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    Home Unlabelled Life Is Strange | [No spoilers] Happy fifth anniversary to Life is Strange! 5 years ago this gem was released to the world.

    Life Is Strange | [No spoilers] Happy fifth anniversary to Life is Strange! 5 years ago this gem was released to the world.

    January 30, 2020

    Life Is Strange | [No spoilers] Happy fifth anniversary to Life is Strange! 5 years ago this gem was released to the world.

    [No spoilers] Happy fifth anniversary to Life is Strange! 5 years ago this gem was released to the world.

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:29 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] I drew the cover art to the first Life is Strange comic to celebrate Life is Strange's fifth Anniversary!

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:07 PM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] My 3D printed recreation of my favorite scene. Here’s to 5 years!

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:08 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] My wall with pics + autographs of creators

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:51 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] My wall with pics + autographs of creators

    Hello,

    This is my wall with pictures of LiS. You can see on them autgraphs of Michel, Raoul and Luc. Also, on the middle there's letter to me from DONTNOD team :)

    Additionally, i create a theme with butterflies arranged in rewind sign.

    Love this game.

    Happy 5th anniversary!

    https://preview.redd.it/n26sq0r84yd41.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac9a97c5b3fff46ca63734a40b21aac41f8073f6

    https://preview.redd.it/kbsd5xq84yd41.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0284dddd25f8578b468bb6661ccb3da48d77da51

    https://preview.redd.it/h664gqq84yd41.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91c5701fcd5461d59551dac2d3ab0ea489fd80aa

    submitted by /u/Taconabicie
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    [NO SPOILERS] My recreation of Max Caulfield photo memorial wall (+ DIY tutorial)

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:31 PM PST

    [No Spoilers] 5 years ago we first experienced Life is Strange S1 Ep 1 (Chrysalis, released 30th January 2015). Happy birthday and a big hug to you all!

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST

    (Since it is now midnight in Oregon I will open the floodgates with birthday wishes.)

    5 years ago I - struggling with anxiety and failing in college - got a game I was really interested since I saw the first previews. It seemed like cool, quirky adventure. Little did I know that 5 years down the line I will be crying when replaying this game for 5th time. Now adult, engaged to a lovely lady and having a full-time job.

    I still struggle with processing my emotions, but to this day Life is Strange is a place where I can allow myself feel, smile and cry a little bit more than in our world. And while there are many valid criticisms of all LiS titles, the emotions and experiences they created are so precious to so many of us.

    I do not think I will ever be able to thank enough all the people who worked on the series, from all the devs, the incredible voice acting talent to the amazing community. I feel richer for loving this series, richer for meeting it's characters, richer for experiencing it all. I am looking forward to all your memories and birthday wishes! Thank you all so much. Love you! <3

    "I wish I could stay in this moment forever... But then it wouldn't be a moment." ~ Max Caulfield

    submitted by /u/Milia_Malae
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    [NO SPOILERS] S1 E1 Chrysalis 5th year anniversary!!!!!. - Fanart by Neyarts.

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:54 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] My mom has never played LiS, but that may need to change after today

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:05 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] April of 2019 my sister tattoo this on me. I never shared it publicly, but it inspired by this game. It holds a lot of meaning to personally and from a story standpoint.

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:12 AM PST

    [S2 E5] Fan fic idea - alternate ending

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:46 PM PST

    As I was not so satisfied by endings that we got I was considering alternate endings that could possibly happen. And then I came to the idea that at the time when our boys were in Away David could somehow make them meet with Max and Chloe. Just imagine Sean spending time with Chloe and Max with Daniel. Hella amazing! And when they would eventually find out powers of each other Max could be able to help them.

    ​

    It might sound ridiculous at the first time, but what if Max could go back to the day when Estaban was still alive and send a letter to Sean with some explanations and the most importantly a message to not leave home that certain day. To get Sean's trust (because who would normally believe in letter from someone from possible future?) she could write about some events that will happen in the next day in Sean's life - I bet he remembers some.

    ​

    I'm not a good writer so if anyone feels that it might be interesting feel free to use it in your fan story. I would definitely read this

    submitted by /u/PEEPING37
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    [ALL] The Life is Strange Retrospective: Chrysalis Part One

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:36 AM PST

    "The pupa of a butterfly or moth, enclosed inside a cocoon, in which metamorphosis takes place." - Chrysalis, Wiktionary.

    Five years, to this day, the first episode of the Square Enix narrative-driven choice-based game, Life is Strange was released to the public. The game has had a profound effect on many, including myself. How do I know this? Well, it's been five years and we're still talking about this scrappy little game that saved its developer from bankruptcy. A game that, while has some problems in its story, has so much heart and well developed characters and themes that it's so hard not to love this game and the story it tries to tell. While other games in the franchise, such as Before the Storm and Life is Strange 2, certainly have their places, it will be forever impossible to top the story that Dontnod created with Life is Strange.

    Life is Strange is the story of two girls, Max and Chloe. They were best friends whose lives were changed when Chloe's father, William, was killed and Max moved away. They lost touch, but five years later, as young adults the two have a chance encounter that reignites their relationship. Over the course of this year, I hope, I wish to touch upon each episode on the days of the original release. Today we will be covering Life is Strange's first episode, Chrysalis. We will be covering characters, themes, and arcs for what they are. For now, relax. Sit down. Grab a blanket and a drink and try to get back into that mindset. That mindset from whenever you played the game for the first time, from the day it came out to even just a week ago. This is framed, however, from my point of view and the choices I've made. There is a certain way I view the game and its themes. Let's step back into Arcadia Bay one more time.

