#cisterhood

[ilikedetectives]

Cisterhood

In regards to the Cisterhood, oh oops, I mean AC Sisterhood, I’ve been looking high and low to find what these femrads mean by “authentic female experience”. They used Aveline and the ONLY mechanics and narrative highlights that they deem worthy to mention for Aveline as a black female protagonist is, “to flirt with guards in order to lure them away from their post.” 

I’m Vietnamese so I can’t speak for the black experience so please feel free to add. I’m pretty sure there are better things to highlight about Aveline as a black woman during slavery era in New Orleans in the 1770s, but the best they could come up with is her pretending to be a slave to do stealth mission? That’s it? There’s no notable narrative about her view on slavery and her personal struggles and how that got her to become an assassin? I haven’t played AC Liberation so I can’t say much for plot, but goddamn these radfems really miss AC2 so badly, they’d do anything to bring using-the-prostitutes-as-distractions back, because that’s definitely the feminine portrayal of “real women” we need more of.

Not to dismiss motherhood as part of femininity because trust me, I’d want to see how Aya coped with the loss of her child too, but the fact that they forget to mention what should’ve been included is: how that loss gives her the strength to become the founder of the Hidden Ones/Assassins, the Mother of the Creed. She’s a mother AND an assassin. What they asked for is the first couple hours of the game we see with Bayek, how about after that? Oh and you know who else is a mother in AC? As much as I’d like to pretend that cursed DLC doesn’t exist, Kassandra is a mother. Idk where they think Aya comes from, vroom vroom Isu machines? The erasure of Kassandra and Eivor’s sexuality and gnc really shines. If they don’t count that DLC, at least comment on how that DLC is part of the problem, oh wait, gnc, queer women don’t count in their radfem books, so these women being shit on is fine.

Oh and you know what else? Mentioning Ellie twice but conveniently forgetting to highlight that she’s an openly gay woman. You know what’s “not taking what's traditionally expected from a man and putting a woman's skin on it.”? That’s right, being queer. And yet, not even an once of mention, probably because to them, being attracted to girls is only for men.

Lastly, where’s Evie? No suggestion for Evie!?!?!?! Where’s Elisé, the only Templar protag that we could’ve played as???

TLDR: the female experience that they want is the “ability to flirt with guards in order to lure them away from their post” from AC2. If you don’t see how radfem this is, idk how else to make it clearer.

[ilikedetectives]

you don't get to claim that eivor and kassandra are written as queer women. That is not canon. YOUR character choices might have been queer, but it is a CHOICE. Stop giving ubisoft celebration for representation they havent done. It would be great if they gave us a canonically queer, no choice about it, protagonist. But the FACT is they havent, and ignoring that and pretending it is canon is hurting the issue at hand.

I'm pretty sure everyone and their dogs here know how much I hate that Odyssey dlc, despite playing Kass as bi; and how much I want a canonically gnc, queer female protag so these man babies can cry a little louder. My problem is why doesn't your movement shit on that? But instead you shit on how Kassandra and Eivor walk like a man, built like a man, dress in men's armors (what do you want? Boobily armors?), and Eivor's rough voice? Really? Tell me why those were necessary? You say narrative narrative narrative, but all you do is mock at how these two women look, see the hypocrisy? Where's your critique on plot? Because that's more important, that's what you want to improve, isn't it? Canon.

All you have to do is say what you just said: Ubi grows some balls, no choice this time around, give us a female stand-alone protag, ONE canon, no choice bs, and put her at the front. How hard is that? Why do you choose to highlight them as "men's skins" and give the most sexist examples using their looks? Where's your expertise in plot? You can give women spotlight without dragging other women who don't fit in your standards of feminine.

[ilikedetectives]

“Eivor is m!Eivor’s skin!”, sweetie, calm down, the dude doesn’t even have a name, he’s just called “M_Player” in the game files. At least Eivor was called Jora.

“Jora is a gender-neutral name!”, honey, how feminine or gender-neutral do you think “M_Player” is? Are you saying Ubi originally planned to give us 2 male protags to choose from? Are you hearing yourself? Just so we’re clear “M_Player” means “Male Player”, not Magnus, lol.

