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mdawgswizzleinthehizzle · 29 days

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“you have no idea what loss is.” ~ Joel

“everyone i have cared for has either died or left me… everyone fucking except for you.” ~ Ellie

okay joel, she gets it. she gets what loss is now. stop being a silly goose and get up. jokes over. 😀

#the last of us #pedro pascal #joel miller #hbo the last of us #ellie williams #bella ramsey #ellie and joel #tlou angst #tlou fluff #tlou spoilers #tlou analysis #tlou #ashley johnson #troy baker

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abbysthighs · 3 months

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Joel, trying to shut Ellie down and not listen to her valid feelings: “Good.”

Ellie, trying to shut Dina down and not allow her to express her valid concerns: “Good.”

#tlou2 #tlou2 photomode #the last of us part 2 #virtual photography #the last of us #ellie williams #tlou2 cinematic #tlou2 remaster #ellie tlou #joel and ellie #tlou #the tipsy bison #tlou analysis #tlou2 flashback

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paigegonerogue · 9 days

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Something TLOU HBO does SO well is show that Ellie’s just a kid. Even when she’s fighting for her life or in situations no kid should ever be in, she’s still just a kid. A kid who’s trying to act like an adult, sure, but just a kid.

She pretends she’s tough because that’s how she’s survived, but you get these wonderful, occasionally heartbreaking moments of seeing just how young she is.

You see it when she’s laughing with Riley or fascinated by a car. You see it when she’s making stupid decisions that she doesn’t know any better than to make. You see it when she tries to help Sam and has no idea what to do, and when she’s lost and scared while Joel’s incapacitated. You see it when she breaks down in her father-figures arms after learning a new horrible thing about humanity, and in her curiosity and naivety and recklessness.

She’s a kid so out of her depth, with nothing but the weight of the world on her shoulders and the lessons she’s learned from living in a world where everyone’s doing awful things to survive. She tries so hard to pretend to be in control, but you see these glimmers of the kid that she is, and her good intentions and hope that the world tries and tries to take away from her.

#The last of us #tlou #the last of us hbo #tlou hbo #ellie williams #ellie tlou #ellie the last of us #tlou ellie #joel miller #joel tlou #joel the last of us #joel and ellie #tlou analysis #pedro pascal #bella ramsey

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hallwyeoo · 1 year

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Ellie’s memory of the golfing scene and what it tells us about her.

🚨spoilers for tlou2🚨

I think Ellie’s flashback to Joel’s death is very telling of how she internalized the event and the meaning she applied to his death. It’s also a good demonstration of her relationship to autonomy. Let’s break down the elements that were inconsistent with the actual event:

The stairs/hallway are much longer than they were. This suggests a sense of helplessness, an inability to get there fast enough. Joel is constantly out of reach.

There is blood on the floor outside of the door. Not entirely certain on this one but my hunch is that she blames herself for not seeing more obvious signs of violence/not knowing something was wrong sooner.

The door is locked, another roadblock in her path to Joel. She can’t access him, she can’t help, he needs her and she isn’t there.

Most importantly. Joel yells “Ellie, help me” (which he didn’t in the actual scene, he just screams. He doesn’t say a word in the actual scene)

Ellie hearing Joel scream for her help, calling for her while being horribly beaten, and her being repeatedly impeded on her way to him suggests that what she took away from his death is that she wasn’t enough. They always helped each other, always had each others backs, always got up. Ellie views his death as a failure. She was too slow, too weak, not smart enough to save him. She failed him when he needed her most. She is absolutely helpless to save him, just like she was helpless to save Riley, Tess, Sam, and Jessie (and Marlene, and humanity, and and and-).

Once again, Ellie makes a decision (staying with Riley, going to the fireflies, staying with Joel, being the cure, trying to forgive Joel) and once again her autonomy and ability to find closure is ripped from her.

This is the inciting incident of tlou pt2, this is the moment where Ellie’s whole world shatters the same way Joel’s did at the start of pt1. Ellie enters into the same cycle (which I like to call the “Joel cycle” because… yeah.) that he did, and throughout pt2 she stays in the “20 years later” phase of the cycle. She is changed, she has lost her light, lost what she fought for. She lost her chance to genuinely forgive Joel and rebuild their relationship. She is stuck in a gruelling and violent world that she has no anchor in, at least not anymore. His death is so sudden and so incredibly violent that it practically gave her (and me as well, tbh) whiplash. She’s in a state of total shock.

On another devastating note, this is one of the three times in tlou that we see Ellie beg (that I remember). The first is begging Joel to get up at the university of Eastern Colorado, the second is begging him to get up and for Abby to stop, and the third is begging Abby to not kill Dina because she’s pregnant. (Two times she begs Joel to get up, one time he doesn’t. Two times she begs Abby to spare her family and one time she does. What a beautifully haunting contrast)

To wrap up, every person creates an internal narrative, a story of their life that is crafted from their context and lived experiences. The meaning we derive from those experiences doesn’t always reflect the truth, and that can sometimes bite us in the ass majorly when we experience a traumatic event. We tend to want to find someone or something to assign blame to, some reason or rationale to why it happened. We tell stories. We write them in our minds about ourselves and what happens to us and what that says about us.

But Ellie is wrong. Joel’s death happened in response to a conscious and willing choice he made. It is in no way her fault, and there was absolutely no way for her to know or to stop what was happening. I think Ellie knows that much on an intellectual level, It just doesn’t change how devastated she is over the whole event. It can’t change the fact that she FEELS as though this was all her fault, that Joel did what he did to save her, that she could have saved him. That she should have.

#this isn’t a new thought #like I’m p much just stating what happened in the game #this is not some super deep meta analysis of tlou #it’s just.#Ellie’s relationship to autonomy is so so so good #ellie the last of us #joel the last of us #ellie williams #joel miller #tlou series #tlou show #tlou1 #tlou spoilers #tlou analysis #I have SO MANY drafts that are like. walls of text #we’re talking Great Wall of China long #tlou2 #marlene the last of us #marlene tlou #basically what I said in previous posts about how ellie picked up Joel’s stoic attitude and emotional constipation.#ellie’s screams lolol. my heart breaking in real time.#joel goes golfing HD!!!#the way her voice breaks as she begs… OWIE #Neil druckmann needs to pay for my therapy fr!!#I edited this because it had some… really bad grammatical errors #syntax??? what’s that????#anyway normally I don’t put much thought or effort into my actual wording of Tumblr posts #because like maybe 10 people will see it. who cares.#but this one is one I actually care a bit about and this whole thing could be written about in so much more depth.#so I went in and tried to clean it up a bit and added some thoughts.

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thee-problem-child · 1 year

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the craziest thing or should I say the most ironic thing about kathleen’s is that she’s doing the exact same thing for her brother that henry did for sam; putting people’s lives on the line for the person that they love

the same dialogue that she used against henry can be used against her because did she not let the whole world revolve around the death of her brother which not only caused her demise but the demise of the entire city

her brother asking her to forgive because he knows he would of done the same thing for kathleen if given the chance and that the road of revenge just results in more death

#the last of us #kathleen tlou #henry and Sam #tlou #tlou analysis #last of us #revenge never goes the way you expect it to…like we’ve seen in the game #ugh they’re doing so well with the show #sam and henry

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dykenav · 1 year

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Idk if anyone’s talked about this but I think part of the reason the story of The Last of Us is so compelling is because it isn’t just “father and daughter duo must survive against all odds”, it’s “traumatized man and teenage girl must choose to become father and daughter to each other to survive despite everything it is going to cost them.”

Like obviously there are many stories about survival, many stories about love, many stories about family, and even many stories about adoptive or chosen family. But I think its somewhat rare to find a story that is centered around the process of a single relationship falling into familial love, specifically parent/child love. Parental love is most often depicted and assumed to be automatic, biological and instinctual. It is not often depicted to be a choice. Similarly, a child’s love for a parent is often depicted as purely arising from selfish need rather than genuine connection.

And that’s not to say that Ellie and Joel’s love for each other is not selfish, needy, and instinctual - because it definitely has those elements - but it’s by no means obligatory. So many of us get raised by parents who we don’t feel like actually know or even like us, but still love us because we’re their children. And as children we might feel like we don’t really get our parents, but we still love them because they’re our parents. There’s no real intimacy.

