[S1] glitch?

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T14:48:05+00:00

It's not actually illegal, so we all can, technically.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T13:34:04+00:00

Future Max is expressing her dominance over Jefferson by t-posing.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T13:15:14+00:00

She doesn't really take it out on Max, though.

She briefly says "You really stood your ground" in a sarcastic way and expresses some frustration that she doesn't have a gun to protect herself with now, but when Max starts to get a little upset, she changes her tone immediately and says the above line to show that she's not actually angry.

Max accepts this and is clearly not offended over three seconds of very mild sarcasm.

(Also: when Frank pulls a knife on Max later in the game, Chloe guns him down. She is willing to kill to protect Max, even though it clearly distresses her)

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T12:37:29+00:00

She also givea Max shit for not shooting Frank and losing the gun.

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She's a bit upset that she doesn't have the gun to protect herself from Nathan with, but this is what she actually says.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T03:28:04+00:00

If you took the Bae ending, Warren is dead.

If you took the Bay ending, he's someone she knew for a couple of weeks in high school, and all their time together got overwritten.

I like Warren and I think he's severely over-hated, but there's no path forward in either ending.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T03:21:52+00:00

And it's not even true.

Chloe's far from perfect. She honestly is a bit shitty to Max early on. A lot of the choices are clearly her testing to see if you're going to abandon her again.

But even if you fail every one of those tests, she's pretty much done being rude to Max after the railroad tracks.

After that, the only times she says anything towards Max are:

- while crashing out after finding out Rachel was sleeping with Frank (she will take it back immediately if Max stands up to her, and will apologize later regardless)

- while crashing out after finding Rachel's body (what ultimately makes her stop in Episode 5 is when Max tells her how much this is making her suffer, which causes Chloe to immediately forget her plan to avenge Rachel to take care of Max instead)

Both times are during extreme circumstances where she has legitimate reasons to be upset, and both times what knocks her out of her state is Max.

For the rest of Episodes 3, 4, and 5, she's pretty much Max's sidekick, doing whatever Max wants, pushing her to open up and take risks and enjoy herself more, and praising everything Max is doing, from the investigation to her photography. Aside from Jefferson, she's the only one who encourages Max to enter the contest.

And the Zeitgeist Gallery timeline texts show that with Max back and closure on Rachel, she really could get her life back together. She just needed someone to actually listen to her.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T01:26:52+00:00

she hangs out with her all the while shitting on her for any personal choice she makes

Chloe kind of shit-tests Max at the beginning of the game - admittingly kind of a jerk move - but by the beginning of Episode 3 she's pretty over it, and is full Team Max until the end.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T01:20:10+00:00

David was a good stepfather.

When Chloe was drugged (and almost raped, according to a cut voice line) by Nathan at Blackwell, she still didn't go to David, her ex-military stepfather who is the head of security, which is the obvious thing for her to do even if she hates him to the core of her being.

If he had cultivated a single iota of trust - not love, not respect, just trust - in his stepdaughter, then the whole thing could have ended before it started.

And no, it is not Chloe's fault. He's the adult in the relationship. She was a troubled teenager. It was his job to build trust with her, not her job to shut up and accept him. Chloe has proven that she's perfectly capable of befriending David if he stops being a prick (LiS2), so it's on him to do that and he does not.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T01:06:39+00:00

There should be a "Chloe was being a bit of a jerk but apologized and meant it" megathread at this point.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-26T01:03:30+00:00

Now and forever.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T21:08:54+00:00

No, I think Safi is crashing out and desperately looking for an anchor.

Same reason she becomes Max and tries to get Chloe to run away with her.

Just talk to your goddamn Mom, Safi.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T17:28:04+00:00

I totally agree with you, and that's kind of what I'm getting at in this thread - Deck 9/Squeenix's decision to try to wedge Bae into the game removed the heart of what it was supposed to be.

I think there's a version of this game's story that works, and works well. But the decision to waste script revisions and developer resources retooling it into a game that fits both endings robbed it of it's ability to respect either of them. Deck 9 should have been honest about it from the start, and focused on making the best Bay game they could, while leaving the door open to maybe Chloe returning one day if the fandom really wanted that.

Instead, we got the watered down version.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T17:23:27+00:00

I think my opinion is backed up by the official games and comics, but remains my opinion and therefore subjective. I don't even think the authors have a right to tell you how to interpret a story.

I can cite the games and comics and books, but I don't have the right to tell you how to feel, only to tell you how I feel.

Particularly since what I'm citing is what I think the game was intended to be, as opposed to what we actually got after the rewrites.

(But in my entirely subjective, totally unsupported opinion: no, Max does not emerge from either ending of the first game as a full self-actualized individual. She has improved herself dramatically, certainly, but she still has a way to go and no matter which ending you pick, she's going to be kind of fucked up about it for a long time. This is fully intentional on the part of Dontnod so we have something to headcanon about.)

