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Last of Us showrunners explain why Abby isn’t muscular in season 2

Sooner

Gold Member
Because without "help" that girl had to be in the gym for two years to get even remotely as yoked as Abby was in the game.

Which makes the fact that Abby was this yoked in the game dumb as fuck, once again.

Did you see where Abby lived? She was in the gym longer than that.
 

SHAKEZ

Member
Because a woman like that makes no sense in a post-apoc world, also the actress would have to train like mad and with roids to even get close to that, it's not worth it.
 
I understand that they cast the role according to acting ability, etc. rather than physique. That's fine. And I understand why a young actress doesn't want to spend a year on steroids and end up with a body that would keep her out of other roles.

At the same time (and while acknowledging that it's completely impossible for a woman to get that bulky in that setting), there's a thematic reason for Abby to have gotten so muscular (she feels vulnerable because of what happened to her dad), and I always really liked that touch. Sorry it'll be missing here.
 
A fit girl with some tone muscle is more than enough and would actually fit reality more compared to the big bulky muscle freak that Abby had in the game. Usually big bulky muscles like that don't work too well in survival situation because you need lots of stamina of speed to not gas out. Even in MMA and boxing fights, big bulky muscle isn't the way comared to smaller fit and tone muscles. Plus it looks absolutely disgusting on a female with huge muscles making them lose their female side. DC Big Barda, Wonder Woman etc got the right amount of muscle for their character and they still look great unlike whatever that nasty creature Abby in TLOU2

Still won't watch the show but it already has a way better and more reasonable Abby than the game.
 

Madflavor

Member
There really was no reason for Abby to look THAT fucking huge in TLOU2. It was completely ridiculous. You look at someone like LeanBeefPatty who has spent many years lifting and dieting to be a professional bodybuilder, and she’s half the size of Abby.

She doesn’t even use her physique to take down Joel. They shoot his leg and she beats him with a club while he’s maimed. It was just Druckmann being a fucking weirdo with women, as usual.
 

GymWolf

Member
There really was no reason for Abby to look THAT fucking huge in TLOU2. It was completely ridiculous. You look at someone like LeanBeefPatty who has spent many years lifting and dieting to be a professional bodybuilder, and she’s half the size of Abby.

She doesn’t even use her physique to take down Joel. They shoot his leg and she beats him with a club while he’s maimed. It was just Druckmann being a fucking weirdo with women, as usual.
Joel would absolutely manhandle even bulky abby in a physical confrontation outside of drunkman bullshit fantasy, dude was a mule and you never see him without a shirt, he must be build like a brick shithouse.
 
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PeteBull

Member
Because a woman like that makes no sense in a post-apoc world, also the actress would have to train like mad and with roids to even get close to that, it's not worth it.
Her voice would get deeper, she would have to shave her facial hair 4life, irreversable changed both to body and mind, ofc actress didnt wanna do it, she isnt insane.
Its not like male superheroes actors who get more manly on roids, females get less feminine, more manly and those changes cant be reversed, only musclemass gain can :p
 

CosmicComet

Member
But that was the whole point of the story. How endless retaliation would only wind up with everyone dead. No one is happy or better off at the end of that game. It’s a depressing setup and really drives home what message it was trying to deliver. Continuing down the path they both chose would only result in the end of any happiness they could obtain/ retain.
The ending to the first game was the same. It’s not a happy moment. Ending with Ellie obviously not believing Joel’s story about what happened and it throwing her whole foundation askew for who she believed Joel to be.
We see how that ultimately played out in the 2nd game. Their relationship is extremely strained and she has distanced herself from him because of the betrayal of trust.
Damn.

This is deep.

Killing countless, nameless people before getting to your actual object of hatred and revenge and then letting them live.

Too bad the people she killed just minutes before getting Abby dead to rights weren't important enough to grow a conscience over.

The only thing that could have topped this level cinematic story telling is John Wick getting to the killer of his puppy at the end of the 1st movie and going "i forgive you" while covered in the blood of his dead underlings.

Would have been absolute cinema.


/s
 

Madflavor

Member
Joel would absolutely manhandle even bulky abby in a physical confrontation outside of drunkman bullshit fantasy, dude was a mule and you never see him without a shirt, he must be build like a brick shithouse.

If there’s one thing Neil did right, it was having them put down Joel by immediately shooting him in the leg. There was no actual fight. If it was Abby getting into a fist fight with Joel and beating him down, it would’ve been more obnoxious.
 
