The Last of Us II is my favorite story out of any medium. There are others that are held in higher esteem by better-educated people, but my own subjectivity puts TLOU2 at the very top.

I could go on and on about it. I’ve been thinking about it since I played late last summer. But one central theme I’ve noticed, that many people have slightly touched on but maybe not quite realized, is consequence. The inciting event of the entire game is a consequence of how Joel wrapped up the first game’s plot. If you watch the final cutscene from the first game, you’ll see so many comments expressing the sentiment of “The story ended here”.

Why? Because they can’t handle the fact that Joel’s actions would have consequences. Independent of if he did the “right” thing or not (I happen to disagree with what he did, but that’s not the point), such a monumental choice is going to have CONSEQUENCES. And that consequence shows up to play golf with his face. The rest of the game is a series of consequences based on that, spiraling ever deeper down the rabbit hole.

But all that the Gamers saw was their self-insert, rugged, loner, asshole survivor murdered by a GURL. And they lost their minds over it. The conversation around this game, around this incredible story, is going to be poisoned for years to come because Gamers aggressively ignore subtext - both hidden and overt.

I think I’ve seen that name in passing, but skimmed over it because at first glance it sounds like abolishing children in an anti-natalist sense. I should read up on it.

I need to read up on this. Issue is that I would have even more pent-up rage and absolutely no outlet. Adults can be helped in some form - a couch to crash on, help finding a job, whatever. But if I took in a child running from that situation I’d just end up in prison and the kid would end up back in their abusive situation.

I can relate all too well to that feeling of zombification. It was a combo of homeschooling/undiagnosed gender dysphoria for me, but you have my deepest sympathies. Are you doing any better, or at least less shitty, these days?

…part of the function of the “where is your child now?” stuff that really curtailed kids’ freedom in America in the second half of the twentieth century was a reaction to the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam movements.

God dammit I think you’re on to something

lower everyone nearby’s home value (they also made the equally-bad argument that teens would hang out at the child’s playground to smoke).

God damn mother FUCKING hoa bullshit. I hate them I hate them I hate them so fucking much little elected clans of dukes ruining everything even for those of us who do manage to buy a home

My 669 posts have been ignored. I have contributed moderate amounts of useful discourse to this site and I will not accept this slander :angry-hex:

“Communism is not love. Communism is white people calling white people white on the internet.” :mao-clap:

I thought that link was to “volcel.media” and didn’t even find it weird.

Gonna hang a poster of this guy up at my local gym

It’s an astonishing clip, really. I’m sure Conan is hamming his reaction up for yucks, but everyone just truly seems to be confused. Bill is saying that the Great Leader didn’t do it all and they just don’t know how to mentally process it.

It literally doesn’t, the characters all but look at the camera and say “we didn’t need to do this”

ffs