The Problem with Canon Kassandra in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
This isn’t a review of Odyssey, but instead I’m going to talk about one aspect - the choice of if you want to play as Alexios or Kassandra.
Information Sources:
www.forbes.com/sites/paultass... (PLEASE don’t harass the author, they just stated their opinion - and we are all allowed to have one)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eivor
olympics.com/ioc/ancient-olym...
www.worldhistory.org/article/...
Music Used (All Tracks from Odyssey):
• Markos | Assassin's Cr...
• Barnabas | Assassin's ...
• Korinth | Assassin's C...
• Guards of the Cult | A...
• Kydonia | Assassin's C...
• A Spartan Fight | Assa...
Background Footage Used (besides my own gameplay):
• Assassin’s Creed Valha...
• ASSASSIN'S CREED ODYSS...
• YAKUZA 0 - Majima danc...
• Assassin's Creed: Odys...
www.youtube.com/watch?v%20OE5...
• Assassin's Creed Odyss...
• Assassin's Creed Odyss...
• Kallipateira - Side Qu...
• Assassin's Creed Odyss...
It’s always seemed to me that they fully intended to make Alexios the sole protagonist. All of the promo art and marketing featured him.
Not just that, but he has dreadlocks, showing he grew up on an Island like Kephallonia. Kassanadra has very clean straightened hair, like she grew up raised in the cult of kosmos
The reason it seems that way is because it was. I know Ubisoft's "official" position on that says otherwise. But Ubisoft is owned, operated, and governed by the Karens in their HR department and it was roughly around the time this game came out that the Karens rose to ascendancy and got to control the narrative. Mostly by MeTooing anybody who dared contradict them.
Uhm, yeah, because of the same reason why they had to add him in the first place: the suits thought that a game with a male protagonist would sell better. That's why they forced the devs to add him and that's why they put Alexios front and centre in the promo material.
@@neon-kitty That's what the Karens in HR and all their little minions claim at least. Quickest way to get MeToo'd back then was to contradict the HR Karens.
@@TheCrimsonRevengeryou sound like an insane conspiracy theorist
I can’t lie I cannot imagine origins without Bayek as the main character he was honestly one of the best video game protagonists
Yeah Aya was great and all but Bayek was the most captivating Assassin since Ezio.
yeah, Bayek was a pretty strong-willed "hero" character. Basically, the simple "protect the weak from the abuse by the strong" and "respect the kill/hunt but carry the anger". I guess if I was a horny male teenager, I would be playing as Kassandra. but as an adult male, I'd rather play what I can project myself on and enjoy the game.
But imagine playing with Anya…it make sense from a Lore point of view (we saw Anya statue in AC II)
I actually thought that Bayek was the canon character until now. It just felt natural (for lack of a better word).
@@jmbs9586 in origins i guess bayek wanted the hidden ones to be actually hidden from the world while aya wanted the world to know about them so i believe that's the reason why we don't see/hear about bayek anywhere before origins cuz he and his followers remained hidden to the end
I tried Odyssey some years ago and I picked Kassandra because everyone was saying that she is the best. I dropped the game, just didn't click to me even though I'm Greek and I was super excited. A few days ago I decided to start again, this time with Alexios. He just makes sense, I love his personality and I'm super invested.
He’s the best choice, he brings tons of humor and fun to the game.
Had the same experience, only I restarted the next day. I like Kassandra's voice actress, but Alexios just felt far more accurate for this story and the world it takes place in.
@NiteF0X No kassandra is and she is canon
@@Twilight24682 Who cares about what's canon? Women couldn't participate in the Ancient Olympics, so Kassandra being canon makes no sense historically.
My favorite part of the game is murdering the fuck out that spoiled brat alexios
I'm playing as a Kassandra, and it's spread throughout the entire game, that everybody speaks to Kassandra as to a male. It doesn't really matter in character behavior if you choose male or female, it's just cosmethics. In both cases with odyssey and valhalla it feels as the gender choice didn't really matter. It's stupid. The olympics example is one thing, to me it was really on the nose when that director casted Kassandra in playing as Leonidas in the play.
Gender swapping in theater is not uncommon, and definitely not unknown to classical Greeks
@@cat_and_cabbage4662 I think that in Antic Greek it was the other way around - the female roles played males.
@@TheTolister definitely an interesting topic, one I need more info on
@@cat_and_cabbage4662 Yes, in ancient Greece, men played all female roles; women were not actors. There might be anecdotal stories about women dressing as men to perform, but in general actors were male. Kassandra would likely not been asked to play a male role on stage, or be on stage at all.
Also a misthios exclusively refers to a male mercenary. A female mercenary would be a misthia, but Kassandra still gets called misthios throughout the game.
I’m new to AC. Just started playing Odyssey and have been researching the two characters and man it’s nice to finally see a balanced argument supporting Alexios. A large majority or the stuff I’ve seen have been articles like the one you showed claiming Kassandra is leagues better but from all the clips I’ve seen online and play the start with both characters myself I feel they’re both fun and have things the actors did better at in different areas. I’m okay with there being a canon answer but like you said I feel like it would’ve been cool if with Valhalla they could’ve made both canon by letting either one appear based off what you did in Odyssey.
You'll have a way better gameplay as kassandra. Alexios grunts the whole game and his commentary is dumb with his extra low deep voice. Glad I picked her to platinum this fun game
@@bs3202 yeah actually I’m basically at the end of the game now. I did end up going with Kassandra and I’m glad I did.
i usually plays Kassandra I think it makes the dialogue and story better. There ain’t really no difference between playing between the two really except for a few things from the dialogue change.
I played both and prefer Alexios 100%. Makes more sense in the game, him being the older brother is something I can resonate with, and I felt like his sorrow was more like he didn't fully show all of his emotions because he had lost so much. Both are fine options but I would take Alexios any day even if he isn't canonical.
@@bs3202 Alexios doesn't grunt the whole game. He only grunts when you jump from high areas or when he gets hit actually Kassandra does the same thing. Their commentary is exactly the same and his low deep voice well low and deep are the same thing when it comes to the voice. And every man has a deeper voice. It was very common for spartan men to have deeper voices actually.
While I think it is stupid that Ubisoft doesn’t think that a female only lead would sell, I actually prefer that they put a male and female character option in RPG and RPG style games. The whole point is to see yourself in the characters you’re playing. I am currently playing threw Odyssey again and as Alexios for the first time and I’m honestly having more fun playing as him for the most part then as Kassandra. Like you said both voice actors bring a different energy and his performance is more humorous to my ear then Kassandra is and I like that! Both voice actors did a fantastic job!
Not really, tomb raider, horizon games, Metroid are all examples of successful games with good female leads, thing is Ubisoft can’t write female characters
Which is your favorite, origins Odessy or vahalla?
I don’t think AC is the right series for gender options at all. In other games where it’s about you, sure it’s cool..but these games are about reliving the *actual* history. I just think it’s really weird that you can be Alexios in what is Kassandra’s canon story..it would be like if in AC2 you could choose Claudia even though canonically it’s Ezio’s story. I liked how Syndicate did dual protagonists both of them can coexist all throughout
@@dycast8561 yes, or origins where you got to play as the guy with the girl having a decent side part.
@@dycast8561 Many of syndicates development team are really angry that evie was forced as a duel protagonist for 2 reasons. Reason number 1 is because evie was the games main villain, and because they were so far into development when they were told to add her as a playable character, they had to make the story worse by splitting some of Jacobs own storyline and memories, and giving them to his sister. They also had to rewrite Pearl and Roth, in order to give then some of the levels from when Evie originally was revealed to be a villain. And they had to cut out laods of ISU story aswell... Reason number 2, Jacob was and indeed still is the first lgbt male protagonist in Assassin's creed, and one of the only lgbt male leads in AAA gaming. Many devs see the hypocrisy in that having a minority groups representation damaged simply to add a female, isn't progress. It's ignorant at best, and selfish and hypocritical at worst. This and the fact that the lead writer was a gay man, its not surprising many ubisoft devs have quit instead of working on this overly feminist double standards period of ubisofts history...
I love playing alexios,he reminds me of bayek, really expressive and charismatic and they way he react and interacts with the world feels so real. Cassandra for me fives that feels only anger and menacing really well,gives some kratos vibes
Kassandra makes a much better Deimos and Alexios feels more natural as the mc
Complete opposite for me. Kassandra can't intimidate a malnourished puppy. Granted, i've been in actual real life fist fights. I've punched people and been punched back. So sometimes I think that's the key difference. Nobody who's experienced real violence can hear a female voice actress try to be physically intimidating without thinking to themselves "Oh. So this is what it sounds like when kittens growl." Now that isn't to say there aren't ways for a female VA to be scary. But it works best when they lean into the "Psycho" vibe. Go for a yandere-style bloodlust sort of vibe. Doesn't work too well with characters that are meant to be heroic I guess, but when it's done right that can be some bonechilling stuff cuz those sorts of threats tend to catch you when you ain't looking. It's actually part of what makes Kassandra work really well as Deimos.
