(This is a repost from my tumblr, but I felt like sharing it here as well. Some of it also relates to some harassment I've been getting on tumblr about my posts and opinions. This has some contention in it, but I want to open up a dialogue about some of the more toxic things that happen in this fandom.)
I love Life is Strange. I care deeply about this game to an almost obsessive amount and have been obsessing over it since it came out in 2015. I like to feel as though I have a pretty good understanding about Life is Strange, its characters, their relationships, their story, etc. For a game whose main themes are abuse, bullying, suicide, mental illness, and harassment… I have made some posts over the past week or so exclaiming my opinions. Primarily about the sexualities of Max and Chloe along with a post about Nathan. And from this experience I have gotten some interesting responses. As someone who has been in the fandom since 2015, I’ve seen everything this fandom has to offer. From the highs to the lows. And my primary experience has mostly been toxic. I find it surprising that this fandom, so much about what I listed above, partakes in the things this game is trying to prevent. I think there’s a healthy place for open discussion and debate about this game and its choices. Because honestly I believe some of the choices in this game are wrong to make. Like very wrong. I feel though there is a good place to compromise between debating about these topics though and resorting solely to harassing each other over these choices. This rant might be a little bit jumbled, especially in Polarized since I have problems remembering the order in which the events occurred due to the fluctuating timeline.
Do I believe that sacrificing Chloe is wrong? Yes. I believe it is. I believe every argument people make for doing that is wrong because it goes against the very heart of the game, which is that Max will do anything to protect and save Chloe. And I refuse to believe that she would, solely based on an opinion given by Warren of all people, would suddenly turn her back on Chloe and let her die. People will say trolley problem, but it isn’t the trolley problem. And even if it was the trolley problem, the trolley problem in and of itself is a flawed ethical dilemma that pretty much says you have to kill the person you know because ten is better than one. It’s a flawed dilemma and LiS does not portray it as that. There is no 100% guarantee that letting Chloe die will remove Max’s powers and stop the tornado. All of it is based on a jealous Warren. Not to mention it’s not Max’s fault. A lot of people will blame Max and her powers on the tornado, along with blaming Chloe. Max was not given the rule book for these powers. She was never told that saving Chloe would cause a big fuck you tornado to hurl into town. It’s not Max’s fault for saving Chloe, and it’s not Chloe’s fault for existing inf the first place.
And then we get to the Nathan dilemma. I have argued many years that Nathan is not a good person. He is, in many ways, just a much an antagonist as Jefferson is. Mental illness plays a primary role in Life is Strange. And yes, mental illness is a primary trait that affects Nathan along with the verbal abuse his father throws at him. This, however, does not excuse his actions. It does not alleviate him of all responsibility of what he’s done. Everything Nathan did? He chose to do it. A lot of people say in his defense that he was manipulated by Jefferson. And I do agree to a certain extent, but none of what he did was under duress. Case and point made with his kidnapping and drugging of Rachel. Rachel was not one of Jefferson’s targets. He exclusively chose those who were “innocent”, such as Kate, so he could photograph their loss of innocence as he toyed with their bodies. Nathan allowed him to do this to people. Freely. With his funding. The kidnapping of Rachel makes a turning point because now, Nathan is doing things without Jefferson knowing. And as a result, he accidentally kills Rachel, who was Jefferson’s secret lover, and that caused the rift between them. This is shown in a cut letter from episode 5, where Nathan asks Jefferson to stop being so cold and distant since he fucked up with Rachel. Next is when he kidnapped Chloe and drugged her. No one ever brings this up. No one. Even though there are some major differences. Nathan wanted to continue to do his own snuff photography, without knowing why Jefferson was doing it in the first place. Nathan kidnaps Chloe, who Jefferson probably didn’t know about nor care. She was expelled from Blackwell years prior, so why would he know her? But Nathan drugs and kidnaps her anyway. And instead of taking her to the Dark Room, where he got caught with Rachel, he takes her to his dorm. He takes her to his dorm to photograph her and do god knows what else. Chloe is able to, thankfully, escape, but the photo