Rachel Amber is one of the most controversial characters in the fandom. There seem to be three broad takes on her that are common:

1. Rachel is a perfect, flawless, luminescent angel who loved Chloe ten thousand times more than anyone else and everything wrong about her is because she was tricked and fooled and groomed and how dare you?
2. Rachel is a soulless, heartless, manipulative bitch who was only using Chloe for her own ends and didn't care about anyone but herself.
3. Michael Koch said she was a trailer trash energy vampire who's father beat her, and since he was the director, what he says goes! Even if he didn't put any of that in the games and doesn't work on them anymore and admits it's just his opinion and probably would have changed if the writing staff had developed it.

There's very little grace in any of these opinions. She either gets put on a pedestal or torn down. It's kind of easy to see why, though. In the games, we get everyone's opinion on Rachel except for Rachel's. She's always defined by someone else, or in relation to someone else. She never gets to be viewed as her own person, with good and bad traits.

Everyone has opinions on what she does, but nobody ever asks what she's going through.

So, I'm going to give my opinion on Rachel, and since it's her birthday, I'm going to try to examine her as her own individual, the good and the bad.

• Rachel and the Cave

In order to understand Rachel Amber, you have to start with Plato, and . . . wait, where are you going?! Get back here! I'll keep it brief, I promise. Here, I'll even put in a picture.

The Allegory of the Cave is one of Plato's most famous works.

In it, a group of prisoners are kept in a cave for their whole lives. They are chained down so they can only face the wall of the cave. They are never allowed to see anything but the wall of the cave. In order to explain concepts to them, they are shown the shadows of objects cast on the wall. So, they know what things are, but have only experienced them as shadows. They are allowed to hear voices, but only the echoes.

One day, one of the prisoners is released and taken to the surface. He sees the sun, and experiences actual reality for the first time. He realizes that everything he's ever seen or heard is just a distorted reflection of what's real.

How does he react? Could he go back into the cave and be happy with the shadows and echoes after experiencing reality? Could he explain any of this to the other prisoners, to any degree that would make them want to leave?

It's basically the Red Pill/Blue Pill thing from the Matrix.

So, what does that have to do with Rachel?

Well, Chloe's dinner with the Amber family pretty much explains the why of Rachel.

We are told by Rachel that she is close to her father, James Amber. She speaks fondly of him, of her upbringing. But when we actually see the Amber household, it's extremely fucking weird. Rachel's parents act less like a family, and more like a pair of ChatGPT robots told to act out an episode of Leave it to Beaver.

And it's intentional, because this is Rachel's cave, and James Amber is her captor.

Rachel has grown up with the opinion that she was raised by a good family that loved her, and that her father is closer to her than anyone else in the world.

But what we actually see is very different. James Amber is the local District Attorney - a very powerful elected position in local law enforcement. America is a country that judges it's leaders by their immediate family - would you trust someone to enforce the law if they can't even keep order in their own house?

That is what the Amber family really is - an accessory to James' career. They exist to make him electable, to maintain the public's trust. They have to be perfect, at least on the outside, to help him maintain his powers.

On the surface, Rachel has had a fine upbringing, but it's all hallow. The Amber family's weird pantomime attempts to be normal lack any actual affection and soul. Rachel's father views her as an accessory to his campaign, and her mother is not her mother. Everything they've ever given her, ever shared, has been conditional on how they make James look to the voters. They are a shadow of what a family should be - and that's all Rachel has ever had.

It's clear from the onset that Rachel has started to doubt that her family are real, even before meeting Chloe or seeing her Father kissing another woman. It's triggered a crisis in her - her family meant everything to her. They were all she ever knew.

Rachel has grown up in material comfort, but is emotionally starved. She has grown up with zero genuine attachments to anyone else. She doesn't know what a sincere relationship with someone could or should look like - she's only familiar with the distorted echo of intimacy.

Without other people, Rachel has failed to create a sense of inner self. Rachel doesn't know who Rachel is. We see signs of this everywhere - from her attachment to being a Leo, to the personality test results that she has hung on her wall - that she's latching onto anything that she thinks will help tell her who she's supposed to be.

This lack of an inner self is what makes her such a good actress, and also a social chameleon. For her, it is easy to pretend to be someone else, because she's been pretending to be herself for her entire life.

Rachel is the prisoner freeing herself from the cave. This is what she's struggling with throughout BTS - trying to decide if she needs to accept the reality that her family doesn't love her, or rather it doesn't matter if the stars are dead, as long as they are pretty.

In the end, Chloe can choose to either help her free herself - by telling her the truth about James - or can lie and continue the illusion that the shadow is real.

Red pill or blue pill, basically.

