Minor spoilers for some plot developments and character moments in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

Butch:

Dude.  Holy dude, dude.  

Dude. 

Hit the abbey (where I've actually been and had tea! It does, in fact, have Roman ruins outside that they were excavating when I was there, so that was pretty cool, and what they say is the oldest pub in England, but who doesn't say that, that used to be a medieval cock fighting pit, but anyway....) and rescued Fulke and DUDE.  

Stuff.  Happens. 

HAPPENS, dude. 

Then I got a clue and did a dot and now I've found....another animus thingy!

STUFF IS HAPPENING DUDE!

Dude. 

Feminina:

The best teahouses are former Roman cockfighting rings. You can really taste the history in that tea. 

That's right, the history, what, I'm supposed to reference something else from that sentence?

Moving on.

I raided the abbey and rescued Fulke, who's a very interesting character. Learned that she has what I assume are a bunch of Isu artifacts she's collected, one of which Basim and Sigurd think will reveal Sigurd's grand destiny because he's descended from Odin. 

Meanwhile, I suspect that it will instead reveal EIVOR's grand, Odin-descended destiny, but I don't know so no spoilers, because rather than go with Fulke and the gang right then I said "I have to look around and get my bearings, I'll be back," and ran off to Lunden.

As one does.

Poked around Lunden, collected some loot, found the old Assassin's Bureau, got what's-his-name's statue that he wanted for his museum in Ravensthorpe, did some flyting, synched some viewpoints. Good times. 

Butch:

Aaaaaaaaaand it's FRIDAY!

Wait, it's only Thursday. Damn it!

HA!  I got to that point and went dot hunting.  Actually, I went back to St. Albanes for tea and to find an order clue.  I knew it was there, as I meticulously read all the clues when I was killing dudes.  Had to go back because I spent most of that ride with Fulke all "Um...can we just...I meant to...while I was....I wasn't quite done....hey...."  Got the clue.  Yay. 

Did you do this climby bit?  You know how I love the weird bits. 

I, too, expect this will reveal more about Eivor than Sigurd.  How did you play it?  I played it as Eivor the skeptic, all "Are you NUTS? It's a STONE!"  I also punched Sigurd cuz he nuts.  I was not down with breaking that promise.  Not cool, guys.  

Though I'm a tad confused.  Basim seems to be feeding Sigurd all the lines about destiny.  Basim was all "Obey your jarl, Sigurd is your jarl" etc., and yet, last I looked, he gave the awesome blade to Eivor.  What gives?  Who's side is ol' Basim on? 

I thought when Eivor was all "I'd never...betray...your trust" knowing she was, you know, fucking his wife was well delivered. 

This is what AC needed before.  The other games I've played have all been running around doing repetitive shit waiting for the game to drop more insane lore on you.  They didn't have much in the way of story except for waiting for the lore.  They didn't have sibling rivalry and scandalous affairs and any kind of AWWWWW SNAP soap opera fun.   This shit makes the running around in the past waiting for more lore FUN. 

I loved this whole sequence.  Good action, good pacing, good story stuff, just the right amount of weird. 

Oh!  Did you also notice her talking about Jesus?  I was just reading a post from a ways back, a totally random post, in which we were talking about how these games generally don't touch religions like Christianity and Islam, and now BOOM!  Fulke goes there!  What did you make of that? 

FOCUS FEMMY!  There's dots in this shire as well!  

And a wolf to kill in Asgard.   

I forgot about that dude's statue!  Good remembering. 

Feminina:

I had also forgotten about the statue, but there was a quest marker on it: I can't take credit. 

I did like the doubtful  "I would never...betray...your trust" bit. Ha. (Although how does that read if she turned down Randvi's advances? Maybe instead of doubtful, it seems somber and measured, like she's really emphasizing it? 

"I...would NEVER...betray...your trust. In fact, I didn't even sleep with your very cute wife when I totally had the chance!"

We shall never know.

I didn't punch Sigurd. How did you punch Sigurd? I didn't even see an option to punch Sigurd! I just kind of rolled my eyes, like "dude, you're reaching" or something. 

It is indeed an interesting question, why Basim gave me the assassin's blade if he thinks Sigurd is the guy with the destiny. Maybe he feels the assassin's role is to be a bodyguard type for the Man of Destiny, and he's just equipping us properly? Assassins are not really rulers, after all, they work more behind the scenes (as indeed Basim is doing here, trying to push Sigurd towards his destiny or whatever). Maybe he IS more interested in us as a person of real influence, the power behind the throne maybe, but he sees Sigurd as a valuable figurehead and that's why he's giving him these lines.

Oh, and I did indeed wonder about the Self-Conceived One's role in the overall story of Isu/gods/humans, so I am interested to talk to Fulke some more...as soon as I clear up some dots, talk to some people, maybe visit Asgard...it's on my list!

Butch:

I would have given you credit.  

How am I going to get a statue home? My bag already has three hundred pounds of fish in it. 

We shall never.  I'm OK with that.  Story is better this way. 

Punching was after the fight.  Well, the second fight.  Got Fulke out, she was all "Come to my tower, my friend is there," found the friend, big fight...then a chat?  Punched him.  Didn't punch Basim, but I could have.   Did you do that fight?  With the stupid "standard bearers" who I hate? 

I hope they get to the bottom of this.  It was rather jarring to hear "Obey your jarl" or, obey anyone for that matter, from an assassin.  Dude. Creed, remember?  Everything is permitted? 

Dude has to review the texts, there. 

And yeah, that bit of theology needs some attention.  It certainly seemed like that conversation wasn't all that the game was gonna say, more like it was setting up what the game was gonna say.  At least that's how I read it.  It would certainly be something, in a game about gods and raiding monasteries in a series where you killed the Pope if Jesus was just kind of a throwaway horseback conversation. 

Feminina:

Ah...no. I have not been to the tower to meet Fulke's friend. I left her, Sigurd and Basim right by the stables near the abbey and went to Lunden.

Butch:

Oh, you could do that?  Whoops.  Uh...sorry.  Tower.  Fight.  It...awkward. 

Dude, how did you not do that?  They all hopped straight onto horses, the quest was "Follow Fulke," and she was all "Not that way!" when I turned around to get a horse.  Fulke, chill, I was getting on a horse. 

Feminina:

I dunno, man. There was a pause when we got to the stables after I rescued her from the abbey dungeon, we chatted a bit, she said "are you ready to go see my mystical stone?" or something, and Basim and Sigurd were raring to go but I said "not right now, I'll be back," and took off. It was definitely one of those "continue now/later" choices.

But no matter. I'm too busy carrying statues around to worry about the future.

Butch:

Oh.  Sorry.  I forgot you could get off the rollercoaster at that point.  I thought it was all part of the thing. 

Well, anyway, she takes you to a place and things happen that we will talk about.  Later. 

You might want to just do that next time you play when all this is fresh in your mind.  It isn't long, and, after that is one of those "Take some time to do whatever before you meet me here, like chase all those dots and fish and shit" deals that the game does from time to time, so you can go full out magpie. 

Feminina:

I promise nothing, but I'll take it under advisement.

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