I Now Understand The Last of Us Part Two 

One of the games of all time

This game has the most realistic rope physics I’ve ever seen.

I love how The Last of Us pt 1 shows us what love can do to someone 😊 and The Last of Us pt 2 shows us what love can do to someone 😢

Goddamn that last edit with Ellie playing the guitar hits hard. She lost him, and in her vengeance she lost herself :'(

The fact that people STILL misinterpret the story when the opening line of the song that Joel sings to Ellie in the opening details the main thematic throughline of the narrative baffles me "If I ever were to lose you, I'd surely lose myself"

Easily one of the most traumatic games I have ever played, the whole ending from Ellie’s Farm to the final showdown with Abbie is just pure emotion and catharsis.

Last of us 2 was supposed to make you hate it but then make you realize that wow this game is a masterpiece

In the first game, when Ellie gives him the picture of him and Sara, Joel says, “Well, no matter how hard you try, you can’t escape your past.”

Actually, the real reason why Ellie spared Abby was because Abby still owed her a pizza

This game has more emotional layers than any media I have ever consumed. Loved every second, and couldn't stop thinking about it when it was over. I know it's subjective, but to me, it is perfect.

Graphically it is still the best looking game of all time.

Playing this remaster recently, hits hard when you realize the opening of the game, the last time we play as Joel is literally him riding off into the sunset.

Ellie and Abbie were in a perpetual circle of revenge. Abby killed joel, ellie killed everyone abby care for. Ultimately abby realized it wasnt worth it anymore and tried to walk away. Ellie couldnt let go of the hurt of losing joel. Ultimately that hatred cost ellie the family she was building. Its a rough story and one that took me a bit to fully understand.

“A story in which its central message seems more relevant now than ever.” So true!!!

seriously one of the greatest games ever created. nobody can tell me otherwise, it hurts so good.

Why are all of the overly brutal death scenes in the operating room so funny?! The flame thrower almost made me spit my coffee out.

One counter argument: The player never actually has a choice, and the game never pretends to either. Everything Ellie does is her choice, the player merely serves as an actor. The weight of things that Ellie does are on her, we just experience her story in a more personal way.

I've never before fight a final boss where I felt so much like i didn't want EITHER of them to win. Like, "You guys! Please just stop!!" 😭

For me, the moment that hits is Abby having this reoccurring nightmare of finding her father dead, until she saves Lev, and she finds him alive. Vengeance did not bring her the closer she was seeking. She turned herself into a literally machine, built for one purpose, revenge. She sacrificed her relationship with Owen, and lost herself in the process. Only to learn that vengeance was never going to bring her the closure she sought. Self-sacrifice did. When she says to Lev: "You, are my people", it gets me every single time

I like your take on it but I disagree with Joel getting some time to shine before his death. I believe that the shock of it is what makes you hate Abby just as much as Ellie did. As the game progressed your own emotional connections to each character changes to the point where you understand Abby's perspective and why she did it. In the end you just want the revenge killing to stop. I think that was the intent of the writers.

