Vigilantes with Daddy Issues

The Vigilantes with Daddy Issues

Or, Why are the fathers of Assassin's Creed so oppressively important, yet ultimately useless?

The loss of one's father, or the loss of fatherly love, is as ubiquitous in the Assassin's Creed franchise as hoods and hidden blades. A common fandom conversation goes like this: one fan will say "Protagonist so-and-so has daddy issues", another fan will reply "Don't they all?" and a third will conclude with "Yeah, it's Daddy Issues: the franchise". For a story that has been carried mostly by male protagonists, this poses some interesting questions.

The Grim Paternal Track Record

We have been warned from the start: the first protagonist in the series, Altair ibn La'Ahad, is surnamed 'son of no one'. His father has died before Altair is born. Death of another father, that of his childhood friend Abbas, will lead to a series of personal tragedies for Altair.

The next hero, Ezio Auditore, will not fare much better. He will lose first his father, then his paternal uncle, to the Assassin-Templar conflict. A similar fate, just at a younger age, awaits Haytham Kenway. He will, in turn, set in motion a series of events that leaves his own son, Ratonhnh:aketon, fatherless.

In addition, these first three games/stories are told through the plight of Desmond Miles, himself a runaway from home in direct conflict with his father. When that father finally makes an appearance, it rapidly becomes obvious why Desmond rebelled. William Miles is a textbook case of a domineering, over-exacting father.

Arno Dorian's story starts a little like Ezio's and Haytham's. He loses his father while still a young boy. Arno will catch up to Ezio soon enough, losing the second father figure in his life and then killing the third one himself. Jacob Frye will start out with his father recently dead, tidily finishing the father-losing streak of the male protagonists, at least for the moment.

Origins and Odyssey start from slightly different positions. Bayek of Siwa is a father himself, but that does not get him a free pass. Bayek cannot save his son Khemu's life not ensure his afterlife, and this will be the driving force of the plot of Origins. The Eagle Bearer of Odyssey starts being cast off by their father, both metaphorically and literally. Whatever path they chose, in the first game that allows alternative story endings, the initial betrayal still stands. Before their story ends, the Egale Bearer will find another father, and be equally disappointed in him as well.

And where are the mothers?

For a game series that prides itself on many memorable female characters, and including playable ones, mothers have always been a backdrop to the Assassin's Creed series. They are either a pale shadow in the background, as Maria Auditore is for Ezio, or completely missing from the picture, like Altair's mother or Cecily Frye, the mother of the Frye twins. Desmond's mother is likewise relegated to a footnote, unable to help her son or lessen the impact of the incompetent, unfeeling father William. One of the most striking characters in the series, Ratonhnh:aton's mother, Ziio, is all too quickly removed from the scene.

Aya of Alexandria, Bayek's wife, would seem to be an exception. However, Aya is present for so little of the story that she is barely even a foil to her husband. Myrrine, the mother of Eagle bearer, has a more prominent role, but is still largely ineffective. She is not present for most of Eagle Bearer's youth and her decisions have little effect on Eagle Bearer's actions.

For some reason, then, mothers just can't cut it in the world of Assassin's Creed. Fathers are the important ones. And if our protagonist is fresh out of fathers, a father figure can be found.

I Will Not Buy This Father, He Is Scratched

The desperate search for a father figure is bound to end in disaster one way or another. Altair's devotion to and reliance on Al-Mualim ends dramatically when he realises his mentor/father figure has betrayed him. To remedy this, Altair will not only kill him, but will have to tear down everything that Al-Mualim has built. The rage against the father figure will feature doubly in Ratonhnhake:ton's case: he will respectfully endure the gruff training under his Assassin mentor, Achilles. This will prepare him for the showdown with his actual father, Haytham, with predictable consequences. Haytham, like Al-Mualim, is a failed father from the enemy side, and will perish accordingly.