some character analysis of caleb

i played through the story updates last night and i have so many thoughts that i wanna share and (hopefully, lol) have a discussion about. there’s gonna be mad spoilers all throughout so i don’t advise reading if you haven’t finished the chapters.

i do wanna preface this by saying that after seeing the trailer for caleb’s addition to the game i was pretty ambivalent about it— i wasn’t particularly excited but i wasn’t angry about it either. because of this, i’d like to think that i’m coming from a somewhat neutral perspective on him and his character.

SO getting into the bulk of the chapters, i was pretty shocked by the direction they took him in. i literally paused at a certain point to text my friends saying “they made him nutso. just full blown yandere.” and this was before i even finished the new story branch.

to keep it short and sweet— i do enjoy his addition from a story perspective. i thought it was interesting and gripping, and i think that the role that zayne plays in this branch of the story (as a supportive, grounding figure) really made caleb’s traits stand out. i think caleb is obsessive and intense and, at times, frightening, but i don’t think that’s the worst thing ever. i started thinking back to how i felt about sylus’s introduction, and how he felt sooo overly familiar and sooo crazy to me.

i’ll have a harder time being unbiased here because, after getting to know sylus’s character and the history mc has with him, i just adore him. i think (let me emphasize that these are MY analyses of his character, and im totally open to discussing it) that sylus starts off so intense because of the history he has with mc, because part of him expects her to recognize him at least in some way. i think that when she starts to show signs of not recognizing him, it pushes him to further extremes (like literally having her shoot him in the chest to show her that she can trust him, which is, imo, crazysauce). when it becomes abundantly clear to sylus that he’s only scaring mc, that she’s “disgusted by him,” he backs off a little and adjusts his approach.

i think that caleb and sylus are very similar in that they obviously are both very protective of mc and desperately want her to be close to them the way she once was (for caleb, in adolescence and for sylus, a past life). where i think they differ is that, when mc makes it clear to caleb that she’s afraid of him, he gets wildly emotional about it and doubles down. he physically imposes on her and starts telling her that he’ll do anything, he’ll build her a house, build her a garden, give her anything she wants. i thought this was such a pivotal point in the story and such interesting writing, bc i remember being physically scared while going through it and yet i still wanted to dig deeper.

i’m trying to not let this get too wordy, so i’ll stop here but some closing thoughts and a tldr:

• i think caleb’s character shouldnt be watered down; i like how he contributes to the story
• i think the people calling for some trigger warnings on some of the story content are absolutely valid
• i wanna know how other people are analyzing his character/ him against other love interests!!! i wanna hear some thoughts and feelings !!!!
• i’m very much looking forward to seeing how he’s developed