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The Last of Us Season 2 (Bluray)
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I’ve already written two articles on The Last of Us Season 2, because I was very excited about seeing Joel and Ellie again after a strong first season. I was so excited for season 2, that I started playing the video game on PC.
Massive Spoilers Alert. Please return to this article once you’ve watched the show or played the second game. Or if you don’t care, please continue:
Now that HBO’s second season of The Last of Us ended, I have to say, it was truly, truly, truly terrible. This is because it was very unsatisfying, and we’re only one third of the story. To be honest, I have no interesting in continuing the story, through Abby’s point of view in Season 3 in 2027 or 2028. After Abby’s story, that’s not even the end, you have to wait another year or so to get the full story in Season 4.
Why are the first two seasons so drastically different? Let me explain what made the first game and show good. The first season is about a father and (adopted) daughter, or the Lone Wolf and Cub formula. A seasoned professional, trying to protect an innocent from horrible death from fungus creatures. They go on a journey across the USA and when they get to their final destination, Joel has to make a decision: save Ellie or save humanity. What a great ending for the game and the first season. I have previously mentioned that they could have left it there - there was no need to continue this story. It had a start, a middle, and a good ending.
Now enter the second game: This is a completely different story, with different characters and different relationships. Joel and Ellie aren’t really close. You don’t find out the reason why until the penultimate “flashback” episode (which I felt was too late for me to remembered or cared). The main story of Season 2 is that Joel is murdered, and Ellie goes on a revenge quest. We see very little of the Fungus threat, and we’re focused on the scarred people and the WLF. Not sure why the two groups are fighting, nor do I really care.
The problem is we don’t have Joel, so the entire show is dependent on Ellie. Unfortunately, her character is horrible, no thanks to the writers. It’s unclear what Ellie’s motivations are. Is it hell-bent on revenge or is it girlfriend adventures in the wilderness? Is she competent or is she still some brat? It is very hard to tell from the writing.
Ellie is supposed to be 19 years old, yet she doesn’t look or act her age. She doesn’t follow orders. She makes fun of her leaders (Jesse). She doesn’t know how to use a map or compass or travel - all the planning and preparation was done by her girlfriend, Dina. This Ellie, in the show, is completely useless, and completely different from Season 1. Season 2 is mostly badly written teen drama, with a backdrop of a deadly war between two human groups (oh and there’s fungus!)
Since there is a five-year jump, HBO should have recast Bella Ramsey, maybe have Kaitlyn Dever as the new, older Ellie. Dever looks more like Ellie in the video game, and, to me, that would make sense to have her look like the video game character. For the part of Abby, I feel they could hire some military or ultimate fighter for the role. In the game, Abby trained and dedicated her whole body as a deadly killing just to kill Joel.
Anyway, back to the show, what made me really hate Ellie was when given the option, she refused to save Tommy (Joel’s brother). At that point, are we supposed to be rooting for our hero? Why would we stand behind such a despicable character? You’re not supposed to hate the main character, yet I found myself thinking what a complete idiot Ellie was.
The final episode felt rushed. Ellie is headed to Abby on a boat and then she is shipwrecked on the Scar island. She’s about to get killed and then they all left her because of an alarm. This whole encounter felt out of place. What was the point of that? Ellie then continues to find Abby, and accidentally killed a pregnant woman. This who thing is dumb and felt forced. In the video game, Ellie just straight up knifed the pregnant lady. Ellie is really brutal (and mature) in the game. In the show, the writers toned down Ellie’s murderous rage.
In fact, if you look at the original poster, it shows Joel in the background with Ellie armed with a rifle and side gun on a mission of vengeance. Then HBO modified the poster, photoshopping out all the guns and giving her a backpack. The new backpack image looks like it’s just Ellie going on a fun road trip. If they are going to make changes, I would also suggest removing Joel out, because he’s actually not really in this show.
What I really want to see is more fungus struggle. That second episode with the fungus attacking Jackson, that was great! I wish we had more moments like that… instead of the Ellie & Dina roadtrip show.
The finale ended with Abby shooting Ellie. Fade to black and, as a teaser, they show us Abby’s story, starting in Seatle Day 1. I hated this ending. A good cliffhanger is to just fade to black and let the audience wait another two years to find out what happened to Ellie (spoiler alert: she lives). Seeing that we’re going back in time and seeing the show through Abby’s perspective, I was not very excited. I think it’s a bad ending, especially because the story won’t really resume until Season 4, in about three or four years from now. To me, they could have easily combined Season 2 and 3 into one cohesive season. They could have gotten rid of half of Ellie’s misadventures, filling in that time with Abby’s struggle… so we can see the two story (mirroring each other) side by side. I’ve seen it done with West World and Game of Thrones… so I know this can be done.
Although The Last of Us Season 2 lost a lot of their audience when Joel was murdered, according to HBO about 55% decrease for their finale. They attributed it to the Memorial Day weekend, and expect viewers to pick up. Looking at the Rotten Tomatoes meter, this is where the critics and audience disagree. Critics loved it, giving it 92% while the audience score is 37%. I have to say that I agree with the low audience score. The show is not very good.
P.S. One of the biggest changes they made early in the show was that the writers decided to get rid of the fungus spores. In the game, there were some areas you couldn’t go into without a gas mask, because breathing in the spores could turn you into a fungus creature. In the show, they got rid of it, because they simply didn’t want Pedro Pascal or Bella Ramsey hiding their faces. One of problems that Pascal had in the Mandalorian, was that character always wore a mask… so perhaps it’s Pascal that requested no masks. In the second season, they brought back the spores. I just felt like the writers just need a convenient way for Ellie to be alone with someone on her murder list and allowed her to kill without much effort. I feel like this will be the only time we’ll see the spore.
