&#x200B;

 After the daily discussion where Magnamalo and Valstrax were forced to fist fight over whose design works and whose design doesn't, I felt like giving a little breakdown for why equally comparing the intention behind certain monster designs can be a bad faith argument when debating their quality. And these two are the *perfect* example.

**Disclaimer: This is notttt a matter of which of the two is better based on personal preference, it'll just be an insight into how visual language works. This is meant to explain why the majority of people can grasp what one design is going for more easily than the other, and why that can be a big deciding factor for many if they like it or not.**

It boils down to what either monster design is trying to convey, **which is the ultimate goal of any good monster design** since they should be able to tell/help you infer a lot about a monster and it's behavior/ecology/fight (this also works in the favor of the monsters with abilities that you wouldn't expect from just looking at them). A lot of people in these debates have wondered why Valstrax has the huge positive reception that it does, since it's sometimes seen as being "equally as outlandish" as Magna, which generally sees more divisive opinions on its design. 

Here's the simple difference between the two: Valstrax's whole design is objectively more easily read, **as in you only need** ***one quick look*** **to have a perfect guess of what this monster is all about**, and that's being a supersonic jet dragon. Whether you like Valstrax or not, you can't argue that its design theme cannot be immediately understood since it's entirely based around one central and **straightforward** idea (*this will be important in a bit, and it's not a negative when it will be*). 

Val has several minor design influences meant to help contribute to the idea of translating a speedy aircraft into a living creature while keeping the same silvery look. It perfectly blends features from birds-of-prey like falcons, the fastest biological fliers, to make it seem more organic with traits from creatures we inherently know are speedy af. Simultaneously, it needs to maintain the sleek aircraft aesthetic, so its scales are a metallic silver while its wings are configured like flight engines. Jets are essentially built using the same aerodynamic principles, and thus the same **visual queues**, that makes falcons so fast, meaning your brain has little trouble combining the two under the same idea of being swift forms perfected to achieve max flight speed. **You identify the features corresponding to this idea, and therefore you associate the idea with the creature these features belong to.**

Combine that with a homogenous body color (silver) with a bold, well contrasting color (red dragon element), and you've got a creature design that effectively tells you everything you need to know about Valstrax at first glance: It's a streamlined, jet-powered creature capable of insane aerial speed and agility.

***Tldr for Valstrax: It's the same principle that makes Pikachu a perfect character design, he's a simple yet bold color you already associate with electricity while having a tail shaped like a thunderbolt. That same method of conveying a central theme with overt and subtle traits we easily or subconsciously associate with that theme is why people connect with Valstrax so easily, it visually commits to being exactly what it is so damn well.***

For magnamalo, its design is using two **similar but different design concepts** **to convey one overall idea**, which is an oni demon and haunted samurai armor aesthetic to portray magnamalo as a maliciously haunting beast. Perhaps the biggest factor making them so different is that Magnamalo has a design INHERENTLY rooted in mythology, meaning *its characteristics based on this mythological inspiration will have deeper subtext that makes those particular traits meaningful*. As a result, not everyone has the cultural foreknowledge needed to immediately identify that Magna's design isn't just trying to tell you that it's a fierce beast, but that features like the specific shape of its fangs or gnarled horns are based on oni demons, which enhances the menacing look when you know its meant to have a demon's flair of malice on top of that.

The samurai aesthetic of magna's body is meant to enhance the almost supernatural aura it has by looking possessed when paired with the hellfire. And while the flames do look appropriately ghostly, you'd have to already know the armor plating is meant to look like a specific kind of Japanese armor that carries deeper cultural connotations with its haunted nature (a samurai is a warrior, and the flames imply ghostly stuff, therefore you have a cool fallen warrior subtext). The cultural influences in Magnamalo's design make it great in terms of substance, it tells a subtle story through its cultural inspirations, but in doing so it sacrifices how easily understood the full extent of its design theme is. 

It basically just takes deeper thinking than a basic first look to fully grasp what magna is trying to convey to the viewer, and so it does end up being an objectively "busier" design in that it's just harder to get a clear visual read on with all the intricate details it has that are trying to portray these ideas. 

Ultimately, the most important goal of magnamalo's look is to inform you that it's a notably powerful and aggressive beast, which is still executed pretty damn good

**Tldr for Magnamalo: Deeper subtext and thematic reasoning can always be amazing additions to any monster design, but it has the potential of not clicking as easily just by looking at it.**

**I believe that's why certain designs "like magnamalo" may not click with as many people as a monster design like Valstrax that's more overt and clearcut with its thematic identity. It doesn't exactly indicate quality but instead shows different approaches using either the power of easy visual language or the potential strength of deeper visual language.**

Anyways lecture over, share any thoughts or similar discussions you may have and stuff.

A simple-ish explanation for why monster designs that can be quickly read usually have the widest positive reception