#tlou 2 critical

[reiryugazaki]

I put off playing tlou2 up until recently just to get a firsthand account of everything and I can't sleep so let me say some things. I deeply resent everything about this game. I hate how it's an all hurt no comfort fan fic of a game. I hate how every moment of lightness or happiness is a flashback intended to twist the knife and remind you of what's been lost by Ellie/Abby/the player. I can't even enjoy the flashbacks with Joel because it's so obviously there just to go "wow, isn't it so sad? Isn't it so fucking sad how happy Joel and Ellie were here? Isn't it?" There are no genuine present day moments of hope. And how it tries soooo much to make you go, gee this Jerry guy sure was nice. He was a neurosurgeon and a firefly, an objectively good person who'd never hurt a fly. Except well, he would kill a 14 year old girl and is never able to even fathom the idea of giving up his own daughter. But nevermind that. He helps animals. He liked to collect coins! He wasn't a criminal so his life had value! I sure do feel bad for shooting him now! Except I don't. I couldn't give a fuck about Jerry or Owen or Mel or the racist caricature that is Manny and anyone else that's connected to Abby. I am incapable of caring about this massive cast expansion. Abby is only likable to me when she has absolutely nothing related to Ellie/Joel on her mind. And even then her principles are so weak, but that's somehow meant to come across as her being empathetic and open to chaning her mind. 2 days. 2 fucking days of hanging out with a pair of kids she considered the enemy and would've killed without remorse or hesitation before. But oh, these kids SAVED her. That's different. Maybe Seraphites are PEOPLE? Whoa. The attempts at humanizing her because, oh, she's afraid of heights! How vulnurable! She still collects quarters like her dad did! She's already so bonded with Lev in such a short amount of time! It's just like Joel and Ellie! As if Abby didn't hold onto revenge and hatred for 5 years and have the audacity to not even feel satisfied with killing Joel. Or roping her friends in on her revenge quest while betraying one of them. Give me a break. And I don't even necessarily hate Abby because I don't think there's enough of her as a character for me to hate. I hate that she represents this game that has so little ties to the first. I hate that Neil took advantage of our attachment to Joel and Ellie for the purpose of telling his little story about violence and revenge when that had shit all to do with the first game. Everything about this game is so BITTER and HATEFUL towards the two characters we bonded with in the first game. It's so fucking edgy and gritty, like a shitty reboot. It's torture and trauma porn and a misery simulator and UNFUN with too many fucking cinematics. With the context of the HBO adaptation, I just can't help but wonder what the fuck caused Neil to turn on Ellie, and agree with her having a "violent heart."

#tlou 2 critical #anti tlou2 #i cant fucking take it anymore

[hotcupofdragons]

*casually watching The Last of Us finale*

The show:

Me:

#THATS LAURA FUCKING BAILEY #the last of us #the last of us hbo #abby the last of us #laura bailey #critical role #ashley johnson #bella ramsey #pedro pascal #tlou part 2 #tlou

[cowboymarcs]

ride, cowgirl

joel miller x fem!reader

summary: you ask joel if you can ride him

warnings: smut, piv, riding, fingering, one use of the word daddy (i'm sorry), joel's southern drawl, soft sex

word count: 1.1K

joel’s scruff tickled your face as you kissed him, lips molding together, his tongue teasing yours. you couldn’t get enough of him. his soft lips and hard, defined chest; his thick brows that furrowed as you pulled away. there was lust in his eyes - a look that you were grateful for (considering that your panties were soaked). 

joel bent forward, pressing sloppy kisses against your neck. you whispered his name, as desperate as a prayer. your voice only spurred him on, pressing you up against the kitchen counter, the sharp edge poking your lower back. you arched, pressing into him, running your fingers through his soft hair. an idea sparked through your mind. 

“joel..” 

“yeah darlin’?”

“can i ride you?”

his lips against your neck stilled, cock growing painfully hard. he licked a trail upwards and bit the shell of your ear softly.

“fuck, baby. ‘course you can.” he was breathless, in awe of you. “let’s go upstairs.” 

joel led you up the stairs, fingers laced within yours. you peeked in ellie’s room, mentally noting to be quiet. joel’s eyes found yours, reading your mind.

“nothin’ to worry about, darlin’. ellie’s at cat’s.” you nodded, following him into his room across the hall and shutting the door behind you. you crawled onto his bed, relishing in his soft covers. he sat at the edge of the bed, a small smile on his face. 

