#and I made book toothless more… lizardy

[doodles-with-noodles]

I thought this haircut would look cute on book Hiccup for ages but I couldn’t draw hair back then. Now I can and hit you with whatever-this-hairstyle is :)

[tyrantisterror]

You've stated that you prefer your dragon designs to be primarily or solely reptilian. What are some examples of dragon designs that blend in characteristics of non-reptilian animals that you actually like?

Hmmm... I don't know if I should answer this. It feels like an invitation for strangers on the internet to try and convert me to liking mammalian and avian dragons more than reptile ones. They do it all the time, you know. They howl outside my window at night, screaming for me to change my ways. I've had to board up the windows to keep them from clawing their way in, talons sharp and teeth gnashing. They won't stop howling. They want me to be different than I am. They want me to think dragons are better with fur and feathers. It's horrible. One threatened to drink my eyeball fluids.

Anyway, whenever I make a joke exaggerating my feelings about dragons for comedy, someone always pipes in to defend the Rankin Bass take on Smaug as good, so I feel like I should lead with this one. I'm a self professed slut for Rankin Bass's fantasy films, so I feel like the fact that I like this design should go without saying, but just to put fears to rest, here's me saying yes, I like it. As dragons with mammal traits go, this is One of the Good Ones In My Book. I like him, he looks cool.

I feel like Haku is also one that should go without saying, but here I am, saying it. I can't say Haku doesn't look cool - he's basically a wolf snake, and Miyazaki knows damn well how to make wolves look cool as hell, and also animates a damn good snake. Would I like him a bit more if he was scaly instead of furry, the way Asian dragons usually are in art? Uh... yeah, honestly, I would, but the fur works here. It fits what Haku is going for, and sells him as something not quite natural while still representing several aspects of nature. It's a divergence from the reptile look with purpose, and it's done well.

Why am I defending this again, I've spent so much of my life defending scaly dragons, I feel like furry dragons kinda don't need help being popular.

Is including Toothless cheating? Originally I felt his cat features were blended thoroughly with distinctly lizardy features (spcifically agamid lizards like bearded dragons and the like), but in the sequels I think he subtly but noticeably shifted to be more and more catlike. He might not have fur, but by the end of the series I think there's not much that's reptilian in him beyond the long tail and scaly skin. Nevertheless, Toothless is really cute and I love him.

Other non-reptilian dragons I like... well, there's this one drawn by Michael Hague that, according to the story it was made for, is ultimately a big cat monster wearing iron armor. And look at him, how can you hate that face?

Is that enough? Have I shown an open mind enough yet? Can I go back to vocally preferring dragons that are big lizards and snakes now? I'm gonna go do that anyway, actually.