#Life is Strange BtS spoilers

[fortunethief]

Can we talk about that smile?? 🥹💖

[bluemoonscape]

I’m not a super active member of the LiS fandom but with the dumpster fire we have going on with the DE early release I’ve been thinking about a few things.

I’m going to refrain from judgement of LIS: DE until I’ve played it through. I like the gameplay and the way it deals with Max’s PTSD. Admittedly if there’s not a Pricefield reunion by the end, my opinion is probably going to take a hit because come on. There has to be a Pricefield reunion. Everything comes back to Chloe.

But I do think the breakup was at least somewhat acceptable and within the realm of possibility. Do I agree with the narrative of Chloe being a free spirit? No. That’s not who she is. But I really can’t see Max and Chloe’s lives being all sunshine and roses after the original game like many fans like to portray. Chloe still has her baggage and now it’s doubled. Max just had the most traumatic week of her life. She was sexually assaulted. You don’t just get over that. I can’t see Pricefield staying apart forever, but I like the idea that they needed at least a break. They need to be their own people before they can find each other again, and then, fingers crossed, they find each other.

As for the “Bay ending is the true canon” shit crawling out of its drain hole again, just—no. No. The LiS franchise is built on the ability to make your own choices, to have autonomy over your life. Bay and Bae endings are both canon because they both represent a different interpretation of the narrative. Yes, Bay is letting go. It’s letting go of the one thing you have to let go of and can’t. But Bae means something too. It’s about autonomy. It’s about telling fate that you can’t take this from me. The moment Max rips up the butterfly photograph is the moment she took her life back. She was able to look at a girl deemed broken by the rest of the world and see with clarity that you are worth it, you are worth it, you deserve to live and have a future and I will not trade you. I always found beauty in that moment of telling someone who doesn’t believe in the value of her life that her life means more than a whole town to someone. It’s dark and it’s morally gray and that’s okay! It’s fiction! And it is a beautiful message just like the Bay ending.

[zookacestance]

My First Thoughts on Life is Strange: Double Exposure

(these are my opinions from the 1st Trailer, Reveal Stream, and clips they've posted)

1. The Style Swap:

I personally prefer the original, less realistic, style to the game. I think it sets Life is Strange apart and makes it look more unique than other games. I understand why they’re changing it up, and I don’t necessarily think it’s bad, it’s just that I prefer the original game style and visuals so far.

I'm also not a big fan of the clothing/styles they've given the new characters, especially Max. Each character in the first game had a unique style I felt suited them well, now everyone's clothing seems pretty bland and standard. I especially wish they had kept some of Max's original aesthetic, It feels really boring and plain now. Maybe that's not a popular opion, I'm not sure, but it's a first impression of mine so I'm writting it! (Also I am aware there are going to be outfit packs, but I don't any of them look like anything Max would've originally wore, or really even look good... personally I don't like them).

2. Game Play:

I like the sneak peak they gave us in the Reveal Stream, it looks fun! I think at the very least I’ll enjoy playing through the game even if I don’t enjoy the story. The university they made looks fun to explore and the concept of two parallel universes with two different versions of everyone you meet is extremely interesting!! ALTHOUGH I really dislike that they took away Max's rewind power, that was a big reason why I enjoyed the first game (getting to rewind and see all the diffrent options and dialoge) so I'm defenitly not a fan of that being taken.

3. Life is Strange Comics:

(Spoiler warning for the comics) One thing that confuses me is that the comics are known as non-canonical in the Life is Strange storyline, however will this game change that?? Max seems to have the same (or very similar) powers that she has in the comics in Double Exposure. Dose this mean the comics will be reconized as semi-canon or even fully canon for the first game now? Maybe Double Exposure will even connect the storyline of the comics and first game togther. Although personally, I hope not, while I enjoy the comics I think I'd enjoy them a lot less if they were canon lol.

4. Chloe:

So we know it follows either endings of the 1st game. Dose that mean Chloe is either dead or alive and broken up/no contact with Max (the girl that sacrificed a entire town for her)?? So far I’m confused on how that will work. As much as I've wanted Max and Chloe to get another game, if you’re just going to give Max one why not just have it take place in the bay over bae ending?? I think they can make this “both endings are canon” work, but the question is will they?

