The Last of Us - HBO *Spoilers* See warning in post #1

Ellie and her friend and that whole scouting party were acting dumb… and the female psychiatrist, very early day drinking while on the job, also dumb. People are looking to get up set about gender dynamics…. I was expecting angry comments about how the show has to shove gay characters in audiences faces…… I remember the internet got very upset about it when the game was released.

I've no idea how you got that from this episode. Ellie and her girlfriend literally walk into a building with infected when they didn't need to, what's smart or wise about that?

Well, for what my humble opinion is worth, I really enjoyed Season 1 and I'm excited for Season 2. I never played the game (or any game!)

I love the character of Ellie, and again as I never played it, I am not influenced by the game, so I can enjoy it for what it is. I like that the character of Ellie is not just another buffy-like tough, but strong and brave "pretty girl", but a very awkward and almost stunted character. She is not very likeable. But I'm still rooting for her. I also find her not to be all that smart, but quite reckless.

(To note: massive Buffy fan here).

(Also, a massive fan of Rutina Wesley, and Tati Gabrielle)

The community has been running for long enough that they should have another therapist, at the very least, in training to avoid these conflicts. I mean they seem to have apprentices and people in training elsewhere so surely they could find someone up to it. I assume it's straight out of the game, it's the only explanation.

Not from the game at all. But I also don't think it's that unreasonable.

You have a town of maybe 1000+ people. Therapists likely aren't that easy to come by, and chances are more effort is put into training people in more labour/security/engineering type jobs because it's a higher priority, along with education, medical etc. This therapist may be training one or two more, but that also wouldn't mean they're sitting in on private sessions, particularly if the client (Joel) doesn't want someone else sitting in, given how embarrassed he seems to be about going to therapy in the first place.

We don't know yet what happened with the therapist's husband. Presumably he was out on a patrol with Joel, got infected and Joel had to kill him (again, this is not in the game at all so I'm only theorising), though she said something about the manner in which Joel killed him, so I'm not sure. Either way, it seems like she agreed to be his therapist, and he agreed to see her, and now that underlying tension between them is coming to a boil. Maybe she thought she could be professional and look past it, in order to try and deal with her resentment towards him.

I have to say, the outrage I saw, read and remember from that time was all due to the involvement of golf. It made the entire story for a lot of us feel flat.

I don't recall any homophobia tbh. I know people who accused, those who hated the involvement of golf, of Homophobia.

For me, it did nothing for the story. It made me feel a dislike to Ellie. Yet, here I was still cheering her on. It wasn't supposed to do that

Pedro Pascal doesn't look like Joel. Gabriel Luna definitely doesn't look like Tommy.

Actors are cast based on how they can embody the character. You will rarely get an actor who both looks similar enough to a computer-generated, designed character, and who the creators also feel is the best actor for the role out of everyone they auditioned/met with.

I thought they did a great job in the first season, and had no complaints with their performance. They hit all the levels they needed to.

Yeah but I have better trust in the makers of the game, who were heavily involved in casting, to be satisfied that they picked the right actors for the characters they created than just "opinions on the internet", particularly where a lot of those opinions center on not looking enough like a computer generated model, which is something they don't complain about with the rest of the cast who also don't look like their digital counterparts.

It's opinion at the end of the day, everyone is entitled to not like the actor or their performance. I just really find the argument that Bella Ramsey doesn't look enough like a CGI model of a character to be utterly redundant.

I thought it was a bit of ' I'm invincible '

I was bitten but survived , these zombies can't hurt me....

?

If you're going to play the 2nd game I highly recommend the remastered upgrade for 10 euro. Got it a few days ago for another play through and it is just about the best looking game Ive played on PS5. Taking my time with the upcoming TV episodes to get a better feel for how it compares to the game.

If that was the case, Ellie would be in her 40s.