10 Things Assassin's Creed Got Mythically Right And Wrong
Transcript
00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're counting down our picks for the times Assassin's Creed
00:10 was accurate with its mythology, and the times when it wasn't.
00:14 We'll also be including omissions from legends, as well as things that are just plain incorrect.
00:23 Right, the giant snake.
00:33 While hunting down the lizard, Bayek embarks on a hallucinatory journey to kill a giant
00:38 snake with a golden bow of light.
00:41 This is all a very accurate interpretation of the myth of Apep and Ra in Egyptian mythology.
00:47 In the myth, Ra does battle each night with the snake Apep, a chaos deity, and when Ra
00:53 triumphs, the sun will rise again the next day.
00:57 Bayek isn't Ra, and his battle won't ensure the sun will rise, but it's a fun encounter
01:03 that was really the series' first foray into big set pieces in legendary boss fights.
01:09 It's just a shame you can't take Ra's bow with you when Bayek wakes up.
01:17 Wrong.
01:18 The dragon.
01:19 Predictably, with the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft also released a quest
01:29 following the story of Beowulf, but it was DLC available through the season pass, of
01:35 course.
01:36 In the quest, Eivor will be asked by the nun-wolf Hilda to help solve some violent murders.
01:41 Eivor finds out that a man called Grendel is the perpetrator, and kills him and then
01:46 his mother, hiding in an underground cavern.
01:49 However, the poem doesn't end there, as Beowulf then goes on to fight a dragon, dying in the
01:55 process.
01:56 But not only were the fights with Grendel and his mother simple mini-bosses, the dragon
02:01 was gone entirely, making this entire quest very underwhelming.
02:07 Surely Ubisoft could have explained the dragon as another Isu experiment gone awry and let
02:12 you fight it.
02:14 Right.
02:15 Spring-Heeled Jack.
02:16 You may have played the Spring-Heeled Jack side mission in Syndicate and thought that
02:28 it was too ridiculous to have ever happened, or perhaps that it was a strange interpretation
02:33 of Jack the Ripper.
02:35 But that's not the case.
02:37 Spring-Heeled Jack was a real urban myth who terrorized the UK for decades in the 19th
02:43 century.
02:44 He wasn't just sighted in London either, but across the whole country, leaping over
02:48 rooftops and staring into people's bedroom windows at night.
02:52 In Syndicate, Jack is explained as the creation of a strange secret club using costumes and
02:58 stagecraft though in real life, the perpetrators were never found, if they existed at all.
03:09 Wrong.
03:10 Medusa.
03:18 The boss fight against Medusa is easily one of the greatest moments in the whole franchise.
03:24 It's a well-designed quest and combat encounter that will test even the most high-leveled
03:29 players.
03:30 However, it's not the most faithful to Greek myth.
03:34 In the mythology, Perseus is able to defeat Medusa with a godly arsenal, most importantly,
03:40 a mirrored shield given to him by Athena, which allows him to use Medusa's petrifying
03:45 gaze against her.
03:47 This would have certainly been an interesting combat mechanic if you had a mirrored shield
03:51 to reflect attacks back at her, as opposed to the usual boss fight fare.
03:58 Right, the Minotaur.
04:09 From one Greek monster to another, the Minotaur is possibly the most accurate of the four
04:14 foes Cassandra is sent to slay in Odyssey so that she can access Atlantis.
04:19 You find the Minotaur hiding in a deep labyrinth underneath Knossos Palace in Crete, which
04:24 is precisely where the story is said to take place.
04:27 The labyrinth is, of course, an Isu ruin, and is still illuminated by the piece of string
04:33 Theseus was given by Ariadne to find his way through.
04:37 And upon defeating the Minotaur, you get his labors, a two-headed axe that was the symbol
04:42 of the ancient Minoan civilization that built Knossos in the first place.
04:50 Wrong.
04:55 Crystal Skulls.
05:01 Though they had a lot of people fooled for a long time, we know today that every single
05:06 crystal skull ever produced is a fake.
