#i'm no forgery pro

[dontwear-itout]

UR THE 1 YES UR THE ☆WE NEED U BACK ON BASS GUITAR!!!!!!

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Legend of Vox Machina: Prisoners of Ank'Harel (3x02)

Shit, the Scanlan stuff that I assume is coming at the end of this season is going to fuck me up.

Cons:

Still slightly questioning the Vax/Keyleth angle here, I really kind of loved how in the campaign she was the one with all the doubts. But I'm trying to give it a chance this way, too! It's not like this is a bad story to tell about the two of them, it's just not the story I expected.

I liked Scanlan's subplot but the moment where he and Kaylie go back and he gets another drink and ends up getting shitfaced was kind of confusing to me? I think it was supposed to be that he knew his friends might be in danger, and he didn't want to screw up with Kaylie, and he got overwhelmed with the responsibility and got drunk... but there was some slight awkwardness with the sequence of events, I thought. He left to talk to Kaylie on a walk so he could, ostensibly, try and figure out what was going on with his friends, but then he turns around and goes back to the bar when he sees some guards? I guess I could have used maybe a concrete reminder that part of Kaylie's baggage is that Scanlan just goes off adventuring and that she has no sympathy for it. Because I kept thinking... Scanlan, just tell her you want to meet with her later and have a meal together, tell her you just came by to set that up. Then go off and find the rest of Vox Machina. This isn't that difficult to arrange! But I don't know, I'm complaining about a very small timing issue, I think.

Pros:

Soooo much cool shit to talk about with this one, I hardly know where to begin!

Percy playing along and then getting one over on Anna was so cool, he's such a genius badass, my beloved! The animation of Orthax is dope as hell. And we get a name for Ripley's cool cloak, which campaign watchers already would have known: Cabal's Ruin. For the most part I think they do a pretty good job of tracking all the Vestiges and giving them distinct moments to shine. So it was cool that the Plate of the Dawnmartyr didn't really have any play this episode, and then we find out that it's been a forgery the whole time. So its time to shine is still to come! For those keeping score at home: Vax, Scanlan, Vex, and Grog all have vestiges at this point. So it's Percy, Pike, and Keyleth who do not. We have two Vestiges named on the board: the plate, and the cloak. We're getting close to a full set! (I'm fairly confident they've cut Vax's second vestige, Whisper, from the show, because it would be overkill narrative-wise.)

My Percy/Vex heart is beating so fast, there was so much great content here with them! Vex is so scared for him, so desperate to find him, and then she throws herself in front of a bullet for him, and he holds her and calls for help as she bleeds... SWOON. I loved the group hug after Percy is saved at the end, and the little Vex/Percy handhold moment. Then they have a talk about Percy and guilt and what he really wants... I can't wait to see what awaits here as the season continues.

Combat-wise we got a couple of really cool moments, particularly the gang rescuing Percy. I think I want to give MVP of this episode to Grog, though, for his tactical brilliance of asking the little kids playing pretend with a fake gun if they knew where the real things might be in the city! That was such a precious moment. Grog as this big dumb giant who is just so protective and loving to small beings is just... everything I ever wanted for this adaptation of the character. Grog also calling out and trying to fight his way to Percy as Vox Machina are dragged away was another great moment for our buddy!

Pacing problems about the Kaylie stuff notwithstanding, I do still love the emotional journey Scanlan is going on here. Him calling out to her that she's his only family... ouch! And then Kaylie, trying to put aside her doubts and give him a chance, and him failing to live up to that... god damn, they're taking a plot thread that already hurt my feelings in the original campaign, and really twisting the knife! I can't wait for everyone to lose their shit when they see where some of this is going for Scanlan.

Gilmore was fantastic in this episode. It's a fun way to bring some of the energy from the stream forward to the story: Gilmore as an NPC, Gilmore as a true ally and valuable resource, who also is just kinda... not wanting to be super involved in all these shenanigans, for good reason. The poor guy has to fake being a guard in order to let Vox Machina investigate the archives looking for clues of where to find Percy, and while he does an admirable job, it's clear he'd rather not be involved in such a way! I loved the joke about his rival in Ank'Harel stealing his naming convention and even the font for his storefront.

