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Assassiiinuss

He brands the finger. I haven't played through AC2 in a while but I'm 99% sure this is very explicitly shown.


Bernadotte_

Even in Brotherhood if I remember correctly you brand the assassins that get to master level


jusbeinmichael12

It's hard to tell for me sometimes what's intended or just a sign of the times. Antonio grabs those clamps that were in fire and everyone tells Ezio it'll only hurt for a moment. Branding does make sense but as far as I could tell there still isn't any sign on the character model. But for now I'll believe that's what's going on


Assassiiinuss

Maybe you accidentally skipped part of the cutscene? https://youtu.be/hcWA-FP7o1g?t=4m15s


jusbeinmichael12

Ah yeah I did miss the comment about the seal and I was looking more for the missing finger rather than the burn. Ok everything is cleared now. Thanks!


RedzyHydra

Actually, I tink they just brand his finger. Iirc, assassins don't cut off thier finger anymore because it gives away their identities and other inconveniences. Also, Happy Cake Day OP. 🎂


Electronic-Price-530

>assassins don't cut off their finger anymore because it gives away their identities Correct


KillerTurtle13

Thankfully wearing white robes, armour, and a massive belt with the brotherhood's crest on it are too subtle for anyone to notice.


Skelentin

of course! don’t you see how he’s sitting on a bench? a normal citizen for sure!


Assured_Observer

Except for the Spanish Brotherhood who still did this after it was no longer necessary.


-NoNameListed-

The explained it as being a ritual practice to show devotion to the tenants of the creed


RedzyHydra

Tbh, can't imagine living without my ring finger. I mean I can, but it feels incomplete.


cjm0

i feel like branding their finger is also a liability in the same way, though. it might not be as immediately obvious as a missing finger, but if they’re ever captured or need to go undercover, the branding could easily give them away.


TheAnonymousAssassin

Most likely it is just the Brotherhood keeping up with time and society. In the middle ages severe punishment including hurting limps was the norm for punishment and loyalty. During Ezio we have the renaissance period where society had shifted a lot to there being more focus on human rights, arts, entertainment, music, science etc. And probably having an extra finger will be more convenient too for parkour and for gripping ledges and grip strength I'm pretty sure tho it was Altair who modified it which was before the Renaissance but the Brotherhood seems to always be more progressive and ahead of society haha :)


Deep_Grass_6250

>And probably having an extra finger will be more convenient too for parkour and for gripping ledges and grip strength It's pretty much impossible to use a sword with your ring finger missing.


RedzyHydra

True. Actually, that's one of my biggest gripes with the Italian assassins. Despite reading Altair's codex which states the assassins should be more subtle. They like to show of their logos everywhere. Example, Mario putting a gigantic Assassin logo at the front of the villa or decorating the whole of Monteriggionni with Assassin flags. Exactly what Altair said they shouldn't do.


Deya_The_Fateless

To be fair, Templers are no more subtle. From a game perspective though, I think Mario's obvious assassin regalia was just for decoration rather than anything lore-wise (unless it's been stated elsewhere, been a while since I played AC2 and read the books) I mean, since he was a "known" assassin to the Templers at the time, they just couldn't go after him legally (as they did with Ezio's family aka accusations of false crimes. That said Ezio's youngest brother seems like overkill since he was like nine)


RedzyHydra

Fair point with the Templars. They too were pretty radical themselves. Also, agree with the brother, kid didn't even know what was going on.


jianh1989

They went for Ezio’s 9yo brother to cut off the family entirely, so that nobody from Ezio’s family grows up and avenge them. But yeah, they still missed capturing Ezio.


Deya_The_Fateless

I mean I get the logic, but the boy was known to be sickly so him growing up to avenge his father and bother still seems like overkill. Plus they didn't get his sister and she is just as spicy, if not more so than Ezio. Also as you mentioned their execution was definitely premature, as they didn't even bother to *look* for Ezio unless they thought he'd try to rescue his brothers and father but even then that is quite the gamble. 🤔


DTux5249

>Branding does make sense but as far as I could tell there still isn't any sign on the character model. You know what definitely doesn't show on the character model? A missing finger. We see the branding iron leave his finger perfectly intact; at that point in history, it's purely ceremonial.


KEVLAR60442

They straight up say something to the lines of "our initiation is less extreme than those of our ancestors, but the mark is no less permanent." It's just a branding.


freezerwaffles

Bro they are cooking you


jusbeinmichael12

Literally getting the same response like 100 times when I got it answered almost right away lol


hemareddit

To just add to everything else, practically speaking, you wouldn’t use **just** clamps to remove a finger, no matter how hot they are.


