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** One of those unfortunate cases where the programmers had to settle for the least bad option. As someone on The Straight Dope boards pointed, out, duels calling for the judgment of God were ''duels''. Eleven against one is a lynching (or, when someone like Altair is involved, a slaughter). Unfortunately, for anyone who's made it this far, a one-on-one fight is nothing...heck, you gotta plow through about forty guys in this stage alone! Since there are only so many fighting moves, the only way to make a duel against Robert any kind of challenge would be to make him amazingly durable (nonsensical and boring as hell) or give him some kind of power or advantage (also nonsensical and ''really'' detracts from the climactic showdown against Al-Mualim). Giving Robert help wasn't honorable, but it was pretty much all he had.
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** One of those unfortunate cases where the programmers had to settle for the least bad option. As someone on The Straight Dope boards pointed, out, duels calling for the judgment of God were ''duels''. Eleven against one is a lynching (or, when someone like Altair is involved, a slaughter). Unfortunately, for anyone who's made it this far, a one-on-one fight is nothing...heck, you gotta plow through about forty guys in this stage alone! Since there are only so many fighting moves, the only way to make a duel against Robert any kind of challenge would be to make him amazingly durable (nonsensical and boring as hell) or give him some kind of power or advantage (also nonsensical and ''really'' detracts from the climactic showdown against Al-Mualim). Giving Robert help wasn't honorable, but it was pretty much all he had.the only way to prevent this from becoming a 15-second squash.
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** Simply punching a derelict will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off without harm (though this isn't advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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** Simply punching Harming a derelict derelict, even one little punch, will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off without harm penalty (though this isn't advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
** Simply punching a derelict will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off without harm (though this isn't advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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** Simply punching a derelict will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off without harm (though this isn't advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
** Simply punching a derelict will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off without harm (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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** Simply punching a derelict will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off without harm (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
** Simply punching a derelict will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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** Simply punching a derelict will cost you synchronization, but throwing him doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off without harm (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
** Simply punching a derelict will cost you, but you can throw him without dinging your synchronization (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown, of course). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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** Simply punching a derelict will cost you, you synchronization, but you can throw throwing him without dinging your synchronization doesn't (provided he doesn't fall into water and drown, of course).drown). Killing a thug dings you, but beating him up is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
** You can throw the derelicts without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't fall into water and drown), but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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** You Simply punching a derelict will cost you, but you can throw the derelicts him without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't he doesn't fall into water and drown), drown, of course). Killing a thug dings you, but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat beating him up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons.is fine. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
** You can ''throw'' the derelicts without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't fall into water and drown), but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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** You can ''throw'' throw the derelicts without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't fall into water and drown), but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint (far more than any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a ''complete'' saint.
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Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
** You can ''throw'' the derelicts without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't fall into water and drown), but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint, but no more than one would expect from a dedicated master Assassin.
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** You can ''throw'' the derelicts without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't fall into water and drown), but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint, but no restraint (far more than one would expect from any of the other Assassins we've seen, that's for sure), but he wasn't a dedicated master Assassin.''complete'' saint.
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*** I may have read it here, but something stated that the reason that Connor sees children and the others don't usually see them is that he remembers them as he seemed like a caring person who would note them. Ezio sees his younger brother as one of the only kids in the game was because his brother was important, and he wouldn't forget about his brother.
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*** Of note is the fact that the random nameless Templars that you can encounter in Damascus, Jerusalem, Acre, and the Kingdom will speak any of the languages that the guards can; in one place you'll find one speaking German, in another he'll be shouting at you in Turkish, and so on. It could be that--as mentioned above--the Templars only share a basic appearance because as far as Altair was concerned, they all looked the same (or the Animus was programmed to make all the Templars look the same so that they stood out better), and what they actually looked like when Altair saw them in his actual life is more like the culture that their language was attached to. For example, the Templars speaking Turkish may have looked little different from the Saracen soldiers that you encounter in Damascus or Jerusalem.
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Minor language history.
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*****Old High English and Old High German are quite nearly identical, it wasn't until after Romanization that the two started to diverge, and by the time of the Crusades, Old English and Old German were already gone, having evolved into Middle English and Middle German. So they would have some notable differences, but also Modern German has heavy French influence. Kind of a pain, what started as mostly two dialects of the same language has become 6 distinctly different languages.
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** The meta reason would be that the developers couldn't program Masyaf differently. The in-universe reason would probably be that it looks stupid for an Assassin to run and jump about like a monkey for no apparent reason. The Masyaf inhabitants are pretty tolerant about it, but they still think it makes no sense.
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** Paranoid people consistently look for evidence that proves or validates their fears, while ignoring evidence that disproves their fears. It's what makes them different from someone who's simply wary.
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** Paranoid people consistently look for evidence that proves or validates their fears, while ignoring evidence that disproves their fears. It's what makes them different from someone who's simply wary.wary.
*** Not to mention that it seems to be that the only one missing a finger is Altair himself.
*** Not to mention that it seems to be that the only one missing a finger is Altair himself.
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** Paranoid people have a tendency to ignore evidence that disproves their fears. If they didn't, they wouldn't be considered insane; In-game letters and dialogue indicate that Sibrand was paranoid before Altair started knocking off Templar leaders.
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** Paranoid people have a tendency to ignore consistently look for evidence that proves or validates their fears, while ignoring evidence that disproves their fears. If they didn't, they wouldn't be considered insane; In-game letters and dialogue indicate that Sibrand was paranoid before Altair started knocking off Templar leaders.It's what makes them different from someone who's simply wary.
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** In-game letters and dialogue indicate that Sibrand isn't quite sane. It's logical from his behavior that his form of insanity is paranoia, and finding out that Altair was knocking off the other Templar leaders one after the other would escalate his paranoia.
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** Paranoid people have a tendency to ignore evidence that disproves their fears. If they didn't, they wouldn't be considered insane; In-game letters and dialogue indicate that Sibrand isn't quite sane. It's logical from his behavior that his form of insanity is paranoia, and finding out that was paranoid before Altair was started knocking off the other Templar leaders one after the other would escalate his paranoia.leaders.
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* I get that he's overly paranoid, but really, Sibrand is a total dumbass. He kills a scholar because he thinks he's an assassin due to his clothes. Fair enough, despite the fact that ''that's the point'' of the assassins dressing like that, but shouldn't he have noticed that the scholar had all his fingers? The mark of an assassin is having your left ring finger amputated, which is often what gives them away.
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* I get that he's overly paranoid, but really, Sibrand is a total dumbass. He kills a scholar because he thinks he's an assassin due to his clothes. Fair enough, despite the fact that ''that's the point'' of the assassins dressing like that, but shouldn't he have noticed that the scholar had all his fingers? The mark of an assassin is having your left ring finger amputated, which is often what gives them away.away.
** In-game letters and dialogue indicate that Sibrand isn't quite sane. It's logical from his behavior that his form of insanity is paranoia, and finding out that Altair was knocking off the other Templar leaders one after the other would escalate his paranoia.
** In-game letters and dialogue indicate that Sibrand isn't quite sane. It's logical from his behavior that his form of insanity is paranoia, and finding out that Altair was knocking off the other Templar leaders one after the other would escalate his paranoia.
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** I think that, in fact, the Animus and Desmond along with it probably only exist to act as a convenient means by Ubisoft to deal with FridgeLogic. I mean, just about all of the games in the series could have had Desmond and rest of the modern day part of the game non-existent and it would have changed very little, the games are about various members of an ancient order of assassins running around assassinating people, and Desmond and the Animus are largely irrelevant to that.
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** I think that, in fact, the Animus and Desmond along with it probably only exist to act as a convenient means by Ubisoft to deal with FridgeLogic. I mean, just about all of the games in the series could have had Desmond and rest of the modern day part of the game non-existent and it would have changed very little, the games are about various members of an ancient order of assassins running around assassinating people, and Desmond and the Animus are largely irrelevant to that.that.
* I get that he's overly paranoid, but really, Sibrand is a total dumbass. He kills a scholar because he thinks he's an assassin due to his clothes. Fair enough, despite the fact that ''that's the point'' of the assassins dressing like that, but shouldn't he have noticed that the scholar had all his fingers? The mark of an assassin is having your left ring finger amputated, which is often what gives them away.
* I get that he's overly paranoid, but really, Sibrand is a total dumbass. He kills a scholar because he thinks he's an assassin due to his clothes. Fair enough, despite the fact that ''that's the point'' of the assassins dressing like that, but shouldn't he have noticed that the scholar had all his fingers? The mark of an assassin is having your left ring finger amputated, which is often what gives them away.
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*** And rightly so, since Garnier was ''creating'' more of them.
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* A lot of the justifying that the nature of the Animus is used for seems a little unnecessary. I mean sure the "videogame-like" environment helps to explain away some conventions and limitations of the medium, but translation conventions and the like really don't seem necessary to include in the machine. A memory is not a video, it's a thought. It would make perfect sense that Desmond can understand what people are saying because Altair understood it, because it's not the words that he's hearing, it's the memory of the words, the idea of the words, the meaning of the words.
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* A lot of the justifying that the nature of the Animus is used for seems a little unnecessary. I mean sure the "videogame-like" environment helps to explain away some conventions and limitations of the medium, but translation conventions and the like really don't seem necessary to include in the machine. A memory is not a video, it's a thought. It would make perfect sense that Desmond can understand what people are saying because Altair understood it, because it's not the words that he's hearing, it's the memory of the words, the idea of the words, the meaning of the words.words.
