*Spoilers* Why I chose the road less travelled...

[tybaltrex]

**This whole post has game/ending spoilers**

Okay, so the choices between the two endings are pretty split stats wise, however, I am honestly surprised to read that so many people feel strongly about wanting to choose the "sacrifice arcadia bay" ending. I feel like I played a totally different game than a lot of people. To me, the "sacrifice Chloe" option was my immediate choice and feels like the only satisfying option. I'd like to share my thoughts on this...

Let me preface this by saying that I only just started playing Life Is Strange last week (and have since played it though "just one... and a half times..."). I'm still in the process of replaying and exploring different choices.

Chloe is totally a fun and interesting character and I loved the development of Chloe and Max's relationship (and I love that player choice can determine whether this is more of a friendship or romantic relationship). I get that she has been through a lot of hurt in her life, however, I saw her as a very selfish character.

Max saves Chloe's life again and again. Max also CONTINUALLY chooses to put Chloe first and yet Chloe still keeps demanding that Max prove herself to Chloe. For example, in episode 1, if you fail to hide, Chloe literally throws Max under the bus to David by blaming the weed on Max. Yet, if Max denies that it is her weed, Chloe is gets pissed off and rants about everyone letting her down. Similarly, if you dare to answer Kate's call (which leaves Chloe waiting, what, 30 seconds?), she throws a guilt trip at you. Granted, if you save Kate, Chloe will apologize for this when you visit Kate in the hospital BUT even if the phone call wasn't from someone in dire need, I still feel that it's pretty selfish of Chloe to expect that Max ignore every single other person in her life and put Chloe first all the time. Additionally, if you don't attempt to shoot Frank, Chloe again gets angry that you didn't stand up for her. Apparently she expects that you will injure/kill another person just to prove that you care about her.

Episodes 3 and 4 mostly involve investigating Rachel, which again, is Max putting Chloe's needs first. I can see some intrinsic motivation in this (we learn pretty early on that Max is naturally a bit of a snoop), however, Max has never even met Rachel. She wants to find the truth to help Chloe. Max continually puts herself in danger for this investigation.

The whole game is Max risking herself for Chloe (risking physical danger, risking getting in trouble and jeopardizing her scholarship, giving up future prospects by backing out of the timeline where she wins the photo contest) and Chloe never once does this for Max. The only somewhat unselfish thing I can think of that Chloe did for Max was give her William's old camera.

At the end of the game, it is Chloe that suggests to Max that she needs to be sacrificed. To me, the dream sequence in episode 5 was Max realizing that, although her and Chloe have an amazing special bond and Chloe brings out a desirable adventurous side in Max, she needs to say goodbye. At the end of the game, Chloe finally realizes that she has been selfish and realizes that in demanding that Max put her first, she has hurt a lot of other people. Chloe finally realizes that everyone she blamed actually really cared about her. I think that in a sense she blamed her father for abandoning her but Max's rewind power helped her to realize that his death actually saved her from the slow, painful death following the car accident. She blamed Rachel for abandoning her but finding the body helped her realize that it wasn't Rachel's fault. She blamed Max for abandoning her but finally realized how much Max actually cares. She realized how much everyone in her life has sacrificed just for her, and by sacrificing herself, she is finally able to say thank you. After being nothing but selfish throughout the game, Chloe wants to make the ultimate selfless act.

I also feel that the "sacrifice Chloe" ending is paralleled with the alternate reality in which William is still alive. In that timeline, how many people chose to give Chloe the overdose BECAUSE they loved her? Choosing the "sacrifice Chloe" option does the same thing. You are choosing to go back and sacrifice Chloe because you love her and you want to fulfill her wishes. She wants to die in order to save everyone that she loves and cares about. If you choose to sacrifice Arcadia Bay, Chloe will live the rest of her life with that guilt (similar to the living the rest of her life in pain if you declined to compassionately kill her in the alternate timeline). At the end of the game, both Max and Chloe realize that Chloe was meant to die in that bathroom with Nathan but Max was given her powers so that they could both come to terms with it. Both girls needed that week to reconnect, discover true love and friendship and, finally, say goodbye.

[Jeckenn]

Yes but for me the only ending is to continue to stick with my BFF because that is what I was given the powers for in the first place. There can be no other reason except that someone, or something WANTED me to be able to save Chloe.

