Detailed Analysis - Bonds Between Characters
Character Relationships
The relationships that are formed throughout the journey both optional and non-optional are the pillars that help Max progress through her journey. Main characters like Chloe are a useful companion for Max as she is driven, confident and can see things Max can’t. Despite this she can prove to slow down Max’s journey for her own selfish thoughts and behaviour. Where Max tries to look out for her other friends like Kate, Chloe becomes petty as she feels she is not being made a priority to her friend who she hasn’t seen in years. Other characters who stand in opposition to Max are shown that they fulfil the role of the typical popular kid although their interactions with Max give the impression that they can try and evolve but often there are only a few characters that Max seems to leave an impact on.
Nathan Prescott
Nathan Prescott comes off as a typical high school kid who is rich, entitled and unstable. Throughout the story, he proves himself to be incredibly antagonistic and show’s a clear danger to most people around him. As Max delves deeper into the investigation she learns more about Nathan’s personality and the toxic influences in his life. His father allows Nathan to think he can get away with everything and buys him whatever he wants but also continues to hound Nathan to live up to the family name. Victoria Chase is a typical rich girl who doesn’t show regard for many and loves to bully people. She proves to be a toxic influence on Nathan as she endorses his behaviour and attitude. Perhaps his worst influence is Mark Jefferson, who takes advantage of Nathan’s poor emotional state and manipulates him to his own ends, funding the dark room, buying drugs and kidnapping students.
Nathan was an antagonist of the story but he was a tragic one as well, as everything he did was to impress the people who he looked up to and at every turn it seems like he was always screaming for help but it was never given to him. Looking through personal emails to Nathan we can see the disregard his father has for him but also his sister who seems to be a kind, fun and thoughtful person, who is away often and if she was in his life, she would have helped Nathan get help. After escaping from the Dark Room, Max finds a voicemail left behind by Nathan. Nathan, who has already been killed by Jefferson at this point apologises to Max and explains himself while also attempting to warn Max about Jefferson. Nathan was an incredibly tragic character who, while he was not innocent in any of the grievous events he takes part in, could have been easily helped and would have possibly become a good person with a higher regard for life.
David Madsen
While the above are an examination on friendly and antagonistic students there are adults throughout the story that can help you and you can build friendships with them or not. Adults like Blackwell security guard and Chloe’s stepfather David Madsen. While a seemingly short tempered and uptight individual who seems to scrutinize many people, like we see with Kate, he is actually just trying his best to uncover the secrets that are being hidden at Blackwell involving it’s students. David is not a bad person at heart as we learn although there are many situations that do not do him any favours and these situations present a number of choices to either improve his life or make it worse. People Like Chloe’s mother are kind souls who are very supportive if a little oblivious to Max and Chloe’s actions and its rare in the game to meet an adult who is actually not getting in the pairs way. While these are just some of the general characters that we meet there are perhaps a few people who are more important to the story then others as they give actual agency to the events.
Through the story he at times antagonizes Max and Chloe as he doesn’t like what they get up to and he believes that Max is a bad influence on Chloe. While his antagonism seems unwarranted he’s not necessarily wrong. We discover that he is also a surveillance nut as he has documented the comings and goings of many persons of interest in the story. Finding this information is what helps Max and Chloe discover the Dark Room and without his intel, they wouldn’t have progressed in their investigation. When Max is captured by Jefferson and about to be killed, it was David who found Max and saved her from Jefferson. Finding Max, he is more empathetic and kinder then in previous interactions. He expresses a want to fix his family problems and to be better which Max can agree with. Without David, Max wouldn’t have been able to escape and go on to fix her mistakes. While seemingly suspicious, David is just a careful individual who wants to do the right thing but struggles to do so as he struggles with his time in the army and financial troubles.