05:09 But that's not exactly what we're talking about.
05:12 The real issue is that the legend of the crystal skulls being so prevalent in Black Flag is
05:17 a little anachronistic, since stories of crystal skulls and those notorious fakes didn't exist
05:23 at all until the 19th century, over a hundred years after the events of the game.
05:29 The skulls are iconic, yes, but this could be seen as a missed opportunity for Ubisoft
05:34 to dig into genuine Central American culture and mythology, since crystal skulls don't
05:40 factor into Maya or Aztec myths whatsoever.
05:43 Other Isu artifacts are firmly rooted in myth and religion, so why not those?
05:51 Right.
05:53 The Ark of the Covenant.
05:59 Like the crystal skulls, the Ark of the Covenant is also arguably best known today for being
06:04 the MacGuffin in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
06:08 But it's a key part of Hebrew theology, the sacred, golden box the Israelites used to
06:14 transport the original Ten Commandments.
06:17 If the Ark ever existed, it's now lost, but it was supposedly last kept in Solomon's Temple.
06:24 Today, the ruins of the first temple are in Temple Mount Jerusalem, the birthplace of
06:29 the real-life Knights Templar.
06:31 At the beginning of the first game, Altair finds the Ark exactly where he expects, being
06:37 excavated by the Templars in what remains of Solomon's Temple.
06:41 Though here it contains an Apple of Eden.
06:45 Wrong.
06:46 The Daughters of Lerion.
06:57 It was very interesting to see this old myth of a pagan British king recreated here.
07:03 The story of Ler is much older than the various Elizabethan plays.
07:07 Shakespeare's wasn't the first.
07:09 But the plays are possibly more true to the legend than Valhalla.
07:14 The main issue is that in Valhalla, you fight all three of Ler's daughters, who want revenge
07:20 for their father's execution.
07:22 But in the legend, Ler is actually betrayed by two of them, Rhaegon and Goneril.
07:28 Only Cordelia remains loyal to him, though the tragedy of the story is that Ler believes
07:33 the opposite and punishes her.
07:35 So it would arguably make more sense in the game if you only fight Cordelia, as opposed
07:40 to all three.
07:44 Right.
07:46 The Asgard sequence.
07:52 There's a long questline in Valhalla that sees Eivor drink various potions to travel
07:57 through Dream to the various realms of Norse mythology, namely Asgard and Jotunheim.
08:04 The stories detail the downfall of the Aesir and the events leading up to Ragnarok, and
08:09 how Odin's fear of the prophecy involving Loki's son Fenrir ultimately brings that
08:14 prophecy to pass.
08:15 To actually play through Ragnarok, you'll need to get the DLC, but the Asgard sections
08:20 included in the base game hue extremely close to the Norse myths.
08:25 The only differences are the times the Isu lore takes precedence, like Juno's sneaky
08:30 appearance as the Jotun Harakin, though there's no reference to the Jotunar being blue in
08:36 the legends.
08:50 Before we begin, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
08:55 the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
08:59 Wrong.
09:00 Juno, and Aita.
09:12 The closest thing we've ever had to a primary antagonist in Assassin's Creed, Juno is
09:18 the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Hera.
09:21 In myth, Juno is the wife of Jupiter, or Zeus, and also, of course, his sister.
09:28 But in Assassin's Creed, Juno is devoted to her husband Aita.
09:32 However, there's only one ancient deity called Aita, a lesser-known figure in Etruscan mythology
09:39 who stands in for Hades.
09:41 Considering Hades himself turns up in Odyssey's Atlantis DLC, and certainly isn't Juno's
09:47 husband, it looks like Aita is an invention of Ubisoft.
09:51 It's all well and good to make up fictional characters, obviously, but it does stick out
09:56 since the rest of the Isu are famous gods and goddesses.
10:03 Let us know in the comments if you like Assassin's Creed's forays into mythology, or if you
10:07 wish Ubisoft would ditch it.
10:10 Check out these other great clips from Mojo Plays, and be sure to subscribe and ring the
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