It's fascinating how Clea, on two separate occasions, states that she needs Renoir for her war efforts while acknowledging that Aline *is* the stronger Painter.
I mean, it can be her way of displaying her disappointment in her mother - the unspoken "I can't rely on her anymore". Of course, there's the matter that Aline will need a time to recover first. But still, having the strongest Painter at your side surely would be nice, right?
But then I noticed what they all *do*
Clea isn't much of a fighter from what we know - she's a schemer, a mastermind, she prefers to set others in motion and just push them in the right direction from time to time; even her painted version uses Nevrons to attack instead of any weapons. A clever strategist herself - she still needs someone to be her sword.
And Aline, while capable of literally breaking the reality apart with her anger - she paints life
Renoir is the extinction event - both of them are, each in their own way. Painted Renoir has killed hundreds of people while being fully aware that they are *no less real and no less human* than him. Still, they threatened his family, so he killed them. Real Renoir is fully aware that he's an artist destroying works of art and a person killing sentient, self-aware beings; he shows them sympathy, he will make it painless if possible, but if not - he will create an unholy amalgamation of their mangled corpses and use that to murder whoever is left.
So yeah. No wonder Clea needs him. Writers, honey, you got a big storm coming
