Top 10 Historical Inaccuracies: Assassin's Creed
03. Cultural Destiny (All)
This may not appear to be a smoking-gun error, but one of the very consistent underlying themes of the games is the idea of choosing your own destiny as a cultural value. The bottom line? This has only been true since the post-World War I era!
Prior to World War I and later after World War II and the opening of post-secondary education to soldiers under the GI Bill in America, the idea of people from a lower class obtaining a university education was laughable. Even in Europe and Australasia that sort of upward mobility and opportunity simply did not exist.
Gaining access to that sort of upward mobility was the dream BEFORE the dream became a house with a white picket fence and a job for life!
Invariably the social class that obtained higher education and thus at least some measure of choice in terms of destiny and livelihood were exclusively upper-middle-class and above.But if you pay attention to the lessons being taught in the games you find that there is this underlying theme that people should not allow others to choose their path and what they believe - despite the fact that the vast majority of “people” tended to go into whatever business their family was in, be that blacksmith or merchant or domestic help.
That happened more often than not because the social system in place - read that Religion - both encouraged that path and supported it.
There was no government-sponsored entitlement anywhere prior to the post-World War I era - and mostly those programs were modeled after Hitler's Volkswerk Programs of the 1930s when the world was suffering from a global economic depression and that sort of change was necessary.
Man we hate giving credit to Hitler for anything, but seriously - in the US the CCC and Public Works programs were modeled after the German Volkswerk as was the similar efforts in the UK and Australia. In simple terms the governments needed to create jobs because people were starving to death.
From that came the idea of choosing to alter your destiny via higher education - a symbol that is hinted at in the games. We like the idea, but it did not happen in the time span that the games cover.
Pretty off point with some of the French revolution criticism.
For the record there are numerous texts that suggest that Leonardo has a relationship with his assistant. Additionally homosexuality was only coined in recent times, but has been practised since biblical times. did you actually do any historical research or is this article just your personal opinion?
I would like to clear up a misconception written on the first page. Other than a minority number of off sect extremists, like the assasins themselves, Shias have not been known to kill Sunnis. Rather, it was usually the other way around. Also, Shias do not believe they were the ones to lead after the Prophet. Shia means follower and accordingly Shias are the followers of Prophet Mohammad and his family. Shias believe the the rightful heirs to the leadership of the Islamic community belonged to the Prophet's cousin Ali, and his descendants. The Prophet stated and implied many times that Ali will be his successor but the power hungry people ignored the fact that the Prophet himself raised Ali after he was born in the Ka'aba in Mecca, and usurped the leadership of Islam while Ali was busy burying the Prophet after his passing. The Sunnis unfortunately follow those that usurped Ali's power while the Shias follow Ali. Shias view the Prophet and his progeny to be perfect exemplary humans.
the catacombs did exist at that point they were just less extensive the people of paris expanded upon what a previous civilization had expanded on the original catacombs, also the speed and ease of use in ships was something that is explained in the codex they were added by the animus to make it a little easier for the whole thing to happen
Actually, depending on the size of the ship, the guns will be on the main deck due to the fact that there is only 1 deck above the water line, like on the Jackdaw. So in truth, the "gun deck" and the "sail deck" would be on the same deck on a brig (Jackdaw) due to it's size. Same can be said about other ships like sloops, schooners and other ships where there is only 1 deck above the water line.
If you're going to question historical validity in a work, it's only fair to give credible sources in turn. "Significant other is archaeologist/anthropologist" doesn't cut it, particularly for evidence on this "advanced technological society" you talk of.
Ancient Aliens aside, some of your "facts" were incorrect. Example, some pirates were pressed from captured vessels. Bartholomew Roberts, in fact, was dragged into service reluctantly under Howel Davis. Roberts later forced captured officer Henry Glasby into service as navigator. To say it NEVER happened is wrong; that implies we know everything about pirates when we really know very little.
Historical fiction doesn't presume to be 100% accurate. Who wants to spend 45 minutes of gameplay unfurling a sail, or 2 in-game weeks careening? History itself is inaccurate; it relies on storytellers to tell us the "facts". People are unreliable narrators, storytellers moreso. After all, it's always about the best story you can tell.
People think Da Vinci's gay because some court files accusing him of "lieing with a man" are found and very real ._.
In his notebooks there are also some pictures of naked boys and men even more than the amount of naked women
Part of that was social attitudes toward women, too. While growing steadily more progressive toward women having education or women in arts, women posing naked in front of men was improper. Women artists were on the rise, as well, where previously art was strictly a man's job, but were still banned from male nude art model classes, something that's essential in any art training, as well as learning how to paint group pictures. Consequently, most of the nude or semi-nude paintings commissioned depicted religious scenes, which paid quite a bit more.
Many artists just used drawings of corpses, themselves (if they couldn't afford models), each other, or their apprentices, as was the case with Salai. Salai was clearly a favorite subject of many art classes, not just da Vinci's, and although Salai definitely has his share of mysteries and rumors which may or may not have aligned with the Assassin Creed storyline, he was definitely an interesting character if nothing else.
when playing assassin's creed one needs to remember that it's just a game
The only part of this that was't picky was the cannons on the top deck. The point of the game isn't to be exact, Warren Vidic says that what Desmond see's is different because that's how it actually happened.
You have a very rudimentary understanding of history. Being a Professor of world history, I would love a link or reference to your source. Not just for your historical "facts" but more importantly to the empirical evidence of this once great, technologically advanced, extinct society of which refer!
The word bloke came up and I stopped reading
Wow sorry to hear that mate... Where I come from the word is commonly employed to refer to a person of the male gender in casual conversation.
I'm originally from Australia, and while I learned American English as a Second Language at times I do slip up and use real English words. So yeah, sorry mate, didn't realise you were the sort of bloke whose word tolerance is so weak you have physical reactions to words you encounter on web pages.
Glad we got that sorted. You have a great day mate!
Cheers!