The problem is that according to both Plato and the Matrix, once you start down the rabbit hole, you can never go back.

Rachel's relationship with her father was doomed from the moment she started to understand what that relationship actually was. Even if Chloe lies, she will find the truth eventually, and when she does, that will help lead her down the path to the Dark Room.

• NATURE AND NURTURE

In BTS, Chloe is in love with Rachel - regardless of how Rachel feels about it. She is wearing rose-tinted glasses that make her ignore a lot of the red flags Rachel displays. Fortunately, we have her parents, who exist primarily to display those flags outside of the context of Rachel herself.

James is manipulative. In many ways, he's an utter fraud. He's the chief law enforcement agent in the town, and he's working with the chief criminal in town to kill his ex-wife. His relationship with his family - including Rachel - is equally fraudulent and insincere. Rachel had considered him to be the person she as closest to, but by the time BTS starts, she has already begun to down him.

Much of the "Rachel" we know is the result of his manipulation. It's because of James that she has been pushed to be the way she is - a star student and a 'perfect' girl who seemingly has the entire town enthralled. It has been good for her in a lot of ways, but the gaping flaw is that it has left her with an impression that relationships should always be manipulated. This kind of poisons the way she interacts with everyone else. She is certainly manipulating Chloe in some ways - even if she feels bad about it afterwards. She talks Chloe into skipping class, purely because she wants to spy on James. Afterward, she's willing to take the fall for Chloe, but she wouldn't have been in that position in the first place if not for Rachel.

When you tear away the perfect façade that James has built, what does Rachel actually have left? Only the things her birth mother Sera left her.

Sera is, basically, what Rachel would have been if she'd lived longer. If Rachel showed up in Double Exposure, she'd probably be just like Sera. She is a woman with a deep emptiness in her soul that she seeks to escape from with drugs. Without the persona James built for her, Rachel is left with nothing but a burning anger at having been lied to her entire life, and a need for escape.

Both of these characters do have more to them than just being a problem for Rachel, but their role in the story is to display Rachel's flaws.

Rachel's last flaw is her anger. She's realized she's been lied to about being loved for her entire life. It's kind of understandable that she's angry.

• So, did Rachel really love Chloe?

The answer to this question is a "Yes, but . . . ."

Yes, I think Rachel did care about Chloe. I think we do see moments where she genuinely connects with Chloe on a meaningful personal level. Moments like the train or in Rachel's bedroom seem to show her openly and honestly engaging with Chloe in a way she just doesn't with anyone else.

But . . . I don't think Rachel is able to maintain this level of honesty and intimacy. She doesn't know how. She has never been taught how to be authentic, and even if she had, her poorly developed sense of self prevents her from being open with Chloe in the way she needed to be. Chloe is almost painfully sincere in the way she approaches her relationship with Rachel. and Rachel just cannot match that sincerity with her own, because she doesn't know how to.

I don't think Rachel ever stopped caring for Chloe, either. It's clear that whatever their relationship to each other was, it never reached the point of being an exclusive romantic entanglement. The fact that they were never exclusive was probably Rachel trying to spare Chloe. She knew what she'd have to do to manipulate her way out of Arcadia Bay, and didn't want to break Chloe's heart. She struggled with being honest, but she did try - we see she was trying to write a letter to Chloe confessing what she was doing and why.

And I think Chloe accepted this state of affairs, even if she would have preferred otherwise. She always thought she wasn't good enough for Rachel, and if Rachel wanted to see other people, then who was she to argue? At least she gets the amazing Rachel Amber some of the time. I think the fact she still carries condoms in her jacket shows that she was onboard with the idea of being in a "friends with benefits" style situation, even if she'd have preferred otherwise (and I don't think Chloe ever really intended to use them).

We know that Rachel's entanglements with men were largely her way of trying to find someone to get her out of Arcadia Bay and away from her family. She conducted these affairs behind Chloe's back, and it can seem like she intended to leave Chloe behind.

I'm not sure it's that simple.

Regarding Frank, I've often seen it said that he groomed her, which I don't think is true. Not because there wasn't misconduct, but because you're using the wrong word. Grooming is the act of enticing someone, and I don't think Frank had the capacity to entice Rachel into anything she didn't want to do.

What you're actually thinking of is statutory rape, which is very much on the table, even if we can't prove that their relationship took place before she turned 18. It's going to have to remain a mystery when Rachel and Frank ended up together, or for how long, and rather or not she was legal at the time. But that's not technically grooming; it's a different crime.

She almost certainly did not love Frank. She also almost certainly did not love Jefferson. But, she's a good enough actress to fool them both.

