#plan to use these for mmd

[wertherbygoethe]

Hey 1bitheart squad here's an mmd model I made! It has a lot of problems that I have to fix but it pretty much works with physics and everything. The only problem is that I want to stomp on it when I see it dancing

I made most of it myself but some things like the hair and body and some of the clothes were only heavily edited! I might put it up for DL when I get around to finishing it

Here's the first attempt as well

I didn't know how to use blender back then so I just used stuff I could find on Deviantart. It worked at the time and I wasn't really planning on sharing it anyways so it will forever exist only on my laptop. It's the same model from the gif on my blog theme actually!

See you later 1bitheart squad I'll go back to lurking around

#personal #1bitheart #yoshi nanase #nanashi #mmd

[askspiritfukase]

Updated: 11/29/2022 (new info in asterisks)

So I heard there might be more new users on Tumblr. The Vocaloid ask blog community here has been sputtering for a while now, and I realized it might be intimidating to get involved. As an active participant in the ask blog community since 2013, I thought I could share some tips.

Disclaimer: I am basing this off of my personal experience in the VOCALOID ask blog community. I don’t know how other ask blog communities are faring or what their conventions are.

THE BASICS

What is an ask blog?

In this context, it’s a blog where you roleplay a character and respond to people’s questions. Tumblr’s ask and submission boxes make this very simple. While an ask blog can technically be text only, I really recommend you get creative and make your own image responses. Most people draw, but some people back in the day used to use MMD. 

What is a muse?

I don’t know if this term is still used outside of the Tumblr ask and RP communities, but this basically refers to the character(s) you roleplay. Many mods feel personally connected to their muses and may even feel that their muses have a mind of their own. Don’t worry about it too much, but if you come across ask memes for “mod and muse,” they’re just referring to you and your character. Incidentally, “mun” also means “mod” so you’ll see posts using that sometimes too.

HOW TO START AN ASK BLOG

Choose a character!

If this is your first tumblr ask blog, I highly recommend starting with one or two characters you really enjoy drawing. Starting off with too many can become overwhelming. If you want to expand your character and world focus, you can always do that later!

Your character does not have to be fully fleshed out, but giving them some background and personality is definitely a good start! If you need inspiration, look up voca synth modules and songs! You can even use an original character that’s been featured in a voca synth original.

Ex: Ask25jiMiku, AskMeltdownRin, AskReincarnationApple, AskSynthVShian (all these blogs don’t exist as of writing this post)

Choose a name!

You can get creative, but I suggest choosing names that make your character easy to identify, especially if you’re using an original character featured in a Vocaloid song. I also recommend adding “Ask” somewhere in there so people know at a glance that you’re an ask blog.

Sideblog or main blog?

I highly, HIGHLY recommend you create a new main blog for your ask blog unless you don’t plan on updating often. You’re more likely to gain attention while using a main blog since you can follow back other ask blogs and send asks. Sideblogs cannot send asks at this time.

Figure out your blogging style

Many voca synth ask blogs I’ve seen fall roughly into one of two categories: Plot-focused and ask-focused.

Plot-focused blogs: These blogs take a more active role in providing information to audiences. They may even act like an interactive webcomic. Some blogs follow the course of a main storyline, while others may have only a series of smaller storylines and arcs within the blog. They can focus on a select number of characters and launch themselves into their own events. The mod may have clear endings in mind for these events, but audiences can influence what information is revealed by sending asks, such as the character’s thoughts. Overall, while asks are important to this blog, major events may occur even without much of their influence.

Ex: vocalads

Ask-focused blogs: These blogs take on a more passive role in providing information to askers. They may not have preset storylines that the characters will take, although they might have developed backgrounds. Without asks, these blogs might not reveal much information and may not update at all. Events can still occur, but they’re often triggered by asks(ex: magic anons) or through interactions with other ask blogs rather than started on their own. These blogs feel less streamlined and tend to go more with the flow of asks and interactions.

Ex: My ask blog, and 85% of voca synth ask blogs I’ve seen fall into this category. It’s the most common type by far.

Of course, you do not have to adhere strictly to one or the other, and there have been those that were a mix of both. You could even come up with something totally new that I haven’t thought of! But if you need a starting point, decide how you want to reveal information to your askers.

Lay down some rules

Do you have limits? Do you not want to be bombarded with asks about a specific topic? Make a page or post detailing these rules!

*Announce your ask box is open!

The final step is to let people know you’re open! You can make a simple post with an image of your character and an “ask box open!” message. Others can reblog your post and spread the word. If you have more energy, you can get more creative with your “ask box open” post, like making it into a short comic or something. 

Ex: askvfurawa’s, My blog’s 

HOW DO I GET ASKS?

Is your ask box open?

Seriously, it’s a common mistake so check your blog settings. And make sure your anons are on since people can be shy! If you feel safer with them off though, that’s okay too.

Provide some information

An “ask box open” post is a great way to get the word out there that you’re open for business, but it might be difficult for people to send you asks without more information. Make a quick profile for your character! Fill in some basic information about their likes and dislikes, what they do, etc. For mobile users, utilizing the pinned post feature is perfect for this.

Think about how your characters live their lives

When you answer asks, it’s also important to think about what your character might be doing as they answer their asks, as well as providing some extra information that could pique interest.

Are they cooking as they’re answering the ask? Are they in the park? Did the ask remind them of something they saw last week? Providing simple answers can be okay, but it may be hard to pique the interests of askers if that’s the majority of your responses. If you’re providing simple answers because you feel pressured to answer asks as soon as they’re sent—don’t! Well-thought-out responses are always better than a bunch of rushed ones!

