The Assassin’s Creed series and franchise has grown exponentially since it was first released. It’s spawned many main games, along with comics, novels, and tons of merchandise. However, the franchise hasn’t always treated women well, both in the games and behind the scenes at Ubisoft.
To help combat the lack of representation of women and to take a stand against sexism in the workplace at Ubisoft, Kulpreet Virdi founded the Assassin’s Creed Sisterhood. In an interview with Game Rant, Virdi discussed all things Assassin’s Creed and the Sisterhood, talking about the goals and mission of the group, as well as how the game has changed over the years. This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
GR: Could you explain the Sisterhood and its goals a bit more?
KV: We’re the AC Sisterhood and we have two initiatives. The first is to highlight and appreciate women in the Assassin’s Creed universe and create a warm and inviting environment. It’s kind of hard sometimes being a woman on the internet because they get attacked quite a lot for their views. Also, to help push Ubisoft to change, especially with everything that’s come out recently. It encourages them to do better, treat their employees better.
GR: It’s definitely important to have that safe space. Especially for women gamers who are targeted so often for no other reason than just daring to be a woman in the gaming space.
KV: Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of gatekeeping in the AC community. It’s hard sometimes to see and I’ve had quite a lot of women say to me, “I want to get involved with the community but I don’t know where to start.” I really hope they can come to the Sisterhood.
There tends to be some misconception about what [the Sisterhood] actually is. I have to repeat this quite a lot on social media because people seem to think “oh my god it’s just a bunch of feminists trying to erase all men.” But that is just not the case! The Sisterhood is a play on words for the Brotherhood, obviously, because the Brotherhood is a term used throughout AC. But what we’re not saying is get rid of all male assassins. It’s also not just a movement for women or those who identify as women. We want to welcome everyone, and there’s plenty of men who support it too. What we’re not saying is every AC game has to have a female protagonist. We’ve not had one yet so it would be nice, but we’re not saying every single AC game has to have a female protagonist. It’s also not a massive attack on Ubisoft either, I mean we know that they can do better and we’re seeing that slightly. it’s still got a massive way to go.
GR: It’s important for companies to be held accountable, especially when they’re not doing what they should be.
KV: Exactly. And I mean, what came out in the summer was just so awful. Some of the stories were just so heartbreaking. And nobody should have to go through anything like that.
GR: What was it like seeing the Sisterhood blow up and get the support it has?
KV: It was something that I heard on Twitter, and I just said “I’m going to start an AC Sisterhood.” Especially hearing about how the roles of certain assassins and women were diminished and not appreciated, so I said “well why don’t we just start something where the community can appreciate women?” And people were tweeting saying “oh yes, we need to do this.” And then, after that, I went away and thought about it and thought it’d be great to have. I wasn’t really envisioning it to become a movement, just more like a space for people. And that’s when Memento Gallery came onboard with the logo idea, so then we started to discuss the logo for AC Sisterhood. We then posted the logo on Twitter and it blew up incredibly. It was absolutely overwhelming and so nice. I just don’t have the words for it honestly. I wasn’t expecting it to blow up like that, and then you have the devs as well. Like devs changing their headers, devs changing their profile pictures, and so it was just really overwhelming but in a positive way.
GR: With the logo, how much did you know about the Sisterhood tattoo being Valhalla beforehand?
KV: We weren’t actually told the in and out of it. Myself and Memento Gallery were told devs were interested in the design, and putting [the Sisterhood logo] in the game as a way to say they support the movement and its values, which was absolutely incredible. We were literally told they were going to do that when we told them we were okay with them doing that. That was all the heads up we got.
GR: How else does it feel to have support from some of the developers?
KV: Oh, it’s just It’s amazing. I mean, there’s people within Ubisoft who want it to change too, and for them to publicly come out and support the movement says so much. It means a lot to AC Sisterhood and all the members. Because I’ve seen it kind of on Twitter where people, like Darby, will tweet support for the Sisterhood and the AC team really stands behind that and it’s great. And just to see the devs support it themselves really, really makes all the difficulties that we’ve had with the Sisterhood and trolls and things like that kind of worth it.
GR: How do you deal with the Internet trolls and all the misogyny they like to throw at you online?
KV: To be honest, when we announced it we were expecting some sort of backlash, and I almost feel a lot of the backlash is people not understanding what the Sisterhood is about. I’ve tried to educate people as to why we need the movement and what it stands for, and there have been instances where, to that education piece, people have turned around and said “oh, okay, we understand that now, that’s great.” Then you have that sort of standard troll where you just look at the profile and there’s like, zero followers and just tweeting rubbish at lots of different accounts and you just think “they’re not gonna want to learn or understand.” I feel as though, as much as it might kill me sometimes, you kind of see if they genuinely want to know more, and then I may engage with them.
GR: That’s probably the best way to do it.
