#I love echidnas so much they make making art fun

[mogamuncher]

“You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path, is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin, is a knight. You are here to slay him. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.”

Please accept my meager shitty art as we come back for part three of the "Moga fuses her hyperfixations together" saga! Aka: Slay the Knight AU!

Here's what I think Emilia and Subaru would look like, in true STP fashion I imagine both would never be referred to by name, instead being The Knight and The Frozen Bond (hah, get it?)

I made Emilia a little scary (and kinda Satella-esque), but that's mainly because from what we see in The Princess and The Dragon route, The Long Quiet is just actually fucking scary, so having Emilia be similarly intimidating would be fun.

Though I do think her personality would remain the same in this au, mainly because she's nice enough that she would naturally play mediator to the the voices, but malleable enough that she could just end up going with their whims when pushed enough.

Now for Subaru, I actually wanted to give him a definitive outfit that would kinda function like the Princess's dress, something that is a constant in every design but changed to fit the theme, the recognizable trait that showcases that no matter how fucked up these forms get they're still the same person

That's kinda why the little cape is there, it's supposed to be a significant design choice that can be warped with future forms

For the official lore, I like to think that it's still actually very similar:

The Frozen Bond, the manifestation/god of stasis, consistency, the chilling frozen in time allure of stagnation

While Subaru would be something like The Returning Cycle, the manifestation/god if constant change, perspective and identities splitting depending on choices, the constant cycle of time

Together they'd make the cycle of life and death, in a sense, and since Echidna in canon was trying to find a way to reach immortality, it is only fitting that she would split them apart and attempt to pit them against the other, as to goad Emilia into killing Subaru, this ending the concept of change, making it so that there is no means of which others can die.

But that's what I have for the moment, now, let's talk about some more ideas I have for the IF Barus

The Prisoner, my beloved

I rewatched someone playing her route and it dawned on me when The Shifting Mound described her as a vessel, but she's oddly a lot like Slothbaru

The idea of someone cautious to the point of stagnation, content to let the world pass her and remain in inaction, I mean, that's literally what Sloth is shown to be in the og series. That's also inherently what Slothbaru did when he took Rem's hand and ran away, leaving everyone else to die, but gaining a happy life for himself

Prisoner is like an Slothbaru that can't take Rem's hand, content to let the world pass him by for the sake of self preservation, but stuck in one place without the chance of running away, he can only wait and see because he's inherently passive, as he thinks he has no other choice

The Adversary, however, is the funniest one I think

Someone mentioned in the last post in the tags that Adversary is kinda Smolbaru coded, so I went back to read the arena fights in arc 7 and y'know what? They're correct, they're absolutely right, The Adversary is very much just Smolbaru

Which is funny, because The Adversary is supposed to be bigger and stronger than usual, though maybe it's either just that his personality is Smolbaru and his appearance is still intimidating, or we go all in and have Smolbaru just absolutely kick Emilia's ass with his bare hands in this one

Either way, I love it, also this is the route where Priscilla (Voice of the Proud) would show up, so having an Arc 7 Baru here would be a nice touch

Ok so I'm about to sound unhinged, but the Grey's

What if they were Natsumi.

Now, look, I have no evidence to back me up on this, I'm going off from pure vibes alone, but like what if

Honestly, it would be fun to have most of the Deadbarus be in some way or another Natsumi coded, though that would be fused with the Baru that lead to their routes in the first place (like Arc 1 Baru for the Burned Grey and Slothbaru for the Drowned Grey)

I mean, look at The Wraith and The Spectre

Imagine if the Spectre was more akin to Natsumi in her purest form, since the Spectre is actually surprisingly chill and nice about this whole thing, and then if you attempt to leave him there, you get the Wraith

A withered rotten version of Natsumi, falling apart at the seams and determined to hitch a ride and finally leave

In more confirmed Barus; Wrathbaru as The Witch and The Thorn, Greedbaru as Happily Ever After and Arc 1-2 Baru as The Damsel, The Nightmare would be Gluttonybaru and A Moment Of Clarity would still be Gluttonybaru but with more Louis/Rui elements

Again, I accept suggestions, and tell me if you want me to make more art for this AU, maybe I can draw more Barus and also the voices, who knows?

[btm-txt]

I keep thinking back to this first piece I did of Janelle-Li, It was actually one of my first pieces I did coming back to the Archie Sonic fandom a whole year ago. It's crazy to see how much I have improved and developed my style even my artistic skill. I din't realize how much I missed these characters and how much fun I had as teen drawing them and daydreaming about them. I haven't drawn much beyond echidna content from that original piece and I can say with confidence that I haven't been happier with my art from it. I had planned to redraw this piece a year later and a certain ask on my RP Blog just made the perfect opportunity to do so ♥

Been obsessing over the old Archie Sonic comics I used to read as a kid. I was always really interested in the Knuckles family saga especially the Brotherhood of Guardians. Soo here’s a little drawing I did of Janelle-Li to practice drawing them silly echidnas to fuel the trip to the d i s s o c i a t i o n s t a t i o n ✌️😎

[seventeendeer]

walk forward through the cold dawn!

sonic frontiers made me feel some kinda way about these friends, so here’s a lil cozy messy thing to celebrate ;w; <3

also turns out koco are way bigger than I drew them here but I didn’t realize until way too late so ehh whatevs. they’re cute in pocket size ..

[butterflieswhisper]

looping echidna beastlife gif from trying to figure out toonboom

[sonicluxhedgeman]

The Sonic Classpects Art Project is here!

I've decided to draw Sonic characters with their own respective classpect outfits! Hope y'all like! Check them out in this thread :3

Sonic The Hedgehog: The Knight of Breath!

Miles "Tails" Prower: The Page of Light!

Knuckles the Echidna: The Mage of Blood!

Amy Rose: The Maid of Heart!

Shadow the Hedgehog: The Prince of Time.

Rouge the Bat: The Thief of Void!

Silver the Hedgehog: The Witch of Space!

Blaze the Cat: The Sylph of Doom.

And finally...

Eggman: The Bard of Life!

And there it is! Here's a time lapse of my work :3

This was a lot of fun to work on! I hope y'all like it just as much as I had fun working on it as well :3 I may do Mighty and Ray and the Chaotix in the future, as well as making stickers/charms of some of these designs :3 Thank you so much for watching!! ❤️❤️

Oh and if you're interested on more of my art, consider following! I love drawing my interests and stuff :3

Edit: I'm really really glad y'all are liking these!! I had a lot of fun doing them and I will try to make some of these into stickers! Right now I can probably make only 5 of them into stickers so I wanna make a poll and see which ones do better, the top 5 ones will most likely be used for sticker designs!

[mstormcloud]

More fankids!! Both because they are genuinely fun to make and give lore to but also because I made Mirai and then wanted to make sure she had friends!

Aster is designed by my friend Duetland!! (The last art is by them!!) They aren’t on tumblr but you can find him on Instagram @duetland :)

Lore for each of them under the cut! (LONG POST WARNING!!!!)

