Board Thread:Series general discussion/@comment-28601337-20160602221928/@comment-18014300-20170618202758

I didn't want to necro this thread, but since SupremeAssassins has already done so :P, let me offer my perspective.

Obviously, morality is subjective, and understanding this is key to the Assassins' ideology. (However, it's clear that they also ironically have their own moral code). Personally, in spite of my mindfulness of moral relativism, I actually define for myself what is morality to me, and one of the chief criteria is the harming of others. I think that to harm others is fundamentally immoral, but that the reality is that it cannot always be avoided. For example, you might hurt someone in rejecting their romantic advances if you are honestly disinterested (but that will lead to a greater good down the line). You might need to hurt someone to apply medical treatment. So in other words, I see harming others as a basic, default criteria for immorality, but it is not definitive nor absolute, almost like every deed, every action can be assigned moral or immoral "points" where the end value is net positive or negative. And sometimes, as Rebecca says, "there's no other way", and people are faced with two evils and have to decide which is the lesser of the two.

Without delving into all the other aspects of their ideology, Templars are immoral because they have no prescription against exploiting innocent lives for their dream, and even often say that they are justifiable sacrifices. On the contrary, fundamental to Assassin ethos is that all life is sacred, and that when they do kill, it is only because they were forced to choose between two evils, where the alternative is to allow innocent lives to be abused or slain, and even when they feel forced to kill, they are traditionally taught not to rejoice in it but to acknowledge it wasn't exactly the "good" thing to do. In this way, a huge contrast is that Assassins do not condone killing, ironically, even while they commit out of necessity in theory (not always in practice because there are always those in every faction who don't understand or appreciate the meaning behind their faction fully), and explicitly designate harming innocents as forbidden. Templars do not care about this and love to boast that sacrificing the lives of others, innocents and each other, are justified, even virtuous.

Pushing aside all the dispute about liberalism, about free will, about epistemology, about personal fallibility and accountability, this contrast should quite clearly show which side is morally superior if your standards of morality is to not hurt innocent people and to refrain from killing wantonly, even if neither are perfect.