5. Can it Really Be a Standalone Game?:

When they revealed Double Exposure to be a standalone game I was honestly really disapointed because why even make a game with Max, and possibly Chloe, just to have it not connect with their original game and story that's already beloved by fans?? To me this is a big mistake when their original story is still so loved, unique, and respected, and I think alot of fans would've liked to see a sequel or continuation of their story. I honestly think this is what's going to make me dislike the game, we'll just have to wait and see, I'm optimistic for now, but I have a feeling the story and characters will seem disconnected from the original game because they want the game to be a standalone and not refer to the original. So I personally predict that this choice alone will really negativly effect what the game has to offer, but we'll just have to wait and see! Hopefully I'm wrong about this.

[human-timelord]

Playing through life is strange before the storm again and every time chloe and rachel talk about running away or their future together it feels like being stabbed in the heart. They never even had a chance and it's fucking devastating. They both finally had something good to hold onto and it's about to be ripped away from them and they dont even know it. They don't know to cherish it before it's gone because for them it's a new beginning but for us it's the beginning of the end

[violetsforviolyn]

Um I just finished Awake aka Episode 1 of Before The Storm-

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ENDING- (spoilers below)

MISS GIRL DID NOT JUST START A FOREST FIRE

I'M ALL FOR FEMALE RAGE BUT THAT SEEMS A BIT SEVERE GIVEN THE CONTEXT IDK 💀

Chloe and I watching the fire grow: 👁👄👁

Also Chloe hitting the car... PAIN AND SUFFERING

I love this game so much and I love Chloe Price SO SO much 😭🙏

[3rpflx]

// 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗺｡ 🌪

🦋 𝑴𝓐 𝕏: "𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚣𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚘 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚜𝚘 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕. 𝙾𝚛 𝚊 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚞𝚙 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚔𝚢."

[blackwell-academys-airdrop]

Sera: Oh my God! Rachel: Mom?! Sera: Is that alcohol?? You're 16 years old!! Sera: Smoke cocaine like an adult!!!

[crimsonscloud]

have yet to work on the Chloe Meta more because i have other things to do but i'm thinking about it, so here's a few things i'm rotating in my mind:

chloe is an epithet of the greek goddess demeter and refers to the young, green foliage or shoots of plants. chloe's tattoo contains leaves, thorns and flowers.

max's vision of the storm at the lighthouse comes right after chloe curses the bay for "taking away everyone [she] ever loved" and this is then followed by a sudden snowfall. demeter is believed to have caused winter and famine when persephone left to be with hades.

the newspapers max can find talking about the animal deaths and other anomalies describe them as "inexplicable" and there's no apparent environmental explanation for them. what did this immediately make me think of? the forest fire in before the storm set by rachel, which is also described as mysterious.

off that, rose amber describes chloe as a "force of nature" when you talk to her in before the storm and says this could be why she and rachel get along so well. side eyeing that.

"this could be rachel's revenge... our revenge." do you see the prospero/prospera and ariel parallels here. because i'm seeing them.

in max's nightmare, the "ghost max" in the diner starts to tell max she's being stupid and that "someday chloe will destroy-" but gets cut off when chloe comes over to the booth. since she was just talking about her being toxic for max (getting her in trouble, forcing max to time travel to save her) the first interpretation is that that's what she means, i.e. chloe will destroy max through her own self destructive behaviors. but when i read back through the transcript for polarized and saw this bit i went eyes emoji at it because "ghost max" could have also been talking about the storm.

the storm and the associated anomalies persist in some way relating to chloe even in other timelines. max sees beached whales in the alternate timeline, where that chloe is still angry at the world, even if she's better at hiding it. watch her reaction if max refuses the choice she gives her. in the comics, waves!chloe builds a sculpture that is called "the storm" (this chloe also keeps getting flashes of deja vu from the dust timeline, so that's interesting). when i saw this panel i jumped. look at the symbolism in there. chloe builds "the storm". chloe builds the storm.

in general the devs of before the storm like to put a lot of focus on stating how destructive chloe is as a person. life is strange also loves to use the personality powers trope. this is definitely the case with max -- she questions her decisions, she's hesitant, she can be a little slow to action sometimes, so: time powers. for chloe, someone who the devs describe as "a wrecking ball" and being very brash, and someone who harbors a lot of resentment and anger (justified or not), wouldn't a destructive power like that (however you classify it) with such a connection to her emotions fit her?

