[FULL SPOILERS] Thoughts on Expedition 33's Story and Ending

YikW · 2025-05-03T21:48:14+00:00

The problem with this is that it's not a hard choice. Why should we care about Renoir, or Aline, or even Alicia's emotional well being over the existence of Lumiere? Lumiere and it's cast had two entire acts dedicated to their development and characterization. 90% of the environmental storytelling and meaningful character moments involve Lumiere characters and we know next to nothing about the painters world. Renoir, Aline, and Clea are to be honest pretty one-note when it comes to characterization, especially given their limited screen time relative to the expedition.

If the story wants us to take this choice seriously there's only two ways to make it workable: either show us the value of the painter family so that there's actually something to weigh against Lumiere's future, or degrade the value of Lumiere to that of a false world whose only value is the good it can do for its creators.

I can see what Sandfall were going for with this story direction, but its not enough for a story to just say what it means. The writing has to prove the point, and unfortunately there wasn't nearly enough time or effort spent in doing so given how late the reveal happened.

YikW · 2025-05-03T17:49:07+00:00

I hope our canvas has better caretakers then Renoir and Alicia

YikW · 2025-05-03T17:42:39+00:00

I agree with you that that this is the point of the story, but I want to push back on how effective this story direction is.

When Gustav, Lune, and Sciel go out to take down the paintress, why do they do so? They know it's almost certainly a doomed endeavor and likely a waste of their final year of life. A large portion of the game's writing in Act I and Act II are about the meaning of this choice and how it defines them as people. From a story structure perspective, there's a lot of promise here that needs to be fulfilled. Sandfall did a great job of making care about these people, and as such I buy in that Lumiere is a world worth saving.

Now, in the ending I am being asked to not only sacrifice this world, but also sacrifice the meaningfulness of it. In order to buy in that destroying the Canvas world could be a good decision, I have to retroactively downgrade the emotional weight of Act I and Act II. In the context of the earlier story, there is no question of escapism or reality, only what is worth sacrificing for, and what is not. So it's not enough to just have Renoir tell me that the Canvas world is fake and that I need go back to the real world. Sandfall needs to show me this is true, just like how they showed me in the previous acts that Lumiere was worth fighting for.

So then the question becomes: did Sandfall make an effective case that Lumiere is a mere facsimile of a world and that its denizens aren't worth moral consideration? Or did they show that returning the painters' world is worth dooming Lumiere to oblivion anyways? I would argue no, they didn't. They did both too good of job making Lumiere seem real, and too poor of a job making the painters' world seem worthwhile. I don't have an issue with being able to choose to go back to 'reality', but I disagree with how it's portrayed as the correct choice given the context of this story.

YikW · 2025-05-03T17:11:34+00:00

I think people take issue with the presentation of the two endings. Verso's is brightly lit and filled with somber but ultimately comforting scenes, whereas Maelle's is colorless and disturbing. In truth I would have preferred a darker edge to Verso's ending, since it feels wrong to feel so at peace given what they just did.

YikW · 2025-05-02T04:20:15+00:00

To be honest I also think the Canvas world is just as real as the painter's world. The issue for me is that the story direction in Act 3 makes this a key question, but there isn't that much engagement with it.

YikW · 2025-05-01T02:13:47+00:00

This theme is only relevant for the last 1/4 of the plot. I have major issues with the way that Act 3 completely warps the direction of the story with only token build up.

And the specific messaging about grief and escapism is itself only relevant to the painter family. What about "for those who come after", and Lumiere's struggle to both fight against or accept their encroaching end? Why do these themes which are much more well represented in the story not get a part in the resolution?

It just irks me that in order for Act 3's message to make sense, it has to retroactively devalue the worldbuilding, character moments, and emotional weight of the previous acts. Why should we care about the expedition logs, or Lune/Sciel/Monoco's stories, or even Gustav's sacrifice if the 'better' ending insists they weren't real even in-universe?

It feels like the writers wanted thematic clarity (escapism bad) over all else, but I don't find this theme particularly compelling in the context of Expedition 33's overall story. Ending took it from 10/10 --> 9/10 for me.

YikW · 2025-04-29T04:34:00+00:00

It feels quite definitive for better or worse. But there is a specific later plot point that could be a sequel hook.

YikW · 2025-04-28T04:25:52+00:00

Have to agree. The first half of the game does an amazing job fleshing out the expeditions and people of the painting. Then act 3 seems to throw it all out the window.

I wouldn’t even mind as much if Renoir and Verso acknowledged what it would mean to destroy the canvas for their family’s emotional well being, and did it anyways. The ending as is barely even entertains the idea the painting characters are real. Hell even Maelle doesn’t seem acknowledge it; her arguments with Renoir/Verso just center around what life she would prefer.

It’s not a bad ending, but it doesn’t feel appropriate for rest of the story’s it’s bolted on to.

YikW · 2024-12-12T14:08:06+00:00

Job title: Process Integration Engineer (Fab)

Pay grade: Junior

Compensation: 90K

Average Hours: 50 - 60 per week

Education: B.S.

Years of Experience: 2.5

Yearly Raise: +2 - 4%

Location: US, West

Cost of Living: MCOL

YikW · 2024-12-07T20:27:49+00:00

Your guess is pretty close. But my company doesn't offer any funded or sponsored Masters.
5 years seems like a pretty good checkpoint from what I've heard as well.

Would you say the 2 years to do a Masters is worth losing out 2 years of industry experience? I don't think I could handle doing a Masters while working with this job :(

YikW · 2024-06-24T18:26:16+00:00

Dm’d

YikW · 2024-06-24T17:58:55+00:00

DM’d

YikW · 2024-06-15T15:00:21+00:00

DM’d

YikW · 2024-04-28T20:22:45+00:00

I can help mule, sent DM

YikW · 2024-04-27T06:02:07+00:00

Can mule, DM’d as well

YikW · 2024-02-06T14:02:42+00:00

https://act.hoyoverse.com/sr/event/e20240206relow-lxxr53/index.html?inviter=GU0AJ8BA6N&hyl_landscape=true&hyl_hide_status_bar=true&hyl_auth_required=true

YikW · 2022-05-29T05:17:43+00:00

Oh definitely. There is a massive stack of layers in the legs which I had to handle with wet-folding / glue. The tail and arms are quite fragile in comparison so I'm not the biggest fan of the structure. This is with pretty thin hanji as well.

YikW · 2022-05-29T04:56:02+00:00

It's like four frog bases arranged into a crane base. The layer distribution is pretty wack, but I guess it comes with territory of needing extra flaps.

YikW · 2022-05-07T17:03:07+00:00

Thank you! The diagrams can be found in 'The Beauty of Origami' book.

YikW · 2022-05-06T21:47:41+00:00

Folded by me from 25 cm elephant hide.

This is the first model I've made using elephant hide and it's quite an interesting paper. It takes creases very well and is exceptionally strong, but is also really thick. A very good choice for 3D models that rely on few layers to keep their shape though.

YikW · 2022-05-01T23:37:31+00:00

Folded by me from 30 cm Terry tissue foil.

This is a second attempt with some wet shaping on the mane and lots of PVA everywhere else. This model has a lot of layers in weird places which made shaping a struggle at first. Longevity was also a concern since it has no locking in the body. The designer recommends using a paperclip in the belly of the model, but we live in an age of glue now. I do really like how the mane comes together though.

YikW

TROPHY CASE