J'Mon Sa Ord is SO COOL. Probably favorite character design of the season so far. The tall, lanky build, the eyes, the voice... I was so excited to meet them and this reveal does not disappoint. You know that they would have killed Percy (or "changed" him) without remorse, but you also know that they'd never want to do something unjust in any way. It's a cool setup for the ruler of a nation. You really feel like you can trust them to do what they think is right. And the scene where they used Mythcarver to see Ripley and understand Percy's innocence was so awesome to see animated! I can't wait to see them in their other form at some point this season, too.

I'll stop there. Just one more episode and then I have to wait another week for more! Boo!

9/10

[literaticat]

Hi Jenn! Happy holidays! I was wondering. I really love this one small artist's work. They're known for drawing an animal. Let's say ducks. I have a PB MS about a duck and a goose and want to illustrate it too. I have the goose design but really love the artist's duck. How much trouble would I be in if I drew ducks that looked like the artist's ducks? I wouldn't trace or copy, but the design would look similar. Thank you!!

Obviously this is anon and there's no backstory here, so I'm going to presume that you are very new and not a professional illustrator?

First I'd say, a lot of artists learn to be artists by emulating other people's work at first. There's nothing particularly wrong with that -- you're developing your own style, yes, but part of how you do that is by taking in and synthesizing a lot of OTHER artist's work, and then trying it yourself. What mediums work for you? What color palette and textures are "your thing" -- etc.

This is just normal. Like, before you can write a whole original book, you have to learn to read and write, and you probably read a lot of books and you no doubt start off by writing things in which you are emulating what you've absorbed. Before you become a crochet artisan, you have to learn to crochet by figuring out the stitches and learning to follow other people's patterns. Before you can start developing your own recipes, you have to learn to cook by watching and aping your parents or somebody on TV, and then following a recipe. Yes, when you are good at it, you'll be able to put things together in a way that is all your own -- but when you are BRAND NEW, of course you are learning from the ones who came before you!

(Also, let's be real: There's only so many ways a duck can look -- ALL pictures of ducks look a LITTLE similar, no? Hopefully they look... kinda like DUCKS! You learn how a duck looks by looking at ducks, and you learn how to draw a duck by looking at other artist's depictions of ducks!)

Everyone starts somewhere. BUT -- and I'm gonna hold your hand when I say this -- I think if you are so new to illustration that you don't have your own style figured out, maybe you aren't ready to be a pro book illustrator? (YET!) Maybe give yourself some time and practice? Make a thousand ducks (and geese, and whatever else) in all different styles until you figure out what works for you? Get a portfolio together? I'm just saying, I don't know that it's a great idea to leap from NO ducks to A BOOK FULL OF DUCKS with nothing in between, you know?

Anyway, I don't think there's anything wrong with emulating the way other artists do things when you are starting out, but if you are straight-up mimicking them forever and never developing your own style, even if you become a GENIUS at mimicking them perfectly, while that may be a skill, it's kinda... not art? (A professional forger that can make a perfect Mona Lisa that an expert couldn't tell from the real thing is certainly a skilled forger -- are they an artist? I don't think I'd say that, unless they are ALSO turning their hand to creating things that are their own!)

I'm not likening the duck thing to forgery, btw -- I get that you aren't trying to trick anyone or pass off another artist's work as your own -- I'm just saying. By all means learn to do the duck by looking at other ducks -- but it's how YOU make the duck that is the ART part.

[xylophonetangerine]

There's been an ongoing rivarly between the Orthodox bishops of Finland since like 2015. It's been pretty funny reading the newspapers writing about a political schism between people called Leo, Arseni and Elia, referred to by first names of course. They had to go to Constantinople to be castigated by Patriarch Bartholomew two times with the talk being that there was a "very serious" warning by the Patriarch that if they have to go a third time Constantinople might consider curtailing the autonomy of the Orthodox Church of Finland but nothing officially.

While researching this post (yeah, we're serious here) I read an article from 2010 that had someone estimate that the Orthodox Church of Finland is going to be fully autocephalous in "three to four years" which didn't happen. They actually tried to make the church autocephalous in the 1970s which is when the three dioceses were set up so that's really the ultimate cause of all this.

It's very embarrassing that the heads of the church are fighting like teenagers over some very unclear reason. I think it was like a insignificant financial disagreement in 2015 that started it all. Leo is now retired so hopefully this is coming to an end.

