#but yeah full on look of disappointment for haytham

[teecupangel]

OG anon of the Reborned Desmond in Unity. I'm mighty proud that my ideas spur you fun writing. I'll confess you a secret, I'm also og anons of the ideas I've sent you prior but I don't wanna have you see me aggressive or pushy because I enjoy your content immensely (I had bad experiences of people's harsh words in irl and online on my personality). Anyway, it's similar in Unity idea. What if Desmond is reborned in AC Rogue, like became Shay's childhood friend or Liam's older or younger brother. Or possibly in a time earlier so can Desmond be established in Brotherhood maybe master assassin for Connor's happiness. Haytham's confusion and frustration in some point in the plot that Desmond won't kill him but has a look of a disappointed or pained look of a family member and Lisbon is saved. Desmond and Shay could become platonic soulmates or slow burn childhood friends to lovers (up to you) or better yet Desmond unintentionally became mentor (he was supposed just be an assassin in the background damn it lmao) and Shay is like a bodyguard or right hand which had these intense sexual tension between the two. Sorry for messy and long ask

Ah, well, I don’t see a problem with your personality and I like the ideas you throw at me. To be fair, I do try to limit my time with everyone’s asks to a certain time so I can still write. So if you don’t see an answer, that only means it’s been pushed to next day or something.

Alright, let’s think about how to make this work.

As usual, we’ll keep the same limitation as the Unity AU one

Desmond remembers his life as Desmond Miles

Desmond will have his ancestors’ memories and skills but those memories will be vague

So he either gets reborn as Shay’s childhood friend or Liam’s older/younger brother. Since Liam is Shay’s childhood friend, we can combine the two and make Desmond’s Shay’s childhood friend who is also Liam’s sibling.

Now, according to AC wiki, Liam was Achilles’ first acolyte and it was Liam who also recruited the rest of the Colonial Assassins. He’s pretty much Achilles’ second in command and maybe even being groomed as the next mentor.

In this scenario, Desmond and Liam would both be inducted into the Brotherhood together (whether we keep the whole “Liam’s father got executed to save his son” part of his backstory is up to you, nonny) with Desmond being more of Liam’s shadow. Many will see him as the little bird who whispers in Liam’s ear. Everyone in the Brotherhood knows that if you want Liam on your side, you get Desmond on your side.

We’ll get to Shay later as we need to talk about how Desmond’s inclusion would affect the Colonial Brotherhood as a whole.

Achilles Davenport

Desmond would still remember how Ratonhnhaké:ton thought of him as a father-figure. He also remembers how Achilles sometimes treated Ratonhnhaké:ton like a stubborn child so he has mixed feelings for Achilles. What he does remember is that Achilles’ family would die. Here’s where we get a bit creative with this. Desmond doesn’t have actual medical know-how. What he did had was a Shaun who was more than happy to explain what killed Achilles’ family and how that could have been prevented, which literally boils down to “cleanliness”.

So, in this scenario, Desmond is kind of a clean freak. People assume it’s because he used to live in a dirty place and Liam never tried to correct them that Desmond had always been a clean freak since they were children. The homestead is always clean, especially the kitchen. Achilles learned to live with it because his son loves the ‘wash your hands’ song that Desmond taught him. In this case, Abigail and Connor live and that means that Achilles would be ‘milder’ than his canon characterization. (Maybe Abigail even treats all of Achilles' students like her children as well?)

Hope Jensen

The main difference for Hope in this scenario is how she controls her gangs. Desmond knows it would be impossible to stop crimes from happening but his words and his adherence to the Creed would resonate with Hope. Instead of having something akin to a Proto-Rooks, Hope would be in charge of something similar to how the media portrayed the golden age of the mafia. They’re criminals, yes, and they sell illegal shit but they’re organized and they have a code. They protect the people in their district and take care of crimes not their own. In exchange, the people (and maybe even the police) look the other way when they do illegal stuff. (Hope becomes a mix of Vito Corleone and Red Hood in this scenario… does this mean Desmond accidentally created the mafia in New York during the 18th century?)

Kesegowaase

Not much would change for Kesegowaase although he would consider Desmond as a close friend. They’re also hunting buddies and Kesegowaase would notice how many of Desmond’s movements are very similar to him or to other tribes that he knows of. Desmond would just wave it off as a coincidence or maybe even say “I had a great teacher”. Kesegowaase would seesaw between thinking Desmond had been trained by one of his people (or one of the other tribes) and thinking Desmond may have been blessed by one of their spirits.

