#tlou episode 8

[enthyrea]

its me, it’s okay. i got you.

[toointojoelmiller]

yes, Joel finding Ellie after David ™️ has been gif-ed approximately 1 billion times. here's your excuse to look at it again.

I still can't believe they pulled this off so impactfully. Pedro and Bella's performances here are so affecting that they kinda hurt to look at.

The fear on Ellie's face, and in her eyes, is genuinely upsetting. Joel is so terrified and desperate and soft with her. All the walls are down. It's so fucking good.

The hug. They both believed they'd lost each other.

The love and pain that rolls over Joel's face as he holds her. The watch.

The way he falls right back into Dad mode, because he's Joel, and his kid isn't wearing a coat outside in the winter, and it's all he can do.

He tucks her against him, safe under his arm, and she just lets herself be guided - in shock, clearly, but also with Joel again, so she can finally let go. She knows he'll take care of her.

They're both hurt and weak and starving and traumatized, but they have each other again.

And the thing is, as much as I love the gifs of this scene because it lets me appreciate and relive all of these tiny moments and expressions... it's nothing compared to the actual scene.

The sound is such a huge part of this moment - Ellie's screams and whimpers, the soft noises of fear that Joel lets out as he watches her reaction, his voice as he tries to calm her.... in the words of some of my wise TLOU fandom friends... HAISJBFKHJSDFBSD

brb gonna go watch this scene again

[diabetice]

“It’s okay. It’s okay baby girl. I got you.”

[blitany]

moments between Ellie and Joel that simultaneously broke me and healed me: ep. 8 edition

so much of Ellie is trying to be like Joel because he needs her (and she needs him but right now the closest she can get is imitating him) - from how she handles the rifle to how she talks to David and James. she’s always been brave and mouthy but she’s so clearly trying to imitate Joel now with the fake-deep voice and the insults/instructions (Buddy Boy? i’ll put one right between your eyes? the instinctive lie? it’s all so Joel)

all the times David refers to Joel as her father or her dad and she doesn’t correct him but that’s a lie she can’t bring herself to say on her own because that one’s too close to home, to close to what she wants to be true but is terrified to admit because she doesn’t think Joel sees her as his daughter

when Ellie lays beside Joel in the basement, partly trying to keep him warm, but partly for comfort, and Joel unconsciously turns his head towards her in his sleep, leaning into her like her presence is just as much medicine to him as the penicillin 

Joel isn’t even healed yet but a switch flips in him because he knows Ellie needs him. the Joel we see next is darker, this Joel is the one Maria does’t trust and Tommy doesn’t understand, because he’s not about to lose a daughter again!!

“you don’t need a father” but she does, she does so badly and all she can think about is getting back to him

David’s whole speech about how she’s just like him so clearly unnerves Ellie because she’s not like David, if she’s like anyone she’s like Joel who she’s been trying so hard to be this episode. Joel is who she needs, Joel is who she takes after, and this man is nothing like Joel

the “violent heart” moment being such a parallel between Joel and David, highlighting how they’re nothing alike (Joel’s heart isn’t violent, it’s broken, but he doesn’t take and hurt for himself, he does whatever it takes to protect the people who need him) and by extension how David and Ellie are nothing alike and i could make a whole post about this moment alone and how utterly wrong David is here

how Joel grabs her backpack in the slaughterhouse because he knows she’s still out there and he’s not giving up hope on her just like he never gave up on Tommy - she’s family now, she’s his family now and he’s gonna get her back whatever it takes, and when he does she’s gonna need her backpack.

the way Joel goes to her when he spots her without thinking twice because it’s his girl and he’s just so relieved to see she’s alive... but the moment she starts screaming he knows something bad happened and his whole demeanor changes to focus on what Ellie needs in this moment

the absolute softness of how he says “Look,” says it’s me and I’m here and I got here as soon as I could and you’re safe, you’re safe with me 

Ellie lets herself hug him for the first time ever and they just melt into each other as he holds her tight like they both need after the last three episodes

“I got you baby girl.” the first time he’s called her something soft, something affectionate, something he used to call Sarah. his girl, his baby girl, his daughter.

“I got you,” he repeats, “I got you.” as much to reassure her as to reassure himself. he closes his eyes and holds her tighter because yes, he got her. he got there in time. he’s got her and he’s not letting her go. 

[actual-changeling]

YOU CAN SEE AND HEAR HIS HAND CUPPING THE BACK OF HER HEAD I AM UNWELL

[millerstation]

I got you. I got you.

THE LAST OF US— 1.08: "When We Are in Need"

[made-ofmemories]

TLOU episode 8 +Troubled birds

Ep 8 - Joel (1) - Joel (2)

[disaster-nicole]

TLOU ep.8 spoilers

When Joel finds Ellie at the end of the episode, the first thing he says to her is "It's me". Normally, that could read as a comfort, a victorious sentiment of 'it's alright, I'm here now'. But the way he says it, it sounds more like confusion. He doesn't immediately understand why her reaction is as desperate and violent as it is even when she's facing him. He doesn't yet understand why he has to clarify for her that it's him. He is genuinely confused.

Only then, when she settles a little, do the realizations come flooding for Joel. Now he processes just how disheveled and scared and frantic she is. He's never seen her in a state like this, which he knows can only mean one thing - whatever Ellie has just been through, it has been so much worse than anything they've faced together before now.

And he says it again, "It's me", and then he says "It's okay". And this time it is a comfort, a statement of safety.

And Ellie starts trying to explain, but she can't get anything coherent out so she just collapses into his arms and hugs him.

Joel is not stupid, and he is not a wishful thinker. He knows that Ellie is a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped by unknown men, was gone for hours, and who has now emerged from a burning building covered in blood and so traumatized that she screams and struggles the moment he touches her. He knows what these signs all point to, and the absolute terror that he must feel, fearing what Ellie probably went through. It would be paralyzing to any parent.

So he just repeats "It's okay." And he says "babygirl", and he says "I got you", because that's how he comforts his daughters. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Ellie is his daughter now, and he promised himself he'd do anything to protect her, and that's all he knows how to do in this moment. To tell her that he's here, he's him, she's safe. That it's okay.

They both know that it isn't but, fuck, what else can you do?

[romavitae]

WHAT TOWNNNN

[jolivira]

look at them, they’ve got anxiety

[image description: digital painting based on the last of us show. joel holds ellie as he puts his coat around her, he is looking down at her expression serious and worried. ellie is small in his coat by his side, her eyes are wide and look empty, blood is splattered on her face and running down her nose, tears are beginning to spill from her eyes, the background is white and cold. /end image description]

[lynsstrange]

okay but one of the scenes that disturbed me the most by far in episode eight is when the members of David's cult thing are all eating dinner. There's something just deeply uncomfortable about all these monotone voices repeating a prayer at once, and then devouring the meat that most of them have no idea is human. Even if you didn't know they were cannibals yet, there's something just so off about it. The ambience, and the way the sound was designed, of the clinking and scraping and eating, it makes me want to gag every time I watch it. Just by that twenty-second clip you can feel there is something, very, very wrong with this place, conveyed completely through atmosphere without dialogue or music or anything.

[toointojoelmiller]

Joel & Ellie

[dyingroses]

The Last of Us + text posts and stuff

[thee-person-writes]

These 18 seconds of audio from the new episode of The Last of Us are enough to carry me through the week

[actual-changeling]

-"Love like you", Rebecca Sugar, part 3, companion pieces part 1 & part 2

[graph-aa]

I think everyone will agree