Assassin's Creed: Brogue - A Video Analysis of Shay Cormac
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- My second video essay, this time a deep dive analysis of the main character of Assassin's Creed: Rogue.
I love this game! Hopefully you enjoy hearing me chat about it for 40 odd minutes. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Music, in order of appearance:
Silly Boy - Rafael Krux
Empty Bottle, Empty Bed - Mini Vandals
Assassin's Creed Rogue Main Theme - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
I Am Shay Patrick Cormac - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
Animus Black - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
Prosperity and Decay - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
Alemanda in F# Minor - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
The Hunter - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
Night in Venice - Kevin MacLeod
Cold Water - Patrick Patrikios
No Hope - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
Cityscape - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
Stay Low - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
You Should - Patrick Patrikios
Lost At Sea - TrackTribe
Run, Shay, Run! - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
Conqueror - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
No Hope - Elitsa Alexandrova (from AC:R OST)
The Sound of a Dollar - DJ Williams
I agree that the Assassins were using Shay as a disposable pawn however I felt that the Templars liked Shay as a person and comrade. If it was Rodrigo Borgia and his Templars then I would agree with you about the Templars manipulating Shay.
Haytham's Templars weren't evil, I am not saying they were saints either. The Colonial Assassins were misguided and too stubborn to listen to Shay.
The Templars in the past were evil and manipulative, however the Colonial Templars were realists.
Just my opinion.
Shay is such a great character. He is one of my favourites. I love how Shay doesn’t see himself as the hero. He questions his actions and that helps ground him. Shay feels remorse for killing Adewale Liam and especially Hope. Shay has a great dynamic with Haytham. You can tell there is a respect between the two. Shay doesn’t join the Templars out of spite or revenge. He joins them to protect innocent people. Shays voice acting is absolutely amazing. I’m so happy to see such great Irish representation in a game series I love. It means a lot and it gives me more of a connection to the character. I empathise with the betrayal he felt. His friends never respected him. Shays backstory is also really interesting. He learned how to sail a ship from his father and after his fathers death he became friends with Liam who was joining the assassins so he joined them as well.
Finally some one saying the right thing
I agree that shay backstory is interesting. If I'm not mistaken, shay defeated a quartermaster in combat when he was a teenager?
Seriously great analysis. I've played through this game at least three times and I always felt like there was something off, but the way you put it, and as I'm playing through it yet again (seeing exactly what you're saying), I feel like it's all laid bare. I just felt like Shay was being manipulated from the beginning, and yeah, he was and he just kind of went along with it.
A couple of things:
1) I never picked up on the fact that Shay was expendable to the assassins. I guess I just never really gave it any thought, but I agree with you that Achilles sent him on that mission alone not caring whether or not he lived or died.
2) I also never picked up on the fact that Shay was out there in the Arctic trying to "save lives", but yeah, there was nobody there but them. He (and I) completely bought into the lies that the Templars we're selling him and "us". They were the bad guys the entire time and yeah they were filling his head with all types of nonsense that we as players should have known were lies. That being said, I think many players bought into the propaganda, thinking that the Templars and the assassins were equal in this when the game's narrative may not have been saying that at all.
Unity and Rogue were developed mostly apart from one another, but they both say interesting things about brotherhoods, the individual will's moral and ethical resilience against a crushing crusade and times of revolution (internally in the factions and in the larger AC universe)
Awesome video my guy. It shows that through everything Shay Patrick Cormac did, he was still used as a pawn/tool. I like to focus on more of the human side of him as well. Deep down, he had no real friends once he defected. 😢. I could be wrong but maybe his last chance of having a true friend was George Monroe? 😢. Overall, I agree that both sides used shay for their own goals.
