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THE LAST OF US (HBO TV) - spoilers allowed for aired episodes (game spoilers masked)


Edmilson

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No, I don't believe I have now you mention it. I feel honored that you ask😅.

 

I thought episode 7 was really beautiful and tragic. Both Ramsey & Reid did an incredible job and I really loved their scenes at the end where they chose to stay together as long as possible. And although it would've been really hard to watch, but I wanted to see what happened next. I felt it ended a bit abruptly.

 

Episode 8 was really strong. I thought the actor who played David was quite terrifying in certain moments. And the scenes with Joel taking down all David's men were really cool. I loved the whole confrontation between Ellie & David. I was shocked in the way Ellie took out David.

The moments with Joel outside were beautiful.

 

I've read some of the thoughts on here about David & Ellie's relationship in the game and how they fought of infected together and that in the game you really feel like David is a good guy. And that was something that I felt was missing in the episode. The moment he showed up, I knew he was terrible. So I could see why some felt this episode lacked some aspects.

 

I'm really excited for the finale and to see what they are going to do.

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Yea its kind of a bummer that basically everyone Joel and Ellie have run into together have been villains, except the people in Tommy's town and Sam&Henry.  In the game you spent more time with David before you know he's bad, and you get to spend time with Bill too, where he also saves your life.

 

I'm excited for the finale, but will be watching the Oscars Sunday night and catching it Monday.  Anybody else doing the same?

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2 minutes ago, Jay said:

I'm excited for the finale, but will be watching the Oscars Sunday night and catching it Monday.  Anybody else doing the same?

I'm not in the US and I'm still not sure if I can watch the Oscars, even though I reallt want to. I wish they just live streamed it on YouTube like the SAG Awards did this year.

 

If I can't watch the Oscars, I'm watching the finale during breakfast on Mo day morning, like every week.

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Plus I just think it'd be cool if the show had scenes where they see infected in the distance and go another way, or come across a pack and have to sneak past

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Plus I just think it'd be cool if the show had scenes where they see infected in the distance and go another way

This indeed only happened in Ep. 2 when they were looking down from the building and saw that whole swarm.

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Having fun watching the Oscars here, but also can't wait to watch the season finale of this less than 23 hours from now

 

The ending of the game is one of the most unforgettable endings to any game ever, can't wait to see the show's version of it.

 

And can't wait to discuss Joel's decision with the wonderful people of JWFan! 

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On 11/03/2023 at 2:36 PM, Jay said:

Here's something to ponder. 

 

The show has cut nearly all the game's infected action sequences, for reasons easy enough to understand. 

 

However, they've also cut, nor invented their own, infected ENCOUNTERS. By that I mean not necessarily action sequences involving them, but other ways they can be shown as well. 

 

Like, Joel climbing something high and looking through binoculars and seeing some loitering around a gas station or something, and being like OK, we gotta go another way. 

 

Or seeing them on the other side of the river, perhaps. 

 

Or even actually encountering them up close somewhere along the way, and quietly sneaking past them without engaging in combat. 

 

With all this kind of stuff not happening, and going several entire episodes without seeing them at all, I think it changes the perception of the world and the heroes' drive. 

 

They're trying to find the Fireflies to see if they can use Ellie's blood to make a vaccine to save humanity. But the show has already driven home repeatedly that man is the real villain, something that is made clear more gradually in the game. 

 

And communities like David's people, the old couple in the cabin, Tommy's thriving town, etc etc are surviving fine without us seeing them have to deal with infected at all.  In the game, you have to defend Tommy's and David's communities from infected. 

 

So it seems like in the show, there's less of a need for a vaccine anyway because of all this. They're basically fighting to make a vaccine to make a vaccine to help shitty people that barely have to deal with infected anyway from what we've seen in the show. 

 

Agree, disagree? 

 

Disagree. I played the first game twice, and I think the show implied all of that is happening between episodes. Also, some 60% of the world's population died from the Cordyceps brain infection, so I think the need for a vaccine is dire and a no brainer. As for communities surviving, there would always be survivors, people who are resilient and could endure. But the society that we knew and loved is now gone. And they way we thrive no longer exists.

