Heartwarming / Vermintide II

• Generally, compared to the mutual suspicion between most of the characters in the first game, the Ubersreik Five (or four, doesn't matter...) are a little more open with each other this time round. Maybe not quite Fire-Forged Friends yet, but they seem to slowly be getting there.
• Throughout Act III, Kruber grows more and more furious with the destruction the Rotbloods are causing in Morgensloft and Ussingen. During the assault on the war camp, it culminates in this conversation:
  Bardin: We are few, they are many, and still, you manlings press on. Almost like dawi!
  Markus: I take the risk willingly, Bardin. Someone needs to strike a blow for Ussingen.
  Bardin: Thinking on your folks, Azumgi?
  Markus: No, I avenged them back in Ubersreik. But what about the dead that have no one to fight for them?
  Bardin: They have us, Azumgi. They have us.
• This exchange between Victor and Kruber shows that for all his zealotry, Saltzpyre does care about others.
  Saltzpyre: Shall I die, Kruber, I want you to have my sword of office.
  Kruber: Uhh, why? So people think I'm a Witch Hunter?
  Saltzpyre: No... So that people think that I liked you.
• This exchange between Kerillian and Bardin starts out confrontational, but ends on a surprisingly sweet note, especially considering Kerillian's usual attitude.
  Kerillian: I don't think you're seeking anything at all, Bardin. I think you're avoiding going home. And if I'm right...
  Bardin: Choose your next words carefully...
  Kerillian: ...then you have my sympathy. That is all. I hope you find whatever it is you're really seeking.
• Bardin and Kerillian have a good moment in Dark Omens where it's clear that they've become genuine friends:
  Kerillian: Whatever happens here today is only the start. Once they find a foothold, the corruptors spread like a plague.
  Bardin: True enough. I've heard stories about what they did in Athel Loren.
  Kerillian: You've heard whispers, nothing more. The truth is worse. Withered groves. Sickness in the hearts of newborns. The living world recoiling and growing bitter.
  Bardin: We'll not let that happen here. You've my word, drengbarazi to drengbarazi.
• Also in Dark Omens, every member of the Ubersreik Five is willing to die by triggering the herdstone explosion as long as it stops the Beastmen from spreading and corrupting the Reikland. They end up being saved by Oleysa, but that they were all for it still speaks volumes. In spite of the fact that they've all done horrible things in the past (except Bardin), this mission makes it clear that the Five are worthy of being called heroes, even in this Crapsack World.
  Kruber: Join the army, they said. One big adventure and a shiny uniform. Well, I've certainly had that. Death and glory it is!
  Kerillian: It matters not. We owe all to the Weave. Our lives, and our deaths. Come!
  Sienna: So we're all going to die? Hah! If I had a bottle of brandy for every time I've heard that.
  Saltzpyre: It will be a righteous death. Better than most earn. I am content. On!
  Bardin: One last heroic effort? How can I say no?
• After becoming a Sister of the Thorn, Kerillian starts acting uncommonly genuine to her comrades.
  • After she goes too far with her snark, she genuinely apologizes to Kruber, showing that her insults are not malicious and that she does genuinely value his company. This qualifies for two reasons: the fact that she did so, and the fact that Kruber actually thought telling her "that hurt my feelings" would work in the first place, showing that they've built a solid rapport.
    Kruber: I guess you and me are even more on the same side these days. You know, Bretonnia and Athel Loren. The Old Alliance.
    Kerillian: I have no alliance with meat, Kruber. You're part of the problem.
    Kruber: Yeah... can't help but read a threat into that, if I'm honest.
    Kerillian: Oh, hush. I'd never hurt you. When the moment comes, it'll be painless.
    [...]
    Kruber: That crack you made before. About the painless death. Not gonna lie... it hurt my feelings.
    Kerillian: I'm... I'm sorry, Kruber. Truly. What I am now... it's like the best of what I used to be, and the worst. Does that make any sense to you?
    Kruber: I know you just apologised for something. Never heard that before. Might be there's hope for you yet.
    Kerillian: There's no hope for any of us. Not one branch. Not one leaf.
  • At one point she even calls Bardin her friend. Considering the strife between elves and dwarfs, not to mention her own personality, this is pretty huge.
    Bardin: Look, wutelgi... Lohner asked me to have a word with you. He's worried you've become a bit... edgy... since, you know...
    Kerillian: So he sends one obsessive to fix another? I'm not a machine to be repaired, Goreksson.