[grogusmum]

Thank you so much for the subtitles!

Not only do I love seeing Pedro's work, but I love watching Pedro work.

Behind the Scenes of Strange Way of Life (2023) - Pedro Pascal and Pedro Almodóvar discussing Silva and his feelings the morning after.

I added the english subtitles - they may not be 100% correct! Thank you to RaimbowEyesedit on Twitter for the help 🫶🏻

The subtitles took a while so please credit me if you use 🩷

[door-insurance]

So I played Life is Strange 2 for the first time ever

I didn’t wanna play it for a long time not cause it didn’t have Chloe or max (tbh I got sick of their asses around BtS they’re not even my faves)

By that point I was in college and had lost interest in the whole franchise but also I was very apprehensive of white creatives writing racism with no input from the group they’re portraying, they don’t usually do a good job

Sometimes they make it cartoony, sometimes they trivialize it, sometimes they romanticize it

So years later adulthood kicked my ass and I came back crawling to this franchise for some comfort, I finished True colors annnnd I finally started 2 after hesitating annnnd

^sketched this while playing

SPOILERS

I actually liked it

I liked Sean, the drawing segment he does- he was such a likable main guy, deserved better honestly.

I also liked Daniel, he was very adorable and I never got it when people called him annoying like no shit the 9 year old is gonna act like a 9 year old- just don’t be a jerk to him, I know he can be frustrating but that’s what taking care of a kid is like

And lis had always been about realistic complex characters, y’all can’t handle a traumatized nine year?

I have two younger siblings and two nieces plus I’ve been a bratty younger sibling to two older sisters

Maybe I’m just used to it?? But honestly Daniel wasn’t that bad

The racism portrayal in the first few episodes was not all that cartoony and it actually felt real at times, like I can check for American news rn and find stories similar to what you see in episodes 1-3 (minus the telekinesis)

Although the gas station racist hick spouting trump slogans was a bit on the nose, it’s more of dialogue thing

Some people thought the gas station detainment was egregious but it can happen unfortunately, especially to vulnerable people in rural areas and by someone of a higher systematic advantage

One other thing I did not like was the love interests, I thought Finn and Cassidy were alright characters on their own but why do we need romance in this game where the protagonists are always on the run?

I don’t like to compare lis 1 to 2 but when it comes to the romance the former did a better job as it spent more time establishing it, plus max stayed in the same place for the majority of the game- but you know what? Sean doesn’t have to be in a relationship right? It can be a one off thing, that’s fine

Which brings me to my next point

How old are Cassidy and Finn?

Cause Sean is still 16 and no, being on the road didn’t mentally age him- he’s not “mature” for his age

He is still a kid

So for some reason Dontnod never really specified their ages but some articles described them as teens (they look 30 to me) and they can be around 18 right? Their lives are hard stress ages you- it happens, we can with live that, it’s just a two years difference

But teens or not

why did they animate a whole knocking the boots scene???

Of all the games in the series, the only one that gets a sex scene is the one with the much younger protagonist and his ambiguously aged older looking love interest and I think it’s only with Cassidy you get to do it in the tent

Alex Chen was robbed of a on screen booty call from a beanie wearing lesbian with a sexy radio voice or a buff ass Adonis of a man who was Smokey the bear’s regional manager or something

Anyways I’m gonna move on I’m uncomfortable lmao

*im not hating on people who ship Sean with either Finn or Cassidy, I’m not even tagging your ship names- im just stating my personal preferences on my blog

One last thing I did not like about LiS 2 and it was the one thing that kept me from playing it for years

That one scene from episode 4

So at this point Sean Diaz went through the following:

-lost his father, had to abandoned his loved ones, education and home

-was accused of killing a cop

-had to take care of his little brother on his own while on the run, the same brother with telekinesis and none of them know how to control it

-was harassed, beaten then detained by a racist white man

-had to take refuge in an abandoned cabin with little resources

-the dog that they adopted at the gas station eventually gets mauled

-the one time they found solace at their grandparents house they had to leave abruptly cause the police was hot on their trail

-on their way out they can potentially witness the neighbors kid that they befriended get hit by the police car that’s chasing them

-they find shelter at a nomad campground but oh no they get involved with drug trafficking cause they barely have any other options to make money (unfortunately this happens a lot IRL this isnt egregious)

