Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is up for a couple of awards from Gayming Magazine for its portrayal of the LGBTQ+ relationship Henry and Hans can have, if you opt to pursue it. Daniel Vávra, the game’s creative director, current Kingdom Come movie maker, and also sayer of many GamerGatey things in the past, has done a tweet about these nominations.
“I’m really proud of that, because I absolutely stand by the fact that the way we did it is exactly how something like this should be done,” he wrote of Deliverance 2’s Hans/Henry relationship. “Non-coercively, naturally, and educationally (because we show how things really were in the Middle Ages without idealising them) – and without shoving it down anyone’s throat or trying to re-educate them like so many titles that are rightfully called ‘woke’ these days.
“We made the gay community happy and gave them the CHOICE to be themselves, just like we did for others in other choices and quests, and anyone who isn’t interested probably didn’t even notice. Except, of course, for very small and very loud minority. It was my idea, my decision and my responsibility and I had to convince others to do it.” Vávra closed by declaring that none of these words mean he doesn’t “find the abundance of forced ‘woke’ nonsense in the entertainment industry annoying at the same time.”
He’s since gone on to reply to almost every comment under the post, including having a mini-argument with someone pretending to be Tony Soprano who reckons Henry and Hans being able to get together in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was forced into the game as a result of some sort of pressure from a mystery Embracer Group investor.
Now, repeat after me: There is nothing at all both amusing and sad about Vávra’s desire to position himself as anti-woke in his post about KC:D2 winning awards for a deftly-executed gay romance option, the inclusion of which has inarguably been a huge positive for the game and its players, leading him to have to endlessly protest that said romance option was nothing at all like the gay representation in games he believes are woke.
You could write books about the tortured ‘woke” culture wars around Kingdom Come: Deliverance and its sequel. At the same time, I’m not sure there’s anything more complex going on here than someone getting their wires crossed in an effort to not seem like they’re contradicting their established hateful views, in a post that seems powered at its core by taking credit for something out of desire to satiate their own ego.
Congrats to all of the other folks who worked on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Hans/Henry relationship on these award noms.