KV: Yeah, I think so. It doesn’t get any easier. We kind of had it in two waves. We had it when the logo was announced, and had it when we announced the movement. What helps us is devs publicly pushing it—that really helps us deal with trolls because they’re saying “even Ubisoft is supporting the movement,” so we must be doing something right.
GR: Sometimes it’s nice to know that you can have those dialogues with people who don’t understand, because a lot of the time the root of ignorance is just not knowing something.
KV: Yeah, I agree. There was a TwitLonger post that I created that I link to sometimes when they’re saying stuff and I think “you completely misunderstand what it is we’re standing for.” And then a lot of people as well, when they tweet rubbish at some of the community members of the Sisterhood, they don’t know about the abuse that’s been going on at Ubisoft either. And you have to inform them “this is what’s been happening and we’re saying that this is wrong.” A lot of the time they do turn on that and change their minds. It’s again, it’s that education piece. A lot of people don’t know what’s been going on. People don’t follow Ubisoft in that way.
For me as a woman who is an AC fan, like I’ve been playing the game since the first one. Ever since then we’ve been saying “hey we want a female assassin” and it’s always been a choice, it’s never been like, we’ve never had a female version of Ezio. And it’s not until you break down the facts and only in two of [the games] the woman is a choice. Just a choice. When you say it like that to trolls they kind of say “you know what, this is kind of unfair.”
GR: With Valhalla launching soon, what are your hopes for it in terms of representation?
KV: With Valhalla I did want to see better representation for Female Eivor in the marketing, and I don’t think we have that quite yet. They did have a release of a female Eivor trailer, but it was the same as the launch trailer with the original announcement. I was hoping to see more of her throughout the marketing campaign, because I think that it was the same mistake they made with Odyssey where they didn’t showcase Kassandra as much as Alexios. A lot of the marketing in this case was probably all sorted and done prior to the Sisterhood movement and months in advance. In terms of playing, it would be great to see more supporting characters who are women. I know they announced Ranvi, but it would be great to have more women in the game.
GR: What are your hopes for future Assassin’s Creed games? What would you like to see?
KV: I just hope that they do commit to a lead female protagonist in future games. That one day they do commit to a woman and explore her character development, explore themes you maybe wouldn’t explore when you played as a male. An example of that would be with Aya in Origins, maybe in the part where a mother loses her child. I feel like we didn’t really see that.
GR: If you could create a sequel for Aya, what would the story be?
KV: I’d like to see Aya in Rome. I don’t know if you’ve read or know about the Origins comics, but there was a lot of narrative between her and Cleopatra and it would have been great to have seen that in game. I think it’s really sad that Aya didn’t get the treatment she deserved. I mean, we know now that her role was diminished because of this whole idea that women “don’t sell” which is really, really annoying and offensive. I would really like to have seen what she did to set up the Hidden Ones. She was the mother of the Creed and I feel like she deserves her own game where we explore that. I think it was a bit of a cop out to put her narrative in a novel and in the comics and not necessarily in the mainstream games.
GR: Also knowing that even in Assassin’s Creed 2, it was her statue that was in the basement.
KV: Yeah, that was the thing that really strikes me. We were teased by her all the way back in AC2. And you had her famous scene where she pulls her hood and says “I renounce Aya, I’m now Amunet.” And you’re like, ” Oh, my God,” and you kind of stop and you’re like “What? You can’t leave it there!”
GR: What’s it been like hearing the stories directly from the voice actors behind the characters of Aya and Cleopatra?
KV: That podcast is really eye opening for me. I mean, it’s a side of the game that you don’t usually explore. You obviously see the voice actors in the game, and to hear Alix and Zora’s stories was really sort of eye opening and made me a little bit sad. Their characters really shouldn’t have been treated in that manner. It’s fascinating to see the whole process as well, what they had to learn about their characters in order to do their job. But the podcast opened my eyes to what’s going on behind the scenes. It was difficult at the same time, I hope something like that doesn’t happen again.
GR: Bittersweet but necessary.
KV: It was hard that one, actually. Because Origins left a lot of people with questions and it wasn’t kind of until all of the story came out, you know about women’s roles being diminished that, for me personally, back in Origins I felt a little disconnected with Aya. The explanation of her role being diminished in that way made sense for me going back and thinking about it. I always felt like “oh she’s so, like, moody” where Bayek’s character was complete.
I thought Aya and her narrative was quite choppy, and the way that she was presented didn’t feel right to me when I was playing the game. And the explanation when everything came out about like, cutting down her role when I think back on it, it probably explains quite a lot. I don’t even think we get a scene of Aya and her son Khemu in Origins, and it’s just that lost narrative of a mother losing her child. For a game that would be something quite eye-opening to explore and we just didn’t get that.
GR: Who is your favorite character and why?
