The Last of Us 2 is hated, but great. The showis one of the best Video games-to screen adaptations ever, but wait till you get to the Last of Us 2. It is one of the most controversial stories in a generation--but the reasons people hate the game are also what make it a masterpiece.

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Written and Hosted by Ryan Arey (  / ryanarey  )
Edited by Harriet Lengel-Enright
Edited by Randolf Nombrado

#LastOfUs2 #HatedButGreat #VideoEssay

The Last of Us on HBO is a pretty near-perfect adaptation, and it has me looking forward to season 2. And get ready for a whole lot of internet discourse because the last of us 2 was one of the most controversial video games ever made. But I think that all the reasons [people hated the game are what actually made it great.

And to really understand what the game is trying to say, I need you to ask yourself: do you thank your Alexa? Or Siri? Or whatever AI tool you use?

Doug: What's got to do with anything?

It has everything to do with this, but you don't have to answer right now, we’ll come back to it. Now I should note that when I say some people hated the game, I’m talking about the story. On a purely technical level, everyone agrees this game is magnificent. Also,a disclaimer, my brother in law was a level designer on the game, and this is my cat in the pet store.

But, I’m not talking about the level design or gameplay–I want to revisit the story. So spoilers for Last of Us 2 are ahead.

I’m sure a lot of you know the story of the Last of Us, but we have to understand the larger theme that drives that story. We have seen thousands of hours of zombie stories at this point, and yet the Last of Us feels fresh. This is partly because of how people become infected. Instead of it being a virus, or magic, or aliens–these humans have been infected with a parasitic fungus that has grown from the natural world.

Most zombie stories are retellings of Man vs man–the hordes of the undead can represent consumerism, overpopulation, or even just a fear of growing up. But the last of us is a story that is man VS nature.

Doug: Oh, you mean like that Anthony Hopkins movie where he fought a bear. Or when Liam Neeson punched a wolf.

No.

Doug: Oh.

I mean man vs nature like all of nature is taking over humanity–and by extension, it's taking over Joel’s soul. We see this in 3 levels: macro, micro, and personally. On the macro level, nature has reclaimed the world from human beings. Our cities and great works are overgrown with plants that crack the foundations and topple the buildings. The Last of Us series even implies that the cordyceps fungus was able to adapt because of climate cha nge [clip].

Mother nature has overthrown mankind, on the cellular, or micro, level. The cordyceps fungus has infiltrated the human body, and turned people into extensions of nature. The zombies are like animals in human bodies–all stimulus and response, with no higher brain functions.

Or, you could say, that the fungus robs humanity of its soul. And this is what we see happen to our characters on a personal level. Zombies are aways stories about people losing their humanity and becoming soulless monsters. And this happens to Joel in the very first scene, with the death of Sarah.

We don;t know what Joel was up to specifically over the next 20 years, but we know it wans;t good [tess talking about how they're bad people]. Joel did such bad things that his brother left him and went out west with the fireflies. Just like the fungus infects the brain, Joel’s heart had become infected with hatred. The rest of the world’s external battle with cordyceps mirror Joel’s internal struggle with grief.

And then, he meets Elllie. [a nice clip between them].

Very slowly, Ellie cures Joel’s inhumanity. And Ellie is also the cure for ALL of humanity. She is the key to restoring the human race’s dominance over nature. She can bring back the human race. But then–and major spoilers for Last of Us here–then Joel finds out that for Ellie to save humanity, she has to die.

So Joel goes on a killing spree to save her life, killing the only doctor that could create a vaccine against the fungus. Joel chose to sacrifice the future of humanity–just to preserve his own humanity.

It is an incredible ending for a video game–because we are forced to play the game to see how the story ends–even though you may not agree with what Joel is doing. The last of Us forces us to walk in Joel’s shoes, and to see the world from his point of view. When you play the game, you don;t want to win.