Gold and Aster:

Shadow and Sonics kids. They’re twins (with Aster being older). Both were babysat by Tails a lot and ended up picking up a lot of stuff from him as well as their parents. Gold became more responsible and significantly more polite (far more than either of his parents lmao) meanwhile Aster became interested in robotics. Specifically those related to space like rockets or planet rovers.

When the two were born there was immediate concern about their power imbalance. Aster was born with no powers at all, meanwhile Gold’s chaos energy was so high Shadow feared he would burn himself up unless something was done. Due to them being twins, it essentially ended up where instead of two moderately powerful hedgehogs - Gold got enough power for two while Aster has none. This leads Aster to resent Gold, less because she actually wants superpowers but more because Sonic and Shadow are always fussing over Gold (to make sure his powers aren’t harming him) and she feels like her parents don’t care for her. Causing her to push them out even more. She listens to Shadow more than Sonic, but they don’t end up talking through all this properly until Espio gets involved since unlike Sonic and Shadow who had powers all their lives - Espio had to teach himself his abilities and is able to empathize with Aster more.

3. Rhine

Rouge and Knuckles’ child. I’ve thought about her way less WHOOPS but!! Despite not being an echidna he looks up to his father a lot and promises to be the best guardian of the master emerald he can possibly be. Has a habit of just picking up shiny things like a magpie and will turn them into jewelry. Is blunt and gullible like her father but likes thinking things through before she moves. Uses the shovel claws more as weapons than actual shovels - he’s a bit of a neat freak.

Mirai and Gummy:

Mirais story is on my previous post! Not much has been added since then other than that I’ve decided she’s a bit of a troublemaker and very energetic, sarcastic, silly and kinda stupid. As for Gummy he’s about 7 years younger than Mirai, and I haven’t quite figured out what he’d be interested in yet haha

Eli and Anchor:

These two are half siblings! Eli’s parents are Amy and Metal. While investigating the ruins of a disaster, Amy and Metal find a child who who had been incredibly injured. They happen to be closer to Eggmans new hideout (where he has retired and is just kinda pouting by himself forever) than anywhere else - the two break in and force Eggman to help them save the child. Since the current Metal is Amy’s size, there were several smaller models for when he was “younger” - Eggman uses one of these scrapped smaller Metals to give the child cybernetic parts and saves their life. Amy and Metal then take the child back to their house and raise it as their own, with Eggman forcing them to bring Eli over frequently so he can see his grandchild.

Anchor is the child of Blaze and Amy! I’m just letting Amy be poly I think she has a lot of love in her heart and now she has two wifes. Anchor lives the Sol kingdom, and takes after her aunt Marine quite a bit with her love for adventure and especially sailing! When she was young, much like Blaze, she was brought before the Sol emeralds and blessed with a power. I feel like she’d be able to control / harness winds rather than fire though - to help with her sailing.

If you read all of this - thanks!! You didn’t have to but it was very nice of you!

[deb79ful]

Fortunately, I found the time to make some new Mareep art for Mareep Day (the fact that said time was from midnight to 3AM is irrelevant 🙃), so here we have the moment I caught the Mareep on my in-game team—one of the first characterization moments I made for any of my Pokemon:

This is Shawn the Mareep, whose monotonous life on Route 32 was turned upside-down when she laid her eyes upon Toasty the Cyndaquil, leaping out of the tall grass to pounce and cuddle him! And, much to the poor echidna's dismay, his trainer (me!) decided to catch her and bring her along on the journey, instead of chasing her off or something. So now he has to deal with an admirer through my journey through Johto. Fun! For a continued writeup of the two's relationship, plus a timelapse of the art, click below!

During the whole journey, I picture the two of them being mostly at odds with each other—with Shawn continually trying to impress Toasty, while the poor Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion wants nothing to do with her beyond her being "that one teammate who keeps getting on my nerves." Given the Mystery Egg in Pokemon SoulSilver, I can even see her trying to place herself and Toasty in the role of the Togepi's parents... only for her to be embarrassed when it latches onto my Noctowl as a mom, instead. Then, things change during the Lake of Rage portion: Shawn, now an Ampharos, gets kidnapped via sleight of hand, one of many pilfered electric-types Team Rocket is using to power their evolution wave plan. David (still me!) doesn't learn about this until he's about to battle the red Gyarados, and after they fail to find her... Toasty is furious, rushing right into the Souvenir Shop and threatening any grunts who get in his way. He even defeats Ariana's Arbok effortlessly when it taunts him about Shawn's fate! Afterwards, Shawn and the other electric-types are rescued, and for once, the Ampharos sees her Typhlosion beloved finally returning the love she had for him since they met. And so, one short cuddle later, the two are on much friendlier terms for the remainder of the Johto and Kanto trips. She still tries to impress him, sure... but now, her attempts work. So, there's that. And now, here's that timelapse I promised at the start!

...Yeah, don't mind the lack of stripes on her ears compared to above, despite a visual reference I completely forgot to add them until I began typing out this Tumblr post, at which point I had removed the timelapse from the file. Whoops!

[theanoninyourinbox]

The RealM Monster Maker Game

SO many years ago, when I was a wee artism child, I loved creature generators, mythological creatures, and rolling dice. So I made myself one, and for several years, would continue to use it to make Weird Critters, until my hyperfixations drew me elsewhere. I even gave the creatures a little backstory and world to inhabit - the RealM! (Real inventive, I know /sarcasm)

The Backstory

In 20xx, Humanity discovered a portal to another world, one with magic and medicines and technology that would greatly change and improve the world. The Guardians of this RealM were willing to share the fruits of their world, so long as humans came to visit, as their emotional energies would feed the RealM's magic, thus making both sides stronger.

But there was a catch...no Humans existed in the Realm, nor could they. For many ages ago, a Human had nearly destroyed the RealM, so Humanity was banished.

So the Guardians proposed that any Human who came through would temporarily become a denizen of the RealM, reassuming their Human form when they returned to the Earthside of the portal. Thus a deal was struck. What form will YOU take when you enter The RealM?

(I THINK I wanted to make this into a video game or a tabletop experience, but it's more fun as just an art game)

THE RULES

You need a d6 (six sided die), a paper and pencil/pen or a way to record your results, whatever your chosen art medium is, aaaand that's it!

There are six categories of changes - 1 Mammal, 2 Avian, 3 Reptile, 4 Amphibian and Fish, 5 Insect, and 6 Other. Each category was broken down into six more categories, and a few into six after that!

Mammal broke into Feline (which included mustelids), Canine (included vulpines), Rodentia (somehow bears ended up in here???), Hooved Mammals (even and odd toed), Seafaring Mammals, and Extinct Mammals. Sometimes I put Other Mammals instead of Extinct, which makes sense. Apes were in the Other Mammals category, and were supposed to be rarer in the RealM because of their similarity to Humans.