Reblog ask memes!

Ask games exist on various social media, but you can find many on Tumblr tailored to ask and RP blogs! You can also reblog “M!A lists.” A “M!A” refers to a “magic anon” which is a special anon that is sent to change the conditions of a blog for a certain duration of time. For instance, an anon can send in “M!A: Character is turned into a mermaid for 3 days.” M!As are not mandatory to accept, and you can alter the duration if you feel you cannot handle it. You can also make your own ask memes or M!A lists. If you don’t accept M!As, be sure to list that in your rules or blog description.

As a bonus, ask memes can help spark character interactions or interactions between mods!

Ex: M!A List, Muse ask meme, Another Muse Ask Meme

Send in asks yourself

The asks you send to other blogs don’t necessarily have to be in-character but if you want to start interactions, sending in-character asks are a great way to do that. Additionally, if you send asks to others, they might return the favor. *In a similar vein, if you follow other ask blogs, there’s a good chance they might follow back. If they don’t, they might just need to get to know you better by seeing you around the community and stuff first!

Vocaloid Community events

Octoberloid is the main Vocaloid ask blog event still running, but there’s Vocatines and a few other stray events here and there! The host of the event will usually make a main post detailing what will be occurring, the venue and timeline, and what to tag your posts if you’re participating. These events can be a great way to have your characters interact with others! Feel free to start your own event as well or revive any old events!

Ex: Octoberloid, Vocatines, Vocasummer

Keep things in character

It’s generally recommended not to use your ask blog as a personal blog. The occasional OOC post is okay, but reblogging loads of OOC art and text posts that don’t relate to your character is discouraged. This is particularly true if you don’t tag your posts properly with “OOC.” There used to be weekly events on ask and RP blogs called “Munday” where you could ask the mods questions. This probably still exists in other communities but it’s pretty dead on the Vocaloid side of things. There are even ask memes centered around Munday! If you really wanna talk and show things about yourself, how about reviving Munday here?

Ex: Munday ask meme

Tag wisely

I don’t know if this is still true, but back in the day, only the first 5 things you tag would actually show up in the tag search. Everything else was for your own archiving purposes. I still think this is a good rule of thumb. Tags I recommend using are #ask, #vocaloid, #vocaloid ask blog, and the name of your character. I also tend to tag the asker out of habit so people can search their own name.

However, if you’re producing a large quantity of posts in a short amount of time because you’re making low-effort sketches or making a lot of text posts, I recommend reducing how many tags you use so you don’t spam the tag search.

I HIGHLY recommend you tag all your asks with something. Tumblr has a chronological order feature but as far as I know, it only works with tags. For example, I tag all my asks with “new ask.” If you want to see all my asks in chronological order, you can type in “askspiritfukase.tumblr.com/tagged/new ask/chrono” and BAM! For mobile users, you can add this to your pinned.

And of course, you can add your own thoughts as mod in the tags if you want. I’d encourage this compared to writing your thoughts in the captions, but that’s just a personal preference. Do what you feel is fun!

TIPS & TRICKS

*Don’t make too many ask blogs!

*No matter how much you like the characters, making too many ask blogs might be spreading yourself thin and it’ll be hard to keep track of. While I think you should do whatever’s fun, it might not be good to accidentally overwhelm yourself either. From experience, it doesn’t feel good to open another, brand new ask blog only to abandon it within a few weeks. So just a word of caution!

Trim your posts!!

If you at least occasionally use Tumblr on desktop, download xKit and the addon “editable reblogs.” It works best if you use the text post feature to post your ask and art responses. Basically, it enables you to trim your responses in interactions which is important in sparing everyone’s dashboard from novel-length posts. If your ask response is gonna be particularly long, use a read more!!

Stay within fandoms

This might be more etiquette than anything but generally, ask blogs stay within their own fandoms but it isn’t a hard rule. *I mostly bring it up in case you try following ask blogs from other fandoms but they don’t follow back or want to interact. Some blogs are completely chill with it! OCs are a bit of a gray area so I can’t speak much for them. 

Communicate behind the scenes!

If you’re interacting with another blog, you should communicate behind the scenes if you want a successful interaction. In my experience, interactions without mod communication tend to die quickly.

Join the community with some friends!

A lot of the fun in ask blogging is in making connections and having your muses interact with your friends’ muses.

Reblog the end of interactions

Let’s say you and another blog are interacting and the interaction has ended on their side. Even if you have nothing left to add to the interaction, I recommend still reblogging their post so that readers of your blog will be able to have context since your audience may not follow your partner’s blog. This is something I used to not do and I have since regretted it.

Try to have legible text

I’m guilty of having spent years using chicken scratch but in all fairness, my main art program didn’t have a textbox feature. If your handwriting is naturally neat, then perfect! If not, and your art program has text features, use them! Just make sure your font is easy to read.

Don’t worry about consistency!

Ask blogging should be a hobby that encourages you to experiment without pressure. You can make your art as consistent as possible, try a different thing with every ask, or even just use uncolored lines. I’ve found that what’s most important is the thought put into the response.

