#this is for mel and rags specifically <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spnopineapples · 4 years

Text

ALRIGHT PEOPLE. I'm READY.

LAST OF US 2 SPOILERS!!!!

......

.......

Are ya gone yet? Have you scrolled past if you don't want to see?

....

Alright. *CRACKS KNUCKLES AND NECK* Let's jump on into this!

First off I'm done with the game.

Second off..... THIS GAME WAS FUCKING PHENOMENAL!!! 10/10

The ending litterally killed me. Finished 2 hours ago,talked the ear off of my best friend for about 1 and a half hours and gushed and lamented the whole time. Cried for about 20 minutes by myself. Had an existential crisis. So on so on. And now I'm here, in the middle of an online meeting cause, ya know, Corona, muted with no camera on, because I'd much rather be typing out this dissertation.

Y'ALL. Go play this. It is AWESOME.

Now for the third and probably longest bit of this. My rebuttal to the bad reviewers:

I still contend that the bad reviews are 1 of 2 reasons with a little of a 3rd mixed in to both. #1. Being that people are pissed they killed off Joel and think the story did a disservice to the characters. #2. People are pissed because they think Naughty Dog was pushing a liberal agenda with a heavily muscled female antagonist/protagonist, a gay Ellie, and a transgender side character, Lev. The mixed in #3 is the extensive violence which I do contend was a lot. Yeah LoU1 was definitely violent, but damned this one got dark. And that's something coming from me because I am a fan of gratuitous violence.

Let me tackle these real quick. I'll be brief about #2 here though.

IN REBUTTAL TO REASON #2 - If you honestly didn't like LoU2 because of this reason (which I explained in my previous post about how IT IS logical that Abby be built the way she is and how Naughty Dog was definitely NOT shoving this or ANY of the others i mentioned in anyone's face in my opinion) you're in need of some corrective thinking and you should re-evaluate your ideas and realize that your opinion on these social issues doesn't matter and is wrong. None of these things make the game story illogical or bad. Bottom line: there are people like this in the world and their stories in this game drive the plot. It doesn't belittle the previous games or detract from the current game at all. You're just bigoted. Calm your tits and don't play the game if it upsets you so much. Pull a Seth and bury the hatchet. Make some steak sandwiches.

But I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and imagine that the majority of the bad reviewers were more pissed at reason #1, Joel's Death. But real quick.

IN REBUTTAL OF REASON #3 -If you hated the game because of the amount of violence, do realize that the violence was the point of the story this time AND IT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE A DRAG ON YOUR SOUL. LoU1 was about finding love again in a violent world. Love being in the foreground and the violence a backdrop, which is why the violence didn't feel so in your face even though it was PLENTY violent. LoU2 was about succumbing to the violent world because of losing love. Violence being the foreground and tainted love (insert song here ya bastards) being the backdrop that drives it. AND HERE IS MY FAVORITE PART PLEASE READ THIS PART AT LEAST IF YOU DECIDE NOT TO READ THE WHOLE THING.

Think of the two endings. LoU1 WAS a story ABOUT finding love in a violent world BUT ENDED with Joel committing a violent act to protect his love (killing all the Fireflies, 1 of which was Abby's father and the driving reason for LoU2's main plot, and DOOMING THE WORLD TO INFECTION AND DAMNING HUMANITY). LoU2 WAS a story ABOUT losing love and reacting with violence BUT ENDED with Ellie doing a peaceful act (allowing Abby to leave alive with Lev) because of the love she had for Joel (that flashback scene of Joel playing guitar when Ellie decided to forgive him for the violence and lie at the end of LoU1).

DO Y'ALL SEE HOW IMPORTANT THAT IS?

There NEEDED to be a LoU2 because LoU1 ended with violence and a lie. LoU2 fulfilled this with an ending of forgiveness driven by a memory of love from the first game.

I've read a lot of the bad reviews where they mention the violence became too much and ruined the game. And that Ellie wouldn't act like that. First off Ellie totally would, fuck off with that noise. Second off THAT'S THE POINT. This was a story about how revenge is cyclic violence and it doesn't end until someone makes the decision to end it!

BOTTOM LINE: I felt ragged 2/3's of the way thru this game because of the violence, but that's the point of the story. Revenge is not worth it. Especially when it's with people like Abby and Ellie. Because neither are villians. AND BOY HOWDY DID IT TAKE ME A LONG TIME TO COME TO TERMS WITH THIS. Because I HATED ABBY FOR KILLING JOEL. When I first started playing her I DID NOT WANT TO BECAUSE I WAS ANGRY WITH HER. I litterraly felt dirty playing her. But this game did something amazing to get me around to appreciating her character. NOT LIKING HER CHARACTER, but appreciating. And I will tackle this in my next rebuttal.

IN REBUTTAL OF REASON # 1 - Let's talk about Joel's death.

I WILL NOT LIE TO YALL.

