[Spoiler Alert] Everything was great, until the ending.

[seanmizukiphillips66]

Out of the two possible outcomes, most players side with Verso’s ending and dismiss Maelle’s as the “bad” one. In her ending, Maelle chooses to remain in the world of the canvas—unable, or perhaps unwilling, to let go of the past and move forward. She forces Verso to stay with her against his wishes, and as a result, her physical body slowly deteriorates until she dies.

Verso’s ending, by contrast, is often hailed as the "good" one. But I honestly can’t see how that could possibly be the case—for several reasons.

First, we need to address a central disagreement among players: Are the inhabitants of Lumière real?

Some argue that they are—that they have intentions, emotions, and a full range of human experience. They feel pain and joy, form relationships, live through routines, dream, suffer, and hope. I personally agree with this view.

Others believe the opposite—that the inhabitants aren’t real at all. According to this perspective, Lumière is a fabricated world. Its people only mimic humanity, like advanced AI. Everything inside is imagined, and none of it truly exists.

But either way, Verso’s ending still cannot be called “good.”

---

1. If the inhabitants are real:

Then Verso’s ending is essentially a mass genocide—an erasure of an entire world to save just two people outside the canvas, ignoring the wishes, lives, and emotions of everyone within. This isn’t just morally gray—it’s monstrous.

Imagine being suddenly told that your life is nothing more than the creation of somebody else—that it isn’t real. Even though you can think, feel emotions, experience the five senses, build relationships, and live your daily life just like anyone else, you're told none of it truly exists. You have things you love to do, people you care about, maybe even someone you love.

Now that god tells you he's going to take everything away—your world, your memories, even you yourself—just to save his own family. Could you really say, “Yeah, that makes sense,” and accept that decision? Could you willingly disappear for someone else’s peace of mind?

---

2. If the inhabitants aren’t real:

Then yes, from the Dessendre family's perspective, Verso’s ending holds moral weight. It’s a message about not clinging to comforting illusions, about healing through acceptance, and about moving forward instead of escaping into delusion. Aline and Alicia are saved, and there’s a valuable life lesson in that.

But if that’s the case, then what was the point of the entire game?

One of the most powerful aspects of Expedition 33 is the journey itself: the mission, the losses, the bonding, the hardships overcome, the growth of relationships. You, the player, experience it all with them. The team lands ashore and loses most of its members in an instant. The few survivors push forward against impossible odds. You watch them struggle, falter, support each other, argue, grow, and form deep bonds. These characters aren’t just background—they are the core part of the game experience and to whom players develop strong sense of connection to. Not the Dessendres. Even if the story is about Dessendres.

And if you accept that none of it mattered, that it was all just a dream or a projection... then the emotional weight of the journey collapses. It feels hollow. Meaningless.

---

At the end of Act II, in the letter from painted Alicia, I felt more convinced that the inhabitants of Lumière are real. In that letter, she even proposes a third option—not to choose between the two extremes, but to find a way to save both the Dessendre family and the painted family. In other words, to save Lumière itself.

I thought that this third path was where the story was heading. But in the end, players are only given two choices.

My interpretation is that Verso was always leaning toward erasing Lumière, at least, from the moment he joined Expedition 33. However, after reading Alicia’s letters, he began to waver. He stood on the fence, torn between destroying Lumière and somehow finding a way to protect both sides. He continued with the mission to stop Renoir and prevent Gommage from happening, clinging to some hope. But in the end, when Renoir revealed Aline's suffering, that hope collapsed. Verso made his final decision: to erase Lumière once and for all.

No matter which perspective you take—whether the people of Lumière are real or not—there is no satisfying resolution. One ending is morally devastating; the other empties the entire narrative of meaning.

[parent child bowl]

I see Verso's ending as a way to free the world from a cycle of suffering without further suffering.

[seanmizukiphillips66]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

I see Verso's ending as a way to free the world from a cycle of suffering without further suffering.

You're right—Verso didn’t really have a way to save the Canvas. Even if he let Maelle stay, she would eventually die, and Renoir would destroy the Canvas anyway.

But even with that in mind, the ending is still horrible. It's not just a sad ending—it’s a horrifying one.
Asrons and Nevrons only existed because of Renoir and Clea in the first place. They created these creatures to destroy the world so they could extract Aline from the Canvas. The conflict within their family caused immense suffering for everyone else living there. You could say that Renoir and Clea literally killed millions—yet they’re the ones who get to live on, while the innocent Lumièrians are the ones who get erased.

