![]() In addition to Pascal and Ramsey, the cast includes Gabriel Luna as Joel’s brother Tommy Merle Dandridge as Marlene, the leader of the rebel group the Fireflies Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank Nick Offerman as Bill Jeffrey Pierce as Perry and Anna Torv as Tess. But, given the prestige of the studio, and the thought and care into which it crafts its stories, I trust Naughty Dog enough to not trust a thing it says or does until launch day.įor more, check out the biggest new games of 2019 still on the way, or watch our Release Radar video below for a guide to everything else out this week.#TLOUDay /V6aDsHM3Dh- HBO September 26, 2022 ![]() Of course, this is Druckmann's first turn as creative director without his partner-in-crime Bruce Straley, so there's certainly room for slip ups this time around. In the same way that Uncharted 4's trailers heavily telegraphed Nathan Drake's death to the point of disingenuity, the consistent focus on Dina is enough to make me question every piece of promotional material as potential smoke and mirrors. To be clear, I refuse to believe anything I see from The Last of Us 2 until the game is in my PS4 and beaming into my own eyes. ![]() Hell, Druckmann has demonstrated a fondness for non-linear storytelling with Uncharted 2 before that gunshot victim in the basement may even be Joel himself. Naughty Dog has gotten us so focused on Ellie and the supposed murder of Dina for a reason, and I think that reason is to distract us from a much more impactful fatality. Joel's decision to support Ellie in her mission is potentially the beginning of that atonement story, culminating with him finally revealing the truth about that day at the Firefly base (I'm pretty certain Ellie still doesn't know about this, otherwise she wouldn't be so willing to put her life at risk).Īgain, the moors of the invoked revenge western genre provide potential clues for how this will play out, as these redemption stories often climax with a sacrificial death for the vindicated hero. ![]() Yet though Ellie certainly has areas in which she can grow as a person, she's not really a character in need of a redemption arc – but what about Joel? This is a man who essentially sentenced the entire human race to extinction and, by the looks of his weathered appearance at the end of the trailer, has been punishing himself for it ever since. This is a studio that is famed for its cineliteracy, after all, and it wouldn't be leaning hard into a specific genre for stylistic reasons alone, allowing us to hypothesize the direction in which the story is headed from these deliberate thematic choices.ĭespite its namesake, the revenge western is never just about revenge, but redemption through retribution often following a protagonist's arc of self-improvement which subsequently allows us to empathise with them even as they play judge, jury, and executioner. "I trust Naughty Dog enough to not trust a thing it says or does until launch day" Which brings us to Joel… "You think I'd let you do this on your own?"įrom the multiple shots of horses galloping against the backdrop of snow-peaked mountains, to even the way in which the editing invokes a event-making Rockstar trailer, the revenge western theme is so heavy in The Last of Us 2 footage that it's hard not to wonder whether Naughty Dog is trying to tell us something. This does correlate with the idea of Ellie committing mass murder to avenge Dina, but the vagaries of Druckmann's words speak volumes. In a post on the PS Blog, Druckmann writes of wanting to tell "a nuanced story that deals with the core question: how far would you go to exact justice against the people that hurt the ones you love?". A more plausible scenario, for instance, is if Dina is tortured (something that we know the Seraphites are more than capable of) and kidnapped, perhaps as a former runaway of the cult itself, since even the smallest chance that she's still alive and out there is all Ellie would need to begin her blood-soaked odyssey. While Naughty Dog has called The Last of Us 2 a game about "hatred", she isn't the sort of character to jump headfirst into a suicide mission just to get the last say over her friend's killers. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |