Life is Strange is stringing us along...

Transcript Transcribed by Laura M.

Courtney: Hello everyone and welcome back. My name is Courtney. I am here as always with my spouse Royce. Together we are The Ace Couple and today we are talking about how the Life is Strange franchise is, uh, stringing us along. Apparently they’re really gonna make us wait in anguish for our anticipated asexual representation.

Royce: Our anticipated potential representation, assuming they don’t just completely drop that thread.

Courtney: So we’ve done two episodes about the Life is Strange franchise and the asexual representation, uh, we are able to see in them.

Royce: Oh right, the novel. I was trying to think about what other game— that was covered in episodes 183 and 184. About a year ago.

Courtney: Yeah, I mean, Life is Strange, most folks know it as a video game franchise, and that is how it started. We were huge fans of the very first Life is Strange, although we have played all of the Life is Strange games and prequel games and even a couple of games that aren’t technically in the Life is Strange franchise but might as well be.

Royce: Same developing studios, similar formats, that kind of thing.

Courtney: Yeah, very similar in concept. But Life is Strange also has some spin-off stories in different types of media, and what we covered last time was a prequel novel by author Rosie Thor, who is a member of our aro and ace communities. In that book— and you’ll have to go listen to that whole episode if you want to hear more about that representation and that character— if you’ve not already done so, does have an original character in that book who is Ace, who we don’t see in the game franchise.

Courtney: But until recently, the latest game was Life is Strange: Double Exposure, which brought back Max Caulfield, who was the main point of view character from the very first Life is Strange game. Some people were really excited to see Max again, ’cause that’s kind of how it all started. Some people were less enthused.

Courtney: But our biggest excitement came from a new character in Life is Strange: Double Exposure by the name of Diamond Washington, who is a young college student who— throughout varying points in the game— expresses feelings and personal experiences that seem so, so very demisexual. Or at the very least, ace spectrum broadly somehow.

Courtney: I of course wouldn’t be mad if they came out with more information about Diamond Washington and she identifies more as gray ace, but from what we can gather in her storyline— and it comes in multiple forms, we overhear a conversation she has with someone, we see a letter she has written, and social media posts that she writes that are all sort of fleshing out her story of not really wanting or seeking sex, having concerns about getting in a relationship if she never wants to have sex in the future. But she does have one singular person who she does feel some kind of attraction to. And she makes it abundantly clear that this is the first and only person that she has felt this about. Thus our demisexual speculation.

Courtney: This was enough to get us excited for prospective ace rep as we’re watching it. She never says the word asexual or demisexual, but other things she does say alludes to the fact that she knows she’s different, she experiences these elements of life differently than the average person, and she doesn’t seem to have the language for it. Which is a very common ace experience.

Courtney: But at the end of that game, we got a surprise post-credits scene of Diamond heavily alluding to the fact that she also has magical Life is Strange powers. Every single one of these games, whether it’s Max or a different protagonist, Someone has superhuman abilities to do something. In Max’s case, it’s rewinding time. Another character in Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a shapeshifter and is able to appear like different people. Every character with these powers has something a little bit different, but we see them all get, uh, nosebleeds when they use their powers, uh, too much or overexert somehow. This is a known fact about this world and how these powers look.

Courtney: So we were ecstatic in the post-credits scene when Diamond is shown looking a little panicked with a bloody nose, and this shape-shifting character who seems to be wanting to collect other people with powers comes up behind her and basically says, “Hey, come with me.” And that’s really, like, the first time in this franchise’s history that there’s been a cliffhanger of a post-credits scene that’s alluding to something else that is to come and continue following these characters, I think.

Royce: Yeah, well, I believe this is also the first game— Double Exposure was— that had a repeat protagonist. Like, there was a prequel game, but that went in the other direction. It wasn’t, you know, the same characters in the future. Yeah, and it— that was only— it was a mixed cast too. It wasn’t Max, it was the other— Chloe and other people who are primary characters right before Max showed up. So it was a change in format in both cases.

Courtney: Yes.

Royce: And so the next game, Reunion, kind of snuck up on us. I mean, we don’t really pay attention to video game news that much anyway.

Courtney: Well, we don’t, but in the case of Life is Strange, we have always known when a new game is about to come out for the most part, and this one seemed to just come out of nowhere for us. It was not on our radar at all.

Royce: They announced it in January and released it at the end of March. So there wasn’t a ton of lead time either.

Courtney: So of course we had to play it, and we did. I know we probably said in our last episode about this franchise that I don’t think any game has succeeded in recapturing the same high emotional stakes as that original Life is Strange game, but I’ve still enjoyed all of them. And the same is still mostly true. I still had fun playing this game, but I also have more mixed feelings about it than any of the other games.