Louis-Joseph Gaultier

Oooohhhh bbooyy. This one… okay. So… Gaultier will be the one that keeps butting heads with Desmond. A lot. Desmond would even argue against his inclusion as he sees Gaultier as violent and arrogant but Achilles will argue that his connection with the French army made him invaluable. Even his suggestion of just keeping Gaultier as an ‘ally’ would be denied because Achilles sees how loyal he is. “He is loyal to a master, not to the Creed!” will be Desmond’s main argument. So there are a lot of times that he and Gaultier would argue on what it means to be an Assassin and what the Creed means. Gaultier would emphasize on Desmond’s Irish immigrant heritage to belittle his knowledge about the Creed and Desmond will argue that blood doesn’t matter. On the flip side, Desmond’s constant arguments with Gaultier and critiquing of Gaultier’s actions make all the other Assassins have a better understanding of the Creed and what it means to be an Assassin.

Liam O'Brien

Honestly, I think Desmond should be his younger brother, mainly because that would make Desmond be of a similar age as Shay and because Liam just has big bro-vibes. Just imagine him being a protective older brother who likes to tease Desmond. In this scenario, Liam would feel responsible for Desmond’s safety (especially if we do decide that their father still dies for Liam’s mistakes) and he’s a bit overprotective at times which Desmond finds both tiring and also makes him feel warm inside. Liam would also be torn whenever Desmond and Achilles would butt heads. On one hand, Achilles is like a father to him, on the other hand, Liam also knows his brother long enough to understand that everything Desmond does is for what he believed is right. Achilles may have been the one to choose Liam to be an Assassin but Liam knows that it’s Desmond who embodies what being an Assassin is supposed to be.

And now, we get to Shay Cormac.

Shay met Liam first and Liam was the one to introduce Desmond to him. Desmond has no memories of Shay at all since, even before the memories of his Bleed took a hit, his memories of Haytham stopped before Haytham met Shay. Not only that but Achilles never told Ratonhnhaké:ton anything. All Desmond knew is that the Colonial Brotherhood will be destroyed by the Templars while Ratonhnhaké:ton was young. So he grew up treating Shay as a friend. They separated due to their family situations but Liam later reunites with Shay and invites him to the Brotherhood.

And this is where Shay gets hit.

Growing up, he saw Desmond more as Liam’s little brother. A small kid that Shay needs to keep an eye on because he can be a little strange and has a mischievous streak that no one would believe. Shay has lost count of how many times Desmond had made some asshole’s life hell without anyone realizing it was him.

So when he heard Desmond was one of the high-ranking members of the Brotherhood, he wasn’t surprised. Desmond had always been a sneaky little shit.

Then…

He saw Desmond as a young adult for the first time, maybe while he’s looking over reports Hope was showing him concerning the current situation in New York, and Shay just…

Stared.

Desmond as a child was cute. Maybe a little too thin but that was unfortunately normal for them. He always wore Liam’s old clothes which were too big for him.

But Desmond in his Assassin robes? Wearing clothes that actually fit him? Having grown up into a fit young man?

Shay gets hit hard. And Desmond is simply too happy to see him again to see it.

But Hope notices it.

And Liam freaking notices it too.

And now Shay doesn’t have to just deal with his growing affection for an oblivious Desmond. He has to deal with Hope’s teasing and Liam’s seesawing erratically between teasing him and threatening to eviscerate him. Shay’s crush is going to be the worst kept secret in the homestead that even little Connor Davenport knows about it.

But Desmond doesn’t.

Why?

Because Desmond is too focused dealing with the whole Kenway drama at the moment.

Because no matter who Desmond gets reborn to… He will always prioritize the three men he cared for the most.

And, at this point, Haytham Kenway was already in America (but Desmond has no idea where) and there were even slow ongoing talks of an alliance with Ratonhnhaké:ton’s tribe that Desmond has taken charge of.

And this is where I go back to my try-and-tested idea of Desmond spending lots of time with baby!Ratonhnhaké:ton and being bff with Kaniehtí:io. (*whispers*Ratonhnhaké:ton and Connor Davenport being brothers *whispers*)

But let’s focus on the first part of Rogue for this one.

