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tomaj-etc

aka tomaj
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One of the things I like to do while writing is to go out of my way to subvert or avert common tropes, whatever they may be. When I started fooling around with AI art, the same thing was true there. In fact, I found it interesting to try to prompt for artist styles that were outside of what they were intended to be, or mixing and matching genres and archetypes - such as using a baroque painter's style to get images of fantastical, science fiction scenes, or barbarian wizards and clerics.


That quickly became a huge difficulty.


At some point, I ended up with the idea of Hades as a superhero. With how enamored I was with the image that was generated from that idea, I moved to try to recreate it with others in the Greek pantheon. From there, I expanded a little into Egyptian mythos, and then into people from the Three Kingdoms area (not the least of which was due to my being a fan of the Dynasty Warriors series).


With that, I don't have the notion that it should be a strict reimagining, but I do try to keep particular markers from their iconography or mythos more generally. These serve a dual purpose, for me to have some sort of image of the characters as I work out a broader story to write, in addition to just having a means to show what's in my head to other people.


To that end, because I bring them into a futuristic scene/era, I find it less necessary to be strict on their clothing, hair, etc., and imagine that in the course of two or three millennia, they may have changed their outlook somewhat (particularly, Artemis and, to a degree, Dionysus), or I've decided to expand upon what little there is (Icarus and Amphitrite). As such, I have decided to emphasize certain traits of some characters that have broad applications (such as with Demeter and Apollo), rather than try to utilize their entire mythos. That would really just end up with a new version of an old story, rather than my goal, which is to modernize (futurize?) their stories and roles, if a bit condensed and repackaged.


With luck, I'll manage to write something even Homer and Ovid would be proud of.

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