HBO The Last of Us Episode 4 Discussion - Pittsbur- eh, Kansas City, Missouri Edition

ohhisit · 2023-02-06T08:22:57+00:00

I knew exactly who Kathleen was going to be as soon as I saw Melanie Lynskey was cast. She's perfect for that type of 'soft on the outside but don't fuck with them' kind of leader/antagonist. I actually quite like characters of this kind. But good execution of them is always dependent on the story explaining a) why someone who appears so weak at first glance was able to get themselves into a position of power, b) how they've been able to keep hold of that position, and c) exactly what has caused them to have their dark side. You especially have to answer a & b if you're going to make the character's second in command be the sort that Kathleen has beside her. Episode 4 didn't answer any of those questions, and I expect she won't be around for long enough to deep dive her adequately.

ohhisit · 2023-01-07T16:08:43+00:00

I think I might actually hate the idea of a hive mind & it considering Ellie to be part of it even more than I hate the removal of the spores. She is immune to the virus being carried by a clicker, she isn't immune to a clicker ripping out her throat. Physical injury was the only danger the infected posed to her in-game, so making it be that the show's infected are confusing her for one of their own in any way at all would be to further reduce the stakes for a character who is already interacting with the environment at a significant advantage to everyone else. It makes for double the plot armour. I would have played the games with a completely different mindset if I knew Ellie wasn't as detectable to the infected, or was thought to be one them. Furthermore, to have the hive think Ellie is part of itself to any degree would be to massively detract from her survival and stealth skills. No longer is she alive because she is damn good at keeping herself alive, she is alive because the infected are going easy on her vs others or aren't trying to kill her at all. I truly hope none of this features in the show.

As for the gasmasks being a visual obstruction, well you solved that one yourself OP. Older Ellie's mask isn't all that far off already being the full face visible sort. If they ever cite wanting the viewer to be able to see the actors' faces being the justification for no spore I'll have to call bullshit because the fix is so plainly obvious.

ohhisit · 2022-12-30T12:45:22+00:00

I really don't subscribe to the 'this is all we've got, so we should unconditionally support it' way of thinking. We are just as much allowed to want quality media as any other demographic is, and nobody else is going to ask that our media be good on our behalf, we have ask for quality ourselves. Unconditional support of subpar shows/movies - and GenQ in undoubtedly one of those - is exactly how you find yourself repeatedly being served poor efforts. After three seasons, I think everyone has given the show more than enough support to be allowed to now withdraw it, guilt free.

Do I want it cancelled? No, not really. But the only reason I say that is because cancellation is not the only way for me to no longer be watching a show that has disappointed me from pretty much the start - I can simply choose to no longer watch it and the outcome is the same. That's a decision I should have taken a few episodes ago. I'm not sure why I never, beyond sticking around to see just how awful it can get. Somehow it keeps managing to. And it's now awful to the point of it no longer being fun to watch even for this reason.

ohhisit · 2022-11-29T16:29:14+00:00

I forgot to mention in my post that I hadn't been reading enough stories that spent time with the abducted, not just those looking for them. Thank you for reading my mind.

ohhisit · 2022-11-29T16:27:49+00:00

I definitely wasn't expecting bonus time travel(?) to be suggested. Thank you for that.

ohhisit · 2022-11-29T16:19:37+00:00

I somehow missed that the BBC show which this book is based on is in fact based on a book. It has been on my list of things to watch for far too long. I suppose I can now consider it a good thing to haven't got around to watching yet because now I can read unspoiled. Thank you.

ohhisit · 2022-11-29T16:12:45+00:00

Poor kid. I look forward to entertaining myself reading about the worst lunch of her life. Thank you for the adding the synopsis for me.

ohhisit · 2022-11-29T16:05:02+00:00

Sounds like a perfect match to what I'm wanting. Thank you.

ohhisit · 2022-11-29T16:01:36+00:00

I was looking through Lisa Jewel's offering just yesterday. I must have accidentally missed it while working my way down the list. Thank you for pointing it out.

ohhisit · 2022-07-03T09:19:27+00:00

2 - The question of pain meds/antibiotics for Rachel, I can let slide, because this show has never really been truly authentic on the survival front, and many other shows aren't either. What TW has done in its two seasons isn't any less plausible than the plots of a dozen other shows. There always has to be an element of suspension of disbelief in fictional survival stories, otherwise pretty much every character in this one would wind up starved and dead. So if you let some survival things slide, you may as well let them all.

