10 Times Assassin’s Creed Contradicted Its Own Lore
Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at times “Assassin’s Creed” games went against their established lore.
The Isu Vaults
The Templars and the Assassins spend their time fighting over various Isu artifacts, and sometimes, trying to find the locations of Isu buildings; accessing the Grand Temple is the main plot thread of “Assassin’s Creed III”, after all. But, particularly in the Mythology Trilogy, we see vast Isu ruins just out in the open – especially the complex Medusa lives in on Lesbos. This begs the question: how the hell did both factions lose the locations of these places? Bayek and Aya created the Brotherhood, but did they not leave a record anywhere of the enormous Isu ruin in the middle of the desert, for instance? Ezio, too, apparently wrote nothing down, because they needed to use the Animus to find the Vault underneath the Roman Colosseum that he’d already visited. It’s just confusing when you think about it.
The Cult of Kosmos
The story behind Kosmos is all over the place. First, we have no idea who Kosmos is at all, whether this is just a name pulled out of thin air or whether it correlates to an Isu. It descended from the Cult of Hermes, who WAS an Isu, but they got tired of him and went their own way. It’s also completely distinct from the Order of the Ancients, though both groups, inexplicably, really wanted Xerxes to take control of Greece. As well as that, it’s never explained why the Cult is so intent on keeping the war going or what its overall aim is. Aspasia says that it wants to control the war to one day unify Greece, encouraging democracy, but the cult has lost its way so thoroughly that Aspasia manipulates Kassandra into killing all of its members.
Eve
We really thought the Adam and Eve storyline would be much more important after seeing that video at the end of “Assassin’s Creed II”, but that wasn’t the case. She didn’t really reappear as a figure until “Liberation”, when Aveline used the Disks she’d been collecting to see glimpses of Eve’s time leading the human rebellion that overthrew Isu rule. Many think that Ubisoft keeps hinting that Adam and Eve will become important again, with some even thinking that Evie Frye was somehow related to her, but it just hasn’t come up. It’s a shame, because who wouldn’t want a game tying up those loose ends?
Connor & The Colonies
This one is a huge mess, a consequence of Ubisoft going back to add the story of “Rogue” as a prequel to “Assassin’s Creed III”. Firstly, it’s unusual that Connor never mentions Shay at all, nor does Shay come back when Connor starts systematically murdering every single Templar - again, this is forgivable, since “Rogue” was written later. But Connor is also mentioned in “Rogue” itself, with Charles Dorian gloating to Shay as he dies that Connor has already taken the Americas back for the Brotherhood. Except, Shay assassinates Charles in 1776. Connor was active at this time, but he hadn’t finished the Templars off; Haytham didn’t die until 1781, and Charles Lee not until 1782, years after this happens. Charles really has nothing to brag about.
The Father of Understanding
This mysterious figure was regularly invoked by the Templars as part of their mantra, but just who is he? From what we know, the title came from the Isu, and was at one point held by Jupiter, though we don’t know the requirements needed for someone to be granted it. It later attained god-like reverence, with the Templars practically worshipping the Father of Understanding. And THEN they went and revealed that Julius Caesar was the Father of Understanding, though it’s still not clear whether the later Templars knew that Caesar had claimed the title, and whether they ended up worshipping his memory centuries later, or if it’s still all about the title itself.
Unity’s British Accents
There was some controversy over Altaïr’s American accent during the first game, which was quickly by the time he turned up in “Revelations”. Since then, “AC” protagonists have had the accents of the place they’re from – with the exception of “Unity”, in which the French characters all have British accents. This was despite the cast themselves not being British and mainly being French Canadian. The explanation for this is that the Animus was translating everything, but this is the only game in the franchise where the characters have the wrong accent. So, did “Unity” use a completely different type of Animus to the other games? The real-world explanation for this was that Ubisoft claimed people are used to hearing British accents in period pieces, which is, again, bizarre, since all the games are period pieces.
The Grey
We thought we understood the Grey when its concept was developed in “Black Flag”; it’s a digital realm where Juno’s consciousness, at least, has been living for. It seems like a pretty difficult process for an Isu to put their consciousness in there, since for a while, Juno was the only one who’d managed it. We later found out that the Aesir had a supercomputer designed to keep them in a virtual afterlife, but that Basim, AKA Loki, has been trapped in the Grey. What does this mean for the Reader, though? The Reader is what remains of Desmond Miles after his death in “AC III”, but it’s not clear how his sacrifice actually landed him here. Is it hard to get into the Grey, or can it happen by accident?
Eagle Vision
We know that eagle vision changes because game design trends change, but lore-wise, this only generates inconsistences. Eagle vision is intended to represent the supernatural, sixth sense that many Assassins have, a consequence of their higher proportion of Isu DNA. Technically, the sense is “knowledge”, which is why it gives you additional information. But in “Origins”, eagle vision was ditched in favour of an actual eagle flying around, and by the time of “Valhalla”, it wasn’t an eagle at all, it was a raven – while Eivor did still have the “Odin’s Sight” ability as well. In “Shadows”, it’s looking like the bird mechanic is gone completely, replaced with another iteration of detective mode.
The Apple on the Moon
Before the Great Catastrophe, one of the main, Isu plans to avert it and save themselves was to put a dozen Apples of Eden into the sky to control humanity, making them “imagine” the threat of the solar flare away and defend the Earth. This alone makes almost no sense, but one of those Apples ends up on the Moon. The Templars later manipulate JFK into launching the Apollo program, which is all so that they can go to the Moon and get this Apple. But if you know anything about outer space, you know that the Moon is VERY far away. In fact, when the Moon is at its furthest from Earth, all the other planets could fit in a line in the space between. Putting something on the Moon on purpose is hard enough, even for the Isu, but apparently, putting something there by mistake is easy.
Lucy’s Betrayal
This plot point is just one contradiction after another. Though it was eventually explained in a DLC for “Revelations” that Lucy Stillman HAD become disillusioned with the Assassins and was working with the Templars, it’s still hard to believe. She’d already infiltrated Abstergo as a double-agent and then killed no small number of them while busting Desmond out, so for her to have switch allegiances for good? Fans just didn’t want to believe it. But if the rumors are true, all of this came out of a behind-the-scenes dispute with Kristen Bell, who played Lucy, and they resolved it by killing her off - though there’s no real evidence for that. If it ISN’T true, and somebody at Ubisoft decided that killing Lucy was the best thing for the plot, they made a very bad call.
Let us know in the comments any plot inconsistencies YOU noticed!