Now having said that there was never ANY need for Max to use those powers to save her friend. Even in the washroom scene I still feel that if Max had just moved the mop washer/holder and found the hammer straight away before Chloe even entered the washroom she could have rang the alarm and caused Nathan to exit the washroom before Chloe even arrived there. In fact the ONLY time Max needed to use her powers to save someone was when Kate was attempting to jump and she needed a way to stop time and arrive there before Kate could jump. Every other time Max saved Chloe is totally doable without using any time powers, try it on one of your play throughs. The ONLY time you can't do it is because the developers did not allow you to see that you can move the mop holder to find the hammer until you have rewound once, so THEY forced you to use the time powers to save Max and to me that is total cheating on their part.

So in actual fact it was Kate that caused the storm, if anyone did, and honestly if she can't use her powers to save her friends then ♥♥♥♥ the bastards who gave her those powers because they want me as Max to be an ass and not use them to save her friends? ♥♥♥♥ that!

[The Wolf of Calabarzon]

Valid points, all. I chose to let Chloe be killed, albeit for a slightly different reason. For me, the final choice very much reminded me of the classic Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever", where Kirk had to prevent McCoy from saving a woman's life in the 1930s in order to preserve the timeline wherein the Federation existed. In Life Is Strange, I saw the ever-escalating series of natural disasters -- of which the big tornado was not necessarily the last -- and knew that Chloe had to die. (The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.) The fact that Chloe, too, seemed to realize this didn't make it any easier -- I must have stared at those two choices for ten minutes before selecting. As much as she annoyed me at first, by the end Chloe had grown on me. Definitely going to play through again and go the other way, just to preserve the cosmic balance or whatnot.

EDIT: Just saw Jeckenn's post #2. "Kate is the cause of the storm" is an interesting hypothesis.

[solxiz]

It makes no sense. Right, they have lived all those moments together because Max was away for five years without a call or a visit, so maybe the universe has given Max those powers so she can spend one last week with her best friend. But it makes no sense at all that Max was given this power for that reason cuz only the Max we control will have those memories together and the automatic Max only gets a sad and unfair memory (Seeing Chloe dead on the floor by a gunshot after five years without being in touch) and obviously Chloe will die alone, upset, angry, threating Nathan to get money to pay a drug delear, without finding the truth about Rachel, mad at her mom and David and sad for Williams death and with no real friends. That is not fair for her. So it doesnt make sense she was given those powers because it would be selfish if only Max has those memories when she was the one who left Chloe behind for five years and a month. Although Chloe said "all those memories are true and they'll always be ours" i dont see it the same way as her.

I also understand Chloe being selfish because she feels the worlds is punishing her and against her. Common she loses her dad when she is only a kid, after that her best friend -and only- left the town for five years without a call or a visit so she feels disappointed, and then she met Rachel who gives her a reason to live but then she dissapear. How could Chloe not to be selfish? I am a pisces as Chloe are and we are selfish ... but when we feel the world is against us and everything in our lives goes wrong we blame everybody, we gets blind, we gets selfish and we never never neeeever forget anything. Thats why when Max does something that makes Chloe feel down she automaticaly gets angry and i do understand her. She doesnt deserve to die, she suffered a lot...

[Firing Line]

>"Road less traveled"
>"The choices are pretty split"
k

[solxiz]

Originally posted by Doug Johnson:

EDIT: Just saw Jeckenn's post #2. "Kate is the cause of the storm" is an interesting hypothesis.

It is a bad hypothesis. We can fail on saving Kate's life and the storm is still coming.

[tybaltrex]

Originally posted by Solxiz:

I also understand Chloe being selfish because she feels the worlds is punishing her and against her. Common she loses her dad when she is only a kid, after that her best friend -and only- left the town for five years without a call or a visit so she feels disappointed, and then she met Rachel who gives her a reason to live but then she dissapear. How could Chloe not to be selfish? I am a pisces as Chloe are and we are selfish ... but when we feel the world is against us and everything in our lives goes wrong we blame everybody, we gets blind, we gets selfish and we never never neeeever forget anything. Thats why when Max does something that makes Chloe feel down she automaticaly gets angry and i do understand her. She doesnt deserve to die, she suffered a lot...

I completely agree with you that you that Chloe has suffered so much and it makes sense why she would be selfish. However, I think that's why the ending is important... she finally gets a chance to let go of her anger.

