Last of Us Ep. 3 Thoughts
Added 2023-02-19 19:21:22 +0000 UTCSo, because my friend isn't around to hear this, I'm gonna post this here...
Here's my thoughts on Last of Us Ep. 3:
On my first viewing, I was enthrawled. The story telling was PEAK cinema, just like most of the episodes. But... after Bill carried Frank off to bed I felt something.
"Why the fuck did we just watch all that?"
"What was the point of introducing two characters at the beginning of the episode just to kill them off and have them not effect the rest of the story?"
And then Joel read the letter... and it *all* made sense.
The story of Bill was about finding *meaning* in the end times.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, here's Bill, living his fucking DREAM. But... months in, he feels... empty. Until this man shows up. This man who brings him all the meaning in the whole world. And they fight, and they bicker, and they deal ultimatums over the smallest of things but in the end... a life without him isn't a life worth living.
And Bill tells this to Joel...
And the first thing Joel does? He looks at Ellie.
Without Bill's story Joel wouldn't have been primed to take Ellie under his wing, to father her. The very next fuckin' scenes are him letting his guard down around her and allowing her to be more than just cargo... as much as he rationally wants to say that she still is.
Personally, I think that's WAY stronger of a story for Bill than the one in the games... While in the game Bill's story enforces that this new world is a dark and hopeless one - showing that the innocence of this little girl is the ONLY light in Joel's life... in the show Bill's story offers hope that there's a life other than the QZ and the Fireflies.
