Why did Max get her power anyway?

[Bongo]

I thought it stemmed from Max' desire to protect Chloe, but it seems she had that dream at the beginning (before anything happens) that hints at Max already having this power.

[Palatine Katinka]

We don't know the exact source and Dontnod seem to have no intention of telling us as how and why are not important to the story of Max & Chloe's week together. What we do know is that Max believed it to be her 'destiny' to be in that girls' room at that time and to be able to save Chloe, based on what she writes in her journal.

[Bongo]

Oh, thanks ! Still not entirely satisfied, but I understand better why.

[timmo4444]

the way i see it: its the trope where a super hero gets their power under a traumatic event. And her subconscious really really wanted to save chloe.

[Maralyndia]

I feel like it was to warn people of the tornado, but also to save Chloe. Probably a lesson about life not going the way you want it to as well.

[Firing Line]

Well according to what we were told about it in episode five is because story

[Flinz]

I actually would compare this question to the Alan Wake story. It comes pretty well around towards end and I actually liked the build up of mystery and how it turns out. Not meaning it should be like that for LiS but it works well for Alan Wake. Check it out if you haven't.

[Jeckenn]

My thoery was that the powers came from the Tobanga Totem found outside the dorms. Several times different people including Samuel, Ms Grant, and others refer to the totem as being some mysterious power...

My full theory before episode 5 released and I have edited it to fit more into "what should have been" instead of "what will come in episdoe 5"

I don't think Jefferson should have been the only person behind all of this. I think it should have been Nathan's father, Sean Prescott, and a long time ago he discovered that a female student at Blackwell always carries the time powers that Max currently has. I think the time power has something to do with the Tobanga totem found outside the dorms, which is my attempt to explain why Max has time powers in the first place.

The reason it should have been Sean Prescott is why would someone spend nearly 1.4 million building a secret underground bunker and then abandon it to allow some sick psychopath to use it and kill his son in the process? He would not because Sean Prescott is a business man and a very successful one and successful business men do not squander assets they spent over a million dollars on.

So moving along...Ever since Sean Prescott discovered all of this he has been trying to get the powers to transfer from the current girl who has them to his son Nathan. The process to accomplish this is a special photograph that needs to be taken at the exact moment the current girl with the powers dies and likely that photo involves a process known as cross polarization photography, thus the title of the final episode "Polarized"

This is why Sean Prescott had Jefferson hired at Blackwell because he needed a professional photographer with a lot of talent to have any chance of getting the right photo that would transfer the powers to his son. Now if Jefferson is helping Sean Prescott of his own accord, or if he is being somehow controlled or manipulated into helping him, is something Dontnod could have either covered in the final episode or just left it up to our imagination. However I think they should have made Jefferson a victim in this because it makes for a better story arc about the bad guy.

If we look at the creepy photo's of Nathan and Rachel, where Rachel is looking like she is dead and Nathan is posed with her in the photo, this is an attempt to take that photo I am talking about. If you google "Cross Polarization Photography" many of the images resemble this creepy photo, not in that they are using drugged models but rather that they are more or less dupilcates, one image polarized and the other not polarized.

They were very close with Rachel in gaining the time powers but she died of a drug overdose just before they could take the right photo, and the powers then transferred to Max. Max never knew she had the powers until that moment in the girl's washroom when Nathan shot Chloe and Max reached out in total desperation to try to save her and thus unleashed her powers.

Kate was a mistake made by Nathan when he drugged her and brought her to the Dark Room, he did this in an effort to please his father which is something he felt he needed to do, and when they realized she did not have the powers they set into motion a method to have her kill herself so they did not have to have another murder they would need to cover up. This worked for many of the players because they were unable to talk Kate down off of the roof and she plumetted to her death.

Also what that incident with Kate on the roof did is it caused Max to need to stop time to have any chance of saving Kate. Sean Prescott likely has some method of being able to detect a time stop and when Max stopped time to make it to the roof on time they discovered Max was the current girl with the time powers. So they set up the entire thing with Kate in an effort to determine exactly who they needed to bring to the bunker next in their efforts to take the time powers.

