One of the essential game mechanics of Assassins Creed Liberation is the ability of the protagonist, Aveline, to change between personas. Different personas allow Aveline to adopt different strategies while encountering enemies. While this gives players more choices, it does not free Aveline. Rather, she falls into the male gaze because of such a mechanic.
There are three personas available for Aveline to change into: slave persona, assassin persona, and lady persona. Different personas will receive different reactions from the guards, Aveline’s enemies. The slave persona and lady persona allow Aveline to walk near the guards without being identified quickly, exempting Aveline from many potential hostile encounters. Plus, the lady persona allows Aveline to bribe the guards or charm other men to protect her against guards. The assassin persona allows Aveline to enjoy full agility in moving and full arsenal in battles, while she will be very easily noticed and identified by guards and hence easily drawn into battles.
Indeed, this game mechanic gives Aveline the choice to take advantage of her identity and save time by staying out of hostile encounters, but does it liberate Aveline as a woman? As a female protagonist, Aveline’s appearance alone decides how her male enemies react to her. This gives me the impression that Aveline has to constantly be aware of how the surrounding men regard her and act accordingly. The changing of personas implies that she needs to constantly monitor herself whether her appearance is appropriate for her to appear in front of certain groups of males. To make her way in this patriarchal world, Aveline needs to use her own body and appearance as tools to gain different responses from men.
This could be linked to the term “the male gaze” coined by Laura Mulvey. In short, the male gaze denies the female’s agency and reduces the women to be considered only for her beauty, physique, and sexual appeal. The male gaze itself could habituate women to self-objectification and look at herself as the mere subject of a gaze. Aveline’s experience parallels this. Because men in the game will view Aveline with desire, hostility, or negligence when she assumes different personas, Aveline learns and habituates herself to change her own appearance when she wants certain responses from their gaze. She internalizes the gaze and confines herself to its subject. The players must not mistake their choices and freedom as Aveline’s.
Aveline’s three identities could represent three roles women assume in the eyes of men: a madam (presumably desirable), an enemy, or an inferior subject. To make use of personas is to take advantage of how women could be perceived in men’s eyes. Ultimately, the judges are men; the women, taking advantage of how they are looked at, are not liberated. Rather, they are forced to play under rules set by men. I admit that I have not played through the whole game; but I wish that, just as in other Assassin’s Creed games, Aveline could eventually find her own cause and identity, becoming what she wants to be. I wish she could become a true assassin, liberating herself as she liberates the oppressed.
I think what you are referring to here is a male gaze, in the sense that there are men and they are gazing, but I don't think what you are referring to is the "male gaze" as articulated Laura Mulvey. Suppose instead of a female assassin as its protagonist, Assassins Creed Liberation had a male assassin as its protagonist. This male assassin could pose a nobleman, a slave, or an assassin. The men in the game would see the assassin as either a gentlemen, an enemy, or an inferior subject. The only thing that you have identified that differentiates this hypothetical male assassin from his female counterpart is the ability to charm guards; everything else would be equally true of…
The fact that you are noticing the constant male gaze is interesting, and just to add on that, I wanted to stretch the “gaze” onto the gaze of the crowd, i.e. the society. The changing in outfits is not only differing in characteristics but also social status, and Aveline is also constantly examining herself for the proper identity and social class as she chooses her outfits. Not only that Aveline could not escape the male gaze, but she also could not escape the social gazes. I think the posters on every corner when you get “notorious” can be the evidence. And not only Aveline that can’t escape the social gaze, but the players also could not be free from social…
I think that the male gaze plays an important role in the creation Aveline as well as her status within the game. In our section, we talked about how Aveline is the only female protagonist in the Assassins Creed series and the only one who's clothing plays a relevant role in the game play. While the 'identity switching' is a mechanic that I personally think is worthy of some exploration, it seems somewhat suspicious that Aveline's identity is tied so heavily to her clothing when none of the male protagonists, before or after Aveline’s game, have this feature. As you pointed out, this seemingly male influence outside the game has parallels inside. However, I don’t think that changing appearance is…
I was really interested in the idea of the male gaze as well, and thinking about particularly in connection to the audience of the game, and who it is that's playing it. What does it mean for a, say heterosexual cis white man to play this game, and in turn embody and inhabit these three different characters/personas? I think liberation and the comments that the game are making about it are interesting points of analysis given that ultimately the character's story is being led/controlled by whoever it is that's playing it, and I wonder if this is something that was taken into consideration when thinking about the overarching purpose of the message of the game.
It's very interesting to think about the actual idea of liberation. What would it mean for Aveline (or anyone) to be truly liberated from the male gaze? And how would you do this? One could argue that by taking advantage of her personas and thus the rules, that might be a form of liberation, but I would agree with you that Aveline is still just operating under the parameters of the male gaze. She understands them, but she has not broken free of them. I wonder how contemporary gender theory would perceive the mechanics of this game.