-Sean now has to deal with the trafficking, making sure that Daniel doesn’t get into any trouble with his powers while fake ass giancarlo esposito is breathing down his neck

-and guess what happens next… Daniel gets robbed into pulling a heist on temu gus fring and it goes badly, Sean can potentially lose a love interest/friend in Finn

-Sean gets hurt, Daniel goes so mad that he blows the whole place up; a shard glass flies into Sean’s eye and he ends up losing it

- Sean wakes up from a coma and learns that his brother is missing and he’s about to be taken to jail

- the one thing that consistently brought him joy during this trip was his art and because of the missing eye he can’t even do it the same anymore cause it hurts now

- Sean has to escape the hospital with a hot wired car, little money and has to drive across two states just to get to his brother

-on the way he dreams of his father, he wants him back he wants his old life back but that’s not gonna happen so he has to move forward

Im not listing all this as examples of bad story telling, a lot of these are real life experiences of homeless people. im just painting a picture of the shit that Sean had went through so far

Cause right after the dream sequence, Dontnod didn’t think all that was enough no you had to see Sean get hate crimed by two lifetime movie, sitcom special of the week racists- be made to either sing or suffer a brutal beating

It added nothing to the plot, it didn’t need a choice system either- it’s a hate crime, you’re not asking Joyce for fucking pancakes or eggs n bacon at the whales diner or hosing down Lisa the fckin plant.

This to me went straight to trauma p*rn category, it’s wheelchair Chloe all over again

I hated it then in LiS 1 and I hated now in LiS 2, this is why I don’t dick ride Dontnod that often

They always had this tendency right before the end they single out a particular character and mentally whip them, they become the writing teams punching bag- they think we didn’t get it the first time that this character is going through it, they just hammer it in with the subtlety of a heart attack and I hate it

“Yeah but it’s there to show Sean’s resolve to find Daniel-“

HE ESCAPED FROM THE HOSPITAL AND THE FEDS, HE HOT WIRED A CAR TO DRIVE ACROSS TWO STATES

He’s starving, dehydrated, suffering from chronic pain

That’s enough

Let the character breathe

You ask why not a lot of people wanna play this game and I’m gonna tell you, as much I enjoyed it myself it’s not an easy game to play- it gets brutal, especially right around the end

I’m not against bleakness or extreme conflict, I’m into that but sometimes that doesn’t translate well to any gaming format- especially a choices matter game that’s meant to be replayed

Some people have asinine reasons not to play LiS 2 like it dealing with racism and those people suck, lis had always dealt with progressive themes like calling out objectification, cyberbullying and sl*tshaming

Racism shouldn’t be the exemption

but misuse of racial trauma and not knowing when it’s appropriate to invoke it is a huge turn off and hella triggering to a lot of non white players and I remember when LiS 2 dropped I’ve seen (mostly white) lis fans at the time proclaiming that not wanting to play it meant that you were racist

Like I said there were probably racists who didn’t wanna touch the games cause of the main characters skin but there were people like me who were apprehensive of the “Let’s go to the mosh pit Shaka brah” people handling racism

This is the same studio that had Ms Grant (one of the few black characters from LiS 1) claim that the white settlers peacefully shared the stolen land with the native Americans

I find that shit harder to believe than the time traveling powers

And they were doing alright in the first episodes they covered stuff like unconscious biases slipping through, dog whistles, polite racism from the grandparents segment, police brutality, racial profiling and being targeted/othered- some of these things I went through when I visited western countries

Then they did the bullshit I feared theyd do…

I really don’t blame myself for being hyper vigilant at the time and honestly I was going through a lot then, even if I wanted to I wouldn’t have touched LiS 2 cause it’s a very heavy tasking game to play

I know I kinda made it seem like I didn’t like this game but I did, its the best one in terms of the choice system

It had more weight to it, seeing Daniel internalizing what you say to him or how you act around him was so cool

Also what the second game has over the first one aside from the choices system is the ending selection- I never liked picking the endings for max, I wanted her to pick the ending or her coding/script to do that

Its definitely more fleshed out technically even though LiS 1 has a special place in my heart it’s always gonna be no. 1- but im also glad that I got to experience the 2nd game for the first time, I liked it

Personal lis ranking

1: Lis 1

2: Lis 2

3: True colors

Discount bin: BtS

My personal fave moments from LiS 2:

