The Glyph Repels You!

[rionaleonhart]

The worst thing about Assassin's Creed II, compared to the first one: the murders are far less romantic. The target still dies in your arms, but there are no implausibly long conversations in which you and your victim share a strange moment of connection as you hold each other. It is a loss I mourn intensely.

However, the second game has replaced a theme I love (romantic murder) with another theme I love (family), so I suppose perhaps it's a fair trade. My interest in the relationship between Ezio and his sister Claudia grows every time I visit her to check my income. The exchange they have - 'Salute, Claudia.' 'You here to look at the book?' - is two lines long and I must have heard it eight times by now, and yet it makes me smile fondly every time. I have no idea why.

(I'm going to assume that 'Salute, Claudia' is not great Italian, because it caused our new Italian-speaking housemate to shout 'DID SHE SNEEZE?' furiously at the screen. Then again, the game explains away the random Italian phrases scattered throughout as 'problems with the Animus's translation software', so any dodgy usage can probably be similarly handwaved.)

I'm also delighted by the bit in which Desmond comes out of the Animus to stretch his legs and hallucinate vividly. Everything I wanted! (Well, almost everything. I'm still holding out hope for a direct encounter with one of his ancestors, no matter how implausible that might be.)


I really like that Assassin's Creed II hasn't forgotten about Altaïr; he's still very much a presence in the game, even if time and protagonists have moved on.

At some point I somehow reached the conclusion that Altaïr was completely uninterested in sex or romance - it just didn't factor into his life - and so I was slightly saddened when Assassin's Creed II contradicted my headcanon. And then I felt ridiculous. Because the entire concept of Assassin's Creed is that you're living through the memories of your direct ancestors. Desmond is Altaïr's direct descendant. There's a lot I don't know about twelfth-century Syria, but I don't imagine artificial insemination was hugely popular.

I'm, er, being deliberately vague about how I came by this headcanon. Confession: it came about because I was trying to imagine the circumstances in which Desmond and Altaïr might make out, an effort tragically thwarted by my inability to picture Altaïr making out with anyone.

Desmond and Ezio, on the other hand...

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

I love everything about this entry. Weirdly romantic murders, terrible Italian, possibly-asexual Altair, all of it!

Actually, is it possible that Altair wasn't interested in sex or romance but got married and had a baby because it was expected of him? Your headcanon is potentially salvageable. (Although sad for his poor wife, unless she's also asexual or something.)

[rionaleonhart]

Alas, we discover Altaïr's relationship through his own writing and later through a flashback (an amazing flashback where Desmond finds himself suddenly in Altaïr's body despite not being in the ancestral memory machine, combining two of my biggest hopes for this game: more Altaïr and Desmond completely losing his mind), and he does seem to have romantic feelings!

Although, as I type this, I realise that of course Altaïr obviously had romantic feelings for everyone he murdered, so my headcanon was flawed from the start.

[wolfy_writing]

So marriage is what happened when he discovered his romantic feelings before the stabbing? (Or possibly without? Hopefully without stabbing at all.)

[rionaleonhart]

The woman he falls in love with is... actually someone he previously nearly murdered, so...

[wolfy_writing]

Did you write this game?

[pete_thomas]

To give you an idea of how I felt about the two of them -- when you wrote that, not only did I hear it in both Ezio's and Claudia's voice, I actually got chills as I finished it.

Family is just the foundation. I'm literally in my seat squirming for you to start the second one now. There's so many theme's I feel like you're really going to enjoy as the game continues to progress. Just watch as you see how Ezio grows. It's amazing.

What you're going to see throughout each of the next two games is that information all coming full circle. You'll see that everything you did in AC is not left in the dust, and that it all means something and ties into the genetics of Desmond somehow. It's one of the strong points that really bring the series together for me. And yes, while the arc of story we got from Altaïr was far more serious and about him... he certainly had his way with women too! At times I could see some of that cocky Ezio flair that he shows off, and directly correlate it to the hubris that Altaïr showed during some of his missions. It's absolutely fascinating!

That headcanon though! :D I'm laughing my ass off at it, and yet somehow imagine it to happen so perfectly seamlessly, just because Ezio is THAT. DAMN. GOOD.

Can you tell I've got a very strong fondness for him?

[rionaleonhart]

I've started Brotherhood already! I was absolutely terrified that it was going to kill off Maria and Claudia in the attack on Monteriggioni at the start. Thank goodness they came through it!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything comes together, and how severely Desmond's use of the Animus messes him up, and how Desmond and Ezio end up making out (this will definitely happen).