This video is only intended to examine the religious and philosophical themes of assassins creed, a fictional video game. It is in no way intended to be a reflection of reality, my personal beliefs, nor is it meant to malign, slander, or misrepresent any religious belief one may hold.
@@judebachelet7822 hes clueless 1st of all no one knows not to mention there wasnt god mentioned in the entirety of its existence only refference close to it is jesus and its there only bcs desmond will become something more thn human but at the same time he always was and it was sfeipted fake story which may or may not be that big of a deal that cd be considered on the level of god but it has nothing to do with personal beliefs of the universe we dont know anything about that stuff and what we know is bare minimum and its using real life references for funny stories or ideas So I got no idea wtf is this video about The closest we got to the god reference is the witches in origins vallhalla and even that is just being high af nothing to do w god We never encountered real god reference in the entire franchise except as I already mention desmond x layla or isu x or the knowledge itself but thats not god The point is there definitiley is god its what the whole franchise is about lmfao
@@1CD_aj8914highly doubt it, as they were so advanced they recreated a species (humans ) to look like them, thus becoming gods to humans. They played with lives like gods so it’s unlikely they believed in one
@@smileyent.3055I mean, even us humans, we've been lately playing with lives like gods (genetic manipulation, some scientist's goal to resurrect some extinct species, the quest to create conscious AI, etc. ) and this has not stopped the majority of our species from continuing to worship God. Maybe the Isus had a different concept of God than us, maybe they thought of God as a pantheistic concept.
@@DylbunAssassin's Creeds Philosophy is called Promethusism named after the Greek God Promethus. A Gnostic belief that through Advanced Technology (Knowledge) and Human Evolution Mankind can make themselves Gods or better then the Gods. The Isu arent just Mankinds flawed Creators but Mankinds future Potential goal. In the Comics one of the Isu talks about Mankind potentially surpassing them. Mineva did say that the only difference between humans and the Isu was that the Isu was more Advanced in time (Evolution) The Supernatural and Spirituality doesnt exist in Assassins Creed, Miracles are only caused by Advanced Technology which is indistinguishable from Magic. There is also no Emortal Soul or Afterlife the only hope of eternal life is if youre lucky enough to have access to the Technology that will allow your Physical body or mind to live forever i.e in the Animas or Staff of Hermes. 99.99% of mankind will never achieve this as they live in the wrong time and place or dont have access to the technology. Thats reason why the Assassin's focus on Free Will there is no God nor Gods to guide Mankind despite our in-built desire to look up to them. Religion is just a Noble Lie for the Masses. Mankind has to become their own Gods in order to live forever and create and choose their own path surpassing even the Isu who created them. What a load of Athesist Free Mason Bullshit but I still like the Games 😅
Ironically Ubisoft forgot this with later entries. The pieces of Eden never summoned physical Minotaur’s or Sphinx’s, they created illusions that a more superstitious society deemed as “magic” or the work of “gods” yet AC odyssey decided to change that for more fantasy elements
@@Deivid-bn6yw The thing was that they weren’t illusions they were basically monsters created by the Isu which I don’t see why everybody has a problem with that considering these are the same people that apparently had AI, and could even create robots and even created guns and it’s confirmed that the reason why humanity has guns is because of their pieces of Eden so how come they can’t genetically engineer monsters? That’s like the most sci-fi thing ever
The mix of religious, politics, humanistic, historical and sci-fi topics were just the perfect salad that made me love the series. No forgetting fantastic music that wraps all these games with different cultures and the gameplay mechanics... those make the central core of the series, something that I could really feel for the first games.
Sadly it wouldn't be a reach to say it's a game that never releases its potential. From bad game designs to rushed product Assassin Creed has never more than mediocre game
The message of "God doesn't exist" is a pretty ignorant message to say. The games are good but holy shit. No human alive can prove that God doesn't exist or DOES. All people can have is faith or there lack of. Not even science proves that God doesn't exist. And even if it did who is to say that science isn't a biproduct of God? Only the pompous say that definitely God does or doesn't exist. All humans have is faith or none at all.
I love the Sages as a concept, the idea of a certain Isu's collective memories manifesting in certain humans and PARTIALLY influencing them as the human struggles to comprehend the memories. It forces us to ask if we truly are our own person but also what it means to be alive. It also questions what makes a person, is a person genuinely based on choice or simply influenced by all of the memories in them. Clay Kaczmarek (Subject 16) said in AC Revelations; "What is a man but the sum of his memories?!?!?!". The most recent game, Mirage, has you play as a Sage named Basim. Basim has the memories of an Isu named Loki, with Basim trying to stick to his own ideals but also dealing with the memories of Loki and figuring out who he actually is and if he is an actually free person. It ends with Basim embracing Loki's memories, which ironically makes him a free person, as he now knows who he fully is. However, this is also partially false, as Loki's memories manifesting in Basim was pre-programmed by a supercomputer known as Yggdrasil, altering the bloodlines of Basim's ancestry until he was genetically molded into the closest thing to Loki, which once again begs the question of if Basim is truly a free person and whether he is truly himself as his motivations, personality, and ideologies become a mix of his own and Loki's.
Wouldn't say Basim embraced the Templar ideology, just that he embraced the identity of his former life and his former self made his children into sages aswell. He seems to just want to reuinte his family. Though, wheater or not he cares for humanity is, well, up for debate i guess?
@@charleswolfe8896 An important distinction is that a Sage is only Aita's memories taking over someone (eventually). Basim and the other Norse Isu weren't sages when they got reborn. They were only "reborn" once, and once they die again, they die for real. Aita, however, can keep dying and as long as a Human lives, he has the potential to come back in that person.
Something I loved in the first game and on parts of 3 and rogue is that they didn't show the templars as cartoonish vilains who want to Dominate The World, they were people who wanted peace just like the assassin's, their objective were the same. The difference is that assassin's believed everyone should have the knowledge to get to this conclusion while templars wanted to shepherd civilization to that goal Then came the other games with this whole "assassins are the good guys and templars are the villains", with no gray areas anymore. A bit sad in my opinion
The Ass Creed series had this problem since AC2 really. AC3 & Rogue became more self-critical in reflection to those older titles which to be fair - they did miss that potential again in later games.
@@godzillazfriction Actually a good chunk of the games portrayed the Templars as cliche villains, and I'm talking TEMPLARS because I have not played any of the "Order of The Ancients" games besides Origins. The Templars in Syndicate and Unity especially. There were very few Templars in Syndicate who you could argue had nuance, but in Unity, it was all cartoonish villainy.
@@godzillazfrictionNah dude, definitely not just those. Brotherhood was mustache twirling levels of villainy. Unless of course you also include that game when you said AC2. But don’t get me wrong, I love Cesare as the villain.
@@faisalsukhtian1932 I guess it's kinda reasonable for the writers to make templars more really corrupted on that timeline, considering how the borgias are in the history
The Assassins are based on the real world religious order of the Hashashin, founded by the historical religious leader and warlord Hasan-i-Sabbah. Hasan was a student of epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge and the rationality of belief. He used a unique combination of faith and pragmatism to achieve incredible results, such as near bloodlessly sacking Alamut by converting the majority of its villagers to Shia Assassin's Creed is more specifically inspired by Hasan's portrayal in Vladimir Bartol's 1938 novel Alamut. It opens with the supreme Ismaili motto: Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Bartol portrays Hasan as a man who has climbed the religious ladder only to discover that at the highest level of practician, there is no meaningful reason to believe God is real - not because of evidence to the contrary, but because of a lack of evidence thereof. He spends the rest of the novel answering the question of how a skeptic could lead a religious cult. I won't tell you what he does with that mindset, because the conspiracy is incredibly engaging and I highly recommend it to someone like yourself who has a lot of thoughts on this Assassin's Creed adapts this line of thinking by creating a world in which Hasan was right. All world religions are simply a misinterpretation of a history too complicated and buried for humans to understand. This interpretation was not created by Templars *as* a manipulation tool, it was simply co-opted once they realized its potential for control. The answer was in Altair's journal the whole time. He observed similarities between religions either predating Christianity or developed in isolation thereof. Templars *exclusively* use Christianity as a manipulation tool, so that doesn't account for all the other world cultures trying to make sense of the same events As an extension of the motto, or as we understand it, an extension of the Creed, this deconstruction fuels the franchise's message. The Creed warns against religion being weaponized, but it also celebrates its capability for peace if used responsibly. Assassins may not have any use for religion (anymore), but they're also not inherently opposed to it. Similarly, they teach its lack of veracity is not a hindrance to peace. Robert's fear of death is an oxymoron, because he knows death brings nothingness, so to fear death is to fear nothing, implying a lack of fear. Understanding that is the road to finding peace in death, and by extension, peace in a world where religion is at best imprecise and at worse hazardous. Just like how Assassins are not negative nihilists, Assassin's Creed is not about negative nihilism. It's about pragmatic skepticism, detailed observation, freedom of expression, and the dangers of humanity
this might be true but also, the first record ever of "nothing is true; everything is permitted" actually comes from Friedrich Nietzsche, a german nihilist philosopher which kinda fits how the guy in the video talked about the nihilism of the games
I’m ngl These games gave me so much existential anxiety Sibrand’s death in ac1 terrified me, and the one person you kill in ac 2 who says “no, it’s too soon… I’m not ready” It’s kinda upsetting
Sibrand: "A blockade by sea, to keep the fool kings and queens from sending reinforcements. Once we... once we..." Altaïr: "Conquered the Holy Land?" Sibrand: "Freed it, you fool! From the tyranny of faith."
Thats the whole point, nothing at all as we know it is true and we will never know “the truth” so the only way to peace is that “everything is permitted” be it in an individualistic case on your own self being. Free will, however as states total freedom invites chaos so if we dont have a sense of self control within ourselves then we lose our freedom to chaos. In my belief is that we all must come to realize a global instinct within ourselves that is our nature to dictate what morality makes our virtues to establish that control within ourselves. Such as we all atleast majority of human in their right mind know pedophillia is wrong or beastality and its bc its an instinctive global truth.
@@Fzrnagz nothing is true as we know it is a contradiction. There has to be truth for the statement to be true. Just because it’s an Instinctive, doesn’t mean we should listen to it.
I once played earlier games of this franchise for the story, and the thought provoking issues it brings up sure had me think on who I am and what I want, something certain people are attempting to censor these days.
The Assassin's concept of "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" that was explained in Revelations was a nice touch, but I further understood it somewhere in either Origins or Odyssey. It was there that the "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" is a reference to the Isu technology of manipulating past and future events to change outcomes, and their sixth sense of their super heightened perception of the flow of time.
Human religion in game may be false But it still begs the question about the Isu, where did they come from? What's their full history? And are there other Isu out there? Things we'll never know
Through my journey of playing Assassin's Creed, starting with 2 at the age of 11 I believe, I never once even thought of God being real in this games universe. Maybe its because of my own beliefs at the time but my first time playing "The Truth" segments of AC2 is what kept that thought as far away from this game as possible. I was immediately aware that what was happening was far more technically advanced than being a miracle of God, even more so going into history and what was created using the Pieces of Eden. Thanks to your video I am now able to look back (at 4:10am) on the game, more specifically my thinking at that age, and give praise to the writing of the early AC games Edit: I believe this is also why I had such an understanding of "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" before it was fully explained by Ezio later in Revelations. While it may not have been a word for word interpretation I definitely understood what was being conveyed to me through the assassins
Great video. This is really one of the best aspects about the series. It is also worth mentioning that these concepts are also present in the main inspiration of the series; Vladimir Bartol's Alamut, not to mention some aspects which were also incorporated in AC1.
