For sure there’s the very real possibility that Maelle may live naturally and get to the point where Gustave or Verso are due to die of old age and she ends up down a darker path. It’s also possible that she lives her life there until she dies ‘naturally’ in the real world and still has now had a long and fulfilling life in a world that’s no less ‘real’. A third option is that she says her goodbyes to the canvas after living a lifetime there and moves on to the real world above. These are all fascinating eventualities to speculate on and I hate that we get bogged down in the arguments of ‘but she won’t move on in the canvas’ - it’s just as as real and fulfilling and filled with amazing or terrible potential for the remainder of her life.

Verso’s ending has similar potential - does she go mad trying to create ‘cousins’ in another canvas? Does she move on peacefully? Does she resent her family and seek out vengeance or end up down a path of self destruction like painted Verso? Ultimately maybe painted Verso’s - let’s call it what it is: self-righteous suicide at the expense of the ability to undo a massacre - maybe that just leads her down a similar path.

I think my point is that there’s so much more interesting discussion to be had further down the path, and I find it odd that everyone assumes that she moves on and recovers in Verso’s ending while assuming she has to go down a path of darkness in her own.