** I think that, in fact, the Animus and Desmond along with it probably only exist to act as a convenient means by Ubisoft to deal with FridgeLogic. I mean, just about all of the games in the series could have had Desmond and rest of the modern day part of the game non-existent and it would have changed very little, the games are about various members of an ancient order of assassins running around assassinating people, and Desmond and the Animus are largely irrelevant to that.
** I think that, in fact, the Animus and Desmond along with it probably only exist to act as a convenient means by Ubisoft to deal with FridgeLogic. I mean, just about all of the games in the series could have had Desmond and rest of the modern day part of the game non-existent and it would have changed very little, the games are about various members of an ancient order of assassins running around assassinating people, and Desmond and the Animus are largely irrelevant to that.
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** Why do the games even need lives or a game over setting? Most games these days just reload the previous checkpoint when you fail...''exactly like these ones do.'' Die in ''{{Halo}}''? Checkpoint. Die in ''{{Oblivion}}'' or ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''? Load the most recent save. Die in ''Arkham Asylum''? Checkpoint. Die or fail in ''Assassin's Creed''...checkpoint.
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** Why do the games even need lives or a game over setting? Most games these days just reload the previous checkpoint when you fail...''exactly like these ones do.'' Die in ''{{Halo}}''? Checkpoint. Die in ''{{Oblivion}}'' ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' or ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''? Load the most recent save. Die in ''Arkham Asylum''? Checkpoint. Die or fail in ''Assassin's Creed''...checkpoint.
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** The way I always saw it was that you could -never- take out the target exactly as your ancestor did. Presumably, Altair, Ezio and Connor dispatched their targets in such a way that allowed a few moments of privacy for the final speeches of their targets before bleeding out.
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** The way I always saw it was that you could -never- take out the target exactly as your ancestor did. Presumably, Altair, Ezio and Connor dispatched their targets in such a way that allowed a few moments of privacy for the final speeches of their targets before bleeding out.out.
* A lot of the justifying that the nature of the Animus is used for seems a little unnecessary. I mean sure the "videogame-like" environment helps to explain away some conventions and limitations of the medium, but translation conventions and the like really don't seem necessary to include in the machine. A memory is not a video, it's a thought. It would make perfect sense that Desmond can understand what people are saying because Altair understood it, because it's not the words that he's hearing, it's the memory of the words, the idea of the words, the meaning of the words.
* A lot of the justifying that the nature of the Animus is used for seems a little unnecessary. I mean sure the "videogame-like" environment helps to explain away some conventions and limitations of the medium, but translation conventions and the like really don't seem necessary to include in the machine. A memory is not a video, it's a thought. It would make perfect sense that Desmond can understand what people are saying because Altair understood it, because it's not the words that he's hearing, it's the memory of the words, the idea of the words, the meaning of the words.
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*** Except when the crowd is running and screaming their heads off. Walking slowly would be about the MOST conspicuous thing you can do in that case. Yet, it's running along with the crowd that will get you caught...
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helpin\'
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*** Also great is blocking off stairways by completing certain missions in <i>just</i> the right spot, rooting you in place as the cutscene plays out, and watching civilians who are shockingly determined to follow their routes suddenly begin climbing walls and jumping fences to get around you.
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* How do those TalkingIsAFreeActions death scenes with the targets work? Obviously the part of them walking around and gesturing while talking is part of the Animus glitch, but they should have either died instantly or at least been unable to talk after being stabbed in the throat, not to mention the fact that there are guards and civilains around. [[AWizardDidIt The Animus did it]] doesn't make sense either, As Altair directly mentions these conversations later on when conversing with others, this means that they actually happened and weren't just part of the Animus.
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* How do those TalkingIsAFreeActions death scenes with the targets work? Obviously the part of them walking around and gesturing while talking is part of the Animus glitch, but they should have either died instantly or at least been unable to talk after being stabbed in the throat, not to mention the fact that there are guards and civilains around. [[AWizardDidIt The Animus did it]] doesn't make sense either, As Altair directly mentions these conversations later on when conversing with others, this means that they actually happened and weren't just part of the Animus.Animus.
** The way I always saw it was that you could -never- take out the target exactly as your ancestor did. Presumably, Altair, Ezio and Connor dispatched their targets in such a way that allowed a few moments of privacy for the final speeches of their targets before bleeding out.
** The way I always saw it was that you could -never- take out the target exactly as your ancestor did. Presumably, Altair, Ezio and Connor dispatched their targets in such a way that allowed a few moments of privacy for the final speeches of their targets before bleeding out.
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** Eagle vision doesn't show allegiances. It shows INTENT. The guards are hostile. Al Mualim and Lucy ARE ALLIES. Al Mualim only tries to kill you when you stop doing his bidding. Lucy wants you to survive.
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** Eagle vision doesn't show allegiances. It shows INTENT. The guards are hostile. Al Mualim and Lucy ARE ALLIES. Al Mualim only tries to kill you when you stop doing his bidding. Lucy wants you to survive.survive.
* How do those TalkingIsAFreeActions death scenes with the targets work? Obviously the part of them walking around and gesturing while talking is part of the Animus glitch, but they should have either died instantly or at least been unable to talk after being stabbed in the throat, not to mention the fact that there are guards and civilains around. [[AWizardDidIt The Animus did it]] doesn't make sense either, As Altair directly mentions these conversations later on when conversing with others, this means that they actually happened and weren't just part of the Animus.
* How do those TalkingIsAFreeActions death scenes with the targets work? Obviously the part of them walking around and gesturing while talking is part of the Animus glitch, but they should have either died instantly or at least been unable to talk after being stabbed in the throat, not to mention the fact that there are guards and civilains around. [[AWizardDidIt The Animus did it]] doesn't make sense either, As Altair directly mentions these conversations later on when conversing with others, this means that they actually happened and weren't just part of the Animus.
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* Eagle vision/sense is supposed to be a supersense allowing it's user to, among other things, see past illusions and see a persons TRUE allegiance. So, how come, that Al Mualim doesn't appear red when Altair uses it? And how come Desmond see Lucy in blue after acquiring it, even though she was actually working for templars all along?
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* Eagle vision/sense is supposed to be a supersense allowing it's user to, among other things, see past illusions and see a persons TRUE allegiance. So, how come, that Al Mualim doesn't appear red when Altair uses it? And how come Desmond see Lucy in blue after acquiring it, even though she was actually working for templars all along?along?
** Eagle vision doesn't show allegiances. It shows INTENT. The guards are hostile. Al Mualim and Lucy ARE ALLIES. Al Mualim only tries to kill you when you stop doing his bidding. Lucy wants you to survive.
** Eagle vision doesn't show allegiances. It shows INTENT. The guards are hostile. Al Mualim and Lucy ARE ALLIES. Al Mualim only tries to kill you when you stop doing his bidding. Lucy wants you to survive.
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Removing wick to Did Not Do The Research per rename at TRS.
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** Despite the good explanations above, This Troper thinks there's another explanation. Consider: Jerusalem, the Jewish holy city, is marked by a cross when Acre already claims the cross in-game and Damascus has an Islamic crescent, and a piece of the Ark of the Covenant, an Israelite artifact if there ever was one, has a cross on it. They just DidNotDoTheResearch.
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** Despite the good explanations above, This Troper thinks there's another explanation. Consider: Jerusalem, the Jewish holy city, is marked by a cross when Acre already claims the cross in-game and Damascus has an Islamic crescent, and a piece of the Ark of the Covenant, an Israelite artifact if there ever was one, has a cross on it. They just DidNotDoTheResearch.
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**** This is their all-purpose explanation for DidNotDoTheResearch (but inexplicably hired a pair of historians they must not have listened to all the time) and any other element of laziness or convention. Why, for example, does Acre resemble a European city with a gothic cathedral that would have been cutting-edge for the time period (and thus, not in a war zone thousands of miles away from France without access to the skilled craftsmen and decades needed to build it)?
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**** This is their all-purpose explanation for DidNotDoTheResearch lazy research (but inexplicably hired a pair of historians they must not have listened to all the time) and any other element of laziness or convention. Why, for example, does Acre resemble a European city with a gothic cathedral that would have been cutting-edge for the time period (and thus, not in a war zone thousands of miles away from France without access to the skilled craftsmen and decades needed to build it)?
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* Why in ''AC I'' does the map at the end have modern borders?
** The Pieces of Eden are not restricted by silly things like "time." Ezio and Altaïr both used them to see the future, and Those Who Came Before explicitly possessed the ability to see into the future.
** Before I played ''AC II'', I wondered about this detail myself. After I finished ''AC II'', I realized that the map was intended for Desmond to see through the Animus.
* Am I the only one confused by the fact everybody from Masyaf is just as freaked out by Altaïr jumping all over the place as the rest of the cities in the game? Honestly Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre make sense as they've never met him before and probably assume he's just some madman in white, but the whole jumping off buildings and running all over the place should seem pretty common in a small city almost made up exclusively of Assassins.
** The entire city isn't made up of assassins, and I don't see hordes of white suited men flipping and jumping off walls regularly when I'm passing through it. Besides, there's no ''reason'' for an Assassin to be free-running through the city when there's that wondrous invention known as a "road" for them to use. I highly doubt that every Assassin leaving Masyaf leaves the same way the player usually does by cutting a straight line over the rooftops.
*** Also, most Assassins can't necessarily do things like Altaïr. They are novices, and he is Grand Master, after all.
* This will seem awfully selfish thinking, but how come there's not a single Jew in the entire Holy Land during this game? Did Altaïr really just never interact with enough Jew to have a memory of their existence?
** Well, there is a synagogue in Jerusalem.
** There most likely were plenty of Jews -- as said above, there's synagogues in Jerusalem. It's just the story is focused on Crusaders vs. Saracens, so the Jewish population isn't really important to this story. They're mentioned from time to time, and a good chunk of the people you meet in the streets are likely Jewish, but they don't stand out and aren't major players in the Crusades or the conflict between the Templars and Assassins at that point.
** This troper assumed the "scholars" in Damascus and Jerusalem were Jews. It would explain why they're always getting hassled by the guards.
** Despite the good explanations above, This Troper thinks there's another explanation. Consider: Jerusalem, the Jewish holy city, is marked by a cross when Acre already claims the cross in-game and Damascus has an Islamic crescent, and a piece of the Ark of the Covenant, an Israelite artifact if there ever was one, has a cross on it. They just DidNotDoTheResearch.
*** Jerusalem is claimed by Muslims and Christians as well. The cross most likely marked which "faction" was controlling the city and item.
*** That cross is the symbol of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Christian nation which was established at the end of the First Crusade. By the time of the game, Saladin had only recently taken the city, so it makes sense that that cross would still be associated with it.
*** Or, as some historians pointed out, by that time the actual Jews of Biblical times have been driven out, multiple times in fact. It's probable the game plays during one such exodus.
**** The second game features a Codex Page that shows the Pieces of Eden creating various religions and the religious symbols therein. No Jewish symbol is provided. Either this is a story element or Ubisoft feels it too politically incorrect to insult Judaism.
**** Actually, a Piece of Eden is included in Judaism, and has been since the beginning of the series: the Staff of Aaron, identified as the "Staff" in a glyph and in the short movie that was shown before the first game came out (which I cannot remember). There's also the Apple, obviously the Apple of Eden. Beyond that, this troper assumes (possibly erroneously) that the Star of David is more of a racial/cultural symbol than a religious one.
**** The Star of David is a relatively new addition as a symbol of the Judaist faith, though it has had uses in the culture for quite some time. It's a symbol of the religion in the modern days, but its uses were a lot more limited back then.
* How do the guards instantly know you're up to no good? "He's running! Get him, he's obviously an assassin!"
** Because of a strictly enforced pedestrian speed limit.
** Probably the long sword, sharp dagger, plethora of knives, white robe, the missing ring finger with a strange device attached to the stub, and the fact that you're not a guard or Templar, so you probably shouldn't have weapons in the first place, gave the guards enough evidence to deduce who and what you are.
*** Yet walking in this gear is perfectly permissible?
**** If someone walks past you on a crowded sidewalk, you're probably not going to notice. The guards (at least, early on) have no reason to be paranoid. Running through a crowd is a pretty damn noticeable thing to do, and ''that's'' when their attention is drawn to you.
*** Guards ''don't'' attack you if you run past them, unless you've just carried out an assassination and put the city on alert, or they have some other reason to suspect you, i.e. you just killed someone. If you run by them, they'll comment that you must be running from somebody and are suspicious, but if they don't have any other reason to suspect you, they'll let Altaïr go.
** I'm more bothered of why a galloping horse immediately gets identified as Assassin, but walking horse is not, even though that way the soldiers get a far better view of the rider.
*** The guards have horse sense?
*** Actually, that one makes sense. When traveling between cities in such a hot environment, you'd probably go easier on your mount than the game allows. Therefore, anyone galloping at top speed in the middle of nowhere is probably up to no good and likely running from someone, which makes sense for the guards to intervene.
**** Except that people galloping at top speed in those environments was a very common sight at the time; they were called messengers, and their job was to get bits of parchment from a general to another as quickly as possible.
*** Surely the old guy in the castle(and whoever is on the message's receiving end) isn't the only one smart enough to use a carrier pigeon.
*** If he's a messenger, he would be wearing a uniform and carry identification, and would slow down to identify himself to a guarded checkpoint, not blast straight through it at full gallop.
*** In that case, the 'running on foot' thing above is justified, too. Pedestrians even say, "He must be running from someone!"
** Well, Assassins have a very distinct mode of dress, with bright red sashes and white robes. Plus, you know, two swords, fifteen knives, shiny metal gauntlet, fingerless gloves, combat boots....its less a question of how they know you're an Assassin and more a question of how they ''don't'' notice you're one.
*** Well, there are many kinds of knights in the Middle East at that time, and red and white are a very popular color-combination (*cough* Templars *cough*). It wouldn't be unlikely that Altaïr gets mistaken for a knight who isn't wearing his armor at the moment. Unfortunately the dialogue implies that he gets mistaken for a monk, instead. Now there were many monks in the Crusades who weren't averse of bashing some unbeliever skulls, but due to the canon law, they were only allowed to use blunt weapons, so the collection of sharp blades should really have made it obvious that Altaïr ain't no clergy.
**** The blunt weapons thing is a myth. The Templars were all monks, and they used swords and spears as well as flails, maces, and morning stars.
*** Plus, its the ''sash'' that should really give it away that he's an Assassin. ''Everyone'' from Masyaf wears one, it seems. White robes, lots of weapons, sash from a very specific town with its giant Doom Fortress full of Assassins...
*** Obviously, the developers were too lazy to implement a disguise mechanic.
**** Or any reasonable methods of stealth or guard AI. If you're the only person standing around in a pile of a dozen dead guards and crusaders they'll just keep asking themselves who must have done this. Walk away slowly and they won't care. You can even stab a man in public, quickly turn around and run away at top speed and they often won't show up until you're down the block and no longer looking for you. But if a crazy person pushes you into them you're obviously an Assassin.
*** I think the idea is that a crowd offers a far better disguise than any article of clothing, or lack of such. Therefore, for the guards to recognize Altaïr, they'd first need to actually spot him in the mass of variously dressed people. This makes those times when he's not noticed without having a crowd to surround him seem a bit nonsensical.
*** I always figured it was because the guards were, well, ''guards''. Presumably they ''aren't'' going to notice someone unless they're acting out of the ordinary, and most of their time is spent wandering around with nothing to do, standing guard through hour upon hour of dull, boring tedium. It's been shown time and again in real life that security guards can be bypassed by anyone who looks vaguely like they belong, unless the guards have very specific orders to not let people pass without clearance.
** The answer seems clear enough to me. When you're walking you blend in with the crowd. When you run you draw attention to yourself. (If you were walking down the street and all of a sudden a guy appears out of nowhere running at full speed, wouldn't you turn to watch him?) And when the guards start paying attention to you they can instantly see you're an assassin, hence they begin to chase you.
** The literal answer here is that [[ShowWithinAShow the Animus is essentially a video game]]. A hyper-advanced video game based on Altaïr's memories, but still a video game, and thus has characters acting in odd, illogical manners. In effect, the Animus is one giant lampshade of all video game tropes. You take an action within the context of the Animus' simulation that would alert guards, and they're onto you.
*** As an added point, the instruction manual, largely written as Vidic and Lucy's research notes, specifically states that they designed the Animus to provide the user with a video-game-like interface based on the assumption that their subjects would have a much easier time learning it. Vidic's notes say the assumption was correct.
** I would chalk it up it being, yes, a ShowWithinAShow, but possibly the Animus replaced what Altaïr would have actually worn with an identifiable "Assassin's" outfit, as well as the other guys. Altaïr would have the ability to recognize his assassin friends by face and posture and what not, but since you don't, the Animus helps you out by giving everyone obvious outfits.
** Guards probably have a lousy track record against Assassins. If you were a guard, and you thought someone just walking by, not doing anything wrong, was an assassin, would you really want to provoke him if you didn't really have to?
* The one that pissed me off even more in Ass Creed is when the guards are alerted by you being pushed by a leper. "He let that leper push him, the punishment for that is death!" Seriously, WTF?, Animus?
** Getting pushed by a leper draws attention. It makes the guards notice you, and ''then'' they notice the other odd things about you.
* To be honest, I'd be more interested in knowing how ordinary guards (who probably don't deal with such agile adversaries on a daily basis) are capable of duplicating nearly all of Altaïr's acrobatic feats. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop while in pursuit, climbing ledges... those guys sure are fast.
** In ''full armor'' no less. The Crusaders are awfully fit.
*** This Troper had a hilarious encounter where he saw a guard who had been chasing him jump up ten feet and grab a ledge I had been spending some time climbing.
*** Ditto. Seeing a guard who had lost track of Altaïr fling himself off a three story building, dust himself off, and continue his patrol was particularly memorable.
*** Even more hilarious is spooked drunks who have trouble standing jump from pole to pole when spooked in Acre's port.
** Since the Animus levels are all being built out of Altaïr's memories, it's possible these super-guards aren't really accurate to what he really faced, but are rather Altaïr's ''impression'' of what it's like to be chased through a city. Altaïr must have felt constantly threatened and hounded everywhere he went, so the Animus translates this paranoia to Desmond by creating guards that can always be one step behind him. This would explain why all the beggars, drunks, and mentally ill people only follow or attack Altaïr -- he believed the whole world was out to get him, so the Animus made it so. Remember that any place you can die in the game isn't really where the real Altaïr died -- it's just Desmond letting his mind wander.
