The Last of Us

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Ossoi

Potato del Grande
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Let’s face it, it’s “Emmy worthy” not because of the story, but because a time old story was redone with dudes running each others fingers through their chest hair instead.
Really, the only difference between these two identical stories is that one I can relate to, while the other made me slightly nauseous. That doesn’t make me a hater, it just makes me someone that’s been biologically evolved to view male buttsex on par with watching maggots. It’s hard to be “emotionally touched” when you’re inclined to cringe and look away from the tv.


Tell me you don't understand Television without telling me. The acting was phenomenal. Everything about it was eggsceptionally well eggsecuted.

Your role reversal also doesn't work. It's less risky for Bill to invite a woman inside. It's more risky for her. For people that didn't see the gayness coming, they'd probably think that survivalist basement guy is a potential rapist and that the woman is in danger.
 

SorrowsEnd

Trakanon Raider
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I didn't need to see Ron Swanson make out so I hit the +10 second fast forward button a few times until the next scene.

The story still had an emotional impact and was well acted.
 
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BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Plus, despite any clout we put forward, humans are a social species. By having someone else to interact with and care about, it probably helped prevent Bill from becoming no better than the raiders and other human animals of the wasteland. He at least got to live and end his life as a normal person in an extreme circumstance
This. No matter how capable Bill was, there's only so many lovely meals you can make for yourself and eat alone at your fancy dining table before you start to think "What's the point of this? and put a bullet in your brain. He even said that as his excuse for suicide at the end. "You are my purpose". Dedicating your life to making yourself comfortable gets empty really quickly.

I think it could have been done with a woman but the fact that Bill was a closeted gay man who had never expressed that part of him even to himself did give it some extra punch. Is the whole scenario very unlikely? Yes, but that's true of most good stories if you think about it. If something extraordinary doesn't happen to the characters in your story, you don't have a story.
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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Tell me you don't understand Television without telling me. The acting was phenomenal. Everything about it was eggsceptionally well eggsecuted.

Your role reversal also doesn't work. It's less risky for Bill to invite a woman inside. It's more risky for her. For people that didn't see the gayness coming, they'd probably think that survivalist basement guy is a potential rapist and that the woman is in danger.
Yeah, starving woman fleeing zombie hordes trapped in a ditch is more scared of the dude than starvation and zombies, because rape?
I hate to break it to you, but if you’re some chick in that situation, rape is not only not a concern, you’ll be happy to give as many bj’s in return for some rabbit and a hot shower, just like the guy did. In fact, the guy used the same line every chick I’ve ever banged on a first date has used “I’m not a whore, I expect to see you again”. Uhuh. Only difference is that a chick usually adds “this is the first time I’ve ever done this”. Double eye roll.
 
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Juvarisx

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Yeah, starving woman fleeing zombie hordes trapped in a ditch is more scared of the dude than starvation and zombies, because rape?
I hate to break it to you, but if you’re some chick in that situation, rape is not only not a concern, you’ll be happy to give as many bj’s in return for some rabbit and a hot shower, just like the guy did. In fact, the guy used the same line every chick I’ve ever banged on a first date has used “I’m not a whore, I expect to see you again”. Uhuh. Only difference is that a chick usually adds “this is the first time I’ve ever done this”. Double eye roll.

I don't think Bill lets a woman in the compound for two reasons I can think of off the top of my head.

1) He likes men and seemed to be attracted to / nervous around Frank the second he got him out of the hole

2) A woman running around and surviving the trip from Baltimore -> Boston alone during that shit raises major red flags. Yea Frank said there was 10 of them at the start but he looked in shape and relatively capable, if not naïve about the immediate danger in Boston. Using a pretty girl to infiltrate a base or whatever is such a tired trope it was nice to see it wasn't used here.
 

Ravishing

Uninspiring Title
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Role swapping changes a lot of it for sure.
We'd be bitching why they didn't start a family or something.
Expectations would be so different.
The ending isn't so unique, clearly, but as a whole, the episode puts you through a lot of emotional states, it's incredibly well acted and just put together very well.
 

Nija

<Silver Donator>
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Woof. This reminds me of everyone voting for Obama. Such a brave episode.

Sorry bros, all I can think is is the famous line from Falling Down.

Faggot shit.
 
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Falstaff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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The “Emmy award” nonsense is a joke. Ask yourself this, if the entire episode had been rewritten so that Bill found a hot chick in that hole that also liked a fine beaujolais with her grilled rabbit, and the story played out the same way with her getting MS in the end, would it still be considered “Emmy worthy”? Or would it’s simply be a replay on an age old story— man protects woman, woman falls in love, and love is lost through some tragedy.
Let’s face it, it’s “Emmy worthy” not because of the story, but because a time old story was redone with dudes running each others fingers through their chest hair instead.
Really, the only difference between these two identical stories is that one I can relate to, while the other made me slightly nauseous. That doesn’t make me a hater, it just makes me someone that’s been biologically evolved to view male buttsex on par with watching maggots. It’s hard to be “emotionally touched” when you’re inclined to cringe and look away from the tv.
Also, they don’t spend much time even evolving that “love”— like Maybe Bill saving him from zombies or teaching him to fire a rifle or whatever. We got a scene with strawberries. They could have passed on the buttsex part, and did more actual emotional evolution.
this is a bad take. The episode would have been just as poignant if it was Bill and a woman. And the Emmy award talk would be just as relevant.
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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I don't think Bill lets a woman in the compound for two reasons I can think of off the top of my head.

1) He likes men and seemed to be attracted to / nervous around Frank the second he got him out of the hole

2) A woman running around and surviving the trip from Baltimore -> Boston alone during that shit raises major red flags. Yea Frank said there was 10 of them at the start but he looked in shape and relatively capable, if not naïve about the immediate danger in Boston. Using a pretty girl to infiltrate a base or whatever is such a tired trope it was nice to see it wasn't used here.

