[SPOILER] Farewell ending theory

[Luke]

Spoilers for Farewell.

I was thinking about the tape Max leaves for Chloe at the end of Farewell, especially the "Tell her you're leaving" ending. I wonder if the tape was left by a time travelling Max from the future, probably after the end of LiS. You take several photos through the course of Farewell, and in the Sacrifice Chloe ending of LiS you see Max going through a box of photos. I think it would be nice to imagine Max coming back and creating the tape for Chloe to try and help her through the difficult time. A sort of mea culpa after she's come back to Arcadia Bay and realised how much she let Chloe down.

I'm not sure it works, because Max would have to leave the tape there on the day of the funeral and of course we don't see her take a photo (in Chloe's room, no less) on the day. But I think I'm willing to squint past a couple of details to make it work.

[Cabrito [SK]]

I thought of that too. If not, when would she have time to record that?

[Nene]

This was actually my first thought that went through my head when I saw this. The moment I saw the tape player on the floor with its note I kinda instantly went straaaight to this theory as well. I can't tell ya for sure how plausible it is as that would require a bit more research and theorycrafting to make work but yus. I completely agree with this idea. I think it was mainly the way the voice seemed to 'age' in my ears into what Max sounds like during LiS. Not that that makes complete sense considering she would have technically stepped back into her younger self anyways -shrug-

[chloehoe]

It reminded me of when Max makes William die for the 2nd time and tells Chloe that she'll always be there for her.

[unseenclass]

I don't think it is from a time travaling Max. Since she promises to keep in touch in the tape. Future Max would know this is not going to happen and why would she promis it?

[Nene]

That would be one of the wrenches in making the theory work. The biggest idea I could come up with tends to push into the boundries of fanfiction and is what I think a bit of a stretch. That being Future Max not only leaving this message for Chloe. But also leaving a message for her past self. What the contents of this message are, I couldn't rightly explain other than something along the lines of making sure to keep in touch with Chloe. This could be posed as maybe a 'thought' she wrote to herself in a journal or a full bonified message from future to past Max.

Other than that are probably other much more plausible ways of explaining it. But that'll take time and alot more thought. Overall though I'm pretty sure it 'isn't' future Max and is mostly just me grapsing at straws to get a happy ending for'em -shrug- But I digress xD

There are a lot of reasons why this isn't future Max as well so that doens't really help the theory either.

[Rookie]

I've thought of that too, when I heard Max's recording I simply thought "Max might have been inconsiderate to not call her for 5 years, but with a recording like this Chloe wouldn't have developed as much anger as she shows towards Max in the first game" but there's a problem:

When they're making pancakes, they took the famous selfie Max used to time jump. When you find that photo after the whole treasure hunting play you instantly realize on what day is this episode happening. So the photo exists at this point in time, meaning this whole episode took before anything ever happened but shortly after the 13 year old time jump from episode 3 of LiS.

Max has not messed with time yet. Because if she had, that photo should have been in the fireplace, completely burnt. If Max wanted to create that recording, she would have used those photos she took in this episode for example, but Joyce gives them to Max only in the Sacrifice Chloe ending, but then again, to get that ending you needed to undo the choice of saving William and Max burns that photo there

So I guess what I'm saying is.... There might have been no time travelling involved this time, although it would be interesting if that was true

[Nene]

That would be another major wrench in theory as well. The burning of the photo. It was the main reason why I thought that this was one of those theories that held more base in fanfiction than anything else. It's honestly hard to say at this point without a lot more thought put into it. But yeh it's certainly not looking all that good for it. Though I do agree that more than likely if this was true and that was Future Max it would have to be after the Sacrifice Chloe ending. That I think would be the only ending that makes complete sense for this theory to work. I dunno either way though. I'll put a bit more time into this and see where I can take it. But I'm not gettin' my hopes on it. Theorycrafting is something I simply love to do in any game with lotsa involved lore. -shrug-