Given how intense and emotionalClair Obscur: Expedition 33is from the very beginning, it’s no surprise that the ending is even more impactful. The game’s final act is a constant barrage of surprises, lore, and missing puzzle pieces, all of which hit like hammers when they land.
Clair Obscur’s final moments can leave you with a lot to process, and that’s putting it mildly. With so much happening all at once, it’s also possible to miss details as the mystery of the Monolith finally falls into place. Here’s the complete story of the Canvas and Expedition 33’s ultimate fate.
This article contains ending spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. We recommend finishing the game’s story before reading further.
What Happens At The End Of Act 2?
Act 2 culminates with Expedition 33completing their mission and defeating the Paintressafter a hard-fought battle. Using a power taught to her by the Curator to erase the immortal Renoir, Maellebanishes the Paintress from the world.
Verso reveals that the Paintress washis mother, Aline, and that with her death he and his remaining family are finally mortal, but doesn’t elaborate further as the Expedition makes their way back to Lumiere. Lune, Maelle, and Sciel arehailed as heroesfor defeating the Paintress, while Verso slips away from the celebration to read a letter from his sister Alicia.
As Verso reads the letter at the docks, a wave of energy radiates from the Monolith,inflicting the Gommage on everybody in Lumiere at once, regardless of their age.Verso, Monoco, and Esquieare the only survivors.
The Manor, Monolith Year 49
The game then transitions to a flashback, taking place inside the Manor,sixteen years before Expedition 33.Alicia, still recovering from the fire that burned her face, is summoned to the atelier at the rear of the mansion by herelder sister, Clea. Looking around the house reveals thatthe house is located in Paris, rather than the fictional city of Lumiere, and thatin this reality, Verso was killed in the same fire that scarred Alicia.
Alicia finds her parents, Renoir and Aline,in a trancelike state with bright blue hues painted over their eyesin front of a giant, swirling Canvas. Clea tells her that the pair arebattling for dominance inside the Canvas, and that she doesn’t have time to keep trying to pull them out. She insists that Alicia enter the Canvas to intervene while Cleahunts the Writers, the rival guild responsible for Verso’s death.
Alicia, who is not herself a skilled Paintress, attempts to enter the Canvas but isoverwhelmed by Aline’s chroma. Instead of painting herself into the world as her own personal avatar, she is insteadborn as a character in the Canvas that Aline the Paintress controls. With her memories and identity suppressed, Alicia is “repainted” in the world of the Canvas as Maelle, and lives sixteen years with no knowledge of the Manor, her true family, or her power as a Paintress.
The Truth Of The Canvas
When Maelle is Gommaged at the end of Act 2, she isejected from the Canvas back to her real body, with the full memory of both her lives as Alicia and as Maelle. The Canvas world that the game takes place in has been anartificial creation the entire time, which Verso painted as a child to be a fantasy land for he and his sisters to play in.
When Verso died in the fire, Aline started spending too much time in the Canvas, whichcontains a fragment of Verso’s soul, as a way of dealing with the grief. As her physical body decayed from malnourishment and overexposure to chroma,Renoir followed her into the Canvas to get her to leave, fearing for her life. The Fracture was caused by the battle between the two; Renoir trying to make Aline leave the Canvas,destroying the world inside it if necessary, and Aline fighting to preserve the Canvas and stay inside.
Aline trapped Renoir under the Monolith, but was bound to the top of it herself to keep him there,forcing a stalemate between the two formidable Painters. They could each still interact with the world in limited fashion through their respective Manors and their painted avatars - in Renoir’s case, the Curator.
Defeating Aline and removing her from the Canvasfreed Renoir to unleash his full power, erasing all of the human inhabitants of Lumiere in an instant. Verso, Alicia, Esquie, and the Gestrals were saved becausethey are immortal, and cannot permanently die unless the Canvas itself is completely destroyed.
Renoir And Maelle
Knowing that Renoir plans toerase the Canvas entirelyto prevent Aline from ever returning to it, Aliciare-enters the world, this time painting a fully intact avatar of her own. In effect,she is now both Maelle and Alicia, with the former’s sword skills and the latter’s Paintress powers.
After finding Verso to let him know she’s back, Maelle attempts to reason with Renoir. Headamantly refuses to spare the Canvas, even though it pains him to destroy his son’s only painting, because he is afraid that Alicia and Aline will now both wither away and die from overusing it. When Renoir tries todestroy Maelle and send Alicia home again, she and Verso flee back to the Continent with Esquie.
