Because, as brutally unvarnished a picture of life in The Dung Ages that Crusader Kings 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
