Life is Strange Before the Storm: 5 Reasons Max is the Actual Worst in LiS Farewell (Spoilers)

SPOILER-CHAT: Does Max let Chloe down in Life is Strange Before the Storm? Jane and Luke have played the final Farewell chapter, which casts new light on Max and Chloe's friendship. Jane's got little sympathy for Max's behaviour, but Luke is more forgiving. Where do you stand? Let us know in the comments and subscribe for more!
---
Outside Xtra is a companion channel to Outside Xbox, covering the wider world of gaming with weekly lists, Let's Plays and shows with your hosts Ellen and Luke. Look for regular appearances by OG Outside Xboxers Andy, Jane and Mike, and generally more of the videos you love, about more of the platforms you enjoy, from a team now two people larger overall.
Thanks for watching and be excellent to each other in the comments.
Find us at www.outsidextra...
Subscribe to us at / outsidextra
Like us on Facebook at / outsidextra
Follow us on Twitter at / outsidextra
Put a t-shirt on your body www.outsidexbox...

[@outsidextra]

With the Farewell episode shining new light on the events of Life is Strange Before the Storm, Jane's got little sympathy for Max's behaviour! Luke's feeling more forgiving, but where do you stand? Let us know your Life is Strange thoughts, reactions and theories in the comments, and enjoy!

[@jaketheauroran]

Outside Xtra Jane having little sympathy for someone? I don't believe it!

[@nashdiy8570]

Jane is right. That and I don't want to become one of her experiments. I saw what she did to Tom Hardy. Symbiote my ass.

[@mortymer001]

im not that bad guys even if I dont tell my friends im moving

[@steevenramos1746]

See this is why we Andy is a necessity. If anyone by the end of this video gets drowned by the feels I strongly urge you to watch the let's play in the notification bar. Not only did it bring me back down to earth, it also has a beautiful rendition of well known hit song Fireflies by owl city. Anywho I'm off to drown in my sorrows 🙃🙃

[@RuefulCenturion]

I absolutely hated Max since the first game. What kind of friend are you if you don't put in any effort trying to stay in contact with them?! So yeah, Max totally owed Chloe and should save her life to make up for it. Clearly she was given that power for that reason.

[@antzgreen]

I can't believe the audacity of Max's parents who were in the car at the funeral blasting Vengabus when waiting for Max to hop in already so they can leave. If only they heard of Prof Oak's wise words "There is a time and place for everything, but not now"

[@ChairyCrasher]

Max's parents are the WORST.

[@HiringHamblin]

antzgreen your imagining of Max's awful parents blasting Vengabus at a funeral inspired me to make it a reality. I am informing you so that I need not bear the shame alone. I am sorry. I think this may be some sort of crime... kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2anfISro7d-btU

[@antzgreen]

Hamblin Approved omfg lmao I am crying

[@ptonpc]

Works for me

[@timmyteaches7663]

antzgreen I've never heard Oak say that... all I've heard him say is "you can't use that here"

[@adam.j8149]

"After Max got in the car" Max: Can we just stay for awhile, dad? Max's dad: close your heart to their desperation close your heart to their suffering.

[@Rodrigo-ei4ht]

He does rock the beard as well. Hmmmmm. This comment is too funny tho. I keep hearing Kratos' voice.

[@gundamheavyarms4879]

Kratos would've let her stay for a bit to console her friend. Then again, Max never would've made it to her teens due to Ares....

[@Struggler-One]

LMAO

[@Struggler-One]

If Max's real dad was Kratos, that would explain her powers lol

[@Yefan275]

Such a good game

[@calzonexiv]

So the ONLY thing I can think of as a defense for why Max never stays in touch is something Luke touches on previously: her parents. If her parents didn't like her being friends with Chloe, And if they were more well off financially, it's POSSIBLE that they simply swamped her with clubs and art classes and anything else to keep her distracted. And being a passive teen, it's feasible that she just focused on what was being put in front of her; out of sight out of mind sort of thing.

[@calzonexiv]

I'm just thinking theoretically here, based on what they've presented as her personality in all the games. Essentially, she's a pushover. There's a lot of possibilities if we're honest here. Maybe they all hold water. I'll just list the three that come to mind the most. 1.) The theory I mentioned above, becoming overwhelmed with things being thrown onto her by her parents and simply losing track over time. 2) Given her unhealthy desire to avoid conflict and the fact that she tends to internalize a lot, she felt like she was a terrible friend for having to leave Chloe when she was needed most, and so avoided her because she couldn't deal. This could also be tied in with the first theory; her parents pushed for her to do a bunch of things in an attempt to get her an edge later on (while also hoping it will keep her distracted enough to stop being friends with Chloe) and she willingly used it as a crutch to avoid her inner issues. This also would help explain the storm in the main game; this has been brewing since she was 13 years old. It would also explain why it was that specific day she goes back to; in her mind his death was the catalyst that caused their demise aka if he didn't die, Chloe wouldn't feel so betrayed and Max wouldn't have felt such immense guilt and shame for having to leave right after the funeral. 3) We could take the two above and if we were to assume Luke is correct that the parents felt Chloe was not a good influence and wanted Max to sever that friendship, it's not outside the realm of possibility that her parents thought they were doing a good job at breaking up the friendship, but then saw the texts from her and utilized threatening to put the nail in the coffin so to speak. This would explain why she never replies again after that "max" text left by Chloe, and also ties into Max's internalizing and feelings of intense shame and guilt over Chloe. Not only did she leave when she was needed most, but she couldn't stand up to her parents and allowed them to sever their connection, making her feel weak and useless. This too would add fuel to the storm, and explain why she avoids Chloe and her mom for the first month.

[@nicholaswhite8418]

I actually got the impression that Max just didn't want to stay in touch, and that is actually a perfectly fine thing to do. But I recon, Max just didn't want to stay in touch, the effort in doing so and never being able to see each other really takes it's toll, as I know from experiences. Max also clearly by certain decisions made in the first game that she liked having other friends. In Seatle because it is obviously a massive city she was able to make a larger group of friends. She mentions 2 of the people she was friends with in episode 1 in LIS if you examine a photo in her room. She isn't however, keeping in touch with them either. I recon she is just independent, she drifted apart from Chloe and unfortuntely that is just how she is. She came to Blackwell to study photography not to see Chloe, if she didn't work her ass off to get the scholarship she wouldn't have even gone. She only reunites with Chloe because she saves her life. The game forces her to relive her best moments with her friend, but also forces Max to feel guilty about it. She is not responsible for anything, I actually admire her, sometimes you have to move on with your life and that is fine.

[@Maizefire]

I believe your theory especially after reading the text messages between Chloe and Max after Max left I remember correctly Max stated that she was really busy with school and she's just not having time for herself at all

[@pathetic2399]

After a while, it would still be on Max, though. It was her responsibility to stay in touch with Chloe, even if it were through emails or text messages,

[@yonicorn1641]

@@calzonexiv I always thought Max avoided Chloe and Joyce for the first month because of "I dont know what to say" or "Im gonna meet them tomorrow" and eventually postponing it forever. I like the theory about the storm and it makes more sense than Chloe being alive is what causes the storm. Also I too feel like Max's parents signed her for all these clubs and activities because either a) they wanted her distracted from Chloe or b) she felt very bad and sad for not supporting Chloe in her time of mourning and loss and they wanted to cheer up Max by distracting her with clubs and classes and art shows, baseball games /she has a photo of her and her dad going to a baseball game/ and stuff, but eventually that resulted in her being too focused on that and either trying to postpone answering to Chloe's calls/texts or actually being very busy and forgetting she has texts from Chloe.

[@fatumamamamamama]

Wanna know who's really the actual worst?? The writers. I thought the game was called Life is Strange not Life is a Series of Horrible and Tragic Events that Happen to Chloe Price Specifically >:(

[@nashdiy8570]

AGREED

[@PatrickLongblkwhtrbbt]

Don't read Lemony Snicket

[@rdarkstorm8414]

I never like or reply to KZbin comments, but yours was so amazing I had to do both. Just thought you should know that

[@cliftonl.2353]

Aldo Frakulla Yeah and "series of unfortunate events" was already taken.

[@aritw5726]

Nobbie lol

[@Safiyahalishah]

I'm not going to support Max, but I can describe the mind of a flaky friend, being one myself. My mum took me out of school when I was twelve and I left my best friend behind. I hate phone calls and text messages and wanted to send emails instead. She started sending me very short emails and would reply to long ones with few words or 'play [some online game for infants] with me!'. We had had a purely face-to-face relationship before this. As a kid, that transition just isn't right. It wasn't her if I couldn't run around the garden with her, playing games, seeing her face, hearing her voice. The words were so empty. It didn't help that she was absolutely terrible at expressing herself in text. We visited each other a few times, but eventually I didn't want to see her or talk to her anymore. She was making new friends, developing new interests, turning into someone else. It was painful to have little part in that evolution. She occasionally sent me short messages, trying to pull me back by the scruff of our shared childhood, but I didn't want to know who she'd become without me. Making friends as an adult is different. Adults are more hard-coded; they won't change too much if you leave them for a few years. But fall out of touch with a twelve-year-old for just a few months and they're someone else when you see them again. Two children separated will no longer be a part of one another's development, so each time they meet again, they'll see the piece of their friend they helped create through shared experiences grow smaller and smaller, until all they see is the stranger created in their absence.

[@Rodrigo-ei4ht]

T-T I get that. The feels. But it is strange trying to connect with someone who you thought you knew only to find out they changed while you were away. And it makes you feel bad because you weren't there to see the change. You feel like you don't belong and are a stranger trying to intrude on someone's life.... And you just want to avoid them.

[@Reicha]

I had a similar experience, though the flakey friend left me and she was so terrible in text that it hurt us both trying to communicate. We did keep seeing each other (I knew her since she was born, she was almost family), but it always hurt me to see how she'd grown without me. I was older so I felt like I had failed her, and just watching the downward spiral with her terrible new friends was too awful. It still pains me. Because I still miss who she used to be. Someone who is essentially dead and buried, there's another person in my friend's skin. Sorry for the sap, your comment just brought all these feelings up. (edited because my pad is terrible at weird formatting errors)

[@Apuyina]

yeah, I also moved out when I was 12, my best friend stayed kinda the same (it was a small town) and I got more depressed and edgy ahaha

[@LegendarySpaceRipper]

Same. I'm like that but what can you do?

[@DCamp1271]

Thelving the Wing Very beautiful way of expressing that.

[@rashkavar]

Here's a point regarding Max's passivity: a good part of how someone that age behaves is down to parenting. Given all you've said about Max's parents, it sounds like they'd have raised her to be non-confrontational. It tends to backfire in the long run, but a lot of parents on this side of the Atlantic raise their kids with strict enforcement of rules, which leads to them being very obedient and passive until they hit that late puberty rebellious phase, then they go to the deep end of that rebel phase. Chloe, on the other hand, sounds like she has excellent parents who are actually doing their best to raise her to be an actual adult. Of course, the double whammy of the death of her father and the abandonment of her best friend kinda throws that off course.