This was a great video!! Thank you so much for covering Rogue, It’s definitely the most underrated game in the mainline series :( I think the character of Shay is so goddamn interesting and I really wish Ubisoft did more with him (especially with how amazing his VA did like goddamn I would have never guessed he wasn’t actually Irish). It was so cool to see the narrative from a (sorta) Templar pov (at least in the latter half) and I really hope they try this idea out again in the future. Thank you so much for your hard work on making this video!
As a younger adult, I couldn’t play the whole game, too invested in the Assassin side. But as an adult, I appreciate Shay’s story, and want to give him another try.
Fun fact: the bugs that you have to fix in rogue are probably because you hacked the computers in black flag
Can that explain the bugs in unity
@@Emma-Queenofhell
I haven't played unity
@@potatogamerman it does matter I'm making a joke
I think that if they had longer than 8 months to work on it this game would have made unity the bugged out step child
Ubisoft and its fucking deadlines
I find hilarious that Shay went on a path of redemption from basically meeting Dr. Livesey!
“The words rum, and death, should mean the same thing to you!”
Now that I know that Shay was being used and manipulated by the Templars and Haytham without realizing opens my head more.
Making Shay think the things he’s “doing” for the people is good makes his views on the Assassins truly bad when not every single one of them are like the Colonial Brotherhood.
Now for the Colonial Brotherhood (that being Achilies) were seeing Shay as useless and not dedicated enough so he wants to get rid of him in private by sending him to grab that artifact without knowing its capabilities.
Like Shay really doesn’t have people that really care for him is sad.
And the fact that the artifact he was sent to grab was actually just a setup for him to die without knowing and that he was being used and manipulated by Templars and Haytham without realizing either is very depressing. Depressing to not know that nobody truly has your back or cares for you. All what Shay is just a pawn.
08.53 haytham never was an assassin. his father started training him to become one, but he was killed early during the process. He has been trained as a templar afterward
Yo this was a great analysis, seriously underated.
I just finished the game and I love your reading of it. Wrapping it with gaslighting is much more compelling than what I was feeling while playing it. Which was that the executives at Ubisoft really wanted to do marketing for a rehash of the well recieved previous game but "what if you're the baddies now?!". So the story was constantly trying to barely justify its existence because some corpos wanted it.
I did like Shay as a character. But I was distracted by the way they changed the Assassins' behaviour from previous games just to justify you being an authoritarian as a good thing. Reading the objective "kill the criminals" in the first flash-forward was so odd. They created the joker just so that batman doesn't look like a complete fascist. It was so weird seeing the Assassins act like a mob for no reason. And even if there was a mob, being a cop is not the solution. I kept thinking that the solution to some bad "activist organization" wasn't joining the government or some shit. The solution in that case would be to change and better the Assassins (like Altaïr did) not just to join their authoritarian enemy.
But your analysis makes me enjoy the story a bit more. Shay is not a philosopher like Altaïr was, he's kind of a blue collar grunt and doesn't really think things through. I don't think that your interpretation of the story was intentional by the writers. Honestly I think they were the ones gaslighting us into thinking that this story makes sense. But I appreciate your dedication to having a coherent understanding of it.
I hope you keep making videos like this. If you're consistent, I'm sure the people will come to watch. I'd love a Noah Caldwell-Gervais for popcorn games like Assassin's Creed.
Caldwell-Gervais is one of the best, so that comparison is extremely flattering!
I agree with you that many parts of my reading are probably not intentional; I also totally agree that the game exists because of some Ubisoft-corpo style desire to justify a "pirate but bad guy" elevator pitch spin-off game while they worked on Unity.
But I also think the kind of reading I did here helps us to understand video games as a sort of literature. Study of written word, cinema, etc so rarely focuses exclusively on what the author intended. By broadening our lens here, too, we can extract meaning beyond what the corpos cared to consider relevant. It's one of the reasons I find big budget games so interesting: the dev teams are so big and there are so many different voices coming through that you're bound to find all sorts of stuff you can hone in on for analysis. As in your (very correct) point that Shay was too quick to become a cop in response to his organization's failures: it makes him a more tragic villain and presents an angle to reflect on modern, real world politics I hadn't even considered before reading your reply.
