Nothing typified the regression the Assassin’s Creed series took between Revelations and III than the game’s star. We went from Ezio, a loveable, charismatic rogue, to Connor, who was… nothing. He was nothingness in a white hood.
Sucking much of the life out of the franchise with his solemn frown and humour deficiency, the series has swiftly moved on without him, the only people seemingly caring to remember being cosplayers and a crowd on Tumblr who immortalise him with fanart and fanfiction.
So it’s hilarious to most, and upsetting to that minority, that in a Reddit AMA earlier today, lead writer Darby McDevitt responded to the question “How likely is it that Connor’s story will be continued in another game in the future?” with:
“Not very. We want Tumblr to pick up where we left off.”
Now, that’s funny. It shows public self-awareness from a major developer, which is a rare treat. It also shows that, as weird as it can sometimes get, the people responsible for creating the character have been keeping tabs on stuff like this. And this. And this.
It’s also a line McDevitt circled back around to, explaining Ubisoft’s motivations (and forward planning) in detail:
Firstly, though my answer was terse, I am not being snide when I say I am eager to see how fans continue our characters’ stories in other outlets and mediums. Tumblr and live journal and dozens of other sites provide perfect outlets for AC fans to continue the stories of their favourite characters. I absolutely love this process. I love the fact that people have discovered resonant topics and characters in our universe. I love the fact that fans can expand or elaborate on points they feel have not been well addressed. This should happen as often as possible. Take what we begin and make it your own. Remix and remake. This leads to wonderful things.
That being said, it would be wrong to imagine that anyone is “brushing Connor off” … we planned the Edward, Haytham, Connor saga more than 2 years ago, long before any of you had heard Connor’s name or learned his backstory. We had no idea how he (or Haytham) would be received, but we had our own long story to tell, and we embraced it. And it was our hope that — taken together — this saga would represent the story of a family… a migration, a mixing of cultures, and a dashing of ideals… Connor played his part, Haytham played his, and now Edward has had his say too. The fact that Connor’s story feels incomplete to you is unfortunate (and likely made worse by the cut dialog people found), but this only means there is more room for your imaginations to take over.
Don’t rely on us to deliver new content… make your own stories. Finally, there is ALWAYS room for interesting things to happen in the AC universe. We are open to many ideas. But it’s also important to realise that we make critical decisions YEARS before they come to fruition… which means we cannot usually respond immediately to fan reactions. This is why petitions aren’t terribly useful… we’re on a completely different schedule. But we are eager to see what you do with our characters… the stories you tell, the places you go. That’s why we do this. Thanks for your reply, Zoe.
Nevertheless…that first line of his was a doozie, and if you feel like a laugh at the expense of mildly crazy Assassin’s Creed fanboys/fangirls devastated at the news, this Tumblr tag has some fairly emotional stuff on it right now.
IamA Developer on Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag AMAA! [Reddit]
Comments
64 responses to “Assassin’s Creed’s Connor, Who Was The Worst, Is Done For”
I’m okay with it. He had the characteristics of Anakin Skywalker. If he bitched about sand then I would of shut the game off.
Haven’t played AC4 yet but I would like too see the Edward and Haythem father son relationship and see what made him a Templar.
AC4 is fantastic so far, it is to AC3 what AC2 was to 1.
So AC5 is gonna suck at least AC6 will be great.
Oh god… Trek syndrome…
Wrath of Whale country.
Go and pick up the book based on the AC3 game (called forsaken). It is meant to be Haythams diary and quite good actually. I read the book before i got the game and imo it was a huge mistake as the book was so much better than the story in the game.
Maybe if we move along with say, Connors son, or Connors Grandson and go from there, continue the family lineage, it’ll be better? I like the idea of family and all that personally so I can dig this idea.
Perhaps Connor doesn’t want his own child in ‘the life’ but then his son is murdered by the templars and his grandson wants revenge, so he trains him as his mentor trained him…
Well it’s *all* family lineage so far, from Altair right down to Desmond.
Not entirely, as they said its not one family branch. Altair isnt related to Ezio, Ezio is on a different family line, Edward isn’t related to Altair or Ezio. However, all those bloodlines converge at Desmond. That’s why Desmond is so important. He’s the convergence point, otherwise they could’ve just used his dad, or his grandad.
Right. Altair was related to Desmond’s father. Ezio was related Desmond’s mother.
