Why The Last of Us Part II Will Work Better as a Show

foreign [Music] The Last of Us Part Two was confusing considered one of if not the most controversial game of all time it's hard to say what hasn't already been said to this day fans are still in an uproar over the true nature of what made it so alienating from part one even prior to its initial release Naughty Dog began to receive heavy backlash due to Major leaks wreaking havoc on the internet and when the game was finally released on June 19th 2020 the consensus was so passionately divided in a way that I've never seen from a fan base of a video game franchise on one hand there were those who thought that the game was a total flop and utter failure is a sequel and above all else a complete oversight in narrative storytelling the very thing that made its beloved predecessor Masterpiece but on the other hand there were those who thought that part 2 was just as perfect as the original story that it was a criminally misunderstood gem that deserved much more credit it's because of this disconnect that I put off the game for quite some time while fortunately still being able to stay blind to all spoilers frankly I was terrified of what lied ahead I feared that this incredibly divisive game would undermine the beautifully ambiguous ending of the first that was until I finally gave it a much desired chance and what I found was a truly immersive experience that at the very least left me scratching my head I didn't really love it as much as I did part one but I certainly didn't hate it either I could see why people loved it and more importantly I could understand why people hated it however unlike those who hated it due to any number of thematic reasons I found the narrative to be exceptionally compelling I think it rather boiled down to one fateful problem the pacing it's no secret that part 2 dragged on far too long with some drawn out plot lines and redundant action set pieces that could have easily been cut in half this is where HBO can step in and fix a few of these elements and perhaps shed some light on the main themes to give people a new perspective on why this story is actually a great one let's talk about how they can do it [Music] everything about the last of us is personal all the way back in 2013 Naughty Dog introduced us to the story of a Broken Man learning how to love again the story of Joel and Ellie we watched as the two gradually gained each other's trust and formed a bond like no other over the course of 15 hours on a television screen and we absolutely fell in love Joel and Ellie captured the hearts of millions of players worldwide becoming some of the most iconic characters in gaming history seemingly overnight this overwhelming adoration for the Beloved Duo is what made the ending to part one so perfect to this day fans of the franchise can still hold a genuine debate about whether or not Joel made the right decision it left the player with a lot to think about while still maintaining a relatively positive outlook on what could come next a beautifully Bittersweet conclusion to one of the greatest games of all time then part two came along and flipped the very idea of this feeling on its head barely an hour into the sequel our treasure Joel Miller is tortured and bludgeoned to death by a brand new character as Ellie in the audience watches in utter horror though he didn't know it at the start this brand new character turns out to be the daughter of the doctor that we killed as Joel in the final moments of the first game Abby Anderson this was an absolute gun punch during my first playthrough I had to put down my controller and step away from the game because it genuinely felt like one of my family members just got murdered right in front of my eyes as I was overcome with sadness heartbreak and rage the only thing on my mind was the same thing that was on Ellie's Revenge from there on out the game's objective is to track down Abby and avenge Joel we follow Ellie's campaign through an overgrown Seattle as she increasingly loses her own Humanity she commits truly heinous acts of murder accompanied by a series of flashbacks depicting her deteriorating relationship with Joel eventually learning the truth about the fireflies through her augmented trauma Ellie becomes an externalized reflection of Joel's song if I ever were to lose you [Music] the more she descends into Insanity the more uncomfortable I got playing as her and while I couldn't necessarily agree with her actions I still found myself giving her the benefit of the doubt because it was still Ellie because she watched as the only Father Figure in her life was taken from her because it's understandable given the pain she's in right this is where the story excels thematically because halfway through the game our personal biases are put to the test as the player is then forced to take control of Abby we're shown the same three days in Seattle that we just experienced but from her perspective as well as a series of flashbacks to highlight the similarities she shares with Ellie this time we see the gut-wrenching loss of her father a murder that we committed we see her community filled with friends of her own her love interest and most importantly her humanity and again we took all of that away by playing as Ellie