“you gonna fuck me baby? or are you just gonna lay in my bed all night?”

you sat up, skin warming at his brusque words. you leaned onto your hands, crawling towards him. you crawled onto his lap, looping your arms around his neck. 

“can’t i do both?” you smiled, feeling his cock twitch underneath you. you ground your cunt onto him, the hard of his cock rubbing against your clit. you let out a soft moan before joel captured your lips again. 

joel released you, only for a moment to discard his flannel and jeans and lay himself against the headboard. you took the opportunity to do the same, both of you only in your underwear now. you sat on his lap, once again rubbing your clit along his thick shaft. his warm, calloused hands grazing up and down along your sides, then reaching up and cupping your lace-covered breasts. 

“god, sweetheart, you’re gorgeous,” joel breathed, enamored with you. enamored with your body, your pussy, your heart. his chest swelled at the sight of you grinding your hips back and forth upon his. he leaned forward, letting your bra straps fall and unhooking it, throwing it to the floor. your breasts fell, nipples perked. joel was quick to take one in his mouth, sucking on your sensitive nipple, while pinching and kneading the other. 

you moaned, running your hands through his hair once again, gripping tight and pulling him close. your pussy clenched around nothing, aching for his thick cock. you took joel’s wrist in your hand, pulling it from your nipple and leading it down to your cunt. his fingers ghosted down your stomach before slowly dipping down past your panties. 

his thick fingers brushed your clit gently, pulling a gasp from you before continuing further, dipping into your wet hole. he pushed one finger into your tight heat and curled, causing your head to fall onto his muscular shoulder. 

“joel,” you whined, wetness dripping down his finger. “i need you.”

he tsked. “need to open you up first darlin’. don’t want daddy’s cock to hurt ya, right?” 

you nodded, dazed. all you could think about was joel and his strong shoulders and his thick voice and his big dick. all you could think about was his hot mouth on yours as you squeezed around his finger. he added another, slowly stretching your pussy, thumb rolling over your swollen clit. 

“jo-” you started, almost asking him to fuck you again, but he shushed you. 

“you ready?” you nodded as he pulled his fingers out of you, and slid your panties off. you did the same to his boxers, tossing both to the floor. you stared at his thick cock in awe, his head pink and swollen and beautiful. you met his eyes and kissed him fervently, his cock brushing through your folds. your whimpers were the only sound heard throughout the house. 

you wrapped a hand around his length, slowly sinking onto him. your cunt stretched around his broad girth and you squeezed your eyes shut at the burn. joel pulled you into a kiss again, seeking to ease your pain. 

“s’okay darlin’, i got you. go real slow.” once he was fully sheathed, you sat for a moment, adjusting to his size and resting your forehead against his. you began to move slowly, letting his tip brush lightly against your g-spot. 

“feels good, joel. feels so good,” you slurred, picking up your pace. you were bouncing on him now, putting on a show. his eyes shifted from your face, mouth open and moaning, to your breasts bouncing along with you, to the sight of your cunt sliding up and down along his cock. his hands rested on your ass now, helping you glide up and forcing you down, his head bruising your spot. 

“f-fuck!” you whimpered, head thrown back. 

“so fuckin gorgeous,” joel grunted, watching you lean back and letting his dick curve and hit your spot even harder. his gaze was glued to your pussy, amazed at the way your wet cunt swallowed him. “tell me this pussy’s mine.”

“it’s yours, joel, all yours.” your moans became staccato as joel grabbed your ass harder and began to fuck you from beneath, lewd slapping filling the room. you fell forward, hands gripping his shoulders as you locked eyes with him, wanting to watch him as he came. his own moans started to sound, mixing with yours. 

“want you to come with me, baby. can you do that for me?” you could tell he was close, just by the change in his voice. the hunger that laced his voice. you nodded frantically, your hand reaching down to touch your clit, rubbing tight, hard circles to the pace that he was fucking you at. 

“i’m close, joel.”

“ugh,” he moaned, “me too. where do you want it, darlin’?”

“inside, please, please fill me up, joel!” you exclaimed as the tightness built up, cresting as you came. your nails dug into his shoulders, overwhelmed with pure pleasure. seconds later, you felt his dick twitch, and the warmth of his come filling your cunt. 

you fell forward, resting your head on his chest, his dick softening inside of you. you placed a peck on his sternum before laying your ear to his chest, hearing his soft heartbeat echo. his hand found your hair, fingers pushing it behind your ear. you felt safe in his embrace, eventually falling asleep to the hum of his breath and the rise and fall of his chest. 

