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HBO Original | The Last of Us | Part 1 OT | Endure & Survive

Chiggs

Gold Member
No, it's not like Drake.

TLOU2 is trying to be grounded, Uncharted is not. TLOU2 tries to follow realism with its brutality but ignores it with its protagonist.

Abby works a lot better, she is a soldier, and strong. Ellie is nonsensical.

Completely agree on the Abby part. My biggest issue with TLOU2…outside of it being a slog, is Ellie becoming the Butcher of Seattle. It’s absurd.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Well that’s one of the reasons why I have issue with it. It was ultra traumatic and that’s going to take time to recover. But remember TLOU2 is years in the future. And she’s still not the same. Ellie had to murder Riley, her best friend and a person she was in love with. She had to live with being an orphan. She witnessed the deaths of Tess, Sam, and Henry. She thought she lost Joel multiple times.

And she still found her way back to being her usual self in time.

And the David part is the one part that permanently broke her? And all the other stuff didn’t? It doesn’t feel in line with her character at all. Her very nature is overcoming adversity. They take time to establish that despite not one but several 10/10 traumatic experiences she still stayed true to her personality. It’s in her DNA.

I would maybe understand it if she turned that way after Joel died because then she’d be focused on revenge but before that? It didn’t fit for me.
There's a difference. It's not just trauma of seeing terrible shit; it's a different trauma for a kid to see a grown man attempting to rape you. That makes you lose your innocence. That's what happened to Ellie after Winter, not to mention the brutal way she killed David. That stays with you. Before that, she didn't have to murder a living, breathing, non-infected person like that.

But it was still just her loss of "innocence" and child-look hope.

After Joel, she did completely lose it and got consumed by vengeance. Before Joel, she was still a functioning person with friends, a girlfriend, and a future with plans. After Joel, she had none of that.
 

Bragr

Banned
If only I could view things through your lense where that minor detail was your biggest gripe. I might have actually enjoyed the story more. I’m a bit envious.
Her killing her way to Abby and letting her go through a "reflection" of past events is the central plot of the game.

If you view that as a minor detail, well, no wonder you don't like stories.
 

Bragr

Banned
There are many games where the protagonist takes out waves of enemies and it's not even remotely believable. lol

Lara Croft and Nathan Draft aren't going to do it.

There are tons of action movies where one man takes out groups of enemies. Do you know the movie IP Man? Do you think 10+ black belt fighters aren't smart enough to jump in all at once to take out the one man? Or what about Beatrix Kiddo? There's no way a person can take out that many people at once at her size. lol

Games are fictional stories and taking out groups of enemies is for our entertainment. They're going to scale this back in the show (most likely) because it's more grounded compared to the game.
What are the games where kids take out waves of enemies in a realistic setting? I can't recall it.

Action movies, IP man, all of these are supposed to be campy and over-the-top. TLOU2 is not. Ellie doesn't work against the setting of the game.

Imagine Saving Private Ryan, and they switched out Tom Hanks with a teenage girl they meet in a village, and she leads the group and kills 40 nazis on her own. That's the TLOU2, they are mismatching the setting and theme of the game with an outlandish protagonist.
 
Her killing her way to Abby and letting her go through a "reflection" of past events is the central plot of the game.

If you view that as a minor detail, well, no wonder you don't like stories.
Wait, what? You were just ranting about not buying Ellie being able to tangle with and kill men/soldiers. I was envious that you were focused so much on that minor detail moreso than the fact that the overall narrative itself isn’t great… How did your point suddenly and randomly jump to the final fight between Abby and Ellie? That has more to do with my issue than your issue.

I feel like I just skipped time.
 

GooseMan69

Member
That Joel hospital rampage kinda hit different in the show. Guy was downright frightening. TV doesn’t have the same level of attachment to a protagonist as games do, so seeing him murder everyone like that was kinda fucked up, and his utter disregard for every life he took. Still agree with his actions, but man. I felt like Ellie in the game when she goes “Jesus, Joel!” after you murder some NPC lol
 

GooseMan69

Member
What are the games where kids take out waves of enemies in a realistic setting? I can't recall it.