Originally posted by Solxiz:

It makes no sense. Right, they have lived all those moments together because Max was away for five years without a call or a visit, so maybe the universe has given Max those powers so she can spend one last week with her best friend. But it makes no sense at all that Max was given this power for that reason cuz only the Max we control will have those memories together and the automatic Max only gets a sad and unfair memory (Seeing Chloe dead on the floor by a gunshot after five years without being in touch) and obviously Chloe will die alone, upset, angry, threating Nathan to get money to pay a drug delear, without finding the truth about Rachel, mad at her mom and David and sad for Williams death and with no real friends. That is not fair for her. So it doesnt make sense she was given those powers because it would be selfish if only Max has those memories when she was the one who left Chloe behind for five years and a month. Although Chloe said "all those memories are true and they'll always be ours" i dont see it the same way as her.

This is where I feel that my interpretation of the game differs. I think that the reason Max has her powers was precisely so that Chloe could get all of that closure. Without Max's powers, she dies alone and angry, as you say, but with Max's power she dies selflessly for the good of others AND with the knowledge that everyone she thought abandoned her, actually cared about her. I get the argument that the rewind technically makes all of those memories disappear but I think that, in death, Chloe remembers. I can't remember where but I read someone's comment recently that suggested that the butterfly is Chloe's spirit... if that's the case, then it makes perfect sense that Chloe is able to carry those memories with her into her death.

[Palatine Katinka]

Originally posted by tybaltrex:

Let me preface this by saying that I only just started playing Life Is Strange last week

This is why you missed the 'Everyone who saved Chloe is a horrible mass murderer' type posts and arrivde in time for the backlash from us explaining our reasons for our choice.

Originally posted by tybaltrex:

I still feel that it's pretty selfish of Chloe to expect that Max ignore every single other person in her life and put Chloe first all the time. Additionally, if you don't attempt to shoot Frank, Chloe again gets angry that you didn't stand up for her. Apparently she expects that you will injure/kill another person just to prove that you care about her.

She expects Max, her best friend, to do the same as she would for her. Maybe that's expecting too much but it's only because that's what she would do. You mention Max not taking the blame for the weed but have you tried taking the blame? David gets up in MAx's face and Chloe steps in to defend her even though we know he is likely to hit her. Then with Frank, in episode 4, if the conversation goes wrong and Frank pulls his knife Chloe jumps in front of Max and pulls her gun. If Max doesn't rewind Chloe will shoot Pompidou and Frank to defend Max. In episode 2 Chloe is disappointed that Max froze and let the gun get taken because losing David's gun to Frank is a serious problem and because Max didn't go as far as Chloe would to defend her.

Originally posted by tybaltrex:

The whole game is Max risking herself for Chloe (risking physical danger, risking getting in trouble and jeopardizing her scholarship, giving up future prospects by backing out of the timeline where she wins the photo contest) and Chloe never once does this for Max.

Well, it's not like Chloe has a schoilarship to lose. She feels she's already lost everything good in her life except for Max who's just come back. Now she wants to hold onto the one good thing she has as tight as she can and see my point above for how she is willing to risk her own safety for Max.

I can accept your argument that Chloe doesn't want to be the reason for others being hurt and is willing to be sacrificed because she's learned that people did care and didn't mean to abandon her but I don't think she was ever as selfish as you say. She just expected the same level of commitment, her flaw being that she was too possessive of Max. Although I don't agree that it is right to let Chloe die on Monday just because she accepts it on Friday. The Chloe that dies on Monday dies with the belief that no one cared about her and everyone had abandoned her. Arcadia Bay finally finished her off after already taking everything she cared about. Actually, that final choice could even be seen as Max's abandonment of Chloe! By sacrificing her, Max is proving her right, everyone is taken from her by Arcadia Bay.
While it might seem like a nice thought that Max still keeps the memories of that week that could have been, she also keeps the pain. Despite all the effort she put in, despite going through the Dark Room, she ends up with nothing from it but memories. Memories that confirm that Chloe did still want to be with her after 5 years apart. From her journal we know Max was afraid of contacting Chloe sooner because she thought Chloe might have moved on. Is it better now that she knows exactly what she lost or would she have been better off not knowing and probably thinking Chloe had moved on? Is she to be forever tormented by the fury in her head?

Anyway, we aren't all supposed to go the same way. DONTNOD wanted us to be 'Polarized'.

[The Wolf of Calabarzon]

Originally posted by Solxiz:

It is a bad hypothesis. We can fail on saving Kate's life and the storm is still coming.

Ah, yes, I somehow managed to forget about that.