#this is my first time writing joel #sry if it's ooc #spare me of your criticism pls #joel miller #joel miller smut #joel miller x reader #tlou #tlou2 #the last of us #the last of us 2 #the last of us hbo #pedro pascal #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal smut #pedro pascal x reader #ellie williams #joel the last of us #tlou fic #the last of us fic #joel miller fic #jackson era joel miller

[ashleyjohnsonoftheday]

Day 653

#ashley of the day #ashley johnson #critical role #critical role cast #matthew mercer #laura bailey #the last of us #ellie williams #abby anderson #via: tlou 2 bts

[jaythedagger]

laura bailey does not get enough credit for how brilliant her delivery was on “are you wearing my BACKPACK?” as abby. deserves an emmy on its own. the pure rage and horror. she wants her things back right this instant or she will commit heinous crimes. bonus: the disappointment in her voice after lev asks if literally anyone finds her jokes funny and she goes “…no” with the saddest tone i’ve ever heard

#laura isn’t the queen of voice acting for nothing #tlou #the last of us #jaytalks #abby anderson #laura bailey #critical role #the last of us part 2 #joel miller #ellie williams #lev tlou

[fatal-fart-attack]

i am still here

#laura bailey #imogen temult #imogen #delilah briarwood #critical role #critical role c3 #crit role #critter #abby tlou #abby anderson #abby the last of us #the last of us part 2 #joel tlou #joel miller #tlou2 abby #tlou2 #critical role campaign 3 #the acting #the icon you are laura bailey #the pain and sadness and determination and fear in both ugh #the way her voice shakes in both #love her #love this

[aouiaa]

What if I told you that Reflect could be done by Tuesday if I stop trying to be a perfectionist?

Also last call to be tagged!!

#🗯️ thoughts & feelings #𝐘ᱹ writes ✐ᝰ #Reflect ˚۰˚☽˚⁀➷٠˚🪞 #This is self criticism is going crazy 💯 #It’s all written #just needs to be tweaked and edited #ellie williams #ellie williams x reader #ellie tlou #ellie williams tlou2 #ellie the last of us #ellie x reader #ellie williams fanfiction #ellie williams fanfic #ellie fanfics #ellie williams imagine #tlou2 #tlou #the last of us 2 #the last of us #lesbian #wlw

[ellieanddinacanlitstabme]

Fresh out of the oven pics of my wife

#ashley johnson #hot as fuck #wife life #critical role #the last of us #tlou #tlou 2 #candela obscura

[alliekitaguchi]

watching ash and laura in tlou: grounded doc genuinely made me cry because laura said she cried during joel's death scene hearing ashley crying and also seeing laura cry because people were threatening RONIN, her BABY, when the game came out because they didn't like that abby killed joel

they deserve the world and i'll actually kill anyone who hurts them!

#this is a laura bailey and ashley johnson protective unit #also marisha but this is because of the doc #i still love you too marisha #jesus ashley is an ACTOR #she had me bawling watching the doc #ashley johnson #laura bailey #naughty dog #the last of us part ii #tlou 2 #the last of us #critical role

[daisys-buckley]

My heart actually can’t take this

#critics choice #critics choice awards #tlou #the last of us #pedro pascal #bella ramsey #joel miller #ellie williams #tlou 2

[pix-writes]

They also said David was right that he and Ellie have a violent heart and then compared Joel to him like a parallel. Like its purely to justify the second game/season beacuse he knows audiences wont receive it well in the first one.

Like its not in the first season beacuse it would ruin the story which is why they try so hard to justify their position to trick us into thinking seeds of violence were planted when they clearly weren't. If anything the actual show makes the second game look even MORE unrealistic.

And Neil recently reaffirming he does not care for people who dislike the second game. Like im sorry thats not a valid opinion he unironically based this game around Palestine and cycles of aggressive violence and promoted it through sabatoging beloved characters in favour of his new actual facist fave youre forced to play.

A good game is not devisive amongst the fanbase like the sequel was. Thats bad. And I think he will be in for a rude awakening at the reception to season 2. Beacuse general audiences will watch the show more then go out and play a game. Gamers paid already it doesnt matter if we stop playing half way through.

But TV shows with audience drop offs are much more brutal for a shows reception.

