You're Completely Free to Do Whatever We Want

Feminina O'Ladybrain

Nov 27

Spoilers for some of the overall narrative of Assassin's Creed: Mirage

Butch:

I got nothing. Well, I got something. Was really tired last night catching up with Thanksgiving, so didn't play, and now I'm sick. Not COVID.

Did we really get colds this often back in ye olde days? Ye olde days were overrated.

You play?

Feminina:

I have also been sick. Not COVID -- and not that bad, just an annoying lingering cough and runny nose. I think we did used to just be sick all the time. I don't know why we stood for it.

I did not play, due to Thanksgiving whatever, so I pretty much also have nothing.

Um...OK, I thought it was interesting that Nehal was able to track Basim down at the Assassin's Bureau, and mentioned that she just "followed the trail of blood."

That's not literal, so it's a bit of a jab about all the murders he's done, right? She doesn't seem especially morally opposed to his assassinating, so the jab is more that it's...over the top, maybe? Because Nehal is obviously plenty sneaky and good at following people and stealing things and murdering a Caliph who happens to become a problem, so she could totally have become a Hidden One like Basim -- but she appears to have zero interest in them. She's always been skeptical about how useful they can be, from way back at the beginning when she didn't want him to waste his time trying to impress them.

She's committed to Basim ("wherever you go, I'll be behind you to look out for you," she said before the Symposium), but she's not remotely committed to the family/cause he's chosen, and he accepts this completely enough that he never mentions it. You'd think it would be a logical option: "hey, Nehal, you're also pretty good at sneaky stuff, maybe you could join and we could work together."

It's not as if the Hidden Ones are a terrible career choice for someone who apparently is otherwise just getting by with petty thievery. They seem to feed and clothe their members, they have houses of relative comfort, and there are ample opportunities to collect loot on the side that without ever apparently having to report it or turn it over to the group.

Why is she so opposed to them? Is it just that she prefers to work alone? She didn't seem to be too enthusiastic about Dervis either -- thought he sent them on the toughest jobs and didn't pay enough. Maybe she just doesn't like having to deal with other people, and Basim is the only one she tolerates.

Or maybe she really doesn't like all the murdering, and that IS kind of a key job requirement. Which, again, she doesn't get all outraged about it, there's no kind of accusation that Basim is a bad person for all that killing, or even a "I'm not sure it's healthy to be so casual about human life," but maybe she just doesn't want to argue about it.

It's a bit dangerous to discuss Nehal given I saw a huge spoiler about her, but these are questions I had before, and as best I can manage, are not relevant to that.

Butch:

That's the cold I have. That's the one. It seems to have taken up residence in my ears. I hate that.

Very true about Nehal. I don't think she likes the murder. Yes, she killed the Caliph, but that was in the moment as an act of defense. She didn't case the place all "Here's how I'll kill him and him and him." I don't know if you've started the last bureau, but there's a line in which Basim brazenly declares "Don't worry. I'll kill them all." Not really Nehal's vibe. I don't think she'd approve of that.

I think she's also a counterpoint to Basim's need for family. Basim was pretty much abandoned, as was Nehal (we think). He reacted by wanting something bigger, a huge family, a cause. She reacted by not trusting anyone, needing to be alone. I think the absolute last thing she wants is a big group. She'll think she'll get betrayed.

Or, she just doesn't want to be bossed around. Dervis, as you say, sent people on jobs. The Brotherhood, for a place that believes in free thought and stuff, tells you you have to cut off a damn finger to join. They can be pretty bossy, free thought creed aside. Nehal strikes me as someone who chafes at any kind of orders (like, commands, not, Orders).

I also think Basim isn't too keen on talking her into it because he cares about her and doesn't want to lose her. The assassins don't seem to like people to have ties within the brotherhood to their past lives. People seem to leave everything behind to join the assassins, seemingly willingly. We even found that note from Roshad to her parents saying "this is my name now, not the name you gave me, stop contacting me." It doesn't seem to be a place where you say "Hey, I got this friend from my pre-assassin life, and she'd really dig this."

Feminina:

Very true. And then there's the other woman, the weaponsmith, whose codex entry says she was going to be married off, but ran away, abandoning a wealthy family, to join the Hidden Ones instead.

Although we do have the three identical brothers who presumably all joined together, and membership, or at least awareness of the group, apparently becomes more of a family thing at some point since we have three generations of Kenways (though this is sketchy since Edward was not really a member, he just adopted some of the skills, and Haytham was actually in the Order rather than the Assassins). In the modern day, the Miles family seems to have been involved for generations as well.

