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Post by CosmicGnosis on Dec 16, 2016 5:58:13 GMT
I used to save Ashley most of the time. But on recent playthroughs, I've saved Kaiden, and he has started to grow on me. Now the Virmire decision finally has the effect on me that was probably intended. For my canon, I have no idea who I should save. Kaiden is someone I could easily be friends with in real life. I could have interesting conversations with Ashley. She is also very close to her family. Kaiden is the superior officer and is overall better from a gameplay perspective, but Ashley deserves a chance to reach her full potential. I don't really want her to sacrifice herself just to redeem her grandfather. I don't know what the hell to do!
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Post by fenris on Dec 16, 2016 6:14:05 GMT
It's Sophie's choice all over again!
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Post by dmc1001 on Dec 16, 2016 6:30:01 GMT
I used to save Ashley most of the time. But on recent playthroughs, I've saved Kaiden, and he has started to grow on me. Now the Virmire decision finally has the effect on me that was probably intended. For my canon, I have no idea who I should save. Kaiden is someone I could easily be friends with in real life. I could have interesting conversations with Ashley. She is also very close to her family. Kaiden is the superior officer and is overall better from a gameplay perspective, but Ashley deserves a chance to reach her full potential. I don't really want her to sacrifice herself just to redeem her grandfather. I don't know what the hell to do! I always save Kaidan. I tried a fresh ME3 PT with Ashley and I couldn't get into it. Used Gibbed first to add Kaidan in as well and then eventually to edit her out. Just haven't been able to play ME without Kaidan. It's the hardest part about getting through ME2: no Kaidan. That said, I initially painted Ashley as a racist. Helped me push past her. But I've seen fan art featuring the three of them on adventures together. That opened me up to her. Also read fanfic with Kaidan/Ashley friendships prior to Virmire. Maybe after ME:A comes out I'll be able to choose Ash but not yet.
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Post by Hanako Ikezawa on Dec 16, 2016 7:19:26 GMT
I save Ashley in my playthroughs. Between her and Kaidan, I just felt that her post-Virmire story was better than his. And on the flip side, I found Kaidan's legacy if dead better than hers. I also always have him with the bomb because it makes sense since he has tech knowledge, and Ashley with the Salarians since she is a soldier. And since I always have Kirrahe and his men survive, I always go rescue him so that makes sense which means Ashley while Kaidan defends the bomb with his life.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2016 8:36:06 GMT
I've always saved Ashley.
For me it's just that Kaidan makes so much more sense to assign to the bomb (he's got a tech background & Ashley doesn't), and I always have Shepard rescue the people at the AA Tower. Going to the AA Tower *in theory* should save the most lives, and in the worst case scenario the bomb tech can always trigger the bomb before getting overrun.
You can save the Salarians as well even if you go to the bomb site, but that never made sense. Kirrahe and his crew should die on the AA Tower along with Ashley or Kaidan, if you double back to the bomb site. Likely that wasn't done because they didn't want to encourage players to leave behind whoever was at the bomb site. If so it would have been better to have the bomb tech accompanied by a few Marines from the Normandy, so you'd have an equal number of lives at stake. (assuming the Salarians survived up to that point, of course)
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2016 8:38:41 GMT
Having done both I find Kaidan's promotion more believable in ME3 than Ashley's. After working with biotic kids he seems to have gained their respect and a role for himself as a teacher. He may not be a hardened vet like Ash, but I find it more convincing for him to be a Spectre and called on by the council than her.
Of couse it's not always about the best choice, in my canon I'll lose Tali in the SM even tho she's Shep's bff. That'll devastate her and give her tonnes of motivation in ME3. Saving the one your Shep hates then loathing them, or learning to work with them, is a great story too.
