#and it was a work of art

[arabella-strange]

caveat: I do think the s3 of the show was great in many parts and I am loath to put negativity into the universe when we could be celebrating how beautiful the animation was, the sound design, so much of the hard work of so many people

That said: I think what made the s3 Keyleth arc so frustrating was that the narrative kept undermining the message. At first, she was the one who didn't trust Raishan because liars and murderers are not ideal allies—some of the party agrees, but they go with pragmatism. It's useful to have someone on the inside and we can't have perfection if we're going to win.

Then it's: Keyleth isn't being listened to, but at least Vax does the respectful thing to say that he trusts her instincts even if they can't follow their better angels right now. Keyleth compromises—hooray, pragmatism. (We even do this back-and-forth twice: Once at the start of the season, then again around the selling-out of Whitestone. Keyleth immediately mistrusts Raishan, but she's wrong about that—and if they had let themselves consider it was really Ripley, they might have stopped it [or whatever]. So then they decide to be pragmatists again.)

Except then: Nope, Keyleth was right, she shouldn't have compromised, she wasn't listened to, her friends dismissed her, and she was right [except for those times she wasn't] and she needs to go it alone. She needs to trust herself independently and refuse to back down. Hooray, we have down a boardroom victory at the Ashari Council.

Except...: Wait, just kidding, Keyleth needs to learn to listen and trust, and go back to Vox Machina, and thank them for empowering her to trust herself. And now they can reunite as a team more sure of themselves and thus more able to communicate and trust each other to take risks as a party.

^^ Which in itself is not a bad message! But the whole doesn't really click with this final point. And so by the end, it was hard to feel like there was really wisdom gained or understanding reached by any of the characters individually or about each other, because the back-and-forth just... made it so inconsistent about what choices we are supposed to see as right or fair, and which as incorrect or naive.

[tickfleato]

self-love/self-hate

[rioblitzle]

working retail

[vamprisms]

siren

[w1lmuttart]

The lake town

[bearrverine]

me and gang at the haunted house

[evenlyevi]

Goodnight.

[holographings]

someone on twitter said Imagine what s2 jayce would give to talk to s1 viktor just one more time. and someone had a time travel alternate dimension fic ready to go. and i read it. and now my face is being eaten by 3750 feral dogs i think

[cloudberrytroll]

Hug

[hansoeii]

only you.

[tizeline]

Okay so my brain got infected by Gravity Falls again oopsie daisy here are a bunch of random doodles

Dipper and Mabel would be 25 this year, right? Anyway I wanted to draw them grown up so woah look at that

Anway Ford totally uses two fingers to flip people off just because he can and you can't tell me otherwise

[demaparbat-hp]

That infamous prison escape.

[golyadkin]

you'll get the urge as an artist or a writer to say out loud the things you're worried about "the proportions are off" "kind of out of character" "i'm not good at summaries" "didn't get as much detail as i wanted" "i made a mistake and here's how" and that's the self-conscious part of your brain telling you "it's bad and if you don't tell them you know it's bad then they'll think you're stupid" but you've got to ignore that little voice and pretend you think it's good or else that little voice is going to ruin your life

[bookpdf]

there should be more hours between 6 and 10pm. like even just two more hours. for my assorted hobbies & activities

[systematictangle]

I have the best friends lol. Look at this lovely cross stitch piece a friend made me!

EDIT: I have been informed that the pattern is by @shitpostsampler ! Thanks to those who let me know!