I didn't play the games and just watched the series...
So... What????
That sounds like a horrible "plot twist" to do. I have nothing against game of thrones style killings. But it just doesn't seem to fit the narrative of last of us. There are only two major characters in the series. Killing anyone of them makes the story pretty pointless.
But it just doesn't seem to fit the narrative of last of us.
Yeah for sure, there are no characters the audience cares about who die in TLOU, it's just not that kind of story! It's supposed to be a happy fun time romp across America with our favourite duo. It's not like there are any moments in the first game/season where one of the main characters appears to die, only for the eventual twist that they did survive, it's just not that kind of story!
I mean that's just my opinion. Killing the main character essentially ends the story. Possible but I really don't see a reason for season 2 then and a also don't care about it anymore. Is he killed at the end of season 2? That would be something else.
I honestly think you're pretending to not know about part 2 just to trigger people (which I respect and even admire tbh), but regardless, no, he dies after a random girl he just saved from a snowstorm asks if he is Joel miller and Joel basically doxxes himself, then the girl gets mad because he killed her father and then she beats him up with a golf club for like an hour, then Ellie finds him and sees him get beat up to dead
No not really lol. I am generally just not that interested in movie-like games.
I know that there was some sort of big controversy about the second part. Hard to miss that back in the days. However I thought it was some woke vs anti-woke bullshit.
To kill off the main character in the first hour however is a bold move. And now the controversy makes a lot more sense to me.
As I said. Game of thrones did something like that with Eddard Stark. But they had like a bazillion other characters left alive. If you have only two main characters and the whole story revolves around those two it's a different thing.
The woke anti woke shit happened because Ellie is a lesbian and her girlfriend is Jewish. Also the girl that killed Joel, Abby, is on roids and her storyline is about her protecting a trans child from essentially a tribe of transphobes that want the child to be their spiritual leader or some shit like that I honestly don't remember.
The game goes pretty hard on inclusion and many players felt that the story sucked because of it, but honestly it would have sucked even if every character was a straight white male.
Wow I'm surprised you got upvoted, this sub sucks. I'm all for inclusivity, everyone should be, but I agree that often it makes stories feel forced. TloU2 felt like one of the only storylines where the inclusivity didn't feel forced at all.
This is my first time hearing Dina is Jewish. Is that because the actor is Jewish or did they mention that in the game somewhere?
Most people agree with you, that’s why the second game narrative got shit on so hard.
If you spend time building up a character and asking people to get attached to them just to randomly whack them right as the story picks up, expect your audience to not fuck with it.
I dont know why so many popular movies/games/shows act like nothing can have meaning unless main characters are dying dramatically.
I mean I love TLOU 2, mainly for its characterization and thesis. It really resonated with me due to its depiction of the self destructive spiral of grief people can go on, and at that time in my life, I was also self destructing.
But the biggest issue is it was advertised as a “continuation”. It’s not a continuation of the same plot we saw, it’s Ellie’s own story and her understanding adulthood in a post apocalyptic world. I have no idea why they went full drive on insisting this was a “continuation of the original story”. They should’ve owned the fact it was it’s own story. Sequels do it all the time. Yeah there’s a tie in with Abby’s dad being the surgeon, but it’s not like the first game ended at a halfway point with Part 2 finishing the story. Its it’s own thing.
I think the other major point someone mentioned that I really resonate with is, it’s not like this is a story packed full of a bunch of characters to care about. For all intents and purposes there are only 2 main characters in the entire first game, with a few cameos from side characters here and there.
Really doesn’t seem like a good idea to make a game revolve too heavily around 2 people specifically, then kill half of them to start a sequel. It’s truly obvious to me why it didn’t land for so many people, regardless of how good or bad the story they told afterwards was ever going to be.
I personally and respectfully disagree in some regards, but agree in others. I found myself caring for Jesse a whole lot and Dina as well. I found her final confrontation with Ellie as Ellie chooses to keep on her destructive path to resonate with me personally.
