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And we're done. This has been both the longest and most artistically complex Raptormaniacs storyline to date (neither of which is saying much, I realize), so it was fun for me to make if nothing else. Until next time!

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Applejack had that rope under her hat the whole time. Obviously.

I had to have Rarity do something at least somewhat cool, as I felt she ended up drawing the short straw for this plot. That's a shame, as even though she's not my favorite MLP character, she's probably the most interesting main character as far as characterization goes, which is not at all apparent in this story. In my defense, there are thirteen major characters in this arc, give or take a few. That's comparable to the number of major players in Captain America: Civil War, and this is a comic with less than twenty pages rather than a two-hour movie. In any case, it has been noted by others that in the show, Rarity almost always resorts to physical means of combat on the rare occasion that fighting is called for, despite being a magical unicorn. That's pretty cool in itself, but have you seen her multitask? Her telekinesis would be quite potent were she ever inclined to use it violently.

Yes, I confess the "Twilight as a glorified battery" plot point was an excuse to keep her out of the main action. Twilight is my favorite character, but she gets enough heroic moments in the original show.

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It is convenient that MLP has done an analogous "fictional character turns out to be real all along" situation, even if I'm not the biggest fan of that episode. (Have I been talking more about things I don't like about the show rather than things I like? I enjoy the show, I swear.)

Funnily, Daring Do is already an expy of a different character from mainstream fiction (Indiana Jones), but Rainbow Dash doesn't need to know that.

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In which I demonstrate that I cannot draw elephants. Must be why those gomphotheres never showed up back in the day.

I would have liked to do more scenes like this, showing interactions between the Raptormaniacs and My Little Maniraptor characters, but I feel that it would have dragged the story on for too long, so I'll leave it up to imagination what happened with the other groups that split up on this page.

Last point of note, achievement unlocked: drawing Fluttershy in flight. Next goal: drawing Rainbow Dash not in flight.

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Look, an actual full-body view of Ebeff.

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Celestia is a woefully underused character on the original show. From a narrative perspective, it's entirely understandable that she needs to be written out regularly so the heroines can resolve problems on their own, but it feels like at least half the time she's sidelined in ways that seem undignified for such a reputedly powerful and wise character.

Fortunately, Raptormaniacs runs on absurdity, so I'm allowed to come up with silly reasons for why powerful characters aren't around to help when they're needed.

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Is this the closest we've had to a full-body view of Ebeff? Probably.

I am not at all a fan of the Equestria Girls spin-off film series of MLP. (The sequels were admittedly slight improvements over the first installment, but that's not a high bar to reach.) It is perhaps ironic that I had to reference it a fair bit for this storyline, considering that it is the closest we have to canon regarding interdimensional shenanigans in MLP-verse. Hence, Twilight's exposition in the third panel (and Savape's jab at it).

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Did you really think that this post was only a joke?

Besides Skull, Dinky probably would be the most unusual of the main cast from the perspective of sapient maniraptors from the Mesozoic. A euornithine whose size and spatial ecology are more typical of an enantiornithine? Sounds wrong. At least he's a granivore.

Coming Soon: My Little Raptormaniacs

Surprisingly (considering that this comic has a relatively small number of readers), I've been asked more than once whether I intend to do a crossover between Raptormaniacs and My Little Maniraptor, my unbridled parody of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. After sitting on a potential plot outline for the past few years, I have at last finalized the script and can now say that the answer is yes.

Will this be canon to Raptormaniacs? Yep. Good arguments can be made that this should have remained a non-canon venture, but my plans from the start were to have it influence the main plot in a number of significant ways, so too late. I have tried my best to provide enough background information where needed for readers who are unfamiliar with My Little Pony. But if any objections to this are solely on the basis of hatred or prejudice against the show, well... haters gonna hate.

Tumblr Roundup 4/7/2016 (Dinosaur March Madness Edition)

Over the past month, Meg Dickson's A Dinosaur A Day has been hosting Dinosaur March Madness to figure out the most popular dinosaurs among her readership. I took the chance to come out of hibernation intermittently to answer questions and have the Raptormaniacs characters comment on the proceedings. The commentary is included in the links below.