I was mightily upset about his death. At first I thought it to be a disservice to a beloved character. But then I realized something. See above about Joel's actions. He killed all those Fireflies and DAMNED THE WORLD. Not only that it is specifically mentioned in both LoU1 and in this game that Joel and Tommy did horrible things before they met Ellie and before Jackson. JOEL WAS NOT A GOOD GUY.

I think what people are upset about is the REALNESS of this game. A lot of other game developers don't do what Naughty Dog has done. Naughty Dog did not shy away from Joel's character flaws and his past wrongs! In fact, all the user's that use the reason for hating the game as "too many plotholes" Y'ALL FUCKING PLAYIN. More on that later.

Back to what I was saying about realness. In the real world, Joel's death and the brutality of it and suddenness of it is actually a very logical event that would occur. Abby doesn't KNOW Joel like we do. All she knows is this guy killed her father and a lot of her friends and damned humanity in the process. LoU1 is not a happy game. Might I remind yall about Sam and Henry? But his death was not "sudden". And it didn't steal Joel from us. I actually really enjoyed all the flashbacks to him. We got more than enough time and I actually feel as if the time we got with Joel was better because of his death so early in the game. DO NOT TELL ME THAT THAT NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM FLASHBACK DIDN'T FULFILL EVERY FEELING NEED.

And now for the wrap up - the big hangup that I see of those who hated Joel's Death is that the story didn't redeem it. They couldn't "buy" Ellie forgiving Abby at the end.

As I stated I will not lie. I was worried for about 2/3s of the way through this game that the bad user reviews were accurate and that the story sucked because I couldn't see where the writers were going. All I saw was senseless death of characters that I had loved and that I was coming to love. I straight up love Jesse by the way. It wasn't until Abby met Lev and Yara that I started seeing the majesty of this revenge story.

BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS I HATE FUCKING REVENGE STORIES WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER IS LIKE, NO, THEY WOULDN'T WANT ME TO DO THIS. Before this game I'd be like "miss me with that bullshit" but after today I would say "give it to me like this." This actually felt real. And boy was it raw. Guys, the reason I started forgiving Abby is because of her decision to help Yara and Lev. Because it was her attempt to right the wrong of killing Joel which was eating her alive. Her and Owen and Mel. Guys. She is Joel. Why the hell do you think Joel did what he did for Ellie in the first game? Because he liked her at first site? BULLSHIT. He did it because Tess told him to do something good for once. IF YOU ARE UPSET WITH ABBY THEN YOU SHOULD BE UPSET WITH JOEL. I get it. Abby had to earn that with her story because at the beginning I'd have said leave her to the clickers. BUT CONTRARY TO THE USERS OF THIS REASONING SHE DID DESERVE HER REDEMPTION. The game shows over and over and over again that Abby isn't some mustache twirling villian who deserves instant death. She is complicated. She cares and she hates and she loves. She knows what's right and wrong and tries to do right as much as possible but she's human and she gets angry. Anger means you care.. and she cared about her father. She's a good human too because good humans feel shitty about doing shitty things and if you are observant at all you can tell immediately with Abby, as we play her in her Seattle Day 1, that she has doubts and isn't comfortable with her role in how Joel died. SHE DESERVED BEING FORGIVING BY ELLIE AT THE END. AND IN THE SAME TOKEN ELLIE DESERVED FORGIVING HER AND BEING FORGIVEN BY ABBY. It is very clearly obvious by the end of the game that Ellie could not reconcile her revenge killings with her best memories of Joel or with the actions she had to take to get there. Also it is of very important note here that Ellie stopped drowning Abby because of a flash image of Joel playing guitar. And then later on actually seeing the memory associated with that image that stopped her you can understand why Ellie did stop outside of just being as tired of violence as Abby was. The memory shows Joel and Ellie agreeing to try to forgive Joel for lying to her about the Fireflies and denying her her purpose. All this the night before he is killed. Note what Joel says. "If God gave me the chance to do it all over again. I would have done the same thing." Just that fucking devotion he has for Ellie shines through and she really understands his reasons for what he did. Still doesn't feel as if she can forgive him. THAT IS IMPORTANT. She DOES NOT agree with his decision. She understands it, but doesn't agree. But still decides to try and forgive. GUYS. That's exactly what she understands about Abby. Joel was sorry but he still would have done it. Same with Abby. There's a reason that image popped up as she was killing Abby and not the image of his beaten up face.

Remember that line from LoU2? Tess said it. As she is confessing to Joel that she was bit. "We're shitty people, Joel. It's been that way for a long time!" And Joel says "No, we are survivors!"

Y'all don't think for one second that Joel wouldn't have gone after that Soldier who shot Sarah if Tommy hadn't shot him? Y'all kidding yourselves.

Abby realizes this truth in the end. She realizes the part she played in enhancing and playing into the fucking violence and shittiness. Staining and tainting herself in the process. She just wanted to be clean. And Ellie just wanted to be clean.

