Ubisoft has been under fire for its lack of female representation in the Assassin’s Creed series. Not helping is the astonishing lack of women of color, with Shao Jun (Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China) and Aveline de Grandpré (Assassin's Creed III: Liberation) so far being the only playable women in the series. When Assassin’s Creed Unity launched with four male protagonists, fans demanded to know why they couldn’t have even one playable female character. Ubisoft replied, saying that adding female characters would have been labor-intensive, which many fans found unacceptable. However, the truth of the matter has finally been uncovered and it's anything but reasonable or acceptable.
Recently, Bloomberg’s investigative story revealed several allegations and instances of sexual misconduct and sexism in Ubisoft's workplaces. It was also revealed that several playable female characters in Assassin’s Creed games had their screen time reduced or were outright omitted because certain higher-ups claimed that female-centric games wouldn’t sell, among many other controversial reasons. Without getting too deep into the controversy currently surrounding Ubisoft and its executives, here are ten female characters that deserved more screen time and some who should have been playable in the Assassin’s Creed series.
Updated on October 28th, 2021 by Hodey Johns: Just because the executives had issues with female characters doesn't mean the entire development team did. Many of the characters in the series were robust, smart, strong, and gripping. The issue was that they never got the screen time that they deserved. This list aims to rectify that. Since the original publication of this list, there has been a chance to spend even more time with Assassin's Creed games and there have been several other female characters that we incredibly fun to meet, if only there was more time. Their names have been added to this list, along with an explanation of why they were so captivating.
13 Aspasia (Assassin's Creed Odyssey)
Aspasia's twist was so compelling that the franchise copied it exactly for the cultist leader in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Many players might forget that, though, because King Alfred gets tons of screen time and Aspasia gets next to nothing.
Had she been more of a central figure, it's almost certain that Assassin's Creed Odyssey would have ranked higher among the games in the franchise. Instead, players can only guess what she was thinking, whose hands the Cult of Kosmos will end up in next, and what, exactly, her intended goal was.
12 Freyja/Svala (Assassin's Creed Valhalla)
Of the many mistakes in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, dropping the ball with Freyja might have been the biggest letdown. While all of the other gods who escape Ragnarok become driven and guided by destiny, Svala is regarded as having lost her mind and plays little relevance to the story.
Freyja herself is treated as a literal bargaining token in the main plot, which is a real shame because her wisdom and ideas are badly needed among a group of self-serving madmen like Thor, Odin, and Loki. Maybe one of the great mods for the game will fix that someday.
11 Lucy Stillman (Assassin's Creed 1 & 2)
TV Shows become famously impossible to watch when they force the deaths of actors or actresses who don't sign their contracts. Who knows what happened behind the scenes, but the death of Lucy Stillman was so forced that it smacked of comedy.
Fine, say that she betrayed the Assassins, but gamers deserved some kind of final confrontation or exposition. Instead, Lucy was killed in a senseless moment and her character was retconned to make it look like she was betraying the order the entire time. This wasn't a twist, it was nonsense for a character with so much knowledge and charm.
10 Mary Read (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag)
The beautiful open worlds of Assassin's Creed are dominated by men, but sometimes a woman manages to take charge of her own destiny and break the mold. There was no character more dynamic than Mary Read in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, a woman looking to prove she belonged in a man's world.
Of course, she's killed off because she got sick right before she could be rescued. Such a weak end for somebody that could have easily been the protagonist or got her own game.
9 Cassidy Finnegan (Assassin's Creed Rogue)
There are a lot of misconceptions about the Assassins, but the most fatal of all of these is when Shay Cormac breaks Assassin orders and causes an earthquake that kills thousands of people in the process. Instead of blaming himself, he blames the order.
Cassidy Finnegan, who took care of Cormac while he recovered, could have provided some tension with Cormac before he sets off on a rampage that murders innocents and secures the leadership or tyrants. Instead, she's only given the time to be a nice old lady that sticks up for him to no effect on the plot.
8 Élise de la Serre (Assassin's Creed Unity)
Élise was raised in a Templar family and, after her father's death, she had a sour relationship with Arno. Arno later protected Élise from Templars since she also became a Target. She then joined forces with Arno. Élise was a capable fighter in Assassin's Creed Unity, but she was not given a playable role or much screen time.