-Commentary on Game One.
-Commentary on Game Two.
-Commentary on Game Three.
-Commentary on Game Thirty-One.
-What does Savape's mother think of her cruelty?
-Where are all the non-theropod dinosaurs?
-What tourist destinations are there in the city?
-Does the museum have a Spinosaurus?
-Skull comments on Palaeofail's choice of favorite dromaeosaurid.
-Commentary on results of Round Three.
-Does Zahavi have a power origin story?
-Thoughts on Utahraptor.
-Does the museum have a Yutyrannus?
-Thoughts on Hyracotherium.
-Is there a Microraptor in the museum?
-Commentary on overall results of Dinosaur March Madness.

Tumblr Roundup 12/31/2015

I really dropped the ball on linking back to the Tumblr here. I've been answering questions sporadically this year and have been waiting for enough posts to accumulate before making a roundup post, but I swear I didn't plan for the waiting to go on until the end of the year.

-Have the characters met any ichthyornithines?
-Thoughts on gorgonopsids.
-Are there any retrosaurs in the museum?
-Dinky is dared to catch an insect in front of Savape.
-Can Zahavi reduce his forelimbs into a vestigial form?
-Does the museum have a Yi yet?
-What does Remex think Godzilla would be if the kaiju was a real creature?
-What does Savape do when she's bored, aside from killing?
-What are the characters' favorite "pokemans"?
-Thoughts on TetZoo Time.
-What does it feel like to be turned into a fossil?
-Thoughts on lions, tigers, and jaguars.
-Does Savape think of herself as evil?
-Does Skull have a soul?
-Who would win in a fight between Ebeff and a clone of Ebeff?
-Has Savape ever taken on a megalodon?
-Thoughts on the new Spinosaurus restoration.
-Can Zahavi ride a giant Phidippus audax while herding mealworm beetles while talking with telepathy while Savape destroys army ants?
-Thoughts on gorillas.
-Any word on Velociraptor?

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That's a wrap for this storyline! Makes me wonder how many Caviramus it would take to get a full-sized Therizinosaurus airborne in actuality. A worthy research topic for someone's graduate thesis, no doubt.

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This parodies the song "Chaos" from the entertaining fanmade Jurassic Park Musical.

Likely didn't expect a TetZoo Time character revelation on Raptormaniacs, did you? King Preter thinks that "ephemeral" means "difficult to see". (TetZoo Time exists as a comic in the Raptormaniacs universe; it's not that contrived.)

CAMP stands for Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, a giant volcanic region associated with the breakup of Pangaea and the end-Triassic extinction. Signor-Lipps effect describes the phenomenon that the fossil record is generally not complete enough for us to ascertain to full temporal range of a taxon, which, among other things, can make mass extinction events appear more gradual than they really were.

I have tried something new for this one: a recorded demo of the song parody. There is no musical accompaniment, but I hope it is helpful to readers who are unfamiliar with the song and/or cannot get the lyrics to fit. It's only me singing in my own voice and should not be taken to indicate the canon voices of my characters. I do not usually pronounce "Ostrom" the way I do in the song; I appear to have subconsciously changed it to something I found easier to sing.

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I considered having a second encounter with the Saurosuchus after Ebeff and May's arrival to better mirror the events of the film, resulting in Ebeff subduing the Saurosuchus by trapping its head under his foot. It didn't make the cut in the end.

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Happy to be done with this page. Drawing that jeep was a nightmare, despite it being very cartoonish.

Dicynodont latrines are real, if anyone is wondering.

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The "tail blade" mention is a reference to Tricia Arnold's reaction towards the fictional dinosaurs made up for Terra Nova.

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As most if not all paleoartists can attest, researching paleobotany for artwork typically sucks. You can see here that I didn't even try. However, on a more serious note, I recommend the "Botany for Paleoartists" series by Maija Karala at her blog Humming Dinosaurs and Nature's Other Small Wonders for all your paleobotanical needs and the in-development Hell Creek simulator game Saurian sets a great example in doing things right.

In my original plans for this story, I had a scene where Ostrom showed the others a nursery where the Triassic animals were being reared from eggs. Savape would eat one of the hatchlings and declare, "Death finds a way." I ended up scrapping it because Triassic Park has a fundamentally different setting from Jurassic Park (a museum as opposed to a biological preserve).