GREAT VILLAINS are TESTS... (The Last of Us Ep.8)

the end of The Last of Us episode 8 is one of the most emotionally intense sequences I've ever seen both Ellie and David and their scene and then the scene that follows with Ellie and Joel there is so much Nuance to the performances and the directing but there's also so much setting the scene up throughout the episode and this episode by the way is our final steps before the finale is at an incredibly important Junction in the story buddy boy the climax at least Arc is partly in the finale but this dark horrible agonizing moment of Triumph can even call that buddy boy is basically part one of her climax also funny boy okay Ellie we get it we'll start by explaining buddy boy okay I'm actually serious though I think this is actually pretty important what is this gag that appears very conspicuously at the beginning of the episode it's not like it doesn't fit it's just a weird thing for her to say so what does it do what is that we expressing here how is this joke functioning for the audience and yes just be absolutely clear here even stupid little jokes like this can be incredibly important they are written to feel like throwaway lines but this one in particular it is crystal clear to me that this is intentional so at its most basic it's a joke it makes us laugh but that already is a subtle mindset switch we hear buddy boy we laugh or we roll our eyes and that shifts us into joke mode and joke mode is very different from drama mode we are sitting back and laughing or whatever even if it doesn't actually make us laugh the story has signaled us to put our guard down so he went from teacher to preacher because what if Rhymes it's like okay Ellie is saying Dorky's stuff stuff that makes her feel tough and it's kind of working to be honest she sort of got this under control we stop evaluating whether we should actually still be concerned about her safety here because that's what the show is signaling To Us by putting in a joke here and think about the goals of the scene the goals of the story at this point David is being introduced to us as this ambiguity we're trying to figure out whether or not we can trust this new character and we do know this is the last of us and people are kind of wild and we probably should not trust anyone but that said what data do we have so far well at its most basic level David seems like a nice agreeable guy he's not projecting any kind of aggressive or wild energy at all also we know he has a lot of responsibility for a community who's like actually suffering they are starving so his goals are virtuous he is trying to help a bunch of innocent starving people and even still he's willing to be helpful to Ellie his community doesn't have much clearly but as soon as the straight opportunity comes up he's happy to make a fair trade he offers Ellie exactly what she needs despite his community probably not having much of it either but wait hold on just a second maybe this guy has ulterior motives maybe he's hiding something bring back two bottles and a syringe it's not code James nope seems like this guy has nothing to hide he's honest he's being really open even when he doesn't have to is this some weird cult thing uh well you sort of kind of got me there I am a preacher we even do have a couple scenes of him where he must alone and he's still not saying anything too wild it all feels pretty normal for someone in his position someone in a situation so are we really supposed to be suspicious of the nice guy preacher who wants to help us and is just trying to feed his community I mean fine sometimes religious characters in situations like this do give us the creepy Vibes but we already kind of addressed that with a cult line but just pretty standard bible stuff the way he says that doesn't even seem like he really takes it too seriously it's just a thing to keep himself and his people hopeful that seems fine right so it's hard to imagine anything we're missing here this is a chance encounter this guy's a total stranger we don't know him there's no crucially relevant backstory we're forgetting right before that I was a teacher math no no not like that all the math teacher does seem pretty tame no I mean think back to like the last episode anything I should be remembering from that and no I can't think of anything granted almost the entire thing was a flashback so maybe there's something I should be thinking about that happened before that but man I can barely remember anything that far back it was so long ago okay well one thing I do remember was that they introduced some other new characters and I was actually super suspicious of them because as I said earlier it's the last of us people are wild but it turned out one group was just a nice old American Indian couple and the other group is family and they were all about being peaceful and sharing stuff on their little Wyoming kaboots thing and also even the episode before that the new suspicious people turned out to be good so all new characters are good right that's the takeaway obviously being simplistic but my point is we have all these reasons why David seems like a good guy he is friendly he's helpful he has virtuous goals Etc and then also Buddy Boy Buddy Boy Buddy Boy Ellie has all the power in the situation to almost a comical degree she is being totally dumb and dorky in this awkward teenage attempt to project confidence and there's nothing these guys can do because she's pointing under them and that's the end of it so add that to the list even if he was a threat David has no power in this situation and also as if we didn't already get enough out of this dumb little gag who the heck actually says buddy boy what does she think she is in 1930s mobster this kind of sounds like bad guy lingo and I think that's intentional what do we know about David and his flock at this point they've lost people they're starving they're in a pretty hopeless spot they're on the brink and now here comes Ellie who we're also obviously sympathetic to but she's basically holding up these poor