As for Abby’s group, there’s some difficulty. As I only really ended up caring for Abby and Lev. I appreciated Owen as a character, especially his understanding of how bullshit killing each other was, but I didn’t cry or get upset when he died. Granted the the context of his character is entirely in retrospect. Lev is great. But I didn’t really care for the bond he had with Abby until the end. Abby telling Lev “you’re my people” would’ve been emotionally resonating if they had been together longer than just three days. There just isn’t that same level of “in world” context of the two actually having a long term bond when comparing them to Joel and Ellie (which is obviously the parallel that was trying to be made) until Santa Barbara, where we get like maybe 30 minutes of gameplay max with them.
Ooh to be clear, I’m not saying I have any issue with the story told in the second game after Joel is out of the picture
I was mainly saying how I thought the setup for it was atrocious. If you want to focus on and expand the world to different characters, maybe making the most popular and one of only 2 established characters anyone gives a fuck about a sacrifice for it isn’t the best decision.
I have no issues with any of the newer characters, but also it could be argued that none of them needed to exist in the capacity they currently do, as the story could have taken a million different turns after the events of the first game.
Ahhhh I think I understand. I think the story works as a sequel, not as a continuation. I like the direction but I get why many dislike how the set up went.
It’s like a second season for a show that was only made with one in mind. Or a book that ended just fine but got a sequel just because it was popular.
/j
Or like Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 where his mom gets offscreened
Exactly. Should have literally rebranded it and called it “The Last of Me” or some shit, so it was clear that it’s not a continuation of the first game, which imo in both plot and game design was far more Joel’s game than Ellie’s.
We’ll see honestly. If the third game gives Ellie a healing arc and a good conclusion to her character then I’ll honestly be fine with it. We basically see Joel, a man who basically already went through his “Ellie TLOU2” phase after losing Sarah, heal through Ellie. Elle in turn experiences something similar to what Joel did, but we get to see the direct “post grief stage”.
If the third game focuses on Ellie healing, I’ll be satisfied (but god please don’t let it be a cranky adult and kid combo we’ve had that twice now). I want to see her story actually have a direct “continuation”.
If it’s just gonna be some flashback story or random “unrelated to Ellie” plot, or just more pure misery instead of at least a bit of hopium, I’ll be disappointed.
(I am interested in the proposed “Tommy story” they have mentioned, but that’s way better as a spin off than a direct sequel. As obviously, Tommy can’t do much now)
Yeah pretty much. If it had ended like that the story would have been pretty much over for me. Not bad or something. Its even a kind of fitting end. But an end.
Fair enough if that's your honest opinion. You would have struggled through the Winter section of the game, you spend a good hour or two with Ellie on her own with no idea Joel is alive. It's interesting cos I distinctly remember that was the most praised section of the game when it released.
I feel like it was highly praised because of how that section ended. If they just killed off Joel there it would never have been as popular.
The end for that section of the game was the culmination of all the emotional moments between the two characters up until that point, and was Joel finally letting go and treating Ellie as his daughter. When he holds her calls her "baby girl" like he did to his actual daughter at the start of the game is one of the most emotionally satisfying moments in gaming.
I don’t think it was popular because people thought Joel was dead, it was because the narrative of what Ellie went through in his absence was very compelling
I'm not saying it was popular because people thought Joel was dead, I'm just pointing out that if someone thinks Joel dieing is bad writing and immediately ends the story they're going to struggle with those hours.
It’s not even that I dislike Ellie, it’s just that she was 1 of 2 characters I actually gave a fuck about, and I thought the reason for killing Joel off was kind of stupid, unwarranted, and too early just to push the narrative of dual female protagonists.
Again, don’t care that there are multiple women as main characters, it’s just that I don’t give a fuck about one of them and the other I was there for the interactions with a now dead character.
224
u/Prestigious-Sea2523 Apr 21 '24 edited Apr 21 '24
Wait until season 2 of the last of us comes out. I can't wait for everyone to watch Pedro Pascal's skull to get caved in with a golf club