*** That was... [[FridgeBrilliance brilliant]].
** They can grab a ledge directly overhead and jump between rooftops, but not any of the tricky stuff (climb up windows, grab ledges from jumps, jump from walls, etc.). A bit more than you'd expect from the average flatfoot, but not totally outlandish; desperation and rage are pretty powerful motivators.
* Something that bugs me is why the writers chose to have the game take place in 1191 with the penultimate level being the Battle of Arsuf (which took place in early September of that year) and not in 1192, the year of the Third Crusade's final battle (the Battle of Jaffa). This would have allowed the writers to use Conrad of Monferrat as they had originally planned (instead of his father William), and matched up the death dates of the other historical characters with the death year of their historical counterparts -- Garnier de Naplouse, Sibrand, Robert de Sablé, and even Al Mualim (based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_ad-Din_Sinan Rashid ad-Din Sinan]]). Why, Ubisoft? WHY?
** Because that was when it "actually" happened. The fact that everything takes place at an ahistorical date is probably a relatively subtle nod by the developers that the Templars are quietly rewriting history.
* Anyone else feel a loss of suspense upon finding out how the Animus works in the first cutscene? After all, genes, and thus, '{{genetic memory}}', are passed on in the moment of conception. The logical conclusion is that the Medieval Altaïr will ultimately survive whatever disasters the future titles will throw at him, since his descendant shouldn't have any memory of what Altaïr did after fathering him.
** Well even without that, the player character was hardly likely to suffer PlotlineDeath mid-game so I wouldn't see that as a particularly large source of tension anyway.
*** That was also how it worked in the ''{{Prince of Persia}}'' series, but that didn't exactly strip it of all the suspense, as there is a large gaping hole from where the story starts and the story ends and the ways to get through them.
** But the same can be said of nearly every video game. If the main character dies, it's usually game over, can't really play without the playable character. Besides, I don't think GeneticMemory is exactly scientifically accurate, so thusly the Animus may be able to see things past his conception. Though while we're talking about character death, isn't it kinda interesting that no matter what Altaïr does, he will have been long dead by the actual events of the game?
** Actually, since the next game is supposedly going to be set a few centuries later, it doesn't particularly matter anyway.
** I just interpreted it as ''Desmond'' being the one in danger. Damned if he doesn't get the memory fast enough, damned if he does. They try and press this angle in the game during the chapter interludes, repeatedly saying his life is at stake to show the danger he's in, but you're right, this game has no GameOver condition. Maybe the sequel might do "lives", with a set number of synchronizations possible before the memories are completely locked/the genes damaged/etc?
** Not sure what you're getting at here. The whole point of the Animus is that you need to "synchronize" with the ancestor, i.e. do what he did (which also means no harming of innocents, no matter how aggravating or intrusive they get...DAMN, that was a whopper of a rookie mistake by Ubisoft). If Altaïr dies or lets a target get away, the program shuts down because ''that didn't happen''. The suspense doesn't come from whether Altaïr succeeds or fails, it's what the ''results'' of his successes ultimately ''were'' (and by extension, how much they differ from the history books). It's exactly the same for Ezio Auditore, BTW (and there are no life or synchronization limits of any kind).
** Why do the games even need lives or a game over setting? Most games these days just reload the previous checkpoint when you fail...''exactly like these ones do.'' Die in ''{{Halo}}''? Checkpoint. Die in ''{{Oblivion}}'' or ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''? Load the most recent save. Die in ''Arkham Asylum''? Checkpoint. Die or fail in ''Assassin's Creed''...checkpoint.
* Okay, so you run into random Templars, in full Templar gear, right? Now, their emblem is a big red cross on the front of their smock. Obviously Christian imagery, right? So why the heck are they in Jerusalem and Damascus, both of which are under Saracean control? Why doesn't the guards attack them, but instead protect and aid them? Somebody explain this to me!
** The game explains that all your targets are actually Templars themselves, so presumably the Saracen soldiers have been instructed to treat the Templar foot soldiers as allies.
** Considering both of the rulers of Damascus and Jerusalem are Templars...
*** Also, remember that ''Assassin's Creed'' is an ''abstraction'' of Altaïr's memories. It could simply be that the Animus makes the Templars into what is an obviously Templar-esque guise to help make them distinctive in its simulation.
** Ay, wait a sec! This troper had a fight with a Templar in Jerusalem, some guards come, and guess what? They attack the Templar! Not me! (But I killed all of them, including the Templar.)
* Am I the only one that found it weird that everyone in Acre had English accents? It's not like being taken over by a foreign force makes everyone change ethnicity and linguistic background at the drop of a hat! (It may not have been Acre, but I remember that one of the cities was like this.)
** If you're speaking about a city seen in the Animus, surely you realize you're talking about a city which ''wouldn't be speaking in Modern English in the first place''.
** If you bothered talking with Lucy, Desmond asks about this right off the bat. Lucy explains that the Animus translates everything into understandable English for ease of understanding, and that she ''could'' make it sound more "authentic" but that would be like reading Chaucer.
*** The point was that the regular civilians in Acre are pale-skinned European types speaking with English accents, while the other cities are populated by swarthy Middle-Eastern types with Arab or similar accents. It does not make sense that Acre would be inhabited entirely by Europeans that have not even adapted their manner of dress to the local climate.
*** Animus. ''Animus. '''ANIMUS.''' '' Every single aspect of what happens inside the Animus cannot be considered "real" because the Animus is, for all intents and purposes, ''a video game''.
**** This is their all-purpose explanation for DidNotDoTheResearch (but inexplicably hired a pair of historians they must not have listened to all the time) and any other element of laziness or convention. Why, for example, does Acre resemble a European city with a gothic cathedral that would have been cutting-edge for the time period (and thus, not in a war zone thousands of miles away from France without access to the skilled craftsmen and decades needed to build it)?
*** Not to mention that with the exception of the previous four years, Acre had been under Crusader control for the better part of a century and in 1191 would have been teeming with newly-arrived (and therefore improperly-dressed) Europeans thanks to the Third Crusade -- presumably the designers wanted to reflect that. Even so, making them ''all'' European, let alone British, is still overkill.
*** Abstergo already bothered hiring multiple voice actors for the "video game" only one guy ever plays. I guess a little bit of cost cutting.
** They aren't all English. There are French and German people in Acre too. Any soldier who's wearing a helmet will jabber at you in French or German. Also keep in mind that the Animus is an abstraction of Altaïr's memories and impressions. He likely noticed the Englishmen standing out more than the French and Germans and the Animus translates that into "Everyone in Acre is English."
* And speaking of accents, why is it that Robert de Sable has a French accent, while Richard does not? The historical Richard spoke hardly any English, spent very little time in England and his native language was certainly French. It is at the very least an inconsistency in the TranslationConvention, and I believe it happened because giving him a French accent would lead to a RealityIsUnrealistic situation caused by people believing that an English king should ''sound'' English too.
** [[AWizardDidIt The Animus did it.]] That is ''literally'' the explanation here; accents exist because the Animus artificially introduced them.
*** Richard's accent does sound French though, doesn't it? It certainly didn't sound English to this troper.
*** IIRC, England was ruled at the time by the descendants of the Normans, who came from France.
** That leads to another problem -- some of the guards are speaking German (I think). Why doesn't this translate? Is it because Altaïr didn't speak German, and if so, why would an Assassin know English and French in the first place?
*** That's not German, that's Old English.
**** Old English and German really don't sound anything alike. It's recognizably German.
*** ....for the same reason ''everyone'' learns foreign languages? He's an ''assassin''. Knowing a foreign language would be ''useful''.
**** Why on Earth would an Assassin based in the ''Middle East'' learn German?
*** I dunno, maybe the fact that every so often they get hit by a Crusade that ''includes Germans'', perhaps?
*** It also makes the game more interesting if you can speak those languages. Hearing some French Templar shout that his wrath will be terrible in his native tongue certainly adds to the atmosphere.
*** Since Desmond understands English, and his ancestor understands Arabic, then both of them will sound like English. Neither Desmond nor Altaïr knew French or German; therefore, they remain untranslated, since Altaïr would have not been able to understand them, and because Desmond doesn't either.
*** One would think that the Animus itself could make up for that, though. Lucy was talking about the Animus translating for everyone (see the post above that includes the word "Chaucer"). I didn't get the sense that it was because Altaïr knew Arabic that it was translated for Desmond; if that was true, he'd more likely hear Arabic, but be able to understand it.
*** AC: Brotherhood addresses this. Rebecca and Desmond talk about understanding things, and Rebecca says that the Anumus 2.0's translation software is still imperfect, leaving some expressions in Italian untranslated. She then says that it works well enough in its present form, but if Ezio encounters any French or German, he's out of luck. Lo and behold, any French or German soldiers in AC:B are still untranslated. TL;DR - The Animus translates Old English, Arabic, and Italian, but not French or German.
