Raachel2008

The difference there is that the places in our own actual world that have experienced catastrophic events were not part of an entire world that collapsed, they also and didn't have a bunch of gigantic homicidal walking fungus settled on killing people (never mind the money invested to rebuild these places). You cannot really compare them. I get your point and I agree that the show does very little to tell us why these people are living and not only surviving, but maybe that's due the game's nature. I'm a bit late to this, but I really really really wish they hadn't given Sam cancer (leukemia?). I think it was over the top and not realistic; let's say Sam had cancer 4 years ago, that would have been 16 years after the world ended, how did the medicine lasted? Who treated him? Did he had chemo? Radio? FEDRA provided him the entire treatment, anti-nausea medication, etc etc? Come on. Kathleen was right when she said that kids die - and in this world they die from things we take from granted because we can 'cure' 'simple' diseases that killed children a century ago.. Like, maybe Sam had a flu, never got better, an boom, a full pneumonia getting worse and worse and Henry seeing his little brother this close to die went to FEDRA. Maybe he had a tooth abscess that got infected really fast and soon he was going into sepse. There. Way more plausible and IMO enlightening or how dire and hard is their lives. Loved Sam. What a fantastic actor. Love all this scenes with Ellie and I felt really sorry for her. She is desperate to have a friend - the 'I'm scared of ending along' gave me chills, no way Ellie is not considering that she may be 'the last of us'. Bella really shone in those scenes and her face when Sam died... She is a terrific actress. Kathleen was a bitch. Sorry, fuck her. Yes, FEDRA is a bunch of fascists and deserved what they got but the woman ignored what she knew - SHE KNEW - where the infected in that basement to go after Henry. She sealed the fate of the people her brother died trying to save because she was an arrogant pride vengenful bitch. And I agree with others, she would be a bitch if there were no fungus. I'm torn if Melanie Lynskey's acting was brilliant or if I'm prejudiced and cannot see anyone following that woman. Also, I disagree with the idead that her brother didn't accomplish anything. He was betrayed before he could do anything. Sam is healthy and ok, so we are talking at least two years post cancer.

Oh, but I find it perfectly reasonable that Bill and Frank's house elicited that reaction. It is a pretty, nice, lovely, well-cared house, with perfect wallpaper, shinny hardwood floor, paintings and fine china on the walls. That is Versailles for a kid who was raised in an orphanage in a QZ post the end of the world. You bet Ellie has never seen a house like that. I doubt there are houses like that back in the QZ except for the high ranked fascists. What really bothers me is that she swears all the time, in all situations; it is Jack Bauer's 'damnit!', except all the time and it doesn't flows organically for me. And believe me, I swear a lot, and I do know that kids swear a lot. Not only that but Barquin claims that the narrative was bland and dated, and that the story was told on HBO didn't have any narrative purpose and was a thematic burial "in a world where more and more nuanced and complicated queer characters come to life every day". I honestly cannot with that, because the fuck, man? You show to gay men in their late 40's and then in their 60's and how come that is not nuanced? How many times do you see middle-aged-to-old men on TV in a relationshp, having sex or any kind of intimacy? Ageism is real. Representation matters. How many times do you see a paranoid gun hoarder antigovernment gay survivalist being this nuanced? A virgin one, by the way? How can anyone who watches a lot of TV write that this story does not belong to 2023? Does he really think we are better than 2003 because we now also tell stories of trans, pan, aces, and other queer people that were 'invisible' on TV in 2003, so we should not tell more 'normal' gay stories? How come showing love, and finding purpose, and living not only surviving, does not belong to the series? AND FWIW, that entire review could have been written without all those spoilers. For real.

I loved the episode. The acting was fantastic. I know the major points of the game, but not many spoilers, so I had no idea what was going to happen except that they were a couple. Did we know what Frank did before the apocalypse? I was worried he was playing Bill for shelter and food, and was going to turn into a psycho. I'm glad they found each other and fell in love and fought and were friends, and survived as long as they could, like any couple in a long term sucessfull relationship. I enjoyed the small touches, like the pavement getting older, the chipped paint, the shredded flag, how the flowers were not the same as before (not the same high maintenance flowers as from the beggining of their relationship). I was pleased they didn't shy away from showing intimacy between two men AND as important as that, two man in their late 40's early 50's and past that. I want to know what happened in those 10 years between the Tess and Joe visit to Bill and Frank and their escape with Ellie; because both Joe and Tesse are very different. It is not just the clothes or the packing on years, you can see that whatever sort of upper hand they had in their situation changed for the worse. I wonder if FEDRA just became even more totalitarian and crushed small dealers and smugglers like them, or if the number of infected became so high they couldn't travel more and that had an impact on their business - they said they hadn't been in downtown Boston in what, a year? Loved the small detais, like Joel, the contractor pointing to Bill how is fence was going to fail, and how Ellie was happy to see the box of tampons and putting toillet paper in her backpack, both Ellie and Joe taking a shower and immediately looking fresh and better and in a good humor. Speaking about Ellie, I think she is acting tougher than she really is, but at the same time, she is a child of the post-apocalypse, raised in a Fedra orphanage. They burn children bodies in the middle of the QZ. Fedra kills people on streets and infected without thinking twice. They are on ration cards. Joel talked about pancakes, I was expecting her to say 'I never had a pancake'. This kid is not our 2023 normal world kid. Who is to say that was the first mass grave she ever saw? For the record, I don't find it bizarre that Ellie is taking the whole thing as a field trip. I think that... attitude, for the lack of a better word, is very common among teenagers, and yes, it is a horrible world, and such, but it is all when there was no hoard around. Someone mentioned, though, last episode, that the swearing was too much. I'm no prude and swear a lot myself, but I'm over Ellie swearing in all her lines. I never palyed the game, so I don't know it is how the character is or something they decided for the series, but make it stop. Other than that - Joel and Ellie are at their best together.

I didn't say it, I said - and I maintain it - that rabid male gamers (and females too) are having a hissy fit across the web because Bella Ramsay doesn't look like a pretty avatar. Pretty people and representation of pretty people exist, but that's not my point. My point is that bashing this young actress because she doesn't look like an avatar is pathetic, wrong and one of the reasons I don't give a fuck if the rabid gamers have a heart attack if the show deviates from the game and show two gays kissing and having sex. They can choke up on their misoginy and homophobia and die, for all I care. I loved the episode. The acting was fantastic. I know the major points of the game, but not many spoilers, so I had no idea what was going to happen except that they were a couple. Did we know what Frank did before the apocalypse? I was worried he was playing Bill for shelter and food, and was going to turn into a psycho. I'm glad they found each other and fell in love and fought and were friends, and survived as long as they could, like any couple in a long term sucessfull relationship. I enjoyed the small touches, like the pavement getting older, the chipped paint, the shredded flag, how the flowers were not the same as before (not the same high maintenance flowers as from the beggining of their relationship). I was pleased they didn't shy away from showing intimacy between two men AND as important as that, two man in their late 40's early 50's and past that. I want to know what happened in those 10 years between the Tess and Joe visit to Bill and Frank and their escape with Ellie; because both Joe and Tesse are very different. It is not just the clothes or the packing on years, you can see that whatever sort of upper hand they had in their situation changed for the worse. I wonder if FEDRA just became even more totalitarian and crushed small dealers and smugglers like them, or if the number of infected became so high they couldn't travel more and that had an impact on their business - they said they hadn't been in downtown Boston in what, a year? Loved the small detais, like Joel, the contractor pointing to Bill how is fence was going to fail, and how Ellie was happy to see the box of tampons and putting toillet paper in her backpack, both Ellie and Joe taking a shower and immediately looking fresh and better and in a good humor. Speaking about Ellie, I think she is acting tougher than she really is, but at the same time, she is a child of the post-apocalypse, raised in a Fedra orphanage. They burn children bodies in the middle of the QZ. Fedra kills people on streets and infected without thinking twice. They are on ration cards. Joel talked about pancakes, I was expecting her to say 'I never had a pancake'. This kid is not our 2023 normal world kid. Who is to say that was the first mass grave she ever saw? For the record, I don't find it bizarre that Ellie is taking the whole thing as a field trip. I think that... attitude, for the lack of a better word, is very common among teenagers, and yes, it is a horrible world, and such, but it is all when there was no hoard around. Someone mentioned, though, last episode, that the swearing was too much. I'm no prude and swear a lot myself, but I'm over Ellie swearing in all her lines. I never palyed the game, so I don't know it is how the character is or something they decided for the series, but make it stop. Other than that - Joel and Ellie are at their best together.

