SPOILERS!!! Why the bad ending is NOT that bad.

[Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame]

So choosing to fight Verso is considered the bad ending. But I dare to opposite this. So here is my rant. (Perhaps copium)

I believe that the creatures inside the painting are NOT responsible for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up family's melodrama and inability to deal with grief.
Esquie, Monoco, Lune and everyone else should NOT be erased from existence forever just because some outer-world, close to godlike family cannot deal with the most basic human experience (death within the family).

Neither Esquie, Monoco or Lune is responsible for this tragedy and they have no obligation to fix it. The Dessendre family should deal with it like adults instead of escaping into paintings.

As for the little painter boy Verso's soul... well if you don't want your soul to be trapped in a painting, don't use a part of your soul to paint it buddy. The family painted hundreds of paintings and this is the only one where this is an issue.

As for Maelle, it's sad to see that her face starts to erode, but at least she could spend some time with her new family. Sending her back to her shell of a body, where she can't even talk feels like an eternal punishment.

I think it's fair to assume that the Father and Clea are already working on destroying the painting from the outside, so why not give her a moment of happiness. If they destroy the painting, Maelle will get back to her mute, one eyed body anyways.

[Ulot The Nub]

I think the part about verso's soul is that it doesn't really get to make that choice, because Verso is dead. They might not have appreciated what they were doing until it was real.

Her reaction is understandable, but I don't think its noble. its selfish, but people behave selfishly because it feels rational, even if it isn't. hard to judge a child for the sins of their parents, and her ending is more the sins of her parents coming home to roost. They didn't just destroy the canvas in their war, they doomed their daughter.

[Arion]

Well, you shouldn't downplay grief. It can completely destroy a person, some people literally die of grief. It's hard to lose someone you care about deeply, them being gone leaves a gaping hole in your heart that can never be filled.

That being said, I do agree that Maelle's ending doesn't have to be bad. They purposely made it very creepy, and it didn't need to be that way. Verso's ending is final, the canvas is gone and so are everyone in it. In Maelle's, nothing is. Anything can happen from that point on.

Maelle can still choose to free Verso's soul fragment, hopefully by placing her own there in his stead so the canvas can continue to exist. But it may take her some time to be able to do this.

In time she can grow and come to accept that her brother is gone. Even in her ending we can already see that she is not entirely happy with what she is doing to painted Verso, she's still hoping he can find some happiness in his life but that is a lost cause.

[WonderlandgirlMerlina]

While I haven't seen Verso's ending (I choose Maelles) I talked about it with a friend who chose it.

That being said I think both endings are "bad." Just like Reinor and Alline before them they speak about healing but they don't actually listen to each other and work together to heal past their pain. One wants to end the pain completely and force the other into a world that she doesn't want to be in while the other wants to lean on the family she found in a panting brought to reality even if the soul keeping it going is tried of painting.

I have to wonder though, could this have been avoided if the painted Verso had told Maelle and the others about this before reaching the end. If they found another way to keep the canvus going, to help everyone heal instead of making it Verso vs Maelle. As in the end no matter who you choose no one is trully happy. No one truly heals.

From what I know from Verso's ending Verso's soul is erased so any chance he had at healing is gone. And Maelle is forced into a world that she is not comfortable in. Though under the circumstances Verso's soul is at peace but under other circumstances he could have been saved and given a happy life.

While on the flip side only the painted Verso dies and on the outside everything seems fine. But it is very much implied that having to kill Verso and keep the world going is slowly tearing at Maelle. How can one smile when they know they failed to save someone from taking their own life? It is truly sad because in her ending she became Verso, unable to feel happiness and slowly becoming withdrawn from everyone and I am afraid she will one day end the the painting even if there is no body to return to.

Which just echos my statement of the irony of this all. Being unable to share your pain before it's too late. These endings could have been avoided if this pain was attempted to be shared. Maelle wanted to help the painted Verso and he knew what was going on. But even when we first met him he was to far gone and he just wanted us to end it all.

