#desmond as the father of the ac protagonists

[teecupangel]

From @aramaura

Lol Desmond in Tolkien universes. Boromir: One does not simply walk into Mordor. Desmond (having snuck into the secret counsel chamber without anybody knowing): what... like it's hard? Also, thinking about The Hobbit. Desmond is able to sneak around with Bilbo while not having a magic ring at all to make him invisible while everyone is stuck in the dungeons in mirkwood. And I can totally see him being the single dad of three while doing all this.

Okay, if Desmond has to take care of the three: Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton, I can just see Desmond sneaking all four of them into Rivendell because one of them wanted to look at the pretty buildings. Desmond didn’t mean to get in the middle of it and he was ushering his children out before they could be seen but Boromir said his line and one of his kids (probably Altaïr) went “Can we go there next?” and everyone just snaps their heads to their direction while Desmond just smiles and waves awkwardly at them.

For those interested in a Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit AU Idea with Desmond, @twitcherpated and @fanworldbuildingfun have awesome ideas in the comments of this post

Consider:

Not a specific story idea or pitch. An overarching umbrella idea with a common set of rules, like Yew Branches.

Desmond Miles has come unstuck from reality.

Of course, there are many versions of Desmond Miles, and many have ended up on other worlds, in other stories. AO3 can attest to that, you can attest to that. The Eye makes such a handy button for throwing Desmond headlong at the barrier between realities until he breaks through somewhere interesting.

What unites this Desmond, these Desmonds, all under one theme, is that he doesn't travel alone. Whether he ends up in Westeros, in deep space, flying dragons in a war with France or trying to take down the Shinra corporation, he always arrives with a companion.

A *small* companion. One might even say, a toddler-sized companion. Because they are, in fact, toddlers.

ie, imagine that whenever and wherever you try to cross Desmond over somewhere after the Eye, he ends up with one or more other characters from the AC canon as toddlers dragged along in his wake.

Rules for the companions:

- They always start out somewhere in the age range of 2-5

- only people who at some point handled a piece of Eden can be companions

- They don't start out remembering their entire first life, but gradually remember it as they grow older, at about the age they experienced it. ex, Ezio would remember the hangings when he's 17. But once they reach the age where they first made contact with a piece of Eden, they remember the rest of their former life all at once.

- Desmond instinctually pings as "safe" to them, even if they have no idea who he is

.

But yeah I don't have a specific story idea I'm throwing your way

I was just sitting here thinking man

it would be really interesting if in all the various let's crossover Desmond with other properties fic

he wasn't alone

and then I thought, I know, let's make him responsible for small children he has a pre established emotional attachment to in dangerous environments

that will be fun for everyone

If you add in ‘pre-established emotional attachment’ then we’d be cutting off any character after the Desmond saga. Although…

To be completely honest, Desmond would be dumb enough to form an attachment to a random baby he finds next to him because of his own sucky upbringing and you did specify that this could have crossovers so just imagine (on the top of my head)…

Desmond taking care of a very curious and prone to wandering around baby Altaïr while trying to wonder where the hell all these weirdass creatures are coming from? Oh… and apparently there’s this dude who has this weirdass dagger that can control time for a bit but Desmond and Altaïr are immune to it? “Also… who the hell just calls themselves ‘Prince’? Do you not have a name?! Altaïr, don’t touch tha-! Ah, crap.”

Really, really, reeeaaaallllly out there idea: So Ezio’s voice actor also voices Sonic in most games… how about Desmond and Ezio being stranded in one of the Sonic games and Desmond is still human so he’s super confused at what the hell is happening but Ezio seems to like the blue hedgehog who really goes fast which is nice, he guess?

Put Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton in Hamilton! Like, it acts and feels like they’re in the right timeline for the American Revolution but there are no Assassins or Templars and Desmond can’t even find Ratonhnhaké:ton’s village so he doesn’t know if Ratonhnhaké:ton even exists in this world. Hell, Davenport Homestead is just a goddamn empty field that Desmond got after asking around and now he’s building a homestead, he guesses??? Then comes the singing! Just singing coming from different places at different times like it’s the goddamn musical episode of Scrubs and Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton are just there going “What. The. Fuck.”

It would be so easy to push Desmond and baby Edward into a Pirates in the Caribbean crossover and, yeah, it would definitely work but… if I may… Desmond wakes up stranded in a small boat with baby Edward in his hands. The first ship to find them? the Revenge… being sailed by Captain Bonnet… who was kind enough to let them stay and be part of the crew. Also, Bonnet just being awkward around Edward because baby Edward thinks something is terribly wrong, that this isn’t the Bonnet he knows but that’s weird because he doesn’t know any other Bonnet. He only knows Desmond will keep him safe. Then they get first-row seats of Thatch and Bonnet falling in love and… well… they’re definitely not in Black Flag, that’s for sure. XD

You know, I was thinking of maybe one of the Joan of Arcs movie could be a good backdrop to punt Desmond and baby Shay in it. Then I realize… how can I make Desmond just go “fuck it, I’m done. I’m just done with everything. We’re going to live as hermits.” and I realize that throwing him into something that has fantasy-bullshit in it would be fun. Like… Jeanne d'Arc video game… complete will all those monsters as the backdrop for the Hundred Year War XD (and maybe, just maybe… Desmond gets his own transformations as well much to his chagrin)

Desmond having to deal with baby Arno while there’s a freaking rat plague in A Plague Tale: Innocence and joining forces with Amicia and Hugo as they run away from… well… pretty much everything. (look, it’s not set in French Revolutions but I kinda like the idea of Desmond and Amicia interacting. Otherwise, go Les Mis I guess?)

Desmond becoming a better father to Evie and Jacob Fyre while he’s in some kind of gothic-inspired setting like maybe Dishonored or Bloodborne? Dishonored would be entertaining because he would definitely be the stabby-stab-stab option that even Corvo goes “… maybe tone it down a bit?”.

And now, for something different: Desmond waking up in the middle of the desert surrounded by dudes in black robes and a baby in his arms that he’s pretty sure is named Bayek but he doesn’t know why he knows that’s the baby’s name. Then he finds out he’s in Egypt and he’s being interrogated by these people called the medjays if he knows anything about a curse and someone called Imhotep and he’s just confused. Then he finds out he’s in freaking 1926 and apparently there’s some mummy dude who can do the nine plagues (really? Like why? How???) and he gets sucked into this whole deal for reasons he doesn’t even understand.

Now, it would be easy to, you know, push Desmond and Kassandra to something like Disney’s Hercules or maybe 300 but, if I may suggest, throwing them into the world of Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising? Hey, it’s made by the people who made Odyssey so Kassandra would be in her element and Desmond would be the tired dad just trying to stop his daughter from flying into the goddamn sun… literally. (And if you’re itching for a Percy Jackson x Assassin’s Creed AU with Desmond in it, there’s one in AO3 :))

Look. I was bound to make a God of War crossover idea and it was either Kassandra or Eivor. I had been contemplating a The Last Kingdom crossover with Desmond and Eivor but that’s mainly just me being a Harry McEntire fan so GoW crossover with Desmond and Eivor it is, with Kratos now having to deal with being a single dad to Atreus AND helping Desmond be a single dad to Eivor who may or may not like kicking Atreus for some unknown reason.

Of course, this doesn't just have to be crossovers.

You can have something like:

Desmond being the single father of Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton while the Third Crusades is happening and it's really hard not to get sucked into that, especially when Ezio brings Altaïr to their little house just a few weeks after his demotion because he looks 'lonely'

The entire plot of AC3 gets derailed because Desmond is there with a baby that Haytham is pretty sure is his father having been reincarnated

The angst potential of baby Arno growing up knowing only of papa Desmond and uncle Shay and getting his memories of Shay killing Charles Dorian later on.

Becoming part of the Alamut Assassins and having to go "No, Eivor, stop kicking him!" every time his adopted daughter sees the new recruit. What was his name again? Basil? Was it Basil? Desmond is pretty sure it's Basil ("It's Basim." "Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Roshan.")

Elijah being able to resurrect his supposed father but now has to deal with the fact that he apparently has three younger brothers and, seriously, being a Sage did not prepare Elijah for the strange family he's supposed to be a part of

[thewolfprince]

Okay so got a reply from Teecupangel on something I submitted and it gave me a wonderful idea.

Desmond in the Ready Player One universe.

Now if you haven’t read Ready Player One it’s about this guy (Wade) who takes on a challenge from the creator of the OASIS, a network spanning the entire world with virtual reality, in order to try to keep it out of the hands of a Corporation that wants to basically capitalism the fuck out of the OASIS.