The same with Valhalla, but it's worse. I played as male eivor. And during gameplay plenty of noc's call you mam or lady. So they couldn't even be bothered to fix that. If I'm meant to play as a character or gender then make that default, I don't care about having choices of character, just make 1 good one.
They didn't fix it bc the devs r probably angry that they can't make a female. Solo character nd they r forcing them to put a male character it there
In Oddyssey you have a choice, in Valhalla it's the same story being told: the character is a man in a woman's body and while you might choose to see the man, every NPC sees the woman body.
I usually pick the male character when given a choice, so I pciked Alexios in Odyssey and the male Eivor in Valhalla. About 5 minutes into the game, someone asked me if they "warmed my loins". Figured I wasn't meant to play the male character, so I made the switch. Having played through the game, the only time I felt the male character made more sense was (spoiler alert) when your brother's wife wants to cheat on him with you.
I don’t mind Kassandra being the canon choice however in the legacy of the first blade dlc really made me feel like alexios should have been the canon choice. The pain of losing the love of his life and his child being kidnapped. Really hit me emotionally especially the ending of that arc. I’m also a father could never imagine the pain he went through, but not only did he find his son but he (alexios) sent his son away for his (child) safety. That to me felt like that was the perfect scenario for alexios to be the canon choice. I don’t hate kassandra it’s just I felt like alexios was the better character choice between the two. Also Kassandra felt more intimidating as Demios than alexios. Now with the franchise as a whole. I feel like having a choice between male or female ruins the story. The past games only had one protagonist like Altair or Ezio, could you imagine having a character choice with Ezio’s trilogy? It wouldn’t be the same. They should stick with one main character either male or female it doesn’t matter which just pick one. Don’t give us a choice to cater to one audience or another. Follow the history of the time periods like they have done in the past. They took away the crossbow in ac1 cause it wasn’t accurate. Bring us back to that time Ubisoft. Just give us one *insert swear word here* character. That’s all I want at least.
Cassandra was way better and Deimos makes more sense and and just plays the part better as a man.
I played all AC games and started on AC1 the first time it was released. And I will still proudly say thay it's still one of the solid AC game and my favorite because Altair was wellmade character but was not fleshed out too much. But his character on AC Revelations really hits me hard. Ezio is 2nd to me but that's because he have 3 games on his caliber. Connor is also a good one but it really feels like Haytham is the main character of ACIII. But I lost interest when AC4 came out. Why? Because Desmons is not around anymore and the game is not anymore being an assassin but rather being a pirate. AC4 is a good game and super fan but as a AC standard it's not for me. And after AC4 the AC series become so bland until AC Origin came out. But I'm really dissapointed on AC Odyssey and AC Valhalla. I really don't like choosing to be a male or female when it comes to AC came so I would say AC Syndicate did better compared to AC Odyssey and Vallhalla. At least Evie and Jacob have their own personality which is very interesting compared to Alexios and Kassandra. So now I'm really hoping for AC Mirage to be as good as AC1. The feeling of social stealh that the game introduce ahould return.
Its pretty dumb that Kassandra gives birth a child and then goes away… With Alexios its more realistic that the mother is the one keeping the child while he is out working as misthios… Im not bing sexist is just more accurate
@@Eyes-Scream0213 Altair was a terrible character in AC1, with that annoying America accent, and acted arrogant and narcissistic the entire time before having a complete 180 at the end when he finally understands it all. Ezio acted like an arrogant skirt chaser for 20 years of in game time in AC2, then backtracks for plot reasons at the end, then in the next game finally understands it all. Desmond was an annoying, whiny, unlikeable character that was arrogant and difficult for the first 4 games, and finally understood it all in AC3. None of them are very well made characters.
I agree on the legacy of the first blade. It felt VERY weird seeing Kassandra lose her husband and her son only to have her father in law get angry with her. Like cut her some slack, that's a mother who lost her child, the one that your son died trying to protect? That whole deal was definitely written with Alexios in mind and it infuriates me to no end. Ubisoft say Kassandra is canon but they barely commit to her
The fear of ubisoft to put a female as the only protagonist is dumb, I think games like syndicate and odyssey would have been better to tell the story with only evie and kassandra. In odyssey I think Kassandra fits better as a protagonist but its true that the game feels like was wade for Alexios. Good video bro, keep the good work!
Syndicate wouldnt have a story. Jacob is the concept for the game. Gangs, and dealing with the oppression of the soical outsiders, and underclass is jacobs thing. Evie was actually originally the games main bad guy. She was using jacob to get the shroud, until she revealed her true intentions. The idea was reused for watch dogs legions Sabine. Also when it comes to representation, jacob is still one of AAA gamings only gay male protagonists, whereas evie is one of many many women. Fun fact, the higher ups at ubisoft forced evie to become a good guy and "twin protagonist" due to criticism of unity not having a female option for co-op. Thats literally the only reason. The same higher ups tild the lead writer of syndicate, who himself is a gay man, to make jacobs bi-sexuality more "subtle" so homophobic buyers won't be upset, potentially negatively affecting sales.
If they wanted to make a story for Kassandra they should have changed the entire style of the game and story, if they wanted to keep nearly any sort of historical accuracy.
@@hommofroggy5727 your right. Kassandra was the catalyst that killed assassin's creed. Because of kassandra, ubisoft felt they could pull the same bait and switch nonsense that made no narrative sense at all in valhalla. And they'll do it again most likely in AC japan...
@@chrismoore5333 as i said in another comment, Kassandra was very badass as Dimos, why not make it a playable path?! I would love to have played that way. She doesn't fit the mercenary situation in that time period. But as a indoctrinated demi god?! Sign me in. The Dimos side of the story is based on mythology and fantasy. The Mercenary side of the story should be a mix of mostly historical accuracy and fantasy.
@@hommofroggy5727 I agree with you entirely.
This was what I kept trying to explain to people when Odyssey first came out as to what Kassandra being Deimos was just more believable and sounded better, but I never could find the words to explain it until now. I appreciate and support this.
Yes, I found Kassandra as Deimos more threatening and scary. Alexios is also good in that role, but Kassandra seems much more rage-under-the-surface, and she will snap any second. Whereas Alexios as Deimos is always angry. Both are good, but I like Kassandra in that role more.
No alexios makes a more believable deimos he fits the part better and deimos is a male name so it's stupid to call a female deimos
Alexios did well in both roles, Kassandra seemed only good as Deimos. And most people cannot tell whether Deimos is masculine or feminine, so I stand by my opinion. Kassandra is unfortunately cannon, but not in my head cannon.@@Twilight24682
I really like playing with Alexios but I think they force you to play as Kassandra because when you choose Alexios, the animation will still be for female especially the walking animation which is why Alexios walks like gay
@@ScottiePotatoThat’s subjective because he doesn’t walk gay especially when he runs.
I really enjoyed the game as Alexios, I really didn't get the "he's the worst protagonist" Also, I agree with the point of the historical stuff that people say (it really threw me off, since I'm a big history nerd) And I thought that they would make a choose your mystios for the valhalla tie-in mission and got really disapointed when it didn't
His voice acting was horrible compared to Cassandra
@@hughjaenus2235 I played it in portuguese, so his VA was actually pretty good But, I've seen some clips of the english VA, and he was ok, I still didn't understand the "worst protagonist"
@@umapessoaqualquer3688 His english VA always sounded very rough and exaggerated, like he's always angry imo Kassandra sounded more natural and realistic, and no it's not because she's a female and Alexios is a buff alpha male. Because the same goes for Valhalla, male Eivor sounds natural and calm, meanwhile female Eivor sounds pissed off 24/7 and like she smokes 20 packs of cigarettes per day
@@hughjaenus2235 damn, that's a shame the portuguese VA for Alexios did such a great job, his voice was both smooth and deep, it really fitted the character. I only saw Kassandra on the Valhalla DLC and her VA was pretty good And yeah, I agree with the Valhalla one, female Eivor sounded like she was trying to hard to be the "rough viking", meanwhile male Eivor sounded like Ragnar from the Vikings series
@@umapessoaqualquer3688 Yeah same, male Eivor sounded like a charasmatic Ragnar, meanwhile female Eivor sounded like a generic female Viking NPC number 43521
Odessey and Valhalla both give the player the illusion of choice but in the end, they are just humoring you. I wish I could have seen Alexios's battle Evior, who as it turns out is a woman at the end of the game even if you pick a man. It also sucks because it means that Alexios being killed by Cassandra is the official way the story plays out. Mass Effect and Dragon Age let you be the Author of the story, Assassins creed does not.
Just googled a video to see what character I should choose for the new game I just bought. You're a dick.
Who cares
“That’s what bothers me,the complete disregard for your choice because you didn’t pick the right character” Damn, he has a point, I always played Kassandra and enjoyed my experience with her but I can imagine people committing to Alexios and would be pissed for not having this character in Valhalla.
Me. I'm one of those. I also just didn't love the non-character development in the Valhalla crossover story. Eivor and Kassandra meet, but are antagonistic most of the time, but make friends in the end only to just leave with nothing really to show for it. Sure, it would have been more work for Ubisoft to have Alexios as well, but it would have been are really welcome touch. Especially since the Odyssey crossover story allowed you to play as the character you had already chosen, so with that game they did the double work. Oh well...