Thanks for watching, and for the thoughtful feedback. It means a lot!
Great analysis! Can relate very much to the survivalist mindset blinding you to people who would take advantage.
"Extra evil Google" 😂🤣🤣 Perfect!
There was originally going to be about 3 missions with each assassin before his betrayal, but they really "needed" to drop the game the same day as unity.
Great analysis. I love taking a deeper look at this game, and your perspective on everything was great to listen to! Subscribed to keep an eye on some more video analyses from you. Watching the Unity vid I saw on your channel next!
I haven't herd this before it's beautiful. As for me I'd take that ring 💍 immediately.
I just realized while watching this video. Gist says he wants to tag along as your 1st mate to repay you for saving him, but he's the same kind of watchdog Liam was during your time with the Assassins. Neither side trusted you enough to let you do your thing without supervision. Maybe that's why Gist was so surprised that Haytham didn't let him come with them on their last mission to confront Achilles.
Um.. Haytham was never an assassin. His father, Edward, was an assassin who wanted to raise him as an assassin. But Edward died, and Haytham was taken in by the grandmaster of the templar order and was raised as a templar.
Yeah, that's true! There are apparently a few things from a tie-in novel I was unaware of when I made this, including more concrete details about Haytham's backstory. When I made this, I assumed the games themselves had all the relevant details.
I think the important parts of the analysis regarding how Haytham fits into Shay's story still stand.
So then why is it your favourite game? I think it's mine as well but I'm not sure, it's pretty clear I don't notice as much as you do. I find too many problems with Black Flag and the narrative too rocky to really enjoy. Ezio games are cool but I like Revelations the best and even that felt like there wasn't much to it, I don't even remember who he killed just that he was looking for what Altair left behind. AC1 has a really cool feel to me and the story is arguably the best but the gameplay is just too undeveloped to justify being my favourite, I already know Rogue took like everything from Black Flag and improved it. There's a lot of things I'm going to miss going into Unity, things they got rid of and never came back to. AC 3 seems very good, the story isn't messy, arguably has less holes than Rogue (But I probably just missed them) but I also like a game with a nicer ending than what happened to Connor. Most satisfaction he got was probably killing Charles Lee, everything else was just a failure. You really should make more videos on the other games, especially AC 3.
I haven't been back to Assassin's Creed as a series in awhile so I'd have to mull it over. Off the top of my head, I think I like Rogue the most because it took a lot of chances with the formula, both from gameplay and story perspectives. Since it was the "last gen spinoff" I think they were allowed to take more liberties and - personally - I think they really paid off.
AC3 is probably a close second for me even with its many flaws, maybe I will talk about it next if I circle back to Assassin's Creed. Thanks for the thoughtful comment, and for watching!
Please do talk about AC III. It's surprisingly (half)brave in having a half-native protagonist and half criticising the "revolution" and even half mentioning Washington as a genocidal racist (no mention of his slaves though).
Also the original Assassin's Creed is very engrossing with its themes of religion and obedience. Specially if you play it slowly and immersively. It's my favourite one.
I don’t accept. The templers mention many times Shay and thanks him for his abilities. He actually strive socially in the temples and have much better chemistry with them on the ship.
I really like it, Like Really Really RALLY Badly,. So Thanks
Just got to the native bit. Not sure why you found it off putting, but I think it was supposed to tie into the cave painting side quest, which suggests this particular tribe worshipped a 'deity' far more in line with the templars. Most likely an Isu that led their ancestors after the solar flare. This Isu was kind and rewarded them with protection and a modicum of freedom for their obedience. There was another Isu or just chaos itself which threatened that. I can't remember exactly, but it was there to flesh out the concept that this conflict of order and chaos permeated all of humanity regardless of race, creed, or history. At least that is my guess. I think there was supposed to be more, but 8 months isn't a lot of time to make a game out of reused assets, paper clips, and crossed fingers
It's been a couple years since I played Rogue and did this analysis, but I remember the inescapable feeling that the subplot was there to justify reuse of assets from AC3. It felt to me like a cynical recycling of content without appreciation for the context of it all, especially after how much work AC3 puts into giving these concepts depth and consideration. I can't say how "true" this is to what actually happened, and I doubt it was the developers' intention, but it seemed unnecessary. The costume especially felt weird for Shay.
