Alrighty, 1 more regular rant for the year, I think, before the Annual Summary at the end, and then we'll be back to some form of ranting schedule in 2026. Thanks for bearing with me on this little hiatus I've taken this year!
Credit and thanks to the ever-esteemed Angel Adonis and Ecclesiastes for each having the generous, indulging patience to listen to me spew at them the nonsense that follows, and through that allow me to collect my thoughts enough to construct a "proper" rant out of it. Peak gent energy at all times from these guys, lemme tell you. Thanks, fellas!
So, I think Lune is a paintbrush.
Symbolically, I mean, not literally. Although this is Expedition 33 we're talking about, a game which has so masterfully dovetailed theme and symbolism with lore and concrete fact that you almost can't find the seams between them, so who knows, maybe I'm picking up on something that's got an in-universe presence and explanation, too. Either way, I've noticed certain things about Lune's presentation and design that, when put into the context of COE33's overpowering and omnipresent theme (and literal setting) of the art of painting, make me think that she's meant to represent a paintbrush--or perhaps that the idea of a paintbrush was used as inspiration during her creation.
Alright, so, first of all, let's look at the most physically distinctive part of Lune: her feet. Aside from the very real possibility that some woman or man on the development team was gratifying a fetish while on the clock--and I can't really blame her/him that, because after spending an entire game watching Best Girl flaunt the things, I'm pretty sure I'm starting to get where Tarentino is coming from on this subject--there may be a distinct purpose to how emphasized they are. Lune's default outfit, as well as several of the others you can collect for her, have her going barefoot--not generally advisable when engaging in a world-spanning trek through wild and hostile territory, but when your version of running is to gracefully glide full-speed just above the ground like Chrono Trigger's Magus, the original magical powerhouse badass of RPGs, you can tell hiking boots to go take a hike, just not the one you're on. Additionally, her approach to combat is very foot-heavy, with many of her attacks and abilities incorporating kicking in some way, which is a very interesting and unique approach for the party's mage. Several of Lune's spells involve her zipping through the air and bringing her heel down in various jump-kick pantomimes as various elemental attacks like Rock Slide, Crystal Crush, and Elemental Genesis are made--or sometimes very literally kicking the enemy multiple times with elemental power, as with Lightning Dance--and of course her basic attack is an outright double-foot dropkick like she's an obstinate anime horsegirl. Yes, there's plenty that Lune does that involves more traditional magic-y gestures of her arms and hands as she calls elemental wrath upon her foes, but her feet seem to be the foundation of her magical combat style.
Most interesting to me, is the fact that many of Lune's elemental skills involve her physically connecting to the ground below her, most of the time through her foot. She stomps down as she casts Wildfire and Earth Rising, leaps up and brings herself crashing down to the soil once more as the warm-up for Hell, and she gathers electric energy by rubbing her heel on the ground as though building up a static charge for Lightning Dance, among others. Again, there are times when it's her hands making contact with the ground, such as the secondary motions for Hell and Earth Rising, but, as would only make sense, it's most often that it's her foot that touches the world's surface during her attacks. Frequently, this connection is visually represented by a jagged glowing pool on the ground at the connection point with her of whatever color corresponds to the element she's making use of. Red for fire, blue for ice, and so on.
And you know what it kind of looks like? It kind of looks like she's a paintbrush making contact with the next color that she's about to apply to a painting.
I mean, really, that sort of IS what she's literally doing, to some degree. For a great number of her spells, Lune is very clearly drawing out the elemental energies of the world itself with which to attack her enemies. And not only are the elements she's drawing on clearly color-coded,* the very energy of her world, the life force that's being converted into fire, ice, lightning, and earth, is known as Chroma, a term connected to color whether you're looking at it through the lens of English or French. In a world physically made of color as a form of matter and energy alike, Lune is drawing that color up through a physical connection to it, with the intention of applying it (albeit with extreme, damage-in-the-literal-millions hostility) to that which stands before her.
It's exactly what a paintbrush does—connect to the desired color upon a palette, and then convey that color onto a canvas before the artist! With her kick-centered style of spell combat, it's even frequently the same physical part of her, her foot, that touches upon color base and target both, as a paintbrush's tip** and bristles do. Said foot also interacts with the ground she's drawing Chroma from in similar ways as a paintbrush does as it gathers the colors on its palette--an energetic back-and-forth motion for one attack, a forceful dab for others, and so on. And not for nothing, but in the strong majority of her skills, a visual side-effect of whatever elemental powers have been brought to bear on Lune's enemies is that there's a brief moment in which the same kind of glowing splash of color is on the ground beneath them--the pooled residue of the deadly color energy Lune has hit them with--as forms beneath her when she's gathering the power for her attacks. She really is taking color from 1 spot and splashing it onto another as a paintbrush essentially does.
Also? Lune's weapon, her companion accessory, is totally a palette. Like, look at the thing. It comes in many different shapes and with varying quirks and features, but every version is a thin little board that she literally uses to hold color stains. With the stain mechanic of Lune's gameplay, the colors that she's taken from the world at her feet are put into her weapon's slots...as they would be applied to any palette for its paintbrush partner's future use. And the fact that these color stains can make her spells more powerful even makes symbolic sense: the elemental power she's applying to her enemies is made richer, its hues more complex, as the remains of previously used colors mix with the main color of the current attack.
Additionally, though this is a small detail and a bit of a stretch…the fact that Lune's hair is black is probably just a coincidence, but it might possibly be another intentional paintbrush-like quality, as the tools usually have bristles that are either black or white. Lastly, Lune's form of running, that being gliding in that awesome Magus-esque fashion I mentioned before, could be another part of this symbolism, as, when considering that her feet are essentially the bristles to her brush, it's sort of showing the idea that an artist isn't just dragging their brush all over the place, but rather holding it aloft as they move it into place, only allowing it to touch down when there's a purpose to doing so. Similarly, Lune glides along to each destination without touching herself to the ground unnecessarily, only doing so once she arrives at her destination or encounters an enemy that needs a fresh coat of hurt.
Now, could I be reading way too much into Lune's style and presentation, assigning it greater significance than was intended? Sure! Every theory rant I do is pure conjecture and probably utter nonsense, you all know this. Still, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a game that builds significant meaning and layers into practically its every facet; it's unarguably 1 of the most thoughtfully artful games ever created, and I'd bet I'm not sharp enough to come up with an idea this peculiar and specific if it weren't intentionally put there to be seen. So I think there's at least a good chance that this concept of Lune as a spiritual paintbrush might very well hold water! Or paint. Whatever.
* In fairness, toddler-level association of color to elements is a thoroughly ubiquitous practice in RPGs. But I do think that it's safe to say that it has an actual thematic function in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, even if simply through a convenient coincidence of RPG conventions.
** Fun fact: I have just discovered that the official term for the tip of a paintbrush is "toe." Also, the back of its brush part is called the "heel." So even the real, actual terminology of a paintbrush backs up my idea here that Lune is meant to be one.
