okay thinking about how henry's romance lines to hans aren't flirting but simply outright expressing genuine affection,,, how long do you think it's been since anybody has been Nice to hans, with no strings attached. i doubt his uncle pays him many compliments, and i imagine most people see him status first, wealth second, man maybe third. how fast do you think he latches onto the one person who simultaneously doesn't give a shit and also cares the utmost
this wasn't exactly about henry, as promised, but he's in there lmao
YOURE SO RIGHT ANON YOU UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and honestly im so convinced that hans is the one who realizes he has feelings first, because i like to think henry is dense as hell to his own. but i swear hans is trying desperately to be in denial about it
the way he keeps insisting he and henry will spend time together after all this, talking about hunting again (and almost nervously rambling about it) or chasing after women, but he keeps framing the idea back into their old dynamic, how they were before hans almost died at trosky (which i still think is where their dynamic begins to shift into something closer, softer, something more than a selfish lord and his new favorite plaything, like they were in kcd1). but when henry always follows up with nothing but honest, genuine sentiments about how he likes spending time specifically with hans, how his ever-loyal protection isnt about duty but because he cares, hans' mask of "like old times" or just casual camaraderie seems to almost crack, lets a little affection seep through in his words, and he does admit that it "goes without saying" that he enjoys henrys company, goes even further in the passageway (which i do think by then, after the big battle there, hes relenting more to expressing how he actually feels) to admit he does genuinely care about henry, even if he "doesnt always show it". and it just!!! makes me insane because how long was hans trying to be in denial before henrys steady affection and honesty just slowly disarmed him completely, and he had to admit it to himself? started thinking about the two of them in relation to galehaut and lancelot to try to make sense of it? it haunts me
for the ask: dan and amy for (10, 15, 21, 26, 35, 37, 41, 46, 50) hope this helps distract!
Hi anon - this was very distracting, thank you!
For my sanity, I’m going to ignore S7. I think there’s a way to incorporate S7 into some of these answers but only if Bill has died and fifty years have passed and Dan’s in his luxury Laguna Beach bungalow on his fourth divorce and regretting everything. S7 Dan has no feelings or inner life whatsoever, he’s just a sex robot made up of teeth-whitening products and GQ magazine fashion tips.
10 - If something already happened to tear them apart, what would make them come back together? Is it even possible? In the show, Amy somewhat gets over the fact that Dan sleeps with her sister, which is like maybe the worst thing you can do to someone in the normal world (not even close to the top of the list in Veep-world.) And while she is justifiably furious and horrified by it, I think her terrible experience with Buddy and the fact that Dan actually made it clear to her that he only slept with Sophie for professional reasons is what allows her to open up to him again in the back half of S6.
Wait, I am already breaking my rule—I do think there was a way for S7-Veep to bring them together at the end (I explore it in this fic here: https:/archiveofourown.org/works/18572953), but it would have required more attention to their relationship than Mandel was interested in giving. If he had allowed the sex-psychopath version of Dan to actually feel his attraction to Dark!Amy (and not immediately reject it for whatever mysterious reason—girlfriends don’t count, this is Dan), to consider where it could take them, there was a compelling narrative way for them to move forward and to create a new kind of relationship between them. It would NOT have resembled the earlier version of their relationship, but it would have been very in keeping with the S7 absurdity, and the fact that they didn’t go there says all you need to know.
15 - Who misses the other more, or really thinks about them more? On a day-to-day basis, I imagine Dan thinks about Amy more, and probably texts her a lot throughout the day because he can’t stand the idea that she might not be thinking about him 24/7. Amy is a lot better at blocking out distractions (Dan) when she needs to focus on work. During their estrangement, I think Amy dwelled over their relationship and her hurt feelings a lot in S5, and then refused to let herself think about him anymore when Buddy came along. In S5, Dan’s too busy pretending he doesn’t care to really think about her, and then in S6, he’s too busy exploring all the pleasures of his new NYC media life.
I do have a head-canon that he drunks-dials her one time while she’s in Nevada.
21 - What’s the thing they miss most about each other? Dan misses the way Amy’s always busting his balls, the way she’s always fired up about something, misses how transparent she is around him, misses how smart she is (I love that moment when he gets all annoyed with Brie about the IRS and her taxes or whatever.) Basically, he misses his political partner-in-crime. Amy misses how paradoxically relaxing she find Dan’s presence (when he’s not being an asshole to her on purpose), misses how well he takes direction from her, misses the way he makes her laugh.
26 - Who would take longer to let go? Do they ever really “let go”? I think Amy lets go of things eventually, but she never forgets. Dan lets go of things instantaneously, as needed.
35 - Do they have any regrets (regarding the other, or just in general)? Dan would say he doesn’t have any regrets. However, I do think S5 Dan probably on some level regrets sleeping with Sophie, because he gained nothing from it and it blows up his relationship with his best friend. He also regrets all the times he wasn’t cunning enough to avoid being fired. But again, he doesn’t actually process any of these things as regrets.
