Life Is Strange | [NO SPOILERS] I'm never leaving you by Ktceee |
- [NO SPOILERS] I'm never leaving you by Ktceee
- [ALL] A Different Perspective on AmberPrice's Relationship
- [NO SPOILERS] Chloe portrait by Scherwil
- [NO SPOILERS] Bought myself some street paint (sadly only 3 colors). This is the first thing ever l drew
- [No Spoilers] Love Prevails by w4ylin
- [NO SPOILERS] Finally got myself chloe's necklace lol.
- [S1] Did you read Life Is Strange books after playing main and game?
- [No Spoilers]First Spotify, but LiS now rest permanently in my collection.......
- [No Spoilers] True Colours Pricing
| [NO SPOILERS] I'm never leaving you by Ktceee Posted: 27 Jul 2021 10:10 AM PDT
| ||
| [ALL] A Different Perspective on AmberPrice's Relationship Posted: 27 Jul 2021 12:07 PM PDT I've always been wanting to make this post for some time now, but just refrained because well, lol. But I sent an early draft of this some days ago to people whom believed Rachel cheated on Chloe and they were convinced and managed to appreciate Amberprice's relationship more, so why the hell not. The usual opinion on Amberprice is usually that Rachel cheated on Chloe with Frank (and Jefferson) or Rachel was leading Chloe on all along. At the same time, when someone challenges this opinion, they're usually shot back with 'Rachel and Chloe is open to interpretation', so people should have the opinion to them whatsoever. Because at the end of the day, interpretations/opinions = headcanon. Which is fine and all, except the ones who say this also use that interpretation as part of their evaluation on Rachel's character or AmberPrice. It's no longer just an interpretation/opinion if you're using it as if it's fact, if you're letting it affect how you see a character (which is what a recent poll just showed). The moment you use an interpretation/opinion as part of your evaluation of something, that's when it becomes fair game for others to challenge it using in-game info if they disagree. So here's an entire essay challenging the general notion that Rachel cheated on Chloe. Feel free to debate against it. All I'm hoping is for an open mind to this. Case studies from Before The Storm: Exhibit A ✨
What 'whatever this is' establishes is that there was no label for them. They never labeled their relationship as a friendship or romantic, even if you tried to in the beginning because one way or another, they did have feelings for each other, but other circumstances were preventing them from fully understanding what they were to each other and pursuing those feelings (eg trust issues, commitment issues, time, the Ambers' political image etc).
This part seems like nothing, but it actually gives you in-sight over how Rachel treats her friends in general. Rachel has friends (the not-really sort), that's a known thing, but from how Victoria, Taylor and Steph reacted towards Chloe having a picture with Rachel and being posted on FB, and then hanging out since then for technically 3 days at that point— it does suggest that Rachel was investing more time with Chloe than she normally does with anyone else— which suggests that Rachel was definitely interested in Chloe whether platonically or romantically, point is that she was treating her differently and that definitely could've developed into more than just friendship if you have that kind of trust and comfort in someone. Additionally, it wasn't just Chloe that Steph suspected to have a crush on Rachel, but that Rachel had a thing for Chloe too that she basically had to ask Chloe for permission (no matter how you play it) ->
You can get that dialogue if you said 'something more' in the junkyard, got a mid romance level and told Steph that Rachel was single. To Chloe, kissing Rachel at that point didn't mean they were going to be exclusive or official. It didn't mean that they were going to start dating or anything. Rachel was still single to her and Rachel seemed to be inclined to agree since that's what Chloe thought. Even IF we go for the longer kiss, neither of them actually talked about their relationship status afterwards so there rlly was never a clear conversation about exactly what they were. Now! Case studies from Life is Strange Exhibit B ✨
This one by far is the strongest contradiction to the whole 'Rachel cheated on Chloe' argument IMO. Never, ever, hella never can I imagine how there's a possibility that an exclusive, committed, faithful, loyal official monogamous girlfriend can ever replace the picture of her girlfriend, the one she has theoretically committed to in a relationship and believed to be kidnapped or unwillingly disappeared, to a picture of her childhood best friend who ghosted her for 5 years and then just recently reunited with after 3 days. I mean, really, that's just beyond strange if Rachel and Chloe were legitimately dating officially and seeing each other exclusively. What's worse with this case is that Chloe would've replaced that photo of Rachel (her committed gf) with Max even though she believed that Rachel was missing because something bad happened to her. It's common knowledge that a lockscreen wallpaper is important. If you put a person as your wallpaper, that means you love them so much that you want them to be the first thing you see every time you look at your phone, so this definitely carries a lot of weight and meaning if Chloe actually can change her wallpaper from Rachel to Max that easily. Likewise, I doubt Chloe would so easily flirt with Max 24/7, dare her for a kiss, have condoms in her pockets if Chloe was already committed to Rachel. Also important to note that at this point (beginning of episode 3 in Chloe's room), Chloe hadn't yet learned about Rachel and Frank so there's no reason for Chloe to harbor any grudge against her presumed exclusive gf at that moment to replace her with Max.
