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    Home Unlabelled The Last of Us | I had stopped being creative for a while and decided to make this. I am really proud of it

    The Last of Us | I had stopped being creative for a while and decided to make this. I am really proud of it

    November 11, 2020

    The Last of Us | I had stopped being creative for a while and decided to make this. I am really proud of it

    I had stopped being creative for a while and decided to make this. I am really proud of it

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 07:13 AM PST

    Finally Done! - Ellie Style Guitar

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 12:56 PM PST

    New prints from Alice X. Zhang

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 12:12 AM PST

    No better way to spend your cake day than with a hot cup of Ruston’s!

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 02:42 AM PST

    Redrew this promo render of the game while trying out a few new things (reposting bc I posted the wrong version before)

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 08:04 AM PST

    Finally finished the game and holy cow. How does anyone have a problem with this game at all?

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 03:29 PM PST

    My tribute to Ellie - all drawn digitally. Hope you enjoy :)

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 02:55 PM PST

    The Last of Us Part II gets shortlisted for 'Best Action and Adventure Game' and 'Best Audio Design' at the 2020 TIGA Game Industry Awards

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 09:14 AM PST

    I might be a little obsessed with the firefly logo

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 04:22 PM PST

    My thoughts on the game

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 07:40 PM PST

    Okay so I just finished the game i know im late but after all that happened and the spoilers and Joel death i wasn't sure about buying the game anyway I bought it played it even got a platinum trophy , the game is decent it's not that bad like what people are saying and it's not even "goty" like what most of the people here are saying the graphics and gameplay and everything else is fantastic the story on the other hand is kinda bad i mean you go on a journey to get revenge for Joel's death "twice" only to let abby go this in my opinion doesn't make any sense at all and don't get me wrong i liked playing as abby it was fun like you feel strong when fighting infected and other people when playing as abby but at the end she should've died with lev , oh and one more thing the game had so many cinematic scenes it was kinda annoying but overall i give the game 7.5/10

    submitted by /u/unknown001001
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    Last of us environment design Fanart

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 04:22 AM PST

    I just figured that stairs are really representative

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 11:34 AM PST

    (SPOILER/DETAIL) The real reason for WLF mandate.

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 04:41 PM PST

    I was playing through my grounded/permadeath playthrough and after rewatching the Jordan and Mike confrontation scene a few times i had an epiphany.

    Ellie takes a hardline with the WLF from the moment they kill her horse, and later on when she talks with Jessie about how the WLF shot first so everything after that is justified, but Ellie didn't realize that Team Jackson's revenge mission actually forces the WLFs hand right from the start.

    Tommy gets to Seattle first, and after heading into downtown manages to take out the entire Seravena Base garrison along with the first member of Abby's crew, who he tortured to death. Ellie and Dina don't even run into a live soldier until after they leave the hotel and ride right into an ied.

    Flashforward to Ellie's brief interrogation by Jordan, and his superior Mike announces on the new mandate from Isaac to "kill all tresspassers." Tommy's actions against not only the rear guard soldiers, but also impacting their operations against the Scars. Resulting in the WLF having to consider everyone else hostile.

    Ellie never considers that Tommy probably could've talked his way into the QZ at the outset instead of going in guns blazing, and as a result Isaac, not knowing that these tresspassers are there because of an attack he gave his blessing for committing a reprisal.

    submitted by /u/mbattagl
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    Honest Question. Is criticism of this game allowed on this sub?

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 06:57 PM PST

    As simple of a question as it seems, it doesn't seem to be met with as simple of an answer.

    submitted by /u/WaketheWindFromAfar
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    The Last Of Us Part II has more in common with Avatar: The Last Airbender than John Wick. Let me explain why. (Spoilers for ATLA S3)

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 05:11 AM PST

    Before I begin, I'd like to stress that writing posts like this is something I don't do very often, and I only ever do if I feel it's worthwhile. So please take the time to read the entire post before commenting.

    Thank you. Now on with the post.

    First things first, I'd like to establish that I'm talking about one specific episode, that being S3E14, named The Southern Raiders. There will be massive spoilers from now on. You have been warned.

    ———— SPOILER WARNING ————-

    Those who have seen the episode will immediately recognise its themes of revenge versus forgiveness and the important role closure plays in healing from grief.

    At the start of the episode, Zuko notices that Katara is the only one in the group that responds sourly to him. This is because Zuko and the Fire Nation would often raid her tribe for waterbenders when she was a child.

    One of these raids resulted in her mother getting killed.

    However, Zuko has no idea what happened and came to the conclusion that Katara is angry at him because he used to be a significant leader in the Fire Nation, in addition to the numerous times he's tried to hunt Aang and his crew.

    So Zuko consults Sokka, Katara's brother for his side of the story. We learn that a specific raiding party killed their mother.

    The next morning, Zuko tells Katara he knows who killed their mother and the both of them set off to find the murderer.

    First thing to note is this beautiful quote from Aang, which I think is relevant to TLOU2:

    "Let it all out. And let it go."

    He's essentially telling Katara to let her emotions out but is also telling her to not be consumed by it. He doesn't want Katara to have justice or revenge, but rather closure.

    When Katara and Zuko find the raiding party, they haul everyone but the captain overboard. And Katara does something very significant.

    She effectively tortures the guy (it's a kids show, they got pretty close), much like how Ellie tortured Nora. The main differences are that the Captain wasn't her mother's killer and that he gave up the location of their real target pretty quickly.

    At this point, Katara is referring to the murderer as a monster, attempting to dehumanise him so she'd feel less bad for hurting him.

    We learn that the murderer is a retired soldier named Yon Rha and we see that he works peacefully on a farm with his mother. This, to me reminds me of Joel and his relative peace in Jackson, while Katara feels like Abby.

    When Katara and Zuko ambush Ron with ease, and have him pinned down. Katara looks him in the eye and asks him who she is, much like how Abby asked Joel. Even after she lets out all of her rage that she's kept inside for years, in the end, she didn't feel anything for him. Ron was a coward through and through. At the end, Katara finally lets go of her anger and spares the guy, even though she doesn't forgive him.

    I can already hear the folks from r/thelastofus2 going "Aha! Even ATLA is a better revenge story than TLOU2!" And I'm going to have to stop you there, because there are a lot of key differences that separate the two.

    For one, the whole reason Joel was tortured was specifically because he ignored and shut down Abby's presence (something Ron never does to Katara), and demanded his life be ended quickly. Meanwhile, Ron asked that his own mother be killed instead of him.

    For another, unlike Katara, Ellie has legitimate PTSD from her experiences. Katara may be sad, but her mother's death does not affect her on a day-to-day basis like Joel's death does to Ellie.

    I know I mentioned John Wick in the title, but several people have already listed why TLOU2 and John Wick are not the same. The movie has some things in common with this episode, but overall, ATLA is closer to TLOU2 than John Wick.

    Obviously, this post does not do the episode, and the show in general enough justice, so I highly recommend you watch it. Thanks for reading this post up until now. I would love hear your thoughts in the comments.

    submitted by /u/OoXLR8oO
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    I ACTUALLY HATE HER.

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 03:12 PM PST

    "No build up" "Ending made no sense"

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 03:11 PM PST

    Joel’s Watch tattoo ideas

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 01:34 PM PST

    Hi all, I'm considering getting a tattoo of Joel's watch, and was wondering if I could get y'all's input. I would like it on my upper arm.

    What angle and style do you think would look good?

    Should I include the quote "I would do it all over again", or go minimal?

    Any input would be appreciated, thanks!

    submitted by /u/Dr-Brooklyn
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    I know I’m late to this but,

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 07:16 PM PST

    Why do people think the movie Pixels hates on/ makes fun of The Last of Us? I recently learned that people said this so I rewatched it and didn't see anything making fun of The Last of Us. Did I miss something or did we just want to hate on the movie for another reason?

    submitted by /u/xTheNumberZer0x
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    I don’t think I can beat this game - TLOU part 2

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 02:55 PM PST

    Day 2, hospital section.