Royce: Yeah, as we were playing it, you kept saying, I hate the premise, but I’m still enjoying, like, the characters and the atmosphere.

Courtney: And I kind of wanted to hate it because I, I object to the concept. Because the very first Life is Strange has these big world-changing implications based on decisions that you, you make. So that’s why there was such a high emotional stakes. And like, Max and Chloe are the— probably couple? I guess there were options to not make them romantic, but nobody we know did that. And the entire premise is something cosmically in the universe is trying to kill Chloe, and Max keeps rewinding time to try to save her life, but every time this happens, there’s a new and creative way to kill Chloe.

Courtney: And this all culminates with a final decision at the end of the game where you can either save Chloe or you can save your town from this catastrophic storm that’s going to wipe out everything and everybody. Thus the Life is Strange saying: “Bae before bay.” ’Cause the town is called Arcadia Bay, so what are you gonna save, the bay or your bae? And you’re gonna feel awful no matter which one you choose, and that’s part of what is so brilliant about this game.

Royce: And so earlier you mentioned that in the previous game, Double Exposure, there were some people that were excited to see Max again and some people who weren’t. And that was because when you start the game, first of all, you choose in-game which timeline you’re picking up on. Is it the one where Chloe survived and the town was destroyed, or the one where Chloe died and the town was saved. Either way, regardless of what happened, Max and Chloe are no longer together.

Courtney: Well, you kind of have to do that because Max has to be a single person, because otherwise you’re writing two entirely different stories if Chloe died a decade ago or if they’re still in a relationship together. So Chloe has to be off screen, and then that’s all just flavor as to whether or not she died long ago or they broke up.

Royce: True, but for the people making that decision at the end of the first game, hoping that this was a lifelong relationship, that sort of soured their choice.

Courtney: Which I didn’t mind too much because they were teenagers.

Royce: Yeah, but I get why some people were like, I left my characters where I wanted them to be, why are we having a sequel?

Courtney: Yes.

Royce: But the whole plot of Double Exposure is Max’s powers reawaken again after a period of dormancy, and they’re different now. And the world of Double Exposure has a split timeline that you are shifting between because events have happened that have caused the, the magic of the Life is Strange world to, to cause this, this timeline fork.

Courtney: Well, it parallels the first one because Max’s new friend in this new, uh, college town she’s working in, Safiya, also dies mysteriously, and she’s trying to find a way to save her, but to change the power structure up a little bit, instead of just rewinding time to try to save her over and over again, there are two parallel timelines happening, one where Sophia is dead and one where she is alive.

Royce: And Max is able to move through the two timelines, and that’s how the primary game mechanic happens. It has you shifting between two places to learn different things and use that information back and forth. Or to— I think in some cases we end up changing things or moving around areas that are blocked off, things like that. That’s, that’s the mechanical aspect of the game. But the conclusion is a reuniting of the two timelines at the end of Double Exposure. When we get into Reunion, we learn that that has reunited the decision made at the end of the first Life is Strange.

Courtney: Yeah. And that’s where it gets even weirder, ’cause for as much as some people were upset about Max coming back being either alone because of a death or alone because of a breakup, I— the reason why I object to the premise of this is like, Max and Chloe are back together. That’s the whole thing. Chloe shows up, finds Max, travels to get to her, and they go on another adventure through time together.

Courtney: And, like, technically we did save Chloe. So for someone like us who saved Chloe in the first game and then they broke up and we see Max 10 years later, they aren’t together. Yeah, there, there is potential for a little bit of excitement now. Like, Chloe’s back, what’s gonna happen? But the people who decided to sacrifice Chloe to save everyone else in Arcadia Bay in that first game, um, they deserve to live with the consequences of their actions, and they don’t get to just have Chloe back. They, they, they do not just get to have their cake and eat it too.

Courtney: Now they got off scot-free, their decisions mean nothing, and it’s all, it’s all based on trolley problem, right? Like, that’s the whole premise of the very first game. And the consequences of that are what made it so emotionally impactful. So to now have a game where your decision really didn’t matter, because regardless of whether you saved Chloe or Arcadia Bay, Chloe’s gonna come back and the Arcadia Bay is going to be okay and intact, and everyone who died didn’t actually die.

Royce: Yeah, this is now a unified universe where Chloe— and presumably, we don’t know for sure, it’s postulated, potentially everyone in Arcadia Bay as well, have the memories of both living and dying. So this is Chloe who survived with extra trauma.

Courtney: Yes.

