Theme

We all know the trope: Kings, queens and other royalty gone mad with power or just not right in the head. Ruling over a compliant court who will humor their liege in whatever way they can or risk losing their heads.

This weeks challenge is for you to come up with an emperor, king, queen, prince, princess, duke, etc. who has gone completely bananas and is abusing their power in some eccentric way. Just to be clear, this is not meant to be a bloody or violent challenge. Any king is happy to torture or execute his subjects, but only a mad one will order his duke to stand in a tub of molten cheese for an entire afternoon.

In other words, it’s silly, don’t take it too seriously :)

Midjourney prompt for post image:

a mad king with a bird obsession, wearing feathered garments and a golden crown, sitting on his throne, in a throne room filled with birds and stained with bird poo, guards in bird costumes stand to attention in the background --ar 4:3 --v 6.0

Rules

  1. Follow the community’s rules above all else

  2. One comment and image per user

  3. Embed image directly in the post (no external link)

  4. Workflow/Prompt sharing encouraged (we’re all here for fun)

  5. At the end of the week each post will be scored according to the following grid

    Prize Points
    Most upvoted +3 points
    Second most upvoted +1 point
    Theme is clear +1 point
    OP’s favorite (me, this week) +1 point
    Most original +1 point
    Last entry (to compensate for less time to vote) +1 point
    Prompt and workflow included +1 point
    Creative abuse of power +2 points

  6. Posts that are ex aequo (tied) will both get the points

  7. Winner gets to pick next theme! Good luck everyone and have fun!

Past entries

  1. Dieselpunk
  2. Goosebump Book
  3. Deep Space Wonders
  4. Fairy Tales
  5. A New Sport
  6. Monsters are Back to School
  7. War and Peace
  8. Distant lands
  9. Unreal Cartoons
  10. Sustainable Ecumenopolis
  11. Masks
  12. Mascots
  13. Old Gods, New Jobs
  14. Winter Festivities
  15. High Tech, Low Life
  16. Character Limit
  17. Gatsby’s Jazz Hands
  18. Reel to Canvas
  19. Cruelly Cute Characters
  20. Retro Sci-Fi
  21. Get Your Bard On!
  22. Busy Bees: Animals with Jobs
  • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    I was torn between the most fun one I came up with, and the most disturbing. I went with Most Disturbing.

    Prompt: The teddy bear queen has ordered her teddy bear courtiers to rip out their own stuffing!

  • Ziggurat@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    The World can burn, I’m gonna win this game first

    Prompt A mad human king plays poker, yells, blue breaded hair and beard, crown, stack of tokens BREAK a (chalice full of blood) lies on the table, uncanny horror, gore, BREAK background is a gothic horror palace

    Workflow details

    So for that one, I started at first with a king on a card game, then thought about the king playing cards, I’ve done various tries to find a cool prompt. I kept generating and got tons of fun but not perfect variants until found that burning castle which looked pretty cool, and as I don’t want to spend my afternoon generating images, I went for burning castle. I couldn’t get stuff like skeletons in the background or human bits as poker tokens. Also obviously bing told me that gore prompts aren’t fine :)

    As a bonus one of my early research when I was still in the get a card game mood

    Bonus, out of competition

    • Thelsim@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago
      Category Points
      Theme is clear +1
      Workflow included + 1
      Creative Abuse of Power +2
      Total 4 points

      Great submission, the idea of a forced poker match because his highness is on a winning streak is great.

      You got (shared) 3rd place!

  • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago


    The Mad King Decrees All Carrots Shall Be Made Purple.

    Used a Dutch angle for a Dutch topic.

    Prompt

    cinematic film still of Dutch Angle Style rotated view, in the foreground are people painting (purple carrots:1) with brushes, half purple and orange carrot on the table, background shows a fat king

    medieval,

    UHD resolution, Canon EOS R5, 1/4000s, f/8, ISO 100, dramatic lighting, high-definition details, RAW photography, professional grade,

      • Thelsim@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        Dutch Prince! He’d wish he was king, he only held the title of Stadtholder.
        Only in 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, did his descendant manage to become king of The Netherlands.