Because this is a hobby, don’t worry about being inactive!! I’ve gone months without updating. It’s normal!! This should be a low-stress fun activity, and there’s no shame in having breaks :)

#vocaloid #vocaloid ask blog #hatsune miku #ask blog #misc #ooc #feel free to correct or bring stuff up and i might revise occasionally #i couldve sworn someone made a similar post to this in the voca ask blog community #does anyone even need this tho idk what the general public's knowledge on tumblr ask blogging is #man i shouldve added Point in here since im giving yall a few POINTers

[justanie]

GakuLuka Week 2023

I don't know if promoting it here on Tumblr would be necessary, but my friend @gremlinsbooty and I are planning GakuLuka/Lukapo Week for those who would like to participate! :D

The cover is made by the two of us, me with the drawings and Gremlin with the colors, banner and spelling. The following details will be the next:

Day 1 - Getting to know each other! 🪄

Imagine your own vision of how these two met each other, do you think they started as friends? Was it love at first sight? It is up to you!

Day 2 - Song Time! 🎶

Do you like an original song or a cover featuring Gakupo and Luka? Then it is your time to attribute something special to it!

Day 3 - Love in the air 💘

Draw Gakupo and Luka in some romantic attribution (kisses, hugs, giving each other lovable nicknames, etc.), in other words - show their love!

Day 4 - Seasons 🌄

Love knows no season. Imagine a picnic date with lots of flowers, a beach in perfect conditions, carving pumpkins or cozying up in the fireplace, choose a suitable for you season and date for Gakupo and Luka!

Day 5 - Dreamed Fairytale 👑

Enjoy the classic of literature, a Greek myth, fantasy or specifically some historical time? It's your chance to choose something that attracts you from these branches so that Luka and Gakupo can be the romantic couple in your own history!

Day 6 - Wedding 💒

The name speak for itself. Luka is a beautiful bride and happy to marry Gakupo, handsome groom who dresses in an elegant tuxedo. Bring up your imagination for their perfect wedding!

Day 7 - The Dazzling Future 🪷

A certain time has passed years of happiness and joy without anyone breaking their eternal bond of love..If you have in mind what Gakupo and Luka's children would be like, present them! If not, it's okay, show their married life!

You can participate as you wish, drawings, writings, mmds can be accepted, any area you are good at always works, also Your participation will be noted with #gakulukaweek2023! <3

#gakuluka #gakulukaweek2023 #lukapo #luka x gakupo #gakupo x luka #megurine luka #luka megurine #gakupo kamui #kamui gakupo #gackpoid #camui gackpo #my otp for life

[vocaliveparty]

Kimagure Mercy - Design, Effects, and Extra Notes

Design

This was our Racing Queen design contest winner, Designed by LittleVIC ! I did have to adjust the design slightly around the waist / hip area so youtube wouldn't get mad. But if you decide to draw one of them, please credit Vic for it !

The racing piko design winner was always planned to go with kimagure mercy, but I'm glad Vic's ended up fitting it so well !

Effects

The majority of the effects were done by Kreifish, but I'll talk about the ones that I did!

The silhouettes at the beginning were my work. This is a view of them from a downward angle. They're a flat plane with a changing texture ! The original intention was to have the colors based off whatever the design's main colors were. Since Vic's were rainbow colored, I ended up playing into that. (Krei made them glow a lot more in the final cut.)

The ringing sound effect is a 3D opject that shakes with an expression. It was hard to resist not making SOMETHING for that part, since it was such an obvious sound effect and hand movement.

The pinup board to display screen effect was also my brain child. I achieved it by creating one pmx that had all the art placed around him so it would mostly fill up the screen. I saved that pmx, and used it to make a new x file. If you make the texture "screen.bmp" on a flat plane as an x file, it'll become a screen for mmd's screen capture mode ! pretty neat, yeah?

Anyway, These were suppose to sort of tie in with the silhouettes. Sassy poses popping in + sassy pictures popping in. Even though it's a song about someone playing with the singer's heart, I sorta wanted this vibe of like.. "we've broken up, but look at how hot I am. You're missing out, idiot."

And finally, the smoke at the end is just to transition through sound cues. The heart really IS behind him, but ironically they're never on screen at the same time slkdjfsdlf

Extra Notes

Like I said during the live, This was a song I wanted to include in the first concert. I went with sweet devil mostly because the only motion for kimagure mercy at the time was the moka one for 5 characters.

#song breakdown #design references #plp2023 #piko live party

[strawberry-metal]

An SFW version of this base was planned a long time ago but I legit just forgot about it. My bad, sorry. Here it is now. One has more droopy breasts, and the other has more perky breasts. (Though I feel like the differences are more obvious in the R18 version of these bases lol)

Please don't ask for more bases I'm extremely drained in the art department right now.

TheBizarreKazeko RainwaterPearls and I are collabing to make some bases from Koikatsu, for MMD, to try and help combat the rule breaking of using models that aren't allowed with R18 content. This is the sfw version of the R18 base. You are only allowed to use the R18 version if you're an adult. You can get the R18 version in my DA gallery, just like how you can get this SFW version there, too.

Has groove and mother bone, twist bones, waist bone, upper body bone, and magic bones for the fingers. Has breast and butt physics. They're not AMAZING but they're better than the first base was! (Which you wouldn't be able to tell anymore because I updated it lol.) I left these physics in, in case anyone would want them for whatever reason, like maybe for a swimsuit model or something. You're free to edit them or just delete em all together!

The underwear is a separate mesh so if you need to get rid of it, you can remove it easily!

Rules:

Credit TheBizarreKazeko, RainwaterPearls, ShannaHeart and ILLUSION.

Commercial use is NOT allowed! This is a game rip, you could get sued.

You can edit.

You can distribute a model you made using this base.

DO NOT USE IN P*D*PHILIA OR IN*ST!

Alice, Kaz, if I missed any rules you wanted added to these bases, just let me know and I'll add em in.

