Gemini Draws Legend of Zelda Characters with Mixed Results

I create a lot of images and stories with AI just for fun, most of which I've never bothered to share anywhere. If you drive a car, you do much, much, much more damage to the environment than I do, so get all the way off my back about that. I'm sharing these because I'm not concerned about undermining the Legend of Zelda fan art industry, and they're a fascinating illustration (pun intended) of how generative AI can still be so incredible and so stupid at the same time. I gave Gemini a simple two-word prompt:

Princess Zelda

I think this looks gorgeous. Of course, you don't have to look long to find some apparent errors. A castle stands in the distance, even though Zelda is already in one in the foreground. But so what if our princess is in another castle? There's precedent for that. She has on the back of her hand the Hylian crest instead of the Triforce symbol, but oh well, it looks cool anyway. She's holding the Master Sword that usually belongs to Link, but I could not possibly be less bothered because it looks badass. Her hair is shorter than usual, which is an interesting choice that doesn't matter either way. I gave it another prompt:

Link

Gemini made the interesting choice to keep the same setting and keep Zelda in it, but to shift the perspective and bring in Link. Also, a giant compass is on the ground as if he's just presented it to Zelda as a gift, unaware that it can only be used in the dungeon where he found it. Derp. It looks like he has a copy of the Master Sword, but he hasn't put it in his scabbard.

​Impa

This time, Gemini didn't move the scene around, but there's Impa. Very nice. No notes. I'm most familiar with and interested in the Ocarina of Time era, and these are clearly not the Ocarina of Time versions of these characters, which is fine. I wondered if Gemini would have any issues integrating characters specific to that game into the scene. Oh, and Link put his sword away and lost his shield and compass.

​Nabooru

Link seems slightly alarmed by Nabooru's arrival... or maybe he's just staring at her boobs.

Princess Ruto

Not bad. Gemini missed the distinctive shape of her head, but the coral crown is a nice touch. If your eyes are sharp, you may have already noticed the quality of the scene beginning to deteriorate, which happens when AI repeats an image over and over. I didn't let that dissuade me. I was no longer trying to create a beautiful piece of artwork, I was just curious how it would interpret each character and how many I could fit.

Darunia

This is the worst one so far. He looks too human with that nose and those ears, and his hair should stick up a lot more. Oh well.

Navi​

Gemini certainly has enough training data to be aware that Navi appears in the game as a ball of light with wings, but that was obviously due to graphics limitations, so I'm inclined to see this as an "intentional" design choice rather than incompetence. If she looked like this in the game, would players be more patient with her? And hey, she seems to have reminded Link to stop staring at Nabooru's boobs.

​Happy Mask Salesman

I really liked this one. The masks look great, and the salesman looks appropriately happy and insane. Now I'm imagining a crossover where Majora's mask turns him into the Joker.

Malon

Nice braids. Never saw her wearing braids before. The background is really starting to look like crap now, and the mask salesman is leering creepily at Malon while she blocks the view of most of his merchandise. Although its efforts hadn't been flawless up to now, this was the point where I felt like Gemini became stupid. It was not using the available space as wisely as it could have.

Talon

Oh hey, he's holding his daughter's hand. What a cute touch. Now the Happy Mask salesman is obscured altogether, but for some reason, a few masks that aren't the same masks he had before are now visible. Hello, Gemini? Big empty space on the left, next to the column that's starting to look like a watercolor left in the rain?

Ingo

Or you could just remove all of Malon except her arm to make room for Ingo. Even though that's clearly not Ingo. Looks more like Flynn Ryder's cousin or something. Don't get me wrong, he looks cool, but this is the worst attempt yet at replicating an established character, and why did it have to put him right there?

Epona

Possibly because I sent this prompt the next day, possibly because Epona is a horse, or possibly by coincidence, Gemini realized it had some space available on the left and put it to use. The characters who have been here longest are really showing their age now.

Tingle

What scene would be complete without the Zelda equivalent of Jar Jar Binks?

Saria

I skipped Saria when I did the other Sages from Ocarina of Time because I just didn't feel like a child fit the mood I was going for, but I realized that was dumb and let her in. She stood right in front of Tingle, who, it just occurred to me, is right in front of Link. Did Gemini match the colors on purpose? It's not easy being green. Oh, but I missed one more Sage.

Kaepora Gaebora

The game never reveals that Kaepora Gaebora is the corporeal form of the Sage Rauru, but he is, and I decided I'd rather have an owl than a bald old man. Gemini made only its second change to the scenery since this sequence started, giving the owl a ledge with some form of Hylian script that probably translates to gibberish. And at this point, the image was so muddy and pixelated that I decided to give it a rest. I opened a new chat and started over.

Live-action Princess Zelda

Oh wow. Oh wow wow wow... wow. No notes.