The Last of Us... Why It's Great!

10 years ago one of the most beloved video games ever made was released that game was titled The Last of Us Ten Years Later the critically acclaimed game got its live-action adaptation on HBO of the same name just like adaptations of any Source material a lot of people were excited but skeptical of the series the creators of the games were involved with the series and there was clearly a lot of passion going into it but almost every viewer was aware of the Dark Cloud that plagued this series and that is the curse of video game adaptations so did HBO's Last of Us fall victim to this curse hell no The Last of Us is brilliant but why what makes this such an incredible show what makes it stand out as one of the best projects on HBO and why does this series stand on its own as a great series regardless of the source material hello everybody and welcome to another video my name is the gold man and today we're talking about the last of us and why it's great [Music] now before I start talking about the actual show and what makes it so great of course I need to address the source material The Last of Us video game is one of the most beloved video games ever produced the passion for the original game and its story is shared like almost no other story I've encountered since that original story is indeed a video game the adaptation of that story into a TV show is a hotly discussed topic most of us are aware of the classic video game curse that almost all video game adaptations become either hot garbage or best case scenario simply lackluster most Last of Us fans seem to agree that this adaptation was fantastic but I'm not interested in talking about that sure I could repeat what other people have said like how the clothes that the characters are wearing are almost exactly the same as the games or how some scenes and dialogue are almost exactly like the games or how the clickers look exactly like they do in the games but again I'm not interested in doing that while I understand the importance of staying true to your Source material I want to analyze this series as its own thing because this story could be a great adaptation but still lead to a Bad series and a story could be a poor adaptation but also lead to a great series on this channel I analyze movies and shows and the techniques they use that make them good or bad as someone who is a big fan of a lot of franchises I get that passion The Last of Us fans have but I also think it's important to analyze shows from the perspective of someone who isn't a die-hard fan of the source material so with this video I want to treat the last of us as just the last of us not as the adaptation of The Last of Us video game not as a video game TV show but just as HBO's The Last of Us so for the rest of this video you're barely gonna hear me talk about the games I'm not going to compare every scene to its video game counterpart I'm gonna look at it as a scene and see if it works or not so if you're interested in watching a video on why this series is a great adaptation this is not the video for you but if you're interested in why as a standalone TV show this series is great then let's begin thank you the way I'm going to structure this video is by talking about the individual episodes and how I feel it either adds to the overall story or accomplishes something narratively impressive I'm not going to cover every single scene in every single detail of the season because we will be here for a very long time but I will cover as much as I can so let's begin by analyzing the pre-2023 scenes because this whole sequence I felt was fantastic I feel what this sequence implements wonderfully is a different approach to Alfred Hitchcock's bomb theory basically the narrative Theory suggests that tension and suspense is more powerful than surprise if you have characters sitting at a table and then the table blows up your audience is simply surprised but if you tell the audience that there is a bomb under the table with a timer then tension is added to a scene because you know something bad will happen and you want your characters to avoid it this is why final battles at the end of movies that have a countdown usually work the characters are Under Pressure to do something before the timer reaches zero now with the Last of Us episode 1 obviously there is no literal bomb and there is no countdown to a doomsday event so how does it compare to the bomb theory well this is the entire purpose of the 1968 scene the scene takes place 35 years before the outbreak and involves characters that are never seen or mentioned again some say this scene's purpose is simply to give a scientific explanation as to how the apocalypse is gonna start while this is true its real purpose is far greater the purpose of the scene is to place the metaphorical bomb under the table we hear a bunch of scientific jargon that may or may not actually make sense but what it's basically saying is this is how an apocalyptic event could happen there is nothing that could be done to stop it and if it were to happen Humanity would likely go extinct now since the viewer knows that this is a zombie apocalypse show this scene is telling the viewer that a zombie apocalypse will happen and humanity is screwed the matter metaphorical bomb in this case is the zombie apocalypse so when we transition into 2003 our characters may be living their ordinary lives without the immediate threat of death but we know an apocalypse is about to happen we know our characters are about to face something terrible a bomb is about to go off now what this 2003 sequence excels at almost perfectly is building tension since we know disaster is about to strike every little detail that hints to us that something is going wrong puts us on edge when we see this old woman basically in a vegetative state we think oh no she's about to become a zombie when Sarah is in the store and we see fire trucks and ambulances we think oh no the outbreak is about to start when the clock store owner closes down early we think oh no she knows something about the outbreak that we don't when Sarah is at her neighbor's house and the old woman is making zombie noises and faces we think oh no is she gonna become a zombie now same thing with the fighter jets the TV alert the dog barking again then boom zombie the bomb has gone