Avians were Predatory (owls, hawks, eagles, and the like), Seabirds (penguins too), Waterfowl, Songbirds, Pigeons (and doves), and Other Birds (like emus)! Not too much to say here, they could have been better put together.

Reptile was Lizards, Crocs/Gators (and caimans and gharials and so on), Turtles/Tortoises, Snakes, Other Reptiles, and Dinosaurs. I know science says they're closer to birds BUT I was little and needed another reptile category!

Amphibians had Frogs/Toads, Newts/Salamanders, Other Amphibians; Fish had Cold Ocean, Warm Ocean, and Freshwater. You could probably make each of those their own category of 6, but i NEEDED the Other Category!

Insect was Flies, Moths/Butterflies, Beetles, Mantises, Spiders (and anything in the arachnid family), and Other Insects (worms baby!).

Other is a Fun One - the categories were Other Animals (which also could include apes, but was mostly for echidnas and platypi, and octopi too), Mythological Creatures, Alien (literally just any alien from any media), Mechanical, Plant, and Missing! You could get a headless creature, and roll to place the face...buttface teehee...

If you roll a certain kind of creature, it's entirely up to you to pick what kind! You roll a feline - tiger or house cat? Roll a beetle - herculese or stink? You get the idea!

You could also roll for a color scheme instead of a feature - make your fella look like a monarch butterfly!

You could also roll for what part to replace, but I usually just went in this order anyway. The body parts for each roll are 1 Head, 2 Torso, 3 Arms, 4 Legs, 5 Hands, and 6 Feet. Hands and Feet could be switched out for upper/lower torso, wings, or tail!

I don't have time to draw a critter tonight but for old times sake, and the sake of this post, I rolled up someone with the head of a gecko, the body of a swan, the "wings" of a batfish, the legs of a lemur, the tail of a manticore, and the color scheme of a nudibranch! Wow that is...that sure is a critter...

Anyway, please feel free to make one of your own, and PLEASE tag me if you do! I would FLIP if someone did this!

[mxmorbidmidnight]

My names and their etymology + mythological/historical origins

In the time I have walked I have been called many names for I am a shapeshifter. It is impossible for one name to encompass me just as one form cannot. The way I prefer naming to work is that each person calls me however they like. By that I mean however it is the person sees me, whichever name or title they see fit is what they will call me. I do like to make a bit of a game of it. Isn't it rather fun making a riddle out of something as simple as the name that you will go by, to bring research, history and etymology or any other of one’s interests into naming?

There are two options, you may choose your favourite of the names below or call me whatever you like. There are few honours greater than being given a name by another. As long as it is done with respect I will answer.

(this system makes complete sense in my mind however please let me know if you're confused and don't know what the fuck to call me).

And now my ramblings I will cease. Here are my names that I have snatched up. (please let me know if I have made any errors in my research).

Shapeshifter

This is what I am, if ever in doubt call me The Shapeshifter or Shapeshifter. In addition you could call me any other word for Shapeshifter, regardless of language.

Gestaltwandler

German for Shapeshifter (male or unspecified) from "gestalt" roughly meaning the way something has been put together. There is no equivalent in English however it is often translated to form or shape.

ilcruthach

From Irish origins meaning Shapeshifter. Etymology: "il"meaning many and Cruth meaning Shape

Versipellis

Latin for changing the skin/shapeshifter. Etymology: Vero meaning turn and pellis skin.

Vormveranderaar

etymology: “vorm” meaning form, “Veranderen/verandering” meaning change and “ver” to do or to become.

Werewolverine

• were is an archaic term for man, however in the modern day it refers to shapeshifting, hence the term “werewolf”

• I have a connection with the Wolverine and have since I was young, stumbling across it in a book.

• I art not going to lie to thee, it also has a lot to do with x-men and my fixation on Logan Howlett

Jackalope hare

• in 1932 Douglas Herrick of Douglas, Wyoming sold the first jackalope. A taxidermy project consisting of a rabbit that had antelope antlers attached to its head. It became a symbol of jest, prank and trickery. To this day much conspiracy and mystery shrouds the creature

• One of the forms I take is that of The Jackrabbit. Despite its name the Jack rabbit is in fact a Hare. Hence why I call myself Jackalope Hare.

Lovecat

This name I pecked up from my favourite band, The Cure. The song The Love Cats was released as a single in October 1983.

A snapshot of the lyrics;

We move like cagey tigers

Oh, we couldn't get closer than this

The way we walk, the way we talk

The way we stalk, the way we kiss

We slip through the streets while everyone sleeps

Getting bigger and sleeker and wider and brighter

We bite and scratch and scream all night

Let's go and throw all the songs we know

Into the sea, you and me

All the years and no one heard

I'll show you in spring, it's a treacherous thing

"We missed you", hissed the lovecats

"We missed you", hissed the lovecat

Dracaena or Drakaina

• dracaena is the romanised form of the Greek Drakaina, roughly meaning “she-dragon”

• depictions range across folklore and myth, the form with which I ascosiate myself with are that where the dracnaea has the lower body of a dragon and the upper of a nymph.

• Similar in form to that of Echidna, Campe and Ceto.

She-wolf

This name I adopted while reading Dante’s inferno. She is one of Dante’s three beasts he encounters, representing types of sin. It is thought the she-wolf represents greed. She is described as this:

And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings

Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,

And many folk has caused to live forlorn!

She brought upon me so much heaviness,

With the affright that from her aspect came,

That I the hope relinquished of the height.

The true meaning of the she-wolf as intended by Dante is not the one that made me choose this name. It was rather because as I was reading it in my mind I saw the image of a great she-beast, it was mighty, with a great coat, harsh eyes and a body like mountain framework. It was a divine being and entirely beast in its soul.

Titles I am called:

• sir goose, madam goose, great goose, anything along those lines

• The Goose, Scourge upon John of England (self bestowed to do with my ongoing feud with the monarchy of England due to my goose activities. HONK HONK HONK)

• wizard goose is something I have been called as of recent and I do take delight upon it.

• Witch and similar terms. Bonus points if you run across the room screaming YOU THERE WITCH!!

• oh yeah and also Morbid Midnight! The first shapeshifter name I chose for myself. My sweet moots have given me nicknames such as “morbs” and “morbie”

I leave you with this, a quote from Old possum’s book of practical cats by T.S Elliot that summarises how I experience names:

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in rapt contemplation

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

His ineffable effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

[tired-old-men]

Dude where was this blog when I was 12? I was obsessed with the Brotherhood so much I had the whole family tree memorized. I would info dump at the drop of a hat. I would be so feral about these sad old men and no one- not my family, my friends, or even my dogs- understood what the FUCK I was even talking about so eventually I just shut up and stopped thinking about it. And then my dash is full of Knuckles and now I’m like *gasp* “THE SAD OLD MAN CLUB!” and then you are just here??? Talking about this thing that I literally thought no one except me cared about??? Hello??? Shall we have a spring wedding???

