>>103725114>>103725809My previous post didn't go through, so this is the (forced) second draft of my propositions to Leaflit
Basically, the opposite of "forgettable" is "unforgettable" and to do that you need to have something downright weird that sticks in their head. Let's take her "air fortress" idea. An airship is one of the most generic ideas for fantasy there is, probably pre-existing the NES Final Fantasy games, but a flying fleet still gives a lot of opportunities, so let's say we want to keep that.
In order to make it more memorable, we can literally look to the sky for imagery. Most of the time people go about their lives with the day sky out, so in order to stand out, let's invert that and use the night sky. What's the most striking imagery in the night sky? The moon. So let's have the sails be crescent shaped.
But not like how sails naturally arc irl, we want the sails to be crescent shaped when viewed from the front head on, for the distinct imagery.
Let's then say that for the locomotion, instead of steam, it uses some sort of anti-gravity mineral. The other most prominent thing about the night sky is the way a starry night looks, so we'll ascribe the starry night aesthetic to these stones.
To make the "lunar navy" actually look lunar, we'll have the hulls be made of this stone, so when viewed from below it gives the vague idea of the moon hanging in the night sky, especially if there's mist and steam billowing out from internal stuff. From there we can say that the mineral is mined from "Crescent Canyon," a big crescent shaped canyon that looks like a starry night sky, even during the day. Now she can satisfy both her fantastical imagery desire, and her fantasy politics desires, since a nation having access to outright anti-gravity magic rocks would have wild political implications for how they handle other nations.
For an even simpler example, take her "Grand Paladins."
Just say they're literally "lionhearted," as in their hearts are fucking huge like a Lion's is compared to ours. Ignore the logistical side of that, because your setting has fucking magic and flying moon themed battleships, nobody's gonna question how "bigger heart = bigger fighter"
It might seem like it takes a lot to come up with stuff like this, but it really doesn't. It's just a reversal of the process and priorities. You start with the memorable stuff, and then work backwards to justify it with enough explanations to be believable to an audience. Think like how Oda designs and introduces settings. Thriller Bark is an island sized ship, and nobody questions it. And he even subverts fantastical imagery usage, with things like Whiskey Peak, where what looks like needles on a big cactus are actually gravestones. All you have to do is take what people will actually pay attention to and then invert it into something playfully outlandish like that