First it was Bella Ramsey wasn't attractive enough to play Ellie. Now it's Kaitlyn Dever isn't buff enough to play Abby which many complaining hated for being too buff. It wasn't a problem then and it won't be one now. Go do something more productive instead like a relaxing game of golf.
 

hemo memo

You can't die before your death
“We value performance over anything else,” and your main actor is Bella Ramsey? Really?
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
They had to because the only person able to play that role is dead.

d generation x wrestling GIF by WWE


Donald Trump Bloomberg GIF by Students for Trump
 

CosmicComet

Member
Meanwhile, Bill, the crazy survivalist who would above all the other characters focus on minimizing food consumption as best he can and spends his days constantly running around his large “land” to check on his traps as well as head outside for trade meetups, is somehow quite more overweight compared to the entirety of the rest of the cast.

Funny how his physical appearance wasn’t nitpicked to death over “realism” yet Abby’s was.

Will Ferrell Lol GIF by NBA
It's possible to find a fat dude in an apocalypse.

You can find fat dudes in literal third world tribes in Africa today, for example.

You can even find fat, wild animals.

What you won't find anywhere in harsh conditions (or even in good conditions) is steroid level jacked women who are somehow bigger and stronger than men that work out equally or even a fraction as hard and have the same access to resources that the women do.

Afterall, according to openpowerlifting.org the strongest female power lifter is only on par with the 9318th strongest male lifter. And this is despite her being 7 years older and about 20 lbs heavier than him.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler

Druckman in six months: I find the hatred thrown at Dever to be unacceptable. Because Abby is in a post-apocalyptic world, she has to be built like a man? This erasure of females is bigoted, so we wanted to present a non-conventional depiction of post-societal feminine hardships as lived by people who don't fit into the geo-normative behavior patterns of cisgendered ox-built bull lesbians,"
 

Nvzman

Member
But everyone in the game ends up dead because ellie is killing them off and leaving bodies in her wake until literally at the last possible moment she decides to not kill abby. She even gives up her relationship with dina and the baby to go kill abby at the end and still dosen't do it. It just didn't connect with me at all and it was terrible to me personally.
I'm with you, TLoU2's story was contrived garbage imo and a complete 180 from the fantastic writing of the first game
 

Aenima

Member
Druckmann claims that part of the reason for Abby’s physique in the game is that when playing as Abby in The Last of Us Part 2, she’s supposed to be more akin to playing as Joel, whereas Ellie was supposed to feel weaker, but much more agile.
Glad he was honest about it. It was obvious that Abby gameplay style was meant to replace Joel gameplay, only thing left to be said is that the reason for this was also "something something, white male protagonist bad."
 

SHAKEZ

Member
Her voice would get deeper, she would have to shave her facial hair 4life, irreversable changed both to body and mind, ofc actress didnt wanna do it, she isnt insane.
Its not like male superheroes actors who get more manly on roids, females get less feminine, more manly and those changes cant be reversed, only musclemass gain can :p
Yeah no one would try that.
 

rm082e

Member
I loved the game. As much as I'm anti-woke, the complaining about this game never resonated with me. I never felt like they were being preachy about culture. Plenty of media does, and it feels gross, and I don't like it. But I just never saw TLOU2 that way - even if ND intended it to be woke preaching. It made sense that they introduced a new character who took out Joel. If we were just playing another game where Joel saves Ellie, that would feel like a boring, contrived repeat of the first game. I also thought it was powerful to make the audience hate a character, then take you into their world and show you their view. I remember loving that about the Song of Ice and Fire books.

I'm also in favor of getting an actor who can give a good performance as a higher priority than what they look like. I'm reminded of the people complaining about Chris Hemsworth being cast as Thor. I've been around the fitness community for many years, and there were a lot of meatheads saying they should have cast one of the big strongman guy (like Thor Bjornsson or a similar type person) and then gotten them some acting classes. I'm not a Marvel fan, but it's pretty obvious to me that would have been worse than starting with a charming actor.

If they wanted to get someone who looks like the game version of Abby, they'd either have to convince a regular woman to get on roids, or get a roided out lifter to learn how to act. Neither of those sound appealing. So just have her be threatening in other ways. Instead of choking people to death in the show, she shoots or stabs them - whatever. It will work fine.''

I thought the first season of the TV show was pretty good overall. I didn't like the race swapping they did for a few characters, but that was pretty minor. I thought the episode with Bill and Frank was much more interesting than how it was handled in the game. I thought it was a nice compliment to the game. Overall, I'm excited for Season 2.
 

AlphaDump

Gold Member
The next HBO season has the potential to spiral hard and fast. The wheels were already coming off by the end of season 1.