Quickly getting the hang of her Paintress powers, Mallerepaints Lune and Sciel, restoring them to life after the Gommage (but not, strangely, Gustave). Verso and Maelle explain the situation; for his part, Verso reveals that he is acreation of Aline’s, made to replace her lost son in the Canvas world.
The Greatest Expedition In History
With Renoir in control ofmost of the world’s chroma, he is able to summon his own Nevron-like creatures to defend himself, andcreate and destroy at will. He just needs time to gather enough power toerase the world entirely.Without chroma of her own,Maelle can’t resurrect the citizens of Lumiereor paint an army of monsters herself, so she formulates a plan to usethe dead Expeditioners from across the Continent.
The Nevrons - which some side quests reveal are Clea’s creations -trap the chroma of their victims in their corpses. This function was designed todeny Renoir and Aline power for their struggle, but Maelle is able to use the impure chroma of the dead torepaint half-formed versions of fallen Expeditioners. In effect,she creates an army of ghostswith which to attack Lumiere and break through to Renoir’s position at the Crooked Tower.
During the assault on Lumiere, the Journal of Expedition 60 can be found washed up on the beach, revealing that they discovered the truth of the Paintress and the true cause of the Gommage, but their time expired before they could warn the city.
Malle and her companions confront Renoir,who resumes his form as the Curator to fight.Despite the Expedition’s power, they’re no match for Renoir, whorepaints the Axon Sireneto aid him. Aline re-enters the Canvas, despite the serious danger that doing so poses to her health, to hold off Sirene with her Paintress form, allowing Expedition 33 to defeat Renoir andexpel him from the Canvas.
The Final Choice
Taking advantage of the rifts created by Renoir and Aline,Verso enters the heart of the Canvas, where the fragment of Verso Prime’s soul resides. Thinking he’s alone, hecoaxes the childlike being to stop painting, which would destroy the Canvas and everyone in it - himself included. Maelle appears, with her sword drawn, to stop him.
Verso wants his immortal existence to end, and knows that destroying the Canvas is the only way to do it, even if it means everyone else - Monoco, Esquie, Sciel, Lune, and all the rest - will be erased as well. He also tells Maelle that staying in the Canvas will kill her, as she’s been inside of it too long already.
Maelle responds that Verso doesn’t have the right to kill the Canvas' inhabitants, and that she knows she will die in the Canvas, but that’s her choice to make. She would rather live a short, false life in an artificial world than her hollow life of constant pain and silence in the real one.
Realizing that the matter can’t be resolved with words,Verso draws his own swords. The player is then asked to choose which character they will play as in theduel for the fate of the Canvas, whichdetermines which ending is shown.
Maelle’s Ending
If Maelle wins the duel, Versobegs her to erase him, but she refuses. Like Aline, she isn’t willing to let Verso die a second time, and sherepaints Verso as he reapeats the words, “I don’t want this life.”
An indeterminate amount of time later,Lumiere is completely restored, with everyone brought back to life. Esquie greets the people as they gather at the Opera House, as Maelle sees her friends one by one,including Gustave, Sophie, and their young son.
Verso appears on stage to play the piano, but his movements are halted, hesitant and almost zombie-like. Malle has repainted him to be the brother that she wants, against his wishes, likely dealing irreparable damage to his personality and psyche. While it’s not explicitly stated, it’s likely that she hasaltered other people’s lives and personalities to suit her whims, essentially treating the world that she fought to save as her personal dollhouse. As Verso begins to play,the blue chroma stains of Canvas overexposure appear on Maelle’s eyes, and the screen cuts to black.
Verso’s Ending
If Verso wins the duel, he comforts Maelle as she is sent from the Canvas once more, knowing that it will be the last time either of them see each other. Each other member of the Expedition appears to say their farewells;Esquie, Monoco, and Sciel are understanding of Verso’s decision, but Lune simplyfalls to the ground with a wordless glarewhen she realizes that he is undoing everything she has dedicated her life to.
Once everyone else has Gommaged, Versotakes the child’s handand they both walk into oblivion together, erasing the Canvas for good.
Outside,the Dessendre family gathers at Verso’s graveto place flowers on the anniversary of his death. Aline and Alicia are alive, and the family is finally starting to heal from their tragedy. Alicia holds a stuffed doll of Esquie as ghostly memories of the denizens of the Canvas wave farewell.
