#THEY ARE BUDDIES.....!!! COMPANIONS EVEN..

[kcdarchives]

my kcd2 experience

in the following post, i am going to describe my kcd2 experience and how it bred brainworms that have drilled into my grey matter and turned it into ye olde swiss cheese

i think one of the big reasons why i latched so hard onto kcd2 (and hansry) is: i actually went into kcd2 almost completely blind. the main reason i started playing was i read in a news article that there was a gay relationship in the game and i was like "oh! fun! i'm in the mood to play a new rpg anyways!" i had no idea who it was you could romance, or what form it would take. after the opening scenes, i was of course squinting VERY hard at hans. but after the stocks, he fell to the wayside for me as a player. i made henry as reasonable and conciliatory as possible and he still left? for me, as a player who hadn't played the 1st game, i shrugged and said "ok then! fine!" they let me loose and the world was my rpg oyster! i spent over 30 hours wandering around the map, doing side quests and having a generally wonderful time because the game is, above all else, a very well-made game with a ton of attention to detail, fun NPCs, and systems that i still hadn't fully learned even after a few dozens of hours in the game. as i finally attended the semine wedding, i FINALLY ran into hans again (i hadn't found him prior to this) and was reminded "oh! henry's buddy! he's here!" i went from having a funny silly carefree time at the wedding to the plot escalating so suddenly and severely. henry and hans finally reconcile. as a player, i've forgiven hans. his apology was really genuine and heartfelt and i could tell he was also probably a little lonely without the only other survivor from their company. after over 30 hours in the game, i'm VERY attached to henry, and this i am attached to hans, who he so clearly is also attached to. i can celebrate henry finally having a companion again only to have hans wrested away from henry in one of the most distressing ways possible. for whom the bell tolls was an amazingly stressful quest, and definitely one of my favorite main story segments i have played in a video game in recent memory. after this, when the first romantic dialogue option with hans appeared, i was honestly a little stunned. i felt so vindicated with my initial eye-squinting during the opening part of the game, but also, at this point i understood just how much hans was a part of the game's main plot. i was like "oh...this is a romance with...someone actually really relevant and showing up a lot!" when the second romantic dialogue option eventually showed up, that's when i really realized that their romance was going to be tied to progress in the main plot and thus i spiraled into taking several days off of work just to make progress. i was so happy whenever hans showed up and henry got to interact with him. romance aside, their friendship is well-written and it was difficult for me to forget that, besides godwin, hans is the only other person henry really knew before kcd2 that he has with him over the course of the game. so much of the main story is directly related to hans, and the consequences of both henry and hans' actions. i was constantly amazed, thinking "wow, hans is REALLY relevant to the plot! i love to see him involved!" after over a hundred hours in the game, i finally reached the culmination of their romance. and i was paralyzed. as soon as they started talking, i started yelling. i couldn't believe this was happening. it was SO romantic, so emotional, and felt like such a natural progression of their relationship over the course of the story. as soon as the "kiss him" option showed up, I stood up and had to take a minute to collect myself because i couldn't believe it was really happening. and when i finally pressed it.

the screen faded to black.

I was confused. the screen faded back in to a shot of the fireplace. i immediately started cackling uncontrollably. i had a mental breakdown. i thought "oh! they're not gonna show the kiss! that's so incredibly funny! that's so funny i'm going to die." then the shot transitioned back to them sitting on the bed. i had assumed "ah ok, they kissed offscreen. this is what i get after playing through the game for over 100 hours trying to nurture their romance. this is what all of the anti-woke gamer warriors were getting up into arms for. this is so funny. this is so monumentally hilarious." and i could not stop cackling until - wait - henry puts his hand over hans. so sweet! i gasped. perhaps now they will actually kiss? was i wrong? but then he gets up. and i'm once again given whiplash, assuming the scene is over and now he's leaving. do i have to play even further into the story? do they make progress after he comes back from his mission? only for hans to pull henry back to him and my "i sink hundreds of hours into RPGs to eat the little gay romantic breadcrumbs they leave me in relatively unimportant side conversations" brain BROKE.