townspeople she's not planning on sharing any of this elk at all even though there's literally more meat than she can physically carry it's kind of mean it definitely makes me feel sorry for Dave and the townspeople so that also makes us a little less suspicious of David because we're kind of the bad guy in the situation so I just want to impress upon you from a writing perspective look at all of the setup they did to make us unsure whether or not to trust David it is beautiful they attacked our suspicion from every angle you can think of they are out here ripping out red flags left and right everyone watching this at some point here is either going okay I guess we can trust this guy or at least I still don't trust him but I can't explain why and this is Ellie's experience this guy gradually appears more trustworthy to her and even though at this moment we find Elliot her most uptight and anxious for a good reason she's starting to relax a little bit and it's because of this mountain of evidence that this guy is a friend he's safe I'm safe what I need to be afraid of and then in an instant this happens he was murdered by this crazy man and get this that crazy man was traveling with a little girl you see everything happens for a reason James lowered the gun oh sh I've made a huge mistake there's something I talk about a lot but when you want to create a big moment in your story what you're often looking to do is to create an experience of emotional change we feel emotions most strongly when they change and the type of change we feel the strongest isn't zero to 100 it's negative 100 to positive 100. it's the journey between extremes and you feel it most strongly if you concentrate the entire Journey from one extreme to the other into a moment into a single instant if possible and they pull it off so well here with David one moment we're safe we're on top of the situation we are in control and the next we realize we are inside the mouse trap already we were totally ignorant of what the situation even was and David has been in control this entire time if you've ever heard the classic Hitchcock Time Bomb example this is an interesting variation on that if you've never heard of this before the scenario is you have a scene with a bomb in it and here's a clip of Hitchcock explaining the two options of how to do the emotional content of that scene all people are sitting around the table talking about baseball whatever you like five minutes of it ready now suddenly a bomb goes up what do the audience have 10 seconds of shock now take the same scene and tell the audience there is a bomb under that table and will go off in five minutes for the whole emotion of the audience is totally different because you've given them that information that in five minutes time that bomb Will Go On now the conversation about baseball becomes very funny because they're saying to you don't be ridiculous stop talking about baseball there's a problem under there you've got the audience working what the last of us are doing with David is the third option and this is something that works when we're already firmly in a type of story that has given us expectations the third option is you show us there is nothing under the table you show the characters knowing there could be something there so they look and they can't find anything but then also we know what type of story it is so them not being able to find anything doesn't make us feel better at all makes us feel worse we're not about to let ourselves think that there's no bomb but then on the other hand we're like well where is it then Super eyepatch wolf has a fantastic video about this exact device as seen in The Shining movie instead of limiting our perspective as horror often does we're almost shown too much in order to Gaslight us what are you so afraid of look at all these wide angles there's nothing here same thing with David nothing to hide why are you so afraid I am but a simple Shepherd trying to be a good helpful person and as we all know Shepherds never have any wild backstory and also look you have a gun and you made the audience laugh so they let their guard down there is nothing to be afraid of all out the window in two seconds incredible execution so what's the point of all this this episode is all about putting our protagonist to the test by switching their roles Joel is our story's protector Ellie is our storage protect tea episode 8 Ellie is our Jewel and Joel is our Ellie and so far what we talked about is what this opening scene does for David this what I'm talking about now is what the scene is doing for Ellie our starting point here is Ellie's naive childish version of what she thinks and means to be the Joel of the relationship being a Joel is about pointing the gun it's about acting tough having that Stone Cold Cowboy affect and it's about talking to a funny point and to show just how naive she is we don't just show her failing at Joel role we don't like show her firing at someone and missing we don't show her getting overpowered we show her failing in the most comprehensive way on a practical level she threatens someone and then send them back to their village where she should know that buddy boy could just get reinforcements she should know that buddy boy could sneak up on her when he comes back she should know not to put her back to the door and she and we both know that of course the random people who attacked us like five minutes ago probably live close by and we should totally be afraid that we might run into them how in the world did Ellie think she was safe here David is even fine letting her go because she blurted out that she's anchored to a sick guy somewhere close by what were you thinking Ellie so what's the logical progression here Ellie has to learn what it truly means to be Joel she has to experience the pain the fear the void all of which is integral to Joel's character but there's a lot that Joel does there's a lot about who he is that's somewhat subconsciously it's just his personality but also consciously sometimes he hides from her she