One thing we all forget as people who play these games is that a huge numbers of people who will watch the tv show will not have played the game. The tv version doesnt have to cater to the gamers.
It surely doesn’t but it wouldn’t be based off the game if it was entirely different It would be easier if it was like the walking dead but theirs only a handful of characters to dive in
@@Looptroop98 No it can be based on the game and still follow the story but its writing can be for an audience who havent played the game. The fundamentals of the story can still be the same, revenge is a destructive emotion can still be illustrated. the first games TV adaptation lacked the massive numbers of killings but still did a good job of relaying the story.
@@Stacky18 most who watched it have played the game it’s a small audience that’s watching and have zero clue what’s supposed to happen The same with uncharted, granted Tom holland is a big star it still was watched by people who have played uncharted before If gears chose to come out with a tv series I’m pretty sure majority who have played would already be willing to watch it off a 30sec trailer I’m saying this to say it would make more sense to draw in your core audience the newcomers will come regardless of adaptations but don’t get me wrong certain times it’s great to go a different route because it essentially can’t play exactly like the video game and that’s also a positive and negative like I think adding the infected stuck to walls that can transmit to other infected to come is something to set up if they choose to do open world
@@Looptroop98 Not true. The show exposed the IP to a far broader audience than just the game. It is not a "smaller audience" that show was a hit, and far more people watched the show on a week to week basis and the streams were crazy. My wife, her cousins, our parents, and many people I talked to never played the game and don't know what happens.
An apparent inability to recognize the difference between killing a person who is kneeling and defenseless vs. someone who is actively attempting to kill you has some disturbing implications.
@@futurestoryteller There are no "disturbing implications". The enemies who "beg" for their lives in these games, in combat situations, are all 100% lying. That is to say it's impossible to just take a chance and let them go without them instantly attempting to kill you immediately after their lying begging ends. 100% of the "begging" enemies ARE trying to actively kill the player. They're just lying to you before they do it. Don't get me wrong it would be fantastic if it was actually possible to just let some of them go in peace. But the games don't give that as an option. Thus if someone finds the begging lies funny so be it. The game makes it an absolute joke by making them all liars.
I have faith Part II will be well adapted. For starters, Druckman and Mazin said Part 2 will likely be split into multiple seasons. This tells me that there will be plenty of character development. Hopefully, there will be some time away from Ellie and Abby so that we can relate to the supporting cast; that way, certain deaths will hit more when they occur.
you not liking the side characters is kinda a you problem. i love all the side characters in part 2. they may not have a huge amount of screen time but they all have alot of depth and there is a lot of subtext to their performances that get better each playthrough. @@connerthewubbzler1062
The secondary characters were really wasted potential in part 2. I didn’t care about any deaths because they either annoyed me or they didn’t have any character. Sarah, Tess, sam, and Henry dying in part 1 all hit me hard because we had meaningful time with those characters. Also, the other secondary characters were great: Marlene, bill, and Tommy. Meanwhile, there are so many characters in part 2 and it’s way longer, yet I don’t care about any of them really because they’re either annoying or boring and have no character. Also, the story in 1 is straightforward but executed perfectly whereas part 2 is less straightforward but more convoluted. Part 1 is excellent and part 2 isn’t bad and I’d actually say it’s good. But damn… the game is frustrating and I think druckman is starting to think he’s some sort of auteur like kojima thinks of himself.
@@benjaminmartinez2066I disagree, we spent way more time with Jesse, Owen, Mel & Manny than we did with Sara. Sara’s death was just sad because she’s a little girl. I was highly upset when Jesse & Manny got killed lol.
In the first episode of the show, they did a great job adapting the prologue, and it was because they used the language of TV to do the same thing that the game used the language of gaming to do. In the game, Sarah is "on stick": because you're controlling her, you feel like you ARE her, you identify with her instantly and she becomes the protagonist. The show introduced Sarah and followed her through her day, which did the same thing: it used the language of TV to say "this is the main character" to make it more shocking and painful when she died. I'm confident they'll do what they need in S2's adaptation not to lose too much from the change in medium!
What they NEED to do is change the order of the story and make the characters less dumb... (Like, don't have pregnant Mel go out into the field and try not to make Manny a womanizer, and don't have them make the constant dumbass decisions they did in the game that spits in the face of Darwinism.) (Spoilers) Like, the first few episodes should go like this: If they introduce Abby first, have us go through a couple of episodes with her and see her relationship with her Dad and how much she has faith in the fireflies, then the next episode is the ending scene from the first game, it will help a LOT of people see things from her perspective (rather than forcing it after the fact) They should also try and have it so Joel doesn't save Abby, instead, make it Tommy and have Joel criticize Tommy for rescuing a stranger (it would fit for both characters and give Abby a better reason to spare Tommy than just "We're not monsters") and have Joel last for the whole episode but eventually leaves. Like maybe he slips away before Abby's group realizes who Joel is and what he's done. I think that will be important because if Ellie shows up, looking for Joel, only to find out that he's not there, they can have Abby put 2 and 2 together, knock out Tommy and use Ellie as a hostage, possibly even having Dina be involved, telling her "Go get Joel and tell him we have Ellie" and sending her off to find him. There can be a whole scene where Joel realizes that there's no way he can rescue Ellie without giving himself up, then the Joel in one scene can happen. Once it's over, it gives EVERY character that got involved more of a genuine reason to travel to Seattle and demand blood. -Tommy trusted a mysterious group without knowing them, feeling guilt for Joel's death and wanted to pay back however he can. -Ellie was used to get Joel into an unwinnable position, forcing him to give his own life for her, prompting Ellie to feel powerless and angry all over again. -Dina would join in because she was also used to help this group kill Joel, feeling a sense of responsibility for what happened even though there wasn't anything she could do about it. If they do that for the first few episodes, THEN the Season can be saved.
You can argue that the first game is a much more clear cut story than part 2. While it’s amazing, it’s story is pretty basic in its execution. Part 2 is going to be hard to replicate since the whole point of part 2 is to see both sides of a story and how shocking it is to play as Abby. I don’t anticipate them doing all of season 2 Ellie’s story then in season 3 showing Abby’s. Brand new audience members would hate that. I’m not confident it will adapt well but I’m not completely down on it. I’ll wait and see. I do think that based on Cheronobyl, they can probably make it work. Part 2 is much more in line with Cheronobyl than part 1
@@Lancaster22 Again, they can do it, but they need to reorder the story's experience and make some minor changes. The story itself isn't bad, it just went for a low blow too fast and demanded a response. If they do split 2 up into 2 seasons, they HAVE to do Abby's story first, otherwise it's going to end up like the game all over again...only this time the audience will have to WAIT to see Abby's story and reasons and I can imagine that will piss off too many people.
That is so stupid, the whole point of the story is cause of rage at the start.... If you know Abbys motives then we wont hate her at the start like Ellie. How are you missing the entire point of the story... smh@@connerthewubbzler1062
idk as someone whose never played the game but was impacted greatly just by watching the story, I feel like they can adapt it well and still hit all the right points
@Antonio-vn5xc unfortunately, I agree with you. I wish it could be just as easy as let us empathize with Abby first and her lost and only THEN show us the golfing scene. But no, if creators want make the audience feel the real anger, sadness and PSDT of Ellie (which is one of the main goals of the game), they need to kill Joel in the first or second episode
@@robsdianten1 I haven't played the second all the way through, but I feel like Pedro Pascal is too important to the way they're doing the show to just stick with how the game was. I think they can manage to both flesh everything out the way they want and either kill him off at the end of the season, or the beginning of the third whilst still adding their own flare and character development. Either way, we all know we're going to lose Pedro. Though saddening, it's far too important to the story to not have it happen. I don't think execs would even let the writers kill him off that early into season 2 given how well the show did.
@@jeremyjohnson9778 How would they do that with a whole season? Respectfully Joel needs to die early for the revenge story and the writers have proven to be smart enough to know what would have the greatest impact on the viewers- being a sudden early death like the game
You’ll be amazed by how effective good yet simple acting is. My trans friend showed me his natural voice the other day. It was very high pitched and made him appear much younger and feminine. I have a suspicion that Bella, much like Ashley pitched up their voice when playing young ellie, whereas they will probably pitch it down compared to their natural voice. Make up will definitely help a lot. Bella does have a fairly youthful face, but they also don’t really try to hide it.
@@NotDingsea woman built like a middle schooler is going on a mass kil-- spree taking on men and women twice or triple her size...and bulk abby that man handled video game ellie . Thats gonna be hilarious to watch. 😂
I think they should keep Joel's death at the beginning of the season. They might lose viewers, but I feel changing that would be compromising on the art and playing it safe. Episode one could end with Jessie telling Ellie and Dina that Joel didn't check in.
I think it be more interesting to see Abby’s background first and then she kills Joel in the middle. The way the game played out felt so backwards with writing
Exactly what i think. But they NEED pedro Pascal for marketing. They need his name. Especially cause not many people are sold on bella ramsey for the second part
@@dalton5903when i heard abby say “hey bear” i got immediate flashbacks to me putting a pickaxe through the same dog’s head a few hours ago as ellie and i just sat there and said “fuck you neil you bastard”
Hopefully this season does poorly honestly. I cant wait for newcomers who havent played the game to see Joel get brutally killed in episode one, and then see all of Abby's backstory for half the season and then end with no resolution whatsoever lol
I can't wait to see the fight scenes. Bella is built like a child 😂 she's going to be fighting bulky men that made Joel struggle at times, and also a bulked up abby.
If you're trying to make a dig at the second game, there was a resolution. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean there wasn't one. Dishonesty is the death of critique legitimacy.
@@channel45853 it somewhat ended on a cliffhanger because there's gonna be a 3rd game just like there's gonna be a 3rd season. So yes I believe season 2 will leave people with a ton more questions than answers.
I am very curious how they intend to approach Part II. A lot of the impact certainly came from the way it was formatted with you playing Ellie for the first half, and then switching characters and jumping backwards 3 days. Will they try to follow kind of the same format where the focus is Ellie's perspective through 3 days, then switch? Or will they try to tell their stories in parallel?
I don't know if that works for TV. For me, it didn't work as a game. After playing Ellie's section and basically the game felt like it started over when it switched to the Abby section. It took me completely out of the narrative.
since they said something about it being multiple seasons i wouldn’t be surprised if season 1 is only ellie’s perspective up until the aquarium. however, i think it would be better if they did it parallel and changed certain aspects to still hit the same. for example I would go through the prologue like it is in the game, but then through day 1 in seattle I would show small snippets of things to look forward to with abbey, and then the next episode have abby with the little callbacks to things ellie did. I would change the opening with abbey tho, as i feel like how it is in the game it would be a little jarring and would feel slow. Instead i would have her wake up alone and go throughout her day alone and then be assigned to the mission with manny and mel to kind of show how she feels like a bad person and how she feels lonely. I think it would characterize and allow the audience to synthesize a little more to see that side of her that early on
@@darekforeman535 This always struck me as a stupid criticism. I don't mean to insult you personally, its your opinion, but the fact is Ellie and Abby's stories have no relationship to each other except when they just bound in and break stuff in each other's lives. So I never felt like I was "starting the story over" because it's a completely different story, except for a few select scenes. Maybe that's the point, some people specifically say that it felt like two games in one, but even this video exhibits how feeling exhausted is necessary to the experience of the story. A reset yes, will eventually put you through the same rigors experientially, in that the game will continue to get progressively more challenging, it is also a bit of a breather though. We're separated from Ellie and all of her trauma where from Abby's perspective her revenge quest is already over and her life is just continuing as normal until it's blown out by something that seems at least initially to be unrelated to Ellie and her Jackson compatriots, and there's no reason to believe the scope of that impact is ever truly clear to her. (Since they probably motivated an escalation of conflict between the Seraphites and the WLF, but for her that was basically ongoing anyway) Having said that, you'll probably get what you want, it's much more in line with the medium of television to intercut. This was one of many criticisms I had of Season 1. Not that they did this, but that they used the technique in the medium to "expand the story" in a way that doesn't expand the story because we only spend extra time with secondary characters who are going to die anyway. This was like a gag on The Walking Dead for years. How do you know when an extra's number is up; if they're suddenly given a name and they tell a funny joke, they'll be dead in five seconds. If it's a named supporting character expect a whole episode about them, but then... At least in this case they can introduce us to, and spend time on characters who aren't necessarily just going to die immediately, you know, like a real TV show. Anyway as an unrelated/related example of what we're talking about here they spliced Left Behind into the middle of Season 1. So yeah, I don't think the strict division between the two characters and their narratives is going to survive the process of adaptation.
