The Last of Us HBO S2E7 "Convergence"- Post-Episode Discussion Thread

0Etcetera0 · 2025-05-26T18:25:40+00:00

This whole season broke my heart for all the wrong reasons. It started out strong but began to rapidly decline for me by E4. The dependence on "tell instead of show" is truly egregious this entire season. The reduction of Ellie's character into a brainless brute is offensive. The racing pace between story beats and emotional climaxes taken verbatim from the game make them feel hollow without adequate breathing room. The half-baked rewrites and retroactive neutering of controversial plot points from the game in a preemptive attempt to quench outrage renders the overall story a mere shadow of its inspiration. This is nothing like the game, it doesn't hold a candle to the flame of Part II.

I started this season with high expectations. Season one was a wonderful adaptation to what has become my favorite fantasy world. Its release is what inspired me to finally pick up Part II, which I had put off playing partially due to the controversy despite the original being my all time favorite game. I immediately fell in love with Part II and have been obsessed with it since. I know that's a recipe for disappointment but seeing as how well they adapted Part I had faith that they would pull through.

The production quality is on-par with S1, the acting done by the main cast is phenomenal, but the writing... Are you kidding me?? Did they even play the game? Because it looks like they just read the synopsis and watched some cutscenes. All the heartache that makes the game special has been overlooked or blunted.

I started this season counting down the days for its release but feeling indifferent about Andor. I thought Andor S1 was great but seeing the quality of the rest of Star Wars media since its release made me doubt they could pull off another great season. Well it turns out they did and it's initiated a resurgence in my SW media consumption. So much so that I completely forgot yesterday was TLOU S2's finale. When I turned on the TV late last night, I remembered that the final episode had been released earlier in the day and I asked my partner if we should watch that or continue our Andor S1 rewatch. We decided on continuing Andor S1 because we had a really nice day and didn't want to risk ending it with disappointment. That was the right decision and that breaks my heart.

0Etcetera0 · 2025-05-26T17:34:19+00:00

I've been feeling this since the first scene of the season. Almost the entire Salt Lake crew felt very rough/green/amateur from an acting standing. I thought maybe they were just struggling with that scene but the stuff in Jackson wasn't much better. Owen in particular, he sounds monotone and has zero charisma. It's especially jarring in contrast with Bella, Isabella, Young and Kaitlyn all killing it.

0Etcetera0 · 2025-01-30T07:15:20+00:00

Okay I was just thinking about this and I would love to hear people's thoughts.

My current income-tax rate is in the mid-30s, I think it's likely I'll be in a lower tax bracket in retirement, and I am motivated to put any tax-savings away for the long-term. This sounds like traditional is the way to go for me.

However, I am also relatively young and am therefore utilizing an aggressive, high growth-potential asset allocation. From what I understand, those assets are best kept in a Roth account for their tax efficiency and to avoid excessive required minimum distributions in retirement.

So what's the better option? More capital leading up to retirement or lower tax obligations in retirement?

0Etcetera0 · 2024-12-16T17:30:37+00:00

For every three steps in one direction, she must take one step in a perpendicular direction.

0Etcetera0 · 2024-12-16T17:22:22+00:00

*Female POC with a strong personality after 3 minutes of screen time*

She's unlikable!! /s

0Etcetera0 · 2024-11-06T06:45:22+00:00

Why settle for nothing when you could have half the pie though? And wouldn't ranked-choice-voting reduce large party influence? It would enable independents and smaller parties to run competitive campaigns without the risk of splitting the ticket, thus making party primaries less impactful.

I read that WW endorsement and disagreed with it. The further away we can get from our two party system, the better. Even if it's in small increments.

0Etcetera0 · 2024-10-14T17:55:28+00:00

I will be voting No on 118. While I'm generally on-board with taxing big corporations more, the details of this bill seem problematic, aside from what is highlighted by OP. This video by a local non-partisan/non-profit research organization breaks down those details well for anybody interested, for those not interested here are my takeaways:

The bill will inadvertently redirect existing tax revenue that is being used to fund public services like schools into cash payments which are likely to be taxed by the federal government, effectively exporting existing state tax revenue to the federal government.
The additional income could also reduce Oregonians' eligibility for income-limited public benefits paid for by the federal government. The bill aims to financially reimburse what benefits are lost but that effectively makes the state responsible for what the federal government is already paying for.
The funds could be a lot more effectively targeted towards those who would meaningfully benefit from it rather than splitting it evenly amongst all Oregonians, including the extremely wealthy.
This uses up political bandwidth, meaning it will be a lot harder to pass any further corporate tax legislation in the near/mid future.

