So, this is yet another problem caused by Elden Ring taking the same outdated approach to writing as it does with literally everything else. I've said many times that I think it worked in Dark Souls, but it absolutely doesn't work here. Those Who Live in Death are apparently meant to be nuanced, but they don't seem to be at all.

Basically, I find myself wondering what the grounds for Fia's ideology are.

According to both her and Rogier there's really nothing wrong with Those Who Live in Death. They're victims. They need to be saved or protected. The only crime they've committed is existing in a manner not intended by the Order. But that's enough to attract the ire of people like D and whatever others may be hunting them down.

... Okay, but... really? Apart from the fact that Deathroot and all the stuff connected to it seems... REALLY BAD... I mean, come on, Rogier. You're crippled from the waist down because you got near some of it, and Deathblight obliterates anyone it touches from the inside out. Apart from that, it's not like the quality of life of these... "people" is worth preserving, and they don't even seem to be... completely okay.

Every single member of Those Who Live in Death that we meet is a rotting, shambling, barely sentient, inherently hostile skeletal figure. The Tibia Mariners apparently have techniques and recipes recorded in cookbooks, but they seem to be the one and only exceptions to the rule. Everyone else is falling apart and mindless, and would be better off getting finished off.

Why exactly does she advocate so strongly for these guys? They seem like mindless assholes. Not even assholes, that would imply they have the capacity for deliberate malice. They're really more like lobotomised animals. How is the world going to be benefited by trying to coexist with them?

It wasn't until Nightreign that we got a member of Those Who Live in Death that actually made it seem like Fia has a point: the Ironeye. Not only does he still have skin, but he's clearly intelligent, he can use tools and weapons to great effect (the ones in the original game can barely hold spears), he's part of an organised collective of assassins, and he can form friendships and connections with those outside of his kind. He is, in every way that counts, indistinguishable from a normal person. But Nightreign's status as canon is dubious, and so we can't really use him as evidence in her favour.

I don't see any reason to keep them around. Why does she want this? Did I miss something?

I can't really tell if the meme subreddit is a circlejerk subreddit or not, but this has been popping up... more than it should lately, and...

... You guys don't actually believe this right?

... You can't really believe this right?

I know that the whole idea of a shared universe may have been fun at some point, but... no. It wouldn't work anymore, and I don't understand why people claim this would make everything so much better when it would actually result in a colossal narrative clusterfuck from which there's no recovering.

I don't think people who stamp and shout demanding this realise just how many gaps there are in all of this.

Not only would Blume and Abstergo existing in the same universe raise a lot of questions, but it’d cause other issues like…

1. Why are the Templars trying to control the world through Isu tech when Blume has basically already reinvented that wheel? Mina proves that humans can straight up become biological Professor Xs.
2. Why aren’t they buying each other out? One renders the other redundant. According to AC comics, the average person owns about a dozen Abstergo products at any given time. Trying to avoid them is a full time job. Sound familiar?
3. How is it possible that the Shroud Vault from Syndicate was, in only about 13 or so years, reclaimed by the Assassins, somehow turned into an ancient “Assassin tomb” with at least a century’s worth of renovations + decay, somehow fucking forgotten about by all of them, and inside behind a door nobody has opened in decades there are… futuristic robes and AR tech compatible with a Blume Optik. UHHHHH…
4. Why are the Templars not using the ctOS?
5. Why are the Assassins not ctOS hackers?
6. How the hell are the Assassin’s Creed writers going to accept that if they do this, they will have written themselves into a corner where they’re forced to conform to Legion’s story when a new game comes out in 2030? Because AC games take place in the year of their release, and Legion is in 2029/2030ish. If they ever want to do something new with England? They’ll have no choice but to copy Legion.
7. They’ll also have to conform to the Watch Dogs Stars and Stripes prequel novel, which takes place one year before Legion. Given the current political climate, that’s going to get messy.
8. And many, many more.

Everyone who is salivating at the mouth over an interconnected sprawling “Ubiverse” never fucking considers all the issues it would raise. And yeah, the lore has always been spotty, but that’s no reason to make it even worse. Not everything needs to be a cinematic universe, or Fortnite. Just let them have fun with their Easter Eggs. I find it weird that nobody is advocating for Final Fantasy to become canon in Assassin’s Creed even though Bayek straight up rode a Chocobo.

I remember when people insisted Far Cry was also in the Assassin’s Creed universe because Abstergo shit was in 3, and then Far Cry 5 straight up nuked the entire planet. They do not care. They never had any intention of making this a thing. They’re just goofing off.

