r/TLOU

Introduction

The Last of Us Part II is a fascinating game. Its story and structure have been the subject of endless discussion. In this post, I will present, as many have done before, an alternative version or, to be precise, an edit. The rules are simple: no fan fiction and no made-up scenes. The story remains the same, but the order is different, and some lines, or even entire scenes, may be cut.

I'll present the macrostructure first, along with the main arguments that motivate the changes. Then, I'll detail the edit with the precise order of chapters, and finally, I'll add some comments to further explain my reasoning behind the changes.

The Macrostructure

Original
I. Jackson
II. Seattle — Ellie
III. Seattle — Abby
IV. The Farm / Santa Barbara

Alternative
I. Seattle — Abby
II. Jackson
III. Seattle — Ellie
IV. The Farm / Santa Barbara

As shown, I propose to start the game with Abby's section and to use Jackson as a middle point where we shift to Ellie's story. The change is not arbitrary and tries to tackle the following issues.

Issue #1. The interrupted confrontation at the theater

If there is one thing that I find particularly annoying about the game, it has to be the interrupted confrontation between Ellie and Abby at the theater. Just when the long-awaited face-off is about to begin, the game rewinds and forces you to play as Abby for many hours. The edit avoids this, allowing the confrontation to unfold continuously, without interruptions. It feels more natural to me.

Issue #2. Prejudice against Abby and the connection to Part I

By starting the game with Abby's section, the player might be more intrigued by her story, not knowing yet the exact connection to the events of Part I.

Issue #3. Seattle fatigue

One of the things that made Part I memorable is the variety of locations. In Part II, by contrast, there aren't nearly as many. I find it exhausting to play six consecutive days in Seattle. Placing Jackson between Abby's and Ellie's sections might mitigate that feeling, offering a refreshing —and cold— change of environment.

Issue #4. Continuity of Ellie's story

I feel somewhat disconnected from Ellie at the Farm. After spending so many hours with Abby, it takes some time to reconnect with Ellie's mindset. In the edit, Ellie's three days in Seattle lead directly into the Farm.

The Edit

Here is the complete order of the recut:

Seattle — Day 1 — Abby

1. The Stadium

2. On Foot

3. The Forward Base

4. Flashback: The Aquarium

5. Hostile Territory

6. The Forest

7. The Coast

8. Flashback: The Park

Seattle — Day 2 — Abby

9. Return to the Coast

10. The Shortcut

11. The Descent

12. Ground Zero

13. Return to the Aquarium

14. Flashback: Winter Visit

Seattle — Day 3 — Abby

15. The Marina

16. The Island

17. The Escape

Jackson

18. Flashback: The Overlook

19. Flashback: The Horde

20. Flashback: The Chalet

Perspective shift — From Abby to Ellie

21. Flashback: Prologue

22. Waking Up

23. Patrol

24. The Chalet

Seattle — Day 1 — Ellie

25. Packing Up

26. The Gate

27. Downtown

28. Eastbrook Elementary

29. Capitol Hill

30. Channel 13

31. The Tunnels

32. The Theater

33. Flashback: The Birthday Gift

Seattle — Day 2 — Ellie

34. Hillcrest

35. The Seraphites

36. Flashback: Finding Strings

Seattle — Day 3 — Ellie

37. Road to the Aquarium

38. The Flooded City

39. Infiltration

40. The Confrontation

The Farm

41. The Farm

Santa Barbara

42. 2425 Constance

43. Pushing Inland

44. The Resort

45. The Beach

The Farm — Epilogue

46. Epilogue

Comments on the Edit

The edit starts with Abby at the Stadium, introducing her group and establishing the conflict with the Seraphites from the very beginning. This makes Abby's storyline the starting point of the game rather than something introduced halfway through it.

As a structural rule, flashbacks are placed at the end of the days.

Placing The Park at the end of Day 1, before The Aquarium, keeps the details of Abby's connection to the events of Part I hidden, and preserves the mystery alive for a little longer.

As an artistic liberty, I find it appealing to cut the scene where Abby finds her father dead and replace it with her nightmare in which she finds the hanging corpses of Yara and Lev. The information is still there, yet it ties more closely to the present. Furthermore, I find the three repetitions of Abby walking down the hospital hallway in the original version a bit repetitive. This structure seems to favor Yara and Lev's storyline over the revenge plot, which I find suitable for the start of the game.

Winter Visit is moved to the end of Day 2. It serves as a resting point between the intense finale of Day 2 and the upcoming battle of Day 3. It also links nicely with two events: the friction between Abby and Mel, who appears at the Aquarium, and the hint about Tommy, who is about to appear as the sniper on Day 3. This flashback, set in winter, connects visually and narratively with what happens next in Jackson.

The End of Abby's Day 3 / The Shift

How to end Abby's Day 3 now? Finding a momentary conclusion to Abby's plot in Seattle is no easy task. I would argue that the image of Abby and Lev, in the boat, contemplating the burning Seraphite village, is a good moment. Yara is dead, Abby has rightfully betrayed the WLF and saved Lev. The two of them are now alone.

