#ryan caulfield

[lifeisstrange-incorrectquotes]

Max: (introducing Chloe and Rachel to her parents) Mom, Dad, I like girls, and these are my two girlfriends.

Ryan: T—Two girlfriends? That's—

Vanessa: NICE!

Everyone:

Max: ...Mom?

Vanessa: (embarrassed) Uuuuuuuhhhhhhh...

[sheigarche]

Imagine you're flirting with someone on social media and your dad just drop by talking about your childhood.

Poor Max 😂

[dalekofchaos]

We should've learned more about Max's parents

One of the things that annoys me about Life Is Strange is we never get any substance about Max's relationship with her parents.

She never answers her mom, but has no problem replying to her dad. Despite her dad dragging Max away from a grieving Chloe.

There's really no evidence to support Vanessa Caulfield is a bad mother or was harmful towards Max in any way shape or form. For all I know she could be a controlling mom over her neurodivergent child(I should know, my former friend is in that situation)

You could paint it as Vanessa is more outwardly abusive(control freak, domineering over Max's life), but Max’s dad Ryan is a pushover like Enid's dad from Wednesday and does whatever she tells him to (like, for example, “Time to go from William’s funeral, grab Max and make sure she comes along”) but she encourages Max's dreams. But since he doesn’t seem as bad as Vanessa on the surface, Max thinks of him as the one she can trust more (which is something she’d need to unpack in therapy at some point, cause in this scenario they’re both awful parents/people).

Maybe in a proper rewrite or a sequel that doesn't do a fucking 10 year timeskip, we could see some insight into Max's family life and why Max cut her mom out of her life.

You could add this during episode 3 or 4. Ryan and Vanessa return to Arcadia Bay after hearing all the crazy shit that's going on. A kid trying to commit suicide, freaky weather, a girl gone missing and their daughter caught up in the middle of all this. Ryan at first nicely asks Max to come home. Max insists that she's needed at Blackwell and she can't leave Chloe again. Vanessa then puts her foot down. She demands that Max come home and refuse to give Max a say in the matter. Chloe and Warren are defending Max from her mother. Vanessa tells Chloe "I don't know what the hell happened to you Chloe, but you will not drag my daughter down to your level, unlike you she actually has a future" then depending on who you choose between Chloe and Warren. With Chloe "Max I didn't sacrifice everything so you can go out and claim to be gay" with Warren "I don't know who you think you are, but you are nowhere near good enough for my daughter" and then Joyce shuts Vanessa down and defends Chloe and stands up for Max. If you sided with Chloe in episode 3, then Max gets the courage to finally stand up to Vanessa. "NO! I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH YOU! You don't get it, do you mom? I didn't just come back to Arcadia Bay for Blackwell and Chloe, I came back to Arcadia to get away from you. You suffocate me. I was practically dragged from my grieving childhood best friend at her father's funeral when she needed me most. I know well enough to know pop wouldn't have done that without your say so. And maybe I never contacted Chloe for 5 years, because I was scared how you would react. You kept telling me "don't bother worrying about Chloe, you'll make new friends" meanwhile Chloe was going through hell, did you even bother to reach out to Joyce after William died, because it sure seems like you were in such a hurry to leave them behind and didn't care how it would affect Chloe or me. I was grieving too, William was like a second father to me and I needed the support, me and Chloe needed each other and you took her from me. God, I am sick of your need to control EVERY aspect of my life. My best friend tried to kill herself, Chloe's girlfriend is missing and there's a serial killer and a practical end of the world storm coming and I need to help stop what's coming. So please leave me be and just maybe, I will come home when all this is done and we can talk. But until then, just trust me and learn to respect my boundaries and me as a person mom. Vanessa laments and apologizes to Chloe, Warren, Joyce and most of all Max. Ryan smiles and wishes his daughter good luck and wishes Max happiness with Chloe or Warren. If you sided with David, David surprisingly stands up for Max and order Vanessa to leave their house or he would call the police.

but there is no evidence to support that as all her texts seem to be a supportive and worried mother. Max does give vague responses as the episodes go on, but leaving a parent in the dark like that but giving more to her dad more just makes you wonder...

Max and her mother sewed a cushion together, and thinking of the day they did that makes Max smile. She brings the cushion with her to Arcadia Bay and it is on her bed in her room. Max's mother sends Max a $200 dollar gift certificate and a box of chocolate coconut bites for her birthday. She and Max's father also send Max a birthday message. and Max mentions Vanessa is into true crime. So it might not be as bad as I made her out to be, but the complete lack of context and Max's lack of response to her mother just makes more to be desired.

I always thought this was because Max was just distracted with the investigation and finding out she has powers but she has the time to text other people. So it's weird.

And there doesn't seem to be a hint that we will get more answers about Max's family in Double Exposure. She ignores Vanessa like nothing ever happened and there is very little to suggest we'd ever see them.

I mean if we could actually see Chloe's family, house, William and her deteriorating relationship with her mom and her hatred of David. Hell, we get insight into Victoria's parents as she's pressured by her gallery owning parents. We know the horror story of the Prescott family and we see Kate having a doting father, but a domineering religious mother and a zealout of an aunt. We actually know nothing about Warren, but I chalk that up to DONTNOD being lazy and I know SE has no plans to revisit his character. But I choose to see Warren as the male Matilda. He had neglectful parents, so he found comfort in science, sci-fi and a lot of obscure but retro stuff. They were neglectful when he's young, but learning to be harsh/strict as he's shown his potential as a genius. But of course anything of substance for Warren's character is asking too much..

We should have seen Max's home life and even her childhood home in Arcadia Bay. We should have seen Max's dynamic with her parents whether it's a fucked up dynamic or not. we really should have gotten more of that explored in game.