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Post by fraggle on Dec 16, 2016 8:52:36 GMT
I was a big fan of Kaidan from the beginning and never wanted to save Ash. Until I did, twice in a row. I still will save Kaidan a lot more than her, but I guess I might save her again with a Shepard I believe will get along better with her. Maybe that's also what you could try to aim for? See how the chemistry is between them, or maybe you have different reasons for saving either of them? Is your Shepard someone who'd send Kaidan to the bomb site and return to make sure it goes off? Or would Shepard go after Ash because the bomb was already triggered by Kaidan and all Shepard wants is to get out of there? I had a Shepard once who didn't trust aliens and sent Kaidan with the salarians because she trusted him more with them than Ash, because at that moment she saw they needed to work together (and while I know Ash does work well with them, my Shepard wasn't so sure about this ).
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Post by aoibhealfae on Dec 16, 2016 11:37:17 GMT
Both of them are qualified for each assignment. Ashley is a Gunnery Chief who and she should be technically qualified to arm a nuclear bomb as Kaidan. (Remember the guy who drilled the soldiers about physics at Citadel, he's a Gunnery Chief too.) However, Ashley have no history or experience handling military operations with non-humans. Sending her with the Salarian, when she herself is inexperienced that she make casual remark about how she couldn't differentiate aliens and animals, is a PR disaster. I prefer having her defending the bomb because she have a deep grudge against the Geth for massacring her entire unit and this doesn't change in ME3. It drew a parallel to the moment when you met her and she was swarmed by Geth and it fits for her last moments. If I save Kaidan at the bomb site, I'll only hear her death from the comm instead of watching her being badass killing swarms of geth alone.
For me, Ashley's death represented all the deaths in the trilogy : All the soldiers who sacrificed themselves against the Geth, against the Collectors, against Cerberus, against the Reapers. She have the potential to do more and to be more but so was the rest of the faceless deaths. Her sacrifice haunted both Shepard and Kaidan and both of them tried harder to do what is right for everyone they care about and they try to not to take their sacrifices for granted. The way Ashley-alive occupy in the trilogy was her survival is a gift because she is special for the player to save her. In the end, she fall back into the shadows and everything that happened to her are skimmed lightly and there's greater emphasis on her emotional trauma and fragility, especially when romanced. She survived everything and it ate her up and rather than embracing the fact that she should live and fight for the future which people had died for, she wallow up with repressed guilt over the things that happened years before and not for the things that happen in the present.
Whereas for Kaidan in the trilogy, he lost Jenkins on Eden Prime and from Chakwas herself, Kaidan and Jenkins are friends. Then he and Shepard met with Ashley and in turn subsequently they lose her as well. Ashley only feel sad for Jenkins only once in ME1 whereas Kaidan still grief even in ME3. It was something Shepard and Kaidan shared together and it colored their history with a lot of unspoken depth that no ME2 recruit/loyalty mission could replicate. Kaidan was a teenage freak who could kill people with his mind and he got implanted with a faulty tech that give him constant migraine and everyone accuse him for being too whiny when he simply talk briefly about it. And if romanced, he spent years thinking his girlfriend died horribly (thank you, Liara!) and he got blamed again for being angry at her for joining up with terrorists instead of coming home to him. And months later, he watched his home being destroyed by the reapers and choose to save her instead despite the fact that he was abandoning his parents and his friends in the process. After he found out his father died and suddenly he found himself pointing a gun to someone he loves. He's just a guy who wanted to be normal and yet the universe f*cked his life endlessly and he handled himself well and didn't fall apart. I find this as admirable and tell a lot about his character's inner strength and so does my Shepard who loves him.
But I'm not conflicted about Virmire because I don't feel the new writer for Ashley understand her as Kaidan's new writer did for him. She didn't need additional layer of glossy makeup or a skimpy Alliance wetsuit to compete with other potential LIs. She didn't need to have her sister's husband conveniently killed off for a scene to make me feel sympathetic about her situation with her sister who I never met or care. She didn't need to make excuses about why she trust Udina over me and make excuses that he was indoctrinated by Cerberus and she fell for it. She screwed up, own up to it. She didn't need officer training and speedtrack promotion from Operations Chief to Lt Cmdr to validate her Spectre status. She could've replace James Vega as Shepard's lieutenant from the beginning and have James Vega retaining his Lieutenant Commander rank and filling the Spectre spot. She didn't need to be a drunken mess on the floor of my warship and Shepard shouldn't treat it as cute and funny. I should be able to sit down with her and talk about what's bothering her. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't feel any depth for her when I could do so when if she's dead. She's just a damsel who you save over and over since the first game. Nothing more. Which is disappointing since I love Ashley as well.
