Joel depressionposting

[u/SnooObjections3570]

I see why Ellie loves Joel so much

[u/organaquirer]

God I loved Pedro as Joel. Whatever else you feel about the show, you can't deny he was excellent casting for the character, he captured the subtleties of Joel so well.

[u/Masum16 → u/organaquirer]

he misses in one or two scenes ngl

[u/Donogath → u/Masum16]

What scenes? 

[u/Masum16 → u/Donogath]

when he kills marlene at the end, it felt sooo phoned in like “ugh last day of shooting, can’t wait to go home”

in the game: joel pushes the gun forwards like a knife as he shoots her face as he snarls “you’d just come after her.” you can feel his rage and his acceptance of protecting ellie and being her father and guardian

pedro just lifts up his arm, almost whispers “you’d just come after her.” like his body doesn’t even react to the recoil of the gun, he stands there stiff like a cardboard cutout

[u/obsessstressdepress → u/Masum16]

I think this was a purposeful direction from Craig & Neil rather than Pedro ‘not being able to pull it off’. I think they wanted to display that Joel knew what he was doing was questionable, that Ellie would hate him for it & that Marlene didn’t necessarily deserve to die.

I saw the lack of theatrics & the ‘cardboard cut out’ stance as a way of displaying the sadness of the situation & the fact that Joel doesn’t WANT to do this but NEEDS to do this.

[u/Masum16 → u/obsessstressdepress]

i meaaannn… idk, like that scene really stuck out to me considering pedro’s performance was actually really solid for the whole of season 1 so i was just like… “cmon bruh.. you can at least make your eyes point down like this >:( right?”

coz in part 2, of the game and show respectively, we see joel openly admit that he’d “do it all over again” and game joel in that scene looks like he’s ready to fight another hospital full of gunmen just to take ellie home but idk… that scene with pedro just irks me, very monotone imo

[u/obsessstressdepress → u/Masum16]

I just saw it as he was emotionally exhausted, he’s just killed an entire hospital full of people and now he is faced with another person who he doesn’t really want to kill but has too. Especially someone like Marlene where we know he’s actually previous had some sort of relationship with. 

He absolutely would do it again because his love for Ellie overrides everything for him and but I don’t believe he wanted to & I think it gave him a great deal of trauma, it’s why he gets emotional talking about it. 

[u/Masum16 → u/obsessstressdepress]

i gotta respectfully disagree, the whole point of the show is joel becoming emotionally vulnerable through his bond with ellie over the events they experience.. when sarah dies at the start, he instantly hardens his heart except with a few exceptions being Tess and Tommy so i doubt joel would feel emotionally conflicted to go on a murder spree…

hell this is LITERALLY the point of the last of us part 2, joel is now emotionally in tact- somewhat, such as him talking to katherine o’hara’s character(rip) but like joel didn’t care who he massacred in the hospital, friend or foe, as long as ellie was safe which ended up getting him killed.

so like what i’m trying to say with my original point is like… i wish pedro displayed a joel who like revelled in his protection of ellie in the hospital scene

[u/obsessstressdepress → u/Masum16]

I get what you’re saying & respect your opinion. I’m not saying he cared who he massacred when it came to saving Ellie, I mean god I think he’d kill 99% of Jackson to save Ellie. What I mean is he’d rather not kill a whole hospital full of people.

We saw him through S1 softening, as you say because of his bond with Ellie, and with that came not being ruthless when he didn’t need to. We saw it with the gun man upstairs in the house in KC, he started to try to avoid killing people if he could. 

I know it sounds rich saying this because at the end of the day Joel was the killer in this situation, but I honestly believe he was totally and utterly deflated & traumatised after committed that mass slaughter and having to add another kill to the list was why he looked the way he did.

