Image via WikipediaAssassins were a notorious group of trained killers who under the leadership of Hassan-i Sabbah were responsible for murders of numerous kings during the Middle Ages in Persia. There are colourful stories about them and their extraordinary lives, replete with "a secret garden of paradise" where damsels, fairest among all, roamed and pleasured the young men who were deceived into becoming trained killers. These have been well documented by Marco Polo. Their most famous assassination was that of Nizam al-Mulk by a killer dressed as a Sufi. Of course, there are exaggerated accounts of their sex lives and drugs and strange beliefs. Nothing of which can be verified. What is however known to be true is the fact that the Assassins were a hated group of trained killers.
It is therefore very surprising that in this day and age, someone would want to glorify them and turn their acts of barbarism into noble deeds. Assassin's Creed is an immensely popular game released a few years back. It revolves around the quest for a machine Animus, "which allows viewing of the protagonist's genetic memories of his ancestors". Now this is where I protest. The protagonist here is/are the Assassin(s). Painting a barbaric killer as a protagonist, is plain obnoxious. I seriously dont know why in our quest for eternal happiness and unimaginable wealth (much like the Assassins, thats what all of us are looking for) we tend to sacrifice our basic conscience! Gamers unaware of these killers of yore, will now think of them as heroes, as people with a mission. A one man army whose courage and killing skills are to be worshiped. Is this what we want? The next time we will have a game with Hitler as a protagonist! Where is this leading us? Just because the gaming industry is profitable, does that mean they can impose on us whatever junk they decide to come up with?
I leave the rest to your good conscience.
No comments:
Post a Comment