Sooo my brain went “oh shit. Oh shit we could turn this into AC AU easy.”

Desmond, our lovable protagonist blorbo boi, takes the place of Wade. He lives with his father and mother and a few other families in a secluded location called The Farm. Once the world went to shit, Desmond’s parents decided to isolate themselves from humanity as a whole for safety.

Now, Desmond was raised in The Farm so… all his experience with the world outside of it is on an old console that runs The Gray [Name pending], created by Isu Incorporated.

One day there’s a message for every single user in the world (seeing as [Name Pending] is the world’s default coping mechanism to a slowly dying planet, it’s basically to the whole world).

FINAL ISU CORP LEADER FOUND DEAD, LEAVES BEHIND PUZZLING MESSAGE

Desmond is shocked when the message appears on his visor, he presses play on the video.

It’s Juno. She explains The Contest, a hunt for different artifacts around the multiverse of [Name Pending]. The first person to get all the artifacts and open the Grand Temple will be the new Heir of Isu Corp and the sole Admin of [Name Pending].

So for a few years, everyone dives into the hunt. Including rival company Abstergo Industries and its special Artifact Team.

As months go on, people start to quit. Except Desmond because his father is pushing him to find the Artifacts for him.

And Desmond soon crosses paths with a player named ‘Subject_16’. His avatar wears clothes that look like a prison uniform, and he’s often accompanied by ‘Overseer_Stillman’, a woman who is dressed in a sharp Abstergo uniform with a badge.

These “Subjects” are people indebted to Abstergo Industries and often used for free labor. And now they’re being used to look for the Artifacts.

And one day a new pop-up displays on everyone’s visors.

“Team Masayf— 10,000 points” with a small golden sphere emblem to the side. The first Artifact has been found.

And everyone is pushed back into the frenzy of the hunt.

A few weeks pass and William tells Desmond that they are having a guest over. Desmond is very confused. The Farm isn’t supposed to have guests. No one is supposed to know they exist.

An old man who everyone calls ‘Al Mualim’ leads a young man about the same age as Desmond into The Farm. They are both welcomed warmly and with great respect. William tells Desmond to “make a friend” and Desmond realized he’s being used to try to get information out of the other boy who looks a lot like him.

But Desmond obeys and leads the other boy, Altaïr, to his console and offers to let him play with. Altaïr agrees and the two log into their accounts.

Altaïr asks what they should do and Desmond suggests a small world dedicated solely to parkour and free running. They both head to the world and spend the day trying to beat each other on various parkour tracks.

As they play, Altaïr and Desmond talk. They talk about their experience with the hunt so far. Altaïr seems guarded so Desmond quickly changes the subject.

When William and Al Mualim come to get them, they part as budding friends. They meet up in [Name pending] almost every day, and Desmond slowly forgets about the artifact. He has a friend.

One night William rips the visor off and yells at Desmond for “neglecting his duties”. Berates him for not getting any info out of Altaïr and wasting time and The Farm’s limited resources on “playing around like a child”. Desmond shoots back that he gets nothing from The Farm, not a coin from their sales nor the visor that he wears.

Enraged, William tells Desmond to cut contact with Altaïr. Another person in The Farm will monitor his account and “if he even thinks about talking to that boy again he’ll regret it.”

And enter Rebecca and Shaun. They are told to be around Desmond 24/7 and report everything back to William.

Desmond initially distrusts the two but Rebecca calls up Altaïr for him and scrubs the recorded footage, winking and claiming there must be some sort of malfunction in Desmond’s terribly old, like seriously how do you use this Desmond it’s fucking ancient equipment.

Shaun mostly sticks to his own thing and doesn’t bother Desmond.

And then one day, the three make a breakthrough. Shaun figures out the meaning of first message Juno left, Rebecca hacks into another person’s console, and Desmond is told where the first Artifact is located.

And then an SOS comes. But it’s delivered to Desmond instead of his father on accident.

Lucy Stillman, a mole for The Farm planted in Abstergo Industries, says they need a rescue team for Clay Kaczmarek—Subject 16–because his mental state is rapidly deteriorating due to the strain of constant Artifact hunting.

Desmond, Rebecca, and Shaun decide to tackle the problem by themselves (though not without a little help).

And then once they do they have a team of five. They decide to call their team Team Eagle to obscure their location.

And then, Team Eagle jumps to second place on the leaderboard.

[multi-fandom-imagine]

For the Assassin’s Creed ask meme... all of them 😂

I’m joking, of course. Do the ones you want to, I’m looking forward to seeing who is your favourite assassin 😉

A/n:....I’m gonna do it! Also all the video’s below are from my game play.

Favorite Historical Assassin:

100% Leonardo! I just love him so much and the relationship he shares with Ezio plus He is just so damn adorable.

annd Alcibiades....I romanced his ass so hard with Alexios.

Favorite Game:

I would say my favorite game would be between the second Assassin’s Creed { Ezio’s first game } Black Flag and Assassin's Creed III. 

Favorite DLC:

The Ripper DLC in Syndicate...100%. I loovve seeing a older Jacob and Evie and it’s awesome how the Incorporated Jack into the Assassin’s timeline. Though the whole Alexios going up against the Greek God’s was fun too.

Favorite Weapon:

The Hidden Blade, I love how each Assassin has their own blade.If I had to pick a favorite blade then I would go for Connor’s { His Pivot Blade is awesome}, Ezio’s and Jacob’s.

Favorite Supporting Character:

Adéwalé...man I just love this character, him and Edward had the best friendship, though I would also have to say James Kidd man both of their deaths broke me. 

Favorite Villain

Haytham Kenway and Crawford Starrick, I reaaally love these two. Hard not to like Haytham when you play as the man for half the game and Crawford is just amazing.

Least Favorite Game:

I’m sorry...but I would have to say Unity....I couldn’t even finish the game because of all the bugs. I did play the game on my Xbox360 so I may have to buy it for my PS4 to see if anything has change.

Least Favorite Protagonist:

Right now I would have to say Eivor...I mean I haven’t played AC: Vahalla much though I just think he is a bore.

Favorite Mission/Sequence:

I really love Assassin’s Creed III and all the mission’s in that game are really good{ dont know why that game gets so much hate }. Though the missions I enjoyed the most was the Battle Of Bunker hill and the whole Boston Tea Party Scene. I love how Connor just look’s at his father as he drops the tea into the Boston Harbor.

Odyssey  and Syndicate had a lot of really good Mission's two 

Best Quote:

“I see what you're saying Evie. We need The Rooks!”  

“You're not starting a gang called The Rooks!”

Favorite Plot Twist:

OKay....100% when Desmond kills Lucy....I just remember trying to stop it but once it was done...I just placed my Xbox controller down and walked off.

Favorite Modern-Day Assassin:

Shaun Hasting’s look at him...look at my boy! I just love him soo much.

Most Underrated Game:

Assassin’s Creed: III- Man I don’t get why this game get’s so much hate. 

Most Underrated Character:

Arno & Connor.

While I did not enjoy Assassin's Creed: Unity, Arno was still a great character.

Also Connor is just adorable....just look at these two amazing boy’s.

A game you think Ubisoft should remaster:

I’d like to see the original game get a remaster, it was the first so I think it deserves it the most.

Thoughts on the Movie:

We don’t talk about the movie.

F(uck), M(arry), or K(ill) with three AC Characters:

Fuck: Alexios

Marry: Ezio

Kill: Shay

Favorite Historical Setting:

While all the historical settings are amazing I would have to go with Odyssey or Origins.

The Greek and Egyptian gods are my favorite things 

Coolest Piece of Eden:

I’d have to say I’m stuck between the Apples of Eden,Spear of Leonidas and the Shrouds of Eden.

Favorite Historical Figure Cameo:

.

Syndicate had a lot of good ones like

Charles Darwin. Charles Dickens.

Favorite Female Character:

Evie! I love her so much

Scene that made you cry:

Achilles and Kidd’s death made me tear up but I think it was Phoibe’s death that really got me.

She was such a sweet girl and it was adorable by how much she looked up to Alexios and she was really part of his family. It’s heartbreaking, you can hear it in his voice by how much it broke the man and it stay’s with him through out the whole game.

It’s even worse when you see her in the DLC and Alexios has to send her away to the ‘heavens’ so she can be safe and happy.

The death Scene-

The Good bye scene from the DLC

Scene that made you laugh:

This mission...below { part of my AC: Odyssey playthrough }

Favorite Templar:

Haytham...I god damn love this man.

Favorite romantic relationship:

Alexios x Alkibiades

Favorite friendship:

Leonard and Ezio defiantly have the best friendship though I also love the relationship between Edward and his crew.

