With the long-standing clashes between Assassins and Templars, one thing has been constant in the Assassin's Creed series: the memorable villains. They usually embody the ideological antithesis of the hooded protagonists, standing for order and control in contrast to their champions of freedom.
However, not every villain has managed to win the love of the players. Some antagonists were dull. Others outsmarted their narrative. Here are five Assassin's Creed villains players would rather not see return in future games.
Dr. Warren Vidic served as the head of the Animus Project at Abstergo and acted as the main present-day antagonist in several early Assassin's Creed titles. As the cold, calculating scientist behind the confinement of Desmond Miles, Vidic brought the players into the present-day conflict between Assassins and Templars. His fundamental contribution was creating the Animus technology that allowed the characters to relive genetic memories, thus allowing the history of Assassin's Creed games to unfold.
Vidic's impact decreased as the series progressed. By the time Assassin's Creed III rolled around, he had become a stereotypically evil mad scientist who lacked any depth whatsoever. It felt worth it for Desmond to have killed him.
Resurrection would only diminish that moment and force the games to retrace its steps in an unworthy manner. Since then, the modern storyline has gone in much more interesting directions, which would just make any future return for Vidic seem uncalled for.
As the main antagonist of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Cesare Borgia commanded the Papal armies and ruled Rome with cruelty and ambition. Son of Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, Cesare was gifted with military prowess and ruthless ambition, making him an indelible foe for Ezio Auditore. His infamous phrase, "No man can murder me!" reveals the depth of his arrogance and his belief in his own invincibility, thereby setting the stage for an electrifying showdown at the end of the game.
Why should Cesare stay in the past? While he was an important historical figure, he was disappointingly one-dimensional in his game application: No philosophical depth, unlike other Templars. His motivations never ventured far from power-hunger, and his character showed little development throughout the story. Whereas some antagonists actually challenge the Assassin ideology in meaningful ways, Cesare was just another obstacle who did not contribute to the larger themes of the franchise. The assassin's creed shadows technical makeup shows that the series today is interested in character development far beyond what Cesare's one-note villainy could offer.
Charles Lee served as the main antagonist to Connor Kenway through most of Assassin's Creed III. A high-ranking Templar in Colonial America, Lee set in motion the burning of Connor's village and posed an ever-present threat throughout the American Revolution. With the military experience and personal hatred against Connor, Lee seemed like a worthy enemy during an important historical epoch.
The trouble with Lee was that he had to live in the shadow of the much more interesting Templar: Haytham Kenway. While Haytham enabled players to interrogate their assumptions about Templar ideology, Lee appeared petty and simple by comparison. His motivations for hating Connor came across as contrived, and his sneering personality lacked the larger-than-life charm appropriate for a primary antagonist. Having spent hours chasing after him, many players were left quite unsatisfied when the climactic final conflict took place in a tavern instead. The series has since produced much larger villains with storylines and personalities, making Lee's potential plate feel redundant in light of the progress showcased in the assassin's creed shadows milestone.
The Sage was defined as a reincarnated human of the Isu being Aita. Connecting some fascinating dots between the historical and mythological compartments of Assassin's Creed. Robert Bartholomew, in Black Flag, filled the role with charisma. While the modern incarnation, John Standish was an Abstergo Entertainment IT specialist. Who secretly schemed to resurrect the Isu entity Juno.
The Sage concept quickly became problematic for the coherence of the franchise's narrative. What began as an interesting connection to the First Civilization became an increasingly convoluted plot device that ended up obscuring rather than enhancing the story. John Standish had none of the charisma of his historical counterpart. Even the utilization of Abstergo Entertainment was unrealistic. In the second stage, the Sage idea caused even more problems for the narrative development of the series, as characters began to show up in different time periods, but it was never claimed that these characters added any deep value. So, a wise approach from the studio would be to abandon this concept and pursue much simpler formats of integrating the Isu along storylines that don't require convoluted reincarnation explanations.
Layla Hassan was established as a modern-day protagonist as an intriguing character in Assassin's Creed Origins, and she had great promise. By being a former Abstergo employee who went rogue with her own Animus technology, she merged determined power and faith into a last character who offered a fresh and updating perspective on the continuing modern-day conflict between Assassins and Templars. She's supposed to be some technical wizard, and the game's saving graces that made her worthy to stand shoulder to shoulder with Desmond Miles were her technical skills and determination towards connecting players to the historical elements of assassin's creed.
Weirdly enough, Layla's character arc was marred by inconsistent writing and rotten handling of the corruption storyline. In an ever-increasing climax of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, she was shown to be increasingly unstable and power-hungry under the influence of the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, eventually sacrificing herself to restore cosmic balance. The shift from a classic hero to an antagonist force just felt rushed and undeserved after three games developing her character. Her ending left many plot threads open and felt more like the writers were just trying to move on from her character than provide a resolution that was fulfilling. It would definitely be for the best for the franchise to really move on from Layla and stop trying to resurrect or even reference a character that had so poorly earned its ending.
The Assassin's Creed series has learned its lesson from these lesser villains. Newer antagonists have depicted greater depth and intricacies, avoiding the tropes that rendered these five character types stale and often infuriating. Recent analysis of the industry also suggests the franchise has evolved in its storytelling.
As the series moves onto new historical settings and means of narrating a story, the hope remains that future villains will emerge from and thus capture that philosophical conflict central to the official Assassin's Creed universe. The most compelling Templars will never simply serve as obstacles to be overcome; they will be characters who challenge the Assassin ideology in ways that make players question their own alliances.