    Chapter 1: Visions of the Storm

    The vision of the storm is the very first introduction we get into the world of Life is Strange is a storm. Our main protagonist, Max Caulfield awakens to a dark storm in the forest. Unable to figure out what happened, our hapless heroine makes her way upwards on the hill leading to a lighthouse overlooking the small town where she lives. She looks down upon it as a large piece of the lighthouse collapses down on her, resulting in her awakening in her photography class. Right off the bat, we are introduced to a majority of the people we'll see around Arcadia Bay and Blackwell Academy the most.

    Max is an interesting character to follow. She is, for the most part, someone that a good majority of people could see themselves in. She is relatable as a player character and main protagonist. Right off the bat Max is anxious and unable to pay attention in class. She's someone that has her own distinct personality and attitude, but being a teenager in high school with bad anxiety, we can relate to her more than we can a character in other Square Enix franchises. We see several important characters, such as Victoria Chase, Kate Marsh, and the teacher Mark Jefferson. We see the little things that give us their characters just like that in a moment.

    From her singular physical design, we can tell Victoria is most likely high class and snobbish. Her and her friends bothering Kate Marsh give off the instant feeling that she's a bully as well. Kate we can tell is the opposite. She's more conservative and quiet, just by how she reacts to the ball of paper thrown at her. It's very light, but you can tell simply from her hurt look and her hand that Kate is non-combative. Pacifist. Finally, our last major player in this scene is Mark Jefferson. From the way he speaks, you can tell that he's someone Max looks up to with her photography. He knows all the aspects to it. I knew 1000x more things about photography in those first few minutes of playing Life is Strange than I had in the years before. You can get the feelings he knows what photography is and all of its ins and outs.

    This entire scene in the classroom very much sets up character dynamics that last for a majority of the game between the characters introduced here. Victoria doesn't like Max and Kate, and therefore she bullies them and puts them down through insults and the like. Max and Kate are friends, and Max wants to be there for Kate, but Kate's own depressed attitude sinks her into social isolation. Victoria tries to be a suck up to Jefferson, but Jefferson, despite some of his attitude about Max not knowing historical things about photography, certainly favors her over pretty much everyone in class.

    Max's primary talent and interest falls to that of photography. She is excellent at capturing the moments she wants to capture, and her ability to do so with an instantly developing film is what sets her apart from her classmates, as well as what draws Jefferson's high praise for Max as a photographer. Despite the praise from Jefferson, a world renown photographer, Max still denies that she is good at what she does. The praise she gets though is well warranted. After all, she attends Blackwell on a photography scholarship. Max has the attitude that many people that are talented at something, but suffer from severe anxiety, have. She believes the praise she gets is unneeded because she believes the opposite. That her photos are alright, but nothing special.

    This entire opening scene sets the stage, in my opinion, for what becomes the entire story. Max approaches Kate, but Kate says she's got things to do and she'll see Max later. This is important on the basis of Kate's depression. We know she's bullied and she's depressed. Max wants to help, but depression often deters us from accepting help. Believing we're pulling others down. That isn't true, but Kate doesn't see through that and she turns Max away. Upon seeing Victoria talk to Jefferson, Max's attempts to speak to Jefferson are instantly acted upon. Once more we see that Jefferson has taken a clear liking to Max as an artist. He wishes for Max to enter the Everyday Heroes contest, a photography competition that he will be judging, as well as admitting that he believes Max is a surefire shot to win. Max's anxieties prevent her from doing so however, disappointing Jefferson. We can see that disappointment makes Max look down even more upon herself, before she heads out of the classroom looking for a "time out."

    Like any teenager, as Max heads to the bathroom for a moment of peace, she thinks about her initial thoughts about her classmates. The hall is filled with people, mostly side characters who all have their own distinct designs and personalities. Even if we never grow to know too many of these people, it brings a certain life to the game that some other games lack. There are other games where NPCs exist solely to fill up space and give an illusion of life. But you can't interact with them. You don't know their names or personalities or anything. While there are a couple of blank template NPCs skulking the halls, there are a good amount of NPCs who are filled with life. They all have names and lives and personalities that separate them from another person. And you get to hear Max's view on how she sees these people. It's very interesting because Max is just like any other person. For example, when she views Dana she remarks that they must build girls like her in a factory, but also internally apologizes for that fault because Dana is actually a nice person to Max. Max is a person. She has her biases and views on people she likes and people she dislikes, but also along the way has her own catty thoughts.

    This entire opening prologue, set to the backdrop of the Syd Matters song, To All of You, brings you directly into this world. You feel like you yourself are Max. You feel like you're living through senior year of high school all over again with the meshing of adulthood anxieties and teenage angst soaring through you. I think it's hard to capture feelings like that in a lot of games because some games like this often take incredibly fantastical approaches or are pure visual novels. Games, like this, up until this point like Telltale's The Walking Dead are fantastic games in their own right. But it is set in this dramatic universe that is set apart from our own. Life is Strange sets us into this place that accurately represents a real world place. And by allowing Max to monologue in her head and write her personal thoughts in her journal, which is probably one of the most important aspects of the game. So much of a story is told solely through dialogue and simply monologues, but by implementing Max's journal we get an even deeper view into who Max is and how she reacts to all events that happen to her. Even before the game fully gets into it, we can open up Max's journal and read a bunch of entries from prior to this day. We get to see every entry Max writes from having this journal to the end of the game. It lets us, the player, feel more intimate with Max and how she feels and acts. Everything really does just seem like a high school drama game, until... we enter the bathroom.

