Mass Effect 3 brought me to tears or the verge of tears several times. I just never had expected it so soon when Ash was getting, well brutally murdered like that. Like seriously, that was right outta the gate.
I liked Ash from the beginning of ME1 (as a friend), she was probably the character I could relate more to (except for the xenophobic bit), so this part was a shock (specially when one's not certain she survives)
Yeah, I honestly thought she might be in a coma for the rest of the game. That as my hopeful side anyways other then that stupid, "No! She has to get better!" Bit that turned out to be true. Thankfully.
It was very sad to see Ashley go through that. I almost cried when I saw that happen the first time. I also almost cried when Shepard went to talk to her after a mission.
Yup! Ash was my fav crew mate in ME1, I even got the soldier friend achievement. It was disappointing that she did not join in ME2 and that you lose her so early in ME3. I'm still in the rachni mission, so there's hope she joins again ...
Good, that will help a lot. I find that if you romanced Ashley or Kaidan in Mass Effect 1, and stayed loyal in Mass Effect 2, they warm up to Shepard a little faster. Kaidan does think Shepard is flirting with him in the second visit though, even if you didn't romance him. When that happened, I was like "What the? Okay, keep this up and you are going to ALWAYS be the Virmire Casualty in any Mass Effect 1 playthroughs I do"