Ubisoft already did make a world where all these factions and groups canonically exist at the same time to a certain extent. It was called XDefiant, and it kind of failed. If you want a more story-driven example, they also did that... it was called Captain Laserhawk, and will probably be getting a second season. But the only reason those instances worked is because one had no story to speak of, and the other was the most alternate of alternate universes to ever alternate.

One thing I don’t understand about any of this? Is why anyone wants this so desperately. Like. Has Assassin’s Creed not gotten messy enough? Does it not have enough going on with the Assassins vs Templars with the last five games basically saying “fuck it Isu magic tech bullshit makes every single mythology and cultural folklore canon!”

How would this enrich the story of either? Blume and Abstergo are basically trying to do the same thing. DedSec are essentially more dickish Assassins without a unifying creed and that seem to be more “anti-authority” than “pro-human.” All the gangs and crime syndicates we fight in Watch Dogs? Historically? The Assassins worked alongside groups like that. The consistency of morality would get kind of difficult to stay on top of here.

Say hypothetically, after Watch Dogs 1 and sometime around 2, all the fan theories back then ended up being right. Aiden Pearce became a member of the Assassin Brotherhood.

… So what? How would that have improved his character arc, which was basically already finished? How would that have somehow made his story more interesting apart from “I guess he fights Templars now” even though the entire first game more or less established he doesn’t give a fuck about corporations with plans for world domination; their existence actively benefits him.

Literally the only thing this would be good for is selling microtransaction cosmetic packs. And we don’t need a full narrative merge to do that.

And people keep bringing up things like:

"Oh, but in Origins, we see that picture of Aiden killing Olivier! That proves it!"

Literally all that proves is that there is a guy wearing a coat and a hat, maybe named Aiden Pearce, in the Assassin's Creed universe, and he killed Olivier at some point. That's it. It doesn't mean literally everything else has migrated over.

"Oh, but in Legion, the descendant of the Fryes shows up! That's an Asssassin! That PROVES they're connected!"

No. Not only did they specifically declare this was noncanon prior to releasing, but that entire mission literally does not make any sense.

The “Assassin Tomb” in Watch Dogs Legion is located in the exact same place as the Shroud Vault from Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, a precursor site that had been untouched for about 130 years prior to 2015 when the Templars raided it. Not only did the Assassins fail to secure it, but the layout, Isu security tech, and purpose were completely different.

They would not have the tools to excavate, change the entire interior, reverse engineer the tech to change its functionality, discover the remains of the Fryes and the Kenways, move them to this tomb, plus a bunch of other Assassins seemingly in the rest of the coffins. And as of Shadows, the latest game, they still haven't taken it back either.

There’s also the problem of the tomb allegedly having not been opened in a very, very long time in Legion. Yet it contains futuristic robes, weapons, and hacking software compatible with modern ctOS 3.0 and a fucking Optik.

The Templars secured and controlled it at the end of Syndicate. That was ten years ago. 2015. Assassin’s Creed games are released in the present day. Nothing has changed there. The Templars also KNOW WHERE THAT LOCATION IS, yet they don’t know right away in Legion.

Legion takes place in 2030ish. So the Assassins have exactly five years to take it back, mind wipe all the Templars so they forget it exists, reverse engineer advanced Isu security systems, completely change the layout and expand it by about three times the current size, discover the remains of the Fryes, Kenways, and multiple other Assassins to store in there, develop holographic disguise technology compatible with neural implant chips, and then give all of themselves amnesia so they also forget where it is.

That is the only way this story is going to make sense come 2030, assuming you and everyone else who claims "they're totally in the same universe!" is right. Which you're not.

If you actually tell me you think that’s going to happen, you’re just being a contrarian. They are not going to successfully brainwash the entire Templar Order to forget an Isu Temple of critical significance just so they can hastily build a place to store the dead remains of people whose bones are currently in Abstergo custody.

Have you seen the place? There’s vines growing all over it and moss crawling up the walls. It’s very clearly over a hundred years old. Darcy doesn’t even know how it works until she figures it out down there. They didn’t build it in the last five years. It's fanservicey nonsense that they didn't even try to coherently link with the game that Darcy's fucking ancestors are from.

"Oh, but Aiden Pearce also appears in that comic! This PROVES they're connected!"

That comic takes place in 2023 and claims Aiden is a member of fucking DedSec. He never canonically joined them. They're not trying here.