Assassin’s Creed was originally developed to be a fast sequencing story, meaning each title the game would move dramatically and quickly to the final ending/conclusion, most likely in as little as three games (as I doubt the whole six game plan thing) Problems started arising possibly as early as AC1, but certainly at AC2 once they were making Brotherhood and Kristin Bell got fired so the original plot started changing a lot. We have to keep this in mind with the true Isu lore that we will probably never know. As far as the religious aspects, understand that this is coming from a Christian perspective, but the game never clarified if there is a God or an afterlife. It never does and this is fact. What we see as “afterlives” are computerized consciousness digital realities and that doesn’t count because it was reserved for Juno and Desmond only. So what does that make of the fate of trillions of other humans? Sounds like if there is an afterlife it wouldn’t be what the Creator would have planned. Other than that, the game does not clarify what happens definitively once a person dies. When we see these characters coming to the “truth” and coming to an existential crisis like Sibrand, Altair and others “knowing” there is no God and afterlife the truth is they never truly knew. They only went as far as the Isu’s existence, nothing more. Which raises the question, why did they settle on this? Why not go further and see if there is still a God? The game clearly explains that the Isu are not divine, just beings similar but superior to that of humans, but still infinitely inferior to a hypothetical God. This is not arguable whatsoever because they themselves tried to come up with ways to save themselves and they did not just create themselves-they just “came before”. They have no dominion over death, they did not create life and the universe, all they did was create man. They want to be worshipped like gods and they love it, but they aren’t. This still makes room for a God to exist and they may never touch on this subject due to the atheistic agenda nature of AC.
Its why I hated and still hate the Isu as a concept. In a Godless universe like Assassins Creed, literally nothing matters. Good, Evil, Morality? All of it objectively meaningless. And the Assassins and templars both know that. At least it feels like the Templars are fighting for dome semblance of Order against the constant flow of chaos. And them fighting each other is ultimately pointless when no power will save them from the nothingness after their deaths. The AC universe seems very grim im that regard, imo
Reading this has me thinking, what if 75,000 years isn't actually the stopping point? What if it goes even further? What if the Isu Era is the last era we truly documented and understand, so it isn't crazy to say that in lore they lack the necessary evidence and history to concretely confirm that the Isu era was the start, and there isn't a whole century or millennia of history lost to time prior to the Isu Era. As far as I know on the Wiki (taken with a grain of salt, it is the fandom wiki), the earliest recorded year was the Isu Era at 1923, when Consus created the first piece of Eden (the shroud). So we have 1,923 years of history, maybe even years after Year 0, unknown to us and or the people within the games. This theory is also not completely broken by the POEs because the first one was allegedly created in the 1923 Isu Era, so those 1,923 years would not have been documented by the POEs. So when Altair peers into the Apple, he sees only what was documented by the Apple which does not encapsulate the years prior to 1923, the year 1923 itself, and the years leading up to whenever the Apple was created. It can, however, be theorized that Apple was created sometime between the years of 1923 and 2161 (because in 2161 on the wiki, again grain of salt, the Isu created humans with the sole purpose of enslaving them as a workforce with the help from the Apple of Eden)
It's kind of summed up in one of the first lines of the first game "Nothing is true everything is permissible" ... An extremely stupid line because 1. They think it to be true 2. They fight the Templars because they think what they are doing is not permissible...
I think the only character to lay out a somewhat coherent understanding of that saying was Ezio. “To say that nothing is true is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile and that we must be the shepherds of our civilization. To say that everything is permitted is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious of tragic.” But the issue with this, is how did he come up with that? He seems to be making the saying mean what he wants it to mean.
First 4 games story came together was beautiful, and that’s an understatement. It told it so well mixing real life with imagination it might have you questioning your own reality. The puzzles involving real life figures had me feeling like I wasn’t supposed to see something. Never cared how the other games played out after Ezio though.
one of the best videos on assassin's creed i've seen. there's a lot to learn from ac and i'm glad i grew up playing the classics. videos like these help me introduce my friends and family to the essence behind what seems to be a basic ninja game on the surface. thanks for this vid.
The phrase "Nothing is true, everything is permited" in AC is a lousy interpretation from the words of Hassan ibn Sabbah, the actual real life founder of the order of the ismaili assassins. Brotherhood and revelations especially take big liberties to portray the meaning of the sentence, wich has more to do with inner realization and self knowledge than social or political guidance. If youre really interested in learning more about the philosophical claim that is the sentence I suggest you read "Alamut" by Vladimir Bartol, its a very enjoyable novel with lots of philosophy and history themes and characters. I enjoy AC for what it is but they got the meaning of the phrase wrong.
@@lakshaykochhar6799 Its a discussion itself in the book and its better to read what different characters add to the interpretation, but in short it would be: Man does not have the ability to know truth, therefore nothing is true. If nothing is true, we are not bound by neither god's laws or the laws of men so everything is possible, and we are encouraged by this to fulfill our objectives and desires.
In the Godless universe of Assassin's Creed, Templars look like smart people that know they'll die and then just disappear so they want control. Assassins look like Nihilist coping by saying "We make our own destiny".
But thats not nihilism, the idea of making my own purpose is a rejection of nihilism , that is part of a secular humanist philosophy (Btw Im Greek too)
@@mariolisI say Nihilism mostly because Assassin's Creed has some Nihiliste lines like: "Nothing is true, everything is permeated". Thanks for telling me the difference though, I honestly thought Nihilism was about making your own purpose.
@@mariolis Secular Humanism is nihilistic in nature as it discards objective morality and duties and just focuses on hedonism and base human instincts.
@@mariolisit's cope is what it is, no made up meaning holds up to tides of time. And no one makes their own destiny, no one has that much control over life, that doesn't even make sense.
Very good video brother! I always love delving into the philosophy of AC. It’s interesting, because as a man of God I always understood that in AC, religion is propped up by the Ones Who Came Before and the pieces of Eden. How that determines the ideals of the Assassins and Templars was explained superbly.
4:33 the ISU admit they are not gods... so who created the ISU? On the topic of 9:30. Can a loving merciful God exist in a world full of violence? Many religious texts emphasis free will. They also emphasis that God is eternal, he knows what comes before and what will come after. Many people confuse this as God has decided alright in 1939 millions will die. in 1948 another group will die. etc etc. Yet all of those actions were caused by who? Humans and their free will. Humans start conflict with one another. and yet we blame God for something that man has done? Thats not to say God isnt violent. God talks of heaven and hell, paradise and punishment. Believing and following in his command, or disobeying and being punished for it. If you created something and it didnt do what you wanted it to do, you would punish it. ESPECIALLY if such individual/individuals were the cause of so much death and destruction and pain in the human world. (10:15) "of course I dont care what other people worship I killed them because I could, it was fun." Should this individual be rewarded for the life he lived? 14:27 "to say that everything is permitted, is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences." Yet again, how can God be blamed for that actions that humans commit. Now of course this is a video, it has to cater to every major and minor religion at the same time. Are they going to get it right, no. My take on this video, is you actually have no disproven that God is not a real. How was universe created, how did earth come about, how were the ISU created, was there a civilization before them, do the major religions in AC not have religious texts? What do they say because it clearly must be different than real religious texts. I think the fact that the game is set in a fictional world still offers a lot of holes that isnt backed by reality. I think if someone plays AC games and thinks religion is not real then they haven't investigated religious texts. Going back to God, there are attributes and qualities to God that most people can recognize, Extreme intelligences for being able to create things out of different materials,. Omnipotence, because if you believe in the big bang or that the universe is expanding, the universe had a starting point and God must exist outside of that. I actually agree with much of the 3rd chapter of your video, there needs to be a balance of freedom to believe and find the truth for oneself, but also to submit to a higher power, especially an objective one. Now my biggest issue with the AC games is that it rewrites religion as, they were using pieces of eden. In a nonfictional sense, obviously this is false. In a fictional sense sure thats fine, still have not disprove if there is something greater than even the ISU.
This game is so much more than just a game. It is a message for us about the real world and things happening not visible to us. This video is perfect thank you for making it.
@@mscroft3124 Yes, for example as templars have a goal to create new world order, the elites in our own society speak of it on the dollar sign and George Bush senior. The game makes you think
What i always find strange is how some characters when dying act like the can see God or an afterlife. Like the insane doctor in Assassin's Creed Mirage. So they at least make it mysterous enough to not offend everyone.
The video reminds me of when I was in elementary school, when our teacher brushed over the idea of political left and right. One kid asked, referring to the far ends of the spectrum: “if they’re on opposite ends, why do they sound so similar?” In the end, Assassins strive for free will but often can’t escape deciding what’s good for others for them. Templars came to the idea that control leads to peace, by their own free will. I wish Assassin’s Creed continued to at least subtlely go into the ambiguity between the two, and the kinds of philosophies described in this video.
I'm sorry but if you think Templars and Assassins are two sides of the same coin.. you've been fooled by Abstergo's propaganda. The Creed demands us to be wise.. and you have not been wise.
Do not forget it's not only the ISU (aka Elohim aka Anunaki) but also the antediluvian Giants (aka Titans aka Nephilim). For example, In AC Valhalla all the big stone monuments are supposedly made by the second.
Fantastic video. This is the kind of stuff that made me love this series. I thought through a lot of these concepts for myself years ago but I never saw a proper analysis that really explained it. It was always hard to verbalise all this in a cohesive way and this video did it really well so thank you. Yea the general gameplay and settings were fun but what got me excited to buy the next game was to see where they would take these ideas but it just seemed to trickle down to nothing in the later games and thats why I dont buy them anymore. This lore was the secret ingredient that made these games special and I feel like they lost that at some point.
Wonderful video that gives me a new view on the religious side of assassins creed Where I once found Valhalla’s, Odyssey’s, and Origin’s use of mythology and religion in their dlcs confusing I now see it in a different light. I feel I can have a much larger enjoyment when playing with this better understanding. Thank you.
Wonderful video! Absolutely love it. I like that you actually touched on the less popular side assassin's creed, which is what the games ultimately stand for. It's ideas and views. I wish more people cared for it.
Technically the Templars as organization believe in God, the Father of Understanding is similar to how deists and freemasons refer as Him like the Great Architect of Universe
A video I continue to keep coming back too I stopped playing the games after Origins just didn't enjoy how much the gameplay changed since Syndicate but the story I always found intriguing and fascinating I hope more people find this now that Shadows is coming out keep up the great work brother look forward to more of your stuff
8:27 "If Jesus was a false prophet and apple wielder, doesn't that make his faith false?" I don't even have words to define how wierd it is to see someone use a fictional fact from a video game to contradict a real life belief. This feels like the reddit echo chambers have reached an entirely new dimension. It's almost as if you've established Assassin's Creed as the real canonical history of real world events. I have absolutely no words for this. Just how much unacceptance of reality can one person foster? I thought gender dysphoria was the limit, but I was dead wrong. At this point one could take a piece of paper and write "god isn't real" and consider it legitimate proof for god's non existence.
Use your Head, his talking about assassin's Creed and there not being a God in that world. Sure I'm christian but come on, I'm not even offended by this video. Jeesh
This is such an amazing video, and as someone who isn't very religious myself, the Assassin's viewpoint really does resonate with me in that even if there is no divine being, we can still live our lives how we want it and that's what truly matters
I don't mean to insult amazing video or it's video-maker or you in a slightest by this reply, but don't you think that's just obvious? I mean what else you're gonna do with nihilism or existentialism, but either destroy yourself or make your own values?
I respect your opinion but bro you don't make much sense. Just because we have the ability to live our lives how we want to, doesn't mean we are morally and ethically obliged to do anything we want to. What matters truly in life is if you live every moment without having any regrets. Religions specifically the more Concrete ones like Islam teaches us moral and ethical values which were long lost before their advent.