- beating up the racist bully and giving him a concussion

-mushroom (rip icon)

- victorias letter

-winning that that bear from that claw machine

-gorillaz song that was not feel good inc

-Brody pointing at a fucked up looking arcadia bay yelling “that’s the past!”- that was hilarious

-Sean paying tribute to Arcadia bay in his sketchbook (this fucking kid man, he’s so sweet he deserves the world- what did he do to make DONTNOD mad at him)

- the wolf animation and the story that plays before every chapter

-this was the worst hate crime in the whole game

[chloe-and-max-forever]

Warning - Spoilers Ahead for:

Life is Strange

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

--------- YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ---------

Okay, the Life is Strange series makes me feel so bad for Chloe, in BTS, we meet David who is sexist and invades her privacy several times, her mom doesn't give a fuck about that and marries him by the time of the first game, her friend is crazy obsessed with her like well past a stalker level, and in the first game, everybody in her life has betrayed her, including Max, her best friend, who left during her dad's funeral and didn't even text or call Chloe after that more then, like, 2 or 3 times in 3 years, she is abused by her stepdouche, her girlfriend was killed, her dad was killed when she was younger, she was almost killed like 100 different times, she has no friends, she learned her girlfriend Rachel cheated on her, she was, at least from her point of view, almost raped by the same man who killed Rachel, and, in order to save an entire town full of people who have treated her horribley her entiee teenage life, she has to tell Max to kill her after they just met up again after 5 days and it would undo the time that they just spent together!

Even in an alternate timeline, her life still sucks ass and she is paralyzed and dying slowly!

I couldn't sacrifice Chloe when everything in her life is already so bad and she wouldn't even remember the time spent with her best friend after 5 years of not seeing each other

Poor Chloe 😭😭😭😭

[fortunethief]

☀️

[tangent101]

The truth about Deck Nine's Max Caulfield

Deck Nine loves their original character Steph Gingrich so much that they turned Max Caulfield into a Steph clone.

and

Both characters now have cat-related DLC (Wavelengths had a huge part of its story being where Steph was trying to capture a stray cat and finally succeeds in doing so).

Oh, and don't think I didn't notice that Deck Nine once again decided to play up their old playbook of throwing characters under a bus. We all remember in Before the Storm when D9 altered the timeline by having Max having talked to Chloe for over a year before finally "ghosting" Chloe? Chloe states in LiS that "You were happy to wait five years without a call, or even a text." But Deck Nine had to go and try to drive a wedge between Max and Chloe so they could push the Amberprice narrative.

And what the fuck happens with Double Exposure?

Spoilers (that are already out in the wild so you possibly already heard this) will be below the cut. You've been warned.

Many folks may already have heard this but Chloe Price ends up being too much of a "free spirit" to stay with Max. They out-and-out state that they were more than friends but that Chloe moved on... and apparently Max does as well as in her backstory Max already has dated another woman (named Amanda, I think?) and it didn't work out for Max.

Deck Nine is pushing a wedge between Max and Chloe once more, so that they can push their new ship with this Safi girl that Max once again is saving. Seriously, if they wanted to have a ship, they could have had a poly ship in the Chloe Lives timeline where Chloe also finds Safi really cute and the three girls end up in a romantic relationship together. But no. Deck Nine so hates Pricefield they have to destroy it every chance they get.

Well, not only are they not getting my money? I won't play the game even if it's free. I'm washing my hands of this shitstorm. I'll play the original Life is Strange again, gladly. I'll even play True Colors again because it was a quaint story even if it didn't have the impact or depth of the original Life is Strange. But I'm not touching BtS or DE. And I'll ignore any future LiS works by Deck Nine.

[hope12235]

Guys I just finished Life is Strange BTS and I have things to say so rant incoming

Possible Lis Double Exposure Spoilers

Okay so I havnt played Double Exposure yet, but I’ve seen people say Chloe and Max break up, and I first saw that before completely BTS,and I was like “so I sacrificed an entire town just for them to be highschool sweethearts??” But now that I’ve finished BTS, and fully saw what Rachel and Chloe’s relationship really was like, i understand more now.

Rachel, was the only stable thing in Chloe’s life. She made Chloe happy, and Chloe made Rachel happy, they had eachother, and that’s all that mattered when. Rachel went missing, Chloe lost the only person that she had any sense of stability and joy with.

