Ellie and Dina. while it was amazing to see them I was honestly surprised by how precious little there is of them. Dina gets benches by her two-month pregnancy real quick and the flashbacks didn't allow for their relationship to be explored in a way that even Abby and Owens was

also can we talk about the fact that Ellie, Dina and everyone at the bar knew exactly what the Dyke Slur meant but Ellie and Dina dont know the significance of the rainbow flag??

how homophobic is Jackson exactly that two young gay woman dont know passing LGBT history despite living with people from the before time? Seth implies there are more lesbians and yet that knowledge is suppressed but Slurs aren't?

the idea that idyllic life for two women would be this mimicry of heterosexual aspirational living and traditional gender roles, where Ellie brings home the bacon and Dina practises domestically, really belies the heterosexual lens these LGBT characters are depicted through

these are the good lesbians who assimilate. who raise children and have the good manners to pretend to be straight and are not a threat to the status quo.

TLOU2 never justified its use of hyper-violence to me, but when I stopped fighting the jarring absurdity of a video game trying to meditate on the visceral reality of violence by way of fun explosive violence I started to have more fun

The game really shined for me during its more survival horror encounters with the clickers. the beautiful and dense environmental design and lighting lending power and place to tense battles for survival

Despite my moments of fun, TLOU2 never let me forget exactly what we were doing here for long. The death animation where Ellie's throat gets ripped out would do it. Having to press square to beat an unarmed woman with a pipe to progress, did it. the blood gurgling always did it

sorry lads but it just doesn’t work. not with this story. not with these characters.

The story was at its best when the characters were given the space to be -in the moment- and not in the contrived flash backs. Casually talking to each other about the world they were traversing, the mission they were on, who they are, or having each other’s back in combat

It was at its worst when leveraging the overused clichés of the zombie horror genre like the “true innocence of the unborn” pregnancy plotline, but especially when stomping its way through the trauma of marginalized identifies for unearned drama

(I will commend one aspect. I was thankful that the game never resorted to the threats of rape and sexual violence despite how bleak everything was, although some of the Rattlers dialogue could suggest it)

TLOU2 has the largest front and center LGBT cast of any AAA game and that’s an amazing milestone in gaming but do ND handle their inclusion well? Imo no, in the goal to ape the stylistic and emotional beats of film, they took some of most pervasive Tropes with them

Really says something that the first mainstream game with a LGBT protagonist is the one about suffering and not the fun adventure romp...

Let lesbians triple jump

The Last of Us Part II is a moody, clichéd, ultra-violent horror soap opera that’s incredibly at odds with itself primarily due to it’s over indulgent design ethos. In order to squeeze enjoyment from it, I had to stop asking “WHY?” Because it’s not a game deep enough to answer

10/10 lol