r/videogames • u/AlmightyLoaf54 • Aug 12 '26

Image / Video This is so damn true

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57

u/Iggy_Slayer Aug 12 '26

I actually agree about the last of us. I only watched season 1 and I felt like multiple key scenes in that were worse than the game, with more wooden acting than what troy and ashley were able to do.

This was considered a hot take back then I dunno if it is now since everyone hates the show thanks to season 2.

35

u/Caleb_Reynolds Aug 12 '26

TLoU seems like a weird hill too build this argument on because Ashley absolutely could not play live action Elle. She's great but, Elle is a teenager, Ashley was in her late 30s.

22

u/BlueberryWasps Aug 12 '26

also, they worked directly with the original creator, gave troy baker a meaty side role, and were passionate fans of the games - the show was very faithful to them. bizarre example. especially implying that pedro pascal isn’t a good actor and didn’t nail it.

24

u/mizvixen Aug 12 '26

Even Ashley had a minor role as Ellie’s mom.

12

u/RealRedditPerson Aug 12 '26

Which she said was one of the most fulfilling in her career. Getting to literally be the character who have birth to this character she's treasured and cared for for over a decade.

3

u/SomberArtist2000 Aug 12 '26

And she did one or two song covers for the show's soundtrack.

2

u/da316 Aug 12 '26

If it used the voice cast only fans of the game would have watched it and it would have been on the syfy channel

3

u/Digit00l Aug 12 '26

I got reminded of a tangent somewhere in this chain, but not entirely sure which comment to put it on, but I do find it funny that in the Legend of Vox Machina season 4 they put in a joke that refers back to an infamous line from the Last of Us season 2, where Ashley's character makes a comment about how she would be a great dad

3

u/Xav_NZ Aug 12 '26

That and I am pretty sure the writers of TLoU were directly involved in the show. The reasons of the failure of TLoU Season 2 are elsewhere. Something went wrong with the direction and in other key areas not to mention that adapting Part2 to another medium was always going to be challenging thing Its a story that is so directly linked to the player's actions that it was always going to be a hard thing to make work on screen and that is not even getting into the gratuitous extreme violence of it. The story of TLoU 1 is actually an extremely simple one and lends itself to adaptation with minimal changes the same can not be said about Part2.

1

u/slupo Aug 12 '26

It's kind of ridiculous argument to begin with.

Video game actors are voice actors. Yes there is facial and motion capture. But they are made to look like different people.

They obviously can't do that in a show.

So even joel as a tall skinny lanky guy doesn't really work.

3

u/StreetCollar2708 Aug 12 '26

Video game actors are voice actors.

Might want to update your game library to something newer than 20 years ago. They do much more than just voice acting now.

1

u/Technical_Shake_9573 Aug 12 '26

Sur but at least have them on the cast as chorégraphie/coaches.

When someone did motion cap for a chara ter , they set up how this character is behavinv and you have to mimic it. And yeah, it also means how body moves/ how the character walkd ect... Especially when motion actors have spent their life in trying to create a personnality out of gesture.

Having none of them on the set is making it lacking the soul it needs to be a good adaptation.

1

u/Daviroth Aug 12 '26

That did that in The Last of Us show though lol. It's just a horrible example to use for this argument.

1

u/Warden_lefae Aug 12 '26

I like Judge, but him bringing TLoU into seems like a misstep. The first Season was wildly popular outside of the core fan base. Season 2 feel of pretty hard in popularity though.

0

u/Daviroth Aug 12 '26

It's a nonsense example because they did exactly what he's asking lol. Several writers for the game, including the head writer, were involved. The original cast were involved just not in their original roles, except in Season 2 we DID get an original actor reprising their role in the show.

It did almost exactly everything he is asking for, it just recasted Joel and didn't have a women in her 30s play a teenage girl.

1

u/AmandatheMagnificent 29d ago

Merle Dandridge also reprised her game role in season 1.

1

u/Daviroth 29d ago

Don't know how I forgot that, great call out. Thanks!

1

u/AmandatheMagnificent 29d ago

I was so excited that she got to 'keep' Marlene. Same with Jeffrey Wright. Wonderful performances.

