History VideoGame / AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: While AcceptableBreaksFromReality apply as always, this game goes to a great deal of effort to establish period authenticity. Some exceptions remain, however.
** The "sea shanties" and tavern music are all actual folk music, with antiquated locutions and alternate lyrics which date to the early 18th Century, with some AnachronismStew (''Johnny Boker'' is from the ''19th Century'') thrown in for good measure. However, the tradition of singing sea shanties or folk music on a deck is only recorded in the 19th Century. Folklorists hold that sailors in the 17th and 18th century sang a generalized chanting hymn rather than full songs. Those records come from merchant and navy vessels, though, not pirates, so it's entirely possible that discipline was more lax.
** Naval warfare in the Age of Sail was more a matter of maneuver and attrition than what we see here, with cannon volleys exchanged on a scale of minutes, not seconds. More to the point, the rather violent, take-the-fort style approach to plunder that's part of the gameplay is way off from the way pirates actually operated; most of them favored subtlety and GuileHero tactics rather than going all [[OneManArmy One Ship Armada]]. Furthermore, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C9h3p5Efa4 historian Bryan Glass]] noted after seeing the game that most of the times Pirates never attacked or battled ships as the game asks you to do before you plunder it, since it defeated the purpose of salvaging and selling proper quality goods. He does however praise the game overall for its broader accuracy in showing the egalitarian nature of the Pirate life.
** On a related note, no ship in its right mind would attack a fort directly the way the Jackdaw is shown doing, being tantamount to suicide. Naval Rams were not used at all during the period for combat, due to the inability to back the ship back out if the ram got stuck in the target.
** The pirate ships here are all far grander than any they had in real life. Rather than pitched engagements between huge men of war, Blackbeard and Black Bart both met their ends, glorious as they were, in sloops against similarly armed sloops. Bart did, however, have a small fleet of four ships, making him somewhat grander than other pirates of his day. What made pirates fearsome wasn't that they piloted huge ships of war, but that they had more guns and, more importantely, far more ''men'' than any merchant they came across. Also, the law was nowhere near equipped to handle them, so the merchants had no choice but to submit meekly to their predation.

* NostalgiaLevel: The main story features a point where an entire city is a Restricted Zone - basically, if a guard sees you, you have about ten seconds before he'll start trying to kill you. This causes the kind of caution, rooftop-running, and paranoia that players haven't seen since ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'', where basically every city had hyper-touchy guards that would kill you as soon as look at you.

** Adéwalé and the rest of the crew eventually [[spoiler: mutiny and abandon an injured Edward to Black Bart]], purportedly because Edward has spent too much time obsessing about the Observatory rather than standard pirate activity. Meanwhile, the player has probably personally boarded more than a hundred ships, taken over several forts, found tons of treasure, amassed a fleet of several man o' wars, and has tens of thousands of reales. Not quite good enough for them, apparently.

* BusCrash: [[spoiler: Stede Bonnet is last seen sailing away, captain of his own ship, cheerfully waving goodbye to Edward and thanking him for his friendship. He is later captured and executed offscreen, and even this is only mentioned in his database entry; though he still appears at the table alongside the rest of Edward's dead pirate friends.]]

** Since you work for Abstergo Entertainment, a front company for the modern-day Templars, it comes as little surprise that they are trying to do this to the {{Big Bad}}s of all the previous games, under the caption of "Great Minds of History": [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed Robert de Sable]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Rodrigo Borgia]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Haytham Kenway]] and [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation Madeline de l'Isle]]. While Haytham is [[AmbiguouslyEvil ambiguous]] enough to qualify for a [[TokenGoodTeammate pass]], the Rodrigo Borgia one is remarkable for its self-delusion in calling him a "progressive, [[DirtyOldMan bon-vivant]] who cared about family values". They even praise him as a man of faith when the ''Assassin's Creed'' version of Rodrigo Borgia was an atheist. It's even more surprising given that the modern-Templars are said to view the Borgia's reign over the Templars as OldShame, considering how he and his underlings abandoned all of the Templar principles.

** ''Crusader and Florentine Pack'', which gives additional ship customization options based on the colors of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed first]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII two]] games. An additional customization pack, ''Death Vessel'', was released soon after.