you find of her that was taken by Nathan? Easily one of the most haunting things in the game. He chose to do those things freely. He was not instructed to kidnap and drug Chloe and Rachel, but he did anyways. In the end, people try to throw out sympathy for him by talking about his phone call in episode five. At first you might feel a little pity for him, but its thrown out the window entirely when he blames everyone but himself. He blames everyone but himself for everything he did and partook in. I have no pity for Nathan. He can’t even own up to his own crimes. Instead he blames them on everyone else. Nathan is a not a good person. Sure you can feel pity for how far he fell, but do not parade around saying he’s some good person or a pinnacle of virtue. And sure as hell don’t say he’s better than Chloe. Because he is nowhere even close to Chloe. Also, lest we forget he murdered Chloe. Defenders of Nathan will say he didn’t meant to kill Chloe and only wanted to scare and threaten her. Already that’s not a good fucking excuse that a white boy is threatening a mentally ill girl that he drugged and kidnapped with a loaded gun with the safety OFF. If he wanted to just threaten Chloe with no thoughts of harm, he would have kept the gun unloaded and kept the safety ON. And then immediately afterwards when he confronts Max in the parking lot, he gets angry and physical, putting his HAND AROUND MAX’S NECK. She only gets out of his grip because she claws his face, and he literally is about to physically attack her if it weren’t for Warren. Maybe the only good thing he did in this entire game. Speaking of…
Now let’s move onto good old Warren Graham, the person people will blindly defend to absurd amounts and compare to Chloe in terms of romance to Max. Warren is a stereotypical geeky nerd, and doesn’t seem the worst at first. But that’s only for a moment before you scroll up and see how much he spams Max’s inbox with texts. Texts that she mostly ignores. She only replies when he needs his flash drive back. Then you get the flash drive from Dana, and she tells Max about the folder. You look on the drive, and sure enough there’s literally just a folder of what Dana says are just pictures of Max. At one point a person told me “I have photos of me and my friends on my phone, does that make me a stalker?” To that, I would say no. To Warren keeping a folder of pictures solely of Max on a flash drive. Not to mention Max has only known Warren for about a month now and he’s already obsessively collecting photos of her? Already creepy. You just don’t do that. Then you meet him in the parking lot, where he attempts to hug Max. Again, Max shows no interest in it when she gives him his flash drive back. When talking about the movies on the flash drive, Max can say “So you’re sensitive, huh?” and Warren will reply with “Sensitive usually means won’t be getting sex.” Weird, huh? Weird that the first reply to that is about him wanting sex. Compare that to Max being the one calling him that, and you have Warren getting mad that Max won’t give him sex. This only worsens his entitlement when Warren takes the heat for Max by Nathan. Even though Warren stops Nathan from assaulting Max, which he already kinda did the minute he put his hand around her neck, this results in a more deluded version of his entitlement. Then we move to episode two, where Max wakes up in the morning. She’s just chilling, getting ready for her day, then she looks out the window. What does she see? Warren peeking out from behind a corner, peering up into her room. He’s lying in wait for her like a predator does their prey. Max gets ready and leaves to go meet Chloe at the diner, when you see Warren hanging out by the gates. You can choose to talk to him, but if you ignore him and attempt to proceed he will stop you against your wishes. Here, instead of being a good friend to Max, attempts to guilt her into going to the drive-in with him. You know, a good old quid pro pro. I stopped Nathan from attacking you, so now you have to with me to the drive-in. Of course, this is the introduction of his “Let’s go ape!” catchphrase. This has connotations for later. Of course if you reject his invitation he doesn’t accept that, he gets all entitled and pissy about the fact Max won’t go with him. Then you move on to go be with Chloe. We see him near the end where you’re forced to interact with him to get one of the optional photos. Nothing interesting happens here. Then we get to the end, when the eclipse happens. Max is still reeling over Kate’s suicide/attempt, and Warren decides to use this to get physically intimate with Max. She barely cares because she’s still reeling over Kate. But Warren? He gets as close as possible. Episode ends, ans we move to episode three. We don’t see him in episode three because again, he isn’t important. Physically he’s only there in the alternate timeline, though we do see