The same rabid gameboys who are bashing Bella Ramsay because she doesn’t look like Ellie, I.e., they don’t think she is pretty as a fucking avatar? I hope they do freak the fuck out. Loved it. Give all the awards to Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlet.

My SO has zero patience for the zombies/monsters genre and had never heard about The Last of Us before the series and he is captivated by the show, to the point that he sits on the couch to watch it instead of laying around and alternating between what is on screen and his cellphone. He is not Einstein, but far far far from being stupid, and is getting the story just fine. I liked a lot this episode. The flashback was amaaaazing. The actress did such a great job, from the moment she thought she was getting jailed by the not so democratic Indonesian government to realizing the were all going to die, to saying 'bomb the city' and 'I'd like to be with my family'. And of course nobody would really order to bomb a city of millions based on one scientist, thus the end of the world. The visuals of this series... Gorgeous. Boston was amazing, the shot of the two skycrappers one collapsing over the other wow. A few things I didn't understand though: 1) if they know the clickers (?) can find them by sound, why didn't they tell Ellie to be quiet when they entered the hotel, etc? 2) What exactly was the problem with the body they found in the museum? Was it the violence or the fact it had happened inside the museum so it pointed as one or more clickers being there? 3) The ligther had almost no gas or Tess hand was already trembling so hard she couldn't do it? Anna Torv was amazing. I love how Ellie is awed by that world outside the walls she knew her entire life. The bee hive mentality, wooooha. That's just mindblowing. The Last of Us really is a series that each episode needs a rewatch because as a viewer we gain so much the second time around.

I'm not sure they had orders to kill any civillian they saw, it looked to me they had orders to kill the infected and the one Joel and Sarah met radioed someone (a superior, maybe) who clearty didn't believe she had a twisted ankle. I liked the episode, I like the genre and I knew about the game, so I was full spoiled. But even so, those first 30 minutes were really good. They kept me on the edge of my seat wondering if they were really going to kill Sarah. I didn't catch it was 2003, so soon after 9/11, so her reaction the the owners closed the shop was weird, but not absurd for me since some teens/people are just that clueless. But then the bombings started and I was 'wtf, girl?'. But that being 2003 made no sense at all. I assume any teen who knew what Jakarta was and lived in a house were people watched the news on breakfast would be smarter than leave the house and not follow instructions. At least she would have searched the web? On the other hand, Sarah's catatonic state after shit hit the fan was very believable. I love Bella Ramsay, who was awesome in GoT and every single she has been after. I think she did a very nice job in the première and Ellie's excitmente about being outside the walls for the first time rang very true. Using the 60's, 70's, and 80's song was a very smart move. I didn't know Anna Torv was in that. The little boy, where did he came from? Is there a settlement outside? Did he scape Boston? Kudos to the actress playing the cop, the officer (?) knew what she was going to to and it was horrible and yet she was the kindest possible to the boy - still awful, though.

