The Quest for the Legends

So I actually managed to start chapter 44, but then I run into another problem, even though I'm not up to where Polaryu actually appears yet: he needs to be spiffed up.

See, a very long time ago, I made extremely generic-looking sprites of a Fire/Ice/Electric legendary dragon trio. It was basically a slender yellow dragon with large wings, a bulky red dragon with horns and black plates of armor and a sort of medium-bodied blue dragon. Much later, I redesigned them to be more interesting: Thunderyu became horned with blue gems embedded into his scales, Volcaryu's sprite was completely remade with better coloring while keeping the black armor plates and bulky build that made him unique, and Polaryu became… a slightly better shaded medium-bodied blue dragon.

No, seriously. Just compare them:

Old Thunderyu - Old Volcaryu - Old Polaryu
New Thunderyu - New Volcaryu - New Polaryu

As you can see, Polaryu kind of got the short end of the stick in that remaking, and right now he looks really plain, generic and Charizard-bodied. Not to mention that his head shape has always been a little bit weird and those stripes on his belly look fake.

So yeah, he needs a redesign. I've been toying with some ideas; I think I know what I'm going to do with his head, but I'm kind of torn on the body.

One idea I had was to go with inspiration from birds and/or T. Rex: long but strong back legs, small forelimbs, a pretty horizontal basic position, and a long tail for balance. I like Polaryu having a long tail from the previous design, so I'm all for keeping that; it's mostly a question of whether it would look good and fit him.

The other main idea was making him basically quadrupedal. It could fit into the pattern if instead of regarding Thunderyu as bipedal I could think of him as having no legs at all per se: his primary method of getting around is flight. Volcaryu is his opposite in that regard, being a bit clumsy in the air (and having small wings) and most suited to standing upright on the ground (while Thunderyu would always be a bit awkward, since the size of his wings would get in the way very easily if he spent a lot of time on the ground). Polaryu would then be the third option, quadrupedal and able to both walk and fly just fine.

And then, of course, I could also keep Polaryu as the generic bipedal dragon, which could also be seen as an intermediate between Thunderyu and Volcaryu, but there's less to be done with it. Nostalgia wants me to go this way.

Any thoughts? Also, where did everyone go after the forum crash? The minipage has been really dead pretty much ever since. Of course, I never expected it to be very active in the first place, but with the original forum I was pleasantly surprised by the activity.

And then, of course, I could also keep Polaryu as the generic bipedal dragon, which could also be seen as an intermediate between Thunderyu and Volcaryu, but there's less to be done with it. Nostalgia wants me to go this way.

I'm also pulling toward this.

But, I also would think it would look cool as a quadrupedal flying dragon, but I really can't imagine how you would design it. This'd be harder-but if you can make look good, I'd prefer it.

you can like give him/her on of the flying dinosaurs head with like a longish body with small icicles on its belly and little ice spikes coming out of his head instead of horns…idk… its how i sometimes draw dragons… you don have to do that but yea…

I'm not asking you to design it for me. :/ I'm asking you for opinions on the basic body plan. I'd rather not rip off other people's designs.

oh. eh tats how i would draw it… u can use that to help with the body plan if you like… i dont mind

I can't picture a quadrupedal Polaryu design that would really fit in with the other two, but that's just my imagination, I'm sure it can be done somehow.

I personally like that its present design has a somewhat cute appearance about it, while Thunderyu is sleek and majestic, and Volcaryu is tough and thoroughly intimidating. The only issue is that, as you said, it does look pretty generic and way too much like Charizard (and its head and neck in the sprite look a little too large).

My suggestion is to keep its body shape basically the same but to have it differ from Charizard's, maybe by giving it longer legs or thicker forelimbs, and adding something to its body like the gems and plates on the others. And make it cross-eyed for good measure.

I like the quadruped idea. Legless dragons always seemed cool to me, and you could base Polaryu off European dragons if the flight is really confusing. Other than that, generic Polaryu would be my second choice. The first one sounds like an ostrich with arms.

I like the quadruped idea. Legless dragons always seemed cool to me, and you could base Polaryu off European dragons if the flight is really confusing. Other than that, generic Polaryu would be my second choice. The first one sounds like an ostrich with arms.

Wait… what? Quadrupedal means four-legged, not legless. So she's saying she want Polaryu to have four legs, walk on all four, and fly with wings.

For body designs, maybe it could be covered with occasional fringes of icicles. Make it graceful and pretty, maybe not as strong as the others, but definitely beautiful. That's how I imagine ice types xD

I don't think quadrupedal would work with the other two since they pretty much look bipedal even if Thunderyu only ever gets around by flying. It'd just be too different.

I like the point b_l_minu made about the cute/sleek/fierce thing you have going on with the three of them and think you should try and keep with that.

I think that a slim, close to snake-like body would look good with the long tail. Stalky limbs could look good with that, but short, thick limbs would be cool to since a lot of artic creatures tend to be a little on the stout side.

I know, Nostalgia. I just ended up talking about Thunderyu in the middle of it and then went back to Polaryu since she said the flight would be weird or something. Ueah, mu post was kinda confusing.

Hmm.

I really like it how it is, actually.

I like the quadruped idea too. It's a nice change of pace from the two bipedal dragons. If Polaryu were to stay bipedal I think it would be just fine, but it justs seems too generic. If that makes any sense.

Well, see, the whole point of trios is that their similarities and differences need to be very deliberately and elaborately thought out. You can't just design three random dragons and stick them into a trio. It is an absolute rule that you can't have something that is the same in two of them but different in the third: either it's the same in all or different in all.

Thus, there is a number of features Polaryu has to have. For the things that must be different because they're different in Thunderyu and Volcaryu:

- Size of wings (Volcaryu's are small, Thunderyu's are big)
- Build (Volcaryu is bulky, Thunderyu is slender)
- Leg shape
- Head shape
- Color
- Tail

And the things that must be the same because they're the same in Thunderyu and Volcaryu:

- Being a Western dragon
- Having wings
- Having "horns" of some sort
- Having six limbs in all
- Having differently-colored somethings embedded into the skin (I've failed this so far, first making only Volcaryu have them, then only Polaryu not have them)

And finally, I think I'm getting convinced that Thunderyu really has to count as bipedal, meaning Polaryu has to be so as well. Changing the pace from two bipedal dragons is the one thing that must not be done here. Polaryu only has a basis to be quadrupedal if we can take Thunderyu as not being bipedal, which would make the number of "legs" something for the former list instead of the latter. You can't make a trio of two bipedal dragons and one quadrupedal; it just doesn't work that way.

Butterfree, there's something wrong with the "old and new" links. If you click on the new one, you see an image of the old one. Is that supposed to happen?

…uh, that's because this is an old news article, from just before I made what are now the "new" versions. The "old" ones here are even older ones.