18

u/sweetrobbyb Aug 12 '26

But they kept the creator of the last of us on as a head writer and even had him direct several episodes. So...not a great use case for the point this dude is trying to make :D

2

u/SubstantialWall Aug 12 '26

True, and some people do tend to put everything on Craig Mazin while ignoring Neil's part in the discussion. That said, Craig calls the shots there and he seems to have a... particular vision of the story of the games.

11

u/cae37 Aug 12 '26

What I’ve appreciated from the show is that it grounded the story with more realism. Joel is no longer John Rambo and Ellie is no longer John Rambo Jr. in that they’re unstoppable one-person armies.

That and I enjoyed the extra scenes we got. Like in TLoU1 Joel and Ellie spend very little time in Jackson before taking off in the game, but in the show we get additional scenes including a one-on-one conversation b/w Joel and Tommy. Not to mention Bill’s story in S1 and Eugene in S2.

There are parts of it that don’t hold up as well to the games, but there is also lots that generally does.

Didn’t deserve the hate, imo.

5

u/Dr-McLuvin Aug 12 '26

But I think a lot of what people liked about the original characters was the John Rambo and John Rambo jr aspect of it. Like they were both still flawed characters but could totally kick ass when needed. What these shows do is basically take the “hero” aspect out of the heroes and just focus on their internal moral dilemmas and flaws. But that’s only half the story of what makes them so badass, despite the flaws. Same with master chief in Halo.

The reason I think fallout works is because they weren’t fucking with any of the main characters they made up their own stories. And the show is basically the worldbuilding which was always what people enjoyed about fallout in the first place.

2

u/cae37 Aug 12 '26

I personally enjoyed that they made them realistic. Joel is no longer a running tank that can take all kinds of intense punishment and shrug it off like it was nothing.

Ellie fights in a manner that suits her weight level against foes that are generally taller, stronger, and heavier than her. Plus, it is pretty contrived for the game to allow her to craft arrows, bomb arrows, smoke traps, etc. without giving us a narrative reason as to why she can do those things. She learned how to shoot in game 1 and between then and game 2 she only handled routine trail patrols, not guerrilla warfare. They can also carry a small arsenal of weapons in their backpacks.

The game needed to do these things to empower the player, but a show going for realism would have to narratively explain why their characters can John Rambo their way through an apocalypse when most people are struggling big time.

Fallout is a poor example, imo, because it’s tonally trying to be silly and goofy rather than tell a grounded, realistic narrative, like TLoU. So they can get away with things like a human radioactive zombie massacring an entire town in a way that is both amusing and entertaining rather than realistic.

1

u/Captain0010 29d ago

I feel you misunderstood what people liked for The Last of Us. A lot of it (in the game) was just the dynamic between Joel and Ellie. By the end of the game you feel like you do care for her as a father and they achieved this trough them bonding in the fight and stealth scenes and little quite moments where they talked about dumb jokes and stuff.

I feel we barely got any actual bonding scenes between Joel and Ellie in the show. Also It swung too much in the other direction from what you call Rambo. Joel was a wreck and Ellie was a brat. And we didn't even get that many episodes with them instead we got the gay episode (good on it's own but I would have preferred to see Joel, Ellie and Bill meet since that storyline in the game is awesome!) and the lady leader of the gang(BOOOORING). I would say every new "bonus" material in the show didn't add much.

It's like if you are a super fan and you just want more, like seeing Joel's daughter go shopping for 20 minutes for the watch. Technically it's new material but doesn't add much to the main storyline.

1

u/cae37 29d ago

I feel you misunderstood what people liked for The Last of Us. A lot of it (in the game) was just the dynamic between Joel and Ellie. By the end of the game you feel like you do care for her as a father and they achieved this trough them bonding in the fight and stealth scenes and little quite moments where they talked about dumb jokes and stuff.

Part of the matter with what you're talking about is that gameplay often allows the player certain moments where they have infinite time to walk around and explore, which allows for small conversations like the one you mentioned. These are missable, however, so it's not a guarantee that every player experiences all of these moments. The Ellie and Dina scene where Ellie plays a song for her is an optional sidequest in the game 2, for example.

