Even the best of games have plot holes. It's not a referendum on the game itself, some of the greatest franchises in movies and television have inconsistencies that are eventually resolved with creative thinking later ("It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."). In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, it's fair to say that a majority of the game's broken story points revolve around a single character: Eivor.
Eivor Varinsdottir, who will be referred to as the canonical she/her in this article, isn't a bad character. She's been fleshed out well, especially with the comics that detail her background. But that's actually what makes her moments of problematic storytelling and personality traits so jarring. It's not that Eivor is a weak individual, it's that she's so strong that when something comes along that doesn't make sense about her, it really strikes the player across the face.
Warning: Every spoiler in the game will likely be discussed here in some capacity.
10 Rejection Of The Creed
One of the mistakes that can ruin a playthrough is skipping the cutscenes. One of the best and most memorable lines from the game is when Odin asks what more Eivor could want than power and glory, and Eivor responds, "Everything else."
Why, then, does Eivor never become an assassin? She does their work to eliminate tyrants and then, inexplicably, she tries to seize the same power and glory she rejected earlier by installing despots throughout England. It's a plan that eventually dooms her clan.
9 Forgetting Past Life
The game's signature storyline is Sigurd's realization about his own identity as Tyr. And of course, the antagonist, Basim, has known all along that he is Loki. Therefore, it stands to reason that Eivor should have at least some inkling that she is Havi.
It's not like the best armor sets in the game make Eivor look so different that she forgets herself. She comes face to face with all of it and rejects Odin, believing him to be a different individual entirely. Why did she completely forget herself while the others remembered?
8 Tactical Mismanagement
The disastrous end of the game is squarely on Eivor's shoulders. While Eivor can learn some incredible skills, no amount of talent can compensate for the reckless and foolhardy charge into a blatant trap.
For the entire game, Eivor uses precise strikes at strategic locations because she knows that she's outnumbered. Then she throws all of her cards on the table to attack a location that she can't confirm. In fact, her only lead is leaked from the very person she's trying to kill. Eivor had sniffed out worse ambushes prior to this.
7 Sýnin's Friendship
While the game gets a lot about Vikings right, there are some things about animals that they could have done better. Past Assassin's Creed games have had to explain the presence of a flying companion.
But Eivor just has hers around and it's never explained why. What's more, Eivor specifically remarks that Sýnin only eats when she's found somebody to kill. So it's not like the bird is even getting regular meals from her companion.
6 Unable To Recognize Self
This one differs for each gender of Eivor, but there's a problem with either one. For the female Eivor, how does she not see that her own body and voice have changed during her interactions in Asgard and Jotunheim?
For the male Eivor, it's even worse, as he's talking to himself frequently and somehow never recognizes it. Are there no mirrors to see a reflection in? Is the sound of one's own voice really that foreign? It's not like any Vikings from other eras would ever have this problem.
5 DNA Configuration
There are some real issues with DNA. All of the other real-people from the game have defined genetic code, but apparently, that global consistency doesn't extend to Eivor. Why does the Animus not have any issue recognizing male or female until the wolf attack?
Additionally, Sigurd and Basim are both the same gender as the god inhabiting them. Why was Eivor not on this boat? And why would her personality and identity, a separate function than chromosomal sex, have manifested in the DNA at all?
4 Speed Deficiency
To say Eivor is slow is the understatement of the year. Go ahead and time out a 100-meter dash in the game. Embarrassing, right? Some facts about Vikings didn't make their way into the game, but there is no way that Eivor's pitiful speed is an accurate representation of that time period.
Eivor has lived as a warrior and the prequel comic strips show that she's never led a life boring enough to be out of shape. Perhaps it was a decision by Ubisoft to make the 130-plus hour game take even longer, but it's too bad that Eivor is the one paying that price.
3 Weapons Training
Past installments of the series have done a solid job explaining how the characters came to be trained with the weapons that they used. Eivor was raised in Norway and naturally defaults to handheld axes in most cutscenes.
Yet she's perfectly capable of picking up a long spear, two-handed flail, or heavy shield and using it better than the enemies she fights against. Even the misthios from Assassin's Creed Odyssey had to train until adulthood to master that kind of arsenal.
2 Burial Site
The popular plot hole here is that Basim, while unconscious, somehow locates Eivor's body with pinpoint accuracy. However, that is more of an inconsistency with Loki than it is with Eivor.
The real issue here is how and why Eivor went back to Vinland when she made clear her last stand would be in England. And how was she buried with her belongings when it was impossible to carry equipment into Vinland?
1 Embracing King Aelfred
After trying to kill Eivor multiple times, then murdering Ubba and unleashing a trap that killed Soma, Hunwald, and Hjorr, King Aelfred is finally exposed as the leader behind the Order of the Ancients. When discovered, King Aelfred explains that he's going to get rid of the order and create the Templars, to which Eivor unbelievably approves.
This is the man still hellbent on ridding England of the Vikings, the same person who has murdered countless numbers of Eivor's friends, family, and clan. It's a plot hole so glaring some are assuming that the cutscene was supposed to take place earlier but was placed at the very end by mistake.
Eivor is not only responsible for the annihilation of the Vikings in England, but the atrocities of the Templar Order across all of the Assassin's Creed games. That's a tough pill to swallow.