killing countless wlf members her friends even her dog Alice we are responsible for all that she has lost the same way that she is responsible for our loss Joel at the start of the game she was merely a name and a face labeled as the villain but as we progress through her narrative it really isn't that simple in this story there are no Heroes and there are no villains only survivors it's an endless cycle of violence between two broken individuals just trying to make ends meet making us feel our role in contributing to the cycle through character agencies and by the time we got to the final confrontation on the Rattler Beach I just wanted it to stop it wasn't an epic final battle it was a pathetic fistfight with both Ellie and Abby completely physically and emotionally exhausted it was so amazingly uncomfortable in a way that's hard to describe without experiencing it and when Ellie finally gets the upper hand drowning Abby as tear stream down her face we flash back to one final scene with Joel and she lets Abby go in a moment of strength she finds herself again at this point I realize that all this time Ellie wasn't just after Abby for killing Joel but for taking away the chance to forgive him as Ellie breaks the cycle of violence she is finally able to let go sometimes you don't realize how much you don't want something until it's right in front of you make no mistake she isn't forgiving Abby but rather forgiving Joel and using Abby as a proxy and as she leaves Joel's guitar to rest it's her way of leaving the past in the past moving on and starting a new chapter in her life now many were livid at the fact that this 25 to 30 hour Revenge plot didn't end in Revenge and this all falls on your own interpretation of the story at least to me it wasn't a story about revenge but rather a story about forgiveness and how people cling to their Humanity in the face of extreme traumatic experiences on paper I thought that this was thematically brilliant but there was one major issue in execution it took way too long to get there there's no doubt that the pacing of part two was arduous at worst and contentious at best Ellie's first three days in Seattle was probably the most engaging section of the entire game albeit still probably a little longer than it needed to be from Scavenging around the city for optional upgraded loot to engaging in some new enemy AI the following in Tommy's Footsteps in order to track down Abby and her friends everything felt like it had a purpose until the climax or should I say the first of multiple climaxes at the end of Seattle day 3 Abby appears at the theater where you've been holed up and kills Jesse holds Tommy at gunpoint then aims at Ellie and then something strange happens we cut to Black and reopen with Abby's first flashback to be blunt the pace hits an absolute brick wall killing all the tension that the game has done such a tremendous job at building up to this point as the player is then forced to play as Abby and not just for this little flashback but for the next 10 to 12 hours in real time it's an incredibly ambitious form of narrative structure that unfortunately didn't resonate with a lot of people but that's simply the nature of the Beast therein lies the first major problem with this story being conceptualized through a video game as a medium for storytelling for many it wasn't fun to play as Abby I get what the creators were trying to do by having the player literally and figuratively walk a mile in her shoes but this doesn't really work when you have Die Hard fans that simply didn't want to spend half their experience playing as the murderer of Joel treating her as another protagonist the intent was there but the execution as a whole felt like a misfire on top of this most of her time in Seattle felt like one big fetch Quest that lacked any sort of meaningful purpose especially when you consider the fact that the multi-hour supply run you just went on for Yara is completely nullified when she gets killed anyway similarly the war between the wlf and the seraphites made for one of the most visually pleasing action set pieces I've seen from a PS4 game but it still felt entirely disconnected from the rest of the narrative furthermore Side characters like Mel and Owen felt irrelevant because we already knew how and when they were going to die from Ellie's point of view the whole time I just kept thinking about when Abby's section would be over and when we could finally get back to the theater to advance the timeline this is not only a pacing issue but an issue with the video game Medium as a whole I'd argue that simply intertwining Abby's story with Ellie's and watching it play out with improved pacing would overall be more enjoyable and would elicit greater forms of empathy these are important aspects that the showrunners at HBO can tweak by adapting the story in a different narrative structure that's better Suited for the small screen [Music] every adaptation has its fair share of changes and if done right they can prove to be a Monumental Improvement after seeing how well season one of The Last of Us was adapted through altered and added aspects of the source material there is no doubt in my mind that we're in for more it's just a matter of how far they're willing to take it and I think a good place