10 Video Game Villains That Made The Biggest Impact In The Smallest Time

9. Minerva - Assassin's Creed II

Time On Screen: 5 minutes

Minerva's appearance and subsequent affect on the Assassin's Creed fandom might be one of the most pivotal narrative moments in gaming history.

If you weren't there at the time, I just feel sorry for you.

So, picture it. Assassin's Creed has dropped in 2007, ending on the reveal that both past and present timelines were linked through the "Bleeding Effect". Former lab rat Subject 16 had been scrawling on Desmond's walls to tell him the whole time, and we had two years to theorise on "the ones who came before", their role in the humankind's past, and our collective future.

Cut to 2009's Assassin's Creed II, and though there was a whole quest dedicated to showing us footage of Adam and Eve fleeing a futuristic-actually-in-the-distant-past compound to birth the Assassins, the real "Holy sh*t!" moment was meeting Minerva.

Appearing in a hologram - technology that for 1476's Ezio, blows his mind - the goddess Minerva leaves a message with da Firenze that she knows will travel through time and eventually be seen by Desmond in the future.

At least, I think that's what happened.

That's it as far as actions go, but the ramifications of this sent the AC fandom crazy - not to mention the screen cuts to black and Desmond exclaims the only thing we were all thinking in the moment:

"... what the f**k?!"