Renegade playthrough, could use some help with Kaidan

I've never been able to avoid locking into a romance with Kaidan. Even the neutral replies lead to him showing up in quarters before Ilos. Is it easy enough to just choose all bottom left dialogue and never ask further about his background?

To avoid romancing Kaiden your first proper conversation with him after becoming a Spectre and gaining control of the Normandy, in the last dialog option in that conversation you just need to choose the renegade (bottom right) dialogue option. I think the option is labeled "Bored now" or something. The actual conversation line is like "I kind of gave up waiting for the good part" or something like that. After that, you should be able to choose any dialogue option you want and not get into a romance with him.

For MaleShep, a similar option exists for Ashley where you can choose the "You're out of line" (middle left) option in the first conversation to avoid the romance.

I forget how to avoid Liara's romance considering I got ninjamanced by her again in my ME1 playthrough. There used to be a thread/post about avoiding romances in ME1, but I do not know if I copied that over to the new forums.

I think it's when she expresses feelings for Shepard, the middle option is "I just want to be friend" and ends the romance right there. I've always heard that choosing the renegade option in that dialogue is bugged and locks the romance anyway. I never tried it though...

I've never been ninja mance'd by anyone.

1. Choose the dialogues that have Shepard act like they aren't interested.
2. Just never talk to them (it's why my most recent FemShep that just completed ME1 did as I don't care for Kaidan at all).
3. Let them die on Virmire (also what my femshep did lol)

As for Liara,

Recruit her after everything else. There isn't enough time to romance her then, I don't think.

I've never done this, so I think Ash is going to be the VS and I'll bring her aboard the Normandy. The last time Ashley was the VS I made sure Garrus shot her. Would like to see what she's like as a crewmate in ME3, though I haven't heard the best of things.

Hadn't thought about getting ninja-manced by Liara. Probably worth it to play into it then, and considering the events of Torfan, it's definitely not the worst thing she's done.

I'd forgotten just how careful one has to be to stay single in ME1. 😄 I am making a point to get the Paramour achievements on my first time through MELE.

With all the trophies of all of sorts out of the way, subsequent PTs feel completely free-form. I know trophies are easily avoided, but I enjoy getting them. They scratch that scoreboard itch we all have to varying degrees. I also like seeing the 🏆100%🏆 next to games I really enjoy. It just feels right.

Anyway, my next Shepard will be John (Sheploo) Shepard who will be single at the end of ME1. Ashley is easy to avoid, since she always gets dusted. Liara is the one that requires care on my part.

The other way is to just go to Therum last, after Feros, Noveria, and Virmire.  It's impossible to romance Liara when you acquire her that late... even if you save Ashley.  Just shut down Ashley with the "You're out of line." dialogue and you should be absolutely single at the end of ME1.

I did it! Kaidan's dead and Shepard got a good night's sleep before Ilos.

That said, I think this is the first time I've left Kaidan with the bomb and gone to help Ashley. Not sure why I haven't done it before, because the firefight before Saren shows up is well done, and the final image of Kaidan guarding the bomb to make sure it detonates after the Normandy leaves is nicely poignant.

I always save Ashley, because i like her more then Kaidan. I am not a fan of her new appearence in ME3 but i can live with it and you can push her into a realtionship with Vega in the Citadel DLC