I Always Try Never To Compare Pedro And Bellas Performances With Ashley And Troys.

I always try never to compare Pedro and Bella’s performances with Ashley and Troy’s.

That isn’t to say I don’t compare performances in general, or that I don’t have character choices that prefer in one version over the other, because I absolutely do. I just think that in this specific instance, the comparison of ‘X did better acting than Y’ is nonsensical and reductive of both parties. Both versions of TLOU have absolutely stellar performances, but they aren’t the same kind of performances!

In gaming, the actors have to be more exaggerated in order to get emotion across, since mocap doesn’t allow for the kind of subtle emotion that video does. You can’t tell what someone’s thinking by the look in their eyes or the way they hold their bodies without it being more exaggerated. But being more exaggerated doesn’t mean being more expressive. Pedro and Bella are both truly fantastic subtle actors, who act more with their eyes than most Hollywood stars do with their whole bodies. That’s just as expressive, it’s just a different kind of expressive. Acting with your eyes and with the subtle ways you hold your body just isn’t possible in video games yet.

If you took Ashley and Troy’s performances in TLOU game and stuck them 1:1 in a live action show, they would seem out of place and over-acted. That’s good! That’s how it’s supposed to be, because mocap and v/o acting are different from live-action, in-front-of-camera acting. Ashley and Troy are also incredible tv actors, but video game acting isn’t tv acting!

My point is that not is comparing these specific sets of actor’s performance useless and unnecessarily antagonistic, it’s also nonsensical. They both gave stellar performances, each pair delivering all-time-great acting specifically tailored for their respective mediums, and that deserves our respect and admiration, not useless manufactured competition.

Something that makes violence in TLOU HBO so effective is that there aren’t “fight scenes”. Obviously there are action sequences, but not in the traditional sense. Violence in TLOU HBO is only used to drive thematic or character elements, which is really unique and thoughtful for a large-scale production like that.

TLOU HBO doesn’t revel in violence. It doesn’t try to be cool or flashy, it shows how devastating violence really is. Most of the time character deaths don’t even count as action sequences, which makes them so much more character-driven and effective.

The few scenes that count as full on action sequences aren’t “fights”, either. When we watch the hospital scene or the Infected in KC, we’re watching massacres.

It gives the violence in the show a brutal finality. It opens a pit in your gut in a way that copious amounts of gore can’t. By not focusing on flashy choreography or impressing the audience, it strips down action to its barest form. It gives it a disturbing level of realism, and really focuses on the characters in the situation.

Aghhh, this scene is SO good😭❤️ It’s so sweet and adorable while simultaneously being the saddest thing ever

Im sorry but the eye contact and the emotions in this little scene where so high. Ellie noticing Joels not doing so hot and asking how he is and him just being caught off guard, he quickly refocuses the question to her, he is fine so she's fine too. But she's so curled into herself, she's self comforting, and he knows it. He's even impressed slightly when she says "You're glad I did it right", he's like 'ah damn kid'. He doesn't have to comfort her, he could've given up after he said he wasnt good at this, but he pushed, and genuinely apologized. Which in turn caught her off guard...They are just..... screams

Happy birthday Bella Ramsey <3

Next chapter of Scars is gonna be even longer than the first! I’m already over 4k words in and it isn’t even halfway done!

Ellie’s face in this scene breaks my heart. You can see in her eyes that she knows. She isn’t crying or yelling, but just with this look you can see it so clearly. She’s hurt, she’s betrayed, she wants to cry but she can’t. She’s knows. She doesn’t want to, but she does.

It’s such a feat of acting, the fact that you can look in Ellie’s eyes and see everything she’s thinking. You can tell she knows, even though she denies it. But it’s so… real. It hurts! There’s no exaggerated look back at the camera or snarl, but somehow the look in Ellie’s eyes express even more.