The Last of Us has wrapped up its second season, and the results have drawn some mixed reactions from fans. The episode could have been much more controversial, however, if it had faithfully adapted one major moment from the source material.
Though the games are rife with extreme violence, one of the most unsettling moments happens in The Last of Us Part 2. At one point, Ellie (played in the TV show by Bella Ramsey) encounters a dog named Alice. When the canine attacks, Ellie stabs the dog in self-defense, killing the animal. Though Ellie was defending herself, it still felt inappropriate for showrunner Craig Mazin to feature the dog’s death in the TV show. While speaking at a press conference addressing the Season 2 finale (via ComicBook), Mazin explained how depicting the graphic death of a dog would have been crossing a line, perhaps even potentially pushing some viewers away from the series.
“In the game, when Ellie arrives in the aquarium, a dog attacks her and she stabs it to death, and we don’t know this dog,” Mazin said. “I won’t get into what happens later, because there’s referring to what’s next season, but we had a situation where a number of horrible things were happening. Plus, because it’s live action, the nature of violence becomes much more graphic. It’s more graphic because it’s not like there’s an animation between you and it, it’s people, and it’s very disturbing. We knew what was going to happen to Mel was disturbing, and to Owen, and also what had just happened to Ellie was disturbing.”
Plus, because it’s live action, the nature of violence becomes much more graphic.
Mazin continued, “I remember having this conversation with the on rank when we were showing a radiation burn victim in Chernobyl for the first time, and the camera kind of just like moved all the way down and showed everything. And we were like, we have it, but why don’t we just show a little bit of it? It’s just feeling now like we’re tormenting the audience [and] almost getting pornographic, so you don’t want to feel exploitative, you don’t want to feel like you’ve crossed some line, so you make some choices.”
It’s Not a Bad Idea to Spare the Dog
Clearly, there are still ways to depict how much colder Ellie has gone following Joel’s death, and it may not be a bad idea to spare the dog with the TV series adaptation. Killing off dogs and other animals in movies and TV shows can often be controversial, with many animal lovers choosing to outright skip any title that includes these kinds of scenes. A popular website called “Does the Dog Die?” allows anyone curious to search different movies, TV shows, and more to see if they are free of scenes of dogs being killed.
