Al Mualim spends quite a bit of time in Assassins Creed explaining to Altair about how he needs to "pierce the illusion" and how Assassins are trained to be highly perceptive, and how their creed is intended to make them wise and see the truth in all things. The real significance of this escaped this troper until he realized that Al Mualim was specifically talking about Eagle Vision, and how Altair uses Eagle Vision to literally pierce the illusions created by the Piece of Eden. - Unknown Troper
In Assassin's Creed 2, I wondered for a bit how the Assassins got a much less buggy and in general better Animus than the one Abstergo had in what seemed like a short amount of time. Also, some of the gameplay changes, such as not having to do as many of the pointless sidequests, didn't seem to make sense from an in-story perspective. Then I realized that Lucy was working on Abstergo's Animus - she intentionally wrote the software badly to delay Abstergo's progress as long as possible.
The You ALL Look Familiar in Brotherhood multiplayer is for Paranoia Fuel. All the NPCs look like PCs... How do you tell which ones are which? Newbies will give themselves away with High Profile actions, but you will never see an expert who's blended into the crowd unti-*SNICKT* — Gentlemens Dame 883
It always bothered me that Bonfire of the Vanities and Battle of Forli were broken memories in AC2. Then, while playing Brotherhood, it was revealed that Ezio had repressed most of his memories of Cristina Vespucci, who only appeared once in AC2 to have sex with Ezio. Not only that, but Cristina died during Bonfire of the Vanities. Since Savonarola was present during both of the broken memories, Ezio associates him with her death, and has been trying to block out EVERYTHING that reminded him of Cristina as anything more than another conquest. It was a coping mechanism.
The "A"-shaped logo is meant to resemble the opening of an Assassin's hood.
In AC 1, AC 2 and ACB, Altaïr, Ezio and Desmond have an ability called Eagle Vision. In Revelations, it is renamed and upgraded to Eagle Sense. This may not sound so much like Fridge Brilliance, but in the final sequence with Desmond in Brotherhood, we are told by Those Who Came Before, that they created us humans to be like them, but kept one of their six senses from us, and later in the same sequence, Desmond is told to "Awaken the sixth". There is no reason for Ubisoft to change and upgrade Eagle Vision all of a sudden, unless it's because the sixth sense kept from humans by Those Who Came Before is actually Eagle Sense, and the Eagle Vision is a more limited version of the Sixth Sense. Besides that, Desmond at one point states it feels like he has a kind of sixth sense.
We tropers have turned Altair into a Memetic Badass, and while most of that is based on the game's attempt at justifying Regenerating Health, not all of it is. To wit, the synch bar's length increases as Desmond grows closer to Altair, by doing things Altair remembers doing. However, the synch bar does not increase when Desmond kills one of the sixty Templars. He can kill every Templar in the game without increasing the synch bar in the slightest. In other words, Altair may have killed every single Templar in the Holy Land, and he doesn't even remember it. Just another day at the office. (Of course, it could also be Fridge Horror if the senility that he showed during his final days in Revelations took those memories away).
There is an unflattering legend about the real Assassin Order that says that the members of the order indocrinated promissing young men into becoming assassins by taking them to a beautiful garden while they were under the effects of hallucinogenic drugs and then telling them that what they have just witnessed was Paradise itself, and that they can go live there one day if they do exactly what their mentors tell them to. Apparently, that was the source of their suicidal dedication to the order. In-game, behind Masyaf castle there is a beautiful garden, which is also where the final boss fight takes place.
If this I remember correctly, one of the first scenes in the game (During the Animus glitching, before you see Abstergo for the first time) takes place in a lush garden, full of beautiful, faceless women. This may in fact be Altair's own indoctrination, remembered in a scrambled way because of the drugs that he was given.
If you look at the memory log for the last mission, you'll notice that garden is actually called Paradise. Al Mualim also references this legend when you talk to him after Garnier's death.
The Templars have controlled human growth for centuries. As such, they would have influenced language. In the real world, we think that an 'assassin' is merely a hired killer. Someone that is a remorseless murderer that is only in it for selfish reasons, like money. In-universe, this is probably the case, but it originally meant someone who was part of the Assassin order. The Templars managed to make 'being an assassin' equal to 'being a soulless death dealer' in the minds of the general public. If they are 'just an assassin' then it doesn't sound like some millenia-spanning conspiracy. Also, a lot of famous people are referred to as being 'assassinated' instead of 'murdered' - a covert implication that the Assassins had something to do with it?
For a while, Altair's voice bugged me. In the first game he's the only character in the animus who doesn't have an appropriate accent. At first I thought it was Desmond's voice, but it's not, it's a completely different voice actor. Why bother getting an American accent for Altair when everything else was made as historically accurate as possible? Then it hit me: it's Desmond's voice AS HE IMAGINES IT SOUNDS. This troper has a mild speech impediment and can confirm that your own voice sounds a lot different in your head then it does in real life, I always get a shock when I listen to recordings of myself speaking. To Desmond, his voice sounds more badass than it actually is, so when in the animus, he naturally has a cooler sounding voice.
