#dragonians

Tyr and the old dragonian ladies

But overall I get what happened with the Dragonians; The designers needed a new villain army so the writers were like, anthro dragons and that’s about as much thought as they put into the concept and really needed to, because lbr I don’t need another plot point taking time away from the Forbidden Five.

And the designers ended up doing their own thing with the Dragonians and decided just having them be scalies wasn’t enough, so they created this worldbuilding dynamic of the Dragonians and these little dragons that attach to their backs and grant them the power of flight AND fire breath!

But the writers didn’t expect that, they didn’t intend to, so they just left it out. And it’s a shame because sometimes the sets introduce ideas that I think would’ve been a lot more interesting than what we got in the actual show (a controlled Source Dragon of Motion being one of them), but here I think there was also an easy way to incorporate the idea at least a little?

Instead of a giant ring pop that breaks open to release energy blasts that hit the Dragonians and transform them… Have Thunderfang release his own progeny, a swarm of mini-dragons that latch onto the backs of the wingless Dragonians and fuse with their bodies to mutate them. Make the red Dragonians feel connected to the red dragon lurking right beneath their home. The animators couldn’t have started work until they had actual Dragonian models to work with, so we know they must’ve seen the final minifigures; I think the timeline still fits to add this detail!

There’s definitely the biggest set/story discrepancy with the Dragonians because we have the rocky Storm Village and an insignia not seen in the actual show. There’s giant looming chains in the box art but in the show Thunderfang’s prison just feels so disconnected from the Dragonians themselves despite being right next door. Doc Wyatt said he was imprisoned in a mountain but it’s actually a chasm.

Examples of females from each Paragon sapient race (minus Leviathan, Dwarves, and Beastfolk because I hadn’t fleshed them out enough yet when I did these).

Kinamel Holyblade (Human, “Daigliçi”) Note: This is an old design.

Taraphilia Luna-Caraway (Lunar Alara)

Sylpheed Wintersong (Dragonian) Note: This version was while I was playing around with Dragonian physiology and trying to make it fit with my current art style. This was not the final design I settled on.

Shu Shanyue (Shu-Ren)

Camille Raywing (Solar Alara)

Arynshae Daelethshee (Aithris Elf)

Dusk Brightstar (Fia Elf)

Dragonian girl

I don’t really like the Dragonians’ face prints; They’re kinda ugly and a letdown given what they’re supposed to be, because otherwise they just look like generic red orcs. But compared to Ninjago’s actual orcs the Munce, at least the Munce were supposed to look like that and something about them just works better for me.

So I’m curious as to Doc Wyatt confirming the warriors’ helmets in the show will be part of their actual bodies. Because so far, the sets have this implicit worldbuilding; The scouts are regular Dragonians who bond with these small dragons, who latch onto their backs to grant them the power to fly. I assume the helmet forms when this bond occurs, though there are Dragonians who have the helmet but not the dragon in the sets. But there was also a Wolf Mask general with red Shatterspin armor in the sets who never appeared in the show.

Will this actually be in the show? Their face prints are still visible there, which makes Doc’s distinction that their official minifigures make their physiology confusing hard to follow, because the show models are and do the exact same. Do Dragonians just grow a second head around their own when bonding to a dragon, is it a permanent fusion as they mutate and the dragon takes over, forming a bigger face? Will we even get the scouts in the show? Or will it just be the warriors with the ‘helmet’ bonding to dragons? If so, why leave in the visible face inside the mouth when there’s a fireball side print you can use to stay true to the sets, while still retconning the show Dragonians’ helmets as their only face?

Will there even be any distinction between the Dragonians, their partners, and their helmets? Will the Dragonians just already look like that, there’s no lore of there being a separate dragon that goes onto their backs, it’s all just one living being? Given the designers confirmed Zane’s combiner mech won’t even be a combiner in the show but just a really big, upgraded Zane, I’m concerned. I don’t care for the Dragonians without their helmets/dragons, but the idea of a coming of age ritual where each scout bonds with a dragon for life is cool.