28: Gender and Sexuality between modern expectations and Viking narratives in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

Joana Hansen, @medievalJo, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

In Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, women naturally appear in all parts of the game as NPCs in a variety of occupations or positions such as huntsmen or merchants, warriors, noble-women, or nuns. There is also one Jarlskona, however women are less visible in the political sphere. Overall, we can see that there are many female NPCs, but they are not the ones that carry the plot forward and they are less represented in positions of power.

I would argue that gender in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is made visible and invisible in equal measure: Gender is less visible in a sense that there is no obvious discrimination against a sex and female characters are represented in most fields. Certain occupations for instance are not assigned to a gender norm. Even with the main protagonist Eivor, whom the player can choose to play as a man or a woman, the plot and all dialogue options stay the same. Eivor is never questioned in her abilities or has to fulfil different expectations, if chosen to be played as a woman. Neither is it overly emphasized that she is a woman – she is however an outstanding warrior which is pointed out by several other characters throughout the game. This also contributes to her high standing within her clan.

While no one faces direct discrimination for their gender, the Viking world in the game is simultaneously deeply formed by a sense of heroic masculinity that focusses on a male dominated field of seafarers, warriors, and conquerors: for example, the most valuable goal of every Viking – to die an honourable death – is very much omnipresent in the game and functions as a recurring motivator within the plot. But to die honourably is almost exclusively achieved in battle and while having a few fighting female characters, this part of Viking life in the game and in pop-culture in general is stereotypically much more associated with men.

Viking women in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla are simply imagined as equally wild, brutal, and brave as the Viking men are supposed to be. Therefore, the seemingly ‘gender equal’ society is still very dominated by ‘being masculine’. On a sidenote, we can see a similar thing about sexuality, where the different possibilities for Eivor to have several romances suggest sexual openness which plays into Viking attributes of being ‘wild’ and ‘untamed’. The trope of women warriors isn’t new of course; can be found in (not only) Saga literature and is a reoccurring theme in the reception of Vikings but it is interesting to see how this trope is overly emphasized to play into a stereotypical Viking world, while still being read as reflecting modern expectations.

How can those depictions be so stereotypical while also being read as somewhat ‘progressive’? This feels contradictory and Ubisoft also seemed to struggle with this: While being criticized for a lack of female characters and then including more of them, it’s still predominantly the male Eivor that is shown in the launch trailer for example. It seems, game studios still fear a backlash when including more female characters in their marketing, especially with historical games. But not including women due to perceived ‘historical accuracy’ is often just misogyny in disguise. To conclude: having more female characters, especially as warriors, works in a Viking scenario because of its long reception history that made its way into pop cultural stereotypes. Yet, it seems, women are simply masculinized to better fit into the Viking society in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.

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Bibliography

Downham, Clare: Von Æthelfleda bis Olga. Frauen und Kriegsführung, in: Matthias Toplak/Jörn Staecker (Hrsg.): Die Wikinger. Entdecker und Eroberer, Berlin 2019, 151–161.

Gardeła, Leszek/Toplak, Matthias: Walküren und Schildmaiden. Weibliche Krieger? In: Ders./Jörn Staecker (Hrsg.): Die Wikinger. Entdecker und Eroberer, Berlin 2019, 137–151.

Jesch, Judith: The Viking Diaspora (The Medieval World), London 2015.

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