Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2019-12-04 06:17 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2019-12-04 06:17 pm
Entry tags:
Journey's End.
I have now finished Life Is Strange 2 and I don't know what to do with myself.
oh my God are you FUCKING SERIOUS are you SERIOUS, 'surrender' versus 'cross the border', I can't BELIEVE
If I surrender, Sean goes to prison and the brothers are separated, WHICH IS TERRIBLE.
If I choose to cross the border, I'm asking Daniel to throw all the police aside with his powers! I'm asking him to hurt a lot of people! And I don't want to do that, he's a good boy, I don't want to put that kind of weight on his conscience! He's ten!
I can't do it! I can't! I want the boys to get away, I want them to be together, but I can't ask Daniel to attack a load of people with his powers. I've spent this entire game trying to raise him not to do harm, trying to protect him from guilt and trauma. I can't throw all of that aside now.
I can't cross the border.
So I have to surrender.
God, I don't want to do this.
I made the choice, and Daniel went 'But... I could...' and Sean shook his head, and Daniel, tears in his eyes, said, 'I get it. That's not who we are.' Bless him. Sean's raised this boy so well and I'm SO SAD that they're going to be torn apart.
'We're not criminals. We're just kids.' Oh, Sean.
'Try to remember what I taught you. I mean... only the good shit.' Oh, Sean.
I was going 'huh, this scene where Sean gets arrested isn't making me cry; I'm a little sad that I'm not crying at the end of this story that's had such a big impact on me', and then came the scene fifteen years later, where Daniel and Lyla come to meet Sean on his release from prison, and I was instantly and uncontrollably sobbing. I cried so hard that Zuko was staring at me in alarm. It didn't help that Sean, on his release, would be my age, and Daniel grew up to look a lot like my own little brother.
I laughed through my tears when Daniel wolf-howled after Sean and then used telekinesis to open his own car door. What a dork.
God, they had so much stolen from them. But Sean can live without running, now. And Daniel waited for him, of course. And Lyla waited for him, which really touched my heart. They were such close friends and I was worried that they'd never see each other again; I was thrilled that she turned up at the end!
Oh, the end stats are interesting; it looks like the final choice is really Daniel's, not yours. If I'd asked him to force the road block, with the way I raised him, I suspect he would have refused.
(A note I made on an alternate possible path in episode four, which never made it into an entry: Holy shit, you can get an ending to episode four where Daniel attacks Lisbeth with his telekinesis, and you can make Sean shoot her, taking that burden on himself, to spare his little brother the experience of killing someone. I'm very glad I didn't get that choice, even if it's an incredible moment of Sean characterisation.)
This entire game has been catastrophic for my heart, but I'm so glad I played it. I love the Diaz brothers, and Sean Diaz, in particular, is a character I love intensely. I haven't been this emotionally invested in a work of fiction since Final Fantasy XV.
It's not a perfect game. But, at the same time, it's a perfect game. It's flawed and it's perfect and I love it so much.
oh my God are you FUCKING SERIOUS are you SERIOUS, 'surrender' versus 'cross the border', I can't BELIEVE
If I surrender, Sean goes to prison and the brothers are separated, WHICH IS TERRIBLE.
If I choose to cross the border, I'm asking Daniel to throw all the police aside with his powers! I'm asking him to hurt a lot of people! And I don't want to do that, he's a good boy, I don't want to put that kind of weight on his conscience! He's ten!
I can't do it! I can't! I want the boys to get away, I want them to be together, but I can't ask Daniel to attack a load of people with his powers. I've spent this entire game trying to raise him not to do harm, trying to protect him from guilt and trauma. I can't throw all of that aside now.
I can't cross the border.
So I have to surrender.
God, I don't want to do this.
I made the choice, and Daniel went 'But... I could...' and Sean shook his head, and Daniel, tears in his eyes, said, 'I get it. That's not who we are.' Bless him. Sean's raised this boy so well and I'm SO SAD that they're going to be torn apart.
'We're not criminals. We're just kids.' Oh, Sean.
'Try to remember what I taught you. I mean... only the good shit.' Oh, Sean.
I was going 'huh, this scene where Sean gets arrested isn't making me cry; I'm a little sad that I'm not crying at the end of this story that's had such a big impact on me', and then came the scene fifteen years later, where Daniel and Lyla come to meet Sean on his release from prison, and I was instantly and uncontrollably sobbing. I cried so hard that Zuko was staring at me in alarm. It didn't help that Sean, on his release, would be my age, and Daniel grew up to look a lot like my own little brother.
I laughed through my tears when Daniel wolf-howled after Sean and then used telekinesis to open his own car door. What a dork.
God, they had so much stolen from them. But Sean can live without running, now. And Daniel waited for him, of course. And Lyla waited for him, which really touched my heart. They were such close friends and I was worried that they'd never see each other again; I was thrilled that she turned up at the end!
Oh, the end stats are interesting; it looks like the final choice is really Daniel's, not yours. If I'd asked him to force the road block, with the way I raised him, I suspect he would have refused.
(A note I made on an alternate possible path in episode four, which never made it into an entry: Holy shit, you can get an ending to episode four where Daniel attacks Lisbeth with his telekinesis, and you can make Sean shoot her, taking that burden on himself, to spare his little brother the experience of killing someone. I'm very glad I didn't get that choice, even if it's an incredible moment of Sean characterisation.)
This entire game has been catastrophic for my heart, but I'm so glad I played it. I love the Diaz brothers, and Sean Diaz, in particular, is a character I love intensely. I haven't been this emotionally invested in a work of fiction since Final Fantasy XV.
It's not a perfect game. But, at the same time, it's a perfect game. It's flawed and it's perfect and I love it so much.