I think you pretty much nailed it for the most part, but I'd add a couple of bits to the part about why Ellie lets Abby go at the end. 1. The last thing Ellie says to Joel in that scene she flashes back to is "I don't know if I can forgive you, but I'd like to try". At that last good moment with Joel, she was a person willing to forgive. The entire narrative of her side of the game is her working through her grief at having been denied that opportunity to arrive at the point where she can be that person again. 2. That scene is a nearly exact parallel to the end of her first confrontation with Abby. After Abby wins that fight, she threatens a now helpless Dina, after which she certainly would have killed Ellie, but Lev gives her that look of horror, she relents and spares them, a symbolic act of forgiveness. Ellie threatens a helpless Lev as a prelude to attempting to kill Abby, then relents at the last moment, a symbolic act of forgiveness, or at least a first step in that direction. 3. Ellie isn't aware of this, or at least not consciously aware of it because she doesn't hear anything after the moment of Joel's death, but that is the second time Abby spared her. Some of the others want to kill Ellie and Tommy, and Abby is against this. She wasn't out solely for revenge; she wanted what she saw as justice. Killing the man who killed her father, her friends, and the friends and families of her current group of allies is, seen through their eyes (and I happen to agree with them), justice. Killing Tommy, who they know is Joel's brother, and Ellie, whom they may or may not know is the girl he killed for, was outside of Abby's plan. Killing witnesses to keep them from talking isn't justice, it's just murder. This is what the flashback to Joel's death from Abby's perspective is supposed to show us. It was revenge, but it was also (from the POV of the surviving Fireflies) justice. Take all this together, and you have Abby as a person who could have killed Ellie, but spared her, twice. The flashback shows us that Ellie wants to be the kind of person who forgives, even when the harm she feels she's suffered is enormous. My main gripe with the ending is that I didn't think the boss fight was necessary. I get that it's a nice parallel - Abby wins the first boss fight and spares Ellie, then Ellie wins the second one and spares Abby, with each one having the helpless companion character being threatened and also spared. But I don't think it was necessary. It would have worked better had she had the flashback after threatening Lev, and just let them go without the fight. I mean, ideally, I'd have had the farm sequence be the end, with Ellie blowing off Tommy and staying with Dina, but I can see that giving Ellie a happy ever after doesn't really fit with the games themes. I loved this game, went into it blind, and it hit me emotionally exactly as intended. I was heartbroken for Ellie at Joel's death, wanted her to get revenge, then became increasingly disapproving of her actions as she went about it. I wanted her to find and kill Abby. Then when Abby's part of the game was about saving a couple of innocent kids, risking her life and turning against "her people" to do so, I was gradually won over to liking her more and more. When Lev says "You killed your own people" and she tells him, "You're my people", I was fully on board. I was rooting for both Ellie AND Abby to get a good ending by the last part.

Wait 4 years? Fucking what? The whole drama that surrounded this game with the leaks and controversy still feels fresh in my mind that it makes it feel like it just came out last year or something

It’s brutal and I loved it.

That conflict you feel playing is a feature, not a bug. It's THE feature. My personal favorite game of its generation.

To be fair, Joel and Tommy literally had no other choice than to go with Abby to the cabin given the massive horde behind them. Abby is also around Ellie's age and they were colaborating with one another. Not to mention it's Jackson's policy to recruit more people to their town. One week prior to the start of the game a group of survivors came by and Joel traded with them. People also forget Joel slept in the same place as Sam and Henry when they met, even though they just tried to kill him and he didn't know them

I’m replaying this at the moment. Third play-through since initial launch. I stand by my initial opinion of it being one of the most engaging and impacting stories I’ve ever played through. The time-jumps may not be played out perfectly, but, in light of pacing a 30hr tale it comes across as insanely well executed (pun not/intended). I get that people were put off. It’s hard to stomach. But, Joel’s death in early game provides the rational for Ellie’s rampage of revenge. And, in turn, helps you align her pain and quest of redemption with that of Abby’s. I still think it’s an incredible experience now as I did four years ago. (Was it four years ago??)

I thought the story was BRILLIANT at making the player FEEL the themes. Especially the theme of how hate is poison. Forcing us to play as Abby, whom we've been wanting to kill for hours, and then showing us her humanity was a great choice. Handing the reins back to Ellie makes it beyond brilliant. Because now we've seen that humanity and it seems like the game is going to force us to kill her or vice versa. The game makes you feel that hate in the beginning, and at the end, you're just exhausted with it and you just want Ellie to go home to Dina. I don't think I've ever played a game that even remotely manipulated my emotions like this one did. I've played things that made me feel a whole lot, but this was a notch above. Not because it made me feel more, but the way it managed the shift in my perspective and how THAT felt. I game exclusively to be immersed in a great story with compelling characters, and because of that, this is my favorite game of all time.

