Last of Us [TV]

[username993720]

You haven't every looked up what some dooms day preppers stock up on have you? Some of his stuff might be freezer burnt after a couple years but raiding a towns worth of food would go along way and even before that real life preppers stock a ton of stuff.

Does she look like she eats one can a day? Come on... there are 365 days a year. The supplies quickly run out, especially if she has a family or is extremely bored and has nothing else to do.

They aren't lavish meals at all. They are relatively simple meals. He isn't stocking all his food at the start of the 20 year period. He is growing food each year and hunting for meat. So, the vegetables are grown, and given you only need about a football field worth of farm for a family of 4 to survive, he has more than enough growth for the vegetables. And if his meat is all hunted, a deer can last a few people a long time and rabbits/hares well breed like rabbits, so they are going to be around.

Nick offerman ain't small either. You wanna tell me he kept his weight all through the pandemic? Doesn't seem like a crisis...

Again, you must have been expecting a 1:1 adaptation from the video game. I don't know about you but I'm pretty glad 80% of the show isn't Joel grunting and walking into a wall while he figures out how to use a wooden plank to traverse a river.

You know what that makes the cordiceps? Just another alien threat. This isn't how the fungus works and it just ruins immersion after they tried to establish it was pretty realistic.

If you think people can't live off grid/off the land for decades with little to no help from outside industry you're not paying attention to how much of the un-developed WORLD (you know the non-1st world countries) sustains itself, even in 2023. Much less the thousands of years of human history people managed to survive without mass produced food. You know, on just the animals and food they grew and cared for, and hunted, themselves, on their own plots of land.

While I won't get into the hundreds (at least) of cows, sheep, chicken, goats, horses, etc. STILL alive in the area around where he lives, 20 years after the human society fails (that, you know, he could be using as a sustainable food source for himself post-apoc), I will point to the show's demonstration of them having grown veges/little gardens cultivating in their yard as evidence that these two people can at least GROW enough plant matter for themselves to survive for decades. Anyone can. Doesn't take miracle-gro. And you don't need eat to eat meat to live as a human.

Their dinners, that were shown, that you call 'lavish' - they were mostly veges/potatoes and a single meat item + (implied) homemade sauce. The ONE time we are told what that meat item is - its rabbit. A rapidly producing wild animal (rodent?) that you can find in most every forest and field in the US - one that is easily trapped as well as easily raised/farmed if someone didn't want to rely on trapping. Given its established that Bill is a survivalist, i'm sure he figured out how to trap local animals for food pretty quick!

We are also shown that in the immediate aftermath of the apoc, Bill was (hands down) the smartest individual I've ever seen portrayed in a post-apoc media =D. He actually drove around, all over, and brought supplies back with his truck. They showed multiple trips (or implied multiple trips), filling up his truck, a boat, gas, going to power plants and the gas-utilities. For all we know, he could have driven around to every house and town in 100 miles and collected every single thing worth keeping, back at his house. Its what the SMART person, finding themselves entirely alone, would do.

Even if you weren't a prepper before, that would net you a sizeable amount of sustainable cans/useful items that would possibly last several years - even if you were stupid and didn't figure out how to grow and trap your own food in that time.



And you don't need 99.9% of that to survive, ever.

Also - Ellie was still able to find a box of tampons in a 'picked over' store, 20 years later. There ARE still isolated items out there in stores that have been picked over. No, not on a level you could survive off of. But if you've gone 3-5 years without an item already, you probably aren't desperately looking in stores for it anymore and have figured out how to live, otherwise.

The industrial revolution is barely 100 years old. Human beings can, absolutely, survive on their own for decades without factory/mass produced *anything* and without gas or electricity. Sure, you do without a lot of things, and your diet may get quite boring - but that's not deadly.

Now, I'd have given you - "We don't see him churning butter!" to make those sauces (as we don't). Or even, "not a single shot with a field of cows!" Cuz yeah, that's true. But that doesn't mean one couldn't live using the cows at a farm a mile away from the house. And that /really/ doesn't mean you can't survive without them. I'd also agree with the caveat here that this only 'works' if no one ends up with a serious injury or serious medical illness. If Frank had diabetes, he'd be long dead. If Bill had come down with sepsis, or a staff infection, from that bullet - he be dead. (And I'd even agree that him living, at all, from that gutshot - is a big 'suspension of disbelief moment' lol) A serious head cold, could kill you, in this reality. But that's not what was shown nor the complaint brought up.

I mean shit, I live in Alabama. We already have a deer population problem even with all the hunting and human encroachment. If society crapped out here, none of us would have any problems eating 'like kings' on deer meat we hunted ourselves, year around. Even here, in the middle of the biggest city in the state. And that's just ONE meat item you can survive on. Start planting some tomatoes and potatoes, no problem for a village of people to live off just those three foods for decades. Boring yes - but more than survivable.

Sure, there are plenty of other things about the game/show (or the entire genre of apoclypse shows) that make ZIPPO sense and really wouldn't be realistic.

But the ability for two people to provide themselves with enough food and water to live for 20 years is NOT one of those unrealistic things.

We've got entire communities, lost to the modern world and living out their lives in isolation with NONE of the support we have, continuing to do so just fine, right now. As they've done for thousands of years already. Their lives are not at all effected because the meat got freezer burn or the canned soup ran out 10 years ago.

What about medication? Can they harvest that too from the ground?

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Does she look like she eats one can a day? Come on... there are 365 days a year. The supplies quickly run out, especially if she has a family or is extremely bored and has nothing else to do.

A single can of food can last multiple days depending on what it is and if your mixing it with other things as part of a meal, a grocery store can also have thousands of cans then add in frozen foods as he had refrigeration and boxed foods and then of course growing his own food and hunter/trapping.

This isn’t one of those apocalypses where every thing goes to hell and people loot every thing they can this is one preppier with a towns full of goods made to feed hundreds of people.

He’s more likely to get scurvy then he is to run out of food.

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What about medication? Can they harvest that too from the ground?

Ever been to a drug store they have tens if not hundreds of bottles of medication depending on how commonly needed they are.

[Darththeo]

Nick offerman ain't small either. You wanna tell me he kept his weight all through the pandemic? Doesn't seem like a crisis...

It is almost like weight is determined by calories in vs calories expended and if he is expending less calories than he is consuming he won't lose weight.

[username993720]

A single can of food can last multiple days depending on what it is and if your mixing it with other things as part of a meal, a grocery store can also have thousands of cans then add in frozen foods as he had refrigeration and boxed foods and then of course growing his own food and hunter/trapping.

This isn’t one of those apocalypses where every thing goes to hell and people loot every thing they can this is one preppier with a towns full of goods made to feed hundreds of people.

He’s more likely to get scurvy then he is to run out of food.

Vegetables take time to grow, are vulnerable to weather, pests and even fungi and do not last forever.

Ever been to a drug store they have tens if not hundreds of bottles of medication depending on how commonly needed they are.

They have an expiration date, you know. They go bad if not kept in the right conditions.

It is almost like weight is determined by calories in vs calories expended and if he is expending less calories than he is consuming he won't lose weight.

The guy has to hunt, cultivate, scavenge, defend against zombies and raiders.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Vegetables take time to grow, are vulnerable to weather, pests and even fungi and do not last forever.

well it’s a good thing there is more types of food the. Just vegetables to pad out his diet while they grow.

They have an expiration date, you know. They go bad if not kept in the right conditions

They do but just like how there would be no gas at this point as that also spoil meds expiring is something every apocalypse setting ignores.

[Darththeo]

The guy has to hunt, cultivate, scavenge, defend against zombies and raiders.

So, none of those actually mean he is expending more calories than he is consuming.

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They do but just like how there would be no gas at this point as that also spoil meds expiring is something every apocalypse setting ignores.

There are tons of things that if you stop and really thought about doesn't make sense.

Gas, medicine, certain foods, and you can even argue firearms are too present in the world with certain settings.

[username993720]

So, none of those actually mean he is expending more calories than he is consuming.

You think he did that much before the apocalypse?
And, if he matches his input to his output, it means he does not ration his food at an apocalypse setting - pretty much decimating his food reserves.

[Darththeo]

You think he did that much before the apocalypse?
And, if he matches his input to his output, it means he does not ration his food at an apocalypse setting - pretty much decimating his food reserves.

Given he isn't living off "reserves", your point is invalid. We see him growing food and slaughtering animals, that's not food reserves. We do not know how much of his reserves he has even gone into it. You cannot make this claim.

[Rocksteady 87]

You think he did that much before the apocalypse?
And, if he matches his input to his output, it means he does not ration his food at an apocalypse setting - pretty much decimating his food reserves.

