Not sure what happened to the thread. I was really hoping for a decent discussion. Anyway, I initially had similar thoughts as the original post thinking that this would be Bayek creating the brotherhood and doing all of this great stuff but it was all turned over to Aya. I loved both characters and the story. I hated the break up but I think that everything had to play out the way that it did simply because Bayek and Aya are nowhere in the lore but Amunet is. So in order to tell a new assassin story and not retcon anything Aya had to leave Bayek and "be killed" so that Amunet could live.
I didn't read those looong posts after op so idk what's happenning here eaither. Anyways, I think it should be the story of both of them. And it would be so much fun if they had made Bayek and Aya interchangable anytime like Evie and Jacob. That would be awesome.
I still want to play with Aya more. I hope she gets a full dlc of herself at least.
Both Bayek and Aya aren't done yet imo.
Also, they shouldn't have broken up. They must get back together.
Well, her name actually was Aya, it wasn't a diminutive form of Amunet. She picked up the Amunet moniker when she formed the Hidden Ones, naming herself after the Egyptian goddess Amunet, which literally means "the hidden one." But I agree, it was a weird note to hang the whole ending on, since hardcore fans likely saw it coming and newcomers would have been left scratching their heads at why her name change was such a big deal.Originally Posted by johnjrambo19 Go to original post
I'm almost unsure whether this thread is worthy of my time, but I'll give it a shot.
I didn't mind the fact that Aya and Bayek were a team, of sorts, each attacking the plot along seperate threads. Something I did find annoying was her intrusive presence in the late stages of the game, particularly in gameplay segments.
Aya's emotional withdrawal makes sense. Her credulity and poor judgment are mostly excusable. Her determination and focus are key in establishing the Brotherhood. That said, she's not the hero of this game, and for that I'm glad.
Aya is a believable enough character for whom I can feel empathy. She is not, however, as likeable as Bayek. Her VA was hit and miss, as well. I hope she does not receive inordinate screentime in The Hidden Ones nor in any future games. (I suspect THO will be set around 30 BCE, meaning she will have some noteworthy work and screentime alongside Bayek.)
Agreeing with some points in this thread.
Aya was the brains behind the official creation of the Brotherhood, which is ok. But Bayek's contributions were not significantly highlighted. They only drop some hints a little earlier when he talks about forming a brotherhood, and their creed. And also that bit where someone cuts off her ring finger in front of Bayek. It seems like Aya made the whole thing and Bayek accidentally went along for the ride and is just rolling with it now. There could have been a final mission where he looks for the Bureau and is officially sworn in/recognised as a founding member. Or, a cinematic showing Bayek and Aya setting up the Bureau together before they break up. It was odd to see Bayek suddenly appearing in the end cinematic like nothing happened. There just felt like there was a missing part here.
Aya was seriously underpowered for fights, especially for the final boss mission. Playing on her strengths as a stealth-based assassin would have made more sense. I really appreciated the final mission where she had to sneak over to Caesar. That being said, I had a problem with how much of the game was skewed towards the Warrior skill tree. Most non-Warrior abilities were rendered pointless in certain important missions. With Aya, it was especially obvious (and painful) when all you have are her default weapons.
I know I'm late to this thread, but I found it when looking up people's thoughts in the narrative with aya and I'm mainly going to ignore the back and forth earlier to post what I personally see in the story, I guess. Obviously, the story is about both Aya and Bayek and they both play major roles. I just see Aya as the ideology and Bayek as the person, in the end.
Really, it would be more apt to say that Aya was the first assassin in the order more than Bayek, so I understand why people think it should be her story and when you look at it objectively--it largely is. She creates the idea of needing to do something large scale for people, her fights and gameplay are more assassin oriented that Bayeks, she brings Bayek back to a broader sense of justice, shes trying to right the wrongs of the world. Also, she is there and a part of every signal for almost every big change towards the brotherhood and shes the deciding factor, really, when Bayek truly devotes himself to it. But the fact of the matter is, these things are highly the result of her sons murder (and her way of dealing with trauma more than anything--ignoring the personal parts of life that Bayek tried to focus on) and then she spends all her days as what basically equates to Cleopatra's gopher and doing what Cleopatra wants rather than truly helping the people themselves, making it very impersonal.
