Feminina O'Ladybrain posted: " Spoilers for story in Assassin's Creed: Mirage and speculation about the overall AC narrative. Got some in. Met with the last bureau. They are leaning into the whole class thing, aren't they? Was that always a thing? That assassins were poor/" Play First. Talk Later.
Spoilers for story in Assassin's Creed: Mirage and speculation about the overall AC narrative.
Butch:
Got some in. Met with the last bureau. They are leaning into the whole class thing, aren't they? Was that always a thing? That assassins were poor/people on the margins of society? I don't remember Edward being a scrappy waif. Hmm.
Mostly did contracts. Gave a perfume trader a bad day. Found evidence without being seen and then killed him in the soap boiler's district. Was this the "environmental kill" dude you were talking about? Because I didn't get that reward, either. I think it wanted us to lure him out and drop the big thing of rocks on him, but I haven't had any success dropping rocks on anyone, ever, so fuck that noise. I just killed him.
Take that soap boilers!
Except for the one guard I left alive. There was absolute chaos in the soap boiler's district and, at the end, there was one guy, guarding the gate, eyes straight ahead. I almost killed him, but he was so dedicated. He was told to watch the street outside the gate and god damn it he was GOING TO DO THAT. I just thought, "I salute your dedication, Kevin," and let him be.
I think we can all agree that, in these troubled times, being able to stare straight ahead when all sorts of chaos reigns is a skill we all need. You go, Kevin. You go.
Feminina:
Ha! I have done that.
"OK, dude, I respect your dedication to carrying out your task even when your comrades are fighting and dying 10 feet behind you. If you continue to not notice me, I will not kill you."
Yes, the perfume trader is the one I couldn't get an environmental kill on. I initially found him in the soap boilers district, as you did. Then I tried to be clever and explode some jars near him, but it didn't kill him and he ran off instead.
Later, as I said, I tracked him down swimming in a canal for some reason (just hot? saw me escape that way one time and thought it was a good idea?), and tried to ram him with a boat in case that would count as 'environmental', but it turns out you can't really ram people with boats.
Then later still he was just standing in the middle of the street, not near anything that could be dropped or blown up, and after waiting several minutes for him to move I finally just threw a knife at him. You led me a merry chase, good sir, but in the end, my willingness to accept a smaller reward proved to be your undoing.
Butch:
Dude, the very idea to ram someone with a boat should've earned you extra tokens. That is fucking genius. I don't care that it didn't work. It's still genius.
What I should've done was bait him near flamethrower man, then darted flamethrower man. Oh, well. I do love darting flamethrower man.
Though I have made the tactical decision not to use area effect on my darts, as I prefer the "darted Kevin dies when effect of dart wears off" far more. I want to know flamethrower man is going down. Can't have it both ways, sadly.
Feminina:
Also, I finished killing the House of Wisdom guy. That was an interesting set-up. Put on the costume, stroll on in...and then fail to take advantage of being there for his 'test' to try to figure out what was going on.
The wails of the subjects were very interesting, though..."put me back, into that bright shining world" or whatever. Kind of suggests they were experiencing Isu memories, doesn't it? My theory is that this machine Fazil made works like what's-her-name's potions in AC Valhalla, and gives people some vision of that world -- though for them it probably looks less like the setting Eivor expected for Norse gods, and more like they would expect paradise to appear. Basically, this is a primitive Animus, right?
It's not clear whether these people can experience it the same way Eivor did, AS an Isu, since she had Odin's DNA and they presumably are just random people who were promised gold in exchange for participating in a clinical study (been there, random people), but it's plausible that even without an actual Isu soul, they could still have seen something that appeared magical and beautiful to them, and that they wanted to see again.
Obviously for narrative purposes we can't really have Basim getting into the working machine and then having a lengthy vision of himself as Loki wandering around doing quests in paradise like Eivor did as Havi, that would just take more time than it seems like the game is going to last and would also distract him from his planned assassination and make him a prize research subject/prisoner for Fazil, but it seems likely that's what would have happened if he'd gone through with the experiment.
Butch:
Ah, good. You did that.
I was SO MAD that he killed the guy! Basim! DUDE!
Fazil: I shall now explain the bananas!
Game: Hit R1 to assassinate.
Me: No.
Game: I said, Hit R1 to assassinate.
Me: No.
Game: I said-
Me: I KNOW WHAT YOU SAID BUT HE'S GOING TO EXPLAIN-
Game: NO HE WON'T HIT R1!
Me: Fuck you, game.
But it begs the question, as you say, the subjects wanted back in. So, why do they need subjects? If using the thing is fun, why don't they just use the thing? Why was it killing dudes? I was confused. Is the machine fun or not?
I do think it's like Valka's potions, but there was nothing that suggested that Valka's stuff was Isu or even Isu inspired. This thing sure looked Isu, didn't it? Or something built from Isu blueprints or something. It certainly looked like something that would be beyond 890 AD technology.
If that's the case, if this is a primitive Animus (which it sure looks like), and it's made from Isu stuff/plans, that means the Isu either left behind Animuses (Animi?) or left plans for those who would come after (that is, humans) to find/build. The Isu WANT us to do this. Right?
But WHY????