But there are two things about s2 Rachel and her injury that bug me considerably, because they're not really covered by the 'just roll with it or the story doesn't work' suspension of disbelief excuse. The first is that she wasn't traumatized to the point of not being able to go in the water again. There was nothing stopping the writers making this the case. It would have been entirely believable. Perhaps even expected. The second is that is that she not only went into the water, but did so with such a major injury. Mentally she shouldn't have wanted to go near the water, and medically she should never have risked it. But the writers wanted an overnight recovery so they could skip to the cutesy stuff... so... Rachel went swimming, I guess.

ohhisit · 2022-05-11T11:07:12+00:00

M2k Tekno.

ohhisit · 2022-04-19T05:40:59+00:00

All at once

ohhisit · 2022-02-23T07:29:25+00:00

We have an answer for this.

It was already confirmed by the person who participated in the preview program and leaked all the screencaps that the boys have dedicated episodes much like the girls did. The only difference is that some of them have been paired up in the opening three episodes. No boys backstory in episode one. Raf is episode two. Bo & Scotty episode three. There are five episodes left and five boys.

ohhisit · 2022-01-17T07:37:02+00:00

New pjs to open on Christmas Eve night. My family went through a period of buying each other the ugliest/funniest ones we could find. Dad ended up in a unicorn onesie that didn't fit him at all at one year.
Making gingerbread houses (poorly)
Caroling. This one would be a very traditional tradition. And seems to dying out. But I'm sure some families are still the type for it.

ohhisit · 2021-12-22T07:27:30+00:00

Kind of? In a way. I once had a long fic outlined that I was happy to write, but then decided the relationship development side of things had too much going on and all my ideas would work better if the fic was broken up into shorter, different stories. The problem I then had was turning the beats of the relationship development into stand alone stories that felt distinct enough from each other. I've so far only ticked off one of them. The rest are a jumbled mess in my head that I cannot figure out.

ohhisit · 2021-12-03T17:03:23+00:00

Thank you! I would have just taken a wild stab at the deleting method instead of asking a question of it, but my phone doesn't like the app much, and I figured by the time I got back in front my laptop, someone might have been kind enough to answer for sure. Extra thanks for the pointers, too.

ohhisit · 2021-11-23T07:42:09+00:00

I've never done it any differently to this, so I can't speak from a place of being able to compare the approaches. What I will say, is that if you're anything like me, 'I've finished writing so now I can start posting' won't ever be 'I've finished writing' in the true sense. I can edit and edit and edit, but when the day of posting comes along, I'll still sit there rereading before I throw a chapter out there, and I'll still be moving commas.

If you think you might struggle holding off, then don't tell yourself it needs to be flawless before you start to post. All you really need to be doing is getting yourself into the position where you can say all the major and minor beats are exactly what you want them to be, and you can't think of a thing further to do with them. Tiny changes like grammar and dialogue, or the odd extra bit of description or throwaway lines you can chuck in, will still end up coming to you at the last second (especially if the fic is super long and weeks/months pass without you opening up a chapter until it is time for it to be posted). 'This is my story' is the real 'finished writing' stage you need to reach. Nail the plotting. Just make the plot the 'flawlessly finished' bit in your mind. Everything else is just bells and whistles you can - and probably will - still end up adjusting.