Sometimes, Rachel doesn't mean to do things, but doesn't mean to not do them. With Frank, the trucker, and Jefferson, I don't think she put much thought into taking Chloe or leaving her behind. She was desperate to escape. She would have certainly preferred to take Chloe, I think, but her hatred of her father might have driven her to do anything to get away from him, even abandon Chloe. I'm not sure even Rachel really knew if that was ever actually on the table or not, but I think it would have been a last resort.

• BUT SHE WAS RICH AND HAD MONEY AND HER FATHER WAS THE DA AND

And you would trade the crew of your hover-ship for some virtual steak with Agent Smith, I get it.

Rachel doesn't have to be financially destitute to make sense, she only needs to be spiritually destitute. You can be poor and happy. You can be rich and unhappy.

Rachel's upbringing gave her everything she needed to succeed in life, except for a stable personal identity and the ability to be open and honest with other human beings. I think Rachel was trying her best with Chloe, but she was still her father's daughter. Chloe loved her, and I think she wanted to love Chloe, but simply couldn't. Her understanding of love was so twisted by James that she was unable to distinguish it from manipulation. I think she genuinely cared about Chloe, but wouldn't have been able to show it, only act it the same way her father acted that he loved her.

• A DA's daughter wouldn't just disappear!

She would if he told the police to stop looking.

By the time of Life is Strange 1, Rachel has certainly figured out that her father is full of shit, and broken off her relationship with him. She's living in the Blackwell dorms instead of home. She's spent the past 2.5 years joined at the hip to a dropout, and she's banging drug dealers and her own teacher.

James used to have a woman like that in his life, and look at what he did to her.

I'm not saying James was involved, but when Sera got too lost in drugs and escapism, he left her and buried any connection he had to her, then immediately married someone who made him look better.

I think he did the same to Rachel. He wrote her off. She was no longer conductive to his image. He was probably sad that she was gone, but maybe it was for the best, ultimately.

He loved Rachel the way everyone loved Rachel - at a distance, as someone who played a role. The only person who authentically cared was the last person looking for her - Chloe Price.

That's the ultimate tragedy of Rachel - everyone loved the image of her, but nobody - not her father, not the town, not even a lot of the fandom - ever really gave a shit about the person behind it.

😭 that's enough for me today

My first post on here in 3 years. Hope everyone missed me

And she has seen the depravity men will do to get a jawbreaker…she has PTSD flashbacks till this day.

spoiler tagged since there's snippets of the game from scene packs i incorporated into the cover

How would it impact the story and most of all Chloe?

Also if i'm going to be honest, i don't think the comics will ever put justice to it despite not seeing how Chloe reacted to Max's death yet. I could probably go search it up later, but i'm talking about the LiS 2015

I'm super happy with how these turned out! For those who missed out, she's doing another signing on August 8th.

I noted the specific quotes/inscriptions in the "Special Instructions" section. Though the camera doodle was her own addition :)

i sacrificed chloe and finished the game 4 hours ago and i’m still thinking about it. i’m devastated for her. my eyes are genuinrly puffy from crying so hard. NO ONE told me the game was this good

I’m sure this has been done to death, but I made a quick iceberg for LIS1 and BTS. I’ve been a fan since 2015, so I tried to include some older theories, etc. Lmk if there’s anything else I should add!

hey guys! are there any people here capable of creating really simple animations of LiS characters? like a 3D model sort of thing? i have a scene for a YouTube video that needs chloe chilling in this chair with some super simple movement just to give her some life.

I beat life is strange double exposure recently and I took it upon myself to do some mods to walk out of bounds.

I found that so far the university is completely modeled. I walked from the observatory all the way to the university main campus without trouble. NOTHING IS LOW POLY. I even walked behind the university building and there is a courtyard well made. I found some weird Jefferson sort of looking character A posing in an ungodly bright square for some reason there.

Next I'm going to try to walk to the bar and Max's dorm.

I thought I'd share and I wanna give props to the map designers going the extra length to make this world so cohesive even if only weirdos like me would really notice

Although she doesn’t look much like Chloe (to me) her mannerisms, voice, and acting are very similar to Chloe in this movie. After watching it I’m excited to see her in the show.

Went out with a friend today and got up to some Chloe-coded Arcadia Bay funny business.

Shot on: Polaroid Now Generation-2 iType camera

🦋

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bgODeXJV0w

Sorry if this isn't allowed to post but ooooomg I'm so excited. This Bed We Made was one of the only non-LiS games to really scratch that LiS itch (aside from probably Firewatch and Lost Records) and I'm soooo stoked to see a continuation, especially one that follows the same protagonist (Sophie Roy my beloved). This looks so good!!! Any other fans here?

They make me happy so might as well share them :)