I think you've got it for the most part, I do have a slightly different interpretation of the end though. Up to the point of the fight on the beach, if you're a person with any reasonable sense of empathy, you don't want either of them to kill each other. Elle let's Abby go-- and you're like-- "Thank god! But why?" This is why that last scene with Joel is so important to be placed where they decided to place it because it informs you that her vision of Joel while holding Abby down wasn't a reminder of her hipocracy or that she had to break the cycle and be the bigger person. She had to forgive Joel and in that moment she finally forgives him. In that last scene you see where she starts in her emotional journey in finding forgiveness for what Joel did and what he did was kill her spirit and her purpose. To forgive Joel for killing her spirit is to accept the choice, whether it being the right one or not, Abby made to kill Joel for killing her father along with her spirit and purpose as well. Forgiveness, to me, and especially in this narritive is to accept that the horrible things people have done and the mistakes they have made cannot be changed and the moment she accepts that and forgives Joel's choice everything else that came along with that needed to be let go, too. Then for the first time, you finally see Elle sit there and let all the emotional pain pour out alone on the beach. It's so incredibly sad, but still oddly hopeful as you get to see she's finally finding her humanity and healing.

Dude, you literally uploaded this right after I finished the game, couldn’t have picked a more perfect time to post this

you’re halfway there, as you said ellie’s whole “revenge” thing is just her coping mechanism of the guilt for taking away a what could’ve been 3 years of memories with joel, and giving him the chance to rekindle too late. as we see on her journal entry, she got guilty when she was happy for a moment with dina and some wild horses naughty dog showing us the flashback scene where ellie says she’ll give a chance to forgive joel wasn’t shown to make ellie forgive joel (not directly) nor forgive abby thus sparing her but to forgive HERSELF, to allow herself to move on and she did, and she spared abby too, she finally found herself again despite losing her fingers and by extension the ability to play guitar which joel taught her and her mom’s knife but the moth in the last frame of the game shows that ellie can still move on without those, joel isn’t defined by her finger or a guitar, her mom isn’t her knife, and losing those things doesn’t redefine ellie as a person

TLOU2 is probably my favorite game of all time, and I always emphasize to people who have only seen season 1 of the show that the impact of the story comes from playing each perspective. I think your point about it playing more like a movie than a game is interesting. we’re not given any real choice, but the weight of the characters actions weigh just as heavily on us, if not more because we’ve held the controller and felt control of them for the entirety of the game. great video and perspectives!!

The editing is ace in this all the cuts to Joel in the hospital with the flamethrower had me dying

What I love about this game and story is the fact it forces you to see the other perspective. I absolutely HATED that I had to play as Abby when I first played it and actually stopped playing for a whole week when her story started up but, after going back in & soldiering through it, I began to understand her life more. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the emotional trauma it causes and am currently playing the remaster. I can’t wait to see if there will be a part 3.

We're still talking about this game 4 years since it's launch. Just proves that it's one of the best games of all time.

what i think a lot of people don't consider abt joel's death is that he *did* die for ellie. he didn't jump in front of a bullet for her, but the choice he made to save her life is what eventually came back to haunt him. It may not feel as satisfying as an immediate sacrifice, but he got to spend another 5 years with her in between the choice and the consequences

Last of Us 2 is about how bad things can get when the people you hate become more important than the people you love.

The ending is perfect to me. It had to happen. Somebody had to break the cycle or torment and revenge. The whole point is it’s nuanced, was Abby ever right to kill Joel? Was Joel ever right to kill her dad? It’s all about love and what it brings us to do, regardless how similar we all are. We all fight for love, that’s it.

This game is probably one of the most brutal, deep and beautifully done stories I'll ever play. Every time it reminds me of how powerful art can really be. This game changed me, man

Each person gives a meaning to the end of the game, or to the reasons why Ellie did what she did in the end, and I don't think there is a definitive answer, because the brain of a person who went through what Ellie went through must be a chaotic mess. What I learned during my game was that a cruel attitude can cause a chain reaction of suffering, but so can a good attitude. And each person may or may not break one of these cycles and start another at any time, but for some this change comes before others. For Joel, it wasn't worth sacrificing Ellie, because perhaps the world as it was was already doomed. Change has to come from people first, change has to happen internally. Ellie is the light in the darkness, she is the kind of person the world needs, she needs to live and find a purpose for herself. She only understood this at the last second before killing Abby, because I think Ellie saw Joel in Abby. Ellie saw how similar Abby and Joel's purposes were: Saving someone you love. Understanding this, added to the fact that Ellie gave Joel the chance to forgive, also gives him the chance to forgive Abby, breaking this cycle. The first thing Ellie says to Abby after letting her go is, "go, take him," and this reinforces my theory that Ellie saw Joel in Abby.

