I feel like im missing something with the Doe. I get the sense it's meant to represent Max (?) but I haven't really understood what I'm supposed to learn or feel from any of the moments where we see it. I've only played the game twice, once a decade ago and once last year, so I'm no expert.
I always thought the Doe was Rachel, the Butterfly was Chloe
the doe disappears when they find Rachel's body, like its task is done, its also only/mostly seen at the junkyard where Rachels body is, like its stuck there but trying to be noticed... she helped them find it, its kinda not related to Max i feel like
THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS this is what ive thought the whole time and everyone says im wrong
I think the doe is Rachel, the butterfly is Max (she changes the world without realizing it when she makes a small decision), and the bird that flies into Chloe’s window is Chloe (Max has to save it with time travel, then keep helping it).
The butterfly is tattooed on Chloe and her hair matches it for a reason. The doe is the same with Max; shirt instead of tattoo, her shy demeanor, her hair color. The advertising for the game literally shows the doe and butterfly with Max and Chloe. The doe is stated as Max's spirit animal in the game.
They're not the Power Rangers, they don't need to wear their own merch so we know which one is which.
The doe incites Max to move forward the first time she sees herself at the lighthouse during the storm, just like finding out about Rachel led her to start deeper at what was going on in the town. The doe hangs around Rachel's body and disappears after its found. How does that fit with it being representative of Max? Is Max's only purpose in life to obsess over Rachel, so her destiny is complete when she finds her body? How does that fit with Max being able to opt out of the whole thing, and have Rachel's murder solved entirely without her involvement?
The butterfly is specifically connected to the "butterfly effect" thought experiment. Can Chloe do something that causes a tornado, or doesn't if she makes a different decision? No, because Chloe's an NPC. She doesn't get to make decisions, and the storm coming or not coming cannot be affected by her actions, only Max's.
Rachel wears a blue feather earring? Did Rachel get herself killed, but may or may not be saved by Max using time-travel? Does Max end up being responsible for Rachel's safety because she saved her, and has to guide her through several other gamified threats to her safety?
So what's with the clothes, you might ask? They're not a nametag, they're an intention. Chloe has a butterfly tattoo, and rhinestone butterflies on her boots, because she's oriented towards Max (Chloe also has a doe in a snowglobe that's precious to her, but put away). Max develops a parasocial fixation on Rachel. Rachel was her replacement with Chloe. Rachel was cool, and confident, and popular, everything Max isn't, but wants to be. And Max's preoccupation with Rachel isn't all-consuming. Her wearing deer imagery is transient. And Rachel's blue bird earring is small, but it's always there; Chloe was important to her, but she wasn't going to make Chloe her whole deal, just a part of her overall outfit.
I've heard people try to square this with the idea that each animal can represent one character, while being the "spirit animal" of another, which I find absurd. The "spirit animal" connections don't communicate, color, or emphasize anything about the characters or relationships in the story. Max's connection to the butterfly is profoundly reflective of the climactic moment of the game; Chloe's connection to the butterfly is the answer to a trivia question. I know, marketing, game files, whatever, but the author is dead, the story is what matters.
The game is overloaded with symbolism, yes, yes, they do.
Spirit animals guide the person they are the spirit animal of, usually in dreams, hence Max seeing it in her visions guiding her. The junkyard doe is Rachel's spirit in the form of the doe, because that's how spirits guide her. The doe matches Max's personality; it doesn't match Rachel's even slightly. Not sure what any of that has to do with your last sentence here, but the whole point of finding her was for Chloe to get closure, there was no other point.
Why does Chloe have to have powers to be represented by the butterfly? Why would she have it tattooed on her and have the blue hair if it wasn't symbolism toward that? Butterflies don't just represent the butterfly effect; they are the messengers of the gods in some Native American lore. Whisper a wish on the wings of a butterfly, it will carry the wish to the gods. As a spirit animal they represent transformation, change, hope. These are all things that are Chloe. It's her life that rewrites the timeline and causes the storm to happen. It's her that changes Max, it's Max that changes her. At the end, Chloe transforms into a better person. Chloe also has constant hope that Rachel didn't leave and constant hope in Max.
How does the feather fit into anything else you said in that paragraph? The feather is one of two things, it's just an accessory or it has symbolism like most of the other things. In which case, the obvious, if you use spirit animals, is the blue jay. Blue jay is perfect for Rachel's personality. The chameleon, adaptability, cunning, mischief, protection and community.
And yet there isn't enough in there for you to make your argument:
None of that is referenced or even alluded to in the story. It's pretty poor symbolism if you have to ignore how a literary device is used within a narrative and bring in a bunch of external knowledge for it to make sense. Compare that to the pretty on-the-nose use of a butterfly appearing at the moment a decision is made that causes a tornado and multiple references to chaos theory by various characters, including in episode 4 where alt-Chloe uses an equivalent metaphor then references "that butterfly thing," because there was apparently a limit to how obvious the developers were willing to be.
At this point, you may as well be deciding which blood-type horoscopes fit each of the characters for all the connection these "spirit animals" have to the actual story as-told. It's just your own preconceptions you're applying on top of some pretty overt metaphors to redirect them away from what they're clearly communicating.