*** This seems to be consistent in Revelations, where Altair seems to have gained an accent during his playable missions, seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiARH6kHMMw
* So near the end of the game, you talk to Lucy and there's one of those "glitch" moments which shows you close up of her hand and you see she's missing a finger, letting you know she's an Assassin...so how come throughout the rest of the game, you can look at her and she has all ten fingers in tact? More importantly, why would a modern day Assassin still do the finger removal thing anyway? I thought it was done to make access to the hidden blade easier, they haven't found a way to improve this method after hundreds of years? (made even worse by the fact that the finger removal is apparently no longer used by the time of ''Assassin's Creed II''.)
** Or she could have just pulled her finger back against her palm.
*** Your right that they don't need to remove their finger, nor in fact that they do. It's just symbolism, like a secret handshake.
*** I'm gonna say it's either this or that she has some kind of false-finger she wears to keep her bosses from seeing that she's an Assassin.
*** I always thought it was like above said, a gesture. I'm pretty sure TheOtherWiki says the same thing
**** Wait...It's a Gesture...Missing the ring finger....Holy shit, I'm never looking at someone throwing up "The Shocker" the same way again.
*** It's pretty clear she's just pulling the finger back. Like how if you equip the Altaïr armor in [=MGS4=] Snake pulls that finger back into his palm, but if you look it's still there.
** It should be obvious she's pulling her finger back. Look at her hands at any point in either game. She's got ten fingers, all full length. This is something that could have been verified by a single glimpse in first-person.
*** OK, small point, but where in the hell did this missing finger stuff come from? When were we told or shown that he's missing a finger to access his blade? I just always assumed that it came out from under his wrist... y'know, like we've seen in every other work to use a similar device. I didn't even notice her missing finger/gesture and wondered why Desmond is suddenly checking out her rack and only then figures out what she's been hinting pretty strongly the entire time.
*** It should have been obvious if you were paying attention to Altair's character model. He's missing his ring finger; if you look closely, you can actually ''see'' the blade pass through the space where his ring finger should be. It's also especially visible during pickpocket sequences, where Altair is reaching out toward his target with fingers extended. In ACII Leonardo even says that they have to lop off the ring finger as a "sacrifice" to use the blade.
* A small point in the meta-plot: Lucy claims that though she finished her Ph.D. no university or company wanted anything to do with her since they considered her research pseudoscience. But if that was the case, how could she have been allowed to finish her research at all, much less pass the disputation? If she couldn't back up her hypothesis with data acquired through experiments and/or direct observation, she wouldn't be allowed to complete her doctorate. If she could back it up, then they would be forced to acknowledge that her research has merit and is, in fact, real science.
** Because not a few moments after she tells you that, she points out that the Templars were manipulating everything to keep her from finding a job.
** IIRC, she said she was ''working'' on her Ph.D., not finished with it.
* It just bugs me that there are no children anywhere, and no missions take place at night. I can buy Altaïr going for the "blend in the crowds" route, which would be much harder at night, but night recon and assassinations shouldn't be summarily ruled out.
** HideYourChildren, and its all taking place inside the simulation provided by the Animus. Most of the assassinations are taking place during the day, too, though dialogue does indicate that the assassination of Abun Nakood is supposed the be at night.
** I would say it's because the developers wanted to avoid potential controversy by allowing you to kill children, but also avoiding InfantImmortality.
** Like the above tropers said, HideYourChildren and avoiding InfantImmortality. But I have something to add: no matter how innovative and realistic a game is, it's not going to avoid every unrealistic trope in existence. Game designers can only do so much.
*** Like justify it with the animus AKA a video game within a video game. A lot more clever than just saying 'deal with it'.
*** For the record, there are a total of three children in AC2, but they're strictly plot elements and you can't do anything to them.
* Where is everybody getting this AmbiguouslyGay vibe from Abdul Nuqoud? Maybe it's just me but I don't see it at all.
** 1. Caressing that muscular black soldier's arm. 2. Saying that he can't worship a God that considers him an "abomination". There's probably more that I can't think of on the spot.
*** This troper interpreted it always as that Abdul is unsatisfied with his looks (he is fat and, from what I remember, his face is even deformed) and touching the guard could be to show an example of what he considers beauty. I don´t know if the last part is consistent with the dialogue.
*** See, this troper (OP) thought it was because Abdul was either not Muslim or not Arabic (or both).
*** This troper thought it was because he was a leper (they weren't well thought of throughout history), and brushing the soldier's arm was an indication that blacks were not tolerated either, something he hoped to correct.
* When you get hit, you lose synchronization. When you fall, you lose synchronization. Attracting and fighting guards does not make you lose synchronization. Hence, in all of the many, many, ''many'' sword fights you get in...Altaïr was '''never''' hit. Not once. And he never fell, either. Never got frustrated and shoved one of those bastard lepers into a wall, face first. [[{{Troperiffic}} Naturally]], [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife we've]] [[MemeticBadass picked up]] [[WMG/GrandUnifyingGuesses on this]].
** Especially interesting is that, in combat, the [[spoiler:Templar Treasure's powers of illusion]] are represented by dropping the synchronization bar to deadly levels. Which means that Altaïr either finished the fight a lot quicker, or was ''completely immune'' to the power of the [[spoiler:Piece of Eden]].
*** Check FridgeBrilliance right up above. Not only is Altaïr immune to it, [[spoiler:Al-Mualim ''taught him how to be immune to it''!]]
*** Actually, you can defeat him without getting to the "losing sync" phase. Just switch to your hidden blade in the last fighting segment [[spoiler: after fighting the illusions of your targets and the multiple Al-Mualims]] and counter-kill him.
*** I always assumed that being under the effects of the [[spoiler:illusion]] disrupted Altaïr's attempt's to remember it. Naturally, syncing up with poor memories is more difficult than syncing up with good ones.
** Of course he never got hit. You know what happens when you get hit by a sword? You die, or at least get a very deep cut that's going to make a bloody mess and be generally inconvenient. As for falling, if somebody falls from the heights Altaïr and Ezio mess with, they're going to get broken bones, which means no more assassination fun time. In real life, you don't just dust yourself off and continue on when you get sliced up by a sword or fall forty feet.
*** As noted above, the Assassins appear to be NotQuiteHuman; Desmond, for example, is able to do everything Ezio and Altaïr do in terms of acrobatics and strength in the real world, and Ezio is shown getting stabbed in the gut by a knife and recovering a few minutes later with no ill effects.
**** That's pretty much confirmed in one of Subject 16's puzzles. After choosing five pictures showing ancient Greek and Roman myths of gods gettin' it on with mortal women, Subject 16 declares in all his crazy glory, "The seeds were planted as two worlds became one. Behold, the Assassins, the children of two worlds!"
** You can ''throw'' the derelicts without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't fall into water and drown), but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint, but no more than one would expect from a dedicated master Assassin.
* I don't really get King Richard's logic: If you kill 10 knights and Robert De Sable, you are right; if you die, you are wrong. Eh?
** Possibly the idea was that if he could overcome such odds he must be divinely favoured or something, and therefore it pays to listen to him.
** Trial by Combat was a real thing used at the time. As the previous troper says, the idea is that god will make sure the righteous person wins a fight to the death, and so you can use the fight itself to determine who is right.
** Pretty much. Some things are made of Richard's reliance on "the insubstantial" and he is a devout Catholic, so he would naturally believe that God favors the one whose cause is most just, and thus whoever wins the struggle would be in the right. His beliefs are perfectly in line with those of the day.
** One of those unfortunate cases where the programmers had to settle for the least bad option. As someone on The Straight Dope boards pointed, out, duels calling for the judgment of God were ''duels''. Eleven against one is a lynching (or, when someone like Altair is involved, a slaughter). Unfortunately, for anyone who's made it this far, a one-on-one fight is nothing...heck, you gotta plow through about forty guys in this stage alone! Since there are only so many fighting moves, the only way to make a duel against Robert any kind of challenge would be to make him amazingly durable (nonsensical and boring as hell) or give him some kind of power or advantage (also nonsensical and ''really'' detracts from the climactic showdown against Al-Mualim). Giving Robert help wasn't honorable, but it was pretty much all he had.
* The lepers in the first game- everyone calls them lepers, but they don't actually appear to have leprosy. Insanity isn't a symptom, and they aren't covered in sores and seem to have all their limbs.
** "Lepers" is actually a FanNickname. I forgot what the official name for them was - it was something along the lines of "Madmen", I think. If you had a serious mental illness in those days, to the point where it affected your functioning like that, there was fuck-all anyone could do to explain or mitigate it (except what Garnier was doing), so they just got dumped into the streets. Note they turn up much, much more frequently after Altair assassinates Garnier. That's what became of Garnier's "children". Altair must have been proud.
* Eagle vision/sense is supposed to be a supersense allowing it's user to, among other things, see past illusions and see a persons TRUE allegiance. So, how come, that Al Mualim doesn't appear red when Altair uses it? And how come Desmond see Lucy in blue after acquiring it, even though she was actually working for templars all along?
** The Pieces of Eden are not restricted by silly things like "time." Ezio and Altaïr both used them to see the future, and Those Who Came Before explicitly possessed the ability to see into the future.
** Before I played ''AC II'', I wondered about this detail myself. After I finished ''AC II'', I realized that the map was intended for Desmond to see through the Animus.
* Am I the only one confused by the fact everybody from Masyaf is just as freaked out by Altaïr jumping all over the place as the rest of the cities in the game? Honestly Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre make sense as they've never met him before and probably assume he's just some madman in white, but the whole jumping off buildings and running all over the place should seem pretty common in a small city almost made up exclusively of Assassins.