It’s also not automatic. It takes time - first they resist each other, then they begrudgingly rely on each other, and then they have moments where they recognize parts of themselves in each other. Ellie being darkly fascinated and inspired by Joel’s violence and toughness because she longs to be able to protect herself like that. Joel being slowly thawed by Ellie’s feral joy and juvenile humor, reminding him of what it was like to be alive and excited by life, and being in immense pain at the realization of how much innocence she’s had to lose to survive because he’s lost so much of it in himself. There’s a deep understanding and intimacy that develops on both sides as a result, despite both of them being intimacy-phobic and horrible at talking about feelings. (There’s also of course the shared trauma, which aside from the strong bonds that creates in and of itself, at the very least gives them an excuse to have these moments of understanding without being overly mushy about it.)

The love that they feel for each other is also not just something that naturally develops - it emerges from a series of choices they make that have immense consequences. Joel making a promise to take Ellie to the fireflies for Tess as her dying wish, knowing he won’t back out because that promise is all he has left of her. Ellie shooting that guy to save Joel and Joel finishing the job so she doesn’t have to, leading to both of them opening up about the past violences they’ve committed. Joel giving Ellie a gun and teaching her how to shoot, in a way consenting to the loss of her innocence and knowing he won’t be able to stop himself from worrying about her nor will he be able to stop her from looking up to him. Her decision to bring up Sarah knowing it will hurt him, him hurting her in turn, almost leaving and then deciding to come back, to continue, knowing he’s way past the point of no return, that the doors of grief have been blown wide open and there’s no coming back from this. Ellie deciding to stay with him as he lays there dying, telling her to go, finding a fucking needle and thread to stitch him up with, having no idea what she’s doing, starving for food as she waits for him to get better, when it would have been so much safer to leave like he told her, going through all of that hell with David, Joel fighting for his life to get to her - every choice they make escalates them further and further into commitment and devotion. The consequences for that devotion get bigger and bigger, and yet they still choose it.

This of course culminates to Joel’s final choice at the end, which was not really a choice so much as the natural consequence of every other choice that led up to it. Not only the choices they made to keep each other alive, but also the choices that led to failures. Despite the fact that neither likely would have survived on their own, they’re also permanently changed by each other in ways that are not all positive. Joel knows that loving Ellie means running the risk of failing her, over and over again, just like he failed Sarah; and that to protect her means having to commit larger and larger acts of violence to keep her safe. Ellie knows that loving Joel means running the risk of being abandoned if he leaves or dies, and sticking with him means uncovering a violence in herself she will never be able to unsee. But they both still choose it anyway. They choose each other over and over again, without obligation, despite harrowing, soul-shattering, world-ending consequences. Is it healthy? Definitely not. But that’s what makes it so fucking powerful.

To see this level of insanity-fueling, logic-defying love depicted between a chosen parent/child relationship is extremely unconventional and incredibly alluring. I think it profoundly challenges the societal delusion that romantic love is stronger than anything else, while also challenging the supremacy of family defined by blood. It also shows that both the beautiful, healing, and dark, violence-ensuing sides of love do not emerge as part of some mysterious and random force, but rather results from the continual choice to save one another and be saved; to see one another and be seen; to know one another and be known.

#tlou #tlou hbo #tlou meta #the last of us #tlou analysis #the last of us meta #joel miller #ellie williams #tlou spoilers #joel and ellie

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sundownpromises · 2 months

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The Beauty in The Last of Us Part II's Ending

I just want to take a minute to ramble about the ending of TLOU2 because it is one of the most beautiful endings to a game ever.

It’s so easy to watch the ending and feel nothing but sadness for Ellie. Her worst fear came true – ending up alone. But something that I love about this ending is the renewed sense of hope that you feel. Or that I felt, at least.