KV: My first one would probably have to be Ezio because he was one of the characters that really pulled me into the series. I played AC1 and absolutely hated it. I thought it was so boring and so repetitive. I didn’t get into AC2 straight away, I think I left it for a few years and then I went back and was like “oh, this is amazing!” The characters were so, so great and I love the way that we got to see the character progression over three games. And as a player you were really invested in the story and the narrative. Secondly, I’m gonna have to say Evie Frye. When they released the trailer for Syndicate, the one where she’s in the mill—I immediately fell in love with her. I think she’s so witty and funny and her interactions with Jacob throughout the game are hilarious. I think for me she’s just, like, the woman assassin of dreams. I think she’s incredible.
GR: I had a similar experience between Assassin’s Creed 1 and 2, where I played the second one first and was like, “Well, if I enjoyed this, maybe I’ll enjoy the first one.” It was not as enjoyable.
KV: Right, it was so repetitive. I just thought “right, master assassin can’t even swim!” I thought I was wasting my time with it. I got about three or four hours into it and thought, “I can’t even finish this.” I don’t think to this day I’ve finished it. I’ve watched people play through it on YouTube, but I don’t think I have the patience for AC1 now to finish it.; AC2 had me absolutely gripped. It’s one of my favorite games, I think ever.
GR: Trying to go back and play the first one now, given how much the game has changed and improved, would be a pain in the behind.
KV: Yeah, absolutely. I’m actually doing a playthrough of Origins at the moment again, and even Origins compared to Odyssey, I feel like there’s quite a big difference. But then I think you could go back from Origins and Odyssey to places like AC2 and it’s an absolutely massive jump. I’ve also been playing Black Flag on my Switch as well. It’s a really good port, but I’m just thinking, “Wow, these games have changed so much from back in the day to now.”
GR: Are there any plans for an in person meet up or convention when it’s safe to do so for the people in the Sisterhood?
KV: Absolutely. I mean, obviously with the state of the world we can’t say when that’s gonna be, but we would love to have a meet up. Assuming it’s safe for us to organize one, then we definitely would do that.
GR: Do you have any future fundraisers in mind or any other organizations you’d like [the Sisterhood] to work with?
KV: Yes, we were absolutely blown away by the support for the pins, which was the fundraiser for Girls Make Games. We’re always looking to help out other international charities that help women in games.
GR: Is there anything you can tease about the upcoming Sisterhood projects or things you’re just excited for in general?
KV: Oh, that’s a hard one. We do have quite a lot in the meantime with the podcast and other things which I can’t really speak about now. But I guess the bottom line, yes, we have things planned and we’re really excited to share them when we can.
GR: Who would be like your ultimate dream guest on the Sisterhood podcast?
KV: There’s so many amazing women in the community and the development team that I don’t think I could really pin down one guest. There are so many women to share their experiences and hear about how they want things to change, I just want to hear from as many women as possible. I know that’s not pinpointing one person, but I guess the more we hear, the better.
GR: And I think, at the end of the day, that’s really what the Sisterhood was started for. Just uplifting women in gaming.
KV: Yeah, it really is. It’s something that we’re gonna hope is gonna stay around for a long time. And some people have a misconception that once we get a lead female protagonist that it’ll go away and that’s not the case at all. The Sisterhood will be there to always highlight women and appreciate them and, more importantly, be that safe space that they need. We have a Discord which has been fantastic, but we’re quite careful with who we let in there. Before we let anybody in we carry out, almost a check, just to make sure that space is safe.
GR: Safe spaces especially need thorough vetting because that comes with the territory.
KV: It does, yeah. I have women message me saying “I’ve been looking to be a part of the AC community for awhile, I’ve always wanted to be involved to share my thoughts, my art, my cosplays but I’ve just never been comfortable.” And so to receive messages saying “thank you for this space” really kind of makes me a little emotional, because if people can come into the AC Sisterhood and share their thoughts about AC and feel safe, I kind of feel like part of my job is done. But there’s still a long way to go.
GR: I know you mentioned the Discord. How else can people at home get involved with Sisterhood?
KV: There’s lots of ways. People can share the hashtag on social media. We now have a kind of dedicated Twitter page. We have a dedicated Instagram, and get involved in the Discord that we already mentioned. Spread the message and let people know that there is a space. What has been really helpful, on Twitter especially, is when they see this bashing about [the Sisterhood], is to just do that education piece. Let them know what the Sisterhood started for and what it is about. It’s really, really important to actually focus on that education piece that turns trolls into supporters.
GR: Sometimes that’s what you need. The conversions.
KV: It’s been fantastic, sometimes I go onto Twitter and see someone say something like “you’re ruining the AC brand” or whatever. And I haven’t had to respond because the AC Sisterhood people see the interaction and just jump in. And just say “no, actually, this is what it’s about.” Which has been really important. And then I guess the bottom line is just to not stop talking about it, because we need it to continue with a message that is loud and clear. Just make sure people are using the hashtag and it isn’t forgotten.
GR: And it is #ACSisterhood, correct?
KV: Yes, it is.
[End.]
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