off and now we get to see the after effects of it while we don't have an actual countdown timer to the start of the outbreak all these little details I mentioned before is the story's way of telling the audience we are moving closer to the outbreak frankly this opening sequence is a master class in building tension and paying it off now moving on from this brilliantly crafted opening sequence let's take a look at the story to me at least the major themes of the last of us are all about relationships and why they're worth fighting for in an apocalyptic world like the last of us a genuine question someone may have is why bother why bother living in a world full of pain death oppression and loss is surviving really worth it in a world like The Last of Us in plenty of other apocalypse type shows zombies or otherwise a question like this is always somewhat addressed why live and suffer in this world we often see plenty of people decide it is not worth it and that they'd rather die The Last of Us argues that it is worth it that even though relationships do bring us great pain the love and beauty they possess is worth all that potential suffering almost every character in the series is motivated by a relationship when we inevitably get to Bill Frank Kathleen Henry Sam Tommy Maria David and of course Ellie and Joel they're all motivated by current relationships or the loss of previous relationships every character's story ties into this major overall narrative while Ellie is certainly a major major part of this story I would argue this season of The Last of Us is mostly about Joel and his trauma when we meet Joel in the 2003 sequences he's just an ordinary guy he's a single father who's a bit immature and kinda goofy but most importantly he's a loving father of course his daughter ends up dying and this moment is what writers call The Narrative ghost that plagues the character when characters go on character arcs they have flaws that they must overcome the reason they possess said flaw is most mostly because of an event that happened in the past this event for Joel is the death of his daughter so if this is his ghost then what is Joel's flaw Joel has many flaws for one but in terms of his character Arc the flaw he must overcome is his belief that relationships and attachments are not worth it Joel never specifically says this of course but with good writing he doesn't have to almost every time in the first two thirds of the Season he has an opportunity to be vulnerable he shuts it down immediately Joel doesn't want to build relationships because he doesn't want to have to go through what he went through with Sarah there's one line later on in the season that I think perfectly describes Joel's reasoning for closing himself off it's when he tells Ellie she has no idea what loss is and yes I know this is an important line in the game so it's clearly important here too Joe's trauma runs so thick and so deep that he doesn't want to get close to anyone he doesn't want to deal with that pain of loss so Joel's Arc ties directly into what I said before he's going to have to learn that relationships are valuable and that they are worth fighting for and almost every narrative beat in the season is going to challenge his beliefs in some way so let's take a look after the time Jump there's a stark difference between 2003 Joel and 2023 Joel during the apocalypse Joel is a bitter violent old man the death of his daughter clearly has had a strong effect on him 20 years later one aspect of Joel that is clearly evident is that he's a violent man his reputation for being violent is mentioned in that one scene with Tess and at the end of the first episode he beats the living crap out of that one guy deserved or not that was brutally violent what makes a person become so violent You could argue that the world he lives in forces him to become violent this is a fair point but I also argue Joel is emotionally numb when you reject any type of intimacy over 20 years you may become numb to violence and death almost every aspect of Joel's personality has been shaped from Sarah's death that is a great way to depict a man dealing with Trump now when I said Joel doesn't build relationships you may bring up tests someone who clearly mattered to Joel and while this is true she definitely did matter to him I always got the vibe that he never let her all the way in that he kinda kept her at arm's length that he had more of a business relationship with her than a genuine one this is why when Tess dies he isn't an emotional wreck he actually appears to move on quite quickly in the moments after Tess dies in his eyes Joel's Greatest flaw is reinforced he's probably grateful he never got too close to Tess or else her death would have been incredibly more painful so Joel in the first two episodes is an already established three-dimensional character we understand his trauma we understand the major flaw and we understand what his inevitable Arc is going to be so how does Ellie play into all of this for one Ellie is a great foil to Joel Joel is this old bitter violent man who is emotionally closed off from everyone Ellie on the other hand is this energetic innocent girl full of life and Desiring of relationships what happens when you force an old closed off man to go on a trip with a young vulnerable girl well you get an interesting story I'll touch on Ellie's story a bit more in the later episodes because so far she's more of a plot device than an actual character but what these early episodes do well is depict a character that was born during the apocalypse Ellie was clearly born after the outbreak but every time she comes across something that is so trivial to us the viewers she gets excited and it adds levity to the series like when they're in the hotel and she is fascinated by the concept of someone checking into a hotel I love moments like that one aspect of the series that was incredibly important that they nailed was making Ellie a likable person in a show designed like The Last of Us it would have been fairly easy to make the audience hate Ellie the goal is to get her to a firefly lab along the way if we constantly see Ellie as a burden then we'd grow to hate her but while she is clearly not as capable as Joel she's never a burden to him she's helped him out on Plenty of occasions she's never really a damsel