** Hidden in the game files is a secret audio recording in which "John from IT" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkAt2btWDnc mocks anyone who finds it]].

** There are upgrades for your hideout that allow you to hire dancers and pirates for free. These upgrades cost 15,000 and 7,000 reales, respectively, to allow you to save 150 reales every time you hire these groups. You would have to hire and use 100 different groups of dancers just to break even on investing in their building at the hideout. Good luck finding that many uses for them throughout the entire game, even if you're actively trying.

* AnimalMotifs: An in-story example. At one point the entirety of {{Aesop}}'s Fable, "The Eagle and the Jackdaw" is retold in the game. It very obviously leads to {{Applicability}} on Edward's own story. Edward admits to naming his ship, the Jackdaw after a "sly bird" he loved to see as a boy. It comes to symbolize Edward's defiant over-reaching struggle to rise above his station, a "Jackdaw who'd have you believe he's an Eagle" or a "pirate who'd have you believe he's an Assassin". [[spoiler: Years later, on his retirement, he names his son, who he wishes to raise as an Assassin, Haytham, Arabic for Young Eagle]].

** The aforementioned Legendary ships are each a SuperBoss challenge waiting for you at the four corners of the world. Each has its own particular gimmick and all of them are faster and more heavily armed than you.

** Most of the individuals the pirates target work for the powerful European colonial empires which dominate the Caribbean during this period, many of whom work to uphold the brutal system of slavery which underpins the economy of the entire region; Governor Woodes Rogers himself owns several slave ships. In his day, Rogers (and others like him) would be TheHero. Today he's a {{Hypocrite}}, considering that slavery and colonialism have become justifiable AcceptableTargets in the [=21st=] Century, and it's not hard to root for the pirates and for Kenway.

** Edward Kenway himself, [[FairForItsDay while surprisingly tolerant]] due to [[JustifiedTrope having shipped with a lot of different people]], does once bring up to his Trinidadian ex-slave quartermaster Adewalé the possibility of returning to Africa. Adewalé's response amounts to, "Why would I go back to a place I've never been to?"

* EveryoneComeesBackFantasyPartyEnding: As the ship carrying his daughter pulls into Great Inagua, [[spoiler:Edward looks at one of the tables where his whole crew is having a good drink and imagines seeing Blackbeard, Benjamin Hornigold, Calico Jack, & Mary Read among them]].

* FinalExamBoss: All four legendary ships, the optional {{Super Boss}}es which are placed on the four corners of the game map test your skills in navigation, strategy and use of resources. Each ship, once sunk, yields a loot of 20,000 reales (though the man-o-war tandem reward is split amongst both ships), and defeating all four gives the ''Jackdaw'' the ''El Impoluto''[='=]s charging ability.

* FollowTheLeader: Although the franchise in question is made by Creator/{{Ubisoft}}, the upgrade to [[AuraVision Eagle Vision]] in this game over other ones makes it capable of "marking" targets to easily follow them through walls with Eagle Vision off, almost identically to the "Mark and Execute" function of ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Conviction'', barring the ability to call in a barrage of {{One Hit Kill}}s (which was included back in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation''). [[note]]This feature was ''itself'' lifted from yet another Ubi game, ''VideoGame/RainbowSixVegas'', the director of which went on to direct ''Conviction''.[[/note]]

* ForegoneConclusion: Next to everything about Edward's post-assassin life, including ''how and when he dies'', was revealed in ''Literature/AssassinsCreedForsaken'', the novelization of ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII III]]''.
* FramingDevice: This game and ''Liberation'' take this a step further by postulating that Abstergo has formed an entertainment division dedicated to bringing Animus technology to the mass-market in the form of video games and movies, providing streamlined and carefully edited excerpts from the memory-sequences that are researched in their labs. As a meta-joke, the company they hire to deliver these products is Creator/{{Ubisoft}}, the developer of the real franchise, and ''Black Flag'' contains multiple in-jokes and {{Fandom Nod}}s as a result.

* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Vidic's interview with Subject One gives us our first glimpse of an Animus user viewing someone of the opposite sex's (Aveline's) memories. Subject One is a straight white man playing a black woman in the 18th century, and experiencing sexual attention from men, and Aveline's attraction to men, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments makes him audibly uncomfortable.]]

** Since you work for Abstergo Entertainment, a front company for the modern-day Templars, it comes as little surprise that they are trying to do this to the {{Big Bad}}s of all the previous games, under the caption of "Great Minds of History": [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed Robert de Sable]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Rodrigo Borgia]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Haytham Kenway]] and [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation Madeline de l'Isle]]. While Haytham is [[AmbiguouslyEvil ambiguous]] enough to qualify for a [[TokenGoodTeammate pass]], the Rodrigo Borgia one is remarkable for its self-delusion in calling him a "[[ItsAllAboutMe progressive]], [[DirtyOldMan bon-vivant]] [[DracoInLeatherPants who cared about]] [[OffingTheOffspring family]] [[ParentalIncest values]]". They even praise him as a man of faith when the ''Assassin's Creed'' version of Rodrigo Borgia was an atheist. It's even more surprising given that the modern-Templars are said to view the Borgia's reign over the Templars as OldShame, considering how he and his underlings abandoned all of the Templar principles.

** To say nothing of moray eels, who can't even be fought off.

* LighterAndSofter: Despite having a GrayAndGrayMorality and much NightmareFuel as well the most ruthless Assassin protagonist yet, ''Black Flag'' is considerably lighter than ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' which ended on a real downer in both the past and the present. The Animus music is also very light and uplifting compared to the more somber and downbeat moods in the past games. Also, compare the cover art with that of the preceding title: where [=AC3=] had Connor poised to tomahawk an unambiguously British redcoat to death, [=AC4=] has Edward standing above a dead body of vague nationality. All in all, much less provocative.

** Queen of them all is ''El Impoluto'', a legendary Level 75 Man o' War and the only ship of its class that mounts a naval ram. The beast is just as heavily armored and armed as the other legendary ships, but unlike them it's ''extremely'' fast and agile, capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering the ''Jackdaw'' no matter the situation (the only other vessels that can do this are [[TheGoomba gunships]]). Needless to say that a wicked-fast Man o' War purpose-built for ram attacks is a very deadly foe.
* LowestCommonDenominator: Abstergo Entertainment market their products InUniverse on this belief and the game deconstructs this mentality for all its controversial implications:
** For instance, Aveline's story gets bastardized into saying that she ought to be a nice role model for girls who is quiet, listens to her mother, and doesn't hang out with roughnecks, implying that she can't think and take care of herself.
** Likewise, Olivier Garneau, while endearing expresses confusion about the game's content in the database entries, such as lamenting the fact that [[spoiler:Edward Kenway is a LowerClassLout and that Mary Read is a WholesomeCrossdresser]]. He also expresses confusion on whether to treat Caroline as a nag and shrew or justified in her criticism of Edward as too much moral ambiguity for their audiences to deal with.
** The game has strong female characters in [[spoiler:Mary Read]], Anne Bonny, and even Caroline, whereas the final ''Devils of the Caribbean'' trailer might as well be directed by Creator/MichaelBay, with women merely reduced to pleasure objects for pirates and the PirateGirl not present in the group.
** That's to say nothing of the Market Analysis video about Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor Kenway, specifically when the devs considered focusing on his pre-Assassin years.
-->''"Mohawk culture lacks [[WhiteMaleLead the balance]] to tell the true story of America. Moreover, we feel that the Mohawk language will be an issue for most of our audience. We therefore feel that although Ratonhnhaké:ton's early life is of some interest to our more educated viewers it's unlikely his story will appeal on a more broader scale being [[CulturalPosturing too foreign]], as it were for normal audiences."''

* MooksButNoBosses: Although the major assassination targets are all top fighters (unlike in ''III'' where many were non-combatants) they are all only on par with EliteMooks. Only the ClimaxBoss [[spoiler: El Tiburón]] puts up a genuine boss fight, and even he doesn't have ContractualBossImmunity and can be instant-killed with a backstab if you can manage one. All of the other Templar bosses have to be assassinated with a OneHitKill for full sync, except for Torres, who is a decrepit 77-year-old who can be air-assassinated or thrown off a cliff, sometimes by accident.

