Beyond being flat-chested, do Emily and Dora actually look alike? Because I thought Padma was really clearly Bizarro-Dora, but Emily doesn't seem much like Dora at all to me.
She is sort of like Padma in that they're both "wacky." But they're not the same there either: As I recall Padma was mostly oblivious to cues, bad at reading people, stuff like that. Emily is more interested in unusual experiences and has unusual desires, and is indifferent to others' expectations and norms.
Hm. Marten is passive, Dora is anxious, Faye is PTSD, Hanners is OCD, Marigold is social anxiety/avoidant I think. Emily is funny-eccentric, while Wil is dramatic-eccentric. Pintsize is a prankster, Clinton is a socially awkward fan/enthusiast, Sven is self-destructive, Padma is oblivious.
It takes a certain something to put together characters that have this mix of neuroses and write them reasonably consistently and sympathetically, and be funny. Observation of the human condition, with both enough sympathy to like these people and enough abstraction of self to torment them, play them off each other, and generally put them through stuff.