It's just different, showing someone who's closed their heart off has as much merit, just not as happy an outcome lol
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
The Last of Us (HBO Series) - Season 1 |Open Game Spoilers OT| No spores, same scores
- Thread starter Lukar
- Start date
- Video/Streaming Entertainment OT
I think more than anything I prefer the game's pacing and focus over the shows so far. This episode was quite beautiful, I got teary eyed a few times and cried a bit when they got married. It was a great change over the game's bleak and depressing Bill and Frank, but it's just a very different experience from the game where it's the Joel and Ellie show 24/7. I found that was really powerful by throwing you into this whole world, situation, and dynamic between the two and being so focused on just them start to finish.
Where with the show it is a lot more all over the place, which is kind of an advantage and point of a TV series. The first episode spent so much time on the pre outbreak following Sara which didn't do much for me, now they spent 45+ minutes focusing on two ancillary characters, which is fine as it was quite great. But it's a very different approach that really changes up my connection to the story and characters. Adaptations should do their own thing, I'm still glad they made the change even if I like the game's approach a bit more.
Where with the show it is a lot more all over the place, which is kind of an advantage and point of a TV series. The first episode spent so much time on the pre outbreak following Sara which didn't do much for me, now they spent 45+ minutes focusing on two ancillary characters, which is fine as it was quite great. But it's a very different approach that really changes up my connection to the story and characters. Adaptations should do their own thing, I'm still glad they made the change even if I like the game's approach a bit more.
Last edited:
Goddamn who's cutting the onions :( Such a beautiful episode.
I think overall it's definitely more interesting than the way the events played out in the game, though I do wish we'd gotten a bit of Joel and Ellie working their way through the town, trying to avoid Bill's traps. But that's a minor nitpick.
One other thing, for as violent and bloody as the games are, I appreciate the show's restraint in that regard so far. I have a feeling it'll amp up as we near the mid-point, but I think the choice to space out the gory stuff has been a good one.
I think overall it's definitely more interesting than the way the events played out in the game, though I do wish we'd gotten a bit of Joel and Ellie working their way through the town, trying to avoid Bill's traps. But that's a minor nitpick.
One other thing, for as violent and bloody as the games are, I appreciate the show's restraint in that regard so far. I have a feeling it'll amp up as we near the mid-point, but I think the choice to space out the gory stuff has been a good one.
This is going to be a wild take but it's where I'm at as I listen to On the Nature of Daylight.
If TLOU3 is made, I hope that it is made with this episode's experience in mind. Perhaps the plan was always for TLOU2 to be the 'dark middle chapter' and for 3 to be a more optimistic story. I know Neil is capable of some beautiful things, the flashbacks and some of the quieter moments in TLOU 1-2 definitely show it.
I just hope that he seizes on those impulses going forward a little more than the ones about hate and vengeance and violence. Reading that old Frank note from the game, I just don't have it in me anymore for such concentrated cynicism. (Now, all that said, in an action game presumably characters have to have some motivations for doing said action, and cartoonish villains or only fighting infected probably wouldn't be as interesting. It's a tough needle to thread)
If TLOU3 is made, I hope that it is made with this episode's experience in mind. Perhaps the plan was always for TLOU2 to be the 'dark middle chapter' and for 3 to be a more optimistic story. I know Neil is capable of some beautiful things, the flashbacks and some of the quieter moments in TLOU 1-2 definitely show it.
I just hope that he seizes on those impulses going forward a little more than the ones about hate and vengeance and violence. Reading that old Frank note from the game, I just don't have it in me anymore for such concentrated cynicism. (Now, all that said, in an action game presumably characters have to have some motivations for doing said action, and cartoonish villains or only fighting infected probably wouldn't be as interesting. It's a tough needle to thread)
I was actually very worried about this episode. The game has sequences immediately after Tess' death, and that eases the player through the tension between Joel and Ellie.
Bill and Frank actually gives the show's audience space to process Tess' death and feel like Joel and Ellie have also had the time to process it.
It's not like they just gave us an 80 minute long version of the first 10 minutes of Up to fuck with us, it's very thoughtful.
Bill and Frank actually gives the show's audience space to process Tess' death and feel like Joel and Ellie have also had the time to process it.
