#i'm sorry if i got too carried away

[estcaligo]

Can't stop thinking about how Silver and Sebek's lives are so different, even during their college days.

(Canon info) ** (this post is about Sebek x Prefect btw)**

Silver’s life outside of studies: training, training, napping, club activities, napping, helping Lilia, more training, napping, training.

Sebek's life outside of studies:

training

club activities

checking on horses on cold days

going to karaoke with friends

reading books on various topics

eating out with friends

having sleepovers with friends

attending live music performances

visiting bookshops in town

visiting the barber's in town (twice a month)

writings letters to his family

helping his friends with assignments

Saving the Prefect from falling chairs, holding the Prefect's hand, drinking tea with the Prefect, training the Prefect, complimenting how good the Prefect looks in new outfits, telling stories (about Malleus) to the Prefect, recommending books to the Prefect, bringing more food to the Prefect, dancing with the Prefect, showing off his new merch to the Prefect, sharing his cooking with the Prefect, discussing art with the Prefect. -------

[deoidesign]

Hi, how did you learn to draw Steve's physique?

Ohh what a complicated thing to answer...

When it comes to how I learned to draw anything, it's hard to say anything too specific since it's always a culmination of many years of assorted study and practice... but I can try to do my best to explain some of the biggest things that helped me learn, some tips I keep in mind, and maybe at least some places to start/delve further.

(just a little disclaimer it's not like my drawings here are going to be 100% medically accurate.. they're just to illustrate concepts!)

The main thing about learning various physiques is understanding anatomy. Which feels obvious, but I don't mean proportions; these are important, but perhaps more important is understanding the skeleton and how it moves and learning where muscles connect to bones and where fat grows on the body. When you understand how these function on a more mechanical level, depicting form and movement in a way that feels natural comes in tow.

For instance, understanding things like the pronation and supination of the radius and ulna, as well as the fact that muscles can ONLY contract or relax, will help you understand a bit better which muscles will be flexed and which will not while someone moves. It's inherent to the positioning based on the structural makeup of the body... It's not like you NEED to memorize all the muscles and bones, of course, but understanding and gaining at least a passive familiarity with the concepts really helps.

In tandem with this concept is the way parts of the body flow into eachother. Muscles ALWAYS come in groups because they can only contract. Whatever muscle is there to lift something, there is a muscle on the other side to pull that bone back down. What this results in is a series of straight edges next to curves, which gives us a lot of really lovely "s curves" and dents and folds and so on and so forth just naturally occurring.

I would suggest at least learning the "bony landmarks", which are bones (usually) visible on the surface of the body. things like the iliac crest, the great trochanter, the 7th vertabrae, the acromion process... These can be used to help you understand the parts of the body as angles and relationships, rather than trying to remember lengths and sizes, which vary immensely... (since you asked about steve, he can be our model... also study these on your own don't just take my word for it haha, these are the ones I personally keep in mind)

I've done the same thing with body hair... learning where it grows and in which directions... It helps me make up variations without needing reference, because I have a set of rules I can follow.

The biggest thing that helped me understand all this on a much deeper level was my ecorche course. I sculpted this guy. We started by sculpting the entire skeleton to understand the bones, and then we added muscles on top. Not every single muscle, of course, but the "artistic muscles" AKA the ones which directly affect the surface of the body. Doing this let us see where muscles connect, because we would make a shape, put it on the bone where it actually goes, and then you get to see how other muscles overlap that.

This helped me, perhaps, more than anything else. But I also didn't just start with this course, I had been drawing for years before I even took it. I had been in school for years before I took it. Not that I think it wouldn't be helpful to someone just starting out, but I do think that the more you know going in, the better an in-depth course like this will help you and stick with you. Classes are also expensive, though so I'm not really like... recommending you pay potentially thousands of dollars to take one... But it did help me a lot, personally.

I also, of course, have done many figure, gesture, and master studies...

These just help you quickly gain a stronger understanding of generalized anatomy, and gives you real life examples of and practice with of how people move and balance.

What all this does when combined, is gives me a very solid ability to depict movement and form in a way that feels relatively natural from my subconscious without the need for reference.

The rest of how I've learned to draw his physique is honestly mostly just stylization. I understand the body, and this is how I am depicting it for his level of musculature.

And as I move into depicting him in other ways, either moving in comics or in animation, realistically rendered, or extra stylized, these concepts inform every step of that process for me! When he keeps the same/similar relationships between parts, he gets to still look like himself.