 

Thus, the bigger picture of the vaccine is not painted by the hordes of infected like at the end of Episode 5, but the bygone livelihood that we once took for granted. This is why the show skipped showing the infected loitering in gas stations or hanging out on the other side of the river, and instead, devoted an hour to Episode 7. The vaccine is us turning the lights of that mall back on.   

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Woooow. I just watched the finale. I'll post some more expanded thoughts later on but I'm in shock.

 

I'm so torn on how I feel about what Joel did. I loved the opening with Ellie's birth.

The giraffe was really (it's my favorite animal, so I was very happy).

 

But yeah. I'm a bit in shock about what happened

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What an ending! Glad they kept the same music as the game for all the key moments as well (the giraffe scene, the final scene where Ellie asks the truth, then the end credits).

 

That teaser was gutwrenching though. I've loved the way they fleshed out the backstories of the lead characters throughout the series. More of this for season 2 please!

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Such a great final episode for the season! I already knew some plot points before hand, but the show does such a great job of making you emotionally connect with the characters and their motivations with ease, making the hard choices and unexpected twists to be a lot more effective and emotional, and this episode was quite full of those!

 

If Bella was the star the previous episode, in this one is definitely Pedro Pascal, who shows a great emotional range, and makes it really easy to sympathize with with Joel. I especially like the small conversations between him and Ellie, especially when he talks about healing the wounds after Sarah's death. And then, when he goes back to rescue her in the hospital was such a well done moment, perfectly executed, and quite emotional. I really liked the moral ambiguity of Joel's character, especially in their last conversation, where Ellie asks Joel if everything he said about the Fireflies is true. The dialogue and their acting is top notch, and really makes for quite an unexpected and emotional ending, and I think it serves as a great send off to what has been a really great season of TV. Season 2 cannot come soon enough!

 

Small detail I noticed knowing some of the events that happen in the second game

Spoiler

when Joel kills that surgeon, the camera lingers on him a bit more than usual, and I haven't played the second game, but I think that's meant to be the father of Abby, which is like the main antagonist of the second game.

 

For the people who do have played it, correct me if I'm wrong without spoiling anything else from the game. 

 

Also, I wanted to share here a piano cover of a suite I arranged of most of the different themes that pop up through the score of both the games and the tv show. I hope you like it, and feel free to share your thoughts!

 

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3 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

I found it odd that they made a conscious decision to call it a cure instead of a vaccine. Gotta appeal to the lowest common denominator! 


Medically, it all depends on how whatever it is they would develop would work - for instance, there is a “cure” for many types of cancers, and sometimes it’s vaccine-based, but also could be chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, bone marrow, stem cell, surgery, or most often a combination of two or more of those.  
 

“Cure” is a succinct way of conveying what they wanted to convey, and since they’ve thrown the word “vaccine” out plenty in earlier parts of the season, I don’t think they’re necessarily kowtowing to anybody.

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24 minutes ago, Knight of Ren said:

Small detail I noticed knowing some of the events that happen in the second game

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

100%, no doubt.

 

I was assuming they'd do something like that.

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2 hours ago, mstrox said:

Medically, it all depends on how whatever it is they would develop would work - for instance, there is a “cure” for many types of cancers, and sometimes it’s vaccine-based, but also could be chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, bone marrow, stem cell, surgery, or most often a combination of two or more of those.  
 

“Cure” is a succinct way of conveying what they wanted to convey, and since they’ve thrown the word “vaccine” out plenty in earlier parts of the season, I don’t think they’re necessarily kowtowing to anybody.

The game line uses vaccine over cure, is what I meant. So they consciously changed it from the game script. I honestly don’t remember them discussing vaccines earlier in the show, so never mind then!

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Well now that the series is over I think it’s pretty obvious that the game is the overall better version of the story but TBH I don’t know if the show could’ve ever matched the game. The show was as close as it could’ve been to the game while still being its own thing. This’ll be a fun rewatch and if the second season is terrible then the first season will be a great miniseries! Just like how the first game can stand on its own without the second.