every single movement elicited a scream from me. i almost couldn't understand what was happening. henry pulls away, he looks like he's going to leave. he's going to leave and they'll resolve this when he comes back? but then he LOCKS THE DOOR!!! HE LOCKS THE DOOR!!! he power walks across the room and I CANNOT STOP SCREAMING. i have to pause the game every 5 seconds so i don't have an aneurysm. the passion!!! i hadn't imagined such passion in all of my years of gaming!!! yes, the fire in the hearth was burning, but not nearly as hot as the flames of their relationship!!!!

the screen faded to black once again after they made it to the bed, and i thought "ok...it's over...i can breathe again...my god...that was crazy...that was so much more intense than i was expecting for a 'kiss him' dialogue option" only for it to fade back in to THEIR NUDE BODIES EMBRACING?? I PLAYED THIS GAME EXPECTING MAYBE A KISS OR TWO???? I was pounding my fists into my beanbag, screaming and yelling, what was HAPPENING ON MY TV SCREEN RIGHT NOW??? then the screen panned over to the shot of the two crossed swords in the foreground and I tell you, I let out the loudest, ugliest, most delighted cackle i have ever made in my life. whoever came up with that shot is so DIABOLICAL. warhorse may actually be the funniest game studio i have ever seen in my life. thank you warhorse for my life. i was exhausted by the biggest emotional rollercoaster a video game romance had ever put me through, but also simultaneously re-invigorated by, i think, perhaps the best video game romance cutscene i have ever had the pleasure of playing through in all my 20+ years of romancing fictional characters.

i ended up staying up all night finishing up the rest of the main story, and then i spent the next couple of days trying to just. absorb everything that happened and process my experience. i know its very early to make this kind of declaration but kcd2 might literally be my favorite game of 2025, and it was SO unexpected for me as something that i just arbitrarily picked up because i was just looking for a new game to play. I was seriously expecting just a kiss at the most, some not particularly important dialogue options that develop a small romantic relationship with a few conversations. maybe a fade-to-black, not much else. the kind of stuff i've grown used to in the games i've played. i think going in with no expectations made its iron-fisted grip on me that much stronger because when it delivered, it did it by crashing the airplane that is hansry into the twin towers of my heart and brain. both the main story and the gameplay just made everything feel so RIGHT and had me so emotionally invested in them, i felt like I was going insane.

for those of you who haven't actually played kcd2 for yourselves, please do try playing for yourself if you have the ability to, or at least watch a playthrough. experiencing how their relationship slowly develops over the course of the game makes the conclusion of it that much more satisfying (i still have to watch/play the 1st game, which i do intend on doing). but also the side quests are so fun and interesting!!! and the other characters are SO charming and likeable.

i am #1 janosh fan!!!

anyways my big rant is over, i feel much better now ahaha

[aphomic]

Dopie is Ozy's lil meow meow now I don't make the rules here

Doppie tagging behind Ozy's back bc the crowd has suddenly grown larger and he's now anxious

[bamfwizard]

"SOMEBODY KILLED MY BEST FRIEND"

my brother in Satan, you are walking out of a burning building, looking absolutely heartbroken, and there is a Queen song blasting

and that man is your BEST. FRIEND.?

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

Celegorm should not be held responsible for Lúthien’s kidnap. He was forced by Tolkien’s Catholic ideal of monogamy; Curufin was the original perpetrator and, despite lord of the rings later requiring Celebrimbor as Curufin’s son and banishing the prospect of him loving Lúthien, he remains so in spirit. #freeTyelko

[whatsfourteenupto]

So was anyone gonna tell me that when Ten was regenerating he didn’t just go back and see ‘his’ companions? He went back and looked in on every companion I’m fucking crying

[romicu0]

New vegas isn't exactly the type of game I would generally mod heavily, that being said I have modded it just enough to make boys night with matching jammies a possibility . Boys night did involve a stake out at the Mcbride house

Bonus:

[n1ghtwarden]

she won the idgaf war in the shadowfell

[grapecaseschoices]

*squints*

th ... that's it?

if you dont choose to free him you get NO conversation? NONE of the companions approach the Inquisitor about it? They dont say anything when you click them?

