User login

***HUGE SPOILERS*** Free-Range AC3 Discussion

153 replies [Last post]
Jexx's picture
Jexx
Offline
Citizen
male
Pennsylvania
Joined: 08/27/2013

I haven't read everything, but here's a long post I made on another forum:

Spoiler: Highlight to view
In Assassin's Creed III, Connor showed that he didn't completely side with the colonists, specifically at the beginning of Sequence 7 where he says "They confuse me for one of them, I am not," and his questioning of Samuel Adam's owning of a slave (who, by the way, Adams freed when he received her, but she still worked at the Adams household for 50 years), and Adam's subsequent explanation for focusing on the abolishment of slavery once the colonists were free of British rule. But he then goes on to meet George Washington, and Washington says that they are fighting for freedom, for all. What is it the Assassins fight for, freedom for all, and to have peace created of free will. Even his own mentor, Achilles, told Connor that the colonial's cause is his cause (of course, Achilles meant this in terms of Sequence 7, and getting at Pitcairn).

Connor becomes enamored with Washington's cause, and the fact that the Templars were out to kill Washington just exemplified this fact to him. He has many reasons to side with the colonial's at this point: He thinks that the Templars are working with the British, it seems like the colonists are fighting for freedom for all, even if it's not happening all at once, and even Achilles supports him working with the Colonists.

After stopping Washington's assassination, Connor has a falling out with Achilles, and becomes less sure of the Assassins, judging this based on what he thinks of Achilles. When Aveline asks him whether or not he always agrees with the Assassins, Connor says he trusts himself to determine right from wrong. Connor then meets Haytham, and after a spat, Haytham tells Connor that the Templars are not working for, nor are they sided with, the British. They think Washington is an incompetent leader, yes, even that Charles would be better, but even Haytham admits in Forsaken that Charles is too British to actually be chosen as a leader. (On a side note, Haytham was actually the final person to save Connor from hanging in Sequence 8, in Forsaken he throws a knife and the rope after one of the Assassin's shoots at it and it doesn't completely break) Connor makes a truce with his father, and they work together to kill Benjamin Church and take back the stolen supplies.

Connor becomes less sure of the Assassins thinking on always wanting to kill the Templars. With Pitcairn and Johnson, their causes seemed just, but they were going about them in a way that endangered free-will. Connor thought that maybe they could work together, and unify the orders. Achilles warned against this saying that both Haytham and Lee must die, not just Lee. Connor was definitely holding on to Lee, wanting to kill him for what he had done to his village. He still hoped for a truce with his father though.

Connor and Haytham worked together and found out information on the movements of the British, while Haytham wanted to go to Lee with this information, Connor was stubborn about going to Washington. Haytham went along with this, and then revealed to Connor that Washington ordered the original burning of his village (a neutral village at the time), and just ordered it a second time. Connor turned away from both, Washington for being the one who ordered the burning of his village twice, and Haytham for witholding this information for when it best suit him (Haytham).

Even though he discovered that it was Washington who ordered the burning of his village twice, Lee manipulated his village. Turned the men of it against the colonists, as evident by Kanen'to:kon's words. He was furious at Washington, but he still thought that the cause of the colonists was just. Just because a nation's leader did the wrong thing doesn't mean that the root of what they fight for is unjust. But he knew now that Achilles was right, that the Templars must be stopped, and he would even kill his father if he had to.

Connor built up his own town of colonists, he had every reason to support both the colonists AND his native people. But the Assassins, the colonists, and his tribe, were all his people now. Lee showed that he would manipulate people into doing what he wanted when he encourage his tribe (a neutral tribe) into fighting against the colonists, and after the death of Haytham, Lee told Connor that he would destroy everyone and everything Connor held dear to him.

Connor's pursuit of Lee was justified. His continuation of fighting with and for Washington was due to Washington being the leader of the colonists now. With every turn after that, Connor verbally spat at Washington's feet, even going as far to say that Washington doesn't deserve the peace to be playing games.

