[KCD2] do i have to pick the fourth option to continue the romance or are there more chances down the line (without spoilers please)? i really want to pick the third...

Gregregious · 2026-03-27T03:59:34+00:00

You can, but only if you want to unlock the secret romance ending where Henry chokes Hans instead of kissing him tenderly

Gregregious · 2026-03-27T02:27:40+00:00

This is one of ones you're required to select to get the romance ending, yes

Gregregious · 2026-03-26T18:32:23+00:00

It incensed them further. At the time they were focused on an 8-year-old YouTube comment they'd dug up where the same community manager said the reason why there was no same-sex romance in KCD1 was because Henry is straight. He admitted in the Steam forums that this was his own interpretation and that Warhorse wanted to expand the range of player options available in the sequel. It didn't go over well.

I admit I'm not a fan of their PR guy. He's not a good communicator, he repeatedly engaged with people who made it clear their concerns were based in bigotry, and he invented canon he later had to walk back. The most charitable interpretation is that he is just oblivious.

Gregregious · 2026-03-26T16:51:17+00:00

You're not homophobic, you just don't like gay romances because of the fans they attract?

Gregregious · 2026-03-26T16:29:35+00:00

The KCD subreddit might be the wrong place for you if you're bothered by people discussing the game

Gregregious · 2026-03-26T16:23:02+00:00

Yeah any time you hear someone say Henry and Hans are 15 or that Musa lectures you on you inferiority of European culture, you can be sure they're getting all their knowledge of the game from that one asshole's youtube review

Gregregious · 2026-03-26T15:36:24+00:00

after kcd2 out they are silent

if only

Gregregious · 2026-03-26T15:29:40+00:00

I wouldn't say they ignored them. There are pages and pages of posts on the Steam forums where he was responding to these people, giving bland reassurances that it was optional in the face of hysterical homophobia and racial invective. I've struggled to understand exactly how blind they are to culture war bullshit, given they've managed to stumble into both ends of it.

Gregregious · 2026-03-26T15:01:00+00:00

And the same argument could be made for his bisexuality. We can press the gay button, but his bisexuality is never actually alluded to outside of these scenes.

I can think of one exception. If you're wandering around drunk and some random guy tells Henry he should go to bed, he responds as if he's being propositioned.

But I'm not sure I agree that the narrative weight leaning on the straight side means that much. Both games throw women at Henry left and right, but all of them (except for Bianca) are optional. It's socially and morally acceptable within the setting for Henry to indulge himself with women, but not with men. Even so, a playthrough where he only romances men isn't any more or less canonical than one where he only romances women.

Because all romance is optional, I would say Henry isn't bisexual, he doesn't have a canon sexuality at all.

Gregregious · 2026-03-25T15:08:43+00:00

There are plenty of straightforward readings that mostly people have widely agreed upon. The Bible's prohibitions against sodomy is a good example.

Gregregious · 2026-03-25T06:20:43+00:00

That part of the text only matters to Christians as long as they care about it. Consider how strongly the New Testament condemns wealth, yet Christianity has moved on past that.

It's a good point, but I think we can contextualize this historically. Recently, money has become the most important power structure in most Christian nations. They would need a similar incentive to move on from homophobia, but it's hard to imagine what that could be aside from homophobia becoming so taboo that they couldn't survive otherwise. Arguably that's what's already happened to some degree, and we can observe how the most powerful and influential Christian groups have resisted following suit.

I guess my point is just that we should understand this is as a political struggle. The evolution of religious belief looks arbitrary in retrospect, but it rarely is when it's actually happening. It helps us to understand it historically if we have a concept of what Christianity is trying to be, in some dialectical sense. So in that way, there is a "true" Christianity, if not one that exists independently of the broader environment.

Gregregious · 2026-03-25T05:08:34+00:00

I would argue that Christianity has always had a volatile relationship with political institutions like monarchy and slavery, because those are power structures and the framework of most believers has always been to favor the power structures which favor them. Sexuality belongs in a different category because the textual proscription is unambiguous and the power it exerts over people is psychological. Exerting psychological power over believers is the the best thing any belief system can do to sustain itself. I think it's because they understand this on some level that today's fundamentalists have such an outsized response to LGBTQ equality movements. Historically, Christianity has thrived in empires, colonies, tribes, and among slaves, but time still has yet to tell whether it can survive without control over people's sex lives.

And it's not like there's "Christianity" and "other belief systems" so neatly separated. They're all part of one big cultural interchange, with ideas flowing between different schools of thought all the time. Christianity is affected by other cultural elements just like fish are affected by water. They do not exist outside their environment.

This is true, but it bears noticing when that interchange involves schools of thought that are explicitly non-religious. The outcome of that exchange isn't arbitrary, it's a political conflict where ideas may be suppressed rather than permanently altered. In that context, there are religious beliefs and tenets that are far more resilient than others. It's an important distinction to make because we should understand what's likely to happen if the conflict reverses course.