to start would be to overhaul The Narrative structure thematically all the scenes are there to make for some amazing TV they're just in the wrong order for this medium the success of this adaptation will entirely depend on the fluidity of the different subject matters it chooses to focus on there's been a lot of conversation about potentially stretching part two story into multiple seasons and while this very well could work there are some things to avoid when considering taking this route if the showrunners do decide to stay true to the narrative structure of the game then the season 2 finale would probably end up looking something like this you killed my friends [Music] we let you both live and you wasted it this would be a Monumental mistake Not only would the viewers have to wait an extended period of time for the show to return but season 3 would then open with Abby's storyline from her perspective then it would take a considerable number of episodes to cover her journey through Seattle before we finally returned to the theater and this would be the first time we see Ellie since the season 2 finale this would lose a lot of people because without Ellie and of course without Joel there's nothing really keeping the audience motivated to watch more of the last of us this format is why shows like The Walking Dead lost so many followers in their later Seasons they were so committed to telling a single expanded character Arc in one episode then completely abandoning it to tell another story in the next and then another only to finally return to the first Arc multiple episodes later instead have both Ellie and Abby's story lines intertwine with one another following the same timeline as an A and B plot avoid the constant time jumping Not only would this make the overall pacing much more digestible but it would also allow character deaths like Owen and Mel to hold much more weight since first time viewers wouldn't have to pretend to care for them after knowing that they already died at the hands of Ellie on the topic of Side characters one of the better aspects of season 1 was the added background information of Bill and Frank as well as Henry and Sam and while there was absolutely nothing wrong with them in the first game they still managed to add even more depth to these beloved characters in the show through supplementary details I think that same compassion for the side characters in part 2 would go a long way especially for those who weren't fully fleshed out for example take the character Jesse all we really know about him is that he is the father of Dina's child he doesn't really have any notable personality or character traits and feels all but forgotten after his death which seemed like the only purpose it served was for shock value he more or less felt like a first draft of a character outline thrown into the story at the last minute rather than a member addition to the cast if only we knew things like where he came from how he and Dina met how he became friends with Ali and more about his personality would he feel like a full side character that the audience could genuinely care for and of course season 2 needs to put more of an emphasis on the infected the lack thereof was my only real gripe of the first season which was also true for a lot of other people the intensity absolutely needs to be there especially considering how immersive part two's environment turned out to be however it's doubly important not to overdo it since this story is just as character driven as the first all of this goes to show that this adaptation has the tools to deliver and it's just a matter of how HBO utilizes them thank you foreign of entertainment the last thing I would ever say is if you didn't like the story you just didn't understand it of course there will still be a fair share of people who won't resonate with the narrative and still despise Abby no matter what and to that I would say I'm sorry that their form of Storytelling didn't work for you at the end of the day it's one of the most controversial games of all time for a reason and adapting the same story will leave many dissatisfied and that's okay it's a story depicting a series of traumatic events that made the audience feel what matters most is how we perceive those feelings obviously I don't condone review bombing or sending death threats to the creators or actors but everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinion these are just some of my thoughts and opinions on why I really enjoyed the story of part two and how HBO can expand upon the source material and make it more likable for those that couldn't get behind the game for me it was one of the most immersive video games I've ever gone through with thrilling highs and questionable lows like it or not The Last of Us Part Two was undoubtedly a memorable experience one that pushed the boundaries of the video game medium and Now's the Time to hold out hope that this adaptation will be just as memorable but this time for all the right reasons [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Thought Project

Views: 79,938

Keywords: the last of us, the last of us part 2, video essay, tlou, tlou2, the last of us HBO

Id: LOwPSQRAmko

Length: 16min 16sec (976 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023