that needs to be be saved until the final episode when she's unconscious and she's always eager to learn new skills that are important to survival Ellie feels like a companion to Joel and one we like I'll provide more examples of this as we progress through the video but I wanted to introduce this concept here so episodes one and two not only excelled at crafting an intense opening sequence but also laying the foundations for Joel's story and the overall theme of the show it also wonderfully introduced to us the main Dynamic of the series and make both characters quite likable before I continue on with the rest of this video only 8.3 percent of my viewers are subscribed to this channel so if you're enjoying this video please consider subscribing for more content like this thank you [Music] chapter 3 is an interesting episode and one that is quite controversial and no I'm not talking about the controversy over there being a gay couple I'm talking about the controversy over this being a filler episode we get some progression with Joel and Ellie's story but eighty percent of the episode is about The Love Story between Bill and Frank we meet them we go to care about them then they die Filler episodes have a negative connotation around them the viewers want to see the plot progress we don't want to waste our time on a side story that isn't going to matter by the end of the season a lot of cases this is true but I feel most people miss the point of Filler episodes and by the way every time I use the word filler I don't actually mean it as a filler episode I'm just using the term to describe episodes like these a proper filler episode is not filler at all when done well the purpose of a so-called filler episode is to take a break from advancing the plot so the story can focus on developing the characters and the themes if you watch some of the best shows that do have so-called filler they almost never progress the plot but they do expand the characters and themes in wonderful ways so with the Last of Us episode 3 I would argue it doesn't really expand on Joel and Ellie's story all that much but Bill and Frank's story is thematically relevant remember what I said before this series is all about relationships and why they are worth fighting for when you consider that bill and Frank's relationship mirrors what Joel and Ellie's story will be it makes this episode far more relevant so we meet Bill at the start of the outbreak he's kinda like Joel he's this closed off guy who's clearly bitter to the world he turns his neighborhood into a fortified base and literally closes himself off from the rest of the world we learned that for four years he's been completely alone and appears he is perfectly content with it now unlike Joel we don't see why he's like this but considering Bill's story only lasts one episode we don't need him to be as fleshed out as Joel so four years into the Apocalypse Bill meets Frank similar to Joel and Ellie Phil and Frank are complete opposites bill is the stubborn man like Joel and Frank is this lovely positive and vulnerable person kinda like Ellie the two get to know each other and they fall in love as the years progress we clearly see Bill is still his stubborn self but he starts to open up and become more vulnerable because of Frank they met Joel and Tess I found it hilarious that bill brought his gun with him to the dinner table it's a physical reminder of his personality and his unwillingness to trust people Bill and Frank end up growing old together and Frank gets sick he makes a choice to have one last day so he can die on a high note the events that transpire on this last day are simply beautiful it highlights how much bill has changed and how forming a strong relationship made him a significantly happier man one may argue that the reason this episode was important for Joel's story is so we see how he was able to get these supplies and the truck sure this is kinda important for the plot but once Ellie reads the letter becomes evident that the purpose of this episode is to challenge Joel's worldview Joel hates relationships he thinks they're not worth it and he doesn't want to open himself up to people he's met Bill someone who's fairly similar to himself when Joel hears the letter Bill wrote for him it's the story's way of telling Joel that relationships are worth it that even though his love for Frank technically led to his death having strong relationships are so beautiful that they're worth dying for so the main purpose of this episode was to have someone like Joel find the beauty in relationships now did this story need a whole episode devoted to it I think so relationships are not something you can just tell the audience to care about we need time with the two characters and watch them grow and change together for us to Care the final dinner the two share together doesn't work if we don't see how Frank has changed bill for the better one aspect of this episode that I do quite like is that Bill's Story Probably scares Joel throughout the season Joel will be exposed to four different relationships each one different from each other two of them ended with one person committing suicide rather than being without the other and one of them ended with the person going crazy without the other so Joel is going to have to decide what message he's going to take away from this is he going to take away how powerful relationships are or is he reinforcing his existing beliefs that relationships are bad because they lead to death or suffering I think initially it scares Joel that's why he tells Ellie to never bring up Tess again but as the series progresses he's going to take the other lesson from bill this episode is a good filler episode it tells its own story while tying into the overall themes of the series one other aspect of this episode that I frankly like more than most is how The Last of Us isn't afraid to World build when we think of World building we think of fantasy and science fiction shows that take us to whole new worlds that the audience needs to learn about but even a show like The Last of Us which still takes place on Earth in 2023 needs to World build outside of how the outbreak started we meet plenty of different groups throughout the season how each one adapts to the apocalypse and survived in their own way is interesting to me the way Bill