I'm having trouble understanding one part of the plot.
It concerns Maelle and P Renoir. Let me explain:
At first, I found it strange that P Renoir never tried to tell the truth to the expeditions, knowing that Aline isn't the villain and that the real enemy is R Renoir, trapped under the Monolith with only a part of his soul able to wander around, aka The Curator.
But it makes sense. As many have already said, the Expedition Zero log explains the situation quite well: he and Verso had already tried to warn Lumière that the Paintress was not the enemy. (They had learned the truth from R Clea). But no one believed them, and they were tortured.
So it makes sense to me that P Renoir has strong negative preconceptions about the expeditions, which is understandable.
Now, P Renoir's real enemy is R Renoir. What can he do about him? Well, he can't do much... P Renoir is incapable of fighting R Renoir. He is nothing compared to him. What can he do in this case?
Well, he maintains the status quo on the Canvas. He kills the expeditions that don't understand the Paintress and that aren't strong enough for R Renoir (even the 60 failed to defeat R Renoir).
But there's a big problem for him: he wants to live with his family reunited, except that Verso no longer agrees to be the "ghost" of a real dead person, so they're going to fight.
What's more, the people of Lumière are slowly dying from the Gommage. Aline cares about these people, so P Renoir should care about them too.
All of this means that, in my opinion, P Renoir should find a more lasting solution than the gradual death of the Canvas and his family.
This is where Expedition 33 with Maelle comes in:
Everything changes with the arrival of Maelle (R Alicia). Maelle is attached to the people of Lumière and she is absolutely devoted to Verso's Canvas.
And Maelle is a Painter! She literally has the power to change things. And P Renoir knows it.
So yes, some say that P Renoir fears Maelle because she entered Verso's Canvas when Clea told her to help R Renoir, but P Renoir doesn't know that, he can't know that.
My final question is:
**Why, rather than attacking the 33 and thus giving up on any alliance, doesn't P Renoir try to ally himself with Maelle, who is his best potential ally, and try to save Verso's Canvas in the long term?**
He destroys any hope of an alliance with Maelle by attacking the expedition on the beach (he must have been watching Maelle closely to know they would arrive there, given that the other expeditions took different routes) and, above all, by killing Gustave...
Which brings me to an additional question:
**How did P Renoir know exactly where Expedition 33 would land? And why didn't the Névrons on the beach attack him, considering they are theoretically enemies on paper (Clea's Nevrons vs. Aline)?**