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The end of an era - Part I
Markuz, October 5th, 2013 Translated by: Stefania As announced (at this point a long) time ago, this article, with the piece about the six methods of salvation, , will deal with the analysis of the Assassin’s Creed 3 finale in the greater detail possible. So arm yourselves with the ending video, the AC3 guidebook, some information about the six methods and possibly time, 'cause the situation is complicated. It had to happen and it happened. Assassin's Creed 3 ended Desmond Miles' adventures in what has been the most debated chapter of the saga, for better or for worse. Hordes of enraged fans, death messages to Ubisoft and people pulling their hair out about the finale of the Desmond's saga because it was lame, wasn't understandable and didn't clear things up (most of the time the press didn't even try and once I even read on a famous website about the video game industry "Well, let's speak plainly, who cared about Desmond?"). But is the ending of AC3 really so airy-fairy? Let's try to have a look at it stepwise and see the events first-hand.  Juno: Here... at last. You know our story now. Of how we tried. Of how we failed. All our hopes extinguished. Save one. Your touch, a spark. A spark to save the world. Minerva: Wait! Do not touch the pedestal! Desmond: Minerva ...? Juno: You... But how? You left! You destroyed the device! Minerva: Did you think there was only one? William: What the hell is going on here? Minerva: You must not free her! Desmond: Free her? Minerva: Juno dwells within these walls, awaiting release. I will explain. While we worked to save the world, she sought, instead, to conquer it. She used our machines to set her plans in motion. Divination through numbers. There is a pattern to existence. To comprehend the calculations is to tame time. This was my focus. And so I built the eye to aid us. But she turned it towards her own ends. When we discovered her treachery, we put a stop to it. And then we left. But first we called to you... That you might try again. We thought it would be safe with her gone. Now I see we were deceived. She survived. She endured. And then she began to work ... For centuries Tinia and I walked the world, hoping to rekindle the spark of civilization. We shared what we knew as best we could. We were not the only ones. But for all the power we wrought, still death would claim us. But before it did, I would have one last look to know if we had succeeded. Desmond: That's how you're here now? Minerva: I had hoped you might find this place – and finish our work. But it is too late. You and the Templars have squabbled over our refuse. You have wasted centuries. And so you have lost your chance. You cannot hope to stop the end now, Desmond. Only to survive it. Juno: She's lying! Only touch the pedestal and the world WILL be saved. Minerva: Better the world burn, than she be loosed upon it. Juno: Is that so? Show him, then. Minerva: But he will not understand. It is complicated ... It is ... Desmond: Show me. Juno: If you heed Minerva the sun will have its way. The ground will crack and spit fire into the sky. All the world will burn. But this does not end the world, merely heralds its arrival. Darkness follows. Then you emerge... Resolving to lay a foundation that such a tragedy does not befall the world again. You will become a symbol to those who survive. Hope. Knowledge. Determination. You will inspire them to rebuild. To thrive once more. And as the world heals, so too will humanity. But you are just a man. Frail and mortal. You pass from the world, leaving behind only a memory. A... legacy. You will be remembered first as a hero. Later as a legend. And in time... As a god. It is the cruelest fate. To have written words that meant well - and see them made wicked and unwise. What was meant to encourage life - used instead to justify taking it! And so now you see... That what was shall be again. So tell me. How is this better? Juno: She would sacrifice you – sacrifice the WORLD – for no other reason than to deny me vindication. Minerva: They will enslave your kind, Desmond. Is this not why you fight? Is this not why you came here? To ensure more than just your race's future, but its freedom? Juno: What future? What freedom? Billions dead and the whole cycle begun anew? This world has known nothing but heartache and horror since we left it. Minerva: Our gift to them. And you'd see it all returned. Desmond: ENOUGH! Minerva: You must not do this… Desmond: Whatever Juno's planning – however terrible it might seem today – we'll find a way to stop it. But the alternative, what you want ... There's no hope there. Minerva: If you free her – you'll be destroyed. Juno: It will happen in an instant. There will be no pain. Minerva: You mustn't! Desmond: It's done, Minerva. The decision's