Max asking him in texts asking how to build a pipe bomb so they can break into the principal’s office. Episode four happens and Warren shows up when they are in the boys dorm. There you see how truly messed up he is. As much as I hate Nathan, and as much as he deserved a good ass beating, you can clearly see the horror on Max and Chloe’s faces when Warren senselessly beats Nathan until his face is mashed and bloodied. Afterwards he’s like “can I come with you guys?” Max is disturbed about this and tells him to just stay there. He gets all upset again. After Max and Chloe find Rachel’s body, they head to the party at the school. Warren shows up drunk and begins to once again take Max’s time away. He can clearly tell the two have other things to, and the fact that Max is anxious about Chloe, and Chloe is furious about Rachel’s death. Warren forces Max to take a picture with him, even though she’s clearly uncomfortable around him, and goes on to try and guilt her again. Max doesn’t give in and goes to find Chloe. We then see him in episode five when Max makes her way to the Two Whales to get the photo from him. There Max can choose to say goodbye, hug, or (if you made one positive choice toward him) kiss him. This is the grand climax of the Warren “romance”. A story that begins and ends with him asking Max to the drive-in. That’s it. But even then, Max goes back in time to save Chloe. Not Warren. But of course Warren plants that one seed of doubt in her head that Max saving Chloe is responsible for the storm. Funny right that Max didn’t come to that conclusion herself, but rather he planted it in there? Anyways, we don’t see him after that. However, we do see him in Max’s nightmare. Another person argued that she had romantic feelings for him because he appeared during that Dark Room nightmare sequence. However, that’s not even close to true. If that was true, that would mean Max was attracted to everyone in that sequence including Nathan and Victoria, which she isn’t. The whole Dark Room part of her nightmare is showing her anxiety and insecurities that Chloe would replace Max with someone else, with Max’s budding gay feelings for Chloe being anxious. Then we see Warren again when Max is in the stealth sequence. One of the optional photos is inside Nightmare Warren’s locker. Go in there and you’ll see Max’s face photoshopped onto sexy lady body in it. Compound that fact with Nightmare Warren continuously saying “Let’s go ape!” in the background. Max was weirded out enough already when she found the photoshopped picture of herself and Warren in his normal gym locker. But notice how scared Max is about Warren. The nightmare, again, is all about her fears and insecurities. So deep down, she doesn’t like Warren romantically at all. Rather, she fears him to a degree where she believes if she were alone with him, that there would be a strong possibility that he would try to sexually assault her. “Let’s go ape!” Primal words. Compounded with him wanting sex from Max as seen in episode one. After that, though, we don’t see Warren again. The end of Warren’s story is the fact that Max is afraid of him and what he might do to her. Their “romance” is possibly the most boring and least interesting thing ever. It has zero development and zero impact on the story. Even in Life is Strange 2, the fast tracked romance between Sean and Finn/Cassidy, is done better. The choice of who you choose to have romantic feelings for, or simply don’t at all, changes the game and the story. If you romance Finn, you’re all in for his stupid ass plan. If you romance Cassidy, you’re fully out for the plan and have to stop him. Two very clearly different events occur based on your romance of choice. Same thing happens in something like Walking Dead: The Final Season. Who you choose to romance makes serious changes to the game and story. In Life is Strange, your “romance” with Warren does nothing to the game. It doesn’t change anything. Max doesn’t even bring him up during the final choice. It’s all about Chloe. All of this I take as a story of comp het and Max being a lesbian, not bisexual. The only real “attraction” she has to men is “well I guess he’s cute”, as if she is resigning herself to the fact that she, as a woman, has to have some sort of attraction to men. But the game produces Warren as the comp het “romantic choice” for Max. Max shows little to no interest in him, and the game clearly shows her growing more and more uncomfortable with him as it progresses. Even if Max “accepts” his feelings for her, she still has the nightmare which includes him and her fears about him. Max still has the nightmare about Chloe choosing to be in these romantic/sexual situations with everyone she knows, even if she chooses Warren. It’s comp het. It’s clearly that. Almost like Dontnod was parodying the idea of a straight white boy choice in games because of how half-assed it is.
