Nanowrimo Day 10 (Redesigning the Young Six) · 5:34pm Nov 10th, 2022
Yesterday’s Writing Stats:
Novel: 1,680
Species Swap Contest: 341
Thanksgiving Collab: 401
Other: 74
Total Words Written: 2,496
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Wow is it getting harder. Every day I finish writing and I’m like YES booya! But then it’s like 8pm so I just go to bed and have to write again seemingly immediately. Thankfully, I feel like I’m almost done with the Thanksgiving Collab (even though I just started it. It turned out shorter than expected) so that might ease the pressure off a bit.
No reading again today but now I have an excuse. I’m started to get some job offers popping up! I had to work on that yesterday as well as attempt to play more sonic. I’ve played like 45 minutes of that game now.
For today’s topic let’s talk about MLP stuff!
The Young Six have always bugged me in their designs. A good chunk of them don’t look anything like their species! We’ve seen multiple examples of griffons, yaks, dragons, but these kids show up and they look like a ponified version of the concept. I understand why they look like that (because it’s cuter and easier to sell toys. Plus it makes them mesh with the ponies they’re always around) But I don’t like it! So I have taken it upon myself to redesign them to fit with their race.
Let’s get the biggest one out of the way first: Gallus. Dude normally looks like a blue raspberry jolly rancher. Griffons in MLP are honestly very down to earth and realistic for this show. They usually don’t have bright colors (and what they do have seems to be feather dye) they’re built blocky and for strength, and their bird and cat parts are completely distinct. That’s what annoyed me the most about Gallus. Why is he one solid piece where you can’t see where his feathers end and his fur begins? No more of that! I let him still be blue and keep his little underbelly (because main characters can be a little unique I’m not against that) but I corrected the big issues so he actually looks like the same species as Gilda or Gabby. I also didn’t like how he had ears (?) in his original design so I moved those tuffs to the back of his head and gave him a cow lick instead.
Next: Ocellus.
I get why they gave her a mane in the original design. She kind of looks bald without it. But they should have thought of that before making literally every single changeling bald. Why is she the only one with a mane? No more! Nixing that. I then made her body a separate piece/color (like every other changeling has) and gave her that neck gradient. She honestly looks so naked without that stuff, it’s weird. Her splash of uniqueness comes from her wings. No other changeling has lady bug wings but I felt that was a fine difference. I also gave her inner ears because all other changelings have them and I thought it made her look just a little less bald.
Smolder. Another one that really really looked like she got hit with a CUTE ray. All dragons have absolutely wacky proportions. Even Spike! The arms either are too long or too short for the body, not to mention always too skinny, the body holds weight in weird ways, the head does funky stuff. Spike does have more pony like tendencies, sure, but that should be unique to him. So I made Smolder have weird proportions, I made her snout jut out like all the other dragons, I made her legs bend like all the other dragons, I made her just… less round in general. Then I added some flavor so she’d look more like her brother (visible scales, jagged wings) and then, just for kicks, I increased the contrast of her colors so her belly doesn’t blend into the rest of her.
Yona was mostly fine she just needed a few tweaks. Even though every other yak has their eyes covered I let her keep hers out for that uniqueness. But I noticed that every other yak was wearing gold bands on their legs as well as other pieces of gold. So I switched out her ribbons for gold bands and gave her the bracelets. I also made the color of her blanket duller (since the rest of them dressed in dull colors) and gave her another one. Then I fixed her ears! Why are her ears a different shape then every other yak? That’s so weird! Imagine if they introduced Sandbar and he just had different ears for no noticeable reason.
Speaking of Sandbar him and Silverstream are fine. I didn’t notice any giant differences between them and the rest of their race. Which makes sense because they made the hippogriffs as a race at the same time as her. And Sandbar is a pony. Can’t really ponyfie a pony.
I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into my redesigns for them. I do like the young six, the lack of cohesiveness just bugs me.
Writing Tip: Try to make all of your characters feel like they fit in the same world. Don’t have one of them be wildly different unless it’s for a purpose.
Okay, love you, byeee
That's wild. For all but Gallus, I had to look up screenshots to really get the differences, because I really didn't think about all the strange differences between them and others of their species. But now that you have pointed them out, yeah, it is kind of weird. Looking at Smolder next to Ember, the head shape really does throw you off.
Nice job on these. And between your drawing and how much you manage to write, maybe you were cursed with motion sickness to restrain your true power.
5697217
Right??? They're all so round! Some of the things (like Yonas ears) I was shocked at when I was researching for this.
I have been called a renaissance pony before and have been riding that high ever since. I was nerfed so I wouldn't be too powerful!
this is great :D
though I feel like you didn't fix Yona quite enough
as I can still see her :V
5697240
Ooooo, shots fired! Present's got beef with the teenager!
(Jk, I actually don't love any of them (maybe gallus if his design wasn't so bad!) So I completely understand where you're coming from)
5697246
honestly, I think your design for gallus is the best of these, and for all the reasons you specified :D
5697254
Thanks! I’m proud of how it came out. I’ve done some screenshot edits with just his design because it soothes the soul and makes me like him as a character just a little bit more