Chloe needed someone to find stability,and comfort in, Hence, when Max, someone who she had already been open to in the past, came back and wanted her back in her life, she took that offer and ran with it. Chloe did enjoy having Max around, but them being in a relationship would’ve never worked out.

Chloe was trying to figure out what happened to/mourning the loss, of Rachel, when Max and Chloe got together. I think Chloe did have some feelings for Max, but none as strong as with Rachel. In the Bae ending, Chloe needs someone to lean, on to mourn the loss of her mother, and Rachel. Max was a borderline rebound in the Bae ending, it would’ve never worked out.

[iamthebestquality]

ive been a kpop fan for a hot minute, and back when i got into it, i thought it was gonna be just some passing hyperfixation-a phase. spoiler-it wasn't a phase lol, and being part of kpop fandom changed my life. it broadened my horizons, and, as weird as it may sound, taught me many important lessons about media literacy, critical thinking, and forming my own opinions about a subject after meaningful reflection.

but, i just can't shake off this persistent ick that i've been feeling down to my bones with kpop ever since all the riize drama started to unfold over the past year or so. witnessing the supercilious entitlement of these insipid, and pathetically delusional "fans" has been hard to stomach, but not because this is something new.

this attitude has never been new to kpop, and it's come in different forms that i've see with tvxq, 2pm, exo, bts to name a few. although, there are many more similar examples of people, "fans," who are so strongly attached to a delusion because they have nothing of substance within their lives, or to offer the world, that they forget that the characters of their tepid fantasies are real people who exist, and operate outside of the shockingly strange, make-believe, mental-illness-manifested prison they've housed these idols, and themselves, in. it's beyond parasocial, it's parasitic. these "fans," these attitudes, these sentiments, have always existed in some way, shape, or form. and not just in kpop. it can be found anywhere, and everywhere.

however, those funeral wreaths were deplorable. the act itself was heinous, and cruel. but the people behind it, and their intentions just reeked so strongly of insecurity, i could smell it through the layers of self-preservation, and deep-seated low self-esteem. it's been hard to reckon with the impact those wreathes must have on seunghan, and the gravity of the entire situation, when i can't muster enough energy to care about, or even pity, the existence of those who waste their money, and capacities on these nugatory moral offences, who don't even live in reality.

the most jarring thing about this entire situation is that, as years pass, these "fans" who were once so steadfast, and committed to upholding their fantasies that they disregarded the humanity of another person in the process, slowly but surely, all the albums on their shelves, the posters on their walls, the merch, and other paraphernalia they've collected, find their way into boxes that sit in the back of a closet. they don't know it, but it's the last time they turn on their lightstick before it goes into the same box. the number of concerts, and fanmeetings they attend dwindle because they have other plans now. maybe they have partners, a family, other priorities. their intense, manic love has evolved into nostalgia, and fondness. their life has moved on. their age has afforded them wisdom to look back on their lives, and wonder what the big deal was, while blissfully ignoring their involvement in the matter. they're gonna grow up, live their lives, and detach themselves from the kpop group comprised of living, breathing people that they used as a half-baked coping mechanism to make their menial lives more bearable. these "fans" will grow up, and move on, while seunghan carries the weight of the insecurities that they unfairly projected onto him for longer than they can comfortably make sense of.

this rant is just a projection of how i feel about everything going on in the world, not just kpop, but this ick has been hard to ignore. it's even changed the way kpop sounds to me. all my favourite kpop songs just unpleasantly nag at me, and all im reminded of are rows, and rows of those stupid fucking flowers covering blocks of seoul. and i don't even stan riize lol

i hope these "fans" grow up well, and i hope their lives develop meaning beyond some kpop group. after seeing those wreathes, i don't think i can stomach kpop anymore unless something changes. one thing's for sure, the relationship between riize, and briize is undoubtedly changed, and possibly the relationship between all idols, and their fans, as well.

[williamaltman]

Life is Strange 2 thoughts/feelings/review

So, Life is Strange 2. I finished the game yesterday and watched the other endings today. Things are not as fresh in my mind as if I had just finished and I talked a bit about it in other places so this feels a bit hard, but I'll try to lay down all my thoughts...