Let’s finish this essay with Chloe Price, shall we? Because even though it’s 2019, there are still people who will angrily defend the idea that Chloe is a horrible selfish person and that characters like Nathan are better than her. This is a real thing. Someone called me a “Chloe apologist” based on a post I made about how Nathan is not a good person and is responsible for his crimes. We know from the instant we meet Chloe that she is mentally ill. With what? It’s clear she’s depressed, but we get to the meat of it as the story unfolds. Chloe has the telltale signs of borderline personality disorder, which is only further exacerbated by her depression, anxiety, and the abuse she receives daily from David. As a result of this, Chloe has severe problems with interpersonal relationships. I know, I have borderline personality disorder, so I relate to Chloe in a deep level. Chloe freaks out a little with Max, such as in episode one, when Max finds her box of Rachel’s keepsakes. Not only was Chloe in love with Rachel, she was also Chloe’s favorite person. As a result, throughout the game, Chloe tends to conflate Rachel as this perfect angelic being. One of the clear thing is, Chloe suffers from severe abandonment problems and events that she perceives as possibly abandonment triggers her. Upon Max’s arrival back into her life, Chloe is ecstatic to have her back. Within the first day of her arrival back, Chloe tells Max that Nathan drugged and kidnapped her. Chloe already trusts Max again unconditionally despite the fact earlier she was pissed off about the fact that Max had left five years prior and failed to keep in contact as a result of Max being a thirteen year old girl who suffered from severe anxiety, which prevented her from interacting with Chloe. By the time she was able to try, Max had no idea what to say. How could she? She left Chloe alone. But Chloe forgives her, and in those moments, they reunite. Episode two has Chloe getting angry about when Kate calls Max in the diner. Chloe gets angry if Max picks up the phone. Chloe gets angry because of that perceived abandonment, and her already starting to cling to Max. It’s not her being a bitch, it’s her mind beginning to process that Max might stop hanging out with her to go hang out with Kate. So she gets mad. Max will do anything to save Chloe. Anything. This game, despite what some people say, is primarily about Max, Chloe, and their relationship. While in the junkyard, Max can shoot the tire rim, which ricochets and strikes Chloe. Max immediately rewinds to stop this from happening. Max pulls the gun out to protect Chloe from Frank, when they two argue. When they travel on the tracks, you get probably the most iconic scene in the entire game, which is them touching hands while walking on the tracks. This is also the most iconic quote in the game. “I’m so glad you’re my partner in crime.” Max says. “As long as you’re my partner in time.” Chloe replies. Again, Max manipulates time to save Chloe from the oncoming train. Whether she changes the train’s tracks or completely derails the train from striking Chloe. She’s there for her. In the end of episode two, we see that Max is texting Chloe. Episode three has a lot going on. It is primarily focused on Max and Chloe and their relationship continuing to grow and evolve. Max gets pissed when Chloe scares her, but quickly forgives her. Chloe doesn’t really know how to interact in some ways as a result of her social isolation over the past few months and her own bpd getting in the way of her social abilities. The two break into the school together, and Max can even steal the handicapped fund so Chloe doesn’t have to worry about Frank killing her or continuing to harass her. Of course we later find out that the handicapped fund is bullshit in the alternate timeline, which pisses Max off. The pool scene? Brilliant. When they’re talking about boys, either choice results in Chloe rolling her eyes at the idea of even being near a man. Again her “boy toy” phase is most likely related to her own comp het experience of needing to be with a boy because that’s what girls do. Rachel enters Chloe’s life, suddenly everything makes sense to her. She doesn’t like boys, such as Eliot, in the slightest. She likes girls. Chloe says Rachel “rescued her” from boys. Chloe can also say “And way fucking gross. As you’ll soon find out.” Yet, there are still people who will say Chloe is bisexual solely based on her relationship with Eliot or her comments on Jefferson in episode four. You can argue all you want about Max being bi, but Chloe isn’t. She just isn’t. People will flock to that comment that Ashly made about Chloe’s sexuality being fluid, but I don’t accept that. I just don’t. I love Ashly, I love all the work she does from OK KO to Hey Ash Whatcha Playin, but this seems more like a comment made to appease the angry loud minority of fans who hate lesbians and Chloe. People get all up on me for saying Max is a lesbian, calling it bi erasure. However, if I call someone out on lesbian erasure for portraying Chloe as bi or straight, they will bite my head off and call me a biphobe. Nice. The whole scene in the pool just kinda nails in