Flight Rising Discussion

This is tricky to answer because I draw a really hard distinction between "cute" and "cutesy", and the latter is largely negative for me. Like a one-note, twee, offputting level of artificial cuteness.

With that in mind, I don't think any of the breeds' adult poses hit that off-note for me, unless someone's put Innocent eyes on them. A lot of them are cute! A lot of them look like they were designed to be on the cute side! But there's always something tempering it and adding depth, whether it's the fangs on auraboas (and the fact that they are about the size of my house), the wild-eyed expression of spirals, or the goofiness and potential horror of aethers.

(The fennec kitsune familiar, though. That thing is cutesy enough to make my skin crawl. Those cursed eyes.)

I would define cutesy as "the main or very major intent of this dragon is to be cute/goofy/etc.", either in design or lore, rather than just "I personally find this cute" - even if, say, coatls /are/ cute or nocturnes sort of goofy, I don't think you're meant to see that as their primary trait.

I would say spirals, tundras, fae, aethers, dusthides and to some extent snappers, sandsurges, and undertides are meant to be thought of as a bit cute in that way.

I'm actually kind of surprised by how many sandsurge comments I'm seeing :0 wasn't a breed I typically thought of as cute. they definitely feel a lot less threatening than ridgies to me, but they come across as being a smidge more regal because of those big fans and huge horns to me (especially the male pose, what a fierce snarl!) but maybe I'm just biased since my one sandie is a dragon I intended to be a bit more on the serious/regal side with his appearance

Aethers, Auraboas, Coatls (in most cases), Dusthides, Fae (in some cases), Tundras, Spirals (but mainly because of the eyes), and Sandsurges (to some degree, but not nearly as much as the others).

I do feel like we've been leaning into cutesy pretty often lately, but I think it mostly has to do with the face shape and/or the eyes. Aethers, Auras, Dushides, Coatls, Tundras, and Sandsurges all have the short face thing going on. And Aethers, Auras, Spirals, and Dusthides all have either large eyes or very distinctly round eyes for their species. The more rounded head shapes also suggest a small cat or an herbivore to me, which automatically makes them feel more cute than not.

Of course, cutesy, to me, primarily stands out as being difficult to make look scary/intense/dark/intimidating in any way. Basically, all of these are the dragons I would be eaten by because I didn't take them seriously as predators. XD

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Edit: Honestly, Snappers, too. Though, I really couldn't tell you why. It's something to do with the faces and how short they appear

every dragon except like...

veilspuns, guardians and ridgebacks i consider to be pretty cutesy imo.

they're all pretty soft/smoohcable haha...

Aethers, Fae, Snappers (female only tho, the male chin makes a huge difference), and probably Dusthides.

Coatls read to me as “elegant” and not cutesy. Same with Auraboas.

Now I really want to see a Tierlist for cutesy levels lol

EDIT: forgot spirals exist (sorry) but they count as cutesy

Coatl, fae, aether, spirals. amazed at all the other answers, especially sandsurges, which are cute but not "cutesy". Cutesy imo is round, soft, big eyes, kitten proportions, stuff like that lol. It is a more exaggerated form of "cute".

Fae dragons make me think of butterflies ???? I think they're adorable. Coatl and Tundras are cute to me as well

huh. I think bogsneaks and snappers are really cute, but I wouldn't describe them as "cutesy" specifically. faes, coatls, undertides, tundras, and dusthides can be really cute... but I also wouldn't describe them as cutesy.

...I think Boas are the only breed I could even tangentially see "cutesy" applying to. A lot of people are saying Aethers in this thread, and while I can see it... they have way too much manic gremlin energy in their art to be cutesy per se (and I'd note- that's not a bad thing! It's fun to have options for characters who refuse to sit still and so forth- I like Aethers a lot). Fae have the whole "soulless eyes" thing going on, to the extent they had to get a bit of a redesign in that department, Tuns have the gawky monkey paws, Coatl look more fierce in most instances to me.

I think if something was going to trigger the "cutesy" thing for me, it'd have to be like, Neopets levels of round. Like, big eyes, no visible claws, big head/paws, minimal frills/horns/etc, maybe bird wings instead of bat ones, and the poses would all have to be like the unused Mirror H one (a puppy play-bow, if you've not seen it) or Coatl H. "Cutesy" means sickeningly so, so I'd also expect the breed to be like, "You take it home and then your clanmates start acting odd/disappearing/trying to speak to you in increasingly urgent tones that you can't seem to comprehend" or something similarly creepypasta-y. Bonus points if it's the cuckoo breed suggestion that gets tossed around from time to time, double points if only some of the kiddos in-lore cause said nonsense, while others are just cursed or even perfectly fine and waiting for the shoe to drop! That could be really fun- especially for a Shadow breed!