So last month I re-read The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and one of the things I thought was absolutely hilarious was the different compositions of the Rampion Crew, because it is NEVER stable and it's always funny. I took a break from making Dragon Games redesigns to doodle most of them.
I wanted to do them all, but things get pretty chaotic in the last third of Winter and I was getting burnt out, so I ended up cutting Team: Not Again when Cinder and Wolf get kidnapped and Maha gets shot, Team: DIY Brain Surgery when Jacin, Thorne, Iko, and Cress pull Cinder out of the lake and patch her cybernetics, Team: AWOOOOOOOO when Scarlet and Winter convince the wolf troops to revolution, and Team: REVOLUTION!! for the final battle when everything kinda just goes bonkers.
Also! Fun fact! Even if you include Wires and Nerve and Something Old, Something New, the only time Cress and Scarlet exchange on-page dialogue is like 2 lines during the first time Cress video-calls the Rampion.
The first time they even have an off-page conversation is AFTER Levana dies and they're both recovering from battle wounds while they wait for Cinder to wake up.
Meyer is also a master of dramatic irony. The funniest parts of this book series are as follows (not in any particular order):
-Jacin not finding out Cinder is Princess Selene until AFTER he backstabs them all and genuinely thinking she and the crew are maniacs for the entirety of Cress
-Kai losing his mind for all of Scarlet AND Cress because in addition to the whole "get married to a tyrannical dictator so you can get her plague antidote and delay a war even if it means you get assasinated while also having to be the emperor at 16 because your parents just prematurely died to said plague," he cannot figure out what Cinder's deal is and trying to be objective about it and accept that she's a criminal is actually making it so much worse. Culminating in the beautiful scene where she shoots him with a tranq dart and kidnaps him because they don't have time for a moral crisis.
-The crew's partial reunion in Farafra when Cress assumes everybody here wants to kill her because let's be real, they are BEYOND sketchy and she showed up at THE WORST time.
Real Thing That Actually Happens in the original Teen Titans Run:
Garth is my favorite character in this btw. Poor dude is so done with everyone all the time. I'll make a post about dumb shit in this once I get through all the issues.
The dragon for the next ruler of Wonderland should be a bit mad, don't you think? I had a big challenge with this one because I had to come up with a dragon that looked like it belonged with Lizzie but also looked like it could be native to Ever After and not Wonderland! I think I pulled it off by making him a loopy idiot without a single thought behind his eyes lol.
I'll be honest, a big motivation for keeping Lizzie on the Dragon Games team (beyond her already having an outfit) was that I thought the gag where she can't get her dragon to budge during their first walk around the arena was really REALLY funny and I wanted to draw it. I did know I didn't want her dragon to be mellow and apathetic though like Holly's dragon in the special seems to be. Not only does that not sound like a good fit for Lizzie at all, but Flying Ace isn't a cursed dragon, so I wanted his Problems TM to be more comedic and cute.
Instead, Ace is the kind of animal that is just. On another planet at all times. He's really sweet and loves being around people, and he's always having a good time no matter what he's doing. But stuff like "following directions?" He doesn't have enough braincells for that. The best thing you can do for this adorkable bundle of chaos is to send him in a direction and hope he decides to be cooperative.
I really wanted him to be a dragon that is difficult to boss around but who can be managed easily with patience and affection. Lizzie actually IS really good at being patient and caring as seen in how she tends to the Wonderland grove and animals like hedgehogs. She just has a difficult time expressing that with people who are much more unpredictable and confusing and will hold a grudge when she gets it wrong, so she defaults to being bossy and imperious. When working with the dragons, I really want her to be able to show off how her stubborn approach is actually just her refusing to give up on an equally stubborn creature, and how it's actually a necessary quality when dealing with chaotic critters like Flying Ace or the denizens of Wonderland.
Design-wise, I based him off of origami dragons! I thought folded paper was appropriate for the queen of cards! I had a lot of fun making his wings sort of like folded paper fans and generally giving him very sharp angles. I added the big fluffy neck poof for some interest and color contrast, and also because I thought it made him look more like he belonged to royalty and it let me sneak a heart shape onto his design. I imagine the boot/sock things he has to be partially shed and hardened skin which acts like armor but also looks a little dorky and resembles Lizzie's formal gloves from her base design.