the fact she’s a lesbian. Especially when she says this to Max: “Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to get you all worked up. I just don’t think anybody is good enough for you… besides me.” Already, Chloe is hella crushing on Max. Of course this only gets more obvious when they escape the pool and head to Chloe’s house. While at the house, Max wakes up in bed next to Chloe. And for a small while just stares at the sleeping Chloe before deciding to take a picture of herself next to Chloe, which of course Chloe photobombs. You explore Chloe’s room for new clothes since Max’s smell like chlorine. If you look at Chloe’s phone, her lockscreen is Max. And of course this is furthered by the infamous dare scene. It’s a lesbian panic moment on Chloe, to see if Max is into her based on their conversation the previous night. When Max does kiss her, Chloe pulls away and is stunned. Her suspicions about Max are confirmed, which is just wild to Chloe that it even happened. Chloe is reduced to a stammering mess about it. Of course, they head out to check out Frank’s RV for info about Rachel. This is where most people give their argument for Chloe being a horrible person. Chloe’s meltdown after they find the journal. She is emotionally destroyed after this. Even though she’s beginning to move on from Rachel and towards Max, she is horrified to learn that Rachel was having romantic and sexual encounters with Frank behind her back. We know from the letter in the junkyard that Rachel was aware of Chloe’s feelings for her, but continued these encounters with Frank and Jefferson regardless. This destroys Chloe. This person that she thought was always there for her? She was lying. At least that’s what Chloe’s telling herself. In a way, I do believe Rachel used Chloe for her own ends in leaving town. Over time, Rachel began to care for Chloe, as shown by her conflicting emotions about giving the letter to Chloe, but in the end her own personal needs to leave Arcadia outshone her relationship with Chloe. Chloe couldn’t get her out of Arcadia. Frank couldn’t get her out of Arcadia. They were fun flings while they lasted, but only the rich and powerful Jefferson could pay for her to escape the town and get to California. Again, Chloe’s meltdown is a result of her bpd. She can’t stand the idea that Rachel abandoned and betrayed her trust, because of how highly she conflated Rachel in her head. But she looks to Max, who has so far proven that she won’t leave again. So she takes out her pain on Max. Max knows it’s unfair for Chloe to blame everyone, but Chloe admits that if she blames herself then everything must be her fault. Chloe, in this breakdown moments, sees things in black and white. Either it’s her fault completely or not. Even though Max and Chloe know there is a mix of who is at fault, Chloe in her meltdown state can’t differentiate that. This is made clearly abundant when Max returns from the alt-timeline in episode four. When you check Max’s texts, Chloe is profusely apologizing to Max about her meltdown and admits that it was her fault and it wasn’t fair of her to place it all on Max’s shoulders. Notice how Chloe accepts responsibility for what she did in her meltdown. Compare this to Nathan’s phone message in episode five where he refuses to take responsibility for what he did and blames everyone else. Back to our main argument, Max goes back in time through the photo of her and Chloe that William took. When Chloe admits her life fell apart when William died, Max decides to try and fix it by stopping William from getting in the accident. This of course results in a major butterfly effect which results in Chloe being paralyzed from the neck down. Chloe’s problems are still related to her self worth. In the alternate timeline, Chloe is severely depressed and isolated. She knows her parents love her unconditionally, but she knows she is bleeding them dry because of how much treatment she needs. This is compounded by Chloe overhearing and knowing that she is going to die soon. Even here, in this alternate world where William is alive, Chloe is very much in love with Max. The way Chloe looks at Max when they’re watching Blade Runner… It’s just how Chloe looks at Max in the primary timeline. A lot of people will compare the final choice to the one here. “How can you kill Chloe in the alternate timeline, but you won’t do it at the end of the game? You’re a hypocrite!” You can’t really compare those two choices though. This one has a dying girl, who is in immense pain all the time and has lost her pride and autonomy, along with causing her family more problems than they need. Chloe wants her final moments to be special. The ones she spent with Max. The ones where she was treated like a normal human being again instead of the pity she gets. Max can agree or disagree. Regardless, Max is destroyed by this and changes the timeline back to normal so that Chloe can live. Episode four deals more with the story again. The first thing Max does when she sees Chloe is run to her and hug her so tight that Chloe thinks Max is gonna kiss her again. They finish their investigation, getting the cell phone from Nathan’s room, and