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Description

Intro: I kinda have a soft spot for the underdog. The fact that Taven was given a bad written story to be emerged in along with a bland character didn’t really help his chances at popularity alongside other MK protagonists. Then again, Shujinko has had it worse than him so I guess he’s a little better than the former lol. I think I’ve talked about earlier how I think Taven should be improved if he was going to appear in future installments multiple times so I’m not going to discuss this and just get on with the redesign.

You’ve probably seen me redesign Taven a few times already. It’s not just that I’m a Taven fanatic, but after each design I’m always unsatisfied with how each design comes out because of small details. Like there’s a black undershirt blended too well into his black armor that they look like they’ve fused or his facial expressions look too relaxed. That’s the reason I started the Armageddon Saga series with redesigns not just him but for his brothers Daegon and Rain. Plus I did redesigns for underrated NPC characters such as Argus and Delia, the latter of which I’m very particular proud of. And for Taven’s final redesign, I wanted it to be exactly perfect and fit his character at the same time so I started with his contemporaries and complied ideas for Taven’s redesign during that time. Once the other characters were done, I would have already compiled enough ideas for Taven’s design to start working on him.

Impression and lore behind overall design: And I gotta say, I am finally satisfied with this look. This one really stood out to me after I completed him. I just love how confident he looks. His MKA models look stiff and restrained. This Taven looks ready to kick some ass and take the names of his enemies including Tarkartan hordes, wicked bros, and fallen Elder Gods to name a few. His appearance just gives off to strangers an impressive yet unpredictable charisma about him, like "He could either help me or rip my head off with his retractable claws." He no longer looks like the naïve rich boy he was depicted in Konquest mode. This looks like the guy who was trained by dragons from birth, who has been through the toughest shit, kicked Shao Kahn’s ass in the latter’s attempted first invasion of Edenia, and seen his loved ones die around him yet he still retains that bit of humanity with that smirk, daring anyone to make their first move against him. I love it.

In fact, in my headcanon, Taven was an honorary Edenian Knight who never been through the academy training just because he and his brother were already trained exclusively by Orin and Caro. So his design gives off this exiled knight vibe to him. And when you compare his redesign to those of Rain’s and Daegon’s, he heavily contrasts with them. He's not heavily armored like Daegon or dresses in elegant colorful robes like Rain. He has everything he needs such as his supplies in that waist bag to his right, his armor, his retractable claws, and his sword. He looks more like a mercenary than a prince, something like the Prince’s appearance from Warrior Within.

abgames.files.wordpress.com/20…

Plus even though he's lost most of his loved ones, he's still the only one standing and carrying their legacies. The Drakkon Eye Amulet on his armor centerpiece and dragon pendant on his necklace from his mother Delia, the burn marks around his arms and his tattoo from Orin, and even his brother is honored with the Ultimate Drakkon Blade, combined after fusing both Daegon's and Taven's swords. It’s this blade that Taven uses to slay Blaze and get the prize of godhood. He’s also borrowed a few things while wandering Earthrealm including that Persian red sash around his neck, giving a wanderer vibe to his look. This item along others including a Faravahar pendant on his neck brace and magical fused shinguard sandals to allow him to levitate through the air in bursts of flame since he cannot fly on his own. So Taven seems to have a preferred taste of the Zoroastrian and Persian culture in Earthrealm despite Edenia being a mix of Greco-Roman and Anatolian influence.

Armor and belt accessories: His armor is basically similar to Daegon’s redesign with the shoulder pad patterns and spikes, in addition to the striped patterns to the sides except they’re all golden instead of ruby. The main difference is the centerpiece, which is in the form of an alary pattern that descends into a shield-like center. In the middle of that shield is the Drakkon Eye Amulet borrowed from his mother Delia and obviously influenced by the Egyptian Eye of Horus. The amulet’s function is magical protection of course just like in Delia’s redesign.

A major decision I made to his armor was to add loose flaps of armor from his belt for added protection, showing his Edenian roots like his brother. However, unlike Daegon’s, which are Romanesque, Taven’s armor flaps are archaic Greek in nature, with yellow flaps attached to the main grey armor pieces. I borrowed this design from a random Wonder Woman piece I saw on DA that I thought was cool:

kiarou.deviantart.com/art/Wond…

And they look unfused mainly because Taven uses kicking in his kombat so he needs room for his legs to lash out at his enemies. Underneath his armor are a sleeveless grey undershirt and black linen pants. The belt has a golden dragon head for ornamentation, and this along with the bag were influenced by this art piece.

orig09.deviantart.net/58a1/f/2…

Face : Another major design change was giving Taven more longer and spikier hair. I gave him that for two reasons. For one, he’s wandering in Earthrealm and other realms for some months so he’s going to lose his old costume and grow his centurion hair out. Also, his spiky hair keeps to the draconic theme and looks cooler for him in my opinion. I also gave him amber eyes that he inherited from his mother (when she was not blind lol) so it could give him look more exotic and animalistic than the other Edenians along with black hair.

