Life is Strange: A Chloe Price Character Study

I wanted to pop in and say that I'm so happy that so many people have enjoyed this video on an exceptional character! I also deeply appreciate your stories, and reading about the reasons these games have resonated with you.

big love and respect for u
for making that amazing video

Out of every game character ever made i feel the most for chloe also something i noticed is in the bathroom when she gets shot you see her push nathan back then when she scares max with the gun max pushes the gun to the side its a small but cool detail but max and chloe are just good for eachother chloe fights life because life has been unfair while max hides its just a interesting thing it reminds me of me and my closest friend and how i can swear i can hear my secondary father figure like chloe seeing and hearing her actual father and rachel she was a toxic controller like my ex.....which is weird my life went down the hill where it went similar to chloes while taking the road max did with hiding game is truly weird.
This game also made me realize how much my inaction in the world caused so much worse to happen with chloe and max safe to say they make my top 3 favorite video game characters ever right next to bill overbeck and above johnny silverhand

Damn, the video was released 5 years ago and I'm probably the only one commenting after that but I will do it for catharsis anyway. When I first played LiS, I was in a very complicated time in my life, after the loss of my father, I turned very bad, dressed and make up black, ripped clothes, spiky chokers and huge boots. And my hair was dyed blue. I was shocked when I discovered this character, who was physically like me, but who had also experienced the same loss and reacted the same way. She became like some sort of comfort character, to remember I was not alone and sometimes I would think of her during suicidal thoughts to find strenght not to give up. This character impacted me so much and helped me to cope with all of this, and became an image deeply rooted in my own world. William's car scene wrecked me, in a such weird way, because I also wanted some kind of refuge in memories with my own father. I remember crying for hours after playing those scenes, because I related so much that it was unbearable. Yet, I still needed to play, just because seeing someone I related so much with soothed me. It is really weird how grateful I am to a character in a video game. But I am grateful, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you Chloe Price

I think playing Before The Storm and then Life Is Strange in that order is critical to understanding Chloe and growing to love her. My first impression of Chloe was that first scene in BTS when Chloe is smoking a cigarette on the railroad tracks before going to the Firewalk concert. But if my first impression of Chloe was the bathroom scene with Nathan. I can see how people would get a bad impression. Because you have no idea what's happened in her life. So throughout the entire game you don't understand her. You're viewing Max as the main protagonist and Chloe as just a side character. Whereas if you play BTS first you see Chloe as the main protagonist even while playing through LIS 1. Maybe also because my dad died of cancer just months before I played the games and I was still young 21 and living with him at the time, completely destroying me and my entire life, also had dreams about my dad, also a punk rock kid, also have a step father named David, also had a best friend that parted ways with, also hated school, also drank and smoked. Chloe and her story was so incredibly relatable to me, I saw how important the events in her life were. So it was difficult for me to not see her as the main character and fall completely in love with her.

I miss max and chloe. I read the comics. I Love the pricefield thing in it is fricking sweat. But i still miss thouse two

Man, your analysis had me in tears. I initially thought Chloe was a very difficult friend to have but she soon became my favourite character. She's a poster child for most unhappy kids who have sad stories behind their anger. Her simple, sweet childhood is relatable to most of us, most of us grew up in a suburban dream. And consequently most of us should be able to relate to her weight of sadness and fear when it seems like the world has abandoned her.

I think that Chloe never fully processing her grief, even after five years, makes sense: her father died suddenly, her best friend left her soon after and proceeded to stop contacting her, her mother quickly remarried a man that she never got along with, and the best friend she makes ends up disappearing. Everybody expected Chloe to get over her father's death, but they didn't give her any opportunities to do so, thus resulting in her becoming rebellious and reckless.

why is everbody saying shes the best character ... shes not

Wish she male version. Nope not that sex change just multiverse for male version.

I could relate to Chloe. My best friend leave me when I was in 3rd grade. But on my last middle school year he came. But we try making it work before I leave him. But we became too different people over the years. That didn't stop me for trying make one more happy memory to hold on to

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Chloe. I see a lot of people dislike her based on her being irrational or getting mad over minor stuff or just the logical choice. I don't think these people get her. such a beautiful and carefully curated character. Absolute props to the devs. Chloe is absolutely transition goals. Her style/ outfit, and her personality are all just so good. her actual personality that is, not the one she's putting up. I feel like i get her and she absolutely inspires me, dare I say is activly, at this moment changing my life. This is art

I'm never watching those videos where people hate on chloe becuz of bullshit, i agree with what you say, but i like chloe just becuz she looks like an emo girl and is really fucking funny, that's it, all that extra fluff helps too i guess.

Love how you explain this bro

this is an amazing video. i love chloe's character

i like the character contrast in this game LiS And LiS BTS, to me chloe is no the kind of character you create to be protagonist, is the kind of character that are made to be the anthagonist in the most of cases.

