PT’s design is an obvious junction of his normal appearance/attire and the physical manifestation of the powers inherent to the earth coreflame, but there’s also plenty of subtle nods to his IL form — visual and otherwise — that i think have been massively underserviced in these discussions. so i’m going to talk about them a bit, because i’ve seen a surprising number of people saying that as his newfound appearance and powers are finally assets of his own, it enables dan heng to let go of the past completely (i.e. abandoning his IL form), and i really don’t think that’s the case at all— he’s pretty clear in his stance that coming to terms with something doesn’t mean running away from it.
but more importantly, IL is my favorite of the three (albeit only by a tiny little margin), so i’ll take any opportunity to talk about it.
first of all, this is a screenshot (original rendering courtesy of @dragaliareferencearchive ) of the design adorning his tailcoat(s?), which appears to resemble his vidyadhara tail. this is evident by the fur running down its length that comes into a tuft at the end, as opposed to PT’s actual tail, which instead sports hard, distinctive spines and [whatever you’d call that part at the tip]. i think it’s a testament to his emboldened spirit and newfound sense of security, seeing as the only time his tail was addressed in the story was during bailu’s CQ, in which he did not react in kind to her pestering abt its perceived absence. whether this reaction was one of shyness, embarrassment, or sadness, it’s unclear, but it isn’t hard to tell that he wasn’t interested in discussing it. now, though, we see it proudly displayed on both sides of his outfit, conveniently framing his new, corporeal tail.
it’s hard to see here, but there’s also a notable variation in the dragon scale patterns laid on and beneath the graphic itself, which seems to distinguish his PT scales from typical vidyadhara scales.
again, though, this graphic is pretty stylized, so the differences aren’t quite what they ought to be.
it’s also more obvious in the actual source, so you can look for that in the blog i tagged above.
next, they both have these metallic “platings” at the bases of their horns;
longer hair that fades into turquoise;
-cancelling this part of the post actually bc i’m about to hit reach territory, but you get the idea. the ears are debatable bc that’s a feature typical of basically every hoyo dragon, and they’re also not the same shape as vidyadhara ears to begin with.
anyways!! his powers!!!
they made it pretty clear that dan heng is still capable of using cloudhymn magic, which was admittedly something i’d been worried about back then.
he’s also still willing to use it, even when presented with a capable alternative (read: dhpt party voiceline abt hysilens & plumber excerpt from his chrysos mag…. i’ve hit the image limit). i just really want to emphasize that he hasn’t laid his old powers and self to rest because of a few new introductions.