Base: ILLUSION

Creation of base, texture editing, improvement of breast and butt physics, magic bones and initial cleaning: ShannaHeart (me lol)

Ripping and rigging, and adding of waist, mother, groove, upper body and twist bones, R18 texture removal: RainwaterPearls

Butt physics and breast physics, and more cleaning, naughty bits removal: TheBizarreKazeko

Poses by cutiebxt

Dropshadow effect by Beamman, edit by ChestNutScoop

#MMD #MikuMikuDance #SFW #base #MMD base #MMD resource #download #dl #koikatsu #koikatsu party #model download #model dl #resource download #resource dl #3D base #3D #3D model #female #model #3D resource download #3D resource dl #3D model download #3D model dl #useful #helpful #resource

[lunathewafflelord]

I've been using Koikatsu to create human versions of some of my OCs. Here's a few of them so far! Some of them are still being worked on, such as refining textures, adding accessories, and adding additional outfits.

Piccolo:

Unfortunately there aren't very many curly hairstyles in Koikatsu so I couldn't give her the super fluffy wool like hair she has in her animal design. I plan on porting these models to MMD once I finish the alternate outfits, when I do I'll give her new, curly hair!

Lucky:

This artwork is a bit older, I have yet to make updated art for Lucky. Unfortunately the skirt was clipping through her legs in just about every pose I set it to :/

Thyme:

My newest anthro OC, and I love her so much! She's a lot of fun to draw, I love their pretty pastel colors. Their eyes are also so cuteeee! I'm having trouble getting a flower crown that is accurate to her original design, it's surprising how little flower based hair accessories there are in this game!

All of these models use textures which I've customized myself. Koikatsu is a great character creator! It's a much more convenient way to make MMD models than the way I normally do, since the clothes are automatically fit to the character! Fitting clothes to MMD model bases is a struggle, especially if your model has a very different body type or cartoony anatomy!

#oc #original character #anthro #furry #furry art #koikatsu #character creator #gijinka #humanization #3d #3d art #3d model

[puppetshack]

A transformers model pack featuring the OG seeker team as Robot girls. BE WARNED. THIS MODEL PACK HAS ISSUES IN MMD THAT I CANNON SOLVE. TO USE ALL THREE MODELS, YOU NEED TO PORT THEM TO ANOTHER PROGRAM. other then that, i hope you enjoy them for whatever you all have planned.

#transformers #mmd #mmd model #starscream #Thundercracker #Skywarp

[sherlokiness]

Been reading through your blog and I agree with a lot of what you post about d although she’s actually still my favorite character but most other d fans hate me and accuse me of secretly hating her and being a Sansa stan (I do like Sansa but d is my fav) just because I’ll be like yeah I think she’s been written as a budding villain like she was referred to as a THREAT in GRRMs original outline. I think there’s a CHANCE that the villain interpretation is wrong but it’s not likely. I can’t imagine that the show would’ve done that if it was entirely the show’s own idea. It’s been obvious to me since book one when she didn’t realize how cruel it was to ask mirri to heal drogo, then killed her instead of sympathizing with her plight. I also like aegony but think a lot of the foreshadowing people claim isn’t all that sound and could easily have other explanations but when I try to talk to other fans about it suddenly I’m an anti d psyop jonsa stan. I’m totally jonsa neutral tbh I ship her with Podrick because I think it’d be cute but I know that’s pure crack

It's true, she was a villain since the first book. Imagine if we were reading Viserys' POV and we heard her say how she's planning to have her son sit on the IT. That's treason, bitch. Those D stans also keep saying that MMD was such a villain that she killed her baby but if you look closely at the text, MMD only "admitted" she killed Rhaego after Dany has accused her of doing so. Why would MMD do that? To twist the knife into Dany's heart just like how Tyrion admitted to killing Joffrey to Jamie. Dany also planned to kill an innocent person in exchange for Drogo's life so...

And the hypocrisy... My sack is totally okay but the Lannister sack should have consequences!!! You left your house so it's now lost but the Iron Throne is mine! You killed my favorite slave so I'm gonna order the torture of your daughters in front of you!🤡🤡

She's so fickle I believe she'd have ordered the death of children over 14 if she had eaten 14 berries that day. There's no way she thinks one should denounce slavery when they're over 12 years old, right? If they don't, they deserve to be killed. By that logic, she should be slitting her own wrist. She had no problem using Drogo's, Xaro's, and Illyrio's slaves at age 13 to 15. If there was a "liberator" doing a massive slave revolt while she was in Qarth, she would(should) have been killed too by association.

#anti-daenerys #I'm sorry but I'm laughing at the thought of 12 year olds having a bday that day #happy birthday to you #happy ahhhhhhh #runnnnnnn #They're killing 12 year olds and above

[crybaby-shaymin]

Sorry for the inactivity- I've been really paranoid and stressed lately.

But I think that's gonna change for me the coming 2024! I think I'm gonna change to become a better person!! I'm gonna try to learn how to gain confidence and establish boundaries!!!

I'm already updating my MMD style and my story ideas! I also plan to use my @lets-go-shaymin blog more too!

That's right everybody! You're going to see a new Shaymin in 2024!! Some of you might not like the new Shaymin, and that's okay!!!

#🌸 shaymin rambles 🌸

[hamliet]

Rereading A Game of Thrones

In light of my recent Fire & Blood reread, I decided to reread the whole ASOIAF series because, well, why not. Below are some general observations/musings on the themes, character arcs, alchemy, and foreshadowing of book 1. I'll do this for the others as well. It's not really a meta so much as observations and thoughts.

Themes

Good Intentions Pave the Way to Tragedy

The most basic storytelling in existence tells us that protagonists have plans work out for them, just because they're good people with good intentions. Martin's whole schtick with A Game of Thrones is turning this on its head.