[arcadiabaytornado]

Do you have any headcanons about what Chloe’s relationship with Max’s parents is like? Max seemed very close to Joyce and William so I wonder what Chloe thinks of Ryan and Vanessa. 

Small disclaimer that this isn't an analysis post at all. It's headcanons all the way through because we know nothing in canon about how Chloe feels about the Caulfield's. So, having said that, on to the headcanons!

Ryan and Vanessa were always stricter than William and Joyce. Not in a "I'll take your door off if you're two minutes late" way, but in a "You're both 12. You need to be asleep by 1AM" way.

William was so lax on the rules that a very young Chloe viewed the Caulfield's as kind of mean. They never were actually were, but any rules, even reasonable ones, seem overly strict when you come from a household where the only true rules are "Don't die and don't set the house on fire."

So Chloe viewed them as trusted adults she would absolutely go to in an emergency, but she didn't really "like" them, and preferred to be at her house where they could run the most wild.

When Max moved away, Chloe HATED them. She blamed them for taking Max away from her, and sometimes she made up fake scenarios where they had forbid Max from speaking to her because at least then the ghosting wouldn't have been Max's fault. Deep down, she knew they wouldn't do that. But it didn't stop her mind from trying to console her.

Slightly More Undercut

When David came into her life, she had a few revelations about the Caulfield's. Mainly that they were never actually strict or mean, they just had more structure than her family.

That structure is something she really came to appreciate after the storm when she and Max crashed with them for awhile. They were immediately kind and caring toward them both, and they gave Chloe the first stable home dynamic she had since William died.

As an adult Chloe came to really like them both and consider them family of her own. She feels silly for not liking them as a kid just because they had a few very reasonable rules, but, at the end of the day, she see's it as part of her growth that she can be like "Yeah. It is actually fair that they told us we couldn't light fireworks in the house. Good call Mr and Mrs Caulfield."

[highlord-mullins]

Max's concerns melted away, at least for the time being, as her parents were more then happy to see their little girl had survived the storm, showering her with affection before embracing Chloe (who was practically family herself) with a similar level of affection and giving Kate a warm and heartfelt welcome before Max's dad had to rush back to the kitchen before the pasta boiled over.

After helping to set the table, Max and Co sat down as Max's father brought out dinner.

"Hope you girls brought your appetites." He said with a dorky smile.

As he settled into his seat, Max's mom asked the question Max was dreading, wanting to know everything that had happened. Max looked to Chloe, then to Kate, then back to her parents, breathing deeply as Chloe put her hand on Max's thigh . . .

"Ok . . . it all started on October 7th . . ."

Max and Co finally find safe harbor at last . . . but Max does have some explaining to do.

[whatsjulietslastname]

I think Max’s parents are very nice people because they’re treating their daughter very kindly, they don’t even get mad if principal Wells told them Max is having a bad attitude, they just send her a text encouraging her to do better and proposing her to talk about it, which is an amazing reaction and shows that she must’ve been raised well and most likely in a positive and loving household (especially on her mother’s side, I have no doubt her father is the same but he’s less present throughout the game). Plus they’re really supporting and understanding after Kate’s suicide (attempt). They even send a card to Chloe in the alternate timeline.

But I also find it really weird of them to just disappear after William’s death. Like, okay, they were supposed to move either way, and sometimes you can’t delay it because maybe they paid trucks or something so they couldn’t stay more, okay. But you’re telling me they never called/texted Joyce once after leaving? Their daughters are best friends since forever, so even if the parents didn’t get along (it happens, people don’t have to always get along) that still means they knew each other for years. And well, maybe try to support the mother of your child’s best friend who’s now a willow and has to deal with everything on her own? I know what you’re gonna say « why are you assuming they never called ». Well, maybe they did call or text or whatever but then why did neither of them suggest the idea that maybe Max and Chloe could reunite? I know Max was ghosting Chloe, but I don’t think it was to the point of refusing to see her again if offered to.

Also, we see Max being really close to Joyce and William when she was a kid, and I don’t know why I don’t get the feeling Chloe was as close to Max’s parents as Max was with hers.

Anyway, I still think that Max’s parents were good people and I don’t like it when they’re turned into assholes in fanfics, but this is some weird thing I needed to point out. It’s probably just a plothole, though, but I like analyzing everything :)

[jamesrodayrodriguezpresents]

Promotional photo from Ryan Caulfield: Year One (1999)

(from this eBay listing)

[tangent101]

Life is Strange fanfic plot bunny

While watching the show “For Life” (available on Hulu) I was discussing plot with my spouse (and the fact one character is a bit Chloe-esque in responding to her mother’s boyfriend telling her what to do) when I came up with a thought: What if the reason William Price is no longer around isn’t because he died, but because he’s in prison? And what if he went to prison for vehicular homicide?

More specifically, he gets in an accident and the other person dies. When on the scene the police do an alcohol test and claim he’s drunk so he goes to jail for drunk driving and vehicular homicide... but Chloe knows that her father hadn’t been drinking when he left to get Joyce.

Joyce divorces William, she refuses to let Chloe visit her father, and keeps insisting he was drinking (as does David Madsen), and ignoring Chloe who knows this is a lie. And Chloe would truly hate both David, and also would have a lot of issues with her mother for continuing this lie and refusing to believe her daughter.

As an aside, it might be interesting if Ryan and Vanessa didn’t want their daughter to continue talking to Chloe because she kept insisting her dad was innocent and because Chloe ranting about it was causing Max a lot of anxiety.

Anyway, I thought I’d toss this plot bunny out in the wild. If anyone wants to run with this story, go for it. :)