    I don't think I can play this game anymore.

    Just got in the hospital with Abby, and honestly? I'm tired. This is not a hate post by any means, but playing with her kinda destroyed the pace. I get the point, but Is it necessary to make such a long game? The first one had the perfect playtime. This one? Don't think so.

    Maybe I got tired of long games. Maybe I'm tired of gaming. Idk... I'm playing this game for days. Little by little. It starts very well, but gets tiring and repetitive. I'm so fucking curious to beat this game and fully understand the decisions the writers made.

    I don't know... should I finish this game? Or just watch the rest on YouTube?? Be honest people, please.

    submitted by /u/JamesFletcherBR
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    A conversation about Empathy and facing our own biases in The Last of Us

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 07:24 AM PST

    thoughts? - “A professional writer’s take on TLOU2”

    Posted: 10 Nov 2020 05:50 PM PST

    hi folks, i know most of us here enjoyed the game. but i just finished reading this critical review by a supposedly published author and was wondering if anyone had thoughts. i figured since it's a little more structured compared to other analyses, ppl here would have interesting feedback and counter-points. personally, i'm not 100% sold on this critique being "objective," but my thoughts aren't fully baked enough to explain why. curious what others think and maybe it can get a healthy discussion going. (also sry if this is repetitive or has been shared before.)

    ​

    Amateur hour: A professional writer's take on TLOU2

    Before we begin, here's a link to my Goodreads page. (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15057029.Georgette_Kaplan) For those of you afraid of viruses, the bullet points: I'm a published author, several times over, with some of my books—the Easy Nevada trilogy—having been optioned for a movie deal (do check those books out, especially if you're a fan of the Uncharted games, I think you'll greatly enjoy them). In addition, all of those books are lesbian romances, so hopefully that takes care of any protests that by disliking this game, I'm homophobic, transphobic, hate women, or am overly enamored with beardy middle-aged men.

    I played the first game and I liked it well enough, though I wasn't a hardcore fan, and I played the second game all the way through. I have the Trophies to prove it. For the last few days, having finished TLOU2, I've been memeing on the game while I gather my thoughts. Now, I wouldn't say I'm a great writer, but I'm good enough to make a living at it. So if your average IGN editor is qualified to talk about video games, then I am too.

    Firstly, it strikes me how unbelievably amateurish and even juvenile the writing frequently is. Twice, the game calls back to TLOU's memorable giraffe encounter to buoy its own plot. The characters are, for the most part, flat and uninteresting, and their actions are frequently clichéd and uninspired. I'm actually surprised professional critics would laud this story. Maybe they're responding to the high-minded themes or to the actors' generally well-directed performances, but the actual execution I would say is very lacking.

    Most notably this would be in the sex scene between Abby and Owen. Now, much of the debate and defense of the scene is over how purely untitillating it is, but I'd like to focus on what an utter cliche the entire sequence is. Two people with unresolved sexual tension are in a heated argument, start physically fighting, and then begin fucking? This is a soap opera. It's something someone would write to parody bad writing in a soap opera. I can't believe that in 2020, this plot point was thrown at the player completely sincerely, without the slightest bit of irony.

    Well, that's the most dramatic example of the rotten writing, but the rot goes much deeper. There's the thuddingly obvious parallels between Abby and Ellie—would you believe they're both in love triangles with a pregnancy to be revealed at the proper 'dramatic' moment? Then there's the treatment of Joel and Ellie.

    Now, the previous game ended almost on a cliffhanger. Joel is now harboring this deep, dark secret of having saved Ellie's life at great cost. Ellie might or might not know, might suspect or not suspect—the story ended on a note of ambiguity that worked as a satisfying conclusion. But, with them coming back for a sequel, obviously this has to be explored. The secret has to come out. Ellie has to react to it. We have to see what this does to their relationship. And, preferably, we have to see the rift between them find closure. Sure, they could both storm off and never see each other again, but that's hardly a satisfying ending.