@@addisonm.8618i think making it parallel would ruin some of the suspense of things. as ellie, we’re constantly looking for abby, and we don’t know where she is, so we’re always hopeful that she’s right around the corner. seeing where she is at the same time would ruin the suspense of the search because we would know abby’s not in any danger
@@futurestoryteller it's not an insult personally. The fact you say Ellie and Abby's stories have no relationship, drives home my point. Playing this game for 10-15 hours or whatever as Ellie and getting to your main objective only to have the game pivot to an entirely different POV and character is annoying to me. I literally don't care about Abby's story. Her story intersects Ellie's with Joel killing her father, the doctor, in the first game, and Abby killing Joel in the 2nd game. Like you said and like others have said, it feels like 2 separate games. I don't feel a connection or any sympathy for Abby It's a bad gaming choice and a piss poor structural choice for telling any kind of story. Video game, movie, or book. Spending hours trying to locate Abby,and to finally locate her to just be sent into a flashback and forced to play as her for another 10 hours to get back to the exact same point, is crazy to me. Now I'm trying to defeat the character I've been playing as for a game and half. WTF After playing both games up until that point I am Joel and Ellie.
tv shows take a lot of liberty with source material, such as the bloater showing up in the wrong place, tess being frenched by infected instead of dying to fedra soldiers.
one thing about bill in the show, hes too in love with frank. in the game he said "FUCK UM" in the show he couldnt live without him but in the game he didnt hesitate to live. frank also didnt get sick at all. he got so fed up with bill and his rules that he left, tried to steal that battery and died trying... in the show bill wouldve never left franks side, but in the game we see a whole different set of characters who would make entirely different choices. and before you say "as long as the story is there its okay" listen, im there for the CHARACTERS, and if the characters arent recognizable to the eye they at least should make the same choices.
TLOU2 heavily relying on using player dissonance as a storytelling tool is a huge issue. It's like asking someone to adapt Shadow of the Colossus into TV/film. It won't hit half as hard without having control
Really good point raised. I love both TLOU games, but I understand the fatigue of the violence, for Part3 I’d love to see a story of helping people and redemption. Either HBO are going to get some great actors to make the audience feel pity and remorse for the kills, or the problem will show.
ND is really loose with what is canon in gameplay. On easier difficulties, the game gives you some ammo for killing folk, but on Grounded they don't drop anything (which makes no sense) and avoiding fights is preferable. And since it's the most "realistic experience" they want you sneaking around and running away. Besides Abby gets to find the only hospitable community in the country and gets saved by the people she meets. How many people would she have slaughtered if she infiltrated the town? On the reverse, all WLF are murdering war criminals. They kill women, children, elderly, sick, and manipulate dogs so they can make sure to kill EVERYONE. Ellie almost never has the power in any situation and is forced to kill to live. Give Abby the power and she tortures a dude for hours and makes his loved ones watch as she kills him. "I'm sure they won't come for me, even though I waited 5 years for revenge." Another huge thing I feel most people don't talk about is the travel. In TLoU 1 traveling was a hard, brutal experience and part of the game. Now in 2, everyone teleports back and forth across hundreds of miles, and months of time. If I walked to California from Wyoming to kill someone, I'm doing it.
This is a long, but good read, trust me. One simple change they could've done to the game to make it resonate more wit players (which is something I think they'll do in part 3 and season 2). Is that we should've played Abby's side first. BUT! It styll happens, but kinda skip over or move around the whole "Abby meets Joel & Tommy in the snow" part. Start the game wit Abby & co leaving the mansion & going to Seattle & continue up until Abby n Lev sneak into the theater. (All the while, us getting to learn who these new characters are, how they've been handling the pandemic, BUT not yet show how they link up to our characters, until we get to Abby's backstory and then Ellie's side.) But do it in a way where we don't kno who it is that's killing all our new friends in Seattle (that we think it's cuz we abandoned the WLF or something). Then, right BEFORE seeing that we run into Tommy at the theater, we switch to Abby's backstory. We see that her dad was the one Joel killed. Now we feel for Abby & everything she went throo. THEN, we finally get to Ellie's side of the story. (Yes, it would take quite a while, but this way, not knowing Joel dies yet & knowing what Abby went throo, we actually would feel for Abby.) Now we play as Ellie's story like normal. When we get to the mansion, we hear screaming and bust in to see Joel being murdered. Now we put 2 & 2 together and go "Ahh! THAT'S why Abby & co. were running away from the mansion in the beginning and tryna get outta there." Then we go on the hunt for Abby & co. Now, our emotions for Abby become conflicted wit new disdain for Joel & for some, may jus jump straight to hate for Abby. And both are fine and perfectly reasonable. Then, let the story play out how it does. It would flow better, IMO. Way better than how they did it. And the leaks... (which I never looked at myself. I jus heard ppl were laughing at a golf club for some reason. Lol I didn't get it and didn't want to get it at that time.) ...didn't help the game at all, since a lot of ppl knew what happened in the beginning. But yeh, I personally understand what Naughty Dog was tryna do, I jus think that the way they executed it was backward. Taking away the option for players to feel diff emotions. Instead, they jus had everyone pissed as we're forced to play as Abby for half the game, this character who jus offed our main guy from part 1. The way I would've done it styll gives dramatic reveals, possibly more reveals tbh, and gives the player their own chance to feel whatever way they want to about Abby & Joel, now that we already played her side, got to kno her, went throo trials wit her saving Yara & Lev. Then, finding out her dad was the surgeon at the end of the last game. Then, understanding why she wanted to hunt Joel down. Now that we have the full picture, we can feel and judge the way we want to. But don't jus take out one of our fav and main characters at the start and force us to play as the killer jus for shock value. What? Lol There's a diff way to get the same shock value, like in my version.
i've never played the games myself... i have watched my son play both of the games, and i have also watched a lot of playtroughs of different man and woman playing the TLOU part 2 and i love the experience of watching other people struggle with empathy the game wants you to experience... i love the games... i love the story... i also loved how they adapted it and expanded in the tv series... what I'm trying to say is... you can definitely get that feeling of hate/empathy just by watching.... i want to point out that i've been a gamer since atari in 1986... so yeah trust me when i say that you dont really need to experience it by gaming, you can apreciete this one by just watching.
I think season one was able to get away with having very little in the way of action scenes because ultimately the whole point was ellie and joels relationship which can be conveyed through character moments & dialogue alone. However, part 2 relies heavily on violence & action to make its theme so im curious to see what they cut and how they adapt certain gameplay sections since obviously we won't see everything or even probably most things due to budget & time
It just so happens that I was one of those people that jumped on the bandwagon of boycotting Part II after the leaks made it clear that "You know who" was going to die. In the moment it felt tlike the studio wanted to prove a point to "gamers"...that inclusiveness and diversity was going to be put above great storytelling. We all saw this play out before...and every single time virtue signalling was pushed to the fore, the games it was done in suffered. It pained me, and I wanted no part of it. Then...I watched the documentary of the making of Part II last night (maybe why this video ended up in my recommendations). As a fan of the first series I kind of knew that the second would have challenges if they purely jumped the years to where Part II got going. Backtrack to the documentary I watched. I felt shame... for not giving the game a chance. I could see how much the death of "Youknowwho" affected those writing, directing, and acting it out. Including all the technical staff. But there was a massive buy-in from everyone involved as it would have been the best mechanism to fuel Ellie to the lengths she had to go to, while delivering the gut-punch when you had to play the game as Abby. I thus ordered a physical copy of Part II immediately...to right the wrong I committed to myself, and Naughty Dog. Now...Part II of the series. I am familiar with the first 20 to 30 minutes of the game because I watched some YT videos. In that opening scenes a lot is said and done to show you, the player, that things have not been rosey for the years they have been in that camp. With clever writing they can fill out an entire season 2 without having to go anywhere near killing off "Youknowwho". But will it be any good? Maybe... But it wont be able to surpass the heights of the first season. And if you want to retain viewership you cannot have a dull-ish second season. So if they do go the depths they have to for season 2, I will be more open to it than I would have been up until 2 days ago. There is a strong morality lesson to lean into for season 2. The same themes were briefly touched on in various seasons of The Walking Dead TV series. What if the killing we do to rpotect our community is not as riteous as we believe it to be? What if the killing THEY commit is for the same reasons we kill? IS this the world we chose? Is this the world we enherited? Or is this the world as it evolved? OR perhaps...is this world even capable of being saved?
Over 13 minutes to tell us that there is difference between playing an instrument or just listen to one played by someone else? Do you really think a clarification was needed?
All they really need to do is tell the story linearly. That could mean a lot of things, like Ellie discovering the truth about the fireflies being the climax of season 2, with season 3 starting off at Joel’s death. I don’t know, that’s what I keep thinking they’ll do. They’ve got lots of material to flesh out what were just flashbacks in the game, possibly enough to fill up all or most of a season. More Pedro Pascal, more time with Ellie and Joel, more time with Dina and Jesse and Tommy in Jackson, and more chance to flesh out Abby before we get to the pivotal moment of Joel’s death and the beginning of Ellie’s quest for revenge.
one aspect of Part II that in my opinion cannot be adapted was the effect the first Abby vs. Ellie fight had on me... that moment, when we, the player, catch up to the moment the two women faces eachother once again, and we remain in control of Abby... never in my life had a game made me feel the way I felt there... every bullet I shot, every punch I made, I felt my very soul being damaged... it was absolutely harrowing and brutal
One part that I think is going to be incredibly difficult to adapt is the physicality and brutality that accompanies the second parts story. Much of the violence was cut from s1 of the show, which, I think served its purpose in showing the aging of Joel but also utlizing it to make a point of being visceral (Joel's rampage at the end, the Infected Swarming Kansas Suburbs). Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever are fantastic actors and I think much of the scenes around their relationships with Jackson and Seattle and their respective tribes are certainly going to be elevated from this adaptation- but with the violence of the Rat King, taking on a literal Army of WLF, the Scar's brutes, it might come off as unbelievable or, like the bloater in S1, making the horrors + death appear as a background/ from a distance to where the characters themselves "live vicariously around" akin to a stage play rather than engaging in the acts itself. In a story that tries to ground itself as much as possible in a world that is bleak and desperate this is an incredible challenge, and I can see already with how the first season was adapted they are going to do a sparing, more selective approach to the violence rather than a full-on descent. Its not what I would have preferred (I would have wanted something akin to Blood Meridian, showcasing the brutality of violence, and a mad spiral towards the cyclical nature of the conquering of the west, but that book has been proven to be famously unadaptable) but its a journey that is constrained by needing to appeal to the mass market and a live action television medium.