Bombing this game is doing a fucking disservice to the emotional complexity of this story. It's been a long time since I've been that emotionally twisted.

This game isn't preachy. This game makes something clear that alot of other revenge stories get wrong. Revenge makes otherwise good people do shitty things and the shitty things taint us for the rest of our lives. At least Ellie and Abby stopped themselves before they tainted all their being.

Yeah we're shitty people. But we don't have to be.

#the last of us #the last of us 2 spoilers #the last of us part 2 #the last of us ii #the last of us 2 #I AM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG BUT I HAD TO RANT #FUCKING GREAT GAME #Hopefully y'all don't kill me over this #need to go post reviews so that this game gets the user rating it actually deserves #a 10 out of 10

148 notes · View notes

carrymekate · 7 years

Video

vimeo

So I just wanted to write a blog post about the last week or so, and specifically the last few days.

For those of you who haven’t’ read my post from yesterday about the events of Saturday you can find it here. If you haven't seen it i suggest you read it.

https://www.facebook.com/carrymekate/photos/a.1446898585629739.1073741828.1445431092443155/1921652481487678/?type=3&theater

The last week or so has been awfully hard, Chris has stopped doing work for the council and is doing private work and that is putting a strain on him and me and our relationship, Charlie had more jabs, Me, Alex and Charlie all have colds, it was my birthday, a time I always hate as it reminds me one of my children is missing and I am exhausted due to feeding every few hours at night. I have had blocked ducts, cracked nipples and so much pain. Work for me is incredibly hard and all consuming and puts a stress on the family as I don’t take a wage but put so much into it.

I could go into huge detail about Saturday, what led to the meltdown in McDonalds etc, but I won’t. What I do want to say is a huge thank you to every person who has messaged via the post, private message or reached out to me in some way, many who have never met me. I am not proud of losing it on Saturday in public, I’m never proud of losing it. Recently I have felt like the worlds worst mother, my temper is short, I don’t feel I give enough of myself to the boys, Chris and mine relationship is on the back burner, and I honestly have just lost myself over the last 4 years but specifically over the last 8 or so months. Having no maternity leave from the sling library has been the hardest thing ever, yes I stopped doing meets for a month or so but was still at home doing loads behind the scenes.

Some things people said to me today have massively hit home,

· The lovely Mel talking about how she herself came to some realisations about the son who died Finley and her relationship with her daughter made me realise some things too. As a mum who has buried one child I am petrified of burying another child, I will not cope with having to do it again, Lily dying split me in two and has broken me and every day I dread it happening again, so my reaction on Saturday was fear, I was so frightened of what could have happened, and because I didn’t know how to cope with that, I shouted at Alex and at Chris. I then retreated to another table and fed Charlie to try and calm down.

· That all parents struggle, that we all lose our rag and then feel so guilty.

· That the guys threat of social services shouldn’t make me quake in fear (again fear of my children being taken away and for those who know me well will know my history)

· That I am beyond tired and am exhausted, there is no fix to this as I am a mum I have to keep on going, I have a passion in the sling library and have to help people so stopping that is not an option.

· That I am sick of people thinking they have to be perfect, that people don’t feel able to show their faults for fear of criticism. That we live in a society where judging is deemed acceptable

· That if I can stop one parent feeling like I did with Alex when he was young, when I felt like I was not worthy as a parent, that I was useless, then showing the world my public humiliation and my flaws is worth it.

· That the guys threat of it being ‘public knowledge’ has in fact empowered me to do positive, my lovely health visitor is coming Wednesday to look at helping me and the wonderful Mel has offered me some holistic therapies courtesy of Towards Tomorrow Together and I am going to try and change.

Today a mum phoned me, she wants a sling, we had a conversation a few months ago in Matalan car park and today she took the brave step of phoning, We spoke about how hard it is being a parent, about how she is isolated and needs to leave the house but is unconfident, all things I remember with Alex, being scared to go to groups, frightened of being judged, frightened of not coping, if I can just help give parents the tools and confidence to bond with their child and do these things, all the sacrifice I put into work is worth it. She reminded me why I do it, why I put my heart and sole on the line.

Then a photo of our lovely volunteer Hannah with Isabella from when she first came to the library, and I remembered seeing the joy on her face when she put her in a sling, that bond that was instantly formed and I remembered why I do it, why it’s worth it, why even though it means people can hunt me down, belittle me, judge me and hurt me in a way that broke my heart it is worth it, and I can learn from it.

Today was a hard and horrible day, made better by visits from friends, kind words from strangers and support from my friends via message. Tomorrow is likely to be hard and horrid, and the next and the next, but that one day, it wont be quite so bad.

Parenting is not the hearts and flowers you see on facebook/instagram/other social media, its ugly, its raw, its videoing yourself bawling your eyes out walking down the road in a last ditch attempt to save your sanity.

I am not perfect, have never professed to be, will never profess to be, I am normal, human and flawed.

#carrymekate notperfect broke sad workingonbeingbetter reallife

0 notes