Don’t understand the hate for Connor or AC3. I also think ezio is a little overrated
I agree on the matter of Connor. I actually liked him, and that his name was spelt that way -cough-correctly-cough-
Couldn’t disagree more on Ezio. Ezio was a Titan among men.
Altair was the most badass. He was fighting well into his 90s
My problem with Connor (apart from finding him a little dull, although that’s probably compared to previous Assassins) was more with the writing. He’d go from being justifiably pissed at some event or character, to trotting along picking daisies the very next mission. Hell, after everything George Washington ended up doing, he finished the game playing lawn bowls with him.
Mind you, most of the writing in ACIII was bad (Shaun typified this).
I’ve mentioned this already in this thread, but you find Connor dull compared to Altair? It must have been a while since you played AC1. Altair is extremely deadpan.
Oh no, I agree….Altair (at least in the first game) was terrible. He was marginally better in Revelations, where he had a believable accent and actual emoting.
Connor I believe is a victim of the writing. I can see what they were trying to do – a person who was stoic, a victim of tragedy and circumstance and lied to by pretty much everyone – but they did not do it well. His attitude seems to flip from mission to mission and despite the fact that Washington f**ked him over, Ubisoft seemed loathe to really make Connor stay pissed at him.
The only six they hit in ACIII was with Haytham, probably so his twist could be all the more shocking. It’s a shame they couldn’t keep that level of characterisation going with any of the other characters.
Connor really was a hit and a miss. He had the perfect canvas on which to be painted. Like you said, a victim of tragedy, caught in the middle of two sides that would sell him out for victory. It’s a shame like you said that he ended up muddled. And at times I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to do that Native American style wooden-English style of speaking, or he just sucked at voice acting.
Also, the Haytham plot twist was not a six for me, not at all. See, I’m a real fanatic for checking the animus data entries and pouring over each entry that comes up. And, unfortunately Haytham’s entry totally explains
he’s a Templarno buts about it, it just says it right there in black and white. When I read it, I paused the game and felt confused. Then I assumed that I had missed some dialogue or at some point or something and I assumed that everyone else playing the game at this point must knowhe’s a Templaras well (after all, they wouldn’t put it clearly in the animus entry if they were trying to surprise us). So then the scene comes where they revealhe’s a Templarand it was done in that real dramatic http://tinyurl.com/23g9so kinda way and then I was more confused. I was left thinking ‘so … I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be all shocked and texting my friends about this, but you already told me about this’ then I was left feeling like: http://tinyurl.com/lqaaayzYeah, while I’ll admit that the reveal took me by surprise (not quite, about 15 seconds before it happened I thought “ooh, I wonder if…no”), I was meaning more his characterisation and the writing supporting it. They’d clearly put more effort into him and it showed.
Oh, and major +++ for the Castle gif 😀
Part of the problem was that it’s just difficult to establish a new character like that after your audience has spent three games with Ezio.
Although it didn’t help that Connor was about as interesting as watching paint dry. Even in the Homestead missions which were a lot lighter and more personal, the line delivery fell flat a lot of the time. Haytham, on the other hand…a gentleman spy that won our hearts.
True, had it turned out to be about Haytham, it would’ve been a lot more fun likely…
Yeah I liked Haytham. Game should of been about him and his ideals. He did feel he was the good guys.
Haytham is by far the more interesting character. Wish we’d been able to play out the whole game as him instead. I also feel like there’s probably decent scope there to expand on his backstory (though maybe this happens a bit in Black Flag? I’m waiting for the PC version so haven’t played yet)
Nailed it, Haytham was pretty much James Bond.
They should have made Pirates 1 not Creed 4, I’m over the confusing story and the modern day stuff, barely made it through Creed 3.
The thing with Connor is that I wanted an ending. It took me forever to get endings for Altair and Ezio (disclosure: Altair was MY assassin, I think of him like others think of Ezio) and then I got endings for both in one game! And then Connor comes out and he’s this angry, stupid young man who ends up way over his head and just focuses on one thing rather than realise the side he was on was committing atrocities too. I wanted to see an assassin do a one eighty, stab his “own” team and become a wanted man by both sides because neither side were up to his standards. I wanted to see a man realising his entire culture is slowly being destroyed.
More than that I WANTED A DAMN ENDING RATHER THAN AN EXHAUSTED STAB AFTER HOURS OF PRETTY MUCH JUST SCREAMING ONE NAME OVER AND OVER.