And people still say Renoir did the right thing? How ridiculous is that?

[jackcross3]

Completely agree. I just finished the game last night and couldn't believe what they did with the endings. To me, it felt like the whole point of the journey, right from the prologue where you wander through Lumiere as Gustave and Sophia, is to establish that these are real people.

Then the ending basically completely removes Lune and Ciel's agency and asks you to choose between two bad options.

Honestly, I like to think that if Maelle chose to stay and was staying for too long, Ciel and Lune would have told her it was time for her to move on and go reclaim her life in the real world while they live out theirs in the painting. I mean, they were present for all of those conversations about her grief and her conversation with her dad about how she just needs a little more time.

[WZ]

Yeah the common take that committing world genocide is "obviously the better choice" VS letting one girl die - a girl who already chose to die rather see this mass murder happen - is baffling. This isn't TLOU1. Ellie wasn't asked.

As for "the faceless kid is suffering", I wish they HAD done that! But they only say he's tired and bored. Heck, no one is forcing him, he's painting out of habit. Showing him to be a suffering prisoner would raise a more interesting dilemma indeed.

[Fanta]

I also wonder... If painted Verso had a death wish, couldn't real-life Alicia/Maelle grant it, and unpaint him? Exactly like she previously did with the painted Alicia at the top of the Reacher?

[Elsuya]

Originally posted by Fanta:

I also wonder... If painted Verso had a death wish, couldn't real-life Alicia/Maelle grant it, and unpaint him? Exactly like she previously did with the painted Alicia at the top of the Reacher?

That's what he's been wanting in the Maelle's ending. "Unpaint me" "I don't want this life".
Maelle STILL chose to bring him back, although with the ability to age it would seem.
BUT she didn't do it, cause instead of seeing Painted Verso as his own person (as she did when she regained her Alicia memories) she started treating him as the real Verso.

[Fanta]

Originally posted by Elsuya:

That's what he's been wanting in the Maelle's ending. "Unpaint me" "I don't want this life".Maelle STILL chose to bring him back, although with the ability to age it would seem.BUT she didn't do it, cause instead of seeing Painted Verso as his own person (as she did when she regained her Alicia memories) she started treating him as the real Verso.

At some point in the end she calls him brother, indeed. Still, she could have avoided the confrontation with him by granting his wish. Instead she crossed swords risking that, if he wins, he will obliterate everyone in the canvas? I don't know... makes sense if the writers were using shrooms.

[zero]

while i get the point about trying to consider the humanity of the people of the painting, the story's overarching themes are about loss and grief, and how people are handling them, so in the end, the 2 endings can be summarized as this:

1)avoidance: you remain in the painting, letting yourself die, to not face the reality of your loss, even if its not quite what you want(judging by her face, perhaps im misreading it)

2)progress: you are forced to leave the painting, you have to face the death of your loved ones, be they painted or real, but you have time now, and like all loss, it stays with you, but you can move past it, with time.

neither is a "happy" ending, for sure, but i can understand why "stay" is seen as the bad ending; its functionally rotting in your bed.

[TripSin]

I find it sad that so many people complain when they don't get a happy ending. I wish we had more endings that aren't happy endings, but it seems like a lot of people can't handle that.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by TripSin:

I find it sad that so many people complain when they don't get a happy ending. I wish we had more endings that aren't happy endings, but it seems like a lot of people can't handle that.

Thats why so many try to talk themselves into that the Verso ending is the "happy" ending.

" Ha ha we forced this crippled and constantly in pain teenage girl out of the space she got some relief in and also genocided all her friends but look how her real family just leave her standing alone at the grave of the brother whose death they blame on her. But at least this is healthy!"



There is a reason the devs had to come out in a interview statement that neither ending is "good" or "correct" and that both have equally bad/good parts about them and that its just as much about the right of the people of the canvas to exist as the grief counseling.

But people need confirmation that their decision was the "correct" one so they get entrenched.

[Ellie]

Originally posted by TripSin:

I find it sad that so many people complain when they don't get a happy ending. I wish we had more endings that aren't happy endings, but it seems like a lot of people can't handle that.

I don't need a game to tell me how to grieve. I lost my mother suddenly 2 years ago. No sickness. Just keeled over 1 morning. I am fine and was fine within a few months.

I still think both endings completely suck. I really enjoyed the game. I just hate both endings.

Enjoying happy endings and liking something putting a smile on my face instead of making me cry isn't a bad thing. It's called wanting to be happy instead of drowning in sadness.

