Heartwarming / Assassin's Creed III

• After Sequence 5 and the infiltration of Abstergo, William finally opens up to Desmond and apologizes for his behavior, saying he was never very good at being a father. They talk on even terms, and Desmond even asks after his mother.
• When Desmond reaches the room where Willian is he tells him worried "You never should have come here. You put everything on the line for what? so you could rescue your father?" Desmond only says "yes" and after that they have a family hug.
• Haytham and Ziio's last scene together before game switches to Connor's story. Ziio reaches out and grabs his hand and when Haytham is rather clumsily trying to be a gentleman and leave before it goes any further she just kisses him.
• After taking him in, Achilles gives Connor his English name. It appears at first he chose "Connor" because his actual name sounds slightly like it, but then, if you look at the two graves behind the manor you see that Achilles had a son by that name who died the same year as his wife. Suddenly, the significance of the name takes on a much deeper meaning.
  • From the same scene, Achilles tells Connor that it's better to be thought of as a Spaniard than a Native, and that both are better than him (obviously alluding to society's bigoted views on black people at the time). Connor simply tells him that what Achilles said isn't true, clearly showing that he believes Achilles should not be treated any worse than anybody else.
• When Haytham tries to smuggle Connor into a Templar house, the guard at the door acknowledges him but "not the savage". Haytham's answer is quick, simple and honest in its execution and comes very early on after the father/son reunion from which Connor is still sour, making it even more heartwarming.
  "He is my son."
  • What makes this scene even better is Connor's shocked expression at his response, considering how their relationship has been going thus far.
• Haytham's death. While not exactly a model father, he does have a small So Proud of You moment before he draws his last, and gives him the closest thing to a compliment as the man is probably capable of bestowing considering the circumstances.
  "Still, I'm proud of you in a way. You have shown great conviction. Strength. Courage. All noble qualities... I should have killed you long ago."
• Easy to miss, but during an early out-of-Animus moment, if you take the time to make Desmond speak to Rebecca, at one point she will discuss with him Subject 16, at which Desmond will immediately cut her off and state; "His name is Clay." After all this time, and what Clay went through, somebody finally has recognized him, his sacrifices, and treated him as a human being, rather than a lab experiment gone wrong.
• A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but in one Boston Liberation mission, Connor (who has been passing as a settler of Mediterranean heritage to explain his skin colour,) introduces himself to one of the Patriots. The man says that "Connor" is a fine name for a Welshman, and asks what Connor's real name is. Connor gives his real name, which is quite obviously Native American, and without hesitating for a moment the man calls it "a good strong name" and tells him he should use it more often. Considering how much attention is drawn to the fact that the average Patriot's values of "freedom" and "equality" only apply to the settlers, it's great to meet someone who believes those concepts apply to the Natives as well, and doesn't have to think twice about it.
  • Said man becomes an Assassin recruit once you finish that chain of Liberation missions, and it turned out he was the child who watched Haythem kill the man in the opera from the very first mission. He even mentions that he knows for a fact it was Connor's father who had done the killing, implying Connor is sharing personal information with his recruits off screen, and apparently none of them begrudge him for having a Templar as a father, not even the one who lost an uncle to the man.
• The Homestead missions are a chain of CMOH in increasing order of intensity, with things like hooking up a couple, helping a mother deliver her baby, and driving off the abusive husband of another woman. Designed to bring feelings of warmth and fuzziness.
  • Of note is the conclusion of Norris and Myriam's line - Ellen has created a flag for the homestead, giving it to Connor.
  • To elaborate on the abusive husband, it wasn't a small matter Connor took care of personally. When the homestead caught wind that Ellen's husband had returned, all of the menfolk and Myriam come running, and make it clear that if any of them catch him near Ellen again, they'll kill him.
• The look on Connor's face and the genuine happiness in his voice when Norris announces that Myriam agreed to marry him. Given that Connor's life tends towards some combination of The Woobie and The Chew Toy, the fact that his face lights up proves that it's not all miserable.
  • And then he gives Myriam away at the wedding.
