📍naboo-616

she/ella/ela | 🇭🇳🇬🇹

[undiagnosedjestersyndrome]

Her sculptures.

hi! i made another clea, this time concept art clea, because @sinisterbells had this really cool idea for a reference and i just had to draw it!!!

i tried out new ibispaint watercolor brushes and i think it turned out pretty cute!

original references under the cut ↓

[plastic-pipes]

what do u mean they only had two cutscenes together :(

patreon || bluesky || instagram || ko-fi

[lesbianshadowheart]

Verso Dessendre: I painted funny paintbrush guys because I was a kid and wanted to have fun

Aline Dessendre: I painted Paris and humans as a facsimile of real life

Clea:

[sinisterbells]

Once more thinking about the concept of overpainting in e33 and what it actually means to paint over someone else's painting. To my understanding, in the real world overpainting (in the context of person B overpainting the work of person A) is done for restoration or improvement purposes; the point is to follow the underpaint and meaningfully interact with it to improve on the work. So I imagine the reason it's seen as a sign of considerable power is because you need to understand both the essence of the creation and have the skill to interact with that essence in a way that doesn't fully impose upon the original vision.

With this in mind I imagine the reason we see the original painted Clea peek through the cracks of her overpaint is because 33 literally chips away at her during their fight in a manner not dissimilar to scraping over layers of paint. And similarly the reason Clea doesn't have total and complete dominion over her is precisely because the underpaint must remain. Which in turn gives the impression that by making Aline's painted creation act as her stand-in (regent) in the canvas she's not only being ruthlessly practical about her involvement in the conflict but also quite literally going "I see your portrait of me and I understand its essence and I'm telling you right now I can take your creation and make it better" like it is a power flex. And honestly? She's so #real for that

[solariastuff]

New pics after the Painted Synphonie in Strasbourg

Photographer: Midnight.photografie (on Instagram)

We were a whole group of cosplayer at the strasbourg concert of exp33. On the next day we went to Colmar and found this beautiful spot and I need to show you how pretty these turned out!!!

The drawn François was made by me in 45 min while the car ride, so he's not perfect but I think it suits a wip. 😁

[aeruthien]

Painted Alica, (learned) helplessness, and a life to dream (but never to live)

I've seen a lot of discussions about Painted Alicia's letter and the idea of a third ending connected to 'A Life to Dream', which is supposedly the real 'good' ending. Verso, mostly, is blamed for not choosing to give the letter to Maelle, and thus robbing us the players of having a third choice. But while Verso is certainly to blame for a lot of things, putting all the blame on his shoulders ironically takes away the agency of Painted Alicia herself.

Alica, in all her incarnations, struggles with (learned) helplessness. Alicia outside the Canvas is shown to be timid and nervous, a character trait she had even before the fire. Alicia doesn't go into the Canvas until Clea tells her to. But we also see it in Maelle, especially before Gustave's death. She decides to go on the Expedition, yes, but she never really aspires to a specific goal, whether in service of others, or for herself. And Renoir's version of her, the Reacher, is his attempt to tell her to aim for the sky instead of staying forever on the ground.

Similarly, Painted Alicia also never actually makes a choice for herself, and doesn't really pick a side. When we see her at the manor, she seems to stop Verso from entering, which suggest that she doesn't agree with what he is doing. But when she visits later at the camp and gives him the letter, she does very little to actually persuade him one way or the other. In fact, in her letter she says that is she ready and has made peace with what is to come, resigning herself to her fate.

In that moment her flaw is the most prominent. Because if she truly wanted her family to live, she could and should have acted. She could have stood by p!Renoir's side at the base of the Monolith. She could have stood by Aline's side on top of the Monolith.

Most importantly, she could have given the letter directly to Maelle. But instead, she gives the letter to Verso, putting the burden of choice on his shoulders. She hides away at the Reacher, next to the Axon that will always be aiming for the sky, but never actually doing so herself.

It could be said that this is flaw of the writing - while Painted Alicia is certainly one of the most visually striking characters, she is among the least fleshed out in terms of personality and impact on the story. Her role is to be mysterious, to both characters and players, be a mirror to Maelle, and then die if you do a sidequest. I wonder if she was supposed to play a bigger role, like Clea was, but it was cut due to time and production restraints.

