Gaming Brew: ‘Assassins Creed: Valhalla’ Plays to Flimsy Ancestral Claims
I’m sorry to say, but Vikings are “meh.”
After so many Eurocentric games, from a Welsh pirate to a French noble to British twins, the game returned to its Middle Eastern roots with Origins. Instead of continuing with this direction, however, we (understandably) turned to Ancient Greece and then moved to Vikings. After shifting more worldly settings to “sub-games,” as they did with India and China, Ubisoft has now chosen one of the most overused ethnic groups embraced by Caucasians in modern times. Vikings are ubiquitous, and people who romanticize and idolize them are as pervasive as the Celtophiles who appear at every Irish and Scottish celebration (outside those actual countries).

Sure, it’s not a viking festival, but you get the idea.
As expected, the symbolic ethnicity of Vikings is based on little that’s historical. It’s a romanticized image that often blends Germanic or Celtic barbarians and incomplete knowledge of Norse mythology.

Many Viking fanatics are about as historically accurate as Marvel

Some “very fine” people, showing pride in their ancestry
Vikings are my ancestors, but I’m tired of the misinformed romanticization and idolization of them. Assassin’s Creed could do so much better than cater to the latest craze by white gamers, who are obsessed with a symbolic ethnicity which is about as true as being descended from Native Americans.
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