*** MASSIVE SPOILERS*** THE FINAL CHOICE IS OBVIOUS!

[Jean Arthur]

Why sacrificing Arcadia Bay makes more sense..

The final choice in this game allows you to either Sacrifice Chloe to prevent the storm from happening or letting the storm destroy the town to let Chloe live.

Most people chose to sacrifice Chloe to save everybody in the town as Chloe wanted. Chloe went from being selfish and blaming everybody else for her problems but at the end she changed and was willing to get killed to prevent the storm.

I choose to destroy the town and this is why. Please review the following information presented by the game. Sorry if this has all been pointed out countless times by other people.

Max and Chloe have no solid proof that Chloe getting killed by Nathan at the bathroom would prevent the tornado. This is all a theory.

Max has witness Chloe's death 4 other times (Killed by Jefferson/Killed by the train/Killing herself in accident/Max overdosing her). After all these events, the tornado/time effects are still going on.

Max has witness that her time powers can affect alternative timelines. The tornado is still happening in these alternative timelines.

Max has experienced that using time travel to undo the ♥♥♥♥ she caused has already proven NOT to work. In fact she says at one point "Chloe I can't keep fixing everything if all I'm going to do keep breaking over and over again, I'm afraid I'm ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ all these alternative realties"

During the William is alive timeline, the bathroom scene NEVER happened therefore in that timeline Max never gains travel powers. ♥♥♥♥ is still happening in that timeline even with powerless Max.

Max and the player are never directly told or explained why she obtained the power in the first place

Please put yourself in Max's shoes and ask yourself these questions and think long and hard about the above information.

What if sacrificing Chloe doesn't change anything? What proof do we have that this will work out?

What if it's too late to save the town? I already used my powers too much..why would I time travel again and keep ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ things up?

What if letting Chloe die actually causes something far worse to happen in the timeline? What if losing my powers and cancelling out all the actions I have done using the power actually causes more devastation?

Chloe died in front of my eyes 4 times including alternative timelines and the storm still happen. Why would Chloe think letting her die in the bathroom would change anything?

I believe Max is a smart enough girl to think that there's just too many what if questions and potential problems with going back in time and trying to fix everything (which she said herself she can't keep doing) that she would decide to destroy the town.

I believe that in the end of the sacrificing Arcadia Bay ending Max smiles because she finally realizes why she got her powers-it was to SAVE Chloe, her friend or lover (however you want it to be) and realize what happened with Rachel.

Yes, I am aware that the Sacrifice Chloe ending proves that Chloe=dead does prevent the storm however that isn't the point.

Comments//thoughts/criticism welcome!

[_the powDer of jinx_]

I really do believe that Pan Estates had a major role in this.
I think the big difference, that i see, between the SC ending and all of the timelines that we created, is the development of Pan Estates.
For sure we've seen that creating alternate realities or saving people's lifes, like kate or William (even worst than kate. 5 years and nothing happened) doesn't fix, change or making realities worst.
If you believe that the storm is caused by Max using her powers, then using the power AGAIN to go back is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ illogical.
If you believe that every little detail changed by Max is causing the storm, then in the SC ending the storm will eventually hit Arcadia Bay, since the photo of the blue butterfly and the photo of young Chloe and Max, took by William, no longer exist.
If you believe that saving Chloe's life is causing the storm, then i just don't get it. Saving Chloe creates a tornado, but saving William creates...nothing? Snow,eclipse and dead animals are hitting the town in the same order of the other timelines/realities. It must be a reason for that. Could it be...Pan estates?

Another theory that i had: (wrote somewhere in here months ago)
At the first scene of the game, we saw Max having a vision of the tornado wiping out the town (yes. BEFORE seeing the butterfly, Chloe or using the powers) and then waking up in class.
Is it possible that for all the time we played the game, we didn't play with the original Max? maybe the real Max has just left that reality and that's why it seem like she just woke up.

[RED]

Originally posted by DIM MAK:

Max and Chloe have no solid proof that Chloe getting killed by Nathan at the bathroom would prevent the tornado. This is all a theory.

It is. Still characters in question were convinced it is the truth (gut feeling?) but it somewhat makes sense for anomaly like this weather to be coused by equally big anomaly.

Originally posted by DIM MAK:

Max has witness Chloe's death 4 other times (Killed by Jefferson/Killed by the train/Killing herself in accident/Max overdosing her). After all these events, the tornado/time effects are still going on.

Yeah but all those deaths happened after the INITIAL save from getting killed by Nathan. And theory is that this initial anomaly coused all of this. Her being killed didn't solve things as original transgression still happened.

Originally posted by DIM MAK:

During the William is alive timeline, the bathroom scene NEVER happened therefore in that timeline Max never gains travel powers. ♥♥♥♥ is still happening in that timeline even with powerless Max.