Action movies, IP man, all of these are supposed to be campy and over-the-top. TLOU2 is not. Ellie doesn't work against the setting of the game.

Imagine Saving Private Ryan, and they switched out Tom Hanks with a teenage girl they meet in a village, and she leads the group and kills 40 nazis on her own. That's the TLOU2, they are mismatching the setting and theme of the game with an outlandish protagonist.

You can complete most of Part 2 without killing any humans.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
What are the games where kids take out waves of enemies in a realistic setting? I can't recall it.

Action movies, IP man, all of these are supposed to be campy and over-the-top. TLOU2 is not. Ellie doesn't work against the setting of the game.

Imagine Saving Private Ryan, and they switched out Tom Hanks with a teenage girl they meet in a village, and she leads the group and kills 40 nazis on her own. That's the TLOU2, they are mismatching the setting and theme of the game with an outlandish protagonist.

The Last of Us gameplay IS over the top.

First, you're saying the action with Ellie in The Last of Us is not believable, but at the same time, you're telling me that it's not over the top. lol

The gameplay is specifically designed to be over the top because it's entertainment. It's designed to make players like the game. If it was realistic, then Ellie would be fighting no more than 2 enemies at a time with just her gun.
 
When I played the game I always thought 'hmm, should I have shot the doctor?'

I'm glad its now canon.

(wait did I shoot the nurses too?)
It was always canon
Yep, would fit like glove!

But they'll have to recast Ellie. Bella Ramsey would look like a kid next to her, and their 2 fight scenes would just not translate.
They won’t recast Ellie. More so because of this sentiment is being expressed. Specially cause the people that hated her casting and still do… are saying it the loudest.

She does need to work out significantly to make the dialed down action shes going to face sorta believable. Some MCU level of workout. That’s what the recast crowd should be expressing, cause the whole recast shit isnt going to happen.
 

ShadowNate

Member
It was a great finale. As was expected from the story it had to tell, but still it was executed quite masterfully.
It still felt short and time went by too fast while watching, but eh, I'm glad we got what we got.

Maybe in Season two they will get more time to tell their story and be more relaxed in adapting it. If it's indeed split in more than one seasons that's good news.

Overall, probably the best and most faithful adaptations of a game's story to TV, and the fact that I can't remember another good one off the top of my head is very telling.

God that Netfilx Resident Evil series sucked.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
The Game versus the TV Show

- Flashback with Anna and Marlene gave more weight to Marlene's decision. It's obviously much better than reading the notes.
- Joel's demeanor was completely different on the show. He knew something was on her mind and wanted to make her feel better. I think the change is good.
- Ellie didn't tell Joel about her dream.
- They built up Joel's hearing loss from the beginning and we finally found out the reason.
- No photo of Sarah. I'm only slightly disappointed in this.
- The Flash grenade was a huge downgrade compared to the water tunnel. This easily gets a pass because recreating this scene would have been far too expensive.
- Joel shooting the doctor in the head without hesitation was great.
- Having two soldiers lead Joel out of the hospital was more believable compared to just one in the game.
- The "You'll just come after her" was very robotic and less impactful compared to the game.
- Ellie asked way more questions in the car compared to the game. This added detail made more sense.
- Joel look scared as shit when Ellie was about to tell him something. lol That was pretty good
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
It was always canon

They won’t recast Ellie. More so because of this sentiment is being expressed. Specially cause the people that hated her casting and still do… are saying it the loudest.

She does need to work out significantly to make the dialed down action shes going to face sorta believable. Some MCU level of workout. That’s what the recast crowd should be expressing, cause the whole recast shit isnt going to happen.
Yeah I hope they find a good way to work with Bella Ramsey. She is so mind-blowing amazing as Ellie. I was not sold on her at all, but in the second half of the season, she became Ellie. I don't want to see another actress now.
 

