Life is Strange’s Max Caulfield has been pissing me off since 2015. I understand her, and I even respect her as a character – lots of teenagers are stupid, even when they’re doing their absolute best with the resources they have on hand. I think of Max like a friend who keeps doing stuff that actively makes their life worse and cries to me about it after. I love her, but I want to smack her on the head till she snaps out of it and starts making good decisions for once in her life.
I feel this way because of her attitude towards Chloe Price. I’ve written abouthow mad Chloe makes mein the past, but the SparkNotes version is that she’s selfish, irresponsible, and even controlling at times. In a way, Chloe reminds me a little of myself as a teenager, and as an adult who’s thankfully not like that anymore, I both understand her and resent her for not being able to see how her actions hurt other people. That’s part of the complexity of the series and why, though it’swell known to be deeply cringey, it still speaks to something honest inside me.
Even though Chloesuuuucked, Max still loved her, platonically and, depending on your choices, maybe romantically. That’s not up for debate – whether you play her as a woman who’s attracted to other women, she is a bisexual character. InLife is Strange: Double Exposure, you’ll be offered two romantic prospects – one’s Amanda, a kind, cool lesbian bartender, and the other is Vinh, a bisexual menace who needs to be kicked in the teeth. You can choose to woo either or both of them, but rejecting either of them doesn’t change Max’s sexuality.
Despite what Twitter bisexuality discourse will tell you, this is the same way it works in real life.
Here’s why Max is pissing me off today, in 2024: she still has bad taste in partners. Back then, it made me angry how closely she stuck with Chloe despite her friend’s utter disregard for her, but in Double Exposure, it’s actually pretty funny how the game plays with bisexual tropes.
For one, Max Caulfield is the stereotype of a bisexual woman: terrified of women. When her best friend Safi encourages her to talk to Amanda, she has to down her whole cocktail before even leaving the table. Instead of going straight up to this woman who hadalreadybeen obviously flirting with her, she wanders around the entire bar, looking for clues as to what she can talk to Amanda about. She literally collects conversation topics.
In contrast, when she flirts with Vinh, it’s overt, almost aggressive. She maintains intense eye contact in conversation, ribs him, even sends him texts full of sexual innuendos. There’s none of the unsureness that we see in her burgeoning relationship with Amanda. It’s like all the sweetness and shyness in her attitude to women disappears when faced with a dude. The stereotype is so on the nose that it could easily have felt mean-spirited, but to be honest, lots of bisexual women are this way – compulsory heterosexuality is a hell of a drug.
Another way this is hilarious is that Max still has really bad taste in partners. Amanda is a great romantic prospect, but Vinh is far more present in the early chapters of the game, and in every scene, hesucks. I don’t mean that he’s badly written or performed. He’s just the perfect representation for the worst kind of guy.
Chloe had an excuse – she was a teenager going through a really bad time. Vinh, however, seems to just be like that, even at his big age. He’s good-looking, sharp tongued, and highly charismatic, but he’s also manipulative, lies a ton, and puts himself first. He’s downright mean to Max sometimes, and explicitly uninterested in her unless she has something he wants. Max, of all the people in Caledon University, you wantthis guy? You could have sweetheart Amanda, or the smuggest dude in your general vicinity?
And I guess that speaks to some people’s truth as well. Some people just love people who treat them badly, whether or not they’re bisexual – Max just happens to like the worst people, regardless of gender. It was the case with Chloe, and it’s the case with Vinh, though I’m praying that the later episodes will lead to our now adult Max having a revelation about the fact that she’s too grown to be letting people talk to her this way.
In a way, Life is Strange is out of step with contemporary culture, but it’s nailed this portrayal of the contemporary bisexual woman in a way that feels less mocking and more conspiratorial. I’ve never seen Max as a particularly strong representative of the bi community, but when you take her whole dating history into consideration, man, she really does feel familiar.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure
WHERE TO PLAY
Max Caulfield, photographer-in-residence at the prestigious Caledon University, discovers her closest new friend, Safi, dead in the snow.Murdered.To save her, Max tries to Rewind time – a power she’s not used in years… instead, Max opens the way to a parallel timeline where Safi is still alive, and still in danger!Max realizes the killer will soon strike again – in both versions of reality.With her new power to Shift between two timelines – can Max solve and prevent the same murder?ORDINARY GIRL, EXTRAORDINARY POWERMax is thrust into a thrilling supernatural murder mystery – more dangerous than ever before!TRAVERSE TWO TIMELINESForge allies and pursue suspects across two versions of reality, shaping both timelines through unforgettable choices.RACE AGAINST TIMEA relentless detective has Max in his sights, and Safi’s killer grows closer with every clue uncovered. Can Max survive long enough – to do the impossible?DECIDE THE FATE OF CALEDONExplore two versions of a vivid winter campus, each packed with clues, secrets, and tough decisions.
