I don't have a good blog title

I'm just here for the vibes

[my-dailydreams]

[adonalsiumsleftthumb]

#1 explains #2 pretty well I think

[torpublishinggroup]

[theconcealedweapon]

[trashygrammy]

The toxicity in The Last of Us fandom is exhausting, and it is coming from the same corners every time.

The Last of Us has always been a character-driven story. Whether you are playing the games or watching the show, it is not really about zombies. It is about people. The show gives even more space for dialogue, world-building, and emotional connection. Yet somehow, every time an episode drops, the discourse gets derailed by the same tired voices. Mostly men. Mostly folks with zero media literacy who just do not understand how adaptation or storytelling works.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Bella Ramsey. Bella was phenomenal as Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones and was universally praised. But the moment they were cast as Ellie, the incel-gamer crowd lost their minds. Why? Because Bella did not fit their narrow, objectified fantasy of Ellie. Suddenly it was not about talent, performance, or character depth. It was about whether they were “fuckable enough” to play a fictional teenager.

They ignored the fact that Pedro Pascal, a Chilean actor, plays Joel, a canonically white character, with zero complaint. They ignored Gabriel Luna as Tommy, again with zero outrage. Both actors are equally as phenomenal, do not get me wrong here. Their only problem was Bella. Bella, who is non-binary and was assigned female at birth, did not fit their desired mold of a young woman they could sexualize. That is the ugly truth.

Despite all this, Bella crushed season one. They aged up for season two, trained in jiu-jitsu, and prepared intensely for Ellie’s arc in The Last of Us Part II, which is a complex and often brutal journey. And still, they will not leave them alone. They even deleted social media ahead of the new season because they knew what was coming.

Then there is Dina. Fans of the game know how central Dina is, both as a character and as Ellie’s love interest. In the show, they are building that relationship slowly, as a best-friend dynamic first, to deepen the eventual connection. It is a beautiful slow burn. And frankly, nothing hits harder than lesbian yearning, especially portrayed by two queer actresses.

Here is the thing though. No one is up in arms about the fact that Dina, who is canonically Jewish in the game, is portrayed by an actress who is very clearly Latina in the show. Why? Because they find her attractive. That is it. Side note: Isabella Merced is an incredible actress and I can’t see anyone else playing her at this point. These guys do not care about canon accuracy unless it is about a woman who does not fit their personal desires. If she is hot to them, suddenly changes do not matter anymore. Their issue has never been with the integrity of the story or characters. It has always been about what they want to look at.

Yet they are still yelling things like “They erased Dina’s queerness” or “This did not happen like this in the game.” News flash. Adaptations breathe and evolve. Not everything will be beat-for-beat identical. And queerness does not have to be neon-lit and explicitly spelled out in every scene for it to be real. It is there, it is intentional, and it is authentic if you have the media literacy to actually see it.

What makes it worse is the TikTok-era impatience. Some of these younger fans cannot grasp episodic storytelling. They get mad that every feeling or plot point is not resolved instantly, like it would be in a 30-second clip or a binge-drop. Good storytelling makes you sit with things, process them, and wait for them to unfold. That is the point.

I am just tired. I want to enjoy one of my favorite pieces of media without misogyny, without queerphobia, and without people shouting down thoughtful adaptation choices because they do not understand how narrative works.

Let me have a community where we can talk about our hyperfixation without this endless noise. Please.

[themothwhisperer]

My friendly advice is to give it time and enjoy the ride. The show will never be the game.

Plus, we get the episodes drop by drop, so yeah, of course it’s difficult to predict what will happen next. We have several days to analyze the material before we get a new sequence, but it’s never representative of the entire narrative. Not yet.

I bet we will all look back at the completed picture in a few weeks and think this is an actual masterpiece.

So… Can we enjoy this while we have it?

Soon things will get real ROUGH. Perhaps let’s just enjoy our little sapphic cuteness, Ellie being a softie and trust the process?

[chronicsydspams]

no one wants to hear this, but I'm gonna say it anyway:

The problem isn't the show, the problem Is and always Has Been The Fans.

Back in 2020 there was Huge backlash against TLOU2 Mainly about Abby. people were mad she was buff, people were mad she was left in mystery and seemingly killed Joel for no reason, people were mad you played as her and learned her motivations as to Why she killed Joel in the first place, and they were mad about her character arc with Lev being similar to Joel's in the first game. They were mad about this, mad about that.

So what does Neil, Craig and the show do to change this? They introduce Abby right away, make her motivations for killing Joel known right away, and is no longer buff.