I also suspect that Amy regrets jumping into things with Buddy so quickly, acknowledging it for the act of emotional desperation that it was. Maybe it helped her get over Dan’s betrayal, but in the end she was humiliated in an even more public way by Buddy than by Dan. In her more humorous moods, she regrets not forcing Selina to fire Dan on day two of his job in the veep’s office.
37 - Who is more prone to anger? Amy has by far the bigger temper, and runs hot. We don’t see Dan angry very much—he tends to go for whiny and bitchy when something goes wrong, rather than genuine rage—but I think he’s a lot colder and more implacable than Amy is when he’s truly furious. I’m thinking of his reaction to Gary in 4.01, when they’ve realized that Selina is missing her glasses.
41 - Who’s more likely to protect the other? Dan, not that Amy really needs protecting. But he’s often more attuned to her physical needs and emotional cues—he knows when she’s about to explode and needs a second to breathe, realizes when she’s had one cup of coffee too many, probably forces her to eat something when it’s been too long. See episode 2.02—he defends her from her family, offers her a way to escape them.
46 - Who stays up at night brooding? - AMY. Dan goes right to sleep like the happy sociopath he is.
50 - If one of them were to come back after a long time, who would come to who? would it go well? Would the other person take them back? Whatever might tear them apart, Dan would come back to Amy first and try to pretend like nothing bad had happened between them (how Ron Weasley of him). I actually do think the funeral in the finale is evidence for this: Dan’s not the one to acknowledge how much time has passed and he basically speaks to her like they ran into each other last week at the grocery store. In S5, he only brings up Sophie one time, right after they get back from Nevada, and otherwise, he clearly wants to forget the whole thing ever happened.
As for Amy taking him back…we obviously never get there in the show, but I do think it’s notable that when Dan reenters her life in S1, after having used her so callously, by the end of S4 he occupies a central role in her life again, after two-ish years of working together so closely and relying on each other personally and professionally. Basically, he unconsciously proves himself as someone she can trust again, and maybe the only person who really understands her and likes for who she is. So she has taken him back, in a way (I would also argue that Dan is a lot more into her at that point than when they first met.) But obviously neither of them would ever frame it like this.
HSDKJHSDKGJHSG god i wish i did, but i fear ive been working on that henry mod nonstop for like a week straight and now my brain is small and smooth like a pebble 😭 like. yknow when youre just FULL of love for a character but no thoughts will come out of your brain about it? thats me rn
this is an open invitation for YOU ALL to tell me your theresa headcanons though because I Want To See Them 👁️👁️
curious to know your take on henry's thoughts or feelings about him and hans romantically given the whole "noble / peasant" thing. bc i also v much see and play him how you do, going off your last post about him being very devout but placing his own morale views above anybody else's. but then i always bounce between him being,, not subservient but still kinda stuck in that view of "im only a peasant, im out of my depth / in the wrong place" given how recent his life shifting was [being a noble bastard is a TRIP], vs him going "oh the class system is bullshit, nobles are kinda lame",, idk i'm rambling lmao. apologies if you've talked about it before, i haven't been following you long but i've highkey agreed with all your takes that i've seen so i thought i'd drop the question
anon i am grasping you by the shoulders. thank you so so much for enabling me. ill try my best to have at least sort of answered your actual question by the time i get to the end of this wall of text, my brain is just a complete jumbled mess of thoughts and ideas i need to get out and im sorry about that 😵💫 (also as always, all of this is just my own headcanons and ideas, i dont think of any of this as hard fact or canon or anything like that). long, long rant under the cut
honestly my interpretation of the two of them might be a little odd, considering the way i play henry involves getting the virgin achievement in kcd1, then essentially repeating that avoidance in kcd2, playing him as either too dense or too preoccupied with his duty to hans to pay any mind to any advances or propositions, which earns a few (to him, surprising and confusing) insults, but still choosing the romance dialogue with hans up until hans has to practically club henry over the head with a confession. which i know is likely not a hugely popular way to play him, but its my personal favorite for many reasons
in my mind henry is a little bit dense when it comes to romance, and in modern terms a little bit on the demiromantic side (am i projecting? maybe. dont worry about it. also the scene where henry stares at theresa's ass does not exist to me because its weird, so). i like to think that, before kcd1, henry and bianca knew each other decently well, both living in skalitz as they grew up, and it was bianca who eventually had to be the one to make a move because henry, convinced he had no chance, was missing or just overthinking away all the hints. i think she was henrys first kiss, and i always get the feeling that their relationship was fairly new at the start of kcd1, so i dont think they had done much else. and after skalitz burns, i think henry shuts away parts of himself in place of the grief and anger he feels, including any thoughts of his own happiness, a future for him beyond revenge, or love. i think he buries himself in what needs to be done next, or what his duties entail for the day, and thats all there is for him