How many games have you played?  Which ones?:

Assassin’s Creed. Assassin’s Creed II. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Assassin’s Creed III. {DLC included} Assassin’s Creed IV- Black Flag. Assassin’s Creed Unity. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. { DLC included} Assassin’s Creed Rouge. Assassin’s Creed Origins {DLC -still playing } Assassin’s Creed Odyssey { DLC- Still playing.} Assassin’ Creed Valhalla { Currently Playing }.

[teecupangel]

The previous tags that prompted this:

#i love that this could be taken as #altaïr living by fairytales tropes #al mualim is technically his evil stepmother to be fair

Now this is making me think of what kind of fairytales would fit each ancestor.

Like, yeah, I’m all for a Cinderella AU and I will admit that feels more like an EziDes plotline. Maybe Altaïr will be the long suffering childhood friend of Ezio who could be his guard or another country’s prince who helps Ezio find Desmond and ends up falling in love with Desmond as well and they 'share' him... orrrrr... he falls in love with Leonardo who may be the only person in Desmond’s outskirt village to know something is wrong with Desmond and his ‘family’ (I’m thinking Vidic as the stepmother and Lucy and Daniel as the stepsiblings but Lucy is more on the whole ‘ignore Desmond’ than actually bullying him).

As for AltDes, definitely Beauty and the Beast AU where Altaïr gets cursed because he was an arrogant little shit. I actually talked about this with YunaBlaze in AO3 in… I think Zero Eclipse’s comments? Anyway, the main general plot is the ‘cursed furniture’ are the AC protagonists with Ezio taking Lumiere’s role and Haytham taking Cogsworth’s role. I don’t remember if I included it in the comments but my initial idea was that Desmond didn’t switch places with his father, the Beast of the castle is a well known ‘legend’ and every five years, they would send a sacrifice to the Beast to appease it. Desmond was just the latest of the sacrifices and he learns that the Beast shoos all the sacrifices away and the sacrifices never returned to the village because fuck that village. Desmond is the first person to stay even after the Beast tries to roar at him to leave because he has nowhere else to go and the place wasn’t that bad anyway. Then… plot happens XD

ConDes… uuuhhh… I don’t know why but I kinda want a Swan Lake AU but it’s Ratonhnhaké:ton who is a wolf during the day and a man during the night while Desmond is just a runaway prince who is trying to hide from his father. That’s as far as I got… maybe Haytham being the evil sorcerer who cursed his own son to teach him a lesson about obeying one’s father or something? XD

EdDes… does it have to be Little Mermaid? I feel like it should be Little Mermaid and it’s Desmond wanting to be human and getting in the middle of Edward’s pirate ‘shenanigans’. Or… if we’re focusing less on fairy tales and bending this to more of Disney IPs(which broaden the entire thing too much, imho), Pirates of the Caribbean AU where Desmond takes Will’s place and Edward is our sorta Jack Sparrow but more Kenway than whatever Jack Sparrow does. There’s no love triangle, just Desmond being the key to solving the curse and getting dragged by Benjamin Hornigold’s desire to lift the curse and Edward getting mixed up because he was in the vicinity.

Bonus: HayDes… Bluebeard but it’s switched with Desmond being the one to have married before six times and Haytham being the ‘bride’ who finds the corpses of his missing ‘brides’ (I’m kinda imagining they’re all Desmond’s other ancestors and they’re encased in glass and preserved quite well instead of the usual macabre description of Bluebeard’s basement). Just full on yandere!Desmond who likes to collect the people he 'loves'.

Before an engagement, the commanding officer ends his speech with “make your ancestors proud”. A subordinate responds “Sir! I’m not proud of my ancestors, can I borrow someone else’s”?

[whaleofatjme1920]

I don’t really know anything about the fandoms you write for besides Creepypasta and Marble Hornets - so feel free to ignore this if this is a stupid question!

But this may be fun for you - so what are the most important things to know about the assassins creed fandom? And what would happen if you just kind of stumbled into that world on accident?

Not a stupid question at all! So, Assassin's Creed. If you're like me, you entered into the fandom in a really weird way and that's kind of what this question reminds me of.

I started with Assassin's Creed 4, Black Flag (it's not actually the fourth game,,,,,,,) and like our main protagonist Edward, didn't know anything!! So, what did this mean to me? Lots and lots of scrolling through wikipedia pages and finding out on my own.

What are some important things about Assassin's creed? PLEASE START WITH DESMOND and understand that there's a secret war going on. Every protagonist has a rich, beautifully painted story (the newer games are,,,, they're alright,,,,,,,,)

If you stumbled into the fandom, it's going to be overwhelming because that's over a decade of lore, world building, lots of love put into the franchise as a whole.

So, start at the beginning, with Desmond and his ancestor, Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, then move into the Ezio trilogy. Generally chronological order because it's,,,, it's a lot and some of it won't make any sense if you just pop in at a random time. The games try exposition, but it's confusing lmfao.

Two groups: Assassins, generally our protagonists who love freewill "everything is true, nothing is permitted", and the Templars who strive for order in the chaos "may the father of understanding guide us". The Templars are the age old enemies of the Assassins are their core tenants directly interfere with each other. These are not Assassins for hire. They target key political figures and Templars that may harm the free world.

So much of this game is history based but with an underlying "beyond our understanding" feel.

A lot of understanding the fandom even when randomly stumbling into it is kinda like latching onto a singular protagonist and then going on from there, falling in love with them and their story and everything falls into place as a result. It's not something you'll understand in one day. I really do recommend starting with the first AC title though.

The fandom itself seems kinda dead rn lmfao, ever since the era of,,,, maybe AC Syndicate passed we've been declining. To be fair, I'm not actively checking for it either, but the few posts I DO post about it do astronomically well. I assume the oasis is almost dry.

ANYWAYS, come join us!! It's such a rich environment and all the protagonists are so lovable in their own right. The history, the right amount of myth and legend, it's beautiful. My favorite will always be AC4, Black Flag. First game I ever played and the first AC title I ever saw.

[rachelkaser]

Has the Assassin’s Creed series lost its way... or its mind? (Part 2)

Disclaimer up front: The fact that my last blog post coincided with the reveal of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was a complete coincidence. That being said, I’m so glad it happened, because it gives me more examples of the, we shall say, modern problems with Assassin’s Creed. But still, I won’t judge it too harshly considering I haven’t seen it yet.

It’s time for me to give what I think are the two most prevalent (and fixable) problems regarding the series -- namely what the fuck everyone in the games is doing, and what they’re trying to accomplish. I also want to talk about the disconnect between the way the series started and where we currently are.

And we might as well start with the biggest disappointment in the series so far: Juno.

Juno A Thing or Two

First, let’s go all the way back to when this series began. The original game cloaks Those Who Came Before in very sinister hints, and Al Mualim speaks of them with even more quiet reverence than he does the Apple of Eden. In the next game, we meet one of TWCB, Minerva, albeit very briefly, and she outright states that her people, who aren’t gods, are long gone from the world and have only left behind a trail of bread crumbs in order to protect humanity -- their creation -- from a world-scorching solar flare.

If you think about it, that ought to have been all we ever knew about TWCB, at least to a certain degree. We know they aren’t gods, and we know they’re no longer around. Based on the cutscene from AC Revelations, we know they also didn’t manage to protect humanity from the previous solar flare. They were kind of like the Protheans from Mass Effect: a wise, powerful predecessor race brought low by their own overconfidence, acting as a warning for humanity to use their talents for better things.

Yet, by the time Odyssey rolls around, we see them constantly meddling with human history, undermining the original point that it was a last-ditch effort on the part of Minerva to avoid utter catastrophe, and not something they otherwise would have tried. In spite of the fact that Minerva explicitly said she and her kind weren’t gods, and weren’t strong enough to stop the solar flare, later games ramped up their power as a way of trying to make them interesting enough to take up a bigger part of the story.

They really didn’t need a bigger part of the story.

Also, the first six games of the series -- that’s about a combined 200 hours of play time, roughly -- revolved around one central plotline: The Juno story. It was even brought up, albeit in a tangential way, in later games such as Syndicate. Essentially, it was the backbone of Desmond’s story arc, and involved him making the difficult decision to unleash a literal evil god in the machine in order save all of humanity from a natural disaster. Not only did he die, but subsequent Assassins were left to deal with the fallout of a malevolent entity trying to assert herself in the modern world. It was corny as all hell, sure, but in the hands of interested and creative writers, I think it could have gone somewhere cool.

