So unless you don't care about PSX because, like me, you saw last year's PSX and how much it sucked so you skipped this year's; you wouldn't have seen the trailer for The Last of US Part 2 until you found out about it via organic internet searching. This blog is going to analyze that trailer and discuss why a certain theory floating around the internet is at best poorly structured and at worst absolutely wrong.
Here is a link to the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
So the trailer starts off showing a setpiece, a forest. Of note is 0:22 where we can see a tree with many slash marks. This can either be an indication of conflict, or someone marking a path taken for another to follow, or maybe animals marking territory. Personally speaking, I'm going with the second option based on future events in the trailer.
0:35 - We discover that the setpiece appears to actually be a Fireflies base of some sort. A kind of town with a few homes and the stop sign with the Fireflies symbol indicating that it is their territory.
0:50 - An as of yet unknown individual with a tattooed right forearm is shown with a bloodied, bruised, and cut up right hand that is shaking. Why is it shaking? Is it possibly repetitive stress? Is it psychological?
1:04 - The playing of the guitar begins with testing out the sound. This is someone who has been taught to play.
1:20 - The song proper begins and from the voice we come to know that it is in fact Ellie playing the guitar and singing (V.O. is a great singer too)
.1:48 - This setpiece is very interesting. If you look at the window on the left, it is the window that appears at the menu screen for the start of the first game. It is a room we never visit in the first game at all. Perhaps the first game foreshadowed this? Or perhaps it's just a convenience?
1:56 - Appears that Ellie was bitten on the neck, a clear indication that the infected are still present and that she is still immune.
2:06 - The first sign of death in the trailer showing a foream and hand lifeless and bloody, a silhouetted character starts walking up to the door. Is this an enemy? Or is this a friend? Ellie's song continues. Does she not notice someone coming, or does she not care?
2:14 - Notice the grass being displaced, the sound it makes when that happens.
2:17 - Notice the mud being kicked up by the shoes, hear the sound of feet walking over and around the puddle. Remember that the unknown person did not walk into the water except right at the start where mud was kicked up.
2:23 - Individual is holding a gun. Still yet unknown if they be enemy or friend. Ellie just keeps on playing and singing.
2:29 - Individual stops to see someone dead, possibly shot in the head, then keeps moving.
2:38 - 2:40 - Individual walks towards the sound of the playing, trying to listen and confirm where the sound is coming from. His profile looks identical to Joel from the first game.
2:44 - Joel leans against the frame of the door, just listening to Ellie play and sing.
2:59 - Joel questions Ellie and asks her if she's sure of what she wants to do.
3:18 - Without bothering to look up Ellie begins answering Joel's question and doesn't look up to him until 3:27. Anger in her face, she talks about finding and killing someone, some group of people.
3:45 - The full name of the game is revealed and thus ends the most pertinent parts of the trailer.
Ok, so there is a theory floating about the internet that Joel is dead in this game and that Ellie is looking at and talking to a ghost. There is little to nothing backing this theory and enough to refute it. But before I get to that there is something else I want to touch upon.
Many of us, including myself, had the initial impression that Ellie is talking about killing the Fireflies. This theory is substantiated somewhat by the events of the previous game, the reputation the Fireflies have in general, and the setpiece of the trailer. However, we must consider the possibility that Ellie and Joel happened upon the Fireflies base and found them all dead, possibly killed by the real people Ellie wants to kill herself, but I digress.
So Joel is dead? Why? What is the indication, beyond not actually showing his face, that he is dead? We have been told by Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dogs' head, that The Last of Us Part II is Ellie's story, she will be the focus. Now some use that as a reinforcement of the "Joel is dead" theory, but it's much more likely that this is why the trailer is focused on Ellie more than anything else.
Beyond that, pay attention to the physical clues. Joel walks in and parts the grass, we can hear his feet making sounds as he walks through the grass and on the floor, he leans against the door frame. He is holding a gun. Would a dead person be capable of these physical cues? Would a dead person need a gun?
"Why would he come in so much later?" I've seen this used too.
