I wonder when exactly Chloe decided she wanted to spend her last moments with Max? 

We see from the dialogue “Not when you’re here. Not yet.” That she had likely made up her mind before they even watched “Blade Runner” together, but when did she know it was the end? 

With this question in mind I looked through the game for moments that indicated Chloe was making a decision about her life...and found nothing. There’s no dialogue before this that implies anything, or foreshadowing of the choice Max will be given.  

So I was ready to shrug it off and make a post saying “I guess we’ll never know.” but then I had a thought and it really lingered. What if Chloe knew since this moment? 

More Undercut

She doesn't have the star tattoo on her left wrist like the main!verse Rachel does. I even went back through all the issues she appears in to make sure it wasn't an art mistake. I didn't see her star tattoo once. This despite her very clearly having her dragon tattoo. It was a deliberate choice to not include it on her design. Waves!Rachel never got the star, but main!Rachel did.

My personal headcanon is that the main timelines (as seen in Season 01) are the ones where Chloe wasn't brave enough to pursue a romance with Rachel and asked her to get a star tattoo on her wrist as a symbol of their promise to leave Arcadia Bay. Plus, throughout season 1 Chloe never refers to Rachel as "my girlfriend" or "my ex who I'm still friends with." Rachel is very explicitly referred to as Chloe's friend who she happens to have a crush on.

Additionally, there's Rachel's thrown out letter in the second episode of s1, where she hints to her connection with Jeffershit.

Writing a letter to your girlfriend about meeting a guy who you're interested in isn't exactly something people do, furthering the implications that they had a platonic relationship in the main!verse.

(Four more images showing Waves!Rachel doesn't have a star tattoo).

Waves!verse Rachel doesn't have the tattoo because she was romanced by Chloe, and they sealed their promise to leave the Bay together with the romance only option, the kiss.

Unfortunately, I still think she ended up in the dark room (likely kidnapped and drugged) at some point because of the end credit teaser from BTS. (Considering both she and Chloe have seemingly gone completely sober off of drugs in the Waves timeline I think that's a further hint). Something about her experience just changed and she ended up surviving.

Another thing of note...

The above Rachel, who is from a third timeline where she survived (because Jeffershit got fired for stealing before he and Nathan could hurt her) and goes to school with Chloe and Max, has her inner left wrist conviently not shown in her brief appearance. She also doesn't seem to have her bracelet. (She has a bracelet but not the bracelet).

I think this is a Rachel who either got a star tattoo for Chloe and later gave her bracelet to Frank, or a Rachel who gave Chloe her bracelet. In the latter case, I think this is the timeline where Chloe gave the bracelet to Sera, and she and Rachel got to meet. Thus Sera's influence may have gave Rachel enough know-how on men to realize Jeffershit was a creep. (I know you can have them meet without the bracelet but it's significantly harder, especially due to a glitch in the game's counter).

Whether or not this Rachel was still groomed by Frank is unclear. She mentions meeting him briefly, but it could just be for weed.

Tldr: Here are the possible timelines

Main!verse Rachel isn't romanced -> she agrees to get a tattoo as a sign of the promise -> either the truth or lie ending is chosen for bts -> Rachel starts seeing Frank/is groomed by Frank -> Jeffershit gets hired -> doesn't see the warning signs and is groomed by him -> is killed by Jeffershit and Nathan -> is found by Chloe and Max -> either the Sacrifice Chloe or the Sacrifice Bay ending is picked -> Lis 2 -> True Colors

Dust!verse: Same as the above but Sacrifice Arcadia Bay is definitely picked. (Also the universe where Steph's mom, Joyce, Warren, Frank and Pompedou dies, but Victoria, David, and Alyssa are confirmed to live) -> Lis 2 (Sacrifice Bay variant) -> True Colors (Sacrifice Bay variant)

Waves!verse: Rachel is romanced -> kisses Chloe to seal the promise -> either the truth or the lie ending from bts can happen -> she likely doesn't get groomed by Frank because she's committed to Chloe -> possibly ends up in the dark room but lives somehow -> She and Chloe make it to LA -> a possibly unseen variation of Lis 2 happens -> a possibly unseen variation of True Colors happens

4th!verse: Rachel isn't romanced -> gives Chloe her bracelet to seal the promise -> Chloe gives Sera the bracelet -> truth ending for bts + she meets Sera -> might have been groomed by Frank (unclear) -> ends up meeting her world's max -> was able to pick up on Jeffershit's bad vibes and managed to avoid the Dark Room all together -> Jeffershit is fired for stealing supplies -> jeffershit is arrested for sleeping with a student -> ??

/But first... Pardonnez-moi for my sloppy English/

Idk if there is anyone else who also noticed these things and details, but nevertheless. But at least personally, I always had a theory that all parts of LiS (season 1, BtS, season 2, TAAoCS, Farewell & the comic series) are set in the different realities that are somehow connected and intertwined.

