Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Part 2-3
Honestly, some might say that “stealing” from a plantation-owner is a morally neutral action because the goods already come ill-gotten. They can’t be any more “ill-gotten-er”.
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I can’t help but take notice of just how often the main story has gone out of its way to tell us that the pirates of Nassau went out of their way to kill as few people as possible. To be clear, I’m not doubting the veracity of that claim. From what we know, pirates of this era actually did make an honest attempt to keep bloodshed to a minimum, for multiple practical and ethical reasons. They were criminals, and because of that they would kill in order to avoid facing punishment for their crimes, but beyond that their goal was to pillage. Murder was a tool, but it wasn’t the purpose.
This combination of civility, freedom, and danger combine to make the pirate almost a mythical figure in a classically romantic sense. And yet, I hypothesize that there’s another reason the game takes great pains to focus on the more romantic aspects of the lifestyle.
Most players don’t want to see themselves as the “bad guy”. It’s why the Assassins are mostly placed in a heroic light next to the Templars, because otherwise the role of a contract killer is an unsavory and unappealing one. The same is true for pirates, which is why most pirate fiction glosses up what was otherwise a “profession” for folk who turned to a life of crime because their nations abandoned them, instead choosing to play up the freedom fighter angle.
It’s not an inaccurate portrait, but it is an incomplete one. That said, it’s probably also the correct one for attracting the greatest possible audience.
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