The Last of Us Part 2 - Some Other Fun Stuff

[@CheesecakeMilitia]

"Revenge of the Obra Dinn"

[@MoxyCaldwell]

Oh dammitm. It crossed my mind that I might have done that, but I forgot to check

[@andybagles4156]

Really brilliant Video Dude, some very interesting discussion on small details I haven't heard anyone else bring up. Would love more detailed discussion on TLOU2 like this. However, mix down your Music a little, I found it slightly too loud and kinda distracting.

[@MoxyCaldwell]

Thanks! Did better on this last time I made something, but I think I got carried away with Lucas Pope's music. Thanks for the feedback!

[@andybagles4156]

@@MoxyCaldwell Still do need to play Obra Dinn!

[@andybagles4156]

About to watch your 50m TLOU2 Video, looking forward to it.

[@MoxyCaldwell]

@@andybagles4156 Thanks! And I would highly recommend it. Doesn't have a ton of replay value, but really good on the first go-round.

[@johnathonhand8570]

Great stuff! I wish I felt the same about Mel, but she still just seems like an obvious foil to Abby from my experience. Case in point: Owen and Abby are getting back together behind Mel's back... and Mel directs the vitriol towards Abby instead of Owen. I was shocked by how much I disliked Mel by that point, and upon reflection I couldn't remember a moment where we got to see the best of Mel outside of a few small endearing moments (such as the finger gun pointed out in the video). She helped Yara, but very begrudgingly if I remember. With all this, I guess I just mean to say that Mel's character felt the most artificial to me, I could almost see the hands of the writers forcing me to sympathize with Abby because of how poorly Mel was treating her. Not that I didn't want to find sympathy with Abby, I just felt surprised by how much of a foil Mel became over the course of the game. Maybe that stark tension was 100% intentional? Even so, I can't help but feel they did Mel dirty in the end. Still, you bring up many great points, and it's worth noting I haven't played since the week of release, so maybe I'd feel different now.

[@MoxyCaldwell]

Yeah, I see what you're saying. It hits a little on-the-nose, and I think Mel going off on Abby doesn't cast her in a great light. The way it struck me on the first playthrough though was as an example of the tension between Mel seeming a lot more likeable (discovered on the second playthrough that there's a nice note she wrote Abby that's in her backpack when she's walking around with her dad) and Abby being a character that's harder to like. I agree that it's pretty perfectly orchestrated, but disagree that Mel suffers as a character for it. One of her first scenes is her expressing a general desire for Ellie and Tommy to be killed (without making any movements toward doing so while other characters are a lot more insistent). It at struck me as a part of consistent effort to paint her as a character that wants to live in a better world than the one that she does and is willing to let any bad thing happen to other people or do them herself if it means it can happen. Hence yelling at Abby, rather than Owen (agree philosophically that infidelity is the responsibility of the person they made a commitment to, not the person they broke it with) because Abby is a threat to her ideal life whereas Owen is a necessity to it, even if he frustrates her. Reflecting on it now, it also feels so necessary to draw this line because I think it points toward the fact that Mel probably would have done all the things Joel did in the original, while Abby actually wouldn't have, despite being a character who, on the face, seems to be a lot more evil and mean-spirited. I guess like the tension between aesthetics of kindness (nice notes, soft voice, finger guns, begrudging help) versus action (sparing Ellie twice, helping Yara and Lev, saying she'd want her dad to let her die for a vaccine). But, yes, I can practically hear Neil Druckmann congratulating himself while he wrote all this. Thank you for watching and commenting!