[@Reicha]

rashkavar I like you. This is sound reasoning about parenting and the pitfalls of the "no because I said so" easy parenting, that only (best case scenario) creates well-behaved kids - not functioning, self thinking adults with developed critical thinking. I rarely see this, especially online or from someone from the US. (Edit to clarify I don't mean to criticise US parents. Parenting isn't easy, nor does it have one size fits all strategy. I just rarely see this particular view represented.)

[@rashkavar]

(I'm actually Canadian, thus the more continental generalization.)

[@LegendarySpaceRipper]

Never expect much from Amerika, land of guns warmongering.

[@TeAmoConTodoMiAlma]

Reicha I agree with you.

[@seg162]

"kinda"

[@AlphaOrion98]

Do you know what else sucks? Depending on your decision at the end of the main game, the audiotape is the last time Chloe hears Max’s voice. I apologize for pointing this out

[@TeAmoConTodoMiAlma]

James Chamblee Until she comes back

[@Maria29G]

If you pick the Save Arcadia Bay option you revert to when Nathan shot Chloe and then let her die. Since they only met again after that encounter, not having Chloe survive it means that Chloe never got to see Max again

[@WarriorAuranae]

Actually thank you for pointing this out, I think it's a very important detail for the story

[@ThreeNugsTall]

WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?! 😭😭😭 (but really, my angsty heart thanks you)

[@212Assain]

Jesus fuck

[@midnight8341]

When I moved after graduation to go to university, my best friend was also pretty bad at keeping in touch with me. But all the time, she firstly forgot to reply to my text and then, after some days had passed, she would look at them and feel guilty. And then she got scared that I would be mad at her for not replying, but I was just so sad, that she didn't reply. And it took me about five weeks of constant no-reply texts to convince her that I just wanted to hear from her. And when she finally replied, she was so despaired that she would constantly start crying while she was apologizing over and over again. But now (3 1/2 years later), we're just as close as ever. What I wanted to say: I can understand Max a little bit...

[@PenelopeNele]

That's so nice to hear! In my case it was exactly like yours just that we ignored each other for like 4 years before we met up, and then we realized we grew too much apart and just ended it all.

[@nineinchthread]

@@PenelopeNele that might be me and my friend since 5th grade I hope not but it seems like at this point..

[@chug4083]

Wondering why Luke didnt mention Max's major anxiety issues, she isnt just 'flaky', and Im guessing neither of them have drifted away from friends...its quite scary just how easy it is, even with your 'best friend', thorw in a crapload of guilt over William and you have got a whole load of reasons why Max didnt stay in contact

[@illusionofquality979]

Yeah. I reallllly don't like Max but she wouldn't feel guilty in the least if she was just a flaky friend. She was an awkward kid and didn't grow up fast enough.

[@Aishwarya_Iyerrr]

My best friend moved away and it's honestly the worst thing that can happen to anybody

[@deniz.a6304]

@@illusionofquality979 Why don't you like her?

[@connordillivan452]

“She is a victim of inertia” is a really, really good line.

[@Safiyahalishah]

I agree, that was a brilliant way to describe her whole personality.

[@myrrhfortheroad]

Agreed!!

[@pageturner72]

More like Max *is* inertia and the rest of the world is gravity "An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by another force" Max is the object in motion, or the inertia, and the rest of the world is the force, or the gravity, that is pulling her down.

[@LegendarySpaceRipper]

I like the word 'Inertia'. I first discovered from the The Flash comics since there is a villain named Inertia.

[@val7885]

It is a brilliant line. And the sentiment it expresses is part of why I love save Chloe ending.

[@andymcp4752]

As someone who's been a super flakey friend in the past this episode and the texts held up a super uncomfortable mirror for me. I would argue though that Max's life in Seattle wouldnt have been good for a long time and she wouldve had a crazy amount of guilt for leaving when she did, probably so much so that a cleaner cut from Chloe was the only way she could set up her own life there. It sucks and life was really laying it on Chloe in a big way, but Max was also going through a big change and had to think about herself at some point. Either way these chats videos are great!

[@thatmoorefella4625]

Just wanted to say, right there with you. These games made me really address some of my own flakiness, and figure out what I've done wrong in the past with friends. Sometimes it was understandable, sometimes it was definitely my own fault, but either way it was always complicated. Lovely chat though guys, you're brilliant :)

[@marhawkman303]

Yeah, I don't play games like this BECAUSE it reminds me of many painful memories.

[@LegendarySpaceRipper]

Same. Surviving whilst watching others struggle and eventually fall.

[@imcute598]

i just realized i've been a really bad friend to one of my friends who moved away for a few years and came back and is trying to contact me again, but im like super flakey... god i suck

[@Tina_95]

Yeah I'm in the same boat. It's funny to play these games so far apart because I played the original and I felt like I related to much to Max and it realized I can be such a flakey friend in some aspects. It's been interesting to Before the Storm now and realize that over the past like couple of years I've become less like Max and more like Chloe in how I treat my friends now. Honestly these games are the most personal games I have ever played and it's interesting to see that they've really opened my eyes to some of my own faults.

[@brocksisson7128]

It can't be repeated or overstated enough The events surrounding the funeral are completely beyond the control of Max, her parents essentially shove her into that car and drive off. Yes Chloe is grieving and Max is flaky but how quickly we forget that she's struggling with her own guilt and desperately trying to fit into a new city while feeling horrible for having no say in abandoning her friend. LiS proves how much Max loves Chloe and would do anything for her #BaeOverBay

[@zanshi8693]

Part of loving someone is learning to let them go if/when the time comes. That's why I don't think sacrificing Chloe was wrong. She was meant to die, but Chloe's spirit (the butterfly) gave Max the power to have some closure (and Chloe, too, because they find Rachel's body), which Max never would have had if not for the rewind power granted to her.

[@sandudelcea6707]

​@@zanshi8693 no your wrong

[@sanfransiscon]

I dunno, a lot of Max's actions are really relatable for me. That feeling that anything you try to do could make it worse so it's best to just leave it all alone.

[@nineinchthread]

I know this is 3 years later but I understand I did that with apologizing to someone a little bit later because I didn't wanna make it worst but guessing I did tho I don't think it would of matter anyway

[@bishielurfer]

I do agree with Luke's theory. Even in LiS, I interpreted Max and her parents' relationship as being somewhat...off, I guess? They seem to communicate their affection more through money and material gifts (we definitely know they're well off as they can afford to pay for a boarding school in a different state, they send Max pretty substantial amounts of money and there's references to them doing things that would require some extra spending money, like attending events). And while it may just be due to the mechanics of the game, the happy birthday messages and responses to some of the events that happen at the school seem like they should have been phone calls, or at least not quite as detached as they seemed to come across. I don't think they're bad parents per se, but they also don't seem as warm as Chloe's mother and don't seem to be as good at expressing emotion. Perhaps this is why Chloe's mom seems so forgiving of Max's prolonged absence - she may be more understanding of Max's behavior because she understands where it comes from because she knows Max's parents. And Chloe are Max are very different people from very different homes. Even if Chloe's mom were the type to not immediately suggest Chloe staying with Max after the funeral, Chloe is shown even at the younger age to have no problem going against her parents. She's not out getting into a bunch of trouble but, you're right, you see that rebellious streak in her. Running away or something similar is the kind of thing she'd do. But Max isn't like that. I'm not sure we ever see her defy her parents. Especially at a young age like 13, the idea of going against your parents and getting into trouble with them can be terrifying. Her passisitivity is an issue, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a 13 year old to be afraid of going against their parents or running away from home. I do think Max feels a lot of guilt for what she did. She recognizes it was messed up, and I think there's something to be said for the idea that Max just doesn't know how she can fix it. As least as I saw it, she seemed somewhat amazed that Chloe wouldn't hate her. Honestly I almost think part of Max hates Max. She's a very well done character. She's very real and human. She's not perfect, and she made a lot of mistakes, but I also don't think she's a bad person and she definitely shows a lot of growth by the end of LiS (which sort of lends additional credence to the idea that her parents' influence is part of why she acts the way she does - once she's away from them, she steps up to the plate and becomes more bold).

[@zanshi8693]

Max's "evil" self in her nightmares is her guilt and her self-loathing. Max was happy to be with Chloe again, and her guilt was trying to rob her of that happiness. That's what anxiety and depression do. I would know.

[@sovashchetty4838]

Max treats Chloe like Schrödinger's friend. If I can't see her she is both a blue haired goth and a well adjusted teen.

[@michaldanek7734]

You can be both! I mean, just look at Ellen.

[@popsicko6493]

Jessie Is Spontaneous *punk

[@popsicko6493]

Jessie Is Spontaneous I say that because she has been called/called herself punk

[@RabbitsInBlack]

What is wrong with both blue haired goth and well-adjusted teen?

[@slimkt]

Flower Child Jessika I mean, technically punk was supposed to be more of an attitude (specifically, an IDGAF attitude, which Chloe definitely has) rather than a 'style' like it's seen now. Even still, I could see Chloe being classified as a punk; DIY designed, ripped shirts, bright colored hair, tattoos, listens to some punk music, and is a bit of a wild child. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@MmeCShadow]

I have a good reason for sacrificing Chloe: *she tells you to*. Life is Strange is a secondhand character study of Chloe Price; Max is a cipher (rather, a camera lens) through which the audience watches Chloe's struggles and growth as a person. Max herself is actually not a particularly great person-- her own nightmare version of herself calls her out on using her time-manipulation powers for selfish purposes, and the ultimate selfish purpose is for her to eschew her powers and sacrifice Arcadia Bay for Chloe-- more accurately, sacrifice Arcadia Bay *for herself*. Because it's absolutely not what Chloe wants. Chloe at that point has become a stronger, more mature person who recognizes her own selfishness and laments her callous treatment of the town and especially her step-father. She's gone from ambivalence and loathing of herself and her circumstances and the town around her to acceptance and forgiveness, or them and of herself. During the storm she's crying for Max to not let everybody else die. At that moment Chloe has found her peace and is willing to sacrifice herself to save people she's come to realize deserve much better than she's given them, and while the Save Chloe ending is pretty brief her expression and body language reads to me that she's not happy with the decision (which Max made *for her*, completely denying her agency and redemption). I've seen people say 'I like to think Max and Chloe went off to Seattle and had awesome adventures!' but what kind of person do you think Chloe really is if she can just accept that she's only alive because somebody else (again, against her wishes) let an entire town die? She's a different person from the callous, self-absorbed dropout we met at the start of the game, and while maybe that Chloe would say 'fuck 'em' I don't think the Chloe we see at the lighthouse would be able to live with what had been done-- not happily, at least. (And if we take the universal inevitability of her death to its logical extreme, rather than assuming the death of Arcadia Bay is some kind of karmic price for Chloe's life, I see a rather dark epilogue in their future.) The decisions between 'sacrifice Chloe' and 'sacrifice Arcadia Bay' honestly seems like a non-question to me in light of Chloe's request, and even more of one in light of what Chloe's death causes. Chloe's death not only prevents the storm, but sets into motion events that save Arcadia Bay in a different way-- her death causes Nathan to be arraigned, which causes Jefferson to be brought to justice and Rachel to be given peace, which brings to light the depths of the Prescott's corruption and evil, which all ripples out to saving and eventually healing Arcadia Bay. To not sacrifice Chloe -- rather, to refuse to facilitate her own willing sacrifice, to *ignore Chloe's choice* in favor of your own selfish demand -- is to deny Chloe's destiny... not to die, but to save her home. tl;dr You're the monsters here is what I'm saying.

