'The Last of Us' - Season 2 Thread (NO GAME SPOILERS!) | HBO | Neil Druckmann stepping away from creative involvement

[Rigby.]

The gameplay, graphics and sound is definitely superior but the narrative isn't. It's a revenge plot that falls flat at the very end of the game. And a show that is a 1:1 iteration with no unique elements.

I think this show is probably one of the more obvious examples of recent memory for why interactive media (especially games) usually falls apart when adapted. Most games don't have a narrative elite enough to even warrant a show, but even for the ones that do like a ND product, you come to realize the narrative was CLEARLY the worst part of the game (which I think many people already thought when TLOU2 came out).

I do think this show will have the by product of making people appreciate the game's story telling + character development more by comparison though

 

[Rigby.]

one more thing. while i think bella absolutely killed it as ellie, i do think that her physical limitations worked against her this season. she sold the shyt out of the nora scene as an actor. but physically i wasn't buying it, and i think that's why the scene had so many cut aways.

ironically, i think caitlyn dever has the same issue. i do not buy her as a GI Jane, i didn't buy her killing joel, and i def don't buy her little ass taking on tommy, jessie and ellie solo (even though I know what's really happening in that scene). i know killers come in all sizes, and i'm not saying abby had to be a linebacker. but the physicality in both roles is sorely lacking imo.

that's one thing i think the walking dead always did really well. the killers always felt believable, even when it was someone like carol who could also make you believe she was a sniveling coward.

It's crazy because they kinda rewrote Ellie's character to fit her and this softer world that they've created in S2, but she still doesn't really fit this character because the source material calls for a brutal bloodlusted fukking soldier. I think she homers most of the sappy shyt out of the park in this series (the Mel scene was fantastic to me), and she can do the "aw shucks" component of Ellie's character well.

The problem is those parts of Ellie's character was supposed to be reduced in this game and instead...it increased

 

[Rigby.]

The Bella bashing is annoying.

She pulls off Part 1 Ellie well enough, but despite the fact that she isn't a great actress (which admittedly is a pretty horrible scenario for someone who's supposed to take over as the protag), most of the problems with Season 2 are related to writing.

That "I'm going to be a dad!" scene was in the script.

This. I was rewatching the beginning of TLOU1 this week, and I was like "Y'know, the show's motivation of Joel wanting a car battery to go look for Tommy makes a bit more sense here..."

Gonna take a closer look at this down the road.

People were talking a couple pages ago about the lack of action, and it was clearly a problem.

The irony is that the TV station did it well enough. Ellie and Dina were outnumbered and had to try to outmaneuver the wolves. They picked up a kill in the process, but it was tense, and it worked. A more proactive version of that could've worked on some scenes.

They were just meandering for so much of that screen time, it's crazy. She doesn't need to be Solid Snake out there at all times, but at least have some resistance. That could have also showcased more of the conflict between the scars and wolves.

They do a really bad job of making me give a shyt enough about the Scars or Wolves to be sitting on my hands waiting for them to get more exposition in S3. Partially because their main purpose in this season ends up being to interrupt whatever flow we get with Ellie and co's development.

With how little Ellie and them ultimately ended up doing, they should've just said fukk it and gave us a full Isaac + wolves vs Scars episode. I'm sure that'll step on what they got in the next season, but this season just does way too many half measures (word to Breaking Bad) and that "war" is one of them.

For example, you can assuredly assume that the plot armor device that saves Ellie in the last episode is the Wolves pulling up. But I gotta wait for what'll be almost the end of a season that's not coming for 2 years to explain what that hackneyed moment was. It's lunacy to expect a human being to be able to go that far back to forgive a bad scene.

 

[EzekelRAGE]

They probably shouldve been telling Abby and Ellie's story side by side starting day 1 seattle instead of waiting til next year to show abby's shyt. idk that sounds good but I didnt play the 2nd game so idk if that wouldve worked

 

[Jaguar93]

How bad was the finale?

 

[Volt]

How bad was the finale?

Not awful, just aggressively mid.

It'd be perfectly fine as a mid-season finale.

 

[Rollie Forbes]

 

[Sghost597]

It's wild, because they had a story that's rough around edges and the execution wasn't perfect. It needed to be expanded upon it and take some creative freedom.

They somehow fumble the bag horrendously

 

[Rigby.]

It's wild, because they had a story that's rough around edges and the execution wasn't perfect. It needed to be expanded upon it and take some creative freedom.

They somehow fumble the bag horrendously

They needed someone with balls, pause, to come, pause, out and work on the story without fear of reproach. Like plenty of dudes said in here, it kinda feels like they heard the game negativity and decided to play it safe at many points. Everything is softer, not as visceral, not as bloodthirsty, which just conflicts with the source storyline at many points.

It’s tough just because we haven’t really seen this story work in any format I guess. It was the least well received part of the game and at least so far, it’s been a fumble in the show. It seems like now, you have a pie chart with even more Neil decision making and you subbed out the other great ND minds for Craig Mazin. Just a L on both fronts

 

[Volt]

They needed someone with balls, pause, to come, pause, out and work on the story without fear of reproach.

 

[beenz]

wait a minute. I KNOW HBO didn't make folks wait years for a 7 episode season

 

[ReasonableMatic]

Dope Black content creators

 

[Sghost597]

wait a minute. I KNOW HBO didn't make folks wait years for a 7 episode season

And they waited till the season premiere to announce the S3 renewal. Like wtf they even doing... Had that shyt in post production on a known cliffhanger for how long...

 

[Larry]

I might be the only person that thought this season was coo? Lol me and my girl watched it together, our favorite part of Sunday nights


The game is obviously the game though. One of my favorites ever. I didn’t go into the show expecting that. It’s way too much to live up to. I do enjoy em both separately tho which is fine


My main critique would be I wish we could have seen Ellie on some real murder shyt a lil more. I hate that everything goes for realism these days (thanks to Christopher Nolan)

At the end of the day it’s still an adaptation of a fukkin zombie game. We don’t need to be crazy realistic. play into what the game was and let her spin on nikkas like colombiana

 

[statuez]

I might be the only person that thought this season was coo? Lol me and my girl watched it together, our favorite part of Sunday nights


The game is obviously the game though. One of my favorites ever. I didn’t go into the show expecting that. It’s way too much to live up to. I do enjoy em both separately tho which is fine


My main critique would be I wish we could have seen Ellie on some real murder shyt a lil more. I hate that everything goes for realism these days (thanks to Christopher Nolan)

At the end of the day it’s still an adaptation of a fukkin zombie game. We don’t need to be crazy realistic. play into what the game was and let her spin on nikkas like colombiana

she didnt really need to go on a murderous rampage. all they needed was a few more scenes to show that shes capable and not to be fukked with, ultimately giving ellie more agency on her journey.

the news station scene is a perfect example where they dropped the ball imo. showing her murking all those WLF soldiers would of been ridiculous in itself but imagine if they had her throw a bottle to distract the soldiers while also attracting the attention of the hoard so they start attacking the soldiers. through all that chaos it would thin the number of soldiers and also allow ellie and dina to realistically kill a couple more soldiers as well. that would not only highlight her quick thinking and capability on the battlefield but it also highlights the lengths shes willing to go for revenge.