But well that some of my own view of how corrupted she is after all that happend to her. To me, in a moral way, she is more related to nathan presscot than max in a more deepth analisis of her actions.

I hate her

I know I'm a bit late. But thank you for talking about this. Nobody wants to find out why she is the way she is.

You did a fantastic job explanation this character. I saw many videos explaining how bad Chloe is a person, but without really diving into why she is the way she it. But you did an excellent job dissecting her personality. Great job.

Warning: I occasionally use swear words and profanity (4 times in this). I also talk about traumatic and triggering topics like death and violence. If you don’t like that, please keep scrolling. Additionally, the following will contain spoilers for the entire Life is Strange franchise. If you haven’t finished playing it all, I highly recommend you do so and then continue reading. See you in approximately 62 hours.

I like Chloe a lot. Like a whole lot. However, I understand why people would dislike her. She definitely is stubborn, clingy, and sometimes rude - I admit that. Still, I just can’t help but connect her negative traits with her lifetime of hardships and pain.

Now, let’s get into the traumatic life of Chloe Price.

Chloe’s trauma starts around 2008. All in a few minutes, her world falls apart. (Game: Farewell - Before the Storm DLC)
Max somberly tells her forever best friend Chloe that she’ll be moving hours away from the Bay to Seattle - and just minutes after that, Chloe’s doting mother Joyce opens the door sobbing with police officer accompanying her. Her father William - Chloe’s whole world - taken from her in a car crash. Just like that, Chloe Price’s life was completely obliterated. To make everything worse, her cat Bongo died the same way as William - a car crash - just before the events of Farewell. All of this caused Chloe to spiral into drugs, alcohol and sex at the young age of 14.

Before this turn of events, Chloe was a brilliant young science enthusiast. (This is referenced a few times throughout the Life is Strange franchise. It’s most apparent in Farewell though, examples being when Chloe and Max exploded something, and Chloe explaining how she turned her rivals bunsen burner up. You can also see an Elements of the Periodic Table poster up somewhere near Chloe’s bed.)

After the events of Farewell and briefly during Before the Storm (more on this edition later), Chloe is being ruthlessly stalked by her ex-boyfriend Eliot. He has apparent poems fantasizing of murdering Chloe, because if he can’t have her then apparently nobody can.

(Game: Life is Strange Before the Storm, abbreviated BTS) The morning after the deal with Rachel Amber saving Chloe at the Firewalk concert, you can see the tension between Chloe and her step-father David Madsen, head of Blackwell security and notorious character in Life is Strange. More on David later.

If you look through Chloe’s phone messages with her old friend Max in BTS or listen to dialogue with popular girl Rachel Amber, you will realize Max has completely ghosted Chloe in her time of need. At this point, it’s been 3 years - but Max will end up making it 5.

Later, Chloe gets expelled from Blackwell. Although this is a dream for her, it makes things a hell of a lot harder on Joyce and David. On the whole, this doesn’t look like huge trauma, but it doesn’t at all make things easier on Chloe.

(Game: Life is Strange, abbreviated LIS) In the original Life is Strange game, Chloe shows more and more of her trauma. In the first episode, a “blue-haired girl” is literally shot in the girl’s bathroom by the notorious Nathan-freaking-Prescott. You, or I guess Max, later learn that the blue-haired girl is Chloe. Additionally, Nathan will also kidnap, drug and assault Chloe. This happen before the events of Life is Strange. Not only that, but at the end of episode 4, Mr. Jeffershit will kill her. Chloe’s death can be fixed through Max’s rewind ability, but her assault story cannot.

Later on in the game, you are going to find the dead body of Rachel - killed by none other than Nathan Prescott - who becomes one of Chloe’s most dearest friend in Before the Storm. All of Chloe’s hope that Rachel may be alive is ripped away from her. (I think when Rachel says “Don’t be surprised, Chloe, if one day, I’m just out of here.” may be foreshadowing to this, although I’m not sure if the developers ever confirmed it.)

Remember what I said about the tension between Chloe and David? Matters are only made worse when David moves in, as you can guess. Although this isn’t shown in-depth, on the surface, David isn’t the kindest of fathers. He’s a little abusive and rough with Chloe, treating his stepdaughter like he’d treat a delinquent at Blackwell. Things don’t look so hot for her.

(Game: Wavelengths - Life is Strange True Colors DLC) Wavelengths doesn’t have much to do with Chloe, besides her voice being heard in a few memories and flashbacks of the main character, record store and radio DJ Steph. However, Chloe and Steph were close friends in BTS, and it seems at though Steph moved and ghosted Chloe in adulthood. (Sound familiar?)

I get why some don’t like Chloe. She’s not at all perfect. She can be moody, rude, selfish, rebellious, and much more not-so-great things at times. I just hope this may have helped some people realize why.

If I missed anything, don’t hesitate to reply! Wishing you all a spectacular 2022.
Thanks for reading.

Finally someone who understands Chloe and not just shits on her because "Chloe grr max picked up Kate's phone call so Chloe bad person"

It would be cool to have a life is strange game about rachel, what happened with frank etc

I relate to Chloe a lot. On a deep and personal level as well as just little random things we have in common. Before the passing of my father, I was a really happy child, doing normal child things. At the age of 10, when my father died, I became just, sad. Not really putting on a tough image for myself, just closing up and spiralling down a hill of, i guess you could say, loss of innocence. Fast forward a few years, I get deep in the depression hole and get diagnosed with social anxiety. Rachel (my best friend irl) was the only one I had. She helped with that a bit, always texting and calling, inviting me to stay over, and just playing games together. After a few years, I lost all of my friends and never went out or did anything. Now, as a 16 year old, Rachel and my boyfriend are all I have. I've found myself going into thst deep, dark hole again. Even using drugs and wanting to just, rebel agaisnt everyone and everything.

This video sums me up much better than my hella introspective ass could ever!/pos /gen - Chloe

This video was so therapeutic for a such a sorrow filled character and story.
Thank you.

people seem to think in black and white, as if chloe can’t be a good character because she’s done bad things. people only like traumatized characters if they resemble a meek, passive little kid who can’t stand up for themselves, or are just any random man lmfao. it’s never extended to girls/women. where’s that support when it comes to those who aren’t like that? whose trauma made them angry, and loud, and mean.

the same water that softens the potato, hardens the egg 🤷🏻‍♀️ not everyone has the same experiences and it’s important to portray that in media, and considering the amount of people that love and relate to chloe—they succeeded.

i love chloe so much

I looooove Chloe. Way more than Max actually.

That's why I love Chloe so much.

But shes not a good character?? Having you dad die is not a reason to abuse your friendship with max. She literally says "let's figure out a way to use and abuse your power." And doesn't seem to care when max blacks out after getting a nosebleed or stealing from a handicap fund for her own bad decisions.

I always say I kin Chloe and I do but wow this definitely described me to a tee

Chloe is honestly so close to my heart because my ex best friend also moved away when I needed her most (my mom got cancer when we were 9) and essentially ghosted me like Max did with Chloe. I know that it had the same impact on me and it's such a coincidence that my style evolved into something like Chloe's too. My ex best friend never came back and I've also been plagued with loss. But, playing through this game and BtS for the first time helped me give myself closure from my ex best friend leaving and never coming back

Thank you so much for this masterpiece.

Chloe is one of THE special characters in the world of games.
She's just wonderfully complex and relatable

This video and your analyzing make me look at Chloe in a new light, one I’ve never noticed before. So, thank you <3

I never noticed that it’s the same train in LIS the original and Before The Storm…the attention to details in these games is mind blowing

it's kind of sad since chole's life is sad if u save the town since if u do that then the last time chole saw max was the day of her father's car crash.

I know how it feels to loose people cause I've lost so many in my life and with some I blame myself, I know what its like to feel abandoned and have the fear of being forgotten that's why Chloe is my favorite, cause I can relate to how she feels

Chloe and Clementine are responsible for the only 2 times I've ever cried in games.

People reading other people ❤️💙

I have such a big crush on Chloe and its kind of sad bc she doesn't exist lol

2 years later and i'm here..

i feel attached to chloe, every time i think of her it makes me upset and i burst into tears thinking she had to go through all that. i know she's just a video game character but i feel a strong connection between me and her.

bae or bay?

Chloe is the representation of the "loss of innocence". In her past she was charismatic, tender and very intelligent girl, with good parents and a friend who was like her sister. However, all that is distorted by the death of her father, her friend leaves and cuts off communication, her mother appears with another man which offends her memory of her father.
Chloe is corrupted because of feeling lonely, rebelling and breaking the rules, becoming controversial but all this because of events not because she wanted to be that from the beginning. She is a character with a well-founded evolutionary arc.
Could she have been written a little better? Yes. But, I still appreciate her.

How is this my first time seeing this!? It is brilliant!

Great video, it's good to see someone who sees Chloe Price in all the context of her character and points it out like this. I am so deeply attached to her character for a number of reasons. As someone who has dealt with certain issues and had many friends who have too (including significant mood/emotional, impulse, & abandonment issues) what I see in her character is a girl who's been through - and is still going through - a lot of pain.

I'd also like to point out the Farewell episode. I'm not sure if it was out at the time but I think the ending is important to her character. In all the context we are given, it makes sense that Chloe is mad at Max and fears that she's going to be abandoned by her (again).