** [[spoiler: The Woodes Rogers assassination level]] has you tail an Italian diplomat voiced by Roger Craig Smith, who longs for the architecture of Florence and its streets, complaining that the buildings of new colonial cities like Kingston and the Caribbean are boring and lame. A nod to the fans who [[ToughActToFollow prize]] the franchise's [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII most popular game]].

** During Edward's MushroomSamba and the retelling of the Jackdaw Fable (see NightmareFuel for more), you have to assassinate three targets. One of the random choices they turn into afterwards looks a lot like [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Abbas.]]

* NoManShouldHaveThisPower: How Edward [[spoiler: feels about the Observatory towards the end, and he expresses the same to Woodes Rogers. Though initially he was giddy about it potentially making him and Roberts "masters of the ocean"]].

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Abstergo Entertainment's executives, even those who are in the know about the true nature of their company, are more concerned with making money and good products ([[LowestCommonDenominator for certain definitions of "good"]]) than forwarding their Templar superiors' visions. Edward Kenway himself starts out with this mentality, and the game basically chronicles his long and arduous CharacterDevelopment.

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Totally averted. The game makes it clear that pirates do in fact plunder ships for material, goods and will press [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse enemy crew into their service]] with survivors left to [[FateWorseThanDeath the mercy of the sea.]] Even the PlayerCharacter Edward Kenway participates in the pirate's life.
* APLaceHoldsMemories: In the ending, as Edward is ready to leave the Caribbean, he looks to a table at the bar in Nassau he used to hang around in all the time and sees a vision/memory of all his dead friends drinking together.

* PointOfNoReturn: The mission where you go to [[spoiler: the Observatory]] is this. NothingIsTheSameAnymore after that, for one thing, [[spoiler: Adéwalé will no longer be your first mate, leaving you first alone in the ocean to do all kinds of pirate activity with no First Mate and then after doing the mission in Tulum you get an Assassin Skull logo as a flag, showing that you have joined them and Anne Bonny becomes your quartermaster and all that's left is one final sequence]]. That said, nearly the entire map is open till then so you can fully upgrade your Jackdaw into elite and upgrade your hideout by that, and can definitely fight the Legendary ships by then.

* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: The Templar armour is apparently designed around this principle. That and EvilIsCool, because it looks awesome.

* {{Retirony}}: [[spoiler: Blackbeard is attacked by Woodes Rogers' fleet on the day of his retirement party.]]

* SceneryPorn: The Caribbean sea and islands are ''gorgeous'', if [[ArtisticLicenseGeography largely inaccurate]].

** Abstergo has Blume, the company that produced [[VideoGame/WatchDogs ctOS]] (which can spy on anyone), pitch said product to them. This background [[EpilepticTrees ends up being]] [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments more funny than it should]].

* ShownTheirWork:
** While Edward is meeting with the Templars for the first time, mention is made of a man named James Puckle who had invented a rapid-firing gun. The "Puckle gun" (essentially a flintlock revolver) actually was invented around the time of the game. In ''Rogue'', you get to finally use them.

* TheSingularity: Referred to as "The Grey", it is apparently [[spoiler: Juno's endgame, to use the technology she now inhabits to usher forth a singularity where she will once more enslave humanity.]]

* SuperBoss: There are legendary ships to fight which are meant to be fought in endgame.