Kate Marsh
At the beginning of the game it is made painfully obvious that Kate Marsh has been having a difficult time at school recently. This is due to a viral video that has been spread around the campus that shows her being drunk and kissing a lot of boys. Because of this, girls around the school have been bullying, online bullying and writing graffiti around the school. Immediately Max is able to get straight in the middle of it and can have an agency on multiple events that happen through the story that can directly improve Kate’s situation or not. While there are moments through the main narrative where interacting with Kate is a must you can choose to interact with her optionally through different sections and while there’s not much of a reward through a gameplay sense, there is opportunities to help give her a boost so that she can feel better and I for one looked for every opportunity I could to help Kate.
Little choices like telling her to keep her head up and encouraging her to get together with Max to hang out are the little things that can really help many victims of bullying pick themselves up. Big choices like choosing to not ignore Kate’s phone call and erasing the the link to her video from the bathroom windows of the girls dorm room are massive decisions that lead to getting a better outcome for Kate. Early in the game a terrifying situation occurs where Kate jumps off the building of the Girls dorm. This part is important because it shows just how bad teenagers can be in this school. Instead of hearing a bunch of people yell, “Don’t do it!” or begging her to comedown a majority of them suggest it’s just for attention or that she’s not going to do it and even 1 student smiling. As Kate jumps Max rewinds time is able to hold it until she can get to Kate. This is where all the decisions the player has made as Max really come into effect as if you are able to show her enough support and say the right things you can talk Kate off the ledge… Or you will fail and Kate will fall to her death.
If Kate falls to her death, her arc essentially ends here, but regardless these events will provide a drive for Max to carry on her investigation that lies at the heart of the story. If you were successful in saving Kate Max will visit her in hospital and see immediately that Kate has vastly improved. Her attitude if more cheery, she’s receiving love and respect from her peers and is drawing again. While we don’t see her much after this it is clear that she might have a much better future. It’s very rare for a video game to do a suicide plot that but it is also rare for a suicide subplot to actually be very compelling. Suicide plots like Hannah Baker from 13 Reasons Why just show the absolute hopelessness and lack of a suitable support system and while that can be the case, Life Is Strange is able to give the player’s direct agency in being able to alter the outcome and improve the situation. This storyline was one of the hallmark storylines in the game and with Kate’s suicide (or attempted suicide) it made me want to dig deeper into the secrets at Blackwell academy.
Mark Jefferson
Mark Jefferson serves to act as Max’s photography tutor and one of the few adults who do not seem to be dismissive nor antagonistic towards Max. Having been a photography legend he is fawned over by a few of his students, specifically Victoria Chase who is one of the bullies of Blackwell academy. Mark provides a little insight into some of the comings and goings around Blackwell specifically, Kate, Victoria and Nathan. He seems to be a jolly and friendly figure in the school and has high hopes for Max. It is later revealed that his motives are much more sinister and disturbed as the story comes to it’s climax and we learn the real truth about the Blackwell Teacher.
It is revealed that he is responsible for the murder of Rachel Amber and Nathan Prescott’s actions and had used Nathan’s money to create a dark toom where he takes young Blackwell students, drugs them and then photographs them. As a twist it was something that nobody saw coming and it was even more shocking when Mark murdered Chloe. There were inklings that Nathan Prescott was not smart or sophisticated enough and may have been working with someone but I don’t think anybody definitively suspected Jefferson or even had a suspicion of his true personality and just how depraved and sadistic he would be. After several conversations between Max and Mark Jefferson it is safe to say that Jefferson is actually a Psychopath and a master manipulator. Max is eventually saved by Chloe’s step father, David who free’s Max and apologises for his behaviour. Depending on the player choices Mark Jefferson will either be kept in custody with David or David will kill Jefferson for his crimes against the students and more importantly his step daughter.
When Max eventually goes back in time to stop Chloe’s death and her capture, she ensures Mark Jefferson and Nathan Prescott’s arrest at the hands of the Arcadia Bay police by anonymously sending information about the dark room, which is enough to put them away. Mark Jefferson proved to be a horrific archetype, a teacher who wants to do disturbing things to his students for his own benefits. The trust between a student and their teacher is, in a lot of ways, a sacred thing. Students trust their teachers to teach them what they need to survive to strive in the world and teachers have a duty of care to each student under their watch and for Jefferson to solely become a teacher to turn his students into subjects was a deep betrayal of that duty of care.
