Donkeyskin VS Deerskin

As I was reading Donkeyskin, I was trying to follow along with the story line of Deerskin.  Of course, there is more character development in the novel by necessity of it being a longer story.  I found it interesting which characters (and how) McKinley developed.  

The queen (Lissar's mother) was only spoken of as being beautiful and asking her husband not to marry anyone unless they were more beautiful than her after her death.  Adding all of the extra description to her is interesting to me.  McKinley's added cause of her sickness that lead to her death as well as the request of the painting provides interesting thoughts that I'm not entirely sure are fully formed in my mind yet.

The royal family in the new land where Lissar meets Ossin is not given a description at all in Donkeyskin.  In Deerskin I think the description serves the purpose that the reader is to understand Ossin's family is very different than that of the family that Lissar grew up with.  Also, the description of the family sets Ossin appart much as Lissar was set apart in her childhood.

The deerskin dress that leads to Lissar asking to be called Deerskin does not have as much of a story behind it as the Donkeyskin does in the original telling.  The only parallel I can see so far is that the deerskin dress has some sort of magical property to it that keep it clean as well as perfectly fitted to Lissar's body.  The donkeyskin tale from the original poem is much more mystical since it came from a magical donkey that literally shat golden crowns (this I found to be one of the strangest pieces of the story...who thinks of that?).

In Donkeyskin, the princess has a fairy godmother that helps her evade her father's plans to marry  her.  In Deerskin, Lissar does this all on her own (with Ash's help).  I have found myself wondering if Ash, Rinnol, or the Lady, are supposed to take the place of the fairy godmother (or any combination of the three), or if they are merely added characters to add to Lissar's life.

Lastly, at the end of Donkeyskin, the princess's father recognizes her and throws away all selfish feelings so that his daughter can be happy in her marriage.  In Deerskin, McKinley makes a point to talk about the Lady changing Lissar's and Ash's appearance.  I am wondering if she will somehow make it possible for Lissar's father to recognize her later in the book, or if she will continue to paint the father in a negative light and not have the redeeming quality of the reunion of father and daughter occur at the end of the novel.

On a separate note:  What is going on with the description of Lady?  A woman's face rising up over a man-dragon with a headdress of fire, and worms of flame with glittering eyes and mouths that hissed for fingernails?  This is something that I would be afraid of... it doesn't seem like something that would give me relief.  Please tell me your thoughts....