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chicks DIG the undercut.

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📷🦋 ~

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The LIS endings aren’t nullifying your choices

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard regarding the story of the first LIS game ever since it came out is that both Bae and Bay endings nullify the choices the player made and therefore basically render the whole point/appeal of the game obsolete.

I’ve been thinking about it lately though, and I disagree.

While it’s true that the game could’ve given more weight to certain choices rather than creating an illusion of importance, I don’t think the endings are an issue here or undermine the message of the game. If anything I think they support it.

I think we can all agree that the main message of the first LIS game is, among other things, growing as a person, taking responsibility for your actions, facing your issues head on and moving on. While many people don’t make it sound like it, I believe that both endings embody that in their own way, it just depends what kind of Max you play/become. But I’m talking about the storm and final choice presented themselves. In a game where at the end you must choose between rewinding all the way back to the beginning and not commit the first action which kicks off the story and letting a tornado tear down an entire town filled with people you went through hell and back to help or save, it’s evident how someone can feel like the game about choices and consequences is being hypocritical.

But do your choices truly not matter with the storm?

More under the cut

Afterall, whatever Max chooses doesn’t change the fact that the things that happened…. Happened. Even in the rewind ending. Because either way all of those choices, interactions and experiences changed Max as a person and taught her important lessons. The choice you make by the end is still informed by those things and not made in a vacuum. And just that is enough to show that the choices you made in LIS continue to matter. But I can find other reasons too.

In the Bae ending, Max keeps her relationship with Chloe (no we don’t talk about Double Exposure in this household I have my grievances with it) which is really the thing she traded the town for. Chloe also experienced what Max did and witnessed her choices and their consequences, so that alone means that whatever you did in that game still had an impact even with the town reduced to nothing. Furthermore, in LIS 2 it’s basically confirmed that there were survivors with David’s cameo. In fact, he’s someone who was impacted by Max’s choices in one way or another.

As for Bay, you’d think that following the logic I just explained, the opposite is true for this ending. Nobody remembers anything Max did before her big rewind, hell, Chloe doesn’t even get to *meet* her. And yet, through the montage of pictures we can see what Max’s adventure changed in this timeline, namely Mark and Nathan being brought to justice, which is pretty big considering that in the other ending it’s not really as black and white. Max was probably able to help Kate more in this ending as well.

At the end of the day, whatever choice you make, it remains aligned with Max’s development which centres around responsibility and moving on, accepting consequences of choices and learning to live with them. In both endings Max lives with her choices, no matter how bitter the outcomes are. She probably wouldn’t have been able to do that without the events of the game.

While I can see why some people feel betrayed or tricked by the game, or like the endings were cheap cop outs, I believe that it gets us to reflect on what makes a choice or action “meaningful”. Honestly, and maybe this is a tad pretentious, but I feel like we could compare these endings/the storm to death itself. We all die eventually, including everyone we’ve ever known, and very few of us are politicians, celebrities, or anything of the sort so we’ll be forgotten a lot quicker and probably won’t have a huge impact on the world in the grand scheme of things. That’s where the question “What is life’s meaning?” comes from, no? But despite this, does it really mean that our choices and experiences just don’t matter? Was our time here a waste? Is this some big paradox of the human experience?

I believe that with Max’s story, we’re (maybe unintentionally) driven to ponder these questions. Which is fitting for a game called Life Is Strange.

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It was bad enough that Deck Nine broke up Pricefield (in a particularly shitty and vindictive way, might I add), but they had to go and throw Chaseprice into the crossfire too with that ship teasing.

I seriously hope this doesn't spark a ship war, because I doubt anybody on either side wanted this.

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Just saw the DE pricefield leaks..... Not to be one of those people but I am suddenly no longer a bae fan....

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I wonder if Jefferson felt those similarities between the two girls. I wonder if Rachel and Max being so similar (yet so different) played a role in Jefferson picking Max as a next victim after what happened to Rachel (ignoring that Max's optimistic heroic nature factoring in as well as he explained).

Did he see Rachel again when he was taking pictures of Max?.... They both were so furious.

Thinking about how similar yet how different Max and Rachel are...