hasn't really seen what it actually means to be Joel for a lot of it there's no way she really could see it so this Prospect of Ellie really needing to assume the Joel role for real in a non-naive true way this is how an episode that is already full of challenges becomes total disaster because Ellie is nodule Ellie is small and weak Ellie is female and Ellie is a child she cannot be Joel and what she is gives her a completely different set of challenges compared to draw and that makes every step of this for her so much darker so much more dangerous in ways that are hard to even articulate this is the truly horrifying part of this episode it is so intense and it drags the audience into such a black hole of emotions and I can't really do justice to what's being communicated and all the nuances of the scene here all the nuances of Bella Ramsay's incredible performance that's just not how these kinds of emotions work they don't translate to words this is communicating psyche to psyche directly and any description just can't really get there but that's never stop me of course I'm gonna try anyway because that's what I do so first of all I think this is important we start out with Ellie doing something pretty smart she doesn't have a weapon actually I should really go back to this which is the same thing this is really smart Ellie has made a lot of progress since being just a brain dead I'm gonna charge a troll even though I'm the savior of humanity let's step on all the mushrooms let's not kill the zombie kid dumb teenager she still may not be Joe but she is smart she's capable she's resourceful even when she has no weapon she finds a way to create a chance for herself best case scenario David runs out of the room because of the fire and then she gets to escape as well if not maybe someone will see the fire and come and see what's going on open the door it's risky but it's a good plan and she's really quick she just goes for it immediately that's great and then when none of that materializes she has to take a chance to fight him so she does find a weapon she tries to do a surprise attack she even aims for the right spot according to the bill the butcher's School of killing people with knives this is a kill so she makes some pretty smart choices that is important Ellie does everything she should in the situation and she has to watch it all not matter that is a different level of powerlessness it is so much scarier to have tools that don't work than to not have any tools at all whether it's the feeling that this means something is wrong with me I can't blame the situation itself as much anymore or just the feeling that it's not fair I did my part in the universe just didn't listen it doesn't care and I'm still about to get assaulted and then chopped up and put on the stove I think that powerlessness combines with the inherent powerlessness and Terror a person feels when they're about to have violence of the worst kind done to them and all of that is expressed right here don't be afraid the first scream feels kind of like a normal scream it's fear and trying to muster more strength to escape it's I cannot let this happen and then the screaming changes don't be afraid it's no longer I can't let this happen to me it's I know what's about to happen to me it's the world is ending and yeah I know it's post-apocalyptic already but honestly spoilers for Arcane come on you know it's coming by now honestly the last time I heard this kind of screaming crying was this scene in episode three that was also my world is ending this is about way more than the pain I'm gonna feel it's way more than the anticipation of the experience of what's about to happen to me what this is is the one thing that cannot happen is about to happen this is reality has turned its back on me nothing will matter after this that is the feeling not the actuality and of course this isn't what actually happened Sally she does keep fighting and she manages to turn the tables but this scene is going in that direction and that is the first big emotion that we dwell on which is necessary to understand the next big emotion which is what Ellie is feeling and what we're feeling as she kills David I want to rewind two episodes for just a second because this scene really requires a precise understanding of who Ellie is I want to talk about this moment so don't tell me that I'd be safe with somebody else because the truth is I would just be more scared and I think you can even go back to that first scene with Joel this isn't actually as brain dead as it looks not if you think about what Ellie actually wants what she sees as her most vital need in life as odd as it sounds she doesn't care about being in danger she cares about feeling afraid her deepest need as a human being is to not have that feeling of fear that's why she would rather surprise attack a random man she should guess can easily overpower her it's why when Marlene goes her back her backpack where she immediately do as if a little knife is going to matter that much when she's staring down a badass revolutionary in a compound full of badass revolutionaries but know anything to chase away that terrible feeling actually anything literally even if it means putting myself in more danger even if it means putting myself in new situations that will also make me feel afraid this is so core to who Ellie is that she can't even think that far this is the only thing she cares about and you have to remember this girl is an orphan in a post-apocalyptic world we don't know much about her upbringing but she lives in a world where there is a lot of things that make you feel afraid that is the experience of this world she has never had anyone to protect her she's never had anyone to tell her it's going to be okay she has never had anything in life but herself to chase away that terrible feeling desperately irrationally however she does it it's all down to her and if she doesn't do it in a world like this that feeling is just gonna stay and it's gonna cause the worst pain Ellie is terrified in this final scene with