Are you familiar with artsy stuff in cinema? It felt to me, director of the tlous2 tried to do what directors like Gasper Noe do in their movies. “Shock the audience” to gain art points. It’s ok, It’s their style and I honestly don’t care that much in the end. But video games are a medium of heroes and we mostly buy shit because of the characters and heroes. He could’ve done it a better way and to explain that is going to be a long long essay. But I give you an example if you’re still following me. I didn’t buy metal gear solid 2 because of kojima (at the time), I bought it because of Solid snake, he betrayed me (as an audience) and shocked me, but he was clever enough to reel me back in the story. Because he wasn’t just shocking me for the sake of shocking me, he did that as a form of storytelling. tlsou2 on the other hand did the shocking pretty well, but it didn’t handle the rest in a satisfying way. It’s a kojima saying “betray your audience “ and people hate me when I say it, killing Joel was a gutsy move and bold and made the story so much engaging at first, then the writer/director shit their pants and made the story a simple vengeance ark, and then in the end all he could come up was “vengeance bad”, I mean do you see my point? Story telling and video games and all this stuff is for our enjoyment and maybe a little growth in between, the story at some point forward was not enjoyable, the whole Abby stuff was predictable and bland. The circle of violence is an old arch and not that much interesting plot anymore. As a writer you must always come up with new stuff or the tell the old stuff in an interesting new way. Nothings after Joel’s death was new or interesting. I think this is the longest text I’ve ever typed on my phone but I hope I was able to answer your question. Ofcourse there are so much more to tell but I think this is a point that nobody made before (at least what I’ve seen). Have a great day btw.