I’m highly convinced that one of the episodes are gonna start up with the scene of the bank robbery that we read about as Ellie that took place on outbreak day. It would awesome to see more flashbacks and I think we will get an episode all on the scars and their island and an episode about Tommy which we all wanted to be DLC. They have so much they can do like flashbacks of outbreak day in the Seattle hospital and the last days of FEDRA versus the Wolves
They’ve got to tell Abby’s story first. I think that was problem with game in Part 2. They could have made it seem like it was Ellie mother’s story or something rather then Joel enters the same room as her. As a game player you’d go, “wait, I thought…”?! And BOOM every time Joel is hit, you’re given a flashback of what Joel did in the previous game and you put it together. Then it switches to Ellie’s point of view.
@@leafyishereisdumbnameakath4259 nah whenever I speak to someone that dislikes this game within two replies I realise they don't understand a lot about the story
it's retcons,joel's contrived death,bad writing,poor pacing,forced romace in a revenge game and ellie killing everyone who knows abby but her is the problem you wouldn't see shit like that in john wick or the crow (1994).
If they flesh out the flashbacks more that could help with the pacing a lot and if they have abbys story simultaneously playing to ellies then we'll get to know the characters before we know what happens to them as abbys friends so people who only watch the show will be forced to get more invested and be surprised and it'll also force people to see the parallels between ellie and Abby more as if their stories are played more simultaneously then they can directly cut out parallel scenes back to back so it can be adapted the pacing is just gonna need an overhaul
I just wish we would've gotten more scenes with Joel and Ellie actually working and fighting together, which I think was one aspect of their bonding that wasn't given enough attention in the show. University and their time with Bill come to mind.
i think the key to a good part 2 will be switching between ellie and joel in jackson living a normal life with a strained relationship, and a long series of abby flashbacks to her normal life just before joel killed dr anderson, and a finale of abby killing joel, interwoven with her dreaming of her dad alive interrupted by a flashback of her breaking down in the hospital. season three can be about ellies decent into madness, although i hope they structure it differently than in the game. while heartwarming, the final flashback with ellie and joel noting how theyre on the path to reconciliation cheapens ellie’s motivation. her grief turned mania would make sense if she were still on the outs with a loved one recently passed. either way, she knows joel would want whats best for her; would want her to live and not be consumed and corrupted by vengeance because of him, and she’s known it the whole time! was even on the road to recovery for a while at the farm, so why did she go back for abby?! why did tommy do a complete 180 in terms of motivation in the story? why did his wife who was characterized in the first game as running a tight ship, let so many of them still raw and reeling with emotion, leave on a revenge trip? i feel like this a story meant for episodic television; as you said the tv show does wonders fleshing out the story and honoring the characters,even in vignettes entirely separate from joel and ellie. i hope the writers iron out some of the contrivances
Something i love about this game is that you it makes you feel exactly like ellie, at the end of the game you don't want to kill abby, you don't want to fight but you forced to. That's exactly how ellie feels, she's gone to far, she has to do this but she doesn't want to and thats beautiful about this game
Maybe a hot take but for the show i think they should open by showing Abby and her dad rather than having that halfway through the season, the outrage of Joel's death from new viewers is going to be crazy
i feel the second game didn't do as well because gamers in general are not used to a game making you feel so many negative emotions you're mentally drained at the end of it. Games are usually supposed to be fun and your actions usually have no consequences because you have to implement gameplay. It felt silly that ellie was killing so many people but killing a pregnant woman finally got to her. This will be better played out in the show because there is no need to implement gameplay. Film as a medium is more accepting of the variety of stories it can contain. And the second part is a very sad and depressing story which isn't exactly new to the film industry.
I like that line getting to know her community it falls flat as soon as you end up killing them I feel like the game should have punished You by killing the LF soldiers as Abby
As a person who agrees with you about the quality of Part 2, I loved it, one of the best stories a game has ever bothered to tell me, I disagree that this can’t be adapted. They just have to adjust the rate at which the story plays out. For instance, I don’t think that Part 2 will play out 1 for 1 like the game. I speculate that most of season 2 will actually cover a lot of the flashbacks that happen in Part 2. Show Joel and Ellie falling apart because of Joel’s lie. Wether I’m right about that or not, because this isn’t a game, it’s a show, I think we will be able to watch Abby’s scenes in the same way we did with David. Hate her or not, over time, viewers will sympathize with the human parts of her that get shown to us in the games. Feeling the dread with Ellie is all on the acting and the writing. Essentially, I hope you’re wrong, because I want to love this as much as I love the games. But yes, they have a high bar to clear.
my gripe with the tv show is that they spent too much time on the side characters that had no impact on the overall plot. it took away time from ellie and joel, making their relationship feel rushed. Two whole episodes were wasted on side characters that you never heard about again. (the kathleen episode was especially pointless) This made the ending feel unsatisfying and abrupt, whereas in the game the ending was really earned, had so much more impact and you could feel the sting when joel betrays ellies trust.
They could do one season doing the first part of ellie story until joels death, while showing what happened to abby and then thr season ending on both ellie and abby on the house were abby kills joel
After finishing Part II for a 3rd time last night, this time with my GF as my backseat gamer, we think if they split Part II into 2 seasons, this can be accomplished. Stretch out Ellie's part across season 2, hit the brakes at the finale, Season 3 starts from Abby's POV. One season for so much story can come off convoluted, you want to separate the audience from one character as much as possible when you're with the other to make that climax more impactful. TV can replicate that more easily, they don't need to show Ellie going on a one woman WLF killing spree like some of us do in game because Bella Ramsey's Ellie isn't structured that way.so her killing Abby's friends will instill that shock factor to the viewers. Plus, their sections feel so different, they can really flesh out the world in The Last of Us more this way, and still close Season 3 with Ellie. This is probably the most likely route, some would say that's milking it but I think it would help the overall pacing.
The first game at the time was considered massively violent. Yet the adaptation to TV survived really well, despite removing most of the infected and the gameplay. I too feel hopeful that Craig and Neil can pull this off and I think they can do it. :)
The fact that Ellie tried to make Sam immune in S1 could make the line in Pt2 where she says to Dina, "I can't make you immune either" so much more depressive.
I have been saying this since i played LOU2... no matter how they space it out 1 or 2 seasons no one is going to sympathize with Abby. I watched the first season with 2 guys that didn't play the game and they had a lot less connection to either Joel or Ellie than I did. They did not feel any sort of maternal connection to Bella that I did and Joel was just Oberon for half the season. They came to liking the characters and rooting for them but didn't feel the attachment I felt after hours of gameplay.
I think it may work if they introduce and follow Abbey first. Get a whole bunch of people (both those who have and haven't played the games) to fall in love with her/her story by creating depth of character, then bring back Ellie half-way through and create/reveal the conflict between them.
I personally wouldn’t be mad if they change Joel’s death and find a new way to tell a better story. Having said this I don’t think they will change that part of the story.
I have a strong feeling that they will somehow "twist" the next season into something special! They can take the Revenge story and transform in a way where we as viewers can FEEL the impact and want Ellie to stop her journey of revenge and just settle down.
Well articulated, but fundamentally flawed I think. You're basically arguing that film can't make the viewer feel emotions like guilt, pity, empathy or doubt; that ONLY videogames can do that. It's an ironic argument because not only are there literally countless famous examples outside of HBO, I can point straight to Denaeres Targaryen in GoT and her rage-filled, vengeful conquest of the slave kingdoms. At first we're all excited, "yeah go gett'em!" we all shouted. Right up until the mass crucifixions started, and an entire viewership (minus the edgelords) felt exactly what you're claiming is impossible to feel while watching television - that feeling of "hang on a minute... maybe the thing I was until recently onboard with is actually... bad?"
Spec Ops the Line did everything better than the Last of Us 2. The last of 2 did not work because both Ellie’s side and Abby’s side are both unlikable and unsympathetic. Spec ops the line works because players liked and had sympathy for the main characters despite the war crimes they committed.
@@petermj1098the retcons in tlou 2 piss me off to no end trying to justify Abby killing Joel at every turn. Because "Joel bad" "Abby good" even though Joel's so much better and way more likeable than Abby ever will be
Exactly! This is why we don't need more side character espiodes but it's gonna happen whether we like it or not like that clicker kissing Tess for no reason.
All it would take is a flip in the sequencing. Abby first, Ellie second. Or interlocking narrative: one episode following Ellie, then one with Abby. You answered your own question talking about Ep.3 of Season 1. The wider narrative can be fleshed out rather than follow one specific character or arc. It's naïve to think that it can be adapted or it will fail based on the way Season 1 was handled.
So I agree with you for the most part. I think acting in violence is part of that but I think they can capture some of that in film making but I think there’s other reason it won’t work. I expect them to change a substantial amount of the story for that reason. Ellie will probably only kill the Salt Lake Crew on screen and hopefully they can convey the participation with those kills because she’s not going to go around killing hundreds of people. I think the format of the game isn’t going to be able to translate. There’s no way they will do all of season 1 with Ellie then season 2 with Abby. They are either going to have to alternate episodes or do a substantial amount of cross cutting. Your point is valid but I’m not as worried about that as I am the format of the story. Part of the power in the game is that you get to the half way point and see the other side of the story.
Start with 1 episodes in Jackson. Introduce Cat, Dina and Jessie . Eli and Joel on adventures and Eli finds out the truth about the hospital Next 2 episodes- Abby introduction and Episode 4 the night before Joel’s death ending of episode is when Joel saves Abby 5 Dina and Eli with the snowballs end of episode Joel is killed 6 7 8 Eli’s revenge journey,Dina is pregnant , Lev is introduced and so as the wlf and rattlers essie dies Owen and Abby sleeping together The others die Eli’s losing it 9 final battle but starting on the farm with JJ and Dina .
Let me set the scene for you, the year is 2016, AMC's The Walking Dead is on that evening. Everyone terrified their favorite person is going to be chosen to bat the head in. The hype is insanely palpable. The show up til this point, has been pulling in 15-18 MILLION viewers per episode in season 6. Season 7 premieres fully introducing us to someone who has been perfectly built up for two seasons, his name whispered and spoken of like a boogeyman legend. Now we are face to face with *Negan*. He explains that this is revenge for his people. People of which Rick Grimes slaughtered by the dozens. And for a selfish desire too. So Negan takes Abraham Ford out, a man who was probably the physically toughest. Then one of Rick's group retaliates, Daryl Dixon (fan favorite and invented specifically FOR the series.) Takes a swing at Negan, and instead of him being Lucille'd. He takes Glenn Rhee out. I know not many people now recall this, but Glenn was SUCH a beloved character. People called out of work the next day, some dropped the show never to come back, people mourned him like Steven Yeun actually DIED. So to put it to meaning with TLOU, the gal who plays Abby will be hated on, JDM who plays Negan still gets hate to this day from ppl who loved Glenn and that's where the adaptation of TLOU has fucked themselves pretty hard, Joel Miller as portrayed by Pascal (who already has a cult like fanbase) is more like Glenn Rhee. He's not the merciless killer from the game. Even the hospital thing was made to make him look more innocent with Marlene admitting THEY DON'T KNOW if the cure will work. So, TLOU better buckle up, its going to be a bumpy ride and they don't even have a likeable and charismatic villian like Negan to fall back on.
I was always under the impression that the Marlene in the game initially said they didn’t know IF the cure would work. So that always bothered me when most people seem to respond with “Joel Took the cure from the world!” It’s like “dude, he took the POTENTIAL cure (which is still pretty bold). It was never 100% guaranteed. Just their best shot. Which he of course didn’t want to responsibly risk at the cost of her life to possibly get taken for just another failure in the search for said cure.
