It’s September 26, 2003, 2:16 a.m. Sarah Miller is woken by the sound of fireworks outside. Knowing that her dad is gone, she walks over to the neighbor’s house and goes inside. Then she sees her next-door neighbor being eaten by an infected grandmother. This is one of many places that have the same infection.
(This will contain spoilers for those watching the show.) The Last of Us is an apocalyptic world started by a fungal virus. Spreading from India’s shipments of food sources. These food sources would land in major cities, but not much in the countryside. When a person is infected due to a bite from an infected person. They would have at least two hours or two days for the virus to emerge in the person fully. The people making quarantine zones would be FEDRA, or the Federal Disaster Response Agency. Most of the FEDRA quarantine zones would be corrupt, using the FireFlies or smaller groups. These people would try to take over the corrupted agency by force. For the FireFlies wanting people to join up, they would spread the words “when you are lost in the darkness, look for the light.”
Characters like Tess, Bill, and Frank would be introduced into the game and series. They would make this story interactive and more emotional, either playing the game or watching the show. But the show’s adaptation of these characters is more emotional than the game, like Tess’s and Frank’s deaths in the game, which felt cold. But in the show, Tess doesn’t die from FEDRA scouting for them, but dies in a way that makes it more emotional for the viewer. What Tess does is pour the barrels of oil and tells Joel (the main character) to save whoever he can save. In that case, Ellie (the second main character), Tess wants Joel to take her to Tommy’s and be safe. After the infected storm, one looks at Tess, and according to the TLOU Podcast is kissing. “Her still there”-Troy Baker is still trying to light her lighter and ignite the fire. Then she does, the building goes in flames, then it’s just Joel and Ellie walking away from it all.
Another example is Bill and Frank’s newly written story. During the start of the Infection, Bill is in his house in a second basement, waiting for FEDRA to leave his small town. After they leave, he builds gates and gains supplies for his small town home. Not till later would he meet Frank and cook him a meal after not killing him. They would later be together in a relationship, and would meet Joel and Tess some years after the events of being together. As years go on, Frank asks Bill to poison his drink for him, because he doesn’t want to live because of how old he is and his condition. But what Bill didn’t want was to be alone, so he poured enough in the wine to kill a horse. Years later, Joel and Ellie would go into the small town, reading a note they had passed on, and Bill would tell Joel to protect Tess. The last shot of the episode is Bill’s truck driving away, through the open window room where Bill and Frank died.
The makers of the game are Naughty Dog, and the show makers is HBO/MAX. The scenic roots of the game and show are both really beautiful. Craig Maizin is the show runner and co-creator of the show, along with Neil Druckmann, the creative director of the TLOU game. The Podcast told the cast not to play or watch the game, so they can make it their own character instead of copying the character that they play. They tell a beautiful story about how much time and how focused they are when someone is dying, scared, angry, or any other emotion. You can see the emotion when being hidden from clickers or being attacked by another person. They give us a story filled with emotions, in and out of the game. They wanted more emotion to their characters, instead of the game where you shoot to kill, and make every choice and decision count.
It’s important to see how much love the show runners give to us for the show, you can see the amount of love that the game dev’s put in the games, and also see how much love they have gotten over the years. HBO has a story told in a more realistic way where, a story that rebels against the main character. Joel Miller has to fight himself to remember that his daughter is gone and he can’t save her, but he can still have a chance with Ellie. They want the viewers to want to watch more. To see where and how the story will keep going on. No matter how much they change from the game, the adaptation is at its best. But this is only a tiny bit of The Last of Us. Make sure if you haven’t seen it or played it, I recommend playing or watching it.