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Post by themikefest on Dec 16, 2016 12:18:28 GMT
The majority of my playthroughs I save Ashley. She's a soldier like I was a long time ago.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2016 13:33:59 GMT
I used to save Ashley most of the time. But on recent playthroughs, I've saved Kaiden, and he has started to grow on me. Now the Virmire decision finally has the effect on me that was probably intended. For my canon, I have no idea who I should save. Kaiden is someone I could easily be friends with in real life. I could have interesting conversations with Ashley. She is also very close to her family. Kaiden is the superior officer and is overall better from a gameplay perspective, but Ashley deserves a chance to reach her full potential. I don't really want her to sacrifice herself just to redeem her grandfather. I don't know what the hell to do! I don't think Ashley sacrifices herself in ME1 "just to redeem her grandfather." If she is assigned to the bomb, she sacrifices herself to ensure the mission is completed. If she is assigned to Kirrahe's team, she sacrifices herself to ensure Kirrahe and as many of his men as possible get out alive (which Kirrahe can live regardless if the player does the things that help the team on his/her way to the breeding facility). As for making the choice... it's really something that depends on how you want to develop your Shepard (which is about more than just deciding who he/she likes)... For example, if you're playing a MaleShep, locking into a romance with Ashley who is then forced into allowing her to sacrifice herself on Virmire can utterly change how he views the war (in your head canon since it is an emotional area that the developers never really wrote into the game). Then, say, have him lose his ME2 romance on the Suicide Mission. In ME3, he can then start a fresh romance with Liara, Kaidan or Steve (or, technically, Allers as well). In particular, Shepard can, perhaps, feel a much deeper emotional connection to Steve (who has also lost an LI to the war). With Liara, it can be about discovering that she is the one who has stood by him through thick and thin even though he rejected her in ME1. With Kaidan, it can be about discovering love after getting beyond a falling out between two best friends.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2016 19:10:56 GMT
Both of them are qualified for each assignment. Ashley is a Gunnery Chief who and she should be technically qualified to arm a nuclear bomb as Kaidan. (Remember the guy who drilled the soldiers about physics at Citadel, he's a Gunnery Chief too.) However, Ashley have no history or experience handling military operations with non-humans. Sending her with the Salarian, when she herself is inexperienced that she make casual remark about how she couldn't differentiate aliens and animals, is a PR disaster. I'm not so sure that that makes sense within the story to assign Ashley to the bomb. She shouldn't be qualified to be tinkering with nuke. That task would be so technical that it is unlikely to be part of the standard military training, and Ashley was infantry, not an engineer or an explosive ordinance tech. To be fair neither was Kaidan, but he does have technical skills that Ashley lacks. It's certainly untrue that she would be too inexperienced or unqualified to lead a squad. In fact she she would have led squads long before getting promoted to Gunnery Chief. Gunnery Chiefs are senior NCOs, and in the real world it is NCOs that lead fire teams and squads. Sergeants command squads, not Lieutenants and Captains. NCOs are also responsible for training junior enlisted. Unfortunately because Hollywood is unfamiliar with the military and doesn't know what an NCO is or does, writers typically make any important character an officer, even when the character is filling a role performed by a Corporal or Sergeant in real life. Video games, which often draw inspiration from the film industry, usually make similar errors. Because of that, it can give the incorrect impression that any enlisted character is not in a leadership position. Somewhere in the game it was mentioned that Ashley was a platoon guide when she was on Eden Prime. The platoon guide is a position held by the second most senior Staff NCO (the most senior would be the platoon sergeant) in a platoon, and it is a leadership role. The platoon guide would be acting platoon sergeant in the event the platoon sergeant was a casualty, or was otherwise indisposed. She would have been a squad leader at some point prior, and fire team leader before that. By the time Shepard recruits her she's had years of experience in small unit leadership. It's also likely she's also had some training specific to leadership, as real world military organizations do have NCO courses. It's also likely she was the platoon sergeant for the Normandy's Marine detachment. As for issues with the Salarians, Ashley's no racist. She's got some lingering trust issues over the First Contact War, but she doesn't hate aliens. In fact she gets more offended than your alien squadmates if you bring along to the Terra Firma rally. The squadmate you send with the Salarians also isn't in command; Kirrahe is. The Alliance member sent with the Salarians is just there to coordinate between the two groups. It's not really reflected in gameplay, though.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2016 19:45:48 GMT
