The moody kings

I just can't get enough of these ugly guys.

I stumbled upon them while working on a brand identity for a personal project named Empera (more of this in the next few days). I thought that maybe a beard + a crown + an assertive facial expression could make a good logomark, but it wasn't the case.

Even though the first options proved themselves unusable I still found this a really fun exploration. I kept going with the iterations and this is the result.

My favorite one is the one from the left on the middle row (#4), which one is yours?