    Chapter 2: An Everyday Hero

    The bathroom scene and beyond is really what starts to allow us to see kind of the darker side of the world we are about to inhabit. Max enters the bathroom and makes sure no one is around before she heads to the mirror to look at herself and think in peace. She pulls out the polaroid she had taken previously, her entry for the Everyday Heroes contest, and rips it in half. Once more we see her own anxieties and self doubt regarding her usefulness and talent with photography. She drops the photo before realizing a mysterious blue butterfly has fluttered into the bathroom with her. Despite her having previously and immediately deriding herself for the "gift" that Jefferson claims she has, she can't help herself from taking a photo of the butterfly as it flies behind the stalls.

    As she takes the photo, however, Max is immediately met with someone entering the girl's room, who is not a girl. The person in question is another major player in the story, from what we can gather in this scene. His name is Nathan Prescott. We don't know much about him, other than the fact that he claims he owns the school. He claims he could do whatever he wanted like blow it up, and be fine. We can tell immediately though, there is some obvious instability with him.

    Another character enters the scene, a blue haired punk girl with a Misfits Skull tank top. Everything we view lacks context. All we know is the girl is trying to get money out of this rich kid, which results in him pulling a gun on her. He makes sure to get as close as possible and holds the gun at her stomach, preventing her from moving or even protecting herself. All she can do is panic and push Nathan away from her, which results in her getting shot in the stomach. As this all occurs, Max steps out from behind the stall and throws out her arm screaming "NO!"

    Time stops. Motion blurs as the entire scene is acted out in reverse and once more Max wakes up as if this was a dream. Once more she's back in Jefferson's class having the exact same lecture that she had heard moments prior. This scene introduces an ability Max now has. She can, by putting her hand out and focusing, reverse time for up to a few moments before she is unable to any longer. As a result, Max is now able to move time back and forth to her liking. Her immediate thought, however, to using this is to go back to the bathroom and stop the girl from dying. Her attempts to leave in the middle of class are negated by Jefferson's original questions, however with her rewind she is able to give the correct answer that Victoria had given in the original timeline. Jefferson is pleased with Max and once more things play out similarly. Is this all happening, is something that Max thinks initially. After a quick conversation with Kate, Max is 100% sure that this is happening. It's not a dream. It's real. She can rewind time.

    With her ability to rewind time, she is able to easily re-initiate her conversation with Jefferson that had happened earlier. And as a result, Jefferson is obviously pleased to see that Max is taking her photography entry seriously. A lot of this is just tutorial, however to teach the player how the rewind works and how you can have the same conversation over and over again with new information from a previous iteration of the conversation. Now with Jefferson off her back about the contest, Max is able to make her way back to the bathroom and make sure the girl doesn't get shot. This does become an important aspect of how Max acts throughout the entire game. She manipulates time to prevent bad things from happening to people she doesn't think deserve to have bad things happen to.

    The scene plays out the exact same way, but this time Max is able to hit the fire alarm to prevent Nathan from shooting. The fire alarms blare and for a split second, Nathan looks away from the girl and moves the gun away from her. She takes the moment to knee him in the groin and escape. Nathan falls, sees Max's photo, and leaves remarking it's another shitty day.

    This entirely sets up everything incredibly neatly. And I love that about this scene. We get all the points we need to about this. We know Nathan is antagonistic and he has some beef with the punk girl. We also know that Max is willing to put herself into danger as well as manipulate time and conversations in order to get back to where she needs to be. If she can say all the right things to Jefferson to get him off her back about the contest, she can get to the bathroom quicker than she had originally. It also sets up Max's desire to be of use to people, even if she doesn't know that person. We saw that she wants to help Kate and take her mind off the depression. And now we see her going to extreme lengths to stop Nathan from killing this girl. I think it's brilliant to be quite honest. Just through simple actions we can see how Max acts and wants to be. Now that she's saved the girl from being shot, however, she believes she can just continue on normally.

    Chapter 3: Blackwell Academy

    Blackwell Academy is a cool place to hang around. It's essentially an elite artist boarding school for aspiring artists and people interested in other things like science, but it's mainly about the art. Upon leaving the bathroom, Max encounters the head of security, David Madsen. He seems suspicious of Max for not being outside already, with her having been in the bathroom. He doesn't believe her at all, but arrival of the headmaster, Principal Ray Wells gets him off of Max's back. We're kind of initially led on to believe Wells is probably the better of these two guys as a result. Max has no poker face. That much is obvious. As a result, Wells can immediately tell something is wrong. When he does ask, Max responds and... oh... what's this? Two choices and a heavily filtered static image of this scene? This choice... must be important. Max can tell the truth or lie about it.

    Normally, you pick an important choice like that and you're stuck with whatever you picked. But with the rewind ability, you're able to see immediate reactions and outcomes to the choices you make. While these choices do affect the game down the road, you're able to see the more immediate reactions and thoughts to the people you're talking to. So while we will have to make a final decision, we can see how Wells reacts to both of what Max says. When she lies, Wells can tell she's lying and having a "teenage attitude" with him. As a result, her scholarship goes into jeopardy. Rewind the story, and tell the truth. Wells can see you're telling the truth, but also reveals the nature of the Prescott family. They own the town and school pretty much with Nathan being their heir. He does thank Max for telling the truth and tells her to head outside. So here's the problem you immediately see. Do you tell the truth or lie in this case? Well we don't really know too much about what's going on here, so I told the truth and stuck with it. She gains nothing initially off of lying to him and it puts Nathan in a better spot. Even if the Prescotts own Blackwell and Wells, simply telling the truth about Nathan could put him in a precarious position. Do you put him in that position or let him off scot-free with your schooling in danger? It's a simple first major choice to have the player make, and it can influence how you play Max as the game develops.