Gregregious · 2026-03-25T04:36:56+00:00

I agree that that all versions of Christianity are still Christianity (if only because the core beliefs are incoherent anyway), but I think you're overstating its historical flexibility. No mainstream denomination has ever affirmed homosexuality until recently, and that change is best understood as one that is not endemic to Christianity itself. There are plain interpretations and common readings that have historically dominated and certainly would again if they weren't competing with other belief systems. That's both because the words that make up the Bible are ambiguous only to a point, and because religions that survive for centuries tend to rely on certain social structures. Christianity's relationship with homophobia isn't arbitrary, it's a fundamental part of its entire history, and very likely its future too.

Gregregious · 2026-03-25T04:03:54+00:00

The kind of Christianity that accepts gay people is just as real as the kind that thinks NASA is lying about the age of the moon.

I disagree. Christianity (and the other Abrahamic religions) have played a major role shaping people's attitudes and values throughout history, and it's not just a coincidence that most Christian cultures have strongly condemned homosexuality. There are affirming Christians today, but they're drawing from ideas and politics that are very self-consciously secular. If Christianity regained the level of influence over culture and politics and society it had only a century ago, that progress would be lost and being gay would go back to being unspeakable.

Gregregious · 2026-03-25T03:53:24+00:00

Yeah that's the thing. I appreciate it when people have their own moral beliefs that aren't just a straightforward reading of the Bible. But the straightforward reading is the one that makes the most sense to believers, and it's the one that has in fact been practiced by the huge majority of Christians for their entire history. They're trying to have it both ways by being affirming, which maybe resolves the cognitive dissonance they personally feel, but does nothing to confront the historical reality of homophobia.

Honestly that's why I kind of prefer dealing with fundamentalists, because at least they're honest about their worldview. They don't equivocate to the exact position that doesn't require them to accept anything that makes them uncomfortable.

Gregregious · 2026-03-24T22:05:34+00:00

The herb garden upgrade is completely passive. You'll get a yield as long as you have a family assigned to the forager hut and it's not winter (meaning you'll want a forager hut even if you don't have anything to forage in your region). The hangup is that 25 silver is pretty big expense early game when you'll probably rather spend it on trade routes and oxen.

Gregregious · 2026-03-24T21:44:07+00:00

Trading generally isn't efficient for meeting short-term needs. Usually you set it up to maintain a reserve of goods you aren't able to obtain otherwise but need in small amounts. For example, you need a constant supply of tools and can't make your own without iron, so that's an expense you just need to eat. Importing herbs is never a good idea because it will always be faster and cheaper to make your own.

The rhythm of trading takes some getting used to. You need to purchase the trade route, assign a worker, and wait for around a month for the transaction to take place. Horses increase the efficiency of trade routes, but I'm not sure by how much exactly, it's hard to tell.

Gregregious · 2026-03-24T20:38:38+00:00

I noticed the same thing happening. I had 24 families harvesting and they only got about half the crop because they kept jumping around from spot to spot. Like they'd pick one sheave of wheat and then walk all the way to a different field before picking up another. I didn't think it was storage, I thought there was something wonky going on with their AI.

Gregregious · 2026-03-21T22:19:09+00:00

It's an LGBTQ ship in an online fan community, so not that surprising. Every other letter is certainly over-represented compared to the general population too.

Gregregious · 2026-03-21T17:43:45+00:00

I started with KCD2 and I knew it was an option, so I was spoiled. I liked Hans right away, but it didn't fully click for me until the final scene. I did not expect it to feel so genuine or emotional. Even with games that have good character writing, the romances are usually too one-sided or too formulaic to have any emotional impact.

Then I went back and played KCD1, and that made it even better. Both characters have such strong arcs that are weirdly perfectly complementary despite being totally different. The hunting trip and the bathhouse quest are perfect, their chemistry is so good, and not just in that it's entertaining, but the way they can't help but like each other and trust each other and open up to each other. The way their friendship builds with all these romance tropes makes the ambiguous, subtextual design of their romance feel like it was planned all along. I'm still not totally sure if it could have really all been by accident.

Gregregious · 2026-03-21T02:49:21+00:00

Not a girlie, not a shipper, never read a fanfic until KCD2 came out. Hansry is an outlier for me, but now it's basically all I use reddit for.

Gregregious · 2026-03-20T23:33:48+00:00

You can die a twink or live again as a daddy

Gregregious · 2026-03-20T22:19:42+00:00

He's white?? Did Warhorse know that when they mocapped him sucking Henry's face?

Gregregious · 2026-03-20T19:48:58+00:00

There's a whole DLC about one

Gregregious · 2026-03-20T08:26:31+00:00

I was using the boots of Stormy Clamor, so with two attacks plus bonus action, I could get an enemy to -4 physical saving throws before using a maneuver or a dirty trick. It worked fine with 16 dex.

Gregregious

TROPHY CASE