So many POV character's arc ends with their best intentions blowing up in their faces.

Ned tries to do the right thing and appoint the rightful heir. Robert's will was given to him, after all. He then even confesses to treason to save his daughter. He's still executed.

Catelyn leaves Winterfell as a mother to get justice for her child who was almost murdered. As a result of lies, she ends up unjustly arresting Tyrion and unwittingly helps set in motion a chain of events that results in the loss of her husband, risks to her daughters, and the potential loss of her eldest son, who crowns himself king in the north.

Daenerys saves Mirri Maz Duur and Eroeh and uses MMD to save Drogo. It just results in more death; the khalasar consumes itself, she loses Drogo and her child, and learns how little a life is worth when everything else is gone. Eroeh even faces a worser fate.

Sansa only wanted a happy ending like in the romantic songs she listens to; she accidentally gives Cersei the warning she needs to arrest her father. She then pleads for mercy and is rewarded with her father's head. Sansa had no bad intentions, but she lost her family and her freedom for this.

Arya intends to be a strong warrior and hates when others are bullied. She kills a boy at the end out of fear. She just wants to save herself. She didn't do anything wrong per se, but it will haunt her and influence her negatively down the line.

Good intentions, even righteous actions, guarantee nothing. But that doesn't mean they are pointless, either. Why? Because, Daenerys's arc shows us what you can do when only the dead and stone remain, when she arises from the ashes like a phoenix. Jon's arc shows us that others can pull us back, make loss bearable.

Duty vs Love

Duty vs. love is one of the main elements of a Romantic story, and Martin's identified himself as a Romantic. Guinevere and Lancelot, anyone? The love that cannot be, the love that is doomed because of duty--there's conflict. Courtly love is a key piece of this, and it's literally defined as:

a highly conventionalized medieval tradition of love between a knight and a married noblewoman, first developed by the troubadours of southern France and extensively employed in European literature of the time. The love of the knight for his lady was regarded as an ennobling passion and the relationship was typically unconsummated.

(Also yes the Romantics drew heavily on medieval tradition.)

It ties into the motif of the human heart against itself. Ned, the most honorable man, in the end chooses love over duty (Sansa's life over his honor). Arguably, he chose both, because his duty as a father is to protect his child first and foremost.

Yet those who eschew duty for love completely aren't framed positively either: see, Cersei and Jaime, Robert over Lyanna, etc. Neither, of course, is eschewing love for duty. Stannis, we know from the show, will in the end choose duty over love (burning Shireen), and it will be for nothing.

Instead of "duty or love," what Martin seems to be trying to do is explore the nuances of individual situations and choices, and to suggest that duty to others' wellbeing can't so easily be separated from love.

Jon, after all, ends up trying to choose between duty (the Night's Watch) and love (helping Robb become King of the North). In the end, though, it's the love of his friends on the Night's Watch that brings him back. It's not just because he said some words. It's their love, and it's the reality of the Others' threats--since the Others threaten them all, including every person Jon loves.

Justice and Mercy

It's a tale as old as time (or at least as old as the Bible): justice vs. mercy. Can true justice exist without mercy? Or is that just abuse itself? Is mercy really the exclusion of justice?

Stannis, for example, is said to be the full embodiment of justice. And notably? That's not a good thing:

Lord Stannis in particular. His claim is the true one, he is known for his prowess as a battle commander, and he is utterly without mercy. There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

Just as we in the real world struggle with this question of when mercy becomes injustice, and when justice becomes injustice without mercy, so the characters struggle. Even Ned's honorable justice--executing Garen at the start of the book--turns out to have been wrong, and he's executed in a similar fashion at the end of the book. But it's not ironic justice; it's just sad.

Ned is caught precisely because of both, just like love and duty: justice, in that he refused to act in time to get Joffrey under his wing, but would have saved his life if he had. But it wasn't just to put Joffrey on the throne, so he doesn't.

He also tries to show mercy to Cersei by encouraging her to leave with her kids. He just misunderstands Cersei and assumes that, as a mother, she will prioritize her kids' lives first and foremost. Except, the tragedy is that Cersei has never had her father prioritize her life as anything more than a pawn to be used, and so Cersei calls Ned's bluff: "what of my wrath, Lord Stark?" It'd be easy to say Ned underestimated Cersei because he saw her as a role and not as a person, but I don't think that's quite true either. The reality is... Ned had good intentions. It just didn't work out, because injustice is the opposite of justice and of mercy, and injustice isn't a force of mindless orcs from a foreign land to be brought down. It's among us and it's within each of us.

The Outsiders

The real heroes of the story, the ones I'll call the Big Six, are Jon, Daenerys, Tyrion, Arya, Bran, and Sansa. Interestingly, all of them are outsiders--except Sansa. Jon is a bastard. Daenerys is an exile. Tyrion is a dwarf. Bran is crippled. Arya is a girl who doesn't like society's rules--and Jon directly compares her situation to his: "Arya never seemed to fit, no more than he had."

But just in case we were tempted to brush off Arya and especially Sansa as being not truly outsiders, we have Daenerys' chapter where she eats the horse heart which tells us exactly why Sansa is also an outsider to a degree:

If she choked on the blood or retched up the flesh, the omens were less favorable; the child might be stillborn, or come forth weak, deformed, or female.

Yep, female is seen as weak and a poor omen.

