Askeladden

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

It isn't a question of wrong or right - keep making sprites as spontaneously! Looking back at the results and asking yourself what you see in them (and not what you want to see in them) will come in useful to your expression.

It's fine if you don't know, it takes (a lot of) time to find your way, so yeah... experimenting is really important! Have fun.

Coming back to appeal: you can also make your sprites appealing if you imitate or quote a style. It's like people who imitate Mario&Luigi sprites, Metal Slug explosions, or people who imitate Secret of Mana trees, the list goes on. The appeal is in the recognition of the reference and in its successful execution: you're getting appeal from the quoting.
Things get interesting when you bring together your subject/topic with what you're referencing/quoting: you're potentially bringing new meaning and context to the quote, which also gives more depth to your work, too. You've already started doing this by turning an Askeladden story into sprites, for example.