It's not like they just gave us an 80 minute long version of the first 10 minutes of Up to fuck with us, it's very thoughtful.
God bless Druckmann and Mazin for having the will to really make substantial changes to the core material here while still capturing the essence of these characters. Bill and Frank's story was exceptionally loving/tender. No doubt some will be upset that Bill and Ellie won't get to banter, or go to the school to fetch the battery, and I'll certainly miss that! What we got instead was sweet, profound, and it shown just a little bit of light into an otherwise dark world. It's crazy we're already coming into Pittsburgh. I expect a more action/set piece driven episode next week.
Last edited:
because it wasn't like the game and god forbid they make medium-appropriate changes let alone make a more resonant story for anyone with a goddamn heartbeat nooo lets get some plank puzzles up in this shit where's my locked over the shoulder camera this show is fraudulent
I could definitely see the trilogy themes of TLOU going:
TLOU1 - Love
TLOU 2 - Hate
TLOU 3 - Hope.
TLOU1 - Love
TLOU 2 - Hate
TLOU 3 - Hope.
Eh, I always thought given the ending TLOU3 by borderline necessity would have to end on a more hopeful note, hard to get any lower than TLOU2 did...
Eh, while I loved this episode the game version fits the tone of that world. And Bill serves as a mirror as to who Joel could well one day become. I enjoy the more hopeful and heartwarming portrayal in the show, but it is nestled into what is a pretty bleak series where love is not rewarded and characters don't take loss easily.
Yeah, this is very true, I had a hard time wording it in the prior post. I guess it's that while TLOU2 ended on perhaps a less bleak note, there was just so much before that, the scales didn't tip back all the way yet. They tried though! The ending flashback, the museum, Lev, etc.
Yup.
If you've ever truly loved someone this line hits you like a face-slap. Beautiful and poignant.
The thing is Ellie went too far for me in TLOU2 to the point that I'm kinda fine with her dying. I can't say I'm thrilled to play as her again.
One of my favorite parts, which I don't think will get talked about much, was when Joel takes the letter and tells Ellie to stay. When he walks back in she's still sitting there. For the first time she actually listened to him. And I think it's because she could hear the pain in his voice when he told her to stay.
😅
Yea there's still a lot to do for sure
The sooner some people accept that an adaption is more than faithfully recreating the source material in a different medium, the faster they'll be able to enjoy the show. It's fine if there's a bit of disappointment for some scenes or events of the game not making it in, but those shouldn't detract from everything else. An adaption should play up the strengths of its medium, have its own pacing and use the source material as a guide rather than a bible.
I thought the episode was excellent despite the deviation, it looked fantastic, had some very raw character moments and excellent performance from both Bill and Frank. After the 10 years flashback, it really hit me emotionally and the scene with the letter later was surprisingly strong as well. Really just a great episode, that shows that it's more than a zombie action series.
I thought the episode was excellent despite the deviation, it looked fantastic, had some very raw character moments and excellent performance from both Bill and Frank. After the 10 years flashback, it really hit me emotionally and the scene with the letter later was surprisingly strong as well. Really just a great episode, that shows that it's more than a zombie action series.
yeah i totally noticed that too, even the small bits like giving Ellie deodorant was so great.
Amazing acting, touching story, I was emotional. It's a great hour of TV.
BUT does it really serve the story? For us who played the game we have an attachment to Bill, he interacted in our journey and this gave us backstory… but in this story he has no impact on the story. So we just got an hour of random people that don't have anything to with the story.
And yes I get there is the note at the end, another not subtle attempt to show everyone that Joel has to protect Ellie. Flashback of his daughter, a note spelling it out, keep bashing the audience over the head "Joel will love Ellie". In the game it just happens naturally.
So yes it's a brilliant one off Emmy worthy episode but I don't know if the story benefited much from it. And honestly if I got to pick which side story in the game that should get told in the show I would have picked the story of Ish and the school, that story fascinated me and I think would be even more brutal than this.
BUT does it really serve the story? For us who played the game we have an attachment to Bill, he interacted in our journey and this gave us backstory… but in this story he has no impact on the story. So we just got an hour of random people that don't have anything to with the story.