Now the modern stories are primarily about the pursuit of the Pieces of Eden, and the Juno plotline has been dropped entirely. Juno herself was actually unceremoniously killed off -- in a comic book, no less. Just to make the whole thing feel more like a rip-off, she was killed by Desmond’s bastard son (a character the games have only hinted at up to now) who’s also a Sage, meaning he carries the soul of Juno’s dead husband.

I can’t even begin to describe the disdain and frustration within me when I say, “Gee, I sure as hell wish I could have played that.”

The son of the previous protagonist, struggling with the sinister presence in his head, joining forces with both Templars and Assassins to take down the sinister would-be god responsible for his father’s death, his own mental health struggles, and potential global catastrophe? Pardon my language, but why the actual FUCK was this not the plot of one of the games?

The comics came out in 2017 and 2018. What were the games we got in that same time period? Origins and Odyssey, which star Layla Hassan in the modern sections, quite possibly the most boring person in the whole series. You’re telling me that someone seriously looked at this series and decided the modern gameplay of two tentpole games would best be propped up with the most uninteresting stick of wood Ubisoft has yet crafted? Fuck. Right. Off.

Everything the first seven games, from AC1 to Black Flag, had been building towards with regards to the modern story, including Desmond’s sacrifice for humanity and the race to give Juno a physical form, is for absolutely nothing. It’s abandoned in-game for no better reason than to give the player Pieces of Eden to play with instead.

Having mentioned that, it’s about time I told y’all what I really think about this particular plot device.

Pee Oh Ees? Pee Oh Ess

For the uninitiated who’re only here to see me have a big ol’ fangirl aneurysm, the Pieces of Eden are gadgets left behind by TWCB with various superpowers assigned to them as the plot demands. In-universe, they’re objects of great renown that cropped up in various forms throughout recorded history -- as crystal skulls, sacred orbs, swords, staffs, blankets, jewelry and even, in one memorable instance, the actual Koh-i-Noor diamond.

But let me establish -- as indeed we must again -- that while the POEs have always been described as powerful, in the first several games in the series they were only ever used to further a larger purpose. They were part of an elaborate communication network left behind by TWCB in order to contact Desmond, specifically, and get his help averting the end of the world.

The only reason they were ever important was because they usually somehow led to the clue that would help him move forward with that goal. Altair’s Apple? Showed where to find the other Pieces. Ezio’s Apple? Led to Desmond’s first contact with Minerva. Connor’s crystal ball? Showed Desmond where to find the medallion that opens the chamber where the end of the world may be averted. My point is, while the concept of them was cool, laying hands on them was never the ultimate goal.

Sure, they’re leftovers from the Precursor society, but let’s not forget they had a literal Precursor spirit haunting Abstergo’s computers, and the writers chose instead to focus on this garbage. And I don’t use the word lightly: In Assassin’s Creed 2 codex, Altair even wonders if humans are just squabbling over what was effectively rubbish to TWCB. He’s not exactly right (see again: communication network to Desmond), but you gotta wonder if he’s completely wrong either.

Instead of examining that, and pondering whether anyone, Assassin, Templar, or otherwise, should have these artifacts, the series has settled for shuffling them around like so many footballs. And to make them more interesting, the writers of later games have chosen to make the PoEs more powerful.

For example, the one in Syndicate is essentially a healing blanket that brings people back from the brink of death. The one in Odyssey makes the bearer immortal. All I could think when I found out about these was “Gee, it sure would have been nice if Minerva had led Desmond to that one when he was preparing to sacrifice himself for humanity.”

It’s getting to the point where I’m goddamned sick and tired of seeing them crop up. All three episodes of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles were about retrieving a POE -- the same POE, no less -- and playing keep away with the Templars at three different points in history.

It’d be different if we saw the Assassins ever used the POEs to further their cause or make the world a better place, but it’s happened almost never in the series. Most of the time it’s as though playing POE hot potato with the Templars is the only thing the Assassins can actually be bothered to do.

Which brings me to my last, and biggest issue...

Road to Nowhere

Let me ask a question: What, at this point, is the endgame for the Assassin’s Creed universe?

I don’t mean what’s the planned endpoint of the series -- Ubisoft will keep making them for as long as we keep buying them. I mean, what’s the desired world state for the Assassin and Templar factions -- what, in essence, is the end goal of their efforts?

I have played every game in the series multiple times, read the comics and novels, and even watched the movie. I know this series very well, and it disturbs me that, when I ask myself that question, I can’t come up with more than a vague answer for the Templars, and no answer at all for the Assassins.

Think about it: What have the Assassins done for the last few games besides follow behind the Templar group du jour with a paint roller, covering up and undoing whatever it is they’ve done? When’s the last time the Assassins made an effort to do anything, rather than just react? When’s the last time you, the player, felt like you were playing a character that could have actually existed in history and made some kind of an impact?

The longer we do this dance, the less it feels like we’re working towards some kind of goal -- and that’s a damned drag. At the very least, with the Desmond storyline, we had a definite end. Ubisoft kind of painted itself into a corner by needing Desmond’s story to be wrapped up before the end of 2012 in order to tie into that whole “Mayan Doomsday” thing from December of the same year. So if nothing else, we knew his story was going to have to end by then.

Even Disney is aware it couldn’t just keep making Marvel adaptations forever without some kind of larger destination in mind or people would lose interest. But apparently that lesson’s escaped Ubisoft, because there doesn’t seem to be a cosmic expiry date on the modern-day story.

Its very tempting to say the series would be better off it cut out the figurative tumor and no longer have a modern narrative at all. But if it did, what would tie these games together, truly?  Because the meat-and-potatoes of the games takes place in the past, it falls to the modern-day sections to deliver the big-picture story, which they have failed to do for a while now.

The problem isn’t that the modern sections exist. The problem is that the modern sections aren’t good. They’re aimless and boring, and the characters are so bland and uncontextualized that it’s impossible to sympathize with them. And that sucks because it means we have no connection to the world beyond the past storyline anymore. If you’d told me circa 2012 I’d be missing Desmond Miles in a few years, I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are.

I’m not trying to give the impression, with this screed, that I don’t like or have fallen out of love with Assassin’s Creed. Because somehow, shockingly, I haven’t. I still love AC. I’ve loved AC since I was 17, which is over a third of my life. I’m just bitterly dissatisfied with AC at the present moment. At this point I’m afraid Valhalla is going to resemble For Honor more than previous entries in the series.

A franchise can change. A franchise can evolve. But this isn’t evolution. This is a game series that has gone completely off the rails and is spinning its wheels aimlessly in the air. I’ll revisit this topic after Valhalla, but I’m not holding out hope for a great change.

[jurakan]

Yes, Edward is Connor's grandfather--Haytham's father. Connor only alludes to him in the DLC for AC3, though in the tour of the Animus office someone (the boss, I think?) asks about which Kenway the player character is researching, and mentions Haytham and Connor.

Most of the AC games are not really connected this way? The first few, going up to Black Flag, are about dealing with the ancestors of modern day protagonist Desmond Miles, though those ancestors are from different bloodlines and not related to each other--so the protagonist of AC1 (in the Crusades), Altair, is not the ancestor/related to the protagonist of AC2 (Italian Renaissance), Ezio. Black Flag is the first that you're playing as the direct relative of another historical protagonist, I believe.

Wait, Edward is Connor's granddad? Guess I never paid attention to the last name of Haythem, maybe because I couldn't stand him. Kinda like with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Kerner's full name is Klaus Kerner......30 years later I finally caught that.

Are all the Assassin's Creed games connected in that way?

[thatcrazycrowgirl]

(To anyone just getting into the AC series, there is a spoiler warning for some of the story elements.)

After finishing AC Unity and now getting back in AC Rogue, do you know what I kind of miss about the older games?

The reoccurring interweaving of characters and interactions throughout them.

Let me explain: first off, we naturally have the Desmond Miles story arc that spans the first three games, and climaxed in ACIII.

But within the Ezio Trilogy, we actually got to see Ezio meet Altaïr in AC Revelations.

Then we have what I like to call “the Kenway Saga”, that chronologically begins with Edward in AC Black Flag. Then it continues with Haytham in AC Rogue. But the interesting thing is that, because Rogue follows Shay Cormac’s story, at the end of the game, we get two storylines that branch off of it.

If you follow Haytham’s story, it continues in ACIII, where we play the first half of the game with him, and the second half with his son, Connor - leading to the two of them finally meeting and the player seeing how their relationship progresses.

(Not only that, but if you play the “spinoff” AC Liberation, you get to see Connor teaming up with Aveline de Grandpré for a short time. There’s also the Freedom Cry DLC that follows Adéwalé and is set twenty years after Black Flag.)

