@cocoacatoo I apologise in advance for low-key high-jacking your post, but I really cannot thank you enough for going in this direction with Aurora's redesign.
It's not just that Aurora's canon dress is ugly in my opinion, but it also feels very lazy in terms of visual storytelling. Fabrice Nzinzi was the director of season 3 at least, and it was him who added all the symbolism to the artistic direction.
He was the one who decided to desaturate the Sadida's hair colour as well as to add autumnal hues to highlight the kingdom's decline now that the king is on his deathbed. A decision he didn't just apply to Amalia's outfit, but also to Aurora's dress.
However, while I do greatly respect his artistic choices as I feel that's part of what was missing in season 4, which felt much more straightforward and leaves me theorising and over-analysing every single aspect of the show, I personally feel it would have been better to keep their original idea of having Aurora wearing Osamodas robes even as Armand's consort.
Which is what I feel you have done. Where the true, say, percentage of her loyalty is reflected by her dark blue dress and massive feather cape, with only a little flower on her belt to hint at her ties with the Sadida Kingdom. I don't know if I'm reading into this too much or if I'm spot on, but it feels like you're trying to convey that Aurora at the very least starts out much more staunchly loyal to her birth kingdom, even though she's starting to build a new life in the Sadida Kingdom.
(Also, thank you for giving her an open cape instead of a closed one that covers most of her body like in canon. It's 2D animation! It's not that hard to be original!)
Anyway, back to my original point.
While less subtle than depending solely on Aurora's actions like being oddly nice to Amalia or having her bangs cover half her face, by keeping Aurora's original robes, eagle-eyed viewers are capable of connecting the dots and realise she's meant to be an outsider. An Osamodas princess amongst Sadida Royalty with no intention of assimilating into her husband's culture as his queen.
Not only that, but her final design doesn't even scream "New Queen of the Sadidas" all that much.
Despite supposedly taking inspiration from it, Queen Sheran Sharm's dress is infinitely more regal and queenly than Aurora's. While the latter just wears a Sadida-inspired red dress with a leaf added to its waistline, Armand and Amalia's mother has countless other details that really help establish her as an elegant and refined Queen of the Forests.
Several flowers adorn her multicoloured dress, which in itself is quite elaborate. She seems to have a leafy shawl around her shoulders. Aside from her ornate antler tiara, she also wears a thorny vine as a necklace. And her hair is styled into a long, immaculate ponytail.
Even Amalia was far more regal in her previous princess outfits than Aurora is as Queen Consort.
Her first dress is a clear copy of her mother's, only more age-appropiate, so it is naturally more beautiful and embellished than her casual outfit. And her beloved OVA design is so iconic precisely because it's the perfect blend between refined and somewhat exotic and wild, which firmly establishes her as a more mature Forest Princess.
Even her dress as Eva's maid of honour, despite being barely featured, is far more impressive than anything Aurora wears since her official debut.
Aurora's dress, in comparison, is just plain. Far less detailed. Not helped by the new antler tiaras, which I think we have all criticised as inferior at some point. She has no ornaments or anything that really makes her stand out as the new queen. And her design was actually simplified in season 4, where they got rid of her manicured nails, her more apparent use of make-up like lipstick and blush, etc.
Maybe this plainess was also deliberate. Maybe, aside from using red to transmit that feeling of melancholy, Aurora's dress is far less impressive precisely because she was intended to be a poor successor to Queen Sheran Sharm all along. But Nzinzi wasn't the one to come up with the final design. He just gave pointers to help the artists in charge come up with her final design.
That said, I really do wish he stayed for season 4. We really needed his eye for symbolism, especially as Amalia got stuck wearing a palette-swapped version of her old outfit, but with a cape and the same unimpressive tiara as her brother.
I miss when Ankama actually put effort in its character design...
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