I don't think the number of characters or plots was exactly the problem; the real problem with this show is the writing. Mind you I'm not talking Tolkien, I'm talking writing, as in a cohesive writing that makes sense. Writing that makes you care and get engaged into the plots/arc/characters/individuals journeys/overall story - at least one of them. Writing that knows how to pace all that. Writing as in lines and scenes that make sense for that context. There is a video or article out there where Lloyd Owen (Ellendil) says a scene between him and Galadriel was cut so they could show more of Galadriel riding on her horse on the shores of Numenor. Did we need more? Didn't we already had enough of that lovely shot? What showrunner in his or her mind would allow that? There are so many small and big moments in this show where litte tweaks in the writing would have made such big improvements in the overall result. I'm sure there are writing class out there where the work of the week is just that: make this Númenor scene better, rewrite this little convo here. Charlie Vickers really knocked it out of the park with Hallbrand / Sauron, because until he entered Celebrimbor forge/office was all "are they really going to make him Sauron?". Although that was really heavy handed - again, the horrible writing - because I thought the elves were not that really welcoming of humans. Lovely acting by the Númenor crowd. I adore Durin and Disa - the bit about she saying 'this is our kingdom and our future', fantastic. You know that I would love to see next season? The litle dwarves. Galadriel is proud and dumb. Why she didn't tell Elrond that Hallbrand was Sauron is beyond me. I know they are already shooting season 2 but I really really hope someone in charge wants to be praised by a good job and decide they need decent writing and not what we saw. For real.

Between the people who had left and attacked the village, the orcs and the vulcan what are the odds that that baby survived? Also, pftttt. at least the movies had the guts to show that these folks at tons of kids. You know, like when birth control is something that doesn't exist. I thought the battle scenes were ok. This trully is the moment it should be said that GoT did better. The GCI was pretty bad at times. When Galadriel was fighting in Numenor so one of the rookies could become a lieutnent, there were several girls/woman in the background in the same armors. How come there wasn't one fighting there? This is the kind of thing that pisses me soooo much. There isn't a single thing as rushed in this show as 'Halbrand is our king. I wish we could have see Arondir and Galadriel fighting side to side. That would have been amazing, Is Ontamo the founder of Rohan or something like that?

The real problem I see in the show now is that it is all very rushed and the focus is on a very few characters. We can theorize that Larys is a born sociopath or that his father and brother were bullies to him, but the truth is that we didn't get enough. This show sucks at the supporting characters. GoT was really good at fleshing out - even if they didn't stayed for more than two episodes - the folks that were not Jon, Cersei, Danaerys, Sansa, Tyrion, Jamie, etc. Laena death would have been waaay more powerful if we had more of the amazing woman she seemed to be and the loss it meant for Daemon and their kids. Harwin seemed to really love his children and Rhaenyra apparently loved him, and I say apparently becasue we weren'tt allowed to watch whatever they had or even Rhaenyra's reaction to his death. I'm all for cutting the fat in GRRM work - and there is a lot of stuff that was rightfully cut in GoT - but this is pure nonsense. No way in all those years Rhaenyra and Alicent didn't manage to make alliances with other houses, or simply put, people. And this, IMO, is one of biggest problems there. This show sucks at showing people that are not Rhaenyra, Alicent and, because both revolve around him, Viserys. They trully rushed those ten years, and that was such a mistake.

Agreed on the plot convenient genetics, but in Robert/Cersei's case it wasn't exactly that. It was the fact that that "all" the Baraethon's had dark hair AND all Robert's 16 bastards had dark hair. IMO, had not been for the bastards, Ned would not (in the show) really went for that, because the Lannisters were "all" blondes and gave birht to blond kids. And of course none of them knew about recessive genes or what. Ned and Catelyn themselves had three kids of five kids with very dark hair which neither had. I personally think it is all very very dumb. It is a story with fucking dragons and wargs and witches and glorified zombies.

Which beg the questio: where were Corlys and Rhaenys? That marriage is extremely important to them, there is no way that they would not be next to that bed making sure Laenor did his duty and gave Rhaenerys the white haired baby they all needed. The problem with the time jump, as it was done, is that we don't see who are the allies, it looks like there are no one on Rhaenyra's corner other than Viserys but that can't be. She is married to the son of the richest guy in the realm, Corlys and Rhaenys have weight. Alicent's alies cannot be only these fuckers Criston and Larys.

Yes, and this is the kind of transition/stuff that should have been shown on screen. Looks small but adds so much to the feel of the show, IMO.

It was a beetle pin.

