Ashley fans in Mass Effect

Lol, I just finished watching Mass Effect 1 story and I have to say her character appears to be nothing more than an alien racist imo. I don't care for Kaiden much either but after catching up on Mass Effect 1, I didn't feel bad about letting Ashley bite the bullet. She even seems annoying from what little I've seen of her in Mass Effect 3, constantly asking Shepard about Cerebus crap years later, lol. What is about her that everyone likes so much?

I don't think she was anti alien so much as she wasn't used to dealing with them and was a bit ignorant, add to that her family background with the war against the Turians and that explains her general distrust. That can be changed by your dialogue choices with her throughout the game. As for her of you regarding Cerberus, I found that to be a bit irritating but she does trust you again depending on your choices in the game. So it all depends a bit on how you treat her.

Literally the only thing I remember about Ashley in ME1 was that she was prejudiced and I really kicked myself for letting Alenko die just so that my BroShep could spread Ashley's legs in time for the final fight. In ME2, she's whiny and doesn't trust your intentions. Then in ME3, all of a sudden she's a pretty competent, normal character, except that she's still stupidly prejudiced against the Geth. I liked her quite a bit more in ME3, though her inability to shake her prejudice completely is pretty concerning.

I was OK with letting Alenko die in most of my playthroughs in ME1, not because I hated him he was always just a bit of a passenger for me and felt kind of bland. I haven't romanced Ashley in ME3 though so I'd like to see how that turns out, I think I'll wait for the DLC though before playing again.