I think you misunderstood the point I was trying to make. In an alternate "non emmy award winning" storyline where Bill likes pussy instead of hairy ass, he has even greater reason to take her in.

Role swapping changes a lot of it for sure.
We'd be bitching why they didn't start a family or something.
Expectations would be so different.
The ending isn't so unique, clearly, but as a whole, the episode puts you through a lot of emotional states, it's incredibly well acted and just put together very well.

Yes of course, as a fifty something dude in the zombie apocalypse with scant resources and having to fight off zombies and bandits, that would definitely be the first thing on my mind- "starting a family". LOL
 
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Arden

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this is a bad take. The episode would have been just as poignant if it was Bill and a woman. And the Emmy award talk would be just as relevant.

Agree with your first point about the poignancy, but completely disagree with your second point about it being just as emmy likely. Sadly, being trendy and topical is a big factor in awards like the Emmys/Oscars these days, and there just isn't anything avant-garde or trendy about a normal relationship.

If your show isn't doing something directly to bolster the social cause of some repressed group, you just aren't getting an award, period. I'm sure there are rare exceptions, but if you look around this is pretty much the status quo.

I say this without any vitriol. I definitely don't have a dog in the fight and I think the awards shows missed great stuff all the time before they started this particularly ridiculous paradigm. It was political before and it's political now, it's just that the politics have changed shape a little bit.
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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this is a bad take. The episode would have been just as poignant if it was Bill and a woman. And the Emmy award talk would be just as relevant.

Maybe. It's just hard for me to tell, the physiological response I have to watching men fondle each others beards makes me queasy, and its difficult to abstract a feeling of nausea from an assessment of their acting performances.

Listen, I have nothing against the storyline. I don't even have anything against it being a gay love story. I just really question whether it would be getting "Emmy nods" if the story was done with a hetero couple, and it's just plain hard for me to develop emotional attachment while watching two hairy dudes roll around in bed together.
 
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Warpath

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Woof. This reminds me of everyone voting for Obama. Such a brave episode.

Sorry bros, all I can think is is the famous line from Falling Down.

Faggot shit.
brave, lol....someone a few pages back said 'it took a lot of balls to do this'

still not sure if that's a great joke or just retarded, but i figured my worf would cover both bases
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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That's not what I said.

10 Cloverfield Lane sends its regards

"It's less risky for Bill to invite a woman inside. It's more risky for her. For people that didn't see the gayness coming, they'd probably think that survivalist basement guy is a potential rapist and that the woman is in danger."

Please help UnBrit your English for me then here then. How is it more risky for a starving woman trapped in a pit with a gun pointed at her head fleeing zombie hordes and bandits to get fed/clothed by a potential "rapist", then it is to continue to starve while fleeing zombies and actual rapists?

If Bill was the hetero rapey type, he could pawn off some shotgun shells and a can of lawnmower fuel he has for an entire harem of girls. The setting here is more Mad Max than Gilmore Girls.
 
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TJT

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Hmmmm, potential white male rapist with resources or....

starving in the forest while being chased by flesheating mushroom zombies. With nothing but the shirt on my back.

What a decision indeed.
 
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Ravishing

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I think you misunderstood the point I was trying to make. In an alternate "non emmy award winning" storyline where Bill likes pussy instead of hairy ass, he has even greater reason to take her in.



Yes of course, as a fifty something dude in the zombie apocalypse with scant resources and having to fight off zombies and bandits, that would definitely be the first thing on my mind- "starting a family". LOL

If you had the resources and needed the man power then hell yes you breed to strengthen your clan.
 

Fight

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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This thread is more fagged up than the last episode.

This series isn't good because they are telling woke and brave stories... it is good because Craig Mazin showed he was the baddest man in the business with Chernobyl and is proving it wasn't a fluke with The Last of Us.

His story telling is brilliant. He takes great effort to make his characters react to the chaos around them in the same ways a lot of us would. He plants little details in his writing that answer questions like, "why wouldn't you just to this..." and "what is the motivation for this behavior here?". It is the shit that 90% of other shows miss, and they come off as cheap and amateurish.

What he did with this last episode wasn't an accomplishment of "bravery" and "telling the stories that need to be told"... it was master class story telling in how he gave us a full life arch in the budget of 75 minutes run time. He gave us the life of a man who is supremely capable, but one who is sad, shallow, and solitary until he takes a major risk to everything he believes he knows about the world. He takes that risk and it brings more joy, happiness, and fulfillment than he ever thought possible. He showed the up and the downs. It showed the growth and the inevitable decline that all humans have to one day confront. And even in death, he provides a good reason for hope. A good reason to keep fighting, keep trying, and to never give up that hope.

In one episode, you got an entire series worth of character development out of two people you will never see again. Fuck, Craig Mazin is incredible at this. That is why this show will get Emmy nominations. Not because they put two gay lovers on the screen, ya dumb dumbs.
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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If you had the resources and needed the man power then hell yes you breed to strengthen your clan.

I mean, yeah, if I was re-enacting Little House on the Prairie and needed some strong youngins to work my fields so we could all eat and have enough labor to fix our lodge, absolutely. But if I'm 55 living in a cement compound foraging for canned food and maybe some blood pressure meds so I don't stroke out, an extra crying/shitting mouth to feed isn't helpful, and by the time the kid is old enough to even help with anything, I'm pushing 70 and likely dead anyways. Not to mention the chance my beloved wife dies in childbirth. Bill makes it pretty clear he doesn't need help to keep things working, that's literally why he tells Joel and Tess to get lost when they want to trade.