Royce: Because she remembers the feeling of dying in the first game and has like visions of it essentially, or vice versa. If she died in the first game, she now has memories where she actually lived through, and it’s— everything is all— the two existences are muddled together.

Courtney: Yeah. And the explanation for this is, well, what Max did with Sophie in the last game, like, retroactively merged these two timelines, so they both did and did not happen. And so now Chloe and Sophie, being paralleled people of both dying and not dying, they’re both having these horrible dreams and visions and flashbacks. And so they’re kind of in the same boat, and they both try to go seek out Max when these things start happening. Yeah.

Royce: It’s to the point where they’re— we do have, like, is Moses in this game a physicist? What’s his actual position?

Courtney: Astronomer.

Royce: Okay.

Courtney: All his telescopes.

Royce: Okay. Um, I, I was just about to say that their, their reality keeps shifting if they are unstable in some way and sometimes temporarily blip out of existence. So neither of them are in a good place.

Courtney: I guess astrophysicist is probably more accurate.

Royce: I wondered—

Courtney: Physics and astronomy.

Royce: I wondered if there is a theoretical quantum explanation for the state that the two of them are in.

Courtney: Mm-hmm. So yeah, even though I did have fun playing this game, I do still kind of object to the fact that it exists. I mean, our, our friends and former interviewees on this podcast, maybe listen to their episodes, uh, Sharky and Satan, also known as Ace is Playing at Attraction. They played this game and they saved Arcadia Bay. And they’re allowed to be wrong, but they should have to live with the consequences of their decisions because we saved Chloe.

Royce: Which— one of the odd things about the unifications of the timelines here is if you do progress through that alternative timeline, Max is an oddity because when the timelines merge, she doesn’t get the memories of both experiences. Max in that instance would remember Chloe dying and has to be told what happened and if she had made a different decision.

Courtney: Yeah, it was, it was interesting because the actual meeting scene where Chloe comes back since we saved her, she’s like, you know, I get— I have these weird visions of us die— of me dying, and I don’t know, time feels so weird. Is it 1 year since I’ve seen you, or is it 10 years? I don’t even know anymore. And we had to go look up someone else’s playthrough of what happened if Chloe did just die, because otherwise Max actually has all these memories of traveling with her for years, and in that instance, Max has to be like, well—

Royce: I’m not the Max that saved you. You’re in the timeline with the Max that killed you.

Courtney: Although those conversations were not nearly as different as you might expect them to be either. I’d feel like there would be, uh, different emotions and larger reactions.

Royce: But anyway, on to the plot of Reunion. We are back to time shenanigans again. The game starts up with Max seeing a fire that engulfs the university she works at, and a number of her friends are casualties, and so she rewinds time. Um, this calls back to the mechanics of the original game. —And this whole time as we were playing, we were sitting there going, “What’s the reason for the fire? Is it something that Safi did after assembling her little proposed Life is Strange X-Men team?” Does Diamond have fire powers?

Courtney: Where’s Diamond at? —Well, because it shows Safi recruiting Diamond at the end of this and saying that they want to go recruit other people with powers, we were wondering if we were going to have a huge reunion game where, like, the people from the other games who have never met Max or Chloe or been to Arcadia Bay also end up showing up again. But— it seems like that’s not gonna happen at all, actually. Because— Safi is back. We see her before we even see Chloe in this game.

Courtney: And so we were of course like, where’s Diamond? And we get these little teeny tiny nods to her, but she’s just gone. She is not in this game. We never see her, but we lightly hear about her. And it’s in the form of, like, you have to be snooping around looking for clues. So some of these are, like, fully missable.

Courtney: But there’s, like, a newspaper about how Diamond, after finally becoming president of this Abraxas Society, which was a big goal of hers in the first game, how she just, like, disappears off of campus and just leaves and quits and— It’s a big stir. People are wondering why, what happened. And then when we see Sophie, we’re like, oh, it’s Diamond with you. And Sophie’s just like, no, Diamond and I parted ways a while back. Like, what? Where, where is Diamond?

Royce: Yeah, there are a few small conversations about friends of hers asking about her. There is a short text exchange.

Courtney: Yeah, the—we get a text from Diamond that’s kind of like, oh, I’m worried about Sophie. It’s like are you not with her? What ha— what happened since then? But after all of this is said and done, in a totally missable phone call, we actually hear Diamond’s voice. She calls Max right at the end of the game and once again teases the fact that there’s gonna be more Diamond Washington shit happening in the future.

Royce: Yeah, this is basically in, um, kind of like an epilogue scene. It’s after most of the choices have been done.