* TropicalIslandAdventure: This game is set all across the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, as well as São Tomé and Príncipe off the coast of Central Africa.
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: Pirate hunters are supposed to be hunting you. The problem is that is that the plentiful amounts of metal they carry make them attractive targets for plunder. And their ships tend to be of a higher quality than their Spanish and English counterparts, making them valuable additions to Kenway's fleet. So players starved for resources early in the game might actually welcome the attention. This is a given in multiplayer, since high scoring players are usually given the most pursuers.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything:
** Earlier games had Templars actively involved in local politics and doing their best to KickTheDog and making the place they are in a WretchedHive, in addition to their usual lust after some MagicFromTechnology. In ''Black Flag'', the Templars are the most sympathetic and least evil of the Assassin's Creed games thus far with none of them getting any KickTheDog moment and with them performing their governmental appointments with general competence. This is reinforced by the fact that Edward Kenway's [[spoiler:ArchEnemy for the game ''isn't'' even a Templar, though the FinalBoss of the game is the Templar Grandmaster, Governor Laureano de Torres]]. Of course, this is discussed in the game itself when Edward and Anne Bonny talk about why they should stop [[spoiler: Governor Torres from getting hold of the Observatory]]. Once he gets hold of it, The Templars never have to KickTheDog anymore to get what they want and simply be TheManBehindTheMan.
** In the game, the Templars are still VisionaryVillain who aim to blackmail the world to do their bidding. They are also major aristocratic Jerks with Woodes Rogers calling Kenway a "cretin" and Julien du Casse calling him a "filthy peasant" and even Torres for all his token claims against slavery isn't interested in actively stopping it and is a self-confessed plutocrat who looks down on slaver Laurens Prins for his AtLeastIAdmitIt stance.
** The driving force of the plots this time is neither the Templars, nor the Assassins, but [[spoiler:the Sages, the genetic reincarnations of Juno's lover Aita. Edward Kenway's exploits center around his quest to find the Observatory and the one person who knows how to use it, Bartholomew Roberts. Meanwhile, the present-day protagonist is being guided by somebody working in Abstergo's IT division, who turns out to be the latest incarnation. His goal is to finally revive the recently-freed Juno by letting her hijack the protagonist's body; unfortunately for him, it doesn't work]].

* UnexpectedGameplayChange:

** Due to the way that Wanted mode is set up in multiplayer, it is quite possible to be murdered by another player whom you just moments ago saved from being murdered by someone else.

* WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Perhaps the definitive realization in a game.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The last scene before the credits has Ah Tabai inform Edward that [[spoiler: Woodes Rogers is NotQuiteDead.]] Cue Edward sailing off to London, [[spoiler: his young daughter, Jenny, in tow.]]

* ArtisticLicense: While AcceptableBreaksFromReality apply as always, this game goes to a great deal of effort to establish period authenticity. Some exceptions remain, however.
** The "sea shanties" and tavern music are all actual folk music, with antiquated locutions and alternate lyrics which date to the early 18th Century, with some AnachronismStew (''Johnny Boker'' is from the ''19th Century'') thrown in for good measure. However, the tradition of singing sea shanties or folk music on a deck is only recorded in the 19th Century. Folklorists hold that sailors in the 17th and 18th century sang a generalized chanting hymn rather than full songs. Those records come from merchant and navy vessels, though, not pirates, so it's entirely possible that discipline was more lax.
** Naval warfare in the Age of Sail was more a matter of maneuver and attrition than what we see here, with cannon volleys exchanged on a scale of minutes, not seconds. More to the point, the rather violent, take-the-fort style approach to plunder that's part of the gameplay is way off from the way pirates actually operated; most of them favored subtlety and GuileHero tactics rather than going all [[OneManArmy One Ship Armada]]. Furthermore, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C9h3p5Efa4 historian Bryan Glass]] noted after seeing the game that most of the times Pirates never attacked or battled ships as the game asks you to do before you plunder it, since it defeated the purpose of salvaging and selling proper quality goods. He does however praise the game overall for its broader accuracy in showing the egalitarian nature of the Pirate life.
** On a related note, no ship in it's right mind would attack a fort directly the way the Jackdaw is shown doing, being tantamount to suicide. Naval Rams were not used at all during the period for combat, due to the inability to back the ship back out if the ram got stuck in the target.
** The pirate ships here are all far grander than any they had in real life. Rather than pitched engagements between huge men of war, Blackbeard and Black Bart both met their ends, glorious as they were, in sloops against similarly armed sloops. Bart did, however, have a small fleet of four ships, making him somewhat grander than other pirates of his day. What made pirates fearsome wasn't that they piloted huge ships of war, but that they had more guns and, more importantely, far more ''men'' than any merchant they came across. Also, the law was nowhere near equipped to handle them, so the merchants had no choice but to submit meekly to their predation.

