Without a doubt, Life Is Strange is one of the most groundbreaking games of the past decade. It has been described as having a David Lynch inspired tone to it, and has a relatable main character trying to save her friend. The ending of Life Is Strange is emotionally powerful, (spoiler warning!) with the player being forced to choose between saving her friend’s life or the lives of thousands of innocent townspeople. Neither ending is canon, or, to be more precise, BOTH endings are canon in different timelines. This is to give the player the ultimate choice. Whatever you choose is canon in your timeline. While it’s true that a comic book series has been released following the events of the timeline where you save your friend, that is just the reality of one of many timelines. A Life Is Strange comic book series written and illustrated by the talented Emma Vieceli explores one of the timelines in which Max saves Chloe and sacrifices Arcadia Bay. The comics are fun to read, but there is one very, very important question that has some Life Is Strange fans worried. Here is the core of the question:
In the comic books, Max realizes she can phase into alternate realities, and that there are an infinite number of universes with different versions of Max and Chloe. In one reality, Rachel is still alive. In another, Max sacrificed Chloe to save Arcadia Bay. Max visits many of these realities, eventually settling on the reality in which Rachel survived. Eventually, she will decide to return to her own reality. All fine and good, right? Well…except for one little thing. She never meets another Max in these worlds. And that could make this entire comic series much darker than it seems.
If only one Max can exist in one reality, then in a sense, comic book Max is possessing the other Max’s bodies – or maybe even killing them outright. It is no wonder that many Life Is Strange fans took part in a reddit thread this past week wondering this very question. If Max is wiping out the other Max’s when she visits other timelines, this could be upsetting for players who chose to save Arcadia Bay – since Max briefly visits that timeline early on. Fans who chose that ending would be upset if comic book Max wiped their Max from existence.
Of course, no one would be upset if it’s clarified that as soon as Max leaves an alternate reality, the Max from that reality gets to keep on living. Another fix would be if Max encounters another Max – as this would be proof that she hasn’t replaced anyone.
Hopefully this question will be answered in the upcoming Life Is Strange comics – then all the fans can stop worrying.
