(Spoiler Alert on my end - kinda)
In my opinion, Kenny and Jane characters just feel way more well written than chole now don't get me wrong her backstory is amazing and everything BUT there's one scene from her in the 1st game of her so called ''maturing'' but this just feels highly rushed and she doesn't even show up in the new game at all because of some recent...(drama ig with the companies?)

Now we could drag the comics in and say ''well what about chole here??'' I don't know much about the comics but if anyone has read the comics and seen actual maturity of chole I would hope it'll be discussed because so far I haven't seen it because so far the whole ''max and chole break up'' idea would have been chole's move not max's idea because it would be way out of character for her (but then again it was a terrible idea on the writers part on day 1.)

But yeah I don't know maybe the writer's are trying to say like, ''well chole is actually very immature guys!'' Basically like how it went with steph's ex went about things being immature.

There is a thread on Reddit from a Ex Deck Nine developer who goes into the reasons why Chloe was treated like this.
It boils down to the writing team at Deck Nine not liking the character of Chloe and not wanting to incorporate her into the story but were forced to because of the two different endings.
Multiple Deck Nine devs are even on record saying they consider the "save Chloe" ending from LiS the "evil ending" and do not want to write anything for it.

There is also apparently the problem with Square Enix that they do not want to work with Ashley Burch (Chloe´s voice actress in LiS 1) again because she now belongs to the Sag-Aftra screen actor guild and Square does not want to pay the guild fees for using her.
And her replacement voice from Before the Storm Rhianna DeVries was not well liked by Square and wont be used again either except for a few flashback audio files in Double Exposure.
in the end it boils down to both Square and Deck Nine having zero interest in using Chloe again in the Life is Strange games and thus they wrote her out as definitely as they could.
She is either dead from the Bay ending or her and Max broke up after the Bae ending and havent seen each other in years and both moved on.
Thats why Max gets multiple different romance options shoved into her face in the first hour of Double Exposure and you cant even choose not to flirt with them.

So yeah, it is what it is. For me personally, i just recognize the the two DONTNOD Lis games as the canon ones and ignore the fanfiction Deck Nine cooked up.

I knew it would ruin this game's ending the moment they announced max with new powers and she's gonna Nuke another town because of it despite promising she won't use them again.

Originally posted by Cat:

I knew it would ruin this game's ending the moment they announced max with new powers and she's gonna Nuke another town because of it despite promising she won't use them again.

Yeah, their preety much breaking her character development and showing TERRIBLE writing when their bringing in a so called "new power" like they could of just used this same idea, asked the developers who made this for permission to use this idea and made new characters for this idea and boom - would have been less worse at least since alot of games use inspirations or even ideas of games before like cmon..

Originally posted by Rachel D.:

Now we could drag the comics in and say ''well what about chole here??'' I don't know much about the comics but if anyone has read the comics and seen actual maturity of chole I would hope it'll be discussed because so far I haven't seen it

As someone who read the entire comic series, I can't blame you if you feel that way. Because such moments felt like they were pushed to the side with the comics, as they wanted focus far more on the contrived "Max has to get home" plot.

Originally posted by Marshall of the Templars:

Originally posted by Rachel D.:

Now we could drag the comics in and say ''well what about chole here??'' I don't know much about the comics but if anyone has read the comics and seen actual maturity of chole I would hope it'll be discussed because so far I haven't seen it

As someone who read the entire comic series, I can't blame you if you feel that way. Because such moments felt like they were pushed to the side with the comics, as they wanted focus far more on the contrived "Max has to get home" plot.

In all honesty, those comics kinda seemed more interesting than whatever they are doing in DE.

They should've just made a new protagonist. But no, for some reason they decide to use Max and ♥♥♥♥ all over the original game's story and main characters' (Max and Chloe) development.

Btw what exactly happens to Chloe in DE?

Originally posted by Dethlane:

Btw what exactly happens to Chloe in DE?

If you want to know:
Bay ending: She is dead (duh)

Bae ending has two variations,
if you choose her and Max were involved romantically the story is they were together for a few years but the relationship broke apart because Chloe wants to be " a free spirit" and broke up with Max when Max asked her to move in with her.
It also says Chloe never really trusted Max again after the Bae ending and often accused her of using her time rewind power on her ( which she didnt) and blamed Max for her mothers death in the storm. They havent spoken in a few years at the start of DE.
Also apparently Chloe is flirting with/dating Victoria (yeah really) from entries on her Facebook page.

If you go for the " we were best friends" choice then its basically they traveled around for a few years through America on a road trip but got into more and more arguments over time with Chloe accusing Max of living in the past and constantly questioning her decisions and her guilt about letting the storm destroy Arcadia Bay.
In the end Chloe moves on without her and tells her in a letter that she just cant live constantly in the past and wanted Max to move with her to the future but Max seems to be incapable to do so. That one ends with a journal entry by Max, a drawing of Chloe giving her the middle finger and a " Fu.ck you Chloe Price" diary entry by Max.
Also have not spoken for years in that version.

From datamined audio and other files thats all you get for Chloe in the entire game, she makes no further appearances and has not even a character model in the graphic files.

There is more but in the end its just a big pile on crap on those two by the Deck Nine devs. So much for " we treated both ending choices with respect".

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by Dethlane:

Btw what exactly happens to Chloe in DE?