    • Thelsim@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Being Dutch myself, I actually had to look up what this was referring to. That’s so weird, never heard of that carrot story before.
      So… I’m guessing this is Philip II of Spain with the Duke of Alba in the background? :)

    • Thelsim@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago
      Category Points
      Most votes +3
      Theme is clear +1
      Workflow included +1
      Creative Abuse of Power +2
      OP Favorite +1
      Total 8 points

      Congratulations, you won! I really enjoyed the idea of a king putting his subjects at work on painting carrots. I don’t know what his motivation is, but that just makes it even better :)

      It’s your turn to host the next challenge!

  • merde alors@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    “Suetonius tells that many Homans believed the Great Fire of Home was instigated by Hero to clear land for his planned “Golden House”. Tacitus claims Hero seized cretins as spacegoats for the fire and had them burned alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice, but personal cruelty.”

    • Thelsim@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago
      Category Points
      Most votes +3
      Theme is clear +1
      Creative Abuse of Power +2
      Total 6 points

      Congratulations, you got (shared) 2nd place! Awesome image and the space goats part had me giggling :)

  • Thelsim@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago


    Prompt: a 1800s mad human king wearing an army uniform and a crown, the king is inspecting his army of teddy bears, the teddy bears are wielding muskets and are placed in perfect formation outside , the view is shot from a high angle

    Furious about the constant failures of his so called *generals*, King August von Oberunterzwischen decided to replace his entire army with loyal troops who never question his judgement.

  • Trollivier@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    All hail King Chuck.

    For those who didn’t see the show Better Call Saul : in the show, Saul’s brother, Chuck, becomes obsessed by energy fields and waves created by electronic devices and ends up living in the dark without electricity, covering himself in tin foil blankets. The two other characters are his brother, Saul, and Kim, a lawyer.

    Here’s the prompt :

    Michael McKean as a mad king, sitting in a throne made of tin foil, holding an sceptre very poorly made of tin foil. His crown and toga are poorly made of tin, also made by a child. His subjects, Saul Goodman and Kim Wexler are standing on each side of his throne, they wear their regular apparel, but they are also made of tin foil.

    I’m not satisfied with Saul’s face, but I’m glad I had Kim Wexley generated. I tried using various variations, real actor names and all, but mostly always ended up with Chuck’s face on every body. So I’ll go with that one :)

    • Thelsim@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago
      Category Points
      Theme is clear +1
      Workflow included + 1
      Creative Abuse of Power +2
      Total 4 points

      I like the idea, that’s definitely a creative abuse of power :)

      You got (shared) third place!

  • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nzEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago
    • Now, this is a story all about how
    • My life got flipped-turned upside down
    • And I’d like to take a minute
    • Just sit right there
    • I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air

    The thought of being the ‘Fresh Prince’ has gone to master Smith’s head

    Generate a captivating image of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reimagined as a royal figure, exuding regal elegance while retaining his iconic fashion sense from the classic television series. Incorporate elements such as princely attire, a crown, and the signature style of the Fresh Prince, blending contemporary urban fashion with aristocratic charm. Capture the essence of his charismatic personality and cultural influence, In the background is his possy

  • ϻеƌųʂɑ@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    Teddy Bear King, making his subjects make subjects

    spoiler

    Please generate image of a whimsical workshop filled with teddy bears engaged in an endless cycle of life and death has been created. In this scene, old teddy bears are being taken apart and their pieces used to make new teddy bears, all under the maniacal eye of the crowned teddy bear king from his high throne. bimgy

  • M0oP0o@mander.xyzMEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    In the bingilator: “A queen is ruling over a neon swamp while showing Extreme gratitude” 16 tries

    Others not in the running but neat:

  • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    In a parallel universe in the 1980s, the King of the British empire, in a fit of secularization and progressiveness, began a punk lifestyle.

    Dall-E Prompt: A caricature image of a King as a 70s punk with wild hair, a crown and a leather jacket, showing British and royal features and exaggerated facial expressions.

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
      0·
      9 months ago

      “God save the me, the fascist regime. I made you a moron, A potential H bomb”

      He must have hated himself more than i do.