#tlou spoilers tw

[infectvd]

like you don't understand, the whole thematic of Joel being the one to put a weapon in Ellie's hand and also being the one to take the weapon out of her hand is SO important to me !!

[mcrcki]

@svnlvght

so time heals all wounds i guess. it wasn’t time that did it.

[obiwan]

THE LAST OF US - #They’ve stopped looking for a cure. 

[cordycepspog]

There’s something horrifyingly beautiful about Tess’s final moments. In the midst of the most dire chaos, as she waits for her death to come rushing past so she can blow it sky high and give cordyceps a big fuck you one last time, one of the infected stops. It looks at her, really looks. Her own mortality is personified in this infected. It’s death that’s looking at her, and it sees her. She looks her own death in the eye, and the suspense is so high as it approaches. But then, it doesn’t bite her throat out like we all expect it to.

It kisses her. What’s more, it kisses her gently. And I think it was a brilliant choice on the writers part, because it reminded me that the infected aren’t supposed to be evil. Sure, they’re scary as hell, but really, they’re just trying to survive. They’re connected to one another, they can feel each other from miles away. They seek out and want to be close to their own kind, just like the human survivors do. And when they do find each other, they kiss hello.

And after so long apart from a loved one, someone you know and trust with every instinct in your body, wouldn’t you want to kiss them too?

[queencvbra]

finished the new tlou episode, they really did that to tess huh

[buckypascal]

She likes the idea of somebody defending her like that...

[arcanejude]

#try not to say daughter challenge

ELLIE WILLIAMS in “LEFT BEHIND”

[thebrainofmae]

I just think they’re neat

[sabrinaacarpenters]

True, fungi cannot survive if its host’s internal temperature is over 94 degrees. And currently, there are no reasons for fungi to evolve to be able to withstand higher temperatures. But what if that were to change? What if, for instance, the world were to get slightly warmer? Well, now there is reason to evolve. One gene mutates and an ascomycete, candida, ergot, cordyceps, aspergillus, any one of them could become capable of burrowing into our brains and taking control not of millions of us, but billions of us. Billions of puppets with poisoned minds permanently fixed on one unifying goal: to spread the infection to every last human alive by any means necessary. And there are no treatments for this. No preventatives, no cures. They don’t exist. It’s not even possible to make them. So, if that happens? We lose.

THE LAST OF US (2023-) 1.01 "When You're Lost in the Darkness" | dir. Craig Mazin

[calkestis]

“What’s happening is Joel’s having a panic attack. And he doesn’t know why. Panic attacks feel very much like heart attacks. It’s your body telling you you’re in terrible danger, but you don’t understand yet why. And so much of what this episode is about is Joel coming to terms with how terrified he is suddenly. That she’s going to die and it’s going to be his fault.” (Craig Mazin in HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast) 

HBO The Last of Us S01E06 | “Kin”

[trashcora]

for science

☞ requested by anonymous

[infectvd]

ngl episode 8 was kind of a miss for me. It's still *good* but it didn't hit the way it should, it felt like it was missing something. This is one case where I will say the game did everything better with maybe one exception. Some rambles below the cut so don't look if you want to avoid spoilers.

Making David's group a religious cult was probably my biggest issue for a few reasons. Firstly, it's a trope that feels SO overdone to me personally. It took away a lot of the horror about the group itself because it feels more mundane. In the game, the terror surrounding the group is that they are normal people driven to desperation just to survive. It isn't fanaticism that drives them to do the horrific things they do, it is the most basic human need that pushes them to that point, and it fits better with the theme of what horrors human beings capable of if pressed. Also, there is already a religious cult in the second game that will undoubtedly appear in the confirmed second season, so changing David's group into a religious cult means there are two and ??? It feels pointless and it will inevitably cheapen both.

David himself did not have the qualities that made David in the game so scary. This David did not have the charisma, he felt more like a whiny man child and ... pathetic. Basic. It's hard to believe this man was able to amass a cult of personality around himself at all, even using religion as a tool. There were so many points where David in the game would linger on his words and movements and feel like this quiet threat, even when he was acting peaceful, you got the sense that something was off, and everything he did felt calculated. This David was far more petulant, he wasn't threatening, and he wielded the power he has over his followers carelessly which added to my disbelief that this man could maintain this level of power over people for so long unlike game David. This man's followers seemed like they were sick of him and his shit, meanwhile game David maintained their reverence and attention even in those moments where they questioned his choices.

I feel like the whole plotline in the second half was rushed through quickly, like they hit all the main beats they needed but didn't give time for the impact to sink in. One disadvantage the show had here was not being able to give us that switching perspective where Joel is actively searching for Ellie, which in the game gave us the sense of his urgency to find her and how he was ripping through his enemies to get to her, which is something that plays into the climax later. But we didn't get that, yes we got the torture scene, but then Joel is gone for so long and we don't get that same sense that he is going ballistic trying to save Ellie.

I do like (and am absolutely horrified) by the way they make David's true intentions with Ellie even more clear in their final confrontation. The implications in that scene were so disturbing to me, it was the first time I got that sense of urgency and danger I wanted this episode to give me this entire time. The bulk of that scene is how it should have gone, Bella was fantastic as always and captured Ellie's rage, but my main complaint with that scene is the decision to have her come to her senses on her own and walk out, THEN reunite with Joel. In the game, Joel being the one to take the weapon out of her hand, hold her and call her babygirl, THAT is such a pivotal part of their story and every detail there is important. Pedro's acting in their encounter outside is great, I can feel Joel's concern and care for her, but the thematic of Joel himself having to pull her back from the brink is lost because of this decision to change that part of the scene. Instead it felt like Joel was just there, like he just popped in at the end and him being there at all didn't matter or have the impact it was meant to have. The way it plays out in the show feels like an "okay that's over now let's get on with this" moment especially because it was so short. I don't felt they gave them enough time to really play out the emotions that experience should have brought out. It still hits, but it definitely doesn't hit as hard as it did in the game, which is a shame because they have two fantastic actors here who absolutely could have went above and beyond for that scene if it was presented correctly and with enough time.

[mistysblueboxstuff]

It's okay, baby girl

I got you

[pedgito]

You put it in your pack. You'll shoot your damn ass off. THE LAST OF US | 1.05 'Endure & Survive'

[daenerys-stormborn]

THE LAST OF US 1.01 “When You're Lost in the Darkness”

[keelifallen]

The sad little man just wants to be a dad