Magical Beings: This week’s AI images

Fairy Queens, Shamans, and maybe goddesses?

I began with a request for a magical being who lives in a house made of butterflies. It doesn’t seem there’s much concept of butterfly construction for the bot to draw on, so it gave me houses adorned with butterflies. The light of the first image has a pleasing glow, and the figure’s bursting-forth pose gives a sense of narrative. In the second image, the being has an actual face, one with a rueful expression—we’ll assume because her spell has gone wrong and her dress has grown into the house.

But the Eurocentric fairy queen—the character’s femaleness at all—were interesting to me. The term “magical being” might describe myriad creatures worldwide, human or animal. I think what engendered the feminine imagery was the association with butterflies.

To test that, to broaden my being’s horizons, I asked for one who farms storks and lives in a pagoda. These figures are more masculine (because of farmer?), though faceless; the winged pagodas (which are also a little cottage-y) are pretty fabulous, and so are the figures’ costumes.

Next I asked for the magical being to meet conquistadors. The first figure has something in common with an Aztec goddess, but if she’s forbidding their presence, the men seem ignoring her and chatting about something else. The second figure’s been given a wonderful gown and accessories, but is clearly in the European wizard vein. All the “conquistador” characters resemble portrayals found in 19th century history paintings.

And all of the images seem to take place “in the gloaming”. We can assume the bot builds images from the preponderance of matching keywords, and the internet is full of fantasy novel art.

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