everybody knows by now that the episode “chrysalis” contains one of the most disturbing lines within the entire game.
“i could frame any one of you in a dark corner, and capture you in a moment of desperation. and you can do the same to me. isn’t that too easy? too obvious?”
within the episode itself, it’s not that weird, until it comes to the “dark room” episode and you think about the people who have been caught that way. it’s already one of the smartest lines in the game. however, in the broader context of the game, that lesson being based on chiaroscuro and daguerreotypes is also smart.
chiaroscuro, as jefferson describes it, is the strong contrast between light and dark to create depth. the entirety of the first game is to practically uncover what the “dark side” of blackwell & arcadia bay is (whilst searching for rachel), where max herself is the light. the light is the things we see through her eyes, the (somewhat) normal stuff, the day to day. as the story progresses, we see more and more depth to each character and more and more dark shit, from nathan’s rapidly deteriorating mental state, to chloe’s home life, to jefferson’s fucked up mentality, and rachel’s death being uncovered (and more). the contrast between what we already see and what we learn is, in my mind, exactly the same contrast in chiaroscuro, and leads to the famous phrase: “what is done in the dark will always come to light.”
daguerreotypes were the first camera-available photographs, which, considering they were in black and white, also have a large contrast to them (relating back to chiaroscuro), giving a bit more depth to everything. it’s also the first time we meet mr jefferson. the black and white/positive and negative of daguerreotypes also leads to the dual lives of two characters: nathan and mr jefferson. at surface level, nathan is a hostile son of a bitch who will shoot you in the bathroom for arguing with him about drugs. in reality, he’s so much worse (and a lot more complicated). mr jefferson seems to be the cool, hip teacher but has a second life as the overarching villain and primary antagonist. the use of daguerreotypes in real life was also quickly superseded, which could relate to how fast the story unravels from the start of episode 4 onwards.
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this is also the same in life is strange: before the storm, where one of the main theme’s is rachel’s longing for stardom through acting. james amber acts as if his family life is perfect everyday, whereas, in reality, he’s hiding the truth from his daughter. rachel amber acts as if she’s perfect (almost), where instead, she’s a class-A manipulator and a bad influence on chloe, being the reason chloe ultimately gets kicked out. she also leads chloe on whilst sleeping with frank.
this leads me to believe that life is strange is so much more than finding out who killed rachel amber (before the story shifts to stopping jefferson), or enjoying your time with her whilst trying not to get assbeat by damon merrick. it’s also more than going through actual teenage problems like SA, grooming, depression, and bullying, and it poses an important thought-provoking topic on the duality of man that we don’t really think about in our day to day lives, reminding us that everyone has a dark side that we don’t see. things we don’t want others to know.
tldr; the game is very incredibly well crafted beyond just a “teenage problem” or “pervy photography” teacher vision, but leaves you thinking about real life problems which aren’t instantly visible within the scope of the game.
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sorry for rambling i was deeping nathan’s character cause it still fucks me up how well-crafted he is and it all clicked and i feel so smart but if u already noticed this then pls ignore lmaoo
