The Last of Us (HBO Spoilers)

[Corvinus85]

On 2/10/2023 at 10:05 PM, briantw said:

Could be a simple defense mechanism since it was currently being shot at by like fifteen different people.  

And I'm sure plenty of infected have accidentally killed their victims while trying to infect them.  I can't imagine they understand their own strength or how fragile human bodies can be.

There was a significant difference between the bloater and the clickers in how they acted. The clickers just wildly wave their arms, thus killing someone with multiple barely controlled hits and usually bites. The bloater seemed to have some agency - he smacks down a guy, picks up a guy and throws him one handed like a sack of potatoes, and then he rips off that dude's head. 

[Rippounet]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

I also feel like the episode put Kathleen's running thing in context: not only that it's only been ten days since she successfully led the rebellion against FEDRA, but that it's probably not been that long since her brother Michael's death. Between her moral authority as this good leader's grieving sister and her ruthlessness-to-the-point of madness, I can see how she could be in the position she was in. I also suspect that if she had survived the episode, she would have been overthrown within months or even weeks as her obsession with revenge against collaborators started to make people realize she was unhinged.

Yes. They also took care to establish that Kansas City FEDRA was the worst, which makes the whole chronology credible.

[Slurktan]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

They needed to find a city in the US that matched where they were filming (Calgary) and KC was the best fit in terms of looks.

The in-world reason is probably that there are stretches of highways that are known to be impassable by vehicles and there are other regions known to be extremely dangerous for various reasons, and the highway to KC was their best shot to get closer to Wyoming in the truck they had.

I mean why not Des Moines then for the first bit since it is... actually on a route to Wyoming?  And sure for the second but why not throw in a line for that so idiots like me aren't puzzled by it.  It's like the "10 miles west of Boston" thing.  They could have just left the city nameless.

[Ran]

12 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

They could have just left the city nameless.

True. I guess they felt like they needed to name it because the equivalent city in the game was named or something, and they didn't want people to go, "Hey, this place looks nothing like Pittsburgh!" or whatever the city was in the game.

[Darryk]

Damn, that was grim.

[Maltaran]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

. I also suspect that if she had survived the episode, she would have been overthrown within months or even weeks as her obsession with revenge against collaborators started to make people realize she was unhinged.

 

I got the impression that the greybeard second in command guy was already starting to think that way

[Kalbear]

12 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

I got the impression that the greybeard second in command guy was already starting to think that way

I didn't. I think he (and a lot of others) appreciated that as much as they loved her brother he didn't get shit done. He wasn't willing to do the hard things and allow the hard things to happen.

But she was. 

I think others might have tired of her eventually, especially as things continued to suck for her. But her second in command? He was a true believer. 

[Ran]

Given that Kathleen took most of the armed fighters with her, by the looks of it, are we to guess that the infected will now end up following any survivors running back to KC and will wipe out the city?

[Mexal]

29 minutes ago, Ran said:

Given that Kathleen took most of the armed fighters with her, by the looks of it, are we to guess that the infected will now end up following any survivors running back to KC and will wipe out the city?

Yes, that is the likely path. She ended up killing herself and her people through her need for vengeance.

[The Anti-Targ]

6 hours ago, Ran said:

Good episode. I agree the "bloater" thing doesn't make a lot of sense as an example of fungal evolution, and is more a game thing. 

Ackshually the game has considerably more logic to bloaters. But because they decided to forego airborne spores for the TV show that destroyed the logic for bloaters, who in the game are able to rip bits off themselves and lob spore bombs at people. So they are like mobile artillery. 

Infected still gotta eat of course, so killing some people is a necessary part of the infection strategy.

Getting rid of airborne spores is understandable for simplicity, but I do feel like it lessens things on the scary monsters side of the show a bit. It's also a point of difference to the usual zombie-like.

[Ramsay B.]

13 hours ago, Maltaran said:

I got the impression that the greybeard second in command guy was already starting to think that way

I agree with that. Early in the episode he questioned her decision in front of a lot of her people. Given time, if shit didn’t go down like it did, then I feel like his doubts would’ve just grown, and he’d ultimately resist her lead.

[Heartofice]

I think I’m probably alone in not being especially blown away by this latest episode. 
 

I guess I am just not especially bought into the show at this point for some reason. There were bits of it that I liked and bits I felt I should have enjoyed more but didn’t.

I thought Henry was an interesting character, well portrayed. 
 

I also think this episode put to bed many of the questions around Kathleen and how she came to be in power and how solid that power was so I’m happy with that.