** Even in the 21st century it would be very impractical, as it can only [[spoiler:spy on one person at a time, without being able to record it, and only in real time. If you want to spy on a meeting without knowing who the participants are or when ''exactly'' it takes place, you're better off using a plain old security camera]].

* BeenThereShapedHistory: This feels less prominent in this game than in the earlier titles, with the simple reason being that there isn't a lot we know about UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy and there are many missing details about the early lives, backgrounds and circumstances of historical pirates, both of which are {{lampshaded}} by the in-game database. Most pirates were illiterate sailors and left no contemporary first-person records. The major record of the time, Charles Johnson's book [[note]] ''[[OverlyLongTitle A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates]]''[[/note]] came several years after the period was over. As such the game takes much advantage of this lacuna in telling this story. Despite this Edward does participate in a few key events.

* BestHerToBedHer: At the end of the game when [[spoiler: the Assassins stay on your Island, there will be a female assassin by your bed. When you interact with her she will suddenly run off. If you catch her the scene will transition back to your bedroom with her sleeping on your bed, suggesting this trope happened.]]

* BlingBlingBang: Getting the elite upgrades for your ship's weapons outfits it with golden cannons, mortars, and swivels, despite this being incredibly impractical for actual weaponry. There is also a set of golden pistols which can be earned for completing all naval contracts.

* BraggingRightsReward: Beating all four of the Legendary Ships unlocks a stronger ram attack. Of course, your regular ram attack, when fully upgraded, is enough to take out most ships in the game anyway, so there's nothing left worth using it on.

* DemocracyIsBad: The game highlights the pirates as being, from a modern perspective, [[FairForItsDay somewhat more egalitarian]] than the European colonial empires who they fight against, who combat piracy yet uphold a far more destructive form of theft, slavery. They practice meritorious advancement, have a racially integrated BadassCrew and Anne Bonny, who becomes an in-universe MemeticBadass as the ur-PirateGirl. However the fact that they are a DysfunctionJunction [[note]] "We're not men meant to govern." - Edward Kenway [[/note]] and their income coming from high seas robbery means they are not able to sustain their ideals, with even an initial WideEyedIdealist like Benjamin Hornigold pulling a ScrewThisImOuttaHere.

* DoubleEntendre: Not surprisingly, some of the sea shanties are rife with this.
--> "She's lovely aloft, lads, she's lovely down below..."
** The Tavern songs[[note]]They are played by a live band in the taverns you visit[[/note]], "The Trooper and the Maid" and [[IntercourseWithYou "Blow the Candles Out"]] are more upfront.

* EverybodysDeadDave: See the above. Near the end, Edward and Bonny lament over the fact that they are [[spoiler:virtually the remnants of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy, with [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs Nassau under British control]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}} Thatch]], Vane, Rackham, Hornigold, Bonnet, and Read all dead, and they're about to personally hunt down and execute Bart Roberts]].

* ExactTimeToFailure: You'll occasionally come across drifting ship hulks carrying a bunch of resource crates on deck. Boarding them gives you exactly 30 seconds, counted down by a huge on-screen timer, to loot as much as you can before the ship blows up.
** Similarly, losing track of the target that you're supposed to be tailing for too long will give you 20 seconds to catch back up with them before automatic desychronization. Thankfully, tagging these targets with Eagle Vision helps mitigate this somewhat.

* FashionDissonance: All Sages eventually grow a long moustache, regardless of race or time period. Even among the Maya, who didn't grow out facial hair, and even [[PornStache in the modern era.]]
** [[spoiler: If that wasn't enough, John is made to look even more of an outsider by adopting elements of Black Bart Roberts' costume.]]

* ForegoneConclusion: Next to everything about Edward's post-assassin life, including ''how and when he dies'', was revealed in ''Literature/AssassinsCreedForsaken'', the novelization of [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII III]].

* GambitPileup: Every faction in the game, Assassins, Templars, Pirates and royal navies of England and Spain has an angle and their own long-term plans with each side ruining the other's plans. Add a HumanoidAbomination like a Sage who goes FromNobodyToNightmare and everything gets even more tangled. There's also the fact that pirate captains on treasure hunts have to be worried about being mutinied or shanghaied while on land. Good times.
** Often happens in the multiplayer, such as when a single player is targeted by several others at once.