survived is different from how Kathleen survived or how the people of Jackson survived or how David survived sure this technically doesn't add to the themes or messages of the story but adds layers to the universe that is The Last of Us World building to me is just as fascinating as exploring themes or character progression so while episode 3 of The Last of Us is by no means my favorite episode of the season it's beautiful and how it expands the world and how it tells a love story directly relevant to our main characters [Music] oh episodes four and five while being two separate episodes represent one narrative Arc for this season during these two episodes we learned a lot about Joel and Ellie while also being introduced to new stories like Henry's and Kathleen's let's start by looking at Joel one aspect of these two episodes that was important to Joel's story is breaking down the barriers between him and Ellie episode 4 begins with Ellie reading off some of her favorite dad jokes these jokes and how Joel responds to them is the story's way of telling the audience how close they're becoming the first instance is in the beginning of the episode where Joel just gives a look to Ellie like what the hell are you saying the second occasion is in the forest where Joel still doesn't give a response but he seems a bit more open to it and the episode concludes with Joel finally laughing at one of the jokes the barriers are being broken between the two and having this gradually happen is important for the progression of the season one other aspect about the relationship that should be noted are the two scenes where they fall asleep the first scene involves Ellie being vulnerable with Joel she asks if if they're really safe out here and Joel reassures her they are it's a moment of Ellie sharing her fears at the end of the episode Joel for the first time in the season makes an attempt to reach out to her in the beginning of the episode he referred to her as nothing but cargo but here he's trying to make her feel better and learn more about her life it's a small step but a step nonetheless The Middle episodes of this season are all about breaking down the barrier between Joel and Ellie and exposing Joel to other people's relationships speaking of other relationships let's look at Sam Henry and Kathleen Sam and Henry are brothers and in order for Henry to have his brother he had to sacrifice Kathleen's brother what I love about this decision narratively is that it doesn't depict Henry or Kathleen as good or evil sure we like Henry more than Kathleen and we see that Kathleen is kinda crazy but we completely empathize with her position how would you feel if someone sacrificed your brother to save their brother that is the textbook definition of saying my brother is more important than your brother in episode 3 I spoke about how the series loves to explore different people and how they survive the apocalypse we see here how people have to make immoral decisions just to survive how does this all tie into the theme of relationships well with Kathleen she had a brother she clearly cared about and the loss of that brother has now blinded her with rage she will stop at nothing to avenge her brother even if it means putting everyone at risk in the eyes of Joel this scares him about getting close to people again because he knows that pain of loss but Henry and Sam's story is far more important to Joel first I gotta touch on how wonderfully crafted the relationship between Sam and Henry was one change I know that the show made from the games is that they made Sam deaf and a bit younger I feel this was a wise decision because making him younger and also disabled means he is more reliant on Henry and when someone dies or gets hurt the more Reliant they are on you the more guilty you will feel also making Sam death allows for him to have a softer spot in our hearts human beings naturally feel bad for people or beings that are innocent Sam being deaf makes him more innocent in our eyes the scenes where he and Ellie get to be kids for once also add to that innocence so throughout the episode we grow to care for Sam because of his innocence and we grow to care for Henry because of his love and care for Sam the reason this relationship is so important to Joel is because whether he wants to or not he sees himself and Ellie in Sam and Henry which makes their deaths all that more tragic I'll be honest Henry's suicide may be one of the most tragic and heartbreaking deaths I have seen in a long time sure this scene we get with Sam and Ellie is sad because again we feel bad for this kid who is now going to become a zombie but the way it affects Henry is truly devastating before they go to sleep Joel invites Henry and Sam to join him on his quest to Wyoming even though it's not the most intimate relationship this is a sign of Joel becoming a more trusting person by inviting the two brothers he's opening himself up to a relationship leaving him vulnerable to pain and of course the very next morning tragedy strikes with shocking and devastating here is how quickly Henry's life is ruined in the span of 70 seconds he went from sleeping peacefully knowing he succeeded in his goal of protecting Sam to seeing Sam become a zombie having to kill Sam and then killing himself this all happened in 70 seconds I checked the time on the episode it's 70 seconds the world of The Last of Us is so cruel that it utterly destroyed Henry's life in such a short amount of time that is the most nihilistic and devastating thing I have watched in a long time so how does this affect Joel and Ellie going forward for Joel it scares the crap out of him again he saw himself in Henry and Sam and seeing how quickly one man can be drawn to Suicide from the loss of a relationship terrifies him and I think this moment is a big reason why he has such anxiety in episode 6 but more on that later before I talk about how this affected Ellie I want to look at her throughout these two episodes because this is the first time we start to see her more as a character one thing these two episodes contrast nicely is her innocence and her maturity the dad jokes and her relationship with Sam represents her innocence and her relationship with guns represents her maturity throughout most of the episodes we see Ellie's relationship to Firearms change in episode 