Both of them are qualified for each assignment. Ashley is a Gunnery Chief who and she should be technically qualified to arm a nuclear bomb as Kaidan. (Remember the guy who drilled the soldiers about physics at Citadel, he's a Gunnery Chief too.) However, Ashley have no history or experience handling military operations with non-humans. Sending her with the Salarian, when she herself is inexperienced that she make casual remark about how she couldn't differentiate aliens and animals, is a PR disaster. I'm not so sure that that makes sense within the story to assign Ashley to the bomb. She shouldn't be qualified to be tinkering with nuke. That task would be so technical that it is unlikely to be part of the standard military training, and Ashley was infantry, not an engineer or an explosive ordinance tech. To be fair neither was Kaidan, but he does have technical skills that Ashley lacks. It's certainly untrue that she would be too inexperienced or unqualified to lead a squad. In fact she she would have led squads long before getting promoted to Gunnery Chief. Gunnery Chiefs are senior NCOs, and in the real world it is NCOs that lead fire teams and squads. Sergeants command squads, not Lieutenants and Captains. NCOs are also responsible for training junior enlisted. Unfortunately because Hollywood is unfamiliar with the military and doesn't know what an NCO is or does, writers typically make any important character an officer, even when the character is filling a role performed by a Corporal or Sergeant in real life. Video games, which often draw inspiration from the film industry, usually make similar errors. Because of that, it can give the incorrect impression that any enlisted character is not in a leadership position. Somewhere in the game it was mentioned that Ashley was a platoon guide when she was on Eden Prime. The platoon guide is a position held by the second most senior Staff NCO (the most senior would be the platoon sergeant) in a platoon, and it is a leadership role. The platoon guide would be acting platoon sergeant in the event the platoon sergeant was a casualty, or was otherwise indisposed. She would have been a squad leader at some point prior, and fire team leader before that. By the time Shepard recruits her she's had years of experience in small unit leadership. It's also likely she's also had some training specific to leadership, as real world military organizations do have NCO courses. It's also likely she was the platoon sergeant for the Normandy's Marine detachment. As for issues with the Salarians, Ashley's no racist. She's got some lingering trust issues over the First Contact War, but she doesn't hate aliens. In fact she gets more offended than your alien squadmates if you bring along to the Terra Firma rally. The squadmate you send with the Salarians also isn't in command; Kirrahe is. The Alliance member sent with the Salarians is just there to coordinate between the two groups. It's not really reflected in gameplay, though. Really, neither squad mate makes the most sense to arm the bomb. Tali is the person on the ship who would be most familiar with alien ship design... and the bomb is being jerry-rigged from the drive system from Salarian's ship. Also, since arming the nuke isn't a combat role (i.e. the bomb being taken directly from the Normandy just a few feet to it's position AFTER the way was cleared by Shepard's squad), Engineer Adams would also be a logical choice to arm it.
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Post by bear43 on Dec 16, 2016 19:47:39 GMT
Honestly anymore I flip a coin on that choice. No kidding. I like them both and it has always been a tough choice for me, so a coin flip it is.
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Post by Sondergaard on Dec 16, 2016 20:01:01 GMT
I tend to save Kaidan despite being a big Ashley fan. Better she die on Virmire than turn into the parody of herself that is Ashley in ME3. Kaidan's ME3 version is pretty good but Ashley's is horrendous. Last time I saved her I ended up shooting her during the coup as a mercy. With her dying breath she told me I'd burn in hell and I thought 'that's my girl!'.
