#The Complex Expedition

[videogamepolls]

Requested by anon

[absenthell]

[krissiefox]

The Complex Expedition and The Complex Found Footage confirmed DRM Free

I have tested my steam copies of these two games in The Complex series and was able to launch both without steam or internet (as of 9-22-2024 when I did the test), so I wanted to spread the word. "Found Footage" is incorrectly tagged on the pc gaming wiki as having steam DRM. "Expedition" doesn't have a page on the wiki yet.

[centralsaints]

THE COMPLEX: EXPEDITION

part 1 of my playthrough. i have so many thoughts about this game and these spaces.

[thefoxlady]

The RayRay from The Complex: Expedition looks huggable.

I don't know why, but I want to hug them. Maybe it's the long arms or the fact it's slender but I want to hug them.

They probably would kill me but I want a hug from them.

[thedaswolves]

SPOILERS

Finally collected all the beautiful journals but Verso's journal is the one that is not leaving my mind... my heart breaks for him.. and Julie.. and what he had to do.. can't imagine carrying the weight of that but still hoping you'll make a better future somehow..

But what really gets me here is at this point in time he still had hope.. how passionately he was fighting still for everyone in this world. he still wanted to save both Aline and everyone in the canvas, bring back the one person that meant the most to him... and he truly wanted to live. I wish we could've met him then 💔

[corseque]

my very hottest Clair Obscur take and don't take this too seriously or write me essays because I don't particularly care to argue, I just think it's interesting that I have never seen anyone say this one.

but I consider deep in my heart that Sciel and Lune are also Shitty Wizards in my beloved Shitty Wizard book, equally shitty and selfish to the rest of them, pitiable in their circumstances, but not more innocent, for this reason:

they both listened very carefully to Renoir's arguments and said, "You know what? That sounds fine. That sounds good, even. I'd like to stay alive forever anyway, even if it means my young teenage friend/ward/fellow expeditioner will die for me, will die for us."

Not a moment's hesitation. To them, it is worth sacrificing Maelle for more halcyon time for Lumiere. Because they listened to Renoir, they are fully aware Maelle will die.

It's actually the exact opposite of the conclusion that both Gustave AND Verso came to. Gustave said in a fury, "fuck the mission!" in one pivotal conversation where Lune carefully grilled Gustave on whether he would actually sacrifice all of Lumiere for Maelle - the question that went unanswered, until the end of his life when he proved that he would not run and leave her to give a better chance for Lumiere's survival. By not preserving the Lumina Converter over Maelle's safety, Gustave would save Maelle even if it meant a worse outcome for Lumiere.

Both of Maelle's brothers were emotionally unable to sacrifice Maelle, sacrifice their dear sister, for the good of the group.

But Sciel "I would sacrifice you in a heartbeat if it meant I'd see my husband again"? Lune "For the good of Lumiere?"? They have the opposite belief, and they seem very content indeed in the ending that hinges their newfound immortality on the health of a grieving teenager.

I just have not seen anyone point this out before, and do not be too angry because I believe it makes them more interesting characters along the lines of the complexity of the Dessendre family.

What horrifies me about that ending is that Gustave is there, rebuilt in such a way that either he is unaware of what is happening to Maelle, or with a personality so changed so as to no longer care, after we saw play out that her safety was something he would give his life for. Sends a shiver down my spine.

The painting dwellers were born to the whims of mortal gods, which is tragic for them, but in this version of the story, their very nature also gives them the power to live beyond the bounds of mortality. They are no longer even mortal. They do not have to worry about death the way their mortal creators do. They no longer have mortal concerns. They are immortals in paradise, beyond the fear of death, beyond the fear of loss, and they are not thinking of their young friend's well-being at all. Which is very interesting to me, and makes them more nuanced and better characters, that they are also understandably selfish.

[mothzi]

she can love and hate her family members for their choices but will always support them making their own choices

[workmitch]

I was so close to siding with Maelle at the end of Expedition 33. Through the arguments she has with Renoir before and after the final battle, to her making the case that her friends in the Canvas are important to her and she can’t lose them too, I was on her side. I believed her when she said that she could strike a balance between living in the Canvas and the real world, or maybe I WANTED to believe her the same way Renoir did. Still, I thought she was right.

But then.

