![]() that's how you shoot a villain, we're talking about filmmaking 101 here!Īfter Joel's line "I saved her" the prologue then immediately cuts to a hallway full of bloodied corpses, the walls riddled with bullet holes. How Joel calmly cleans the guitar with a menacing expression, the room dimly lit, his face shrouded in shadows, while he tells the story of his slaughter and Tommy apprehensively listens to him with a shocked expression. Druckmann couldn't have been more blatant and on the nose here, why not give Joel a face tattoo that says "EVIL" as well while you're at it. This is clearly not a face designed to elicit sympathy, but the face of a bloodthirsty psychopath. \"This is our future, think of all the lives we'll save. This is the moment Druckmann decided to cut to Joel? Joel however is shot like some stereotypical b-movie villain now, making a comically evil grimace while scared victim "Jerry" pleads and tries to reason with him. ![]() But wouldn't it have made the story (and Abby's character!) more interesting if Druckmann had just kept the original intact? Abby as the naive and slightly brainwashed daughter that idolised her less than perfect father, and that she has no clue why exactly Joel killed him? Or portray the surgeon as a hardened man, driven by the need to do what he perceived to be necessary? Instead Druckmann made the decision to sanitise the surgeon "Jerry", and even included Abby in a later flashback, while "Jerry" and Marlene discuss Ellie's fate, which means that she knew the entire time (!) why Joel killed her father, as well as who Ellie is.Īs far as Druckmann was concerned there could be no shadow of a doubt, wether narratively or visually, that the vaccine would've been a success, and the model of the surgeon had to reflect that as well. Since players are supposed to empathise with Abby Druckmann probably deemed the original model (which is, by design, threatening and unsympathetic) not fit for purpose. Fresh-faced "Jerry Anderson" on the other hand looks like the most non-threatening nicey-nice guy ever, his clothing is also clean and professional now (white sneakers instead of dirty hiking boots). The tired and exhausted look of that model certainly didn't inspire confidence. Dirty, creepy, wrinkly skin, hard facial features, deeply sunken eyes, inappropriate clothing (hiking boots in an OR?). It should've at least raised an eyebrow.īe that as it may, that original model is quite the horror "doctor". But it sure is at least a tad weird that in a game that is so obsessed with representation the decision to paint the character in a "better" light was accompanied by making him white(r) as well. The changed skin colour / ethnicity of the surgeon, whether that NPC was originally black or mixed, is ultimately not the important aspect here. Part II requires a monumental suspension of disbelief, that players will just swallow that the surgeon in TLoU and "Jerry" in Part II are the same person, something that, very obviously, just is not the case. ![]() This is obviously a completely different person, a clear break in continuity. New players are left with the impression: here are professionals at work, people who know what they're doing, a far cry from the dingy and run down appearance of the original. Let's start with the OR, which suddenly looks a lot cleaner, tidier, more professional and better equipped. The Part II prologue completely overturns the original ending, largely through visual storytelling. Right from the start, in the first few minutes, the game just felt wrong to me, even though I couldn't put my finger on every little detail at first. Those retcons immediately took me out of the experience. the first part of the " Jackson)" chapter -> link to the full prologue) effectively reverses the entire ending of The Last of Us, from the portrayal of the Fireflies, to the characterisation of Joel and Ellie, their relationship dynamic, and last but not least even Ellie's reaction to the "lie". The first post -> A look at the original ending.įor me the most immersion breaking aspect of Part II have always been the retcons, especially how the prologue (i.e. My second post about the retcons in Part II. ![]()
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