After the final cutscene with Joel, when we see Ellie’s face, she seems at peace. To me, I see the face of someone who has finally learned to forgive. I think this moment is the moment we finally see Ellie silently realize that the only way to truly heal is to accept what has happened and to let it go. She will never forget everything that happened; that much is clear. Trauma is not something that one can forget, and even if she could, the physical scars and her missing fingers will remain a constant reminder of all that she’s lost and has endured. But now we see Ellie finally reach the point in her journey where she is able to outgrow that trauma. Her trauma, which was once a heavy ball of lead tied around her ankle, has now become small enough that she can walk without the weight.

And then, of course, we see her leave the guitar behind. I’ve always believed that this symbolizes not leaving Joel behind, but instead no longer resenting him, understanding him, and learning to move on. Sure, she can no longer play the guitar in the same way she used to, and that’s heart-breaking. The guitar was such a clear connection between Joel and Ellie, and it has been said that now that she can no longer play that that connection is broken. But what if that’s not such an awful thing? I believe that there is a silver lining; she will always have other things to remember him by because Joel is always to her. She’s got the pin he gave her for her birthday. She’s got drawings of him in her journal (now that she can finally imagine him not in pain but in tranquility), and most importantly, memories. Yes, she has lost a lot, so much, including the one physical object that directly tied her to Joel -- but what is grief, if not love persevering?

And when we see her walk into the forestry, she walks with determined steps. It is unclear where she is going – but I think at this point, after all Ellie has been through, she sees the futility in unnecessary violence. In a world that is so unforgiving and cruel, what is truly lacking is love and compassion. Ellie is capable of giving and receiving both of those things. She doesn’t have a violent heart; it’s just that the world that she grew up in has shown her nothing but pain and loss. Her circumstances have caused her to react in the only way that she saw fit (further proving that the world Ellie lives in is the true villain of this game, but that is for another post). But we see it with Dina, we see it with Joel, Maria, Tommy, Jesse, and we see it in her survivor’s guilt that she feels toward Tess, Riley, and Sam. We have seen the love and compassion that she has felt for all of these people no matter how short lived the relationship.

This point brings me to a particular line of dialogue from the first game that I absolutely love. It is a line that Joel says to Ellie at the very end:

You keep finding something to fight for.

Is that not what survival is all about? Is that not what enduring is all about? To survive is to find meaning in that survival. When I see Ellie walk off at the end of Part 2, I like to believe that she is going to find meaning elsewhere – whatever that may look like. Personally, I could see her running into another group of survivors who take her in, and she helps them and she cares for them because she knows that that’s how she should be living her life – doing good by other people (or perhaps she truly does go back to Jackson, which I could also envision). She knows that that’s what Joel would want for her.

The Last of Us Part II is a game full of so much tragedy and despair and yet… there is hope to be found. Some people don’t like the ending because it is so open-ended and ambiguous. But personally that’s why I find it so profound and beautiful. I don’t have all the answers but instead I am left with a feeling; a feeling of hope. A renewed sense of faith. That is enough for me. To be teased with that silver lining and to be left alone with my own thoughts, to come up with my own conclusions, is an extremely impactful way to end a game. Wherever Ellie is, I just hope she’s happy. That’s what she deserves.

I think as people who consume media (movies, TV shows, books, games, etc), we're so used to seeing endings that feel truly resolved. In other words, endings that answer all of our pressing questions. But the fact that TLOU2's ending just leaves you with a feeling is so beautiful to me. Ellie's new journey is just beginning, and we as players are not going on that journey with her (at least not until Part 3). It is bittersweet in a way. We can only hope.

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thebogmonster · 1 year

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hey tlou fandom i have a psa. guys. as a mental health worker who serves many ppl whove committed violent crimes the way u talk about joel's violent side is very fucking weird. i am seeing people say that what kept living after his attempt on his own life wasn't really joel, saying that he doesn't care about the world, that he's heartless except for ellie. u guys got the wrong fucking message out of this show. the message is not that joel lost his ability to be a good guy after sarah died and therefor he did violent things to survive. the point is that joel is just a person who witnessed a horrible thing that made him try very hard to turn off the part of him thats a good person, and did violent things to survive and those things hurt him now. it is not that ellie is the only thing he is capable of caring about because he just needs a daughter. its that ellie allows, encourages, & requires the caring and good parts of him to resurface while still recognizing the bad parts. she allows him to hold the dichotomy because she requires that he is caring to her and violent to those who want to hurt her and that allows him to accept the contrast within himself.