I didn't think the show was that good. They made ellie annoying and joel a bit of a pushover. I didnt care for the bill episode at all but i think tess was actually better in the show. The only positive i can think of now.
for the game part I enjoyed killing them more because of enemy AI and their behavior/reaction to their friend death , make it more personal , more satisfying for revenge , but I just didn't enjoy is killing dogs . It's a shame the game didn't give player a choice to kill or spare Abby , Because I would choose to kill every single one of them . Revenge doesn't have to always end up feels empty , it can be vindicating or glorified for righting the wrong you've been dealt , even if it doesn't mean bringing back the dead . like in RDR and RDR2 , where John kill Micah in revenge for Arthur and Jack doing the same for John . Though I agree that it would be quite hard to adapt it to tv series .
The soul of last of us... Man they screwed that up already. Part 1 sucked. Not to mention... the infected were near absent thru the whole series. Episode 3 had no room to be in this short season, and they introduced an element and only used it in the episode they introduced it on.... WTF. They gave the bad guys a female leader and ended it as dumb as they could. Then they made the kid younger and deaf? I'm convinced that Neal is a complete dick. No hoard to bond DAvid and Ellie... and no calming of Ellie by Joel after that.... She don't need no man, right Neil? Hell.. Joel didn't even need to find Ellie... he could have stayed in that garage. BTW: Part 2.... I didn't want revenge as bad as she does... I thought the Revenge plot was the dumbest thing Neil could have ever done with this IP. Guy is a moron. 8:00 whatever... and if you spare them they attack you... No knocking out guys in this game, because Neil is a dick. He likes making games as Manipulative as he can make them... and had Anita as a expert gamer guide... cause obviously she knows exactly what gamers want in their games. 8:20 now that's a lie.. Areas are too small and enemies are to Aggro to sneak by other than speedruninng past the spawns, which breaks the game more than anything else... No this game wasn't designed for passive play Neil made sure of that. No tranq guns in this game.... No MGS2 gameplay here, even though Neil loves to pretend that MGS2 was his inspiration.
I really don't see how the concerns you have don't translate to the first game/season. There was just as much player choice, arguably moresobin the first game when it came to character development. So many people never kept an eye on Ellie and so didn't interact with her when the option was available. Those who DID found themselves looking more and more to her to check on her because you wanted to know how she was doing, what she was thinking about, etc. And the show did this perfectly.
I believe that most people who watch the show, play the game, and will get the same feelings. Neil did say too that season 2 might have to be broken up into a 2 parter since there's so much to be covered.
@@robogreek3157 Ellie was a good actor, her screams felt real and she felt like a real kid, more so than the games David, dude was perfect for the role imo, had that creepy teacher vibe from the get go
100% right. I've been saying this since I heard they were immediately adapting TLOU2 directly into S2. I would have been happy if they invented a little in-between season of original stories. I cannot see how a passive audience will be able to feel what the we felt when we lived TLOU2. They will just hate Abbey as most idiots did without seeing her develop. Honestly, I think TLOU2 is a game that kind of catapults video games into the oeuvre of high art. No other format could make you feel that way, by living that experience with those characters, maybe literature but it would take a skilled author, this game is a masterpiece, as was one! I really hope they don't screw this up.
For TLOU2? It was the opposite way my friend. If you don't remember, TLOU2 has one of the most highest scores by the media of all time. And to add to that, it won the goty, an award that is given by the media.
Add to the fact that the plot was leaked way early. The response was immediately vitriolic and explosive. Critics aren't the ones who respond to leaks.
It was literally the other way around lol. TLOU2 was literally the GOTY that year while the Players's voice award was given to GOT. Which was as polarizing as the reception of the game when it came out.
I think the entire first episode of season 2 should be from Abby’s prospective, go from where you first see Abby and end just as she finds out who Joel is and the episode ends with a flashback where Abby finds her dads body. It creates an oh fuck moment for the viewers and suspense since they don’t know what she is gonna do. Then the next episode is all Ellie
Valid concerns but I dont think any of this makes it impossible to adapt. You mention how easy we watch violence using John Wick as an example, but not all cinematic violence is like it is in John Wick. The show makers can make the same choices the game does (minus the controller part) to emphasize the bruality by holding on the reactions of the victims, giving everyone names, scaling up the gore, etc. It's the difference between something like violence in the Godfather or a horror movie and violence in a Jason Statham or Marvel movie. They could also decrease the overall violence which I imagine they'll do like they did for season 1, both to make it feel more realistic because the suspension of disbelief is harder for cinema and to avoid fatigue.
I mostly want to see the Scars in the live action show. If they give them more depth during the cold openings and expand the lore a bit, it’ll be great.
I think the show is going to make the story way more parallel than the two stories rather than have them be seperate. And hear me out... I think when it starts Joel's death will have already happened and you'll see it in flashbacks
Well that is why movie makers are movie makers, they are smart and they think out the box to make something happen and make sense. They will do a great job and you will like it!
So basically you're saying the problems the HBO series face are the same problems every video game adaptation faces, only there is arguably a higher degree of difficulty for adapting TLOU 2. There are plenty of examples of TV shows and movies where you feel the weight of the main character killing people and the anxiety of someone trying to stay alive. I think it's a fair challenge to raise for future seasons, but I don't think it's insurmountable.
I get your point but in the last episode of season one, when Joel killed that guard who dropped his weapon and surrendered, I felt more remorse than any game i played. I have hope they will do a great job
Nope I straight up completed the game and still wanted my revenge I understand the game was trying to teach empathy but if someone killed my dad I would have no empathy the developers of the game were softer than I am. I played as Joel then Ellie. Abbys dad being a “ nice guy” doesn’t make me not want her dead Dude was gonna kill a girl what a shit doctor anyway.
I think you have some great points about the Abby narrative, and I think a major flaw in the narratives structure will be, like you said, creating sympathy for her character and her decisions. This said, I think the writers can create the dread and horror we felt playing as Ellie in part 2. If you look at the last episode of the first season, the showrunners do create a taste of this when Joel goes through the hospital and kills everyone to save Ellie in the montage sequence. However, this was one sequence at the end of the story creating the feeling for one small point of time. So their challenge would be creating a feeling of remorse for us to feel for Ellie through the multiple days in Seattle. This is no easy feat, but, if they created it for the Joel sequence it isn't impossible to say they could create it for Ellie's character throughout LOU part 2. Like I said earlier though, I don't see a way for them to effectively do it for Abby yet. Her story will be so much more difficult to capture the same feeling we had in the game for an on screen audience. Wonderful video essay!
Having just played Part II again with the release of the Remaster, I am confident with the adaptation of Part II to HBO. I think we'll get an entire episode with the aquarium family (Ricky and Max) similar to how we got an entire episode with Bill and Frank in Season 1. Probably also an entire episode with Yara and Lev with the Seraphites before they meet Abby. I'm looking forward to it.
Part II gonna finally be recognized as the masterpiece after being adapted to a format where the audience is mature enough to recognize that a story can still be great after the character you like got killed
Great video man! Really well done and thoughtful. I agree with your point of view here...hearing the names, pleas, and screams definitely adds to it. You've earned a sub man!
As someone looking forward to season 2, I agree wholeheartedly with this video. It won't work the same way. If people don't like Abby, they have the ability to just skip all of her scenes and her storyline if they want to and still "finish" the show. But if they do it that way they will not have experienced what the story is trying to convey. I really don't know how they will adapt it... I have high hopes but there is no way they can make it as impactful as the game.
Pedro was carrying a good portion of season 1. Idk if Bella can convey that anger and rage Ellie has personally. Her performance was good but she needs to bring her A game otherwise it’s gonna fall flat. TLOU2 I feel will work better as a show. There’s so much in the game left for interpretation that u can add context to it. U can show us so much more instead of telling us like the game does. Side characters can be fleshed out a lot more and u can actually do more with the story.
i always said that Pedro Pascal is loved by so many people just as how Joel was loved by so many people in the games and the majority are not gamers so of course they dont know what happens in part 2. So once they off Joel/Pedro Pascal in season 2, the views are gonna drop to very low numbers probably. same thing that happened to the players playing the Part 2 game
@@gaia7240 they won't learn anything. They made a clicker kiss Tess in the last season ffs. And druckmann's on board with hbo so yk he'll micromanage it to be just as retconned,contrived, poor paced as Tlou 2 is.
Druckmann said part 2 will be multiple seasons, Part 2 i think will be split into 2: one season taking place in between the two games, and the next during the main events of Part 2, meaning those constant flashbacks will be taken care of by season 2, for Ellie AND Abby. The season will have extra time to Characterize every character introduced in game 2, and the climax will be Abby Killing Joel. Season 3 would be Part 2 but swapping between Ellie and abby without the Flashbacks. Obviously none of that is confirmed, (besides Part 2 being multiple seasons) It’S jUsT a FiLm ThEoRy
One thing we all forget as people who play these games is that a huge numbers of people who will watch the tv show will not have played the game. The tv version doesnt have to cater to the gamers.
It surely doesn’t but it wouldn’t be based off the game if it was entirely different
It would be easier if it was like the walking dead but theirs only a handful of characters to dive in
@@Looptroop98 No it can be based on the game and still follow the story but its writing can be for an audience who havent played the game. The fundamentals of the story can still be the same, revenge is a destructive emotion can still be illustrated. the first games TV adaptation lacked the massive numbers of killings but still did a good job of relaying the story.
@@Stacky18 most who watched it have played the game it’s a small audience that’s watching and have zero clue what’s supposed to happen
The same with uncharted, granted Tom holland is a big star it still was watched by people who have played uncharted before
If gears chose to come out with a tv series I’m pretty sure majority who have played would already be willing to watch it off a 30sec trailer
I’m saying this to say it would make more sense to draw in your core audience the newcomers will come regardless of adaptations but don’t get me wrong certain times it’s great to go a different route because it essentially can’t play exactly like the video game and that’s also a positive and negative like I think adding the infected stuck to walls that can transmit to other infected to come is something to set up if they choose to do open world
Apologies for the long comment
@@Looptroop98 Not true. The show exposed the IP to a far broader audience than just the game. It is not a "smaller audience" that show was a hit, and far more people watched the show on a week to week basis and the streams were crazy. My wife, her cousins, our parents, and many people I talked to never played the game and don't know what happens.
I always laughed when the last WLF soldier says kill me if you got the nerve when there’s like nine bodies laying around
An apparent inability to recognize the difference between killing a person who is kneeling and defenseless vs. someone who is actively attempting to kill you has some disturbing implications.
@@futurestoryteller There are no "disturbing implications". The enemies who "beg" for their lives in these games, in combat situations, are all 100% lying. That is to say it's impossible to just take a chance and let them go without them instantly attempting to kill you immediately after their lying begging ends. 100% of the "begging" enemies ARE trying to actively kill the player. They're just lying to you before they do it. Don't get me wrong it would be fantastic if it was actually possible to just let some of them go in peace. But the games don't give that as an option. Thus if someone finds the begging lies funny so be it. The game makes it an absolute joke by making them all liars.
@@awesometwisteromega5982 When you really think about it this really doesn't have much of anything to do with the conversation
sorry but ur a free lick out there@@futurestoryteller
@@futurestoryteller Fairly certain they were just laughing at the irony of the situation
I have faith Part II will be well adapted. For starters, Druckman and Mazin said Part 2 will likely be split into multiple seasons. This tells me that there will be plenty of character development. Hopefully, there will be some time away from Ellie and Abby so that we can relate to the supporting cast; that way, certain deaths will hit more when they occur.
