64 pages • 2 hours read
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
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Part 3, Chapters 25-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3, Chapter 25 Summary
One week later, Yumi and Painter watch the final episode of the show Seasons of Regret. Yumi dislikes it because the main characters do not end up together. Painter explains that some people find a sad ending more realistic. After this, Yumi asks if they can go out hunting nightmares. Painter reluctantly agrees, as it might help them resolve the body-swapping. When he mentions ending their bond, Yumi feels worried about being alone again.
While preparing to go out, Painter notes that the stable nightmare should have started rampaging by now. He directs Yumi to go to his old beat—he assumes someone will have replaced him but figures he can avoid seeing another nightmare painter. He has Yumi pack painting supplies as well as a bell-contraption, which is designed to make noise and alert others. As they patrol, Painter sees the obvious signs of a nightmare. This leads him to worry that no one replaced him. The foreman always suspected him of faking paintings, so he likely thought it was safe to not replace him. This would leave a part of the city open for the stable nightmare to slip through.
Yumi asks why people are so keen to assume he would lie, but Painter does not answer. He instead talks about how difficult it is to keep up his passion for the job. He says being a great painter is difficult, but it is easy to be average. Yumi realizes that she understands this but chooses to do things differently; while Painter had fallen into a rut, she put too much of herself into her work.
Eventually, they catch up to the nightmare and realize it is not the stable nightmare. Painter urges Yumi to move on, but she worries that it will be a danger. She goes toward the window of the room it is in as Painter coaches her through what to do. Upon seeing the nightmare, she freezes up. Painter tries to help her, but the nightmare spots him and begins to feed on his essence. Yumi screams, scaring off the nightmare and drawing the attention of Akane and Tojin, who are nearby.
Part 3, Chapter 26 Summary
Before Painter and Yumi can escape, Akane and Tojin arrive and ask what Yumi is doing out. They assume she is trying to cover for Painter, so Akane says that they need to give her an “intervention.” As they take Yumi to the noodle shop, Painter thinks to himself that this was going to happen sooner or later. He tries to make himself happy about what Yumi will learn.
Akane, Tojin, Masaka, and Izzy all begin to tell Yumi about Painter’s past while he moves over to the bar. Here, Design notes his clear attraction to Yumi, but Painter says that their bond will soon end. As he overhears Izzy tell Yumi that Painter was a liar, he leaves, and he again tries to convince himself he is fine with what is coming.
Part 3, Chapter 27 Summary
Akane and her friends explain to Yumi that everyone believed Painter would become a Dreamwatch member. They planned to be his companions (a team that supports each Dreamwatch member), which would have changed their life prospects. However, when Painter took the exam, he failed. He lied about this failure to his friends, convincing them that he spent his days studying as a Dreamwatch member while he had just stared at a wall in a library all day.
Yumi asks why they had ever thought he would be in Dreamwatch. This surprises everyone, and they explain that he was the best artist they had ever seen. He had previously dedicated his life to being in Dreamwatch. Yumi says that she needs time and rushes back to Painter’s apartment.
There, she opens the portfolio in his trunk and finds a stash of incredible paintings. As she looks at them, Painter returns and explains his side of the story. When he failed, he did not want to let down his friends, so he didn’t immediately tell them. He continued to put it off until too much time had passed. Yumi asks why he does not paint masterpieces anymore, and he says he was motivated by sharing his work with others. With no one to share them with, he does not bother. He apologizes for pretending to be important and begins to leave, but Yumi asks him to stay. She feels frustrated with his lie but also pities him and ultimately wishes to spend time with him. She tells Painter she wants to go out, and Painter agrees to take her to a nearby carnival.
Part 3, Chapter 28 Summary
At the carnival, Yumi demands that Painter show her around. She tries the food and several games before going to the Jotun Line (which is a ride like a Ferris Wheel). Yumi and Painter get on a carriage, and while riding, they discuss Painter’s skill at art. He tells her about how being rejected made him lose all passion for his work, but he adds that talking with her makes him feel like he is sharing his art again. At the top of the ride, they share a beautiful view and a special moment together, their hands almost touching. Then, they head back toward Painter’s apartment.
En route, Yumi stops and paints a crude image of the landscape from the top of the ride, but she shows their hands overlapping in the foreground. She tells Painter that this is to remind him of their time together once she leaves. She also tells him that she forgives him for his previous lies and asks that he forgive himself. Just then, they notice the stable nightmare coming toward them.
Part 3, Chapter 29 Summary
Yumi and Painter flee from the nightmare, arriving at a playground where Yumi tries to activate the bell device but loses hold of it. Painter tells her to find it while he runs off to draw the attention of the nightmare. Yumi tries to move but freezes until Tojin and Akane arrive. They reveal that they have been tailing her since the noodle shop but had lost her within the carnival. Yumi asks them to help fight the nightmare and runs off to find it, leaving the pair behind. The nightmare suddenly emerges from the darkness and puts a claw into Yumi’s chest, which drains her Investiture. She manages to stack some rubble near her, which confuses the monster.
Tojin and Akane catch up and scream. They flee from the nightmare, which rushes to attack them. It is about to kill Tojin when Painter arrives. He manifests a brush and begins to paint, first drawing bamboo but then moving on to a beautiful dog, which drives away the nightmare. Painter rushes to Yumi, who is still on the ground and feels very cold. He touches her, sharing his warmth and helping to revive her.
Part 3, Chapter 30 Summary
About an hour later, Yumi is again at the Noodle Pupil, drinking broth to warm herself. Tojin arrives and says that they have convinced the foreman about the stable nightmare; he has sent for Dreamwatch. Izzy then remarks that Painter probably fled the city after seeing the nightmare, but Yumi defends him.
Design then reminds them that the ship is about to land on the other planet. On a hion viewer, they see the ship begin its descent. They hear from the crew that the planet has many oceans, and this confuses Painter and Yumi because the ground on her planet is too hot for oceans. The camera then shows the astronauts contacting the local life forms, revealing distinctly alien creatures.
Part 3, Chapters 25-30 Analysis
The latter half of Part 3 develops the relationship between Yumi and Painter. As they spend more time together, they understand each other better and grow fond of one another. Sanderson makes this more realistic as time skips forward several times in Part 3, giving the characters enough time to learn about each other and develop their bond. In one scene, Yumi and Painter watch the show Seasons of Regret, and its plot foreshadows the sequence of their love story. The show is a romance that ends with the characters being separated, and it is a sad ending that Painter says “people find […] more realistic” than happily-ever-after endings (221). At the end of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, when it appears that Yumi will disappear, she references this conversation. However, the novel later mentions that there is a surprise episode of Seasons of Regret that shows a happy ending for its characters. Thus, the link that Yumi establishes between her own failed romance with Painter and the fate of the characters in the show also suggests that she, too, will return, since the two plots mirror each other.
One of the most important events that occurs in these chapters is the revelation that Painter is an exceptional artist and the explanation of why Akane and her friends do not like him. Sanderson gradually builds up to this throughout the scenes set in Kilahito, with many characters declaring Painter to be untrustworthy, and Yumi picking up on this. Then, immediately before the actual reveal, Sanderson ups the suspense by having Painter be the point-of-view character and mourning what he believes will be the end of his friendship with Yumi, for a reason that is as yet undisclosed to readers. When the incidents are finally revealed through Yumi’s point of view, the emotional build-up is released with Yumi’s choice to forgive Painter and the subsequent slower-paced, romantic scenes.
Painter’s backstory builds on the theme of The Conflict Between Individuality and Duty. As a character, Painter struggles with the baggage of his previous mistakes, and this leads to his excitement at body-swapping and the chance to make a good impression on someone. In his interactions with Yumi, they bond without his old insecurities getting in the way since she knows nothing about his history. However, when she is about to find out about his lie about the Dreamwatch, Painter attempts to deceive himself that he is happy about it, thinking that “he could find it liberating to be done” (239) with Yumi. He lies to himself just as he did at the beginning of the novel, when he pretended that he chose to avoid socializing with the others painter when they, in fact, spurned him.
However, Painter struggles with his new attempt at self-deception; he is too fond of Yumi to maintain the lie that he is happy that their friendship will be over. Yumi’s ultimate choice to forgive him shows her understanding of his struggles to balance individuality with duty. While she herself lets duty get in the way of her personal choices, she understands that Painter struggles with the opposite: He finds it hard to manage his responsibilities without letting his personal feelings of embarrassment and frustration cloud his sense of duty.
Painter’s newly revealed artistic talent underscores the theme of Art as a Reflection of Humanity. While the novel has hinted at Painter’s exceptional abilities earlier, Yumi is amazed by the skill of his masterpieces. However, Painter explains why he no longer creates—he lacks an audience, and the monotony of his role has thrown him into a rut. His explanation highlights that without the element of humanity that inspired him—an audience—Painter is not moved to create masterpieces, showing that true art always has a human element. When Yumi sees and admires his portfolio, it builds anticipation that he will return to form since he now has an audience. When they eventually confront the nightmare, Yumi can see him “not just paint. Create” (267), since he has a reason to do so. Painter thus gets over the idea that his work only consists of “machine-like” routine, aligning himself with the artists like Yumi.
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By Brandon Sanderson
