Title is borrowed from the book All Wounds, chapter 21, a song of time, part 2 , by Destiny-Smasher.

  

When talking about choices, we see that most choices in LiS lead to something unsatisfying, that Max is still powerless even with the power. While this seems to be the case, the meaning of rewind is also presented in the game. "I'd rather have a life of 'oh well's than a life of 'what if's."  

  

Imprisoned in the cellroom of collectivity, tied up in the shackles of sociality, forced to bend her will to surrounding people, dreaming to have a strong and independent personality, but surrendering to others everyday in real life, Max is effectively a prisoner behind a locked door, and Chloe is the key. (Thank you, Glass Walls.)  

  

"Birds are so lucky. They can always escape." Seeing a bird flew away on that cliff path, Max let out a slight sigh.  

  

Admittedly, there could be other keys out there. But at the same time, I should not neglect the possibility that as time goes on, the door becomes thicker and thicker, as Max wants more and more distance from outside, or the lock becomes tighter or higher-teched, to better protect the prisoner from being harmed, or the door becomes completely sealed by long-time motionless or damaged hinges. Hard to say what the people-pleaser kinda personality of Max would do to herself in the coming years. Bet one's happiness on future possibilities, is always a dangerous thing to do.  

  

Chloe is a lighthouse of Max's pursuit of personal happiness, which is always the ultimate goal of life (whether that life subjectively approves it), and should also be my "first priority". At that point before the final decision, Max effectively gave me a golden line. Whether it's out of knowledge or just an instinctive impulse, its value is undeniable.  

  

(If it's because of knowledge, I can therefore deduce that she has the knowledge needed in that situation and chooses to stick to it; if it's instinctive, at least I know she still instinctively yearn to be freed.)  

  

The game uses four days of story to show us how Max likes to hide away from the heat when there's a possible confrontation, and how Chloe is a "good bad influence" on her, so she can say what she never dared to say, act like someone who knows what pleases herself the most. Then, when it comes to the fifth day, the game finally gives us the answer, tearing off the last layer of veil. In that nightmare where everything is driven by subconscious, I get to see what's buried deep down in Max's heart, beneath layers of disguise, that everyone in her life, whether annoying or fearsome, or friendly or respected, is out to catch her, to keep slaving her in the cellroom, to prevent her from making the honest decision. Although Chloe is the one who said "everybody pretends to care until they don't", now I see Max is the one who really thinks that way. Even the other self, the wanna-be superego full of artificial moral codes, scoffed at Max's attempt to find freedom. Falling into this plight, Max was pushed onto the verge of losing herself.  

  

Fortunately, even in the nightmare, there's still the one who stands behind. When Max was about to lose consistency with her own existence, Chloe still rushed to Max's side and told Max to be true to herself, that "this is reality." A brilliant trick to show that subconsciously Max puts trust in Chloe even more than in herself. During that week, it's Chloe who made Max a hero out of that "shy cliché geek". A simple sentence from Chloe weighs more than barrages of opposition and ridicule, rids Max of doubts and hesitations. From that moment on, the tone of the nightmare changed. On that road of memories, one after another static moments came along, together with the quiet narration of the stories behind, and the happiness or bitterness conveyed by. Master level story-telling by DONTNOD, to show that Max values her lifetime happiness way more than short-term moral satisfaction.  

  

Then the last image came. There's the silhouette of Chloe carrying Max on her shoulders, climbing on the stairs, to the lighthouse in the pouring rain. Back on Monday in class, the very beginning of the story, in the dream Max saw the lighthouse on cliff and said to herself, "I'll be safe if I can make it there." Until the very end, I got to see the true meaning of this sentence. In that dream, the lighthouse was destroyed, hit by a boat blown by wind. The light that illuminates Max's path to happiness is no more. Lighthouse is solitary, but it brightens the path to destination; cellroom is protected, but it leads to only suffocation. Max was granted a week to make a change, to find the key to unlock the door of her cellroom, most importantly, to keep by side the one who can and will carry her to her happiness.  

 

                                     

 

Similar argument comes from Jean-Paul Sartre, "L'enfer, c'est les autres." If Max started to define herself as how others perceive and judge her, treat herself like an object or a tool of the society, she would be beyond help. On contrary, when she sees through the ethical snare for what it is, that tries to force or lure her into giving up her lifetime happiness for a socially sanctioned medal of virtue, and endless suffocation and emptiness, she becomes rational enough for herself, to take responsibility for her own life instead of running away from it in the excuse of a pseudo-concept "community interests", to see the fact that nobody is a tool for any community, but the guardian of her own happiness, even if the said community requires otherwise. So when facing the the tornado, the ultimate collectivity moral trap, she can give an honest answer.  

  

Such is written by Bertrand Russell in History of Western Philosophy, about prudence. The following paragraph is directly copied from the book. If you've already read this, just skip it, and the question of final choice shouldn't be troublesome to you. 

  

The civilized man is distinguished from the savage mainly by prudence, or, to use a slightly wider term, forethought. He is willing to endure present pains for the sake of future pleasures, even if the future pleasures are rather distant. This habit began to be important with the rise of agriculture; no animal and no savage would work in the spring in order to have food next winter, except for a few purely instinctive forms of action, such as bees making honey or squirrels burying nuts. In these cases, there is no forethought; there is a direct impulse to an act which, to the human spectator, is obviously going to prove useful later on. True forethought only arises when a man does something towards which no impulse urges him, because his reason tells him that he will profit by it at some future date.  

  

I've been arguing with myself the reasons of choosing Chloe, and Russell presents me the top one. It's because Max will ultimately benefit from it more than the other choice in the coming lifetime. Back in ep. 4, Max murmured a sentence about "navigate the present". While I doubt she really knew what it meant back then, there's no doubt that only by learning and practicing it to the full extent can she achieve that goal. She needs to make the wise choice, so future Max will appreciate today.  

  

That, to me, is the final challenge of LiS. Am I rational enough to see through the cheap collectivity moral code? Am I wise enough to tear off the emotional, short-sighted moral satisfaction? If Max can change herself, through the power of choice, from a crying baby losing herself in swirl of opinions and statements, to a guardian for herself who understands reality and finds the best solution for the rest of her life, can I do the same?  

  

Can I foresee obstacles through the blizzard?