What is the response? people are mad she's no longer buff, people are mad her story is no longer a mystery, people are mad they don't get to know her reasonings as the story plays out. they are mad about this, mad about that.

you Can't have your cake and eat it to. you can't say "I hated how it was" and then say "no wait i wanted it how it was"

"People can grow and change you know?" yeah, sure, no arguing with that. But Unfortunately that does not erase the DAMAGE you all have caused not only on this game, the creators and Most Importantly the Actors up to and INCLUDING sending DEATH THRETS to Laura and her son. because you all were So upset with how the story was told and for the LIFE of you can't seem to separate fictional characters from Real Fucking People.

and this goes for Laura, Bella and now Kaitlyn. because Abby is FICTIONAL, Joel is FICTIONAL, Ellie is FICTIONAL. but Laura, Bella and Kaitlyn are NOT and are on the receiving end of some of the most hateful, insensitive, derogatory shit I've seen in recent years (and that's coming from someone who still participates in the Star Wars fandom).

I've already addressed that certain changes need to be made when adapting stories into different mediums like game->show or book->movie or whatever so that the fluidity fits better with that specific medium but when it comes to changes like This specifically, at the end of the day it's your own damn fault that they had to be made. but it seems that you will never be satisfied with this content enough to enjoy it huh?

"They've lost the plot!" what? because your eye candy got killed so early? if you go back to TLOU2, Joel dies in like the first HOUR of gameplay, that's basically the prologue. so they weren't going to drag out and add in nonsensical filler for Pedro to stay longer (minus the flashback scenes). the Main Story is about Ellie and Abby. That's who they're going to be focusing on (maybe a bit of Tommy in there but that depends if they give Tommy a pov that they didn't in the game... but who knows?)

realistically, the only thing you lot could do is just pretend that the first game is the only thing in this franchise because that's the only thing you seem to like. Because Bitching at the top of your lungs ISN'T going to change Bella Ramsey's role as Ellie. It Just Isn't. just about everything has been shot, edited, etc. and they're ESPECIALLY not going to recast them for S3 because from the looks of it Seasons 2&3 are just splitting the narrative of TLOU2 because there's just SO much story they have to tell with that game. so they're not going to show the first half of TLOU2 and midway though go "oh here's this new actor that's Totally Ellie guys! Bella's not here anymore!" like at LEAST be realistic. Christ it's like I'm talking to a bunch of toddlers here.

[invested-in-your-future]

Watching TLOU 2 storyline play out in the show—and especially how people react to it—keeps reminding me of just how much we as society demonize and villify grief, anger, and trauma.

TLOU is, in part, an exploration of living in a world traumatized by something tragic and dark that has upended society. It's a story of surviving in a different world, yet one very much the same as ours.

There are no heroes, no champions—just broken people coping with what came before them.

The entire cast has lived through traumatic experiences, both within the macrocosm and the microcosm.

It's a world grieving itself.

And people within it are making all the wrong choices, driven by what came before, repeating the cycle.

Yet "She looks/is deranged" is a common take some viewers have when watching a girl confront her father's killer—an event she hasn't parsed for years, an event that she still has dreams of.

As if trauma can only be portrayed as positive and constructive, as if grief only manifests through good deeds and growth.

It's as if people are offended at how she reacts, thinking it's abnormal, incomprehensible, or evil.

In reality, grief is filled with bad decisions, with breaking character, with acting out, with rage, and with regret.

It's why it's so important to have a good coping mechanism, to know how to parse those emotions and experiences and trauma instead of bottling them up.

We watched one character's journey through grief end as it crossed paths with another character's grief and trauma—someone who is so similar to them, someone in the same mold, shaped by tragedy in their life.

And in turn, that collision ignites another character's journey of grief..

And grieving characters shouldn't be always nice. They should absolutely crash out and make decisions that aren't constructive.

Negative emotions, etc, are always destructive and are always ugly. But they always come from somewhere, and grief is such a great source for everything that gnaws upon us from inside.

Grief and crashing out are never pretty, but they do not make us evil, and we often derive no joy from them in the end.

They make us who we are.

They just make us human—the cycle of violence within our very blood.

[herstotaste]

Incredibly fucked and fascinating how Joel would normally be the villain in this kind of story. Shit, he really still is.

And Abby would be the hero everyone cheered to finish it because Joel didn’t choose the greater good.

He killed innocents, he might have killed the world’s chance. Joel a man who loves his daughters more than the world itself did have it coming, but man does it still suck.

[holyblanchett]

Not about to argue with you weirdo's about Bella Ramsey. Guess what?? Ellie isn't fucking real, this isn't a biopic. Bella doesn't have to look like her. It's a video game for crying out loud get a fucking grip. All that matters is that they can act their ass off which they can. Keep crying on the internet losers it won't change anything.

[adonalsiumsleftthumb]

The fact that 5 years later some fans still can't understand that Ellie and Abby are mirrors of each other is insane. If by the end of the second game you don't see how Abby's rage and need for revenge was the same as Ellie's, you missed the story the game was actually telling.

Same thing with the show. If you can't already see the parallels and just want to scream about how much you want Abby to die, you may have an empathy issue or at least haven't fully processed your grief.

[allsortsoffuckedup]

Hey hey, as a librarian, can I just say don’t pace yourself at the library. I get a lot of customers saying “oh I shouldn’t get too many books out at once” but like you should!!!! Max out your card, take everything we have on a subject you’re interested in, make a book fort in your home. We love that shit! It doesn’t matter if you read them or not; just take them for an adventure and bring them back whenever they’re due!

For public libraries, one of the ways we secure funding year to year is lending. Governments don’t want to fund more books if they’re not being used and the way we measure use is by issues. Regardless of whether you read it or not, whether you have it for a day or a month, if you issue it to your library card, we get the stats! It makes the library look good!

Help your local library; get books out even if you know you can’t read them all!

[lauready]

“Joel died because he was kind😢😢” Joel died because he committed a horrific act of violence and it caught back up with him. Did he do one nice thing? Yeah. And it is ironic. But come on

Disclaimer I am not a Joel hater. He had his reasons for what he did to the fireflies. Abby similarly had her reasons. And now, so does Ellie.

[adonalsiumsleftthumb]

The cycle of violence is literally the core premise of the second game but some folks will go so wrapped up in "Team Joel/Ellie" or "Team Abby" and fully miss the point. The moral greyness is the whole idea, and that one person's hero is another's villain.

[saintdollyparton]

Kaitlyn really did the damn thing. She didn't need to be a beefcake. Her presence and her intensity are fucking terrifying. Now let's support a great actor and not be assholes like some losers were to Laura Bailey after the game came out, okay?

I also love the mention of one of the nurses saying Joel didn't even look at Abby's dad when he shot him. (Most likely the nurse played by Laura Bailey lol.)

[duckbunny]

some fandom disagreements are like "I see your point but I think this other aspect of the narrative is more significant," and some are like "I don't think you can read."

[adonalsiumsleftthumb]

Fandoms are a monkeys paw curse

The way most fandoms react whenever their [game/book/comic] gets a TV or movie adaptation is so exhausting. Truly, no one hates and gatekeeps like members of the people who supposedly love said media. And the second you call out the toxicity, they retort with "oh so we're not allowed to critique things now?" As if they didn't just go on an insane multi-paragraph rant about how a casting choice has RUINED a character and they REFUSE to accept it.

Anyway, I'm super stoked for The Last of Us S2E2 tomorrow!

[singing-not-sleeping-beauty]

I love you shows with planned & definitive endings, I love you epilogues that prove the happy ending lasts, I love you finales that feature direct parallels to earlier seasons, I love you cast members that left years ago but came back to say goodbye, I love you well crafted & impactful final lines, I love you fitting send offs for the characters I love

[chronicsydspams]

I'm about to piss off the ENTIRE TLOU fandom but I'm SO past the point of caring. Bella Ramsey is a more accurate portrayal of a 19 year old not only in their mannerisms but THEIR LOOKS.

"They don't look mature enough" that's because Ashley Johnson was in her mid 30's playing a 19 year old, and in the game, Ellie's face Especially still carries that. AFAB people Especially don't magically change their facial structure from 14-19 unless they had work done. you don't start seeing that happen till your mid-late 20's.

You don't look OR act like "a mature adult" when you're 19, it just doesn't happen. so expecting this (even from a fictional character) is still rather bizzar to me. and saying shit like "she's being too goofy" here when we've gotten basically No clips of her after she loses Joel is also a null in void argument. Even in the game before she loses Joel, Ellie's particularly monotone; but if they're going about this the way i think they're going to, then the stark contrast between her being goofy and the unbridled rage would actually be an Improvement from the game.

and I straight up can't tell if it's been That long since people have played TLOU2, or if they're just being Purposefully obtuse because of their hate boner for Bella as to why they're acting like Ellie's mad at Joel for no reason whatsoever (this isn't towards people who haven't touched the games and don't know the story, this is towards people who know and are still whining like little crybabies about everything)

"Should have recasted like in HOD" so THAT doesn't work either because for Rhaenyra they're going from 15 to like 32. from a teen to an ACTUAL adult, not a Young adult. 5 and 15 years apart are Very Much not the same thing here.

And it really seems that my fellow lesbians have Also been perpetuating the "Bella isn't "conventionally attractive enough" for me to sexualize" to which i expected better from you guys, honestly.

"we're allowed to nitpick" no it sounds like you're crying because you didn't get your way, in What reality would they have recasted Bella as Ellie? would you be complaining less if we waited another 10 years for Bella to be in their 30's and Then you'd stop complaining about them looking so young? probably not, because Bella doesn't fit conventional beauty standards.

And if I'm going to be Remotely honest, I'd rather have someone who can Act the part rather than someone who looks "close enough" but can't act for shit, which is what I'm seeing with all these tiktok "recast suggestions"

With that, I think I've yapped enough, and am going to try and weasel my way out of enemy territory and find Bella Ellie edits 'till next Sun. thank you for your time.