Friday, October 06, 2023

HOMM3 Modification - Cuthbert the Cleric

Cuthbert is one of the most interesting characters visually. While he looks like a pretty typical rough Medieval friar habit in his dress, he's got a very weird face, and I'm not sure what's going on with it. Does he have leprosy? Smallpox or burn scars? His biography vaguely refers to a past dabbling in dark magic before he accidentally killed his wife. I guess manslaughter doesn't preclude you from taking up the cloth and becoming a cleric, however, so now he's a "hero" for the goodest of the good factions.

Regardless of his backstory, which honestly nobody pays attention to anyway, otherwise there wouldn't be controversy about whether or not certain heroes are even women or men. But he's got a very unique look, and as such, he should probably be embraced. That said... the original image's lack of clarity about what exactly is wrong with his face is driven in part by lack of resolution and detail; it just isn't a very high quality image. You have to interpret what's wrong with him, which means that many of the options below will be pretty different in their interpretation. I'm actually going to talk about more of them than normal, because they offer something interesting. However, those that differ too much in art style, even if they bring a good idea, won't be considered.

dtnmang focuses on Cuthbert's dark past, but is otherwise way too generic to be considered. Ensrick looks almost exactly like the Emperor from Return of the Jedi, which is a very interesting idea, but not one that I want to pursue. Pack 01, for the first time, has an interesting alternative; a fat, lump face. Stable Diffusion 2 is still unique, and maybe the closest to the Original, although it just makes him look dark, thin and leathery. Stable Diffusion AI has too many artifacts to be taken seriously; the silver lines on his forehead and the missing right half of his hood are unfortunate. StrikerX looks like a girl (?!) and Vallex just looks like a totally different character. The wildcard option is actually an interesting take, as a more middle-aged militant church officer.

Although I like and am interested in a lot of the concepts, I think the Stable Diffusion 2 is the clear winner; it's close to the original, has the same ideas but looks better. The only other one that would have considered is Emperor Palpatine, but I don't really want a Star Wars character in my game.

WINNER: Stable Diffusion 2


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