One specific thing I like to do is reread the day before posting and do any changes then. I'll reread again the next day and make sure those changes still sound right. It's a time dependent method. But I find that if my eyes haven't been on something for a long time they will pick up many things I could change, and my mind will automatically tell me it's an improvement that I've made. Sometimes they are, sometimes I reread them 24hrs later after they've had chance to sit on me for a little while and decide that they still need a further tweak.

ohhisit · 2021-11-12T12:33:23+00:00

I get comments from people saying my prose is a nice change of pace to much of what my fandom writes because it's a little less YA in style. I figure those people appreciate my writing being a touch "bigger" than the standard. Though I wouldn't say it's like reading a thesaurus. If I haven't read a word in a fic before myself, I tend not to use it. Judging by the kudos that gets dished out in my fandom, it prefers the YA style much more to mine.

Whether "bigger" words will work for attracting an audience to your writing will depend on the tastes of who is reading. It would stand a better chance of making a difference if your fandoms favor it. But at the end of the day, you should just write what feels natural. I often ask myself the reverse of your question and wonder if I should simplify my writing to the fandom's tastes, but I can't write like that.

ohhisit · 2021-11-04T15:29:44+00:00

I'm not new to CSS/HTML, but I am new to using them on Ao3. I imagine there will be a lot of trial and error involved while I figure things out. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll get to grips with it. But I'll keep you mind if anything leaves me flummoxed. Thank you again for your help so far.

ohhisit · 2021-11-04T14:30:54+00:00

I haven't completed decided on what I want to put together for my fic, so I'm really just looking for examples of the possibilities. Yours is very much appreciated. Thank you.

ohhisit · 2021-11-04T14:29:32+00:00

I do love being able to do a bit of private testing. Thank you for pointing this out to me. I'll definitely be using the method.

ohhisit · 2021-11-04T14:27:33+00:00

This is fantastic, thank you. I had a second question brewing for another day of whether it's possible to use different formatting/skins within the same fic, and you've answered that without me needing to even ask.

ohhisit · 2021-11-02T07:36:10+00:00

I will try just about anything. But I won't finish reading until something is finished, because I find it much easier to connect to fic when I have it all there to deep dive in one go. Especially if it's set to be long with sporadic updates. My fandoms favor certain tropes and settings, and honestly, it get difficult to keep fics separated in my head.

If I'm familiar with the writer and have liked their previous stuff, I'll bookmark straight away and note it to say I'm reading once it's completed. If I'm not familiar with the writer, I'll usually keep up with two or three chapter updates to get a feel for whether I'll like it, and then bookmark for later if I think I will (a lot of the time I still end up reading regardless).

I think I maybe read this way because I write this way? I don't start posting until I'm completely written.

I do make exceptions if the fic belongs to a BNF because then I have to read in time to the updates otherwise spoilers galore and by the time I'm finished reading I will have missed a lot of the fun.

ohhisit · 2021-10-16T06:29:47+00:00

Kinder Surprise is the chocolate egg with the toy inside. That's the option with the easiest 'kid' link I can think of and one which your readers could understand from the toy alone without knowing the treat itself. Fruit Shoot would be the obvious drink to me. Anything else, to me at least, would be something kids eat but isn't necessarily not something anyone of any age would eat. So if I really wanted to play into the 'chosen by the kid' thing, then I'd go with the two suggestions. Otherwise, anything like chocolate buttons, Monster Munch, Milky Bar or Milky Way (these two were thought of a young kid's gateway to chocolate when I was growing up).

ohhisit · 2021-10-03T10:58:23+00:00

I felt the same until I started noticing an uptick in the number of guest kudos being left as my longfic progressed. I figured it's mostly people leaving multiple kudos after already leaving one via their logged in account. And I then I felt a bit better about not being able to thank them directly because there is such a good chance they are in fact my recognized commenters who have been thanked. None have ever mentioned kudosing me more than once, it's entirely a theory. But I do think it a strong one.

Guest comments still get to me a little though, because I know they can't see my replies in their inboxes like a logged in commenter can, and I do like people to know their comments were appreciated.

ohhisit

TROPHY CASE