made. Minerva: Then the consequences of this mistake are yours to live – and die – with. Desmond: You need to go. All of you. Now. Get as far away from here as you can. William: Come with us. We'll find another way. Desmond: There isn't time! William: Son ... Desmond: You know it's true. It's already started. I need to do this now. So, go! GO! Reporter: ... It's some sort of global aurora borealis ... ... never seen anything like this before ... ... eyewitnesses describe electrical storms and erratic displays of unusual weather ... residents being asked to remain INSIDE and wait for ... Geological surveys are now reporting seismic activity throughout the ring of fire ... northeastern Canada is said to be experiencing the largest ... on record ... ... satellites and transformers are failing as the flare increases in intensity ... Worldwide reports of blackouts and ... ... seems to be receding ... residual seismic and volcanic activity is being reported, but nothing approaching earlier levels ... Obviously it will be a while before experts are able to assess the full extent of the damage caused by today's event. But it appears the worst is behind us ... We'll be sure to bring you more as this story develops ... Juno: It's done. The world is saved. You played your part well, Desmond. But now ... Now it's time that I played mine.
So with a little rewind, let's go back to the scene immediately before the end of AC3. It's December 21st, 2012, precisely in the first minute of the day (at 00:01 according to AC: Initiates). Desmond and his team, after having recovered the Grand Temple Key from the tomb of Connor Davenport, Achilles' son, go back to Turin to open the last door, the one that had to hide the last hope to save the world. The team approaches the door, it's the moment of truth as Desmond says to his mates. Desmond brings the key closer to the door and this one dissolves with an intense flare (also the brickwork section where the key is placed – magic of TWCB?). The road for the inner chamber of the Temple, therefore, opens up and Desmond's team walks through it Armageddon-style (only the slow-motion was missing). So Desmond goes into what it's shown to us as a dark chamber where only he, his team, the hologram of Juno and the object in the underlying image are present.
Juno immediately makes an entrance, almost anxious, and talks to Desmond at once even if she knows the rest of the team can see her perfectly. The impatience can be seen in the first part of the dialogue, in that “at last” and especially in the final part of the sentence. For the first time from the beginning of AC3 Juno asks Desmond to do something, but to disguise it well (considering, as we'll see, it's the thing she's most interested in since 75.000 years) she tries to charge Desmond with responsibilities and at the same time to reap the benefits of almost two months of conversations with the hooded man and of attempts to involve him in the matter of TWCB (the six methods of salvation). The true purpose is to get closer to him and make him more willing to make the final choice, as I hinted in the article about the methods. After having done her work of “captatio benevolentiae” (achievement of goodwill) Juno shows that there's still hope and points it out, putting her hand on the bright spherical object in the middle of the room. Then Juno clearly hints that Desmond must touch the “bowl” and this touch will create a spark or an electric discharge, or whatever you want to call it. A spark – essential and tied to the spherical object – to save the world. But what is this spherical object? The guide calls it “Biometric Device”. With a quick search we can find out that a biometric identification system a biometric identification system is a particular IT system which is able to identify humans by their characteristics or traits. So the biometric device of the Grand Temple should be a DNA detector, in particular of a specific DNA, valuable for Juno. The same guide says "If we (with a fair degree of confidence) assume that the pedestal at the heart of the Grand Temple is a First Civilization biometric device, Juno's efforts to guide Desmond to that place and point in time make perfect sense. What makes Desmond unique, as we currently understand, is that he exists at a specific convergence of genetic stock that gives him an unusually high concentration of First Civilization genes. So it's not Desmond that Juno wants – his death rather underlines this fact – but his DNA". The guide, therefore, confirms what Juno really wants from Desmond, in other words the interaction with his DNA, to “detect” it with the biometric device. Minerva: Wait! Do not touch the pedestal! Desmond: Minerva ...? Juno: You... But how? You left! You destroyed the device! Minerva: Did you think there was only one? William: What the hell is going on here?
