#queue better believe it

Missandei

I love Missandei and her ever-broadening role beside Dany. She starts off as a scribe and handmaid but we see her do much more, as she counsels her queen and becomes a dear confidant. She’s wise as well as experienced in administration, and kind to boot.

I know people are excited about the idea of Daenerys and Arya meeting, but I think Arya would like Missandei and have a lot in common!

Grey Worm

I really like Grey Worm. His choice to keep the name he had received on the day he was set free moves me a lot. Like, what an incredible tactic the Masters had designed to dehumanize the Unsullied, right? Removed of identity to the point that even their name is an inconsistent thing (but always an insult, I suppose). But then they are freed - allowed for the first time in years to be human. He keeps the name he’d drawn that day, as it belonged to a free man…. aghhh, hits me straight in the heart every time I think about it!!!

But y'all are here for the portrait, not to be flooded by my feels ;P Grey Worm is described as stocky, square, serious, and tireless. Due to the practice of castrating boys in training as Unsullied, he grows no facial hair.

Hizdahr zo Loraq

I had a lot of fun trying to establish what you might call the Ghiscari phenotype. The books describe amber skin and wiry black & red hair, with various eye colors. For Hizdahr in particular, he’s described as pale and long faced with flawless skin. Dany says he’s a real looker, too! He shaves off his wings and his beard as well for her. I thought to give him simply stubble, but I liked seeing the streaky red throughout the beard when it was close cropped, so please pardon this inaccuracy!

Discussing fictional races is always a contentious area, so I hope you guys recognize that I mean well! Anyhow, fan interpretations of the people of Meereen vary a lot. I think folks kinda want to force racial representation in where it’s not really present to that degree? When I first started making Meereenese characters, I automatically depicted them as pretty dark skinned because what I’d seen on the show and all the stupid white savior conversations being had about Dany’s plotline seeped into my brain. And frankly, wiry is a typical descriptor referring to type 4 hair which is more common in black people. But that’s bringing stuff to the text that isn’t actually there. I want to stay true to the text, that’s like my biggest motivator. Even so, I wanna respect that people headcanon all sorts of things. If you check my Artbreeder page and look for the Meereen tag, you can see other variants I explored.

Daario Naharis

I swear, this dude was designed to stump gifmakers and artists working in mediums like mine. George knew and did it on purpose.

Finding the sweet spot between the attempt to be accurate to description, and also maintaining the realism in style for the portrait, was my main issue in making Daario. He’s colorful, as y'all are aware, but editing of colors in Artbreeder tend to be imprecise. If the ai recognizes a spot as hair, regardless of if it’s accurate, most genes working on hair will include all such areas. So beards are tough to differentiate from scalp hair, and even harder to isolate a moustache at that! This is also a problem in trying to create turbans… Every attempt I’ve made in that area has seen silk head wraps as hair -_-

Jorah Mormont

Jorah in the show really, like really really, appealed to me. But in the book canon he takes after his sigil and is very much a big hairy bear! All black and brown and covered with hair. I’m sure you know the rest ;P

My interest in the series started with the show, so I struggle sometimes with bringing imagery back to the text that isn’t present there. It kind of helps to look at a canon compliant rendering like this to set myself straight!

Maege Mormont

Mama Bear! I love a good warrior woman. And Maege is such an awesome mix of different identities, it’s hard not to be fascinated by her. A mother and a soldier, a woman and a lord, and she’s one of our rare examples of Northern ladies, too… I quite like her.

Dacey & Alysane Mormont

I’m really not sure if I aged these ladies sufficiently. Dacey had to be at least 30, right? Aly has kids.

I might switch up Dacey at some point. I’m just not satisfied with how she came out, for some reason. I was going for a flatter nose for these two so they wouldn’t resemble their uncle too closely (Jorah’s in the queue fyi) but I think Dacey’s looks off somehow. Ah, anyways, I’m happy with Aly’s face at least.

Jeyne Westerling

Ah, this went up before I’d filled in all the details. Whoops! I’m feeling pretty off today, so my apologies. Anyways, this is my take on the young Queen in the North. Jeyne is not a character I have a vivid image of in my mind, and I went through several portrait attempts for her before I was satisfied!

Walda Frey

You know those horror movies where you find yourself yelling at the screen? Where there’s like one chick left and you keep telling her to get out while she can? Doesn’t she see the weird skeleton hand torches and torture dungeons? Has she not noticed the scent of blood in the air? Run, girl! Run for your life!

That’s how I feel about Walda here. I imagine her as fluffy and blonde and sweet, just a young woman who made an advantageous match. I want her to live and migrate to another canon that would be gentler, like Pride & Prejudice or become a character in Bridgerton or some such thing. She’s way too close to, like, a focal point of violence.

Bethany & Barbrey Ryswell

Lady Bolton & Dustin! You know, I didn’t even clock the similarities in my rendering of these ladies until putting them side by side. I created Barbrey first and then made Bethany as an edit of her sister, so I guess I maybe should have gone farther to differentiate her portrait?

Note that Bethany is significantly younger than her sister here, not due to birth order, but because Barbrey outlived her by several years. Seems to be Lady Dustin’s curse.

Domeric Bolton

Ah, a young life tragically cut short by an opportunistic bastard (literally).

I think fans find Domeric interesting in the same way that Rhaenys, the daughter of Rhaegar, is interesting. What little we get of them is appealing, but they’re long dead. Asoiaf is chock full of characters like that, really.