Connor Kenway, a study of culture shock and tradition

[Capt. Howdy]

I know this is probably way out of the guidelines for discussions but since I made a character study for Ezio in the AC: Revelations discussions I wanted to try and make a break down of Connor and why he is probably "misunderstood" by a lot of the fan base. I use misunderstood loosely since in all honesty back in 2012 I was not a fan of Connor mainly because I saw him as a boring character that Ubisoft should have worked harder on. Now that I'm older and a little wiser I feel like I heavily criticized Connor because I just came hot off the heels of the Ezio trilogy, a character that we spent three games with and watched grow and mature over time which is an amazing act of progression for a character.

With Connor he is new blood that I never expected to love but as I played the remaster I learned that Connor is lovably oblivious to his surroundings to an extent. He is a character that was essentially raised sheltered. kept away from the modern advances of colonists. However once he came of age he was exposed to this world he never really knew existed and this is demonstrated perfectly with his market trip with Achilles early on saying how wonderful it is. This to me is the turning point of a form of culture shock and from this point forward I began to realize that Connors traditional ways clashed with the urban/modern world he *had* to join. Even though he is motivated to protect his clan, a group of people he was raised by and even looks more like, he does accept outsiders with Achilles homestead, essentially forming a bond with people that to his clan want to destroy their land. With how much I love the homestead missions especially since it shades in some character development for Connor it also shows how Connor essentially becomes the very thing he wants to stop. Even though all the settlers are good folk once they moved in the virgin woods that were barely touched by society slowly became populated by people that would eventually harm it. Whether it's chopping down trees, mining precious minerals, hunting local wildlife, or having a bed and board for more people shows that the once skeptical Connor became the very thing he opposed. As I said of course, the people are good folk and I don't see them as a menace, Connor essentially created a colonial tribe littered with settlers.

Now why is this relevant? Well at the end of the game (spoilers btw) Connor's tribe is gone. Their land was purchased and as a result his blood soaked quest for freedom was in vain and in the end all he has left is the homestead and brotherhood. It's no secret that Connor is a bi-racial character comprised of English and Native blood two sides of the environmental coin. One side wants to stay traditional and live in the woods while the other wants progress. Throughout the entire story he clashed with this mainly with Haytham and all the colonial Templars and you would think that with them gone his tribe would be safe? Wrong. He used the very thing he was kept away from as a child to stop the Templars but at the cost of still losing his family entirely. His identity is pretty much left as a blurred image since his past is gone and his future is almost uncertain to a degree. And I guess the moral of the story can be that progress is inevitable, no matter how hard you try to stop it you're eventually consumed by it.

[Zaichi]

i've seen people criticize Altair & Connor but i just don't understand what they dislike about them. if everyone was outgoing, confident, happy then nobody would be unique and special and Altair and Connor certainly stand out from the crowd with just how different they are.

i don't agree that Connor became what he was fighting against. he was against people using others and taking land that's not theirs. the homestead growing is a natural process of humans building a society - he never opposed that. and because it was filled with caucasians of course the area would look fitting to them as oppose to what he was used to in his tribe. the differences are not what he was against, but rather that the warring factions wanted to impose their own ideals and laws on a land that never even belonged to them in the first place. he was doomed from the start because no matter which side he helped he wouldn't be able to stop progress no matter how forced and unjust it was.

i adore Connor - from his uncorrupted, in a sense child-like personality as a young man to his determined and frustrated adulthood you can see the sadness and pain he carries with him as even the side he chose to help disappoints and hurts him throughout the game. what hurts the most playing ACIII is knowing how it ends, knowing history and how futile Connor's relentless strive to keep the peace and save his native fellow men was from the very beginning.

[THE WHEEL WHEELZ]

Originally posted by TheBaltimoreButcher:

One side wants to stay traditional and live in the woods while the other wants progress.

By progress you mean the destruction of natural habitats of thousands of species and humans as well, forcing them to either die or assimilate and later die. I mean, in 2021 it's no secret it was never about real progress. Greed is led by desire of wealth, control and profit. It was absolute destruction, eradication and pure genocide on the side of colonisers which still lingers up until this day. There have been many Connors who hoped that they could find the middle path. All gone now together with their tribes. 100 million people across 5 hundred years who stood no chance against the white man's 'progress'.

I think AC3 is making a point and I also think I get why most people don't like Connor. They'd tell him to 'go back to [his[ country'.

[Capt. Howdy]

Originally posted by ***** ***:

Originally posted by TheBaltimoreButcher:

One side wants to stay traditional and live in the woods while the other wants progress.

By progress you mean the destruction of natural habitats of thousands of species and humans as well, forcing them to either die or assimilate and later die. I mean, in 2021 it's no secret it was never about real progress. Greed is led by desire of wealth, control and profit. It was absolute destruction, eradication and pure genocide on the side of colonisers which still lingers up until this day. There have been many Connors who hoped that they could find the middle path. All gone now together with their tribes. 100 million people across 5 hundred years who stood no chance against the white man's 'progress'.

I think AC3 is making a point and I also think I get why most people don't like Connor. They'd tell him to 'go back to [his[ country'. [/quote]

I originally didn't like Connor because I saw him as a bland character (I was 13 at the time). Now as an adult I learned to love the character for his naivete and his almost wise perspective.