It ALSO really helps when putting clothes on, because the way cloth falls and bunches and lifts is all directly related to the form it is on... So the more you understand that form, the more you can depict clothing and movement in a way that feels natural.

This is all, of course, true when I draw anyone, you asked about Steve so I'm trying to mostly show with him! But because I'm just drawing from raw information of general anatomy rather than trying to study one body type at a time, it allows a lot more "give," I think!

Like, here's most of the cast from TTA so far... actually, they're not as varied as I thought they were nevermind LMAO ignore this part

But, it also makes monster and alien design much easier! It's a lot easier to come up with non-human anatomy when I understand human anatomy, because I can manipulate the knowledge I have...

There is infinite more to study in the world of anatomy... The complexity of the human body goes extremely deep. For our purposes as artists, we need only depict a fraction of it, but more information rarely hurts the process.

I'm sure there's something in here that's wrong on a technical level, I'm mostly going off of memory. But that's kind of my point - I understand enough generally and conceptually that when I am missing something and need to find reference for it, I understand what I'm looking at. It's much easier than trying to learn AND draw at the same time.

I hope even one thing in here helped you! Sorry it's so long.

[askblueandviolet]

Tú, alcalde. ¿Hablas español? Eso sería genial :D

"Yes, I know many languages! Mandarin, cantonese, english, brazilian, french, italian, and of course, spanish!"

MASTER POST

Asks Start 💙💜

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[a-random-boo]

@st4rrzyy it's a bit late but here is something for your research

she is a side project of eggman's that was left nameless with an instinct to cause chaos and destruction. Umbra only has Amy's strength and in case of a fight she usually simply resorts to hand to hand combat. she chose her own name after a while probably just because she thought it sounded cool (but Umbra if i got the spelling right it means "shadow" which works in her case since she is always stuck in someone's shadow incapable of outgrowing that shadow hence she uses any connection to that person and her bad attitude to ruin that person's reputation and i'm going off track here). she is physically 15 but probably canonically only like 1-2 years old. she has barely any connection to Amy and Surge, Surge simply trying to get away from all things eggman/starline (is that his name??) related while Amy would most definitely want to stay with Umbra, she can't due to the fact that she has responsibilities in the Sol Empire (she got married to Blaze) and that Umbra just absolutely tries to ruin Dawn's life (her half sister), they hate each other a lot. Umbra is close friends with eggman's main project at the time, Dusk and with Sapphire (she is the tall little hedgie you can see with Umbra). She is currently under Sonic and Silver's supervision and anytime she doesn't take the chance to cause chaos, it's probably because she remember her wonderful little gem of a friend Sapphire. her fav color is orange btw

[dazzle02]

Ya know, I'd be genuinely interested in what the reaction would've been if Buck had got with another male character on the show other than Eddie. Like, one that the fans already loved. Someone like Ravi or Albert. A character who people already love and were wanting more of, but ISN'T Eddie. And like, have pretty much the same exact story of Buck not really understanding why he wants this persons attention, maiming Eddie and all that. All the "controversial" moments still happen. But here, Buck is the older one. In fact, with Albert they've got about the same age gap as Buck and Tommy, only Buck is the older one. Albert was 20 when he first appeared in the show in S3 and Buck would've been 28/29ish. So it would've been a similar age difference. But we would never have them calling Buck a predator or anything. Because they're very aware that they're all adults. But it does make me wonder what the reaction would've been.

Having Buck realise he's bisexual and start dating a guy, and it's not Eddie, but it IS a character they claim to love. And there's no sign of it not lasting. No actual sign of Bvdd!e happening. All signs point towards this relationship lasting a while.

Would they start hating on this character they've always loved beforehand? Because we all know that the main reason so many of them hate Tommy is because they see him as a threat to their ship.

But like, imagine Buck and Albert for some reason started dating (which I could never actually see but I do know some people have shipped this...) and BUCK said the things that made people decide they wanted Tommy to be killed. They'd have a completely different reaction.

This is just something I was thinking about last night while I was trying to go to sleep... 🤣

[sn0wbat]

strange dreams that make you go hmm.

[mildfevermystery]

Chika SSR #1197 and SR #2242 [Transparent, Edited/Extended] ※ Credit is appreciated but not required.