Editing's great. Love it.

Great video, great editing, great everything. Keep it up!!

This was a superb video. Loved your use of The Social Network’s score.

Playing this game made me speedrun through more emotional growth than I had in my 32 years prior to it. I think the order in which the events are presented to us was perfect. TLOU2 and RDR2 are the absolute best pieces of media I’ve ever had the privilege to consume. ❤

You are hella underrated, great video with superb editing and humor, subbed!

Your perspective (heh) on Joels choice to save Ellie and show how she could see that bringing a "cure" wouldn't save humanity is SO refreshing. I see so many people who say the second game is a masterpiece also say that what Joel did in saving her was stupid. That the fireflies were gonna fix the world. They wouldn't and they can't. People won't go back to the old world 20+ years past, all they can do is try and make this one better (or far, far worse)

Personally, I like it a lot when the media I consume makes me think and feel. The shifting perspectives and timelines were perfect, injecting the game with emotional moments that weren’t just anger/rage. You’re supposed to feel conflicted, you’re supposed to think about what has happened, and what is happening. In my opinion this isn’t a game for mindless consumption.

The story and writing in this game is Oscar worthy.

I thought id hate it. Was installed on my ps5 for the longest time. After playing part I and going into part II, I couldnt accept that they killed joel off so early. But with the release of the remastered, making me play it to justify my 10$ upgrade purchase, I have to say this is one of the best games I've ever played so far.

Great video and pacing! Keep it up

Awesome video, hilarious editing. Keep it up 👍

Top tier edit man ! I loved this game since day one, never understood the overwhelming hate, especialy when it completely overshadowed the awesome gameplay. No game ever gave me such emotional rollercoaster and i find it awesome. I find it kinda funny that lot of people considered this game too depressive for them and story made them feel angy or whatever, like duh you are playing game about end of the world where people are eating each other and kill each other daily to survive or to simply have fun. And ALOT of them took problems with this game too seriously.

Keep up the good work. I can see this channel growing into something really big one day. Just keep pumping out great videos like these.

Finally someone says it, it's a game about forgiveness. The amount of people who didn't realise this at the time this game released was immense. Now granted, the game's pacing could be better, maybe shortened by a couple of hours at least. About ending, with the new remaster, there's commentary by the actors and Neil Druckmann about the cinematics and they briefly discuss the ending.

That was one Hell of a breakdown & such a good one that I had to subscribe to your channel. Dope video & great work 👍🏿

You sort of kind of touched on it, but mentioning how Abby is essentially the exact same as Joel is so on point; it’s incredible how perspective can change whether or not we love or hate a character. We were supposed to love Joel. We were supposed to hate Abby. The only thing I’ll add is that this game seems to be about meta emotions; not just what emotion you feel, but how you feel about those emotions. Once we can learn to forgive the story for taking away someone we love, we can see what we love once again. Like how Abby can finally see her father again without it being a nightmare, you can learn to love this story for something beyond a single character. And that first line of the song, “if I ever were to lose you, I’d surely lose myself” is so apt. Abby ended up not losing herself. Ellie did. She lost everything because she could never move on. She lost Dina and their child, she lost Joel, and she lost a gift Joel gave her: the ability to play music. And it all started because she lost her ability to forgive him before he died.

Agree 100% apart from your opinion about how TLOU2 may be told in the wrong medium. I think it’s absolutely genius that the game forces you not only to watch but to play, to literally take over the perspectives it made you despise before.

"this is the day after Ellie finally accepts Joel's apology" I'm not sure you paid enough attention...

"WLF or WOLF." Your visual aid is bananas and I love it!

This! This video explains what I've been trying to say since this game came out. This hits pretty much every beat I've been saying. Especially that it feels more like a TV show than a game.

When I first beat the game on my ps4 I understood the ending and everything. Game is one of my favorite games of all time;its right there with RDR2 and modern warfare 2007.

Really well made video!

Man I think you got a point there, you enlightened my vision about the end, now I can play the game with a new perspective, a more reliable one, befitting the creator's thought line.

100% agree. Thankyou. 💜

"Gamers are not exactly the smartest individuals."