The amount of people already who refuse to tune in for a future season just from what ive seen on here is staggering.

Its a bad, brutal, punishing story with no mercy. And it'll be an even worse show.

I agree with these senitments, mutual!

I find it intersing making Ellie more used to violence (or using violence) in the TV series - of course she is a girl who's grown up in a miliatry school in a post-apocalypse, so it would make sense for her to be used or more ready to utilise violence in terms of survival. But I don't like the idea that she is violent like David is, or comparing his version of violence to Ellie's (or Joel's, for that matter) because its totally different - especailly as neither of them seek violence as a way of abusing people or to gain power like David most certainly does.

When I think of Ellie I don't think of her having a "violent heart" I think of her as a scared and yet feirce girl. I think the only thing David ever got right about her was that she is very loyal. I'd say that she has a loyal heart and one that puts loyalty into people who she cares deeply about & that show her that she can trust them/that they won't abandon her/that they can protect her.

^^^ I mean???!!!!??!!!!!! looook! the sweetest <3

Its intersting to hear Neil said that, I haven't seen much about what the creators have spoken about since the first game came out (/little snippets from the podcasts), to be honest, but its very disheartening. (And as a writer myself, I can't imagine having that perspective or lack of thought for fans by saying something like that publicly!)

I could go on about how I don't trust a lot of the men involved in this story (Pedro excepted ofc), for the way they treat David, like he's not an obvious predator, and how I didn't like that Joel doesn't intercept Ellie during the restaurant scene, but I'd just end up getting mad! ^^' and on top of that, the mentioned narrative that Ellie is 'forever changed' by what happens to her in her run-in with David & his cannibal crew (according to Craig/Neil). I've always taken issue with such things, as much as Ellie is a wondeful well-fleshed out female queer character (mad props to Ashley Johnson for being pivotal with that <3); and it makes me feel that tlou 2 was just made to be a rug-pull type story (as has been used in GoT and TWD) like 'oh you thought this? haha, well think again! your fave is dead because of tragedy!' --> its edgy for the sake of being edgy and missed out on being a meaningful additon to the first game & DLC and its themes...

I'm thinking the same, that the second season is going to be just as divisive - all the people who haven't been spoiled by the gameplay etc., are going to have a similar rude awakening to fans when tlou part 2 was released, and I don't think they'll get the reception they were hoping for (but then again, perhaps the writers don't care?). BUT it'll probably affect viewership dramatically, especiallly if (as I've heard other fans say) that they will sequence it much like in the game where it jumps back & forth in time/perspective (meaning *spoilers* - Joel 💀 in the first half of the series, most likely). I just can't fathom that going down well with general audiences. That's a recipe for a tv series bomb if ever I saw one.

... ... ....

Its probably kinda bad I do partly want the second season to bomb, isn't it? 😅 don't get me wrong, I love the first game/season, and the actors etc who've worked on it - but I just have so much issues with how they've handled the story since then/their interpretations of it, like I do with a lot of other tv series/tv in general right now, that I would just feel pure justified satisfction from it if it did!

#waffling #rambling #just a long answer bascally saying I agree to your v well thought out ask! ^^ #anti tlou2 #tlou part 2 critical #(That said #dont come at me if you read this & do like tlou 2 #I may criticise it but it doesn't mean I hate on those who do like it) #i probably got too attached to the first game to feel about this story and series casually so #i don't trust neil craig troy or nolan ok there i said it they're on thin ice from now on #ellie and joel

[judyalvqrez]

I finally finished Final Fantasy 16

#ffxvi #ffxvi spoilers #vg #that's me googling if ***** survived #or if ****** survived #or if **** survived #seriously what the fuck #what a phenomenal game #i haven't ugly cried at a game ending in so long #probably since tlou part 2 i think? #and those performances my god ben starr definitely needs to win some awards for his clive performance #not bad for my first final fantasy game #goty contender for sure #my one criticism would be the placement of sidequests #particularly towards the end of the game #and how it messed with the flow and urgency of the main story #it wasn’t too bad though could’ve been worse tbh #those endgame sidequests were banger tho #lucy rants

[2x4plank]

Ooh, oh no... The hospital act of TLOU. I'm gonna be upfront: least favorite part of the game.

I really wanted to like it (of course I did; I paid $70 dollars for this game), but it never hit me as hard as all the other acts. With the acts that came before this one, I looked at all the little nuances in interactions between the characters, reading notes, looking at whatever's in Joel & Ellie's backpacks--just loving what this game fed to me.