[@r.j.penfold]

Chaos Shadow Holy shit. That's so true!

[@marhawkman303]

Interesting, but given that many of these things are only visible in hindsight... I can't say they're relevant information for making a choice. Also part of it (in-universe) is just guesswork. You don't really have any reason to believe that the storm is what Chloe thinks it is.

[@bunnynohoogle]

Well said. I completely agree. I hated the ending of the first game because it didn’t even feel like a choice. “Save Chloe “ felt more like shallow fan service.

[@justharry2190]

and yet 50% of the idiots playing lis sacced arcadia bay

[@sethn5217]

I don't care if the town gets destroyed, I ain't letting my best friend bleed out on the bathroom floor during the absolute worst time of her life.

[@mistformsquirrel]

As an introvert and someone with an anxiety disorder lemme just say this: I totally get being mad at Max; but it's a lot harder than you may think < . .> I'm not saying it's OK, I'm just saying that what seems like an unpleasant conversation to one person, can seem like climbing a mountain of broken glass to another - that doesn't make it OK, but... it's worth considering that it's not necessarily just a matter of not being considerate. It's part of why I mostly hang out with people online, I'm practically impossible IRL. Online puts distance between me and the other person so I don't feel so overwhelmed anytime something comes up. I guess I'm just trying to give an alternative perspective on what may be going on. Not saying it's fine to do that, merely that I know how it happens and it isn't always as easily rectified as it may seem.

[@J-Vasa]

Max was an awful friend but she felt guilty which is why she didnt get back in touch with chloe when she went to blackwell. She then tries to make it up by using her powers to save chloe time after time. Thing is with the way her powers work, she most likely doesnt save chloe. She just creates alternate timelines whenever she tries to save chloe. She is just injecting herself in a new timeline. Just think, There is a timeline where chloe accidently shoots herself and max rewinds. But to that version of chloe max doesnt rewind and she then bleeds out. Or when the train comes along, max saves chloe. But all she is doing is putting herself into another timeline where she can try again to save chloe. Everytime max fails, that version of chloe dies. All max is doing is putting herself in a situation she would rather be in. The end choice, both choices happen and max has to essentially decide which version she wants to live with. Does she want to live in a world where chloe dies or does she want to live in a world where everyone dies and everything gets destroyed but chloe survives after everything max has done. Regardless of your choice both options happen in alternate timelines.

[@val7885]

Whether there actually are alternate timelines or not a is a question that we can theorise on, but we can't actually say whether it's true or not. I personally do not think there are alternate timelines. When doing the picture jumps, the original timeline pictures aren't just swapped out for the new ones, they are burnt. That's a conscious artistic choice, which I find representative of what's happening there, the old timeline breaking, making space for the new one. It could also explain why it seems so demanding, to the point that time seems to start breaking down towards the end...breaking something and reforging it is more difficult then just changing tracks, and after this, integrity of the new item will be worse than of the original one.

[@anicasma7859]

There are no alternate time lines. I'm sure Max thought about it as well (hence the nightmare sequence with her 'alternate' self) In the game you can see her ability is actually rewinding time (via people walking backwards, parts of scenes being played backwards and all that jazz) Also alternate timelines would not explain the storm that forms because of her going back into time. Switching realities would not cause a storm (since it is assumed that after Chloe's death the storm doesn't hit Arcadia Bay anymore) This is just my opinion though

[@J-Vasa]

Ani Casma max says there are altermate timelines to chloe

[@anicasma7859]

This is dream Max though. Dreams can often have characters that look like you and criticise your decisions or voice repressed thoughts. (i.e. butterfly effect fears) Memories are also replayed with a different tone from waking life. (The setting of the dream being places where they have always been. Chloe appearing and sitting in the diner with the same animation as when they were in the diner before.) And there are alternate universes, but that doesn't mean Max is in one. The memory lane part of the dream sequence follows only one path to the end. The choices aren't part of the recall (if my memory serves correct)

[@J-Vasa]

Ani Casma no, max says it to chloe in a time jump at blackwell before the vortex party.

[@psngrl7677]

As someone who studied psychology and worked with kids, I can say that regardless of their bond of friendships, add tragedies, a personality like an anxious non confrontational introvert, being a preteen or young teen, life changes like moving and death in general, it’s pretty normal to see them detach emotionally. To automatically say they are shitty lacks the understanding the anatomy of how kids function. Max at the end of Farewell is a 12/13 year old kid. To expect her to handle the situation like an adult without having years and experience of emotional support is asinine. Yeah, it’s shitty they stopped talking but most kids respond this way. They have not developed their logic and reason skills as adults. When kids hit traumatic moments or are in high stress they hit survival mode making choices that aren’t the best or even bad choices but that doesn’t make them bad or shitty people, makes them human. Plus, wasn't Max in a IEP? Individualized Education Program, which is a program for people having social and/or psychological issues. I really can't understand why some LiS fans are so judgemental when this game is all about humans and how every human being is flawed.

[@hopelessfool6722]

IKR, they judge her like an adult but she was only 13 at the moment. You can’t ask that much strength to an introvert kid like her...

[@DaoYeLung]

I like how Jane the tyrant, the person most likely to rule with an iron fist, comes up with the sweetest idea with the scrapbook.

[@rmsgrey]

Explaining not excusing, but in my head, Max didn't have fun in Seattle - and certainly didn't make friends there - notice how the only texts she gets are from people in Arcadia Bay, or from her parents. So Max is sat there, looking at a text from Chloe, wanting to be supportive about losing her Dad, but not knowing what to say, wanting to cheer her up, but not knowing what to say, wanting to hang out with her friend again, but not wanting to say so because she doesn't want to make her friend feel worse - and she doesn't want her friend to run away from home and hitch-hike to Seattle just to cheer her up. So she tries to think of something to say, fails, and ends up not saying anything - not because she doesn't want to, but because she doesn't know what to say, and doesn't want to keep apologising for not being in touch more... And then she gets the opportunity to return to Arcadia Bay - something her parents can't argue against (after the first few times she brought up the possibility of going back for a holiday, or inviting Chloe to visit, and got diverted or shot down by her parents, she stopped trying) - something that's not even coming from her. So she jumps at the chance. But. She's back. She wants to reconnect with Chloe. But how. Send her a text? Saying what? "Hey, sorry I've not been in touch for YEARS but I'm in town again. Wanna hang?" That's no good (okay, yes, it's totally reasonable, exactly what she should have done, and, as it turns out, would have worked out - but this is Max and she doesn't expect to be forgiven that easily). Turn up at their house? First she'd have to get there, then she'd have to make sure it's still their house somehow, and then she'd have to walk up to the door and then she'd have to knock, and then she'd have to face the friend she abandoned years ago when she needed her most and probably hates her forever now and... So, yeah, there for a couple of weeks, hasn't been to the diner, hasn't tried tracking Chloe down, but has made a couple of friends (Kate and Warren), and got herself on the Vortex Club's radar as a suitable target. And then one day she falls asleep in class, has a nightmare about a storm, wakes up, sees a blue-haired girl murdered in the bathroom, wakes up back in class, saves the blue-haired girl, and then runs into the blue-haired girl again in the parking lot and discovers she's Chloe, and suddenly it's like they've never been apart, and all that worrying and beating herself up was over nothing...

[@PenelopeNele]

YESS thxxxx

[@Katie-ph7zb]

Agreed

[@yonicorn1641]

Actually Max did have friends in Seattle, there's a picture in her room with her and 2 friends at a park or smth

[@rmsgrey]

@@yonicorn1641 There are friends and there are friends. People you hang out with at the park sometimes are different from people you'd ask to help you move furniture. The acquaintances she had in Seattle didn't include anyone she wanted to stay in touch with back in Arcadia Bay, nor anyone who wanted to make any effort to stay in touch with her. If she'd made a friend she could talk to about Chloe, the Max would have either actually forgotten Chloe, or have got back in touch with Chloe much sooner, depending on the friend.

[@MrMariaTTVArchive]

Max's parents are actually temporal mages and was disgusted that Max is playing with a non-magical person

[@kevinyo1169]

Why couldn't the writers just stick with this? It would've made things so much better.

[@drunklord9471]

That's totally going to be my head canon.

[@OiiMerch]

I love how no one ever talks about how Chloe blames Max for leaving just like Jane did. Max was literally a child like Luke said, she HAD NO OPTIONS for staying. Her parents could have literally dragged her and it would be ok because no one can call the cops on trying to take their child, who is underaged, with them to their new home. Max had no options, no choice, no decision, and none of her opinions clearly mattered to her parents. Yes she is still a bad friend for not keeping in contact when they were growing up, even though she admits feeling bad about it for years, but I always felt that Max just KNEW that Chloe would never forgive her, and if your best friend is going to go so far as blaming HER downward spiral in her life on YOU then why to keep in contact? Max even seemed pretty happy, content, and a lot better before Chloe ever shows up in LIS. Chloe is a storm, which is why I love the title being "before the storm" not just because a damn storm literally happens in LIS but because that is what Chloe is. The entire game, of LIS, makes you feel continuously like a shitty friend and Max is abusing these powers that are physically affecting her (to where she gets nosebleeds) to not only save other friends but most important and sometimes ONLY to save Chloe. To make up for the years of no contact, to make up for her being a shitty friend. Max literally has to ENTERTAIN Chloe with her newfound powers JUST to keep their struggling new friendship intact. That in my honest opinion is the worst fucking thing ever to deal with. You are constantly made to feel like shit on the drive to Chloe's house as she blames everything she has dealt with on you, she talks about how you "abandoned" her and even goes so far to say as her "father abandoned her" as if he fucking died on purpose. She is mentally ill or at the very least practically insane. She is constantly making you feel bad for simply being a child that had no option on leaving. Also for not texting, what about her parents forcing her to stop? That is something that is never mentioned in LIS but I can imagine her parents forcing her to stop talking to her since they forced her to leave during the damn funeral. I just really NEED a video on people admitting that something is more wrong with Chloe than Max. They are both wrong but Chloe is pretty fucked up.

