The Last of Us (HBO Max)

[payn]

I'm digging the show. My wife is asking me about the game to compare, and I'm keeping my cards close to my chest, trying to remember if I ever spoiled anything in the past. I played the sequel after we started dating, but not in her presence.

One thing I'm aware of is that, in a game, you're inhabiting the person doing the morally ambiguous things, and The Last of Us wasn't like Mass Effect where you could choose to be good or bad. You were Joel, and that meant you did some stuff that I'd never imagine I'd do myself, but by centering you in his perspective you're forced to empathize with him.

Since the show can't do that, I understand why they'd tone down some of the dark actions early on. Like, in the game by the time you meet Ellie, Joel has probably already choked out a handful of people, and Tess has shot a helpless dude.

And on the third hand, when TLoU game came out, people weren't burned out on tragedy porn in zombie TV like many are now thanks to The Walking Dead. You've got a different audience expectation to play with.

I wouldnt be surprised if the tone down is to try and make Joel a bit endearing to the audience before pulling the rug out. Which might be happening next week.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Agreed on both counts. I suspect that there's a bit of conflating Nick Offerman with his role as Ron Swanson in there as well.

To be fair, if instead of being in an improbable Canadian wilderness outside of Boston, he had come out in Pawnee, everything in the episode would have worked as a very weird Parks & Rec epilogue.

 

[Gradine]

To be fair, if instead of being in an improbable Canadian wilderness outside of Boston, he had come out in Pawnee, everything in the episode would have worked as a very weird Parks & Rec epilogue.

Ron Swanson would never descend to eat poultry. Or drink wine. Rare steak and scotch til the day he dies.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ron Swanson would never descend to eat poultry. Or drink wine. Rare steak and scotch til the day he dies.

Ron's been through some stuff at this point in the story.

 

[Aeson]

Episode 3 depressed the @#$% out of me. I was miserable all night at work after watching it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Episode 3 depressed the @#$% out of me. I was miserable all night at work after watching it.

I've heard it compared to the beginning of "Up," which I think a lot of adults find similarly traumatic.

 

[Aeson]

I've heard it compared to the beginning of "Up," which I think a lot of adults find similarly traumatic.

I can see that.

 

[billd91]

I've heard it compared to the beginning of "Up," which I think a lot of adults find similarly traumatic.

There are definitely a lot of adult emotions tied up in both examples, but I don't think either is really traumatic to us, the witnesses. We're invited to share the lives and loves of two couples and, ultimately, witness a certain amount of emotional closure in both stories. Carl loses Ellie but finds new purpose in a new adventure in her memory and its aftermath. And, as is appropriate for a Pixar movie aimed at kids, it ends on a happy note. Episode 3's main narrative may end on a sad note, but that's leavened with tenderness because Bill, in particular, has achieved a purpose he didn't even know he had at the beginning of the episode. And the journey we take to get there is beautiful, particularly when you compare it to the overall setting.

 

[Flamestrike]

In the game by the time you meet Ellie, Joel has probably already choked out a handful of people, and Tess has shot a helpless dude.

After Joel casually beats and tortures him by snapping his arm:


They've made Joel a lot less 'evilly aligned' in the show compared to in the game. I prefer his arc better with him being a lot darker TBH, but lets see how it plays out in the show.

 

[Flamestrike]

Episode 3 depressed the @#$% out of me. I was miserable all night at work after watching it.

There was nothing depressing about it.

Everyone dies. Often in great pain. Most people die alone. Many dont find the kind of love those two had, and all of us spend our lives looking for it.

Whether we like it or not, that's what we're all hurtling towards. Death.

It took a Zombie Apocalypse, but they found each other. And loved each other as much as anyone could. And went out together, in each other's arms, in a manner of their choosing, peacefully.

Of all the ways to go, that's the best way possible. To have a life where you find 'the one' - especially in a freaking Zombie Apocalypse - and have 20 years of a loving relationship with your soulmate and a peaceful loving and quiet death in each other's arms.

It's not depressing at all. It's quite the opposite.

The show runners wanted to show Joel 'what he stands to gain' by loving again, instead of showing him what he stands to lose.