[optiwashere]

What does Ashreera and Shadowheart like about each other respectively? Fluff qn :)

Heya anon! I really enjoyed writing the answer to this one 💜

Because I'm me, this got kinda long-winded. All of this is stuff that's in the fics. The fluffy fics show the domestic side of things, but It Is the Wound She Gave Me and Like I Am Safe Again are the linchpins to their relationship. The Gauntlet/Nightsong fic that I'm chipping away at will be equally as important!

But I like typing about my babies soooooooo!

Shadowheart finds Asheera's bad jokes and obvious flirting endearing. Asheera's also pretty forward without disrespecting her boundaries, and Shadowheart loves that. In-game Asheera challenges her without trodding on firm "no" areas, and that's a huge show of respect. Shadowheart's low level of self-esteem gets big validation from someone like Asheera.

Even when Asheera is being a Paladin-ass Paladin™ she is always leaving room in their relationship for Shadowheart to have agency over what to share, who to be, and things like the events in the Gauntlet/Shadowfell. That's not something you get as a Sharran, and from someone that's dedicated to redeeming monsters and creating change in the world... I mean, the themes are right there!

Asheera finds Shadowheart's love of animals very telling of the kind of person she is. Asheera thinks someone who is as willing to say, "I'd rather not talk about this" as Shadowheart has a firm command of what she wants. Even if she needs nudges to know it's OK to express her desires and needs as well as what she doesn't want. The slim difference is actually huge.

Even when Shadowheart is potentially on the road to becoming a Dark Justiciar, and therefore someone that Asheera must kill, she is taking these things for herself that she deserves. Asheera might hate the choice that Shadowheart could make, but it's Shadowheart's choice. Shadowheart spares Aylin for whatever her reasons are (crisis of faith + wanting to know the memories and past that Aylin can give her) but Asheera sees it as someone that's finally embracing the fact that she is a person and she deserves to choose. When Shadowheart turns to Asheera and asks, "what should I do?" Asheera says nothing. She just nods. Shadowheart chooses for herself from that point onward.

As for in a love sense and not just a general "companionship" sense?

Shadowheart loves that Asheera isn't complicated in her love. There's nothing for her to hide with Asheera. She's tired of darkness. Asheera embraces her faults and all the things she's done as a Sharran without any hate in her heart. Though Asheera is a paladin of Redemption, she also doesn't treat Shadowheart as a project to fix. Shadowheart is just Shadowheart, and that makes it easy for her to love Asheera. She likes that no matter how she's feeling, no matter the kind of day she's had, Asheera is there for her. In anger, in joy, and in darkness.

Asheera loves Shadowheart's strength and perseverance, and the fact that she can pick herself up after something that would destroy most people. That she's extremely capable, but also that she's strong enough to share her moments of vulnerability or uncertainty. That she cares so much more than she lets on. That Shadowheart knows she can trust Asheera with anything, and that after a certain point she does.

Love is something that changes shape, especially in long-term romantic relationships. Sometimes the changes are good, though.

[vosquitransitis]

baldurs gate 3 is greatttt. really cool. dnd for people who dont gave enough friends to play dnd with.

[ettadunham]

okay, i was riding pretty high at what i assumed was the end of act 2, but that emperor fight is absolutely bullshit

[vampirebiter]

finished bg3. really good really fun.

[shatinn]

Starfield 104/?

[hiddenbeks]

hmm. im getting the feeling that carth is kinda completely useless after taris

[lacunasbalustrade]

gaito: the idiot

you’re not the strongest if you need to prove it

[fenth-eiria]

So I just found out that there was such thing as a spider beetle!!

@the-epileptic-toh-blog

How cool is that!!!