#osquio

[comickergirl]

Someone asked about Osquio when I posted that Esquie drawing the other day and thus I had to draw the Ruler of All the Trains.

[vrakhiri]

Ultimate cake eater of the universe.

CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPÉDITION 33 (2025) dev. Sandfall Interactive

[thewritersdidit]

So there's a popular headcanon that Aline was pushing Verso to be a painter instead of a musician, and some people talk about it in a way as if it was a huge divider in their relationship.

I have to say that... I think this approach is a little sexist (see below: he mentions pressure from both his parents but people only ever blame Aline), and it shows a lack of deeper reflection on the content of the game itself. The dynamics around that relationships appear a lot more nuanced when you look at all the different times his mother and music are shown together in the game.

Of all the members of the family, Aline is the primary one associated with his love of music.

In the monolith, we see her memories of teaching him to play as a boy.

In the act 2 epilogue, Alicia comments on their mother's piano as the place where Verso wrote songs for her.

In the DLC, this is how he commemorates Aline:

There she is, smiling at her son on his piano. Repeatedly the game has shown us that this was an important part of how they bonded in his childhood. She instilled in Verso a love of music, and they played the same instrument.

Here is the conversation (Lune, level 5) where Painted Verso mentions parental expectations:

Verso: My parents were both artists. Widely respected, very prominent artists. So. There was a great deal of pressure to follow in their path.

Lune: You’re an artist then?

Verso: Not the kind they wanted me to be.

Lune: Meaning?

Verso: Music is my passion.

I'm going to take it at face value that both Versos had the same memories of their parent relationships growing up. Now what do we get from this conversation?

Both parents were artists and there was "a great deal of pressure" on him. He doesn't actually say if the pressure comes from the family, from himself, from other members in society, or who. I think if there is going to be a parent who pressured Verso more, it was likely Renoir. Canonically the "controlling" parent and husband, for starters. The real version started this whole war, and the painted version seems to be regularly telling painted Alicia what she should or shouldn't be doing, despite her being like 90 years old. BUT, in the sake of fairness and good spirit we could say that maybe Renoir and Aline were both giving equal pressure. Or maybe the council painters was giving pressure for all we know.

So you have Verso as an adult remembering feeling like he was pressured to follow in his parents' path. Aline in her memories, has visions of teaching him the piano and associates that as an activity they did together. Child Verso also loved her for that, and painted it in his cabin.

So the narrative here might be that Aline taught Verso to play piano, but when he became a teenager and was more serious about it, both parents pushed back and pressured him to be a painter instead. Yet Verso, as far as we know, successfully became a musician. He lived away from the Manor (reasonable for an adult), in the city center close to the Opera House where he performed. There doesn't appear to be any active negativity around that aspect of his life, and he talked about the presssure in past tense. Aline seems to have repainted him diligently with both his love of music and the memories of his parents pushing against it, for him to find independence and happiness with his artistic passion.

My read on this whole thing is that Verso probably told them as a teenager that he didn't want to paint anymore and wanted devote himself to music. They probably pressured him and tried to talk him out of it, but he was insistent. So, like a lot of parents, as he became an adult and pursued this track they accepted it and moved on.

We don't get any indication in the game that this was an active conflict in Verso's adult life. He is posing with them in a fairly recent portrait. That and the fact that he was at the manor when the Writers attacked Alicia tells me that he was at least in communication with his family and does not seem to have been estranged from them.

There's one more interesting thing from the DLC that I want to point out. Osquio says something like "You'll never be good enough as a musician, you'll have to paint forever."

To me, this speaks so strongly to young Verso's insecurities. He put all of that into an imaginary opponent that he could fight and defeat with his best friends. The fact that it's present in his drafts introduces more nuance about what the sources of pressure were on him growing up.

How much of this was really pressure from his parents, and how much was pressure that he put on himself? When I was a teenager there was a lot of things that I assumed about my own parents, and convinced myself that they believed something of me, and then when I actually talk to them over time I realized that some of these ideas I put in my own head. I would later find out that they didn't necessarily judge me in the ways that I thought they were.