Everyone who knew them actually just saw them either as friends or best friends eg; Justin, Homeless Lady, Joyce. Even when Chloe learns about Rachel and Frank, she still specifically calls Rachel a friend. She never once called Rachel her lover or gf, not once. The only time she called Rachel something different was when Max first brought her up (EP1):
Again, this might seem minor, but the difference in dialogue here is incredibly nuanced. It's grammatically the same sentence 'she was my angel', but depending on how Max brings up the topic of Rachel, the line is delivered differently. The first starts with Max acknowledging that she recognizes the girl in the missing poster as Rachel Amber. Naturally, knowing Max's a snoop, Chloe would've assumed that Max would've been asking around about Rachel at least once to know more about her. There's a likelihood that Chloe's name would've come up in those conversations since she was always with Rachel, and they would've been referred to as friends (eg. the convo with Justin), so Chloe would've found it easier to just call Rachel as her angel in front of Max. The latter is different. It starts with Max saying she doesn't know who the girl in the missing poster is, so Chloe enters that discussion with the impression that Max doesn't know anything about Rachel, nor has heard from anyone about her relationship with the missing girl. So this makes it easier for Chloe to want to be more open and honest about the nature of her relationship with Rachel since after all, Max is her childhood best friend. She wants her to know about the girl she loves. However, she doesn't actually know how to label their relationship, so she hesitates (thus the pause '...') and just settles for calling Rachel her angel instead.
\"I hate not sharing this with you\" ?? This letter was incredibly unapologetic and lacking of any shame or remorse if Rachel was supposedly cheating on Chloe. That last paragraph of Rachel saying she hates not being able to share the details with Chloe practically screams that they weren't actually exclusive at all because no girlfriend will ever want to talk about sleeping with another man with her girlfriend. And yet Rachel legitimately wanted to gush about Jefferson to Chloe. Rachel was also aware to how Chloe would normally react which suggests that she's talked to her about other boys that she's been with before. OK SO ZERO, WHY DO WE/SHOULD WE/CAN WE SHIP AMBERPRICE IF THEY WEREN'T TOGETHER THEN?? (I mean you totes can still ship people who never dated or had feelings for each other ofc but this doesn't need to be applied with Amberprice)— Case studies from Life Is Strange: Why Rachel and Chloe CAN at least have been considered to have been intimate with one another or loved each other. Exhibit C ✨✨
Starting first with what Jefferson says:
This line right here, is credible for several reasons despite coming from a psychopath. 1) Jefferson has no reason to lie about this, 2) Despite never having personally met Chloe until Max introduced them, Jefferson had an immediate hatred against Chloe as seen from how he spoke of her in the dark room. His language towards Chloe, his knowledge about Frank and Rachel— it suggests that Rachel confided to him about Frank AND Chloe, which is how he knows about Rachel and Chloe's relations. Not to mention since he grossly held an attraction for Rachel, it doesn't seem unlikely that he would also hate Chloe because she was someone Rachel loved. As for Frank:
Frank quite literally admits he was jealous of Chloe and Rachel. And not in the 'my gf is always being stolen by her best friend' way like Derrick's relationship with Meredith and Christina's friendship in Grey's Anatomy. Frank was legitimately threatened by how close Rachel and Chloe were and was jealous of that. The pause he makes when talking about Rachel and Chloe together, it suggests a hesitancy to call what they were— because even he wasn't sure what they exactly were. So he gets vague, and just goes for '...were close...', similar to the way Chloe hesitated to call Rachel her angel. In situations like this, the boyfriend/lover is suspecting something sexual/intimate is happening between the girls if they legitimately feel threatened enough to actually be jealous and even harm the 'threat' > Chloe. It's even more possible in their case because Rachel canonically was into girls as well (else why would Steph want to ask her out despite being careful or why it's possible to kiss Rachel in BtS). There's also this:
In this moment, Chloe didn't come up in the conversation until Frank brought her up, essentially comparing himself to Chloe when it comes to being a competitor for Rachel's affection. Frank felt the need to acknowledge that Rachel cared about a lot of people, so her caring about him wasn't special like Max was trying to comfort him with, but specifically he had to mention that it was Chloe especially that Rachel cared about. Meaningless? Definitely not, because this just means that Rachel undoubtedly loved Chloe in a way that she didn't make anyone else feel.
