I wouldn't be surprised if this humiliation ritual and emasculation of Hattori Hanzo was just to own le epic chuds because everyone thought that an AnalCreed game where you play as a ninja under Hanzo (keep in mind that AnalCreed Spookz is the first game where you play as an actual historical figure rather than just interacting with them) was what they would do. In fact, according to some leaks that was supposed to be the original pitch for the game. I know it's been said 100 times already but it's crazy how much they've fumbled the bag with this one. Japanese history and folklore has so much pre-existing shit regarding assassins in the form of shinobi and their tales and they have done NOTHING with it, NOTHING! They could've set up rivalries with other famous historical ninjas of the era, have them be working under the Templars. Again, Japanese folklore literally already had a pre-installed rivalry involving Fuma Kotaro of the Hojo clan and Hattori Hanzo, there's so many legends and fables detailing duels between those two guys. They did the equivalent of the ball being near the goal line in a football match with no opposing player in sight but just before crossing it the player trips on his shoelaces in spectacular fashion and breaks his neck when he falls.
Fuck Ubisoft, enjoy bankruptcy.