Massive Spoilers Alert. Please return to this article once you’ve watched the show or played the second game. Or if you don’t care, please continue:
Now that HBO’s second season of The Last of Us ended, I have to say, it was truly, truly, truly terrible. This is because it was very unsatisfying, and we’re only one third of the story. To be honest, I have no interesting in continuing the story, through Abby’s point of view in Season 3 in 2027 or 2028. After Abby’s story, that’s not even the end, you have to wait another year or so to get the full story in Season 4.
Why are the first two seasons so drastically different? Let me explain what made the first game and show good. The first season is about a father and (adopted) daughter, or the Lone Wolf and Cub formula. A seasoned professional, trying to protect an innocent from horrible death from fungus creatures. They go on a journey across the USA and when they get to their final destination, Joel has to make a decision: save Ellie or save humanity. What a great ending for the game and the first season. I have previously mentioned that they could have left it there - there was no need to continue this story. It had a start, a middle, and a good ending.
Now enter the second game: This is a completely different story, with different characters and different relationships. Joel and Ellie aren’t really close. You don’t find out the reason why until the penultimate “flashback” episode (which I felt was too late for me to remembered or cared). The main story of Season 2 is that Joel is murdered, and Ellie goes on a revenge quest. We see very little of the Fungus threat, and we’re focused on the scarred people and the WLF. Not sure why the two groups are fighting, nor do I really care.
The problem is we don’t have Joel, so the entire show is dependent on Ellie. Unfortunately, her character is horrible, no thanks to the writers. It’s unclear what Ellie’s motivations are. Is it hell-bent on revenge or is it girlfriend adventures in the wilderness? Is she competent or is she still some brat? It is very hard to tell from the writing.
Ellie is supposed to be 19 years old, yet she doesn’t look or act her age. She doesn’t follow orders. She makes fun of her leaders (Jesse). She doesn’t know how to use a map or compass or travel - all the planning and preparation was done by her girlfriend, Dina. This Ellie, in the show, is completely useless, and completely different from Season 1. Season 2 is mostly badly written teen drama, with a backdrop of a deadly war between two human groups (oh and there’s fungus!)
Since there is a five-year jump, HBO should have recast Bella Ramsey, maybe have Kaitlyn Dever as the new, older Ellie. Dever looks more like Ellie in the video game, and, to me, that would make sense to have her look like the video game character. For the part of Abby, I feel they could hire some military or ultimate fighter for the role. In the game, Abby trained and dedicated her whole body as a deadly killing just to kill Joel.
Anyway, back to the show, what made me really hate Ellie was when given the option, she refused to save Tommy (Joel’s brother). At that point, are we supposed to be rooting for our hero? Why would we stand behind such a despicable character? You’re not supposed to hate the main character, yet I found myself thinking what a complete idiot Ellie was.
The final episode felt rushed. Ellie is headed to Abby on a boat and then she is shipwrecked on the Scar island. She’s about to get killed and then they all left her because of an alarm. This whole encounter felt out of place. What was the point of that? Ellie then continues to find Abby, and accidentally killed a pregnant woman. This who thing is dumb and felt forced. In the video game, Ellie just straight up knifed the pregnant lady. Ellie is really brutal (and mature) in the game. In the show, the writers toned down Ellie’s murderous rage.
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No rifle for you
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What I really want to see is more fungus struggle. That second episode with the fungus attacking Jackson, that was great! I wish we had more moments like that… instead of the Ellie & Dina roadtrip show.
The finale ended with Abby shooting Ellie. Fade to black and, as a teaser, they show us Abby’s story, starting in Seatle Day 1. I hated this ending. A good cliffhanger is to just fade to black and let the audience wait another two years to find out what happened to Ellie (spoiler alert: she lives). Seeing that we’re going back in time and seeing the show through Abby’s perspective, I was not very excited. I think it’s a bad ending, especially because the story won’t really resume until Season 4, in about three or four years from now. To me, they could have easily combined Season 2 and 3 into one cohesive season. They could have gotten rid of half of Ellie’s misadventures, filling in that time with Abby’s struggle… so we can see the two story (mirroring each other) side by side. I’ve seen it done with West World and Game of Thrones… so I know this can be done.
Although The Last of Us Season 2 lost a lot of their audience when Joel was murdered, according to HBO about 55% decrease for their finale. They attributed it to the Memorial Day weekend, and expect viewers to pick up. Looking at the Rotten Tomatoes meter, this is where the critics and audience disagree. Critics loved it, giving it 92% while the audience score is 37%. I have to say that I agree with the low audience score. The show is not very good.
P.S. One of the biggest changes they made early in the show was that the writers decided to get rid of the fungus spores. In the game, there were some areas you couldn’t go into without a gas mask, because breathing in the spores could turn you into a fungus creature. In the show, they got rid of it, because they simply didn’t want Pedro Pascal or Bella Ramsey hiding their faces. One of problems that Pascal had in the Mandalorian, was that character always wore a mask… so perhaps it’s Pascal that requested no masks. In the second season, they brought back the spores. I just felt like the writers just need a convenient way for Ellie to be alone with someone on her murder list and allowed her to kill without much effort. I feel like this will be the only time we’ll see the spore.
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The show is not about who is the hero and who isn't. In The Last of Us, the concept of a "hero" is complex and morally gray. Instead, the show explores humanity in a brutal world, emphasizing moral ambiguity and the emotional cost of survival. Ellie exhibit heroism and deep flaws, which makes their journey compelling and emotionally resonant.
Posted by: Callum Moscript | 06/02/2025 at 04:46 PM