Dialogue Styles And The Last Of Us

Dialogue Styles and The Last of Us

There are many different ways that media handles dialogue, but in my observations they can usually be sorted into three different categories: Poetic, Witty, and Real.

There are more complicated and technical ways to look at it, but most shows have one that is the main “style” of dialogue.

Poetic Dialogue: People talking pretty, basically. It’s unrealistic, but speaking in metaphors or beautiful words can make you cry or give you chills.

Many monologues use poetic dialogue. Think of Luthen’s “revolution” speech in Andor or Silco’s “drowning” speech from Arcane. Period pieces or fantasy media also tend to use poetic dialogue.

Witty Dialogue: Dialogue that’s funny or smart. It’s also unrealistic, but really fun to watch!

Most good comedies most often use witty dialogue, like Community, Arrested Development, and Brooklyn 99. As do dark comedies like Succession or Aaron Sorkin Dialouge like the Social Network (that movie fucks, btw).

Realist Dialogue: Pretty self explanatory. Realistic Dialouge that sounds like how real people talk.

Examples of good realist dialogue include The Bear and Better Call Saul.

(Quick side note: Realist Dialogue isn’t indistinguishable from normal conversation. Usually dialogue and the way people talk is very different. Real dialogue just captures a more natural and raw way of speaking than the other examples.)

So what category does The Last of Us fall into?

Well, here’s the interesting part. I would say that the game and the show fall into different dialogue categories.

I would say that the game falls into the ‘Witty’ dialogue type, while the show falls into the ‘Realist’ dialogue type.

The show also occasionally dabbles in Poetic Dialogue, like Bill’s speech to Frank at the end of ep 3, Joel’s “I’m failin’ her in my sleep’ speech. If you’ve watched Chernobyl you’ll know that mixing real and poetic dialogue is a Craig Mazin specialty.

While both, like most pieces of fiction, have moments of all three (like the show absolutely has witty moments and the game has poetic ones), their main styles are different.

While there are many ways that you can see the differences in dialogue styles, but the starkest contrast is the way Ellie talks.

In the game you can definitely see the Juno-esque origins of Ellie that people have speculated about. She talks with this quickness, even in dramatic moments. She’s always got a quip or a joke or something clever to say (though you see less of it in the final part of the game).

In the show Ellie talks more like a real teenager. She’s clever and a she’s funny, sure, but she also gets flustered or doesn’t know what to say. She says the wrong things or rambles or she blurts stuff out and she sounds young in a way that game Ellie doesn’t.

You can see the difference most clearly in scenes very similar in both the show and the game, like when she shoots the man in Kansas City/Pittsburg, or when she wakes up in David’s cage.

In both these scenes you can definitely see show Ellie a bit more flustered, a bit more scared, and a bit more young.

TLOU HBO was able to use it’s medium to increase the realism of the story (something I’ve talked about before), and a way of doing that is to change how the characters themselves speak.

There are many other examples, but these are definitely some of the clearest.

But while the way they talked changed, the characters stayed quite consistent with only a few very intentional differences, and I think it’s awesome, and a testament to how strong the characters were, and how the writing in the show is that it doesn’t feel too jarring or separate. At the end of the day they’re very different, but both absolutely play to their strengths as a medium and I think that’s pretty cool!

Y’know, for the longest time I thought DNI stood for ‘do not initiate’, as in ‘do not initiate conversation with me’. Why? I have no idea.

for me it’s the way that joel openly admits to ellie that he tried to kill himself because sarah died. this is the same gruff closed off man who, not that long ago, didn’t even want to hear sarah’s name. or tess’s. who called ellie cargo.

but he opens up to ellie, tells her that he tried to commit suicide because he just “couldn’t see the point anymore.” he has been hurting and holding this pain inside of him for 20 YEARS, and “it wasn’t time” that helped put him on the path to healing. it was ellie. he found purpose in being a father again.

and at most a few hours after admitting that, he is faced with the death of his daughter. Again. marlene just tells him that ellie is going to die with no goodbye and hands him her knife. the knife that belonged to anna, the only piece that ellie had of her mom. the only piece joel will have left of ellie. and we know that if he loses ellie, he won’t make it! he won’t flinch this time. he won’t miss. he will succeed in ending his life this time because if he loses ellie that’s it for him.

so he makes a choice. the fireflies didn’t tell ellie that the operation would kill her, they didn’t give her a choice. joel isn’t giving ellie a choice either, in this moment, because for him there is not other option. joel sees the sign for the pediatric surgery wing and the decision is made.

and when he kills his way through the hospital, he doesn’t miss. he wasn’t quick enough for sarah, for tess, for henry or sam. couldn’t even shoot himself properly. but for ellie, he won’t miss. because there was one person worth saving. and god help any motherfuckers who stand in his way.

If I saw this I would absolutely think someone made a hyper-realistic dancing robot

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56435545

SKIN PART 2 OUT NOW GO READ IT

this or that

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