(major pentiment spoilers)
I just wanted to add some thoughts following on from this post about caspar potentially not surviving even if you pass the dialogue check in act II to make him leave. as they mentioned, succeeding the check (i.e. doing a 'mean to caspar' playthrough) results in him not showing up at the burning library to save andreas and instead we're shown a cutscene featuring caspar running through the forest, past the shrine to st. satia, pursued by soldiers.
it's interesting that even in this version caspar didn't actually leave tassing when andreas told him to despite readily agreeing to it (as opposed to the other route where he first refuses and then pretends to give in). the fact that Caspar was running through the forest at the same time the abbey went up in flames means he stayed in tassing for a lot longer than we were led to believe he was going to when andreas asked him to leave. I don't entirely know why he stays. maybe andreas was mistaken and it was already too late to leave, so caspar's path out of town was blocked by soldiers. maybe it was something else. either way, the cutscene shows him going into the bushes that lead to the roman ruins, which makes it possible he went through the tunnels and out via the acqueduct by the mill (taking the route he took with andreas when they spied on hanna). that'd mean he survived and escaped Tassing, as I think most people assume.Ā
but there's something about the cutscene that just feels unsettling. I was relieved when it seemed caspar had actually left and didn't appear at the abbey like he did in my previous playthrough, but then suddenly he was being chased by soldiers and it made me worry for him again, when minutes before I believed his survival was assured. I actually would have believed he did survive if nothing was shown about him after he 'left'. as it stands, the last we see of caspar is him alone in the forest, being chased by armed men. that's an ominous note to end act II on, and I think @pecado-inocente29 is right in saying this could mean his survival is not as definite as we might initially assume. rather, there are other options for what happened to him, and we will never really know what actually happened because andreas never found out his fate, so it became lost to history.Ā
here are some theories though (and thanks to my social media-averse friend who brainstormed them with me): the soldiers could have caught up with Caspar in the forest and captured him (best case scenario, since they probably would have freed him after) or killed him (worst case scenario). he could have evaded the soldiers but fallen into the ruins in the forest, given how dark it was and the fact he was running, then died from the drop. he could have carefully made his way into the tunnels, but died some other way (losing track of where he was and starving, or being crushed in some sort of cave-in, since the abbey fire meant some parts of the tunnel could have collapsed). we know andreas lived in the tunnels for eighteen years, but I think it's improbable caspar survived and lived in there with him. because if he had, I don't think andreas would have stayed 'dead' at all. he would have left Tassing to get caspar home safe, regardless of whether he was mean or loving to him previously. he knows what it's like to lose a child. he wouldn't wish it on someone else's parents.Ā Ā
what I think is more likely is caspar dying in the ruins or in the forest (by accident or by soldiers, respectively) and no one finding his body until either a) Andreas finds him during his hermit years, or b) apollo and artemis find the bones eighteen years later and have no idea who they belonged to. either way I don't think he was found quickly, otherwise he'd be included in the body count of those who died in the night of the revolt, which I'm pretty sure he wasn't.Ā
just spitballing here, but if he died in the forest (killed by the soldiers) then wild animals would haveā¦ well. You get the gist. and if he died falling into the ruins he'd be disfigured faster by the water at the bottom. so, if it's andreas who ended up finding him, he'd recognise him only by his clothes and belongings. maybe he found his notebook, and realised how awful he had treated him in those final weeks before he died. maybe he'd realise he'd been emotionally abusive to a fourteen year old boy who ended up dying alone because of it, miles from his family, out in the dark. it'd send andreas spiralling even further. and given how caspar sacrificing himself for andreas in the alternative route is a major reason for him remaining in the ruins all those years, I think it makes perfect sense that the discovery of caspar's death in this version also plays a part in that. because it's a discovery of his own culpability in another young boy's death. his unwillingness to return to nuremberg would at least partially be due to his inability to contact caspar's parents about his death, knowing how it feels to lose a son himself.Ā
on a gameplay level, this is even more interesting than caspar simply surviving if you're mean to him. unless you're evil, you wonāt succeed the caspar check in act II in your first playthrough. failing it is one of those outcomes the game pushes you into, and it makes you feel awful. seeing those negative modifiers and realising why you failed it is one of the most emotional moments in the game. you realise your love and fondness for this boy has (seemingly) been the cause of his death. so you boot up another game and decide you'll save him this time, and what happens? he's being chased into the forest by soldiers, and you never see him alive again. if this does really mean he dies in both versions, the game forces you to feel guilty twice over because this is when you realise that you canāt save casparās life no matter what you do. And whatās worse is you just abused him for three days. sure, you thought being mean to this fourteen year old just to pass a dialogue check was the lesser of two evils, given the context. it made sense. if you're kind to him he dies for certain, so surely he'll live if you're mean. but life isn't so straightforward. it doesn't work like that.
more specifically, andreas' life doesn't work like that. as I talked about here, Andreasā life is full of formative events that the player can never change. and I see caspar's death as one of them, despite our initial assumptions. I believe caspar will always die, no matter how andreas or the player tries to stop it. in a way, that makes him an analogous figure for august. no matter how much love andreas had for his son, it wasnāt enough to protect him against the plague. and not being able to save caspar whether you care for him or abuse him is the same. itās a metaphor for how truly nothing could have saved August. his death was out of andreas' hands. butā¦ at least the boy was loved in the few years he had on this earth.
so if caspar is also heading to his death either way, isn't it better to make him feel loved too? I donāt think I could ever commit to being mean to him if I replay, even though that's the surefire way to his death. I'd rather he die saving someone who loves him, than risk even the slightest possibility of him dying alone in the cold thinking he's hated by the one man he looks up to the most, and wondering whether his family in salzburg have come to meet the same fate.
"but op, andreas reconciles with caspar in his mind labyrinth in act III! if you pass the check in act II, caspar says he returned to his family in salzburg!" it's a fair point. I don't deny he may have survived after all, by escaping via the ruins for example. Another potentiality is that he died without andreas ever finding him, which makes the act III labyrinth scene even more tragic as itād mean Andreas kept believing he survived and went home to his family. it probably would have been one of andreasā only solaces in those eighteen years he spent haunting the ruins.
but I also don't think that scene in act III negates the possibility caspar did die and andreas did find his body. because andreasā mental state isn't exactly reliable at that point (as @pecado-inocente29 also pointed out). his hallucination of caspar in the labyrinth saying he got home safe could be the truth, sure. but it could also be wishful thinking or pure delusion. the tragedy is in our not knowing for sure.Ā