** The entire city isn't made up of assassins, and I don't see hordes of white suited men flipping and jumping off walls regularly when I'm passing through it. Besides, there's no ''reason'' for an Assassin to be free-running through the city when there's that wondrous invention known as a "road" for them to use. I highly doubt that every Assassin leaving Masyaf leaves the same way the player usually does by cutting a straight line over the rooftops.
*** Also, most Assassins can't necessarily do things like Altaïr. They are novices, and he is Grand Master, after all.
* This will seem awfully selfish thinking, but how come there's not a single Jew in the entire Holy Land during this game? Did Altaïr really just never interact with enough Jew to have a memory of their existence?
** Well, there is a synagogue in Jerusalem.
** There most likely were plenty of Jews -- as said above, there's synagogues in Jerusalem. It's just the story is focused on Crusaders vs. Saracens, so the Jewish population isn't really important to this story. They're mentioned from time to time, and a good chunk of the people you meet in the streets are likely Jewish, but they don't stand out and aren't major players in the Crusades or the conflict between the Templars and Assassins at that point.
** This troper assumed the "scholars" in Damascus and Jerusalem were Jews. It would explain why they're always getting hassled by the guards.
** Despite the good explanations above, This Troper thinks there's another explanation. Consider: Jerusalem, the Jewish holy city, is marked by a cross when Acre already claims the cross in-game and Damascus has an Islamic crescent, and a piece of the Ark of the Covenant, an Israelite artifact if there ever was one, has a cross on it. They just DidNotDoTheResearch.
*** Jerusalem is claimed by Muslims and Christians as well. The cross most likely marked which "faction" was controlling the city and item.
*** That cross is the symbol of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Christian nation which was established at the end of the First Crusade. By the time of the game, Saladin had only recently taken the city, so it makes sense that that cross would still be associated with it.
*** Or, as some historians pointed out, by that time the actual Jews of Biblical times have been driven out, multiple times in fact. It's probable the game plays during one such exodus.
**** The second game features a Codex Page that shows the Pieces of Eden creating various religions and the religious symbols therein. No Jewish symbol is provided. Either this is a story element or Ubisoft feels it too politically incorrect to insult Judaism.
**** Actually, a Piece of Eden is included in Judaism, and has been since the beginning of the series: the Staff of Aaron, identified as the "Staff" in a glyph and in the short movie that was shown before the first game came out (which I cannot remember). There's also the Apple, obviously the Apple of Eden. Beyond that, this troper assumes (possibly erroneously) that the Star of David is more of a racial/cultural symbol than a religious one.
**** The Star of David is a relatively new addition as a symbol of the Judaist faith, though it has had uses in the culture for quite some time. It's a symbol of the religion in the modern days, but its uses were a lot more limited back then.
* How do the guards instantly know you're up to no good? "He's running! Get him, he's obviously an assassin!"
** Because of a strictly enforced pedestrian speed limit.
** Probably the long sword, sharp dagger, plethora of knives, white robe, the missing ring finger with a strange device attached to the stub, and the fact that you're not a guard or Templar, so you probably shouldn't have weapons in the first place, gave the guards enough evidence to deduce who and what you are.
*** Yet walking in this gear is perfectly permissible?
**** If someone walks past you on a crowded sidewalk, you're probably not going to notice. The guards (at least, early on) have no reason to be paranoid. Running through a crowd is a pretty damn noticeable thing to do, and ''that's'' when their attention is drawn to you.
*** Guards ''don't'' attack you if you run past them, unless you've just carried out an assassination and put the city on alert, or they have some other reason to suspect you, i.e. you just killed someone. If you run by them, they'll comment that you must be running from somebody and are suspicious, but if they don't have any other reason to suspect you, they'll let Altaïr go.
** I'm more bothered of why a galloping horse immediately gets identified as Assassin, but walking horse is not, even though that way the soldiers get a far better view of the rider.
*** The guards have horse sense?
*** Actually, that one makes sense. When traveling between cities in such a hot environment, you'd probably go easier on your mount than the game allows. Therefore, anyone galloping at top speed in the middle of nowhere is probably up to no good and likely running from someone, which makes sense for the guards to intervene.
**** Except that people galloping at top speed in those environments was a very common sight at the time; they were called messengers, and their job was to get bits of parchment from a general to another as quickly as possible.
*** Surely the old guy in the castle(and whoever is on the message's receiving end) isn't the only one smart enough to use a carrier pigeon.
*** If he's a messenger, he would be wearing a uniform and carry identification, and would slow down to identify himself to a guarded checkpoint, not blast straight through it at full gallop.
*** In that case, the 'running on foot' thing above is justified, too. Pedestrians even say, "He must be running from someone!"
** Well, Assassins have a very distinct mode of dress, with bright red sashes and white robes. Plus, you know, two swords, fifteen knives, shiny metal gauntlet, fingerless gloves, combat boots....its less a question of how they know you're an Assassin and more a question of how they ''don't'' notice you're one.
*** Well, there are many kinds of knights in the Middle East at that time, and red and white are a very popular color-combination (*cough* Templars *cough*). It wouldn't be unlikely that Altaïr gets mistaken for a knight who isn't wearing his armor at the moment. Unfortunately the dialogue implies that he gets mistaken for a monk, instead. Now there were many monks in the Crusades who weren't averse of bashing some unbeliever skulls, but due to the canon law, they were only allowed to use blunt weapons, so the collection of sharp blades should really have made it obvious that Altaïr ain't no clergy.
**** The blunt weapons thing is a myth. The Templars were all monks, and they used swords and spears as well as flails, maces, and morning stars.
*** Plus, its the ''sash'' that should really give it away that he's an Assassin. ''Everyone'' from Masyaf wears one, it seems. White robes, lots of weapons, sash from a very specific town with its giant Doom Fortress full of Assassins...
*** Obviously, the developers were too lazy to implement a disguise mechanic.
**** Or any reasonable methods of stealth or guard AI. If you're the only person standing around in a pile of a dozen dead guards and crusaders they'll just keep asking themselves who must have done this. Walk away slowly and they won't care. You can even stab a man in public, quickly turn around and run away at top speed and they often won't show up until you're down the block and no longer looking for you. But if a crazy person pushes you into them you're obviously an Assassin.
*** I think the idea is that a crowd offers a far better disguise than any article of clothing, or lack of such. Therefore, for the guards to recognize Altaïr, they'd first need to actually spot him in the mass of variously dressed people. This makes those times when he's not noticed without having a crowd to surround him seem a bit nonsensical.
*** I always figured it was because the guards were, well, ''guards''. Presumably they ''aren't'' going to notice someone unless they're acting out of the ordinary, and most of their time is spent wandering around with nothing to do, standing guard through hour upon hour of dull, boring tedium. It's been shown time and again in real life that security guards can be bypassed by anyone who looks vaguely like they belong, unless the guards have very specific orders to not let people pass without clearance.
** The answer seems clear enough to me. When you're walking you blend in with the crowd. When you run you draw attention to yourself. (If you were walking down the street and all of a sudden a guy appears out of nowhere running at full speed, wouldn't you turn to watch him?) And when the guards start paying attention to you they can instantly see you're an assassin, hence they begin to chase you.
** The literal answer here is that [[ShowWithinAShow the Animus is essentially a video game]]. A hyper-advanced video game based on Altaïr's memories, but still a video game, and thus has characters acting in odd, illogical manners. In effect, the Animus is one giant lampshade of all video game tropes. You take an action within the context of the Animus' simulation that would alert guards, and they're onto you.
*** As an added point, the instruction manual, largely written as Vidic and Lucy's research notes, specifically states that they designed the Animus to provide the user with a video-game-like interface based on the assumption that their subjects would have a much easier time learning it. Vidic's notes say the assumption was correct.
** I would chalk it up it being, yes, a ShowWithinAShow, but possibly the Animus replaced what Altaïr would have actually worn with an identifiable "Assassin's" outfit, as well as the other guys. Altaïr would have the ability to recognize his assassin friends by face and posture and what not, but since you don't, the Animus helps you out by giving everyone obvious outfits.
** Guards probably have a lousy track record against Assassins. If you were a guard, and you thought someone just walking by, not doing anything wrong, was an assassin, would you really want to provoke him if you didn't really have to?
* The one that pissed me off even more in Ass Creed is when the guards are alerted by you being pushed by a leper. "He let that leper push him, the punishment for that is death!" Seriously, WTF?, Animus?
** Getting pushed by a leper draws attention. It makes the guards notice you, and ''then'' they notice the other odd things about you.
* To be honest, I'd be more interested in knowing how ordinary guards (who probably don't deal with such agile adversaries on a daily basis) are capable of duplicating nearly all of Altaïr's acrobatic feats. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop while in pursuit, climbing ledges... those guys sure are fast.
** In ''full armor'' no less. The Crusaders are awfully fit.
*** This Troper had a hilarious encounter where he saw a guard who had been chasing him jump up ten feet and grab a ledge I had been spending some time climbing.
*** Ditto. Seeing a guard who had lost track of Altaïr fling himself off a three story building, dust himself off, and continue his patrol was particularly memorable.