However, if you follow Shay’s story, it finishes with him taking down Charles Dorian, who is the father of Arno, the protagonist in AC Unity. Unfortunately, that’s where the storyline stops, as Arno never found out who actually killed his father. (But if he ever did and decided to go after Shay for revenge, that would make a kick-ass sequel or DLC.)

Post-Unity, the closest thing we have to any sort of a connection between characters and games is the protagonist of AC India Chronicles, Arbaaz Mir, is actually the father of Jayadeep Mir (a.k.a. Henry Green). (Which I don’t think even gets a mention in the AC Syndicate game.)

I mean, sure, in the newest games, we see the easter eggs, hear the characters get referenced, and see the database entries, but something about seeing two characters from two different games actually interacting with each other and both main and side storylines progressing from one game to the next just brought the whole idea of it all being one cohesive universe to another level.

I’m not saying the Assassin’s Creed series shouldn’t evolve or that we should stay stuck in the past with the 1st gen games. I’m just saying that little detail of the character interaction (or even just a cameo) in the different games was a nice, little detail that I wish the developers would bring back.

(Please note that as I’m writing this, I haven’t played every game in the series yet, including Origins, so I’m bound to be missing some details. Also, I’m mostly focusing on the main games here.)

[sebastians-stan]

12, 13, 14, 15 for the AC asks meme, please :)

12. favorite plot twist: already answered here!

13: favorite modern-day assassin: desmond miles ofc

14. most underrated game: this is really hard, but i don’t think there is only one game which is like completely underrated. i just think that some games have little flaws that made them less popular. odyssey for example, bc the protagonists aren’t real ‘assassins’, but somehow everything started with them. another game i think that’s underrated is AC1 bc of the drying gameplay. so you see i can’t really tell bc for me it’s important that the story, the character and the gameplay is interesting. i think every game is a masterpiece so it depends on your preferences when it comes to playing the game

15. most underrated character: this sounds like a cliche but i would really say arno. i think some people are not seeing his potential. that he’s not just like a naiv or “boring” boy. for me he’s so damn multifaceted and i could talk about him all night srsly. he lost his father, his foster-father, he had to kill his mentor and in the end he lost the love of his life. but even after all this, all he has is understanding. he understands the life of an assassin so well and the responsibility he’s carrying on his shoulders. he grows, he learns, and he matures. in the end he was alone but he carries the ones he loved so close to his heart bc they remind him who he is and where he came from :(

assassin’s creed ask meme

[teecupangel]

Hi Teecup!

I hate to add to your pile of asks, but I've just started watching Star Trek TNG and it made me wonder... what about a AssCreed × Star Trek crossover?

To be more precise, the kind of crossover I'm thinking of is one where we take the characters of AC and mix them with the premise of Star Trek, so everyone is hanging out on a starship and getting dragged into random adventures on a weekly basis.

We can separate the Assassins and Templars into Starfleet and Romulans if we want to keep the fight between the two going, though I'm actually more interested in seeing a situation where there is no reason to fight so those factions no longer exist, and everyone is allowed to interact and make friends with whoever they wish.

Also since I want to keep the joke of isekai protagonist Desmond going, maybe he gets transported into this parallel universe after dying and finds himself face to face with the Star Trek versions of all his ancestors, as well as... himself?

As long as you don't mind the long wait to get to your asks, just pile them in my asks hahahaha

We do have this Q is Desmond’s real father idea before because William Miles’s voice actor played Q and that includes Desmond getting sent to Stark Trek ‘verse.

So for this one, we’re going for AC cast in Star Trek but with the caveat that Desmond gets transported there from his previous world just to annoy him (and probably save his life but he can never be sure about that)

For this one, I like the idea that the Templars and Assassins have finally buried the hatchet because one of the main point of Star Trek (especially the early ones) is that humanity managed to unite. Of course, we can still make some of the Templars Romulans if we want to preserve the ‘antagonist’ route but imagine Desmond’s “????” whenever he learns that Templars he knew as super bad news have formed relationships with the Assassins ranging from “I don’t want to ally with them but they’re good at their job” to “besties!”

Desmond would feel a bit weirded out when Ezio just sigh when he learned they would be allying with a ship that has Cesare Borgia as a high ranking officer. He knows that Cesare’s probably on their side but he’s curious why Ezio looked less like he wants to kill him and more like he’s already tired just thinking about dealing with him.

Then he learned the reason why Ezio looked like that.

‘Allegedly’, Ezio slept with Cesare’s sister, Lucrezia Borgia during one of their downtime in the Borgia’s home planet. And nooooo, this wasn’t a case of “You fucked my sister, you must die!” revenge story. That would not have been complicated enough for Ezio’s messy love life. The problem was… Cesare didn’t get to join Ezio and his sister. Yeah, that’s it. Cesare wasn’t angry at Ezio. He was trying to get in Ezio’s pants (“Of course, we’ll invite my sister”) and Ezio is just… he’s done. He’s soooo done with everything. Fuck being the primary communication liaison of the crew. He’s gonna hide in his room and call his BFF back in his homeplanet (there’s a bet going on if said BFF was “the one who got away” – No that was his childhood sweetheart Cristina- or the “he doesn’t know he’s in love with his BFF or vice versa”)

My primary idea for the crew and a little bit of sprinkled lore:

The name of the ship would probably be Aquila to hammer in the bird motif. Another sorta weird names would be names used to talk about a group of eagles like convocation or eyrie or aerie. Or just go for Alamut which some call “Nest of Eagles”.

Edward Kenway is the Captain. He can be Haytham’s father and Ratonhnhaké:ton’s grandfather, a humanoid with long life and a thirst for adventure. In this life, he’s drinking buddies with Alaya and is also friends with Roberts. To make it funnier, he’s actually John Standish’s godfather (who is the son of Roberts and Haytham’s childhood friend)

Haytham is the First Officer because the entire crew (including his father) lives to make his life stressful. He’s married to Kaniehtí:io and their eldest joined the crew. There’s joke of nepotism because of this but it’s all said in a teasing manner because the Kenway men gets the job done. He trained Charles Lee (and the rest of his Templar Order) when they were fresh new ‘graduates’ so they like to call him Master Kenway.

Ratonhnhaké:ton is the Navigator and is being trained to be the Helmsman by the current Helmsman Adéwalé. He can usually be found talking to Ezio or Aveline. He’s really good at combat so he mostly join offworld missions which is why…

Aveline is the second Navigator in case Ratonhnhaké:ton is offworld. She’s also their offworld liaison if Ezio is not available. Sometimes, she also takes over the Communications Officer’s jobs. The crew is not entirely sure what her actual job is??? (Her parents divorced and her mother is alive. She and her stepmother are close as well and her stepmother is the Captain of another ship)

Adéwalé is the Helmsman and he had been ‘sailing’ with Edward for so long that Edward rarely had to give specific orders. Adéwalé is already doing what Edward wanted. It gives Haytham a headache because ‘communication’ is important, especially for reports and such. Adéwalé takes Ratonhnhaké:ton under his wing and Ratonhnhaké:ton calls him Uncle Ade.

The Science (technically called Research and Development Department) Division is under Altaïr’s complete control and no Kenway can go against him. He wants to go offworld to research one thing or another, he’s joining the offworld team. He wants them to take a pit stop in one of the colonies or world for materials or something, the ship would change course. Desmond didn’t even question it when he heard of it. He just said “… yeah, that sounds about right.” and moved along. The funny thing? Altaïr isn’t the Chief Science Officer. That’s the long suffering Malik Al-Sayf. Altaïr’s official position is “Second Officer”. He has an academic rivalry going on with Robert de Sablé and he still sends letter to his grandfather who is a high ranking government official of the United Federations of Planet.

Ezio is the Chief Communications Officer and he’s always part of the offworld teams (unless something comes up). He comes from a long line of Starfleet officers. His siblings are stationed in other ships and his father is a member of the United Federations of Planet.

Shay is the Security Chief and it is the second most stressful job (after Haytham) trying to keep the peace and order of the ship (okay, that’s an exaggeration). Most of the time, he just makes sure everyone is okay and safe whenever shit hits the fan. He’s pretty chill and is Haytham’s drinking buddy. He still writes to his mentor Achilles who taught him everything and to his childhood friend who joined another ship Liam.

Arno is part of the Chief Tactical Officer and he has a close professional relationship with Evie and Altaïr mainly because those two takes care of weapon upgrade… and other… uuuhh… ‘stuff’ their missions might need. He has a fiancee who is a high ranking officer of Starfleet.