Could be any number of reasons. Maybe he was looking for Ellie and just found her after following the trail of death. Maybe he went to scout out and see if they were alone and safe and the trailer is showing him coming back. We don't know. But to add this to a theory of Joel's death is the absolute pinnacle of circumstantial "proof" there could ever be.
The point is is that I've already seen posts like "irrefutable proof that Joel is dead" posts on the internet. This theory is ballooning and there is no real substance behind it, while I have attempted to show that there is in fact refutation of it in this trailer.
But... opinions in the end. Would appreciate hearing yours on my analysis and refutation. Thanks for reading.
These days Xenoblade is one of Nintendo’s bigger franchises – at least when it comes to RPGs – but that wasn’t always the case. The first entry came out in English more than a year after its Japanese launch, and that was for European fans only.
Would've been yet another whack move on Nintendo. I'm glad they did. It's one of the few games I got the switch for.
I guess Nintendo forgets how boosting sales numbers work. Why lock a game to a certain region or certain regions? You want sales number then flood the market and release the game in every region.
I just don't understand why companies enjoy locking software behind such specific things. Imagine if Minecraft was only available for Xbox 360 and only North America and never again on anything else..
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I don't think Joel is dead. My theory is that because Joel continued to lie to her to the point that she thinks the firefly's are the reason why they haven't found a cure for the virus. They would of had to kill her to get the cure and I think she would have wanted that but, that is not what Joel wanted.
Well he could be dead but she's not talking to a "ghost". It could be in her imagination where she would be remembering him as if he would have been there and what he would have said in that situation. What's a better impetus for revenge and hate than to have your father figure taken away from you. Yeah there's no proof but why would ND give away such a huge plot point years from release. I don't want proof but it's fun to speculate.
Saying how can he be a ghost if he carries a gun and parts grass does little to actually debunk a theory like this - Joel is how Ellie remembers him. Looking at the trailer again, whether they've stumbled into Firefly territory or Ellie was kidnapped again and Joel had to fight through to get her, there has been a lot of bloodshed. Even Ellie has been injured, so Joel walking in without a scratch is hard to believe. Maybe he came in much later, but based on their relationship I doubt they would spend much time apart.
This theory has gained legs not because of Joel's appearance in the trailer, but of Ellie's anger filled statement: "I am going to find and kill every single one of them". Where does so much hate come from? Why would you embark on a journey for vengeance? She is doing this because the only person she knew and cared for is dead and the Fireflies killed him. If you think about Left Behind, in that she loses the one person she cares about and she is given the opportunity to save mankind by giving up her life, and she takes it. The last of us shows the journey of two people learning to care for someone else, that is why Ellie accepts what Joel tells her at the end of the game. She knows what really happened, but she has accepted in her heart that it's okay for her life to keep going as she cares for someone else and she needs to look out for him as he does for her.
Five years pass with these two and then the Fireflies manage to catch up to them. The Fireflies are no longer the answer to Ellie's problem, they no longer offer relief from her pain. They want to steal her to save themselves. Joel protects her as they fight and is killed. In the aftermath, with a moment to honour Joel she picks up a guitar, something Joel vowed to teach her one day, and begins to play. She is paying tribute to Joel's memory with the song.
"This story is about hate" stated Neil Druckmann. Ellie is fueled by hate and vengeance for the murder of her Joel.
This is why the 'Joel is dead' theory works.
Add to the cues that a imaginary Joel wouldnt stop to look at a dead person and checking if the place is clear.
Some have said he is a ghost because he appears from thin air and passively interacts with Ellie. I dont think so, I think it is clearly artistic lighting with excessive bloom that makes it appears as he if "materializes" right outside the house. In the trailer bloom is used elsewhere, not only the door from which Joel enters the place, the window in the room she sits you cant actually see out through it because of the bloom and it is an artistic decition playing into the symbolism of the trailer as Ellie sings about the good that follows her perhaps on some level implying that Joel is there for her and helping her.
I think ND are just toying with people. I am sure they are not that stupid to reveal such an important plot point. As such I think it is something different.
It could very well be that Ellie was in the firefly camp was attacked and she is the sole survivor.
Point is it might not be what it looks like. Were the group attacked by humans or clickers?. It seems like she has a bite mark on her neck?.