But the hospital act felt rushed to me.

Let me start with my first, ongoing grievance: the Fireflies.

I get where they were going with this, the moral dilemma they were trying to set up: should Joel save his daughter at the cost of the world? But the Fireflies don't seem very smart. I won't even talk about the viability of them creating a vaccine (or cure, rather) with the fungus on Ellie's brain. For the purposes of this piece, the vaccine will 100% work. So where does that leave us now?

The Fireflies seem to have a streak of malpractice. At the University of Colorado, players will pick up recordings from a dead Firefly. Long story short, that Firefly released infected monkeys just...into the world. This same Firefly also talks about the long stretch of time (5 years) that passed between the last scientific breakthrough. This does not inspire confidence.

Fast forward to the hospital act. Two Fireflies encounter a man doing CPR on a child and they...knock him out with the butt of their guns? I'll clarify I have a personal vendetta against people that are particularly a part of an organization hitting people with the butt of their guns, but outside of that, this is stupid. Joel is clearly trying to resuscitate Ellie, so even if they "didn't know who [he] was", knocking him unconscious doesn't make sense.

And then Joel wakes up and Marlene drops the bomb that they're currently taking Ellie's brain out. Okay. That was very quick. I'm sure they had time to run several complete tests and cross their t's and dot their i's. It makes complete sense that in the time between Joel being brought to the hospital and regaining consciousness, they figured out that removing her brain was the best way to create that vaccine. I'm sure keeping Ellie alive would have absolutely no benefits and going straight to killing her is the best option.

Additionally, that one Firefly that eggs Joel on? What is with these guys and abusing their power? They can't compete with FEDRA on that front, but it's still bad.

Finally, I always wondered how they were going to distribute that cure to the greater public. They're quite ostracized by FEDRA, if I remember correctly, and creating a cure is only a part of a problem. It's not like the current government hasn't displayed a tendency to hog resources, so working with them seems like a no-go.

None of what we've seen of the Fireflies makes me think they're competent.

My second grievance is Marlene. I liked her at the start, but what we see in the last part soured me on her. She isn't very compassionate to Joel's situation, but he's grown and a murderer (of both baddies and innocents in his hunter days), so I don't have a problem with that. He's not the most compassionate either. It's moreover her claiming to have monopoly over caring about Ellie. Girl, what?

Of course, we saw little of Ellie and Marlene's relationship as a function of the game. It was about Joel and Ellie sticking together when their loved ones either died or, in the case of Bill, simply refused to come with them. Marlene passed her along, and we just kind of hear how Ellie cares about Marlene. We also receive letters and recordings about Anna and Marlene's relationship in the late game. I get why it is this way, as it sets up the player to care about Ellie just as Joel did, but I do wish we got to see some more of Marlene's relationship with Ellie.

My third grievance is this idea of choice. Ellie did not choose to die. We might have some idea of if she would (she's really happy to think of herself as the cure to all mankind), but she didn't and all throughout the game, there is this emphasis on continuing to survive. Finding a reason to keep going. I would not say that Joel took this choice away from her, because never was this dilemma presented to her. Joel woke up, found out they were going to murder Ellie, and intervened so that did not happen. You can't choose to do anything if you're dead.

And then Joel takes her to get some McDonald's...

The problem I see people take with Joel that I can actually understand is him lying to her. Him lying has the potential to completely blow up in his face, and this concerns not only the cure, but Marlene as well. I wholeheartedly agree with him saving her, but this is a bit more dubious.

But here's the thing: beyond his selfish reasons for doing so (such as absolving himself of guilt), Joel has some legitimate reasons to lie to her. First and firstmost, Ellie has been through a lot at an extremely young age. Seen a lot of loved one's die, carries some survivor's guilt along with that. She does not need or deserve to have "I could have saved the world, if only I died" hanging over her head. Ellie deserves a happy childhood--or a happy remainder of her childhood, because she lost quite a bit and had to deal with David, among other things. The damage this truth has the potential to do to her is reason enough to lie.

Second of all, she does not need to know that the same woman she probably came to see as a second mother was willing to put her to death on a doctor's word. I believe in science and medicine, but maybe get a second opinion on that?

So yeah... When it comes to Joel vs. the Fireflies, it's no contest to me.