I dunno, I thought Connor killing Charles Lee was a pretty great death scene.In theory I thought Connor was a good character, his simplistic view on the world and the revolution was quite good for a protagonist. When it came down to it though, he was just plain boring. If he had had more charisma and been more friendly the game would have been infinitely better. And due to his inability to interact with the other characters in the game, everyone else in the game had their potential as a character completely diminished.
But that’s the thing – it was a great scene for
Lee.Connor just kind of finished there.
Altair was arrogant, brash but eventually wise. Ezio was arrogant, brash but eventually wise. Connor was arrogant, brash. Then it was the end.
Just…give me some DLC of Connor being in charge of the homestead, growing old and eventually taking on an apprentice.
As long as you don’t make me keep two loggers from fighting again.
When I broke up that fight, I was thinking “ok, somebody needs to reel this series in, it’s getting so bloated and dumb”. Well actually, I was thinking that from the second half of Brotherhood onwards.
I didn’t mind the character of Connor to be honest. I thought Altair was the less likeable of the bunch. At least Connor HAD a personality, even if it was somewhat dull and emo-like. Altair had the personality of a potato sack with a face drawn on it.
Interestingly though, he had a kind of cool personality arc. It was highly predictable, but you don’t see enough of that in games. Characters normally start out as completely capable, perfect, heroic badasses and remain that way for the whole game. I liked how he was an asshole when the game started.
I liked Altair and Ezio more than Connor, but really, it’s the locations that have always been the star of the Creed series. I loved Constantinople, Damascus and Venice way more than I loved any of the people in them.
Forget Japan… Forget China… Forget Egypt… for the next AC… give me ASSASSINS CREED : NEW ZEALAND where half way through your character decides there’s nothing to do, so you finish the game in Australia…
Assassin’s Creed: Immigrations.
He could decide to go fight Orcs in Orcland…
Belly laugh, achieved. *tips hat* thank you for that sir.
Eh I enjoyed AC3. Not a huge fan of the first couple of games. Really enjoying AC4.
I don’t understand, now that Desmonds story is done, why are they still related?
Are we to believe that there is only one family of assassins? throughout the whole course of history?
They’ve been supposably fighting the Templars for generations… surely they’re not all related.
I mean, what about all those assassins we recruited in Brotherhood, and Revelations, and even in 3… surely they’re not all related too.
It’s not like they’re the damn Rothschilds.
They’re not. Think of a thousand strings all tied to a single nail. Each of those strings is a family line all leading down through a hundred or two hundred generations to a single person, seperate lines, that converge somehow, to one person, through marriage, through birth, then marriage, then birth etc etc.
Except that not everyone joined the assassin order through that path.
I know in previous games in previous AC games I’ve recruited a bunch of assassins, and none of them was through marriage.
Indeed, but Desmond isn’t related to every single assassin through history, just significant ones.
I am LOVING AC4, PLEASE make a sequel and build on the amazing foundation it has created!, who’s with me?
Wouldn’t be surprised if you get your wish. AC1 was good, AC2 was better, so they made Brotherhood and Revelations for it. AC3 wasn’t received as well, AC4 was better, wouldn’t be surprised if it gets its own Brotherhood/Revelations as well.
Let’s hope so. Edward deserves further fleshing out, further games and ‘voyages’.
It’s obvious A LOT of love and effort has gone into the Sea Combat & Open world, I would love to see a sequel building on this. Think More extensive ship upgrades, hell buy different ships. Heaps of melee/ranged weapons and maybe even a Brotherhood style system where you can have other pirates in your fleet looting and plundering & you take a cut of their share.
The possibilities are endless, I reckon UBI have found a license to print money with Black Flag, I just hope they cotton on to this…
Or even branch it off into its own pirate series. I’d be completely ok with it going AWAY from being Assassins Creed and being completely about privateering/piracy. The gameplay mechanics are fun, the ship to ship combat is well done, as you said, they just need to flesh it out a bit for a sequel and there you go. With online competitive multiplayer it’d be great.
Yes to online Co-Op, no to MMO/GTA Online watered down game play I say… I think it would be a massive waste for them to move to a completely new project, after the achievement that is their naval/land based no load screens…
Standalone pirate game could incorporate open world, 3rd person skyrim style, you could have RPG stats ie: Swordsmanship/Marksmenship/Intimidation. I reckon it would be insane.
I was super disappointed to find out there was no ship vs ship multiplayer.
But more than anything, what I’ve wanted from AC is co-op., hunting targets together over the rooftops. It NEEDS to happen.
