Edward Kenway

Lead scriptwriter for Black Flag Darby McDevitt observed that previous series protagonists have joined the Assassin Brotherhood without much deliberation, often as part of a coming of age moment, as their personal goals are already naturally aligned with that of the organization's. For Black Flag, the developmental team wanted to explore the Assassins' tenets, their "creed", from a new perspective. The idea of a talented and shrewd pirate, a cynical and jaded man who comes into contact with the Assassins, was mooted and proposed as the protagonist who presents this different point of view and who may not share the Assassins' worldview or adherence to a higher purpose or ideal.[1] The whole thrust of the story then became a constant conflict within Edward over the very idea of the Creed, even as he co-opts some of the Assassins' methods and tactics for his personal gain.[2][3]

McDevitt explained that Black Flag is at its core a story of immorality and repentance, and Edward Kenway is a married man whose strained relationship with his wife is one of the central struggles in the game.[4] McDewitt describe Edward as a "raucous and bawdy chap" who also has a few significant close relationships with other women in the story, and that his primary motivation in Black Flag is to get rich and prove himself a "man of quality' to his family and betters".[4] As for his pe rsonality, McDevitt said Edward "is a pirate who yearns for freedom much like the Assassins do, but loathes the sense of responsibility that a truly functional freedom requires" and that the narrative intends to explore "at what point would Edward realize his brand of freedom is too chaotic to function for very long.”[2] McDevitt compared Edward to his grandson Ratonhnhaké꞉ton, better known as Connor, the protagonist of Black Flag's antecedent Assassin's Creed III, and described his character arc as a counterpoint in someway.

Portrayal

Ryan provided the voice and likeness for Edward Kenway

Edward Kenway is voiced by Matt Ryan, who also portrayed the character in a motion capture studio.[5] McDevitt admitted that the character and his back story became far more influenced by the culture of Wales than he had originally intended; the developmental team only decided to build their story around a Welsh pirate when they cast Ryan as the voice and image of the character. McDevitt originally envisioned Edward to hail from an English port town like Bristol, Portsmouth, or Manchester, but deliberately left his background blank prior to the finalization of the casting process because he wanted to draw from whichever actor was chosen. McDevitt praised Ryan for the charisma and the personality he brought to the character, but recalled that he initially read his lines in a West County accent. Ryan was then asked to speak in his natural Welsh accent, which ultimately prompted McDevitt to finalize Edward as a Welsh character from Swansea, which matches his actor's cultural background. McDevitt consulted Ryan's father for ideas as he wanted to include some colloquial Welsh phrases into the game's dialogue.[6]

Ryan noted that unlike the majority of the game's cast of characters who are fictionalized versions of historical characters, Edward is a fictional original character. He was asked to do read books recommended by McDevitt as part of their research of the time period, and said this was because the game's developmental team wanted to avoid the usual tropes and archetypes associated with the depiction of piracy in popular fiction.[5]

As a Welshman born into a family of farmers in 1693, Edward Kenway is from a low socio-economic background. At some point in his life, he fell in love with a wealthy girl named Caroline Scott. Disobeying the wishes of her parents, Caroline left her comfortable life to marry Edward. Unsatisfied with his wages on the farm, Edward quickly became a drunkard with dreams of becoming rich as a privateer. Caroline loses faith in Edward and leaves him while concealing her pregnancy. Edward leaves his homeland to search for his fortune, first as a privateer, then as a pirate. He was active in the West Indies from 1715 to 1722 during the later years of the Golden Age of Piracy and was known for his close relationship with the likes of Adéwalé, Blackbeard, Mary Read and Anne Bonny. He commanded the Jackdaw, a brig which sunk under unknown circumstances sometime prior to 1735. Although Edward's career in piracy was largely a success, he reflected on his life before aiding the Assassin Brotherhood with some regret. Edward retired from piracy and relocated to London in 1722 a wealthy man, where he took up his responsibilities as a member of the Assassin Brotherhood. In 1735, he was murdered in his Queen Anne's Square estate by agents acting under orders from Reginald Birch, the Grand Master of the British Rite of Templars.

In conjunction with Ubisoft, Todd McFarlane and his McFarlane Toys Design Group designed a highly detailed, hand-painted, and cold-cast resin limited-edition statue of Edward Kenway. Only one thousand pieces were created and distributed worldwide, and each statue includes a Certificate of Authenticity hand-signed by McFarlane.[7]

A cosplayer recreating Edward Kenway's unhooded appearance.