MY BROTHER IN ECHIDNA I FEEL YOU ON A METAPHYSICAL LEVEL!!! I have never connected so hard to an ask in my life. I was hella obsessed with these guys in my teens! I knew their family tree by heart, knew their lore inside and out, I doodled Edmund and Dimitri in my science notes in class constantly, shit these guys lived rent free in my brain with how much I daydreamed about them! I might have had like 3 people tops on deviantart at the time that I could even talk to about these guys, who actually knew who they were and even made art and content for them.

Then came a period of time I ended up leaving the sonic fandom entirely, probably a mixture of being made to feel discouraged in liking my interest from my offline peers and family (back when liking Sonic din't made you a cool kid but a target) as well as getting hyperfixated on other things I just... moved on sadly. It wasn't until last year I want to say, that I stumbled upon @julie-su's art and realized that it was made in recent year, that I got genuinely excited for these guys and the sonic fandom again. You can also imagine my subsequent heartbreak when I found out about the Ken Penders lawsuit and how all of these beloved characters ended up... But as the saying goes if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself! Got sad that there's no more art of these dudes time to make some! It's how I ended up coming back to tumblr and getting to meet more echidna loving individuals and honestly I wouldn't go back not one bit. I'm sad that I feel like I missed out on the Archie comic fandom era back when the comics were still publishing, but I'm glad to be making up some lost time by indulging in the grandpa gang with my online buds. I can't imagine my life without these sad old dudes living rent free in my mind, they keep me entertained, they make me laugh, and bring me much comfort. It makes me so happy to see fans of these guys and new content being made for them just get me so fucking excited and happy.

Most of the time making content for them seems like I am screaming into a void considering how obscure they can be. But in the end, I don't I think I have had more fun creating art and writing than when I started drawing them again. In a way I keep them alive in my memories through my works and that makes me happy. I know the few that know and love these characters also love to see them still around, and have been big inspirations for me to create my own stories and headcanons for these characters and I will forever be grateful for them enriching my life with their creativity. Always a delight to meet someone that loves these tired old men as much as me, your comment literally made my day! Thank you for being awesome and for even liking my works, It really means a lot to know theres still love out there for these characters. I'm always happy to chat with a fellow guardian fan so please don't be a stranger! Besides, we have to frolic down the hills of Angel Island in the eve of our honeymoon~

[sashkapi]

What are your OTPs from other shows besides kindall? (especially love/hate ones)

(Forgive me im so slow)

Oh my here u go >:D

Love/hate ones:

Jimmy and Cindy (The adventures of Jimmy Neutron: boy genius)

This one kinda started it all. Their rivalry was funny and I kinda felt bad for Cindy because she is genuinely smart but what is it if your opponent is a genius  Also hey, blonde and bitchy, my type :) Won't say a lot about this one tho because with all my love for them - there's nothing much I can tell you if you watched the show

Manny and Zoe (El tigre: the adventures of Manny Rivera)

Ok, this one is weird because as a kid I just loved Zoe so much (Her Black Cuervo design, like c'mON LOOK SHES PURPLE) but also liked Manny and Frida together Idk, fandom skewed me later to Manny and Frida but hey, hero-boy/villain-girl dynamic is fun too and I still remember fondly how Manny was immediately smitten by her in "Enter the Cuervo" (Apparently Zoe would end up with Django and honestly? That pair is pure aesthetic, good for them good for them) (Also I'm so mad that I watched this show dubbed because I didn't know english at the time like THEY TOOK ALL CHARM. NO ACCENT, NO SPANISH WORDS IN CHARACTERS SPEECH AND SOME NAMES WERE TRANSLATED IN THE LAMEST WAY POSSIBLE)

Helga and Arnold (Hey Arnold) (can you tell I am a nickelodeon kid yet?)

Ok, this one is more of the one sided love/hate on Helga's side but if you watched the show then you know that she went all in with both love and hate.  Seriously, Helga is such an interesting character. She is amazing and I love her (another bitchy blonde to love yay) Can't say much from Arnold's side. He was oblivious to her crush for the most of the show. He is a kind and understanding boy so jgkkdjgkh I just really wanted Helga to be happy 🥺

Anya and Damian (Spy x Family)

New one and also kinda one sided on Damian's side  Listen These two?

Just plain funny

Anya punching him in the face and Damian falling for her for that? Hilarious Anya being oblivious to his crush despite being an esper because Damian is in denial? Amazing. Good stuff.  They are just so cute and funny, look at them!!!

Catra and Adora (She-ra and the princesses of power)

Ok, I wouldn't consider myself a catradora shipper anymore but God, their dynamic in the first seasons is everything. Like darn, they had drama. Actual enemies to lovers and THE TENSION

Aaaaand season 5 destroyed it all. (Spoilers for she ra ahead)

Some people dropped the ship after season 4 finale because Catra would rather destroy the world than let Adora win, but for me it was THE THING I LOVED LIKE YES, MORE DRAMA, MORE CONFLICT, NOW CATRA MUST TRY REAL HARD TO GET ON ADORAS GOOD SIDE AND THAT MEANS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, I WONDER HOW IT WILL GO and they just??? Kinda forgive her??? I'm sorry, yes, Catra purring on Adora's lap? Sweet. The kiss was also dramatic. But it all felt so undeserved I guess it's because of the limited time the writers had. But damn, introducing a bigger threat in Hordak Prime and kinda handwaving her crimes isn't a redemption for Catra.  But again. First seasons? Good ass dynamic. 10/10

Knuckles and Rouge (Sonic the hedgehog franchise)

THIS ONE IS  AH NICE If you followed my kbsd art then you probably know that I also love Sonic (lil guy doing cool stuff - my weakness) Wouldn't call knuxouge love/hate ship at this point that much tho. They started as this but now they are more of a flirts-a-lot/flusters-a-lot type of pair. Also, we don't talk about "dumb" arc SEGA was putting Knux in 2010's Anyway funni echidna and funni bat my beloveds

Non love/hate

Sanford and Deimos (Madness Combat)

Ok, so the series is about violence, fighting, and bloodshed, right? And then I saw these two in 0.5 episodes and my brain went "OK, but what if they kiss?" And I spend 2021 rotating these two in my head. Violently. (The way Deimos doesn't attack Sanford in "dedmos adventure" still makes me sad from time to time)

Dr. Fox and Hawkodile (Unikitty!)

I was in a weird place of mind when I was obsessed with this show. Looking back at it - its really silly.  I'm gonna be honest, the biggest reason I loved this ship is because it's a big warrior type of guy having a huge crush on a nerd girl and being really silly about it. After a few episodes with this topic I got kinda tired of it tho. 

Still, they are cute.

I might be forgetting some but honestly, if I was to list every ship I enjoy - we'll be here forever This also kinda made me realize that I haven't seen any proper love\hate pairs in recent media. Might be just me tho.