However, it was recently revealed that she did have a playable role but Ubisoft removed it during development. Élise played a major role in this game and she died fighting to defeat the final boss. She was more driven and believable than Arno, so it's a shame that her storyline was destroyed along with the launch.
7 Rosa (Assassin's Creed II)
Rosa was a thief who joined the Venetian Thieves Guild after she was caught trying to pickpocket their leader, Antonio de Magianis. She was the only female in the thieves Guild and the strongest. She joined the Assassin Order in Italy and eventually became an important part of the Italian Brotherhood.
Whenever she appeared in the game, she was providing aid to Ezio Auditore. Without her, Ezio would not be able to accomplish many of his tasks. However, without the original voice actor for Rosa, she was left out of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.
6 Io꞉nhiòte (Assassin's Creed III)
Believe it or not, Io꞉nhiòte has no screen time at all. She was introduced as the daughter of Ratonhnhaké꞉ton, also known as Connor, in the anthological Assassin’s Creed: Reflections comic that delved into the lives of four assassins. Out of Connor’s kids, Io꞉nhiòte was the only one who had Eagle Vision.
In the comic, Io꞉nhiòte was trained by Connor to hunt and track, but he did it secretly since Io꞉nhiòte’s mother's tribe did not approve of girls hunting. Connor's story was shallow and solely relied on revenge and irrational aid during the Revolutionary War. Io꞉nhiòte would have made a better story that focused on Native Americans rather than America versus the British.
5 Opía Apito (Assassin's Creed Black Flag)
Opía was introduced in Assassin's Creed Black Flag as a member of the West Indies Brotherhood. She was of Taíno and Spanish descent, and her family was killed during a Spanish raid when she was young. Edward Kenway sought her help to stop the Templars from approaching her Assassin bureau and causing more destruction.
Having Opía only show up for a tiny fraction of the game didn't seem right. She was powerful enough to become the leader of her Assassin Bureau and she should have been given a more important role in the game.
4 Maria Thorpe (Assassin's Creed I & II)
Maria was a Templar but later denounced her role in the Templar Order and married Altair Ibn La Ahad. Maria was sent to kill Altair but she was never able to get her hands on him. Maria and Altair at one point joined forces to defeat Armand Bouchart, a powerful Templar.
She was disowned by her parents for not conforming to gender norms and standing up for herself. For that era, a woman taking on such a strong role would have made a great playable character. Maria was an important character in the first Assassin’s Creed and even seeing her in action as an NPC would still have been nice. Instead, they gave all the cool lines to Ezio.
3 Claudia Auditore (Assassin's Creed II & Brotherhood)
Early on in the Assassin’s Creed series, Claudia Auditore was introduced as a capable and smart character. She managed the finances at Monteriggioni in Assassin's Creed II. By the time of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, she took over the Rosa in Fiore brothel which actually aided Assassins in Rome.
Eventually, she became a part of Ezio's Assassin Order and was given control of the Brotherhood in Italy in Ezio’s absence. Claudia had a strong presence in the Ezio Trilogy but never received recognition or a playable role. The so-called Ezio Trilogy is a fan favorite, but Claudia should have been a protagonist in one of the trilogy's entries.
2 Evie Frye (Assassin's Creed Syndicate)
Unlike the other games in the franchise, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, a game that still holds up today, had two playable characters who were twins named Jacob and Evie. Although both were meant to have equal importance in the game, Evie was overshadowed by Jacob and only was only playable for a couple of missions. She was strategic and goal-oriented and Jacob was not, yet he was given more screen time.
The game could have been played with only Evie as the main protagonist or given more playable screen time than Jacob. Jacob was lackluster in comparison but was only given the role of being the primary protagonist since he was a man.
1 Aya (Assassin's Creed Origins)
Aya, also known as Amunet, was meant to be the main protagonist in the game after Bayek meets an early death. For marketing purposes, Aya’s role was severely minimized and Bayek became the main protagonist. Even though Aya showed up a few times in Assassin’s Creed Origins, she was playable a fraction of the time. Aya was the one who assassinated Julius Caesar and the one who was behind Cleopatra’s death.
Even though she was in charge of important assassinations, founded the Hidden Ones, and her story was extremely complex, her role was still reduced. Aya was even mentioned as early as the Assassin’s Creed 2 in the Sanctuary of Monteriggioni.