"Benevolence" evokes a gentleness in character that I frankly wasn’t intending to create. I was more interested in writing more snarky, tongue-and-cheeky stories like Jon Scieszka does, who is simply one of the BEST children’s book writers EVER. I wanted Loony Tunes “kill-da-wabbit” material; I mean who really cares about teaching kids! It's the adults who have to read this stuff night after night, right?
As bad as that sounds, it’s actually an important aspect to writing children’s books: satisfying the person holding the wallet that expels the money for a sales person to take who then hands you a bag with a book in it. The kid isn’t going to think, “The psychological motivation driving Centipede Dragon’s actions exposes a decidedly human trait in him, that of craving a community to which to belong. I want this one Mommy.”
This is the sketch where I defined HOW Centipede Dragon bestows benevolence with his magic. It also cleverly ties back to that one description I found. At least, in my humble opinion!