[grokebaby]

What do your angels think about human literature, movies, series, art? Are there ones who like or hate it specifically much?

*Fists on table* Great ask!! I have to preface this by saying the angels ofc can have their individual opinions but they're often influenced by their circumstance

Kxxxtr is a particular fan of mortal medias, she's usually always tuned into several satellite disks or radio channels ( simultaneously). They're able to connect to various wavelengths and the internet for example, you see. They have a bad grasp on what the average human is like but even despite watching alot of terrible soap operas and unknowingly reading a bunch of fanfic, they still heavily separate media from actual mortals 😅 I'd say it's just bc of the pure awe at the art humans are able to create despite their "simplicity", that she still has trouble grasping the complexities of being human. Kxxxtr has always had a messy relationship with the act of creation. She often tries to emulate the way angels have been described as by humans in ancient scriptures and other mythos.

On the general, angels seeing "Human with wings" variety of angels in media (or writing) doesn't make them bat an eye. Since there's a type of earth born angels (the earth angels) who look exactly like that and work exclusively on earth with mortals hands on. Most of them are also very used to seeing conflicting, false, weird or varying portrayals of angels in the media.

See, the angels aren't religious, but the way they get their energy is by humans having faith in them and doing religious worship of any kind (any kind that is directed towards angels). They can convert that faith into life energy or extra power for themselves. They keep up appearances and participate in the rituals with whatever religion needed, bc they think of it as their own symbiosis with mortals. The way they see it is "Humans have their own culture and we do our job of helping them. They make their silly little art and literature and give us energy for engaging with it". Of course, this doesn't mean any of them are doing this disingenuously, it's the life mission of angels to be there as Guardians and helpers for mortals and the cosmos. But they are their own thing, human religion has just formed around the interpretations made out of them. And the angels mostly find this endearing and, uh, mostly harmless. Mostly.

The high angels aim to never question religious humans and their views on them but vanilla angels may very well just say "Oh we don't roll like that". High angels can either be super mega oblivious to what humans are actually like, OR know them the best out of anyone. There's usually no inbetween lmao.

Let's reel it back tho.

[This post was an unfinished draft. It's been posted for fun since it likely wouldn't be finished. Originally made: 6th April 2022]

[ramenwithbroccoli]

Mój przyjaciel. Co oznacza 17? Prześladują mnie twoje przypadkowe bazgroły. Czy ktoś... był z nią "romantyczny"?

answering this in english since it touches on the Janka lore 💥💥💥

although the comic idea was there more for the laughs, there's a significant difference between Giewont and Janka when it comes to relationships with people. The first one used to be a hard worker but got betrayed by humanity. They're wandering around, with no place on this earth, scared of what being around people will do to her. Forming meaningful connection is hard and they're not even sure if they really want to do that.

on the other hand we have Janka, designed to look nice, to be amiable. she's always there to listen. she knows your favourite songs and brightens your day. she can't leave you unless you get rid of her yourself!

i think it's an idea that would need some more exploration. people who are lost or lonely or angry or searching for whatever feeling they need in their life try to find a thing to bestow those feelings upon. and sometimes it ended up being Janka. whether or not the feeling was reciprocated or not, or if they've seen her as an object or as a person - that's a question for another time

[mourn-and-watch]

Some time after the Blight ends, they're invited to Redcliffe. There's going to be a statue in their honour, the letter says, made by one of the best Fereldan artists — and it needs their approval for some reason. A formal one, of course. “At least they didn't pay Orlesians. Let them stick to their fancy chateaus,” Alistair says jokingly, but he seems excited — and Keeris, well, not that much. She doesn't tell him about it anyway. He deserves to feel like a hero for once. Statues and celebrations and all.

It's nice to see Redcliffe rebuild though. It's nice to see anything rebuild — no more darkspawn and barricades, no more walking corpses and burning roofs. Former wastelands are green and full of blooming spring flowers that cover the ruins of something that cannot be restored anymore, completely destroyed houses and fallen mill wings that no one had time to take away; it's a beautiful sight. She'd better stay here instead of going to the castle. She's, frankly, sick of the castles — and they are probably sick of her.

People inside are still friendly, though. Cheerful even. Keeris sees the shade of nervousness crossing Eamon's face when he shakes her hand, but it's not unexpected, really — he couldn't be that fond of her, not after what happened at the Landsmeet, she's aware of that.

