Horror 'The Last of Us' HBO Series

I am wondering at what point in the game this season is going to finish on. Will we even see Abby again this season because if it follows the game it will be all Ellie's story for quite a while.

We know from the trailers that the seraphites show up. Isaac is in there too talking to one they have hostage. I wonder will Lev be introduced or will they wait til the Abby portion of the story.

I am wondering the exact same. I think it might be after the confrontation with Nora which we know is happening this season.. Or as you say it may be the introduction of Yara and Lev to end the season and prepare us for Abby's story next season.
 
Yeah, there was enough talk and hinting that even if you hadn't played the games, you knew something bad was coming. I can't recall a time where I'd seen this many golf-related puns about a show that had nothing to do with golf, but I knew what it was for.
The golf talk really reminded me of people bringing up weddings in the days leading up to both the Red Wedding and Joffrey's Wedding episodes of Game of Thrones.

I am wondering at what point in the game this season is going to finish on. Will we even see Abby again this season because if it follows the game it will be all Ellie's story for quite a while.

We know from the trailers that the seraphites show up. Isaac is in there too talking to one they have hostage. I wonder will Lev be introduced or will they wait til the Abby portion of the story.
I am wondering the exact same. I think it might be after the confrontation with Nora which we know is happening this season.. Or as you say it may be the introduction of Yara and Lev to end the season and prepare us for Abby's story next season.
Abby is in the "Next On" clip at the end of episode 2 so we'll be seeing her again this season but I'm not sure if they're going to cover the beginning of her portion of the game just yet. I'm going to guess not since Kaitlyn Dever isn't in the main credits with the others there isn't much of a focus on Abby this season. I also don't think we're seeing Lev and Yara until season 3. We've seen nothing as far as casting announcements and also with only 5 episodes left that presumably focus mainly on Ellie, it's not enough time to really introduce them yet.
 
Abby is in the "Next On" clip at the end of episode 2 so we'll be seeing her again this season but I'm not sure if they're going to cover the beginning of her portion of the game just yet. I'm going to guess not since Kaitlyn Dever isn't in the main credits with the others there isn't much of a focus on Abby this season. I also don't think we're seeing Lev and Yara until season 3. We've seen nothing as far as casting announcements and also with only 5 episodes left that presumably focus mainly on Ellie, it's not enough time to really introduce them yet.

Interesting. I wonder if we're getting a few Abby scenes and flashbacks during the rest of the season then totry and make people like her and sympathise a bit more before season 3.

I also can't wait for the Rat King.
 
Interesting. I wonder if we're getting a few Abby scenes and flashbacks during the rest of the season then totry and make people like her and sympathise a bit more before season 3.

I also can't wait for the Rat King.
My guess is Abby will have scenes with Isaac to establish the WLF a little before fully jumping into their section of the story in season 3.

The Rat King is also one of the things I'm most excited to see adapted along with everything that happens on Seraphite island. I have complete faith that the Rat King will be done properly after how well they've adapted the bloaters.
 
My guess is Abby will have scenes with Isaac to establish the WLF a little before fully jumping into their section of the story in season 3.

The Rat King is also one of the things I'm most excited to see adapted along with everything that happens on Seraphite island. I have complete faith that the Rat King will be done properly after how well they've adapted the bloaters.

Ah man yeah I forgot about Seraphite Island amazing part of the game.. Also, I didn't realise until someone pointed it out but a couple of Abby's friends from the game are missing. Wonder what the thinking is there?

My guess is they wanted Ellie to kill less people and do not look as much of a monster by the end.
 
I am wondering at what point in the game this season is going to finish on. Will we even see Abby again this season because if it follows the game it will be all Ellie's story for quite a while.

We know from the trailers that the seraphites show up. Isaac is in there too talking to one they have hostage. I wonder will Lev be introduced or will they wait til the Abby portion of the story.
Im petty sure we will. With the way they've already set things up, it doesnt make sense not show her again. I think we will cut back to Abby a bit up until
their showdown in the finale. I think Lev's story and Abby's journey with them will be next season
 
Ah man yeah I forgot about Seraphite Island amazing part of the game.. Also, I didn't realise until someone pointed it out but a couple of Abby's friends from the game are missing. Wonder what the thinking is there?

My guess is they wanted Ellie to kill less people and do not look as much of a monster by the end.
I think they kept it to the most important characters in Abby's crew. To be honest, I kind of forgot about the others that were there in the game since they aren't as prominent as Owen, Mel, Manny and Nora. No reason why they can't still show up later on anyway as obstacles for Ellie once she's in Seattle like they were in the game but I don't think it was absolutely necessary for them to be there so I understand why they were excluded from Jackson.
 