However, it wasn't until the end that Connor realized that he was wrong. The colonial leaders weren't fighting for the good of all, they were fighting for the good of them. Haytham was right about that. But he was wrong that saying freedom isn't the path to walk on.

"Mother, Father. I am sorry. I have failed you both. I made a promise to protect our people, Mother. I thought if I could stop the Templars, if I could keep the revolution free from their influence, then those I supported would do what was right. The did, I suppose, do what was right--what was right for them. As for you, Father, I hoped that I might unite us, that we would forget the past and forge a better future. In time, I believe you could be made to see the world as I do--to understand. But it was just a dream. This, too, I should have known. Were we not meant to live in peace then? Is that it? Are we born to argue? To fight? So many voices--each demanding something else.

"It has been hard at times, but never harder than today.To see all I worked for perverted, discarded, forgotten. You would say I have described the whole of history, Father. Are you smiling then? Hoping I might speak the words you longed to hear? To validate you? To say that all along you were right? I will not. Even now, faced as I am with the truth of your cold words, I refuse. Because I believe things can still change.

"I may never succeed. The Assassins may struggle another thousand years in vain. But we will not stop.

"Compromise. That's what everyone has insisted on. And so I have learnt it. But differently than most, I think. I realize now that it will take time, that the road ahead is long and shrouded in darkness. It is a road that will not always take me where I wish to go--and I doubt I will live to see it end. But I will travel down it nonetheless.

"For at my side walks hope. In the face of all that insists I turn back, I carry on: this, this is my compromise."

"Full of hope for the future, I returned to my people, to the Assassins. It was time for new blood."

----

Here's another post I made later on in the discussion:

Spoiler: Highlight to view
I really think that the story of AC3, while the best in the series, was presented very poorly. It's story presentation is the worst in the series.

I do agree with you though that Connor didn't have a strict dedication to the Creed. The maxim of the Creed being "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" is basically a cryptic way of saying that we should study and think about everything and come to our own conclusions based on what we know and that we should always double-think what other people teach us. Connor doesn't learn to do that until the end of AC3, when he's 27.

To put this into perspective, Ezio wasn't officially inducted into the order until he was 29. And even then, he doesn't truly know the Creed and he's still fighting for revenge for his family, although he's starting to realize that it's futile, as this quote shows: "It's been over ten years since I watched my father and brothers die. Ten years hunting the men responsible. I'm close to the end now, but no closer to knowing what any of it was for!"

Altair was inducted into the order at a young age, presumably 17, but he was training for it all of his life. In AC1 he was 26, brash, arrogant, didn't understand the Creed at all. But the order at this point in time almost went against what the creed actually meant, being trained and taught only by the Assassins. The mentor (Al Mualim in AC1) told others what was right, how to do things, and they even declared poison off limits. Altair began to learn the true meaning of the Creed in AC1, and then fully developed the Assassin philosophy and set aside silly rituals and rules that didn't actually matter, while also acknowledging the ironies of the Assassin beliefs. But he did this over time, and didn't come to it in AC1.

Basically, what I'm saying here, is that all three protagonists didn't actually devote what they did to to Creed and what it meant when they were young. It's just that, AC3 lacked the phrase "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" and also a strong Brotherhood. But that came down to both Achilles and Connor. Achilles abandoned some of the initiation rituals of the Assassins, which isn't a bad thing, but it does create the feeling that he didn't care for the Creed either, because the Creed's sayings were largely connected to this initiation ritual in AC2, ACB, and ACR.

Ugh.. I could go on all day about this stuff.

I could talk about how Achilles probably abandoned what the Creed actually meant as well and focused all of his attention on just killing all of the Templars. The Assassins should be a group that seeks to expand knowledge and facts to the general populace and promote peace, not just a group that spends their time trying to kill everyone that thinks that free-will needs to be restricted to develop and be peaceful with one another. This is why I believe that Connor had the right idea with trying to create a more permanent truce with Haytham.

