Mizue Bio

Mizue
Age: 109
Gender: Female
Race: Cactus Dryad
Height: 84'
Hair: Cactus skin w/thorns
Eyes: Yellow, Green (Pupils)
Diet: Carnivorous
Location: Akaptor Desert/ outskirts
Description:
A Cactus Dryad with legs.
Spike appendages on arms/legs, roots on lower half of legs.
Body is sprinkled with cactus skin patches.
Personality:
Doesn't know the meaning of shy, Mizue will approach anyone with a smile.
Usually alone in the vast desert, is extremely excited when she sees a new face.
She has a very childish personality and can annoy others with little patience easily.
Mizue is friendly towards just about any other race her size, however anything tiny compared to her she views as a lower life form.
Never intimidated.
Powers/Abilities:
-Major resistance to heat
-Able to cover skin in a layer of thorns for protection
-Said thorns can be projected


This bio is pretty bare bones and i plan on adding more to it later, however let me know your opinion on her so far.

I'll tell you what I think; but since I recall myself and others bringing up a few of these points to you before, and you didn't seem to take the critiques seriously, I'm not going to be as subtle this time.

My thoughts.

There is nothing here that makes me want to know more about her.

I don't see the point in making her a Dryad if she's going to look so completely human, save for the hair and vague spike looking protrusions. Her personality is also very common. She should fit right in, and by that I mean not stand out at all.

I agree totally with what gt500x said.

Naigo, you said you didn't want to make a giantess character because giantesses are way too overdone. Yet what you have made is exactly that, overdone. The personality, the views on creatures of different sizes are all quite common. Overdone. This is just another innocent/childish over-excited predator among many.
As has been said before, this character doesn't look that much like a dryad. This is at the core a cliché giantess with a different coat of paint. Underneath the paint, it's the same thing.

I'd recommend making a giantess. We don't have that many giantess characters in Felarya. It'd be good to see a likeable one for once.

actually, in being totally normal, it can be different from all the other made characters because everyone else focuses so much on being unique. what will really matter, is how the character is used, how they develop as a person and what their character is.

That being said, I cant see how a dryad has normal giant human legs. You might also want to give her way more cactus patches on her body. I don't know how resistant cacti are to heat, but I can imagine it'd be somewhat relevant due to the amount of water stored in them. You may want to use that idea a bit as well.

Also guys, it'd be nice not to shower too much "oh you're a hypocrite for saying this and doing that". This is about Mizue, not Naigo as a person.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

actually, in being totally normal, it can be different from all the other made characters because everyone else focuses so much on being unique. what will really matter, is how the character is used, how they develop as a person and what their character is.

That being said, I cant see how a dryad has normal giant human legs. You might also want to give her way more cactus patches on her body. I don't know how resistant cacti are to heat, but I can imagine it'd be somewhat relevant due to the amount of water stored in them. You may want to use that idea a bit as well.

Also guys, it'd be nice not to shower too much "oh you're a hypocrite for saying this and doing that". This is about Mizue, not Naigo as a person.

There were no such comments made about Naigo as a person. You're introducing a negative perspective into these critiques.

Some good points have been raised so far, but I just figured I would chime in.

Honestly, there aren't many issues with her upper half. The hair is suitably plant-like, and while I wouldn't mind seeing more of those splotches on her skin, there are enough to show some plant-like qualities.

Even her personality isn't that huge of an issue. Does it sound a little samey? Possibly, but really it isn't like people can tell all that much from bios in general. It all depends on how she is handled in art, and in stories.

The main issue though, is that lower body. It just doesn't look anywhere close to being a dryad's lower body, and I don't think that just adding on a few extra things sticking off really changed her overall look enough to be easily identified as a Dryad. Nagas, Mermaids, Dridders, Pantaurs, Harpies, and even most other dryads have clearly defined non-human traits, and large portions of their bodies that are clearly not human at all.

What you are trying to do is similar to a Neko, Neera or Inu...mostly human, with minimal non-human traits...and It just doesn't work with dryads. Its like if you made a mermaid, and gave her human legs with webbed feet. It wouldn't be a mermaid.

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I wouldn't mind seeing more of those splotches on her skin, there are enough to show some plant-like qualities.

Quote :

there are enough to show some plant-like qualities.

I don't think so. They're barely splotches at all, they're tiny.

Quote :

What you are trying to do is similar to a Neko, Neera or Inu...mostly human, with minimal non-human traits...and It just doesn't work with dryads. Its like if you made a mermaid, and gave her human legs with webbed feet. It wouldn't be a mermaid.

