A small moment of irony that I think gets overlooked during the final boss.

Renoir is an fascinating character. The reams of discussion about him are evidence enough of that, to the point where a lot of people probably find it all a bit exhausting. However, I want to highlight a moment during the final battle that I don't think gets talked about enough beyond it's surface.

Whenever the topic of Renoir being "right" or not comes up, there's a quote that often lies at the heart of arguments in his favor.

"We must accept things as they ARE, not how we want them to be."

On the face of it that's a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Even admirable. The clear implication in him saying this, though, is that he (and later Verso, who repeats the line) believes that the way he sees things is the way things are, and that everyone else is in some way deluded. That his vision is unvarnished by grief.

However, I think the game challenges this - or at least calls this into serious question - the very moment he says it.

First, what is he doing as he says this? He's summoning the Axons. The Axons, of course, being Renoir's artistic representations of his family. He's totally oblivious to the irony of lecturing about objectivity as he literally tries to crush opposition with his own subjective point of view, rendered as twisted, monstrous distortions of the very people he's trying to "save." Then, soon after, Aline returns to the canvas, and what's the first thing she does? She blasts Sirene in the face. About as clear a rejection of Renoir's representation of her as can be made.

There's shades of grey here, of course. Besides Verso's reaction, the game largely frames this as a triumphant moment, but it could be argued that, however distorted and incomplete Renoir's perspective may be, Aline's rejection may also be a denial of the negative parts of herself that Renoir can see that she can't. I do strongly feel, though, that the moment is meant to immediately call into question whether Renoir even follows his own dictates, which I guess is why I'm so baffled when people so firmly take everything he says at face value.

"We must see things as they ARE, not how we want them to be."

"Life keeps forcing cruel choices."

Are these hard-hitting truths or just pithy truisms divorced from the complications of the context they're being said in? Blunt rhetorical instruments meant to apply the veneer of objective justification to one's emotionally muddied actions?