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7 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

 

Small detail I noticed knowing some of the events that happen in the second game

  Hide contents

when Joel kills that surgeon, the camera lingers on him a bit more than usual, and I haven't played the second game, but I think that's meant to be the father of Abby, which is like the main antagonist of the second game.

 

For the people who do have played it, correct me if I'm wrong without spoiling anything else from the game. 

 

 

edited: if you'd rather not know a key piece of narrative detail from the second game don't read this @Knight of Ren

Spoiler

Abby's not the antagonist in the second game, she's (one of) the protagonists. Obviously that tells you a bit about how the second season's illustrations of morality are only going to get more complicated.

 

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

@Knight of Ren, don't open that spoiler block since you indicated you haven't played the second game and don't want to be spoiled!

 

Sorry wasn't really thinking, I've added a warning to my post, thanks Jay.

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4 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Quite a large interview in the link as well.

 

 

 

I thought TLOU2 was too big for a single season. I suspect season 2 will cover the flashbacks between games and establish the various new groups/characters. Replicating the game's narrative structure would not work in a serialized TV format. Season 3 could probably be the "main" plot of TLOU2.

 

This is a great article which covers the major flashbacks in TLOU2, so don't read if you want to stay spoiler-free:

https://screenrant.com/the-last-of-us-part-2-flashbacks-ranked/

 

Based on the way season 1 expanded game characters with dedicated episodes, I could also see an entire episode devoted to:

Spoiler

Lev, Yara and the Scars cult.

 

The second game does a great job portraying how much further society collapsed after the first game. It spotlight's Joel's decision and the morality of it, seeing how much more deranged humanity became after Joel extinguished that last glimmer of hope for a cure.

 

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Druckmann said they are maintaining the narrative structure of Part II for Seasons 2 and 3, and that much of it is already mapped out. 

 

 

Other notable tidbits from this interview:

- Anna’s backstory was taken from a cancelled prequel game that was in development by a different studio.

 

- They have already decided and are working on their next game, but can’t reveal what it is yet.

 

- The Last Of Us MP game that is currently in development will be revealed later this year.

 

- Abby is not teased in the finale. The KF team notes that there is a braided shadowy figure running away in the hospital (I didn’t catch this).

 

- The farmhouse where Ellie is born is not the same as the one seen in Part II. (It did enter my mind, but as Druckmann says, the geography doesn’t make sense).

 

- Anna is singing an A-ha song to newborn Ellie when Marlene finds her. 
 

- He reiterates that he doesn’t want to create a Game Of Thrones scenario with the show, but can’t confirm that won’t happen. It depends on how things shape out in the coming years. 

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12 hours ago, mstrox said:


Medically, it all depends on how whatever it is they would develop would work - for instance, there is a “cure” for many types of cancers, and sometimes it’s vaccine-based, but also could be chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, bone marrow, stem cell, surgery, or most often a combination of two or more of those.  
 

“Cure” is a succinct way of conveying what they wanted to convey, and since they’ve thrown the word “vaccine” out plenty in earlier parts of the season, I don’t think they’re necessarily kowtowing to anybody.

 

There are no "cures" for cancer, but there are targeted treatment for many cancer types. There will never be a cure to cancer because of how many different diseases of cancer there are. Movies and media love the word "cure" because the implications are immediately recognizable but in the biomedical field, that word is almost never used.

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6 hours ago, Mephariel said:

 

There are no "cures" for cancer, but there are targeted treatment for many cancer types. There will never be a cure to cancer because of how many different diseases of cancer there are. Movies and media love the word "cure" because the implications are immediately recognizable but in the biomedical field, that word is almost never used.


The goal is written in many treatment plans is “curative.”  There is no cure for cancer as a monolith, but many cancers are curable - depending on the pathological characteristics, primary site, the extent of spread before it’s found, compliance with treatment, etc etc.  Even then, there’s always a risk of recurrence.

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The Last Of Us 1x09 Look for the Light

 

Wow, I have a lot of thoughts on this episode, but mostly they are comparing it against the game, which I'll save for a later post and try to only talk about the episode itself without any of my having-played-the-game baggage now.

