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inkerii · 1 year

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So I couldn't help but browse the THG tag bc those books own my whole heart. I actually check it now and again, and it's been interesting see how opinions have changed over the years, especially in regards to Gale and Peeta. Going through the evolution of them as just potential love interests to being far more complex than I could have expected has been a wild ride. Crazy how this reads different than from when I was a preteen.

That said, I wanted to give my unsolicited two cents on my boys, because though I have been enjoying the discussion on Peeta and Gale and what they mean to the story, I also feel like reducing them to Peeta = peace and Gale = war is far too simplistic... and oftentimes unfair to one or both of them.

See, I don't think Peeta and Gale are peace and war/destruction. They're compassion and indignation.

Peeta worries about the other tributes, or their families, or how to repay people like Rue and Thresh for what they did.

Gale is indignation at how the Capitol treats its citizens, it's anger at the injustice of inequality and brutality.

Both are needed in a story like THG. You can't have people like even Peeta not say something like "maybe we're wrong about keeping things quiet in the districts", you can't have him not drop the baby bomb, you can't start a revolution without Gale's indignation at the status quo. At deserving a better life but being denied it, at having your kids be mercilessly killed for literal sport.

However, if you start a rebellion and loose sight of your compassion, you end up no better than the people you're fighting against. Gale wasn't a bad person, imo. His heart was in the right place. He was flawed, yes, but so is everyone in this series. Gale, most importantly, lost sight of the line between fighting for the people he cared about and fighting against the people who hurt him.

Reducing Gale's indignation to just revenge and hatred ignores so much of what he stands for. Who hasn't seen laws passed that dehumanize people, who hasn't been angry and furious when someone is elected who fundamentally hates everything you are, who doesn't think some people need to pay for the atrocities they committed? There's a little bit of Gale in every single one of us - and it's important that it's there, because that's what gives us strength to challenge the status quo and make life better for the future generations.

But. You can't let it take over. You can't loose sight of your compassion or your empathy.

That's where Peeta comes in. Peeta is the voice in your head that worries about how many good lives will be lost when they give themselves up for this cause. Peeta is the worry about the people caught in the crossfire. Peeta is rebuilding when it's over and believing that the next generation will have a better life than your own. Peeta is being kind, even to people who may not deserve it.

And Gale... Gale looses sight of his compassion, and he doesn't realize it until it smacks him in the face when the bombs go off and Prim is gone and he's too far gone. Meanwhile, Peeta advocates for the end of the war even though it means the status quo remains - and regardless of what he believes himself, I don't think Suzanne chose him to say those lines by chance. It means both mindsets have their flaws: too kind and things that shouldn't remain will never be challenged and changed, too angry and you may loose sight of what you're fighting for.

And that's just how Suzanne uses her characters, both of them, all of them. Just look at who is with Katniss depending on the situation:

- Katniss chooses to "rebel" after Gale is brutally whipped. She kisses him.

- Katniss realizes that in order for D12 to rebel, everyone would need to be in on it, and she realizes most of them are not like her, that they're scared and she understands, emphasises with them. Peeta walks by her side.

- Katniss finally does it though, shoots the arrow at the force field, and Peeta is taken from her, it's now Gale by her side.

(You can't start a rebellion without indignation, and sometimes you HAVE to do it or things will never change, regardless of the inevitable pain that will come along.)

- Katniss is righteously angry at the Capitol bombing a hospital full of innocents to make a point. Gale remains there.

- Coin twists people's compassion into an army to fight for her own personal gain. Peeta is hijacked and looses his sense of self.

- Katniss and Gale go to District 2 and even though she tries to be like Peeta, she's still shot- reinforcing Gale's views, the person who was with her during that sequence.

- Katniss is angry at Snow, Katniss goes to the Capitol to kill him. Gale is there.

- Katniss gets in way over her head and realizes she is responsible for the death of most of her squad. She shares the lamb stew with Peeta, and later cleans his wounds.

- Finnick dies and she's at her lowest up until that point and all she wants to do is give up and give in to the anger. She kisses Peeta and begs him to stay with her.

... Claiming that Gale is destruction ignores the fact that he's with Katniss through her own moments of strength. Her desire to change things, to fight back, is as important as her compassion. Mockingjay just brutally shows you what war does to your indignation, to your compassion. How easy it is to cross a line between righteous anger and revenge, or how your sense of empathy and compassion can be manipulated into something monstrous by others, or by all the terrible, brutal, painful things you see.

How easy it is to loose yourself- and that goes for both of them.

Peeta and Gale aren't static characters, they go from representations of sentiments regarding an injust government to what happens to those feelings when an extreme situation such as war breaks out. All of that, by the way, while dealing with this duality themselves, because they are still characters who think and feel and struggle and have flaws of their own- and while I love what they stand for, I've seen too many comments that pin everything into what they mean, that they forget that Peeta and Gale are still people, they aren't perfect metaphors. They're human.