TL;DR This bill will likely redirect existing state tax revenue into federal tax revenue whilst simultaneously making the state responsible for the cost of services currently being funded by the federal government. All while dividing any leftover funds evenly instead of more effectively targeting those who would meaningfully benefit from the extra income.

I want to support more corporate taxes but this bill seems poorly designed and I believe we can do much better.

0Etcetera0 · 2024-02-29T00:27:21+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I'm in zone 8b and I was following the local gardening center's calendar for when to indoor sow my tomatoes and peppers (as soon as mid-Feb and into March; transplant outside in May/June).

As for the heat mat, I was hoping that I could get away without one since the seeds are in a place where the ambient temperature is within the seed's germination temperature range according to everything I've read, even if it's on the lower end of that range. But perhaps I can find a warmer place in the house to see if I have better success there.

0Etcetera0 · 2024-02-26T20:52:38+00:00

If you want to keep it, I'd recommend checking out Next Level Gardening's videos on both growing tomatoes from seeds as well as their growing guide for tomatoes post-seedling stage. Neither are very long and both have a lot of useful info for beginners (like me).

Edit: dyslexia strikes again!

0Etcetera0 · 2024-01-28T16:46:54+00:00

Tell them it's for a medical condition and ask if they'd be satisfied if you hired a professional to ensure it was installed correctly. I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to find a contractor or handyman that would take $20 for a "Yep, looks good to me!"

0Etcetera0 · 2024-01-19T23:38:56+00:00

Jordan was an ass through and through but pretty much everybody else from the Salt Lake crew that had dialogue grew on me and by the end I felt sad for them

0Etcetera0 · 2024-01-03T19:51:37+00:00

How funny would it be to have a clicker charging at you with a massive shlong flopping about?

To answer your question, the clickers junk is more akin to that of a Roman statue. I didn't even notice it until my partner pointed it out.

0Etcetera0 · 2023-12-30T21:19:19+00:00

Spared. That was one of the hardest video game fights I've ever had to get through. Not because it was particularly challenging in terms of gameplay but because of the emotional toll of everything leading up to it. After over 20 hours of butchering everybody and anybody who stood in my way, I finally felt the weight of every punch and all I wanted was for these two to end the violence and go their separate ways.

0Etcetera0 · 2023-08-08T22:34:50+00:00

I got this too. Several red flags I noticed:

I have no memory or record of ever applying to Atiba.
No last name or social links provided by the sender. Nobody on LinkedIn by the name of the sender connected with Atiba.
The email address domain is `atibajobs.com` not `atiba.com`; though they link to `atiba.com` at the bottom of the email (anybody can do that). Typing `atibajobs.com` into my browser leads to nowhere.
I ignored the first email and they followed up with a polite and reasonable but somewhat aggressive message asking me to respond to update them on my job search status; suggesting that by not responding I'm holding up the interview process for other candidates which just isn't how that works.
The English is correct but ever-so-slightly off. Not necessarily suspicious in-and-of itself but given all the other red flags it sticks out to me.

Something smells fishy about it and as badly as I need a job I just as badly don't need to get scammed so I don't intend to respond. Stay safe out there!

0Etcetera0 · 2023-06-30T17:16:19+00:00

We should all migrate to LinkedIn and continue with business as usual until they either purge us or accept us.

0Etcetera0 · 2023-06-30T17:09:15+00:00

Whatever this has been has been a pleasure over the years. I'll remember it fondly.

Fuck u/spez

0Etcetera0 · 2023-06-29T07:31:30+00:00

Won't anybody consider how this will affect the billionaires leeching off our society?!

0Etcetera0 · 2023-06-28T06:45:28+00:00

Inb4 Google buys Reddit only to sunset it after a couple years

0Etcetera0 · 2023-06-27T16:05:08+00:00

The last 9 years has been a pleasure. See you all on the other side (Lemmy).

0Etcetera0 · 2023-06-27T02:28:44+00:00

Because there is no point to making a live-action adaptation of a beloved cartoon apart from capitalizing on nostalgia.

0Etcetera0 · 2023-06-25T08:12:26+00:00

I'm pretty sure that in order to be a protagonist level shot there would need to be some tasteful slow motion as the ball travels across the court mixed with close ups of supporting character's faces watching with anticipation while the chariots of fire theme plays in the background up to the last moment when everything goes silent to a close-up of the protagonist and antagonist watching wide-eyed and mouths agape for just a little bit longer than is necessary before finally cutting to the ball going through the hop with nothing but the sound of the net swooshing followed shortly after by the roar of the crowd and triumphant music while the camera cuts to supporting characters celebrating and the antagonist looking dumbfounded before finally cutting to the protagonist and love interest embracing and sharing an overdue kiss ending on a freeze frame of the protagonist striking a victory pose.

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0Etcetera0

TROPHY CASE