So did you have Max and Chloe as something more or just good friends ?

[gthatch70]

The game gives you the option of kissing Chloe or not and later of kissing Warren or not, so did you have Max and Chloe as possible lovers or simply as best friends ?

[Tesco Meal Deal]

I had them as just friends, the way I see it is that Chloe loved Rachael clearly and not Max.

[gthatch70]

Originally posted by Garlic Rice:

I had them as just friends, the way I see it is that Chloe loved Rachael clearly and not Max.

Rachel cheated on her with 2 different guys that doesn't seem like love to me.
Max wouldn't do that to Chloe

[charly4711]

In my game Max and Chloe were BFFs.
And somehow, given my other choices, I felt the things Max did for Chloe were even more meaningful because they were _not_ also lovers. The things she did for Chloe out of "just" plain, true, loyal friendship (without any other benefits), even if or maybe because Max forgot about how much it meant for a couple of years before her return to Arcadia Bay.

[Hugh Jasz]

in my game i shipped Principal Wells and Chloe's mom so she could go back to school

[cloud2nyl]

yeah they were gay and in love

[gthatch70]

Originally posted by charly4711:

In my game Max and Chloe were BFFs.
And somehow, given my other choices, I felt the things Max did for Chloe were even more meaningful because they were _not_ also lovers. The things she did for Chloe out of "just" plain, true, loyal friendship (without any other benefits), even if or maybe because Max forgot about how much it meant for a couple of years before her return to Arcadia Bay.

I saw them as what were previously close friends growing into something more but we are all different I guess

[8ballz]

i think they're best off as friends, in both the situations of max & chloe and max & warren. i love the idea of max and chloe but its hard to ignore the way she treats max the whole time, which keep in mind i can empathise with as chloe's life basically fell apart when max left the first time, but chloe and max are at very different levels of emotional maturity in their lives and i can only see it as being harmful to both in the end so i like the idea of them being very affectionate and loving friends instead of full fledged relationship. chloe couldnt even handle max getting a call from kate

[gthatch70]

Originally posted by 00000000000000000000000000:

i think they're best off as friends, in both the situations of max & chloe and max & warren. i love the idea of max and chloe but its hard to ignore the way she treats max the whole time, which keep in mind i can empathise with as chloe's life basically fell apart when max left the first time, but chloe and max are at very different levels of emotional maturity in their lives and i can only see it as being harmful to both in the end so i like the idea of them being very affectionate and loving friends instead of full fledged relationship. chloe couldnt even handle max getting a call from kate

Chloe had learnt so much by the end and was different from when she was at the phone call. Plus the picture in Lis2 shows them together if you do the save Chloe ending.

[Kumagoro]

The way I see it, Max is clearly into Chloe romantically, but not mature enough to be comfortable with it at the beginning of the story. It might also be another reason why Max stayed away for five years with no contact. Once they reconnect, there are several hints to the fact that Max is lesbian but hasn't figured out her sexuality yet. It's hinted she's a virgin and/or never had a boyfriend, and she tentatively accepts Warren's courtship but is never really into it (the way I played her at least, but you can surmise what the creators' intended storyline was re: Max and Warren's relationship, which was never really central. Arguably, Max's most intense relationship after Chloe is Victoria). She's also blatantly jealous of Rachel, and even Joyce calls her on it.
One can even read something into Max's strong desire of being referred to with a gender-neutral name, although that could be pushing it too far. It could be indication of general confusion, though, including her sexuality.

When Chloe challenges Max to kiss her, if the player accepts, it plays out as something Max really wanted and Chloe didn't expect. Later, the "gallery of moments" before the ending emphasizes that kiss and other intimate scenes like the two of them in bed. Both endings [SPOILERS, I guess] have a romantic element: in one, Chloe and Max says goodbye to each other with a passionate kiss which is really not a kiss between friends; in the other, they take each other's hand and then ride into the sunset.

As for Chloe, it's implied she's bi (she tells Max she fooled around with boys "among others", or something to that effect), but her defining relationship is with Rachel. We don't know if they were ever physical, and in fact it could have been an unrequited love on Chloe's part. We know for sure Rachel had physical and romantic relationships with men.

But I think the major obstacle for Chloe to see Max as a romantic prospect until the very end is the fact that they grew up together and Chloe remembers Max mostly as a sister figure. Then they sort of find each other again as adults, and there's a shift in Chloe's kind of asexual perception of Max.

[charly4711]

That’s the beauty of games that leave as much room for interpretation, isn’t it?
Not really arguing against the validity of yours, just wanted to remark that Max being jealous over how much Rachel means to Chloe is not exactly conclusive evidence of a romantic interest. I have been jealous when a classmate I‘ve been hanging out with 10 hrs a day suddenly started dated someone, and no romantic interest on my end involved.