But if we just consider what is present in the narrative, and how each character reacts to grief and loss, Painted Alicia represents the choice of no choice. Where p!Renoir fights desperately to protect Aline and Verso fights to stop her, Painted Alicia is just there. Hovering at the edge of the story but never fully claiming her place. She dreams of a third ending, and tells Maelle "Perhaps you’ll find another way." She dreams of a third ending, and tells Verso "Whether you give it to her is up to you."

But in order to reach your dreams, you have to actively make choices, and not rely on others to do it for you. Painted Alicia's inability to act, her inability to take a side, contributes as much to the final decision as Verso's and Maelle's choices do. That is the tragedy.

Alicia's letter seems to point to a third way out. An escape of the tragedy that is about to unfold and the painful choices that have to be made. But while that seems hopeful, due to her inability to act, all Painted Alicia can do is dream of that life, while leaving the actual living to others.

[kesyrotta]

”Clea, fighting her solitary war.”

[clubmedea]

lune + talking with her hands

[vounoura]

↳ ᴄʟᴀɪʀ ᴏʙꜱᴄᴜʀ: ᴇxᴘᴇᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴ 33 — ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴀᴍᴘᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀ

[gigew]

CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 ‧ Verso's drafts

[belllllaaaaa]

WHITSANTOS ROOMATES SAVEEE MEEEEEE

look at it in instagram !

[sky-kiss]

Was i going to have a photo of either parent on each side of Verso? Yes. Did I get get lazy? Yes.

Anyway. It just amuses me that they got two clones and one mix. Like you can SEE aspects of both parents in all the kids (Alicia has Renoir's broader jawline; Clea has her mother's smirk). But Clea is mostly Fem!Renoir, and Alicia is just Aline 2.0.

Verso has a lot of Renoir's coloring, but his features are much more angular and...pretty. Not quite the correct word, but you catch my drift. His nose, cheeks, and especially his jawline are mostly his maman.

Anyway, I need to play the game again. I need more screenshots.

[stonewavecliffdive]

The writers of expedition 33 were playing 4D chess with my ass the entire game but no moment made that as clear as how they introduced painted Verso

Narratively, you have a major character death followed directly by the introduction of a new character that joins the party. Everyone's already devastated enough by the loss of the first character and the circumstances of that loss that they either instinctively don't trust Verso or are flat out too torn apart to give a true shit about him beyond what he can help them accomplish in the short term.

Game-wise, you have a player who has already invested hours in one character, who is presented more or less as the main/player character for the first act of the story. Not only does the cutscene whallop you in the usual ways (the music, the acting, all 10/10), it also compounds the emotionality by immediately replacing that character with another, similar-but-not-quite-right character that a lot of players also instinctively don't like or trust.

"You're telling me you're killing my loveable character and immediately swapping him out for another one that inherits a very similar play style, role in the party, who uses the same weapons? One who even looks a bit like the old one? You expect me to be okay with the bait and switch and continue on as normal?

No way! Fuck this guy! This imposter!"

Imposter. That's the word that keeps coming up over and over when I see clips of people playing the transition between finishing act I and starting act II. "You're not Gustave. You could never be him. How dare you stand where he stood. Fuck you."

I said these words aloud! To myself! Through my tears and my grief, just like so many other players did. And you know what I realized after the reveal at the end of act II?

The writers made the player feel how painted Verso feels about himself. That he's an imposter. A fraud. Not fit to take the place of the one that died: not Gustave, not the real Verso. Only worth as much as his utility: to the party, who wants revenge and the end of the gommage; to the player, who wants to beat the game; to Aline, who wants to stem the bleeding wound of her grief by any means necessary.

Anyway. This is what I mean when I say video games have the ability to be the most poignant and meaningful form of human artistic expression if all the elements align just so. The writers could have told you about how painted Verso sees himself through cutscenes and dialogue (which they do) but they also (imo deliberately) chose to make you feel it yourself, as the player. The disgust and the distrust and the indignation. It's brilliant and heartbreaking and I will never not be thinking about it.

[flowersforthemachines]

noticed that you can see Lune kind of roll her eyes and chuckle in the background when Gustave starts infodumping about expedition 50 in response to Sciel's "so what do you think they were doing in those ferris wheel cabins? 😏"

[zuzartii]

Got possessed by an aggresive urge to draw a bunch of expedition 33 fluff to offset, well. The expedition 33 of it all

[zuzartii]

Until next life

[kescalis]

I had the pleasure of painting this Simon and Clea commission for @araushneee :))