[Contains Spoilers!] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - A Lesson in Grieving

I recently watched the cinematic scenes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based Role Playing Game (RPG - aha! I learned new things) that has deservedly won the Game Of The Year award and 8 other awards in 2025. My husband played it as soon as it was released, and I watched him play even while we were living in different parts of the world.

In the words of many in the gaming community, it was "absolute cinema".

DISCLAIMERS: The following passages contain spoilers. Please finish the game first before reading further.

I'm NOT a gamer, nor have I played the game at all. My opinions and analysis below are based on my understanding of the game's storyline. Feel free to let me know if I've made any errors or mistakes.

Let's start with Aline, the matriach of the Dessendre family, mother of Clea, Verso and Alicia. She built Lumière - the world of Expedition 33 in Verso's canvas. "The Paintress" as she is called.

2 of her children, Verso and Alicia were trapped in their home which was set on fire. Verso tragically died whilst saving Alicia, while Alicia survived with some disabilities (losing her voice) and became physically disfigured, reducing her quality of life. Her overwhelming sense of guilt over her brother's death probably added to it as well.

For me, the role of the rest of the family particularly Aline's is crucial. Aline was now left with an adult daughter and a younger child who would require more care and attention than before. And yet, Aline decided to play make-believe and painted a world on Verso's canvas, using a part of his soul left in his canvas to create a world in which Verso still exists. Their father, Renoir, upon seeing how dangerous it is for his wife to remain in the painting, was initially painted (pun not intended) as a villain trying to destroy the canvas so he could get his wife out of the canvas and back into the real world.

Alicia, upon instructions from Clea, enters the canvas to help their father bring their mother out of the canvas. Unfortunately, she entered the canvas as Maëlle, who lost all her memories up until her death in the canvas. As she saw herself reincarnated and revitalised, Alicia decided to carry on in the canvas as Maëlle - wanting to live the rest of her life in the canvas barring the consequences.

Aline's grief is valid. Losing a loved one, especially a child, is never easy. But it also proves her favouritism and maybe reflected the misogyny of that time. Losing Verso caused her to neglect her responsibility as a parent to a literal younger daughter with disabilities, who would need her more than ever now.

She copes by continuing Verso's canvas and creating a whole fictional world of Lumière in which people exists, have homes, lives, dreams, and everything else, knowing that it is not sustainable as there are limits to her powers and that these new lives will be destroyed through the gomage (scrubbing). Personally, I think it's unethical of her to begin the world solely for reviving a part of her dead son, and she has modelled to Alicia that this type of behaviour is okay.

Renoir, in a desperate attempt to save both his wife and daughter from being trapped in the canvas and allow for his son to move on through his death, has had to destroy the canvas, causing a big battle to ensue in Lumière.

And then there's Alicia, who was just trying to escape the reality she has to contend with after suffering from the fire. All she wanted was a normal life where all the people she loved and cared for were still alive and she had a chance to live as herself, unbounded by the physical difficulties she had to face in reality.

In the game, players are allowed to choose between 2 endings: one where Canvas Verso destroys the canvas and truly dies, leaving the world in totality. His family grieves and accepts his death, moving on from his canvas with the end scene showing his friends for the canvas bidding him goodbye in a world full of colour and light (clair). The other ending was where Maëlle/Alicia wins and the canvas continues to exist, and she recreated all their friends who died along the way, and a Verso reluctant to continue living - with the painting slowly turning monochromatic (obscur).

I prefer the clair ending, in which Verso died in totality, forcing everyone around him to move forward without him. Accepting his death kept everyone in one reality and the colours flourished, while staying in the canvas caused pain to everyone especially Aline and Alicia because they were in denial of reality.

Aline and Alicia both needs to go for grief therapy and get their shit together, seriously. In fact, the whole family can benefit from family therapy and work together towards a time where they can function without Verso but still keep him in their memory.