"After transmitting another message across the ages (...) They [Tinia and Minerva] smashed the Grand Temple's divination sphere – the interface through which the technology could be used." Minerva's answer is lapidary and contains various pieces of information. Her ironic question, indeed, shows that the Grand Temple's divination device wasn't one of a kind. Juno's astonishment in seeing Minerva and the fact that she left the Grand Temple a long time ago, furthermore, indicate that Minerva isn't in the room with Desmond in 2012, like Juno, but she's communicating from the past through another divination device. So another message from the past to 2012, even if with very different purposes, as we'll see. It should also be pointed out how the existence of a second divination device (and maybe of some others) opens the narrative possibilities of the plot to others messages from TWCB to several characters that we'll meet or use in the next games, such as Edward Kenway or the Abstergo scientist protagonist of the present time of AC4. The following intervention comes from William, that, as well as having the role of “moderator” of the situation, shows that both the goddesses are visible to the rest of the team too (or maybe only to William since he also has a high concentration of TWCB's DNA?). Minerva: You must not free her! Desmond: Free her? Minerva: Juno dwells within these walls, awaiting release. I will explain. While we worked to save the world, she sought, instead, to conquer it. She used our machines to set her plans in motion. Divination through numbers. There is a pattern to existence. To comprehend the calculations is to tame time. This was my focus. And so I built the eye to aid us. But she turned it towards her own ends. When we discovered her treachery, we put a stop to it. And then we left. But first we called to you... That you might try again. We thought it would be safe with her gone. Now I see we were deceived. She survived. She endured. And then she began to work ... For centuries Tinia and I walked the world, hoping to rekindle the spark of civilization. We shared what we knew as best we could. We were not the only ones. But for all the power we wrought, still death would claim us. But before it did, I would have one last look to know if we had succeeded. Desmond: That's how you're here now? This part is tough. Minerva has little time left, it's December 21st already, the catastrophe is coming and her intent is to hold Desmond back from what he's going to do and so she blurts out the truth: if he touches the biometric device, Juno will be free. Desmond is taken aback and asks for more information that Minerva promptly gives to him. While Minerva, Jupiter and the other TWCB were working on the various methods to save the world, Juno was planning to conquer it and to do so she used the machines of Minerva and her colleagues. In particular Minerva opens a break explaining that existence and time can be outlined and modeled. Being able to understand the trend through previsions (the so-called calculations), therefore, means having time in one's hand since not only what will happen can be foreseen, but in some way one can interact with it. In other words, divination through numbers. This was Minerva's objective within the group of TWCB devoted to save the world and so, being the “calculations” exactly her domain as Jupiter says in the ending of Revelations, she built the eye. So the eye is another name that Minerva assigns to the divination device, a well-fitting name since it's a tool to inspect the future, or better the possible futures. OBesides this I'd like to highlight a couple of things. The first one is that in a few lines Minerva affirms that in the AC universe existence and time can be modeled and so be foreseen. If they can be foreseen (in a probabilistic way, as we have seen in the article about the methods), it means that, at least in most cases, the way they will act is already predetermined and so everything resembles the idea of destiny and determinism.