2 she's not allowed to have a gun in episode 3 we see her take a gun without Joel's permission in episode 4 we see her use a gun for the first time and Joel teaches her how to use it properly in episode 5 she uses a gun a lot more but to no effect in episode 6 Joel teaches her how to use a rifle and in episode 8 she actually uses a rifle to hunt a deer why is Ellie's relationship to guns so important because it's a symptom of her biggest fear which we learn in episode 5 is her ending up alone everyone that Ellie has known has either died or left her unlike Joel Ellie keeps getting herself into close relationships and ending up hurt every time because people keep on disappearing from her life she feels she has no control in episode 5 when she uses her blood to try and help Sam it's not just just a moment of showing Ellie wanting to help others it also shows her trying to take control of the situation and failing to do so Sam's death is another instance of someone disappearing from her life and she hates that a gun to Ellie represents control and the more she becomes familiar with guns it's symbolic of her having more control of her life so come episode 8 she's in a situation where she's in control of saving her own life and not having to rely on others episodes 4 and 5 wonderfully progressed Joe and Ellie's story while also giving us a powerful and tragic character dynamic between Sam and Henry before I move on to episode 6 there are a few more details about these episodes that I want to highlight I love how this Kansas City Arc depicted fedra and the rebel conflict without a good or bad side we are used to the thinking that a rebellion against tyranny is always good and while Phedra may or may not be an oppressive regime it is clear that the rebels that took over afterwards were just as bad if not worse Kathleen executing all these people after promising them a fair trial is without a doubt evil and authoritarian The Last of Us is in a world that's black and white it's full of good and bad but those two aren't always fighting each other One Last Detail I found poetic was Kathleen's death earlier she said that kids die in this world all the time and that they don't get her empathy but then she ends up getting killed by a child clicker oh Poetic Justice and those are my thoughts on episodes four and five [Music] thank you episode 6 takes us three months into the future Ellie and Joel have been through some things but it is clearly evident that the two are far closer than where they just were in episode before episode 5 ended without them discussing what they had just gone through with Henry and Sam but in the beginning of this episode we hear them sharing their thoughts again Ellie asks Joel what he's going to do after they make it to the fireflies in stories where the plot resides around a singular goal I've always found it fascinating when characters ask each other what they will do after said goal is accomplished when Ellie asks Joel this question he's not forced to think if his future will include Ellie or not something that will play a key role in episode 9. Another aspect of this episode that is crucial to Joel's Arc are these anxiety attacks he's been experiencing Joel has experienced the death of a daughter a pain that is impossible to put into words but what he hasn't experienced is the constant fear of losing a loved one sure every parent fears for the safety of their child all the the time but I doubt they think about that as much as a parent living in the zombie apocalypse whether Joel wants to or not he's grown to deeply care for Ellie and after witnessing what happened to Henry and Sam he is absolutely terrified that he will lose someone again I absolutely loved the scene where the dog is sniffing Ellie and Joel starts to have another anxiety attack Joel is someone who clearly doesn't know how to deal with these emotions and during that moment he just freezes he doesn't know what to do because he hasn't been this scared in a long time as I've stated numerous times throughout this video Joel's Arc is about learning to love relationships again one aspect about this episode that I appreciate is that you can't just decide to not care about someone human beings are complex and we grow to care about people whether we want to or not I think Joel's at a point right now where he's aware he's growing attached to Ellie but he's still trying to suppress those feelings as we'll see in a second this whole episode is about Joel being unable to process his emotions first we see it with his anxiety with Ellie and now we see it with his interactions with Tommy there are two occasions where Tommy gives Joel fantastic news first when Tommy tells Joel he's married and second when Tommy tells Joel he's about to have a Kid Joe is an here both times but it's not because he's unhappy for Tommy it's because it's reminding him about Sarah and he doesn't know how to process those emotions one of the best scenes of the series so far is when he emotionally unloads on Tommy for one fantastic acting by Pedro Pascal but secondly I guarantee you this is the first time in 20 years Tommy is seeing Joel cry this is Joel's best attempt at expressing his emotions and it's clear to both Tommy and the audience how much he has changed since the first episode this is beautiful character progression now it's time to discuss arguably one of the most important scenes in all of The Last of Us Ellie says that she's not Sarah and that she's lost people too and Joel says she has no idea what losses of course this line is evident of how much trauma is buried deep inside of Joel so in typical Joel fashion his instinctual response to being vulnerable is to be an he tells Ellie she isn't his daughter and he leaves let's look at this conversation from Ellie's perspective Ellie has always struggled with losing people and a lack of control I love how the topic of getting to the fireflies in the safest way possible means nothing to Ellie she isn't worried about going on another dangerous trip she's worried about losing someone she cares about this scene is another instance where Ellie lacks control and she hates that another thing about Ellie is that she hates feeling like a liability in her mind people may keep on leaving because they see her as one so Joel wanting to leave here is just another reason why Ellie May