@BenChurchill76 Alexios isn't the canon eagle bearer why would they add the non canon character to valhalla that would make no sense Alexios never became the eagle bearer he became deimos
A good way to have approached canon in regards to this would have been to leave it ambiguous. Granted, that would have made Valhalla's crossover quest more difficult to pull off. But a good way to work around it could have been to include a way to import your Odyssey saves, and that would determine who shows up. You could argue that would take more effort than is necessary, and personally I could have done without the crossover quest entirely, but whatever.
The reason people don't think female protagonists help sales is because of how poorly written they have been past and present (not just in games). They get hung up on her being a woman in all the wrong ways. Also, I can't blame Ubisoft for getting a little scared about Kassandra after Aya did her best to ruin Origins.
Kassandra is NOT the canon protagonist. Evidence: - When the protagonist was a child, their father implied that they could become a soldier. This was impossible even for Spartan women (some people really overestimate Spartan women's freedoms). - Everybody treats the protagonist like a man. - While infiltrating the cult, the protagonist is forced to wear a *male* cultist mask and speak to other cultists. This would surely raise suspicion if the protagonist was a woman but none of the cultists even remotely suspect the protagonist. - No women were allowed to participate in the sporting events of the Olympics. They could only participate as the owners of stables. Note: Women could also participate in the Heraean games (which were exclusive to women) but this was a separate event. Ubisoft are a bunch of liars! PS: Most of the ability preview clips show Alexios, so it's clear that Ubisoft mainly tested the game with him. Why would they mainly test the game with a non-canon character?
Bro it’s AC. Nothing is true all is permitted. 😂😂
@@gamingwithmndandlnd4952he just likes to look at men instead of women totally his preference.
@@sutnack7537 Yeah.
@@sutnack7537this is an rpg, i dont want to pretend to be a woman
@@jmyers52995EXACTLY
I feel the same way about AC odyssey. The male character fits better in the world, with the characters and side missions because of his humor and theatrical performance. I also felt very odd playing the Olympics with Kassandra, in my opinion they should’ve avoided that part because the game showcases a false historical equality of the sexes from the very beginning and it works and it helps if you choose to play as Kassandra to see other women mercenaries, soldiers, sailors and captains. This is after all a historical fantasy game, but when they included that small Olympic story that doesn’t fit with the overall world of the game, it just makes you question why Kassandra is allowed to compete and why aren’t men and women against you doing so.
Likewise, the Daughters of Artemis quests should probably have been exclusive to Kassandra, since it doesn't make as much historical sense for Alexios to be able to join them.
@@ReluctantWarrior yes! While doing the quest I also felt that Alexios wasn’t supposed to be allowed to be the leader of that faction.
Yes cause the priest almost threw a lady off a cliff just for trying to attempt to watch the games
I started out with Alexios and I certainly felt more connected with him due to his higher spirits and enthusiasm. What I also really admired was that Michael Antonakos, his VA, drew inspiration from Ezio when voicing for Alexios, hence an even better connection with our lad over Kassie (no hate toward her neither, her VA did amazingly as well). But when I saw that Kassandra was the one and only canon option... It was such a huge bummer. It was almost like seeing the Warden or Hawke you made in Dragon Age Origins (or 2) not be described/present in Dragon Age Inquisition. At the very least they could've let us choose on whether we wanted Alexios or Kassandra to be encountered in Valhalla. But I guess that would've complicated things for future ACs.
Kassandra is canon why have alexios show up in valhalla when she has already been confirmed as such alexios is dead and was deimos
@@Twilight24682 Because they first let you choose and then tell you it did not matter. If your choice happens to be the one the devs picked for the canon, alright, but if you did not all you did in the last game was (in the scope of the greater continuity) untrue. I'd rather not have a choice than have one and then being told it did not matter and I chose incorrectly anyway.
Better idea 1. option one - Kassandra, play her Story just as it is 2. option two - Alexios, play his story as Deimos Kinda how in Resident Evil 2 you can play as Leon or Claire and have different stories, yet meet each other and make the story tied
I got AC Odyysey (I no longer care how it's spelt at this point) Ultimate Edition last year when it was bout €30 during Black Friday on the PS4 and only just played it this summer (I also upgraded to the PS5 this summer thankfully) and thought it was good, despite some of its issues and quirks. I played as Alexios and managed to save his entire family, even making sure Kassandra, my version of Deimos, was saved and reunited with Myrrine (who is also gilf material) and everyone lives happily ever after, apart from Alexios coz of the Staff of Hermes and other future DLC that was on the horizon at the time. So, to play that cross-over update where it's Kassandra instead of Alexios meeting Eivor (my verison of Eivor is male, but Ubisoft still makes Eivor female) and I didn't know how to feel bout it. I thought I was going somewhere when making this comment, but I guess I lost track and now I dunno how to end it, but I'll try to clutch it by saying this: Although, I have nothing against Kassandra and female Eivor, I just find it odd that they're considered the canon heroes, whereas Alexios is Deimos and gets iced and Myrrine is somehow ok with it and male Eivor is just Odin within Eivor's mind, like how Johnny Silverhand is in V's head to an extent. And male Eivor was part of most of the promotional art and whatnot for Valhalla. And what's most puzzling to me is how is Kassandra and female Eivor protagonists, if Ubisoft has some shady stuff happening on their end? Anyway, hopefully this comment makes sense to an extent, but yeah, I thinknI said what I wanted to say.
I came to the game late, I've owned a copy for 2 years and only just started playing, so I only have 15 hours, but I knew all along I wanted to play as Kassandra. I was so excited to play as Kassandra! Now, 15 hours in, I want to restart the game as Alexios because this world is so clearly not built for Kassandra to be the mercenary - and yet somehow she's the canon choice? That doesn't feel right at all. Kassandra is written as a man wearing a woman's face, the way she interacts with other characters and walks through the world betrays that, and I can't look past it. I said to a friend, who 100% the game as Alexios, "it feels like they built the game around Alexios being the player character, and then added the "diversity" option at the end rather than actually making her make sense in the world". Except apparently she was the canon choice the whole time? So I was wrong - the man behind her face isn't Alexios, it's the writers apparently.
I have serious questions about the whole "Kassandra was canon all along!" narrative. the game is clearly made for Alexios. he fits the setting better, his facial animations are stronger/more nuanced, he's on the cover art etc. etc., and that's coming from someone who adores a great female protagonist, and not a knock on Kassandra at all as she's also a great character. I feel like this whole hubbub about being canon was a retcon that Ubi tried to throw out to fans when they discovered how much players were vibing with Kassandra. I played as Alexios and personally I had a great time, the voice actor understood the assignment and went along with the sometimes goofy and not serious vibe of the game, which was something I really enjoyed after how ridiculously self serious Origins was.
I think the main source of criticism for Kassandra comes from how much one-sided credit she got. I think the voice acting was better for Alexios. Whether you disagree or not, it cannot be argued that Kassandra's voice actor was leagues ahead, which is what loads of people did. One major mistake with Kassandra, which Ubi learned from with Eivor, is that they made the female character all pretty and pristine (which many construed as sexist). Alexios had scars all about him, which made him more detailed, realistic, and just more interesting by showing the harshness of his life. Also, despite Ancient Greece being more egalitarian gender wise than most historical societies, she always seemed out of place in the patriarchy. This could've presented opportunities to add layers to her character, but, in their efforts to create near identical characters, Ubisoft just left it. This showed through hugely in the DLCs. It didn't help that Natakas seemed really mopey. But Kassandra being among male gods and their sons just looked odd above all else. I have no problem with Ubisoft creating a female protagonist, so long as they put the effort into finding the right setting and backstory, and, most of all, not giving gender options so they can focus on tailoring the story to a woman in history instead of writing a story of a male character, and then just giving the option of the character having boobs. Kassandra seemed slightly lazy but understandable. Eivor, however, was a disaster and embarrassment. When we think Vikings, we think bearded men the size of fridges with deep, booming battle cries. Also, male Eivor's voice acting was world class. The woman just sounded constipated. The best way to create a story with a female protagonist is to mould some of the plot, interactions, and motivations around her gender. It also leaves the opportunity to create more layered villains, and more greatly contrast their motivations. The more convicted villains will be less sexist (obviously spending millions on a game, the writers will do a bit more). Also, an easy way to help her gain momentum would be to finally return to a focus on the brotherhood, which is a lot less sexist than other historical groups. If you think about it, there hasn't been a proper focus on the Assassins as a whole since Unity.
I completely agree 100% with everything you said there I think UBI underestimated their audience instantly assuming that players would be toxic and sexist if forced to play as a woman when in reality the majority would've been absolutely fine with an only female protagonist aslong as said protagonist was a round well written character with a realistic story to suit the time period the game was set in .
