Submitted by celebratedrecluse in Games

The conflict between the Templars and the Assassins is akin to the conflict between Tankies and Anarchists. The problematic aspects of the game series aside (toxic masculinity abounds in II, for example), the fundamental conflicts of the series revolve exclusively around the question of whether it is permissible to change the world in an authoritarian, top-down way, which effaces free will, or whether revolution and change must happen in a messier way, according to the dictates of the liberated's free will.

As the series progresses, one realizes that an ancient race of aliens has its own role in human history, that the story of Adam & Eve is real, but in fact depicts the first humans to rise up against the oppression of their kind by a species of the bourgeois. This is comparable to a retelling of the classic story The Time Machine, by HG Wells, only instead of this relationship between the classes becoming destiny, it is in fact the destiny of the subaltern to supercede their masters. This inversion is a key theme of the entire series.

This thematic relationship is seen in the first game, for example, through the revelation that the Assassin Master Al-Mualim is yet another spook, a Templar/Tankie who seeks "liberation" through total domination of all, and is to be overcome by the Assassin/Anarchist who sees finally through the illusion.

Certainly, the series has its reactionary and liberal elements. But, it also has its revolutionary ones. To any anarchists on the dev team: I see ya.

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RaddleMyAss wrote

Yeah, it is a cool story. I even read somewhere that some Tankies really like that bent of the game, despite not agreeing with it when they talk politics.

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Anargnome_Communist wrote

The game had potential for a story like this during the first one but didn't quite follow through after that. It's a real shame.

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celebratedrecluse OP wrote

I only partially agree, I think you can see the anarchist themes running through the games. For example, the Templars = Misguided Authoritarians is a pretty consistent messaging of the series iirc

Of course, There are many problematic aspects of the series too. It's a liberal capitalist production, it's embedded in the society in which it was made. But I like, personally, to look for the ways in which some of the artists involved might have had some political inclinations in their storytelling

It's just for my own amusement, i suppose, but it does help me feel less lonely in a world where everything seems built to reproduce power.

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