Ultimately, Katniss doesn't really choose peace. She wants peace, yes. But what she chooses is compassion. empathy. hope. There's a time and place for anger at injustice. There's a time when fighting back is the right thing to do. There are even times when you wanna give in to your despair and lash out. But if you want peace, then you have to choose Peeta, because Peeta represents what you need to focus on to achieve that peace. You have to let go of the anger or you won't ever rest. So Gale leaves, and does not come back... And yet, Katniss still has her moments of indignation, of making a stand, even as he goes - she still casts her vote at that meeting, she still shoots Coin. Katniss does not abandon that part of who she is. It's just not her main drive anymore.

So then she goes on to make the choice, every single day, to be compassionate to others. To have hope. To rebuild. Of course she chooses Peeta.

... Idk, man. These boys are so much more than what I see them so often reduced to. They're in all of us. There will be times to stand and fight, and times to show mercy and be kind. We just need to find that balance, as Katniss eventually did.

#the hunger games #thg #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #gale hawthorne #it took me over a decade but I finally bit the bullet and decided to talk about this series #I love it so much #there's so much more I could say I had to hold myself back #like how BOTH Gale and Peeta are never fully gone even tho most people only focus on Peeta #But Gale knew what he did was wrong #It's not as clear bc he's not a pov character and katniss is too tired to try and read him but #prim's death touched him #he didn't brush it off he didnt see it as justified bc at least now its over #regardless of his reasons he still has enough sense of self to realize this #unlike y'know. characters like coriolanus who makes up so many excuses for what he did #including indirectly killing the character who is the personification of innocence and hope #like prim was #(side note I dont think any of the tbosas characters are direct parallels to the thg ones)#(theres little bits of katniss peeta AND gale in characters like snow)#(bc they're all representative of indignation and anger / compassion / fear and the need to feel safe)#(which every human being in the world has - even that bastard)#(he just chooses a different path)#(tbosas is very good btw)#(y'all should read it before the movie makes it about romance like I'm terrified it will)#ps if anyone knows how to put a read more on mobile can you let me know thx ily

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canisalbus · 4 months

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I remember getting nosebleeds every so often last year and it always freaked people out and the only thing I could do was laugh it off while I put a bunch of napkins of some ice cream place to my nose so I absolutely relate Machete in that nosebleed comic

#ough sorry to hear that! I hope you're doing better now and the nosebleeds have stopped #I've only gotten them a handful of times but they aren't fun #they are a little spooky #the way they start out of nowhere #and the fact you can't see the direct source of the bleeding because it's coming from inside of your head #if you get a cut it's much easier to go 🩸👀 and think to yourself 'ah yea it's just a scratch no worries'#and press on it to make it stop bleeding and maybe put a bandaid if you think it needs that #pains that you can't see with your eyes are more confusing and alarming #at least to me I don't know if this is making any sense #maybe I'm just lizard brained #answered #anonymous

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anarchypumpkincowboy · 28 days

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Okay so like I’ve been talking about the connections between hope and doubt and fear and doubt. Cassandra was in a half form. She both was and wasn’t Cassandra. In this form she was fear and doubt intertwined.

The fight with the dragons went well for the bad kids, but they still could’ve died so many times especially Gorgug, Fig, and Kristen. And they’re heading straight into another fight. One that they aren’t guaranteed to survive and won’t be able to rest beforehand. If they had had to continue fighting with the half formed Cassandra/Nightmare King shit would’ve gotten reallllll bad.

Cassandra/Nightmare King was the clouds around them. They were literally surrounded by fear and doubt. But for just a moment, in the midst of all this chaos, Cassandra was reached out to, she felt hope, for just a moment she felt like she wasn’t alone. And that moment of hope was all that was needed for them to get free. A moment of hopeful doubt cleared their path from oppressive clouds of fear.

Hope, doubt, fear, they’re all such powerful emotions. And when you’re surrounded by fear it really can feel like you’re flying a ship attached to a house through the sky while being attacked by dragons and having to pretend like nothing is wrong. You can’t let anyone see how you’re struggling or everything will fall apart.

“The dog you really gotta dred / is the one that howls inside men’s heads / it’s him whose howls drive men mad / and a mind to its undoing” Y’all already know how in love I am with Hadestown and its portrayals of hope, doubt, and fear. The dog, the fear, in your mind can drive you mad. Orpheus was consumed by fear and doubt and in the end it cost him everything. He reminds me a bit of Cassandra in that way.

Except that where Cassandra was always doubt, Orpheus was the embodiment of hope. Fear corrupted them both, but Orpheus never regained hope. And so he lost. Cassandra felt hope again. All is not lost.

“I’ll tell you where the real road lies / between your ears / behind your eyes / that is the path to paradise / likewise the road to ruin” We all gotta walk that road, and though in the lyrics Hermes says it’s a lonesome road to walk, I think if we aren’t alone on that road we have a better chance of reaching paradise than of ruin. Orpheus was alone in his head with his doubts and fears. The bad kids aren’t alone, Cassandra isn’t alone, it’s the only thing keeping her alive. The only thing keeping fear from completely consuming and corrupting her once more is the fact that she isn’t alone.