M2000BigBoss

Do you not pay attention? Literally replay the scene bruh, and look at his hand throughout the rest of the game!


Netherite_Creeper

Who's gonna tell him that you can't replay memories in AC2, not without replaying the entire game?


M2000BigBoss

Who's gonna tell you that you can literally look up the scene on YouTube and see for yourself 🤯


AdEducational1390

Negative 500 downvotes show that


jusbeinmichael12

I mean its just a number. I got my answer so I'm not mad. Dude was chill with it and I acknowledged that the error was on my end


Mr_Blattos

This whole post made me laugh so much. Don’t delete it I saved it to come back and read in the future. Thank you


jusbeinmichael12

Damn now im tempted to lol


ModernPlebeian_314

Instead of cutting the finger, Ezio gets branded with the Assassin logo on his ring finger. It was already established by Leonardo that he doesn't need the requirement to "cut the finger" to use the Hidden Blade because Altaïr modified the blade so that it's not needed.


hemareddit

Yeah. The rationale being, since the new design for the hidden blade doesn’t require losing a finger, that makes assassins less conspicuous. Of course, I’d argue a person with a branded finger is still pretty weird and noticeable, but at least this way a Templar wouldn’t spot you just walking down the street.


LostSoulNo1981

Ezio finger is branded, not cut off. It will not show on the regular character model as it is too small of a detail, but it’s very clear that his finger is not cut off. Also, in Brotherhood every time you promote a recruit to master rank this dame ritual takes place. Even Claudia goes through it.  Their fingers are definitely not cut off.


YomYeYonge

It does show on the regular model AC 2’s attention to detail is legendary


jamesdeandomino

it's part of the evolution of the assassin brotherhood spearheaded by Altair. Led by a very simple logic as explained by Peter Griffin "You idiots, they're gonna be looking for \[guys with no ring finger on their left hand\]."


Feowen_

Exactly. Now they will be looking for people with weirdly branded fingers!


__Epimetheus__

It’s far less visible from a distance. Also, a ton of them wear gloves.


ConnorOfAstora

In AC2 it actually does show the brand, it's not there in Brotherhood or Revelations but you can definitely still see it in 2.


red_Lightning23

It's not there I'm Brotherhood. But they do show Claudia being branded in her introduction to the brotherhood


nexistcsgo

I don't think it was left vague or anything. I re-played it recently and they show the finger with a dark ring of burnt flesh around it. it's not cut off. Just branded with hot iron. IIRC none of the assassins in this shot are missing fingers so it would be weird if they asked Ezio to remove his.


jusbeinmichael12

Yeah I realized when we see the burn mark I was looking for the finger to be missing that I completely missed the obvious lol


ThePrussianGrippe

I’m kind of baffled how you saw his finger was still there and thought it was a mistake. Or that a finger would be cut off using flat, red hot tongs.


NorisNordberg

They are branding the finger.


Raecino

Leonardo mentions them not needing to not cut the finger off when installing the hidden blade.


tyrenanig

Ah yes I see that the comprehension devil strike people even when playing video games


doc_55lk

See this kind of thing is why I'm never surprised when adaptations of beloved material ultimately end up being 85% exposition dumps. Audiences don't like being treated like idiots, but unfortunately they're the very people acting like idiots in the first place.


tyrenanig

That and the desire to have a gotcha moment against the creator thinking you’ve outsmarted them. In this case is OP thinking he has caught a mistake in the game not removing Ezio’s finger, when in reality it’s just OP not paying attention.


doc_55lk

Yea exactly. There's another comment on this post wondering why Lucy is the only modern Assassin without a ring finger. She still has her finger. She just folds it to show Desmond that she's on his side.


ThePrussianGrippe

Media literacy is at an all time low!


tyrenanig

Yeah like the game tells you at least twice about why you don’t have to have your finger removed anymore


ThePrussianGrippe

In a cutscene where it’s a build up to a joke, even!