If I Look Back, I Am Lost

This is the line Dany repeats to herself after Drogo's death. She can't bring herself to look back at what she could have done differently. In the moment she says this, it makes sense: she can't bring Drogo back, and she can't undo what she's done already. She can only look forward. However... she's going to have to look back at some point, probably in TWOW, and that should provide a wake-up.

The most notable other character doing this at this point (don't worry, everyone will end up here by book 5!) is Tyrion. His proposal to Shae--that she act like his lover with romance--is essentially him reenacting his trauma with Tysha. A whore pretended to be your wife, so now you're asking Shae to pretend to love you. It should be clear from the start that this isn't going to end anywhere good.

Alchemy

Dismemberment of a "good man" is usually a symbol in alchemy for what needs to happen in order for the process to go. The man's parts are scattered. and he is killed, but from that scattering, everything will be purified and then brought back together. Pretty clearly the Starks (and also Tyrion and Daenerys, whom Ned tried to save).

The Process

When Jon says his vows in the godswood, it's clear that the weirwood trees are designed after the three stages of the alchemical process: "The forest floor was carpeted with fallen leaves, bloodred on top, black rot beneath. The wide smooth trunks were bone pale, and nine faces stared inward." The black stage is associated with death and decay, the white with skeletons (rinsing away of impurities). Red is the final stage.

The city of King's Landing also emphasizes these three colors: the Sept on Visenya's hill is white and crystal; the Dragonpit on Rhaenys' hill is black, and the Red Keep on Aegon's is, of course, red.

When Sansa finally gives up on her delusions of Joffrey, she "g[ives] herself to the darkness," which could be read as giving herself over to the black stage, to being transformed.

Green is the color of the prima materia, or the substances that will be made into the philosopher's stone. Tyrion fights at the Greek Fork. Bran is referred to as a "only a green boy with the smell of summer still on you." When Daenerys sets out on the Dothraki see, she has the following conversation:

"It's so green," she said.

"Here and now," Ser Jorah agreed. "You ought to see it when it blooms, all dark red flowers from horizon to horizon, like a sea of blood.

To me, this seems to indicate where Daenerys's arc will go: red completion.

The Wind

Again as @argentvive has pointed out, Dany being born in the middle of a terrible storm is likely a reference to the line from the Emerald Tablet about the Philosopher's Stone being "carried by wind". But there are actually a lot of references to wind in AGOT, like this Bran conversation:

Bran listened. "It's only the wind," he said after a moment, uncertain. "The leaves are rustling."

"Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods?" 

Maybe Bran will be an alchemist for Daenerys? Because her association with wind is strong in this story. When Khal Drogo gives her the silver horse, she says "Tell Khal Drogo that he has given me the wind."  Indeed, he's given Dany what she needs to start her journey, and he will give her even more. When she tries to convince her husband to go to Westeros, she tells him ships are "Wooden horses with a hundred legs, that fly across the sea on wings full of wind." Drogo never takes Dany to Westeros, but this is how sailing works. Dany will arrive in Westeros carried by wind.

Also of note: the sea in alchemy can be representative of the mercurial waters, the substance that the stone is dissolved in before being coagulated. The Dothraki fear the sea, but Dany needs it.

Markings

The philosopher's stone, and most romantic couples, in alchemical stories, are made of characters with opposite "markings." These alchemical opposites are:

Male: Sun, sulphur, fire and air, hot and dry, red, gold, heart. Female: Moon, mercury, earth and water, cool and moist, white, silver, mind.

Arya is heavily marked as water and earth. Syrio Forel tells her she must become a "water dancer," and that's precisely what she does.

Pretty much all of the Starks of import are white. Sansa wears white silk. Bran wears silver pins. Jon is also water (snow). However:

Bran often dreams of wings and flying, which might indicate a future air marking for him. Daenerys has a similar dream about wings and flying. Yes, crows vs dragons, whatever. I genuinely wonder if Bran might switch markings at some point like Dany does.

"A dragon was air and fire."<--actual quote.

Daenerys's Rebirth

So as mentioned above, Dany undergoes a switch in her markings. This is also something argentvive has covered extensively. Drogo rides a red horse; Dany silver. Drogo is the "sun and stars," while Dany is the "moon of [his] life." But, as the story tells us through this myth, a moon can become a sun:

Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return.

Towards the end of the story, Dany becomes red, sulfur, the sun, fire, and air; she even becomes heart via literally eating a heart. During the Mirri Maz Duur scene, it's noted that Drogo is forced to soak in a tub, and:

Her handmaids filled the tub with tepid water that stank of sulfur, 

After this, Drogo's red horse is killed, because he will no longer be red; Dany will. The entire tent becomes bathed in red, and just in case we weren't aware this was a rebirth scene, Daenerys literally gives birth.

The blood had gone everywhere. Even the sandsilk walls were spotted with red, and the rugs underfoot were black and wet.

But her birth is not finished. No, it's dissolved, but not coagulated. Hence, the fire.

She climbed the pyre herself to place the eggs around her sun-and-stars. The black beside his heart, under his arm. The green beside his head, his braid coiled around it. The cream-and-gold down between his legs.

The eggs are interestingly placed by the three principles of alchemy: heart, mind (head), and body (since body characters can be, um, lusty). When Dany is reborn through the fire, she is naked like a baby, both child and mother (she's noted to be lactating, which she will use to feed her dragons).

Ser Jorah Mormont found her amidst the ashes, surrounded by blackened logs and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion. She was naked, covered with soot, her clothes turned to ash, her beautiful hair all crisped away . . . yet she was unhurt.

The Show That Shall Not Be Named (Mixing references here I know)

In regards to that dreadful show citing Viserys' death as an example of Dany being "cold" to her enemies... whew. So not true. When Viserys is executed, Daenerys does exactly what Ned Stark says anyone who executes another should: look him in the eye. She's asked to turn away, and she refuses. In other words, there's zero framing that we should be disturbed by her reaction--in fact, we should see her as honorable for it. It's also noted that Dany's handmaidens note that Daenerys's grief is real: "You have not laughed since your brother the Khal Rhaggat was crowned by Drogo," said Irri. "It is good to see, Khaleesi."

Rather than Dany's reaction being a sign of her nonexistent coldness, I think it's more another example of the main theme mentioned above: Dany kept trying to protect her brother by not telling him the truth about how the khals viewed him ("Khal Rhaggat"), even though 1) if she had, he'd have hurt her, and 2) he really should have been able to open his eyes and see the truth, but he willingly blinded himself not unlike Robert Baratheon. She had good intentions. It just didn't mean that there weren't extremely negative consequences. That also doesn't mean she should have told him, either.

Insofar as Bran ending up as some kind of king, Tyrion's line in the show was something about how Bran had the best story. A joke in the show, but possibly something like this will be said in the books (and, y'know, make sense). Bran is told by Old Nan: "My stories? No, my little lord, not mine. The stories are, before me and after me, before you too." Stories matter.

Foreshadowing:

It's hard to know what is accurate foreshadowing. There are some elements of George's original plans in this book that have clearly been scrapped. It's a retcon, but also not, because the retconning is less about changing the endgame and more about changing the steps along the journey. For example, the line about Jaime looking "like a king" at Winterfell, Jaime being appointed Warden of the East, etc, all seem to line up with Martin's original plan to make Jaime a villain to take the throne.

That said, for stuff that does pay off:

Jon wondering about his mother is followed up within three short paragraphs with a switch to the line "They said it was Donal Noye who'd forged King Robert's warhammer, the one that crushed the life from Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident." He's your daddy, Jon.

Varys is associated with the scent of lilacs from his very first scene. Lilacs are only else used to describe... the color of Dany and Viserys's eyes. He had Targaryen (or Blackfyre) connections from the start.

Jon and Dany have an interesting parallel that may or may not be alchemical: both are associated with bears. Jon is mentored by Jeor Mormont, and Dany inspires Jorah Mormont.

#agot #a game of thrones #agot meta #asoiaf meta #kinda #a song of ice and fire #daenerys targeryan #jon snow #tyrion lannister #sansa stark #cersei lannister #arya stark #bran stark #varys

[elfiecrystal]

After for a long time waiting for this MMD model. I got Mimi ,My NiGHTs oc. Made by my friend DiMickFox he finally in MMD and I plan to use him more in future video.

To state this,I commissioned him back in late July -early August before I left my first job and finally got him in October.

#elfcrystal #balan wonderworld #nights journey of dreams #nights into dreams #balan wonderworld oc #nights into dreams oc #nights jod oc #wonderworld positivity

[necroneos]

I'm fixing all of Maruki's models 👀

Hello Maruki fans! Although my attempts to keep the lenses of his glasses intact have failed (in regards to exporting to other programs, specifically MMD), I'm using Blender to clean up the exterior of his models so he's nice and pretty ❤️. When I finish, I plan to release them + a guide for anybody who's a beginner to things like shaders. Unfortunately it appears as though Maruki will NOT be able to leave the confines of Blender (idk about other programs, sans MMD), so anybody who wants to use him will have to use Blender :(. But if anyone wants to take the models I've ripped and cleaned up in Blender to try and port them successfully to MMD, go ahead!

He will have two .blend files: one with his original bones intact and one I used the CATS plugin to fix his bones into something simpler. I will provide the shaders needed

All of his texture images will be provided as well for ease of access. He'll have his native .dds and converted .png images to you can pic with ease.

As a bonus, I'm also going to include his original .GMD model for those who want to play with that instead.

#takuto maruki #blender #persona 5 #persona 5 royal

[sea-dwelling-wizard]

[MMD] ツギハギスタッカート // Patchwork Staccato [YYB Miku]

CONTENT WARNING! some japanese subtitles near the end start to flash. viewer discretion advised.

yes i know the watermark's there ;-; i didn't know the site i was using had one

anyway i'm really proud how this turned out! this is my first mmd music video. i plan on making butterfly on my (your) right shoulder next! it's my favorite song. i'll use another site to edit it hhh

Fixed Camera Ver.: (not released)

CREDITS

Song: ツギハギスタッカート ft. 初音ミク by Toa

Lyrics and Subtitles: Vocaloid Lyrics Wiki

Motion by: bakemonowolf, seto, SEGA, and minmodes Motion dl: patchwork staccato 2020 remake

Camera: camera dl

Stage: PDFT Secret Garden By: SEGA, Dan1024

Model: YYB School Uniform Miku

Original Model: YYB Base and Model: Paprika1423 Parts and Physics: Paprika1423

Effects: Autoluminous4, Objectluminous, and ik_polishshader

Note: The stage and the camera were slightly edited for the purpose of highlighting the choreography. Some shots are edited, like in the lyric ("This useless time we piled up together..."), and are not in the original. The stage, Secret Garden, had its tables and chairs removed so that Miku could dance around without bumping into anything. The author of the stage has allowed editing, but I am not sure about the camera's author. If any such claim over the prohibition of editing the shots is released, the camerawork will be edited to its former version.

The above resources are not mine and I do not claim them as such.

#mmd #miku miku dance #mikumikudance #vocaloid #hatsune miku #miku #music video #my music video #my art #vocaloid music video #my work #patchwork staccato #toa #last post for the day

[caffeinated-chaos-bean]

just wanted to say, your gumi models were my absolute favorites and i've loved seeing your art - especially your sailor moon models & furry models, the style variety is really exciting! i'm sorry for the disrespect your work was treated with, but thank you for sharing it. it's really inspiring :]

Aww.... thank you, anon. <3

Honstly... I really got frustrated during that last bout of theft. I work hard on my models, and at the time I was making those Gumi models and my Montecore Miku edit, I hadn't yet had my wrist surgery so it quite literally was painful to put them together at times. That's... honsetly why it was more personal than it would have been. I put myself through literal pain to make them, and... essentially they just got reuploaded without any care. u.u

But don't fret, I'm not done with mmd or anything! I honestly plan to make some Miku and Luka models for Valentine's, and.... yknow..... given most of the parts I'll use are from the Diva games and I don't really own that, I'm.... considering a private download for them. As a pair. A couple. A cloud of yuri. Mmm yes.

#ask #ask response #anon #the bean speaks

[vocaliveparty]

Sekiranun Graffiti - Design, Effects, and Extra Notes.

Design

Designed and Modeled by Maydayfireball (with some art touch ups from jjinomu), He's a silly little sailor guy ! When planning this concert, I had a few looks I wanted to accomplish. They were "Sailor, Yukata, 'Street Pop', Racing, and Beach wear." Technically, only one of these didn't come true. Krei, at one point, asked if any of the models would need "moving textures", because it was something I had originally asked about for lucky orb. Since I wouldn't need them for that song anymore, I instead suggested them for this piko. That's how his moving clouds came to be !

Effects

The intention behind the yellow line effect and sparkles was to imitate the part in the original PV where she's flying around, blasting yellow piss lazers. with a golden trail behind her. I took a long time trying to get it to a point where I liked it. jjinomu and I joked that it was a return to my roots, since my old matryoshka video is still my most viewed video on youtube slkdfjlsf

The really big challenge was the water, though ! By default, most water effects in MMD are transparent. Since the background is black, that makes the water incredibly dark. I ended up managing to make it look less.. dark swampy... by using IkOverray2, and giving the bottom half of the screen a deep blue color. But it definitely took a whilte to get there.

Also the cloud-effect during the bridge was fluidscreen, in case anyone is curious. It was suppose to look like clouds, since that's sort of the theme of the song's title and MV.

Extra Notes

The lyrics for this one, i feel, do a good job of getting the vibe down for the rest of the concert. It also summarizes the Summer = New beginnings theme for the concert, so I'm very glad I could include it.

「However much time passes」 「I'll keep this feeling in my heart」 「and we'll live on」

#design references #plp2023 #song breakdown #Piko Live Party

[strawberry-metal]

Shanna as Little Red Riding Wolf and Rose as Vampire queen~

My friends Alice, Kaz and I will be doing a short, about a week long event for October. Be on the look out for the event on our blogs and feel free to send in asks when it does start! If things go according to plan it should start Monday!

Kaz's blog: @kazekothestrange

Alice's blog:  @caffeinated-chaos-bean

My blog: https://strawberry-metal.tumblr.com/

Download is going to go to Kaz and Alice since we're doing the event together and I trust them, and the rules for the face textures I used for Rose and Shanna ask to not publicly distribute the faces. So I'm sorry I can't share the models with anymore friends than these two, or with the public. Normally I would share, but I'm not gonna break the rules!

This preview picture probably would of been more aesthetically pleasing with a darker background, but I chose a lighter one so their clothes wouldn't blend into the background and you could see their outfit details alright. Ignore Shanna's wolf ear posing, they were connected to her eyes at the time. They have since been fixed lmao

Pose: MinuzNegative

Stage: Emipon

Effects:

SVSSAOx2 and AutoLuminous4: Sovoro

Flying bats: YamiSweet

Black Rose petals: APrinceOfVoid

Hypershader: Beamman

Model credits:

Rose:

Outfit: Fuzee-T, TDA, WYKP, Samsink, iron0129

Cage Skirt: MikuEvalon, edit by TheBizarreKazeko

Bat Headband: o-DSV-o and Zauma

Spider Headdress: MikuEvalon

Layered heart choker: blahberry-pancake

Cross Necklace+Earrings: ninjapirate10194

Gothic Lace Bracelet+Ring: xXFrenchToastXx

Hair: Paper Studio/LouisXVIII and 疊紙科技

Hair and eye texture: TehRainbowLlama

Face texture: RavenKiryu

Base: larig-apagar

Fangs: Animasa

Eya spa: Kilsoph

Metal Spa: MikuEvalon

Shanna:

Ears: kome-ken and NikitaAmarie

Hair: HatsuneDKaname and 疊紙科技

Hair and eye texture: TehRainbowLlama

Face texture: RavenKiryu (edited white specks off after getting permission so it could look more like a doggy instead of a deer :3)

Base: larig-apagar

Face: TDA VK and me

Tail: MMD-TAILSU

Outfit: Danna-MMD

Capelet: TsukiAkii

Hood: nekovampire95

Fangs: Animasa

Shoes: Riariirii and Zepeto

Stockings: TDA, Shyuugah & ZEPETO

Eye spa: Kilsoph

If I forgot any credits I'm gonna devour my laptop like Pacman.

#OCs #jjba oc #Halloween #MMD #Shanna #Rose #Twins #The Twins #siblings #sisters #spooky #cute #werewolf #vampire #little red riding hood #MikuMikuDance #digital #3D #3Dmodel #original character #event #Halloween Event