It's absurd to see Criston around. He shouldn't have left that room alive. Even if he had threatened to tell he had slept with Rhaenyra or that he knew Laenor was not interested in woman and he and Rhaenyra had a deal, Corlys and Viserys AND the Hand would had him killed because of all that alone. What Criston did at the wedding was a huge no - and he didn't even come from a noble family. He was a nobody. I detest the character. And like someone noted upthread, he should have a broken jaw and a fewer teeth after fighting with Harwin, which by the way didn't happen with Ramsay when Jon beat the shit out of him in Winterfell either. Rhaenyra and Laenor are fucking dumb. Let's say they took a look at Alicent or all the other not on screen white haired Targaryen babies from one dark haired parent, and decided it was set on stone that all Tagaryen children looked like Targaryen children. Ok. But then after Jacaerys was born, it was pretty stupid to do that a second time, and the third was just supreme idiocy. Ten years and she has learnt nothing. She marries into the richest family of Westeros, old Valyrian blood, half Tagaryen with their own dragons and she and Laeron throw that out of the window because they cannot see that they need ONE child who is not fathered by Harwin? Fucking stupid. And where were Corlys and Rhaenys that didn't put some sense in them? Didn't they had ONE friend to tell them what to do? Where are they Varys and Littlefinger to put some real sense into them? Idiots. Alicent is a bitch. I'm sorry, but demanding to see the baby was a dick move. And yes, Alicent, Harwin and his father death are on you. Larys is a worm and anyone with two brains would have seen it ten years ago. I would have way more simpathy for her if I feel she genuinely cared for her children, but she is more concerned on having the upper hand on Rhaenyra than anything else. Viserys is the weakest king ever. Aegon masturbating was disturbing, I didn't need to see a teen going on it, and it was awful lying about the pig, because sure it was his idea. The tongue cutting was brutal. The birth scenes were brutal. Laena's death was heartbreaking, with Vhagar refusing to kill her until he did. How come Harwin and his father didn't hear the assassins nailing the door? Don't they have soldiers there? It is the Hand, FFS. This episode felt totally rushed. They went for impact, but I think the audience need more of Rhaenyra and Harwin, Daemon and Laean AND Viserys and Alicent, as well whatever Larys does so we could see how things get to this point.

No way. Otto would have never allowed Alicent to do that. Rhaenyra was in no way ready to see someone in her mother's place, but while she couldn't do anything if Viserys decided to marry Laeana, the daughter of one of the most powweful men in Westeros or some other lady from a strong house, she could and we know she would convince her father to not betray her mother's memory and herself by marrying her friend who was like a daughter or whatever to Aemna. Viserys knew that, I'm sure. I don't think it is a matter or who is right or wrong there. Both Rhaenyra and Alicent are young women in a world where they aren't valued as much as men and where their main role is to bear chidren - boys, if possible. Rhaenyra has way more leeway because of her position and having a father who ends, most of the time, bending for her. Alicent doesn't have that and in last episode we could see how she resented that even if she didn't realize that herself. They both have flaws and made honest and not so honest mistakes there. Rhaenyra, IMO, overestimates her 'right' to the throne, and was very lazy and complacente all those years, while Alicent understimated how much social climbing she did and how much she could achieve. Bottom line, whatever friendship they had would turn sour, one way or another, once Aegon was born. Aegon and Rhaenyra's as heir cannot coexist. Rhaenyra would have seen that ages ago if she had made the effort - again, she did not. Alicent also did not, but she probably never expected to see herself in that position - queen, with a relatively nice marriage.

No, that's on you, not on me. You still haven't given me one single valid reason why it is a problem that Disa is played by a black woman. Your only argument is that it doesn't seem fair - to whom, I ask - and that it is not Tolkien like. It is you politicizing the show. The rest of us are just happy to see more diversity and waiting for things to getter better, because we know one thing is not tied to another. I think the writing on this show sucks big time. I think that even without the Simarillion, etc they could have structured the story and the plots better. I think they made a couple of mistakes in the casting process. I absolutely detest how some stuff is extremely poorly thought, like the speech about the elves stealing people's job or not a single person at the tower having a brain other than Bronwyn. I hate that some of the absurdity on screen could have been easily fixed, yet nobody cared to do what a fic writer would solve from home in 10 minutes. And yet, I can see that all those problems have abolutely nothing to do with the fact some actors have dark skin or that Amazon, among the trillion things did to promote this show, also wanted to target minorities that were not really important/contemplated in Tolkien's work,. To ignore that racism/all the isms exists and that part of the fandom is tying one to another - that part of the fandom did that before the show even aired or after only two episodes - is, at best, naivety. I'm done with this discussion. If the show really really annoys you so much, I would recommend not watching. I've done it several times in the past, wrt others series/stuff, and it is trully liberating.