But here in Baghdad it's early days for the Hidden Ones, and they really do seem to stress "abandon everything else and join us" more than "hey, this is a great way to bring up children!" And yeah, it's a very good point that the Hidden Ones do pretty much tell you what to do, and while she seems to have reluctantly gone along with directions when taking Derwis' jobs, Nehal really does seem like the type who doesn't like to follow orders.

Ezio's family also had a long-time connection to the Assassins.

However, again, this was much later.

Butch:

Oh, you didn't talk to Rebekah? Or the bald guy? They'll talk your ear off. Yeah, they both left things behind.

But hey, yeah, there is the family thing, isn't there? And Eivor certainly didn't leave all of her friends and family behind (I technically didn't leave him behind, Dag, I just took my time). Hell, Eivor wound up screwing, I mean, romantically involved with someone from her pre assassin life.

Hmm.

However, can we say that Eivor really did join the assassins? Sure, she killed Order dudes and did leaps of faith and all that, but she didn't seem as all in as Basim or Ezio or even Cassandra. She certainly didn't go off into the mountains for a very long time and cut off her finger in a big ceremony. Right? Or am I just forgetting?

Feminina:

I feel like nobody cuts their finger off after a certain point in the series. Maybe this point, in fact...Hytham established the Assassins in England, and maybe he didn't make them cut off a finger so it never caught on in Europe.

They explained it to Eivor as allowing them to use the hidden blade (I guess it slides through the space where the finger was?), and she said "ha, look, I can use it anyway, I'll keep my fingers thanks" and strapped the blade to the outside of her wrist or something instead, and maybe Hytham decided that was fine for all his later students.

Ezio had all his fingers, and he assassinated up a storm.

Although as you say, Kassandra didn't cut off any fingers either, and she predates Basim (while also being a contemporary since she lingered), so maybe it wasn't even about a particular time period, it was just a local custom that developed after her?

I bet one guy in the desert happened to have lost that finger anyway, and developed this hidden blade technique that everyone thought was so cool they had to do exactly the same thing, and then it turned into this ritual sacrifice/rite of passage thing.

I don't remember if it was a thing in AC1 -- I don't recall Al-Tair having a missing finger, but they might just not have made a big deal about it.

Butch:

Oh that's right! Eivor all "Hey, dumbass, it works better this way" and 1000 years of assassins all "Oh...heh....you're right...our bad."

I kind of loved the note from the people in Constantinople all "I think we have figured out how to put blades on both arms..."

Assassins aren't great at engineering.

Feminina:

Assassins have a lot on their minds, all right? A lot of people need to be murdered. It's hard enough to keep track of them all, without also questioning important traditions like cutting off our fingers. I did like that letter...they're trying!

Also, it's a good point that Eivor didn't really join them. She helped out (honestly, she was probably mostly in it for the murder and the loot -- been there, Eivor), and she was moderately sympathetic to their efforts to keep the Order from controlling England, but she wasn't really interested in signing up for their whole deal.

As we talked about earlier, her main priority was the Raven Clan (I HELP THE CLAN BY LOOKING AROUND BRITAIN, DAG), and I think she would not have allowed any loyalty to come before that -- and the Creed kind of wants you to consider it the most important thing in your life.

Butch:

The Creed does want that...and yet Basim trained Eivor.

Almost like he had some ulterior motive.

A motive that isn't revenge. If you want to take revenge on someone, why train them to be able to do all the crazy stuff you can do?

Feminina:

Indeed... Almost as if you had something else in mind...

I mean, the simplest explanation is probably that Loki recognized Odin and Tyr in Eivor and Sigurd, saw that they cared about each other, and figured that with some encouragement, Eivor would poke all over the entirety of England and far beyond to try to find answers/help Sigurd.

Recall that Basim was there when Fulke (troll woman!) demanded Sigurd in the first place. I remember being kind of annoyed with him for not doing anything about it, but it seems likely it was actually part of his plan that she would get Sigurd so she could experiment on him, cut off his arm, and force Tyr to the surface or whatever, knowing that Eivor would eventually (SHUT UP DAG) get him back and investigate the weird stuff that was going on with him.

Which she did. She found the World Tree, and Basim/Loki followed her there and got into it himself, which brings him to today.

Maybe this is basically all he wanted all along, and he didn't seek revenge on Eivor, and in fact taught her cool assassin tricks, because he needed her to survive long enough to find the World Tree.

Why he couldn't find it himself, digging up the same clues Eivor dug up, I'm not sure...maybe he had something else going on at the same time. He did tend to disappear for long stretches of Valhalla. He could have had a whole other game going in another part of the world, for all we know.

Butch:

All true. I had forgotten that Basim stood rather idly by at that point.