[@xxxEEHxxx]

Merchant Angel Thank you for this. I really disliked Chloe in LiS. She’s very manipulative and I hated how Max is constantly on egg shells around her.

[@psixi2668]

Thank You, exactly

[@r.j.penfold]

Someone made a fair point how at the end of LiS Chloe seems to have matured a lot faster than Max, and comes to realize that if she dies, everyone else can get a chance to get a better life. Lemme copy the text...

[@r.j.penfold]

Actually I can't but look for the user "Chaos Shadow" their comment is pretty far up (at least for me) and they prove a pretty good point. You should read what they have to say.

[@OiiMerch]

She does mature but only up until the end. The exact end when Chloe is at the lighthouse and she is watching the massive tornado move towards the town. You can see by her expression that all of her humane thoughts are hitting her right then and there, she didn't believe Max that a thing like that would actually happen. Only then upon seeing that does she mature. Before that, she gets angry when Kate calls her and ONLY apologizes when they are in the hospital and it hits Chloe that Max was simply trying to be a good friend, to one of her ACTUAL GOOD friends that tried to kill herself recently. She is upset if you don't take the blame for the weed she has, she is upset if you panic and let David hit her, she is upset if you do nothing even though she admits that he would have freaked out even more if David saw Max. She is only happy when you make the choice to ignore Kate who is going through severe Depression and needs you on the phone because Chloe doesn't want to argue with her mom, something she has been doing every day I can only assume since her father died like an ungrateful child. Assuming that her dad died on purpose because he apparently "abandoned" her and disrespects her mother daily. She feels pleased when you are against David after finding the cameras even though it tears apart a family that could have been happy if their daughter had just been on medication. Because we later find out in a different rewind that David feels so bad about what he was doing but simply didn't know better, most veterans have a hard fucking time returning back to society after fighting in many wars and losing many friends. Yes, it was wrong for David to record his family but he went from a Vet to a father of a rebellious child he can't control but loves. If you choose to tell him that Chloe dies he is absolutely distraught showing he loves them so much and has "no idea how he will tell Joyce". IT IS LITERALLY ONLY UNTIL MAX TELLS CHLOE THE ABSOLUTE HELL THAT SHE HAS BEEN THROUGH TO SAVE HER ASS AND TRY TO ALSO SAVE EVERYONE ELSE AT THE SAME TIME, does Chloe say "fine I won't get myself killed AGAIN and we can wait this out". Only after realizing that Max has gone through hell to get her old friend to fucking forgive her, to get her to be happy again, to get her to understand how selfish she is, is when she matures. LITERALLY when a fucking tornado is about to hit the town, all the while Max is (yes) trying to save Chloe most importantly but also the rest of the town as she does fucking care about other lives. She cares about the girl Alyssa being pushed into a damn pool for fuck's sake. Chloe matures when Max has gone through enough hell for US, the players, to make the final decision of "fuck this bitch, she doesn't deserve us and never has ever since we moved" and sacrifice her to save Arcadia. She never matured faster, she literally just matured when it was convenient for us to tell her to fuck off and die from a gut bullet wound.

[@caitlin1998m]

You guys expect a lot of a little girl. Damn.

[@uninspiredhaven7893]

Im 13, i like to think i can talk and speak, and tell people facts if they are important.

[@juanmacedo8816]

Lel

[@AlmightyPolarBear]

white raven What are you doing here? Go be a youth before you become everyone else.

[@juanmacedo8816]

Word

[@cicik57]

little now, yes, but later ? AND 13 is ALREADY not so little

[@maephin]

Not to be "that guy" but I can't really get behind any serious "bigger picture" characterization of Max, post-LiS. To me it's grasping at straws, and I think we're reading too deeply into retcons that the developers had to implement simply as a result of expanding the first season (in order to create more content about Chloe, who had become a popular character upon the game's release). The crux of the vanilla LiS is the "are-they-a-team-or-aren't-they" relationship (whether that dynamic is platonic or romantic doesn't really matter) between Max and Chloe, as seen from Max's perspective... Max is supposed to be the "fish out of water" template that the player can project him/herself onto. Which is why her backstory is so vague and ultimately why she's actually so inoffensively passive as a character. Perfect blank slate. And for the purpose of that original story, Max and Chloe needed to (once upon a time) have a history together--because that cements Chloe (who is basically the Gatsby to Max's Nick) as both "known" and "unknown" to the player at the same time. As such, Chloe becomes the definition of uncanny (the "familiar unfamiliar") ... she becomes something we want to reclaim even though we don't precisely know what we lost. I think that Max and Chloe's relationship, in which they were simply once *really close* but are no longer, is mostly just a plot device. The original LiS didn't concern itself with why exactly Max and Chloe had a falling out--it intentionally skims over that stuff. Life happens. What's important is merely that Max and Chloe once had a deep connection that you (the player) can work to rekindle. It was only after Before the Storm became a thing that purposefully ambiguous plotholes had to be suddenly sketched in, and then we had to map out how and why exactly Max and Chloe lost contact with each other. This fine-toothed combing was never intended in the original game; in fact it was purposefully avoided. Max was the player's avatar, not the player's object of scrutiny. She only becomes judged as a "flake" in BtS because we're examining her from angles that weren't meant to be seen in the first place. It's like watching a horror movie about Frankenstein's monster and accepting its narrative as the truth. No: there was an original "Frankenstein" (the novel) and its future media adaptations can't be considered the definitive ones; they're just extrapolations.

[@ocadioan]

This. So much this. When doing an expanded lore "prequel", the first thing that I always do is to consider if this was planned before the original came out. If it wasn't, then anything that changes how the original appears is a retcon in my opinion(whether good or bad). It is especially bad when a prequel makes the original look downright stupid in comparison. For instance, the Star Wars prequels all make it seem like the Galaxy _regressed_ in tech during the two decades or so between them and the originals. Not to mention that the Jedi are treated as a myth, instead of a Galaxy-wide highly elite political organization that had existed for thousands of years.

[@D3stinySm4sher]

Amen to this. Deck Nine did do some good work, especially in episode 2, but ultimately, this prequel was doomed from the start, inherently, from so many conceptual levels. And a big reason why is because LiS1 was constructed to be its own, self-contained story. Not extrapolated upon in a canon, singular way like this. The story is weaker for BtS existing. The fandom is so much more divided for BtS existing. The brand is weakened for BtS existing. Not because Deck Nine is a bad developer -- DontNod made serious flaws with LiS1, as well -- but because the CONCEPT they were commissioned to do from Square (one they initially didn't want to do in the first place) was just a poor concept that went against the intentions of the original story. How on earth someone can decide to make a 35 minute video to try and promote this idea that Max is a bad person when Chloe and Rachel are, frankly, not any better...Man. It's crap like this that has made the fandom a weird place. LiS2 can't come soon enough.

[@daphodil7876]

I think you guys are way to harsh on this anxiety ridden child, god damn. I've been in her shoes multiple times and facing the anxiety that weighs so hard on your chest you find it hard to breathe when thinking about it, is much harder than just waiting for the inevitable. She wasn't in control of when she was going to leave, she was too terrified and felt too horrible about leaving to tell Chloe. And then once your gone there's a disconnect, she wasn't emotionally mature and that's the point. It's not flaky to not be able to deal with your anxiety. It's fuckin sad. And it's highly doubtful she was livin it up in Seattle. She may have learned to move on given that years went by but it was by trying to forget and hoping that Chloe would find newer and better friends because she felt like she was a shitty one. I'm sure even Max would say Chloe deserved a better friend than her because thinking that way is what would have kept her from staying in touch, it's what happened to me growing up. And like what was said, she's a passive person who goes with what comes to her and isn't good at taking initiative. It may have been sad and may have left Chloe pretty torn up but Max didn't cause her father to die and Max didn't get the choice of staying to comfort her. I also believe her not telling Chloe and the recording left with that ending feels more real than the other ending.

[@nineinchthread]

I agree tho I can't blame chole in her mind she was betrayed

[@RaskylC]

i like "Max's parents being horrible" theory XD

[@CaKoMi]

I definitely agree that Before the Storm sheds some new light on Max that makes her much more disappointing than what we thought she was in Life is Strange. Max was definitely a terrible friend for flaking out of Chloe's life, especially after talking so much about how important Chloe was to her. I'm sure having Max in her life as a supportive friend would have helped Chloe out a lot, especially since Chloe felt like her previous support network had dropped out from under her after her dad's death. Not to say that Max's presence would have steered Chloe completely out of trouble, but I'm sure it would have made a difference. Even as someone who sees a lot of myself in Max (as someone guilty of terribly flaking on my on friends in the past), I think it's too charitable to say that the main reason Max didn't reach out was because of guilt. I think it's more likely that she just didn't know how to handle being there for Chloe after her father's death and, given her passivity, didn't really want to deal with the emotional roller coaster that would have been comforting her friend. Though Max does through hell and back to try to help and save Chloe during Life is Strange, I think we still see this streak in her where she does things in her own self-interest. She saves Chloe not so much *for* Chloe, but more because she doesn't want to live in a life without Chloe and feels beholden to her past guilt. Not to say that Max is overtly selfish, just that she's not entirely altruistic in wanting to save Chloe over and over. While Max was a shitty friend, it's definitely not fair to blame her for Chloe's later hardships and downward spiral. At the end of the day, Chloe is responsible for all her choices, and throughout Life is Strange/Before the Storm, we see that she continually lashes out at other people for her problems rather than take personal responsibility for her own actions. And this reaction is perfectly understandable, considering that she's a teenager trying to process trauma and various other emotions. But throughout Life is Strange in particular, she blames Max for abandoning her, rejects any attempts her mother makes at reaching out, and generally keeps making poor decision after poor decision and then blaming the world for being out to get her. Chloe became toxic once Max came back, and to Max's credit, she did stick around and try to be the friend that she hadn't been regardless of the trouble Chloe put her through. I would argue that as bad of a friend as Max was in Before the Storm, Chloe ultimately acts as the worse friend by Life is Strange. It's only by the game's end that Chloe is able to put everything in perspective, and start being a good friend again. I think that ultimately, Life is Strange does an amazing job capturing the complex ups and downs of deep friendships. The person who's "in the right" isn't always in that position for completely pure, altruistic motives, and the person who's "in the wrong" can have a lot of legitimate reasons for their being that way. Each person royally messes up at some point or another, or even sometimes at the same time. And at the end of the day, it's easy to point fingers and say one person was a better/worse friend than the other. What's really striking to me is that both Chloe and Max, despite estrangement and conflict, remained devoted to each other in their own way. I feel like Life is Strange is basically saying that all people, including our friends, will inevitably hurt us in some way or another. Thus, while friendship involves being there for the other person, deep friendships come from forgiveness of that hurt and accepting one another for who we are, flaws and all.