I was preemptively countering the argument you were about to make. This one:
No, the blue jay crashes into a window and dies, and Max may or may not save it using her rewind, and if she does, she's responsible for its well-being for the rest of the week (sound familiar?). None of what you said ties Rachel to the blue jay has anything to do with the actual blue jay that's present in the actual story.
You really think they had the budget and time to reference everything in the game itself and tell you where it came from? No. Did they tell everyone what all the license plates referenced? No. Or any other thing that references movies, TV shows, and books? Or the native American lore? No, they expected you to either know it, because it's nostalgic, or look it up if you didn't. That's the whole point of symbolism. One thing symbolizes something else or multiple different things at once. If you don't recognize the symbolism, that's not their fault. You just need to become more knowledgeable on the subject. Spirit animals are literally part of the story, Samuel even talks about them. Native American lore is all over the Pacific Northwest.
Did I say the bluejay at the window? Nope, sure didn't. I specifically talked about the feather on her earring and the closest animal to her personality type, which happens to be the bluejay.
You are right, they are an intention (and a nametag). They are direct symbolism. Warren wears a Schrodinger's cat shirt, which represents science and his spirit animal personality, the cat. The owl only appears in the game when there is something about Jefferson, and it fits his personality. The squirrel is Samuel's and he's always around squirrels. The connections are all over the place, they aren't always the same, but they are all there.
The snow globe was a gift from William (which was well before Rachel was ever even known). It's a symbol of innocence lost, frozen in time. There is not one shred of evidence anywhere to attach Rachel's earring to Chloe's hair. "Rachel was cool, and confident, and popular, everything Max isn't, but wants to be." That perfectly describes why Rachel's spirit animal is not the doe and Max's is.
None of them are spirit animals of one person and representative of another, you're right, that doesn't make sense. Saying the doe represents Rachel does not mean it represents her as a person, it is her spirit manifested as Max's spirit animal in order to guide her.
we also see the doe at the lighthouse though
Oh that makes a lot of sense!
Doe is Max's spirit animal, because doe represents some aspects of her personality.
If you mean the ghost doe, then it's a bit muddy. It's clearly not Rachel, otherwise she would do more than just stand around. But at the same time, it's something connected to Rachel. Possibly some fragment of her spirit that lingers around and it shows to Max in the shape of her spirit animal.
It might be Rachel appearing to Max but it's a doe because Max is connected to Does.
Like Max's whole thing is being connected to deer and her character design is very deer inspired. That's even without all her deer t-shirts being taken into account.
Rachel has no connection to deer.
Yeah, I think the doe is Max's spirit animal so all spirits will appear to her in that form. Had Rachel appeared to Chloe at the same time and place she'd have seen Rachel as a different animal.
That is exactly what it is imo. Rachel's ghost appearing as a doe because that's Max's spirit animal
I kind of see it like as her spirit animal guiding her and watching over her or in a different sense Rachel’s spirit with her and Chloe watching them, because in max’s light house visions it guides her out of the way of the danger and where she needs to get to Just sort of a little buddy representing spirit I guess
The German word for a doe is “Reh”. We always used to say “Rehchel” :)
I think it symbolized Rachel.
imo the Doe mostly represents Rachel, but also Max's quest to uncover the mystery of Rachel's disappearance, and something about childhood vs. coming-of-age. the Doe is a ghost - youth or youthful dreams cut down too soon, left only as memories and a felt absence. the Doe disappears when they find Rachel's remains, sharply ending the "fun and games/adventure" sense of solving the mystery, and dashing Chloe's hopes of seeing Rachel again. so, it disappears at a moment when the youth or youthful dreams of both Chloe and Max come crashing down to reality/growing-up.
then also, Max's Jane Doe shirt foreshadows some of the game's dark murdery events with a visual pun, and represents a sort of worst-case-scenario. Max's powers manifested when Chloe was shot, right after Nathan said "no one would even miss your punk-ass!" - so the idea that Chloe would die and be anonymous, forgotten, treated as a murder victim instead of a person who was loved, shakes Max to her core. that probably makes more sense later in the game, after Max recognizes Chloe, but imo could be part of the Jane Doe idea. later, Chloe finding Rachel's remains in the junkyard, unmarked and desecrated that way, adds a lot to her hurt and anger. the sense that she can't let the murderer get away with treating Rachel as a Jane Doe, or that she has to do something that will bring justice and honor Rachel's memory. like Jane Doe is the opposite of being remembered.
The doe is Max's spirit animal. This is confirmed in game. It represents her shy personality, it's on her shirt, it's in the advertising for the game. Max and Chloe, doe and butterfly. Spirit animals often appear in a person's dreams, usually to guide in a decision or major change in life. They usually also represent the person's personality in some way or the stage of their life and can change over time.
Rachel's spirit appears as the doe to guide Max. (The only confirmed time the doe is Rachel's spirit is the junkyard.) But the doe is not Rachel's spirit animal, nor does it represent her in any way. She appears as the doe 'because' it is Max's spirit animal.