I think your read of it is super-cool, and I would argue - if this was the developers' intent - they missed the mark by running out of time.
@@internetcouch Oh yeah, the whole game was made to reuse assets from AC3 and Black Flag, lol. Its an obvious cash grab, which is why it is so incredible how well it turned out, and how much care they put into the actual story. The costume is the worst looking in the series, and I think a costume is a weird thing to have locked away. It was obviously supposed to be like the Mayan Armor, but it should have been a weapon or something else.
I'm glad you think so. Next time you go through, pay attention to the cave painting story. I think they wanted to do a lot more with it. The game is a miracle for what it is, and I love it, but the fact it could have been so much more is pretty sad.
Finally a kindred spirit. I think this and the first game are the only 2 with any soul. And you know it is way deeper than other reviewers. The game is almost bad because of how much potential it has. But the 8 month development time also makes it a miracle. The assassins and the Templar used Shay. But he proved he is his own man. Too many story fumbles to count. But I still love what we got. I just wish there was something better to compare assassins to than antifa. I don't think i could side with lame violent hipsters ever
And then Connor and Arno comes and completely erases everything Shay fought for 😂
Shay's legacy was used to demoralize the modern assassin's, too
Oh I know there are some ship's with Shay besides the one with leam and Shay I have played this and omg people ship him with assassin's and ect.
Haytham was *never* an Assassin. There are plenty of non-Assassin's that know Parkour and are good fighters (thieves, Pazzi, Edward Kenway, etc). It's Eagle Vision that makes Assassins and Templars deadly.
I think the only problem i have with rogue is the colonial brotherhood. Everybody acts like complete dickheads for no reason and are arrogant asf. I understand that its supposed to be this way for Achilles' redemption and making the player be okay with Shay becoming a templar but they could've gone about it in a different way other than assassins bad templars good
Good video
Creator of this video, acts like the Assassins were Shays real friends. They treated him like dogshit, made fun of him, crapped on him for minor things, then when he was angry and legitimately so he was dismissed and treated as if he was a fool and didn’t deserve respect. Even at end when they are at the temple, Achilles at least recognizes his mistake, but Liam doesn’t even when Achilles tells him that it turns out Shay was right Liam reply is “WHAT DOES HE KNOW” another insult for his so called friend. But they are the ones who were his real friends/family. GTFOH.
By the way no one seems to consider the idea that Shay is just using the templars to accomplish his goals of destroying the manuscript and getting revenge on the assassins
I always had that kind of view because when Shay responds to Charles Dorian's final words he is really apathetic about how the Templars died and lost to Connor. Yes he did talk about a revolution but honestly I believe that if Shay was working with a radical Templar at this point in his life it wouldn't surprise me if he just killed him
Whoever made this video said so many things that were based off bias and not reality. Fact is Shay was betrayed by the assassins and the mentor Achilles used him to goto Lisbon and enter the precursor temple. Because if it creates another earthquake then Shay will die and oh well. If it’s an apple of Eden then he retrieves it: the assassins in Rogue were arrogant and they not only betrayed Shay they betrayed the whole Assasin order. Shay just survived when he was supposed to die, and he realized especially after being dismissed when he laid out what happened:
Haytham and the Templar’s showed Shay Respect. It was the assasins who were trying to manipulate him.
This whole video is a biased narrative, not an unbiased breakdown:
least obvious leftist
I hated Shay. Connor or Arno would obliterate him 1 on 1
Nah