The portrayal of Chloe and Rachel's relationship in
Before the Storm has been cited by several publications, including
Gayming Magazine, as a positive example of
LGBT relationships in gaming. Scholar of English Renee Ann Drouin notes the devotion of numerous characters in
Life is Strange to missing queer Rachel Amber. When it becomes clear that she "has been kidnapped, murdered, and potentially raped", Rachel appears as "the subject of a queer trauma archive [an in-game collection of notes and artefacts], possesses a dual role of spectre and centrepiece. Haunting the archive, she is voiceless; details about her come second hand, and there are limited artefacts to compose her history. Players cannot fully understand her sexuality without the biased influence of Chloe, who is in love with her, or the prequel game,
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm." Reviewer Tim McDonald found that the series' strength of allowing "for alternative character interpretations" by showing different sides of the characters is realised for Rachel Amber only in
Before the Storm: There she appears as "a free spirit who has a legitimate love for and kinship with Chloe, but maybe doesn't entirely think things through", but a darker manipulative streak with "sudden outbursts and irrational behaviour" is also shown. Arts scholar Mark Kaethler points out that the root of the devastating storm in
Life is Strange lies in "Rachel's fury at her father's supposed infidelity", as transported by her performance of
Prospero in
The Tempest depicted in
Before the Storm. When Rachel's deviation from the play's text serves to advance her relationship with Chloe, Kaethler sees two developments in play: "the romantic union between Rachel and Chloe" is "a chrono-normative bond that develops through heteronormative conventions: their love story's arc could be said to mirror teenage heteronormative fantasies. On the other hand, however, this can only be accomplished through queering the
Shakespearean text." Dramatics researcher Jonathan Partecke characterizes Rachel Amber as "confident, exciting, tantalizing", a "charismatic allrounder", and assigns her the type of
fille fatale. He calls her a "hyper ideal" of rebellious "independent young women, who "truly life their live"", which may be designed to instill a last-minute panic of "never having rebelled as "well"" in the viewer. In
Life Is Strange Rachel seems a perfect person exactly because she is not present.
Before the Storm transforms this "mythos to a character", the "cold ideal" becomes a human with faults, and it is this humanity that makes her a likeable figure. The conclusion of Rachel's storyline in
Life Is Strange, which it is revealed that she had been kidnapped and subsequently murdered, received negative response from critics and scholars; with
Rock Paper Shotgun's Jessica Castello citing it as an LGBT variation of the "
women in refrigerators" trope. Criticisms of Rachel's narrative include it was
exploitative, simplistic, sensational, and cliché. Drouin countered that "Chloe's attachment of Rachel" is one of the elements showing that "the
Life Is Strange universe equally hinges upon female devotion". Castello argued that it undercut the emotional impact of
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, saying that while "Deck Nine did an admirable job in telling Chloe and Rachel's story" it ultimately rendered a story in which... "When bad things happen to them, it just feels unfair because we already know that they suffer enough. When they're happy, it's only a reminder that it will be all too fleeting." ==References==