The Last of Us Avoids the “Mistake” of Video Game Adaptations by Minimizing the Violence, Focusing on Relationships

[Tsing]

HBO's The Last of Us has been hailed as one of the greatest video game adaptations ever, but fans who are expecting to see the same level of combat and violence depicted in Naughty Dog's 2013 video game may end up disappointed. According to statements shared by Variety, creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann intentionally avoided bringing gameplay sequences into the show, reasoning that they wouldn't work for a TV series. Instead, The Last of Us strives to be a character drama, one that's focused on fleshing out the relationships between Joel, Ellie, and other leading characters.

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[GunShot]

Yeah, like, that idea worked out well for Cavill for The Witcher.

When woke writers/creators needs to change the original narrative of any adaptation (film into Games or vice versa), it never ends well.

 

[Uvilla]

Oh god no.

 

[MadMummy76]

LOL, when you thought mainstream media couldn't get more out of touch with the actual fans.

 

[Brian_B]

I have not played the game.

I watched episode 1.

It wasn't bad, but I'm only 1 episode in so hardly deep enough to make an informed call. Reminded me a lot of Walking Dead, but with a bit less gore, although the girl certainly has an attitude that could fit right in on TWD. I will keep watching for now.

I admit, I do keep waiting for him to say "This is the way", but Pascal is playing the part fairly well I think.

 

[Tempest]

I haven't played the video game, but what the creators appear to be saying makes sense to me. They were trying to emphasize the inherent difficulty of adapting a video game to a TV series, and some of the key differences between the two. The comment about violence was taken out of context and given undue weight, in my opinion. The goal was to avoid boring the viewer with excessive action sequences that may feel immersive in a video game but don't work well in a show, rather than a reduction of violence per se. The creators also say their decision (regarding violent action sequences) "allows the violence to have even more impact [...] on screen than in the game”, but that makes for a less enticing headline.

That was my interpretation from reading the article, but obviously fans will decide for themselves whether the adaptation took the right approach. The FPS article calls The Last of Us "a very faithful adaptation of the game thus far."

 

[MadMummy76]

I just watched it, and they make it very difficult for me to not hate it. As someone who did play the game. I do not think it is a faithful adaptation, there are several completely unnecessary changes that can't even be explained by woke agenda. And then there are the changes that can be squarely blamed on that.

The hardest was the first 5 minutes to bear. I swear I sat down with a positive attitude, but they squandered all my good will so fast that must be some sort of record.

First off, they race swapped Joel's daughter, which makes zero sense, making her an adopted daughter kind of reduces the impact of the events.

Second, they made Joel a cynical, immoral, imbecile from the start. They literally present it as if he is an utter failure as a father and completely useless around the house. The daughter is acting like his mother. I wanted to gouge out my eyes it was so terrible.

The very point of the original story is that he only turns cynical after the pandemic, but here he is already acting like he is in the apocalypse before it even happens.

Then there are the narrative changes. There are several that don't match the original story and seem completely unnecessary.

Of course Ellie is presented as super intelligent superbrained genious, who has pre-pandemic pop culture knowledge, which makes zero sense for someone born after the fall.

There is literally just one scene in the first episode that felt right and was actually fully faithful to the game, the "killing time" scene.

I have no issue with the casting of the main characters. Bella Ramsey, Anna Torv, Pedro Pascal are all fine choices, it's the narrative that worries me.
Joel is basically just along for the ride the entire episode, he does not decide or do anything, just follows other people's directions like a puppy.

 

[Grimlakin]

I have no issue with the casting of the main characters. Bella Ramsey, Anna Torv, Pedro Pascal are all fine choices, it's the narrative that worries me.
Joel is basically just along for the ride the entire episode, he does not decide or do anything, just follows other people's directions like a puppy.

Isn't that what most all male characters that share a protagonist role with anyone else do any more?

 

[Nanobot]

I haven’t played the game. I haven’t seen the show. I don’t plan on doing either. But I can say with absolute certainty that no adaptation will ever please die hard fans of the original. Even if the adaptation was an exact copy of the original someone would complain that something wasn’t said the same way, or someone’s hair was different, or the color of the vehicle wasn’t accurate, etc.

 

[MadMummy76]

I haven’t played the game. I haven’t seen the show. I don’t plan on doing either. But I can say with absolute certainty that no adaptation will ever please die hard fans of the original. Even if the adaptation was an exact copy of the original someone would complain that something wasn’t said the same way, or someone’s hair was different, or the color of the vehicle wasn’t accurate, etc.

You can still like a show just because there are things in it that you criticize, or not even necessarily criticism, just pointing out changes. Change can be for the better, or can have a practical reason. However none of the changes seem like that here. And it's easier to list the things they didn't change than the ones they did.

In my opinion there are three reasons for this.

They think the average viewer is utterly stupid: So subtlety be damned, they hammer you in the head with certain plot points and reveal things that wasn't revealed in the game until much later.

Second is the pride of the showrunner: Coming from hollywood, who looks down on videogames as a genre, so working on an adaptation is bad enough they'll be damned if they don't try to leave their own (skid)marks on the story.

Third the woke gods must be appeased: No man can bestow wisdom on a female of any age, no man can lead a woman. No man can be more competent at anything than the woman beside him.

The so called professional reviewers all say it focuses on characterization, but that couldn't be further from the truth, the tv version so far has much less character building and much more matter of fact telling of events while allowing very little to no depth to their characters. The only places were any depth is visible are the few scenes that are adopted faithfully.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Still haven't watched and who knows if I will. We did watch the 1st episode of The Rig last night and while not remotely original it had the rare quality of introducing an inclusive cast w/o making me feel demeaned or like there was a forced agenda. I actually felt like each character was contributing to something other than a gender/race-based role. The show checks all the usual boxes for current things but I'm just saying that it felt more like a group of people in a bad situation rather than a vehicle to champion a particular group's cause.

I can't say that I have high hopes for the show but I'll at least watch the next episode. The sad part is that a show on Amazon has less luck with a 2nd season than most other places so even if it turns out to be good I doubt they'll commit to another season.