#kcd: meta

[apoptoses]

Hans' gold pourpoint lives rent free in my mind because his decision to wear that for the majority of kcd2 says so much about him and his image he's trying to project.

Because the thing about it is that it's pretty obviously a reconstruction of Charles de Blois' pourpoint, which exists in the musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs de Lyon.

It's made from cloth of gold brocade- the only kind of fabric of the period that would shine in candlelight the way Hans' pourpoint does. The ground of the fabric on the extant pourpoint is ivory silk. Hans' changes colors depending on the lighting- sometimes in Trosky it looks scarlet, most of the time it looks gold. Either way the weave of the fabric is a combination of silk and threads wrapped with extremely finely beaten sheets of actual gold.

It's theorized that the fabric on the extant example was imported from the middle east. And I cannot emphasize how complex of a weave this is because this is before the invention of the jacquard loom, which functioned with punch cards like early computers. These ridiculously expensive threads had to all be dropped and adjusted by hand to get this pattern.

And the thing is- Hans' is even more complex. It's not a geometric repeat, it has scrolling vines and an intensely complicated pattern of birds and deer which makes it even more precious. You can see it a bit here:

The cost of this fabric would have been staggering. And fabric in the era was narrow, maybe 20" wide, and since Hans is a tall man he would need a good deal of fabric for this. Then you add on the fact that it's all pattern matched so that the design is unbroken by the button down chest, and his sleeves are well matched. And the grand assiette sleeves with their unusual tailoring would take even more fabric to keep everything nicely matched up.

Then there's the buttons all the way down the front and on the sleeves, with button holes bound by hand in what would have been silk thread. It can take a good fifteen minutes to cut and bind a buttonhole nicely, so the time spent on those alone is astounding. Each button would be handmade by stuffing a circle of fabric with wool wadding and binding off the end into a thread covered stump (which takes ages to do well, I've never achieved a nice stuffed button in less than ten minutes).

The chest would have also had extra wool padding in it (meaning extra effort to shape and sew it) in order to achieve the wasp-waist effect that gives him such powerful looking shoulders.

So his pourpoint alone is worth more money than most peasant farmers would see in a year. Even in a lifetime, maybe.

It's finer than anything we see on any other character in the game. Von Bergow's clothes are that of a rural lord in comparison. Even Sigismund's royal attire isn't so obviously valuable.

It's also, by nature of being a pourpoint, a military garment at its core. Charles de Blois' pourpoint has arming points in it even though its good condition suggests that it was worn for some ceremony and then probably never used again.

Then you add his hood. Red dye was common, though certain shades of scarlet could be far more expensive. To my eye the gold design on it isn't just simple embroidery but goldwork, aka more real gold threads tacked down to glitter in candlelight, aka even more money worn on his person.

(How he got all of this stuff takes some mental gymnastics- the pourpoint is too well fitted to not have been made for him. Maybe it did belong to him at the start of the game, was picked up by the bandits and sold along to Trosky where it was returned to him. Even a team of the best tailors couldn't put this together in the hours between him being released from the gallows and him going to meet Von Bergow in his chambers, and I highly doubt he would accept Von Bergow's cast offs no matter how fine they are.)

Which is all to say that by wearing this Hans is trying so hard to assert himself as a man of means, worthy of respect. He wants to be noticed. In a room full of well dressed men you still would not be able to take your eyes off the young man wearing more gold on his back than a country lord would ever dream of owning. He wants to be seen as a man who is ready for glorious battle, a true knight in his beautiful pourpoint.

Although sumptuary laws weren't as punishing as they would later be during the renaissance, it could also be read as him reaching above his station a bit because after all, how is the Lord of Pirkstein out dressing the usurper king? It's something of an insult that Lord Capon walks into a room looking like this when his betters don't even dress with such flash.

And that makes it hit all the harder when, at Suchdol during Von Bergow's interrogation, all the men in the room talk over him as though he's not there. He can wear his fine pourpoint but he's not respected as a lord or a military man. It doesn't matter what he does to project the image of a nobleman- he's still not treated as one. For someone who truly believes clothes make the man and everyone should follow social rules as prescribed this has to be a real kick in the gut.

Hans looks like a prince from an illuminated manuscript but none of that matters to the robber barons he's surrounded by. Just another ugly lesson that the rules of the world apply don't seem to apply when it comes to him.