While researching I also found out that then Underbishop of Karelia Arseni was involved in an art-sales scandal in 2016–2017. He, with archimandrite Sergei, curated art shows at the New Valamo monastery in Heinävesi where the works supposedly came from the collections of a mysterious unnamed art collector family from Eastern Finland. He overhyped the works and claimed that they were "museum quality" and consequently they sold for high prices despite experts later finding that they were grossly overvalued, low in artistic quality, of questionable provenance and that some of the prints were even forgeries. It seems that some people, but not Arseni or Sergei, were even criminally prosecuted.

It's generally crazy how many crimes the clergy and other church staff seem to commit. There's been many cases of embezzlement and other white-collar crimes and in November last year Arseni's secretary was fired for "threatening behaviour". I'm sure the church was all too happy to let that guy go because he had been making pro-Russia statements before the incident.

It's the official position of the Orthodox Church of Finland to condemn Putin and the war which is of course meet and right but may I just add that it's been crazy to see the increase in russophobia in the church. This actually put me off on rejoining when I was considering it for the first time a few years back. How are you Russian Orthodox and hating on all Russians categorically and not just the people justifying the invasion? Get real.

In 2018 the seat of the Archbishop of All-Finland was moved from Kuopio in the diocese of Karelia (now the Diocese of Kuopio and Karelia) to Helsinki. I wonder if this is related to this whole mess.

[missgallavjch]

i know it's a trivial thing but seeing some panels from sas*ke hetsuden kinda hurt. early this year something really bad happened to me that completely changed my life and naruto, sasuke, and their bond have been such a source of comfort for me and helped me take my mind off my grief and all the reasons why i'm not doing okay, and i know that story is not canon and i'm trying to ignore it (i've muted all tags and related words both on here and on twitter), but i know it will only get worse and it hurts me that my enjoyment of something that has become so dear to me and that has helped me so much over the past year is inevitably getting (at least a little bit) ruined by this.

[nuclearforest]

Animal crossing for the blorbo ask?

I,,,, I'm sorry i took so long 💀💀

This is a real fun suggestion! Ty! Picking the last 2 was super hard tho because you don't really think abt getting way too annoyed in any animal crossing game 🤣

BUT I did my best and scraped the bottom of the barrel for the most petty of reasons lmfao. So without further ado:

1. blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

Vivian; first wolf I got on my island and I love her? She's a little vain but her design is gr8 and the snooty villagers are still pretty sweet in ACNH. Big improvements over past games lol.

2. scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

Poppy; I will get cuteness aggression for pretty much any ACNH character but the little fall themed squirrel? I would kill for her 💀

3. scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

Bam; he's a funky little deer! Love his colors and love how the jocks just. Are. Such good vibes. Meatheads with hearts of gold and the second I find him I'm moving him in lol.

4. glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

Blanche; I'm not entirely sure what even constitutes obscure in animal crossing because there are so many little critters, but I bet as long as they're not one of the ones people go rabid for it counts as an obscure fav lol. Anyway she's another fun snooty character whose house I really loved and it had fit so well on my island before she moved away. But that's OK she eventually made room for another wolf 🤣

5. poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

Redd. He's an awful little fox WHO WONT GIVE ME THE LAST 5 PIECES OF ART I NEED, THE LITTLE BASTARD, but he's pretty pathetic and I subscribe to the idea he just randomly picks up legit copies of the famous art he sells or, in the process of his own arts and crafts time, manages to make epic forgeries without trying. Then again that also implies the pieces that done work are inherently cursed with the easter eggs and I love it. Man fix your boat and you're golden lmao.

6. horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

Tipper; listen she's a cute little cow and it's fun and all but when she settled in my campsite and I nabbed her from a friend it took. So much time travel to get her to lose out I lost my mind. I unintentionally lost a bunch of cute little notes I had hoarded on my board and my island was overrun. I had to borrow friends' time to clear my island of weeds and flowers. The only pro is that I discovered Lag Mountain. Otherwise I would out her through the same torture of clearing 💀

7. eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

Broccolo; that dumb little mouse moved into my City Folk town on the Wii, right next door to my house, and had refused to leave. When I was younger I used to be so MAD like I didn't even mind Peewee as much as I minded him because at least the ape had the decency to give me personal space. But Broccolo? Nope. So superhell for him.