I respectfully disagree. My takeaway from the franchise is not that G-d doesn’t exist. Rather, it is that the way most, if not everyone, gets it wrong as a result of their culture’s influence on how they perceive the world around them. I find it very interesting that we never truly encounter anyone outwardly Jewish in the franchise, at least to my understanding. It is entirely possible a historical figure has appeared in that game that we believe to be Jewish in the real world, but it’s far more obvious to spot Christians, Muslims, and the numerous forms of polytheists. We see a synagogue in Origins, but the NPCs outside of it were randomly generated the same as literally everywhere else in Alexandria. It is a bit of a stretch, and it’s unlikely that they planned it this way, but the way the Torah explains G-d makes it plausible for Him to still exist in the Assassin’s Creed universe. Spirituality and religion just developed in a very different way in this universe, resulting from historical events (within the lore) that were filtered through limited understanding. Adam and Chava (Eve) weren’t the first humanoids, simply the first homosapiens. Odin and Loki weren’t gods and demigods, they were a more technologically advanced species. Mythological creatures weren’t actually creatures, they were manifestations of Apples of Eden (either creating nightmarish visions that the current peoples understood in their imaginations, or that those people rumored into myths and legends after surviving encounters with whatever the Apples decided to manifest.) The forbidden fruit wasn’t an edible fruit, but a tool or weapon. The staff of Hermes wasn’t a god’s tool, but a highly advanced technological tool. Magic isn’t real, it’s technology hundreds of thousands of years ahead of its time, using elements yet to be rediscovered or harvested. A singular G-d orchestrating everything can still exist in the AC universe, however our understanding of that G-d in the AC universe cannot be easily defined nor comprehended… well, even less than the G-d of Yisrael.
I know it would be to controversial but I would love a game about the 2nd/3rd generation assassin after Bayek in Jerusalem investigating the mystery of Jesus in the AC universe.
@@NamelessAddy depends how it's being portrayed, if the illusion is to cause harm and make Jesus evil, yes it would get plenty of hate, but if it's simply just Jesus trying to help the innocent with everything that he can, it could get a pass
Man you got rannnnge!! I loved your RDR physics video to the moon cause it was the only one I could find aside from your fantastic production. The vaporwave intro was great.
I wish there was some moral dilemma between Templars and Assassins instead of the Franchise always revealing Templars to be the bloodthirst monsters. was there any point in the story that wasn't black and white?
As an athiest that has followed AC games since day 1 I absolutely agree with their philosophy. It has helped me with a lot of reasonings around religious stuff. We all have our own religions(or lack there of) and beliefs. But personally i do beleive there's nothing really there when our time on earth is up. So it does get a bit nihilistic when you think about it that we humans are alone and nobody will remember us, it doesn't really matter what you do or who you are. It gets incredibly depressing and all. Until you get to the conclusion that even if those things doesn't matter, what matters is that you are here right now. What really matters are the people around you and what you do each day. You won't live forever, so do what YOU want to do and don't hesitate to experience the world, our amazing planet and our history and everything you can experience in the world. The AC philosophy has helped me grow into the person i am today because of these beliefs. And of course, ALWAYS be respectable to others, especially if they don't have your beleifs/religion/background/culture/color of your skin etc...
I'm glad you believe in these values of tolerance that truly reach into heaven ❤ Unfortunately I don't think that is congruent with nothing matters, because those things do matter. Loving your neighbour as yourself, not commit adultery, loving God and others etc.
But who you are right now won’t matter. If your belief is true, then once you die, you forget everything because you won’t exist. Since everything on earth dies, if there is truly nothing after death, nothing you do or experience matters because everyone including you wii forget it. Why treat people nice if they forget everything in a few meaningless years. Even if people have good impressions of you, they will soon forget it all. The reason most people live, who are non-religious, is because they don’t know what is after death. Most people put off death for as long as possible to avoid confronting the unknown. What is keeping you from doing horrific things if there is no consequences beyond meaningless life?
@@mr.potato4371 What is keeping me from doing horrific things? How about the law? How about using common sense? I don't go around wishing for bad things to happen to people. And because I've seen how some of those people react and act. It's called being a good human being. I've always been thaught that helping other people is a noble goal. It's here the templar side of things come in, in a way, you still need some control, some laws for society to work. And they need to be enforced just because of how brutal or thoughtless some people are in the world.
@@1991beachboy Why be a good person when everyone you helped will soon forget everything that you did for them. All your work to help people won’t matter because they are going to die anyway. When you die will you care if you where a good person. You won’t and nobody else will because they will forget it all. I’m not trying to be mean, I just don’t understand why life would have meaning since it is forgotten by everyone.
@@mr.potato4371 But why be a bad person? Why add to the troubles of others? The world has enough shitty people. We all die some day, regardless of who you are. What matters is how you live. I don't want to be mean to people simply because. The meaning of life is hard for everybody, regardless of your beliefs. And I haven't said it's forgotten. On the contrary, the people close to you will remember you. Yeah they'll also die one day but so what? I just don't believe in a God that is all powerful and all-knowing, because that would mean God would know every single thing that happens on earth and would have the power to stop the killings of millions of people but didn't do shit. That's not a loving god in that case(as he's meant to be) and I wouldn't want anything to do with it. I try to live my own life and have my own beliefs and try to be a good person myself, right here and right now, rather than hoping to do good deeds seen by that god so I'd be let into his version of heaven. If religion is the reason why many people are nice, shouldn't that say something about them if they didn't have that religion?
22:47 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 4:5
I believe in nature, and its tendency to create networks, and these networks could be thought of more as realms. I liked this video. I value intellectual honesty and have always been a die hard fan of the AC Series. Recently downloaded the Ezio trilogy because when I played it younger, I neglected to really soak in all the vast database of real world knowledge in the game. This time around is like really savoring a fine dessert. Taking my time, meditating upon the locations and history as well as like word origins, reaply getting into the story in greater detail, incorpirating my understanding of the historical accuracy, making connections I didn't make before, etc.
I love how assassin's creed show us that peace can never be achieved even through power or knowledge, it's also amazing how we can share the same goal but not the methods, an ideal society it's not possible because we're humans and the flaws and contradictions that run throught society it's also a reflection of our free will.
the funny thing is that the writers are actually the gods of their universe and they are the ones that are sick and twisted to write a story like this causing so much suffering and destruction.
i never thought about this view point but it makes a tonne of sense i never thought how all this is possible if there is no god in the story which i guess is why they always start with the disclaimer about the developing team's beliefs, good video
You should increase the shound of other media in your video because when you were playing cutscenes or audio from the game i couldn't hear what they were saying even with max volume. Other than that great video
amazing video. i always thought so much when playing ac games about the ac universe's concept of God and this video explains a lot! it suprised me to hear the azan for islamic prayer in ac mirage, and the illusion of prophet moses in ac origins, alongside the Isu and so much other things. i thought that they didnt connect and that ubisoft wasnt being considerate of their religious side to the ac universe and i blamed the RPG era 😭 and when you combine it with the maxim: "nothing is true, everything is permitted." it really tells you that life is blind faith, and even if what you know is true, not everyone will believe you. I totally understand the limitations of ur script since its hard to talk about this, considering it is a human made game, and you also wanted to convey a non biased view, which you did great in beautiful video again, and thanks for getting me back into assassins creed
Hey, i love ac game but i actually am on the Orders side, i dont think, nothing is true, everything is permitted, is a good thing to have in society. This idea of nothing is true, everything is permitted, is a liberal/atheist concept concept. Now, if you believe this, then do you or do you bot accept non reproductive incest?
Ubisoft likely got scared of being criticised for delving too deep into the religious aspect of the lore over time. I guess it's sort of understandable especially when considering today's society. Even if it's all fiction, having people like Jesus or Muhammad and calling them ordinary people who used an artefact to manipulate people is not something many people would take lightly if they do decide to double down on the concept of nihilism.
@@freeyourmind7538 No, quite far from it, I'm Christian actually. I'm just speaking from the perspective of the ones who are a lot, and I mean a lot more religious and take their stuff more seriously than me.
@@gibleyman oh, okay. I am one of them i guess, i am muslim and i do take my religion serious, and to be fair, AC Mirage wouldve been boycotted by me if it showed any disrespect to Islam/Prophet Muhammad (including Jesus) and ive played all AC game and my favorite was AC Rogue, surprisingly you are a templar 😅😅
Really amazing video and very well put. I’ve been playing assassin’s creed since 2012 and never fully understood the lore with the isu until this video
And unfortunately MANY fans still dont understand... and they go in comment sections to talk crap and say "I wish they would just get rid of the modern day story" Are you guilty of doing this too?
Damn, this gave me an existential crisis, I’m not necessarily a religious person and this is certainly something that I’ve thought about many times. What if there is truly nothing after this life? All the suffering through thousands of years would have been for nothing. Great video
This is what the Reformation was all about, especially Martin Luther's "bondage of the will", cause essentially it comes down to sin and salvation. The Scripture, both old and new testaments, God speaks about the nature of evil, the purpose of God, history, and so many things that all are upheld by the chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ.
I disagree that "all gods don't exist, all myth is simply a retelling of Isu shenanigans" is a nihilistic perspective. I find it incredibly empowering. Because this means what once we considered to be immortals beyond our understanding suddenly become no different than us mortals - that doesn't diminish the power of the gods, it increases our own. In the lore of AC, the potential of humanity is ascended to such a level that it can achieve incredible feats just as they did. If they could prevent catastrophe, so could we. If they could time travel, so can we. Perhaps nothing is true. But that means everything is permitted.
Except they couldn't prevent their own extinction and they were unmistakably superior to humans, so remember that before you go on another self jerking fantasy.
i love how the person making this video is clearly religious and treats atheisms and agnosticism as if it doesnt exist in the real world and ac's take on it is completely new and profound. but to say that this person is "clearly religious" may sound like an insult, and sometimes it is, but in this context it is not, for most religious people will say "BLASPHEMY!" and let ignorance take place, this man is open to have his worldview changed, it is a trait not many people have.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl the difference between believing in something and forcing others to believe in what you believe in, is very different, athiests insult you because you call them infadels. they insult you because your faith has caused humans rights violations numbering in the hundreds of thousands, you deserve scorn and hate.
@@tlaoclazteuq5255 lol check what atheisism did in soviet union and communist China and then tell me about evils of religion. And no they insult me the moment they know that that I have a religion. For them I am sub human not even worthy of respect because I stupid enough to believe in 'sky daddy' Which you showed by saying I should be hated the moment you saw my name Kinda proved my point their champ
@@tlaoclazteuq5255 Atheists lose their sh*t whenever they see someone genuinely religious which is a subtle hint that atheism itself is a religion and its zealots attack believers of other religions which is a common phenomenon.
I’m curious about your reading on the other assassins and what we can learn from them thematically (besides Altair, Ezio, and connor). If you could of remade this video and added a short sentence or section about Aveline, Edward, Adewale, Shay, Arno, Jacob and Evie, Bayek, Basim at the end what would you of said?
Very true, in the first assassins creed Islam was avoided to a jarring extent. Really the only mention of Islam was references to Salahhaddin and Jihad here and there
@@Dylbun yeah, even in the latest game, set during the supposed Golden Age of Islam. Only things we got was from the Codex. Guess they know that involving Islam in anyway would most likely trigger a lot of their Muslim players
of course they dont. There is very little to gain from it and in alot of cases alot to lose from it. A Game which calls religions fake and also extends this notion to Islam would not go over well in the muslim world.