I think they kept it to the most important characters in Abby's crew. To be honest, I kind of forgot about the others that were there in the game since they aren't as prominent as Owen, Mel, Manny and Nora. No reason why they can't still show up later on anyway as obstacles for Ellie once she's in Seattle like they were in the game but I don't think it was absolutely necessary for them to be there so I understand why they were excluded from Jackson.

Yeah I suppose they could show up later. But they're the first 2 killed in the game so I thought they included them here for sure. I do suspect it's because they don't want Ellie killing too many characters and becoming irredeemable to some viewers.
 
I really want to know if they are changing a storyline for two female characters.
 
I can't help the feeling that I'm watching a lesser version of something incredible, with several changes made to make the story more "accessible".
So your biggest gripe with the game is the point of the game?

I’m going to answer this by replying to another question you asked about a couple years ago:

But why do you want to change the structure so massively then? Is the structure of the game not a big, big part of its brilliance?

The key thing here is that the game works the way it does is because it’s exactly that, a game. With a videogame format, the creators are pretty much afforded the license and the mileage to do just about anything they want to because all of the story they want to tell can be done in a single, continuous, long-form narrative and the company making the game doesn’t have to worry as much about financial fallout from people not liking it because those people have already paid for the game, even if they return it. It’s a complete product.

However, TV is a different beast entirely. With TV, shows normally require multiple seasons to tell the story it wants to tell. And, in order to get more seasons, you need keep that investment going or else people will be disgusted or get bored and tune out, which leads to less engagement, which leads to lower ratings, which leads to chances of the show continuing of getting renewed less and less likely or not at all.

For the first season of TLOU, they didn’t have to worry about changing too much of the structure of the first game’s story in order to adapt it to television because it’s a much smaller story, would only need about a season’s worth of time, it’s more linear and can be experienced from beginning to end without having to worry about what on what’s going to happen next.

With this season, however, they are adapting only a portion of a story that’s three times the length of the first game over multiple, most likely three, seasons. And it’s not entirely linear. And it switches perspectives about halfway through. And it’s much more controversial due to certain decisions that it makes in its narrative and which direction it goes with certain characters. It’s, suffice to say, a very divisive game. You either love it, or at least like it, or absolutely loathe it. There is not much in between.

After a certain particular infamous scene, we don’t get Abby’s perspective until midway through the game. Until that point, we’re with Ellie and all we know about Abby is that she’s this terrible monster that just killed a beloved character and someone that she loved. For a game, that’s fine. For potentially 2 to 3 seasons worth of storytelling, that’s a problem, because you need that engagement in order for a show to continue. If the story had been adapted as is, I guarantee you that, after people sitting with that feeling for probably almost 2 years and thought, “I hate this Abby character! Why would I want to watch her?”, people would have been less and less likely to return, the show loses a large portion of it’s audience, and the chances of it getting renewed dwindle.

For this season, which needs to have its own beginning and end but is also telling only a fraction of the complete story, you need to hook your audience and get them on board early on. It’s why they made the controversial decision of showing Abby at the very beginning and moving the reveal of her motivation for going after Joel in episode 2. People need, if not get on board with her, at the very least be able to understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, even if we as an audience don’t like what she’s doing. You go from, “I’m going to murder this character!” to “ I absolutely hate what she did to Joel, but I can sort of understand why she did what she did.” Thus, you keep the investment and engagement going, you get high enough ratings for renewal and the show gets to keep on going to tell the rest of the story. You’d probably say that’s just chickening out. I say that’s just the nature of adaptation.

And, you’d probably say, “Why don’t they just adapt it into one long 14 to 16 episode season?” Because that’s not how the business works. There is a certain amount of money and time that goes into making these things. Certain people working on the show, like directors, writers, actors, crewmembers, etc., only have a certain amount of time to work on something and then have to move on to something else. And these seasons are not cheap. Also, you would have to cram and rush through so much story and the final product would suffer greatly for it. From a production, financial and logistical perspective, especially in this time that we’re living in, it’s just not realistically feasible.

Would I have wished things were different and they had just adapted and structured it the way it was originally? Of course. But that’s just not reality. In the transition from one medium with a set of rules and expectations to another medium with different sets of rules and expectations, certain concessions have to be made in order for an adaptation to succeed. All things considered, I’m pretty happy and satisfied with what we got.

