Oh this tea is SCORCHING

(Other usernames covered for privacy) Michel took to Twitter today to share his honest thoughts on Life is Strange: Before the Storm, almost 9 years later.

While he couldn't say whether Square approached Dontnod first about a BtS game before Deck Nine due to still being under NDA, he did share what he disagreed with about D9's portrayal of Rachel Amber and Amberprice.

Apparently, some of Dontnod's original ideas for her backstory that didn't make it into LiS1 were:

The Ambers were not a wealthy family, possibly even poorer than the Prices, and may have lived in a trailer park.

Mr. Amber wasn't the DA and the Ambers couldn't afford to keep searching for Rachel. It's possible one of Rachel's parents would've been an alcoholic and domestic abuser, which seemed to be reworked into Captain Spirit with Chris Eriksen.

Michel basically confirmed Chloe was always in love with Rachel but that Rachel used Chloe-- Rachel was supposed to be their Laura Palmer and far more morally gray than D9's depiction.

If Dontnod had made BtS, it would've been much darker with a focus on flawed characters, much like LiS1.

stuff like this is why it’s important to recognize that don’t nod’s canon differs from deck nine’s interpretation of the story/characters. people aren’t just whining or “not accepting canon” when they say that bts, de, and re are not part of the actual intended canon. and you still can enjoy d9’s interpretation while recognizing that! i’ve never understood why it needs to be one or the other, or why people feel the need to get so defensive when it gets pointed out, especially when the material already has canon inconsistencies, and therefore it should be obvious that it’s basically an alternate universe separate from how the story and characters were actually intended. michel’s comments also reinforce my opinions on before the storm; i’ve always thought that they should have never given rachel a new backstory. had they made the game with the og canon in mind, they could’ve just shown rachel through chloe’s eyes, which would’ve naturally explained the romanticized portrayal given it’s chloe’s perspective, while still keeping the mystery around her character since we’d still be seeing a somewhat limited, subjective version of her. instead, they gave her a full familial backstory that directly contrasts with canon and doesn’t really go anywhere in the context of lis1. it’s unfortunate. bts def has other problems too (like the, imo, censoring of chloe’s character and other canon inconsistencies) but that direction has always been what mostly bothered me about it.

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