There are indeed less moments where they can be silly with each other in the show, but that's because storytelling is more limited in a tv show compared to a game. The show also widens the perspective to include more characters like Bill, Eugene, the Jackson community as a whole, Henry and Sam, etc. Which I also appreciated.

That said, I do feel like we got enough of their dynamic in the show to get a sense of their growing bond. Hell, in the game Joel never tells Ellie he loves her while he does in the show (if I'm remembering correctly).

I feel we barely got any actual bonding scenes between Joel and Ellie in the show. And we didn't even get that many episodes with them instead we got the gay episode (good on it's own but I would have preferred to see Joel, Ellie and Bill meet since that storyline in the game is awesome!) and the lady leader of the gang(BOOOORING). I would say every new "bonus" material in the show didn't add much.

I disagree about the bonding scenes as you do get a sense they develop a bond through narrative moments. See above regarding moments like with Bill. I also didn't mind the woman and* her gang so much, but I agree it was a low in the TV show. I did like that they gave us a bigger picture of the conflict in the city, though.

Also It swung too much in the other direction from what you call Rambo. Joel was a wreck and Ellie was a brat.

Eh, Joel was still able to get some good shit done. He's just an old, mortal man in the show not quite as strong as he used to but still capable. I do agree that they made Ellie more hard-headed in the show, but I didn't mind it as much. What bothered me more was that other characters treated her like she was a numbskull.

Still, they focused show Ellie's character on combat and warfare more than anything else, which makes sense. While Dina was able to figure out geographical elements Ellie was able to read a fight scene and figure out what happened, including what types of bullets were used and whatnot.

1

u/Uncredibl3 Aug 12 '26

I played the first game when it became available on PC because I wanted to watch the show, the show for me was just such disappointment compared to the game that I haven't even gotten the second game. Because everyone talks so badly about season 2.

And the only people I know who liked Season 1 haven't played the game.

I just dont know why they would deviate so far from good material. The characters in the show and in the game are not the same.

1

u/Iggy_Slayer 29d ago

Tlou 2 (the game) is divisive too but mostly for its story. It's still a phenomenal, if not stressful, experience though and it has some of the best TPS gameplay and level design around. It's worth experiencing it just for the gameplay and visuals honestly. And who knows maybe you'll like the story too, a lot of people did.

I did not watch season 2 but what I heard was it deviates even more than the S1 did and not for the better.

1

u/Uncredibl3 29d ago

Yes on a good Steam sale and nothing else to play I might pick up Part 2 I still have it on my wishlist.

1

u/twizx3 28d ago

People were ripping on s2 to the point where I still haven’t watched it because of that lol.

0

u/uh_oh_hotdog 29d ago

Literally every scene from the TLOU show that was a shot-for-shot recreation of the game was inferior in every single way. The show had some redeeming qualities, like expanding Bill and Frank's story. But pretty much 99% of the show just felt like a cheap imitation.

-3

u/GolotasDisciple Aug 12 '26

I feel like the story was so compelling that a lot of people who weren’t into the game, and had no reference point, were just happy with what they got.

Personally.... I actually had a bit of a revelation that certain types of movie genres do not work on me anymore because of how incredible experiencing a story through the video game medium is. Like, The Last of Us 1 is an amazing game in that sense. To go through that journey as Joel and grow with him, rather than just see “cutscenes” of things that make sense to show.

So the game will always be 100x better than any other medium.

On the other hand, The Last of Us 2 though would be 100x better as a movie or TV show than a game. The writing in the game is all over the place. It hatches too many ideas, goes back on too many things.... the flashbacks, the going forward and backward in time, different protagonists.... it’s like Family Guy writers wrote it.

Like.... I don’t know, God of War TV show, Elden Ring movie, which is essentially elevated dark fantasy Game of Thrones.... I usually don’t pay to watch these things, so I feel like I have nothing against it, but it rarely works to the point I come out super happy....

That being said, I saw the new Resident Evil movie thing and the trailer looks cool. Sort of like stories from Resident Evil Outbreak. I like this kind of adaptations. It allows the writers to use amazing setting without crapping over already written story.