Hey @leoalvarez-clowncarcommittee!
Not sure if you’re gonna read this.
I read your thoughts about Chase x Leo, and it’s nice to see that someone else thinks the same way that me about their relationship. I like them a lot too, they feel so human. Even, there are more things about their interactions that I noticed but most people don’t see them, blaming just Leo for the falling apart. Not sure if you share them too:
Chase is a passive manipulator. He usually let others decide for himself, except when he really wants something, or when he’s feeling attacked/in danger.
As he said himself, he knows Leo very well, recognized his body and facial expressions, how he’d react, and knew exactly how to pull his strings most of the time. And Leo, actually, loves to please Chase.
I think you can notice that in 3 specific situations ingame:
- It was Chase’s idea to go to the river/lake to swim at the beginning, but he told Leo to tell the others, because he wanted to avoid conflict with Flynn. Even if he knew that could upset the lizard. Leo also knew, and asked Chase if “he was sure about that” but consciously obeyed.
- In TJ’s route: Chase thought of telling Leo all about the treasure hunting game so Leo could put a stop if things got out of control, with Chase being suspicious about the revelation about Sydney at the end.
- In Flynn’s route: Probably the most obvious one. Chase played the victim and twisted the truth of his sexual relationship with Flynn and the things he told about Leo. The wolf reacted and punched Flynn. In this way, Chase tried to avoid the truth about Sydney and him being revealed.
Other important fact about Chase is that he can’t get over Leo neither.
But he doesn’t exactly want to go back with Leo, he wants “what he used to have with him”.
In Jenna and Flynn routes he mentions that his romantic and sexual life in college is null. He has lots of friends, with whom he parties and hangs out, but that’s all. Because of his traumas, Chase is a very introverted person who has problem in showing his true feelings or getting intimate with others. He says that Leo has been the only person with whom he could do it.
So that’s why he drunk-texts Leo among other things (and takes opportunity if granted with his other friends in their respective routes). He’s love starved, and horney.
Still, he’s hesitant to go back with him because of Leo’s controlling tendencies and raging fits. Also, that would mean going back to Echo, where he would have to live with homophobes, druggies and in a place where he wouldn’t be able to pursue a professional career.
Also, I think it’s briefly mentioned, but it seems the friend meet-up in Echo was his idea, even if he hated the town, the excuse being his documentary project. And Leo was one of the first to know about the gathering. He sort of knew what was going to happen, and he could be testing waters with Leo and the others (or at least that’s my idea, he probably was just missing his old friends).
But I don’t think this was ill intentioned. Jenna (in her route) notices that Chase feels guilty and still has feelings for Leo, so she asks Chase and he tells him that he “would like to fix things, but he’s afraid that he (Chase himself) could mess it again”.
Near the ending in TJ’s route, Leo tells Chase to “come back again to visit Echo in summer so they could hang out better”, and Chase promises that he will. Funny enough, the massive hysteria attack doesn’t happen right away at that time, but it is postponed two years later. The story doesn’t tell you much how it happened, but I can imagine that Chase complied to Leo’s invitation because of loneliness and/or not being able to find a job, thus similar events of Leo’s route happening afterwards.
Chase constantly feels guilty about his passive, indecisive and evasive tendencies, because he really cares about his friends, including Leo. He knows that he hurts them and that pains him, but at the same time he prioritizes himself. A selfishness-guilt-selfishness cycle.
That’s why Leo’s good ending is my favorite one of all the VN.
Many people didn’t like it because they didn’t end up together, but I think they got something better.
Chase and Leo acknowledged their toxic codependency, and decided to break it so they could mature and improve as persons, coming out in good terms and, in a way, still being friends. They stopped moving in circles.
And Chase starts to cherish more his memories of Echo and Leo. He tried to avoid thinking and talking about him in the beginning of the VN, but in Leo and Flynn’s route endings he talks about him as his “first friend, first love”. He realizes that their past is not all dark and bitter, but has a bright side as well.
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