I was gonna post this in a private Discord server, but then I realized that A. the 2000 character limit is way too small for what I want to write, and B. I want more ppl to see this. So, blog post.
TRIGGER WARNING: graphic violence.
SPOILER WARNING: The Last of Us, both the OG and Part II.
You know that one joke about video games that's like, "This game really makes you *feel* like Spiderman?" It's thrown around a lot because that's what a lot of games want you to do: to attach yourself to the main character so deeply that you essentially insert yourself into their body and the world of the game and be completely immersed in the experience. You want to feel like Spiderman, and the game wants you to feel like Spiderman too, so the game does all in its power to make you Feel Like Spiderman®.
The Last of Us: Part II doesn't do that.
The game does not want you to be Ellie. It does not want you to be Abby. Both of these characters are very flawed people. And by "very flawed", I mean in ways that make it harder to empathize with them.
This goes directly against most gamers' lexicons: "WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS ELLIE DOING THIS I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT WHAT THE FUCK???" is something that I've seen in a lot of gamers' takes about the game. Gamers are coming in to this game expecting to be Spiderman and wanting to be Spiderman but then when Spiderman bashes a random girl's face in with a crowbar over and over again and the game forces the player to be pressing that square button to make Spiderman do that, gamers are disgusted, shocked, and angry -- especially angry, not just at Spiderman for doing this shit but also *the game* for forcing them to do shit ***they*** do not want to do.
And that's the real meat of it: ***they***, the player, does not want to bash a random girl's face in with a crowbar over and over again. They still want to Feel Like Spiderman:registered:, so anything Spiderman does is also technically something the player themselves are doing too. When Spiderman bashes a zombie's face in, the player feels like *they* are bashing a zombie's face in too. They take responsibility for Spiderman's actions. So when the game tells Spiderman to bash not a zombie's face in but the face of a girl that Spiderman wants to get intel out of in his thirst for the blood of Dennis Carradine (look it up), they'll feel like the game is forcing them to do shit they don't want to do. It feels like their responsibility is being ripped away from them.
But the problem with all of this isn't really the game having flawed storytelling (tho of course it has flaws everything has flaws). It's the ***player*** who is insisting on trying to be Spiderman when really... they shouldn't.
You *don't* want to be Spiderman.
Spiderman is a piece of shit. He has good parts about him and it makes sense for him to be going after the guy who killed Uncle Ben, but the methods that he takes to kill Uncle Ben are cruel and morally corrupt. The same can be said for Dennis too: while we first see him as The Guy who Killed Uncle Ben, we come to learn that he actually has people of his own that he cares about, and when we what Spiderman does to those people in his quest for revenge, it becomes much more difficult to determine who is really the good guy in this story.
If you try to Feel Like Spiderman:registered: like all of gaming has taught you to do, you will inevitably feel conflicted with Spiderman's actions. Again, Spiderman is a piece of shit. He will do shit that you do not want to do because he is not designed to be a "player character" but... well... an NPC. An NPC that you just so happen to control. It's very similar to a movie in that regard: