#hmmmmmm.

[colloquialcolors]

gonna write a fucking post about the Winter TLOU section and episode 8 because what ELSE am I supposed to do after witnessing that huh.

As someone very very pleased overall with the adaptation from the game to the show, something I have missed a little is, oddly enough- the hard cuts to black and time jumps after emotionally harrowing sequences or intense moments. After Henry and Sam's deaths. Joel collapsing outside the university. This episode, though, made something about that choice click into place.

For more context- in the game, this section comes immediately after Joel's fall and unconsciousness. The entire section with Riley and Ellie panicking was DLC, meaning the original flow of the story does not provide you with that context, and you might miss it entirely. Instead, the game cuts to black as Joel goes unsconscious with Ellie pleading above him-

and you get the title card. WINTER. It was not winter before. And you are Ellie, hunting. You have been playing this whole game as Joel thus far, and you suddenly, after all that chaos, are Ellie. Hunting in a white blanketed forest. Lighter, quieter, agile and a far cry from the girl yelling, panicked, above Joel.

And this Ellie is capable, at hunting- she already has a rabbit or two, and has just shot another- when she spots the deer, she has some idea of how to track and take it down (hindered mostly by us, the player, adjusting to controlling her). Until the encounter with David, where Ellie asks a little desperately about medicine, you have no inkling on if Joel is even alive, and Ellie being so capable is almost its own negative indicator. As the section wears on, Ellie does a lot more killing in game than she does here- she stabs a nonzero amount of clickers, zombies, and people in the neck during various navigation and escape scenes, shoots the rifle and the bow (miss u bow) with her own kind of proficiency, and reflects many things you have to assume she learned from Joel. The game medium lends itself well to a certain level of capability, of course- even for 14 year olds with bloodied hands.

While the hard cuts to black provide a gut punch I do miss a bit, getting rid of those allows the show to fill in some gaps- especially about these characters in their weak moments, low moments, after the dust has settled and they need to pick themselves up again. It does a lot in humanizing them. Shows them rattled and uncertain and shaken and mourning, instead of dropping us back in after they've picked back up their broken pieces, given the dignity of speculation.

Ellie, especially, is more scared here- more uncertain, more shaky, playacting as Joel rather than successfully emulating him. There is no hard cut where we get to assume Ellie has scraped things together and settled in it. We see her fear, playing out, see her desperation firsthand, before she even sets back out. She is so young. She was young, in the game too, but it is driven home in new and more intense ways, here. She is so profoundly out of her depth.

The uncertainty makes these same victories hit harder, too. Ellie, terrified and horrified and angry, sassing back. Ellie with realization and fear dawning- making the play for the keys, snapping his finger. "Tell them Ellie is the little girl who broke your fucking finger." Ellie, telling him- I'm infected, and now you are too. So many of these lines and scenes are almost verbatim, but it lands differently, with this different context, with an Ellie who is much less sure but still so lethal.

Less, and more. David's entire Fucking Pedophile Shit deal was much less prominent, in game. The overtness of it made things so much worse. So much scarier. Bella's delivery of Ellie's yells and reactions carry an edge of panic, of fear, of raw emotion, brings a scene that was always at 150% up to 300%, until Ellie, screaming, swinging down the knife is an almost physical, visceral catharsis.

In the game, Joel finds here there- pulls her off, pulls her into a hug after she fights him for a moment, the music swelling to give their words to each other privacy as they lock gazes and speak. Here- Ellie pulls herself back to reality. She finishes her catharsis. She realizes, on her own, face spattered with blood, what she's done. She stumbles from the smoke to the clean outside under her own power, on her own.

When Joel grabs her- she fights, there is such audible rage and horror and fear, and it hurts more, it cuts deeper, understanding that fear, the depth of it. Before he spins her around, and the comfort scene is only half a minute longer, but there is so much more to it- more that led up to it, and more in the moment, of Ellie's gaze going from panicked to unbelieving to weak with relief to something heavier.

So few cut aways in the show. no dignity of a timeskip and implied fractures, just bleeding characters, holding onto each other in the snow.

#this is allegedly a meta but mostly for me to store my love 4 the winter sequence and capture my thoughts right after the ep #sysfandoming #tlou #the last of us #the last of hs hbo #tlou spoilers #the last of us spoilers #the last of hs hbo spoilers #tlou hbo #idk how to tag this #hmmmmmm. #tlou episode 8 #WHAT AN EPISODE!!! HOT DAMN! WILL REWATCH ONCE I'M SURE I'LL SURVIVE IT.

[scribefindegil]

concept: a fic that's just a series of links to Library Of Babel pages

#obviously you'd need the right concept #it wouldn't work if it was just a gimmick for a gimmick's sake #but for something involving infinities and chance and probabilities (and magical libraries) #so like. Discworld or Thursday Next off the top of my head. #hmmmmmm. #files this away for later

[eastgaysian]

unfortunately i feel a kind of way and i believe it may be the depression pic unrelated

#hmmmmmm.

