By Ryan McIntyre · September 5, 2025
There are few characters in the Assassin’s Creed games that spark debate like Ezio and Edward. Ask any fan who the greatest assassin is across all the titles, and chances are they will be torn between Ezio versus Edward. The suave nobleman turned master assassin versus the brash pirate turned reluctant hero.
I remember climbing my first viewpoint as Ezio in ACII and taking in the gorgeous 15th-century Florence skyline, then dashing across the rooftops before diving from an insane height into the most well built hay cart ever created. Seriously, whatever carpenter built the haycarts in Italy needs to be studied. A few years later, I was helming the Jackdaw, singing sea shanties in my free time and leaving a trail of sunken ships across the West Indies. I think the West Indies could have done with that carpenter.
So what is it about Ezio and Edward that makes them stand shoulder to shoulder as icons of the franchise? Let’s dive into their stories and figure it out.
Ezio’s journey from a carefree noble to a legendary assassin is arguably the heart and soul of what made Assassin’s Creed what it is today.
Though, he didn’t start out chasing templars and planning the assassination of the Pope. In fact, Ezio was more interested in street races and mischief. But when his father and brothers were executed after a betrayal, Ezio would have his world turned upside down. At just 17, he was forced to flee Florence with his remaining family, heartbroken and seething for revenge.
Guided by his Uncle Mario, and the legacy of his father who had been an assassin in secret, Ezio slowly embraced the Creed. In turn, his need for vengeance against the Borgia family who brought about his family’s downfall becomes so much more. Across three separate titles, we literally watch Ezio grow from a hot-headed teen into a wise, masterful assassin and by the time he’s an older man in Revelations, we’ve seen him love, lose, learn, and finally step into the role of Mentor to the Italian brotherhood.
Few gaming protagonists get an arc that rich and satisfying. We as players get to experience his entire lifetime of growth, and in all honesty, it’s a heck of a journey.
So what made Ezio such a beloved character? A lot of it comes down to personality. He’s charismatic and witty, flirting one moment and cracking a joke the next, yet he’s also compassionate. We feel Ezio’s highs and lows because he genuinely cares about the people around him, and we as players, care about him.
Despite all the pain and betrayal he endures, Ezio never lets bitterness consume him. Sure, he starts off driven by vengeance, but as he matures, that drive transforms into something purer: a commitment to protect others from tyranny. Over the years, Ezio ends up thwarting one Templar scheme after another, practically becoming the Renaissance’s Batman. He liberates Florence, Venice, and Rome from corrupt overlords, topples the infamous Rodrigo Borgia and uncovers the Apple of Eden.
By doing so, Ezio turns his personal tragedy into a fight for the greater good, embodying the Assassins’ creed of free will over oppression.
Ezio’s story is also deeply tied into the broader lore of Assassin’s Creed. He isn’t just some guy from some time long ago; he actively links the past and future of the Brotherhood. During his adventures, Ezio discovers Altaïr’s Codex and even travels to Masyaf to open Altaïr’s secret library. It’s a literal passing of the torch from one legendary Assassin to another. By the end of Revelations, Ezio has effectively become the Mentor of the Assassins in Italy. Even in his later years, he’s mentoring new recruits, as shown in the short film Embers, and making sure the Creed’s ideals spread beyond his homeland. There’s even a storyline where Ezio trains a young Chinese Assassin named Shao Jun, the protagonist of AC Chronicles: China.
When he finally retracts and hangs up his blades, Ezio rests easy knowing he left the Brotherhood stronger than he found it.
Looking back, Ezio’s saga feels like the quintessential Assassin’s Creed experience. We got to live a whole life through his eyes, starting as a reckless teenager and ending as a seasoned assassin. That kind of journey builds a special bond with players. It’s why, even today, Ezio Auditore is often the first name that comes up when people talk about Assassin’s Creed. He wasn’t just a character in a moment of time; he was an entire era of the series, and he set a bar that’s hard to match. Well, hard to match for most.
Now if Ezio was the golden boy of the Renaissance, Edward Kenway is the black sheep of the Caribbean.
Coming from the past four Assassin’s Creed games, I thought I’d be heading back to skulking across rooftops. Assassins Creed is a stealth game right? Tell that to the 15 Spanish galleons I sunk in my first few hours of Black Flag.
Edward spends his time on the deck of a pirate ship, swinging cutlasses with a half dozen flintlock pistols strapped to his chest. His story is all about rebellion, freedom, and eventually, redemption, with his early motivations being very straightforward: get rich, have fun, and live free.
Born to humble beginnings in Wales, Edward grew up yearning for a life of adventure. He got his chance by heading to sea as a privateer for the British Navy. But when the war ended, he didn’t return home to the family farm, instead he turned to piracy.
When you first step into Edward’s boots at the start of Black Flag, he’s a charming rogue who couldn’t care less about Assassins or Templars. His only code at the beginning is the Pirates Code, which is to say, not much of a code at all. It was strange but really refreshing for an AC protagonist.
However, like always, I could see the problems rising on the horizon.