[nights-nonsensical-ramblings]

I posted 2,717 times in 2022

That's 2,464 more posts than 2021!

221 posts created (8%)

2,496 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian

@doomfox

@help-i-need-a-cool-username

@autisticshadowthehedgehog

I tagged 2,303 of my posts in 2022

Only 15% of my posts had no tags

#sonic - 796 posts

#night reblogs art - 754 posts

#knuckles the echidna - 612 posts

#knuckles wachowski - 411 posts

#sonic movie - 389 posts

#sonic wachowski - 374 posts

#sonic the hedgehog - 356 posts

#tails wachowski - 354 posts

#video - 283 posts

#miles tails prower - 271 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i was scrolling and thought i had come across one of those old and not quite popularenough to gain legendary only seen in screen shot status

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

boom and movie interaction ideas

scu tails and sonic keep getting people to have a hand shake with scu knuckles. theyll just be off to the side grinning wildly as someone makes the huge mistake of offering scu knuckles a hand shake who is doing his best and trying to be polite so of course gives them one without realizing how much pain he causes.

scu sonic probably got most of his belonging when was living in the cave by collecting stuff people had thrown away so sees nothing wrong with rummaging through garbage. And getting confused when someone calls Sticks out for doing it. “But people throw good things away all the time”

Sticks and scu tails being boomerang buddies. 

Scu sonic thinks amy’s giant hammer is one of the the coolest things

everyone gets “donut lord/pretzel lady” style nicknames

The Boom team trying to explain to scu tails and sonic that spying on someone to learn about them is not how to make friends 

dave the intern says something vaguely rude towards scu tails and scu sonic and knuckles take this as an insult to their little brother. and are ready to jump the counter and throw hands in their little brothers honor.

scu tail won’t stop making deadly and intense weaponry. (like the wedding cake exploder gun thing) and at one point  gets yelled at by Amy “WHY WOULD YOU MAKE THAT” “idk seemed fun”

the miles electric has caused a LOT of trouble (they didn’t tell anyone about the hologram function at first) some incidents include: a hologram repeatedly entering a room from the same door and everyone loosing their mind. using it to look like scu tails beat boom sonic to somewhere. an incident that caused sticks to run into the woods and not be see for hours

344 notes - Posted May 4, 2022

#4

general sonic headcannons

Rouge made team dark play untitled goose game. It quickly became one of their favorite games.

Sonic was once in the city and got the impulsive thought of “grab pigeon”  and he succeeded. Sonic then stood there for five minutes processing what to do next because his brain hadn’t come up with what to do next.

Knuckles has an extremely skewed sense of time. Like he sees midnight as a reasonable time for visits, he’ll have breakfast anywhere between 1 am and 11 am, he’s willing to wait for what everyone else considers absurd amounts of time but to him are nothing.

Silver loves collecting random trinkets. Especially things that most people these days would take for granted, everyone likes to give him random items to see his face light up with wonder.

Silver lives half in the present and half in the future.

Big gives the best hugs. Team Chaotix especially appreciate them during winter.

Not a single person in the group uses a chair in a normal way.

351 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

#3

Another thing I love about the sonic movies (that gives me major neurodivergent vibes) is seeing how the kids are leaning by mimicking.

We have sonic in the first movie copying Tom with pressing the ice to his face and Maddie with the yoga (come to think of it a majority of Sonics learning probably was from mimicry) oh yeah the trying to smash a bottle of a guys head because he saw it in a movie.

Then Tails with the dance sequence (I’m sure there was more but I can’t think of it off of the top of my head)

And knuckles getting ready to join the battle just like the older warriors. and especially the scene where he sees Robotnik playing around and acting destructive to the sonic hologram and then proceeds to do it himself. Or how sonic throws sand so he starts doing it to (I love this scene it really help remind you that they’re teenagers who went through hell and had to grow up too fast)    And The particular way he uses a handshake or power bump once he learns what they are.

I know there’s more examples of all three of them doing this but I’ll have them to rewatch the films to remember 

anyway they’re neurodivergent and I love them for it.

369 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

#2

i notice a lot of fanart likes to portray SCU sonic as being around waist height to boom sonic and following that logic I used these two screenshots to try and compare the scu and boom characters 

They where the closest I found where all the characters where standing straight/neutral in a line and all basically the same distance from the camera.

So I lined them up, put scu sonic at about waist height and measured them.

See the full post

392 notes - Posted May 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Idk I think this is the dynamics they’d have.

424 notes - Posted August 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[my-name-is-jefferooni]

SOME OF MY OWN ARTWORK CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!!

Yes, I am an artist lol. I’m not the best, and I don’t have very much art that I deemed worthy enough to share with you guys. I only just thought to share it since I signed up as an artist for the Sonic Big Bang event!! Super happy and I hope I get in, so to boost my chances I decided to bite the bullet and see what yall think of my own Sonic artwork! I’ve drawn some more than just this, but again, there wasn’t much that I was very truly proud of.

Here’s some sketchy doodles I did of Sonic just falling asleep in random places. First two are him taking some well-deserved naps with his bros after the events of Frontiers and issue 56 of the IDW comics, and the last is Amy just finding him snoozing under the bed instead of in the bed itself.

(Last one is based off a small comic dub Adrenaline Dubs did a few years back. Wonderful dub and is super fun to watch, highly recommend)

Tried doing some Sonadow Prime doodles in my style and hated it so I kinda stopped working on the whole thing. May continue some day but for now this is it.

NOW THIS IS MY REAL PRIDE AND JOY. PEOPLE SAY YOU SHOULDNT HAVE A FAVORITE CHILD BUT I DO AND THIS IS MY FAVORITE CHILD.

Yes, I am an echidna Amy truther. Well, more so a half echidna Amy truther. I saw this theory float around on my dash back in the day, and so I decided to draw Amy as a half echidna. I’ve switched up her design a little bit since this first doodle page, but the general base of the design remains the same to this day. I’ll try to find some up-to-date drawings of her that are fully completed but so far I’ve come up short.

And I’m also a resident Ponytail Knuckles enjoyer so I obviously had to give the baby boy a ponytail. His design is also pretty dated, as back then I didn’t know what to give him in terms of an outfit. (I don’t like drawing naked Mobians so I give all of them clothing) I’ve since rectified that in traditional doodles where his outfit is more based on the movie echidna outfits.

Their color palettes are staying the same tho because LOOK AT THAT SHIT AND TELL ME THAT IS NOT ABSOLUTE GODDAMN EYE CANDY MMMMMMM SO GOOD AND TASTY

Hope you enjoyed looking at my art! I’m still evolving my art style as time goes on and a lot of this is either super cringe or super old, but I don’t have much else that I’m super proud of. Maybe later on I’ll make more finished pieces to share with you all. For now though, this is what you get.

Again, I really hope you enjoyed my art… I also hope I get into the event as an artist. I’d love to be able to evolve my style even more past what it already is!