That’s fine if you don’t like it. Not trying to force you to enjoy it. I’m just letting you know why the people involved making the show had to do what they did and why they did it the way they did.

Laura Bailey singing that song at the end of the episode did it for me. That was a great touch.
It was actually Ashley Johnson, but, yes, I agree wholeheartedly. That really got to me. :waa::waa::waa:
I am wondering at what point in the game this season is going to finish on. Will we even see Abby again this season because if it follows the game it will be all Ellie's story for quite a while.

We know from the trailers that the seraphites show up. Isaac is in there too talking to one they have hostage. I wonder will Lev be introduced or will they wait til the Abby portion of the story.
Well, going by what we’ve gotten so far and what we have left, this is my best guess:

The fallout/aftermath of the previous episode with everyone grieving and Ellie and Dina deciding and heading off to Seattle and maybe all of the Joel and Ellie flashbacks, minus the porch scene, all in episode 3, and a Eugene centered story for episode 4. Or, episode 3 is entirely the aftermath and episode 4 is split between the Joel and Ellie flashbacks and Eugene’s backstory. I’m kind of leaning more towards the former. Tone wise, pairing the melancholy of Joel’s death with the joy of the museum and gradual eroding of their relationship makes a whole lot of sense, and I feel the Eugene story needs an episode to itself so it has the space and time to breathe. Plus, putting the Eugene episode right in the middle of the season kind of gives the season a bit of a breather.

Episodes 5-7 will probably be Seattle days 1-3, mostly from Ellie and Dina’s perspective, interspersed with some WLF and Seraphite material. The season finale ends on Abby’s famous, “We let you live. And you wasted it!” line and then cuts straight to credits. I feel like that’s a good cliffhanger to leave the season on. Kind of like how they brought the scene of Joel and Ellie at the end of season one back for the beginning of season two, they’ll bring back that scene of Abby at the end of season two for the beginning of season three to lead into her story.
 
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Excellent, rational dressing down of every gripe I've heard about these two episodes. The only part I would add is if this were a direct lift, 1:1 recreation, there would be plenty of "why does this need to exist" criticisms. This is a Venn Diagram of a show that somehow rides the line of being .9:1 accurate AND being spiritually faithful to the characters.
 
Yeah, there was enough talk and hinting that even if you hadn't played the games, you knew something bad was coming. I can't recall a time where I'd seen this many golf-related puns about a show that had nothing to do with golf, but I knew what it was for.

I think my favorite one so far is “a Joel in one.”
 

Another podcast, you say?

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Speaking of podcasts, I'm disappointed that the Official HBO TLOU podcast hasn't really branched into cast interviews outside of Ashley Johnson being a guest for one episode last season. It's basically just Mazin, Druckmann and Troy Baker enjoying the sounds of their own voices. :o
 
Another podcast, you say?

captain-america-ill-add-it-to-the-list.gif

There's like 4 pods from The Ringer all covering TLOU.

The Button Mash one is good because they're only going by it with the full knowledge of the video game.
 
Another podcast, you say?

captain-america-ill-add-it-to-the-list.gif


Speaking of podcasts, I'm disappointed that the Official HBO TLOU podcast hasn't really branched into cast interviews outside of Ashley Johnson being a guest for one episode last season. It's basically just Mazin, Druckmann and Troy Baker enjoying the sounds of their own voices. :o
I don’t really get that vibe as much from Mazin and Druckmann, but Troy Baker has become really kind of insufferable as of late within the last few years. He’s now so much of a diva and he confidently says so much incorrect stuff on videos and podcast as if it’s true when it’s not. Also, that whole NFT fiasco and how he sort of “apologized” for it on the Play Watch Listen podcast but not really.
:csad:

You can definitely tell and feel it in these last two episodes, especially during that scene. 😢
 
I don’t really get that vibe as much from Mazin and Druckmann, but Troy Baker has become really kind of insufferable as of late within the last few years. He’s now so much of a diva and he confidently says so much incorrect stuff on videos and podcast as if it’s true when it’s not. Also, that whole NFT fiasco and how he sort of “apologized” for it on the Play Watch Listen podcast but not really.
I respect Troy Baker's talent. I just got done playing the Indiana Jones game and he's doing a pitch-perfect impression of Harrison Ford in it which really sells the game. But he can be really insufferable at times in real life. To add another example of him confidently saying incorrect stuff, there was an episode of the Newcomers podcast with Lauren Lapkus and Nicole Byer that had him on as a guest and at one point he was mansplaining to them how they were pronouncing the word "biopic" incorrectly. They were correctly pronouncing it as "bio pic" and he was claiming it was pronounced "bi-opic" (like "myopic"). I was yelling at him in my car telling him he was wrong. :o
 