ACK_Jora_Head_DiffuseMap_PC_Ggp_Prospero_Scarlett 1868049798387

Head_M_Player_DiffuseMap_PC_Ggp_Prospero_Scarlett 1868050260562

We don’t know why the devs changed Jora to Eivor (my gut feeling? Probably cuz they wanna make sure there’s no question about female is canon, as if “Let the Animus decide” mode, she/hers pronouns even if you play as male, and Varinsdottir/Varin’s Daughter aren’t enough proof), because Eivor is undeniably a female name, specifically, an old woman’s name. Think of it like Beth for example. So yea, female has always been in the plan to be canon from the get go. If “M_Player” doesn’t show how much the narrative team doesn’t care about him (I’m sure marketing team loves him tho), idk what can; narrative team didn’t even bother consider a name for him lol. 

So yea, the physical attributes of Eivor are definitely intentional as part of her character. Listen, I know it’s trendy to shit on Ubi for reusing base game assets like Helix outfits (have you seen the Roman statues in Alexandria in Origins popping in Asgard lololol?) and Ubi totally deserves it, but it’s not the case here. Eivor walks like a brute. Idk about you but growing up in Nordic winter, walking in knee to waist-high snow, carrying heavy supplies, while riding horses, fighting, and fishing, I don’t think Eivor can walk like Aspasia/Hekate. Even then, Ubi could’ve easily gave Eivor Aspasia’s walking animation, swap and done; shit, they could’ve given her Kassandra’s walking animation, they have all the feminine walking animations in their assets library from Origins and Odyssey to choose from if they want, but they didn’t! I’m convinced that this is intentional. Holy hell, Eivor has arm hair, do you know how rare that is in video games? A female protag with arm hair? Granted the LOD is :hidethepain:, but I see they’re putting in the effort! If someone says she’s men’s skin for her hairstyle, armor, and voice, Imma summon Abby and let her slap some misogynies out of you. Also if you say you can’t relate to a queer character cuz she isn’t strictly attracted to only men, please get your homophobic ass out of my blog. The devs could’ve gone with a more feminine Eivor to “sell” better like what the higher-ups/marketing want, but they didn’t! So celebrate that spirit, instead of shitting on it because your misogynist brains can’t understand the narrative for a gnc, queer woman.

“But but, there are choices!” oh, do you hear that? That is the sound of Ubi making sfm money with turning AC into an RPG that these RPG elements are here to stay, “Let the Animus decide” is a good meet-me-half-way method to let those who want to experience the story as canon, suck it up buttercups.

Conclusion: a lot of us (including me) would love a stand-alone female lead, but that takes progress, especially with Ubi’s culture. Change is not immediate, higher-ups will always be higher-ups. Progress is slow, but I do see some improvements, at least in terms of canon. We go from not knowing Kassandra is canon until the scandal last year to now having multiple explicit proofs from the game and a canon gameplay mode showing Eivor is canon: she is queer, she is buff, her voice is rough, and she has arm hair! I, and a lot of people, like to count this small victory. You want changes, good for you, but don’t shit on the progress made so far that basically lays the foundation for better changes to come, as “lazy” work, because you can’t handle gnc, queer women as women. You get changes by celebrating the small victories, not shitting on it.

[ilikedetectives]

isn't @kulpreetvirdi on twitter running the whole ac sisterhood as a leader? and what's your opinion about her?

Well now that I got your ask, I went in her profile to check how she handles the situation like a real Hydra leader and realized I got blocked lololol. I never interacted with her so I give her the credits for at least not trying to slide into my DMs for...recruitments and after I declined twice, shit talking me for using mods (while dropping heart eye and heart emojis at naked Bayek pics) or calling me a cow. Gotta count my blessings here anon, lol. Actually, she did repost one of my Kassandra shots without credit, but iirc she doesn’t really credit where she gets most of the art/concept art she reposts from, unless it’s the Cisterhood logo.