getting the book from Frank, who can end up supporting Chloe and Max’s investigation to find Rachel. Because just like Chloe, even though Rachel used him, he still has a love for her. They get to the Dark Room, and of course find the pictures of Rachel. And then Rachel’s body. Chloe is rightfully destroyed and furious about this. Nathan killed her and dumped her body away so he would never be caught. Chloe’s mourning is cut short by her furious anger to find Nathan and make him pay for what he did. Of course, Chloe is then killed by Jefferson and Max is kidnapped for Jefferson’s art. Episode five primarily deals with choices and how in the end, Max will do anything for Chloe. Max is tortured by Jefferson who taunts her about Chloe dying, and how he will get away with it by blaming Nathan for the murders and kidnappings. He then also says he has to kill Max after this as well. As a result of her powers, she is able to flee back into the past to get Jefferson arrested in episode one by tipping David off about who he’s been searching for. As a result the timeline is changed and Max wins the Everyday Heroes contest and goes to California. When she finds the storm has arrived, Max, without hesitation, goes back in time to stop herself from even getting a chance to win the contest. “Sorry, San Francisco… Chloe comes first.” Despite the dangers of ending back up in the Dark Room, she does this. Of course she ends up back in the Dark Room, where Jefferson prepares to kill her. The modified timeline allows David to show up to save her by knocking Jefferson out and freeing Max. Max realizes she needs to use Warren’s photo to rescue Chloe. Again she’s doing all of this for Chloe. She flees to the Two Whales where she gets it and returns to the previous night where she tearfully explains to Chloe everything that has happened. The alternate timelines have permanently damaged Max and hurt her, but those don’t matter because right now she can save Chloe from Jefferson and the storm. Chloe agrees with Max and calms down, altering the timeline once again and leads them to the beach where Chloe tells Max what she missed. The nightmare then happens, which of course plays on Max’s fears and insecurities, which culminates in her and the other Max arguing with each other. The Other Max, created by Warren implanting the seed of doubt into Max’s head, tells Max she is selfish and that Chloe is making a fool of her by manipulating her. Everyone blames Max for everything that happened and is going to happen. The only person who appears to protect and defend Max is Chloe. Then we get the memory lane with all of their memories they made. People saying this game isn’t about Max and Chloe? Pull your head out of your asses now. The song we constantly hear is literally called Max and Chloe. At the end, Max with Chloe by the lighthouse. Max, throughout all of this game, has been willing to do anything, including putting herself in severe danger, if it means saving Chloe. Choosing the sacrifice Chloe option is a slap in the face. It’s like you understood nothing about this game. People, like I said earlier, will flock to their defenses of Chloe being horrible or the trolley problem. No. If you even, for a moment, understood these characters and their motivations, you would know Max would never kill Chloe. Max would sooner die for Chloe as opposed to letting her die. Of course BtS, despite how debatablely canon it is, implies that letting Chloe die results in Max hanging herself. By choosing to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, you complete that journey you made with Max. That Max will do anything for Chloe. And that Chloe was never manipulating Max at all like the nightmare tried to tell Max. They love each other. That’s the point of the game. Their relationship? Their love? It is everything. It is the soul of Life is Strange. By choosing to sacrifice the Bay you are ensuring that Max and Chloe can heal from the pain of what had happened. If you choose the other, Max will be permanently destroyed over not only allowing Chloe to die but also her inability to ever properly cope with everything that happened to her, such as her torture at Jefferson’s hands. In the end, how horrible do you have to be to choose to let Chloe die alone on a bathroom floor unaware that anyone loves or cares about her? All of this based on a hunch from Warren? Yeah.
I hope you enjoyed this rant and analysis about Life is Strange. I love this game. I really do. I could write so much more about this game, but these cover the main points of contention people seem to have with me. This is what I believe the game is about. Max and Chloe. And yes, if you don’t think the game is about them, you’re allowed to have that opinion, but your opinion is wrong. I just ask you all to refrain from personal attacks on me, because over the years I’ve had enough of those. I just wanted to fully articulate my opinions and place them in one post so I don’t have to argue with people anymore about these points of contention. Thank you for reading.
Submitted November 10, 2019 at 10:53PM by ArcadiaBayDemon https://ift.tt/2CvvnML
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