Evie is the Chief Engineering Officer and is Altaïr’s number one supporter. Edward once joked that if Altaïr was to mutiny, they would be fucked because Evie would be first in line in shutting down all the engines and any security procotol they have in place. Ezio would like to stress it was more of a ‘mentor and student’ kind of thing. Desmond learned that Altaïr also had his hands on the Engineering Department and is like “yeah, that tracks too.” Evie has a rivalry going on with Lucy Thorne and her twin would just comment that they should sleep together once and get it over with.

Jacob is usually the captain of the offworld team unless a higher ranking officer joins then he’s the vice-captain. Close to Arno because he’s always asking for new ‘toys’ to play with. May or may not have a son who may or may not be adopted called Jack. The crew isn’t sure if he’s Jacob’s son or his protege.

I’m missing a few more main characters and the modern day characters so uuuhh… they’re there, I just couldn’t think of a position for them XD.

(I kept their species vague so you can make them any race you want. I will suggest that Altaïr be half-Vulcan though because he feels very Vulcan-ish but, honestly, pick whichever feels right for you or what would make you go “you know what would be fun”? XD)

[xazz]

Have you played any of the recent AC games? (post Origins) if u have. Did you like them? I'm here still waiting for AC1 remake/remaster (mostly to make the missions have a bit more variety. Tho the master edition with the informants is 😘) bc I love the OG boy and his games still.... I also idk I feel the modern story has gotten a bit meh since 3....

I have played Origins and Odyssey. The stories are... generic Ubisoft AC games. Protag’s parents are killed/missing, they’re almost killed in the beginning of the game, they go looking for vengeance and finding their wife/mother/brother/father killing several armies worth of soldiers along the way. Oh and sometimes the Isu show up for stupid reasons and are vaguely cryptic but don’t actually move the story along.

There’s a new modern protag. A lady. She’s... literally just Desmond. But she worked for Abstergo and now she works for the Assassins and somehow that’s not suspicious at all? They also don’t explain the change of alligence at all in game without having to read emails. Which I ain’t gonna do. Why? 

Because the modern story is so stupid now. All the Isu were so hard on for Desmond and then he died and now they’re so hard on for this girl. Who, btw, isn’t related to any of these new ancestors. She’s just a random girl jumping into random Assassins. Which I think are still related to Desmond? In some way?

Would I suggest playing them? Do you like action RPGs and huge maps with lots of shit to do and actually a pretty interesting protagonist? Play Odyssey as Kassandra. I loved playing Odyssey and have like 175 hours in it. Just fucking button mash past any modern story line or whenever Isu talk and it’s like a cool RPG set in ancient Greece and you get to fight monsters!

[m39]

History of the Creed (part 3) - Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

We have reached the end of Ezio’s story. And I believe this was the game that made most of the fans realize that it started to become yet another copy and paste franchise… I still enjoyed it… Most of the time.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: REVELATIONS (The original PC release in Europe: December 2, 2011)

PLOT

Ezio decided to travel to Assassins’ old fortress in Masyaf after finding out in his father’s letter that there is some uber library hidden there. Surprisingly for him, the local Templars are here to get through it too. So now Ezio must find five Masyaf keys left in Constantinople by Niccolo Polo before the Templars do.

The story is step above the previous game, mostly because it’s not a rehash of AC2. Fighting against Byzantinian Templars is not personal (most of the time). They are just an obstacle for Ezio on his way for the Masyaf keys and for the safety of the library from their hand.

I think we all know by now that Ezio is still an amazing protagonist. And this game only proves it. Seeing him across these three games felt like a journey… for the lack of better words. He is no longer a young man seeking revenge on Borgias. Ezio is now an old mentor who went to Masyaf to honor his father’s wish to find Altair’s library.

Speaking of Altair, he is also briefly played in some parts of the game, showing his life after the events of AC1 (except the first memory with him, which happens before AC1). I like how the Revelations’ story is not only ties up loose ends for Ezio but for Altair as well.

As for the rest of the cast, I would say they are (at least) slightly better than the previous two games. Almost all of the secondary protagonists and villains are new characters. Only some of the characters from AC1 come back. They are all (most of the time) on the same level as the last two games except on the bad guys’ side there are less of cartoony villains and more of somewhat sympathetic characters.

Hell, I would even say that Desmond, of all people, got some more backstory but about it later.

GAMEPLAY

Unfortunately, the gameplay part starts to feel like it’s reaching stagnation. I’ll start with some innovations.

First, the hookblade. In parkour it works like a climb leaping ability but on steroids. But that’s not all; you can also use it on ziplines and do a long jumps in specific places. There are also some abilities used in combat with the hookblade but, honestly, not counting the challenges, you might as well ignore them.

Secondly, bombs. No longer are you restricted only to smoke bombs. Now you can craft them into the three types of bombs: lethal ones, tactical ones and diversional ones. You can choose how your bomb will work, how far its effect can go and what type of content to fill it. Even though it’s kind of fun making bombs, like with hookblade in combat, again, it feels obsolete most of the time.

Other than these two things, this game feels like Brotherhood. Sure, some stuff in previous mechanics is changed, there are new animations, there were even some minor changes in controls but it was still the same game as the previous one. At least in Brotherhood, there was enough of new mechanics and activities that didn’t make it feel like a rehash. Here, there is no excuse this time. Do I still enjoyed Revelations’ mechanics? Yes! Absolutely! But don’t forget that at the time of release, back in 2011, many AC fans didn’t liked that it was (mostly) a rehash of the previous game.

Oh wait, there is also tower defense mechanics… Who cares?

ACTIVITIES

Even in terms of activities it’s all mostly the same. But like with gameplay, let’s focus on new stuff first.

Art shops end up replaced by the bookshops and while most of books can be purchased, some of them must be found in the areas hidden by Polo.

This time in terms of collectibles are 100 Animus date fragments scattered across the game. By collecting them you can unlock 5 memories for Desmond. All of them, of course, focus on his backstory. And I like it. It shows that Desmond has some character compared to the future instalments with other… protagonists.

Instead of 6 keys/symbols again, you will have to find ten of Ishak Pasha's Memoir Pages to get (supposedly) best armor.

Your assassins can now be leveled up to 15th level and you have twelve memories dedicated to their training and six dedicated to recruiting some of them. As for their training, while sending them, you can take control of the place you have send your apprentice(s) to. Unfortunately, it becomes a nightmare in which most of the time, when you get money every 20 minutes, the city is under attack. After like 5th time my place was attacked by Templars I was thinking: Which one of brain-dead designers thought it was a good idea to make you stop all you do and send your homies to defend that place?!

And yet, despite being more innovative for the lack of better words than gameplay, it still feels the same as Brotherhood. Same shops renovations, same landmarks buying (which is pretty much worthless), most of the weapons look the same (some of them have changed name but it’s still the same weapon), most of the challenges are the same but now it feels more worthless to complete them since now you don’t have to do all the challenges to get the new weapon, sending your apprentices on missions to other cities is also the same.

This game also feels more tedious to complete when you compare it to the two previous installments. I mean, okay, side memories? Piece of cake. Fragments and chests? – don’t make me laugh. Assassins? It can be sometimes a slough but it’s still manageable. Challenges? – For fuck sake not this 5 kill streak shit again! Renovations? Still manageable but then again, those fucking landmarks. 100% synchr- go fuck yourself with that Montreal.

So yeah, while most of the time I was having the same fun I had in previous games, some of them I just ditched because it was not worth my time.

THE GRAHPICS AND SOUND

Thankfully, if there is one thing that this game is better than the rest of the Ezio trilogy is how it looks and sounds.

Constantinople looks amazing for the last AC game on the Anvil engine. It feels fresh to see it after two games set in a Renaissance Italy (let’s be honest, Rome while looking good felt kinda rehashed in terms of aesthetics).

As for the models? Good news, the wonkiness is completely gone (or, at worst, is so miniscule that I didn’t notice it)

While sound effects are still good as with the voice acting, the soundtrack might be the best one in the Ezio’s trilogy. This time however, there were two composers. While Jesper Kyd came back to create more music, this time, most of the soundtrack was composed by Lorne Balfe. And it’s still an awesome music.

STABILITY

Still on a very good level as the previous two games. Although, there were two nasty bugs that the first time forced me to restart the mission, when my ally froze in place. There were thankfully no (noticeable) frame drops.

CONCLUSION

It’s kind of bizarre how Brotherhood and Revelations are basically Ying and Yang of sequels. Brotherhood was a rehash of the previous game in terms of story and, to some degree, locations but it added so much new stuff into gameplay and side activities that we didn’t even care, while Revelations rehashed most of gameplay mechanics and side activities from the previous game, giving us at least two major innovations, while offering more original story and locations.

But even with all of its flaws, Revelations is a very good game. Not as good as Brotherhood but still good.