Liamario

Banned
I feel like they should have emphasised the fact that it was Ellie's choice more, as they did in the game. That would have given a lot more weight to their final conversation, which didn't hit as hard as it did in the game.
It seems as if Ellie was completely unaware she was going into surgery.
 

Kindela

Banned
No, it's not like Drake.

TLOU2 is trying to be grounded, Uncharted is not. TLOU2 tries to follow realism with its brutality but ignores it with its protagonist.

Abby works a lot better, she is a soldier, and strong. Ellie is nonsensical.

Well neither of them make sense, nor would any human being as the protagonist kills like 100 people throughout the game, which is absurd and completely unrealistic.

Ellie is killing with guns and sometimes with a knife, I don't understand why that is so unbelievable, but having Joel kill 100+ guys in a game makes sense. As if the chances of him not dying aren't infitesimally small.
 
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Yeah I hope they find a good way to work with Bella Ramsey. She is so mind-blowing amazing as Ellie. I was not sold on her at all, but in the second half of the season, she became Ellie. I don't want to see another actress now.
opps meant dialed up action.

Show is so freaking weird for me. Bella and Pedro seem to me hit the speech habits of their characters sometimes and sometimes they don’t. They both seem to be able to recreate them. Bella does the Ashley(Ellie) lisp consistently only half way into the season. While Pedro does Texasisms here and there through the whole season but not consistently. irks me.

But if anyone really thinks about it for a second the way game Joel speaks is almost cartoonish for a show perhaps. Idk.
I feel like they should have emphasised the fact that it was Ellie's choice more, as they did in the game. That would have given a lot more weight to their final conversation, which didn't hit as hard as it did in the game.
It seems as if Ellie was completely unaware she was going into surgery.
No its ambiguous on purpose. One can only assume Ellie’s choice would be, that if she could possibly be humanity’s possible salvation, she would do the surgery. But in the game or show she never out right states she would give her life for such a cause.

We can only assume that she would from her experiences, and the way she express herself about them. It allows people to question Marlene’s and Joel’s actions, or think they are justified. Stubbornly so.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism


A lot of good info in this.

While I was watching the hospital scene, I was thinking the same thing: this is really easy for Joel. I love how casually he kills Abby's dad, like no one else matters to him.

Glad to see that it was intentional by Neil and Craig.

Also, loved the conversation scene between Joel and Ellie before they encounter the Fireflies. It was done so much better than the game, despite missing the Sarah photograph.
 

Bragr

Banned
The Last of Us gameplay IS over the top.

First, you're saying the action with Ellie in The Last of Us is not believable, but at the same time, you're telling me that it's not over the top. lol

The gameplay is specifically designed to be over the top because it's entertainment. It's designed to make players like the game. If it was realistic, then Ellie would be fighting no more than 2 enemies at a time with just her gun.
Well neither of them make sense, nor would any human being as the protagonist kills like 100 people throughout the game, which is absurd and completely unrealistic.

Ellie is killing with guns and sometimes with a knife, I don't understand why that is so unbelievable, but having Joel kill 100+ guys in a game makes sense. As if the chances of him not dying aren't infitesimally small.

The Last of Us was always designed to be more grounded. When Joel enters combat, a part of you is supposed to think "it may be possible under the right circumstances, a man could possibly kill a bunch of guys".

This sort of belief anchor is common in games that feature realistic settings, even if Joel is doing unrealistic things, he could perform his actions.

Abby can perform her actions. Ellie could not. She is doing impossible actions.
 

Bragr

Banned
You can complete most of Part 2 without killing any humans.
But what is that supposed to mean? what does it have to do with anything that you could do a pacifist run? she is still using superpowers the moment you don't. No matter how pacifist you play, she is still the same character with the same abilities.
 

Fools idol

Banned
What am I going to do with my life now

jokes, what a fantastic series. It's got very minor flaws in my eyes, the fact we even got this amazing quality of adaption for one of the most love videogames ever has made me so happy. Really can't wait for season 2 as I was one of the minority that preferred it to the first game. Will see.
 