[zippityzap]

Sonic Tarot Card Project: explanations for character picks

Recently I completed a summer-long project where I created Sonic themed versions of the tarot major acana. I put a lot of research and thought into what characters to assign to which cards, and I wanted to explain my rationale behind each one! (Everything’s under the read more cut because this is a very long post!)

To start off, let me explain why I did this project in the first place. This summer I watched Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure for the first time, and in Part 3, Stardust Crusaders, the majority of the stand abilities are named after the tarot major arcana. Thanks to cultural osmosis I vaguely knew the meanings of a few of the cards and I realised that one of the characters suited his assigned card pretty well. I was curious if this matched anyone else and so once I finished watching that part, I did research on tarot and found that yeah, a lot of them do match! That got me interested in tarot and since I like combining things I’m interested in, I decided to make Sonic versions of the cards.

I do want to note that while Jojo did inspire this project in a lot of ways, I tried not to let my character picks be influenced by Stardust Crusader characters, although there did end up being some picks that did coincidentally happen to match nicely anyway. Also, I’m not gonna lie, ever since picking these card choices I’ve been highly tempted to draw Sonic as Polnareff.

Anyway, on to my explanations for character choices!

0: The Fool (Charmy Bee)

The Fool represents innocence, spontaneity and recklessness. I believe Charmy’s happy and carefree nature, along with the simple fact that he’s essentially just a little kid who likes to have fun makes him a great fit for this card

1: The Magician (Infinite)

The Magician represents creation and strength, but also manipulation and narcissism, a good match for Infinite and the powers of the phantom ruby. (I was also very pleased to notice that the traditional art for the card has an infinity symbol- everything lined up very well!)

The Rider Waite version of the card also depicts a sword, a wand, a cup and a pentacle; the suits of the minor arcana. I have attempted to depict these with various objects from the Sonic series, namely Infinite’s sword from the IDW Forces prequel comic, the sceptre of darkness from '06, a chaos emerald, and a ring respectively.

2: The High Priestess (Princess Elise)

The High Priestess represents secrets, repression, and the unknown, which I believe fits with Elise’s initial desire to control her emotions and her sadness. (Admittedly this is one of the looser character/card connections for this project, but my two other picks for this card I felt were better suited to different cards)

3: The Empress (Vanilla the Rabbit)

The Empress represents nurturing, fertility and childbirth, all traits that I believe make this card a good pick for a kind, caring mother like Vanilla

4: The Emperor (Dr Eggman)

A card fitting for the leader of the Eggman Empire! The Emperor represents authority, power, and tyranny, all traits Dr Robotnik desires, if not possesses in many continuities.

5: The Hierophant (Espio the Chameleon)

The Hierophant represents wisdom and tradition, and in both upright and reversed forms it has large connections to the concept of social conformity. Perhaps I’m drawing more from the various comic versions of Espio, but he comes across to me as someone who is hyper-aware about how he presents himself.

Fun fact: a hierophant is essentially another word for a religious leader, although I’ve never seen it used outside the context of tarot. I assume the religious connection is the reason why in the OST of the Jojo part 3 anime, Kakyoin’s theme is called Noble Pope.

6: The Lovers (Amy Rose)

The Lovers represents love, communication, and passion; and Amy is certainly a character who wears her heart on her sleeve! She’s a good example of a character who I feel fits a number of different cards, however there are no other characters who suited The Lovers quite as much as her.

7: The Chariot (Sonic the Hedgehog)

The Chariot represents journeys, wanderlust as well as the ambition and willpower to achieve your goals, which I believe is the perfect match for Sonic’s adventurous and heroic spirit. This was one of the first cards I decided on and it’s probably the one I’d defend my interpretation of the most.

If you’re wondering why there’s dark and hero chao in the artwork too, it’s because the original card art depicts the titular chariot being pulled by black and white sphinxes, and this is my way of calling back to that.

8: Strength (Maria Robotnik)

This card pick might seem unusual at first if you take the word ‘strength’ at face value, however considering the original card art depicts a maiden peacefully taming a lion, perhaps the Strength card represents inner strength, courage and determination rather than physical strength. These are traits that I believe Maria possesses.

9: The Hermit (Knuckles the Echidna)

The Hermit signifies awareness and independence but when reversed can mean isolation and resignation, traits that parallel well with Knuckles and his duty to be the protector of the Master Emerald

10: The Wheel of Fortune (Big the Cat)

The Wheel of Fortune represents fate, karma and luck! This is admittedly a bit of a cheeky dig at myself since I’m awful at the Big fishing levels in SA1 and mostly got through them through luck. But that’s not to say the card doesn’t apply to Big himself! His frequent cameos do have a bit of a fate/destiny vibe to them and in IDW Big is lucky enough to manage to avoid the metal virus for quite a long time.

11: Justice (Vector the Crocodile)

The meaning of the Justice cards is… pretty much what it says on the tin: fairness and clarity. Of course the Team Chaotix detective agency represents this as a whole, but that trait especially shines through with Vector himself. He may be a little money oriented, but doing what is morally right always takes priority.

12: The Hanged Man (Shadow the Hedgehog)

The thing about Shadow is that he’s a fairly complex character which means there are a number of cards in the Major Arcana that match him well, but I knew early on when tackling this project that I wanted to assign Shadow to The Hanged Man. This card represents change, release and sacrifice, which all align well with the character arc that Shadow goes through during the course of SA2 and beyond.

13: Death (Tikal the Echidna and Chaos)

Despite the morbid name of the card, (and the admittedly macabre scene I’ve depicted) the Death card is not an inherently negative card to draw. Yes, it can mean endings and grief, but it can also mean letting go and new beginnings. The story that Tikal and Chaos go through in SA1, their anguish and how they later find peace, is something that I think pairs well with this particular card.

Fun fact: this is the only card in this project that has two significant characters on it rather than just one. I felt I needed both of them to be on the card in order to fully represent its meaning

14: Temperance (Blaze the Cat)

The Temperance card signifies balance, harmony and patience, which matches Blaze’s very poised and graceful demeanour. Admittedly I had a little bit of trouble deciding on a card for Blaze since the High Priestess and the Hierophant are also good matches for her.

15: The Devil (Rouge the Bat)

The Devil card represents temptation, seduction, and materialism and well… look, Rouge is one of my favourite Sonic characters, I’d be one of the first people to tell you that there’s a lot more to her than what initially appears, she is so much more complex than just sex appeal and a gemstone obsession. However, I felt there was no other character that matched the traits of this specific card better than Rouge, and so my choice was decided by that.

16: The Tower (E-123 Omega)

The Tower card represents a number of things; disruption, disasters, sudden changes etc, however the trait that made me believe that Omega would be the best selection for the card was violence.

17: The Star (Miles ‘Tails’ Prower)

Tails’ character arcs normally centre around him gaining independence and self-confidence and learning to believe in himself. He is also largely characterised by his unyielding faith and trust in Sonic. These traits are the reason why I believe The Star card represents him well, as it symbolises hope and faith.