Edward stumbles into the Assassin-Templar war after a shipwreck, kills an Assassin in self-defense, and then impersonates that Assassin to score a payday from the Templars. This decision to make a quick buck is what throws Edward into the conflict we’ve seen in the past games.
But even then, for a good chunk of the story, Edward is a free agent.
Edward sails from Havana to Nassau aboard the Jackdaw, living the pirate life we have all fantasised about. Diving for sunken treasure, plundering ships and drinking every tavern dry along the way. Sure, there’s some mythical treasure in the surrounding islands that the Assassins and Templars are after, but Edward wants it for the money and fame rather than any higher purpose. And honestly, I can’t blame him. I too would be having the time of my life being the most feared pirate captain in the Caribbean
What makes Edward’s tale compelling is how that devil-may-care attitude slowly transforms.
Over time, Edward’s pirate paradise begins to collapse. The pirate republic in Nassau he helped found collapses under the weight of disease, in-fighting and imperial crackdowns. More painfully, Edward loses a lot of his friends I spent helping. The charismatic rogues we come to love alongside Edward Kenway, like Blackbeard and the fiery Mary Read meet tragic ends as the Golden Age of Piracy is slowly coming to an end.
With each loss, you can sense Edward questioning if the whole pirate lifestyle was worth it.
Most of his crew and comrades are gone, his prospects for glory are shattered, and he’s left confronting the fact that his selfish quest has cost him everything that truly mattered. In those moments, Edward begins to realize that a life spent chasing only treasure and personal glory might just be like all the rum bottles I encountered playing as him.
Empty.
This turning point is where Edward Kenway’s story really shines. Instead of doubling down on being a carefree rogue, he chooses to grow up.
Edward decides to join the Assassins because he finally sees value in something bigger than himself. He wants to honor the friends he’s lost and find more purpose than just the next payday. It’s a slow burn of a character arc, but by the final act of Black Flag, Edward is working side by side with the Brotherhood to bring down the Templars in the West Indies. He helps secure the Observatory so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands and even hands over his hard-won pirate hideout to the Assassins as a new base of operations.
Edward’s journey doesn’t simply end with “and then he became a good guy.” Even after the main adventure, we learn that he tried to make amends and build a real life. He returns to England, accepts a pardon for his pirating days to avoid the noose, and attempts to be a better man. It sounds like a happily ever after, but Edward Kenway’s past still haunts him.
In a final bitter twist, revealed in the novel Forsaken, Edward Kenway is killed by mercenaries working for the Templars. It’s a cruel reminder that leaving the outlaw life behind doesn’t mean the enemies you made will forget you. And if that wasn’t enough drama, Edward’s son Haytham ends up being taken and raised by Templars, later becoming a high-ranking Templar figure himself. But that’s a whole other story, whole other game.
Despite that tragic end, Edward Kenway is remembered as one of the series’ most fascinating protagonists.
Why? Because we actually witness real, relatable growth.
He starts as a selfish, cocky swashbuckler and ends as a wiser, humbled man who chooses a greater cause over his own greed. That arc resonated with a lot of players, myself included.
In fact, many fans rank Edward right up there with Ezio as the best the series has to offer. It’s not just the cool pirate setting, though let’s be honest, captaining a pirate ship was insanely fun, it’s that Edward felt human. He made mistakes, paid for them dearly, and tried to set things right. And he did it all with a roguish grin and witty one-liners that made him impossible not to like.
At first glance, you couldn’t find two more different Assassins than Ezio Auditore and Edward Kenway. Yet, for all their differences, Ezio and Edward share some core similarities that define what it means to be an Assassin, in the Assassin’s Creed universe.
For starters, neither of them sets out in life planning to join a centuries-old secret society.
Ezio uncovers his father’s hidden blades and journals after the family betrayal and decides to join the cause; Edward literally stumbles into it by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Both are pulled into the Brotherhood because of personal trauma and loss.
With Ezio, it was the murder of his loved ones that lit the fire of vengeance and justice in him. With Edward, it was the slow, painful loss of his friends and the collapse of his dreams that forced him to rethink his path. In both cases, these hardships forge them into something greater.
Personal loss becomes personal growth.
Ezio transforms from a brash kid seeking payback into a leader who fights for others. Edward transforms from a thrill-seeker chasing gold into a man who stands up for a cause. Their journeys prove the old adage that great heroes aren’t born, they’re made.
Another striking parallel is how both men eventually become leaders within the Assassin Brotherhood, though also in very different ways.
Ezio, charismatic and born to lead, openly rebuilds the Brotherhood in Italy. He recruits and trains new Assassins in Brotherhood, leads the charge against the Borgia, and by Revelations he’s the grand Mentor figure passing on wisdom. Edward, on the other hand, isn’t depicted rallying armies of Assassins on-screen, but he shows leadership in more subtle ways. During his pirating years, Edward naturally fell into a leadership role as captain of the Jackdaw and a key figure among the pirates of Nassau. Later, he contributes his wealth and his skills to the Assassin cause.
