Ethan @Ethancdavenport@retro.social

As I re/play thru the #AssCreed series, u will be commenting on the antifascist themes and other cool stuff. It will be threaded and CWed. Reinstalling the first game now. :)

#DeathToToxicMasculinity

@lunchgirl hey tell me a little about yourself, if you don’t mind!

Not included is a bunch of McElroy family shows, which I do enjoy and recommend, but which are exclusively white folks, although there are three podcasts that the brothers do with their wives. Night Vale Presents shows also get an honorable mention! Good shit in there.

🎙The Great Gundam Project (anime recap - 2 leftist nonbinary hosts - probably best Gundam commentary out there - $1 Patreon exclusive)

🎙Bed, Bath, & Bionicle/Beyblade (just trust me)

🎙The Handsome Rambler (comedy - black host, Vietnamese-American co-host/audio engineer, diverse guests - extremely funny)

🎙Run Button (video games - queer and trans hosts - infrequent updates)

That’s all I got for now. Enjoy!

🎙Perfectly Generic Podcast (Homestuck - trans host, diverse guests - nuanced perspective)

🎙Everybody Hates Rand (Wheel of Time book series - 2 queer women hosts)

🎙The Dave Chang Show (cooking/food - Korean-American host, diverse guests)

🎙Reading Glasses (books/reading - 2 queer women hosts, diverse guests)

🎙294 Note Streak (Guitar Hero song bracket ranking - 2 nonbinary hosts, diverse guests)

🎙Song Exploder (music - Indian-American creator, woman host - diverse artists)

Some #podcasts I listen to with diverse hosts:

🎙3 Swings with Rhea Butcher (baseball - nonbinary host)

🎙NPR Tiny Desk Concerts (live music - artists from all over the world)

🎙Waypoint Radio (video games, labor in games industry - queer black host, Latino audio engineer, diverse guests)

🎙Friends at the Table (actual play - queer black GM, multiple queer, trans and nonbinary cast - incredible storytelling)

Tbh white dudes are almost certainly overrepresented in my internet media consumption as well, but I feel like I have a pretty good smattering of other types of folks too. I guess I’ll make a little list here.

The cast of characters is varied and interesting, and the number of named women characters is a huge improvement over AC1, which literally has 1 named woman in the whole game (whose name you don't actually learn in the game, lol).

Some of the story beats fall a little flat for me (is it really so shocking that all your allies know each other, Ezio?), but overall I like this game a lot.

#AssassinsCreed

There are so many small but incredible improvements in this game over AC1. Alternate assassination techniques, crowd blending, hireable groups--all these things give you so many different options when pursuing targets. Technically, it's an improvement over the first game in every conceivable way.

In terms of plot and characters, Ezio's journey from ignorance to wisdom mirrors Altair's in some ways, but their circumstances were also vastly different. ... #AssassinsCreed

16 contends that several historical events were perpetrated at the hands of the Templars, including the Tunguska Event and the entirety of WWII. Some of these claims are supported by Templar documents contained in 16's puzzles, written by the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison (bastards).

It's some wild shit, frankly.

OH how could I forget the two big document-y things?! Altair's Codex and Subject 16's files!

The Codex is largely a philosophical work laying out Altair's vision of the future of the Brotherhood. He muses on the traumas of his past, the changes that he has seen, and what the future of the Assassins might hold. It's a well-crafted extension of his journey to wisdom from the first game.

16's files are far less comforting. 16 was essentially a torture victim and it shows.

https://retro.social/media/1j0qe4kJ6GxGfgt3bA4 https://retro.social/media/D0fQO-l3KZ_nQdgV-MU https://retro.social/media/jd-Sh_3oqdq96DnAoR8 https://retro.social/media/08OwYEjbDSxCy3QMI6s

https://retro.social/media/E-0t_bd2Pp6UsyE6FSo https://retro.social/media/9JFOlsmtjPTfQF39W7g https://ItSckWGLBK0_JjCiFFY

I enjoy reading the database entries, canonically written by Shaun, but most of them are super bleak. Shaun includes the date and manner of death of many of Ezio's allies (such as Caterina Sforza), so it definitely takes away from the hopefulness of the narrative.

Anyway, I'm now hunting down the enthralled lieutenants of the mad monk Savonarola, who kinda comes out of left field. Next few posts after this will probably finish up the AC2 thread.

Uncle Mario, Paola, La Volpe, Antonio, Sister Teodora, Bartolomeo D'Alviano, and... the real, actual Niccolo Machiavelli reveal the truth of their alleigance. This moment didn't carry a ton of weight for me this time around, since I've played this game before, but Ezio is floored--which comes off a little weird, considering he's been collecting Altair's codex and hunting Templars for over a decade. It just struck me a little odd that Ezio hadn't deduced such.