The Fereldan sculptor, on the other hand, is very proud and just can't stop talking — about the greatness of his project and how honoured he is to work on it and set the Heroes of Ferelden in stone. Before he bows his head, he gives her a brief look, a strange one for sure, almost terrified — Keeris doesn't know what to make of it nor she wants to try.

Then, he shows it. The art, the concept. It's a big, big piece of paper full of little sketches and drafts and one glorious drawing of a statue in the middle of it.

For a moment, no one says a word.

“What is that?” Alistair asks and his voice sounds genuinely baffled. There are tones of anger in it, loud and clear. Keeris slightly squeezes his hand.

She's not surprised at all.

The statue is a man and a woman in Grey Warden uniforms standing in pretentiously heroic poses. A man resembles Alistair very well, with the same features and even the way he holds his shield. It's almost like him, really, just lifelessly stony grey.

A woman is slightly shorter than him: her features are smooth and pretty, her braided hair is long and wavy, scattered by the wind, and her ears are flat. Her face is so strangely, unfamiliarly bare.

Oh, it does make her angry, furious even. Just a little. Even if she shouldn't care.

She shouldn't care, a girl with vallaslin and sharp features and sharp ears and hair too short to cover them.

“Somehow,” she says calmly, looking Eamon straight in the eyes, “I didn't expect less from your kind.”

They argue. Alistair and Eamon, mostly — she herself wouldn't waste time on it nor she thinks it would change anything, but now they can't go away and loudly shut the door.

Eamon says something about his gratitude. Something about the gratitude of his people and how they all cherish both of them here. Something about the cruelness of the world around. Something about the vile, vile people, who are obviously not there, but they will come and they will not tolerate an elf standing in the middle of their beautiful human town. They will not let it be.

Of course, they won't. She saw the alienage in Denerim. She saw what Anora did to it after she gave her a crown and was proclaimed a friend. It always ends up like this. All the promises and gratitude — they never matter. She learnt it the hard way.

“Then,” she says finally, “Don't make it. Don't place it here. If not for my people's sake — don't lie to your own at least.”

Nobody dares to object.

They leave in awkward, unpleasant silence: no farewells, no partings. They don't even stay for the night at Redcliffe. Alistair keeps repeating he's sorry, that he never wanted it to be this way, that he was sure his uncle would do better than this — Keeris laughs with just a little bitterness in her voice. He shouldn't be sorry. She was the one who took his statue away, wasn't she? He promises they will get a nice, proper one. Maybe somewhere in Amaranthine.

Another letter comes, informing them it is going to be a griffon. A beautiful creature, a symbol, a compromise, it says. None of them respond.

When they get to Redcliffe a couple of years later, there it is, standing in a square. No faces, no names and no shameless lies.

People here still recognise them. They wave their hands when they pass by and promise to buy them a beer if they happen to be around. An elven servant in the crowd blesses her path with Mythal's name. A young girl throws her a flower crown.

They do not put portraits in the archives of Weisshaupt after all.

At least there is no woman who never was.

[sygneth]

Already obsessed with your post apocalyptic disco au and your art is amazing!

You said that Jean is actually doing a bit better in this scenario but how would Kim and Harry deal with it?

Heyyy thanks anon!! Really glad you like it

Now let me write you an essay

So, I think that both HDB and JV are more similar to each other than is shows at first glance, they are both very sensitive (only one is hiding it well under a bitchface and snarky comments) and their work is slowly killing them, plus, especially in Harry's case, Jean has his coping mechanisms for that (ekhm, anger), probably being hated by society for his job where he technically is supposed to help them, only adds to it.

In the post-apo scenario, both the society and the RCM disappear and with them a great source of both Harry's (and Jean's) problems. Of course, there will be all stages of grief at the beginning, and probably some sort of survivor guilt, but eventually he would come to terms with the fact that it happened and they are still here and will manage to deal with it. Maybe even have some fun, because if everything's gone and there is nothing worse that can happen besides death (and such an event probably reevaluates one's sense of the value of own life) and your only goal is to survive to the next day and try to make the most of what you've got... (I agree very much with the comments under that post about Jean, post-apocalyptic worlds are an escapist fantasy, you can do whatever with no consequence, and your life goals become very basic, primitive even)

I feel like at the end of the day Jean would just enjoy his solitude and simple life goals, and Harry... There is a chance that a literal apocalypse would be an event shaking enough to give him a new point of view on life itself and have a sort of "carpe diem" arch. I can see him trying to get the absolute maximum of the time he is given with his two best mates and a dog.