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Post by themikefest on Dec 16, 2016 20:14:42 GMT
I'm not so sure that that makes sense within the story to assign Ashley to the bomb. She shouldn't be qualified to be tinkering with nuke. That task would be so technical that it is unlikely to be part of the standard military training, and Ashley was infantry, not an engineer or an explosive ordinance tech. To be fair neither was Kaidan, but he does have technical skills that Ashley lacks. It doesn't make sense to leave either one of them with the bomb. It makes more sense for a salarian since they're the ones who converted their drive core system into a twenty kiloton ordnance.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2016 20:31:41 GMT
I'm not so sure that that makes sense within the story to assign Ashley to the bomb. She shouldn't be qualified to be tinkering with nuke. That task would be so technical that it is unlikely to be part of the standard military training, and Ashley was infantry, not an engineer or an explosive ordinance tech. To be fair neither was Kaidan, but he does have technical skills that Ashley lacks. It doesn't make sense to leave either one of them with the bomb. It makes more sense for a salarian since they're the ones who converted their drive core system into a twenty kiloton ordnance. Yes, that's makes even more sense than what I suggested. It really should have been a trade... one Normandy squad member on Kirrahe's team to help coordinate comms in exchange for a Salarian to go on board the Normandy to arm the bomb.
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Post by aoibhealfae on Dec 17, 2016 3:12:02 GMT
I'm not so sure that that makes sense within the story to assign Ashley to the bomb. She shouldn't be qualified to be tinkering with nuke. That task would be so technical that it is unlikely to be part of the standard military training, and Ashley was infantry, not an engineer or an explosive ordinance tech. To be fair neither was Kaidan, but he does have technical skills that Ashley lacks. It's certainly untrue that she would be too inexperienced or unqualified to lead a squad. In fact she she would have led squads long before getting promoted to Gunnery Chief. Gunnery Chiefs are senior NCOs, and in the real world it is NCOs that lead fire teams and squads. Sergeants command squads, not Lieutenants and Captains. NCOs are also responsible for training junior enlisted. Unfortunately because Hollywood is unfamiliar with the military and doesn't know what an NCO is or does, writers typically make any important character an officer, even when the character is filling a role performed by a Corporal or Sergeant in real life. Video games, which often draw inspiration from the film industry, usually make similar errors. Because of that, it can give the incorrect impression that any enlisted character is not in a leadership position. Somewhere in the game it was mentioned that Ashley was a platoon guide when she was on Eden Prime. The platoon guide is a position held by the second most senior Staff NCO (the most senior would be the platoon sergeant) in a platoon, and it is a leadership role. The platoon guide would be acting platoon sergeant in the event the platoon sergeant was a casualty, or was otherwise indisposed. She would have been a squad leader at some point prior, and fire team leader before that. By the time Shepard recruits her she's had years of experience in small unit leadership. It's also likely she's also had some training specific to leadership, as real world military organizations do have NCO courses. It's also likely she was the platoon sergeant for the Normandy's Marine detachment. As for issues with the Salarians, Ashley's no racist. She's got some lingering trust issues over the First Contact War, but she doesn't hate aliens. In fact she gets more offended than your alien squadmates if you bring along to the Terra Firma rally. The squadmate you send with the Salarians also isn't in command; Kirrahe is. The Alliance member sent with the Salarians is just there to coordinate between the two groups. It's not really reflected in gameplay, though. Technically it was the Salarians who scrounge the parts together. Neither Kaidan or Ashley had to do anything much to arm the bomb. It was the part where they have to defend the bomb alone against overwhelming swarms of Geth that made Ashley more feasible since she's more armed to the teeth than Kaidan or the Salarians. I'm not a military person so I'm not going to defend whoever between the two is more qualified in leadership skills but as it stand, Kaidan always outrank Ashley both in amount of years of experience and in rank. Ashley is not a racist, she is a xenophobe and that's two entire different things. She have a strong sense of "Us vs Them" mentality in ME1: we shouldn't trust them, we should always be cautious about them, we need to make ourselves greater than them, we need to show them who is the boss, we need to show them who is stronger. She's not prejudiced against Them for being aliens, she prejudiced against Them for being the Other. The Other who sees the humans as parasites on the galaxy. The Other who dominate the galaxy with their culture, their self-righteousness, who have thousands of years under their belt as a space-faring race. The Other who ruined her grandfather's career, her father and herself as well. I don't want to use the assignment with the Salarians to make a point that she isn't racist enough that she could work alone with the STG team. That's not how racism work and people don't stop being xenophobic if they could play together in a group. Even if there's no real consequence to the choice, it is a factor that make her a liability and I shouldn't be worried about how comfortable she was about the arrangement. I'm not her mother. Besides, in every discussion regarding Virmire in the trilogy, the one who was left behind will always be the one who stay to protect the bomb. Not defending the AA guns with the Salarians who found ways to safety regardless.
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Post by SpiritVanguard on Dec 17, 2016 6:46:35 GMT
For me: Kaidan He is a Sentinel which is far more valuable to me than Ashley, as I don't need soldier types -- and James is a better fit for me if I do, anyway. I like Kaidan's character and story far better than Ashley. Kaidan's story and growth feels satisfying, both as a player and for his character. He gets crap for being a bit of a square, but I've never thought he was "boring." And his being kind of a dork is endearing to me. I'm not fussed about the whole "Who does what job" for Virmire. Since I often like to use Kaidan for that mission anyway that means Ashley goes with the salarians and I just save Kaidan at the bomb. I rather like the scene of rescuing the bomb-goer too. Also, he's my space boyfriend. I have Ashley alive with one Shep, but I don't really want to play that one because Kaidan isn't there. I don't hate Ashley, I just don't have any real attachment to her and felt she was a big disappointment in 3.
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Post by Catilina on Dec 17, 2016 7:16:34 GMT
Kaidan. Ashley was more uninteresting to me all the time. Unfortunately, I can not justify better.
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Duke Cameron
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animalboy
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Duke Cameron on Dec 17, 2016 7:53:08 GMT
Considering Ashley is my favorite Mass Effect character,? I never have a problem picking.
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capn233
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by capn233 on Dec 17, 2016 23:30:35 GMT
I always know.
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midnightwolf
N3
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion
Origin: BlackSassyWolf
XBL Gamertag: BlackSassyWolf
Posts: 954 Likes: 1,235
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midnightwolf
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November 2016
midnightwolf
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion
BlackSassyWolf
BlackSassyWolf
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Post by midnightwolf on Dec 18, 2016 11:26:20 GMT
Why not do two save files, with Ashley alive in one, and Kaidan alive in the other? To be honest, I really like Ashley and used to save her everytime. But after saving Kaidan in my last play-through and playing through ME:3 with him, I find him to be much more interesting.....even as non-love interest, since I only play stright Males.
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vortok
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Dec 20, 2016 21:48:00 GMT
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vortok
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vortok
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Post by vortok on Dec 20, 2016 20:09:27 GMT
Whereas for Kaidan in the trilogy, he lost Jenkins on Eden Prime and from Chakwas herself, Kaidan and Jenkins are friends. ... Kaidan was a teenage freak who could kill people with his mind and he got implanted with a faulty tech that give him constant migraine and everyone accuse him for being too whiny when he simply talk briefly about it. ... He's just a guy who wanted to be normal and yet the universe f*cked his life endlessly and he handled himself well and didn't fall apart. I find this as admirable and tell a lot about his character's inner strength. I can't really think of anything other than Leeroy Jenkins when that character comes up. I think he could represent the childlike enthusiasm the Kaidan lost, due to the aforementioned universe screwing with him. Acting with a certain freedom, confident in his ability to handle anything that might come up. He found in Jenkins what he'd lost in himself. The happy-go-lucky attitude was a bit freeing to be around, and he slowly started to rebuild that part of himself deep inside. Losing Jenkins was more than the loss of a friend. He lost the outside reference material, stunting the progress he'd been making. He had to continue blind for a bit. Even lost his backup reference (Shepard) for awhile. Although he did manage quite well the result wasn't quite the same as what could've been. She have a strong sense of "Us vs Them" mentality in ME1: we shouldn't trust them, we should always be cautious about them, we need to make ourselves greater than them, we need to show them who is the boss, we need to show them who is stronger. She's not prejudiced against Them for being aliens, she prejudiced against Them for being the Other. The Other who sees the humans as parasites on the galaxy. The Other who dominate the galaxy with their culture, their self-righteousness, who have thousands of years under their belt as a space-faring