And yes I get there is the note at the end, another not subtle attempt to show everyone that Joel has to protect Ellie. Flashback of his daughter, a note spelling it out, keep bashing the audience over the head "Joel will love Ellie". In the game it just happens naturally.
So yes it's a brilliant one off Emmy worthy episode but I don't know if the story benefited much from it. And honestly if I got to pick which side story in the game that should get told in the show I would have picked the story of Ish and the school, that story fascinated me and I think would be even more brutal than this.
Beautiful episode. I was worried about how they'd tie it in with such a huge deviation - and they pulled it together perfectly in the end while still being thematically cogent for Joel.
Still prefer how it was handled in the game, but bravo V...Craig and Neil.
Joel choking up slightly reading the letter outside had me choking up too.
Still prefer how it was handled in the game, but bravo V...Craig and Neil.
Joel choking up slightly reading the letter outside had me choking up too.
The ending of Part II is "happy," though. Ellie stops herself. She has the ability to heal physically and emotionally. Abby and Lev find the Fireflies. I think that's as happy as it gets with Mr. Druckmann.
This was such a fantastic episode and really shows how talented the team they got to make this show is. They took something that was sort of played for a gag in the game and fleshed it out into something so touching in the middle of a zombie apocalypse story.
I more or less agree. I would have split their relationship into one half and the other for Bill's town in the game. I really wanted to hear Joel needs a car and Bill annoyed about it, lol.
I'd encourage you to listen to the podcast as they lay out exactly how this serves the story
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYCccmiSSWo
I thought for sure Joel was gonna use all that sulfuric acid to do the chemical burn on Ellie's arm
Eh, I'm cool with the changes given what that section of the game is noting that it also has to be entertaining to play too. But, the game already has fleshed out Joel and Ellie dynamic a lot more by this point versus where they are in show and that plays into how they set up the characters. That episode wouldn't work at all tonally, gameplay wise, character wise in the game.
I'm not someone who thinks everything needs to be grim dark and sad (far from). But I don't think the game version of Bill was bad at all. The character had a different focus to move the narrative. Joel gets softer by the time that section ends which is suppose to contrast Bill getting that sad and dark ending.
They're just different. Really enjoying the show thus far but by this point in the game the feeling the world is fucked and people living with 20 years of this chaos is much stronger. Which makes sense given you just played that whole town section, listened to all that banter, read all those notes etc.
Thought so too for a second but I'm hoping they'll keep that for season 2 with them showing us Ellie's girlfriend of who I've forgotten the name.
Does the way things play out in the game really serve the story translated to this medium though? Not really.
Here, I think the biggest thing that TLOU always tries to get across is that love is more important than the infected, the apocalypse or anything else. It is the centerpiece of everything. Of Joel and Ellie, Joel and Tommy, Joel and Tess, Sam and Henry, etc. And it's showcased in a beautiful way with these two characters as they can't just one) completely cut out this section, nobody would want that. I think it's a really smart way to hammer home the show's themes. In a game, you have a lot more time to explore and find things on your own, and get connected to characters simply through playing. In a television adaption, you have to take other liberties.
Plus, we know from the previews that we'll get more action-y sequences later. I think it serves the story also as Joel's 'true' motivation to push forward with Ellie. Yes, Tess says to do it for her, but this just serves as an extra final piece of motivation for him to not only finish this, but also to open up even further to Ellie.
Just finished the episode and I am just going to go cry in the shower now. 🥲
I think anyone complaining about how they changed the character deaths in this episode should remember the tired history of gay people dying in stupid, tragic ways in tv and cinema.
This, while still having two gay characters die, at least has some semblance of peacefulness to it since they did it together and on their terms
And yes they are beating the "Joel has to protect her thing" because the games ending would mean jackshit viewers since it wouldn't be interactive. They have to show you all the loss for it to mean something
This, while still having two gay characters die, at least has some semblance of peacefulness to it since they did it together and on their terms
And yes they are beating the "Joel has to protect her thing" because the games ending would mean jackshit viewers since it wouldn't be interactive. They have to show you all the loss for it to mean something
mhm, you're right. it was just the cannibals in pittsburgh. now i'm forgetting who attacks joel and ellie at the university in the game lol.