In Bayeks narrative, we have a man who has the same initial catalyst of losing his child and goes on fighting for extremely personal reasons like vengeance and allowing his son to pass over in the afterlife peacefully. For him, this is quieting his ghosts rather than Aya's "save the world" dealing with trauma. Both are very believable and likeable in their own right, but story telling wise, seeing someone go from a narrow-minded for my son, to be inspired by his wife, then SEE everything is more important than staying by Cleo in the midst of things. Going and doing side quests as Bayek as well as seeing the effects of the Order and eventually turning over to realize that the greater good is important is EXTREMELY significant in this story. The difference between Bayek and Aya's story and why I think Bayeks was the better narrative was because we got to see the formation of the idea of the Brotherhood in his mind as he went, switching a mindset from killing his sons killers to protecting people and preventing corruption. In a way this is also him sacrificing--his wish to be a happy family, to love, to just live like he used to--for the greater good and that transition and the realness of his realization makes it amazing in it's own right. Again, Aya's stems more from her trauma and need to fill a gap, it seems, as proven by her blindness towards Cleopatra's own faults and similarities to Ptolemy, whereas Bayeks feels like real understanding from someone we connect with and grow with. (Granted, narratively they could have also done this with Aya, but Bayek is absolutely loveable and wonderful for this part).
If we saw the entire thing from Aya's view, we'd see the trite hero who does good things because good things are good and she has suffered, not wanting others to suffer. Sure. She could have had an interesting story as well, and I would have loved to see more of her grief in the narrative, but it wouldn't be nearly as compelling in my opinion. Through Bayek's view, we get trite flawed hero, but with that we get the growth past this to have him see and truly understand WHY the brotherhood is necessary for every person in Egypt as well as the flaws with what Aya's take on it is. The best part of her story, in my opinion, is WHEN she changes her name to Amunet because she realizes all her past mistakes and realizes that if she wants to actually do what she's been championing the whole game with Cleopatra, she needs to rethink herself and her life. That's when she becomes the first true assassin (and the brotherhood's creation) for me and I think that's actually a really good ending for her. It also signals the definitive end to what Bayek was striving for throughout the game, to get her back, and where they devote themselves to their cause completely after understanding following others and being in the spotlight isnt the best. Seeing this from Bayeks view, seeing his entire world change and how his wife changes, makes it more poignant as well. Something we couldn't have got from Aya I think (hers would be a perspective of a more classic idea of origins--new self new world--whereas bayek gives the origin more a sense of sacrifice for the great good). Likely we will actually see Aya eventually rise up to be better and Bayeks personal feelings to be his downfall and why he isnt known.
The most interesting thing about the game though, to me, was how they incorporated this into gameplay. Maybe I'm thinking too deeply, but a lot of Bayek's fights and stories were about being in the open, being seen (hes a Medjay, ofc), and there were a lot of additions to fighting rather than assassinating. The brief stint as Aya, however, specifically encourages you to fight like the stereotyped assassins we've seen before and even gives her missions where you climb the lighthouse to the Pharo to light it, which to me felt so much more reminiscent of the older games than any other mission in Origins. (Dont get me wrong, I loved the diversity in sidequests and the personality it gave the game--also the sidequests were really necessary to knowing Bayek and connect him to "Origins" so I guess if you didnt put more than the 30 or so hours needed for main quests, you're missing out game and narrative, just side note).
I think they could have had some better main story line pacing and added a few more big events and historic cameos to the main story that might have been more prevalent with Aya, but that's my preference. In the end, for an origin story I prefer Bayeks though. I actually started this game absolutely upset it wasnt Aya as the main character, but ended up relatively pleased outside the lack of pacing and oomph in main story, but it fits the theme and narrative for Bayek so I'm content overall.
EDIT: I definitely repeated things and I apologize if some parts are redundant.