#coe33 simon

Simon, The Divergent Star💫🐺

OK, I love speculating about the painted family before the events of the game. And I noticed that there’s a split of people who think that Aline made them as completely true to form as possible, altering nothing, and those who think that she made tweaks. (I flip-flop, the idea of her changing them adds so much juicy sad drama that I love it too much to fully abandon.)

I see this especially around painted Clea because of Simon. I 100% understand the urge to make her either A-romantic or lesbian, and the drama around ‘my perfect version of you is you but in a heteronormative relationship’ from Aline is so juicy. So the presence of Simon means either Clea IRL is dating Simon and we don’t see him, or Aline did tweaks.

However, I offer to you a third option I thought of this morning. I’ve been trying to give Aline more of the benefit of the doubt lately so we are going with the idea that she changed nothing, painted them as true to form as possible. And Simon is a post fracture acquisition for Clea.

Why would she get involved in a romance during an apocalypse you ask? Well, in my head cannon, the painted family hung out in Lumiere for at least a couple months post fracture while the city gathered supplies, got slightly back on its feet, and the search and rescue mission got created. Clea did not kidnap Painted Clea on fracture day. And Painted family doesn’t know they are gods favorite and have magic powers yet.

During that time Renoir was very sad and angsty because he needed to go find Aline. If there was a chance she was alive and out there he had to search for her. Damn his lack of experience fighting monsters or outdoor survival skills, his desperate longing for his wife would see him through.

And Verso people pleasing mama boy that he is decided to also join, because two people with zero experience are surely better than one. He would contribute so much to keeping Renoir alive. The concert pianist, and an old painter with a limp will surely survive all the dangers.

Seeing the boys of her family being idiots but also knowing she wouldn’t be able to convince them to not to search for Aline, Clea decides to seduce Simon! the most anime protagonist of the entire city so that way he would feel obligated to protect her family while they wandered around the woods.

So it’s very pure love from Simon’s point of view, very ‘will probably dump him once he gets back with her family alive’ on Cleas end so she can be whatever sexuality people want her to be and still Simon/Clea is real and not a fucked up thing from the mom!

Simon and Verso epic battle. The pose was inspired by a Berserk panel.