Idk this was a longgggggg ass ramble and I’m very tired but I think this season of fantasy high and hadestown connect well in how they both deal with hope, doubt, fear, and conviction. And I think an important lesson to take from both is that you can’t handle the whole world by yourself, you’ll go mad, but there’s power in people and in our connection to each other

#I both do and don’t apologize for the rambling #I hope it makes at least a little sense #fantasy high junior year #hadestown #dimension 20 #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #cassandra d20 #cassandra #orpheus and eurydice #orpheus #fantasy high #wait for me (reprise)

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harbingersecho · 4 months

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Lasombra fashion show?

Now how did you know I've been meaning to draw fashion 'shows' for all the clans…?

But! Here's some Lasombra fashion stuff for you!

+ bonus because I love bullying Lasombra abt their tech issues (:

#vtm #vampire the masquerade #clan lasombra #lasombra #outfit design #mine #*24 #ask #lasombra is kind of interesting/difficult imo in terms of making a fashion 'style' for them bc they're very varied internally #from corp goth shadow ceos to religious leaders to streetwise survivors. theyre unlike their counterpart ventrue in that their appearance #isnt rooted in sociological reasons as much as theyre personal ones imo. if that makes sense lol. but i tried to do a few different things!#something classically lasombra and then some more modern discreet + showy stuff. hope you like em? <3 #for me lasombra is like dark fuschia-violet-purple and gold. silk velvet and dark lace. and ofc religious symbols #none of these guys have backstories or names or anything btw i just threw shit together. its easier to make up styles for chs #that have a story or a personality but like. i cant put rafael in this stuff or whatever lol he's kinda boring fashion wise #i thought abt doing shadow fashion too but i was like. thats way too impractical.#i kinda wanna finish those tremere fashion 'sketches' too. and maybe do some of deja's outfits bc she's a fashionista. there's also my #outfit wips for rose who's a ventrue... but also i wanna do freaky sabbat outfits... and a toreador look book... and finish the new #nikifor tzimisce fashion looks... help mee. at least the tzimisce one is like 85% done i just gotta work on the extra stuff a little -_-

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skyward-floored · 5 months

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Typing out long posts is kinda hard rn but my thoughts after playing Hyrule Warriors today are as follows:

Love how Lana is looking at Link all wistfully literally all the time. Especially when Shiek is there... Poor Lana. You just need to find some other nice blond twink there's lots out there you know

Oh also later when she just tells Link to watch out and not anyone else standing there who is also very much in danger. girl you could not be more obvious if you tried.

Gate of souls area is spoooooky. Also has cactuses and I don't know why? I guess it's sort of desert-y. I like the curly trees though.

Cia please put on a real shirt my Dad and little siblings are watching me play here and you're just making it awkward for everyone

...I will say though I love her bird mask with the glowing eyes that thing slaps

Maybe it's just because I play botw a lot, but Link (and everyone really) seems so expressive?? Like he makes all of these small expressions all the time and it's so nice seeing him emote when things happen to him.

Gosh I can only imagine the impact of other times literally being yeeted and overlapping into Hyrule, things must be a disaster by the time they fix everything. Not to mention what it's like for someone just living in Hyrule, oof can you imagine?? suddenly death mountain is in your backyard.

Sheik and Impa are so funnyyyyy

Impa: so who's your tribe leader?

Sheik: well um. you. since you're the tribe leader.

Impa: well yes except I have never seen you in my life before last week so SOMEONE'S lying.

abdhdgfhjnhdj she is two steps away from ripping off her mask and getting answers

also how has nobody realized who Sheik is yet oh my goodness IMPA. Link has an excuse of barely knowing her but you?? are her bodyguard??? and she literally has (sorry, had) the triforce of wisdom. I guess you could argue magic is at work here but really Impa.

and finally, screw death mountain and it's endless bombchus and boulders all my homies hate death mountain and it's endless bombchus and boulders

#im in pain and sleepy so i hope this makes at least a little sense #legend of zelda #hyrule warriors #loz hw #loz hyrule warriors #rambles from the floor #peggy plays hyrule warriors

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regret-evatorful · 3 months

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prototypes rad coolness

#just know this. he would be my favourite if pilby didn’t exist #any time i see a robot character anywhere it’s like im struck with the force of billions of peoples’ love toward that robot #i just Need March 9th…. Need March 9th now……#ALSO DONT MIND THAT MOST OF EM HAVE LAMPERT. its my fun little pairing…….#it makes sense to me and i like it because apparently one of the floors proto can be found in is 3008 where lamp also is #and yknow robots are like some of the cleanest and least germy things around yknow #regretevator #regretevator prototype #regretevator lampert #odieart #ALSO WITH HIM AND LAMPERT #they both seem to have this theme with both their characters of just wishing they could be like everyone else i think #like…. them both having a bit of insecurity with the way they are.. just another thing that i think would make them close #i really really really like them i hope they have at least one interaction #protolamp

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lunarharp · 5 days

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revamped looong mermaid orufrey au :')