I haven't finished the video yet but I'm going to add something to the topic. I feel like Ubisoft may use religion in the AC series to promote or at least infer the concept of Omnism, which is the recognition and respect of all religions. All of the games not only takes place in different time periods but different locations as well. Thus, most of them have different religions, Altair is Muslim, Eivor is Nordic, Bayek is Egyptian, etc. all of these religions are different in the way they are studied and have different ways of worship, and regardless of this there are assassin's that all believe in these different religions. I feel like the biggest implication of this is the Assassin mantra itself, "Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted". Omnists generally respect all religions but many generally don't study them all, mainly due to the fact that they feel like no ONE religion holds all the answers or no one religion is the one TRUE religion, Many omnists say that all religions contain truths, but that no one religion offers all that is truth, which ties into the Assassin mantra, even the Everything is Permitted part ties into it as I generally feel it means you can choose the properties from certain religions you feel is right. However, as I said before, Omnism is simply the recognition and respect of all religions, you generally don't have to be religious to be an omnist, they just don't see any religion as inferior or wrong. I kinda got off track a little bit but this theory does have some merit to it
@@Pedro_Le_Chef and that's just it, there is no one true religion, or at least not one that tells ALL that is true. I have a theory about it and essentially it is that If we wanted to find a one TRUE religion, we would have to study upon ALL of the religions. Take Catholic, Christianity, Judaism, and Muslim for example. What do they have in common? Their representation of God is all the same person. Their beliefs are just different. For example, Jews do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and Jesus Christ himself was a Jew and did not want people to worship him. He just wanted people to follow his example. Islam considers Jesus to be a prophet, but not a divine being. Catholicism is also fairly similar to christianity except they focus on the belief of the sacraments, the importance of the Virgin Mary, and the papacy.
@@Pedro_Le_Chef fair, and then if you look into other religions like Nordic and Greek, you know how in the book of Revelations they mention the end of days when Jesus is resurrected and the rapture happens? The Norse has their own interpretation of this called Ragnarök which would result in the deaths of many Norse mythological figures such as Thor, Loki, Odin, Frigga, Tyr, Heimdall, etc. It also mentions that after ter these events, the world will rise again, cleansed and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors, Lif and Lifbrasir, possibly referring to either a reset of sorts or the two human survivors could be somehow represent Adam and Eve. Essentially my point is that many religions can have ties to other religions if you take the time to look into it.
To say the assassins are nihilistic, especially due to "nothing is true, everything is permitted," is to miss a part of the puzzle. The Truth may not exist, but that does not mean we have none. We dictate ourselves and have to bear the responsibility of our actions. It is a cold and oft unforgiving mentality, yet it can bring about the blissful ideal in the importance of the present. You will shape the world in invisible ways forever. As such, you have an imperative to live _your_ truth, for the sake of everyone. Chaos is a another distraction to absolve ourselves of free will, it is a rejection of life. Freedom is to unshackle ourselves from despair. Control, when it has been ripped from our own minds, is a path to nothingness.
I don't think the AC-outlook is pessimistic, as somebody who is not religious & does not believe in any gods it's extremely liberating instead. It also means that AC will never run into a problem some other franchises did: either explicitly or implicitly choosing one religion to be "true" and leaving the rest of religions & belief systems as delusions.
I've been looking for a video to explain this concept of the religious part of the brotherhood and this video illustrates it beautifully. Well done sir!
The point I took of the game is that in this world we live, and I'm talking both inside and out the game, is that the real war that happens into this world isn't about right againist wrong, or good vs evil, but just, simply, a war of influence. A war to conquer the supremacy. The particular ideal of righteousness of a certain group or individuals. Of course it is not this simple, but surelly is a brief way to explain. Assassin's Creed brings it to us in a lot of ways. In the real world and inside the fiction, we may percieve it as well really loud and clear. But to archieve this clearence, we must to put a lot aside to really understand the world we live in by studying the pieces and solving part by part of the puzzle of life. To many people it may be unimaginable, simply because they already has been brainwashed with a lot of equivocated information. And, please, notice that with "brainwashed" I'm not talking about something related with the government or else, but just about the crystalisation of the information inside the brains of some people (the brain is plastic till some age; and it keeps, if you stimulate rightly)
Imma try to keep this brief, but the ISU are literally the annunaki, which is what the Sumerians believed in. They believed a race of people came from another planet and gave them knowledge (and they did have some crazy knowledge for the 1st civilization, like how the hell did they know every planet in the solar system?) anyway, it’s a whole rabbit hole and I suggest you look it up.
I been playing Valhalla and that one personally is the best for explaining this whole subject you brought to attention. They talk about speaking with gods, “I know what awaits me, just darkness” one zealot said on his death bed. Then the Vikings tell the saxons “your god is not real” and even the main character eivor tries telling Sigurd he’s insane for speaking to a god especially one that doesn’t exist. Interesting video about that assassins creed universe/canon story arc premise tho! Also altiers letter.. good grief the actual meaning of depressing more so than grunge music
Twenty-two years ago, I stood where I stand now- and watched my loved ones die, betrayed by those I had called friends. Vengeance clouded my mind. It would have consumed me, were it not for the wisdom of a few strangers who taught me to look past my instincts. They never preached answers, but guided me to learn from myself. We don't need anyone to tell us what to do. Not Savonarola, not the Medici. We are free to follow our own path. There are those who will take that freedom from us, and too many of you gladly give it. But it is our ability to choose- whatever you think is true- that makes us human...There is no book or teacher to give you the answers, to show you the way. Choose your own way! Do not follow me, or anyone else
Assassin's Creeds Philosophy is called Promethusism named after the Greek God Promethus. A Gnostic belief that through Advanced Technology (Knowledge) and Human Evolution Mankind can make themselves Gods or better then the Gods. The Isu arent just Mankinds flawed Creators but Mankinds future Potential goal. In the Comics one of the Isu talks about Mankind potentially surpassing them. Mineva did say that the only difference between humans and the Isu was that the Isu was more Advanced in time (Evolution) The Supernatural and Spirituality doesnt exist in Assassins Creed, Miracles are only caused by Advanced Technology which is indistinguishable from Magic. There is also no Emortal Soul or Afterlife the only hope of eternal life is if youre lucky enough to have access to the Technology that will allow your Physical body or mind to live forever i.e in the Animas or Staff of Hermes. 99.99% of mankind will never achieve this as they live in the wrong time and place or dont have access to the technology. Thats reason why the Assassin's focus on Free Will there is no God nor Gods to guide Mankind despite our in-built desire to look up to them. Religion is just a Noble Lie for the Masses. Mankind has to become their own Gods in order to live forever and create and choose their own path surpassing even the Isu who created them. What a load of Athesist Free Mason Bullshit but I still like the Games 😅
i also think that we our god of our own life we have to will and control to change it any moment of life and reach our ful potential and wisdom and every have different fate or its the nature which is god which was present before and will be after time ends and gives opportunity at every instance and its we who decide the action we take and then suffer the consequences and all these religious scripture hell heaven are just a way to get control over masses and tbh most of these religious peaple have more fucked up life than the atheist or non praying
It really is a perfect blend of conspiracy and religion. I was heavily into the illuminati/free mason stuff back then so I was hooked from the start when I was able to connect the dots between AC's fiction and real conspiracy theories. It's like the Ancient Aliens theory and New World Order conspiracy combined.
@@Grandwarden936well be careful when you are crossing the street or your godly powers might not work and you might just die because a guy decides to drink a little bit too much but hey you control your destiny right? I'm sure you will be fine
That's why Ac1 will always be my favorite. The philosophy was sooo strong that it stayed with me. Especially the idea of blind faith. Even in the order blind faith can lead to bad things. Look at Rouge. Even if God exists or not WE make are own choices. Our paths our are own to choose.
I never cared about the ridiculous AC lore. I only cared about history and politics. Why couldn't they have made it a series of games about a secret society trying to shape the world instead of a wierd alien story.
@@Dylbun yes, he's saying he would have liked it better if it focused on history events and politics, that it would have been compelling enough without the atheist propaganda
@@Dylbunliterally nobody knew alot of the shit you said in the video, only the politics and time period that's why you people got excited about valhalla
Assasins creed doesn't say God doesn't exist. It just says that there were other kind of people before us. Who created us as their tools. But they didn't say that they created the heavens and the earth.
6:25 ill have to disagree here, the non-existence of god is not inherently nihilistic. Infact id argue that its more hopeful than if there was one though that is a matter of opinion.
Fantasy video. Enjoyed your opinion exploring this game. I’ve played every game released since the first one. I agree with most of your points about religion and AC
That the funny thing about assassin creed both sides believe in God. one sides believes God wants us to have free will while the other side believes God wants us to control the world. It like a chess game that will never end.
This video is only intended to examine the religious and philosophical themes of assassins creed, a fictional video game. It is in no way intended to be a reflection of reality, my personal beliefs, nor is it meant to malign, slander, or misrepresent any religious belief one may hold.
Do the isu not have their own gods?
@@judebachelet7822 hes clueless 1st of all no one knows not to mention there wasnt god mentioned in the entirety of its existence only refference close to it is jesus and its there only bcs desmond will become something more thn human but at the same time he always was and it was sfeipted fake story which may or may not be that big of a deal that cd be considered on the level of god but it has nothing to do with personal beliefs of the universe we dont know anything about that stuff and what we know is bare minimum and its using real life references for funny stories or ideas
So I got no idea wtf is this video about
The closest we got to the god reference is the witches in origins vallhalla and even that is just being high af nothing to do w god
We never encountered real god reference in the entire franchise except as I already mention desmond x layla or isu x or the knowledge itself but thats not god
The point is there definitiley is god its what the whole franchise is about lmfao
That would tell us the answer to everything lmao@@judebachelet7822
@@1CD_aj8914highly doubt it, as they were so advanced they recreated a species (humans ) to look like them, thus becoming gods to humans. They played with lives like gods so it’s unlikely they believed in one
@@smileyent.3055I mean, even us humans, we've been lately playing with lives like gods (genetic manipulation, some scientist's goal to resurrect some extinct species, the quest to create conscious AI, etc. ) and this has not stopped the majority of our species from continuing to worship God. Maybe the Isus had a different concept of God than us, maybe they thought of God as a pantheistic concept.
One concept is also present: if a technology is so advanced to a civilisation, it appears as magic.
Interesting angle
@@DylbunAssassin's Creeds Philosophy is called Promethusism named after the Greek God Promethus. A Gnostic belief that through Advanced Technology (Knowledge) and Human Evolution Mankind can make themselves Gods or better then the Gods. The Isu arent just Mankinds flawed Creators but Mankinds future Potential goal. In the Comics one of the Isu talks about Mankind potentially surpassing them. Mineva did say that the only difference between humans and the Isu was that the Isu was more Advanced in time (Evolution) The Supernatural and Spirituality doesnt exist in Assassins Creed, Miracles are only caused by Advanced Technology which is indistinguishable from Magic. There is also no Emortal Soul or Afterlife the only hope of eternal life is if youre lucky enough to have access to the Technology that will allow your Physical body or mind to live forever i.e in the Animas or Staff of Hermes. 99.99% of mankind will never achieve this as they live in the wrong time and place or dont have access to the technology. Thats reason why the Assassin's focus on Free Will there is no God nor Gods to guide Mankind despite our in-built desire to look up to them. Religion is just a Noble Lie for the Masses. Mankind has to become their own Gods in order to live forever and create and choose their own path surpassing even the Isu who created them. What a load of Athesist Free Mason Bullshit but I still like the Games 😅
Ironically Ubisoft forgot this with later entries. The pieces of Eden never summoned physical Minotaur’s or Sphinx’s, they created illusions that a more superstitious society deemed as “magic” or the work of “gods” yet AC odyssey decided to change that for more fantasy elements
Arthur C. Clarke.
