I haven't begun work on placing this sprite in an actual scene yet (I want to practice some more with animating light before I start on big things), but I will keep it in mind when this boy gets an upgrade. Thanks.

I think having more appropriate timing on this would help sell the lightning look. Right now it just looks like it's randomly fading out, it doesn't read as "lit by lightning" at all.

Having a black background or filling the statue but not the background with black instead of transparency would be appropriate here. Have the lit and fading-out frames be very quick, while the invisible frame should last a bit longer. For extra lightning-ness, have the lightning cycle twice or more, with slightly different delays on the invisible frame each time. That way it will look more like the randomness of lightning and less like an artificial light switching on and off.