As for Kim, I think that the beginnings would be very hard for him, and would break him in a way. His life was quite all about the work, and now he suddenly doesn't have any goal and everything he cared for is gone... so it's time to get into survival mode. Paradoxically I think that would make him get along with Harry and Jean much better, he would be able to relate to those two broken dudes more. I think that Kim would be the one who will lack some sort of a bigger goal the most, but he will manage. He's not a quitter and he would probably eventually set his goal as "keeping these two here alive".

ANYWAY, this AU is meant to be a silly and light one for me to play (and have some rest from EOE deep analysis), so I could dig deeper into the psychological consequences, all the potential traumas and problems, but that's not the point (let's see how long can I hold back lol) i just wanted a scenario where they will be relatively happy and it's not my fault it takes an actual apocalypse :shrug:

I'm up to discussing anything about this au anytime tho, give me all your silliest thoughts to munch on

[tardis--dreams]

Me panicking because i have 9 missed calls and 5 emails talking about my absence and how "a colleague could take over for me" vs. Me knowing it's really not that important no matter how pushy a client is and that on top of it I'm underpaid and have way to much overtime so i shouldn't even care

[anachronistic-falsehood]

oh my god dude. sorry i'm gonna have a homestuck interlude to classpect qpac and his role in the narrative because i'm thinking about him

he's. SO Page of Hope coded. he's so page of hope fr. his class being a Page makes so much sense because throughout homestuck, every single Page are all people pleasers. they're walking doormats who rarely stand up for themselves. they feel like they can't do anything right, so they sit down and shut up half the time so they don't do anything wrong. and his aspect being Hope makes so much sense because like. Hope is about optimism and doing right for right's sake and helping those who are down. he holds optimism as his greatest shield even when things are crumbling around him. it's so important to him!!!!

but also being a Page means that he lacks his aspect in a way, and his journey will be long and arduous before he can see the fruits of his labour, and when his efforts pay off, MAN it will pay off. there are so many times when he has just seemed to have completely given up hope. he's been broken down again and again and again and you can see the peak of that during the risus pills arc, when he was so out of it he was actively suicidal. but somehow he keeps bouncing back!!! he found the cure anyway, he left it for Cellbit, the guy he's terrified of, and he saved himself and Forever. he will step between something that scares him and something he wants to protect even as he cries and shakes and sniffles the whole time.

the thing about Pages is that it takes a long time for them to reach their full potential, and there will be so many bumps in the road before he even comes close. but when a Page finds that potential, they can be one of the most helpful, powerful, and dangerous members of their session. Pac is an extremely useful member of the server, he's extremely skilled, he just doesn't see it, and he can't reach his full potential as a Page until he can recognize his own accomplishments. the only problem is that when Pages reach their full potential, they have a tendency of dying right away. when Jake faces Aranea in Game Over, when Tavros stands up to Vriska, they both die almost immediately.

Pac and Jake "yes and" everything because they don't want to be a burden, and Pac and Tavros don't know how to face the people who traumatized them. the inaction of Jake and Tavros is what ultimately leads to their deaths at the hands of the Light players who hurt and manipulated them. (coincidentally, i also see Cellbit as a Light player, a Prince or Bard of Light, but that's for another post!!!) Tavros didn't stand up to Vriska sooner, Jake couldn't say no to Aranea, and Pac folds as soon as Cellbit, one of his greatest fears, is in front of him with a knife.

Tavros and Jake forgive people who hurt them no matter what they've done. Pac has faced his own Light Player and died multiple times at his hands in both Purgatories, and now after a brief interrupted apology, they're supposedly just fine. Cellbit doesn't mean to be, but he is Pac's own personal Serket.

the difference with Pac though is that he is like if Jake or Tavros got a well-rounded continuation to their character arcs. his story isn't done!! it's still going!! he's getting there!!! he's getting more confident, he has support from the people around him, and i think eventually he can break this doomed-by-the-narrative cycle that fully fledged Pages seem to have.

[forestberriezzz]

@sprooutt!!!!!! His name is Matyi!!!!