@@Deivid-bn6yw The thing was that they weren’t illusions they were basically monsters created by the Isu which I don’t see why everybody has a problem with that considering these are the same people that apparently had AI, and could even create robots and even created guns and it’s confirmed that the reason why humanity has guns is because of their pieces of Eden so how come they can’t genetically engineer monsters? That’s like the most sci-fi thing ever
The mix of religious, politics, humanistic, historical and sci-fi topics were just the perfect salad that made me love the series.
No forgetting fantastic music that wraps all these games with different cultures and the gameplay mechanics... those make the central core of the series, something that I could really feel for the first games.
Sadly it wouldn't be a reach to say it's a game that never releases its potential. From bad game designs to rushed product Assassin Creed has never more than mediocre game
@@Hugo-yp9dtexcept that's not true when it comes to the ezio trilogy
@Chrashmarco You speak to me from the soul
The message of "God doesn't exist" is a pretty ignorant message to say. The games are good but holy shit. No human alive can prove that God doesn't exist or DOES. All people can have is faith or there lack of. Not even science proves that God doesn't exist. And even if it did who is to say that science isn't a biproduct of God? Only the pompous say that definitely God does or doesn't exist. All humans have is faith or none at all.
@@Hugo-yp9dt Are you talking just about the first game or what?
The code makes sense now. I'd never considered that. "In a world of untruth, everything is permitted"
I love the Sages as a concept, the idea of a certain Isu's collective memories manifesting in certain humans and PARTIALLY influencing them as the human struggles to comprehend the memories. It forces us to ask if we truly are our own person but also what it means to be alive. It also questions what makes a person, is a person genuinely based on choice or simply influenced by all of the memories in them. Clay Kaczmarek (Subject 16) said in AC Revelations; "What is a man but the sum of his memories?!?!?!". The most recent game, Mirage, has you play as a Sage named Basim. Basim has the memories of an Isu named Loki, with Basim trying to stick to his own ideals but also dealing with the memories of Loki and figuring out who he actually is and if he is an actually free person. It ends with Basim embracing Loki's memories, which ironically makes him a free person, as he now knows who he fully is. However, this is also partially false, as Loki's memories manifesting in Basim was pre-programmed by a supercomputer known as Yggdrasil, altering the bloodlines of Basim's ancestry until he was genetically molded into the closest thing to Loki, which once again begs the question of if Basim is truly a free person and whether he is truly himself as his motivations, personality, and ideologies become a mix of his own and Loki's.
Wouldn't say Basim embraced the Templar ideology, just that he embraced the identity of his former life and his former self made his children into sages aswell. He seems to just want to reuinte his family.
Though, wheater or not he cares for humanity is, well, up for debate i guess?
Do you think Jesus would have made a great sage?
@@charleswolfe8896whose to say he wasn't
@@charleswolfe8896 An important distinction is that a Sage is only Aita's memories taking over someone (eventually). Basim and the other Norse Isu weren't sages when they got reborn. They were only "reborn" once, and once they die again, they die for real. Aita, however, can keep dying and as long as a Human lives, he has the potential to come back in that person.
@@Corvaric What does this have to do with anything about Jesus being a possible sage?
Jesus, how is this guy so underrated? This is some of the highest quality content I’ve seen on the AC series ever. Keep making amazing content.
@@desireheard3540He didn’t even mention the Lords name lol
He ment Jesus. Not God.@@orlando3469
Glazing
@@grph1t3z mfs will see any deserved praise or appraisal and immediately say glazing. we are actually so cooked
@@AlqhemyA glazing everything is always underrated or slept on quit riding another man
Something I loved in the first game and on parts of 3 and rogue is that they didn't show the templars as cartoonish vilains who want to Dominate The World, they were people who wanted peace just like the assassin's, their objective were the same. The difference is that assassin's believed everyone should have the knowledge to get to this conclusion while templars wanted to shepherd civilization to that goal
Then came the other games with this whole "assassins are the good guys and templars are the villains", with no gray areas anymore. A bit sad in my opinion
The Ass Creed series had this problem since AC2 really. AC3 & Rogue became more self-critical in reflection to those older titles which to be fair - they did miss that potential again in later games.
@@Argacyanit was just AC2 & Origins who had this 'problem'...
@@godzillazfriction Actually a good chunk of the games portrayed the Templars as cliche villains, and I'm talking TEMPLARS because I have not played any of the "Order of The Ancients" games besides Origins.
The Templars in Syndicate and Unity especially. There were very few Templars in Syndicate who you could argue had nuance, but in Unity, it was all cartoonish villainy.
@@godzillazfrictionNah dude, definitely not just those. Brotherhood was mustache twirling levels of villainy. Unless of course you also include that game when you said AC2.
But don’t get me wrong, I love Cesare as the villain.
@@faisalsukhtian1932 I guess it's kinda reasonable for the writers to make templars more really corrupted on that timeline, considering how the borgias are in the history
The Assassins are based on the real world religious order of the Hashashin, founded by the historical religious leader and warlord Hasan-i-Sabbah. Hasan was a student of epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge and the rationality of belief. He used a unique combination of faith and pragmatism to achieve incredible results, such as near bloodlessly sacking Alamut by converting the majority of its villagers to Shia
Assassin's Creed is more specifically inspired by Hasan's portrayal in Vladimir Bartol's 1938 novel Alamut. It opens with the supreme Ismaili motto: Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Bartol portrays Hasan as a man who has climbed the religious ladder only to discover that at the highest level of practician, there is no meaningful reason to believe God is real - not because of evidence to the contrary, but because of a lack of evidence thereof. He spends the rest of the novel answering the question of how a skeptic could lead a religious cult. I won't tell you what he does with that mindset, because the conspiracy is incredibly engaging and I highly recommend it to someone like yourself who has a lot of thoughts on this
Assassin's Creed adapts this line of thinking by creating a world in which Hasan was right. All world religions are simply a misinterpretation of a history too complicated and buried for humans to understand. This interpretation was not created by Templars *as* a manipulation tool, it was simply co-opted once they realized its potential for control. The answer was in Altair's journal the whole time. He observed similarities between religions either predating Christianity or developed in isolation thereof. Templars *exclusively* use Christianity as a manipulation tool, so that doesn't account for all the other world cultures trying to make sense of the same events
As an extension of the motto, or as we understand it, an extension of the Creed, this deconstruction fuels the franchise's message. The Creed warns against religion being weaponized, but it also celebrates its capability for peace if used responsibly. Assassins may not have any use for religion (anymore), but they're also not inherently opposed to it. Similarly, they teach its lack of veracity is not a hindrance to peace. Robert's fear of death is an oxymoron, because he knows death brings nothingness, so to fear death is to fear nothing, implying a lack of fear. Understanding that is the road to finding peace in death, and by extension, peace in a world where religion is at best imprecise and at worse hazardous. Just like how Assassins are not negative nihilists, Assassin's Creed is not about negative nihilism. It's about pragmatic skepticism, detailed observation, freedom of expression, and the dangers of humanity
Very insightful interpretation.
tldr
Thanks ChatGPT
this might be true but also, the first record ever of "nothing is true; everything is permitted" actually comes from Friedrich Nietzsche, a german nihilist philosopher which kinda fits how the guy in the video talked about the nihilism of the games
@@antialiasantialias4958this isn't chat gpt's writing style
I’m ngl
These games gave me so much existential anxiety
Sibrand’s death in ac1 terrified me, and the one person you kill in ac 2 who says “no, it’s too soon… I’m not ready”
It’s kinda upsetting
Sibrand: "A blockade by sea, to keep the fool kings and queens from sending reinforcements. Once we... once we..."
Altaïr: "Conquered the Holy Land?"
Sibrand: "Freed it, you fool! From the tyranny of faith."
this lore is the reason i love assassins creed games!
Same!!!!!
“Nothing is true ,everything is permitted” has had a grasp on my soul for more than a decade now …
It’s a contradiction. If nothing is true, how do you know that the statement nothing is true, is true?
Thats the whole point, nothing at all as we know it is true and we will never know “the truth” so the only way to peace is that “everything is permitted” be it in an individualistic case on your own self being. Free will, however as states total freedom invites chaos so if we dont have a sense of self control within ourselves then we lose our freedom to chaos. In my belief is that we all must come to realize a global instinct within ourselves that is our nature to dictate what morality makes our virtues to establish that control within ourselves. Such as we all atleast majority of human in their right mind know pedophillia is wrong or beastality and its bc its an instinctive global truth.
@@Fzrnagz nothing is true as we know it is a contradiction. There has to be truth for the statement to be true. Just because it’s an Instinctive, doesn’t mean we should listen to it.
@@DanielF892 my point exactly, inside of all of us is a global truth via our nature of design
@@Fzrnagz so are you saying there is one truth for all of us?
I once played earlier games of this franchise for the story, and the thought provoking issues it brings up sure had me think on who I am and what I want, something certain people are attempting to censor these days.
This is an extremely high effort and production value, and most importantly, thought-provoking. Please carry on.
Unironically havent enjoyed a video this much in a while. Genuinely made me think and appreciate AC even more, Thank you!
The Assassin's concept of "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" that was explained in Revelations was a nice touch, but I further understood it somewhere in either Origins or Odyssey. It was there that the "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" is a reference to the Isu technology of manipulating past and future events to change outcomes, and their sixth sense of their super heightened perception of the flow of time.
Human religion in game may be false
But it still begs the question about the Isu, where did they come from? What's their full history? And are there other Isu out there?
Things we'll never know
Through my journey of playing Assassin's Creed, starting with 2 at the age of 11 I believe, I never once even thought of God being real in this games universe. Maybe its because of my own beliefs at the time but my first time playing "The Truth" segments of AC2 is what kept that thought as far away from this game as possible. I was immediately aware that what was happening was far more technically advanced than being a miracle of God, even more so going into history and what was created using the Pieces of Eden. Thanks to your video I am now able to look back (at 4:10am) on the game, more specifically my thinking at that age, and give praise to the writing of the early AC games
Edit: I believe this is also why I had such an understanding of "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" before it was fully explained by Ezio later in Revelations. While it may not have been a word for word interpretation I definitely understood what was being conveyed to me through the assassins
It doesn't take a genius to realize that.
The game is practically banging you on the head with it's atheist message
Great video. This is really one of the best aspects about the series. It is also worth mentioning that these concepts are also present in the main inspiration of the series; Vladimir Bartol's Alamut, not to mention some aspects which were also incorporated in AC1.
Bruh, Assassin's Creed is literally based on order in book.
@@lakshaykochhar6799 The Assassin's are based off both the book and the historical Hashashins.
Assassin’s Creed was originally developed to be a fast sequencing story, meaning each title the game would move dramatically and quickly to the final ending/conclusion, most likely in as little as three games (as I doubt the whole six game plan thing) Problems started arising possibly as early as AC1, but certainly at AC2 once they were making Brotherhood and Kristin Bell got fired so the original plot started changing a lot. We have to keep this in mind with the true Isu lore that we will probably never know.
As far as the religious aspects, understand that this is coming from a Christian perspective, but the game never clarified if there is a God or an afterlife. It never does and this is fact. What we see as “afterlives” are computerized consciousness digital realities and that doesn’t count because it was reserved for Juno and Desmond only. So what does that make of the fate of trillions of other humans? Sounds like if there is an afterlife it wouldn’t be what the Creator would have planned. Other than that, the game does not clarify what happens definitively once a person dies.
When we see these characters coming to the “truth” and coming to an existential crisis like Sibrand, Altair and others “knowing” there is no God and afterlife the truth is they never truly knew. They only went as far as the Isu’s existence, nothing more. Which raises the question, why did they settle on this? Why not go further and see if there is still a God?
The game clearly explains that the Isu are not divine, just beings similar but superior to that of humans, but still infinitely inferior to a hypothetical God. This is not arguable whatsoever because they themselves tried to come up with ways to save themselves and they did not just create themselves-they just “came before”. They have no dominion over death, they did not create life and the universe, all they did was create man. They want to be worshipped like gods and they love it, but they aren’t. This still makes room for a God to exist and they may never touch on this subject due to the atheistic agenda nature of AC.