That's ANOTHER change they need to make, make us LIKE the fucking supporting Cast.
you not liking the side characters is kinda a you problem. i love all the side characters in part 2. they may not have a huge amount of screen time but they all have alot of depth and there is a lot of subtext to their performances that get better each playthrough. @@connerthewubbzler1062
agreed
The secondary characters were really wasted potential in part 2. I didn’t care about any deaths because they either annoyed me or they didn’t have any character. Sarah, Tess, sam, and Henry dying in part 1 all hit me hard because we had meaningful time with those characters. Also, the other secondary characters were great: Marlene, bill, and Tommy. Meanwhile, there are so many characters in part 2 and it’s way longer, yet I don’t care about any of them really because they’re either annoying or boring and have no character.
Also, the story in 1 is straightforward but executed perfectly whereas part 2 is less straightforward but more convoluted.
Part 1 is excellent and part 2 isn’t bad and I’d actually say it’s good. But damn… the game is frustrating and I think druckman is starting to think he’s some sort of auteur like kojima thinks of himself.
@@benjaminmartinez2066I disagree, we spent way more time with Jesse, Owen, Mel & Manny than we did with Sara. Sara’s death was just sad because she’s a little girl.
I was highly upset when Jesse & Manny got killed lol.
In the first episode of the show, they did a great job adapting the prologue, and it was because they used the language of TV to do the same thing that the game used the language of gaming to do.
In the game, Sarah is "on stick": because you're controlling her, you feel like you ARE her, you identify with her instantly and she becomes the protagonist. The show introduced Sarah and followed her through her day, which did the same thing: it used the language of TV to say "this is the main character" to make it more shocking and painful when she died.
I'm confident they'll do what they need in S2's adaptation not to lose too much from the change in medium!
What they NEED to do is change the order of the story and make the characters less dumb... (Like, don't have pregnant Mel go out into the field and try not to make Manny a womanizer, and don't have them make the constant dumbass decisions they did in the game that spits in the face of Darwinism.)
(Spoilers)
Like, the first few episodes should go like this:
If they introduce Abby first, have us go through a couple of episodes with her and see her relationship with her Dad and how much she has faith in the fireflies, then the next episode is the ending scene from the first game, it will help a LOT of people see things from her perspective (rather than forcing it after the fact)
They should also try and have it so Joel doesn't save Abby, instead, make it Tommy and have Joel criticize Tommy for rescuing a stranger (it would fit for both characters and give Abby a better reason to spare Tommy than just "We're not monsters") and have Joel last for the whole episode but eventually leaves. Like maybe he slips away before Abby's group realizes who Joel is and what he's done. I think that will be important because if Ellie shows up, looking for Joel, only to find out that he's not there, they can have Abby put 2 and 2 together, knock out Tommy and use Ellie as a hostage, possibly even having Dina be involved, telling her "Go get Joel and tell him we have Ellie" and sending her off to find him.
There can be a whole scene where Joel realizes that there's no way he can rescue Ellie without giving himself up, then the Joel in one scene can happen. Once it's over, it gives EVERY character that got involved more of a genuine reason to travel to Seattle and demand blood.
-Tommy trusted a mysterious group without knowing them, feeling guilt for Joel's death and wanted to pay back however he can.
-Ellie was used to get Joel into an unwinnable position, forcing him to give his own life for her, prompting Ellie to feel powerless and angry all over again.
-Dina would join in because she was also used to help this group kill Joel, feeling a sense of responsibility for what happened even though there wasn't anything she could do about it.
If they do that for the first few episodes, THEN the Season can be saved.
Sarah was never the protagonist
You can argue that the first game is a much more clear cut story than part 2. While it’s amazing, it’s story is pretty basic in its execution. Part 2 is going to be hard to replicate since the whole point of part 2 is to see both sides of a story and how shocking it is to play as Abby. I don’t anticipate them doing all of season 2 Ellie’s story then in season 3 showing Abby’s. Brand new audience members would hate that.
I’m not confident it will adapt well but I’m not completely down on it. I’ll wait and see. I do think that based on Cheronobyl, they can probably make it work. Part 2 is much more in line with Cheronobyl than part 1
@@Lancaster22 Again, they can do it, but they need to reorder the story's experience and make some minor changes. The story itself isn't bad, it just went for a low blow too fast and demanded a response.
If they do split 2 up into 2 seasons, they HAVE to do Abby's story first, otherwise it's going to end up like the game all over again...only this time the audience will have to WAIT to see Abby's story and reasons and I can imagine that will piss off too many people.
That is so stupid, the whole point of the story is cause of rage at the start.... If you know Abbys motives then we wont hate her at the start like Ellie. How are you missing the entire point of the story... smh@@connerthewubbzler1062
idk as someone whose never played the game but was impacted greatly just by watching the story, I feel like they can adapt it well and still hit all the right points
Nah you have to get the feel of beating Joel to death right or season 2 wouldn't work
@Antonio-vn5xc unfortunately, I agree with you. I wish it could be just as easy as let us empathize with Abby first and her lost and only THEN show us the golfing scene. But no, if creators want make the audience feel the real anger, sadness and PSDT of Ellie (which is one of the main goals of the game), they need to kill Joel in the first or second episode
@@robsdianten1 I haven't played the second all the way through, but I feel like Pedro Pascal is too important to the way they're doing the show to just stick with how the game was. I think they can manage to both flesh everything out the way they want and either kill him off at the end of the season, or the beginning of the third whilst still adding their own flare and character development. Either way, we all know we're going to lose Pedro. Though saddening, it's far too important to the story to not have it happen. I don't think execs would even let the writers kill him off that early into season 2 given how well the show did.
You’d have to play the game to think that lmao
@@jeremyjohnson9778 How would they do that with a whole season? Respectfully Joel needs to die early for the revenge story and the writers have proven to be smart enough to know what would have the greatest impact on the viewers- being a sudden early death like the game
smth im wondering is how bella ramsey will play tlou2 ellie, she was literally chosen because she sounds and looks like a teenager/child 😭
Exactly my point and look how short she is Abby is gonan kick her ass
You’ll be amazed by how effective good yet simple acting is.
My trans friend showed me his natural voice the other day. It was very high pitched and made him appear much younger and feminine.
I have a suspicion that Bella, much like Ashley pitched up their voice when playing young ellie, whereas they will probably pitch it down compared to their natural voice.
Make up will definitely help a lot. Bella does have a fairly youthful face, but they also don’t really try to hide it.
@@NotDingsea woman built like a middle schooler is going on a mass kil-- spree taking on men and women twice or triple her size...and bulk abby that man handled video game ellie . Thats gonna be hilarious to watch. 😂
can't wait to see how this vid ages: like fine wine or milk.
hopefully like milk 🙏
milky
I think they should keep Joel's death at the beginning of the season. They might lose viewers, but I feel changing that would be compromising on the art and playing it safe. Episode one could end with Jessie telling Ellie and Dina that Joel didn't check in.
I think it be more interesting to see Abby’s background first and then she kills Joel in the middle. The way the game played out felt so backwards with writing
Exactly what i think. But they NEED pedro Pascal for marketing. They need his name. Especially cause not many people are sold on bella ramsey for the second part
The moment I realised the dog you play with as abby is the one ellie killed at the aquarium 😭
and the other one you see in the dog pin at the ulf headquarters is the same one you kill at the hospital as Ellie. I believe his name is Bear
@@dalton5903when i heard abby say “hey bear” i got immediate flashbacks to me putting a pickaxe through the same dog’s head a few hours ago as ellie and i just sat there and said “fuck you neil you bastard”
Dog had it coming. Parking tickets, back child support owed. always out drinking when he said he was job hunting
Your logic is unlogical.
Hopefully this season does poorly honestly. I cant wait for newcomers who havent played the game to see Joel get brutally killed in episode one, and then see all of Abby's backstory for half the season and then end with no resolution whatsoever lol
I can't wait to see the fight scenes. Bella is built like a child 😂 she's going to be fighting bulky men that made Joel struggle at times, and also a bulked up abby.
If you're trying to make a dig at the second game, there was a resolution. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean there wasn't one.
Dishonesty is the death of critique legitimacy.
@@channel45853 it somewhat ended on a cliffhanger because there's gonna be a 3rd game just like there's gonna be a 3rd season. So yes I believe season 2 will leave people with a ton more questions than answers.
I am very curious how they intend to approach Part II. A lot of the impact certainly came from the way it was formatted with you playing Ellie for the first half, and then switching characters and jumping backwards 3 days. Will they try to follow kind of the same format where the focus is Ellie's perspective through 3 days, then switch? Or will they try to tell their stories in parallel?
I don't know if that works for TV.
For me, it didn't work as a game. After playing Ellie's section and basically the game felt like it started over when it switched to the Abby section. It took me completely out of the narrative.
since they said something about it being multiple seasons i wouldn’t be surprised if season 1 is only ellie’s perspective up until the aquarium. however, i think it would be better if they did it parallel and changed certain aspects to still hit the same. for example I would go through the prologue like it is in the game, but then through day 1 in seattle I would show small snippets of things to look forward to with abbey, and then the next episode have abby with the little callbacks to things ellie did. I would change the opening with abbey tho, as i feel like how it is in the game it would be a little jarring and would feel slow. Instead i would have her wake up alone and go throughout her day alone and then be assigned to the mission with manny and mel to kind of show how she feels like a bad person and how she feels lonely. I think it would characterize and allow the audience to synthesize a little more to see that side of her that early on
@@darekforeman535 This always struck me as a stupid criticism. I don't mean to insult you personally, its your opinion, but the fact is Ellie and Abby's stories have no relationship to each other except when they just bound in and break stuff in each other's lives. So I never felt like I was "starting the story over" because it's a completely different story, except for a few select scenes. Maybe that's the point, some people specifically say that it felt like two games in one, but even this video exhibits how feeling exhausted is necessary to the experience of the story. A reset yes, will eventually put you through the same rigors experientially, in that the game will continue to get progressively more challenging, it is also a bit of a breather though. We're separated from Ellie and all of her trauma where from Abby's perspective her revenge quest is already over and her life is just continuing as normal until it's blown out by something that seems at least initially to be unrelated to Ellie and her Jackson compatriots, and there's no reason to believe the scope of that impact is ever truly clear to her. (Since they probably motivated an escalation of conflict between the Seraphites and the WLF, but for her that was basically ongoing anyway)
Having said that, you'll probably get what you want, it's much more in line with the medium of television to intercut. This was one of many criticisms I had of Season 1. Not that they did this, but that they used the technique in the medium to "expand the story" in a way that doesn't expand the story because we only spend extra time with secondary characters who are going to die anyway. This was like a gag on The Walking Dead for years. How do you know when an extra's number is up; if they're suddenly given a name and they tell a funny joke, they'll be dead in five seconds. If it's a named supporting character expect a whole episode about them, but then... At least in this case they can introduce us to, and spend time on characters who aren't necessarily just going to die immediately, you know, like a real TV show.
Anyway as an unrelated/related example of what we're talking about here they spliced Left Behind into the middle of Season 1. So yeah, I don't think the strict division between the two characters and their narratives is going to survive the process of adaptation.
@@addisonm.8618i think making it parallel would ruin some of the suspense of things. as ellie, we’re constantly looking for abby, and we don’t know where she is, so we’re always hopeful that she’s right around the corner. seeing where she is at the same time would ruin the suspense of the search because we would know abby’s not in any danger
@@futurestoryteller it's not an insult personally.
The fact you say Ellie and Abby's stories have no relationship, drives home my point. Playing this game for 10-15 hours or whatever as Ellie and getting to your main objective only to have the game pivot to an entirely different POV and character is annoying to me. I literally don't care about Abby's story. Her story intersects Ellie's with Joel killing her father, the doctor, in the first game, and Abby killing Joel in the 2nd game.