David she manages to find the Cleaver and she uses it on David and she kills him and she still doesn't feel safe and he's dead and she still doesn't feel safe and she still doesn't and she still doesn't she is so afraid in this moment that it's far exceeded anything having to do with this person and all of her actions are directed not add safety but purely escaping that painful fear that is taking over her life right now and we see how tragically corrupted this mechanism inside her psyche is it's twisted her reality principle so much that she will stay in a burning building to hack an already dead corpse into pulp that is how afraid she is David is dead but David wasn't the threat Ellie is fighting the world in the scene and it's not clear if she succeeds this doesn't look like she's conquered her most unwanted feeling and now she can relax it looks like her mind just goes blank at some point while she's doing all this and we get brainstem Ellie stepping in and forcing her to stand up and get out of the building away from the fire okay let me pause for a second here let's come for air a bit okay deep breath this scene is so intense let me do a little story time to set up the next thing I want to talk about in the scene once upon a time I was in the Grand Canyon with my friend and it was a sunny day and then all of a sudden Craig easiest thunderstorm ever out of nowhere just like in minutes it's sunshine to literally lightning striking nearby rain coming down and sheets wind so strong it's physically blowing us off the trail and then of course as soon as we get back to the start of the trail we climb out of the canyon that moment the whole storm just immediately stops and it's sunny again and I remember walking like a zombie through this little parking lot where people were pulling up and getting out of their cars and they were all fresh faced and bright-eyed and innocent totally oblivious that there had been any storm at all and meanwhile me and my friend were lurching past them like corpses soaked to the bone it looked like we had jumped in the ocean and they were just staring at us like what the [ __ ] happened to you and we were staring back at them like yeah go ahead and stare you ignoramuses you will never know our pain okay so that is what I Associated to in this scene the way this is shot Ellie is coming out of that building and she's out and the abrupt change in scenery combined with how relatively uninjured she looks she doesn't even look exhausted probably because of the adrenaline but it's like the outside world doesn't reflect her inner experience at all it doesn't reflect what just happened in any way no one will ever know or ever understand what just happened in moments like these it almost feels like the world is attacking your sanity like look everything's okay you're safe it's bright you're healthy show me prove it you won't go ahead go ahead and point out what's supposedly still causing all this pain what's that you can't yeah that's what I thought it is a really complexing motion to convey especially as this background sense but so efficiently and effectively done here and then this is brilliant this episode's plan is simple and totally misleading Joel is at least protector forget the reversal rules apparently that's not working out so well and by the middle of the episode we kind of get the new plan here okay I see so Ellie is in danger Joel is healed up enough to be mobile again let's see if Joel can reach her in time to save her that is our little Gambit the race is on and then slowly we realize crap he's not gonna make it is he we are set up for this expected scene of Joel swooping in just in time to rescue Ellie saving her from anyone who intends to harm to her and we don't get that Joel doesn't get there in time and terrible stuff does start happening and Nelly ends up having to protect herself and it's difficult but she actually does it she doesn't need Joel except that is the twist Joel is always protector but like we said safety is second on Ellie's list of priorities there is something she needs way way more than safety and in that sense Joel does arrive just in time to save Ellie not from bodily harm nope she can actually handle that herself no he arrives to save her from what he truly needs saving from because she is still so afraid and one stroll hugs her and tells her everything is going to be okay that is how he truly protects her this is a pattern that is all over the Last of Us in my early video I talked about how the real harm this world in flux new isn't bodily injury it's the non-physical wounds Joel but also we the viewer are not afraid of Ellie getting hurt as much as we're afraid of her becoming Joel because that is something that would be truly terrible in my zombie video talk about how the story shows you the physical zombies but the real zombies show is highlighting is the humans and it's the same with Ellie this entire time we're so concerned for her physical safety but there's something much deeper she needs protecting from Joel he is not just a guardian he's a parent and that is something Ellie needs more than anything more even than staying safe and what this is communicating is that The Human Experience is so much more concerned with the intangible aspects of Life over the surface level physical things and this scene is clearly showing how much the intangible matters both the Bad and the good and there's a sick truth here not about this in specific just about how stories work we see this girl this orphan who really really needs a dad and we see this dad who really really needs a daughter and we get the barriers involved here but we also feel like they're kind of Illusions or at least we wish they were we wish they didn't exist we want to see these invisible barriers come down and stop preventing this perfect union of two people who really need each other but that can't happen because this is a story and stuff doesn't just work out in stories nope in stories you need to earn good emotional stuff we only get this father-daughter moment after going through the absolute emotional hell of this episode sick or not that is how catharsis works and it works oh man it is so cathartic we feel that hugs so much the way she tries to speak and then just gives up she doesn't need to to say anything she just needs this it's so beautiful no sappy reunion no big emotions just the most meaningful emotion which can only exist through this specific Bond she can protect herself but this is the only person she can get parental love from and right now she needs it and right now she gets it that is cathartic okay time for some concrete writing tips to end this video I see this episode as a master class in the relationship between villains and protagonists good villains create conflict great villains are tests that generate copious amounts of tension while we wait and see if the characters are at the point in their development that we hope they are that they need to be in order to advance the story can Ellie be a drill can she be a protector at the end of the day yes she succeeds barely but she gets to all the help he needs she keeps the bad guys away or at least enough of them to make the situation manageable and Joel survives can Joel B and Ellie can he bring Humanity back into life of a cold empty shell of a post-apocalyptic killer yes he succeeds as well and can Joel be a Joel can he be a protector in a situation like this and yes he protects Ellie from what's truly threatening her fear and I think all this goes a level deeper the intro itself as we talked about is the first test Ellie encounters and this test she fails she is too inexperienced and naive when it comes to people of this post-apocalyptic World Ellie fails here and cannot protect herself but remember Joel also failed this test and could not protect a girl arguably also because he was too inexperienced and naive when it came to the people of this then new post-apocalyptic world and admittedly that's a bit of a stretch but I think the similarity is present enough to make a meaningful connection between the trajectories of both characters after this initial failure they both are going to do whatever they need to so that they never fail this test ever again even if it does leave them wounded and empty as a result and David is our vehicle crafted around creating these Stakes making these demands on character and instigating these drives for development he provides the post-apocalypto complexity that will confuse Ellie and tester capabilities he himself and his community sets those uneven odds that only the true drolls of this world can overcome and at least biggest obstacle is fear and oh boy is David designed to bring out her fear in every way possible and also Joel is at the sage race to not just assume the physically protective role of parent but the emotional role as well and again it's David who renders Ellie into a state where that's exactly what she needs from Joel as well characters do develop in response to what they've been through but also in response to what's demanded of them create villains that do not meet characters where they're at but stand a little further down the road than your characters are right now and make your characters need to develop almost too quickly to get far enough down that road to overcome their obstacles and in that pressure to develop let them fail sometimes but then that's when you can make them pick themselves back up and rise to the occasion oh man what an episode I could talk about this episode forever there's so much more I have thoughts on just squeeze in a little bit real quick the soil and green as people Trope here was done really delicately so if you're familiar with the Trope you saw a bunch of signs and if you weren't it was the satisfyingly shocking thing and there were dots to connect and whatnot the drill plot in this episode was just candy and like the best way possible it was just Joel being super droll still kicking ass even when he's like 90 dead there are also some shortcomings in my opinion that are worth talking about David went a little too insane murder creep a little too fast I would have wanted a little bit more set of both with just how far gone he was and with this whole predatory thing he had with Ellie that he saw himself in her in leadership and all that on top of all the creepy stuff something that I liked about this episode didn't go too much into it was just the treatment of cannibalism as a topic in a situation like this it's a pretty juicy topic to explore the morality of because it feels so monstrous it feels like there's like a lack of humanity going on or something like that or it's some kind of like moral slippery slope I don't know man I don't think David was really doing anything wrong until basically this moment killing people to eat them is over the line but keeping people alive by eating people who are already dead I don't see a problem with that that's my opinion and let me tell you the moment the actual apocalypse comes the moment I see even a hint of a zombie IRL you can find me at the morgue eating my way through everyone I think it's perfectly reasonable and I think it's also perfectly reasonable to lie to everyone about it as well I think David was right to do that but that's just me let me know if you disagree I'd be curious to hear why but anyway I go a lot deeper into what I talked about today in these two videos specifically so I'm going to leave those up here I started a Discord for my patreon we got a great Community Brewing over there we're having discussions about Stories We like and stuff we're reading we got people starting writing groups and helping each other out with creative projects so check that out if you're interested shout outs to all the patrons especially my new high tiers Joseph Arena Arena Arena Cyrus Orion unconventional gamer huge thanks for the support hope everyone enjoyed and thanks for watching

Channel: schnee

Views: 58,589

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Id: W93bGMKJG2I

Length: 25min 9sec (1509 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 27 2023