when he first meets hans, i dont think henry ever even considers that they have different social standings. he insults hans without a care for hans' title or the consequences of it, beats him at their competitions, fights with him. and then once henry has half carried hans all the way back to rattay and theyre on friendlier terms, i think their titles become a vague thought in the back of henrys mind, just enough that he remembers not to playfully bicker with hans when hanush or radzig are within earshot, remembers to use hans' title without any sarcasm. and then, hans starts pulling out pieces of henry he'd thought were long gone. makes him laugh again, makes him have fun again. and i think by the end of kcd1 a tiny bit of shallow attachment has started there, more so for henry, finally having a real friend (other than theresa) after losing everything, but neither of them are quite aware of it. theyre friends, but its still a fairly new thing, and hans' view of the world along with their places within it has yet to change
only semi relevant, but i really do think their fight in kcd2 was inevitable. hans was never going to change this mindset or mature without some kind of major event, and henry, despite being an old hand at swallowing down his pride by now, was never going to just put up with it forever. and while that fight shatters everything, i think theyre both acutely aware of each others absence in troskowitz, despite their anger. henry tries to convince himself its just because he cant go back to rattay without hans (because god only knows what hanush would do to henry if he did), and hans ignores the feeling because if he didnt, hed have to admit he was wrong
but after what happens at trosky? they barely get to begin to patch things up between them, and then hans quite literally almost dies, and all henry can do is stand and watch (again. he almost had to helplessly watch someone he cares about die, again). and i think that changes everything to henry, leaves him desperately hanging on to the last real friend he has left, and thats why he immediately waves off anything left hanging from their previous argument. hans is still alive and here with henry, what more could he ask for?
and i really think thats where it starts, the honest connection, the deepening fondness, and henry fully, willingly acquiescing to his role as nothing but a simple bodyguard to hans' noble title, the dynamic even becoming something that makes him feel honored, something he enjoys. and over the course of the rest of the game, i feel like henry does very much realize how important hans has become to him, realizes hes likely far more attached than what might be appropriate for their differing positions, their original dynamic, and does his best to rein his affection in, but i dont think he knows what it all is exactly, or why its happening. i feel like he tells himself things along the lines of "i care more for hans than he does for me" and tries very, very hard to convince himself that that is fine, that he can live only expressing that suppressed ball of emotion through slightly one-sided fealty and devotion, surviving off the scraps hans throws him. but henry also cant help himself. he always honestly expresses how he feels to hans when it comes up, albeit only in words that dont quite feel like stepping all the way over a line that henry still doesnt understand
but i think hans definitely picks up on it, at least a little bit. enough that when theyre in the middle of the siege, starving, hopeless, and henry is going off on an impossible task that will more likely kill him than it will save them, hans tells him the story of lancelot and galehaut, tries to tell henry how he feels without quite stepping over that line either. and henry doesnt quite recognize it for what it is. all he sees is hans heartbroken over him, and the emotion stuffed up in his chest boils over and he puts his hand over hans', squeezes, leaves it there too long. and i swear you can see henry slowly realize that hes stepped just a bit too far over that stupid little line, and he looks away, pulls away from hans to leave before hans can comment on any of it. and hans panics. henry doesnt understand, is going to leave to his death without knowing how hans feels, and in his panic, hans does the one thing he can think of that could convey all of it without misinterpretation; he kisses henry
and henry, for a shocked, numb second, lets him, even kisses him back. but then his brain starts up again, the emotion consuming him suddenly has a name he hadnt expected, and he gets completely overwhelmed and has to push hans away, has to think, to breathe. hans understandably panics, because it looks like a rejection, and henrys mindless feet carry him back to the door before he comes back to himself. and i think he thinks over a lot of things very quickly then. their difference in stations, the potential consequences of this happening between them, and the fact that henry has always been running straight towards his own death, still likely is, and how he shouldnt make that harder for anyone. but, just as quickly, i think henry realizes he truly doesnt care about any of that, realizes he desperately wants to have this moment, desperately wants to come back alive and see hans again. and he locks the door and marches back across the room to hans as fast as his feet will carry him
you are going to make me replay sandrock. ohhhh my god (redownloading it) ohhh my god noooo how could this happen (opening it) if only this were at all preventable noooo (new game)
also congrats on having good taste unsuur is everything
YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JOIN ME!!!!!!
this is my first playthrough and i just finished the clear the air mission, but im literally obsessed already. and youre SO right, unsuur is everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i will say though i am a bit terrified to get to logans content because hes SO popular, and if he sways me from my unsuur slowburn playthrough i will be DEVASTATED!!!!! i will never recover!!!!!!
sending meta asks my beloved bc i wanna Yap about kcd 24/7 but am lowk too shy to dm folks directly 🙂↕️ i am so full of things to say about henry of skalitz
i feel that so so much, but also PLEEEEEASE SHARE THESE THINGS WITH ME, PLEASE ANON I BEG YOU. I AM HOLDING HENRY OF SKALITZ LIKE THIS AT ALL TIMES