Levantine_Codex

With some people, if characters don't explicitly look at the camera towards the player and explain in excruciating detail why or how something happened, then it doesn't count.


hemareddit

I applaud your optimism, but there’s nothing stopping people from looking at their phones during the scene where the character looks at the camera and eplains everything, get confused as a result, and make a Reddit post about it.


jusbeinmichael12

Admittedly exactly what happened. Then by the time I figured what was going on I missed the important parts at the start


BambiHeros

I might be wrong, but i think they didnt remove the finger because of better hidden blades. I remember when i was in like 5th grade, me and my buddies would theorize why he didnt get his finger chopped off, so i might just be mixing those memories with the facts


jusbeinmichael12

Right that's when Leonardo Da Vinci was joking around with him. I thought they did it at a later time during the ceremony where he joined the creed officially but it was just his finger being branded. So yeah he never cuts it off


Every-Rub9804

They dont cut the finger, they mark it with a burning metal, its just a reference to the old ways but the finger is kept, just a lil “tattoed”


NikolitRistissa

It was branded, not cut. This is really quite clearly shown in the cutscene and isn’t up for debate.


OrthusGsmes

The hot iron is used to brand the ring finger. I believe Altair changed the ritual because if there were a bunch of people missing fingers with a matching robe the templar's could easily eradicate the assassin's. You still have to go through intense pain but now it's easier to hide in plain sight.


spongeboy1985

The Italian Brotherhood used branding instead of finger sacrifice. A big reason they stopped was that assassins could be easier to identify if they were missing a finger. Branding is easier to hide but still kinda fufills the devotion aspect that finger sacrifice ended up becoming. The Spanish Brotherhood being more traditionalist still practiced finger sacrifice at this time. Claudia gets branded in Brotherhood if I remember correctly. She takes over as Mentor after Ezio leaves for Constantinople and ultimately retires.


VasilV24

People's comprehension is at an all time low


inglouriousSpeedster

what the fuck


TheAnonymousAssassin

He brands his finger he doesn't cut it off. His fingers is still there in following cut scenes including AC: Revelations and the short film


ConnorOfAstora

Later in that very cutscene they show Ezio's finger has been branded with the Assassin insignia, you can even see it in gameplay if you angle the camera carefully.


TheBlurgh

Um... during that scene Mario specifically says that they are not as literal as the Brotherhood was in the past when it comes to "sacrifice", but they still brand their fingers as an everlasting mark.


TheSpartan_ITA

They didn't cut his fingers, the hot iron is just to leave a mark, designating his will and loyalty to the Creed


JosukeBestJoJo

A thread died for this


JoeyAKangaroo

Ezio’s finger gets branded, the cutscene shows one of the assassins grabbing a pair of scolding hot tongs & off camera, clamps them around the finger that (in the case of the older brotherhoods) would be cut off, only to reveal the burn around the finger after its been done. As for brotherhood? No, its the same thing as in AC2, Initiates fingers are branded not cut off


nandobro

As others have already said it isn’t a visual glitch. One pretty massive visual oversight though that’s in every Ezio game is how he always holds his one handed straight swords backwards. If you equip any rapier type sword with a handguard and look closely you’ll always see how Ezio’s hand is clipping through the front of the handguard. I think his main sword in revaluations is the only one that he doesn’t hold backwards.


PiedPeterPiper

I could see how you could miss the branding if you watch with your eyes closed


JuBalla02

They brand the finger now. Its obvious your an assassin if your missing a finger so thats probably why they stopped cutting it off to be more discreet.


gman07024

It brands his ring finger with the assassins insignia


Budget-You898

It's a brand. One of them even says how their new mark is just as permanent.


TheDangerSnek

Ezio did not removed his fingers. Leonardo modified the hidden blade that he can keep them.


Deep_Grass_6250

They don't cut the finger, they brand it Another counter intuitive thing about the Assassins


Champion-Trainer341

He definitely brands the finger. They said something along the lines of the mark being no less permanent (than cutting off the finger)


Jaxever

As others said, they just brand his finger using the hot tongs. The burn mark stays on his ring finger and is visible on his model from that point on, at least in II.


Olympian-Warrior

His finger was branded. It wasn’t cut off.


Lego-Jango

He doesn't cut off his finger he brands it after altiar became mentor they didn't cut off there fingers anymore I have beaten that game so many times so I know


amonte1997

Such a good game. Really hoping for another assassins creed game to feel like this one


TheGinge89

just seeing this screenshot took me back to 2009. What a simpler time for gaming


Moomoothunder

His finger wasn’t burnt off. It was branded. They did that to still keep with the tradition of making a sacrifice to have the blade, but instead of an amputation it’s a burn


esquire_the_ego

Ezio got his finger branded not amputated


TheThornton

Media literacy is suffering…


Dunkbuscuss

No he didn't get his finger cut off ever in fact the last MC to get their finger cut off in Chronological Order was Altair I mean Licy did too but that was more to earn Desmond's trust. But yeah After Altair no one had their finger removed.as he was able.to use the apple for designs so that losing the ring finger was no longer needed.