Edward Kenway has been well received by video game journalists, with high placements on several "top character" ranking lists of Assassin's Creed series protagonists.[8][9][10][11][12] VideoGamer.com ranked him among the best pirates in video games.[13]

Matt Purslow from IGN described Edward as the "true secret weapon" of Black Flag, the central element that binds the game's disparate elements and features together, and argued that it manages to avoid the pitfalls of over-reliance on MacGuffin plot devices like its predecessors due to the narrative focus on Edward’s personal journey.[14] He found the character's privateer-turned-pirate background, a chancer looking for profit whose decision to steal the robes of a member of the Assassins sparks his growth from rebel to honorable captain, to be a "fresh perspective to the overarching narrative of the series".[14] Andrei Dobra from Softpedia interpreted McDevitt's statements about Edward in an interview with VG247 as indicative of a belief that the popularity of Black Flag is largely because the character is an unusual protagonist who trumps many established tropes concerning heroes in the franchise.[15] In an article which offers an impression of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Jordan Ramée from Gamespot reflected on his gameplay experience with Edward in Black Flag fondly, where combat sequences often involved head-on confrontation of foes and that Edward solves many of his problems as a pirate that's making the most of the tools of an Assassin.[16] Evan Stallworth Carr from The Daily Californian found Edward Kenway to be "a deeply interesting character" who displays a "charismatic and outgoing personality" for his pirate persona. On the other hand, Carr opined that he does not fit well into the lore of the series, which in his view ultimately hurt the plot of Black Flag.[17] Stephen Totilo was of the opinion that while the subplot involving the wife he left behind paid off beautifully at its conclusion, Edward is a "forgettable lead" and his character arc is "shallow".[3]

The ending sequence of Black Flag has attracted praise for its depiction of Edward's character development. Tom Phillips from Eurogamer found it to be a "surprisingly mature conclusion for a series all about stabbing people in the neck", as Kenway finally gives up a life of piracy to settle down with his newly-discovered daughter, and that it took the entirety of the narrative of Black Flag where he experiences of the deaths of all of his close friends and loved ones for Edward to make a sensible decision about his life.[18] Erik Kain from Forbes found the final moments of Black Flag to be "surprisingly beautiful", describing the finale as an "oddly sad and redemptive" contemplation of the character's loss which segues to his conversation with his daughter which is both playful and regretful in tone.[19]

Hadi Baku Pangestu analyzed the progression of Edward Kenway's anti-hero journey within Black Flag in a 2017 thesis published by Indonesia University of Education.[20] Nick Dinicola from Pop Matters found the narrative approach by Black Flag to be interesting, as its lead character never becomes an official member of the Brotherhood of Assassins even by the ending of the game; instead, the story explores both sides of the long-running Assassin-Templar conflict from the perspective of an indifferent protagonist, and allows players a better sense of the Assassins' code of conduct as Edward gradually becomes sympathetic to their cause and acknowledges that their creed is “the beginning of wisdom.”[21] In his paper which examines the representation of female characters in the Assassin’s Creed Series published by St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, Stephen J. Fishburne described Edward Kenway as "capturing the ideal of masculinity and the self-made man to the greatest extent" amongst other male protagonists in the series, and noted that "the consequences of his irresponsibility are really only felt by those around him" because he is still considered the "hero of Black Flag".[22] In a paper which analyzes the cultural depiction of piracy in video games, Eugen Pfister said the depiction of pirates as rebels but not revolutionaries in Black Flag is historically accurate. Pfisher noted that while Edward mostly acts ethically and adheres to his own code of conduct as he tries to do the “right thing”, he becomes a “gentleman of fortune” of his own volition in the first place, and that even more importantly, he seeks no redemption for his violent actions when it comes to exploring and hunting for victims. This is reinforced by the game's mechanics, which encourages constant pillaging and raiding of merchant ships to improve the performance of Edward's flagship and offers the character "no incentive to ponder the possibility of becoming an honest man again".[23]

• Edward Kenway – Portrait of a Pirate Assassin on the official Ubisoft blog at the Wayback Machine (archived July 16, 2013)
• How Edward Kenway becomes an Assassin on the official Ubisoft blog at the Wayback Machine (archived July 12, 2013)