The Last of Us (HBO) Trailer: Show and game spoilers

[Denvek]

On 2/1/2023 at 3:07 PM, karaddin said:

His actions in the hospital are wrong from an objective point of view, but the subjective angle is much more nuanced. Lying to her about it later after he's already overridden her agency is pretty cut and dried for me, there's no excuse or justification for it and I really hope (and expect) that will remain.

I'd expect it will, given how that feeds into their relationship at the start of Part II

[karaddin]

Yanking this post from Kalbear in the other thread, but not sure if he's across game spoilers so dropping the mention from it:

Quote

Exactly. He had to betray a person horribly. He had to sell his soul to get Sam the drugs he needed. And it was all for nothing. Kids die. He couldn't live with not just having to end Sam, but all the things he had to do to get there.

I think when this happened in the game it stunned me enough to not really analyze it any further than that, but this makes me really how perfect it is as a set up for Joel's decision at the hospital. Having been worn down to caring about Ellie as another daughter he had lost too much getting her there to go on without her afterwards, so he does what he needs to do to avoid ending up in the same situation as Henry. The individual acts are different, but especially game Joel has killed so many people - his soul is well and truly sold, and we know he couldn't handle losing another daughter even before it all begins. No real point to this, just appreciating what an excellent job Henry and Sam does preparing for what's to come.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

The Last of Us Has Found Its Dina and Jesse

Things are really ramping up in The Last of Us’s world. Just days ago, news broke that Kaitlyn Dever is officially playing Abby in the second season of the videogame adaptation. And now two more characters have been cast: Young Mazino (Beef) as Jesse, and Isabela Merced (Madame Web) as Dina—who plays a central role, especially for Ellie (Bella Ramsey)

According to Variety, Dina is “a free-wheeling spirit whose devotion to Ellie will be tested by the brutality of the world they inhabit.” Series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann say she’s “warm, brilliant, wild, funny, moral, dangerous and instantly lovable,” which is quite a combination.

But game players know what these sentences aren’t quite saying, and just how important she is to Ellie.

Merced’s film credits include Transformers: The Last Knight, but her most visible roles are yet to come: She’s Anya Corazon in Madame Web, above, and will be Superman: Legacy‘s Hawkgirl.

As for Jesse, he’s “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost,” according to Variety. Mazino is currently an Emmy nominee for his work on the miniseries Beef, in which he plays the younger brother of Steven Yuen’s character.