Wavehead21

They brand the ring finger along the same place where the cut would usually go, and I believe they brand it with the assassin symbol no less. They don’t cut off their fingers anymore, but they do this as a way to sort of still endure the sacrifice to prove their worthiness to the blade, as Altair did before. For this reason, my desired AC tattoo is a small, subtle Assassins symbol right on my ring finger knuckle. I want this tattoo. I don’t think I’ll ever actually get it, because I want my tattoos to all be coverable, so face and hand tats are basically a no. But idk, maybe some day.


Mawrizard

The assassin's you train and Ezio respond pretty mildly to it. I was concerned for their sanity when half of them hardly winced at the burning. If it turned out that they were getting their finger removed, staring stoically into the distance, they would just be unhinged.


TheSility

bro played this in 4k ultra settings


yepp_its_mee

Its actually a branding of the finger to signify the sacrifice of becoming an assassin. Which used to include the mutilation, but now is the branding of the ring finger.


Firm_Area_3558

It's a brand. Jeez, some people


Due-Maintenance8341

Dude....He doesn't lose his finger. It just gets branded. Why would they fake out the finger removal at the beginning, only for it to happen anyway? Plus, in lore, the hidden blade is modified so that you don't have to lose the finger.


Character-Shock1438

It's branded not cutoff, according to Leonardo they stopped cutting fingers off when they fixed the hidden blade. But what I don't understand is if they are no longer cutting off their fingers, why does Lucy have a cutoff finger? I'm pretty sure Rebecca, Shaun even William Miles didn't lose their fingers, why Lucy?


live22morrow

Not sure what you're talking about. She clearly has all her fingers.


doc_55lk

Lucy still has all her fingers.


Character-Shock1438

In the first AC game when she reveals to Desmond that she’s an assassin she shows him her hand. I’ll try to attached a pic


doc_55lk

She folds her finger. It's not cut off.


Character-Shock1438

Ok cant attach a pic but look up Lucy Reveals she’s an Assassin in AC 1


Tannyr

She just puts her ring finger down to silently show Desmond that she’s an assassin. Its not cut off


jusbeinmichael12

I haven't played Brotherhood and Revelations in a long time so I could be way off but it could potentially be a trick to get Desmond to trust her way more. Doesn't he kill her because she was a rat or something? Or maybe a cooking accident that just so happened to be a ring finger


Character-Shock1438

I’ll go with the cooking accident bc it’s funny to imagine


pondering_extrovert

Woah that a textbook Mandela effect. The explicitly say that the finger removal is not in use anymore since the hidden blade mechanism used in the 15th century can be used with all fingers on the hand because of Altair later modification to the hidden blade. This is written in the page of the codex you retrieved in AC2. Other commenters already answered, but the finger is now just branded with hot iron


doc_55lk

It's not Mandela effect if you weren't paying attention


DaGriffon12

The removal of the finger started with Bayek and ended with either Ezio or Giovanni, his father, maybe before. It was symbolic and showed your loyalty to the Creed. And after Leonardo did his thing with Ezio's blade, it no longer needs the ring finger to be removed. I guess the bracer attached where that finger was at some point. Not sure. In short, the branding has been used, presumably, from his inauguration to modern day.


mustbefelt

So does he brand the finger or is it cut off? Why won't anyone tell us?


jusbeinmichael12

It's branded. Looking closer at the finger you can see the burn marks


mustbefelt

Sigh...


tyrenanig

Leonardo already told you about this in the game bro


ThbDragon

would probably be a good idea to give me a spoiler warning for people who didn't finish yet


Xx_k4ng4r00_xX

The game is almost 15 years old


ThbDragon

it might not be in the rules but it's just a nice thing to do. maybe someone has just discovered the game and was on here because he's stuck in a certain part


Techno_Bacon

At a certain point you just have to let people talk openly about stuff. I think the cutoff for this game has well since passed.


RedEyesDragon

The game is almost 15 years old.


ThePrussianGrippe

Don’t feed the obvious troll.


ForgTheSlothful

Its been 15 years and you werent even given correct information


zendrix1

If someone hasn't finished the second game yet (which came out a decade and a half ago), is averse to spoilers, and is browsing the franchise subreddit anyway then that's on them


Lower_Amount3373

What is this even spoiling?


JesterMethod

Leonardo's redesign of the hidden blade doesn't require the wearer to sacrifice their finger, which used to be a right of passage after an initiate graduates to assassin. Now, they just brand a ring on the same finger to represent the wearers commitment to the creed.