Not only Max still has powers, she uses them to revert William's fate again to its original state. As she did with Chloe's eventually... at least in my playthrough. I think it hardly matters when Max got her power as long as she actually used them. William's existance alone could be reason enough as he was not suppose to be.

Originally posted by DIM MAK:

What if sacrificing Chloe doesn't change anything? What proof do we have that this will work out?

Cementary scene kind of proves that. On the opposite side we have gallery scene where everything was supposed to finally be ok. Yet it was not.

Originally posted by DIM MAK:

Max and the player are never directly told or explained why she obtained the power in the first place

And that is a good thing. The best explanation is that there is no explanation. The attempt to explain time travel is the field of some heavy science fiction work or some meta nonsense. How could a couple of American teens even try to have it explained?


Anyway. I opted to go back in time and stop Max from messing with time in the first place. For me Life is Strange is a story about redemption, last chance to make things right and lesson that sometimes some people are beyond saving.

Let's face it. Chloe was a criminal. She made everyone around suffer becouse of her. The attempt to extort money from a crazy guy is still extortion. Heck, her car blocked two parking spaces for disabled people and she tried to steal that fund. And she ended up disabled in the alt timeline. Even Alt Chloe suffered punishment becouse of original Chloe's actions.

But Max's powers gave her the opportunity to change... at least a bit. For me to sacriice that bay and all people in it would be the proof that I learned nothing from this story. And I learned my lesson when the wheelchair appared, game didn't have to tell me twice but it did anyway. I would love to have te ending to save both though. I would do a second playthrough to get just that :(

[talemore]

You want spoilers what about the entire canon from the diary:

I'd be getting set up for some serious irony. Like I'm going to rewind myself out of existence or something...
Chloe still scared the ♥♥♥♥ out of me, which pissed me off considering what I've been going through.

I tried harder than I ever did and somehow I stopped time completely. Why try hard and hurt so many to manipulate everything already in your favor?
I just hope that's not what I'm doing with my rewind power.

Chloe and I might kill each other. Besides, I think Chloe sees Rachel Amber in her future.
Sometimes I feel like I'm just cheating at life...
Only I came back from the past... For what? To make chloe's life more painful?

Frank Bowers is dead. We saw him die in front of us. I didn't know what to think or even how...I didn't even rewind...But I'm still responsible for taking a life.

I can rewind time and space, but is it aging me before my own time and space... Including my own history?
My nosebleeds and dizzy spells are a bad sign that I'm overusing my powers, but it's become almost a part of my nature.

What would have happened if I had not be in the school bathroom to save chloe that day? But dammit, I was there and thus I was supposed to be there!

So I can't be any kind of hero without my faithful companion... And Chloe has to know that she might play the biggest role... I actually saw two moons in the horizon. Other people saw it too, except Chloe didn't see anything.

Maybe all my powers are an accident of fate, or am I being punished like Chloe? What have we done to
deserve all this pain.

[Slackerboy (Nate)]

Why would you destroy the bay? From what i'm getting here the story is set up so that you DO throw chloe into that friggin tornado.

[TadloS]

If you ask me sacrificing Chloe over the whole city is perfectly reasonable and rational choice though in the way you can argue that there is no right choice but I honestly disagree with this. In the 1st place this only happened because she saved Chloe and let's face it Chloe is no angel. You have no right to choose wtih some supernatural power who will live and who will die especially in this case. If anything Max got this power (from butterfly I guess; Chloe's spiritual animal?) in order to redeem Chloe as a person.

[_the powDer of jinx_]

i'm sorry but, where did u guys read or who told you that sacrifice Chloe would have fixed everything? what's the rational thought that lead you to that conclusion? cause u seems so sure about it xD
Sure the game push u into that ending, but that's another story.

[Jeckenn]

Originally posted by Life Is...not let Chloe die:

i'm sorry but, where did u guys read or who told you that sacrifice Chloe would have fixed everything? what's the rational thought that lead you to that conclusion? cause u seems so sure about it xD
Sure the game push u into that ending, but that's another story.

The developer, Dontnod Entertainmernt, purposely left mostly everything that happens after the fact up to the players imagination so that the PLAYER can imagine the ending they way THEY want it to end...

For example, they do not show Max and Chloe stopping at the Two Whales Diner if you sacrifice the town and save Chloe because the developer said if in your story everyone at the Diner survives then that is what happened for you, where another person in the same ending might imagine everyone at the Diner dies and BOTH endings are possible the way the developer did it.