Like you said and like others have said, it feels like 2 separate games. I don't feel a connection or any sympathy for Abby
It's a bad gaming choice and a piss poor structural choice for telling any kind of story. Video game, movie, or book.
Spending hours trying to locate Abby,and to finally locate her to just be sent into a flashback and forced to play as her for another 10 hours to get back to the exact same point, is crazy to me. Now I'm trying to defeat the character I've been playing as for a game and half. WTF
After playing both games up until that point I am Joel and Ellie.
tv shows take a lot of liberty with source material, such as the bloater showing up in the wrong place, tess being frenched by infected instead of dying to fedra soldiers.
and that disgusting ass unnecessary clicker kissing tess.
one thing about bill in the show, hes too in love with frank. in the game he said "FUCK UM" in the show he couldnt live without him but in the game he didnt hesitate to live. frank also didnt get sick at all. he got so fed up with bill and his rules that he left, tried to steal that battery and died trying... in the show bill wouldve never left franks side, but in the game we see a whole different set of characters who would make entirely different choices. and before you say "as long as the story is there its okay" listen, im there for the CHARACTERS, and if the characters arent recognizable to the eye they at least should make the same choices.
they fucked up adapting the first one, and that one has an easier structure to translate to a series, so of course the second season will be terrible
TLOU2 heavily relying on using player dissonance as a storytelling tool is a huge issue. It's like asking someone to adapt Shadow of the Colossus into TV/film. It won't hit half as hard without having control
Really good point raised. I love both TLOU games, but I understand the fatigue of the violence, for Part3 I’d love to see a story of helping people and redemption. Either HBO are going to get some great actors to make the audience feel pity and remorse for the kills, or the problem will show.
ND is really loose with what is canon in gameplay. On easier difficulties, the game gives you some ammo for killing folk, but on Grounded they don't drop anything (which makes no sense) and avoiding fights is preferable. And since it's the most "realistic experience" they want you sneaking around and running away.
Besides Abby gets to find the only hospitable community in the country and gets saved by the people she meets. How many people would she have slaughtered if she infiltrated the town?
On the reverse, all WLF are murdering war criminals. They kill women, children, elderly, sick, and manipulate dogs so they can make sure to kill EVERYONE. Ellie almost never has the power in any situation and is forced to kill to live. Give Abby the power and she tortures a dude for hours and makes his loved ones watch as she kills him. "I'm sure they won't come for me, even though I waited 5 years for revenge."
Another huge thing I feel most people don't talk about is the travel. In TLoU 1 traveling was a hard, brutal experience and part of the game. Now in 2, everyone teleports back and forth across hundreds of miles, and months of time. If I walked to California from Wyoming to kill someone, I'm doing it.
But Abby good because she saves bald trans child while Ellie bad because she killed the dog... I hated the game
This is a long, but good read, trust me.
One simple change they could've done to the game to make it resonate more wit players (which is something I think they'll do in part 3 and season 2).
Is that we should've played Abby's side first.
BUT!
It styll happens, but kinda skip over or move around the whole "Abby meets Joel & Tommy in the snow" part.
Start the game wit Abby & co leaving the mansion & going to Seattle & continue up until Abby n Lev sneak into the theater.
(All the while, us getting to learn who these new characters are, how they've been handling the pandemic, BUT not yet show how they link up to our characters, until we get to Abby's backstory and then Ellie's side.)
But do it in a way where we don't kno who it is that's killing all our new friends in Seattle (that we think it's cuz we abandoned the WLF or something).
Then, right BEFORE seeing that we run into Tommy at the theater, we switch to Abby's backstory.
We see that her dad was the one Joel killed.
Now we feel for Abby & everything she went throo.
THEN, we finally get to Ellie's side of the story.
(Yes, it would take quite a while, but this way, not knowing Joel dies yet & knowing what Abby went throo, we actually would feel for Abby.)
Now we play as Ellie's story like normal.
When we get to the mansion, we hear screaming and bust in to see Joel being murdered.
Now we put 2 & 2 together and go
"Ahh! THAT'S why Abby & co. were running away from the mansion in the beginning and tryna get outta there."
Then we go on the hunt for Abby & co.
Now, our emotions for Abby become conflicted wit new disdain for Joel & for some, may jus jump straight to hate for Abby.
And both are fine and perfectly reasonable.
Then, let the story play out how it does.
It would flow better, IMO.
Way better than how they did it.
And the leaks...
(which I never looked at myself.
I jus heard ppl were laughing at a golf club for some reason. Lol
I didn't get it and didn't want to get it at that time.)
...didn't help the game at all, since a lot of ppl knew what happened in the beginning.
But yeh, I personally understand what Naughty Dog was tryna do, I jus think that the way they executed it was backward.
Taking away the option for players to feel diff emotions.
Instead, they jus had everyone pissed as we're forced to play as Abby for half the game, this character who jus offed our main guy from part 1.
The way I would've done it styll gives dramatic reveals, possibly more reveals tbh, and gives the player their own chance to feel whatever way they want to about Abby & Joel, now that we already played her side, got to kno her, went throo trials wit her saving Yara & Lev.
Then, finding out her dad was the surgeon at the end of the last game.
Then, understanding why she wanted to hunt Joel down.
Now that we have the full picture, we can feel and judge the way we want to.
But don't jus take out one of our fav and main characters at the start and force us to play as the killer jus for shock value.
What? Lol
There's a diff way to get the same shock value, like in my version.
Nah, the HBO adaptation was half baked.
i've never played the games myself... i have watched my son play both of the games, and i have also watched a lot of playtroughs of different man and woman playing the TLOU part 2 and i love the experience of watching other people struggle with empathy the game wants you to experience... i love the games... i love the story... i also loved how they adapted it and expanded in the tv series... what I'm trying to say is... you can definitely get that feeling of hate/empathy just by watching.... i want to point out that i've been a gamer since atari in 1986... so yeah trust me when i say that you dont really need to experience it by gaming, you can apreciete this one by just watching.
No I don’t want to see my boy Pedro Pascal play Golf
I wish they would’ve made TLOU as a cartoon instead of live action. They could’ve done so much more and can keep it going so much longer
I think season one was able to get away with having very little in the way of action scenes because ultimately the whole point was ellie and joels relationship which can be conveyed through character moments & dialogue alone. However, part 2 relies heavily on violence & action to make its theme so im curious to see what they cut and how they adapt certain gameplay sections since obviously we won't see everything or even probably most things due to budget & time
If Marvel can adapt One More Day, one of their worst stories ever, into No Way Home, then Last Of Part 2 as a show can happen.
unless marvel is making the last of us season 2, that isn't relevant
It just so happens that I was one of those people that jumped on the bandwagon of boycotting Part II after the leaks made it clear that "You know who" was going to die. In the moment it felt tlike the studio wanted to prove a point to "gamers"...that inclusiveness and diversity was going to be put above great storytelling. We all saw this play out before...and every single time virtue signalling was pushed to the fore, the games it was done in suffered. It pained me, and I wanted no part of it.
Then...I watched the documentary of the making of Part II last night (maybe why this video ended up in my recommendations).
As a fan of the first series I kind of knew that the second would have challenges if they purely jumped the years to where Part II got going.
Backtrack to the documentary I watched. I felt shame... for not giving the game a chance. I could see how much the death of "Youknowwho" affected those writing, directing, and acting it out. Including all the technical staff. But there was a massive buy-in from everyone involved as it would have been the best mechanism to fuel Ellie to the lengths she had to go to, while delivering the gut-punch when you had to play the game as Abby. I thus ordered a physical copy of Part II immediately...to right the wrong I committed to myself, and Naughty Dog.
Now...Part II of the series. I am familiar with the first 20 to 30 minutes of the game because I watched some YT videos. In that opening scenes a lot is said and done to show you, the player, that things have not been rosey for the years they have been in that camp. With clever writing they can fill out an entire season 2 without having to go anywhere near killing off "Youknowwho". But will it be any good? Maybe... But it wont be able to surpass the heights of the first season. And if you want to retain viewership you cannot have a dull-ish second season. So if they do go the depths they have to for season 2, I will be more open to it than I would have been up until 2 days ago. There is a strong morality lesson to lean into for season 2. The same themes were briefly touched on in various seasons of The Walking Dead TV series. What if the killing we do to rpotect our community is not as riteous as we believe it to be? What if the killing THEY commit is for the same reasons we kill? IS this the world we chose? Is this the world we enherited? Or is this the world as it evolved? OR perhaps...is this world even capable of being saved?
Over 13 minutes to tell us that there is difference between playing an instrument or just listen to one played by someone else? Do you really think a clarification was needed?
All they really need to do is tell the story linearly. That could mean a lot of things, like Ellie discovering the truth about the fireflies being the climax of season 2, with season 3 starting off at Joel’s death.
I don’t know, that’s what I keep thinking they’ll do. They’ve got lots of material to flesh out what were just flashbacks in the game, possibly enough to fill up all or most of a season. More Pedro Pascal, more time with Ellie and Joel, more time with Dina and Jesse and Tommy in Jackson, and more chance to flesh out Abby before we get to the pivotal moment of Joel’s death and the beginning of Ellie’s quest for revenge.
one aspect of Part II that in my opinion cannot be adapted was the effect the first Abby vs. Ellie fight had on me...
that moment, when we, the player, catch up to the moment the two women faces eachother once again, and we remain in control of Abby...
never in my life had a game made me feel the way I felt there...
every bullet I shot, every punch I made, I felt my very soul being damaged...
it was absolutely harrowing and brutal
Really, shit I was just waiting to switch back to Ellie
One part that I think is going to be incredibly difficult to adapt is the physicality and brutality that accompanies the second parts story. Much of the violence was cut from s1 of the show, which, I think served its purpose in showing the aging of Joel but also utlizing it to make a point of being visceral (Joel's rampage at the end, the Infected Swarming Kansas Suburbs). Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever are fantastic actors and I think much of the scenes around their relationships with Jackson and Seattle and their respective tribes are certainly going to be elevated from this adaptation- but with the violence of the Rat King, taking on a literal Army of WLF, the Scar's brutes, it might come off as unbelievable or, like the bloater in S1, making the horrors + death appear as a background/ from a distance to where the characters themselves "live vicariously around" akin to a stage play rather than engaging in the acts itself.
In a story that tries to ground itself as much as possible in a world that is bleak and desperate this is an incredible challenge, and I can see already with how the first season was adapted they are going to do a sparing, more selective approach to the violence rather than a full-on descent. Its not what I would have preferred (I would have wanted something akin to Blood Meridian, showcasing the brutality of violence, and a mad spiral towards the cyclical nature of the conquering of the west, but that book has been proven to be famously unadaptable) but its a journey that is constrained by needing to appeal to the mass market and a live action television medium.
I’m highly convinced that one of the episodes are gonna start up with the scene of the bank robbery that we read about as Ellie that took place on outbreak day. It would awesome to see more flashbacks and I think we will get an episode all on the scars and their island and an episode about Tommy which we all wanted to be DLC. They have so much they can do like flashbacks of outbreak day in the Seattle hospital and the last days of FEDRA versus the Wolves
They’ve got to tell Abby’s story first. I think that was problem with game in Part 2. They could have made it seem like it was Ellie mother’s story or something rather then Joel enters the same room as her. As a game player you’d go, “wait, I thought…”?! And BOOM every time Joel is hit, you’re given a flashback of what Joel did in the previous game and you put it together. Then it switches to Ellie’s point of view.
