Thanks for playing!
As for the stuff you mentioned (SPOILER WARNING):
- By the time Cautionne's using a gun on you, you've already out-maneuvered several of his puzzle-related death traps. For him, it'd be pointless for him to use one at the end since you've proven you can avoid the rest of the traps.
- Cautionne's hesitant with his gun because he's never handled a gun before (which he mentions in one of the endings where he kills you).
- Cautionne isn't a nice person, but he's also a child who's grappling with grief and the trauma inflicted on him throughout his life. A lot of his mean behavior earlier in the game is because he's far away from you - so he feels comfortable talking down to you. When he physically faces you at the end, with a weapon he's not comfortable using - the weight of what he's doing properly sets in for him, hence why he acts a bit differently.
- Likewise, because you're dealing with a traumatized child villain versus a grown adult like Dr. Danger, that's why you're hesitant to kill him in the Spare Ending. You don't care about the other endings - you're just doing your job.
Let me know what you think about protoViolence. I think you might like it more than malViolence since it's a kinetic novel.