Thursday, March 29, 2012

On History, Assassins, and crappy rationales...

So, recently there was a press-release style thing from Ubisoft about why they’re not having a female protagonist in AC3. It basically boiled down to “No powerful females in that era!”

I, uh, have a small problem with that justification. It’s worth noting that I don’t really have an issue with their decision. It’s their game, they can have whatever gender/ethnicity/alien protagonist they like. (And, a Native American protagonist in good light, is, in itself, a rarity.).

However, their stated rationale makes no sense whatsoever. Perhaps I’m missing something, but I’m not entirely sure that Ezio ever directly impersonated a Templar to get close enough for the stabby-stabby.

Hell, in AC:Brotherhood, you can recruit female assassin novices, and send them on some pretty high-profile contracts. (Funnily enough, my best assassin in AC:B was a blonde female, first to Assassin rank, never failed a contract, and was hilariously lethal when called to aid Ezio.)

Essentially, the case is “Because institutional sexism”, it’s not believable if they challenge it. Er, huh? The entire concept of the games is frolicking about in the grey margins of history, writing whole subtexts and grand plots that aren’t there. A few Templars dying horribly because they made the mistake that “A woman can never be a threat” would play incredibly well into the game’s core themes. It neatly nails a subversion of expected history AND the powerless toppling the powerful.

If anything, it’d work better, since the protagonist could just pose as a maid and be effectively invisible. (And, last I checked, Ezio blended in with mostly female crowds just fine.).

All that said, I can think of a much better explanation for it. The whole Animus concept revolves around living in the body of your ancestor, and getting to the good bits requires a high-level of sync. (And side-effects of blurring your own memories with that of your ancestors...). It follows that Desmond, someone with a clearly male gender identity, would have a hell of a time syncing with a female ancestor, if he could at all.

Hell, you could address that in a couple of throwaway lines, or even a failed sync with a female ancestor that directly knows what you needed to know.

So, with a decent explanation at hand, why try to justify it with something that doesn’t make any sense at all in the context of the game universe?