What went wrong?

No crust episode

*The Last of Us* Season 2 lost over half its audience compared to Season 1’s finale—3.7 million vs. 8.2 million viewers—despite HBO claiming the drop was due to Memorial Day weekend. The steep decline likely came from a mix of factors. Joel’s death in Episode 2 shifted the spotlight to Ellie and new character Abby, which alienated fans attached to the original dynamic. Pacing was another issue: slow-burning episodes, excessive flashbacks, and drawn-out musical scenes (like Ellie's guitar solos) tested viewers' patience. Deviations from the game’s storyline also sparked backlash among hardcore fans who felt it strayed too far from what made the original work. The portrayal of Ellie and Dina’s relationship, while praised by some, sparked polarized discourse online, with some calling it forced or politically heavy-handed. Overall, while the show still had strong production value and some standout performances, it lacked the emotional core and tension that made Season 1 must-watch TV. HBO has already greenlit Season 3 and confirmed a fourth to finish the story, but if they don’t regain narrative focus, the drop-off might continue.

season 3 is gonna be fucking rough, is it even worse the investment from HBO when its basically a spin off until the final 2 episodes?

Much like the game they killed the vibe and lost the plot. People came for father daughter survival against all odds shit and got death and angry lesbians. The fuck did they really expect to happen?

The ugliest most unlikeable TV protagonist in history might not have helped.

So fucking sick of shitty ass non-arguments by Slavs who dont know what the fuck they are talking about.

Its simple: You got the LOU haters, they wont watch this. You have the casual audience, they dont care much. You have the fans, and they have scared them away by changing up the game's moments so much that the fucking point of the entire thing got ruined.

Examples:

Ellie shoots Owen in self defense

Ellie insecurely stumbles around during her supposedly calculated and cold revenge

Ellie cares too much about her victims, yet says to Dina she doesn't.

Dina is super-offended with Ellie when she explains her situation with the vaccine and Joel, which without context would sound like Ellie's a whiny bitch. The whole issue is that Ellie's best friend died from the infection so she was ready to sacrifice herself.

the absolutely laughable Robert B. Weide meme cliffhanger in comparison to the game.

Owens child probably wasnt his.

Abby doesn't look like someone who trained for revenge for years and has noodle arms.

Dina looks like a goddamn supermodel instead of a weak, regular girl who looks like she wouldn't survive one day outside the city.

Owen, as far as I've heard, is an asshole.

And thats all I know without watching S2 and I lost interest. Its not hard to adapt, but they fucked it up. I wouldnt even be surprised if Abby dies at the end.

Lost half it's leads

youtu.be/UaUa_0qPPgc?si=Ts_A8R8m4UXs-Lj2

Except for the ones that don't get canceled, lmao.

She (if actually a she) has the face of a fat girl. Her body will soon match.

The casting. Unironically, with better casted actors this show would probably be remembered as one of the best HBO shows.

That sounds exactly like the game, plus a couple changes for the worse that I’ve heard about. Even the flashbacks and guitar solos

make shit television

people stop watching

The Jackson council is debating whether or not to kick Ellie and Dina off the patrol team because they’re obviously not fit for the job and they don’t follow orders

Ellie asks why she and Dina aren’t suitable but Joel and Tommy are

The writers don’t let Tommy give the excuse that he and Joel aren’t grown fucking men with 20 more years of experience than two teenage girls

This is when I stopped watching

jews control the world

As someone who loved the game, I'll just never watch season 2, 1 was already rough with some decent episodes in there but overall I'm simply done watching shit that I know is gonna upset me, my relationship with modern tv and film has been better for it

They did Tommy dirty the entire season.

More like lost a lot of us

Zombie butterfly

I'm gonna be kinda blunt here anon, if you want to know what happened:
The story wasn't really that good nor it bring anything new or original to the genre

Imagine getting on here everyday to talk and seethe about this shit tier franchise

and drawn-out musical scenes (like Ellie's guitar solos)

?????
Guitar solos? She just randomly plays a guitar solo multiple times?

