Life is Strange

I apologize. I did kind of get... aggressive in that post.

However, I think this argument on interpretation is one that we could discuss. I'm totally open to interpretations. Is Max Bisexual or Lesbian? I feel like either are valid depending on the player and she can be played either way. My personal interpretation is that every 'choice' crosses Max's mind so, logically, she'd probably be bisexual in some respect. But I see an respect the interpretation that she's lesbian and etc.

However, in all honesty, are certain interpretations more valid than others? Yes. Just... yeah... For example, there are those who interpret Christian Grey in 50 Shades of Grey as a very loving and sexy love interest. Despite, well, anyone who's analyzed the book has found COUNTLESS issues with his character and how he's anything but a loving, caring, and healthy love interest.

Or I've seen people try to say that Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome are Max's stories and that Mad Max: Fury Road is somehow different in that Furiosa is the character who has the most agency and involvement in the motivations of the plot. Which is just... not accurate to film series.

I can't think of one off the top of my head, but I know I've had a discussion with someone where they interpreted the story to be about x, which was completely counter to nearly all of the themes of the book that my College English Professor was baffled by the response. Sadly, I really can't think of what the book was so I do feel a bit foolish.

Point being, there are in fact some interpretations that are less valid than others.

edited 20th Jul '16 9:27:25 PM by InkDagger

The examples you brought up are interpretations of character, which I do agree that some interpretations can be argued to be more valid than others due to being able to see a character's personality, actions, and development. And even then, some characters provide enough ambiguity that multiple interpretations can be just as valid (Christian Gray is not one of these characters).

A bit different than the interpretations of an event, which doesn't give you the same sort of hints.

I feel like there are ones on plot, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. I just... Can't think of any. There has to be one, but its... yeah. Sorry. I'm a bit on the out of it side at the moment since I'm about to go play Pokemon Go with friends.

At 2 in the morning?

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess we're not in the same Time Zone.

Clarification as I think a very large argument has grown out of a misunderstanding: The point isn't that no one died in the tornado but that not everyone died in the tornado. That a reasonable amount of people may have survived it, and the people the audience has grown to care about may be counted among them - especially those in the diner, which the ending goes out of its way to show us is largely undamaged.

And David, who was in a bunker at the time, so his survival is pretty much without question.

The ending is deliberately vague as to precisely where on the spectrum from "Miraculously, zero fatalities" to "Complete annihilation" the town's population falls.

EDIT: Basically, it's reasonable to conclude that Chloe's mom, David, Warren, and Frank survived. Kate Marsh as well, if you saved her, because she was supposed to leave town that morning and so wouldn't have been there for the tornado to hit.

Various students such as Alyssa are also killed by the tornado but can be saved with Max's powers. Whether or not they made it to safety afterwards is never shown, but they at least got a second chance to find shelter. That's what I was talking about when I said Max can do everything she can to help people on the way to the lighthouse.

Everyone else's fate is entirely ambiguous. Some probably lived, others probably died, but there's no way to determine which is which.

edited 21st Jul '16 8:21:52 AM by TobiasDrake

I personally interpret the Save Chloe ending to entail at the very minimum the random death of probably a dozen, two dozen people who you barely knew or didn't know at all, maybe one or two you did. I think it's reasonable to hope that those you really cared about lived, there's no direct evidence they didn't, but the ending is such a downer that it's easy to think they might have. Driving into the distance without checking for survivors and the lack of emergency vehicles is probably what most suggests a real downer interpretation; similarly though, it's hard to believe they could just drive away so casually if Joyce is dead so I like to think they stopped by the diner and confirmed that the occupants mostly made it before leaving town.

That's part of the problem isn't it? You have to fanfic explain how the ending is not sociopathic, because on the face of it, it is.

RE: sexual preferences, I think most of the evidence points towards Max being a lesbian who has only recently made up her mind about that fact. Her interactions with Warren suggest to me that up until recently, she's been open to dating boys but has withdrawn most of her interest lately without any particular declaration one way or the other. In fact this colors how I view the game to the extent that I think that overall it's a story about Max's first real love (Chloe). The strongest evidence for this is in chapter 5 when she has visions of Chloe flirting with Warren; the only reasonable interpretation to me is that this represents Max's jealousy (she wants Chloe to herself) and latent, low-level rejection of Warren (vision Chloe mocks her for the kiss and it obviously bothers Max to imagine Chloe sleeping with a guy). Most of those visions are pretty nicely scripted, they do a good job of showing her inner thoughts without spelling it all out.