    One thing to note as we head outside into campus and leave the building behind us, are the massive amounts of these missing posters. They are everywhere. All of them talking about a single girl. Her name is Rachel Amber and we can only wonder who this girl is and who is going out of their way to hang up an infinite number of these missing posters? We can sort of start putting together that there's something more going on in Arcadia Bay through some of these simple things that we see along with things in the environment. The posters are put up in such a way, that it makes you think that whoever is putting these posters up definitely wants people to at least care and put in notice to them.

    Out in the open campus, we can explore. Max receives a text from her friend, Warren Graham, who requests that Max return his flash drive. Right off the bat, again, through texts we can see more things about Max and the people she talks to. Dad, Mom, Kate, Warren. That's it. Max does... not have too many friends here at Blackwell. Looking through these texts we can tell that Max has a... preference. From her texts with Kate, for example, we see that Max is absolutely there for her. Kate asks Max out for tea, just immediately Max responds with a yes. Similarly, we see that Warren has been sending Max texts over the past week. And Max has not responded to any of them until he asks her to return the flashdrive. Not only that but we can tell Warren is... somewhat disturbed? Or just trying to be edgy, as he asks Max to check out a movie called NEKRomantik. That is a German exploitation film about murdering someone and then using the body for necrophilia. We'll... get back to that.

    We adventure out into the campus, and out goal is to get the flashdrive. However, at the same time we can try and get to know some of the people here in Blackwell. We can meet up with Ms. Grant, the science teacher, who asks Max to sign her petition about David Madsen putting more tight security to monitor everything. While the whole thing with Nathan could have benefited from having cameras in the hallway, he also wants to put them in the dorms and the dorm rooms. A violation of privacy if I've ever seen one, so I gotta sign it and continue forward. By talking to a majority of the people, we can see how they view Max and then by rewinding we can get them to open up about Rachel Amber. We hear so much about Rachel Amber by talking to the people around the campus. Stella, a quiet gossiper, tells us that Rachel absolutely had sex with Jefferson. Daniel, a sketch artist we saw being bullied, tells us that Rachel was his muse and she would allow him to draw her. Justin, a skateboarder, tells Max that Rachel and her punk friend, strikingly similar to the girl in the bathroom, used to skate and hang out with them. Hayden, another photography student, claims that Rachel was too cool for the Vortex Club but they all felt blessed when she showed up to party with them. Finally, the last person to mention Rachel is Evan, a sort of pretentious photography student who allows Max to look at this portfolio if she answers his question correctly. When she sees that a lot of the models are Rachel Amber, he as well claims she was a muse who understood him. He can only tell Max, however, that he believe whatever happened to Rachel was nothing good. There are two other characters we can interact with, Luke and Brooke. Luke doesn't have much to say or do, other than that he hates Nathan. Brooke has an obvious crush on Warren and looks down on Max's lack of knowledge on technological stuff, until Max rewinds to get the correct answer.

    As the player, we see this very one sided opinion of Rachel. She was this uber popular girl at Blackwell who was seemingly well loved by everyone for a variety of different reasons. She befriended anyone and everyone. Evan took photos of her. Daniel sketched her into life. She partied with the cool kids. She hung around with the less popular skater kids. Most people even believe she was having sex with Mark Jefferson, a world known artist and photographer. There's this mystical quality to her, along with the fact she's missing. It builds up this immediate feeling of how could this girl who everyone loves just.... vanish? Is she alive and just ran off? Is she dead or something? Nobody knows. Nobody can guess. It's just... a mystery. A mystery that adds on for Max Caulfield.

    She gets to the dorms, where she can talk to a variety of more people again She initially tries to head into the dorms, but Victoria and her posse keep her from going in as well as mocking and taking a picture of Max looking sad because they think it's funny. Now Max has to get them out of the way. You can talk to Kate, who once again pushes Max away as she wishes to be alone. You can talk to another of Max's classmates, Alyssa, who kinda blows off Max's attempts to talk to her. Simply not a person who wants to talk around with Max. Finally, she can talk to the groundskeeper, Samuel.

    Samuel is an odd man, but he's also deeply... I'm not sure the word. Not prophetic, but even though he has that odd inflection in his voice and he says some weird things, he seems to understand people at a glance almost. I think that is extremely interesting, and when you do talk to him he, like everyone else, brings up Rachel Amber. For him, he can say a variety of things. He refers to Rachel as a prism, someone you watch in awe of. Someone who casts all these colors around them, but no matter what you can't not stare at that beauty. He can also tell her probably one of the most important early notes about Rachel as a character. Everyone so far has printed Rachel out as this sort of goddess, this ethereal being who was kind to everyone and knew everyone and would spare her time for all of them. But Samuel says this. He says that she is like sunlight, but even sunlight can cast shadows. A battery that outputs two currents: positive and negative. We don't know what this means initially, but we do know this. There is more to Rachel Amber. There is some sort of mysterious negative side to her that nobody ever knew or saw.

    Using her powers and such, Max manages to get a sprinkler to force Victoria and her friends up and then getting Samuel's paint can to fall from where he is painting and get all over Victoria and her clothes. Once more you get another choice to make. Do you comfort Victoria when her friends go to get her towels or do you mock her and photograph her the same way that she was going to do with you? For me, this was more of a choice I made on personal morals. Which is primarily that you already dumped the paint on her, you don't get a choice with that. Do you rub it in or move on and just be an okay person. I don't rub it in. I don't want to add onto the already kind of cyclical nature of things like bullying and abuse. Even though Max remarks that she probably got played, I feel like dumping the paint on her was already more than enough punishment for now. Doing this does give you a small inkling of Victoria's actual personality. The idea that behind the snobbish, rich, bully girl is just someone who has so little self esteem she feels the need to control and harass others. While I don't think that is okay, it becomes a little understanding that Victoria's problems result in her causing other people's problems.

