Movies & TV

Neil Druckmann speaking about his inspiration for TLOU2, referencing the 2000 killing of two Israeli soldiers by a mob in Ramallah:

I landed on this emotional idea of, can we, over the course of the game, make you feel this intense hate that is universal in the same way that unconditional love is universal? This hate that people feel has the same kind of universality. You hate someone so much that you want them to suffer in the way they’ve made someone you love suffer.

There’s something distinctly Israeli about describing that kind of hatred as “universal”

I watched the first season, and I just saw the first episode of the second season, and this was a day after watching the new BBC documentary about settlers in the West Bank. I did notice how the aesthetics of the little patsoc enclave in the last of us match those of the isn’treali settlers; i.e., wearing machine guns all the time, dressing like cowboys, dehumanizing the enemy and blowing them away even when they aren’t attacking you and then laughing about it, living in a walled town, etc.. I only watched this because my younger son was into it, and after the first episode, we watched a little of the BBC documentary together, and he was also shocked at the parallels.

I stumbled across this post after seeing the commentary by the writer and director about the show's season 2 premiere. They were giving me bad vibes so I went to see if anyone else was feeling the same way. It turns out, yes. There are bad vibes all over the place. There are parallels to October 8th. for season 2 in favor of the Israelis, including the Hannibal Protocol, people being kidnapped, and so on.

And for those who don't know, the show's director previously directed Chernobyl. And of course he has anti-communist brainworms subsidized by fossil fuel companies on that show as well. He likes to hide behind "just asking questions" from the libbiest lib who ever libbed perspective.

I remember learning this after playing the game and being totally blindsided by it. Not that I doubt Druckman intended for the story to say something about Palestine and Israel, but because his zionist understanding of the situation completely lacks the context of settler colonialism it ultimately says nothing.

After having it pointed out to me I can see that a lot of zionist myths have crept into the game, which partly explains why it feels like such a sludge of misanthropy. Part of justifying the abuses of those in power is telling yourself everyone would be just as bad or worse, and Druckman really seems to have internalized that.

On the one hand I feel more vindicated than ever for never giving this series a chance but on the other hand now I'm even more pissed about its success

I just learned about the Zionist influence from an off hand comment during a recent episode of Pod Damn America.

it's awful, the game clearly seems to be trying to make the usual shit liberal zionist "both sides bad!!!" fable, but then the portrayal of the seraphites is so bad and fascist that you clearly see the writer doesn't even believe what he's trying to preach

Maybe I'm just media illiterate, but I feel like this is a take that needs to some explanation.

Lol second game was center for culture wars

I have not watched it because I have had enough zombie slop, tell me more so my hate can be better justified.

i still haven't watched/played and i have no desire to, can someone explain how tlou2 is so zionist? this came up around the game's release too and i feel ootl

Isn't this a show about mushrooms? What's the Zionist connection?

The game or the show?