think she's a liability this is why the following morning when Joel gives her the chance to choose Tommy or himself she chooses him without question for once Ellie is given a choice something she hasn't had very often and of course she chooses Joel what I love so much about this episode is that it pretty much changes the plot which doesn't happen very often in the first episode the plot is clearly established Ellie is immune take her to the fireflies and find a cure now that is the secondary concern of the series The primary concern is making sure that two of them stick together the issue of getting to the fireflies is almost never mentioned anymore when Joel gets stabbed and is potentially dying in front of Ellie she doesn't say she can't make it to the fireflies without him she says she can't do this without him sure this may mean getting to the fireflies but I think to Ellie this means everything she can't lose someone again in this belief she has ties perfectly into the 7th and 8th episodes the first five episodes I feel were mostly Joel focused they established his character and showed him progressing on his Arc but episode 6 I feel was the first episode that focused on them as a Duo both characters fears are clearly on display both of them learn something about the other and that emotional barrier between the two is almost completely gone there are a few other things this episode did wonderfully as I stated it in the previous part Ellie's relationship with guns is a big part of her character in the beginning we see her hold the rifle for the first time and at the end of the episode we see Joel finally teach her how to use it three episodes ago Joel wouldn't even let her hold a sidearm now he's teaching her to use a rifle this is important to Ellie because using a rifle is another way she can have control over her life and for Joel it's another example of him opening up to Ellie and being vulnerable the last point I want to touch on is with the city of Jackson along with the plights of the characters one theme that I've touched on so far is how different people survive in the apocalypse you've seen good people who prefer to live in isolation we've seen mad people overthrow an oppressive regime and with Jackson we probably see the most normal type of city it's just people coming together all with the shared goal of trying to make the place work I love the scene where Joe called them Communists and Tommy got offended but Maria is like yeah this is a commune we're Communists remember Tommy is a guy who joined the military at one point so the idea of Communism is going to piss him off The Last of Us episode 6 accomplished numerous things it expands the characters it further builds relationships and continues the ever so present World building of the Apocalypse thank you I'm gonna make a controversial decision and combine episode seven and eight into one section of this video now of course these are two fairly different episodes one focuses on the past and the other focuses on the future so why am I combining them well these two episodes are almost all about Ellie the first six are mostly about Joel and to me these are the first two Ellie Centric episodes they also serve as a two episode mini Arc for Ellie the second of these two episodes depicts her acting in a certain way and the first of these two episodes explains why she acts that way so let's take a look at episode 7 first Joel is dying and is telling Ellie to leave him Ellie goes upstairs and hesitates for a second is she going to leave him and try to get to the fireflies or will she stay well first we gotta travel back in time to just before the series to examine what kind of person Ellie really is now just like episode 3 a lot of people have an issue with this episode and no again it's not because it has gay characters it's because they see this as filler and while I think this episode is a bit more fillery than episode 3 was I still will find it to be a crucial episode to Ellie's story of course we see this is the first time Ellie loses someone she cares about she Begins the episode kind of a loner she has no more friends and doesn't have the best relationship with the people of fedra but Riley the only person she does care about comes back to her and gives her one of the best nights of her life at least until Riley gets bit this sequence here for Ellie is what Sarah's death is to Joel It's the ghost that plagues her remember Ellie struggles with the lack of control and the fear of being alone and this episode is the first time those issues hit her front and center so why doesn't Ellie leave Joel she probably knows she has a better chance at getting to the fireflies if Joel is alive but she doesn't fight to keep him alive because he's our best chance at survival she keeps him alive because she cares about him but it's also a little more than that Ellie hates the idea of feeling like a liability why do people always leave her well she thinks maybe she is worth leaving this is why she gets so upset when Riley tells her she's going to Atlanta Ellie also wants to prove to herself that she can help other people that she isn't worthless that she is worth fighting for I don't think once in the 7th or 8th episodes is going to the fireflies ever mentioned this is supposedly the main plot of the series and it isn't discussed for two whole episodes this was a wise decision because again it puts the focus on Ellie's and Joel's relationship not the supposed plot going to the fireflies doesn't matter that much to Ellie and Joel anymore so why should it matter to us now you may say gold man did we really need to see a whole nother episode of Ellie experiencing loss for the first time when we already see her struggling with it in the present this is true and fair but upon re-watching this episode I realized something about this story that I haven't really touched on yet in this video of course I mentioned it like a hundred times that the show is about relationships but this episode made me realize it's also about fighting for that innocence in Ellie Ellie is kind of a goof it's maybe the most endearing aspect of her personality we've seen her constantly make dad jokes we've seen her awe and wonder about things that seem trivial to us and we've also seen her be a kid for once this story is not just about Joel learning to care