The only reasonable explanation i would accept for why Ryn only has a dick would be that they were actually a boy when they were younger but because of Alissas obsession with them she feminized Ryn a little bit and placed the cage on them
I’m pretty sure that was the original plot-line. I distinctly recall hearing it said that Etheryn’s original story beat was a prince who had been feminized by his abusive older sister, which is the state you’d find them in, but as the story progressed, I think the writers got cold feet.
One of the only remaining nods to this in the entire game was Hethia’s lines to Etheryn in the quest where you rescue Garret, which are now unused, since Garret’s quest was changed to be mandatory.
I get
why they changed it, but personally, I think it’s fucking
lame. There was serious potential there, but Savin pussyfooted around the risk of offending people with less-than-perfect representation of ‘muh pretty dickgurl princess’.
Honestly, that’s kinda the issue on the larger scale. Just look at corrupted Khor’Minos getting axed; I guarantee you there was an element of ‘I bit off more than I could chew when planning’, but you can’t tell me nobody winced looking at the implications.
EDIT, because I’m not done:
The question of “how did things go wrong” compared to CoC1 (you know, the thing people have argued in circles over for hundreds of pages?) becomes pretty fucking clear when you extrapolate the earlier conclusion to this.
Times changed, people’s sensibilities (and sensitivities) shifted with them, and people didn’t want the darker aspects in a porn game, even when that porn game has a brand to keep.