I respect Troy Baker's talent. I just got done playing the Indiana Jones game and he's doing a pitch-perfect impression of Harrison Ford in it which really sells the game. But he can be really insufferable at times in real life. To add another example of him confidently saying incorrect stuff, there was an episode of the Newcomers podcast with Lauren Lapkus and Nicole Byer that had him on as a guest and at one point he was mansplaining to them how they were pronouncing the word "biopic" incorrectly. They were correctly pronouncing it as "bio pic" and he was claiming it was pronounced "bi-opic" (like "myopic"). I was yelling at him in my car telling him he was wrong. :o

Ugh what a d-bag. Yeah, Baker is an incredible voice actor (I loved his work on the Shadow of Mordor games in particular) but he does seem kind of awful in real life. Anyone who would try and mansplain to Nicole Byer in particular is a special kind of A-hole. She’s so funny and sweet.
 
So I didn't play the second game, but knew plenty about the storyline

I don't know how I feel about them revealing Abby's motivations before she does what she does

We get her motivation now, how much more can they really reveal to make us empathize with her going forward?
Feels like they kinda wasted it by showing it too early, it seems more shocking and interesting to have her do the deed and then slowly peel back the layers, making viewers surprised that they now understand and feel for her a bit. Whereas the way they did it on the show feels like it will be more of an uphill climb to make people like her. Not that people liked her in the game, clearly, but that just seemed like a more interesting way to do it.
 
So I didn't play the second game, but knew plenty about the storyline

I don't know how I feel about them revealing Abby's motivations before she does what she does

We get her motivation now, how much more can they really reveal to make us empathize with her going forward?
Feels like they kinda wasted it by showing it too early, it seems more shocking and interesting to have her do the deed and then slowly peel back the layers, making viewers surprised that they now understand and feel for her a bit. Whereas the way they did it on the show feels like it will be more of an uphill climb to make people like her. Not that people liked her in the game, clearly, but that just seemed like a more interesting way to do it.
In the game, we don't really see Abby again from the time she kills Joel until about halfway through the game when the it switches to her perspective and she becomes a playable character. As soon as that happens, we get a flashback of her and her dad so her motivation is revealed before we really get into her portion of the story.

At first I thought it was jarring for them to reveal her motivation in the opening scene of the season but I also get that adapting it for television means they have to change the narrative a bit, especially since the game is being split over a couple of seasons.
 
I think it works better revealing her motivation early. In the game she kills Joel, we have no idea why, then we spend half the game with Ellie anxiously waiting to kill Abby. Heck she even kills Jessie right before we get to play as her. By the time we get to her part of the story we have built up so much hatred for her.

If you watch gamer reactions on YouTube of when they get to Abby's playable part they are so resentful of being forced to play her. You can even see reactions from players for when they get to the boss fight with Ellie, and they want Ellie to kill her. So the whole Abby section of the story did nothing to soften them towards her because the game made them hate her for so long.
 
So I didn't play the second game, but knew plenty about the storyline

I don't know how I feel about them revealing Abby's motivations before she does what she does

We get her motivation now, how much more can they really reveal to make us empathize with her going forward?
Feels like they kinda wasted it by showing it too early, it seems more shocking and interesting to have her do the deed and then slowly peel back the layers, making viewers surprised that they now understand and feel for her a bit. Whereas the way they did it on the show feels like it will be more of an uphill climb to make people like her. Not that people liked her in the game, clearly, but that just seemed like a more interesting way to do it.
In the game, we don't really see Abby again from the time she kills Joel until about halfway through the game when the it switches to her perspective and she becomes a playable character. As soon as that happens, we get a flashback of her and her dad so her motivation is revealed before we really get into her portion of the story.

At first I thought it was jarring for them to reveal her motivation in the opening scene of the season but I also get that adapting it for television means they have to change the narrative a bit, especially since the game is being split over a couple of seasons.
^^^This

I think it’s one thing to say what happened. It’s another thing to actually see how it happened and how it made her feel.

When you just hear something explained to you, you’re missing a lot of context, and getting to see the context is really key in filling in everything and helping one understand the entire picture. You can have somebody read and explain the entire plot of the Lord of the Rings films to you, but you’re not getting the entire experience unless you actually see it for yourself.
 
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