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Missed Opportunity with LiS:BtS

Many of the LiS community here on Tumblr know of my... troubled feelings toward Before the Storm. Between the continuity errors and mischaracterization of several characters... well, I think it makes sense I (who truly love the first game) might have issues with D9's first foray into the LiS franchise (and in fact the only LiS game they put out that I enjoyed at all is True Colors, which was only a pale reflection of LiS itself). But there is one area where D9 truly failed to shine, and that was with the character of Sera, Rachel's mother.

For instance, why was Sera leaving Frank's trailer if she was off of drugs at this point? If she's taking methadone to deal with her heroin addiction, then why visit a drug dealer? We never learned what Sera was doing with Frank... but it teases at a possible story for Sera that would have been far more interesting than what we ended up getting.

What if Sera was "Breaking Bad" and was in fact a drug lord? I don't mean she was sampling the goods or the like... I mean she set up a drug running ring back before Rachel was born and was dating or married to law student James Amber (a stupid choice, seriously having him be a doctor or a dentist with access to drugs would have made more sense, especially as the cops would never have stopped looking for the daughter of even a disgraced D.A.). He cut ties with Sera and got a divorce while she's on trial for dealing drugs, but due to spousal reasons didn't testify against her.

The game starts with Rachel knowing about Sera, she recently learned about her real mom (but not about what Sera was doing). Sera got in touch with her and is going to meet up with Rachel in the park - far enough away that James Amber will hopefully not learn about it and intervene. Rachel is dragging Chloe along for moral support without telling her why - basically like the game, but instead of thinking her dad is having an affair, wanting to meet her mom. James Amber intervenes and he does end up kissing Sera while telling her "I don't want you in my daughter's life" but Rachel doesn't hear what he said - just sees the kiss and flees.

The scene of Sera leaving Frank's RV? Frank is one of Sera's dealers. Maybe she's rebuilding her drug running ring now that she's out of jail or the like? But they are running into trouble with Damon, another drug lord in the area (who may even have ties with Frank, having been friends with him in the past).

Damon recognizes Rachel because she looks similar to Sera - he might not realize she's Sera's daughter but he might think they are cousins or the like. He manages to capture Sera and is torturing her when Chloe intervenes and is gloating about how after he's done "making an example" of Sera he's going to rape and kill her daughter. Frank still ends up fighting Damon, but have Sera deal the killing blow to kill Damon. In fact, have Chloe free Sera using the knife on the ground and then Sera takes that knife and stabs Damon in the back with it. Chloe basically gets to see Rachel's mom shank a guy.

It gets Sera thinking. She realizes she doesn't want Rachel involved in this life. James Amber was in fact right to keep Sera out of her daughter's life... and tells Chloe to apologize to her daughter for her and that Rachel's dad was right and she's going to keep out of Rachel's life from now on.

This gives us a strong female character in Sera. She's selling drugs, she has minions, hell she stabs a murderous asshole who hospitalized her daughter. She is not a good person... but she chooses to stay out of Rachel's life for her daughter's safety and goes off to live her own life.

The Final Choice? Does Chloe tell Rachel that her mother was a drug dealer who murdered a man in front of her (even if it's in self-defense) or does she allow Rachel to keep her illusions about her bio-mom?

This also puts a strain in the father-daughter relationship. Rachel is upset her father lied to her about Sera's past, or is upset that her father drove her bio-mom out of her life. She doesn't trust her father anymore. It's not because her father is in fact crooked as D9 chose to make him... but because his actions have consequences, even if those actions were to protect Rachel.

(I would also completely remove the Max-ghosts-Chloe elements and instead have Chloe upset that Max hadn't gotten in touch with her at all after moving to Seattle, and that Max's phone was disconnected, to hint at the Caulfield family's financial woes, but that's because I detest how they tossed Max under the bus, much like they tossed Chloe under a bus in DE. That's just D9 all over though, fucking over female protagonists from the original game.)

#life is strange #life is strange: before the storm #chloe price #rachel amber #sera amber #james amber #frank bowers #damon merrick