10 Video Game Villains Who Won By Losing

The story of Assassin’s Creed follows the timeless conflict between the authoritarian Templar order and the assassins who try to uphold people’s individual freedoms.

Since the series is shown through the perspective of the assassins, it’s their side that tends to win every major altercation between the organizations.

And yet, somehow, in modern times, it’s the Templars who have the upper hand.

Why? Well, because while the assassins may succeed in foiling their main plans, the Templars are still able to succeed in their other, more pervasive objective— influence.

The problem of the assassins' order is that they aim to work in the shadows, keeping their numbers low and their influence over other people to a minimum, so that their work doesn’t interfere with people’s freedom.

For this reason, their limited numbers are spread too thinly, and even though they may be able to stop the Templar’s main world-dominating plot, their enemies can still get away with establishing new regimes and powers that spread their control over the world.

That’s why in modern times, the assassins are basically extinct while the templars control major corporations and puppeteer Earth’s governments from the shadows.