#Lygron

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Messed around with Midjourney AI trying to recreate my OCs and this was one of the results I managed to get. Aside from the four ears on the left one and the inconsistent art style on the right, I do like these.

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Design Breakdown: Lyodin

For the hell of it, I'm going to break down all the design inspirations for my OC Lyodin/Lygron/Raiga (not really settling on a name). There's quite a lot of elements I tried to pack into one character. If you can't tell, I really like cats.

ThunderCats: The 2011 designs are kind of the basis for Lyodin and follow the elements which Dan Norton the art director laid down. The facial markings, fur patterns, eyes, and open toed footwear being some of the main ones. Specifically, I took the most from Lion-O 2011 for the hair, eyebrows, and eye color and classic Cheetara for the eye markings. Very 80s hair metal, just how I like it. I'd also say Lyodin sounds like Will Friedle's Lion-O, though Mike Erwin would be another good VA.

SSJ4 Gogeta (DragonBall GT): I like the look of the bolero fusion vest with the trim combined with SSJ4 fur pattern, tail, and eye markings.

Sabretooth (X-Men): He's always been one of my favorite villains. I think the fur collar/mane on his costume just looks badass so I added it to the fusion vest of Gogeta. I also like the coloration, giving it a prehistoric big cat aesthetic, not to mention the power set.

Lyodin's based not on smilodon exactly, but more the extinct cave lion or American lion. An under represented animal of prehistory. Also kind of based on golden tigers, ligers, and tigons.

Akira Yuki (Virtua Fighter): Adding more to the vest, I really like the pattern on Akira's 2P outfit from VF5. I incorporated something similar but changed to look more like tiger stripes with a darker outline. Previously the stripes were more simple and similar to something like Wolverine. I might try and use a similar pattern on the arm and leg bracers to make the design a bit more consistent.

Marcos E. Garcia (Terra Formars): I like the spikey hair look, but also the kind of sideburns and markings around his face. I also love Marcos' bare handed/clawed fighting style, by far my favorite fight scene in the anime. Brutal.

Aisha Clan-Clan (Outlaw Star): Aisha doesn't provide a lot of visual inspiration, but more along the lines of powers and fighting style. Aisha and other Ctarl-Ctarl have claws and immense strength, and they burn through a lot of calories. She can power up using energy from a full moon, turning her more feral and even can transform into a fully animal tiger creature. I have something similar in mind for Lyodin, specifically Raiga in my Spirit Forged fic where eating plenty of food empowers him, and at his strongest can assume the form of a liger.

What's more, Aisha isn't just claws; she's a skilled fighter who specializes in wrestling. I had the idea that Lyodin would do tiger kung fu but combined with grappling, wrestling, and acrobatic Luche Libre moves. Claws are designed for grasping prey, not cutting, so grappling makes sense for a fighter with clawed digits. Raiga might also borrow a few of Aisha's personality quirks, like her diet.

Bit Cloud and Liger Zero (Zoids Zero Century): This one is a bit more of a stretch, but Liger Zero's whole motif kind of fits in general, especially in regards to Bao Hu Shao, the liger spirit that is linked to my character. Just a giant divine cat beast, like the white tiger Byakko. Liger Zero's Strike Laser claw is one of the few claw attacks that's treated "heroically" if that makes sense. I have a hard time settling on the hairstyle, but I tend to imagine it like Bit's. I also sometimes imagine Lyodin sounding like Bit's English VA Richard Ian Cox, who also did Inuyasha and Quicksilver in X-Men Evolution.

And that's all I've got off the top of my head, but I think that covers most of the design inspirations. I think I might do an update to tweak some bits like the bracers.

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Sympathy for a Villainess

Let’s say I wanted to set up a villainess to seem irredeemable and unsympathetic. Let’s say I made her a seductress who toys with her enemies and has little remorse for her actions, who dresses provocatively and looks down on others. She has all the trappings and framing of a wicked witchy succubus.

Now let’s say at one point in my story, I suddenly pull the rug out from under the audience and show this villainess in a state of complete vulnerability and desperation as she’s about to be killed by her own hubris. Everything she’s done up to that point makes it SEEM like she’s had this coming… and then one of the heroes makes a last second decision to save her.

There’s a specific type of female villain I see every once in a while, and they usually get killed in some ironic death they bring on themselves. I want to take a character like this and give them a second chance. I want them to seem undeserving of salvation, but it’s a trick.

What would you do to make this moment feel appropriately shocking yet still believable? Would you drop little hints that she’s not so bad, so it would make sense that the hero would try to save her? Would that make the save less shocking? Or would you just make her play up her villain role without crossing the line into being irredeemable? How bad could you make her actions?