for someone it's about making sure that this cruel world hasn't robbed this girl of her childlike innocence there's a great scene in the fourth episode where Ellie is in shock after just having to shoot someone Joel at this point hasn't treated Ellie like a person at all purely cargo as he says but he takes her aside and tells her that it's not fair that someone her age has to experience things like this none of the Annoying stuff about Ellie matters to Joel right now it's just human nature to see a kid and make sure they're okay so going back to episode 7 this episode highlights all those endearing aspects about Ellie seeing her get excited over an escalator or having a time of her life riding a carousel or dancing with masks on Highlights the innocence of a child and you have to be one sick person to not see a child happy in a cruel world and not feel Joy yourself it's just as important to Joel that Ellie doesn't lose who she is as much as her staying alive that is a key purpose behind the inclusion of episode 7. so moving on to episode 8 everything about Ellie is challenged Ellie wants control well now she's on her own and has full control Ellie wants to use a gun well she better be good with said gun or she can't survive and this All Leads up to her encounter with David I'm gonna offer my first piece of mild criticism for the series I think this episode would have worked far better if we didn't have an idea of whether or not we could trust David maybe there's some of you out there that didn't know David's true intentions from the start but to me this dude just screams bad guy the way he led his prayer in the beginning of the episode was all sus and simply the way he acted around others including Ellie made me distrust him but moving on the reason this episode was so important is because this episode is really the culmination of her story Ellie has learned all these skills and it's now time for her to be put to the test also this ties into something I said earlier in the video but it's incredibly important that we see Ellie as a competent individual if she was treated as someone that Joel constantly needed to save then we'd grow to resent her and while we see Joel use every ounce of willpower in his body to try and save Ellie and be love it seeing Ellie risk her life to save Joel is just as powerful Ellie is not a burden that Joel needs to go off and protect all the time Ellie can hold her own now I can sit here and say this was important to character y for reason X and blah blah blah but what I really want to focus on is the final minute of the episode because man was this beautiful Ellie has just brutally murdered David after surviving what is arguably every woman's biggest fear she stumbles outside clearly traumatized by what she had just gone through and is grabbed by Joel she freaks out for a second until she realizes it is Joel and then she gives him a hug the Trope that this is subverting is that Joel didn't save Ellie from danger like these stories usually go he saved her emotionally when she was at her most traumatized Joel was there for her the man who began the series as the most closed off person in the world is now there to help someone else emotionally this is really the completion of Joel's Ark too and of course we hear her refer to Ellie as baby girl something that he only called Sarah way back when the watch that Sarah gave him is also front and center again reminding the audience of her the two walk away together with that emotional barrier completely broken in a way the series could have ended here Joel has once again learned the importance of love and relationships and he is clearly a better man because of it but of course there is still one more episode [Music] thank you so The Last of Us finale was an interesting one upon first viewing I found it to be quite anti-climactic it just seems like everything happened so fast they're in Salt Lake City they get taken by the fireflies Joel murders a bunch of people saves Ellie and they talk and the episode ends an interesting way to look at this episode is that it's more of an epilogue and episode 8 is the finale that moment where Joel and Ellie Embrace after Ellie kills David is the climax of the series Joel has learned to love again this episode appears to be more of a reinforcement of the themes of the series than a climax of the series Joel opens up to Ellie more in this one episode than in the previous eight combined we hear him talk about Sarah a lot especially at the end of the episode earlier in the season he wouldn't even say a word about Sarah and now that he's so open about her just shows his progress but towards the beginning of the episode we learned that the day after Sarah died Joel attempted to commit suicide he said as it seemed like there was no reason left to live but at the last moment he flinched and only hurt himself instead of killing himself Ellie initially thinks that the message here is that time heals all wounds but Joel responds and says it wasn't time that did it sure this is a little on the nose but it reinforces the messages of the series and I love that relationships are beautiful because they can bring people out of their darkest holes now instead of talking about themes for 10 minutes I want to talk about Joel's decision this discussion has been going on with the games for almost a decade and it'll only continue with the series was Joel in the right to kill all those people and take back Ellie I think what makes this finale so interesting is that there is no clear good or bad side there are no villains there are no Heroes just two signs of a fascinating moral dilemma it's a question as old as time would you sacrifice your child if you could save the world most people would probably say yes the life of one kid is not worth the survival of a species right but this answer does doesn't take into account The Human Condition The Last of Us spent nine episodes Examining The Human Condition we learned that human emotions are not logical they can't be predicted they can't be made sense of but they're what makes our species special a common complaint I've heard about the series is that there barely any zombies of the Nine episodes six of them featured one or no zombies and in the last four episodes we only saw two zombies total and they were both in flashbacks to describe the last