/I've always hated the tonal whiplash between tlou 1 and 2. Initially i felt like naughty dog really understood why Joel was so liked, and wanted him to resonate at a father figure with a chance at redemption... only to give fans a gigantic middle finger in part 2. I get the story and intent, it's just not what I wanted at all as a follow up to tlou 1.
 
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DrMano

Member
Correct. Sort the world population by IQ and split it in half, you get two halves. One dumber than the other. I'm glad the game taught you that, if math didn't.
You assuming it was a revelation to me rather than a statement of fact I already knew puts you in the dumber half.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
vDKp6mw.gif


Are we again with Abby? After all these years? I mean, FFS you guys. I personally don't like some of the casting choices for the show myself (to put it lightly), but what the fuck is wrong with being a ripped woman in real life or a woman character in the video game?

I fuckin' love Abby in the game and the whole journey of hers from start to finish, hell, some of the parts of it are even forever drilled into my brain as one of the best video game moments and gameplay sequences I've experienced in past 30+ years of gaming. Moreover, her physique doesn't matter to me at all cuz I've zero problems if a girl / woman decides to look like that if that's what she wants, be it for a movie, TV show etc.

Like, Katy O'Brian is absolutely killing it in Love Lies Bleeding and I'd love to see her (or anyone else with such physique to be closer to original) as Abby in season 2, but it's impossible due to the casting choices they've made in season 1 with which I don't agree and especially when it comes to Ellie - probably the worst miscasts ever.
 

CosmicComet

Member
You assuming it was a revelation to me rather than a statement of fact I already knew puts you in the dumber half.
Nah, you said the dumbest statement of all time as if it was supposed to be clever.

You don't get to reverse uno with the ol "Joke's on you, I was only pretending to be retarded. That makes YOU retarded." trick.

You are definitely the one in sub-50th percentile, not him.
 

RCX

Member
Why would toning something down from a source material proves that it was a mistake? That is usually done in video game adaptations.
I'm thinking Druckmann isn't the chief in this situation. The real showrunner, I forget his name, may have looked at it and thought it needed changing because it's immersion breaking.
 

RCX

Member
? How, in the context of the fucking game she literally had 4 years in a WLF's stadium stocked with organic food from a farm and NFL gym equipment lol

So the whole WORLD doesn't have that luxury, as the fucking game isn't about the perspective of a fucking person from the normal world, its from one in which their faction is the top dog and they own the guns, resources and food to have soldiers built like that over those years

So there isn't a right or wrong about this, this is not about ALL FUCKING WOMEN, its about 1 fucking person, understand what is being stated as I've read this statement a few times and it seems many are under this odd impression that the main character is suppose to represent all humans on earth and no where in the Last Of Us have they ever made any claim or suggested anything weird like this, it is a set story, in a set world about exact characters.

its not The Sims, its not a documentary on how human life would be for all people or anything weird like this to reach to something so strange.

So everyone was not WLF, thus everyone didn't have all the guns, all the food and all the gym equipment to get gains

Thats it...
Hilarious. The gym and organic food don't make women look like that.

Being juiced up on trt and HGH can. Which makes it even stupider.
 

DrMano

Member
Nah, you said the dumbest statement of all time as if it was supposed to be clever.

You don't get to reverse uno with the ol "Joke's on you, I was only pretending to be retarded. That makes YOU retarded." trick.

You are definitely the one in sub-50th percentile, not him.
"Dumbest statement of all time"? Its a factual statement, you just don't like the context I used it in.
Also, you belong in the dumb pile with the other dude.
 

VulcanRaven

Member
I'm thinking Druckmann isn't the chief in this situation. The real showrunner, I forget his name, may have looked at it and thought it needed changing because it's immersion breaking.
More likely situation is that they did auditions and chose the best actor.
 

Seyken

Member
Maybe it's a hot take, and they won't ever confirm it, but I think Neil understands that people need to be able to sympathize with Abby, and that her game appearance didn't make it easy for that to happen. Ellie had been with us since the first game and was cute, while Abby was kind of an abomination looks-wise.

He just swapped the roles now. He cast Bella, who has basically negative charisma, and Kaitlyn, who is the opposite of that, as Abby. The series version of Joel is also nowhere near the badass that he is in the game, probably so the mistakes that he makes that lead to his death don't feel nonsensical.