    Chapter 4: A Moment of Calm

    In the dorms, there isn't much to do here. You can see who lives in which room from Max's thoughts, and one thing you can do though is erase the slate that has harassing words from most likely Victoria on Kate's little board outside her room. It's not something huge, but it is something you can do for Kate that's important. To stop the bullshit for Kate. It doesn't need to be something huge, just something small quick and nice and just the right thing to do overall. Finally though, we can head into Max's room.

    A bedroom and how it is designed is always a very good luck at the personality and nature of the person who designed it. We get a very good look at the kind of person Max is simply by looking at her room and the things she says while exploring it. There is a huge amount of information in here simply about Max and her life and how she thinks and the things that she likes. From something simple like her being able to play guitar and how music helps inspire her photography to her childhood teddy bear to... the picture of her and her best friend, Chloe, her childhood best friend whom she lost contact with when she moved away from Arcadia Bay when she was thirteen. This is the first time Chloe is actually brought up and named, but if you were reading Max's journal, you'll find references to Chloe as well.

    "The longer I wait, the worse it'll be. Idiot."

    Another important facet of Max as a character is her name. Max Caulfield. Caulfield. In her room she has a large poster which is essentially just the LiS universe's version of Catcher in the Rye, whose main protagonist was named Holden Caulfield. There are a ton of influences for what made Life is Strange what it is, something I'll cover later in this series of writings. Though knowing Holden as a character, he is the cynical teenage protagonist of his story, a book in which you have an unreliable narrator in a story told through his eyes. Catcher in the Rye is a story about growing up in the mid 20th century. Themes of angst and alienation are extremely present in that book, and those sorts of themes are present here as well. However, the cynical nature that makes up Holden's personality is replaced with the horrid anxieties Max latches onto. His personality is extremely different from that of Max's but the novel still ties into themes that Life is Strange attempts to tell in a modern world. It's one of the bigger influences on the more down to earth themes of Life is Strange, where as other parts are influenced by things like Twin Peaks.

    In her room, Max finds that the flashdrive is gone and has been taken by the aforementioned factory produced Dana. Max goes to her room to find that Dana has been locked inside by her friend, Juliet. Juliet is not happy with Dana and either through a lucky guess or through rewinding, you tell Juliet her last name and she tells you that Dana has apparently been sexting with Juliet's boyfriend, Zachary, local football asshole who we saw harassing Daniel in the opening scene in the hallway. There's not much going on with Juliet, except Dana's belief this is all one big set up perpetrated by Victoria. Max goes into Victoria's room, which is unlocked, and you enter her room to find evidence to exonerate Dana.

    This entire scene, like many in this episode, are great. A simple mystery. Go into Victoria's room and find the evidence! In Victoria's room we do pretty much see her with the latest and greatest things with shoes that cost more than Max's entire wardrobe. We can also see that Juliet is the editor of the school paper and she wrote a paper not too keen on the Vortex Club, talking about how bullying at Blackwell has increased due to the elitism of the club. Both Dana and Juliet are members, but also vocal about how bad the club is becoming. This leads to Max discovering everything that happened was Victoria's doing in response to said article. Max prints it out and gives it over to Juliet, who apologizes to Dana, who forgives Juliet, who goes to cry in the parking lot about her shitty boyfriend.

    Dana has her own interesting subplot if you choose to be nosy about it. Initially, I did not do this on my original playthrough because it was something I actually missed. But it is important to the kind of intimacy you learn about the cast of Arcadia Bay. Essentially, in her trash you can find a pregnancy test. Positive. If you're nosy, Dana gets angry and kicks you out. If you rewind time, you can ask her about it via the form of a "rumor" Max has heard. This nosiness that Max has is definitely a negative trait. She tends to want to know more and more about people for no other reason other than it interests her. But by utilizing her rewind, she can get more information out of people without seeming nosy. Dana reveals that she was pregnant. Was. With the implication being that she terminated the pregnancy. I think having this in the game is a small important detail that is in real teenage life. People having sex, or some guy purposefully going into sex unprotected that leaves a poor teenager with a baby while the dad fucks off with no responsibility. The abortion arguments will continue for as long as conservatives and religious people want to control women's bodily rights, and I think having it here as something so clean and simple is good. It's a choice that Dana made. That's it. She's not ready for a child, she's still young and has a life she wants to lead. And that's okay. Life is Strange is about choices. Everyone makes choices in their lives, including big choices like this.

    Dana tells Max about the flashdrive and Max checks it out, where she creepily finds a folder simply called MAX. There's really no indication of what is inside of it other than it's just creepy in general. I'm gonna say it here. I don't have the highest opinion of Warren as a character. And this, for me, adds to a weird general creepiness to it. Some people think it might be just weird creepy photos of Max that he has while others believe them to be "gifts" for Max, but if you take into account him complaining to Max to watch stuff and then suddenly he needs it back for "space and info?" It's weird and it adds to this general uneasiness I have in whole about Warren, even though up to this point we just kinda know he has a big obvious crush on Max and it's one that Max doesn't really realize or care about too much, she just sees him as a friend. And we'll get into it more soon.

    We head out of the dorms back to the campus, where you can encounter Alyssa once more but this time being smashed in the head with a football thrown her way by an angry Zachary, who just found out what happened. Again, Max rewinds to tell Alyssa to move out of the way. Alyssa is happy she didn't get embarrassed and Max is happy she helped someone. All these small little moments of Max just helping people for the sake of helping people actually build up over time as an important plot point. Alyssa has a higher appreciation for Max now then she did earlier... huh.