It’d be pure bliss on the high seas too. Imagine someone at the wheel, another friend in the cows nest with a telescope, another friend on deck, ready to board enemy ships. Just hook it to my veins!!!!
You’re making it SO hard to wait for Nov 22 to play this.
I will fight any man who tells me that Altair was in any way better than Connor.
I don’t think Connor was a great character by any means, but at least he was voice acted well and had at least some personality, he got angry, defied his mentor, made rash decisions, had interesting daddy issues. He … y’know, actually had a personality.
Altair was flat, boring and the voice acting was simply terrible. He had this out of place American accent and the lines were read SO flat it was bad.
I think Connor sits nicely behind Ezio while Altair comes in at last (I haven’t played any of the spin off games).
If you don’t believe me you need to take your rose tinted glasses off. If you’re ever having trouble falling asleep, just listen to some of Altair’s cringe worthy voice acting:
Altair in AC1 or Altair in AC: Revelations? He became a more interesting character in the more recent game.
You do have a point though.
Yeah I hated Altair till they vlosed his arc in Revelations. He was then a badass.
I always thought Altair had an interesting story but yeah his voice actor was completely the wrong choice
It could have been direction too. The Star Wars prequels have taught me that even the most capable actors can be written and directed so poorly they come off looking like 1st year drama students.
Oh Shadow you could not be more right with your example.
Seriously, you wouldn’t think Ewan McGreagor could suck. George Lucas has an immense talent for sucking the talent and soul out of anything.
In the Red Letter Media reviews of the movie (EpII I think) he shows you the scenes were Obi Wan is delivering his lines trying hard not to smirk. You will be like “Oh god how did the crew not see that!?
Check out the vids if you have not seen it. Best 90min reviews of a movie ever.
-Red Letter Media, Mr Pinkett- He does all three prequels.
Haven’t watched the RLM review in a while (I usually watch em a couple of times a year) but I assume you’re talking about the scene where ObiWan says “killing younglings”. The urban legend is that killing younglings is a euphemism for masturbating (sperm = younglings) and he’s trying to hold back laughter when saying it.
Not sure if it’s true, but either way, killing younglings is now a great way to refer to masturbating and it’s possibly the best thing to come out of the prequels.
Oh yeah, I forgot about REV. I’m talking about AC1 in particular. I don’t remember much about Revelations, but I remember him being more natural and interesting. His part was very brief wasn’t it?
I think Altair gets a free pass for being the most boring protagonist because the whole Assassin thing began with him. So, the hidden blade, the free-running, the stunning white beak-hooded costume, the beautiful animations and badass fighting all distracted from his abysmal acting. So it was like, he’s so cool and awesome and badass, who cares if he has zero personality, becuase all of the assassin elements were attributed to him. But if Ezio was the first Assassin and then Altair was in a later game people would be hailing him as an insult to the series.
I think that’s a big part of it too, yeah. You see the picture of the lone, white-robed assassin in that simple, not-too-fancy-and-armoured outfit, blending into a crowd with only the lower face visible… that was really, really cool. Personality gets in the way of the mystery that makes that so cool.
I wonder if a lot of the reason some folks like Altair is for the mystery in his ‘lack of personality’. It’s been a while since I played it, but I vaguely recall that lack seems to mostly be due to a lack of meaningful interaction with anyone or a personal story that exists outside of his work. Which makes him both potentially mysterious, and even a blank slate to project themselves on to.
The biggest problem is that his voice acting just wasn’t done well.
I’m all for a mysterious, silent type, who’s muted personality actually adds depth to their role. Judge Dred, Clint Eastwood style, the dry lack of emotion really works when it is done well. But that’s not what is happening here. Watch that clip I posted in my original comment. Some of Altair’s responses had me thinking at the time “is this actually a joke or something?” They don’t at all line up with Al Mualim’s lines, which is a problem because often voice acting is done in a vacuum with no idea how the other person is delivering. Other times Altair sounds like an actor in a high school theater production, it sounds painfully amateur.
I will say though, I love AC1 maybe the most out of the series.
AC3, the only Assassins Creed game I didn’t finish due to complete boredom and dissinterest,
Honestly, I liked Connor’s character!! He was naive and angry, but that made me feel more for him. AC 3 had some great moments, but the terrible missions ruined it. Connor’s character was great, believable and a much needed change from Ezio. Can’t wait for AC 4 on PC, got my copy reserved 😀
The writing in AC3 was why connor was shit rather than the char itself. The writing in the AC series has gotten to a point where its just crap. It what happens when you annualise it.