Cliff has it right here. This is exactly the issue.

There are enough in the upper body, and yes the lower body is the issue. Although I'm not sure whether a cactus dryad would have the ability to uproot or not, but I don't think so.

I dunno, but it's just be hard to write a story about a character that cant move anywhere.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

I dunno, but it's just be hard to write a story about a character that cant move anywhere.

This statement is one of the most wrong things ever. Look at great dryad characters like Cypress - or elementals like Goro. They don't move but are fascinating and I don't think that it's "hard" to make them interesting. Mobility has nothing to do with it.

I agree that this is a pretty bare bio right now. And I also agree that the legs thing is sort of.... not-possible. But I do appreciate the attempt at a more rare species like a cactus dryad.

For filling out the bio you need to really get into the details - what are her likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, fears, habits? What makes her angry? What makes her sad? What makes her terrified? What would she take risks for?

So - you really need to deal with that leg thing. She doesn't have to be totally immobile - but her lower half should be much more cactusesque.

Her bio and personality need a lot more work and thought, to turn her from a generic giantess into a living, multi-dimensional character.

well generally stories are about a particular character that goes all over the place to experience events and such, if the character cant move, it takes a lot of writing skill to successfully be able to pull of an arc that centers around that character, due to lack of certain important qualities that most stories have.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just incredibly difficult to do it well.

A problem being mentioned is the visual lower half of her body, quoting the Felarya wiki "Some dryads have legs, though, and can roam freely".
I know this hasn't been done before, but take away a dryad's plant lower half and besides the hair basically you'd have a human form.
I wanted to play around with this idea and i like the result.

gt500x wrote:

Her personality is also very common. She should fit right in, and by that I mean not stand out at all.

I don't see this as a problem. I'm not introducing some primary character, just one that happens to exist.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

This is just another innocent/childish over-excited predator among many.

While i'm a fan of the cliché giantess, i wanted to stray away from it's design for something exotic. A coat of paint over something likeable isn't an issue for me.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

That being said, I cant see how a dryad has normal giant human legs. You might also want to give her way more cactus patches on her body. I don't know how resistant cacti are to heat, but I can imagine it'd be somewhat relevant due to the amount of water stored in them. You may want to use that idea a bit as well.

I'm not sure if more patches would fix anything, seems like most people just have beef with the legs. Indeed.

rcs619 wrote:

What you are trying to do is similar to a Neko, Neera or Inu...mostly human, with minimal non-human traits...and It just doesn't work with dryads. Its like if you made a mermaid, and gave her human legs with webbed feet. It wouldn't be a mermaid.

It doesn't work with dryads because no one has ever done it with dryads. Like i previously stated, i based the canon part of her design off the wiki which stated dryads can have legs.
It hasn't been done before and therefore must look odd, but that doesn't mean it could never be introduced.

Jætte_Troll wrote:

Her bio and personality need a lot more work and thought, to turn her from a generic giantess into a living, multi-dimensional character.

Barebones as i said. Not really a writer or anything myself so details such as those take me alittle while to form.

What if the plant lower half comes off like a shell to reveal legs whenever she wants to walk? and then when she settles back down, the plant part regrows over the legs, once again becoming a sturdy shell? Though being cactus, I'm not sure how well that'd work. Though I think that would suit a regular dryad with bark more than a cactus. Unfortunately.

Then again, whoever said that anything in Felarya was plausible?

Archmage_Bael wrote:

What if the plant lower half comes off like a shell to reveal legs whenever she wants to walk? and then when she settles back down, the plant part regrows over the legs, once again becoming a sturdy shell? Though being cactus, I'm not sure how well that'd work. Though I think that would suit a regular dryad with bark more than a cactus. Unfortunately.

Then again, whoever said that anything in Felarya was plausible?

I dislike the idea of a transforming lowerhalf, maybe the roots on her legs grow when she burrows her lower half underground (as pictured)?

Forgive me for saying this, but it seems to me that you chose something that nobody had done before in order to do it however you liked.

She doesn't seem like a dryad. Call her something else and be done with it, that will solve the issue.

I believe I understand what went on here. Naigo, you are used to drawing giantess, so when you made this character, you used a giantess as the starting point for her design, which is completely understandable.
This character is humanoid giantess first, dryad second, whereas the rest of us are saying that the design of a dryad with legs should be dryad first, humanoid giantess second.