If you want to know:
Bay ending: She is dead (duh)

Bae ending has two variations,
if you choose her and Max were involved romantically the story is they were together for a few years but the relationship broke apart because Chloe wants to be " a free spirit" and broke up with Max when Max asked her to move in with her.
It also says Chloe never really trusted Max again after the Bae ending and often accused her of using her time rewind power on her ( which she didnt) and blamed Max for her mothers death in the storm. They havent spoken in a few years at the start of DE.
Also apparently Chloe is flirting with/dating Victoria (yeah really) from entries on her Facebook page.

If you go for the " we were best friends" choice then its basically they traveled around for a few years through America on a road trip but got into more and more arguments over time with Chloe accusing Max of living in the past and constantly questioning her decisions and her guilt about letting the storm destroy Arcadia Bay.
In the end Chloe moves on without her and tells her in a letter that she just cant live constantly in the past and wanted Max to move with her to the future but Max seems to be incapable to do so. That one ends with a journal entry by Max, a drawing of Chloe giving her the middle finger and a " Fu.ck you Chloe Price" diary entry by Max.
Also have not spoken for years in that version.

From datamined audio and other files thats all you get for Chloe in the entire game, she makes no further appearances and has not even a character model in the graphic files.

There is more but in the end its just a big pile on crap on those two by the Deck Nine devs. So much for " we treated both ending choices with respect".

Sheesh, these devs are hella ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with less-than-zero decency. Hopefully this crap won't be approved in the end, but somehow I doubt it.

Originally posted by Dethlane:

Sheesh, these devs are hella ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with less-than-zero decency. Hopefully this crap won't be approved in the end, but somehow I doubt it.

I just take the Deck Nine games as "what if" fanfiction and the DONTNOD games as the only "real" canon of what happened.
Since there are different timelines and parallel worlds i can simply think of the Deck Nine story as another "fake" reality.

TBH, personality-wise Max and Chloe were a rather bad match.
Making that relationship work would've required a good amount of change and growth on both parts .... which would've been a great premise for the sequel, with the break-up as one of the possible endings.

Originally posted by |NDW|-NaAaF-:

TBH, personality-wise Max and Chloe were a rather bad match.
Making that relationship work would've required a good amount of change and growth on both parts .... which would've been a great premise for the sequel, with the break-up as one of the possible endings.

Wasn't Chole a very headstrong stubborn character? She wasn't even able to comprise with David for years in her teenage years only till the Arcadia Bay disaster she finally reconciled with him if she's kept alive which is just, tragic.

While max on the other hand is willing to change and grow on her own so yes I agree with you on this explains why double exposure added love interests for max.

Originally posted by Rachel D.:

Originally posted by |NDW|-NaAaF-:

TBH, personality-wise Max and Chloe were a rather bad match.
Making that relationship work would've required a good amount of change and growth on both parts .... which would've been a great premise for the sequel, with the break-up as one of the possible endings.

Wasn't Chole a very headstrong stubborn character? She wasn't even able to comprise with David for years in her teenage years only till the Arcadia Bay disaster she finally reconciled with him if she's kept alive which is just, tragic.

While max on the other hand is willing to change and grow on her own so yes I agree with you on this explains why double exposure added love interests for max.

I second this, er third it, Although it hurts that The Powers That Be are instead seemingly weaponizing this for their meta vendetta against Chloe & her actors.

Max x Chloe, a relationship from childhood both interrupted and brought back together with some serious trauma, and even beyond the trauma i dont think they've had many non-crisis moments to let that relationship breathe and reckon with who each of them are now and what they want to be.

(BTW- I side with Chloe on the whole David thing, I mean he set-up hidden cameras in the house that the mom didn't even know. And after they opened their home to him (not that Chloe had a choice) he didn't exactly make himself easy to engage with.)

Originally posted by Ogami:

If you want to know:
[...]
There is more but in the end its just a big pile on crap on those two by the Deck Nine devs. So much for " we treated both ending choices with respect".

It sucks because there are elements of each of the paths described above that I would've liked to have seen explored or addressed post-LiS: chloe becoming suspicious or distrustful about the potential of Max rewinding Chloe, or Chloe sliding back to her blaming the people around her for when things hit the fan. I also think Max has been holding on to a lot of complex feelings about her dynamic with Chloe, and Max starting to find her own voice and becoming more assertive, it might just come out very strongly. and messy.

All said and done, the Bae ending variations in DE can still leave the door open for more, if years from now they bring this back yet again in another sequel. The effects of distance of time, both in-game and IRL would be something to behold. If executed well

Originally posted by Hugh Jasz:

If executed well

See, that's the main problem. After how Double Exposure treated it's story and with that ending yes, there's only one ending with the game, it's not even tied to the final choice and has a post credit cutscene that play more like a MCU/superhero movie than LiS , I have high doubt they are even capable of executing that well enough.

Until Deck Nine keep their dysfuncional and toxic working environment going, and let Square dictate in which direction their games should go, I don't see a stable future for the Life is Strange franchise.

Originally posted by Casey:

In all honesty, those comics kinda seemed more interesting than whatever they are doing in DE.

As someone who read each comic issue the very day they were released, and had to wait 4 years towards a painfully predictable ending, we are going to have to agree to disagree.

Originally posted by Barny600:

Until Deck Nine keep their dysfuncional and toxic working environment going, and let Square dictate in which direction their games should go, I don't see a stable future for the Life is Strange franchise.

With Double Exposure ending up as a backdoor pilot for a future team up game, the direct sequel for Double Exposure looks like it might be that pivotal entry that would make or break the franchise as a whole.