#joel does the opposite for ellie #he brings out the violent parts of her because she sees what hes had to do to survive and she has an attachment disorder #the last of us #tlou #tlou hbo #ellie williams #joel miller #also. i want you so badly to look up the concept of moral injury.#tlou analysis

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lynsstrange · 1 year

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the "cure" the fireflies were talking about would have been useless. it probably would have made things worse.

not just because it probably wouldn't have even been scientifically possible, not even because the world was already shit and things wouldn't ever go back to "normal," although those are already good reasons.

I think a cure/vaccine/whatever would only be a massive power trip for the people in power. Think about it, if FEDRA got their hands on it. Or if the fireflies rose in power because they found a cure. Imagine the power you could have over someone, their life. You could demand anything from someone, and when given the choice between that or slowly, agonizingly being taken over by a zombie fungus, you best bet someone will listen. Something seemingly so good could easily be skewed by the awful people left in power. Just another method of control, another way of worsening life for everyone.

#tlou spoilers #the last of us #the last of us hbo #tlou #tlou hbo #the last of us spoilers #tlou analysis #joel miller #ellie williams #tlou 1x09 #the last of us episode 9 #tlou episode 9 spoilers

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rebexquest · 1 year

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Kathleen is Ellie. A dark mirror of TLOU II Ellie, to be specific, and it thrills me to no end to see this parallel put here. Ellie is on a rampage. No distance too far, no obstacle too high. Alongside her closest partner, she’ll get revenge for her father figure, and it’ll be done by her hand. Something bigger or more important to stop for? It’ll be left by the wayside in her death march. Kathleen is on a rampage. No stone unturned, no cost too great. Alongside her closest partner, she’ll get revenge for her brother, and it’ll be done by her hand. Something lurking underground, potentially threatening the new order in KC? It’s not worth her attention, not now. Because where’s the justice in that? I sometimes see opinions about Ellie’s arc in the game, about how she should’ve just killed Abby, about how the game was shoving a ‘revenge bad’ plot too hard, and I just need everyone to look at Kathleen. When you lose sight of what you’re living for in favor of what you’ve lost, when you get that tunnel vision- even if it’s for fair, honorable, just, correct things like righting a wrongful death? Well that’s when you lose the rest of your life, too.

#tlou analysis #tlou hbo #tlou spoilers #tlou 2 #the last of us #I have a lot of feelings and this is where I'm choosing to put them #thank you good night

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mdawgswizzleinthehizzle · 3 months

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joel miller using his body to protect and shield.

#the last of us #pedro pascal #joel miller #tlou #hbo the last of us #the last of us hbo #ellie williams #bella ramsey #joel tlou #ellie and joel #sarah miller #tlou angst #tlou analysis #tlou fluff #tlou part 1 #tlou part 2 #tlou spoilers #tlouedit #tlou gifs

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abbysthighs · 4 months

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Ellie is a lot like Tess here - the Joel whisperer. She's concerned but calm, she gives a gentle touch, the way she looks at him... he's still like a triggered dog with his eyes on the "prize", not fully redirected yet... but Joel would never kill in front of "his child" again unless he absolutely had to. Henry was right. He wasn't going to actually shoot him.

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paigegonerogue · 14 days

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Can I just—

LOOK AT THIS GUY!! LOOK AT HIM!!

I LOVE THIS ZOMBIE SO MUCH!!! He’s like… gorgeous, in this scary way. The cordyceps growing out of him, the way he moves, it’s just amazing.

Not to mention the prosthetics, makeup and effects that went into this. Seriously I cannot express my love for this big guy.

Me:

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westgateoh · 1 year

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“The Last of Us” and FOOD

SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE EPISODES AHEAD

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Minor Spoilers Ahead

I appreciate all the discussion about the most recent episode of “The Last of Us.” It was one of the most beautiful hours of television I’ve ever seen, and I can’t heap enough praise on it. In all of that discussion, there has been talk about Bill’s love language being food, and I agree, but I also think there is MUCH more to it than that.

