Saving Ashley Williams or Kaiden Alenko is one of the Mass Effect trilogy's earliest and toughest major decisions, and one many players have been faced with again with the launch of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. The squadmate who survives Mass Effect 1 goes on to make an appearance in Mass Effect 2, and then return in a more prominent role in the third game. There's plenty of debate among fans as to which of Shepard's human squadmates is worth saving. Some compare Kaiden's utility as a Sentinel to Ashley's as a Solider, with different implications depending on the class the player picked for Shepard.
For many Mass Effect: Legendary Edition players, however, the most important part of any decision in the series is how it affects the story. Although the Virmire survivor fulfills a similar role in the narrative regardless of whether Shepard saved Ashley or Kaiden, their unique characterizations have a big impact on the tone rest of the trilogy. For fans struggling to make up their minds, here's how Mass Effect 1's Virmire survivor shapes the rest of the games.
Kaiden And Ashley In Mass Effect 1
Before Virmire there are a few different ways Ashley and Kaiden's stories can go. Shepard's gender will affect which one of them wandered towards the Beacon on Eden Prime, for example. If Shepard is male, he will throw himself in front of Ashley, receiving the visions of the Reapers in her place. In Fem Shep's case, it's Kaiden who walks towards the Beacon. If so, Kaiden takes the events of Eden Prime - including Jenkins' death - harder, blaming himself for burdening Shepard with her visions.
Shepard can also affect the personalities of Ashley or Kaiden depending on dialogue options. Choosing Paragon options in conversation with Ashley, for example, can steer her away from her initial prejudice towards the Normandy's alien crewmembers, and will help her begin to get over her grandfather's legacy as the first human to surrender to the Turians during the First Contact War. In contrast, picking Renegade dialogue when talking to Kaiden will make him more pro-human, despite his initial instinct that humanity still needs to earn its place on the Citadel Council.
Initial interest can be expressed with both potential romances, but neither romances go much further until after Virmire. Leaving behind Ashley as a male Shepard or Kaiden as a female Shepard leaves Liara T'Soni the only romance option in the first game. If a male Shepard saves Kaiden, the squadmate also becomes a romance option in the third game.
Kaiden And Ashley In Mass Effect 2
The Virmire survivor will be with Shepard at the start of Mass Effect 2 when the Collectors attack the Normandy. After two years believing Shepard is dead, the player will be reunited with Ashley or Kaiden on Horizon. When they meet again, both potential Virmire survivors will be pleased to see Shepard, but hesitant about them working with Cerberus.
As per usual, Ashley's admonishment is more forthright, while Kaiden is more reserved. If romanced in the first game, both their relief at Shepard's survival and their anger at Cerberus will be more extreme. The Virmire survivor will email Shepard after the encounter, apologizing for their harshness and asking them to be careful. If Kaiden died on Virmire, a Galactic News snippet can reveal that the Alenko Memorial Fund was set up in his honor to help children who, like Kaiden, were exposed to element zero and developed biotic powers.
Kaiden And Ashley In Mass Effect 3
The Virmire survivor returns in a far more prominent role in Mass Effect 3. By the third game Kaiden Alenko will have been promoted to Major, while Ashley Williams will have reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander. They help Shepard escape from Earth at the beginning of the game, and join them when they travel to Mars to find Prothean data. The survivor is badly injured at the end of the mission, and while recovering is made a Spectre by Udina.
The player next encounters the Virmire survivor when Cerberus is attacking the Citadel, where they are charged with protecting Udina, not knowing that he is working with Cerberus. If Shepard can't convince them, the player is forced to kill the Virmire survivor. If they can convince their old squadmate, they have the option to bring them back aboard the Normandy and start or rekindle their romance – with the exception being a Female Shepard and Ashley.
Structurally, the broad strokes of the Virmire survivor's story are the same, but their backstories have a big impact on how their role comes across. If Kaiden survives and is eventually killed by Shepard during the Cerberus attack on the Citadel, his story comes to an end in a grim reversal of his backstory, where he killed an abusive mentor during his training. If Ashley survives and is killed on the Citadel, her desire to prove her family's worth to humanity tragically ends with her unknowingly sacrificing herself for Cerberus.
If Ashley survives until the end of the trilogy, she's been able to rise from a family blacklisted for failing humanity to someone who hasn't just saved her own species, but the entire Milky Way. If Kaiden survives he has also overcome great adversity, starting as a victim of the neurologically damaging L2 implants. However, both Ashley's sacrifice and survival tie more closely into her character arc - her potential sacrifice and potential victory over the Reapers feels more redemptive.
While Kaiden has less of a clear arc, however, his characterization and design in Mass Effect 3 does feel more consistent with the first game. If the Virmire survivor isn't romanced, Kaiden also gets more dialogue than Ashley does in Mass Effect 3, with some of Ashley's cut for time, including one conversation where she asks Shepard if they saw anything after their death at the start of Mass Effect 2. As with most Mass Effect decisions, choosing the Virmire survivor is a matter of personal taste, but one which does have significant implications for the feel of the rest of the trilogy.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is available right now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