I’m obviously wanting to do my spin on an Azula-type character, but I want to do it right. I want to get the audience to find her unsympathetic, or love to hate her, and then I want to make the audience feel guilty about wanting to see her dead or punished.

I don’t want saving her just to prop up the hero. Saving the villainess does serve a part in his own character development, but she has her own story beyond this moment. I just can’t reveal that she has depth and character yet because I need the audience to feel things from the hero’s POV; this evil woman has been a nasty thorn in his side for some time. She isn’t his nemesis, but she has earned his ire by being a major obstacle.

There comes a moment where his goal is finally within his reach, and a window of time that he can save himself. He almost does, as she thrashes about angrily, trapped as the area around them crumbles, shouting obscenities at those who wronged her. But her cries get more frantic, she begins to beg as she fears for her life, and then starts to cry when it seems like no one is coming for her, her death inevitable. And the hero can’t ignore his conscious, because his journey began when he found himself trapped, helpless, and awaiting death. So, he gives up his chance to finish his mission, runs back and saves her.

It costs him even more than his mission, as they both end up trapped but alive. It’s from this point that I can finally delve deeper into the villainess and start turning her into more of an anti-hero. I don’t exactly want to redeem her, and I don’t want to change her. What I want to do is to reframe and recontextualize her, show what she’s like when she isn’t being an antagonist, just an uneasy ally.

Without really making her act that different, I want her to go from being seen as this evil, alluring witch to just being a playful, teasing flirt, one who is a thrill seeker and lives her life to the fullest. She does have a loose moral compass, but with more focus on here is becomes clearer that she does have some standards. She can be mean to her enemies, but not excessively cruel even if she threatened to be so. Her time as an antagonist to the heroes was still bad, but I want to show there’s more to her than what was seen in that time frame.

I’ll probably have more to say later, but if you’ve ever seen Slayers, imagine if Naga the Serpent was, for half a season, played as a straight villain before suddenly revealing what a stupidly charming loon she actually is.

@eshusplayground and @wingsfreedom I would love to hear your thoughts on this, if you’ve got the time. I just want to get it right.

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Just another Friday night...

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Did a little more work on this sketch, like shading and details. Might color it eventually.

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Full sketch of my OC, Lygron/Raiga. I mostly traced over Damien's model from Monster Prom. I guess this is my monstersona too then?

I'm not trying to be a good artist, I just want to get the design down.

Anyway, Raiga is the central character of Spirit Forged, an Avatar fanfic. I use this design for Lygron as well. Lygron is the main character of my original story, Kingdoms of Gaia. While they share designs, their personalities and rather different.

This is also a Thundercats OC. I try to getva lotvof mileage out of my designs.

The design can be summed up as "rebel punk mountain panther." At least that's what I'm trying to go for. He's not meant to be based on any one species of cat either. He has some puma, some lynx, some lion and tiger, and a bit of sabretooth. If I had to try and base it on only one species though, I'd say cave lion or American Lion.

He's a martial artist, and the idea I had was that he's the student of a rogue disciple. Like, imagine if Akuma from Street Fighter felt regret for his choices in life and tried to make up for it by training some angry feral child to control his temper.

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Made some changes to my design for my OC Lygron/Raiga. The stripes on the jacket used to be like the ones on Wolverine, but that didn't feel right, so I changed them to be more like the stripes on Akira's 2P outfit in Virtua Fighter 5. I also changed the eye patterns to be a little sleeker.

I also made his eyes a little greener, changed the studs to round shapes, added elbow tufts, and a few other touches. I'm considering giving him more of a bob tail like a lynx, but I really like the lion tail.

Older version for reference;

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Since I got a new phone with a stylus, I decided to try coloring my sketch of my multifandom OC Raiga/Lygron. I'm still learning the app (Ibis Paint X) but I think it came out alright. I might touch it up later.

Here's the old sketch:

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A rough approximation of my designs for my OC Raiga/Lygron, a character in my Legend of Korra fanfic The Spirit Forged and other projects. In my LOK story, he’sa human who’s been merged with a Tiger/Lion/Sabretooth spirit. It’s kind of like how Yue became the Moon Spirit or how Tokuga was corrupted in the LOK comics.

I guess this is also kind of a ThunderCats OC too, but I have no plans on writing a TC fic with him in it. I did use a lot of design elements found in the TC2011 character designs though (they are very good).