    We're actually led into an important decision as we head to the parking lot, this one between Kate and Officer David the Dickhead. We don't know the context, but David is obviously harassing her. And this is one of the more... plot hole-ish decisions in the game. Usually you can't do more than one of these two decisions like both making fun of and comforting Victoria. You can't do both, you gotta stick to one. Here you can either defend Kate from David's onslaught or take a photo as evidence that David is harassing Kate. It's interesting because the immediate thought is this. Why can't she take the photo and then defend Kate? Or why can't she take the photo, then rewind and defend Kate? It's a bit of a plot hole because from a gameplay standpoint and story standpoint, when Max rewinds she keeps everything on her. Her entire being, clothes and things attached to her are all connected to her when she rewinds. This is probably an oversight to be honest. But really you gotta step in here to tell David off for whatever his deal is. It hurts to see Kate being bullied earlier by Victoria and her cronies and now by the security head. David gets flustered by the sudden defense Max tells him off for and he leaves. Kate thanks Max for intervening before going to whatever she has to do. Max feels good about this choice.

    A lot of people often tell me off often for saying Max has a generalized anxiety disorder, and that is something you can see clearly throughout the game. Max's bouts of courage that she has are either bolstered to defend someone she cares about or because if it goes south she can just rewind it. There are times though where Max barely thinks about the situation through the lens of her powers and more towards just being anxious and upset. It's just in certain situations she is bolstered by her ability to rewind without consequences, which also plays into some other things that we'll see later. All we need to know is though, Max has anxiety and her anxiety does bolster her to use her rewind to try and alleviate that anxiety.

    Max heads to the parking lot to meet with Warren. You can explore a little bit though. You can check out many of the references to different 90s TV shows and stuff on license plates, such as Twin Peaks or the X-Files. You can talk to Juliet too where she's screwed up but at least now knows that Zachary cheated on her. Despite the fact it's shitty, and it hurts, she's glad she knows sooner rather than later. You can also find a large beat up pick up truck filled with the Rachel Amber posters, along with a huge dirty RV that Max can draw on with her finger. Little tiny things that are neat to the environment .

    Finally we meet Warren who attempts to go in for a hug without really asking, he just does so but Max shuts him down by handing him the flash drive. Warren, like I said, I'm not the biggest fan of him. I think he's one of the worst characters in this game from a character perspective. He's just kind of static and boring. If anything he kind of goes through an anti-character arc, which is kinda interesting. But even then, as you see Warren now is how you'll see Warren at the end. If you don't view him as creepy or his actions as invasive, he still only fills the role of a "nerdy dorky friend who has a crush on you." And he never evolves past that, which you can't say for many of the characters in the game. Everyone goes through some sort of change, and if you refuse to believe in the idea of an anti-character arc, then he doesn't do that. But if you believe he does go through this anti-character arc, he does kind of devolve throughout the game. You don't have to agree with this depiction of Warren, but it's definitely the two major ways I see him. Either increasingly threatening and creepy or just bland character who serves as more of a plot device than an actual character.

    You talk a bit back and forth with Warren, with the only major stick out being when Max calls him sensitive. This leads to him saying "Usually means wont' be having sex with you." And that's already a negative check in my book for Warren. That's just not something you say to this girl who is nothing more than you're friend, essentially implying you want her for sex. Luckily, Max does have the appropriate reaction telling Warren he needs a sensitive woman to kick his ass. Of course this completely soars over Warren's head and he reduces it down to more sex. Since Kate didn't want to talk, Warren tries to get Max to tell him about what's going on, but then they're interrupted by Nathan Prescott.

    This encounter with Nathan is interesting. Depending on your choice, either he confronts you about reporting him or he knows the photo he saw is Max's. We see more facets to this idea of Nathan's character and personality. He gets away with whatever he wants. "A stern lecture." But nobody lectures him. "Do not analyze me! I pay people for that!" So we know he's got mental problems and he probably sees a doctor for it. But he's extremely toxic and believes he's untouchable as a result. In broad daylight after almost murdering someone in the bathroom, he headbutts Warren to the ground while grabbing Max by the neck saying how nobody tells him what to do! It makes Nathan extremely unlikable right off that bat if you had any inklings for him. She scratches his face to get him off of her, which results in him pushing her to the ground. Things look dire for Max as Nathan stands over her when that beat up junker drives up. Max gets up and looks at the front seat windshield.

    "Max?"

    To be continued later today... in part two focusing primarily on Max and Chloe.

    submitted by /u/BeMoreChillFan
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    [NO SPOILERS] a f*cked up Life is Strange 3 & 4 Idea

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:22 AM PST

    So I came up with a pretty messed up third game idea that would be a set-up to bring back Max and Chloe.

    Main Character(s) - 1 female main, with a Male sidekick. They would be late teens, early twenties.

    Powers - shapeshifting (female character) -mind control (male character)

    How it gets fucked up:

    • both of the characters are from Arcadia Bay and have lost their families, friends, and loved ones due to the Storm of 2013, when they were very young (13-14 years old) and are struggling with the loss still

    -The story will follow them as they not just discover their powers, but also discover the truth behind what caused the storm...... Max (this will be the final episode)

    Life is Strange 4 will then reintroduce Max and Chloe as main characters years down the line. With the "villains" being the characters from the LiS 3., who are looking to get revenge for what happened to their families and parents. They will both meet each other and face off power vs. Power.

    In the end the player will have to choose once again.... but this time between the 2 sets of protagonists.

    **NOTE: for this to really have an effect, these new characters will be very similar to Max and Chloe in many ways, and need to be just as likeable to the fan base.

    PS: In LiS 1 the main theme song was arguably "to all of You" - Syd Matters

    For this fame I suggest "Ocean" - John Butler Trio

    submitted by /u/Iversonanswer1
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    [BtS] My cover of Dont Mess With Me by Brody Dalle. Also i cant fucking believe that its been 5 years since life is strange has been released. Holy shit! That is fucking nuts xD congrats guys!