Obviously, food is essential for survival, and this is a show about survival. Clearly food will play a part. It may also be obvious that in this episode, with Bill’s love of food and all of the sharing of food in the little haven he and Frank constructed (yes, I say Frank helped construct it, too) is quite important. Bill and Frank fall in love because Frank needed food and Bill gave him a meal. The food in their haven is not only about survival, it’s about truly living, which is what the haven allowed them to do – to not just survive, but to live. Food was a big part of that. Within that haven, I first wanted to talk about the significance of the strawberry scene.

The strawberry scene is about Frank making food for Bill for the first time, as their life at home clearly is Bill cooking for Frank, and Bill does the work of procuring the meat and initiating the garden, done before Frank arrives. But the strawberries are the work of Frank alone, and for him to give Bill the gift of food for the first time. Frank does something that Bill loves so that he can be the one using food as a symbol of love, especially as strawberries often symbolize love and abundance. Frank giving Bill the strawberries is a gorgeous scene for so many reasons.

What really interests me, though, about food in this episode, is that food has been very important in this show and food between Joel and Ellie changes in this episode, and it’s super important that it does. Remember that food is how the virus begins – the virus made its way into the food supply. Joel even mentions the pancake mix that he and his daughter were out of in the first episode when he’s telling Ellie about when the apocalypse began. This all started because of food, and it happened quickly because of food. Then, if we think back to the second episode, Ellie has her sandwich that had been given to her. She offers some to Joel and Ellie and they refuse. They are keeping their food separate. They don’t offer Ellie any of theirs, either.

In the beginning of this episode, though, after Ellie has worn Joel down with all of her questions, and he has told her about the day everything started, which is so emotional for him because of his daughter, he clearly feels better after talking to Ellie about it. He jokes with her at the store, he begins to smile at her jokes. When they sit down in the woods partway through their trek, Ellie is sitting away from Joel and he fishes his bag of food out of his pack, eats some, stares at it, and throws it over to Ellie. This is the first time they’ve shared food.

Their relationship grows so much in this episode that didn’t even focus on them, and part of the change can be seen in Joel’s willingness to share his food. Bill’s willingness to share his food leads to the love of his life. Frank’s willingness to grow food for Bill shows how their love has grown and it cements it. Food is survival, but it’s much more than that here. It’s connection to another person. It’s remembering that there’s more to life than just surviving. It’s living and it’s love and it’s connecting.

#the last of us #tlou spoilers #tlou #bill tlou #frank tlou #bill and frank #joel the last of us #food #tlou analysis

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allgirlsareprincesses · 1 year

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The Lovers’ Journey of Bill & Frank: A Folktale Analysis

Based on Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves; Adapted from my Twitter thread

"Wise stories... describe love as a union of two beings whose strength together enables one or both to enter into communication with the soul-world and to participate in fate as a dance with life and death."

- Chapter 5, Hunting: When the Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Dr. Estés

In her retelling of The Skeleton Woman, Dr. Estés describes the titular character as the third party in any romance, Lady Death, who represents the Life/Death/Life cycle with which the lovers must be in communion if they hope to have any longevity. She lays out the story's 7 steps to lasting love (though the order may vary):

Accidental Finding of Treasure

Chase and the Hiding

Untangling the Skeleton

Sleep of Trust

Giving the Tear

Heart as Drum, and Singing Up

Dance of Body and Soul

In #TheLastOfUs Episode 3, we see Bill & Frank experience all of these stages together, passing from life to death and back again through their love for one another, and by accepting both life and death, they achieve a love that is eternal.

The story starts with both lovers symbolically dead: Bill is living alone in his compound, effectively locked into his own tomb, and he discovers Frank in the pit he dug; in other words, in a grave. Bill approaches Frank like prey: the heart is a lonely hunter, indeed. Now the Accidental Finding of Treasure: Bill finds Frank in the <grave> and is not aware at first of what he has found. He is fearful of this stranger and wants to cut him loose, just as the story's hunter wants to release the Skeleton Woman when he catches her in his net.