[dreamaboutwhathappens]

something soooo sinister about 1989 being one of the last albums to be rerecorded and knowing now that there were songs like castles crumbling and nothing new that preceded it and those feelings followed her throughout her career and so when she says “and i always knew it, that my life would be ruined” at the end of suburban legends after an album that she wanted so bad to be her treatise to the world that she was all good and in control… you just KNOW that she’s not just talking about losing this relationship ending her. she had always feared that her career would be taken from her. the death of her reputation. and she got that confirmation

#something as well about the link between being a ‘suburban legend’ and ‘america’s sweetheart’ #she needed this to work more than just for the love #but because of what it would say about her #‘i can’t make em stay at least that’s what people say’ #and well. all he had to do was stay. #HMMMMMM. #1989 tv #random thoughts with grace #analysis

[frecklenog]

do i crave stimulation or sleep. unclear

#hmmmmmm. #shut up emrys

[sezja]

I'm gazing at alts I don't really have like, A Story For and pondering whether or not I could get away with. Making them hrothgals.

#shrill whisper and ivy grenet are on the block currently #ivy's a super old oc but i haven't done much with her in ffxiv #she's REALLY cute as a viera........ but she doesn't have to be one. #shrill's obviously got a hellsguard name but that doesn't mean she COULDN'T be a hrothgar. #hmmmmmm.

[shiominato]

he’s normal nahobino here..

#hmmmmmm.

[krshush]

It says something to me remembering that my Biggest Two OCs during the early 2010s was Zenas (tall twink elf with pink hair with identity/presentation issues, while also being a shithead) and Micah (average older teen punk with dyed undercut hair, who died and was a ghost, and also my first agender OC)

I'm not sure how to convey what it says without a dissertation on me, my history on Tumblr and these two characters barely anyone remembers at this point, but. Still.

#Started rotating them while reflecting on OCs of mine that other people have loved and/or drawn #hmmm who has been drawn... do you think I can name them all? #hmmmmmm. #Kayla? Micah. Zenas. Lux. Marietta. Atlas. Saffron. KAIRA. WOW. CANT BELIEVE I REMBERED KAIRA... Merit. of course. #and many more but by that point we'd be getting into territory of ones I'd commissioned honestly I was trying to think of who's been drawn #as a surprise to me pfhfhf #OH Elrevas. and Elias and Zarrin. have all been doodled before too #I've been in the OC Game a long long time folks. #K.R. shush

[0clu]

#hmmmmmm. #hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. #mick thomson #slipknot

[i23kazu]

today's age old question: do i write fluff or angst for today

#[📍regular broadcast!] #hmmmmmm.

[majimassqueaktoy]

Kiryu... 🤭

#hmmmmmm. #Well kenzan kiryu is definitely the most fun of all the Kiryu's #kenzan majima looks fucked up lmao #kenzan #jess plays yakuza

[cornerihaunt]

now it’s like. midnight. and i could . go to bed . or read the chapter of a wip that dropped this afternoon . hmmmmmmm. it is like 23k words.

#hmmmmmm. #i might also cry a bit reading it #it’s the last chapter #rambles

[tepidironian]

#pmmm #puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica #sillies #mine #the hijab animw girl image #finishing pmmm whilst peaking was a brain changing experience #homura is so #hmmmmmm. #hm. #homosexuality #can we be girlbestfriends and destroy the world for each other then embrace in the 4th dimension and find each other again no matter what #Screams

[bewby]

should i be irresponsible with the money that i saved and buy the demonias that i've wanted since years or should i be smart and do what i should which is to not buy anything. Hmmm

#Hmmmmmm.

[schalotte]

😑😑😑😑😑😑 OK ok so i have my major modules that i wanted god bless. and then i applied for 2 american studies modules and got into both! and they fit into my schedule pretty nicely EXCEPT there's one seminar on wednesdays that only starts halfway into the semester but then is twice as long as regular seminars (15:15 - 18:45) and overlaps with a lecture from the other module (17:15 - 18:45) ... i emailed the lecturer asking if he's planning on uploading videos but i doubt it....... and there's 2 days a week where i only have 1 class!!! ugh like i have so much time it makes these overlaps all the more annoying..... i signed up for both modules for now i guess i can still drop one if it rly doesn't work... also a little worried about the additional exams . hm

#hmmmmmm. #but i think probably the days w only one class will work out nicely for me bc they'll provide structure i couldn't provide myself #whilst still leaving most of the day free 👍🏻 ok. all in all excited for the semester!!! #elli.txt

[cursedmystic]

"Hmmm. I wonder how far I'm allowed to shift outside of the typing for the gym...."

He's looking at the Houndoom he got at the Moon Festival. Maybe....

#hmmmmmm.