So they couldn't have just been friends if Chloe is that confident about this. We also have to take into account why they remained in Arcadia Bay for the next 3 years despite Rachel being ready to leave at any moment. Rachel wanted to leave Arcadia Bay long before befriending Chloe. By 2013, she had grown desperate and seemed to have been making plans with Frank, exploring opportunities with Jefferson and once asked a random trucker whom she somehow uncharacteristically failed to convince and in turn resent her for some reason. None of this actually confirms whether she would be leaving with or without Chloe, only that she was looking for other ways to leave aside from depending on Chloe's truck. For all we know, she could've simply been securing another getaway for both of them. And yet, in those 3 years— we know that Rachel had several opportunities and ways to leave town on her own without Chloe— her summer vacation in 2011 without Chloe, her road trip with Frank, how she could've just bought a bus ticket to anywhere else— she had every means to go without Chloe. And yet she never did. So what exactly was holding Rachel back from leaving? I'm willing to bet that it was because she made a promise that she'd only leave with Chloe, and she kept that because she loved the girl. And Chloe just wasn't ready (as her hesitancy in BtS showed and staying in AB for another 6 months even when Rachel disappeared). This was the girl that Chloe morbidly somehow thought better to believe that she had been kidnapped or was in danger rather than thinking that she'd just run away without her just like everyone else had assumed. Chloe had THAT much faith in her bond with Rachel that she'd rather think Rachel was kidnapped rather than living it out there all on her own. OK THEN, ZERO, SO WHY WAS RACHEL MESSING AROUND WITH FRANK AND JEFFERSON IF SHE LOVED CHLOE?? Well, person, let me lead you to— Case studies on the way predatory and grooming relationships work in BtS and LiS Exhibit D 💀💀
More often than not, girls like Rachel (yes, I'm calling her a girl at this point) find themselves in the company of questionable older men because of their unresolved personal issues and lack of proper guidance. Just because someone turns 18 doesn't mean they magically transform into this wise mature grown up who's achieved clarity in what they want or know. Just because they're finally legal doesn't make a 30 something yr old going after a barely legal girl any less wrong than a 30 yr old dating a 16 yr old. Just because a girl is confident and smart doesn't mean they can't be exploited. One can see why an 18 y/o would want to date a 30 y/o. But you can't possibly fathom why a 30 y/o would want to date an 18 y/o— unless it's for sex or you enjoy the power imbalance, which again you can't possibly blame the girl because that's just the adult exploiting the barely legal girl. And that would still earn a side eye. One can easily see why Rachel would be attracted to the prospects of sleeping with Frank if it meant being able to facilitate her drug abuse and him being a possible lead to her birth mother. One can easily see why Rachel would be attracted to a world-renowned photographer who's suddenly taking an interest in her of all people, someone who can essentially give her her shot to stardom and give her dreams on a silver platter. It's hard to run the other way if everything you've ever dreamed of is suddenly being offered right in front of you, harder if you've already been charmed to feel falsely safe with them. You cannot blame a girl for falling for men that manipulated and took advantage of her vulnerability, exploited her, especially when she had no commitments or obligations to anyone whatsoever, no one telling her 'stop, this is wrong'— completely no one to warn her that this was a predator and she's the victim that they've been eyeing since she was 15-17. Still think this wasn't what was happening to Rachel? Her relationships with Frank (32) and Jefferson (38) were kept in absolute secrecy even though Rachel wanted to tell Chloe (who wasn't even a student anymore) about Jefferson. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound safe or healthy at all. This would be different if Rachel was messing with guys their age, but no. This is specifically a girl who was being taken advantage of and exploited by men twice her age instead; one who was a drug dealer and the other who turned out to basically be a psychopathic drug rapist. It's just downright messed up to victim blame and demonize the girl who was being taken advantage of and groomed. Rachel didn't 'choose' Frank or Jefferson. She was victimized. With all things considered, even if we don't take BtS into account— we still have all these things to properly analyze what their relationship was. If we were to include in the words of the developers/writers about the girls' relationship to make it more credible and not just an analysis of a random fan, from LiS1:
