Astrid is the leader of the Dark Brotherhood in the oldest cause five Skyrim and under her guardianship the guild suffers numerous setbacks from the penalties oculata s– burning down the falleth sanctuary to the Brotherhood’s reliance on word of mouth to pick up contracts her decisions have consistently led to the institution’s
Deterioration firstly let’s deal with the issue of power arguably Astrid isn’t an idiot in that she’s naturally dumb rather she tends to make stupid decisions based on her infatuation with personal control and power for instance one of her most idiotic decisions can be seen to be her transformation of the
Brotherhood into an unsustainable organization that is entirely dependent on her personal leadership astrid says herself that her dictatorship is stronger than the structure and rules that have guided the dark brotherhood for hundreds of years however this is an incredibly short-sighted position to take and her presumption that her system
Is better than the traditional one is based entirely on narcissism and misplaced self belief what happens when she dies for instance she’s created no sustainable power structure to continue the stability she has made I know that during her tenure before Cicero in the Dragonborn arrived the knight mother had
Withdrawn from the world and there were no ordained listeners but even within the harsh context of her being forced to create a new system it seems stupid of a leader to create an organization whose functionality is dependent entirely on them the infighting among the leading Bolsheviks to become leader following
Lenin’s death serves as an example of the chaos and shoes when a leader makes a system where they themselves of central pivot with no clear line of succession by comparison in the dark Brotherhood at the time of oblivion things were much more stable because there was a clear structure where
Responsibilities were shared among different individuals for instance if achiever the leader of the shade in Hall sanctuary suddenly died it wouldn’t be the end of the sanctuary as it otherwise would be for Astrid because there exists a wider power structure that lends its support to the organization the black hand had
Clear procedures for selecting a new leader obviously Astrid is somewhat limited in Skyrim because by that time the Dark Brotherhood is much smaller but nonetheless by refusing to share out the power or to create a sort of Constitution outlining how her successor should be chosen she jeopardized the long-term stability
Of the Brotherhood by ensuring a power struggle would follow her death so all in all I think Astrid is a bit of an idiot for presuming that her unsustainable matriarchy is stronger than the system that preceded her and she’s especially idiotic for refusing to readapt a system to which the knight
Mother is central such a system was proven to have worked in the past a line of succession being established by the knight mother when she chooses listeners asteroids lust for power has also led her to make other questionable decisions chief among these her decision to trust the penalties or kill artists the
Organization whose main agenda in Skyrim is to literally hunt down and destroy the dark brotherhood in order to defeat the Dragonborn he posed a threat to her power as he ordained listener she smartly decided that she would tell the penitence ocularis of the assassination attempt on the Emperor’s life in return for amnesty
And protection this backfired when unsurprisingly having told the Imperial agents of the Dark Brotherhood so location the pellet isaki artists turned up and burned down the entire sanctuary to the ground despite the agreement I mean did Astrid seriously expect the commander to say true to his words when
She had commissioned the death of his son moreover the stupidity of this decision is compounded with a simple fact that the Dragonborn offered a legitimate way to revitalize the dark brotherhood being an ordained listener the Dragonborn was the clear successor to Astrid and the knight mother’s choice implies that there would
Be more listeners to come but no for Astrid is not so much the survival of the Dark Brotherhood that’s important for the survival of her specific version of the Brotherhood where she is in charge you might think that Astrid redeems herself by the end of the Dark Brotherhood quest line she admits she’s
Wrong and that her way of doing things wasn’t the best but that’s easy for a dying woman who’s half burned alive to say I sincerely doubt she would have been so humble and apologetic had she been unharmed moreover Astrid seems to have created an awful system for fulfilling contracts in Skyrim the Dark
Brotherhood fulfills contracts when they hear about people performing the black sacrament through word of mouth I mean that’s an incredibly unreliable way of finding out about potential customers for instance Aventis Arvin Teno could have been performing his sacrament for about six months for all we know without Astrid
Really hearing about it also what if someone made the rumor up traveling halfway across Skyrim to ascertain whether rumor is true or not seems like a massive waste of time and what if someone performs the black sacrament so secretly that no one else knows about it and their contract thus just goes
Unfulfilled because Astrid never hears about them performing it so rather than using such a primitive and unreliable method for finding potential customers Astrid instead could have created a dead drop system where potential clients drop her contracts into dead drops hidden in the wilderness or she could at least
Make the system she does use more efficient by hiring new members or posting existing members to each city to verify whether black sacraments have indeed been performed but know instead of any of these alternative arrangements Astrid relied on a system of word-of-mouth even Skyrim is a massive province I mean no
Wonder the Dragonborn beats her to fulfilling a ventus’s contract if she’s waiting hundreds of miles to the south of Windhelm through a random traveling merchant to mention the weird antics of a boy in the north however despite Astra’s numerous mistakes and questionable decisions the fact remains that she does care about
The Dark Brotherhood even if her chief care is maintaining her unique version of the fraternity whilst I do believe that Astrid is power-hungry there is also undeniably a motherly element to her character she genuinely wants to protect the family she’s created and rightfully distrusts the mad jester accessable but despite her somewhat good
Intentions if we are to judge the woman by her actions she’s hardly the wisest or most selfless leader thanks for watching this video if you want to see more than please do feel free to subscribe and please suggest any individuals in Skyrim oblivion or more winds that you think are idiots
I need ridiculing in a YouTube video anyway thanks again I’ll see you in the next one You
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