I have a couple ideas that could make her more cactus-like

1) Make her skin a bit greener. She doesn't need to be a martian, but just a little greenish tinge can make her look more plantlike.

2) You know how cacti have ridges along their trunk?

Just draw them down her legs. Add some needles, and boom.

It has all been suggested before. There's no use in trying to change Naigo's mind.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Forgive me for saying this, but it seems to me that you chose something that nobody had done before in order to do it however you liked.

She doesn't seem like a dryad. Call her something else and be done with it, that will solve the issue.

I believe I understand what went on here. Naigo, you are used to drawing giantess, so when you made this character, you used a giantess as the starting point for her design, which is completely understandable.
This character is humanoid giantess first, dryad second, whereas the rest of us are saying that the design of a dryad with legs should be dryad first, humanoid giantess second.

I know the problem, i just need good solutions, such as:

AisuKaiko wrote:

I have a couple ideas that could make her more cactus-like

1) Make her skin a bit greener. She doesn't need to be a martian, but just a little greenish tinge can make her look more plantlike.

2) You know how cacti have ridges along their trunk?

Just draw them down her legs. Add some needles, and boom.

After looking at other dyrads i realize her skin looked too human (the wiki stated they had tan skin, but i can work into green with that)
The ridges is a good idea, but im not sure about ridges + needles, having that exclusive to her legs will give off some kind of creepy hairy legs vibe.
However, she can have needles everywhere at times, as stated before.

gt500x wrote:

It has all been suggested before. There's no use in trying to change Naigo's mind.

Dont be a negative Nancy~

Ok tone down the rethoric people please.

Naigo has been polite all along, I see no point in being snarky toward him while making your point
Criticizing is fine, being rude is not. This only result in making people defensive. This seems to be a recuring problem of the character forum.

I understand AJ and Cliff statement but after reading this sentence into wiki:

wiki wrote:

They generally have a trunk in place of their legs, so they spend most of their time rooted in one spot. Unlike most other rooted "plants", dryads can actually uproot and move themselves, although it's a slow process and happens rarely. Some dryads have legs, though, and can roam freely.

Naigo is right, we can be sure he has read the wiki before post his idea.
It's rarely used but a Dryad can have legs, her skin can be worked even if I find her design interesting.
The personality needs to be worked, I think this kind of details can be done by doing stories or drawing some situations involving the characters. In overall she remembers me Shingo Yabuki in King Of Fighters, he considers everyone as a close friend which makes the others characters find him weird or annoying as he has a good side they don't care about that.
I think she has a comical potential.
I have a reserve about this point:

Quote :

Mizue is friendly towards just about any other race her size, however anything tiny compared to her she views as a lower life form.

This part needs to be worked, I find it too easy. From the size of who or what approaching we can know what will happen. It makes her predictable.

The part about having legs, I always assumed it was just the dryad shedding her trunk to reveal a pair of root-like legs, a bit a la Warcraft III with the Night Elves buildings.

Sean Okotami wrote:

The part about having legs, I always assumed it was just the dryad shedding her trunk to reveal a pair of root-like legs, a bit a la Warcraft III with the Night Elves buildings.

Yeah...or a Dryad that is able to twist her roots into leg-like appendages. It would give them better locomotion that most other dryads, who just uproot and crawls along using their roots like tentacles.

I really don't think the wiki meant for them to basically be giantesses, with smooth, human-like skin all over. Like I said before, its like having a human with webbed feet and calling her a mermaid.

I think that wiki sentence needs to be clarified...because it is awfully vague, and it does open loopholes like this for dryad characters that have almost nothing in common with dryads at all.

Yeah, I've always pictured dryad "legs" as simply their trunk, divided up so that they can walk.

I'm sorry, but I just can't accept this character as a dryad with her legs - why on earth would she need to even root herself, like you've pictured?

And I still contend the personality needs some work, based on my earlier point.

In this case we have just to support Aisu's suggestion.

AisuKaiko wrote:

2) You know how cacti have ridges along their trunk?

Just draw them down her legs. Add some needles, and boom.

As I see the situation, Naigo just expose us how he sees his character. As he states, it's not definitive but a draft, he posted it to have feedback and suggestions to improve it.

the two main problems are:
1)the legs need to be redesigned.
2)the characters need to be fleshed more.

Update-o
Fire away!

This is good.
I'd suggest rather than having the patches at the on the top of her thighs be clearly defined, blur them a bit so it looks like they're emerging out of the skin rather than stuck on. This will give a more natural look and feel to her.