#witch hat tag #orufrey #partial nudity /#about half of it is new the other half is redrawn from last year. Why would you rescribble some scribbles. Well it was bad.#i always underestimate how much i've improved in a year last may was questionable. also it's not even may any more so why mermaids now.#sorry if you remember this but at least half is new story. i'll just paste more explanation from twt....#first qifrey was cursed by EVIL WITCH eye taken and thrown into the sea #memory-less. then kind little witch boy oru found him on the beach & they became friends #they drifted apart after falling for each other bc qif knew he could never be with him.#oru walked on the beach every day for years hoping to see him again until so desperate he goes into the sea (on a ship?) & is dying #qifrey saved him with a kiss. they got closer &oru swore to find a way to save him that wasnt dangerous but qif knew hed need a dark witch.#(that witch was probably the one who cursed him..just toying with him...) in with the spell oru DOES forget him for real #even tho he needs to give Kiss Of True Love before qif turns totally blind for qif to stay human for good or become seafoam. but oru someho #the oldest magic is love..the ability to break through the curses of loneliness and despair. qif already did that for him #so oru was able to do it back later. he fell in love with him again..but also realised it was obviously him....well anyway......#originally the 'finding oru stranded like that guy in the little mermaid' was a separate au but it still makes sense to combine them #i dont want them to have not met in childhood...thats the orufrey thing....#im going to work on Proper drawings next instead of silly comics as usual....

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posletsvet · 9 months

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Something about the stories of Trigun & Hadestown

Something about the story of Orpheus and Eurydice being retold for generations. Something about the story of Trigun getting to be told in three different versions (four, if you consider that there are two mangas).

Something about red flowers being the key symbol in Hadestown, with Orpheus singing dead trees to life and bloom in a gesture of undying hope. Something about Rem's sacrifice turning the blossom of a red geranium into a symbol of determination and kindness.

Something about the lost gentleness and bliss of spring. Something about the lost paradise of the once prosperous Earth, which forced the mankind to eplore the frontiers of distant galaxies.

Something about the souls of the dead in Hadestown living with their heads bent down, silenced by their own fear and indifference. Something about the people of Gunsmoke doing the same, believing there's no other choice but to succumb to violence and afraid to raise their voices and speak out against it.

Something about both stories commenting upon how humanity is sacrificed for the sake of survival.

Something about Hades, the King of the Mine, being crippled and blinded by his greed and loneliness and despair and jealousy untill he can't see nor recognise anything other than the needs of the Underworld, but really just his own. Something about Knives being driven by the fear he hides deep within himself, only caring about Vash and their sisters and claiming it's the good of the plantkind that he aspires to achieve, but in actuality just nurturing his own old hurt.

Something about them both loving to the point of obsession and suffocating the ones they love with how they portray what is best for them.

Something about Persephone being blinded by a river of wine, living in an Oblivion and trying to drown her sorrow in alcohol. Something about Vash's issues with alcoholism deteriorating upon the realisation that him going to confront Knives is a march made towards ruin and despair, his goals as good as suicidal.

Something about the Fates always singing in the back of your mind, defining the outlines of people's lives. Something about Knives and Vash's sisters in a hive mind deciding on the fate of humanity in relation to their kind at the end of the story.

Something about each of the two narratives showing how life and love endures, even in trying times.

Something about hunger and biting the hand that feeds because you're starving for more. Something about taking what you can get and making the most of it. Something about the people of No Man's Land pushing the plants to their physical limit and sentencing them to agony of the last run because they see no other option.

Something about 'What you gonna do when the chips are down, / Now that the chips are down?' Something about the pods of the project SEEDS crash-landing on a barren and desolate planet.

Something about the chorus singing 'Cast your eyes to heaven / You get a knife in the back!/ Nobody's righteous, / Nobody's proud, / Nobody's innocent'. Something about how Wolfwood dies the instant he finally commits to Vash's ideals, for the first time in his life choosing to believe.

Something about Orpheus teaching Eurydice that there's still hope for the better. Something about Wolfwood starting to regain his trust in humanity through Vash.

Something about Orpheus being capable of seeing how the world could be, in spite of the way that it was. Something about Vash stubbornly refusing to stop believing there's inherent goodness in every person's soul.

Something about how Eurydice is destined to die in each telling of the myth because the story is non-existent without Orpheus' loss of her. Something about how Wolfwood is doomed by the narrative, being a dead man walking since the very beginning.

Something about Orpheus leading his one true love out of Hell. Something about Wolfwood leading Vash in instead, guiding him to his end.

Something about Orpheus singing 'Wait for me!' on his way down under the ground. Something about Vash rushing to that smoking ruin which the Hopeland Orphanage became in order to help Wolfwood, fearing that he's late.

Something about Orpheus looking back. Something about Vash bringing his century-and-a-half long run from every and all attachments to a hault and finally stopping to look at the person before him, for the first time in his life allowing himself to believe in a future spent together with someone.

Something about Orpheus losing Eurydice the moment he turns to cast a glance behind him. Something about how the next thing Vash learns after admitting that he wants to spend his tomorrows with Wolfwood by his side is that Wolfwood is dying.

Something about Orpheus reaching the end of the road out of the Underworld all alone. Something about Vash ending his journey the same way.

Something about knowing how the story ends and still beginning to sing it again, as if it might turn out this time. Something about how 'far from here, in a distant time and place, the same song of humanity... still sang'.

