[21.02.23]

[facethestrange]

A few days after I watched it, it's time for my The Last of Us squee, or the post about how I'm the biggest Ellie stan. :D Or just a list of random things I loved, none of which are actual spoilers for the story. xD

♡ ELLIE IN THE HOTEL is my my number one favorite scene so far. In addition to her being the cutest dork, the flooded hotel is gorgeous! The entire overgrown city is gorgeous.

♡ "The contraaaactor" and "DAAAAAM" and just the way Ellie says things gives me life. :D

♡ Ellie randomly trying to teach herself how to whistle, lol.

♡ Ellie not liking the smell of coffee is extremely relatable. xD

♡ Ellie being 14! It's important to me on a personal level, and also there really aren't many 14-year-old girls in tv shows for adults. The age seems to always be 16 or at least 15.

♡ ELLIE BEING ELLIE, K.

Non-Ellie things I loved:

♡ Joel has such a Sawyer (from Lost) energy that somewhere in the back of my head it always feels like he IS Sawyer, 20 years later in a post-apocalyptic AU. xD Which also means I always want to call him Josh and not Joel because apparently my brain keeps thinking of Josh Holloway. xD

♡ JOEL HAVING PANIC ATTACKS. I knew it was a panic attack (and not a heart attack or anything like that) when he had the first one, and then it was made clear that it's his PTSD, and this is also very important to me on a personal level.

♡ The montage of Bill doing all the things right after he's left alone in the town is so SATISFYING. I'm not a prepper but when I see stuff like that, I wish I were one. xD

♡ Nice to see Tara from True Blood (Rutina Wesley) and Shauna from Yellowjackets (Melanie Lynskey). :D Someone on reddit said that Melanie Lynskey is carving out a niche for herself as the sociopathic soccer mom, and yeah, can't argue with that. xD

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Ellie has been one of my all-time favourite characters ever since I first played the game in 2013, and I'm so glad the adaptation is introducing her to a new audience! I haven't watched it yet, but I definitely need to check it out. She's just delightful.

[yhlee]

I've heard such good things about this show! How gruesome is it though? I also heard it's zombies and I'm a TOTAL WIMP about zombies. *wry*

[senmut]

I LOVE YOUR THOUGHTS!

[yhlee]

Also, re: age: my film agent told me once that they don't like having to deal with younger actors in the 12-14-year-old age range in live-action TV shows, especially if time advances more "slowly" in the show vs. real life (say, one season per year, each season represents three months of the characters' lives but of course the actors continue to age in normal time) because, well, puberty makes it harder and harder for the actors to be convincing at that age. :] I'm guessing you usually have 15/16-year-olds because you can plausibly have them be played by actors who are/become older.

[facethestrange]

Gruesome? IMO not very I like gruesome though, so maybe not the best judge xD, especially named characters' deaths tend to happen just out of the view so that you don't actually see their death or their body. Horror? Yeah, but not in every episode, some are pretty chill. Zombies? Definitely, it's a zombie show, but they don't generally LOOK like zombies (at least how I picture zombies because of The Walking Dead and stuff like that) - a lot of them look like regular people, and some others look like very mutated monsters.

If it sounds like your thing in any way, this show is amazing and I 100% recommend it! ♡

[facethestrange]

Yeah, I know, and it's kinda funny to see how this exact thing affected Stranger Things, and before that Walt on Lost. xD I'm happy that The Last of Us didn't have to age up the character in this case - Bella Ramsey is already 19 and plays 14-year-old Ellie. And I just deeply need on a personal level more 14-year-old girls in my dark shows (not just in children's shows) and I don't care if they're played by adults. xD

[facethestrange]

:D Thanks! Are you watching the show too (or know the game)? :)

[facethestrange]

She's frakking awesome and a delight to watch, her personality, her sense of humor, her manner of speech are just A+++. :D I know nothing about the game, but she seems to be very similar there, so I can absolutely see her being one of all-time favorite characters - the tv version already is one for me. :D

[senmut]

I am following via gifs and recaps, and read a detailed synopsis of the game so I could see the plot points that shift.

It's how I *watch* a lot of shows, because I have more ability to process recaps than actually watching.

[senmut]

I'd add to the comment you got that there is a bit of body horror at times, when you can see the effects of the infection.

[senmut]

And Bella has a perpetually young build/face going on, which helps.

[yhlee]

Body horror is probably okay! I like body horror, I just can't usually deal with rotting zombie bits. XD People are often surprised I'm such a wimp based on how gruesome my prose gets, but I don't visualize what I'm writing is my weird superpower. XD

Thank you so much for the added info, I appreciate it!

[rogueslayer452]

Ellie is definitely among my favorite video game characters, and it makes me so happy seeing her being brought to life in this adaptation. I didn't think anyone could top Ashley Johnson as Ellie, but Bella fits into the role perfectly.

The montage of Bill doing all the things right after he's left alone in the town is so SATISFYING. I'm not a prepper but when I see stuff like that, I wish I were one. xD

Yeah, same. I think most people have imagined doing something similar should we be in such scenarios. So having that little montage of him setting things up, raiding stores and getting supplies and such was definitely fun to see.

JOEL HAVING PANIC ATTACKS. I knew it was a panic attack (and not a heart attack or anything like that) when he had the first one, and then it was made clear that it's his PTSD, and this is also very important to me on a personal level.

I love this little addition, because it wasn't featured in the game and seeing his character fleshed out like that, giving him that vulnerability particularly when opening up to his brother about what he's feeling, that was just so good. I'll go more in depth in my overall review of the season, but I really appreciate the amount of care the show has been doing with focusing on the mental states of these characters. Joel and his panic attacks from unprocessed grief and fear, Ellie with her severe abandonment issues tied with her immense survivor's guilt, never mind the other characters that appear, even if just briefly, we see and understand what they, too, are going through.

I also appreciate them keeping things grounded by allowing characters to show their age, and even the disabilities that they may have, which isn't something you normally see in these kinds of stories, especially as a focal point in character decisions.

I, of course, have way more thoughts but again, I'll be sharing those later. But I'm really enjoying the show, and I'm happy that you're also enjoying it as well. :D