Its why I hated and still hate the Isu as a concept. In a Godless universe like Assassins Creed, literally nothing matters. Good, Evil, Morality? All of it objectively meaningless.
And the Assassins and templars both know that. At least it feels like the Templars are fighting for dome semblance of Order against the constant flow of chaos.
And them fighting each other is ultimately pointless when no power will save them from the nothingness after their deaths.
The AC universe seems very grim im that regard, imo
Reading this has me thinking, what if 75,000 years isn't actually the stopping point? What if it goes even further? What if the Isu Era is the last era we truly documented and understand, so it isn't crazy to say that in lore they lack the necessary evidence and history to concretely confirm that the Isu era was the start, and there isn't a whole century or millennia of history lost to time prior to the Isu Era.
As far as I know on the Wiki (taken with a grain of salt, it is the fandom wiki), the earliest recorded year was the Isu Era at 1923, when Consus created the first piece of Eden (the shroud). So we have 1,923 years of history, maybe even years after Year 0, unknown to us and or the people within the games.
This theory is also not completely broken by the POEs because the first one was allegedly created in the 1923 Isu Era, so those 1,923 years would not have been documented by the POEs. So when Altair peers into the Apple, he sees only what was documented by the Apple which does not encapsulate the years prior to 1923, the year 1923 itself, and the years leading up to whenever the Apple was created. It can, however, be theorized that Apple was created sometime between the years of 1923 and 2161 (because in 2161 on the wiki, again grain of salt, the Isu created humans with the sole purpose of enslaving them as a workforce with the help from the Apple of Eden)
It's kind of summed up in one of the first lines of the first game
"Nothing is true everything is permissible"
... An extremely stupid line because
1. They think it to be true
2. They fight the Templars because they think what they are doing is not permissible...
I think the only character to lay out a somewhat coherent understanding of that saying was Ezio.
“To say that nothing is true is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile and that we must be the shepherds of our civilization.
To say that everything is permitted is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious of tragic.”
But the issue with this, is how did he come up with that? He seems to be making the saying mean what he wants it to mean.
First 4 games story came together was beautiful, and that’s an understatement. It told it so well mixing real life with imagination it might have you questioning your own reality. The puzzles involving real life figures had me feeling like I wasn’t supposed to see something. Never cared how the other games played out after Ezio though.
one of the best videos on assassin's creed i've seen. there's a lot to learn from ac and i'm glad i grew up playing the classics. videos like these help me introduce my friends and family to the essence behind what seems to be a basic ninja game on the surface. thanks for this vid.
The phrase "Nothing is true, everything is permited" in AC is a lousy interpretation from the words of Hassan ibn Sabbah, the actual real life founder of the order of the ismaili assassins. Brotherhood and revelations especially take big liberties to portray the meaning of the sentence, wich has more to do with inner realization and self knowledge than social or political guidance. If youre really interested in learning more about the philosophical claim that is the sentence I suggest you read "Alamut" by Vladimir Bartol, its a very enjoyable novel with lots of philosophy and history themes and characters. I enjoy AC for what it is but they got the meaning of the phrase wrong.
What does it mean in the book?
@@lakshaykochhar6799 Its a discussion itself in the book and its better to read what different characters add to the interpretation, but in short it would be: Man does not have the ability to know truth, therefore nothing is true. If nothing is true, we are not bound by neither god's laws or the laws of men so everything is possible, and we are encouraged by this to fulfill our objectives and desires.
@@demavendd Bruh, it's the pretty much the same interpretation as Assassin's Creed one, did you watch the video?
@@demavendd😅
@@demavendd
That's exactly what AC says the phrase means, however
In the Godless universe of Assassin's Creed, Templars look like smart people that know they'll die and then just disappear so they want control. Assassins look like Nihilist coping by saying "We make our own destiny".
But thats not nihilism, the idea of making my own purpose is a rejection of nihilism , that is part of a secular humanist philosophy
(Btw Im Greek too)
@@mariolisI say Nihilism mostly because Assassin's Creed has some Nihiliste lines like: "Nothing is true, everything is permeated". Thanks for telling me the difference though, I honestly thought Nihilism was about making your own purpose.
@@mariolis Secular Humanism is nihilistic in nature as it discards objective morality and duties and just focuses on hedonism and base human instincts.
@@Greece_Is_ProDon't confuse being selfless with nihilism
@@mariolisit's cope is what it is, no made up meaning holds up to tides of time. And no one makes their own destiny, no one has that much control over life, that doesn't even make sense.
Very good video brother! I always love delving into the philosophy of AC. It’s interesting, because as a man of God I always understood that in AC, religion is propped up by the Ones Who Came Before and the pieces of Eden. How that determines the ideals of the Assassins and Templars was explained superbly.
Thank you!
Based man of God
Agreed with this one IMO
This is one of the best video-essays I've ever seen. Damn, you are really underrated, I hope you'll keep it up with more in-depth lore videos.
4:33 the ISU admit they are not gods... so who created the ISU?
On the topic of 9:30. Can a loving merciful God exist in a world full of violence? Many religious texts emphasis free will. They also emphasis that God is eternal, he knows what comes before and what will come after. Many people confuse this as God has decided alright in 1939 millions will die. in 1948 another group will die. etc etc. Yet all of those actions were caused by who? Humans and their free will. Humans start conflict with one another. and yet we blame God for something that man has done? Thats not to say God isnt violent. God talks of heaven and hell, paradise and punishment. Believing and following in his command, or disobeying and being punished for it. If you created something and it didnt do what you wanted it to do, you would punish it. ESPECIALLY if such individual/individuals were the cause of so much death and destruction and pain in the human world. (10:15) "of course I dont care what other people worship I killed them because I could, it was fun." Should this individual be rewarded for the life he lived?
14:27 "to say that everything is permitted, is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences." Yet again, how can God be blamed for that actions that humans commit.
Now of course this is a video, it has to cater to every major and minor religion at the same time. Are they going to get it right, no. My take on this video, is you actually have no disproven that God is not a real. How was universe created, how did earth come about, how were the ISU created, was there a civilization before them, do the major religions in AC not have religious texts? What do they say because it clearly must be different than real religious texts. I think the fact that the game is set in a fictional world still offers a lot of holes that isnt backed by reality. I think if someone plays AC games and thinks religion is not real then they haven't investigated religious texts.
Going back to God, there are attributes and qualities to God that most people can recognize, Extreme intelligences for being able to create things out of different materials,. Omnipotence, because if you believe in the big bang or that the universe is expanding, the universe had a starting point and God must exist outside of that.
I actually agree with much of the 3rd chapter of your video, there needs to be a balance of freedom to believe and find the truth for oneself, but also to submit to a higher power, especially an objective one. Now my biggest issue with the AC games is that it rewrites religion as, they were using pieces of eden. In a nonfictional sense, obviously this is false. In a fictional sense sure thats fine, still have not disprove if there is something greater than even the ISU.
This game is so much more than just a game.
It is a message for us about the real world and things happening not visible to us.
This video is perfect thank you for making it.
i know right it seems so realistic
@@mscroft3124 Yes, for example as templars have a goal to create new world order, the elites in our own society speak of it on the dollar sign and George Bush senior. The game makes you think
What i always find strange is how some characters when dying act like the can see God or an afterlife. Like the insane doctor in Assassin's Creed Mirage. So they at least make it mysterous enough to not offend everyone.
The video reminds me of when I was in elementary school, when our teacher brushed over the idea of political left and right.
One kid asked, referring to the far ends of the spectrum: “if they’re on opposite ends, why do they sound so similar?”
In the end, Assassins strive for free will but often can’t escape deciding what’s good for others for them.
Templars came to the idea that control leads to peace, by their own free will.
I wish Assassin’s Creed continued to at least subtlely go into the ambiguity between the two, and the kinds of philosophies described in this video.
Religion = Bad
Atheism = Good
Is simplistic and a false dichotomy
I'm sorry but if you think Templars and Assassins are two sides of the same coin.. you've been fooled by Abstergo's propaganda. The Creed demands us to be wise.. and you have not been wise.
Do not forget it's not only the ISU (aka Elohim aka Anunaki) but also the antediluvian Giants (aka Titans aka Nephilim). For example, In AC Valhalla all the big stone monuments are supposedly made by the second.
It's 9 am Saturday morning i ain't ready for another existential crisis..
Great effort man
Fantastic video. This is the kind of stuff that made me love this series. I thought through a lot of these concepts for myself years ago but I never saw a proper analysis that really explained it. It was always hard to verbalise all this in a cohesive way and this video did it really well so thank you.
Yea the general gameplay and settings were fun but what got me excited to buy the next game was to see where they would take these ideas but it just seemed to trickle down to nothing in the later games and thats why I dont buy them anymore. This lore was the secret ingredient that made these games special and I feel like they lost that at some point.
ISU reminds me of the Annunaki
13:24
There's no book or teacher... But I will stand in front of you and show you the truth... Like a teacher
Wonderful video that gives me a new view on the religious side of assassins creed
Where I once found Valhalla’s, Odyssey’s, and Origin’s use of mythology and religion in their dlcs confusing I now see it in a different light.
I feel I can have a much larger enjoyment when playing with this better understanding. Thank you.
Be honest... were you ever one of those people that said "I wish they would just get rid of the modern day story" ?
Wonderful video! Absolutely love it. I like that you actually touched on the less popular side assassin's creed, which is what the games ultimately stand for. It's ideas and views. I wish more people cared for it.
Technically the Templars as organization believe in God, the Father of Understanding is similar to how deists and freemasons refer as Him like the Great Architect of Universe
A video I continue to keep coming back too I stopped playing the games after Origins just didn't enjoy how much the gameplay changed since Syndicate but the story I always found intriguing and fascinating I hope more people find this now that Shadows is coming out keep up the great work brother look forward to more of your stuff
8:27 "If Jesus was a false prophet and apple wielder, doesn't that make his faith false?"
I don't even have words to define how wierd it is to see someone use a fictional fact from a video game to contradict a real life belief. This feels like the reddit echo chambers have reached an entirely new dimension. It's almost as if you've established Assassin's Creed as the real canonical history of real world events. I have absolutely no words for this. Just how much unacceptance of reality can one person foster? I thought gender dysphoria was the limit, but I was dead wrong. At this point one could take a piece of paper and write "god isn't real" and consider it legitimate proof for god's non existence.
Read the disclaimer.
Calm down kid ever religion, false, and there is no God
Read the disclaimer
@@DecimusCaesar read the disclaimer
Use your Head, his talking about assassin's Creed and there not being a God in that world. Sure I'm christian but come on, I'm not even offended by this video. Jeesh
This is such an amazing video, and as someone who isn't very religious myself, the Assassin's viewpoint really does resonate with me in that even if there is no divine being, we can still live our lives how we want it and that's what truly matters
I don't mean to insult amazing video or it's video-maker or you in a slightest by this reply, but don't you think that's just obvious? I mean what else you're gonna do with nihilism or existentialism, but either destroy yourself or make your own values?
I respect your opinion but bro you don't make much sense.
Just because we have the ability to live our lives how we want to, doesn't mean we are morally and ethically obliged to do anything we want to.
What matters truly in life is if you live every moment without having any regrets.
Religions specifically the more Concrete ones like Islam teaches us moral and ethical values which were long lost before their advent.