Next, the Chase and the Hiding: Because the hungry Skeleton Woman eats food of the mortal world, I also consider this step to be the sharing of food, which is a common way mythical lovers lay claim to one another. Hungry Frank eats of Bill's food, and thus becomes tied to him. Bill is quite literally followed home by this unexpected sack of bones and he feeds him, yet at the same time, Bill is hiding from Frank (and likely from himself, as it seems Bill has been deeply closeted all his life).

The next stage, Untangling the Skeleton, is performed by both men as they try to tease out who the other is. Frank notices Bill's care with food and wine, as well as his piano, as Bill tries to determine whether Frank can be trusted. They arrange one another's bones in order.

The Sleep of Trust symbolically occurs each time Bill chooses to trust Frank during their first encounter: first when he allows Frank to use his shower, again when he cooks for him, lets him play the piano, and finally when he showers himself, leaving Frank unattended.

Giving the Tear is a more literal stage for these lovers, as they both become visibly emotional when they connect over music. Further, their desperate desire is a type of thirst, just like the thirsty Skeleton Woman who drinks the Hunter's gift of a tear.

The next stage, Heart as Drum and Singing Up, is my favorite and the one most distinct to the Skeleton Woman tale. In the story, she takes the heart from the Hunter's chest and beats it like a drum, singing flesh onto her bones through the soul-song they share. And indeed, Frank correctly identifies the song of Bill's heart, his soul song, and beats the piano like a drum, singing flesh onto Bill's dried-up bones. It's clear when Bill plays that it is the first time he has done so in a... Long, Long Time.

All of this gradual acceptance of Life by two symbolically dead men leads to their eventual consummation, the Dance of Body and Soul. This is why their scene of intimacy is necessary to their story - we MUST see them return from death to life. But of course, their story is not yet over. They have accepted Life, but now they must also accept Death. The Lovers' Journey of their meeting is followed by the longer Lovers' Journey of their lifetimes, and they gradually pass through all the stages again.

Briefly, this second journey goes:

Accidental Finding of Treasure = Frank chooses to stay

Chase and Hiding = Frank making his mark on their home, drawing Bill out of his shell

Untangling the Skeleton = Making friends, growing together

Sleep of Trust = Bill's gunshot wound

Giving the Tear = Acknowledging Frank's inevitable death

Heart as Drum and Singing Up = Marriage (again with the soul song)

Dance of Body and Soul = Passing on together

In the second half of their journey, they accept that they will return to death from life, and embrace it. Finally, after their deaths, Bill passes the lesson he has learned to Joel, telling him that to love is to live. This will inspire Joel to protect Ellie with all that he has, ensuring the cycle of life will continue.

Thank you #TheLastOfUs for this beautiful love story!

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strawberrybyers · 11 months

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let’s analyze how the last of us and stranger things uses their mall scenes to tell audiences the sexuality of their characters

the last of us and stranger things capturing what it’s like to be a queer teen seeing a lingerie store is a moment in our youth we didn’t ask to be represented, but is so relatable!!

riley being uncomfortable and confused about the lingerie because it is clothing to make women attractive and she’s attracted to girls so this shows a moment of her confusion and suppression to her sexuality. then we have ellie analyzing riley’s reaction to the lingerie, what she says about her wearing it, and it seems to me ellie wasn’t exactly sure what reaction to have to what was right in front of her. it just seems like she was mesmerized, confused, amused, but most of all trying to figure out what riley’s true thoughts of the lingerie were. she’s trying to see if it’s possible riley feels the same way about girls like she does.

then we have the camera angle making sure to have ellie = lesbian, the lingerie mannequin = the focal point of the conversation and the representative of wlw attraction/sexuality, and the model = beauty and whose job is to advertise sexuality and desirability in the shot as ellie is looking at her appearance and trying to freshen up which cues us to know she wants to appear a certain way in order to be desirable/attractive/appealing or however you want to put it FOR RILEY.

i just think this scene is extremely relatable because when i was younger i would feel kind of weird about seeing victoria secret at the mall because it was an external factor in confronting my sexuality!!

