#mass effect 1

In that world, Violet Shepard became the first human Spectre.

More renegade. Akuze instead of Elysium. Adept instead of Vanguard.

Having just finished Virmire in my latest Mass Effect playthrough, I wanted to revisit a fairly well-worn topic; that big infamous choice of whether Ashley or Kaiden gets to be in the rest of the trilogy, and which one gets to be atomized.

Now some might remember a few years back I did a lengthy analysis musing on if there was a way we could tease out some kind of ‘canon’ Virmire Survivor based on a combination of factors outside of the players control and what simply might make ‘sense’ for Shepard.

And while I still stand by most if not all of the points I made in that post, particularly the take that saving whoever you sent with the Salarians really SHOULD have been a requirement for saving Kirrehe and his team, I also now feel there is a better way to approach this question. Namely, by expanding on a few details I only touched on in the original post.

Instead of trying to say Shepard choosing to save Ashley or Kaiden makes ‘logical’ sense or that there is some underlying ‘canon’ choice hidden in the details, or simply personal preference over which character you like more, or the rather unsettling/moronic ‘I want Ashley/Kaiden to DIE because they’re racist/boring!’ takes that feel sadly common…

I feel like the more interesting and probably more meaningful question is simply ‘What makes more sense narratively?’ What version plays best into the characters and their arcs up to this point and going forward? What would have the bigger emotional impact?

At the end of the day, what choice could make for the better STORY?

So to that end, let’s actually apply some media literacy to this question and examine Kaiden and Ashley as proper characters who are part of a larger narrative.

Starting with Kaiden Alenko, there is a very interesting quality to him that actually makes him entirely unique among the ME1 Squadmates. Now a lot of fans call Kaiden ‘boring’ in the first game, but this is really a massive misinterpretation. It’s not that Kaiden somehow ‘doesn’t have anything going on’ as a character, but instead he is the only member of the squad who quite notably doesn’t have some major personal character conflict in the first game.

Think about it; Liara is central to the conflict concerning the Protheans and has the baggage with her mother to deal with, Wrex has his broad cultural depression and feelings of hopelessness about his people, Tali has major anxiety about living up to her peoples’ expectations, Garrus has his hangups on really wanting to be a case-study on copaganda and Ashley has her intense family baggage and martyr-complex, and also some bigotry.

But Kaiden? He doesn’t really have any major hangups. And what makes this interesting is that it’s because if you think about it, Kaiden basically already figured his shit out BEFORE we actually meet him. He had all of his major character conflict about his Biotics training, issues with aliens and having his big character epiphany that aliens were really no different than humans, in his backstory. Unlike the rest of the squad, Kaiden basically has everything figured out.

Which by standard narrative convention, sadly makes him the ideal choice for the big, dramatic, heart-breaking third-act heroic sacrifice. Especially when compared to Ashley.

As I brought up in the previous post; consider how much Ashley is completely fixated on ‘atoning’ for the ‘shame’ of her grandfather, to very self-destructive degrees. She spends the first game basically looking for a big proverbial sword to throw herself on to ‘redeem her family name’, something that Shepard will directly call her out on if she survives Virmire.

So by law of dramatic and tragic irony, it really does make more sense for Kaiden to be the one to die on Virmire instead of Ashley, doesn’t it? The one who seems to have his life figured out dies, and the one who’s looking to make a big heroic sacrifice is the one who lives.

If you think about it, Kaiden in the first game occupies a similar position to a lot of Doomed-Mentor characters. A character who has already finished their development and basically figured themselves out in contrast to the other characters, which in turn leaves them as one most likely to be killed off. Heck, given their contrasting views on non-humans and his seniority (seven years to be precise), I think it’s easy to imagine Kaiden taking on a bit of a mentoring role to Ashley over the course of the first game. The cool-headed officer who takes the hot-headed solider under his wing. Which in turn would make his death over hers hit all the harder.

And again, Ashley is the one with the more unresolved character development. Heck, we can even read Kaiden’s death on Virmire combined with Shepard calling her out as Ashley’s big wake-up call that actually spurs her development gets her to let go of her self-destructive martyr complex.

Additionally, I feel like Kaiden’s position in the story as your first squadmate makes his death hit all the harder. This is the guy who’s been with Shepard since the very beginning of the game, one of the very first characters we’re even introduced to. He’s the squadmate who’s been here from the very start. Which of course when tied into the aforementioned ‘guy who’s more or less got things figured out’ trait can potentially make him feel all the more pivotal. I feel like Kaiden can easily considered to be ‘the reliable one’, the one who’s got his shit together. Pretty much the most likely to be Shepard’s Number 2 in the first game.

Which of course would make his death hit all the harder.

And as I discussed in the previous post, I feel like the writing for the Virmire Survivor in the following two games does ultimately fit Ashely quite a bit better than Kaiden, ie; Kaiden seems the type to be more thoughtful, read between the lines and ultimately give Shepard more the benefit of the doubt about working with Cerberus, whereas Ashely is exactly the type to immediately distrust Shepard, and of course get completely suckered by Udina in ME3.

Now of course as I also brought up in the original post, this overview in no way covers all possible scenarios. Obviously Kaiden being romanced by Shepard does potentially change this narrative quite a bit and gives Kaiden’s character a much bigger reason to be kept around. As well as actually making him fit the post-ME1 writing for the Virmire Survivor a fair bit better.

And never an embedded link, huh Tumblr?

This guy's:

I have so many questions!

As I recall, salarians normally only live to around 35, and their breeding practices are highly structured, arranged, and controlled; they're very social, but their closest ties tend to be caught up in their birth families (occasionally we'll see one partnered with an asari, but more often we hear them chatting about their siblings or nephews and nieces). So running off to the asari courtesan lifestyle seems like a big deal!

Apart from this one guy, all the other courtesan acolytes at Sha'ira's are asari and/or women (Sha'ira herself is very emphatically a woman to a degree that's unusual even for mistakes around the asari, which I also have questions about—is this transgressive in asari terms? anyway). So this guy is both the only male acolyte at Sha'ira's and I think the only salarian we know of who does sex work (it's other things, too, yes, I know, but ... still!).

The human acolyte talks about just ~feeling called~ to the acolyte ways and the asari ones enthusiastically talk about feeling the same way, but how she's the first human they've known to receive the call. Cool and all but what about this salarian guy?!