guthraiel

[guthraiel]

The romance between Hans Capon and Henry feels like natural conclusion to their story. The first game had all the homoerotic tension and dates between them, from getting into arguments, hunting competition, taking a bath together, Henry helping Hans court a girl, Henry saving Hans so many times in both games almost if Hans is his damsel princess. This is the first game I played where gay romance feels somewhat integral to the story, a lot of other games makes the gay romance feel like side quest you do. The only other game that I can think of is probably Life is Strange. The gay romance between them is also optional, but most people who played LiS consider the lesbian relationship as canon. That's how I see Henry and Hans. The person they care about the most is each other, the romance between them just feels right. It is a slow burn romance that has a lot of buildups, tension, feeling realisation and finally them admitting to each other. Hats off to WarHorse for taking a bold decision to let you have a gay romance with the deuteragonist of the game.

[guthraiel]

INTRO / PINNED guthraiel / guth / guthie ☆ info : cringey alt sixteen year old who's still hung up on the existence of czechoslovakia and 15th century bohemia ☆ interests : classical literature, art history, writing, videogames, rock music ☆ fandoms : kingdom come deliverance bojack horseman HYV games mafia trilogy count of monte cristo tolkien / middleearth related works ☆ links : https://guthraiel.straw.page

[guthraiel]

playing kcd 2 and taking a shot every time henry or hans act like bisexual losers

[guthraiel]

pspspssps band of bastards dlc in kcd 2 pspspsps come here kuno and the gang pspsps

[guthraiel]

Feel, my hands are turning cold Time will fill this endless void As the fires light the sky At safe distance, I see fear

[guthraiel]

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

[guthraiel]

Remembering later into the first game when, if you see Radzig (who’s usually in the same room with Hanush) in Rattay, he’ll say something like “Oh, Henry’s come to see us!” I’ve always thought that was cute 😭. He’s so happy to see Henry doing well.

[guthraiel]

More Kcd fanart napping Henry and mutt with pebbles watching over them

[guthraiel]

people who had to deliberately choose Henry/Hans romance option and then complain about it's mere existence on godforsaken twitter and such and berating the devs bc of their own frustration on modern games not catering solely for "white straight manly men" deserve nothing more than shitty f2p shooters and fucking gachas

go die in wars and fix cars, find god or something, stop ruining games for us, folks, who just love a good romance regardless of it being straight or not

[guthraiel]

I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT I KNEW IT WOULD BE FUCKING HANS CAPON

[guthraiel]

istvan and erik are peak toxic yaoi

[guthraiel]

i dont ship them and i dont even want them to have sex with each other but on a theoretical level i think they would both have psychosexual problems that would interact in a fascinating manner

[guthraiel]

like idk. im so happy to have been born late enough where i get to see rep like this in my favourite childhood games

i know steam community is pissy but for me, personally, seeing a franchise thats meant so much to me since like 2019 make characters i love so much queer is actually so heartwarming. like i dont even care if its for brownie points or whatever the fuck THEYRE BISEXUAL 😭😭

[guthraiel]

Objective started

[guthraiel]

i know steam community is pissy but for me, personally, seeing a franchise thats meant so much to me since like 2019 make characters i love so much queer is actually so heartwarming. like i dont even care if its for brownie points or whatever the fuck THEYRE BISEXUAL 😭😭

[guthraiel]

Sometimes getting a review code early is a blessing. Getting it a month before release, a miracle. Until you play the goddamn thing and realize it's something you've always wanted, and yet when the credits roll there's no one you can talk to about it because it'll be a week before anyone gets to know anything but leaks and speculation. You can't even yell "seriously don't worry" at people fretting about the quality of the ship. (and then when you write your piece, it has to be about all the other things you loved about it, and not the thing that spoke to you most of all)

I am an old. I was there when BioWare first started including queer relationship options, and it felt transcendant, a way to finally explore nuances of life and thought and emotion that often get swallowed up in mainstream story templates about romance. But that became commonplace, and it started to feel more like a template all itself - something to copy and repeat, instead of finding ways to make those romances work into the very fabric of the story told, to make them call and respond.

I feel this way about a lot of romantic media in my assigned domains (genre tv/film and games), mind you. Maybe it's my age. I find myself longing for stories about people who grow and face trials together, who weave into each other's lives, but that's rarely the focus. Romance is drama and big kisses.

I think in some ways the best BioWare romances have always been the ones interrupted: a Liara who goes to build her own life in between adventures, who can be an equal partner. A Kaidan who, because you played a man, didn't make awkward we-must-get-them-to-kiss advances on you in the first game and instead got to know you as a person. The timeskips and careful layering of Dragon Age 2. Building a relationship, not tacking it on. Hell, my favorite BioWare-adjacent ship will always be Atton and the Exile from KotOR 2: an unfinished game by a studio whose difficult questions never mixed well with BioWare romance structure, leaving us with two traumatized people who never got over their own limitations and pain enough to love each other openly.

So it's meaningful to me to trip over something that feels like it cares enough to really build and make the journey itself meaningful. (at least this relationship, as my poor Henry spent copious hours dodging people flinging him at Katherine) Though it means more waiting, since you're all still playing, and I'm serious when I say that the beauty of this particular romance sits in its context, the events and dialogues that have little to do with hearts, and the stuff the game forces you to think about as you play (do I want to take this risk? Hans begged me not to).

I am very glad it's out there, though. I crave meta and fic about all the gaps - what happens to Hans while he's angry at Henry, how Henry's feeling, the events at Von Berglow's stronghold after they get captured, Maleshov, Zizka-and-crew, adventures in Kuttenberg, but also all the stuff you guys probably haven't reached yet. Samuel. The siege. Boot soup. That quiet but important little conversation when both Henry and Hans get their first serious commands at the same time and struggle with the weight. And whatever the hell went through Hans's head in those thirty seconds before Henry reciprocated.

There is just so much here to talk about. I really hope we all will.

(though let's not talk about the solid five hours i thought i'd hallucinated the first romance dialogue check with Hans because i didn't know yet and I assumed they would never, ever actually do anything with the clear subtext)

(and now I slink away, feeling gratuitous, as always. Thank you for the nonfannish friends who got me through that terrible post-credits week, you are relieved of duty.)