I've been thinking a lot about the nevrons on the Axon islands. The connections between the Axons and the Dessendre family are pretty straightforward, but I think the nevrons are also interesting. I started with the idea for Clea because I love Chevaliere, and then decided to make it a little series. Long thoughts beneath the cut!
Clea and Chevaliere -- I don't think it's confirmed, but I suspect that the Chevaliere nevrons accompanied Hauler the same way we see other nevrons surrounding the other Axons. We see them for the first time in Old Lumiere, which is where Hauler was killed. They also have the same grooved texture and masks that show up in Visage's island. I could have sworn I also encountered it in Act 3 Lumiere, but I'm not seeing that anywhere else so maybe I'm getting it mixed up with Lumiere in the Monolith.
Chevaliere has a really cool design. The white and red combination is striking, and the mask with the crown and the veil is very cool (the veil in particular calls to mind Clea's long hair). It's got a kind of bitchy walk and fights with fire and ice, which seems fitting for Clea, who is both hot and cold. If Renoir did paint Chevaliere, I think he did so to capture Clea's protective nature, and also because he sees her as an upright, noble warrior following the orders of her lord/lady (Renoir and Aline). On the other hand, while knights were supposed to be chivalrous, they weren't always, and we see in-game that Clea can be a bit monstrous. Maybe it's not one of Renoir's nevrons and is one of Clea's, but either way it still works as a reflection of her personality.
Verso and Moissonneuse -- TBH Moissonneuse is one of my favorite enemies in the game. I'm weak for floral motifs, and I think it functions really well as a metaphor. We encounter Moissonneuse in Joy Vale, surrounded by dancers that have been transformed into shrubs (calling to mind the Fae and always reminding me of Lot's wife). Moissonneuse itself is a combination of scarecrow, bridal, and harvest imagery that I really like. It's an interesting marriage of life and death themes -- marriage and weddings are associated with life, as are flowers and crops, while scarecrows are associated with, well, crows, and death, and autumn. Sowing what you have reaped (the violence from Renoir's youth coming back around to cause Verso's death?). Moissonneuse itself fights with double-bladed scythes that call to mind a certain farmer turned Expeditioner, which also seems fitting given Sciel's association with life, death, and twilight/purgatory.
As for why Renoir painted the Moissonneuse in Visage's island, I suspect he was thinking of the life that Verso didn't get to live. Verso died without ever marrying or becoming a father, two things that have been very important to Renoir. He knew his son as a baby, a little boy, a teen, and a young man; he saw him navigating his early-to-mid-twenties and being a bit lost in life. But he'll never get to see him enter fully into adulthood, settled into his own independent life. He'll never get to know him as a fellow husband, or a fellow father. He'll never get to see Verso discover the sense of purpose that seems to have transformed him from a remorseless killer ala Painted Renoir to a gentle artist. The 'bride of death' imagery is often applied to young women in a twist on the Persephone myth, but here Verso is cast as some sort of wandering underworld figure (the underworld of the Canvas? where Alicia is also lost, choosing between Life and Death?) and Moissonneuse, as death, is his bride. The only bride he'll ever have.
Alicia and Echassier -- We see Echassier on Reacher's island, and it's a pretty powerful contrast to the Orphelin. The Orphelin are the kind of nevrons that you would expect Alicia's protective and indulgent Papa to paint for her. They're kind of cute, they have squeaky little voices, and their violence is over-the-top and comedic. One of them has a frying pan smashed on it's head, with straw sticking out! You can almost hear the cartoon-y 'ka-pow!' by just looking at it -- definitely the sort of thing that would make a little girl giggle uproariously. It's always been interesting to me that, aside from their heads (made of straw -- which burns), they're very humanesque, but are dressed in rough worker's garb and are always male. A very high-class Papa worrying about his little girl growing up and becoming interested in men? The 'wrong sort' of men? Maybe a hint as to what went down with the Writers (and AFAIK, a number of French writers in this era were left-leaning and anti-bourgeois), and how they gained access to the Manor?
Echassier (and Veilleur, who is similar) is very creepy and thematically very distinct from the cute Orphelin. According to the internet, Echassier is a French word for a stilt-walker or several different types of wading birds (like cranes). The stilt-walker bit makes perfect sense, given its design, but in the game files it's also referred to as 'Fisher', so the bird connection is also intentional. And interesting, given that Renoir wants his little star to fly. Echassier usually has a veil over it's face (reflecting Painted Alicia's mask?) but underneath the cloth it has a skull-like head. It's body seems to be made up of old, gnarled branches, and it's hands and feet have been fashioned into sticks and are stained red with blood. They remind me of Renoir's cane, and his dramatic entrance on the beach. Most interestingly to me, it uses the light on it's head like an angler fish, deceiving prey and luring it in to strike.
Given what little we know about Alicia's actions before the fire, Echassier seems like a warning or a parable about trusting the wrong person. They show up alongside in a foggy and misty part of Reacher's Tower, with lights like will-o-wisps, guiding unwary travelers astray. Or guiding unwary girls into trusting where they shouldn't? They also seem like a metaphor for depression or anxiety, which is something Painted Alicia and Maelle, respectively, seem to struggle with, and possibly Alicia as well.
