#my coe33 posts

Aline is obviously the most talented. She recreated Lumière and literally created lives as she painted all the humans on the continent, all tens of thousands (perhaps even hundreds of thousands to a million if this is based on the real Paris). She managed to create accurate portraits of her family, and to sustain life to her creations through an enormous stretch of time. (We don't know how long Lumière existed before the Gommage, but from what we know from the game she sustained for close to a hundred years; Verso's age).

But her art style is also the least unique: she paints in a very academic style, if I may use the word. The humans are real people, the city inspired by the truth. Her biggest folly would be this giant paintress, but as it is more a reflection of herself, it is also quite devoid of imagination.

Then we have Renoir. While a talented painter in his own right, he is clearly much less strong than his wife. His creations however are much more imaginative, though still centered on reality: the Axons are fantastical beasts but retain this hold on real life as they are, in a way, each a "lesson" for one of his family members. His creations are certainly imaginative but still not detached from reality.

Clea is absolutely brilliant. She manages to hold qualities from both of her parents, while still creating something new and uniquely herself.

The Nevrons all come from her imagination, are pure product of fiction. And through this "life" breathed into them they retain a semblance of "consciousness" (or perhaps awareness) that make them a twisted parallel to all of Aline's little expeditioners. It's both a pity and a miracle to see Clea this erased from the narrative by her parents, when she represents so well the legacy of painting and family both Aline and Renoir hold onto.

We know that Verso only ever painted one canvas, but what a masterpiece of imagination and inventivity! The gestrals are of course the twin counterparts to the Nevrons, especially since Clea had a hand in designing the canvas as well when they were children. I will note though that from the beginning there are elements that prove that clearly, Clea was always the one who enjoyed painting while poor Verso preferred the piano and attempting to become a musician (until his family put a rather... definitive, end to his plans...): he, like his father, paints what he knows. And though it's not as hyper-centered on reality as his mother's creations, it's still tied to reality, to what's familiar, to what's comforting, like an extension of reality more than a desire to create something truly new. I am referring here to Esquie and Monoco, respectively his favourite toy and his dog.

While the gestrals, marvelous creations that they are, could have predicted a brilliant painting career for Verso, it is also abundantly clear throughout the entire game that music has always been his one true love, especially the piano. Talent without passion does not breed the joy and willpower needed for beautiful canvases.

And lastly, Alicia/Maelle. The truly most interesting case.

Her rooms at the Manor show us that like her brother, her own interests lie elsewhere. It is absolutely covered in books. Does she read? Does she write? Was she a writer herself? It's interesting to note that all journals in the game are audio recordings, safe for Gustave's journal- in which only him and Maelle ever write. Do her words hold such power, even in a painted world? Have her words shaped her ending and helped twist her vision of the world?

The rare times we see her paint, even after regaining her memories, prove how talented she is (much like her entire family)- but how, through her youth or perhaps natural character- she is missing the inventivity that betrayed the rest of her family's work;

Because nothing of what she paints is fictional to her. Maelle only ever paints what she sees as the truth.

The Dessendres paint and shape new worlds, all fictional, all fantastical too varying degrees: but not Maelle.

She paints their creations anew (Sciel and Lune), she paints the natural continuation of the canvas others had created (giving Aline's creations a happy ending)

I think here lies her true approach to painting, as compared to the others.

Painters are grounded in reality, and through art expresses it on a new canvas to reveal its secrets and the way they feel inside. (Rage through the nevrons, fear and anxiety when erasing the canvas, a new bigger playground to play with favourite toys, a mirror of reality to escape grief).

But Maelle does not see this world as fictional. And not wanting to break the hold this reality has, she does not create anything new: at worse she erases, at best she recreates previous creations.

We saw all the different kinds of love:

Maelle saw her brother (/father), Lune saw her parents, Sciel saw her husband (and baby), and Monoco saw his child

But Verso didn't see anyone. There was nothing he longed for more than his own death. Which is the one thing Aline refused to ever give him.

Unironically one of the times I cried the hardest while playing, so much so that I took a pic as commemoration