*** Even more hilarious is spooked drunks who have trouble standing jump from pole to pole when spooked in Acre's port.
** Since the Animus levels are all being built out of Altaïr's memories, it's possible these super-guards aren't really accurate to what he really faced, but are rather Altaïr's ''impression'' of what it's like to be chased through a city. Altaïr must have felt constantly threatened and hounded everywhere he went, so the Animus translates this paranoia to Desmond by creating guards that can always be one step behind him. This would explain why all the beggars, drunks, and mentally ill people only follow or attack Altaïr -- he believed the whole world was out to get him, so the Animus made it so. Remember that any place you can die in the game isn't really where the real Altaïr died -- it's just Desmond letting his mind wander.
*** That was... [[FridgeBrilliance brilliant]].
** They can grab a ledge directly overhead and jump between rooftops, but not any of the tricky stuff (climb up windows, grab ledges from jumps, jump from walls, etc.). A bit more than you'd expect from the average flatfoot, but not totally outlandish; desperation and rage are pretty powerful motivators.
* Something that bugs me is why the writers chose to have the game take place in 1191 with the penultimate level being the Battle of Arsuf (which took place in early September of that year) and not in 1192, the year of the Third Crusade's final battle (the Battle of Jaffa). This would have allowed the writers to use Conrad of Monferrat as they had originally planned (instead of his father William), and matched up the death dates of the other historical characters with the death year of their historical counterparts -- Garnier de Naplouse, Sibrand, Robert de Sablé, and even Al Mualim (based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_ad-Din_Sinan Rashid ad-Din Sinan]]). Why, Ubisoft? WHY?
** Because that was when it "actually" happened. The fact that everything takes place at an ahistorical date is probably a relatively subtle nod by the developers that the Templars are quietly rewriting history.
* Anyone else feel a loss of suspense upon finding out how the Animus works in the first cutscene? After all, genes, and thus, '{{genetic memory}}', are passed on in the moment of conception. The logical conclusion is that the Medieval Altaïr will ultimately survive whatever disasters the future titles will throw at him, since his descendant shouldn't have any memory of what Altaïr did after fathering him.
** Well even without that, the player character was hardly likely to suffer PlotlineDeath mid-game so I wouldn't see that as a particularly large source of tension anyway.
*** That was also how it worked in the ''{{Prince of Persia}}'' series, but that didn't exactly strip it of all the suspense, as there is a large gaping hole from where the story starts and the story ends and the ways to get through them.
** But the same can be said of nearly every video game. If the main character dies, it's usually game over, can't really play without the playable character. Besides, I don't think GeneticMemory is exactly scientifically accurate, so thusly the Animus may be able to see things past his conception. Though while we're talking about character death, isn't it kinda interesting that no matter what Altaïr does, he will have been long dead by the actual events of the game?
** Actually, since the next game is supposedly going to be set a few centuries later, it doesn't particularly matter anyway.
** I just interpreted it as ''Desmond'' being the one in danger. Damned if he doesn't get the memory fast enough, damned if he does. They try and press this angle in the game during the chapter interludes, repeatedly saying his life is at stake to show the danger he's in, but you're right, this game has no GameOver condition. Maybe the sequel might do "lives", with a set number of synchronizations possible before the memories are completely locked/the genes damaged/etc?
** Not sure what you're getting at here. The whole point of the Animus is that you need to "synchronize" with the ancestor, i.e. do what he did (which also means no harming of innocents, no matter how aggravating or intrusive they get...DAMN, that was a whopper of a rookie mistake by Ubisoft). If Altaïr dies or lets a target get away, the program shuts down because ''that didn't happen''. The suspense doesn't come from whether Altaïr succeeds or fails, it's what the ''results'' of his successes ultimately ''were'' (and by extension, how much they differ from the history books). It's exactly the same for Ezio Auditore, BTW (and there are no life or synchronization limits of any kind).
** Why do the games even need lives or a game over setting? Most games these days just reload the previous checkpoint when you fail...''exactly like these ones do.'' Die in ''{{Halo}}''? Checkpoint. Die in ''{{Oblivion}}'' or ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''? Load the most recent save. Die in ''Arkham Asylum''? Checkpoint. Die or fail in ''Assassin's Creed''...checkpoint.
* Okay, so you run into random Templars, in full Templar gear, right? Now, their emblem is a big red cross on the front of their smock. Obviously Christian imagery, right? So why the heck are they in Jerusalem and Damascus, both of which are under Saracean control? Why doesn't the guards attack them, but instead protect and aid them? Somebody explain this to me!
** The game explains that all your targets are actually Templars themselves, so presumably the Saracen soldiers have been instructed to treat the Templar foot soldiers as allies.
** Considering both of the rulers of Damascus and Jerusalem are Templars...
*** Also, remember that ''Assassin's Creed'' is an ''abstraction'' of Altaïr's memories. It could simply be that the Animus makes the Templars into what is an obviously Templar-esque guise to help make them distinctive in its simulation.
** Ay, wait a sec! This troper had a fight with a Templar in Jerusalem, some guards come, and guess what? They attack the Templar! Not me! (But I killed all of them, including the Templar.)
* Am I the only one that found it weird that everyone in Acre had English accents? It's not like being taken over by a foreign force makes everyone change ethnicity and linguistic background at the drop of a hat! (It may not have been Acre, but I remember that one of the cities was like this.)
** If you're speaking about a city seen in the Animus, surely you realize you're talking about a city which ''wouldn't be speaking in Modern English in the first place''.
** If you bothered talking with Lucy, Desmond asks about this right off the bat. Lucy explains that the Animus translates everything into understandable English for ease of understanding, and that she ''could'' make it sound more "authentic" but that would be like reading Chaucer.
*** The point was that the regular civilians in Acre are pale-skinned European types speaking with English accents, while the other cities are populated by swarthy Middle-Eastern types with Arab or similar accents. It does not make sense that Acre would be inhabited entirely by Europeans that have not even adapted their manner of dress to the local climate.
*** Animus. ''Animus. '''ANIMUS.''' '' Every single aspect of what happens inside the Animus cannot be considered "real" because the Animus is, for all intents and purposes, ''a video game''.
**** This is their all-purpose explanation for DidNotDoTheResearch (but inexplicably hired a pair of historians they must not have listened to all the time) and any other element of laziness or convention. Why, for example, does Acre resemble a European city with a gothic cathedral that would have been cutting-edge for the time period (and thus, not in a war zone thousands of miles away from France without access to the skilled craftsmen and decades needed to build it)?
*** Not to mention that with the exception of the previous four years, Acre had been under Crusader control for the better part of a century and in 1191 would have been teeming with newly-arrived (and therefore improperly-dressed) Europeans thanks to the Third Crusade -- presumably the designers wanted to reflect that. Even so, making them ''all'' European, let alone British, is still overkill.
*** Abstergo already bothered hiring multiple voice actors for the "video game" only one guy ever plays. I guess a little bit of cost cutting.
** They aren't all English. There are French and German people in Acre too. Any soldier who's wearing a helmet will jabber at you in French or German. Also keep in mind that the Animus is an abstraction of Altaïr's memories and impressions. He likely noticed the Englishmen standing out more than the French and Germans and the Animus translates that into "Everyone in Acre is English."
* And speaking of accents, why is it that Robert de Sable has a French accent, while Richard does not? The historical Richard spoke hardly any English, spent very little time in England and his native language was certainly French. It is at the very least an inconsistency in the TranslationConvention, and I believe it happened because giving him a French accent would lead to a RealityIsUnrealistic situation caused by people believing that an English king should ''sound'' English too.
** [[AWizardDidIt The Animus did it.]] That is ''literally'' the explanation here; accents exist because the Animus artificially introduced them.
*** Richard's accent does sound French though, doesn't it? It certainly didn't sound English to this troper.
*** IIRC, England was ruled at the time by the descendants of the Normans, who came from France.
** That leads to another problem -- some of the guards are speaking German (I think). Why doesn't this translate? Is it because Altaïr didn't speak German, and if so, why would an Assassin know English and French in the first place?
*** That's not German, that's Old English.
**** Old English and German really don't sound anything alike. It's recognizably German.
*** ....for the same reason ''everyone'' learns foreign languages? He's an ''assassin''. Knowing a foreign language would be ''useful''.
**** Why on Earth would an Assassin based in the ''Middle East'' learn German?
*** I dunno, maybe the fact that every so often they get hit by a Crusade that ''includes Germans'', perhaps?
*** It also makes the game more interesting if you can speak those languages. Hearing some French Templar shout that his wrath will be terrible in his native tongue certainly adds to the atmosphere.
*** Since Desmond understands English, and his ancestor understands Arabic, then both of them will sound like English. Neither Desmond nor Altaïr knew French or German; therefore, they remain untranslated, since Altaïr would have not been able to understand them, and because Desmond doesn't either.
*** One would think that the Animus itself could make up for that, though. Lucy was talking about the Animus translating for everyone (see the post above that includes the word "Chaucer"). I didn't get the sense that it was because Altaïr knew Arabic that it was translated for Desmond; if that was true, he'd more likely hear Arabic, but be able to understand it.
*** AC: Brotherhood addresses this. Rebecca and Desmond talk about understanding things, and Rebecca says that the Anumus 2.0's translation software is still imperfect, leaving some expressions in Italian untranslated. She then says that it works well enough in its present form, but if Ezio encounters any French or German, he's out of luck. Lo and behold, any French or German soldiers in AC:B are still untranslated. TL;DR - The Animus translates Old English, Arabic, and Italian, but not French or German.
