Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Prologue Teaches Us How To Die

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the beginning of for weeks. If you’ve seen the trailer, it . But even knowing what was going to happen, I was still moved by the prologue’s beautifully melanchol💛ic depiction of something games don’t often deal with: the inevitability of death.

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Stained Glass Concept Art

Please Don't Let Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Ridiculous Title Stop You From Playing This Incredible Game

It's the other 2025 ga𓂃me with the number 33 in 𝔍the title.

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Death is all over video games, of course. Killing is such a fundamental mechanic of the medium that we have to refer to the only games out there that don’t make us solve every problem withꦆ violence as ‘cozy’. Practically every game is about killing, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:there aren’t a lot of gamesꦉ out there about dying.

Bon Voyage And Happy Gommage

Gustave and Sophie at the start of Clair Obscur Expedition 33.

Gustave is nervous. It’s been years since he’s seen his ex-girlfriend Sophie, and he has some things to get off his chest. As he twists a flower around in his fingers - a gift for Soph - he contemp🍸lates the right way to phrase what he has to say. Gustave’s little sister, Maelle, encourages him to take the direct approach. This reunion is long-awaitedꦗ for them both, but they know they won’t have much time.

Gustave and Sophie’s meeting takes place in the middle of the city’s annual flower festival, of which Sophie is a guest of honor. When Gustave presents her with his flow💛er, he asks if she has room for it; she is already wearing many flowers given to her by many others. Sophie accepts the gift, and the two share an uncomfortable, but meaningful moment. It’s clear there is still something between them, but at 32 and 33 years old respectively, they just don’t have the time. M♓aybe in another life.

It’s a beautiful day in the city of Lumiere as everyone comes together to acknowledge this annual event. Flower petals cover the ground and dance gently in the wind, transforming the city into an impressionist painting. The streets are heaving with v💖endors and crowds enjoying the festivities. There’s music and dancing, lively conversation over shared meals, and artists working on every corner, crafting pieces to commemorate this important day.

But there’s also a sense of foreboding. It’s hard to ignore the state Lumiere is in, even with all the decorations and distractions. Some kind of unnatural black stone has infected the city like a fungus, splitting the streets and collapsing many of the buildings. It’s clear th൩e Lumiere has been in a state of near ruin for a long, long time.

As Gustave escorts Sophie across the city, the people they encounter seem to address her with pity. A sculptor notices her flowers and offers to carve her name into a statue as a way to honor he🥀r. Throughout the city are piles of furniture and household belongings left behind for the next generation to enjoy.

As you continue to explore and talk to other people, you come to realize the festival is a sort of going-away party for a group of people that includes Sophie. It’s their Gommage - a French term that means to scr♔ub, to rub out, to erase.

How Do We Face The End With Dignity?

If you know the premise of Expedition 33, you already k🎶now what’s really going on here. The people of this world are cursed. Every year on the same day🤡, a god-like being called the Paintress paints a number on a monolith, and everyone who is that age turns into a flurry of flower petals, never to be seen again. Last year, she painted the number 34 on the monolith, which means that any moment, she’ll change that number to 33, and 33 year old Sophie will die. The number drops every year, and everyone is running out of time.

Sophie’s age is her terminal illness. It’s a fꦍar more predictable end than most, but it’s a terminal illness nonetheless. She knows it, everyone knows it. That’s why they’re all here: to say goodbye. It’s a funeral for people who are still with us, which makes sense in its own morbid way. Who wouldn’t want to attend their own funeral?

What’s disconcerting is seeing everyone acting like this is a reason to celebrate. The whole city is dancing and carrying on as though their country just won the World Cup, but in reality, ▨a bunch of young, healthy people are about to die for no reason, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

If you’ve ever watched someone slowly die, you know exactly what this feels like. No matter what anyone does, no matter how much they want to live, no matter how much you scream and cry and beg for mercy - when it’s your time, it’s your time. Whether it’s a disease like lung cancer or dementia, or an Eldritch horror writing numbers on a tower, it’s just as mysterious, just as unfair. There’s no reason behind it, there’s no way to stop it. The only control we have is wheಞther or not we choose to accept it.

Seeing The Beauty In All Things, Even Death

Verso Dessendre's grave, with the Eiffel Tower in the background, in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Some people do fight back against death. Cancer researchers, epidemiologists, and geneticists dedicate their lives to the cause of preventing people from dying early. Gustave and the rest of Expedition 33, who sail across the world on a mission to kill the Paintress before her annual countdown erases mankind from existence, are fighting the same battle against death that an oncologist does. As horrifying as it would be to live in the world of Clair Obscur, somehow𒈔, killing a god seems easier than curing cancer.

Further into the game, Gustave says the really insidious thing about the Gommage i🍒s how predictable it is. Everyone knows how it works, and it happens every year on the same day the exact same way. Before s𝕴he dies, Sophie reassures Gustave, saying she’s lived 33 beautiful years, and that she’s ready to move on. She’s grateful for the time she’s had, not angry at the time she doesn’t.

I don’t know if I’ll ever find a way to make peace with death. As a 34 year old who’s still trying to figure out what his life is going to look like, I can’t imagine approaching the end with the kind of grace and dignity that Sophie has, let alone dancing and singing in the street when it comes. I feel more like Gusta✃ve, horrified by everyone🐟 else’s ability to accept that this is a normal and unavoidable part of life. I hope that when my time comes, I can embrace it like Sophie, and be thankful for the life I got to live.