Courtney: I guess there is one scene a little bit in the future after this, but you kind of just do your rounds after the big climax and you have an option to talk to everybody who is still here, still alive, kind of just do a postmortem on everything that just happened.

Royce: Yeah, but if you walk away from everyone is and go sit down on a chair, an unassuming chair by the docks, you suddenly get a phone call.

Courtney: Which is wild because this game—I think every single Life is Strange game has at least a couple of options where you can just sit and it will just show you the scenery and play an indie song. And it will just let you sit there and vibe for as long as you want, and then you just have to push a button when you’re bored and want to go somewhere else. So when I saw an option to sit on a chair on the dock, I assumed that’s what it just was gonna be. We’re just gonna hear some music and look around at the water and the people. But no, we sit down and get a call from Diamond, and Max is like, Diamond, where are you? What’s going on? And she’s so cryptic.

Royce: Yeah, she just says that she’s almost ready to talk and that she’ll be around.

Courtney: Yeah, what the hell does that mean? That’s— this is so strange. Life is strange after all, I hear. But that’s two games in a row where they are teasing, theoretically, a forthcoming game where Diamond Washington is— I would assume either has to be the point of view character where we’re controlling her power and mechanic, or, I don’t know, maybe she goes all evil and becomes the antagonist. I, I don’t know, but some way or another they’re teasing that she is a big important character in something that is coming up. And if she isn’t— if we never see or hear from her again, I’m gonna be livid.

Courtney: Because why would they string us along with this character for 2 games in a row? It seems like they haven’t made the decision to fully drop her, because if they did decide that they aren’t gonna pursue her storyline anymore, they could have just taken the coward’s way out and just said like, “Yeah, she just left campus all of a sudden and she and Safi parted ways and you just never hear from her again.” I’d be really upset. I’m still a little upset that we got another game that doesn’t explore her further when we were— basically promised there’d be something happening with her. But we’re still being teased, we’re still being strung along.

Courtney: The Life is Strange franchise is stringing us along. And making us wait for our ace rep. I’m, I’m also gonna be equally as mad if we do see Diamond in the future and there isn’t some kind of confirmed reveal about understanding an ace identity. I, I don’t even need it to unfold in front of us. I’m honestly a little sick of those kind of stories right now. But presumably there will be some kind of time gap from the last time we saw her on screen as a student and when we see whatever they’re planning for her.

Courtney: So, even if it’s just like, yeah, between then and now, here’s what I’ve learned. But— we have been— so horribly devastated so many times— by characters who could or should have been ace, and we’ve had the rug pulled out from under us so many times over the years in the ace community that— I’m a little bitter, and I’m hoping that with how queer this whole franchise is, that they’re not gonna do us dirty like that. But at this point, it’s already unusual that they’re teasing something from a side character two games in a row. That’s unusual. I hope it means they have big, big plans that are already in motion. They already have some kind of vision that just needs to be implemented.

Courtney: But I’m also jaded, so I don’t know if we do see Diamond again if they’re ever going to talk about her— identity and experiences with attraction or desire or relationships again. I’d be real sad if we see her and they don’t talk about that. ’Cause it seemed so obvious in the Double Exposure game. I’d also be really sad— and I, I don’t know, maybe, maybe we can look this up real quick ’cause I, I haven’t yet. Are general ratings for Life is Strange games, like, going down? ’Cause I kinda assume they would be. But I haven’t seen any facts to corroborate that.

Royce: I’m looking that up now, but I think this game in particular, Reunion, was not well received. It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s the worst one.

Courtney: Well, that’s, that’s what scares me, right? Because either way, whether it’s someone who is just all in on the Chloe and Max ship and they were delighted to see them together again and they’re delighted to see their story come to a fulfilling conclusion, even if they loved that, but now they feel like, you know, that’s the best end. We, we got Chloe and Max again. Now I’m happy and satisfied and I don’t feel a need to play another Life is Strange game because that’s the finale in my eyes.

Courtney: Or the other camp of people who are like, they should have never played this game because the entire purpose of the first game was actions have consequences. And now they’re rolling back the entire premise of that by letting everyone have it both ways now. I imagine that’s gonna tick a lot of people off. So it could be that even if writers— producers of these games have plans for Diamond Washington that they still want to see come to fruition, is there a chance that these latest two games bomb hard enough that they don’t actually— get to make another one. I’m kind of afraid to even put that out there, but I mean, you’d know more about the games industry than I do how likely that would be.

Royce: But I mean, I haven’t really paid attention to the games industry in like a decade and a half, so— well, I had to search harder than I wanted to for that. Part of that was complicated by some of the earlier games releasing in an episodic format. Oh, so there were— in some cases there were individual ratings for like Life is Strange Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then the full game, then the remastered version of the game.