Rachel is obviously destructive and impulsive in some ways, whether it's intentional or not, but so is Max! She does fix things a lot in the game, or at least tries to, but there are various occasions where she can act upon destructive desires mainly thanks to her newfound powers. For example, she immediately decides to blow up the doorknob to the principal's office when she can't find a key with Chloe and the latter can't pick the lock open. She can also spill Frank's beans onto the ground unprovoked. These are minor examples, but the greatest one of course is the Bae>Bay ending where she quite literally lets a tornado swallow up her entire childhood town to keep her best friend (girlfriend?) from dying. Her very powers are associated with the chaos theory. She says herself in her dream: "You're a goddam hypocrite. You've left a trail of death and suffering behind you.". She also says later in the game: "I can't keep fixing everything, if all I'm gonna do is just break it, over and over again!" Sure, this is her low self esteem and slight self loathing talking (as well as her having a normal reaction to the awful situation she's been put into), but the words have some merit if you look into them. Her powers, seemingly designed to fix things, seem to just make everything worse or break something else instead.

More under cut.

Meanwhile, Rachel turns a small, controlled burning of a picture into a forest fire. She spikes Victoria's drink on one occasion to keep her role in a play. She throws a bottle near Chloe in a junkyard in anger. She develops a self destructive drug usage habit. I'd argue her relationship with dangerous, older men is self destructive. Her difficulty with communication adds a chaotic element to her and Chloe's relationship (even though she's by far not the only guilty party involved). She breaks a table when her pent up anger towards her father escapes containment. She's associated with fire and the storm. There's obviously nuance to her actions, which is why I mentioned them being intentional or not at the start, but it doesn't erase their destructive or impulsive nature.

Now, I use the terms "destructive" and "impulsive" loosely here. And obviously, most of the examples I provided for Rachel are a lot more extreme than the ones I provided for Max, but I still think I got my point across. They both cause chaos, destruction, and disharmony around them, mostly guided by their feelings and what they consider to be "right" or "wrong", "deserved", "necessary", etc. And if the theory about Rachel being the one to grant Max her powers is true, then destruction links them together even more.

Furthermore, they're both young women onto whom destiny shoves great burdens and seems to play painfully ironic games with: Rachel must maintain her perfect appearance despite her unstable and crumbling sense of identity and freedom and the sudden revelation of her family's past, and she ends up an aspiring model dying horribly in a dark room; Max unlocks super powers out of the blue one day and tried to do good with them, but as she figures them out she ties them (and by consequence, herself) to a deadly approaching tornado without mentioning the extremely traumatic events she goes through in a matter of a week, and ends up having to decide whether to sacrifice an entire town or her closest friend.

And most importantly of all: they are both trapped by or in Arcadia Bay, albeit in differing ways. Rachel's case is more obvious: she's literally, physically trapped due to her family's unwillingness to move and her inability to leave alone, which is especially suffocating for her free spirit, and she's also metaphorically trapped by heavy expectations from everyone around her, feeling like she has no room to define herself.... herself. She's buried in the town's junkyard after years of dreaming of freedom. Max physically leaves/"escapes" Arcadia Bay as a child with her move (though she didn't especially want to), and does go back voluntarily, but is almost immediately chained to the very fate of the place and its people out of nowhere. I'd also argue that her past with Chloe and the guilt she feels because of it also traps a part of her in Arcadia for a long time. And after the ending, no matter what she chooses, Arcadia Bay will never let her go for the rest of her life.

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Dressed as Max Caulfield in Rachel’s clothes, or Rachel Amber herself depending on how you look at it lol. Saw a girl dressed as Max Caulfield at school today! :D

Gonna try eating waffles at some point today and replay the first game. :3

Happy Life Is Strange Day, for those who celebrate 🦋

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Happy Life Is Strange Day, for those who celebrate 🦋

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Thinking about how similar yet how different Max and Rachel are...

Rachel is obviously destructive and impulsive in some ways, whether it's intentional or not, but so is Max! She does fix things a lot in the game, or at least tries to, but there are various occasions where she can act upon destructive desires mainly thanks to her newfound powers. For example, she immediately decides to blow up the doorknob to the principal's office when she can't find a key with Chloe and the latter can't pick the lock open. She can also spill Frank's beans onto the ground unprovoked. These are minor examples, but the greatest one of course is the Bae>Bay ending where she quite literally lets a tornado swallow up her entire childhood town to keep her best friend (girlfriend?) from dying. Her very powers are associated with the chaos theory. She says herself in her dream: "You're a goddam hypocrite. You've left a trail of death and suffering behind you.". She also says later in the game: "I can't keep fixing everything, if all I'm gonna do is just break it, over and over again!" Sure, this is her low self esteem and slight self loathing talking (as well as her having a normal reaction to the awful situation she's been put into), but the words have some merit if you look into them. Her powers, seemingly designed to fix things, seem to just make everything worse or break something else instead.