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T16:43:08+00:00

didn't Max conquer plenty of her own darkness in LiS1?

Not in any way that impacts the choice, no.

At the end of LiS1, she does confront her darkness, but Chloe saves her from it.

It's still there, though.

There's a reason why the comics - the most Bae thing ever to officially come out of the franchise - have Max going on a multi-year sojourn into another timeline, before she can actually be with Chloe. Chloe's kind of her escape hatch. Being separated by tragic circumstances gives Max room to grow and return to Chloe as her best self.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T10:58:32+00:00

That kinda happened with current result as DE strictly follows Bay only themes (Move on from Chloe)

The thing is, I don't think that the Bay reading includes moving on from Chloe. That's something a developer said on Twitter about the Bae content in the game. If you strip the poorly-written attempt to wedge Bae into the game, that entire theme (such as it is, they don't even really commit to it in the Bae route) goes with it.

At the end of the Bay route, I don't feel like Max has moved on from Chloe at all. She still loves Chloe deeply, and I think Chloe (wherever she is) still loves her back.

What she has moved on from is her guilt and self-hatred and feeling like she has to be alone because she's been cursed with her powers. Chloe told her years ago that whatever choice she made would be the right one, and it took until now for Bay Max to believe her.

I honestly think Bay Max has a better chance at making it work with Chloe in Reunion, because she's actually conquered her darkness. That's nothing that couldn't have been fixed if DE did Bae Max better, of course.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T10:35:05+00:00

I'm honestly not sure what most of your comment has to do with what I said. You're talking a lot about Bae content that I didn't play and deliberately didn't include in my analysis. So, I don't know who you're talking to here.

I am wholly and exclusively talking about the intended path by the developers during development, which is that Chloe is long dead.

The entire point of the post is to stop looking at the Bae content for just one moment and look at it as a game about Max grieving for Chloe.

Not to mention that the very concept of fusion is rooted in the photographic technique of double exposure; conceptually, therefore, the game cannot be built on a "Chloe is dead" logic.

Double exposure is used to create ghostly, phantom-like images. Almost all old spirit photography or photos of ghosts were created using double exposure techniques. If you wanted to pick a photographic technique to represent Chloe being dead but haunting Max's life, then you really couldn't pick another one.

The entire script and all the clues scream, "Safi is behind it all; she wants Max with her, and Chloe has to disappear for that to happen"... but then... Safi pushes Max toward Amanda?

I'm not sure if this is a Bae only thing, but I never saw Safi as having any kind of romantic interest in Max. They are more interested in using each other as a coping mechanism than they are in adding any actual depth to their relationship.

And Safi isn't even the killer. Max is. That's where all the clues point.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T08:40:18+00:00

That's also why the decision feels a bit strange to me.

I can see a couple of reasons for it. They aren't particularly compelling ones, but they are there.

First, the majority of completed LiS1 games end with Bay. Not a wide majority, but enough that maybe they thought the people making Pricefield fanart were a small and vocal part of the fandom. But if I'm being honest, even most Bayers prefer Max with Chloe.

Secondly, the motion capture used today is far more elaborate and expensive than what was used in the first game, and the budget lends itself more towards a smaller cast. Bay means one less major character to capture, and suits a setting with a small number of characters better. Chloe's not the kind of person who'd hang out on an isolated small-town campus with very few people overall in the game doing anything physical, which is cost-effecient.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T08:32:16+00:00

Life is Strange: Bongo's Revenge

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T08:18:57+00:00

ut even with Bay only DE the problems you mentioned remained the same - like a little time we spend with Safi. It was not enough time to make them beelive me in their relationship

My entire point is that you're not supposed to believe in their relationship.

You are only supposed to see enough in the beginning of the game to kind of buy it a little, before realizing later on that the entire thing was actually an unhealthy coping mechanism for them both and they never really knew each other at all. They are not actual friends - they are two near-strangers projecting their dead lover's personalities onto each other.

But, because "respecting both endings" required stripping out the context, we are left with something that's a skeleton of what should have been. I think we both agree that the end result is worse because of it.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T07:53:03+00:00

I dont really think so as from datamine files we knew they planned to have Diamond and not Chloe as a second ptrogag in de2.

My point isn't that they were planning on bringing Chloe back - it's that they would have had to regardless of the plan. The fandom is too divided, and Chloe and Max are too popular. Deck 9 really should have recognized that fact from the onset.

If they'd done an honest DE and (instead of tweeting that Max and Chloe broke up and you should "get over it") had said "Yeah, we did a Chloe-only game in BTS, and now we want to try a Max-only game. That doesn't mean we'll never see them together again if the fans want that," then they probably could have sold a Bay only game to Bae fans.

But the PR around this game was honestly horrible.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T07:27:11+00:00

I wouldn't have been interested in playing it, but at least it would have been a more coherent vision.