First of all... All my homies love LIS2, fuck you if you don't like LIS2! Seriously though, for years I've seen people say that the game wasn't good, that the characters weren't as good as the ones from the first one, that the Sean/Daniel relationship wasn't that interesting... I kinda did suspect it was just nostalgia goggles or whatever, but now I know for sure. I don't think there's anything wrong with connecting more with LIS1 and having a deeper relationship with it, but in this case I think you shouldn't even be comparing them and expecting the game to live up to that to you in the first place.

Now, onto the actual game. God, this was so fucking heartbreaking. I think I cried in every single episode. The very core premise of the story is just so sad, so unfair, and despite the powers so rooted in reality that it left me legit feeling uncomfortable with how fucked up their whole situation was. There are good moments, sure, but honestly every single thing that happens from the moment their dad is shot is just... Not how their life should've had to be.

Sure, LIS1 and BTS had dark themes too. But here, it's like, they lose everything from the beginning. Sean doesn't get to go to his party, to hang out with Lyla, to continue his normal life in any way. Daniel loses a part of his childhood. They're both forced to grow up so much faster than they should. There's a line Sean says in episode 3, and it's just a little idle VO, but it fucking crushed me, "Stop overthinking. You're not a teenager anymore". Even though he's fucking 16... He's 16 and he has to essentially become a parent. I knew what the game was about and lowkey followed it a bit when it was releasing, knew a few spoilers, but that didn't make anything any less heartbreaking.

I thought it was beautiful how the game took the opportunity to showcase and celebrate alternate lifestyles. The "family", Away, their freedom and how they interacted with society brings so much into perspective. I'm still a bit conflicted about Karen tbh, but I'm glad that at least they did show something beautiful through her story.

My biggest problem overall is probably how they handled the Finn romance route... I knew back when the game was releasing that despite adding a male LI, they pushed the female one more onto you and gave her more content, while locking the option to kiss him with a "bad choice" (I didn't know what exactly it was). And yeah, that is still true. I still think it was a mistake to lock the kiss with accepting the heist, and while I kinda understand the writer's explanation for that, I still think it could've been handled in another way, or they could've just let him kiss you and "betray" you by doing the heist anyway, since he still does that when you're friends lol.

I see people complaining that because they moved from place to place each episode, there wasn't enough time to connect with the characters... Idk if I'd say I disagree, but it just wasn't really the case for me. I was very invested in all the relationships, in Finn, Cassidy, Jacob, Chris, Karen. Everyone at the farm was cool and everyone in Away too. Lyla. You get so many tidbits about the characters even when they're not there on screen. The only thing I have to say which is kinda related to that, is that I think the time jumps were maybe a bit too big, and that the way they handled Mushroom was... weird.

I got the Parting Ways ending, and I'm satisfied with it. I kinda planned to get it, but only in the sense that I was spoiled that you get with Finn there. I didn't know that the whole morality thing had anything to do with it, and I played the first two episodes without even knowing that there was a points system about that and about brotherhood. I just made all the choices that were high morality (besides killing the cougar and the heist) because it was what I would do, and tried to be a good brother for Daniel. I figured that choosing to cross the border would most likely give me that one, but I just couldn't accept Sean having to go to prison for 15 years for something he didn't even do. If we were able to choose between Parting Ways and Blood Brothers, then I would actually be conflicted about which I wanted.

With the way the game's system works though, where you need to have low morality to get Blood Brothers, I couldn't really do it. I can't imagine myself teaching Daniel to be selfish and not care about killing people. I actually think it's super cool to watch Daniel use his power offensively and fuck shit up, but it just wouldn't be my version of the story. It's funny because, if we just played as Daniel, I wouldn't mind going that route. But since we play as Sean, with it being our job to raise Daniel, I feel a different kind of responsability towards leading him to become a good person. I also think it's beautiful that he gets to have the rest of his childhood, teenagehood, and live a "normal" healthy life with his grandparents. He does it in the redemption one too, but as I said, that just screws up Sean too much.

So, I'm a little disappointed that they're separated (and maybe can't ever see each other again? I'm a bit confused about Daniel's situation and whether he could visit), and that it's a bit shorter than the others (at least than the redemption one), but it IS the ending my playthrough led to and in that I'm satisfied.

I think this story is just incredible. It touched me so much, and the fact that some people can't see it genuinely frustrates me. The people complaining it's too political in particular can just go fuck themselves. It might not be perfect, but like with all things I appreciate, I'm just so glad it exists.