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HBO's Last of Us Update - No. 2
🕑 Added 2023-04-29 14:46:18 +0000 UTCAnother fortnight, another update!
Not much to report about but this is what I've been up to.
- Completed playing both Part I and II on the Last of Us
- Finished the script by the time I completed Part I, and slightly revised the script after completing Part II.
- The video will mostly explore the positive aspects of the adaptation, and refuting some of the more misguided complaints tossed at the show.
- After recording my lines, the video sits around 30-35 minutes long
- Currently on the storyboarding phase.
- Expect some doodles in a couple of weeks in the WIP Discord channel.
- Hope to get this out some time on June.
So that's basically what I've been up to so far! Pardon the sparse update, but research progress is quite tedious and visually not as exciting as doodles and WIP. But since this update is a bit sparse, I thought it'd neat to share with ya a snippet of the script. If you're eager to check out my opinions on one of the biggest changes in the adaptation, they're written down here. Needless to say that there are spoilers ahead for episode 3. So please stop reading now if you haven't seen the show yet.
Other than that, that's it for the update!
Thanks for becoming Patrons, hope you look forward to the new video :)
Context: A Snippet of Why I prefer Bill in the Adaptation Over the Game
While Bill’s presence helps progress Joel and Ellie’s relationship in the game, I think his absence in the show is more meaningful. Bill’s letter proves a couple of things to Joel. One, a happy and well lived life can be achieved by loving someone. And Two: even someone as reliable and safe as Bill won’t always be around. Time is limited, so live the best life you can. And Bill, with the assumption that Tess is still alive, wrote this letter to make sure that Joel understood what he was living for. But due to her recent death, Joel is obviously conflicted since he has to face the reality of losing someone so close to him. While Tess being romantically involved with Joel is debatable, it’s undeniable that Tess meant something to Joel, and the only remnant that’s left of her is the hope, hope that she had for Ellie and their mission to Find the Fireflies.
And that’s why I like this change a lot. It’s more emotionally impactful since we actually get to see Joel confront his grief for Tess. And not only is Show-Bill’s situation more novel and captivating to me than Game-Bill, it also subverts the whole ‘Bury your gays’ stereotype, where being gay is a tragedy that’s integral to a characters arc. Instead, these dudes are able to be emotionally honest with one another and the pain doesn’t come from hiding their homosexuality. The pain, instead, comes from them being emotionally vulnerable. The pain comes from wanting to protect who you love, but also not suffocating the person with whom you fell in love with in the first place. This isn’t some ‘Soldier 76 is gay’ and ‘Disney's-First-Gay-Character brownie points pandering; this is an episode with something to say. And on top of that it’s fantastically performed, I think it’s the best shot episode of the series, and I think it’s just one of my favorite episodes of TV to come out in recent memory.
So that’s why I disagree with the argument that this episode is just some ‘woke filler’. Filler implies a lack of story progression and exploration of themes, but Long, Long Time provided both. And if people want to dismiss me and say that I only like this episode because I like ‘woke gay stuff,’ then they haven't seen my channel. I’ve ripped apart games that these same people would say panders to ‘wokeism’ (LiS), and I don’t care about stories that pander to beliefs that I hold, especially if they're poorly made (Detroit: Become Human). And that’s assuming that thinking ‘gays existing in the apocalypse’ is some sort of political belief. I’m sure they would exist whether you or I were homophobic or not.
But whatever, all I’m trying to say is this: Gay people exist. Awful gay stories exist. Mediocre gay stories exist (Ellie and Nora). Long, Long Time is a great episode of the Last of Us, it just so happens to feature a gay couple. And that’s it.
