Robert Bartholomew Puns

https://youtu.be/xrQs-ZX-wv0

Interesting interview between Mick and Robert Bartholomew. Robert has a PhD in medical sociology and is an expert in the subject of mass psychogenic illness. He’s promoting his book titled “Havana Syndrome Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria.” They talk about Havana Syndrome and the similarities to UFO flaps and other historical “hysteria” events.

On the 21st of June, 1720, pirate Captain Bartholomew Roberts arrived in Newfoundland and assaulted the harbor of Trepassey.

Twenty two merchant vessels, and 150 fishing ships were all surrendered by their captains and crews as the sloop Fortune arrived in the harbor flying its black flag. With no one daring confront the pirates, despite over forty guns were at their disposal distributed across all the vessels, Roberts was able to claim what he wanted without any resistance. He captured the twenty-two merchant vessels and would make his disapproval known to all the captains who surrendered so easily.

For each day that Roberts laid claim over the harbor, each morning he would reportedly fire a single gun from his ship, and each captain from the vessels were to come and meet with him, where they would become aware of Robert’s shame of them as captains for not even trying to defend the harbor against him. Captains who refused to show up did so with Robert’s threat to burn their ship and let it sink to the bottom of the harbor.

Roberts would claim for himself a brig, from Bristol, to replace the sloop he’d arrived on, loading onto her sixteen guns and naming her the Fortune as well. Roberts would control the harbor until near the end of June, and upon departure, every single ship in the harbor was lit aflame. However another source states only twenty-two ships were burned by the time he’d left.

Credit: Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow

I have played most of the Assassin's Creed games (excluding Odyssey and Syndicate), and one problem I have with most Assassin's Creed villains is that most villains such as Rodrigo Borgia, Charles Lee, Germain, etc are put into an entirely different and higher pedestal than the protagonists and most of them (aside from Rodrigo) do not relate to them nor serve their respective stories at all. Even Charles Lee was killed off not for revenge, but more of an obligation to Connor's cause. Basically, they were mustache twirling villains that we got to kill at the end of the game.

Bart Roberts served as a foil to Edward's character and his story. If you have played Black Flag, you came to realize that Bart Roberts was essentially the best version Edward wanted to become: a successful, thriving legendary pirate to truly lived to his motto "short but merry one". However, unlike Edward who was inherently good inside, Bart Roberts was an amoral character who considered people as sheeps and met a fate that Edward narrowly avoided. Especially, there was a segment in the game where Edward was drunk, and Bart just bluntly said that Edward couldn't achieve what Bart had achieved in one fifth of his lifetime because "goodness was his disease", and Mary as well as Caroline Scott had to warn Edward to change course, from Bart's "course". In a story aspect, Bart served better as the main villain of Edward's story (which I think was the main story of Black Flag despite the whole Observatory / surveillance and Sage storylines) and a foil that corresponded to Edward's "ambitions".

For a game about pirates, Black Flag's story oddly resonated the most to me as a person. And can we just get Darby McDevitt as the lore master or some kind of a supervisor for the future AC games because his writing is phenomenal.

Oh Bart...

  > Bartholomew: > >Yo, here’s my Valentine’s return gift. Please accept it. [gives his present to you] > >Well, that’s the case. Then, I look forward to the day you wear it. > >Fufufu...fufufufufu…!

  > Guda: > Wait wait wait. // I haven’t even given you your chocolate yet!!

  > Bartholomew: > >Yeah, that’s true. You got a point. But you know, Master. > >I am wholly confident that there is no reason why I shouldn’t receive any chocolates. > >Plus, I can smell the sweet scent of the confectionaries in your hands… > >Quod erat demonstratum, Q.E.D.

  > Guda: > >(Sigh) // No point in hiding it now.

  > If option 1: > > Bartholomew: > >Oh my. Fufufu, keep making that dumbfounded look, and it’ll stay on your face.

  > If option 2: > > Bartholomew: > >No point, indeed. I’m a pirate, after all. > >Pirates are usually thought of as good-for-nothings and reputation. Although it’s pretty sad.

  > Bartholomew: > >Well then, Master. I shall accept it. [accepts the chocolate from you] > >Mm...fufufu. So this is what it means to be bashful. [blushing] > >Alright, take a good look at the present I gave you earlier.

 

[The gift in question.]

  > Guda: > > I see...so it’s come to this..

  > Bartholomew: > >It’s reverse thinking. > >There’s some debate as to whether a wig with mekakure is truly mekakure or not… > >I can stick to my fetish in the case of an emergency, while respecting the individual person’s hairstyle. > >In that sense I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but how about it!?

  > Guda: > >Even if you ask me to…

  > Bartholomew: > >What, I’m not saying you should put it on right now. How about I ask for it as a reward after achieving merit on the battlefield. > >What, I’m fine with it. It might be perplexing at first, but I’ll get used to it. > >Then I will taste and savour this chocolate. > >By the way, I’m going to go back to my room, so you’re going to be alone. > >Fufufu...you can even secretly use it…! > >[leaves the room]

  > Guda (staring at the wig): > >…

My second favorite villain in the series behind Cesare Borgia. An extremely charismatic and highly intelligent man who barely hides his truly violent and bloodthirsty nature.

Revealing his secret identity as a Sage at the very beginning of the game was a genius move that added an important layer to his already complex personality.

Hope we see another villain like him in the future, maybe even in Valhalla, independent from the Assassins vs. Templar’s conflict but incredibly dangerous nonetheless.