Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a complex, character-driven plot designed to carefully reveal its lovingly-designed world bit by bit. It does a great job of making us care about the members of Expedition 33 and their struggles, but as it goes on and the story gets more convoluted, a few story elements seem to get their wires crossed.
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It’s possible that some of these apparent plot holes are explained in a quick one-liner somewhere, but the game left us with a lot of questions as the story didn’t quite add up. Did you notice these head-scratching details?
This article contains major spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. We recommend that you only read further if you’ve finished the game’s story at least once.
7
Couldn’t Renoir Have Just Sent The Canvas Away?
Renoir’s goal in entering the Canvas and staying for as long as he did was to get Aline to leave so that prolonged exposure to the Canvas wouldn’t ultimately kill her. At first, he sees his only recourse as destroying the Canvas bit by bit over a century via the 
Gommage
, but when Expedition 33 expels Aline by defeating the Paintress, his power becomes unchecked.
Renoir Gommages everybody in Lumiere, including Maelle, who is ejected from the Canvas back to her body as Alicia, then returns as soon as she’s able to prevent Renoir from destroying the world entirely.
Granted, after 67 years Renoir probably wasn’t thinking of alternative options, but once Aline and Alicia were both out of the Canvas he could have just boxed it up and shipped it to a museum, or had it stashed away in a bank vault or something. He says himself that he doesn’t want to destroy the Canvas, and besides, its inhabitants are living beings; hiding the Canvas somewhere Aline and the rest of the family can never reach it protects them without killing everyone in Lumiere.
6
Why DIdn’t Verso Give Soarrie Back To Esquie Right Away?
During the battle with the Paintress, Verso reveals that he has Esquie’s pet rock, Soarrie, which allows him to fly with the party on his back. He found it in Old Lumiere, which means he’s been keeping it through both Axon battles and the ascent of the Monolith.
Verso makes the excuse that he didn’t want to risk the Expeditioners flying back to Lumiere, but it’s pretty clearly just that – an excuse. Lune, Sciel, and Maelle are committed to defeating the Paintress, a goal which Verso shares, and he knows it.
Lame excuses aside, how long was he planning to hang onto the rock, which Esquie was distressed at having lost, if the situation hadn’t gotten so dire?
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5
Why Is Painted Alicia Burned?
If Aline is trying to escape the tragic aftermath that the fire had on her family, why would she paint a version of Alicia that’s badly burnt and unable to speak? She created a Verso who is alive and well, so it seems odd that her pretend Alicia wouldn’t also be healthy and unaffected by the fire.
It’s possible that Painted Alicia is simply unfinished, indicated by her greyscale palette, and would have had the burns painted over if Renoir hadn’t caused the Fracture.
Another possible theory arises when you find Painted Clea in the optional postgame dungeon, the Flying Manor. Maelle mentions that Clea Prime is the only Paintress who has the skill necessary to change someone else’s creation. It may be that Clea repainted Alicia with the real version’s burns and scars as part of her attempt to get her parents to abandon the Canvas.
4
Why Didn’t Maelle Resurrect Gustave Alongside Lune And Sciel?
After returning to the Canvas with the full breadth of her Paintress powers, Maelle confronts Renoir before escaping back to the Continent with Verso, Esquie, and Monoco. There, she repaints Lune and Sciel, bringing them back after they had Gommaged.
Couldn’t she have brought back Gustave at the same time? He wasn’t killed by a Nevron, so his Chroma wasn’t trapped in his body, and if Maelle had enough power for two resurrections she could probably have managed one more. She says she can’t repaint all of Lumiere with Renoir in control of most of the Canvas’ Chroma, which makes sense, but there’s still Chroma lying around to be picked up – surely Maelle could have brought back Gustave and brought him up to speed on the situation.
3
How Did The Nevrons Kill Painted Clea?
If you explore the skies over the Continent in Act 3, you can find the Flying Manor, where the Painted version of Clea is bound. There, she creates Nevrons at her original version’s command, binding the chroma of the dead to prevent Renoir and Aline from using it.
If you defeat her in combat, a cutscene plays where she makes her army of Nevrons attack her until she explodes, ending her tortured, immortal existence. As far as we’re aware, this isn’t supposed to be possible for the immortal Painted Dessendres..
The game establishes pretty clearly that the only way for the immortals to die while the Canvas exists is for a Painter or Paintress to directly Gommage them. Maelle erases Painted Alicia and Renoir this way, and theoretically it should have been how Painted Clea went as well.
2
Was Nobody Going To Mention That The People Of Lumiere Deserve To Live?
Maelle and Renoir’s showdown becomes a debate on how to deal with grief and what is best for the family, even when it hurts. That’s an important conversation for them to have as father and daughter, but the entire time, it’s never brought up that erasing the Canvas will kill everybody who lives there, which feels like too important a detail to leave out.
Even Sciel and Lune, who have seen everyone they ever knew get Gommaged because of the Dessedres’ infighting, and will themselves die if the Canvas is erased, don’t bother to speak up and advocate for their right to exist – they just take Maelle’s side in the argument about whether she gets to stay in the Canvas or not.This last entry is a major ending spoiler. You really shouldn’t scroll further unless you’ve beaten the game.
1
Why Did Verso Keep Helping Maelle In Act 3?
The game’s most shocking moment comes after defeating Renoir in Lumiere; Verso attempts to erase the Canvas at its source, the fragment of Verso Prime’s soul that created it. Maelle rushes to stop him, and you have to choose who controls the fate of the painted world.
Verso is tired of the immortal life he never asked for, and believes that erasing the Canvas and everyone in it is the only way he can finally die and be at peace. If that’s the case, though, why does he help Maelle stop Renoir after defeating Aline at the Monolith? Renoir will ultimately erase the Canvas, including Verso, and it’s clear that Verso is willing to sacrifice the rest of the world, including his friends, to end his own existence.
All Verso had to do was refuse to help Maelle when she returned to the Canvas, or kill her again to let Renoir finish his work. This was always his goal, as he kept the truth of the Paintress and the Curator from the rest of the party, knowing everyone in Lumiere would die once Aline was defeated.
Verso obviously doesn’t have any compunctions about killing Maelle in Act 3, however he might have felt about it before; he challenges her to a duel to the death when the chips are down.
Once Maelle declares her intent to stop Renoir from destroying the Canvas, her goals and Verso’s are at odds. If he always meant to betray them, there’s no reason for him to have accompanied them to Lumiere when Monoco would have loyally helped him fight the Expeditioners if he’d asked.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Released
-
April 24, 2025
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
-
Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
-
Kepler Interactive
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 5
- Cross-Platform Play
-
No
- Cross Save
-
No