Something about love. Something about grief. Something about tragedies.

Something about how, after all, we're still singing.

There's something profoundly meaningful to be said about all this, and maybe some day I will be insightful and witty enough to put my scrambled thoughts into neatly-organised, clear-cut sentences, but for now it will be like that.

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arcadekitten · 8 months

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How I created a dress-up game in RPGMaker!

At least one person asked me to make a guide for this and that’s enough for me! Though, bear in mind, I may not be the best at explaining things and I used an example from assets I already had.

I made the dress-up game pictured below using RPGMaker MV, but I’m sure this method is applicable to versions above MV as well. I will be writing this post specifically through the lens of using MV (You’re also going to need some plugins, but not a lot!). At the time of typing this post, all RPGMaker engines are on sale until October 5th (just to let you know!)

(Please note: This method does not account for a game where you can freely change the colors of characters hair/clothes)

(Please note x 2: this is not a tutorial for learning RPGMaker, but a tutorial on how to make this specific type of game within the engine. Prior RPGMaker experience and familiarity is required when following this tutorial!)

I’m not the best at explaining things, but I’m sure going to try my best!

List of things we’re going to need:

-An RPGMaker Engine, preferably MV (or MZ) since they already come with mouse support.

-An art program

-A tileset consisting of words and arrows

-All your dress-up accessories as PNG images

-A blank PNG image

-2 plugins

First things first is you’re going to want to decide on the canvas size of your game. Keep in mind with the way RPGMaker works, there’s a high chance you’ll wind up with black bars on the side of your screen. If your game is intended to be played in browser on itch.io, it shouldn’t be much of an issue as you can choose the display size on the game’s page to match the visible game. (I also just personally wasn’t concerned about the black bars for a dress-up based game anyways) The canvas I chose to work with for this game was 1152 x 864, but you can choose whatever size you feel will help you draw most effectively(just keep in mind how it might appear in browsers or if the player will have to zoom out!) If using MV, you change your canvas resolution by going into the plugin list and selecting “Community_Basic”

When making the assets in your art program, I find it easiest to have your canvas match the canvas size of the game. We’ll use Nova as our example character for everything. I drew them and all their assets in the center of the screen (for easier mirroring). The position of all the items can be adjusted later in the engine

I would start by doing a few test assets and putting those in the engine to make sure you get the hang of the whole thing, but this is where you’ll be making all your assets for a given character! (So if you wanna make some test assets and then move down to the “Putting it together in the engine” section, that might be a good idea!)

Here I create and separate every asset into their own folders(categories) and subfolders. For example, hats get their own folder labeled “hats”, and the subfolders “hat 1” “hat 2” “hat 3”, etc, each containing their own individual hat asset.

You can make as many or as little categories for clothing as you like. When you have everything you need, make at least one asset from all your categories visible, and make sure all the categories are ordered in the way they are meant to appear in game. This way, you can make sure nothing is overlapping in the incorrect way(at least for what your intentions are). When your categories are properly ordered, keep them in that order, as you’ll use it for a basis later when importing the assets into the engine.

Alright, this next part is a little tedious. Now you’re going to save every asset individually by hiding every other folder/layer except for the one you’re saving. It might help to have a naming convention for your assets, for example all of Nova’s assets follow the scheme of “dressup nova-shoes 4.png” “dressup nova-shoes 5.png” “dressup nova-shoes 6.png” etc etc.

NOTE: In addition to these files, remember to include a BLANK png image with nothing on it! This will help later!

Once this is done, we can start importing them into the program!

Putting it together in the engine:

Open up your RPGMaker project’s file directory. Find the folder named “img”, and in that find the folder named “pictures”. Drop all your clothing/hair/face/etc assets into this folder.

Now we need to set the scene. The scene being…a map! I used multiple characters so my game has a different map for each one.

Since Nova is our example character, let’s focus on Nova’s map.

Make sure the width and height of your map is large enough to cover the whole screen (sans any black bars you might have on the sides). You can fill in the back with tiles, or you can do what I did and add a small parallax backing that loops across the screen. I made a small one with two hearts in the corners for a nice scrolling effect!

To start this map, let’s put in some of the categories to choose between. I did this by laying out the words on a tileset, and drawing that tileset onto the map. The order of categories I chose does not reflect the layer order of clothing items, but rather was organized by what I felt was a natural start-to-finish order progression in a dress-up game.

Don’t worry about putting the choice arrows next to the categories yet, though! We’ll do that in a little bit.

Now we’re going to start with actually putting your character and their clothes/hairs/etc into the map. Double-click anywhere on the map (where you won’t put any other buttons) to create an event.

We are going to set this event to autorun. In this event we are going to set up all your layers, even if nothing needs to be presented on them yet. To start, I added some comments to help me keep track of them. For context, when you choose to show an image in RPGMaker, it asks you for the image number. The image number is essentially the image’s “layer”, with 1 being the bottom-most layer and 100 being the top-most layer. Up to 100 images can be displayed on an RPGMaker screen at any given time. Even though 1 is the bottom-most layer, I chose to start at 10 just in case I wanted to add more layers underneath later. So layer 10 is my bottom-most layer, and layer 24 is my top-most layer.