[apoptoses]

restarted kcd2 after finishing kcd1 and i'm just. gobsmacked at how half-baked the plan to deliver the message to von bergow is. like you're sending:

two hot headed young men who have just had their first taste of real warfare and have never really been outside the leipa area, and who are both the only living direct heirs to their respective lands

one older man who might have fighting experience but is getting up in his years

one young man who may or may not have a lot of fighting experience

two other men at arms

maybe this would be fine in peace time but you're sending them fresh off a siege, proudly wearing their household colors, into enemy territory that's riddled with bandits. and you literally just let ishtvan toth and erik, a pair of ruthless men who now have a real grudge and know henry and hans' faces, go free the day before. and the group seemingly has no guidance on what to do should the worst happen or any idea of who to turn to except for the enemy himself, von bergow.

like i can't decide if this is egotistical on everyone's part because they're high on a big win at talmberg, or if it's just poorly thought out and set up to fail, or both. there's no excuse to send two valuable heirs (even if henry is technically still a legally unrecognized bastard) out with such a small retinue in these conditions.

with the way hans reacts to the idea of going back to rattay after the attack it makes me wonder how much other half-baked stuff he was sent to do around rattay, and then mocked for failing to complete the task. he's so worried about being branded a failure that he doesn't stop to think about how maybe the job was unreasonable in the first place.

and genuinely not trying to woobify or downplay his competance and his flaws, but how many times can someone be given an unsuitable job and then told they're useless for not being able to do it before they stop trying and just resign themselves to acting like the fool they're told they are? what was life with hanush as a guide for how to rule even like?

and how was henry meant to do well on this job when no one has really taken him aside and taught him how to function as a nobleman's escort? if everyone thinks hans is a fool why are they relying on him to teach henry how to behave? why didn't radzig give him any useful instruction at all instead of throwing him straight out of the frying pan and into the fire? he's known how to handle a weapon for like three weeks and has a one track mind about that sword and toth, surely he won't get side tracked or start trouble himself.

it's like everyone is so caught up in their little political games that they can't be bothered to care that they're failing these young men, who they should be setting up to lead in the wake of all of this.

[apoptoses]

I had Henry express doubt in the plan during Oratores, and Zizka immediately snapped back that his plans always worked out until Henry came along.

Which just made me so sad, because it's not the first time someone has told Henry he's the source of all their problems, even when things are in no way his fault. Hans says similar when they're in the pillory, that his life went to shit when Henry showed up. (Though to Hans' credit, he is the only one who has ever taken his words back and apologized, and admitted that Henry has saved him in so many ways.)

Then there's the blame Zizka lays on him for the men who died at Maleshov when he refuses to let the village burn, as if it was his fault that Dry Devil was going to go above and beyond just setting a barn on fire for a distraction and kill the entire village instead. Zizka directly blames Henry for those deaths and won't hear any protest about the fact that it was either them or innocent families. It is, in Zizka's eyes, Henry's fault it went 'wrong'. Which is a hard pill to swallow because even if they had burned the village some of their men would have died when the guards ran out anyways. There will always be casualties in war, and those 'good' men were mercenaries, possibly even bandits and cutthroats themselves.

So I wonder how heavy Henry carries those words. Like he's already full of survivor's guilt in so many ways- he certainly thinks his parents dying is his fault because he ran. Is it his fault that Talmberg was attacked because that's the first place he ran to? Is it his fault if Semine burns, even if Lord Semine lives? Is it his fault Hans almost got hanged because he couldn't convince him not to poach? Is it his fault Raborsch happened because he couldn't ride out from Kuttenberg fast enough, or is it his fault that so many in the Jewish quarter died because he wasn't still there and had to ride back? Does his entire existence bring bad things wherever he goes?

It's just so sad how little praise he gets for the good he does, because it's a proven fact it takes multiple instances of praise to outweigh one instance of criticism. Thank god for the common people he helps on side quests, and for Hans, because in every other aspect of his life he's treated as if success is expected and therefore not exceptional, but failure trickles down the chain of command until the blame is laid right on him.

[apoptoses]

so fascinated by a troublesome mind 👀 how much time does it span? like, a couple of months after kcd2 i presume? i have a lot of questions about the control over their own bodies thing but i assume most will be answered by the fic itself hahaha

ahhh thank you!!!

yeah, it's pretty immediately after everyone packs up and leaves suchdol. i think the logical thing is for them to go to devil's den because regardless of the recent big win things are still tenuous, von bergow is still out there with a grudge and there's safety in numbers.

but hans is right- devil's den can be fucking boring. it's remote, there's the same small group of people there day in and day out. so how do he and henry cope with that level of 'peace' after a lot of tumultuous events? how are they restricted to certain coping methods by their own bodies?

because with hans there's something i think about a lot that's called 'the body politic'. which is the concept that as a member of the ruling class you have two bodies: your physical body, and your body as a representation of the state. a sick noble body, or an injured noble body, or a noble body in danger creates danger for the state and its people. hans is constantly held back from dangerous situations because it would be needless risk to his noble body, and thus needless risk to his people. he is sold into marriage because the creation of an heir is a source of safety for the state. his body is a tool he has little control over, that leads him to be talked over and forced to sit around and wait rather than take action.

and you'd think that henry would have the opposite experience, because as a bastard he doesn't have enough noble blood to be part of the body politic. but by virtue of not having 'enough' noble blood his body becomes disposable. he's sent on dangerous tasks not just because he's very good at what he does, but also because he's a bastard, he's unmarried, he's not held down by a job or dependents. so long as he is working as a type of military personnel he has no control over his body because he is taking orders and using his body as a weapon/tool of the state.

and i think that so long as he's at devil's den with zizka around henry would continue to take orders. he's got survivor's guilt, he knows he is good at what he does. if he doesn't go, someone else will, and that someone else could die because he said no to a job so- fuck it. he'll do it. he'll accept the orders and the danger.

then on top of this you mix in the intrusive memories of the things they've experienced, the killing and the gallows and cannon fire. stuff they have no words for and no way to cope with except to seek out constant stimulation so they don't have to think about it.

so how do they handle being passengers in their own bodies and issues of self-control?

well obviously there's hunting and drinking and taking on jobs from zizka.

but between the two of them, they're in this new relationship where they're excited about being physical with each other in the first place, right? i think it would be natural to fall into the trap of using fucking as a vehicle to keep their minds busy and keep them from talking about the things that weigh on them. if hans is seeking the thrill of danger that's often denied to him and henry is seeking to feel in control in some part of his life it would be easy for them to seek that in sex (and do it without negotiating it at all).

but eventually they have to talk about this and how they're living and how still being mixed in with this war is affecting them. someone has to crack (henry). they can't stay in this place forever.

so YEAH that's the thesis, that's probably way more than anyone wanted to know and if anyone read all of this i'll be surprised LOL but this is all really at the top of my mind rn and it feels like the kind of fic i could easily write a second part to because there's so much to mine here.

[apoptoses]

there’s this one recent Hansry post that I rlly like and I think I’ve seen u reblog it. The one where Hans makes Henry worse because of he’s loved again (not exactly fully neg). Anyway, I love your recent fic “This Troublesome Mind” and I’m wondering if something along the lines of that will be touched on somewhat? Also, what’re your thoughts on Hans making Henry worse in general? I personally think they kinda make each other worse lolol

anon I hadn't seen that post but ilu for bringing it to my attention!!

gosh this is a meaty question. i have to think about how to answer without spoiling things too much.

i think that any time hans thinks he is trying to make henry better he's misguided- what's actually going on is a power struggle between hans and everyone else who asks henry to do things. because ultimately he feels that if he's the one assigning henry jobs then he knows best. he's not going to ask things of henry that henry cannot handle (in his mind) and zizka or dry devil or any peasant that gives henry a task doesn't know what they're asking of him.

he also has the (misguided) idea that if henry has a violent urge in him like dry devil says, then having henry rough him up will somehow sate that, and he can control henry's propensity to violence in that sense and have him do violence safely (he can't).

ultimately something IS going to happen that makes henry worse, but in the post-violence PTSD sense. and they are both going to be aware that any 'break' from their lifestyle they take is going to be short lived, and they will always come back to (sometimes violent) thrill seeking because they no longer know any other way to live. war has changed them both.

in general, i think hans makes henry worse in that they're a foil to istvan and erik, right? istvan, who henry insulted by saying he likes to sit back and send his mad dog boys to do the bloody work for him. hans is not so different- if henry is his body guard, his castellan, his right hand man who will do ANYTHING to protect him then there is a slippery slope he can step onto. hans could very easily point and henry would draw the blade for him.

because it means something that hans has a strong reaction to 'his' people being killed at suchdol, and he has a strong reaction to seeing peasants slaughtered, but when henry murders 6+ people at maleshov to get him out of that castle he says nothing. so either he's unbothered, thrilled by it, or bothered but not going to say anything (and thus enabling). personally i head canon him as thrilled by it/horrified at himself for being thrilled, that finally someone loves him enough that they'd do anything, even go so far as killing to save him.

does henry make hans worse? I don't know. I can see ways in which henry makes hans better, because he aspires to be something more than just the lout after getting to know henry. but if he wanted to be a bit of a despot i think henry could enable that quite easily if henry also felt the ends justified the means.

neither of them are the other's conscience in a 'jiminy cricket' sort of way, they're both the angel AND the devil on each others shoulders and they could go either way tbh!!