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:07 AM PST

    [All] Just finished BTS and saw this, I'm confused (OP Explanation - Comment Section)

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:01 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] My friend painted this on her hoodie

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:55 AM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] Looks like GameStop has a Totaku for Life is Strange up for pre-order. If have to place my bet on it being Max.

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:27 PM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] Is there any way to contact DONTNOD, the developers?

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:42 PM PST

    I have an issue with downloading LiS2 Complete Season I've heard only they can help with.

    Will they respond? I'm super sad I can't play this game.

    submitted by /u/WLWMain03
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    [NO SPOILERS] Kate Marsh cosplay by Restless Dreams

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:25 PM PST

    [ALL] The Nathan Prescott Defense Conundrum

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 07:29 PM PST

    I'd consider this practice for the eventual fifth anniversary of Chrysalis tomorrow, where I plan to write about said episode in depth. However, I thought about this before I went to bed last night and I couldn't get it out of my head. Recently, a lot of people who didn't like the 2019 film, Joker, have suddenly turned face and are lauding this as some sort of masterpiece of fiction on mental illness and abuse on men. Now this isn't a Joker review, but this definitely reminded me of the people who are die hard fans of Nathan Prescott and will defend him to their dying breaths about how he is the greatest character in Life is Strange and how he himself may actually be the main protagonist of the story according to some. While that may be a minority of people, I've encountered a surprising amount of them recently.

    Two of Life is Strange's main themes are mental illness and abuse. When looking at the characters of Nathan and Chloe they can initially look very similar in some ways, but upon a deeper look they couldn't be more different. At the core they are mentally ill teenagers with a parent that is hurling abuse at them. I avoid saying both have abusive parents, because while it's obvious Sean Prescott is abusive, David Madsen isn't. I've talked about this in several different places, but at the core David isn't abusive but his actions are. I don't think David is an abusive or bad person because he is genuinely attempting to help Chloe, not control or feel superior to her. Unfortunately, he comes off as abusive because he doesn't realize that Chloe needs a gentle and understanding touch, not an angry military drill instructor that David had.

    Nathan as presented in Life is Strange may be the character I hate the most as a person. A character who does such unforgivable things that he doesn't deserve to have a moment where he's suddenly "redeemed." Dontnod attempted to do that for him in episode five, but we'll get there. The first time we see Nathan Prescott, he kills a girl in the bathroom. This triggers the events of the entire game. A lot of people tend to defend Nathan on two counts. The first being that he's mentally ill and the second being that Jefferson is manipulating him. Today I'm going to kind of debunk these two claims that most hardcore Nathan fans use to defend him.

    • Nathan is mentally ill and therefore can't be held accountable for his actions
      • Yes. Nathan is mentally ill. Mental illness, however, is not an excuse for committing horrible crimes you know are wrong but you do them anyways. This gives much leeway to real life criminals who commit horrible crimes and are mentally ill. It blames mental illness over the fact that a person is easily able to get ahold of a weapon to kill a bunch of people. For people who do horrible things, they'll always be diagnosed with mental illness even if they are neurotypical, someone who doesn't suffer from chronic mental illness. There are certain cases where mental illness can make you unaccountable for something you do. If you are horrible mentally ill and are experiencing an episode of delusion, more often than not whatever you do while having your episode isn't really your fault. However, it's not a defense when the person consciously and knowingly commits a horrible act or crime because they want to but then they hide behind their mental illness to get away with it. It's the sort of thing that drives the stigma of mentally ill people.
      • Nathan knowingly does everything he does in the game. He understands it's wrong. He understands he's hurting other people. But he does it anyway. He has bad problems, yes, but he still understands the difference between right and wrong. Nathan's diagnoses only ever explain why he does what he does. It does not absolve him of the sins and crimes he commits. Just because he's mentally ill does not give him the pass to finance Jefferson's crimes, assists him in obtaining drugs to kidnap girls, help him kidnap girls, photograph them against their wills, as well as his own eventual killings. He did all of this knowing that it was wrong and illegal, but he did it because doing it made him feel better. Making Jefferson happy and being his protege was more important and made him feel better about his own actual dad than not hurting other people.
    • Nathan is being manipulated by Jefferson! He can't possibly be held accountable for what he did when he was under duress.
      • This is an argument that really only exists to push the blame off of Nathan and solely onto Jefferson. Even though Jefferson is not innocent in any of this, he is the mastermind of this, Nathan is still responsible for the things he ended up doing. Never once do we see that Nathan is actually under any duress until like episode five where suddenly he's super remorseful for everything he did. Except he isn't, he blames everyone else for manipulating him and controlling him and is only trying penance over the fact Jefferson is going to kill him. It's under that sort of almost cruel thing where a person thinks they can be suddenly forgiven for all the horrid things they did if they say "Sorry, even though I'm not really sorry it's their faults I did this."
      • Like I said there's never an actual moment in the game where Nathan is even slightly apologetic for anything he does. Let's be real, the first time we see him interact with Max, he begins to grab her by the neck in broad daylight because Max called him out on his bullshit. When he's confronted in the end of episode two about Kate, he completely lies and says he didn't do anything to Kate and that she "got sober." Not to mention episode one again where he, you know, murders Chloe in the bathroom. Many people will defend this and say it's Chloe's fault for trying to blackmail Nathan, but that's just victim blaming. Nathan drugged and kidnapped her, of his own volition, and took her to his dorm bedroom. Why? Because Jefferson got angry with him for bringing Rachel to the Dark Room and then accidentally killing her, thus when Nathan tries to continue to emulate Jefferson on his own time, he takes Chloe to his room instead where Jefferson can't monitor him. People say he was just trying to scare Chloe away, but if he was trying to scare Chloe away he wouldn't have:
    1. Brought a real gun with him
    2. Brought a real gun with him fully loaded
    3. Brought a real gun with him fully loaded and with the safety off
    4. Brought a real gun with him fully loaded and with the safety off pressed up point blank against her stomach
    5. Brought a real gun with him fully loaded and with the safety off pressed up point blank against her stomach in a daylight public setting where there's security
    • Chloe thought she was safe initially because her meeting place was Blackwell in the middle of the school day. Even though, for Chloe, it was a dumb idea to blackmail as someone as unstable at Nathan. But Chloe is also desperate and needs the money to pay off Frank. However, I've also been said I'm a hypocrite because I call people who blame Chloe for her own death victim blaming while having no sympathy for Nathan.
    • The thing about Nathan, again, is that he is a totally good example of the cyclical nature of abuse. Nathan is mentally ill. His dad abuses him. Nathan, as a result, thinks it's okay to abuse other people and be violent and selfish because the same things happened to him. The thing is, Nathan thinks it's okay to hurt or even kill other people because he himself was hurt and since he's richer than anyone else he believes he can do anything and not have to pay the price for it. After all, in episode three, Max and Chloe find evidence that Nathan has a rap sheet so long at Blackwell he could be expelled multiple times over. Nathan does this because he knows he can get away with it. We know a lot of the police are also in the pocket of the Prescotts as well. So I think he went to Blackwell that day with the intent of killing Chloe and getting away with it because Papa Prescott can do anything. He owns Blackwell and the Arcadia Bay Police Department, there's no way he could be held accountable for murdering Chloe.

