#save me conclave. save me.

[masked-and-doomed]

I have compiled every single available Conclave clip within Vastedge XT

(at least, I think so.)

Where I got these, one folder is of Tillman's Google Drive, and the other folder is Solradguy's archive of it (animations taken from Tillman). Some animations are more 'cut up' in Tillman's Drive compared to the latter.

Here is the link. (Flashing lights warning for a lot of these btw. There's so much.)

Hooray to. What. The 6 more hours I've spent the past few days. Yay. I've spent 20 hours for fucking Vastedge. Whatever. Man.

Conclave has not given me any compensation for all my woes. Frowning emoji. ☹️

Edit: if there's duplicates (I think there's some in the SRG folder). Apologies. I am tired.

[saulesart]

Innocentius blessing turtles

(Inspired by icons of St Francis of Assisi)

[guanuji]

[vonlipvig]

meet me @ pope innocent xiv's christmas eve mass tonight if you want a hug and a blessing

[maudlin-st]

thinking about benitez….

[just-anotherrandomartist]

i think writing cover letters and answering ten billion short answer questions about myself and my goals for internship and job applications actively drains my life force

[lokh]

i feel like i would just have to tell you 'my favorite film is the invitation (2015)' and youd be like. you would enjoy conclave wouldnt you

[crossdressingdeath]

Actually Alaris getting caught trying to assassinate the Divine at the Conclave is taking up so much brain space right now. He was so sure he was dead, all he could think of was completing his mission and then dying in a way that didn't leave a recoverable body and if at all possible implicated the Templars. And then the Conclave explodes and he's physically in the Fade and even more sure he's about to die, but hey, at least this definitely won't leave a recoverable body! And then he doesn't die. He should be dead but he isn't and frankly to him if that's not a sign from the Creators that he and his people were right to act as they did then he doesn't know what is.

[nerdypipsqueak]

HE IS SO PRETTY I AM UNWELL

"Welcome to our order, Vincent Benítez, Cardinal Archbishop of Kabul."

[vigilskeep]

i forget how good varric is in the opening of dai. i like that he goes out of his way to mention to the protagonist that solas—who, we learn later, at this point has been being threatened by cassandra and in general as an elven apostate is in a really dangerous position here—helped them and saved their life. he also goes out of his way to align himself with the protagonist—technically he’s a prisoner, just like you—despite them being basically powerless and there being no discernible benefit to siding with them here. there’s a particular version of a cadash exchange that i love

varric: so, let me guess: fellow surface dwarf, maybe part of the carta?

cadash: what makes you say that?

varric: i can tell a proper orzammar dwarf from twenty paces. also, you have that shifty-smuggler look to you.

cadash: i’m not the only one with a shifty-smuggler look.

cassandra: varric did not destroy the conclave.

varric: that you know of. we shifty-smuggler types can be tricky.

cadash basically throws the line of questioning back at varric, and cassandra finally seems to be almost defending varric. varric did not have to respond to that in the last line by defusing cassandra’s hostility towards cadash and cheerfully accepting the comment that tars him with the same brush as the person under the most suspicion. nor did he have to point out solas’ usefulness or keep an eye on him during the journey up to the temple, turning back to wave him onwards. but he did

idk i don’t have a strong point here i just think looking out for the underdog, and not only that but being subtle and clever about it, using words to manage it when he doesn’t really have any power here either, is some of the true best of varric’s character and i like how it gets shown here

[masked-and-doomed]

Fucked up that most people's first time seeing the Conclave (in Sign rather than Vastedge) they're there. For some time. And then fucking die. Like yeah you're relevant to the whole fucking world of guilty gear. Skill issue tho, should've planned this better after nearly 200 years. Bye bye. Now let's move on !

At least Chronus has that one moment in Rev where he broke out Asuka... He did play a good background support role. Claps for Chronus. 👏

I wonder if Libraria would have done the same thing if she followed Chronus' words and took the Conclave's dream on her shoulders, being the one to live through it....

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[burr-ell]

Something I just noticed and really enjoy about Campaign 1 is how often their story involves becoming incredibly powerful and accomplishing so much and yet still not being able to do what's truly important to them. It's not only the gutpunch of the final episode, it's a thematic underpinning throughout the campaign.

