Assassin's Creed 3 Speculation

How can you end a game like that!? It's just like Halo 2! RAGE!

     Instead of writing up reviews for the Assassin's Creed games, I decided to do something a little different. I will instead do some speculation (read: conspiracy theorizing) about the future of Assassin's Creed, and the plot of Assassin's Creed 3. Now, of course, this is all mere speculation, but using the cryptic messages from the previous installment's endings, I have put together some theories that seem to fit the mold Ubisoft is creating for us.

WARNING! UBER SUPER MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ASSASSIN'S CREED GAMES FOLLOW!

     Thou hast been warned...

     First I'd like to thank a friend who helped me piece together many of these theories. You know who you are... ON TO THE CREED!

Brotherhood "Pieces of Truth" cut scene:

Here's the whole thing (or most of it anyway):

     After gathering all of the "Pieces of Truth" in AC Brotherhood, you are sent to a level in which you run around, seemingly forever, until you reach a hologram of Subject 16 (S16). He speaks:

"Voice."

(Desmond:) "Subject 16?"

"Yes, Subject 17."

(Desmond:) "You're dead. I saw your blood."

"No time. It is far later than you know. Too late to save them."

- His sense of urgency already sounds as if this is a message to the past (see "Son" Theory, below).

(Desmond:) "Who"

"She is not who you think she is. Everything you hope to become, everything you hold dear. It's already gone.

- "Fake/Templar Lucy" Theory: After searching the interwebs, I've heard that Lucy may have been a double agent or that the Lucy that is with you is a fake. That would fit the "She's not who you think she is" part. At a certain point in Brotherhood, you can leave the Animus and go outside to explore Monteriggioni. If you turn on your eagle vision immediately after leaving the basement, you can see a path of red footprints leading away from the basement entrance. They wind around the manor, and go down the stairs; stopping at the grate with the Assassin's Guild symbol above it. If you look back at the stairs, it looks like this red 'stuff' that the footprints are made of had trickled down the stairs, like blood. This would raise some questions:
- Whose blood is this?
- Is it actually blood?
- Was it there before, or did this happen while we've been here?
Could it be Lucy's blood, trailing to where they dropped her body? There's no way to be sure, but it's plausible, especially after we see what happens at the end.

I pulled some other "Fake/Templar Lucy" theories from the Youtubes (edited for grammar and spelling, of course):

"In AC 1, we see Lucy showing that her left finger has been cut off, which is supposed to mean that she is an Assassin too. In AC2 she has all her fingers. Maybe Ubisoft made a mistake OR she was taken away by the the Templars. She was either killed or kidnapped so that an agent could take her place."

- I checked the AC wiki, and while I know it should not be taken as fact straight out, their explanation made much more sense.

She's missing a finger? How come I never noticed that before?

      She's bending her finger, to show that she's part of the order. If you remember when Ezio first got the hidden blade, Leonardo said that his finger would have to come off. He took out the butcher knife and... NOT! He was only joking, saying that they figured out a way to operate the blade without taking a finger. This was merely a gesture to show that she belonged to the group. Theory: busted!

"If Lucy is a double agent it would explain the easy breakout from Abstergo. I think it was a little too easy. Also, Desmond asks her how she still got information from Abstergo. If she was a Templar it would certainly make that easy enough. Vidic could have set the whole thing up to gain Desmond's trust. Although I do hope that shes not a double agent and the one Desmond stabs is a fake."

- I too felt that the escape was a little too easy, considering the part in the first one where we hear Vidic talking to security about a break in. Assassin's attacked Abstergo, attempting to rescue Desmond. Throughout the chat, I heard gun shots. The guards that you fight off in the parking lot have no guns on them; or if they did, they didn't use them. I would think that if they really wanted to stop Lucy and Desmond, they would have shot them. Of course, Ubisoft could have just overlooked that assassin/security battle in the first one when they wrote the second one. I did think I saw that Lucy had all of her fingers, although I wasn't expressly looking for them (I was too busy trying not to get my butt handed to me by the bad guys). Of course then this happened:

"Then why doesn't the eagle vision see through the disguise? With eagle vision you're supposed to be able to see the intentions of the people around you. Wouldn't she (Lucy) appear red or yellow? Not blue?" (From the Youtube comments section)

-... To this I say: the game allows only what the plot allows. He does make a good point, so I can't just dismiss it. But I don't really know how to counter it... so dismissed it is!