So if they get the right photo, Max will be "Polarized" in the photo and the time powers will then transfer to Nathan. The start of the episode should have revealed Sean Prescott as the man behind all of this, by using my explanation it sums everything up rather nicesly. It sort of explains why there are time powers, ie the Tobanga Totem which was referred to several times in the story and that it had some unknown power. The incident with Kate also would have been more plausible because it was an effort by Nathan to prove to his overbearing father that he was "Prescott stock" and worth his time, which it seemed to me from the story that Nathan wanted to prove that to his father.

I have yet to understand why the final episode was even titled "Polarized" and my ending would have clearly explained that in more detail.

Then Dontnod could have gone on to work on a better ending sequence that allows us the chance to save Arcadia Bay AND save your bff Chloe Price and then your choices through out the game determines how successful you can be doing that. They could have still had the two choices we were given, however that third choice really did need to be there and tie in with all of the major choices in the game to determine how successful you can be in accomplishing "the perfect ending".

[snaresamn]

I think she developed the power to protect Chloe. The tornado was the reprecussion for using that power.

[Jeckenn]

Originally posted by snare_samn:

I think she developed the power to protect Chloe. The tornado was the reprecussion for using that power.

That does not make any sense though if you could just develop such powers everyone would have them, there has to be some higher power, some artifact, or some super natural reason for the time powers.

Though I guess talking about it making sense there is no real sense in anyone having such time powers anyway, so we just have to chalk that bit up to it being the focus of the story.

Also if she developed the power to protect Chloe, well in fact she did not even know it was Chloe until later in the parking lot when Chloe drove up in her truck. It was not until that moment that she knew who the girl was in the washroom so developing the powers to protect Chloe is false, no doubt about it.

[Flinz]

Well there are weird hints about Arcadia Bay being special. Like Blckwell seem to inspire people with arts. A lot of people say how Arcadia Bay is corrupted and gone bad which causes death and weird events that science cannot explain so it has to be mystical. Like Chloe said Arcadia Bay seem to be ground zero for whatever it is. But anyway it likely is powers are more related to Arcadia Bay generally than Max personally. But we don't know what more than Jefferson lies beneath surface.

If Rachel was time traveler before Max then there could be link between them which is Chloe and how both care for her on some level which could hint why Max was chosen by this destiny.

Otherwise some people keep mentioning how Max seem to have strong positive aura around her and how she is connected to Arcadia Bay.

So Tobanga explanation seems reasonable but alas we don't know more about it yet. But there certainly is some ancient vibe around.

[DvS_Dragon]

Here's one..

Why did she have a power to alter time, when every consequence tells us it's better not to have it or use it.. ?

[Blackwell_ninja]

Originally posted by DvS_Dragon:

Here's one..

Why did she have a power to alter time, when every consequence tells us it's better not to have it or use it.. ?

That question is as old as this forum, there is still no answer. As I see it, one of consequences of Max´s power is Chloe being alive, and it´s worth to use it even just for that

[DvS_Dragon]

Originally posted by Blackwell_ninja:

Originally posted by DvS_Dragon:

Here's one..

Why did she have a power to alter time, when every consequence tells us it's better not to have it or use it.. ?

That question is as old as this forum, there is still no answer. As I see it, one of consequences of Max´s power is Chloe being alive, and it´s worth to use it even just for that

I understand that and I agree even though I chose differently the 1st time.

Life is Strange is just that I guess.. strange..

"If life gives us powers then life intents us to use it."

In the end it just depends on how we use it..

[Blackwell_ninja]

^^Sometimes I feel that the game just gives us questions and expect players to make answers for themselfs. This, or... answers for that don´t even exist

[lalala]

It all started at the light house, when Max got hit by a boat. Maybe many of the thing already happend, without her having any Power. Maybe Chloe died and other things happend. And Max got Killed by the boat, but the very moment before she actually died her mind had a flash back where she tried to change and fix things, which went wrong before.