That's only my personal experience, but knowing that and then looking at what the game gives us: (Aline + piano = happy memory, Verso having insecurities about choosing music, Verso verbally recounting that he was pressured) all of it makes a pretty soft gray area for me.

I look at all that and I think yeah, some of it was probably pressure from them initially, a lot of it was probably pressure from himself, and at the end of the day everyone moved on. He became a musician and the family still dearly loved him. If you didn't get it from the game itself then it should be obvious from the DLC that for all the Dessendres flaws as a family, they did fiercely love each other. So much of the story conflict is motivated by love.

To wrap this up, I'll say that the game gives us subtle nuances about how being a musician affected Verso's relationship with his family. It's a mixture of positive and negative (mostly positive) and Aline is intrinsically part of Verso's story of becoming a musician.

So I understand if you're writing a fanfic and you need one of the parents to be the bad guy so Verso has someone to rebel against, but if you find yourself dabbling in those headcanons then I will say only this: Renoir is right there. Let my girl Aline off the hook for this one.

[halcyon-the-cleric]

Minor Verso’s Drafts (late game) spoilers, but

The way Verso’s combat line of “Let’s carve a path” hits when you consider that in Verso’s Drafts, as a child, he felt immense pressure to be a painter despite wanting to be a musician 😭

Literally when you beat Osquio, the manifestation of everything “evil” and “unfair”, Osquio tells Verso how he’ll never be a musician. Part of defeating Osquio (and that battle being a “scripted” fun event for child Verso to overcome) was real Verso defying all the things that were hurting him or holding him back.

So “Let’s carve a path” hits so much harder when you realize how Verso, real and painted, was truly all about defying whatever fate was being pushed onto him.

Ah, my heart 😭

[thefaithlesscrown]

Osquio looks and fights like he belongs on Friday Night Smackdown (and I absolutely love it).

But the funniest thing about Osquio’s design is the inherent question it raises: when, where and how did ten-year old Verso sneak off to go and watch a wrestling match?

Right now I’ve got two theories:

Verso lied to Renoir and Aline that he was going to the opera house and secretly went to watch some local wrestling tournament with his friends. Exactly what a ten-year old boy of a upper class family is likely to do when he wants to do something that his parents would disapprove of.

OR

Renoir himself took Verso to watch a few wrestling matches. He justified it to Aline by saying the experience is meant to teach Verso how to ‘better capture the elements of the human form’ on canvas. While knowing good and well his son has yet to create anything remotely close to a human within his canvas.

[thewisecheerio]

[akaiuchiha]

As soon as I've heard that the new content was available on Clair Obscur I had to stop myself from launching the game immediately.

I played later, at night and wow. (Spoilers ahead)

It's so bittersweet. Being in Verso's drafts is kinda painful. Being inside a child's safe place, an area in which he painted what his imagination came up with and how it's so precious.

I think I ran a bit everywhere but I haven't completed it yet.

But... the Osquio part, gosh the Osqiuo part. It was so cute and so painful and I wanted to hug Verso so bad at that moment. It was wholesome and even more bittersweet to play it after you finished the game, after we decided to destroy the canva or to keep it.

The music is amazing too. When I was fighting the Barbasucette (yeah I don't know the English name and I have no idea how they may have translated such name) Chromatic, it felt so LOGICAL.

It took me 44 minutes to beat Osquio as I'm not the best at parrying and dodging and then, when I fought the Barbasucette, the song made soooo much sense.

It's a child's world dreaming of going on adventures with his friend Esquie.

Oh and the drawings in the house in the tree...

There are so many things that hurt and I just wish that man had been able to live as he wished and just, live.

Seeing our Verso interacting so freely with the Expedition in this area was amazing. Sciel's chuckles, Lune's happiness and absence of waryness, Monoco's antics, Maelle appearing so calm and unburdened and Verso finally experiencing something he knows but never had the chance to do.

I loved every part of that addition and I can't wait to run around again even more.

The voice acting too?? When Verso says "tchou tchou" when taking the train my heart melted altogether.