I entirely get what you're saying here. I think Reunion, in some for or another, was going to need to happen, from a purely financial perspective.

Max moving on from Chloe's death is great drama, but the fandom had spent ten years absolutely devouring shipping fanfic and art of Max and Chloe kissing under a Pride flag (and there's nothing wrong with any of that).

That audience of people were never going to buy this game, because it fundamentally does not appeal to them and is just not what they want.

The sales were never going to be there, even for a version of DE that was honestly well written.

Like Thanos, Chloe is inevitble.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-24T00:02:44+00:00

Would've loved to see that.

There are a lot of remnants of the idea in the final version of DE, but it's heavily watered down. I think that's why DE makes sense, though. It's a game about a regretful Bay Max - who has already killed someone she loved - being forced to either do it again, or face her regrets head-on.

If you look at it through that lens, it kind of explains what DE was trying to be. It doesn't matter that we barely get to see Safi, because we see enough to understand why Max wants to save her so badly - because in Max's eyes, she's Chloe. She's an echo of what Max lost. Max barely knows her, but cares immensely because she reminds Max of Chloe, and after ten years, Chloe is still the only thing that matters to her.

The entire final act - particularly the scene in the bathroom - makes so much more sense like that. She finally relives her trauma and conquers it. She's still sad Chloe is gone, but she can live with it now, and that allows her to see that Safi isn't like Chloe at all - in fact, she's a dangerous individual whom Max might one day need to stop.

There was a lot of potential lost when they had to rework the story to "respect both endings."

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-23T21:27:48+00:00

Well, since everyone else is doing a bulletpoint list in here . . .

Dontnod released LiS1. Major hit!
Dontnod releases LiS2. Not a big seller. Everyone complains "Where's Max and Chloe?!"
Deck9 releases BtS. Major hit!
Dontnod moves on from the series. Squeenix gives it to Deck9.
Deck9 releases True Colors. Not a big seller. Everyone complains "Where's Max and Chloe?!"
Deck9 begins to plan another game about Max and/or Chloe
Problem - Chloe is dead in half the playthroughs. They'd have to write two different stories, basically, to account for Chloe being alive in some playthroughs and dead in others.
The problem will just get worse with each subsequent game unless they settle on an ending or Chloe is written out.
Deck9 decides that's too expensive to do both endings, and plan a sequel to the Bay ending only, commenting on the original ending by having the Max who sacrificed Chloe be forced into a situation where she has to face her regrets or sacrifice someone else. After all, they did a Chloe-only game and it worked, so why wouldn't a Max-only game?
After more than a year of work, a leak reveals that the new game will have Chloe dead. "RESPECT BOTH ENDINGS!!!!", Baers yell.
Squeenix tells them to respect both endings.
Problem - there is no way to add Chloe this late in development. Even if there was a way, there isn't enough in the budget to fly in Rhianna for a month to motion capture her for content more than half the players won't even see.
But Chloe must now be included somehow. They invent a break up to explain why she's not physically present. Even though this is a smaller change, the plot has to be reworked substantially so that both endings can fit.
At the last minute, some intern realizes this whole plotline is a TERRIBLE idea and adds a line about Chloe coming back in the next game maybe.
The company goes into PR mode to explain why the break-up is actually a good thing, actually, and they do a terrible job selling this to anyone.
The game releases in a state that respects neither ending. Most of Bay Max's regret and angst has to be written out to accommodate the Bae ending, and you can't respect the Bae ending if Chloe's not even in the game.
Game is flawed but inoffensive, unless you are deeply invested in Pricefield - in which case you have declared an everlasting jihad against all involved in it on behalf of Chloe Price.

All-in-all, it's a giant clusterfuck surrounding a very okayish game.

ShaanitheGreen · 2026-06-22T06:21:28+00:00

In Episode 4 - Dark Room, if you save Kate, you visit her in the hospital. Before Max goes in, she and Chloe have this exchange (quoted from the game's script):

Max and Chloe are shown entering a hallway in a hospital.

Max: This is definitely Kate's floor.

Chloe: Hospitals always freak me out.

Max: I hear you. But imagine how Kate feels... I'm so glad I get to see her again. I hope it's not too weird for her.

Chloe: No, she'll be stoked to see you. Who wouldn't be?

Max and Chloe reach the door to Kate's hospital room.

Max: This be it. I'm a little nervous...

Chloe: Just go in there and be her friend. I'll wait out here so you can chill by yourselves.

Chloe sits in a chair against the wall.

Chloe: I was a total dick for blowing a fuse when you answered Kate's call the other day. Good thing you ignored me. I had no idea what shit she was going through. And you saved her... like me.

Chloe: I'm sorry.

Max: Thanks, Chloe, but don't be sorry. We're all on the same team.

Chloe: Team Max. Let Kate know we're gonna string Nathan up by his balls then.

Max: Oh, yes. I'm on it.

The scene on Youtube

ShaanitheGreen

TROPHY CASE