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The Criteria

In an ideal world, the members of the team would have at least one of these three reasons for joining:

1. They are a sporty, competitive, or daredevil character who would genuinely enjoy the thrill of the Dragon Games and would be likely to join the team in-universe 2. They have a strong connection to animals and would be involved or have a strong interest in caring for and training the baby dragons 3. They are an important character who's story would benefit from the extra screen time and who could be explored in interesting ways throughout the special

While it's not strictly required, I also prefer any EAH story to have an even number of royals and rebels sharing the spotlight, so that's something I'll keep in mind when making new picks.

The Canon Team

Using these metrics, some of the canon team members make no sense. Melody Piper has literally no reason at all for being here. She has never been shown to be athletic or sporty outside of this special, doesn't have a particular affinity for dragons, and seems to be quite content with her music/DJ niche. None of her friends or interesting relationships are present characters in this special either (Blondie, Ginger, Briar, Cupid, debatably Sparrow). Which leaves her with nothing interesting to say or do and no reason to be here. She just fills space in the background, which is incredibly lame.

The O'Hair twins are similarly dumb choices. While the actual special has them looking after Nevermore and the baby dragons, that's a really weird and frankly out-of-character thing for them to be doing. Their thing is HAIR. Dragons don't have fur or manes for the O'Hair twins to mess with. We have no reason to believe either twin knows anything about caring for animals, let alone ones as dangerous and special as dragons, nor do we have any reason to believe they'd enjoy playing in the dragon games.

Their other media shows that neither twin is really a daredevil either---Holly is a nerdy preppy fanfic writer, and is kind of the "weird homeschooled girl with no social skills" while Poppy is a chill lowkey alt fashionista who doesn't like making trouble or starting conflict and who's main hobby is hair styling. The closest we get to either of them being athletic after this is Poppy sort of failing to ice-skate and Holly being on the cheerhexing team. They also have the same problem as Melody where their most compelling relationships (whatever the hell they've got going on with Duchess and Sparrow) are completely absent from this special, so we're not getting any interesting stories or even implied personality from their inclusion.

I know some people like Poppy on the team while kicking Holly, but while I definitely want more storylines for the twins where they're separated and possibly even have conflict with each other, I just don't think dragon games is the place to do it. I need more characters who have a stake in this plot.

For all three of these girls, I 100% believe the motivation was just so they could sell more dolls. I have no idea why, but about halfway through the series, Holly and Poppy started taking a very prominent position in EAH's marketing and shoving out other characters like Briar and Cedar, even though they didn't really get interesting or deep stories out of it. They're just kind of there. I think this might have been motivated by the whole "Princess Power" slogan thing so the marketing team wanted to feature the princess characters more, but that's speculation.

Anyway! Using the same metrics, I actually think Ashlynn was an excellent choice for the DG team, and Lizzie was at least a decent option. Instead of the O'Hairs looking after Nevermore and the dragon hatchlings, it really should have been characters we already know care about animals---Ashlynn and Cerise from the older cast, and now would have been a REALLY good time to spotlight Rosabella! Ashlynn in particular has shown some expertise dealing with dangerous animals, and I think they should have leaned into that so much more.

While Lizzie has no particular affinity for dragons, she IS captain of the school's croquet team, and she IS kind of hyper-competitive about it (along with most things she does. Lizzie doesn't half-ass anything, so when she decides to do a project she gets INTENSE about it). This is also after most of Lizzie's character development where she's starting to integrate with the non-Wonderland cast a lot better, so her joining a new team is a great way to show that. Lizzie and Ashlynn also have the added motivation of being fashion-designers who worked together to make the dragon-riding outfits, so I think it's fair to say they have a vested interest in testing them out.

Maddie is a meh choice. I love her very dearly, she's the best friend of the main character, and her ability to speak with the narrators makes her an okay option for the main cast of ANY special, but she really doesn't have a diagetic reason to be here, especially since she joined the team BEFORE Raven got roped into it. The two of them are usually inseparable. Like I'm not saying Maddie can't/doesn't have hobbies that aren't related to Raven (Maddie student council president needs to get more attention), but it's a pretty random move for her to suddenly join a new sports team that doesn't have ANY of her besties on it (no Cedar, no Kitty, no Alistaire, no Bunny, no Cerise, no Raven initially), even though she has not shown any special interest in either sports or dragons.

(As mentioned in the poll, Darling, Apple, and Raven have to be here for plot reasons, but I do think they'd be good choices anyway. Darling is a thrill-seeker character who's very familiar with Dragons because of her whole Charming and knight background. She'd never turn down a chance to ride dragons and kick ass. Apple is an overachiever who joins every club she can fit into her schedule, loves animals of all shapes and sizes, and definitely has pent-up aggression she'd enjoy releasing. If Raven's mom hadn't been the instigator, I think Raven probably would have joined the Dragon Games right off the bat to spend more time with Nevermore).

My Picks for the New Cast:

My number one-pick is Briar Beauty. She has entirely too many reasons to join the team and I am so confused why they didn't have her here in the first place.

First off, one of Briar's main character traits is that she is an adrenaline junkie who wants to try as many things as she possibly can as fast as she possibly can. While this did start as a fear about losing her life to her destined 100 year sleep (and this special is after Thronecoming and Way Too Wonderland, so that's pretty much a resolved issue for her), it's also just something she likes to do. Like. Show-only fans might only know Briar as a party-girl, but the books have her playing Hextreme Sports and bungee-jumping off of beanstalks, and her family has ziplines installed in their castle so they can get around faster. This is EXACTLY the kind of thing she'd enjoy.

Second off, this is a special that primarily explores Apple's backsliding and how she feels unmoored and like a failure without her destiny or the approval of her mother and other adults, and Apple's relationship with Briar has always been a big deal for both of their characters! Briar deserves to be much more involved in this story arc! Show off the contrast---show how Briar has become much healthier and more emotionally stable, and show how she isn't willing to just cave to Apple's unhealthy desires anymore. Have her be worried about and angry with Apple and have her struggle to know how to help her because Briar is used to being an enabler for Apple.

Third of all, unlike half the characters on the canon team, all of Briar's friends also joined! Not just Apple! She's really close with Ashlynn and Lizzie, and the three of them would probably join as a group. At the very least she'd want to be on the team so she could try on the sick new outfits her very talented friends designed. I can't NOT have Briar, she's just too good.

My next picks would be Cerise and Rosabella! Two girls with a very strong affinity for dangerous animals! Cerise is also very athletic and has specifically been annoyed by the lack of girls sports teams in the past. She'd be a total natural at this. Even if Rosabella has no special interest in the sport, she should have been one of the primary dragon caretakers instead of the O'Hairs, and should be a major component in training them.

And Rosabella is roommates and best friends with Darling. I think this would have been a really good way for them to bond and for us to really explore that friendship in an unobtrusive way. If Rosabella is going to be one of the main characters of Epic Winter, I definitely think making her a minor character in Dragon Games is a great way to integrate her into the story better and give us reasons to be attached to her when that rolls around. It would also help us get to know the real Darling and see how she is around Ever After when she isn't being the White Knight but also when she isn't masking. I think we'd be able to appreciate both these characters better if they got more screentime with each other, and exploring their friendship in the background is just a good way to flesh them out.

Also! This post by @a-big-bad-bitch makes me want her to have a minor subplot about being able to deal with and find a good place for the cursed "evil" dragons. It isn't Rosabella's style to accept that ANYBODY is inherently evil, especially not if they're a beast or an animal and she'd be willing to put in the time to learn how to handle them (and Cerise would definitely help her. They're already friends from Rosabella's Animal Rescue. Raven would also probably be on board).

Finally, I think I'd want to replace Maddie with Ramona. She has all the same reasons for joining as Cerise does, plus she and Rosabella should spend more time together because they'd have a FASCINATING dynamic, and this would let us spend more time with Cerise and Ramona as a pair in the background (put them on opposite teams and watch them talk trash and try to destroy each other. It would be SO funny! Please!)

To Close Out:

Keep Ashlynn, Lizzie, Apple, Darling, and Raven. Remove the O'Hair twins, Melody, and Maddie, and replace them with the Beauty Cousins, Cerise, and Ramona.

Writing this gave me a good idea of WHO I want as dragon riders but I don't know HOW I want them distributed yet. Like. Apple and Darling are still team captains, and I know I want Cerise and Ramona on opposite teams, but I could kind of put everyone else anywhere. I think I want to and put Briar and Ashlynn on the opposite team to Apple so she can spiral some more about that, but that would mean putting Lizzie on EQ's team and I don't know if I see her doing that (plus it means I'd have to separate Rosa and Darling, which isn't a dealbreaker, but I'd rather keep them together).

So if anyone has thoughts on this, I would LOVE to hear them. I'd also love to hear everybody else's reasons for keeping or striking certain members of the canon team, and if anybody else has different preferred replacements! The only other character I can kind of see adding is Jillian Beanstalk, but I think I'd put her in Maddie/Ramona's slot, and I don't think that's worth sacrificing the potential Cerise-Ramona hijinks. But if other people have other opinions, I want to know.