18: The Moon (Shade the Echidna)

The Moon card symbolises mysteries and the unknown, and when Shade is first introduced in Chronicles, she and the rest of the Nocturnus Clan are certainly presented as mysterious. The Moon can also represent misconception, which fits well with how Shade was initially unaware of the true nature of Ix’s plans.

19: The Sun (Cream the Rabbit)

The Sun, when drawn in an upright position, has a lot of positive meanings! Freedom, fun, happiness, good luck etc. Cream’s cheerful and optimistic disposition makes her a good match for this card

20: Judgement (E-102 Gamma)

The Judgement card symbolises liberation, awakening, redemption and second chances, all of which I believe represent Gamma and his character arc in SA1 well

21: The World (Metal Sonic)

In the upright position, The World card symbolises triumph, completion, strength and happiness while in reversed position can mean failure, anxiety, lack of self-confidence etc. I had both positioning of the card in mind when connecting it to Metal Sonic; he is devoted to the tasks given to him and is self-assured in his belief that he is the true/superior ‘sonic’ yet he repeatedly finds himself at the hands of failure. But he doesn’t let previous failures hold him back, thus starting the cycle anew. (Another connection to the World card as it also symbolises cycles)

[thankskenpenders]

Enerjak Reborn intermission: Who the hell is Enerjak?

Before we move on to the second half of the fun, thrilling, and exciting Enerjak Reborn arc, I think it’s a good idea to pause and take a look back at where we came from. Reading this arc, you may be asking yourself: where’d this Enerjak guy come from? It’s been over six years since I covered the comics featuring the original Enerjak, after all (and I tended to skim over stuff a lot more back then)

So here’s a crash course in Archie’s original nemesis for Knuckles. The big question today is... did the original Enerjak ever DO anything?

As has been established, the original Enerjak was a powered up form Dimitri took on. Even if you’re not following all this too closely, you’ll probably recognize Dimitri as the floating cyborg echidna head. He’s pretty memorable in that form

In his youth, though, Dimitri was a normal echidna scientist working alongside his brother Edmund on Angel Island. Together, the two of them found the legendary Zoot Chute

This, of course, led them to the chamber of the twelve Chaos Emeralds (yes, twelve--the lore was different back then) that were holding Angel Island up in the air. It had been generations since the echidnas had Brexited their capital city into the sky to dodge the White Comet, and they figured, hey, maybe we should land this thing. And so Edmund and Dimitri set out to slowly syphon away the power of the Emeralds to do just that, gently lowering the floating landmass back into the crater it had left behind. A reasonable idea!

Except then their proposal to land Angel Island was denied, so Dimitri got pissed and stole the Chaos Syphon to do it anyway. But then the machine went HAYWIRE and he absorbed the energy himself and it flipped his morality switch from good to EVIL!!!

Boy, that was sudden!

From there Dimitri’s plan was to enslave everyone on Angel Island and make them turn the whole island into one big airship, from which Dimitri would subjugate the surface world

(No, the pirate motif isn’t an artist taking liberties with the script--Ken drew these lore dump backup stories himself)

Boy, this guy sure does have big plans! And he’s got the power to back it up, too, since he absorbed eleven whole Chaos Emer--oh, whoops, the fire ants chewed through the base of his spooky tower and he was immediately crushed by rocks before he could do literally anything else with his new power

From here, Edmund and his allies “renounced technology” and “destroyed their city” (not really, but that’s how the story goes). His descendants would become the Brotherhood of Guardians, eventually including Locke and Knuckles. This part of the lore dump gave me some of my favorite panels. Meanwhile, Dimitri’s side of the family sought revenge and went full techno-fascist, forming the Dark Legion

Fast forward a few hundred years to the events of the three-issue Knuckles miniseries, and Dimitri's HP finally recharges and he manages to escape from the rubble, ready for his first face-off with Knuckles! Except he’s no longer just Dimitri... he’s apparently now Enerjak!

While the echidna lore dump stories published literally immediately before this miniseries that Ken drew himself depicted Dimitri as simply turning all green and glowy in his powered up state, the art in the recap pages of this miniseries seems to retcon the story and say that he had actually turned into Enerjak. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just use Enerjak in the original stories to set the persona up more instead of just having Dimitri turn green. Here Archimedes also refers to Enerjak as “the great evil of legend” even though no one is supposed to know about Dimitri’s Enerjak persona yet. Actually, this little point of confusion was expanded upon by Ian, which is why in his version of the canon Enerjak is an entity that multiple people can become, rather than just a supervillain persona for Dimitri. Anyway!

In this first confrontation, Enerjak displayed a few of the signature moves Knuckles has been using in the Enerjak Reborn arc. He’s able to unleash blasts of Chaos energy, freeze his opponents in place, and teleport them elsewhere. He uses this to make short work of the Chaotix and teleport Knuckles and Archimedes out to die in the desert of Sandopolis Zone

From there, Enerjak made a new evil citadel (guy just LOVES making evil citadels), this time made to resemble Echidnaopolis... except evil. He christened it “Nekronopolis.” He also, like... made some robots for Knuckles to fight, apparently based on robots they used to have in Echidnaopolis? Okay

In their final confrontation of the miniseries, Enerjak mind controls the Chaotix to make them fight Knuckles. He then starts going on and on about his unlimited power while struggling to kill a teenager, only to be undone when--surprise!--the fire ants show up and sabotage his fortress again. This time, though, they launch him into space with help from Locke instead of just making the citadel collapse on top of him. Oh, and then his evil fortress disappears. He leaves no mark on the status quo of the series in his first appearance aside from adding one more guy to the list of characters Knuckles has fought

Later, in issue #7 of the full Knuckles series, Enerjak is summoned back to Angel Island and meets the Dark Legion. Since he’s their beloved Dimitri, he immediately becomes their new leader. And so Enerjak gets his rematch with Knuckles. This time he uses new tricks like making himself giant and teleporting himself and Knuckles to various inhospitable locations like the moon. (Admittedly, the moon thing is cool.)

