Former houseboy Arno must learn to survive the French Revolution, and learn the price of pursuing an ideal no matter the cost.
Unlike its predecessor works which serve as novelizations of the previous Assassin's Creed games, as the title implies, it serves as a reimagining of the events of Assassin's Creed: Unity. It is a Fix Fic intended to build a more cohesive in-depth story while adding its own spin to already-existing elements in the game. It also strongly adheres to historical events as compared to the original game, which was infamous for taking far more liberties with history compared to previous installments.
Published on 8 September 2018, the story has concluded on 28 December 2019, and can be read on Fanfiction.net
or Archive of Our Own.
AC: Unity Rewrite provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: While Arno in the game had far from a happy life, the story gives him a lot of emotional baggage for him to deal with, primarily a crippling low self-esteem.
- Adaptation Expansion: The story as a whole adds far more spotlight to historical events as well as characters than that of the game.
- Adaptational Heroism: Unlike his game version, Le Peletier was not a member of the Templar Order but more of an ally who supported them because he believed they would help France. He even cut ties with the Templars upon realizing that they never intended to bring about the changes he wanted.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Pierre Bellec and Elise de la Serre are given this treatment, especially in regard to their treatment of Arno:
- In the game, while Bellec does insult Arno every now and then, he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who had a soft spot for Arno despite it all. Here, he's far more abrasive towards Arno and constantly takes every opportunity to insult and demean Arno at every turn.
Word of God even describes Bellec's treatment of Arno as abuse. - Elise's relationship with Arno has manipulative undertones. Even without taking Arno into account, she is far more cold and ruthless than her game counterpart.
- In the game, while Bellec does insult Arno every now and then, he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who had a soft spot for Arno despite it all. Here, he's far more abrasive towards Arno and constantly takes every opportunity to insult and demean Arno at every turn.
- Adapted Out: The Marquis de Sade is completely omitted out from the story. Taking his place as the King of Beggars is Arno's Assassin friend Fabre.
- An Arm and a Leg: Fabre was forced to get his arm amputated due to getting severely injured in the August 10 Insurrection.
- The Alcoholic: Arno like in the game, always turns to the bottle whenever he's faced with depression.
- Asshole Victim: Bellec's death at Elise's hands. Due to a case of Adaptational Jerkass, his death was arguably pretty well-deserved for all the stuff that he did.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted with Elise. Her body is described as mangled by Sword of Eden's discharge, leaving half of her body burnt beyond recognition.
- Commonality Connection:
- Arno and Napoleon, surprisingly. Both of them were looked down on for their status and were discouraged from thinking for themselves, and were eventually cast out by those they fought for. This reinforces Napoleon's status as Arno's Shadow Archetype by the end of the story.
- Arno strikes up a friendship with Charlotte Coday before her execution, as both of them had been Bellec's students before his death.
- Character Development: Over the course of the story, Arno grows from becoming an Extreme Doormat to a person who starts to think for himself regardless of what people expect him to do.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to the original game, this story is far more cynical and darker in tone, with elements of domestic abuse being explored in depth.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- In the game, Bellec was killed by Arno. But here, Arno has a moment of hesitation just as he's about to deliver the killing blow. This prompts Elise to shoot Bellec dead out of impatient impulse.
- Marie is held hostage by Arno, but it's Elise who delivers the lethal stab in the back.
- Le Peltier is killed by an unrelated 3rd party at his assassination, just like in history.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Oh so, so averted. While Arno has been the subject of emotional abuse by both Bellec and Elise, neither of them are portrayed as better than the other. In fact, it's deconstructed in Elise's case as the story goes great lengths to show how much her abuse had an emotional and psychological impact on poor Arno.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Deconstructed with Bellec. As Mirabeau finds out, while Bellec's Training from Hell is effective in raising new recruits into becoming skilled Assassins, it does little to educate his students on the philosophies of the Creed. For students like Arno, they've been browbeaten by Bellec to the point they are unwilling to think or ask questions on their own.
- Extreme Doormat: Arno started out like this, due to his upbringing as a house boy, taught only to obey orders and not think for himself. However, Character Development shows him gradually break out of this mould.
- Hotter and Sexier: This fic is also more explicit in its sex scenes compared to the previous stories. Justified, as previous stories were being observed by Desmond Miles, who had the tact to not get off watching his ancestors' sexual adventures.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tissot initially does not get along well with Arno. But after Arno helps save his family, he gradually warms up to him, even defending him against Beaumont.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Bellec is a Drill Sergeant Nasty browbeats his proteges, especially Arno. As the story progresses, there are signs that Bellec is starting to warm up to Arno. And then he murders Mirabeau and tries to purge the council, proving himself to be not just a Jerkass but a fanatic as well.
- Lack of Empathy: After losing her father, Elise comments that she had lost the ability to feel at all.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Arno's gendarme partner Giraud has shades of this, such as when he mistakes Cosette for a slave due to her skin colour. Unsurprising, given that this was the 18th century where such views wouldn't be out of place. Nonetheless, he does show enough tact to not say it again in front of Arno.
- Parental Substitute:
- After joining the Assassins, Arno begins to see Mirabeau as one after the death of his father and eventually Francois de la Serre.
- The owners of Cafe Theatre Charlotte Gouze and Augustin Grisier also act as parental figures for Arno, even more so after Mirabeau's death.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: With their dedication to being as "historical" as possible, the authors weren't as fond of the new style of Dying Dream that Unity introduced. Instead, they try and take the most important parts of their flashbacks and use them either directly in story, or more like a traditional last words that the other games would use instead.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike in the game, the Assassin Council is portrayed as such. This is due to Adaptation Expansion, which shows them taking a more proactive role in the Revolution compared to the game.
- Replacement Goldfish: Deconstructed with Bellec once again. Because Arno is Charles' son, Bellec places unrealistic expectations on Arno, expecting him to act like Charles would. If Arno doesn't, Bellec becomes all the more abrasive towards Arno and deem him as a failure of an Assassin.
- Took a Level in Jerkass:
- As a result of her father getting murdered, Elise became far more ruthless and manipulative with a disturbing Lack of Empathy.
- Napoleon during the events of Dead Kings. Arno even notes that Napoleon now was a far cry from the idealistic man that he had befriended.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Overlapping with Destructive Romance, Elise serves as this to Arno, taking advantage of his feelings for her and his desire for redemption so he could help track down Germain for her. Unfortunately, her manipulations only serve to drive Arno further away from his Assassin comrades.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: This is essentially Arno's character arc throughout the whole story. Years of serving as a browbeaten houseboy and an unwilling accomplice to Elise's pranks, personal traumas, and Bellec's frequent put-downs, cause Arno to develop severe self-esteem issues that he doesn't overcome until the end of the story.