 

Did anybody else wonder why the opening recap was so ridiculously long?  It felt like a season premiere recap instead of just a usual one.  Very strange.

 

The opening with Ellie's mom was pretty nifty, and Ashley Johnson did a good job.  However I can't help but be disappointed that it was so short, so light on details.  I felt like I was watching the climax of an episode cut out and presented as a flashback in another episode instead.  It was brilliant to remind the viewer of who Marlene was, and explain what she meant 8 episodes ago when she seemed to know Ellie, but I feel like they could have done more with this.

 

I also didn't understand why Ellie was so stand-off-ish with Joel when we return to the present.  Did I miss something, or is it meant to be deliberately ambiguous?  Obviously, the situation with David should have a traumatizing effect, but I wasn't sure if that was meant to be understood as the reason for her change in behavior, or if there was something else too that I just missed.

 

Joel telling Ellie about his suicide attempt was interesting, because I didn't remember that detail from the game (maybe they made it up for the show, I dunno), but then my heart melted when he said time wasn't the reason that his wound healed.  Incredible acting by both of them there!  And then the return of the pun book was great, and I definitely wasn't expecting them to just get gassed and move immediately into the climax of the whole story next!

 

I felt that they blew through all this way too crazily fast.  The audience learns with Joel that Ellie is going to die, and within a couple minutes we're into a prolonged action sequence.  I felt like this took away from the weight of what was happening, they really needed to find a way to dwell on the moral implications of everything happening here for a bit before moving on I thought.  In fact if I hadn't played the game, I wonder if it really would have sunk in with me all the pros and cons of the perverted trolley problem Joel has to decide on.  I dunno.

 

I thought it was a very interesting choice the way they did the action scene of him murdering all the fireflies; The way it was kind of montaged through.  Was it meant to dehumanize the fireflies?  Was it meant to make Joel seem less heroic? More heroic?  I couldn't figure out what the intended effect by them of handling it this way was.

 

In the operating room, I thought it was interesting that Joel only shot the doctor after he grabbed a scalpel and threatened him with it, and spared the nurses.  Speaking of those nurses, did anyone notice that one of them was played by Laura Bailey?

 

I appreciated how everything after that was exactly exactly the same as the end of the game, as far as I can remember.  The Marlene sequence, the part in the car when he lies to Ellie about everything, and the walk to the ridge where he doubles down and confirms his lie again.  If there was anything from the game that needed no changing at all, this was it, and I thought they did it great.  If it had any less impact than it does in the game, it's only because they rushed through everything leading up to it, not how they handled this part itself.

 

So, what does everyone think?

 

Was Joel right to have murdered a building full of Fireflies in order to save Ellie?

 

Regardless of your opinion on that, once he did it that, was he right to lie to Ellie about it in the car?

 

Regardless of your opinion on that, once he did that, was he right to confirm the lie when she point-blank asked him, clearly not believing him the first time?

 

And non-game-players, what do you think the result on Ellie's psyche will be now?  Will she choose to believe Joel, that there are other immune people out there and science cannot find a cure from any of them, and that an attack by raiders caused all those Fireflies to die?  Will she live under the assumption that Joel is lying to her, and distance herself from him, dissolving that father/daughter bond they spend a season forging?

 

Discuss!

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35 minutes ago, Jay said:

I also didn't understand why Ellie was so stand-off-ish with Joel when we return to the present.  Did I miss something, or is it meant to be deliberately ambiguous?  Obviously, the situation with David should have a traumatizing effect, but I wasn't sure if that was meant to be understood as the reason for her change in behavior, or if there was something else too that I just missed.

This is straight from the game. It’s her processing the trauma from the incident with David and being absent-minded. It’s what makes her seeing the giraffe so important. It draws her out of that shell again. 

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I thought that might be all there was to it.  One additional line of dialogue might have helped, maybe a question to Joel asking why David tried to rape her before killing her, so he could give some insight into how some men view power and control or something

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18 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

- Anna’s backstory was taken from a cancelled prequel game that was in development by a different studio.

 

You misheard him, or mistyped here.  I listened to the official (show) podcast on lunch break today, and he said it was going to be an animated short film that they were working with an animation studio on.  It wasn't a game, there was no other game studio involved.

 

18 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

- Abby is not teased in the finale. The KF team notes that there is a braided shadowy figure running away in the hospital (I didn’t catch this).

 

Did you catch Laura Bailey as one of the nurses?

 

18 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

- The farmhouse where Ellie is born is not the same as the one seen in Part II. (It did enter my mind, but as Druckmann says, the geography doesn’t make sense).

 

Yea the thought crossed my mind as well, but I quickly realized i couldn't, and shouldn't be.

 

 

18 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

- Anna is singing an A-ha song to newborn Ellie when Marlene finds her. 

 

I didn't catch that!

 

18 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

- He reiterates that he doesn’t want to create a Game Of Thrones scenario with the show, but can’t confirm that won’t happen. It depends on how things shape out in the coming years. 

 

Since it seems unlikely Game 3 won't be out until 2026, and season 2 of the show likely won't be out until 2024, he doesn't have much to worry about.

 

 

 

2013 Game 1

2014 Left Behind

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.

.

.

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2020 Game 2

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2023 Season 1 (Game 1)

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S025 Season 2 (first half of Game 2)

2026 Game 3

2027 Season 3 (second half of Game 2)

.

2029 Season 4 (first half of Game 3)

2030 Season 5 (second half of Game 3)

 

Even if Game 3 doesn't drop until 2028 they'll still be ahead of the show.

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I’d say Part III, if that’s even what they’re working on, won’t release until 2028 at the earliest.

 

Remember they are currently still working on The Last Of Us MP game as well. 
 

Im not familiar with HBO production timelines. You assume each season would take 2 years to make?

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4 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

I’d say Part III, if that’s even what they’re working on, won’t release until 2028 at the earliest.

 

Remember this?

 

4 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

Im not familiar with HBO production timelines. You assume each season would take 2 years to make?

 

Around 18 months between seasons has become the new norm for modern big budget prestige dramas 

 

For TLOU specifically Season 1 of this starting filming in March 2021 and began airing in January 2023!  This show has a longer than usual shooting scheduled AND a longer than usual post-production schedule.

 

They only got greenlit for season 2 a few weeks ago and even if they had an outline set a while back, they still need to finish 10 scripts and do all the preproduction work including location scouting before filming even begins for season 2.  There's no chance it'll be on the air before 2025.

 

But then yes maybe if we are lucky Season 3 could air in 2026 if they sort of write it along with season 2 and don't need a lot of new locations or sets

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17 minutes ago, Jay said:

For TLOU specifically Season 1 of this starting filming in March 2021 and began airing in January 2023!  This show has a longer than usual shooting scheduled AND a longer than usual post-production schedule.

 

Productions in early 2021 were still being severely slowed down by Covid protocols, so that's not entirely surprising. I'd hope that the turnaround for season 2 would be a bit quicker when filming starts, but as you say it was only just officially greenlit, and has preproduction even officially started? At this rate I imagine we won't see either this or House of the Dragon til 2025 which is a little bit frustrating. I understand that time is the price for prestige television, particularly with so many moving parts, but I just don't wanna wait that long!

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Whilst Joel lying was understandable for his flawed character, I don't think there's any moral argument you can make for that being a good thing. It's almost going to certainly sabotage their relationship later down the line because that's essentially the trust that was just built up instantly broken

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That's the most heartbreaking aspect of the ending... just when they got closer they had been the whole year they spend on their journey together, this major event happens and risks undoing it all, which his big lie will probably do, unless you interpret her "OK" response to mean that she is deciding to believe his lie unequivocally.  I love that the game and show end immediately after that response, letting you make up your own decision about what she meant and what could happen next.

 

I was so happy when game 2 ended up not sucking, and not ruining that ending; In fact, it turned out to be an even better game with an even better story; Or at least, a very different story that is on-par with how good the first game's story is

 

Boy do I hope show-only people don't get spoiled by shitheads on the internet between now and when season 2 start about where the story goes next.

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