Coming back to Minerva's explanation, she tells that the divination device was built to help those TWCB who wanted to save the world, but that Juno used it for her own purposes. When Minerva and the other TWCB noticed Juno's conduct, they “put a stop to it”, where “put a stop” is a fine way to say that they killed her together with her followers (as written in the guide – the presence of the followers, moreover, could be important for the future developments of the saga) and then they sealed and abandoned the Temple. That's what Juno meant with “You left! You destroyed the device!”. This sentence also points out that the divination device was destroyed just before Minerva and the other TWCB left the Temple. Before doing so, however, Minerva says she “called” Desmond, in other words she sent the messages that Desmond got in the various games of the saga, because she wanted him to try again and succeed where TWCB failed. But the goddess already noticed the presence of Juno in 2012 and so she realized that in some way she endured what the other TWCB did to her, she survived and then started, or better continued, to work to the plan she already triggered using the divination device. So after their leaving (and after the catastrophe), while Juno was recovering and putting to use her plans, Minerva, Jupiter and the other TWCB decided to rebuild together with men, sharing what they knew for the rest of their life that, Minerva herself highlights, was finite. Before leaving this world, though, the goddess decided to check the future again to see if her intentions ended well. This is why she's speaking with Desmond and Juno now: Minerva is using another divination device from an unspecified period of the past to talk with Desmond as a hologram exactly like in the other games. We find ourselves, so, in a situation where Juno is “alive” in 2012, at least in the form of conscience and graphic and intangible appearance inside the temple, Minerva is present in 2012 but only in the form of an intangible message before her death and Desmond amongst them, the only character able to change the things “physically”. Minerva: I had hoped you might find this place – and finish our work. But it is too late. You and the Templars have squabbled over our refuse. You have wasted centuries. And so you have lost your chance. You cannot hope to stop the end now, Desmond. Only to survive it. Minerva was hoping that Desmond would have found the Temple, obviously without Juno, and that he would have finished the research effort of TWCB to find a method to save the world, but the goddess understands that it's already too late. Assassins and Templars wasted too much time, too many centuries squabbling over what she indicates as “our refuse” and probably she's referring to the Pieces of Eden, main point of the Assassins - Templars conflict. But alas in Italian this overtone is completely lost, since it was translated as “You and the Templar quarreled from the start”. The connotation of "refuse" for the Pieces of Eden by TWCB is interesting, especially considering the importance and the attention that instead they get from the men. Does this mean that they weren't so important for Those Who Came Before? For what reason? Also in this case, however, goo old Altaïr was farsighted. At page V of his Codex the old mentor of Masyaf wrote "What of these artifacts? Messages in a bottle? Tools left behind to aid and guide us? Or do we fight for control over their refuse, giving divine purpose and meaning to little more than discarded toys?". If the Pieces of Eden weren't important for TWCB, what was significant then before the catastrophe? The conflict that Minerva disapproves so much, hence, ensured that the men didn't focus on the catastrophe, on the fall to avoid, and so that wasted their chance to be saved. Desmond, then, according to Minerva's words, can't hope anymore to stop the 2012 solar flare, but only to survive it. Juno: She's lying! Only touch the pedestal and the world WILL be saved. Minerva: Better the world burn, than she be loosed upon it. Juno: Is that so? Show him, then. Minerva: But he will not understand. It is complicated ... It is ... Desmond: Show me. Here one can see Juno's alertness and the strength of her “project”. Her plan is coming to an end and, even if Minerva is interfering, she's the one who seems to have the winning card. The mythologic wife of Jupiter, sure enough, is extremely convinced that the world will be saved if Desmond touches the biometric device. On the contrary, Minerva starts to give up regarding her motivations, she doesn't seem sure anymore that the world is doomed (maybe shocked by Juno's definiteness?) and so her arguments shift to what the lesser evil for the Earth is, that she identifies with the solar flare. Juno, seeing Minerva's hesitation, takes even more courage and has her over a barrel: she intimates her to prove with facts if it's really better for the Earth to be hit by the solar flare rather than saving it and being freed, with her conquest plans. Minerva is still even more unsure, she's afraid Desmond isn't able to understand and tries to give a hint of an explanation, but at this point Juno's plan moves off by itself: Desmond himself asks to see the consequences of the solar flare on the earth and so Minerva is forced to show them to him. Moreover, this being a possible future and so not fulfilled yet, it's reasonable to think that what Desmond sees is generated by the divination device in the hands of Minerva. Juno: If you heed Minerva the sun will have its way. The ground will crack and spit fire into the sky. All the world will burn. But this does not end the world, merely heralds its arrival. Darkness follows. Then you emerge... Resolving to lay a foundation that such a tragedy does not befall the world again. You will become a symbol to those who survive. Hope. Knowledge. Determination. You will inspire them to rebuild. To thrive once more. And as the world heals, so too will humanity. But you are just a man. Frail and mortal. You pass from the world, leaving behind only a memory. A... legacy. You will be remembered first as a hero. Later as a legend. And in time... As a god. It is the cruelest fate. To have written words that meant well - and see them made wicked and unwise. What was meant to encourage life - used instead to justify taking it! And so now you see... That what was shall be again. So tell me. How is this better?
