Last of Us Running Thread

I read an interesting conversation today and the focus was on Joel, his actions, his likeability and so on, in both the game and the show. It was kind of interesting. One of the people involved said Joel sucks in both. I don't mind Joel. I get what he has survived through. As I said earlier, I didn't mind what he did in the hospital and didn't think twice about it even after. It is part of a game, especially one like that. It was the lie at the end that still gets me. But there is this underlying theme in the story that everyone is bad (or no one is bad, they are just doing what they have to do).

One point one of them in this piece brought up about how immersed in their own situation the characters are is all the notes that they find in the game from people and what they are going through. A lot of those stories is what I found some of the most heartbreaking in the game. It made me think if elements like that could have fleshed out the show some? Notes are very game-centric, but it could have added something and maybe taken it a step beyond Joel and Ellie. Although, it is obvious they wanted the focus on Joel and Ellie.

I liked how tight and quick the show was honestly. They surely could have made it much longer, but it worked very well in my mind. There were just some things that might have helped show it wasn't just Joel and Ellie out there or what the world was like that could have added to it.

 

Go back to episode 2, when Tess first broached the subject that Ellie holds the key to a cure. He’s immediately dismissive…they’ve been talking about a cure for 20 years and nothing’s ever worked. He’s predisposed to be skeptical. Add in the bond that he and Ellie have formed and that the Fireflies essentially took her from under his nose when he was knocked out and you understand his reaction. Marlene basically orders his death if he objects. As he said, it was not her decision to make. The lie though…I’m very curious on how they’ll handle the S2 timeline because the signature moment that sets the story in motion happens very early in Part II.

 

If they continue as they did the first season, they will deal with it without dwelling on it for a long time. I think they will have a confrontation. I also think they will follow through with that big event.

 

Rainn Wilson Calls Out ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ in ‘The Last of Us’

Now we've got people calling the show anti-Christian because of David.

 

You make your shows we’ll make ours and let the audience decide.

 

Probably pertinent to nothing.
Mom tells friend she cut the umbilical cord before being attacked. She lied. She delivered during the attack and used the same knife that killed the demon to cut the cord after the attack.

 

I think that mostly was to show that she was willing to lie to Marlene. She also said the baby was hungry but she didn’t feed her.

We know she didn’t cut the cord before the attack, so we also have to question if she fed Ellie. The baby wasn’t crying when Marlene arrived, so I assume she did, and ultimately that’s what gave her immunity. That was my take on that scene, anyway.

 

A theme of the episode is what a parent will do to protect their child. In that case, she was willing to lie to Marlene and put her at risk to protect Ellie. Joel is willing to go even further to protect Ellie.

 

Either feeding her or that she was infected through birth rather than bite or ingestion could have given her immunity, but she didn't just like to Marlene. She put her and everyone around her at risk if Ellie is infected.

 

Even in a fictional world where murder is the answer to everything, this seems a little rash. You have a unique opportunity here. Wouldn't you... I don't know.... take some blood samples first? Or find a working MRI?

 

There really was no risk. The infant can’t move or bite. They would have presumably known within 24 hours if she was infected* and they could act accordingly.

*I say presumably because that would have been their assumption since they didn’t know immunity was possible.

 

I have seen this debated a lot on the social medias. It is absolutely true. You'd want to take all the time in the world to make sure you can figure out what is making the one true immune person you know about keep on going. But, then it is a video game/TV show. I guess you could assume they studied this in some way first over the past 20 years? It doesn't bother me tons, because it is entertainment, but it does seem like the creators took a lot of effort to make things right and then this all goes down in a few hours! Again, though, entertainment.