I respect your opinion and mostly agree with it (although I'm a guy but I played as Kassandra and totally loved it). I see the flaws that Ubi made, BUT I disagree with your opinion saying that they got Kassandra wrong with making her this pretty. I think in a SJW/woke AAA dominated industry, it's impressive that they got the balls to create an attractive character. Also, nothing sexist could be said -- she's just beautiful (I know that brainwashed SJWs argue against attractive characters) but she has many scars, and there's nothing sexualized about her body (in fact, her boobs are really small). The real PROBLEM is with Valhalla, when they slit through your throat an uninteresting 'canon' female character, bad voice actress and completely ugly.. and this applied to all women in the game. Odyssey was good in this aspect, Valhalla felt really bad -- true SJW propaganda.
@alinclaudiu4754 Good valid point there, mate
@@alinclaudiu4754I kinda agree with you, but come on, female Eivor is pretty much the most perfect looking Scandinavian woman. It's not like Horizon Forbidden West, she is actually objectively beautiful. I don't see how anyone can think she is ugly.
@@alinclaudiu4754she’s not that attractive so I don’t get what you’re saying. She’s very masculine which is what they wantb
I guess I'm in the Alexios camp. Look, I really do like Melissanthi Mahut's performance as Kassandra, but just personally, I find Alexios to have more range. I also really like games with female protagonists, but in this specific game, I feel like Kassandra as the canon character is too anachronistic and pulls me out of the historical fantasy. The Olympics example that you mentioned is just one major example. I am currently in my 5th play-through of the game and noticed that there are also some clues that Alexios is more default. Like when you get the Cult of Cosmos robes and mask off the dead Elpinor; it turns out that it's the male version, of course. So, when you play as Kassandra, your'e wearing the male mask; despite the fact that female cultists have a female mask; and none of them seem to notice or care that you're wearing the wrong robes as Kassandra. There are other small examples like that too, but I do wish Ubisoft hadn't confirmed that Kassandra was canon. Now, in all future appearances; Alexios just gets wiped out. Kassandra was the only one in Valhalla, as you mentioned, and she's also the only one to appear in AC Jade. Now, I will say that Aya in AC Origins is great, and I really like her character, and wish there was more time with her in the game, and there are not (at least as far as I remember) any anachronistic issues with her.
Aya was originally the main character in origins until the former head of ubisoft ( now fired) decided to add beyek as the main instead also kassandra was originally going to be the only main character in odyssey but that same head ( who clearly hates females) said the game wouldnt sell with kassandra and forced them to add alexios
About the whole mask thing it’s because she killed Elpenor where else would she get the female mask? Plus their identities are hidden so it wouldn’t matter
I like playing as Alexios, and it feels bad when some consider my choice as wrong and bad. I find the humor and emotions in Alexios' voice and so on - where other people claim he has bad acting and is "brain-dead" which I find horrible and disrespectful. Not just in-game, the actor and actress seemed to have a lot of personality. Spartan wouldn't train women, regardless of what people these days would try to come up with to alter known history. Even if the cliff toss wasn't because of some prophecy, Kassandra could've been targeted to be killed for learning the ways she wouldn't have learned by their society's customs and traditions at the time within the era. I love the choice, regardless of "canon" the game franchise is unrealistic as all hell - so whoever wants to play as whatever doesn't matter as long as it fits the creator's vision - in saying that if the creator's of Odyssey really did intend for Kassandra to be the only option, so be it. Though in the end there's a choice, and I don't need people talking down to me for it. A youtuber I loved watching for ages for this game showed utter disrespect to the choice of Alexios and anyone that would play him - I will not support such ill manner. 😁😞
Wow very well said.
Oh boo hoo kassandra is canon get over it also a developer said kassandra was originally the only character in odyssey until the head of ubisoft made them add alexios so it was obvious kassandra was canon
@@Twilight24682 Whatever floats your boat - I have no problems with either. You would know if you actually read my comment I have absolutely no problem with either Kassandra or Alexios - yet you ignore that because I happen to have a preference. Also this is a very old outdated comment I made, so I don't see why either the comment or your reply is relevant. Here's some snippets from my orginal comment - "Not just in-game, the actor and actress seemed to have a lot of personality" which it shows I like both performances, regardless of gender. This one you probably thought I meant what I think about what the reality should be for the game "Spartan wouldn't train women, regardless of what people these days would try to come up with to alter known history. Even if the cliff toss wasn't because of some prophecy, Kassandra could've been targeted to be killed for learning the ways she wouldn't have learned by their society's customs and traditions at the time within the era." it is merely me reflecting on the sad truths of history and how it might've been if it was like it was back then. I would honestly hope Kassandra would not face such treatment, people were bastards back then. And finally, "so whoever wants to play as whatever doesn't matter as long as it fits the creator's vision - in saying that if the creator's of Odyssey really did intend for Kassandra to be the only option, so be it. Though in the end there's a choice, and I don't need people talking down to me for it." states yet again, I care not for gender despite my preference for Alexios. And if the creator deems Kassandra "canon" "so be it". Heck if they felt like going and erasing Alexios as a playable choice, I wouldn't care - makes it an easier time to get into game.
@@Twilight24682we get it, you hate men
I kind of have feeling that the story about Ubisoft wanting a male character is true but that they turned it little around and Alexios was supposed to be main character and Kassandra was added later on. That could explain why Alexious fits more than Kassandra. Other ac games did not have that much inaccuracies with their main characters. Closest thing to this is when ac 2 just left Rodrigo alive for no reason because originally Ezio was supposed to have only one game but then they had to change it for brotherhood.
Not true its actually the other way around kassandra was originally the only main character alexios was added later on a developer actually confirmed this
@@Twilight24682 They said that but how its written does not make it seem that way and it is a common promotion way that the big corporation did not let me do that so we had to change stuff.(basically "look at us people from the left.(they are the audience for that type of promotion.) We were not allowed to create only female character by big bad corporation because patriarchy and sexism(even though Aveline exists and she is the only character with 2 dlcs) so play our game and see how it was originally meant to be because we are one of you and we understand the struggle") With Valhalla they did the same thing because the last name has daughter in it but its very obvious there.
I've always had an issue that if you always wanted cassandra as the main canon then why provide a choice or provide an a reason why.
Kassandra was originally going to be the only character in odyssey the head of ubisoft made them add alexios because he didn't think the game would sell with kassandra ( which is bs as a lot of games with female only characters have sold very well) so alexios was added and the head lost his job
@Twilight24682 actually it makes sense, people like female characters, but oy if they're done right. People just want to play, not be preached too.
@@Twilight24682Okay but that's not true for Assassin's Creed
@ORIGINALFBI It is for odyssey
@senister14 Nobody is preaching to anyone adding female characters that female gamers enjoy is not preaching
Really good video here. As you mentioned, while Spartan society was as a whole more gender equal when compared to other Greek states(Spartan women were encouraged to exercise, be educated and could fight to defend their homes and families), women were still not allowed to fight on the front lines or join the military. Whether there were women mercenaries is subject to debate. There were still social norms that separated men and women in Spartan society. On the topic of Eivor, I actually preferred the way she was put together in the game compared to Kassandra. There are however, a couple of issues with how her story and conflict are written, mainly in her conflict with Sigurd, and especially her relationship with Randvi. The issue with Ubisoft isn't merely that they can't use female protagonists, it's that they can't seem to write them well. They're essentially just using the same plot and storyline interchangeably for two characters, with no regard as to how the characters' genders would have caused their story to play out a lot differently as compared to the counterpart character. Ask any woman soldier if they feel or are treated differently from their male peers. Tldr: writing for different genders leads to very different stories, and shallow, lazy writing for the sake of surface level equality doesn't do justice for the characters.
I mean it's obvious that the storylines were written for men and later they just lied and said it was meant for the female leads... if valhalla was written for a woman, then she would be the sage of a female goddess. Not Odin the all "father." Ridiculous company.
@@chrismoore5333 you bring up some valid points, but I think you're leaning too much into bashing ubi here. The writing does come off as lazy and shallow, yes, but writing Eivor as being the reincarnation of Odin isn't as bad of a deal breaker as you say. None of us have any control over the circumstances of our births. We can't control whether we are born rich or poor, healthy or sickly, boy or girl, and in this case, as the reincarnation of a deified ancient species or not. It would have made for an interesting story if the male Odin was reincarnated as a Norse woman, and could have explored this deeper, giving far greater insight into both characters.
@@Farhan-rk1mt that sounds anti-male and sexist to me. Imagine it the other way around. Female god gets reborn as a man, and learns to be better... not really ok is it.
@@chrismoore5333 how so? You're saying that as though a female doesn't need to learn to be better any more than a male does, and doesn't need to grow or develop as a character. Whether it's Eivor learning to be better than Odin, or hypothetically speaking, Einar learning to be better than Frigg, gender here should be secondary to how the story and plot is written. This is what I mean when I said the writing needs to work, and cannot be shallow. Simply swapping the genders out between the two, while using the same storyline for both tends to not work well in this case, because the gender will change how the interactions would work. The difference here would be how Frigg would see the world differently from Odin, and how this would realistically affect Einar differently from Eivor.
@@Farhan-rk1mt my point is simple. To insinuate that the experience of a woman is somehow more valid then that of a man, and to then suggest that a man becoming a woman, would help them become a better person, suggests men are less then women. To me that message is sexist and wrong. I know that isn't your intention, but it dose seem to be ubisofts. And that alone is enough for valhalla to be hated. Let alone all the other problems.
