Which assassin (Ezio excluded), in your opinion, had the best characterization over the course of their arc?

Ezio excluded, I don't think that anyone can really argue against Edward as having the best character arc of the protagonists.

Connor would be a close second, but his story fell into murky and morally grey territory too often. Much of his story revolves around being torn between doing things for his tribe and doing thing because he think's they're the right thing to do. He believes in the patriots' fight for liberty, but at the same time, these patriots are encroaching on the liberty of his own people. Lots of grey areas and uncertainty which is what, I think, turns a lot of people off of his character.

Edward is great because although his arc is a fairly simple one, there is surprising depth to it. He is never uncertain in his actions, only in his motivation, which is something relate-able. As he achieves his goals and amasses wealth, he comes closer and closer to rock bottom, which is an absolutely necessary step in a story like this. His character deconstructs and unravels so that he can be built back up. It's simple and clean, but powerful.

A lot of people hate on Black Flag as "not even being an Assassin's Creed game" because Edward is really just a pirate until the last sequence or two. For this kind of story though, nothing else would have worked. A problem that I had with Unity is that I never FELT Arno's motivation to join the brotherhood. I understood it in terms of what the game told me, but I never FELT like it was something Arno, as an actual person, would necessarily do. By the time Edward hit rock bottom, I FELT it, and I knew that he had realized it was time for a change. It was such a cathartic moment when he went and joined the Assassins right after, knowing that we were on the same narrative page. It was an organic moment that felt natural and deserved, not just written in because he had to become an assassin for story purposes.

I'd go as far as to say that Edward had far better characterization in Black Flag than Ezio did in any one of his games (all 3 is a different story).

/r/assassinscreed Thread