The Author's Rendition of Marshal Malice · 11:10pm Oct 23rd, 2021
I decided to use what little artistic skills I have to create the image I had in my head of A Rather Large Adventure's main villain. Marshal Malice's appearance is a bit tough to translate into words. To simplify, he looks like someone slapped a dragon head onto a centipede. With ten legs. A one-tenthipede.
This is him when we first meet him in chapter eleven. Now that's a face only a mother could love. Even if Malice doesn't. He hates Faust!
This is him after his fusion with his dragon, Bloodlust. Now this is a glow-up. Aside from that nasty scar Shining Armor gave him. You'll see his lower half in a little bit.
And this is when he appears in the final chapters. If he had a nickel for every time a dragon ripped out his eye in the same day, he'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Stragely enough, he looks better with the blood, doesn't he?
Here's the two side by side for your convenience. Before and after meeting ponies, everyone!
I suppose an unconscious inspiration for his design was actually the principal in Monsters University. When I put the pieces together, I was like, "Whoah!"
I haven't drawn in so long. I had to look at references for dragon wings and the underside of centipedes to make sure I was getting it right. Blaugh. There's a reason I made bugs the bad guys. Hate them.
Rate my drawings!
Kinda reminds me of Edgar the Bug from the first Men In Black movie, especially that first picture. I wonder if you subconsciously got some of the inspiration from that movie as well, if you saw it?
Also, now that I got an actual picture of what these guys sorta looked like in the book, I can imagine one of the Pony guards saying this when they fought the war (please excuse the language)...
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Well, Malice is distinct from the rest of his race in almost every aspect, which just makes him stand out as a villain. The physiology of a Nox is hard to study, since their bodies decompose rapidly after death, but normal Noxxa are about the size of a pony, maybe a bit bigger due to their extra limbs. One of my readers said it was like a Xenomorph mixed with a Stormtrooper. (Which is a surprisingly apt comparison.)
5599359
Also, now that you mention it, I was looking at Edgar the Bug on Google, and I can see why you'd say that. It's been a while since I've seen Men In Black, though. A lot of giant evil monster bug alien types kinda look the same ever since Alien came out.