Btw, the female problem has happened with other titles before: apparently, in AC Unity, there were supposed to be memories were you played with Elise, and Evie in AC Syndicate is clearly the main character in the story, being the one that advances the main plot, while Jacob's plot seemed to be running in circles. It even affects Evie's part on the story, having less missions to her, and most of them being about fixing Jacob's mess.
yeah syndicate is insanely misandrist always portraying jacob as an incompetent idiot
@@doltBmB how is that misandrist, its just typical male behavior
@@TheVintress look who won't get banned for being a piece of shit
@@TheVintress I don’t know if you’re being ironic on purpose or not 😂
im not@@mrbeard798
I agree, I would've preferred if the game scanned for Odyssey save date or if they added someone before leaving for/arriving on the isle of Skye ask Elvor "Have you heard of someone known as the Eagle Bearer?" And give us the choices "Yes, I've heard of her" or "Yes, I've heard of him" the answer would've given you either Kassandra or Alexios.
I'd've loved that. I've only played as Kassandra once so putting all my hours into Alexios just for him not to be the canon choice felt a bit like a waste.
exactly! Mass Effect had the tech to maintain continuity a decade ago, I feel like for a major studio AAA it shouldn't be hard.
I think it's great you can choose one character over the other, but why bother giving us a choice if only one of them canonically appears in valhalla? May as well not have a choice. Being someone who played only as Alexios it's very weird seeing Kassandra in valhalla.
Keep it up to the player.
Here's my take: Based on the lore, the Kassandra/Alexios choice is there because of the 2 DNA samples on the spear when the modern-day assassins found it and they weren't sure who's who. They will however know who became Deimos in the future when Layla (or Basim) meets Kassandra in Valhalla. And one more thing: If you're playing the crossover as Layla (not Basim) there should some dialogue or whatever when Eivor meets Kassandra. I mean c'mon, Layla lived through Kassandra and meeting her as Eivor should be an exciting experience.
the only problem was that in odyssey you meet kassandra or Alexios in the present depending on who you choose to play at the beginning
@@Kolbeck64 It could be written off as the bleeding effect causing Layla to see Alexios in the modern day I suppose. Though it's clear that whoever you choose to play is treated as the "right" choice in game regardless of Kassandra being canon.
Only two dna? seems unreal to me! how many people did he kill with that spear? animal, mercenary, civilian, soldiers ! come on, it's not possible that there are only two dna, and how such a technological machine of 2018 as the animus, has failed to know precisely the sex of the eagle bearer? if you go to Layla's files you will find a lot of information, you will see how many things Abstergo can do with an adn, it seems impossible to me that they have not been able to find out the sex of the protagonist, even historically, it is a fact that mercenaries, soldiers were only males, both Layla and the animus are so ignorant.
That’s not how the animus works
@@trevorthedragon2413 the animus chooses the character's gender based on what?
alexios>kassandra male evior>female evior it just feels more historically accurate the boys shouldve been cannon honestly
I'll admit, in the three times I've played through AC Odyssey, I always picked Kassandra, simply because in my opinion, Melissanthi Mahut did a better job voicing her than Michael Antonokos did voicing Alexios. But that's just me. That being said, yes, I agree. It is most definitely stupid that she's the main character, despite the fact that it's neither historically nor contextually accurate to Spartan culture. It's like, why bother having Alexios be on the front of Odyssey's case cover if he isn't the canon protagonist?
Not to mention he was in all the commercials. Freaking Amazon Echo had an Alexios voice changer when the game came out
Kassandra is on the cover of the physical copies of the game the cover is reversible and on the book alexios isn't in everything
In such games where historical recreation is important to slightly important, creating the game around historical accracy is important to tell a good non misinforming story. Nobody would have had a problem if the story was tailor made based on the rules of that historical period of time and after knowing the rules you work around them to fit a female character. I would have loved to follow Kassandras path as Demos for example, like a Templars pov to the story line and as a demi god nurtured by templars as this mysterious larger than life character.
Something related to this videos topic, I wanted to highlight. A matter in regards to a company called "sweet baby" that personally upsets me on multiple levels, and I believe the fans should know the truth and hypocrisy behind ubisoft's worst character, evie. This is a lesser known situation that bothers me as a huge assassin's creed fan. Essentially, assassin's creed syndicate was largely finished before the inclusion of evie as a playable character. As in, the game only featured Jacob frye. Here's where things get hypocritical. The games lead writer is a gay man called Jeffery Yohalem, and he lead AC brotherhood, and worked on many other AC games as well. He had always written about various demographics, but this time with syndicate, Jacob frye was a bisexual man, similar to how Jeffery is a gay man. Now, you'd think that this was "inclusive" enough for Kim belair, who herself got a writing role on the project "late into development" by her own words. But spoiler, it wasn't enough for her and her buddies. You see, syndicate was right before Kim belair left to head her own company "sweet baby." It didn't matter that a man of a minority group wanted to write atleast one game about his own minority demographic. To Belair, anything white and male is "privileged" and therefore, she and others such as Melissa, were behind undermining Jacob as a character, shoehorning evie into the game as a "twin protagonist" despite that not being the original plan at all. Kim belair got what she wanted, but of course it wasn't enough, and so she then joined the "AC sisterhood" where she voiced that she felt annoyed that people were telling her the games main character is Jacob, and she said "we can change what people think, and if people think evie was supposed to be the main character, then she'll become the main character." This is highly hypocritical as she talks about inclusion, yet she fights to remove and undermine a minority group simply because they are white and male as well. We see this trend continue as all of the gay/bisexual male playable characters are now "none canon" or in Jacob's case, forced to share their game with evie as she is constantly pushed to replace him as a soul protagonist. But this is also interesting, as all the claims that literally every single female character was "the original intended protagonist" have no evidence to back them up at all, and it fits right into Kim belair's claim that telling people evie was planned would make her popular, and to some level she was right, unfortunately. It appears the same tactics have been used for Aya, Kassandra and Eivor as well. Eivor is even a unisex name, and yet these people have everyone thinking it is a woman's name only. Kim belair also went on to admit she worked on the home base and certain notes in the game AC valhalla. This is significant because the only times Kassandra and female were "canon" at the games launch were due to in game notes, and an obvious head swap of a hidden optional cinimatic where Odin as an old man was supposed to appear, but in the final game he has female eivor's head. (Yes I'm serious, crazy right?) I don't want game devs to feel they have to force into their storylines lgbtq men, women, or ethnic minorities or anything. That said, as a gay man myself, I feel frustrated that my minority group has been victim of real gatekeeping by the very group sweet baby and their associates, while they tell the world that they are fighting for diversity!? They are hypocritical and they lie. I think the truth about the hypocrisy that created the 2D terrible character that is evie frye, should be exposed. And I think that it's time games just went back to being just that. Games, that are made to be fun and none political. I hope you took the time to read this all, and if you did, I'm thankful. I've been bullied and abused, and I even have an online stalker who has been gaslighting me for around 3 years now! All because I said it was wrong to remove the only representation a minority group has, in favour of the ever growing list of female representation.
Hey. You doing ok? Edit: I read the last part of your comment, so I thought I should ask.
Thank you for this revelation now I hate sweet baby inc even more
@@GnosisZX sorry to make you dislike them more, but people need to know. Thanks for reading!
@@chrismoore5333 don’t be sorry be proud for finding out these facts about how much a selfish agenda pushing bully this woman is and how she ruins pretty much what she touches
@@GnosisZX cheers mate! I really appreciate that. I get so much bullying and hate towards me for trying to share this info. I even have a stalker online, now. But I always think to myself, this si what these bullies want. My silence. I won't allow that. So I continue to share what I can.
So if this is true, why is alexios on the cover and the character they show in the launch trailer? It's bullshit he's the main protagonist and they changed it plain and simple. All because everything now has to be all inclusive for everyone, we can't seem to have one or the other nowadays. Sad really!
I need to finish my playthrough with Kassandra, but I must admit after watching the opening sequence with Phoibe I think Kassandra has the better voice acting with a child character.
Like you were saying in the beginning of the video, I was iffy about watching but I'm glad I did. This is a nuanced take on this topic so props to you for that.
Look, I love Role Playing Games like the next person, but, you are right, it sucks how Ubisoft gives us a choice to play as either Alexios or Kassandra in Assassins Creed: Odyssey and then just basically says "We don't care, Kassandra is actual character that you needed to pick" and the same even for Eivor, it shouldn't matter whether it was male or female Eivor you pick because IT'S YOUR CHOICE!!!!! It shouldn't matter which one you choose because you are the one playing and it should have had an update that let us import our save data (like a majority of role playing games) from game to the other and just continue to enjoy the story we started.
