Board Thread:Series general discussion/@comment-28601337-20160602221928/@comment-26986086-20170727190703

Sol Pacificus wrote:

Callum Konstantin wrote:
 * "It's all a matter of perspective. There is no single path through life that's right and fair and does no harm."
 * ―Benjamin Church, 1778


 * Though this guy Sebastian Monroe has the right idea. Monroe values free will, he doesn't believe the Assassins share that belief, considering that their members swear loyalty and absolute obedience to the Brotherhood.

The line spoken by Benjamin Church is ironically a key idea of the Assassin's Creed itself and echoes their core philosophy. Ironically, Connor did not seem to have caught this given the fact he was taught by a Mentor who notoriously did not understand the Assassins' ideals as well as he should have.

Assassins are taught to think for themselves and to always be wary of the danger of blind faith and loyalty, and moreover, to strive above superficial labels and black-and-white modes of thinking. Absolute obedience is the very thing that is antithetical to their organization, repudiated in particular by Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze, though there are certainly cases of corrupt Assassins like Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye and Al Mualim failing to understand this.

In fact, the Assassins' main disagreement with the Templars is that while they advocate perspectivism and that no one is absolutely right about everything, the Templars assert their way is the irrevocable truth. You forget Arno's free-thinking while it slowly freed France from warfare got him exiled from the Brotherhood.

Just like Sebastian Monroe, i agree that free will is precious, but neither the Assassins nor the Templars are the good guys nor the bad guys. The story is set in such a way, Ubisoft couldve made the Templars the protagonists instead mate.

Perhaps in another time, Altair would've been written as a Templar Knight who fights for peace and free will instead, against the Assassins who seek to enslave humanity.