Made this in Hero Machine v3 and edited it a little. I like this color palette, it’s simpler than what I came up with before so I’ll stick with it. I’m still not a great artist, so Hero Machine really helped. He’s not meant to be quite this bulky though, more lean and mean, and overall Raiga’s meant to look more in his early 20′s.

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Here, have a crude drawing of my OC Raiga/Lygron.

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I'm so tired...

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A summary of my main protagonist's backstory; being betrayed by his supposed found family and then seeking revenge.

I want to take the found family trope and deconstruct it; the MC goes in hoping to join a band of adventurers and be a part of a tight nit team of friends because of how alone and friendless he'sbeen. But, it turns out they're morally dubious, and they view him as an annoying tagalong kid that they only tolerated until he became too annoying and inconvenient.

MC finds out they've been up to no good. He confronts them angrily, but hopes they'll do the right thing. They don't, and instead brutalize him and leave him stranded.

MC is traumatized but swears revenge, and he grows into a very bitter man as he trains to be strong enough to take each of them down.

From there it turns into something like Kill Bill meets Ninja Scroll where he hunts them down one by one, but a lot has changed in that time and the MC will need to come to terms with what his vengeance could cost. That, and getting roped into a much bigger and more important quest than revenge.

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Notes on Way of the Rending Claw, the fighting style of Lygron from Kingdoms of Gaia;

Way of the Rending Claw is a style primarily practiced by pantheran zoanites, though any zoanite able to grow claws can learn the style such as avians.

This fighting style incorporates techniques from various global styles. It is mainly based on Tiger kung fu, but also some Leopard and Muay Thai with the use of the Leopard Paw hand position for non-clawed strikes.

In addition, due to the acrobatic nature of the practitioners, there are quite a few luche libre moves as well, involving a lot of leaping grapple moves. The style uses claws for grappling as much as for slashing. These attacks can be supplemented by tail whips and snares if the practitioner has a strong tail.

The signature of the style is a technique which channels chi and focuses it into the claws. This makes them nigh unbreakable and extends their range, but only for a brief moment. Practitioners must know how to time their strikes. This makes it possible for them to match up against metal weapons.

The ultimate technique of the Rending Claw is the ability to launch chi as flying sickle blades. Very few have mastered it as it takes extreme focus, but once unlocked opens a slew of new moves.

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Updated my design for Raiga/Lygron. I tweaked the colors a bit and edited a bunch of details, adding some fur trim and editing the collar. I also changed some of the patterns of his face markings and body.

This is mostly accurate aside from the leg and arm bracers. They’re really meant to look more like this;

I realize the more orange color looks kind of Air Nomad, but I think the blue and fur trim distinguish it enough, giving it a bit of a Water Tribe aesthetic. The gold gives it some Fire Nation/Earth Kingdom.

When I looked at the color palette I gave him last time, I thought it used too many primary colors, and it detracted from the animalistic/nature vibe I was going for. A little too Superman and not enough Sabretooth. The more tawny orange color fits better I think, without being too saturated or garish.

He takes a little bit after Cheetara’s designs, both 80′s and 2011 versions, especially with the face markings. The fur collar adds a bit of Sabretooth from X-Men. I was thinking the back of his vest could have the stripes come together to form the “ 王 “ symbol, which means King and is apparently based on the markings on a tiger’s head. 

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Inverted Castle Pt. 1

(Hey, so if you've been paying attention tot his blog, you may have noticed me posting some stuff related to my original project, "Kingdoms of Gaia." I've decided that, instead of languishing as I try to come up with a good, meaty plot to write, I would write out these quick little scenes. Not much prose, more like transcripts, just to show what I have in mind.

I know this is primarily an Avatar/Dragon Prince blog, but I'd also really appreciate checking these too. They're a taste of what I want to do. Hopefully I can make a separate blog for Kingdoms of Gaia if I can get it enough attention here.)

Summary: In their journey towards the Dragon Empire, Lygron and Ibunet find themselves pinned down by a snowstorm only to encounter an ominous castle that has been turned upside down. With few options for survival, the pair enter the castle seeking shelter, and they encounter its mysterious lord...

Cast of Characters:

Lygron, Pantheran Pugilist

Ibunet, Reptilian Sorceress

The Inverted Castle, Part 1.

*Lygron and Ibunet are trekking up a rocky mountain trail through ankle deep snow. They are dressed in thick furs. Ibunet is shivering, her tail coiled around her waist as she uses her staff as a walking stick*

Ibunet: Uhg, it’s freezing… why do we have to go this way?

Lygron: Because it’s a shortcut and we’re in a hurry. We have to get ahead of the storm. Besides, it’s not that cold.