Description

Intro: I kinda have a soft spot for the underdog. The fact that Taven was given a bad written story to be emerged in along with a bland character didn’t really help his chances at popularity alongside other MK protagonists. Then again, Shujinko has had it worse than him so I guess he’s a little better than the former lol. I think I’ve talked about earlier how I think Taven should be improved if he was going to appear in future installments multiple times so I’m not going to discuss this and just get on with the redesign.

You’ve probably seen me redesign Taven a few times already. It’s not just that I’m a Taven fanatic, but after each design I’m always unsatisfied with how each design comes out because of small details. Like there’s a black undershirt blended too well into his black armor that they look like they’ve fused or his facial expressions look too relaxed. That’s the reason I started the Armageddon Saga series with redesigns not just him but for his brothers Daegon and Rain. Plus I did redesigns for underrated NPC characters such as Argus and Delia, the latter of which I’m very particular proud of. And for Taven’s final redesign, I wanted it to be exactly perfect and fit his character at the same time so I started with his contemporaries and complied ideas for Taven’s redesign during that time. Once the other characters were done, I would have already compiled enough ideas for Taven’s design to start working on him.

Impression and lore behind overall design: And I gotta say, I am finally satisfied with this look. This one really stood out to me after I completed him. I just love how confident he looks. His MKA models look stiff and restrained. This Taven looks ready to kick some ass and take the names of his enemies including Tarkartan hordes, wicked bros, and fallen Elder Gods to name a few. His appearance just gives off to strangers an impressive yet unpredictable charisma about him, like "He could either help me or rip my head off with his retractable claws." He no longer looks like the naïve rich boy he was depicted in Konquest mode. This looks like the guy who was trained by dragons from birth, who has been through the toughest shit, kicked Shao Kahn’s ass in the latter’s attempted first invasion of Edenia, and seen his loved ones die around him yet he still retains that bit of humanity with that smirk, daring anyone to make their first move against him. I love it.

In fact, in my headcanon, Taven was an honorary Edenian Knight who never been through the academy training just because he and his brother were already trained exclusively by Orin and Caro. So his design gives off this exiled knight vibe to him. And when you compare his redesign to those of Rain’s and Daegon’s, he heavily contrasts with them. He's not heavily armored like Daegon or dresses in elegant colorful robes like Rain. He has everything he needs such as his supplies in that waist bag to his right, his armor, his retractable claws, and his sword. He looks more like a mercenary than a prince, something like the Prince’s appearance from Warrior Within.

abgames.files.wordpress.com/20…

Plus even though he's lost most of his loved ones, he's still the only one standing and carrying their legacies. The Drakkon Eye Amulet on his armor centerpiece and dragon pendant on his necklace from his mother Delia, the burn marks around his arms and his tattoo from Orin, and even his brother is honored with the Ultimate Drakkon Blade, combined after fusing both Daegon's and Taven's swords. It’s this blade that Taven uses to slay Blaze and get the prize of godhood. He’s also borrowed a few things while wandering Earthrealm including that Persian red sash around his neck, giving a wanderer vibe to his look. This item along others including a Faravahar pendant on his neck brace and magical fused shinguard sandals to allow him to levitate through the air in bursts of flame since he cannot fly on his own. So Taven seems to have a preferred taste of the Zoroastrian and Persian culture in Earthrealm despite Edenia being a mix of Greco-Roman and Anatolian influence.

Armor and belt accessories: His armor is basically similar to Daegon’s redesign with the shoulder pad patterns and spikes, in addition to the striped patterns to the sides except they’re all golden instead of ruby. The main difference is the centerpiece, which is in the form of an alary pattern that descends into a shield-like center. In the middle of that shield is the Drakkon Eye Amulet borrowed from his mother Delia and obviously influenced by the Egyptian Eye of Horus. The amulet’s function is magical protection of course just like in Delia’s redesign.

A major decision I made to his armor was to add loose flaps of armor from his belt for added protection, showing his Edenian roots like his brother. However, unlike Daegon’s, which are Romanesque, Taven’s armor flaps are archaic Greek in nature, with yellow flaps attached to the main grey armor pieces. I borrowed this design from a random Wonder Woman piece I saw on DA that I thought was cool:

kiarou.deviantart.com/art/Wond…

And they look unfused mainly because Taven uses kicking in his kombat so he needs room for his legs to lash out at his enemies. Underneath his armor are a sleeveless grey undershirt and black linen pants. The belt has a golden dragon head for ornamentation, and this along with the bag were influenced by this art piece.

orig09.deviantart.net/58a1/f/2…

Face : Another major design change was giving Taven more longer and spikier hair. I gave him that for two reasons. For one, he’s wandering in Earthrealm and other realms for some months so he’s going to lose his old costume and grow his centurion hair out. Also, his spiky hair keeps to the draconic theme and looks cooler for him in my opinion. I also gave him amber eyes that he inherited from his mother (when she was not blind lol) so it could give him look more exotic and animalistic than the other Edenians along with black hair.