I hate odyssey as an AC entry but as an Ancient Greek game it’s pretty good, that is if you play as alexios, it’s not just the Olympics (as for Spartan women, yes women were trained as reserve soldiers, still not as vigorously as the men though) but also the fact that a literate female mercenary would have dealt with a lot of shit, the fact your even allowed into Athens as kassandra is historically inaccurate With Valhalla sure, eivor is a female name and it makes sense for eivor to be female due to the Odin stuff but it doesn’t make sense for kassandra to be canon. Would be cool that depending on your choice you would get different outcomes but like the modern AC games that takes far to much work and as for canon it shows a full on RPG game doesn’t work, the point of an RPG is that it’s your choice and choosing a character shouldn’t restrict you. That’s why origins isn’t the only truly good game out of the 3, it has no dialogue or gender options and that’s one of the elements of what makes it more of a true AC game And no origins was not meant to be female lead, the protagonist bayek was meant to die and then you take over as his wife Aya, which I’m kind of glad they changed because bayek was an awesome character but at the same time Aya felt underdeveloped. They should have scrapped odyssey and made an Aya game set after the events of origins in Rome. Odyssey shouldn’t exist as an AC title
I disagree odyssey was a great AC game
I completely totally agree about Cassandra and Alexios being around equal. Sadly for Valhalla I feel like Male Eivor had a better actor. Female Eivor sounds like she has laryngitis while male Eivor sounds like he is a kind Viking.
I disagree I think Alexios works better as Deimos and Kassandra as the mercenary. Deimos feels like he's supposed to be unstable with a back story like his no one gets thrown off a cliff and brainwashed and ends up calm and calculated and as for Kassandra I feel like to be a mercenary you do have to stay calm and think things out and stay nonchalant about things
I agree alexios is way better as deimos also deimos is a male name it would be stupid to call a woman deimos
It's not "the devs" who want a solo female lead, it's a small clique of misandrist who push very loudly for it by going against what everyone else wants, this is why these incongruities exist, they were always going to be there even if kassandra was the only character. The "it's just a game" excuse doesn't work either, it's ignoring the difference between the clearly fictionalized elements of the game from the clearly historical elements of the game. The central conceit of assassin's creed is that this conspiracy exists in history, where the conspiracy is fictional but the history is real. Therefore to live up to this, the historical elements have to be realistic for you to be able to believe the fictional elements. This is the same as the "it's just fantasy" excuse, it doesn't make any sense, there has to be some logic and consistency to the world and setting, and here that logic and consistency is rooted in history, and that must dictate how the fictional elements fit into that.
WTF are you Talking about😂
Literally the company wanted a female lead and the boss of the company who’s fired didn’t like it and whined so much so they had to add a male character….how would misandrists have a say when the game wasn’t released before the change,
@@LeverstGemsthen why is the game built for Alexios? They virtue signaled and retconned for Valhalla. The misandrists did have a say. That’s why they worked on the game. If they didn’t have a say they, they wouldn’t have worked on the game. Extremely simpleb
@@ExpertContrarian the game was built for Kassandra but the producers put Alexios thinking the guys won’t choose Kassandra because she’s a woman 🤣 there aren’t any misandrist, someone actually got fired for misogyny in Ubisoft. The more you know.
I personally likes Kassandra more- I felt like her voice actor played the role of a an unbothered cool mercenary but I totally think Alexios’ funny personality can interest people. Love the game and I’ve spent to many hours on it, can’t wait for mirage!
Mirage is not good as ODYSSEY believe...
@@zicuvalentin2251 why?
@@zicuvalentin2251Bro. They are going back to the roots of stealth. Back to the hidden blade. Odyssey has been the least favorite I’ve played because I’ve had to spend money to finish it cause of that large level gap. Underrated game but I think mirage will be better because they aiming for a balance between RPG and Assassin type gameplay.
@@gamingwithmndandlnd4952 no game will be better than ODYSSEY not even MIRAGE
@@zicuvalentin2251 Odyssey isn’t a true AC game I don’t wanna here it. As much as I enjoy odyssey it isn’t a true AC game.
It’s funny that people fawn over Kassandra as if Aveline, Shao Jun, and Evie don’t exist… It was interesting seeing a previous character meet a present character, but I did miss seeing Alexios. Back to basics with Basim
Completely agree about the crossover episode, even though I played as Kassandra. I was looking for videos on youtube trying to see what it would look like when Alexios & Eivor met, but I was utterly disappointed. The same thing happened in Valhalla with The last chapter (it came out a few days ago), where female Eivor is clearly canon - Odin appears next to her and gives her advice and the cutscene completely disregards male Eivor (which I happened to be playing with). I don't mind having to choose between a female and male character - but please then, Ubisoft, adapt all the possible scenarios of the user's choice so that they make sense. Even though I preferred Kassandra's voice actress, I am sooo excited to replay the whole Odyssey as Alexios, I have a feeling it would be like a whole new game!
Alexios isn't canon it makes no sense to add him to future games ubisoft have said kassandra is canon and Alexios is deimos
@@Twilight24682wtf
@@Twilight24682then why make the option to choose alexios in the first place??? You keep talking about what’s canon and what’s not but who gives a SHIT about what’s canon? If the canon is so important then why did they deliberately put alexios as a choice? See, your argument about that it’s “canon” is very damn weak
@mrbeard798 Alexios wasn't originally a playable character the developers were originally making kassandra an only character until the head of ubisoft ( now fired) made them add alexios later on a developer later confirmed this kassandra was supposed to be the only eagle bearer
@@Twilight24682 it was only considered canon because of woke culture, everything in the game indicates that it would be Alexios, I won't even mention the Olympics part of the game
Kassandra as Deimos was so menacing and compelling.
I kinda get what you're saying, like if we put it in baseball terms, Kassandra would be good at 2nd base (MC) or shortstop (Deimos), but Alexios is only good at 2nd base, so makes more sense to play him there....but for me that's only as far as the main story....once you get past the MC vs Deimos story and into DLC etc, then Kassandra just feels like the better option
I think having player choice is fine. If you played through the entire game, and then found out they developed the entire game with you being able to play as either sibling, with voice lines all recorded for Alexios, and then they simply removed that choice just before release, most would see that as a massive downgrade.
Kassandra was originally going to be the only character in odyssey alexios was added later on so it was obvious who was canon
@@Twilight24682 I don't think you understand what you're replying to. Go back to school.
@mangaas No get over the fact kassandra is canon and not alexios
Really? I thought female eivor just didn't fit the part even though they tried to push her by slightly neglecting male eivor (dottir instead of son and such).
I remember hearing that the choice to make Eivor female kinda late game. Like all the marketing had Eivor as male amd decided to focus on female Eivor later.
It's not just the choice of protagonists that makes canon annoying it's the fact it disregards your choice in whether to save Demios or not. I spent hours as Alexios reuniting his family only to be told it wasn't canon. There are hundreds of games out there that don't give you choice regarding storylines so why give us the option if the developers had no intention committing to the choices the player makes. Maybe I was spoiled playing Mass Effect where my choices meant something from game to game.
The story line in Odyssey is completely screwed. When you play legacy of the first blade the game completely ignores the fact that you finished the story and you saved every single member of your family. But you can also play it before finishing the game and it's even more stupid to pretend like you didn't have a child in the meantime. Then there is the story about sealing the Atlantis which you can do before everything else, which is the actual ending of the game - Layla gets the staff.
the only AC game where i liked to play as the female character was syndicate, it just felt right, But in Odyssey Alexios definitely feels like the right character, another point that you didn't make was the screams. kassandra's just sounded like the average teenage girl that was just told that she couldn't go to the mall, while Alexios really sounded like a spartan. I rest my case.
Alexios sounded awful and even ubisoft agreed seeimg his voice actor hasn't been in a ubisoft game since and kassandras has
I disagree with the “obviousness” of Valhalla. I was completely confused to find it out, considering you are meant to be ODIN. The Odin, Basim, Sigurd storyline makes no sense as a female character.
The female version makes so much more sense, because male Eivor looks just like Odin So how the hell Basim (Loki) can not recognise him?
there were female sports competitions for the goddess Hera. So they coul've just made it a female competition instead of male olympics
Great video bro definitely deserve more subs
I’d be interested is seeing the data they have about who people chose more. Because they definitely have that data.
In my honest opinion, Kassandra has great voice acting as both the hero and the villain. Alexios has great voice acting as a hero, but as a villain it honestly sounds like the VA is trying to hard and he ends up with this awkward forced deep tone that no one really uses, which is why I prefer Alexios because the voice acting is great for both.
I played as Kassandra, loved it and Alexios as Deimos was, for me, perfect in his role. Like you I felt very weird during the Olympic quest because I have a huge passion for antic greece and I knew that women weren't allowed in the Games. They could have easily modify this by giving you the task to get a new champion.
They didn't even need to look through the save file in Odyssey. They could've just given a dialogue option to allow the player to choose if the mercenary was Alexios or Kassandra.
When they had the chance to make a game with Shao Jun which would be cool to see because of the passing torch from Altair to Ezio to Shao Jun but they shafted her into a side game that many people don't know it exists.
