-Cruise loved it, though he did have notes about how The Flash should run.

He’s been around for a little while, but it only seemed like recently he was just starting to become a household name. This is stunning and unfortunate.

*Punky Brewster fumes

Foreshadowing?

I’m okay if she doesn’t. Everyone involved with Babylon should pay dearly

It starts with little gestures like this. The Academy will slowly soften their position over time. And I bet eventually they’ll lift the ban a lot earlier than they said.

Joel rambling about how alike Ellie and Sarah are amused me, but because he was so weird and happy. Now with that pesky Firefly business out of they way, the true, Creepy Joel has been unlocked. lol. I half expect once they get home, he’ll dress her up like Sarah, do her hair like Sarah, etc...

You may be. TLOU wasn’t really a choice-based game.

I think Part 2 has a weaker story than Part 1, and while I do want them to clean up the pacing and character choices, I still don’t want them to change the story. I wanna see how this plays out. Big time....

Bill’s letter was a change for the show, and I was worried it totally gave the ending away, but I couldn’t say anything.

A dozen other kids?? I think you might be misremembering the game

“Failure” might be too strong. Newcomers seem to be very positive on the show, and, remarkably, they are reacting to all the major beats exactly the way the story intended. That to me is a win. But I hear you, and I think it’s a weird position to be in: Knowing that as good as the show has been received, it is only a…

Good point about the swimming, I hadn’t thought of that. I think many players found those parts tedious and the showrunners heard that. And while they can be seen as gamey filler moments, I do agree they still play a small hand in strengthening the bond between the characters.

To add to that, I wish there was more of Joel and Ellie bonding, too. It really was the best stuff. Outside of episode 4, and some of 6, I feel like most of their time with just each other was offscreen, because of all the time spent with side characters.

Thank you!

I’m sure some of the gamers will have been happy at the inclusion of the sequence

Interesting question about the scanners. They make it a point to say Ellie has grown up sheltered, so she may have never traveled anywhere where she had to be scanned. We see the Fireflies doing cognitive tests on her when she’s chained up in ep 1, so it appears the Fireflies don’t have scanners anyway- that’s FEDRA…

Not pressure, but an honor. Ellie explicitly laid out her abandonment issues in a prior episode. She needed to hear it just as much as Joel needed to say it.  (now I’m getting weepy)

Exactly. It’s no different from when they hand the award to a Pixar movie just because it has the Pixar name on it. Historically, this is the Oscar category dictated most by a popularity contest. And it was the same this year. I don’t think Pinocchio’s win changes anything.

It might. Zootopia’s a lot of fun!