- "It's already gone." Desmond is already dead, or at the very least his family is dead (see "Son" Theory, below).

"Eden... She in Eden... Find Eve. The key. Her DNA..."

- This may mean the next game is the search for Eden. You'll be searching for Eve as well. Luckily, she seems to already be there.

"I cannot... The sun... Your son... Too weak... Must replenish energy."

- For once, I wish people could finish their sentences before going away... There seems to be something already wrong with the sun in S16's time line.

- "Son" Theory: You're actually playing Desmond's son. Earlier, S16 said, "Everything you hope to become, everything you hold dear. It's already gone." Desmond is possibly dead already. He then says, "Your son..." Remember how the Animus works? You go back through the memories of your ancestors. Since it seems that Desmond is dead, the only explanation for this would be that you're actually Desmond's son, reliving his recent memories through the use of an Animus. This is supported through the statement that everything's gone. You're reliving past events, and S16 already knows what happens. But...

- S16 seems to know a lot about the Desmond's future. How? Could he have held the/an Apple? Did he see the future through it? How does he know everything is already gone? Unlikely...

"Too weak... must replenish energy."

- Is S16 part of the Animus? Has he downloaded his consciousness into the Animus? He has to replenish energy, so maybe he has... or could this be a recording? Was S16 actually talking to Desmond? Throughout this entire exchange S16 never once says Desmond's name. IS skeptical...

"I am with you until the end. Find me in the darkness."

- Is it just me or does his voice start to sound a lot like Desmond's?

- "Clone" Theory: ZOMG! Clones! What if it's clones!? All the subjects before were incompatible due to some such blemish in their manufacturing. But that would defeat the "son" theory, which seems a lot stronger.

- "Subconscious" Theory: ZOMG! Subconscious! What if S16 is your subconscious trying to speak to you!? Again, not as strong as the direct "son" theory, but a possibility. "I am with you till the end." Your subconcious is obviously with you until the end (of life anyway).

EDIT: There are two different voice actors for Desmond and S16. Nolan North voices Desmond, and Cam Clarke voices S16. Since both of these are dependent on the fact that Desmond and S16 are the same person, these last two theories are pretty much kaput...

AC: Brotherhood Ending:

Here's the whole thing:

     Okay, so at the end of the Brotherhood, you pick up the Apple (like an idiot...) and the Apple talks to you...

(Desmond:) "What's happening? I can't move."

- Well of course you can't move! You touched the bright glowing orb, idiot! You shouldn't have touched it... You brought this upon yourself... It was a cut scene... Not my fault...

"Your DNA communes with the Apple. You have activated it."

(Desmond:) "Let me go!"

- Pshh... AS IF!

"On the 72nd day before the moment of awakening. You, birthed from our loins and the loins of our enemies. The end and the beginning, who we abhor and honor. The final journey commences."

- 72 Seems to be a big number for this game. "From our loins and the loins of our enemies." The Forerunners (HA, Halo reference, FTW) and Humans mating? The end and the beginning, who we abhor and honor."  Some contradiction going on here. The end of the Forerunner's reign on Earth? The beginning of Mankind? They hate this, but also accept it? "The final journey commences." Bring it on...

"There is one who would accompany you through the gate. She lies not within our sight."

- What is this gate she speaks of? Is Lucy the one who would accompany you? "She lies not within our sight." Either it's Lucy and they've captured her ("not within our sight") or it's someone else entirely that you've never met before. Lucy is more believable, since you kill "her" at the end, it seems that the "Fake Lucy" Theory fits better. Wait... the "Templar Lucy" Theory fits too, since killing Lucy would clear the path for Desmond to go find Eve. Grreth...