Kindela

Banned
The Last of Us was always designed to be more grounded. When Joel enters combat, a part of you is supposed to think "it may be possible under the right circumstances, a man could possibly kill a bunch of guys".

This sort of belief anchor is common in games that feature realistic settings, even if Joel is doing unrealistic things, he could perform his actions.

Abby can perform her actions. Ellie could not. She is doing impossible actions.
Eh, I disagree :messenger_beaming:.
I think that the edge that Abby and Joel have (being physically much tougher than Ellie) only has any weight if they are fighting all the opponents in the game in a boxing arena 1v1.
But as soon as you put them in a scenario where they have to clear an area with 10 enemies, and they do it usually via stealth or guns, I have 0 problem thinking that Ellie can do it just as well as these two can.

Having the 14 year old Ellie would be definitely more jarring, but she's 19 (?) in the part 2, so I think it works fine.
 

Eiknarf

Banned
Am I the only one who thought that the giraffe was bad CGI?
The giraffe was real. Everything around it was CGI.

JSF3Ui1.jpg
 

Eiknarf

Banned
I'm ok with this. Give another actress a chance to shine rather than trying to age-up Bella Ramsey. Joel will still be the same actor so everything works when being set up.
Bella is actually 19 right now though. She’s already the same age as video game Ellie in Part 2
 

Eiknarf

Banned
Can someone explain why Anna would lie to Marlene?
“I cut the chord before I was bitten” and “I didn’t breast feed her” (I’m paraphrasing)

I know it’s so that Marlene doesn’t assume the baby is infected and kill it… etc But why?

Even if the baby was infected and turned into an infected: SO WHAT? A newborn has no teeth and no fingernails… there’d be no danger to anyone

Wouldn’t Marlene just wait and see anyway? She wouldn’t kill a non-infected baby!! Plus if a newborn DID change into an infected, knowing there’s no danger, you could study it and play with it without getting scratched or bitten
 
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Tchu-Espresso

likes mayo on everthing and can't dance
Yep, would fit like glove!

But they'll have to recast Ellie. Bella Ramsey would look like a kid next to her, and their 2 fight scenes would just not translate.
Ellie aint getting recast. Also, Abby doesn't need to look the same as the game. People's fascination with thinking this just shows a complete lack of creativity.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Ellie aint getting recast. Also, Abby doesn't need to look the same as the game. People's fascination with thinking this just shows a complete lack of creativity.
I don't think they need to make Abby like the game. She can be leaner and with less mass, way more girly. But they will just have to show her as a trained military person, and that'd be fine.

My bigger concern with Bella is that she is a small person. Fighting full-grown men from WLF and Seraphites would be a bit problematic. Unless they tone down everything, which I won't like as it will become like a teenage show.

Having said that, I'm 100% onboard with Bella Ramsey. I think she is perfect as Ellie and, if they can make it work, she must continue with her.

This interview gives me hope, though, as she started shooting Season 01 when she was 17. Now she is 19. She can train a bit, and HBO can write the script and prepare for the show, and start shooting when Bella is 20+. Then make-up, camera work, and smart choreography will have to do the rest.
 

Eiknarf

Banned
There was 2 infected (1 was from 14 years prior) in the final 4 episodes. Like what do they even need a cure for? Infected aren't a threat for most people apparently.
I wonder: Are infected multiplying? Mating and having babies? No. So that means when groups like Fedra and The Fireflies and WLF and Camps like Tommy’s go on runs to cleans the area of infected, there’s eventually going to be less and less infected. The flower that carried the infection 20 years ago is obviously no longer in production. So there shouldn’t be new infected. The only new infected would be if an infected changes you (via a bite or a scratch), which is happening less and less frequently 20 years out. So by Part 2, technically there should be less and less infected
 

Eiknarf

Banned
Ellie aint getting recast. Also, Abby doesn't need to look the same as the game. People's fascination with thinking this just shows a complete lack of creativity.
Abby is most likely being played by Shannon Berry. Neil purposely and intentionally started following her the day HBO launched the first episode- Shannon Berry even looks just like the Abby from the game (whose likeness was made not from Laura Bailey who did Abby’s voice but from a different person)
 
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I feel like they should have emphasised the fact that it was Ellie's choice more, as they did in the game. That would have given a lot more weight to their final conversation, which didn't hit as hard as it did in the game.
It seems as if Ellie was completely unaware she was going into surgery.

