1. abby did nothing wrong. in her life.
2. i think i actually prefer this to the first one.

i say i think, i mean i definitely prefer this. i really liked tlou1 but holy shit was that an emotional roller coaster.

and with that i go to bed and will collect more thoughts inthe morning

i am

here to talk

please talk to me about TLOU2

I WILL

hi i love tlou2

I’m in the same boat. I definitely liked tlou2 more than the first one but I think that’s just because 2 destroyed me emotionally for a good week after I beat it.

2 is just a more ambitious game in every way

the whole losing yourself to revenge and hatred is a trope that isn't new or unique but man i don't think it's ever wrecked me as hard as this game.

i keep seeing people saying like, "joel was everything to ellie so ellie had it worse than abby" which is one of the many smoothbrained idiot takes about this game i can't escape from, but the core tragedy of it is that. ellie had a life. ellie had been building a life without joel. they weren't even really talking until the night before joel died.

by the end of the game, ellie has well and truly lost everything but it wasn't abby that took it, it was ellie that threw it away because she couldn't let go of her guilt and self hatred and anger.

just. waughhhghghghg

also the fact that ellie saved abby and lev right at the end

yeah like

yes you can reduce the game to "revenge bad" but it's also about like

grief and procesisng it and the way it consumes your life until you're frozen in place

yeah exactly. it's about a fair few things tbh. one of i think the best done themes being the ways hate dehumanizes people and lets them justify doing so many horrible things. at the start, ellie's convinced that the wolves aren't like jackson and deserve to get slaughtered because they shot them on sight, but then you see from their perspective and they've

been in a city wide war against people who have been burning their own to death to send a message, and more specifically they were about to launch a massive attack against them and were extra on guard. and then you see the scars perspective and to them the wolves want to torch their way of life and slaughter them all and they murdered their leader.

so the leadership of both factions is just stuck in this dick measuring contest of sending their people to kill and die because they're convinced that everyone on the other side are subhuman monsters.

and that theme carries through with ellie & abby and joel & abby. where like, you build this person into this epitome of all evil as a sadistic evil monster who took away your family without a second thought and then it's just like. oh shit they're just. a guy.

like how ellie couldn't figure out why the wolves would let them live and tommy if they were going to come back and the answer is specifically that abby (and owen) had no grudge against them and no desire to harm them because of what they might do, so they spared them. and that's so obvious but it's not for ellie because she refuses to consider it.

yeah i dont even think tlou argues that revenge is "bad"... just that it has a cost often not worth paying

but its not really making a moral judgement

the last of us 2 makes the controversial and offensive point that spits in the face of all gamers... sometimes... killing people has consequences

but like yeah it's not really focused on the morality of it or preaching it's point. it's more coming from an emotional level where revenge is this all-consuming sunk cost fallacy that abby and ellie both convince themselves is the answer to their problems and in the process they ruin their lives

And it never really is focus on the morality just emotion but fans can’t get over that which leads to stupid takes lol