What I like most about Ashley is that, if you go Paragon, she develops away from her racist ideologies to the point that they're nonexistent in ME3. Her character is far from perfect, and she actually has a pretty severe lack of confidence in herself due to her family history, and it's great to see her overcome that if she survives Virmire. Hell, even if she dies on Virmire it's still a great fulfillment of her arc. That being said though I prefer seeing where her character goes from her survival, whereas I've never gotten that as much from Kaidan, not to knock those who picked Kaidan.

I also love the deep conversations you have with her, and that it's not either entirely agreeing with her in every dialog or disagreeing. My Shep utterly chewed her out for her racist views, but then they had a good bonding moment over religious views (I headcanon my Shepard as being Catholic, like myself). Her romance arc is sweet with the poetry, and I like the way she and Shepard interact over the course of the trilogy. She's a pretty complex character, for both good and ill, and I've always liked that about her.