As a leader, instead of choosing to address and clarify the conflict that is going on, she chooses to deflect and distract, which is practically what all of them do tbh. It’s in the Ubisoft playbook, look at how Ubisoft handled the situation last summer, and you’ll see the same circus. The thing is a simple statement like idk “Sorry the shit we say was sexist af towards gnc, queer women, we didn’t mean any harm” would more than suffice. Let’s see what she did do, I base this on my memories because I’m not gonna waste my time using incognito to check, I have better things to do, like picking my nose. Anyway, after concerns were raised, she released that flirting article as an example to highlight the “real cause” to assert the movement’s goals, along with “stop fighting and look at the bigger goal” tweet (cis, see what I did there, you can’t just tell people to stop fighting without actual mediation). Distraction? Check! Like “At Ubisoft, equality and employee wellbeing are our core values” or sth like that. Next is deflection, which is the whole “our leaders and members block you, but that doesn’t mean the movement is against you”, disassociating your personal actions from Ubisoft’s brand, check! Like “At Ubisoft, the actions of a fEW employees don’t reflect the company as a whole” deal. I don’t recall seeing her saying anything publicly or directly in the “Kassandra and Eivor are men’s skins for being built like a man, wearing men’s armors, walking like a man and that is disrespectful to women” convo, but seeing how her followers being the way they are, thinking Ubisoft is behind their back so they can do anything (which, they’re probably right), she is complacent with them. Meanwhile, her minions doing DMs to damage control. If your movement is so noble, why don’t you just release a public statement addressing the conflict once and be done with it? What kinda movement that you need to DM people to explain wym as leaders/supporters and then going around with a disclaimer that your personal opinion doesn’t reflect the movement? Is this a religion that they need to go door to doo....OHHHH!!!! Like I said before, this whole thing is just for them to solidify their followers base since they got a good bunch during their recruitment phase. Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for their lore police to tell me which in-game quests/dialogues that get them to say the sexist shit that they say.

[ilikedetectives]

Thanks for saying it. As a trans woman I was side-eyeing that hashtag the moment I read the “movement explained” post last year saying this:

That wording (from the most prominent voice!) directly implies that there’s an acceptable criteria for womanhood and women outside those criteria don’t count. This kind of thinking always ends up targeting gnc cis women too because they’re not the “right” women, no surprise it happened here. (Apparently a gay cis man is more worth defending to them than gnc and sapphic women too?)

Plus a quick google search would easily tell them Kassandra and Eivor were envisioned as “masculine” as they are now even before the male options were designed? Official ACV concept art for Eivor’s character design even states lady Eivor was designed first and that male Eivor was based off of HER. But sure they’re “shells” based on men 🙄

Looks like they’ve chosen to “highlight, appreciate and support” the fact that queer, gnc women aren’t real women because these women are simply men’s “shells” for being masculine and queer.

Oh I’m so glad that you see this and stay tf away. Aren’t these the same breed that were sooooo outraged after reading and citing that Forbes article by Jason Schreier last year, “OMG Kassandra and Aya/Amunet originally were supposed to be the protagonist, I’m so oUTraGEd and feel rOBbeD that Ubisoft took this from us”? You’d think with all the devs that they are good friends with, they should know by now that Kassandra and f!Eivor were designed first in mind, then the male counterparts were added AFTER being forced by higher-ups and marketing. The Montreal writers keep having to reassure people that everything about Eivor is intentional and they have always intended that Eivor is a female. The first name alone, Eivor, is a female name. I think the devs already know they’d have to deal with idiots, so they added Varinsdottir in her last name (dottir means “daughter”), but I think the devs still underestimate their level of stupidity. They sure are attentive to plot details when it involves their brotherhood though, but women? *wheeze* They love AC2 sfm but it didn’t take them until last year to realize how dirty Aya/Amunet treated. Nobody paused when Origins was announced to say, but Amunet statue? Pleaseeee *wheeze* For them to go around saying that Kass and f!Eivor are just “shells” based on men and now, practically calling the devs lazy because making them masculine to save time/effort in development time really shows their true colors. If a woman isn’t slim-af-and-only-attracted-to-cishet men, then they’re not women. gnc, queer, trans women? I don’t need to take a guess to see what they view these women as. These fake feminists don’t find it disrespectful that Kass and f!Eivor are pushed aside for the male shells to take the spotlight, but they find Kass and f!Eivor being masculine and queer disrespectful. Someone please turn on “Send in the Clowns'' for me, I prefer the Judi Dench version.

