[SPOILERS] Questions about story up to end of Act II

[Fanta]

At the end of Act II I didn't get some information about what happened before. Please do not spoil the game ending.


- Who painted the town Lumiere? I understand real-life verso painted the original canvas, not sure if he also painted Lumiere in it, or somebody else did it.
- Assuming the fracture happened after Lumiere was painted, who provoked the fracture? Was it Alicia's father, real-life Renoir?
- Who painted the immortal version of the family? (The Verso and the Renoir who fight at the end of Act II).
- Do I understand Alicia's letter correctly? That the real-life father (Renoir) is the one responsible for the gommage, while the paintress is trying to save the inhabitants of Lumiere for as long she can, in spite of her waning powers.
- The immortal Verso lead the party to defeat the paintress, knowing that would allow real-life Renoir to erase everyone in Lumiere, while pretending he was helping them. Why would Sciel and Lune forgive him in the time of one cutscene or two? He is their mortal enemy.
- Maelle has a very big head. I am not the only one seeing this, right?]

[Tiasmoon]

You should play the game and finish the it first. Some of this stuff is mentioned in side content that opens up in Act 3.

[Weiss]

Originally posted by Fanta:

At the end of Act II I didn't get some information about what happened before. Please do not spoil the game ending.


- Who painted the town Lumiere? I understand real-life verso painted the original canvas, not sure if he also painted Lumiere in it, or somebody else did it.
- Assuming the fracture happened after Lumiere was painted, who provoked the fracture? Was it Alicia's father, real-life Renoir?
- Who painted the immortal version of the family? (The Verso and the Renoir who fight at the end of Act II).
- Do I understand Alicia's letter correctly? That the real-life father (Renoir) is the one responsible for the gommage, while the paintress is trying to save the inhabitants of Lumiere for as long she can, in spite of her waning powers.
- The immortal Verso lead the party to defeat the paintress, knowing that would allow real-life Renoir to erase everyone in Lumiere, while pretending he was helping them. Why would Sciel and Lune forgive him in the time of one cutscene or two? He is their mortal enemy.
- Maelle has a very big head. I am not the only one seeing this, right?]

- Verso painted the whole Canvas : Lumière, the Gestrals, the Gandis, etc. when he still was a child as told during Act 2.
- The Fracture happenned when the "war" between Real Renoir and Real Aline (the Paintress) started (Renoir's Axons versus the Paintress's Axon made all this destruction) then Aline send the remaining part of Lumière far away and it became the Lumière where we start the game.
- Aline created Painted Renoir, Painted Verso and Painted Alicia.
- Real Renoir erase / is goming the older painting little by little as his powers were sealed underneath the Monolith he can't erase everything at once. That's why he's goming older "people" first as they are the older painting in the Canvas they are easier to erase.
Meanwhile Aline is painting the year of the paintings who will be erase next as a "countdown" until she won't have any power felt to "protect" the remaining painted people.
- This one is a real writting problem for me too, Sciel, Lune, etc. are really quite forget in term of story / acting / reacting from the moment we understand it's quite only a "familly matter" at the end of Act 2.
- You are the only I think yes xD

I avoid some points / not going to develop more as side content from Act 3 are mentionning more lore about all of that.

[Crimsomrider]

These questions are all explained in ACT III, but can at least answer the pre-last one without spoilers.

• Because apparently traitors who not only murder you but also your entire world get second chances in Clair Obscur.
  
  (I unfortunately have no other good in-lore explanation other than the game intentionally making Lune stupid by suddenly foregoing all caution just so the game could keep him at camp, especially considering she is the only level-headed person in the camp always following protocol).

[Tiasmoon]

Yeah, Verso's inclusion into the party never made sense to me, much less why he becomes the character we control during the party segments. That was already my experience right at the start of Act 2, but at that point I was still willing to hold my suspension of disbelieve.

(spoilers: it only makes less sense as the story continues)

As you say OP, he should be their mortal enemy.

[Weiss]

At first we can "understand" why they accepted him in the party as he looked like a "savior" for Maelle at the Cliff.

But as the story goes, we understand he is just acting for himself (and not for protecting Maelle as some people seem to believe).

Spoilers from late game :

I think in his mind he's hoping Maelle will find a way to keep the Canvas safe and let him rest in peace (Maelle goming him) and that's why he stays with us to fight Real Renoir.

And, in the case she doesn't want to erase him after Real Renoir's defeat, he could take advantage of the fact she is weakened to expel her from the Canvas as he knows that once she will be outside, Real Renoir will destroy the Canvas and defacto, put an end to his meaningless life. (that's what happens in Verso's ending).

Plus in the quest available post ending we learn the truth about him and Gustave's death and we understand that in the end, he is just really a selfish hypocrite using his status as "brother" / Maelle's feeling toward him to stay in the party until the final battle.

[GameBuild]

Originally posted by Weiss:

At first we can "understand" why they accepted him in the party as he looked like a "savior" for Maelle at the Cliff.

But as the story goes, we understand he is just acting for himself (and not for protecting Maelle as some people seem to believe).

Spoilers from late game :

I think in his mind he's hoping Maelle will find a way to keep the Canvas safe and let him rest in peace (Maelle goming him) and that's why he stays with us to fight Real Renoir.

And, in the case she doesn't want to erase him after Real Renoir's defeat, he could take advantage of the fact she is weakened to expel her from the Canvas as he knows that once she will be outside, Real Renoir will destroy the Canvas and defacto, put an end to his meaningless life. (that's what happens in Verso's ending).

Plus in the quest available post ending we learn the truth about him and Gustave's death and we understand that in the end, he is just really a selfish hypocrite using his status as "brother" / Maelle's feeling toward him to stay in the party until the final battle.

As a side note, the writer of E33 actually applied for a voice acting job, I guess to play Lune, but ended up landing a role as lead writer. I am curious to find her background in writing and if she wrote in other medias.

[Fanta]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Yeah, Verso's inclusion into the party never made sense to me, much less why he becomes the character we control during the party segments. That was already my experience right at the start of Act 2, but at that point I was still willing to hold my suspension of disbelieve.

[...]

As you say OP, he should be their mortal enemy.

I think Alicia/Maelle should have let painted Verso be gommaged in the cutscene at the beginning of Act II, and paint (resuscitate) Gustave instead. It would make more sense, and we would still have 5 characters to play with. In fact, why she didn't paint Gustave once she rediscovered her power, it is another dangling issue in my view.