    Overall, Nathan is just not worth defending in my opinion. He is the product of abuse, and believes he can do anything to anyone else because of the power he has as the son of Sean Prescott, who more or less owns the town completely. This is not to mention that Nathan has the things he needs to possibly cope with his mental illness in a better way. He has a psychiatrist. He has medicine. He has a sister who genuinely loves him and wants him to escape from their shitty dad. He has a best friend, Victoria, who also genuinely cares about him for whatever reason. He has all the pieces he needs to not do the things he does. Instead he harasses and doesn't listen to his doctor, throws his meds away, and decides to assist Jefferson in his crimes. What Nathan does though makes Jefferson even more immune to his crimes by giving him easy access to expensive drugs to kidnap girls along with a secret far away place to commit their crimes along with all the equipment he could ever need. Everything he did in this game, he did purposefully and knowingly. He knew what he did was wrong and illegal because he admits he knew that when he basically dies, but he also deflects the blame in an attempt to absolve himself for what he did.

    One other thing people often defend him with is "He couldn't go to the police! Jefferson would kill him!" If that's true, then how come in the Sacrifice Chloe ending we see both of them getting arrested? All Nathan had to do was turn himself over to the police for the crimes he committed as well as implicate Jefferson as his accomplice. People say "Well who would believe the mentally ill rich kid?!" At the same time say Chloe was stupid for not going to the police about her own kidnapping. It's so embroiled with passing all the blame onto Jefferson and absolving Nathan the things he knowingly did. Nathan shows no remorse for being the cause of Kate's suicide. Yes, Victoria added to it with the video, but she only acted the way she did because Nathan dosed her. Not only that, but Nathan also took her to the Dark Room, an event that Kates barely remembers but knows she feels disgusting and violated. If she successfully kills herself in episode two, Nathan acts the same as if she didn't. He acts smug and like nothing is his fault and the only way to have him actually finally get punished is for Max to implicate him about the gun in episode one to Wells and then blame him here for what happened to Kate. But he doesn't feel bad for what he did. The most telling thing is when you look at him during the end of episode 2 during the cutscene. Victoria is sitting her room crying alone, most likely filled with guilt and upset and horrified she killed or nearly killed Kate. Then the door opens and Nathan walks in. He has the worst expression you could have for this. He's just all calm and all smiles like he had absolutely nothing to do with the girl who just tried to kill herself.

    For me, it's just inconceivable to just blindly defend Nathan despite what he does while also attacking Chloe every two minutes for her own problems. It's okay to like Nathan's character while also knowing he is a horrible person, but when people just wipe away all of Nathan's issues. You see him often in fanfiction and fanart as this perfectly adjusted kid, when even in Before the Storm he's responsible in some routes for breaking two of Samatha's ribs after assaulting her. He's never been a good person, but we're supposed to feel bad for him because he "apologizes", looks sad at the end of BtS, and we see his dad yelling at him. Like why should I feel bad for this kid who just does whatever he wants, damn the consequences, because he can? When you can feel bad for any of the plethora of other mentally ill characters in this game who aren't violent assholes who kill and harm people? Oh wait, I remember now. He's a cute straight rich white boy.

    submitted by /u/BeMoreChillFan
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    [NO SPOILERS] After many troubles this treasure finally arrived home. ������

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:07 PM PST

    [NO SPOILERS] Found this in an old Spidey comic, lets GO APE!!

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:19 PM PST

    [S1] [OC] [WIP] Update on my drawing. It still sucks and I’ve been erasing and redrawing the Two Whales parking lot for half an hour.

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:04 PM PST

    [All] silly question

    Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:42 AM PST

    I want to have a LiS-themed baseball cap hat either from the game or self-made but I can't think of anybody whom wears a cap in the game aside from Chloe's beanie and David's security hat thing lol. I haven't played LiS2 so I don't want any caps from there, just LiS and BtS. Just wondering if there's any iconic hats you can think of in those two games. I was thinking if I can't find any, I'll just do a blue butterfly patch or the iconic Max camera or something.

    I hope I was coherent lol

    submitted by /u/WLWMain03
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