[@thanhtotti]

@CaKoMi Thanks for your comment, very good points.

[@SwaySilva]

I’m a fan of Luke’s theory. Max doesn’t have much agency with her life, and as someone who counsels teenagers, even with good parenting they’re just not the best at handling complex emotional situations, especially suburban children who have never dealt with anything like this before Max being a failure isn’t completely her fault. Though she does suck...bad..

[@PenelopeNele]

Also to my knowledge they were like 12 and 13 then!

[@_EllieLOL_]

ettnatureevy Max is 13 and Chloe is 14 Max mentions when she time travels back to William’s death day that she’s 13, the same day that Farewell takes place on, and Chloe is 1 year older than Max

[@geenibt518]

This was ridiculously heartbreaking... I need to make a few calls to my old friends

[@JadeAnnabelArt]

Okay but my best friends parents HATED my guts (Her parents were from India and her mother claimed to be a princess, to her I was a 'filthy urchin') but my friend told me IMMEDIATELY when they were planning a move and we did our best to try and change their minds, when that didn't work, we kept in immediate contact cuz we missed each other so much.

[@chileanywayssso]

As much as I want to berate Max and her personality, especially her passivity and 'flakiness', I feel like a phony because I see much of myself in her. When you're at a vulnerable age where you want to avoid confrontation and tension, you will do anything to do so, even tarnishing a friendship. When I moved before entering high school, I stopped contacting a dear friend who treated me as if I was their sibling. She would frequently try to contact me and even facetimed me a few times, but for some reason I was not able to reciprocate her efforts and eventually she stopped bothering. As much as I regret this, I think that I have come to terms with the fact that there were just too many complicated variables in play that would make retaining a friendship more complicated than moving on. Do I feel bad for Chloe? Of course. But I hesitate to blame Max wholeheartedly as she was a child who didn't have much emotional maturity at the time.

[@Ellasdssssss]

Jelly Lin 100% agree, I think people realllyyy underplay that she WAS a child with so little life experience.

[@deniz.a6304]

Yes and its very hard when you move away from a bf or he/she movey away. It feels like a world breaks infront of your eyes. And the fact that max is very shy and introvert and she deals with social anxiety makes it more complicated for her. She don't know how to stay in contact with chloe. And after she broke up the contact it was even harder to reconnect because she felt guilty and had a feeling that chloe might hate her. If you pay attention to every dialoge in both games you can get so much information about their feelings and all that stuff. Thats why i don't blame max. The fact that she would do everything for chloe in LiS 1 shows me how much she cares for her and how bad she felt. She even wrote in her book that she is still her bf after 5 years without contact. I think she couldn't let go and felt bad for leaving chloe. I remember when my bf moved a street away from me only a fucking street and it felt like we never gonna see each other. That really influenced our contact too only if it was a street. Its very hard to live through something like that. I dont wanna say max was the perfect friend i just wanna say you can't blame on her she had to deal with her on problems and mental health i guess.

[@MaybeCanNotBe]

i dont hate max.. because i am as bad as her when it comes to keeping in contact w old friends.. personally in my case its anxiety that keeps me from staying in contact. it makes me wonder if in max's case it may be because she is anxious about it too

[@MrDudeshutup123]

Even in the timeline where Chloe's dad doesn't die, Max still didn't keep in contact!

[@psngrl7677]

MrDudeshutup123 No, she DID keep in touch, she even sent Chloe a postcard. Eventually they stopped talking over the years, but you know, that's how life works.

[@MrDudeshutup123]

Human Plus That to me is no different then the few and far between emails that Chloe gets in the original timeline. As for being put down to years growing apart, when Chloe's accident happened Max doesn't even know. While this could be down to time travel, Chloe never questions why Max doesn't already know all this when telling her the incident. So the fact that her best friend got injured and she never heard is great sign of not paying attention

[@psngrl7677]

MrDudeshutup123 Actually, Chloe says something like "oh, I guess I never told you HOW it happened". This means Max knew but Chloe never told her about the accident in details.

[@trionaosullivan4152]

MrDudeshutup123 I think that was as bad. Her best friend almost died and has life changing consequences and she doesn’t know or probe further!

[@yonicorn1641]

I thought that in that timeline, we can see photos of what's happened but we dont see Chloe being paralyzed. I feel like it's because they did talk, but then they stopped for a while /Chloe gets her driving license at 16 and she's 14 when Max leaves/, they might have talked for the first 1-2 years but then stopped because in this reality Max is extroverted or at least more talkative and has more friends, so she probably was more popular at school or smth so once she grows up she starts paying less attention to Chloe and all and eventually they stop so Max never finds out she got in a car accident /I imagine Max texting Chloe to wish her a hapy birthday and Chloe responding and them texting for a while, small talk like "how are you" and "what did you got for your birthday" but nothing more and it's probably the first time they've texted each other since they wished Merry Christmas or smth/

[@Zahnzak]

I've seen the theory that Max has mental health issues, especially anxiety, which could explain alot of these problems. As someone with mental health issues, especially anxiety, I can understand how hard it is for her.

[@angelo8304]

Yeah if you read her file she is in the IED program

[@nineinchthread]

I understand anxiety well honestly given I have autism and ADHD and even ocd so I get .still wants cool to chole and can't blame chole tho she could if been more understanding tho in her mind she was betrayed so I understand both sides

[@ibenbreuner3862]

I have personal experience to back up luke's theory about max's parents being the villains, because i've been in this excact situation on chloe's side! i was best friends with a girl and we hung out all the time, but her mum didn't like me or my parents, and one day they had just moved out of town and i've literally never seen her again. its like the plot of a movie or smthing

[@michaelross2972]

It's easy for you to say that a good friend should risk destroying the space time continuum Luke. I mean, Jane does that every other day just for fun

[@lukeryan9664]

DEAR GOD PLEASE MAKE A PODCAST

[@i_heart_caligula6204]

Or just more discussion videos! The ones they did after the Xbox One launch are still some of my favourite videos they've ever done. Also the Telltale Walking Dead ones.

[@UncoloredPageGaming]

I would absolutely love a podcast

[@thisisodsmith]

OXcast!

[@Sharkwizard]

OD Smith OXCAST IS THE BEST NAME FOR A PODCAST THAT WOULD BE DONE BY THEM

[@Sharkwizard]

Lol says you. That would be a fun portion of the podcast though.

[@thomasford9513]

I really hope Jane reads all the comments about how evil she is because I'm sure she could get a laugh out of it...

[@sovashchetty4838]

Is Jane's stag collar a reference to Rachel's doe avatar? Or am I looking too into it like the Rat King Choose your own adventure?

[@leepark897]

Maybe Rachel??

[@sovashchetty4838]

squibbl Holy Cow. That's exactly what I meant. Freudian slip. Thanks for pointing it out. Let me edit that quickly.

[@rothea]

I'm actually crying now. I am Max. I am legitimately max. I've never played this game; it's too expensive and being someone with chronic anxiety and a victim of sexual assault, I wasn't sure if I wanted to play something that could potentially dig all that up. Being someone who watches a lot of gaming channels, however, this game is hard to get away from, and honestly, I love it. I love hearing about it because it's a beautiful story that just... it strikes me in a way I don't fully understand. Maybe it's because I've had crappy things happen to me too and I understand some of the character's struggles. But all that to say, while I've never played the full story, I know most of the big things. What happened to Rachel, the final choice, Chloe and Max's backstory, that sort of thing. Watching this video, however, was what made me realize just how much Max is exactly like myself. I have aspergers and adhd; when I was younger, before I was diagnosed, my mother would lovingly call me an absentminded professor. I am not observant, I procrastinate with every single hard thing that comes my way, I don't do communication well- in other words, I am the EPITOME of the word flakey. I'm ashamed to say that there have been a number of friends who have moved away and I have done a terrible job of keeping up with them. First because it's hard- how do you go back to how things were when you're a million miles away? And then you forget every so often... maybe you see a message and are like "I'll reply after I do this" and the next thing you know it's been weeks, and now you CAN'T reply because that will mean admitting you forgot, so then you ignore it, and then it just becomes easier and easier to just stop talking because it makes YOU feel less bad about being a bad friend. I think Luke hit the nail on the head there. When you're flakey like Max, like me... you hide from your problems. Pretending they don't exist is your one and only coping mechanism because you don't feel strong enough to face them. You are passive, you go with the flow, and you don't face things head on... like, ever. And it sucks and as you get older you have to start to fight it, but when you're that young... you don't know any better until it's too late and you've ruined everything. tl;dr I love max and I feel so bad for both of them and I relate to her so much and Luke you are exactly right

[@BeautyIsJustAMask]

I didn't tell her at any point during the episode because I didn't want to ruin the day they were having. At the end of the episode you realise it's the same day that Chloe's dad died, so not only did she have to grieve for her dad, my Max left her a recording saying oh btw I'm leaving you at the worst possible time. Bad Max, bad!!

[@yonicorn1641]

actually i didnt realize it was the same day until Chloe says "oh it's getting late, they should be home by now" AND THEN IT HIT ME. HER DAD WOULD NEVER BE HOME. Also there's the picture Max later uses to time travel back to this day on the kitchen counter. I like how the creators of the game decided to change their clothes/and explained why, they were playing dress up while cleaning Chloe's room/ so it's not obvious it's the same day so it just hits you sometimes just like it hits them because they dont know it either.

[@sovashchetty4838]

A few things I think you missed: Max is probably the inquisitive person around, to the point of annoyance, I think it's even in her file in Blackwell (I'm not sure if you brought it up in a previous video) The picture Max uses to travel back to save Chloe's dad is sitting on the counter in the kitchen that's how I knew it was William's death day when I played through the first time. Finally, I noticed that Max wore the same clothes to Chloe's funeral (if you choose to Save Arcadia Bay) as well as to William's funeral, I don't know if that' weird, but I feel like it's weird. All the best and love your content.

[@homelessmexican410]

You sure about the funeral clothes part? She was like 13 or 14 at Williams's funeral and 18 during Life Is Strange, I don't think those clothes would've fit her by then

[@sovashchetty4838]

John Kenway I'm sorry might have been a bit vague there. I should have used the word: Outfit. Black dress with a grey sweater over her shoulders. Sorry mate.