Smoke dmt and you will see the light
I respectfully disagree. My takeaway from the franchise is not that G-d doesn’t exist. Rather, it is that the way most, if not everyone, gets it wrong as a result of their culture’s influence on how they perceive the world around them. I find it very interesting that we never truly encounter anyone outwardly Jewish in the franchise, at least to my understanding. It is entirely possible a historical figure has appeared in that game that we believe to be Jewish in the real world, but it’s far more obvious to spot Christians, Muslims, and the numerous forms of polytheists. We see a synagogue in Origins, but the NPCs outside of it were randomly generated the same as literally everywhere else in Alexandria. It is a bit of a stretch, and it’s unlikely that they planned it this way, but the way the Torah explains G-d makes it plausible for Him to still exist in the Assassin’s Creed universe. Spirituality and religion just developed in a very different way in this universe, resulting from historical events (within the lore) that were filtered through limited understanding. Adam and Chava (Eve) weren’t the first humanoids, simply the first homosapiens. Odin and Loki weren’t gods and demigods, they were a more technologically advanced species. Mythological creatures weren’t actually creatures, they were manifestations of Apples of Eden (either creating nightmarish visions that the current peoples understood in their imaginations, or that those people rumored into myths and legends after surviving encounters with whatever the Apples decided to manifest.) The forbidden fruit wasn’t an edible fruit, but a tool or weapon. The staff of Hermes wasn’t a god’s tool, but a highly advanced technological tool. Magic isn’t real, it’s technology hundreds of thousands of years ahead of its time, using elements yet to be rediscovered or harvested.
A singular G-d orchestrating everything can still exist in the AC universe, however our understanding of that G-d in the AC universe cannot be easily defined nor comprehended… well, even less than the G-d of Yisrael.
I know it would be to controversial but I would love a game about the 2nd/3rd generation assassin after Bayek in Jerusalem investigating the mystery of Jesus in the AC universe.
And if Al Mualim is to be believed, Jesus in the AC Universe was just an ordinary man wielding a piece of Eden to create the illusion of miracles
@@InhabitantOfOddworldand that could pack sone heat in the real world
Tbf tho, what miracles Jesus have done can be done by anyone. We just didn't know how it happened which makes it a miracle
@@NamelessAddy depends how it's being portrayed, if the illusion is to cause harm and make Jesus evil, yes it would get plenty of hate, but if it's simply just Jesus trying to help the innocent with everything that he can, it could get a pass
@@wanderingcommenter4638You don't go there. Ever.
this is one of the best videos on assassin creed and we all need to talk about this topic more.
I love this concept! Makes me rethink and see through a different perspective! Nice video and my favorite video game series.
Great video! Very well put together.
Expertly made video! It’s great
Man you got rannnnge!! I loved your RDR physics video to the moon cause it was the only one I could find aside from your fantastic production. The vaporwave intro was great.
I wish there was some moral dilemma between Templars and Assassins instead of the Franchise always revealing Templars to be the bloodthirst monsters. was there any point in the story that wasn't black and white?
Best video about AC's lore I encountered.
As an athiest that has followed AC games since day 1 I absolutely agree with their philosophy. It has helped me with a lot of reasonings around religious stuff. We all have our own religions(or lack there of) and beliefs. But personally i do beleive there's nothing really there when our time on earth is up. So it does get a bit nihilistic when you think about it that we humans are alone and nobody will remember us, it doesn't really matter what you do or who you are. It gets incredibly depressing and all. Until you get to the conclusion that even if those things doesn't matter, what matters is that you are here right now. What really matters are the people around you and what you do each day. You won't live forever, so do what YOU want to do and don't hesitate to experience the world, our amazing planet and our history and everything you can experience in the world. The AC philosophy has helped me grow into the person i am today because of these beliefs. And of course, ALWAYS be respectable to others, especially if they don't have your beleifs/religion/background/culture/color of your skin etc...
I'm glad you believe in these values of tolerance that truly reach into heaven ❤ Unfortunately I don't think that is congruent with nothing matters, because those things do matter. Loving your neighbour as yourself, not commit adultery, loving God and others etc.
But who you are right now won’t matter. If your belief is true, then once you die, you forget everything because you won’t exist. Since everything on earth dies, if there is truly nothing after death, nothing you do or experience matters because everyone including you wii forget it. Why treat people nice if they forget everything in a few meaningless years. Even if people have good impressions of you, they will soon forget it all. The reason most people live, who are non-religious, is because they don’t know what is after death. Most people put off death for as long as possible to avoid confronting the unknown. What is keeping you from doing horrific things if there is no consequences beyond meaningless life?
@@mr.potato4371 What is keeping me from doing horrific things? How about the law? How about using common sense? I don't go around wishing for bad things to happen to people. And because I've seen how some of those people react and act. It's called being a good human being. I've always been thaught that helping other people is a noble goal.
It's here the templar side of things come in, in a way, you still need some control, some laws for society to work. And they need to be enforced just because of how brutal or thoughtless some people are in the world.
@@1991beachboy Why be a good person when everyone you helped will soon forget everything that you did for them. All your work to help people won’t matter because they are going to die anyway. When you die will you care if you where a good person. You won’t and nobody else will because they will forget it all. I’m not trying to be mean, I just don’t understand why life would have meaning since it is forgotten by everyone.
@@mr.potato4371 But why be a bad person? Why add to the troubles of others? The world has enough shitty people. We all die some day, regardless of who you are. What matters is how you live. I don't want to be mean to people simply because. The meaning of life is hard for everybody, regardless of your beliefs. And I haven't said it's forgotten. On the contrary, the people close to you will remember you. Yeah they'll also die one day but so what? I just don't believe in a God that is all powerful and all-knowing, because that would mean God would know every single thing that happens on earth and would have the power to stop the killings of millions of people but didn't do shit. That's not a loving god in that case(as he's meant to be) and I wouldn't want anything to do with it. I try to live my own life and have my own beliefs and try to be a good person myself, right here and right now, rather than hoping to do good deeds seen by that god so I'd be let into his version of heaven. If religion is the reason why many people are nice, shouldn't that say something about them if they didn't have that religion?
This makes you appreciate the assassin’s creed games that you don’t play as in assassin so It put more perspective
22:47 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Genesis 4:5
wow thank you, I will change the world while everyone sleeps
this is very well made! keep it up
1:10 I wasn't ready for that 😂😂😂Seeing a Shiny Borgia sending a massive punch just caught me off guard lol
Isu are basically the Annunakis...hmm
Very interesting and well put together video. liked and subbed.
I believe in nature, and its tendency to create networks, and these networks could be thought of more as realms. I liked this video. I value intellectual honesty and have always been a die hard fan of the AC Series. Recently downloaded the Ezio trilogy because when I played it younger, I neglected to really soak in all the vast database of real world knowledge in the game. This time around is like really savoring a fine dessert. Taking my time, meditating upon the locations and history as well as like word origins, reaply getting into the story in greater detail, incorpirating my understanding of the historical accuracy, making connections I didn't make before, etc.
I love how assassin's creed show us that peace can never be achieved even through power or knowledge, it's also amazing how we can share the same goal but not the methods, an ideal society it's not possible because we're humans and the flaws and contradictions that run throught society it's also a reflection of our free will.
the funny thing is that the writers are actually the gods of their universe and they are the ones that are sick and twisted to write a story like this causing so much suffering and destruction.
i never thought about this view point but it makes a tonne of sense i never thought how all this is possible if there is no god in the story which i guess is why they always start with the disclaimer about the developing team's beliefs, good video
This might be the best video I’ve ever watched on Assassin’s Creed
This might be the worst video I've ever watched on Assassin's Creed
You should increase the shound of other media in your video because when you were playing cutscenes or audio from the game i couldn't hear what they were saying even with max volume. Other than that great video
Thanks for the feeeback
@@Dylbun you're welcome
they promote this philosophy of nihilism and atheism for a reason those who made the game want to promote this way of thinking
but the question is who made the isu's?
This was straight fire. Need more AC philosophy!
amazing video.
i always thought so much when playing ac games about the ac universe's concept of God and this video explains a lot!
it suprised me to hear the azan for islamic prayer in ac mirage, and the illusion of prophet moses in ac origins, alongside the Isu and so much other things.
i thought that they didnt connect and that ubisoft wasnt being considerate of their religious side to the ac universe and i blamed the RPG era 😭
and when you combine it with the maxim: "nothing is true, everything is permitted." it really tells you that life is blind faith, and even if what you know is true, not everyone will believe you.
I totally understand the limitations of ur script since its hard to talk about this, considering it is a human made game, and you also wanted to convey a non biased view, which you did great in
beautiful video again, and thanks for getting me back into assassins creed
Hey, i love ac game but i actually am on the Orders side, i dont think, nothing is true, everything is permitted, is a good thing to have in society.
This idea of nothing is true, everything is permitted, is a liberal/atheist concept concept.
Now, if you believe this, then do you or do you bot accept non reproductive incest?
Ubisoft likely got scared of being criticised for delving too deep into the religious aspect of the lore over time.
I guess it's sort of understandable especially when considering today's society.
Even if it's all fiction, having people like Jesus or Muhammad and calling them ordinary people who used an artefact to manipulate people is not something many people would take lightly if they do decide to double down on the concept of nihilism.
@@gibleyman so you're a nihilist?
@@freeyourmind7538 No, quite far from it, I'm Christian actually.
I'm just speaking from the perspective of the ones who are a lot, and I mean a lot more religious and take their stuff more seriously than me.
@@gibleyman oh, okay. I am one of them i guess, i am muslim and i do take my religion serious, and to be fair, AC Mirage wouldve been boycotted by me if it showed any disrespect to Islam/Prophet Muhammad (including Jesus)
and ive played all AC game and my favorite was AC Rogue, surprisingly you are a templar 😅😅
Brilliant video. Thank you for making this.
Really amazing video and very well put. I’ve been playing assassin’s creed since 2012 and never fully understood the lore with the isu until this video
And unfortunately MANY fans still dont understand... and they go in comment sections to talk crap and say "I wish they would just get rid of the modern day story" Are you guilty of doing this too?
@@Lithenius No I don't bash things just because I don't understand them... I'm an AC fan bro chill out
Damn, this gave me an existential crisis, I’m not necessarily a religious person and this is certainly something that I’ve thought about many times. What if there is truly nothing after this life? All the suffering through thousands of years would have been for nothing. Great video
This is what the Reformation was all about, especially Martin Luther's "bondage of the will", cause essentially it comes down to sin and salvation. The Scripture, both old and new testaments, God speaks about the nature of evil, the purpose of God, history, and so many things that all are upheld by the chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ.
It's not a matter of what if, we have no rational reason to believe in an afterlife.
Imagine what actually happened, then pretend the good guys are the bad guys. Assassins creed.
I disagree that "all gods don't exist, all myth is simply a retelling of Isu shenanigans" is a nihilistic perspective. I find it incredibly empowering. Because this means what once we considered to be immortals beyond our understanding suddenly become no different than us mortals - that doesn't diminish the power of the gods, it increases our own. In the lore of AC, the potential of humanity is ascended to such a level that it can achieve incredible feats just as they did. If they could prevent catastrophe, so could we. If they could time travel, so can we.
Perhaps nothing is true. But that means everything is permitted.
Except they couldn't prevent their own extinction and they were unmistakably superior to humans, so remember that before you go on another self jerking fantasy.
I love this video, saving it for many rewatches in the future
i love how the person making this video is clearly religious and treats atheisms and agnosticism as if it doesnt exist in the real world and ac's take on it is completely new and profound. but to say that this person is "clearly religious" may sound like an insult, and sometimes it is, but in this context it is not, for most religious people will say "BLASPHEMY!" and let ignorance take place, this man is open to have his worldview changed, it is a trait not many people have.
And most atheists would insulti you just for believing in divine
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl the difference between believing in something and forcing others to believe in what you believe in, is very different, athiests insult you because you call them infadels. they insult you because your faith has caused humans rights violations numbering in the hundreds of thousands, you deserve scorn and hate.