I should add: I would've loved if at least one named POC character survived. Kind of crazy all of them died, and as a non-white player, it didn't escape my notice. It also made me sad when Henry wasn't mentioned among the people they lost. I mean, Henry did protect/look after Ellie during that short part in the sewer. I think he should've been mentioned.

#And also I'm not playing TLOU 2 #I just don't feel like it #tlou part 1 #tlou spoilers #tlou fireflies #tlou ellie #tlou joel #tlou marlene #2x4plank essay post #I'll probably have to edit this soon #I added something at the end #tlou critical #tlou hospital #tlou commentary

[corpsesoldier]

I don't find ellie's motivations during tlou2 that opaque tbh. like yeah the revenge quest drags and you're exhausted at the end of it and tired of witnessing the bloodshed. I'm pretty sure that's the reaction the game is trying to draw out of you (I died during the confrontation on the beach because I didn’t want to choke abby so I stopped mashing buttons lmao). but ellie's determination to see it through is, I think, another expression of her survivor's guilt.

I think ellie is, fundamentally, someone who is living in the blank pages past the end of her story. riley gets bitten and ellie doesn't die. tess gets bitten, sam gets bitten, and ellie doesn't die. she thinks she has a chance to create a world where that won't happen anymore, to anyone, but joel saves her and she doesn't die. she's left to navigate the aftermath with no sense of purpose. she's just supposed to keep going, and she's doesn't know how.

and then joel is killed in front of her and ellie doesn't die. again. everyone I've cared for has either died or left me. everyone fucking except for you. ellie struggles with what joel did to and for her, and ellie is allowed to leave him, because she knows joel won't ever leave her. she thought she had time to come back to him. to figure out all that out. she hadn't forgiven joel yet, but she wanted to try. and then suddenly all that possibility is gone.

I think the revenge quest is partly a way for ellie to align herself with joel posthumously. now that she doesn’t have the option to heal and grow her relationship with the living joel, she engages instead with his legacy. we know the kind of man joel is (was?), and so does ellie—violent, vengeful, often selfish. the kind of man that regards the necessity of violence with equanimity. in joel's absence, ellie molds herself in his image. this is what joel would do, she thinks. if it had been me, she thinks.

and that's to say nothing of the sunk cost of killing more and more of abby's friends on her quest to find abby herself. once you've hunted down one, two, three people who pose you no threat, once you've tortured someone, once you've killed a pregnant woman, what does that make you if you stop now? what does it mean if you decide you don't need to kill abby after all? if abby's death is not absolutely necessary, then what of the violence leading up to it, and the person executing said violence? even if ellie felt early in her revenge that she wanted to stop, that it wasn't worth it, she wasn't ready to confront the reality of what she had done. framing her revenge as necessary let her pretend she was the hero a little longer.

and I think part of the reason she persists as long as she does is because of her lack of purpose, and, frankly, her desire to die. again, fundamentally, ellie lives. even when she doesn't want to. even when she doesn't believe she deserves to. she can't save riley, she can't save the world, she can't even save joel who, regardless of the tenor of their relationship at the time, is a foundational pillar of ellie's life. so what can she do? maybe this one last thing. ellie's own life, her own happiness, isn't important. it was her death that was supposed to be important, but she woke up and it had passed her by. now she's got a cosmic debt she can never repay. I don’t think she expects to come back from seattle, but she also can’t stand to let down someone she cares about again, even if it's only their ghost. what’s her life in the blank endpapers worth compared to another failure?

and ultimately she lets abby go. because she sees lev. she sees abby turn away from her entirely because her boy needs her. and because ellie remembers joel as he was after the bloodshed, the kind of man he was trying so hard to be for her. there's something there about what we leave our children. something about the kind of person you become to protect them, and about the kind of person they really need, and where those modes diverge. what kind of father is abby? what kind of father does ellie want to be? joel at the end of tlou, bloodied, lying to her? or joel standing on his porch in jackson, waiting for when she's ready to come back?