I don't agree with the point about the voice, Kassandra just sounded so much better to me. Her emotion in some scenes, like the final goodbye to Phoibe, even made me tear up. On the other points, yeah, it's fair. Eivor, however...the female voice tries way too hard. She always sounds angry, all the damn time. I tried giving her a chance but had to go back to male. He sounds like what I imagine a warrior poet would sound like. He can be vulnerable, angry, charming, upset, and it's all believable. While fem Eivor is stuck on the angry button constantly, it's almost like Deimos Alexios.
I play as male Eivor right now and I really like him. Have only watched female Eivor on youtube and it's really not the same to me. I haven't played Odyssey yet, but I have heard that plenty of people prefer Kassandra's voice acting. I really enjoyed playing as evie in syndicate, but I'm not completely sold on Kassandra yet, which is what lead me to this video...
your problem if you don't agree, don't forget that in other countries the voices are translated into the native language, in my country and in many others Kassandra's version is one of the worst of all, and the English version? It seems like the dub is trying to be bad
everyone got an opinion but most of the AC fans would say that Kasandra is far far better than Alexios
I agree better voice actor and majority of the armours in the game look better on kassandra
@@itachi2816 So joining a female only group makes sense as Alexios to you the daughters of artemis only take woman so having alexios join them makes no sense also alexios would have been send straight to become a soldier at the age of 7 so having kassandra canon makes more sense as woman were not made soldiers in the spartan army something that would have happened to alexios
Honestly, at this point anyone saying things like "Kassandra is far far better than Alexios" just sounds like a normie to me. I'm finally doing my second gameplay on AC Odyssey with Alexios. I still don't want to get into any "who's the better protagonist?" merits just yet, but I'll say that at first I was like "Hmm Alexios isn't as bad as people said, maybe they were kind of overreacting on it" and then I started going "Ok, Alexios is actually being nice and fun to play". And now I totally think Alexios is a good protagonist, and I agree with what the video says about many things in the narrative and world of AC Odyssey making more sense when you plays as Alexios.
Thinking about replaying Odyssey. First playthrough was with Alexios and got 100% achievements about 4 years ago and really enjoyed it. Even after watching this video I’m still debating if I should try Kassandra or stick with Alexios since it’s been years since I’ve played it.
Honestly I wouldn't have a problem with the cannon choices being Kassandra and Female Eivor if it wasn't for the fact that ubisoft used there male counterparts in the majority of their ads, their even on the covers.
i have to recognize that at first i didn't like Kass that much because she sounded so damn loud and angry the first couple hours of gameplay BUT i imagine that's because the VA was still trying to find her "voice" . i think it was during the second act that i realized Kass tone and inflections changed and sounded less exaggerated and whenever she spoke i could truly see "her". with Alex i hadd a different issue. the VA made a great job in making me want to cut Ale'x tongue every time he spoke the first time i completed the game that when i tried to play him as the Misthios i ended up hating him every time he opened his cheeky mouth. xD
I mean, Ubisoft aready had a female protagonist in Assassin's Creed Liberation. I don't know why they would bother to make you choose between the 2 brothers if only 1 of them is canon. For a RPG thats quite a weird decision, because in RPGs you can make your character the only thing that will change is the dialogue.
Personally Alexios was better as a villain but then again he was also a good protagonist as well
I 100% agree with everything you have said, while i do prefer Kassandra i did play as both characters and thought both did great, definitely better than the voice actors in Valhalla in my opinion.
Male Eivor did great! He sounded like a Viking ready to strike. Sadly female eivor sounds like she has laryngitis
People say Male Eivor sounds too soft, but that's kind of the point in my opinion. It's obvious from the get go that he's a little different from most Vikingrs. He enjoys poetry, and he is also able to employ stealth, cunning or charm when necessary. Furthermore, he can drop the soft-spoken tone and sound absolutely scary and filled with bloodlust when the situation calls for it, such as when dealing with Fulke. Fem Eivor almost sounds like she is angry all the time
@@16Vagabond yeah it’s not like Female Eivor who sounds like she as laryngitis. His actually lends its self to the story.
@@shadowanderson2004 Yeah, it's like they told the voice actress she had to sound tough and raspy all the time and never to show emotions. Which is a shame because I've seen her work in other things, and she's got a beautiful singing voice, and amazing range. She was completely capable of matching male Eivor's energy and charisma if directed to do so.
@@16Vagabond EXACTLY
I'll give you this this is a great video it was a really brilliantly done essay on the characters from Odyssey. However I do need to say this the reason that Cassandra is the Canon one is probably not going to persuade you in any way but here it is but I do believe there was a tie in novel that show that she is the main heroine and if I remember correctly he said she's being shown here even regardless of the fact if you played as alexios they're still pulling from the novel and the fact that if I'm being honest only reason that we don't see alexios is the fact that well he's probably long dead and if that's the case that shows that Cassandra has the staff of Hermes. I mean I have a theory and it is that alexio is still Canon and you could have very well played as him but something might have happened between in the events of Odyssey and the events of Valhalla where Cassandra ends up inheriting the staff and that's why we end up seeing her in Valhalla as eivor . Alexios could have fallen in battle Cassandra was handed the staff by him and bada bing bada boom. At the end of the day I don't really know. And in relation to Valhalla since I've played it myself for these last two years I'd say that the aspect of calling eivor by the female moniker of varins daughter makes more sense than playing his male A4 but also if you're indecisive on what gender depict as I was they did put a feature in the game that allows the Animus to decide the choice for you and I like how during all the sickness in Norway and England Ireland frankia the avor you play as is female because again the title of varins daughter. Whereas meleevoort is exclusive to the e as guardian and newtenheim sequences of the game as well as the dawn of Ragnarok expansion and forgotten sagas and if I remember correctly the reason for that is that avor is the reincarnated Esu Odin . But other than my ramblings you did a great job in making this video it was more constructive relation to assassin's Creed Valhalla then any of the big assassin's Creed KZheadrs would have ever given it cuz the four pillars hate this game as well as Valhalla for some very strange stupid reasons that they're never able to actually you know genuinely explain why they hate it and I actually equate their hate of Odyssey and Valhalla to how the KZheadr under the Mayo hates the new God of war games all because you can't jump
It was so frustrating when I saw kassandra in Valhalla, because Eivor vs Alexios would’ve been a legendary scene
true. even tho they lived atleast 1200 years apart. thats what i wouldve said if i hadnt gotten the staff of hermes trimegistususksksiuwhwbsbsk
I played Odyessy twice. Once with Alexios and once with Kassandra. And although you have some very valid points, i enjoyed the game with Kassandra much more. And in Valhalla i could take male Eivor much more seriously with that strong voice the actor has. I think the best way to include both female and male protagonists to the game is as Ubisoft did with Evie and Jacob, or to a lesser degree with Bayek and Aya. But I’m curious how things will turn out in Shadows
I don't know about you guys but for a second just mute and compare the animations of deimos and player characters. Kassandra Deimos animations seem more realistic to me because females usually have a more dynamic body language than males who are in contrary calm while talking most of the times. 1:36 seems so unrealistic and theatrical to me.
What's crazy is fans had been asking for a female protag for years at that point. This proves my point that the executives don't care at all what the people buying their product think of it.
Best opportunity for female is shao jun for Japan game. Inserting a female character as a spartan and Viking is probably the worst thing they could of done because it’s historically in accurate and not immersive
I agree. I've never liked that there were canon choices in Odyssey or Valhalla (which I actually think works better with Eivor as a man but that's just me). You gave me the choice. Let me make my choice. It's absolutely stupid that they can't just have a female protagonist. It's also stupid that my game experience is being disregarded
Does no one else get scared when Alexios yells?
I honestly expected this to be another typical ac odyssey hate video but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't. I do prefer Kassandra and think she is the better choice but you are right the other actor shouldn't be disregarded at all. He put just as many days of recording voice lines as the female actor. Though I do think it was right to keep him out of ac Valhalla. If Kassandra is canon we shouldn't see alexios in the overall ac story in other games imo. I think it's safe to assume she will be appearing a lot in future games and it wouldn't make sense to keep bringing him back over and over when he's not even the canon character in the first place. also for ac origins I really like how they included both bayek and aya into the game. Like you play as bayak for most of the game but aya did her own thing and you could play as her in those missions. Two totally different characters so you can't tell the main character was supposed to be female. I actually didn't know that until I watched this but interesting fact. Also great video I always like seeing ac odyssey love because this is my favorite game of all time. You should definitely make more videos about similar topics in the future.
I think we should disregard the argument of whether or not a female led game would sell more or less because we quite simply don't know. I think, instead, that we should focus on the fact that modern game design is afraid of humanity's past because humanity's present will cancel developers for telling it accurately. If the fact that the designers had to bend the rules to make Kassandra even a real choice is how they could get her in the game, then she didn't deserve to be in the game at all. Some may say that that ends up leading to games where all the protagonists are male, and to that I'd say "so what?" If the selling point of AC is to be historical settings, and you can't retell history, then you'll have to accept certain truths. The argument of "it's a game with aliens" in it isn't an argument because, again, the main selling point is the historical setting. Publishers need to understand than the Progressive Agenda doesn't purchase anything not absolutely catered to them, and the rest of the normal world doesn't find value in their entertainment requiring so much suspension of disbelief. So rather than be cowards and try making everyone happy, lean in one direction or the other fully so your product can have that integrity. Or, simply create a completely fictional world like TES.
