Thread by @EvilCleverDog

#ACSisterhood

Today a live action Assassin's Creed Valhalla short film called The Hunt was released. It stars several well known cosplayers, with Maul Cosplay as Eivor (and no female Eivor included)

@Ubisoft funded the making of this short film.

Thread:

Allegations of sexual misconduct against several prominent Ubisoft employees came to light earlier this year. Along with those allegations also came an exposé on how Ubi execs repeatedly diminished the roles and marketing of various female AC characters

This pattern continued with promotion for Valhalla, which initially ONLY featured male Eivor and still skews heavily towards him.

This short film was a chance to showcase both characters. The partner of the main cosplayer featured literally has a female Eivor costume.

Maybe she didn't want to be in the film? Fine, hire an actor or another cosplayer to wear the costume and play the part. Don't just erase female Eivor yet again.

But there ARE other female characters in the film. And this is my bigger issue with it.

CW: Sexual assault and rape

So what do we get instead of female Eivor?

We get a woman who's about to be gang raped but is rescued by male Eivor.

In an advert for Assassin's Creed, funded by @Ubisoft. Mere months after multiple Ubi staff were accused of sexual misconduct.

After committing to "doing better", @Ubisoft have once again erased the existence of a female protagonist (who's supposedly the canon one by the way), AND used the threat of sexual violence against a woman as motivation for a male character

Do you REALLY think showing a woman about to be gang raped in an advert for Assassin's Creed is appropriate? ESPECIALLY considering the shit Ubi has come under fire for this year? THIS is how you want to advertise your game?

Apparently Maul and co produced and wrote the film, but presumably they would have had to send scripts and cuts to someone at Ubisoft for approval. There would likely have been Ubisoft reps on set too.

Which means on both ends NO ONE saw an issue with any of this.

Sure, the near rape victim gets to stab some dudes later. But that isn't the ~empowerment~ you think it is.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled cosplayers have been given the opportunity to work on this. But it almost feels like a joke that this is the story that was told with it.

We know that this film was shot after the initial Valhalla trailer and the exposé on Ubisoft. We know that they had already "committed to doing better" by that point.

This is not doing better. At all.