    And TLOU2 does explore this scenario, but I would say it does it in the exact wrong way. Abby's murder of Joel and Ellie's subsequent quest for vengeance happens so early on and so sucks the air out of the room, that the relationship between Joel and Ellie almost becomes irrelevant. While we do get flashbacks teasing out the secret being revealed, I could barely bring myself to care about them. Does it really matter whether Ellie hates Joel, forgives Joel, loves Joel, when he's going to have his skull split in half?

    And the actual exploration of Joel and Ellie's relationship is perfunctory and uninspired at best. It would be cliché for them to have a totally happy, idyllic relationship before Abby ruins things (you know, like Ellie's totally happy, idyllic relationship with Dina in the Return of the King-sized epilogue), but so often, Joel and Ellie feel less like fully realized people and more like stock characters playing out generic, soulless actions.

    For instance, when Joel confesses to Ellie what really happened in the hospital—how did you picture that confrontation going? It'd probably be a turning point in their whole relationship, right? On the one hand, Joel saved Ellie's life. She owes her continued existence to him. On the other hand, by doing this, he condemned countless people to death, including those he killed specifically to rescue her. Sounds like a lot to unpack, yeah? Ellie would probably have really mixed emotions about all that. Would she be grateful? Horrified? Sickened? Guilt-ridden? Probably a little of all of that. And this isn't even an emotionally mature adult dealing with all this, it's a child! Can you imagine the kind of soulful writing it would take to realistically, believably depict this situation in all its complexity?

    Well, Naughty Dog can't either, so they resort to the "Am I a fucking bet?" scene from She's All That. To me, that's the nadir of the storyline right there. Joel moves to comfort an overwrought Ellie and she fiercely screams "Don't fucking touch me!" How many times have we seen this exact emotional confrontation in TV shows, books, movies, etc? Is it suddenly original because it happens in a video game?

    Ellie declaring "We're done!" is also something that could've been borrowed from any number of CW dramas, not something that's uniquely or believably Ellie. It almost feels like Naughty Dog was simply interested in this revenge plot and stapled it onto the world of TLOU, with barely any care for the fact that these specific characters of Joel and Ellie would be involved.

    Now, I will give Naughty Dog some credit here. They don't soft-pedal how brutal and unforgivable Abby's slaying of Joel is. This would be the easiest thing in the world to do when they want to go back later and make Abby sympathetic. However, I do feel Naughty Dog might've let their pride get the best of them with this plot development, because it comes off like they really wish they hadn't killed Joel in such an outright evil manner. Frankly, the game has no call to be as long as it is except to beat the player over the head with attempts to make Abby lovable. Much has already been written about how poorly this story structure works, so I won't go over that criticism, but the fact remains that retelling the first half of the story from Abby's point of view serves little purpose except to endear the audience to her. We barely get any of Abby's perspective on Ellie's actions—it's like she's entirely unaware of her until she finds Owen's dead body. Instead, Abby gets this whole, unrelated plotline about the evils of the Scars that, as I said, serves mainly to bludgeon the player with how likable she's supposed to be. We already understand her motivation to kill Joel—why this hamfisted attempt to force the player to feel for a character who, really, doesn't deserve sympathy?

    In fact, I kinda suspect a lot of the game's much vaunted 'political correctness' is there simply to try and emotionally blackmail the player into, yes, liking Abby. From her frankly ridiculous physique to how her character arc revolves around saving a trans kid from bigoted religious fundamentalists (oh, and literally petting a dog), it's a full-on charm offensive. All that's missing is them saying "If you don't like Abby, the terrorists win!"

    The thing is… presenting these villains as not wholly bad guys is, well, a sophomoric idea. No one thinks that bad people spend all their time cackling evilly and twirling their mustaches (well, except for the writers, who introduce both the Scars and the Rattlers as unrepentantly evil). It's not a new idea that Hitler liked dogs and was a vegan. However, by presenting these characters as betraying Joel after his life-saving actions, torturing him to death in front of a screaming teenage girl, and then desecrating his corpse—seeing these characters playing on their Playstation Vitas™ after that doesn't make me feel like they're good people who are also capable of doing bad things. It makes me feel like they're complete psychopaths who could casually eat a baby the moment they feel like a snack, then go about their day like nothing much happened.

