Editorial | Ezio Auditore: Naive teenager to an old and wise assassin.

By Sam Coles:

There are characters that we form attachments to in video games, where we share the emotions that they go through whether it is sadness, anger or general happiness. Ezio Auditore is one of the best characters from the Assassin’s Creed series, a video game franchise that is generally met with mixed reception these days. However from 2009 to 2011 it was at its best, with a trilogy of games set in Renaissance Italy and 16^th century Turkey which tells the story of his life from his teens up to an old man. 

We first see the charismatic Ezio as a teenager, with his wisecracking demeanour as he antagonises a rival family which devolves into a scrap. It’s at this point of his life where he is rather immature, but he has a good life as he is a son to a very powerful and influential man in the city of Florence. Ezio spends most of his days, causing trouble, copulating with various women and drinking much to his father’s disapproval, but he gives him the benefit of the doubt as he can deliver letters for him in a quick manner.  

However it is one pivotal moment where Ezio starts to grow up, and that is unfortunately the death of his two brothers and father. It’s this moment that Ezio finds out that his father was part of the brotherhood of assassin’s, which he then takes on the mantle all in the name of revenge, as well as foiling the Templar’s plans. He trains over the years in Assassin’s Creed II, we see go from naïve teenager to a strong young adult as he has to take on the responsibility of taking care of his sister and mother.

In Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood we see Ezio struggling with the fact that he is getting older, as he is not as spritely as he once was when he sees a doctor he says to him “You should be more careful at your age”. This is spawns a motivation for him to form a new branch of the Brotherhood in Rome, for him to oversee everything as well as enlisting help to takedown the Borgia family. It’s in this game we see him start to slow down as he is not getting any younger, plus he keeps losing people who he loves due to his endeavours to stop the Borgias and his quest to secure The Apple of Eden.

Fast forward years later we see Ezio travel back to where the series started, the fortress based in Masyaf. It’s here he is in search for the fabled vault of Altair, which holds secrets about the assassin order. At this point Ezio is an old man, he sees that he can’t keep fighting and that he needs to settle down at some point. Fortunately he does, as he finds a beautiful woman who happens to be Italian in Constantinople. It’s here that Ezio does a bit of soul searching, as he realises that he is getting old and he may not have long left in his life but life can be funny that way and he ends up pushing back Templar oppression in the city. When he finally finds all the keys to Altair’s vault, he can finally rest easy in his old age knowing what happen to the fabled assassin where he then recites his legendary line “Requiescat in pace”.

Ezio is a character that I felt I had bonded with as I followed his chronicles of his life from 2009 to 2011. I saw him fulfil his character arch from wisecracking teenager to an old and wise assassin passing his skills on to a new generation. His biography is a tale of happiness, love and tragedy, if you haven’t you owe yourself to experience his life story in Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood and Revelations. Plus it is very easy these days as these games are in one pack on the Xbox One and PS4, so there is no excuse.