Way back in their prestream adventures, the party was strong enough to defeat the Dread Emperor and save all the kidnapped children from Tal'Dorei—except one, a child Keyleth killed by accident, an act which haunts her through at least much of the early campaign. The party defeats the Briarwoods and reclaims Whitestone, but Ripley still escapes and 19 still misses, and the Chroma Conclave raze half the continent. Percy has great intellect and access to a powerful magical amplifier and forced out a demon through sheer force of will, but his carelessness still killed Vex and he only rolls a 6 to try to save her. The party has slain a dragon and is armed with four Vestiges of Divergence, but they couldn't save Tiberius and can't even give him the proper burial they want to. They brutally slaughter Ripley, but not before she gets the revenge she wants; she kills Percy, sending him to Orthax, and spreads guns throughout Exandria. The Conclave is slain, the whole party made it out alive, but Scanlan is forever scarred by the experience and leaves, tearing the party down as he goes. Even Vilya, prior to the campaign's beginning, was at the very end of her Aramente, likely a level 16-17 druid like Keyleth was, and still failed the trial of the Water Plane and was gone for almost 40 years.

And of course, Vox Machina became some of the most powerful people in the world, slayers of a god, legends to be immortalized for centuries...and none of their power could save their brother.

Percy points out to Bell's Hells, thirty years later, that fate isn't always kind and not everyone gets a second chance, and to me that's underscored by what we don't see. Elaina is still dead. Juniper is still dead. Percy's parents and five siblings are all still dead.

I mean, if any or all of their bodies are intact, it wouldn't even require True Resurrection to bring them back—not that Keyleth or Percy are averse to a little heresy, but hey, conserve your resources. If there are bodies, all they'd need is 7th-level Resurrection; none of those people have been dead for over a century, and if they need to find the bodies, well, Vex has Locate Object and Pike gets a Divine Intervention freebie once a week, right? Even if they did need True Resurrection, it's a heftier cost but probably not something too difficult to pay over time for one of the wealthiest families in the world.

But none of them have ever done that, nor do we get an indication that they've pursued it. Vox Machina is, probably more than any other CR party, defined by grief—how individual PCs respond to their own profound losses; how they succeed and fail to shoulder each others' burdens; and at the end of their story, how they deal with one of the most painful losses imaginable, and how they move forward and find peace in spite of it. Campaign 1 is just as much about how to deal with what you couldn't do as it is about what you now can do.

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

I've been thinking about the fact that Campaign 3 is clearly ending after the defeat of Ludinus and whatever the Hells decide re: Predathos, and how that's clear because so much time has been dedicated to The Moon Plot and the only things the Hells might possibly have left to do afterwards are best described as a series of relatively low stakes errands. A thought which in turn lead me to thinking about the Taryon Darrington Arc from Campaign 1 and how it really consisted of... a series of relatively low stakes errands after an arc (The Chroma Conclave) that took up an incredible amount of the campaign's runtime. But I think the Taryon Darrington Arc, while solid but not great, does work better than a hypothetical equivalent arc would for Campaign 3, and the reasons I think this are twofold.

First of all, the Taryon Darrington Arc is well served by the fact that Campaign 1 was significantly more episodic than Campaign 3 has been. Campaign 1 had several easily delineated plot arcs over the course of it, and that structure allowed the Taryon Darrington arc to more naturally fit into the flow of the campaign than a similar arc would for Campaign 3, which has been dedicated to the Moon Plot from the start. The Taryon Darrington Arc in Campaign 1 is a solid but not standout plot arc in a campaign that has several, whereas in Campaign 3 such an arc would at best be a weird disconnected coda on a campaign that has had a defined arc throughout.

Secondly, while the Taryon Darrington Arc was defined by a series of largely disconnected errands, it did still have an emotional throughline. As it begins immediately after the Bard's Lament and introduces a new member to the rather insular Vox Machina, the Taryon Darrington Arc asks how Vox Machina will cope with having saved the world but lost part of their own family in the process, and how they will manage to integrate a new member while mourning the loss of another (in spite of having successfully raised that member from the dead). The loss of Scanlan and the introduction of Taryon shook up Vox Machina's group dynamics and it is that shake up that the stakes of the arc are built around. They're still lower than the stakes of the preceding Chroma Conclave Arc and the subsequent Vecna Arc, but they do exist. Meanwhile I'm not confident that a similar arc with Bells Hells would have such emotional stakes holding it together.

The Hells are notably the least bonded group out of the main campaign adventuring parties and people have come and gone from them since Dorian's initial departure in Episode 14, so it seems far less likely to me that they're be able to carry an entire arc on reorienting themselves after any possible losses in the Ludinus/Predathos fight, especially considering how little impact FCG's death and the subsequent introduction of Braius ultimately had on them. Given the stakes of the matter at hand, a theoretical Bells Hells post-climax arc could also focus on reorienting themselves in a vastly changed world, but the Hells have been so non-politically minded throughout the campaign that I don't know if those emotional stakes could carry them either. I could be wrong, but I don't see where Bells Hells could develop as solid an emotional throughline arcoss an errands arc as Vox Machina managed in the Taryon Darrington Arc. They're just the wrong party, and Campaign 3 the wrong campaign, to support such an arc the way Vox Machina and Campaign 1 did.

