You probably recognized some surprising differences if you’ve played The Last of Us video game and watched the HBO Max series. Well, the series star, Bella Ramsey, has something to say to the people who might’ve taken their complaints a bit too far.
In an interview on The Awardist podcast, the 21-year-old actor who portrays Ellie made it clear they’re not here for unwarranted criticism, suggesting an alternative to watching Season 3.
“There’s nothing I can do about it anyway. The show is out. There’s nothing that can be changed or altered. So I’m like, there’s not really any point in reading or looking at anything,” Bella said, noting they tend to steer clear of criticism.
They continued, “People are, of course, entitled to their opinions. But it doesn’t affect the show. It doesn’t affect how the show continues or anything in any way. They’re very separate things to me. So no, I just don’t really engage.”
Season 3 of The Last of Us is on the way, and Bella is more or less urging the louder critics online, aka people who are so pressed by the differences between the TV show and the video game, to pull out their dusty PlayStation controllers and put their crusty keyboards down.
“You don’t have to watch it. If you hate it that much, the game exists. You can just play the game again,” they said. “If you do want to watch it, I hope you enjoy it.”
Fortunately, some people recognize that sometimes the fandoms and criticisms of adaptations can go too far. “I feel bad for them, but I have a lot of respect for their professionalism,” one person wrote on Reddit about Bella. “The Last of Us Part 2 really brought out some of the most revolting, vitriolic discourse that I’ve seen online when discussing a piece of media, and it was completely inevitable that the second season of the show would bring all of that up again, regardless of its quality.”
Some made a fair point that disdain for the show shouldn’t warrant harassment of the people involved, including Bella. “I feel like even if the show is shitty and it’s not similar to the game, why would you send hate to the actors?? They are just doing their jobs,” someone wrote. “They didn’t write the script. It’s wild the amount of hate they received for playing this role,” another Reddit user said.
I’m here for fair criticism of adaptations, especially when they’re based on video games, because they’ve rarely gotten it right. Save the recent Prime Video Fallout series. But Bella is right, too. If I can’t stand the Halo adaptation (because I can’t), I can always just dust off my Xbox and play Halo 2 — and avoid toxic message boards.
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