/There have always been hints of a multiverse, even in the first season, so I see no reason to deny any possible interpretations of the plot for the sake of closing plot holes. So, in my opinion, you can take any of the games, including the comic or even fanfics, as canon, because it is YOU who create the universe in which you want to believe — with its missteps and consequences, with its love interests or lack thereof/

Of course, I strongly doubt that the developers did this on purpose, but at least this theory explains all the inconsistencies between the games themselves and the comic. And considering what topics were raised in the comic, my guess even looks quite plausible.

What I am going to talk about may be more just thoughts than full-fledged theories, or even rather it can be called "Life is Strange in details", but I think it will be interesting anyway))

/I think I'll even make 'LiS in details' a separate rubric with various posts on this topic, because some things are not entirely included in the concept of thoughts/theories and can be looked at separately🤔/

I will split this theories/thoughts into several — random and not — short or long posts to make it more digestible. I in no way pretend to be canonic to my assumptions, but just share what came into my head, and what details in particular I paid attention to in order to make this conclusions. So,

Part 1

Let's start with the fact that there is such an entertaining thing as Rachel's shirt. This was the main reason that made me immediately think that Season 1 and Before the Storm are two different timelines. The shirt Max wears in the first game is Rach's blue BtS shirt, NOT the red one. It is the blue shirt that has a tear in the sleeve and a badge on the left side. And I very much doubt that Miss Amber would buy another shirt like that and do the same thing with it. And even more so, it is unlikely that she repainted it or washed it with red clothes so that it turned red.

/I heard about the theory that BtS could be a prequel to the Chloe and Rachel line in the comic (which, in principle, is even quite clearly hinted at in one of the last chapters in the conversation of the trinity in GLaDOS). Sooo... May be. Or maybe not. But this one makes perfect sense, right?))/

So, if these are REALLY different realities, it explains such basic discrepancies as:

• David and Joyce's wedding

• How Frank got the Pompidou

• Rachel's earrings

• etc.

Now let's talk directly about the title of the prequel itself. Despite the fact that its title sounds meaningless, considering how different the plot details of these games are, I can see why the game MAY be named Before the Storm.

I see two options that, in general, do not even strongly contradict each other, given the possibility of a multiverse, which both the games and the comics clearly point to:

• In most realities the Storm is approaching the city anyway and does not depend on anything (or vice versa — it depends on many factors)

• BtS is Max's original reality, in which Chloe dies in the bathroom before rewinding. After the first rewind in the bathroom, Max finds herself in a similar reality, differing in certain details, like the color of this shirt. And since the storm is what season 1 begins with, the prequel can legitimately be called Before the Storm.

Despite the fact that for most fans the image of Rachel, which we saw in BtS, doesn't coincide with the original, on the contrary, I saw enough to understand how she could become Rachel Amber from the first season (I will point out this in another post on this topic, but I don't think it will be very different from what others have already said about this). But I also understand how this story could be a prequel to the Chlo and Rach line in the comic, which is great.

But tbh, I still doubt that BtS is really a prequel for the first game — but I do believe that it is one of the many connected timelines (particularly with the reality where William is alive, which I will discuss in another post).

I think Cassidy and Finn are siblings. Even twins.

Why? Look at how they behave around each other and the similarities between them:

- They clearly are not a couple because they tease each other about their “scoreboards,” Finn teases Cassidy saying “You always go for those suburban boys,” etc. (they might also be just very close friends, but the way Finn talks about Cassidy makes it seem like they’ve known each other forever)

- Their eye colors are pretty similar - they’re both green, but Cassidy’s have a slight brown tint and Finn has a slight blue one. Blue and green eyes can change color based on the lighting, so that might be it:

- Their character models are very VERY similar. Same lips, same height, same facial features overall: https://i.gyazo.com/5e3c308a9d6636c50c60f006c35feac6.mp4

I have always wondered how Max Caulfield ever got her powers in the first place. Yeah, it’s a video game and there can be magical elements sometimes, but this is different. This is a game that, if you strip away those magical elements, is about a relationship that is built off of hardships and trust.

When I was playing Before the Storm, I opened up Chloe’s journal and found this image:

Now, originally, I thought it was meant to symbolize how Max had abandoned Chloe (with the date on the tree crossed out) and how Max was therefore “dead” to Chloe. However, I think it is deeper than that.

In this picture, Max is not the Max that Chloe remembers. She is the Max Caulfield from the previous game with the same shirt, hair, and camera. How would Chloe have any idea of these events? The dream is supposed to be in the present, 3 years before the events of the first game.

I think it is supposed to mean that Max killed herself. In real life.

My way of seeing it is that Max did return to Arcadia Bay for school. She did attend Jefferson’s class. However, she never had time travel powers. Picture Max doing the same routine from the first scene of the game: she is walking to the bathroom. She goes into a stall, but there is no butterfly. She uses the restroom, then what? A boy and a girl walk in. The girl gets shot. Max runs to help.

It’s Chloe.

