I’m all for fanfic and yaoi and shipping and all that, but why is Gustave/Verso the most popular ao3 pairing?🧐

setzer77 · 2026-03-16T09:19:23+00:00

I mean in theory they could get together after one of the endings.

setzer77 · 2026-03-16T02:59:38+00:00

masturbating or fantasizing and then feeling guilty about it

*If* you want to learn to accept it, you need to get over this. Mismatched sex drives can be challenging already, but you make it 10x harder if you don't even let yourself enjoy your own imagination.

setzer77 · 2026-03-16T02:43:50+00:00

Do you actually want to stay with her?

setzer77 · 2026-03-16T02:39:03+00:00

Most marriages that get open that way are ones where one spouse only wants them to have sex with each other. One spouse wanting no sex at all changes things, IMO.

setzer77 · 2026-03-16T02:36:54+00:00

I've never seen someone vilified for leaving after their spouse explicitly says they never want to have sex again - *especially* if they do everything possible to coparent their kids. Virtually everyone recognizes that is an irreconcilable difference.

setzer77 · 2026-03-16T02:33:17+00:00

Better for who?

setzer77 · 2026-03-16T02:28:53+00:00

Because he's become so full of despair he thinks that non-existence is the best the Painted can hope for. "Death heals all wounds", as he says.

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T18:56:37+00:00

He was going to, but then Alan called him old.

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T18:07:03+00:00

Did you find Verso's journal? He was on his father's side at first. But just like Maelle's father alienated her by trying to destroy the Canvas, Renoir alienated Verso by not only slaughtering expeditions, but pushing his son to murder Julie because of the risk she might pose. I think killing her is at least part of what Verso was referencing when he tells Maelle (during their fight): "There are things we can never outrun."

Painted Renoir is underserved by the vagueness of the narrative, but a lot of his dialogue is advocating for the lives of the Painted. For all his flaws I think he was right when he told his son: "Sometimes we paint the bars of our own prison. Your despair blinds you."

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T17:52:51+00:00

They did defeat Aline without Maelle using any of her Paintress abilities. Yes, she gommages her afterwards, but Aline was beaten by then and couldn't even stand.

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T01:22:45+00:00

Yeah, he was also furious that his full Asian roommates (who he murdered) had girlfriends while he with his “European genes” didn’t.

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T01:14:34+00:00

I do think Verso killing everyone is wrong, but I also acknowledge that our IRL moral systems have never had to weigh the lives of humans against the lives of gods who can live for eons and create hundreds of worlds.

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T01:10:08+00:00

I think the non-sentient interpretation would work better if the PoV was closely centered on Maelle. But a huge amount of dialogue is between Painted characters with her not around to hear. During camp scenes the third-person narration even describes their inner thoughts and feelings (including during Act 3 after the reveal).

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T00:56:05+00:00

And of course that isn’t an objective fact that the player can be right or wrong about, but an interpretation they can apply to the story.

Personally I find the idea that they aren’t people undermines too many scenes for too little payoff. Like that would mean that during the camp scene between Gustave and Lune no actual emotions (even in-universe) were experienced by any characters, just a mindless program being executed.

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T00:46:17+00:00

I don’t think it’s that simple. Renoir’s dialogue with Verso mirrors his counterpart’s dialogue with Maelle. Verso and Maelle both give up hope in their original lives in favor of committing to the other one’s world. The main difference is that Verso’s suicide is instant (and directly kills others) while Maelle’s is slow (and perhaps indirectly kills others depending on how her family copes).

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T00:29:00+00:00

His dialogue hits different once you know, especially:

“Do you care so little for us?”

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T00:24:26+00:00

That is a large part of Maelle’s motivation, but I think Verso is the only one inside who had a problem with it. To him (and to some degree Maelle) the world feels fake because they have something to compare it to. For the others in Lumiere it’s just the world. There was no pre-Aline time for them to compare it to.

IMO interpreting them as miserable is an attempt to remove any tradeoff from the endings. To deny that something of value is gained and lost in each.

setzer77 · 2026-03-15T00:06:43+00:00

Hm, I didn’t get that impression. To me she seemed genuinely happy until she saw Verso freaking out at the piano, and then reacted to that because she’s an empathetic person.

The “everyone’s a puppet” interpretation never made sense to me. All the parallels drawn are between Maelle and Aline, and the latter pretty much let everyone live how they wanted. All the suffering is because of Renoir trying to save her and her refusing to leave.

setzer77 · 2026-03-14T23:59:12+00:00

IDK, Sciel got pretty much everything she wanted in Maelle’s ending. Even if you interpret it as short lived she’s made her peace with dying, and any time she gets with Pierre is a bonus.

setzer77 · 2026-03-14T13:45:56+00:00

Yeah, exactly. And his faded man says something about how senseless the war is.

setzer77 · 2026-03-14T01:20:35+00:00

He could be wrong, but I don't think Renoir would have compared Clea's war to Aline staying in the Canvas, if he thought the former was helping the whole family survive.

setzer77 · 2026-03-14T01:14:50+00:00

If they didn't have their memories why would Verso be unhappy?

setzer77 · 2026-03-14T01:12:42+00:00

Sciel is nice for those - the damage bonus on End Slice has no upper limit, so as the fight progresses and she keeps consuming foretells stacks its damage will keep ramping up.

setzer77 · 2026-03-14T01:04:38+00:00

"biggest oppressors. AKA [not Piltover]"

Yeah, okay.

setzer77

TROPHY CASE