[Kumagoro]

Originally posted by charly4711:

That’s the beauty of games that leave as much room for interpretation, isn’t it?
Not really arguing against the validity of yours, just wanted to remark that Max being jealous over how much Rachel means to Chloe is not exactly conclusive evidence of a romantic interest. I have been jealous when a classmate I‘ve been hanging out with 10 hrs a day suddenly started dated someone, and no romantic interest on my end involved.

Not sure if this was in response to mine above, but I pointed out many more pieces of evidence re: Max's romantic interest in Chloe, not just the jealousy. That alone would be easy to dismiss, but when you put it together with everything else, it starts to add up. It becomes pretty much irrefutable once you navigate the right choice paths.

By the way, I'm playing Before the Storm (just ended chapter 1), and that dissipates any doubt about the nature of Chloe and Rachel's relationship, and the fact that both were bi (actually, I'm now starting to think Rachel was bi, but that Chloe slept with boys as an act of rebellion without really enjoying it).

[charly4711]

Originally posted by Kumagoro:

Originally posted by charly4711:

That’s the beauty of games that leave as much room for interpretation, isn’t it?
Not really arguing against the validity of yours, just wanted to remark that Max being jealous over how much Rachel means to Chloe is not exactly conclusive evidence of a romantic interest. I have been jealous when a classmate I‘ve been hanging out with 10 hrs a day suddenly started dated someone, and no romantic interest on my end involved.

Not sure if this was in response to mine above, but I pointed out many more pieces of evidence re: Max's romantic interest in Chloe, not just the jealousy. That alone would be easy to dismiss, but when you put it together with everything else, it starts to add up. It becomes pretty much irrefutable once you navigate the right choice paths.

By the way, I'm playing Before the Storm (just ended chapter 1), and that dissipates any doubt about the nature of Chloe and Rachel's relationship, and the fact that both were bi (actually, I'm now starting to think Rachel was bi, but that Chloe slept with boys as an act of rebellion without really enjoying it).

Again: I‘m not saying Max cannot be interpreted in that way (for Chloe it’s pretty much stated explicitly.) I‘m just saying, I don’t think she has to be.

Saying it all adds up if you make the right choices is a bit of a logical fallacy. It’s a bit like saying you were meant to win the lottery because you did.

I think it’s perfectly possible to play Max as a perfectly straight person who is jealous, who is guilt-ridden over abandoning Chloe in her darkest hours, who is socially awkward to begin with, but who also grows a lot over the course of the game.
When all is said and done, she’s a fictional character and ISN‘T anything, except what you WANT her to be. I can get that those were the reasons that made you feel more inclined to ship Max with Chloe, and that’s fine. I just take issues with such things being presented as absolute truths, and I‘m still disappointed Max didn’t get to go Ape.

[Kumagoro]

Originally posted by charly4711:

Saying it all adds up if you make the right choices

I didn't say that. I said that several choices (that are clearly the ones the authors want us to take, since they're those with more support in the story) CONFIRM it. But some of the dialogues and cutscenes I mentioned are fixed, not variable according to choices. You keep mentioning the jealousy bit, but you can skip that one entirely and it still holds (even if it's a trope of the stories where a character denies their romantic attraction and a parent calls them on it). It's not like there's a storyline where Max ends up in bed with Warren and one where she picks Chloe. It's not "choose Max's sexual orientation". It's a story with some optional paths, but none of them changes the central character dramatically. Regardless of the paths and the ending, Max is still the same Max with the same coming-of-age arc.

Originally posted by charly4711:

When all is said and done, she’s a fictional character and ISN‘T anything, except what you WANT her to be.

Sorry, no. A fictional character is what its creators want it to be. Unless it's extremely ambiguous, which IMO is not the case for Max.
Before the Storm really colors the whole Max & Chloe saga in a LGBT+ light, which was perhaps less glaringly obvious in the original entry, but the theme was already there, among other things. It's part of the larger theme of teenagers finding themselves and their path in life.

[TheFloy]

Dontnod said that each player creates their canon, yet there is a comic that tells us what happens after the ending where we save Chloe and sacrifice the City, in case you haven't heard.
Check it out in case you like Max & Chloe's relationship.

[Lukkern]

I kissed both, but i viewed the Chloe and Max kiss only as a dare and nothing romantic at all. I never viewed those two as anything more then friends. Not in the ending either. I thought of Warren as Max's boyfriend from around episode 2 and the rest of the game, which is why i decided to kiss him.