Also, what did you make of Basim's very stern "JUSTICE" after he killed the guy? We've talked much on Basim's motivations and how he seems mostly motivated by family. We've talked to other Assassins who were either abandoned by their family or left their family for this different, presumably better one. What we don't see much from anyone is this "JUSTICE!" stuff. Sure, they know the Order is bad and evil, but I thought that "I am motivated by the flaming sword of JUSTICE" came a bit out of left field from Basim. Thoughts?
Feminina:
Agreed -- I wasn't sure where Basim was really coming from with that JUSTICE!
It seemed like it was meant to be a direct counterpoint to Fazil's comment about how the most important thing in the world is science and knowledge: then he says 'no,' and (eventually, after we give up on making the game let us do anything else) kills the guy, and then "JUSTICE," so it seems like he's saying "this is the REAL most-important-thing!"
But, as you say, why justice? Why not family, or loyalty? Even freedom? He's talked about those, where he's never expressed much interest in justice as a concept, other than to remark that what happened to his father was unfair.
My thought...maybe this is a sign that he's drawing closer to Loki? Because we have reason to believe Loki is extremely interested in revenge, which can easily look like justice when you're seeking it. Maybe there's a bit of Loki there recognizing that this guy is getting closer to...something something about the people who did him wrong...and that makes him come out with JUSTICE at that point?
Because it does seem like things are kind of coming to a head here with Basim and Loki. (Even without metagaming based on our suspicion that we're near the end!) As Basim tells Nehal later, the jinni used to only be a nightmare, but it follows him even in the daytime now. If we accept that the jinni is related to his connection with Loki (whether or not it actually is Loki), maybe this means the barrier between the two of them is wearing down. Maybe suddenly thinking justice is the most important thing in the world is another sign of that.
Or maybe we're meant to assume he always cared very deeply about justice and they just didn't flesh it out very well in his character development. It's hard to say sometimes. Because Basim is not the most thoroughly developed character we've ever played. He's not badly done, he just seems to keep things to himself.
As for whether Fazil's machine is fun or not, whether it kills people or not...I don't see a contradiction here. Plenty of fun things kill people and/or drive them mad. It seems totally plausible to me that the subjects might enjoy and want to return to the visions, even while the experience is destroying their brains. Kind of like a drug addiction, or, if we think Ubisoft is being a bit cheeky, like the way television, video games, smartphones, etc. are sometimes described as addictive and destructive forces that people can't look away from but which are super bad for them. Fazil knows better than to risk his own brain on it, but doesn't have a problem sending others in.
And why the Isu want us to build the Animus...maybe it's meant to be a way to help them reawaken in new bodies? Maybe if a potentially-reborn Isu/human gets into the machine, they can remember their Isu life and that allows them to more easily merge into one?
Butch:
Right! Family, Loyalty, Freedom, those I could've seen. So, you think this is Loki coming through? I can see that. Though, again, he doesn't seem to be so crazy-eyed revenge seeking even in ACV when he was, indeed, Loki. We never saw that towards Eivor/Odin, even when Eivor was dead. Why'd he get all up on this particular guy?
Very true that Basim isn't all that well developed, but I think that may well be intentional, for now. I think Basim is going to be a major character going forward in the series, so why explain all the bananas now?
Feminina:
It is true, we haven't seen Basim/Loki express a lot of fury. There was definite emotion when he told Eivor about his son, and I think that's the most we ever saw him really expressing feelings in that game (where we now know he was Loki all along). But that emotion wasn't fury, it was calmer...maybe what we had with the JUSTICE comment was a combination of Loki's determination (to do...whatever he has planned) and Basim's emotion? Because Basim is not wildly passionate, but he is a bit more expressive -- he gets impatient, shows concern, etc.
That may be giving the scene more credit for complex backstory than it really deserves.
And yes, no need to lay out all the details of Basim's life now -- we have so many more games to do that!
Butch:
Yeah, now that you mention it, Basim (plain Basim) seems much more emotional than Loki/Basim, whose most emotional moment, really, was bristling when Miles implied he betrayed the Creed. You'd think it would be other way around, given Loki had, shall we say, more shit going on.
Feminina:
Indeed. I suppose Loki's had a lot of time to gain control over himself and practice not giving anything away.
Whereas Basim is pretty young, and has a definite hotheaded youth thing going on -- especially with his whole scheme at the beginning to impress the Hidden Ones. He seems to have chilled out a lot during his training, but you get the sense that he's still a little bit brash.
Possibly related -- he's kind of noisy, you know? Huffs and puffs a bit while climbing and jumping, grunts with a little more effort than I seem to recall from recent protagonists. And maybe this is just the voice actor, since every character has a different repertoire of action sounds (and also it's possible they intentionally used less huffing and grunting for the female characters we played last because such noises are unfeminine, unrealistic as that would be), but I've been wondering if maybe it's also subtly emphasizing the fact that right now he's still very human.
Not exactly "an ordinary person," what with the eagle vision and the superhuman climbing skills, but still a person, chugging along in a human life. I will be very curious to see, if we end up playing him once he's Loki, whether this changes.
Butch:
I did notice that! He's loud.
Though wasn't Eivor at times? She huffed and puffed. Cassandra didn't.
Feminina:
She may have been...I don't remember noticing Eivor's noise the way I have repeatedly noticed Basim's, but that might be a random me-thing. We'd have to go back and run around for a while, and I love Eivor but I'm not going to get around to doing that.
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