Only 5000 subs was surprising. Very high quality video and had me invested he whole time. Great editing and skits, as well. I loved Last of Us 2 and was very happy when Ellie let Abby live. I had grown to like Abby and related to her side of events, too. Imagine someone killed your parent that also happened to be trying to find a cure to a plague that's devastated your world. And the game even shows Abby is whole-heartedly for the cause as she says she would've also died for the cause. Anyways, I could also go on and on about how great this game is. But also wanted to commend your editing and let you know I've also happily subscribed. Looking forward to hearing your opinions on more games

Love this. Especially since the show has come out, I've always thought (and said) that season 2 will be such a difficult adaptation, because TLOU Part 2 is so inherently A GAME. That its story only works at all because it puts us in control, it merges our egos with the characters, forcing us to empathize with the other, as the self. But I like the perspective (heh) that forcing us to go along with certain plot points and then browbeating us for those plot points contradicts the story it's trying to tell. I'll definitely keep that in mind as more conversations around this game and the upcoming season 2 comes out. Great video, great perspective.

I can say that after 4 years I finally understand this game too

Your editing is hilarious made me bust out laughing multiple times

your hilarious! I'm subbing

For me the strongest quote in the game was by Ellie to Joel, "I don't think I can ever forgive you, but I will try" Those words save Joel and Ellie's relationship and when applied to Abby and Ellie situation, saves the both of them, giving them a future to work towards.

Great video!

Brilliant video.

IF you saw your 'father' get murdered in cold blood, your Uncle was shot in the head, crippled for life and his marriage ruined, your friend was killed, your pregnant wife (who was already terribly sick) was beaten and concussed, you were beaten and had your arm broken, you had to survive a hellish nightmare back to Jackson, you abandoned your wife and baby boy in the zombie wasteland to pursue revenge, travelled 1,000 miles to Santa Barbara (for several weeks), killed many other people along they way, engaged in a battle to the death, and had your fingers bitten off, THEN would you spare your mortal enemy??? DOUBTFUL. IMPROBABLE. UNBELIEVABLE. The chances would be unbelievably low. Ellie had so much emotional momentum and personal vendetta to outright murder Abby. Joel and Abby had done nothing to help Ellie grow as a person, understand the situations, measure the complexities, and make a decision to forgive, spare or grant mercy to Abby. Neil Druckmann publicly admitted that LoU2 was a revenge story where Ellie killed Abby for most of the game production. Druckmann flipped the script late in the process. He also publicly revealed that he had heated arguments with John Sweeney, one of the production leads. Why? Because Sweeney told him that the entire game's production was setup for Ellie's revenge and it wouldn't work narratively (given the massive content that was already produced).

Great analysis

this video is so well edited, I love it, you should be proud of yourself, and also, keep doing what you're doing

Just finished playing this game for a third time as well a few days ago :)

Everything would've been fine if they just let Ellie wake up, and then had Joel, Marlene, and Ellie sit down and just talk. Ellie definitely would've gone along with it, and she'd be the only person capable of convincing Joel to let her do it. Then everything would've been relatively fine. But they had to completely disregard her personhood.

great nuanced take. very thoughtful my friend

Hey, great vid man

I think you just nailed it. Rarely has a game left me so divided on my opinion of it. Loved the exceptional gameplay, the world building, the relationships between the characters and the stellar dialogue writing. But the story made me feel like I was a voluntary victim of some sort of sado-masochistic psychological abuse. I still admire what ND were trying to do, and after having watched the Grounded documentary, I realize what it cost all of them to make this game. Still... I can't help but think the narative could have benefited from more reflection, more care. This studio went to such elaborate lengths to make us emotionally invested in these characters, only to scrap all of that in pursuit of their narative, and all other considerations be damned. I don't know. This game, in the end, is equal parts awe-inspiring and disapointing, all at once. TLOU3 had better make up for all this.

part of me definitely wishes they did it like the opening where you get part of abby part of ellie throughout the entire game BUT, Ive actually grown to understand and like the game

Love to hear the Social Network music!!

First and foremost - awesome video man. I tell people all the time, TLoU2 is the greatest game I'll never play again. A rollercoaster of emotion that elects strong opinions in me to this day. And please keep in mind, what I type here is simply my humble opinion, this is not to trigger anyone who disagrees. Before part 2 was ever announced, we ALL KNEW Joel's decision to save Ellie, while dramatic and "heart warming," was the wrong move - condemning humanity for one life. When Ellie made Joel swear at the end of 1 and he lied, we were all mad at him. It's funny how short everyone's memories are and the way we revise what we remember for the sake of justifying our anger in learning of Joel's death in 2. Everything you said regarding gameplay, graphics and brutality are spot on. Easily the best action/stealth game I've ever played in 40 years of gaming. Yet the story itself had a very unpopular effect on me...I sided with Abby. By the time the credits rolled, I hated Ellie...so much to the point that when she couldn't play guitar because of her injuries - instead of feeling sorrow in the way Druckman obviously wanted gamers to feel, I felt no remorse whatsoever. In fact, if I'm honest with myself, it almost felt like a sense of justice. It was truly a miserable feeling walking away from this experience lol. Why? Ellie had it all...she had the house...the partner...the child...she literally had "happily ever after" (or at least as close as you could get to it) in a post-apocalyptic world. She had the happy ending that 99% of the world was never going to get - and she spit on it (don't even get me started on how dirty they did Jesse.) Getting through the final fight scene for me was rough because I had long abandoned my care for Ellie. Its a video game. It's not real. Yet, this is the kind of response that's garnered after experiencing it. Kudos to Naughty Dog :)

Troy Baker says to anyone who suggests that Joel shouldn't die needs to propose an alternative story line and how that would be better at driving the arc of this story.

Its 2020 its the first day of release and i watched it all. I was SO AMAZED AND CONNECTED TO THE WHOLE GAME like i was seeing this live. Its so amazing how this game made me feel. Feelings i have never felt with any other game. Not just a memory but an experience i can never forget. Overall the ending kinda disappointed me quite a while i must say. I was like "that's it? After all those fucked things we went through thats how it ends?" I don't know what exactly i expected but since the devs said a part 3 is coming if you think about it the ending make sense. It's like they already knew after the release of part 2 they were going to make a part 3. I don't know at least that's how i see it. Even tho i knew the ending and after having it on my library i managed to buy a ps4 3 years after i bought the game. Nothing but greatness. 10/10

great vid

As a side note, the seriousness of the analysis coupled with the visual comedy gameplay quick cuts is super jarring lmao

What made the sequels story so easy for me to accept is that I played the first game a month before the sequel, so i didnt have that 7 year bias and it allowed me to be wayyy more open minded. I still think naughty dog had BALLS with the way they told the story

What a great video, props for that :)

I can't wait for part 3

😂😂 the lev punch gets me every time

This is like the best, non bias and professional way to review a video game story.

You nailed it.

this is probably the most grown up and healthy perspective on the story of that game. And its short too. Really Great.

Season 2 of the show probably wont have Ellie stacking bodies the same way you can do in the game, so all the main kills in the story will hopefully have more impact

Best perspective I’ve seen for this game. Hoping the show changes the order around to digest easier

This is probably the best review of the game I’ve heard. Changing the order that events in the game are shown would’ve probably made the game easier to understand, but I personally am ok with how messy it was. People’s stories in real life are messy. Also you made a great point about games being interactive storytelling, and I think one of the main reasons people hate the game is because it forces you to do things you don’t want to do. Video games are generally meant to be fun and let you do what you want, so TLoU2 taking a different approach was bound to upset people.

Fantastic video. I’ve always liked the story of this game, and I went into the game mostly blind. I thought its use of perspective was really effective. I was playing this game like Rambo on my first play through and when you play as Abby and just see the body bags it was really effective. It was less impactful though when I did a survivor difficulty play through and went mostly stealth, and then there was still a mountain of bodies. But the story and its themes of perspective and forgiveness really make it something beautiful. And you’re totally right that it was meant to be watched, not played. It can be tricky to make players disconnect from the perspective they’ve been actively controlling, rather than passively watching. I hope your video inspires some people to give it another go, and if they don’t like the story, than no return is excellent for just messing with the awesome gameplay mechanics.

Thank you! I’ve been telling people this game isn’t about right and wrong, or revenge, or salvation. It’s about perspective. About putting you in the shoes of others.

This game is incredible.