*** This seems to be consistent in Revelations, where Altair seems to have gained an accent during his playable missions, seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiARH6kHMMw
* So near the end of the game, you talk to Lucy and there's one of those "glitch" moments which shows you close up of her hand and you see she's missing a finger, letting you know she's an Assassin...so how come throughout the rest of the game, you can look at her and she has all ten fingers in tact? More importantly, why would a modern day Assassin still do the finger removal thing anyway? I thought it was done to make access to the hidden blade easier, they haven't found a way to improve this method after hundreds of years? (made even worse by the fact that the finger removal is apparently no longer used by the time of ''Assassin's Creed II''.)
** Or she could have just pulled her finger back against her palm.
*** Your right that they don't need to remove their finger, nor in fact that they do. It's just symbolism, like a secret handshake.
*** I'm gonna say it's either this or that she has some kind of false-finger she wears to keep her bosses from seeing that she's an Assassin.
*** I always thought it was like above said, a gesture. I'm pretty sure TheOtherWiki says the same thing
**** Wait...It's a Gesture...Missing the ring finger....Holy shit, I'm never looking at someone throwing up "The Shocker" the same way again.
*** It's pretty clear she's just pulling the finger back. Like how if you equip the Altaïr armor in [=MGS4=] Snake pulls that finger back into his palm, but if you look it's still there.
** It should be obvious she's pulling her finger back. Look at her hands at any point in either game. She's got ten fingers, all full length. This is something that could have been verified by a single glimpse in first-person.
*** OK, small point, but where in the hell did this missing finger stuff come from? When were we told or shown that he's missing a finger to access his blade? I just always assumed that it came out from under his wrist... y'know, like we've seen in every other work to use a similar device. I didn't even notice her missing finger/gesture and wondered why Desmond is suddenly checking out her rack and only then figures out what she's been hinting pretty strongly the entire time.
*** It should have been obvious if you were paying attention to Altair's character model. He's missing his ring finger; if you look closely, you can actually ''see'' the blade pass through the space where his ring finger should be. It's also especially visible during pickpocket sequences, where Altair is reaching out toward his target with fingers extended. In ACII Leonardo even says that they have to lop off the ring finger as a "sacrifice" to use the blade.
* A small point in the meta-plot: Lucy claims that though she finished her Ph.D. no university or company wanted anything to do with her since they considered her research pseudoscience. But if that was the case, how could she have been allowed to finish her research at all, much less pass the disputation? If she couldn't back up her hypothesis with data acquired through experiments and/or direct observation, she wouldn't be allowed to complete her doctorate. If she could back it up, then they would be forced to acknowledge that her research has merit and is, in fact, real science.
** Because not a few moments after she tells you that, she points out that the Templars were manipulating everything to keep her from finding a job.
** IIRC, she said she was ''working'' on her Ph.D., not finished with it.
* It just bugs me that there are no children anywhere, and no missions take place at night. I can buy Altaïr going for the "blend in the crowds" route, which would be much harder at night, but night recon and assassinations shouldn't be summarily ruled out.
** HideYourChildren, and its all taking place inside the simulation provided by the Animus. Most of the assassinations are taking place during the day, too, though dialogue does indicate that the assassination of Abun Nakood is supposed the be at night.
** I would say it's because the developers wanted to avoid potential controversy by allowing you to kill children, but also avoiding InfantImmortality.
** Like the above tropers said, HideYourChildren and avoiding InfantImmortality. But I have something to add: no matter how innovative and realistic a game is, it's not going to avoid every unrealistic trope in existence. Game designers can only do so much.
*** Like justify it with the animus AKA a video game within a video game. A lot more clever than just saying 'deal with it'.
*** For the record, there are a total of three children in AC2, but they're strictly plot elements and you can't do anything to them.
* Where is everybody getting this AmbiguouslyGay vibe from Abdul Nuqoud? Maybe it's just me but I don't see it at all.
** 1. Caressing that muscular black soldier's arm. 2. Saying that he can't worship a God that considers him an "abomination". There's probably more that I can't think of on the spot.
*** This troper interpreted it always as that Abdul is unsatisfied with his looks (he is fat and, from what I remember, his face is even deformed) and touching the guard could be to show an example of what he considers beauty. I don´t know if the last part is consistent with the dialogue.
*** See, this troper (OP) thought it was because Abdul was either not Muslim or not Arabic (or both).
*** This troper thought it was because he was a leper (they weren't well thought of throughout history), and brushing the soldier's arm was an indication that blacks were not tolerated either, something he hoped to correct.
* When you get hit, you lose synchronization. When you fall, you lose synchronization. Attracting and fighting guards does not make you lose synchronization. Hence, in all of the many, many, ''many'' sword fights you get in...Altaïr was '''never''' hit. Not once. And he never fell, either. Never got frustrated and shoved one of those bastard lepers into a wall, face first. [[{{Troperiffic}} Naturally]], [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife we've]] [[MemeticBadass picked up]] [[WMG/GrandUnifyingGuesses on this]].
** Especially interesting is that, in combat, the [[spoiler:Templar Treasure's powers of illusion]] are represented by dropping the synchronization bar to deadly levels. Which means that Altaïr either finished the fight a lot quicker, or was ''completely immune'' to the power of the [[spoiler:Piece of Eden]].
*** Check FridgeBrilliance right up above. Not only is Altaïr immune to it, [[spoiler:Al-Mualim ''taught him how to be immune to it''!]]
*** Actually, you can defeat him without getting to the "losing sync" phase. Just switch to your hidden blade in the last fighting segment [[spoiler: after fighting the illusions of your targets and the multiple Al-Mualims]] and counter-kill him.
*** I always assumed that being under the effects of the [[spoiler:illusion]] disrupted Altaïr's attempt's to remember it. Naturally, syncing up with poor memories is more difficult than syncing up with good ones.
** Of course he never got hit. You know what happens when you get hit by a sword? You die, or at least get a very deep cut that's going to make a bloody mess and be generally inconvenient. As for falling, if somebody falls from the heights Altaïr and Ezio mess with, they're going to get broken bones, which means no more assassination fun time. In real life, you don't just dust yourself off and continue on when you get sliced up by a sword or fall forty feet.
*** As noted above, the Assassins appear to be NotQuiteHuman; Desmond, for example, is able to do everything Ezio and Altaïr do in terms of acrobatics and strength in the real world, and Ezio is shown getting stabbed in the gut by a knife and recovering a few minutes later with no ill effects.
**** That's pretty much confirmed in one of Subject 16's puzzles. After choosing five pictures showing ancient Greek and Roman myths of gods gettin' it on with mortal women, Subject 16 declares in all his crazy glory, "The seeds were planted as two worlds became one. Behold, the Assassins, the children of two worlds!"
** You can ''throw'' the derelicts without dinging your synchronization (provided they don't fall into water and drown), but anything that does damage, even one little punch, will cost you. Likewise, you can beat up the thugs without harm, but not use any of your weapons. Beggars, even a harmless throw will desync, but you ''can'' draw your sword and scare 'em off (though this isn't always advisable if there are guards watching). Altaïr did show remarkable restraint, but no more than one would expect from a dedicated master Assassin.
* I don't really get King Richard's logic: If you kill 10 knights and Robert De Sable, you are right; if you die, you are wrong. Eh?
** Possibly the idea was that if he could overcome such odds he must be divinely favoured or something, and therefore it pays to listen to him.
** Trial by Combat was a real thing used at the time. As the previous troper says, the idea is that god will make sure the righteous person wins a fight to the death, and so you can use the fight itself to determine who is right.
** Pretty much. Some things are made of Richard's reliance on "the insubstantial" and he is a devout Catholic, so he would naturally believe that God favors the one whose cause is most just, and thus whoever wins the struggle would be in the right. His beliefs are perfectly in line with those of the day.
** One of those unfortunate cases where the programmers had to settle for the least bad option. As someone on The Straight Dope boards pointed, out, duels calling for the judgment of God were ''duels''. Eleven against one is a lynching (or, when someone like Altair is involved, a slaughter). Unfortunately, for anyone who's made it this far, a one-on-one fight is nothing...heck, you gotta plow through about forty guys in this stage alone! Since there are only so many fighting moves, the only way to make a duel against Robert any kind of challenge would be to make him amazingly durable (nonsensical and boring as hell) or give him some kind of power or advantage (also nonsensical and ''really'' detracts from the climactic showdown against Al-Mualim). Giving Robert help wasn't honorable, but it was pretty much all he had.
* The lepers in the first game- everyone calls them lepers, but they don't actually appear to have leprosy. Insanity isn't a symptom, and they aren't covered in sores and seem to have all their limbs.
** "Lepers" is actually a FanNickname. I forgot what the official name for them was - it was something along the lines of "Madmen", I think. If you had a serious mental illness in those days, to the point where it affected your functioning like that, there was fuck-all anyone could do to explain or mitigate it (except what Garnier was doing), so they just got dumped into the streets. Note they turn up much, much more frequently after Altair assassinates Garnier. That's what became of Garnier's "children". Altair must have been proud.
* Eagle vision/sense is supposed to be a supersense allowing it's user to, among other things, see past illusions and see a persons TRUE allegiance. So, how come, that Al Mualim doesn't appear red when Altair uses it? And how come Desmond see Lucy in blue after acquiring it, even though she was actually working for templars all along?