Following the general structure, Day 3 ends with a flashback: Jackson. Abby's flashback arc finally comes to an end. We get to see how Abby finds the town and the man, and lures him into the chalet. This is the point where the shift occurs. Right after Abby shoots Joel in the knee and says the iconic “we don't have to rush this”, we cut to The Prologue, where Joel is cleaning a guitar and confesses to Tommy what he did at Saint Mary's Hospital. This is the moment when the game — Ellie's game — truly starts.

Ellie's Seattle

The edit then follows the original very closely. We play as Ellie, patrol Jackson's surroundings with Dina, and finally witness Joel's murder. 

Ellie's three-day adventure in Seattle begins. The only differences from the original in this section are the flashbacks. A Birthday Gift is already in a perfect spot at the end of Day 1. Finding Strings, however, is moved to the end of Day 2. I know how intense it might be to play Hillcrest and The Seraphites consecutively, but it is just as intense as Abby's Day 2, and that works perfectly.

As another artistic liberty, I would remove the flashback where Ellie goes back to Saint Mary's Hospital and finds evidence of Joel's lies. To me, that flashback feels disjointed from the rest of the game and is a plot convenience. I believe the core conflict between Ellie and Joel is perfectly understandable from the hints already placed in the previous flashbacks, as well as from the final conversation on the porch. There is no need to make it explicit.

Chapter 40 — The Confrontation

Let's now describe perhaps the most delicate part of the edit: Chapter 40, The Confrontation.

Ellie has killed Owen and Mel at the Aquarium and returns, heavily affected, to the theater. Notice that Owen and Mel's deaths are new to the player, as we ended Abby's story on Seraphite Island. 

Tommy, Ellie and Jesse make plans for the trip back to Jackson. Ellie seems reluctant to leave Abby alive, yet she agrees to it. For now. But we all know what happens. Ellie and Jesse hear noises and run to the hall, only to find their destiny. Abby is there, holding Tommy hostage. She shoots Jesse dead and points her gun at Ellie. “We let you both live and you wasted it.” Cut to black.

Up to this point, the events have happened as in the original version. But now, in the edit, we go back to Abby's viewpoint right where we left her: on the boat with Lev, watching the village burn. It won't take long to reconnect with the climax. Abby and Lev return to the Aquarium, find the dead bodies of Owen and Mel, as well as the map that leads them to the theater. We are back. We see Abby take Tommy down, shoot Jesse and face Ellie. And now, the confrontation finally unfolds, playing as Abby, of course.

I understand there is still an interruption of the climax, yet it resolves quickly.

The Farm and Santa Barbara

After the uncanny fight at the theater, Ellie is left alive. The transition to the Farm seems more natural to me now, as we continue Ellie's arc without an Abby section in between (see Issue #4). 

The game then continues as in the original cut. Ellie leaves Dina and their baby to pursue her revenge. Abby and Lev are captured by the Rattlers. Ellie travels to Santa Barbara and makes her way to Abby, where she fights her one last time. Ellie wins and, surprisingly, spares her. Ellie then returns to the Farm —now empty— and remembers her final conversation with Joel on the porch. Same ending.

Known Issues

This version of the game is by no means free of its own issues. Besides minor changes to some lines during gameplay that would need to be removed in order to preserve some of the mystery — I'm thinking, for instance, of explicit references to Joel at the beginning of Abby's Day 1 —, the edit might also suffer from a gameplay perspective, particularly in terms of the progression of mechanics and the introduction of enemy types. 

Conclusion

What do you think? I truly believe this edit works much better than the chronological version Naughty Dog gave us in the remastered version for PS5. In fact, I believe it would work even better for someone experiencing the game for the first time, keeping the original story intact while avoiding its most common narrative issues.

Possibly dumb questions. I have the disc version of tlou do I need to update the game to play the DLC? Is it even worth not updating it? I remember somewhere a video saying you shouldn’t update the game for a better experience. If I do update it can I go back and uninstall the update?

Matthew McConaughey just revealed why he passed the project up, and mind you, he was on True Detective, one of the greatest TV shows that was one season, concise, focused, and stuck the landing.

Last of Us fumbled. Hard. Biggest problem was the casting/acting (every casting. Every. One. They were flat and uninteresting) and the second problem of the same caliber was the dog-shit writing. Two perfect video games they could have recreated with the same intensity and care only to slip into the same superficial money grab that video game adaptations always turn into.

The show has got no heart or soul; it feels vacant and flat. And all of my friends & family who tuned in were like… “Uhm, you like this? It’s just a worst version of…” etc

I just wanna start this by saying I'm not hating on the ending of the game at all. However I feel like if the whole idea of the game is that violence breeds violence and revenge is bad or whatever then shouldn't have Ellie gone forward with killing Abby in the end? I feel like her killing Abby and then going back to her house just to realise that she lost her family,lost the ability to play the guitar Joel gave her, the songs they used to play and finally lost herself in the process would lead to a more powerful ending and would drive the message home. Perhaps she could also idk kill herself but idk if that's too dark or if they're planning to have a 3rd game. I just feel like the game's ending left me feeling very empty and that it was all in vain all those deaths didn't really mean anything at the end which is maybe what the game intended feel free to enlighten me. Also, before anyone assumes anything I don't hate Abby but I don't think she's a saint either like some people like to make her out to be and I did enjoy her gameplay a lot maybe even more than Ellie's gameplay.