Speaking of Lizzie, I did change her hair. In the show, she's got it swept up into this elaborate beehive thing. While I would normally be all over a character properly securing their hair for an athletic activity, it just didn't look right to me. All of Lizzie's other looks leave that undyed part long and flowing, and nobody else on the dragon games cast has their hair fully secured---there's always some part left to flow aesthetically in the wind. While that obviously wouldn't be practical irl, I think it generally looks better for the EAH design conventions, and I wanted Lizzie to look more cohesive with everyone else. So I did the big swoop into a bun, but left a tail to flow from the back of the bun, plus I let her hair frame her face again, and I just like the way it looks better.
Ace's breath weapon is the same as the hideous zippleback from How To Train Your Dragon, but he can both spew gas and light it. This means he and Lizzie can use the gas as a smokescreen and overwhelm the senses of the other team (it has a really strong not entirely pleasant smell), and they can light it on fire for some delayed combustion action.
I went with the name Flying Ace both because it's a card pun and a dragon pun, but also because I thought it would be hilarious to give this uncoordinated goofball a name that implies any level of technical skill. He's much more of wild card than an Ace.
The Amazing Digital Circus Characters, but it’s just what I’ve absorbed second-hand from seeing it on my tumblr feed:
I did not look up references to draw these btw. Chicken scratch transcribed below the cut:
IMAGE 1
[Caine:
Ringleader
Takes his job so seriously it makes him evil
Not particularly GOOD at his job, which only makes it worse
At least a little 4th wall aware
1 of 2 candidates for 2026 tumblr sexyman]
IMAGE 2
[Jax:
Trix cereal rabbit on meth
Shipped with almost the whole cast
The other 2026 tumblr sexyman candidate]
IMAGE 3
[Sad Wet Jester:
Main character I think
I don't know their name, but I do know their ship name with Jax is funnybunny, and that makes me very sad
I have never seen them without a highly distressed expression]
IMAGE 4
[Ragatha:
"Free my girl! she did do SOME of that shit, but it was pretty understandable given the circumstances and now the fandom is being horribly misogynistic and thinks she's satan spawn!"]
IMAGE 5
[King
Wants to fuck nasty but Caine won't let him
Unclear if the issue is Caine artificially enforcing an age-rating or if it's because he is currently an inanimate object who lacks genitalia]
Oh, Apple White, they could never make me hate you. You've made every wrong choice and you're trying your best, and I love you.
I'm gonna be renaming. . . Pretty much every other dragon lol. But I really like the name Braebyrn I think they got it spot on! It's a type of apple, making it a pun on Apple's name the same way Nevermore is a pun on Raven, plus it ties into Apple's familiar Gala (an arctic fox and another type of apple), and there's the whole pun about Brae-BURN and dragon fire.
I wanted to make Braebyrn look really non-threatening as far as dragons go, and I really wanted to incorporate traits from two other animals: doves and deer. Snow White, and Apple by extension, is supposed to be the epitome of "innocence" and "goodness," and she's also an archetypical helpless damsel in distress. Both doves and deer are frequently associated with all those qualities, and Apple herself has a strong dove (and songbird but mostly dove) association in canon.
But just like Apple is much more complicated than that and can be extremely destructive to both herself and others when she feels unsafe and backed into a corner, and often is harmful to her environment (her friends) without trying to be, so can both doves and deer. So I love those associations for her and wanted to really weave them into her dragon! Braebyrn ended out mostly dove with a little bit of deer in the face and horns, and I'm pretty happy with that.
I also kept the colors pretty much unaltered from canon because I like them a lot! I love that Braebyrn, like Apple, is a blondie with gold as the strong accent. Apple being blonde is a major point of insecurity from her as it's the only way she's different from classic descriptions of Snow White. Gold is usually used in the show as an accent color for the Royals, while silver is used for the Rebels.
Dragon Games is basically Apple's backsliding arc where she caves to societal pressure and loses everything because of it, but will emerge fundamentally changed tor the better. At the end of this story, Apple finally understands that she has to be her own person---destiny as she understands it is a lie, and only she can make create the future she wants herself. She can't force Raven to, and no amount of helping abusive adults will get it for her either.
