I'll be interested to see what people who have not played the game thought of the season!

I still can't just look past Ellie's character and some of the shoddy writing throughotut the show. It's almost like they are stuck between fan service of certian moments, but then trying to ground the show in reality (see the boat scene). Obviously these moments set up Season 3, but meh, how they have wrote Ellie's character is so confusing. It's like she's a bratty teen still and I just don't think it works for where the story goes, or punches the same way. Interested to see how people react to not knowing how that cliffhanger ends for a while yet :D (although I reckon they'll reveal it in the first episode somehow).

It’s hard to know where this is going as someone who hasn’t played the game. Didn’t seem like a finale really apart from what happened after the gunshot. And assume the next series is following Abbies story?

The battle of Jackson was the clear highlight of the series!

We’ve finished it and have never played the game so I guess I fit into Rooney’s ask… I thought it was okay, but definitely not as good as season one.

My favourite episode was the flashback one to Ellie’s birthdays as that was a lovely touch and felt more like there was some closure as a viewer for what happened to Joel, and it was really helpful to see how Ellie and Joel’s relationship had changed over the years.

I found a lot of the characters a bit confusing, I didn’t really understand properly who a lot of them were outside of the people with Ellie and those in the Fireflies. I’m not at all sure who the army guy was, the religious ones or the people who hung/slaughtered people were. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention at times but they seemed to just feature for little fragments and then disappear for long periods.

The ending was a bit weak, I really didn’t click the series had even finished until another one didn’t play… it didn’t feel like enough of a moment to end on and, whilst I’m curious to know who was shot etc, I’m not desperate to find out at all so it didn’t leave me with that awful cliffhanger feeling.

The new types of ‘zombie’ were odd too. I can imagine why they were needed in the game as a change of enemy type to learn, but on the tv adaptation it felt really unnecessary as they were just a different set piece - unless there’s some reason still to be revealed.

Overall I’m invested enough to watch the third one, but I’m not sure I’d stay on board much longer if it isn’t better.

57 minutes ago, Steve201 said:

It’s hard to know where this is going as someone who hasn’t played the game. Didn’t seem like a finale really apart from what happened after the gunshot. And assume the next series is following Abbies story?

The battle of Jackson was the clear highlight of the series!

Next series will follow Abbie, but also Ellie too judging from the comments I’ve read.

In the game we’re about 15 hours through at this moment and the narrative completely switches from Ellie to Abbie.

It's interesting to read the differences between people who have played the game and those who haven't — both sides seem disappointed, but in similar yet different ways.

I was worried going into this season about how difficult it would be to adapt — not just because of the controversy, but because of how the game slowly reveals key information and challenges the player's perspective. It's bleak (far bleaker than the show) with only rare moments of levity, which is difficult to replicate within the constraints of a short (7 episodes is criminal) TV season. So I don’t envy the writers for that.

That said, I do think they struggled. The writing felt uneven, especially with Ellie’s arc and how quickly they rushed through Seattle — something the game handled with more nuance. Bella Ramsey did what they could with the material they were given, especially considering how Ellie’s character was softened. She’s written as a reckless idiot here, while Dina is portrayed with more care. In the game, they were much more equal. Ellie’s mindset slowly descends as she struggles with grief, her actions, and her obsession with Abby. Her personality, the quips, etc, vanish. The show’s portrayal feels really inconsistent and they didn't really show that?

Episode 6 hinted at the kind of character moments the game is known for, but outside of Joel and Ellie, those moments felt underdeveloped. Some of the choices baffled me, particularly in how they rearranged certain story beats and reveals. Ending the season here does make sense given how the game is structured, but it doesn’t feel earned due to how short and rushed everything has felt. Again, 7 episodes for a season like this is just silly.

For anyone feeling nervous about season 3 — this part of the game is my favourite. The Seraphites and WLF are more fleshed out, the set pieces are incredible 🐀, and the narrative is just more entertaining. Shocking to say (at this point, I know) but Abby (along with a few others...) is a phenomenal character and my favourite from the entire game. I hope they can pull it off.

@Rooney (I did love some of the little easter eggs in this episode though )

27 minutes ago, blacksquare said:

It's interesting to read the differences between people who have played the game and those who haven't — both sides seem disappointed, but in similar yet different ways.

I was worried going into this season about how difficult it would be to adapt — not just because of the controversy, but because of how the game slowly reveals key information and challenges the player's perspective. It's bleak (far bleaker than the show) with only rare moments of levity, which is difficult to replicate within the constraints of a short (7 episodes is criminal) TV season. So I don’t envy the writers for that.

That said, I do think they struggled. The writing felt uneven, especially with Ellie’s arc and how quickly they rushed through Seattle — something the game handled with more nuance. Bella Ramsey did what they could with the material they were given, especially considering how Ellie’s character was softened. She’s written as a reckless idiot here, while Dina is portrayed with more care. In the game, they were much more equal. Ellie’s mindset slowly descends as she struggles with grief, her actions, and her obsession with Abby. Her personality, the quips, etc, vanish. The show’s portrayal feels really inconsistent and they didn't really show that?