Max feels crushed. She hasn’t tried to contact Chloe the entire time she had been in Arcadia Bay. She thinks, “Maybe if I had reached out to her, I could have saved her”.

Chloe and her were inseparable, and I think she may have killed herself after she saw her best friend murdered in a school bathroom.

This starts the adventures of the first game. She wakes up and is in Jefferson’s class, goes to the bathroom, but this time she has time travel powers.

This is her path, if you will, to the afterlife. The whole first game is an elaborate journey to close off the demons that bothered both Max and Chloe.

Here are the goals of the two characters:

Max - To save or help Chloe in anyway possible to ease her guilt and make up for lost time

Chloe - To find the truth about Rachel as well as rediscover her own self-worth and know that she was, and always has been, loved by those that were closest to her.

The first game tackles both of these, allowing both characters to die peacefully. Max is able to save Chloe, multiple times, thereby destroying the guilt she felt before about not doing so. Chloe is able to get closure on Rachel because now she has something and someone to blame for the loss of her love.

I have more to back this up. If you go into the text messages in the journal during the dream sequence, you will see these images:

Max sends “Don’t Worry. I’m going to see you real soon. When you’re dead”. When I first read this, it seemed like it was condescending. Just Chloe’s mind playing tricks on her. However, if you look closely, the times on the messages are backwards. They were sent in reverse.

The message actually reads: “When you’re dead, I’m going to see you real soon. Don’t worry”.

This theory not only answers a bunch of plot holes, but also a lot of questions. I had one regarding the Ghost Deer when they find Rachel’s body.

This deer appears, and Max can see her. Wouldn’t that freak her out? But it didn’t. Instead, it led her to the place where Rachel was buried.

If Max’s destiny in this journey was to help Chloe discover what happened, then it was fulfilled. The Ghost Deer disappears after they find Rachel, after Max’s duty is fulfilled. Max has always worn the deer outfit and has always been the shy character. The disappearance of the deer is meant to symbolize Max telling herself that her mission has ended, that she has fulfilled her one true wish of helping Chloe.

And my other question involves Rachel herself.

I loved Rachel in Before the Storm. I loved her so much that I ignored all of the flaws she had in the first game. And then I remembered, what were her flaws?

One of which was that she betrayed Chloe and started to develop a relationship with Frank, Chloe’s drug dealer. After playing Before the Storm, this was so odd to me. I kept on wondering why Rachel, someone who was absolutely devoted to Chloe, would ever betray her in such a way.

Then this theory came along. If all the events in the first game was just a journey to the afterlife, it would also come with all of the character’s fears. Chloe’s greatest weakness is that she doesn’t think she is enough. She always questions whether people love her.

The relationship between Rachel and Frank was discovered during the first game, not before. It is a symbol of Chloe’s subconscious fears that Rachel never did love her and that she was just using her, like Eliot had said.

Despite my love for Life is Strange, there are, like, 3 HUGE flaws that ruffle my feathers! These things could have changed the ENTIRE outcome of the story. 

1. Episode 3, “Chaos Theory.”

Remember when Max went back to when William was alive, but Chloe ended up in a wheel chair? Well, if I’m being frank, Max didn’t even try to save Chloe. Yes, Max hid the keys of William’s car, but that just led to poor Chloe getting hurt. There was any easy solution right in front of her eyes. She could have destroyed the keys so the car was inaccessible, and then it would have HELPED maybe avoid the accident.  This would lead to William being alive, and Chloe living a happy, full life- she wouldn’t get into trouble with drugs, or Nathan. And I know this isn’t a great flaw, but maybe, just maybe, it could work.

2.   Chloe’s and Frank’s debacle over Rachel’s bracelet 

Not as good as the first point, but in episode 2 Chloe and Frank get into an argument over Rachel’s bracelet. But in Before the Storm, episode 2, Rachel owes Chloe a favor. The player can choose a kiss -YES PLEASE-  a tattoo, or a BRACELET. Square Enix gave Chloe the option to get Rachel’s bracelet, so only if Chloe says yes to the tattoo or a kiss is it possible for Frank to end up with it. This could have completely removed the need of the huge argument -which led to Max pointing a gun at Frank- completely.Without this argument, Frank’s relationship with both girls could have been much more positive, and they could received information easier. Although this was a different company, they should have known flaws such as this that ruins the original.

3.  David Madsen’s security cameras 

If David had gotten his security cameras, everything from the beginning- Including Nathan almost shooting Chloe would have been caught on video. This would have gotten rid of the “Who Dun It,’ mystery. Yes, I’m aware that Chloe would have still been shot without Max’s help, but it would have been no mystery about the Dark Room. If cameras where installed, Kate being kidnapped by Nathan would have been on tape, and the whole project would implode. Although it wouldn’t have caught Nathan shooting Chloe, a number of incidence would have been caught. Such as David harassing Kate, Jefferson making Kate cry, and Nathan walking out of the girl’s bathroom after shooting Chloe. All of this on camera would make finding the dark room a whole lot easier.