Confused spoilers for some dense plot stuff in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and Assassin's Creed 3

Butch:

Gorm is dead, death to Gorm.  Finished up Vinland. Well, killed Gorm, did all the mysteries.  Kevin can hang on to a couple ingots.  Went home, smooched, pledged to Cent, had a bit of a row with Dag. Hit save. 

So.....what exactly the hell was that?  I finally get a cool, weird thingy, I find a cool wall, a voice speaks to me, and I say "This is not for me?"  THAT'S my heroic thing? 

And what's with all those stories I couldn't understand because I don't speak Native American whatever?  And why'd I just give them the ball that is OBVIOUSLY IMPORTANT?????

And what's with Orlav or whoever, who stayed behind?  Is he, like, Connor's granddad or something? 

And, if so, what does THAT mean? 

I'm confused.  You got any insight? 

The one thing I do understand bums me out because it means I was wrong:  The clue about the big baddie we got from offing Gorm is "The Father (subtle) is a Saxon," which means not King Hair, unless there's a twist. 

The Father?  Subtle. 

Feminina:

See? I told you Vinland was small. 

That was definitely a bit anti-climactic, when I went up to the mysterious door with the round depression where the glowing sphere I just got OBVIOUSLY could fit, and I just said "this is not for me" and left. 

I mean...I could have at least tried? It's not even as if the glowing sphere, which apparently talked to Gorm, talked to me and TOLD me it wasn't for me! I just looked at it and thought "nope" and left. Which is behavior completely contrary to every established habit of this character, not to mention every video game character ever. We investigate the heck out of EVERYTHING!

However, looking at that door I had a vague memory of it from AC3, so I think that it's the sacred place Desmond opened up to (temporarily, in this game's timeline) forestall the Mayan Apocalypse back in 2012, so I suppose it makes sense they can't have Eivor poking around in it now. Once you reminded me with yesterday's discussion, I think that sphere was also the thing that Connor carried around for a while, so I guess that's why Eivor just left it with the people who would eventually be in the area where Boston was built, and one of them would become Connor's mother. 

Maybe we're just supposed to assume that whatever mystic connection we have with Isu memories/technology subtly motivated us to not be interested in the door or the sphere. 

I thought the mutually unintelligible storytelling was an interesting scene. They're saying, I think, that the mere fact of sharing stories, even if we don't understand each other, has some value. Eivor tells the story about Odin's son and the mistletoe and hints at the inevitability of fate (and here we are as players, potentially aware of the way that elements of this sequence will resurface in hundreds of years in another game, and definitely aware of the fact that what seems to be Eivor ends up in a shallow grave somewhere around here), and the people all listen attentively even though it must be as meaningless to them as the words that she listened to attentively a few minutes earlier. 

I don't know...maybe they're saying that listening and paying attention is the important thing about group storytelling, rather than the specific details? They all shared this moment, and it was kind of cool the way it was presented, just quiet, firelight, stars, and someone talking--the story could have been anything, even if they understood each other the specifics of the words wouldn't have been the important part, the important part was that they spoke and they listened. Perhaps this is also an intentional contrast to fighting, which is what we spend a large portion of our game time doing. Like, here's this moment of calm and peace, just sitting with strangers. Maybe that's something Eivor will want to return to, at whatever point in the future we wind up coming back here for our date with the grave.

I'm honestly not sure exactly what they're going for, but I thought it was interesting.

As for Olav, I don't see signs of him in anything that I remember from AC3 (with the caveat that it's been a long time), but I could easily imagine that he stuck around, living with the locals, eventually learning the language and maybe passing along some Norse stories that wound up working their way into the local legends that Connor heard as a child...but I don't think he's an Assassin (unless he joins the Hidden Ones later? maybe Eivor comes back and teaches him?), so he wouldn't know any of that lore, and I don't remember childhood stories being a part of what we knew about Connor's foundational influences in AC3, so honestly your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps more will become clear.

Perhaps not.

Butch:

I did rather like the storytelling, even if I wasn't entirely sure what they were going for.  

Totally agree on the anticlimax with the orb.  I guess one problem you get into with a massive world like this is that you are hemmed in by what people did before.  As you say, if this mattered in 1775 way back in AC3, then that's canon and Eivor can't mess around, even if, as you say, that's contrary to everything the character IS.  Even Dag was hinting at that, all "You keep getting lost instead of looking for your jarl..." I'm not lost!  I'm looking for Roman artifacts and sifting through sheep poop and stuff! Totally not lost. 

If I wanted to do Femmy style mental gymnastics, I could say that the only reason she got the orb was because Gorm happened to have it.   She does tell the woman there "I had a blood feud with his clan," which is true.  She did not say "I came because he is in a weird order and had a weird quest that I all of a sudden have no interest in."  She wanted Gorm dead because he was part of the clan that killed her father, he's dead, whatever weird shit he was doing was his weird shit, and irrelevant to her. 