The ending of all this explanation is a direct confrontation between Juno, Minerva and Desmond: how can a situation like that be better than the rescue of the Earth and the freeing of Juno herself? Juno: She would sacrifice you – sacrifice the WORLD – for no other reason than to deny me vindication. Minerva: They will enslave your kind, Desmond. Is this not why you fight? Is this not why you came here? To ensure more than just your race's future, but its freedom? Juno: What future? What freedom? Billions dead and the whole cycle begun anew? This world has known nothing but heartache and horror since we left it. Minerva: Our gift to them. And you'd see it all returned. Desmond: ENOUGH! Minerva: You must not do this… The verbal clash between Minerva and Juno goes on, with the last one gaining ground toward Desmond. Juno is so self-confident that she doesn't even try to deceive Desmond anymore, but she admits she wants to wreak revenge on men. By now the choice in Desmond's hands is clear: let the world burn, losing billion of lives, or saving it releasing a “goddess” who is able to enslave it? Moreover Minerva uses the plural, meaning that Juno isn't alone, referring to the idea of the followers previously mentioned. Minerva confronts Desmond, telling him that if he chooses Juno's solution all the purposes he's fighting for (future and freedom, as if he was a politician) would go up in smoke given that the latter would enslave the mankind again. Juno immediately answers back, prevailing once again, affirming that if billions of people die there won't be freedom and there won't be a future, especially considering that the cycle of the catastrophes will begin anew, convicting it to a vicious cycle of heartache and horror. To this argument Minerva replies that the world is the gift TWCB left to the men and hints that the situation must remain stable, without it being returned to Juno (alas in the Italian version it was translated as "It was our gift. And thus they threw it away."). In this sentence one can see a sort of trace of a compassionate god towards his own children. That, however, she would let burn without hesitation, just to be clear. Seeing the two TWCB arguing, with a technique that only two women could have, Desmond tries to close the matter yelling at them to stop. Minerva begs him to not touch the pedestal but… Desmond: Whatever Juno's planning – however terrible it might seem today – we'll find a way to stop it. But the alternative, what you want ... There's no hope there. Minerva: If you free her – you'll be destroyed. Juno: It will happen in an instant. There will be no pain. Minerva: You mustn't! Desmond: It's done, Minerva. The decision's made. Minerva: Then the consequences of this mistake are yours to live – and die – with. Desmond: You need to go. All of you. Now. Get as far away from here as you can. William: Come with us. We'll find another way. Desmond: There isn't time! William: Son ... Desmond: You know it's true. It's already started. I need to do this now. So, go! GO! … But Desmond has already decided, and he's done it basing on different values compared to the traditional ones of the Assassins. Desmond chooses Juno's option, believing that the world will be truly saved, without any proof of the truthfulness of her words, because Minerva's proposal doesn't bring any hope and so any future. Desmond, in his last moments, pulls aways from the Assassins' classical ideal of freedom above everything else and by any means in favour of the value of hope. A hope such to allow a very similar situation to the one that his enemies, the Templars want. Also in this, hence, Desmond is a peculiar assassin, different from the others. Minerva tries to play her last card, in other words the revelations that touching the pedestal and freeing Juno has an additional price, the death of Desmond, but here too Juno is very quick on the draw affirming that everything will happen in an instant, without him feeling any pain. Juno's answer is immediate, she doesn't give Minerva the time to try to change Desmond's mind and at the same time she offers him a partial additional justification for taking the route of the personal sacrifice for the salvation of the world. By now Minerva is definitely defeated, she tries again with a meager but blunt “You mustn't” but Desmond has already made a decision, there isn't time to change it, loading on his back all the responsibilities of the consequences mentioned by Minerva. Desmond has already decided to sacrifice himself, but as a good hero, before doing so he tries to save his team. In what appears as a very brief, alas, moment of