth he just sat on the ship if I had any choice. Since the way I play I would either have shot Kaiden myself or ignored him to death at least he dies a hero and I fulfilled his wish.

 

[Eliwood10]

I thought Kaiden was going to leave after the intro mission. That's how little impact his "character" had on me. He is so uninteresting that I don't think I've talked to him in-game EVER. In any playthrough.

So, yeah. I didn't even have to think twice about killing him off.

 

[Tahaneira]

I almost always save Ashley, but not because I don't like Kaiden. To the contrary, I think he's a great guy. The thing about those two is that when you meet them in the first game, Kaiden is level-headed, well-adjusted, and fairly intelligent. Or, as so many others see him, 'boring.' I'll let you guess if I agree. Ashley, on the other hand... is not. She is not in a good place by the first game. At all. Kaiden has, by and large, sorted his shit out, and is at peace with his life and the galaxy in general. Ashley still has a lot in her life to take care of, so I give her the chance to do so.

Basically, I feel that between the two of them, Kaiden has the least regrets in his life. Ash has many, and needs time to work through them. So I help her do so.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I saved Kaiden. He may be bland, but Ashley had only one distinguishing feature, and that was being a xenophobe. I'd rather have a loyal blank sheet of paper on my side than a spunky character who I'm afraid might "accidentally" loose some friendly fire on the other members of the squad.

Spoiler

The game should have made a "I'm court-marshaling you when we get back." option. It never happened to me, but I imagine that I would have felt the same way that I did when

Spoiler: Walking Dead video game spoilers

Lily shot Carly. I was so mad that I had to walk away from the game for a few days. At least that game let you immediately abandon Lily.

OP: She questioned me trusting Wrex and Garrus and she snapped at Liara after every mission. Kaidan followed orders and occasionally made jokes. The most difficult part of that mission was feigning sadness to the crew after her timely death.

 

[Ryan Minns]

Ashley! I saved her all 17 play throughs of the game... Never did her romance, never cared about her character, she was always just an object to me... a high health, soldier tanking wall of death object that would take bullets allowing my adept to laugh in the background

 

[Iklol]

I hated both of them. Seriously when this choice came up I was like: "can't I leave both of them?". I chose to keep Kaiden though as he seemed slightly less annoying than Ashley (killed him in ME3 though).