When The Last of Us Part II came out back in 2020, it was met with a ridiculous amount of backlash from the hate on Abby to outright unapologetic homophobia; and while a lot of that noise has quieted down over the years, it looks like those same complaints are returning anew thanks to the second season of the HBO show.
The Last of Us Season 2 just premiered last weekend, and already we’re experiencing the same kind of ‘anti-woke’ backlash that plagued the fandom space around Part II back in 2020.
“It’s a Family Event”
With the first season having Joel rediscovering his fatherhood, the second season is going to be exploring Ellie’s coming-of-age, and the first episode recreates the infamous New Year’s kiss she has with Dina in the game—one that’s rudely interrupted by an old conservative named Seth.
With so much of the series focusing on the romance between Ellie and Dina, the feeds are already being plagued with ‘anti-woke’ sentiment—a lot of which I won’t be sharing here. There are even some people praising Seth to be the ‘only good character’ in the episode, and more have been talking about how this episode is the ‘beginning of the end’ for the series—as if the first season already didn’t have all of the gay romance that the same people have been griping about.
The comments for this post are just filled with the worst takes.
It Only Gets Worse from Here
click to enlargeWithout spoiling anything, I’m just going to say that the toxic fandom complaints are only going to get worse from here. Assuming that the second episode is where “that” happens, The Last of Us fans who have played the game should brace themselves for a new wave of outraged media illiterates who have no idea what happens in the story and are ready to bombard the internet with their uninformed takes once “that” happens.
As someone who was all-in on Neil Druckmann’s ride when Part II came out, I was defending this game with my life and lost many an hour just composing paragraphs of why all the toxic reactions to the game were wrong. But Girlfriend Reviews probably has the most concise take on the misunderstood backlash (be warned though, it spoils what happens in the game):
It Could be Different This Time
Just looking at the opening of Season 2 with the introduction of Abby and what’s left of her Firefly faction, it’s clear that the TV series is already making a huge change with the narrative structure.
With the mystery of Abby being such an integral part of the game, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann realized that they couldn’t simply follow the game’s structure and expect everyone to be onboard for the next season. Hence, the early reveal of who Abby is and what her main motivation is for being in Jackson.
We have no idea how they’re exactly going to change the flow of the narrative for Season 2, but it’s possible that they would want everyone to be rooting for Abby by the time the season ends.
With the Last of Us’ main hook being its manipulation of emotions and empathy via gameplay, it was going to be a huge challenge to bring that same kind of connection to a more passive medium like television.
I am hopeful that Druckmann and Mazin have it figured out; but I already know that there are some people out there ready for some bad faith arguments about the game all for the sake of Youtube clicks. It’s going to be a tough season for TLOU stans, but hopefully the series manages to grip audiences so well there won’t be any room for that negativity.
Catch The Last of Us Season 2 every Sunday night on Max.
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