Your average gamer doesn’t comprehend this game at all. You really do and in a real human sense. Good job you.
They comprehend it, they just think it's dumb
@@leafyishereisdumbnameakath4259 nah whenever I speak to someone that dislikes this game within two replies I realise they don't understand a lot about the story
it's retcons,joel's contrived death,bad writing,poor pacing,forced romace in a revenge game and ellie killing everyone who knows abby but her is the problem you wouldn't see shit like that in john wick or the crow (1994).
My thought was that it’s going to be hard to adapt it due to the storytelling structure of the game more than anything.
It can be adapted. It will need to be handled carefully. I trust the team who adapted the first season perfectly in my opinion
please explain to me how it is 2perfectly adapted" when there is a mfing clicker kiss with tess.
If they flesh out the flashbacks more that could help with the pacing a lot and if they have abbys story simultaneously playing to ellies then we'll get to know the characters before we know what happens to them as abbys friends so people who only watch the show will be forced to get more invested and be surprised and it'll also force people to see the parallels between ellie and Abby more as if their stories are played more simultaneously then they can directly cut out parallel scenes back to back so it can be adapted the pacing is just gonna need an overhaul
I feel like the change for things to be realistic kinda killed it for me but still was good in some aspects
Yeah having Joel fight or sneak around no one was disappointing and cutting the university fight
@@PeachesandCream225 yea makes sense to cut gameplay areas but some I wish stuck around
Realistic? It’s a show about a fucking zombie apocalypse..
I just wish we would've gotten more scenes with Joel and Ellie actually working and fighting together, which I think was one aspect of their bonding that wasn't given enough attention in the show. University and their time with Bill come to mind.
@@gamingbytetv665exactly my point
The only way season 2 will succeed is if they keep all the violence, and don't water it down.
Considering the walking dead completely changed key characters Fate compared to the comics this show can as well
They need to build up Abby BEFORE killing Joel, in the show.
12:27 Well, we had to keep Abby alive, but doesn't mean we had to like it.
i think the key to a good part 2 will be switching between ellie and joel in jackson living a normal life with a strained relationship, and a long series of abby flashbacks to her normal life just before joel killed dr anderson, and a finale of abby killing joel, interwoven with her dreaming of her dad alive interrupted by a flashback of her breaking down in the hospital. season three can be about ellies decent into madness, although i hope they structure it differently than in the game.
while heartwarming, the final flashback with ellie and joel noting how theyre on the path to reconciliation cheapens ellie’s motivation. her grief turned mania would make sense if she were still on the outs with a loved one recently passed. either way, she knows joel would want whats best for her; would want her to live and not be consumed and corrupted by vengeance because of him, and she’s known it the whole time! was even on the road to recovery for a while at the farm, so why did she go back for abby?! why did tommy do a complete 180 in terms of motivation in the story? why did his wife who was characterized in the first game as running a tight ship, let so many of them still raw and reeling with emotion, leave on a revenge trip? i feel like this a story meant for episodic television; as you said the tv show does wonders fleshing out the story and honoring the characters,even in vignettes entirely separate from joel and ellie. i hope the writers iron out some of the contrivances
Something i love about this game is that you it makes you feel exactly like ellie, at the end of the game you don't want to kill abby, you don't want to fight but you forced to. That's exactly how ellie feels, she's gone to far, she has to do this but she doesn't want to and thats beautiful about this game
Maybe a hot take but for the show i think they should open by showing Abby and her dad rather than having that halfway through the season, the outrage of Joel's death from new viewers is going to be crazy
The show completely failed to capture the tone and atmosphere I felt while playing Part 1.
i feel the second game didn't do as well because gamers in general are not used to a game making you feel so many negative emotions you're mentally drained at the end of it. Games are usually supposed to be fun and your actions usually have no consequences because you have to implement gameplay. It felt silly that ellie was killing so many people but killing a pregnant woman finally got to her. This will be better played out in the show because there is no need to implement gameplay. Film as a medium is more accepting of the variety of stories it can contain. And the second part is a very sad and depressing story which isn't exactly new to the film industry.
This is true
I like that line getting to know her community it falls flat as soon as you end up killing them I feel like the game should have punished You by killing the LF soldiers as Abby
As a person who agrees with you about the quality of Part 2, I loved it, one of the best stories a game has ever bothered to tell me, I disagree that this can’t be adapted.
They just have to adjust the rate at which the story plays out. For instance, I don’t think that Part 2 will play out 1 for 1 like the game. I speculate that most of season 2 will actually cover a lot of the flashbacks that happen in Part 2. Show Joel and Ellie falling apart because of Joel’s lie.
Wether I’m right about that or not, because this isn’t a game, it’s a show, I think we will be able to watch Abby’s scenes in the same way we did with David. Hate her or not, over time, viewers will sympathize with the human parts of her that get shown to us in the games.
Feeling the dread with Ellie is all on the acting and the writing.
Essentially, I hope you’re wrong, because I want to love this as much as I love the games.
But yes, they have a high bar to clear.
my gripe with the tv show is that they spent too much time on the side characters that had no impact on the overall plot. it took away time from ellie and joel, making their relationship feel rushed. Two whole episodes were wasted on side characters that you never heard about again. (the kathleen episode was especially pointless) This made the ending feel unsatisfying and abrupt, whereas in the game the ending was really earned, had so much more impact and you could feel the sting when joel betrays ellies trust.
I disagree, people said this about the game when the show was first announced and people loved it.
They could do one season doing the first part of ellie story until joels death, while showing what happened to abby and then thr season ending on both ellie and abby on the house were abby kills joel
After finishing Part II for a 3rd time last night, this time with my GF as my backseat gamer, we think if they split Part II into 2 seasons, this can be accomplished. Stretch out Ellie's part across season 2, hit the brakes at the finale, Season 3 starts from Abby's POV. One season for so much story can come off convoluted, you want to separate the audience from one character as much as possible when you're with the other to make that climax more impactful. TV can replicate that more easily, they don't need to show Ellie going on a one woman WLF killing spree like some of us do in game because Bella Ramsey's Ellie isn't structured that way.so her killing Abby's friends will instill that shock factor to the viewers. Plus, their sections feel so different, they can really flesh out the world in The Last of Us more this way, and still close Season 3 with Ellie. This is probably the most likely route, some would say that's milking it but I think it would help the overall pacing.
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Uncharted movie is a horrible comparison. I’m sure everyone else who played the game could make a better movie.
The first game at the time was considered massively violent. Yet the adaptation to TV survived really well, despite removing most of the infected and the gameplay. I too feel hopeful that Craig and Neil can pull this off and I think they can do it. :)
The fact that Ellie tried to make Sam immune in S1 could make the line in Pt2 where she says to Dina, "I can't make you immune either" so much more depressive.
I have been saying this since i played LOU2... no matter how they space it out 1 or 2 seasons no one is going to sympathize with Abby. I watched the first season with 2 guys that didn't play the game and they had a lot less connection to either Joel or Ellie than I did. They did not feel any sort of maternal connection to Bella that I did and Joel was just Oberon for half the season. They came to liking the characters and rooting for them but didn't feel the attachment I felt after hours of gameplay.
I think it may work if they introduce and follow Abbey first. Get a whole bunch of people (both those who have and haven't played the games) to fall in love with her/her story by creating depth of character, then bring back Ellie half-way through and create/reveal the conflict between them.
I personally wouldn’t be mad if they change Joel’s death and find a new way to tell a better story. Having said this I don’t think they will change that part of the story.
I have a strong feeling that they will somehow "twist" the next season into something special! They can take the Revenge story and transform in a way where we as viewers can FEEL the impact and want Ellie to stop her journey of revenge and just settle down.
Well articulated, but fundamentally flawed I think.
You're basically arguing that film can't make the viewer feel emotions like guilt, pity, empathy or doubt; that ONLY videogames can do that.
It's an ironic argument because not only are there literally countless famous examples outside of HBO, I can point straight to Denaeres Targaryen in GoT and her rage-filled, vengeful conquest of the slave kingdoms.
At first we're all excited, "yeah go gett'em!" we all shouted. Right up until the mass crucifixions started, and an entire viewership (minus the edgelords) felt exactly what you're claiming is impossible to feel while watching television - that feeling of "hang on a minute... maybe the thing I was until recently onboard with is actually... bad?"
Spec Ops the Line did everything better than the Last of Us 2. The last of 2 did not work because both Ellie’s side and Abby’s side are both unlikable and unsympathetic. Spec ops the line works because players liked and had sympathy for the main characters despite the war crimes they committed.
@@petermj1098the retcons in tlou 2 piss me off to no end trying to justify Abby killing Joel at every turn. Because "Joel bad" "Abby good" even though Joel's so much better and way more likeable than Abby ever will be
Glad you said episode 3 it was great but the completely screwed it up by taking away the interaction we went on to see after those sequences in game.
Exactly! This is why we don't need more side character espiodes but it's gonna happen whether we like it or not like that clicker kissing Tess for no reason.
@@noneedtoknow-yv2tu “it sensed itself inside her so showed love” 🤣
All it would take is a flip in the sequencing. Abby first, Ellie second. Or interlocking narrative: one episode following Ellie, then one with Abby.
You answered your own question talking about Ep.3 of Season 1. The wider narrative can be fleshed out rather than follow one specific character or arc.
It's naïve to think that it can be adapted or it will fail based on the way Season 1 was handled.
So I agree with you for the most part. I think acting in violence is part of that but I think they can capture some of that in film making but I think there’s other reason it won’t work. I expect them to change a substantial amount of the story for that reason. Ellie will probably only kill the Salt Lake Crew on screen and hopefully they can convey the participation with those kills because she’s not going to go around killing hundreds of people.
I think the format of the game isn’t going to be able to translate. There’s no way they will do all of season 1 with Ellie then season 2 with Abby. They are either going to have to alternate episodes or do a substantial amount of cross cutting.
Your point is valid but I’m not as worried about that as I am the format of the story. Part of the power in the game is that you get to the half way point and see the other side of the story.
That’s so fair! You make a good point, I’m curious how they’ll format this story given how it jumps through time and perspectives so often
Start with 1 episodes in Jackson. Introduce Cat, Dina and Jessie . Eli and Joel on adventures and Eli finds out the truth about the hospital
Next 2 episodes- Abby introduction and Episode 4 the night before Joel’s death ending of episode is when Joel saves Abby
5
Dina and Eli with the snowballs end of episode Joel is killed
6 7 8
Eli’s revenge journey,Dina is pregnant , Lev is introduced and so as the wlf and rattlers essie dies Owen and Abby sleeping together
The others die
Eli’s losing it
9 final battle but starting on the farm with JJ and Dina .
Let me set the scene for you, the year is 2016, AMC's The Walking Dead is on that evening. Everyone terrified their favorite person is going to be chosen to bat the head in. The hype is insanely palpable. The show up til this point, has been pulling in 15-18 MILLION viewers per episode in season 6. Season 7 premieres fully introducing us to someone who has been perfectly built up for two seasons, his name whispered and spoken of like a boogeyman legend. Now we are face to face with *Negan*. He explains that this is revenge for his people. People of which Rick Grimes slaughtered by the dozens. And for a selfish desire too. So Negan takes Abraham Ford out, a man who was probably the physically toughest. Then one of Rick's group retaliates, Daryl Dixon (fan favorite and invented specifically FOR the series.) Takes a swing at Negan, and instead of him being Lucille'd. He takes Glenn Rhee out. I know not many people now recall this, but Glenn was SUCH a beloved character. People called out of work the next day, some dropped the show never to come back, people mourned him like Steven Yeun actually DIED.