Let’s start with our bottom-most layer, the background asset.

The background is this pink rectangle behind Nova.

Even if you change its appearance, this background itself is always visible. So we are going to show the first background on layer 10 with the Event Command “Show Picture”.

(Note, because I wanted all the dress-up assets to be on the right side of the screen, every picture’s X position is offset by 200. You may want to offset your game in another way, or keep it centered.)

Because this is an asset that is always visible on the screen, we are also going to set up its variable. Select “Control Variables” in your event commands, set it to a constant of "1" and add it underneath the "Show Picture" command,

Don’t worry about the #number of the variable, all that matters is the number of what the variable equals. As you can see we are showing “dressup nova-BG 1”, so our variable should equal 1 to correspond to this.

The next asset up from that is our back accessory on image layer 11. (Nova can have fairy wings or a yoyo accessory, for example.) The back accessory doesn’t always need to be present, so we will simply set this image as being our BLANK png asset.

We will continue going down the column like this! Any asset that doesn’t need to be present will be set as a blank, and any asset that does need to be present (like Nova’s background, Nova’s hair in the front and back, Nova’s face, and Nova’s base) will be set as the corresponding image and have its variable set to “1”.

(Note: The base does not require a variable as it does not change)

And because this is an autorun event, we have to close it off. Add a control self-switch A, and then add a new event page. On the 2nd event page, merely click off self switch A in the conditions box

Doing this will ensure that the autorun event won’t keep trying to show the images in an endless loop.

Go into your database tab and under system, check that your starting position is on the correct map (if you have more than one) and start your game. Your autorun event should show all the images you asked it to. (I was gonna have a pic here but I'm limited on pics so)

Now, using our category list that we placed as tiles onto the map, we are going to be adding the arrows next to them to make them function.

Even though it's at the bottom, we’ll start with the category Background as an example since that was the first we implemented.

Create an event on the left side of Background and make its event image a grayed-out, left facing arrow, to communicate that the player cannot click anymore in that direction. Set its condition to be variable activated, with your Background variable being greater than or equal to 1. Leave the event page contents blank.

Create a 2nd event page on this event. On this 2nd page, replace the grayed-out arrow with a colored arrow, and set the Background variable to be greater than or equal to 2. This means that as long as the variable is 2 or above, the player can press the back button and go back to see the previous Backgrounds.

This time, we WILL fill up the contents on the event page.

First we are going to put a control variable command. Set your Background variable to subtract a constant of 1. This means that every time the event is clicked, it will subtract 1 from your Background variable (since this is your “Back” button).

Next, we are going to include a conditional branch command like so!

Under this Conditional Branch we put a Show Picture command, where we show an image on layer 10(the same from our autorun event). We can see that if Nova’s Background variable is equal to 1, then layer 10 is going to show the first background–that pink rectangle from before.

Let’s copy-paste this conditional branch and edit it slightly!

Repeat this for every asset you have for a specific category. (In this case, Nova has 5 different backgrounds, with one background needing to be visible at all times.) So our 2nd event page should look like this:

This button event is now ALMOST complete–but we’re missing something!

We need this event to activate when we click on it! Normally in an RPGMV game, when you click on an event, the player character will walk to the event before it can activate. But for a dress-up game, we want the event to activate as soon as it’s clicked on!

Therefore, we need a plugin! You’ll need a plugin that makes events activate based on a click trigger. For me, I downloaded the “TDDP_MouseSystemEx” plugin for MV found here: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/mouse-system-ex.46511/

(Remember to follow the terms of service for whatever plugins you use!)

After adding it to my in-game plugin list and turning it on, I added the “click_activate!” notetag to the event (as instructed by the plugin) and now it works as soon as it is clicked on.

Next, we have to make the Forward Button! This is easier now that we have the Back Button as a base.

To make your Forward Button, we’re going to copy the 2nd Event Page of the Back Button event, and make it the first page of our Forward Button event. We are then going to change three things:

-Remove the condition variable

-Change the image to a right-facing colored arrow

-Change the control variable from a “subtract constant of 1” to an “add constant of 1”

So your first Forward Button event page should look like this!

For the 2nd event page of your forward button, remove all the contents in your content box. Change the arrow to gray-right-facing arrow, and add a condition variable equal to your number of assets for the category.

Because Nova has 5 Backgrounds, our number is 5. If Nova had 7 Backgrounds, this number would be 7. If Nova had 3 Backgrounds, this number would be 3, etc.

This ensures that when a player has clicked to the last asset, they can’t continue increasing the variable past what is needed.

You then continue making these types of Back Buttons and Forward Buttons for every asset, until you have everything you need!

But WAIT!!

For objects that don’t always need to be present, we add one extra conditional statement!

Let’s use socks, for example. Nova does not need to wear socks to complete an outfit. So for the socks’s back button, we make sure to set the variable condition to 0.

