#true fact! i dont actually have any beef with the fireflies as a whole! i dislike the doctors for personal science reasons but like.

[weirdbabs]

i will say, now that ive had time to ruminate on it a little, i dont really like what the show is doing with the fireflies. we havent seen much of them, just in the boston episodes, but what little theyre giving me and how theyre portraying fedra as well is making me 😬 a leeeetle bit sus

gonna put this under cut bc it got Long

i mean. right away theres a difference in how were exposed to them in that the game gives us news clips letting us know whats happened over the 20 years, how cities have been placed under marshal law, how riots have broken out as rations hit all time lows, how the fireflies started fighting back and how their public charter calls for the return of the branches of government, how fedras started holding public executions for “alleged fireflies”. the show doesnt give us anything like that, instead shows us that little boy who they let in and test, before promising that they were going to take care of him and he was safe now only to cut to the burn cart/pit where we find his body is. sure that lets us know that theyll lie and promise to protect you only to kill you but you can argue in their favor. he was infected, theres a short incubation period and who knows when he was infected, they did it in a gentle way (seems like euthanasia), they made an effort to help him. they saw this boy faint and they brought him inside the qz. the game fedra wouldnt have let him in even if there wasnt the chance he was infected, there were issues with rations as it was.

there are changes in what were shown of fedra too, little but they add up. we dont see them pulling people out of a condemned building and shooting anyone who tries to run/resist. we dont see any evidence of people being selected for “outside work duty”, but instead see people volunteering for work in hopes for extra ration cards. we dont see the ration line that hasnt opened yet, that people have been waiting in for who knows how long bc theyre running low. dont get to hear the guy telling his friend to keep his voice down when complaining about fedra bc otherwise he might die. sure they still have their public executions for unauthorized entry/exits of the qz, sure they still hold tess in a cell overnight bc they think she might be a firefly, but theyre still shown overall in a kinder light

and then we have the introduction of the fireflies. in the show theyre holding ellie, chained to a wall, who we learned they snatched off the street. they leave her like that, come check on her once or twice a day, take notes and leave. they dont even give her a change of clothes based on the fact shes wearing what she was when she was bit. i didnt see any bucket or anything so i dont know what they were doing for her bathroom situation cause they sure as shit werent gonna let her out of their sight. when we meet ellie in the game, shes free to move about the room shes hiding in as she wishes. shes hiding there by choice, bc she specifically sought marlene out after she was bitten. she knew for about 3 weeks that she could be the cure rather than finding out the day she was being shipped off.

when it comes to meeting “the queen firefly herself”, marlene is shown in show to be strategic and cunning. shes planning on how to get her troops out of the city by causing as much chaos as possible, spread the fedra soldiers thin and hope to keep them distracted so they can hopefully sneak out unnoticed. in the game theyve been planning on leaving the city for weeks (presumably from the moment she realized ellie was immune) and they went quiet. but fedra needs a scape goat, they need someone who they can blame the problems on, someone other than themselves who the qz can hate. so theyve been picking fights, hoping to rile them up. the fireflies are in a desperate situation trying to defend themselves rather than taking a stand

and then of course you have them changing it from the fedra hunting joel, ellie, and tess down under the assumption that they were fireflies (tying into what is reiterated throughout the game: that people are just as dangerous as the infected) to a hoard of infected chasing them, and removing the fireflies helping overthrow the pittsburgh kansas city qz (who wanted them to help take the fight to other qzs, and were instead captured and hung by the citizens)

and then in episode 7 they made one of the biggest changes yet in terms of the fedra/firefly dichotomy. in the show, the mall has recently been hooked up to the power when fedra opened a new block of buildings, which allows riley to show ellie the best day of her life. she knows about whats in the mall bc shes been stationed there by the fireflies, this 16 almost 17 yr old is stationed there alone in a building that hasnt even been properly cleared.

but in the game its a completely different story. the mall didnt suddenly gain powere, its had it the entire time. riley reveals this to ellie and we learn that fedra has the ability to provide power to every part of the city, they just say that it doesnt work as a way of controlling the populace. the fireflies dont have anyone stationed there, fedra do. a soldier named winston who was there to prevent people (and infected) from sneaking into the qz, who riley and ellie were sorta friends with and who taught ellie how to ride a horse.

by making those changes in left behind, suddenly you can make the argument that fedras not that bad. sure in some places like the kansas city qz theyre terrible but in others theyre actually trying to help the people! look how they expanded the qz! they got the power up and running and suddenly places like the mall work bc of that! look at the soldier who gave the warning to joel! sure he doesnt want to lose his supplier but he didnt have to give him the warning! and inversely you can make the argument that the fireflies are just as bad. look how they left a 16/17 year old alone with bombs! look how they open fire on the streets without care of whether they hit civilians! look how they view their personnel as expendable!

it feels like theyre gearing up to be like “actually the fireflies are just as bad as fedra” and im afraid if they go that route theyll have some shit take like “fighting your oppressors using aggressive/violent tactics makes you just as bad as the oppressor” or “if the fireflies make a cure theyll use it to ensure the people are under their control” or some shit like that