voodoo doll

the bromance that will never be

I’ve a small question for those who chose Sacrifice Chloe instead of saving Chloe at the end of the first Life is Strange. How many of you would change your views on the morality of this choice if it meant that Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson end up getting away with murder? After all, the general gist of things is that Sacrifice Arcadia Bay is “everyone dies” (despite the fact the Storm hit on a Friday at noontime when most people would be at work and due to the depressed economy most people work in outlying communities, as seen by a woman taking the bus to go to a job interview and multiple people commenting on how the Prescotts “ruined” the economy).

It is argued that “Sacrifice Chloe” is the morally right thing to do. At what point does it cease to be the morally right choice, however?

We know that Officer Berry at the very least is in the Prescott pocket and would do anything to get out of that debt. That could very easily include warning Sean Prescott that his son was blabbing about murders and the like and a “Dark Room” - and all Sean needs to do is send in a couple people immediately before the police can get a search warrant and remove the computer and photo albums and all at once the Dark Room becomes just a photo lab. If Rachel is dug up by Sean’s people before the cops can get to it, then there isn’t even a body to prove anything, and Nathan’s babblings can be dismissed as caused by stress from being attacked by a drug addict in the school bathroom (Chloe did have a police record and was attempting blackmail).

So. Nathan’s words can be dismissed as stress without any additional evidence, especially given that at least one police officer (and probably multiple officers) are on the take. Jefferson walks because it’s the easiest way to protect Nathan. The people responsible for Rachel and Chloe’s deaths walk free. And it is most likely that Mark Jefferson will predate other people - very possibly including Max who wouldn’t dare use her Rewind because she feels if she does, instant Storm and massive deaths. 

But hey, you’ve a town full of people who’ve been saved. So does that balance the scales of allowing the continued predations of Mark Jefferson and Nathan likely walking? 

At what point does Sacrifice Chloe cease being “right” in your eyes? And please note, someone can be taken in by the police for questioning and then walk free. Nathan and Mark Jefferson are wealthy white men, with some level of power. You have rich white men who escape justice for assault, rape, and even murder appearing in the news all the time. When you consider all the evidence of police corruption and Prescott control of the area… you end up with a miscarriage of justice and a significant likelihood that more young women will be victimized.

Addendum note: I know someone will eventually try to explain that Jefferson and Nathan end up in jail because of the events in the Everyday Hero timeline. So I’m going to nip that in the bud now. There is a massive difference between the Everyday Hero timeline and the Sacrifice Chloe timeline, and that is a not-so-pleasant man named David Madsen. Now, David is a paranoid gun nut. We know this, we have plenty of evidence of this. He’s also not stupid - he had almost tracked down the Dark Room on his own and the one thing he was lacking was the code to get into it. 

David knew he couldn’t go to the local police. He would instead have talked to the State Police or the Feds concerning the evidence he found - especially as it is likely the photographs Nathan and Jefferson are taking include underage individuals which could be considered potential child pornography. This explains why Sean Prescott is under investigation in the Everyday Hero timeline. But the Feds would not have been called in for a simple school shooting. That would be handled on the local level - a level that is already owned by Sean Prescott. 

In Sacrifice Chloe, David is busy mourning his step-daughter. He is dealing with a hysterical Joyce, his own self-loathing for not having protected Chloe (a young woman whom he had abused but still cared for), and this young “friend” of Chloe’s who started nosing around and was allowed by Joyce up into Chloe’s room (that being Beta-Max, who lacked any of the memories of the week with Chloe and who would vanish once the Funeral Date arrives). And with corrupted and missing evidence, Mark Jefferson walks free, Nathan walks free, and Max is forced to see her best friend’s name dragged through the muck as the Prescott PR team paints a picture of an innocent teenage boy who was being harassed and threatened by a blue-haired drug addict and criminal. And given that Frank Bowers is still free and he was the man distributing drugs used for kidnapping young women and killing Rachel Amber? This is an added bit of proof that in the end, Nathan and Jefferson walk free.

One of Max’s greatest joys in life was taking photographs.

Now every time she takes a picture she’ll hear Jefferson’s voice saying “always take the shot” and remember the Dark Room.

Worse? If she sacrificed Chloe… she cannot ever tell anyone what happened. So now the one thing that once brought her joy now is going to bring bile to her throat. 

Can you honestly see her continuing her dreams to become a photographer? Her childhood dream was to take pictures with Chloe by her side. Now in a “Sacrifice Chloe” ending… the person she wanted to be by her side is dead. It’s her fault. She could have saved Chloe… but chose to let her die.

And everytime she picks up a camera… she will hear the voice of a man who raped her soul and her dreams - and yes, what he did was rape. It might not have been a sex crime, but it was having someone force him on her… and in doing so irrevocably tainted one thing she loved tremendously so she will always remember him. And she cannot tell a soul.

If she chose Chloe over Arcadia Bay, I could definitely see Chloe urging her to continue taking pictures, to not let Jefferson destroy her gift. Given she is the one person Max can confide in… she might continue taking pictures. She would do so if the girl who constantly forced her out of her safe places was there to push her (though I could also see Chloe backing off if she saw Max truly was starting to hate photography after what she’d been through).

But if she can’t tell anyone what she’d been through… then I could see her put away her cameras and never taking a picture (and most especially selfies) ever again.