History Literature / AssassinsCreedForsaken

* ValuesDissonance: A weird one where Haytham is interrogating a woman about a man who [[spoiler: helped kill her father]] and she's more interested in clarifying the fact said man was a widower than a married man she was adultering with.
** The entire brief visit to the Sultan's palace, which is viewed as both a DeadlyDecadentCourt and a CrapsaccharineWorld of female slavery. Which may serve as a TakeThat given Ezio Auditore's unconditional support of the Sultanate.

** The entire brief visit to the Sultan's palace, which is viewed as both a DeadlyDecadentCourt and a CrapsacharineWorld of female slavery. Which may serve as a TakeThat given Ezio Auditore's unconditional support of the Sultanate.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling : Jenny used to treat Haytham, her half-brother, this way.

** Played with as [[spoiler: Reginald Birch]] has no interest in harming the Kenways. He's actually after the First Civilization and their relics.

* BreakTheCutie: For Haytham, Jenny and Connor.

* CoolOldGuy : Haytham thinks this of Reginald Birch who is more than willing to play it up. [[spoiler: He's not of course.]]

* WorthIt: Connor gets a coda to AssassinsCreedIII where he gets to answer to the fact, as a Native American, whether or not the slave-holding and expanionist United States was worthy of his support. Connor decides that its transformation into a free and just society might take centuries but stands by his choices.

* WorthIt: Connor gets a coda to AssassinsCreed3 where he gets to answer to the fact, as a Native American, whether or not the slave-holding and expanionist United States was worthy of his support. Connor decides that its transformation into a free and just society might take centuries but stands by his choices.

* GoodParents : Edward and Tessa Kenway.

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Haytham's mother, Tessa Kenway, undergoes this on the night Edward is killed by home intruders and Jenny is kidnapped by the same and that Haytham had to kill one of her attackers. This TraumaCongaLine proved too much and she essentially appointed Reginald Birch as his guardian and becoming a shell of her former self.]]

* FalseFriend: [[spoiler: Reginald Birch for Edward Kenway who he engaged to be married to his daughter Jenny only to discover that he was a Templar. Haytham realizes the same much later, but its far too late for him to make a meaningful change in his life.]]

** When a thief attacks the Kenways on a night out, Edward insists on compassion with Reginald Birch wanting to go VigilanteMan and kill him. Edward later asks Haytham if he felt that thief deserved to die and is pleased when Haytham says no. This gains [[NotSoDifferent resonance]] after the announcement and release of the game, since Edward is a [[RetiredOutlaw former pirate]] who [[RagsToRiches made his early fortune]] from plunder and high seas robbery, suggesting that he felt he was NotSoDifferent, and perhaps wanted to know if his son would forgive his former life if and when he discovered.[[note]] Haytham never seems to have found out, he never mentions it in the book or in ''AssassinsCreedIII'' though his sister seems to know and in the game's DLC Connor knows too.[[/note]]

* ShaggyDogStory: Haytham joins the Templars in search of support after his
* ShootTheShaggyDog

* VillainousValour: The final meeting between [[spoiler: Connor and his father is given context here. Haytham gives Charles Lee the amulet for the First Civlization and tells him to go while he stands back to face Connor, an unstoppable ImplacableMan who had whittled every other Templar and who is also years younger than Haytham. His final entries even seems to have awareness and even seems to hope that Connor finds the journal and understands his father better.]]

* BigDamnHeroes: Haytham pulls this off several times but alas NoGoodDeadGoesUnpunished. Specifically, [[spoiler: his killing of an attacker who was threatening his mother made her horrified and treat Haytham very coldly. When he finally rescues Jenny, its several years later after she's been a concubine into her middle-age and she is horrified that he has become a Templar, the very people who murdered their father and sold her into slavery.]]

* BrokenPedestal: Haytham towards [[spoiler: Reginald Birch]]. Averted with Edward, who even after discovering he was an Assassin, Haytham has nothing but respect and admiration for, believing that FromACertainPointOfView, he is honoring his father's wishes.

* DownerEnding : [[spoiler: For the Kenways as a whole. Edward Kenway, who loses everything he ever built and achieved in ''AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag''. His wife goes mad from grief, his daughter is MadeASlave and becomes a spinster, and Haytham ends becoming ArchnemesisDad for his own son and dies at the latter's hand, leaving him with a great deal of issues in addition to his tragedy as a Native American in Post-Revolutionary America.]]
* {{Expy}} / IronicEcho: The Kenways parallel the story of the Auditore in many ways only with a DarkerAndEdgier twist.
** Edward Kenway resembles Domenico Auditore, the poor founder of a rich, wealthy family who went through much TraumaCongaLine to go from RagsToRiches and Giovanni Auditore in being a DotingParent to his young son, while engaging his feisty daughter to a worthless suitor[[note]]Duccio for Claudia Auditore and Reginald Birch for Jenny[[/note]] and moreover [[StealthMentor secretly training]] his son for the Assassin life.
** Haytham's equation with his family echoes and contrasts to Ezio with his mother and sister. Maria, Ezio's mother suffers severe trauma after the attack on her family [[note]]which led to her husband and sons being arrested and later executed[[/note]] but she recovers from the attack because of Ezio's [[ThePowerOfLove devotion]] to her. [[spoiler: For Tessa its a DespairEventHorizon.]] Likewise he and his half-sister Jenny, were never close and they become permanently estranged [[spoiler: even after Haytham pulls a belated BigDamnHeroes to save her.]]
** Reginald Birch likewise plays a role in Haytham's life much like Mario Auditore, only with a different ideology [[spoiler: and a HiddenAgenda.]]
** Haytham like Ezio is driven initially by revenge and later for a higher purpose. He also meets the love of his life in a new land and culture [[note]] Like Ezio in Istanbul in ''AssassinsCreedRevelations''[[/note]] but what for Ezio is an EarnYourHappyEnding becomes for Haytham a source for personal anguish when he meets his son Connor, now on the other side of the conflict.

