A Petal's Colour Theory - Purple and Yellow

[Neki]

I love this game and it always bother me about the petal colour through out the story. So i tried to find the explanation for it and came up with this:

1. The colour of the petals represent the painter's emotions and feelings of their action. So if there is no action from any Painters to the creations (character) in the canvas, when those creations perish, they will show the colour which they were painted originally. Or else they will show the colour of the Painter's emotions.

2. Application: A painter could paint any colour depend on their emotions.
- Renoir: Red - Love/Anger. Through out all the game, he always seems to be angry at the current situation of his family but at the same time want to do everything to protect it from failing apart. That's why all of his actions (the Gommage) have red petals. Also his projection in this world painted by himself when leaving the canvas at the end of Act 3 left red petals behind. (Alicia didn't force him out).
- Aline: White - Hope/Emptiness. The death of Verso left a hole in her heart, and with this feeling she tried to paint a fake reality with the hope of seeing Verso happy again. So most of her action/creation will have this colour. But also, there is a space to protect the real last peace of Verso soul (End of Act3) was created by her and would erase every thing but the painters - This is an act of love so it's red petals. (This explains why Monocco and Esquie perished with red even though they were created by Verso).
- Alicia: Yellow - Confusion/In-between. The first time she activated her power in the canvas is when she was trying to force Aline out (End of Act 2) where she's is so confused about everything, we could all see this in her reaction when she held the Flag. After that, the Cinematic showing the Gommage from Renoir removed her paint with red petals and at the same time she awake with all the memories from both Maelle and Alicia to painted herself a projection to this world with yellow one. The feeling of this colour also got enhanced by the moment she was trying to repaint Lune and Sciel, she was with red (Love) and then turned into yellow (In-between) when Painted Verso mention those are the creation of Aline and her brother.
- Painted Verso: He was originally white since he was the creation of Aline, but at the opening of Act 3, he almost got Gommage by Renoir with red and then got repainted by Alicia with yellow. But at the end of act 2, he was painted with something from Aline which he described as ' Maman's Gift' at the end of act 3 - I believe that Aline do this to prevent anyone to paint over this version of Verso, the best works of her so he would always be the Verso she love. With this when he perished by himself (out of Chroma not forcing to be gommage) with Maelle ending, white petals happened.
- Painted Alicia: She is the one that make the idea of one colour represents one painter to be not correct and the reason why i came up with this. She was Gommage by Alicia, and at this cut scene we could see from the emotion and behavior of Alicia - this is the act of love, she knew this is better for Painted Alicia. This may also mean Alicia start to love herself more instead of blaming her for Verso's death, it's really important stage to move on from Griefing. And yes it's red.
- Simon/ Clea: Black - Controlling/ Fear. Yes Simon is interesting, i believe he was created by Aline to protect and help Painted Verso. And then he was repainted by Clea to control him and make him force Aline out of Canvas but failed and got imprison. That's why when Simon Perish he left behind White and a few red petals. (hope and love)
- Painted Clea: She was a painted version (White) then got repainted by Clea but when she perished the yellow petals appear. I believe this was from the action of Painted Clea herself (she is a Painter as well within this Canvas) with the feeling confusion and torn apart by 2 versions were applied on her. This goes well with how similar Alicia/Maelle feeling and thus left behind yellow Petals.

3. Addition:
- Maelle has 3 stands: Offensive - Red, Deffensive - Blue, Virtuos - Purple (the combination of Red and Blue). And on the Colour Wheel, Purple is the opposition of Yellow - There is a scene in Cinematic of Act 2 when both Maelle and Alicia back to back at each other, maybe this is intention from the Dev.
- When you combine Purple (Red and Blue) with Yellow, if they are colour you will get Black, if they are light you will get white ( a weird version of it). It suits well with Maelle/Alicia ending with white and black , with Light and Dark, with Clair and Obscure.

4. What a game!

[Dailao]

I thought it depends on who painted it originally or who is executing the "spell", but I might be wrong. When I do a NG+ run I will pay more attention to details like that.

[OmegaRisen]

Aline's petals are always white, Renoir's petals are always red, Alicia's petals are always gold. simple as. That's why during the gommage, the petals are red and white, because Renoir is destroying the painting at the same time that Aline is trying to keep him from destroying it.

