The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

That's your biggest quibble with the game's plot?

Since Sean and Rebecca knew they would probably have to keep moving, there's most likely another power source for the Animus inside the van so they wouldn't need to move as much.

Indeed. Not to mention, Rebecca probably modified it enough that it doesn't need a huge power source. For all we know, it can run off of the power generated by the van's engine.

I'd have to take a good look at where the different cables connected to the Animus 2.0 to really make a good judgment call, though.

Haha, I know, its a silly thing to be wondering about.

I wasn't wondering about that.
At the end of ACII, it was like... just... actually, one of the best stories I've ever experienced. Screw Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars. This was... CRAZY. Like, it was literally insane. So many strange ideas, that could POSSIBLY happen in real life. And then you realize it's fiction.

Ubi are masters of story, and masters of glitches.
Those two categories of mastery will never change.

I'm sure they could just pop a power cable into the cigarette lighter.

We never actually see the full van at the end of the game, so I don't think we can make any judgements as to what powers the animus.

Also keep in mind that Rebecca seems to know a hell of a lot more about the animus that anyone at Abstergo. She probably figured out a way to conserve power and still keep the animus running. Maybe she worked out a deal with energystar, who knows...

I would wager that the full animus requires major hardware and power because it allows others to monitor and communicate with the subject in real-time while it's simultaneously recording everything.

We know that Desmond has some limited ability to view his ancestors' memories without any hardware whatsoever, so I imagine the stuff Rebecca hooked Desmond up to was just enough for him to go back into the memories to continue learning.

Asaic, nobody knows about the vision of Acre that Desmond saw, except for Desmond.
He says something along the lines of "Nothing, I'm fine" when he wakes up in his bed the next morning... and believes, whatever he wants to believe.

Yes, and what does that have to do with anything?

My point is, without the need to monitor, interact and record, I imagine there doesn't need to be much hardware merely to get the subject to view the memories on his own. Doesn't matter whether or not they know it can be done with no hardware, that just proves that it can be done with any amount of hardware. I'm sure that Rebecca et al know that all it takes to get the subject to enter particular memories is a system to zero in on the specific memories (probably a mere laptop) and an interface for the subject, probably a thing to put their head in/on and possibly one of those IV things.

Yeah, now that I actually start thinking (sry lol) that DOES make sense.
Grr.
This is so frustrating.
November 16th is so tardy/slow/annoying.
GET OVER HERE!
I need AC:B... *rocks back and forth*

I believe it to be the work of witches

What do you do with witches?
BURN THEM!
And what else, do you burn, other than witches?

DO tell!

MORE WITCHES!

ZOMG!

"They burned Joan alive... they took it!"
*SCREAMS*

Me: *shuddder, gribs controller harder, hunches over a little bit in dark room, takes a sip of spicy tomato juice, stares at screen*

What? I think there's a disconnect here.

^_^ that was my brain in the moment that I saw the ending to ACII.
All weird and going all over the place.

Beyond breaking the fourth wall, I didn't think the ending of ACII was all that shocking. Going to Rome and attacking the Pope had all been telegraphed from the minute you met Rodrigo [or the minute you learned who the villain was, depending on your knowledge of history]. The Vault itself was just a step up from the Piece of Eden's globe, which made you go 'what', too.

Yeah, also the 2012 ending with Desmond was pretty awesome in itself, what with all the credits rolling as you're fighting everyone, and probably the most amazing piece of music I've heard in games in a while playing in the background, Desmond slashing everyone with his Hidden Blade, it was awesome.

Well, it was awesome. That's probably the deepest commentary possible on any part of ACII's story, excluding glyphs.

I agree, the Glyphs were actually well thought of.
I was playing through one of them and I'm like "O_o OMGZ! HENRY FORD! AAHH"

You don't need a deep knowledge of history when you have a crack research team like Dougie, FLAE, and SB on the case:

On April 19th, 2009 dougiethewonderboy wrote:
[Quoting Italian Renaissance historian Margaret Meserve] "Machiavelli himself was a fairly unassuming figure. He was a civil servant, a bureaucrat, who never went to war or ruled a state. But as a bureaucrat he spent a lifetime observing how princes, popes, and mercenary captains conducted their affairs, and his insights into human character were extraordinary. I think the really representative “Renaissance men” are the characters Machiavelli describes in The Prince — self-made men like the condottiere Francesco Sforza [stabguy: Caterina's grandfather], who came out of nowhere to make himself Duke of Milan, or Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, who used personal charm, brutal violence, and a fair amount of poison to pursue his political goals."

On August 17th, 2009 Fly Like an Eagle wrote:
"Rome (Including the Vatican which is going to be sweet, maybe an assassination of the Pope?)"

On October 29th, 2009 sbredflag wrote:
"Also, we were talking about the pope previously, so this may interest you:
the guy that escapes in the first fight scene is Rodrigo Borgia, who we may recognize as a future pope, Alexander VI."

Nice work, guys.

Unfortunately my research isn't always great. Keep in mind I thought Machiavelli was going to be the main villan in the game because "The Prince" reflected many qualities of a Templar. Instead, he ends up being our biggest ally (well, maybe not BIGGEST, Medici and Leonardo were pretty prominent too).