Of course, if you had done those gymnastics, I'd counter that irrelevance does not stop her from touching weird symbols that turn her into Layla or whatnot, but I don't want to argue with myself. 
I did find it interesting that the Native Americans either knew what the thing was or, at least, weren't creeped out by it.  Eivor just takes it out and give it to them, they accept it almost, like "Hey, thanks for getting our weird thing!"  There wasn't any fear, or curiosity or even wonder.  They seemed rather comfortable with the thing.  Hmm. 

The other thing I noticed (and this goes back to why "This isn't for me" is annoying) is that Eivor, even after telling a story about fighting fate, ends this whole thing by saying "My bones are fated for this place" or something.   She's accepting fate, accepting that this weird place that she just said WASN'T for her is, in the future, FOR HER. 

Very odd playing session, this.  But I did a cairn and the standing stone.  That was interesting, wasn't it?  That was the last place that monk who wrote the notes (and is, oddly, voiced) ended up, and he was thinking all this would get him into the gate, right?  So he knew about the gate, even when he was in England and Norway, then, right? 

Weird session. 

Feminina:

It was odd. And yes, very interesting that the monk (Brendan?) ended up in Vinland. Odd things all around, which Eivor is oddly uninterested in. 

My mental gymnastics are going to be "it's a 3-week voyage and I started feeling bad about being away from England for so long, so I was uncharacteristically dismissive of all the weird interesting stuff there." 

I did think Dag's accusation was pretty funny. I mean, yeah, I'm not LOST!--I know exactly where I am, and it's somewhere in Suthsexe looking at dots!--but I take his point that I spend a lot of time doing things that aren't looking for Sigurd. 

Even though that felt a bit off considering he was at that very moment refusing to go look for Sigurd.

He's probably just hoping to romance Randvi while Sigurd and I are both gone. 

Butch:

He's not her type, but, if he tries, I'll kill him dead.  

I think he's not going because politics.  He does not like Eivor.  No sir.  

I like those mental gymnastics.  That's a long time to go between Randvi visits.   
I do like the nod to history as it says "after the death of Gorm Vinland was abandoned by the Norse," because, after all, the Norse did abandon it for reasons unknown.  

Ignoring history and talking on Brendan, here we go again with Christians seeming to know more about weird stuff, only to be wrong or unworthy.  Dude seemed to think that the gate was somehow Christian.  He said something about seeing what he called an angel, thinking it a sign the gate would open, but he was wrong.  Hmm. 

Feminina:

They did abandon it! Why not because the only reason they were there was Gorm and Gorm's Order-related quest? 

Presumably the Order figured "well, that expedition didn't work out and now the talking crystal is lost, so screw it, we've got stuff to do here closer to home. Like try to thwart Eivor's search for Sigurd, if she ever bothers to stop making out with his wife and chasing dots, and come looking for him."

Butch:

That did seem rather abrupt.  

"We shall mount a massive voyage to the other side of the sea...we shall dig and dig...for the GLORY of the Order we have found a cave...we are so close and...what?  Gorm's dead?  Oh.  Well.  Back to England, last one there buys the mead." 

Feminina:

It seemed like it was just Gorm and Kevin, though, so maybe it was like his pet project and no one else in the Order cared that much. Then when he died there was no one around to carry on the mission and the (few) surviving guards probably couldn't get home fast enough.

Butch:

Could be.  I got the feeling that Gorm wasn't exactly impressing anyone.  Things went poorly in Norway, after all.  Maybe he was doing this on his own to get in their good graces. 

Or something. 

By the way, I, too, killed that legendary elk thing.  My finishing blow was, quite literally, kicking it in the ass.  

I was SO PISSED that I didn't seem to bring it back to the hunter.  

"Dude, I killed the bigass elk there with my bare hands!" 

"Cool!  Where is it?  I'll mount it." 

"Uh....didn't bring it.  But I totally killed it!  By kicking it in the butt!" 

"Sure, Eivor.  Sure." 

Feminina:

Ha! 

"Sure you did, Eivor. We'll head right over to this "arena" where this "mighty beast" hung out and get the carcass."

Tonight is my night to play. Those Suthsexe dots won't know what hit them!

Butch:

Man, I was kinda sorta close to you for a bit. 

Feminina:

Dude, you could have gotten ahead of me if you went straight to Cent and I kept chasing dots!

Ah well. We're still pretty close on the main story, even if I've done way more dots in Suthsexe than you.

Butch:

Dude, I haven't set foot in Sussex.  Not once.  But…uh….killed two zealots!  There's that. I guess.   

Hopefully I'll play some tonight. 


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