You know what I find hypocritical about these fake feminist breeds? When they call for more female assassins content, they never once invalidate their beloved male protags, “We’re not here to cancel m!Eivor/Alexios/Bayek/Jacob/Arno, we just want more of f!Eivor/Kassandra/Amunet/Evie/Elise/Aveline”, but now that they have more backers, they immediately turn around and dismiss the only two AAA female protags as women because they’re “too masculine, like men.” That’s right! f!Eivor walking like a man and both Kass and f!Eivor wear male armors and are attracted to women automatically dismiss their existence as gnc, queer women. Being a masculine, queer woman somehow exempt them both from sexism because these two are just “men’s shells”? What kinda Isu drugs are they on? Now I wish f!Eivor had a true buff Viking body in her vanilla state (I know there’s muscles mod by amisthiosintraining and I, but still), because what else are these fake feminists gonna trash her on? f!Eivor is a shell for m!Eivor? *wheeze* What could’ve been said was, “I want a female-protag-only game because then the devs can focus all their time and effort on her story, for her” or “Ubisoft should give the devs more time, resources, and creative freedom to give players more historical context of the struggles the female protags have to deal with, compared to male protags”. For example: a side quest with Aspasia as she deals with how sexist people (surprise, women can be sexist too) were towards her as perhaps the most educated, influential woman in Athens at the time. Or how Kassandra had to fight her way to be allowed to compete in the Olympics. That’s all that’s needed to be said. There’s nothing wrong with asking/wanting a feminine female protag who is gender-conforming, but it says a lot about their true view of women when they drag gnc and queer women down to parade their idea of a superior woman.

But what did these fake feminists choose to “highlight, appreciate and support” instead? Oh that’s right, disregarding both Kassandra and f!Eivor as inferior women, because them fakers don’t deemed masculinity and queerness as the aUThenTIc female experience they want to play as. You know what’s worse? Pitting these female characters together to rate how “feminine” each of them are to deem which ones are more “real” as a woman. Can you imagine them doing that to the male protags? Knowing full well that the devs’ hands were tied when it comes to creative freedom when making Kassandra and f!Eivor, but still go around and shit on the devs for being “lazy”, while dismissing Kassandra f!Eivor experience as women because of their gnc and queerness. What kinda Beta Sigma (BS) is this? Oh I think I know the answer: reinforcing their ideas of what they find acceptable for their version of a woman. Honestly, it’s not the first time gnc, queer women are shit on in AC, remember that cursed DLC from Odyssey? Yea. I expect nothing more from Ubisoft-certified fans. Watch, if we somehow get a female-lead AAA game next installment and she happens to be queer, gnc, and godforbid to their fEMinISt standards, she happens to be trans as well, these fakers would most likely scream, “We support women. We want the REAL woman experience”. But if she happens to conform into their fEMinISt standards, you’ll get to hear how she’s their most favorite protag since Ezio cuz she’s a “real woman”. Again, nothing wrong with gender-conforming, feminine women, but using them as THE superior example, this fuckery/fakery reeks.

One last general tip from Doctor Who, “Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage. Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit, without hope, without witness, without reward.” Look closely and you’ll see what those advantages and rewards are. 

p/s: Didn’t Ubisoft CEO just appoint his family member(s) to be in charge, while there were also discussion on how the new directors are no better than the sexist, racist ones that were fired/let-go? Sounds to me like it’s business as usual again. Or us Vietnamese have a saying, “It’s easier for rivers and mountains to change than human’s nature to even budge” (giang sơn dễ đổi, bản tính khó dời). I find it so ironic that “gaslight gatekeep girlboss” is trending on my dash.

[ilikedetectives]

“Jora is a gender-neutral name!” - did someone really say that? Because when I google the name I got this: The name Jora is a girl's name of Hebrew origin. And then I looked into the Scandinavian version of the name; Jóra an Icelandic female name. So basically "Jora" is no more gender neutral than Eivor. But M_Player is f*cking hilarious.

I haven’t heard any of them said that yet (I’m jinxing it now), but I'm trying to follow their nonexistent logic, where the Cisterhood claims that Eivor is men’s skin because of her appearances, queerness, and rough voice and the in-game narrative about her is written with a dude in mind and not a gnc, queer woman. I wanna see what shit hole this logic leads to. Man, I had to flatten my brain for this task.

Jóra is indeed a female Scandinavian name, its masculine version would be Jöfur (x, x). The devs could have gone with Jofur in the game files, but nooooo, they went with M_Player and I think that’s a power move lol. It’s like telling marketing, “No. You don’t have two names this time. We’re giving you the most feminine name possible, so go and market the game with a masculine dude whose name is an equivalent of Beth/Susan.”

