By now, many of you have completed Assassin’s Creed II. If you have not, DO NOT read any further. This page is littered with images and information tied to the game’s ending and Subject 16’s “The Truth.”
Like any episode of Lost, Assassin Creed’s story has been discussed to exhaustion in the Game Informer offices. Some of the staffers’ thoughts differ radically from mine, while others support the same theories. I’d like to open this discussion up to you. After you read my thoughts, use the comment section below to share yours. If I can figure out a format, I’ll create a second post with them compiled together and broken down into categories.
“The Truth” As I See It
Before I jump into the conspiracy theories, I first want to point out a problem I had with the ending (and yes, we can discuss this here too). Why didn’t Desmond jump on the truck and stab “Doctor Beard” in the face? He had all the time in the world to jump up there. Don’t give me the “Desmond doesn’t know how to kill yet” argument – he didn’t hold back from stabbing a bunch of janitors.
With that out of the way, let’s go back to first Assassin’s Creed. In this game, we were introduced to the “apple” which is also referenced as a “piece of Eden.” Given how heavily this fiction pulls from religion, my initial thought was that the apple was from the tree of Eden. This thought made sense for only minute. When the apple’s power was unleashed, it’s religious standing suddenly morphed to science fiction. I was convinced it either came from aliens, or seeing that mankind possesses the power to travel back in time through genetic memories, it’s entirely possible that they figured out how to send technology back too.
Assassin’s Creed II brings no clarity to any of these theories. In fact, the game’s reveals support all of these possible threads. During the adventure, we learn that many of the world’s leaders and brilliant minds each had their hands on the apple, or they may in fact have each had their own (trees are giving after all). I like the idea of everything that happened in our society being accountable to something that isn’t ours.
The Truth video takes us further down the apple-shaped rabbit hole with the reveal of two characters named Adam and Eve. But instead of showing them in the Garden of Eden as depicted in The Bible, they are clearly in a futuristic society.
If you look closely, you can see that Adam and Eve are not naked (Don’t worry. This bummed me out too). When the light bounces off of their bodies, you can see that they are wearing Tron-like suits with what appears to be glowing wires running up and down their bodies.
While the buildings around them show signs of a modern society, nothing inside the building gives a sense of era (I saw scaffolding and people welding). Adam and Eve look worried, and their movements show a sense of urgency, almost as though they are running from someone, or are trying to escape. So, why are they ascending the building? What good will the rooftop vantage point do for them? My belief is that they are not human in the typical sense, and that they are waiting for a ship of some sort. At first, I thought the final aerial shot was intended to show that this pocket of buildings was surrounded by wilderness. Perhaps implying that it was in the past, or that it was a lost world. But the game’s ending changed all of that. I now believe the shot is intended to show that something is coming down for them.
The real interest comes from the conversation Ezio has with a holographic projection. Interestingly, the projection needs to see the apple. And it doesn’t just view it from afar. It interacts with the object. The projection says that it goes by many names, but when it died it went by the name Minerva (at this point the game beats us over the head as it points a finger toward the Roman/Greek goddess. You know, the owl chick). The game then gets a little heady as it spits the names of a bunch of other Roman gods.
Unlike every episode of Lost, Ezio actually asks a pointed question (the same I had at the time). He asks, “Are you gods?” Rather than talking about a moving cabin, violent smoke, or a foot, Minerva answers “No. We simply came…before.” This seems to imply a civilization that predates ours. I like this angle, and I would be happy if the entire game’s mythology brings us back to a world that once was. I especially like the idea of it being far more advanced than ours.
The imagery that surrounds Minerva as she says this seems to say something different. Behind her, as you may recall, is our solar system. What if they were an alien civilization that settled on Earth? Her dialogue seems to imply that our kind is inferior to them, that they made us, and that we may never be ready to know what they know. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like snobby alien gibberish to me.
Minerva then warns Ezio that Assassin’s Creed III will follow the same plot from the recently released motion picture 2012. Apparently, the world burned (again hinting at a society before ours), and it will again. All signs point toward the Mayan’s doomsday prophecy occurring on December 21, 2012.
From all of this, Assassin’s Creed III should take place in a Mayan civilization set between 250 AD and 900 AD. If this is the case, don’t be surprised if the game releases on December 21, 2012.
As for the meaning of it all, it seems to point toward mankind being founded by an advanced alien race (a concept that goes contrary to just about every religious doctrine around the world). There are too many lines spoken in the ending that are hard to take any other way.
The one thing I can’t seem to wrap my brain around is this…
Who or what is this silhouetted character?