The sniper set pieces really just brought back so many game flashbacks that I’m not sure I was able to become totally engrossed in what I was seeing.

Maybe this is just an issue I am going to have with the show. The action feels so close to the game, or more like any game, that it stops feeling real to me. I’m getting these urges to grab my controller the whole time and move the action around. 
 

That’s maybe why so much of it feels seen and done in my head. The clicker horde was great, but I kept trying to direct the characters with my mental L stick! 
 

There is also the whole Zombie / post apocalypse fatigue thing which continues to wear me down.

So far the 3rd episode is the only one that has really grabbed me so far, mainly because it’s so distinct from a video game adaptation.

[Luzifer's right hand]

I'm always amused that people are concerned about accents and geography. But I'm used to some weird Viennas from movies and surprised when a show actually uses Austrian police cars instead of German ones in a scene set in Austria. 

I'm happy enough if they actually pick someone who can speak German instead actors just reading googled lines in a language they don't speak lol.

[briantw]

14 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I think I’m probably alone in not being especially blown away by this latest episode. 
 

I guess I am just not especially bought into the show at this point for some reason. There were bits of it that I liked and bits I felt I should have enjoyed more but didn’t.

I thought Henry was an interesting character, well portrayed. 
 

I also think this episode put to bed many of the questions around Kathleen and how she came to be in power and how solid that power was so I’m happy with that.

The sniper set pieces really just brought back so many game flashbacks that I’m not sure I was able to become totally engrossed in what I was seeing.

Maybe this is just an issue I am going to have with the show. The action feels so close to the game, or more like any game, that it stops feeling real to me. I’m getting these urges to grab my controller the whole time and move the action around. 
 

That’s maybe why so much of it feels seen and done in my head. The clicker horde was great, but I kept trying to direct the characters with my mental L stick! 
 

There is also the whole Zombie / post apocalypse fatigue thing which continues to wear me down.

So far the 3rd episode is the only one that has really grabbed me so far, mainly because it’s so distinct from a video game adaptation.

I agree with you to some extent about some of the action very much feeling like a video game, but I just rewatched episode five and Henry killing himself so suddenly hit me just as rough as it did on Friday night, so the show must be doing something right.  

[grozeng]

2 minutes ago, briantw said:

I agree with you to some extent about some of the action very much feeling like a video game, but I just rewatched episode five and Henry killing himself so suddenly hit me just as rough as it did on Friday night, so the show must be doing something right.  

I didn't expect it.  I figured they would die on the way to Wyoming or something likje that.   But I thought they would have a couple more episodes.  Then when Sam got bit I figured Henry would just do something to protect Ellie later on.  I was shocked.

[dbunting]

Henry offing himself made sense, that was who he was living for. For him to be the one to shoot Sam, the shock of that was too much for him.  Like most I felt like the bloater, no idea they had a name, felt like it was out of place. I liked that Ellie tried to use her blood to help Sam, obviously not understanding that it would have to be refined or whatever. Wonder what that is going to do to her psyche, not believing that she has the cure in her.

And I do remember Joel's bolt action gun getting reloaded once, that's a lot for a show!

[grozeng]

Yeah, once he shot Sam and showed his face, I knew he was going to shoot himself.  But I didn't think that was going to be the sequence of events when Ellie was trying to cure Sam.  

[Mexal]

46 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Henry offing himself made sense, that was who he was living for. For him to be the one to shoot Sam, the shock of that was too much for him.  Like most I felt like the bloater, no idea they had a name, felt like it was out of place. I liked that Ellie tried to use her blood to help Sam, obviously not understanding that it would have to be refined or whatever. Wonder what that is going to do to her psyche, not believing that she has the cure in her.

And I do remember Joel's bolt action gun getting reloaded once, that's a lot for a show!

I also think for Sam, it's deeper. Not only was it shooting Sam, but it was also all of the things he did for Sam - getting the drugs, collaborating with FEDRA, turning in his savior and all of it for nothing. Think that contributed to the feeling that he ultimately failed at everything.

[Week]

Thought the episode was mostly good other than the bloater mob. That felt like it could've be cut from a Resident Evil movie. Disappointingly uninspired.

I thought the Henry and Sam arc worked. The end felt inevitable but remained tragic.

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, Mexal said:

I also think for Sam, it's deeper. Not only was it shooting Sam, but it was also all of the things he did for Sam - getting the drugs, collaborating with FEDRA, turning in his savior and all of it for nothing. Think that contributed to the feeling that he ultimately failed at everything.

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.