Major plot hole (end game spoilers)

[SalemMcGee]

So, as it turns out, Alicia and Maëlle are the same person.
The rest of the cast are just figments of the imagination of the original painter (Verso) and those added by Aline & Renoir - none of them real.
The only real characters in the game until postgame are the curator (renoir), the paintress (Aline), and Maëlle (Alicia)
The Renoir you meet in the painting isn't real.
But Alicia - let's call her A when she's in her real form - can also be met several times throughout the game. This would be fine if Maëlle wasn't revealed to be Alicia at the end of the game, but it turns out Maëlle is Alicia who was hypnotized by Aline's painting.
So why are both Alicia and A in the painting??

(Edit : I hadn't understood that Alicia was painted, I thought that like other characters, she was the 'real' one. Doesn't make sense but it is what it is)

[Tensar]

Masked Alicia is made by Aline, just like Verso and Renoir.

[XianE]

Alicia, Renoir, Aline, and Verso are all painted versions of the family; hence there's Renoir and the Curator who's the true Renoir. Maelle is the true Alicia to the painted recreation that's interacting with everyone as part of the 2nd family. So there's the Painted family and the outside of the painting family.

[strongled]

Because Aline made another Alicia (the masked one) in the painting.

[eRe4s3r]

The painting doesn't hypnotize you, it literally draws your soul in. Every "faceless" persona you meet is such a drawn in soul (either part or whole)

Alina painted Fake Verso and Burned Alicia, Fake Renoir and Fake Alina.
Maelle was painted because Alina didn't see her as real Alicia, and thought it was a trick by Renoir.
Renoir painted himself (once you free Alina from the Canvas, the Renoir you meet is the real one with his painted persona and his soul (the curator))
The world and the fantasy elements were painted by Verso as a child.
The world is maintained by the SOUL of Verso
The Nevrons were painted by Clea
The Axxons + Nevrons there were painted by Renoir

[SalemMcGee]

Originally posted by eRe4s3r:

The painting doesn't hypnotize you, it literally draws your soul in. Every "faceless" persona you meet is such a drawn in soul (either part or whole)

Alina painted Fake Verso and Burned Alicia, Fake Renoir and Fake Alina.
Maelle was painted because Alina didn't see her as real Alicia, and thought it was a trick by Renoir.
Renoir painted himself (once you free Alina from the Canvas, the Renoir you meet is the real one with his painted persona and his soul (the curator))
The world and the fantasy elements were painted by Verso as a child.
The world is maintained by the SOUL of Verso
The Nevrons were painted by Clea
The Axxons + Nevrons there were painted by Renoir

Maelle isn't painted by Aline, it's the real Alicia.
People say A is painted by Aline, but there's no reason for that to have happened.

[SalemMcGee]

Originally posted by strongled:

Because Aline made another Alicia (the masked one) in the painting.

Where and when is this mentioned?

[Ringlet]

Originally posted by SalemMcGee:

Originally posted by strongled:

Because Aline made another Alicia (the masked one) in the painting.

Where and when is this mentioned?

As far as I can remember, at the start of Act.3, from a conversation with Clea in the real world.

Clea said Aline painted a whole family (in the canvas) to heal her sadness of losing her son (Verso). And she intentionally painted Alicia as handicapped as Alicia is in real life. Because Aline is, kinda, still mad at Alicia for causing Verso to die.

[Misa]

The people in the painting ARE real. They're sentient beings. the painters just created them, like gods.

[Buddy]

I do gotta ask the people who keep saying "It's just a painting it's not real"

Well if you were to find out tomorrow that we live in a simulation, would that make the reality we perceive any less real to us?

[Lily Valesti]

I want to say you didn't pay much attention during act 2 and 3... the painted family are creations of Aline, this isn't a plothole. Verso isn't the real Verso and he mentions as much during his multiple cutscenes. Also, this isn't Aline's painting, this is Verso's canvas, Esquiet, Gestrals, Grandis, Monoco - all created by him. Aline and Renoir are fighting over differing opinions of how to deal with their grief, Aline created the painted family inside to keep them together, but Renoir (Curator) wants to destroy it so they can move on and grieve his loss in real life.

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by SalemMcGee:

Maelle isn't painted by Aline, it's the real Alicia.
People say A is painted by Aline, but there's no reason for that to have happened.

Alicia was painted over by Aline which created Maelle.

[Ringlet]

Originally posted by Buddy:

I do gotta ask the people who keep saying "It's just a painting it's not real"

Well if you were to find out tomorrow that we live in a simulation, would that make the reality we perceive any less real to us?

I think that's the real theme of this game.
Many that I know say that they hate the disclosure of the plot in Act.3, that it makes everything in the first 2 Acts meaningless.

Ironic, I'd say.

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by Ringlet:

Originally posted by Buddy:

I do gotta ask the people who keep saying "It's just a painting it's not real"

Well if you were to find out tomorrow that we live in a simulation, would that make the reality we perceive any less real to us?

I think that's the real theme of this game.
Many that I know say that they hate the disclosure of the plot in Act.3, that it makes everything in the first 2 Acts meaningless.

Ironic, I'd say.

I don't get how people come to that conclusion. I even saw somebody come up with the "It was all a dream." - trope. Those people are weird as ♥♥♥♥.

[Ringlet]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Originally posted by Ringlet:

I think that's the real theme of this game.
Many that I know say that they hate the disclosure of the plot in Act.3, that it makes everything in the first 2 Acts meaningless.

Ironic, I'd say.

I don't get how people come to that conclusion. I even saw somebody come up with the "It was all a dream." - trope. Those people are weird as ♥♥♥♥.

FFX would love to have a word with them, I guess.

[eRe4s3r]

Originally posted by Ringlet:

Originally posted by Buddy:

I do gotta ask the people who keep saying "It's just a painting it's not real"

Well if you were to find out tomorrow that we live in a simulation, would that make the reality we perceive any less real to us?

I think that's the real theme of this game.
Many that I know say that they hate the disclosure of the plot in Act.3, that it makes everything in the first 2 Acts meaningless.

Ironic, I'd say.

Quite so. Maybe that was even the point the writers wanted to make. Clair Obscura means "strong contrast" after all. Is why I compare this game to Nier:Automata. Has the same kind of story vibe.

Its also debatable whether Maelles wish to stay in the canvas is bad or good since for her, this canvas is as much reality as the outside world. Probably more, since she didn't suffer a horrible injury and lost her brother in this world though she did lose Gustave... mhh.