Rhaenyra is allowed to not be interested in Alicent. She is allowed to not give a fuck about her. She is allowed to be as callous as she wants. She just have to own it, but that would imply she has some sort of strategy in her mind, or understand the game she has to play to sit on that throne, which she clearly does not, really. For me she always saw Alicent in the show as something between a friend and a lady in waiting. And she didn't understood, just Alicent herself didn't, that Alicent is not Switzerland in all this, she is the mother of Aegon. She is 'the other side', while Alicent probably saw their friendship as something that would last forever. Otto is Alicent's father, but he is also an employer, if you want. Rhaenyra wasn't going to comfort Alicent for making her father being fired because she is a princess, born and raised and it is her right, never mind that she would never tell Alicent that she had slept with Criston Cole. Also Otto overplayed his hand and he knew it. He absoutely knew it, which was obvious in the talk with Alicent at the gate. When Alicent doesn't show up at the wedding at the rights time and interrupts Viserys speech she is showing two things: first, that she finally understood that she is the queen, and she is entittled to things, second that Viserys is a weak king. No other king would have allowed that. Alicent was naive and Rhaenyra wasted precious time - years - that she could have worked towards that crown. Otto, who is way older and a political animal, know that down the road it is either Rhaenyra (and her future children) or Alicent's children, and a lot of blood before someone finally reigns for good. Both Alicent and Rhaenyra never really understood it. Otto knows. Daemon knows. Rhaenys knows. Everybody knows. Viserys thinks he doesn't know.

I'm sorry but that was not clear at all (the speculation on the writers motivations x your personal views).

Her wording is not a problem, but your problem with a diverse cast is a problem. No matter how Amazon marketed the show, diversity is one of the things they did right. I have no idea what they did on September 7, but casting people other than white was one of their best decisions.

I did, and I still say we were not shown or told anything that prove me she actually did any towards that crown. It is okay, though. We have a few sesons to go.

Speak her mind and be a real part of that council are too different things. She was part of the council and was basically serving them coffee before as Rhaenys pointed to her. My point is that she didn't spend these years working towards her goal of sitting in that throne, like more smart people would. Anyway.

And not only that but, as far we were told, Rhaenyra has done nothing to show the realm that she would be a good queen, a queen worth breaking tradition. She is seen as a brat, and yes had she been a man etc etc etc et al, but she is not. She sulked, she moped, she didn't used her vastly soft power to ingrain herself as a major player in Westeros. She didn't manage to be a real part of the council, she didn't manage to make Viserys give her some position or whatever - and he would, we know he would have done that. So, all that time - 4? 5 years since her mother has passed and her father decided she was the heir, Rhaenyra did not move an inch to make that crown something more real. She is trully resting her pretty head at her pillow at night thinking that her father's word will be the law once he pass, something Rhaenys (who was loved and considered worthy) already spelled for her that won't happen. Rhaenyra is dumb.

Word to this. I'm also in a non English speaking country and to imply that us, non English speaking folks, cannot understand Tolkien or the plot or follow complex storylines is trully offensive. I also want to point @Rickster that us, non English speaking countries, have Nettlix, HBO, Amazon, Disney, Star+, Paramount, etc, with all their good and bad content, and we also have, the, uh, unorthodox ways to watch whatever we want. Amazon streams The Boys, after all, so I don't know what you mean at all by they wanting to be more family friendly - and I can assure you that The Boys is their most watched original in the world. Also, an all family show doesn't need to have a "more simplistic style to the writing". The writing in this show is bad because it is bad.