Ellie was completely unaware. Marlene said as much. "We didn't tell her anything." That makes her and the Fireflies even more monstrous in the show. At some point Ellie was awake in the hospital and they never told her their plan or gave her a choice. They were going to kill her and not give her the choice. In the game, she never wakes up after nearly drowning.

As to Ellie being willing to give herself up for the supposed cure, as my wife, who is not a gamer and knew very little about TLOU, said "Even if they asked her, she's 14. She's not old enough to make that decision. If she was an adult, then okay. Fine. But 14? No."

To me, parent or not, the Fireflies are the villains. Every thing they're involved in goes wrong and now here they have the first and possibly only immune person in the world, they study her for a few hours, can't figure out a quick and easy solution, and just decide to kill her, all without asking her. They're incompetent and evil. If Marlene was so loyal to Anna and was so certain Ellie would agree, why didn't she ask Ellie when she was awake?
 
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Eiknarf

Banned
Ellie was completely unaware. Marlene said as much. "We didn't tell her anything." That makes her and the Fireflies even more monstrous. At some point Ellie was awake in the hospital and they never told her their plan or gave her a choice. They were going to kill her and not give her the choice. In the game, she never wakes up after nearly drowning.

As to Ellie being willing to give herself up for the supposed cure, as my wife, who is not a gamer and knew very little about TLOU, said "Even if they asked her, she's 14. She's not old enough to make that decision. If she was an adult, then okay. Fine. But 14? No."
Plus the surgeon was a surgeon- not a scientist. So he never would have been able to make a cure. That’s a different set of training

Ok. Let’s say he was a brilliant scientist who studied viruses. With what material would he be able to extrapolate the cordyceps inside Ellie’s skull? You need a lot of resources, you need a lab, and ya need updated equipment (which hasn’t been manufactured in two decades)

There was never gonna be a cure
 
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saintjules

Gold Member
I felt like when the 1:1 adaptations came in, they just felt rushed and the people working on the episode were running out of ideas so they just cram them in. It's also possible that I'm feeling that way just because I played the games.
 

Luipadre

Gold Member
Great finale. It worked the best when it was 1:1 to the game. Bella and pedro did a decent job, but ashley's and troy's performance is much better in the games imo.
 

Hugare

Member
The game was like a huge satisfying gourmet meal that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. The show was like a decent fast-casual burrito bowl that does the trick but it’s out of your mind a few hours later.
Yeah, this

The series aint bad, I rate it a 8/10. But the game is a masterpiece.

Not only the performances were better (imo), but the pacing was much better, and the soundtrack was used perfectly

I cant stress enough how important the soundtrack was for some scenes in the game.

Like the drop at the exact right moment when Joel says "Its alright, baby girl" to Ellie after David

Or the song starting when Ellie mentions Sarah to Joel in the ranch scene

Or another drop when Ellie sees Tommy's town in the ending

Songs were made for some scenes, so it was baffling to see song for moment X being used in moment Y

Soundtrack makes for 90% of one's scene impact for me.

I've just watched The Whale on the weekend, and that ending hit me like a truck because the soundtrack was just *chef kis*

My favorite scenes in movies have killer songs

So its probably why those scenes didnt land as heavy as the first time that I''ve experienced them in the game
 
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I wonder if this info on the recorder is still canon in the tv-series. I think there was no mention of it in the last episode. The episode made it seem more like Joel was lying about there being other patients they had performed surgery before Ellie.
There's two ways to interpret that. "Past cases" could mean studies on other immune people, but it could also mean studies on anyone that has been infected.
 
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