[meikyuunolovers]

Searching for overseas musician autobiographies that are NOT Keith Richards or a KISS member in the middle nowhere of French countryside thrift shops is like searching for a needle in the middle of a haystack

[notasapleasure]

A tale of two Georgias

Note: I wouldn't normally share subscriber-exclusive content from this news site, but I think Shota Kincha's opinions are too important to hide away in an exclusive email this time. If you're so minded, please consider supporting open journalism in the Caucasus anyway and sending some money OCMedia's way.

Highlighting is my own. Of course I support Georgia joining the EU, but absolutely not under conditions that ignore the recent rolling back of democratic freedoms.

---

By Shota Kincha, for OC Media.

On Wednesday, Georgians celebrated a long-awaited recommendation from the European Commission for their nation’s candidacy for EU membership, leaving the country’s candidacy pending just final approval from the heads of EU member states in mid-December. But the Commission’s assessment of the government’s ‘progress’ seemed to be based on wishful thinking, rather than its actions. 

On denying Georgia the status last year, the European Commission outlined 12 ‘priorities’ Georgia would need to address for the decision to be reconsidered — preconditions that largely reflected the spirit of the April 2021 agreement brokered by European Council President Charles Michel between the government and opposition groups.

When the unforeseen possibility for Georgia to formally apply for membership presented itself in early 2022, Georgia’s leadership had already failed on some of the key components of the previous year’s accord. 

Instead of addressing the ‘perception of politicised justice,’ an apparent euphemism for the imprisonment of opposition leaders, most notably Nika Melia in early 2021, the Georgian court imprisoned another prominent government critic, Nika Gvaramia, only five weeks before the European Commission was due to assess Georgia’s readiness for EU membership candidacy.

Instead of the ambitious judicial reform promised in the 2021 Michel deal and mentioned in the EU’s ‘12 priorities’ last year, the ruling Georgian Dream party has continued to shield corrupt judicial officials with a stranglehold on Georgian courts, resulting in more politicised administrative fines and criminal cases against civil activists, political leaders, media managers, or youth with ‘confused orientation’ who risked their freedom to defend Georgia’s pro-Western choice on the streets.

In the run-up to the European Commission’s latest decision on Georgia, the government and security services run by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s goons artificially created an anti-Western parliamentary group, gifted them private channel PosTV, and made violent extremist pro-Russian Alt Info immune to obstruction or challenge. 

If the last five years under Georgian Dream rule had been a steady decline in democratic freedoms, the government’s actions in the months since it applied to join the European Union — including their recent initiatives to clamp down on Georgia’s civil society and constrain protest — far surpassed any and all negative predictions.

But listening to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, one could have assumed she was discussing an entirely different country. 

Despite Georgia’s government persecuting free media, parroting Russian propaganda against the West, refusing to undertake institutional reforms in a way that included other groups and stakeholders, and satisfying only three of the twelve conditions set last year, the European Commission complimented them with no substantial criticism.

I do not believe the EU should approve Georgian membership candidacy later this year, as the move looks set to validate and entrench the government’s precipitous lurch towards authoritarianism. 

The European Commission’s approach may be based on the belief that denying Georgia candidate status could lead to Georgians becoming disillusioned with the EU and the West. But Georgians have been staunchly pro-Western for decades, perhaps even centuries. 

The real danger to Georgians’ trust in the West comes from the West’s indifference to anti-democratic moves by Georgia’s government, which, if left unchecked, will continue to use state institutions to slowly but steadily shift popular mood and policies towards Russia. 

Even were we to allow that recommending EU candidacy status was a justified decision in Georgia’s best interests, doing so did not obligate the institution’s leaders to legitimise the country’s government in the way they did.

Listening to the widely televised announcement by the European Commission on Wednesday, Georgians could reasonably have concluded that democratic backsliding, state capture by big capital, and a politicised judiciary are consistent with Georgia’s pro-Western aspirations, or that related warnings from local activists and media have been baseless or overblown. 

The announcement could also have created the impression that the ruling party has been delivering on reforms demanded by the EU, a powerful notion less than a year before the country’s next general elections. 

The truth is, however, that in inviting Georgia to join the club while neglecting to call out the government’s shortcomings, the EU is playing a dangerous game, and one it has played before. The EU does not want another Orban, and the South Caucasus definitely does not need another Aliyev.

I may be wrong: perhaps granting Georgia candidate status will still be a wise choice on the EU’s part. But even in its recommendation, the European Commission could have sent a clear message that business as usual would no longer be tolerated. 

What Georgia’s leadership heard instead will become abundantly clear in the coming months.