----

In response to why Connor is so ready to kill when he gets older: Connor is actually more blood-thirsty when he's 13/14 and we're playing as him in his village. He wants to fight back against the Colonists (this includes the British forces), he's afraid they're going to take his village's land, they tried to burn down the village once before for Bear's sake! Connor thinks he needs to fight back to protect his people. He goes to meet Achilles, the man that will help him fight to protect his people's lands. But then he learns from Achilles that not all of the colonists are bad, and he is persuaded and convinced that it is the British who want to take away the rights and freedoms of others.

That's the impression the story is supposed to give anyway, it doesn't always succeed. In any case, I don't believe that Connor goes around killing guards for fun like we do in the game, in fact, I would say that he would in reality go out of his way to avoid it. Screw the optional objectives that tell us to get a certain amount of guards killed in a kill streak, Connor probably wouldn't do that due to his character.

Anyway, I hope that this post was a good read. Tongue


I find over the course of our human existence, One thing consists of consistence, And it's that we're all battling fear
- from "Car Radio," by twenty | one | pilots
JoeyFogey's picture
JoeyFogey
Offline
Administrator
male
Indianapolis, IN
Joined: 02/16/2010
Jexx wrote:
In response to why Connor is so ready to kill when he gets older: Connor is actually more blood-thirsty when he's 13/14 and we're playing as him in his village. He wants to fight back against the Colonists (this includes the British forces), he's afraid they're going to take his village's land, they tried to burn down the village once before for Bear's sake! Connor thinks he needs to fight back to protect his people. He goes to meet Achilles, the man that will help him fight to protect his people's lands. But then he learns from Achilles that not all of the colonists are bad, and he is persuaded and convinced that it is the British who want to take away the rights and freedoms of others.

That's the impression the story is supposed to give anyway, it doesn't always succeed. In any case, I don't believe that Connor goes around killing guards for fun like we do in the game, in fact, I would say that he would in reality go out of his way to avoid it. Screw the optional objectives that tell us to get a certain amount of guards killed in a kill streak, Connor probably wouldn't do that due to his character.

You, I like you. I never thought of it that way!

PSN: JoeyFogey

Steam: JoeyFogey

Instagram: thatsketchyhero

Jexx's picture
Jexx
Offline
Citizen
male
Pennsylvania
Joined: 08/27/2013

Connor's my favorite Assassin, so I naturally try to work my way through the horrible story presentation of AC3 to understand it better.

(I also love Boston and New York, so I guess I'm different from most people who seem to like AC2 the most)

As I was skimming through the thread earlier I noticed people thinking that Bowden wrote Brotherhood and Revelations? Bowden doesn't write ANY of the games, he only writes the books.

Assassin's Creed (2007) was written by Corey May with help from Dooma Wendschuh
Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines was written by Darby McDevitt
Assassin's Creed II was written by Corey May with help from Joshua Rubin and Jeffery Yohalem
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood was written by Jeffery Yohalem with help from Corey May
Assassin's Creed: Revelations was written by Darby McDevitt
Assassin's Creed III was written by Corey May with help from Matt Turner
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation was written by Richard Farrese and Jull Murray
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was written by Darby McDevitt

In my opinion, the games story ranking goes like this (I haven't played Bloodlines so I can't say on that):

1. AC3
2. ACR
3. AC1
4. AC3: L
5. AC2
6. ACB

Story Presentation (which is different from the actual story)
1. AC2
2. ACB/ACR
3. AC1
4. AC3: L
5. AC3

So far, I trust Darby in the hands of Black Flag, seeing as I think the game he wrote that I played has the 2nd best story and the 2nd best story presentation in the series.


I find over the course of our human existence, One thing consists of consistence, And it's that we're all battling fear
- from "Car Radio," by twenty | one | pilots