Why did Verso help Maelle in Act 3 at all?
Verso explains early in the story that he wants to defeat the painter because he is tired of immortality. He wants his own life to come to an end. After the painter is defeated and it is revealed that this frees the (real) Renoir from the monolith and he wants to erase the whole world – why does Verso still help Maelle? After all, wouldn’t Renoir fulfill his wish?
The answer to this is simple. Verso has brotherly feelings for both (the painted) Alicia and the real Alicia (Maelle). At the same time, he holds the members of Expedition 33 dear. He wants his life to end – but not at the cost of everyone else having to end as well.
Verso comes to the decision to endorse the destruction of the canvas only in the final dialogues of the game. There, Renoir shows how much Verso’s mother suffers day after day and cannot overcome this suffering as long as the canvas exists. At the same time, Verso finds the last piece of the real Verso’s soul, which is trapped in the canvas and forced to paint for all eternity (the faceless boy).
As (the painted) Verso has taken on many characteristics of the real Verso, he knows that he actually doesn’t like painting. His favorite art form is music, as we see multiple times in the game.
Moreover, in the end, Verso realizes in Renoir’s words that there is a real danger that Alicia (Maelle) may get lost in the canvas forever and find death there.
In short: While Verso wanted to die early on, he did not want it to come at the cost of the entire world. This decision only came in the last hours of the game during the finale.