I do notice, though, and hopefully this game would answer this one, tiny little question, that we haven't figured out yet how the hell Basim knew that his Isu friends/betrayers were all up there in the north? If he was just wandering around looking for Odin, he got pretty fucking lucky. He knew they were there somehow.

C'mon, game, if you give us anything, give us that.

Also, since you remember ACV better than I do, did we ever see recognition in reverse? I don't recall Odin saying to Eivor "Watch out for that dude. I know that dude. Not a good dude."

If Loki was able to recognize Odin and Tyr in Eivor and Sigurd, why didn't Odin and Tyr recognize Loki in Basim? Or did they? Sorta?

Feminina:

Yes, it's way too much of a coincidence to assume that Basim/Loki was just wandering around the globe at random and happened to stumble across the potential Odin and Tyr. He must have had some reason to at least suspect they were in Norway. Maybe someone in the Order has developed a means of tracking Isu souls, or pointing in their general direction? Maybe the Big Bad we're going after next has something...maybe something Fazil built, since Fazil was clearly way into this technology.

Or, since there have been a couple of mentions of how the previously-missing-brother 'is always building strange things,' maybe he'll figure out how to make something designed to Loki's specifications, once Loki shows up.

I feel like probably Odin and Tyr couldn't recognize Loki in Basim because they weren't fully in control—Odin was just occasional visions to Eivor, and Sigurd didn't mention anything about Tyr (or any 'god' -- we didn't pin it down to Tyr right away) until after Fulke started messing with him.

As we discussed at the time, it's possible Sigurd had visions and cool raven-sight and so forth all along: we just assumed we were the only one with superpowers, but that doesn't mean we actually were. I liked this twist, but I'm not sure Sigurd ever confirmed it.

Anyway, neither Odin nor Tyr was really 'awake' at this point, so I don't think it's odd that they didn't recognize Loki, who was awake and who would likely be a lot better at recognizing them, especially if he came north specifically to look for them.

Butch:

It's all so COMPLICATED!

It may be something the brother built, but man, I do not trust that brother. It was so obvious that doctor was Order. Dude was doing so much villain exposition that he practically broke into a musical number with a chorus of tap dancing Kevin called "I'm in the Order and I love it." The brother's "Oh, really? Huh. Missed that" defense isn't flying with me.

Feminina:

I would watch that musical and hum all the songs on the way home.

Oh, also!--speaking of poetry and the Order! I meant to throw it out there as a follow up to our being suspicious of the poet Arib.

I cannot find her poem on the internet (and I'm afraid to search too deeply), but I think it was rhyming lines about something or someone called Al Bahamut. Does that sound right?

And then, while poking around in the secret basement looking for Fazil, I came across that name again. Is that the code name of the final Order person we're supposed to go after? I forget, but anyway, the fact that it shows up repeatedly and that one of the places is a major Order location, as well as Basim's note that her poetry shows up in strange places, suggests that there is indeed a connection.

Never trust a poet! They're so tricksy with their language...using fancy words to confuse and beguile us...

And by 'her poem' I mean the one that was on the seat beside her when we found her 'resting in the courtyard' or whatever.

Not the other ones that have been scattered here and there.

Butch:

Oh I don't trust her, either. I can see her being the big bad, manipulating people with her words. Nothing says that big bad has to be a solider or a rich person or something.

It would also be interesting given that Roshan has already commented on (and we have blogged on) the fact that the Treasurer was a woman.

But then, fuck, I trust no one in AC. NO ONE!!!!

Feminina:

That is appropriate.

Trust no one, including Basim, our protagonist and potentially unreliable narrator.

Butch:

Yeah, he did kind of doom Layla, there, didn't he? I liked Layla.

Wait, can you BE an unreliable narrator when it's reading memories from your DNA?

Feminina:

I did start to wonder about that immediately after I hit 'send.' Could he actually lie to us, considering we're experiencing his memories?

If he were a regular person, I would guess he could only do it if he somehow lies to himself...does intensive meditations to implant false memories or something. I could imagine it, because I won't rule anything out, but we've never seen any evidence of it before, so it's probably not that likely. I suppose also he might have provided only a curated selection of the truth of his experience...maybe he could lie by omission of some key episodes? But again, we haven't heard about this before.

However, the other key fact is that we haven't ever had any memories provided to us by an actual Isu, who may possess abilities we don't know about to tinker with what comes through, so anything is possible.

Butch:

It remains SO COMPLICATED!!!!

Feminina:

SO.

COMPLICATED.

Still, not bad discussion considering neither of us has played in days.

Butch:

And we didn't mention booze or nudity!

Until now.

Shit.