    Bardin: I know... but I do know a little about poor choices made for good reasons. Thought it might help.
    Kerillian: You're a good friend. I'll try to remember that. If I'm allowed.
  • Despite taking the opportunity to suggest she is now part tree, Bardin does eventually come around to show solidarity with her.
    Bardin: Wutelgi, listen I wanted to -
    Kerillian: Leave me be, Goreksson. I've had my fill of your questions.
    Bardin: Look. Just between us. I just wanted to say that I understand. Sometimes the only way to work out who you are is to be someone else.
    Kerillian: Aye. Maybe. I don't know any longer. I don't know what it all means.
    Bardin: Then make it mean something.
  • After some needling, she shares the fate of Isha's avatar (and her associated resentment) with Kruber. Kruber's immediate response is to offer to go beat up the interloper, "if you think it would help." Kerillian is amused by the idea, but talks him down from it on the basis that "[the Everqueen's bodyguards] would cut you into tiny pieces, and cast them away, into the sea." He says he's still up for it after learning the risks, only for Kerillian to repeat that the answer is no.
• A dark one, but in the Winds of Magic trailer, after a human couple leave their corrupted Beastman child to die in the wild, he is rescued from death by a Gor warrior and accepted into a Beastherd. A cruel warrior victimises him and tries to steal his necklace, his only reminder of his parents; another pair of warriors respond by killing him and feeding him to the boy, whom they return the necklace to. It just goes to show that even the wicked and depraved Beastmen have some humanity in them. Indeed, abandoned beast children (called Gaves by the Beastmen) are considered a gift from the Gods, and most Beastmen will viciously protect such children at any cost.
• The sheer respect that Saltzpyre displays for Kruber on multiple occasions, such as in the following exchange:
  Saltzpyre: These are bleak times Kruber.
  Kruber: I see. Well you don't need to worry about me, I'm in this to the end.
  Saltzpyre: Good Kruber, good. You restore my faith. As long as there are men like you and I, the Empire will never fall.
• While no one's exactly tickled to see Saltzpyre back to his old, overzealous self, the rest of the five do express relief that he has managed to break out of his spiral of depression. For his part, Viktor actually seems to be making attempts at being more sociable than usual, and has generously given Markus and Sienna an indefinitely open offer of 'absolution' for their worship of foreign gods. He also attempts to relate to Kerillian (with mixed results) and doesn't get too mad when Bardin mocks Sigmar for his short beard, simply asking that he never mention it again.
  • Victor himself admits that for once, he actually feels happy.
  • If he is alone and idle in the keep, Saltzpyre can occasionally be heard muttering prayers to himself. In one he asks Sigmar to watch over the rest of the Ubersreik Five and grant them strength, even if they prove ungrateful.
• One of Sienna's lines while the team storms Be'lakor's fortress is unusually earnest for a group of Vitriolic Best Buds in a very cynical setting:
  Be'lakor: Sienna, wouldn't you like to see Sofia again? I can make that possible.
  Sienna: Oh come. A daemon's promise isn't worth the stale breath that carries it. We all know that.
  Be'lakor: But wouldn't you like to have a family again?
  Sienna: I've already got one. I'll choose them over you any time.
• Despite her frequent sneers and insults at the expense of Bardin and the Dawi in general, Kerillian, of all people, goes out of her way to explicitly declare that the Dawi-Zharr of Zharr-Naggrund are nothing like the Dwarfs of the Karaz Ankor. Given how she has little issue belittling the Dwarfs, the fact she avoids using the greatest shame of their kind as a low blow speaks volumes.
  Kruber: I didn't know dwarfs worshipped the Dark Gods.
  Kerillian: They don't. Not true dwarfs. Most of them live out east, in the land of spires and flame.
• Upon learning about Bardin's broken family from Lohner, Kerillian does express her genuine sympathy to Bardin.
  Kerillian: About your kin...
  Bardin: Ha! Came to make another joke at my expense?
  Kerillian: I was just going to say, it's hard to be alone among the mayflies.
  Bardin: Aye, it is that. They mean well, but it's not the same.
• When Sienna is a necromancer, several bits of Keep dialogue between the others make clear that despite their misgivings, they're sticking with her out of friendship. Victor even asks Markus whether the Lady of the Lake could help to save her, a far cry from Sigmarite orthodoxy.
  Kerillian: I am unsure about Sienna's choices, true, but I refuse to leap to conclusions. She's our friend!
  Markus: Hang on, what was that word you just used? It almost sounded affectionate!

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