of us as a zombie show is a bit unfair sure we got that badass sequence in episode 5 but this show is all about The Human Condition so when Joel is in the hospital and he makes the decision to kill dozens of people to save Ellie it's maybe the most human thing I've ever seen anyone do in this series what's more human than letting nothing stop you from saving your child especially from a man who has nothing to lose but everything to protect when it comes to the sequence of Joel massacring his way through the hospital I found the framing of the seen To Be A peculiar choice there's almost no resistance sure we see people trying to stop Joel but the way the episode is filmed with the sound of the gunfire being muffled tells the audience there is no real struggle for Joel here he goes to Ellie with ease and leaves with ease I want you guys to let me know down below why you think this decision was made I feel like it would have been more impactful if Joe actually had to struggle to save Ellie for one it would have made for a more entertaining final episode but also if saving Ellie was really hard and Joel showed no hesitation about moving forward I think it would emphasize the power of relationships that Joel is risking his life and pushing through something so difficult just to save this new person and relationship in his life so we could argue if Joel was in the right or not to kill all these people and sacrifice the fate of humanity to save Ellie but what's a far more interesting discussion to me and one I think is more thematically relevant is was Joel or Marlene in the right to make this decision for Ellie in the beginning of this episode Joel tells Ellie they can turn around and go home but Ellie says that after all they had been through it can't be for nothing that they need to see this through some may look at this and say Ellie would have wanted to die this is the argument that Marlene wanted to make but Ellie also talks about an afterwards which implies that the thought of her dying to make a cure never crossed her mind this moment here is two people deciding the fate of someone who can't make this choice for herself it's another interesting moral dilemma that leaves fans debating and frankly I love when stories do this sure there are movies and shows that I don't want to think too hard about when watching but with the ones I really love these questions always intrigue me stories are meant to challenge Their audience and make them consider a new world view and The Last of Us does that with this dark and oblique ending what I found the most interesting about this ending is that it puts a strong emphasis on the fact that Joel lied to Ellie he said the fireflies gave up on finding a cure and that Ellie couldn't save anyone at first I found it to be a peculiar decision to cut away from Joel and Marlene to Joel and Ellie in the car and then show Joel killing Marlene as a flashback but I think the reason the writers made this Choice was to emphasize Joel lying he says one thing but the visuals show us what really happened and I love how Joel says I'm sorry to Elliot seems like he's saying sorry she couldn't help but in reality Joel is sorry for lying to her what are two of the things I mentioned that Ellie struggles with having no control over her life and the feeling that she is worthless Joel knows Ellie like his own daughter by now he knows that he made a choice for Ellie taking the control out of her hands and he also knows how much it hurts her that she couldn't make a vaccine Joel knows his actions will deeply hurt Ellie so he lies to her to try and maintain this newfound relationship and we all know Ellie suspects he is lying she asks him to swear that his story is the truth don't ask someone to swear on what they just said if you believe them and Joel doubled downed and still lied the message here at first seems dark I sound like a broken record but if the series is all about the power of relationships why end it with one person betraying the other's trust Joel is now the most important person in Ellie's World but just like almost every other person she's known Joel is now on the list of people to lie to her and betray her trust so what's the point why get so attached to people when even the ones you love the most will hurt you or betray you in some way well it's because relationships are not about a destination they're about the journey I want you guys to think about all the people who are the closest to you in your life why are they so close to you it's not because you hope to one day gain something from them people aren't an investment that you hope pans out one day you're close with people because the moments you share together matter to you more than anything in the world it's a little moments like reading off dad jokes or teasing each other or being vulnerable or teaching each other something or sharing a passion that makes relationships worth it and the moment in this episode that made me realize this was the moment with the giraffe some say oh this moment was pointless it didn't matter at all it wasted the audience's time but this one shot right here makes the entire scene worth it there is nothing in the world that can make Joel happier than seeing joy in his adopted daughter's eyes as Joel said at the end the reason you keep going no matter what is because you find new things in life to fight for so moments like these are worth sacrificing the world for and Joel literally did that and he doesn't have an ounce of regret so The Last of Us what makes it great well a bunch of things scenes were masterfully crafted the world was wonderfully built the different ways people survived were properly examined but most importantly it dissected The Human Condition wonderfully the most important thing in the world are the people we grow to love the relationships we cultivate and the moments we share together are what keeps us going it's what gives us purpose in life and allows us to keep fighting for something The Last of Us is all about that and more and that's why it's great thank you everyone so much for watching another one of my videos don't forget tonight the cloud Squad and I will see you guys next time

Channel: The Gold Man

Views: 35,463

Keywords: Star Wars

Id: aVtFiUPFHEk

Length: 47min 32sec (2852 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2023