[Zeno]

Originally posted by ManlyMan:

>"Road less traveled"
>"The choices are pretty split"
k

When I click on "Choices" on the main menu after finishing the game, the stats seem to lean in favor of sacrificng Chloe, 54/46 . . . So which is the road less traveled?

[Remy]

It's the same as ending of The Last Of Us, it's not a question of logic and being selfless, it's about doing it for love. In the end, Joel dooms quite possibly the human race, but he could hardly give two ♥♥♥♥♥ about his decision, because he still has the only person that matters in the end to him. If you were paying attention, Max always puts Chloe first, intent not only on saving her, but making it clear that she comes first, so much so as to abandon a timeline where she had her dreams come true as an artist. If you were put in a position to give up the one person you love most, nobody in their right mind would even make a quick decision. According to 46% of player, they were willing to give it all up for her.

If you didn't even hesitate, you only thought from an outsider's perspective, not from the shoes of Max. You were only thinking of the rational thing to do, and that's absolutely fine, but you can't really blame those who sacrificed the Bay, because they chose a selfish, albeit a more human and realistic route.

[Tomash]

Originally posted by ReminemRapperChef:

It's the same as ending of The Last Of Us, it's not a question of logic and being selfless, it's about doing it for love. In the end, Joel dooms quite possibly the human race, but he could hardly give two ♥♥♥♥♥ about his decision, because he still has the only person that matters in the end to him. If you were paying attention, Max always puts Chloe first, intent not only on saving her, but making it clear that she comes first, so much so as to abandon a timeline where she had her dreams come true as an artist. If you were put in a position to give up the one person you love most, nobody in the right mind would even make a quick decision. According to 46% of player, they were willing to give it all up for her.

Agreed, you don't have to really pay attention though since Max clearly states at the very end "you're my number one priority" Pretty hard to miss that :P

[Palatine Katinka]

Originally posted by Wintermonk:

The Max I played would have said, "Screw this! And screw fate!"

I'm pretty sure the diary entry in the bottom left of this screenshot:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=521858516
is one of the few constants that aren't affected by our choices. This means the Max everyone played has already said that she was meant to be there, her destiny was to save Chloe and a choice like that is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. After reading that diary entry I really thought DONTNOD were going to do something different instead of this old time traveller's dilemma that they had already addressed but no, they went ahead and asked us a question Max has already answered.

[tybaltrex]

Originally posted by Palatine Katinka:

Then with Frank, in episode 4, if the conversation goes wrong and Frank pulls his knife Chloe jumps in front of Max and pulls her gun. If Max doesn't rewind Chloe will shoot Pompidou and Frank to defend Max. In episode 2 Chloe is disappointed that Max froze and let the gun get taken because losing David's gun to Frank is a serious problem and because Max didn't go as far as Chloe would to defend her.

Great points that Chloe does step in to defend Max.

Originally posted by Palatine Katinka:

Anyway, we aren't all supposed to go the same way. DONTNOD wanted us to be 'Polarized'.

Absolutely! I think it's amazing that they were able to design the game such that we each have strong feelings about choosing a particular ending and for different reasons.

[tybaltrex]

Originally posted by Wintermonk:

2. It felt out of character for Max to give up like that. She is fighting for Chloe's life and the town, but then at the end she gives up, sits down and cries while her friend is shot? I don't buy it. The Max I played would have said, "Screw this! And screw fate!" She would have hit the alarm again and, with determination, tried to figure out how to save the people from the storm. I think all she would have to do is warn them throughout the week.

Ooooh interesting. I like this.

[Zeno]

Originally posted by tybaltrex:

Originally posted by Wintermonk:

2. It felt out of character for Max to give up like that. She is fighting for Chloe's life and the town, but then at the end she gives up, sits down and cries while her friend is shot? I don't buy it. The Max I played would have said, "Screw this! And screw fate!" She would have hit the alarm again and, with determination, tried to figure out how to save the people from the storm. I think all she would have to do is warn them throughout the week.

Ooooh interesting. I like this.

Seems to me that sitting there doing nothing was just about the hardest fight in the game, for Max, given all that was at stake. You know, the dead birds and dead whales and unscheduled - wait, they have to be scheduled?? - eclipses and double full moons and the apocalyptic tornado . . .

The harder she tries to fix things, the more things get broken.

The fight is to face up to and finally accept that she can't control everything and can't fix everything.

If you see this as a coming-of-age story, that's the moment at which Max emerges as an adult.

(I lean to the hypothesis that this story is allegory, rather than science fiction, and that it takes place in Max's imagination on the eve of Chloe's funeral.)