"The cross darkens the horizon."

- "The dark side clouds everything." LOL. Star Wars reference, FTW. Anyhoo, this could support the "Fake/Templar Lucy" theory.

"The path must be opened. You cannot escape your part in this. The scales shall be balanced."

- Killing Lucy opens the path? Supports the "Fake/Templar Lucy" theory. "The scales shall be balanced." Killing Lucy balances the scales? I don't get it...

"You Know very little. We must guide you."

- Maybe... You don't know Lucy is a fake/double agent, but the Apple does, and so it guides you into killing the impostor?

*STAB* Ooops... Well... Dookie...

"It is done. The way lies all before you. Only she remains to be found. Awaken the sixth. Go. ALONE!"

- Lucy dies and "it is done"? Killing her must open the path then. This supports the "Fake/Templar Lucy" theory as well. "Only she remains to be found." Mystery woman strikes again! "Awaken the sixth." The sixth what? Is she talking about awakening a sixth sense? As you make your way to the center platform, the hologram is rambling off about how humans have fives senses but there had been a sixth. She says that this was "kept from you. To be safe." Is this what that means? Or is the "sixth" a person? I think it's a sense, due to the simple fact that the subtitles in the game never capitalized "sixth", which, if a person, would be considered a proper noun. Right?

"Go. ALONE!"

- So the next game will be Desmond all by his lonesome self. Or will it? (Insert dramatic music) DUN, DUN, DAAAAAA!

Now for an even bigger question: what of the voices at the end of the game, during the credits? Two of them don't sound familiar, so these must be new people. This is the biggest supporter of the "Son" theory, in my opinion.

Voice 1: "&#%@! He's gone into shock."

Voice 2: "Put him back in the machine. It's the only way to fix this."

Voice 1: "But the Animus did this to him!"

Voice 2: "Am I the expert or not? Do it!"

Voice 3: "No."

- That third voice (Voice 3) sounds like Desmond. A LOT like Desmond. It sounds as if he's been through a lot, and he's exhausted and (obviously) in shock. You just killed Lucy, the person who has been your closest ally for three games. That would be enough to cause quite a bit of shock in my opinion.

Some other questions:

- Is Eden the vault that which the Templars were looking for in the first game? Is that why the "Voices" are looking for it? To find Eve?

- The truth video in the AC 2 showed a super advanced civilization, or at least a city that looked super advanced. My theory is that (and this has been pretty adequately explained in game) there was an ancient civilization predating everything, that the city in the video is Eden, and that civilization was destroyed by a solar catastrophe. What I don't understand is this: a solar catastrophe sufficient enough to wipe out life on Earth would probably cause irreversible damage to the planet. In the form of burnination. How then, did we survive and rebuild?

- When you first enter Monteriggioni, Desmond sees Ezio in the assassin statue room. He says that he is much older. What does this mean? Why did Ezio go back to Monteriggioni? Was it to write the code on the wall? This seems likely although it was never actually explained in game. Was he there for another reason though? That remains to be seen...

- Also, this:

Umm... WUT?

     Why is there an Abstergo symbol being projected by the Apple?

- And this:

Oh, don't tell me this is...

     The bar code is 12212012 = 12/21/2012: The predicted date of the end of the world, as per the Mayan calendar. Is this game going to be about the end of the world as the Mayan's predicted it? A solar flare would do it...

     AC: Brotherhood has got to have one of the biggest cliffhangers I've seen in a long while... I don't think I've gotten this excited over something like this since before 2007 and the release of Halo 3. And now I feel like a conspiracy theorist... Which feels awesome...

EDIT: Some of these theories have been utterly obliterated by the new "The Da Vinci Disappearance" DLC. I've made a few new ones in this post, which will hopefully last longer than the old ones. But that, of course, is up to Ubisoft...