Its why I respect the creators of Mafia 3 Instead of trying to brush the racism of the time under the rug trying to hide it and pretending it never happened they actually used it to add to the story they were telling
Mafia 3 kinda proves that no one is looking to "cancel" devs for depicting times accurately. I feel people would only call devs out if they got things so ignorantly wrong that it border on revisionist history.
@@channel45853 Mafia 3 is the most niche of niche examples you could come up with. The Progressives aren't looking at it when compared with juggernauts like AC.
@@Northwite yes, they likey are, because they are progressives and care about that sorta thing.
@@channel45853 The Progressives care about changing what's mainstream, not what's niche. They've never heard of the Mafia series. Most haven't.
One thing I don’t like about the idea of female Eivor being the default choice Ubisoft planned for is the fact that her character model isn’t animated to be feminine. Most of the outfits in the game are extremely unflattering for female version and suit male version WAY better. Everything is bulky and oversized for female, yet other female characters in Valhalla and NPCs were designed with femininity in mind like Soma or Randvi or even the shopkeeper npc and are dressed with more fittable clothes that compliment them. I can’t tell you how many times I met other female characters through out the game and asked myself, “why isn’t that hairstyle available for female Eivor? Or why can’t female Eivor have an outfit like hers?” Some of her own female Clansmen like Randvi have outfits on that are more suitable for a female Norse character, but female Eivor is like this weird amalgamation of female/male stuck in limbo. Her body if you undress it in the menu, is totally flat, like they were afraid to give her any semblance of female curves, yet Randvi is totally fine and was designed like a real woman. It’s so off putting how random and all over the place Ubisoft’s design philosophy was with this game. Eivor walks and presents herself way too masculine for the female version to be canon in a game where all the animations and equipment and fighting style given to her suit the male version a thousand times better and more natural. When I switched to make version to try a play through with him for the time, it was like night and day. The role felt much better and his voice is calmer. Like a quiet confidence. While female voice actress has to strain her vocal cords to come off badass and too show-offy. Her walking animations are very butch and are exactly the same as Male version, where as in Odyssey Kassandra and Alexios are animated differently all the way down to the way the character walks and talks and express themselves in cutscenes. Female Eivor has exactly the same problems you mentioned as Deimos Alexios. Everything feels forced about them and unsuited.
I chose kassandra for odyssey and female Eivor for Valhalla
Same! They are just Canon and I loved both female voices in German (Kassandra’s voice is the same as Katara from Avatar and Eivor has the same voice as Katniss Everdeen) The German voice of Alexios was fine as well but male eivors voice is just horrible for him, it does not fit at all
Yh I completely agree with everything you said. I still hope someone can make a mod that replaces kassandra with alexios. Well maybe..
Well the next game will have no choice because you only can play as basim. And he is without a doubt male only.
Why do these people insist on historical accuracy in a game where you fight mythical creatures and the pope is a full on wizard at one point💀
imo the Olympics thing or Spartan thing didn’t really bother me at all because my suspension of disbelief for a video game about humans going into a console and experiencing their ancestors memories- this one in particular being a demigod that’s immortal until meeting you in the present, was already pretty high. For me it didn’t matter what real world customs Greece and Sparta actually had because we’re playing a fictional character in a fictional world that just kind of looks like Greece, I’m not trying to take anything away from alexios, I actually enjoyed playing as him (partly because Kassandra is really great as deimos) but to me there’s just something about Kassandra’s v/a’s line delivery that puts it just above alexio’s as both the mc and deimos. Idk it’s almost like they meant for her to be the main character the whole time 🤷🏽♂️
the voice has nothing to do with it, for example in the fight against the man with the nickname Cyclops, Alexios is much more animated and jesticulates more than the female character
I'll say it once and I'll say it again..they should have made AC China, a triple AAA title game, not that low budget spin-off game that we got. In the movie assassin's Creed embers Shao Jun seemed very interesting and I wish that the game that we got delved in more with her personality and now I just feel that it's wasted potential, you want it an assassin's Creed game with a female main character?... well you could've have had it if Ubisoft Gave it a full budget like I said wasted potential because I know it would have been a better game.
Hey this is a great video !!!! I'm a content creator for assassins creed and I'm half way done with a video that explains this concept as well its cool to see we share some points.
Thank you very much for putting it together so well, and I appreciate the disclaimer at the start! So many video essayists or content creators on such subjects are very "anti sjw" leaning and it can get so annoying sifting through videos/channels to find people clearly and concisely breaking stuff down without resorting to tired rhetoric. The negation of player choice in protagonist is even worse because in odyssey it had the addition of more role playing elements! Mass effect style dialogue choices/romances to play the character your way, making you more invested in the character due to the (albeit more limited) ability to shape their personality.
Ubisoft is right I'm not playing as no female protagonist
I thought Eivor was a male name....Thats why I picked the male version of Eivor in Valhalla.
Eivor is actually a female name
It sounds pretty male but it's actually a female-only name.
No it’s gender neutral
Finally someone actually agrees
I never liked Kassandra, Alexios is so much more Charismatic of a protagonist, furthermore, I dont want to play as a woman, and players overwhelmingly chose to play as male Eivor and Alexios over their "canon" female counterparts. Clearly the majority of players want to play as male.
I just realised. during the Eivor V Kassandra fight, Kassandra sharpens the broken axe hilt into a replacement for the Spear of Leonidas
I honestly felt the opposite. Kassandra best for Odyssey and male eivor for valhalla. Idk why, just feeling.
Alexios >>>>> historically, and Male Eivor>>>>>> Forced Mary Sue
Kassandra I have no problem with but Alexus just made more sense canon for history n being immersed. U made a good point where she had to sub for the fighter , they force her in Valhalla without a choice to be Woke! Syndicate drop the ball n should've have Evie Frye her own game she was AWESOME
Kassandra was originally the only character of odyssey alexios was added later nothing to do with woke she was always canon right from when they were creating the game
I just played as whoever I thought sounded better - Kassandra and Male Eivor. Alexios sounded like a cartoon character and female Eivor's voice was nails on a chalkboard.
They have the same personalities it's a very simple but very cool role swap mechanic
Yeah its an annoyingly good point . I didnt know about the canon choice so when i first played odyssey’s i played as alexios and his voice work and character was so awesome an likeable I honestly loved him as a character. I later found out about the cannon choice but when i watched videos of kassandra it just didnt feel the same and not because of bias since ive regulated mine most of my life, her lines just aren’t delivered the same way. Safe to say when i do start a new game im still gonna give her a proper chance to grow on me .
Played the whole game as her and couldn’t imagine it the other way
While I prefer Kassandra over Alexios (played as Alexios first then as Kassandra on NG+) I agree with some of your points, specially when it comes to the Olympics, but the thing is the game can't really deal with discrimination towards the player because of having the player choice, the game can't deny you access to the games for being a female because there's a Mal option in which this wouldn't make sense, so this is an aspect in which the game is limited due to having options, it can't show the reality of being a woman during that time because there's the ability to play as a man and in that case that wouldn't work. That's why I totally agree with just having a single character and no options, specially for Codename Hexe, if there's a game that needs to be female only, is that one. Also o never saw the perspective of someone who only played as Alexios being forced to see Kassandra on Valhalla because I preferred her so I was happy to see her as the canon, but I can definitely see your point, sucks investing time on a character to be later told that was the wrong one.
Codename red would be better because there were literally female ninjas would be the perfect setting
I have a lot of questions about the whole "Aya, Kassandra, and Eivor were meant to be canon but Ubisoft said no" narrative tbh. the detail in Alexios's facial animations in Odyssey alone make me think he was probably the original default character, and I agree with you that his humorous and machismo vibe fits the not serious tones of the game better. which isn't a knock to Kassandra, they obviously both did a great job and are great characters in different ways. however, I do have to wonder if the whole "Kassandra is canon" thing is a cookie Ubi decided to throw to fans when they discovered how much people liked her 🤔 I don't really care what the "official" statement is, trusting these game studios to not lie is like trusting a crocodile to not eat you if it's hungry lol
This video expresses everything I’ve though since the first day they announced a canonical misthios
Personally, my favorite character in odyssey to play as is Alexios. But at least to me, and knowing all that I know about human body, language and changes in town, Kassandra probably recognizes in the game that she is a woman, and that she is in a man’s world, and instead of being a girl boss going around doing whatever she wants, she realizes she must be cautious. She must keep calm. Alexios can do just about anything he wants because he is a man. So it would make more sense that Alexios would be a little bit more carefree in his reactions. However, I still thought it was a kick to the balls when I wasn’t able to play as Alexios in Valhalla. Because I saw someone and I guess they edited a thumbnail, but I saw that they had Alexios and Eivør together. But that’s just my opinion on the matter with some educated reasoning to it. But as I said before, I personally liked Alexios, much better than Kassandra. Yeah, sure it is crummy that the devs had the bend to the executives and couldn’t just make a Kassandra game, But I guess I will see I equally enjoy both of the siblings as a protagonist. For similar, and different reasons.