Ibunet: You’re warm-blooded and hairy. My body was made for much hotter climates than this.

Lygron: Really? You look like you’d be pretty cozy under all that blub-Ow!

Ibunet: *tail whips his ass* Watch your mouth. My plumpness is what makes me so pleasant.

Lygron: Whatever. Just keep yourself bundled.

Ibunet: *latches onto his arm* Hnmm, you should share that precious body heat. Stop hogging it all, be my personal heater!

Lygron: *frowns with exhaustion* Seriously? Uhg…

*more snow begins to fall harder as the sun sets between mountain peaks and the wind picks up*

Ibunet: It’s getting dark… and this snow is getting heavy…

Lygron: Yeah, maybe this was a bad idea. I don’t think we can outrun the storm at this rate…

*Ibunet squints ahead of them through the snow. Embedded the side of a nearby cliff face is a gothic castle, standing upside down as its black stonework contrasts with the white mountains. A small light can be seen through a window*

Ibunet: Hey, what’s that? Is that a… castle?

Lygron: Yeah, and it’s upside down? How...? *the wind whistles and he looks up at the dark clouds above* Come on, let’s take shelter in there.

Ibunet: What about whoever lives in there?

Lygron: Let’s just hope they’re a generous host. Besides, we don’t have much choice, unless you’d rather set up camp out here.

Ibunet: I’d prefer not, my tail is gonna snap off if I don’t get some heat soon…

To be continued...

Part 2.

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I don't have a complete plot for the story I want to write, but I do know the specific sequence of events and character interactions I want to build it around;

Protagonist is seeking revenge on his nemesis, an old supposed friend who savagely broke him in the past. It really messed him up and turned him into an a him, antisocial broken mess prone to anger.

The nemesis is working for a charismatic Big Bad who has other villains and mercenaries in his employ.

Protagonist is harassed by a quirky but powerful minion of the Big Bad. She is a witch who loves to toy with him. She likes seeing him get angry and flustered and is usually at an advantage in their fights.

At the climax of a dungeon crawl, the witch gets caught in a trap due to her own hubris, likely involving getting left behind or sacrificed by the Big Bad to die in, let's say, a cave in.

Protag has a chance to kill the nemesis he's been after, but he hears the witch begging for help as rocks fall around her.

Instead of taking his revenge, he saves the witch but is injured, and they both end up stuck in a cave system under a mountain.

Protagonist mentally kicks himself for letting his conscience get to him, saving someone who has been messing with him just because she was crying and missing his chance to complete the goal he's been after for years.

The two call a truce so they can work together to survive, make it out of the cave, and then both take revenge on those who wronged them.

They travel a while together and learn more about each other. Protagonist is closed and mistrustful at first, but the witch is actually very extroverted.

The witch feels extremely embarrassed that the protag witnessed her begging for help. She teases him to make up for it and keeps trying to get him to lighten up, even if they are on a revenge quest despite all the teasing and insults she's thrown at him in the past.

They complete a side quest on their travels that gets them to trust each other and even act like friends, but there's still some underlying unresolved tension.

Witch turns out to be more morally grey rather than outright evil. She joined the big bad because she wanted to share in the thrill and fortune of his exploits, and because he was cool and charming.

She also reveals she grew up in a very strict and sheltered enclave where she learned magic. One day she escaped and went off to indulge in her every hedonistic whim, as she had been starved for pleasure her whole life.

Tension finally boils over after the former minion teases the protag a little too much. Protag has had enough and demands she either be honest with him or stop teasing.

He silently confesses he's attracted to her, but doesn't want to open up unless she's willing to be real with him.

The witch is attracted to him too and was trying to get him to make the first move. The two of them share their first really intimate experience with another person.

Protag acts awkward about it at first, but he finally starts to get over himself and cheers up once he has someone he can really trust again.

The two catch up to the other heroes and villains to stop the Big Bad from taking control of a super weapon that can wipe out the environment.

The witch helps the supporting cast fight the Big Bad while the protag fights his nemesis that's in the way.

Protagonist gets another chance at revenge. He beats his nemesis in a fair duel, but refrains from finishing him off as he doesn't want that anymore and there are more important things to take care of.

The Big Bad is defeated (for now), and the protag and witch decide to stick together as an adventuring battle couple.

So what I'm missing is a good chunk of the beginning, because all this is like the second and third acts. I have some ideas, but I have a hard time putting things together to get all the pieces where they need to be. That's my last big roadblock to this story. I need more reasons for these characters to collide.