Again, you realize a lot of high-carb foods can be preserved pretty much indefinitely, right? Sugar and honey being prime amongst them (and he'd have a shit ton of it from the nearby grocery stores, convenience stores, and residental homes), as well as foods heavy in them. Canned soft drinks in particular (while the carbonation would fade as would some of the flavor, it'd still be a huge source of calories).

Fuck, he could have even been keeping a hive or two going, if for no other reason than to help pollinate his crops.

You're really underestimating how much of a prepper he was. And he clearly wasn't one of the idiot types who stored a bunch of ramen and MRIs and considered himself set. He was shown immediately going in and opening a gas vein to his home, setting up generators, and other things that would be required for the long haul pretty much on day one after the town was evacuated. He would (and clearly did) know about what superfoods to stockpile and prepare, as well as what to supplement it with via his crops (hence a focus on foods other than 'desert' types like strawberries, of which he could have easily grown in the first weeks if he wanted to). But no, he focused on must-haves rather than luxuries. Even if that still meant he essentially had a whole lot of luxury compared to other survivors.

And you do realize that mankind survived for over three hundred thousand years without commercial markets, right?

[username993720]

And you do realize that mankind survived for over three hundred thousand years without commercial markets, right?

In poor conditions, mostly.
Back then, people living in his conditions had workers working for them.

[Spikeychris]

In poor conditions, mostly.
Back then, people living in his conditions had workers working for them.

Ah MMO Champion just when you think the hot takes about TLOU can't get any stranger we have "Nick Offerman is too fat to be realistic"... what?

P.S. you are the same kinda person who screenshots Abby's workout schedule in her room and claims she couldn't possibly be as muscly as she was aren't you?

[Darththeo]

In poor conditions, mostly.
Back then, people living in his conditions had workers working for them.

Again, he will only lose weight if he is expending more calories than he is consuming. That's the only thing that cause weight loss.

This is why it is 100% possible to lose weight without rigorous exercise (not that it is "easy", just possible)

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Ah MMO Champion just when you think the hot takes about TLOU can't get any stranger we have "Nick Offerman is too fat to be realistic"... what?

P.S. you are the same kinda person who screenshots Abby's workout schedule in her room and claims she couldn't possibly be as muscly as she was aren't you?

It isn't the same as the Abby situation.

Bill in this case was overweight prior to the events and stayed overweight.
Abby built muscle which you can question that change in an apocalypse, but her workout schedule isn't remotely a valid reason.

[Relapses]

P.S. you are the same kinda person who screenshots Abby's workout schedule in her room and claims she couldn't possibly be as muscly as she was aren't you?

This brings up an interesting thought...

I'm hoping they just use CGI to portray Abby in Season 2. I don't care if it looks like live action Scooby Doo. No human being deserves the amount of hate whomever they cast as her will receive from TLoU's wonderful fanbase.

[Darththeo]

This brings up an interesting thought...

I'm hoping they just use CGI to portray Abby in Season 2. I don't care if it looks like live action Scooby Doo. No human being deserves the amount of hate whomever they cast as her will receive from TLoU's wonderful fanbase.

Sadly, whoever they cast will likely get hate unless they do more to make people like her.

The problems with Part 2 and Abby could be solve with:
Not having most of her interactions with her friends after we already saw their deaths via Ellie's perspective. It lowers the impact because we know they die. Do the stories parallel to each other.
And do not jump straight into the opening of Part 2, handle some set up prior and have Joel die slightly later in the story (IE, end of Episode 2 or Episode 3 of season 2). Yes, I understand shock value, but we are given no reason to care about Abby until after Joel's death which means a lot more work is needed for a lot of people to like her.

[Relapses]

Sadly, whoever they cast will likely get hate unless they do more to make people like her.

The problems with Part 2 and Abby could be solve with:
Not having most of her interactions with her friends after we already saw their deaths via Ellie's perspective. It lowers the impact because we know they die. Do the stories parallel to each other.
And do not jump straight into the opening of Part 2, handle some set up prior and have Joel die slightly later in the story (IE, end of Episode 2 or Episode 3 of season 2). Yes, I understand shock value, but we are given no reason to care about Abby until after Joel's death which means a lot more work is needed for a lot of people to like her.

