Do Not Go Gently...

Do Not Go Gently was a virtual representation of one of Edward Kenway's genetic memories, relived by a research analyst at Abstergo Entertainment in 2013 through the Animus Omega.

Description

Edward sailed north to persuade Thatch into returning to the West Indies, but a sinister surprise awaited them.

Dialogue

Edward woke up on the Great Inagua.

• Edward: Ahoy, Kidd. You missed quite a time.
• Kidd: Aye. Pity about Nassau. And Blackbeard flying the coop.
• Edward: Oh, we'll see about Thatch. Vane's off to see him now, and I'm following soon.
• Kidd: This is what's left of your experiment in democracy?
• Edward: Aye, we do as we please here. And take our time doing it.
• Kidd: For Christ's sake, Edward. Don't anything but the stink of riches wrinkle your nose?
• Edward: What's got into you, man?
• Kidd: Reality, mate. Reality.

Kidd turned to Adéwalé.

• Kidd: See that you ain't pulled into the drink by this drowning rat.
• Edward: Oy! I've lived longer than most men who trod this path!

Edward boarded the Jackdaw and set sail for Ocracoke. There, he saw Vane and Thatch on the beach in heated discussion around a table.

Edward and Thatch discussing the Sage

• Vane: A great disappointment you are, Thatch! His mind's made up to stay, he says. So sod 'im! And hang all of you lot that follow this sorry bastard into obscurity!

Vane left and Thatch spat at his departure.

• Thatch: That man's a prick.

Edward sat in nearby chair.

• Thatch: I know you've come to call me home, Kenway. And your faith in me is kind. But with Nassau done in, I feel I'm finished.
• Edward: I'm not of the same mind, mate. But I won't begrudge you the state of yours.

Thatch walked back to the table.

• Thatch: You still looking for that Sage fellow?
• Edward: Aye.
• Thatch: Taking a prize a month back, I heard a man named Roberts was working a slave ship called the Princess. Might want to see about it.

He sat in a chair opposite Kenway.

• Edward: The Princess. Cheers, Thatch.
• Thatch: Now don't stand there like a barrel of wet fish. We're celebrating my retirement!

He and Kenway chuckled.

• Thatch: Uncork this man's breakfast!

Edward frowned upon seeing a shifty-looking man in the crowd push a lady and spill her drink in his rush to escape. He turned back to Thatch.

• Edward: Save us a few bottles, eh?

He tailed the man into the jungle and eavesdropped on a conversation he had with Royal Navy personnel.

• Jenkins: Lads? Lieutenant? You out here?
• Maynard: Stay here. Shoot anything that moves. Jenkins. What's the news?

A flock of startled birds took flight.

• Jenkins: What was that?
• Maynard: You certain you didn't bring some of those sand rats in tow, Jenkins? Look sharp. Stevens, make certain there's no surprises.
• Stevens: Aye, sir.
• Maynard: Secure the other side and watch the path.
• Stevens: Aye.

Stevens left to guard the path. Kenway covertly killed him and silently approached the pair while they walked ahead.

• Jenkins: There was a deserter among them who recalled my face. I sliced into his gullet before any word left his lips.
• Maynard: Anybody see you?
• Jenkins: Don't think so, sir. But I reckon Kenway suspects something. He don't miss much.
• Maynard: Tell me about the beach.
• Jenkins: A fair gathering, sir. Most too drunk to stand.

Edward tailing Jenkins and Maynard

• Maynard: That will suit our purpose. Tell me about Edward Teach. What sort of man is he?
• Jenkins: It's Thatch, sir. Least, that's what he calls himself. But he's a mad bugger, he is. Cracked as a glass teapot, sir.
• Maynard: Details man! Stop talking in gibberish.

The two walked through a ruined fort with stairs.

• Jenkins: Well sir, he likes his drink for instance. Only he makes 'em queer. Takes the usual rum flip, and fills it with half a weight of gunpowder to top it off.
• Maynard: Did I hear you aright? He DRINKS gunpowder?
• Jenkins: Aye, sir. Just for show. And only last week he rounded up a score of his crew and bade us sit in the hold of his ship while he burnt off sulfur and other sickening minerals. We just sat there like it was one of a million pits of hell, and nothing less ordinary.
• Maynard: Good GOD. What the hell for?
• Jenkins: Likes to test his crew is all. Tease out their fitness and what. 'Course it always turned out he was the fittest of the lot. Thought for a moment I'd die there. Bloody savages.

They came to an unguarded broken balcony overlooking the beach. A flare was positioned near the balcony railing and aimed out to sea.

• Maynard: Have no fear, soldier. This will be the end of them. Come on. It's time. Quickly, send the signal. And remember always this day.

Jenkins ran forward and fired the flare, then ran off with Maynard once it was in the air.

• Edward: What the devil...?