[ilikedetectives]

Did you literally even read the article you're ripping apart? All it said was video games need to do better than having "woman" just be a skin over an experience written for a male perspective, and stop leaving out things that would be specific to a female-driven story just because men are babies and cry about their games. Like seriously... what?

Despite knowing that Kassandra and f!Eivor were created first with their narrative as being queer, buff women in mind, what makes you think they are men’s skins? Really, pinpoint to me EXACTLY WITH CONCRETE EXAMPLES from game plots (which mission, which dialogue, which game mechanics) that makes you think they’re men’s skins? If you say motherhood then please, as much as I hate that DLC, Kassandra in a way had a child and lost him too. And Eivor, she is still a mother to all of the children in her settlement, adoptive mothers matter too! So tell me, what parts that get you radfems lot feel so under-represented to the point that you have to dismiss gnc, queer women experience as men’s skins? You can say you want more of gender-conforming female assassins like playing as a mother, but dismissing one who is literally a mother and the other is practically an adoptive mother as real women really shows your hypocrisy. You have an arsenal of loyal AC fans who probably know where Ezio took a dump before fighting the Borgia, but your knowledge pool can only come up with “flirt with guards” as “new mechanics and narrative avenues can be unlocked by focusing on a female protagonist”, really? I bring this up with more than once and NONE of you so far can explain this. You keep saying “female perspective” and THIS is THE EXAMPLE y’all go with? Sexist much?

And since you can’t even come up with examples from your own beloved franchise, you use Abby and Ellie as an example, and yet somehow leave out Abby’s buffness and Ellie’s sexuality. You know what makes “men are babies and cry about their games” pissed off? GNC and/or queer women! Have you seen how hard they cry about her arms? You can say you want “female-driven” story, but don’t go around saying gnc, queer women experience is men’s skin and defend that sexist remark to the death under the banner of feminism.

[ilikedetectives]

That guy on twitter whos saying this shit abt the ac protags is straight up misogynistic. honestly i dont think this is even terf rhetoric like he wants women chars to cater to him specifically classic idiot sexist just trying to dress it up as woke

He is a misogynistic narcissist and here’s why I think that is:

He’s openly gay, so unlike the typical fake woke dude, it’s not that he follows the calls of his loin when it comes to having female chars cater to him as a man. What he uses these “feminine” characters for is to filter and recruit gullible women into thinking that he’s on their side and thus, they’ll worship and defend him because he’s so nice to them, while all these men in the fandom are the worst. After all, how can a gay man be sexist? He’s not sexually attracted to women. Why do you think he alienated those gnc and/or queer women in his one-on-one DMs, then block them after he finds that he can’t change their minds about his “noble” feminist cause? If your cause is so noble and there’s nothing wrong about it, then why fear different opinions coming from women?

For those who haven’t played the game, Ubisoft devs support this ‘movement’ by putting his Cisterhood logo as a tattoo option in AC Valhalla. Before he had their support, it’s all about “all women are welcome”, all very warm and welcoming, like most cult does before getting their preys in the gaslighting phase. But now the devs have his back and the gaslighting is done, Cisterhood turns right around and, “Kassandra and Eivor aren’t real women because they’re queer and too buff, the devs are lazy for making them men’s shells. We want REAL women.” He and his goons the same clowns that were “outraged” about Ubisoft higher-ups not listening to his dev friends and forced them to make the male counterparts, after the devs already made Kassandra and Eivor. Now is what I call the “solidification” phase, by pitting women against each other, he can perform an act to these new recruits that he is on their side defending their femininity. It doesn’t matter if this Cisterhood doesn’t get more members, what they need to do now is flush out any opposition and focus on turning their members into “yes” shells. So later on they haven token women to support their views on a female, gender-conforming assassin whose skills is to wear sexy clothes and flirt with the guards/targets.

He is part of a group that is certified by Ubisoft and what I mean by that is they get free Ubisoft game keys and sometimes early access to new releases for being an influencer/content creator. Tbh game keys don’t pay much for the amount of effort, it’s all about the attention. It’s never been about women. Actually, only gender-conforming women. The rest, according to them, don’t count.