It seemed to me that adapting 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us for TV would be an exercise in cutting down. The game is longer than the show, ergo some parts must go. In practice, once you thinned out the gameplay sections, it seemed like everything valuable could be saved. In fact, there was even time to expand on a few key areas the game left wanting. But as we go into season two, we don’t need as m♏uch Ellie’ไs backstory.
The Last of Us Part 1 is a straightforward story. The whole thing unfolds in chronological order, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:starting with Sarah’s death, then moving through Joel and Ellie’s journey across the country. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The 𝔉onl🧔y deviation from this is Left Behind, which was DLC rel⛎eased after the story was concluded, but which chronologically takes place between Sarah’s death ♎and Joel and Ellie’s first meeting. With Part 2, it’s not so simple.
The Last of Us Part 2 seems to play out just like the first game - a death in the ea🉐rly exchanges, then a chronologically told story charting a journey between a duo. But at the midway point, it changes. We suddenly are thrown three days into the past, and play out the same three days all over again. Not from the hero’s perspective, but from that of the supposed villain we have been pursuing. It’s a major risk for the game to have taken, and I’m curious to see how the TV show will ꦰframe it, and what the reaction from general audiences who are going into it with zero knowledge of the game.
That’s not the only way TLOU2 plays with time, though. The three days we spend with Ellie and Abby are also punctuated by flashbacks. In Ellie’s, we see her happy life with Joel as he teaches her how to swim, to shoot, and raises her as his own - culminating in Ellie discovering what Joel did at the end of the first game (or, from a TV perspective, season one). Abby, meanwhile, is shown happy and carefree wit💦h h🀅er father, contextualising her relationship with him and the change when he was taken away from her.
That means the next season will likely play around with time more. Season one had great success explo𓂃ring Bill’s past in🌄 Long, Long Time, and deꦿveloping Ellie and Riley’s relationship even further by expanding on Left Behind. We also saw a little of Ellie’s backstory, with Ashley Johnson - who plays her 🌸in the game - portraying her mot൲her. It’s a good thing that the show is giving characters breathing room by expanding the story rather than just recreating the game shot for shot (although when on the𓃲 straighꦫt and narrow, it still does this). We just don’t nee๊d any more of it about El🃏lie.
I’ve got nothing against Ellie. She’s a great character. But I also feel as if I know her incredibly well already. The game excels when it comes to character development, and Ellie is given a healthy dose already. Any more, and we get into what I call The Star Wars Problem, where any line of dialogue, every minor piece of lore, every possible sl🌟iver of information needs its own spin-off miniseries, the main character of which will eventually get their own movie.
The Last of Us doesn’t need to become Ellie&rꦗsquo;s show. The whole point of Part 2 is that Ellie is not a special, chosen one figure. She’s hurt in a world of hurt where everyone else is hurt too. It’s bleak, but it’s raw, and it shouldn’t be cheapened by deifying her with endless extension of her character.
I’m not against season two keeping what’s already there. The museum has to be kept. And I’m not even against expanding on it - a weakness of TLOU2’s narrative, if there is one to be found, is that t📖he Seraphites are underdeveloped. And if we are going to get another version of Long, Long Time, something connected to Dina, Jesse, or (despite my personal dislike for the guy) Owen seem like ideal choices. Any of those characters would offer extra depth to the story. Telling us more about Ellie feels too much like unnecessary padding.
Ellie is the heart of The Last of Us, and her growth in season two is going to be the most compelling part of the story. But that will be through seeing how Bella Ramsey tackles this arc, how the show adapts her story, and how it shapes the characters around her. It won’t be through endless focus on her at 🍷the detriment of everyone else.