Why is it that people hate Ashley Williams so much? I mean I get that she starts out as kind of racist, but she gets a lot of development through out the games and she's a lot more useful than Kaidan, who's much more boring.

So why the Ashley hate?

It's mostly the racism towards the teamates

What xenobrony said, and I always found her to be really arrogant and bitchy, acting like she was better than she really was. I always liked Kaiden better.

2413022 I usually let Kaidan die, personally. He was generally useless in a fight and had a boring character

Although I hardly ever used Ashley or any of the human characters in ME3. I'd usually use Tali and Garrus, on occasion switching to Javik, James or Liara if I needed a more durable team and less of a damage dealing one.

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I always found kaiden kind of useful me1 but not so much in me3. I usually used Garrus too, but I always favored the krogans in me1 and 2. Personally, I loved just about everyone in me2 (except for Jacob, screw Jacob.) so that's probably why it's my favorite.

2413148 Jacob was super boring. If I wasn't a vanguard and needed one, I'd use Jack

2412769

... a lot more useful than Kaidan, who's much more boring.

No, but seriously. Please explain. I've never seen any evidence that either is more useful than the other.

That being said, I don't hate Ashley. I really think she gets a lot more hate than she actually deserves, though I did prefer Kaidan. Among the reasons I have seen, however, there were two that really stood out.

1. As both users who posted before me have said, she was mildly racist. While it could be argued that it was perfectly reasonable of her to worry about foreign nationals aboard a prototype Alliance vessel, there isn't any real excuse for the comments she makes about Liara if a male character happens to get involved with her.

2. Some of the more, uh... anti-theist... members of the Mass Effect fandom seem to have a problem with her due to the fact that she is the one human character to state that she is religious. A Christian at that, and while these people do seem to be a minority among the fandom, they are a rather vocal one. So...

2413176 He just kind of died easy and couldn't do a lot of damage, as oppose to Liara, who specialized in Biotics, or Tali and Garrus, who had useful weapon and tech skills.

Again, though, I don't really use her that much, reason being that my ideal team through out all three games was myself, Tali and Garrus, although again, they'd be switched out for when I needed a more specialized team, usually being Thane, Grunt or Jack.

Although I usually choose vanguard, meaning I don't need to choose another biotic, except maybe Wrex, but that' because he's... Wrex

A Christian at that

So an alien can have a faith, but not a human.

Seems legit

2413252 Double standards are far from a thing of the past, unfortunately. I personally never had a problem with it, but then I'm more open-minded than most, it seems.

I'll admit, he was kind of weak in ME1, but then the sentinel class as a whole was somewhat underpowered in the original game. Add onto that the fact that I usually play adept so I never had much reason to bring him along since it skewed my team toward biotic overspecialization. ME2, well, both Kaidan and Ashley were kind of shocked by the company you kept in that entry, so no reason to discuss their ability in that. ME3, on the other hand, I generally had a lot more trouble with Liara going down, especially during my Insanity playthrough, and even then she and everyone else were pretty valuable assets to the team in their own way. I thought Kaidan saw a substantial increase in capability between the two.

2413329 Oh there's no doubting that Kaidan is much better than Ash by ME3. He can do a ton of combo attacks with other members and he isn't redundant at all, unlike Ashley, who's a second sniper which I don't need, thanks to Garrus, who can also set off combinations.

And of course, Garrus and Sheperd are bros, so it just feels... weird switching him out for another sniper after playing him as a team member for three games to switch him out for Ash after she didn't join up in ME2.

Really, I only save Ash at this point on the off chance that I don't choose to go for the romance with Tali again in ME3.

I usually end up going for Tali anyway, just because she's gotten so much stronger than in the first game, which is why I go for Ash in the first place, because she just has a stronger personality and isn't as weak as Liara, not depth wise, but she's just much more sure of herself than Liara.

In short, I like Ashley because she's confident, I like Liara because she's adorable and needs to be protected and I like Tali because she's adorable and needed to be protected, but became much stronger than either of them

2413022

Plus Kaiden is played by the same actor that played Carth Onasi from kotor.

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I don't hate her. I normally save her, unless I'm playing a Renegade male Shep. Then I romance Shep and Kaiden in ME3.

2420667 Well I'm having to make the choice to save one of them now, and I'm not sure who...

I'm a vanguard, so I won't need Kaidan for his biotics

But I can always use Garrus for my sniper in ME3

I still haven't chosen a romance option, and both roles could be filled by my favorite characters, Garrus and Tali.

I just...

Don't...

KNOW!

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Y'know, you don't have to allow Kaiden/Ashley beck onto your team after the mid point of ME3... Just saying.

2421192 I'm actually making plans for a ponification of Mass Effect, with Ash played by Soarin' and Twi played by Kaidan

It's going to be really difficult figuring out who to kill

TVTropes points out, on the Breakout Character page, that in the first game, most of the focus is put on the two human characters of the squad, Kaiden and Ashley, yet people tended to gravitate towards the aliens on the squad instead (proven by the fact that Garrus and Tali returned and became romanceable in 2 due to the fandom's reaction to them). It's plausible that, while Ashley and Kaiden might have had decent character development, most players did not find Ashley's appealing due to the racist comments towards the aliens. Especially considering that the game had more of a vibe and energy of wonder and fancy towards the universe, like it was something to be discovered and enjoyed. Someone like Ashley contrasted that vibe and potentially made her comments even more jarring to some players.