The Last of Us

Who the hell is this cult...?

Incels? I'm afraid I've never heard the term.

It means "involuntarily celibate", and is a self-identifier among misogynistic men who blame women for their lack of sex. Also usually homophobic, transphobic, racist, and otherwise bigoted and unpleasant.

Is there a barf emoji? I'd like to use it.

Just sigh heavily.

I was just curious about a plot ticket. No plot hole, then yes, representation. Love at the end of the world or some such.

I know. Homophobes makes me want to barf too.

Curios that they still haven't shown any Fireflies. I'm guessing those are who Ellie are really out to kill and the Seraphites are sort of just "in the way" for her. Though a friend of mine made the guess (considering the second trailer) that Ellie could be after them because she found out they know something about her mother.

Rumor from Kotaku's Jason Schreier: Part 2 will be pushed back to early 2020.

First I'd heard a release date had been even slightly mentioned, so to hear it's been pushed back to a point still within the window I personally expected for it (November 2019-March 2020) doesn't mean a lot, to me at least :P

Edited by artfulscruff on May 29th 2019 at 6:14:24 PM

So I just finished watching an LP of this earlier tonight. WOW. Gorgeous game, and heavy with regard to the themes. I'm not sure I ever argued with myself more with regards to an ending.

And so The Last of Us II eludes us for yet another year. I can only assume the final game will be like staring into the face of God.

So just a heads up that the game has been confirmed to have a huge info blowout this coming Tuesday on Sony's State of Play as well as its own event later the same day. We'll most likely be finally getting a release date. Supposedly its been leaked to be February 28th next year. (which would make it just 4 days before FFVII Remake comes out and ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccckkkkk)

Also ND has been tweeting Some cryptic images leading up to the event.

Well that looks like a great year to get a Play Station.

Release Date confirmed for February 21st, 2020

Probably moved it up to avoid competing and or cannibalizing sales with the FFVII Remake.

Yeah, both are titans but FF 7 has more nostalgia factor and a shiny new coat of paint.

But it's a revenge story, huh? Poor Ellie :( That makes two girlfriends she's lost to the infection.

We don't actually know that for certain. It's framed that way but not explicitly said when, well, I'd assume there'd be lines saying as much. I'm wondering if something else goes on here.

We also know that Laura Bailey plays a prominent role so who knows where that might go?

Game looks fucking gorgeous. The snow is amazing. The cityscape with the trees. I also appreciate the character models. The skin looks fucking amazing, weird as that is to say. Lighting and framing of characters is excellent as usual.

Very small thing, but I appreciate that they are willing to have characters be naked without sexualizing them (in context or framing). Also probably a strange thing to note but I've grown bored of gratuitous fanservice in media lately.

It's probably because of the bigger flare-up about women's rights that's been going on lately. Plus Mortal Kombat 11 also had less gratuitous fanservice, despite what all those neckbeards were complaining about.

Looks like we're getting some actualy hands-on footage this Thursday!.

I suppose. I'd also note it looks like there's a naked man in the trailer too. Tortured and bloody, but seemingly nude. Again, probably an odd thing to notice.

This may be me being ruffled over nothing, but what was the point of making a big deal over the whole kiss between Ellie and her girlfriend if they're just gonna kill off the latter, presumably to give the former a reason to go after the bad guys? Like, if you're gonna do a lesbian couple in the game, why not have it be one of the main pillars of the narrative that builds and grows over the course of the story, instead of just being a case of Stuffed in the Fridge to motivate the main heroine?

I mean, it's bad enough that this happens too often with female love interests to motive the male hero in fiction, so why is this any different?

Edited by LDragon2 on Sep 24th 2019 at 11:06:51 AM

So I've completely forgotten who these new raiders are supposed to be.

And so Joel is alive and able to be Ellie's tag-team ass-kicking partner at, what, 60? I really thought he was going to be the one to bite it.

Edited by Soble on Sep 25th 2019 at 5:23:50 AM

Representation, I'd say. Fridging is usually an issue because it uses the violent death of a female love interest to motivate the male protagonist.

It is a problem because is ultimately about the man. Like most stories. Tragedy and the loss of a loved one isn't bad storytelling per se, but if you keep telling the same story over and over, always with straight white men, then it can become a problem. Ellie, as a lesbian woman, and the protagonist, is already rather unique for the genre. It isn't always bad to tell a similar story from a different perspective.

Its still under Bury Your Gays though, which is just as bad, especially in todays social climate.

That is a strange thing for you to not comment on Silent.

But is Bury Your Gays the same when it is a dark story where many of the characters do die, with very little happy endings, and the protagonist herself is a lesbian women? Usually, Bury Your Gays occurs when the protagonists and the narrative is very heterosexual, with token LGBT characters.

I'm a straight cis guy, so I don't really have much place as being the one who decides whether or not this is good storytelling or representation. These are mostly just based on discussions I've seen LGBT have on Twitter.