They never confirmed whether Rachel and Chloe were in an actual relationship despite it not being up to the player like Max and Chloe. And relationships that are described to be ambiguous usually means it was complicated and not the usual standard of a monogamous exclusive relationship. As for the BtS writer about Rachel and Chloe's relationship:
Simply Best Friend relationships are not that private because there's no intimacy. Relationships are only private when there's intimacy involved, when it's something so deep and meaningful that it can't be shared with others whimsically because it goes beyond what friends usually are. What makes more sense, Chloe Price, the girl who canonically who had trust issues and abandonment issues (possibly even commitment issues as a result of that because when she personally invested emotionally, she was just abandoned). And Rachel Amber, the girl who canonically also had trust issues and would later have abandonment issues stemming from Sera's abandonment when she was a baby and again at 15, developing a father complex — does the exact same thing her father did, and then willingly manipulates and uses Chloe just as a ride out of Arcadia Bay, and when she falls short she goes to Frank and Jefferson instead to fulfill that promise, voluntarily cheating on Chloe because she didn't care about her in the first place? With this scenario, we'd also have to be inclined to believe that Chloe was also a horrible gf to Rachel since she was doing all those things with Max despite being presumably committed and faithful to Rachel. Or Rachel and Chloe not being able to commit so they never put a label on their relationship nor become official, essentially giving each other the emotional support and sex, but never the commitment. And then Rachel develops a father complex (daddy issues) because of James, so she seeks comfort in the arms of questionable men twice her age despite the risks such as Frank and Jefferson. She becomes a victim at this point because really, how can she know any better, especially when there was no one advising her against it— nor any commitments to ground her? It's also important to note that it's canon and confirmed by LiS1 developers that Rachel was the spirit doe that Max kept seeing. That spirit doe was the one that guided Max and Chloe to the lighthouse, essentially saving them. So if Rachel was the former, then why did this girl literally save Chloe from beyond her grave if she was that selfishly cruel and manipulative? We also have to remember Chloe's own history. Chloe has this habit of thinking when she's found something to cling onto and love that it'll be forever and that they have time to take it slow. ie her friendship with Max ->
Likewise she could've applied this mindset in her relationship with Rachel ->
And what happens when you think you have time? You become complacent, get stuck in your comfort zone and ultimately don't make any progress, procrastinate, you take it for granted because you think there's still time to do it later. It's exactly what happened between Rachel and Chloe. They thought they had all the time in the world to figure it out, when in reality they only had 3 short years, and they still ultimately still ended up as a 'friendship but more' just like the beginning. And that's what makes their ending even more tragic. If they'd just been honest with their feelings, then all that heartache and grief could've been avoided. Now, if you're an Amberpricer, worry not because this doesn't actually downplay any of AmberPrice's feelings for each other. If anything, it strengthens and gives their relationship a lot more meaning and weight rather than believing that Rachel was capable of cheating on Chloe with not just one man, but TWO (at that point if someone cheats with more than one person, it's not a mistake, it would be a pattern) and not even sounding apologetic over the letter she threw away— or Chloe being able to run over their relationship and just replacing her with Max so quickly over 3 days. They loved each other, but they loved each other enough that they didn't want to ruin what they already had. They ruin everything they touch and they were scared of doing the same thing to each other (at least that's what they believed). Their personal issues and insecurities prevented them from loving each other the best and right way, until it kept them from realizing that they were the ones for each other all along. When they've experienced loss and abandonment to