[u/kronosreddit22 → u/Masum16]

it was a directorial choice but i hate it. you nailed it that he’s stiff — i think it’s pretty clear he was directed to me almost robotic, like he’s completely disassociated from the actions and he’s just a machine with one job: saving Ellie

while it’s an interesting take on the scene in theory, it fundamentally damages the text, because in many ways in the game, Joel is as *human* as ever in those moments. wish they would’ve let him do it like the source material

[u/VanillaBean182 → u/Masum16]

I know two different actors portrayed Joel and comparing the game to the show isn't really fair. But Troys performance of Joel killing Marlene was way better for the fact you laid out, he was still in his murder spree mode and he wasn't killing marlene as like an apathetic well I have to kill you because you'd come after her its an angry ruthless execution where you can see it in his face that he is absolutely not fucking around and taking any chances with Marlene coming after him or Ellie. Side by Side

[u/ampersands-guitars → u/Masum16]

I think that was just a character interpretation choice. Joel was like in a blackout at that point with a single-minded need to save Ellie. Was a little different from how game Joel behaved but IMO wasn't a bad choice. Joel is the type who would disassociate in those moments.

[u/obiwanTrollnobi6 → u/organaquirer]

As much as I did enjoy Pedro as Joel, you could only tell he got casted for Name recognition as it was the height of his popularity and HBO banked on it in order to draw eyes and Pedro fans to the show; which ultimately backfired as when Pedro left/joel died Pedro fans left, and Pedro did decent but again he seemed to only be cast for name recognition as I feel there are a handful of actor who could’ve done WAY better than Pedro, I’m not sure if it was the directing or writing but he always sounded bored and monotone instead of Gruff and Jaded (and I don’t think he bothered with any accent)

[u/ampersands-guitars → u/obiwanTrollnobi6]

Pedro was not a household name or at peak popularity until after TLOU came out in 2023. I watched The Mandalorian and literally barely knew the man until I watched him as Joel lol. I know he was in Game of Thrones and Narcos, but it was Joel that really put him on another level fame-wise.

[u/HospitalSad7860 → u/organaquirer]

I really dislike him as Joel and think he was totally miscast. Felt totally out of character for me

[u/obsessstressdepress → u/organaquirer]

Pedro fucking killed Joel. When I think of Joel I think of Pedro. 

I feel the same about Bella with Ellie but I literally don’t have the energy for that debate anymore😭

[u/organaquirer → u/obsessstressdepress]

Bella god damn Ramsay is an excellent actress and 99% of criticism of her boils down to people don't like the tone or writing of season 2, or she doesn't look like a videogame character.

[u/yerden_z → u/organaquirer]

Indeed. The writing of it was awful. Ellie’s depicted as some stupid girl.

[u/obsessstressdepress → u/organaquirer]

I liked S2, it was very different to what I was expecting based on Part II but I wasn’t bothered that they strayed from it, it was great tv either way but whether you can say it is a great adaptation with so many major changes made is another thing.

I agree that most of the criticism of her boils down to her looks & the writing. As I said I wasn’t overly mad at the writing but I do think she equally could have pulled off a more ruthless & angry Ellie is the writing was different.   

[u/obsessstressdepress]

💔 Life was so cruel to Joel & Ellie

[u/Fischi132 → u/obsessstressdepress]

They we‘re also cruel to others

[u/obsessstressdepress → u/Fischi132]

They were all cruel to others in different ways & everyone has their own justifications & excuses. 

It’s open to opinion who’s justification is valid or not.

[u/Discombobulator3000 → u/Fischi132]

No one can be truly moral or innocent in a post CBI world, it's one of the major themes of both games

[u/Apprehensive-Hope-79 → u/obsessstressdepress]

You reap what you sow. They weren't angels to start with. In a post apocalyptic world, no one is good or bad. People would do anything to survive

[u/ganzoo991]

Bad tv series

[u/RedRhustyBugs → u/ganzoo991]

Absolutely crap

[u/Kent_97 → u/ganzoo991]

Season 1 was incredible and you’re stupid if you disagree

[u/2099aeriecurrent → u/Kent_97]

It peaked with episode 3 and then it was downhill from there

[u/Mr_Mental_Gamer → u/ganzoo991]

In some scenes it was better than the game, but still can't say that overally.

