Skylanders Skyrim Mash up

Skyrimlanders. Or is it Skylandrim?

The younger set takes on The Elder Scrolls and Spyro the Dragon faces the Dovahkiin

Our sons might be too old for Skylanders, and technically too young for Skyrim. 

But we are all pretty confused at this point about what is age appropriate.  

Our older son claims that he has been playing Skyrim in a mod that turns all the dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine, but I have not personally observed this.

If there is one for Thomas, there should definitely be a Skylanders mod for the Elder Scrolls, but I don't know if such a thing exists. Although purple Spyro would seem to be the Barney of the Skyrim dragon universe. I considered drawing the "Dark Spyro" version of the character, where he looks more serious in black and silver. 

But I decided if I were going to mash up the two games that Spyro should be in his more colorful, child friendly form. 

Spellcasting in Skyrim

My older son has been doing a lot of this lately.

The hands are much farther apart on the screen, of course.

Drawing two napkins per day is proving to be a challenge, so I've had to chose some more simple images than usual.

Can you tell?

Dragon Rider

In a very surprising turn of events, my younger son asked me to draw a picture of him riding a dragon.

He is usually violently, if not hysterically, opposed to any attempted depictions. I suspect that the mixed age group of summer arts camp is proving to be a more receptive audience for the unveiling of lunchtime napkins than the second grade classroom.  He reported a lot of teasing and criticism from his from his rather conformist classmates during the school year. His less socially sensitive older brother is also eating lunch in the same room at camp, so he has some backup.

Still, I was somewhat surprised by the request. He had just rejected a pet raptor napkin with his likeness on it a few days ago.

Somehow, it was a long week, so my attention to this particular dragon was limited. I did my best to splice dragons from "Dragon Age" and "Skyrim," particularly cribbing from a nice image by "Dragon Age" concept artist, Matt Rhodes which I cannot seem to locate now.

It's not a fantastic dragon or a particularly fine portrait of my son,...but I thought the contrast between the purple sky and the orange flame is nice.

Dovahbear from Skyrim

What could be more compelling than video games that you are too young to play?:
Games that you are too young to play that also have bears wearing horned helmets.

My older son turned twelve this morning, and has now renewed the argument that he is old enough for M rated games like Assassin's Creed and Skyrim. After all, we let him play some 12 plus games when he was a mere 10 or 11. He is wisely not extending this argument to Grand Theft Auto at the moment...although he has on other occasions.

As far as I know, there is no lap dancing in Skyrim. But there are Dovahbears, and they are pretty enticing as far as both kids are concerned.

Aetherium Armor from Skyrim

Archer has great affection for Skyrim despite not yet having played it.

Using "Fus Ro Dah" Against the Uruk-Hai

As is often the case, this napkin request required a bit more research than I would have liked.

The boys wanted to be depicted using a power move from the video game Skyrim on some of the bad guys from The Lord of the Rings universe.  I learned that the Uruk-Hai are a sort of Orc-like military evil creature (but not Orcs exactly) and that saying "Fus Ro Dah" is kind of like a beginner's force push for the "dragon born" within the game...essentially a way to flatten your deserving foes with only your voice....And what 10 or 6 year old boy does not hope to develop such a power?  It was also a bit of an internet meme back in 2011.  (See the link for some slightly funny videos if you missed it then and have nothing better to do now.)

Just for the record, neither child is playing Skyrim...but this does not stop the older one from researching the topic and bringing the younger one up to speed.  Their father and I did subject them to some of "The Return of the King" much against their will during a Lord of the Rings marathon broadcast on TV on New Year's Day.  By the end, they decided the movie wasn't all bad.  I am not sure how Archer came by the knowledge of the Uruk-Hai, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with LEGO sets and not Tolkien or Peter Jackson.