One way for Desmond to learn that Achilles is messing with Isu bs is thanks to Hope. Hope and Shay were the ones to be ordered to find and analyze the precursor box and either of them could tell Desmond about it but, at this point, Shay is still ‘new’ and may be trying to get some brownie points from Achilles. On the other hand, Hope has long been converted to Desmond’s side and would definitely tell Desmond about all of these because she’s heard of how dangerous these items are from Desmond himself.

Desmond would strongarm his way to being part of the mission and might even sneak into Morrigan as a stowaway and only show himself when they were nearing Lisbon. Thanks to Desmond’s ‘affinity’ with POEs, Lisbon will definitely not happen (hell, we can even use some of the plot points from A Pirate's Son for this part XD) and the second part of Rogue would be changed to Desmond and Shay trying to secure all the other POEs in the manuscript they have.

And… maybe they start getting close during their travels and something develops between them during that time… (nudgenudgenudge)

Sidenote: This is also a bit similar to the idea I was thinking of based on @twitcherpated’s suggestion in AO3 of Desmond being reborn as the actual Connor Davenport. The only difference is that Desmond would be a bit young in that one and won’t be able to stop Lisbon but, even if he’s young, he can still comfort Shay and stop him from doing anything drastic while still in shock.

[such-heroic-nonsense]

Assassin's Creed III Reactions, Reflections, and Analysis

Finally finished this, 4? 5? Year old game so I’m gonna ramble a bit.

Ok so I live nearish Boston and go there a lot so it was actually really exciting for me (part time history nerd) to see it back in the 1700s and walk around and stuff so yeah.

Boston isn’t good for parkour though so I found myself missing Rome and Florence and Venice. And the children were so very annoying…

I hate everything about New York, except for the mildly better parkour.

Climbing trees is fun, even though I'm very bad at it.

Gameplay, no issues. I'm no expert on gameplay keep in mind. I'm just a filthy casual over here. Graphics were ok, controls a bit wonky, and I can only have 8 arrows???? Whhhyyyy????

Hunting was fun. Except when I accidentally assassinated the wrong deer and ended up flying 100 feet in the opposite direction of the deer I was targeting. Glitch???

Ships. And boats. God do I hate them… If there was something to crash into, I crashed into it. This includes rocks, more rocks, enemy boats, ally boats, and that poor fisherman. It was fun though. When people weren’t yelling at me for crashing into stuff.

Campaign, overall, very long. And not just because I took like 5+ tries to do anything but it was one of the longest main quests I’ve played. Which I enjoyed because I quickly get bored with a game after I complete the main quest.

Having said that, I will be commenting on the main quest, no side missions, no DLC. Sorry.

Playing as Haytham was interesting to say the least. I liked having a full setup for Connor, instead of a few vague hints as it was with Ezio’s origin. This also made me a bit more sympathetic towards the Templars and Haytham. So, not a complete waste of time, as I thought it would be.

I also got mauled by wolves but moving on…

Seeing Connor as a little kid and seeing just how much pain he was in after Lee burned his village and people was really powerful. We saw Ezio lose his family, but at that point he was already an adult, and he had other family (Uncle Mario, Claudia, Mom). So Connor, losing his only family and everyone he ever knew, at such a young age, struck me as more of a tragedy.

Fast forward to Achilles. Man I really found him annoying at first, but that changes, bear with me. I was also very annoyed by Connor. He didn’t seem to care about anything, and if you watch his body language while talking with the revolutionaries you can tell he doesn’t want to be there and doesn’t particularly care about the revolution. He just wants to protect his village.

And throughout the game, that’s ALL he wants. He doesn’t give a damn about Britain or the Colonies, he just does what he thinks he needs to do to protect his village.

And I don’t have a problem with that. That’s perfectly fine, considering that the colonists never did anything for him. He owes them nothing, he just thinks they’ll be better than the British, and he likes the idea of freedom, which is what the colonists are (theoretically) fighting for. And let’s not forget Lee.

I have no outline for this so I’m going to jump around A LOT.

Lee was…not a good villain in my opinion. I kept getting the impression that he was a stand-in for a bigger bad guy but, he wasn’t. He was just…there.

Overanalysis time!!!!

Perhaps Lee WAS a stand-in for something bigger. Yes, he was a Templar. But Connor doesn’t seem overly concerned with the Assassin cause either. He’s after Lee because Lee killed his family and burned his village. So, vengeance. I feel like demoting Connor’s cause to revenge is insulting him. What is he REALLY after?

