What if.. | Forums

[xcamthemandudex]

Then again, Altair said it himself, "Our Creed does not command us to be free. It commands us to be wise." So, the Assassins don't really want people to be free -- not to say they are enslaving people -- but more so they want people to be wise about temptations, corruption, and other things that would cause them to go to (HERE IT COMES) the dark side.

[SixKeys]

The cleverness behind the plot in the series is that we're supposed to pretend the assassins really do exist currently in the world, we just don't know about them because they work behind the scenes. So the world as it is right now exists (in part) due to the influence of assassins. Since the world is not in complete chaos and anarchy, you can't claim that the assassins' influence would necessarily do that.

Then again, parts of the world are the way they are also because of Templar influence. Since Templars aren't really evil and assassins can make mistakes too, it's hard to say which countries are ruled more by people siding with either sect. Judging by the Templar ideology, it seems safe to assume that countries with more totalitarian regimes would be more Templar-influenced whilst the more liberal countries are mroe assassin-influenced.

The assassins are all about giving power to the people whereas Templar believe in investing in strong leaders. Sometimes when you give people the freedom to make their own decisions, they will choose for forms of government that you personally may not agree with. Sometimes the assassins fight for the people, thinking they will be happier once they're free of Templar oppression, but the people may make the "wrong" choices. The assassins must accept that possibility, and resist the urge to direct people towards the choices that they (assassins) themselves would prefer.

Templars, on the other hand, believe that giving people the freedom to make the "wrong" choices is exactly what's wrong with the world. They don't strive for power for their own benefit (not all of them, at least) but because they sincerely believe they know what's best for everyone.

Since both sides make use of manipulators and murderers, there's always the danger of sliding scales to the extremes. When an assassin decides he knows what's best for the people and acts accordingly instead of letting people make their own decisions, he's sliding towards the Templar ideology. When a Templar gains power and uses it for his own benefit instead of protecting other people, he loses sight of the true Templar goal of world peace and becomes just another greedy dictator.

I hope and believe that AC3 will deal with these issues more in-depth. Connor being a native American fights for justice, but at some point he will inevitably realize there will never be true justice for his own people, despite the assassins' efforts. It must be hard for a person to continue fighting for the freedom of others when he sees those people making choices that are harmful to minorities like his own people. Many of the people he liberates will ultimately become slave owners and corrupt land owners, while the native Americans get to suffer.

[Turul.]

give me liberty or give me death!

[RatonhnhakeFan]

Connor being a native American fights for justice, but at some point he will inevitably realize there will never be true justice for his own people, despite the assassins' efforts. It must be hard for a person to continue fighting for the freedom of others when he sees those people making choices that are harmful to minorities like his own people. Many of the people he liberates will ultimately become slave owners and corrupt land owners, while the native Americans get to suffer.

But you're talking from our historic perspective, where we know what happened and how it eventually ended. He doesn't and can't know that. This is something that's very tricky with historical storytelling. You can't have the characters act like they posses the knowledge of 21st century people.

Granted, there already is the entire time-manipulation mess present in the franchise (Abstergo's experiment & Ezio seeing Desmond) so it's possible that Ratonhnhaké:ton will recieve an information where everything eventually leads to, but if that doesn't happen, then I'm not sure why "at some point he will inevitably realize there will never be true justice for his own people".

[De Filosoof]

You were made to be ruled. I would join the Templars. Assassins tend to have more interesting ancestors though...

Wow...And you live in that wonderful place called New Zealand?

[RedRobin183]

Wow...And you live in that wonderful place called New Zealand?

What's that supposed to mean, hmm?

[BeckWrecks]

I'd say Templar now that I think about it, being evil is too much fun!!!

[EzioAssassin51]

The annoying thing about these threads are that they are very biased. Of course 99% of people are going to say assassins, after playing games with them, believing they're the good guys and agreein with they ideals over the Templars'. If we played as the templars for the past 5 years, things would be different.

I guess realistically, without any prejudicial knowledge about either factions, you'd side with the Templars, just because of their immense power, resoucres and ability to keep you safe after the launch, if you're an elite in the templars, like a successful agent

[lonewarrior30]

The annoying thing about these threads are that they are very biased. Of course 99% of people are going to say assassins, after playing games with them, believing they're the good guys and agreein with they ideals over the Templars'. If we played as the templars for the past 5 years, things would be different.

I guess realistically, without any prejudicial knowledge about either factions, you'd side with the Templars, just because of their immense power, resoucres and ability to keep you safe after the launch, if you're an elite in the templars, like a successful agent

True....the way I see it is like the templars are like the nazis...best technology immense recourses but twistes minds and the assassins are the communists they fight for freedom but they dont have as much recourses ...both sides have goods and bads..might sound cheesy tho

[SixKeys]

But you're talking from our historic perspective, where we know what happened and how it eventually ended. He doesn't and can't know that. This is something that's very tricky with historical storytelling. You can't have the characters act like they posses the knowledge of 21st century people.

Granted, there already is the entire time-manipulation mess present in the franchise (Abstergo's experiment & Ezio seeing Desmond) so it's possible that Ratonhnhaké:ton will recieve an information where everything eventually leads to, but if that doesn't happen, then I'm not sure why "at some point he will inevitably realize there will never be true justice for his own people".

The devs have hinted that this is an issue that will be addressed in the game somehow. He may not realize the full extent of his people's suffering until the end. Maybe he believes that helping some key figures in the revolution will help bring justice to his people, but ends up being betrayed. We know the natives have always been swindled and promises that were made to them have been broken. Also, Washington (among many others) owned slaves. If Connor is friends with him and if he believes slavery to be wrong, he must see through the injustice that even his allies are capable of committing. If Connor starts out believing Washington is a friend to the natives and later realizes George is just like the rest of the white oppressors, that could end up embittering him.