#hansry-adjacent post

[mayor-david-prentiss]

after playing thru the game entirely the dudebros who complained about the hans romance being forced upon the player are even more ridiculous BC if anything is forced on henry it's the female love interests, who the game tries to nudge you into romancing at every turn, to the point that you can just romance Katherine without committing to a single flirt option let alone a heart one lol if Hans wasn't an option in this game henry would be the most painfully heterosexual playboy ever

[liorlenn]

(Spoilers for KCD2 romance)

One thing that really surprised me about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (particularly the Hansry romance) was the direct reference to Galehaut and Lancelot (let me tell you I CHEERED), so I wanted to start talking about some other queer medieval Arthurian texts and Arthuriana adjacent texts.

I’m by no means an expert (I focus more on Welsh poetry and prose) but medieval Welsh literature includes some Arthurian literature, so I know a little about Arthurian Literature in general. Most of these stories are either Old French or German and about 13th century. SGATGK is 14th century.

For one, I want to say that the tale being referenced in the game is the Vulgate Cycle or the Lancelot-Grail Cycle (the Vulgate Cycle itself is multiple parts, with Lancelot’s (The Story of Lancelot/Prose Lancelot) being the largest). It’s a big ol’ mash up and retelling of a huge part of the early tradition + new stuff. There’s also the Post-Vulgate which is itself a retelling of the Vulgate Cycle. This is NOT the one you want if you’re looking for Lancelot and Galehaut.

Another thing of note about the Vulgate is that Galehaut and Lancelot are not the only ones I would give the old side eye. Gawain says (about Lancelot even!), “If God were to grant me my health… I’d immediately wish to be the most beautiful maiden in the world, happy and healthy, on condition that he would love me above all others…” Come on man.

Now, for other queer texts!

First up, I have to plug my best friend and my silly rabbit: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Thanks to the movie (which was good but fairly different) this one is a bit more well-known. I could talk endlessly about the moral of the original story and I think the Gawain Poet is incredibly talented at weaving together imagery. I also appreciate Gawain’s willingness to kiss women AND men. Some argue that it’s not queer because of differing social norms but personally I think Gawain wanted it. And by it, haha well let’s jusrt say—

Next we have Parzival/Percival (referencing the German “version” by Wolfram von Eschenbach here. Each iteration of a “Percival”, including Chrétien de Troyes’ earlier (and unfinished) Story of the Grail, all have their own differences). This one is even more up to interpretation than SGATGK. There’s a very explicitly performative aspect to Parzival’s presentation (his gender is “knight”), focusing distinctly on clothing and the role clothing plays in others’ reactions to him that I think is very relatable. I don’t have much else to say about this one unfortunately. I read parts of it once years ago but it was super interesting and there has been scholarship done on Parzival and gender so…. take what you will from it.

The next stories are Arthurian adjacent (as in, medieval stories about knights). First off: Le Roman de Silence is either about a woman knight or a trans knight who is… sighs. Forcibly outed. Interesting read but definitely a bit of a downer if you interpret Silence as a trans man.

Yde et Olive, however is very explicitly about a trans man! Happy ending too! I was incredibly surprised to read a 13th century story about a trans man getting magical/miraculous top and bottom surgery (yes, forreal).

And to cap off this small list, here is some medieval Welsh literature. This one is just me being a little wistful, but let me tell you about Blodeuedd/Blodeuwedd and the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi (Math fab Mathonwy). This one is…sad. It’s not a good ending for Blodeuedd, but I could wax poetic about her: how she was fashioned from flowers to fulfill a gendered role. How she failed to do so and was punished.

There are plenty of other stories with queer interpretations in Arthuriana and other medieval literature (do not get me started on Guinevere and Morgan le Fay’s whole… thing. Also Luned and her Lady…) and there are plenty of modern/early modern retellings that are explicitly queer. I just wanted to stick to medieval texts for this and also limit myself to a select few among that even.

[steppenwolfslair]

My probably very unpopular opinion is that i don’t want a KCD3 with Henry or one that has anything to do with those characters and plots.

I think KCD2 finished things off very nicely, i think they tied the ribbon on a lot of things especially Henry’s story. I think you can follow and imagine the historical events well enough in your head or make up something else entirely. We know this is how Henry’s story was planned from the beginning, KCD1 literally flows into the second game while the second game goes “i don’t know what do you think Henry wants? What do YOU want to happen?” and I personally really enjoy that.

I know Hansry fans want that angsty ending and more to them specifically and I get it completely but whole game wise? They would have to account for a lot of things which would be hard to pull off or feel contradictory to the way you have ended your game and played as Henry. They'd have to throw things away probably or hollow them out to fit a larger narrative, reduce characters again to short cameos (and there are a lot at this point). To me it would feel forced.

Hansry especially would be difficult to fully implement and i fear would disappoint overall because remember a lot of people don’t romance Hans (we are in a lovely queer bubble here folks but it’s a bubble nonetheless).

They’d also have to find a whole new dumb way to nerf Henry and push him off a cliff again or something.

If there is to be a third game or something adjacent let it be its own new great thing.

They said Henry’s story is supposed to be done with KCD 2 but who knows, with the success of the second game maybe they make a third one with him but I would be disappointed.

In a time where we drag every franchise out until it becomes a husk of itself, let good things end.

ADDED:

Also you can disagree with me, i do think my opinion is a largely minority one. Sort of the point of an actual unpopular opinion. I really don’t feel like debating it in comments when i gave all my reasonings pretty clearly so just… make your own post or something please and thank you. Not trying to be passive aggressive or anything but no one is trying to or will change anyones mind here so if you heavily disagree or want to debate go find someone else. My blog most certainly isn’t an open forum where i will steadfastly defend all my personal opinions, I will delete comments or block annoying people instantly.

(yes i had to block someone hence the ADDED)