#Especially because a Prophet predicted the groups destruction which failed to come to pass which is pretty unusual in condemnations

[bijoumikhawal]

Then I had a turning point: an encounter woth a rabbi named Paula Reimers who came to speak at Wesleyan. She claimed it was forbidden to imagine God as a mother, because the mother-God would love and forgive us too much. We would have no morality, and we would all become pagans. I knew from my reading that goddesses around the world had severe as well as nurturing attributes. I knew it was wrong to claim that a female God couldn't make laws. I knew it was wrong to say God couldn't appear as a woman. And I knew her dismissive words about religious traditions that revered goddesses were simplistic and bigoted. I was especially angry when [she] waxed eloquent about her personal experience of having God as a male lover. Why couldn't I have God/dess as a female lover?

The Hebrew Priestess pg 5

[meditatemoremedicateless]

The Woman (Before the Storm Theorycrafting)

Credit to @geekremix for lining up elements of the Hopi prophecy with parts of Life is Strange.

 “The Woman” refers to the woman dressed in white who first appeared next to the curved tree in Episode 1 of Life is Strange: Before the Storm. After a brief interlude, Rachel’s father appeared and they made out. Later, at the end of episode 1, the same woman can be seen to have switched positions with Rachel and Chloe from earlier, sitting on top of the hill watching as the tree and surrounding area burn. She is seen smoking, watching calmly and smiling as the fire begins to spread.

The woman’s appearance at the end of episode 1 holds cinematographic significance in two ways. First, the role reversal of voyeur between herself and Chloe and Rachel implies that she is aware of their presence to begin with. Secondly, the way she watches them is reminiscent of the Raven in most scenes with Chloe and Rachel throughout episode 1, watching from an unseen vantage point from the scene’s beginning.

So, who is The Woman? She is blonde, in her late thirties, is connected to the District Attorney, and has a sleeve tattoo on her left forearm. Furthermore, she apparently takes pleasure in watching an old, culturally important tree (and the surrounding area) burn to the ground without any show of surprise or fear. If we give my idea that she is purposefully watching Rachel (and Chloe), then she not only knows about Rachel’s connection to her father but seems to be exploiting it. We do not know, however, if she’s manipulating Rachel to get to her father, or manipulating her father to get to Rachel. Let’s run through these two angles.

Let’s start with the mundane explanation of events so far. First of all, of the new characters introduced so far, one seems to be a big-time criminal, another is the District Attorney, and another is someone having an affair with the District Attorney. If we just want to connect the dots, Damon Merrick may be under threat of some sort by the District Attorney and trying to damage his life in order to keep him and his potential investigations into him away. In Life is Strange, we never knew who supplied Frank’s (incredibly diverse array of) drugs, and if Merrick is running a large-scale drug operation, it may be worthwhile to sabotage the DA’s life – connect him via his daughter to the forest fire, expose his affair, make him appear negligent, and so on. If the Woman is part of this conspiracy, it would explain why she would be aware of Rachel following her, why she stayed to watch the fire start, and, well, explain her role in the story. That being said, it’s a little boring and doesn’t attach her whatsoever to the original game, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

The second explanation coming from me, of course, is that there is some magic shit going on. Prophecy is a well-used element of Life is Strange so far, and there is no reason to assume that only protagonists of Life is Strange have access to these prophetic abilities. However, why would the knowledge of the fire benefit her, and why would she want to devastate the land, most especially a culturally relevant tree?

And here is where I think it is time to take it back to the Hopi Prophecy hinted at in Episode 3 of Life is Strange. In the bathroom of the Two Whales, the following is graffiti’d on the wall.

“The 7th sign: The sea and sky Will turn black And living things Die because of it”

This mirrors the wording of the Hopi Prophecy, which includes both a reclamation of Hopi land from white settler-colonists as well as an ongoing clause – that damage inflicted upon Hopi land would be inflicted upon the world. In addition, there are two times in Life is Strange and Before the Storm that culturally relevant or sacred land is referenced on behalf of the indigenous tribe, the Salishan: once by the placard overlooking the White tree, and once in the paper found in episode 3, referring to protests over the creation of Pan Estates.

Now, I take immediate issue with relying on the Hopi prophecy. First of all, Northwestern Oregon is clearly not the indigenous land of the Hopi. Secondly, the tribe of this area is explicitly named and is not the Hopi. First Nation peoples are not interchangeable and, honestly, the random inclusion of Native beliefs essentially just for the aesthetics of it felt like a step up from the racism of exclusion that permeated the first game. However, Before the Storm is only doubling down on Native symbolism, so either they’ve made an effort to make the game less racist or they’re doubling down on their racism, too. Either way, I feel they’ve long passed the number of references without it being significant, so I’m going to, for the sake of this theory, pretend that the Hopi Prophecy is intended to function as-stated for the Salishan. Most other traits don’t seem to be directly ripped from one specific tribe, and the Hopi prophecy was included before the current writing staff was in charge of the project, so, for now, I’m not going to put the burden of that on them – just keep in mind that the Hopi people are a real people and that both my, and Deck 9 Games’s, interpretations are not what is actually intended within the Hopi Prophecy.

For more on the Hopi Prophecy from Life is Strange, Click Here for a video by Mari from Geek Remix.

So, back to Before the Storm. Assuming that the two sites – the park that Chloe and Rachel go to in Episode 1 and Pan Estates from the original Life is Strange – are land protected under the prophecy, their destruction should lead to destruction towards those who caused it. As such, the Woman may have been intentionally trying to destroy the tree, and potentially the land of future Pan Estates, in attempt to redirect the prophecy’s retribution away from herself while still destroying the land. But who benefits from destroying sacred land?

Well, we already know who. The Prescott foundation is directly in charge of the Pan Estates real estate project that is underway in 2013 to the north of Arcadia Bay, which is where the wild fire breaks out. While the wild fire begins in a state park, it may easily spread to the surrounding areas, which the Prescotts could purchase following the destruction. You can read more about why I think the Prescotts would choose this approach Here, in my essay on the Raven.

That would imply, of course, that the Woman is a Prescott, or at least connected to the Prescotts. Of course, as a middle-aged woman with blonde hair and at least the appearance of money, that fits. Honestly, the biggest detail that makes me doubt it is the tattoo sleeve – it just doesn’t fit the appearance that the Prescotts clearly try to present. But who else really stands to benefit other than the Prescotts?

Sadly, I don’t have an answer to that one. Disappointing, I know, but the cast of people who may want to destroy the land and bring destruction to Arcadia Bay is seriously limited. Even if the Woman failed to predict the storm’s arrival in 2013 (more on this in a later essay), I still can’t imagine how she would benefit. No other group has shown a desire to end the magical nature of Arcadia Bay, or even to know about it (the only indication that the Prescotts do, after all, comes from deleted lines datamined from the first game).

And that’s it. That’s all I have on the Woman so far. Admittedly, there’s not a lot to go on. Sorry for the anti-climax, this was more about bringing up old theories to speed with the woman included.

Next up I’ll be discussing the spirits of Arcadia Bay, or the explicitly magical elements included in both games.

 PS My partner thinks she’s a witch.