So why not just use NovelAI, since it’s so powerful?
Because it’s closed-source and you can’t use LoRAs with it. And honestly, that whole universe of LoRAs—hundreds, thousands of them—is just too tempting to walk away from. Sure, NovelAI includes a lot of character data, but it’s still “limited.” And there was a point where it couldn’t generate NSFW content, depending on version and timing. Can we be sure the same won’t happen again, especially considering how things are going on platforms like Tensor?
If the pairing you want to generate isn’t super obscure—say, something like Killua x Gon, or a crossover like Ash x Taichi—then yeah, NovelAI is highly recommended. It’s easy to use, has tons of art styles and themes, and honestly just blows open-source models out of the water in many cases.
Even with open-source checkpoints, it’s not like you can’t generate those pairings at all. But keep in mind—results vary a lot depending on the checkpoint. Sometimes, using high-quality single-character LoRAs along with matching trigger words can help maintain character identity while improving the final quality.
Yeah, this pose is a joke—it’s based on recent events involving Tensor and other platforms. 😂
Anyway, as shown here, if the checkpoint already contains character information, then adding a LoRA doesn’t usually create too much chaos.
For popular characters from visually polished and high-profile anime—like Tanjiro, for example—you really don’t even need a LoRA. The base checkpoint already does a pretty good job of recreating them.
Just to emphasize it again:
If you’re trying to generate fanart for “2boys” pairings that aren’t super obscure, or ones with more than two characters, I strongly recommend using NovelAI first. Alternatively, try generating them directly using a capable checkpoint—you might be surprised how many characters don’t actually need a LoRA to be recognizable.
Here’s another example:
Say you’re trying to generate Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist. Both can be directly generated using certain checkpoints. Alphonse, when prompted alone, will show up in human boy form—not the armor—so that’s great.
But as soon as you try to generate both together, the model pulls up the most common metadata for the two brothers—which usually means Ed + armored Al—so the human form of Al becomes almost impossible to get.
If one character’s info is richly embedded in the checkpoint and the other’s isn’t, you’ll get poor results. Even when you pair this kind of checkpoint with a LoRA to help boost the weaker character, features still end up getting mixed, and the overall art style may also be altered.
To the untrained eye, this kind of fusion might not stand out—but once you know what to look for, it becomes obvious.
If you try to generate a character that isn’t in the checkpoint at all, only relying on a LoRA, then character features almost always get fused together. (There are tons of examples of this online, so I won’t bother including another one.)
This is a NovelAI-generated image, and it didn’t use any positive or negative prompt tuning at all.
You’ll need to experiment and tweak things more if you want to generate high-detail or highly stylized results. But even in this basic output, Leonhardt’s outfit is reproduced way better than what most LoRAs could manage. And Aoto, who’s a really niche character, still comes out surprisingly accurate.
These two characters have nothing to do with each other, but NovelAI lets you combine them however you want.
That said, NovelAI is a paid, closed-source commercial model, so every bit of GPU time costs money—you can’t afford to waste resources on endless trial and error.
Now let’s talk about img2img and regional control workflows.
There’s one big downside when it comes to characters being physically close to each other—like if they’re hugging or holding hands: the area where they make contact tends to look blurry or smudged.
And beyond that, the workflow itself is pretty tedious. Whether you’re setting it up or just trying to use it day-to-day, it’s a hassle.
That’s why, if you look at some creators on social media—even ones who’ve clearly made good-looking dual-character images—you’ll notice that most of their posts are still focused on 1boy.
Why? Because working with LoRA + regional control setups is just that much trouble.
Also, think about those moments where inspiration strikes out of nowhere—say, you come up with a perfect prompt on the spot. If you’re using an online app, it’s easy to just type it in and get going.
But with these regional workflows, you’ll need a decent local PC to run everything. Worse yet, each plugin and workflow often needs a specific environment or version, and things constantly break.
Personally, I gave up right away after trying them out. The more I tried to fix stuff after setup, the more bugs I ran into.
So yeah, things like img2img and regional control can give decent results if you’re patient and willing to learn, but the learning curve is real—and the payoff isn’t always worth it. Still, if you’ve got the time and hardware for it, it might be worth a try.
Also, let’s be real—there are some creator out there posting what look like flawless 2boys or multi-character images, and they don’t have that telltale NovelAI look either.
The quality is way beyond what you can get with just LoRA stacking or inpainting.
So don’t even doubt it—some of those are hand-drawn.
Yes, people who know how to draw can absolutely also use AI. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, combining both skillsets might just be the ultimate power move.
So, with all that said, I decided that making a dedicated 2boys LoRA for each of my favorite ships was the better path forward.
It really can be any pairing. Any art style.
You don’t need a crazy workflow—just the LoRA and the right prompt.
The basic “principle” of a 2boys LoRA is actually pretty simple: as long as you have enough images where the two characters appear together, the LoRA will start learning from that.
The hard part isn’t the theory—it’s how to make a dataset and training process that results in a LoRA that’s actually stable and usable.
If you’ve ever trained or used a dual-character or multi-character LoRA, then you already know the common headaches:
1、Character features still get mixed up or swapped, and a fully correct output is just a matter of luck.
2、Body proportions between the two characters become completely random—unless their original designs have super obvious size differences (like Chilchuck and Laios). Even if their builds are similar, you’ll end up with one shrinking or growing unpredictably. You’ll instinctively start adding prompt like “same size,” but... yeah, that doesn’t help at all.
3、Overall image quality can be pretty low, so you have to pair it with style/detail LoRAs, and usually upscale with hires.fix, adetailer, or something similar.
4、And all the usual LoRA flaws still apply, like overfitting or distorted hands, etc.
In the first article, I already talked a bit about the emotional rollercoaster of making my very first LoRA—which, by the way, was a 2boys LoRA.
But I didn’t go into too much technical detail at the time.
So this time, let’s really dive in.
But first—sorry in advance.
As far as I can tell, there’s basically zero public discussion online about how to train LoRAs for 2boys.
Maybe there are some small, private Discord servers where people have shared their methods. But there's no way for us to know.
My approach here is based entirely on:
personal experience using the few existing multi-character LoRAs that are out there, and
the training parameters that were made public by those creators.
From there, I did a bunch of experiments and exploration.
So there’s always the chance that I took a completely wrong path right from the beginning. Even if the results I get now seem “okay,” I have no idea if I’m doing things the “right” way.
At best, consider this a reference method.
If you’re interested in making your own 2boys LoRA and don’t know where to start, maybe my process can serve as one way to approach it—or at least something to compare with.
