Indeed, regardless of how a person feels about a particular Star Wars movie, it’s often clear that not a whole lot of planning went into the films as a whole. Multiple directors were shuffled in, stories were changed, and overall the consistency is quite questionable. The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker director JJ Abrams even recently commented on how planning was something the sequel trilogy needed and did not have. The idea was for each director for each movie to build off the last one, and in the eyes of many fans, that did not work. This leads to a lack of consistency, something seen perhaps more so in the sequel trilogy, and more so in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla than any other game in that franchise.
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Inconsistencies in Star Wars
Inconsistencies exist in all franchises, but Star Wars fans have always had a thing for debating anything and everything Star Wars. In the grand scheme of things, there will always be those who argue that The Last Jedi tried to undo everything in The Force Awakens, and The Rise of Skywalker tried to undo everything in The Last Jedi. Which is better will always be a thing of debate, but there’s a lot of “small” stuff too that undermines the story as a whole. For example, The Knights of Ren seemed set up for something big in The Force Awakens, were absent in The Last Jedi, and played a relatively small role in The Rise of Skywalker. Sure, they got a comic run, but it didn’t really add up for what they seemed to be and how they were delivered.
Other examples include Snoke, particularly before the release of The Rise of Skywalker, and the overall return of Emperor Palpatine. This was in no way hinted, alluded to, or set up prior to The Rise of Skywalker, and to many, it felt like a last minute decision that many, reportedly including George Lucas, were not happy with. These are just a few small examples in the sequel trilogy, but truth be told, it’s always been an at-large problem for Star Wars too.
For starters, there’s the concept of the Chosen One. Many have always believed it was Anakin, inverting it and bringing balance to the Force by eliminating the Jedi. As there are only ever two Sith, this seems like a valid interpretation. But the problem is that, well, there was never a true balance as many Jedi like Kanan Jarrus and Cal Kestis just went into hiding. Then, there were the Inquisitors, the Knights of Ren, and other Dark Side users who still populated the galaxy. The argument that these Dark Side users are not Sith is, sure, fair and valid, but their existence implies that there was never any balance. As such, many thought it referred to Luke Skywalker as he defeats the Emperor and redeems his father, but this is muddied by the fact that Rey basically does the same thing. So, the prophecy’s involvement in the franchise is about as consistent as the franchise’s introduction and use of Midi-chlorians.
A quick look at the original trilogy offers similar issues, although much less was known at the time and therefore less inconsistencies would be as obvious. However, despite occasional insistence to the contrary, it often seems the original trilogy was not as planned as maybe it should have been (if still more so than the sequel trilogy), and a sole vision with Lucas’ guiding hand was likely a major help. However, it often feels that when the world found out Darth Vader was Luke’s father, one of the most iconic twists in the series, it hadn’t been long decided. The Luke and Leia kiss aside, original story beats and backstories for Vader and Anakin often painted the two as different characters. A small detail, to be sure, but it’s worth noting just how inconsistent the franchise can be overall. Again, inconsistencies are consistent in all franchises, and it doesn’t make Star Wars arguably better or worse—it just makes it Star Wars.
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Inconsistencies in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Similar to Star Wars’ prequel, original, and sequel trilogies, Assassin’s Creed has been divided into various story arcs. There are even subdivides within them, but there is the Desmond Miles storyline that goes through the third numbered game, the Initiates Storyline/Kenway Saga (which overlaps with AC3) that goes through Syndicate, and the more recent games. Originally, many took to calling the most recent trilogy the Ancient Storyline (as both Origins and Odyssey are set in the distant past), but Valhalla muddies that classification. Some refer to it by the modern-day story with Layla, but Valhalla muddies that a bit too if it still mostly works. More recently, some have just referred to it as the AC RPGs as that is their more common denominator.
If naming the storyline is a concern, then so too should the material presented in it. All franchises, again for those in the back, have inconsistencies, but Assassin’s Creed’s aren’t as sharp as the divide from Odyssey to Valhalla. Odyssey is the Last Jedi: it goes in a different direction but provides a lot of set-up. Valhalla is The Rise of Skywalker (in comparison): It doesn’t really acknowledge what was set up in the past two games. For example, Odyssey’s DLC ends on a cliffhanger with Otso Berg, and AC Valhalla doesn’t establish if he is still alive or if he was captured by the Assassins. Odyssey does a lot to set up the importance of the Isu to the modern-day storyline, and while Assassin’s Creed Valhalla utilizes Basim to secure that, it’s not the role many expected them to play. The Isu in Odyssey and the Isu in Valhalla experience the same tonal shift, it seems, that the Knights of Ren do in Star Wars. They are loud and proud, but then relegated mostly to the background.
At the same time, the Staff of Hermes returns in AC Valhalla but manages to feel neutered in comparison to its set-up. Layla is dealing with the fallout, it seems, but that’s largely inconsequential to the story. After all, Kassandra tells Layla that the order between balance and chaos is up to her as the Keeper of the Staff, but this is far from the only “chosen one” prophecy in the franchise. Desmond, Desmond’s son Elijah, Layla, and many others have all taken on a similar role with similar story beats, begging the question of how many characters can fit into a similar role. What this means, for Layla, remains to be seen, but her actions to embrace this role largely mean it’ll be done contextually or in the background, if at all. It’s a similar treatment that the Big Bad of the franchise, Juno, received in an Assassin’s Creed comic.
Adding to this the return of Desmond Miles (in a way), the AC3 connections in Vinland, and the representation of the Greco-Roman Isu as Jotuns in the game, it seems Assassin’s Creed Valhalla wants to connect to the larger franchise in as many ways as possible, not entirely different from the Star Wars sequel trilogy. But in doing so, it doesn’t deliver on quite a bit of set-up in the previous game. Of course, the franchise always shift locations and that’s an important element, but a lot of the things here could have had more follow-up regardless of the context.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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