Joel killed her father, 18 more people who were probably close to him, and potentially took the chance for the world ever to get a cure. So she killed Joel.

Ellie, for that, killed all six of her 6 friends, including her lover and an infant child, so she, in response she kills Jesse and lets the others go.

Why it seems like Abby's side faced more loss. Despite the claim that writers have a special likeness towards her?

MAJOR SPOILDERS FOR PART ONE AND TWO!

It's fair to say that the last of us part two is possibly one of the most controversial games on the market for a multitude of choices, and it gets quite a lot of hate which would consider completely unfair.

The first game was generally received as a masterpiece, few people had issue with it, and when they did it was usually either about performance on the ps3 or just really weird stuff about Ellie I'd rather not get into detail about. Part 2 however was receiving hate before it launched, thanks to data miners leaking parts of the game such as Joel's death, which caused uproar amongst the community which lacked vital context given in the game.

One of the first complaints I tend to see about part two is the fact that Joel was killed off. I understand that people are upset about him dying and I get that it was incredibly gruesomely done, some people would even say it was pointless, as such people were raging and heartbroken by it. Yet I'd like for you to take a moment and think about how his death drives Ellie's half of the story, was it not kind of the whole fucking point that it was heart breaking, that it drove Ellie to the extremes she went to? This character that the player and Ellie have learnt to love has died at the hands of another person, of course that's going to inspire hatred, that was what the writers intended the player to feel at that point, nothing but pure hatred and grief. It was important to align The player's emotions with Ellie's, such that the player can feel and watch Ellie spiral later on on a far deeper level, and to force the player to start to worry for Ellie as the rest of the characters are doing.

Another major complaint about the game I see is people giving out that they had to play as Abby, Joel's killer: once again, that was the whole fucking Idea, the hope was that by making the player love Ellie and hate Abby before switching the perspective making the player love Abby and hate Ellie, we would come to the final act of the game in that emotional turmoil from the first game's ending tenfold. As much as the first game was about love, the second game is about hate. Throughout the first game we come to "sync up" with Joel and grow to love Ellie like a daughter (or sister in some cases). We love these characters deeply and as such we choose to view them as the "good guys" like in most other games and movies etc, but then Joel dooms the world to save Ellie, we know what he did was 50 shades of fucked up, but we try to justify it because "he's Joel, he's just surviving, he's not a bad person" when in fact he is, what he did was objectively wrong. By the time we get to part two we know these characters like family, so when Joel is killed, we feel the same horror that Ellie does, but then when we switch to Abby we "sync up" with her, and all of a sudden our precious Ellie and Joel are monsters. In short the Idea is to leave the player in emotional turmoil knowing that neither character is a "better person" than the other, that they are all morally grey people.

The last major issue I see people complaining about (that I will talk about in length) is the "forced diversity" in the game, from how Ellie is lesbian (we knew this years ago in left behind) to how Lev is trans, some people felt that diversity was being forced into the game. To that I say "cool, good for you, is the performance or story somehow worse for it?" because yeah, I get it, there are a lot of people in the game who aren't straight, there are also a lot of people who aren't straight outside your window, or in your workplace, big fucking deal, It doesn't take away from the story in any aspect.

Finally, just a quick note about the perverts who were disgusted that Ellie wasn't straight, single and shagabble. Or those who were whining about how Abby isn't some dainty damsel in distress because she's a woman. I have nothing to say other than go fuck yourself and go back to talking to your discord kittens or whatever the fuck you do with your miserable life. It is a VIDEO GAME!

(also, there was no need for the death threats being sent to nd, that fucked up)

I wanted to play this game for a second time but couldn't get myself to play it. I focused less on Joel's death. The Abby part is actually really good. The weapons are really nice and the aggressive mele was very different from Ellie. I focused more on the characters and their stories. I read every single note I came across and I really enjoyed the little stories. My favorite "mission" so far has to be the one where you escape Haven (it reminded me of RDR2).

On my first playthrough I was playing just to kill Abby at the end, I even skipped the cutscenes whit Abby. But now that I gave this game another chance, it is really a good one, if not one of the best. I love how Abby wants to be a better person and forgets about her dad and revenge. She still was fighting but not for revenge, for her friends, Lev and his sister. It still hurt when I needed to fight Ellie, and seeing her leave while Dina was crying.

No return is another reason I got back to this game, it's a really nice addition. I have around 60h+ and I can't stop.

If you read this and think that I am crazy you need to play this game again and actually enjoy the story and characters. Joel is still my favorite character in this game, but you need to let go.