I get it -- they could definitely go more of a traditional storytelling route with Season 2 and make Abby's character a bit more sympathetic -- but if these first three episodes are anything to go by it seems like Druckmann wants to double down on the controversial aspects of TLoU's story which leads me to believe we'll be golfing with Joel in the first or maybe second episode of Season 2. A shame, too, because Pedro Pascal's growing on me.

[Darththeo]

I get it -- they could definitely go more of a traditional storytelling route with Season 2 and make Abby's character a bit more sympathetic -- but if these first three episodes are anything to go by it seems like Druckmann wants to double down on the controversial aspects of TLoU's story which leads me to believe we'll be golfing with Joel in the first or maybe second episode of Season 2. A shame, too, because Pedro Pascal's growing on me.

Well, Druckmann is an idiot on that front. He literally thinks that if Abby wasn't buff people would like her. Yes, there are people not happy with her physique, hell, I question it because of my own reasons. But, there is more there than that. Even if Abby was say toned rather than buff, I still have problems with how boring her character is for me. Her story feel far more reacting than acting for most part, more it exists to explain why Ellie doesn't find her rather than being her own unique story.

She doesn't need a super model, it is just Abby is such a step down from Ellie and Joel in the first game for me. And note, not really a fan of how Ellie was written in part 2 either. I am hoping they improve for the show, because I do see a potential for a good story out of Part 2. There are a lot of things they could do, add, or expand on.

[Xanjori]

I have to say I really enjoyed episode 3. I know it doesnt strictly follow the game but its a great surprise. Its unexpected, its good TV (which is important in a TV show) and the acting and story was both touching and enjoyable.

Clearly you cannot make a film based purely on the game scenes, no one wants to watch Joel and Ellie work out how to climb up a hotel, thats just shit TV, but its fine as game-play. So episodes like this are nice and are needed to fill out a season.

[Tech614]

Abby built muscle which you can question that change in an apocalypse, but her workout schedule isn't remotely a valid reason.

Eh, Abby became more believable once you saw the resources her crew where rolling with and having the seattle seahawks training facilities on top of fully functioning food and drug production. I generally believe it's the people that didn't get to the point where you even play as here that generally call bs on it. Maybe it's easier to call bs on them having those resources to begin with but the fact is they did have them in the game so there is no reason Abby couldn't have used them with years of training to get a build similar to a bunch of women who use tools that way.

Anyways they can easily fix the pacing issues of part 2 in a show format so I wouldn't so much be worried about that.

[Darththeo]

Eh, Abby became more believable once you saw the resources her crew where rolling with and having the seattle seahawks training facilities on top of fully functioning food and drug production. I generally believe it's the people that didn't get to the point where you even play as here that generally call bs on it. Maybe it's easier to call bs on them having those resources to begin with but the fact is they did have them in the game so there is no reason Abby couldn't have used them with years of training to get a build similar to a bunch of women who use tools that way.

Anyways they can easily fix the pacing issues of part 2 in a show format so I wouldn't so much be worried about that.

Except it is actually not enough to support the group of people we see. That amount of space could only support a small family in terms of production, not hundreds of people. They would need a lot of stock, and be okay with someone taking enough to bulk up and maintain said bulk. Though, I suppose it is possible they controlled a larger area at one point and have only recently became more limited so the supply crunch hasn't happened yet. (Note, the only reason I know this is that I grew up on a farm and know a lot about farming, which I admit most people don't and most people who do aren't going to care.)

My issue is they come across as attempting to justify their character design as opposed to making it work. All the things you bring up, we see pretty early in Abby's story saying "See this, this is why she is bulky!" I just don't like that because it doesn't feel natural in the story. Hell, rather than have her woken up in the library, but the gym would have fixed my problem with it.

However, if someone did argue "she's not working out enough to be that big" and unironically think the workout of Saitama in One-punch man is sufficient for his power, that's problem.

[Tech614]

Except it is actually not enough to support the group of people we see. That amount of space could only support a small family in terms of production, not hundreds of people.

It's a massive NFL stadium that is transformed to be full of live production of meat, crops and herbs/drugs. It is absolutely enough to support hundreds of people. We are talking about a space that fits 70,000 people, food stalls, full football field, full team facilities just turned into space for 100s of people it can fit a lot and it's disingenuous to try and act otherwise. If you're questioning it the better question that isn't fully explained is how they got it so well set up to produce what it was doing and how they keep such a big space with many entrances so secure. Space is certainly not an issue.