PSA: That 2023 "Last of Us" TV remake didn't just ruin Joel's character arc, it made me spend a whole Sunday arguing with my brother about why the game's original ending was way more gut-punching.

We went back and forth for 6 hours straight, from the coffee shop to his front porch, and by the time we finished he finally admitted the show's version felt too clean, so has anyone else had a whole day derailed by a dumb family fight over a reboot?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_max1mo ago

Oh man, I read this whole breakdown from a writer I follow on YouTube who argued the show's ending basically iced over the moral gray area that made the game so brutal. He pointed out that in the game you're sitting there holding the controller after Joel lies to Ellie, and you feel complicit because you pressed the buttons. The TV show just shows it to you like a normal scene, and that distance changes everything. Also, I heard the showrunner said in an interview they wanted to "soften" Joel's choice to make him more likable for a wider audience. That's exactly the problem. The game's ending was supposed to make you uncomfortable, not clean.

rileygarcia1mo ago

Yeah that bit about "you feel complicit because you pressed the buttons" kinda hit me. I used to be one of those people defending the show ending, saying it was basically the same thing just in a different format. But honestly I hadn't thought about it that way, how holding the controller makes you part of the lie. The show just lets you watch it happen and that really does change the whole feeling of it.

the_wendy1mo ago

People get really hung up on these deep philosophical takes about video game guilt, but at the end of the day it's a story about people making tough calls, lol. You can enjoy the show without overthinking whether pressing X or just watching it makes you a bad person.