I need to talk about Verso real quick because today has been a hard day and only yapping about The Character will make it better
SPOILER WARNING FOR ACT THREE
Okay so I think Verso might be one of my favorite characters… ever? Him and the Dessendres just mean so much to me, I could actually cry. To get to that though, I want to talk about Renoir first. I realize there are many interpretations of the ending, but to me, Renoir refusing to let Aline go was one of the strongest declarations of love in the game. It’s unwise to reduce the entirety of Expedition 33 and these characters’ story as being just about addiction, but the similarities mean a lot to me. In Une vie a t’aimer, it opens with Aline singing “stop loving me” and Renoir responds “I will always love you.” He is determined to be there for her. Verso’s death tore them apart, but Renoir refuses to let Aline fall into her grief and lose herself in the process. It’s one thing to love someone when it’s easy, but to love someone at their very worst, to reach into the darkness and demand that they come back into the light, is something so so rare and beautiful. Seeing the two of them embrace in Verso’s ending always makes me tear up a bit. The love Renoir has for his family is fierce and unyielding, it is not selfish, it is not easy, it is as passionate as the flames that tore them apart in the first place. One of my favorite lines in the game is when Alicia says “You treat me as if I’m still five” and he responds “I treat you as if the shadow of the worst day of our lives still looms over us, threatening to take you from me too.” He has lost everything, and he will not lose what he has left.
I believe that Renoir’s radical and unconditional love and willpower is reflected in Verso’s ending when he defeats Maelle/Alicia… except he gains nothing from it. He isn’t the “real” Verso by any means. But what’s left of Verso’s soul is imbued in everything in his canvas, and this new person with his name and face shares his lingering memories. The scene where Maelle catches fire and he holds her will always destroy me. I would consider him by far the most selfless character. Similar to Renoir’s adamant and seemingly harsh resolve towards expelling Aline, Verso loves Maelle too much to let this kill her. The part of Verso that loves his family never left, and this incarnation of it loves them so much that he’s willing to sacrifice quite literally everything for his sister. Destroying an entire world for the creation of hundreds more. It’s impossible and inconceivable and he does it still, just so that Alicia could live. Maelle still has a life to live, a life to love, a life to paint. And he won’t be there to see her live. He expels her from the canvas solely because it means she will have her first family back, even if it destroys her new one. It utterly ruins me when she falls to the ground and he just holds her and says “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Of course both endings are tragic, but to me there’s something so much more soothing about an older brother holding and comforting his sister than said brother breaking down as his young sister panics, wondering if she made the right choice.
I like to think it mirrors what might have happened when the real Verso gave himself to the fire to save Alicia. In many ways, it’s similar. It’s self-sacrifice. It’s morally dubious at best, he had no right to make that decision for all of Lumiere, but he did not care. He would rather give it all up than know she would waste away in a world not her own. And that is so beautiful. It is ridiculous and complicated and tragic and screwed up and I love it. I’m not ashamed to admit I got a little teary-eyed when he bent down to little Verso’s last piece of himself between the canvas, and said “You’re tired of painting, aren’t you? I’m tired too.” He was the only one who asked what Verso actually wanted. I don’t really have many more words to describe how dear that is to me, but I’m sure you get the idea. Verso is a beautiful brother. His and Maelle’s relationship means so much to me. This game is incredible. It’s one of, if not my favorite story about family, grief, and love. I’ll never get over it.
Not only is painted Verso robbed of having his own identity by making him in image of someone else, but also real Verso is as well.
His canvas he lovingly made with his sister as a child is warped into something entirely different by his mother. The childhood wonder that exists in it is defiled by the suffering of the citizens she created. And she creates an entirely new version of him to abide there as well. Everything real Verso loves, hates, and is remembered for is poured into someone to be exactly like him.
Aline robs real Verso of his identity by giving it to someone else, and painted Verso of his by making him a shadow of her son and never allowing him to be anything more.
