Assassin's Creed 3 Speculation: 'Revelations', I am Disappoint...

     So... I'm kind of disappointed in Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Sure, the game answered a lot some one of my questions, but... Well, it didn't do much else. From the "Da Vinci Disappearance" DLC, I already knew where we were going, or at least I had hoped we weren't going there. It didn't answer a few of the more pressing questions I had. Before reading this post you need to read the other two (Speculation and Revisited), so I don't have to repeat myself. As with the other two posts, there are going to probably be quite a few spoilers, so if you haven't played the games don't read this. Go play the games. Except for maybe the most recent one...

I do hope this is the last one of these I have to make...

     First order of business: Theories.

- The "Fake Lucy" Theory: I still consider this a valid theory. The chatter at the beginning of the game between Shaun, Rebecca, William (the leader of the Assassins and Desmond's father, apparently), centers around having a funeral for Lucy, and not understanding what happened. I still think there's a possibility that she may have been a fake, and they still don't know any better. This may come from the fact that I really liked Lucy and don't want her to be one of the bad guys...

What? WHAT!?!

 - The "Desmond at a later date reliving his own past in the Animus" Theory: I'm beginning to have my doubts about this one. It seems like the end is too near and that all the major players are present by the end of Revelations. But then there's the two voices at the end of AC: Brotherhood, which don't sound like anyone we've met up until now. Maybe he was in the Animus the whole time and they tried to take him out? But you're in the Animus for the entirety of Revelations, so maybe the voices are from people sticking you in the Animus right after you kill Lucy. But one of them says, "But the Animus did this to him!". Did what to him? The Animus made him kill Lucy? I thought the apple made him kill Lucy? Could it have done something else? Edit: One of the voices may be William, who found you after you stabbed Lucy and stuck you back in the Animus. If this is true, then this entire theory is kaput. But what about Shaun and Rebecca? They were right there with you in the room when you stabbed Lucy. Why didn't they help you back into the Animus? Where were they at the time? You see what I mean? This game didn't clear these things up or expand on them. I don't know, I'm so confused... Ubisoft has a way of throwing us curveballs when we least expect it...

     EDIT: The Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia confirms that it was William and another technician that found Desmond in the apple room. Desmond may still be reliving the past through an Animus at a later date, but it's highly unlikely.   As for the part about Shaun and Rebecca not helping, it could have something to do with the apple stopping time in the room. Having never before been exposed to such power, Shaun and Rebecca wouldn't be able to overcome it and were stuck until William found them. A friend pointed out that he remembers seeing William's eyes, and that they were golden like Ezio's in his later years. Theoretically, this implies the ability to use Eagle Vision. It also implies that William has been an Assassin for a long time, and may have had contact with an apple or other artifact at some point, therefore retaining the ability to resist it's effects. Or the apple could have just knocked everyone out after Desmond stabbed Lucy until William found them. Yeah, that sounds a bit more realistic... and boring...

Kind of like this... But with a lot less Lucy...

 - The "Lucy is a spy inside the Animus" Theory: This is entirely dependent on the "Desmond at a later date reliving his own past in the Animus" Theory, and is more of a subsection of the "Fake Lucy" Theory. But really, it's mostly just speculation... What? I can let my mind wander too! I can come up with things!

- The "All of this is happening in real time" Theory: The story could just be progressing as it seems to be, no mind-blowing twists. You could be playing as Desmond now, no Animus "re-livings". This is quite possibly the most boring theory, yet it's looks to be the most fitting. If this is true, I have only one thing to ask: What happened to your imagination, Ubisoft? You were doing so well with the whole "mind-blowing" thing...

Is this... Portal?

     I'm still waiting for the answer to why Desmond killed Lucy, since it's an enormous plot hole in the story. Really, right now, it's the only reason I still want to play the next one...

     Second: Venue for the next game:

- I believe the next game will center solely around Desmond as he tries to stop Abstergo and the Templars. I doubt we'll be heading back in time again, or even back into the Animus for that matter. There may be some of that "bleeding effect" where Desmond experiences the past through visions, but I don't think we'll be going back into the Animus again. The end of Revelations has the group ending up in or around Turin, N.Y. (the place the coordinates point to at the end of the "Da Vinci Disappearance") with Desmond saying, "I know what to do." To be honest, I really don't see much of a story left for another game. The end seems very near at the end of Revelations, and looks like AC III will be full of pointless filler. Again, Ubisoft has a way of throwing us curveballs when we least expect it, and I do hope they prove me wrong...

Numbers? Ezio, I'm an artist, not a mathematician!

 - Revelations does a lot of filling in backstory. We figure out (somewhat) what happens to the race of humanoids that came before us. Some cataclysmic, apocalyptic event wipes most of their civilization out. Jupiter, another hologram like Juno and Minerva, tells you about the fate of his people, then about the secret underground bunkers they built for scientific research. He tells you that they were unsuccessful at stopping the world ending the first time, but that the answers needed to solve the problems are in these research bunkers. So they, the super advanced, technologically superior, master race couldn't stop it, but you can? I really don't get that, but hey, it's a video game. I have a (bad) feeling the venue for the third game will be in these bunkers, searching for answers. Sounds boring...

     Third, Disappointments:

- The data fragment memories that you can unlock reveal a lot about Desmond's past, revealing that he was born into the Assassin's order. I thought these data fragments would be like the "pieces of truth" in the last two games. Those were interesting, and fueled the conspiracy theorist inside me. Here I was expecting something that would add to the suspense and mystery of the story, yet here I am, disappointed... (Also, gameplay-wise, these fragment levels were a lot like Portal. if I wanted to play something like Portal, I would go play Portal. Seriously...)

- I still don't get Subject 16's place in the grand scheme of things. I thought I knew where they were going with him, and then I lost it. He had a place in the story, just not the place I thought he would (should) have been. Also, his monologue to Desmond in the "pieces of truth" program in Brotherhood still makes no sense to me and is still a giant plot hole. If he knew something about Eden, why didn't he tell Desmond about it? He had loads of time while they were talking on Animus Island. As for his "death"... yeah, I don't think he's really gone. I think he's downloaded whatever consciousness he had left in the Animus into Desmond's brain there at the end. I'm almost positive that we'll be seeing, or at least hearing, him again...

Are you going to do anything besides sitting, laying around, and whining about your pitiful existence? No? THEN GET OUT OF MY MIND!

 - I know they need (or feel they need) to add new stuff in every game in order to keep it interesting. The hook-blade was cool, the bombs were neat, and the "tower defense" mini-game... BLECH. Ubisoft, I beg of you, please keep that "tower defense" mini-game out of my Assassin's Creed. And don't even get me started on the "Assassin Missions" mini-game. I didn't use it much in Brotherhood, and I downright avoided it in Revelations. Seriously, Ubisoft, stick to the "Medieval and Renaissance Murder Simulator"...

It's a very pretty "tower defense", but that's besides the point...

 - The ending was a disappointment. All of the other games left me off with a, "Oh snap, where are we going next?" feeling. I already know where we're going for the next game, there's really no speculation there. Maybe Ubisoft will do something completely unexpected, but I think they may have, how do you say, "jumped the shark". Honestly, I think they had done that at the end of Brotherhood, and the story had taken a turn for the worse even before that. It's hard to top a game that good...

     I do hope that Ubisoft surprises me with the next one, because Revelations seemed like a let down. Perhaps I set my expectations too high, and Revelations just couldn't get over the bar. Here's hoping Ubisoft blows the pants off my theories and speculations and gives us something amazing for the ending of their flagship franchise...