Live Action TV series incoming.

That's information about the NX. Anyway, if any video game could make a series, I'm glad this is the one.

Not sure if this counts as a "wish granted" thing but...

Legendary Pictures to adapt Life Is Strange.

EDIT: Oh wait, it is for a TV show.

edited 27th Jul '16 11:08:01 AM by TargetmasterJoe

Life is Strange should be fairly easy to turn into a TV show.

Yes and No. The game stressed the importance of choices and, arguably, the themes of the story changed entirely depending on your last decision. Say what you will about 'the choices don't matter' but having to sit there and pick what Bible Passage to mention to Kate and hope it was the one off handedly mentioned a couple of hours earlier is a bit heavier compared to watching a character make choices.

Now, seeing something more experimental in adaptation of this (ala Run, Lola, Run?) might be very interesting rather than a straight Teen Drama.

Oh I didn't mean any of that, just that by being an adventure game it's very easy to adapt into an non-interactive medium.

Whether it'll be less compelling is a different question, and not one I intended to ask.

The setting, characters, and metaphysics would definitely be easy to adapt on a TV budget. I'm conflicted. Part of me wants to see them use Max, Chloe, Warren, etc. instead of making up a new cast and new story. But on the other hand, I know that if they did, they would inevitably hook up Max and Warren.

Max/Chloe OTP.

edited 27th Jul '16 11:40:39 AM by TobiasDrake

I honestly think they should just do a thematic sequel. Like the supposed actual sequel will be. Craft a new story that will better work in the new medium.

That would raise an important question:

If it isn't in the same medium as Life is Strange, consequentially has none of the gameplay mechanics and can't generate the same kind of experience as Life is Strange, and also has none of the same characters or concepts from Life is Strange, then in what way would it be an adaptation of Life is Strange?

The themes, messages, atmosphere, asthetics, and story telling should work.

Wait, "having to sit there and pick what Bible Passage to mention to Kate"? I'm pretty sure I saved her without mentioning the Bible at all.

If you say a wrong thing then you have to pick a bible passage.

I ended up having to quote the Bible, I think I did good, but then I made the mistake of mentioning how her mother would feel.

Ah.

I guess I just understood Kate so well that I didn't need to throw her religion in her face to get what I wanted. #friends4eva #donttrysuicide #someonesavedmylifetonight

I just threw one out there. I couldn't think of everything you could have mentioned to her except the Bible passage ones. I knew her family could be brought up, but I didn't remember which family member she was ok with (her younger sister I think?) so I went with the bible passage one.

Plus, if they were to adapt that scene, I would have Max say something that Kate didn't like. It might give the situation a bit more weight that Max can easily break this fragile situation.

So I just played through the whole game this weekend.^note Like literally, I had downloaded Episode 1 free when it popped up, finished it, instantly bought the rest, and played them. Now, I only saw the endings on You Tube thanks to that Game-Breaking Bug at the end. But still, wow. It's pretty rare for a game to keep my brain active enough to give me insomnia two nights in a row.

One thing occurs to me. Is Max really doing time-rewinding? Or is it an alternate universe split? Her ability to remain on the other side of a door, or to (sporadically) carry items back with her, IMO argues that she's not rewinding time, she's rather somehow looking for an alternate universe just out of sync behind her, and somehow replacing the Max in that universe.

Also, maybe I'm just rather bloody-minded, but was anyone else disappointed you didn't get the chance to blind Jefferson at the end? I know you can get him shot, but honestly I think rendering him blind, and leaving him alive, would have been a worse punishment - for a nut who was so absolutely about the physical appearance and capturing it on film, that seems like a good representation of hell.

Hey guys- just finished Life is Strange (mostly blind- I was spoiled on the final choice and who the killer was) for the first time over the course of, like, two months. I live-reacted to them on the MLP thread (mostly) so I'm going to post the pieces of the reactions here.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

There were some little things that annoyed me, but overall it's a very touching narrative and an interesting look at a person's choices that they can make.

Episode 5 as a whole disappointed me, but it looks like you had fun with it.