#I don't tend to go here but I've seen this sentiment mixed in with some tlou criticism that ellie's actions in 2 don't make sense #and I don't agree #if you think that its fine obvs idc some things don't work for some people #but I think the way tlou2 inspects joel's legacy by focusing it through abby and ellie is rly interesting #tlou is about fatherhood its just some of the dads are girls. girldads if you will. #how do you forgive your father? how do you repay him? #how do you let him go because you know your child needs a different kind of father? #how do you give them a different world than the one you had to live through? #anyway. this isn't a thrown gauntlet I swear I just had thoughts I wanted to articulate about where I think ellie is for a lot of the game #tlou2 is divisive etc etc I know but I liked it #had some thoughts about it #back to your regularly scheduled necromancers #did a readmore because this got longer than I anticipated #don't want to blow up anyone's dash I know this isnt what I usually post about sdjgfsd #tlou

[sunniestfae]

Autistic-Coded Characters IMO

part 2

🔫 Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III 🔫

💻 Futaba Sakura 💻

🍀 Collei 🍀

🏹 Lev 🏹

🫧 Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno 🫧

🧢Marie🧢

🧽SpongeBob🧽

🤍Fushiguro Megumi 🖤

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[mrmallard]

Man on one hand FF13 really is that bad, as much as I love how it looks the levelling system and gameplay is kind of broken on a foundational level, but on the other hand so much 13 hate was predicated on being as much of a hateful cunt as possible about Lightning and looking back I feel like a lot of it was steeped in bullshit double standards and abject misogyny.

Like I used to post in a Final Fantasy thread and whenever Lightning came up, one specific person would deadass go "Lightning was a horrible person who abused everyone, and the game would be better if she died halfway through and nobody cared". Every time she came up.

I remember people saying they bastardised SOLDIER to make her more reminiscent of Cloud, they bastardised the scorpion fight from FF7 and made the fight borderline unloseable to hype her up because she's a bland Mary Sue who needs character shilling, she's just a retread of Cloud and Squall etc. And while I'm critical of FF13, I've always been bugged by the character hate (including for Hope) and I feel like a lot of it comes from this cultural well of like Nostalgia Critic-esque dickhead internet criticism that people seemingly couldn't communicate at all without dipping into.

Like, Lightning starts the game off being incredibly blunt, punching her sister's fiance and encouraging someone to enact revenge. Not even a quarter of the way through the game, she has a change of heart and she begins to open up more, and she subsequently tries her best to dissuade that character from enacting revenge. So much of the hate stems from the start of her character arc while ignoring how she improves as a person, and that only fuels the whole "shitty Mary Sue Cloud Squall rehash" internet criticism thing where a bunch of dickheads have to try and one-up each other's criticisms by being even more of a fuckface than the last guy.

Now, that's not to say that criticism of Lightning is solely done through that lens, nor is it to say that there's nothing else to criticize about her. What I'm saying is that there's a lot of loud dumbass complaints that defined FF13 for years that stems from a really toxic, shitty place and - in hindsight - it feels like on top of the toxic influence within the online sphere of game criticism of the time, a lot of that shit feels like it's rooted in misogyny.

It's always bothered me, and going back to the game today, it's kind of hard to sit through the opening without remembering the absolute chuddery of FF13 criticism back in the day. The game is very flawed, and I understand that character writing and personal enjoyment is subjective, but there's a difference between articulate and meaningful criticism and getting blindingly mad because they made Lightning do a bunch of badass flips in the opening cutscene and ignoring her entire character arc to call her an entitled bitch, y'know.

#final fantasy 13 #final fantasy #lightning farron #as a postscript - yeah the opening scorpion boss fight was a load of shit. glitz and polish that was all bark no bite #and while some of that can be chalked up to the fight being s tutorial I also think it's mired with a lot of flaws that the later game has #it would have been a cakewalk with any other character. part of that is by design but it's also kind of getting things off on the wrong foot #at least imo #and that's a broader criticism of the game and how streamlined the combat system is #where you're pushing a single button to win. and I fo remember the formations #but then there's another issue where it feels like there's an objectively correct formation to use for bosses #where if you deviate you just lose and if you get the right combination of classes - again you just press a single button to win #or like go through the exact same motions in a rhythm. I don't like that #so like yeah the combat and enemy stuff and all that - I'm critical of that #I don't think calling lightning a mary sue because her and sazh beat it as the tutorial monster is a reasonable criticism #i think it's a broader issue with the game and that reading completely misses what's actually wrong with the game #it's intellectually lazy and a total copout #it's like tlou 2 or the jodie whittaker seasons of doctor who all over again where there's a real conversation to be had #and actual reasonable criticisms to be made #but the criticism of the thing is so toxic and hostile and in such bad faith that having that conversation is next to impossible #because 'this is an aspect of the thing I'm critical of' exists in the same space where some wanker is screaming about lesbians and wokism