* GoryDiscretionShot: The camera pans down as a British sailor administers the coup de grace to [[spoiler: Blackbeard's neck. Historically, Thatch was decapitated at Lieutenant Maynard's orders after being overwhelmed in battle. The cutscene shows his hat poignantly falling to the deck behind him]].

* TheTeetotaler: Roberts, in keeping with his (possibly apocryphal) depiction in historical accounts.

* ViewersAreMorons: Abstergo Entertainment clearly believes this, all their products and information promos are filled with barely concealed condescension for their audiences. At one point, an in-story Marketing promo discusses the suitability of former PlayerCharacter [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]] for an upcoming product but feels that the setting is [[UnfortunateImplications "too foreign"]], that is a Native American setting in the Mohawk Valley (contemporary upstate New York). Which could also be a TakeThatCritics to the audiences who complained about the previous game.

** As soon as the Jackdaw has been equipped with a naval ram, it provides players with one of their most powerful assets in almost any battle at sea. The fully upgraded ram is capable of [[OneHitKill one-shotting]] everything that isn't a ship of the line (frigates and Man o'Wars), and it still inflicts horrendous damage on the latter, often taking out a frigate in two and a Man o'War in three to four good hits. Repeated ram attacks, combined with copious salvos of chain-shot, are arguably the safest (if not the only truly viable) tactic to sink the [[spoiler:''La Dama Negra'', a legendary Man o'War whose stern is its only weak spot]]. The whole thing gets cranked UpToEleven after all four legendary ships have been defeated and the Jackdaw receives the [[spoiler:''El Impoluto'''s]] charged ram attack, which at least doubles the naval ram's already ludidcrous damage.

* NiceHat: There are a few on display, as befits a game set in the 18th century, but special mention goes to the hats included with Captain Morgan's Redingote and the Edward the Legend outfit, as well as the Wayfarer's, Lady Black's, and, of course, Blackbeard's hats in the multiplayer.

** Laurens Prins, a Dutch slaver, is another fellow that all sides admit they are better off without, even the Templars who seek to deal with him directly.

** Furthermore, the game places pirates in a larger context of colonialism. The African slave trade is a far more profitable endeavor than piracy, and yet at the time this game is set, slavery is still legal while piracy is persecuted by the same governments who enable these laws and profit from this cruelty.

** Most of the people the pirates attack tend to be navies of the Spanish and English Empires who essentially fight to maintain their lucrative slave trades with Woodes Rogers himself owning several slave ships. In his day, and other stories, Rogers would be TheHero. Today he's a {{Hypocrite}}, considering that slavery and colonialism have become justifiable AcceptableTargets in the [=21st=] Century, and it's not hard to root for the pirates and for Kenway.

* DemocracyIsBad: The game highlights the pirates as being, from a modern perspective, [[FairForItsDay slightly more egalitarian]] than the navies of the British and Spanish Empires who combat piracy solely to maintain routes for the lucrative slave trade. They practice meritorious advancement, racially integrated BadassCrew and Anne Bonny, who becomes an in-universe MemeticBadass as the ur-PirateGirl. However the fact that they are a DysfunctionJunction [[note]] "We're not men meant to govern." - Edward Kenway [[/note]] and their income coming from high seas robbery means they are not able to sustain their ideals, with even an initial WideEyedIdealist like Benjamin Hornigold pulling a ScrewThisImOuttaHere.

* DysfunctionJunction: The reason the pirate republic fails. All of them have wildly different personalities and a range of personal issues. Benjamin Hornigold believes, at least initially, that Nassau can be a functioning democracy and that they can transcend their pirate origins and become legitimate. Blackbeard believes the same but he has been at it for so long that [[ChronicVillainy he can't think]] of any other form of life and ultimately decides to retire. Charles Vane is a BombThrowingAnarchist who sees the pirate life as license to be TheUnfettered while Edward Kenway is OnlyInItForTheMoney and longs for OneLastJob, a score so bountiful that he never has to rob or work again. Rackham has no aspirations beyond his next bottle of rum, while James Kidd is a pirate only nominally.