Episode 6 hinted at the kind of character moments the game is known for, but outside of Joel and Ellie, those moments felt underdeveloped. Some of the choices baffled me, particularly in how they rearranged certain story beats and reveals. Ending the season here does make sense given how the game is structured, but it doesn’t feel earned due to how short and rushed everything has felt. Again, 7 episodes for a season like this is just silly.

For anyone feeling nervous about season 3 — this part of the game is my favourite. The Seraphites and WLF are more fleshed out, the set pieces are incredible 🐀, and the narrative is just more entertaining. Shocking to say (at this point, I know) but Abby (along with a few others...) is a phenomenal character and my favourite from the entire game. I hope they can pull it off.

@Rooney (I did love some of the little easter eggs in this episode though )

Similar to how I feel too. Abby is such an interesting character. There was so much set up in the final episode for next season that will all become apparent. I wonder if Issac will take on the Joel role for next season- clearly the show suffered a lot without Pedro Pascal, whereas the game doesn’t have that problem in the same way. What

Just think that whole random scene where Ellie was captured by the scars was so out of sync. Not really sure what the point of that was unless they decided on a switcheroo. Which surely they won’t.

@blacksquare the cranes were an excellent Easter egg!

Like blacksquare says, there’s a lot of good material up and coming and narratively it has the potential to match Season 1 with the storyline in Abby’s story.

Yeh the boat bit was so random and she seemed to be an expert at driving it lol. And, again, for those that don’t follow the game we don’t know much at all about that group which made it hard to follow. Think I’m also one who would like to know more about the infection and the types of funghi which it does explain much if you don’t play the game.

4 hours ago, Steve201 said:

Yeh the boat bit was so random and she seemed to be an expert at driving it lol. And, again, for those that don’t follow the game we don’t know much at all about that group which made it hard to follow. Think I’m also one who would like to know more about the infection and the types of funghi which it does explain much if you don’t play the game.

It's a bit from the game, but it just seemed so random. Honestly it's like the writers are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they want to show their favourite moments from the game, but have chosen to have a reality that is a bit more grounded than the games, so I think some of the bits they have hoped hit the spot, actually miss. Don't worry you will be an expert in both WLF and Scars by the end of Season 3! And some of the background characters you've seen will take a bigger focus.

This season's been very much a mixed bag overall (speaking as someone that's watched the story through cut scenes but not played the game)

Episodes 2 and 6 were some of the best of the show, I thought Joel's death was done really well, Pedro Pascal said so little in that episode, yet his expressions said all they needed to to make that the devastating blow it needed to be, and the battle of Jackson was right up there with the best sequences of Game of Thrones. Episode 6 I felt covered the flashbacks really well but the additionaly story with Eugene layered them well and added a great dimension to Ellie and Joel's drifting apart as well as expanding , I think it made the porch sequence a lot more effective than the game.

It's a shame it couldn't keep that quality up, Episodes 3-5 in particular were real slogs, I don't want to slight on the two actors as they did a great job, but I just don't think their relationship and their struggles were developed enough. Comparing it to the game, it seemed closer to a teen road trip than a revenge quest. I do also think the WLF/Seraphites war wasn't well established, I got confused when it cut to them and I don't think enough was done to establish the wars and Isaac's character, they ended up feeling like random cutaways, the boat scene in the finale felt very out of place. The rest of the episode was overall decent, but the cliffhanger was cheap.

This is still great TV and I don't think we're at Game of Thrones Season 8 just yet, but I would like to see the show slow down a bit more next time. I hope they do a better job with Abby than they did Ellie this season.

The writing in both games was poor, but even worse in 2. People just shrug off major, life-changing injuries, or desdly injuries. Ellie has been written as s total idiot. And now Abby can magically teleport.

5 minutes ago, May Day Pole Dancer said:

The writing in both games was poor, but even worse in 2.

No, they weren't.

4 minutes ago, blacksquare said:

No, they weren't.

It really was. Perforated bowels, deadly injuries, unrealistic action without a pause, like a rollercoaster slways speeding down, stupid decisions... just a total mess.

Imagine writing a story for a game where you just chill for an hour. Riveting.

I didn't watch movies, but both TLOU games were awful.

1 hour ago, Last Dreamer said:

I didn't watch movies, but both TLOU games were awful.

Oh come on! The Last of Us games are amongst the very top tier of games ever. The storyline in the first game is fairly basic, but the themes throughout that run through are so strong. The second game's narrative is unlike anything I have ever seen in a video game before. The violence in the second game reflects the story, and of course keeps people engaged in the gameplay. I can totally understand people not liking the story with Joel being killed off, but pretty much everything about the second game is flawless.