I think he’s after freedom. No, not the cliche freedom from the British that the colonists are after. He wants freedom from both colonists and British, and freedom from DANGER. And Lee represents the danger to him, his people, and all the indigenous peoples. Lee burned Connor’s village and murdered his people, and also plotted to burn the next one. Why?

Because it suited him.

I never could figure out Lee’s motives. That’s why he wasn’t a good villain. The only reason I view him as the main villain is because he’s the “start-end” villain. Like Chezzere, but not. Campaign starts with Lee, campaign ends with Lee. He is the ultimate hit, or so we are led to believe.

I managed to avoid spoilers for this game for 4-5 years (somehow) so I had no idea what was going to happen. Weird, right? Not knowing where a game is going.

I thought it was going to be Haytham as the big villain, because of the fact that he is A) Connor’s father and B) the leader of the Templars. Instead we have Haytham’s death before Lee’s, and even a little team-up between Haytham and Connor. Weird. Furthering the idea that Connor isn’t really fighting the British (since Lee’s with the colonists) or the Templars (since Lee isn’t the Templar head honcho either).

Connor also didn’t hesitate one second when it came to leaving the colonial cause when he found out Washington was going to attack the village. So he really didn’t care for their fight, especially if it was going to put his people at risk.

Patricide. I gotta say, I loved that scene. The fight was blatantly disappointing but the cutscene…. “don’t expect me to caress your cheek and weep over what might have been” LOVED IT. Haytham was as equally dedicated to his cause as Connor was to his, and he was willing to throw away what might have been his chance to leave his son with some positive thoughts or something. I gotta admire both of them for their raw dedication. Haytham was willing to abandon his son at every available opportunity, and Connor was willing to kill his father BECAUSE HE BELIEVED IN WHAT HE WAS FIGHTING FOR.

And here’s what I’ve got on the end.

It didn’t hit me until the epilogue, when I was running around looking at how much the world sucked and had a lot of time to think because I was floundering around in the frontier (beautiful scenery by the way).

Connor LOST.

He killed Lee, he killed Haytham, he won the war, but he LOST. His people had to flee West, and we all know that Connor’s actions did next to nothing to help them in the long run.

There is still injustice and slavery in the colonies because the colonists weren’t the means to an end that Connor thought they would be. He thought they would bring freedom, but they only brought slavery and death.

And Achilles, he TRIED TO TELL CONNOR. He told him time and time again not to do it, that his quest was futile. And Connor believed in his cause so much that he pushed Achilles away.

I used to think Connor was really annoying. I didn't like the way he didn't seem to care about the revolution, and how he constantly ignored Achilles. But honestly, walking around that forest for a solid two hours burned all of that. Sure, Connor doesn't care about the revolution because it's not his end goal. For him, it's a means to an end, and it was something he put faith in, but it didn't make a difference. He almost died for Washington, and was repaid with betrayal. The more I think about Connor the more I realize his story is a tragedy. To me, there is nothing more tragic than learning everything you've done, everything you've worked for, is meaningless. And Connor didn't change anything. He didn't save his people. He didn't give freedom to those who needed it. He helped the colonists win the war, risked his life countless times, killed his father, and for what?

Nothing.

I'd rather not talk about Desmond because frankly I never paid much attention to him but I feel like, since he died, I should probably address him.

And I'd like to point out some of the parallels between Desmond and Connor. See, Desmond died in hopes that Juno could save the world. Like Connor, he sacrificed himself for a cause he believed was greater than himself.

Now I haven't played Black Flag, Unity, or Syndicate, and I only just started Rogue. So I don't know if Desmond's sacrifice was in vain. I don't know if Juno's plan for the work will be better than Minerva's. But if I had to guess, I would guess Desmond died in vain as well.

And ya know, it's sad. It's just plain sad, to believe in something and then have it turn out to be meaningless. Connor isn't a bad person. He did everything RIGHT. He found something he believed in and he fought for it as hard as he could, in the best way he could, for longer than anyone could have asked. And what did he get from it? As far as I can tell, nothing but heartache and a stab wound.

I'll end with this.

I started out hating this game. I only played it so I could play Black Flag and Rogue without skipping another a game. But I'm honestly very glad I took the time to play through the campaign, and have a few existential crises in the frontier, get mauled by wolves, crash my boat into things I didn't even think I could crash into, and write this behemoth of a post. I don't even know if I'm interpreting this correctly, but that's what I got.

Connor lost, despite everything.