It really seems like Neil is really, really trying to get people to side a little bit more with Abby this time.
 

viveks86

Member
You assuming it was a revelation to me rather than a statement of fact I already knew puts you in the dumber half.
"Dumbest statement of all time"? Its a factual statement, you just don't like the context I used it in.
Also, you belong in the dumb pile with the other dude.
You are really going to do this at 52 years? You have 3 posts in here already and you are yet to say anything at all of value. Got anything on the actual topic or have you come here just to insult our intelligence? "Water is wet". Your statement of fact is loud and clear.
 

bitbydeath

Member
I didn't like the last of us 2's story for one reason and one alone and it's because we didn't get to kill abby at the end of the game. After she essentially destroyed tommy's life as well as took joel's i wanted her dead and when ellie spared her i was pissed off. It went against ellies motivation throughout the entire game which was revenge. She wanted revenge for joel and she should've wanted revenge for tommy too, but she just decides at the last minute naaa screw this you get to live. It ruined the story for me.
You got further than me.
I noped out when Abby became playable, if I couldn’t hang her on the spot then I wasn’t interested as playing as her.
 

Three

Member
Mfer, you're bitching about Kylie Minogue? one of the top cultural icons of the 90s and smoking hot woman playing as Cammy White? What The Fuck!?

288020490_5119637471419183_2054997344125181422_n.jpg
Who says I'm bitching about her being smoking hot? I'm doing the opposite, I'm saying who cares if she doesn't match the characters appearance.
 

DrMano

Member
You are really going to do this at 52 years? You have 3 posts in here already and you are yet to say anything at all of value. Got anything on the actual topic or have you come here just to insult our intelligence? "Water is wet". Your statement of fact is loud and clear.
If you paid attention when you were snooping in my GAF history you'd Know that I only liked a comment that said 'Age 52.' I never said I'm 52 myself. Have a good day.
 
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NomenNescio

Gold Member
Physicality is a big aspect with this character, though. It's mean to convey how obsessed she is with revenge and how hard she has been training and preparing herself to face Joel.

Also, it's badass. She's supposed to look badass, do badass stuff. This scrawny girl won't have any kind of screen presence.
 
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Pegasus Actual

Gold Member
So long as they have pregnant ladies out there a-patrolin' and a-fightin' the show should still be really good. They better not do something stupid and sexist and keep the preggers barefoot safe at home during the fungi-zombie apocalypse.
 

viveks86

Member
Physicality is a big aspect with this character, though. It's mean to convey how obsessed she is with revenge and how hard she has been training and preparing herself to face Joel.

Also, it's badass. She's supposed to look badass, do badass stuff. This scrawny girl won't have any kind of screen presence.
That's the part I'm curious about as well. I wouldn't underestimate Kaitlyn though. They might swap physicality for something else that is just as effective. What that is though, I don't know.

vDKp6mw.gif


Are we again with Abby? After all these years? I mean, FFS you guys. I personally don't like some of the casting choices for the show myself (to put it lightly), but what the fuck is wrong with being a ripped woman in real life or a woman character in the video game?

I fuckin' love Abby in the game and the whole journey of hers from start to finish, hell, some of the parts of it are even forever drilled into my brain as one of the best video game moments and gameplay sequences I've experienced in past 30+ years of gaming. Moreover, her physique doesn't matter to me at all cuz I've zero problems if a girl / woman decides to look like that if that's what she wants, be it for a movie, TV show etc.

Welcome to the dumb half of the world population!
 
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EDMIX

Banned
Hilarious. The gym and organic food don't make women look like that.

Being juiced up on trt and HGH can. Which makes it even stupider.
I don't think you've seen enough women in gyms to make sense of this bud.

You can just argue TRT and HGH is in the game too, doesn't the game have pills? lol

She found some from some NFL player's bag

Get over it lol
 
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I didn't like the last of us 2's story for one reason and one alone and it's because we didn't get to kill abby at the end of the game. After she essentially destroyed tommy's life as well as took joel's i wanted her dead and when ellie spared her i was pissed off. It went against ellies motivation throughout the entire game which was revenge. She wanted revenge for joel and she should've wanted revenge for tommy too, but she just decides at the last minute naaa screw this you get to live. It ruined the story for me.

I wish we got to kill her to. They could have still got the point across with Ellie going home, everyone gone, finger missing so she can't play the guitar, feeling empty inside. Either way still loved the game but yea I wish we got to kill her.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
It's clear that the show isn't following the game beat for beat, though in most cases it's been real close. I just figured the further it may go on, the further it'll stray from the source material. Be it a bit, or a lot, we won't know until we see it. I personally don't have a problem with it, kind of like how The Walking Dead was when it was peak, it didn't follow the graphic novel beat for beat and I welcomed the change. It was nice not knowing what was going to happen next, lol.
 
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