After that, under the event contents of our sock buttons, we make sure to add an extra conditional statement for the sock variable. When the variable is zero, we show the BLANK image–so there are no socks to be seen! (Remember to apply this extra statement to both the back and front buttons!) Do this for every asset that doesn’t always need to be present such as socks, dresses, hats, etc etc.

That’s pretty much the basics of all the mechanics you need to get it to work!! I won’t be going over other things like the reset game button/disabling menu access/hiding the player walksprite, as those are things you probably know how to do already if you’re familiar with the engine.

But I WILL share one last piece of optional advice that I feel makes a big difference.

While testing things out you might notice that there is slight lag between changing images, a blip between pictures. This is because RPGMaker doesn’t preload images, and loads in an image as soon as it’s called.

In a downloadable version of a game this slight lag is negligible. However, if you intend for your game to be browser-based, this lag will be significant and noticeable. In order to fix this problem, I’d recommend downloading Galv’s Image Cache plugin found here: https://galvs-scripts.com/2017/04/26/mv-image-cache/

This plugin will help pre-load images so there’s no lag!

However, you will have to write the name of all your assets manually in its plugin menu. If you have a lot of images (which you will, for a dress-up game) this could take a very long time.

My advice is to go into your game’s picture folder, select all, and select “copy file path” from your folder options. Paste this list into an excel sheet, remove the directory name and file extensions, and then paste it into a google doc.

Edit the names together until there is no spaces between image names and they’re all separated by commas. Then, select all and paste your list into the Image Cache plugin’s settings. If you spelled something wrong or placed a space incorrectly, the game will not start and will tell you what image it was struggling to find. So having this to refer back to is very helpful and also means you don’t have to retype everything in the event of an error!

(Below is just a preview of how my list of image names looks for my dress-up game and what i copy-pasted into the plugin settings for the Image Cache plugin)

And thaaaaat should be everything! I hope this wasn’t too hard to follow, or messily formatted! But I tried my best and will try to answer any questions one may have about it!! Good luck creating your dress-up game!

#im so sorry i feel like this is so hard #but i hope it makes at least a little sense!!#i also apologize for the combo images tumblr doesnt let me have more than 30 #guide #rpgmaker #rpgmaker mv #dress up #dress up game #dress up guide #game guide

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retroautomaton · 10 months

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howdy! I'm also a robot enthusiast and I'm trying to get better at designing robot characters. I absolutely adore all of your robot designs, especially the sweet salt cosmonauts! do you have any advice for designing robots?

Ohh thank you~!! ✨✨

The biggest advice I can give is to study the functionality! That’s the most interesting part of robots to me, and influences all my designs. You definitely don’t have to understand the mechanics completely, but getting an idea of the basics, and knowing what the function and purpose of the robot is, and what parts help to carry out that function, is always a good starting place!

Here’s an example of how I was mostly focused on the saw mechanics of the shoulder, because that’s what was important to the story, and made the rest mostly aesthetic driven.

Whereas with Thylo, I had an idea of how I wanted his legs to look, and built the mechanics around that, to serve the aesthetic, but it also plays into his motion, and how he stands, and his balance.

For Snap, both her new and older designs are more personality driven, and wanted to keep her more ‘human’ elements more round and approachable, and her mechanical parts sharper, to sell that they’re weaponry, and that she’s both kind and a fighter. But even her sharp aspects are never perfectly straight, keeping it fun and light-hearted.

Her’s is also a transforming design, and every little piece serves that function, especially the head area, and I consider how the panels will fall or open, or attach. Again, it doesn’t have to be mechanically accurate, but if you’ve got a solid idea of how the physics work for the character, it really sells the design!

Even for less humanish designs, you can give a clear idea of the robot’s function through decals, or how it affects the environment/other characters.

Here’s a little example: let’s say I wanna make a robot whose purpose is to lift boxes on top-shelves, and bring them down to a pallet. It would need a way to see the box, a way to reach it, and to push it onto the pallet.

So, I’ll play with the idea of his functionality first. I could go with some sort of scissor lift, or hydraulic system, but I settle on mostly a telescoping mechanism, and build a little warehouse, or dock worker aesthetic around him.

In short, I’d say just study mechanism that interest you, play with their shapes, their motion, figure out the purpose or character of your robot, and how they function, and what ways you can best convey that through their design! Hope this helps! ✨

#sorry if that’s too rambly or incoherent I could go on for days about robots so I tried to keep it short #I didn’t even get into the degrees of freedom or end effectors lol #I guess it’s similar to drawing clothing in that it doesn’t have to be practical or realistic so long as it makes sense for the character #or the story or environment #but thanks so much for asking and hope this helps at least a little! ✨⭐️#asks #Thylo #Snap

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bibliophilicstranger · 1 month

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Harry/Hermione are more like James/Lily. Not Ron/Hermione or Ginny/Harry(the two ships that everyone wants to convince are like them)

I agree and disagree. I agree that neither Hinny nor Romione resemble Jily, however I also don't think Harry and Hermione are Jily reborn.

Harry and Ginny are only physically somewhat akin to Lily and James, but personality wise are very different. Ginny is far sportier, though she has a quick temper, and also has a bit of a hero-worship streak that Lily certainly never had for James. Like Lily she's popular, but I don't think she's as academic (her Slug Club admission was practical rather than academically based). She was never a prefect, which displays that her grades and disciplinary record was unsuitable for such a position.

