shake the earth

There are too many things I want to say about the Life is Strange finale. I cried, very hard. There was lots of anticipation, then shock, then rage, then just many, many more tears. It was, by far, the most amazing and life-changing gaming experience I’ve ever had.

As I listen to Local Natives’s “Mt. Washington,” I can’t help but mourn for everyone who was needlessly murdered or hurt or violated. So many of these babies didn’t deserve it. This death. This loss of innocence, this forced corruption.

Max shares a surname with one of the most famous narrators of literary fiction, Holden Caulfield of The Catcher and the Rye. I fell in love with her determination to fight and make things right again. She fell into Holden’s shoes, in a way: trying to shield those she loved from the corruption of the adult world -- doomed to endlessly catch the children jumping off the cliff in the rye field. And she would do it if she could. If she had the ability to.

But as time passed, it became clear she could not catch everybody.

That is the message I have gotten thus far from this game. And it breaks my heart. But, God, until the day I day, I will applaud these developers for crafting a story wholly unforgettable. It was painful, it was heart-wrenching, and at many times it was dissatisfying, but think, much of it was purposeful. It was powerful, disturbing, and beautiful, how on earth do you do that?