Eventually he gets bored toying with Knuckles, though, and he decides to just disintegrate him

BUT Knuckles is immediately saved by God the Ancient Walkers, who won’t allow one of their Chosen Ones to die so easily. So he comes back right away

Enerjak then leads the Dark Legion on an all-out assault on Echidnaopolis. He doesn’t really do much even though he could probably singlehandedly disintegrate the entire Echidnaopolis defense force with the snap of his fingers

And then Mammoth fucking Mogul shows up and drains him of all his power with the Sword of Acorns and turns him into a prune

No, Knuckles wasn’t even the one who beat his supposed nemesis in either fight

And that’s it for Enerjak! No, really! He appears in two story arcs for a total of six issues, and that’s it. He’s just regular old Dimitri from this point forward, eventually becoming a cyborg and then a head. He has no powers and is just a fascist

As with just about every other element of Ken’s Knuckles comics, Enerjak was all hype and no substance. Dimitri is an important figure in The Lore, but as Enerjak he doesn’t actually do anything with his unlimited power that has any lasting impact on the story whatsoever. He just taunts Knuckles and then gets his power slurped out by a mid-tier villain. It’s clear that Ken wanted to paint this as Dimitri repeatedly suffering for his hubris, but it sure would’ve been nice if he actually did anything before he loses each time. Like, honestly? If you took the Enerjak persona out of the story entirely and instead just had the Dark Legion bring back regular old Dimitri with their technology, very little about the overarching story would change. He also has absolutely zero nuance as a character, going from a well-intentioned if headstrong scientist to a world-conquering tyrant demigod to the leader of the techno-fascists at the drop of a hat when the story requires it

Needless to say, it is VERY SATISFYING to have Knuckles become a version of Enerjak with way more nuance and to see him actually do stuff with that power in Ian’s run. Not just cool fighting moves (although he has those!), but also stuff that will have a lasting impact on the series

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Real World Inspiration

for additional physical features you can add to dragons! (previous post was an edit of the D&D black dragon. Next post will be some examples of dragon designs I made.)

The classic european dragon design used in a lot of mainstream fantasy is already kind of a mashup of many different animal features. Bat wings, long swan-like neck, lizard scales and tail, feet that look like reptilian lion feet or bird of prey talons, heads that are partway between a horse and a crocodile, horns like a goat or ram. They’re chimeric and that’s fun to work with. But they do often end up being mostly just big scales, a pair of horns, and then a lot of random spikes. And that’s fine, but there are so many weird physical structures that exist on real world animals which could easily be used on dragons. Let’s look at them in a series of specific categories.

(Under a cut cuz it got so very very long sorry)

(Description: a collage titled "spikes", showing real world animals with lots of spiky structures on their bodies. Photos of an iguana and a crocodile are labeled "osteoderms". A photo of an echidna is labeled "modified hair". And a photo of an inflated porcupine fish is labeled "modified scales". End description.)

Since dragons are usually depicted as reptilians, osteoderms and modified scales would be the most common way to add lots of spikes in a realistic manner. Iguanas have a whole crest of tall osteoderms on their spines, and the bumps all along a crocodile's back are also osteoderms.

Osteoderm means "bone skin" and they're basically just calcified skin deposits. Boney, but lightweight, not as sturdy as bones, and not at all connected to the skeleton. Armadillo armor is also a form of osteoderm.

Scales are made of a similar material to fingernails, hair, and feathers, and sometimes they get really spiky without necessarily including osteoderm structures. I used a porcupine fish for that but it turns out science is uncertain what their spines actually are. The thorny devil lizard is a good example though, that thing is nothing but spiky scales (even its big facial horns have no bone underneath)

And of course things like echidna, porcupines, and hedgehogs are covered in spikes that are just really thick sturdy hairs. Evolution is bizarre.

And those are all very effective ways to put lots of spikes on a dragon without adding extra weight from bone spikes that emerge from the skeleton.

(Description: a photo collage titled "dangly bits" showing several animals that have extra flesh hanging from parts of their bodies. Photos of a turkey, rooster, and long wattled umbrella bird are labeled "wattles". A photo of an anole lizard showing its throat display and a photo of a moose are labeled "dewlaps". And a drawing of a catfish is labeled "barbels". End description.)

Wattles are pretty common in many bird species. Extra neck flesh that usually starts by the jaw and may be connected further along the neck but doesnt have to be. The umbrella bird here has a retractable wattle covered in feathers which it can move to make it look like it has a very long pinecone hanging off its neck. I love how weird it is.

A similar structure is the dewlap, which can be found on lizards like anoles and iguanas, but can also be found in birds and even mammals. It's a fleshy protrusion from the neck which can be small and dangly or rather large. Sometimes it's ts flat, but sometimes it's chubby, like on some rabbits.]

And of course we have catfish barbels, which are like thick fleshy whiskers. Lots of asian dragon depictions include barbels because they take inspiration from carp, like the koi fish.

(Description: a collage titled "frills" showing animals which have various flaring body parts. Photos of a frilled lizard, a chameleon, and a photo collection of birds I couldn't identify, are labeled "crests". Photos of a betta fish, a black bass, and a lionfish, are labeled "fins". End description.)

I'm not sure the frilled lizard counts as having a crest but I had to include it somewhere. I did not look hard enough to learn exactly how it raises its frill, but I did find that the frill only has two very thin bones in it, right by the jaw. The rest is just really precise musculature I guess.

Chameleon crests are built on bone structures, like the ceratopsian dinosaurs bony neck frills. And of course, there are countless bird species that have feathery crests of all forms.

I know I said on my posts correcting official dnd dragons that I disliked the neck fins on those, but fins can look like that with sturdy points and scalloped edges. I just dont like the way they're usually drawn on dragons, with a singular lonely neck fin that has thick bones in it. It would be much more fun if it was accompanied by other fin structures to create a more cohesive creature. May as well go all the way if you're going to add any frill, right?

(Description: a collage titled "bizarre extras" showing animals that have really weird and unique physical features. Photos of a bat, a star nosed mole, and a mandril, are labeled "noses". Photos of a sage rouse's mating display and a frog's vocal sac are labeled "ballooning". And a photo of the spider tailed viper is labeled "lures". End description.)

This is the section for the weird miscellaneous stuff I basically never see in dragon art. Which is a shame because the real world is full of the weirdest creatures. Weird noses serve purposes by interacting with scent in complex ways, or in the mandril's case, being a point of display. Noses with weird structures can also create different noises for communication.

Lots of creatures have ballooning display structures. Usually for the purposes of attracting a mate and competing for territory. Sage grouses, prairie chickens, frigate birds, and of course frogs, all have weird throat structures they can inflate for communication, attraction, and intimidation. Dragons could even use it as part of their breath weapons. Why not have an extra sac in the throat to carry a special gas or something?

And lures! Angler fish, snapping turtles with tongues that look like worms, and this absolutely bizarre snake that has evolved modified scales on the tip of its tail to resemble a spider. Many animals use specially adapted body parts to lure prey, which then allows them to hunt without expending too much energy. Being a predator is hard work, and most predators will back away from a fight because they do not want to spend the energy or risk injury when they can find an easier target.

Dragons are huge! They must need so much meat to maintain their energy stores. I think it's sensible for some dragons to live quietly, spending as little energy as possible while they use adapted body parts to lure prey. A dragon in a cave with a modified tail that resembles treasure? A green dragon disguised as a small hill in a field with a long tongue that resembles a delectable plant to lure in cattle? Dragons in dark environments with bioluminescent lures? I know big dramatic dragon battles are fun, but this is just such a good concept I'm sad I don't really see it used.

Anyway theres a lot of real world physical features that I think could be used on dragons more. My method of finding interesting and unique ideas for dragons is usually to just google "weird/cool (insert animal here)".