The Jackson council is debating whether or not to kick Ellie and Dina off the patrol team because they’re obviously not fit for the job and they don’t follow orders

Thats not even brought up in the game and would be a good topic to bring up, yet on the other hand the game didnt point it out because show-dont-tell was enough, and it might have been the ONE time they fucked up, making it even more tragic.
Also Ellie wouldn't have measured herself with Joel and Tommy, especially after the events of LOU1/ Season 1.

It followed the games. 1 was good 2 was the biggest piece of dogshit ever. This was suppose to happen.

didnt really like the game, it grew on me a little over time. the show makes the game look like a masterpiece in comparison

Cast him.

The Last of Us? More like The Half of US!

So fucking sick of shitty ass non-arguments

you didn’t argue against his opinion/post. Ironically, you just did what you said you hated others for. Instead of an argument, you had a shitty non-argument insult.

And he dies

did he Henry Cavilled them?

him

Lev is a girl.

Trump’s election made normies feel comfortable about not playing along with humiliation rituals again

Game is shot slightly to the side so the viewer can have a clear idea of what id happening in the scene

Game Ellie is distraught and visibly mangled from the conflict

Show is shot from the front just so Bella’s face is shoved into the camera

She does not emote

She does not even have a scratch on her so the viewer isn’t distracted from her face

It’s a fucking humiliation ritual

You're both wrong. Lev is nonbinary.
Seriously though was he really a girl? I thought the mother sent him away because he identified as a girl.

Other way around. Girl identifies as a boy.

One of the most intimate moments in gaming. Game had massive balls showing shit in general, the violence alone usually is a huge no-go where I live. I think humanizing the NPCs saved it from censorship.

Oh shit, thanks for clarification. I always wondered if the Scars were jgay as fuck besides being pedos.

I'd watch it for Violet

Bella not being a good enough actress to carry the show in Pedro's absence

Pedro didn't need to be completely absent for so many episodes, they could have more evenly distributed the flashbacks as the game did instead of grouping them together

Ellie is written as still being an impulsive teenager, as if there was no 5 year time jump for her, and as being "the dumb one" while Dina is "the smart one" which isn't necessary

lack of action and minimal kills misses the point of the game where her quest turns her into a monster, while pretending that's still happening

Tommy is a lot less compelling, reduced to a "responsible adult" instead of the vengeful brother who charges off to Seattle ahead of everyone else and validates Ellie's and the player/viewer's feelings and actions at least initially

What went wrong?

I told people to not bother when it was announced bc I knew then how it was going to end. Didn't play the game, but you couldn't escape the shenanigans of part 2. I literally told friends S2 would become garbage. They choose not to listen.

Much like the actual game series, TLOU TV series tanked most of its goodwill in its second installment
If they REALLY want to be accurate to the game, they should just re-release the first season again and see how long it takes people to catch on

The story tells us there's been a 5 year timeskip and a massively traumatising event but none of this is reflected in the performance of the main character, who is still played like a bratty annoying 14 year old

>Pedro didn't need to be completely absent for so many episodes, they could have more evenly distributed the flashbacks as the game did instead of grouping them together

That accounts for several things. Remove bullshit, added in story filler and how about some action scenes? I mean, theres a ton of shootout in the game. Considering Last of Us being inspired by TWD, the show barely learned from peak TWD.

I didn't like this season too much but I will be sad if we don't get S3. I legitimately was excited to see more Abby.

Same. Im annoyed enough just hearing about the changes. Sitting through seven hours of constant bastardizing one of my favorite stories in games would be just making myself mad for no reason. I might watch an episode or two out of curiosity. Like ive watched a scene or two on YouTube and even the dance scene (aside from it being misplaced in the story) which was done 90% right, i still was annoyed by the smallest things, because most of the story is told with small actions. Looks, and subtle movements and just a word or two. I watched they gay episode of the first season because it was new so id have nothing to compare it to, and i heard it was great, and it was pretty good.

>She does not even have a scratch on her

Fucking WHAT.
Shes covered in blood and cuts in the game. It shows the absolute hell she went through. Its THE SCENE.