----

The fact of the matter is, Ubisoft has had multiple chances to confirm this is the case across several games. Every single time, they say it's not. Darby McDevitt, who wrote Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, outright called it a joke. He also headcanoned that Olivier defected to the Assassins... yet that makes no sense, because the Assassins marked him for death in the first place. Aymar Azaizia was asked point blank if there was a shared universe. He said no. He said it again on Twitter. And then, Lathieeshe Thillainathan said it again despite Darcy being one of the biggest and most blatant crossover move they ever made.

TL;DR - There is no shared universe, it would create more problems than it would allegedly "fix", not everything needs to be the MCU, and it's fine to have FanFiction or headcanon, but far too many people are defending this as if it's cold, hard, fact, and they're calling the shots instead of the people who own the fucking IPs.

At the ABSOLUTE MOST, certain characters and/or companies are shared between both worlds, but they're so radically different/stripped down/void of their usual influence that there's a major Ship of Theseus going on, and they may as well not exist.

Okay, yeah, I don't think very highly of 5 to begin with but at least John, Faith, and Joseph were pretty interesting characters with some interesting things to unpack. John in particular was fun to read in the prequel novel, Absolution.

But Jacob is just a fucking loser. Like, holy shit. Have you guys listened to the stuff he says in his outpost sermons? He's basically every grifting, "alpha" male, "the woke is ruining everything" YouTube moron rolled into one.

Constantly complaining about how everyone is so soft these days, how everything used to be so much better back when men worshipped the gods, how a REAL man is a big bulky killer, how all the ancient civilisations were so much better and technology is bad and blah blah blah blah. Jesus Christ. This guy is probably a flat earther and an anti-vaxxer because "medicine makes you weak, if you were really strong you'd just survive the virus lol."

He doesn't even follow his own stupid philosophy. Like, the thing that sets him apart from the rest of the cult is that he doesn't actually believe that Joseph talks to any higher power and he's just doing things his own way instead. Which sounds like a pretty interesting idea for a character working within such a rigid power structure. But "his way" is dumb.

His whole thing is about how if you "pass a test" you're "strong" by his standards. Okay, except when you "pass" the test he gives you, he says:

"Um, actually, now that you passed your test you're alone, and that makes you weak, which means I get to kill you now."

And he doesn't even fight you one on one or anything! He hides up a fucking mountain taking pot shots at you with a sniper rifle while sending a bunch of Judges and Peggies to get you. The guy is a base coward and a total hack. I was waiting for some kind of reveal or hint that he wasn't actually a soldier. That he was actually just a stolen valour LARPer with warped ideas of what it meant to be one. But no, the game actually wants me to take this guy seriously, and I just cannot do it.

He even straight up tells you to kill yourself in the first part of his boss fight. I'm not joking. He says it would be better for everyone if you "off yourself." LowTierJacob over here.

I think he may be the worst character in the game for me. I thought it was the Arcade Guy, but no. It's Jacob.

The Assassin's Creed movie wasn't good, but considering modern Ubisoft has basically just given up on the present day plot -- which was the whole point of the games and the Animus and reliving the past in the first place -- it really bothers me that they're probably not going to so much as mention any of these characters again. Like, Callum straight up killed the big bad of the first game and I don't think it's ever been brought up in logs or data bits from from the subsequent games.

Incredibly unpopular opinion here, but I think they should've used this to springboard a new modern day arc rather than going with Layla, who was kind of a trainwreck in my opinion. Again, the movie wasn't good... but... come on. There was at least some potential here.

We're never seeing these guys in a game, are we?

I'm of the opinion that every Trial should be manageable solo. I presumed that was the case.

And then I was introduced to Infinite Jaeger Spread the Disease Solo Rebirth.

She will always spawn in those tiny little cramped spaces where you have to hold out and occasionally pull levers. Which means it will always be her, you, a Big Grunt, about three traps, and virtually no resources, plus four switches you have to pull total.

And the lights sloooowly turn back on one at a time.

• Can't hide. Jaeger will kill you.
• Can't go to the shadowy areas. They keep shrinking, same problem as hiding.
• Can't run, traps everywhere or Big Grunt will hear you.
• Can't try to pull one of the hold switches to leave, Big Grunt will catch you or Jaeger will catch up.
• Can't really do anything except look around for something sharp and slit your own throat. Or at least that would be the smart thing to do but that's not an option in this game.

Really not sure which dev thought this would be funny but they probably deserve the Pleasure the Prosecutor treatment. It is controversial to say the Jaeger REALLY shouldn't be allowed in those areas? One of them is literally just an enclosed space consisting of a tiny rectangle with laser tripwires and water everywhere. The Big Grunt's fucking body is as wide as the hallway. You're going to get cornered and killed no matter what.