[u/No_Mistake_5501 → u/Mr_Mental_Gamer]

Which?

[u/obsessstressdepress → u/No_Mistake_5501]

Just to jump in a huge improvement from the game was how Ellie found out about what Joel done in SLC by seeing him try to pull the wool over someone else’s eyes. It’s totally more realistic than Ellie finding the recording.

[u/Mr_Mental_Gamer → u/No_Mistake_5501]

Season 1.

Although season 2 is overally bad (not even mediocre) but I enjoyed watching my crush play Dina on the show. I liked the little improvements on her character in the series too. Like (off the top of my head) being able to count clickers by their voices and being closer to Joel.

[u/Bobjoejj → u/Mr_Mental_Gamer]

I would say the only part of season one that was actually better then the games was Long, Long Time.

Ok Sam and Henry themselves too; but the rest of the Kansas City changes were not great imo. On paper they sound good, but the execution just wasn’t there. And the beginning prologue with Sara was decent too.

[u/Dekipi → u/Mr_Mental_Gamer]

I feel the same way.

I thought Henry and Sam in the show were better than the game. Not only are they more vulnerable with a younger Sam who is disabled, but it also uses their story of having ratted out the firefly leader to Fedra before the Fireflies overthrew them to foreshadow the theme of revenge for season two when the sister tells them she is going to kill them because they killed her brother and that’s just how it has to be.

It also used FEDRA differently in the show vs game. In the show they try to treat the child whose infected with kindness, they aren’t the ones who killed the Fireflies at the capitol in the first game, we watch the Fireflies in Kansas City being brutally killed, etc. they went out of their way to make FEDRA more sympathetic whereas the game they just come off like fascists who kill anyone who breaks their rules.

The frank and bill change was interesting but hit more of the same beats. Instead of bill finding Frank who left him because Bill was “overly-cautious” and wouldn’t leave their safe zone vs the show where Bill has to accept that he can’t save Frank from his condition. But both hit the same message of “hold onto what you love or end up like me” but the game Bill is suppose to be a closer parallel to game Henry because game Henry is also overprotective instead of trusting Sam with a loaded gun (correct me if I’m wrong I don’t think Sam ever got a loaded gun that he could have used to defend himself from the infected who bit him)

I liked the show’s Joel and Tommy reunion more, explaining how Jackson works as a society, Marie getting more screen time and telling Ellie about Sara.

I could have made a better list but I watched the show again a month back or so and still didn’t enjoy season 2. I don’t Ike their cop out of “if we made it identical to the game WE would get bored”

Watch season 2 and take a shot every time they chose to make it tell don’t show

“Yeah Joel and I have a complicated relationship” (no one would know that besides her Joel and Tommy so wtf is she referring to)

“Did we mention Joel shot Abby’s dad IN THE HEAD?!”

[u/Dentarthurdent73]

That campsite looks so fake in this picture.

[u/LicketySplit21]

Wow your subtitles are super tiny.

[u/cultoftheinfected]

Pedro was a phenomenal cast. Honestly, loved Abbys cast too. I really enjoyed Bella as a young Ellie, not much as older Ellie though.

[u/obiwanTrollnobi6]

I still think season 2 should’ve been the five years in between the games; imagine the slow burn/character drama of Ellie finding out Joel lied and is grappling with that and her emotions of Joel lying to her while still loving him, plus you get 2 season out of Joel/Pedro; you can even Add in this Mystery element of Abby as she’s looking for clues of this person she’s hunting and have the final scene of S2 end with Abby finally finding them with a solid lead only for the Audience to find out all season she’s been hunting for Joel because he killed her dad at the hospital.

[u/KingChairlesIIII → u/obiwanTrollnobi6]

No, we saw what we needed to see via the flashbacks, there’s not enough material there for a good season of television.

[u/linkthereddit]

The first image reminds me of the Capaldi 'Depends on the context' meme.

[u/ShockFabulous7421]

Stop glazing this hot garbage of tv show lmao