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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has received two nominations in this year's Gayming Awards celebrating queer culture in games, with the whole RPG up for "fan favorite" and companion Sir Hans Capon in the running for best LGBTQ+ character. This news comes as a delight to Daniel Vávra, co-founder of developer Warhorse Studios, who seems oddly insistent that Kingdom Come's approach to gay romance is somehow correct or superior compared to games and stories "rightfully called 'woke' these days."
In a lengthy Twitter post, Vávra says he's "really proud" that the Gayming Awards nominated Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for elements that he personally "had to convince others to do" within the studio. Yet, simultaneously, he criticizes other, unspecified games for all the things he says Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn't do, like "shoving it down anyone’s throat or trying to re-educate them".
"I absolutely stand by the fact that the way we did it is exactly how something like this should be done," he says. "Non-coercively, naturally, and educationally (because we show how things really were in the Middle Ages without idealizing them)". This wouldn't be the first time historical accuracy has become a wedge for the Kingdom Come series, though I have to admit I didn't expect the LGBT double-wedge.
Vávra continues, "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."
The ordinary truth underneath this emphatic statement is that Kingdom Come: Deliverance protagonist Henry isn't gay, nor is romance with Hans foisted upon you. If we're going to treat every option as canon, Henry is bisexual, as he can also pursue multiple medieval ladies in the sequel. Or, in an interpretation where his sexuality is purely up to the player – which, putting on my thinking cap and using my context clues, seems to be the intent – he can be straight.
In conclusion, Vávra says, with aggressive commas, "I believe, that absolute majority of people get it just as it was intended and the sales and user reviews prove it. None of that means, that I personally don’t find the abundance of forced 'woke' nonsense in the entertainment industry annoying at the same time :) Thank you all!"
Vávra's point about "choice" on Henry's sexuality, nailed inseparably to familiar accusations of creators "shoving" LGBT stories or characters onto people, does make you wonder what would be deemed unacceptable here. Making Henry gay or bi as a default, perhaps? What naturally follows is, in Vávra's view, would it be a problem for another game to have an indisputably gay or bi lead, for people who specifically want that or want to create that? But this paragraph ain't got time to unpack that. Really, my only immediate thought here is this: has this tweet "made the gay community happy"?