race. Besides, in every discussion regarding Virmire in the trilogy, the one who was left behind will always be the one who stay to protect the bomb. Not defending the AA guns with the Salarians who found ways to safety regardless. This is a great insight into her character. There's a great many people that operate with an us vs them mentality. It's a double-edged sword that can be challenging to wield properly. Without a "Them" what is there to fight? To overcome? Losing the "Other" can be disorienting, and is thus the process is resisted. Been awhile since I did the mission, but isn't the AA Towers about securing safe passage in/out for the Normandy? It's a vague recollection, but I'm fairly sure I went to assist the person at the bomb my first time through. Would certainly be my rationale now in a playthrough that wasn't exploring alternatives. To me, it was about which task I wanted to succeed more. Ensuring the bomb goes off at the risk of not getting out or saving my own skin at the risk of the bomb being defused? If things went south, and Shepard's presence was just enough to get it done, then in the former a few lives and maybe the Normandy is sacrificed for the sake of the galaxy. If the latter, Shepard and crew get to live to fight another day and the problem is allowed to grow even bigger. I lean toward taking care of things now, if possible.
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CosmicGnosis
N2
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Jade Empire
Posts: 101 Likes: 74
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CosmicGnosis
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August 2016
cosmicgnosis
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Jade Empire
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Post by CosmicGnosis on Dec 21, 2016 6:28:47 GMT
Heh, now I'm not even sure if I should go back to the bomb or continue towards the AA tower! I usually go back to the bomb, but now I wonder if that really makes sense? I mean, if Shepard and the crew die, then no one would be around to warn people about the Reapers. No one would look for the Conduit. No one would stop Saren. So shouldn't the Normandy's survival be a greater priority?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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guest@proboards.com
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2016 12:24:53 GMT
Heh, now I'm not even sure if I should go back to the bomb or continue towards the AA tower! I usually go back to the bomb, but now I wonder if that really makes sense? I mean, if Shepard and the crew die, then no one would be around to warn people about the Reapers . No one would look for the Conduit. No one would stop Saren. So shouldn't the Normandy's survival be a greater priority? The AA gun, however, has already been taken out and the bomb has already been placed in position. The plan was for the Salarian team to retreat out of range of the bomb; and it is only that retreat that has been cut off. Shepard is in peril in either location if the bomb goes off before he gets off planet. Similarly, once Kaidan/Ashley confirm that the bomb has been armed by saying "It's done, Commander"; Shepard knows that there is very, very little risk that Saren's geth could disarm it and prevent it from going off... even if they do manage to kill off everyone on that team before the bomb actually detonates. Kirrahe says this - "Once the bomb is armed, there is very little that can stop it. The key is getting it into place and armed." As a result, both teams have already completed their assigned task... all Shepard can do is decide which team gets out of there alive and which one doesn't. However, to add another twist, it is still possible for Kirrahe and some of his men to make it out alive even if you don't rescue Kaidan/Ashley from the AA Tower. This could be interpreted to mean that Kaidan/Ashley Kirrahe himself was not actually right with Kaidan/Ashley on the AA Tower at the very end, but with one of the other two Salarian teams OR it can be interpreted that Kaidan/Ashley did fight so admirably that they did manage to allow Kirrahe and some of his men to complete their retreat. Either choice can be made and it still make sense... that's as intended by the writers, I'm sure. The story IS designed so that different people can and will make different choices... all legitimately. I did run a little poll a while back and just used the results of that poll in my most recent playthrough. I didn't tell the crowd who I sent with Kirrahe and who was left arming the bomb. For that, I literally flipped a coin just as I got to that point in the game. In accordance with the poll results, I wound up saving Kirrahe's team on the AA tower in that playthrough.
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