• The Quebec assassination contracts, to a curious degree. For example, the mission "The Quebec Act." Stopping the tyranny that the act has on the people of Ohio, right? Nope; the objective is preventing hostility between Ohio and Quebec. Overall, the missions emphasize that Quebec and other northern holdings are A) not part of the Thirteen Colonies and thus not tied to their issues, and B) they do not want to kick the British out.
  • 'Course it should be mentioned that the developers are based out of Montreal and are at least partially made up of Francophone Canadians; it's not too surprising they portray Canadians positively.
• After the signing of the Declaration Achilles and Connor have a little talk where Achilles admits he's proud of all that Connor's accomplished so far. Connor, touched and surprised, asks if that was a compliment.
• Connor's reaction to seeing his very-much-alive mother in The Tyranny of King Washington. Connor, always stoic and serious, smiles—a real smile—and actually hugs her. Everything promptly goes to hell from then on.
  • We have another dose of this in Episode 2 where he reunites with Kanen'to:kon, who is now working with the rebels and Sam Adams. Not only that, but he actually lives till the end this time, which means we get to see him in Episode 3.
  • When Connor's tribe is under attack, Ziio give Connor the hidden blade to fight — the same one Haytham had. It is suggested that Haytham actually settled in Mohawk tribe with Ziio after finding the percursor site instead of parting away.
• After Ben Franklin is freed from the Apple of Eden's influence, it's touching to see the lengths he's going to atone for his sins and especially how concerned he is about Connor during "The Redemption."
• One of the earliest e-mails has Shaun welcoming Desmond back after his coma, without any of his usual jerkassery. Even more amazing, he says that if Desmond wants to talk about what happened during Revelations, Shaun's willing to listen any time.
• Connor's talk with Achilles's tombstone is a major tearjerker, but it ends with this:
  Goodbye, old man, until our paths meet again. Then I will bother you once more.
• In The Tyranny of King Washington, Connor is shown to be aware of his grandfather's adventures and idolized Edward, even though he never meet him before. He also acknowledge that his love for the sea is inherited from Edward. The way how Connor view his grandfather contradicts Haytham (as shown in Forsaken and Rogue), showing that despite how broken Edward's family has become after his death, his grandson still respect him.
• The Reflections comic reveals that Connor lived the remainder of his life alone after his wife and children left him turns out to be part of Abstergo's propaganda. In reality, Connor married a native woman from a nearby tribe and have three children with her. His youngest daughter, Io:nhiòte, inherited his family gift, and he sought to train her in the ways of an Assassin, despite his wife's tribe's tradition of training women. This shows that after eveything that has happened to Connor since his mother's death, he truly earn his happy ending. Even Otso Berg is touched by this while reviewing Connor's memories.
• The Forsaken novel explores more on Haytham's life from his POV and shows despite his loyalty to the Templars, he still have love for his family members.
  • Decades after Edward's death, Haytham found the whereabouts of his half-sister and goes through lengths to save Jennifer. After that, the siblings went on to kill Reginald Birch, Haytham's mentor and the man who killed their father and causing all the misfortunes they had in their lives. Following this, Jennifer and Haytham are still estranged because the latter continues to be afflicted with the Templars but still keep in touch for the next few decades via letters (as Jennifer joked, they are pen pals). Jennifer in particular is sadden when she finds out that Haytham is killed by his own son. Take note that the pendant that Élise de la Serre wore throughout Assassin's Creed: Unity originally belongs to Jennifer, given by Haytham before he died.
  • Upon seeing Connor the first time at Bridewell Prison, Haytham immediately recognizes him as his son, sired from his union with Ziio. The novel also reveals that it wasn't one of Connor's recruits who cut the noose when he is about to hanged, but by Haytham, out of love for his son. In his final entry, Haytham hoped that Connor will forgive and understand him and that regardless of their conflict, Haytham still loves him.
  • Said final entry also shows that Haytham does have a small degree of love for his own father as Edward. Even after years of Templar brain washing, Haytham still remembers what little fond memories he had with his father and despite his flaws, Edward never lied to him. Hoping to preserve this custom, Haytham does the same for Connor.
• The final chapters of of Forsaken explores the aftermath of the game and Connor's resolve to continue on his hardship and cherishes the memories to the people he loves. The final speech he made is actually taken from a deleted voice files from the game.