LogFAQs > #896617991

Hmm, to me I don't think I picked up enough of the events around AB really being Max's fault. After all, she doesn't intentionally rewind the first time, and the vision of the storm precedes anything else. If anything, the storm comes off as a warning of what's going to happen, and Max is supposed to prevent it.

We're also told throughout the game that something is deeply fucked up about how the Prescotts and Blackwell have been handling/running the institutions of the city. The apocalyptic signs feel more like divine retribution for the sins of those evil forces than a result of Max's actions.

The conclusions that Warren/Max/Chloe eventually draw are obviously correct in-universe, but I'm not sure it came across. Maybe if I were to replay the game, it would become clearer that it was some sort of punishment for Max instead of a punishment for the city being so douche-y.

But "abusing" Max's powers allowed:

- Chloe to live
- Jefferson to be brought to justice
- Rachel's body to be discovered
- Frank to be redeemed/come to terms with what he did
- Prescott family's corruption to be investigated
- Nathan to have a shot at redemption
- David to be redeemed/able to face Joyce
- Victoria to be saved
- Kate to be saved

Sure, we wind up blowing Blackwell off the map by sacrificing it at the end, but 1. the game doesn't show us enough repercussion to prove how terrible the storm was 2. it doesn't do enough to convince me that Arcadia Bay is worth saving unless Max has used her powers already and 3. definitely doesn't do enough to convince me that it's worth saving without Chloe there.

The game calls Max a superhero more than once. Chloe says something about how "great power means great blah blah blah." A superhero would sacrifice herself to save thousands... a superhero might (?) even sacrifice their most loved one. But if the storm is proof that Max isn't a superhero - no superhero punishes the world simply by using their power - then why should we behave like a superhero?

Nonetheless, the fact that the "sacrifice AB" ending is kind of clipped and that the "sacrifice Chloe" ending is apparently longer is probably evidence enough that I didn't make the canonical choice here.

Is BtS a straight-up prequel? Or does it have time travel/is it an alternate universe? No need to spoil me, but I want to know at least the premise to see if it's worth it for me.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness