So, Desmond Miles. Our initially clueless protagonist with a fondness for hooded sweatshirts and a certain sense of blandness.
All of these things are important to the storytelling. His lack of knowledge provides a perfect opportunity to explain the function of the Animus, the nature of the game's main conflict, and various other tidbits that it's nice for the player to know. It also avoids the problem of having characters explain things they already know to each other.
The sweatshirts fall into the territory of the hooded assassin look, and require little explanation beyond that.
And then, the blandness. Some of this has abated as the series has continued and Desmond has gained both knowledge and ability. Other portions could be framed in terms of the video-game protagonist as player insert and avatar.
Simply, players can put themselves into the role of Desmond, thus allowing for more opportunities for Altaïr and Ezio to be established as characters of their own, with distinct personalities and actions that can occur outside of what players may actually want.
Altaïr's altercation with Robert de Sable of the first game set him up as an arrogant failure, a state that could make him a bit harder to identify with without the intervention of Desmond. And Ezio's sparing of Rodrigo Borgia at the end of AC2 would have proved most irritating to me if I viewed him as my puppet rather than someone whose actions Desmond was exploring.
I do wish Desmond had better hair, though. Comparing him to Ezio shows just how much of a difference that can make.
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