[@homelessmexican410]

Sovash Chetty Oh, I understand what you mean now, though that's probably just her style so I don't think that's too weird

[@honeyburn688]

Sovash Chetty its not weird

[@shawty1564]

I swear you played through both games again just to catch these little details lol

[@zacharysmith4856]

I haven’t played either of these, but I enjoy listening to the conversation about the story. I think this shows how well the narrative is done because it shows complicated people with complicated emotions. Thanks Luke and Jane!

[@WritingOnGames]

I was maaajorly disappointed in Before the Storm generally, but this bonus episode actually angered me. Manipulative misery porn of the highest order for exactly the reasons you discuss here. It feels like the writers *loathe* Chloe. I'd say the family just bouncing after the funeral is more a mark against Max's parents but goddamn, what a damning mark it is; they couldn't have given the kids, like, a week or something?! Max making it all about her, on the other hand, and especially make it such a fucking bummer for Chloe, was maybe the worst thing she could have done in that situation. Urgh, just the absolute worst.

[@zhutchinson98]

Writing on Games I feel the same

[@pyroshayniac1090]

You're right. Even continuity wise, it didn't work for me. It just didn't...fit. I was sick of them twisting the same knife over and over again, like, I stopped caring about William the first five times he died. It was a cheap push for "feels"

[@RawkNinja95]

I'm so glad some other people have the same opinion! I didn't enjoy Before the Storm as much as Life is Strange. The writing was weak in comparison and I was a bit angry with the bonus episode's ending as well, so bloody cliche, I called it the moment they found the buried tapes of William! I don't think Deck Nine did a good job with this prequel, I don't even think it was necessary despite it shedding some light on why Chloe is the way she was in Life is Strange.

[@bloodywanker49]

I hope you make a video about this or something, because I absolutely agree and would love to see how you would have fixed this DLC.

[@pathetic2399]

Its just trying to give you another reason to feel bad for Chloe. thats the entire point of before the storm. To make chloe more " sympathetic "

[@azurastar3223]

In defense of Max's Parents not everyone has the money to shuffle back and forth. When I moved from Texas to California as a single parent it took most of my savings and with my job I only had an slotted amount of time to show up. What if Max's parents weren't being insensitive, but rather had already made plans to leave that day. It would be out of their hands. Even now that I have found my partner we scrape by. And trying to visit someone costs a lot. My best friend and I live an hour apart and barely see one another because of car troubles. There have been months we go without talking, but unlike max and Cloe we pick things back up when we can. I my opinion it wasn't just her parents it was everyone involved. Sometimes it gets hard to relate to people as you grow and change. I have been in Cloe's shoes, and Max's. And both sides are hard, but neither is at fault.

[@softpiglet]

Azura Star I have trouble believing this considering the $200 gift certificate her parents give her for her birthday in episode 1. I got the sense that her parents aren't rich but they aren't broke either. But then again, maybe the family's financial situation changed over time.

[@azurastar3223]

OfficialSkyPiglet also, as parents you get about a couple thousand back with taxes. Idk about anyone else, but I hold onto that money as long as possible throughout the year. They could have easily used their tax return or a credit card to pay for the aforementioned gift card.

[@lellymapommscymbillnos336]

That's a really good point actually. From a British perspective, moving across the country takes like 3 hours so Max's parents' actions seem unforgiveable, but obviously that would be a much bigger deal in the States.

[@yonicorn1641]

yeah, i can accept that if their flight/ride was booked /like if they already booked motels for the night, idk actually how long is from Arcadia Bay to Seattle, Arcadia Bay is in Oregon and Seattle is in Washington which is just a state away, but then again I'm not american so idk how big states are and how much time would you drive/, or maybe Max's dad had to start work the next day, we know they postponed their journey for a few days to attend William's funeral but maybe that's all they could, or maybe they had tickets to a flight and they couldnt just, not show up or reschedule them or smth. So yeah, let's say I forgive them for taking Max straight out of the cemetary xDD However, I cant forgive them for not pushing her to talk to Chloe or text her, or even her parents being like "oh I saw some really nice stationery in the shop few block away, how about we go get some and you can write a letter to Chloe" or "hey Max why dont you sent her a postcard from Seattle" or just a simple "Max, how is Chloe doing lately" during dinner or something, since Max is so passive, she would immediately remember about Chloe and text/call/email, but if they never asked about Chloe or pushed her into having new friends/joining clubs/going to museums and art shows and stuff, she would be like "oh okay I'll just text Chloe tomorrow" and then never texting her.

[@roogisan4338]

I moved to a different country at 15 years old and didnt tell my friends until a couple of days before it happened. A big part of it is believing that if you dont talk about it then it wont be true. Everything you've known for your entire life is about to be taken away from you (or at least turned on its head); and it becomes all-consuming. You end up going to see your friends not because you will miss them when you've moved, but to escape the madhouse. At home there is so much talk about what your new school will be like and the uniforms. What sports clubs you are going to get enrolled in and so many other things. Your parents are trying to put a positive spin on things and talk about all the great things the move will bring continuously. Its overwhelming to someone so young and i dont blame Max for trying to keep some normality in her life.I like to think that Chloe isn't waiting for Max to tell her but actually understands that Max is the real victim here and wants to give her a safe space. I also did the same thing as Max when it comes to keeping in contact. I started off sending letters and emailing all the time, but i ended up feeling terrible. You can never quite escape the feeling that you are an outsider looking at someone else's life and that its a life that should be yours. Stories about your friend going to the movies with mutual friends or bunking school and eating fish and chips together give you this feeling of emptiness (especially in the first few months where your own new friendships are wafer-thin, barely formed husks of what you used to have). You feel almost jealous and lonely. So i started to drift away from my old friends and focus on my new ones. There is only so many times you can reopen old wounds.

[@PatientBean]

As with the last video, here are my thoughts. 1: I can see where both of you are coming from and I agree to an extent. But I think Luke has it right. She is 13 years old and now has this big, looming shadow over her and she doesn't want to deal with it. Having been a shy, reserved kid growing up, I would probably have done the same thing. It's hard to break bad news even as an adult. 2: I appreciated how it played out that you didn't tell her until the end because it built up this whole "Hey, lets make this last day together super fun!" all the more real. And the fact Chloe knew (and I had a feeling she did) makes me appreciate her more because I think she knew it was killing Max not to tell and she was allowing her to tell at her own pace. 3: I got the impression that Max's parents didn't like Chloe as much as Chloe's parents liked Max for much the same reason. However, I would argue that Max probably had no control over when the family left. If it was for a job or even just a new scene, the parents are the ones in control and moving takes huge amounts of finalization, especially across states or countries. So the fact they left right after the funeral isn't REALLY the parents fault and I don't think they left because they don't like Chloe as much. I think they let because they had to get going and couldn't put off the move, even by a day. I think Max would have stayed if there was the option. Side note: I think further evidence of the Caulfields being more affluent than the Price's is that in the alternate timeline when Max changes the past, she is part of the Vortex Club and is friends with all of them. Plus, I don't think Max got into Blackwell on scholarship (though I could be wrong). So I think they are pretty well off. 4: I'll admit, I did not like the fact Max left a tape for Chloe, especially with all that has happened. I think it was a cowardly move, but I can see why she did it. Max had a difficult time telling Chloe she was going to move in the first place, and now Chloe is going through all this stuff and Max HAS to move, so she gave her a tape Chloe could listen to over and over in some way to help. Plus, they just had that adventure which included the tape from Chloe's dad so I think part of the reasoning was a reminder for Chloe. However, I still think Max should have put her adult pants on and actually spoke to Chloe and handed her the tape to listen to. 5: Max just moved, is starting a new school and, essentially, a new life. She SHOULD have kept in touch with Chloe, especially given she just lost her dad. I will concede on that point. However, Max, as we learn, makes new friends in Seattle and she has to focus on her life there too. Plus, we know Max is shy and reserved so I imagine she wasn't meaning to ditch Chloe, but she did. Bad on her for doing so, but I can kind of see why she stumbled.

[@superphantom100]

I think the Caulfeilds did getaway Extension on their move because a family friend died. Max said she only had 3 day their is no way the Prices planed William’s Funeral in 2 days just so Max could come. It’s possible Ryan’s job gave him an extra week or an extra few days but not very long. I think the true Villian in that situation is Ryan’s boss. I believe neither he or Vanessa had control over when they had to be in Seattle, if anyone’s at fault for Max leaving when she did it’s Ryan’s boss.

[@rmsgrey]

Chloe's funeral was only 4 days after she was killed. One day less for William's, or putting off the trip by one day, seems entirely plausible.

[@herpyderpy4366]

Fast funerals are hardly uncommon. It depends a lot on the circumstances of those involved, personal wishes, family culture, etc. Where I grew up, 3 days is actually the standard length between death and funeral if there are no complications. Both of my grandparents on one side were buried 3 days after their deaths.

[@zombiemanjosh]

That moment when you can't see the tears in Luke's eyes because you're tearing up too. Those feels.

[@ramieliz]

“Cassette tu, Brute” just wins at every level.

[@harikrishnannu4161]

Parents make decision not max

[@chloesilverwolf739]

'theirs no good argument for not saving Chloe' finally someone with a brain!

[@jetpackcthulhu]

I missed these ending breakdowns

[@Umnik96]

Get your head out of your... well, out of whereever it is. Yes, Max was just 13 years old but that's not the point. The point is that life is tough (life is strange, yeah). Sometimes some random hard emotional difficult stuff comes up and you don't know how to deal with it. And in the case of William's death no one knew how to deal with it. You covered Max and her parents, but what about Chloe and Joyce? Think about what Chloe did to her mother in time of need and take a second look on that halo upon Chloe's head. But I'm not saying that Chloe is actually the worst. I'm saying that no one is the worst. And no one is the best. As I said, life is strange. Sometimes you do good things, sometimes you do bad things. And later, sadly, usually cause even more bad things to happen. It's not ok to shame someone for a sequence of unfortunate events and dubious decisions. It's not ok to shame someone for not being perfect. Just imagine if Max were based on a real person. And that person were watching. And two of her most respected, trusted and loved people would just chat for 30 minutes about how she is the worst. Well, sadly, in the way Max is based on a lot of your viewers. Yes, many of us -- real people not leaving in the black-and-white disney universe -- have done some bad things to our friends. Many of us have not been perfect. Many of us paniced or got scared in difficult situation. That does not make us absolute worst. So, just stop this shaming. And once again, get your head out of whereever it currently is. No one is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. The point is to accept that and to move forward. And to show you how it'a done, I'm not going to make a half-hour video about how you are the worst for saying everything you said here. I'm just going to acknowledge your right to have an opinion on things. And ask you not to be so harsh on anyone -- real or fictional -- ever again.

[@JanAside]

Why is jane so hostile? Max ruined so many lives for the love of her life while jane destroyed so many lifes just for the fun of it!

[@JayTohab]

That's... relative, technically, depending on the timeline.

