2manyythoughts

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Berserk

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"A snack? For me?"

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2017 TLOU fan art 🏚️

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HBO The Last of Us -

S2E1-E5 Thoughts

*Warning: long post and spoilers! These are my opinions as someone who hasn’t played the games. I’m simply a casual watcher who thinks too much about the media I consume

I feel like E5 is a good episode to start sharing thoughts on the season so far. In the mire of irrational hate I’ve seen mainly on YouTube and Reddit, I’d like to share some positives and leveled critiques of the show’s writing so far (and some more thoughts)

I acknowledge that the show is not flawless. But to go so far as to say that it’s terrible and ruined is simply overdramatic. The internet needs to chill out gosh the season is not even finished yet and people are making assumptions already about the quality of the overall story! So, in this post I’ll try to be objective, but please take my thoughts/analysis with a grain of salt. I’m no professional

Positives

E1: great episode for establishing the calm before the storm. Things are tense between Joel and Ellie, but we aren’t really sure why yet. It is implied that Ellie is upset at Joel for the hospital massacre, putting a strain on their relationship. (I’m excited for E6 that will most likely reveal when he tells the truth; I wonder why they put the flashbacks in this episode and not before the first one). The therapy scene was phenomenal at making you feel uneasy. You could feel Joel’s pain, emphasizing the tragedy and how his actions still haunt him. This foreshadows his fate in the next episode.

E2: The battle scene was tense and made the overall atmosphere seem pretty hopeless, especially when Joel is killed by Abby. This devastation really makes us empathize with Ellie, making us understand her motive: revenge.

E3: When Gail was talking to Ellie, the scene was good for making us feel like something was off about Ellie’s mood. It was nice to see Ellie mourn Joel, sniffing his jacket. It’s a very nice touch to have her look at the box on the bed and immediately swipe away the belongings to reveal the gun underneath, showcasing her desire for revenge overtaking her acknowledgment of him repairing her watch. Dina and Ellie set off for Seattle

E4: I feel like this episode was another calm before the storm-type. Ellie and Dina’s relationship develops

E5: Ellie’s descent into darkness really takes shape in this episode. Someone pointed out that when Ellie was singing in the theater, the lyric after she sang “If I ever were to lose you…” is “I’d surely lose myself.” This would be nice foreshadowing if Ellie really does go down a dark revenge path, which seems like a promise the show will fulfill

Critiques

Dina and Ellie are cute together but I admit some of the cute scenes are kinda like tonal whiplash with the darker scenes. The lines they say are also a bit awkward. I get that they’re young but still it sort of takes me out and makes me take things less seriously. The tone can be balanced more effectively

Dina made it a big point in E5 not to use guns… then they immediately resort to using guns. Yeah they were caught by surprise but it’s unintentionally funny

Sometimes the characters speak far too loudly when they should be quieter around Seattle

I didn’t really feel the impact of Joel’s death particularly (later in) E3 and E4 because Dina and Ellie’s scenes were a bit too cheery. I could tell in the therapy scene that Ellie was using humor as a coping mechanism, however. Moreover this flaw can be somewhat remedied by the fact that Dina is supposed to be someone to ground Ellie from being too irrational with her revenge, as shown by how without Dina in E5, Ellie takes reckless action by herself and tortures Nora. Still, the dynamic between Dina and Ellie does feel a bit too lighthearted in many moments, especially when Joel’s death and their desires for revenge should be felt more

Jessie coming in to save Dina and Ellie without prior hints to his and Tommy’s arrival feels like deus-ex-machina. Their arrival could have been alluded to earlier so it’s less surprising

Likes

The shots and set pieces look fantastic and cinematic.

The coffee beans on Joel’s grave is a nice callback to his love of coffee.

Bella Ramsey has a great singing voice. I like all of their guitar scenes

I admit that I want to see Ellie killing more people lol so yes it was disturbing yet kind of satisfying to see Ellie torturing Nora (that scene was very well-done; don’t understand how haters say that Ramsey does not act vengeful enough). This is a revenge story after all and Joel did not deserve that!

Dina and Ellie

The WLF antagonists like Isaac and Hanrahan are very intimidating. I’m looking forward to see how they’ll be more of an antagonistic force to our protagonists

Tommy and Jessie are in Seattle! Does Tommy want revenge now? I’m very curious to see which ways these characters will go

Other thoughts

This story’s purpose seems to be a commentary on the destructiveness of revenge, so “how effectively will the tv show convey this message about revenge?” is the main question on my mind. They should emphasize that revenge leads to destruction of one’s self. To make this message effective, I would like to see Ellie losing herself and the ones she loves (a glimpse of that is in E5, which makes me hopeful). I would like to see her come into conflict more often with Dina, OR Dina will get severely injured on the path of revenge (maybe even die but I don’t want that to happen!). Ultimately, the end should be tragic if this is the message. But that doesn’t mean lighthearted scenes are bad for the story; in fact, they add to the tragedy of the revenge plot line.

Addressing some flawed criticisms (+ more critiques):

Criticizing lighthearted scenes before the true consequences of revenge get played out in the story is not a proper critique of the show, despite what critics try to say. It’s simply the buildup before things get worse. What they’re criticizing is just a story beat. What they can be criticizing is the tonal dissonance between the dark scenes and the light scenes, which I mentioned earlier. If the dialogue/scenes between Ellie and Dina for example were written with a less “silly” and more serious/solemn yet hopeful tone, then that would fix some of the tonal issues between happier and darker scenes. For example, I did enjoy the guitar scene in the record store because the tone was happy yet more serious. Critics could have also pointed out the issues with tonal consistency, which I agree could have been handled better in the episodes thus far.

Similarly, criticizing the story for killing off Joel is not a proper critique either. Sure you can dislike this approach but that doesn’t make it “bad writing.”

Thank goodness I saw 0 spoilers before Joel’s death. I was completely surprised. Ouch…

Like father like daughter… Ellie and Joel are one and the same

I’m excited for the flashbacks in E6. How will E7 play out? Will Ellie kill even more WLFs?

Honestly I was a bit nervous with the first few episodes, but E5 made me hopeful that the show would go a darker, more serious route, which I think suits the apocalyptic world and tragic tone of the story

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Father Daughter Parallel

Odd how love can manifest in such violent ways

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How to call your partner without actually calling him :D Based on that one apprentice tiktok.

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0̶4̵.̴0̷3̶.̵2̶0̵11 ⏳ today's ṭ̸́i̷̕ͅmeline

i thought it was way too obvious who my favourite was after homura and ma̸d̶o̶̧͝k̵a̵ s o̷ ̶o̴ ̴o̶ i tried my best to make them all look equally good to hide it ... can u tell who it is ...

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sayaka miki

hi I'm alive guys

i coloured a pmm manga panel

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sketches in ms paint i think its like an au where there is nothing left from homura just the shell driven solely by a desire to be with madoka

pic 2 "hi girl..." pic3 sayaka: " madoka who is that creepy girl with you?" madoka: "oh this is my new friend!" pic 4 madoka: "she was wandering around the school i thought maybe she is lost!"

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DM zine🦅🦅🦅🦅

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scrambled egg

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top 10 anime betrayals

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Has this been done yet

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on the bullshit mobile

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I’ll be coming for your love okay

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BELLA RAMSEY as ELLIE WILLIAMS The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 4: Day One requested by anonymous