[DisTer]

Are you saying the ending isn't great because there's no "And they lived happily ever after..." ?

But they only offer you 2 pills.

Take the red pill and the broken child refuse to go back to her broken body and prefer to commit suicid while playing with dolls.

Take the blue pill and the broken remnant of a dead son refuses to let his family torture themselves over his disappearance.
Both make perfect sense.

No 3rd pill where the broken-by-grief gods all leave the canva AND keep it intact. This can't be an option since Aline has gone mad and will return it no matter what, and Alicia will do the same, leaving Renoir and Clea no other choice but to destroy the canva at the very second the two left it.
Is it bitter ? Damn yes, Sciel, Lune and all the other didn't deserved that after all they went through.

But it's a tragedy, actual gods are living among them, they're fate doesn't belong to them.

And they learn the truth only after their gommage in Act 2, at which point they've been revived by Alicia so their free will is no more reliable, otherwise they would probably rebel against their creators, at least partially (despite Lune is too eager to understand the world to miss such a chance and Sciel only wishes to join her lost ones.)

Also, painted Verso did all he could to save both his family and his world, in the ending he is about to lose both so he makes the only choice that can save one at the cost of the other.

On the other hand if Alicia win, Aline will most likely come back in the canvas to die too, which would probably leave Renoir devastated and Clea alone .

[Crimsomrider]

100% agree.

The journey was some of the best I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing, the story was incredibly captivating from the very beginning to the very finale... and then just completely fell on its face as soon as Verso entered the core of the Canvas.

• Ignored all the characters arcs setting them up to be better people than Renoir and Aline (camp relationships, personal quests etc)
  
• Due to this none of the main characters got to grow, they actually devolved as characters (Verso becomes Renoir 2.0, Maelle gets pushed by Verso into the same exact ultimatum as Aline got by Renoir, so she becomes Aline 2.0. Lune and Sciel get entirely pushed to the side and ignored as characters.)
  
• Ironically the only character who got to grow was Renoir, who as a father finally realized that although he truly meant well for his family - his fear of loss completely blinded him to what he was doing to everyone around him to the point of even alienating both his wife and daughter
  
• The two choices presented are basically show the game you've learned your lesson by invalidating your entire journey or preserve your journey by going against the game's obvious lesson

The story's meaning/point/lesson/whatever was crystal from the get-go of ACT III, but I was hoping based on what it constantly kept putting forward in terms of one choosing their own life and being better than their parents (the very topics Lune, Sciel, Clea and Alicia kept putting forward throughout the story for Maelle) that it would elevate itself further and rise beyond just a basic dilemma about overcoming grief... but unfortunately it did not.

Still it's an incredible game, a shame about the endings though - the way they were treated gave me Mass Effect 3 vibes all over again. Yet despite the terribly unsatisfying endings thankfully the journey is so well put-together that it makes it all worth replaying.

[TripSin]

Originally posted by Ellie:

Originally posted by TripSin:

I find it sad that so many people complain when they don't get a happy ending. I wish we had more endings that aren't happy endings, but it seems like a lot of people can't handle that.

I don't need a game to tell me how to grieve. I lost my mother suddenly 2 years ago. No sickness. Just keeled over 1 morning. I am fine and was fine within a few months.

I still think both endings completely suck. I really enjoyed the game. I just hate both endings.

Enjoying happy endings and liking something putting a smile on my face instead of making me cry isn't a bad thing. It's called wanting to be happy instead of drowning in sadness.

My father drowned trying to save someone else who was drowning when I was 9 years old. I still enjoy endings that aren't typical happy endings and I still wish people didn't need happy endings so much.

I feel that endings like this games' feel more realistic to me and leave more to think about and mentally chew over than happy endings. Happy endings are plain and uninspired. I love shows and games full of grief and adversity like Attack on Titan (and I thought AoT's ending was too much of a happy ending in some regards, too).

[Kethanid]

I'm on a second playthough and there's some stuff I had forgotten. Found an expedition journal that Verso talks about bringing Julia back and how everyone that's there deserves to live including himself. He's full of regret about Julia, and at that time he's all about saving everyone. Then there's Alicia who he gives Maelle a bunch of guff about gommaging Alicia before he could try to talk her out of it, even though she's exhibiting her own free will by having Maelle gommage her. He's so conflicted, and absolutely unreliable as any kind of morality focus point *at least to me*.

Not to mention the fact he was ready to destroy the canvas at the end of act 2, then acts all butthurt about not being able to save his painted sister. Verso is the enemy.