* FlyingDutchman: Stealthily spoofed in the final Naval Contract mission by the ''Hollander'', the personal Man o' War of the "merchant" that gave out all these contracts. "Hollander" is another term for a Dutchman, and since the guy is fleeing[[note]]or "flying", to use a more archaic term[[/note]] from his many enemies in this mission, it makes him a Flying Dutchman.

* DualBoss: One of the Legendary Ship battles involves fighting the sister man-o-wars H.M.S. Fearless, and the Royal Sovereign.

** In the northwest corner of the map is the ship ''El Impoluto'', a ship with the firepower of a man-o-war and the speed and maneuverability of a much smaller ship. Its main offensive tactic is to charge straight at you, reaching speeds the ''Jackdaw'' could never reach even at travel speed, and ram you into submission. And in the process of getting back into ramming position, its broadsides will keep you busy in the meantime.
** The northeast has two man-o-wars, the HMS ''Fearless'' and the ''Royal Sovereign''. They tend to attack in tandem, first attempting to sandwich you between their individual broadsides, and after they pass you, they turn around in front of you, continuing their broadside assault as they get back into position and keep you between their paths. And once you defeat one of them, the survivor's cannons all become heated (dealing about twice as much damage), the ship sets itself on fire and switches tactics from long-range bombardment to utterly lethal ram attacks.
** The southwest corner features ''La Dama Negra'', a man-o-war whose hull is practically invincible to any cannon fire, barring one particular weak spot. it also has mortars with no warning markers, and it likes to use them A LOT.
** To the southeast of the map is the HMS ''Prince'', described by the ''Jackdaw'' crew as a ghost ship. The main challenge for this encounter is that once it spots you, the weather immediately takes a turn for the worse, plunging you in the midst of a thunderstorm and severely lowering your visibility. As you struggle to find it, it will bombard you with mortars.
* FlyingDutchman: Stealthily spoofed in the final Naval Contract mission by the ''Hollander'', the personal Man o' War of the "merchant" that gave out all these contracts. "Hollander" is another term for a Dutchman, and since the guy is fleeing[[note]]or "flying", to use a more archaic term[[/note]] from his many enemies in this mission, it makes him a Flying Dutchman.

** Queen of all is El Impoluto, a legendary Level 75 Man o' War and the only ship of its class that mounts a spur. The beast is just as heavily armored and armed as the other legendary ships, but unlike them it's ''extremely'' fast and agile, capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering the ''Jackdaw'' no matter the situation (the only other vessels that can do this are [[TheGoomba gunships]]). Needless to say that a wicked-fast Man o' War purpose-built for ram attacks is a very deadly foe.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Neither the ''Royal Sovereign'' nor the ''H.M.S. Fearless'' take it well when their respective sister ship is sunk during their legendary DualBoss battle. [[spoiler:The surviving one will immediately [[IncendiaryExponent light itself on fire]] from prow to stern, switch from regular cannonballs to heated shot and from long-range bombardment to suicidal (and very deadly) ram attacks in an apparent attempt at TakingYouWithMe. Better make sure to whittle both ships down to near-death so you're able to deliver their killing blows in quick succession]].

* EnemyEatsYourLunch: At one point, Kenway conquers a fort where Governor Torres is visiting. Kenway walks in on Torres [[SpotOfTea having some tea]]. As Kenway makes it clear that he's going to rob Torres and could do far worse, he pours himself a cup of tea (though the scene ends before he drinks it).

* FilkSong: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1HICfXbFBM Beneath the Black Flag]], courtesy of [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/MiracleOfSound Miracle of Sound]]

* ItIsPronouncedTroPay: The Abstergo market researcher in charge of reviewing the suitability of the ancestor stories for future projects [[StylisticSuck mispronounces every single one of the characters' names]], in a TakeThatMe at the culturally myopic entertainment industry. For reference, he calls them Al-tear, Enzio, and Ratoka(garbled gibberish).

* SpacePirates: We see different kinds of pirates in multiple generations, from the Golden Age pirates of Edward's era, to the Edelweiss Pirates (the German resistance groups that rebelled against the Nazis), to present-day hackers, a new kind of pirate.