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now let’s move on to stranger things. here we have lucas, will, and mike approach a lingerie store as to which they all have different reactions to entering this store.

mike looks shocked, confused, and slightly horrified?? he reminds me of riley here, except he’s confused because he isn’t attracted to girls. he’s shocked and confused because he’s thinking “who is attracted to this because i’m not?? do i have to be attracted to this??”. it’s a confrontation with his sexuality which based on other scenes in the show we know he struggles with internalized homophobia. hell, the “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!!” argument happened on the same day where all mike did was be confronted by things that made him think about girls!! if you don’t like girls, and you’re made to spend all day thinking about them, and at the end of the day you still aren’t attracted to them, then you’re going to feel a bit frustrated with yourself as to why you can’t conform to heterosexuality especially when you have your girlfriend break up with you on the same day you are constantly being reminded you’re not straight 😵‍💫. therefore, we can conclude that what he said to will is projection. mike was basically saying “it’s not MY fault you I don’t like girls!”. he would say that in response to himself of having any shame about being attracted to boys, or not wanting to continue his relationship with el, or just a retaliated response to any homophobic idea that he is at fault or wrong for being gay.

but anyways let’s continue with the store scene. so yes, the store is for adults and mike’s a teen boy, but his reaction does NOT fit the “well, he’s a young teenage boy so that’s why he reacted that way. it has nothing to do with his sexuality!!” excuse like it does for lucas’ reaction and let me explain why.

lucas’ reaction tells us he’s thinking “uhh how did we end up here??”. him looking around realizing this is a lingerie store and there’s not going to be anything for el in there explains why he’s ready to leave. literally his facial expression just seems to be of a teen boy who is like “yeah we need to get out of here because this store is for women and there’s nothing here that we need”. he doesn’t seem shocked or horrified. his energy just seems to be of someone who is not at the right store.

now, will’s reaction kills me because he seems absolutely horrified lmfao. and that would make sense if this scene is meant to represent the sexuality of these characters!! he is gay. he’s not attracted to girls. there’s nothing about a lingerie store that would have any interest to him, so he’s going to be like “wtf is this place??”.

so why would mike have a very similar reaction to will?? why not have a similar reaction to lucas?? like ok yes you understand what this store is for, but there’s nothing here you need at this time so let’s move on. but nope! he seems shocked and is ready to bolt out of there like he’s in trouble. why would he react like that to a store?? what could be said about mike in this scene for him to have that reaction?? well, if you guessed that it’s because this scene represents his real identity and that he is not in fact attracted to girls, but to boys, then you are a winner!! we could even say the idea of him conforming to heterosexuality for the rest of his life scares him and this store is a reminder of what being attracted to women entails, especially as you get older.

and i know lucas somewhat quickly walks away from the store as well, but his body language doesn’t read as “we have to get out of here because i don’t like this!”, his body language is “this store doesn’t have what we need, we’re 14 year old boys, let’s get out here before someone catches us” which makes perfect sense because i remember being a teen and going into spencer’s *if you don’t know what spencer’s is, it’s a store that has mature rated shirts, hats, and other items in there and anyone can go in, but there’s one aisle/section that is 18+* with friends and us quickly walking away from a certain area to make sure the workers didn’t see and kick us out lmao. also, will bolts tf out of there too and we know he isn’t attracted to girls. this scene was included for comedic effect, but the zoom in on the different reactions?? yeah, they wanted that to tell us something individually about each of them. they could’ve easily made this scene not be as long by having them approach the store and say “nope not what we need!” and move on, but instead they made sure to spend time giving each reaction.

anyways i wasn’t sure if i should do an analysis on this, but i figured since tlou and stranger things included these scenes and people have already somewhat talked about them, then it would be fine to analyze. i didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable as the shows use a bit of a mature theme here, but these directors, writers, and editors included these scenes for a reason to tell us about these characters, so ultimately there’s nothing wrong with discussing what these scenes mean.

#byler #stranger things analysis #stranger things #ellie x riley #tlou analysis #the last of us #tlou #i haven’t done a long analysis in awhile so this was fun!!#mike wheeler #will byers #lucas sinclair #ellie williams #riley abel

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