[@TheFuchsiaRosa]

john doe yes

[@oOKoolalaOo]

At least Jane is honest about it.

[@robeldridge1364]

Perhaps Jane sees a reflection in herself of Max's behaviour. Maybe early in one of her experiments she had the chance to save someone, and didn't try that hard because something came up to distract her 🤔

[@coyoteartist]

Hmm, whose up for breaking into MI6 and steal Jane's file to find out.

[@WickedRibbon]

Really enjoy these longer, podcast-style spoiler chats. Would love to see more.

[@EmmaEquinox]

"A skinny lil waif" LOL

[@bigdognuniff]

The saddest thing is that if you sacrifice chloe she never sees max after she just ups and leaves STRAIGHT AFTER WILLIAMS FUNERAL!! I prefer the ending in my head where max just says "screw it" and keeps going back in time until she works out how to save everyone and they all live happily ever after the end

[@VolfKami]

Pretty sure Max would die from trying that.

[@bigdognuniff]

AJXSJS so be it :')

[@ilovemynancydrew147_5]

Hahaha!! I love that!!😂 Honestly, if they had some sort of "Sacrifice Self" Ending, I would totally do that option.

[@maxlittlewood]

Ah I see pocrastination runs in the max's

[@LegendarySpaceRipper]

All of them should be put in front of a firing squad or gulag.

[@craignellist7277]

At least she admits she did wrong when they meet up in the original game.

[@georgesears934]

Well in LiS nothing you do matters, both in a meta sense and in game. As proven by Chloe’s constant deaths as the universe course corrects her fate, the universe in that game is deterministic. None of the characters have any free will, they’re just time’s puppets. Ignoring the fact that that makes the entire premise of the ENTIRE FUCKING GAME literally pointless, it also means that Max has no responsibility for her choices since she didn’t actually make any, both in universe and in a meta sense.

[@Platonis-The-Warlock]

You clearly can see how Jane represents Storm with her grey/brownish sweater and Luke epitomizes whole Arcadia Bay in his t-shirt. And we clearly know how it all ends.

[@safilmullick7884]

Platonis The Warlock A hug?

[@pyroshayniac1090]

Yup. The storm ceases to exist and the innocent people in Arcadia bay live on.

[@DarcyCardinal]

The more i play through this game, the more i wanted Chloe to be the main character pulling the strings.

[@sovashchetty4838]

Luke are you up for getting a matching Amber Price tattoo with me? I'll let you choose if you want the Dragon or the Rose.

[@thecatsaysmoo9274]

i did not play any of these life is strange games, because i heard stories that it might break my manliness again and i'm still recovering from the last of us

[@DoranGale]

Max and Chloe were BOTH children. Max had no control over how and when her parents moved. Yes, she failed to stay in touch, but she was a kid, traumatized in her own way. Every character in this series fucks up-they’re all human-and we all know what happened when one of them was given the power to change everything...

[@J624]

I didn't realize until watching this video that the reason Chloe lost Rachel (indirectly) is the reason Max returned.

[@allarrdd]

Okay, so when you say there's no good reason to not save Chloe, I just wanna say what about Joyce, Warren and Pompidou? Hear me out, when you arrive at the Two Whale Diner during the storm you have to prevent it from blowing up, but then you jump through that picture and you change something which lead you to the Lighthouse with Chloe. But who says the diner didn't blow up when you went back in time. I sacrificed Chloe, because I didn't want everyone else to die just because I wanted to save her.

[@nemilyk]

I know this is video's old and no one's going to read this, and I know this is a fictional character, but speaking from personal experience, Max is a poster-child for Asperger's. It's not always that easy to spot, and it can come across as flakiness. We're not all Jerry Espenson from Boston Legal, going about with super obvious ticks. However, emotional bonds are difficult for us to properly form (like Max), we have difficulty thinking 'in the moment' and so just tend to roll with things (like Max), and we tend to have a strong passion for a single subject matter (again like Max) which can change, but while we have that passion, it sort of consumes. So... something to keep in mind about her character.

[@ChowingChow]

After reading, this is hard to blame her

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

I think she has an anxiety disorder. Probably Avoidant Personality Disorder. It’s persistent whenever we play her, even when she’s becoming assertive she doubts herself and tries to avoid interactions that could be embarassing even with friends. Her ability to do something over is a brilliant manifestation of her constantly questioning about consequences and deciding to change your mind.

[@daniellockley-smith9766]

I agree with Lukes theory that maxs parents are the worst

[@DiabloBiscuit]

I feel that the alternative max (episode 4 of life is strange) kept up better with her version of Chloe that than original Max did with her Chloe.

[@alexwilliams2276]

Jamazoid Notice that Max is more rude and self-centered. She is right but at the same time wrong

[@homelessmexican410]

I'm so glad I have you guys as an outlet for all my Life Is Strange love that I can't share with my friends cuz they just don't understand...yet Especially Luke, your face was red throughout the entire video, you guys make entire videos on like an hour of DLC. It makes me happy inside

[@Kyle_lofc]

I didn’t tell her and I really bloody regretted it. I felt terrible. I thought there was more time. I thought that I should have made the day as fun as possible for her and tell her the news as it came to an end. I shouldn’t have done it. I made the wrong decision. I just didn’t want all the happiness to end. I knew what was coming, I just wanted their day to last as long as possible.

[@Edriely]

I mean, in Max's defense for leaving right after the funeral, she's a kid and really doesn't get a say in where she goes and when. Her parents are the ones pulling her away mid-funeral. Yeah, Max is going "uhn, awkward, maybe don't say anything while they're grieving" but literally Chloe is GRIEVING OVER HER FATHERS GRAVE. People aren't all that responsive to others at graveside and she's kinda trying not to make the situation worse by saying, "welp, I know your world is falling apart but I gtg, ttyl, byeeee!" And as a person who moved around a lot as a kid, no amount of pestering to stay changes when you go.

[@McDDcM]

I enjoy these odd character discussion videos. I probably would never have heard of Life is Strange without you two (mainly Luke).

[@Mrjedite]

what is more depressing is, if you sacrifice Chloe at the end of lis, the farewell episode was actually the last time max and Chloe were together, in Chloe's eyes. Chloe never saw max again after that and she never found out what happened to her girlfriend Rachel

[@ellielee4982]

And that's why i choose to sacrifice Arcadia bay

[@graememcallister6002]

Personally, after so much love for this game. I would rather be given the option for Max to sacrifice herself to save Chloe/Arcadia Bay. That for me after being told these amazing stories, would feel that would be the ultimate redemption for Max after they way she/life had treated Chloe. But I didn’t get that option and so it will always be #baeoverbay

[@acedianPianist]

That would imply Max grew at all as a character. Which she hasn't - which is in part lazy writing, but more to do with the fact that you were actually following Chloe's character development, not Max's.

[@ichsehnursoaus]

thank you so much for this video, guys. i have been on both sides and it was just terrible. it is really hard to explain when you don't have the words for it and don't know how to talk about this stuff. so sometimes someone stays calm.

[@greenliongirl07]

I actually didn't like Chloe in the first game and didn't play before the storm because of it. Not saying Max is perfect, but Chloe just came off as a brat. I understand why, but I still don't like her character. Do I really want to know Rachel? Not really. I feel bad that she was killed in a twisted underground photography studio, but from the scenes I have seen . . . It might take a 3rd game with her as the main character for us to figure her out. Not sure if I would play that one either.

[@spiritofchaos58]

greenliongirl07 Chloe honestly ruins the games for me. I just... Really hate her. She is such a bad person and I can't make her a better person. Like, I can try being nice to her mom and not date some chick that DRUGS A GIRL FOR A PLAY, but she does it anyway!

[@dizzycee3607]

SpiritofChaos that drug part is a hell of a twist on how that scene went down given it was veronica who had the drugs. She didn't have to take the drugs she put in rachel's drink.

[@walabixha1746]

dizzy cee it depends in whether Rachel is suspended or not from school. If you get Rachel suspended she will bring drugs herself and give them to Veronica to get the roll. Rachel was kinda of fucked up you know

[@greenliongirl07]

Walabix Ha! Yeah. I think I liked her better as an enigma. Back when she was different things to different people. All the lets plays scenes with her make her out to be manipulative, dishonest and a drama queen. Honestly right now I don't like her or Chloe. Never liked victoria except when i tried to kill her with kindness and she was tolerable.

[@Bliss-l1t]

Thats not what happened. She takes Victorias drugs and slips them in the cup. Or tricks Victoria into drinking the cup Victoria already drugged by switching it or calling her out for trying to drug her. Rachel and Victoria are both popular chicks who will do anything to bring each other down. Although, they had never intended anyone to end up dead. As in Victoria never new what happened to Rachel. Then Victoria actually feels guilty about what she did to Kate. These are girls who know better but do drugs and see no harm into drugging anyone. Which is why theres irony in how Rachel dies by overdose. The point if the game is not how perfect, likeable or horrible anyone is. It's a game of second chances and healing. All of the characters have equally redeeming qualities and flaws.

[@imlivinginyourbasement6157]

Okay so no one's gonna talk about Rachel completely manipulating Chloe? Or that if you chose save bay ending, Chloe's mum or stepdad or Max wouldn't really be happy, so that's not exactly happy ending? Or the fact that Max was a FRIGGIN KID so she didn't have much choice to leave with her parents? And Chloe is just being unreasonable and blames her dad for dying and Max leaving? Why isn't anybody talking about these???

[@boomoloney]

My biggest annoyances were a) they're not wearing the same clothes they were in the flashback in the main game, and b) who took the funeral photo? I assume Chloe's mum took the birthday photo of Chloe and step-douche, but who's taking photos at a funeral???

[@thanhtotti]

In the beginning of the episode the girls play change clothes when Joyce ask them to sort out the old clothes. There is a bunch of clothes in the corner of the room, you can interact with it to hear Max's inner thought.

[@majesticsloth1643]

b) Some of them weren't actual pictures. It was just the game's way of showing how max's decisions impacted some events. Example: the photo of max packing for the trip to SF, while chloe's playing guitar on the little couch. I don't think they invited someone in the room to stand on the bed and take a picture of max putting clothes in a suitcase.