So I really love that her dragon has both a tie to her being the Royalest Royal that ever did Royal and to the one trait Apple has that has always belonged to her and not to the Snow White story.
(Main design notes done, bonus art plus some other misc. rambles under the cut)
Welcome to Under The Cut Land where I don't know when to stop yapping!
That thing about Apple's and Braebyrn both being blonde as a representation of Apple taking ownership over her own life and personhood gets really fun if you've ever seen this post and this one btw!
I loved this headcanon so much (thanks @thelilylav and @fashion-foxy ) that I couldn't resist making a black-haired Apple for this too (sry for the pings lol). I like it even better if Braebyrn remains blonde because then he (and Gala if I got to rewrite the show) gets to be both a representation of Apple's true self and also her only supporter as she continues to throw herself further into the hole she's digging. Something about how he can represent her true feelings and desires while Apple is busy sucking up to the Evil Queen.
Oh, btw, officially Braebyrn is a girl, but I wanted to give him stag horns, so Braebyrn is a boy now. It's not super important, don't worry about it, it's not like they ever specify in the show anyway.
You may also notice some size discrepancies in this art! This is on purpose! First off, even at the largest he's get during the special, Braebyrn is significantly smaller than Nevermore. This is actually accurate to their sizes in the show. Nevermore is like a tween/teen dragon in age, and is closer to her adult size (although she has the ability to shrink at will down to the size of a large dog). Even with the growth serum, the newly-hatched babies are still much smaller.
Secondly, both the "reference" shot and the "action" shot are meant to be post growth serum while the "cute" shot of him comforting Apple while she's breaking down is meant to be pre-growth serum. This is also why his plumage is smaller and more ruffly. He's just barely growing out his baby down!
Also, I do want to give all the dragons some more distinctive personalities instead of all just being a vaguely chaotic hoarde. Nevermore is of course going to be the closest with her rider, and also the most reserved because she doesn't have baby zoomies and is very intelligent + has an extra magic bond with Raven, and can sense Raven is here not entirely of her own free will.
I think Braebyrn is technically one of the most well-behaved babies---he's usually quite easy to manage and takes to training quickly---but if he decides there is something he wants to do, then he's gonna do it consequences be damned. So he's great on the day-to-day but has occasional bombastic outbursts. Hence the difference in attitude between dragon and rider in their action shot.
One of the sweetest girls at school and her not-so-sweet dragon! Welcome to the part where I start rewriting the plot.
I've decided to give some of the team members the cursed "evil" dragons. Since the special goes out of it's way to show that the non-cursed "good" babies are chaotic and dangerous and a handful and only bond with the right people, I like to think the cursed babies actually aren't any different, they just have less sociable personalities. Each of them is going to have a different collection of "evil" traits that makes them difficult to work with, but they'll still shine with the right rider for the job. We'll get an entire subplot out of showing you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and there'll be some internal tension on the team about whether they should take on the evil dragons.
For Firefly and Ashlynn specifically, I didn't want the "win" condition to be "just be nice." Ashlynn already knows how to be nice and patient and forgiving and affectionate. I wanted taming this dragon to require something else. Firefly has two evil traits. The first and more problematic is that she *really* likes hunting things, and will stalk and/or chase humans, her siblings, and other animals. To get around this Ashlynn has to learn to set boundaries and be firm and strict with Firefly. She's only allowed to go after specific targets at specific times (like the ball when they're actually on the playing field, which is helpful).
The second is that she's not big on affection, which is very new and different for Ashlynn. Firefly's love language is basically quality time. She's like a grouchy senior cat; she doesn't want to be cuddled and will pretend she doesn't like you, but she does always wanna be in the same room as you staring at the opposite wall. That's why Ash looks so shocked in that art piece. She's built enough trust with Firefly that her dragon does a really rare show of affection and initiates physical contact.
As far as design goes, Firefly KICKED MY ASS holy cow. For the other three I've done so far, I had a pretty solid idea for their concept and what I wanted them to look like, but for this one I was much more unsure. Initially I was going to do a design similar to a bird of prey to tie into Ashlynn's phoenix imagery, but I decided it would look to similar to Braebyrn. Since Ashlynn canonically shares Maddie's dragon Crumpet, who has magic breath that can do things like change hair to cotton candy, I knew I wanted the new design to look more magical and fairy-like than the other three, but I also knew I wanted Ash to have a cursed dragon, so straddling that line was difficult!
