Summary
As one of the most iconic and long-running gaming franchises still tearing up the market today,Assassin’s Creedhas only managed to continue growing more iconic over the years. While many franchises aren’t able to adapt and survive past their initial run at the top of the gaming industry, theAssassin’s Creedseries has managed to go from height to height for nearly two decades.
One great protagonist alone isn’t enough to make this happen.Assassin’s Creedmanaged to successfully move on from the initial characters that were so beloved and not lose the fan base along the way, a great achievement in itself. But the most significant way the series has reinvented itself is by continuing to create iconic characters for many years now.
10Rodrigo Borgia
The Most Fascinating Villain: The Pope
Despite not being a hero or even a playable character, there is one amongst the many villains throughout theAssassin’s Creedfranchise that stands out in particular. Rodrigo Borgia, head of the infamous crime family, as well as Pope, made for the greatest villain that the series has ever seen.
Appearing in the first two games of the “Ezio Trilogy” was enough to cement Rodrigo’s legacy within the franchise. Borgia managed to be so corrupt and so powerful that he had a boss fight with Ezio while Pope, failed to defeat him with the Apple of Eden, but still made it out of the fight alive and continued to be Pope afterward. One of the most bizarre, intriguing, and memorable characters in all video game history, Rodrigo Borgia is the definition of iconic. This version is perhaps the most brazen and evil of all seen throughout the various media depicting him and his family.
9Desmond Miles
The Face Behind The Animus
The man behind the Animus, who held the story together through several character changes in the earliestAssassin’s Creedgames, Desmond Miles gave the series an initial sense of purpose as the battle raged on between the Templars and Assassins, withhim embroiled in the modern-day centerof it all.
Desmond was a fascinating character who appeared driven but was controversial among fans due to his parts of the games sometimes being less interesting or forgotten in the shuffle. Tying together a story as complicated as that ofAssassin’s Creedis a challenge, and Desmond did a hard job well as an evolving, slightly tragic character whose skills heightened throughout the series, ending with his world-saving sacrifice inAssassin’s Creed 3.
8Adewale
Slave Turned Assassin
TheAssassin’s Creedfranchise is so large and spread out across many entries that it can be easy to forget some of the lesser, smaller games in the franchise. This includesFreedom Cry, an add-on toBlack Flagwhich turned into a full game in its own right.Freedom Crystarred Adewale, a slave from Trinidad who became a pirate in his teenage years.
After that, Adewale joined up with Edward Kenway on his crew but left to join the Assassins when he realized that they were fighting for a higher cause. He saved Edward later, convincing him to join as well, and moved on to saving a precursor artifact from modern-day Haiti while seeing some truly horrific things being done to slaves, marking a deep and meaningful but devastating entry in the franchisecentered on a phenomenal character.
7Basim Ibn Ishaq
A Reincarnation of Loki
One of the newest figures to take theAssassin’s Creedfranchise by storm, Basim is one of the very few characters that players have both taken control of and waged war against. Basim is the embodiment of the dark God Loki’s reincarnation.
Born in the 9th Century and orphaned young, Basim had to make a living as a thief and later a member of the Hidden Ones in Baghdad as they struggled against the Order of the Ancients. Basim starred inAssassin’s Creed: Mirageand was a major player inAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, wholooks set to continue defining the future of the franchiseon the villainous side, making him a true icon of the modern, ever-expandingAssassin’s Creedseries.
6Altair
The Original Protagonist
Altair was the original protagonist in theAssassin’s Creedfranchise. Starring in the first game as a brash, overconfident young assassin who disobeyed his master, and ended it by taking down that same master, having become much wiser and faced many challenges along the way.
ThoughAltair seemed to just be the precursor to Ezio, he appeared alongside that other infamous assassin inRevelations, making for a complete journey through the opening four games in the series, intertwining these two legends and raising Altair’s stock from simply being the first to being one of the best and most iconic names in the franchise to date.
5Bayek Of Siwa
The First Assassin
The most recentAssassin’s Creedgames, which have ventured further into the open-world RPG genre over the stealth game focus of the earlier entries have provided a lot of opportunities for added storytelling and better characterization, making for some truly iconic faces. This included Bayek of Siwa, the main character fromAssassin’s Creed Origins.
The earliest hero chronologically in the timeline of the franchise, Bayek set out to avenge his son before the term assassin existed. His story, filled with secrets, horrors, and a lot of murder, led to the creation of the Hidden Ones,who would later become the Assassin Order. His mark on the franchise, alongside his wife Aya, is indelible and permanent.
4Kassandra
The Grand Child Of King Leonidas, The Eagle Bearer
Another instant classic for the franchise,Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, saw a pair of siblings, the grandchildren of King Leonidas, take on the role of Eagle Bearer, with the player able to choose either, but Kassandra being generally considered the more beloved of the two by fans.
Taking part in the Peloponnesian War, the Eagle Bearer took on the Cult of Kosmos and dealt with a lot of situations and strange happenings not common to the series.Odysseybegan to take theAssassin’s Creedfranchise in a different sort of direction, and Kassandra was a truly brilliant character who embodied these transitions and the leading role in a game larger than any Assassin’s Creed game before with aplomb, becoming iconic in her own right by the end.
3Connor Kenway
Native Revolutionary Warrior
Another early franchise player who managed to become well-remembered in his own right was Connor Kenway, originally named Ratonhnhaké:ton. A Native American whose father became a templar grand master, Connor fought throughout the American Civil War against many foes, his father chief amongst them, trying to help the assassins and his tribe survive the conflict.
Though he wasn’t fully successful in these goals, Connor achieved much, and his family name has become an iconic one, as has his entry in the long-running series. Connor’s story was heartbreaking, made some excellent points about American history, and left an impression in a franchise that should be too long by now for a one-off character to remain as beloved as he is today.
2Haytham Kenway
Changed The Idea Of Templars
Another member of the same beloved family,Haytham Kenway is Connor’s fatherand managed to become at least as iconic as his son due to players taking control of him in the opening section ofAssassin’s Creed 3, before later realizing that he was in fact a Templar and not an Assassin, providing one of the biggest shocks in history as fans realized Desmond Miles had a Templar in his lineage.
Dealing with the fight against Haytham and his Order for much of the rest of the game, fans were forced for the first ever time to confront and fight somebody whose shoes they had actually filled just hours earlier. The shock, fascinating characterization, and moral dilemmas posed by Haytham Kenway were a huge part of what madeAssassin’s Creed 3so infamous in the franchise.
1Ezio Auditore
The Ultimate Assassin
The most iconic face inAssassin’s Creed, the name most well-remembered of all, iswithout a doubt that of Ezio Auditore. This man, the protagonist of three individual titles in the series, had the classic hero’s journey which has helped create many of the cliches that the franchise resides upon.
Ezio’s story went from that of a young man out for vengeance to that of a grizzled warrior. Fans played as this man from literally his first moments of life until his dying day. Nothing of Ezio’s life is left to wonder at. His journeys, many fights, and assassinations are all legendary in this series, and Ezio has managed to go so far as to transcend the franchise and become one of the most recognizable video game characters in the world.
