The Last of Us 2 is a Perfect Sequel

my most controversial opinion is about *checks notes* a video game
this video is a breakdown of the characters/themes/symbolism in this game
MAJOR SPOILERS. remember it's all opinions here folks.

this is different from what i usually do but i enjoyed it!

[TheThirdPew]

Happy 1 year anniversary to one of the greatest games of all time and one of my favorite videos I ever posted 😁

[lax]

I LOVE that you talked about Abby’s dream progression, i haven’t seen anyone else bring it up

[TheThirdPew]

Update: 3 months later and I'm still thinking about this game every day.
There was so much more I got out of the game on my second and third play-through that I had to change the title of this video.
I didn't even get to talk about how they gave Ellie closure with her immunity.
Ellie's biggest issue with Joel's decision at the end of the first game is that he renders her immunity useless. Now she's just living her life, watching everyone die while knowing she's immune, but this time there's nothing she can do about it (unlike the first game where she thought she could be a cure).
BUT, by the end of the game, she realizes that she doesn't have to die for her life to matter.
When Ellie says "I should have died in that hospital, my life would have f***king mattered" and Joel tells her that he'd "do it all over again", She tells him that she is willing to forgive him.
The Ellie that walks off in the end of this game doesn't just have closure for Joel's death, but a realization that she can have a life outside of her immunity.
"Joel's decision took meaning from Ellie’s life, but through his death he was able to help her find it again"

[toptart]

The fight against Ellie was legitimately terrifying. Her AI is perceptive, fast, heavily armed, and meant to emulate the player in combat.

[spbspb]

The biggest irony in the whole game is that Ellie sets out for the last time to kill Abby, but what she does is actually saving her and Lev's life because they would have died on that pole. So If Ellie never leaves the farm, Abby and Lev would be dead.

[derricklegassicke]

Joel does sacrifice himself for Ellie. He killed the doctor to save her life in the hospital, it just took 4 years for the sacrifice to catch up with him.

[shayezeman]

Joels coffee quote is so surreal. "Im a little embarrassed as to what I had to trade to get it, but its not bad" drawing a parallel btwn Ellie and what she had to trade to get her piece of mind. A perfect quote

[zaxchary]

That 'Hopeful on the surface but with misery underneath' is fuckin deep and part 2 'misery on the surface but hopefull underneath' is beautiful interpretation..

[upforanything]

You make an incredible point about the nightmares. In the first game every time you see Joel sleep he wakes up the exact same way Abby and Ellie do.

[Warl]

This is exactly my thoughts about the game put in an intelligent and elaborate way. I don't think I could have said it better myself.

[sarcasm-]

I also noticed Abby start to second guess herself quite a bit after she did kill Joel. She didn't regret killing him, but I got the feeling she was troubled by Ellie pleading for Joel on the ground... it reminded her of herself.

She says she needed to "lighten the load" when she helped the two Scar "kids" - even asks Owen "what happened to us?" and he responds "Maybe we stopped looking for the light". They just became a part of the WLF, Abby got obsessed with killing Joel, Owen started killing scars mindlessly for goals that weren't his own... until that one guy who he just couldn't mindlessly kill as an "enemy".

I really do think that the game is a fantastic inspection of how we all have our perspectives that determine heavily how we see things. Every faction thinks when they "blow up checkpoints" (actual reference in the game to what Fireflies did), then "it's different" from when others do it. Because they know their own cause and own reasons, own "good goals" and their justifications for those actions.

So yes, thank you for this fantastic video. The constant hate was quite a bummer to see. Not that I'm not ok with people disliking something I like.. I AM. But there was(still is) a huge trending hate train and largely even from people who didn't give the game a chance - only read the bulletpoints and decided it sucks. Or people who played it on stream, making jokes, laughing around, distracted with their audiences or friends... I mean, it's "all good", but saw so many people *entirely* miss all of those things that happen in the game that are *NOT SPELLED OUT TO YOU* ... like how Abby wakes up distressed that you can only see from her facial expressions.

Or how we only later on realize that when Elly is hearing Nora out before she kills her, she isn't beating the info out of her what Joel did... but instead she already KNEW what Joel had done.
But what she GOT was confirmation from Nora that what Joel did was the reason he was killed.. That realization that she had probably already had time to fear turns her own thoughts towards herself; She has been on a revenge mission for an event that was directly caused by Joel and kinda her own survival. That Joel's death... was largely Joel's responsibility; a consequence of what she had wanted to put behind them and forgive... and now she never would have the chance to. Which only fueled her hatred and anger - which we see in how Nora dies.

It really is a game, where if I had stopped playing in a moment when I'm VERY INTENDED to be feeling negative emotions - I would've missed out on the journey that the game is and would not have seen the big picture that ended up in me really digging it, to the point of also thinking about it for weeks. (AND also having written a huge textfile full of thoughts about I didn't publish to anywhere haha). One of the best games I've played at least in the amount of how much it made me truely feel and think.

Better stop writing or I'll also write a much longer essay. This is already too damn long.

[syberia]

Thank you. Best analysis really.

Tlou2: “Dissapoints me”
Me: I don’t think i can ever forgive you for that
“Watches this review”
Me: But i’d like to... try :’(

[Kings_Crossing]

One hateful act begets another. But a selfless act, can also be contagious. - Dunkey

[beyondviolet]

I’ve seen so many arguments for why the writing is terrible and other arguments for why it’s actually really well done... really shows how perspective can mean everything

[ajs]

One thing I find interesting is how Abby breaking the cycle and letting Ellie live ultimately saves her. If not for Ellie going to get revenge. Abby and Lev would have died at the end of the game.

[kaileykiki]

This is the best analysis/opinion I’ve heard.

[dheyan]

I see the theme of obsession leading to destruction all through out this game. Kinda like the obsession of some of the fans being so immense, it destroyed their ability to see the game in another light, or even enjoy it.

[Triforcefilms]

damn dude, just the words i've been trying to get out while defending this game to the squeaky wheel. Thanks for this. Solidarity.

[boy_wells]

If you want society to treat games as art, start looking at them as such.

[henryphillips]

Honestly I hate when someone won’t play the game just cause the main character died like what a bunch of babies