The "Maman's gift" that allows Verso to survive in the liminal space is the immortality she bestowed upon her painted family. He's speaking ironically since the very curse of immortality he resents is what has enabled him to finally end it.

I always remember painted Alicia's question "What will you paint?" in her letter.
And this ending was always gonna be Maelle's answer "A Life to Paint"

Apparently she's just gonna paint Verso forever, because she's unable to let him go and wants her brother to be there (even if he doesn't want to) in her fabricated fantasy world. She's playing God. Verso's "forced life" (more a slave now like the tired soul of realVerso slaving away, painting forever) by Maelle is worse than Aline's curse of immortality. No wonder he cannot find a reason to smile.

I'm so excited extra content is planned for E33, even after doing everything the game has to offer, I felt I wasn't ready to leave its world.

And Verso still didn't have a reason to smile, even as an older man.

It would be one thing if their world is just saved from being erased and the living continue. But bringing the dead back to life makes me feel her world is pure fantasy. A dream.

She made Verso play by simply redrawing him - hence this unexpected shot with blue eyes. It's a creepy, creepy ending. Maelle is just the goddess of this world, sitting in a dollhouse and rearranging cardboard figures that were previously real people.

1:44:40 The way Sherbs is geeking out, he knows whats about to happen lol

I think if Maelle had know about Canvas without her memories as a Paintress, there could've been a third ending "A Life To Dream" (the title of painted Alicia's letter). If they don't kill the Paintress and convince her to leave the Canvas instead.

I see the painted beings as real and they deserve a life but the moment they are ressurected, they are simply not real anymore. You can't justify rising the dead and claim at the same time that these people are real. That kind of logic collapses on itself. Great game, great endings, masterpiece.  
 
Also a lot of people miss the fact (or at least forget) that this Verso is NOT her brother, yet she keeps calling him that. He is his own person and she keeps feeding his imposter syndrome relentlessly. Throughout the game you can almost see how uncomfortable he gets, especially in Act 3 when she starts treating him like her actual brother (a ton of body language, worth a rewatch).

There's a popular theory (in my opinion it's very likely that the theory is right) that suggests that Verso married Lune. Verso is wearing a wedding ring and the kid who enters the opera house with Alicia seems too friendly with Lune and doesn't really interact with anyone else. There's also one of the themes in the soundtrack (i don't remember if it was the Maelle ending theme) where the translation for one of the lines was that "Alicia paints Verso with Lune (or the moon) at his side" or something like that. Based on what i've read, native french speakers say that the correct translation is Lune and not moon.

I thought that the kid was Gustave's apprentice because a lot of people say that, but they really don't look alike at all (there are videos and posts comparing them and the difference is just too big), and seeing the evidence that supports the theory (specially the line i mentioned from the OST), it all kind of adds up to support the Verso + Lune marriage. Alicia should probably repaint Julie but i don't think she can without knowing her (or her essence), and Lune seems to canonically have a crush on Verso regardless of whether you romanced her or not (maybe Alicia painted them as a couple in a misguided attempt to make them both happy at the same time). In Maelle's ending when they show Sciel and Lune's faces, you can see that Sciel makes a sad face for a moment (probably recognizing Verso's suffering), but Lune seems happy to watch him play the piano (probably deluded into thinking Verso is happy since she never understood his pain quite as much as Sciel).

I believe you are right, people outside are just mourning Maelle, they accepted she will die inside the canvas.

Both endings are so tragic in their own way. One definitely feels better but I appreciate Maelle's ending for being deeply haunting and complex.

The place with all the swords reminds me of the keyblade graveyard in kingdom hearts

White Sands is either an unfinished area, possibly a remnant from earlier plans, or just as it appears-a place for the Manor from Old Lumiere to end up in, and a music record. I have to think though that more was planned for it, but it was cut from the final game. It's a mystery alright.

Killing the Chlaier in the Floating Cemetary is actually the correct choice, the one instance where you're supposed to kill the white Nevron. You miss out on the Auto Powerful pictos by letting him live, and you can't get it anywhere else. If you come back later you will find him dead, apparently killed by some other Nevrons.

It's one of the very few cases where a dialogue choice has irreversible consequences; the other being the answer you give to Maelle's question abaout Gustave on the cliff, lying to her prevents you from getting to relationship level 7 with her and no Gommage gradient.

These endings were brilliantly written and really tug at the different variables of morality. I picked Maelle in the end because I believed Maelle would have been loved more in Lumiere than her family, alongside the people of Lumiere deserving life. I do think Maelle was very selfish in her repainting of Verso though. Verso will always know the truth behind Maelle. I agree Versos ending very much fits for a better ending for the game  but I do think being responsible for creating and sustaining life has merit in the end for me to stick with Maelle even if that wasn't her intention. Loving your discussions as always!

1:56:03 White Sands is a mystery. Entrance is marked "DANGER" but there doesn't really seem to be anything there. The poem is also appropriately obscure and doesn't really give any answers.

The poem/soundtrack is called "Lumière S’éteint" and there are some fan-made English translations around, e.g. in "White Sands" entry of "Expedition 33 Wiki". (That page doesn't have any spoilers currently as none are known, but of course such wikis can generally have huge spoilers.)

The big feature of the Scaverim is that with 4 Dark stains, any skill can use them to do 300% more damage. Getting that 4th stain is something I haven't done yet, might require using a skill that only generates a single stain.

With less than 4 Dark stains, skills do 50% more damage per dark stain.

While I agree there is no better or “good” ending, in my opinion there is a moral ending and an immoral one and it has nothing to do with Maelle and Aline dying because they stay in the canvas or the loss of all life in the canvas in Versos ending.

To me, it comes down to one simple thing, the piece of Verso’s soul. We know it has some semblance of sentience, we know it’s tired of painting. We also know that it’s been painting for centuries, at the very least. Time flows differently in the canvas, which is made clear when Esquie is talking about Francois and how “it’s only been a couple hundred years since he saw her” when talking about Clea and Renoir being trapped under the monolith for 67 years. We have no idea what the actual ratio is, but for the piece of versos soul, it’s been painting since Verso created the canvas as a child. Honestly, given that Verso dies at, I think, 27, the piece of his soul has likely been painting for thousands of in canvas years.

The fact that the piece of his soul can acknowledge and answer painted Verso and agrees that it’s tired of painting, that makes Maelle’s ending objectively cruel. She is enslaving that piece of his soul so she can continue to live in the canvas. Eventually Maelle will die and so will Aline, then the canvas will likely be erased anyway as I doubt Renoir would want to keep what killed his wife and daughter around. Point is, Maelle forces the piece of Verso’s soul to keep painting for her, where Verso stops him so they can rest.

That single thing is why I believe Verso’s ending is morally superior. Doesn’t mean better, or that the outcome is great, because sentient beings lose their lives, but the soul is set free, as it wants to be.

I do think that Maelle painted a younger Verso. If you look at all the characters, Verso has grown old but all the others still look young. I think that she doesn't intend to leave the canvas, ever, and as she apparently offered Verso a mortal life, she's already created his replacement to continue this cycle until she dies. She's created a dream world where no one grows old, no one dies, a fantasy world that will be her doom.