[@The_Story_Of_Us]

#1 and #2 - Chloe’s okay with Max not telling her. She knew the whole day and kept it to herself all day. #3 Max was already going to leave, so my assumption is that since Max’s father had gotten a job in Seattle, they alread extended their stay for the funeral. Nothing Max did before moving was wrong to any capacity. The problem was after she moved. There’s so much associated trauma and guilt that Max just can’t bring herself to reach out to Chloe, and like she says ”The longer you wait, the worse it’ll be.”, it’s like a vicious cycle, she’s afraid of talking to Chloe because she’s scared of being reamed for not staying in touch, so she doesn’t stay in touch and so she’s even more scared of Chloe’s reaction. She’d rather not even know what Chloe thinks of her than find out the truth, it’s pathetic. And so much of Max’s introversion comes from this dynamic with Chloe. Being so scared of talking to Chloe made her scared of talking to other people as well and that feeds her tendency to be comfortable at a distance with her camera. You can actually see the difference this makes to Max’s personality in the Alternate Timeline where Chloe was paralyzed. Max is far less introverted, she hangs with the cool kids at school and she sends Chloe letters as opposed to avoiding any interaction with her, even letting Chloe know she was at Blackwell earlier. Because William stayed alive, Max felt less guilty about leaving Chloe, so she stayed in touch more. So you see that William’s death didn’t just cause Chloe to go down this self-destructive spiral, but Max too.

[@WAMoralesIgnacio]

I feel less bad killing the town now.

[@voltairinekropotkin5581]

Max's whole character journey in the original Life is Strange is, appropriately enough, about learning to not just drift through life as a passive observer, trying to either freeze time or reverse it. She grows into someone who's prepared to take full responsibility for her actions and accept the consequences, whether they're good or bad. Which is shown at the very end when you have to make her final choice. Regardless of which decision you make, it shows Max's development into an agentive character; the complete negation of everything she was at the beginning of the Farewell chapter. Max's rewind powers are, in a sense, a metaphor for her inability to take decisive action. She keeps procrastinating or leaving issues unresolved. And in the end, she rejects those powers, seeing the damage they (and her former way of living) brought to herself and those she loves.

[@Joearango481]

You guys can't say Chloe's mom is the best when you killed her.

[@pyroshayniac1090]

Preach it.

[@timursimon3557]

But you see... It's the choice Joel makes in The Last of Us.. Fuck humanity, he said. Why? A selfish self interest because what happened to him mattered to him more than a disintegrating human society. It the same logic here.

[@ChowingChow]

she didn't I think, in life is strange season 2?

[@Cooperma426]

Thank you so much for doing another one of these! I love to hear your perspectives on what's a very deep storyline. I know from comments that some in this channel prefer the quick lists (and I also like those), but there's nothing quite like making a cup of tea and hearing you take apart a game, plot, scene, etc. Well done!

[@DarkRubberDucky]

Now, with this explained, it sounds like a perfect ending that she leaves Chloe to die. Useless Max. Always letting Chloe down.

[@val7885]

Nah, Max actually starts growing a spine when out of her parent's grasp and under Chloe's influence. So not bending to world's wishes is the perfect ending. :D

[@RedArcherLive]

Another LiS video? YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!

[@PhantomBones101]

This farewell episode basically shows Until Dawn is the superior choice based game. Even when you choose one thing the game itself will make your choice not worth anything because for the plot’s sake you choice will be nullified. In Until Dawn most if not all of you choices are fully implemented and have consequences. And the biggest area where LIS fucks this up is the ending. Where all your character development as well as the development of other characters is erased by turning back time or being killed in the storm.

[@Rodrigo-ei4ht]

That really does suck. Never looked at the binary ending in that way. Effectively the entire LiS game is undone by the final moments of the game. Everything you did since saving Chloe is undone because it never happens. No character development or anything so your entire playthrough is pointless. Or everyone dies and all your choices til then were meaningless and your entire playthrough pointless.

[@polkarrty]

until dawn is a great game dont get me wrong,but it doesnt have the freedom you think it has,the two heros,mike and sam,cant even die till the final sequence in the cabin the whole rest of the game if you replay some parts of it where you previously thought,ooh what if we chose this one,when we played theres very little difference tho i love how some failed qtes or a wrong choice could lead to their demise,such as sam getting attacked by the bird if you shoot the squirrel then later at the cabin being chased by the maniac,when you fall into the hotel part of the sanitarium you get a concussion,and when you hide in the elevator shaft you cant turn off the flashlight,presumably because of the concussion

[@nomanom4304]

Dapper Horus She doesn’t get a concussion but she does get a nasty cut on her head which opens up as a result of the fall, so it bleeds on the floor and leaves tracks and that’s how he finds her too fast for her to turn off her light

[@elliotnoah7465]

Josh Washington says hey

[@faithelizabeth413]

I feel like both don't have very good choices when you compare them to choose your own adventure stories. They all have a set path and you're choices don't matter.

[@hotpocketH]

"I bet Chloe's mum everyday is saying 'how's Max getting on in Seattle?" This side of 'Life is Strange' is what I really connect with, having had, prob like alot of people, lots of seemingly close friendships that then fell to the wayside. Even after reaching out to my closest friend a year or two ago and having him say "mum always asks about you" yet not hear anything back from him when I've reached out is a special kind of "what if?" It's sad, but something you have to learn to move on from. Not keeping in touch is pretty thoughtless, but something alot of people sadly seem to do.

[@danamalcolm3016]

I HAD GOTTEN OVER THIS YOU GUYS WHY MUST YOU BRING IT UP AGAIN

[@callamastia]

also important to point out seattle is less than a 5 hour drive. it’s literally a weekend trip lol

[@ephemeral.colors]

Thanks for the great video you two! In the original Life is Strange, Max's character is intentionally left a bit blank so that the player has an easier time projecting themselves onto the character. In Before the Storm and Farewell, we see Max's character from an outside point of view and it turns out she is just as flawed as everyone else. And while not telling Chloe about moving to Seattle is a dick move and a stupid thing to do (from a neutral perspective), I feel like it's very much in character for Max. As you pointed out she is procrastinating things and very passive, but those traits are an integral part of her personality. I like Luke's theory about the Evil Parents™ and I do thing that there may well be some truth to it. In my mind, the reason why they left directly after the funeral is because Max's parents could not put off the move to Seattle any longer. It makes sense when you think about it: the day William dies is the last day Max can tell Chloe about moving, so it's reasonable to assume that they intended to move the next day. Now we do not know how much time passes between the death of William and the funeral, but I think it's safe to assume that it's a few days at least, especially since it's an accident death with a possible police investigation attached to it. If Max's dad has to be in Seattle to start his new job or pick up the keys to the house, the few days were probably the longest they could stay in Arcadia Bay. And yes, there would definitely have been some way for them to organize for Max to spend more time with Chloe, but I think that's where Luke's point comes into play that they didn't really try to do that. As for Max not keeping in touch, I have a theory of my own about that. Please keep in mind that this is just a hypothesis and we will most likely never get enough material to make a solid argument for it, but I think the reasoning behind it is sound. I do believe that the combination of William's death and Max having to leave Chloe and move to Seattle hit Max harder than we get to see. A posttraumatic stress disorder can occur after being witness to a traumatic event or - like in Max's case - after hearing that a close friend or relative has experienced such an event. Since Max spent so much time with Chloe it's safe to assume that she was close with William and she obviously was very close to Chloe, so the death of William could reasonably cause trauma. One symptom of PTSD is avoiding trauma-related stimuli. In conjunction with Max's overthinking and avoidant personality, this gives a reasonable explanation why she had such a hard time staying in contact with Chloe. If you think about it, Max not telling Chloe about moving and Max not knowing how to talk to Chloe after her dads death are very similar things. Only this time Max doesn't have a friend to push her into action and with every week that passes without her making contact with Chloe it gets harder and harder to do so, until they are so estranged that neither of the two knows how to talk to the other one. In conclusion, I don't think Max doesn't want to talk to Chloe, I do believe it's because it is actually impossible for her to do so, due to a combination of mental, traumatic and personal factors. That's not an excuse for her being remote, but it is an explanation that would make sense in the context of the story and give a little more credit to Max's character. And one thing Life is Strange tries to show is that we shouldn't be too quick to pass judgment on a person without knowing more about their reasons, motivations and problems.

[@zanshi8693]

And if you snoop around in Max's dorm room at the very beginning of LiS to find that flash drive, you come across something that makes Max say "I really should contact Chloe now that I'm back", or something to that effect. Max was never NOT thinking about Chloe, even though she felt guilty (maybe traumatized) and didn't make an effort to stay in touch. It was implied from the get-go that Max did care, even if she didn't know how to show it when they were apart.

[@sneakydeekie5472]

As someone who was never actually a fan of Max OR Chloe the one thing that I was always on Max’s side for was their friendship fading after she’d moved to Seattle. As someone who moved country when I was 13 and lost all of my friends in the process simply through drifting. It’s not a 13 year olds choice to move or stay or even when to visit. And yeah, when you move to a new place there IS a lot to keep you busy and you are obviously going to make new friends and I don’t blame her parents for not encouraging her to keep in contact with Chloe (if that’s true) because it IS more important to form local friendships especially at that age! My own sister for example was so focused on her old friends (who were bad influences on her) that she never made new friends and was eternally unhappy and moved back the moment she could only to have things go much worse for herself to the point that 10 years later she is still suffering from those decisions and friendships.

[@brandonmorris7811]

Just thought I should point out that Max didn't move across the country, She actually move from Oregon. So she could have at any time taken a bus to visit Chloe and it would have take a day or less. #Maxistheworst

[@psngrl7677]

iamzombiewaffle She's a fucking child...

[@Reicha]

Human Plus If you mean as in she's not the worst, she's a kid - absolutely. But as for making that trip, I did that to see friends at 13 more often than I would as an adult.

[@kovuko_]

You said that in the main game Max was trying to save William but then decided against it because of the consequences, that got me thinking. If Max couldn't save William, why didn't she at least try to be there for Chloe. You know, telling her parents that she doesn't want to go, staying with Chloe for a bit. Even if there were some horrible consequences for whatever reason, she could easily undo them like she always does.

[@zanshi8693]

That was never possible for Max to be able to do, unfortunately. Max's 18 year-old consciousness was trapped within the confines of the moments immediately surrounding the photo. If Max's 13 year-old self got too far outside the time period that her older self was able to infiltrate (say, a 15 minutes time limit, as an example), her older mind and memories go back to the new present time. Max's younger self never remembered her future self's not having contacted Chloe, and never suffered the guilt and regret for not having done so.

[@r.j.penfold]

I had a Max when I was growing up, except much worse. She vanished from my life after elementary school, and the only one who seemed saddened was me. Well, my mom is much better at reading character than I am, and when I recently brought her up, my mom told me what she thought. And I saw, she was right. That "friend" would throw me away at the drop of a hat, only coming back to befriend me when it suited her needs. She was emotionally manipulative, even if she didn't realize it herself at the time, and I'm sorry to say if I had the chance to talk with her again, I wouldn't, because I'm so afraid of who she could've become.

[@Xboxrose]

She is a teenager and she felt like she was losing her best friend. She wanted to have good memories with Chloe. I moved often as a kid so I know how Max felt. I don't think Max is a bad person for being scared to tell her best friend "by the way we may never see each other again"