[Slackerboy (Nate)]

Originally posted by Life Is...not let Chloe die:

i'm sorry but, where did u guys read or who told you that sacrifice Chloe would have fixed everything? what's the rational thought that lead you to that conclusion? cause u seems so sure about it xD
Sure the game push u into that ending, but that's another story.

Because Throwing her in the tornado delayed the inevitable? I'd do it again and again. Chloe is a ♥♥♥♥♥ anyways.

[_the powDer of jinx_]

Yeah i know that Jeckenn, i spend a lot of time reading/watching every interview that i find and i generally know your point of view cause i followed most (well, probably a few) of the comments that u posted months ago (i didn't came here for quite some time but i did another playthrough recently and i feel the need of follow LiS threads again lol)
Personally i can't see any rational decision and i don't get why people are so sure about sacrifice Chloe, other than "yeah, she has to die."
So, i asked. xD

[Slackerboy (Nate)]

Originally posted by Life Is...not let Chloe die:

Yeah i know that Jeckenn, i spend a lot of time reading/watching every interview that i find and i generally know your point of view cause i followed most (well, probably a few) of the comments that u posted months ago (i didn't came here for quite some time but i did another playthrough recently and i feel the need of follow LiS threads again lol)
Personally i can't see any rational decision and i don't get why people are so sure about sacrifice Chloe, other than "yeah, she has to die."
So, i asked. xD

Well it depends on how you look at it to me. Should I be selfish and cause the destruction of an entire city for one person? Or should I let her go and save the town?

[RED]

Originally posted by Jeckenn:

The developer, Dontnod Entertainmernt, purposely left mostly everything that happens after the fact up to the players imagination so that the PLAYER can imagine the ending they way THEY want it to end...

For example, they do not show Max and Chloe stopping at the Two Whales Diner if you sacrifice the town and save Chloe because the developer said if in your story everyone at the Diner survives then that is what happened for you, where another person in the same ending might imagine everyone at the Diner dies and BOTH endings are possible the way the developer did it.

Either they did that purposefuly or just said it becouse the reception on Episode 5 was quite harsh. We will never know. Most probable answer is they said what people wanted to hear.

The thing is that when you save Chloe people still die no matter what, just not those characters people apperently care about. Sure you can imagine everyone in dinner survived and you helped all your friends around during the storm but the loss of life is still there and we quite literally see bodies laying around during the storm (police officer, trucker, toy representing kids).

Originally posted by Life Is...not let Chloe die:

i'm sorry but, where did u guys read or who told you that sacrifice Chloe would have fixed everything? what's the rational thought that lead you to that conclusion? cause u seems so sure about it xD
Sure the game push u into that ending, but that's another story.

Sacrificing Chlose does not solve anything... LETTING her die when she supposed to stops Max from changing the time in the first place and therefore bay is saved. I don't get why people do not see that, the cementay ending is the only one where weather anomaly did not happen.

[V]

the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..or the one. (another emotional experience)

[talemore]

Originally posted by Terran:

the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..or the one. (another emotional experience)

Still making star-trek reference's... like we didn't had enough of them in the game.

[Jeckenn]

Originally posted by Life Is...not let Chloe die:

Yeah i know that Jeckenn, i spend a lot of time reading/watching every interview that i find and i generally know your point of view cause i followed most (well, probably a few) of the comments that u posted months ago (i didn't came here for quite some time but i did another playthrough recently and i feel the need of follow LiS threads again lol)
Personally i can't see any rational decision and i don't get why people are so sure about sacrifice Chloe, other than "yeah, she has to die."
So, i asked. xD

Yeah, well the ONLY ending for me is to sacrifice Arcadia Bay and I will explain why...

When I as Max went back in time to try to save Chloe's father from dying in that car accident, I talked to William and made a promise to him that I would ALWAYS be there for Chloe no matter what, and I felt a real NEED to keep that promise because I had to go back AGAIN and let him die like he was supposed to.

If we look at that from a loving father's point of view, had Max asked William what she should do he WOULD have begged her to go back and let him die so that Chloe could live a life without being quadrapilegic, I can guarantee that because I am a father and I would do anything for my kids, ANYTHING!

So when it comes to that final decision I had absolutely no problem choosing Chloe over the town because I made a promise and I can't possibly back out of it now...

[_the powDer of jinx_]

About my previous comment, i found this :

- There's also (of course, what do you expect) a nod to Twin Peaks in there.
Part of the Twin Peaks story takes place in The Great Northern Hotel, owned by a family called Horne. This rich family is trying to pass a project called "Ghostwood", a housing resort for rich people that would be built in the Ghostwood forest, which the local Native American groups are trying to protect.

Sounds familiar? Read the article on Chloe's bed in EP4 about Pan Estates, the backstory is pretty much the same, and the journal is called "The Great Northwestern" -