Eventually, I realized that when you cross a fairy and a dragon, you basically end up with a dragonfly, and then I was able to make a very solid design from that! I used gold for the wings both to match Ashlynn's color palette and to make them look very hot like they've got fire coursing through them. The frond-fin things were inspired less by bugs and more by deep-sea creatures, and they were great for adding visual interest and color contrast.
I really liked the more monstrous, bug-like, fairy-like look I ended up with! Ashlynn does have a pretty strong connection to fairies throughout the series (both through her friendship with Farrah and other instances like pixies being most willing to communicate with her), and I think if any of these girls was going to fall in love with a more bug-like dragon, it'd be Ashlynn who has a deep love and care for all animals.
I also ended out designing a non-cursed alternate palette to figure out the color scheme and make sure it looked good with Ashlynn, and then inverted those colors to get the cursed version, so here's pastel Firefly
Also, this time the name is mostly vibes based. I didn't get good ideas for a pun from Ashlynn's pet phoenix who is just named Sandella, and since fire is already part of the cinderella pun name scheme, I just rolled with it. If anyone has another suggestion, I will definitely consider it and might change the name!
Everyone's favorite knight in shining armor deserves a worthy dragon steed! Darling is also the first dragon RIDER who I redesigned, so find the breakdown for that right here!
I did not come up with the wonderful pun of the name, a friend on discord offered it up! I wanted something with better wordplay than Herowing. Paladrake definitely fits the bill and matches nicely with Sir Gallopad!
This one was a difficult redesign! I essentially had two concepts I was trying to merge together: a dragon with natural plate armor to make her look like a knight and match darling, and a dragon who much more obviously shows off her ice powers.
I tried a lot of different things. I attempted to make the armor look like it was made out of ice shards, but couldn't really get that to work. I wiffle-waffled on which parts of the body I wanted to be fluffy and which parts I wanted to be armored, and debated a LOT on how much actual ice I wanted to incorporate. There was a long period of the process where she had a big fluffy tail like an arctic fox that I eventually scrapped because it didn't look very aerodynamic and threw off the weight of the whole thing. I even tried using smooth slick fur akin to polar bears and seals to make her look more like an arctic creature.
But eventually, I landed on this! While the obvious feature is the big fluffy mane with the icicles in it, the thing that REALLY made this design work was adding the frost in the armor and the wings. It really tied the whole thing together and helped it feel cohesive. I love how lionish she turned out looking, which is a great contrast against our current other dragons which are lizard-like and bird-like.
While I do want all the dragons to look like they're good in flight and belong in the air, I also wanted Paladrake to look like she's very nimble and powerful on the ground too. She'd be just as good in a wrestling match or a ground race as she is in a sky battle. I also made a deliberate effort to give her sharper shape language to help her come off as dangerous, despite the floof and the bubbly personality.
And speaking of personalities, Pal is anything but cold. She's one of the most hyperactive and playful babies. She doesn't quite know her own strength, and has very strong opinions about where they should be flying and what they should be doing, (although unlike Braebyrn, she can be convinced to change her mind). She gets bored easily and needs a LOT of exercise and attention. She works best with a confident and physically powerful rider who can handle getting body checked, and who won't let themselves get dragged into one of Paladrake's games when they need to be doing something else.
I partially created this personality to complement Darling perfectly (especially since this is post White-Knight reveal), but also to contrast Braebyrn being a fairly mellow and obedient dragon and Nevermore being a reserved independent type. Paladrake is much more like an overenthusiastic puppy, but with some more intelligence. And I liked the idea that the one with ice powers throws all the usual ice queen tropes out the window.
My entry for @creatingblackcharacters DTYIS challenge!
For this one we have Usopp from One Piece! I actually had so much fun drawing this one! I don't know MUCH about One Piece (except that it is SO LONG OMG). But Usopp here has an extremely cool weapon and was BEGGING for a redesign, and it's Black History Month, so I decided to take a crack at it.
