Because, as brutally unvarnished a picture of life in The Dung Ages that Crusader Kings II presents, it still has its upbeat moments.
- Using the Family focus leads to a lot of this. These include settling disputes between your children and relatives amicably and having you and your wife, whom you invariably married for pragmatic reasons, falling in love with each other for real.
- Having an adult ruler acknowledge to themselves that their child is a wonderful son/daughter always willing to play with the younger kids or cheer the play character up during somber moment and state that such good people are rare indeed.
- In II, your character's friends can make a Last Request for you to take care of their child, offering the child friendship, You Are Not Alone indeed
- If your character happens to have been disfigured at some point, whether from battle or incompetent medical practice, the option may come to spend some money and throw a mascaraed ball in the hopes that people will for a time forget about your disfigurement. If it turns out well people will legitimately forget for a time that you are horrifically scarred treating you as they did before whatever event disfigured you even going so far as being more impressed by your dancing then anything. This not only improves relations with others in your realm but increases sex appeal for a time meaning you may well have rekindled a love with your wife by reminding her who you are under the scars.
- There is a chance if you seclude your character in Penance that one of your children will come looking for you, because they miss you. Even better, you can take some time off to read the bible together, in context of the times a very sweet choice.Child: Father why are you hiding? I miss you.You: Come my child, let's read from the Bible together.Game: You take some time off to read passage from the bible with your child. This may instill within her the virtues of the saints, an important deed in the eyes of the church, but you'll make no progress doing penance.
- An event with the Hunting focus has your prize hunting hound befriending kids in your court.
- Being on the receiving end of a plot to free you from imprisonment. Especially if you were in the Oubliette and had given up hope of ever seeing the light of day again. Considering how many people would need to support this plan to reach the necessary plot power, it also counts as We Really Do Care. If your character avoids being re-imprisoned and spends the rest of his life focusing on family, then it also counts as Earn Your Happy Ending.
- Using the Intrigue Focus to rescue your wife from the Pagan who kidnapped her. That a character would go to this effort instead of simply remarrying is a testament to The Power of Love.
- If a Germanic Pagan Ruler calls a Great Blot while his adult son is imprisoned, there is a special text for deciding whether or not to hang him. The option to stay his execution reads "I can't do this ... not to my own boy ...".
- If you are the royal spymaster, then The King might ask you to kill his daughter's bastard to protect the family name. You have the option of sparing the child and raising him in your court.
- You and another character agreeing to bury the hatchet after a decades long rivalry.
- As you can gain and lose traits by random events it is very possible for a Cynical character to become Zealous after waking up with the stigmata, a Cruel Character to become Kind by sparing a poacher, a Shy Character to become Gregarious during a county fair, a Craven Character to become Brave in battle, a Greedy Character to become Charitable after encountering poor people while on a Pilgrimage, and many other forms of self-improvement.
- Engineering a Heel–Face Turn for your player character, especially if said character was a real monster. It is especially touching when the character dies and you get to see his final obituary, describing one of his positive traits and stating that he has gone to Heaven.
- If a Content Character and a Depressed Character are in the same court, then there's an event where the former can help the latter learn to live with his condition.
- Similarly, a Depressed or Stressed Character whose spouse is also their lover will occasionally get an event where their happy marriage removes the negative trait.
- One event has your ruler encountering a stray kitten in an alley. One of the options is to let it follow you home, where it becomes your pet cat.
- Some of the interactions with China can be this.
- Sending relief convoys to China. You take some of your own food reserves to help alleviate the famine in this faraway land. The letter that the Western Protector sent to you is genuinely grateful and not the least bit haughty. You aren't a Western Barbarian, you're a friend giving food to starving strangers.
- The decision to marry a Chinese Princess (or Prince) is this. The event describes how excited you are to welcome this person into your family. When this person dies, the Western protector sends his condolences as well as an artifact that the dead Chinese Princess was fond of. It's especially potent if the Chinese Princess is your wife or mother.
- There's one event where a Chinese Courtier comes to your court begging for asylum after The Emperor killed his entire family. If you shelter him, and the Emperor's assassin's don't look for him, he'll leave in the night and gift you a Chinese Robe as thanks for saving his life.
- As you look at the list of past Protector Generals, you'll see the usual causes of death (diseases, old age...). But, you may stumble upon some who returned home to China. This meant that the character managed to survive a posting hundreds (if not thousands) of miles away from home while serving his liege and country, and lived to return home.
- As seen here
, it's possible to have the "Drunkard" trait removed following pressure and support from your family members. Notable as it could still be very relevant for many families even today. - There is an event when, playing as a Norse ruler, you send your son to the Varangian Guard, and he returns home having embraced Christianity, Greek culture and "Greek love". So how does your macho, berserker, High Priest of Odin ruler respond to meeting his greekified, gay, Christian son?I'm just happy to have him home.