NTA, but re-read his post.

hes right though the little girls taking out zombies like flies takes away any sense of danger from them

I'm normally all into decrying various faggy media conspiracies but this is the simplest one in the world

The average person fucking hates the path Joel's story took. I don't even care if it's "compellingly written" or "an examination of morality" or whatever subjective bullshit cope one comes up with, it happening just pisses people off. People don't evaluate the higher narrative forces blah blah blah when they're pissed off. Everybody liked Joel and everybody was pissed.

I don't blame them.

everybody

No. I was fine with it. Im not a little baby and can handle characters i like in entertainment dying. Everyone loved game of thrones and that was its favorite thing to do.

I never played the games but this struck me watching the scene. Like she's clean, pristine and unmarked, and then she takes off her shirt and it's like the flogging scene in Passion of the Christ, it just didn't make logical sense.

Game of Thrones largely succeeded at making Tyrion and Jaime hero-ish protagonists; in fact in spite of being a sister raping kid yeeter people somehow wanted Jaime and Jon to both win

Just a bunch of shitty writing. S2 they seemed to have totally given up. It's just Bella playing herself in make-belief land.

Joel is slightly more attractive in the game

Ellie is much more attractive in the game

Abby is much more attractive in the show

Dina is much more attractive in the show

The overall attractiveness level went up.

GOT killed off loved characters in a "respectful" way and didn't try and manipulate you into liking their killers afterwards
We all cheered when Walder Frey or Joffrey died despite "revenge bad"

Joel dying was the easiest prediction going into the 2nd game. it wasn't exactly a shock, anyone who says otherwise wasn't paying attention. why else would ellie be going on some murderous tirade in all the reveals and trailers. people just didn't like how much distain the writer had for him, changing his characterisation and creating contrivances to lead to his death

>Dina is much more attractive in the show

Much is pushing it.

A lot of people were predicting that Ellie's baby had been kidnapped or killed.

Neil Druckmann's shit work fails again, this time is tv form

Oh yea i guess objectively good and bad guys are easier to understand than two antiheroes.

POT
TAE
TOE

probably after they released the fake scene in a trailer with Joel replacing Jesse in Seattle. Most predictions had Joel dying before that, Druckmann admitted as such and felt pressured to make it less obvious. People were willing to accept his death, it was just poorly written

Here's your Ellie bro lmao

Also, the golf club was just weird.

chuds are just too powerful

Nope. His character dies in the game too, it caused a bit of shitstorm with the game fans as well.

What went wrong?

Why is the lighting better in the video game than it is in the big-budget TV show made years later?

People are tired of sassy teen girls who are magically great at everything.

Personally, I think we need more teen girl kino in the vein of pregnant Anne Frank

way out of her depth

has no fucking clue how she even got here

absolutely fucking terrified

constantly has to be saved (and fucked) by Confederate soldiers

It's basically every male fantasy rolled up into one campy pulp fantasy with near-perfect shock value

Literally a 8.5/10. Would wife and have kids with.

Im not a little baby and can handle characters i like in entertainment dying

Youre not supposed to post pics of yourself

The casting is a huge problem, but no - it wouldn't. The second season and beyond was always going to be trash because the game itself is nonsensical trash. You'd have to rewrite the entire show to circumvent it.

I don't know what they were expecting. Everyone hated when they killed Joel in the game, so why would the show audience react any differently. Moner and Dever do their level best to carry things along, but if they wanted to stretch this shit to 3 seasons they should have killed Joel in like the penultimate episode of S2, or at least halfway through.

Expectations subverted! Just like The Last Jedi, remember how much everyone liked that?

A: They dont, in the game they often sneak or flee.
B: Thats the point. The zombies are just hazards 10 years later. Its like Walking Dead.

Your autism in insisting in dragging out this exact point despite being told so many times in so many different ways in so many different threads over such a long span of time that this isn't the problem people are having is honestly terrifying.

Casted

Tired of ESL retards

total
chud
domination

I was shocked they didn’t put Joel’s death off for longer. Cuckman knew it was divisive among gamers. Now obviously, he despises the core demographic that makes up gamers but he must have known that it would blow up in his face for the TV show too? Women cream over Pascal so much, it’s insane. So to kill him off still so early, I’m not surprised people stopped watching

His self-righteous and vindictive hubris tells him to double down, always double down, fuck the fans, fuck the "gamers", he lives in an echo chamber and his own self-delusions. He's a retarded kike who cuts off his nose to spite his face but he's sending the right "message" and has cemented himself in some kind of a position and is one of the chosen people so he's not being ousted and is free to continue making terrible choices and even worse games.

Everyone in the know now knows that he's just a "message" shilling kike who was at best a detriment to smarter more talented people and his success is owed to them carrying his ass while also reigning him in. Those people have been ousted from Naughty Dog since before LOU2 came out.

Ranjesh you would cream you pants if a girl like this accidentally brushed your arm walking past you

How does she feel about the whole thing?

mediocre 9 episode adaptation of the decent first game

27 month wait

bad 7 episode adaptation of the first half of the mediocre second game that was weirdly structured without changing much of that weird structure

29 month wait

bad 5 episode adaptation of the first half of the second half of the bad second game

31 month wait

bad 3 episode adaptation of the second half of the second half of the bad second game

Game of Thrones was an ensemble cast with stories going in all directions. Chances are if a character you liked died, there were probably others you were still invested in. Joel basically WAS "The Last of Us", with Ellie existing as a compelling plot device for his arc. Ellie can't carry it on her own here, and she couldn't in the game either.

Libtards are going to have to swallow the pill that audiences dont like looking at ugly people eventually

They know that, they just see it as a problem to be fixed.

surely season 3 is just the rest of the game...

In a way. They're probably going to do the AMC scam with season 3A and 3B releasing a year apart and no one gets season 4 pay raises lol.

Surely there's going to be a moment when disgusting faggot Neil Jewman just cant cope anymore, and he has to face the reality of his game and story being total garbage, right?

Supposedly, they're going to try to squeeze two more seasons out of this. I say there's no fucking way that happens. It'll be "Abby and Tranny's Excellent Adventure" for most of it, punctuated with scenes of Abby beating Ellie and Dina near to death (which at least kind of made sense with roid monster Abby), and then Ellie letting Abby live. What fun.

My only guess is maybe they really beef up the "WLF vs cult" angle, or maybe the stuff on the west coast toward the end of the game in order to stretch things out.

Between the top shelf production values and visceral combat, TLoU2 could have been kino if only that narcissistic heeb had just gotten out of the way, and let someone else write the fucking thing. He's managed to fuck up both The Last of Us and Uncharted.

>Owens child probably wasnt his.

Really?

Yeah it’s a hoot. She plays master of puppets and there’s a whole dance troupe of infected dancing like puppets and an elaborate light show

Same thing that went wrong in the game, they killed the most popular character. However, in the game people still liked Ellie, but here Ellie is played by some bizarre thumblike creature.

people liked the first game because of the relationship between joel and ellie
if you get rid of that, you get rid of the core appeal of the story and you had better replace it with something at least as good or better
druckmanm failed to do that

Bravo Bravo Bravo
Not only did you make a worse version of the video game with your horrible subversive casting, you tanked an entire season by repeating the same catastrophic mistake as the game at the very start of the season
All we need now is for the producers to publicly state they never played the game, chef's kiss

you had better replace it with something at least as good or better

Abby and Lev have a more compelling relationship than Joel and Ellie.

just like the game, people wanted Joel

They aren't going to stop. They literally turn their own kids trans as an offering to the woke god.

but why repeat the same beats if you already had a compelling surrogate familial relationship in the first game? you're just falling into the sequel trap

My recollection of it boils down to "AAAAA, PLEASE SAVE MY INEXPLICABLE TRANNY ASS FROM MY MEAN RELIGIOUS MOTHER, OGRE WOMAN!"

LOU 2 is awful and ur trans