185 - The Last of Us Part II (Part 2)

Loved the 47 impressions so much hahaha

Very late but peter gabriel in the interstitial is sending me

You're telling me the game has no LEVity? I think at least 9 Sca.. SERAPHITES.. out of 10 would disagree. The last one is busy disemboweling someone.

Ultimately, I think that Druckmann's beliefs in the inevitability of revenge and conflict between groups reveals a fundamental blindness to the socio-economic system that he lives in and how it creates the conditions which lead to conflicts ariseing continually. He's existing within a Capitalist Realism view of reality, where the system that dominates the society he lives in is so totalizing in its control over every aspect of life that he views it as simply being the natural state of things and the only possible way for life to be. When you live in a system that generates tribalism and genocidal war as its intended function, you view these consequences as inevitable, because the system just keeps making them, and you don't recognize the system because no alternatives are presented which could indicate that this is not normal and universal. If the system only produces horrible, evil people, then surely everyone must be horrible and evil.

Listening to two whole episodes about this game, I know nothing about was worth it for the joke where you played the confrontation. Also wasn’t expecting the very important Gaza parallels and I enjoyed that too.

I'm a philosophical pessimist at this point in my life but I also realize that nothing about what humans do is inevitable. Human violence is not "senseless" -- tornadoes are senseless.

and that baby's name? jarvis johnson

If you do another zombie game, do Days Gone. It actually has interesting looks at trauma, masculinity, violence, community, etc. It ain't high art but it's pretty interesting to see a male character showing vulnerability and stuff instead of just being a vehicle for violence

The trans discussion made me think some. I wonder how many of these people who are bothered by trans women are bothered by them because their ideal woman is someone who can be controlled- and the idea of a woman with agency and power, or aggression, things they see as male traits- scares them. For a lot of these dudes, their worst nightmare is a confrontation with another man who is willing to hurt them. The idea of a woman with power and willingness to do them harm must eat at their souls.

Very good ep and analysis, this is a weird game for me cos while I recognize all this as being very real and 'correct' readings of the thing it still affected me a lot and has stuck with me since playing it. My reading of the tragedy of Joel's death for Ellie is a bit different. It's not that they were okay or were on the outs, and the more classic trope of her last thing said to him was cruel or nasty would have felt a bit trite I think. I always took it as her being ready to try to forgive him and work towards something that maybe isn't what it was but could help them both find peace but her being robbed of that chance by his death. Kind of like he robbed her of the chance to try and save the world. That obviously doesn't change anything surrounding the weird liberal zionism stuff or the weird tonal dissonance between "violence bad" and "hey woah look at this epic kill I got" vibes, but the motivations have always seemed a lot more clear and understandable to me than they are for other folks I've heard talk about or talked to about the game since it came out.

I would really like you to do Station 11 at some point, Riley could guest, it would be grand. Also is Slings and Arrows next week?

Wait a minute I'm confused. Is Mel supposed to be pregnant or something?

Damn, im scared to hear what you can come up with to say about spokane if this is how you feel about seattle lmfao

Wow. At about 1:45:00. My heart hurts

The bleakness of this game's ending (for ellie at least) has always struck me. Usually I like a bitter or sad ending to a story but god DAMN.

You put into words this nagging feeling I've had about zombie stories for like a decade. I would always say they're too bleak for me but I've meshed with some real hopeless shit, so it wasn't that. While I love me some monsters in fiction, the like scale of inhumanity that zombies call for just cannot help but fall face first into that right-wing flavor of dehumanization

The Last of Us Part II (Part 1) (Part 2)

State quarters from the 70's is all part of this game's woke agenda. Also, I didn't want to bang any them. Not nearly as sexy as the originals

I guess in the end we really were the last of us part 2 remastered

The intro reminded me that I used to collect the state quarters as a kid as they were still coming out. Shoutout to idaho for actually having a pretty cool one

As a lifelong Mariners fan, I’d like to protest the strays being shot at us - but it’s been a lifetime of pain - I’d like to think Mets and Mariners fans can agree on something though - fuck the Yankees

this game sounds far too long

I hope that we get more future installments of Brian's State Quarter Quorner

I somehow went years of my life until this episode not knowing that Abby is voiced by Laura Bailey, a very talented voice actor who I nonetheless cannot un-hear when I notice her. She and Grey Delisle both stick out to me in anything they're in 😭 glad they're getting work tho

*searches Last of Us 2 Manny Reddit* "...self insert for a beta who could NEVER live up to Joel's ALPHA MALE qualities..." *closes Reddit, turns off phone, throws phone in river*

Someone smarter than me needs to write/talk about how weird this game is about mothers and maternity

Jolton Jurpo

AJ's Exploding Horse Sound Effect

i will never celebrate the admittedly nice-looking connecticut state quarter bc the state of connecticut has wronged me personally

as a person who used to live in Washington and is angry that Seattle is the only city anyone seems to know about the state, i sublimate all my rage onto Seattle teams. it's probably because my classmates were obnoxious about them when I lived there.

You could say Abbey had a Five-iron Frenzy eh?

With the zebras in the second game and the giraffes in the first, seems like Naughty Dog wants to make a Zoo Tycoon-like.

Wolves can't look up. But I could pick a wolf up one night and raise it into the sky and tilt this wolf ever so gentle. I can make sure this wolf's eyes line up with the bridges.

Nautical Weekly is the only publication I trust for takes on Prestige television shows

My lads post late cause they nocturnal

Part 2?

it's part 2. just a typo. don't worry folks

The Last of Us Part II (Part 1)? Pretty sure it should be The Last of Us Part II (Part 2)

Part 1?