[Neki]

Originally posted by OmegaRisen:

Aline's petals are always white, Renoir's petals are always red, Alicia's petals are always gold. simple as. That's why during the gommage, the petals are red and white, because Renoir is destroying the painting at the same time that Aline is trying to keep him from destroying it.

Yes, i thought as that in the first place but it could not explain why Painted Alicia is red, Painted Clea is yellow even though they are all created by Aline.

[Neki]

Originally posted by Dailao:

I thought it depends on who painted it originally or who is executing the "spell", but I might be wrong. When I do a NG+ run I will pay more attention to details like that.

Yes, i think the game is really smart of using colour to tell many things. Especially if players don't do the side quest for Painted version of Alicia and Clea. Those two are really special with their colour.

[lunerim]

Incredible analysis, I hadn't thought of them being tied to the emotions of the painters.

[Jester]

Does this explains the petals in Verso's ending where the illusions of 'Maelle's' team fades away?

[ShockedHearts]

white is present in all petal scenes with every character

gold is only ever shown with maelle. and red is present for ALL painted beings EXCEPT verso who is only white.

verso is gold and white when maelle uses her paintress powers to save him in act 3 (which he only has white petals before this so this happens because she connected herself to him to save him, hence when gold petals show up)

this is showcased in the ending with verso where verso is only white petals, maelle is white and gold. and everyone else is white and red

so to recap:

- WHITE (purity, and ones soul or essence, this is present for EVERYONE within a canvas)

- GOLD (tied only to maelle directly so might be unique to her, or have something to do with her unique paintress identity, she can give other people this color when connected to them for some reason)

- RED (shown and used pretty much exclusively for painted beings so the red might indicate PAINT the color that creates that being aside from its base essence (white)

i think the petals are tied to the state of being of the person, not some vague symbolism on a person to person basis, purely because the colors tend to match facts, such as all painted people being red/white and noone "real" being displayed as red and white.

the game itself supports white and gold being "pure" or complete. I think because verso lacks the gold he isnt complete or pure, just a fraction which hints at his true identity.

maelle only is gold and white when she finds her PURE true self in act 3. and is white when she fades away in act 2.

[Neki]

Originally posted by Jester:

Does this explains the petals in Verso's ending where the illusions of 'Maelle's' team fades away?

- Aline: White - Hope/Emptiness. The death of Verso left a hole in her heart, and with this feeling she tried to paint a fake reality with the hope of seeing Verso happy again. So most of her action/creation will have this colour. But also, there is a space to protect the real last peace of Verso soul (End of Act3) was created by her and would erase every thing but the painters - This is an act of love so it's red petals. (This explains why Monocco and Esquie perished with red even though they were created by Verso).

[Neki]

Originally posted by ShockedHearts:

white is present in all petal scenes with every character

gold is only ever shown with maelle. and red is present for ALL painted beings EXCEPT verso who is only white.

verso is gold and white when maelle uses her paintress powers to save him in act 3 (which he only has white petals before this so this happens because she connected herself to him to save him, hence when gold petals show up)

this is showcased in the ending with verso where verso is only white petals, maelle is white and gold. and everyone else is white and red

so to recap:

- WHITE (purity, and ones soul or essence, this is present for EVERYONE within a canvas)

- GOLD (tied only to maelle directly so might be unique to her, or have something to do with her unique paintress identity, she can give other people this color when connected to them for some reason)

- RED (shown and used pretty much exclusively for painted beings so the red might indicate PAINT the color that creates that being aside from its base essence (white)

i think the petals are tied to the state of being of the person, not some vague symbolism on a person to person basis, purely because the colors tend to match facts, such as all painted people being red/white and noone "real" being displayed as red and white.

the game itself supports white and gold being "pure" or complete. I think because verso lacks the gold he isnt complete or pure, just a fraction which hints at his true identity.

maelle only is gold and white when she finds her PURE true self in act 3. and is white when she fades away in act 2.

I think the last scene of Act 2 are yellow petal not white, may be just a few ( this is because of the saturation filter was applied to that cinematic). But your point is great as well. Definitely my theory has a lot of holes in it but that's the great thing about the story. Depend on each player, there will be a different view on how we understand it.
Would like to see people discuss more about the game's content rather than how they think the game is overrated even though not going through the story once as the current discussion page is.

[Neki]

Originally posted by oreo mcflurry:

Incredible analysis, I hadn't thought of them being tied to the emotions of the painters.

thank you