Or Esquie telling us the poem Maelle used to create.

Osquio greeting us with "coucou" made me laugh so hard after such summoning ritual.

Thank you Sandfall Interactive for all of this.

[loustica]

Translating Clair Obscur Expedition 33 — Verso's Drafts (Thank You Update)

Bold: French lyrics (official lyrics from their YouTube channel) Normal : English translation (mine) Red: COE33 made up language

⯁Osquio (Instrumental song, but Esquie/Osquio's voice can be heard. There are no official lyrics for this one, so I tried to make them as accurately as I could by ear!)

Le bien ne triomphe jamais! (Evil laugh) — Goodness never triumphs! Préparez-vous... à de gros câlins! — Prepare yourself... for big hugs! Au revoir, mes amis! — Farewell, friends!

⯁Whee Whoo Days No translation needed but it's so cute and funny!

Doum Doum… Whoo Whee… Dilalam dilalam dalida lilam Dilalalam dali dalida lilam Douwhaa dida didou didadida didou didou whaa Douwhaa didou didouwhaa didou didouwhee dowhaa Didididou didididou didam Doulililidou didididam Didididou didididam didam Doudidam dam Didi lili lidam Whoo Whaa Whee Whaa Whoo Whoo Whaa Whee Whaa Whoo… Verso Osquio Fran, Fran, François Rire maléfique! — Evil laugh! Douwhaa dida didou didadida didou didou whaa Douwhaa didou didouwa didou didouwhee dowhaa Doum Doum… Whoo Whaa Whee Whaa Whoo Whoo Whaa Whee Whaa Whoo…

⯁Time to Swim Swim (Instrumental song)

⯁Where He Used to Play (Instrumental song)

⯁The End in Me

Ornatum morbidéSélora te carninéEspacia filiéPermataré ondulaké Disparaissez tona mervalliré Oton mécani vasala perté Dolorosa enivré Hoch ramaséNivla taccordé si dans la fin aimé Tanvaé Luva déchiré Verso daéké Et Sciel louré chaos aiOrnatum morbidé Sélora te carniné Espacia filié Permataré ondulaké Disparaissez tona mervaliré Oton mécani vasala perté Dolorosa Alicia

⯁Pour que Naisse un Bouquet

To make a bouquet/For a bouquet to be born

Le jour viendra où l’on s’efface, — The day will come, when we'll get erased, D’autres cœurs prendront la place. — other hearts will take our place/take over. Le vent porte leur prénom, — The wind carry their name, Sur les ruines de nos chansons. — in the ruins of our songs. Couleur, silence, — Colour, silence, Dessin, absence. — Drawing, absence, La vie grandit dans l’ombre, — Life grows in the shadows, Lorsque nos noms deviennent nombres. — when our names become numbers. Que mon absence serve d’encre pour demain, — May my absence serve as ink for tomorrow, Quand, de mes mains froides, je peindrai notre fin. — when, with my cold hands, I will paint our end. Que ton silence serve d’encre pour demain, — May your silence serve as ink for tomorrow, Quand, de tes mains distantes, tu peindras notre fin. — when, with your distant hands, you will paint our end. Aux lendemains rêvés, — To the tomorrows we dreamt of, Ceux que j’aime sans les voir briller. — those I love, without seeing them shine. Je ne te dis pas — I'm not saying À Dieu, mais à toi, — to God*, but to you, (*Adieux means "farewell", it's pronounced the same, for double meaning) Que de nos rêves brisés, — that, from our broken dreams, Naissent des bouquets. — bouquets are born. Pour ceux qui ne cessent de s’aimer. — For those who never cease to love each other. Que ton silence serve d’encre pour demain, — May your silence serve as ink for tomorrow, Quand, de tes mains distantes, tu peindras notre fin. — when, with your distant hands, you will paint our end. Ensemble vers demain, les mains vides d’hier, — Together towards tomorrow, our hands empty of yesterday, C’est dans nos mains que brille la lumière. — it is in our hands that the light (Lumière) shines.