@@tlaoclazteuq5255 lol check what atheisism did in soviet union and communist China and then tell me about evils of religion.
And no they insult me the moment they know that that I have a religion.
For them I am sub human not even worthy of respect because I stupid enough to believe in 'sky daddy'
Which you showed by saying I should be hated the moment you saw my name
Kinda proved my point their champ
@@tlaoclazteuq5255 Atheists lose their sh*t whenever they see someone genuinely religious which is a subtle hint that atheism itself is a religion and its zealots attack believers of other religions which is a common phenomenon.
He's calling humans "gods" he's most definitely not religious
I’m curious about your reading on the other assassins and what we can learn from them thematically (besides Altair, Ezio, and connor). If you could of remade this video and added a short sentence or section about Aveline, Edward, Adewale, Shay, Arno, Jacob and Evie, Bayek, Basim at the end what would you of said?
It's interesting how the franchise does not delve into the beliefs of Islam AT ALL. Even in the Middle Eastern settings.
Very true, in the first assassins creed Islam was avoided to a jarring extent. Really the only mention of Islam was references to Salahhaddin and Jihad here and there
@@Dylbun yeah, even in the latest game, set during the supposed Golden Age of Islam. Only things we got was from the Codex. Guess they know that involving Islam in anyway would most likely trigger a lot of their Muslim players
of course they dont. There is very little to gain from it and in alot of cases alot to lose from it. A Game which calls religions fake and also extends this notion to Islam would not go over well in the muslim world.
There is an unfortunate side affect of bringing Islam into AC. It wouldn’t go well at all if the religion was considered fake in the universe.
Because ubisoft don't want a bomb for Christmas
I haven't finished the video yet but I'm going to add something to the topic. I feel like Ubisoft may use religion in the AC series to promote or at least infer the concept of Omnism, which is the recognition and respect of all religions. All of the games not only takes place in different time periods but different locations as well. Thus, most of them have different religions, Altair is Muslim, Eivor is Nordic, Bayek is Egyptian, etc. all of these religions are different in the way they are studied and have different ways of worship, and regardless of this there are assassin's that all believe in these different religions. I feel like the biggest implication of this is the Assassin mantra itself, "Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted". Omnists generally respect all religions but many generally don't study them all, mainly due to the fact that they feel like no ONE religion holds all the answers or no one religion is the one TRUE religion, Many omnists say that all religions contain truths, but that no one religion offers all that is truth, which ties into the Assassin mantra, even the Everything is Permitted part ties into it as I generally feel it means you can choose the properties from certain religions you feel is right. However, as I said before, Omnism is simply the recognition and respect of all religions, you generally don't have to be religious to be an omnist, they just don't see any religion as inferior or wrong. I kinda got off track a little bit but this theory does have some merit to it
How does an Omnist respect someone's religion when he says that that isn't the one true religion? That's patently disrespectful.
@@Pedro_Le_Chef and that's just it, there is no one true religion, or at least not one that tells ALL that is true. I have a theory about it and essentially it is that If we wanted to find a one TRUE religion, we would have to study upon ALL of the religions. Take Catholic, Christianity, Judaism, and Muslim for example. What do they have in common? Their representation of God is all the same person. Their beliefs are just different. For example, Jews do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and Jesus Christ himself was a Jew and did not want people to worship him. He just wanted people to follow his example. Islam considers Jesus to be a prophet, but not a divine being. Catholicism is also fairly similar to christianity except they focus on the belief of the sacraments, the importance of the Virgin Mary, and the papacy.
@@CrushedLvl The one religion that is closest to the truth is Orthodox Christianity, which saves you a lot of trouble :)
@@Pedro_Le_Chef fair, and then if you look into other religions like Nordic and Greek, you know how in the book of Revelations they mention the end of days when Jesus is resurrected and the rapture happens? The Norse has their own interpretation of this called Ragnarök which would result in the deaths of many Norse mythological figures such as Thor, Loki, Odin, Frigga, Tyr, Heimdall, etc. It also mentions that after ter these events, the world will rise again, cleansed and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors, Lif and Lifbrasir, possibly referring to either a reset of sorts or the two human survivors could be somehow represent Adam and Eve. Essentially my point is that many religions can have ties to other religions if you take the time to look into it.
To say the assassins are nihilistic, especially due to "nothing is true, everything is permitted," is to miss a part of the puzzle. The Truth may not exist, but that does not mean we have none. We dictate ourselves and have to bear the responsibility of our actions. It is a cold and oft unforgiving mentality, yet it can bring about the blissful ideal in the importance of the present. You will shape the world in invisible ways forever. As such, you have an imperative to live _your_ truth, for the sake of everyone. Chaos is a another distraction to absolve ourselves of free will, it is a rejection of life. Freedom is to unshackle ourselves from despair. Control, when it has been ripped from our own minds, is a path to nothingness.
Freedom for those who deserve it, Control for those who cannot handle it. The Truth in this philosophical Conflict is in the middle.
More like understanding what freedom is and what perversion of freedom is.
This video was so interesting and well put together. I was engaged the whole time. Well done.
I don't think the AC-outlook is pessimistic, as somebody who is not religious & does not believe in any gods it's extremely liberating instead. It also means that AC will never run into a problem some other franchises did: either explicitly or implicitly choosing one religion to be "true" and leaving the rest of religions & belief systems as delusions.
I've been looking for a video to explain this concept of the religious part of the brotherhood and this video illustrates it beautifully. Well done sir!
The point I took of the game is that in this world we live, and I'm talking both inside and out the game, is that the real war that happens into this world isn't about right againist wrong, or good vs evil, but just, simply, a war of influence. A war to conquer the supremacy. The particular ideal of righteousness of a certain group or individuals. Of course it is not this simple, but surelly is a brief way to explain.
Assassin's Creed brings it to us in a lot of ways. In the real world and inside the fiction, we may percieve it as well really loud and clear. But to archieve this clearence, we must to put a lot aside to really understand the world we live in by studying the pieces and solving part by part of the puzzle of life. To many people it may be unimaginable, simply because they already has been brainwashed with a lot of equivocated information. And, please, notice that with "brainwashed" I'm not talking about something related with the government or else, but just about the crystalisation of the information inside the brains of some people (the brain is plastic till some age; and it keeps, if you stimulate rightly)
Imma try to keep this brief, but the ISU are literally the annunaki, which is what the Sumerians believed in. They believed a race of people came from another planet and gave them knowledge (and they did have some crazy knowledge for the 1st civilization, like how the hell did they know every planet in the solar system?) anyway, it’s a whole rabbit hole and I suggest you look it up.
I been playing Valhalla and that one personally is the best for explaining this whole subject you brought to attention. They talk about speaking with gods, “I know what awaits me, just darkness” one zealot said on his death bed. Then the Vikings tell the saxons “your god is not real” and even the main character eivor tries telling Sigurd he’s insane for speaking to a god especially one that doesn’t exist. Interesting video about that assassins creed universe/canon story arc premise tho! Also altiers letter.. good grief the actual meaning of depressing more so than grunge music
Twenty-two years ago, I stood where I stand now- and watched my loved ones die, betrayed by those I had called friends. Vengeance clouded my mind. It would have consumed me, were it not for the wisdom of a few strangers who taught me to look past my instincts. They never preached answers, but guided me to learn from myself. We don't need anyone to tell us what to do. Not Savonarola, not the Medici. We are free to follow our own path. There are those who will take that freedom from us, and too many of you gladly give it. But it is our ability to choose- whatever you think is true- that makes us human...There is no book or teacher to give you the answers, to show you the way. Choose your own way! Do not follow me, or anyone else
Wow! Well put together.
Assassin's Creeds Philosophy is called Promethusism named after the Greek God Promethus. A Gnostic belief that through Advanced Technology (Knowledge) and Human Evolution Mankind can make themselves Gods or better then the Gods. The Isu arent just Mankinds flawed Creators but Mankinds future Potential goal. In the Comics one of the Isu talks about Mankind potentially surpassing them. Mineva did say that the only difference between humans and the Isu was that the Isu was more Advanced in time (Evolution) The Supernatural and Spirituality doesnt exist in Assassins Creed, Miracles are only caused by Advanced Technology which is indistinguishable from Magic. There is also no Emortal Soul or Afterlife the only hope of eternal life is if youre lucky enough to have access to the Technology that will allow your Physical body or mind to live forever i.e in the Animas or Staff of Hermes. 99.99% of mankind will never achieve this as they live in the wrong time and place or dont have access to the technology. Thats reason why the Assassin's focus on Free Will there is no God nor Gods to guide Mankind despite our in-built desire to look up to them. Religion is just a Noble Lie for the Masses. Mankind has to become their own Gods in order to live forever and create and choose their own path surpassing even the Isu who created them. What a load of Athesist Free Mason Bullshit but I still like the Games 😅
facts
i also think that we our god of our own life we have to will and control to change it any moment of life and reach our ful potential and wisdom and every have different fate or its the nature which is god which was present before and will be after time ends and gives opportunity at every instance and its we who decide the action we take and then suffer the consequences and all these religious scripture hell heaven are just a way to get control over masses and tbh most of these religious peaple have more fucked up life than the atheist or non praying
It really is a perfect blend of conspiracy and religion. I was heavily into the illuminati/free mason stuff back then so I was hooked from the start when I was able to connect the dots between AC's fiction and real conspiracy theories. It's like the Ancient Aliens theory and New World Order conspiracy combined.
@@Grandwarden936that’s basically the same religious ideology in it self, compared to ass creed
@@Grandwarden936well be careful when you are crossing the street or your godly powers might not work and you might just die because a guy decides to drink a little bit too much but hey you control your destiny right? I'm sure you will be fine
That's why Ac1 will always be my favorite. The philosophy was sooo strong that it stayed with me. Especially the idea of blind faith. Even in the order blind faith can lead to bad things. Look at Rouge. Even if God exists or not WE make are own choices. Our paths our are own to choose.
I never cared about the ridiculous AC lore. I only cared about history and politics.
Why couldn't they have made it a series of games about a secret society trying to shape the world instead of a wierd alien story.
because if they couldn't poke fun at templars and christianity, they probably wouldn't have made the games in the first place
That is literally the plot of AC
@@Dylbun yes, he's saying he would have liked it better if it focused on history events and politics, that it would have been compelling enough without the atheist propaganda
@@Dylbun A ridiculous plot that's extremely unnecessary.
@@Dylbunliterally nobody knew alot of the shit you said in the video, only the politics and time period that's why you people got excited about valhalla
The people never have the power,only the illusion of it
Good video citizen! ,keep it up 👍
Thank you!
Assasins creed doesn't say God doesn't exist. It just says that there were other kind of people before us. Who created us as their tools. But they didn't say that they created the heavens and the earth.
6:25 ill have to disagree here, the non-existence of god is not inherently nihilistic. Infact id argue that its more hopeful than if there was one though that is a matter of opinion.
Fantasy video. Enjoyed your opinion exploring this game. I’ve played every game released since the first one. I agree with most of your points about religion and AC
and they say its just a game
although fictional, the game does speak to reality in certain ways I found. Just by playing assassins creed brotherhood, revelation, and 3.
That the funny thing about assassin creed both sides believe in God. one sides believes God wants us to have free will while the other side believes God wants us to control the world. It like a chess game that will never end.
If the Isu created Humanity, than “who” created the Isu. 😉
Facts!
Who says anyone had to create the Isu they could have evolved naturally as a result of phenomena
Just like in real life if god created human who created god🫡
Checkmate atheists
@@PerkyGamer522 no one created god, he's the source of everything, he's a force behind all creation
Wow, what a video! Thank you brother