So while Ezio might be the Brotherhood’s charismatic teacher and public face, Edward is the battle-hardened veteran you respect because he’s seen it all and has your back.
Of course, the differences between Ezio and Edward are half the fun of comparing them.
Personality-wise, Ezio is typically the suave, cultured Italian with a flair for theatrics with the ability to walk into a room of nobles and leave with half of them as allies.
Edward is someone you’d find drinking at the tavern, charming folks with a dirty joke, and then sneaking out the back when the authorities show up.
Ezio’s style of fighting and operating is all about precision and finesse. Hidden blades, elegant swordplay, blending into crowds, and a fair few gadgets courtesy of Leonardo da Vinci.
Edward, by necessity of being a pirate, is more about brute force and improvisation. Dual swords swinging in a flashy blur, pistols firing in every direction, and if things go south, a quick escape to his ship where his cannons do the talking.
If you put these two in a hypothetical duel, Ezio might try to outsmart Edward with stealth and strategy, while Edward would probably toss a smoke bomb, pull out a pistol with his left hand and a cutlass with his right, and just go to town. The trained Assassin versus the self-taught brawler.
The eras they live in also set very different tones for their stories. Ezio’s narrative is wrapped up in a time of art, science, and political intrigue. He interacts with historical figures like Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, and the Borgias, and his missions often involve unraveling conspiracies that threaten this rebirth of knowledge and culture. There’s a feeling that Ezio is protecting the progress of humanity, from the shadows.
On the flip side, Edward’s tale is set in a time and place where society itself is a bit of a free-for-all. The Caribbean in the 1710s is wild, with various empires vying for control, pirates carving out their own lawless havens, and a fledgling idea of democracy flickering in places like Nassau. Edward’s story grapples with the meaning of true freedom. Early on, he thinks freedom means no rules, no masters, but he eventually learns that some rules are worth sticking to if you want freedom for everyone, not just yourself.
In essence, Ezio’s arc deals with bringing light to a world emerging from darkness, whereas Edward’s arc is about finding order and purpose in a world full of chaos.
Now, when it comes to legacy, both Ezio and Edward have cemented themselves as legends in the franchise, and more importantly, among fans.
Ezio had the benefit of an entire trilogy where we grew up alongside him. Many of us literally spent years following Ezio’s life from start to finish, which creates a special attachment. It’s why he’s often called the franchise’s poster boy.
Edward had only one main game, plus a cameo as a father in AC Rogue’s opening and some novel/comic appearances, yet he still managed to win over the fanbase in a big way.
Black Flag was a breath of fresh air for the series, and a lot of that was down to how compelling Edward was as a character. People weren’t expecting to get such an emotional story from the same game where you can harpoon a great white shark and blast boats with deck guns, but here we are, still talking about Edward’s growth all these years later. Fans love to debate which hero was “better,” but honestly, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Or perhaps, apples to rum.
At the end of the day, Ezio Auditore and Edward Kenway prove that there’s no single formula for a great Assassin’s Creed hero. You can wear the fancy Renaissance cape or the weather-beaten pirate coat, what matters is the person underneath the outfit. Ezio’s unwavering commitment to the Creed and Edward’s hard-won dedication might have emerged in different ways, but both men lived by the idea that people deserve to be free, and that someone has to stand up to the tyrants of the world.
The infamous motto “Nothing is true; everything is permitted” was interpreted in their own style. For Ezio, it meant methodically dismantling corruption and guiding the next generation. For Edward, it meant fighting for freedom, after learning the hard way that freedom isn’t just about doing whatever you want.
And here’s the thing: if you’re anything like me, you didn’t just finish these games, you collected them. Every feather in Florence. Every sea shanty in the Caribbean. Every animus fragment tucked away on some impossible cliff. Not just because the game told us to, but because we loved these worlds and wanted to squeeze every last drop of story and character out of them.
I’ve given days of my life to these characters, to these memories, so it feels only natural to want them on my shelf too. Or in this case, on VeVe, where Ezio and Edward are immortalized as premium 3D digital collectibles. It’s like taking all those hours of gameplay, all those moments that stuck with us, and making them something tangible.
A Renaissance Mentor and a pirate-turned-Assassin, side by side in your collection. The same way they’ve been side by side in your memories for years.
Whether you’ve always admired Ezio’s suave, calculated approach or you resonate more with Edward’s free-spirited swagger, the truth is we don’t really have to choose one over the other. We can love both for what makes them unique. Ezio and Edward each remind us that heroism can wear many faces. Sometimes it’s a charming Italian with a hidden blade, sometimes it’s a scrappy Welshman with a cutlass and a conscience.
So let’s raise a glass of wine and barrel of rum to both these legends. To two legends of different eras walking the same path for the greater good.
Requiescat in pace.
Founded in 2018, VeVe was created for collectors by collectors to bring premium licensed digital collectibles to the mass market. With over 8 million NFTs sold, VeVe is the largest carbon neutral digital collectibles platform, and one of the top grossing Entertainment Apps in the Google Play and Apple stores. #CollectorsAtHeart