Courtney: Yikes.

Royce: But the series as a whole has been fairly consistent. I mean, it’s like 70 to 85% on like Metacritic or some of the major rating sites. It has gone down slightly. The last two games seem to be the worst received of the series, but—

Courtney: Okay, so maybe it’s not actually in danger of being pulled as a franchise, but I don’t know, bringing back the original two characters, there’s something about it that feels a little final. And I wonder if a lot of people playing this game are going to feel like, well, this is the last game, this is the finale, they’re— like, they brought it full circle again. And I wonder if people are just gonna not pay as much attention if they do anything else, because they are still teasing something. They could have just made this the finale, but they had to go in and tease like, oh, remember Diamond Washington? She’s still here. She’s almost ready for something. But it was very unfair because while we were playing this game, we were just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Diamond Washington to like make a big reveal or to find out that her powers are influencing something.

Courtney: There’s like one goofy scene where like some fireflies are flying around a house and kind of show Max the direction, the next way to go, and that has never been a thing that happened before. So we’re watching that and we’re like, Diamond, is, is that you? Are you helping us from offscreen? What are your powers? And because we don’t know what her powers are, but we know she has some, like— we were on high alert the whole game just waiting to see what they did with Diamond, and nothing yet. Just more waiting. More stringing us along.

Courtney: So even though we don’t know if or when or how we’re gonna get another Life is Strange game, presumably one that revolves around Diamond. One thing we do know, which is still worth celebrating, is that there is another Life is Strange prequel novel coming out by Rosie Thor. It is to be named Life is Strange: Out of Focus, and it is a prequel to Life is Strange: The Reunion. So it actually centers around Chloe. And Izzy, the character from the previous book, Steph’s Story, whom we talked about, is going to make a— another appearance here as well because Chloe ends up— after Steph and Izzy have a falling out, Izzy decides to continue the band Drugstore Makeup and recruits new people, uh, continues playing, starts to go on tour, and somehow or another Chloe ends up becoming that band manager.

Courtney: And this is a thing we know even from the most recent game because Chloe— the first time we see Chloe, she’s in a kind of divey venue sort of putting out fires for the band, and she’s trying to, like, casually schedule gigs for the band throughout the game. And so, don’t know what happened to cause all of that, but somehow or another those two end up meeting. And this book by, uh, Rosiee Thor is going to cover that. And so I don’t know for sure if there are going to be any new characters who are ace or aro, uh, or both.

Courtney: But when we have an author who is a member of the community, I don’t think it matters because we like to support all creatives, uh, within the community. So I’m really excited to preorder, uh, this book, uh, that they have written. I’m looking forward to reading it. And I guess we just wait and see if and when and what the next game’s gonna be. And I don’t know, I’m gonna be really sad if I’ve been this excited for this long to see what they do with this character and they either don’t or they do us dirty. Hopefully not. We’ll keep our— I don’t even know if we can keep our hopes high. We’ll remain cautiously optimistic. I think that’s the best I can give you.

Courtney: But regardless, I will be pre-ordering Life is Strange: Out of Focus. It is set to publish on September 1st of this year, 2026. And that’s gonna be our call to action for this episode. Usually we shout out a Marketplace vendor. We’ll be back to doing the same next week, but— if you have not already, please check out and support Rosie Thor. We’ll put links in the show notes on our website as well as the description box if you’re listening on YouTube for where, where you can find and preorder Life is Strange: Out of Focus.

Courtney: And you can also just check out the other books that they’ve written because— we did a whole episode about Steph’s story, definitely recommend that if you’re a fan of these games. They’ve also written a book called Tarnished Are the Stars and Fire Becomes Her. I have heard really good reviews about both of those from, uh, different members of the community. And they’ve also written selections for several anthology-based books like Being Ace, Being Aro, So even if you yourself are not, uh, the biggest fan of Life is Strange in the world, this author has a lot more out there for you, and maybe you’ll find something that you love.

Courtney: But that is gonna be all for today, so as always, thank you all so much for being here, and keep your fingers crossed for us because I think we deserve an asexual Life is Strange protagonist. I’ve always wanted one. I’ve always wanted one ever since— Well, I guess since the second game came out. When we played the first one I didn’t necessarily know it was gonna become a whole series. So ever since the second one I’ve been saying please give us an ace character. Please, please do it. I, I deserve this. Keep your fingers crossed. But in the meantime, we will all preorder Rosie’s book because that will hopefully tide us over until then. Okay, bye-bye!