And that’s all for today folks. The last game with Ezio and the last one on the Anvil engine. Next time on History of the Creed we will look at the last part of Desmond’s Saga. See you next time.

Bye!

[jillinabox]

Assassin’s Creed

from a Film student’s perspective

a.k.a. Things I liked about the AC movie

I held off on watching it b/c of the bad reviews I’d heard, but (as an AC fan, not a newcomer,) I actually find little flaw in the movie! The issues I had while watching resolved themselves while I was watching.

The eagle sequence that always precedes a change of scene with the sluggish pace of a Disneyland tour? That is the Animus mapping out the setting of the ancestral memory. In the present day, it signals the start of a Leap of Faith.

The billion-dollar fog machine (bleeding and animus) effect? It allows for the moment when Cal looks down at Ojeda who he is cruelly butchering and the two men are indistinguishable between real or a projection. The heavy use of back light also cuts a silhouette out of Cal, further erasing his identity and highlighting Aguilar. This is the moment for the audience to slowly realise that Cal has fallen to his ancestor’s pace and is breathing the role. The fog serves as both a visual and a metaphorical reminder to not take things at face value, or that “nothing is true,” and its heavy presence in the scene marks the moment when Cal prioritises anarchy over morality and is confused on every facet of his life except that he wants his father and mother to pay for his loneliness (allowing the destruction of the Creed would reduce his parents’ sacrifices to moot). The fog’s “draggy” effect also mimics that of the AC2 bleeding effect, where Desmond can trace the movement of the ghostly projections.

Another significant fog scene is when Cal is still in the Animus and he sees Aguilar walking towards him, when after an hour of watching Animus projections move around Cal as if he’s Aguilar, we know this isn’t a work of the animus. Cal is having a bleeding effect within the Animus. And he’s accessing all of his Assassin ancestors. This counts for Fridge Horror and Awesome.

Mama Lynch’s message to Cal beyond death is like Minerva calling to Desmond from Ezio’s time. Hair-raising and awesome.

Replacing the artefact in Alan’s hand with a fruit. Assassin, indeed. While I understand that the movie couldn’t resolve the Assassin-Templar war, the ending still would have left much to be desired if not for the BAMF Cal assassinating Alan in true Assassin style.

Speaking of Aguilar’s assassination of Ojeda, it’s like watching your player avatar while spamming the attack button. Aguilar catches Ojeda with a unique attack combo, following another combo, and another –– and not only are his movements familiar and awesome, but dramatised (smoke, slow-mo, avenge your beloved, bass-boosted music). Unlike in the games, you can also see Aguilar’s face while he shifts between anger and hurt throughout his punishing. You can see Sophia’s (movie-counterpart to Lucy) face as well while she witnesses Cal’s rapid descent to insanity as he perfectly synchronises with Aguilar. Here, I appreciate the casting of Marion Cotillard, because motionless acting requires skill; Cotillard and Fassbender remind me why AC has to go hard or go home when it comes to the casting and production of a film about the franchise.

The Abstergo security standard arms include crossbows. Awesome.

Moussa. The best side of the Assassins, a peacemaker who can still kick butt. He shines in Michael K. William’s delivery of, “Will you let us free?” and in the scene where he drops a basketball –– signalling that his hands are free to the security guards –– then drops some bombs. Moussa has a heart of gold and crazy sleights of hand.

Cal’s “What the hell is going on?” closely mirrors Desmond’s WTF moment in AC2 and my sentiments exactly after world domination dreamers and conspiracy murderers meddle with Cal’s lunchtime. Even after 7+ games of the creed, the movie manages to not only surprise me with the old idea of the Illuminati, but make the conspiracy and history believable.

Kurzel always manages to direct diegetic light so that the Apple looks like it’s glowing. As a film student, I love it; the temple window, the Animus projectors, etc.

The non-combative staff in all white wear what I thought were simple dress shirts and white slacks, but on a second look I noticed that their collars close with a significant gap between flaps so that it looks like they have a white band under their collars, like a Catholic priest. Seeing as they’re Templars, this detail is cool.

Throwing knives while leaping rooftops. Very assassin-like. Don’t even get me started on Le Parkour, it’s the game mechanics exactly –– along with, good or bad, the delayed changes of camera perspective as the system catches up with player movement. If you merge the cut-crazy camera from AC death scenes with AC rooftop chase scenes, you get the movie.

I just can’t stop gushing over the detailled replication of character movement between the film and the games. If a movie-based game came out that allowed my avatar to creep, fly, and attack exactly like characters from the movie, I’d be all over it. With AC, we have the opposite, but newcomers who watch the movie before playing the game will be pleasantly surprised, imho. The visuals in the movie also closely follow those found in the games, from Abstergo’s halls lined with plasma light fixtures that turn red during security breaches, to the (what I felt) random gardens in an Abstergo facility (esp in AC3), to the (what I strongly felt) futuristic but aesthetically horrifying Abstergo architecture (like a Japanese product, I swear. Good at hardware but not at interface). The reenactment of a Rizi painting (La Inquisición Española) via Aguilar’s memories is also enough to make this history nut gush.

Papa Lynch isn’t a burly assassin thirty years after his capture, but a prisoner who has been as disarmed by Abstergo as possible; he’s gained weight and been used by the Animus to the point of mental destabilisation. Kurzel breaks the cliché of the protagonist’s handsome dad biding for escape.

An apple-sized Apple, as opposed to a volleyball-sized one, allows the audience to immediately draw lines between the prototype model Cal first picks up and the round fruit Nathan tries to steal from Cal’s place at the lunch table. While a red and green fruit bears no resemblance with the golden artefact besides a spherical shape, their matching size makes it easier for Kurzel to prod the Apple into our subconscious awareness as we go deeper into the movie. I do appreciate that Kurzel made Cal’s apple a Granny Smith aka a Golden Apple (heh).

Consider that –– since the dawn of Hollywood –– we’ve been force-fed white casts, exaggerated “foreign” accents, or no foreign languages at all in movies that deserve better (The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise? Exodus, starring Christian Bale?? I love all these actors, but the casting directors should think twice). Then look at AC the movie: unashamed of speaking Spanish for half the film (with the local accent, too, I dig it) or of learning the Creed in Arabic, not afraid to cast POC for extras and main roles, and not censoring anything the game franchise doesn’t censor. 

Let’s face it, AC has been breaking boundaries since game one, and it’s only proper the movie follows suit. 

[ac-origins]

It's been a while since I've sent you an unnecessary rambling ask... so, what did you think about (my mans) Desmond? I.e., did you think he was a compelling main character, do you think his death helped the story, do you approve of his semi-posthumous marriage to me, etc...?

As a forewarning, spoilers on Desmond Miles ahead. Also, long post.

Desmond...

I’ll admit, I didn’t get into AC early on. Think it was Brotherhood that was my first one -- and that was around the time AC3 had come out.

To me, Desmond has always been a protagonist to root for in a “let that boy rest” kind of way. He grew up in his father’s constantly disapproving shadow, locked away in a compound with Assassins who, let’s face it, outwardly look like conspiracy theorist nutcases, until it broke him and he left at fucking 16. Uprooted, fleeing the Assassins who’d helped train him, and having to start a whole new life with the constant anxiety of being found.

And of course he was found. After 9ish years of freedom, he’s captured by Templars, poked and experimented on, escapes and makes new friends -- both real and the digitized wisp of a former “experiment” like him that committed suicide from the stress of the fucking Animus Desmond uses constantly. And of course... stone cold murders his Templar friend who was out to betray him and others. Which he’d done unwillingly while some alien entity was controlling his body through the very item HE’D WORKED SO HARD TO GET. All of this is done while he’s reliving every tragic and furious memory of his ancestors, of course.

And then what happens? Back into it to save the world again. No time to grieve. No, no. The world dies in a few months. He meets up with his father again and isn’t that just the cherry on the shitcake because of course William has’t changed. Still disapproving and a horrible, demanding, cold reminder of everything Desmond had wanted to leave behind.

And that, finally, is where we see things turn around for Desmond after less than 4 months of countless deadly encounters. Amends are made with his father, there’s plans to see his mother, and a cautious hope that maybe when this is all over it will be okay.

THEM BAM.

He fries himself saving the world while being manipulated by the same alien entity that had him murder his friend, and even in his diddly darn death he doesn’t get any peace because there’s the Templars to pick up his corpse and put it to use because why wouldn’t they by harvesting his DNA and his genetic memories. Jfc, even his damn personal items, voicemails to his father, weren’t safe from examination.