Several ships opened fire on the harbor. Edward returned to the Jackdaw, where Thatch had taken position beside the wheel.

• Thatch: Where the hell is Kenway? Note the day, lads! Today we send the King's finest to their graves!

Edward and his men boarded the Man O' War.

• Thatch: We've knocked them on the heads except three or four. Let's jump aboard and cut 'em to pieces!
  Bury the lot, boys. Take no guff!
  I'll cleave ye lengthwise, maggots!
  How you be doing, Edward m'lad?
  I'll not fall here today, bastards! Come at me!
  Can you fight free, lad? Can ye make it clear?
  Here's the path to perdition!

Despite their best efforts, Thatch was soon overwhelmed. A soldier he had knocked over drew his flintlock pistol and shot Thatch's left shoulder, making him spin and drop to his knees before another man who cut him across the chest.

British soldiers killing Thatch

• Thatch: Kenway!

Edward ran to help but was restrained by a navyman. He punched the man in the gut, stole his gun, and tossed it to Thatch.

• Edward: Here!

Thatch caught the gun and fatally shot the next soldier who was about to cut him.

• Thatch: In a world without gold, we might have been heroes!

He used his sword as leverage to stand then swiped at an oncoming soldier, but the man ducked under his swing and slashed his back from behind. Thatch stopped and staggered at the wound.

• Edward: THATCH!

The first soldier who had shot Thatch returned to his feet with sword in hand, ran up behind him, and cut across his back, killing him. At the same time, a brute knocked a stunned Edward overboard.

• Edward: Devil curse me... Where's the Jackdaw...!

Edward reached his ship and escaped into the open sea.

• Adéwalé: What of Thatch, sir? Did he fall? Captain?
• Edward: He drinks damnation.

Outcome

Edward Thatch was killed by the Royal Navy forces lead by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, and Kenway barely managed to escape. He also learned of a ship called the Princess, aboard which he might find the Sage.

Gallery

• 
  Kidd meeting with Edward at the Great Inagua
• 
  The Jackdaw docked at Ocracoke
• 
  Jenkins moving through the crowd
• 
  Edward tailing Jenkins
• 
  Edward witnessing the attack
• 
  The Jackdaw sailing against the Man O' War
• 
  Thatch fighting the British soldiers
• 
  Edward being thrown overboard
• 
  The Jackdaw escaping the battle

Behind the scenes

The name of this memory references Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' famous 1947 villanelle poem "Do not go gentle into that good night". In a similar manner, two of Thatch dialogue lines echo a contemporary literary work. His rallying cry while boarding the Ranger, calling for his men to cut down its presumed skeleton crew, loosely resembles how Captain Charles Johnson records Thatch's opening words of the skirmish in his 1724 book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, writing "Black-beard seeing few or no Hands aboard, told his Men, 'That they were all knock'd on the Head, except three or four; and therefore', says he, 'let's jump on Board, and cut them to Pieces'". As well, his last words to Kenway, about how different circumstances might have led society to see them as heroes, is paraphrased from Johnson's observation, writing "Here was an End of that couragious Brute, who might have pass’d in the World for a Heroe, had he been employ’d in a good Cause".

The line "I drink Damnation to you and your Men, who are cowardly Puppies! I shall give nor take no Quarter." is found in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's game files, indicating that it was cut from the memory's final version. In contrast with the above lines, it is not from Johnson, who wrote that Thatch's retort to Maynard was "Damnation seize my Soul if I give you Quarters, or take any from you.", but is instead adapted from a line in one of Maynard's letters written a month later. In a missive sent to Lt. Richard Symonds of the HMS Phoenix dated 17 December 1718 and published in The Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer's issue on 25 April 1719, Maynard described how "At our first Salutation, he drank Damnation to me and my Men, whom he stil'd Cowardly Puppies, saying, He would neither give nor take Quarter."

This memory featured as a 5-minute gameplay demo for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag at E3 2013. However, it differed in several ways from the final version. To start, it begins with Kenway on the beach torturing a restrained British soldier for his contact's identity by throwing knives at his head while Thatch and the pirates watch; this scene is not in the final memory. Jenkins in the demo wears a coat and has a full head of black hair instead of the game's depiction of him as bald and sporting a goatee with two earrings in his left ear. His conversation with Lt. Maynard keeps most of the final dialogue, but occurs in the jungle instead of in a fenced-off area just outside the pirates' encampment. The flare is guarded instead of being a deserted spot and Maynard could be killed here, which would have anachronistically prevented his later appearance on his ship. The demo stops just after Thatch and Kenway board the Man O' War and are outnumbered, preserving the nature of Thatch's death for the main game.

In the memory presented in the game, players can swim back to the Jackdaw and sink the Man O' War that Thatch was killed on. The two accompanying frigates can also be sunk, albeit only using mortar fire.