I feel if anything Verso was failed because he felt he couldn't be helped. No one should feel that way. There should always be another way.

[Ulot The Nub]

The real Verso is dead. He's been dead. For the painted verso, he wanted things to end, as he found that life meaningless because it couldn't end. The fragment of verso's soul still had a bit of verso in him, so he likely was not happy with how everything played out.

He understood that Maelle was going to be selfish in the canvas, and he didn't want that. He hoped his end would bring a matter of peace to that family, and was horrified at the thought of maelle using him as a prop for her fantasy, which is arguably even more tragic, as she isn't doing this to escape the confrontation for the grief of her sons death, she's doing this for entirely simplistic reasons: in the Canvas, she's god. You sympathize with someone who has had the amount of suffering in her life she has finding the allure of playing god irresistible, but she seems to be even worse by forcing Verso to basically perform for her against his will.

[Crimsomrider]

What's even more f-ed up regarding little Verso is the fact the majority of his suffering came from Clea's own actions more than anything else.

He had such fond memories of spending so much time together with her within the Canvas, so seeing her destroy and corrupt everything they loved and built together caused him a lot of pain and confusion. Even creating the Lampmaster to haunt him so he can't rest at all throughout the conflict and therefore make it easier to stop him from painting.

Is this how a family pays respects to the soul of their son and a brother? By not only betraying his memories but also torturing him just to end it quicker? Is this truly the last thing he deserves to see before getting erased from existence?

That is one of the reasons why I will never not choose Maelle, at least she tries to give her brother's soul some proper joy and happiness by taking him with her like he used to go on adventures with Clea.

[UshiNoMimi]

Originally posted by Crimsomrider:

He had such fond memories of spending so much time together with her within the Canvas, so seeing her destroy and corrupt everything they loved and built together caused him a lot of pain and confusion. Even creating the Lampmaster to haunt him so he can't rest at all throughout the conflict and therefore make it easier to stop him from painting.

Well duh, child Verso can't understand why Clea trying to help her father and through him her mother.

You're wrong about Lampmaster though, it was painted by child Clea to help Verso deal with fear of his, as she said "Sometimes we need to face the fear to conquer it", but if it really helped we have no idea because we never see adult Verso.

[Sidhenanigans]

I thought Maelle's ending was clearly the only good one. Yes, it was technically selfish to want to spend her remaining time happy and whole rather than burnt, mute, and miserable. But it would be far more selfish for someone else to force her out instead just to feel like they're doing the right thing.
And honestly, who cares about what Verso wants? I had been waiting two whole acts for the opportunity to kill him, of course I was going to fight him. He's the only evil character in the game, and the fact that we're forced to play as him for most of it was the game's only real downfall.
I got sidetracked. He's the worst, and even if Maelle wasn't in the right, I would've chosen her ending anyway just because he deserves to be punished.

[Talbot]

The game is, by design, extremely open to interpretation.

Which ending is "better" depends on a whole bunch of unprovable assumptions, and even after that may come down to your own personal priorities or which of the games themes mean more to you ("For those who come after" vs. "We must accept things as they are, not as we want them to be" are particularly opposed).

Maelle's ending specifically, even putting aside the alternative, is largely going to hinge on how you interpret the chunk of it that's in black and white. If you think that's just a stylistic choice to emphasize bleakness and it's all meant to be taken at face value, that's going to lead you one way. If you think the shift to his Painted Family color scheme is meant to center that segment as Verso's POV in contrast to the rest of the ending, it'll lead you another.

[BeefoTheBold]

The entire Painter family is selfish to the extreme, but Not Verso is easily the most selfish person in the whole game.

Screws over everyone he professes to care about over and over and over again and then has the balls to be upset when it happens to him in the Maelle ending that someone other than him prioritizes their own selfish wants over his.

