Well done guys.. you've finally picked the
interesting 18th century republican Revolution. It only took you two times out of two, but we forgive you.
hermes200 said:
On one hand, Robespierre was far from a good guy. On the other hand, the Templars have always been the defenders of status quo and control; so it is out of character for them to act as the main figures of such a chaotic time. Having Louis XV as a Templar is more in line with their agenda, but it would require Ubisoft to picture many of the Assassins in a less than flattering light.
And this is why the French revolution is interesting, because history (well,
American history) hasn't narrativized it into a heroic struggle between good and evil. A lot of the politics involved are quite subtle and complicated.
Robespierre's "enlightened" beliefs and radical anti-monarchism were very extreme. He was also, by all accounts, an exceptional and charismatic man and quite admirable in many ways. But he had very little commitment to the idea of personal freedom. People forget quite how much moralism and authoritarianism was a part of the enlightenment tradition too. I think he's a Templar personally, but I also think the two sects are way more similar than they pretend to be.
Louis XVI (Louis XV died about 20 years before the revolution) comes across from history as a bit of a pushover. I'm not sure he'd make a particularly good Templar, unless they were going for the Mel Brooks version. As an indecisive puppet being pulled about by various factions in his own court, however..
For some reason, I'm also taking a long bet that the Marquis de Sade (a la Geoffrey Rush's portrayal in
Quills) will turn up as an assassin.