Harry, despite Snape's remarks, is not much like his father. He's good at quidditch but he's not as arrogant, he's terrible with women, and he's a leader by necessity rather than by choice. Harry has James' ability to lead, but unless circumstances require it, he doesn't put himself forward to do so (he often goes along with Ron and Hermione's decisions unless there's a crisis/Voldy-level decision). Harry doesn't start confrontations, he tends to react to provocation and will escalate a fight, but he's not going around pranking Draco or Umbridge. Fight Draco after his mum has been insulted, yes, but that's not out of the blue. He asks for Umbridge to be pranked, but that's a practical matter as part of a larger scheme. Harry has a mischevious side, but it tends to come in the form of sly humor rather than large pranks. I also suspect that if Voldy had died in 81 and Harry had experienced 7 normal years, Harry probably wouldn't have broken the rules much at all, unless it was in defense of a friend. Whereas James seems more to have broken rules as much for the fun of it as anything else (though the Animagus/nights out were for Remus, so that is a point in common).

Hermione has more in common with Lily, certainly. She too is tempestuous but kind-hearted, zealous to the point of blindness as times and utterly loyal to her friends. Her academics are more in line with Lily's, as is her background. Yet Lily is portrayed as having a more charming personality; we never hear of her having the same friendship struggles Hermione had. Lily was popular and well-liked beyond just her teachers. Hermione has a much harder time relating to her peers. She has the brains and the ferocity but not the veneer that makes those socially acceptable. It's not a bad thing (personally I'm a Hermione, not a Lily), but it does make their experience of the world much different.

Ron is not much at all like James beyond a few superficial points: they're both pureblood, they both love quidditch, and they're both from Light families. James is somewhat arrogant, a natural leader, and from a privileged background. Ron is neither arrogant nor a leader, and his financial status is well known. Ron suffers an inferiority complex while James is more likely to believe in his own superiority. James is also naturally intelligent and a good student and Ron... isn't. He's not quite as moronic as a lot of fanfiction portrays, but beyond being good at Wizards chess, we don't see much scholarly aptitude from him. Their attitude toward the Dark Arts and Dark Wizards is similar, but James is more confrontational, whereas Ron tends to be reactive. James would start a fight, Ron reacts to taunting rather than starting it. Frankly I also can't see James ever abandoning his friends the way Ron did.

What we know of James and Lily's relationship is little, but we know that after he grew up a bit and started taking life more seriously that they got together and fell in love. They spent six or so years at odds first, so by the time they got together, Lily had probably accepted James as an equal. We know James was smart, so he could probably keep up with Lily to a degree, even if their interests were different. I do think they were partners, that they worked well together. When Voldemort attacked they didn't bicker over who would fight even if both could, James acted to defend while Lily went for Harry. Honestly we know so little about them canonically that comparison is difficult.

I don't really see Hinny as a relationship of equals. I don't think Ginny ever totally loses the fangirlish/looking up to Harry attitude. Harry never looks at her like she's a partner. Ginny doesn't become a fourth member of Harry's group when they become involved and he detaches from her when planning year 7 rather than work with her. She's more an emotional escape than emotional support. I think Ginny's popularity and presumably larger friend group (quidditch team, journalistic collegues) might wear on Harry over time.

Romione has a few more similarities with Jily, but I don't see the same success in their relationship. Ron and Hermione are friends in a way Jily weren't, but their incessant bickering is a source of conflict. Yet the reason for conflict differs. Lily needed James to grow up; once he stopped hexing people for fun and was a little less arrogant, they were able to build a relationship. Ron seems annoyed with Hermione's very character, and she gets frustrated with his as well. Her love of knowledge and bookishness isn't going to change and those seem to annoy him. I also don't see it as a relationship of equals. In Ron, Hermione is never going to have a partner who can keep up with her mind. She's going to always be assertive and he seems to chafe at that.

I don't think Harry and Hermione are Jily reborn, but they do have the potential to have an equally strong relationship in their own way. Harry and Hermione don't have a conflict-based relationship (he was never antagonistic toward her the way Ron was), but a friendship based one. I do think they would be equals and partners: they have a history of dividing labor between them to share the load well. Harry isn't as smart as Hermione, but he's shown more academic interest than Ron has when not around Ron (and might show more once he no longer has Voldy to worry about). Harry and Hermione might need to discuss minor habits they find annoying in one another and how to handle them, but they don't fight the way Jily or Romione would for the other to change.

I don't think Hinny, Romione, or Harmony are Jily reborn, but I do agree that Hinny and Romione are less like Jily than Harmony is.

#harry potter #harmony #hhr #harry x hermione #anti romione #anti hinny #jily #honestly there's not enough canon for jily #and i don't get where romione comes from #why do they like each other?#canonically do we get a why?#i may dislike hinny #but it at least makes a little sense #if only because she's attractive and he's a hero #it's been a little while since ive read the books #so im hoping i filtered fanon out enough for this

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