But then you actually see the fragment of the true Verso’s soul painting in the space between worlds. And he looks…so tired. So weak. Just a small shadow of a wisp with a cratered face trapped in a cycle he can’t break because he has no agency to do so. Painted Verso recognizes it. He might not be the true Verso, but I think Aline painted him the most accurately. I saw it then too, that the last piece of the real Verso would be just as much a prisoner as Maelle if it is left there. And I don’t think the real Verso, the one who died to save his beloved sister, would want to see her lose herself in the past.

And I realized…Maelle is right, and even though she’s right I had to destroy the Canvas. I don’t think Painted Verso was trying to destroy it for purely selfish reasons, just like I don’t think Maelle was trying to save it for purely selfish reasons. But he’s painted to be like the real Verso, and he will always try to save Alicia even if he has to sacrifice himself to do so.

Because if she stays, Alicia never has to process her grief. She has a version of Verso, none of the reminders of the pain of life, and no feeling in the Canvas of her real body withering on the other side. Even if she has to trap both versions of her brother to keep the painting perfect, she can be happy.

But life is about hard choices, and sometimes the hardest choice is to let go and move on. And yes, the people of the Canvas are real and alive. Yes, it isn’t fair that they have no choice in either outcome. That’s the point, I’d argue. We make that choice, and we live with the consequences. Neither ending is clean; grief is not clean. It stings that I can’t save them and Alicia. One choice isn’t morally superior to the other.

I sided with Verso. Because Alicia is suffering, and I’ve suffered the sting of grief and know what it can do if you don’t meet it when it comes. And Alicia deserves the chance to work through her grief over losing Verso. To paint her own Canvases instead of just maintaining the world of a ghost. To truly live instead of just exist. And Verso, the last vestige of Verso, deserves to have his sacrifice for his sister honored. He deserves to stop painting so she can truly begin to.

[kayayeteae]

I see people knocking on clea and hating her, but let’s be so fr. She’s the epitome of “everyone grieves differently” and her ass wants revenge. Good for her.

[absenthell]

[staurolith]

People chewing on Verso is completely expected and I love to see it, but what I am so happy about is just as many if not more people also as insane about Clea. Truly the woman of all time to be picked apart and treated in the same "fandom deranged" way (I'm being reductive but affectionate) that is more common for male characters. What's HILARIOUS about this effect is that Renoir, fucked up evil* wizard middle aged dad with insane drip, is comparatively ignored. Like, this is the old man fucker supreme website. He's been served to us on a silver platter, but no, his kids are who everyone's going insane over.

[juneiper-art]

been haunting the expedition 33 tag on tumblr and your posts are always a joy to see pop up. the one about clea (my beloved) possibly painting those "fuckass mimes" has permanently rewired my brain, it's the first thing I think of when I run into one in-game. she's still my fave character tho even if clea (my beloved) is responsible for those atrocities, and it's so nice to see people who appreciate her depth instead of calling her a bitch and moving on.

sending u good vibes <3

wow thank you this was so kind and also im laughing so hard .. they really are clea's fuck ass mimes

one of my favorite parts of the writing of the game is that none of the characters are simple, one dimensional. clea IS a bitch...she also is carrying the weight of her family's pain all by herself and she lost her brother, who she spent her childhood flying around a world of their creation having adventures with... she's so real to me, like the whole family, and dismissing her bc she lashes out with anger is like...a disservice to how much the game gives us of her.

i think it would have been a more boring choice to have clea be someone who was like 'we all need to come together and heal,' you know, like the older sister who is suffering but so Good about it. making her intolerant and bitchy instead of long suffering is suuuch a good choice. everyone wants complex female characters until theyre mean lmao but i prefer this to Good Woman Moral Compass of the Family Saintly Sufferer so. clea i love you. give them nothing. im really tired of the woman archetype thats common rn that doesnt let women be ugly in their emotions and actions.

[thefoxlady]

I made this comic in my notes app because of my thoughts on the RayRay from The Complex: Expedition from the last post I made.

Me: Hug.

RayRay: Aren't you supposed to be scared?

Me: Hug me.

RayRay: But-

Me: I need comfort.

(I wonder if someone made a fanfic where you hug the RayRay and you end up snuggling with it.)

[quotelr]

In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters deeper down, if you drop with them farther over the world's rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. It is not learned.

Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

[freshcut-chetney]

The way Aline resorts to protecting the expeditioners once it's clear she's losing the fight never fails to fucking get me oh my god