* SinsOfOurFathers

** When a thief attacks the Kenways on a night out, Edward insists on compassion with Reginald Birch wanting to go VigilanteMan and kill him. Edward later asks Haytham if he felt that thief deserved to die and is pleased when Haytham says no. This gains resonance since Edward seems to feel that as a former LowerClassLout who went from RagsToRiches, he was NotSoDifferent, and perhaps wanted to know if his son would forgive his former life if and when he discovered that his Dad was a pirate captain.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge : [[spoiler: Haytham massacres an entire monastery which had kept his friend Jim Holden captive and moreover castrated him. He and Jenny go into an equal phase when they attack Birch's chateau.]]

''Assassin's Creed : Forsaken'' is part of the series of novelizations of the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' by Oliver Bowden. Unlike other books in the series which tend to hew to the timeline and narration of the events of the game itself, ''Forsaken'' covers the events of ''AssassinsCreedIII'' but also serves as a {{Prequel}}, covering the timeline before the first missions of the game proper. Specifically it's AnotherSideAnotherStory to the game, from the viewpoint of Haytham Kenway, the father of the main PlayerCharacter, Ratonhnhaké;ton or Connor of ''III''[[note]]Haytham was the DecoyProtagonist for the first three sections which detailed the circumstances that led to his romance with Connor's mother Kanieh;tio.[[/note]]. The book is presented in the form of a journal Haytham kept since childhood and which he irregularly updated throughout his life. The final part of the book has Connor completing the story with his own reflections on discovering his father's story.

''Assassin's Creed : Forsaken'' is part of the series of novelizations of the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' by Oliver Bowden. Unlike other books in the series which tend to hew to the timeline and narration of the events of the game itself, ''Forsaken'' covers the events of ''AssassinsCreedIII'' but also serves as a {{Prequel}}, covering the timeline before the first missions of the game proper. Specifically it's AnotherSideAnotherStory to the game, from the viewpoint of Haytham Kenway, the father of the main PlayerCharacter, Ratonhnhaké;ton or Connor of ''III''. The book is presented in the form of a journal Haytham kept since childhood and which he irregularly updated throughout his life. The final part of the book has Connor completing the story with his own reflections on discovering his father's story.

* DownerEnding : [[spoiler: For Edward Kenway, who loses everything he ever built and achieved in ''AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' and for Haytham himself.]]

* {{RetCon}} : The book alters some of the circumstances in the events of ''AssassinsCreedIII''. The biggest change is that it describes Haytham's father has having dark hair when ''AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' makes him blonde.

* AllThereInTheManual : For ''AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' and ''AssassinsCreedIII'' serving as an {{Interquel}}.
* AlasPoorVillain

* AllThereInTheManual

* ProtagonistJourneyIntoVillain: Unusual variation in that Haytham believes he's becoming TheHero and is on a quest with Birch as TheMentor and he will eventually restore his family honor and reunite his family. [[spoiler: The revelation of TheAwfulTruth marks a CynicismCatalyst for him which explains his colder behaviour in the latter part of ''AssassinsCreedIII'']]
* TheResenter: Jenny Kenway [[spoiler: at the end of ''Forsaken'' becomes a bitter spinster who admits to hating her father for not training her as an assassin and not giving her the same affection as he did for Haytham. A real TerJerker if you know the end of AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag.]]

* SinsOfOurFathers

''Assassin's Creed : Forsaken'' is part of the series of novelizations of the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' by Oliver Bowden. Unlike other books in the series which tend to hew to the timeline and narration of the events of the game itself, ''Forsaken'' covers the events of ''AssassinsCreedIII'' but also serves as a {{Prequel}}, covering the timeline before the first missions of the game proper. Specifically it's AnotherSideAnotherStory to the game, from the viewpoint of Haytham Kenway, the father of the main PlayerCharacter, Ratonhnhaké;ton or Connor of ''III''.

''Forsaken'' was very well recieved on its release and is the first of the series to recieve ApprovalOfGod as being canonical in its story.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling : Jenny used to treat Haytham, her half-brother, this way

* BreakTheCutie: For Haytham, Jenny and Connor ultimately.
* ConflictingLoyalty: For Haytham, who h

* GoodParents
* FollowInMyFootsteps: Edward raises Haytham to follow in his path [[spoiler: as an assassin. Haytham initially believes being a Templar is making his father proud, and even when he realizes his father was on the other side, he entertains the idea of uniting both the Assassins and the Templars, much as his own son Connor entertained.]]