After both hearing subject 16's message from finishing the Cluster puzzles and translating the achievement that goes with it;   ".. .- -- .- .-.. .. ...- ." translates to "I AM ALIVE." I have come to the conclusion that subject 16 is not dead. That or he has some how found a way to put a ghost of himself into the animus. Ether way I get the feeling that he will continue to play an important role in the story.

" "I AM ALIVE." 
 
I have come to the conclusion that subject 16 is not dead. "

I love this series, but i think they are hinting too hard that you are actually playing as desmonds son who is in the animus having dreams about desmond having dreams about ezio having dreams about christina.

" @wasteguru said:

" "I AM ALIVE." 
 
I have come to the conclusion that subject 16 is not dead. "

Your detective skills truly are awe inspiring. 
 
HAHAHAHA!

Does this mean that the supposedly upcoming Ubi game, I Am Alive, is really just AC3?!!!!?!?!!?

When he says that she is bit who she says she is, is it lucy or Minerva?

" I love this series, but i think they are hinting too hard that you are actually playing as desmonds son who is in the animus having dreams about desmond having dreams about ezio having dreams about christina. "

" Does this mean that the supposedly upcoming Ubi game, I Am Alive, is really just AC3?!!!!?!?!!? "

" @wasteguru said:

" "I AM ALIVE." 
 
I have come to the conclusion that subject 16 is not dead. "

Your detective skills truly are awe inspiring.  I'm just not going to think about what's going on in the over arching story line. None of it makes any god damn sense and it's completely, utterly, batshit insane. I fucking love it. "

" @Rawrnosaurous: I think he's witnessing it. Which is why if you don't do something the way Ezio did you don't get 100% sync. "

I just finished this stuff today and, yeah, I guess I liked the reward for getting all the glyphs in ACII better but this was acceptably fucked up and trippy. 

Subject 16 talks exactly like nolan north. Not sure if that means anything, maybe he's desmond's dad.

Ack. No, the Animus isn't Desmond simply 'witnessing' these memories, he takes part in them and has to act them out. It's the whole justification for the game's mechanics, you are essentially playing as a dude who is 'playing' his ancestor in a crazy-ass computer's recronstruction of his genetic memories. By playing the game you are essentially playing Desmond's role inside the Animus. Desmond controls what his ancestor does inside these memory constructions just as you do. What goes on in the cutscenes would be the only thing that is merely witnessed by Desmond. The whole synchronisation concept is based entirely on Desmond doing what his ancestor did, with 100% synchronisation coming closest to Ezio's actual actions.
 
The Animus creates a recronstruction of a world based on the memories interpreted in the subject's DNA. The subject can move about this world freely (unless there is an area that there is no memory of in that period of time) and access specific memories. It's to be presumed that Desmond controls his ancestor through these memories in a third person perspective. The basic concept is that what you see and do in Assassin's Creed is what Desmond is seeing and doing in the Animus, because you control Desmond, and Desmond is controlling Ezio. *cue trombone* The reason Desmond can't make Ezio speak at will is simply because that functionality does not exist in the Animus. This is probably because if he could speak he'd be either talking to constructs of specific memories so they wouldn't exactly have anything to say (other than what they have already said to Ezio himself) or talking to random pedestrians that are basically just a population created by the Animus, there would simply be nothing to be gained from such an ability.
 
Anyway, bottom line is if Desmond were merely witnessing these events Assassin's Creed would be a movie. Or it would be a game where you control Desmond up until he lies back in the Animus and then plays a series of cutscenes.

"

Subject 16 talks exactly like nolan north. Not sure if that means anything, maybe he's desmond's dad.

"