Neither Renoir or Clea really profess to care about the fate of anyone in the canvas, so they at least aren't betraying someone they allegedly care about. They make no bones about it. They care about their own family first, last and only. (Or at least Renoir does. Clea just seems to be a ***** with how she treats her younger sister.)

Aline is selfish in the sense that her canvas addiction is the entire reason why Renoir wants to erase it. If she would just be willing to let it - and more importantly Real Verso - go, then millions of lives could and would be spared and could live their lives in peace.

But Not Verso and Maelle both claim to care about the people in the canvas, and both are willing to remove any and all agency they have to determine their own fate. Maelle at least wants to keep everyone alive at the expense of screwing Verso over who, let's be honest, REALLY DESERVES IT.

Not Verso is willing to screw over literally everybody - including his best friends, a potential lover, his new "family" AND his OLD family (in the form of Maelle) to get what he wants.

[ShockedHearts]

people neglect to realize that now that maelle has coped with the loss of a world, she can now create a new one, many new ones. and bring everyone back in the same way she would have in her own ending.

its not shown because its an implied possability. creation is endless, but sticking to just a single broken canvas will not let her create. just repeat and repair until she is gone.

in a world where a paintress can create anything what is stopping her from repainting everyone in a new canvas where they can live happily? nothing. unless you choose maelles ending where she refuses to leave and traps versos soul

[Talbot]

Originally posted by ShockedHearts:

people neglect to realize that now that maelle has coped with the loss of a world, she can now create a new one, many new ones. and bring everyone back in the same way she would have in her own ending.

its not shown because its an implied possability. creation is endless, but sticking to just a single broken canvas will not let her create. just repeat and repair until she is gone.

in a world where a paintress can create anything what is stopping her from repainting everyone in a new canvas where they can live happily? nothing. unless you choose maelles ending where she refuses to leave and traps versos soul

Explicitly she can't bring them back without their existing chroma, though. She'd just be doing what Aline did and making Painted Verso-style copies.

We see in her ending that even with godlike power and no other painters stopping her, she's only able to res the people who weren't killed by nevrons (hence no Lune's parents or Expedition 33 members), which fits with what we're told about the chroma with the Lune & Sciel resurrections.

[Arion]

Yes, Maelle can make her own canvas, she can even have Aline help her do it as the people of Lumiere were all Aline's creations to begin with.. But like Monoco said about Noco, It's Noco but a diffrent Noco. Everyone she knew and loved in Verso's canvas would still be gone.

[ShockedHearts]

Originally posted by Arion:

Yes, Maelle can make her own canvas, she can even have Aline help her do it as the people of Lumiere were all Aline's creations to begin with.. But like Monoco said about Noco, It's Noco but a diffrent Noco. Everyone she knew and loved in Verso's canvas would still be gone.

they already are. in her ending she literally recreates them in the same way. the exact same outcome. just copies. hence. grieving is better. as it lets you create something new in a healthy way.

you forget that literally everyone was destroyed lumiere by renoir.
gustave coming back? a copy. sohpie? copy. sciels husband? copy. even verso. a hollow copy.

[Arion]

But their "souls", their pure chroma is still there, floating around. If you pay attention, before fleeing Lumiere when Renoir starts summoning his minions, Maelle senses Sciel and Lune's chroma and gathers it to herself. She then uses their own pure chroma, their "souls", to bring them back.

[ShockedHearts]

Originally posted by Arion:

But their "souls", their pure chroma is still there, floating around. If you pay attention, before fleeing Lumiere when Renoir starts summoning his minions, Maelle senses Sciel and Lune's chroma and gathers it to herself. She then uses their own pure chroma, their "souls", to bring them back.

because they were freshly gommaged. she THEN states right after that everyone elses chroma is old and unpure and she cant bring them back in the same way. do you not think she would bring back gustave instantly if that were the case?

its spelled out pretty clearly by monoco that noone comes back the same way when he directly states that its not exactly reincarnation but rather a copy made thats a little different. the ONE you knew is gone, but they are back.