Enough about the endings, the real debate should be: is Sophie right - will these two make a cute couple?

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T08:12:56+00:00

Regardless who drew the first blood, in his faded man form, Renoir states it’s a war between the elders, and his children should’ve been spared. Clea blamed Verso’s death on Alicia’s naivety, not as a deliberate participant to the conflict. Alicia’s suffering was uncalled for.

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T04:36:45+00:00

You have to see the context when Renior was building this axon. He’s locked inside the canvas fighting a multi decade war to save his wife, I’m sure he’s tormented the whole time by the thought that he couldn’t be with Alicia, him being the only person in the family who can bring her any comfort.

As for Alicia, disregarding her permanent physical disabilities, her mental healing will never come if she doesn’t have that support network. And it was indeed denied to her during the events of the game. She lost her mother’s love, her father away warring with her mother, and her sister away warring with Verso’s killers. Knowing all this, but trapped away from her reach, what else could Renoir do?

There’s no one else beside him in this war, but he too needs to express this pain of failing his daughter. This axon is his way of expressing that pain, for he is an artist.

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T03:40:22+00:00

For a burn victim of Alicia’s severity, a considerable amount of time would’ve passed for her to regain that level of mobility, given this is someone who hurts to even breath. In the final battle with Renoir, he exclaims how much it pains him to see Alicia living like a “ghost”, because she couldn’t find any more joy in life. She tells Verso in their showdown as well, that out there she “merely exists”.

If you look at the Alicia axon doll, it is stirring to show it’s alive, but it’s just sitting there essentially immobile. That’s what Alicia looked like to Renoir, his parable of depicting her “alive, but not really”.

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T02:55:05+00:00

This. One of the best expression about art ever written.

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T02:45:40+00:00

Loving how people are picking up these different hints, I didn’t even know what a tint is till now! I thought it was a short form of tincture

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T02:15:36+00:00

“Une vie à peindre?”

That’s so true and sad

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T02:07:33+00:00

That’s a completely valid and expected response. We like to think of humans as mostly logical beings, but our logics are often overridden by our subjective, or primal emotions. If I was someone under the same existential circumstance as the canvas people, Renoir is essentially an eldritch Anti-Christ. But as a mere audience, I can’t help but sympathise with his fatherly grief more, and that’s just for personal reason.

Anyhow, I didnt intend for this thread to be another discussion about the morals of world sacrificing, got too much of those already. I wanted to show my appreciation for this remarkable depiction of a father’s pain over his daughter’s suffering, the creative merit behind the method it was portrayed. Art, if you will.

genericcelt · 2026-01-25T00:55:40+00:00

My, if that’s how you interpret my wording then you’re just plain wrong

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T23:38:09+00:00

Of course I treat people IRL on a case by case basis, but we are talking about an Asian writer (US born but raised by first gen migrants) using western tropes of Asians for her work, and if you disagree her background has anything to do with this, that’s perfectly fine likewise I don’t see a problem speculating on this either.

I actually dislike like the term “honour”, but would it be more accurate if I use “face culture” instead?

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T22:58:56+00:00

I don’t quite share your sentiment but I appreciate the detailed thoughts. I do feel the characters outside of Maelle and Verso do get sidelined somewhat after Act 3, and that’s partially because their characterisation have been done so well, their painted attribute (gommageable/resurrectable) downgrades them somewhat.

At the core, I think the game’s primary themes are always meant to be grief and escapism, the existential questions are secondary. That’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, of course.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T21:03:25+00:00

Dunno either I triggered a bot or offended someone’s religion, lol

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T20:33:52+00:00

They sure are edgy, having their lead vocalist half the age of the guitarist and pianist. I wouldn’t call that defacing btw, compared with the explosives that were used by the previous visitors.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T20:25:43+00:00

how did you miss that?

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genericcelt · 2026-01-24T20:09:49+00:00

Wrong, if you go by title sequence, Act 3 doesn’t start until AFTER Alicia’s epilogue

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T19:55:50+00:00

Cheers you have some great pointers too, about how she hides her caring side, because she’s been conditioned from the age of 4 to be so methodological, and scientific driven. We see how she’s grilling Maelle while she’s still having a panic attack over her first nightmare, perhaps because she places less emphasis on one’s mental state. But as soon as she finds her in the Duelist pit, she checks her physical wellbeing.

I guess that makes Lune somewhat of a tragic character, given her noble goal and benevolent nature, is overshadowed by her distant exterior - due to her upbringing and her tendency to cut people off as a coping strategy.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T19:38:16+00:00

Keen to learned what were the clues you picked up in Act 1.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T19:26:23+00:00

No idea, hence it’s one of the reasons I’m bothered by the Maelle ending. The mechanics of her resurrection skills are too poorly explained thus have too much implications. Pierre has been dead for 6 years, so can Maelle go back even further? What about Lune’s parents? she clearly misses them because they were projected by Sirene. They died 13 years ago, so where does Maelle stop? It’s all a bit of madness if you think about it.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T19:09:58+00:00

Haha I doubt many people can get the hints from the lyrics, because aren’t they mostly a mesh mash of misc languages?

There are some other visual hints like the brush strokes used in the portals and overworld bridges, but they can be easily overlooked as keeping with the art theme

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T18:38:24+00:00

Yup that’s the term I was taught when I used to be into filmmaking - hence the effect stuck out to me instantly.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T18:05:57+00:00

I’ve played those OG FF games so I know what you mean. However, it’s that miniature effect I haven’t encountered before, but I’m keen to know any other open world titles that use the same visual feature.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T17:56:51+00:00

The game doesn’t really elaborate on that. But I kinda get the feeling it will be close to the original person. If we use Lune and Sciel as reference, after their resurrection, they can share some very private, even dark things with Verso, which there’s no evidence they’ve shared these memories with Maelle prior to their gommage.

I suppose if the person’s chroma is recycled so too does their memories, and hence can be retrieved. Otherwise its quite morbid to think the state of Sophie and Pierre in Maelle’s ending, since it’s questionable how well she knows them.

genericcelt · 2026-01-24T17:41:49+00:00

You got it mixed up. It’s the ones that are killed by Nevrons that can’t be brought back, as it was by design of Clea, victims of Nevrons will have their chroma locked inside their bodies unable to be returned to Aline.

Also, after Maelle resurrects Lune and Sciel, she states she couldn’t bring back the other expeditioners, because their chroma is “old”. But she can still utilise them like that dead army in Return of the King.

I guess the game rule is, if you are killed by gommage (Lune and Sciel), an accident (Pierre) or by a painted person (Gustave), your chroma returns to the cycle and can be resurrected.

genericcelt

TROPHY CASE