    Suffice to say, the narrative's would-be fancy trick of making me hate Abby and then getting me to like her did not work out. In fact, I wonder how many positive reviewers had actual affection for these characters in the first place. It's hard for me to believe someone could care about Joel and Ellie, then see this as a worthy continuation of their story or a fitting send-off for their characters. It might be unfair, but that's what I think the disconnect is, people who don't mind Joel and Ellie being moved around like chess pieces to tell a story and people who see their characters as being worthy of respect in their own right.

    Now, for me, the biggest germ of a good idea in TLOU2 is towards the end, when we finally get an insight into Ellie's character with her saying that if she'd been vivisected by the Fireflies, her life would've had meaning. Yes! That's what I want to see! I want to see that perspective explored! And, hopefully, given that I care about this character, I'd want her to evolve away from that worldview and see that her life does have meaning, even if she doesn't save the world.

    Look, I don't really care for the brand of internet criticism that writes fanfic of the Star Wars prequels or the latest Marvel movie, then declares how much better it would be than the story we got. It's easy to make any plotline sound good when you only spend a few paragraphs on it and the actual execution isn't taken into account. But I'd like to suggest a bit of an alternative, as a sort of busman's holiday. I mean, I did get a lesbian romance published with the title Scissor Link.

    Instead of killing Joel, Abby and her men take him prisoner and haul him back to Seattle for a public execution. Ellie and her friends track them there, probably getting into all sorts of adventures along the way. At some point, Ellie manages to get close to the caged Joel. She can't free him, but she does slip him a gun. She and the others plan to rush the Wolves' assembly in a do-or-die attempt to save him from being executed. Joel tries to dissuade her, saying it would be suicide, but Ellie is resolute.

    Then, when the time comes for Joel to be executed, before Ellie can carry out her plan, he takes out the gun and shoots himself. Denying Abby her vengeance and saving Ellie's life. He and Ellie would've come full circle. Joel understands her willingness to sacrifice herself for the greater good. Ellie understands his willingness to burn the world down, damn the consequences, for those she loves. Joel dies on his own terms, having found resolution and closure with his adopted daughter, while Ellie is able to forgive him and move on.

    I don't know, maybe if they'd gone with that, people would hate it even more, but I think showing the characters that level of respect and having that amount of care in their story--not Abby's—would've won the audience over. Joel would still die and you could still even have a point about the wrongness of vengeance, but without such disregard and disrespect for the players, the characters, and the story being told.

    By the way, given that this is something ridiculous like a thirty hour long game, is it too much to ask we spend a little less time on Abby and how great she is, and a little more time on the actual viability of the Fireflies' plan? I'm not saying Joel would particularly care if they could pull it off, not if it would mean Ellie's death, but could Tommy not point out some of the holes there?

    For God's sake, we have a whole sequence about Dina's Judaism, but nothing about the biggest controversy in the series? We just take it as a given that the Fireflies could've saved the world? I thought this game was about gritty realism. Maybe a little less thought into getting the stabbings exactly right and a little more thought into how the actual plot works.

    And God, not that I want to be here all day, but isn't it so contrived that Abby's father is the only scientist who can develop a vaccine from Ellie, and thus it's pointless for Ellie to keep attempting to find a cure? Would not the government be sequestering scientists under lock and key specifically so they could develop a vaccine in the early days of the outbreak? They'd probably have whole teams of scientists on military bases or in the middle of deserts or in hollowed out volcanoes. It wouldn't be just one guy in the whole wide world, would it? Come to think of it, Ellie finding someone else to experiment on her and willingly trying to go to her death could be a pretty engaging plotline itself, but it wouldn't tell people that vengeance is bad, so fuck it I guess...

    submitted by /u/Altruistic-Marzipan3
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