The Mask Keeper is Renoir's Counterpart for Visage *Spoilers ahead!*
To start, each Axon that Renoir has painted of his family members has, seemingly, had a metaphorical counterpart to himself and how he views himself in relation to that family member: with the Reacher he's the green orphelin, always trying to construct ways for Alicia to fly, with Sirene, he's the Tisseur, a being entranced and always in service to her, spinning her dress so that she can continue to dance and mesmerize. We don't know if he had a counterpart with the Hauler as likely Simon killed him dead just as hard as Clea's Axon. But with Visages, it's a little less clear, as the Expedition comes to the conclusion that the real axon is the Mask Keeper following the defeat of Visages, but I raise you this instead:
-The Mask Keeper isn't the Axon of Verso, he's Renoir's counterpart-
To begin, I'd like to talk about what an Axon seems to represent, because the decision to call them 'Axons' in the first place is very interesting. An Axon mainly refers to the structure found in Neurons, nerve cells, which connects the main cell body to the terminal synapses which interact with other neurons, it looks like this:
But, what does this structure have to do with the Axons found in the game? It could be because, like the axon of a nerve cell, it connects Renoir's view of his family members into the canvas. Clea quite brutally severs that connection into the canvas by directly killing her own Axon via Simon, and it's implied that she doesn't directly ever return to the canvas afterwards, that connection between the painted and real world has been cut, for her. Another interesting factoid- the origin of Axon comes from the Greek word axōn meaning axis, in reference to the midline of the body upon which it turns, the line upon which one would flip an image to mirror it.
"But we get the chroma needed for the barrier breaker by defeating the Mask Keeper, not Visages" you might ask, but I think that Visage isn't as powerful because, similar to Clea's Axon, the connection is one-sided, Real Verso is dead so this mirror has no subject and thus no substance. There are a couple reasons why I think the Mask Keeper isn't the "real" representation of Verso, but I think narratively it is the 'axon'. I'll start with this reason:
Mask Keeper's Demeanor and Dialogue
This is the first thing that gave me pause, because something he says during the fight is something I wouldn't associate with a representation of Verso, this line in particular->
The fact that he calls the expedition "Child" seemed very strange to me, something that I wouldn't associate with anything representing Verso, no matter who painted it, because it's so... paternal, but also old? Then I looked through some more dialogue he says during the fight and this jumped out ->
Because this is almost word-for-word what the second unknown Journal entry says, which is implied to be Renoir speaking to Verso
Mask Keeper also only comes out after Visages is defeated, almost as vengeance for him. Which, we know that Clea wants to free Renoir from the canvas in order to wage war together against the writers, in recompense for Verso's death, implying that, were he not preoccupied in the canvas he would be seeking revenge along with Clea. Aline did also paint him as very protective after all, how much of that was true to life?
We meet Mask Keeper almost immediately after the first flag on Visage island. He invites us in to meet Visages in his "chambers", on behalf of Visages, almost like a loyal retainer or butler. This behavior is similar to the other depictions of Renoir with the other axons, that he is in service to his family, that he lives to help and "serve" them, in particular maybe this depiction is how he felt in Verso's life, leading opportunity to him, inviting offers and fielding discussions, trying to lead him to maybe take up a more active role in painting, rather than music. Speaking of, my next point for why the Mask Keeper is Renoir's counterpart is that Visages is unequivocally representative of Verso, like there is no doubt about that, which only gives the option that, according to the pattern, Renoir's counterpart is Mask Keeper because he's the only other named boss enemy.
Visages Design and Behavior
Visages design is very interesting because, mainly, I think Renoir managed to depict him (Verso) quite accurately. One mechanic of the fight that I didn't get to see, because I killed him too fast I guess, is that if Visages attacks with all his available masks, he just straight up dies, you don't even have to get his health bar all the way down, he just falls over. It's very funny, and also like, very poignant, like geez.
Like he just gives up. But this is also interesting because it gives us a good look at his model, and it's weird. Mainly because, despite being the "stronger" axon according to Verso, Visages looks worn and damaged while Sirene the "weaker" axon looks pristine. Parts of Visages seem to be crumbling and breaking apart, especially around the end of his body there. His middle mask is crumbling and has holes and cracks everywhere ->
Considering how pristine all the other axons and Renoir's counterparts are, I don't think this is deliberate on his part. I think Visages is crumbling because it's a mirror without a subject, with Verso dead, there isn't any real subject for it to be about except for Renoir's own memories and of Verso, which might be fading or untrue. Its subject is an unreliable source and unlike the other axons, it doesn't have the opinions of its real counterpart to solidify it, no matter if that representation is accurate or not having that animosity makes an artwork more real. It's this inaccuracy, with its crumbling facade, that makes the Mask Keeper the more accurate depiction, and thus the actual "axon", with the concentration of Chroma to prove it.
Another point as to Visages being Verso's representation is that Visages is summoned in Renoir's final boss fight, not the Mask Keeper. Renoir paints all his family members as larger than life, because that's how highly he thinks of them, it's quite sweet, and it's why they are all so dang tall. Visages fits with the rest of the axons a lot more than the Mask Keeper does from a design perspective for sure.
Well that's all I got. I heard that initial dialogue from Mask Keeper and just thought, "Wait a minute..." and everything spiraled from there. Hope this makes sense to you guys? I'd love to hear some more thoughts if anyone has any, because the axons are really interesting to me!
germansingergirl
ellievsbear
kaledo-art
