infectvd

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gonna move ellie to @dcviline for now <3

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vampire hunter ellie

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thanks tumblr for giving me notifications for a post 3+ weeks late

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ellie and dina my beloveds

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I have a mini heart-attack every time I post a headcanon or meta on this blog and realize I forgot to make the post non-rebloggable

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finally completed my most recent T.LOU2 playthrough, here are some disorganized, extremely tired and probably unintelligible finishing thoughts

The second half of the game is definitely more enjoyable than the first or at least easier to get through imo. I did the section from the start of Abby & Lev going to get surgery supplies up until the end all in one day bc idk the pacing was better I guess, or it was easier to just enjoy playing for the most part because the environments felt less repetitive and it felt like I was actually getting somewhere instead of feeling like Sisyphus like I did for the first half of the game.

I love Abby and Lev but them trying to subtextually equate / compare their relationship to the one between Joel and Ellie after they've only known each other for three fucking days makes absolutely no sense to me. I could believe it by the time we get to the Santa Barbara section, they had the time, but not in three days lmao. Don't insult me like that.

On that same note I think that is one of my biggest problems with the pacing of this game, that the main portion of the story all happens over only three days and yet they try to cram MONTHS worth of development into that short span of time. It's outright jarring.

I hate that fucking ending. No, I didn't want Abby to die, but why have Ellie go all that way and jeopardize the life she had built again JUST to have her let her go?? It's all part of this bullshit "revenge bad" narrative and that last section of the game feels so fucking pointless because of this. It's like the devs dangled some sort of catharsis in front of the players and yanked it away for like the fourth time in this damn game, which could work for the middle acts with the story still progressing, but NOT at the goddamn climax.

This game did a wonderful job at making me feel like absolutely nothing fucking happened by the end when really SO MUCH happened over the course of this game. Nothing had weight that lasted more than 10 minutes outside of what happened to Joel. Nothing. Even the moments where I did stop and go "oh my god", all of that was gone because this game was so crammed with shit that they wanted to force an emotional reaction from and yet would not give us the time and connection with these characters that we needed to have that reaction. It was like three games crammed into one and turned into a confusing, messy blob of abstract concepts and events by the end of it all. Two-thirds of it felt like a waste of time.

tl;dr 90% of this game was just daft, emotionally-detached misery p*rn with horrible pacing and a very questionable narrative about trauma and cookie cutter "revenge bad" bullshit that does a complete disservice to the narrative and characters of the first game. 4/10, Lev is Baby, and Abby / Ellie / Joel all deserve better stories.

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Not to get on here and harp about 2 again but another reason this game just doesn't hit for me like it should is all the forced parallels between E.llie and A.bby's stories. It really didn't *need* to go beyond the parallel of A.bby losing her dad and E.llie losing J.oel, that should have been the thread that connected them, and yet they kept forcing these similarities like, for example, adding relationship drama via someone getting pregnant into both narratives and I'm??? Was that necessary???? They don't both need that to happen to them at the same time, it's incredibly specific and incredibly forced. Either singular plot could add to either narrative if one just existed on it's own, but having both things occur at the same time creates that comparison and makes the idea as a whole feel . . . cheap? idk how to explain it.

I get it's supposed to be a link for E.llie to empathize and find horror in what she's done to M.el by imagining the same thing potentially happening to D.ina, but that shouldn't be necessary to have that be a horrible moment of realization for her. E.llie's own humanity should be the reason for empathy in that situation as well as her self-reflection, not because she "put herself in someone else's shoes" but because she herself *is* human and appropriately values life and loss.

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coming up with aus for ellie can be hard bc of how important the plotline around her immunity is for her characterization but also it's fun to find ways to remove her from that and see how it affects her

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side note, I also like Abby and think the narrative of 2 did her so fucking dirty lmao like they did so bad at telling that story that everyone treats this character that is meant to be a secondary protagonist to mirror Ellie like she is THE villain. they ruined the point of the story they were trying to tell from the start with the way they handled her.

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Besties I'm on my fourth or fifth(?) full replay of T.LOU2, and I swear every time I replay it with the intention to try and like it more or be more gracious to it, but every time (without fail) it just makes me feel worse about it. Like . . . the building blocks are there, but the way this narrative was put together was Trash and I don't feel guilty for saying that anymore bc I really have been trying to give it so many chances to change my mind over the past three years and look at it from different perspectives, but I always come to the same conclusions.

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🌿 ❰❰ @dscvrdbcttr ─ 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎 // s.c. ❱❱

ㅤㅤㅤ❝ I DON'T OWE ANYONE ANY ANSWERS. Not for where I'm going, and not for where I've been. ❞

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🌿 ❰❰ @behttys // s.c. ❱❱

ㅤㅤㅤ❝ I'M TELLING THE TRUTH, but I don't know how I'm supposed to prove it to you ! ❞

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Like for a tiny tiny starter. Multis please specify your muse.

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ㅤㅤㅤSHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHY HE NEEDS TO THANK HER FOR IT. How rare laughter must be around here. Laughter is the best way to get through anything, in her experience. If you can get through the day and still have a laugh at the end of it, then you must've done pretty okay. It reminds Ellie that she's still sane out here. That she's still her. ❝ You kidding? He cracked so easily! Wasn't even my best one. You just must not be good at telling jokes, ❞ Ellie teases with the widest grin. She's made two people smile today, and that's a win for her. ( One day she's gonna crack you too, Joel. ) Biting into her granola bar, she takes a moment to chew a piece and swallow. ❝ This is a big city. Are you guys really on your own here? No one else around that would take your side? ❞

' thanks. for making him laugh, ' henry speaks quietly to ellie once he's done sipping from the bottle of water in his hands. he's smiling as he glances at his brother, sitting in the corner, a grin still on sam's face from whatever conversation he had been having with her. there weren't many people they had come across that had been so civil to them. to see sam actually get along with her, and for him to be able to just be a kid with another kid - it gave henry some hope for them, and the world. he glances back at ellie, his smile grateful and kind. ' haven't seen him do that in a long time. means a lot, ' @infectvd.

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I have such a love hate relationship with T.LOU2

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Like for a tiny tiny starter. Multis please specify your muse.

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-ˏˋ 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢'𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥 ˊˎ-

(updated March 25, 2023)

▶ @queencvbra​​​ // Tory Nichols // main blog + highest activity           ↪ @teachdance​​ // Kumiko // low activity // sideblog           ↪ @ncmcrcy​​ // CK multi // medium-low activity // sideblog

▶ @sl2yer​​ // Buffy Summers // medium-low activity

▶ @infectvd​​ // Ellie Williams // low activity

▶ @harvhell​​ // Jo Harvelle // low activity

▶ @athicf​​ // Felicia Hardy // low activity

▶ @nxthero​​ // multi (more game + comic oriented) // low activity

▶ ​​@dcviline // multi (more horror + live action oriented) // low activity