So to put it to meaning with TLOU, the gal who plays Abby will be hated on, JDM who plays Negan still gets hate to this day from ppl who loved Glenn and that's where the adaptation of TLOU has fucked themselves pretty hard, Joel Miller as portrayed by Pascal (who already has a cult like fanbase) is more like Glenn Rhee. He's not the merciless killer from the game. Even the hospital thing was made to make him look more innocent with Marlene admitting THEY DON'T KNOW if the cure will work. So, TLOU better buckle up, its going to be a bumpy ride and they don't even have a likeable and charismatic villian like Negan to fall back on.
I was always under the impression that the Marlene in the game initially said they didn’t know IF the cure would work.
So that always bothered me when most people seem to respond with “Joel Took the cure from the world!”
It’s like “dude, he took the POTENTIAL cure (which is still pretty bold). It was never 100% guaranteed. Just their best shot. Which he of course didn’t want to responsibly risk at the cost of her life to possibly get taken for just another failure in the search for said cure.
I didn't think the show was that good. They made ellie annoying and joel a bit of a pushover. I didnt care for the bill episode at all but i think tess was actually better in the show. The only positive i can think of now.
for the game part I enjoyed killing them more because of enemy AI and their behavior/reaction to their friend death ,
make it more personal , more satisfying for revenge , but I just didn't enjoy is killing dogs .
It's a shame the game didn't give player a choice to kill or spare Abby ,
Because I would choose to kill every single one of them .
Revenge doesn't have to always end up feels empty ,
it can be vindicating or glorified for righting the wrong you've been dealt , even if it doesn't mean bringing back the dead .
like in RDR and RDR2 , where John kill Micah in revenge for Arthur and Jack doing the same for John .
Though I agree that it would be quite hard to adapt it to tv series .
The soul of last of us... Man they screwed that up already. Part 1 sucked. Not to mention... the infected were near absent thru the whole series. Episode 3 had no room to be in this short season, and they introduced an element and only used it in the episode they introduced it on.... WTF. They gave the bad guys a female leader and ended it as dumb as they could. Then they made the kid younger and deaf? I'm convinced that Neal is a complete dick. No hoard to bond DAvid and Ellie... and no calming of Ellie by Joel after that.... She don't need no man, right Neil? Hell.. Joel didn't even need to find Ellie... he could have stayed in that garage.
BTW: Part 2.... I didn't want revenge as bad as she does... I thought the Revenge plot was the dumbest thing Neil could have ever done with this IP. Guy is a moron.
8:00 whatever... and if you spare them they attack you... No knocking out guys in this game, because Neil is a dick. He likes making games as Manipulative as he can make them... and had Anita as a expert gamer guide... cause obviously she knows exactly what gamers want in their games.
8:20 now that's a lie.. Areas are too small and enemies are to Aggro to sneak by other than speedruninng past the spawns, which breaks the game more than anything else... No this game wasn't designed for passive play Neil made sure of that. No tranq guns in this game.... No MGS2 gameplay here, even though Neil loves to pretend that MGS2 was his inspiration.
I really don't see how the concerns you have don't translate to the first game/season. There was just as much player choice, arguably moresobin the first game when it came to character development. So many people never kept an eye on Ellie and so didn't interact with her when the option was available. Those who DID found themselves looking more and more to her to check on her because you wanted to know how she was doing, what she was thinking about, etc. And the show did this perfectly.
Bro acts like people don’t watch others play video games, that’s no different
I believe that most people who watch the show, play the game, and will get the same feelings. Neil did say too that season 2 might have to be broken up into a 2 parter since there's so much to be covered.
I think you can mostly say the same thing about part 1 like the David section of the game.
David and ellies actors are some of the worst performances I've ever seen. I'm shocked people liked this show. 😂
@@robogreek3157 would you say the same for the people watching halo
@@robogreek3157 Ellie was a good actor, her screams felt real and she felt like a real kid, more so than the games
David, dude was perfect for the role imo, had that creepy teacher vibe from the get go
100% right. I've been saying this since I heard they were immediately adapting TLOU2 directly into S2. I would have been happy if they invented a little in-between season of original stories. I cannot see how a passive audience will be able to feel what the we felt when we lived TLOU2. They will just hate Abbey as most idiots did without seeing her develop. Honestly, I think TLOU2 is a game that kind of catapults video games into the oeuvre of high art. No other format could make you feel that way, by living that experience with those characters, maybe literature but it would take a skilled author, this game is a masterpiece, as was one! I really hope they don't screw this up.
For the reviews at the start. The critics were the ones hating while the audience loved it most of the time.
Bull shit...WOKE GARBAGE. Ellie and whoever played David in part 1 was some of the worst performances I've ever seen
For TLOU2?
It was the opposite way my friend.
If you don't remember, TLOU2 has one of the most highest scores by the media of all time.
And to add to that, it won the goty, an award that is given by the media.
It was the other way around though lol
Add to the fact that the plot was leaked way early. The response was immediately vitriolic and explosive. Critics aren't the ones who respond to leaks.
It was literally the other way around lol.
TLOU2 was literally the GOTY that year while the Players's voice award was given to GOT.
Which was as polarizing as the reception of the game when it came out.
I think the entire first episode of season 2 should be from Abby’s prospective, go from where you first see Abby and end just as she finds out who Joel is and the episode ends with a flashback where Abby finds her dads body. It creates an oh fuck moment for the viewers and suspense since they don’t know what she is gonna do. Then the next episode is all Ellie
The thing is. Story of TLOU Part II was already adapted during the first season of the show (Henry subplot)
Valid concerns but I dont think any of this makes it impossible to adapt. You mention how easy we watch violence using John Wick as an example, but not all cinematic violence is like it is in John Wick. The show makers can make the same choices the game does (minus the controller part) to emphasize the bruality by holding on the reactions of the victims, giving everyone names, scaling up the gore, etc. It's the difference between something like violence in the Godfather or a horror movie and violence in a Jason Statham or Marvel movie.
They could also decrease the overall violence which I imagine they'll do like they did for season 1, both to make it feel more realistic because the suspension of disbelief is harder for cinema and to avoid fatigue.
I mostly want to see the Scars in the live action show. If they give them more depth during the cold openings and expand the lore a bit, it’ll be great.
DAMNNNN you articulated all these thoughts so well! Fantastic video essay, my friend :)
I think the show is going to make the story way more parallel than the two stories rather than have them be seperate. And hear me out... I think when it starts Joel's death will have already happened and you'll see it in flashbacks
its gonna be the same reaction as when that guy dies in walking dead.
Well that is why movie makers are movie makers, they are smart and they think out the box to make something happen and make sense. They will do a great job and you will like it!
Cant wait to see viewers reations when ellie kills a pregnant woman in season 2.
So basically you're saying the problems the HBO series face are the same problems every video game adaptation faces, only there is arguably a higher degree of difficulty for adapting TLOU 2. There are plenty of examples of TV shows and movies where you feel the weight of the main character killing people and the anxiety of someone trying to stay alive. I think it's a fair challenge to raise for future seasons, but I don't think it's insurmountable.
I’ve already seen multiple test screenings (I’m a lead SFX artist for HBO) and it’s been very good so far.
you remind me of the naughty dog employee who also worked at IGN giving tlou 2 a 10. thanks for the bad omen.
The Last of Us Part II will be adapted the exact same way the first game was for HBO…badly.
I get your point but in the last episode of season one, when Joel killed that guard who dropped his weapon and surrendered, I felt more remorse than any game i played. I have hope they will do a great job
Nope I straight up completed the game and still wanted my revenge I understand the game was trying to teach empathy but if someone killed my dad I would have no empathy the developers of the game were softer than I am. I played as Joel then Ellie. Abbys dad being a “ nice guy” doesn’t make me not want her dead Dude was gonna kill a girl what a shit doctor anyway.
I think you have some great points about the Abby narrative, and I think a major flaw in the narratives structure will be, like you said, creating sympathy for her character and her decisions.
This said, I think the writers can create the dread and horror we felt playing as Ellie in part 2. If you look at the last episode of the first season, the showrunners do create a taste of this when Joel goes through the hospital and kills everyone to save Ellie in the montage sequence.
However, this was one sequence at the end of the story creating the feeling for one small point of time. So their challenge would be creating a feeling of remorse for us to feel for Ellie through the multiple days in Seattle. This is no easy feat, but, if they created it for the Joel sequence it isn't impossible to say they could create it for Ellie's character throughout LOU part 2.
Like I said earlier though, I don't see a way for them to effectively do it for Abby yet. Her story will be so much more difficult to capture the same feeling we had in the game for an on screen audience.
Wonderful video essay!
No need to adapt it. There’s already too much movie about it
Seeing how much action and gameplay elements the TV show cut and opted for more drama, i imagine the adaptation of part 2 will do the same
Having just played Part II again with the release of the Remaster, I am confident with the adaptation of Part II to HBO. I think we'll get an entire episode with the aquarium family (Ricky and Max) similar to how we got an entire episode with Bill and Frank in Season 1. Probably also an entire episode with Yara and Lev with the Seraphites before they meet Abby. I'm looking forward to it.
Part II gonna finally be recognized as the masterpiece after being adapted to a format where the audience is mature enough to recognize that a story can still be great after the character you like got killed
yeah that worked great for twd didn't it? not like people are still screaming about shane,carl,glenn to be alive oh wait lol.
Great video man! Really well done and thoughtful. I agree with your point of view here...hearing the names, pleas, and screams definitely adds to it. You've earned a sub man!
As someone looking forward to season 2, I agree wholeheartedly with this video. It won't work the same way. If people don't like Abby, they have the ability to just skip all of her scenes and her storyline if they want to and still "finish" the show. But if they do it that way they will not have experienced what the story is trying to convey. I really don't know how they will adapt it... I have high hopes but there is no way they can make it as impactful as the game.
Pedro was carrying a good portion of season 1. Idk if Bella can convey that anger and rage Ellie has personally. Her performance was good but she needs to bring her A game otherwise it’s gonna fall flat. TLOU2 I feel will work better as a show. There’s so much in the game left for interpretation that u can add context to it. U can show us so much more instead of telling us like the game does. Side characters can be fleshed out a lot more and u can actually do more with the story.
Anger and ranger is a piece of cake for Bella Ramsey. Is the combat side that most worried me
I’d hope they got another actor for Ellie, Bella isn’t tall enough imo
You need to stop looking at the TV show from a gaming lens. It is the reason people can't separate both mediums from each other.
i always said that Pedro Pascal is loved by so many people just as how Joel was loved by so many people in the games and the majority are not gamers so of course they dont know what happens in part 2. So once they off Joel/Pedro Pascal in season 2, the views are gonna drop to very low numbers probably. same thing that happened to the players playing the Part 2 game
I think they will make more flashbacks to keep them watching the show, if they don't do this then they didn't learn anything from mistakes
@@gaia7240 they won't learn anything. They made a clicker kiss Tess in the last season ffs. And druckmann's on board with hbo so yk he'll micromanage it to be just as retconned,contrived, poor paced as Tlou 2 is.
@@noneedtoknow-yv2tu yeah you are right I watched the commentary of the game and they still believe they did nothing wrong
Druckmann said part 2 will be multiple seasons, Part 2 i think will be split into 2: one season taking place in between the two games, and the next during the main events of Part 2, meaning those constant flashbacks will be taken care of by season 2, for Ellie AND Abby. The season will have extra time to Characterize every character introduced in game 2, and the climax will be Abby Killing Joel. Season 3 would be Part 2 but swapping between Ellie and abby without the Flashbacks.
Obviously none of that is confirmed, (besides Part 2 being multiple seasons) It’S jUsT a FiLm ThEoRy