In what has already been a rather contentious month for Daniel Vavra, Warhorse Studios, and fans of their new hit title Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, things have seemingly hit an all-new low. Several users on X recently discovered the in-game codex from Kingdom Come: Deliverance mentioning that the character Hans Capon was based on a real-life person, Jan Ptáček of Pirkštejn, who may have been born in 1388. If accurate, this would make him 15 years old at the time the games take place.
Luke Dale, the actor for Hans, is a 31-year-old man, and there were no issues voiced over his portrayal of the character in the first game. Like many of the other characters, Hans was only based on a real-life person, and child NPCs don't even exist in either title. Most players understood the character to be an accurately portrayed adult male, and Hans engaged in all the activities that went with it; drinking, fighting, whoring, etc. Despite this, a renewed cancel campaign has been launched against Daniel Vavra and his studio.
Sites like Fandom Pulse were quick to run with the story that the game depicts a scene of "child sodomy," and other X users shared screenshots of themselves reporting the game to Steam. Daniel Vavra did himself no favors by not being quick to address these allegations. Rather, he responded somewhat ambiguously to someone who inquired about whether or not Hans was a child.
Now Daniel Vavra has come forward to clarify what most people already knew, that the character is only based on a real-life person, and his actual age has never even been confirmed. He wrote on X, "Jan Ptáček (Hans Capon) is a historical character. His date of birth is UNKNOWN and is probably BEFORE 1388. He got married in 1403 (year of KCD events). His son was born in 1404 - famous Hynce Ptáček who helped king Jiří z Poděbrad to the throne. There are no children in KCD."
This reinforces what one of the developers at Warhorse had previously posted, "The mention about Capon being underage ties to his position of "not old enough" to take Pirkstein as his hold. There is no specific age tied to this underage state and his political adulthood would be reached once council of nobles says so."
While this won't diminish the rightful criticism of the studio and its decision to retcon Henry's sexuality or go back on the word of a community manager by adding a black Muslim character, this was a very serious and much-needed response due to the severity of the claims being levied against them.