[masked-and-doomed]

I should have written it here why did I write it in tags ofc I was gonna yap to high heaven.

Reblogging it so I can SS and continue my yapping-

This scene from -STRIVE-'s story's epilogue has always been so nice to me

It perfectly encapsulates both Faust and Chronus with just one sentence and feels unique to the other epilogue scenes. It feels like it was written JUST for these two.

Faust was forgiven for his sins as a serial killer (likely Doctor Baldhead. I mean, the rare fish with his bag on it is literally called "Dr. Octohead", it can't get much more obvious) and brought peace to the world with his healing. The best example of this I can think of is Leo going from calling him "the unlicensed doctor" in Faust's arcade mode, to discussing strategy in the same room as him.

As for Chronus, while he hasn't had time to do too much just yet, the seeds are already planted for his redemption. The first step was Faust choosing not to kill Chronus when they met at the end of Xrd SIGN's story. On it's own, this didn't mean much, since all Faust wanted from Chronus was answers about the Japanese colony, however, by the time we reach Faust's Revelator arcade mode, things have changed. They aren't exactly "friends", but it's clear that they're now working toward the same goal: figure out what's going on in the Japanese colony. By the end of it, however, not only si Faust actively protecting Chronus from Leo, Chronus even sits down and has tea while Faust calls Haehyun!

Also, side note, but, I find it really funny that Chronus just slides across the screen when they run away from Leo, I have no idea why they didn't just speed up his walking animation.

Back to the main topic, in my opinion, it's this tiny bit of forgiveness that pushes Chronus to do more than he has to. Sure, he could just sit in the Japanese colony all day, but he doesn't, he goes out on his own to save Asuka from Absolute Defense: Felion (btw, I am 100% certain that Chronus invented that technique and no one can convince me otherwise). This action, of course, helps bring peace to the world of GG, as Asuka was VITAL to stopping the revival of Justice in Revelator.

TL;DR: Chronus for -STRIVE-, Chronus cool, line from -STRIVE- epilogue cool

[anneapocalypse]

On Cullen's Earnestness

In my current playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition, this one early war table quest caught my eye that I think offers a good bit of insight into Cullen’s character.

In “Truth or Dare: The Imperial Court,” Vivienne alerts Josephine to a letter she’s received from an acquaintance, purporting to “warn” Vivienne of the suspect company she has taken up in joining the Inquisition. The letter reads thus:

My dearest Vivienne,

You cannot have heard the shocking allegations against the Inquisition, or surely you would never have been seen with them. Allow me, as a friend, to open your eyes. People are saying that Divine Justinia is, indeed, alive, but that the Inquisition—her closest advisors and most trusted servants—have orchestrated all this chaos on her orders. That it was Seeker Pentaghast and Sister Nightingale who sabotaged the Conclave in order to eliminate the opposition within the Chantry, and cut off the heads of the mage rebellion and templars in a single stroke. To save your own reputation, you must escape this acquaintance immediately.

With deepest concern, Vicomtesse Elodie de Morreau

In the context of the Game, we may understand that this Vicomtesse, while she may call Vivienne a friend, likely has no great concern for her reputation.

The Inquisition is the horse on which Vivienne is betting in order to better her own position (which is considerably shakier than she lets on, but that’s another post); Vicomtesse Elodie is simply making a different bet. If Vivienne heeds her warnings, and the Inquisition never achieves public favor, then Elodie’s advice was correct and Vivienne is indebted to her. If Vivienne heeds her warnings and the Inquisition does gain public acclaim, then Elodie has disrupted Vivienne’s opportunity for advancement, and she also wins. And if Vivienne does not heed her advice and the Inquisition remains a pariah, Elodie gets to watch Vivienne go down with it, smugly saying “I told you so.” Only if the Inquisition thrives and Vivienne with it does Elodie lose this bet—and Vivienne is clearly interested in seeing that outcome, and helping it come about.

The important thing is that the specifics of the accusations against the Inquisition are absolutely irrelevant here. This conspiracy theory about Justinia being secretly alive and the Left and Right Hand doing a sabotage to secure Chantry power—it’s all nonsense, and I doubt the Vicomtesse truly believes it. More critically, she likely does not care whether it is true. Repeating this rumor is just a means to a desired outcome.

If you’ve ever argued with a conspiracy theorist who seemed to simply change their position every time you backed them into a rhetorical corner, you may have realized that facts are largely ineffective at combating this sort of thing.