interaction between Desmond and his “family”, in the finale our hero urges them to leave, to run away from the Temple. A broken-hearted and maybe desperate William begs him to come with them with the hope to find another solution that doesn't demand his son's death, but, before intimating him to leave, he replies that the catastrophe's already started and there isn't time (for other solutions). Fix in your mind the fact that there isn't time, it's very important to prove the intensity of Juno's plan and its success. In any case, here's the sore point, this is the only interaction between Desmond and the team, only four lines that don't even see the presence of Shaun and Rebecca and so, as far as the fan can imagine it, don't represent at best the emotional involvement that the characters should have, in my opinion. So the team leave while the holograms of Juno and Minerva disappear, the first one probably waiting for her own liberation, the second one because of the voluntary interruption of the use of the divination device. In his last instants Desmond is alone with the biometric device, with his task and with his thoughts. It's just an instant, as Juno said. Desmond places his right hand on the sphere and he's hit by what seems an electric discharge, the spark that Juno mentioned at the beginning of the final dialogue. His body starts to emanate a white vapor (the color could also be caused by the lighting of the biometric device) and begins to convulse. In his last moments maybe he realizes that the spark is too strong or that he's not going to make it and places the left hand on the right arm, that in the meantime has blackened, to sustain himself. Desmond's agony and with it the saga dedicated to him ends with the spark that pushes him back and makes him fall to the ground, lifeless and still lightly “smoking”, for the sadness of all the fans. Moment for the feelings, this time underpinned by a tribute-video: But the show must go on. As by now is the custom in the last games, also the endless credits include a part dedicated to the plot and also the classic cliffhanger, that this time shouldn't have been there, according to the writer Corey May.
Juno: It's done. The world is saved. You played your part well, Desmond. But now ... Now it's time that I played mine. The report of the journalist isn't subsequent but simultaneous to the AC3 ending. The text pronounced by the reporter, moreover, isn't complete, however it's a collage of the various news of those hours. So we know of the coming of a sort of aurora borealis that involves the whole Earth, exactly like in the vision provided by Minerva and like in the Revelations finale. The first reports talk of electrical storms and erratic climate changes and all adapts to Lucy's words in the ending of AC2. The blonde, indeed, affirmed that, due to the weakening of the Earth's magnetic field, word was that a solar flare strong enough would have swapped the poles and have created a geomagnetic reversal. For Lucy it was only a theory (to accost to the pseudoscience, according to Shaun), but if it really had happened the Earth would have become geologically very unstable.
The escalation comes to the point that transformers and satellites fail while the solar flare increases in intensity and blackouts occur worldwide. With this sentence we have the confirmation that the solar flare really happened. We are able, furthermore, to more or less understand in which moment of the dialogue between Desmond and the two goddesses we are, in other words when Desmond states that everything's already started, that the flare has already begun to hit the Earth. A few seconds later Desmond touches the biometric device and we come across another hard confirmation: Juno didn't lie when she said she could save the world if Desmond had touched the sphere. The news reports, indeed, assert that gradually the flare intensity is decreasing, although with residual seismic and volcanic activity, and that by now the worst is over, implying that the Earth is safe. The game ends with the cliffhanger I was talking about earlier. Juno, finally free, with a semi-ironic voice states that Desmond played his part well (in her plan) and that now it's time for her to do the same. These last seconds are important because they confirm the existence of Juno's millenarian plan and the importance that Desmond had in it. And that's all for the examination of the meaning of the final dialogue in itself, but what really happened? What was Juno's plan and who did it involve? What role did Desmond play? ... Continue to Part2 ...
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