that degree? Of course they would've settled for avoiding and delaying the most important discussion in a relationship that could possibly end them: "What are we?" If you don't know what you are, that complicates and blurs the lines of everything and everything they believe and know. There would be no boundaries that you wouldn't cross because you wouldn't have known that were any in the first place. Rachel and Chloe may not have known what they were, but they knew enough of what they weren't. There is no 'cheating' or 'leading on' if they knew what to expect from each other and what not to, when they both mutually agreed to this sort of relationship. Regardless, you can STILL feel betrayed because it's human nature to feel hurt when something doesn't go your way (important to note that we have more in-sight into Rachel's secret life at this point more than Chloe). Chloe's feelings in discovering that Rachel was sleeping with Frank is definitely valid, but so is her behaviour of forgiving Rachel so quickly. You don't forgive someone that fast for cheating or betraying you unless you see a understandable 'how' they could've done it. So, what exactly was AmberPrice? They weren't exclusive girlfriends. They weren't just friends. They were something like friends, but they were also something more, except they were just too afraid to finally commit. Because why commit, when everything they've ever known just fell apart and abandoned them? Aaand I'm done. Thank you for reading this whole thing lmao [link] [comments] | ||
| [NO SPOILERS] Chloe portrait by Scherwil Posted: 26 Jul 2021 10:16 PM PDT
| ||
| Posted: 27 Jul 2021 10:48 AM PDT
| ||
| [No Spoilers] Love Prevails by w4ylin Posted: 26 Jul 2021 03:06 PM PDT
| ||
| [NO SPOILERS] Finally got myself chloe's necklace lol. Posted: 26 Jul 2021 09:29 PM PDT
| ||
| [S1] Did you read Life Is Strange books after playing main and game? Posted: 26 Jul 2021 09:15 PM PDT I just wanna know how much people in this community was strong enough to read the books. [link] [comments] | ||
| [No Spoilers]First Spotify, but LiS now rest permanently in my collection....... Posted: 26 Jul 2021 06:10 PM PDT
| ||
| [No Spoilers] True Colours Pricing Posted: 26 Jul 2021 04:40 PM PDT Does £50 seem massively steep to anyone else? That's meant to be the price of a triple A budget game and I feel like they're definitely exploiting the fact that there are die-hard fans of this franchise who will pay no matter what the price is. I like LiS and LiS2 but there is not a chance in hell i'm forking out that kind of money for it. I'm not trying to have a dig at anyone who thinks that's a reasonable price btw, I'm just curious if any of the die-hard fans also think it's way expensive. [link] [comments] |
![[NO SPOILERS] I'm never leaving you by Ktceee](https://preview.redd.it/ip1we5d0esd71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=77ba57c9613b57c7676bd2186f938b9ef802aadc "[NO SPOILERS] I'm never leaving you by Ktceee")
![[NO SPOILERS] Chloe portrait by Scherwil](https://preview.redd.it/wqrxshdxvod71.jpg?width=320&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=7b9a4980186c3a0bb05d8ce8bd4d17c13dd33318 "[NO SPOILERS] Chloe portrait by Scherwil")
![[NO SPOILERS] Bought myself some street paint (sadly only 3 colors). This is the first thing ever l drew](https://a.thumbs.redditmedia.com/7TtIjSHBj60BWq4X4Eo8BaUnQG-OkErspswl7ioTKI0.jpg "[NO SPOILERS] Bought myself some street paint (sadly only 3 colors). This is the first thing ever l drew")
![[No Spoilers] Love Prevails by w4ylin](https://preview.redd.it/vyuso4carmd71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=deac776a779a18acc974358d6954d2e5c476b9bf "[No Spoilers] Love Prevails by w4ylin")
![[NO SPOILERS] Finally got myself chloe's necklace lol.](https://preview.redd.it/vre8u90snod71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=8be1927c21c1d41f535aab8702cd19fe0b3b743c "[NO SPOILERS] Finally got myself chloe's necklace lol.")
![[No Spoilers]First Spotify, but LiS now rest permanently in my collection.......](https://preview.redd.it/wmlcarn1ond71.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=61b99eb3dfcb26ac3a89ac327715fe8fcb3ec251 "[No Spoilers]First Spotify, but LiS now rest permanently in my collection.......")
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/ip1we5d0esd71.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/wqrxshdxvod71.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/vyuso4carmd71.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/vre8u90snod71.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/wmlcarn1ond71.png){kind=link}
| You are subscribed to email updates from Life Is Strange. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment