Pascal is a vital character in NieR: Automata, serving as an important NPC and a temporarily playable character in Route C. Although a Machine, Pascal is a pacifist that actively taking precautions to avoid fighting (up until Chapter 14-05) and searches for a path to peace with like-minded machine lifeforms. Highly intellectual and shows interest in topics like human philosophy, and the history of humankind and machine lifeforms.[1]
Having disconnected from the machine network, Pascal leads a society of diverse machines and educates them to live peacefully, seeking concord with androids. He has established peaceful relations with Anemone and the Resistance Camp, and the two factions engage in trade of machine and android parts and other resources. It is revealed that in place of his two legs that Pascal may attach a wind turbine similar to a Small Flier machine to help him stay airborne in Chapter 07-01.
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以下內容含有尼爾：自動人形的劇透要素 |
After communicating with another Machine colony located in the Abandoned Factory, Pascal requests that 2B accompany him two the factory to discuss peace treaty negotiations. However, within minutes of their arrival, the situation turns dire as it's revealed that many of the factory residents have gone berserk. Pascal avoids engaging in battle while 2B fights, and the two eventually manage to escape the factory together with the assistance of 9S.
During a visit to the Resistance Camp, he has his first encounter with A2, who in her hatred of Machines threatens his life, but is ultimately spared and allowed to return home. Later, Pascal receives a visit from A2, who is in need of a new filter, and fashions one for her. Once this task is complete, A2 is asked to run an errand and collect a philosophy book from Anemone, but while she's away from the village, some of its residents suddenly turn hostile and begin eating their fellow machines. Pascal calls for A2's aid, and when the android arrives, he flees the village, taking the child machines with him to the Abandoned Factory.
At the factory, Pascal watches over the children and tries to comfort them as they cower, afraid for their lives and wanting to see their families again. A2 meets with him there, but shortly thereafter, they receive word that a massive force of Machines is converging on the factory, threatening its occupants.
As A2 fights the machines, Pascal chooses to temporarily discard his pacifistic ways and hijacks a Goliath-class Engels unit. The player temporarily takes control of Pascal at this point and uses the Engels to destroy waves of approaching Machines before facing off against another Engels. After emerging victorious, Pascal rejoins A2, and then runs back inside the factory to tell the children that the danger has passed. However, to Pascal's horror, the children are all dead. Sprawled about with metal rods piercing their cores, it's evident that they all committed suicide.
Horrified, Pascal realizes that he made a grave mistake. In educating the children, he taught them the concept of fear. He believed that if they learned fear, it would prevent them from seeking trouble and help them stay safe in the village. But the children became so overwhelmed with fear of the hostile Machines that they killed themselves to escape it.
Unable to live with what he has done, Pascal asks that A2 delete all of his memories, or failing that, to kill him. If the player chooses to delete Pascal's memories, he will return to his now abandoned village as a shell of who he once was. In this state, he offers to sell various Machine parts, including the cores of the child Machines, unaware that he's selling the scrap that once comprised his fellow villagers.
The player can also spare Pascal and simply walk away, leaving him to choose his own fate. He does not appear in the game again after that, with his character profile in the Archives stating he simply left.
Trivia[ | ]
- Pascal identifies as male, but intentionally uses a female voice in order to soothe his adopted children.[2]
- Choosing to have A2 kill Pascal outside the Resistance camp results in ending Z.
- Doing anything but wiping Pascal's memories at the factory prevents 100% completion, as it prevents the acquisition of the Machine Heads weapon.
- Pascal is a reference to Blaise Pascal, a French Philosopher whose work "Les Pensées" talked about happiness, belief, education, the fear of death. He also contributed to the birth of probabilities theory. The fight with the Engels is a reference to Friedrich Engels' criticism of Pascal's work.
- In addition, Blaise Pascal is known for constructing "Pascal's Wager," an argument that it is logical to act as if God exists: the character Pascal is at one point shown as skeptical of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously coined the phrase "God is dead."