More under cut.

Meanwhile, Rachel turns a small, controlled burning of a picture into a forest fire. She spikes Victoria's drink on one occasion to keep her role in a play. She throws a bottle near Chloe in a junkyard in anger. She develops a self destructive drug usage habit. I'd argue her relationship with dangerous, older men is self destructive. Her difficulty with communication adds a chaotic element to her and Chloe's relationship (even though she's by far not the only guilty party involved). She breaks a table when her pent up anger towards her father escapes containment. She's associated with fire and the storm. There's obviously nuance to her actions, which is why I mentioned them being intentional or not at the start, but it doesn't erase their destructive or impulsive nature.

Now, I use the terms "destructive" and "impulsive" loosely here. And obviously, most of the examples I provided for Rachel are a lot more extreme than the ones I provided for Max, but I still think I got my point across. They both cause chaos, destruction, and disharmony around them, mostly guided by their feelings and what they consider to be "right" or "wrong", "deserved", "necessary", etc. And if the theory about Rachel being the one to grant Max her powers is true, then destruction links them together even more.

Furthermore, they're both young women onto whom destiny shoves great burdens and seems to play painfully ironic games with: Rachel must maintain her perfect appearance despite her unstable and crumbling sense of identity and freedom and the sudden revelation of her family's past, and she ends up an aspiring model dying horribly in a dark room; Max unlocks super powers out of the blue one day and tried to do good with them, but as she figures them out she ties them (and by consequence, herself) to a deadly approaching tornado without mentioning the extremely traumatic events she goes through in a matter of a week, and ends up having to decide whether to sacrifice an entire town or her closest friend.

And most importantly of all: they are both trapped by or in Arcadia Bay, albeit in differing ways. Rachel's case is more obvious: she's literally, physically trapped due to her family's unwillingness to move and her inability to leave alone, which is especially suffocating for her free spirit, and she's also metaphorically trapped by heavy expectations from everyone around her, feeling like she has no room to define herself.... herself. She's buried in the town's junkyard after years of dreaming of freedom. Max physically leaves/"escapes" Arcadia Bay as a child with her move (though she didn't especially want to), and does go back voluntarily, but is almost immediately chained to the very fate of the place and its people out of nowhere. I'd also argue that her past with Chloe and the guilt she feels because of it also traps a part of her in Arcadia for a long time. And after the ending, no matter what she chooses, Arcadia Bay will never let her go for the rest of her life.

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Hello, Tumblr.com!

Finally decided to make a side blog dedicated to one of my favourite games of all time!! So... hi!

This is a side blog where I'll mainly be posting my thoughts and analyses of LIS, primarily the 1st game but also the prequel BTS as I believe you can't fully analyse the former without the latter. I have many thoughts and ramble a lot ™ so expect fairly text posts.

I'd love to receive asks to engage with fellow fans or have writing prompts, so don't be shy about sending me something :]

Now for some extra (still relevant) info for anyone interested:

𖦹About me𖦹

Call me by my username, an abbreviation of it, or anything you'd like tbh

Lesbian from France, Ukraine, Tunisia and the UK

I've been obsessed with LIS 1 since it came out in 2015

My favourite character is Max Caulfield <3

Currently mainly studying Economics and Mathematics (but deep down an English Literature fan)

𖦹Useful info𖦹

Pricefield has always been the OTP for me, but I'm also a multishipper and can respect/see the appeal in ships I'm not interested in

Bae>Bay fan, but love both endings regardless

I have barely any sympathy for Nathan. I think he's a great character, but otherwise I'm a hater lol

Complicated feelings about BTS and Rachel Amber (mainly execution)

I think Warren is a bit creepy, but ultimately a good friend and decent dude

Double Exposure hater till I die

I will occasionally reblog LIS art and such, but otherwise will try to keep this blog focused on rambles :}