And in the end, that child he’d unknowingly fathered at 18 is growing up, is a goddamn sage, and well-tracked on the Templar’s radar. :’)))

Everything Desmond did and does is only just enough. And more is always asked of him. Always. One of those “doomed from the start” characters. A happy ending would have been preferred, but since that wasn’t going to happen... again, I say: let that goddamn boy rest. 

But, hey. You asked for answers, not a rant.

Do I think Desmond is a compelling main character? Hell yeah.

Did his death help the story? It technically set the framework for later games and introductions of other beloved characters and their stories so... begrudgingly, I say yes. (Yes, yes, I’m well aware this all could have happened without his death. Note the ‘begrudgingly’ part.)

Do I approve of his semi-posthumous marriage to you? Of course. But you’ve got to do what you can to protect his baby from another lady. Or else Desmond Jr. is going to go through the same things his papa did.

[yllcm]

Personally, there's a bittersweetness to the way the franchise is evolving. It pisses me off how they basically had Desmond die only to tell us "lol yeah another catastrophe is coming Desmond just delayed it" but I love Layla and how her story is progressing. I'm glad to be playing as a main protagonist in the modern day sequences again because, as much as I love the assassins from the first prospective games like Black Flag, Unity, Rogue, etc., I HATED playing as an "unnamed initiate" but the details they have us as to what was happening after Desmond's sacrifice was cool.

Anyways, my bitterness over how they treated Desmond's storyline aside, when it comes to Oddesy and even Origins I admire that they're trying g to breathe some fresh air into the series, but I was pissed to find put they literally spent an entire decade building up this huge storyline with Juno and the Phoenix Project only to have it END in a COMIC book while revealing that Desmond had fathered a son???? I was expecting a game to end the Juno storyline with some big grand cinematic war we could play and I was just...really disappointed but Origins and Odyssey gave me some newfound hope.

I agree with you in the sense that the ways of the old animus and how we played through the memories is starting to fade away, you'd think with all the new animus technology that's being developed in canon they could at least keep the option to go back and replay sequences. Maybe that's what Ubisoft really is going for though, making these new games something so much unlike the ones before but they need to remember who their fans are, they need to keep the core attributes of the Assassin's Creed games of the past (at least speaking from a long time fan's perspective) and Origins and Oddesy I feel like were the first two steps towards the direction of completely revamping the Assassin's Creed games, in more ways than one.

Again, I'm a die hard fan, been here since the beginning, I don't doubt that newer fans love what Ubisoft is doing and couldn't care less about the lore or the modern day story or the cryptic story behind the main story what with Those Who Came Before, or hell even older fans. But to me??? I miss when the games were leading up to something BIG. Like the catastrophe, Juno being resurrected, my only issue with Origins and Oddesy mostly lies within the modern day aspects of the game like??? Okay so in Origins Lalya joined the assassins after looking for a precursor artifact with her new animus. In Odyssey they were reliving the memories of Kassandra/Alexios to discover Atlantis but WHY??? Yeah to u understand more about the Itsu and their culture and technology in general what does Ubisoft plan on doing to make the games feel more?? I guess?? Cinematic?? True to the original feeling of previous Assassin's games. I miss more stealth based missions and lore surrounding the Creed. Origins did an amazing job of this but not so much Odyssey obviously. Odyssey I felt like although an amazing game, was probably the farthest thing from feeling like it was apart of the AC universe over all save for the moments you played as Layla in modern day.

I've heard rumors and this would be SWEET as fuck, but Ubisoft I feel like is just going to keep going farther and farther back in time. Maybe eventually we'll have a game where the Assassin's (or the Templars) use precursor DNA from the source in the new animus designs to relive the memories of someone DURING THE ITSU ERA and the game will surround itself around that period, the time before the Toba catastrophe.

Sorry for the rant lol I just wanted to make a few comments and I ended up writing an entire essay haha 😅 I just miss that feel of the games surrounding themselves around the ASSASSINS, their LORE, what THEY plan to do next, you know? I mean, it's not called Assassin's Creed for nothing.

The Future of Assassin’s Creed

Y’know, I was chatting with friends recently, and we were saying how one of the things that saddens us about Origins and Odyssey is the inability to replay missions/sequences.

Personally, I loved this feature in the older games, but it looks like Ubisoft has well and truly moved away from the ‘memory syncing’ way the animus worked, in favour of the new mission structure.

I guess we don’t really know what the future holds for the series, but on the Ubisoft forums recently there was a post asking our opinions on how we’d feel about new AC games having party members that fought alongside us...as well as more choices and deeper relationship systems - kind of moving the game mechanics to play more like Dragon Age, I guess.

I don’t know how to feel about this. I’ve played Dragon Age and Mass Effect and enjoyed them both, but I just can’t imagine the AC games feeling as focused if we had party members ‘out on the field’ with us - It would potentially make the games more heavily combat focused too, which is fine (I’m not saying Odyssey’s deeper combat is bad here!)...but not if you’re playing as an unseen, stealth-like assassin, surely?

‘We work in the dark to serve the light’

I mean - I’m under no illusion that the series needed updating a little, and things were wearing thin for some fans, but what does everyone else think?

Do you like the idea of party members and future games being more combat focused, or do you wish for a deeper stealth system to return?

Do you think Ubi should have put AC on hold for a few years, and released Odyssey as a stand alone franchise that could have had its own sequels and spin offs? Or were you through with the old ways of playing and love the way the games are going?

How does everyone else feel about the way the series is changing? I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts ☺️

[hopeatermain]

I don’t own an Xbox One or a PS4, and yet, I am still extremely hyped at the prospect of AC: Origins.

Wanna know why?

Because I don’t play video games for their gameplay. Sure, knowing how a video game works is basically essential, even for me. Especially for me, since I don’t really play video games. I remember that time, where my father brought Minecraft for PS3 for my little brother, that I decided to try it because he was pestering me about it (little brother, not father) and that I ended up 20 minutes in front of the tv trying to understand how I effing move. 

I don’t play video games to get a sense of accomplishment, even if achieving something in video games is always nice to do. When we got Hyrule Warriors for the Wii U, I ended up being the first one to finish the main story. (I still live with my parents, it’s easier for my studies.) I was overjoyed.

Hell, I don’t even play video games to get entertained. Well, yes, but it’s not the main point.

No, the reason why I play video games is for their stories.

It’s the reason why I got hooked to Assassin’s Creed a few months ago. The story is interesting, even if it could have been executed better at times. (looking at you, Unity. Have i mentioned that I was bitter over the multiplayer characters in Unity being palette swaps of Arno? I think I did. I’ll explain it in another post.) 

Professional killer doing it for the greater good? It’s a little cliché, but okay, could be a fun story. Said professional killer is member of a whole organization of professional killer with the same objectives as him? Go on. They are fighting an ancient conspiracy about as old has them? That is going to be interesting and probably make me question everything. But ancient gods? A machine allowing you to see the memories of your ancestors? Noting that both sides are well-intentioned but that their means are extreme in the case of Templars and ironic in the case of Assassins? The intense hatred that every single one of use share for Juno? Gimme gimme.

I also love the characters. Just pick any of the playable characters, I love every single one of them. I absolutely adore Desmond, Altair has a great character development (seriously, compare Altair at the start and Altair at the end), Ezio was delightfully refreshing as the second protagonist and proved that if they tried, Ubisoft could make a great and developed character, Kenway more like Kenwhy because they make everyone cry and we love it, Shay and his whole issues with the Assassin Brotherhood had me in a fit of crying joy, Arno is one of my favorites Idontcarewhateveryoneelsesayhewasjustbadlyhandled, yes to the Frye Twins relation, and don’t get me started on how well Adewalé issues with slavery was handled, how creepy awesome Jack was or on any of the potential of the Chronicles characters because that would take me all day. Also, MALIK. Just, fucking Malik man. As the older sister of three younger siblings, I could really relate to his issues with Altair concerning Kadar. No doubt Bayek will not disappoint.

And then, I learn about the arrival of the game that will explain how the Brotherhood was forged. Of the first Assassin wearing the name. Of the fall of an Empire, and the rise of a Creed.

We are going to know how this story, this world that took us to watch it, to play it, started. We are going to see the Origin of this story.

So yeah. I will enjoy this. And I’ve read on Tv Tropes that some people had problems with the fact that the start of the Assassin’s Brotherhood was hinted to have started earlier than Cleopatra VII. If you want, you can go along a hedadcanon that me and my sister (I effing love her, she’s the light of my life) have: Assassins existed before, but  they reunited later to form the Brotherhood, and that the story of Origins is going to tell that story.

I wrote this instead of working on my projects. When I decided to create my Tumblr, I decided I would only post my stories there. This is how much I’m hyped for Origins.