And of the three advisors, Cullen is the only one to get hung up on the content of the rumor, rather than its source and its purpose. Josephine and Leliana, seasoned players of the Game, both recognize this stupid rumor for what it is. Both of them ignore the substance of it and instead focus on its purpose: turning public opinion against the Inquisition. Josephine proposes to combat it by seeking noble favor elsewhere and leaving it to those allies to do the work of actually arguing against the rumors. Leliana is more interested in finding out with whom the rumor originated.

Leliana also makes the particularly savvy observation that if they were to combat the rumor by attempting to prove Justinia’s death, they would simply be providing their opponents more ammunition to use against them later. Leliana recognizes that “The Divine is alive, and you’re hiding her!” isn’t an earnest accusation, it’s bait. And if you take the bait, if you say, “Actually the Divine did die; here’s her remains to prove it,” then your enemies can say, “Aha! And how do you know she’s dead? It’s because you people killed her!” Or, best case scenario is they just bait you into wasting a lot of your time proving the accusation false, which is exactly what happens if you let Cullen take the bait.

Again, you might have had a similar experience if you’ve ever tried to “debate” a person whose strategy is making outrageous claims, letting you waste a lot of time earnestly debunking them, and then ignoring all your arguments and simply making another, equally outrageous claim.

In Cullen’s case, what happens is poor Knight-Captain Rylen is tasked with leading a field trip of Orlesian nobles through the grisly ruins of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, while asking them to please not touch the red lyrium, and no, you cannot take a charred corpse home as a souvenir, please milord I must ask you not to touch the red lyrium. I’m sure that was an excellent use of everyone’s time and resources.

But it’s easy to understand why Cullen responds this way! It’s a very instinctual and human response! “Well, you’ve just said a thing that is very obviously untrue. I’ll prove to you that it’s untrue! And this will solve the problem of you being wrong, and then we can all move forward together. Right?”

It’s an eminently reasonable response, so long as you assume that the other party is being reasonable and engaging with you in good faith.

Cullen assumes they are. Josephine and Leliana know they’re not. (Vivienne also knew this; hence her handing the letter over to Josephine to deal with instead of bothering to reply herself.)

And you can probably see how Cullen’s earnestness, his desire to believe that other people are also operating earnestly and in good faith, could lead him down some dangerous paths.

Knight-Commander Meredith was also a conspiracy theorist. The difference is that her conspiracy theories were about people she had near-absolute power over, with terrible consequences. And working under the authority of someone he wanted to believe in, someone he absolutely would have taken as entirely earnest (because in many ways she was earnest, at least in her belief that magic was dangerous and must be controlled), it would have been easy for Cullen to assume she must be acting in good faith, even when his misgivings arose. “She needs a spine of iron to survive her position,” he says to Hawke. And like anyone arguing in bad faith, Meredith could move the goalposts when it suited her. No signs of blood magic discovered? That only proves how well they’re hiding it. The tower must be searched top to bottom. The First Enchanter objects? He must be one of them. Dissent among her own templar ranks? Must be the blood magic controlling their minds. As Dan Olson puts it in his video In Search of a Flat Earth, conspiracy theories make facts subservient to outcomes, which is why the "facts" can easily be rearranged and discarded at will—all that matters is the actions those facts justify.

Of course Meredith’s beliefs were, again, quite different—more dangerous, and far more earnestly held than this silly Orlesian rumor about the Inquisition. She was also under the influence of red lyrium at the height of her paranoia. But conspiracy theories often feed on paranoia, and Meredith’s beliefs were still ultimately beliefs that could be bent to justify the outcome she (and her superior, Grand Cleric Elthina) desired: mages must be controlled, whatever the cost.

Cullen has managed to extricate himself from Meredith’s mindset. But he hasn’t yet learned, I think, that conspiracy theories and irrational beliefs can’t be overcome simply by reason. That’s also very understandable for someone in his position. When you’re in the process of overcoming some very wrong beliefs yourself, things you earnestly believed, it’s very natural to want to believe that everyone else is just as earnest and can be persuaded; in fact, you have a personal stake in believing that, because if other people can be redeemed, that means there’s hope for you.

Do I think this justifies the things Cullen was complicit in during his time as a templar, or any misguided opinions he may voice during his time with the Inquisition? No, that’s not why I’m saying all this. But I think it’s an interesting aspect of his character and one worth exploring. Cullen is often characterized as the blunt instrument advisor, his answer to most war table questions being “send troops”; in Josie’s words “the hammer for whom every problem looks like a nail.” But I think some of his offered solutions do offer compelling insights into his character, and this one certainly does—as well as an interesting example of how this approach to the world and other people can go wrong.