Theory about the Surgeon... (spoilers)

[Reinforcements]

Was he purposely letting people die? He fails to treat every injury on board and they die while hes treating them. The last thing you hear in each scene with him; "I gave him some ladanam. We'll see." Renfred dies. "All's fine John. Been in worse spots I think. Where's the rest of his leg?" John dies. "I've got you, don't move. I'll get you down." Emil dies.

Seems like hes very brazenly treating them to the point where he seems to be purposely killing them. I think he may have a death obsession and him owning the Memento Mortem is no coincidence. The other 3 survivors want nothing to do with the book after he dies, while he was obsessed with the fates of the crew to the point that he sent his magical watch to a stranger just to see how people died. Theres only one injury on board that gets treated (the Helmsman getting speared in the leg) and we dont even know if the Surgeon touched him.

[TinyPrints]

-The cold is the only one I might see, but I can't help but think of TB and how truly dangerous these kinds of infections were. Especially when the word "bacterium" didn't exist as it is now until the 1820s.
-lost a major limb with major arteries and veins cut straight though.
-multiple spikes straight through the chest.

What was the surgeon supposed to have done? In the 1800s, on a ship, in often chaotic conditions?

[Reinforcements]

Originally posted by TinyPrints:

-The cold is the only one I might see, but I can't help but think of TB and how truly dangerous these kinds of infections were. Especially when the word "bacterium" didn't exist as it is now until the 1820s.
-lost a major limb with major arteries and veins cut straight though.
-multiple spikes straight through the chest.

What was the surgeon supposed to have done? In the 1800s, on a ship, in often chaotic conditions?

It just seems very coincidental that whenever he treats someone, they almost immediately die. He talks about treating the illness as if hes going to live for a reasonable period of time before he might die ("We'll see" as if they have to wait for a result) but instead he dies immediately.

And when I say brazen treatment, I mean him pulling Emil from the wall. Hes alive there, but without really assessing him carefullly, or god forbid get help to carefully pulll the spikes out of the wall, he just kind of yanks him off the wall and the shock seems to cause his death.

John's death doesnt seem suspicious at first. While you might think that his casual speaking is simply to calm his patient, hes wondering about irrelevent information, like where his leg is. Its not like he has any means of reattaching it and the man is currently bleeding to death while he ponders this and gives lackluster treatment.

These are the only ailments that would require medical treatment that he would have been available for on board the ship with the exception of the Helmsmans wound and all 3 of them die. This isnt a single piece of evidence that proves everything, but they tie together with the fact that he was so curious about the deaths inside the Lazarette, he killed his pet monkey simply out of curiousity. I'm saying its also possible he obtained the Momento Mortem because of this death obsesion, or perhaps the reverse, he found it and it caused this obsession. I am not saying any of this hard fact, but theres a lot of evidence to support it.

[Pckables]

How would you see him treat someone successfully? The watch only shows you the memories of dead people.

[Sperber]

He's called "surgeon" for a reason. He can set broken bones, amputate and remove bullets. But in 1807 there were basically no ways to cure infectuous diseases. Penicilin as a treatment for bacterial infections wasn't discovered until 1928. And even today there isn't much you can do with viral infections other than treat the symptoms and hope for the patient's immune system to eradicate the virus.

Laudanum is just opium dissolved in alcohol - so at least he tried to take their pain. But that was as far as medicine could go at that time.

[sirtroymoon]

Based on his profession I would expect him to be present for many deaths without being a contributing factor.

[Tenebrais]

You're looking at it the wrong way. We can only see the scenes in which someone dies. Out of the ~60 people who died on this ship, surely it's no surprise that a few of them did so while being treated by a doctor?

And there were at least a few injuries he successfully treated. For example, in chapter 3, you can see the helmsman got impaled in the leg during a battle on the deck, but he's still alive by chapter 8.

[Reinforcements]

Originally posted by Tenebrais:

You're looking at it the wrong way. We can only see the scenes in which someone dies. Out of the ~60 people who died on this ship, surely it's no surprise that a few of them did so while being treated by a doctor?

And there were at least a few injuries he successfully treated. For example, in chapter 3, you can see the helmsman got impaled in the leg during a battle on the deck, but he's still alive by chapter 8.

I specifically mentioned this. That was the only injury we witness, that didnt result in the persons death. Seemingly, it was also the only non-life threatinging one. Its these events of the 3 dying in his care, that he can mask as caring for them, so they can die and he can satisfy his morbid curiosities with his Momento Mortem. I just think theres more to him having a magical watch that lets him watch peoples deaths and his apparent obsession with finding the fates of the remaining crew, whereas the other 3 survivors didnt even want to hear back from the Inspector and was a terrible time for them that they dont want to be reminded of.

[Sputnik]

Not so sure the OP's theory is really a correct one. But I a nice idea,.

Maybe if the writers had played it up, prompting the player to re-assess their choice of various 'real' killers in light of a a string of malpractice cases.. You know, for Science.

And what's with the Monkey's claw anyway?

[Uncertain]

It might not be a simple obsession with death; could be an effort to learn more than others can about life-threatening injuries, or just to learn more about how the watch actually works.

I have wondered whether the watch itself is somehow cursed though, since the surgeon dies but the other three escapees live. Surgeons back then must've died from contagious diseases all the time, but the story pointedly starts and ends with his unavoidable decline into fatality. Maybe if he'd kept it he could've used it on himself in his final moment and lived forever in a time pocket of eternal death!

And the monkey claw is essentially a key that lets the watch wielder warp into the physically-locked cell on the boat, since the monkey died inside that cell. He clearly knows all about how the watch works when he kills the monkey, so presumably he'd been testing the watch on dead people or their body parts throughout the voyage whenever he could ("Where's the rest of his leg?"), perhaps with disregard for any hidden supernatural consequences.

[Heart of Ice]

Originally posted by Sputnik:

Not so sure the OP's theory is really a correct one. But I a nice idea,.

Maybe if the writers had played it up, prompting the player to re-assess their choice of various 'real' killers in light of a a string of malpractice cases.. You know, for Science.

And what's with the Monkey's claw anyway?

Something needed to have died for the watch to work; he pops off the monkey so that the watch has a point to work off of, and keeps the monkey's paw as something for the watch
to work off of - Skeletons work, so a mummified monkey paw would too. Jump back to the monkey dying, connect over to the third(?) mate's death. Jump from there to the mermaids, all the way back to the captain's steward,

[Sputnik]

Yeah, that'd be the reason for the monkey's claw alright. Thought for a while it might be in tribute to the Monty Python spin-off series Ripping Yarns.

[burningmime]

If the topic title says spoilers, PLEASE don't spoiler-block your posts. It makes them inredibly difficult to read.